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rayword45 08-24-2014 10:40 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 41: Abbey Road by The Beatles

Man it's been a while. I didn't have any time to do this crap recently due to a two day work trip. I'm only doing this now because I'm begrudgingly starting my summer homework and need some music. I also don't feel like going through random.org right now. After two really bad albums, I'm expecting great things from this album, at least as good as the high points of The Beatles. Time to slave over precalc.

Today marks 46 days since I took that pledge. Still going strong. I was going to make an Elliott Smith reference here but that would've been absolute garbage.

45 years after release, that's still one of the coolest opening 10 seconds of any album. Damn I should've waited 33 days to review this. As cool as those opening 10 seconds are though, the song kinda drags on, though it's definitely not a bad track. The bluesy themes are prevalent here, which is definitely better for The Beatles than the honky-tonk trash of Let It Be but I've gotta say, I'm kinda disappointed with this first side. The only song that really strikes me as truly memorable is Something, and if you don't already know it, guess who writes that song? Hint hint: I've been praising his songs to an obnoxious degree in every Beatles review I've written minus that Let It Be review. Lennon clearly had some creative ideas, and some worked, like the intro to Come Together, but others fell flat like a tire in a sharps bin, like I Want You (She's So Heavy) which needs to be cut at LEAST 4 minutes, and even after that it'd probably still sound directionless. McCartney's songs are exactly what you'd expect from him, except Maxwell's Silver Hammer has dark lyrics that wish they were as witty as they think they are. Ringo still sucks.

Side Two, however, is where the blues mostly get ignored, and we instead get Here Comes The Sun, Harrison's undeservedly most famous song (still good though, just not his best), Because, a cool Lennon harpsichord dirge, and most importantly, the acid-baked free-for-all medley. There are weak spots and strong spots within the 8-track medley but to dwell on those would be a waste of time (and could subjectively be argued as wrong) because the not-so-cohesive whole is more important, and it is GLORIOUS. Her Majesty is also awesome, and probably my personal favorite Paul song.

What to rate, what to rate. The first side was kind of a bore, but it wasn't really BAD like the last two Beatles albums were. The second half however trumps the third side of The Beatles for greatest side of any Beatles album. Generally, I give bottom-heavy albums more generous ratings than top-heavy ones, because that shows the band either somewhat rewards full album listening or likes to save the best for last rather than have a disappointing climax (or they just suck at choosing their good songs and attempt to front-load it anyways). And damnit, I've been pretty rough on these guys due to blatant bias from most reviewers, but it'd be wrong to say that this was a bad album of any sort.

Best Track: The whole damn medley, or if not, Something
Rating: 9/10 (Hey, that second side is really, really good)

rayword45 08-25-2014 11:53 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 42: A Healthy Fear by Gifts From Enola (Album Choice: Shikari)

This is the first time I've began listening to an album before starting to write, because this album is now my time limit for this bullshit summer homework. This sounds like math-tinged post-metal based on the first few minutes, and hell if the uninitiated think that genre description sounds pretentious as hell. I need to do this math and history crap within the next 10 days (assuming the worst case scenario of the teachers check everything first day). Man high school sucks, I can't wait for college.

If they give me summer homework in college I will cry myself to sleep.

Well this album is almost over. I enjoy the mellower bits like the surfy intro to Clawmarks and the shimmery intro of Honne/Tatemae more than any of the heavier, screaming sections. Hell, this album has some really great intros. As a whole, this style of post-metal doesn't appeal to me as a whole, though I can appreciate the technicality of the riffs, but those mellow sections are great.

I finished half of my summer math homework. Hells yeah.

Best Track: Honne/Tatemae
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 08-27-2014 11:18 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 43: Doppelganger by Curve (Album Choice: choof)

Shoegaze-dance music. With other album titles like Pubic Fruit and Chinese Burn. And some of the ugliest, cheapest album art ever. This'll be interesting.

49 days, and yesterday on some website some sick fuck was spamming Pokemon porn, which I thankfully did not see because all warnings pointed to "DON'T SCROLL DOWNWARDS". Who creates that shit and why? Don't answer that.

So anyways, the music, right. In spite of reading all the descriptions that pointed the other way, I was expecting something like Sleigh Bells. I don't care that much about Sleigh Bells, so the fact that they don't sound like them doesn't make me care at all. All these songs pretty much sound the same. Industrial-esque electronic drumbeats, layers of guitar noise that are not abrasive at all, and pop hooks in the form of some of the sexiest vocals I've heard these past 43 days. Or really, albums. This is like that Nine Inch Nails side project, minus the suck, plus hotness and a somewhat more legit goth sound (not that NIN is goth), plus some surprisingly subtle shoegaze-y guitar.

Overall, this album? I didn't like it as much as I would hope. They've got some good pop hooks and all, but the guitar needs MORE DISTORTION. I always thought that all the songs on Loveless sounded pretty much the same (despite also thinking that the album is extremely front-loaded) but it's excusable on the account of having some of the most drop dead gorgeous walls of guitar noise out there. The guitar noise here is like, a shitty sandcastle compared to the Great Wall of Loveless, with the same problem of same-y songs, and the I don't really care of using a drum machine instead of a real drummer (it makes it more danceable, but I'm pretty sure it'd be neutral either way).

They do win on the sex appeal factor though, which is surprising, considering how
A. I had previously thought Bilinda Butcher unmatched when it came to mesmerizing female vocals in noise rock (not that there's much competition. What, Kim Gordon?)
B. This is a band that made such juvenile jokes at the expense of rambutan. Insulting such a delicious fruit is something to be ashamed of.

Best Track: Horror Head
Rating: 5.5/10

noname219 08-27-2014 11:36 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Lol at you for almost failing your 49 porn-free pledge by accident with Pokemon porn.

Keep the reviews coming.

rayword45 08-29-2014 01:41 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 44: Flood by Boris (Album Choice: EzExZeRo7497)

It's about half past one in the morning right now. I originally hoped to get some sleep before 3 AM for the first time in what feels like the whole summer... But screw that. I need to get this APUSH homework done within the next seven days, then the summer reading that nobody actually does. Man, procrastination is a bitch to me.

I didn't actually get this album via random.org, FYI, I got a Dev/Null album. But I saw this and thought "well drone music is probably better for annotating, right?"

And one more thing before I start listening (goddamn this procrastination) does anyone find the format of these reviews to be confusing? It's very stream-of-conscious and very unprofessional, but I don't think it's confusing. That's not what some people tell me though.

And another thing, are grilled cheese sandwiches supposed to be soggy? Had a debate with my brother about the topic, since I'm pretty sure the word soggy has a negative connotation to it and I think of grilled cheese more as having a slightly abrasive mouthfeel at first with not much bite to it, then having a gooey center.

I reviewed another album from these guys earlier, Akuma No Uta. That was a good album, and one of the better ones during that binge of Japanese music. Japanese culture isn't really my thing for the most part, except the food. Man do I love some sushi, just like most other white people.

Wait I'm not white.

But yeah, Japanese culture as I stereotypically view it with my narrow viewpoint (I almost said eyes, but then I realized I would be making a self-racist joke) isn't something that tickles my fancy. Anime isn't usually pleasing to me and I usually connect Japanese music with bad asian pop groups and sickeningly sugary eye sore videos. Weird that I do, I mean, I like these guys for sure, and Boredoms and a ton of Bemani music.

Man I really should start reading this APUSH booklet. Anyone ever read The American Pageant? That's my summer homework. This first quotation seems to put Christopher Columbus in a positive light and I think of him as a genocidal maniac who is basically used as an excuse to give us a day off from school. I like that aspect, but can we rename it, like, Taino Memorial Day instead? I guess I should start reading this booklet, I mean that's why I specifically chose this album instead of Dev/Null.

You know I'm supposed to be taking notes or more specifically an outline on each chapter of the book, but I'm on the first page and an assload of the text is faded out. Why do they give us students these crappy disgusting paper booklets? And then they go ahead and say "if you return it in good condition you get extra credit" well then nobody is gonna get that extra credit. Are you implying we should buy you a new copy because you're too cheap to spend what looks like it costs 14 cents? Well actually I looked this up on the internet and the copies they're giving us don't seem to be in print at the moment, so either these are extremely old or these are bootleg. Either way, that's incredibly cheap of them! This is the school where the headmaster is reported to spend good portions of our budget on renovating her office, and we have the money to spend the money for 50 or 100 iPads in an iPad room that nobody ever goes in. What do we need those for? We can't download apps, they don't let us. Who honestly prefers typing on a goddamn iPad over a keyboard? The least they could do is give us text that doesn't look like it comes from colonial times. And while I'm at it, they could at least BUY SUFFICIENT TOILET PAPER FOR THE BATHROOMS. Man, I'm stressed out for this last week of summer, meanwhile most other kids are either already in school doing some practice shit with band or sports or just wasting away getting drunk. I wonder how many people are gonna just copy notes on the first day of school from someone else. Not that I'm against them personally, because there isn't a single person in my school who has never either BSed or cheated while maintaining any small function of a social life. Damnit I need a drink. I'll get one after I outline at least 4 pages.

I'm about one page into this APUSH booklet and already I'm kinda sensing some white supremacist stuff going on in here. That's my Facebook status, I can't wait for someone to accidentally misinterpret that. And these first few pages are nothing about history, they're about geographical formations. I doubt we're going to be tested on that, and if we are, I'll take the L, it's drink time. Drinking while working will probably help me focus anyways. Flood isn't helping me focus that much.

I would totally brew some coffee right now if I wasn't worried about the boiling water waking my mom up. Until then I'm stuck with seltzer water. Word to the wise, seltzer and ice cream does not make for a good drink. Chances are the majority of you are thinking "Well no duh, you're a fucking moron for thinking that would be even remotely enjoyable" but hear me out. An egg cream is just soda with milk and syrup. An ice cream soda is an egg cream with a couple of scoops of ice cream. And ice cream contains milk, flavoring and high fructose corn syrup as well as liquid qualities after a short period of time in regular temperature. There was no reason for this to fail! Also important to note, avocado makes any sandwich or salad about 100 times better. Don't try to argue that point, if you don't agree with me, your opinion is wrong. Done and done. God gave us a gift when he created a savory fruit that had such buttery rich capacities, and so much versatility (you can make desserts with avocado or a main course). And yet so many ignorant people spit on the name of the avocado like the ignorant pricks they are. Same thing with onions, except in the case of onions those people usually say some stupid bullshit like "I only like onions in my chicken" or "I only like onions in my burgers" or "I only like onions up" no I don't care onions are great and you suck. You know what I don't like? Lettuce. Lettuce is a waste of space anywhere. Except salads, because I understand it's the base of a salad, but that's all I appreciate it for. It has no flavor, very little nutritional content, it's just water and air. There are times when lettuce can be good, like a nice shrimp wrap for example, but that's a rare case. Most of the time it's nothing but filler, and bland filler at that. Bland foods suck. Wheat bread is better than white bread, brown rice is better than white rice, so get out of my face. The BLT is a good sandwich made better by removing the lettuce, and adding avocado, caramelized onions and garlic aioli. Man I need a pick-me-up to get focused.

You know I know quite a few people who experiment with adderall to help them focus on school work. They all do it sparingly because it's supposedly highly addictive. If it's so highly addictive, why is it given to children with ADHD? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. As do most painkillers. It's funny how people are so adamantly against the legalization of medical marijuana, because painkillers are so much healthier. You should be able to pick, but considering tobacco is legal, why not pot? You know what that's a stupid discussion for another time because whenever that gets brought up, the tangents go on and on and on... Wait, nevermind.

This first chapter is garbage, man. It's talking about geographical changes that they're totally not gonna test us on because this is US History. Not geography, not earth science, US History. Watch me be wrong and resent myself so much, but I'm skipping to the good stuff. Or rather, the "I actually think I might get tested on this" stuff. Or better yet, the "This may actually be on the test and it being later in the book makes me think that there will be less white supremacist undertones" stuff. Man this stuff is a chore. Schedules were supposed to be posted today. It's 2:37 AM and they haven't posted them yet. The reason I can't focus is because of this damn schedule scare. Like, if I don't get into the elective classes I want, or if I get really, really shitty teachers. I had to deal with the most heinous teacher ever last year for the worst mandatory subject, LATIN. I do NOT want any shitty teachers this year, but truthfully that's kinda inevitable. I just don't want any slimy, sleazy racist self-loathing assholes who take pleasure in making his or her students squirm with bad grades and making the worst jokes possible instead of teaching. If they put the effort in, I'm happy. If they don't put in effort, but the class is easy, I'm happy. And if I get my electives, I'm happy.

Oh yeah, about 75 minutes passed. Flood was okay. It didn't help me focus at all though considering I'm on page 9 and freaking out about my school schedule now.

Best Track: It's all one big track, but Flood 3
Rating: 6/10

EzExZeRo7497 08-29-2014 02:34 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Cute review.

I can't say that I'm too surprised about your rating, I only thought that you'd like one or two out of the four movements at most. I knew you'd really like Flood 3, but I wasn't sure what you'd think of Flood 2. I obviously can't comment much on the "review" because history is literally the worst academic subject.

