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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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texaschainsawmascara · 1 year

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i-D magazine covers

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sage-nebula · 1 month

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"Suffer No Fools" - Shiver vs. Marina Analysis

It's been a few days since "Suffer No Fools" released, but I wanted to go ahead and release my analysis of Shiver's and Marina's verse since that's the one that has caused the most discussion within the fandom. I've seen a lot of debate over Marina's section in particular, with people unsure whether she was being sincere or sarcastic, and I think the actual answer is a little more complicated than one or the other, at least with regards to the first couplet of lines both she and Shiver sing. Of course, people are free to interpret this song however they wish, but after seeing numerous interpretations I personally didn't vibe with, I just wanted to put my own out there, breaking it down line by line.

So! Here we go.

Exchange 1:

Shiver: "Your haunting voice -- there's no escape. How nice it must be for your fans." Marina: "You're far too kind! I love your vibe. I can learn so much from your style."

Analyzing from dialogue only:

Shiver is insulting Marina's voice by calling it haunting and saying there is no escape, insinuating she wishes there was one. She says how nice it must be for Marina's fans, again implying that she isn't one.

Marina says that she loves Shiver's vibe, which on the surface could be a compliment, but given the context (a music battle) it could also be a Mean Girl "ooh I love your [thing] :)" passive-aggressive drawing-attention-to-something-ugly insult. More direct though, is the "I can learn so much from your style"; you can learn what not to do from someone just as much as you can learn what to do from someone. Marina's engaging in plausible deniability here.

HOWEVER. Lyrics are NOT the only thing that need to be analyzed from this first verse, which is arguably the MOST important exchange between these two. Instead, we need to look at how these lines are delivered.

Shiver is singing in a traditional Japanese folk singing style, specifically a style based on Shima-uta, which her voice actress has a background singing in. Unfortunately, I don't know the actual term for this style of singing, only that it's not kakegoe, something Shiver also does that is different from this. Anyway, in these lines specifically Shiver is singing in her Shima-uta style, a style that she has presumably been practicing since she was a small child, a style that is probably culturally significant to the Hohojiro clan. Singing in this style is not something that just anyone can do. It's completely different from singing in a (for lack of a better word) "western" style. The way you breathe is completely different. The way you incorporate your voice into your breathing is completely different. So by singing in this style, which Shiver has been doing practically her whole life and which, presumably, only she of the four there can do, Shiver is FLEXING on Marina regardless of what lyrics she chooses to sing.

But then Marina, who grew up under the domes in Inkadia, who presumably has never heard Shima-uta before she started listening to Deep Cut and heard Shiver sing, who presumably has had absolutely no training whatsoever on this style of song . . . mimics it perfectly and flexes on Shiver right back.

Could Marina's words to Shiver be interpreted as passive-aggressive in turn? Yes. But does it matter? No, not really. Because in this first verse, Marina's ACTUAL comeback is to take the style of singing that Shiver has been perfecting her entire life and throw it right back in her face despite having never (as far as we or Shiver know) practiced it herself. Shiver was flexing by presumably doing something Marina couldn't do, only for Marina to do it flawlessly, being every bit as divine with a voice so fine as Pearl said she was previously. Marina says "I love your vibe" so she takes it. Marina says "I have so much to learn from you" but does she really, when she can already do exactly what Shiver can, and has, just now, right in front of her?

And Shiver noticed, hence:

Exchange 2:

Shiver: "You remind me of my neighbor's little daughter . . . What's that saying? 'Octo see, octo do.'" Marina: "Glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved. Thanks to your notes, I'll find my groove!"

Shiver drops the Shima-uta singing, because now there's no point. Marina can also sing in that style, so it's no longer a flex. Shiver lost ground on that one, so instead we're back to the same (again, for lack of a better word) "regular" style of singing that everyone else is using. For that reason, we can go back to analyzing purely based on the words alone.

