Voices by Wormrot
While I'm not as into grindcore as some other metal subgenres, there's still a fair few albums I enjoy. I guess that Merc is more of a punk fan than me so it makes sense grindcore is his forte. One thing I do absolutely love when it comes to grindcore is the short album lengths, it gives you just the right amount of energy and doesn't overstay its welcome. Well, in most cases at least. For one reason or another, a good chunk of the best grindcore bands come from the Eastern and Southeastern Asia, they're all crazy, uncompromising and a joy to listen to. Wormrot's like that, these Singapore based maniacs make pretty unique music. Dare I say that some of the songs had anthemic feeling to them? Ok, the vocals were mostly indecipherable so it's maybe not a sing-along arena pop/rock songwriting, but the guitars sounded HUGE. Like the closer Outworn, which sounds like it takes some notes from blackgaze. They still throw you in a blender and push the red button, but they do it in a really nice way. High 7.5/10
(2)
Wanted to go with Juju, but I cannot miss the unique opportunity to have 2 people in a row listen to Autechre's classic for the first time. So Tri Repetae next.
(3)
The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids
John Prine - John Prine
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
808 State - Ninety
Lorde - Solar Power
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Vince Staples - Vince Staples
Miles Davis - Get Up With It _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
I listened and it was not what I expected. Maybe I am getting this album mixed up with Confield by them, but I thought this would be a bit off-putting maybe a little creepy and almost cold and post-apocalyptic. However, this was a cold album but not the other stuff. Not to my ears anyway. There are an impressive amount of things and beautiful melodies and ideas that come at you while listening to this. I am really not a great judge of Electronic music of almost any kind and I feel I am certainly missing context. I think this maybe was an album that sort of raised the bar on glitchy IDM stuff, but fuck if I know. All I can do is listen and enjoy (or not) and I did that. At points I was perhaps a bit idk, a bit distanced. I had some feelings here as I do when listening to a great Hard Bop album usually - like I am observing the music and liking it but not really fully invested or moved and sometimes a bit confused on what makes this great. But most of the time I didn't feel that way. Most of the time I thought that the precise and textured sounds were amazing and always unique. Never did I hear some beat or track that felt dated or typical or cliche. Every track was at the very least unexpected in how it builds or goes from one track to the next.
Anyway, this is probably an album with so much depth and so many textures that it needs many listens to come close to fully unravelling. I will return to this for sure (at the very least I will return to it when I get back to my Diary 1990s discog deep dive project - no I have not forgotten about that!). For now though its a 3.5/5 and I respect this album a lot.
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2.
@LedZep, first off I am glad you liked that Wormrot. Yeah those folks are incredible and insane. I hope they drop their long awaited next album soon (I don't know of any like rumours or indications it is coming. for all I know they will never have another album out. Still, I am hoping...)
Next, as for your next album in this here game... I pick:
was torn betwixt this and John Prine. Went with the punk classic. of course I did. Then again folk singer/songwriters are probably the only area of music I am more attached to even than old school punk. Weird. Whatever. I am rambling. Hope you like this funky beast.
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3.
You know me by now. I'm always thinking of new gimmicks. So my newest gimmick is I will take the top 1000 albums on RYM. I have 400 or so albums to hear on it and what I will do is Pick ONE album from each page of 40 albums (the last page will be more like 50 albums...) and I will pick one album off the list that I am most intrigued by or most interested in hearing again for more thorough evaluation or reminding. Still excluding any sort of soundtrack or classical music ( so the rank is in a list of all LPs and Mixtapes excluding live, archival, western classical and any sort of soundtrack/score.)
1. Deep Purple in Rock by Deep Purple/1970/RYM #308 all time album (I honestly probably listen to Machine Head newly as well as listen to this for the first time. Deep Purple are one of those iconic bands I have never listened to almost at all.)
2. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You/1967/RYM #457 all time album (Another much needed revisit. Will probably relisten to Lady Soul which is ranked slightly higher even than this as well when this is picked. Who knows maybe I will go on an Aretha tear! But yeah I know this is amazing soul but its juuuust vague enough in my memory to not give it a rating on rateyourmusic.)