Flood is actually my first Boris album, it blew my mind on my first listen (I had it as 8/10 at the time, moved it up to 8.5 before I stopped rating altogether). I've listened to part of Akuma no Uta and all of Altar - both I didn't find anywhere as stunning as Flood. I've always seen Flood as one huge story - Flood 1 being a relentless storm represented in a very unorthodox manner, Flood 2 being the sombre aftermath with all the damage done (people killed, destruction as a whole), Flood 3 being a second and more powerful storm, Flood 4 is essentially the last moments of your life, seeing light at the end of the day. There are multiple interpretations, like the one in the last.fm album page, but the stories are generally the same. But I digress, I just think that Flood can only be fully appreciated if you listen to it attentively rather than use it to focus on something else - Flood's more drone doom/drone metal rather than ambient music. Given your situation though, I don't blame you.

I wouldn't say that it's an unfair review, but I do believe that you should give it another listen during your free time and not when you're doing homework.

(my favourite track from that is Flood 2)

On another note, I don't find your reviews that jarring to read - just a stream of consciousness which is ultimately your opinion. Unprofessional yeah, but it gets the point across. I do think that you have a pretty skewed misconception of Japanese music though, but it's fairly easy to think that way given most of the big Japanese artists at the moment, such as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume. Given I'm probably a little biased myself, because a good portion of my favourite albums come from Japanese musicians. Give artists like Mono, World's End Girlfriend, Midori (though I'm 80% sure this won't be your cup of tea) and Toe a listen.

rayword45 08-31-2014 12:15 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 45: Thereafter by Save Us From The Archon (Album Choice: Gradiant)

I have no idea what type of music this is. I have no idea what I'm getting into. I have 4.5 chapters left of APUSH homework.

On the plus side, this review will be MUCH more concise, much less tangential and probably a little bit more focused on the music than last review. I attribute that to less worries because I got my schedule for the year and it's all the good teachers I could dream of. Turn up.

No seriously, compared to last year where I dealt with tough class after tough class, including that one sleazy slimy racist homophobic republican asshole teacher, I feel like I am being rewarded for suffering so hard last year. Life is good man. Life is good.

So this is some pretty cool instrumental math metal. They throw in some cool noise elements and ambient bits to throw off what would otherwise sound like probably, I'll say, 24 minutes of pure instrumental wankery. They're clearly very skilled and can write some great melodic, catchy riffs, but I'm pretty sure minus those bits this would basically sound like an impromptu jam session. As a matter of fact it still kinda does, especially since these tracks all flow right into each other.

I like the noise and ambient aspects of the music. I like that they keep things concise, in an age where it feels like most artists cram their albums with 60 minutes of filler and 10 minutes of good stuff. I dig the drum and guitar work, at least enough to appreciate a good riff and good skills. And I liked this more than the average progressive metal release, though for me that isn't really saying much since I usually prefer my metal slow, monolithic, fuzzy and crushingly heavy. I need to repeat, they kept things concise, clocking in about a half-hour. Another one of my stupid pre-conceptions is "Oh look, progressive metal. That must mean about 140 minutes of cheesy vocals and Petrucci-esque wankery" so to defeat that with very little cheese and a short runtime impresses me a lot.

Still though, it's not 100 percent my cup of tea. But I do respect these guys enough.

Best Track: N/A
Rating: 6.5/10

rayword45 09-3-2014 12:43 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 46: The Last Caress of Light by Darkest Era (Album Choice: DoctorSatan)

First, and very important, Dopesmoker is absolutely fantastic as reading music, as well as focused listening music. Good qualities of a long song/album right there. I gotta review that new Sleep album.

Second, and not quite as important, I've found that Liquid Swords will enhance ANY video game you play, no matter what it is.

And third, it's been 55 days now, and honestly, I think the only reason this has been possible is that the summer has been rather stress-free. I expect that I'll crack sometime soon, as school starts on the 4th and I'm gonna handling 3 APs (meh) and one more year of Spanish (JESUS WHY YOU DO THIS). Let's keep counting though.

Oh yeah, 4th, I'm 17 in 11 days. And I'm having a 20 percent life crisis now. Even though the first 3 years were spent doing not much. Everyone knows I became a badass the day I turned 4.

Alright let's get this over with. For obvious reasons, expect little writing. Goddamn, this booklet is as dry as bone and white as sour cream. Like a sour cream coated bone, this booklet just SUCKS.

Seriously man, AP US History. Class hasn't even started and I already regret this decision, but oh well, it can't be worse than Latin 4. This music here is folk metal. You'd think it'd make this history book about conquerors more interesting... It really doesn't.

Yeah, for one hour, that felt like it lasted forever. And usually when it's super early in the morning and I have yet to go to bed, music always seems like it's 20 BPM faster so I definitely don't plan to listen to this while wide awake. Mind you, it wasn't atrocious, but it was bland. Considering I love folk and many types of metal, that's disappointing.

Best Track: Get out of my face
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 09-7-2014 09:35 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 47: It Takes a Thief by Thievery Corporation (Album Choice: korny)

Not even the third day of school, and we're already freaking out over precalc and APUSH tests within the next two days.

By we're I mean I'm.

A 70 minute album that I passively critique should help me study. Brief observation, a lot of people, ranging from moron deadbeats to reasonably functional members of society tell me to relish high school as my best years. Other people whom I generally respect more say that college is better. As a loud, lazy person that despises the menial work in high school and feels that 17 is old (6 days man) who do I trust?

This makes for some pretty good study music. Although it's not fair to compare that perceived quality to Flood since I'm studying math instead of history, it's working very well. That includes when the vocals come up, because they're ignorable at best. Songs like Lebanese Blonde are pretty soothing with the vocals, while songs like Amerimacka grate on you after a while. The instrumental tracks fare better for the most part, there are a few standouts here and there but for the most part it's all pleasantly passable.

That's all I have to say. I was busy preparing for my tests.

Best Track: Air Batucada
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 09-10-2014 10:44 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 48: A Winged Victory For The Sullen by A Winged Victory For The Sullen (Album Choice: Trogdor!!!)

Before I go to bed I'll get another album killed. Some ambient music should help me focus on homework.

Day 63 of the pledge: Well, I technically broke the pledge today, with some leaked pictures (not of any celebrities, for the record). However, the context in which I saw them, according to my teacher, means that I didn't really break the pledge. So I'm gonna just keep going with this.

For an ambient/orchestral album, that wasn't bad. It wasn't outstanding either. Boobs on the cover don't count as porn.

BeNo. Seriously, no.
Rating: 6/10

dAnceguy117 09-11-2014 02:45 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by rayword45 (Post 4195736)
Lebanese Blonde

Fuckin' rad track. I have really good memories of this one.

rayword45 09-14-2014 10:33 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 49: Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards of Canada (Album Choice: Casey D./csd)

This album was handpicked rather than randomly chosen, because today I listened to Music Has The Right To Children and Geogaddi in full as well as Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (yup, that one is still overrated). I thought originally "Let's listen to all 4 albums in a day!" but then I decided to nap instead. Then I got up and now I have to do more homework so I thought I may as well get 3 of 4. From this, you can probably deduce that I'm already quite fond of BoC and you could call that a potential bias, but hey 150 minutes of the same artist in a day is enough to burn almost any man out, so that should negate the bias.

Yesterday was my 17th birthday. I was originally scared of turning 17, then it happened and now I'm back to doing what I usually do: nothing.

When it comes to Boards my personal favorite album is Geogaddi due to both the darker sound and the abundance of short tracks. This one only has one short track (which I define as being under 2 minutes) but it nails the dark sound to a much larger scale. This works for many things. Some of the darkest songs, like Cold Earth and Reach For The Dead, are fucking phenomenal. And this may very well be the most conceptual album of theirs yet. On the other hand, sometimes the darker sound DOESN'T work, and I've gotta say the subtlety of Geogaddi makes the darkness all the more engagingly unsettling, while here things sometimes come off as a bit too theatrical. Even with the usage of dated-sounding synths and lo-fi sounds, songs like Palace Posy and White Cyclosa lack the signature warmth that was present on pretty much every Boards of Canada album prior. And, like I mentioned before, there's a lack of short songs here. This does make the album feel a bit more focused, but the lack of short breathing moments is partially the reason the dark themes feel a bit overbearing, and honestly I do think I prefer the feeling of exploration at the expense of concept.

And in spite of all of that criticism right up there, I still freaking loved this album. All the things I said apply in full, but damnit this is still some top-quality shit right here. It's not gonna overthrow Geogaddi as my favorite album of theirs any time soon but it was definitely at least better than The Campfire Headphase Besides any songs I mentioned up there as standouts, the finale trio of New Seeds, Come To Dust and Semena Mertvykh is breathtaking.

I should review that new Aphex Twin album on release day. Scratch that, I WILL.

Best Track: Cold Earth
Rating: 8.5/10

rayword45 09-18-2014 08:59 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 50: Syro by Aphex Twin

Leaked a day early. Hooray.

Richard D James is one of the most well-regarded electronic artists out there. While I definitely don't disagree with that sentiment, that's mostly due to how influential he is. He's covered a whole lot of ground, from acid techno to ambient to noise to drill and bass to modern classical to many other genres, never to be truly pigeonholed. Like any artist that covers a lot of different ground though, his work seems to be rather hit-and-miss, at least for me. I personally don't care much for Selected Ambient Works 85-92 or most of what I've heard from the Analord series, but goddamn if Richard D James Album isn't one of the finest, most timeless electronic albums out there, and I'm also partial to ...I Care Because You Do and Hangable Auto Bulb. Never listened to Drukqs.

Here's a random note. I've played Stepmania since July 2007, and now, JUST NOW, I'm realizing that Pac-Man by Power Pill is an Aphex Twin song. Wow, I'm fucking stupid. Also, that stepchart is and was total ass.

Well, I originally wanted to go in-depth here, but I'm done now and that clearly didn't happen. Before I say anything, let me take 5 minutes to see if this seeps in any more and it fully clicks with me.

Nope, that didn't happen, so here's my first listen opinion. It starts out rather weak and almost dated-sounding (maybe it's due to the vintage analog synthesizers) but track-by-track things improve and by the time we reach track 8, CIRCLONT14 (Shrymoming Mix), things finally start to REALLY pick up. I honestly can't tell if I'm suddenly starting to get it at that point or if the songs are actually better. I'm going with the latter.

So yeah, starts fairly mediocre, but gets better and better, with the last 5 tracks being the best, though nothing reaches the peak tracks of Richard D James Album. I don't have much else to say other than I'm slightly underwhelmed, especially in comparison to the comebacks (from a relatively shorter hiatus, mind you) from Daft Punk and Boards of Canada, two other electronic groups I'm really fond of... Man, I'm really not that eclectic with my electronic music.

One last thing, is he trying to be Autechre with these song names or something? Jesus Christ nothing he's done in the past has been this annoying with the titles, though Drukqs and Analord 8 and 9 got close enough.

Best Track: S950tx16wasr10 (Earth Portal Mix)
Rating: 6.5/10 (I'm tempted to deduct points for those horrible titles)

rayword45 09-24-2014 09:51 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 51: Ultramarine by Young Galaxy (Album Choice: NinjaKIWI)

Man, between music shit to do, 3 AP courses, and a job with erratic hours, I never feel I have the time to listen to albums these recent days. That's also not likely to change for a while. Oh well, let's do this.

I know for a fact at one point I was listening to too much synthpop, but that was before I was obnoxiously time-limited. So I haven't listened to too much synthpop as of recent, so this is actually sounding REALLY good to my ears. It's like a mix of 80s synthpop, twee pop and house beats. Without a doubt, these guys can create a good hook and catchy melody with synths and drum machines, and the diva-esque vocals and any touches they add (Strings in, Piano in Out The Gate Backwards, etc.) fit the foundation music well. If I have any complaints, it's that there are a few tracks that are too same-y or feel like filler, and the whole of the music seems a tad bit shallow, but either way, this was a pretty satisfying listen.

Oh yeah, and not counting that time with Twitter, and a few other times with Twitter (ah, high school) today marks 77 days. Whoop whoop.

Best Track: Probably Pretty Boy but there are a few contenders.
Rating: 7/10

L.B.D.D 09-25-2014 07:09 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
have you listened to the fake syro album that was uploaded onto youtube like a month ago?

i really enjoyed this track for some reason (no idea who made it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urcwFYAyiGM

3:20 and on is just amazing

rayword45 09-28-2014 11:45 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 52: Formless by Gridlock (Album Choice: XCV)

Welp, I have a project due tomorrow that I haven't started. Time to listen to another album. This one is described as both industrial and ambient, two genres that either are good or disgusting/boring, respectively. The only industrial ambient album I can think of is Ghosts I-IV which has a few nice songs but overall sounded much more revelatory when I was 13. Now, about one-third of the songs sound like instrumental Nine Inch Nails throwaways, and another third sound like new-age bullshit. Also worth noting is that this is on Hymen Records. Still a better name than the tainted Rise Records. One more also, 81 days.

Well shit, I just let that one breeze by without comment. It was good, I guess. Helped me focus, but I can tell that I also would've liked it enough if I had payed actual attention, may as well keep one and listen to it again later. These high school projects are so goddamn tedious and trivial.

