where do i begin? well, i'll start by saying i love this album. but i kinda expected to. I had a 1 song sneak peak a few days ago. and since then i've been itchin to return.
if someone described to me who adrianne lenker was, then described what kind of album this was, where and when it was recorded, and then showed me the cover i would basically think you were just fabricating the most "Ryancore" album ever just to fuck with me. but, no. this is real. and actually the album lives up to my hype.
the first song has a phrasing and a guitar part and a melody which is essentially a Tallest man On Earth song - and a good TMOE song at that. anyone who knows me knows that is as high as praise gets. its like a basketball scout saying that a high school player looked a lot like Michael Jordan out on the court. But really track 1 "two reverse" is a PERFECT folk song. full stop. then later there's a song called "come" which starts with literal rain sounds and then the song starts after the rain and it made me cry while doing dishes ON FIRST LISTEN it made me weep. its so sad. its so urgent. its another perfect song. I have only listened to the album 2 times but so far I can already tell I adore it. just looking at the song list i can say that i adore: two reverse, anything, half return, come, zombie girl, dragon eyes, my angel, ingydar, yeah fuck it - i can already say I essentially love each song.
Now i'm playing it a third time, this time through I thought of Judee Sill, Grouper and The Tallest Man On Earth. this is ridiculous. i love it. this is one i need to spend more time with and I shall. but holy shit. i think i'll be returning to this a lot on and off for a few years and i can totally imagine after a couple years placing this up on the pedestal as one of the best folk singer/songwriter albums. Then again, it may get boring, and i may just say" yeah that was pretty good, nothing special." we shall see.
Lenker doesn't have Phoebe Bridger's level of genius word play (in my opinion), she was never going to be as achingly personal as Microphones in 2020, she was never gonna make an otherworldly chamber folk album to rival Ichiko Aobi, she wasn't gonna be as ground breaking as fetch the Boltcutters (definitely not that) - but she shared some elements of those other notable singer/songwriter albums and a whole lot of her own style, combined it into maybe the best folk or singer/songwriter album of 2020.
I LOVE albums like these so much. may be my fave type of album actually. "Songs" is just her, being herself, going through some shit in a cabin, pouring her heart out and yet out comes a (potential) all time masterpiece? Who does that?!? Adrianne Lenker that's who! I adore it.
90-100/100
i'll be also listening to her previous solo album "abysskiss" as well as some of her Big Thief albums which somehow i didn't know shit about until i heard this.
3.
Top 10 albums of 2020 per RYM that I have not heard (excluding some stuff I just know i don't want right now)
1. Un canto por México vol. 1 by Natalia Lafourcade (#14)
2. Purple Moonlight Pages by R.A.P. Ferreira (#17)
3. Circles by Mac Miller (#20)
4. Shore by The Fleet Foxes (#24)
5. Ultimate Success Today by Protomyr (#27)
6. Miles by Blu &Exile (#28)
7. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches (#30)
8. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately by Perfume Genius (#32)
9. After Hours by The Weeknd (#43)
10. Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs by Klô Pelgag _________________ -Ryan
A great album from a great band. I knew a lot of these songs already but Steady Diet Of Nothing is the only album of theirs I used to own and listened to a lot. I love the two distinct voices, especially the interplay between them when they both appear on the same song. Great guitar sound throughout, and well written songs. Also there were times I noticed the drumming, and times I noticed the basslines. A great album overall that just flowed nicely and maintained my interest the whole time with no low points at all. 8.5/10, and 14/54 in my 1990 chart.
Protomartyr looks out of place in that list, and I apologise for making you listen to it Mercury, but it is my favourite of all those, and I think their best album so far.
Top 50 Music Albums of 1990 by Mercury (4 picks left)
5. Steppin' On The Blues by Lonnie Johnson
7. Social Distortion by Social Distortion
9. Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker by Blind Blake
10. 1990 by Daniel Johnston
14. Shooting Straight In The Dark by Mary Chapin Carpenter
15. Bellybutton by Jellyfish
16. Goodbye Jumbo by World Party
20. The Victor Recordings In Chronological Order (1928-1929) by Frank Stokes
21. A Cast Of Aspersions by Louis Tillett
22. Son House And The Great Delta Blues Singers - Complete Recorded Works 1928-1930 by Various Artists
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
This was the first time I heard this band. I really like it. Very intense, like, really very intense at times. Cold, harsh, post punk guitar riffs, with intense drumming, a vocalist who sounds just fucking tired of it all, incredible transitions and builds, and some of the cooler rock songs I've heard in awhile (such as "I am you now", "Processed by the Boys" and "Michigan Hammer"), really nicely integrated jazzy parts that enhance rather than distract from the intense modern post punk urgency.
Yeah this is a really solid album. It's its own thing while still reminding me (at times) of some of the past masters such as PiL, The Fall, Refused, and others. This is an album I think I will listen to a few more times over the year. There are moments when I lose a bit of interest. Not all the songs completely blow me away, but I have a feeling some of these moments will open up for me a bit on repeated listens.
Its great to hear such a vibrant and excellent punk album released in 2020. The pop stars and singer/songwriters have dominated my small 2020 chart so far. But this along with Yves Tumor will crash that party in the top 10.
75-85/100
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2.
@purplepash, 4 of those 10 albums as you can see are old old blues compilations. They are all excellent and you'd like 'em. but right now I think I'll nominate an album actually FROM 1990, and based off your love of indie rock, maybe you'll dig this album which was one of the albums that got me through High School...
3.
