The intro does not inspire much confidence. Sounds a bit like every shitty alt rock band from the early 2000s condensed into one. Instrumentals yearn for some vocal energy but instead we get this weak shit. Literally laughed out loud at the whispered "time" at the end of the first song.
Second tracks isn't getting any better. There are vague comparisons that could be made to Porcupine Tree in this second track, but they don't do anything interesting (whereas PT kicks ass). I'm sorry but fuck this. This is about as generic as it gets without anything redeeming. High 1
Cloissone is goofy AF but kind of fun. Can clearly see how this could be the same band responsible for Micky Mouse Funhouse music. Really that same tendency for theatrical carries throughout. And I'll say it mostly works for them. This album swings all over with some parts sounding a bit like Cake, others erring towards Gorrillaz, and there is a certain bombast that makes me think a bit of Jellyfish. I feel like what they do, they do well. Is it my favorite? No. But it is an entertaining listen. High 3
Not bad, but lost steam as it played on and I grew more tired of the twangy style. I forget which song it was, but there was also some god awful supporting vocals in here. For me this is a perfect 3.
There are many albums in this world, and that certainly was one of them.
Kind of weird deadpan delivery across this one. I do like Nobody. And I felt like on the whole this was a pleasant enough listen. Not something I'd get out of bed for, but the instrumentals were fine. This is a high 3 for me.
Never heard of Tosca before, but this is some solid coffee shop music if I've ever heard it. Innocuous, inoffensive, and familiar. This album is a series of electro-jazz landscapes that rarely inspire deeper thought, but are entirely palatable. Well suited to background music and something I'll add to my library for sure, but not something that I feel operates at a deeper level. For me this is perfect (albeit high) 3 territory.
Don't get me wrong, this was fine and all, but it was hardly something to stimulate. Felt like pretty generic hip-hop influenced electronic music to me that ran altogether too long. Soft 3 for me.
Meh, maybe I'm just a grinch, but explicit comedy "music" isn't something I can really get into in an album format. One or two songs at a time? Sure. But an hour long double disc adventure? Nah.
Don't get me wrong, some of these are definitely funny and the whole schtick of this being recorded during the covid lockdowns serves as a sort of time capsule for that particular moment. But once again, not something I would actually listen to more than once. Highlights from what I remember from listening a couple of days ago were How the World Works, White Woman's Instagram, the two parted Bezos adventure, and Welcome to the Internet.
For the format, solid. For general review 2
I'll say this one hits around a low 3 for me. His vocals are solid and I appreciate the modern blues guitar work throughout, but something in here doesn't quite connect for me. I think in general I find myself a bit distrustful of "blues" that feels more heavily produced, and for some reason that translates to my inability to fully sink into the songs themselves. They have a quality that sits just above the surface.
A fine entry, and I'm glad for the listen, it just didn't connect at a deeper level for me.
I'm really not a big fan of this style of lo-fi noise rock. The whole thing is just gating and unpleasant. Really enjoyed when this one ended. Lands around the upper end of a 1 for my enjoyment.
This is spooky as shit. The sparseness and torturedness of the vocals make me think a bit of Nick Drake. But really the similarities stop there. This is far more sparse and lacks the prettiness and melodies that Drake drapes his sorrow in. Other similarity here is the echo + distance feel reminds me of Elvis' Blue Moon.
That said, I'm in the (assumed from avg. score) minority that this works for. Is this something I'm going to jam out to repeatedly? No. But there is something here that I really do enjoy.
Okay, well I guess there are some more straightforward melodies to be had here (or at least allusions to them): She's The Star/I Take This Time is downright upbeat for this album. It's also beautiful. Treehouse is a fun one.
Gotta be honest with myself here. This album runs far too long. I mean, I'm into the sparseness and weirdness of a lot of these, but after a while I grew a bit exhausted.
For that, this dips from a 4 to a 3. But I'll be back again for sure.
I've seen the album cover before, but can't recall ever listening to this one. Not a style of music I generally spend much time with, but I actually enjoyed this one. Vocally, I found some of it to err on the whiny / annoying side, but instrumentally this was really enjoyable. Really enjoyed Jesus Christ and a number of other tracks. Ripped through this about 4 times today and it really grew on me with each listen. Solid 4 / 5 in my book.
