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chaosincurate · 3 months

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chaosincurate's top 20 albums of 2023

For the second year in a row, I'm late to the year-end list party, but the format doesn't lose value as a way of finding new music just because it's not the holidays anymore, so here is my list:

Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!

An exuberant and self-assured pop album with charismatic vocal performances from Jessie Ware throughout. It's groovy, it's greedy, and it's wonderfully hedonistic. It feels reminiscent of 00's pop by the likes of Rihanna and Katy Perry, but with a modern and classy flair that makes it as fun and danceable as anything by the aforementioned pair, but in a whole new way.

Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

Yves Tumor continues to be one of the most interesting rock acts of their generation in a way that doesn't feel likely to polarize. It's as if we're hearing the pop music from a human-esque alien race. It appeals in all the ways it should, but is barely recognizable as pop music. Yves Tumor is generally yet to click with me properly, but they are undeniably intriguing and someone rock fans should be paying attention to.

boygenius - the record

On first impression, I thought the record was wildly overrated. Now, a few more listens later, but perhaps not enough listens as I should have had, well... I still don't get the hype. But I do find myself enjoying it slightly more with every listen. Maybe by next year I'll see it as amongst the best this year had to offer, but as of right now it's at a lower-than-most but still respectable 18th for me. I love the more upbeat cuts, like $20 and Not Strong Enough, and unsurprisingly considering the solo work of the 2 artists I heard from before this, the lyricism is brilliant with it's offhanded cleverness and sense of humour.

Laufey - Bewitched

Laufey really managed to sneak her way into my heavy rotation with this album. It became one of my most listened albums of last year despite the fact I would have sworn I only listened enough for about five full listens, accounting for shuffle plays, had I not seen the last.fm stats for myself. To be clear, that's not just the seeds for an Apple Music shuffle conspiracy theory (although there are traces of that involved, I'm onto you Apple), it's a comment on how easy this album is to listen to. I found it an unrewarding listen when trying to analyze it in the way I do most of the music I listen to, perhaps on account of my inexperience with jazz and jazz-inspired music, but when I just let it play, it truly shined. It's just so constantly in the groove, relaxing, and uplifting all at once.

Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy

I honestly struggle to put my finger on what appeals to me about this album. All I have are hints of things. It is a very dynamic album, and some songs on it feel quite communal too, which is nice, but those characteristics don't really stand out that much compared to albums I like this much. There's a bit of cool experimentation on display, but nothing truly groundbreaking. It's almost as if I love this album like I love people: not for a specific trait, but the indivisible whole that is made up by those traits. I recognize that isn't very helpful to you as a prospective listener, but honestly any attempt to describe this band and this sound is futile. It's sort of art pop, sort of hip-hop, but both labels, even put together aren't really apt descriptions. AOTY even calls it neo-psychadelia, which I think is an awful descriptor too. You truly just have to listen to this one.

Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loveliest Time

For an album far better than Emotion this sure got overlooked. I'm pretty sure I'm yet to see a year-end list that contained this album, and that is frankly a disgrace. The album has a particular warmth about it that remains as the album traverses conventional acoustic dance pop sounds and thumping electropop seamlessly. I've seen it called a b-sides collection, but I think it'd be more accurate to refer to it as a sequel to The Loneliest Time because calling it a collection of songs does a disservice to the cohesion this album has. If I weren't told otherwise I would have fully believed that this was the initial tracklist. In fact, the only hint I have that this is anything other than an album birthed from the same conditions as any other is the strange dip in quality in the last couple of tracks, tracks which feel strangely unfocused, meandering, and uninspired for what was otherwise an incredibly streamlined listen, thematically speaking. That's also the sole reason this album isn't in the top ten or possibly even top 5 for me.

shame - Food for Worms

This, for me, is one of those albums where, when you haven't listened in a little while, you think your enjoyment with it in the past won't hold up when you get around to it again, only to prove yourself wrong when you get around to it. That sounds like a very specific experience, but I know a bunch of albums and artists just like that, and I'm fairly certain that I've written about the phenomenon before. I think in this case it comes from the fact that they don't really have a particularly unique sound, but they make up for it with their impeccable execution and variety. There isn't an inch of indie rock ground that doesn't feel covered expertly here, which makes for an enjoyable experience, but not a lasting impact, at least for me. If shame can cement an identity with their next album, I think they could really begin to stand out in a crowded British indie rock/post-punk scene.

Danny Brown - Quaranta

Spoilers: Danny Brown makes 2 appearances on my list this year. His first, is for Quaranta. Having grown to appreciate that alienating intonation, I was far more able to respect that it helps Danny to stand out in a mix while also lending itself to a feeling that he is an obtrusive, unignorable outsider, which isn't so true anymore, but it does lend the album a certain fun aesthetic. That being said, the moments where it is absent, in my opinion, are more powerful and definitive for the album. When he tones it down or strips it back entirely, it tells you, along with the lyrics, that this is a more reflective Danny Brown.

I'll need more time with the album before I'm able to describe my thoughts more coherently, but I really enjoyed it and have no reservations about it's placement on this list.

The Japanese House - In the End it Always Does

There is a great deal of texture on this album, and that texture is cotton wool. The type that is warm and cozy and not the least bit itchy. I've said before that it's almost like an album from The 1975 that is entirely uninterested in spectacle and is only interested in catchiness as a secondary factor, instead opting to draw you in and create a sense of intimacy. Where The 1975 point at the layer of abstraction between you and the band, the one that makes them more symbols than people, painting it all these fancy colours and making it ornamental, The Japanese House attempts to remove it altogether, and for a second you'd be forgiven for thinking that the lives and experiences described in these songs are your own. I've tried to communicate this throughout this write-up, but to be very clear and explicit: this is not a derivative copy of The 1975. It has similarities, partially on account of the fact that the band's drummer produced the album, but the album is more defined by it's differences to their labelmates' efforts than it's similarities.

slowthai - UGLY

I really liked this album, and there's little point in denying that but I don't really feel like praising it on account of the allegations. Moving on.

Dispirited Spirits - Redshift Blues

Redshift Blues is a jazzy midwest emo concept album using various astronomical concepts and events as a metaphor for what appears to be a strained relationship. I say "what appears to be" because between the astronomy references and just general sesquipedalianism, this album is a difficult one to unpack logically. Emotionally though, it's all right there, easy to understand. You don't need to understand the concept of redshift to pick up on the fact that there is a longing in the vocals, and space or angst in the instrumental. That's what makes this one special for me. There is so much feeling that you can latch onto right away, but there is so much to comb through lyrically and learn about in the process that no matter what you're looking for from this type of music, you're likely to get it. It's a very underrated album, just by virtue of having little attention paid to it, so moreso than with any other album on this list, give this a listen if it sounds like your thing. It'd most likely genuinely help the artist here.

McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?

I quite liked McKinley Dixon's last effort, For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her, but I felt as though it wasn't drawing me in that much, which made it feel a little less special to me. That (subjective) problem doesn't exist on his more recent effort. The eponymous jazz elements make this album stand out, not because they exist per se - there are plenty of hip-hop albums that implement jazz to some degree - but the way the genres feed off eachother here make for some immaculate vibes. It also helps to sell the theme of beauty in difficult situations, combining arguably the most widely aesthetically appreciated genre of jazz and hip-hop which is generally seen as the favoured artistic medium of those who are often discriminated against and impoverished. It's a beautiful sound that passively instills hope, and it's the driving force behind this album for me, although far from the only thing worth appreciating.

Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS

This album, for me, is Olivia Rodrigo earning and cementing her fame and adoration, and preparing to create her legacy within pop music. If you'll forgive a quick tangent, I heard Matty Healy say that "there is a big market of music for people who don't like music". Now, the guy is a prick, but I think that quote is a banger, and I bring it up here, because I think one of the big things that makes Olivia Rodrigo so special is her ability to toe that line. Vampire is a great example, you can hear that on the radio, and barring the awful censoring of the term "fame-fucker" to instead say "dream-crusher", it doesn't feel out of place. And yet, you can pay close attention to it and pick out amazing details, and get that effort repaid in the form of more enjoyment, not just in the moment, but in the now recontextualized listens on the radio, or in stores. She is clearly passionate about music, and passionate specifically about the music she makes too, but she's also making music for people who don't like music at the same time, which is a rare crossover to achieve on this level.

This is a very interesting album, and I feel like I could pick something new to talk about with every listen for years, but what's most important is that the music is good, and if great pop with rock elements sounds like something that could interest you, this one won't disappoint.

Genesis Owusu - STRUGGLER

Another album that is difficult to describe, because I love making my job harder on myself. I would hesitantly call it something like dance-punk or something along those lines if forced to, but despite the fact that this doesn't come across as incredibly experimental or genre-bending, there are elements of so many very different genres within it that it's hard for me to pinpoint. It's almost as if it's not genre-bending, but instead a whole new genre all of its own, as useless as a genre of exactly one album is. The traces of dance, grimey hip-hop, alt-rock, funk, and many others don't read to me as a combination at all outside of my efforts to define it, it's far too cohesive for that. There's no chaos here, just Genesis Owusu's sound. It's cohesive, immersive, and unique, but that's not even my favourite part of this album. My favourite part is the concept (and this is very much a concept album). It tightly deals with the experiences of someone who is up against odds that seem undeniable as they grapple with hopelessness, defiance, and laissez-faire acceptance, and all of it feels believable.

Sampha - Lahai

This is the vibiest album I've heard in a long, long time. When I initially listened to this album, I had completely forgotten that Sampha was behind one of my favourite moments on Mr Morale & The Big-Steppers (that being his chorus on Father Time), so while I shouldn't have been surprised by the incredible vocal performance and soothing essence here, I was absolutely swept off my feet all over again. The whole album, to varying degrees, feels reassuring, like an earnest "you got this" or a loved one being there when you need it. There's a calming warmth emanating off of the project that makes it so impactful no matter whether you're listening to the album actively, having a song served up on shuffle, or putting it on in the background.

Squid - O Monolith

I love me some art punk, and this album scratches that itch incredibly. Something about the core of Squid's sound feels so existentially anxious at all times, as if they are aware of some vague, unknown apocalyptic event that will occur in just a few years and they opted to channel their feelings of futility into music while they were still here to do so. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it were true that there were an unknown apocalyptic event right around the corner that sneaks up on us by hiding amongst the many known apocalyptic events, but that's not the point. The point is that the anxious energy they give off suits this punk-adjacent sound brilliantly, and when the themes are punky too, like on my favourite off the album The Blades, it feels so cathartic.

Paramore - This Is Why

From pop-punk to post-punk, Paramore have only improved as they've aged thus far. While every other band I loved from this time have strained themselves trying to create something of value by way of hollow experimentation, desperate grasps for popularity, and nostalgia bait, Paramore continue to go in bold new directions, and walk them with a genuine passion, which makes for not just more critical success than the vast majority of their former peers, but also more commercial success. It's a demonstration of their understanding of what gets people interested in new music from bands they love. They know it's not about being on the next big wave anymore or recapturing former glory, fans are already on board now, it's about giving those fans something new while staying creatively authentic and recognizable. We want to see bands express themselves and show us how they've grown, and older acts so often lose sight of one of those things, or occasionally both. Either they refuse to grow, stubbornly wearing the clothes they wore as teenagers as their hair begins to grey, or they start wearing what they think is on trend. But Paramore here, for far from the first time, buck the trend with maturity. It's very refreshing to see.

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES

Honestly, with how much I've enjoyed this album, especially towards the end of the year, just calling this my favourite rap album of the year or third favourite album of the year feels a tad sacrilegious, but that should be taken as high praise for the next two albums as opposed to even slight criticism of this album. This is album of the year quality without a doubt, but the competition is strong in my opinion this year.

That said, this album is so easy to come back to that it's verging on addictive. The short runtime, the incredible production, amazing writing (Danny Brown on God Loves You gets verse of the year hands down), perfect flows, and crucially the feeling that none of this should work when all of it does makes me feel like the high I get from this album is impossible to replicate, although JPEGMAFIA's solo work does come close. It's a must-listen for me if for no other reason than that feelings

Model/Actriz - Dogsbody

Sexy, depraved, intense, and messy as fuck. This album is BDSM in audio form. It's banger after banger after banger, and there's always a slight tension, a tension that falls between feelings of dread and excitement, the performance straining as if they are leaning themselves over the brink of what they are capable of taking. There's a tangible sense of fear in that as you'd expect, but also a thrill and a pleasure in the knowledge that you are pushing yourself to your limits and giving everything you've got. If it feels like I'm always kind of describing BDSM, it's because 1. it's funny and 2. that just is the sound of the album. It sounds like rough sex. I can't help that. I didn't think industrial rock would be my thing, but it turns out if you add sex it does something for me.

