Glow On by Turnstile
This sounds extremely late 90s. A very specific alternative rock/metal sound from the time when the scene was all over the place. Some of those bands are my all-time favourites, but most of the others aged terribly and/or were pretty bad to start with. It's weird hearing something like this in 2021. And I have to say, I'm not a big fan. On the positive side, Turnstile try to fit several styles of loud 90s rock including post-hardcore, punk and even some shoegaze into one album. So, Glow On is not stale by any means, in fact it has several very enjoyable moments, but unfortunately I just don't dig this commercialized throwback sound much. To add to that, the singer didn't sound interesting at all, like a mediocre version of Chino Moreno with a little Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Zach de la Rocha thrown in the mix as well. 6/10
(2)
Giles Corey sounds cool but not great to me after several listens. Maybe you'll dig it more Merc, it's certainly an interesting approach to neofolk with loads of unique concepts and ideas. Dark and atmospheric.
(3)
2021
JPEGMAFIA - LP!
Grouper - Shade
Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern
ะ ะพะถั [Rozh] - ะะตัะฝะพะต
Lorde - Solar Power
ํ๋๋ ธ์ [Parannoul] / Asian Glow / sonhos tomam conta - Downfall of the Neon Youth
Sven Wunder - Natura Morta
Rx Nephew - Slitherman Activated
Vijay Iyer / Linda May Han Oh / Tyshawn Sorey - Uneasy
Wolves in the Throne Room - Primordial Arcana _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
...And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid
Oh boy, this was a good one. For some reason, I always associated Rancid with the melodic punk or hardcore punk scene the likes of Rise Against or NOFX, neither of whom I'm a huge fan of. So I never ended up giving Rancid a good shot. That said, even if I was correctly associating them with ska punk or skate punk, I probably would've lumped them in with Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, etc. All groups I really like but have never delved deep into their catalog because I don't think they have much depth. Who knows, Rancid might be similar, but hell, this album is pretty much all gold.
Over and over the course of this album, there'd be a great ska punk song and I'd go "oooh THIS is Rancid". I think that happened maybe 12 times over the course of the album's 19 songs haha. This hits are all strong: "Time Bomb", "Roots Radicals", "Ruby Soho", "Maxwell Murder". All great. But everything else surrounding those songs doesn't steer away from the same level of quality.
To be honest, I wrote up a glowing review pretty much immediately after I listened to the album the other day, and then I had to step back and try to take off the nostalgia glasses, because I figured I was having fun listening but maybe the album wouldn't have had a lasting impact for me. Well 2-3 days is hardly enough time to count a "lasting impact", but at the very least my opinion hasn't soured after 3 listens, and I've had certain lyrics stuck in my head near-constantly during that time...
"Black coat, white shoes, black hat, Cadillac!" 4/5, no doubt.
2)
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Natura Morta by Sven Wunder
The Parannoul collab is great, but I gotta go with Sven Wunder. IIRC I think I added this to the BEA database. It's a fun little jazz album. Nothing groundbreaking, but overall very pleasant and colorful.
3)
Almost done with NPR! If this isn't picked in the next few turns, I'll probably just listen on the side and continue with Mercury's chart (or another).
NPR: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women:
148. The Mosaic Project by Terri Lyne Carrington *this marks the end of this chart!
Mercury's top albums of the 1990s
4. Like an Ever Flowing Stream by Dismember
16. The Complete Blind Willie Johnson [compilation]
18. NOLA by Down
23. Rear View Mirror by Townes Van Zandt
24. Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk by Emperor
25. Revival by Gillian Welch
28. Lysol by Melvins
29. Souls at Zero by Neurosis
38. Long Hair in Three Stages by U.S. Maple _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
American primitivism from somebody from Wales. Just them and their guitar. An interesting listen and quite impressive how intricate and tricky most of it sounds. Like how is this even possible with only two hands impressive. It gave me a sort of eerie spooky feel for the most part. I did read that they started by playing in punk and grunge bands, and I loved how I think she may have a snuck in a riff from a Jane's Addiction song, Of Course, in the first track (at about the 2.20 mark). I may be wrong but it sure sounded like it. Individually I enjoyed every track, but as a whole album probably not enough variety, and not a genre I listen too enough, to come back too. I think I would rather just hear a song or two every now and again. 7.5/10
I have no idea what this is but let's finish the NPR list and get that out of the way.
