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.

2016 Jan 1-15 (I Take Back What I Said)

There is no way to rank music. It's a truly impossible endeavor. Rating is easier. A thumbs up or thumbs down is also more knee-jerk. Too much contemplation went into 2014's list. It messed up the process. 

Also, no more links.* I don't want you get distracted and quit reading my amazing insights into art, existence and the universe. and everything. Hold down the invisible button on your pocket computer and speak the words 'x y', where x equals the name of the song you want to hear and y equals the artist who hath recorded said, literally, song. IOW, GIB.

Also, I'll be going full gonzo, both for the fun of it and for the sake of time. These are generally my thoughts live as I'm listening, with little editing afterwards. 


Boosie BadAzz - In My Feelings (Going Thru it)
Feature Track: Call of Duty
Rating: 5 respects!

First release of 2016. Listening to every hip-hop record on the list really slowed down the process last year, so I was not surprised to see a hip-hop release at the top of the list, but the first track Rain was hard not too listen to and feels quite cathartic. I'm going to like this one.

Track 2, Cancer features the artist laying bare his fears and anxiety over being diagnosed with cancer. Real.

His style is full of 'mangs' and 'gurrr' (for girls), and at first listen sounds lazy, but it's clear that Boosie is putting himself out there in a serious way. Although he hails form Louisiana, the feeling reminds me of the early westcoast, story-telling confessional vibe.

Warning Signs and Bad Guy hold up and start to hint at a sound more like Kid Cudi's 2014 Journey. A sound, that I that I hope catches on.

I was certain that Cancer would be the feature track from this album. But now I think it has to be Call of Duty. Boosie is all in, here. Setting the bar high for everyone else this year. This album holds up and pulls itself along. I was ready to skip every track and ended up playing the whole album through. Right to the end. If you don't feel a catch in your throat during the closing track I Know They Gone Miss Me, you ignant.

Thanks Boosie! Be proud of this one, brother!


Rachel Platten - Wildfire
Feature Track: Astronauts
Rating: 3 stars

This was hit and miss but with more hit than miss, I think. The voice is undeniable. The songs are well recorded and production is great but I think this album was a victim of someone's desire to make a '12 song record' and so they did what they had to in order to get content. This is a horrible disservice to most artist, this one especially. There is at least one powerful 5 song EP and a killer 3 song EP in here. Or a really good 8 song album. But it makes for a slightly tedious 12 song hike.

Hey Hey Hallelujah comes in at track 2 and kept me on the line. This is great because it got me to songs like Speechless, Fight Song, and Better Place.

Lone Ranger hit close to home with some of my closest guarded feelings:

Sometimes I get high, sometimes I get low
But I'm calm as can be in a room full of strangers
But oh my, don't try to get close
I'm just gonna leave 'cause baby I'm a lone ranger

The horns in the chorus of You Don't Know My Heart hit just in the right place, even though I'm not digging the song that much.

Astronauts steps into existential prose-pop in a very satisfying way. Overall, an enjoyable experience.


David Bowie
Blackstar
Feature Track: we all have our own favorites
Rating: Infinity

Of course, everyone will be talking about this. There won't be anything else to say by the time I publish this rink. My first impression was Charles Mingus meets AWOL Nation. I loved every second of it. Before he died. And especially after. I didn't even know he had cancer.


Hinds
Leave Me Alone
Feature Track: Bamboo
Rating: 5 DGNF 

These songs might be about mass castration, poignant political discourse or nothing at all. Easy to listen to. Exhilarating in spots. Sounds exactly like the cover looks. If you like Polaroids and anxiety, this is your  jam.

And you know what? Fuck. Seriously.

This is the record that came out directly after David Bowie. And I like it for it's context and continuity. These girls tune to their own freq which is the best that any of us can ever do. Let my tombstone read, "I thought this was interesting and felt compelled to write something on the internet about it"


KSI
Keep Up
Feature Track: Lambo
Rating: 5 luxury sports cars!

I don't know much about the genre and I couldn't tell you the difference between manufactured tropes and authentic sound. It all sounds good to me. In general, it psyches me up and helps me retain focus and energy.

I like the tone of this record from the start. an 'speech-to-text' female voice that in America might be described as a 'Valley-Girl' opens the record translating what appear to be facebook posts or tweets into a snide remark about how little this group cares about your (or my) criticism.

 Kilimanjaro is a driving flow punctuated with epic, angry posturing and a delivery that makes it slightly uncomfortable to listen to in casual company. This is indicative of the genre. Search out music featured on this blog and play it in public at your own risk.

