i didnt know there was a new battles album out

their first album is worth listening to if you want to hear cool effects-laden guitar shenanigans and see the exact point at which prog converged with indie rock though it generally suffers from Song Too Long syndrome

the band got boring when they lost their vocalist though and their second album kinda sucks

id expected you to have already been into them considering how much you love math rock & related genres

I've always meant to give them a listen.

Just never got around to it.

Grit by Madrugada



A bit more electronic and raw than Industrial Silence. It's some decent experimental/garage rock and it's not bad. Bloodshot Adult Commitment is a great track. It was a nice bass line and the lyrics are good. Ready is a pretty standard, fun, rock track. I don't fit is a slower track that shows off the raw production and has a bit of chemistry between the guitars. With Madrugada I feel like the band was going for a fan favorite, or at the very least a song to showcase what they're really about. The backing vocals are a nice touch and the quickened tempo later on make it pretty catchy. 7 Seconds is decent, but the mixing on the hi-hats and cymbals sound really off and it's distracting. Proxy has a slow, raunchy guitar with some electronic mixed in, but it's a bit boring and the progression doesn't really save it. Come Back Billy Pilgrim has loud drumming accompanied by a booming bass line to really help you get in to the rhythm. Get Back in Line starts off quiet with heavy bass and restrained drumming then picks up. Pretty experimental track. Majesty introduces some nice piano, and it's probably the best produced track. Try is another fun, upbeat rock song and it's a welcome change of pace from the quieter songs. Also the female vocals sound really great. Got you was a pretty boring track and I didn't notice much about it. Love Institution is probably the strongest track and a really good ending. It has a catchy, electronic beat, it's eerie, heavy, and the 'talking vocals' really work here. Speaking of those talking vocals, if you don't mind them then you'll probably like this album. Give it a try, it's pretty accessible. If you want some more creative production try Industrial Silence. Stand out tracks were Bloodshot Adult Commitment, Ready, I Don't Fit, Madrugada, Come Back Billy Pilgirim, Get Back in Line, Majesty, Try, and Love's Institution.

8/10

The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
Preview: Sweet Jane

Discovered this record through Devin Townsend tweeting about it, thx. It's a quiet country-rock record recorded almost entirely in a single day in a church. It has an excellent atmosphere for it, and it's a really pretty listen through. Not something I'd actively listen to much, but it makes some fantastic background music for sure. About half of it is covers, including Sweet Jane above -- I'm not familiar with the original, but others have told me it's a great cover, so check it out if you're a Velvet Underground fan.

Rating: Good

Girl Afraid by The Smiths

Not gonna post a preview because I doubt I'd find one

This particular album is a bootleg recording from a German show. It was very good, makes me wish I could've seen The Smiths at some point

I wasn't familiar with any of the tunes (I've not listened to their first album, and that was the only one released at the time of the show), but it was still very entertaining. Pretty much liked all the songs. Big fan of The Smiths in general, they've got cool a** songwriting down

My reviews are far from professional but I'm tired you know so f*** it f*** you I liked it

Rating: Good

On a trip so gonna be behind on a few albums

Thought for Food by The Books
Preview: All Bad Ends All

Today we have a lukecore record. It sucks almost as much as he does

j/k sorry bullying is bad. It's one of those albums made primarily (entirely?) from sampled sources. There are a pretty big variety of sounds on display, which I appreciate. The preview track was neat, there was a neat track with some sweet bass, there was a track I liked about a dying fish. There's kind of a lot to this album and I get the feeling some of its more odd parts make it not really a "first listen" kind of album generally, but I will say I enjoyed it enough through to the end and I plan to give it some more attention later (once my lazy a** finally catches up with my albums)

Rating: Good!

Holy Diver by Dio
Preview: Holy Diver

So we've all heard the song before, right? Look, there's not a whole lot to say about this album. It's a fairly straightforward metal record, good enough for what it is but not something I'm extremely interested in or impressed by. I kinda have to be in a certain headspace for metal, and I think I'm not in that currently. No big loss ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Rating: okay

On Avery Island by Neutral Milk Hotel
Preview: April 8th

I like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a lot. It's a neat sounding album with some interesting, surreal lyrics and catchy songs. If you think it's a hipster record I recommend rising above your pretentiousness and giving it a shot, because it's very nice!

