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-   -   Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp (http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/vbz/showthread.php?t=137263)

rayword45 05-23-2014 06:42 PM

Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp
 
SPREADSHEET FER UUUUU https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...nfk/edit#gid=0

Okay I'm gonna do an album a day for a year. Or maybe not every day (the summer is the only free time I have). Let's try to total it to 365, so I can take a break every now and then and go on binges on days with lots of free time.

These reviews are gonna be mostly Christgau length, with maybe some of those corny haiku reviews that are so prominent on RYM.

Recommend away (like everyone else, limit 10 to the main list, some more for a backlist), I'll make a spreadsheet soon enough. I reserve the right to say "Fuck you, I'm not doing that" if I don't want to review something, though I really will try to avoid that (I'm not gonna do something like 05 Fuck Em or Metal Machine Music (for totally different but equally obvious reasons)

This starts WHENEVER I GET ENOUGH REQUESTS.

NOTE: I'm partial to these genres

-Psychedelic Rock
-Stoner Metal
-Doom Metal
-Experimental Rock
-Sludge Metal
-Indie Folk
-Psychedelic Folk
-Power Pop
-Baroque Pop
-Noise Rock

And don't really like most albums in these genres

-Metalcore
-Post-Hardcore (The modern stuff, bands like Jesus Lizard and Big Black kick ass)
-Progressive Rock (There are more than a few exceptions though)
-Christian Rock/Metal (lmfao)
-Crunkcore (double lmfao)
-Pop Rap (Is this even a real term? According to RYM it is. To make it clearer, Kendrick and MF DOOM > Kanye West and Em)
-Bluegrass (triple lmfao why do I have to list this?)
-K/J-Pop (uhhhhh)
-Dubstep
-Trap Rap (well, for listening only that is. I, for one, love to shout "AT THE TOP IT'S JUST US, *****!" with everyone else in the room even if the song sucks)

2018 edit: WOW those genres are outdated... well... not that bad actually. For comparison.

Good
-Psychedelic Rock
-Stoner Metal
-Experimental Rock
-Sludge Metal
-Indie Folk
-Noise Rock
-Ambient Techno
-IDM
-Alternative/Experimental Hip-Hop
-Older house and techno
-Some pop subgenres can hit hard

Poopoo
-Metalcore
-Post-Hardcore (The modern stuff, bands like Jesus Lizard and Big Black kick ass)
-Progressive Rock (There are more than a few exceptions though)
-Christian Rock/Metal (lmfao)
-Crunkcore (double lmfao)
-Bluegrass (triple lmfao why do I have to list this?)
-Country pop (I'm basing this off of TSwift and some terrible radio shit I had to listen to with some white friends, mostly TSwift)
-K/J-Pop (uhhhhh)
-Most meme music
-Smashing Pumpkins

actually not that different lol

Godnick 05-23-2014 08:12 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Sung Tongs- Animal Collective
<youtube>u4jJOk5MpFM</youtube>
wrong coding:

korny 05-23-2014 08:16 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Lovage-music to make love to your old lady by


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Od8FfT1U820

rayword45 05-23-2014 08:55 PM

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

Originally Posted by Godnick (Post 4139418)
Sung Tongs- Animal Collective

Already listened to AC discography.

demonllama6124 05-23-2014 09:17 PM

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

Arkuski 05-24-2014 10:18 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
&&&&& - Arca
SPEEDKORE 4 KIDS - The Quick Brown Fox
Galactic Melt - Com Truise
The 2nd Law - Muse
Red Flame - Lil B 'The BasedGod'
Blank Banshee 0 - Blank Banshee
The Money Store - Death Grips
New World - Mord Fustang
Feed Me's Escape from Electric Mountain - Feed Me
Never Trust the Chinese - Mr. Meeble

Shikari 05-24-2014 06:38 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Gifts From Enola - Loyal Eyes Betrayed The Mind [Post-Rock]
Gifts From Enola - A Healthy Fear [Post-Rock]
The Myrrors - Burning Circles In The Sky [Psychedelic Rock]
Sleepy Sun - Fever [ Psychedelic Rock]
Menomena - Friend & Foe [Experimental Rock]

noname219 05-24-2014 07:30 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
Boris - Akuma no Uta
Clutch - Blast Tyrant
Converge - Jane Doe
Down - NOLA
Héroes del Silencio - Avalancha
Isis - Panopticon
Larry and His Flask - All That We Know
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Progenie Terrestre Pura - U.M.A.

rayword45 05-24-2014 08:11 PM

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

Originally Posted by Arkuski (Post 4139674)
The Money Store - Death Grips

Quote:

Originally Posted by noname219 (Post 4139818)
Isis - Panopticon

Already listened to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkuski
SPEEDKORE 4 KIDS - The Quick Brown Fox

Fuck that shit.

TBH I'm avoiding this one because, yes, rape BUT only because I know that I can't listen to that objectively at all. The only thing I'd think of is "lol rapist lol 0/10 fuck this guy". Which isn't exactly fair since I can listen to Phil Spector-produced things and Burzum but... yeah Fuck you, I'm not doing that it is

Also this isn't starting today lol

noname219 05-24-2014 08:36 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Instead of Isis, The Ocean - Pelagial.

Arkuski 05-24-2014 09:03 PM

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

Originally Posted by rayword45 (Post 4139826)
TBH I'm avoiding this one because, yes, rape BUT only because I know that I can't listen to that objectively at all. The only thing I'd think of is "lol rapist lol 0/10 fuck this guy". Which isn't exactly fair since I can listen to Phil Spector-produced things and Burzum but... yeah Fuck you, I'm not doing that it is

shame. regardless:

Awake - Tycho
NEW DREAMS LTD. - LASERDISC VISIONS

EzExZeRo7497 05-24-2014 09:04 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
65daysofstatic - The Fall of Math
Bark Psychosis - ///Codename: Dustsucker (switch to Hiromi's Sonicbloom - Time Control if you already listened to this)
Benn Jordan - Louisiana Mourning
Deafheaven - Sunbather (switch to Alcest - Ecailles de Lune if you already listened to this)
Dev/Null - Lazer Thrash
Natural Snow Buildings - The Dance of the Moon and the Sun
Teams vs. Star Slinger - Teams vs. Star Slinger
Terminal 11 - Speed Modified
Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet
World's End Girlfriend - Seven Idiots

rayword45 05-25-2014 10:47 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Should I have... Titled this differently? To get more albums.

Shikari 05-25-2014 04:28 PM

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

Originally Posted by EzExZeRo7497 (Post 4139841)
Dev/Null - Lazer Thrash

I love you, Eze.

squeesfan 05-26-2014 07:54 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Hmm, some doomy/sludgy/psychy suggestions from smaller bands from good old england.

http://earthmassband.co.uk/album/earthmass

http://undersmile.bandcamp.com/album/narwhal-2

http://oldmanlizard.bandcamp.com/album/old-man-lizard

http://megalodoom.bandcamp.com/album...emple-of-grief

Also, anything by CONAN, and if you really want your ear to RIP, try anything by Monarch!

XCV 05-26-2014 08:16 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
four and one:

Gridlock - Formless
Hybrid - Wide/r Angle
Olafur Arnalds - ...And They Have Escaped The Weight of Darkness
Veqtor - Zero Data Index v2
VSnares - My Love Is a Bulldozer

Zageron 05-26-2014 06:29 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Networking. If you ever need something to listen to, browse my thread and pick an album from one of the songs I post. (Since you asked in Eze's thread.)

http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...d.php?t=137269

mirelle94 05-28-2014 01:34 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
let's try this~
Haruka Shimotsuki - Tindharia no Tane

Hateandhatred 05-28-2014 07:53 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
How open minded are you?

I'd suggest diversified albums, but you mostly listed rock/pop subgenres in your op.

Also you're retarded, bluegrass is amazing.


rayword45 05-28-2014 08:04 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Open-minded? TBH, I'm not sure.

Willing to try anything? Hell yes.

So basically, my taste is rather small in range, but there are odd ones out and I do like things that don't fall under the list (I like a fair amount of IDM and Ambient albums for example, though I wouldn't consider those genres to be some of my favorites). And I'm willing to try anything.

Seriously, people are making me listen to One Direction, A-Ha and Cannibal Corpse.

L.B.D.D 05-28-2014 09:47 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
damu the fudgemunk - how it should sound vol 1, 2

YoshL 05-28-2014 09:50 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
just by the way, the whole renard thing actually cleared up, the person who was crying rape admitted that she withdrew consent after the fact or something shitty >_> (at least from what i've heard)

anyways,
i'm being self-centered, but
Faux Paz - Rev

have you tried a capella before? i'm on this cd in multiple places

noname219 05-28-2014 09:58 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Remove The Sound - Jeopardy and replace it with Larry and His Flask - All The We Know

rayword45 05-28-2014 10:04 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
btw spreadsheet will be up tomorrow

too tired to finish tonight (this does not bear well for this project)

EzExZeRo7497 05-28-2014 10:14 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Replace Terminal11 - Speed Modified with Boris - Flood, please.

rayword45 05-31-2014 10:17 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Here is spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...nfk/edit#gid=0

Tell me if I made any mistakes

And recommend more shit if you haven't. Maybe I shouldn't limit people to 10 but goddamnit I want unique requests from unique people.

Thus... I'm still 239 albums short.

Tidus810 05-31-2014 10:46 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Think you could go fore some classical? If so....

William Schuman - New England Triptych
Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring

Neither is an "album" but both are around 20 minutes so good enough.

rayword45 06-4-2014 10:32 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Guess what idiot wanted to start today but lost his only pair of working headphones? :D

Yeah... This weekend, I swear

choof 06-4-2014 10:55 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
william basinski - el camino real
boris brejcha - mein wahres ich
curve - doppelganger
stacey kent - the changing lights

choof 06-4-2014 10:57 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I'll also do this

Quote:

Originally Posted by korny (Post 4138804)
(In no particular order)

1. Flying lotus- Los Angeles
2. Shpongle- tales of the inexpressible
3. Shpongle- nothing lasts... But nothing is lost
4. Secede- tryshasla
5. Muse- origins of symmetry
6. Eminem- Marshall mathers LP
7. Anamanaguchi- endless fantasy
8. Boards of Canada- geogaddi
9. Massive attack- mezzanine
10. Lovage- music to make love to your old lady by
11. Evil needle- homework
12. Shiny toy guns- we are pilots
13. Justin timberlake- futuresex/love sounds
14. Linkin park- reanimation
15. Rush- permanent waves
16 Thievery corporation- it takes a thief
17. Boards of Canada- music has the right to children
18. The flashbulb- Kirlian selections
19. FlexE- programmable love songs volume one
20. Benn Jordan- pale blue dot(a tribute to carl Sagan)
21. This will destroy you- young mountain
22. Sigur ros- Ágætis Byrjun
23. God is an astronaut- all is violent all is bright
24. Arts the beatdoctor- transitions
25. Mellow beats, friends, and lovers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Contrapasso (Post 4139173)
1. Steve Roach - Darkest Before Dawn
2. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Bloodstream Sermon
3. 36 - Memories in Widescreen
4. Benn Jordan - Pale Blue Dot
5. Autechre - Oversteps
6. Xanopticon - Liminal Space
7. Thomas Koner - La Barca
8. The Flashbulb - Kirlian Selections
9. Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
10. Symbion Project - Contrapasso
11. Secede - Tryshasla
12. Richard Devine - Cautella
13. Ophidian as Raziel - To Sing of Desecration
14. Ludovico Einaudi - Divenire
15. Jacaszek - Treny
16. Duncan Avoid - Metaphysics
17. Burial - Untrue
18. AtomTM - Liedgut
19. Ryoji Ikeda - Dataplex
20. William Basinski - Disintegration Loops
21. William Basinski - Melancholia
22. Eluvium - Static Nocturne
23. Fires Were Shot - Solace
24. Hammock - Chasing After Shadows... Living With the Ghosts
25. Helios - Eingya

not in order, it would be impossible to do
however I will say that Melancholia, Pale Blue Dot, Oversteps, Kirlian Selections, and Music Has The Right To Children are top 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoJaR (Post 4139205)
1. gruvis malt - with the spirit of a traffic jam
2. john coltrane - a love supreme
3. nas - illmatic
4. a tribe called quest - midnight marauders
5. smokey and miho - the two EPs
6. detektivbyran - E18
7. our lady peace - spiritual machines
8. aesop rock - float
9. kid dynamite - self titled
10. jay-z/dangermouse - grey album
11. beatles - white album
12. les savy fav - inches
13. sage francis - personal journals
14. flashbulb - kirlian selections
15. john coltrane - blue train
16. fela kuti - the best best of fela kuti (it's a compilation but all of his albums aside from this are one or two tracks long so i feel like this is fair)
17. none more black - file under black
18. tower of power - back to oakland
19. third eye blind - self titled
20. nofx - so long and thanks for all the shoes
21. gorillaz - self titled
22. q and not u - no kill no beep beep
23. gil scott heron - pieces of a man
24. gram parsons - GP/grievous angel
25. john coltrane and johnny hartman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trogdor!!!! (Post 4139212)
1. hana sumai - decayed ocean asylum
2. Eluvium - Copia
3. Blitz Lunar - Triptunes
4. Deafheaven - Sunbather
5. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
6. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
7. Mono & World's End Girlfriend - Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain
8. Love Through Cannibalism - Serial Experiments Tangela
9. Protest the Hero - Volition
10. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - A Winged Victory for the Sullen
11. Gas - Pop
12. Protest the Hero - Scurrilous
13. William Basinski - The Garden of Brokenness
14. Radiohead - In Rainbows
15. 夢中夢 [Mutyumu] - イリヤ -Il y a-
16. Protest the Hero - Kezia
17. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
18. Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
19. PROTODOME - Bluescreen
20. Protest the Hero - Fortress
21. Blackmill - Miracle
22. Belong - October Language
23. Emotional Joystick - Bellicose Pacific
24. 36 - Hypersona
25. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjaKIWI (Post 4139216)
1. Alvvays - Alvvays
2. Ultramarine - Young Galaxy
3. Invisible Republic - Young Galaxy
4. Feel It Break - Austra
5. Perpetual Surrender - DIANA
6. The North - Stars
7. The Bones of What You Believe - CHVRCHES
8. Fire - Electric Six
9. Seven (+1) - Entertainment for the Braindead
10. Hybrid Awaken - Lunar
11. The Electric Lady - Janelle Monae
12. Daft Punk - Discovery
13. Mother Mother - O My Heart
14. Muse - Origin of Symmetry
15. MuteMath - MuteMath
16. I dunno can't think of any more

in no particular order, don't feel like ordering them

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shikari (Post 4139707)
nice picks, we could hang out i guess

