2016

It was alright.

I did not make it through the list. Of course. My choices were abysmal by any decent standards. I am thankful for Scientists, in specific Thank You Scientist. Moderat caught my ear. Krizz Kaliko some other stuff was OK. I learned to hate myself and love again and the other way around. I've been upside down. But here we are. For at least one more sentence. Me now. You in the future. This moment, again. See you next time!

Album Of The Year

Kriss Kaliko - Go
Feature Track: Bite My Tongue. 
Keep Listening: Really, just keep listening.. wow. 
Middle Cut: Orangutan
Deep Cut: No Love
Go All The Way: Happyish

My only fear is that is will turn into some kind of R&B mutant. Full of nightmare sex scenes and bump and grind grooves that are ironic on a good day. Track 1 is full of so many new sounds I am about to faint, though. Every track is rated explicit. 16 tracks. If it can hold this momentum... ().()

My issue with music like this is the same as with the poppiest of Pop Country. Some of the best sounding songs have the absolute worst as the only intelligible first-listen lyrics. I am hoping for more Bite My Tounge type tracks. The next track is Didn't Wanna Wake You. Both of these have more "sentimental" vs. "party-time" content. They make for much more powerful experiences. The hooks in the latter are ripped!

There are too many, too fast to really nail down the one that holds it together. But it's a toss up between the subtle yelp and the screaming "Yes, It's something real(?)". The sonic space explored here is really visionary.

Scanning the track list, I see that TechN9ne is featured on two  three of the tracks, including the next one. And I have no intention of skipping Outta Line. OK. Let's dig in. This going to be tasty.

Behave is a total let down, right off the bat. It drops right into the flow a sick beat that falls off the cliff of another break-up banger. Tech N9ne verse gonna pull it around? Meh. Maybe I just don't get R&B irony? I admit, this is a possibility.

Right into drill piece, More. War music. At 2:10, I am positive that Stevie Stone(?) is spitting over the rhythm and melody of Devil Dent Down to Georgia. That is damn cold.

Dubstep is deconstructed and put back together into a cubist master-piece in No No's.

If you are looking for motivation, focus, or energy. Throw on something from this album. Beware, this is a very intense experience to take in one sitting. But individually, dare say randomly, this is an album that is sure to surprise and impress! Orangutan convinces me that Behave was definitely ironic. Ya'll gond' meet a black person in this song. This record is the end of rap/hiphop. The only reason to go back now is because you don't know about this album. The only thing it is missing is a Prince (RIP) solo.

A couple of skippable tracks. But I haven't heard anything that sounded so new and magnetic for quite awhile. Yes, I know how it looks that two of my featured tracks are the Tech verses. But they really are the best ones on this already breathtaking album. "I never said you would be B-E-A-U-T full".

The amount of bravery, talent and preparedness for the delivery of these verses in No Love. The beats are breaking me. They aren't even beats. There needs to be a new word for what is happening here. The only thing beat here, is everyone else's game.

There is another word that comes to mind under the cathedral arches of Stop the World. Comp. As in Comp-ton. As in assembling visual images together into a composite. As in musicians improvising a supporting mesh of sound so that a soloist or spoken word artist can deliver their message.

Beats are out.
Comps are in.
Comped in.
Compton.

Album of the Year.

No Love is a message from the cosmic sentience that has been mistaken for all manner of deities throughout time. Broadcast to the whole world through the one of the loudest megaphones in the universe, Western, Urban, Pop Music. "Noah" Love, Tech will be swallowed by no whale.

M83 - Junk
Feature Track: Go!
Keep Listening: For The Kids


I am in the middle of listening to M83's Junk for the 3rd time. I always get interrupted and I haven't finished yet. It seems like I am listening to dumb house music, but it's not. Am I going crazy? I think this album is fucking amazing too! The guitar solo on Go! alone! Maybe this one is album of the year. Do I need to wait until the whole year is finished before I can decide for sure? Surely something even better will be released, or already has been. Perhaps we will even see the greatest record of all time emerge this year!

Is one be able to, without any uncertainty,  able say what the best album ever created is? And I'm not even speaking objectively here. I mean exactly what I said, subjectively. From your perspective, whatever it may be. Is it actually possible to hold any belief? Even if there is no God. Even if  you and your mind are the only force of reason or perspective. Even if you had the agreement and blessing of every real or imaginable form of secondary confirmation. Would it be possible to truly hold any belief? One as simple as "The best album ever made." or "Album of Year".

Even, "The best song I have heard today" is such a fleeting, ephemeral notion.

Moon Crystal is like Krizz & Tech's Behave. When artists have the ability to make any kind of hook sound any way they want, they get a little carried away in the studio sometimes. It's understandable. That power is better used on the immediate following track, For The Kids, featuring Susanne Sundførd. Do you have any idea how hard it is to put that o with a slash through it when you don't type it often? That alone should show how much I want you to listen to this track.

But you also have to listen to Solitude! Deep breaths. The Wizard takes on that Moon Crystal Vibe without being so conscious about it. These little breaks are silly. The only feature I recognize is Beck. I haven't gotten to that track. I am not at the half-way point. Sure to be interrupted again. There are several tracks featuring MAI LAIN. What is the convention behind spotify ALL CAPS or not? Is this an artist or spotify choice? I notice it a lot in "urban" or "rap" titles and across all genres in features. However, that is very inconsistent. I hate the song Laser Gun but it that hook is indestructible. 2017 is going to see the sound of horns and glorious symphonic reconditioning done to shit until the mere mention of a trumpet will send the prospective Listener running AWAY from the headphones. What kind of fucked up crazy world are we living in?® 

Don't get me wrong, this record sounds awesome. But you really might not feel good about yourself after you do. They are playing with the "bliss point" of some of the most potent vibration theory available... To Be continued.

Short Term Memory

Terrace Martin
Velvet Portraits

I was going to say something about this record. I forgot what it was.

It was pretty good, tho.

Someone is Listening to my Phonecalls...

Deftones; Gore
Feature Track: Doomed User
Keep Listening: (L)MIRL
Deep Cut: Gore

I only owned a few band T-shirts back in the day. And one of my favorites was a white baseball syle logo (in blue). If you are any kind of responsible music listener, then you must realize that Deftones possess one of the most unique and infectious sounds in all of rock music. However, in my opinion the last few albums have sounded more like a really good cover band trying to make their own originals.

But Gore comes out of the gate with a fresh new energy that should make even the hippest and most hyped new alternative rock bands tremble with a awe. This is barbaric. It is the classic sound of my youth, imbued with some creative recording techniques to sound like what we remembered feeling like when we first heard this sound.

This looks to be a great experience. The title track, Gore sounds like a social commentary on modern times and hits with a brutality beyond comparison.

I just re-listened to Around The Fur and scanned White Pony to make sure.

The best record they have ever made.

Thank you, guys!

smh

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals; Call It What It Is

So this album is only streaming on Pandora. Since I switched to Spotify a few years ago, I have never looked back, but I ventured back into Pandora's box to see if I could get a listen to this new record. I love Ben Harper (who doesn't?) and was pretty excited to hear a new effort from him after almost a decade.

However, it seems that I can only get to a list of the songs, but can't actually play them. So I guess I have to create a station and then wait for the songs off the album to come up in rotation randomly.

*long sigh.....

I'll call it what it is. Stupid. It's fucking stupid. I'm sure this album is awesome, but I will never know for sure because now I'm moving on to the next one in the list. Deftones. Their new album Gore is on Spotify, because they are not stupid. smh.

