Forever

Very enjoyable retro disco sound that was great! Not necessarily groundbreaking but not everything I listen to should be.

Let's go listen to Nine Inch Noize instead

I liked this, was maybe a little on the fence if it was pretty great or merely good. Lot of resonance to Daft Punk in the music and that's a pretty high bar to burden yourself with. But it was it's own thing, consistent, and ended strong enough I think it merits the higher tier.

Low quality is the only thing that comes to mind when I try to write this review without thinking too deeply about it and a deep thunk review isn’t deserved because this is not a deep thunk album. 3/5

Enjoyed this as some upbeat Friday listening, but nothing really stuck with me. Fun while it lasted, although I’m not sure there’s enough here to warrant another listen.

Is it possible to manufacture the Temu version of Daft Punk-meets-The Weeknd? Apparently it is. And this, even if your project doesn't sell that many "radio friendly unit shifters". But more on that in a second... This is the vanilla choice of a user having quite vanilla tastes, which sort of makes sense -- even if such "product" is not making dollars in my eyes on a purely metaphorical level. Just so you know, that weird making dollars / making sense analogy doesn't come from me. I am only using one of the awkward turns of phrase I spotted in this record's lyrics. Sure, lyrics like these are most often placeholder elements in this type of project anyway. So why should anyone bother about them? I guess I'll let that pass, then. The problem is, can I do the same for everything that doesn't sound right for my ears in this album? Interestingly, it seems that Luis Dubuc didn't make enough bona fide dollars in the eyes of the major label that released his 2014 debut as Mystery Skulls. Warner indeed dropped him after only two LPs, and Dubuc resorted to release the rest of the project's discography through independent means, still managing to garner millions of streams / views on Spotify / You Tube, and yet remaining virtually unknown for your average Joe and Jane -- in a genre where commercial success is a more pivotal metric compared to other ones. Luis wanted "the gold". Not exactly sure that's what he received in the end. In spite of all this, it would be quite unfair to only give one star to a record when half of its songs are still reaching the goals their creator had set for them. "Forever", "The Future", "Paralyzed", "Ghost" and "Magic" are unambiguous peaks, whose memorable elements are displaying a lot of thought and skills, I readily admit it. And "Every Note" is also an interesting understated closer, exploring tones that should have been explored further for the deeper cuts.. Because, yeah, unfortunately the rest is made out of terribly boring valleys -- or absolutely grating ones, you take your pick! The most obvious obnoxious moment is that dreadful combo of a lame derivative chorus and a very stupid Casiotone hook found in "When I'm With You", which had me roll my eyes so hard I thought they would get stuck to the back of my skull. Complaining about the eighties tones of Hot Chip after that *really* takes some nerve, Jesus H. Christ. 🙄 Funny how the Niles Rogers / Brandi association invited during the recording sessions for this album took part in both sorts of songs, by the way. The two prestige guests do wonders on "Magic", but they can't save the tepid disaster that "Number 1" is, and the fact that those two cuts follow one another definitely makes things worse. It's incredible that anyone even remotely related to the project didn't point that out to Dubuc when he created the final tracklist for this record. But I guess major label executives can be as clueless as your average Joes and Janes at times, right? Now watch me do disco dance moves as I chant this under the proverbial mirrorball: "Ma-gic, ma-gic, skip but-ton! Ma-gic, ma-gic, skip but-ton!" I mean, seriously, guys (or gals)... 🙄 2/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 2 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 123 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 143 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 317 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

Not an album I want to be listening to while reading a Nick Cave interview