EDIT: alright here we go

dev/null - Lazer Thrash
Aesop Rock - Skelethon
Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind
Gifts From Enola - Loyal Eyes Betrayed The Mind
Death Grips - Exmilitary
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
The Jet Age of Tomorrow - The Jellyfish Mentality
Amon Tobin - Foley's Room
Amon Tobin - ISAM
Food For Animals - Scavengers
Food For Animals - Belly
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Squarepusher - Hello Everything
Madvillain - Madvillainy
Rustie - Glass Swords
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
Blueprint - 1988
If These Trees Could Talk - Red Forest
If These Trees Could Talk - Above The Earth, Below The Sky
Shlohmo - Bad Vibes
Daft Punk - Discovery
Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030
Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels
Racionais MCs - Chora Agora, Ri Depois
Eskmo - Eskmo

These are the most memorable and enjoyable albums I've came across in 22 years. This list will never be definitive, but so far, this is what I got.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tokzic (Post 4139805)
this is less my Top 25 and more A Bunch of My Top 40

1. Frances the Mute - The Mars Volta
2. O My Heart - Mother Mother
3. Meteora - Linken Park
4. Discovery - Daft Punk
5. Like Clockwork... - Queens of the Stone Age
6. The Destruction of Small Ideas - 65daysofstatic
7. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
8. Opus at the End of Everything - The Flashbulb
9. Pale Blue Dot - Benn Jordan
10. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 - Coheed and Cambria
11. Americana - The Offspring
12. Nothing Lasts... But Nothing is Lost - Shpongle
13. A Lesson in Crime - Tokyo Police Club
14. Mickey Mouse Operation - Little People
15. Toxicity - System of a Down
16. Black Holes and Revelations - Muse
17. Redeemer - Machinae Supremacy
18. Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
19. Liquid Tension Experiment 2 - Liquid Tension Experiment
20. Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin
21. Dust to Dust - Heavenly
22. OK Computer - Radiohead
23. Rust in Peace - Megadeth
24. ( ) - Sigur Ros
25. Take off Your Pants and Jacket - blink-182


rayword45 06-15-2014 09:33 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 1: We Are Pilots by Shiny Toy Guns (Album Choice: Korny)

Well... I'm like 2 or 3 weeks late but that's okay. I'm not gonna bother looking these guys up or writing an introduction or anything. Let me just crack open Spotify and get this over with. Tonight I'm too busy freaking out over tomorrow's Math and Latin finals so this review will not be wordy.

That first track wasn't so bad, I'm not a huge synthpop fan but hey, the alternating gender vocals were good and the song was catchy overall. But this second track, what the fuck? This bass is gross and so are the female rap vocals. I have no idea why, but this song reminds me of eating expired curry in a moist nightclub that smells like a mixture of BO and mescaline. Or maybe a Ke$ha concert. THIS was the lead single?! Why did I look that up I have to study for this math final (screw Latin).

These vocals are not to my taste. AGH DAMN THESE ADS I DON'T HAVE TIME. Tracks 3 to 5 all start out kinda spacey sounding, which definitely appeals to me, but they turn into clubby tracks within a few moments. You know, I didn't like the vocals on Le Disko, but I have to admit that they made the most sense for any song here. Overall, the female lead vocals make way more sense than the male lead vocals. I mean, we have these cold synths paired with a emo(tional) vocalist. It works about half the time (Rainy Monday, You Are The One). The rest of the time it's a really weird contrast. Shaken is a case where it works though, oh hell yes it works. The murky synths, chirping electronics, and pounding drums work PERFECTLY with the overemoting male vocals, and the female vocals in the middle are timed perfectly. Highlight track found. I'm just writing down everything that comes to mind. I'm not gonna check to see if these sentences are coherent or not. I hate Geometry, and I hate Latin. Thank god this is the last Latin test I'll ever take, and... Ah pre-calc. Damnit.

It's not very professional to go off on tangents, but screw you I'm doing this for fun. So yeah. This album. Okay I guess. I swear these will get better, but I have to study.

Best Track: Shaken
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 06-17-2014 09:18 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 2: If You Wait by London Grammar (Album Choice: Trevor P)

One album down and a missed day already. Jesus Christ. Well hey, I promised it wouldn't be that formal. This time I'm actually gonna look up the album.

How's this for an introduction? London Grammar is a three-piece. They have a singer, percussionist/keyboardist and guitarist. Why do so many modern bands disrespect the bass? This album is about the singer's troubled teenage yearah fuck this let's just listen. Regular version no deluxe eff that.

So, to go off on a tangent, today I was panhandling with some other people and I learned Ray J makes babies cry. I didn't bother asking for his autograph because only an asshole would make babies cry deliberately.

But seriously, sing some 12-bar blues and nobody really cares, including babies. Sing I Hit It First in the presence of infants and they will cry.

Especially if the person singing is Ray J.

So according to my 20-second research the vocals got all the praise but after these first two tracks, I'm giving my praise to that liquid guitar tone. I have a headache so I'm paying literally zero attention to lyrics. How good can lyrics about teenage years be, "I fell in love, drank a lot, that loser broke my heart, drank in a less social context". The end. The vocals are pretty strong, I'll say that. Not really to my taste but I can see why they picked up praise. Since when does Spotify have consecutive ads? And since when does not reading books equate to becoming a creepy cat lady. It's not like those things are mutually exclusive. 5 tracks down, maybe I'll start paying more attention.

I didn't pay any more attention. I do notice that this album has too many piano ballads. And there doesn't seem to be much variety in the album outside of those ballads. Everything is pretty formulaic and samey. Fluid guitar lines, keyboard playing the bass parts or a trip hop drum beat, and those low, almost operatic vocals... I can see why this is tumblrcore (I'm just assuming it is based on the recommendation). When they change it up, it really doesn't make much of an impact, at all. Flickers adds in tribal drums and male backup vocals, and it still feels the same. And the album ends with another piano ballad. Wowee.

I guess I didn't pay enough attention to really write a review. But damnit I have a headache. This album didn't increase that headache nor soothe it. It was really samey. By default I'm giving it a middle of the road rating.

Best Track: I said I didn't pay any goddamn attention
Rating: 5/10

Now it's time for some headache curing food and some Boards of Canada and I'm gonna be HG HJHG HAAAALL right! Then the next album.

rayword45 06-19-2014 09:37 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
HEY IF YOU READ THIS AND YOU HAVEN'T RECOMMENDED ANY ALBUMS YET... FUCKING DO SO


Day 3: Programmable Love Songs Volume One by FlexE (Album Choice: korny)

3 albums, 2 requests from the same guy. Wow. Also 5 days and 2 already skipped. Wow.

Finals are over though. Hooray! Now I can catch up if I don't get lazy... I'll probably get lazy.

FlexE is a pseudonym for Benn Jordan, most commonly known as the Flashbulb. He makes IDM and Classical music, both genres I find to be rather pleasant yet rarely listen to. In terms of The Flashbulb, the only full album I've listened to is Kirlian Selections. Pleasant enough, not an amazing standout but it had some good tracks. Okay this intro is a waste of time.

This first track reminds me of Selected Ambient Works 85-92, same lo-fi chill sound. The second track has a bit more energy. I'm really not in the mood to focus. I must say that this sounds much older than 2004. What was the recording period of these songs? It sounds so incredibly retro a good chunk of the time.

Well, too tired to write much, but I like this album. The retro sound has grown on me, with the fast breaks, warm synths, and cheesy samples, and any time guitar is brought in it's fucking awesome. The chiptune tracks are good too. Not something I'll listen to daily, but not bad at all.

Okay I swear these reviews will get better over time. Still decompressing from finals and talking about course changes.

Best Track: Fashion Beagle
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 06-22-2014 09:43 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 4: Whenever, If Ever by The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

Dear anyone who has a band name that unnecessarily long,

FUCK YOU.

Okay let's get to listening. Today I will be reading The Maxx while listening, because I already watched the whole cartoon series and now I have to read to get the rest of the story. The review will hopefully be slightly more indepth this time since my attention span for reading is shorter than your appendage.

You know, fingers are pretty short.

Did I mention I'm biased against emo music? I try my best to avoid biases, but the concept of emo is one I can't seem to get behind. Everything I've heard that isn't moderholy shit this guys voice is almost IceJJFish bad. Bad, bad, bad. It actually sounds like he's using a double-track effect to make it WORSE, and singing out of key on purpose to make it WORSE. Is that an attempt to convey despair? I hope it's not, because it doesn't. It just sounds horrible. Anyways, what I was going to say is that everything I've heard in terms of emo has been a disappointment. Most modern emo stuff sucks, Sunny Day Real Estate was an exercise in monotony after that first track off of Seven, and Rites of Spring felt like a subpar Fugazi album.

The use of horns in Fightboat is cool but it leads up to nothing. Instrument wise this isn't so bad, but god, do all the tracks have this same drunken Rody Walker style of singing? It's more laughable than irritating, thus I can sit through it without ripping off my earbuds in anger like I do any time I hear Billy Corgan, but goddamn, I could take this a bit more seriously if the singer sobered up. God destroy these consecutive ads please. Let me get to sleep faster.

Any time there are group shouts, this album wins in my eyes. Any time we get into some quiet buildup, this album wins in my eyes. Any time the singer starts to strain, this album falters. The transition from You Will Never Go to Space to The Layers of Skin We Drag Around is fantastic in spite of inebriated vocals, and that diminuendo in Ultimate Steve is breathtaking. Then we get to drunken folk-rock man in Gig Life and it's all over, like crashing from coffee.

Onto the last two tracks now, and Low Light Assembly is actually really pretty, with the choral vocals and tremolo-laden guitar. Definitely a highlight, partially due to the fact that the vocals aren't hilarious. As a matter of fact, WHY DON'T THEY UTILIZE THESE OTHER VOCALISTS MORE?! They clearly don't suck, the lead singer clearly sucks. Use logic more, band. The bits of feedback toward the end are something I'm admittedly a sucker for, like a Kangaroo.

Getting Sodas is as post-rocky as the album gets, with the longer runtime of 7 minutes, blatant crescendo use and the only horns I've noticed outside of Fightboat. It's basically a 3 minute song which then goes into a 4 minute crescendo, which leads up to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It ends right when it should explode. Maybe I'm missing something, but goddamn that was disappointing.

Well, this album wasn't that bad. It was best when it was more post-rock than emo, and more listenable when it was instrumental. But not that bad. Perhaps my bias against emo is starting to go away... Perhaps.

But don't try to tell me that Sunny Day Real Estate is anything more than overhyped bullcorn.

Best Track: Low Light Assembly
Rating: 6/10 (Jesus my ratings are so middling it's pathetic)

rayword45 06-25-2014 08:13 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Ever have one of those days that starts great, almost becomes fantastic but then takes a sharp nosedive and at the end, you just wanna say "fuck it" and wallow in self-pity?

Yep, today's that day.

So instead of using random.org like usual, I'm gonna cherry pick two albums today based on titles to hope that they'll improve my emotions because my usual dosage of Pink Moon, Tonight's The Night and Third/Sister Lovers is NOT providing me the usual catharsis I hope for.

Jesus I feel miserable.

Day 5: Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit by Snowing (Album Choice: ChikaraGuy)

Heh, yeah... Pink Moon really isn't working. So turns out this is an emo band... Is that a self-deprecating title then? And this is only an EP. Good, I'm not sure how much I can bear at a time.

So, compared to yesterd- I mean last album, this is much less post-rock in style, very garage band esque, with much more bearable vocals that are still idiosyncratic but don't seem to be deliberately offkey. "This is a song that will most likely bore you" yeah you're right about that.

For the most part, these guys are adequate at what they're doing, but I see nothing special about this. Another emo band. Also, it isn't cathartic at all. This doesn't make me feel better about the fact that High School sucks and now I know what I'm listening to when these reviews are over for the night.

Why is it that most emo is interchangeable? Apparently these guys are way better than every other emo band enough to become a /mu/ sensation but it sounds like every other emo band to me (Emo in terms of this style, it's not nearly as unbearable as the dumbass emo-screamo bands or the super sissy bands that the weird girls in your middle school class always wore shirts for).

Best Track: Not in the mood
Rating: 5/10

Day 6: Evisceration Plague by Cannibal Corpse (Album Choice: Sonicman68)

Let's go for the anger aspect instead.

Gotta be frank, the few songs I've heard from this band (mostly from Tomb of the Mutilated) I did not like, so I go into this cautiously. Unlike emo, I have no death metal bias, I loved what I heard of Decapitated and Death and enjoyed Amon Amarth but these guys seemed a bit... I dunno, sophomoric? Like Dethklok except these guys aren't cartoon characters. But we'll see how it goes.

So yeah, this is immediately different from the songs I've heard already from this band. The vocals are partially understandable, the riffs are more prominent, the drums have a bit more punch (but still play pretty much only blastbeats) and overall there seems to be a bit more energy.

And as different as it is, it still sounds pretty stupid. The more distinguishable riffs mean the guitar solos get to shine a little bit more, but the endlessly chugging riffs and endless blastbeats don't impress, and the post-surgery vocals get grating after a while. Hell, even the guitar solos are kinda boring. They're technically impressive, sure, but what good is a bunch of mindless sweeps if the main riff fails to captivate me?

A little tangent, but tell me, when you feel like you're being shit on for doing the right thing, what should you do? I see all these people smoking weed and having mindless sex, and I'm busy trying to do work to improve the school system as a damn kid, and I feel unsatisfied... Fuck my hormonal bullshit. But really, this is a pretty tough life at times. I have a really good job, try to be a good person, I've done some pretty big things, meeting with senators FFS, but I'm still unhappy. Jesus Christ I sound like a little bitch and I must stop. Save it for group. Boosh."

After listening, I decided to compare this album to death metal I like by listening to a song each from Death and Decapitated. I think the biggest difference between those two bands and this one is that those bands sound intelligent. This isn't so much "stupid" as it is "basic". The whole thing sounds like it's designed for mass appeal (or as much mass appeal as death metal can get), like if "bubblegum death metal" was a term this could very well be it. The differences between bands are so subtle yet so apparent to me. Maybe I'm just a pretentious prick.

Also, this album didn't provide any catharsis either... SHIT.

Best track: Nope, still not feeling it
Rating: 3.5/10

Yeah I think I'm just gonna watch some Venture Bros so I can feel the failure.

