okay I'm back. This was a long album. And I went and listened to some 2021 music and 4 Ned Collette albums. Now back to this.
Robyn Hitchcock is a really unique songwriter and singer. I have only ever listened to I Only Dream of Trains and some Soft Boys with him.
This album is very austere, mostly just acoustic guitar, some piano and his vocals and weird abstract psychedelic lyrical work. Its consistently good and there is no doubt Hitchcock can write a great song. He also has some really good guitar chops, and his voice is really engaging.
The problem is this is a looong album and maybe i'm just not in the right head-space to appreciate the craft here. I got bored is what I'm saying. and I hate to say that cuz that's a criticism of me more than the music. I wasn't bored the whole time. Every time I'd start looking at my watch, a song like Queen Elvis, Executioner/Linctus House, Transparent Love, Satellite, etc would come on and kinda draw me back in. And these are all nice songs with good melodies and sick guitar parts and an almost hypnotic or mesmerizing power despite its small palate of sounds.
Damn, this album is long. Its only 72 minutes, but it feels a little longer. I don't usually like long albums, i mean it takes a special (to me) album to make me love an album over 1 hour on first listen. Recently with Ned Collette's Old Chestnut I was hooked right away despite it being exactly the same length as this one. Not sure why that is. Anyway, the 21 song, 72 minute run time is presenting a small barrier to my enjoyment or at least love of this album.
Anyway, its solid stuff, not an album that I think is bad. Not a favorite. But its good. 3/5 for great msuic and lyrics and stuff even if its just not terribly engaging to me.
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Paul Kelly and the messengers move on to the next round! yay. _________________ -Ryan
This was a good folk album. I wanna get that said straight out. But I didn't hear anything that truly made me go "wow" like the guy in that meme/clip thing. Its rich, lovely folk americana music with pedal steel guitar, minimalistic percussion which at times reminded me of that really dark dark song on Heartbreaker, it has good but no great or memorable vocal performances, some harmonies, some no lots of acoustic guitar and lots of songs about thoroughly down and out people struggling similar to The Ballad of Hollis Brown (especially the opening track) and songs of sort of sad lost love type stuff. Its all right up my alley. But it didn't grab me. Maybe I have just been listening to too many similar albums all my life and especially the last month. But anyway, nothing against Mary or this album. But I'm probably not gonna revisit for awhile. 2.75/5
Okay, this was a quite haunted, vulnerable album. I really liked it. Slots in nicely with albums such as Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill somewhat. I love her vocals and love the atmosphere she creates in these otherwise pretty standard folk songs with haunting strings and heavy reverb and stuff like that. Like it a lot. I know a lot of her other stuff isn't like this (based off the genre tags and based off reviews I've read) but this definitely makes me feel quite intrigued by her other albums. 3.5/5
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Chelsea Wolfe Moves on to the next round! _________________ -Ryan
This was great. Cat Stevens was a master. He could just churn out these great pop songs with memorable melodies and upbeat folk rock backing tracks and subtly brilliant lyrics like few of his or any era. There is a reason that when I think of a person who best exemplified the massive BOOM of singer/songwriter albums from 69-72, Cat Stevens comes to mind almost instantly.
This album is a brisk 33 minute statement, with a rapid fire barrage of solid songs. I instantly felt at peace listening to this familiar material.
Not as great as Tea for the Tillerman in my opinion. But an essential listen for fans of this style and this era. 3.8-4/5
This, however, this is on another fucking planet. my god. where do I begin with this?
Lyrically its excellent. Mystical, romantic, raw, honest - just fabulous throughout.
"Thou hast possessed me
I can dance upon the water
I can dance upon the sunrise
I can dance upon the clouds
I can dance upon the rainbow"
The vocals are maybe the most mindblowing. High pitched, soaring, lost in itself, like Tim Buckley, his vocals truly transcend. The way they weave around the various musical moods, whether atonal jazz or contemplative jazz-folk, watery and ethereal avant folk, a mix of all of them, doesn't matter - the vocals are the most striking instrument on this truly profound album.
The music is so completely overwhelmingly beautiful and inspired and impossible to predict track to track and minute to minute. Right from the jump with the achingly romantic "Color of Anywhere" you feasted with a magical mix of subtly rattling acoustic guitar, floating and gorgeous electric guitar, woodwinds come in liven up the soundscape even more, and all the while the vocal just soars around and ....really, I can't describe it.
