babyBlueSedan's ULL

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babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see


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  • #1
  • Posted: 06/14/2015 19:39
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Hello everyone!

Looks like it's my turn to talk about what I'm listening to, which is great because I love talking. I just started coming here within the past few months, so hopefully this will also serve as a way to better introduce myself. And maybe someone will find something new to listen to that they enjoy, that would be pretty cool.

I don't really have a plan for what I'll be talking about here, so I guess we'll just see what happens as the week goes on. For the first three or four years I was obsessed with music I listened almost exclusively to alternative rock, but for about a year now I've been listening to a lot of hip hop. Lately I've been exploring metal, country, and soul, so those genres may also turn up here.

Currently I'm not listening to anything, but before I went to bed last night I listened to this. It was after midnight so it technically counts I guess.


Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometime...ey Barnett

I wasn't in love with this the first time I heard it, but after a few more listens I really enjoy it. I'm still not as high on Barnett's lyrics as a lot of critics seem to be, but I really enjoy her dead-pan delivery and her observations on how mundane life is. Depreston is probably the best track for this, though Kim's Caravan and Pedestrian at Best are also phenomenal (and special mention to Dead Fox, since I love the line about culling cars instead of sharks). I hate to only talk about the lyrics, even though they're really the driving force behind the album, since the music is also great in the way it switches styles between songs. It's been a great year for music, and this is easily in my top 10 of the year.

I'll be back later with an update after my Brewers lose to the Nationals.
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babyBlueSedan
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  • Posted: 06/14/2015 21:08
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Well the Brewers managed to get a hit against Max Scherzer, and since the possibility of a perfect game was the only thing keeping me interested in baseball I decided to run to the store to get ingredients for dinner. I used to leave my iPod on shuffle when I was in the car, since I'm usually only driving for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. Recently though I decided to just let albums keep playing between drives, which has been working alright. I haven't put on anything that really requires sitting down for the entire album at once to get the full effect, which means I've been playing mostly poppy albums. Do other people play full albums in the car? Do you listen to the radio? Do you sit in silence?

Currently, I have this playing:

Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers

RHCP was a band I got into very early on, and I've never really fallen out of love for them. Some of it probably has to do with nostalgia, but there are plenty of bands I used to love (Three Days Grace comes to mind) that I can't stand now. As such I've never really gotten the hate they get - they're three parts talented musicians and one part awful singer / lyricist but they have a knack for writing catchy songs. And even the lyrics aren't always bad - at worst they're laughable (rhyming "cheeky" with "Mozambique-y" is my favorite bad Kiedis line), but at they're best they're poignant, simple non-sequiturs that are fun to sing along to if you turn off your brain.

Stadium Arcadium specifically might be my favorite my them, although By the Way is the one on my overall chart. It's two hours of catchy tunes, and none of them are much worse than average. It's a great album for Frusciante and for Flea, and while there are no super adventurous tracks there are a few that deviate from the typical Chili Peppers formula. And there are some great deep cuts; I highly recommend Wet Sand, Strip My Mind, Slow Cheetah, Desecration Smile, and Tell Me Baby if you haven't heard them. I mean, if someone with education past sixth grade had written lyrics for this song, it would be phenomenal:


Link


I'm about half way through the second disc, which is probably the weakest part of the album. As I got back home Animal Bar was just finishing up. Now that I'm back, I'm throwing this on:


The Magnolia Electric Co. by Songs: Ohia

I've never heard this before, although the cover looks familiar. I found it by searching the best country albums on Rate Your Music, so hopefully it's good. Admittedly all the country I've been listening to is country-rock or alt-country, but you've got to start somewhere I guess.
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babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see


Gender: Male
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  • #3
  • Posted: 06/14/2015 23:43
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So the Magnolia Electric Co album was really good. More country-folk than country-rock, it was great lyrically and created a very somber atmosphere. Most of the songs are pretty long, and while they don't really go anywhere they don't get repetitive either. I've never listened to Neil Young's country albums, but I imagine this is what they sound like. And if you're a fan of twangy country, The Old Black Hen is the song for you. Solid 80/100 for me.

Next I subjected myself to this:


Beneath The Skin by Of Monsters And Men

I was a big fan of My Head Is An Animal when it came out. At that time I wasn't a member here and I didn't frequent music sites to read about new albums, so a lot of the new music I heard came through word of mouth or the radio. I heard Little Talks on the radio, which is what introduced me to the album. It was the rare song / album that both my more indie-leaning friends and top 40-leaning friends enjoyed, so I heard a lot of it. I'll never forget the magical experience I had while listening to the album while also playing Majora's Mask; somehow the music and the cutscenes synced up perfectly, much better than Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon ever could. I still like listening to it every once in a while, which is why I decided to listen to the follow-up despite not having high hopes (or really any hope at all).

