Hazey's Musings on Melodic Motifs - Shibuya-Kei on Sundays!

[HazeyTwilight]

So this thing is pretty much dead. I haven't been listening to any new music lately and, honestly, it's not really my main priority at the moment - hell I don't even use this site as much apart from lurking on the forums and giving the odd contribution every now and again. Like anyone gave a shit about this stupid diary anyway...
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[Repo]

[Komorebi-D]

[AAL2014]

[HazeyTwilight]

Back by (un)popular demand and for one night only, it's the:
Late Night Music Shit-show with your host "GayzeyBi-light" and with a special musical thrashing from Arcade Fire!

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't expecting there to be so much support and interest in this diary when I made my last post. And I honestly didn't make that as a tool for manipulating you guys and to gain unnecessary sympathy, I did it because I genuinely thought that I had no more spark and motivation to do this anymore. That's not to say I've recovered from this block, I still have a long way to go the get back into the swing of things, but to make up for the sweet people who have waited patiently for the next instalment of this diary, I'll give you this small thing to help keep your fixes in check while I sort myself back into music listening. Let's get on with show!

July 26th

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No New York by Various Artists

Listened to about 75% of this because I was on a bit of a No Wave mood on that particular day. It was good enough to satisfy my cravings that day.

July 28th

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Reflektor by Arcade Fire

This was the date that the new album from Arcade Fire was released, but before listening to that, I thought I'd give Reflektor a re-listen because I haven't done that since it first came out. I still remember what kind of place I was in when this came out, I joined this site a few months prior and had loved Arcade Fire religiously and this was my most anticipated album of 2013. I bought it a few days after it was released and listened to it and while I liked it, I felt a bit underwhelmed by it. It wasn't because they were taking a new direction, because I found some of the dance-oriented take on the songs were fine, but some of that magic they had with the first three albums was absent on Reflektor. Listening to it all those years later, now with an obsession with Synthpop from the 80s and the kind of revival of that sound in this decade being more present than ever before, I feel like I have more of an appreciation for this album now. There are still some lacklustre tracks, especially on Side 1 where there were songs that felt kind of self-aggrandising (that Jonathan Ross at the beginning of "We Already Know" still rubs me the wrong way) and uninteresting, though I love the title track and "We Exist". Side 2 is where it really shines though, as the stretch of songs from "Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)" to "Afterlife" are some of their best. It was an interesting experiment for them to embark on. A dance-oriented album with a renowned contemporary musician, James Murphy in this case, taking reigns on co-producing this record and the band tackling wider subject matter in the lyrics. It was a nice change of pace at the time - nowhere near the greatness of their first 3 albums but I have warmed up to it a lot since it came out.

70

July 30th

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Everything Now by Arcade Fire

Oh look, a dance-oriented album with renowned contemporary musicians, Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, Steve Mackey of Pulp and Geoff Barrow of Portishead, taking reigns on co-producing this record and the band tackling wider subject matter in the lyrics. So... why is this album so much worse than the one that came before it? I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this album. The singles, apart from the title track which is a quaint and cute ABBA tribute, weren't very good. They were a mishmash of bland and unmemorable versions of what Reflektor did before laid underneath uninspired and sometimes questionable lyrics ("oh no some girl tried to commit suicide, shoutout to our first record haha aren't we great?" I'm sorry, that one line taints a song that could've been so special). And that sums up the entire album. To be fair, the singles have grown on me a little, but overall it's just okay. I wouldn't be too upset about if it were made by some unknown band, but this is Arcade Fire, this was the same band that used to make music that was epic, grandiose and inspiring. They would sing about subjects that would be as big as an entire country or as small as a suburban neighbourhood, either way, they hit so close to home and made you feel so many things. That was the Arcade Fire I knew and loved back in the day, so it really pains me to see that they've churned our an album that's trying to be as poignant as their previous material but ends up a manufactured mess and settled with being just okay.

60
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[HazeyTwilight]

After a couple months of nothing happening, this thing is back! Welcome to the
(not at all) Brand New degenerate Music Shit Show covering... well, Brand New, aka NOTICE ME BENPAI!!!(I miss your gentle soul why are you leaving right now no come back honey)

*ahem*

Anyway, I decided for this week I'd go through Brand New's discography because their new album dropped a couple weeks back and the rumours that they were going to break up next year got me interested in checking them out again. While I don't consider myself their biggest fan, I do respect them a huge deal (well more so than I did years ago and I give my thanks to Benpaco for giving me that newfound appreciation) and have been curious by their progression from being an adolescent pop-punk band to pushing their music in new directions and opening themselves up to new possibilities that gave new life to emo music and even saved the lives of those kids who thought they lost their souls long ago. In this climate right now, I think their music is now more appropriate than ever for those same kids. My guess as to why they decided to part ways after 18 years of being together is that they must realise that life fucking sucks once you hit that age and they're telling us to enjoy that brief time while we still can, or at least replicate those exhilarating emotions by doing what you love doing the most. Anyway, that's enough of me being a sentimental square, dude, let's get to the music!

Week whatever, who's counting anymore?

