Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp

[rayword45]

Day 343: Blonde by Frank Ocean

I've been binging a lot of David Lynch recently to the point of making my friends watch Eraserhead with me. Why? Because Twin Peaks season 3 hype even though I hated season 2. Shoot the bandwagon. Why am I mentioning this? Because, with the exception of Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, all of the Lynch movies I've watched suffer from the exact same flaw.

BLOAT.

And this album suffers from that too. I know we waited a long time for this album (these albums?), but some of these tracks are just a complete and utter waste of time. I don't need to hear some dude's mom talk about how LSD will fry your brain my brain is fried.

But outside of the bloat and filler, this music is pretty damn beautiful. There are some questionable artistic choices (What the fuck is that first two minutes of Nikes? Is this supposed to be social commentary on how bad the shoes suck? No? I'm just stupid? Fuck.) and some unnecessary decadence (yeah we get it man you been popping tabs and your boyfriend broke your heart, you're overdoing this) but the man pours his heart and soul into his music and it doesn't come off as TOO sappy. Just sappy enough. I like tree sap when it makes maple syrup.

In comparison to Channel Orange this album is wimpier and more Drake-esque, but I like Frank more than I like Drake so I don't hate this. It's also quite a bit more spare in terms of arrangements, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. The vocal performances are as good as ever.

This is pretty decent dishwashing music.

Best Track:
Rating: 8/10

[rayword45]

Day 344: Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By by Lovage (Album Choice: korny)

This is the only "porn groove" album I've reviewed thus far. Is this meant to be sex music? I mean, I get the overall tone of the album but it's a bit sleazy. In fact at certain points I'm just straight up uncomfortable with Mike Patton's sex voice.

Other than that, this is decent but a bit repetitive. The skits are awful. Also way too much trip-hop recently. Maybe I should actually try fucking to this album, then maybe I'll really get it. But then again, the prospect of fucking to Mike Patton's greasy ass is not very appealing.

Best Track: To Catch A Thief
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Day 345: How To Be A Human Being by Glass Animals (Album Choice: Jonathan V.)

Man, I really suck at fulfilling goals on time.

This album is pretty solid throughout and it has a clear vibe that the band is going for, but having a singular vision means things get pretty samey after a while. And I also think it'd be better instrumental. But if it was instrumental I'd probably be requesting vocals. Fuck my opinions.

Best Track: Youth
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Day 346: Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not by Dinosaur Jr.

I chose this expecting it to be boring and thus good-study music.

I was pleasantly disappointed by the first side but this second side is way too wanky and boring as hell. These guys love their formula more than Seth Putnam. Still better than the stretch of albums from Green Mind (fuck you) to Hand It Over and Lou Barlow has the voice of an angel nearing his 50s.

Best Track: Goin Down
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

Day 347: Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Will I ever finish this? It's looking less and less likely not that it means a fucking thing in my life or anyone's. Meanwhile, let's finish my first ever Nick Cave album! I've heard a good deal of Birthday Party songs but pretty much nothing else related to him. And to preface the criticism, I have no desire to think about let alone discuss the death of Cave's son prior to this album's release because assuming that that horrific tragedy is painted onto this album's tone despite the artist's claims to the contrary is a douche move. And also creating expectations for yourself is dumb.

His voice is as overwrought as I've heard about, and it fits when it fits, such as on the post-rock drone dirge opener Jesus Alone. When it doesn't fit, it's just fucking corny, like a priest reading over the wrong CD (see Rings of Saturn's bizarrely uplifting techno or Anthrocene way-too-energetic drum programming). This album is obviously not representative of the instrumentation on his other albums, but that aspect of this album is pretty decent if, again, a little bit on the tawdry side. They do a much better job of conveying the emotions I assume are what Cave intended to express but they're still overwrought at times despite being ridiculously spare and uncluttered by any rock standards.

Meh. More Birthday Party for me. Or actually, just more Scratch Acid.

Best Track: Jesus Alone
Rating: 5/10

[Deadlyx39]

Happy to see this is still going. You're so close you might as well finish it mang.