Worth a Little Bit of Patience

Black Stone Cherry: Kentucky
Feature Track: Shakin' My Cage
Keep Listening: Hangman
Deep Cut: The Rambler
Even Deeper: I Am The Lion

If you are the type that revels in derivative post-grunge pop, Please make it Black Stone Cherry. A band that sounds kind of lame at first but constantly provides its own salvation through truly grunge tones and textures. Big guitar fills and solos.

By track three, the trauma of the last 10 years of shit-grunge starts to recede a little and I feel like I can hear this band for what they are. I have nothing left to give of this type of energy, but I would have played this in steady rotation during my teen years.

If one can forget the pathetic popular evolution of grunge, it is easy to imagine Black Stone Cherry the next obvious successor to the dark and dirty, sticky wood floors that birthed Soundgarden and AiC.

Kentucky combines a strange combination of authentic late-80's pre-grunge with a modern nearly-kitshe production. Literally, every song starts out with me rolling my eyes. However, almost every song wins over a small part of my hardened, cynical soul with a few perfectly placed riffs or legitimate grungy breaks.

I would say that the music is predominantly generic and would only appeal to a very specific demographic (I will not say which one). A lot of you might want to associate a band like this with Nickel Back, Creed or Matchbox 20. But I feel that there is some subtleties taking place that put Black Stone Cherry into a slightly different category. It is worth taking a quick look at this 15 track album.

If the song sounds like a shitty alt-pop song at the beginning, skip it. But if you like how the opening riff hits you, stay in for the whole song. You will find some definite gems on here, like Hangman!

Schrödinger's Unfortunate Discovery

Autolux - Pussy's Dead
Feature Track: Listen to the Order
Notable Mention: Brainwasher
Keep Listening: Change My Head


My kind of guitar solos! Noise, with only the bare essentials of a hook to hold it together. Sound portrayed as music.Beginning with the break in the first track, Selectallcopy, Autolux lays out the thesis for a collection of songs that breaks from the 'Pink Floyd-esque' ideas of their back catalog. With Pussy's Dead, Autolux solidly steps foot into a new evolution of hook.

Noxious bass lines that reflect off of the pads like a craggy old tree on a winter lake. This band will fool you into thinking you are listening to just another house track. Then, suddenly, it will be an ugly pop song screaming with urgency, breaking free from the pablum. A contemplative album that ebbs and flows with brave expressions of rhythm and granular synthesis.

Deadly unproductive drone tracks such as Brainwasher more than make a nod to The Beatles, but in a way that highlights the power of that McCartney turn rather than try to directly exploit it. Listen to the Order promises A Wolf at the Door kind of high and delivers in less than two minutes with the first guitar break. I am getting blindly and wonderfully disoriented into the world of the drummer during this track. at 2:30 when the rest of the animals come out to play I am beyond elation.

Reappearing sounds like a 60's summer beach song with played in 3 different keys at the same time. Their complete disregard of the currency that is harmony brings a warmness to my soul.

Change My Head is a masterpiece. It sounds like they used a speed-affected sample at different speeds to imply a bass line. These muddy sounds are replaced by an actual bass guitar for the meat of the song, which plods along like kurt kobain trying out a new progression.

Don't let the above comparisons come off as diminutive towards Autolux's accomplishments with this album. I see this band as one who is working to understand the new language of alternative/psychedelic music. This language has rapidly developed  in the last 15-20 years as main-stream rock, alternative rock, EDM, classic rock, hip-hop, jazz and classical have all started to blend together as influences of popular music. It is an ever shifting and ephemeral dialogue and Becker is as fine a punctuation as any to end any significant statement. Such as, Pussy's Dead.

Lubomyr Melnyk - Illirion

Lubomyr Melnyk - Illirion


Eternal Bliss. Freedom of motion, outside of time. A discipline of thought manifested as sound. Vibrations bound by intent and focus, momentum obtained and retained by presence, alone. Submission to the changing moment of continuous existence. Motives built on breath instead of Meter. Searching. Painting with Black.

PEARS - Green Star: A Breath of Life for a Dead Genre

PEARS
Green Star
Feature Track: Anhedonia
Keep Listening: Green Star
Deep Cut: Doorbell

When I was a freshman in high school, there was a group of upper classmen who I met through community theater. I can't say that I was ever "part of their group" or anything, but they were nice to me and introduced me to a few things that contributed to my nascent personality. For instance, my first beer was a Rolling Rock poured into my mouth from the 2nd balcony by Scott Kearny at a cast party.

One of the most influential people for me during that time was a girl name Br3it Anderson. Yes, she spelled her name with a 3. I thought it was badass. Actually, I still do. Br3it was a bad ass chick. Rumors abounded that she met Marilyn Manson at the Rock & Roll hall of fame and "dated" him for a bit. I have no idea if that is true, but I want to believe it. She was the daughter of my English teacher. Her father introduced me to the work of Joseph Campbell and once gave me extra credit on an exam because  I was able to name the song 'Rats' by Pearl Jam based on a 15 second clip of the song. Her mother was an obsessive Rock & Roll fan and had a 8'x6' afghan with the likeness of Steven Tyler on it. She made it herself. She always had an Aerosmith shirt on.

Anyway, one day during a rehearsal for our Highschool production of Three Musketeers, she gave me a mix tape, out of blue. I have no idea why she gave it to me or what made her think (realize) that I needed it. This was back when mix-tapes were literally cassettes. I can't remember all the tracks, but I remember most of them. It was a collection of the sickest tracks I had ever heard. Blag Flag, Prong, Minor Threat, Green Jelly, Bad Brains, Fugazi and many other bands I had never heard of. I wore that tape out! My first listen through that tape was one of the most crucial moments of my youth and it sticks with me and informs my sensibilities to this day.

The older I get, the more difficult it becomes to really get excited about bands in the "punk" genre. Over time this genre has become so watered down and confused that one never knows what will come out of the speakers. It could be pop music, hard-core, screamo or any number of other types of music that do not make me think of "punk".

From the get-go I knew that PEARS was legit. The average length of any track is about 90 seconds and their sound flows through meter changes and sonic moods in a way that took me right back to that cassette tape. There is a specific feeling that I get in my gut, head and soul when I hear some of those old mix-tape songs and for me most of this new album resonates on that same frequency.

PEARS brings a new sophistication to a legitimate brand of punk by allowing subtle hints of pop, rock and hardcore to seep through for seconds at a time while never veering from the tried and true patina of dirty garage punk rock.

One Weird Thing is That You Have Probably Never Listened To This Album

The Bears
Eureka! (2007)
Feature Track: On

I know about The Bears because of their association with guitarist, electronics guru and producer Adrian Belew. Their 2007 release Eureka! is a masterpiece. However, if you hurry now, perhaps you can be the 700th person to listen to the album on Youtube. On Spotify, The Bears are not faring much better.

Despite the relative small impact these metrics would suggest, with the advent of nearly flawless data storage and playback system with little or no degradation, time will prove this band out to be one of the most influential and powerful musical forces to emerge out of this era of recorded pop music.

This band touches on the edge of the best sounds Weezer ever achieved while intermittently breaking out into disastrous hooks that must be an influence on Dave Grohl's ever maturing sound.

Relentless pop assault delivered via viciously purposefully counter-sound. Eureka will be 10 years old next year. It stands with anything released this year or last.

Moderat III

Moderat
III
Rating: Essential

I listened to this at least three times. Something would always come up and I would have to turn it down or off. Quite a few times, I let it play on through into the next albums (different versions of III) I found myself entangled. Huge tracks full of space. Animal Trails is characteristic of  this "crashing silence". Discover this gem for yourself.

Lukas Graham
Lukas Graham
Feature Track: 7 Years
Keep Listening: Better Than Yourself

The wikipedia for this artist reads like a artist-centric fantasy novel. It's impossible to believe anything on the internet. So this guy ordered an MPC from amazon, threw a track up on youtube and then sold 20,000 concert tickets. Magic record deal descends from heaven. 5 years later almost 500M plays on a few spotify tracks.

