Aural Autism - Music Diaries - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

Okay, just got my updated (and closed) AKG headphones this morning, and have used them on the following in the past few hours.

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Divers by Joanna Newsom
This sounded like I was listening for the first time. Very pleasant, but I still think there was too much of a focus on the lyrics rather than any experimental lyrics.

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When The Sun Goes Down by Selena Gomez & The Scene
I gave this album five stars while high off my medication a few weeks ago, and while it may not quite deserve that, it still is really, really great.

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Girls With Attitude by Girls With Attitude
Absolutely glorious. Like my first band Charlie N. George, but good Surprised

So surreal and fun.

Anyway, now I'm gonna go to Starbucks and do math while listening to their Christmas soundtrack. Have you been in there lately? It's the most fire Christmas music I've ever heard, and I can wait to Shazam some of these songs.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

Okay, I haven't posted for several days, mostly because, as much as I'm known for overanalyzing certain albums, it's really hard for me to say anything about an album on the spur of the moment other than "really beautiful" or "fun" or "like a boss". Here's some of what I've been listening to the past few days, though:

Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares by Bulgar...male Choir
I'm now convinced that this is the most beautiful (non-vocal games) a cappella album I've ever heard. I originally wondered where I heard this type of vocal tone before, and then I remembered the Kate Bush song "Rocket's Tail" off The Sensual World. This may not have the unstoppable David Gilmour* guitar solo of that song, but I can really listen to that section on repeat forever, and Volumes 1 and 2 of this give me a great opportunity to do so.

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Sold Out by DJ Paypal
Meaghan Garvey just put out an amazing Pitchfork piece on this guy, and as someone who almost always loves a good footwork album, this didn't disappoint. May even be on my top 50 of the year. Definitely one of the most creative appropriations of the genre I've listened to, turning it into a sort of tone poem.

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Africa: Shona Mbira Music by Various Artists
I know y'all are tired of me quoting the Horb, but this really does sound like "field recordings of heaven".

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The Spectre Within by Fates Warning
SOOOOO good. I know Gowi thinks I act "too good" for prog/power metal, but I really had a blast with this.

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Zoundegnon Bernard 'Papillon' Guitarist...De Cotonou
Finally found where to listen to this album.I don't quite see its super-canonization quite yet, but it's really fun at points.

Made In The A.M. by One Direction
Precedent says this is post-rock. That's all I have to say.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

Okay, so after getting my brother out of the kitchen and putting on headphones, Im ready to listen to

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25 by Adele on my headphones.

I remember being really underwhelmed by opener "Hello", but the mountains of reverb immediately sucked me in on my new AKGs. The post-breakup loneliness album is far from an original topic, and some moments are a tad too cheesy to justify five stars, but it's absolutely mystifying how much emotion Adele can bring. It's like listening to an easy-listening crooner version of Gas's Pop, and may be one of the most spiritual-sounding pop albums of the year. I could compare the "big-ness" of 25 to a James Cameron movie, but there isn't really a filler problem here; at 48 minutes, it feels just perfect for bawling your eyes out before bed.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

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Guys, have I told you how much I love footwork as a Chicagoan? It's almost like my twin loves of crunk and spiritual jazz coalesce together when I listen to it (with bubblebass sometimes sneaking around the bend as an outsider). I unfortunately was never able to go to a DJ Rashad show when he was alive, but Double Cup was always one of my favorite albums of 2013 from the moment it came out, and it's now one of my favorites of all time. And I think this may be joining it.

Gigantic

Location: [color=green]Christmas Island[/color]

Satie wrote:

Your outrageous claim that Lucas "broke" Kurosawa to western audiences aside

to mainstream audiences of the 80's, certainly. i mean, rashomon won an academy award in the 50's so his presence wasn't "unknown", but it was still culturally privileged information - haneke won best foreign a couple years back and he's still relatively unknown in the west outside of certain spheres of cinemaphiles. lucas producing kagemusha in the 80's and releasing it to western audiences with his stamp gave kurosawa a srs boon.
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Satie

i really don't know how you're gonna pull that kind of bait and switch. it's not like Kurosawa is known to more than mild cinephiles at the moment, anyway. unfortunately, i can't find direct sales information for Rashomon in the US, but it's called a "commercial success" here. the Criterion booklet for Rashomon explicitly credits it with Kurosawa's international stature rising to meet that of Bergman and Fellini. i really don't think Kurosawa is more or less of a household name than those two. now, as far as popular consciousness of the name "Kurosawa," it's quite possible that more people have heard the name in reference to Star Wars touted out by some nerd trying to defend their credibility as films by comparing them to a "foreign film director," but i think it's a certain kind of mental gymnastics we'd have to play to say Kurosawa didn't break himself to as wide of a western audience as he would really consistently have with Rashomon. also, our definitions of "break" seem to differ, as i think that "first wide exposure" of the western world would count as breaking, which Rashomon qualifies as. if you can find me some inflation-adjusted figures for Rashomon, I'd be interested, but I wasn't able to find any. also, Kagemusha's financial success is being a bit overstated here if we're talking household name levels. it made, adjusted to inflation, around $11.5 million in the US (source). these are the "household name films" that came out this year by your definition.