Shiver is calling Marina a copycat, essentially, because Marina copied her Shima-uta singing style in the previous verse (hence why Shiver had to drop it, as previously noted). Marina then gives her "glad you approve -- your praise has left me moved" . . . basically noting that by Shiver accusing her of copying, Shiver is saying that Marina -- someone who just tried the singing style off the cuff right there on the stage for the first time -- was just as good as Shiver, someone who has trained in that style her whole life. The audience saw for themselves that Marina was able to emulate the style, but Shiver saying, "you copied me!" is basically admitting that Marina was just as good as her in Shiver's own eyes, and Shiver is a pro. That's Shiver's aggravation handing Marina the win and Marina smiling wide as she accepts it.

Exchange 3:

Shiver: "Oh, look at the time. Isn't it getting late?" Marina: "Not at all! I could go on like this all night long."

This one doesn't even really need an analysis. For all that she prides herself on being "so cool even sharks call her cold-blooded," Shiver is known for being easily irritated and riled when she's losing due to her competitive nature. Marina successfully got under her skin, and this is her trying to end the battle fast because she didn't have any further comebacks. Marina, meanwhile, gives the classic "I could go on all night" because she's not riled at all, and is instead perfectly comfortable in this environment, knows what she's doing, and has had the upper hand from the start.

It goes back to another post I made about Experience vs. Inexperience. Shiver and Frye are still new idols, whereas Pearl and Marina have been at this for a long while. And while off the stage Marina is a sweet, kind, gentle person who will go out of her way to help others, and can sometimes be a little spacey or naive, she's also a 23-year-old literal genius who has been in the music industry for years now and knows full well what a rap / music battle is and knows her way around a stage. Personally, I found it to be a little infantilizing to insinuate that she "didn't realize Shiver was insulting her," when not only do I think she knew full well, but also she was the one with the upper hand not because of sick burns (that's Pearl's department), but because of sheer innate musical talent.

But those are just my thoughts! Everyone else is free to have their own.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #suffer no fools #off the hook #deep cut #shiver hohojiro #marina ida #keep in mind that Shiver is my favorite Deep Cut member please #i mean no disrespect to her in any of this #i really do just think it's her inexperience in the music industry etc #and Frye's as well #i think that in Splatoon 4 we'll see that Shiver and Frye have matured some & made some headway in their own careers #(and Big Man too ofc but tbh he's already there with the maturity imo)#(hence his collabing w/ Squid Sisters & non-hostility toward OtH)#then again maybe Deep Cut wants to stay indie. idk! we'll see

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kicktwine · 2 years

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summore splats

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zephyrfuse · 1 month

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KEYS WON NEW SHITTY CALAMARI INKANTAION TIME

(I met sure to include every instrument in the fest as well, played by mr baby keys truly)

#splatoon 3 #splatoon #no im not polishing it navigating this thing makes me want to die on the inside #KJFH LDKJFHDLK #squid beats #my music #splatfest #id say this is a speed run shit song but this took me way too long for the quality it came out as KJFHLKJDFHLDKJ #woomyart #reshiart

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post-punk-author-anthony-day · 2 months

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100 hours of POST PUNK

All eras (76, 1980s, post punk revival, post punk 2k)

All subgenres (no wave , the new wave, doomer, some shoegaze, dance punk , garage rock revival )

All Regions (Mex🇲🇽) (RUS🇷🇺) (UK🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿) (USA🇺🇸) (Den🇩🇰) (SWE🇸🇪)

Includes Interpol, Talking Heads, Lowlife UK, Joy Division, molchat doma, ,Iceage, Fontaines DC, Shame, Squid, Ploho, The Horrors, Bitchevsky Park, Bambara, A Projection, Protomartyr, makthaverskan , The Feelies, New Order, The Mission, Preoccupations, Black Midi, Editors, White Lies, The Strokes, KILLING JOKE, king krule, The National, Two Door Cinema Club, The Fall, Bauhaus , Nick Cave, Essential Logic, ESG, Viagra Boys and More !