The harmonies on Mama Said are religious and highly original. They sound as if they were truly sung and not queued in. I feel like Joe Satriani/Cold Play are going to crash down on Lukas Graham's Happy Home. The vocals on this one are definitely tweaked. The sting is lessened by the smooth horns on Drunk in the Morning.

My complaint with Bruno Mars has always been that his songs are brilliant, but essentially without substance. Graham sits in a much more authentic pocket. I would say that Funk making a comeback, but did it ever really leave? From Bad Brains to Pearl Jam's Dirty Frank and into Daft Punk, funk has maintained a steady place in the peripheral awareness of any music worth listening to. Strip No More. o__o

Better Than Yourself  opens up into Graham's self-confessional autobiography. This is an artist bringing everything he has, even though he doesn't understand what it is yet. He faces the fear of blossoming with a soliloquy of self-expression. Singing to a brother who is jail, literally, metaphorically opening up a bevy of avenues for the listener to reflect upon. Dude has a voice. It is easier to believe the Wikipedia history by the end of this album.

Laura Gibson - Empire Builder

Laura Gibson - Empire Builder
Feature Track: The Cause
Keep Listening: Five and Thirty
Rating: 4

It helps if the first track is undeniably epic. But it is not required. Often, if the sonics are right, I find a few introduction tracks to be a nice 'wading in' experience to some albums. The Cause tip-toes into a barren creek bed. It starts to gently rain. Then with, seemingly, more force than that being applied by the surrounding precipitation, the river is running.

An effectiveness of pronunciation highlights the lilt of an accent and the words float through the air like the stories of Ulysses' bard. Not Harmless is a post-grunge folk masterpiece. Empire Builder was a roller coaster. I was unconvinced until the guitar faded in at the very end and the toms were uncovered. Five and Thirty is intentionally phased. The listener is required to complete the puzzle and verify the artist's intent. This is a vulnerable position for artist and listener. Simply entering this space, the listener has the power to examine qualities of their own sentience that are independent of genre or lyrical content.

Dark Lake provides a perfect segue from the broken back beat of Five and Thirty into the unapologetic pop of Two Kids. From here, I was tuned out while doing some work. But it finished strong with big horns behind a heavy fader.

Does anyone remember Shellac?

Future of the Left
The Peace & Truce of Future Of The Left
Feature Track: 50 Days Before The Hun
Keep Listening: Proper Music
Rating: 4

Danielson, Nirvana/Shellac, Beck (Back when everybody loved him). A mix of nonsense and coherent political leanings outlined with a deep-hued mascara of flippant pageantry. Not for the casual music tourist. Venture into this area only if you know what you are doing.

Track 2 - Dirty Birds

Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds
Fowl Play
Rating: 5

They may use word play in their title and lyrics, but there is no slack in the opening track, Freight Train. Complete with punny and funky sax break. This record will require no introduction. Unless you hate backbeats out of principal, or have some other disdain for horn refrains, this will be an instant favorite.

Anouk - Queen For A Day

Anouk 
Queen For A Day
Feature Track: If I  knew
Deep Cut: Castles in the Air
Rating: 4


I'm wary from the get-go of another Adele-also. Pop music is really hard for me to analyze because for the most part, it is all of superior quality. It is easy to mistake personal preference for objective observation.

There is an interesting ethos about this album. Quite a few of the songs such as New Day and Run Away Together sound like they could have been on a Justin Bieber Beiber Bebier? Bayber? tf? album. The song content and delivery is that of a naive teen or bruno mars type wunderkind. But there is something beneath that veneer. An experienced and soulful human being. A middle-aged woman singing children's songs? I am not fooled. This record is about to turn up. Not some idiot pop star. I have to look this up.

40 years old. active since the mid-90s. Dutch, of course. What are they smoking over there? Amazing.

And then it drops. If I knew blows the door wide open and this woman just puts it all out there. This song is quite the treasure. One of the best songs I've ever heard. Dirty Girl is next and is sexier and more palatable (dare I say empowering?) than anything Madonna ever imagined or wished.

Any one of these songs could have been on whatever this summer's hit album is going to be. I wonder if she shops her songs around? Does she write all of these? Just her and her husband? I know it's possible. Especially in Dutch [sic].

Keeps Getting Better sounds like it was the product of an entirely different production process than previous tracks. Different mixer? Different studio? It sounds good and full-bodied, but it is a different kind of "full". Flatter, somehow.

The depth is back for Castles in the Air. What a massive voice! And another colossal song. Followed by some sugar BeeBeeiber sounding stuff again. But listen to how serious shit gets during the middle of the first verse of We Are when she stops smiling behind the microphone. You can see her eyes through the speakers. While I applaud the boldness of positive-pop-energy coming from this track, it is probably my least favorite of all. Too contrived.

Right On Time is right on time to balance the record back out. Returning to the slow paced Q-U sound defined in my previous post. I really like the scrambled harmonies during that last minute of the song.

Lucius - Good Grief

Changing up the format again, Guy (the one person who reads this blog). His name is actually Guy. It turns out that so many people are still trying to understand what the internet is that the release dates are not very accurate.

With so many "soft-releases", piece-by-piece singles  designed to facilitate a "hype cycle" over an extended period of time and other methods of distribution. Believe it or not, out of all the annoying ways people have been experimenting with content distribution, I think Kanye is getting the closest of anyone. And I still haven't heard one track from Life of Pablo.

But the idea of recognizing the constant state of disarray that is reality and manifesting that not only in the final output of art, but allowing the final output of the art to be the process that is creating it.

Wait, I know this sounds like it could be the "statement of purpose" of some modern artist painting a room blue and stepping on oranges.  But consider that this is the essence of the commodity of live shows, theater, reality TV. People pay for a "consumable" product that is ostensibly, the privilege of watching the artist(s) going through some sort of process "in the moment".

Isn't this also the nugget of inspiration that spurs something like 30-seconds to mars broadcasting them in the studio recording a song for 24 hours? When the commodity, itself loses value the only thing left is to commodity the process.

Another great example: Twitch.tv

I said all of that to say; The only way to "keep up" with all the releases is to find out as much as possible about the records that are supposed to be released and if they seem interesting, make a note to check back throughout the year. This actually will simplify the process. Maybe it will allow for some of these lyrics to make their way onto the web, as well.

I'm looking at you Skull Crusher Fuck Sword.

Lucius
Good Grief
Feature Track: My Heart Got Caught on Your Sleeve
Deep Cut: Almighty Gosh
Keep Listening: Born Again Teen
Rating: 5

Don't know how to start thisNo I don't know what to say
They seem to fall out of the sky
Lost and found is all the same

This sums up nicely, how I feel about this adventure every time I start a new record. Especially when they are definitely going to be good. This is one of those that caught my attention with a lead single and I have been checking back regularly waiting for it to hit streaming.

The lyrics above are from the fourth track, My Heart Got Caught on Your Sleeve. This song exemplifies the songwriting sensibilities of this album. Early 80's synth feel with the warmth and engagement of the newer evolution of this kind of pop sound. Some people give it a lot more bass (Phantagram), but the idea is the same. driving, dreamy synth pop. The new masters of this style now how to leverage the predictability and preciseness of automated looping to produce beds of musical sound that is not exactly "quantized", even though I'm sure that much of it actually is "quantized".

This lends itself well to songs about anxiety, fear and restlessness. Gone Insane is a good example of this, the bed is slightly off sync but with the relentless and perfect repetition of production, studio, or pure live talent, the off-kilter background becomes a foundation for the story. A story that is about the degradation of some sort of social interaction. It gets pretty dramatic at the end. But I think we all feel like this from time to time.