The whole album is so incredibly adventurous, exploratory, brilliant, spiritual, and varied. The flow of the album takes me and keeps me in another place, ives me refuge and asylum and succor for its entire 36 minutes. When the album ends its like waking from a dream.
There are atonal jazz type things, there are Martyn or mid 70s Joni somewhat sounding mergings of jazz and folk, but done in a way which is much less bourgeois - this mix of folk and jazz is like listening to music which is a mix of Journey in Satchidananda and Astral Weeks. But that is even a bit unfair, cuz this album is really very unique and completely its own. I haven't been overwhelmed by appreciation and awe in a new discovery in awhile.
The whole album, every track, every part of every track is marvelous. I think this may be one of my fave albums ever. I am listening for a 3rd straight time and I am a bit gobsmacked by it to be honest. I cannot recommend this album enough. If you love Folk Jazz, Psych Folk, Avant-folk, contemporary folk, Astral Weeks, Blue Afternoon/Happy Sad and many other Tim Buckley stuff, Joni Micthell both early folk stuff or later jazz stuff, jazz fusion, prog folk, chamber folk, etc etc I think you will love this album. Respect the hell out of it at the very least!
I may be being overzealous but I feel like this album is in that Astral Weeks tier of unclassifiable and majestic folk that transcends easy description. 5/5
This round and match goes to Beverly Glenn-Copeland _________________ -Ryan
If you have any anythings leave em below in text form.
Otherwise, I will be listening to these albums over the next little bit. I listen fast. But maybe I won't this time. Either way, feel free to listen along with me if ya wanna. _________________ -Ryan
I've been really enjoying reading along to this, as I'm sure have many others. Pleased to see you enjoyed Paul Kelly and that he goes through to the next round. He is a highly respected elder statesman (almost legend status) in the music scene here in Australia, and has been for a long time now. December 21st is now known as Gravy Day here by those in the know due to the song below. It gets played in my household every year on 21st of December.
I've been really enjoying reading along to this, as I'm sure have many others. Pleased to see you enjoyed Paul Kelly and that he goes through to the next round. He is a highly respected elder statesman (almost legend status) in the music scene here in Australia, and has been for a long time now. December 21st is now known as Gravy Day here by those in the know due to the song below. It gets played in my household every year on 21st of December.
This may be a long post. I mean maybe not. Basically I listened to 6 of the 8 albums and have limited thoughts on them all. The only ones I haven't heard here is the 96 minute ( 😢 ) Agitated Radio Pilot album and the much needed relisten to I Speak Because I Can... but the long and short of it is this so far has been the hardest set of decisions yet. All these albums in this set are fucking fire.)
first set I listened to was the epic Greg Brown vs Neko Case battle
I listened to this whilst doing some boring administrative paperwork, and it was a fabulous background sound. I did have a chance to listen more closely probably half the time.
The main thoughts I had were,
"Why has Neko Case never fully clicked me" I mean she's a brilliant songwriter with a great and pretty unique voice (both vocally and in terms of her voice in writing songs) she came out of that rich scene of later-year Alt Country (arguably that era of 1998-2005 was just as full of great music as the initial explosion period of 1989-1992 or even the peak period when all these disparate acts were killing it and becoming actually successful in the mainstream (1993-1997)). Also she has a great ear for taking country and Americana bones and fleshing them out with an epic, timeless body, with incredibly powerful choruses and allegories and a generally larger than life sound. I have had Blacklisted and Fox Confessor on CD for years yet have never fully fallen in love with them and this seems strange. Those 2 albums are almost designed to be my shit through and through. This thought is a mystery still.
The other thought was "..." well I forget. sorry. I should have made note of it before writing the above paragraph. anyway, moving on.
Anyway, this album was an amazing listen. The whole package was so complete, you know what I mean? Like the production is great and clean yet not too clean, there is still some country rock grit in there but on the whole its just a beautiful sounding album. The vocals as mentioned earlier are beautiful and nuanced and I just never felt like the vocals weren't up to the task with the dramatics of the songs. The SONGs are really nicely crafted and the hooks and flow of them within themselves and with the rest of the album is quite nice. I don't think there was a moment on the album where the flow or mood of the tracklist was hampered by some out-of-place track (this is based on one listen and maybe I just am not familiar enough with the album to spot flaws). And the lyrics are artful, beautiful and mature. Some of the allegorical shit did kinda go over my head, but on the whole there are so many great little turns of phrase here and I really liked it.
