Recommend me some 2022 albums +1000th album halp

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 774: Palimpsest by Lauren Bousfield

So this is Nero's Day At Disneyland apparently, and it mostly still sounds like that project! But there's now vocals, and a sort of pop vibe to a lot of these songs, except that pop vibe is kinda fucked over by the sheer abrasiveness of the glitchiness and drums go fast.

Part of me thinks this needs multiple more listens. Part of me thinks "eh, one more is probably all it takes to get it". I found myself absolutely loving some tracks, and found the rest to just be kinda annoying. Interestingly enough, being long or short has no dictation on how much I like a song on this album! Is that unusual for me? I don't know, so how the fuck would any of you know? I've been doing this shit for 7 YEARS NOW? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Best Track: Birds Falling Out Of The Sky or Futurelessness
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 775: Dead Cities by The Future Sound of London

This was pretty meh, dunno why it's so highly regarded. A few good cuts but some of the samples they use are annoying as fuck.

Best Track: My Kingdom
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 776: Positions by Ariana Grande

Shut the fuck up.

I still think that this woman is ridiculously overrated in terms of physical appearance by both men and women, but that has nothing to do with the music, I'm just saying that because it's something I find annoying and have found annoying for an insane amount of years now. In terms of music, overrated? Uh, sure maybe but I don't think I'm the target audience. I have very little opinion of what I've heard of her music mostly, it's mostly just completely forgettable to me.

Yeah, this is a snoozer. Sorry. The lyrics are the least boring part, and they're assfuckingly terrible. I'd like to think I'm a sex-positive person, but Ariana Grande + lyrics about her pussy = c'mon man this is the wrong artist. I get that she's probably trying to seem more mature but I'm just not feeling it. Beats? Snooooooooze. Features? Maybe the best part, and they're still sucky. This was a waste of time.

Best Track: Six Thirty
Rating: 4/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 777: Visions of Bodies Being Burned by Clipping

I miscapitalized the artist name. Oh well, who gives a shit? These guys are way better than Death Grips even though I don't think they're all that comparable. This album is even better than the one I heard last year.

I don't feel like writing more. Master's classes and COVID quarantines are a motherfucking bitch.

Best Track: Pain Everyday or Enlacing
Rating: 9/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 778: Dwellers of the Deep by Wobbler

TBH I don't even know how the fuck I found this album or why I'm listening to it. I don't know why, but it vaguely reminds me of Comus despite being nowhere near the same genre. I respect the craft, but for the most part I find this kinda dull. The exception, oddly enough, is the mega-long ending track, which falls victim to all the same things that make me find the rest of the album boring, but somehow when you expand it even more it goes from boring to majestic? Dunno, whatever, meh.

Best Track: I just said it motherfucker
Rating: 6/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 779: Long Haired Locusts by Godcaster (Album Choice: robertsona)

Yet again, there's something in here that VAGUELY reminds me of Comus and I don't know why. Maybe it's just my mindset today. Maybe it's just all these harmonized vocals. I don't know.

Anyways, that's really only slightly, because again but even moreso than that wanky album I just listened to, this really sounds NOTHING like Comus. I don't know what band I'd compare this to really, but this shit is actually 100% my jam when it all comes together. Weird, janky guitar work mixed with slight pop sensibility and a whole lotta art pretension (I mean that in a good way, I promise), all with a feeling that it could all fall apart at any second (I read that this was recorded live-to-tape, giving it a lo-fi sensibility that I really enjoy). I can't say I loved every track on here, some of them just came and go without leaving much of an impact, but when this one clicks, it CLICKS HARD. I will definitely return to this to see if it deserves to be one of my year end favorites.

Best Track: Escape from the Challenger Deep
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 780: Love + Light by Daniel Avery

Day 449: Song For Alpha by Daniel Avery (Album Choice: internet music nerds)

"Yo somehow this music is blending in PERFECTLY with the pop music blasting in this car. They don't contrast at all, which is scary... okay that's probably just a first track thing.

Sensation is great."

That was all I managed to write down on my first go through with this album, before slinking off into half-sleep. I've listened to this album about five times now. Before, I would shit out a review towards the end of an album to get it over with, but this one caused me to lose words. "Before" was the absolute wrong word to use considering I still do that, it's just that this album is specifically difficult to shitpost out a review to. That's a good thing!

Geogaddi is one of my all-time favorite albums, and this album seems to capture that same vibe that I love in large part, although this one definitely isn't as dark and there are more "danceable" moments here, using that term lightly (basically where the albums house flavor shows up). Either way, a great, great album and rivaling Kali for my current favorite of 2018 spot. Unlike Boards of Canada though, I can confidently say that the short tracks here really don't have shit on the long tracks.

Best Track: Quick Eternity
Rating: 8.5/10

This was in 2018, I still really enjoy that album, but only at really specific moments, it's not something I jam every month to be quite honest. And in retrospect, 8.5/10 was probably 1-1.5 too generous.

Should I compare the two albums or should I review this one on its own merits? I'm not actually going to decide, I'm just gonna barf out my thoughts like normal and see what happens. Compared to Song For Alpha (okay yup we're going that way already) this album is way more accessible feeling, songs seem a lot less understated and things are a lot more upbeat and in-your-face. I assume the first disc is supposed to be Love and the second is supposed to be Light, but honestly they should switch titles if that's the case, as the songs on the first disc are a LOT more danceable and aggressive with percussion than the frequently angelic-sounding (I mean that as neither a compliment or pejorative) second half.