Best Track: I really feel I should have one
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 10-3-2014 11:42 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 53: Lacuna by Caravels (Album Choice: ChikaraGuy)

I had lost the cable to my good (or really, comparatively better) headphones earlier, which is why I haven't listened to much recently. Well, that's part of the reason. The other part of the reason is school, and lack of motivation. Right now I'm battling myself to listen to an album that may potentially suck (or rule) over watching some more Curb Your Enthusiasm, of which any single episode has a very low percent chance of sucking. I guess I'll listen to this and study for them SATs.

Holy crap I'm on track 4? When did track 1 end?

Why is it that every emo song, every emo album, every emo band I listen to, they all feature the same vocalist, same guitars and amps, same drummers, it all somehow sounds the same to me. Make me a mixtape of 15 songs by 15 different bands of this genre and I won't be able to separate them at all. I don't feel the need to go in depth here, it's the same complaints as usual, the vocals are grating, the drums are punchy and the guitar tone is incredibly generic (although, like most emo albums, there are fleeting moments of beauty here and there). This music doesn't make me cry about my life, if I wanna do that I'll listen to some sadsack folk or something. Not Bright Eyes. Screw Bright Eyes.

I've recently discovered a fondness for the band Brainiac and vowed that one day I'd do Pussyfootin' at a karaoke bar. But as for this band, I should've went with Curb tonight.

Best Track: Ordinary Lives only for those fleeting moments of guitar jangle drone
Rating: 4/10

noname219 10-3-2014 11:50 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by rayword45 (Post 4211488)
Why is it that every emo song, every emo album, every emo band I listen to, they all feature the same vocalist, same guitars and amps, same drummers, it all somehow sounds the same to me.

Try Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.

rayword45 10-4-2014 10:16 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 54: Dark Horse by Nickelback (Album Choice: ghost223)

These goddamn troll requests...

Apparently this was one of the top albums of the last decade but I don't remember a single singl

So this album is 44 minutes of what I'm guessing will be a bunch of generic pos

The only songs by Nickelback I know are Photograph and How You Remind Me but I also remember how all their songs sound exa

Screw this man, there's no way to give this a good introduction paragraph, and I'm feeling really fatigued so I'm just gonna sit here, eat this tiramisu ice cream and listen. Maybe do some studying along the way.

Well, this first track is way worse than I expected, but I actually tried to go in with a half-decent outlook so I don't deserve to be disappointed. It's the same heinous vocals I expected but vocals are not that important to me. The riffage here is dumb (and riffage is a dumb word in and out of itself), the lyrics are dumb, and the song is a mix of dumb brutish metal and dumb redneck country. This just screams intelligence, man.

Seriously, while I do more often than I'd like to admit fall into pretension, I don't feel elitist in the least when I say that this music is meant to appeal to morons. Nickelback doesn't have only one song, that's wrong. They have two songs.

The first one is some horrible amalgamation of the worst parts of Pantera, Marilyn Manson and Stone Temple Pilots, topped with Chad Kroeger's idiosyncratic(ally horrible) vocals singing some gross poem he probably penned in 10 minutes about sex.

The other one is a syrupy power ballad, with instrumentation straight from the school of "How to be third-rate Journey", lyrics written with the songwriter that probably isn't Chad trying to suddenly wrangle some respect out of his heart for his woman, and the singer that is most definitely Chad trying to strain his one-octave voice further.

Let me spend an extra paragraph just saying how EFFING HORRIBLE these lyrics are. The ballads are a bit less offensive, coming off as someone's first attempt at a love letter, horribly awkward and slightly cringeworthy but not necessarily abhorrent. The other song... Jesus Christ. The bad sex metaphors are stupid enough one at a time, piling them up into a song is just... Holy crap. Go listen to S.E.X and read the lyrics and try to not feel physically ill. It might have been the ice cream, but I damn near vomited upon reading the third and fourth verses.

I sometimes agree with people when they say Nickelback is overhated, dunno if I will after this album. My previous opinion was that they made slightly-sickening subpar radio-bred cock rock, not that much worse than other pop garbage. However that opinion was based off of two songs, and now that I've listened to a full album, I stand by any claim that these guys are truly offensive to the ears. Unlike that Justin Bieber album, there's no hilarious irony here (because Chad's media life has about zero funny bits yet has one-third the gross factor), and there's no real one redeeming song. On the other hand, only one song here caused me any physical ailment. And I'll give credit to This Afternoon for breaking the two song formula and instead just sounding like the dumbest country-pop song I have ever heard. THE DUMBEST, but at the same time, slightly hilarious in how bad it is, and in the context of bad country Kroeger's voice is slightly less offensive.

I didn't get to study.

Best Track: This Afternoon for the reasons mentioned a damn sentence ago.
Rating: 1/10

rayword45 10-5-2014 08:11 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 55: Eingya by Helios (Album Choice: Contrapasso)

This album will be listened to while in the process of making a pie.

Pretty mellow, fairly pretty album. I listened to it a bit too passively to pick any favorite tracks but yeah, prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay, pretty good.

Hopefully the pie will be good.

Best Track: What the hell did I just say
Rating: 7/10

MarioNintendo 10-5-2014 08:16 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Rofl, I challenge you to review this album http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...62#post4212462

rayword45 10-5-2014 09:27 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I'll put it on the spreadsheet, but considering 69 Love Songs was rough for me to sit through, the chances I'll sit down and listen to this are pretty fucking slim

MarioNintendo 10-5-2014 09:48 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Hahahahahahaha, I sent this as a semi-joke, but, if you could passively listen to these (you could even skip some, if you feel like it), that would satisfy me plenty.

rayword45 10-7-2014 10:46 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 56: Drukqs by Aphex Twin

Well, I have homework to burn, and I said before that I had never listened to this album so let's do this. As usual, this will probably be way too concise for such a massive album but whatever. My expectations for this are high because this is supposed to be relatively close to Richard D James Album. The only song I've heard from this album ISN'T Avril 14th but rather afx237 v7 because I watched Rubber Johnny. That would've been a much more convincing film if Johnny, who was supposed to be a locked up disabled child, DIDN'T HAVE A CLEAN SHAVEN BEARD. As for the song, it was okay. Didn't blow my mind like Girl/Boy Song though. In fact, unlike any of the songs on that album, it felt VERY SLIGHTLY dated since I've heard a fair amount of IDM in that style and since it didn't strike out as beautiful, it struck out as somewhat generic. Whatever, time to listen.

4 songs in, my god this is an ugly album. I don't mean that in a fully pejorative sense, mind you, but compared to the gorgeous electronic tones and spastic beats of Richard D James Album (Man I feel stupid repeating titles so much) or perhaps the dance-y feel and slightly less spastic beats of Windowlicker or ...I Care Because You Do, this album is mostly ugly, dark "melodies" and VERY spastic beats. Omgyjya-Switch7, as one example, sounds almost like a precursor to Boards Of Canada's Gyroscope with some old sounding synths and demented sounding vocal samples, except there's no sense of nostalgic terror-beauty here, just crackaddled drum machines. I'd go so far as to say this reminds me more of Venetian Snares far more than other works of Aphex Twin due mostly to the dark, apocalyptic feel.

The piano pieces, on the other hand, are okay. Nothing special really. Okay time to go back to math homework.

Bbydhyonchord is gorgeous. As is Btoum-Roumada. I'm pretty sure I could write loads about this album, but I mean I have homework to do and plenty has been written on it already so whatever. I'll say this. The second half of the album is a lot more fragmented than the first half, with more short snippet songs and more long songs. That definitely works to the benefit of an album this long, because longer songs like Meltphace 6 andZiggomatic 17, regardless of how good they actually are, at least get to explore their sound and flesh themselves out while the micro tracks often give great experimental concepts a shot, and if they don't work, oh well it was only a minute anyways. Also worth noting, Nanou2 has nothing on B-Side Nannou.

To summarize real quick, that was not very good at all. There were some great tracks here and there, but 100 minutes was WAY too long and everything felt drawn out here. I have little complaints about the piano pieces or the ambient techno tracks (which were usually amongst my favorites) but it seems within a short amount of time Richard D James forgot what made Richard D James Album so good. Behind all the crazy drum programming there, songs like 4, Milkman and most of all Girl/Boy Song had AMAZING melodies behind them. Here, melody is eschewed for atmospheric darkness, which really just leaves things feeling insipid and uninspired. Things somewhat picked up in the second half with the more freeform song lengths and track ordering, but it never reached greatness and still dragged on more than desirable. Disappointing, though I still prefer it to Selected Ambient Works 85-92.

Best Track: Bbydhyonchord
Rating: 5.5/10

rayword45 10-13-2014 11:03 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 57: Pop by Gas (Album Choice: Trogdor!!!)

I used random.org and didn't like the album it gave me. I've already forgotten what album that was. I saw this and chose it without knowing anything about it. That's random enough for me. I looked it up and it's some ambient minimalist type album. Good, I have work to do.

Upon second checking, the album I didn't choose was a Monstercat release, and those things are like 2 hours long.

Happy "Kill people and steal their houses because we're white and they're brown" day, by the way. Or by the time I post this, happy belated.

Because there are no track titles on this album, and I'm doing work, I think I'll attempt another Christgau-style review.

Tape loops whisper across a painted background of nature recordings and oscillating synths. And occasionally a bass drum pulses quietly. Watery textures prevail all over these seven tracks with nary a title to each of them, with very little in the way of melodic development or basic structure. But who wanders for structure in the face of ambience? Instead you receive pleasure from the gorgeous ethereal drones and (less so) the rare subtle alterations in sound that pop-up every so often. Transcendent, tranquil, and it probably took but a few hours to compose.

Best Track: [untitled]
Rating: 9/10

Trogdor!!!! 10-13-2014 11:23 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
That better be a strong nine

rayword45 10-23-2014 07:48 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 58: Bonsai Superstar by Brainiac

Damn I'm long overdue to listen to a new album, and now it's not even a request. The situation here is that I have zero connection so Spotify or anything else is out of the question, meanwhile I have this album ready to go as well as 40 minutes to burn homework. It was fairly recently that I listened to Hissing Prigs In Static Couture, which immediately struck me as one of the best noise rock albums I had ever heard, even with a few draggy songs. Okay enough introing I don't have time.

I'm on the first song, and I'm already thinking that I should have listened to this album before Hissing Prigs, because that album sounds pretty much like a natural evolution of these first couple of songs. Yeah, it takes me a very long time to type sentences on shitty Mac keyboards. Not that anything here is particularly bad, it's quite good actually. Songs like Radio Apeshot and Sexual Frustration are pretty catchy with a great deal of atonal noise to please the ears, if you like that kind of thing. As a matter of fact, I just realized that reviewing this band is kinda unnecessary. This is one of those bands like The Jesus Lizard or Primus where you should be able to say "I like" or "This effing sucks" within 20 seconds of a random song. But I'm already two-thirds through the album so lets keep going.

Yeah, this really does feel like the predecessor to Hissing Prigs in that the style is undeniably the same, but there's nothing as raucous as Pussyfootin, as broodingly catchy as This Little Piggy or as good with the riffage as Indian Poker Pt. 3. Nope, this is basically a bunch of Hot Seat Can't Sit Downs and Kiss Me U Jacked Up Jerks. This review will make absolutely no sense to anyone who hasn't listened to the latter album, so let me try to amend that and probably fail. Whereas the other album by this band is filled to the brim with songs that blow the mind in different ways, this album is stylistically similar but the songs are a little bit more formulaic. Most of the songs here are easily defined as "jagged angular noise" with relatively catchy rhythms. It's all good, but there's not that much in the way of variety here. Also the vocal performance here isn't as subversively hilarious, and the atmosphere is less "dark and brooding" and more "let's just have a laugh", which could be a good thing depending on your mood. Bonus points to Meathook Manicure, though, for sounding like the Sebadoh song from hell.

Seriously, not at all a bad album, but it simply doesn't touch the catchiness, the weirdness, the greatness of their next album. Also, a bit structurally disappointing since the album ends with a 3 minute fart. Still very much worth a listen though.

Day 93 of the pledge: The other day I accidentally ate the earwax of several people during lunchtime. That has jacksquat to do with any sort of porn pledge but look, if I'm writing something starting with "Day number of the pledge" then you can infer where I'm at.

Best Track: Radio Apeshot
Rating: 6.5/10 (for comparison purposes, I gave Hissing Prigs In Static Couture a 9/10 and may very well bump that rating)

rayword45 10-26-2014 11:33 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 59: Nanobots by They Might Be Giants (Album Choice: Gus V.)

21 pages of AP Biology homework, along with 2 months of makeup work. Life frowns upon procrastination, but I don't remember it ever being so relentless. (Right here is where I would try to use some onomatopoeia and fail miserably, so just imagine an extreme pained cry for help). In regards to this band, I've listened to Apollo 18 more than a few times, yet for some reason I have never had the urge to listen to any of their other albums. I've liked a few singles here and there but never felt the need to explore their discography. Maybe this will change everything.

It didn't really change much at all.

Best Track: Meh.
Rating: 5.5/10

YoshL 10-26-2014 11:39 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
my group is dropping an album (should be available for free) on Halloween, if you want to give that a listen

rayword45 10-27-2014 12:09 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 60: Alvvays by Alvvays (Album Choice: NinjaKIWI)

I don't have time for these damn intros man. This review could be the shortest one yet.

