Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 180: Cunning Stunts by The Cows

I've listened to Peacetika by these guys before. It was good though frontloaded.

Like Peacetika, this is good, I'd argue this one is slightly better due to more variety. Like Peacetika, it's a bit front-loaded. And like Peacetika, the stupidity gets a bit repetitive after a while. But still, recommended if you like noise rock.

Best Track: Heave Ho
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 181: Damnation by Opeth (Album Choice: sonicman68)

So I'd have to listen to a smidgen less than 200 albums by this Sunday to make it to 365 by a years time. That mission is failed. Regardless, I'll push on, let's aim for the end of the summer, and failing that the end of 2015. Anyways, this is a prog rock album from a technical death metal band. I'm not optimistic, but I've been wrong before.

To me this just sounds like Candlemass-lite. Not a bad thing, I love Candlemass. I expected to sigh and groan at the album (I mean come on, death metal attempts melodic prog rock? That sounds like disaster!), but my preconceptions were thankfully wrong. This is a decent album. Not the greatest album ever, and in fact I'll probably never listen to it again, but it's not bad at all.

Best Track: Windowpaine
Rating: 7/10

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Is that the first time you've listened to Opeth? There's a reason that album sounds like it does. At that time in their career they had released 5 albums of progressive death metal and Mikael Åkerfeldt wanted to move the band away from metal. So they recorded two albums at the same time: Deliverance (to appease the fans) and Damnation (to test the waters so to speak). Damnation was the light stuff whereas Deliverance was the heaviest stuff they had ever written.

After that, they continued mixing more progressive elements into the metal until, at this point in time, completely abandoning metal. It wasn't so much that they were 'attempting' a different genre at the time as much as they were 'purposefully trying to shift their entire sound in that direction and didn't want to alienate all their fans'. It still ended up pissing off a lot of fans but Åkerfeldt explained his reasons why (when asked if he would make music like they did at the start of their career):

"It's impossible for us to do that, and quite frankly I would think of it as boring to be in a band that plays just metal music. We're not afraid to experiment, or to be caught with our pants down, so to speak. That's what keeps us going."

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 182: Solace by Earl Sweatshirt

Because of the fact that I have practically zero time, I decided I'd just review the top EP of 2015 according to RateYourMusic.

Unfortunately I can't find the top EP in my very quick shallow search so the second best EP will have to do for now. Metá Metá, you're next on my list.

This is pretty good stuff. Murky beats, emotional lyrics, and creativity everywhere. Best of all, it's not horribly marred with Odd Future-isms or Tyler, The Creator. I'm mad at myself for not listening to this 2 months ago. If his next album is loaded with shit like this it'll be a near-masterpiece.

Best Track: what
Rating: 9/10

[Deadlyx39]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

For how many reviews you do I'm surprised it still has not that many posts by others

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 183: Gomba Reject Ward Japan by Five Starcle Men

Decided to listen to this upon reading. Equal parts Ween, Residents, Black Dice and DXM. Atonal, structureless, bizarre, stupid music. Me likey.

Best Track: Stutterer
Rating: 7.5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 184: The Sacred Mushroom by The Sacred Mushroom

For an album with an incredibly badass band name, an incredibly badass album name (being titular and all) and an INCREDIBLY badass cover, this is some really run-of-the-mill white boy blues rock. Not enough psychedelic flair, heavy tones or crazy distortion for my completely tasteless tastes, but it doesn't suck as bad as Eric Clapton. Very little does.

Best Track: Catatonic Lover
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 185: High Violet by The National (Album Choice: Gus V.)

It's BINGE DAY! Or, well, I hope it's binge day. I usually get derailed on these days and do only 2 or 3 albums. But it's a rainy summer day. I have very little to get derailed with. These guys are pretty well known in the realm of modern indie rock. Most modern indie rock is pussified to all hell, but some of it is pretty decent. Hopefully this falls into the latter category.

This band doesn't sound particularly wimpy, but they certainly have all the ingredients to be the most sissyish band ever. Man my English in this review is TERRIBLE.

This band doesn't sound sound particularly gutless, but they certainly have all the traits of another 21st century emasculated guitar pop band. Slow tempos, smooth glacial guitar licks, subdued drumming with lots of toms and almost no cymbals, milquetoast chamber pop songwriting, and the cherry is the most bland art-school album cover I've ever seen. Saving this band from being too spineless is the baritone singer. And just barely.

Have I mentioned before that I never care about voice? That's a lie. I hate The Smashing Pumpkins.

And then sometimes a cool voice can save really shitty music. I don't think that's the case here (these guys are way too inoffensive to be truly shitty), but a cool voice is a plus I suppose.

I have that argument all the time though. If Neil Young had any other voice, he wouldn't be freaking Neil Young and I don't care if it would be technically "better" because where did the soul go? And then we have bands like The Mountain Goats and Silver Jews and the mothereffing Jimi Hendrix Experience. Anyone who says that Jimi Hendrix's music would be improved with a better singer needs their ass kicked.

Oh yeah, the album. Meh. Passable. Will never listen again unless I walk into a particularly chic hipster restaurant on throwback night.