Featuring the track Lambo Refuelled. Check this track out first to familiarize yourself with the focus and technical achievements these musicians are capable of.

All in all, it reminds of DMX for some reason.



Villagers
Where have you been all my life?:
Decline to Rate [Special Case]

One of the best parts of being an obviously clueless music critic is that I have no burden of necessity to frame facts and information that I literally found out seconds before slightly rewording it and putting it in this article or not having disjointed run-on sentences.

I've never heard of this band. A quick google search revealed a Pitchfork review of this album (of course, they beat me to it). I couldn't help but catch a glance at their rating. They say 7.5. This is akin to glancing your neighbor's hand in gin. Now I know that I should at least be "digging it".

The same pitch-fork article informed me that this was a re-recording of some songs from last year. They seemed to think this was acceptable for this particular band. I've never heard any of these songs. They have the sort of vulnerability that's become popular since that band with the bass drum and acoustic instruments got real popular a while ago.

They get really quiet, they get really loud. Not afraid to cry, not afraid to yell. Vulnerable yet Vigorous. I should probably go listen to the originals.  I quickly scanned Darling Arithmetic and {Awayland} (where most of these songs seem to come from). This reveals a band with a great sense of momentum and gorgeous harmonies produced with the most minute of subversive mixing & arranging techniques.

On first glance, 2013's {Awayland} seems to be the record I would like the most. I like the songs better on their original releases than this re-recorded release. I look forward to a studio record from this band now that I'm aware of them.


Anderson .Paak
Malibu
Feature Track: The Season
Deep Cut: Silicon Valley
Rating: 5 Please let the whole year be like thises.

So far 2016 has been off to a much more enjoyable start than 2014. I'm a sucker for smoothly delivered, soulful, inspirational shit. This is that honest dank. The grooves feel like Florida looks on the back of a postcard. Not the side with the glossy picture of sunrise or a weird 80's Kodak shot of some supposedly relevant buildings.

This record sounds like the back of a post-card. Where people might write something personal. In this case, it is the kind of postcard that makes one post the writing side of the post-card on the wall instead of the picture side.

It took until track 3 before the explicit rating really kicked in. This track is great, but it brings out one of the things that puzzles me about many artists. This song is packed with not only amazing delivery and chill beats. It also contains well constructed lyrics that feel more like story-telling than bravado.

And I can do anything but move backwards / The hardest thing is to keep from being distracted / My big sister still claim me on them taxes / Tell Uncle Sam I just need a second to add this / Gave my momma ten racks / And she packed and went to Chumash with it / Could triple the worth and give me half of it / Half of it I took in the back of the air mattress / A quarter stash was stashed in a box with the Air Maxs'

Whether this is a real story or not, it is riveting.  What immediately follows is no less engaging and concludes with a sufficient punch-line. And while reading the following lyrics might seem funny or novel when reading them silently in your head, the delivery makes this decidedly not a work place friendly song.

The rest got lost in Saks with my wifey, no BM / Whack niggas dropping links in my DM / Bad bitches up and down a nigga TM / I'm glad that you finally made it to the future but you're late / And the price is through the muthafuckin' roof / If you want you could wait outside the building / I ain't takin' no more meetings

The rest of the song goes on with even more to the story. Music like this is difficult to process because I know it is not geared towards me, but I like it. And the reasons I like it are impossible to explain to anyone else who doesn't like this, which would be many people that I know. So the discussion as to the actual artistic merits of this type of music and art is often left up to only those who are incapable or unwilling to recognize the meanings. This is powerful music.

Daughter
Not To Dissapear
Feature Track: Numbers
Deep Cut: Made of Stone
Rating: 5 Thank-yous! 

Started out sounding like a 9 hour youtube video of a chakra tone. Mellow, building music. Pleasant female voices with a lot of ethereal oohing and ahhing going on in the background paired with resonating pad synths.

Then I'll take my clothes off

And I'll walk around

Because it's so nice outside

And I like the way the sun feels

The vocals are present, naked sounding and crisp. I say "naked sounding" because of the way that they sit on top of the backing tracks which obscures whatever masterful engineering processing is going on to levitate the vocals out.

