Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 323: Long Season by Fishmans (Album Choice: ilikexd)

When was the last time I reviewed something Japanese? I'm so fucking lazy and sporadic that I honestly do not remember if it was recently or months ago.

This album is very airy. That's the best adjective I can think of to describe it. It's also gorgeous, the plethora of sounds used really makes for an engaging single track.

OK back to college work.

Best Track: Uhhh....
Rating: 7.5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 324: The Glowing Man by Swans

Last time I reviewed a Swans album, nobody knew about the whole rape scandal. I'm gonna try to separate art from artist but if you have been living under a rock when it comes to noise or post-rock, read up now. And stop supporting this guy financially. I deliberately bought second-hand tickets because I'm not giving this guy a cent of my money.

For the record, it's probably still horribly immoral to add to his head count at the concert but whatever, maybe I'll join in on some heckling.

Anyways, onto the music, this is definitely in the same vein as the other reunion Swans albums, but it's a lot more drone and a lot less aggro, with ambient textures and folky instrumentation galore. As a result, it feels more repetitive than To Be Kind but this actually works in the album's favor. Two hours passes by much faster when the drones soothe you rather than agitate you. Almost nothing here is grating or boring. I don't like to compare albums since benchmarks are almost always stupid, but if we were to compare the longest track on this album, the title track, and Bring The Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture from To Be Kind, the shitty latter track overstayed it's welcome within the first 10 minutes of its sloppy Umphrey's McIndustrial crescendocore nonsense. The Glowing Man, on the other hand, uses much more repetition in spite of a perceived lack of structure, creating a hypnotic atmosphere. It also avoids the cliche of crescendo-core that was all too prominent in the last few Swans albums and relies instead on abrupt volume and texture shifts, with less corny vocals pervading everywhere. Basically, this track is fucking unique, and that makes it a lot more enjoyable than more cliche Explosions In The Sky-esque dime-a-dozen post-rock tracks.

There's more to an album than one song, but to do even MORE comparison (ugh), the ordering on this album is phenomenal. We start with a quick 1-2 punch, move through floaty hypnosis, and end with Finally, Peace which is a good ending even if it seems somewhat trite at times. The artwork is... still terrible but whatever. If there's one really conspicuous flaw, its the vocals. Gira was never a particularly strong singer, but at least in projects like Angels of Light or many tracks from Soundtracks For The Blind the vocals fit the music well. Here, it sounds like Gira's trying to emulate an angsty 90s grunge-crooner and it's horribly cheesy all the time. Luckily, this is not as big a problem as it could be, because most of the time this album stick to instrumental bits.

If this is truly the end of this incarnation of Swans, it was a damn fine cup of coffee. Wait what? What the fuck am I saying?

Good ending to a good band with a shitbag frontman, but hey that's rock music for you.

Best Track: The Glowing Man
Rating: 8/10

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 325: Awake by Tycho (Album Choice: Arkuski)

...Ehhh, it wasn't that bad but it got kinda samey after only 37 minutes. Good enough of a review for me.

btw high school graduate official fuck my shcool

Best Track: Apogee
Rating: 5/10

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Read My Reviews

...the whole rape scandal. I'm gonna try to separate art from artist but if you have been living under a rock when it comes to noise or post-rock, read up now. And stop supporting this guy financially...Good ending to a good band with a shitbag frontman

I don't want to derail your thread too much but I'd advise you, and anyone really, to avoid jumping to conclusions and instantly demonizing a person. Just as there are rapists who lie about raping, there are people who lie about being raped.

To report it on Facebook was, to me, the wrong thing to do. Facebook is about getting attention and inciting a mob mentality. The right thing to do would be to file a report with the police and have them investigate. Unless she does this, there's no concrete evidence and neither party can be seen as telling the truth.

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Again, I'll avoid derailing the thread by offering my concrete opinion.

Grimm said she was raped. Gira said "I DON'T KNOW THIS WOMAN" and hurled many unsavory terms at her. Grimm said that that was bullshit. Only THEN did Gira basically admit that he fucked her but tried to claim it was consensual.

Everything about that story makes me thing Gira is a sketchball.

Regarding reporting on Facebook first, the police have proven themselves time and time again to be useless (see: Brock). I do think that they're still the first people you'd want to talk to but we must account for post-traumatic stress disorder at the very least.

Also the viability of any claim being false is really low, 98 rapes go unreported for every 2 false rape reports. I certainly do not doubt they happen, but typically a false rape claim is HIGHLY unsubstantiated such as the case with that shitty Bright Eyes dude. Shitty music but BLATANTLY falsely accused.

