Dec 15 2024
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Phantom Power
The Tragically Hip
Phantom Power is the sixth studio album by the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. The album was released in 1998. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design.
The album's first single, "Poets", reached #1 on RPM's alternative chart, and stayed #1 for 12 weeks straight, longer than any other song in the history of that chart.
"Bobcaygeon" was also released as a single, and won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. It has since become recognized as one of the band's most enduring and beloved signature songs.
Phantom Power debuted at No. 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart with 108,000 units sold. The album has been certified triple platinum in Canada. By February 1999, the album had sold more than 400,000 copies in Canada. Between 1996 and 2016, Phantom Power was the seventh best-selling album by a Canadian band in Canada.
2.75/5
2
Dec 16 2024
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Things We Lost In The Fire
Low
Things We Lost in the Fire garnered a score of 87 out of 100 on review aggregate site Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim".[2] Online music magazine Pitchfork placed Things We Lost in the Fire at number 117 on its list of top 200 albums of the 2000s and number 14 on its list of the 30 best dream pop albums.[13][14] Things We Lost in the Fire was listed on NME's "Darkest Albums Ever: 50 of the Best" at number 36.[15] The album was ranked 93rd on The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list, based on a 2019 poll of music writers.[16]
In 2006, the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series.
3
Dec 17 2024
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The Hazards of Love
The Decemberists
The Hazards of Love is the fifth album by the American indie rock band The Decemberists, released through Capitol Records and Rough Trade in 2009.[5] The album was inspired by an Anne Briggs EP titled The Hazards of Love. According to the band, frontman Colin Meloy had set out to write a song with the album's title, which eventually developed into an entire album. Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond), Shara Nova (of My Brightest Diamond), and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket) provide guest vocals throughout the album,[6] while Robyn Hitchcock makes a cameo guitar appearance on "An Interlude".
The Hazards of Love is a rock opera, with all songs contributing to a unified narrative, similar to the use of recurring stories on the band's previous album, The Crane Wife. The plot is a love story: a woman named Margaret (voiced by Stark) falls in love with a shape-shifting boreal forest dweller named William (voiced by Meloy). William's mother, the jealous Forest Queen (voiced by Nova), and the villainous Rake (also voiced by Meloy) bring conflict to the album's story arc.[6]
2.75/5
2
Dec 18 2024
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Transatlanticism
Death Cab for Cutie
Transatlanticism is the fourth studio album by rock band Death Cab for Cutie, released on October 7, 2003, by Barsuk Records. At this point in their career, the group had toured and recorded for nearly a half-decade. With tensions rising, the band decided to take time away from one another; notably, Ben Gibbard collaborated with electronic musician Dntel (Jimmy Tamborello), and released an album, Give Up, under the name the Postal Service. Death Cab regrouped in late 2002 to create Transatlanticism, which was recorded in a leisurely manner over five-day stretches until June 2003.
The record is a concept album, exploring a theme of long-distance romance. Gibbard penned the lyrics, which are somber and focus on the need to be loved. Musically, the album utilizes ambience and instrumental sparseness as an extension of this theme. The album's title, likewise, references the Atlantic Ocean and uses it as a metaphor for geographic and emotional separation. Chris Walla, the band's guitarist, produced the album as he had for its predecessors. The album's artwork was created by artist Adde Russell.
Prior to the album's release, Give Up had become a huge success, eventually going platinum—unusual territory for indie rock artists. The band were also referenced on the television drama The O.C., which increased their profile. Expectations for Transatlanticism were high, with the band receiving renewed attention. The album was a success: it charted at number 97 on the Billboard 200, and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of 1,000,000 copies in the United States. It received acclaim from music critics, who praised its emotional tone and expansive music. It is also the band's first album with drummer Jason McGerr.
3.5/5
3
Dec 19 2024
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Dilate
Ani DiFranco
Dilate is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, released in 1996. Dilate is her highest-selling and most critically acclaimed[citation needed] record, with US sales of over 480,000 units according to SoundScan. In 2011, Slant Magazine placed the album at No. 67 on its list of "The 100 Best Albums of 1990s".[11]
2.5/5
2
Dec 20 2024
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Tomb
Angelo De Augustine
Tomb is the third studio album by American musician Angelo de Augustine, released on Asthmatic Kitty on January 11, 2019. De Augustine collaborated with Thomas Bartlett on all 12 tracks. It is an alternative folk album about a breakup and its emotional fallout.
Themes and influences
Most of the songs were written after a breakup de Augustine experienced at the end of 2017. The subsequent pain and loss is the principal theme of the album. He draws a comparison between the breakup and his father leaving home.[1]
3.25/5
3
Dec 21 2024
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Live in San Francisco
Thee Oh Sees
Live in San Francisco is a live album by the American garage rock band Thee Oh Sees, released on July 1, 2016 as part of the Live in San Francisco series by Castle Face Records. The vinyl release is accompanied by a DVD of the performances, filmed by Brian Lee Hughes.