Almighty Gosh kicks off the "third act" and the tone of the album shifts noticeably here. For the first time there is the level of distortion and bass-nastiness that I expect from this style. I like. Born Again Teen keeps up the pace. I was drifting towards a middling rating until 1:40 in this track. The vocals kick up, there is a high-pitched whine that develops and then is joined by total noise junk that epitomizes the "Quantized-Unquantized" sound. (Q-U)?

By the time Born Again Teen has finished, the genre has been redefined for me, much as Phantagram did for me a couple of years ago. Things are happening here. Unless the last two tracks drop the ball, this is a solid 5.

The mutability of mutants and other tales from the turtle 'hood

Bonnie Raitt

Dig In Deep
Feature Track: What You're Doin' To Me
Deep Cut: Undone
Rating: 3.5


I skipped the first track. Then remembered it was Bonnie Raitt. Historically, I'm a big fan. I'm not digging the songs so far, but I'm going to listen for the guitar solos.

By the end of the album, I'll probably like some songs. But I'm guessing it is flawless. Which is part of the problem with someone like Bonnie Raitt. You could give her the raunchiest grooves on the planet and she would kill it. And the world would get a country record like no other. It would have to be country because she is the essence of it. So she can do what she wants.

Perhaps this is what she wants. But it feels like a beautiful butterfly that has been pinned down over a high-definition photograph of a field.  I can still hear that soul in the guitar breaks, but the overall energy just isn't there.

But I am having a shit day and this whole ambitious project is feeling like the slog I knew it would become. I'm only doing it because I said I would. No one has read this blog for 7 years. Isn't that the only point any critic is ever trying to make in any situation, professional and social?

"Hey! Look at me! I'm lonely. Validate my existence!"

A critic points at people for the sheer personal fulfillment it gives them to have 3 fingers pointing back at them. If they could point to themselves with all 10 fingers, they would.

I may be critical, but I am not a critic. I am not anything. If something reaches a part of my brain that triggers articulation, I write about it. This is an examination of that entity which I perceive as myself. I am using arbitrary sounds steeped in explicit cultural significance as a reflective....


.....the Organ solo in What You're Doin' To Me takes me out of my introspective trance. I need to get back to work.

Undone is a tear jerker. But I'm not sure why. Is it about killing someone or unrequitted/destroyed love. Is there any difference?

You've changed my mind highlights what I was saying above. Chris Cornell should have done a guest track on this song.

When you strip her down to her essential core, the power is undeniable.  Under all that perfect and flawless production. It gets lost. Same point for The Ones We Couldn't Be. How do we get a Chris Cornell/Bonnie Raitt collaboration album working?

I can't recommend listening through this as an album experience. But it's worth skipping around to see what strikes you. You will likely find one song on here that sticks with you, individually, I think people will have their picks. But it isn't going to resonate and create hurricanes. For that you would need a live butterfly improvising some path across the wind of a real-life prairie somewhere. I would love to see a Bonnie Raitt live show.

From Ashes To New
Day One
Feature Track: Father From Home
Deep Cut: Face the Day
Keep Listening: Same Old Story
Rating: 4


I can already tell that I do not care for this album. But I'm going to give it a high rating. Because it sounds amazing. The snare has a really throaty and almost muffled sound. Cymbals are barely present but being wailed on. Probably trigger samples. Anyway, there is a lot of space.

I think if you are into pop-metal psuedo-hardcore (tween-core?) then you will really, really like this album. Agressive, Linkin Park type music is how the average uninformed listener might classify this. These guys probably have tons of fans. Fans with tattoos of the band's logo and so forth.

I can say the following without concern that it is not true. One of these fans is a HUGE fan. And this unnamed, only-hypothetical-for-lack-of-specific-details fan most assuredly has a friend who is constantly pretending to "accidentally" mistake this band for Linkin Park. I guarantee it infuriates this fan, who does not have a Linkin Park tattoo.

Face The Day is probably about the girl at school that doesn't like you. The chorus is ambiguous ("I hope I can face the day") I could use this track to amp up a tired morning. The guitar solo is amazing.

I didn't find the lyrics to this song during a quick google search (about 45 seconds). I will try to pick out the verse:

Pride your wide
let the flesh grow from bone and bury me
I wake up every morning
inside a broken day
Return this life I wasn't born in
And all the lies that come between
So I dropped and broke a smart surfer at night
Dark skies, let me try to slip my pinkie in
I gotta try to run around, hold me like Tina
They gotta fall around my feet
I will face the day

Hmmm? I'll keep this song in my playlist anyway because the groove is infectious.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
This Unruly Mess I've Made
Feature Track: Light Tunnels
Deep Cut: Kevin
Keep Listening: White Privilege II
Rating: 4

I know this guy is supposedly jumped the shark or whatever. I have been aware of him but only marginally interested. The opening track, Light Tunnels has just turned me into one of his hundreds of millions of fans. This track is so fucking honest. Hello, 21st century! I feel the rest of this album will hold up. I'll let the pros break it down.

I will say that the only reason I didn't give this a 5 is that I was a little thrown off by the Weird Al level comedy tracks being put right next to really heavy tracks like Kevin & White Privilege II.

Yorkston/Thorne/Khan
Everything Sacred
Feature Track: Knochentanz
Deep Cut: Sufi Song
Rating: 4

By the nature of listening to so much music, I am beginning to come across new music that is not listed on wikipedia. I will be including those bands now as I come across them. Here is one, now.

This is some kind of meditative world music. By the middle of the first track, Knochentanz it has evolved into an aggressive jazz raga, eventually petering out into a somber sounding chant in a foreign language before the instruments regain their previous boldness and begin building the sonic tapestry once again.

Little Black Buzzer and Song for Thirza reveal an approach to songwriting that fuses the sound of "world music" with an americana/Irish folk feeling. The sound is really unique to me and very pleasurable to listen to. What would otherwise be a droning folk ballad, turns into a manifestation of the mutability of reality.

As the album progresses, it begins to blend into the background and the songs aren't really that inspiring to me. There is an unfocused direction to this album. It's not exactly meditative, but it isn't exactly a songwriter record either. I find myself wishing it would tip one way or the other instead of teetering in between.

The super jam raga sound unveiled at the beginning doesn't start to come back until near the end in Sufi Song.  This is a great  energy equal to the first track.

Broken Waves is a somber, plodding track full of sincere emotion. The sparsely arranged track pulls the listener into a splendid space. When the lyrics switch from English to something foreign, there is nothing lost in message of the song.

Blues Jumped the Goose brings home the very transparent bass/cello sounds that have been bubbling up throughout the album. There is an urgency in this track led by the bass which slightly leads the other instruments into a groove that seems to always be speeding up, yet never gets any faster.

A good record to put on if you like chill world music, folk or ethnic drone jams. A satisfying listen.

----------------

And there were a few other things that week that I didn't get to because they are doing staggered releases or something.

Up Early

I woke up at 2am today. I have a lot of work to do anyway, so what the hell.

This fucking world.

Can you believe they made a chocolate bunny that looks like Benedict Cumberbatch?

February 19 - Yahtzee!

BJ The Chicago Kid
In My Mind
Feature Track: Love Inside
Deep Cut: Jeremiah/World Needs More Love
Keep Listening: Crazy
Even one more worth checking out: Falling On My Face
Rating: 5

Church is a strange song. It's about about a guy's woman that is trying to get him to drink, do drugs and have sex, but he can't because he has to go to church in the morning. That got my attention for the same reason Ray Stevens did when I was younger. This is that subtle rhetoric that gets me laughing.

