Now that's what I'm talking about! Albums I somehow missed in my deep dive into 2020 that I should have heard. I had a blast listening to this, from the opening drum rolls through to the mellow (in comparison to the rest of the album) closer. While maintaining an African sound with its vocals and complex rhythms it's a very modern rock album with some cool guitar work and a relatively unique sound within the desert rock/stoner rock/psych rock field (not that this fits neatly into any of those, which is a plus). Energetic and fun with an optimistic vibe. One thing I think worked well here was no song outstayed it's welcome. While each song was the type of song that had the potential to turn into an extended jam (which I usually dig by the way) they resisted going for that and it wasn't needed. Every song had its own idiosyncrasies, did its job, and they moved on with the next. This led to a great flow, with a bit of variety, but consistent within its sound variety, and no lulls, keeping the enjoyability factor high for the whole album. I think I prefer slightly over their debut album Music In Exile, which is in my top 100 for 2015. This gets an easy 8/10, with I believe the potential to go higher on further evaluation, and enters my 2020 chart at #48. Great stuff!
Let's go with Sheila E, just because I'm a Prince fan.
Top 100 Music Albums of 2020 by LedZep (5 picks left)
Well this could be interesting - mainly metal and house/techno - guess what I don't listen to much of ๐คฃ
2. Stygian by Atramentus
5. Subaqueous by Drown
7. New Light by Gidge
8. Endless Detainment by Serpent Column
12. Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase by The Soft Pink Truth
14. Stare Into Death And Be Still by Ulcerate
16. Little Dominiques Nosebleed by The Koreatown Oddity
21. All The Time by Jessy Lanza
24. Xerrox Vol. 4 by Alva Noto
25. Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic by The Ocean
The Beginning Stages Of... by The Polyphonic Spree
Another primarily progressive pop album, with drone as a secondary tag on RYM. The last 36 minutes long song is a drone composition, the rest is a mix of prog and chamber pop. Not what I was looking for, but despite that this was an excellent album. Much more so than Bruno Pernadas, as it's got great catchy songwriting and experiments with sound design and instruments while also hitting a sweet spot between upbeat progressive pop and dreamy chamber pop. The last song, although lengthy and a big shift from the overall sound of the album, is still very hypnotic. They've taken the Medulla path, sampling and chopping vocals to create the foreground melodies (or rather "melodies" since it's just drone stuff). Good song, it's definitely too long but didn't kill the party. 8.5/10
(2)
Hey that's a nice list you got there ๐ Let's go with something you're more likely to dig, All The Time by Jessy Lanza. Wonderful synthpop and UK bass album, more on the pop side than the predecessor but ultimately not quite as good. Still, a lot of great, great pop songs which you might like 'Pash.
(3)
Turnstile - Glow On
Lorde - Solar Power
The Pyramids - King of Kings
A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms...
Cursed - II
Gigi Masin - Wind
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen
Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment
Pink Siifu - Gumbo'!
Univers Zero - Ceux du Dehors _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
The Glamorous Life by Sheila E.
Didn't realize the connection with Prince in advance of listening, until Purplepash mentioned it. The connections are obvious though, Prince (ghost) produced, co-wrote, and provided backing vocals for many of the tracks on this album. It's a great bit of pop funk. I think the hits, particularly the ones that Prince co-authored, are the best tunes here. But overall it feels like a solid cohesive package of very 80s music. Not in a bad way.
3)
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
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
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
85. Diamonds & Rust by Joan Baez
97. Daydream by Mariah Carey
103. ุงูุช ุนู ุฑู [Enta Omri] by ุฃู ููุซูู โ [Umm Kulthum]
110. Platinum by Miranda Lambert
114. Rumor Has It by Reba McEntire
117. I Love Rock 'n' Roll by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
baystateoftheartNeil Young as a butternut squashProfile Massachusetts
RYM calls this a jazz rap mixtape, which makes sense, but this is decidedly not your typical jazz rap production. There are a lot of other sounds incorporated into the beats, such as plenty of warm electronic bloops filling out the low end. Accordingly, the instrumental side of the music remains interesting throughout, and is sometimes the highlight. The two rappers also display a good deal of talent, and while their flows are the most impressive aspect, the lyrics are very solid as well. It's fun how Wow is a Kanye cover of sorts, and there are a couple standout tracks here. There are also some lyrics from Groggs that are retrospectively a lot sadder, in which he details his struggles with substance abuse. This is both the project that put Injury Reserve on the map and their least popular effort, and I can see why both are true. In my estimation at least, Live From The Dentist Office holds its own with their subsequent releases. 3.5/5.