Best Track: Lemonworld
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 186: It Just Gets Worse by Anal Cunt

I rarely do these reviews while reading lyrics. I have better things to do than focus on some garbage angst-filled poetry which probably includes more painful rhymes than baby's first book. Exceptions to this would be most rap albums, a great deal of folk albums (though certainly not all of them) and then there's bands like Anal Cunt. These guys are, for the most part, nothing but tuneless noise and tasteless lyrics. Like early Cows if the Cows woke up to a nice Ambien and cocaine macchiato and also hated the world. Their only purpose is to enjoy the refuge in audacity, and to do that you have to read their lyrics. Thus I chose their indubitably most offensive album, and I'll be reading DarkLyrics the entire time.

Actually yeah I've heard most of this album, just not as a complete package. I'll probably listen to a second Anal Cunt album after this because I have nothing better to do. Or maybe some GG Allin.

Musically this album is utter garbage. The blastbeats all sound the same and the guitar is muddy and sounds like the tremolo picking of one bass chord (they probably used that guitar tone to mask the fact that they had no bass player). The vocals are the only saving grace... Or not. I mean, they're just as objectively awful as the rest of the music, but they're FUNNY. I don't really care how twisted I am, but they are especially hilarious when you understand the vocals, if only because of shock value.

Also, when an actual riff appears (I Convinced You To Beat Your Wife On A Daily Basis, I Paid J. Howell To Rape You, I Lit Your Baby On Fire, Into The Oven), they're actually pretty good riffs. With a better bass tone and less ridiculous vocals, this band could be your life! Or just, you know, okay to listen to.

To note as well, one strong point of the lyrics is that many of the songs have ridiculous endings, which makes them all the more amusing (See I Lit Your Baby On Fire, I Ate Your Horse, I Sold Your Dog To A Chinese Restaurant)

And when the lyrics get REALLY dark (I Pushed Your Wife In Front Of The Subway, I Made Your Kid Get AIDS, So You Could Watch It Die, Connor Clapton Commit Suicide Because His Dad Sucks), there's a certain appeal to such horrid nonsense which makes those songs rise above the others.

Last note, this album will give you a headache by the halfway point. Just read the lyrics, feel guilty for laughing at the lyrical nasties, and then go to sleep.

Best Track: Musically, Into The Oven. Lyrically, THEY'RE ALL WINNERS!
Rating: 2/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 187: Perdition City by Ulver (Album Choice: csd/Casey D.)

I was gonna listen to Tri Repetae but after the musings of Seth Putnam I need something lighter and softer than Autechre. Thus, I took the logical route and chose a black metal band.

Well, actually, these guys only released a couple of black metal albums and this particular album is electronica but whatever. Here we go.

This is EASILY the best album I've listened to today. Dark, moody, groovy, bassy, jazzy, emotional, cathartic and above all BEAUTIFUL, this album has the right traits for either a palate cleanser or a deep listener. I don't need to write much for this one.

However, sometimes, the vocals and vocal samples get really corny. Dead City Centres for example. Still a damn fine album and a definite keeper.

Best Track: Porn Piece Or The Scars Of Old Kisses
Rating: 8.5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 188: Hunting High And Low by A-ha (Album Choice: Phillip S.)

I have a fairly long list of songs that give me post-traumatic stress disorder attacks. Yellow Submarine brings back haunting memories of bible camp. Livin On A Prayer makes me think of elementary school douchebags (also it's an awful song). Don't Stop Believin terrorizes me with flashbacks to lonely people and bar karaoke.

Not every song on this list has a story. One song with no story would be Take On Me. That song just sucks. And it's the first song on this album.

Luckily the rest of the album just breezes by. It's ridiculously 80s but ridiculously inconsequential.

Best Track: And You Tell Me
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 189: Los Sounds De Krauts by Colour Haze

I think I've made it pretty clear that I hate most jam bands, but Colour Haze is the most explicit exception to the rule, seeing how they're incredibly jammy in the studio as opposed to Ween or Akron/Family.

This album is wonderfully structured and makes great use of the immense song lengths (two songs over 17 minutes!) and the double CD length. Also the opener is my new favorite song of theirs, beating out previous champ Aquamaria.

I have no complaints to file.

Best Track: I Won't Stop
Rating: 8.5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 190: Mother Mother by O My Heart (Album Choice: Tokzic)

Terse and honest, that's the goal. The horrible album cover, genre description and first 10 seconds of this album gave me some really depressing expectations. I don't like most generic indie pop like OK Go so I had no reason to hope for better.

However, the first few songs were actually pretty damn good. Nothing to drop dead over, in fact everything sounds vaguely derivative of bands like The New Pornographers, but these guys can write a song.

Unfortunately, they get too precious. In almost every way possible. Harmonies go way too high, instrumentation becomes superfluous while dense (What the fuck is this? A banjo in a 3 chord power pop song?), misspellings in song titles are trite, unnecessary reverb and chorus applied liberally, you name a crappy small time mistake and they've probably commit it.

They're pretty good songwriters, they just need a little more restraint. An EP on a more stripped back setup would suit these guys fine.

Best Track: Burning Pile
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 191: Dopethrone by Electric Wizard

Seminal stoner
Surprisingly never heard
Sleep is better band

Best Track: Dopethrone
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

Re: Meh, let's do it again, this time for a year

Day 192: Since I Left You by The Avalanches

It's telling of something that this album isn't even remotely high on my list of "Wait, what do you mean you've never listened to that album?" albums.

I just don't know what.

What I do know is the fact that I've heard naught ONE song from this album is a testament to how utterly lame the clubs I go to are.

Best Track: Frontier Psychiatrist
Rating: 7/10