August 30th


Your Favorite Weapon by Brand New

Every band has to start somewhere, but this isn't actually so bad. It may seem like your standard pop-punk album and it is with it's middling hooks and whining, but there's also some interesting moments here. I don't know if this was on purpose, but the way it removes and adds measures in the middle of the opening track really gives it character. In fact, a lot of the guitars doesn't strictly follow that pop-punk formula that their contemporaries used a lot in the early 2000s, as there are some darker interpretations that foreshadows what's about to come. And I find it funny that Jesse Lacey sings about Morrissey on Mix Tape while also trying to one-up his idol by being able to be more dramatic than him, even though he's just singing about his ex girlfriend. Although, yeah I agree, how dare you criticise The Smiths THEY'RE MORE THAN "JUST AN INDIE BAND"! Overall, Your Favorite Weapon is a standard yet decent album nonetheless.

65

August 31st


Deja Entendu by Brand New

This must of been quite a surprise for fans listening to this album after the Your Favorite Weapon. While their roots are still there and feature prominently in some songs here, but the themes the album tackles are broader, the songs lengths are starting to branch out of the 3-4 minute range, and its instrumentation is more meditative than of their debut. Brand New's transition into more mature songwriting with Deja Entendu isn't perfect, but it's still a good album that gives the band a much needed identity and showed that they had massive potential if they kept this style up.

80

September 1st


The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New

Brand New took what Deja Entendu did well, pushed it even further and made it the central point of The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. There's very little semblance of pop-punk here at all, almost no accessibility that a rock album around this time would possess. Broader and darker subject matter with a lot of their best lyrics on here, more experimentation in the instrumentation that's haunting and beautiful, the intensity and visceral nature, the more intricate songwriting, structure and arrangements of each song. This wasn't just a defining moment in Brand New's career, but a defining moment in Emo music. The more I listen to it, the more it grows on me, and the more I adore it.

90

September 2nd


Daisy by Brand New

I'm going to be honest here, this is my least favourite album by them. Or should I say, it's tied with Your Favorite Weapon as my least favourite. With that album's problem it may have been a little too simple for me, with Daisy it's the opposite: there may be a little too much going on. I mean, it makes sense as a follow up to the previous album, it's about as natural as a progression from religion to nature as you can get. It gets kind of messy in places, I get it, an album that dabbles in noise is supposed to be like that, but it kind of detracts from the songwriting for me. Maybe it will grow on me after a while, we'll see.

65

September 3rd


Science Fiction by Brand New

"To hell with Science Fiction, this album feels more like Psychological Thriller" - The Rock Critic

So now that the new album's finally here, I've just got to say that it was worth the wait. And if this was their final album, then it's a damn fine one to go out on. You can tell the band has aged quite a bit, but that's to be noticed more when it's been eight years since your last album. It's more atmospheric and introspective than previous albums but it still has that melancholic edge that we expect from this band. One thing I was shocked about was the fact that a couple songs had wicked guitar solos. While there were always really excellent guitar parts in their career, they never screamed "guitar solo" and I never saw either Lacey or Vincent Accardi as outstanding on their instruments, even though they wrote their parts to enhance their songs rather than to show off, but whomever did those solos on Science Fiction, big ups to you because they rocked! In terms of quality, this album is definitely up there with The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me and in a year where some of the most anticipated albums are met with disappointment, Science Fiction definitely delivered, and is one of the best that this year has to offer.

85

Well, that was tiring writing all this, see you lads whenever I feel like it.
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[Luigii]

Eyyy you back. Also need to see The Rock Critic again.

[HazeyTwilight]

So, I've been neglecting this thing for a while now because I didn't know what to do with it. I was doing that whole artists discography thing in my previous posts and some of it turned out really well. Hell, I thought my entry on Brand New was actually alright...until we all found out that Jesse Lacey was an absolute scumbag and I kinda pushed away from it all ever since then. But then an idea popped into my head! Some of you may know that I was pretty obsessed with Shibuya-Kei back in the day (2014-2015 area) and I have a chart dedicated to it (but it desperately needs an update). I've wanted to do something with it for years, until at the start of the year, this old relic hit me in the face and gave me the inspiration to give this a shot again. So starting today, I'll be introducing a new segment to this diary that will be called:

Shibuya-Kei Sunday!!!

Every Sunday, I'll listen to one album from the genre and I give my thoughts on it. Sounds simple, but I hope to introduce you all to some incredible little gems and get an understanding of why this was one of my biggest obsessions. I mean, I can still do the whole listening to new stuff too, but instead of a weekly roundup like I did before on Sundays, I'm going to give my thoughts on them when I actually listen to them, if that makes any sense. So, without further ado, let's get this show on the road!


Sushi 4004 by Various Artists

What better way to start this off than with a compilation! I'd say that this compilation is a good understanding of what the genre is about, as its blend of samba, jazz, lounge, pop, rock and electronica is written all over this thing. I didn't what to feel going into this, because while it has some of its biggest names attached to it: Fantastic Plastic Machine, Kahimi Karie, Takako Minekawa, Cornelius and Pizzicato Five, to name a few, it also threw some curveball artists at me, and some of their approaches to making this kind of music comes across as quirky, kitsch and experimental, yet also very stylish. Some of the sampling here is a bit sloppy, so much so that you could actually hear the sound of the producer tapping on the pads on their samplers, and some of the song ideas are stretched a little too thin in places, but that kind of reminds me of my own attempts of trying to make electronic music, so what do I know anyway? But regardless of some of its faults, this is still a fun little compilation album and a good starting point for anyone looking to get into the genre.

70
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[Tha1ChiefRocka]

[HazeyTwilight]