This turns out to be the setup for several knockout blows delivered in succession. Starting with Love Inside (The next track). From there every song gets better. The changes are pure and classic, the songs are strong. I'm not sure how awards work, but I reckon this album will end up with some kind of grammy. If it doesn't, that means there is even something better coming down the line! Yay!

This album features a hidden Kendrick Lamar gem in the track New Cupid.

In My Mind straddles that fine line between sanctified and damned. It lays bare many of the societal and cultural dissidences in an apolitical, powerfully artistic way. The tracks switch fluidly between Soul/R&B/Motown and really progressive Hip-Hop. The world is reflected through this artist in an honest, introspective and observatory tone.

Case in point: tracks 11 and 12. Woman's World is an anthem, a great song and a statement. It is followed by Crazy, which sets you up for a huge drop at 2:50.

In my mind I am crazy
Crazy about the right things
Crazy about the things that could change my life
And Honestly, if you ain't crazy about something
I can't rock wit'chu
So at the end of the day, man
Get crazy about somethin'

Falling On My Face returns to the songwriting format and is arranged with gorgeous strings and slight piano.

A very, very good record.

Jack Garratt
Phase
Feature Track: Weathered
Deep Track: I know All What I Do
Rating: 5


I try to resist writing about an album until it demands my attention, good or bad. The production on Phase is confident and immediately engaging. By track 2, Far Cry I feel confident that this will be an enjoyable experience. This is my first time every hearing Jack Garratt's name or his music.

I immediately thinking of AWOL, Tool, and Mumford & Sons.

Weathered begins with vocal samples that make me remember standing/laying alone in the middle of a large stone church in England surrounded by PA speakers while Juffage tuned up his soundcheck for the Cauldron of Sound. This memory is abruptly cut short into a hard beat in a clipped off style that soon becomes an inherent part of the vocabulary of this album. Smooth and very heavy.

I'm loving every track and by The Love You're Given I'm at the point that I start taking spotify play counts into consideration of my written observations. Let's take a look-see... Several tracks have 6 or 8 million and one with 17M! This album came out less than a week ago.

Again, we are reminded that the world is a huge place and that at any given time there is somebody, some place or some thing on fire, burning out of control. This does not equate to fame, notoriety or even recognizability.

If he gets a couple of good visibility or live support bumps, he can hit Kevin Gates numbers very quickly. And Kevin Gates is trending music news. Why haven't I heard of this guy?

I would say that this record is being pushed properly in whatever market it is from (UK?) and it has a lot of heat to have so many plays and be so new. So, that's all I'll say about this one. It's good and a whole bunch of people agree with me.

Josef Salvat
Night Swim
Projected Rating: 3.5
Feature Track: Punchline'
Deep Cut: The Days
Current Rating: 5

I wasn't able to find this album available for streaming. It is a debut album for this artist and the clips I found of him on youtube are impressive. Hopefully this will end up on spotify and I'll remember to go check it out. I bet it will be pretty dope. The cover is really impressive.

EDIT (2/25) [Up on Spotify now] Listening currently... 5 tracks in. At least a 4. The Days. A solid 4. I'm looking for the gas at the end that sets this whole experience on fire. Six more tracks. A Better Word, 4.2. This Life, 4.4. Diamonds, 4.5. In The Audience, Yahtzee!

Mavis Staples
Livin' On A High Note
Feature Track: Action
Deep Cut: Dedicated
Keep Listening: In the Audience
Rating: 5

Here is a legend putting out relevant and powerful material. An artist from another time. Bringing the fire into the 21st Century! These songs are really classic sounding, yet have a very current feel. Action sounds a forgotten pop hit, but the words are no-bullshit. They hit like a Kendrick Lamar anthem.

Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired
They say my words might get me fired
What a terrifying time to raise our voices
But see I'm not left with many more choices
I gotta put it in to action
Doing it A to Z
I till I set myself free
I don't care if you refuse to see
I gotta put it in to action
Consider this a sign of an emergency
Who's gonna do it if I don't do it

Dedicated is a raw emotional gratitude of a song.  History, Now is a love song crafted around a clever geo-political narrative. It gets the emotional and political point across with just enough sugar to get the medicine down.

Wolfmother
Victorious
Feature Track: Baroness
Deep Cut: Best Of A Bad Situation
Keep Listening: Happy Face
Rating: 5

This record stayed on in the background while I was really buried in some paperwork, so I didn't have a chance to break out my thoughts as it was playing. I really enjoyed every track. Just enough Sabbath for legitimacy, just enough Black Crows for palatability, just enough Zeppelin for edge. Instead of beating these old motifs to death like some 'genre-centric' artists, Wolfmother manages to arrange very familiar sounding riffs and changes into a new landscape, proving that there is still a lot of juice in those old vibes.

And I'm caught up again. It's easy when people don't stream, cancel, move, miss or otherwise don't meet the date the wikipedia has them in.

Feb. 12

Kula Shaker

K2.0
Rating: Undetermined

There has been a glitch in the Matrix and I am close to catching up. This album is not available to me via youtube, spotify or bandcamp or  youtube or soundcloud. Their website says that it is on Spotify. Something is delayed, as their last record on spotify is from 2011.

The opening track was on youtube and I liked it.

Lacey Sturm
Life Screams
Feature Track: I'm Not Laughing
Deep Cut: You're Not Alone
Keep Listening: Roxanne (Live) [Sting Cover]
Rating: 5

Powerful opening. Sounds like squisy pop, turns into solid rock. The kind with a primal-screaming woman on the mic. I feel that Life Screams will hold more than  few surprises. The Soldier starts like a taberna musicorum cum laude but immediately begins inserting modern elements. By I'm not laughing I am hearing a rich synthesis of hardcore, dub-step and grunge. Vanity is a bizarre auditory production. What would be called a skit on a hip-hop record. It is scripted, but performed brilliantly by a woman who sounds like the singer and another male who is either a rapper or a spoken word talent. It's not slam poetry, I am reminded of the cadence of a band like Listener.

I'm more than half way through and have been thoroughly engaged. This woman has an average of 20K plays on spotify and youtube. She is either very new or very under appreciated. I hear you out there Lacey.

You're Not Alone begins a small shallow breath of reflective pop which carries on through the next few songs.

When the memories come to haunt you with the sad lie"No one loves you, they all leave you! So why even try?"Let truth hold you in loving arms tonightWhen you feel like you’re the only one you can trustAnd it proves a lie when you're the one you self-destructLet truth hold you in loving arms tonight
When no one else can save youRemember: You're not alone

By the time, the title track, Life Screams is on, she is nearly Carrie Underwood.  What a transition, like watching someone go through a metamorphosis, Her voice being the character in the story that is the album.

Faith brings back some of the edge and album ends a lot like it begin, but like a Mozart piece, the end being like a still river with deep, perfidious under-currents.

There is also a live cover of Sting's Roxanne. Everyone covering this song is forced to contend with Ewan MacGregor's performance in Moulin Rouge. I realize that was not live, but the studio cut on the soundtrack is maddeningly powerful. With that being said, Lacy Strum's version is one of the greatest rock covers of this song to date while also establishing her credibility as a powerhouse live performer. Life Screams closes with a perfect pop ballad, Run To You.

Lissie
My Wild West
Feature Track: Sun Keeps Risin
Deep Cut: Stay
Keep Listening: Ojai
Rating: 5

Hollywood is an instant sing-along and seems to tell the story of a willful young lady running off to the west coast to pursue her artistic dreams, somehow failing and finding solace in the advice of family and personal growth.

It's alright, it's OK
It don't matter what they say
And if it hurts, let it go
Night after night and show by show
Oh, Hollywood
You broke my heart just because you could
Oh, Hollywood
I know

 The title suggest that this will be a passion play of sorts, where Lissie is processing her current role in time and space. The best kind of journey to peek in on. So far, her articulations are powerful and accurate.