Top 10 albums of 2020 per RYM that I have not heard (excluding some stuff I just know i don't want right now)
1. Un canto por México vol. 1 by Natalia Lafourcade (#14)
2. Purple Moonlight Pages by R.A.P. Ferreira (#17)
3. Shore by The Fleet Foxes (#24)
4. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches (#30)
5. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately by Perfume Genius (#32)
6. Ohms by Deftones (#34)
7. After Hours by The Weeknd (#43)
8. Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs by Klô Pelgag (#49)
9. Dwellers of the Deep by Wobbler (#58)
10. Song Machine, Season One by Gorillaz (#59) _________________ -Ryan
I would say, this album is what I wanted the Lenny Kravitz album to have. Something more jazzier as well as somewhat epic but mostly a chill romp. I would say that while this is quite excellent, this doesn't hold a candle to some of the best stuff from 1993. But a welcome listen. And I could recommend this to anyone that likes a chill jazzy, folky rock music.
Grade:90
(2)
Mercury, After Hours.
(3)
BEA's Top 100 Albums of 1993
(35) James-Laid
38 Sting-Ten Summoner's Tales
58 Jamiroquai-Emergency On Planet Earth (R)
(62) Mariah Carey-Music Box
(64) Meat Loaf-Back Out Of Hell II (would have to listen to the first Back Out Of Hell album)
(65) The Auteurs-New Wave
(66) Sepultura-Chaos A.D.
(67) Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day
68 Death-Individual Thought Process
(69) Dead Can Dance-Into The Labyrinth
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
This was pretty good. The first album I've heard from Social Distortion. For some reason they didn't have much of a presence here in Australia back then, at least not in my scene. Yet this was the sort of music we were listening to. I really liked his rough, slightly raspy voice. The song writing seemed to have a knack of being able to create songs you are sort of humming along to first listen. The guitar riffs and solos enhance the songs without dominating the songs. A rock and roll roots element to it's punk rock that I appreciated. And relatively interesting lyrics. The Johnny Cash cover was fun but it would be hard to fuck up a great song like that. A decent to high 7.5/10, and 33/55 for 1990.
Sorry for the delay - the hip hop tourney is taking up a lot of my time. Jamiroquai is the only album I've heard, and I know you like it, so we'll get that out of the way and next time I'll choose something I want to listen to too.
Top 50 Music Albums of 1990 by Mercury (3 picks left)
5. Steppin' On The Blues by Lonnie Johnson
9. Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker by Blind Blake
10. 1990 by Daniel Johnston
14. Shooting Straight In The Dark by Mary Chapin Carpenter
15. Bellybutton by Jellyfish
16. Goodbye Jumbo by World Party
20. The Victor Recordings In Chronological Order (1928-1929) by Frank Stokes
21. A Cast Of Aspersions by Louis Tillett
22. Son House And The Great Delta Blues Singers - Complete Recorded Works 1928-1930 by Various Artists
23. Still Got The Blues by Gary Moore
Yeah, I still enjoy this. Grade being a 100. And I could end it there. But, I feel like there should be a bit of a discussion. For one, while I find this being the best album the band ever did, I would argue records like Synkronized or Automaton do give some legitimate competition. The former and latter share similar characteristics like the more electronic instrumentation or how both albums if people look up the backstory there is a "rise from the ashes" type of quality from those albums. Then I could mention that while there are tropes that were used during the 90's, the record scratching in track 4, this doesn't sound like a 90's album. In a lot of ways this feels timeless and I could believe this can release today and feel exciting. The only thing I would question with this and this mainly for me would be how to rank my 10's for this year? A pretty varied list and still think there might be a few more coming down the pipeline. But otherwise, still a worthwhile revisit of one of all time favorite albums.
(2)
Pash listen to Jellyfish. There sophomore album is dope. Maybe the debut is dope as well?
(3)
BEA's Top 100 Albums of 1993
(35) James-Laid
38 Sting-Ten Summoner's Tales
(62) Mariah Carey-Music Box
(64) Meat Loaf-Back Out Of Hell II (would have to listen to the first Back Out Of Hell album)
(65) The Auteurs-New Wave
(66) Sepultura-Chaos A.D.
(67) Buffalo Tom-Big Red Letter Day
68 Death-Individual Thought Process
(69) Dead Can Dance-Into The Labyrinth
(70) Urge Overkill-Saturation
Top 100 of 1993 ranked
So I am 3/5's of the way done with this year. This has been going good. Might get this done by February.
baystateoftheartNeil Young as a butternut squashProfile Massachusetts
This is a cool album. In terms of production, they take the 90s boom bap sound (with some direct call-outs to influences such as Gang Starr via sampling) and infuse it with elements from Turkish musical traditions - strings, vocals, and more. In terms of flow, I have no complaints. I don't understand a word of Turkish, so the lyrics are lost on me. 3.5/5.
~~~~~
2. I haven't heard this, but I've enjoyed three of their other albums:
1981 gold: Live Convention 81 - Various Artists
1982 silver: Live Convention 82 - Various Artists
1983 bronze: Players - Too $hort
1984 bronze: Fat Boys - Fat Boys
1985 silver: The Album - Mantronix
2003 silver: Bir Pesimistin Gözyaşları - Sagopa Kajmer
2007 silver: Volume 9: Negative Thoughts - DJ Sound
2008 bronze: The Pink Lavalamp - Charles Hamilton
2009 gold: The LP - Large Professor
2013 bronze: Yayayi - Yayayi _________________ Join us in the canon game :) / Add me on RYM
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Mercury
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