Trogdor!!!! 06-27-2014 08:30 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Crane's Dreams - Kazakhstan
Dave Brubeck - Time Out
Oneohtrix Points Never - R Plus Seven
Avey Tare & Panda Bear - Spirit They've Gone Spirit They've Vanished
FreeTEMPO - The World Is Echoed
hana sumai - decayed ocean asylum
Blackmill - Miracle
Love Through Canniablism - Serial Experiments Tangela
Yuko Imada - Ome
aless - i'mmoble

Edit: Didn't notice you already added the stuff from choof's post. Just do that stuff instead. Or add these on. :^)

3lijah 06-27-2014 05:22 PM

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

The Royal Thousand-Glasscloud
Vulgar Display of Power-Pantera
Cannibal Corpse-Evisceration Plague(haha, you dont have to but go for it!)
The Joy of Motion-Animals as Leaders
Deftones-Around the Fur
Deftones-Deftones
Periphery-Periphery II:This Time Its Personal

rayword45 06-27-2014 11:20 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 7: A Day At The Races by Queen (Album Choice: Remi C)

I laughed really hard when I got this choice. Thank you random.org

I'm also not depressed anymore, this'll be fun. I'm somewhat disappointed that this album doesn't contain any of the classics that I've heard. You know, Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, the forever classic Bohemian Rhapsody (that is pomp and bombast done right!). The closest thing to a song I think of as classic is Somebody To Love, but that was Jefferson Airplane. Anyways, let's see how I like this, I mean those songs were all pretty good, when it comes to stadium rock I'd much rather listen to Bohemian Rhapsody than some stupid Bon Jovi or REO Speedwagon bullcrap.

Those opening gongs are effing hilarious. And this first song totally rocks. Like, I would totally jump around like an idiot if I wasn't so lazy. This second song... I'm not convinced these guys are the best balladeers but hey, they are really good with harmonies. Not quite Brian Wilson level but they're pretty good. The song itself is kinda boring though. My wrists hurt. That is my excuse for getting more spare in my writing now.

This is not the Jefferson Airplane classic. It's not a bad song but I still prefer Grace Slick... No wait I hate Grace Slick. I prefer the rest of the Airplane. Or just Surrealistic Pillow since I've heard nothing else by the band.

I laughed a couple of times listening to this record. How much description do you need reviewing Queen? It's fucking Queen. Cheesy, bombastic, and arena-oriented rock. Those all sound like derogatory terms, and they may be, but who cares? Maybe this is a bit over-the-top but it still effing rocks.

Best Track: Tie Your Mother Down
Rating: 8/10

rayword45 06-29-2014 10:33 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 8: God Bless Tiny Tim by Tiny Tim (Album Choice: Chris W)

I am tempted to just give this a 10/10 and call it a night. I'm not gonna write this as I listen. I'm gonna let it all sink into my head then write my thoughts out.

Transition here.

Well I said I'm not gonna write, but let me fix that. I'm not gonna write about the music itself. But the RYM page is fair game. It's very tempting to react to this music, not writing at all would be too damn hard. So... This RYM page. What the hell genre is standards? And Vaudeville? Is that a type of music? Shouldn't that be on RateMyTheater or something? One morning I shot an elephant in my panTHIS IS TOO HARD. The people on RYM seem to genuinely admire this man as a lost genius, not some obscure freak. I can't comment whether I agree or not because, you know, I'm not gonna comment... Shit. Everyone remembers that Spongebob episode right? Where there was a Tiny Tim song? Well, this album may or may not be totally loaded with songs like that! It's an album chockful of music!

Okay I must note one thing. The intro to The Other Side is SCARY AS HELL.

Back to not commenting!

Okay it's over. And... Wow. I don't know how to react to that. Is it novelty music? People are adamant on saying it's not but I'm not 100% sure. I mean, it seems like a lot of the time he was trying to entertain us. And it's described as vaudeville. As for the music, I can see why his voice would be grating but damnit I rarely care about voices. The arrangements were, for the most part, pretty good. You know I don't have much to say... Just, my mind is blown right now.

Screw you, I'm giving this a 10/10 just so you feel compelled to disagree with me.

Best Track: Strawberry Tea
Rating: You know, someone is bound to complain but screw you, 10 out of freaking 10. 10/10. 100 percent.

rayword45 06-30-2014 10:38 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 9: Era Extrana by Neon Indian (Album Choice: David H)

Nope, not doing an indepth review today.

Three tracks in this is pretty good I guess. Electronic noise layered on top of jumpy synthlines with annoyingly effected dreamy vocals. These songs all sound the same. Yes, these songs are completely interchangeable. But the formula works. It's too subtle to ever get in your face and make a standout track, but thankfully too subtle to get grating for what is 45 minutes of the same shit over and over again.

Yeah this album just breezed by. And if this is chillwave, that's a cruddy genre name. This doesn't make me wanna chill this makes me wanna dance. I mean, 45 minutes of electronic repetitive noisy catchy music is supposed to relax me? Nope.

Standout Track: Are you joking?
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 07-3-2014 08:31 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 10: Destroy Rock & Roll by Mylo (Album Choice: Casey D./csd)

I feel like almost everything I've listened to at this point is Electronic stuff. And here's more electronic stuff, this time from Scotland! ...Eh. I think I should pick out an album tomorrow, or two, based on how American they are.

Sunworshipper sounds like a collab with The Books. Or not really, it's just that one sample. As a matter of fact, there's no cello or guitar in this track. That was a horrible comparison. It's just a chillwave track with a sample in it. This isn't a chillwave album. This is just an exercise in electro house. 6 tracks in it's ultimately inoffensive stuff but the only track I can say I've truly liked is Sunworshipper. The rest have been pretty forgettable. Oh boy title track! I'm writing this with one hand! ...This is just disco music with sampled namedrops.

Yeah, again, a perfectly passable album. Nothing much to write about at all. I'm definitely cherry picking tomorrow's choice(s).

Best Track: Sunworshipper
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 07-4-2014 03:32 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 11: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen (Album Choice: Gus V)

Well, I see not much that strikes me as Patriotic through this list. Springsteen is the closest to something "All-American" on that list.

I've never even listened to a single Springsteen song. Rolling Stone jerks off about him so much that I decided the smart thing to do would be stay the hell away. But now I'm listening, because it's the most American album on the spreadsheet. Let's do this, and see what I think of Rolling Stone after this.

...Okay, what the fuck is this? I expected something in the vein of Dylan-esque folk rock, not this funk-jazz mishmash. This sounds more like Phish than anything... Seriously, what?

After that baffling first track, he seems to be getting more into the Americana/folk rock sound I expected haha nope no he threw in accordions and more jazz horns. This album is overproduced to all hell. For an album that's supposed to be about working class America, lyrics about working class America should not be matched with lavish production with assloads of instruments and syrupy backup vocals. It's not particularly grating or anything, it just doesn't feel sincere. I will say that it does keep things eclectic. We have the jamrocky E Street Shuffle, funky Kitty's Back, exercise in country mediocrity Wild Billy's Circus Story, and the best track Incident on 57th Street which is basically a keyboard-driven ballad. And if any of these sound appealing to you, good news! They're all dragged out to about 5 million years! No seriously, there is no reason that the median track length here is 7 minutes. This very well could've been a more stripped down EP. Or short album. I mean, in the early 60s I'm pretty sure the average album was like 25 minutes. Nowadays the average album is around 70 minutes (with a usual 66 minutes of filler bullcrap). Doing the math, the average 1973 album should've been only been around 36 minutes, right? What's that you say? My math is bullshit? Well screw you! I'm right and you're wrong.

You know, I've been pretty hard on this album. And that's not fair, I have two admitted biases.

1. I expected greatness and was disappointed when I was not met with it, because... I dunno.
2. I don't like Rolling Stone and they wank over this guy every time there's a new album.

Ignoring that, this album is BOMBASTIC AS HELL. And unlike Queen it doesn't make me want to kick some ass with its pomp. It's not really a bad album, and I can see that Bruce is a pretty good songwriter... But yeah this is not my cup of cheese. People say his other works are different, maybe I'll check them out sometime in the next decade.

Best Track: Incident on 57th Street
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 07-4-2014 08:17 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 11: Believe by Justin Bieber (Album Choice: Bernard L)

God... Damnit.

I didn't have to choose this, but I wanted a modern American icon. Or at least what was an American icon. And even though he's basically totally irrelevant now, he was inarguably THE biggest name in American music for a while. I was gonna listen to this sooner or later. I was praying this was a short album, 48 minutes? That's 47 minutes too long okay enough bitching let's do this.

Good: Based on this first track, this album doesn't feature his horribly grating prepubescent voice.
Bad: Based on this first track, this album features his (slightly less so) horribly grating pubescent voice.

But I'm one who believes vocals are the least important aspect of music. Like, maybe you can't sing, but it's okay if you are a fantastic lyricist, if you have some strong instrumental chops (Electric Ladyland is my all-time favorite album), or if you can make some great arrangements that match your idiosyncratic voice (What's up /mu/? I'm namedropping Neutral Milk Hotel here). Bieber can't do any of that.

Holy shit, Boyfriend is so creepy it hurts. Is this voice meant to be seductive? I can't really speak much for that aspect, but as a straight male, that horrendously ghostly beat with the near-whisper rapping is just... violating. I feel safer listening to Burzum than this crap. And track 3 is that annoying song that used to be played several hundred times every day. I'm not gonna write down the name. I will say, surprisingly, that Bieber is the less disgusting part of this song. Sure, the effects on the "lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-love me love me" part are hideous, but not nearly as hideous as Big Sean's ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE RAPPING and that obnoxious dubstep background.

You know, Catching Feelings isn't so horrible. I find Bieber's voice annoying as ever, the lyrics are more generic bullshit and the production is cheesy as hell, BUT I am a sucker for fingerpicked melodies. If this was actually solo acoustic, I might actually ENJOY it. I'm not ashamed of saying that.

Okay, maybe I'm a little ashamed.

Holy shit, that little feeling of "this is not horrible" went away pretty quickly. Take You was pretty bad, and with Right Here I'm starting to get a headache. Drake's voice comes in, and I actually begin to feel physically sick. This is powerful music for what is a bunch of electronic diarrhea and obnoxious singing. I'm forcing myself to not take breaks besides Spotify ads, but HOLY CRAP I cannot express this feeling. The 3 songs following that one little ray of fingerpicking light have gotten my eyes watering, my gag reflexes working, vomit creeping up my throat, leg muscles sore, temples throbbing, I WISH I WAS LYING. I WISH I WAS EVEN EXAGGERATING. BUT WOW THIS IS HORRENDOUS. Thankfully, the quiet part of Fall allows for a nice break, and Die In Your Arms doesn't have any adverse bodily effects.

I was safe for a good 2 tracks and 4 seconds. I enjoyed the first 4 seconds of Beauty And A Beat, not recognizing it. Then Nicki Minaj's larynx had to make a sound.

Actual quote of mine: "You know I thiuhhhh *short breathing*"

What I was trying to say is "You know, instrumentally this song isn't horrible" but Bieber's treated vocals make you want a really, REALLY hot shower. Nicki Minaj, on the other hand, makes you want a lobotomy.

One Love caused me to realize two things:

1. Drum machines, when used improperly, are the most heinous instrument ever (Yeah I know this was probably just a loop and not an actual oldschool drum machine but whatever)
2. Bieber actually isn't NEARLY as bad as the features on this album. He's still bad, mind you, but when he's not coupled with some obnoxiously untalented rapper, his voice grates on you a little bit less. And even less when it isn't disgustingly electronicified I don't care if that's not a word.

Now, last two tracks. Be Alright is a second fingerpicking song, and maybe it's the past 41 minutes just killing me, but I can't say I would ever enjoy this in any context, unlike Catching Feelings. It's considerably less overproduced than Catching Feelings, but thirty times more annoying. The final track is also the title track, and... You know what, I'm done describing these individual songs.

Well, let me be honest, Bieber is probably the least of the offenders here. All of his features suck worse than him and clearly have less talent than him. The producers here did a HORRIBLE job with disgustingly treated vocals, obnoxious electronic backgrounds and really nasty production overall. And seeing how he's credited with about 300 other writers for every song here, I'm going to put blame on them too. SOMEONE, GO MAKE THOSE WRITERS QUIT THEIR JOB. Lyrically, this album isn't a joke. The lyrics aren't "laughable", they're real tearjerkers. Tearjerkers because YOU WANT TO STICK A KNIFE UP YOUR TEMPORAL CORTEX JESUS CHRIST THOSE LYRICS ARE BAD.

See, with that Springsteen album, I was too mean in the review. Here, I wasn't too mean at all. I was too fucking nice. Sure, Bieber is the least evil here, but it's still an evil. A BIG EVIL. I would rather suffer from tinnitus for the rest of my life than listen to this album ever again. Take note. If I ever get detained for any crime, the people who are looking me up can read this and know how to torture me. Jesus Christ.

Gross. Sickening. Nauseating. Put any of those words after "The album Believe by Justin Bieber is" and you've got a correct sentence. I have never listened to an album so... Gross. I've listened to albums and songs about vomit, farts, date rape, pedophiles, white supremacy, BDSM, and many other questionable subjects. And surprisingly some of those WEREN'T Frank Zappa songs. Despite all that, I have NEVER felt physically ill from listening to an album. Skillet may have given me a bad headache but never have I felt physically ill from listening to an album. I wasn't able to eat yogurt while listening to this album, and I gagged while brushing my teeth. THIS. IS. BAD. STUFF.

Best Track: FAR AND AWAY, Catching Feelings
Rating: 0.5/10

WSCB 07-5-2014 12:05 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Here are a few favorites of mine (excluding a couple of albums that were already listed (Untrue / Pale Blue Dot / Kirlian Selections / Kezia)).

ASC - Time Heals All
Autechre - Tri Repetae
Calibre - Even If...
Eric Whitacre - The Complete A Cappella Works, 1991-2001
The Flashbulb - These Open Fields
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A# (infinity)
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Nujabes - Metaphorical Music
Seba - Return To Forever
Submotion Orchestra - Finest Hour

EDIT: You can put [Cern - Terminus] in place of anything you don't want to risk listening to / has been listed already. haha

rayword45 07-6-2014 11:22 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 13: Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis (Album Choice: Phillip S)

Meh... I'm pretty neutral to Jazz as a whole. I almost never go out of my way to listen to it, but it's pleasant enough when it comes up. It seems most people either hate Jazz or adore it, but I honestly couldn't care less for the most part. I do like some jazz-influenced rock and electronic music, if that counts. Okay time to listen.