The follow-up is, unfortunately, pretty bland. Admittedly their debut was really just a pop record that some people called "indie" because it used acoustic guitars, but there was quite a bit of variety and some memorable choruses. On this album, the songs all blend together and absolutely nothing stands out. There's a stretch just after the halfway point where there are two or three slower songs that really blend together and offer nothing interesting. The opener is the best song, but there's nothing as instantly memorable as the horns on Little Talks, or even the HEY choruses of Dirty Paws (which was my favorite songs from their debut). All in all Beneath The Skin is a pretty terrible name for this, since there doesn't seem to be anything under the surface to discover.
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babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see


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  • #4
  • Posted: 06/15/2015 04:19
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Sunday Evening

Tonight was a hip hop kind of night, so I took the change to listen to a couple albums I've been meaning to listen to for a while. First off was this:


The Fix by Scarface

This one had been on my radar for a long time, mostly because of Kanye's production. But I thought Scarface's The Diary was decent too, which made me more excited to listen to this. And honestly, this was really great. For whatever reason it's really easy for me to listen to Scarface rap and to miss how skilled he really is. He spins some pretty tight rhymes on this one, and it seems so effortless the whole way. Standout tracks for me were Guess Who's Back and What Can I Do, but there really weren't any low points. The whole thing reminds me a lot of Pinata in that the production style is one that normally isn't matched with the subject matter, and like on Pinata it works to great effect here. I might be giving this another listen soon.


The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick by Slick Rick

Next up was this one, and I'm a lot less enthusiastic about it. The production on the first tracks is...interesting...as is the production on the rest of the album. Slick Rick is a great storyteller, and I love some of the details he includes in his stories. But really I just can't get past the scattershot production and some questions songs topics.

I have trouble listening to a lot of "golden era" hip hop like this because it's clear that the genre has come a long ways, and while I'm sure this was pretty impressive at the time it's been upstaged by a ton of other albums. There are still some good records to be found from that era for sure, but I found this one a little lacking since I can't find it being nearly as interesting a second time through.
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babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see


Gender: Male
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  • #5
  • Posted: 06/16/2015 01:09
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Monday workday

During the workday I try my best to listen to music, but really the only tool I have for that is YouTube (now that grooveshark is dead). Distracted listening isn't always the best time for first listens, but most of the albums I listen to at work I try to listen to again soon afterwards if I enjoy them at all. I had a lot of meeting today, but I managed to listen to these three:


Black Elvis/Lost In Space by Kool Keith

(first listen) Sometimes I think Kool Keith is one of my favorite rappers, and other times I can't help but zone out while listening to him. I certainly enjoy his rhymes, which involve a lot of unexpected words and weird non-sequiturs. This works really well when he has a well-crafted persona to rap behind - Dr. Octagynecologist is a great album in part because Kool Keith's weird rhymes mix well with the weird concept. The concept on this album isn't quite as strange; in fact, there's not all that strong of a concept here at all. It's still an interesting album that's carried by his great lyrics and flow, but nothing as amazing as when he was Dr. Octagon. The production is also a little lackluster and doesn't really stand out. I'll give it another listen because I like his style.


Going Blank Again by Ride

(second listen) I've been meaning to give this a second listen, and I'm glad I did. This isn't quite as great as Nowhere, but it's an interesting evolution of that sound. It can probably still be called shoegaze, but there are parts where it almost sounds like a jangle pop album to me. And Time Machine almost sounds like a new wave song (it reminds me of early New Order, I'm not sure if that's just me though). It's also a great album for working or doing something else, since the strength is in the layered sounds and not in the lyrics or the musical subtleties.


Wakin On A Pretty Daze by Kurt Vile

(3rd+ listen) Late in the day I saw an article about Kurt Vile announcing his new album, and that made me want to listen to this. I saw Vile in concert last summer, and his set was amazing. He started off with the opener off this album, but he just kind of mumbled the lyrics to the whole thing and played around with different effect the whole time. I don't think I understood a single word he said the entire set - the whole thing was just an ocean of noise and it was sometimes hard to tell when one song started and another ended. He also played around sunset, which was pretty perfect. As for this album - the opener is definitely the best song of the bunch, and nothing else really comes close to it for me (although the closer is another highlight). It's a lot dreamier and less focused than Smoke Ring For My Halo, which both helps it and hurts it. It feels a lot freer, but it also tends to lose itself in places. And 70 minutes is kind of a long running time for an album like this. I'm excited for his new album, it sounds like it could be pretty different from this.