Final note on this album, I just wanted to bring up the most beautifully depraved lyrics I think I've ever heard courtesy of the song Donkey Show:

Oh, you don't have to try to be gentle do it the way you feel right now I know it's hard I feel you rise to the occasion In the black light you know I'm shining for you here

underscores - Wallsocket

This one really came out of nowhere. With enough distance from first listen that I can be fairly certain that it's not just recency bias anymore, I'm calling it: Wallsocket by underscores is my album of the year. This was my first foray into hyperpop (if this would be considered hyperpop, idk, I'm new here) and I'm hooked. The nostalgic maximalist sound of 00s pop put through an online outsider filter is such a natural fit for me, as is the indie rock blended into the sound at points on this album, and the weird, unique themes that the album touches, and the fact that there is a story that goes through it... It almost feels like underscores cheated to get recognition from me for some reason, somehow finding out all my musical soft spots and calculatingly targetting them with this album. If it were under 40 minutes I'd feel like when she wrote about stalking that it was about me. Given a little time, this might well end up making my all-time lists. I can't recommend this one highly enough, although that might be more to do with the fact that I like it so much moreso than the feeling that anyone else would like it.

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chaosincurate · 3 months

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youtube

Just a quick one while I work on the year end stuff that I had to delay.

I wanted to share a recent video by a YouTuber called path. They are a great presence in online music fandom as well as a personal role model for music discussion, especially when it comes to their YouTube channel, and them listening to one of my favourite albums is a great excuse for me to share their work.

It is a react channel, but they do a few things to make it feel way less hollow.

First and most importantly to me, they seem to share my stance that as an online "music enjoyer", you should be highlighting positives and talking about what you like far more than what you dislike. They at least seem to apply that philosophy to their work anyway, and that's what's important to me.

Second, not only is there deeper in-the-moment analysis than most react channels I've seen, there is also a voiceover that path does at points where they provide more nuanced commentary than can be expected from most people in the moment on their first listen.

And finally, they add a bunch of comments from their audience talking about their favourite songs on any given album, which makes it even less centered on them and their thoughts specifically, and makes it so that, even if there was a situation where they could only say something negative about a song, there would still be a positive presence, making it harder to come away feeling in any way frustrated.

That was a longer write up than i was expecting going into it, but I feel very strongly that they've nailed react videos; a genre of videos I considered practically irredeemable in terms of valuable analysis. Give their stuff a watch, they deserve the attention.

#music #radiohead #Youtube

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chaosincurate · 4 months

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chaosincurate's jam of the year 2023

Sampha - Suspended

Genre: Alternative R&B

About this superlative

The only music theory people really need to know is that there are three types of song: bop, banger, and jam. This is (in my opinion) the best jam of the year, not necessarily the best song.

About this jam

There's an elevated purity and beauty to this song that feels intangible to me. I genuinely can't identify where that comes from, but I have a guess. I think it is a few things that come together to make this song feel uniquely serene.

First, the piano melody balances stability and internal novelty incredibly, with melodic movement being either limited or predictable depending on when you're hearing it, and both are balanced incredibly.

Second, the reverb that blankets the bottom of the mix, allowing more important elements to stand out, while also striking a balance between the comforting sound of a reasonable amount of reverb, and the overwhelm that can arise if you add too much. It falls perfectly in the sweet spot in every way.

Third, the lo-fi adjacent drum sounds that can be incredibly relaxing in the right context, and with the other things I've mentioned, this is absolutely the right context.

Thematically, the song is about a relationship in which the protagonist has lost that feeling of being "lifted by her love", and the attempt to recapture that feeling. It's very interesting and novel for a love song, and the lyrics are filled with a sense of emotional wisdom despite the situation they are in.

While I'm doing superlatives, I think this might also be in the running for the best produced album of the year too (which I won't be making a post for). Every song, very much including this one, feels so grounded in nature somehow. In fact, while looking for the album art for this post, I saw Alexis Petridis' review subtitled "How to make an existential crisis sound sublime", and I think that is a very apt description of the sound here: a sublime existential crisis, and that applies especially to this track, I think.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #alternative r&b #year end list #sampha

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chaosincurate · 4 months

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chaosincurate's banger of the year 2023

Burfict! by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

Genre: Experimental hip-hop

About this superlative

The only music theory people really need to know is that there are three types of song: bop, banger, and jam. This is (in my opinion) the best banger of the year, not necessarily the best song.

About the banger

So it turns out this year has been amazing for bangers. It was really difficult to choose my favourite, and this wasn't even the only one I was considering from this album. Ultimately though, the step-aside-motherfuckers-we've-arrived energy of this song set it apart from anything else I've heard from this year. The fanfare from the horns drowned and defiled by Peggy's signature bass-drenched production is absolutely incredible and really sells the song before you've heard a single bar.

Then they open the song proper with Danny Brown's unusual rapping, unusual both in his nasally performance and the batshit insane lyrics.

Like NASCAR, n**** you better not go there Bitch, you better get your mind right 'fore I leave that shit all over that windshield N****, I'm real right, go stand on it Raw how I fuck, Plan B on it It's a wonder I ain't got a lot of kids 'cause I just pull up and spray on it

The groove Danny Brown settles into holds for his entire section, and then Peggy announces his own arrival with a glorious momentary production switch which builds up and gets broken back down by the drums in such a satisfying way as he adds yet more energy on top of that with his performance of the lines "Walk in this bitch with a Wock' // Fuck what you heard, bae, I'm toxic // Rappers be callin' the cops // Civillians thinkin' we opps // Bitch, the shit I flash ain't a prop // All my exes done turned into opps", before the beat settles back into the one we got used to in the first verse along with my personal favourite verse of the song, which I'm going to leave for you to seek out.

The song (much like nearly everything I've heard from JPEGMAFIA) has so much power behind it's production, along with some great attention to detail, with everything in it's right place, and all of it is really brought home by the chemistry and raw talent between the two rappers. It's a must-listen song from a must-listen album as far as I'm concerned.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #hip hop #year end list #jpegmafia #danny brown #scaring the hoes

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chaosincurate · 4 months

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chaosincurate's bop of the year 2023

Cops and robbers by underscores

Genre: Hyperpop/indie rock

About this superlative

The only music theory people really need to know is that there are three types of song: bop, banger, and jam. This is (in my opinion) the best bop of the year, not necessarily the best song.

About the bop

The concept of this song is bank fraud, which for me is enough to love it on some level before even hearing it. It's such a unique place to start from, and it only gets better from there. Instrumentally, it's as if a 2000s indie rock classic was played with the sound of the internet infused into it. It's got all the energy, and all the infectiousness of that era, but with a hyperpop-esque performance that makes it feel fresh, modern and, most importantly, fitting with the lyrics surrounding what is essentially bank robbery adapted for the internet age.

The vocal performance is huge here too. When songs have very specific concepts like this one, if the vocal performance is lacking, it can seem unserious, or come across as a joke, but underscores performs this song with intensity, charisma, and earnestness that really allows the listener to take it seriously and still have fun with it.

This song has quickly become one of my favourites of all time and I'd highly recommend that anyone who is even slightly interested in hyperpop or indie rock give this a listen. It's a great indie rock track in it's own right, and while not especially linked to hyperpop, it still serves as a great gateway into that genre for the uninitiated.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #indie music #year end list #underscores

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chaosincurate · 4 months

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chaosincurate's top song find of 2023

Instant Crush by Daft Punk & Julian Casablancas

Genre: Pop

About this superlative

Every year there is a tonne of older music that people discover, and they never get the chance to have the spotlight put on them, even if said people enjoy that older music more than the new stuff. I want to make sure I give past music the love it deserves too though, not only by writing about the albums I hear on my monthly "My Month in Music" posts, and occasional singular posts about music I am particularly fond of, but by highlighting them here, too, as my top finds of the year.

Honourable mentions

It's Oh So Quiet by Björk - This one is just incredibly fun. The stark shifts in intensity between verse and chorus, the fun Björk is clearly having with her vocal performance, those brass hits... There's no part of this song that isn't pure fun with music for me, I love it.

REBOUND! by JPEGMAFIA - JPEGMAFIA really excels in production, for me. I love the bass that is saturated so far beyond the line for "too much" that it wraps back around and becomes just right again, and the percussion that feels so erratic yet seems like its all in it's perfect place. This album took a little while to click for me, but I'm glad I gave it repeat listens for songs like this, which always grab my attention and get me hyped whenever they come on. Also the line "All that shit that you did to your girl // I just wish that you'd do it to me" is simple but phenomenal. Even after over 50 listens, I still crack a smile when I hear it.

Point and Kill by Little Simz - This song has one of the smoothest grooves I've ever heard, and when I first heard it I couldn't stop listening. Most of that comes from that incredible bassline, but credit is also due for Little Simz' perfect flow. She just glides over it in a way that feels so intertwined with it... It's simple, but difficult for me to describe as a relative newbie to hip hop and rap, but what I can say is that it sounds awesome and helps make this song as addicting as it is.

Doorman by slowthai & Mura Masa - If you want an indication of what electronic punk sounds like, for my money it doesn't get much better than this. Rapping is pretty similar to some punk vocals anyway, but the blurry lines are accentuated here with slowthai's slower performance with a little melody mixed in. The instrumental is simple, but fast and powerful (if REBOUND! hypes me up, this shit gives me a heart attack). The song keeps things short and condensed, so as to hit hard and pull back before you get sick of it. It appears as though they just used a punk formula, but got a rapper and a DJ to perform it and it somehow worked wonders.

Sweet Transvestite by Tim Curry - I usually wouldn't cover a piece of music that accompanies another work on this blog but... Come on. Tim Curry is exceptional here. The fun he's having comes through with a near-purity, with only the exception of the tonne of charismatic, sexy sass mixed in. It's definitely silly, what with it being from camp cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show and all, but it's difficult to not buy into that silliness.

Back to my top pick

When I first listened to this song I got an Instant Crush on it.

Anyway, now that I've plucked that low-hanging fruit, let's get into why.

There's a brilliant sense of balance to this song. The drums do a lot of work in that, as simple as they are, but the way that the muted guitar adds an almost percussive element to shake things up a little there, the distant synths in the verse, there's the perfect amount going on to hint at more while still leaving you wanting it, and everything calls attention to itself just as much as it needs to. Then the chorus comes, the synth comes into a more prominent position in the mix, Julian Casablancas almost sounds like he wants to be there (not a diss, I love Julian Casablancas), and it all still feels understated enough that there's room for the song to grow, but exciting enough to be a payoff.

I could go into more detail, but I'm already afraid that it's reading like a "how pop songs are made" post, but when it's done this perfectly, that's all you can really do. That being said though, there are things like the short guitar solo, that weren't especially necessary, but still add something fresh into the mix to keep things interesting. That synth on the outro is also the perfect lead-out.

Like I said, it's difficult to portray how great a pop song is when it's done perfectly, but if you're a poptimist who likes perfection, this is it, this is pop perfection with a funky lean. But I don't know why I'm talking here as if there's a poptimist out there that hasn't heard this song, I'm pretty sure I was the last living human to listen to Random Access Memories. I may be late to the party, but I'm very enthusiastic about it, I regret not getting here sooner.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #pop #pop music #year end list #daft punk

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chaosincurate · 4 months

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chaosincurate's top album find of 2023

Soviet Kitsch by Regina Spektor

Genre: Chamber pop/anti-folk

Song to try: Us

About this superlative

Honourable Mentions

Renaissance by Beyoncé - An immaculate, disco-informed dance pop album with one of the most charismatic performances I've ever heard. This isn't usually the type of thing that resonates with me on a level that puts it amongst my favourite albums, but Beyoncé had so much confidence pouring out of her performance here that it felt like she grabbed me by the neck and said "you will appreciate this or else". It worked, I appreciate this. It's probably my favourite dance pop album I've ever heard. The absolute epitome of queen shit.