Loving this one out of the gate. The synths are at once mysterious and familiar -- calling tonal similarities to SOYCD. The integration of dialog into Blush Response is also just fantastic. (helps to have good source material) This was a very enjoyable ride and made for fantastic background music. High 4
Gotta say, Mike Patton has quite a range. Did not realize until listening to RV that he's the same dude behind Mr. Bungle. This was altogether too long, but I did enjoy most of it. I think this falls somewhere around a low 4 for me.
I remember when this first came out Midnight City was the bees knees. And listening again it has held up pretty well with a certain synth pop brightness that feels very much like the early 2010s. As far as the rest of the album goes, this is fine, but ultimately a lot longer than my attention was willing to hold for. I know critically, this one garnered a lot of good attention, but I never have been swayed by it. It's a fine album, don't get me wrong, but there is little memorable to me outside of Midnight City. Middling 3 / 5 for me.
Very mixed on this one. I enjoyed the sludginess of Then Comes Dudley, and I otherwise enjoyed the instrumentals, but the vocals and choruses were often laughably bad. And yet, I find myself coming back for more, so I'm not sure what to make of that. Seasick is one that stands out for this -- the vocal performance is pretty awful, but I actually like the song.
Yea... despite the stupidness of the vocals, I am pretty into the sloppiness of this. Not something I would play in the car with someone else, but I would readily go back into this one on my own. Solid 4
Never listened to this one in full, but I fucking love Cannonball. Such an absolute jam. Otherwise, this album was sort of all over the place, but in a good way. I probably have listened to this 4 times now. Has a vaguely surf rock flair that carries over from Pixies. Favorites from my listens were I Just Wanna Get Along, Do You Love Me Now?, Divine Hammer, and somewhat surprisingly Drivin' on 9.
This falls around a high 4 for me. Really enjoyed this.
One of them songs was a jam, but I was only half listening. Going back in to find it.
For a fairly modern band I've never heard of this was pretty solid. Help I'm Alive has a Pixies (but poppier) vibe to it that I can get down with.
I like the synths on Twilight Galaxy. Oh I guess it was the closer Stadium Love. Song is a lot of fun.
Gotta say this isn't the most memorable album, but it was a good bit of fun to listen to. Low 4 for me.
Lead singer reminds me a lot of somebody else and I'm struggling to put a finger on it... Maybe vaguely DMB -- probably closer to Counting Crows? But I'm not sure.
Either way, some I'm 6 songs in and general impression is the vocal style is not my favorite, but also it kind of works. Instrumentally, these guys can certainly jam. A lot of it plays close to center, but they occasionally branch out and deliver. Probably makes for a fun live show.
Ultimately, this was okay, but on just that. This falls in a middle 3 for me.
I'm sorry, but Avicii does absolutely nothing for me. This plays out like the audio equivalent of artificial flavoring. I understand its place in the world, and I don't intend to demean those who derive enjoyment from this, but every song is candy coated and formulaic with glittery soulless electronic "beats" and predictable inane vocals. Very occasionally things stumble into a space that resembles actual fun (True Believer), but more often than not this plays like music that people believe they are supposed to play while having fun. A shiny veneer of sorts to backdrop basement frat parties. I'm halfway through and really trying to keep going, but I'm losing steam and faith. Yeah I can't do it... This just isn't for me. Not awful in the sense that I can listen to it, but awful in the sense that I will willingly turn this off in favor of just about anything else. High 1.
Can't honestly say that I've listened to much flamenco in my life. So I therefore lack context by which to really evaluate this in any relative sense. I'll say that this was an album that was pleasant enough and there is some solid playing to be had, but it didn't really get me going. Plaza Alta was my favorite on a first listen. Otherwise, this was nice, but not something I'll be back for. 3 / 5.
Listened to this one a few times trying to get a proper impression. Ultimately, I think this made for an entertaining enough listen with sounds that came through as a sort of more palatable (poppy?) fusion of styles that resemble Modest Mouse and Mars Volta. My impression is that this album was trying to do a lot of things and deliberately be quirky. And in some cases that worked well, but in others it missed for me. Rounding this one out to a high 3.