Surfy twee pop. Sounds like it's straight from K Records in the 90s, but it's from last year. I have no nostalgia for this genre whatsoever, but this isn't a bad album. What is bad is this Bio homework and this need for sleep.

Best Track: I can't feel my face
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 11-3-2014 10:48 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 61: U.M.A. by Progenie Terrestre Pura (Album Choice: noname219)

Man oh man I can't wait to listen to this with my full attention and go in-depth on all the little nuances of the music an- oh wait I have homework. Oh well. Here we go.

Opens with some pretty cool electronic Fuck Buttons soundscapes before going into black metal riffing. Then that takes up pretty much the rest of the album. Upbeat black metal bits, some thrash metal riffs and a couple of Shpongle-esque psybient bits here and there. Vocal performance is pretty good. Drums are tight. Guitars are sharp and angular but still melodic. Okay good night.

Best Track: ...
Rating: 6.5/10

rayword45 11-5-2014 08:28 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 62: The Joy Of Motion by Animals as Leaders (Album Choice: 3lijah)

For the first time in what feels like forever, I have some time to sit down and actually indulge in the pleasures of an album with a good deal of attention. Problem is that my surroundings are limited to a crowded tiny Starbucks and a dirty bootleg food court they try to pass off as a mall. Also problematic is overcoming the urge to pass up this opportunity to listen to some Jesus Lizard and Brainiac like I always do. I don't listen to Instrumental Metal, I seldom listen to Jazz, and as I've said before most Prog Metal is cheesier than casein-free artificial spray-on cheddar-flavored product (though to be instrumental and cheesy with prog metal you'd have to be REALLY wanky) But whatever, I'd be an asshole more so than I already am if I passed up this time of opportunity. Finally, a break! I can listen to an album with the utmost attention and write about all the great little nuances or minor flaws that make or break the album.

Chugchugchugchugchugchugweedlyweedlyweedlynoodlenoodlenoodlechugchugchugchugtaptaptapchugchugskrinkskronkchugchugharmonicschugchugarpeggiochugchug for 1 hour.

Maybe I'm not as musically knowledgeable or eclectic as I'd like to think.

Best Track: Para Mexer
Rating: 5/10

master q60 11-5-2014 11:01 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I totally forgot to post some of mine here that I had a long time ago

Between the Buried and Me - The parallax II: future sequence
Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter
System of a Down - Mesmerize

YoshL 11-6-2014 10:37 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
http://open.spotify.com/album/6gOYhnducyiIvGFEOq5iS8

my group whee
hopefully you'll enjoy my percussion lol

rayword45 11-13-2014 09:30 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 63: NEW DREAMS LTD by LASERDISC VISIONS (Album Choice: Arkuski)

I've got approximately 33 minutes and this album is a half-hour. Let's go real quick. To introduce, this is a vaporwave album. What the hell is vaporwave? I don't know and don't care. Tiny Mix Tapes loves this shit so it must be hipster-y. GO GO GO.

It's kind of ironic that I'm rushing to listen to this, because this is seriously a collection of elevator songs. Short snippets of jazzy/new-agey tunes you'd expect to hear in an office lounge or something. How the hell am I supposed to review this? It makes good sudoku music I suppose.

Actually, I must be honest and say I'm enjoying this stuff more than I should. Objectively, there's not much to say about this music. It's relaxing, simple, and nostalgic in a way that that makes you want to sit in a hotel or something. The only reason I'm enjoying this as much as I am besides city nostalgia is Nintendo nostalgia. Seriously, a lot of these songs sound like Nintendo shop music, or overworld music, or something like that. And because of that I'm getting the urge to sit in a hotel and play some 3DS. Goddamn school and work killing me off.

Yeah, I enjoyed that way more than I probably should have. If that makes me a hipster or a fluffer for Pitchfork, so be it. I'll take that status and keep this album.

Best Track: Tingri
Rating: 8.5/10

rayword45 11-15-2014 04:42 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 64: Rev by Faux Paz (Album Choice: YoshL)

I have no idea what the hell I'm about to listen to is. What I do know is that it's obscure as fuck. Based on a quick YouTube search, this seems to be an a cappella group from University of Maryland. Spotify says Copyright 2013 A Cappella Records. Well, based on that information, my expectations are a big "...What the hell?".

This is an album made-up of covers, so obviously a large part of my enjoyment is based on my opinion of the source material. And some (or rather most) of the song choices are horrid. The first song is Neon Trees and that's enough to make me unhappy. As a matter of fact, the only band I like here that's being covered is The Smiths. The rest ranges from "Why should I care?" (Sara Bareilles, Florence + The Machine) to "Ugh..." (Kanye West (screw you /mu), OneRepublic) to "What the hell were they thinking?" (Celine Dion needs no pair. Alone she stands as an example). The majority falls in the first category thankfully, so my bias is limited.

So, the music itself... Uhh... I don't know how to judge this kind of music at all. I thought Jazz was hard, I thought instrumental metal was hard, but this, this is a whole different level. The group works well with each other, everything is synced well and the pitches are good. Does the usage of a drum machine negate this as a "true" a cappella album. If so, whatever. If not, who cares? The best part of this album is the vocal percussion, I honestly wish they dropped the drum machine and put more of an emphasis on that.

Some short notes

-I hate The Wanted and I hate Coldplay, so Glad You Came/Lovers In Japan is obviously the worst thing ever
-The rapping in Lost In The World is gross
-I thought The Lonely was going to be an Eleanor Rigby cover based on the start. Imagine my sadness when it turns out to be Christina Perri.

So overall, sometimes these guys are way more enjoyable than their source material (Gravity and some others I don't wanna relist), sometimes they... aren't (Marchin' On, and go up and you'll be able to infer at least three more examples). I am using WAY too many ellipses in this review, so let's end it before it gets worse. I totally don't regret listening to this album, in fact it makes me want to see a live a cappella show. That must mean it was good. On the other hand, some of these songs were horrible. How do I rate this thing?

Best Track: Stop Me
Rating: 6/10 (I just went with the benchmark. This was easily the most baffling album yet)

Spenner 11-15-2014 06:23 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I have a few requests if you haven't heard them:

Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid - Stars of the Lid
Harmony In Ultraviolet - Tim Hecker
MBV - My Bloody Valentine (if you haven't heard it a ton, dunno).
Rifts - OneohtrixPointNever (it's a long one, brace yourself).
Andy Stott - We Stay Together (recommend you at least hear one track if you've never heard his stuff to get an idea. Kinda like Burial if he were to just be a satanic club DJ and not Burial).

Really enjoyable reviews as always.

YoshL 11-15-2014 07:01 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
just a by the way, the album i linked like 2 posts ago just came out, and is imo alot better than the previous album

also just btw, it's not a drum machine, it's actual beatboxing :P

also in the album that i linked i beatbox pretty much every single song except for one, you'll probably be able to tell the style difference right away

rayword45 11-19-2014 07:30 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by YoshL (Post 4232974)
also just btw, it's not a drum machine, it's actual beatboxing :P

I'll amend my review then. Just a question, is the beatboxing processed in the studio at all?

Day 65: Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Grief by Megalodoom (Album Choice: squeesfan)

Another EP for a rushjob review. Expect tongue-in-cheek Christgau-yness because screw it I have better things to do.

Note, I relistened to Flood by Boris and this time gave it actual attention. I enjoyed tracks 2 and 3 immensely, but thought track 1 could've been trimmed by like a minute or two, and track 4 could've been cut into a third and been just as effective. Either way, rating amended to 8/10.

Instrumental something-piece makes slow, ugly, fuzzy guitar rock. For all it's murk and rebellious anger, it remains surprisingly run-of-the-mill. 12 bars 12 bars run it through a cheap amp and distortion pedal..

Best Track: Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Grief
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 11-22-2014 10:34 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 66: Native by OneRepublic (Album Choice: Jonathan V.)

This has been a pretty bad day. Not the worst day ever, but a wholly dissatisfying, mood depleting, sanity testing day, loaded with condescending jerks, broken hardware, unnecessary work and all that jazz. I'm bushed, but wanted to take advantage of my sulky mood, so I thought let's handpick an angry sounding album.

That right there was an intro paragraph I wrote on Thursday night before deciding "fuck it, I should sleep instead". Now I'm no longer in a pissy mood but instead a completely phlegmatic one, so I'm gonna go with random.org.

I wish I was in a pissy mood again.

Well, actually I didn't have much reason to wish that, because this album reflects my mood, and my life. Boring. I wasn't exactly expecting the Devil's torture here, but my complete indifference to this music is so that I started listening and completely forgot I was listening until I was at track 6, Light It Up. And I only remembered because that song has the first electric guitar on the album, and the first guitar solo (which makes Cinnamon Girl damn near sound like the work of John Petrucci). Up till then I heard what sounded like folk-pop, electropop, wannabeindie pop, tribal drums, hip-hop beats and old people soft rock. All done as bland as possible.

Lucky that the unimpressive guitar playing knocked me back into attention mode, because Can't Stop is actually pretty good, with its heavy percussion and stronger-than-before vocals. The falsetto may grate on you a little bit but you can't deny that the vocal performance is the best thus far. Can't say the same about following tracks Au Revoir or Burning Bridges, which both just come off as cheesy and over orchestrated.

This whole album features many little touches that make me think they were going for a chant/singalong vibe (handclaps, heys, group choruses) but honestly this music is too placid and airy to evoke any sort of excitement to work like that. At best, this is completely inoffensive pop which acts as nice background noise if you like that sorta thing. At worst, this is completely inoffensive pop which you wouldn't listen to as background noise because you don't like this kinda music and/or prefer many of the other artists out there that make more interesting music.

So, in conclusion, and my ELA teachers always tell me "in conclusion" is a crappy start to a concluding paragraph, eeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Best Track: Can't Stop (though I should mention final track Don't Look Down as a good runner-up)
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 11-30-2014 02:10 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 67: The New Classic by Iggy Azalea (Album Choice: Sheri C.)

It's 2:30 in the morning, and I have no urge to sleep. I may as well take advantage of this pseudo-insomnia, listen to an album and earn some money online. Will I regret this in the morning? Yes. Do I care right now? No.

So, what do I know about this artist? She's white, Australian I think, and she raps. She once took a picture with Macklemore and captioned it "the king and queen of rap" which everyone laughed at because, duh, they're Caucasian. I think she does trap, which makes it ever so much funnier. I should remember one song by this girl but I really can't. Oh yeah, and recently, I believe she made some sort of inflammatory comments, either racist or homophobic. Either way, it's abhorrent, but not abhorrent enough to be funny.

You know, I'm loath to say this in fear that it'll be misconstrued as sexist, but I have never, EVER enjoyed a song, to my memory, performed by a female rapper. In all fairness, I have never listened to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but that's only one album. Surely there must be another woman out there who's rapping appeals to me.

Right when Fancy played, which is track 5 for the record, I immediately went "Oh yeah! I remember who this is!" as if I had some sort of giant revelation. This just proves that I am completely inept when tired, my memory is horrid when it comes to memorizing artists I don't care about, and this music is totally disposable. I mean come on, I didn't even remember who I was listening to until that track came on. And that's not totally fatigue-induced. Anyways, to quote one of my favorite shows (especially at this hour)

"Is there anything more funny than somebody just drastically white trying to speak colloquial hood?" - George Lowe as Space Ghost

I mean seriously, to be fair, her flow is not totally tragic, her rhymes are run-of-the-mill at best but not totally tragic, her beats are not totally tragic as far as pop/trap rap goes, but seriously, this stuff lies somewhere between inoffensive and laughable. And it pretty much all lies in her voice, which can be quite accurately described as "Caucasian Australian woman tries to pretend she's from the hood with a faux-Southern accent, to nobody's foolishness and many's amusement". Oh yeah, I also know the song Black Widow like everyone else in America... Man how did I forget who those songs were by? I'm inclined to blame sleepiness but I also feel like that's just natural stupidity shining.

This album ended on a pretty abrupt note, which makes me think this really was meant to follow the classic format of "3-4 singles and a bunch of filler". Regardless, that was totally disposable. There is nothing worthwhile I can write.

Best Track: Screw You
Rating: 3/10

rayword45 11-30-2014 10:06 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 68: A Night At The Opera by Queen (Album Choice: Remi C.)

Well, I have homework... Just kidding. Actually no I'm not kidding about that, but I'm really, REALLY gonna try my best to not be terse here. I mean, if OneRepublic and Iggy Azalea warrant several paragraphs than so does Freddie! Anyways, this is the third and last Queen album on my requests list. I expect this one to be the best one yet, seeing how I've heard one song from this album and you can obviously guess what that is.

Of note: This review and listening session is coming right after a relisten of Pink Moon, probably my 40th or 50th, so this one will be a nice contrast. Worth pointing out my perspective going into this.

It took me an hour after writing the previous paragraph to start listening to the album. Why? I don't know, I must've anticipated whiplash or something. Compared to the previous two Queen albums, this is still Queen. It's still bombastic, it's still cheesy, it's still laughable at times and contrived at others, yet who cares about all those pretentious adjectives when you kick this much ass? There's a VERY SLIGHTLY warmer feel than the previous albums due in part to the many acoustic pieces and heavier usage of piano, as well as less of an emphasis on mythological song themes and a greater focus on pop melodies, but either way it's still incredibly overblown so that warmth is pretty much meaningless.