Soft Sounds from Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast - A very atmospheric lo-fi/indie pop album from the fantastic Japanese Breakfast. To be honest, until I looked through for this post, I was certain I listened to this way back in 2021 or so, shortly after hearing Jubilee, but last.fm says it was just this year, so it qualifies here. I absolutely love this album for Michelle Zauner's near-perfect ear for the perfect atmosphere to convey the feelings expressed in her lyrics. It's no wonder she took so well to making the soundtrack for Sable, because she's been flexing the same muscles needed for soundtracks both here, and on the earlier mentioned Jubilee (which came out shortly after said soundtrack).

good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick Lamar - If you want to show someone what a concept album is, this is the album to send their way. Not only does it have a clear and cohesive theme across the whole album, and not only does it have a narrative running through it, but it is also the best sequenced album I have ever heard. This is the perfect demonstration of why I'm protective over the "concept album" label: when it's actually earned, every single song is elevated by the album-listening experience.

Sign 'O' the Times by Prince - This is a weird one. This isn't my favourite Prince album that I discovered this year - that'd be 1999 - and it's probably tied for my least favourite of the four albums I'e heard from him, but this was the album that, for whatever reason, got Prince's music to click for me. Not only did I go on to listen to 1999 for the first time and enjoy it, I also gained a new found love for Purple Rain and Dirty Mind, two albums I listened to before this year and found mediocre at first. So that's why I'm putting this here. I essentially see it as a 4-for-1 deal.

Now onto the main event...

I've spoken about my love for this album before, and much like with honourable mention Soft Sounds from Another Planet, I'm honestly surprised I only heard this album this year. Before I checked, I was preparing a Renaissance review in my head. But here we are, with a Soviet Kitsch one instead. To recap from previous write-ups on this blog, the reason I love this album is largely down to Regina Spektor's lyrical style. I've never known lyrics to sound so stripped back that they almost convey pure emotion in a way that doesn't sound like gibberish (such as with many grunge anthems), and sounds somewhat infantile on a purely aesthetic level, but executed in such a powerful way that it fully encapsulates the feeling that Spektor wants to convey. It's as if you're being crushed by basic and universal facts, some of which seem entirely unrelated and unemotional. It's awe-inspiring to me.

All of that paints a pretty good picture of how the album is, but it's done with pretty broad brushes. Let's add some detail with a track-by-track.

First, the opener, Ode to Divorce, which starts the album with a heartbreaking depiction of divorce, with the narrator being put through the ringer in the legal battle following their separation, and struggling to make sense of the fact that the person that once loved them (and that the narrator clearly still loves on some level) is being so ruthless, destroying their livelihood. Throughout the song, we see the narrator occasionally beg for a small amount of mercy to allow her to keep supporting herself ("I need your money, it'll help me I need your car...") and then goes on to let slip what they actually care about ("and I need your love") before readjusting themself to be more platonic about it by asking ("So won't you help a brother out?"). And that's still a simple overview that doesn't go into how the pain that this ex-spouse is putting them through is depicted all that much. The writing here is incredible and is still far from the best this album has to offer.

Next is Poor Little Rich Boy, essentially a song about how being rich in financial terms and rich in emotional terms are often at odds with each other. The subject of the song struggles to find love ("you don't love your girlfriend // and you think that you should... And you don't love your mother // and you know that you should") and connection ("You're reading Fitzgerald // you're reading Hemingway // they're both super smart, drinking in the cafés"), and seemingly any true meaning in life ("all the world is okay // the water runs off your skin and down into the drain"). It's a very simple song, and isn't as dense as Ode to Divorce, but it still retains much of it's emotional power within that simplicity, with the lines quoted above being great examples of how a simple sentiment, when written by Regina Spektor, can crush you.

Following that is Carbon Monoxide, a song filled with fear and self-infantilisation from the perspective of a young person who feels unprepared to face the adult world. There's a strong sense of paranoia throughout the song, a feeling that something is always going to go wrong in even the most benign moments now that there isn't someone else to watch over you.

First time I get my socks on right But I don't have a gas mask on As I walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk You home, yeah

It's another very straightforward song that uses it's purity of meaning to hammer home the emotions even more than would regularly be the case.

In a rare case of metaphorical songwriting within this album, the next song The Flowers uses the eponymous flowers, given to her by a partner to allude to the state of the relationship itself.

The flowers you gave me are rotting and still I refuse to throw them away Some of the bulbs never opened quite fully, they might so I'm waiting and staying awake

She uses this metaphor incredibly well, too, as it helps to demonstrate the denial that the narrator is feeling as they cling on to this unrewarding relationship. It sends the implicit message that they aren't even willing to acknowledge the state the relationship is in, that they know deep down that fighting that fight is a lost cause, but knowing if she doesn't even acknowledge the problem that the relationship will at least survive. Of course, it is unlikely to ever thrive, and isn't particularly likely to survive for long either.

Another thing I want to call attention to in this song is the second verse:

The papers around me are piling and twisting Regina the paperback mummy, what then I'm taking the knife to the books that I own And I'm chopping and chopping and boiling soup from stones

Genius' interpretation of this verse is very different to mine. They describe it as Regina turning to books for comfort for her failing relationship, and then being frustrated by their uselessness. Personally, I think it's a metaphor for the mounting evidence that she has to ignore in favour of the idea that the relationship is doomed. That's all, I just always love to see an interpretation that is different to mine which is also a valid one. Moving on!

Us is the big single and a great demonstration of the quirked up lyricism that holds a lot of meaning, but it is uncharacteristically difficult to discern the meaning of this one, at least for me. I'll start with what is clear: it seems pretty undeniable that it is on some level about the USSR, and that it criticises the USSR to some extent. From there on, it seems very difficult to pick out anything concrete, which makes that the fun bit if you ask me.

I think my most confident interpretation is that of a general, nuanced perspective on the USSR, what it represents now, what it represented then, the damage it's done, etc. In this interpretation, the song is sung from various perspectives. In the first verse, it's from the retrospective perspective of the USSR's leaders, bemoaning their disrespected legacy as if they deserve more than a statue left to rust in front of mostly uninterested tourists, and criticisms from people who supposedly wouldn't be able to understand the reality of the situation.

Then there's the chorus, which I think is from the perspective of true communists (yes, I'm gatekeeping), people like Karl Marx, who see it as a tool for liberation from power structures, not an introduction of a new one. People who are frustrated that their beliefs were taken and distorted to be something that put more people in chains than were freed from their previous ones.

And then I believe the second verse is from the perspective of people living under the USSR. People who haven't yet become uncomfortable enough to attempt to mount some sort of resistance and risk that small amount of comfort they have by doing so.

From there, the perspectives are pretty self-explanatory, I think, but I wanted to call attention to one more line: the repeated "it's contagious". I think this line is saying that in an unjust system, everyone becomes unjust, because everyone needs to serve that unjust system to survive. Sure, the people at the top are corrupt, and that corruption spreads amongst the bourgeois if it's allowed to flourish, because the people that don't just lose hope and give in are easily replaced by people who are being allowed to break the rules, that is pretty clear. But the people who just want to keep living their life and have kids in the second verse also help to sustain the system by keeping up the population of it's workforce and by contaminating those kids too. Even the revolutionaries will need to act unjustly in such a system to liberate themselves. Corruption at the top will spread to the bottom as if it's contagious.

The song tasked with following that masterpiece is Sailor Song, and it follows it by going for a much more jovial vibe, even if there is some sadness within the lyrics. It brings things down to Earth by going out to sea, with the song being written from the perspective of a sailor that compares life with his wife to life with his boat as he finally gets to live out his childhood dream of sailing the seas. As I see it, you could assign plenty of subtext to the song, but the lyrics keep things simple and allow you to add whatever meaning you'd like on top of the somewhat matter-of-fact lyrics, so there isn't much to write about. It's a very fun song despite the sadness that exists within it, and manages that in an interesting way too.

Following a light tease in an interlude track, we get another standout for me in Your Honor. I'd highly recommend listening to it before reading on if you haven't already (you can click on the song name for the links to Apple Music and Spotify). It's much better experienced than described.

If you're reading this, I hope that means you've gone away and listened to it or have already heard it before. The reason I wanted you to have heard it before going on, is the emotional effect that the stark changes between the two sections of the song had on me when I first heard it. I love the way the song uses the punky, grungy sound and sarcastic, pissy delivery on the vocals to acknowledge the anger that the protagonist is feeling towards their partner for "fighting for [her] honor", and then switches to a sweeter sound, more in line with the rest of the album, as it gets more loving and caring. It's beautifully done and also has the added benefit of making a song that is so unlike the rest of the album still feel cohesive within it, as if the song had been expertly stitched on: still sticking out, but as a part of the broader whole.

Have you ever had a moment where you've spoken to a child that hadn't been assimilated into society yet and as such is entirely pure of thought? If you have, there's a decent chance they taught you something that seems very obvious about the common absurdity with which we live our daily lives, but that we are too used to to see. There's just this ability that kids have to see the obvious solution that adults miss by following all these added layers of thought when they aren't necessary. That feeling is very palpable on Ghost of Corporate Future.

The song is basically a flurry of nuggets of simple wisdom: a call to care less about the state of your clothes, a reminder of how constant work can ruin your life, an assurance that you have the power to change some things, at least in your immediate vicinity, and a lot more, including my favourite nugget of "duh wisdom", as I've decided to call it, the reminder that social stakes aren't as high as you make them out to be ("People are just people, they shouldn't make you nervous"/"People are just people like you"). As someone with social anxiety, that last one has become something of a mantra for me since hearing this album, and I don't think it'd work as well for me if it wasn't so blunt and to the point.

Another favourite of mine, alongside Us and Your Honor that is, is Chemo Limo. The simple yet incredibly unique lyrical style is here in full force, demonstrating the power that this album has when it is using that style. The song is about a single mother who is told that she has cancer, but decides to turn down treatment, deciding that, given the financial situation it is likely to put her in, she'd much rather spend that money on dying happy (with an equally out-of-reach limo ride with her kids). The logic unfortunately checks out. Of course its not worth risking dying miserably in the hopes that she'll get lucky and live miserably, with not only a body wrecked by chemotherapy, but a bank account wrecked by it too. It is a (mostly implicit) scathing commentary on paid healthcare and it's immorality.

The way she talks about the oversized (and frankly wholly unjust) role money plays in saving lives in the US is amazing. The way she announces her intent to "go out in style" is invigorating. The way she then pulls the focus to her kids and the implications of how their lives will be without their mother is gutting.

And finally, the closer, Somedays. It's easy to forget about for me, in part because it follows one of my favourites without standing out in any major way, but also likely because it is such a great send off. It is about depression and the urge to ignore it in an attempt to escape it, the lost days to wallowing, and for a moment the acknowledgement that, as an artist, she also loves the art she makes from the suffering, wondering if she can escape one and not the other (or at least that's how I interpret the second verse). It's the smoothed off edge of the album, a mellow send off to a calm and pensive album.

I really love this album and am so glad I gave it a shot this year. If you've read this far, I would hope that you at least end up checking out one of the songs I highlighted as my favourites, particularly Us. I heard this album early in the year and still haven't quite heard anything like it.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #indie music #year end list #regina spektor

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chaosincurate · 5 months

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My Month in Music - November 2023

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee (relisten)

Slint - Spiderland

IAN SWEET - Sucker (new)

Jessie Ware - That! Feels Good!

Spiritual Cramp - Spiritual Cramp (new)

Fugazi - 13 Songs

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

Sampha - Lahai (relisten)

Nina Simone - Pastel Blues (relisten)

Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade

Wire - Pink Flag

Hüsker Dü - Warehouse: Songs and Stories

underscores - fishmonger

Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR (relisten)

yeule - softscars (relisten)

Pulp - Different Class (relisten)

Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loveliest Time (new) (relisten)

Paramore - This Is Why (relisten)

The Strokes - Room On Fire (relisten)

Fugazi - Repeater & 3 Songs

The Strokes - The New Abnormal (relisten)

Samara Joy - Linger Awhile

Shame - Food For Worms (relisten)

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Alvvays - Alvvays (relisten)

Alvvays - Antisocialites (relisten)

Alvvays - Blue Rev (relisten)

Jane Remover - Census Designated (new)

Playlist link

Write-ups below

Fugazi - 13 Songs

Fugazi is an exceptional punk band in all the ways you'd expect: power in every single instrument, simplicity that doesn't get boring, and a heavy focus on societal ills. But there's more than just that. I feel like the thing that makes them not just exceptional, but unique, is that the lyrics strike an incredible balance between an interesting level of obfuscation and that crucial bluntness that ensures that the message doesn't actually get lost.