I've never been a big fan of the blown out shrill hair metal vocals and 24 Hrs. Ago has me bracing for the next 48 minutes. This falls somewhere between Bon Scott and Bruce Dickenson.
Gotta say though, that the first 4 songs do rip. Particularly 24 Hrs. Ago and Legions. Strange Wings reminds me quite a bit of Scorpions.
Prelude to Madness is familiar -- pretty sure Trans Siberian Orchestra covers this. Hall of the Mountain King does indeed rip.
Kind of lost some steam through the back half, but this was a lot more enjoyable than I expected out of the gate. Still not a huge fan of the operatic vocals, but this was a fun ride. Lowest of 4s.
This one started out with promise, but as it wore on, I also wore tired of it. Ten Thousand Words sounds like a less impressive version of a Sufjan Stevens song. And I hated Kick Drum Heart. Also found Tin Man to be rather inconsistent with the rest of the album lyrically. Kind of meh overall. Not "bad" necessarily, but not really for me. I know all rating scales are arbitrary, but out of 5 doesn't give quite enough granularity. I find my 3 ranges a wide span of albums from almost bad, to almost memorable. Makes it feel unfair to give this the same 3 as Mestro, where I actually mostly enjoyed that one. So I'll resign to a somewhat harsh 2 / 5.
Three songs in this feels a lot like a lot of things I've heard before, but not as intriguing as any of them independently. Hello Time Bomb is like a less interesting Incubus and Strange Days feels vaguely of REM mixed with Lifehouse. Kind of lost focus after the first couple of tracks and never really heard anything beyond that point to catch my ear. Not bad, but highly forgettable album imo. A low 3 for me.
It's been a while since I've listened to Snarky Puppy. I remember really enjoying Tell Your Friends in a time when most of my music came from MP3 rips of other friends' music catalogs. But I never went for the deep dive of their discog in the streaming era. Pretty cool that both this album and Tell Your Friends were recorded in a "semi-live" atmosphere as opposed to a traditional studio environment. And while I'll say that this is a very solid and satisfying album I feel like Tell Your Friends has a bit more memorable of a feel to it. Of course that could just be personal experience tinted by rose colored glasses.
Shofukan is a solid opener. Absolutely love the synth groove that they drop into around 4:30 with all of the percussion layering. What About Me? feels a little sloppy through the back half, but I'm hardly complaining. Song is an absolute jam. Love the horns and hand percussion on Tio Macaco. Otherwise, just bright and enjoyable and bright jazz fusion.
This stands somewhere along the high 4 - low 5 boundary. I feel like the replayability factor is high enough to merit the bump.
Looks like the last 50 minutes are live recordings so this is a more manageable 55 minutes. And what a 55 minutes those were. This album fucking slaps. I can imagine the screaming vocals might not be to everyone's taste, but you can't deny the energy these boys generate. Title track is a barn burner, and to sequence that into some folksy post-rock-ish fiddle is fantastic. This is new love.
Really into the opener actually -- gives some punkier RATM vibes. Actually love the duality of Liberation Frequency. New Noise feels very much like Limp Bizkit's Break Stuff, but somehow even more aggressive.
After like 4 solid playthroughs today of the album, I finally decided to go in for the live cuts. And I've gotta say, they hold up just as well. Amazing how small the room sounds when the audience comes through. Hook Line and Sinker is a jam.
C'mon guys... What're we doing here? I'm not saying this is bad by any means -- in fact there were a few songs that were straight boppers (Only in My Dreams, Red Hot) -- but this does sort of feel like replacement level glimmery, no worries 80s pop. Like much of this genre it feels wholly disposable. That said, it is kind of hard to hate on something so bright and fun. Also low key really enjoy Between the Lines -- something in the key progression reminds me of the synths on "Intro" by Mong Tong from their album Mystery (worth checking out for some synth heavy psych). Man I'm struggling. This feels like a high 3 to low 4. Going high 3 because I don't expect to be back, but I didn't hate the journey.
