Music: Last Album You Listened To And Rate It III

[Hippasus]

Rating: 475

200: distasteful and pathetic
300: mediocre or subpar
400: average, but decent
500: very good
600: superb
700: transcendental

 

[Loopy0ne]

Black Marble - a different arrangement
Probably my top album this year. Love the dark wave synth. 8/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Perry Leopold - Christian Lucifer. 4.5/10
I'm not often a big fan of prog rock/folk, but if it's your cup of tea, you'll probably love this little known album.



A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms. 6.5/10
Mostly very good. You've got great atmospheric pieces, but when it hits the lows, it's very low (I swear the 13 Angels Standing Guard was inspired by the dying cat parade joke in Friends).

 

[Shareefruck]

Damn, didn't realize this thread got buried so deep. Some things I tried pretty aimlessly:

Music For Nine Post Cards by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.5 (Great)
Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.0 (Very Good)
Wet Land by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 2.5 (Good)
Been in a music-discovery lull for years now, where stuff I like feels pretty established and every attempt to get into new stuff results in zero returns, but recently got into this and liked it a fair bit. A bit Ambient-1-era-Brian-Eno, and in the later albums, started weirdly giving me Tunic videogame vibes (albeit, I like this better). Very public-space-museum-exhibit-y ambient/minimalism, but more evocative than just a clinical feel. This seems to be the genre that I still have the most success with these days. Thinking of getting into his lesser known albums now, because these were all successes for me.

New Age of Earth by Ashra - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Enjoyable with a lot of the types of sounds that work for me, but unremarkable and dated in a not so great way.

So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Wasn't particularly impressed by the lyricism, but the vocalist is very good, it's pretty cohesive, and they're really successful at hitting that Velvet Underground vibe that many attempt but fail at, in my opinion. Enough to keep it filed away in my mind, but didn't feel too much beyond that. (weirdly, I'm pretty sure I've tried this album a bunch of times before, but it only "went online" on this attempt for me, enough to have an opinion about it)

Sleep by Max Richter - 1.0 (Negative)
I watched The Leftovers a while back and in retrospect, I bought into the hype/praise way too prematurely and allowed myself to be too impressionable (probably from desperation to find something new that's good). One thing I didn't like about it was how overbearing, melodramatic, and cheesy everything felt (felt that way about Lost as well, so it's probably just Lindelof's sensibilities as a whole that I dislike), and I think the soundtrack was a big contributor to that. Didn't realize this was the same composer, but it checks out-- I had very much the same type of distaste for it.

Somewhere between 0.0 and 1.5 (Just Didn't Care):
Eureka by Kinoko Teikoku
Uzu Ni Naru by Kinoko Teikoku
Raise by Swervedriver
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in The Glittering World of The Salons by Swirlies
Glitter by Pasteboard

Highlights:

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Damn, didn't realize this thread got buried so deep. Some things I tried pretty aimlessly:

Music For Nine Post Cards by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.5 (Great)
Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 3.0 (Very Good)
Wet Land by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 2.5 (Good)
Been in a music-discovery lull for years now, where stuff I like feels pretty established and every attempt to get into new stuff results in zero returns, but recently got into this and liked it a fair bit. A bit Ambient-1-era-Brian-Eno, and in the later albums, started weirdly giving me Tunic videogame vibes (albeit, I like this better). Very public-space-museum-exhibit-y ambient/minimalism, but more evocative than just a clinical feel. This seems to be the genre that I still have the most success with these days. Thinking of getting into his lesser known albums now, because these were all successes for me.

New Age of Earth by Ashra - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Enjoyable with a lot of the types of sounds that work for me, but unremarkable and dated in a not so great way.