For the record, I've realized at this point that giving an introduction to the artist is usually entirely pointless. If you want info look it up yourself jackass.

But I will go against what I said in that I must point out that this was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. That does two things. I now put this on a pedestal because 12 is pretty damn high. But I also kind of ignore that pedestal, because that list sucks. Sgt Pepper's over Pet Sounds is unforgiveable, and they said Pink Moon and Third/Sister Lovers were the WORST albums by their respective artists. That's just some horrendously wrong opinions right there.

Uh... This is problematic. I have no idea how to criticize jazz music. With rock music, it's super easy. The vocals suck, the guitar sounds like boiled ass, the bass drum sounds like a ham being slapped with a baseball mitt, the production is horrendous, the lyrics were written by Stephanie Meyer, et cetera. What am I supposed to criticize? This first song, and I assume the rest of the album, is based on none of that. It's piano chords, a bunch of ride cymbal taps, an upright bass and horns improvising.

Daaaaaaamn, that ride cymbal is impressive! ...Yeah I'm really, really lost here. This track is just about to end. And I have no idea what I'm supposed to say. The horns sounded pleasant. The bass was pleasant. Everything here is pleasant. And yup this second song is more of the same.

Blue in Green reminds me of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I have absolutely nothing useful to say, so take that useless quip as my criticism. Don't like it? I really don't care.

Well, now that the album is over, I'm at a loss for words. That's not a good thing. It's not a bad thing, either, mind you. I just don't know how to review jazz. That was... nice, I guess. Good improv, which is to be expected with all the big names on this album. It's perfect easy listening music, for a late dinner, or for homework, or for drinking copius amounts of expensive alcohol. It didn't personally stick out to me, but I can't say I'm a huge jazz fan or naysayer. I'm not disappointed at all.

Best Track: uhhhhhhh
Rating: 7/10 (oh crap I'm gonna get shot)

rayword45 07-7-2014 11:45 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 14: Zero Data Index v2 by Veqtor (Album Choice: XCV)

Tonight's album is a breakcore album. I like some breakcore, it's not my favorite genre but there is some good stuff. It's also completely free on Bandcamp so everyone who reads this should listen to it. I'm saying this before I listen to the album because hey, if I don't like it, you might, and if it REALLY REALLY sucks you should share my pain. Time to review.

So there's very little info on this guy on the internet. I dunno if this guy is actively seeking out a large fanbase, but Jesus teach this man about marketing. I found his site, no thanks to Google. His album titles are really dull. Analogik3, Wavetrace and the album I'm listening to now, these are album titles? I'm not talking much about the music but shut up let me vent. This guy might have a better chance of being known if a Google search for his pseudonym plus an album title didn't result in stocks showing up.

Well, back to talking about the music. This is pretty abrasive stuff here, a dark atmosphere runs throughout and some of the breaks/mangled synths actually feel like they're causing ear damage. Fragments starts out sounding like an attempt to cause tinnitus, and has very little in the way of actual "notes" coming out of your headphones, to the point where this feels like borderline harsh noise.

Xilence contains a guest artist, P. Sandström. Based on the internet, he's a transportation company in Finland... Seriously literally no info on this guy. This track is interesting as the longest track because the first 2 minutes are nothing but guitar noodling, which allows you a well-deserved break after 8 tracks of pure abrasive breaks. Then the breaks start building up again, with a little bit of tribal influence. The guitar isn't bad, but it's just some boring freeform jazzy noodling that isn't even smooth-sounding, which is what a rest track should be. Yup, that was a boring-ass 12 minutes. I prefer the abrasive tracks by a lot.

Huh, these tracks seem to get more and more melodic as they go on. The last track is predominantly synth-based, with lots of breaks from the breaks. Hahaha I'm not funny.
And now the albums over. Damn that was intense. The first 8 tracks are really harsh with a spacy atmosphere and very little in the way of melody. The 9th track was garbage free jazz, and the last 3 tracks are a bit more on the melodic side but still pound your face with those breaks. Overall, that was pretty good, if not for everyone, but damn it needs more balance. And that 9th track, one-fifth of the album at 12 minutes, dragged it down A TON.

3 ratings on RYM and a 4.31 average. Boy, I'm gonna drag that average down a considerable amount and this wasn't even a bad album.

Best Track: Stealth (I didn't mention it by name in the review. It's the last song.)
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 07-9-2014 10:46 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 15: Old Man Lizard by Old Man Lizard (Album Choice: squeesfan)

So I took a month-long pledge to not watch porn. It lasts until August 10th. The rules are to not watch porn. Don't ask any more questions I'm not gonna answer them. I will, however, over the next 32 (more or less) reviews, log every day down and how much I struggle.

Day 1 of the pledge: This already sucks. Okay I'm done writing about that for the day, time for music.

Another free Bandcamp download, this one is the debut EP from a stoner/sludge trio. They have way more information than the last guy I reviewed on the internet, but I'm not gonna write anything more in this useless intro.

These vocals are quite rough. Not rough like Eyehategod with their raspy, unintelligible screams or most other sludge bands where the singer sounds stoned and angry. The vocalist has a rugged, throaty quality to his voice, which makes the music seem all the bluesier. Oh and the first two tracks flow into each other. Let's see if the whole album does it, and if it works out well. It worked out well for the first two tracks, since King Clone starts out with a jam that makes it seem like one epic long song.

Unfortunately it doesn't last the whole EP. Kinda wish it did but oh well. Every track on here frequently jumps from heavy, fuzzy chord chugging sections to softer, more melodic and arpeggiated sections and back. It's a formula that isn't the smoothest at times, but usually works and makes for a unique listening experience, something you never find in newer sludge metal.

The EP ends abruptly, which leaves you wanting more, as an EP should. Definitely one of the better releases I've reviewed thus far. The unique vocals and song structures make this a very fresh take on sludge metal, a genre where being derivative doesn't usually equate to being bad. The riffage is awesome, the solos and jams never get overlong or tedious, and everything here sounds like a band who have their own bright new ideas. This release is a keeper.

Best Track: Tie between Cold Winter Blues and King Clone since they basically make up one epic-length track
Rating: 8/10

rayword45 07-10-2014 11:43 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 16: Oversteps by Autechre (Album Choice: Contrapasso)

Day 2 of the pledge: I went through almost the whole day not even giving a second thought to the pledge. Later, I found out that uncensored Black Dynamite episodes had leaked from the Blu-ray. My opinion is not important, nor is yours, especially if you're one of those uptight pansies who thinks everything Williams Street makes is random, idiotic humor. It is, but that's what makes it so enjoyable. But yeah, I decided to watch the second episode, and as kitschy and deliberately outdated the references are in that episode (and that whole show)... Yeah some of it ended up hitting a little too close to home. I didn't relapse so obviously it wasn't that close to home. I am strong, I will make it through this pledge. Now onto the music.

Do I need to give Autechre any introduction? I mean, they're not The Beatles or anything, but they're pretty well known to anybody who would care I think. This is their tenth studio album, or maybe not. Depends on what you consider their EPs because the majority of them are definitely long enough to be considered albums. EP7 is longer than a good deal of their albums! And that one EP that I'm not going to list the title of is long enough to fill up TWO CDS! OR 4 TWELVE-INCHES! OR 2 TWELVE-INCHES FROM PLAIN RECORDINGS! OR HOWEVER MANY CASSETTES/8-TRACKS IT WOULD TAKE TO HOLD 150 MINUTES OF MUSIC!

That reminds me, I should review that new Swans album some time soon. The Needle Drop gave it a 10/10 and I wanna judge if that's deserved or hipster hyping over Michael Gira's foot skin. I've been putting it off because it's two hours long. Soundtracks To The Blind was 140 minutes, and the only Swans release I think I can say I fully enjoyed. I've only listened to three others though. Children Of God is damn overrated.

So anyways, I'm currently at somewhat a loss for words on how to judge this music, so let me start by saying these song titles are ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. known(1)? pt2ph8? os veix3? How do you pronounce this garbage? To compare this to the most famous Autechre track which I believe to be Gantz Graf, most of these songs actually have melodies, instead of just glitch sounds. In fact, very few songs here have glitch sounds, seeming to be driven predominantly by old, outdated synths and old outdated drum machines. see on see, for example, is basically percussion-free, driven by a constantly changing bassline and sparkly, high-octave synth notes. A rather pretty song. Judging by these first 7 tracks, the main atmosphere of the album is icy and slightly retro. Example of icyness, the first track starts with pure silence for 20 seconds that feel like 20 hours, then slowly build up into cold ambience. Cold ambience is found in most of the tracks on this album. Slightly retro, as in it sounds like an attempt to make modern music with old equipment. The drums on Treale, for example, sound like they're taken from a broken Roland, incredibly lo-fi and buzzy to the point of almost being grating. These synthesizers sound like they were custom made by Martenot. These don't sound like they were ever used in popular music, it's like they deliberately got the oldest sounding synths ever.

This is a pretty hard album to describe. "A bunch of outdated freeform synths on top of cold drones and occasionally some lo-fi drum machine beats" doesn't sound too pleasing but it's better than it sounds. Personally though, this is just a bit too abstract for me at least upon first listen. And 70 minutes is way too damn long for this type of music.

Best Track: see on see (Why do they choose to not capitalize most titles? Why)
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 07-12-2014 01:14 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 17: &&&&& by Arca (Album Choice: Arkuski)

Ugh, I give up on pronouncing anything.

So, 5 second research shows this guy is Venezuelan, he's on some no-name New York label, and he was a producer on Yeezus. I hate Kanye but I'm not judging this guy at all for that, I still listen to Daft Punk after all. His styles according to Tiny Mix Tapes (who I don't care for nor particularly abhor) are "dub, hip-hop, ambient, found sound". The fact that Tiny Mix Tapes gave it that high of a rating isn't so much worrisome as, eh... Their taste often times seems to be DELIBERATELY as hipster as possible. When I say that, hopefully you know what I mean because I'm not trying to come off as narrow-minded. I mean they try HARD to come off as hipsters sometimes. But let's what this is.

Oh yeah, right, the pledge.

Day 3 of the pledge: I woke up, and immediately almost relapsed. This is not fun. To compare a different man's struggles, I watched the Super Jizz Me series of videos from YouTube user dcigs, AKA the Angry Black Man. His challenge was considerably different, because mine is no porn, not r/nofap. I don't think r/noporn is a very well-known subreddit. Anyways, he lasted 9 days. Many of his fans took the challenge at the same time as him, and over 250 people failed with him and admit it, and who knows who didn't admit it? That does not bear well for me. This is tough stuff. Music takes it off my mind so let's listen.

Soundcloud comments are hilarious in how incredibly stupid they come off sometimes, and... What the hell is this shit? This seems to be music deliberately made with the ugliest sounds ever. This music (and the guy's website) reminds me of Off The Air, that [adult swim] show which is just a bunch of trippy videos and pictures thrown together. The style of the Soundcloud website makes it RIDICULOUSLY difficult to comment on any individual tracks, but that's okay every track seems to get the same basic idea across. Every track is a short (24 tracks, less than 25 minutes) snippet of bizarre tones, chirpy/glitchy noises, low bass and really strange drum tracks. This whole mixtape is really strange.

I turned off the air conditioner 16 minutes into the mixtape to hear better. But I turned it back on in about 15 seconds because it's too damn hot.

So yeah, this is one hell of a mixtape. I can immediately see why Tiny Mix Tapes loved this shit. I have no comparisons to make to any other music, but honestly that's because I'm not really into this kinda music. I've said that for like 5000 of my reviews. Go watch Off The Air. This mixtape is like an episode of that show converted into audio format expanded to 26 minutes. I really can't describe or criticize this music at all. It's not traditionally catchy or traditionally melodic, and it doesn't make for good background music AT ALL, but it is some truly unique stuff I'll give it that.

Hey, wanna hear something funny? Uh, I don't when the mixtape ended. Because after it ended Soundcloud immediately started playing other Arca tracks and I wasn't paying much attention. So this isn't a very fair review, but screw you I make my own rules.

3 words: Trippy. Weird. Pitchfork.

Best Track: How the fuck am I supposed to know that?
Rating: 5/10

Gradiant 07-12-2014 01:40 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Save Us From The Archon - Thereafter
Carach Angren - Where the Corpses Sink Forever
Plini - Sweet Nothings

rayword45 07-12-2014 11:45 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 18: Pure Heroine by Lorde (Album Choice: Trevor P)

Do I really need to write an introductory paragraph for this one?

Day 4 of the pledge: Day 4? It's only been 4 days? Really? Damnit this is taking forever. And it seems like everywhere I look temptation strikes. Look at Twitter "damn bro she got a fat ass". Look at Facebook "Selena Gomez braless in a see-through". I can't watch TV or take a freaking walk without seeing connections to porn somehow. That class was correct, porn culture really does permeate through America. And these 4 days have been long as hell. I don't consider myself an addict, I haven't had any negative side effects or withdrawals but damnit this is one of the hardest pledges I've ever done.

So, can someone explain to me the concept of "anti-pop". I basically imagine it as the pop version of anti-folk, except I don't really know what that is either. 50% of the time I hear about Lorde her style is described as being anti-pop. The other 50% of the time it's described as "Tumblr bullshit" but I'm gonna try to go into this without any biases whatsoever. Let's try and pretend Tumblr never existed.

To be honest, though, I'm really not looking forward to this album. I looking forward to it most because I think it'll make this pledge a hell of a lot easier.

...Do I really have to review this? This is the first fucking track and I think I have a clear idea of what this album is all about.

Screw it, starting with track 3 I'm just gonna right my thoughts down track by track.

Track 3: Oh yeah, this was the radio hit. I'm not even gonna bother writing anything else here.
Track 4: Huh, this is better than the last 3 tracks it seems, despite the fact that it's basically THE EXACT SAME.
Track 5: Yeah, I think every song here sounds the same.
Track 6: Seriously, this girl follows a formula. Vocals and shitty drum loop, and for louder parts, bass synth. This is synthpop where the synths are unnecessarily sparse.
Track 7: For a title as badass as Glory and Gore, this song is decidedly non-badass and decidedly very samey.
Track 8: You know I don't usually feel like commenting on lyrics, but for this album I have to, because musically, it's pretty much non-existent. That is not an insult, THAT IS A STATEMENT. So yeah, lyrically, this pretty much sucks. Though for teen-written pop, I don't expect much, and besides, her core audience is Tumb- Shit. Her core audience is... her core audience, and these lyrics would definitely appeal to them. For me though, this subject matter is really bland.
Track 9: And here's another problem with the lyrics that this song title requires me to bring up. Besides the bland subject matter, every freaking song seems to mention teeth and bruises. Why? What the hell is the point of that? It doesn't seem to have much deeper meaning, it doesn't seem to symbolize anything, it doesn't seem to evoke any powerful imagery, if anything the best thing about it is it definitely keeps my mind off the pledge.
Track 10: Holy crap is that a guitar?! Wowee! Something different! Not really though, besides the guitar and the crowd noise samples, this is the exact same as tracks 1-9.