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furresquid · 5 months

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bitches be like: condemn him to the infirmary

my brother in christ, my brain has claimed it’s glory over me

#hawaii part ii #joe hawley #hawaii part 2 #miracle musical #squid thoughts #the mind electric

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kepler69b · 2 years

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WHY DONT I EVER HEAR ANYONE TALKING ABOUT THE SPLSTOON LIVE PERFORMANCE POSTERS??? THEYRE SO GORGEOUS?? THEYVE BEEN MY WALLPAPERS FOR AGES

#splatoonhype!!#splatoon #splatoon3 #pearl #marina #cali #marie #frye #shiver #big man #off the hook #squid sisters #deep cut #splatoon idols #splatoon concert #splatoon music #i get to play splatoon 3 in 12 hours #omg

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scianvih · 2 years

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splatoon-confession-box · 1 month

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I hate that the Squid Sisters have so much less music than the other Idols. Like they just have 2 battle tracks, Ink Me Up and Liquid Sunshine (which is a collab with Big Man) whereas Off the Hook has 6 and Deep Cut has 5. This isn't Off the Hook or Deep Cut hate btw I love all three of them but it's just a little bit unfair

#splatoon confessions #i mean music wise #squid sisters have had three games worth of music #im mostly sad there's 0 squid sisters themed clothes at all #DC and OTH got both amiibo clothes AND springfest shoes #squid sisters didn't even get themed outfits for their amiibos :/#i want squid sisters dresses or something

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chaosincurate · 9 months

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My month in music - July 2023

Prince - 1999

New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies

The Beatles - Revolver

Squid - Bright Green Field

Squid - O Monolith (relisten)

Nothing But Thieves - Dead Club City (new)

Slowdive - Souvlaki

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Madvillain - Madvillainy

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson - Discipline

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

black midi - Hellfire (relisten)

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (relisten)

Gabriels - Angels & Queens (new)

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES (new)

Alvvays - Alvvays (relisten)

Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

Regina Spektor - Far

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee (relisten)

Alvvays - Blue Rev (relisten)

Regina Spektor - 11:11

JPEGMAFIA - LP! (Offline)

Write-ups below

Prince - 1999

In a continuation of my "I was wrong about Prince" arc, I gotta say, this album is incredible. One of the most admirable traits Prince's music has, is the ability to lock into a groove and just keep it going for insane runtimes without it overstaying it's welcome, and that is very much a trait that is on display on this album, with only two songs being under 5 minutes, and only a couple of the others are noticeably long.

I imagine it's safe to assume anyone reading this has already heard the title track and Little Red Corvette, so realistically you've already had a taste of this album, but if you're looking for another song to try, D.M.S.R. stood out to me as an exceptional example of that previously mentioned ability to lock into a groove for ages without it becoming noticeable.

New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies

A brighter, more hopeful version of Joy Division, as they are often labelled, New Order creates a distinction between itself and it's predecessor by simply being a less challenging listen, emotionally and intellectually. That isn't to say that it's any less deep, though. There is still plenty to dig into here, but I would argue that it is more optional here than with what I've heard from Joy Division.

I think if I were to recommend an individual song, I'd put forward the opener, Age of Consent. It's an excellent establishment of the band's personality, whether or not you're familiar with Joy Division, and therefore the majority of New Order.

The Beatles - Revolver

I think it's time to admit that I'm never gonna get The Beatles. I understand that they were incredibly influential and that some of my favourite bands wouldn't exist without their work, and many of them would be drastically different, but I just don't understand how people can listen to it with the developments we've made since and not find them incredibly lackluster. After listening to Abbey Road, Help, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (not a concept album btw), and now Revolver, I have only enjoyed the first of those as a whole project. Granted, I hear picking a version of Sgt. Pepper's to listen to is like playing Russian Roulette with a half full revolver, so maybe I just chose wrong there, but the other two don't have that excuse. I just don't get the hype when it comes to modern listening.

Squid - Bright Green Field

I remember seeing this album a lot when it was first released, and my tastes must not have been ready for that yet, because I do remember, quite distinctly, listening to something off of this album. Clearly though, I was right to hold off, because my tastes have since broadened enough for me to absolutely love this. Bright Green Field is an energetic art-punk album with a compelling breadth of themes and executes all of them with a very engaging subtlety that balances having a clear meaning with allowing the listener to have their own interpretations. The way this manifests, is that you will have a general idea of what the song is pointing towards, but will have to fill the nuances in for yourself, which I find gives you a better connection to the music.

