[drakonium]

What Another Man Spills by Lambchop

Really cool, relaxed album, with light melancholic vibes. The Mayfield cover is perfect. I might actually prefer this to Nixon, which is the only other record I've listened to by them (and which I love as well). Perfect to spend the beginning of my penultimate vacation day

Edit : It's Not Alright is a breathtaking track!

[Repo]

[drakonium]

Buddy Holly by Buddy Holly

This is really something. Nothing like any other rock record I've heard from that time. There's so much variety in this one. There's actually only one real fast-paced rocker (Ready Teddy) and it's by a solid margin the worst song here. It sounds like the out-of-place track the American Music Club put in each of their albums for some reason. But the rest is stellar. Seriously this could have been made 20 years later as a sort of rock and roll revival record. Read somewhere that Everyday invented twee pop ; I'm willing to believe it. Pretty sure the melody of the opener from Crooked Rain² is taking from it actually. Remarkable as well how most of the songs are under 2 minutes and still feel like full fledged tracks. I guess they're just dense or something.

And to think I didn't particularly like it when I first heard it a few years ago... Glad I'm doing some revisiting. This one was thanks to the 1001 albums thread, as I saw it pass by and it reminded me of its existence. Thanks Antonio haha

[drakonium]

Espers II by Espers

Very good psych/folk record. Very atmospheric in general, with strong, noisy climaxes where they need to be. The songs are usually long and repetitive, with the chord set and melody not changing much throughout. It all relies on the choice of the instruments, their quantity, and their intensity. It does work though, even as background music (not for a nice dinner with your family though...), as you can let your attention go back and forth on a track and still manage to get back without being lost. It's a very slow record overall. Powerful though, and very colorful despite the dark album cover. I guess it's like wandering in magic woods, finding bizarre mushrooms, and deciding to eat them anyway...

[drakonium]

Good Things by Aloe Blacc

I was talking about him with a friend some time ago, and I really like I Need A Dollar, so I thought I'd give it a spin (my second one here actually). It's OK, but quite disappointing to some extent. It suffers from artists like Raphael Saadiq and (most of all) Sharon Jones existing, as their brands of 60s soul revival are far superior (just like comeback albums such as Solomon Burke's). Blacc's poppier approach is much less satisfying and, although well done, underwhelming in the end. His Femme Fatale cover is interesting, the title track is solid, but this overall leaves much to be desired. It's hard to point out, but it kinda lacks substance ; punch, passion, dynamics... I don't know. It's just there, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not really enough. Actually, I think I enjoy this less than the aforementioned artists for the same reasons I like Bill Withers less than Aretha Franklin, or Stevie Wonder, or pretty much every other famous soul artist of that time. Too clean? Can't tell.

I'm a bit harsh tbh, this definitely is a pleasant experience (just like Bill Withers is), but I don't really see myself spinning this much again in the future.

[drakonium]

This Old Dog by Mac DeMarco

A real departure from his previous two LPs. It bears large similarities with Another One though, even if here, he takes the sound he began to work on on the EP a step further. There's still the occasional (relatively) upbeat song such as A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothes, but it's mostly slow-paced tracks with often prominent synth. For The First Time and Dreams From Yesterday (with its constant buzzing synth sound in the background) are pretty representative of this record's direction, and of course excellent tracks. But it's on Moonlight On The River that he takes this approach the farthest ; a track which starts as a good but pretty usual acoustic ballad, and ends with 2+ minutes of noisy electronic effects, before leading to the short, quiet closer.

It's great. I had found it a bit underwhelming on the first listens, expecting his warm, clean usual sound, and getting this sluggish, mostly-acoustic-but-with-synths record, but after a few more spins it's definitely a success IMO. I'm really interested in what he's intending to do after that, as if he seems to be willing to explore new territory, and so far he's done it well.

I'm still not sure why I like his music so much though ; it's so simple, it almost feels lazy at times, yet for some reason I really love pretty much everything he's done so far. I'm not sure I could even point out, like, an "objective" quality to his music. It's just there, and it feels great. Sounds like the guy I'd love sitting at a bar with, talking about things while getting really drunk.

[drakonium]

Giant Steps by John Coltrane

Really starting to get into this one. I had found it pretty unwelcoming at first, being fast-paced and without any sort of pause. And the solos are, like... so full of notes. It just does not stop for 40 minutes straight. But yeah it's amazing.

With that said, I have yet to get what is supposed to be a good impro and what is supposed to be a bad one. I mean, I just happen to sometimes like them, and sometimes not, but I would be perfectly unable to explain why. It's quite frustrating tbh. Whatever a good solo is, pretty much everything on here is without any doubt in that category haha