[rayword45]

Day 348: Head Carrier by Pixies

When I started reviewing albums all the way back before sophomore year of high school, I was somehow managing to pull off more than one album a day, just so I could fit 100 albums before the summer started. I was a hot-headed little tool at that time, and even though I still am rather eccentric, I feel much better right now. Just, regular old satisfaction flowing through my veins. I'm not failing school anymore, I don't despise the majority of my friends, shit isn't cliquey anymore and I feel like a normal dude. Obviously I still have hormonal times like any shitty teenager but wow, I can't believe how much better things are going when I compare them to high school. I feel like the slowing down of these reviews represents me becoming less of a self-loathing moron. Not that I don't enjoy doing these reviews, I still hope to eventually touch 365, it's just that I'm glad I don't have the time to listen to albums with any sort of focus at this point. In fact I only have the time for this album because of a bizarre Starbucks situation. Apologies for the self-indulgence for a moment (fuck you if you whine about this, most of my reviews are even worse) but I feel like how I want Gregg Turkington to feel at the end of On Cinema. Let's hope life doesn't flip upside down soon (it probably will).

By the way, this album sucks balls and you knew it was gonna suck balls.

Best Track: There's music on this album? I just thought it was dead air.
Rating: 2/10

[noname219]

Yeah, you can replace Avalancha with Teens of Denial if you haven't heard of it already. And also Pelagial with O'Brother - Garden Window.

[rayword45]

Day 349: 76:14 by Global Communication

I chose this because of its ranking on RateYourMusic and also I need ambient music to write an essay to.

It wasn't that special.

Best Track: 4:14
Rating: 6.5/10

[rayword45]

Day 350: No Sorry by Birthing Hips

I've been waiting for this debut since I saw these guys live almost a year ago. Let's see if my expectations are disappointed.

I'm surprised by how NOT lo-fi this is. Unlike most DIY releases from Boston, I can barely hear the cassette whirring or hissing, if I can hear it at all. Regardless of production quality, this release is mostly what I expected, if somewhat more produced and a bit less abrasive than I'd like. Twee/bubblegum pop meets art punk meets noise rock. Great album with a distinctive sound to it yet no homogeneous song structures. The singing could quickly become grating to many but it's an acquired taste, and this definitely has some of the best guitar work I've heard this year.

Best Track: Sex Bias (which is much better live)
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

Day 351: It's Immaterial by Black Marble (Album Choice: David H.)

It's a divine blessing that Spotify doesn't require administrator privileges to install. These library computers suck enough ass as is. Anyways, calc homework here we go. Last time I listened to anything from these guys was when I reviewed A Different Arrangement way back in 2013. It was pretty middle-of-the-road stuff from what I remember, but I'm certainly not optimistic about the fact that I felt no urge to return to these guys over the course of three years.

First five minutes and what the fuck is this Iron Lung shit? Are you trying to be a-ha? News flash: A-HA SUCK(s/ed) ASS and this is an even shoddier knockoff. Awful.

Luckily, they abandon the bad eurodance influence quite quickly and go back to sounding exactly how I remember them from 2013. There's some variety in here in terms of structure, but it all ends up sounding pretty samey since the spacey synthy Depeche Mode atmosphere NEVER changes in the slightest. Well, I should commend them for attempting variety, even if their efforts were in vain. The chiller, more ethereal tracks are quite nice if somewhat unremarkable. The pop songs just suck though, like bootleg Kraftwerk so kitschy it becomes disgustingly self-indulgent. Is that ACTUALLY the atmosphere they wanted? If it is, which it probably isn't, they fucking nailed it.

Overall, pretty meh album. A bit too repetitive and inconsistent. It has some nice moments but those don't outweigh the shitty tracks nor do they leave much of an impact.

I'll give this a bonus point because I actually got some calculus done.

Best Track: Woods
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Day 352: The Fall of Math by 65daysofstatic (Album Choice: EzExZeRo7497)

Anyone who thinks that choosing a run-on word as a band name is a good decision needs their ass kicked. If it was agreed upon, kick all of their asses. Who the fuck are you trying to be? Is this supposed to be artsy? Or are you some angsty 15 year olds who all buy Invader Zim shirts at Hot Topic? Neither of these would EXCUSE your horrible decision but at least it'd make more sense.

I've had two albums by these guys requested ever since I started this oft-delayed project and I have yet to even find out what genre they are. Fuck it, I'm going into this one blind other than album title and band name. That way I CAN'T be disappointed, because it would take emo Billy Joel cover album levels of suckness to be worse than that fucking band name.

I don't care about math rock. I don't hate the genre, hell I love Slint and Rodan as much as every other mutard (no I don't browse mu) but it's definitely a once in a blue moon thing for me, and it doesn't help that most math rock, this included, seriously lacks structure. I have similar opinions about post-rock, except there are way more post-rock gems than math rock ones. Still, I can probably take repetitive crescendos for about as long as I can take people thinking odd time signatures immediately indicate good songwriting.