Truthfully, some of these tracks are totally unnecessary (Seaside Rendezvous anyone?) and others actually caused me to laugh out loud. As someone who was born in the late 90s, the very idea that there was a time when songs like Sweet Lady and I'm In Love With My Car were massively popular radio hits is a pretty funny one. It just seems so ridiculous. Yeah yeah, popular music now is pretty stupid, but this just seems... I dunno, it'd be like if all popular music sounded like Om, or maybe Fantomas, the atmosphere just seems bizarre for a leisurely car ride.

And now we have reached the penultimate track. You know the one. The only Queen song that you need to know, and I'm not talking about We Are The Champions. That song is just grating. This one needs no adjectives. But let's give it some. Rejuvenating, life-affirming, cathartic, theatrical, loaded with pomp and cheese and opera-worship, but still amazing. Yeah I'm a total sucker for this admittedly overplayed song but whatever, when it comes to glammy bombastic cock rock I'll take this ANY DAY over some disgustingly bland KISS crap or even worse, Bon Jovi. I'm still not saying the song title. I really don't need to. If you don't know what song I'm talking about, you're obviously a complete idiot.

Oh yeah, then we end the album with a short instrumental version of the British National Anthem. Like it matters.

Well anyways, of the Queen albums I've listened to that was definitely the best and most captivating of the three, but it wasn't without its flaws. Some songs like the aforementioned seashanty or whatever did feel remarkably self-indulgent, while others really played up the macho image (I'm In Love With My Car? Seriously?). Still, this was a damn good album, and I can't criticize any album with that one song too much. Maybe in a few years when I'm finally sick of it.

Something potentially offensive but I'm gonna say it anyways, of all the very few that I've knowingly listened to, Freddie Mercury may be my third-least favorite LGBT male musician next to RuPaul and Billie Joe Armstrong. In the company of artists like Grant Hart, Bob Mould, Stephin Merritt, Darby Crash and especially Chris Bell, third isn't a bad spot considering the very scant amount of artists I've listened to.

No wait, make that fourth. I forgot about Michael Stipe.

Best Track: Seriously, guess. If you can't, you're a moron. No way around it, you're stupid.
Rating: 8.5/10

rayword45 12-2-2014 08:39 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 69: The United States of America by The United States of America

I wanted to do a request album today but I don't have the time or Internet connection and for some reason this album has been lying around so I thought why not? This is a 60s psychedelic electronic band, thus I expect something like Silver Apples. Ready let's start.

The first two tracks are effing amazing. In spite of the at-the-time untraditional instrument choices for a rock group (electronics, organ, electric violin) this album is very, very 60s. The vocalist sounds like Grace Slick except less annoying, and that's probably all it takes to sound like a band from 50 years past.

...Aaaand I'm done. I didn't really get to listen to track 10 but who cares? Good album, surprisingly not too dated and many catchy songs, although the airy songs were a tad boring (Cloud Song). Definitely way ahead of its time and to compare to another band, I'd argue this is way better than Silver Apples.

Best Track: The American Metaphysical Circus
Rating: 7.5/10

choof 12-2-2014 11:23 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
can I recommend finale by asphyxzero

YoshL 12-2-2014 11:25 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
beatbox is processed as fuck in that album, which is why the newer one that i mentioned is so much better imo lol. you can actually like, hear how a person would be making the sounds, not just drums

rayword45 12-6-2014 11:49 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
@Choof I'll add that

Day 70: Endless Fantasy by Anamanaguchi (Album Choice: Korny)

With a band name like that I would've thought these guys are Japanese. That's all you're getting for an intro.

You're also not getting much of a review here. To sum it up, it's chiptune music with drums and (usually processed) guitars added to the mix. Pretty inoffensive stuff usually. When vocals come in, things get a bit more pop, and they also get kinda annoying.

There's really not much to complain about when it comes to this music nor anything to lavish praise upon. My biggest gripe is that this album had absolutely no reason to be 73 minutes and could've easilt been trimmed down to a little over half of that. Besides that, this was inoffensive. Pleasant enough to the ears, but nothing that makes you go "Wow" nor "This is the worst shit I've heard in my life".

Best Track: I'm tired
Rating: 5.5/10

rayword45 12-9-2014 02:53 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 71: Lazer Thrash by Dev/Null (Album Choice: EzExZeRo7497)

So, I got this album like 3 months ago via random.org but opted not to listen to it for studying purposes. Now I am handpicking it for studying purposes. Why? Because first of all, it's 3 in the morning, I'm still working on this horrid AP Biology project, and the No-Doz clearly isn't working, so a good abrasive listen should help. Second of all, I can still listen to this somewhat passively as I've heard several songs on the album before. Ready let's start.

Okay, so brief opinion. I liked the album. Melodic pieces were good but not fantastic. This album worked best when it got really abrasive. For an industrial-influenced breakcore album... You can pretty much predict how it will sound and if it's your cup of tea. Holy hell I'm tired.

Best Track: Old Extra-Wanky Break Thing
Rating: 7/10

noname219 12-9-2014 03:00 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I think it was Eze that recommended Lazer Thrash. :)

Crazyjayde 12-9-2014 01:07 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by rayword45 (Post 4243267)
My biggest gripe is that this album had absolutely no reason to be 73 minutes and could've easilt been trimmed down to a little over half of that.

Yeaaaaaah. I'm not fond at all of their whole poppy-power-pop-punk shtick. It's the closest musical equivalent to the typical "I swear I'm a 90's kid" poser, making konami code jokes and all. It's fine if it allows people into the genre but as long as they're willing to delve deeper and realize how complex the scene is. Otherwise they, ugh... "WOHA. That's a GAMEBOY????" You know.

I thought I'd give them a chance by grabbing this record. It's cool, they upped their songwriting skills and while I dig their more lush personalities, I'm still loathing the fuck out of it for the length alone. It might have to do with the track placement too. Anyway, say 10-12 songs, two interludes, and it's a treat. Tea Time Interlude would be a fun outro.

rayword45 12-16-2014 10:18 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 72: Triple Live Mother Goose at Budokan by Green Jelly (Album Choice: Sonicman68)

Tuesday, December 16 at 12:18 AM, I have officially relapsed. This totals 160 full days of no pornography. Fuck you Breaking Bad subreddit. Also, that was anti climactic as all living fuck. Wow. People who thought I couldn't do 30 days, I feel as if they're totally mad now, because that was as mundane as frying an egg. I don't feel crazy like "wow how did I ever do that" nor do I feel "oh my god I just broke my purity bonds!". What I feel is incomplete. Incomplete because that's the state of my homework.

So yeah, I wrote that yesterday and it says pretty much everything I have to say. My only addendum is that I don't regret a single one of those 130 days extra, and definitely feel like something in my life has changed from such a small step. What it is? I don't know. Probably my ego.

Okay, this album, these guys are comedy punk. I'm not sure how optimistic to be about this one but I'm not writing too much so let's go.

Well great, we had the clown song as an intro to some bizarre cow worship metal, and now we're moving onto some demented demolition of the Sesame Street theme. These guys are just killing my childhood. I don't wanna hear Bert get tortured man.

Okay, this is seriously the stupidest album I've listened to thus far. I don't mean that in a derogatory manner, as it's not the worst. No, not at all. How could this ever be compared to Nickelback? Before I talk about quality, let me talk about intelligence. The entire album uses a corny "big arena" metal guitar tone with loads of hilarious pick scratches and weird tap solos, and the drumbeats aren't so much stupid as fairly run-of-the-mill, but those lyrics. Holy crap, those lyrics. Sometimes these guys are surrealist like a mediocre episode of Aqua Teen (Obey The New God, Eat Satan's Ham) while other times they destroy childhood memories with as little intelligence as possible (Nightmare on Sesame Street, Three Little Pigs). Besides that, we have joke-y songs with incredibly "minimalistic" lyrics like Whip Me Teenage Babe, we have the crappy Sex Pistols semi-cover Anarchy in Bedrock, which is funny because Sex Pistols already suck, and we have a few instrumentals that nobody will ever care about. As for the vocal delivery, the best way I could put this is "fat, sweaty Henry Rollins delivering horrible jokes". This is really the dumbest album I've listened to yet, and I'm not even trying to be condescending. Musically, these guys aren't impressive or interesting in the least. They're pretty average. Now THAT was condescending.

I just saw that these guys apparently once toured with Psychostick. I don't really care about Psychostick, thus my opinion of this band remains stagnant.

To conclude concisely, because I want to listen to another album, this album was pretty meh. Nothing spectacular musically, and nothing really hilarious either.

Best Track: Nah.
Rating: 4.5/10

Xtreme2252 12-18-2014 07:00 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
This list is somewhere between hipster and mainstream.

Bear vs. Shark - Terrorhawk
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2
The Left Rights - Bad Choices Made Easy
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nirvana - Nevermind
Pixies - Doolittle
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Soundgarden - Superunknown
System of a Down - Toxicity
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

rayword45 12-18-2014 07:07 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme2252 (Post 4248103)
Bear vs. Shark - Terrorhawk
The Left Rights - Bad Choices Made Easy
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

Everything removed is either already on the list or I listened to it before. Feel free to add 6 more, I'll add these 4.

rayword45 12-21-2014 08:51 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 73: El Camino Real by William Basinski (Album Choice: choof)

This review is 5 days and 4 listens long.

12/16/14 11:00 P.M EST - "Shit I gotta start and finish this math project. What's some good music? Oh, Basinski!"

*10 minutes in*

"Hey this is a pretty good loop. Maybe I'll visualize some cool stuff if I close my eyes" and that's why I won the moron of the year award. Got 100% on the project anyways though, it took 20 morning minutes.

12/18/14 1:00 A.M EST - "SHIT I gotta study for this AP Biology test, and this Precalculus test, and this blahdeblahblah show me the music!"

30 minutes later I fall asleep.

12/19/14 11:30 P.M EST - "Yeah let's just put this on while I go to bed"

12/21/14 12:00 P.M PST - And now, finally, I managed to listen to the whole thing while doing dishes. My life is good.

So, anyways, real introduction paragraph, chances are you know who William Basinski is if you actually care about this kind of music. If you don't know him, his discography is all drone and ambient music and you don't care about that. This guy is good stuff, The Disintegration Loops are highly regarded and I believe that to be a well-deserved reputation in spite of the fact that total composing time was less than the running time (unless you wanna argue that total composing time is 2 decades and that's bullcrap) and Melancholia is some gloriously tranquil winter music. Other works of his I've listened to were pleasant enough but not particularly memorable to me. Let's see if this one outranks those.

Let's see? More like I already saw. And this particular album, one 50 minute drone, is pretty damn good. Not as good as the two/five aforementioned albums, but more memorable than any of his other works that I've listened to thus far. The album is literally the same sound (I'm not inclined to call it a melody) for 50 minutes. Theoretically if you've heard half a minute then you can say you've heard the whole album and move on with your life, but damnit this is drone music and I'd be an asshole to complain about a lack of structure. The sound itself? Amazing. It just transports you to a cold empty mountainside, like most of Basinski's music honestly. But this one does it in a better way. Crap I am horrible at describing ambient music.

Best Track: egg sandwich
Rating: 9/10 (How is it that two out of three of my 9s thus far are ambient music? I barely listen to ambient music)

rayword45 12-22-2014 06:32 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 74: Kid Dynamite by Kid Dynamite (Album Choice: FoJaR)

Now after listening to the same ambient track 4 times, I'm switching to hardcore punk. I know as much about these guys as you do, assuming that you know nothing at all other than the fact that they're hardcore punk which I just told you. Okay it's 1 AM let's have fun with this.

This guy kinda sounds like GG Allin. And the album is over. Pretty short one this is, like many punk albums.

That was pretty good. Vaguely Descendents-esque if only due to the mix of pop hooks and nasally hardcore vocals, but definitely heavier than they were (or at least heavier than Milo Goes To College because I didn't listen to any of their other albums). You know I'm just writing fluff here to write fluff.

Best Track: I wish I could tell you, but the format I was required to listen in made this very hard to discern
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 12-22-2014 11:43 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 75: Blast Tyrant by Clutch (Album Choice: noname219)

This is a rush review. Why I chose a 50 minute album for a rush review I do not know. But anyways, this is a stoner rock album, which sounds very appealing to me because I need a morning kicker. I'll be listening to this album eating oatmeal, in the bathroom and riding the bus to school. My TMI game too strong.

Allow to briefly rant about public transportation. The MBTA is the worst train system I have ever seen in my life. Trains smell like decaying ass buses dirty, and the delays feel like they're contrived solely for your inconvenience. Also I've had at least 3 racist bus drivers in my time so there's that. On the plus side, Boston is so small as to make the system completely navigable compared to New York.

Anyways, the music. This is pretty run of the mill stoner rock. Sabbath worship for days with a tinge of groove. As a whole it's pretty good, though I'd honestly take Queens Of The Stone Age for my riff-based stoner rock on most days. The main flaws with this album I have are that things occasionally get samey, and when they try to mix things up, like getting extra funky or going all outlaw country, the results are pretty trash. Luckily that only takes up a couple of tracks here or there.

This review took me over 16 hours to write. I wish it was any good.