A great example of that in action, and possibly my favourite song off the album, is Narrator. It is pretty clear that, no matter what your interpretation is, whatever the woman in the song represents is being victimized and forced to beg for scraps from a more powerful being. For me, the interpretation that makes most sense is that the song is about patriarchy, and how both men and women are pushed to act a certain way, but how men often get the better deal, even if there are many ways in which they are equally trapped, playing their respective parts. However you look at it though, it is a great demonstration of how power dynamics like that are entirely damaging.

Squid - O Monolith

For the most part this album is pretty stylistically similar to Bright Green Field, but I'd say this one is more consistently experimental than their last effort. Overall though, if you liked BGF, you'll probably like O Monolith. There's not a lot that you can say about the former that doesn't apply to the latter.

My favourite song off the album is The Blades, another great song by Squid about power, in this case the abuse of it and the loss of it, seemingly through the perspective of a police officer or soldier who inflicts pain and torment under the guise of protection, and then feels inadequate when they lose their position. The line "Another man's hand on the joystick instead of mine" feels full of the kind of jealousy one would feel when they are being cheated on. A righteous spite and tinge of self-hatred, like an all encompassing emotional poison.

Nothing But Thieves - Dead Club City

Nothing But Thieves are a band I talked about before, in my Top 100 One Song Per Artist post (at 52 to save you some time if you're interested), and I made sure to mention that they were crucial to developing my music taste, but I do feel like I've largely grown to have a disdain for their music. I look at their older stuff with a similar love to the one I had in my younger days, albeit with a slight undercurrent of acknowledgement that if it weren't for nostalgia I may not like it so much; but their new music always feels strange to listen to because of that. There are only a few songs I can actually get into without it feeling like a hollow nostalgia. This isn't their fault, of course, it's me who's changed, but it does result in a strange experience.

Also, for a more objective criticism, what is it with bands just having, like, 3 songs that contribute to a theme or story and calling it a concept album? This could have been a cool concept album, but there's just an opener which introduces you to a concept (a thinly veiled metaphor for the internet, most specifically social media and the other dopamine pumping addiction machines across the web), then maybe slightly touches on it a couple times, then has this epic, riotous closer that has no payoff because there was basically no buildup. I understand most people just don't care, but I really like concept albums, and the amount out there that claim to be one while offering no greater cohesion than the average album is infuriating to me.

Anyway, I did really enjoy Do You Love Me Yet? It felt like it was contributing kinda well to the concept, and the way they mix orchestra and crunchy, headbanging alternative rock is novel and works surprisingly well. The lyrics are painfully mediocre, but the concept of the song and the instrumental carries it well enough for it to not be that big a deal for me.

Slowdive - Souvlaki

I feel like I've kind of been unintentionally circling and prodding at the genre of shoegaze, especially since listening to, and subsequently adoring, Blue Rev by Alvvays. This month I decided to take an intentional dive into this music that seems like such a good fit for me by listening to one of the subgenre's most beloved albums. Unsurprisingly, I liked it. I was a little hesitant to listen to something shoegaze, because my first experience was with my bloody valentine a little while back and I didn't like how the lyrics were seen as so secondary to the music. I've since become a little more open to that, so maybe it's worth a revisit, but that experience with the shoegaze album kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. Fortunately, between Blue Rev and this, my palette has thoroughly cleansed and sweetened.

I love how the genre, when done well, entirely envelops you similarly to metal, but with a sweetness, like the difference between a hug and a sleeper hold.

That being said, my favourite song off of the album is probably the one that probably adheres to it the least, that being Souvlaki Space Station. The guitars here have this kind of alarm-like sound that gives you a deep sense of something going very wrong, and that enveloping that I mentioned earlier feels less like a hug now and more like a crowd of panicked people rushing past you for the nearest exit. It's an incredibly anxious atmosphere, and the album would be harmed by more than the sum of the songs parts were it not on the track list.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Not much needs to be said about this one. It's a classic for a reason. If you're after a captivating experience that melds charismatic vocals and one-of-a-kind guitar playing, then look no further than The Jimi Hendrix Experience. You've almost certainly already heard and fell in love with the incredible cover of All Along the Watchtower, so you have no excuse to not bless your ears with more of the same as far as I'm concerned.