So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive)
Wasn't particularly impressed by the lyricism, but the vocalist is very good, it's pretty cohesive, and they're really successful at hitting that Velvet Underground vibe that many attempt but fail at, in my opinion. Enough to keep it filed away in my mind, but didn't feel too much beyond that. (weirdly, I'm pretty sure I've tried this album a bunch of times before, but it only "went online" on this attempt for me, enough to have an opinion about it)

Sleep by Max Richter - 1.0 (Negative)
I watched The Leftovers a while back and in retrospect, I bought into the hype/praise way too prematurely and allowed myself to be too impressionable (probably from desperation to find something new that's good). One thing I didn't like about it was how overbearing, melodramatic, and cheesy everything felt (felt that way about Lost as well, so it's probably just Lindelof's sensibilities as a whole that I dislike), and I think the soundtrack was a big contributor to that. Didn't realize this was the same composer, but it checks out-- I had very much the same type of distaste for it.

Somewhere between 0.0 and 1.5 (Just Didn't Care):
Eureka by Kinoko Teikoku
Uzu Ni Naru by Kinoko Teikoku
Raise by Swervedriver
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in The Glittering World of The Salons by Swirlies
Glitter by Pasteboard

Highlights:

He's back!

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

The Olivia Tremor Control - Singles and Beyond. Obviously very uneven. Still some great stuff. 6/10

Yes, Olivia Tremor Conrtrol. Their two studio albums have been in constant rotation for the last 20 years. There is just something about their sound that works for me.

Others:

Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly. 8/10. I love t. It's like psychedlic country shoegaze or something. Their best work IMO.

St. Vincent - Actor. 7/10. Pleasant surprise. Good textures and I like her voice.

boygenius EP - 6/10. Man did I avoid this one for a while cause they were pused so hard everywhere I looked. But I like it. I already liked Julien Baker so that was a good way in.

Hum - You'd Prefer an Astronaut - 6/10. Has potential to grow on me. For those of us that had to live through the generally depressing post-grunge/generic sounding bands, it was not a good time. I assumed these guys were like that (maybe they are a little) but their guitars sound great.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream...

4/10

There's some good moments, but this textbook trying too hard. Standout tracks are Cosmic and Easier. The rest can go in the trash.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein (2023) - 2/5

Joakim Berg - Jag forstatter glomma (2022) - 2/5

Mt. Desolation - Through Crooked Aim (2023) - 2.5/5

DMA'S - How Many Dreams (2023) - 2.5/5

Paramore - This Is Why (2023) - 2.5/5

The Murder Capital - Gigi's Recovery (2023) - 3/5

Flyying Colours - You Never Know (2023) - 2.5/5

dEUS - How To Replace It (2023) - 2.5/5

Radio Supernova - Paratiisi (2023) - 3/5

Depeche Mode - Memento Mori (2023) - 3/5

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Jams (2021) by Luna Li - Liked it a lot!
The Florist by Abby Sage (2022) - Liked it a lot too!
Born Like This by MF DOOM (2009) - Re-listen. Liked it a whole lot too!

Really been enjoying these shorter EPs by lesser known musicians. They don't have any fat like you see from major releases.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Anyone dig into the new Clientele album? It's good but too many of those short interlude/filler type songs and the tracklisting is like 19 songs long as a result so haven't fully gotten into it yet.

Also need to listen to new Hives.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Ardour by Teebs (2010) - So perfectly delicate and lush. My favorite album of instrumental hip-hop of all-time. I think it's a masterpiece.

The extended version of While You Doooo is probably a top 10 or top 5 all-time track for me and that's not from recency bias. Just a song of immense beauty.

 

[Mikeaveli]

The Beach Boys - Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972)

I really want to love this one as the two singles are brilliant songs written by Brian Wilson. You Need A Mess of Help To Stand Alone is a great rocking track, Carl's exaggerated lead vocal and guitar work stand out, and I love the chorus too. The banjo and modulated violin really make the backing track, as does the autoharp on Marcella, which is the best track on the album. Incredible vocal arrangement on the chorus. Carl's guitar solo here is one of his best and it goes right into the coda where we get a glorious rearrangement of the chorus that is even better. 10/10 song.

All This Is That is another highlight, this time written by Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Carl. This is on the shortlist for best Brian-less Beach Boys tracks, top tier harmonies on this one. Carl's vocal on the outro is gorgeous, I just wish it was mixed better. The Acapella versions of this song and Marcella on the box set are must listens.

