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Music: Last Album You Listened To And Rate It III

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Also, getting into these genres that I'm actually getting something out now of is making me feel like this about the time I spent earlier trying K-Pop.

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Shareefruck said:
Also, getting into these genres that I'm actually getting something out of is making me feel like this about the time I spent trying K-Pop to get out of my music-listening funk.
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How do you pick new things to listen to?
 
Ceremony said:
How do you pick new things to listen to?
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I don't have a good method, thus why I was in a funk in the first place. Recently I've been just putting "Japanese" in front of genres I like, and that's sort of carried me through the last few things, but that's probably not going to last very long.
 
Eureka by Kinoko Teikoku - 2.5 (Good)
Didn't expect this, but after a couple re-listens, this album ended up really impressing me. Probably the most cohesive/structurally well thought out album experience of the things I've tried in this recent stretch of deep dives. Holds together really well while having a lot of distinct but memorable tracks that each do something a little different (less a fan of the shouty tracks, but even those I think are well done), no outright weak tracks either, I don't think (closest to one for me was 春と修羅).

Standout Tracks:
リカ

ミュージシャン
 
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Doubled back through non-Japanese Shoegaze to see if my mind changed after clicking with the Japanese equivalent. It hasn't. To my ears, the genre feels like it consists of one brilliant top tier band (MBV), a pretty decent second I don't necessarily love (Slowdive), and then a sea of amateurish garage-rock pretenders who to my ears sound like they just happened to hop on a trend. Not sure why the Japanese seemed to tap into it so much more easily/effectively, to my ears, anyways.

Additional thoughts:
  • One amusing thing I kept running into that made my eyes roll out their sockets was that reviews/comments of EVERY album were full of people proudly proclaiming "Better than Loveless." Every. Damn. Time. I just kept thinking "maybe start with having ONE track half as satisfying as Loveless' weakest."
  • Maybe unpopular opinion, but it infuriates me how much perception of these bands/albums (and I assume what influenced their reputation) seems to hinge on how much they're "copying/ripping off MBV/Loveless", as if that's somehow a bad thing. Who gives a **** if something isn't fully original when things that actually pull off the sound as well as the originals are in such short supply? If anything, the problem is that there aren't ENOUGH MBV/Loveless clones that actually get to the heart of what makes that sound appealing. These "more original" takes on the genre don't accomplish anything half as worthwhile, in my opinion. People are too concerned with innovation sometimes.
1.0 (Negative)
Whirlpool by Chapterhouse [considered a classic, but while pretty consistent/memorable and has a catchy/vibey identity, feels a little like gimmicky/cheesy/teenage pretender music to me (not sure how to fairly quantify that, though). The analogy I'm feeling is that Chapterhouse seems to MBV what Oasis seems to The Beatles]
Feels Like You by Whirr [one-dimensional but at least pretty consistent, and that dimension tentatively feels like it could be something]
Citrus by Asobi Seksu [appealing but everything sounds slightly off to me. Don't know/necessarily care much about singing ability, but seems like she might have weak technique in a way that slightly puts me off, even though it has the sound/vibe I like]
In The Presence of Nothing by Lilys [one great song (tempted to bump it up for that alone) but felt pretty directionless otherwise]

0.5 (Bad)
Whitenoise Superstar by Astrobrite
Speeding Away to Someday by Fleeting Joys [Kiss a Girl in Black seemed kind of solid, but nothing else]
Split/Spooky by Lush [the vocalists sounded promising but it amounted to nothing for me]
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in The Glittering World of the Salons by Swirlies
To See The Next Part of the Dream by Parannoul [might need to revisit, went in one ear and out the other]
Nowhere by Ride [similar feelings to Whirlpool but worse/less consistent]
Beat by Bowery Electric [combining Trip-Hop and Shoegaze's a neat idea, but didn't click for me]

0.0 (Terrible)
Going Blank Again by Ride [could be a totally unfair/nonsensical thought, but the feeling I got is like when an amateur-sounding band gets slightly more technically competent while losing the at-least-somewhat-memorable-immediacy they previously relied on, to my ears-- mostly found it tedious]

Standout Tracks:
Elizabeth Color Wheel by Lilys


Other Preferred Tracks:
Younger Than You by Whirr [like this one less, I might just be grasping for anything]
 
