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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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