Best Track: Promoter (Of Earthbound Causes)
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 12-23-2014 08:18 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 76: 10 Day by Chance The Rapper (Album Choice: Phillip S)

I'm dedicating the next 3 reviews to Chance. It's per the recommendation of the album chooser that I listen to the debut EP of this artist before anything, since it was released in his high school days, but I don't have convenient access to that one at the moment. I have very convenient access to this mixtape on the other hand and just about one risky hour to spare. Let's go.

Something worth noting. I despise 99 percent of Chicago Hip-Hop that I hear. Reason for this? 99 percent of the Chicago Hip-Hop that I hear is Trap Rap. I don't like to make generalizations about whole genres or subgenres usually but Trap has got to be one of the stupidest genres of all time. I await some redeeming Trap.

As for this, it's decidedly not trap, which is very pleasing. Instead of 808s and earache from the affected synths, these beats are mostly old style jazzy boom bap, which is definitely a preferred style of mine. Very mellow album, this one. On occasion the synths are a bit too cheesy () and then when he tries to move into slow songs the whole thing reeks of schmaltz (Nostalgia) but otherwise the production is good and simple. Oh, another exception, Fuck You Tahm Bout is horrible, that's all. The beat is painfully dumb, and the lyrics are as smart as the title indicates, with what seems like an attempt to go hardo.

Luckily after that are the last 3 songs which are all great, equal parts emotional and mellowed. Glad that this didn't turn out to be frontloaded, the album squandered a bit in the middle and I wasn't exactly blown away by the first few songs anyways.

Oh yeah, the lyrics. Considering the majority of this was written in high school I'd say it was pretty solid. It's not fantastic and there are some downright laughable bars here and there but this shows great potential. Anyways, in conclusion, I really shouldn't end with a sentence with in conclusion.

Best Track: Prom Night
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 12-28-2014 12:50 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 77: Back To School Pack by Chance The Rapper (Album Choice: Phillip S.)

Say hooray because tomorrow I'm leaving on a 7 day cruise. Then say nay because I shan't be submitting any reviews during that period and if I listen to any albums it'll be when everyone else is sleeping (I have a few albums downloaded onto my phone for that situation). I'll try to review Acid Rap with the time I have. Anyways, this mixtape was recorded and released almost 2 years before 10 Day. My expectations are pretty satisfiable because I know what most 17 year old (w)rappers sound like. Let's go.

Nostalgia is the same song as the one on 10 Day. I mean that very literally, as in it's not even an early take, it's the exact same schmaltz. Kick Back is even worse, so sophomoric as to make Trap sound like pretentious prog. Besides that, the other 3 songs are mostly subdued and mellow, with an emphasis on jazzy beats. The lyrics are nothing to write home about and there are some questionable production moments (speak closer to the damn mic) but yeah it's pleasant enough. The beat to September 7th is especially great.

This EP is okay at best, with lyrics and production both having their fair share of questionable moments. If you're like me and found 10 Day to be enjoyable yet inconsistent, I recommend you just download the last track off this EP and tack it on as a bonus track to that mixtape.

Best Track: September 7th
Rating: 4.5/10

rayword45 01-5-2015 09:40 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 78: Acid Rap by Chance The Rapper (Album Choice: Nepgear)

I didn't listen to a single album on that cruise ship, as you can tell by my lack of reviews for the past 8 days. I recommend everyone go on a New Years cruise during their young lifetime, because that shit was turnt. One hell of a start to a year I say. Anyways, onto the review. I have high hopes for this album because I enjoyed the other Chance mixtape and this is supposed to be a significant improvement.

Much more consistent work than anything else he's put out, Chancellor Bennett ditches old school boom bap bop for a much floatier sound tinted with one part soul and groove, three parts blotter paper. The lysergic doesn't affect his ability to wordplay and thank god he doesn't take himself too seriously for his own good else this become laughable.

After writing that garbage I find out Christgau has already reviewed this album. Ugh, whatever.

Best Track: Cocoa Butter Kisses
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 01-5-2015 10:59 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 79: The Clown by Charles Mingus (Album Choice: Phillip S.)

Since I'm not in school today I should get through at least one more album. For the hell of it, let's do some jazz. The last straight jazz album was Kind Of Blue during the summer and my opinion was middling compared to the usual universal acclaim. The few songs I've heard by this guy I've been much more partial to however (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat to name one). I need to explore more in the way of jazz anyways so it's good to kill an album here.

My memory of Kind of Blue at this point is pretty faded, so my comparisons will be pretty trite, but if anything, this album is much, much less subdued with a groovy swing feel, some use of dissonance on occasion and a lot of great bass soloing, which I prefer to trumpet noodling I must say. The energetic sound to this album is one that I greatly prefer to the cool jazz of Kind Of Blue. Haitian Fight Song in particularly is explosive for all of its 12 minutes and the bass solo is the best one on the album. The title track is fairly experimental and has a wonderful circusesque vibe to the instrumental though the spoken word piece is rather draggy (though the ending is brilliant). The other two tracks are nice, but I don't feel inclined to write about them.

That was a pretty good album. I liked a jazz album. I feel good about my music taste now.

Best Track: Haitian Fight Song
Rating: 7.5/10

rayword45 01-10-2015 12:38 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 80: Sam's Town by The Killers (Album Choice: Colin F.)

No real introduction paragraph needed. Yadda yadda yadda look a thing like Jesus drag queen cover art I'm not putting much effort into this one. I'm gonna play some Smash while listening, so this will be a rather passive listen. I'm hoping to knock a lot of albums out this weekend, but every time I plan to do this laziness prevails. So whatever.

Random note 1: Looking at the previous week in retrospect, I think having someone else tie your shoes may be one of the most enticing things ever. TMI? Don't care.
Random note 2: If you're choosing between partying with two mediocre white girls and two smoking hot "lesbians" FOR GOD'S SAKE MAN DON'T BE AN IDIOT CHOOSE THE LESBIANS now I'm gonna go cry in a corner

okay thats enough filler lets start listening after this Chris Bell song

Okay so this third song is their big hit and if there's one thing dragging this album down, it's that the vocalist over does things at times. Other than that, this is some inoffensive synthy pop rock. Not offensive to the ears in the least but not challenging or rewarding in the least. You got your retro power pop power chord structures, your cheesy synths, your unimpressive adherence to AOR song format (falsettos, harmonies and chants galore!) and your quivery yet bombastic vocalist. That was one big pretentious dump of a sentence.

Not every song here sounds the same as the last, yet they somehow aren't different enough to make me remember one melody besides that one single, nor can I really pick out any strong or weak songs. This album is just drifting by, through one ear out some other orifice. The best criticism for this album is that the synths are cheesy along with some other moments (the horns in Bones, the falsettos every). The best compliment is that these guys are forgettable but very pleasantly forgettable, with not a bad melody to be found.

...I think the band just attempted a ballad, yet somehow the ballads sound the same structure wise as the rockers. I dunno man, the repetitive nature of this album somehow gets me in the mood for Earth 2. It's gonna be tough decided between that or another album. And now the album's over. I don't think I'm gonna write any good conclusion paragraph for this one, this entire review is restating the same thing over and over again.

The album is over.

Best Track: When You Were Young pretty much because it's the only one I remember
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 01-11-2015 12:04 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 81: The Albatross by Foxing (Album Choice: ChikaraGuy)

Okay here we go short album it's late at night I want a drink blahblahblah my internet is total booty right now and I'm at high risk of losing this review so I'm not gonna put much effort into it. That's not the actual reason I'm putting little effort in, that was what I was planning to use as an excuse until I didn't. This is a blind review. Will I be rewarded or do I face horrors?

None of the above. Another post-rocky emo album, but it's been long and sparse enough that I don't feel burnt out on the genre. So for this album, I feel fresh. Is it any good? Well, I actually enjoyed a few tracks here and there, and I can appreciate the short length and some of the genre mixing (chamber pop moments and psychedelic bits) but like many emo albums, the vocals got grating at times, here not so much for the overemoting (which was fine) rather than the warbly vocal style. Other than that, this one was solid! There were a few seriously bad tracks though.

Best Track: Bit By A Dead Bee Pt. 2 but part 1 is horrid
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 01-11-2015 09:54 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 82: E18 Album by Detektivbyran (Album Choice: FoJaR)

I'm in the mood for something different. I'm not gonna look this up again, but if I recall correctly, this is folktronica. The only folktronica I regularly listen to, if you can call it that, is The Books. And maybe some occasional Four Tet or Caribou. As a matter of fact I doubt that any artist considers folktronica a real genre, like nobody wants to be called post-grunge or cock rock, even if those two sound way worse than folktronica. Man enough of this tangent.

There are folk music influences to say the least, but sadly it's not what I usually expect when I hear the term folk. No, these guys meant actual traditional European folk music, with accordions and music boxes and such. This reminds me of trying to get into folk metal on multiple occasions only to realize in the end everytime that those guys are never talking about acoustic folk but rather some weird ass Norwegian traditional shit. I'm always one with open ears but that shit just leaves me wondering what the eff I just listened to. But enough complaining, let's get back to the album on hand. For a folk based album, the first couple of tracks lack the warmth I would hope to get. Thankfully, third track Nattoppet has the warm nostalgic feeling I'd hope to get from this kinda music. And that's how far I am as of now! Now, time to do some homework.

I am the worst procrastinator of all time, but anyways, this was a pretty short album so let's say things now. The best tracks are ones that make use of the music box and accordion and other traditional type instruments. Strangely enough, I found myself getting tired of their sound by the end of the album but undeniably those tracks were the strongest. The album as a whole is very spare and minimalist, and I found the more layered (relative term) it got, the warmer it felt and the more I enjoyed the music, with songs like
Dansbanan and the aforementioned Nattoppet being the best tracks on the album. On the other hand, tracks like Granmon and Home Sweet Home where the whole track consists of one instrument, usually a piano, do nothing but cure my nonexistent insomnia.

Not a fantastic album, but not a particularly bad one, though I can see the constant sparkly tones grating on some people. When this album was good, it was enjoyable if not mind blowing. When this album was bad, it wasn't really bad so much as just mindnumbingly dull. The highs really aren't high enough for me to recommend this album, but if you cut out Monster, Granmon, Hem Ljuva Hem and Home Sweet Home you have a decent short album that overdoes the accordion a bit.

Best Track: Nattoppet
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 01-14-2015 12:36 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 83: How To Save A Life by The Fray (Album Choice: MsKitty)

It feels kinda mean spirited to say this, but I'm about to indulge in copious amounts of caffeine because I need to take 10 chapters of notes so I ain't sleeping. Because these 10 pages of notes suck dick, I'm gonna be honest and say I'm listening to this album because I saw it on my phone and something about it said "Hey, this sounds boring" which makes it a great Biology companion piece. Time to take notes! And... Listen I guess. I need cranberry juice.

Okay I got my cranberry juice. As for this album, it sounds like Coldplay.

Or rather, Coldplay with less of that corny airy orchestral sound, and more piano and nonchalant emoting (there is absolutely no better way to describe the sound of the vocals).

I hate Coldplay.

Best Track: I'll be frank and say I wasn't paying enough attention to choose a favorite track. I'll be frank again and say I don't think I would've had a favorite track had I payed attention cause these songs mostly sound the same.
Rating: 3/10

rayword45 01-14-2015 04:37 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 84: The Art of Living Obnoxiously by Satellite High (Album Choice: Sheri C.)

This caffeine overload has me feeling paranoid as hell. Maybe it's nocebo effect, but either waHOLY CRAP WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!

Excuse me missus I confess I'm loving your architecture hey you know what I think if Tim Taylor had never died Brainiac would be a huge band now. I'm gonna show everybody Pussyfootin and tell them my theory. They went from being no names to touring with Sunny Day Real Estate and The Jesus Lizard to opening for Beck in the course of 5 years. Why did I have to be born 4 months after their lead singer died this band is too damn good.

AP Biology sucks.

I wrote everything here before actually choosing an album. I'll choose an album after I eat some rum cake.

I didn't eat any rum cake but I'm gonna go choose an album now.

Okay I chose an album.

Just kidding I didn't choose an album yet. I'm gonna finish this chapter for AP Bio then choose another album.

I have the urge to practice this melodica I got for Christmas but I feel like if I was to play it at 2 AM I'd get the whole neighborhood to beat my ass and my neighbors are pretty nice people so I don't wanna get on their bad sides.

Holy crap why am I not taking notes.

This is the stupidest review I've ever done.

Hey guys for the record, Colour Haze is great music for studying. I feel more focused than ever. Or at least ever this night. Yet I'm writing this bullshit.

HOLY MOTHER OF GODDAMNED TO DIE JESUS IT'S 4:30 AM AND I'M NOT DONE AHAHFAFHADFHASDFOSHVYUFHU okay album chosen

According to RYM this person/group/band/whatever is hip-hop but they only have this artist/collective/supergroup/whocares and not this actual album so it may not be the same singer/rapper/project/pseudonym/stoppingnow. Hip-hop, that's probably the worst studying music genre ever bar Liquid Swords but whatever I'm going for it. Mainly because I've been meaning to listen to Six Finger Satellite for a while. They tell me they sound like Brainiac and oh man do I love me soAGESTGHERGAERGBL

This guy calls himself the hip-hop Rob Pollard. Oh yeah, I looked up, it's one guy. These songs are all way too long for him to call himself anything close to Rob Pollard.