Top 97 Music Albums of 2020 by Repo (last pick...and there is still three or four I want to listen to...that last pick seemed to come around too quickly this time)
2. Ravening Iron by Eternal Champion
5. Pith by Melkbelly
9. Blue Hearts by Bob Mould
12. Traditional Techniques by Stephen Malkmus
13. Ricky Music by Porches
18. Silver Ladders by Mary Lattimore
19. Out Of My Province by Nadia Reid
20. Lifers by Local H
25. What We Drew ์ฐ๋ฆฌ๊ฐ ๊ทธ๋ ค์๋ by Yaeji
26. Surrender Your Poppy Field by Guided By Voices
The Mosaic Project by Terri Lyne Carrington
So I had never heard of the artist or album before delving in, and I expect most people here hadn't either since it took so long to get picked haha. All I knew is that this was vaguely "jazz" but I figured that it was experimental or abstract jazz.
Not the case, this was quite accessible and overall wonderful for almost the full duration of the album. While it's accessible, it's definitely not boring or samey. The album varies from spiritual jazz, to more blues-style jazz with excellent vocals, to some conscious hip hop (which quite frankly didn't seem to fit all that well, the hip hop finale to the album seemed very out of place). Other than that last track though, this was excellent.
I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the Nubya Garcia album from last year, or Kamasi Washington's second project. 4-4.5/5, wonderful close to the NPR chart!
3)
Done with NPR! Thanks everyone, gonna continue with Mercury's chart for a bit.
Mercury's top albums of the 1990s
4. Like an Ever Flowing Stream by Dismember
16. The Complete Blind Willie Johnson [compilation]
18. NOLA by Down
23. Rear View Mirror by Townes Van Zandt
24. Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk by Emperor
25. Revival by Gillian Welch
28. Lysol by Melvins
29. Souls at Zero by Neurosis
38. Long Hair in Three Stages by U.S. Maple
41. Tomorrow the Green Grass by The Jayhawks _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
baystateoftheartNeil Young as a butternut squashProfile Massachusetts
Return To Cookie Mountain is an album that has been on my to-do list for 5+ years, so I'm glad to get a nudge to listen. It's a great, inventive indie rock record with ambition, strong songwriting, and stylistic diversity. The guitars and vocals are the strongest points, but there are no weak links in the band. Wolf Like Me was the only track I knew going in, and I'm pleased to discover that virtually everything is on that level. Now that I've heard one of their more acclaimed albums (before this I only knew their most recent two LPs, both of which are quite good), I can confidently say that TV On The Radio is one of the best aughts Brooklyn indie bands. 4/5.
S3: At Mister Kellyโs - Sarah Vaughan And Her Trio
S4: Blonder Tongue Audio Baton - Swirlies
T: Stratosfear - Tangerine Dream
T2: Peripheral Vision - Turnover
U: The Four Horsemen - Ultramagnetic MCโs
V: Discover America - Van Dyke Parks
W: Why Canโt We Be Friends? - WAR
Y: Vol. 8: Immigrรฉs / Bitim Rew - Youssou N'Dour Et Le Super รtoile De Dakar*
Z: Mind Over Matter - Zion I*
&: 1st - ไธๅคฑ่ (Fushitsusha)
Saturday night, I fell asleep while listening to this after coming home drunk from a wedding. I think it was pretty good, but I was kind of in and out of consciousness for a little bit. I will listen to it again at some point. ๐
Baystate, I can always go for some Krautrock and some Tangerine Dream.