Monday evening


Oh My Sexy Lord by Marijuana Deathsquads

(first listen) I'm going to Eaux Claires in July, and my goal is to listen to at least one album by each of the acts that will be there. I feel like that's going to be nearly impossible, but so far I'm pretty close to being almost halfway. I think it was the name of this band that made me pick them to be next, and Wikipedia describes them as "noise - electronic - experimental" which sounded pretty cool. However....this was really not what I was expecting. I was expecting something along the lines of Melt-Banana or an electronic Big Black / Jesus Lizard, but really this reminded me a lot more of Have a Nice Life's Deathconciousness. It definitely sounds more like post punk - a slogging, subterranean type of post punk. Besides Have a Nice Life it reminded me the most of the new Algiers album, albeit without the gospel singing (the vocals are more akin to Jesus Lizard vocals actually). I'm not sure if it was because this wasn't what I was expecting, but I really didn't enjoy it. It didn't seem to go anywhere, and though some of the tracks were supposed to fit together each one just felt like a half-baked song that didn't go anywhere. It was a nice concept but I think it could have been done better.


Beyond by Dinosaur Jr.

I decided to get that one out of my mind with an old favorite. Dinosaur Jr is one of my favorite bands, and this is one of my favorites of theirs. Two of their first albums with Lou Barlow (You're Living All Over Me and Bug) are probably their best just because the noisy, lo-fi production works really well with their sound, but I'm also a huge fan of their new reunion albums because for whatever reason the cleaner production also works. J Mascis is of course a phenomenal guitarist, and he really shows it off here. The opener is a pretty triumphant comeback, which then fades into one of my favorites in Crumble which features a couple cool guitar rhythms. Other highlights include This Is All I Came To Do and Lightning Bulb, which features of more plodding riff than the band usually uses.

Looking at their albums on this site I see that only YLAOM is in the top 1000, which is a huge pity and everyone should also listen to Bug and this (and Where You Been and Farm and I Bet On Sky and ...). But seriously it doesn't get much better than this:


Link



Cheatahs by Cheatahs

Listening to this just before climbing into bed - I guess it was a shoegazing type of day. This was in my top 10 at the end of 2014 and I still really enjoy it, but I've kind of cooled on it after multiple listens. It reminds me a lot of Swervedriver and a little of the heavier side of Ride. If you like Swervedriver you should give it a listen if you haven't; it's cleaner and a little more melodic but I like this way more than the new Swervedriver from this year.
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babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see


Gender: Male
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  • #6
  • Posted: 06/17/2015 01:18
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Tuesday morning

Stadium Arcadium ended on the drive home from work yesterday, so I started this today:


The Gilded Palace Of Sin by The Flying ...o Brothers

This will be my second listen; I remember it being an enjoyable country album. Not really much more to say at this point.

A long term goal of mine is to listen to the top 1000 albums as ranked by this site. We'll see if that ever happens, since there's a lot of stuff I'd rather not listen to (I think I'd have to listen to like 5 more U2 albums which would be unfortunate). As such, every once in a while I'll go to the list of ones I haven't heard and grab one to listen to. Today I picked this:


Strawberry Jam by Animal Collective

Ugh, this band is so unbearable, I...wait this is actually pretty good. I remember not liking Merriweather Post Pavilion but I haven't seen listened to it in a long time. This is pretty interesting pop - it gets a little too fuzzy and messy at times because there's too much going on, but most of the time it's pretty fun. I had the same problem I had with MPP in that I found it hard to create an emotional connection with, despite it sounding cool, but I'll probably listen to it again and give MPP another listen too for good measure.

After that ended I was distracted and YouTube started autoplaying another album. It was this one, and I decided to listen:


Sung Tongs by Animal Collective

Now this is the Animal Collective I remember. This sounds like a bunch of rich white kids who have nothing better to do than sit around and fiddle around with their instruments. The first track was good, but after that it went nowhere and there were long periods where nothing interesting happened. I feel like I'm missing something, but the truth is the whole thing just sounded like noodling for the sake of noodling. This probably sounds like a really bad reason to hate on an album but honestly I didn't pick up on anything else so yeah. Probably won't bother listening to this one again.


