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.

Jan 22

2016 spotify playlist. link. Updated with songs from my adventures through Wikipedia music land.
Adrian Younge
Something about April II
Feature Track: Memories of War
Deep Cut: Hear My Love
Rating: 5


As a big fan of the original, April II does not disappoint. It has the same bedroom sound as the original. The vocals are decidedly more polished which gives it less of that raw feeling, but time as a way of rounding out the edges, does it not?

Perfect album for listening to on a day when the snow is falling unexpectedly thick and wet. There is less overt R&B, which defined here as a male falsetto soulfully singing things like "Baby, I want to lick your ear.. Baby I please let me smell your neck" and the like. If you put this on for your buddies who like Wu-Tang and they start catching the lyrics, you might catch some side-eye. Most of this album is instrumental greatness of the highest caliber, though.

Also toned down are the distorted bass jabs. But still present, in songs like Memories of War and April Sonata, is that classic beat and arrangement that holds all the chi.

This album is easy to listen to and shows an evolution of technique, awareness and sound.

The Besnard Lakes
A Coliseum Complex Museum
Feature Track: Towers Sent Her to Sheets of Sound
Rating: 2


I am curious about that thing which can be communicated in one second through one note or sound. Some songs or albums have a sound or energy that tells you instantly how you will feel about them. There is a mechanical, screeching sound that creeps up into the mix well before 3:00 into the first track. The Bray Road Beast.

It is a sound that tells me I will enjoy listening to this album.  The Bray Road Beast continues to build. The screeching, metal sound is replaced by a guitar run through pitched-delay. A few clever drum fills and legitimate guitar riffs later, the song is over.

Half way through the Golden Lion I'm beginning to wonder if I accidentally got tricked by a jam band into listening to them rehearse Pink Floyd medleys with their own lyrics substituted for the original.

Towers Sent Her to Sheets of Sound could be pulled right out of the 60's. I am torn about how this makes me feel. Ultimately, people will view music created from 1800-2??? as basically the same. There will be specialists that can tell you all the different variations between this genre and that and how it varies through there 'era', but to most people, it will just be "_______ Music". The same as people perceive "Baroque Music" or "Classical Music" or "Pop Music".

Epistemically, this is of little use in relating my personal feelings. As an individual existing now as myself, I ended up skipping through the later tracks.

Eleanor Friedberger
New View
Feature Track: Because I Asked You
Deep Cut: A Long Walk
Rating: 3.5

Not sure if they are trying to make a point that they used "tape" to record or master this album, but the thing opens with a sample that sounds as if it was taken from the playback of a tape machine. The quality and warmth of the sound on this album is superb and I wouldn't be surprised it was tracked straight to tape.

He Didn't Mention His Mother is absent of any immediate vocal hooks, and the lyrics are not speaking to me right away but I do like how they are treating the bass. For the most part the bass guitar is heard only during the chorus or for fills during the verse. Otherwise this part of the spectrum his filled with a distorted organ. This creates a nice space for the guitars to fill into, as well. Throughout the album, when the guitars aren't filling sonic space, there are layers upon layers of vocals making for a very thick, yet crisp air.

Carrying on a thought from the above entry, This has a similar "constrained-yet-wink-wink-nod-nod-subversive-pop" feel that could be at home in the 60's. EXCEPT, there is a sound here that they would not (or could not have achieved in the 60's. It's possible the band hit straight to tape and then vocals were done later using SSHD and Waves. Maybe they just flew the entire band to Neptune and it sounds the way it does because of the difference in air pressure.

How they got the sound, assuming they meant to, is of no consequence. I think it's a good sound. A modern rediscovery of the vibe that made psychedelic-pop work when it was first invented. Sweetest Girl is a good example of this.

Because I Asked You is a great song. The delivery of the vocals borders on pop-country and I can't tell if that is a natural inflection of her voice or just how she is singing this song. There is the unmistakable fortitude of classic American-Country (Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Reba) rooted in this voice. Never Is A Long Time overlays a masterful melody and delivery atop a slightly askew indie backing track.

Cathy With the Curly Hair is unapologetically pop. I can't tell if she's having fun, but she is definitely smiling. Does Turquoise Work?  suddenly ends, and I like that. The album closes with A Long Walk which doubles down on the indie vibe. The thing that makes this track pop is the electric guitar hanging out in the back the whole time. It sounds like they just mic'd up the electric guitar, itself (not the amp) and then ran that sound through some compression. I'm sure that's not what they did, but it makes me want to try it to see what it would sound like. The guitar gets plenty of feature time and is expertly performed, but feels slightly contrived.