The middle of the album lacks the dramatic power of the first act. But it does settle into a comfortable pop groove that is nice to have on in the background. Periodic loud guitar solos help break the monotony. I'm very busy today and this is good 'pushing' music.

transitioning into the last act is Stay. A return to the soliloquized feel of a star stepping into the spotlight. Daughters pays homage to alanis morrisette and eddie vedder during a stunning vocal outro. Some great feedback/reverb vocal hits on Together or Apart as well as a few call-backs to The Cranberries.

This is a true three-act production. A clear distinction both sonically and lyrically between the sections.

Lissie averages 2-3M on Spotify and if she can match some of the 8-10M some of her earlier tracks have, then this should be a good year for her. Her fans will not be disappointed and she will gain more than a few if her momentum is as it appears.

The Ojai brings me back around to the fact that this record is still on. I am moved. Perhaps it is the David Bowie like hook on "Ojai", but there is nothing derivative about this. Pure soul.

Radiation City
Synesthetica
Feature Track: Come And Go
Deep Cut: Sugar Broom
Rating: 4


This album slipped into the time-stream and felt nice in the background until Come & Go. Now I'm paying attention. The name of the album implies that they are working off of a theme of textural manipulation of sound. There is a lot of ASMR techniques in play, which implies someone involved with this production has awareness of the higher functioning levels of vibrations. Milky Way is chock full of whispery background vocals and organ that tickles just the right area of perspective. Sugar 

Broom sounds like a synesthesia description of an emotion of some sort. Amazing back of the head sensory information during this track in the form of delayed wood blocks and glitchy/feeback resonant loops that threaten to disassemble the world. Seperate turns into Sonic Youth out of nowhere. The ASMR is in heavy use with the sound a guitar pick makes when you pick it above the bridge.

The Suffers
The Suffers
Feature Track: Midtown
Deep Cut: Good Day
Keep Listening: Giver
Rating: 5

I don't know what to think of this. After so much female empowerment and powerful statements of femininity, It was a little strange to suddenly hear this bold woman, soulfully singing the lyrics.

Come on let me cook for you baby
Just relax cuz I'm cleaning too

and

Cause honey I, I, IOh I do love you
Yes honey, I, I, I
Oh I do love you
Do you want a sandwich?
I'll make one for you
You want a michelada
I'll mix one for you
Do you want some loving baby?
I'll give that to you

That's the opening track, anyway. The music is awesome and the voice is sexy. Midtown impresses with boisterous horn arrangements and sultry vocals.

By the time Better is in the air, I'm sure that the first track was meant as a bit of flirty foreplay. This record has developed into a vulnerable, honest description of romantic klexotiscim.

Giver is a return to the forelorn and discarded lover. Realizing her weaknesses, begging for the return of her good man. Lamenting the fact that it is probably not going to happen. The horns, my god Jim, horn arrangements!

Feb 5

DIIV
Is the Is Are
Feature Track: Mire
Deep Cut: Incarnate Devil
Rating: 3

Sometimes I get a record on in the background and I'll listen to it all the way through, but find it unremarkable. I won't write anything. I'm not out to criticize, I am simply an observer. All seemingly self references to my being "a critic" are purely for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as literal.

So, this is playing through and is pretty unremarkable to me for the first 8 tracks. Somewhere around the aptly titled Take Your Time and the title track Is the Is Are, I felt like I was about to begin weeping.

I found a secluded place to sit and meditate for a moment. I let the record keep playing. The feeling did not go away. I returned to my work. After a few jaw stretches and controlled breathing the feeling was manageable.

My personal life is a little upside-down at the moment and I'm working through some physical rehab for an extremely painful shoulder injury.  I've been doing Physical Therapy 3 times a week for almost two months now.

I'm still in constant pain, but the pain feels like a healing soreness or a deep bruise instead of the increasingly debilitating condition it had become. I keep thinking of the Louie C.K. bit, "It's just something you do now" as I figure out how to incorporate these new exercises and habits into the rest of my life.

I will also admit that the last half of this album very decidedly begins to conjure up Sonic Youth, one of my all time favorite bands. There's a sort of nostalgic feel the sound and lyrics of this album anyway but now I am making real associations with Sonic Youth. Live shows. This one in particular where Sonic Youth opened for Wilco. I attended the show with a lovely young woman. That was in 2003. That was the summer of my youth.

Inside of everyone, there are deep emotions and a complex psyche that begin working the world out in reverse each day.  From the time the mind perceives of itself, in whatever form that takes, all perceptions and understandings of the world are derived from replaying everything that we have ever seen or heard over and over, in reverse. Each moment plays like a sampler. A never ending build up of frequencies that our mind filters into things like clouds, sounds, racoons washing fruit in a stream, etc.

All of this is context to say that music is like a key. The frequencies that get piqued and the way in which they are piqued are as integral to the workings of the Universe (and, thereby, our minds) as a key is to a lock.

If any QED were imagined it would be the idea that it is only our personal psychological barriers that prevent us from using music as a means to scan these frequencies (like a CB). Subjecting the mind to a speaker projecting pure or mixed, pure tones will produce similar, albeit, much more subtle affects.

When the entirety of all music is viewed as a database of "mixed frequencies", one can scan through, using the emotional AND physical properties of the objects in the database to observe and analyze what physical and emotional frequencies are "objectively" resonated in the listener. Is there a song (or "collection of frequencies") that will make you cry or laugh or spit every time you hear it? Is it all related to how some physical membrane vibrates in your ear?

With no real way to measure or quantify such a thing, the only resolution is to attempt the journey on my own. The lotus becomes a fire.

So, I'm getting into the 2nd half of a record that sounds mostly derivative when suddenly I am using all of my will power to continue entering data into a spreadsheet and not collapsing into a weeping heap of broken humanity. On the floor. Under a desk.

Now I'm thinking of these things. They are not new articulations or revelations to me, but all the things in my life are suddenly illuminated in a different light. It is the light of this current set of frequencies as they mix with my moment in time and space.

I favorite a couple of songs. I let the record play out. I can't even remember the name of the band. Then I continue on to Elton John's latest, which I can tell will have nothing said about it, but this.

Lion Babe
Begin
Feature Track: On The Rocks
Rating: 4

Legit pop music. Looks like a duo comprised of a DJ (MPC beat production type stuff) paired with a fierce female fronting vocals. If it is just the two of them making this sound, they are as good of a duo in their element as the White Stripes ever were.

Clear and articulate pop hooks dig in and take hold. Lyrically, this music seems directed towards proud, confident women. It embodies confidence and emboldens a particular strength only accessible to womanhood, but perceivable from all  perspectives.

Just a woman who's made to dance
A girl who shakes when she giggles
Gotta love all the people that I came from
So clap, clap for this
I'm the one that you notice
I'm a lot to get into (oh yeah she is)
They used to stare back
Lookin' at me, they couldn't handle it
That I was unique
Now I don't shy away
I turned out okay
And we all don't need one way to look good

This one is worth checking out if you like pop music, powerful female role-models and creative beat-crafting.

Lucinda Williams
Ghosts of Highway 20
Feature Track: Ghosts of Highway 20
Rating: 3

Sounding like a woman wandering in off the street into a recording studio, Lucinda Williams bares al in this stripped down strictly alternative country. Ghosts of Highway 20 conjurs up images of Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad  (2014). I was looking forward to seeing where this was going. Then the only decent Youtube playlist I could find that had this in good quality was DCMA's for every track after this. Welp... moving on.

Scooter
Ace
Feature Track: Don't Break The Silence
Rating: 5


I want to discount this, but I can't. I hate these techno breaks, but the stuff that surrounds it is.. well "fuckin ace.. "

Don't Break The Silence, flirts with American Top 40 Country. The Birdwatcher is infectious even though it is that jacked up hard techno beat.

