Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp

[rayword45]

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

Day 242: Lucky Leaves by Krill

I probably should've listened to these guys' whole discography a little earlier considering their final show was a month ago, but whatever they mostly played songs from their latest so it's all good.

This album is not as good as A Distant Fist Unclenching. This album is shorter yet more frontloaded, and I'd say that longer song lengths fit these guys better. Onto the next release.

Best Track: Purity Of Heart
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 243: Steve Hears Pile in Malden and Bursts into Tears by Krill

Actually, contrary to what I said in that last review, I think this is the peak of their all-too-short career. 4 great DIY guitar pop songs with energy and a sense of humor and then signs of their more ambitious approach on their final album with Fresh Pond. This one is all killer, no filler, which makes sense since it's an EP.

Best Track: Turd
Rating: 8.5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 244: Alam No Hris by Krill

Yep, now I'm finished with their discography. These guys definitely got better as they got on. Besides the unappealing lo-fi recording (and I love lo-fi usually) these songs certainly seem less focused than their later albums. All of the gems are marred by such poor production quality (it's not charmingly shitty like The Mountain Goats or Guided By Voices, it's just unnecessary), and then the mindless drifting isn't any more charming when it's recorded on tape. It sounds like these guys wanted to be a lot more anthemic or directly pop in the beginning, and there's a lot of weird factors like group chants, country tinges and unnecessary background vocals that all luckily got cut out (for the most part) in further releases. Just to drive my whiny point home, listen to Solitaire. That is some fantastic songwriting going on there, and it sounds like their signature groove, but the recording makes this sound like some crappy garage band randomly struck songwriting luck. Alright enough jerking off on this issue.

I'm now done with this band's discography. To sum it up, this band's RYM page is all effed up. How is it that their final album, their best album by a good margin has the lowest rating? How does something like this have a higher average rating than Steve Hears Pile in Malden and Bursts into Tears? Some bullshit going on over there.

Best Track: Solitaire
Rating: 4.5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 245: Nadir by 4mat (Album Choice: Crazyjayde)

Meh, I see the kind of victorious adventure Earthbound-kinda vibe this guy went for but it only works in small parts, the rest is just dull and often too modern to evoke nostalgia which is 40 percent of what I look for in chiptune (brostep sections?). Pretty uncaptivating minus a few songs, though it may fare well with repeated listens.

Best Track: Vein (parts 1 and 2)
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 246: These Open Fields by The Flashbulb (Album Choice: WSCB)

Speaking as a fan of Kirlian Selections, this one seems A LOT more scattershot, and a lot more like he just slapped a bunch of songs together instead of thinking of an album as a cohesive whole. There are some beautiful tracks, don't get me wrong, but this is too long and too inconsistent. I say these words worded differently a lot, don't I?

Best Track: I Wish I Had Died That Day
Rating: 4/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 247: Prom King by Skylar Spence

Anyone hear that new Animal Collective single? It's basically saccharine trash but I kinda like it in a "this is dumb fun" way.

Anyways, I saw this guy at Boston Calling. He was good. This album is pretty good, the instrumentals don't hold up to the Saint Pepsi days but that's fine, and the untrained vocals are charming. Would love to dance to this.

Best Track: Prom King
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 248: Drinking Songs by Matt Elliott (Album Choice: Crazyjayde)

This is a cool collection of sad psychedelic folk songs with some electronic influences. Atmospheric as hell, but the lyrics leave something to be desired, and that last track is a complete waste of time after the first 7 minutes or so. If you shorten it to that, this is a much better 53 minute album. But this a keeper nonetheless.

Best Track: The Kursk
Rating: 6.5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 249: Wide Angle by Hybrid (Album Choice: XCV)

Well actually, Wide/r Angle was requested but fuck me if I can't be bothered to listen to 3 goddamn hours of music, half of which is live or alternate versions.

This sounds retro as hell to me, probably because ITG nostalgia. These are some good tracks overall. I have nothing to say it's 3:15 AM and I'm tired as hell.

Best Track: Beachcoma
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 250: The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens

Man, it is taking me ages to get through this guy's stuff because his albums are all ass long for some reason. This isn't as good as Illinois but it is better than Michigan and Carrie & Lowell. It's way too long, the electronic stuff only works about half the time with this guy's sissy-ass voice and it gets pretty repetitive. But it's still not bad.

Just too fucking long.

Best Track: Get Real Get Right
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 251: The Parallax II: Future Sequence by Between The Buried And Me (Album Choice: master q60)

These guys are very good with their riffage, and their technicality only rarely seems superfluous or wanky. Unfortunately, good riff doesn't immediately translate to good song. These guys need to work on their writing chops (or maybe they already had them, seeing how earlier albums have better reviews). Also 74 minutes of metalcore is too much for me.

I still might see these guys live for the hell of it.

Best Track: Astral Body
Rating: 5.5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 252: Jane Doe by Converge (Album Choice: noname219)

As a person who doesn't particularly care for metalcore, I've gotta say this was a pretty damn good album.

Do I need to say more?

Good riffs and guitar tones, I thought the singer was a woman, technical work without coming off as wanky, blah de blah, emotional content is good, songwriting is done well (time signatures man) and the length is perfect. If I make a dick joke here it wouldn't be funny. But then I guess I just implied one.

Best Track: Phoenix In Flight
Rating: 7.5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 253: EARTHMASS by EARTHMASS (Album Choice: squeesfan)

Yesterday I saw Between The Buried And Me. They didn't play White Walls.

This is a pretty decent album... EP... Whatever. Needs to be shorter regardless of whichever it is. I'd like to hear a full album from these guys lest it not contain too many 20 minute songs.

Best Track: Spire
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 254: Tracing Structures by Terminal11 (Album Choice: Crazyjayde)

I'm trying to listen to as many 2015 albums as possible before the end of the year. This is literally the only album I've got on my list of requests that was released in 2015, which makes sense since most requests were made in the summer of 2014.

If you actually read these OR EVEN IF YOU DON'T recommend some of your favorite or most hated 2015 albums. I'll probably review them, breaking my earlier limit of 10 albums a person.

Anyways, I dig this guy, and I like the funky acid style this album has, not to mention it's a perfect length. However, there are no obvious highlights and it does get pretty samey.

Best Track: Tracing Structures though not by a wide margin at all
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 255: Exercises in Futility by Mgła

This is the 7th best album of 2015? This is some corny bullshit.

Best Track: The 6th one is the closest to sounding good
Rating: 3.5/10

[rayword45]

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

Day 256: Viet Cong by Viet Cong

I've never listened to Women because I have no sex life. Thus, this album is held to no standards. And I like it a ton! The drums/drum loops on this album are phenomenal as is the use of repetition, the fuzz and noise levels are both gloriously psychedelic, they can pull off long songs without getting boring and instead of being front-loaded it's backloaded. I don't know if that's good or bad but it's at least fresh!

I'm losing my standards of judgement rapidly... That's a lie I never had any lol.

Best Track: Death or March of Progress
Rating: 8/10