Fuck the stereo manipulation on The Prisoner. Few production tricks have pissed me off quicker or left quite so sour a taste in my mouth. Otherwise, this is a wonky one to be sure. Not bad, and nothing if not interesting. Drip Drip was probably my favorite on here. Otherwise, some dilapidated funhouse mirror type of folk that is very likely the product of heavy experimental drug use. I'm glad for the exposure, but likely will never be back again. 3 / 5.
I'll start by saying, I love me some early My Morning Jacket. Love the way that they maneuver genres blending surf rock elements, with crusty country rock open ended jams and even polka in the case of Into the Woods. They're incredibly nimble and capable in all without losing a core essence that makes it all sound like MMJ.
This live album is cut in the immediate wake of Z -- my personal favorite of theirs -- and serves as basically a condensation of Z and It Still Moves (I think only 3 or 4 songs are from their earlier albums). These are both comfort food albums of mine that get a lot of spins on the regular from me. So on the face, this is pretty much everything I would want from an MMJ show. And yet as I listen to this, I find myself wanting to turn to the studio cuts of Z and It Still Moves. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of energy here, and (for the most part) the vocals actually hold up well in the live environment, but outside of a few special moments, I didn't feel like this necessarily added to those studio experiences.
The special exceptions being the two song run Dondante and Run Thru. I mean Dondante on its own would give me chills in a live setting -- I feel like this song has one of the best builds of all time. And Run Thru just jams so damned hard on its own and through the outro its worth the trip on its own. Steam Engine is another barn burner along with Off The Record.
The source material is great. The setlist is impeccable. Great show. And highly enjoyable listen. Would 100% love to be at this live show. But I think this sits closer to a high 4 than a low 5 in my book.
I'm already primed on this one -- a former co-worker turned me onto ISIS last year when I was going through an exploratory metal phase. This falls closer to the post-rock side of the spectrum (like GY!BE but sludgier and with incomprehensible vocals). And while I expect the vocals to form a bit of a dividing line, I don't find them distracting in the same way as I did with Napalm Death, and the instrumentals are absolutely delightful here and make up the majority of the soundscape.
The Beginning and the End is a propulsive opener -- love it. Maritime is surprisingly curious and blissful sounding. Also love the space created on the intro of Weight in particular. Such a patient and wonderfully rewarding song. I've listened to this countless times and never tire of it. Same can be said for their other notable work -- Panopticon. If this resonated with you, definitely give it a listen.
For me this is a 5 all day. Clean production and great soundscape generation in a way that is entirely unique. Or at least I haven't come across anyone else doing it in quite the same way.
I haven't had much exposure to Khruangbin, but this is quite a bit more tasty and jazzy than I expected going in. Silky languid guitar lines are buttery and have a relaxed, surf jazz sort of vibe to them. This has a familiar feel to it that reminds me of some Japanese "jazz" artists (e.g., Mei Ehara [to an extent], Fishmans) as well as some modern jazz fusion groups (e.g., Robohands -- recommend checking out Shapes if you like this -- as well as some elements of BadBadNotGood). The production has a very warm and live feel to it giving significant depth to the guitars and punchiness to the drums, making for a satisfying tap along album to vibe out to.
High points from my listen were Two Fish and an Elephant, Dern Kala, and The Man Who Took My Sunglasses. Maybe not the most memorable album I've listened to, but it hits like a warm beachy breeze and I appreciate that. This straddles high 4, low 5 territory. I feel like this is probably more appropriate as a 4 only because I have heard these same sounds elsewhere -- which is not to say I don't love these sounds.
I briefly considered submitting this album for my own -- there was a time during my covid renovation series that this album and Japanese Breakfast's Soft Sounds from Another Planet were just about the only thing coming out of my speakers. If it hasn't been abundantly clear yet, I love the surf rock aesthetic and value what passes as "genuine" pretty much above all else. This album (and for that matter the majority of Mac Demarco's work) hit strong on both of those points. On this album his songs are delightfully warm, rough around the edges, and never too serious, while also being incredibly catchy.
The three song run of the opener is among the best I can think of off the top of my head. Cooking Up Something Good and Freaking Out the Neighborhood make a blissfully upbeat sandwich of the spaced-out Dreaming.