The MC breaks are dedicated and hard. I'm not in the mood today. Questioning my ability to make choices in life at all if this is what I am doing right now. Then Crazy on. And for :40 seconds I'm back in. this is sweet! Then stabbing horns. Just fucking hammering that 1Khz zone. the breaks in between are nice too. My ears are ringing. I'm seriously not in the mood today. Sorry dudes.

I gave this album a 5 because if you are in a situation where you want to put on some seriously fucked up shit that people probably haven't heard and they like big drops, hard techno and x and stuff, this should be one of your go-to albums this year.

Textures
Phenotype
Feauture Track: Oceans Collide
Deep Cut: Zman
Keep Listening: Timeless
Rating: 5

From one type of Hardcore to another. So begins the trudge. Not that I dislike this kind of music. But it becomes cumbersome after intense listening. I have a few bands that I really do enjoy listening to and Texture could be in that list. They are definitely progressive.

Do you remember when Metallica teamed up with that orchestra and did that all that stuff? Please let this happen one day with Textures and Dream Theater! the break and outro starting at 4:10 on the opening track, Oceans Collide! 

I was raised to believe that if someone created demonic music and you listened to it then the demons would go inside of you and fuck you up and shit. This still terrifies me on some level that makes it difficult to appreciate the technical virtuosity of demons. This leads into the deep philosophical abyss of reciprocating moral pragmatism.

I can't even tell you for sure if this band is advocating devil worship, human sacrifice, baby killing or simply "general thought rebellion". But it sounds terrifying. I have a difficult time believing anyone has time to write, rehearse, record and maintain songs like Shaping a Single Grain of Sand while doing anything except making music. But then again, as the old saying goes, "The Devil is never on stage".

This has got some mean, mean stink on it. And I say that as someone who has been 5 ft away from a shirtless Randy Blythe. Every track. I can't turn it off. I do start skipping tracks towards the end. I'm looking for a calmer plane today. Zman comes along just in time. Clicking clocks leading into the outro track Timeless. A track that begins like a dismantled clock and ends with a the progressive-pop statement of the year. Do not miss this one.

Trixie Whitley
Porta Bohemica
Feature Track: Faint Mystery
Deep Cut: Soft Spoken Words
Rating: 5


I'm humming and singing along as soon as track 1, Faint Mystery begins. There's a good vibe. A nice respite for the ears, as well. Like a bit of ginger between courses. Beautiful changes and great guitar/horn sounds during the chorus of Salt. Closer is a beat that Drake would love to have. Warm bass, resonating subs. These songs are fluid and wonderfully complex in flavor, but it feels a little too long. Hourglass responds with an intriguing groove and a spaghetti western atmosphere and doubles down on a brilliant low horn sound during the big chorus.

The production on Porta Bohemica is adventurous and the songwriting and arrangements are dexterous and magnetic. Eliza's Smile features lyrical guitar that I believe is played by the singer. Powerful. Soft Spoken Words caused me to elicit a sharp cry against my will, like a 'yehaww' kind of thing. The sweet spot of this hook is reminiscent Gangster's Paradise but that is not to say that is derivative. Quite the opposite.  I'm a Trixie fan.

From my perspective, the hits that roll out of Porta Bohemica are no less hard than the hits that come from the previous two artists. They stab at the same spot and light up very similar frontiers in the old brain jelly.

Only one track on this album has over 50K and her most played tracks have only 200 or 300K after a few years. I think this is an artist on the rise. Or at least she should be. The closing track, The Visitor features drastic, crunchy piano chords standing along in space with beautiful vocals. Even without being able to understand all the lyrics, I'm with her the whole way.

the coals of crash and burnmade for [??] and melancholyplayin' in the name of the foolLose thyself in a well of temptationIn a puddle of loveAs I sip from the grounds of mental alienation
I don't need more than what I giveI wanna be with those who know secrets[???]

Wiz Khalifa
Khalifa
Feature Track: City View
Rating: 4

I am a fan of Wiz. He is funny, quick witted and honest. He shows all of this in the intro track BTS, which begins with stereotypical hip-hop machismo bravado shit and then segues into something more of a dave chapelle vibe

My mom didn't raise no fool, nigga
Matter fact, she did (laughter)
My mom raised a fool, nigga (more laughter)
But that don't mean we can't get rich (too rich)
That's what they say

Apparently, He has his last name (and album title) tattooed on his back, just like Steve-O.  And later on City View. 

This shit ain't as easy as it look,  nigga
It's way fuckin' easier (laughter)
Don't get it twisted bitch
But on some real shit tho (laughter)

Cowboy tells a story of a kid that gets stuck in the Pittsburgh hood and does not make it out of the song alive. Retro, dark storytelling.  Call Waiting takes a left turn for a record in this genre and Wiz busts out an actual song (verses, lyrics and traditional arrangement) that could be a 50's R&B hit. It sounds like a love song, but I bet it is about his weed dealer.

I know why I keep thinking of Dave Chapelle and associate Wiz with humor. With every album, he sounds more and more like the 'white guy' character from The Chapelle Show.

Long & Strong.

January 29th

Black Tusk
Pillars of Ash
Feature Track: Damned in the Ground
Deep Cut: Black Tide
Keep Listening: Leveling
Rating: 5

I know I mentioned in my Jan 22nd observations that I was over this kind of music. That is a bit of a misnomer. Something like Black Tusk is more guitars and drums than anything. Although, I can tell by the song titles and temperament of the band that this is angry music. It has more a calming feeling, than one of inducing agitation or anxiety.

Again, I'm sure this relates the fact that drums and guitar and prevalent over the intelligibility of the lyrics. This is fine, I'm sure I don't agree with their particular world view or share the same sense of urgent hatred, but there is no need to. This is about the sound of the noises.

While it is nearly impossible to separate the experience from the emotions, I do not believe it to be impossible. It may be impossible to convey the amount of technical focus and artistic sisu a person must have to put a recording like this together. The recording, itself, does not carry the same energy as the band itself. This actually helps augment the raw, un-regretted power present in these tantrums.

Black Tide breaks into a Monkeywrench style vocal fugue in the middle just before perfectly arranged outro. Punkout punks the fuck out. It is some of the only lyrics I can (mostly) understand.

Pie, Pie American pie
A goverment creations sounds
an awful like a crime
Last song sounded as bad as the first
How could you pay more than two words?
Don't forget, all the common people
There is no hell to pay
There is no good or evil
Bumberize hotel with all of your security
Keep defensive end protect your pup monopoly

I will never understand why those who glimpse through the curtain of the universe always end up swinging to one end or the other. Some become so upsets that no one else notices or can realize what they have seen/understood that they become imploding anger-holes. Others accept the observance of personal metaphysical truths as individually subjective, being the only objectively observable phenomenon in the universe(s). This is ultimate peace and understanding.

I may have misheard some of those lyrics above.

Bloc Party
Hymns
Feature Track: The Love Within
Rating: 1

One of the great things about this journey is that I would have never in my life heard Black Tusk followed by Bloc Party's The Love Within intro sine waves. You might never experience that either unless you check out my stupid 2016 Spotify playlist.

I think this is a famous band and I'm a little gun shy after that Jon Cale debacle. I'm not going to look anything up about them. The title of the album is Hymns, The lyrics and titles have a religious/Christian rock vibe about them. I'm going to say this is not a christian band. However these are the kind of songs that will infiltrate believers earphones and bedrooms allowing them to be openly rebellious and feel the pulse of rock with lyrics that still can be conveyed as devotional. Parents and youth pastors be warned. You think they would have learned after Creed.

