Music: Last Album You Listened To And Rate It III

[Hippasus]

Rating: 475

200: distasteful and pathetic
300: mediocre or subpar
400: average, but decent
500: very good
600: superb
700: transcendental

 

[Loopy0ne]

Black Marble - a different arrangement
Probably my top album this year. Love the dark wave synth. 8/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Perry Leopold - Christian Lucifer. 4.5/10
I'm not often a big fan of prog rock/folk, but if it's your cup of tea, you'll probably love this little known album.



A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms. 6.5/10
Mostly very good. You've got great atmospheric pieces, but when it hits the lows, it's very low (I swear the 13 Angels Standing Guard was inspired by the dying cat parade joke in Friends).

 

[Shareefruck]

Damn, didn't realize this thread got buried so deep. Some things I tried pretty aimlessly:

Music For Nine Post Cards by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.5 (Great)
Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.0 (Very Good)
Wet Land by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 2.5 (Good)
Been in a music-discovery lull for years now, where stuff I like feels pretty established and every attempt to get into new stuff results in zero returns, but recently got into this and liked it a fair bit. A bit Ambient-1-era-Brian-Eno, and in the later albums, started weirdly giving me Tunic videogame vibes (albeit, I like this better). Very public-space-museum-exhibit-y ambient/minimalism, but more evocative than just a clinical feel. This seems to be the genre that I still have the most success with these days. Thinking of getting into his lesser known albums now, because these were all successes for me.

New Age of Earth by Ashra - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Enjoyable with a lot of the types of sounds that work for me, but unremarkable and dated in a not so great way.

So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Wasn't particularly impressed by the lyricism, but the vocalist is very good, it's pretty cohesive, and they're really successful at hitting that Velvet Underground vibe that many attempt but fail at, in my opinion. Enough to keep it filed away in my mind, but didn't feel too much beyond that. (weirdly, I'm pretty sure I've tried this album a bunch of times before, but it only "went online" on this attempt for me, enough to have an opinion about it)

Sleep by Max Richter - 1.0 (Negative)
I watched The Leftovers a while back and in retrospect, I bought into the hype/praise way too prematurely and allowed myself to be too impressionable (probably from desperation to find something new that's good). One thing I didn't like about it was how overbearing, melodramatic, and cheesy everything felt (felt that way about Lost as well, so it's probably just Lindelof's sensibilities as a whole that I dislike), and I think the soundtrack was a big contributor to that. Didn't realize this was the same composer, but it checks out-- I had very much the same type of distaste for it.

Somewhere between 0.0 and 1.5 (Just Didn't Care):
Eureka by Kinoko Teikoku
Uzu Ni Naru by Kinoko Teikoku
Raise by Swervedriver
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in The Glittering World of The Salons by Swirlies
Glitter by Pasteboard

Highlights:

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Damn, didn't realize this thread got buried so deep. Some things I tried pretty aimlessly:

Music For Nine Post Cards by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.5 (Great)
Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.0 (Very Good)
Wet Land by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 2.5 (Good)
Been in a music-discovery lull for years now, where stuff I like feels pretty established and every attempt to get into new stuff results in zero returns, but recently got into this and liked it a fair bit. A bit Ambient-1-era-Brian-Eno, and in the later albums, started weirdly giving me Tunic videogame vibes (albeit, I like this better). Very public-space-museum-exhibit-y ambient/minimalism, but more evocative than just a clinical feel. This seems to be the genre that I still have the most success with these days. Thinking of getting into his lesser known albums now, because these were all successes for me.

New Age of Earth by Ashra - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Enjoyable with a lot of the types of sounds that work for me, but unremarkable and dated in a not so great way.

So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Wasn't particularly impressed by the lyricism, but the vocalist is very good, it's pretty cohesive, and they're really successful at hitting that Velvet Underground vibe that many attempt but fail at, in my opinion. Enough to keep it filed away in my mind, but didn't feel too much beyond that. (weirdly, I'm pretty sure I've tried this album a bunch of times before, but it only "went online" on this attempt for me, enough to have an opinion about it)

Sleep by Max Richter - 1.0 (Negative)
I watched The Leftovers a while back and in retrospect, I bought into the hype/praise way too prematurely and allowed myself to be too impressionable (probably from desperation to find something new that's good). One thing I didn't like about it was how overbearing, melodramatic, and cheesy everything felt (felt that way about Lost as well, so it's probably just Lindelof's sensibilities as a whole that I dislike), and I think the soundtrack was a big contributor to that. Didn't realize this was the same composer, but it checks out-- I had very much the same type of distaste for it.