My prediction based on the first track was exactly right! This album is literally the same thing throughout, vocals, shitty drum loop, and synths that are WAY too spare. For me, that is a huge problem. See, with that Justin Bieber album, there were clear highs and clear-to-the-point-of-physical-pain-and-nausea lows. This album isn't nearly as bad as that album, but it's the SAME. GODDAMN. THING for nearly 40 minutes. Bland vocals, bland teenage lyrics, bland lo-fi drum loops, bland overly spare synths. This album is like eating a block of tofu. In fact, I am willing to bet anyone $14 that if you buy this album at your local record store you'll get free bean curd. I will seriously make that bet.

Every critic who reviews this album puts in your face that Lorde was 16 when this album was made. Does that excuse the subpar lyrics and boring music? Yes, yes it does. I mean, she seems to have potential for the future lest she quickly fall into obscurity and end up waitressing at The Sizzler in her mid-20s. It excuses it, but it doesn't mean I want to listen to this album. I'm 16 too, and there is very little appeal to this album to me, maybe because I don't use Tumblr. Yeah screw what I said earlier Tumblr exists again.

My overall conclusion? The album was the same throughout, and individual songs ranged from grating to mediocre (this is despite basically being the same song 10 times). If I wanted to listen to something endlessly repetitive I'd listen to Earth or something. Because Dylan Carlson's mentions of teeth don't annoy me.

Best Track: Bitch, don't even try me.
Rating: 4/10

Addendum: The album title's double entendre is incredibly obvious, and it doesn't fit the album because I feel like heroin is less boring and more addictive.

choof 07-12-2014 11:50 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
oh wow what someone else recommended veqtor
I haven't listened to him in months and I was always sure I was the only person who knew of him

I'd personally recommend Limit Cycle EP

rayword45 07-13-2014 06:13 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 19: Mickey Mouse Operation by Little People (Album Choice: Tokzic)

Man, I have a massive headache. Thank the lord then, random.org gave me this album and it's described as downtempo. My eyes are gonna be closed most of this review so it's gonna be rather concise. I'm probably gonna review that Swans album later today and that will almost certainly be more indepth.

Day 5 of the pledge: I'm staying alive. That's all for today.

Holy crap, these Spotify ads are ruining everything. Last Fare seems somewhat out of place here, as the preceding 9 tracks kept a consistent dark, brooding atmosphere while this song is fairly upbeat. Goes back to the dark atmosphere after that.

My headache is gone. That was a decent album. The end.

Hey I said it would be concise.

Best Track: Nope
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 07-14-2014 12:35 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 20: To Be Kind by Swans (Album Choice: Me)

Two hours. It's 11 PM. I shouldn't be doing this.

Anyways, if you don't know who Swans are look them up. My experience with Swans thus far is this. I listened to Children of God first, as people said to do. There were a couple of good songs but overall I found the whole thing to be rather inconsistent and highly underwhelming. So I moved on to the early stuff. I listened to Filth, then I listened to Cop. The only song I can remember from both albums is Weakling. Two more albums down, two more underwhelming experiences. At that point, I decided "eff it" and went to listen to the highest-regarded album, which is usually considered the black sheep album, Soundtracks For The Blind. That, was a good damn album. 140 minutes made it somewhat intimidating to approach, and there were a few e clunkers in there for sure (Yum-Yab Killers is particularly memorable for totally sucking), but I was definitely rewarded when I listened to it, and that's the only Swans album I would give more than a 6/10 out of the 4 I listened to. This is the second-highest regarded Swans album on RYM at the moment, and as I mentioned a while ago, The Needle Drop gave it a 10/10. That makes a total of two albums he gave a 10/10 and the other one was The Money Store. Was it good? Yeah. Was it 10/10 good? Hell to the fucking no, that is some hipster hyping right there. And it seems that after he gave it a 10/10 the internet (/mu/ in particular) just blew up with splooshes for Death Grips. I've been watching too much Archer. Don't get me wrong, I do like Death Grips to an extent, but giving The Money Store a 10/10 was just a wrong opinion. Let's see if this opinion was wrong too!

Day 5 of the pledge: I already reported on this day. Let's go straight to the music now.

I must note that this album isn't very "new" at this time, this being the 2 month anniversary of this album's release. With a track record of 25% for me, it took a lot to muster up the willpower to listen to this album, and "a lot" in this case mean two months of waiting. Within the last two months I had heard the song Oxygen but sources tell me that song wasn't indicative of the album's sound very much. Those sources were right. That song sounded like a mix between The Birthday Party (whom I like), Korn (whom I hate) and drone music (of which I like some, but not really drone so much as "repeating the same measure-long riff for the entire damn song"). The only part that stayed for these first two songs it seems is the drone aspect. And yeah these first two songs do not need to be as long as they are. Well, maybe I'm being judgemental on the first track now that I think about it. It drones for a little bit then crescendos, like any other modern post-rock track. Not the greatest thing ever but pretty good I guess. This second track though, that's a bit more problematic. For 9 and a half minutes that seem like 30, it drones the same 4 second bass riff OVER AND OVER. They toss in flecks of other instruments to tease you, as well as bizarre screams of "I'm not human!" and "I need love!" Then, finally at the 10 minute mark, it begins to actually crescendo. 10 freaking minutes? It would've been just as cathartic if you droned for maybe half that time! Oh well, this third track, on the other hand, drones the same NOTE for a long time, but it does so at a rhythm that makes it totally danceable. In my mind, dance-y music = repetition so it's okay, and this track is great. Instead of annoyingly saving everything for the last two minutes, it starts out minimalist and funky, then adds an instrument every minute or so and increasingly gets demented with each new sound until the end where everything falls apart. THAT is a rewarding track... Oh boy, 34 minute track coming up now. And yeah, besides the vocals in Just a Little Boy (for Chester Burnett) this sounds nothing like The Birthday Party, and thank god, nothing at all sounds like Korn.

Unlike the first 3 tracks, this track starts out loud and punchy. Then it goes quiet with a background drone, another repetitive bass riff, another repetitive guitar riff and mantra like vocals. This music isn't sexy at all, I'll say that. Swans were absolutely NEVER sexy but you know, that's gonna an important factor for me for the next few weeks. It's not trying to be sexy and I'm glad it's not. Hey you know what's funny? The 34 minute song drones for less time than the 12 minute song. What's the deal with that? Wow, no joke, when the vocals get even more chant like 9 minutes in you can practically smell the burning incense. The song's style is similar to the last three but reminds me more of Soundtracks For The Blind although with considerably less Jarboe and considerably more anger. Everything I said there is pretty much a good thing, maybe not more anger but whatever. This song is only a third through and it seems to be reaching towards a climax already. That, kinda worries me. But we'll see. Huh, before listening to this track I assumed Toussaint L'Ouverture was a classical music piece that this song was at least influenced by. Nope, turns out, according to the internet, he's the Haitian Napoleon. Yeah I was really wrong and that was a stupid assumption to make. Oh yeah, anyways, so after the 12 minute mark, where you expect a climax, it gets quiet, there's a bit of metal chord chugging then it drones and you think this is gonna turn into Earth. Rest assured or disappointed. It goes back to the quiet drone, then I assume at the 20 minute mark Gira wanted to give you a taste of his live shows, because it's a bunch of guitar noise mashed with whatever field recordings it seems he could find. It's two minutes of incomprehensible mess. Then it's back to the quiet. Title drop is incredibly underwhelming, the French accent almost makes it cheesy. I'm just summarizing the track for you in a very poor fashion you have to listen to it yourself if you wanna get the real deal, if that's obvious enough. I'm gonna stop describing the song, so I can leave the last 12 minutes a surprise (Spoiler alert: There's more droning). When it ends I will tell you how rewarding the track is overall, which you'd hope is "very much so" since it's more than a fucking half-hour.

Well it's over. Dare I say this? Yes I dare say this. That just sounded like Sonic Youth got a lot darker and did a long jam session. My mind is not blown at all.

Some Things We Do is the last song on the first disc. Goddamnit I'm only half done here? Anyways, it's dissonant string sections, vaguely tribal drums, and poetry that would impress Trent Reznor AKA not very good poetry. As you would expect after a 34 minute post rock track full of crescendos and heavy drones, this is basically a break track and it would be SO MUCH BETTER if Gira left this as an instrumental. Because lyrically this is freaking horrible.

The second side starts out fairly promising. She Loves You kicks off the second side, is the second longest track on the album, and is a bit less than one-second the length of the longest track... I forced that so hard. I wish I could force it harder by saying that the song doesn't waste a second, but that would be a lie. It idles on a bit too long for my taste. Luckily, the intro and the climax both kick total ass so it doesn't feel disappointing. Lyrically though, this is even worse than Some Things We Do. Early Swans is often described as "caveman music" and when you hear it, it's easy to see why. However, those lyrics often seem to satirize overly angry or overly masculine music in a way that seems genuine. Here, you get to listen to Gira scream "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" for about 10 minutes. It's like an inversion of Song Against Sex by Neutral Milk Hotel, because according to this song, love is just a bunch of sex apparently. If this is satirical, this is the least witty satire I have ever listened to. If it's meant to convey emotion, damnit I'm not 12 anymore.

Overall though, the second side seems to be much better than the first (at least upon first listen). Kirsten Supine is yet another lengthy post-rock track, but it has THE best crescendo out of all the songs, starting out like quiet chamber music, and building up in a truly amazing way. The quiet feedback, jangly guitars and squeaky strings all build up in contrast with the pounding drums that harken back to the earlier Swans material. I mentioned that I listened to Oxygen before. It's a little bit corny ("Oxygeeeeeeeeeeeeyeyeyeyeyen"), but it still kicks total ass. Those horns will melt your face off. Nathalie Neal starts out with a nice bit of near-ambience after the pummeling Oxygen, then goes in with one of the best drum tracks on the whole album. The middle seems to drag on a little bit but overall a very captivating track. And finally, FINALLY, we reach the last track. My hands are too carpal tunnel-y at this point to say much. Not really that's a lie. I just don't feel like commenting much. I will say that it doesn't really end on a high note, BUT it was a ton more climactic of an ending than the one to Soundtracks For The Blind.

Yeah screw you Fantano, this is not a 10/10. Or, well, at least in my book. Unlike The Money Store, I can totally understand why someone would give this album a 10/10. But I personally can't do that. Too many flaws to list. Or actually, no not too many, let's do that right now.

1. Too many of the songs overstay their welcome, especially when it comes to the drone-based tracks. Kinda hypocritical considering I gave albums like The Disintegration Loops a 10/10 but whatever.
2. In fact, the album as a whole doesn't need to be two hours. It could do with a fair amount of cutting to say half that length.
3. Regarding Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture, look if I wanted to listen to industrial Phish... Well actually, I can't think of anything there.
4. That is the worst album art I've seen this year. That wouldn't bring the score down but it is worth noting. Both My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky and The Seer had great artwork. What gives?
5. Ordering issues. This album is backloaded as hell, seeing how the only tracks I enjoyed for their full length on the first side were A Little God In My Hands and Screen Shot.
6. As a matter of fact I only enjoyed Screen Shot retrospectively.
7. Lyrics. Okay I never looked to Swans for beautiful, meaningful lyrics (although Angels of Light is a whole 'nother ballgame). But seriously, from what little I've listened to, these are Gira's absolute nadir lyrically, they make Marilyn Manson look like John Darnielle. All the seriously bad lyrics from older albums were Jarboe's fault.
8. You know what, I do have too many flaws to list, I'm done here.

Overall though, I will say that all of the weaker tracks did at least have a few good moments each, and the tracks that were more riff than drone were, for the most part, fantastic, as well as some of the post-rockier tracks. But there's simply too much wasted time for many of these tracks, if hipsters hate Jam Rock why the hell do they treat that fourth track like a masterpiece? Yet another underwhelming experience from Swans for me, and this one hurts more, because with a little (or really A LOT) cutting, this would almost certainly rival Soundtracks For The Blind.

Best Track: Toss-up between Kirsten Supine and A Little God In My Hands
Rating: 6/10 (nope, didn't break the non-SFTB peak)

EzExZeRo7497 07-14-2014 05:17 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I've listened to half of To Be Kind and didn't get the appeal as well - I thought it was mediocre. I'll probably have to listen to the entire thing though... but I really didn't find it impressive by any means. Definitely doesn't deserve a 3.9x rating on RYM, at least. Not too big on Swans though - I thought Soundtracks for the Blind was decent at best.

rayword45 07-15-2014 09:28 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 21: Thickfreakness by The Black Keys (Album Choice: Phillip S)

Even though I didn't write a review yesterday I do have yesterday's pledge log saved.

Day 6 of the pledge: It's not getting any easier. It's not really getting any harder either. The difficulty level remains static. Today I told a few people I've lasted 6 days thus far. They react with shock and a few people straight up don't believe.

And now for today

Day 7 of the pledge: I inhaled far too many lead fumes and far too many smelly people fumes to give a single shit about this pledge today. Easiest day yet.

Okay so to move on to the music, I have a headache but it's mild so I'm not expecting any cures. To expect that out of this band would be stupid, because they're garage/blues rock, which hopefully ISN'T relaxing. The few songs I've heard from this band (AKA the radio hits) I didn't care for much but many people tell me that their earlier stuff is much better, and would appeal to someone like me (since I dig a lot of lo-fi stuff). I also got plenty of comments along the ranges of "They're okay but really not worth your time" which caused me to not so much put it off rather than completely ignore it. Furthering that decision is the fact that they have no bassist. Bands with no bass range from awesome (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Doors) to good (Japandroids) to so horribly hit-and-miss that I just ignore the band altogether (Hella, Beat Happening, and yes, The White Stripes), most bands seem to fall in the last category. Bands with no guitar on the other hand seem to consistently kick ass (Big Business, Lightning Bolt, Morphine, Om) which makes me think that having no bass is a serious detriment. Oh well whatever let's just get this done so I can sleep.