G_d's Pee at State's End- GY!BE
Donda- Kanye West
Daddy's Home- St Vincent
Happier Than Ever- Billie Eilish (now y'all just trippin')
A Beginner's Mind- Sufjan Stevens & whocares
Roadrunner- Brockhampton
Sinner Get Ready- Lingua Ignota
Pressure Machine- The Killers (now we're just getting into meme territory)
An Overview On Phenomenal Nature- Cassandra Jenkins
Butterfly 3000- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
I Don't Live Here Anymore- The War On Drugs
Purplepashranker, rater, & music list makerProfile Western Australia
Not one of the handful of albums I was curious to listen to. I saw the indie/contemporary folk singer/songwriter tags and I sometimes feel I've had enough of that over the last ten years or so. But I'm glad I did get to listen to this, and this is the sort of artist (along with people like Julia Jacklin and Lucy Dacus) that does keep me coming back to those tags even though I'm often underwhelmed or disappointed. Her voice is fantastic here, noticeable right from the start of the first song. A lot of warmth to it, with pleasing and interesting vocal melodies and good vocal dynamics conveying emotion. The music is mostly good, although I preferred the more sparse arrangements where her voice could shine more, and the lyrics were satisfactory but probably the weakest point of the album for me, and the factor that stops me rating and ranking this as highly as the albums by the aforementioned artists. A solid to strong 7.5/10.
Time to go back in time, to a year I've only heard a couple of albums from, the jazz dominated 1961.
BEA Best Albums of 1961 (5 picks left)
2. King Of The Delta Blues Singers by Robert Johnson
3. Sunday At The Village Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio
4. Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman Double Quartet
5. The Blues And The Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson
6. Olรฉ Coltrane by John Coltrane
7. Africa/Brass by John Coltrane Quartet
8. Showcase by Patsy Cline
9. Eastern Sounds by Yusef Lateef
10. Someday My Prince Will Come by The Miles Davis Sextet
11. The Genius Sings The Blues by Ray Charles
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
I had started a write up as I started listening a second time to this album. But as the album progressed I started feeling my thoughts and emotions change. Then change smore. So I scrapped it (wasn't really anything good .... the usual mercury hot air) and now I come back again. I really am glad this was chosen next. This is pretty incredible stuff. Of the 10 choices though this was the pone I was LEAST excited about when it was picked. That for some reason almost always happens... y'all have a way of picking the one that I am most hum drum about and saying "THIS is the one you should hear." and that is cool because the game is designed to kinda nudge me to stop procrastinating on essential or great albums that I have been putting off. Anyway... back to the album.
It's a meal, this album. The vibe is not exactly one-note, but it is pretty fucking glum and somber and suicidal and downcast. Still, each song is unique from the others and easily distinguishable and, although I didn't go out of my way to study the lyrics, the lyrics I heard gorgeously conveyed and poetically rendered a lot of the same atmosphere as the textures and tones and sounds of the album.
The opener is a strange feverish impressionistic and despairing beast of a track. This leads into a gorgeous bit of harmonizing and melodically rich sadness with track 2 "Blackest Bile", which leads brilliantly into another beautiful folk naval gazer " Grave Filled With Books". Then the weirdest and most brutally cold and chilling track unlike any other (again, they each are unique and there isn't a returning to the same formula twice, but this is particularly and distinctly different) "Empty Churches" - man, that found sound/sample of that man telling the story of truly creepy phenomena is breathtaking. Finally, this masterclass is followed up by probably my least fave track here "I'm Going To Do IT" which is still fine and very very subdued and it ends with a nice pay off. This Leads into the beautiful dark folk of "Spectral Bride". Then the album gives us maybe the other best song (alongside "Empty Churches" and the opening 2 tracks) "No One is Ever Going to Want Me"... holy shit this is a brilliantly executed everything. The build up is so slow and gorgeous and moody and hit the spot and the big ending is so riven with sadness and sickly self-loathing, it breaks your heart. The final 2 songs are also quite beautiful and atmospheric and don't let the mood of the album stray.
Overall the way Giles Corey manages to express these very very hard to encapsulate internal emotions is excellent. The best folk music especially in modern times, the folk that incorporates studio effects and darker elements of slowcore, lo-fi stuff, dark folk, sometimes drone, or other avant-garde elements, is set apart as great because the artist somehow manages to capture internal wrangling and hardship and contradiction and the slightest nuances of human misery and emotion. This is almost as good as any I've heard... perhaps I'd put this in that same level as the best Microphones or Grouper and maybe a bit behind my personal fave in the more old school version of this, Mickey Newbury. When I push play on this album (which I just did for the 4th time) I am wading into very very foreboding waters into the mind of the musician who crafted this world and that is a great feeling. The way this album incorporates Dark and Avant folk, slowcore, more traditional harmony-heavy folk, very personal and sad lyricism and whatever tool is needed and at his disposal to create the appropriate atmosphere is stunning.