Czarface by Inspectah Deck & 7L & Esoteric

Another first listen, and one I'd been meaning to get to for a couple weeks. I'd never known this was a thing until I saw something on Stereogum about the new album. All I knew was that it had a cool cover and it was Inspectah Deck, who is probably the Wu Tang Clan member who is most anonymous to me. However, this was really really good. I wasn't expecting much in terms of hard hitting raps from a late-period album of one of the lesser members of Wu Tang, but damn this was good. The superhero theme also works - it gives off an MF DOOM feeling but never really feels like it's trying to be a copycat because it has enough of its own ideas. I could list great lines off for days, but my favorite was probably "I put science in my bars like Ivy League pubs." All in all it was a super fun album that was just a total pleasure to listen to. The production is great too - it's one of my favorite styles and it was never predictable.


Deltron 3030 by Deltron 3030

This was my second listen for this, and though I remember enjoying this the first time I was pretty slow in getting around to a second listen. And listening again, I know why. As far as concept albums go, this one is pretty heavy handed. There's no subtlety to anything - Del literally just lists off all of the things that are wrong with the dystopian future. And it's all pretty standard stuff - chip in our brains, no free thought, etc. And the filler tracks are super annoying because they don't add anything and really aren't that interesting - the exception is the Cleofis Randolph one because that contains the best verse on the album. Speaking of which, I really can't get behind Del's style of rapping. His flow seems to be less about bars and lines and more about dragging everything out into a long sentence. I don't hate it, and when he's got some great rhymes and lyrics going it works. But too often on this one he doesn't have much interesting to say (because he's stuck advancing the story) and his flow just gets tiresome.

On the plus side, the production on this is great. I love Dan the Automator's blend of atmospheric beats and scratching, which somehow really complements the album's theme. And there are some good songs - 3030 and Virus are both super enjoyable. But there are too many forgettable or ridiculous tracks and they really do bring the album down, which is unfortunate. I respect this one for trying but it's not something I would want to listen to on a regular basis.

Tuesday evening

I got back from work, made dinner, and then excitedly started this:


Every Hero Needs A Villain by Czarface

I had high hopes after the listening to the first one earlier, and somehow this is even better. It might be because I liked the guest stars better (mostly GZA and DOOM, but that "Juju of the Beatnuts" person had a really great verse too, whoever they are). It might be because of all the NFL references littered throughout it, which are admittedly silly in places but I appreciate them. And it might be because of the Greedo / Han Solo debate - I'm not really a fan of Star Wars but for some reason I found it funny. Basically I like this album because of a bunch of things that other people would probably think are silly. The MCs drop great lines on this one too - my favorite was something about being wrong on all levels like a broken elevator. An album like this is super refreshing, and it was fun to listen to after hearing a lot of more serious hip hop albums this year. I'm throwing this at number 3 on my 2015 chart for now; it should probably be at 2 but I don't want to drop Earl out of that spot just yet since I haven't listened to this one as much.


Joy, Departed by Sorority Noise

Another new 2015 album; I found this one on Stereogum because it was their album of the week. (side note: they also published their halfway year end list today so I expect some 2015 to happen within the next week) This was described as a pretty deep emo album, and emo was a genre I was exploring for a little bit recently so it piqued by interest. Best case I was expecting something along the lines of American Football, which has quickly become a favorite. I found it to be decent, but not amazing by any means. The themes are pretty varied and stay away from boring emo topics like break-ups and unrequited love and stray more into existential angst and depression, but a lot of the ideas are pretty surface level. There are lines about dressing in black and staying home and not going to parties, but they're just kind of stated and not really built upon. And there's literally a point where he says he's "getting better at being better" or something, which is too bad. Musically it's a cross between more subdued emo and power-punk-pop type stuff, which didn't seem to mesh with the lyrical content; there were songs about depression with an upbeat chorus and it just didn't work for me. If you're big into 2000-ish emo you might want to check this out but it didn't seem otherwise groundbreaking to me.