On Avery Island is the album that came before Aeroplane. It's quite similar, as two albums from the same band often are, but I found it a lot less intriguing than Aeroplane, with April 8th being the only song that really grabbed me. This might be another one that I'll just have to listen to later; it might just be that I'm not feeling it right now.

Rating: Okay

On further listens, the Cowboy Junkies album is really cozy at night. It's quite nice

Anyway, finally caught up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I just have to listen to The Strokes and I"ll be all caught up, I'll post my thoughts later

im listening to Augustus Pablo's "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown" and i feel too sober and square to enjoy this music, its on some ivory tower plane of chill contextually inaccessible to a high strung anxiety disordered nerd like me. maybe i could start puffing but for now im gonna listen to the last celtic frost album again and fuel another psychotic episode.

i like the delay effects and that crossfader thing he does

1984 by Alix Perez
Preview: Forsaken

This is a pretty long album full of d&b beats

That's not entirely my thing. I can appreciate it (on some tracks more than others -- preview is great) but to me the beats make it bad passive music, and it's kinda boring for active music if i'm being totally honest

I can see why you like it @luke but it's not my genre of choice

Rating: okay




Week 3 favs: Cowboy Junkies
Least favs: Diablo Swing Orchestra

yea, i kinda figured that's what you'd think. some trax are fantastic tho for sure

im behind again, i'll try 2 catch up soon ;_;

Definitely Maybe by Oasis
I like (What's the Story) Morning Glory and a few of its songs are really nostalgic for me but I had never heard any Oasis song that wasn't from that album. After this one, I probably wont delve any further into them. I thought this was pretty mediocre. At points it sounded like they were trying to be hard rock and they weren't good at it. The only songs I really remember liking were Live Forever and Married with Children

I'm about to run out of battery, but I am all caught up so I'll finish thoughts later.

just got done listening to The Fall's Hex Enduction Hour for maybe the third time, first time actually paying attention to the lyrics (ie reading them annotated on a very handy fansite because mark e smiths words are inscrutable even in the written form) and lord what an album

instead of discussing the musical content at hand ill just lazily share some of my favourite lyrical excerpts because theyre really good

"Where are the obligatory n*****? - The Classical
the first track centres its opening verse around this unforgettable slur drop - apparently the execs of a british motown records subsidiary were sent a demo of this particular song after expressing interest in the band in the early 80s. needless to say they dropped communications as soon as they heard this. lol.

The mad kid had 4 lights, the average is 2.5 lights
The mediocre has 2 lights, the sign of genius is three lights
There's one light left, that's the one light
That's the science law - Winter
the guy on the annotated fall site waxes uber-intellectual about this one connecting it to a william blake verse from a letter to his friend thomas butts (jesus christ) but i am stupid and dumb and listen to rap and mostly like the way it sounds over the droney beat

A plate steel object was fired
And I did not feel for my compatriots
Hated even the core of myself
Not a matter of ill-health - Iceland
mark e smith again proving himself to work great at delivering subtly punchy opening lines, wonderful example of conveying that working class post-war anxiety i love not only about the fall but of the entire british post-punk scene (see also: this heat). was one of the least initially impressive tracks on the album but crept up to me while digesting the lyrics

BBC, George Orwell, Burmese police
Who makes the Nazis? - Who Makes the Nazis?
im dumb and cant figure out exactly what facet of society this song is criticizing (fascists? antifascists? the british press? the ironic complacency of the english middle class?) but they make lots of rambling potshots against "intellectual half wits" and "arse licking somethings" and paedophiles (with an ae) and rapists so this at least owns on a purely surface level

there are a bunch of others id like to share like the entirety of Jawbone And The Air-Rifle (love that up-north drunken blather form of storytelling) but this post is long enough as it is