Naturally, the fact that this is a combination of EPs and not an album all its own makes the sequencing a little awkward, but as a collection of songs, this is some of the best punk I've ever heard.

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

Oh boy am I late to this one!

I was only familiar with Killing In the Name (and only in fairly passive contexts) before listening to this album so I wasn't really sure what to expect, and whether it'd be a case of the album having one standout track and the rest just being filler. Well, Killing In the Name definitely stands out, but the rest of the album definitely isn't filler.

While I complimented Fugazi's balance of thought-provoking poetry and pure politics on 13 Songs, I have to say RATM makes pure bluntness come across too sincere to dismiss om the grounds of simplicity. Every single line is delivered with such potent anger, and it really got me whipped up in the emotion of it, at least on a second listen.

Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade

Zero expectation listens to punk-adjacent albums is a theme on this post, and a theme that Zen Arcade is contributing to. All I knew was that Hüsker Dü's reputation seemed good. My lack of expectation meant that 1. I only found out that apparently it's a story album after listening to it, and 2. I was absolutely blindsided by the album's more experimental flourishes.

One of my favourite flourishes came with Pink Turns to Blue, which takes punk and filters it through a noise-pop/shoegaze sort of sound to great effect. That is probably the most noteworthy example, but compared to some more repetitive punk albums I've heard, an album feeling so ceaselessly experimental it seemed disjointed by punk standards was honestly more to the albums benefit than it's detriment.

underscores - fishmonger

I'm very new to the hyperpop sphere, but I don't think I could ask for a better gateway to it than underscores. The blend of that indie rock sound with the eternally online stylings of hyperpop is a personal cheat code for pleasure for me, particularly on their new album Wallsocket, which you will listen to if you know what's good for you. After listening to her other projects, though, I can very happily say that they are scratching the same itch (if not quite as well).

I've written before about how the unique concepts of the tracks off the new album were a highlight, and, again, that extends to a lesser degree to her older work, which has been fantastic, and where the interesting concepts are comparatively limited, the execution makes up for it.

Given a few more releases of this sort of quality, underscores could well become one of my favourite music acts I just love this style so much.

Fugazi - Repeater & 3 Songs

Basically everything that I said about 13 Songs applies here, but there are a few differences that make this worthwhile to talk about on it's own. One of those differences is that this essentially plays like a regular album with three bonus tracks, which means that my one noted criticism of 13 Songs doesn't apply here. The other key difference that comes to mind is that it feels to me as if there is more aggression in this album. It's grittier and angrier, and while it does throw off the balance that I liked so much on the other album, I also appreciate that it makes it a unique listening experience while also not changing enough to make it clearly worse.

The Strokes - The New Abnormal

The Strokes were so back with this one. They happen to have left again shortly after, not having released anything in over three years, but they were so back for a second there.

This album brought back everything that made The Strokes great in those first few albums and occasional singles thereafter, and kept kept it all stripped back to it's bare essentials so they could really be heard. Their ability to have a musical composition in which everything (bass, guitar, drums, other guitar, synth...) both shines on it's own and comes together in this glorious tapestry is only arguably matched by Radiohead, and specifically during their In Rainbows era. And that talent is here on full force on The New Abnormal.

Also present is a tasteful experimentation with synths and electronics, which don't just justify themselves, but improve the songs they are on. They are used to great effect on At the Door, for example, where the sawed synths create a potent feeling of fear and harshness that makes it unlike any song The Strokes have ever made.

Between the outstanding mixing, versatility of sound, and the back-to-their-best Strokes songcrafting, this is the best Strokes album hands down for my money, but you guys aren't ready for that discussion yet, so I'll just leave it at "album good" until you are.

Samara Joy - Linger Awhile

I can't pretend that I actually have much to say about this, because I'm still pretty new to jazz, but Samara Joy is a very charismatic vocalist and the album is a great one for a chill vibe so I thought it deserved to be highlighted more than just putting it in the playlist. If you're looking for a modern in for jazz, I found this one very enjoyable.

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

The second album of the post where I should have gotten to it way earlier. Pure dance music just never really appealed to me, nor do songs without vocals, generally, and I was under the impression that Daft Punk were entirely that. Clearly I was wrong, although I'm still unsure as to what degree.

In any case, I loved this album. Instant Crush is a massive highlight just on the basis of it's super satisfying pop sound and just-novel-enough concept. Giorgio By Moroder is also a great love letter to artistry, if a strage one to consider a highlight on account of the spoken word vocals. And of course it goes without saying that the Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams backed Lose Yourself to Dance and Get Lucky are amazing, funky, and infectious bops that keep you engaged for every second of their runtime.

It's a classic album for a reason, and I apologize to music for not listening to it earlier.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #indie music #alternative #punk rock #hyperpop #indie pop #jazz #fugazi #rage against the machine #husker du #underscores #the strokes #samara joy #daft punk

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chaosincurate · 5 months

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It's like a-

It's like a psychedelic sosig

#Spotify #carly rae jepsen #raecism #music #chaosincurate #25th post lmao

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chaosincurate · 5 months

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My Month in Music - September-October 2023

Before we get into the post proper, I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that I've changed up the way I do these My Month in Music posts. If you wanna know why I changed it up or why I went with this new style, I go over it here

Alvvays - Blue Rev (relisten)

Fall Out Boy albums for Retrospective

Model/Actriz - Dogsbody (relisten)

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (relisten)

The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs (relisten)

Björk - Vespertine (relisten)

The Japanese House - In the End It Always Does (new)

The 1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (relisten)

Radiohead - OK Computer (relisten)

Green Day - Revolution Radio (relisten)

D.D. Dumbo - Utopia Defeated (relisten)

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (relisten)

underscores - Wallsocket (new)

Radiohead - In Rainbows (relisten)

Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers - The "Original" Monster Mash (relisten)

Lovejoy - Pebble Brain (relisten)

David Bowie - "Heroes" (relisten)

The 1975 - Being Funny in a Foreign Language (relisten)

Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS (new)

yeule - softscars (new)

Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia (relisten)

Nina Simone - Pastel Blues

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead (relisten)

Paramore - Riot! (relisten)

JPEGMAFIA - OFFLINE! (relisten)

Green Day - Insomniac (relisten)

Green Day - Nimrod (relisten)

Laufey - Bewitched (new)

Nina Simone - I Put a Spell on You

Sampha - Lahai (new)

Playlist link

Write-ups below

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

It's been a while since I gave Back to Black the attention it deserves. It is a beautiful, tragic, and occasionally funny in a way that seems to attempt to deflect from any sincerity within the lyrics and themes.

And that is where the album shines brightest for me: the lyrics. Yes, it sounds incredible; the soulful sonic palette is a great selling point in it's own right, but the lyrics are doing so much at once while maintaining a clarity of theme and sentiment that is necessary to reach the heights of popularity and acclaim she has.

The first way the lyrics excel is that humour I mentioned. The apathetic irreverence she displays, whether knowingly or not, catered so well to the characterization of a person who is struggling and is in denial of just how bad their situation has gotten. It's such a realistic representation of how people actually tend to react to their issues in conversation. It removes that layer of abstraction that usually provides artists with a sense of safety when discussing their vulnerabilities and makes it feel so much more real, and by extension, more tragic.

The second way the lyrics excel is with the imagery. There are examples all across the album, but the particular one I want to call attention to here is the chorus (and a few other lines in verses) of Wake Up Alone and it's strict adherence to water metaphors that allow the listener to use previous lines as context to make the next one hit harder.

It gets fierce in my dreams seizing my guts He floods me with dread Soaked in sorrow, he swims in my eyes by the bed Pour myself over him Moon spilling in And I wake up alone

It's a phenomenal album and frankly I need to give it it's flowers more often.

The Japanese House - In the End it Always Does

If I had a penny for every time I loved a woman's bright, cozy, synthy indie pop solo act named after a Japanese noun I would have two pennies. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.

In the End it Always Does is, as stated above, very bright and cozy. It feels intimate, like how I imagine skipping work to have a day of domestic bliss with a loved one feels. Within it, there is a sense of comfort, devotion, and a certain difficult-to-describe feeling of trying to make the most of a situation.

I think that's what separates it from their comparable contemporaries in The 1975. Both have a very similar approach to creating this vibey soundscape, but where The 1975 likes to get big and exuberant, and create a distance in a way, The Japanese House gets intimate as fuck. I love both approaches, I just bring this up to praise this album for taking (I assume) heavy inspiration from The 1975, whilst still creating an album that provides a very different experience.

D.D. Dumbo - Utopia Defeated

I wanted to shine a light on this one for it's individual, unique sound. While it's my favourite thing about the album, it does make it difficult to describe, so bear with me.

It's hard to determine whether most of the instrumentation in this album is digital or natural, because most instruments are either physical ones that are digitally distorted like crazy, or digital ones that are given convincing imperfections. Eventually, your mind will give up trying to decipher which is which and the music will become a hardened tapestry of sound that can't be separated, but which uses it's inherent, eerie dissonance to create a feeling of distant comfort.

This sound provides a great added layer of meaning to one of my favourites on the album, King Franco Picasso, a song about a cruel and violent autocrat, subjecting and killing freely. Sung through the perspective of a subject whose brother was murdered by this autocrat, the song touches on a guilt of inaction, which pairs with the distantly comforting sound to create an implicit revolutionary feel for me. As if there is hope on the horizon, and familial comfort in the past, but discomfort now.

underscores - Wallsocket

Whoever said this year has been bad for music needs to shush. We may not have the insane peaks of last year (Blue Rev, Ants From Up There, Hellfire, etc.), but right below that standard are swathes of incredible albums contending for album of the year, and this is yet another contender for me.

First, I'll discuss the sound of the album. There is never a moment on this thing, even the slow moments, where you're not forced into being engaged. Of course, the sound might not be to your tastes, but you cannot shrug this album off. It won't allow you to. It refuses to be dull. Refuses to be background music. The blend of indie rock with the chronically online musical vocabulary of hyperpop works so well to provide an experience that feels sincerely indulgent, creatively speaking. It also traverses genre so seamlessly and broadly that it honestly floors me. Particularly in those first three tracks.

Second, I want to quickly touch on themes. Nothing will make me adore an album like an eye for interesting subject matter. Straight-forward love songs or music about partying or feeling yourself or whatever can be good and all, but if you write about bank fraud (Cops and robbers), loved ones being enlisted (Shoot to kill, kill your darlings), or stalkers (Locals (Girls like us) & You don't even know who I am) then I'll be hooked. By the way, those examples are some of my favourites, but they're pretty much all like that. The album has a lot of interesting things to say.

Third and finally, there is a story to this album! I love when an album is well tied together, and perhaps the highest form of that ideal is a story album. I can't say I'm exactly sure what the story is yet, I only have bits and pieces right now, but it's an added element that drags out that bliss of a first listen to a great album

This is my Blue Rev this year, I think. Maybe not my favourite of the year, but definitely an album that I love dearly that I imagine will only grow on me over time.

Olivia Rodrigo - GUTS

I found Olivia Rodrigo's sophomore album to be a massive leap forward. She's really started to establish a sound for herself that gives her plenty of room to experiment, and there is an added level of maturity to the album, even if what is being written about can often still be immature.

It's all about the change in perspective. On a good few tracks on this album, Olivia will give some acknowledgement of how other people feel about the things she's singing about, or will take some amount of blame when she's writing about something going wrong (unless it'd be weird to do so, such as on vampire). It makes the actual events feel more like a true representation of what happened, which I found allowed me to far more easily engage with the music and actually feel it.

I also appreciate the greater variety of sound on display here. On SOUR, I found that I got bored quite quickly with the ballads that made up a great deal of the album. They were mostly great songs, but they were either driver's license or more or less a worse version of it to my ear, so it made for a great collection of songs that I didn't care for as an album. Here though, there are ballads, there are pop-punk bangers, straight pop bops... It's not the most versatile album I've ever heard or anything, but I can't criticise that anymore, which is a big improvement.