Unfortunately the rest of the album kind of sucks. He Come Down is kind of fun and there are some nice parts near the end but the gospel thing is a bit much. The two Ricky/Blondie songs are passable but sound out of place. Dennis' songs are his worst contributions to this point and should be nowhere near an album with this title. Two boring, drawn out, melodramatic ballads. Also, why does Carl only have one writing credit on the album that has his name in the title? After his great contributions on Surf's Up he really should have been more active here, though he did produce the three best songs.

It's kind of amazing that an album with so few tracks has this much filler. Still, I can't give it a negative review because I have been listening to the top three tracks constantly the past few months.

Favourites: You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone, Marcella, All This Is That

6/10

 

[Sniper99]

J. Cole. Might Delete Later. 8/10 Really good.

 

[Shareefruck]

Been a while.

Naturally by J.J. Cale - 2.0 (Positive)
Randomly decided to give him a shot because one of those artist proximity maps had J.J. Cale close to Neu! and Can for some weird reason. Blues usually blur together and feel samey to me but this was pretty nice.

To My Love by Lamp - 2.0 (Positive)
Soyokaze Apartment 201 by Lamp - 1.5 (Neutral)
Tokyo Utopia Communications by Lamp - 1.5 (Neutral)
Gensou by Lamp - 1.5 (Neutral)
Afterglow by Lamp - 1.0 (Negative)
At Komorebi St. by Lamp - 1.0 (Negative)

Lamp's a weird group to me. The first time I heard them, I was very impressed. They're very polished, pleasant, capable, and tasteful. But it's almost like they're so consistent at what they do that they're straight up boring. It's hard to even tell their albums apart.

Have a Good Journey 1996-2000 by Advantage Lucy - 1.0 (Negative)

Oh also, while I didn't get an album experience out of it, I really like the song versions on ABC Music by Stereolab.

Recent Highlights

1. Anamorphose (ABC Music) by Stereolab


2. Call Me the Breeze by J.J. Cale


3. La Boob Oscillator by Stereolab

 

[Shareefruck]

Some Context:

• I kind of lost enthusiasm for trying new music after establishing what I like from the 50s-2000s. For a while, I was digging at the fringes of those decades and trying acclaimed 2010s and 2020s albums, but I just didn't get much out of it. The process wasn't enjoyable and the results weren't rewarding. So as a palette cleanser, decided to randomly dive into K-Pop instead. I figure even if I end up hating it, it'd at least be completely new, easy, and identifiable for me.
• Surprisingly, it didn't go as bad as expected, considering that all radio-friendly Western pop sounds like trash to my ears. There's definitely a limited ceiling to how good K-Pop can get, but I seem to have a soft spot for some of it, and oddly, within the genre, my attitude seems reversed. Feels like K-Pop tends to be better when it doesn't try to be creative/avant-garde/edgy and instead sticks to what its strengths are-- That accessible base-level enjoyable saccharine pleasantness.
• Some more context: I was blown away by the poppier side of Cocteau Twins, then branched off into Faye Wong's Cocteau-Twins-inspired pop, and desperately wanted to hear more like that, but pretty much everything considered Cocteau-Twins-esque leans more towards the goth/shoe-gaze/Bjork-like side of it. K-Pop isn't a match for what I wanted either, but for some reason it occasionally scratches that itch for me. So that's kind of what spurred this on.

Assorted K-Pop thoughts:

• I've yet to hear enjoyable male K-Pop vocals. The revered ones sound like bland traditionalist crooners, while others have that annoying unnatural Western boy band tone-- totally disqualifying. Especially baffled by how Felix from Stray Kids appears to have made a name for himself by sounding like the cookie monster as a gimmick, and everyone's all "Wow! How unique and different!" It sounds totally silly and bad to my ears.
• JYP amuses me a lot. He's like a competent/professional version of Tommy Wiseau or something. An egomaniacal narcissist with no shame/self-awareness who loves to hear himself talk and thinks he's hip, but also leans into his meme-like absurdity like he knows what he's doing.
• I find Mamamoo overrated. I think people are overly obsessed with comparing physical skills like specs on a PC or something. To me, it sounds like their music exists as a vehicle to grandstand their physical talents and not much else (similar to what I don't like about Western pop).
• The bar for what's considered a good album in K-Pop is very low. The revered ones aren't usually good, IMO. The lone exceptions for me so far are F(x) and Red Velvet. They're the only groups that's given me anything resembling a cohesive album experience. Probably the two most artful groups, too.
• For me, musically, Twice is in this weird middle ground where they're ridiculously consistent at what they do (could argue they have close to a hundred listenable/catchy songs), but nearly everything's kind of at the same limited level of just decent, with barely anything truly standing out from the pack.