I enjoy and even love this way way more than anything I've heard from Have A Nice Life (the very famous and loved band that Giles Corey is a part of). It is simply more my tempo and style and it also helps that this is half the length or a little more than half the length of Deathconsciousness. Still, after falling in love or at least strong liking with this albuym, I for sure will be going back to Deathconsciousness (for the 10th time It feels like) with fresh and more initiated ears.
-------------------------
@Purplepash, anyone who knows much about me or my inclinations knows full well what I shall be picking from that glorious list...
not to overhype it (as this may not be your cuppa) but I consider and honestly I'm pretty standard in this thought, that Robert Johnson is the greatest of all time blues artist. One of the most iconic and brilliant artists ever. Hope you at least enjoy this little trip into the past.
------------------------
3.
Okay, I have decided what to do as a "gimmick" for my list, and that is simply no gimmick, no challenge and no forcing myself to listen to anything I'm not already majorly interested in and kind of in the bag for lol - so I simply have this big list of albums I want to hear and I roughly ranked em and then now I will at random grab 10 that seem like either really cool and up my alley or ones that I feel like an idiot for never listening to em. Here we go!
+ = this is the most recently added choice
1. Monuments to Thieves by His Hero is Gone/1996 (This is a classic crust punk album. I have had this ear marked for ages. I add it here now.)
+2. Mecca and the Soul Brother AND The Main Ingredient by Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth/1992 + 1994 (If you pick on of these, I'll listen to both. I got big-ish box sets of these albums back in like 2015 and I listened a couple times and I loved 'em. But then moved on to other genres and styles of interest and forgot about them to some degree and then when I came back to HONESTLY rate only albums I felt I recollected on RYM, I left these unrated because I just feel like they are vague in my memory and they deserves lots and oodles of respect and time.)
+3. ใใใฆใ (Pneuma) by ้่ๅธๅญ+ไธๅฎ ็ด+ๅฑฑๆฌ้ไน +ๆธก่พบ็ญ (Ichiko Aoba, Jun Miyake, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Hitoshi Watanabe)/2017 (As a pretty recently converted Aoba die hard and fanatic, this album having not been heard is a crime. So whether this is chosen soon or not, I will be listening in next couple days. Still, here it is for possible choosing.
4. Mark Hollis by Mark Hollis/1998 (This is a shameful admission: I have never sat down - nor even stood up! - and listened to this album in one sitting - nor in one standing! I know I know how is this even admissible for someone that has Spirit of Eden high on his all time faves list? Idk. I have bit-and-pieced this album 1 or 2 times over the decade or so of awareness of it. I intend to rectify this soon. RIP Mark Hollis.)
5. Por este rio acima by Fausto/1982 (The album cover of this for some reason holds sway over my heart and I have been mean ing to check out this album for a long time... maybe I did back when I was doing some 1982 deep diving. But I can't remember. I don't think I ever did though. So this Portuguese folk/singer songwriter album it is.)
6. Moon Pix by Cat Power/1998 (I neeeeed more Cat Power in my life and for some reason I never rated this on RYM or here and I don't recall what this one is like and this is one of her more loved LPs. So this one is an option)
7. An Evil Heat by Oxbow/2002 (In the other similarly named game thread recently LedZep had me listen to another Oxbow album and I thought it was good bordering on GREAT. This seems to be their most famous album and I hear its experimental, droney, sludgy and weird - that sounds right for me atm.)
8. McClusky Do Dallas by McClusky/2002 (Another classic post hardcore album that I have been meaning to check out for literally 7 years.)