I didn't hate SOUR, to be clear. I thought it was solid. But this was one of my favourite pop albums of the year, and it's incredible to see that Olivia Rodrigo is already starting to make good on her potential to be this generation's next undeniable pop star.

Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia

Chances are you don't need me to tell you how good this album is. I feel like there was someone in every musical subculture even remotely tied to pop telling everyone how much this album slaps. And it really deserves the hype. All the way from track 2 to track 9 there isn't a single track that wouldn't deserve to top the charts.

The album is incredibly groovy, very catchy, and one of the most fun albums you could possibly put on. If you're anything resembling a poptimist and haven't heard this yet, I highly recommend it.

Nina Simone - Pastel Blues

Nina Simone is one of jazz's most beloved vocalists, and for good reason. The music is largely pretty basic stuff, but her voice is so interesting and powerful that you're not likely to even notice when it is lacking. She just controls your attention with charismatic vocal performances that balance emotion with technical excellence superbly.

JPEGMAFIA - OFFLINE!

JPEGMAFIA is excellent at making a beat that absolutely shouldn't work just work. The amount of times he uses a vocal sample as a core element of an instrumental, then seamlessly raps over it without either getting too much attention is incredible. The example of that on this album is Hazard Duty Pay! and it is rightly held up as one of the best off this album.

Just because the beats are well balanced though, it doesn't mean it's easy-listening. If you want to grasp this album fully, it'll most likely demand a focused listen, probably even multiple. There is just so much going on at once, and Peggy isn't shy about using a sound for a one-off moment and not repeating it.

It's an incredible piece of art that demands attention, and repays it in abundance with both intricacy and power from the beats, and some really great lyricism too (especially on my personal favourite track REBOUND!)

Green Day - Nimrod

An incredibly underrated album in Green Day's discography. It is a moment where they began to expand creatively and do some more interesting stuff (arguably laying the groundwork for the pop-punk explosion that followed in the 00s), but without losing that initial identity of a bunch of shitheads making music. I don't think what followed was awful by any means, it gave us American Idiot after all, but it definitely lost something.

For me, that leaves Nimrod as the best album from this version of Green Day. Dookie gets plenty of praise for being the first big album of theirs, and a great one by all means, but I for one genuinely prefer this.

Laufey - Bewitched

It's not jazz. But it's very good. I love Laufey's voice, and the sound of this is so incredibly dreamy. From The Start is a great, bouncy tune that really does a great job of conveying a smitten tone, and the best incorporation of a "blah blah blah" I may have ever heard. Then there are songs like Misty, which (whilst it is not jazz) gives off the feeling of being in a jazz club late at night, commanding some degree of attention, but remaining cozy.

It takes the right mindset to appreciate, but if you can get into that mindset, it's one of the better albums of the year.

Sampha - Lahai

Yet another album of the year contender for me, but this one took a little growing on me (and a great turning the tables video on it) before I truly appreciated what it was doing. I can't quite remember what the turning the tables quote was, but one of them said something about how it felt like it connected you to nature, and I'd probably put it slightly differently, but with the same general message: it seems like music that was of the Earth. As if Sampha didn't necessarily create it, but instead mined it out of the ether, and introduced it to our mortal realm.

It feels soothing, cleansing, safe, and tender. If you give it even a little of your attention, it'll reward you and hold on tight to it for the duration of the album, and possibly a little longer. I'd call this one a must-listen for sure.

#chaosincurate #music #music reccs #music recommendation #indie music #alternative #indie pop #amy winehouse #the japanese house #D.D. Dumbo #underscores #olivia rodrigo #dua lipa #nina simone #jpegmafia #green day #laufey lin #sampha

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chaosincurate · 6 months

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The best song ever made

So I was going to include this in a bigger My Month in Music post, but I realized it would probably be better as a standalone thing, so here goes. I want to discuss the song "Heroes" by David Bowie and make my case for why it is easily the best Bowie song, possibly the best song of all time, and how it represents the subjectivity of art in a really interesting way.

"Heroes" - David Bowie's Best

First, I need to discuss the song within the context of Bowie's discography. Now, Bowie has a lot of great songs, he's a legend after all, so the claim that this is Bowie's best song is a big claim in and of itself, let alone the claim that it is easily his best or that it is the best song of all time. So why do I claim that so confidently?

Let's start with the fact that the instrumental is so perfectly conflicted, interesting, and powerful that David Bowie's presence could have been totally phoned in and it would probably still be up there as the best in his discography.

Thankfully though, he didn't phone it in. Instead, he gave us the best performance of his all-too-short life. Vocally, it hits like a truck. You feel every single ounce of desperate hope in his voice. The feeling of vulnerability, and of juggling hope and dread... You feel everything when he sings, and it doesn't just take it to another level, it takes it out of the goddamn stratosphere.

Then there are his lyrics...

"Heroes" - A Musical Rorschach Test

My favourite thing about "Heroes" is the fact that it's so open to interpretation. I have heard many people talk about their interpretations of this masterpiece, and every single person has had an at least slightly different take on the meaning, and they are almost always validated in the lyrics. And usually something this open-ended tends to sacrifice poignancy to that end, but here, it's hard to imagine a more poignant version of the song. In fact, I think it's only added to it.

Some of this comes down to that conflicted instrumental, but a lot of it is to do with the lyrics. On a less important level, there are the aesthetic interpretations. This is basically in terms of the context of the struggle of the song. Essentially it comes down to "is this a relationship that exists within a warzone or a warzone that exists within a relationship". It isn't really that impactful to the meaning of the song, but it does change things slightly, to either make it about fighting something external or something internal. It's spice to the meaning.

This is the more interesting bit to me though: the balance of hope and dread. Does the narrator here believe that one "win" - this one heroic day - is a domino that will lead to sustained positive change, or the one thing they need to be able to end it (whatever that "it" refers to) in peace, knowing they went down swinging?

That is a very macro view of things, but you could do this for almost every line.

I had this idea for a post after my brother and I went through the lyrics with differing interpretations on the lyrics, going line by line explaining what that line means to us and how it relates to our overall view on the meaning of the song. He had an interpretation akin to the domino one I mentioned previously, where one good day can prove to them that they can become better people (that is my recollection at least, I can't quite remember if he thought the allusions to conflict were metaphorical), and I had one that was essentially that it's a desperate man's hopeful plea to his significant other for one more chance at this doomed and mutually destructive relationship. Every. Single. Line. Was followed by an agreement that each of our interpretations were, not just supported by the lyrics, but equally validated and cast-iron interpretations.

I had already heard a few examples, but this prompted me to ask others what their interpretation of this song was, and again, everyone had a slightly different, valid view, and it was so intriguing to hear them all (though I admit I've forgotten most by now).

"Heroes" - The Perfect Work of Art

If you thought the previous sections were pretentious, just you wait, I'm about to get downright insufferable.

I think "Heroes" is the perfect work of art. And I don't use the word "perfect" lightly at all. I'm extremely hesitant to use it, but it is just undeniably appropriate here in my view. This song excels at everything that you want art to excel at, and that list is very contradictory, so that's no easy task. Much like trying to define what art should be, which I'm going to try to do here, but don't take it too seriously, this is just a Tumblr post from a painfully autistic music nerd.

First, art should speak to something powerfully human. I think it's safe to say that "Heroes" accomplishes this. The desperation to cling onto connection is something that I think everyone can relate to on some level, and when you mix it with the dumb hope and desire to try something that seems doomed just because it feels wrong to do anything else, and you've got a very human reaction to hardship. Despite how often we tell ourselves that we could never go on living if this happened, how often we tell ourselves we're doomed if that happened, when actually confronted with hardship on that scale we can be beautifully dumb and illogical. And "Heroes", I feel, captures that excellently.

Second, art should make people feel. Now, obviously this is as subjective as it gets, but if you are the type to resonate with this song (which I think most people probably are, it's immaculate), as I talked about earlier, you will feel every inch of it deep within your soul.

Third, art should be open to interpretation. I've already talked at length about how much it excels at this point, but I can't express enough how this song has the most valid interpretations of a song that I have ever seen. It is truly exceptional in that area.

"Heroes" - The Death of the Author

As some of you will be aware, the death of the author is an argument about interpretations of art that argues that once a given work is released, the author of that work is, for all intents and purposes as it regards interpretations of their work, dead. Essentially, the person reading their book, watching their movie, listening to their song, decides what that work means. The author can have a say, but their say means no more than anyone else's.

With that in mind, I would like to make a rare call-to-action here. I know, calls-to-action are icky, I hate them too, but this isn't a clout-chase, I promise. I just want to hear your interpretation of the song. You can do that by reblogging with your thoughts (which would be helpful if this post fits the vibe of your blog, but no pressure), or if you'd prefer something more low-key you could comment or even send an ask, even anonymously, if you want. I'm just really interested in hearing all the different interpretations of this incredible song.

#chaosincurate #music #music essay #david bowie #art rock #art pop #rock music

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chaosincurate · 6 months

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*thunder crackling*

THOU ART LISTENING TO

*fireball explosion*

102.3

*bubbling cauldron*

REAL WIZARDS FM

*shimmering mana crystal*

WHERE WE PLAYETH NOTHING BUT CHANTS, CHANTS, AND MORE CHANTS

*wololo*

THIS ART NOT THINE ELDER MATRIARCH'S STATION

*Imagine Dragons - Radioactive starts playing*

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chaosincurate · 7 months

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The Bigotry and other evils of The Monster Mash By Bobby "Boris" Pickett

I've been listening to a lot of Bobby "Boris" Pickett lately, and I gotta say, the Monster Mash lore is fascinating, yet despicable, like a good true crime story. There is a lot of very compelling lore to the universe of The Monster Mash, but be warned, it is quite revolting and will likely irreparably damage your perception of Bobby "Boris" Pickett. No longer can I view him, as billion's of others around the world do, as a relatively noble entertainer, worthy of his success.

For those who are unshaken by such a warning, you may proceed, albeit with some caution, but for those who don't think they can take such a painful, earth-shattering revelation, turn back now. There is no shame in knowing your limits.

So the first awful act occurs in the hit song Monster Mash from the 1962 album The Original Monster Mash, it is established that Bobby "Boris" Pickett is not the creator of the dance, but the creator of the monster (Igor) that made the mash, which was actually plagiarised from Dracula's Transylvania Twist: "What ever happened to my Transylvania Twist? // (Its now the mash)".

Considering the fact that Dracula was reported to be "part of the band" at the end of Monster Mash (no doubt as an inferior form of hush money), you may believe that Drac and Bobby "Boris" Pickett are on good terms. There is still tension, albeit one-way, present on next track Rabian - The Fiendage Idol however, as Dracula politely asks the famous thief for a favour: to give his friend Rabian an opportunity to show his worth and hopefully collaborate. Bobby "Boris" Pickett responds with his soon-to-be characteristic egotistical response, lamenting that since he had a hit record and "made all this bread" his monsters have been asking for favours from their selfish master. He then hits Drac with another "bl**d-s*cker" slur as he relents and gives Rabian a chance. After being impressed he threatens to gentrify Rabians image and condescendingly sends him away with a "don't call us we'll call you". Horrific behavior.

What ever happened to my Transylvania Twist?

(Its now the mash)

Blood Bank Blues is performed by unproblematic king Dracula, so it is relatively controversy-free to begin with, as he simply opens up about the challenges of vampirism, but Bobby "Boris" Pickett refuses to give up his spotlight for even a single song, so he does make an appearance in which he threatens to singe Dracula's wings. Dracula, who is rightfully upset but still displaying his famous composure, shares with the world via Bobby "Boris" Pickett's own album, that "[Bobby] "Boris" [Pickett] put a stake in my girl's heart", which, given his blatant racism towards vampires throughout the record is undoubtedly a hate crime.

Then the album explores another aspect of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's cruelty, as he forces Igor into work in Graveyard Shift. It isn't clear whether Igor (or any other monster that is confirmed to be working for Bobby "Boris" Pickett in this song) is getting paid, but given they are in a band with a very successful hit song and Igor expresses anxiety around the idea, it isn't much of a stretch to assume that this is at least some form of exploitation.

Next song Skully Gully is frankly hard for me to dissect. I feel as though there is some skelephobia here, but I'm honestly not well educated enough on this topic to expose it. If there are any skeletons reading this, I'd love to hear your perspective on this song if you'd be willing to share.