Somewhere between 0.0 and 1.5 (Just Didn't Care):
Eureka by Kinoko Teikoku
Uzu Ni Naru by Kinoko Teikoku
Raise by Swervedriver
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in The Glittering World of The Salons by Swirlies
Glitter by Pasteboard

Highlights:

He's back!

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

The Olivia Tremor Control - Singles and Beyond. Obviously very uneven. Still some great stuff. 6/10

Yes, Olivia Tremor Conrtrol. Their two studio albums have been in constant rotation for the last 20 years. There is just something about their sound that works for me.

Others:

Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly. 8/10. I love t. It's like psychedlic country shoegaze or something. Their best work IMO.

St. Vincent - Actor. 7/10. Pleasant surprise. Good textures and I like her voice.

boygenius EP - 6/10. Man did I avoid this one for a while cause they were pused so hard everywhere I looked. But I like it. I already liked Julien Baker so that was a good way in.

Hum - You'd Prefer an Astronaut - 6/10. Has potential to grow on me. For those of us that had to live through the generally depressing post-grunge/generic sounding bands, it was not a good time. I assumed these guys were like that (maybe they are a little) but their guitars sound great.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream...

4/10

There's some good moments, but this textbook trying too hard. Standout tracks are Cosmic and Easier. The rest can go in the trash.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein (2023) - 2/5

Joakim Berg - Jag forstatter glomma (2022) - 2/5

Mt. Desolation - Through Crooked Aim (2023) - 2.5/5

DMA'S - How Many Dreams (2023) - 2.5/5

Paramore - This Is Why (2023) - 2.5/5

The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery (2023) - 3/5

Flyying Colours - You Never Know (2023) - 2.5/5

dEUS - How To Replace It (2023) - 2.5/5

Radio Supernova - Paratiisi (2023) - 3/5

Depeche Mode - Memento Mori (2023) - 3/5

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Jams (2021) by Luna Li - Liked it a lot!
The Florist by Abby Sage (2022) - Liked it a lot too!
Born Like This by MF DOOM (2009) - Re-listen. Liked it a whole lot too!

Really been enjoying these shorter EPs by lesser known musicians. They don't have any fat like you see from major releases.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Anyone dig into the new Clientele album? It's good but too many of those short interlude/filler type songs and the tracklisting is like 19 songs long as a result so haven't fully gotten into it yet.

Also need to listen to new Hives.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Ardour by Teebs (2010) - So perfectly delicate and lush. My favorite album of instrumental hip-hop of all-time. I think it's a masterpiece.

The extended version of While You Doooo is probably a top 10 or top 5 all-time track for me and that's not from recency bias. Just a song of immense beauty.

 

[Mikeaveli]

The Beach Boys - Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972)

I really want to love this one as the two singles are brilliant songs written by Brian Wilson. You Need A Mess of Help To Stand Alone is a great rocking track, Carl's exaggerated lead vocal and guitar work stand out, and I love the chorus too. The banjo and modulated violin really make the backing track, as does the autoharp on Marcella, which is the best track on the album. Incredible vocal arrangement on the chorus. Carl's guitar solo here is one of his best and it goes right into the coda where we get a glorious rearrangement of the chorus that is even better. 10/10 song.

All This Is That is another highlight, this time written by Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Carl. This is on the shortlist for best Brian-less Beach Boys tracks, top tier harmonies on this one. Carl's vocal on the outro is gorgeous, I just wish it was mixed better. The Acapella versions of this song and Marcella on the box set are must listens.

Unfortunately the rest of the album kind of sucks. He Come Down is kind of fun and there are some nice parts near the end but the gospel thing is a bit much. The two Ricky/Blondie songs are passable but sound out of place. Dennis' songs are his worst contributions to this point and should be nowhere near an album with this title. Two boring, drawn out, melodramatic ballads. Also, why does Carl only have one writing credit on the album that has his name in the title? After his great contributions on Surf's Up he really should have been more active here, though he did produce the three best songs.

It's kind of amazing that an album with so few tracks has this much filler. Still, I can't give it a negative review because I have been listening to the top three tracks constantly the past few months.

Favourites: You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone, Marcella, All This Is That

6/10

 

[Sniper99]

J. Cole. Might Delete Later. 8/10 Really good.