The Meadowlands by The Wrens

And I'm ending the night with this one right now. I listened to this for the first time about a year and a half ago and really didn't like it that much. I relistened about two weeks ago and loved it, so I've been listening to it a lot to make up for lost time. It's some of the most interesting indie rock I've heard from the decade instrumentally; it sounds a lot like what you'd hear from Wolf Parade or GNFPYLBN-era Modest Mouse, but it manages to still be unique. Thematically it seems a little scattered to me, but the general themes of isolation and disappointment work well when they're used. This could probably climb onto my overall chart but space there is becoming pretty high rent and I'm not sure this one can afford it just yet.
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shoopadoowop



Gender: Male
Age: 27
Location: Canadia
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  • #7
  • Posted: 06/17/2015 17:10
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Wow, really nice job on this! Seeing your tastes I would be interested to hear your thoughts on an Antlers record.
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Skinny
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  • #8
  • Posted: 06/17/2015 17:12
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babyBlueSedan wrote:
that "Juju of the Beatnuts" person had a really great verse too, whoever they are


He's Juju, from The Beatnuts. He's dope, they're dope.
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babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see


Gender: Male
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  • #9
  • Posted: 06/17/2015 18:08
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shoopadoowop wrote:
Wow, really nice job on this! Seeing your tastes I would be interested to hear your thoughts on an Antlers record.


Thanks! I've only ever heard Hospice, and I've been meaning to give it a relisten because I wasn't a huge fan of it. But that was like two or more years ago. I'll see if I can get to it this week, but it's an album where I'd have to be completely undistracted since the lyrics are such a key part.

Skinny wrote:
He's Juju, from The Beatnuts. He's dope, they're dope.


Thanks for clearing that up Wink

Anyway, onto Wednesday morning


Yip/Jump Music by Daniel Johnston

A while ago I watched the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston and got really interested in his music. If you like music documentaries, or even if you don't, I'd highly recommend it. So far I'd only heard Song of Pain and Hi How Are You in full though, so I decided to give this a listen. It's pretty much more of what I've come to expect from Johnston, although it sounds like he's started using an organ instead of just a keyboard. And he's started stomping his feet for percussion on some of the tracks, by the sound of it. The lyrics are, again, what I'd expect, although for me they don't hit the same level of honesty as Song of Pain. I recognized a few of the songs from the documentary - particularly Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances, which I guess is a pretty well-known song of his (at least as well known as a Daniel Johnston song can be). Casper The Friendly Ghost was another highlight. There were a couple low points (King Kong went on for like 10 minutes it felt like), and they do kind of bring the album down. But it's another interesting album by one of the more interesting songwriters I've encountered.


Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts by M83

Listened to this next, as I'd been meaning to listen to it again. I've heard it three or four times but it hasn't really clicked even though I love some of the tracks. I tend to zone out while trying to listen to down tempo or ambient music, but this does a nice job of mixing together ambient sections with more involved sections without it feeling forced. Not really much else to say since electronic music isn't really something I listen to a lot, but this album is definitely enjoyable even if I don't love it.


Station To Station by David Bowie

(second listen) This was way better than I remember it being. Probably like my fifth favorite Bowie album or something but after this listen I'd rank it above Scary Monsters.


Eureka by Jim O'Rourke

(second listen) I keep seeing O'Rourke's new album mentioned places but I thought I'd listen to some of his old stuff first. I absolutely love the opening track here - I love the repeated lines and how every time through it gets more complex with additional instruments. The next track is pretty good too. But from there is really drops off for me. Some of the songs don't really go anywhere, and the crisp instrumentation from the first track becomes more muddled. Good album, but not great.


Insignificance by Jim O'Rourke

(first listen) I think I liked this less than Eureka, but it was still alright. Had kind of a country feel to some of the songs.


In The Attic Of The Universe by The Antlers

(first listen) Not a bad album but I'm not sure if I'll be coming back to it. Part of me loves his voice but part of me wishes he would enunciate more. Normally I wouldn't mind the subdued vocals, but I don't feel they really add anything to the music in this case. The music is good but nothing too interesting for me. It has renewed my interest in relistening to Hospice though, since it reminded me of all the things I liked about that one.
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Last edited by babyBlueSedan on 06/18/2015 01:42; edited 1 time in total
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shoopadoowop



Gender: Male
Age: 27
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  • #10
  • Posted: 06/17/2015 18:11
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babyBlueSedan wrote:
Thanks! I've only ever heard Hospice, and I've been meaning to give it a relisten because I wasn't a huge fan of it. But that was like two or more years ago. I'll see if I can get to it this week, but it's an album where I'd have to be completely undistracted since the lyrics are such a key part.


I really like all of their material, and I'd encourage you to maybe try another one, they're all different to some extent. In The Attic of The Universe is my second favorite so maybe try that if you still don't like Hospice Smile.
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