More monsterism follows as the album reaches Wolfbane, a song in which Bobby "Boris" Pickett spouts every anti-werewolf stereotype going, from the notion that werewolfs only want to "chew people up", to the infantilising idea that they just want to play but can't keep themselves from getting carried away. Not just that though, he ridicules the features of werewolves and depicts them as ugly and undesirable, criticizes their clothes for not being "continental", and makes the assumption that a werewolf is related to the only other werewolf he is known to have interacted with at this point, Rabian. And while we are on the topic of Rabian, this song surely retrospectively casts some light on Bobby "Boris" Pickett's treatment of him in his eponymous song. It felt like there was something off about that, and I think this is why.

This next one gets ugly. Real ugly. Monster Minuet opens with what seems to be Bobby "Boris" Pickett apologetically reaching out to Dracula by giving him and his wife a warm welcome to the former's party, but things quickly spiral out of control. Natural charmer Count Dracula then compliments the "ladies in waiting", calling them "beautiful", to which an endlessly despicable Bobby "Boris" Pickett interjects referring to them as "slimy old ghouls". The discomfort continues as Bobby "Boris" Pickett asks Vampyra for "the pleasure of this minuet", which neither Vampyra nor Dracula feel very comfortable with, judging from the Countess' silence (not to mention the fact that Bobby "Boris" Pickett is reported to have tried to kill her) and Dracula's protestations.

Admittedly, Dracula didn't need to make things as tense as he did with his comment "There could hardly be any pleasure dancing with you", but his being on edge is totally justified considering the host's previous behaviour, which he was all too willing to revisit as he responds with a slur, biting back with "who asked you, f*ng-f*ce?"

The creaturism continues with Bobby "Boris" Pickett going after the fact that Dracula sleeps all day (a natural result of being biologically unable to leave the house in the daytime), and reusing his favourite ant-vampiric slur "bl**d-s*cker", and the "song" eventually ends with Bobby "Boris" Pickett referring to Countess Vampyra as a "snaggle-toothed bag of bones". A disgusting display of bigotry all round from Bobby "Boris" Pickett on this one. It's a very difficult listen.

The next song is a defiant instrumental from Dracula, the long awaited redebut of Transylvania Twist. Bobby "Boris" Pickett tries to deny its boppiness, but by the end even he has to admit "its a rocker!" It's not much, but it's good to see the true creative genius of the album get a win, despite such a powerful man trying to keep him down.

The record doesn't stay positive for long though, as Bobby "Boris" Pickett shamelessly pens a song with a thinly-veiled dancing metaphor for killing his workers, in particular Yanwish the Ghoul, as both a form of punishment for minor failings and just for sadistic fun. This is truly a whole new level of evil from Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Of course, we know that he attempted to murder Countess Vampyra in a hate crime, but this song displays such a shamelessness and lack of accountability that it terrifies anyone who cares about any of these workers.

Me & My Mummy is worth a brief mention, as Bobby "Boris" Pickett adds nuance to his character with an anthem about loving, and being attracted to those who aren't conventionally attractive. He still manages to be a bigot about it, but this is at least some growth that warrants a mention. If he keeps this progress up for a millennium he may not be a despicable person.

Unproblematic king Count Dracula returns to demonstrate true leadership credentials in contrast to Bobby "Boris" Pickett's totalitarian approach. He continues to innovate as Bobby "Boris" Pickett continues to rest on his laurels after the success of Monster Mash, with Drac flying out to Transylvania to work out a new dance, The Monster Motion. He consistently provides calm, constructive criticism as he works out the kinks of their new project. Yet another win against the odds from the hero of this story.

In the next song, The Monsters' Mash Party Frankenstein, here nicknamed "Frankie", opens the song by begging to be unchained so that he can Mash. Bobby "Boris" Pickett cruelly refuses to free him in a harrowing opening to another despicable song. It doesn't end there though, as Bobby "Boris" Pickett in the next verse greets Drac's statement of preference for his own people's dance with a condescending and hateful "Who asked you, bl**ds*cker?", the third instance of that slur in the album, and fourth anti-vampiric slur out the mouth of Bobby "Boris" Pickett by my count.

The next song is Irresistible Igor, which expresses very minor evils compared to the rest of the awful behaviour on display in this album. Bobby "Boris" Pickett takes a shot at Igor's looks, while praising his ability to break hearts, by seemingly leading women on for one night stands and then ghosting them. A cruel thing to do, for sure, but not particularly noteworthy amongst so much immorality.

In the next song Bella's Bash, he continues to berate and slander Dracula while again taking credit for a dance that Igor stole from Dracula,

After that, he then appears to visit Dracula, who is also apparently having a party, and judgementally asks to see his dance, which it appears he has had to modify since the original was robbed, decredited and sold to widespread acclaim. To make matters worse, Bobby "Boris" Pickett chooses to judge Drac's new dance (as a wrongfully respected choreographer) in front of Dracula's own children. Then he disrespects his dance by claiming that its not accessible to people outside of his creature group and is supposedly therefore inferior, contributing to a general theme in this album of Bobby "Boris" Pickett being in favour of total cultural assimilation.

Hope they didn't bring Drac, he's no friend of mine

His jealousy is widely known

Doesn't dig my Mash he's got a dance of his own

Also, for those keeping count, there is yet another use of the bl**ds*cker slur from Bobby "Boris" Pickett in this track.

Trigger warning on this next song for non-consensual pornography. Bobby "Boris" Pickett continues to demonstrate his exploitation of his spooky subjects, and particular bullying of Dracula as the next "song" on the album Let's Fly Away appears to be a recording of Dracula making love to Vampyra, likely without their consent, with them moaning each other's names.

Thankfully, the album comes to a close now with Monster's Holiday. It starts as an act of resistance against discrimination from Santa, who presumably ignored them up until that point. To retaliate, the monsters planned to rob Santa's sleigh, but as they were about to act on it, Santa actually gave them gifts, putting an end to that particular form of discrimination. It's nice to have the album end on such a hopeful note, following such an inundation of bigotry and harm.

So basically *The Original Monster Mash* is the best concept album ever made, with complex storytelling on display, with the clearest example of subversive writing being that of the evil protagonist Bobby "Boris" Pickett. 10/10 must listen

#chaosincurate #halloween #happy halloweeeeeeen #music #music essay

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chaosincurate · 7 months

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Fall Out Boy Retrospective Part 1: Pre-Hiatus

Okay, I wanna come straight out of the gate with a couple disclaimers:

Music is subjective, I'm not claiming that any of my opinions here are the only valid ones out there. You may well be one of the people that believe that Fall Out Boy is as good as they've ever been, in which case, I'm happy for you, and I recognize that your opinion is as valid as mine

While I try to "put music over" in a sense, talking about it in the way I see as best for any reader's potential enjoyment of that music, I'm going into this project expecting it to get pretty cynical and bitchy in the second part. If you're the type to take criticisms of music you like as a criticism of you, that's fine, but the next post probably won't be for you if you also happen to like Fall Out Boy's later stuff.

I don't say that because my feelings are all that controversial (in fact, my more negative beliefs are very popular amongst music fans), I say it because I don't want to make anyone feel ashamed about liking certain music. I made this blog to help promote a love of music and recognize the subjectivity of art, while also hoping to help people find new stuff they might like. The idea of this post goes against most of that, but it's too damn interesting to me to not explore, so I thought those disclaimers were necessary to help offset that.

Now that that's out of the way, I wanna quickly go over why I wanted to do this. I've been flirting with the idea of making this post since I listened to their last album at the time of writing, So Much (For) Stardust, and that all ramped up when their cover of We Didn't Start the Fire came out. I've been frustrated with the trajectory of their career for a while, and that definitely accounts for a lot of my motivation for this post, but I also wanted to revisit the older stuff that I connected so well with when I was younger and see if it holds up to the slightly more discerning ear of a slightly older self. So, if that interests you as much as it does me, let's get into it!

Evening Out With Your Girlfriend

Before listening to Evening Out With Your Girlfriend: I'm not sure what to expect here. While I have at least some exposure to all of the other FOB projects, the only somewhat known quantity heading into this one is the song Calm Before the Storm, which I know, having listened to Take This To Your Grave, but expect to be slightly different here. So this should be an interesting listen.

After: For something to go wrong, it first needs to be going right, and while I'm confident that I will believe that to be the case at some point, I found Evening Out With Your Girlfriend pretty unspectacular. It's totally understandable here though. The context of this album is that it's a bunch of young guys trying their hand at pop punk that haven't quite found their identity yet, with only a handful of moments hinting at their potential at this stage.

The production, as you would expect from a first pop-punk album from an unknown band in the early 00s, is shoddy. Patrick Stump is doing an uninspired imitation of a snotty pop-punk frontman. The instrumentals are all pretty good and are consistently hinting at what's to come, but nothing quite sticks for me or feels all that special in and of itself.

I would honestly suggest that you skip this unless you're really into pop-punk or curious enough about how Fall Out Boy started to give it a go. I don't hate it, but I'd consider it forgivably subpar.

Take This to Your Grave

Before listening to Take This To Your Grave: Back when I listened to Fall Out Boy more regularly, I found that each time I listened to this album I warmed to it a little more, so I'm expecting this to be the album that comes off best from this listening project thing I'm doing. To be clear, I don't mean that I think it'll be my favourite of all their albums, just that this will be most improved in my estimations.

After: If I'm being honest, I was a little disappointed here. I was expecting to enjoy it way more than I did. That being said though, this is a massive improvement on Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, with improved production, a little more oomph to the instrumentals, and Patrick Stump mostly ditching that bad attempt at a snotty pop-punk vocal performance for a way more unique, soul-ish vocal performance.

They're definitely beginning to come into their own here, but they are still a ways off actually reaching the top of the pop-punk mountain that they are beginning to climb here, and showing their ability to reach that peak too, with songs like Calm Before The Storm that balance catchiness with bite impressively.

From Under The Cork Tree

Before listening to From Under The Cork Tree: It always used to be a coin toss for me when picking my favourite Fall Out Boy album, between Infinity On High and this. Having relistened to a couple Fall Out Boy albums now, and having spent a pretty notable amount of time away from the band, though, I'm expecting to like this less than I used to. I'd still be surprised if I didn't like it, but I'm expecting there to be a lot of lyrics that, as a teen I loved, but that I cringe at with a more mature eye. I'm also expecting to be way less wowed by the instrumental side of things, what with my experience with experimental bands broadening recently. I still think I'll really like it, and won't exactly feel ashamed to say I once loved it, but any more than that would be a (welcome) surprise.

After: Oh my god what an album this is! The quality of these albums really skyrocketed out of nowhere. The production goes from good to great here, the instrumentals are suddenly so much meatier and more complex in an easy-to-consume kind of way, the lyrics, which I expected to cringe at, hold up for me as the peak of petty and witty writing... I'm frankly a little embarrassed to have doubted the album.

I knew going into it I had a soft spot for songs like Dance, Dance (with that incredible bassline), and Nobody Put's Baby In The Corner (with all that clever lyricism), but a lot of the songs sprung forward from this listen as quality tracks that I always used to overlook, Of All the Gin Joints In All the World being the most obvious example. There wasn't a single moment of this album in which I wasn't really enjoying myself and kept on my toes. I wasn't expecting a lull-less album from this at all, but that is exactly what I got. Absolutely incredible.

Infinity On High

Before listening to Infinity On High: As I said in the previous 'before listening' section, this was always one of two consistent candidates for my favourite Fall Out Boy album, so my expectations for this one are high going in. That being said, after being so surprised by From Under the Cork Tree, I expect this to be a little less impressive to me. I imagine FUTCT will be my favourite Fall Out Boy album by the end of this project.

After: So I remember hearing that for a lot of people this was supposedly the point in which Fall Out Boy sold out, and frankly, I think that's insane, and that's what I wanna talk about first and foremost here. To my ear, this album sounds stylistically pretty identical to FUTCT but with an added layer of glitz and glamour, which doesn't exactly undermine the overall sound in any way that I can make out.

That being said, that layer of glamour did make this album fall a little short of FUTCT for me personally. It's not the case that I can't appreciate the direction they went (although Jay-Z's cameo was weird and is a baffling decision to me), it's just a case of personal preference, particularly in my case a preference for a slightly more down-to-earth style while still balancing that with good production, which I think explains my love for FUTCT.