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 326: Demon Days by Gorillaz (Album Choice: Jade F.)

I've heard a few singles from this album. But not much else. Are these guys, or is it guy, still relevant anywhere?

I love eclectic albums, and this album is fairly eclectic, but I don't love it. There are some wonderful tracks on here, but it's honestly not grabbing my attention the whole way through. The ideas all seem to be great but the songwriting itself varies from super catchy to piss-poor. The features are mostly fantastic but they usually can't save the song itself from being boring. And somehow, in spite of the aforementioned eclecticism, this album gets very samey very fast.

50 minutes of wasted talent with a good number of shining spots. I wonder if Blur somehow manages to be more boring than the bad parts of this album.

Best Track: Feel Good Inc
Rating: 4.5/10

[TheRapingDragon]

Re: Read My Reviews

Are these guys, or is it guy, still relevant anywhere?

Music wise it's all Damon Albarn but it was technically co-founded with Jamie Hewlett, who does all the visuals. They've become too inactive to remain relevant, don't think they've released anything in years.

I wonder if Blur somehow manages to be more boring than the bad parts of this album.

Blur were huge in the 90's. I still remember their whole Britpop rivalry with Oasis and Pulp, good times for pop music.

[Snapps]

Re: Read My Reviews

music game related but really tho top album of whenever it came out

wac - 音楽

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 327: Copia by Eluvium (Album Choice: Trogdor!!!)

Serene and peaceful
I really suck at haikus
Not top ambient

Best Track: Prelude For Time Feelers
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 328: Inches by Les Savy Fav (Album Choice: FoJaR)

This is a singles compilation. That reminds me of the fact that I desperately need to listen to Terminal Tower before I see Pere Ubu live. I also have very high expectations for this, because a singles compilation should literally be nothing but hit after hit after hit (and some B-Sides but I don't excuse a song for being shit just because it's a B-Side).

Oh wait, this is BACKWARDS chronology? Why the fuck would they do that? This has started off extremely strong to the point where I was wondering how these guys had everything in place so damn well from the start but this isn't the start at all. But it is good, catchy, raucous post-punk. Let's see if they started off better or worse.

This album is definitely the sound of a band regressing. This isn't to say their earlier songs, or the songs that come later on this album, are bad at all. They're still mostly enjoyable although some are a bit too experimental for their own good (what the hell is this Reformat bullshit?). However, the first 5 tracks were such a joyous kick in the earteeth that everything else pales in comparison. The major exception to this is Our Coastal Hymn which is absolutely fantastic.

I wonder if I'd like this album more in reverse track order. Nonetheless, a strong collection of songs.

Best Track: Meet Me In The Dollar Bin
Rating: 7.5/10

[choof]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 316: Klexos EP by Rø (Album Choice: choof)

Hey, it made me study, so that's an automatic plus one. These drones are all rather bubbly in texture almost like Basinski's Watermusic. Very pleasurable stuff to listen to. A little more variance would be nice, but I suppose some appreciate more homogeneity in their ambient.

Best Track: To me it really just sounded like one track
Rating: 7/10

oh yeah I totally forgot I asked you to do this lol
thanks bub, nice to see that you can hear the basinski influence

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 329: Terminal Tower by Pere Ubu

I wasn't lying when I said I needed to listen to it.

I had a pretty decent review written but lost it to a shitty phone. Let's make this succinct. This is more consistent than The Modern Dance mostly because it only features one aimless dicking piece. The rest of the songs are either rockers, boring "dark" songs or really fucked up pop. It's still not totally consistent but it's good.

Best Track: Final Solution
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 330: Friend and Foe by Menomena (Album Choice: Shikari)

Started off nice and strong but this one got old pretty fast. Good textures, decent songwriting but the whole thing is just a bit too samey.

Best Track: Muscle'n Flo
Rating: 5.5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 331: Wildflower by The Avalanches

Shoot me because my trippy idiocy prefers this to Since I Left You .

Best Track: Colours
Rating: 7.5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Read My Reviews

Day 332: Stalker by Sufjan Stevens

I still can't tell if this is real or not. But I can tell that it's FUCKING HORRIBLE. I love lo-fi music, I love amateurish music, I love garage rock, I love noise rock, I listen to the music of teenagers on DXM and I THINK THIS IS HORRIBLE. I understand that "The Definitive Album" was a joke whether or not this is real, but Jesus fucking Christ this sounds like the product of a paraplegic trying to play 3 instruments at once using his feet, none of which he actually knows how to use, while singing lyrics he wrote to the girl he wants to hatefuck.

Belongs back in the dumpster.

Best Track: None
Rating: 1/10