If you must dip your toes a little more though, I'd recommend Rainy Day, Dream Away personally, with the 15 minute Voodoo Chile also being a highlight.

Madvillain - Madvillainy

This is a very deceptively rapid fire album. The beats aren't super invigorating and DOOM is so laid back as he makes history with his dense flow and wordplay. It makes for a very hard album to keep up with for someone with as little melanin as me, but what I kept up with was exceptional and hinted at a deserved legacy.

It's not just MF DOOM that makes this album great though. Madlib's beats are complex enough to be captivating, but not enough to feel like they're trying to take the spotlight off the awe-inspiring lyricism and flow that DOOM brings.

If I were to recommend a song, I'd struggle first and foremost because it's a very consistently amazing album, but the one that has really stuck with me is Fancy Clown. You really can't go too wrong though.

Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

I'm not remotely likely to reach anyone who hasn't heard this album before (or at least knows if they ever will) with this, but I really loved this album. It is one of the best examples of an album that I have ever heard. The sequencing is damn near perfect, making the album feel noticeably effortless in a way that is hard to explain. It's so rare that an album is sequenced in such an excellent way and it feels so primally easy, like the very core of your being was made to listen to this album, like it has some ancient understanding of this project that predates both you and the album. It's immaculate. It's glorious. It's beautiful.

Kendrick is also clearly great at making albums that feel significantly more cohesive than albums that are supposed to be concept album. I've spoken about how irritated I get about albums just being called concept albums when that label doesn't apply, but for reference, this is how concept albums are done. Not having one or two songs connected to the concept, but only having one or two that don't. It's focused and it makes it so much more affecting.

With that in mind, I'd first and foremost recommend just listening to the album if you haven't already, but if you need to hear a song to be convinced, Money Trees is my suggestion. It is, as you'd expect from the title, a well executed depiction of the hustle culture and money obsession that comes with growing up in an economically deprived area, where the safety it can provide is invaluable.

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

I feel like the entirety of this album would be ruined if there were a single point where the performances slipped. On a conceptual level, it seems like there is a sense that it is better than it is. Like it doesn't recognize its simplicity, but because Janelle Monaé is an incredible performer, and the band is on point constantly, it elevates it and makes that conceptual simplicity a positive somehow. The incredible execution legitimizes the concept, at least it does for me.

To demonstrate Janelle Monaé's awesome skill as a performer, take Tightrope and imagine some random X Factor or American Idol finalist making it. For me, it turns into childish, top 40 slop in my imagination. But because it's Janelle Monaé, it feels sincere and meaningful, if a little self-aware in it's lack of conceptual complexity.

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

Probably the album at the top of the must-listen list for prog-rock. I enjoyed the album enough to agree with that too. The songs are all really long but the experimental nature of the album really makes the album consistently attention-grabbing and entertaining.

It's a basic choice, but I really enjoyed 21st Century Schizoid Man. It's huge, it's anthemic, it's got bombast and aggression, along with that previously mentioned experimental nature.

King Crimson - Discipline

Discipline didn't impress me quite as much as In the Court of the Crimson King, but it was still a pretty great experience. It's very much more of the same great sound that made Crimson King such a standout record, but just to a slightly lesser quality in my humble opinion and with more of a focus on settling into a repetitive groove than on their earlier record. I'd definitely recommend that you listen to that before Discipline if you're interested and haven't already.

The standout track for me, and the song I'd recommend is Thela Hun Ginjeet. I feel it embodies the unique elements of this record in particular pretty well.