3. Juju by Siouxsie and The Banshees/1981/RYM #506 all time album (a highly regarded gothic post punk album that Iโve never heard. Interesting, very interesting.)
4. A I A: Alien Observer by Grouper/2011/ RYM #633 all time album (as an indication of how out of touch with Grouper I have been, I was shocked to see this is right there with Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill as her most loved album ever. I honestly haven't checked out any of her music in close to a decade. Really intrigued to dip my toes back into the indescribable and unclassifiable brilliance of Grouper.)
5. Pierced From Within by Suffocation/1995/ RYM #662 all time album (I guess it is clear I have interest in expanding my knowledge and experience with death metal. Well, its true. And this is a cool looking and i hear a very intense death metal classic.
6. The Snow Goose/1975/RYM #754 all time album (Another symphonic Prog classic from Camel. Loved loved loved Mirage a couple months back. This will hopefully be similarly great.)
7. A Sun That Never Sets by Neurosis/2001/RYM #787 all time album (One of if not the last classic Neurosis album I haven't heard. Recently absolutely fell head over heels in love with Through Silver In Blood and Souls at Zero. Definitely wanna hear this atmospheric sludge masterpiece. - or so I have heard)
8. To the Nameless Dead by Primordial/2007/RYM #914 all time album (I have heard a lot of good things about this. Apparently its primarily Folk Metal and I have had mixed experiences with the genre in the past. Still, Intrigued to hear this.)
9. Unhalfbricking by Fairport Convention/1969/RYM #968 all time album (Okay, so I will for sure be listening to their other TWO 1969 albums as well, at the very least Liege and Lief. But yeah these are albums and an artist that I have heard but for some reason and for various random chance moments I've yet to really sit down and just listen to these classics. These folk albums seem right up my alley as much a s it is possible to be. So yeah, this is a special limited time 3 for one deal.)
10. The Lioness by Songs:Ohia/2000/RYM #978 all time album (I removed my rating for this because I felt like I couldn't remember what this sounds like well enough and that it needs a revisit. I adore Magnolia Electric Co and it will probably always be on my overall fave chart. So this I want to revisit after many years and see if this folk singer/songwriter darkness still hits like I know it did awhile back. I am not expecting it to equal Magnolia Electric Co. but maybe it can hold a vandle to it in which case it will be a favorite.) _________________ -Ryan
Entertainment! by Gang Of Four
Lovely sound, could listen to post punk like this the whole day. (This sentence could be the entire review, but I'll make an effort to add another sentence or two) It's like Parquet Courts in 1979 with less indie influences, which is impressive in itself, but the added bonus is that they manage to pull off the dance punk aesthetic effortlessly. For example, the least favourite song on my favourite Parquet Courts album is Wide Awake (title track) which is too dancy and it just doesn't suit them. There wasn't a single bad song on Entertainment! and pretty much all of them had some sort of dance punk attitude. Looking forward to the next listen as well, seems there's a lot to unpack, especially with the lyrics since I didn't pay much attention this time. 8.5/10
(2)
Now's Juju time
(3)
The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids
John Prine - John Prine
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
808 State - Ninety
Lorde - Solar Power
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Vince Staples - Vince Staples
Miles Davis - Get Up With It
Prince - Sign "โฎ๏ธ" the Times _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
I've listened to two Oneohtrix albums before, one that I really liked (Replica), and one that I didn't (Returnal). This was another one that I didn't really like. Ignorant opinion here I know, but it sounded like someone just fucking around making stuff for them that they will find interesting but is not very listenable for the casual music lover who is not deep into progressive electronic, ambient and/or glitch. There was only a few songs I liked - the normal sounding (comparatively) I Don't Love Me Anymore, Lost But Never Alone, which brought to my mind a slowed down MBV with a cool outro, and I don't know why but for some reason the closing track Nothing's Special. The rest I would be happy to not hear again.
I love Sign "โฎ๏ธ" the Times. Listen to that next.