4/5. I thought okay, this may be an easy decision considering the next album has a stupid name (The Poet Game? come on man) and the name of the artist is Greg Brown. What a boring name, amiright, what chance does Greg have against someone named Neko? (I'm mostly kidding, but there is a little tiny preconception I sometimes get from stupid stuff like this.)
But then I pushed play on this last night and ... jesus it was also really great...
So I see this guy is 1) Married to Iris Dement which blows my mind (she's great and maybe shoulda been included in this torunament cuz its been too long since I listened to her). and 2) that he has been releasing consistently acclaimed albums for 40 years (acclaimed by the blues/folk singer/songwriter fandom) and yet I have never pushed play on any of his albums. So I saw that and I instantly was warming up a slight bit to this dude.
The album is fascinating. How can I describe it... well you know The Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler? Well, Greg Brown has a similar sardonic delivery and even way of writing. The way he sings is almost like he is the guy who is just looking over a crowd of people with a ghost of a smile and when you talk to him he just is giving nothing but off-hand gems of observational disdain. And as you have this conversation with him you are struck by how cool and brilliant he is then a little later you realize that if you were in that crowd and he was talking to someone else he would for sure have some smart ass thing to say about you. And this makes you second-guess yourself. anyway, this analogy is a little stale. Moving on.
The music, its great. This is the first Blues-heavy album i've heard in this tournament. (I guess that M. Ward album was chock-ful of slight country blues spice, but it was relatively diluted by the other myriad sounds). I shoulda mentioned that Greg has a similar delivery to Knopfler but lowered considerably, he has a deep booming voice. Kinda sounds like Sean Rowe or rather Sean Rowe sounds like him. But this deep resonant tone fits so well with the equal parts sneering and humane observational lyrics and the blues he plays. I was most reminded of John Lee Hooker (the voice, the consistent sexual innuendo in the lyrics and the slow ominous vibe all point to this similarity).
There is no urgency in this album in the best possible way. This album just fucking has an attitude and a vibe of complete self-assuredness. Every song just feels right, effortlessly so.
And remember that dig I made against the title of this album? Well, the title track is unexpectedly affecting. His voice here is relatively high pitched compared to other songs. But the lyrics are excellent. Sounds like Greg Brown looking over his life and why he started writing songs, what good it is and why its valuable if it is at all. There is a self-conscious and self-aware message hear. Yet mixed in this are questions and observations which are memorable and I love it.
"I watched my country turn into
a coast-to-coast strip mall
and I cried out in a song:
if we could do all that in thirty years,
then please tell me
why does good change take so long?
Why does the color of your skin
or who you choose to love
still lead to such anger and pain?
And why do I think it's any help
for me to still dream of
playing the poet game?"
The straight blues numbers are sick. "Ballingall Hotel" is a great example of this.
There are so many great songs here - "Jesus & Elvis", "Sadness", the marvelous opener "Brand New '64 Dodge", and many others. This also gets a 4/5.
So now I'm stuck with a choice. Tough... Honestly there are a couple matches that have already occured where the winner wasn't as good as either of these 2 albums imo. And there my be more matches like that coming up. So I may (MAY) make a similar rule change like I did for Sandy Denny's album later and add one of these songs to the next round despite losing. Cuz I wanna listen to both these albums many times.
For now, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood wins by a hair over Greg Brown!
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Next 2 albums I listened to were also in competition and also were both relative revelations for me! The Miss America vs Long Journey match may have been even more hotly contested.
I probably won't write quite as much about the remaining albums in this post. Just a heads up. That doesn't mean I liked these albums less or that I had less thoughts about them. Its just that I tend to ramble and make these listens take forever.
THIS ALBUM is very very strange.
Apparently this album was recorded in 1984 but was shelved and released finally 4 years later in 1988. Perhaps the recordings seemed too strange and unlike any other country, pop country, etc album of the day and the record label didn't know what the fuck to do with it. I don't know and will research at some point.
This album isn't completely overtly strange, its more like its an uncanny valley thing - the music is similar to pop folk, pop-country of the time but at every turn there are weird deviations from what you'd hear anywhere else so the whole album kinda makes you feel like the songs and sounds are both familiar and warm as well as strange and alien at the same time.
For one her vocals are fucking OUT OF THIS WORLD! They are never tied down, she goes off and does these Van Morrison vocal detours and will repeat a phrase over and over and the words will be fractured and will be wailed and then whispered and then spoken and then will be none of those and it just is always unpredictable and always fresh. She is kind of doing a country pop/ country rock version of what Van was doing in his famous 1968 album or actually maybe a better comparison is Patti Smith's vocal explosions on Horses.. She will start screaming and barking. Listen to this if you want an idea of this brilliant vocal work
Yeah, weird right? Also, fucking cool as hell, right?!