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I've seen Ride live. I had never heard of them or knew anything about their music. I found this post I made about them at the time

Support band Ride were a strange proposition, as a bunch of bald Geordies in Stone Island shirts were all at the front to see them while I was bored senseless. I remember thinking "this is what yer da would be like if he'd been in a pub band for the past twenty years and had only ever listened to Second Coming by the Stone Roses and an Oasis greatest hits album" and oh, look at that, their guitar player played bass in Oasis and guitar in Beady Eye. Of course he did. There was a woman and her husband in front of me who were from Philadelphia and seemed to be there mainly for Ride. She was facebook living some of the songs and it was appalling, though I did get a chuckle when she told her husband to film one and he turned the phone round to get the crowd in it and the short woman with terrible dancing ducked to avoid being in it. When Ride were finished they and the Geordies all moved back and I got to the barrier.

I'd like to give them another try with an older, more refined palette.
 
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Ceremony said:
I've seen Ride live. I had never heard of them or knew anything about their music. I found this post I made about them at the time

Support band Ride were a strange proposition, as a bunch of bald Geordies in Stone Island shirts were all at the front to see them while I was bored senseless. I remember thinking "this is what yer da would be like if he'd been in a pub band for the past twenty years and had only ever listened to Second Coming by the Stone Roses and an Oasis greatest hits album" and oh, look at that, their guitar player played bass in Oasis and guitar in Beady Eye. Of course he did. There was a woman and her husband in front of me who were from Philadelphia and seemed to be there mainly for Ride. She was facebook living some of the songs and it was appalling, though I did get a chuckle when she told her husband to film one and he turned the phone round to get the crowd in it and the short woman with terrible dancing ducked to avoid being in it. When Ride were finished they and the Geordies all moved back and I got to the barrier.

I'd like to give them another try with an older, more refined palette.
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I like Ride. They have a cool sound and I would love to see them live. I am a sucker for that shoegaze type sound.
 
Just some leftover random stuff either adjacent to what I was trying before or was brought up. Waffling on how I feel about a lot of it, actually.

Fakevox by Plus-Tech Squeeze Box - 1.0 or 1.5 (Negative/Neutral) [gave me whiplash-- had me with its jam-packed ideas and production intricacies and then lost me with some generally grating sounds and A.D.D.-ness over the course of a couple listens-- Probably liked "Test Room" most]
Blue Rev by Alvvays - 1.0 or 1.5 (Negative/Neutral) [fairly solid-ish, but... not fully won over at the moment-- definitely got more out of it than the other Alvvays albums]

1.0 (Negative)
[Ardour] & [Collections 01] by Teebs [nice impressive sounds that don't give me a cohesive feeling-- stylistically, I might like it more than some stuff above, but.... none of it really comes together for me]
Among My Swan by Mazzy Star
Alvvays by Alvvays

0.5 (Bad)
Cartooom! by Plus-Tech Squeeze Box
Antisocialites by Alvvays
Hino Ataru Basyo Ni Kiteyo by Uchu Nekoko
Ask Me Tomorrow by Mojave 3

Preferred Tracks:
Look on Down From the Bridge by Mazzy Star [feel like I'm having deja vu with this song, but I don't remember being aware of it]
 
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Shareefruck said:
Blue Rev by Alvvays - 1.0 or 1.5 (Negative/Neutral) [fairly solid-ish, but... not fully won over at the moment-- definitely got more out of it than the other Alvvays albums]
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This might take a few listens to properly sink in.
Shareefruck said:
Look on Down From the Bridge by Mazzy Star [feel like I'm having deja vu with this song, but I don't remember being aware of it]
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This is in Rick and Morty a few times if you've ever seen that.
 
Behn Wilson said:
Hammer Smashed Face!!!

They got too technical and lost some of their groove as the years went by. Rusay wasnt the technical wizard the later guitarists were but his stuff was more catchy
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Agreed.

When it comes to the the Corpsegrinder era, the only albums you truly need (IMO) are “Gore Obsessed” and “The Wretched Spawn”

And I say that as someone who owns all of their albums up until “Evisceration Plague” from 2009.

Everything from the “Kill” album onwards just sounds the same 🥱🥱🥱
 
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