~~~~~
2. Haven't heard any of those albums, but I like a bunch of tracks from this one:
A chilled listen whose interesting enough production lifts this above most synthpop for me. No individual track really stood out for me though, in fact (and I usualy dislike this observation but I understand it when it is due to lack of exposure or experience) it all sounded much the same...which by reverse also means no weak points either. Probably not something I would come back to at all - I'm more likely to listen to FKA twigs (who this reminded me of) if I seek out this type of music. I give it a low 7/10.
Haven't heard any of these but I want to hear the Julien Baker album.
Top 100 Music Albums of 2020 by LedZep (4 picks left)
2. Stygian by Atramentus
5. Subaqueous by Drown
7. New Light by Gidge
8. Endless Detainment by Serpent Column
12. Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase by The Soft Pink Truth
14. Stare Into Death And Be Still by Ulcerate
16. Little Dominiques Nosebleed by The Koreatown Oddity
24. Xerrox Vol. 4 by Alva Noto
25. Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic by The Ocean
26. Siftorde by Tidiane Thiam
I have a lot of thoughts on this album initially, but I will be brief. I know that I need to listen to this more carefully than how I listened to it today; I listened to it mostly while I was driving around doing errands. I think that I had Little Simz' "Grey Area" in my top 10 for 2019, but if I'm being completely honest, I do not remember anything about it at all. It was good, but I did not return to it or remember much of anything.
I guess I'll also have another preface by talking about the title. I don't think anybody on the internet actually knows what an introvert or an extrovert is, and this album is not much different. (Just saying). Now to the real review.
This is the most "professional" sounding album that I've heard in a long time. By "professional" I mean that everything about this is quality. The production, the performance, the concept, even the photo that graces the cover, is absolutely polished. I enjoy a great deal of the album, and there aren't any obvious problems on first listen. (If I could pick one it would of course be length and interludes, but that's my same feelings with many other albums of the same structure). The instrumentals are varied and well-made, and Simz is a confident and consistent presence on the mic.
That being said, I have some of the same feelings that I had after the last album. I don't know how much of this has immediately stuck with me, and I'm not finding it to be some revelatory masterpiece on first listen.
I don't have anything else to say at this time; it's as simple as that. It's really, really, really, good, and I feel much more compelled to return to listen this than her previous effort.
Purplepash, Ulcerate is an insanely brutal metal group.
Promises-Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders
Bright Green Field- Squid
G_d's Pee at State's End- GY!BE
Chemtrails Over The Country Club (fuck you guys)
To See The Next Part Of The Dream- Paranoul
Donda- Kanye West
Daddy's Home- St Vincent
Carnage- Nick Cave
Blue Weekend- Wolf Alice
Happier Than Ever- Billie Eilish (now y'all just trippin')
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
I was sort of both dreading this and looking forward to it. A different experience I'm not used to but would it hurt? Even the band's name, Ulcerate, suggests that it will. Rocka was right, this is some brutal and insane music. When this first started I thought not bad. I like heavy, noisy, sludgy atmospheric stuff. Even the vocals, while not being to my taste, were what I expected and therefore not off-putting - it comes with the territory. I don't even bother to consider the lyrics. I think I maybe understood one word throughout the whole thing ๐คฃ But oh wow! That drumming! Intense! Fast and incredible, sure. But it took me out of the mid tempo zone I was in. And then all the tempo and time changes and weird dynamics. It kept me a little intrigued but I could not get into any sort of groove or easily find the patterns to really enjoy it. This continued for the whole album really. So sort of impressed but the whole thing was hard work. 6.5/10 p.s. Good to know of some metal from neighbouring New Zealand ๐
Bright Green Field is my highest ranked of those albums.
Top 100 Music Albums of 2020 by LedZep (3 picks left)
2. Stygian by Atramentus
5. Subaqueous by Drown
7. New Light by Gidge
8. Endless Detainment by Serpent Column
12. Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase by The Soft Pink Truth
16. Little Dominiques Nosebleed by The Koreatown Oddity
24. Xerrox Vol. 4 by Alva Noto
25. Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic by The Ocean
26. Siftorde by Tidiane Thiam
27. Cosmic Disco by Nemanja
I listened to a few of these tracks awhile back, but it was around the same time the other two British "kitchen sink" acts had their albums out, and this one didn't sound as good as the other two. That's what I'm calling black midi, black country new road, and this group now. They all want to combine a lot of elements together, but I'm not sure that any one of them really know how to do it all as thoroughly and conceptually as they want to. They're all ambitious groups, and I can applaud them for going into areas that rock music, because that's still what this all is at it's core, has not been in decades. The fact that they have some relative popularity can only be a good thing. I'd rank this 3rd out of these 3 albums released this year for a couple of obvious reasons.