Well, this is certainly far removed from the radio hits of long ago (AKA a couple of years ago). This isn't exactly my idea of usual "lo-fi" but it is certainly raw and unproduced. Unlike the radio hits, there's no professional studio sound, no keyboards, no backing vocals, and very little on the low end (Was there bass on the radio hits? I swear I remember some songs having bass lines. Could just be my stupid memory, or this lead in my brain). No, this very much sounds like two dudes recording their songs in their basement. It also sounds like the guitarist listened to a lot of his dad's old blues rock records. That's a good thing since he can make a catchy riff or two with his guitar. It's also a bad thing, because the vocals are the stupidest "hey I'm a young white guy trying to sound like I'm a blues man from the 40s so I'll use a gruff voice that makes everything I sing unintelligible" vocals I've heard in a long time. It's not so much annoying as it is laughable, but it does certainly detract from the music.

Well, uh, that certainly went by faster than I expected. Is that a good thing? I don't know. Either way, this ranks among the Japandroids-tier of how good a bassless band is. Not bad, though I can't see myself listening to this very often. And those vocals are so dreadfully stupid. Okay I'm done time for bed.

Best Track: You know, I might be rating this too high because I honestly can not list one song. They blend together and are for the most part interchangeable.
Rating: 6/10

KingofSushi 07-16-2014 02:22 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
(Reposting this here due the possibility of you not coming back to T3E (which, surprisingly, is fixed now))

After looking at that spreadsheet, it seems that you forgot to add the albums that I suggested. Since someone else suggested Untrue, you can replace my suggestion of it with this:

Fire! Orchestra - Exit!

(funnily enough, I was literally just about to suggest To Be Kind instead)

rayword45 07-16-2014 11:16 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 22: Sunbather by Deafheaven (Album Choice: EzExZeRo7497)

I've been meaning to listen to this one for a while. Partially because the idea of shoegaze combined with black metal sounds interesting, but mostly because, you guessed it, it's another Pitchfork-hype baby.

Day 8 of the pledge: So yesterday I attempted listening to some binaural beats because someone told me it would induce lucid dreaming. It didn't work (I'm trying again though). I do, however, remember exactly what I dreamt about. Can you guess? Here's a hint, I was on my computer. Yep, that class I took was totally right, pornography is totally burned into our psyches. Or at least mine.

This is the happiest-sounding black metal I have ever heard. I'm basing this solely off of this first track, but the guitar here is decidedly more shoegaze than black metal, and is still less dark-sounding than a lot of shoegaze I've heard. That contrasts quite a bit with the vocals, which are decidedly more black metal than shoegaze. These are some seriously ugly vocals. Thankfully though, they're rather low in the mix so you can focus pretty easily on the guitar beautyworks here. The drums started out as blastbeats but around the halfway mark or something, they've switched to slower rock drumming. I'm pretty sure if you replaced the scratchy screamo vocals with something like cheesy love crooning and lowered the effects on the guitar just a little bit, this could pass off for a really long power ballad.

The second track is a break track which is simply some more pretty guitar lines, this time with less effects and more delicate picking patterns. Instead of talking more about this track (which I'm pretty sure will be an instrumental and is the shortest track on the album), let me look up the band history and share anything interesting.

There was absolutely nothing interesting to share. It's a group of white dudes from San Francisco. I'm not exactly disappointed, I honestly don't know what I was expecting since I definitely wasn't expecting one of those traditional black metal mythos of Norway.
These guys are way too upbeat and polished-sounding to be anything like those (plus, you know, the fact that this was released in 2010 and anyone following that scene in America would hopefully be promptly institutionalized, with all the murder and church burnings and raw meat).

This third track follows the same formula as the first track. It's more interesting to talk about the fourth track and second break track, Please Remember, because it contains the most clearly pronounced words in the intro while still being completely incomprehensible, as well as the harshest noise thus far on the album (which I think might just be a power drill) and an acoustic guitar. Sonically and compositionally this
is their most varied track yet, and it's a break track.

I had an egg cream today. It was good. If I'm going to comment any further on these long main tracks, let's see what I can say that I haven't said. The use of dynamics is... Okay. It rarely provides any shockers. Loud build-up, quiet part, back to the loud. It's nice that they provide some breaks since 10 minutes at a time of pure shrieking vocals and pretty yet harsh guitar tones would be tiring. Not much else to say there. Lyrically... Who gives a crap? The vocals don't allow for anything to be understood. If you've ever read a review of Loveless, there's a 99% chance the reviewer said something like "You can't understand the vocals at all, but that's okay because they're like another dreamy layer on top of the guitars". And if you listened to Loveless you know that's true. Here, the abrasive vocals contrast with the guitars too much to be "another layer" but are far too low in the mix to actually be abrasive. They're just... A slight hindrance. Bear in mind I don't have the most developed taste for black metal, so these vocals could totally be right up your alley. For me though, I honestly would've preferred something more guttural if we're sticking to metal, or some nice dream pop vocals. But they're too quiet for me to really care, I can still enjoy the rest of the music just fine.

With Windows, the third and final break track and sixth track overall, I can definitely see the Godspeed You! Black Emperor connections with these guys, particularly to F#A#∞ with the brooding, dark atmosphere, spoken word samples and low piano notes. Other than that, why do they get compared to these guys at all? To me they don't even sound remotely similar on the main tracks. And... I'm not commenting on the last song. It follows the same formula as the other 3 blackgaze tracks.

Well, the main 4 tracks were a bit samey overall, the vocals were not to my taste and I'm not entirely sure this album needed to be 60 minutes, but that was an album I definitely liked, and one I plan to return to to see if my opinion grows (or lowers) over time. Definitely the most accessible, polished and upbeat sounding black metal release I've ever heard. To me that is a good thing, since it adds some definite differences to a genre I'm not the biggest listener of. So, for this Pitchfork baby, did it live up to the hype? Ehh.... To a certain extent. That's better than most of their children so it's good enough for my ears.

Best Track: Dream House
Rating: 7.5/10

rayword45 07-17-2014 03:11 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 23: Vision Creation Newsun by Boredoms (Album Choice: Lord Of Sushi)

I'm going camping and will have barely any internet access. Thus, the next 4 days have all already been chosen. First 2 were via random.org, then after those 2 were Japanese I decided to keep that theme going for the whole camping trip.

Day 9 of the pledge: Hello? I'm stuck in the wilderness. How the hell am I supposed to even think about watching ANYTHING when I can barely find the connection to post text?

So, yeah I remember listening to Pop Tatari by Boredoms last summer while stuck in an undisclosed noisy location. It was a weird album. This one is much more highly regarded and seems to be much different in sound overall. Thus I'm gonna keep comparisons to a minimum. Also this review shall be rather terse as will the next 3 days for obvious reasons.

So yeah, definitely different, and most certainly not a car album, or at least Circle is not a car song. This sounds like very little else I've heard. The closest comparison would be groups like Fuck Buttons or Black Dice, but this is a lot more organic sounding. This is outdoor celebration music for sure, although it may not have enough mass appeal to be used for that purpose ever. Through all of the chaotic, sun-blistering noise jams there is a sense of cheer and celebration throughout the music, especially with the constant chants of "Vision Creation Newsun!"

Every track here morphs together into one big song thus far, but whereas the first two tracks sounded like explosive celebrations in audio form, the third track, aptly titled (or really symbolized) Heart, is much calmer in form, being one riff repeated and run through many different effects. The change in mood is nice but the track (or section, I should say) drags on for a bit too long. Much better of a "pretty song" (relative term) is Tilde, which still keeps up the energy and tribal beats but includes some wonderful acoustic guitar.

I decided against typing for the remainder of the seamless jam which unfortunately ended after track 7, leaving two more tracks. Omega starts out with some unenjoyable chanting then turns into a reprise of the drone between Circle and Star. Zutto comes after a minute or so of silence and is definitely the quietest track on the album, especially at the end when the drums drop out leaving nothing but that sweet guitar.

Wow. A car was NOT the right atmosphere for this album, but that was mindblowing. Chaotic, noisy and sprinkled with effects and atonal electronics, yet equal parts captivating, celebratory and beautiful. As a guy who is absolutely biased AGAINST Japanese culture (don't question my tastes) and slightly less biased against Jam Rock (there's still a few jam bands I enjoy) this stands out as one of the best albums yet this challenge. It may prove even better once I get in the right atmosphere. I need to experience this in some outdoor festival or gathering or something, preferably surrounded by MDMA (which I would NOT take).

Best Track: Circle but all the first seven tracks basically count
Rating: 9/10

rayword45 07-18-2014 02:49 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 24: BabyMetal by BabyMetal (Album Choice: demonllama6124)

So let me assume you've never heard of this. It got pretty notorious over the internet, for combining genres that aren't meant to mix. I'm talking about J-Pop and death/thrash metal. This combination is known as "kawaii metal". Urgh... Let's get these 55 minutes done already, while I read The Picture of Dorian Gray. I'm deliberately getting the theoretical worst of the 4 albums done today.

Day 10 of pledge: Still camping. Though right now I'm actually in a Barnes and Noble.

What.
The fuck.
Was that?

Best Track: It's pretty disappointing when you get THIS after one of the best albums yet. Plus I only finished two chapters of the book due to distractions.
Rating: 2/10

rayword45 07-20-2014 02:11 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 25: イリヤ -Il y a- by Mutyumu (Album Choice: Trogdor!!!)

This album is a cross between post-rock and symphonic metal. Post-rock is good when it isn't boring. Symphonic metal is usually cheesy. I'm more excited for Boris than this album so I'm doing this first. Also, the album cover features lesbian kissing. Meh.

Day 11 of the pledge: Still camping. Yes I wrote this yesterday.

So... This is certainly an interesting mix. What started off as run-of-the-mill symphonic metal certainly became more interesting with track 3, L'œil est Dieu, with the combination of operatic vocals and raspy growls. Track 4, Toi et Moi is beautifully schizophrenic and is the most post-rock esque track with its gloriously offbeat rhythms (yes, that's the most post-rock it seems to get. Where are the crashing crescendos and smooth textures?) Track 5 (unwriteable Japanese bullshit) is like a less compelling mix of the last two tracks okay enough of the track by track.

So, the first 4 tracks all seem pretty good, then slowly the album seems to deteriorate bar the last two tracks which

A. Turn the Post-Rock aspects up to maximum
B. Close the album very nicely.

So, two problems I mainly have with this album. One, the sound is a but cluttered. I appreciate the new ideas they have but at times the album became a total mess, and the piano oversteps everything half of the time. I should note that despite all that clutter, the orchestration somehow rarely seems TOO cheesy. That's a plus. Two, I honestly can't tell if this album is front loaded as hell or just becomes tiresome after a while. They kinda stretch the ideas they have for a bit too long, which is disappointing as the concept had great potential that was used to its best effect in only a few tracks. Not the worst album at all, but one I actually had higher hopes for. I can't say that for Bieber or anything.

Best Track: Prayer
Rating: 5/10

EzExZeRo7497 07-20-2014 07:08 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I do have to agree that the album is slightly weak in the middle, just a little draggy there. I do feel that the first four tracks and last two more than made up for it. Even then though, thr middle... six? tracks aren't that bad. It's flashy, which is actually a plus for a mixture of genres like this. Never thought ghat the piano overpowered everything though, thought it was a great complement mainly.

Definitely a grower though, I only began to love this album two or three months ago.

rayword45 07-20-2014 09:12 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 26: Akuma no Uta by Boris (Album Choice: noname219)

I don't think these guys need an introduction, as anyone who cares about the type of music they make have inevitably heard of them. I myself, while having yet to hear a single song of theirs, have heard their name being spit all over EVERY FREAKING METAL SITE, or well... At least mentioned. They definitely are spit all over sludge and drone metal circles though (hooray for Melvins worship), and they toured with Nine Inch Nails among other bands. Anyone who doesn't care doesn't care.

Day 12 of the Pledge: Still camping... and HOLY MOTHER EFF I am starting to lose it. Last night, it got so bad I had to download Opera Mini on my phone because Google decided to be an asshole to me and remove the Disable Images from Chrome Android. YUP I am that far gone! Why does it feel worse now than the first few days?

Hmm... is there any punny title at all for Japanese metal? Like Japanoise except metal? Japasludge?* Holy crap that looks horrible never mind.

So, to explain the albums sound. First track is titled Introduction and is a nice little drone metal track, ten fairly calm minutes. The fourth track, album centerpiece and other long track is Naki Kyoku, which is 12 minutes of gorgeous Hendrixian stoner jamming. The other 4 tracks are sludgy, noisy punk songs with the filthiest guitar tone you would desire. The amount of gain and distortion is ridiculous, but ridiculous to very pleasant extents, and the levels of noise reach gorgeously ugly levels, the best example being the climax of Furi.

6 tracks and 40 minutes later, this album hits all the right spots for me, equally expansive and concise, with enough parts drone, sludge, noise and punk to satisfy all my desires. Sometimes the guitar tone gets overwhelming, and the vocalist isn't the greatest there is but why complain about that in sludge metal? Since I have a tendency to enjoy sludge this most certainly gets my recommendation.

This sounds absolutely nothing like Bryter Layter.

Best Track: Furi
Rating: 8/10

demonllama6124 07-21-2014 01:04 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
you really didnt like babymetal? :(

overall, theyre not that bad. i actually enjoy them. Its something different and out of the norm. at least you gave it a try and that brings a smile to my face

now for my next choice, and its more mainstream but older i guess.
Band - Silverchair Album- Freakshow

rayword45 07-23-2014 12:53 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 27: The Beatles by The Beatles (Album Choice: rayword45)

I've been trying to listen to all The Beatles albums in chronological order for some time, but I've gotten this far and this album is just... unenticing. Thus far, I've been pretty disappointed with what I've heard (which, if you're reading you can probably infer, is up to Sgt. Pepper). The early records were total fucking garbage with, like, 2 or 3 good songs each, and while Rubber Soul and beyond are pretty good, I have yet to be truly floored by anything yet. I guess I'm one for team Beach Boys, because while their lows are much, MUCH worse than the lows of The Beatles I've heard so far (I wanna go to Kokomo, to burn it down), both Pet Sounds and The SMiLE Sessions are 10/10 albums in my book while the highest I've given anything to Lennon-McCartney thus far is an 8. The reviews I've seen for this album piss me the hell off because of how blatantly biased they are, what with giving this album a 10/10 like every other Beatles album they review or giving this album various accolades like 10th greatest album ever (damn you Rolling Stone) while noting that HALF THE SONGS ARE NO FREAKING GOOD. Words like "scattershot" and "inconsistent" do not perfect album make, and the argument that "everybody will like one song" is plain stupid, especially considering these guys complain about albums like Electric Ladyland (my all time favorite album) and The Wall (which isn't even in my top 100 but was at least 75% good songs). I hope to be pleasantly surprised, but I'm expecting consistent inconsistency here, and honestly I only want to get this done so I can listen to Abbey Road sooner, the last album I have hope to turn my opinion around.