I... I'm really stumped at this point to be quite honest as how to rate this. With the exception of the consecutive annoyances of Depth Wish and Searing Light, Forward Motion, combined taking up less than 4 minutes of this 60 minute album, there is nothing less than pleasant to my ears here. I'm also fond of the pseudo-double album (is it pseudo?) structuring, as it prevents any singular mood or style from becoming overly repetitious. But... I don't know, there's some kind of magic missing that I'm just not sure how to word it. I can honestly say I LOVED at least a good half of this album, and of the remaining 26ish minutes of music it's never anything worse than "okay, this exists and is chill enough" but I'm just not sure if this fully clicks as an album for me.

Fuck it, remind me to re-evaluate this WITHIN A MONTH because I really am stumped.

Best Track: Darlinnn on side one, A Story in E5 on side two
Rating: 7/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 781: Atlas Vending by METZ

I bet if it wasn't for COVID this shit would slap live. However, I'm not that into this kinda anthemic garage punk stuff recorded for some reason. Seems kinda derivative. Not writing more.

Best Track: Hail Taxi
Rating: 5/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 782: Róisín Machine by Róisín Murphy

Can you tell by how many albums I've been reviewing in a short span that I'm cramming the fuck out of finals right now? Undergrad wasn't that bad, but accelerated Master's programs are something fucking else I'll you that right now, I really hate my life. Thank god for being autistic, ADHD and having on-and-off hemicrania because it means I can get some nice fucking extensions.

When I looked at the cover of this album I thought that this was going to be an album by a drag queen or trans woman, but then I googled it and this is a cis woman. Is this cultural appropriation? I really have no idea, and the disco vibe of this whole thing makes that question even more confusing. Nothing from this album comes off as mocking or like she's stealing from a culture or anything, and apparently she has a hardcore gay fanbase so I guess that makes it all okay. I dunno, I'm just a cis male. Is this a music review or a Tumblr post?

Anyways, I'm going to compare this to the most obvious choice from this year, that being What's Your Pleasure by Jessie Ware. Both are throwbacky disco-influenced albums, both are being hyped up by the usual corners of the internet you'd expect and both are a similar total run length. Anyways, this album isn't as good, but it's still pretty good I suppose. These tracks are stupid long and not all of them are hits, so it's nowhere near as consistent as that last album. But when it hits, it's great fun. Anyways, back to not doing my research!

Best Track: We Got Together
Rating: 7/10 (can I pull a Fantano and say a "light 7")

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 783: The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens

It's been 5 years since I last reviewed this guy, because he hasn't put out a relevant album in 5 years. All he's released has been outtake collections, remix bullshit and some collaborations that people didn't pay attention to. I remember Carrie and Lowell made me irrationally angry when I first heard it, but it doesn't do that any more, it just kinda bores me besides like the first track and 4th of July.

This also bores the shit out of me. And it's 80 minutes what the fuck.

Best Track: Landslide
Rating: 4/10

[James Somers]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 783: The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens

It's been 5 years since I last reviewed this guy, because he hasn't put out a relevant album in 5 years. All he's released has been outtake collections, remix bullshit and some collaborations that people didn't pay attention to. I remember Carrie and Lowell made me irrationally angry when I first heard it, but it doesn't do that any more, it just kinda bores me besides like the first track and 4th of July.

This also bores the shit out of me. And it's 80 minutes what the fuck.

Best Track: Landslide
Rating: 4/10

It happens when you are waiting, waiting for something, but it does not meet your expectations. After all, 5 years is a significant period of time, during this time people can change a lot, their view of things changes, their thoughts change. As a result, the new product will no longer suit the audience that it used to be.

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 784: Loops of Infinity (A Rave Loveletter) by DJ Metatron

Scrolling through the RYM charts and I find this thing, which only had a very limited physical release on vinyl and otherwise can only be streamed from Soundcloud or YouTube. I started streaming it on SoundCloud, then saw that it cut off a half-hour early compared to YouTube and switched.

This is nothing like the other stuff I've reviewed in that I can't really pick out individual moments as highlights or lowlights. This is just one long DJ set, but it was fucking beautiful to me. I can see someone finding this too long or boring but it's giving me rave flashbacks and in the era of COVID this is exactly what I need.

Best Track: The whole damn thing
Rating: 9/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 785: Inner Song by Kelly Lee Owens

Alright awesome reviewing two things I really like in a row, that's a rarity! I meant to review her self-named debut 3 years ago but never got around to it, and now I'm feeling like that was a massive mistake because this oscillates perfectly between cute synth-pop stuff and atmospheric dance tracks. Never a boring minute to me. Also the song with John Cale reminds me of Cannibal Holocaust for some reason.

Best Track: Melt! or Jeannette
Rating: 9/10

[rayword45]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

Day 786: GAIA by Blank Banshee

This is a lot better than the last thing I reviewed by this guy, in that it's at least more consistent, but it rarely reaches the point of actually amazing. Actually, it pretty much never does. It's all just pleasantly boring.

Is this still considered vaporwave?

Best Track: blah find out for yourself man this one is short
Rating: 5.5/10

[choof]

Re: Recommend me some 2020 albums halp

https://kevinandthebikes.bandcamp.com/album/ironic-songs

pls

it's actually quite good for a band whose legacy thus far is musical ed edd and eddy shitposts