And these vocal pyrotechnics are all over this amazing album. I'm a little in awe of her vocals and her personality to be honest.
The music isn't quite as revolutionary and mindblowing as her vocals. Nor is the songwriting. But this is based off one listen, and I am 100% sure there are details I am not hearing yet.
But the production is, like I said, subtly weird. The guitars and the violins may come in but they come and do some weird seemingly out-of-place thing. Yet these brilliant weirdnesses are overshadowed by the woman singing that the strangenesses kinda sink to more subliminal off-nesses (made up word yay). I'm listening again now and I am hearing some more strange production/musical touches but I also am hearing that half of the production is playing it straight. Again, very weird.
As for the lyrics, I haven't deciphered them nor really even tried. They seem to be a mix of classic country lovesick tropes done in a delicate and beautiful (if a little traditional) way and some scattershot surreal imagery.
"Now hit those gleaming faces hard
Though they’ll try to miss it
You would do the same for others
Look now it's re-
It’s ready, is it?
Ready to put you under like sedation"
-----------
Overall, I love this album. I can't explain how happy I am to hear it finally. It went straight to the singer songwriter chart today.
But the thing is so did its competition... 🙁 why can't this be simpler.
Michael Hurley seems like your eccentric uncle. The one with a big bushy beard. The one who you love the best as a kid cuz he actually engages with you and seems to be able to actually grant some importance to you and what you have to say. The one who agrees and nods knowingly when you explain the games you play and all your make-believe. The one who always has some silly thing to say that all the other adults seem to think is stupid, but you and him, you understand the majesty and the magic and the beauty of the things exchanged. The one who as you get older and see at the family reunions is always the one you wanna go sit next to and shoot the shit with. Even as you become something different than the wide-eyed child, and become a pubescent storm inside, and then a high school mass of confusion, or a college explorer trying to find your feet, he is always there to talk and give some kind of whimsical warmth, some piece of advice that is shrouded in some absurdity.
Basically, I love the personality of this artist. I love this colorful character. The music is playful, mostly re-imaginings of old nigh-on ancient forms of folk and blues, but modernized sonically to some degree and certainly not walking in lockstep with what these old song styles are usually about. The lyrics are so goddamn likable, so off the cuff and so fun. The songcraft is lowkey excellent. He takes himself so unseriously though sometimes its easy to forget how damn creative and elegent some of the lyrics and songs are. I love this album!
"I'm what they call a CC: a colorful character.
A high-grade citizen, a paragon of virtue
All them things, they apply to me...
"Well, I'll heal a dog of cancer
I'll heal any known disease
You come and listen, lordy I say
I'll give you more religion than a dog has fleas." - Uncle Michael
Side Note: This amazing album inspired me to listen to Armchair Boogie. I remember hearing Armchair Boogie years ago after seeing it on Normlore chart by BEA legend NormanBates. I thought it was nice. However, I didn't click with it. Maybe I was just being too damn serious and pseudo-scholarly at the time. Now I also love it. I may have discovered a new favorite, which is nice.
Anyway, I've said very little about the album. I probably have very little to say outside of how happy and carefree and thankful it made me feel. It really did take a day which seemed gloomy and lost and made it brighter and less serious. I appreciate that. 4-4.5/5
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So, which wins? I can say I was more impressed with Miss America on a musical nerd level. But I enjoyed and got more personal, idk enrichment, out of Long Journey. So i'll follow my heart and LONG JOURNEY WINS AND MOVES ON TO THE NEXT ROUND!!!! (But this is a match up I am SURE to bend the rules for. just wait and see Miss America is moving almost certainly in some way).
---------------------------------
finally this next match between Newman and Rhodes. These I liked but didn't love so that, in a weird way, simplified the game and was a good thing. Not a good thing, but at least a bit of a time saver.
this is peak Newman cynicism mixed with peak Newman romanticism. these 2 things seem at war throughout. Newman's willingness to savagely belittle both the southern/middle american rednecks as well as the pompous, high-horse astridin' (another fake word) East and West coast folks is inspiring and excellent. And his ability to also fit some sugary-sweet love songs in, with out of this world string arrangements, is seemingly impossible, but he fudgin does it.