82. We Are Chaos by Marilyn Manson
100. Eternal Atake by Lil Uzi Vert
110. Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum by Seether
111. Future Past Life by STRFKR
112. ะะพ ัะฒะธะดะฐะฝะธั [Goodbye] by IC3PEAK
116. The Best Ones Of The Best by Dashboard Confessional
117. Ricky Music by Porches
118. Petals For Armor by Hayley Williams
122. YHLQMDLG by Bad Bunny
123. [#] by ์ด๋ฌ์ ์๋ [Loona]
New Favorite by Alison Krauss And Union Station
I listened to this at the perfect time. I'm currently playing through Kentucky Route Zero and delving into a bit of progressive bluegrass music a lot lately, so this... did actually become a new favorite.
Krauss' singing is great, but her singing is even exceeded by her violin/fiddle and viola work, and the backing band are wonderful. It's a great ensemble of instruments with banjo, acoustic & steel guitars, mandolin, upright/double bass, and of course drums.
This album is going to need another listen, and I'm going to need to go deeper into Krauss' discography as well. I think the only other music of hers I've listened to is one of her collabs with Robert Plant, just a few songs though and not the whole album. Oh and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Which... the whole time I was listening to New Favorite I was like "hmm, this seems familiar" and then it clicked and I looked it up and Krauss did perform on the soundtrack.
2)
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
YHLQMDLG by Bad Bunny
Personally I'm a bigger fan of El รltimo Tour Del Mundo, which Bad Bunny released later in 2020 and was promptly overshadowed by his first 2020 release which was still popular. But he did put some solid music out over the course of the year, this one's a good album. I'm not a huge reggaeton fan, but these earworms got me.
3)
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
58. Nightbirds by Labelle
59. Indigo Girls by Indigo Girls
61. The Writing's on the Wall by Destiny's Child (know most of the tracks but never listened to the album in full)
65. Blue Light 'Til Dawn by Cassandra Wilson
68. King's Record Shop by Rosanne Cash
71. Blacks' Magic by Salt-N-Pepa (this album doesn't have the hits by SnP that I know, so I might be going in blind)
76. Stand by Your Man by Tammy Wynette
83. Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
85. Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez (surely there must have been a more notable 60s Baez album to put on this list instead? Maybe I'm sleeping on this one)
92. Peace Beyond Passion by Me'shell Ndegeocello (I put another album of hers in my Washington, DC chart, but was considering this one instead. Ultimately I went for the one I was more familiar with, though I've heard a couple tracks on this one) _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Listened twice. Both listens were good. Can't say it blew me away. But the guitar work, that interesting jangly atmosphere that is created by the guitars, is very impressive consistently and it felt like Johnny Marr a few years early to some degree. The songs were mostly dark yet not cartoonishly so. The opener is dope, as is "Arabian Knights", "Monitor" and "Sin in my Heart". Really like many of the songs. The closing track went a bit too far into that well of gothic rock darkness which is not my thing. The vocals are alright. The whole album is pretty cool. Not super into this style or sound. But it does it as well as I could ask for.
You know me by now. I'm always thinking of new gimmicks. So my newest gimmick is I will take the top 1000 albums on RYM. I have 400 or so albums to hear on it and what I will do is Pick ONE album from each page of 40 albums (the last page will be more like 50 albums...) and I will pick one album off the list that I am most intrigued by or most interested in hearing again for more thorough evaluation or reminding. Still excluding any sort of soundtrack or classical music ( so the rank is in a list of all LPs and Mixtapes excluding live, archival, western classical and any sort of soundtrack/score.)
1. Deep Purple in Rock by Deep Purple/1970/RYM #308 all time album (I honestly probably listen to Machine Head newly as well as listen to this for the first time. Deep Purple are one of those iconic bands I have never listened to almost at all.)
2. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You/1967/RYM #457 all time album (Another much needed revisit. Will probably relisten to Lady Soul which is ranked slightly higher even than this as well when this is picked. Who knows maybe I will go on an Aretha tear! But yeah I know this is amazing soul but its juuuust vague enough in my memory to not give it a rating on rateyourmusic.)