Day 13 of the pledge: Still alive and porn-free
Day 14 of the pledge: Surprisingly, still alive and porn-free. Two weeks!

Because this is a scattershot album, I'm gonna just jot down my thoughts and call it a day.

-First track, about communist Russia, and it's a catchy little bar rocker.
-You know, I'm only 3 tracks in, but this doesn't seem inconsistent at all thus far. These first 3 tracks are freaking great!
-Yeah... I timed that last comment perfectly. Holy crap Paul, you could write some of the most horrendously sappy crap ever, and this track Ob-La-Di, Od-La-Da right here, that's flat-out evidence that Lennon was right.
-Wild Honey Pie is also very ugly, but it's ugly in a hilarious way, like the ugly kid you actually like, whereas Ob-La-Bull is that shallow chick who accidentally forgot to put on her makeup one morning.
-No... Actually Lennon was just as offensive as McCartney at his worst. If Ob-La-Di is "granny music shit" then The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill is music for your grandfather with post-traumatic stress disorder.
-George Harrison reminds me of band members like Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips or anyone from Mr. Bungle who wasn't Mike Patton. All of them are/were relatively ignored compared to the attention whore frontmen in their bands, and all of them are/were superior songwriters to the attention whore frontmen.
-And side one ends with 5 out of 8 songs being enjoyable. Normally this is an atrocious feat but there are 22 more songs to go so I'll give them this one. Good Job Beatles.
-Man, I really am tired though. And I want something to drink. Let me go quench my thirst.
-Thirst quenched.
-Blackbird is really, really pretty. If the album ended here, I'd end up giving it an 8/10 primarily based upon the strength of ending so damn perfectly plus the last two tracks of side one... But there are 29 more tracks.
-Maybe I should take that thing I said about Mr. Bungle back. I mean, California is undoubtedly my favorite album of theirs and a definite 10/10 and that's got Patton all over it. Then again, the best songs on that album were written mostly by Dunholy SHIT Rocky Raccoon is HORRENDOUS. If these guys (or really McCartney) went into a saloon they'd probably get their bitch asses SHOT. And I'm gonna end every sentence in this note with CAPS. Next NOTE.
-Don't Pass Me By is clear evidence that Ringo was the least talented Beatle.
-I hope this is just a mid-album slump and the album packs some great tracks in the end, because right now, I think that they're trying to see how much worse they can get with each successive song. I don't want to hear two minutes of Paul McCartney being horny and I don't understand why anyone ever would. The dude's 72.
-I want ice cream.
-With chocolate syrup.
-Oh and side two ends with two gorgeous acoustic ballads. Smart decision, because my ears need a break after all of that horribleness.
-Side One was the Psychedelic Pop side, and Side Two was the Country/Folk side. It seems thus far that Side Three is the asskicking side opening with the hilariously raucous protopunk Birthday and following up with Lennon's 12-bar jam Yer Blues
-Nope, I was wrong. Damn.
-I'm getting pretty tired of these fingerpicked ballads. Mother Nature's Son is pretty and all but there is no reason that we need another freaking one of these acoustic ballads. And there is something wrong when I'm getting sick of fingerpicked ballads, because that is one of my weaknesses in pop music. It made me not hate Justin Bieber for 4 minutes, for crying out loud.
-Michael Jackson held the rights to the majority of The Beatles songs. I could make a really obvious joke about this song I'm listening to right here but I'm just gonna laugh to myself. The asskicking is back
-Oh yeah, I was definitely right, side three is the asskicking side. It has a PROTO-METAL song. Even though Charles Manson misinterpreted Helter Skelter as being about hell and proceeded to band a group of racist crazies, there is no doubt that there are very few things as metal as spiral slides.
-Long, Long, Long is a calming space-folk track which is yet another track that would've made an AMAZING closer, especially after the destruction of Helter Skelter. We have one more side to go though. That was a damn good side though.
-There's a fly in my house and it's making my life hell. I must go upstairs again.
-THE FLY FOLLOWED ME UPSTAIRS.
-Revolution 1 is the perfect song to start brushing my teeth, because this is just a crappy demo take of Revolution. I don't care if you are TRYING to make a scattershot album but including a crappy demo take on a new album is just ridiculous. At least the Morning Bell version on Amnesiac sounded vaguely like a different song.
-This. Goddamn. Fly. Followed me from the kitchen, to the bathroom, to the freaking bedroom. Why does life hate me.
-This side is the most scattershot side on a very scattershot album, and it definitely seems like they saved their throwaways for this side, considering it only has 4 new actual songs.
-Honey Pie is another throwaway Paul track that has nothing to do with Wild Honey Pie.
-Savoy Truffle is George's worst song
-Cry Baby Cry is pretty bad, but that end with the returning tape saves it.
-I'm going to pause right before Revolution 9 so I can MURDER THIS FUCKING FLY.
-I'm back. Sorry for taking so long. I need a flyswatter. Alright, time for the last two tracks.
-Those 9 minutes actually breezed by inoffensively. That WASN'T the worst track on the album, but it was definitely the least pop-friendly, and it wasn't really a song so much as a bunch of tape loops thrown together to fill up time. Nothing more. Oh, and to prove that John Lennon loved pretensions. John. Yoko. John. Yoko. John. Yoko.
-And Good Night predates Phil Spector pissing strings all over Let It Be, as it's Ringo singing over very, VERY lush orchestration. Is it corny as hell? That's not a question. But, it makes a decent closer, I guess.

Well, I am pleasantly surprised. I was expecting less consistency than I got. Out of the first 24 tracks, only 5 were truly displeasing to my ears (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Bungalow Bill, Rocky Raccoon, Don't Pass Me By, Paul's Horny Shouting) though there were definitely a lot of mediocre throwaway tracks. Side 3 was actually fantastic, and the best side I've heard from any Beatles album thus far. Side 1 wasn't as consistent but it did have some really great songs. The other 2 sides weren't as pleasing, though side 2 had at least a few good tracks.

So, overall, is this the 10th best album ever released?
Does this deserve 22nd place on the RYM all-time charts?
Does this deserve a 4.25 average on RYM?
Does this deserve a five-star review from every critic ever?

HELL. NO.

But it WAS surprisingly good. The lows were truly atrocious, mind you, and it ended very poorly so I can't give it that high of a rating, but if you were to remove the 2 songs I mentioned from those 5 that were on side one as well as Wild Honey Pie and paired it with side three minus Sexy Sadie, you'd have a DAMN good album. Toss on Blackbird, I Will and Julia and I'd be hard-pressed to not give that a 10/10.

On the other hand, if you gave me those five tracks plus Wild Honey Pie I wouldn't dare to give it more than a 1/10. Pair that with the whole of side 4 and I'd be damned to see anyone give that album more than a 4/10.

There's no real way to conclude this review. I'll end by stating the obvious fact that The Beach Boys were the superior band.

Best Track: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 07-24-2014 12:11 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 28: A Lesson In Crime by Tokyo Police Club (Album Choice: Tokzic)

It's late, thank god random.org gave me an EP.

Day 15 of the pledge: Class was today, and we went over the topic briefly. I learned some deep shit that I won't bother to share. I will state that yes, pornography definitely qualifies as an addiction, but is it truly as detrimental as cocaine? That I wonder... Ah fuck it onto the music.

8 concise tracks of angular indie post-punk with slight dashes of emo and dance-punk. Is this my thing at all? No. Is it really offensively bad? No. Do I need to write anymore? Of course not.

Best Track: Shoulders & Arms
Rating: 5/10

rayword45 07-24-2014 09:57 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 29: Queen II by Queen (Album Choice: Remi C)

Second of three Queen albums on my spreadsheet. I've already established that I totally dig this style of arena rock, so my mind will probably focus on how much better this is than A Day At The Races. In other words, this review is about to suck. Hard.

Day 16 of the pledge: Feelin good bro. I see links all over Twitter and Facebook now and I have almost zero urge. Compare that to either a few days ago or all the way back to the first few days. Passing those links was a STRUGGLE.

Instead of actually reviewing this album, let me tell you a rather amusing story about today, one of the biggest wastes of my lifetime ever. I am told to meet up with person for work at the State House, more specifically to advocate for a bill that we want to get passed. Person is an hour and a half late, which is rather understandable cause parking in Boston is pretty horrible at times. I go inside the State House, and the bill already passed. So within the span of 2 minutes, I leave the State House and go home. There was absolutely no point to that story, just like there was no point to my day today.

I've been too busy slowly spending play coins to actually go in depth on this first side. It's an instrumental and 4 catchy arena rockers with typical overblown, glammy guitar and almost operatic vocals. You have your prog rock song, your ballad, your hard rocker and your pop tune, but they're all undeniably Queen.

Side 2 is a jumble of more experimental songs, but are still undeniably Queen. This side is a lot more interesting.

In conclusion, I wasted 82 minutes of my life today.

Best Track: The March Of The Black Queen
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 07-26-2014 11:30 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 30: The North by Stars (Album Choice: ninjaKIWI)

I'm going into this completely blind. No introduction for you.

Day 17 of the pledge: I didn't write anything
Day 18 of the pledge: Not even passing my mind at this moment

I have to be honest, I've probably listened to less than 5 synthpop albums in the last 30, erm, reviews, but I feel like I've listened to hundreds. Because of this, I'm feeling lazy. Since I'm feeling lazy I'm not in the mood to give this an in-depth review, so instead I'll just listen and when I'm done give this a Christgau-style review.

Canadian pop pushers extol the mythos of Depeche Mode by churning out forgettable tune after forgettable tune. With the exception of folky Through The Mines and the chimy Cure-agony of Lights Changing Color, these guys wield their wiggly synths and wavering guitars and push out uninteresting ditties with a dearth of any magic--a little depth could be their salvation, the boy/girl vocals aren't it.

So, if you can't tell, I wasn't really a fan of this album, and I hate(d) Christgau.

Rating: 4/10
Best Track: Lights Changing Color

rayword45 07-27-2014 10:47 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 31: Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts by M83 (Album Choice: WSCB)

Man, I can't believe summer vacation is halfway over... That's actually an incredibly scary thought. I've done almost nothing this whole summer. I must fix this problem.

Oh yeah band introduction well this music is supposedly electronic shoegazey post-ambient pop I dunno I just made an amalgamation of the genres listed for the hell of it whatever I NEED TO DO SOMETHING.

Day 19 of the pledge: I'm currently having a mid-summer crisis. Watching porn is absolutely NOT something to fix a mid-summer crisis. Neither is listening to a buttload of albums, but screw it, it's far less pathetic in the eyes of society.

Hmm... This intro makes me want to change that genre. I'll wait till the end of the album for that though. This is quite a noisy album, with a futuristic, post-apocalyptic theme overall. Pop this is not, let me take that off the amalgamation later, because there are very few lyrics or traditional song structures to be found. The first musical comparison that came to mind was mum but I believe Fuck Buttons is a much better comparison, since this is more noise than relaxing. Really a mix would work since there are plenty of soft melodic bits. Every song here is built upon a foundation of distorted guitars, looping drum machines, swelling synths and really, REALLY noisy, overpowering electronics. Despite having the same setup these songs aren't really very samey. (Wow! Can you believe that! Pretty much the same rig yet the songs don't all sound identical. It's like no band ever does that!). Largely the focus is more on soundscapes than hooks or riffs, and there's a generaokay body paragraph over.

So, this album has just about everything I like when is comes to lo-fi shoegazy electronic post-ambient music. Distorted guitar work, great synths, moments of shimmering beauty, a vast array of moods while keeping a consistent atmosphere, drones, ambience, glitch noises and most importantly, plenty and plenty of noise. Yet... Fill in the blanks on what I was gonna say. I really don't know why either, my expectations were completely neutral, yet I feel disappointed. There were some fantastic tracks in there but the whole thing just exhausted me.

Inevitably I'll return to this group sometime down the line, let's see what I think then.

Best Track: 0078h or America
Rating: 5/10

WSCB 07-30-2014 08:22 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Thanks for the review! I can see where you're coming from - that one clicks at certain times for me. I've been listing to Boards of Canada and a great deal of their material has clicked with me recently! Would you mind adding Geogaddi to the album review list?

rayword45 07-30-2014 11:37 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
^Already listened to Geogaddi many times. Personal choice for favorite BoC album, would give a strong 9/10.

Day 32: Yellow Submarine by The Beatles

This is The Beatles album with a reputation worse than any of their other albums, including their earlier garbage radio-pop albums. The title track is one of my least favorite songs ever and definitely the worst Beatles song ever personally. Worse than Revolution 9. Worse than Ob-La-Duh or any of the other low points of The White Album. Worse than Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand I HATE THAT SONG EFFING SO MUCH. This isn't really much of a studio album since it's a soundtrack to a movie based off of one of my most hated songs ever, half of it is George Martin and his Orchestra, and of the 6 Beatles songs here a mere 4 were new at the time, but apparently it's considered part of their studio album canon, moreso than Magical Mystery Tour which is just an EP. Whatever. If I'm gonna have to listen to that dreadful song again, I'd like to get it done as soon as possible.

Day 20 of the pledge: Currently not caring.
Day 21 of the pledge: Still not caring
Day 22 of the pledge: Seriously still not caring.

Seriously... This song is horrible. It makes me feel physically ill. Had they omit that first song... Well that wouldn't make much sense even if it was already on Revolver since this is the soundtrack to the movie based on the song. But it would make me happy and my happiness is the only thing that matters on this entire planet. I never cared much for All You Need Is Love either. Now onto the new songs!

Only A Northern Song is pretty damn brilliant, with all the trippy atonal skronk over the hazy pop structures. It's All Too Much is also pretty awesome with a kickass intro... Actually, let me fix that, THIS SONG IS FUCKING AMAZING. This is like, proto-noise pop, or proto-shoegaze, or just current-awesome, who cares about genres? I do a bit too much but you get my drift. It's 6 and a half minutes of pure fuzzy bliss. As for someone who's never seen the movie to which this soundtrack/suspect album is based upon, Pepperland sounds like it's from a Nintendo game, which is good in my book.

And that concludes everything nice I have to say about this album.
All Together Now is moronic singalong bullshit in the vein of Yellow Submarine except not nearly as sickening. Hey Bulldog somehow gets reputation as the only good song on this album but I give literally zero shits about that song and I wonder if these people have a stigma against George because he contributed the only 2 good Beatles songs on this album. The orchestra isn't really offensive, but almost immediately after Pepperland interest starts to fade. By the end of Sea of Monsters things start to feel a bit grating, and then... Oh god why did the album end like THAT?! WHY?!