Again, passive listen. I'm kinda shafting these albums when I do this but whatever. Nothing here was offensive or anything. The nerdcore shtick that I somehow noticed without understanding any of the lyrics didn't really get tired. Just, the whole album got tired because this has the same problem of most modern hip-hop albums in that it's TOO DAMN LONG. Seriously, 20 tracks? What is with you people and your goddamn overlong albums? Concision, people! Concision!

By the way, chocolate rum cake is great.

Best Track: None, but the only one that caught my attention was Wrestling Still Rules (Theme)
Rating: 5/10 not that it entirely matters since this isn't on RYM anyways

rayword45 01-14-2015 08:08 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 85: Epsilon by Blood Stain Child (Album Choice: Kevin G.)

Still note-taking, haven't slept in 26 hours now, won't sleep for another 14. I hate my life. But either way, let's knock one more passive listen out while we can, cause why not? I don't know what genre this is but I can be presumptive. I can be very presumptive. And hey, let's try something different and see how my focus works. Starting now without any nonsense spiels this time.

My presumptions were only 50 percent correct. The other 50 percent is... effing trance music. See, I'm thinking I'm in a crappy mood due to sleep deprivation, but this is just grating. Who ever thought it was a good idea to mix metalcore/death metal with trance music? That is not a good combination. I'm never one to write off genres with the exception of crunkcore, but I have not personally heard any enjoyable trance metal.

Somehow, I fell asleep during tracks 7 to 9. I have no intention of listening to them again.

Looked this up during the last track, found out this is a Japanese band. Is there no middle ground for Japanese music? Either I get kickass stuff like Boris and Boredoms or I get shit like BabyMetal and this. At the very least, I'll give it a bonus point because it got me productive when it didn't put me to ironic sleep.

Best Track: Tracks 7-9
Rating: 3/10

rayword45 01-16-2015 11:13 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 86: Red Flame by Lil B The BasedGod (Album Choice: Arkuski)

Today I'm in an oddly good mood. So I decided to play something funny but at the same time torturous. I expect to be amused at first, then the groans come on, then sobbing or physical pain. Why do I do this to myself, I don't know. Hey, at least the album isn't 05 Fuck Em... I'm so not ready for this shit.

So, I decided I'm gonna give this a brainvomit review. There is an actual proper term that I'm looking for but I can't find it. Literally ANY thought that goes into my head that isn't incriminating is going to be put down here once I start listening.

-Why the fuck am I listening to this?
-I just want to play my 3DS
-Oh my goodness, seriously, what am I doing with my life
-I hate AP Biology with a burning passion
-There's a basketball next to my bed and I don't know how it got there
-I'm gonna go make myself an egg cream and eat some rum cake
-Ever had Konditor Meister cake? That stuff is good man.
-Dude, carrying your laptop down the stairs is not fun
-This album has some of the most idiotic artwork I've ever seen
-Bandwidth limits suck so bad, I'm trying to download stuff and I have to stop cause my sister has to file taxes
-Track 4 has a pretty nice beat... How am I only on track 4?
-What makes Based God so garbage? When I think about it, his beats are lo-fi but they aren't horrible, his lyrics are no stupider than many, slightly (and only slightly) more seriously taken artists like Chief Keef and Trinidad James and his flow ranges from piss-poor to middling but I've seen much worse.
-Yeah I've made it to track 7 and this is grating but it has yet to induce vomiting.
-Dude, why does he use so much dynamic compression? I NEVER give a shit about dynamic compression, I can listen to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea just fine, but here it actually kinda hurts your ears. Like, that's just ridiculous. Is this part of the joke? EVERYTHING IS PART OF THE JOKE.
-I haven't gotten my rum cake yet.
-"If you fuck with the best, you fuck with me" okay that line actually got me to laugh
-I expected more pain, but there is no pain. This review must be like reading a biography for Donny Osmond.
-How much is this guy worth? I wonder how much he's made from this foolish career.
-Other than the fact that I'm clearly not typing out everything I think of... I'm thinking real slow today.
-This guy is trying to do political rap with Black Skin and it sucks horribly.
-For some reason, New York Subway makes me think of Chance The Rapper if he had any semblance of talent sucked out his ass, and all the acid he was dropping turned out to be 25i.
-This dynamic overcompression is ASS.
-Like A Groupie is actually hilarious.
-I bet you that doing drugs to this album would end in disaster.
-And Robberversiary has me convinced that this is the funniest album ever.
-I am thoroughly convinced that Lil B has plenty of talent, because it does take talent to crap out thousands of horrible songs, but he wastes on crapping out thousands of horrible songs.
-I remember talking to a guy who went to high school with Lil B, when people still called him Brandon. Apparently he had braces for 5 years. Poor guy.
-My stomach hurts
-I honestly can tell if I'm tired of this guys shtick at this point (Bitch I'm Bill Clinton, track 22) or just plain tired, because I'm kinda annoyed by this album and want to take a nap, but it's also effing hilarious.
-I just wanna watch some Seinfeld at this point. So close to the end.
-Listening to music while using an electric toothbrush isn't usually enjoyable, but in this case it's keeping me awake
-Goddamnit my retainer has been split for two weeks I need to get that shit fixed
-How many people actually listen to this unironically? I had to say that out loud during the intro to Woo Woo Swag. Could not think of a better time to ask that shit.
-My face itches
-Last track! Holy crap, I made it. This thing is freaking movie length and it's all garbage.
-I wish I skipped a song. This ain't no classic... Or actually, well...
-MF DOOM is the GOAT. You're the most based of all time at best.

When the album finally concluded I ripped off my headphones and let out a soft "Agghhhh!". This album was hilarious at times, grating at others. I would complain that it was too long but that's kinda part of the joke. I can't write anything else.

Best Track: Robberversiary
Rating: 0/10 (I almost went with 10/10)

rayword45 01-18-2015 01:24 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 87: Time Heals All by ASC (Album Choice: WSCB)

Well, after yesterday's life-changing experience, anything goes today. Seriously, there is no way anything could be worse (or better) than Red Flame so I go into anything with fully open ears.

Looked this one up, it's ambient/drone music. It's late as hell, let's hope I don't fall asleep.

This album reminds me of Pop by Gas, which I pretentiously reviewed a few months ago and fell in love with immediately, probably because of the constant tape hiss noise. This album reminds me of Pop with less emphasis on percussion tracks, more of an emphasis on samples, and generally being not as good while being twice as long. And it's not like Pop was a concise album or anything, this album fills up 2 CDs... Seriously, 2 CDs? Was that at all necessary here? The first CD is warm and nostalgic, with some great cuts like If Only For A Minute and Snow In Summer and not too much filler for an hour. Honestly, if this first CD was the whole album, I'd be singing its praises right now. Then we reach CD2. CD2 is MUCH darker than CD1, sounding more like Thomas Koner than Wolfgang Voigt. It's also not nearly as good, with no really memorable melodies to be found anywhere. Frankly, this could be a mood thing, but if that's the case then the two halves don't make a cohesive whole at all.

Actually, I dunno, this one may end up being a grower. I'll return to it eventually. In the mean time, take that as my excuse for not writing a conclusion.

Best Track: If Only For A Minute
Rating: CD1 gets 7.5/10 and CD2 gets 4/10. Average that if you desire

rayword45 01-19-2015 12:21 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 88: Summer Days (And Summer Nights!) by The Beach Boys (Album Choice: Sayaka)

Ah, The Beach Boys. Ask me, and I'll tell you that they were superior to The Beatles and were probably the most important pop group ever. I don't care what the fuck Steve Albini has to say about it, Pet Sounds is singlehandedly THE MOST important album of the 60s. The SMiLE Sessions is downright amazing, among my top 20 albums ever. And then... There's the rest of the discography. I guess the reason The Beatles are more respected is because they had more than one completed great album arguably (I for one don't care about Sgt Pepper, but will fully respect Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road). The Beach Boys had some pretty good albums in Friends and Surf's Up, and maybe Sunflower, but nothing compares to Pet Sounds or SMiLE. Why am I bothering to type this out this is commonass knowledge. Anyways, this album is supposed to be less in the vein of the mid 60s achingly gorgeous psychedelic pop and more like the early 60s Chuck Berry wannabe surfing-in-a-car-in-Hawaii-with-girls-during-the-summertime genericrap albums. However, it's supposed to be the best of the Chuck Berry wannabe surfing-in-a-car-in-Hawaii-with-girls-during-the-summertime genericrap albums. So let's go in this with optimism why not?

HOLY CRAP THIS IS A DIABETIC ALBUM. For someone who can totally enjoy the twee pop of K Records with a wide smile, this album, or at least the first side of it, is way too sugary. Interestingly enough, through all the hyperglycemia, there's a slight creepy vibe to it all. Amusement Parks U.S.A in particular has me wondering just how loony Brian Wilson was at this point. Unfortunately, it's also awful. And all the surrounding songs are throwaway until we reach Girl Don't Tell Me, which is a terrific little strummy pop song made not throwaway by Carl Wilson's fantastic vocal performance.

Not quite as terrific but still quite so is the classic single from this album, which gets its own paragraph and paragraph break because I need to make this review seem longer. I am obviously talking about Help Me, Rhonda. Just kidding, but for the record, this version is inferior to the Today! version, and honestly I think its garbage.

Now, real paragraph. California Girls is the classic. The intro is probably one of the greatest things Brian Wilson had done up to this point, and the song is amazingly catchy if a little too sweet without substance. It's a great song, but it's not THAT great. The idea that some people define The Beach Boys by this song is almost as gross as the idea that some people define them by Surfin USA. Eff you Mike Love.

Everything after California Girls make the second side of this album much stronger than the first. I feel like it was Beach Boys tradition to put all the garbage on the first half and put all the good stuff on the second half. Surf's Up and Today! certainly speak to this idea, and I'd argue the same applies to Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile. Both Let Him Run Wild and You're So Good To Me are fantastic pop songs that aren't too sucrose-heavy, And Your Dreams Come True is a showcase of the band's barbershop-esque harmony skills, and Summer Means New Love, holy crap that is a fantastic one. Brian didn't get enough respect for his instrumental songs. He got a lot, but a lot isn't enough. The only song on the second side I don't care much for is I'm Bugged At My Ol' Man which is goofy and not that catchy, and pretty creepy foreshadowing of Brian Wilson's future.

Anyways, this album was decent. The first half was painfully weak but the second half made up for it. This gets an average rating.

Best Track: Let Him Run Wild
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 01-20-2015 12:24 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 89: Holland by The Beach Boys (Album Choice: Sayaka)

Well hey, why not do two Beach Boys in a row? It makes a nice pairing for the most obvious reasons imaginable. Also, it means I don't have to write any introductions. Expect this review to be more concise and less detailed because per usual I have last minute work to do. Should I say "more concise and less detailed" or does the former imply the latter?

The first two songs are effing astounding. Sail On, Sailor in particular is one of the best things I've heard from Brian Wilson post-SMiLE, just below Til I Die. Then we have the California Saga... What were they thinking? Crappy country-pop, followed by shallow spoken word, followed by more country-pop with a horrid bluegrass tinge. This is one of the worst things I've heard from The Beach Boys thus far, which goes to show I've avoided their 80s and 90s albums quite well.

Literally everything on this album is great besides that California trilogy. This is one of the most consistently high Beach Boys albums out there. Too bad that makes approximately 28% of the album garbage.

I'm feeling relatively generous today.

Best Track: Sail On, Sailor
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 01-25-2015 03:26 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 90: Sorry 4 The Wait 2 by Lil Wayne (Album Choice: David H.)

I made an agreement with my friend that I'd listen to this piece of shit album if he would agree to listen to Doris minus 3 songs (because I find those songs to be trash). I know I'm clearly on the losing end of the deal, but it's worth it to spread the underrated genius of Earl Sweatshirt. If you think Earl raps too monotone screw you, nobody ever complains about MF DOOM rapping with little inflection. Let's get this bullshit over with shall we?

I was told that the best song on the album was the remix of Hot *****. I enjoy the shmoney dance as much as any other but if that's the best song I'm not looking forward to this mixtape. We aren't there yet though. First up is a cover (or is it?) of Coco. You know the song. Well, here, it's made even stupider without the same trap house dance appeal. Things just get dumber from here. The beats are third rate Chicago horse feces (which makes sense, seeing how these beats are all ripped from currently popular songs), the delivery is marred with that famous Lil Wayne touch of too much damn autotune, and the lyrics, oh ho ho them lyrics. The vocals would be grating enough to ruin good lyrics (and I'm not one to complain about voice), but "I got my main bitch feeling immortal"? "Give her pussy a hickey"? What is this garbage? Trap music gets away with its stupidity on the basis of being catchy (which is why often times it fails to RHYME) but this crap isn't even catchy. Even worse, when he tries to get political, "Black president ain't do nothing, we need a real ***** up in that office, got the White House jumping like Jordan". Why? Why? Why?