Eliot Sumner
Information
Feature Track: Halfway to Hell
Deep Cut: Say Anything You Want
Rating: 4


Honest lyrics, driving electronic drums in the background. Continuously building pop sweetness evolving into distorted noise-town. I'm a fan of the opening track, Dead Arms & Dead Legs.

These are songs designed for arenas. If a different time, Eliot Sumner could rise to the heights of U2, Bono or RadioHead. Maybe even Journey. He is chasing the ring, unabashedly. The title track, Information is 7:18 long. He doesn't care. He's proving that he knows where and what it is.

This is a man who has come to conquer music. Let My Love Lie On Your Life, is reminiscent of Sting at his best. Three songs in and there is a pattern. Drum-machine pop song opening. Isolate Hook and repeat it out while the arrangement becomes progressively more obtuse. Now that I'm expecting it, I will be disappointing if he stops.

I'm a sucker for the surprise ugly bass tone. Halfway To Hell, showed up just in time to keep the record moving. Directly after is I Followed You Home that opens with a piercing  high-hat/ticking clock sound and reckless sounding cymbal arrangements. I like this guy more and more.

John Cale
M:FANS
Feature Track: If You Were Still Around
Deep Cut: Damn Life
Rating: 6

You will not like listening  to the beginning of this record. It's the sonic equivalent to listening to a David Lynch film. Or, what my music will sound like when I'm 80 years old. This is what "post-punk" music should be. If I'm going to listen to a 3:00 track designed to be obtuse, it should sound like this.

Starting at If You Were Still Around, the songwriting prowess can not be overshadowed by the indie production. This point is driven home with the stark featured bagpipe outro hammering the hook to Close Watch. This is a master at work.

By track 6, Broken Bird I am completely enthralled. The arrangements are perfect and the sound is enveloping. Changes Made shows that John Cale could have been Bruce Springsteen. There is no doubt he could write and produce songs all day long that sound like that. However, this is a man who chooses his ingredients wisely.

This is a good use of  a double-disc 25 song release. Take notes, kids and hate on this record at your own risk. In a time where it is so easy to produce a good song at the highest quality with the world's best musicians. What extra step of focus and fortune does it take to push the boundaries into the depths of arrangement risks philosophical exposition displayed on this album?

Damn Life quotes Beethoven's Ode To Joy as an introduction to one of the best interludes I've ever heard. Ode To Joy, itself, is simply a declaration of the existence of the powerful emotive responses elicited by the 3rd note of the scale. Cale, further expands on this idea with the next track, Library of Force. This song only consist of two unrelated tracks overlyed atop each other. A spoken word track that would be impossible to listen to by itself with some Rimsky Korsakov. I am blown away by the first 13 tracks of this album.

I just realized that the 2nd half of the album is some kind of remix or instrumental. I'm going to listen to it anyway. I am truly disappointed that there are not 13 more tracks just like this.

The end of the album is like the beginning. obtuse and elusive. Some alternative takes and "outakes" provide a glimpse into the production process. This is one of my all time favorite devices and is often viewed as trite or "gimmicky" in real-world production settings, but I have never been disappointed to have included these at the end (or in the middle of an album). In this case, they serve to lay bare the song behind the production in a way that should be satisfying to both listeners and students.

EDIT (Feb 4.) I've seen some reviews of M:FANS recently and see that it was technically a re-recording. My first time ever hearing this masterpiece and I am stunned that it was done so long ago. I stand by my first impressions. But technically not a 2016 album. 

King Charles
Gamble For A Rose
Feature Track: Tomorrow's Fool
Rating: 4


I can empirically say that 2016 is off to a better start than 2014. I know there will be a slog of albums somewhere that I just can't stand, but so far the trek has been not only pleasurable but inspirational and beyond enjoyable, impressive.

King Charles enters the race with Gamble For A Rose. Looking like Dan Tedesco on the cover and doing his best Jeff Buckley impression at the beginning. I was worried. However, there are enough smart arrangement choices to keep me listening. I'm a bit worried that over 12 tracks the energy will peter out into a stalemate of recycled "folk-rock" tropes. Most of the tracks are pushing 4:00 and I just listened to one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life (see above). And my shoulder hurts. In other words, there is a lot going against this guy, already.

The title track starts to show an independence from production and while the Buckley/Dawes hooks are still prevalent, they take on a certain uniqueness when sung in a style more like Axl Rose (is this intentional on a track called Gamble for a Rose)?\

Tommorow's Fool is the first time I see some real original character. This is a stand out track with a great arrangement and lyrics that shows a lot of this artist's personality. By the time Carry Me Away is playing I'm a fan King Charles. Hopefully this guy is still writing songs when he is John Cale's age.