So what do you get when you combine meandering song structures, excessive crescendos and unnecessary time signature changes? This wankfest! Like pretty much every other album I rash on, this certainly does have its moments, but I could trim this down to a 15 minute EP and be much happier with the end product.

But, on the good side of things, the music is MUCH, MUCH better than... ugh what the fuck were they thinking?!

Best Track: Retreat! Retreat!
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Day 353: Sings by Patty Waters (Album Choice: megido18)

Godfuckingdamn it's been more than a month since my last review. I'm a failure at this. I notice now that the less I review albums, the higher my grades get. Correlation may not be causation but it's something I'm dwelling on now. Ah well, time to keep cramming for those finals and maintain the very first set of good grades I've had since the fifth grade.

Jesus Christ this stuff is depressing as all hell. I'm already stressed, lonely and empty. This music makes me more stressed, lonely and empty while somehow simultaneously being tranquil as all fuck. The entire first side is incredibly samey, but the atmosphere is engaging enough for me to give that a pass. This could very well replace Pink Moon during moments in my life that call for Pink Moon.

This second side is just weird as fuck. And not in a way I'm used to, this is some Yoko shit. Not my taste, really. I respect how groundbreaking this obviously was in 1966 but this shit goes on FOREVER and it quickly goes from shocking and creepy to simply irksome.

Meh, the first side is good enough that I'll give this an average rating.

Best Track: Moon, Don't Come Up Tonight
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

Day 354: Slowly Peeling The Flesh From The Inside Of A Folded Hand by Terminally Your Aborted Ghost (Album Choice: MiseryBusiness)

These guys were a Boston band but they broke up before I was a teenager.

This is actually pretty interesting songwriting. The slight majority of this album is RIDICULOUSLY samey (moreso than something like Eyehategod) death metal, with nothing but nigh-indistinguishable chug riffs and pigfuck vocals. However, these guys veer into other territory quite frequently and VERY abruptly, which keeps it pretty interesting and occasionally catchy, like adding pockets of good rum to a shitty virgin daiquiri. That was an AWFUL analogy.

This definitely isn't an album for universal situations, nor is it even remotely close to "perfect" death metal in my eyes, but it's certainly a fun listen. Creativity deserves commending. Also fuck that title.

Best Track: Tie between Entry Stabwound and An Analogy Like A Snuff Film
Rating: 7/10

[IamMe90]

Request(s):

Anderson .Paak - Malibu
Kaytranada - 99.9%

IMO Malibu is AOTY and fuckin phenomenal, and 99.9% is pretty dope too, although occasionally littered with some less than stellar moment

[choof]

my brother liked malibu a lot and it directly influenced his approach to music quite a bit and i trust his judgement but i'm just popping in to say nope, elseq is aoty

[IamMe90]

Originally Posted by choof

my brother liked malibu a lot and it directly influenced his approach to music quite a bit and i trust his judgement but i'm just popping in to say nope, elseq is aoty

haven't checked it out, i'm not a huge fan of IDM but i'll trust you that it's an exemplary album w/in the genre

[choof]

I have a sad and broken robot brain

[rayword45]

Day 355: Malibu by Anderson .Paak (Album Choice: IamMe90)

Shortest turnaround for a request ever, maybe? Not in terms of days (at all), just total number of reviews between. This conveniently fits into my mission of listening to as many 2016 albums as possible which starts today. My art school friend told me this guy sounds like a new James Brown. Ballsy comparison, that's gonna make anyone expect gold vibrations. Hopefully this sounds nothing like the rapist-murderer in my night terrors (The Weeknd). Let's go.

The Bird is a fantastic pop song. As is The Season / Carry Me. The production overall is just phenomenal, lively yet laidback, with horns, keyboards and backing vocals all complementing .Paak's vocal performance splendidly while simultaneously holding their own. Vocal performance does not remind of James Brown but then again the only song of his I actually remember is I Feel Good. Where did those expectations even come from? I've gotta check some singles out after this album. Anderson's got a good singing voice, and he's able to come off as sexual without coming off full-on slimy most of the time (one exception being Silicon Valley). His features vary in quality like you'd expect them to.

This is REALLY shitty homework music. But it's good music. 61 minutes was maybe more than a little bit excessive, and I think this album would benefit greatly from removing the boring filler shit like Water Fall (Interluuube). That being said, it certainly never became torturous and stayed incredibly enjoyable throughout. I would fuck to Room In Here without questioning my hipster status... Why did I write that sentence?

Best Track: Toss-up between The Bird and Room In Here
Rating: 8/10

[rayword45]

yo guys can you recommend me some of the best and worst 2016 albums?