The aforementioned remix of Hot ***** is a lowlight because it strips the original song of all its danceability, and his voice just isn't fit for the beat. On the other hand, the remix hold up a second why am I calling these remixes? They aren't remixes. They're just stolen beats with a new rap. It's like all those YouTube commenters with their horrible lyrics, made dumber and actually put to microphone. But anyways, on the other hand, the "remix" of You Guessed It is what I'm gonna end up choosing as best track, because he took a really stupid song and made it stupider, which is hilarious. Plus, he said "I smell like pussy" which is so awful as to be hilarious.

Actually, new nadir song. Alphabet uses the beat from Tuesday and that song gives me post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm not gonna share the reason why, it's too personal so consider it a noodle incident.

This mixtape ends rather anti-climatically with Dreams and Nightmares, probably because these songs all follow the same formula, and they're for the most part all on par with each other. Par being crap +2. Okay now I've listened to this garbage and gave it a fair enough shot. I totally regret it. David, if you don't hold up your end of the deal I will beat you down.

Best Track: You Guessed It
Rating: 1/10

rayword45 01-25-2015 09:53 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 91: Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 by Aphex Twin

After a particularly bad album, it's nice to go into something you expect to like. Aphex Twin released this EP two days ago, and it's supposed to be much more experimental than Syro. Let's give it a try.

There are 13 tracks on this EP, but only 5 of them go beyond two minutes, and an equal 5 being fragments under a minute. The short tracks are completely superfluous, ranging from jungle beats that are too short to be interesting (0035 1-Audio, diskhat2) to banging on a piano (disk aud1_12) to NOTHING BUT BANGING ON A SNARE FOR 20 SECONDS (if you get this EP you'll know which track it is). The longer tracks are mostly interesting in terms of experimentation but far too empty to really maintain interest, bar the first track, diskhat ALL prepared1mixed 13. I don't really have much else to say about this album.

That first track is really good. The rest is mostly self-indulgent noodling. And the song titles suck. I say give it a shot anyways. This does not kill the pain of Lil Wayne.

Best Track: diskhat ALL prepared1mixed 13
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 01-25-2015 10:56 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 92: Exit! by Fire! Orchestra (Album Choice: Lord Of Sushi)

No real attempts at an first paragraph. Actually screw it, no attempts at all. Let's just hop right into this one.

There's two songs on this album. They both fall under the genre of free jazz, though they're considerably more melodic than most free jazz songs, with some soulful vocals to top it off. The first song has two sections. First there's a whole lot of glorious cacophony over a repeating three note bassline and some singing about glue shoes. Then it moves into a slower, groovier section topped off by funky guitar, more noisy improv and more singing about who knows what, plus a spoons and glass solo. This is a really cool first track. That sentence alone sucks.

The second track starts with an unnerving 3 and a half minutes of nothingness, some piano plinking and creepy vocals, before beginning to crescendo into some minor-key cacophony mess. Then it gets quiet again and moves into another empty section, except replace the piano with brass, and make it not at all creepy, and instead rather grating. And that section lasts for 14 minutes. Why?

Seriously why? Why end your thus far great album on such a crappy note? hose last 14 minutes could've been something good and not obnoxious. Whatever. These reviews as of recent I feel have been pretty shitty but I don't care. This album, coming from a guy not into jazz much, has a great first track, and half of a great second track. That's like 30 minutes of great content. Then 14 minutes of annoyingness. Theoretically the ratio means this album should get a middling score but nah.

Best Track: Exit! Part One
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 01-27-2015 11:39 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 93: Watching Movies With The Sound Off by Mac Miller (Album Choice: Nemesis)

I dunno, I've never been one to enjoy Caucasian rap. I respect Eminem but his discography is far too hit-or-miss for me to really enjoy, like I'd be damned if even one of his unnecessarily 70 minute albums didn't have 40 minutes of filler. I can dig the Beastie Boys at times, other times they're just annoying. Who else is big in white rap? Macklemore? TRASH. Iggy Azalea? Confirmed TRASH. Vanilla Ice? Limp Bizkit? I think I've made my point clear. Call it discrimination, but I don't really care. I mean, I'm a fan of Beck if that counts as white rap. But either way, I'm definitely gonna go into this with a fresh mind, because I can't remember one damn song from this guy. The closest thing to a song from this guy I remember is his guest verse on Earl Sweatshirt's Guild. That was one of the 2 worst songs on the album. I'll remember a single when I inevitably hear it, because I'm pretty sure at least one of the singles from this album got big.

I haven't heard any singles, but I'm only halfway through. What I can tell you about this album thus far is that it's actually pretty good. I think. The best part of this album by far are the beats, which sound stoned and hazy in the best way possible, often with an array of subtle samples and instruments. There's a wide amount of variety thus far, yet there's a clear theme, and everything is aurally pleasing enough for this album to breeze by relatively quick (which, when you're dealing with 70 minutes, is a VERY good thing). But this isn't an instrumental album. And therein lies literally all of the problem. Mac has a decent voice. Mac has flow. What Mac doesn't have is lyrical talent. Seriously, this may be one of the dumbest releases I've heard lyrically ever that wasn't satirical, this guy's writing skills are barely above a Lil B release, and this guy isn't pooping out a new 2-hour mixtape every 12 days.

When this guy tries to get metaphorical or introspective or whatever, the result is downright laughable. "There's a bird in the sky, look at him fly, why? (repeat why? ad nauseam)" What the hell is that supposed to mean? Am I supposed to go "DAAAAAAMN" or something? That's awful! And that's the least of it. How about "People selling drugs cause they can't find no job, wonder if Christ made a million off selling the cross"? Or try "God loves me, what if he does, what does it mean?". I get more intelligent meaning from Arab On Radar lyrics sheets. Sadly, the hackneyed attempts at being poetic are probably the least cringeworthy aspect of this guy's writing. His braggadocios range from "Spit the shit that leave a diaper brown, poo" " to "Your girl pussy smell like Sour Cream & Onion".

I think the best example of this problem would be REMember. It has a wonderfully melodic hook, a great chilled out beat with a mediocre guitar solo placed so well as to make it sound amazing, and smooth lazy delivery of what could be some of the most dreadful lyrics ever. I said "wow" when that guitar came in, and I said "What the hell why" when I heard "You had a girl, I kinda wish you knocked her up, so I could meet your son and talk you up".

I'm really torn on this album. I'm probably just gonna go with my benchmark rating, but seriously, lyricism is very important to hip-hop, and here it's absolutely dreadful. I don't think I've given enough credits to the beats, they're seriously wonderful most of the time. A few songs here and there lack, but this album definitely feels shorter than 70 minutes and it's all thanks to the beats. The dreamlike, psychedelic atmosphere with all those little touches (guitars, field recordings, bongos, cowbell, synths of all varieties, well actually not as much variety as I thought but whatever) really make this album enjoyable. Instrumental wise.

But those rhymes are ASS. Ugh I'm conflicted. Not on rating, I've already decided on a solid benchmark. I'm more conflicted on whether this one is worth keeping or not. An instrumental version would be most pleasing.

Best Track: I Am Who I Am (Killin' Time)
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 01-28-2015 02:34 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 94: Hello Everyone, Nice To Meet You, We Are Midori. by Midori (Album Choice: Lord of Sushi)

Pretty awesome album title, pretty unappealing album cover (how do you make boobs unappealing?). Another Japanese band, this one is described as jazz punk. Doing a short review. Expectations are weirdness.

Well, yeah, this is definitely weird. This one starts off annoyingly cutesy before moving into some really abrasive, experimental punk. I don't like either side. Then they attempt to mix both sides (Track 5 is an example of this) and it's both jarring and not enjoyable. By far, the most enjoyable tracks are when the jazz goes into full-play (track 7, all these titles are in Japanese so I'm not typing them out), but even then, the vocals are slightly cringeworthy. As a matter of fact, the last 4 tracks on this album blow away the trash first 6. Track 8 is fun sludge-pop which grates only a little bit, track 9 is schizophrenic hardcore punk mixed with piano rock, and track 10 is a gloriously noisy near-instrumental which is incredibly self-indulgent yet still enjoyable.

Overall, although it did redeem itself a bit at the end, not a fan of this album. I give props to the band for being extremely experimental, but with being experimental, you should also be enjoyable.

Best Track: Track 9
Rating: 4/10

EzExZeRo7497 01-28-2015 07:56 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Midori is insanely gimmicky and considering your dislike for j-pop a la Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, I'm really not surprised that you didn't like the album. Given, I do think you're being a little too level-headed with the album - it's really one of those albums where you shut your brain off and just listen to the intensity and goofiness of the tracks.

I don't necessarily agree with your review (I'd give it a 7.5 personally), but I can definitely see where you're coming from with the vocals being jarring, it's an acquired taste.

rayword45 02-2-2015 12:51 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 95: Fire of Unknown Origin by Blue Oyster Cult (Album Choice: Alie R)

These guys need no introduction. This time I'm not being lazy, they really don't. Random facts, I don't think I've ever heard a song by these guys. Maybe I've heard Don't Fear The Reaper in a restaurant or something but that obviously doesn't count. Never seeked these guys out because I'm not fond of their look I suppose.

The first 3 songs were good. Then it just felt cheesy. Not a fan.

Best Track: Fire Of Unknown Origin
Rating: 4/10

rayword45 02-3-2015 03:03 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 96: Origin of Symmetry by Muse (Album Choice: korny)

This band is from England. They do alternative rock that isn't usually called britpop. I like some britpop like Pulp but loathe the vast majority of it. That's not important since this isn't britpop. Anyways, that's literally all I know about these guys.

Why the hell is Club Nintendo so unreliable now? Did they not prepare for an influx of people which would inevitably come with the announcement of closure? What's their max capacity, 14 people? This guy sounds kinda like Thom Yorke. I swear I'm not saying that just because he's British. I may be saying that just because of the falsettos though.

I'm playing Cave Story, about to beat the campaign for what must be the 8th or 9th time, and I still completely suck at hell. What is this? These guys can make some pretty decent riffs I'll say. Not mindblowing, but catchy enough.

Yeah it's pretty obvious what kinda review I'm going for here, but I'm just about done with it because I'm too lazy to add any more filler. So straight up, these guys are good songwriters and riffmakers. But the lyrics can sometimes suck, and the vocals can seem overwrought or bombastic at times.

That was a good album.

Best Track: i dunno lol
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 02-3-2015 11:24 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 97: New World by Mord Fustang (Album Choice: Arkuski)

Okay, this is an EP under a genre called Complextro. What the hell is that? That's the stupidest name for a genre I've ever heard, or second worst next to crunkcore. Or third worst, next to deathcore. Or fourth worst, next to brostep. Actually there are a lot of horrible genre names. Anyways, time to a listening.

Eh, let's just do this one track-by-track:

A New World: Chiptunes + dubstep bass tones + chopped up vocals = I don't really care about this track. Is this what Complextro is? Man, such a stupid genre name.
Lick the Rainbow: Follows the same formula as the last track, but is much more danceable. Thus, it's better.
Milky Way: Not as good as the last track, better than the first. Not as chiptune-y as the others.
Super Meat Freeze: If it wasn't for the dubstep parts, this would remind me a lot of Homework. That's still the best Daft Punk album I don't care what you say about Discovery you're wrong.
The Electric Dream: CRAP MY HOT CHOCOLATE FELL OVER IN THE MICROWAVE

Well, this was okay. I'm not a dubstep fan, but those parts were minimal, the rest of the parts were good old electro house, which is a genre I find for the most part perfectly passable (some of it is really good, but most of it sounds insipid if not pleasant enough). While I clean up this hot chocolate I'll say that this made me want to dance like a dimwit more than a few times, which hopefully was the goal. Also worth noting, that's still a horrible genre name.

I think my ELA teacher is a casualty of the Woodstock epidemic of LSD brain-frying that man is completely bonkers.

Best Track: Lick The Rainbow
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 02-5-2015 01:08 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 98: The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths

Because something told me I need to listen to more gay bands, I've been listening to The Smiths albums in order, taking my sweet ass time. For some reason, I decided not to review the first two albums. I thought they were okay at best. Actually I'm only reviewing this to help me focus on my homework. I'm looking most forward to Strangeways because that one has all my favorite songs. This one has the best reviews so here we go. Let me finish my Hot *****. Yes, I'm listening to Hot ***** outside of a party context, shoot my stupid ass.

This opener is actually fantastic. It sounds a lot fuller and more produced than anything on the last two albums, which is probably why I like it more. This album as a whole sounds a bit better recorded than their previous two albums, especially the debut which I thought was quite tinny and needed a remaster. But since I like lo-fi anyways, let's discuss the actual songs. When these guys get sad, they know exactly what they're doing. The downbeat songs (title track, I Know It's Over, Never Had No One Ever do I really need to give song titles here?) are all fantastic. I wish I could say more about their jauntier songs, but really, they just seem way too smirky. They're still good melodically but the lyrical content is groanworthy. This is especially true of the closer. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others? How the flying eff could anyone think that's a good idea for a song?

Yeah I liked this better than the last two albums thanks to a fuller production, but the comedic side made this pretty damn inconsistent. Also, I find Morrissey's voice to be incredibly grating at times. Still, not at all a bad album.

Best Track: The Queen Is Dead
Rating: 7/10

Kanzas 02-5-2015 01:36 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Still doing this? If so, Band: The Vincent Black Shadow - Album: Fears in the Water


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