Bright Thing is a HUGE track. Wow!

Lionheart
Love Don't Live Here
Feature Track: Lock Jaw
Deep Track: Dead Wrong
Rating: 5

Angry music. Some days, I will still listen to this type of music. But for the most part it is behind me.
I don't seek it out as a salve to my wounds, but I recognize the effect it has on my adrenaline. The lyrics are extremely raw and openly speak of depression, suicide and anger.

When I felt like this all the time, this kind of music helped me feel better. It that way it has a valuable place in society as a way to balance out the type of music designed to make a person believe that everything is all right, always has been alright and always will be alright.

However, after consistent listening I find that I'm not that angry at the core anymore and while it is good to be reminded of the energy that once drove me, it is also a good perspective check. This is the energy that Uto drive me.

There is a truth to the sound. Perhaps if my life had taken a different turn, I would feel more comfortable identifying with this music at my current slice of time. The truth is, my life is OK. Any anger or frustration I feel comes from family or work related issues that are not life-threatening nor do they threaten my social or cultural standing as it relates to the people closest to me.

It would be easy to assign a power to this anger and frustration equal to the energy coming from the speakers, but it would be disingenuous. In truth I don't identify with this music anymore than I identify with most rap that I like.

That being said, if you are wandering teen, full of angst and depression. If your looking for something that can fill your head with something that amplifies your feelings in a way that only punk rock and hardcore can, then this band is for you.

Check my back / full of knife wounds
We're not the kind you pussies [unintelligible]
Not words for the back of a shirt
Theses are real scars, real pain and real hurt
Cause when I was doing push-ups in a 6x10
You were flexin for the camera with all of your friends
Tryin post up [unintelligble] play pretend
But I was born in the gutter, mother fucker that's where I lived.

I gave this a 5 because it is a really good album. Superbly produced and powered by an internal engine of it's own creation.

Megadeth
Dystopia
Feature Track: Death From With
Deep Cut: Conquer Or Die
Rating: 5

I'm so afraid to listen to this album. I'm a huge Megadeth fan. I once got into a fist fight in 7th grade with a kid who was a much better fighter than me. He thought Metallica was better than Megadeth. I disagreed. He whooped my ass, proving once and for all that Megadeth fans are pussies. This was my bad, people. I'm sure there are plenty of Megadeth fans out there that are not pussies, I am not one of them and I failed you all in the clutch.

But that was far away in the past. And it never changed the fact that Megadeth is the vastly superior band. Dave Mustane, the eternal, unconquerable emperor of metal.

So I go into Dystopia a bit apprehensive. Please be awesome. The Threat Is Real sees Dave Mustane much older and the years show on his voice. But it sounds good. Of course the guitar playing is there in spades. I settle in for the obviously dystopian story that is about to unfold.

It sounds like he is relying more than ever on the layered vocals to achieve his trademark monster narrator voice. Hard to tell if this is a product of age-degradation supported by technology or maturation of process. One thing though, the fuckin' guitar solos, man.

Never one to shy away from the big subjects. Mustaine takes on the idea that we are headed for certain apocalyptic disaster which no one can save us from. The shifts that take place in the title track Dystopia are among his best work to date and highlight exactly why he is our Superior Overlord.

Fatal Illusion sounds like a city landscape falling in on itself. The solo bass-line comes in like a the last man on earth running from whatever beasts have taken over our god-forsaken planet after the events of the first two songs have taken place.

I think it tells the story of an evil, criminal who dies in prison and then comes back to life a frantic zombie demon of some kind. The lyrics hint at this without much additional research and the music certainly sounds like it. Death Within returns to a classic Rust In Peace sound, only with much more sophisticated musical elements. It turns out, I still really like this sound.

Dave Mustane is one of the few guitarists that, not only always impresses with technique and virtuosity, but he somehow always surprises me with what harmonies and techniques he will attempt to play through.

Death From Within weaves poignant political narrative with ridiculous double guitar work and terrifyingly prodigious guitar solos.

Warning signs ignored, they have all but been denied
Prophets and messengers, mocked and vilified
Final destination lying deep inside their court
Their first line of defense soon became their last resort
Hardened deceivers entered through their open gates

It's only track 4.

Post American World has one of the most amazing guitar solos I've ever heard.