3. Blood Fire Death by Bathory/1988/RYM #523 all time album (for some reason can't recall listening to this particular classic early BM/Thrash classic from Bathory. Maybe never listened to it. Anyway, the time has nearly come.)
4. A I A: Alien Observer by Grouper/2011/ RYM #633 all time album (as an indication of how out of touch with Grouper I have been, I was shocked to see this is right there with Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill as her most loved album ever. I honestly haven't checked out any of her music in close to a decade. Really intrigued to dip my toes back into the indescribable and unclassifiable brilliance of Grouper.)
5. Pierced From Within by Suffocation/1995/ RYM #662 all time album (I guess it is clear I have interest in expanding my knowledge and experience with death metal. Well, its true. And this is a cool looking and i hear a very intense death metal classic.
6. The Snow Goose/1975/RYM #754 all time album (Another symphonic Prog classic from Camel. Loved loved loved Mirage a couple months back. This will hopefully be similarly great.)
7. A Sun That Never Sets by Neurosis/2001/RYM #787 all time album (One of if not the last classic Neurosis album I haven't heard. Recently absolutely fell head over heels in love with Through Silver In Blood and Souls at Zero. Definitely wanna hear this atmospheric sludge masterpiece. - or so I have heard)
8. Germfree Adolescents by X Ray Spex/1978/RYM #882 all time album (Its been a long while since I listened to this band or album. Remember even at the peak of my love for old school punk I never got fully into this group. Now, maybe I will appreciate it more. Deserves a relisten as it is such a classic of the genre and era and scene.)
9. Unhalfbricking by Fairport Convention/1969/RYM #968 all time album (Okay, so I will for sure be listening to their other TWO 1969 albums as well, at the very least Liege and Lief. But yeah these are albums and an artist that I have heard but for some reason and for various random chance moments I've yet to really sit down and just listen to these classics. These folk albums seem right up my alley as much a s it is possible to be. So yeah, this is a special limited time 3 for one deal.)
10. The Lioness by Songs:Ohia/2000/RYM #978 all time album (I removed my rating for this because I felt like I couldn't remember what this sounds like well enough and that it needs a revisit. I adore Magnolia Electric Co and it will probably always be on my overall fave chart. So this I want to revisit after many years and see if this folk singer/songwriter darkness still hits like I know it did awhile back. I am not expecting it to equal Magnolia Electric Co. but maybe it can hold a vandle to it in which case it will be a favorite.) _________________ -Ryan
I love the other two Autechre albums I've heard (Amber and Oversteps), but for some reason I am not connecting to this one as much on first listen. It's no doubt an impressive, intricate IDM album. Tri Repetae doesn't have the immediacy and wow factor of, say, peak Aphex Twin, but it is an entrancing listen with lots of cool details. I don't have much more to say, just that this is quite good and a potential grower. My first draft of this review consisted entirely of selected sentences of Mercury's review pasted together, because much of it rings true and I felt tempted to do some light trolling, but as you can see I didn't follow through. Anyway, 3.5/5.
A: All Balls Donโt Bounce - Aceyalone
A2: King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown - Augustus Pablo
B: III - BADBADNOTGOOD*
B2: (Untitled) - The Byrds*
B3: ร Vontade - Baden Powell
B4: Marcusโ Children - Burning Spear
C: Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Chicago - Cannonball Adderley Quintet*
C2: Black Sunday - Cypress Hill*
C3: If I Could Do It All Over Again, Iโd Do It All Over You - Caravan
D: Live At The Jazz Cafe, London - DโAngelo
I don't think I have even heard a Bad Bunny song before, maybe a snippet here or there, or for that matter a reggaeton album, but I'm always happy to check out what the kiddies of today are listening too, and with nearly 48 million monthly spotify listeners I guess this qualifies. I'm more likely to listen to an artist with 4800, or even 480 listeners. ๐คฃ This wasn't too bad. Lots of earworm bangers that I imagine would go off at a drug and alcohol fuelled party/celebration/night club with hundreds of people. So not my scene though, even when I was young enough for that. While I was having fun from a distance for a while and finding this relatively enjoyable, by the second half of the album I had had enough. Maybe it was just me as I was tiring of the similarity but it seemed to lose it's spark and not have the same life and energy as the first half so it ended up dragging and being just a bit too long. 40 mins at one sitting would have suited me just fine. It was cool to hear a Missy Elliot sample though. 6/10
I've had a few sessions to Black Sunday back in the day. Still a fun album for a revisit every now and then. Check it out.