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

So yesterday I listened to some Nickelback, and the album got ever closer to getting onto my overall.

Silver Side Up by Nickelback

Here's what I said about this on RYM:

Quote:

it's even better than I remember. Open "Never Again" is an unbelievably great feminist anthem, probably the best that post-grunge ever had, and it may be even better than How You Remind Me.

I also am shocked at how punchy and sharp the production is. I'm listening on my new AKG cans, and it seems as hi-fi ready as anything else I've heard in the past few days.

People always consider post-grunge to be really sonically "boring", but I'm learning that the appeal of its sound can be just as gratifying as that of the decade's pop-punk revival stuff (and is definitely more fun than a lot of whiny midwest emo today).

Yesterday I also listened to

Stories From The City, Stories From The....J. Harvey
I always wondered why this was considered to be PJ's best, but upon listening to it again for the first time in years, that perfect pop-rock songwriting track after track really brings it home. The melodies on these songs aren't just catchy, sweet, and invigorating, but so smart; I'm well past the age where I jizz my pants over a Thom Yorke feat, but the way he varies his vocal rhythm on "the mess we're in" keeps the surprises coming at the perfect pace, and that song is hardly an exception to the album.

But today, I need to clean the house, so I need something a little more subtle.

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Live • 33 • 45 • 78 by Ignaz Schi...Tétreault
I really love the textures here as well. I was originally going to make a five-star review saying "I like the sound of my own farts" or something, but unlike so many other EAI records I love, this really has punch to the rhythms. Are you a big fan of this album, Satie? I keep trying to look for that 1998 studio one, but I can't find it Embarassed

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

Hey everyone, sorry it's taken me so long to update this. But I'm in the midst of one of my deep "avant-garde" dives, using Svenn's "Strange Girls" chart and focusing on the extra-noisy of that set.

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Amulet by Sainkho Namtchylak And Ned Rothenberg

I've heard some of Sainkho's throat singing work in the past, and it's pretty enjoyable if not a little safe. Here, though, Ned's free improv allows her to really stretch her experimentation,

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Mother Of Balloon Music by Judy Dunaway
I'd heard this once before at Horb's request, but now I really, really get it. This is like rock-and-roll bubblebass Polly Bradfield, demolishing everything in its sight. Possibly one of the greatest free-improv albums, I've ever heard.

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Phantom Orchard by Ikue Mori / Zeena Parkins
Dang, this is definitely a free-improv all-timer too, but this time because of the unprecedented melody in these tracks.

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Dang, how can all you kids be so obsessed with Sonic Youth and not even have Kim Gordon's opus in the database? This was really great, too, and will be my answer in the foreseeable future when people ask whether I prefer Daydream Nation or Sister.

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Olga Neuwirth: Clinamen / Nodus; Constr...forum Wien

OH MY WORD. OH MY WORD. OH. MY. WORD
OH.
MY.
WORD.
I'm listening to several Neuwirth pieces right now, and she may become one of my all-time favorite classical artists. I don't want to be sexist and compare her to Sofia Gubaidulina (she actually resembles Maurice Kagel much more, but bear with me), but it's almost like if she had a Charlie Boom Boom Surgery performed on her music. This is glorious, and everything I learn about her makes me love her more and more, from her progressive big band elements in her live album to the fact that she has an opera based on Lost Highway. Do you know much about Neuwirth, Gabe?

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I do! Sorry I read the butt ever albums thread before reading this one. Anyway yeah that's a brilliant recording and probably needs to be higher up on my classical chart as well as my female musicians chart. She has a little in common with Gubaidulina, but I think she sounds a lot more like Sciarrino than anything

Applerill
Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female
Age: 30
Location: Chicago

dividesbyzero wrote:

I do! Sorry I read the butt ever albums thread before reading this one. Anyway yeah that's a brilliant recording and probably needs to be higher up on my classical chart as well as my female musicians chart. She has a little in common with Gubaidulina, but I think she sounds a lot more like Sciarrino than anything

Ooh, Sciarrino. I haven't heard any of his stuff. What would you recommend?

I see you like Orchestral Works, but it's not on Apple Music Sad

Last edited by Applerill on 12/06/2015 03:22; edited 1 time in total