The album was recorded over three nights in July 2015 at The Chapel, in San Francisco, during the band's tour in support of its sixteenth studio album, Mutilator Defeated at Last, and marks the first release to feature drummers Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon.
The track, "Gelatinous Cube", subsequently appeared on the band's next studio album, A Weird Exits.
1.5/5
1
Dec 22 2024
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King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown
King Tubby
King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown is a dub studio album by Augustus Pablo and King Tubby, released in 1976.[1] It features Carlton Barrett on drums, Robbie Shakespeare and Aston Barrett on bass guitar, and Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar. Pablo produced the album and played melodica, piano, organ and clavinet. All sessions with the musicians were recorded at Randy's studio in Kingston, Jamaica, and then Pablo took the tapes to King Tubby for mixing.[2] The album has been released on several different labels, often with slightly different artworks and track lists.
The title song is a dub version of the Jacob Miller song "Baby I Love You So", also produced by Pablo.[3][4] It was released as a 45 rpm single in 1974 on the Mango label (MS-2001), with "Baby I Love You So" as the B-side.[5] A distinctly different mix of the song with vocals and dub can be found on the Jacob Miller and Augustus Pablo album, Who Say Jah No Dread, released in 1992.[6][7][8]
2
Dec 23 2024
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Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
The Alan Parsons Project
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Charisma Records[3] and 20th Century Records in the rest of the world.[4] The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name.
Musicians featured on the album include vocalists Arthur Brown of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown on "The Tell Tale Heart", John Miles on "The Cask of Amontillado" and "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether", and Terry Sylvester of The Hollies on "To One in Paradise". The complete line-up of bands Ambrosia and Pilot play on the record, along with keyboardist Francis Monkman of Curved Air and Sky.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at #38 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The song "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" peaked at No. 37 on the Pop Singles chart, and No. 62 in Canada.[5]
2.5/5
2
Dec 24 2024
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Come And Get It
Rachel Stevens
Come and Get It is the second solo studio album by English singer Rachel Stevens, released on 17 October 2005 by 19 Recordings and Polydor Records. It spawned three singles, two of which reached the top 10, while the album itself reached number 28 on the UK Albums Chart. The album received almost universally positive reviews; two years after the album's release, The Guardian placed it on their \"1000 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die\" list.
The album was produced by a number of top record producers, including Xenomania, Richard X, Pascal Gabriel and Jewels and Stone. It reached number 28 in the United Kingdom, remaining of the charts for just two weeks. Come and Get It was not released in many territories outside the UK; in the United States, it was released on 26 June 2007 on iTunes.
2.75/5
2
Dec 25 2024
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A Live One
Phish
A Live One is a live album by the American rock band Phish, released on June 27, 1995, by Elektra Records. The album was the band's first official live release, their first album to be certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and one of the best-selling releases in their catalog.
Although tapes of concerts recorded from the audience had been distributed among Phish's fanbase for several years by the time of A Live One's release, the album marked the first time that the band had officially released live recordings directly from their soundboard masters. The album was named after a question that the band members were often asked by fans: \"When are you gonna put out a live one?\".
Each track on the album was recorded at a different live show in the United States with one track taken from the 1994 summer tour and the rest from the fall tour. Although recorded at different venues, the songs are noted in the liner notes as having been recorded at \"The Clifford Ball\", a reference to aviator Clifford Ball that the band would use again as the name of their 1996 festival. This decision was made because the band's management could not secure the recording rights from every venue featured on the album at the time of its release.
Five of the songs—\"Gumbo\", \"Slave to the Traffic Light\", \"Wilson\", \"Simple\" and \"Harry Hood\"—had never appeared on any of Phish's studio albums, but all of them were and are regularly performed by the band in concert.
2/5
2
Dec 26 2024
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Cleopatra
The Lumineers
Cleopatra is the second studio album by American indie folk band the Lumineers. The album was released in the United States on April 8, 2016, and contains the singles "Ophelia", "Cleopatra", "Angela" and "Sleep on the Floor". The album received positive reviews and commercial success, debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200. It is the last album by the band to feature Neyla Pekarek, who left in October 2018 to pursue a solo career.
The cover is a photograph of actress Theda Bara.
3.75/5
3
Dec 27 2024
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Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Big Thief
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is the fifth studio album by the American band Big Thief, released as a double album through 4AD on February 11, 2022. Produced by drummer James Krivchenia, the album features 20 songs which were recorded over five months in five different locations across the United States. The album was supported by six singles. It was also the last album to feature bassist and founding member Max Oleartchik before his departure in 2024.