Not much else to say. The songs here are just all so professionally written. Newman was just an all-time talent and it shows here just as much as on Sail Away. Sail Away is an all time favorite of mine and after one listen to this classic I haven't decided that Sail Away is inferior. I'd say they are equally brilliant but one is just more adored by yours truly.
This was a great revisit. I remember liking this album 3 years ago when I was reviewing it and 100 other singer/songwriter albums from 1969/1970. However I never returned until now.
The thing is this is technically a marvelous album. Its so damn great. If you want to hear a pop rock album that should have been as big as early 70s McCartney but was relatively passed over for obvious reasons, look no further than this tour-de-force of pop. It really is the best Paul McCartney solo album ever. I say that somewhat in jest (cuz McCartney did create Ram after all) but also yes this plays like a post-Beatles album which is pound for pound the near-equal of Ram and All Things Must Pass.
But that is it. That's all I have to say. I didn't feel particularly connected emotionally to this. The entire time quite literally I was impressed by what I said above. I wasn't overcome by the lyrics or any particular song. Its a 3-3.5/5 singer songwriter album or just plain ol' album of any kind. HOWEVER next time I see someone who loves The Beatles and their solo stuff and wants a recommendation, I will for sure mention this.
--------------------------
Okay, so I really really liked Newman's album. I liked Rhodes' album. But I just now reviewed 4 other albums I liked more and was more moved by. And it wasn't even close. If I were to rank these 6 albums, Good Old Boys would be #5 and Emitt Rhodes would be #6 and there would be zero deliberation. So what do I do?
I'll tell you what I do!
Randy Newman's Good Old Boys wins this match! Well done, 46 year old piece of music! However, YOU WILL NOT BE MOVING ON IN THIS THINGIE! Instead, Miss America will be crashing the 1968-1975 party in the next round!
But both Emitt Rhodes and Randy Newman's Good Old Boys will be at least appearing on the chart (as footnotes), so they have that going for the, which is nice. Now, I need to see if Greg Brown can sub in at some point in the future.
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Okay, I'll be listening to that Agitated Radio Pilot and Laura Marling album now. Or at least in the next few hours. Talk to ya later. _________________ -Ryan
chamge of plans. Due to that Laura Marling album being no longer on Apple Music and not on bandcamp and no full album video on youtube (also as I am somewhat familiar with it and not as hungry for a re-listen) I am taking that album off of this tournament.
I want to put a 1980s album I've never heard but always wanted to in its spot.
I was left with a choice of these albums to randomly stick in the 2007-2020 section:
Leaning in the direction of one of the first 2 and of those 2 I guess The Walking seems more like a breathe of fresh air. Not sure. maybe I'll listen to 2 or all 3 and also listen to the rest of the Agitated Radio Pilot album and then come back and post my thoughts on all i did listen to.
(as I do this game I am discovering or rediscovering so many oddities and curios throughout history that I wanna listen to. Its like a never-ending search for the best and most overlooked album. i'm sure you can relate). _________________ -Ryan
because i wanted to ruin the day of Guy Clark and Jim Croce and to add much needed chaos in this insignificant activity, I have removed that Jim Croce album and replaced it with the legendary Live album from 1973 by Neil Young Time Fades Away.
gosh i am a fool and somehow never heard this album despite it always existing on youtube. well, now its on apple friggin music and i feel like a dumdum for never having heard it. and just like that, I have introduced yet another favorite into this competition. So far with Ned Collette and Beverly Glenn-Copeland getting 5/5s, and with Joanna and Joni becoming clear all time classics and new favorites of mine, this tournament has already seemed to stratify harshly for all the other good-great albums. we shall see.
Peak Joni, Peak Neil Young, Peak Newsom, and 2 all time favorites already discovered, this tournament is liable to get VERY competitive in future rounds.
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oh and I decided on The Walking by Jane Siberry to replace Laura Marling. _________________ -Ryan
This is a really beautiful, dreamy, richly detailed art pop album with some really touching vocals and some really solid songwriting. The songs are winding roads with often-times several distinct parts and really well-executed builds. The songs are always melodic and grounded in a nice core-melody. Not all of the songs strike me as masterpieces or anything. Hell, I wouldn't say as of now I can point to any one song which is really a standout Great song. The whole album as a package is just a solid glimpse into the creative personality of Jane Siberry.