9. Left Hand Path by Entombed/1990 (Bring on this absolutely classic and legendary Swedish death metal classic! I couple months ago I absolutely saw the light on Entombed's peers, Dismember, and their 1991 masterpiece Like an Ever Flowing Stream. At that time I meant to now delve into the works of Entombed... but I never did. I listened to the first few tracks of this album newly and thought it was cool but no Dismember and went back to them. Now I would like to give this one the time and TLC it deserves. I heard it awhile ago but I was not a DM fan at the time and I didn't love it just liked it.)
10. At Action Park by Shellac/1994 (A classic 90s post hardcore release that I have been meaning to play for a decade or close to. When I was updating my 90s chart yesterday I saw this and instantly remembered how much I've wanted to give this a spin. So here it is as an option.) _________________ -Ryan
Yep I wouldn't have expected you to pick anything else but this Mercury. So my first look at 1961 through this game is a compilation of music from the '30s ๐ More of a historical curiosity listen for me of some of the earliest influential music on a lot of what I have been excited about over my whole music loving life rather than something I would choose to listen to repeatedly for an inherently pure pleasure experience. But for admiration and respect it gets the same score of 7/10 as the other Robert Johnson collection I have listened to.
Mclusky Do Dallas is a favourite of mine and is on my alltime chart.
3. Sunday At The Village Vanguard by Bill Evans Trio
4. Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman Double Quartet
5. The Blues And The Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson
6. Olรฉ Coltrane by John Coltrane
7. Africa/Brass by John Coltrane Quartet
8. Showcase by Patsy Cline
9. Eastern Sounds by Yusef Lateef
10. Someday My Prince Will Come by The Miles Davis Sextet
11. The Genius Sings The Blues by Ray Charles
12. Lonely And Blue by Roy Orbison
RE: Robert Johnson, although it is a compilation, I think that 1961 comp is an important document not just of the 30s, but of the 60s as well. It reintroduced the legendary blues master to the world, which heavily influenced the careers of Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones, The Animals, and others. I mean hell, Eric Clapton probably wouldn't have played "Crossroads" were it not for the timely release of Robert Johnson's music in the early 1960s. It's a hard "document" to listen to though just because the recording quality is so primitive. But it's a fantastic set of music.
1)
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Tomorrow The Green Grass by The Jayhawks
It's been about a week for me, I meant to write this up a while ago but forgot to, and then realized I forgot what I even listened to. So I listened again yesterday and am listening once more as I write this. I own Rainy Day Music, and that's pretty much the only thing I had to go off of for the Jayhawks. I was never a big fan of that album, but I think it warrants re-listening now, since it's been years since my last listen, and at the time I enjoyed country music much less.
Tomorrow the Green Grass is undoubtedly better than Rainy Day Music though, right from the top this album starts off strong, and while it lets up slightly ("Blue" is the clear highlight), it doesn't drop heavily in quality at all. It seems as though at their most playful, the Jayhawks remind me of Counting Crows, but they're a little more musically interesting than Crows. And their music on this album is maybe a bit more emotional.
This falls pretty middle-of-the-line as far as 90s albums I've heard. Probably not gonna make my top 100 albums of the 90s chart, but it might work out fairly well in the 1995 chart. 3.5/5
2)
There's some awesome stuff in our 1961 chart. I think I'll go with
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The Blues And The Abstract Truth by Oliver Nelson
Contrary to its name, this Oliver Nelson album is a bit less abstract and more standard hard bop than the Coltrane or Coleman albums there. I really dig it. It features Bill Evans, who is great but I think he's a little boring as bandleader (as in Sunday at the Village Vanguard). It also features Eric Dolphy who's one of my favorite jazz musicians, he seems to bless everything he plays on.
3)
Mercury's top albums of the 1990s
4. Like an Ever Flowing Stream by Dismember
16. The Complete Blind Willie Johnson [compilation]
18. NOLA by Down
23. Rear View Mirror by Townes Van Zandt
24. Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk by Emperor
25. Revival by Gillian Welch
28. Lysol by Melvins
29. Souls at Zero by Neurosis
38. Long Hair in Three Stages by U.S. Maple
43. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell by Social Distortion _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
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LedZep
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Purplepash
baystateoftheart
Tha1ChiefRocka
Mercury