Artists
Good - F(x), Red Velvet
Positive - Le Sserafim, Twice, StayC
Neutral - Ive
Negative - IU, NMixx, Wonder Girls
Bad - New Jeans, (G)-Idle, Mamamoo, Aespa, Girl's Generation
Terrible - Black Pink, Itzy
Don't Care - All boy groups

Albums
Pink Tape by F(x) - 2.0 or 2.5 (Positive/Good) [most of it is actually great and has this infectiously creative exuberance that's lacking elsewhere, but the weak tracks, Goodbye Summer and Kick, really hold it back]
4 Walls by F(x) - 2.0 (Positive) [super solid again, only weak track is Traveler]
Perfect Velvet by Red Velvet - 2.0 (Positive)
Formula of Love by Twice - 1.5 (Neutral) [stretch between Moonlight and Cactus is very solid, everything surrounding that stretch feels out of place/tacked on, the sub-units experiment hurts the album, and particularly don't care for Hello]
The Red by Red Velvet - 1.5 (Neutral)
Odd by SHINee - 1.0 (Negative) [like the layered harmonies, but the croon-y middle section was a let-down. Only boy group album I gave a shot to simply because it's so unanimously praised and brought up]
Red Light by F(x) - 1.0 (Negative)
Eyes Wide Open by Twice - 1.0 (Negative) [fairly cohesive, don't care for Shot Clock]
Reboot by Wonder Girls - 0.5 (Bad)
Modern Times by IU - 0.5 (Bad)

Songs that worked for me
1. Love Fool by StayC


2. Shadow by F(x)


3. Basics by Twice

 

[Turin]

American Motor Sports - Bilmuri

9/10

Guy was Attack Attacks vocalist when it invented crabcore in 2009 and now he just works out and tries to write ridiculously catchy hooks.

Essentially if 2009-2013 A Day To Remember was more creative and also a country band. There's a genuinely good emo song that's about Lebron James leaving Cleveland again but just sounds like it could be a radio hit country song, so just given that I couldn't rate it lower than 9. Bonus points for max patriotism.

 

[Shareefruck]

I knew this was going to go poorly, but just to confirm my perceptions after my attempt to try K-Pop, I looked for the equivalent purely commercial Western pop artists (art-pop, catchy rock, or pop that isn't attempting purely accessible fun doesn't count), and it predictably did not go well at all.

Anniemal by Annie - 1.0 (Negative) [Couple fun tracks and not much more. Like her voice]
E-Mo-Tion by Carly Rae Jepsen - 1.0 (Negative) [seems like a cohesive/consistent/structurally sound album of very lukewarm/mediocre songs]
Off the Wall by Michael Jackson - 0.5 (Bad)
Thriller by Michael Jackson - 0.5 (Bad)
[I'm actually shocked by how underwhelming these two were. After the handful of known hits, it's all just very cheesy R&B filler]
Norman f***ing Rockwell by Lana Del Ray - 0.5 (Bad)
Thank U, Next by Ariana Grande - 0.0 (Terrible)
Art Angels by Grimes - 0.0 (Terrible)
1989 by Taylor Swift - 0.0 (Terrible)
Born This Way by Lada Gaga - 0.0 (Terrible)
Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa - 0.0 (Terrible)
Channel Orange by Frank Ocean - 0.0 (Terrible)

Maybe there are better examples I can try, but my current takeaway from all this is that I feel like I've been somewhat gaslit by modern Western pop music into thinking that modern radio friendly pop music as a whole is way worse than it is. I also find it very odd that K-Pop gets scoffed at so hard by people, yet so many put certain modern Western pop albums like these on a pedestal.