As an immediate antithesis to Black Tusks perception of the eternal truths, comes Bloc Party, a band that I believe to  be wildly successful and already very popular. The sound is heavily (and well) produced but the arrangements tend to come to a stale-mate after the first couple of grooves are established.

Lord, give me grace and dancing feet
As I conquer all anxiety
The angel told me not to fear
That the power to was in me
For I have learnt the way to pray
Like a muscle growing taut now
Bind the past into a knot
And let the love consume us
Let the love consume us
Let the love consume us

Without hearing any of this band's past albums, I doubt this is their best work. Living Lux opens with a cool Baba O'Riley feel, but never really delivers on the promise. Maybe that is this band's thing though and I'm completely wrong. Meh.

Spotify moves on to the 2012 release Four. The first track So He Begins To Lie is better than the entire Hymns album.

Cavo
Bridges
Feature Track: On Your Own
Deep Cut: Traitor
Keep Listening: Straight to the Bottom
Rating: 4

There is an OCD type thing taking over. I am trying to go down this list in chronological and alphabetical order as listed by Wikipedia. Normally I play these in the background. However, it has been a busy week and I immediately knew I wanted to give this album the time it deserved. So, I never made it past the first track, Nights. A few days later and I'm now starting a Monday with it. It feels right. A lot of power, catchy lyrics but not too deep or "meaningful" yet. If the whole thing is this loud, I will be turning the volume down though. Foo-fighters like guitar strumming away 8th notes during the chorus with at least 3 layered vocals. One of those (at least) is doubled I think.

Just Like You Want It, reveals their hand as they dive head first into the thin, groovy guitar paired with hyper distorted/clipped vocals. Skip a few tracks. Land on a Black-esque guitar opening. It is soon joined by some Black Crowes level soul singing. A little organ in the background shows the band stripped down in their "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" (as sung by Dawes).  This is a really great song.

They sound like a band that works really hard to give their fans exactly what they are expecting. I'm not sure how to articulate this, but they also sound like they know the people that get their hands on this new record are going to love it. And that makes me love it, even though I don't really care for the genre in general.

There is a very strong 90's/early 2000's vibe to their sound which might be the thing keeping them from breaking through. The mixing is creative (the wooden box/pallet sound during the chorus of Get Away) and nothing is phoned in. The sound is much bigger than this bands spotify numbers would imply. It looks like they are on the One record every 4 years and tour the shit out of it plan.

This could be their year. Every song on this album is indistinguishable from end-of-the-dial hits of the last 10 years (barring a strange arrangement/mixing choice at 3:30 in Fight this War). Are 12 certified hit rock singles on a single disc with a dedicated fan base and the dedication to push a record still enough to make it?

I actually did try to look up if Traitor was on the radio. But this band does not seem to be that popular. They should be pushing Traitor as a single, if that is their business model.

Straight To The Bottom is another great rock song. The sound is retro and post-grunge pop but the mixing is, again, very interesting on this song with little sounds in the mid and high range. This track sounds like it was mixed by a totally different person.

Charlie Puth
Nine Track Mind
Feature Track: We Don't Talk Anymore
Deep Cut: Suffer
Keep Listening: Some Type Of Love
Rating: 5

Never heard of him. however 194,000,000 (Million) Spotify users have. How does this happen? Obviously he is a supremely talented person. I'm not saying, "How does a guy like this get so popular". The question is how does a guy like this get so popular, so fast and the first place I hear about it is by going through a Wikipedia list. I'm not even going to bother breaking this one down. Good pop rock/R&B by a very talented new talent with a lot of good people working for him. Good luck Charlie!

Dream Theater
The Astonishing
Feature Track: Brother, Can you Hear Me?
Deep Cut: The Path That Devides
Keep Listening: My Last Farewell
There's Even More!  Astonishing
Rating: 5

Normally, you open up a spotify album and there are 34 tracks, that is a bad thing. With Dream Theater, I saw that and just laughed. Here we go!

Brother, Can You Hear Me? displays a range of magnitude in the vocals during the first chorus that could make Bill Gaither weep. And I give them mad props for choosing not to put the extra (nearly obligatory) "Bump-de-Bump" at the end of this song. Nice ending.

I fell asleep during the Lord of The Rings movies and the first time I listened to Vs. So that's not really a measure of anything other than my extreme inability to focus. I assume, like LOTR, you know what you are getting into if you choose to embark on this journey.

After my nap, I ate lunch and continued the trek to Mordor. I'm almost halfway into the thing, now I'm thinking of LOTR while the story unfolds. Do these guys practice a lot, or what? Mother-of-Pearl! And these guys are doing this every two years, while touring. Understanding that equivalent to recognizing the true size of other stars in the Universe in comparison to our sun. If you say that you understand it, you are either a Member of Dream Theater or you are lying.

Around track 23, there is a shift in the storyline and the tone of the album takes on a much more frantic tone. I found the 2nd half of this to be much more engaging than the first half. I feel that I am in a small group of less than 300,000 people who will listen to this all the way through once. That number is more like 50,000 at 3+ listens. The few that listen to this about 15 or 20 times are going to discover many juicy easter eggs. I'm not even listening on decent speakers.

I couldn't tell you what the story is about, but I've almost cried twice.There is epic war-fare. Dystopian dissolution fit for a 1984 love story meets BeastMaster. It sounds a bit like a Rush tale, wherein a society of peoples has lost the art of music. One guy discovers and it tries to save them all by singing a mediocre sounding Broadway song. I didn't quite get that part.

There is an evil dictator. He is watching this attempt at salvation from a position of extreme power. He notices that the hero is in love (?) with someone in the crowd (his daughter).

My Last Farewell is about someone dying. I can't tell if it is the Hero, the Love or some other character that I missed an introduction for. The next few songs might be this process stretched out into mourning with Losing Faythe, an 80's themed pop song with ridiculous foot work on drums and a building swell of modulating operatic choruses.

Whispers On The Wind seems to imply that it was the love interest (Gabriel?) that died. And our hero has seemingly lost his "gift" and "all hope is dead". Yikes! Hymn Of A Thousand Voices continues with the Biblical parallels as it seems that the love has come back to life and now the hero has his gift back. This apparently summons a dues ex machnia made of Papa Roach and Bono who support the band in Our New World. I'm not sure, but I think the good guys are winning.

After two hours of listening time later (I took a nap and a lunch break), Astonishing ends the saga by restoring peace and affordable healthcare to the weary populace.

Prong
X - No Absolutes


I think I called the wrong number... I'm so confused.

Sia
This is Acting
Feature Track: Alive
Deep Cut: Reaper
Keep Listening: Sweet Design
Rating: 4

Of course, I've heard about this record by now. It sounds pretty sweet at the first track.  I'm in love with her personality. I really like the fact that she is offering merch through spotify. Currently there is a line of humans with dog heads sporting the worst looking T-shirts someone could ever make. Honestly. Arguably one of the most anticipated pop releases since Adele. Dogs wearing horrible looking T-shirts is her Spotify merch. Even if the music wasn't great, this would get a high rating automatically.

Delayed choruses that surprise with silence in the place of big hits, followed by huge hooks. I've actually been looking forward to hearing this and so far it's worth the hype. One Million Bullets will end up in a movie. I can tell that we are moving into era similar to the 80's where there were thousands of brilliant songs were written and recorded that will be forever lost to ridiculous production. The songs are still shining through, but only just.

Move Your Body will be the club hit, obviously intended as such. Trying to decide which of these songs will be pushed as the summer hit (or maybe they have something in their back pocket, still). I'm leaning towards Sweet Design being the track we will hear over and over. It sounds a little too good to actually be on the radio, but I think this is the big hit. It sounds very different than everything else.