Folie à Deux

Before listening to Folie a Deux: I remember this as a victory lap and a last hurrah for the musical movement Fall Out Boy pioneered, so that probably means more of the glitz that I personally had a slight distaste for on Infinity On High. That being said, I remember thinking very fondly of this album, and I think there would have even been points in time where I'd have considered it my favourite Fall Out Boy album. I'm totally clueless as to whether the excess will come across as justified or too cheesy to handle now I've (very slightly) matured, and I think that'll ultimately be the key factor in whether I enjoy this as much as I used to, or consider this the point where Fall Out Boy lost their spark. We'll see!

After: Well I remembered the excess correctly. There is definitely a different vibe around this album compared to Infinity On High though, one that I personally far prefer. Whereas Infinity On High gave off the impression that you were in a castle in a fantasy utopia, filled with the hedonism of people who were ultimately honorable, this is more a representation of real life hedonism, implicitly depicting people turning themselves to ash with hellish behaviour, tortured by a lack of meaning in their life, and dealing with it by chasing pleasure and narrowed consciousness by way of mind-altering substances.

It was an excellent homage to a dying genre, going out with all the self-awareness, self-deprecation, and fun immaturity that it began with. From here there would be some faint echoes of what was once the biggest movement in rock music at it's time, with My Chemical Romance releasing another album before they split, and Paramore carrying tiny fragments of the sound with them going forward, but for the most part the movement wouldn't make it into the 10s. That makes this album almost a grand eulogy for this emo wave of pop punk, and if you ask me, its a fitting send off.

Conclusion/Interlude

During this project, I have managed to gain some level of understanding for the band's change in style post-hiatus. Without entering too deep into part 2's territory, I felt that they lost their identity when they came back. Pete Wentz's lyrics lost their edge, the instrumentals didn't shift erratically anymore to keep up the excitement... It just didn't hit the same.

Maybe that'll change for me as I listen to the post-hiatus albums with as open a mind as possible in part 2, but that's besides the point. The reason I bring this up is to express that I understand why now, at least to some extent. That understanding came as I was listening to Infinity On High, listening to the band try to keep the sound fresh in ways that, at least for me, rarely worked very well and felt tacked on. It became clear that, if the genre was going to make it out of the 00s, Fall Out Boy, for all their ability, weren't going to be the ones to do it.

The interesting part about that is that I don't think it comes from a lack of skill. I think it comes from the fact they are effectively a min-maxed band built around that particular wave of pop-punk. The lyrics, the ADHD-informed approach to instrumentals, the mild tendency towards unclean and unconventional vocals, it all lends itself perfectly to this specific subgenre, and in any other, while some elements may work, but for the most part they're tripping over each other.

So, when they wanted to come back, now to a musical landscape that is hostile to that sound following nearly a decade of overexposure, they had to smooth off some edges to fit into a new mold. I still can't say I like it, but I can say I get it now.

This post has also allowed me to rediscover why I loved the three album run before the hiatus, which has definitely made the effort worth it.

#chaosincurate #music #music essay #alternative

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chaosincurate · 8 months

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My month in music - August 2023

Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There (relisten)

Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy (relisten)

Mitski - Puberty 2

Mitski - Be the Cowboy

Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds from Another Planet (relisten)

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee (relisten)

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

SZA - Ctrl

Squid - Bright Green Field (relisten)

Squid - O Monolith (relisten)

Black Country, New Road - For the First Time (not for the first time)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

Genesis Owusu - Struggler (new)

shame - Food For Worms (new)

IDLES - Joy as an Act of Resistance

IDLES - Brutalism

Blur - The Ballad of Darren (new)

Write-ups below

I'm gonna be honest, I'm way later to this than I'd like to be so I'm gonna try to just absolutely blitz through these so I can get onto a project that might end up taking a lot of work'

Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There

Note to self: make a post dedicated to this album. It's musically meticulous and thematically compelling, and some of the lyrical work is truly crushing, like you are watching a man crumble slowly over the course of the album's hour-long runtime. It's an absolutely incredible work of art and would be one of my go-tos to demonstrate the unique potential of albums as a format.

With that last note in mind, I would of course recommend a back-to-back listen above all else, but if you must try a song first, I'd suggest the first proper song Chaos Space Marine

Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy

This is one of those warm albums that feel really communal and welcoming. It's got more angry moments - I Saw, for example has a war drum rhythm to it as the vocals on the verse are practically spat out - but for the most part, this is a very laid-back listen that captures an improvisational magic without the drawbacks that usually brings.

The previously mentioned I Saw is definitely my favourite from the album, but as I said, it doesn't exactly embody the album's best features. If you want a song that does that, try Geronimo. The song's lyrics tend to speak on the negative sides of life and the inevitability of it's end, but the music, along with some important glimmers within the lyrics, tell you that there is a beauty to even that.

Mitski - Puberty 2

I hear we're all gay here, so I imagine you all know that Mitski is good by now, but just to confirm, Mitski is good. I had heard Bury Me at Makeout Creek a while ago, and intended to listen to more after that, but the first song I heard outside that album was My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars, which is a great song, but gave me the total wrong idea of this album. Yes, there is a little more experimentation than I remember being on BMAMC, but I was under the impression that it would be way more abrasive from that first impression, and that's great for 2 minutes, but over a whole album, that'd be a lot, at least for me.

I am glad that I eventually got around to this though, because it was a great album. I would have been particularly worse off never having heard Your Best American Girl. It's an excruciating story of a protagonist who is in love with someone who is of an untenably different culture to themselves, which leads to tension, embodied by parental disapproval. It's a great song delivered with buckets of emotion, particularly when the chorus hits.

Mitski - Be the Cowboy

Honestly, this one didn't hit as much for me, which given everything I heard surprised me. I found that most of these songs ended too quickly to make an impact, and I didn't see anything on the album scale to write home about either. She's still clearly demonstrating her talent, and it's still made up of good songs, but they just lacked the impact of her other two albums for me.

That being said, I did particularly enjoy Nobody. The contrast of the disco-leaning instrumental, along with the pretty bouncy vocal melody against the loneliness the lyrics speak about somehow enhance that feeling of it being out of reach. As if Mitski is being taunted by it. It's very effective.

Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet

I am just now noticing the colour theme of the albums I was listening to around this time. Something about orange and yellow spoke to me this month.

This album is incredible. It's the first true demonstration of what makes Japanese Breakfast such a great project for me. The album is broadly indie pop, but it's the form of indie pop that's special: Michelle Zauner carved a niche sound from materials of the more music nerd side of pop music with the tools of lo-fi and soundtracks. The pop music materials come simply from the quality of the production and somewhat normal song structure which come along with some slight experimentation here and there in regards to the sound of the album, that latter point bringing us to lo-fi, which also gives us that unique comfortable, cozy vibe that you hear with Japanese Breakfast, and then the soundtracks portion comes from her excellent ear for creating the ideal atmosphere for a given song's themes.

All the songs on this album, especially the first half, are amazing and pretty representative of the album's sound, but I really wanna focus on Machinist, a relatively experimental cut. It's a song about a lover not being as vulnerable with you as you'd like and that's great, as is the fact that it's conveyed through a story of a woman falling in love with a literal robot, but the instrumental really sells this. There is a constant battle between mechanical coldness and human warmth in the song best conveyed at the end where a sax solo is accompanied by a robotic synth and very faint, distant, robotic vocals. This woman is a genius.

If you'd like something a little more normal, Boyish is also very good. It's a pretty straightforward song about romantic insecurity. If the narrator and protagonist is reliable, their boyfriend is staring at a waitress instead of their date, who isn't buying his attempts at reassurance, and is desperate to feel equally as seen as the stranger he's enamored with. There's a little unreliability to the narration though, because the sentiment switches from spite to yearning often, from "if you go to her, don't expect to come home to me" to "I can't get you off my mind" (followed by the currently irrelevant, but very witty "I can't get you off in general", love that, 10/10, sad tho). That introduces a layer of personal interpretation though: is it a song about anxiety told through a wholly unreliable narrator or is it actually about your significant other not being especially sexually attracted to you? Both are very interesting, and both seem like valid interpretations to me.

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

I love this album so much I made a post about it earlier this month, and I'm pretty proud of it, so please check that out if you're interested in reading more than just "it good. It very good"

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

Don't ask me why this is my first Kate Bush album. I could've sworn I saw this on some list ahead of Hounds of Love or having a higher aggregated rating somewhere or something like that but I can't find it anywhere now that I'm looking for it. But anyway, this is a great album. It provided everything I expected from a Kate Bush album, the weirdness, the stylistically all-over-the-place vocals, the general theatricality... But it also took that style in different directions than I expected, such as with the menacing title track about colonialism.

The song I'd recommend would probably be the fairly expectation-aligned Sat In Your Lap though. Honestly, if you've heard a Kate Bush song before, you won't need a taster for the album at all, it's more of that, but if you need to be reassured of that, the opener is a great example of it.

SZA - Ctrl

I didn't get SOS, unfortunately, felt it was a little bloated, but maybe it's worth a revisit, because over an hour of this seems pretty great. SZA's writing is all incredibly authentic and personal, and her vocals drip sweetly over any instrumental tried here. You don't need another stranger on the internet to tell you that this is a must-listen R&B album, but here I am, yet another stranger on the internet calling this a must-listen album.

My favourite from the album is probably Drew Barrymore, a reverb-drenched song about a relationship that is ruined by jealousy and self-hatred on the part of the protagonist. This is my favourite example of vocal honey on this album, too. This, for me, encompasses all the album's strengths brilliantly.

Squid - Bright Green Field

Bright Green Field is arguably the clearest demonstration of Squid's unique sound. It balances the ideals of punk and funk excellently while adding in some kraut-rock and Radiohead-esque ideas too. I think I might prefer O Monolith personally, but this album is both very close in quality and absolutely crucial for the band.

I think if I were to recommend a song from this album, as much as I love Narrator, I imagine it'd be G.S.K. that best positions the album for enjoyment, at least for most people. It sets up a lot of the themes surrounding urbanization and the contrasting of modern life with the natural to demonstrate modernity's absurdity, and does so expertly, while also providing on the instrumental front with that funk-infused post-punk that makes the album so unique.

Squid - O Monolith

As I said in the previous write-up, this is my preferred Squid album. It leans on that Radiohead influence a little more, I think, which is why I'm glad they established their own sound with their debut first, but I think the sound here is just more to my tastes, and better suits their focus on this record, which is hard to pin down, but it feels more broadly mechanical than the previous outing, more rigid.

I think there are a few really good recommendations for songs from this album, but I'll stick with the critique on policing and generally violent power over others afforded to the otherwise powerless: The Blades. This is one of my favourite songs, period, let alone from Squid or off this album. The way it gets in the head of someone whose only access to power is through the violence of law enforcement, and demonstrates the urge to use that power in that environment is just superb. And it demonstrates it all while also criticizing the amount of power they are afforded and how that makes matters even worse. I love it.

Black Country, New Road - For the First Time

Welcome to the best new six-part post-punk debut album! I hear the Slint influence is a little heavy here, but for one, that doesn't really bother me, and two, I haven't heard Slint yet, so I wouldn't know. Regardless, this album is incredible at getting you into a sort of dark groove, and eventually, when the time is right, uprooting that groove and leaving you completely at a loss for what to expect. Even when you've heard the album many times over like I have, there's a part of you that can't keep up with the erratic shifts in the music within individual songs.

That incredible aspect of the album is best portrayed in the album's best track for me, Sunglasses. It touches on so many themes, which makes it hard to pin down exactly what the song is about, but it seems clearly about wealth and delusion in some way. For me, I think it's about the protagonist being seduced by the toxic comfort of wealth and delusion that wealth is earned and not happened upon randomly. It's a complex song though, and I'm sure there are plenty of valid interpretations. It is 9 minutes, but it's so good and dynamic that you are unlikely to feel all that time pass. Give it a listen if you like the sound of everything I've written here!

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

I never really had a resonant experience with instrumental tracks, which really made me skeptical going into this album. I have had plenty of positive experiences with instrumentals, but they're always pretty analytical, I rarely actually feel anything all that strong when listening. Add on top of that the length of the songs, with each of the four tracks being around 20 minutes, and it was a bit of a long shot. That being said though, this did resonate with me. After a stressful day, I just laid back, put this album on and relaxed for an hour and a half and I felt the album eat the stress from inside of me like a growing black hole, sucking up negative emotion. It was so thoroughly uplifting that I couldn't possibly hope to analyze it. It's difficult to recommend the way I usually would, but if you love music, especially stuff in the alternative and indie orbit, I'd suggest giving this a listen when you have some time to kill, especially if you're stressed or otherwise burdened.