I also find it odd because so many of the things that I THOUGHT I found disqualifying about commercial pop music is a lot more transparently apparent in K-Pop than in Western pop (the singers have far less authorship over their songs, are often less vocally talented or can't sing live, seem to be dropped out of an assembly line, and their image is even more manufactured), and yet I still find the disparity completely in their favor. I guess ultimately, I feel that those things only matter (and function as bonuses) when the material itself reaches a certain baseline level.

 

[Mikeaveli]

IMO mainstream western pop music gradually got better until the 60s where it peaked with the Beach Boys, Beatles, Phil Spector, The Zombies, etc., then promptly fell off a cliff and never recovered.

The only pop acts I've really enjoyed since are the more off the wall types (Broadcast, Jockstrap, Sweet Trip). MGMT's Little Dark Age is also a decent album.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The English version of that K-Pop Cupid song from Fifty Fifty always struck me as way more of an earworm than whatever I've ever heard from American or Canadian bubblegum pop.

The only other ones that came close are Someone to Call my Lover by Janet Jackson and Love at First Sight by Kylie Minogue.

With that said, one terrible turn that bubblegum has taken is how personal they try to make it seem. The only times it works is when it's incredibly impersonal.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I know I shouldn't comment about pop as I don't particularly like any of it, but I listened to what was posted (k-pop, J Jackson and Minogue) and none of that is listenable to me. I think Thriller is a lot better than any of that crap for sure.

I tried to think of some pop I like,.... Plus-tech Squeeze Box is considered "picopop" (what the heck is that?)



And Hefner, "indie pop", but I only like 'em in small doses



Both are also labelled "twee pop"... It feels like random words.

 

[Shareefruck]

The English version of that K-Pop Cupid song from Fifty Fifty always struck me as way more of an earworm than whatever I've ever heard from American or Canadian bubblegum pop.

The only other ones that came close are Someone to Call my Lover by Janet Jackson and Love at First Sight by Kylie Minogue.

With that said, one terrible turn that bubblegum has taken is how personal they try to make it seem. The only times it works is when it's incredibly impersonal.

Cupid is actually partly what made me want to try that stuff. It never quite graduated from disposable earworm to something that I actually find satisfying or good to me (the rap in the Korean version, the talk-singing, and the English sounds kind of awful to me, and I just feel like it might sound better if someone else did it), but it at least makes sense to me why it's popular and there are parts that work/that I'd want to find adjacent stuff to. Not crazy about those Western examples, though.

I don't think I really get anything out of songs that are outright considered ear-worms (they tend to cross over into "annoying" for me), but certain kinds of light/simple pop seems to be able to hit a bit of a sweet spot for me, personally, where it's kind of like "who cares, just go with it".

@Pranzo Oltranzista For the record, I don't think any of this stuff is actually to the standards of things I legitimately feel strongly about, but man, I am just so sick of the discovery process/the wall that I'm hitting at the moment that I'll take anything at this point. It's serving as a decent refresher for me.

For some reason those Michael Jackson albums just genuinely did zero for me, though.

I think where I'm generally landing with this stuff is that the peaks aren't anywhere close to things I actually LIKE like, but some are surprisingly doing more for me than I expected (more than the 2010s-2020s albums that are on Pitchfork top lists and things like that, anyways).

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I'm not advocating for either of these songs, I'm pretty sure I know the personal reasons as to why these songs stuck with me (they're from the same era) but oddly enough, their actual musical appeal to me is much more mysterious and unconscious than any piece of experimental music or or or or that I'm in love with, which I can break down much more easily.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

In terms of what I'd actually advocate for as genuine greatness that I discovered recently:

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I also really enjoy this although most of David Berman's/Silver Jews stuff doesn't do all that much for me. Song and video are great though.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

In terms of what I'd actually advocate for as genuine greatness that I discovered recently:

That's pretty cool. Added it to the infinite stuff I need to listen to (thx). My best recent discovery is this album from 2024 (favorite of the year as of now):