82. We Are Chaos by Marilyn Manson
101. Eternal Atake by Lil Uzi Vert
110. Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum by Seether
111. Future Past Life by STRFKR
112. ะะพ ัะฒะธะดะฐะฝะธั [Goodbye] by IC3PEAK
116. The Best Ones Of The Best by Dashboard Confessional
117. Ricky Music by Porches
118. Petals For Armor by Hayley Williams
123. [#] by ์ด๋ฌ์ ์๋ [Loona]
125. Gold Record by Bill Callahan
Sign 'O' The Times by Prince
Unfortunately I'm just not a big fan of Prince and that translates to my enjoyment of this album. His mix of pop rock, synths and r&b sounds so distinctly 80s that I cannot help but feel that 90% of his songs are dated. He certainly has that special something, the charisma and showmanship are obvious and his songwriting is usually refined but I cannot for the life of me get into his music. Of course I'm not a big fan of most 80s pop/synthpop so maybe that's the problem. Sign "O" The Times is longer, more diverse but ultimately not as good as Purple Rain. I did like the inclusion of a live song It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night, always wondered why more bands (especially those which are great live like Prince) don't break the rhythm of their longer "mumbo jumbo of styles" albums with a live recording or two. That was a minor highlight, there were several other cuts which were pretty good (Starfish & Coffee, If I Was Your Girlfriend, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man... Edit: forgot to mention The Cross which was a top 3 cut easily, maybe even the best song here) l, while the low point was Housequake. It's a silly song, not particularly fun(ny), not that catchy and the vocals are... interesting. Didn't like it. Dirty Mind is the next one in line, hope it's the deal breaker for me because those few early Prince songs I've heard were cool. 6.5 or 7/10
(2)
Perhaps not one of Bill Callahan's best, but Gold Record is still a good folky album
(3)
Turnstile - Glow On
The Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Busdriver - Perfect Hair
808 State - Ninety
Lorde - Solar Power
John Prine - John Prine
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
Miles Davis - Get Up With It
A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms... _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
Sign 'O' The Times by Prince
Unfortunately I'm just not a big fan of Prince and that translates to my enjoyment of this album. His mix of pop rock, synths and r&b sounds so distinctly 80s that I cannot help but feel that 90% of his songs are dated. He certainly has that special something, the charisma and showmanship are obvious and his songwriting is usually refined but I cannot for the life of me get into his music. Of course I'm not a big fan of most 80s pop/synthpop so maybe that's the problem. Sign "O" The Times is longer, more diverse but ultimately not as good as Purple Rain. I did like the inclusion of a live song It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night, always wondered why more bands (especially those which are great live like Prince) don't break the rhythm of their longer "mumbo jumbo of styles" albums with a live recording or two. That was a minor highlight, there were several other cuts which were pretty good (Starfish & Coffee, If I Was Your Girlfriend, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man... Edit: forgot to mention The Cross which was a top 3 cut easily, maybe even the best song here) l, while the low point was Housequake. It's a silly song, not particularly fun(ny), not that catchy and the vocals are... interesting. Didn't like it. Dirty Mind is the next one in line, hope it's the deal breaker for me because those few early Prince songs I've heard were cool. 6.5 or 7/10
Correct on both counts! The Cross is one of my top 5 favourite Prince songs ever and I'm a big fan of everything of his. TBH if you're not into Prince I can't see Dirty Mind converting you. Gee I've been having a bad run lalely of giving people albums I love that they don't like ๐คก
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LedZep
Mercury
Purplepash
EyeKanFly
baystateoftheart