3 songs that I like, 2 songs which are basically the same song that cause me great emotional and/or physical pain, and 8 songs that range from awful to mediocre. See, normally that would be an immediate "THIS ALBUM SUCKS 2 STARS!!" except those George Harrison songs are REALLY, REALLY good. They almost nullify the nauseating effect caused by the title track.

I said almost. I think I've reached my conclusion.

Best Track: It's All Too Much
Rating: 3.5/10

rayword45 08-1-2014 08:45 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 33: Burning Circles in the Sky by The Myrrors

Another day, another few days going by without reviewing anything, another album from a band I know nothing about. I think I read somewhere they're "progressive desert rock". We'll see how that sounds in a second.

Day 23 of the pledge: Nope, nothing new.
Day 24 of the pledge: I had literally ZERO thoughts about it today. This is a new breakthrough!

There isn't... Much to say about this music it seems. The first three tracks are psychedelic drones, reverbed folk guitars, Indian instruments and murmured vocals. Psychedelic? Yes. My personal type of psychedelic? Eh. It straddles the line between freak folk and drone-type psychedelic rock quite well. The fourth track is twice as long as any track before it, and is pretty much the same formula but with more electric guitars. And the last track is droney buildup followed by psychedelic jamming followed by droney fadeout.

This is the worst review ever.

Best Track: I don't even know, man
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 08-4-2014 01:53 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 34: File Under Black by None More Black (Album Choice: FoJaR)

Right.. Let's hope this review is better than the last one. It probably won't be, I'ma read some book while I listen.

Day 25 of the pledge: I almost accidentally broke the pledge due to a stupid piece of adware. Luckily, upon seeing the url, I covered the screen with my hand, ripped off my earbuds with the other hand, exited and removed the adware... I put too much effort into this
Day 26: You know, I must say that Nigella Lawson is extremely overrated, even considering her age of 53, and ignoring the abundant surgeries... That has nothing to do with porn. Food porn maybe?

It took me 3 hours to even bother listening to this album, but finally, at 2 AM, I'm listening. The first thing that comes to mind is that the vocalist reminds me of GG Allin, with that gravelly nasal sneer. GG's music sucked, but the vocals are the only really comparable point, since these instruments are mostly pretty tight, the production isn't crap, the lyrics don't mention rape or child molestation and I'm PRETTY sure that this vocalist doesn't like to eat his own poop. This is really just compact chunks of old style melodic hardcore. With a little bit of classic punk in there. This is something clearly more influenced by Adolescents than Black Flag or Blink-182, and personally I say thank god for that, though truthfully I deliberately chose my least favorite SST band, and everyone hates Blink-182 anyways.

This is a pretty short album, and what I've gathered is that these guys could take a lesson from the Minutemen. The short tracks on this album are fantastic. The first 3 tracks make for a killer opening, Bizarro Me kicks (or rather swings) ass, Zero Tolerance Drum Policy sees things getting a little bit more hardcore to reasonable success, and overall all the shorter tracks are delivered with an energy to them that seems to be lacking in the longer tracks which often feel a bit bloated. Another album that could use a little trimming off the fat, though in this case it's more trimming a minute or so off some of the songs.

Best Track: Everyday Balloons
Rating: 6/10

rayword45 08-5-2014 01:26 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 35: Kveikur by Sigur Ros (Album Choice: Lord of Sushi)

This is another band on the long list of bands and artists whom I wish to seek out to see what all the hype is about, but never feel like getting around to it. This one piqued my interest for, besides the obvious reasons of /mu/ hype, usage of bowed guitar. That's a technique that still totally baffles me, but bands like Sonic Youth and The Jesus Lizard use prepared guitars with shit like screwdrivers and drumsticks, and those both rank among my favorite bands, so I expect good things out of that. I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but when it comes to post-rock, it's either stunning (Slint, some parts of GY!BE) or really boring (Talk Talk, yes I've said it, piss off).

Day 27 of the pledge: Nothing new

So, apart from a cool industrial opening that sounds like a cross between Nine Inch Nails and Cocteau Twins and a boring instrumental closer, this album sounded exactly how I expected it to sound. Post-Rock with more pop sensibility and ambient bits, sort of like a cross between Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Cocteau Twins and mum. I'm really only naming Cocteau Twins because the vocals are another case of "What the fuck are they saying?", the music isn't all that similar.

Not a bad album, not at all bad. I'll return to these guys later to explore a bit more.

Best Track: Brennistein
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 08-7-2014 12:54 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 36: The Golden Age by Woodkid (Album Choice: Alie R)

Happy belated Godsmack Day everyone! Man, sometimes I hate Boston.

Anyways, I have a flight at 7 AM which means that I will be getting in my car in about 4 hours. I haven't slept yet. I'm killing myself here, so you guys can read my opinion. I'm such a generous person. But yeah expect a brief review as usual, this time for a reason.

Day 28 of the pledge: Get the fuck out of my face
Day 29 of the pledge: I missed class today. It's pretty much been a month but I think I'll avoid an immediate relapse just to challenge myself.

NOTE: The first random.org choice was Get Wet by Krewella. I decided against listening to that for now. I don't need to say why, I really don't have any time.

I've been shown bits and pieces of this artist before. I don't remember much, but if I recall correctly, my reaction was a very powerful "meh". This is neofolk music, which based on descriptions doesn't sound nearly as enjoyable as the majority of other folk subgenres. It's also French. I like a bit of Daft Punk and Serge Gainsbourg like many other people but the last French album I got recommended way back last summer was freaking horrible. My expectations for this are an overwhelmingly powerful "mezza-mezza".

This guy is speaking English. I don't feel like paying attention to the lyrics, and his accent is thick enough, I think I'll just pretend he's speaking French.
And... Uh yeah this is not folk music in the way I think it. This is more "traditional" folk music, but still I don't think that this really qualifies as that. This sounds like orchestral movie trailer music in pop song structures. Horns and strings and giant auditorium-reverbed piano, along with some REALLY grating vocals. I'm one who gets used to vocals really fast, but this one is gonna take a long goddamn while (if the music proves to be engaging enough). He sounds like he had botched larynx surgery.

In terms of the good, the danceable trash-drum rhythm of I Love You is pretty cool in contrast with the chamber music orchestration, as a matter of fact the percussion throughout the whole album has a great lo-fi appeal to it. The Shore actually succeeded in making me feel sad.

In terms of the bad, the rest of the songs don't sound sad, just schmaltzy as all hell with the overblown orchestrations. And these songs, for the most part, all sound near identical. This makes for an experience that seems way longer than the 49 minutes it actually lasts.

All in all, it's better than freaking Godsmack though. Seriously what the hell made you do this Mayor Walsh? What in lord's name made you think this was a good idea?

Best Track: The Shore
Rating: 4.5/10

rayword45 08-9-2014 02:52 AM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 37: Louisiana Morning by Benn Jordan (Album Choice: EzExZeRo7497)

I deliberately skipped like 10 random.org choices cause it's 2 AM and I wanna sleep. I'm really only doing this cause I need to charge as much as possible then switch phones before I go to bed since my family currently has access to one charger and we have a flight tomorrow. If you don't know who Benn Jordan is, look him up. It's actually completely understandable if you don't know him but I'm tired. I personally like some of his works under pseudonym The Flashbulb but honestly listen to it very rarely and have explored very little in his rather dense discography. One 20 minute song of what I am assuming is modern classical (here broken up into 4 tracks) let's do this.

Day 30: It's been what most people consider a month!
Day 31: It's been a mode-length month!

I'm still gonna avoid porn anyways though, just to test.*

And, this wasn't really classical, more easy listening than any genre, containing a lot of jazzy/flamenco guitar work as well as synths, field recordings and orchestration here and there.*III starts out with some of the most boring guitar work ever but switches to a Bluish sort of sound then becomes the best track on the EP for the remaining 6 minutes. The song as a whole? Not bad, very smooth overall and the freewheeling guitar rarely feels tedious (impressive for 20 minutes). I'm gonna give this a pretty good score for now, but I'm tired and this was good for presleep so I'll go back TOMORROW and see what I think.

Best Track: III but really now?
Rating: 7.5/10

rayword45 08-9-2014 11:09 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
I'm the last reviewer on this website it seems, just like last summer. Probably because I make these things way too self indulgent to get truly bored of them


Day 38: Let It Be by The Beatles

I relistened to Louisiana Morning and my rating still stands.

When it comes to listening to The Beatles in order, it's somewhat tough as this album was recorded first but Abbey Road was released first. I ultimately decided that I may as well end on a good note, right? So this one is first, I've heard stuff from this album before and the syrupy sound really bugged me. I should review the naked version too but that's for another day.

I'm not doing daily updates on the porn thing anymore. I'll just post if there's ever a breakthrough or relapse. No such thing as too much information right?

And... I guess what I heard was a bad representation of the album. I clearly remember The Long And Winding Road and it's still as sappy as ever, but that's not the sound of most of the album. This is really just a collection of 12 bar honky-tonk country jam throwaways for the most part, with bits of gospel and waltz in here as well to add zero variety. The production doesn't matter, these songs just aren't very good. Even Harrison's songs, which always seem to be my favorites, are pathetic mindless drivel here. These songs are all inoffensively bad. They're so boring I wonder how dated this sounded in 1970. This makes me think The Replacements deliberately gave their album the same title so they could say "Look how much better and not boring our album is!" There is no way anyone should be looking at this album in retrospect and giving it good ratings. This is like a sad bootleg home demo collection since it's clear how unfinished these songs are. The Long And Winding Road is the only song that isn't brain lidocaine here and that's because it's unintentionally hilarious. Someone told me that this album would make me hope to have Kokomo stuck in my head all day. I wish I had believed them, because it would've been funnier when I realized how wrong they were. That song is an abomination, this album is just numb and uninteresting. And that's enough self-indulgence for one night.

On the bright side, the first five seconds of Come Together and Her Majesty are all I've heard from Abbey Road and that's already a much much more captivating album.

Best Track: Seriously it's actually hilarious how fucking boring this album is
Rating: 3.5/10

rayword45 08-12-2014 11:48 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 39: Nightfall by Candlemass (Album Choice: sonicman68)

Short review before yet another flight in another 4 hours. Candlemass is a legendary doom metal band of whom I've only heard their debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. That title would be absolutely perfect if I didn't despise Latin with a passion.

The vocals are slightly more operatic than EDM but I'm not even sure I'd have noticed that if I didn't read about it. Otherwise, this is a pretty fun album, though the melodies aren't nearly as strong as the debut and the album drags a bit at times (the short tracks especially)

Best Track: Dark Are The Veils Of Death
Rating: 7/10

rayword45 08-17-2014 11:59 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
Day 40: Straight Outta Lynwood by "Weird" Al Yankovic (Album Choice: Peter F)

This is an album where I've heard a very good chunk of the songs on the album but I'm reviewing it anyways. I have a high opinion of Weird Al, owing a good deal to 6th grade nostalgia, but also to the fact that I think his songcraft skills have always been underappreciated. His parodies are probably the worst part of his albums if you ask me. The polka medleys are always pure genius, and his originals and style parodies are usually way funnier than his parodies. 12 year old me wasn't nearly pretentious enough to make these comments or distinctions in the first place, but 16 year old me says for every stroke of genius like Smells Like Nirvana or White and Nerdy, there are around seven parodies like Jurassic Park or TMZ which make me think "Who the fuck is the audience for this? Does anyone actually find this funny?" On the other hand, I could listen to The Alternative Polka all day, songs like Happy Birthday , Craigslist and Bob still blow my mind to this day, and most importantly, his ability to make a compelling long song (if you even consider 10 minutes long) is unmatched. All you progressive musicians could take a lesson from Al, it'd make you less boring for sure!

So yeah I'm looking forward to most of this album. Also, midnight marks 40 days of no porno!

The first track I already described as a work of genius, but the second track, Pancreas, is one I had never heard, so imagine my face when I hear a Al version of Our Prayer followed by what sounds like a parody of Heroes and Villains! If you can't imagine that. I'm a short Asian teenager with unkempt hair, and a huge Beach Boys fan. Is it funny? ...No, not at all. But who cares? THAT WAS EFFING AMAZING HE EVEN GOT THE HOOKAH CHAS IN THERE.

The quality drops a bit from there though. Many people say that Al can only be as good as the artist he parodies, and I don't like Green Day or Rage Against The Machine, so nothing is gonna work for me there. Polkarama is far from his best medley, but also far from his worst, Gorillaz and Velvet Revolver are totally superfluous here.

After the Polka Medley, the only real standout song is Close But No Cigar, as almost all of the other songs after that point have a music video that makes the song MUCH more entertaining, and without the video these songs mostly fall flat, though Do I Creep You Out is still pretty entertaining and Weasel Stomping Day is grotesque and unfunny with or without visuals. The only song without a music video is Confessions Part III and it totally sucks. For what it's worth, Close But No Cigar also has a music video, but it's by John Kricfalusi who is one of my least favorite animators ever. Seriously, I'm gonna try avoiding rant status, but why is he highly regarded at all? Ren and Stimpy he was only able to complete 18 episodes of and those were very VERY hit and miss. After that, literally EVERYTHING he made was just a bunch of gross or offensive jokes. I don't wanna watch a cartoon about pee boners or a cartoon who's jokes are almost entirely based on a "laugh at the retarded boy" logic. I'm already in rant mode so I'll finish by saying HIS CHARACTER DESIGNS LOOK LIKE POOPOO.

Uh yeah, the album. It missed way more than it hit, it has Al's worst long song, the parodies mostly suffer from a lack of good source material and the originals generally are a letdown after seeing the videos. Obviously this album review is written from a different perspective than usual but everything I say still stands. There are only 4 or 5 songs I truly like out of 12. On the other hand, there are only 2 really bad songs, and Pancreas is so fucking good it earns this album a bonus point and a half automatically. It takes SKILL to emulate Brian Wilson so perfectly.

I should listen to Mandatory Fun sometime soon.

Best Track: Look, if you read the review it isn't hard to tell which song is my favorite at all.
Rating: 5.5/10

Nick Skyline 08-19-2014 12:05 PM

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year
 
A little selection of my own...

* Mirrorthrone - Gangrene
* Mastodon - Crack the Skye
* Venetian Snares - My Love is a Bulldozer
* Any two Monstercat releases, and I'd like to remind you that I have no say in which two albums you choose to review.


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