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

I don't really think I'm a Bob Dylan sort of guy because I just couldn't get into this on anything other than an intellectual level. Because of that, and the fact that as I write this I'm a few days past the day I wanted this to be posted by, I'll just say that I'd recommend listening to Tangled Up In Blue if you're unsure and move swiftly on.

black midi - Hellfire

I've spoken at length about this album multiple times before, so I'll keep this pretty brief, but this is quite possibly my favourite album of all time. It was my first exposure to black midi because, based on the album art and the name, I assumed it was heavy metal or something equally heavy. I was very wrong about that. They are absolutely a band that will overwhelm on first listen, but not in a heavy metal sort of way. There is a complex intensity to the album that, at least for me, inspired an almost religious experience where I couldn't even begin to grasp what I just experienced, but it just felt right to me.

I could very easily recommend any song off the album, but today I'll go with Sugar/Tzu. It's a very theatrical song, using a boxing match as a metaphor for... Something. It's pretty abstract and open to interpretation. I'll leave you to come up with your own.

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

Another one I've written about a lot already, I should really just write about these albums so I can link somewhere when they pop up in future.

Anyway, I've been on a bit of a Regina Spektor kick lately and been listening to some of her other albums, and I gotta say, as much as I love and appreciate those albums too, they all just make me appreciate how special this one is even more. None of her other albums that I've listened to have the same quirky, artistic charm that this does. It's all a little different. Here, the songs feel of-the-earth, dug up in this incredibly affecting, raw, primitive state that spoke directly to emotions in the language of emotions. It's incredible and I don't expect I'll hear anything quite like it for a very long time, if ever.

Recently, I've really enjoyed Chemo Limo, and I see no reason not to suggest that as a single song for those who want to dip their toes.

Gabriels - Angels & Queens

I'm going to be honest, I was distracted when I first listened to this album and never revisited it fully. That being said, the title track popped up on shuffle a lot and I got really into it in that less focused context, so I imagine that's a good recommendation for an individual song.

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES

This whole album is so chaotic, anthemic, exciting, and weird enough to earn it's title. JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown's energies click so perfectly too, which really gives this album an infectious, propulsive flow. It's definitely my favourite hip-hop album of the year so far and I'm disappointed that it took me so long to listen.

I think this album is at it's best when it's chaotic energy is at it's highest, so if you're looking for a song to try it out first, I'd go with the opener, Lean Beef Patty. It's an explosive start, and prepares you perfectly for the experience you're about to have.

Alvvays - Alvvays

I've made no effort to keep the fact that I absolutely love Alvvays under wraps. In fact, I've made a whole ass post about it. That being said, this is clearly a version of the band that wasn't quite as keen to explore new sonic palettes as they have since become. It's pretty one note, but they chose a great note to linger on, like an F#. Solid note for sure, but if I were to nitpick, I'd like a few more.

As I implied in that first paragraph, the album is incredibly consistent, so it's another one of those albums where you could close your eyes and point to a song to try if you were unsure, but here I'd like to recommend fan favourite Archie, Marry Me. Much like the rest of the album, it's dreamy, twee, and euphoric, with some sardonic lyricism courtesy of Molly Rankin, where, depending on how sarcastic you think she's being, she's either targeting the pressure to marry, or the person who is unwilling despite their shared commitment to one another. It's really good and fun and full of indie charm, you should give it a listen.

Injury Reserve - By the Time I Get to Phoenix

Much like the Bob Dylan album I talked briefly about earlier in this post, I enjoyed this way more on an intellectual level moreso than on any other, although I was able to get into this one a little bit more. It's a very intense experimental hip-hop album generally centered around grief, which makes it more intense and, at the same time, more harmonious for the way it intensifies that innate intensity.

The best songs off the album are towards the end in my opinion, and to suggest you listen to one of those before the album as a whole would probably lead to a worse experience with the album, so I'll suggest Superman That as an introduction instead. It's glitchy and stuttered which grants a heightened level of desperation to the sound of the song as the hook "ain't no saving me or you" punctuates it.

Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope

As I said earlier, I feel like Regina Spektor, if she was trying to, struggled to recapture the very specific charm of Soviet Kitsch, but as they say, shoot for the stars, and if you fall short you'll make it to the moon. There is still plenty to love here if you aren't comparing it to a once-in-a-lifetime record. The lyricism is still fantastic, albeit in a different way now, with Samson in particular being a song from this album that felt incredibly poetic. Après Moi on the other hand shows off her ability to make lyrically focused music instrumentally interesting. It's still a great album, just not as unique as I was hoping after hearing Soviet Kitsch. I'd still highly recommend giving it a listen if you like lyrically focused art pop ballads.