It received universal acclaim from critics upon release and entered the top forty in several territories, including Australia, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom; it reached the top ten of the albums charts in Belgium and the Netherlands. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You was released to widespread acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 26 reviews, which indicates \"universal acclaim\". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
3
Dec 28 2024
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Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
SOPHIE
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides (stylized in all caps) is the debut studio album by English recording artist and producer Sophie and the only one to be released during her lifetime. It was released on 15 June 2018, through Transgressive, Future Classic and Sophie's own label, MSMSMSM.[8][9] The title may be a mondegreen of the phrase "I love every person's insides".[10] The album was Sophie's second full-length release after the singles collection Product (2015).
The album was met with widespread acclaim by critics and received a nomination for the Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.[11] Three promotional singles were released off the album: "It's Okay to Cry", "Ponyboy", and "Faceshopping".[12] A remix album, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album, was released in July 2019.
3
Dec 29 2024
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Silence Yourself
Savages
Silence Yourself is the debut studio album by the English post-punk band Savages, released on 6 May 2013 on Matador Records and Pop Noire, a label owned by vocalist Jehnny Beth.[3] It was nominated for the 2013 Mercury Prize.[citation needed]
Critics made a parallel with British post-punk of the late 1970s, Magazine and Gang of Four. NME wrote that "French frontwoman Jehnny Beth has moulded herself into the demonic, possessed spawn of Ian Curtis and Siouxsie Sioux".[4] Uncut retrospectively said about the music: "It is a bit Siouxsie, a bit Stranglers, a bit Magazine – and after a decade-odd of bands reviving the sounds and strategies of post-punk".[5]
3
Dec 30 2024
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Dimanche à Bamako
Amadou & Mariam
Dimanche à Bamako (English: Sunday in Bamako) is the fourth album by Malian duo Amadou & Mariam featuring, and produced by, French singer Manu Chao. It was released on the Nonesuch Records label on 2 August 2005.
The album features guests such as Ivorian reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly and Italian ska/jazz trumpeter Roy Paci.
2
Dec 31 2024
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Apostrophe(')
Frank Zappa
Apostrophe (') is the fifth solo album and eighteenth in total by Frank Zappa, released in March 1974[1] in both stereo and quadraphonic formats. An edited version of its lead-off track, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", was the first of Zappa's three Billboard Top 100 hits, ultimately peaking at number 86. The album itself became the biggest commercial success of Zappa's career, reaching number 10 on the US Billboard 200.
1.5/2
1
Jan 03 2025
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Watch Out!
Alexisonfire
Watch Out! is the second studio album from Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisonfire, released on June 8, 2004. The album debuted at number 6 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 6,580 copies in its first week of release, and was certified Platinum (indicating sales of over 100,000 copies) by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) in 2007.
Watch Out! is a post-hardcore album, which saw more of a focus on Green's melodic singing, and less emphasis on Pettit's screaming. According to guitarist Wade MacNeil, the closing track of their debut, \"Pulmonary Archery\", incorporated the \"atmospheric sound\" that the band expanded upon with Watch Out!. Pettit expanded on this by the saying the band were listening to a lot of ambient rock acts, such as the Appleseed Cast and Mogwai. \"Accidents\" was written in the basement of MacNeil's mother's house. \"Side Walk When She Walks\" uses metal guitar riffs and different tempo changes. \"No Transitory\" opens mid-screaming. \"Sharks and Danger\" is a darker track that was reminiscent of \"Spike\" (2003) by the Network.
The album debuted at number 6 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 6,580 copies in its first week of release. By April 2005, it had sold 50,000 copies in Canada, and 27,500 copies in the US. It was certified Platinum in Canada in April 2007.
1.5/2
1
Jan 04 2025
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Sailing The Seas Of Cheese
Primus
Sailing the Seas of Cheese is the second studio album and major label debut by the American rock band Primus. It was released on May 14, 1991, through Interscope Records. It spawned three singles: "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver", "Tommy the Cat", and "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers".
The album has been described as funk metal. Similar to its predecessor Frizzle Fry, founding guitarist Todd Huth received writing credits on the songs "Tommy The Cat" and "Sgt. Baker".
The album's lead single "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" is known for its intricate bassline that Les Claypool played on a six-string bass using the tapping technique. It also contains a sample from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in which the character Chop Top exclaims "Dog will hunt!" The track "Los Bastardos" contains samples from the BBC television series The Young Ones including Vyvyan shouting, "Shut up, you bastards!", Vyvyan's mother saying, "He is a bastard isn't he?", as well as Rick saying, "You just called me a bastard, didn't you?" and "Mike, you bastard!"
The single "Tommy The Cat" is also characterised by its highly complex bassline that mixes strumming and slapping; there is not a clear consensus on exactly what notes are being played, and as a result, numerous different interpretations exist on the Internet. The song features spoken word by Tom Waits providing the voice of the titular character; in live performances Claypool does these parts himself. Another examples of the album's musical complexity is the song "Eleven", which is named after its unusual time signature of 11/8.
The song and album title "Seas of Cheese" would later be referenced in the song "DMV" on their next album Pork Soda, as well as the song "Dirty Drowning Man" on 1999's Antipop.
2.75/5
2