This is a really beautiful and high-quality album. It has a handful of great tracks, and the rest is very solid. Unfortunately it feels a bit longer than its runtime, and could have used a few more noisy tracks for balance. Definitely going in my chart. 3.5/5.
Four-Calendar Café by Cocteau Twins
Another great Cocteau Twins album, not really surprising. They were my most listened band on Spotify last year (mostly thanks to Mercury covering them in his diary), and I have a feeling they'll remain near the top this year, too. I think Repo said that Four Calendar Cafe wasn't "real" Cocteau Twins, but I couldn't disagree more (apologies to Repo if I'm hallucinating and he didn't say that 😁 ). It's their most accessible up to that point, yes, but in terms of quality, it's not far off Heaven or Las Vegas. It retains that dreamy atmosphere and is more chill than the predecessor. It's not lacking in highlights though, even if nothing here touches their best songs. 8/10
Here's the rankings for CT, think I've heard enough of their stuff to do it properly.
Treasure
Victorialand
The Pink Opaque (* that's a compilation though)
Heaven or Las Vegas
Head Over Heels
Four-Calendar Cafe
Blue Bell Knoll
Garlands
Ok, it's this one again. Like I mentioned, this band is one of the alt favourites in Croatia. They're slightly psychedelic, hypnagogic, jangly synthpop, and self-proclaimed "macho-emo-pop". The debut Vanilija (Vanilla) is more jangle and indie, while the 2nd one is more synthpoppy. Both excellent, the third album is just okay. The lyrics are 80% love stories and 20% faux "deep" stuff. And, knowing the guy who writes songs, it's probably 90% sarcastic as well. Not that you need to understand the language to enjoy them, it's all cool sounding dreamy indie pop. Oh, and this cover is 10/10 one of my favourites of all time.
What a great recommendation! Not only would I never have heard this otherwise, sonically it is right up my alley. At least on this album, Svemirko sounds *extremely* similar to Wild Nothing, an artist I love (and one for whom lyrical comprehension is also not a big part of the fun). Seriously groovy indie that I will definitely be going back to. 4/5.
Sorry to repeat artists, but no ranking is complete without Cocteau Twins x Harold Budd:
Has it really been three years? Listened to this when it was given to me back then but decided to give it another go for good measure. Loved it. Great bops.
My first time listening to City And Colour, whom for some reason I've confused with both Coheed And Cambria and Between The Buried And Me (both of whom I also haven't heard). Unfortunately, I'm not exactly a fan. Don't get me wrong: If I Should Go Before You is not bad by any means. The music is perfectly fine and I can see why some people love his voice. This album is just fairly generic to my ears. It travels well-worn territory instrumentally, and the lyrics, which make or break this sort of record, are mediocre. They're not interesting or powerful; they're just there. The other aspects of the songwriting are similarly lackluster, and I neither like nor dislike the vocals. If I had to describe this in a few words to a friend, I would say it's kind of like if Hozier were less catchy. 2.5/5.
Since you like Animal Collective, let's go with some solo material:
The Moon And The Melodies by Harold Budd / Simon Raymonde / Robin Guthrie / Elizabeth Fraser
I have no problems with repeated artists, in fact, it's cool that I've completed the whole CT discography (minus the last album and a few singles/EPs). That being said, this is some of their least interesting work. But even CT and Budd's less interesting work is fine. Harold Budd's a musician I have a lot of respect for, but I'm not always a big fan of his music, despite feeling it's right up my alley. Meandering, nice vibes, lovely in the evening while lying in bed, but it's not that exciting, apart from The Pavilion of Dreams which is great. Basically, The Moon and the Melodies feels like a split. Twins releasing some of their less interesting songs and Budd some of his signature material (but less jazzy and more dreamy). You can hear this is a collab at certain points, but more often than not, it's just 2 different musical minds doing 2 different things. Despite that, it's a lovely album which I mostly liked. As far as ranking this in the Cocteau Twins discog, I'd say it's the second least fave after the debut. 7.5/10
Saw them live yesterday and it was a top tier concert, so naturally I'll make everyone listen to Dead Can Dance for the next few weeks 😁
I always enjoy listening to Dead Can Dance, and neoclassical darkwave is such an interesting genre that's not in my wheelhouse. The Serpent's Egg is another very good entry in their discography. I'd say it's a good deal better than Toward The Within, roughly on par with Spleen And Ideal, and a notch below Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun. I think their music is at its best when Lisa Gerrard is on lead vocals, and also when it's more sonically single-minded, as opposed to incorporating influences from around the world slapdash. The best moments of The Serpent's Egg are as great as anything on its predecessor, but overall the album is a bit looser and less focused. Overall, it's a high-quality album that I will be going back to. 3.5/5.
I had heard this one before but it was a while ago so it was cool to revisit it. I don't really find it musically impressive but it's artistically progressive and I like that quite a lot. One of those things I wouldn't listen to often but it's good.
Return Of The Super Ape by The Upsetters
While I enjoyed the Return, its quality is noticeably lower than that of the original Super Ape LP. It's not a huge difference, but the sampled songs just weren't as interesting and there was a lot of mid paced dubbing. I mean, dub is generally a bit monotone and groovy (not necessarily in a bad way), but this was especially the case with Return of the Super Ape. At 35 minutes, it's not too much dub at once, which is great for a moderate dub enjoyer such as myself. Some great techniques used, such as on the breakdown and outro of the title track, which is my favourite moment on the record. A pretty great album all in all, but I'm not sure how often I'll return to it since Perry and the Upsetters have much better ones imo. (I listened to War Ina Babylon again before this and loved it, so I may sound too negative here. I can assure everyone reading this that the Return isn't bad, it's just that War Ina Babylon is superb) High 7.5/10
Not sure what to recommend based on your overall chart. I guess Yo La Tengo's fantastic 90s indie would be up your alley.
Having heard nothing by either musician before, I recognized this album only as one that got inordinately popular on BEA for a bit via fake accounts before albummaster fixed the issue. The music itself, a blend of bluegrass and jazz piano, could scarcely be less in my comfort zone, so I definitely wouldn't have checked it out if not for this game. Instrumentally, there's definitely great talent here, even if I'm not always a fan of what Thile and Mehldau cook up. The blend of musical styles doesn't feel hand in glove, but it also isn't oil and water, and it's often interesting. I could do without most of the vocals, and the songwriting in the originals is hit and miss, but the vocals usually don't have center stage, and most tracks here are covers. Overall, this is a pretty good album and a unique listen, but not destined to become a personal favorite. 3/5.
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