These 8 songs all take their time and also pack many ideas into them thus stretching the 8 songs to 58 minutes. If you like soft, floating, gorgeous art pop/proggosh pop with somewhat ambient parts here and there and some dreamy stuff, you will love this and I recommend to thee. ---> 3.3-3.8/5
this is very cool listen to this song if you want to (I doubt anyone stops what they are streaming and doing and clicks on these song clips. I know I rarely do. I think you should hear the album at some point, but if you want to listen, here is a good song and the Title Track.)
Now, full disclosure, this album and this artist moniker were not on BEA and I had to enter it. Which I did whilst listening. And I really do tend to put more "pressure" on myself to like an album/artist I spent 10-15 minutes doing minimal research and entering in the database. Cuz If I think the album sucks, or is just meh than I can't help but think I just wasted my time. So maybe whatever my final score is for this album, keep in mind that between 0.3 and 0.7 points were maybe added to make me feel smart and like less of a loser. okay and now about this album...)
This album wasn't on apple music but was there on bandcamp which is super helpful. The artists' name is David Colohan. He's Irish and he has released a lot of music under his own name and as ARP. This album is 96 minutes and is by far his most reviewed and rated album on RYM. Had a high avg score and the genre tags were super intriguing so I added this to my listening project on those merits.
At its heart this is a pretty clearly a confessional and personal folk singer/songwriter album of great girth. But the whole album incorporates long passages of Drone and Ambient, sad dirgy parts that can maybe come across as "slowcore" (a genre I never fully wrapped my head around or understood conceptually).
And just to be somewhat lazy, on RYM the user moondoggieferg commented:
"This is one of those musical albums that one reserves the word 'sprawling' for. It really is some sort of epic in the ground that it covers and the fact that the pleasure in just listening remains constant throughout.
For the seeker of 21st century acoustic 'folk' goodness, this one is most definitely recommended."
and I agree. Now back to my own thoughts rather than just aping people.
---------NUMINOUS BLUES---------
This 24 track beast is broken into 2 halves. The first 12 songs have the subheading of "Numinous Blues"
apparently per the internet "Numinous" is an adjective which means "having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity."
I think this half is consistently good with some parts that drag and seem almost lazy and some parts that almost bend to the point of breaking the time space continuum. The parts that dragged for me were the songs that were just a repetitive simple guitar part, some atmospheric sound draped over, and him and sometimes someone else sadly singing over the top.
The parts that really were great were the parts that leaned heavier into the noisy and the droney and the weirdly ambient. The Title track was great, The last song of this first half, "Leave the City on foot" was sublime and the song "You Were Always In my Arms forever" was maybe the most inventive and beautiful yet somewhat uncomfortable (in a good way) part. Its incredible really.
Overall the parts that bored me a little were outnumbered by the sublime to at least good parts and taken as a whole album or a complete whole, this half of music was a really interesting ambient folk work that I can say is worth hearing.
Although I can't say I hear something spiritual or numinous here, so maybe the deeper meaning as of now is lost on me. Maybe if I ever crack open the lyrics I'll see that this is some 50 minute conceptual look at spirituality and the divine...?
Okay, now onto
---------LUMINOUS BLUES--------- (tracks 13 through 24 of this album.)
While listening to this half I kept being reminded of another very famous singer but I can't put my finger on who and it bothers me! This also came up a couple times in the first half.
Anyway, about this half of music, its fabulous. This half is brighter and less droney and other non-folk sounding. The production and the occasional duet livens up these quite gorgeous melodies and the whole attitude of this batch of songs is both familiar as well as somewhat unique from the many similar albums I've heard.
The whole thing has a heaviness just like the Numinous half, but that heaviness has more light shone upon it, making the bitter sadness and gllom more feasible to handle. There aren't any boring parts here which is strange cuz the parts that were kinda boring in the first half are what this whole second half sounds like so... maybe it has to do with the way the styles play off each other. Not sure. But I stick to it that this second half is more consistent and more heartwarming than the first half is less adventurous and unique.
The 10 minute "Earthfasts" is the best part here and maybe the best song on the whole 24 track album (at least top 3).
Overall this was indeed a big sprawling introspective staement of an album if I do say so myself. First half was a 3/5 second half a 4/5. But you may be thinking okay so the whole package is a 3.5 right cuz of that being how math works... WRONG! This album gets a 3.9 as a whole thing. The events and songs of the back half kinda puts in perspective what occured in the first and as a whole piece it is a VERY good album. 3.8-4/5
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And this was kinda close and these albums are so incredibly different its hard to compare them. But I must so....
AGITATED RADIO PILOT MOVES ON TO THE NEXT ROUND!!!! _________________ -Ryan
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Mercury
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