When you walk away from that which makes you strong
You only fool yourself; you only weaken your cause
There's creeping hate if you resist the false narrative
Crushing all the dissenters who still think for them selves
If you don't like where we're going
Then you won't like what's coming next

If this album is to be believed as an accurate record of the current state of Dave's voice, he has only garnered more strength with his passage through time. One of my heros, still killing it! :)

RUFUS
Bloom
Rating: I got distracted

I'm hooked right from the beginning. There is this really low, hard to hear track which is building very slowly. The main sound is a digital glitch sound that at first reminds me of the barking chipmunks from Ummagumma. As the noise builds, I am getting more and more into it but wondering when the sound will kick in. So I skip ahead in the video. The same. It's my speakers, or the video encoding.

I  click a related video to see if it is my speakers or the video. I get Peptalk by De Staat. My speakers are definitely working and I've just discovered a new release (Jan 15, 2016) by Dutch band De Staat. This isn't on my Wikipedia list...

What the hell is going on around here??

De Staat
O
Feature Track: Blues is Dead
Deep Cut: Life Is a Game
Keep Listening: She's with Me
Rating: 5


See above for how I ended up on this band. Immediately hooked by their sound and into the 2nd song, I feel comfortable comparing them to Cake. There is no trumpet yet, and the vocal delivery is unique in and of itself. But there these are very "cake-like" grooves this band is hitting.

Make the Call, Leave It All displays a sophisticated sense of arrangement as well as hints of Alice in Chains. I'm sure these guys have listened to tons of American Rock and they are expertly weaving that influence in with very Kraftwerk EDMvibe. Such as Get on Screen.

Murder Death features an instrumental/noise solo that all rock songs from this point on must live up to. Blues is Dead is, as the title suggest the nail in the coffin to American Rock.

Hip hip hooray! The blues is dead!
Hip hip hooray! The blues is dead!
Hip hip hooray! The blues is dead!
Hip hip hooray! The blues is dead!

Baby would be easy to describe as derivative and sleepy except for that one synth sound in the back and the break around 3:30. The listener gets the feeling that these guys are having a little fun at his expense. What's next, boys?

Something that sound like Radiohead, shifting into Gnarls/Daniel Johns within 4 bars. this hook evolves into a sonic garden of distorted flange-verb soaked organ and blissfully unaware guitar solos. This is what risk sounds like. This is guts and glory and rock and roll, motherfuckers.Time Will Get Us Too. Indeed, it will.

Time will torture us
Time will nurture us
Nothing stays the same



At times, the sound is a little too 80's demo-pop (Devo, etc), but I can't say enough great things about this album. An unexpected detour on my mission to listen to every album on wikipedia's list of albums released in 2016. I am currently about 2 weeks behind.

I'm only half way through the album. I would probably call out every track if I didn't shut it down. Go check this one out and discover all the subtle things on your own. As I'm writing this sentence, track 9 kicks in.. what the...

PostScript: I almost got distracted from listening to the next album on the list because Spotify kept playing into De Staat's discography. A lot for a young music explorer to discover down that road.
Savages
Adore Life
Feature Track: Sad Person
Deep Cut: I Need Something New
Keep Listening: T.I.W.Y.G
Rating: 6



Ooooh. I am going to like this. Again, I'm a sucker for a bad-ass punk/rock band with a female singer. There is so much energy here. Thoughtful, and hopeful. But very high-energy. Evil sounds a little Vedder inspired. This is great. Women should copy Eddie Vedder, maybe we would get more Savages and less crud-rock. What is this song about? Am I evil? Is she evil? Is she talking about something evil? Is she just being provocative?

Post-Punk. It hits that S-K/Sonic Youth sweet spot. A lot of noise, A lot of music. More energy than can be contained in a studio. Brilliant production and execution. 

Sad Person and Adore sit next to each other on the album and compliment each other like yin and yang. 

From Sad Person:

I wanna know why I hesitateTo brace myself and love youTo brace myself a good, good, girlTo face myself and hear me roarYou wanna know why I change my mindAnd when I did everything was fineSometimes the truth is right there, right thereIf you're beautiful here, you're beautiful there

From Adore:

I know evil when I see itI know good and I just do itIf I hadn't been so starvedIs it human to adore life?
I understand the urgency of lifeIn the distance there is truth which cuts like a knifeMaybe I will die maybe tomorrow so I need to say 

I adore life

These two songs, alone describe the desolate, inarticulate feelings that resonate within this movement of art and sound.  By the time Slowing Down the World is in full swing, I might be listening to a Chris Cornell album. And it just keeps getting better.


Shearwater
JetPlane and Oxbow
Feature Track: A Long Time Away
Deep Cut: Radio Silence
Keep Listening: Stray Light at Clouds Hill
Rating 4

This album just stayed on in the background. I skipped a couple of tracks. But that was only because I was annoyed that I couldn't articulate any precise reason that I didn't want to skip the track. Post-Pop?

I am 15 albums behind the times, man.