Genesis Owusu - STRUGGLER

From an album that is very happy within a small niche, to an album that could be engaged with on some level by anyone, STRUGGLER is a dance-informed neo-soul album (I guess) that really makes use of the medium by using and reusing metaphors from within it's borders to reinforce themes, and explore new elements of that metaphor that consider the already established subtext. It's all very clever concept album stuff, and I always respect when an artist commits to a concept like this, especially ones who can still make songs stand on their own outside of the context of the album. It's very impressive.

I'd probably say Tied Up! is the best shout for a song to try, it's exceptionally groovy and is probably the point in the album where I'd say it really finds it's groove, which is on the late side, so hearing that in advance could reassure you that the album does actually find it's feet eventually.

shame - Food For Worms

This album is a weird one just because it doesn't really stick to a sound all that much. It bounces very quickly between punky songs like Alibis to a softer alternative style in tracks like Adderall a lot and it makes it hard to settle in a way that I think makes the album listening experience worse than if it were, for example, two EPs of comparable style. Of course, stylistic diversity is often a plus, but it has to be done better than this.

The songs are all pretty great in isolation though, especially when it does get a little punkier, such as with the previously mention Alibis (my personal favourite), or the song I'd recommend, lead single Six-Pack. First things first, that guitar sound is absolutely phenomenal. It gives off an erratic feel, and one of a shifting, untrustworthy nature. And then there's that hyped up vocal performance that embodies frustration at the comfortable delusion characterized in the lyrics.

IDLES - Joy As an Act of Resistance

This was incredible. The name pretty much sums it up. It's a post-hardcore album that is very aggressive on the surface level, but will often have a heart of gold, such as with Danny Nedelko, a song that stands in defiant support of immigrants and immigration, named after the writer's friend originally from Ukraine.

The song I'd recommend is largely just aggressive, but still with a pretty warm thesis in the end, and that would be Never Fight a Man with a Perm, a song about pub violence and the silliness of the extreme macho personas on display in those environments.

IDLES - Brutalism

I didn't like this one as much as Joy, but there were still some definite highlights. For one, it is a lot more punk. This album is absolutely punk to the core, and doesn't share the optimism of my preferred album, which does provide a more cathartic experience.

My favourite is probably Stendhal Syndrome, an album about artistic philistines; the type of person to look at an artwork and judge it based solely on the technical ability on display and not the vision of the artist or the art's emotional impact. Plenty is already made of punk's political leanings, but very little is the subculture's love and passion for art at the forefront, and it's good to see that being focused on here.

Blur - The Ballad of Darren

Unfortunately I don't have much to say about this one. I was hopeful going into it because I did quite like St. Charles Square, but almost all of the album just bounced off me leaving no real impression. Maybe it's worth a revisit one day, because I did mostly respect it on an analytical album, but it didn't make me feel much at all. If you like indie rock, maybe it's worth a listen, I hope you like it more than I do.

#chaosincurate #music reccs #music recommendation #indie music #music #indie pop #black country new road #young fathers #mitski #japanese breakfast #kate bush #sza #squid music #godspeed you! black emperor #genesis owusu #shame band #idles band #my month in music

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chaosincurate · 8 months

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Album Spotlight - Jubilee

By Japanese Breakfast

Genre: Chamber pop/indie pop

Song to try: Paprika

This may well be one of the albums I've brought up the most since starting this blog towards the start of this year, and I have no qualms or shame regarding that. Apart from just slowly, over time, becoming one of my favourite albums of the decade so far. So I've decided to write this post for two reasons: one, to really lay out why I love this album so much; and two, to have something to link to in the constantly recurring event that I have it listed as an album I listened to in my month in music posts that makes my life easier and does the album more justice. So lets get into it shall we?

Paprika

As I write the first draft of this post, while listening to the album, my intention isn't to do a track-by-track here necessarily (although I am aware of the noticeable likelihood of the post becoming just that (P.S. kind of but not really)), but a handful of songs absolutely deserve a particularly close look, and Paprika is absolutely one of them.

Starting off with the lyrics here, this is some of my favourite writing, definitely in music, and quite possibly in any medium. To describe what I believe this song is about, I'd like to bring up the Cobra Effect story.

For those who aren't aware of the story, it goes something like this: In colonial India, there was an unsustainably high number of Cobras. The government, in an attempt to crack down on these Cobras, issued a bounty on them. Anyone that brought them a dead Cobra would be rewarded. In response, the citizens started creating Cobra farms, increasing the snake population and endangering themselves to get constant rewards from the government. Now, that story probably isn't true, but it holds a lot of rhetorical value, and I think it's apt to compare it to the relationship between expression of negative emotion and artistry. Artists initially started expressing negative emotion to work through those emotions using a healthy outlet and were rewarded, being considered brave and artistic for it, but soon that became exploitable, and artists would seek out negativity, establishing the Cobra farm that is the "tortured artist" trope, and increasing the pressure to write about negativity. If you made a song about something negative, it would be seen as artistic and valuable by default. If you made something positive, it would be seen as low-brow by default. And with that, a divide was born: artists made sad stuff, entertainers made happy stuff (there's nothing wrong with music as entertainment either, to be clear, but that isn't the path for everyone).

Paprika stands in opposition to these snake farms. Now, Michelle Zauner (the writer) doesn't seem to have any disdain for negativity in music - in fact, there are several metaphorical cobras on this very album - but this song criticizes the urge to create negative art, especially if it means ruining your own happiness so you can have something new to exploit, instead encouraging an artistic focus on the brighter side of one's life.

The song has so much density of meaning, and everything is conveyed in such a clear and beautiful way. It's a perfect paragon of positive lyricism.

Lucidity came slowly I awoke from dreams of untying a great knot It unravelled like a braid into what seemed were thousands of separate strands of fishing line Attached to a coarse behaviour A calm, it calls, it screams "what else is here?"

The excellence doesn't begin and end with words on a page though, the music is equally as enchanting. The core of the song is a marching band rhythm, which makes sense, because according to Zauner, that was the first part of the song to come to mind for her and the song was built from there. It lends a celebratory mood to the song that also drives it forward and gives the song a sense of direction, which is all perfect for this song and makes for a fantastic opener.

The percussion doesn't steal the show though, it is simply the narrator guiding you through it. The dreamy synths provide a comforting atmosphere, the vocals sound decidedly at peace and grateful, as if sang through a grin while she acknowledges she is living in a dream, the way those opening chords literally go from a chord that sounds dark and dissonant to something that sounds happier and lighter (I'm sure someone with a better ear for chords can give specifics, but I'm not that person), it's an incredible musical journey, one that I've honestly never considered to be made up of individual instruments until being pushed to pick things out of the mix right now for this post. It is one of those songs that feel more plucked out of some spiritual realm than actively worked on, so when you consider that it was created by (I'm pretty sure) real humans, it's even more awe-inspiring.

If nothing else comes of you reading this post, if you don't listen to the album, if you don't listen to Japanese Breakfast, I'm perfectly content. But I'm begging you, if you care enough about indie music to read about this album and you haven't already, listen to the song. At least read the lyrics, as imperfect as that would be. I genuinely think this is not just spectacular, but important to music and artistry as a whole, and I say that fully recognizing that I sound like a naive Swiftie saying "no no, you don't understand, she's not a writer, she's a storyteller". Just trust me on this.

Not Paprika

Other than Paprika, the most notable song on this album is Be Sweet, an incredibly fun, bass-centric, and danceable song about loving someone, but being unwilling to continue a relationship until they do some self-reflection and become a better person

Recognize your mistakes and I'll let you back in Recognize, not too late, love you always

It's a song that is thematically cohesive within the album, but is musically very much "the hit" of the album. It is a way better project with the song included, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't introduce any sequencing issues, particularly going from Be Sweet itself to Kokomo, IN. It felt like a fun little detour on a road trip that took us off route and was a little logistically awkward, but it was a fun moment.

After the comparatively unremarkable, but otherwise still great, sweet songs Kokomo, IN and Slide Tackle, the album goes in a direction reminiscent of Japanese Breakfast's earlier work on Soft Sounds from Another Planet and the Sable soundtrack (which is great by the way, Zauner's incredible ear for sonic atmosphere makes the game feel so important). The first song to remind me of her previous album is Posing In Bondage, a song which creates an insulated feeling where the narrator begs for "Closeness // Proximity" in the form of the eponymous bondage, which follows very naturally into the similarly cozy and sexual Sit, which is a song about face-sitting, which is fun, as well as the desire and fantasizing of being with someone who is already in a monogamous relationship.

Then we continue this excellent sequencing with a perfectly timed upbeat moment with Savage Good Boy, a track which satirizes the endless pursuit of wealth and pleasure, while also painting a picture of someone who is obsessed with one person and attempts to trap them into a relationship with them, threatening apocalypse and total ruin to do so. The title itself evokes that contradiction of goals and actions, too. The idea of being someone's "Savage Good Boy" implies both domination and self-subjugation, as if being held accountable only on their own terms, with the threat of annihilation lingering over the head of the "loved one" in the form of simply removing the support previously relied on.

One line that I really appreciate for it's subtle reification of the themes (whether it's intentional or not) is the line "we will be so wealthy I'm absolved from questioning". The way the line goes from talking about them as a hypothetical couple and how that would be, to quickly refocusing on what that would do for him, and how he would have so much control specifically is a great touch that works as a fantastic criticism of how this sort of person enters relationships seeing them as something to exploit for their gain more than a real connection.

The way I see it, Savage Good Boy is a song with as much density of meaning as Paprika, even if it doesn't quite hit me as hard as that masterpiece at the start of the album did.

I wanna make the money 'til there's no more to be made And we will be so wealthy I'm absolved from questioning

I said earlier that there was negativity in the album, and if the deranged commitment to constant, selfish positivity that was Savage Good Boy didn't suffice for you, In Hell should. This song has lines that will make your heart feel like you just got hit with a Mortal Kombat fatality. Here's a couple:

Wheeled you in laid on your side I cried and cried And at my signal They stopped your heart and then you died

And under florescence, another sterile room Where no one ever tells you just how clinical death looks And I can't unsee it The two shots it took

It's blunt. It's brutal. It's unfair. It's riddled with unwarranted, but totally understandable, guilt and I for one can't help but feel a whole in my chest where my heart rested before it was savagely torn from me. It's by no means a fun song but it is yet another incredible display of artistry.

Following that, there is a bittersweet reflection on love and loss with Tactics, where Zauner takes a sympathetic look at her dad's... Imperfect reaction to losing his wife to cancer: running away (literally crossing a sea) and marrying someone, seemingly anyone, else. Of course the specific details aren't important to the song, what is important is the, again, bittersweet understanding shown, a sentiment of healthy forgiveness is portrayed. One where the harm is not waved away, but there is a deep peace and understanding about it all, which makes it possible for her to write a very insightful and emotional song about losing someone you love so much and how that can make you act in unpredictable ways.

Then the album ends with Posing for Cars, a song about a romantic contrast, where both the characters in the story love eachother but have very distinct experiences with that love. The protagonist is fairly insecure, dwelling on anxious thoughts of what might happen if the other person left them, while the other person is secure in the relationship. There is a distance in that, but not enough to undermine the love the song evokes. Then the song, and by extension the album, ends on a long, sweet, sprawling guitar solo. It's such a great way to close an amazing album.

Closing thoughts

If I were to sum up my favourite things about this album, I would probably point out the lyrical nuance and emotional maturity that is on display, and the musical atmosphere that Michelle Zauner conjures so immaculately in all her projects (or at least the one's I've heard).

The lyrical nuance is all over the album. It is very common for songs to have at least two perspectives and every time she tackles another one, it usually seems just as validated and fleshed out as her own, with the clear exception, naturally, being Savage Good Boy, where the alternate view is that of an abuser.

As for the atmosphere, it truly needs to be heard to be understood. Every song is a rich tapestry of sound that feeds into itself in awesome fashion.

#chaosincurate #music reccs #music recommendation #indie music #music #japanese breakfast #album spotlight #chamber pop #indie pop

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