Regina Spektor - Far

A lot of what I said about Begin to Hope applies here too. I saw a few people pointing out Eet as their favourite Regina Spektor album, but I'm going to have to disagree there. Personally, my favourite ended up being One More Time With Feeling. It's just one of those songs that make you feel backed up and supported in whatever challenges you may be feeling. It somehow reminds me of Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads in that respect.

All in all, this was by quite a way my least favourite Regina Spektor album so far, but it is still very much worth a listen for me. She's just a very special artist, the likes of which don't come around very often, and that has been clear in every single album I've heard so far.

Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

I imagine I've written about Jubilee before, but not often enough. It's such a great example of an album being fun without sacrificing depth. Admittedly, not every song here is positive, but the majority are, as the title would suggest, and I can't describe in words alone how happy I am that there is an album out there proving to the depression snobs that you don't have to be sad to be interesting, and proving to the lazy that you don't have to give up meaning to make music that expresses the positive sides of life.

The example I adore most is the opener, Paprika. Its an absolutely gorgeous song that has dug it's way deeper and deeper into my mind since I listened to it to the point that I'm convinced one day my whole personality will be Paprika by Japanese Breakfast. The song, and by extension, the album, opens to slow, ascending synths that are instantly positive and comforting. Then you hear the beautiful lyrics, "Lucidity came slowly, I awoke from dreams of untying a great knot". the words that have not left my head for more than a day in months. Gorgeous. Then you get a triumphant drum line to give the song a soft drive, and eventually the chorus

"How's it feel to be at the center of magic to linger in tones and words?

I opened the floodgates and found no water, no current, no river, no rush

How's it feel to stand at the height of your powers to captivate every heart?

Projecting your visions to strangers who feel it, who listen, who linger on every word?

Oh, it's a rush"

I had to share it in full. It's such a beautiful ode to music, it brought a tear to even my dry eye.

This has grown to be my favourite song off the album for it's summation of everything within the project, but aspects of this beauty are reflected in other moments on it. If left-field pop is even in the vague vicinity of "your thing", this is a must listen. If not the album, Paprika at least.

Alvvays - Blue Rev

I've talked enough about Blue Rev by now. It's a fantastic noisy, shoegaze album. Listen to After The Earthquake if that sounds up your alley. Even if you've heard it before, treat yourself. You deserve it.

Regina Spektor - 11:11

I really loved the sparse production on this album. It allowed the lyrics to take center stage alongside Regina Spektor's amazing, expressive vocals, that prevent the music from feeling empty. It's some great artistry on display to almost make the sparsity go unnoticed.

I think there are two great songs that serve as microcosms of the album as a whole. First, Rejazz. Here, there's only a bass and Regina Spektor's immaculate vocals which cover ground from deep growls, to delicate highs within the space of seconds in a way that feels natural, as if it's just an attempt to squeeze out every single bit of emotion she can as she sings of losing someone and recognizing the catastrophizing she is doing, convincing herself that she will cry forever and realizing how untrue that is.

Next, I wanted to bring up I Want to Sing because it is a great example of the intimacy that the sparseness of the album creates. Here, there are no instruments at all, taking that acoustic idea to the absolute max without literally having a silent track, and therefore making it feel almost as if you're in the room with her in some cheesy romance film moment. That's not to say that this is a simple love song though, because she recognizes the absurdity of her situation with glimpses of that aggressive anti-cliché writing that initially drew me to Spektor's music with Soviet Kitsch.

JPEGMAFIA - LP! (Offline)

After listening to and being blown away by SCARING THE HOES, I developed an itch for that sort of sound, and considering JPEGMAFIA was responsible for my favourite parts of that album, I decided to start here, and I was impressed. I didn't enjoy it as much as STH, but it was an abrasive and chaotic enough experience that the itch is very much scratched for now.

As much as it seemed out of place as the fourth track on the album, I'd recommend listening to the song END CREDITS as a first taste of the album.

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