-I don't think they commit nearly enough to any of the concepts that may make them unique from the other two.
-The vocalist sounds like he's trying way too hard to do something atypical on several tracks, and it's a totally unnecessary affectation that does not come off as something organic.
-It's 10 to 15 minutes longer than those other two albums, and several tracks clearly could've have been cut short.
-The final track, "Pamphlets", was the clear highlight for me, and I wish that more of the album went in that direction. It was more intense, focused, and well-performed than anything else here. "Narrator" is also good, but it feels like it meanders a bit more.
-Overall, this definitely sounds like a first album (much like the BC,NR album did) but the ambition is clear and exciting enough to keep me interested in wherever this band ends up taking their sound.
Purplepash, another metal album, this time by The Ocean.
Promises-Floating Points, Pharaoh Sanders
G_d's Pee at State's End- GY!BE
Chemtrails Over The Country Club (fuck you guys)
To See The Next Part Of The Dream- Paranoul
Donda- Kanye West
Daddy's Home- St Vincent
Carnage- Nick Cave
Blue Weekend- Wolf Alice
Happier Than Ever- Billie Eilish (now y'all just trippin')
Hey What- Low
Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout
Didn't exactly know what to expect with this one. I knew it was some kind of pop rock and that's about it. Turns out it's very 80s sounding pop, a dated sound which I'm usually not a fan of. Also, I didn't find the songwriting particularly good, so those two things combined are a major turn off. It wasn't terrible, not even bad, but I wasn't feeling most of it. Goodbye Lucille #1 was a highlight for me, it sounded the best, had some tasty guitars near the end and was pretty interesting throughout. Horsin' Around was funny because I kept thinking about Bojack in a run-of-the-mill late 80s sitcom while this song plays lol. 7/10
(2)
HAPPIER THAN... ok I'm not gonna do that to you, go listen to Promises
(3)
Late career gems (or not)
Lou Reed - Songs for Drella
David Bowie - Outside
Iron Maiden - Senjutsu
Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression
Summoning - Oath Bound
Killah Priest - Rocket To Nebula
King Crimson - THRAK
Bill Evans - You Must Believe in Spring
Kate Bush - Aerial
David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
The Writing's On The Wall by Destiny's Child
So unlike some of the other girl group pop albums of the 90s/00s that were on this NPR chart, this whole album was great. Whereas Britney Spears and Spice Girls had some hits, the rest of their albums were lacking. But on The Writing's on the Wall, everything surrounding "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Say My Name" is almost as great as those songs which ended up as hit singles.
I believe (aka can't find evidence to the contrary on my admittedly lackluster amount of research) that a few songs on this album constitute Beyoncรฉ's first production credits, and that's pretty cool. Beyoncรฉ also appears to be the primary songwriter on the majority of the tracks here (with the other members of the group co-writing many of them as well), so that's a big change from DC's first album. In addition to the singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" and "Jumpin, Jumpin", "Temptation" and "Hey Ladies" are also highlights which were co-written and co-produced by Beyoncรฉ.
I was nervous that I wouldn't find much to like here other than the hits, and my favorite DC song "Survivor" is not on this album. But this is likely going to be the rare girl group pop album from the 90s/00s that I'll find myself revisiting.
2)
Aerial by Kate Bush
This album is perhaps a little overindulgent but it's a pretty awesome comeback album for Bush.
3)
I'm coming up pretty close to the end of the NPR chart so I'm going to start transitioning to a second chart: Purplepash's top albums of the 1990s. To preface, the 90s is probably my least favorite decade of music, and it appear's to be PP's favorite era. I'm trying to get to appreciate this time period a little more.
I'll include 5 albums from each at least until one or the other runs out of steam.
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
- I removed the 4 albums which had been sitting here the longest, I'll listen to them outside of this game -
97. Daydream by Mariah Carey
103. ุงูุช ุนู ุฑู [Enta Omri] by ุฃู ููุซูู โ [Umm Kulthum]
110. Platinum by Miranda Lambert
114. Rumor Has It by Reba McEntire
117. I Love Rock 'n' Roll by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Purplepash's top albums of the 1990s:
3. Slightly Odway by Jebediah
8. Where You Been by Dinosaur Jr.
14. Come on Feel the Lemonheads by The Lemonheads
17. 30 Something by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
24. Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs by Ministry _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
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