Doing the Right Thing is a great example of why this sound works so well for both meditation and energy/focus listening session. Part of the sound is derived from the crushed "lo-fi" sound of the backing tracks contrasted with the more "hi-fi" presentation of the vocals. The clear mid-range and high sounds (bells/chimes/synth?) also help with "enveloping" effect.  This track builds to a great noise/misanthropic/entropic outro highlighting all the glories of the instrumental bed mentioned above.


Daz-n-Snoop
CUZZNZ
Feature Track: 
3 Marijuana Blounts!

I've always been a big fan of snoop. He is almost 70 years old and he still sounds like the same bad ass dog-pounder from when I was 10. Which means he was 50 when he released Doggystyle. I had no idea.

Someone just walked in the room that would not find Snoop Dogg ironic or enjoyable, so I turned it off. I probably won't listen to the rest of it. It sounds just like Snoop Dogg got with another capable rapper (Daz Dilly) and made a pretty smooth record. If you like Snoop, this will not disappoint. It sounds a bit out of time in that the flows are largely absent of the tricks and styles seen in a lot of popular hip-hop today. This gives it an archaic, stilted feel... with anyone except for the D-O-double-G.



Hank Williams Jr.
It's About Time
Feature Track: Born To Boogie (ft. Brantley Gilbert, Justin Moore, Brad Paisley, Michael J. Fox, Gnarls Barkley and The Rock) 
New Rule: re-recordings get a pass unless I am familiar enough with the originals to care, and then I probably won't like it, so I doubt anything will get written anyway. That being said. This was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid. I remember the first time I heard it was directly after Casey Kasum's voice as it premiered on the Top 40. I think it might have come on Sundays. I remember hearing it every week and this song was one of the first songs on the radio that got my attention. I was 7 or 8.  By this point I had figured out the format of the show and liked following the path of the different songs. I listened and waited to hear where that song was going to go. Each show, the anticipation built as it's place in the chart last week passed. It made it all the way to Number 1! I don't remember if I shared my excitement with anyone else in the car, but I was elated. He won! And then the song stayed there for awhile. This album also helped him become one of only a few artists to be charted for 6 decades straight. At this point, he is clearly leaning on CeeLo though. 

Panic! At The Disco
Death Of A Bachelor
Featured track: Crazy=Genius
Rating: 4 Stars

Out of the gate, this album carries itself through your mind. Driving pop, of course, that sounds great in almost any environment but also contains enough sonic risks to appeal to not-too-cynical-yet music fans.  I'm not familiar with the rest of this really famous band's discography, but this could, very well be one of their best albums.

While it loses some steam at the very end, the whole album holds together and plays through very nicely. In a time where many artist are filling out what should be 3 song EPs into 10 songs shit-albums, it is nice to see 11 songs that are, for the most part fun and engaging to listen to.

The preponderance of blatant pop production/arrangement tropes is the only thing that kept this from a a top rating.


Show of Hands
The Long Way Home
Feature Track: Hallow's Eve
Deep Cut: Virginia
Rating: 3.5 Old Fiddles

It's a Irishey folk-ballad album called The Long Way Home. The cover features an HDR cinematic shot of what I assume are the two musicians that comprise this band. It looks like it could be a screen cap from Australia. The music, gratefully, is not polished at all. It sound just like these guys sat down and recorded a few songs and drank some beers.

If you like how it sounds at the beginning, you will like the whole thing. I know what you're thinking, 43 minutes is too long to listen to calming folk music. But surprisingly, this record was over before I realized it. I had to double check to make sure spottily wasn't on shuffle. Very well done Gentlemen, very well done!

Editors Note: 
Because it doesn't matter if people don't read this once a week or once a year, I'm going to try and post these as I finish a week's worth of listening. Now you can see exactly how far behind I am!

*Except for Easter Eggs. 

I knew it was impossible when I started

I knew it was impossible when I started. But it got me through the last 18 months. And I needed that. I'm going to try again, in ernest this year. I think it's still impossible, but not improbable that I can ultimately succeed in listening to, reacting and subjectively ranking all the music of a given year.

It will have to be attempted on an every other year basis, this much I am still convinced. 

I have given a lot of thought to the structure of 2016's journey.

Guidelines that will be carried over:

1) If I can't find the music on Spotify, Youtube, Bandcamp or Soundcloud, I will not spend any energy tracking it down.
2) The fewer hits a band has on youtube/spotify the more preference they get in my ranking system, once I'm "hooked".

New Guidelines: 

3) I will be more liberal with the skip-10-seconds button

4) I will only allow an album to hook me within the first 3 songs instead of 5

5) I will be less strict regarding listening to the entire album once hooked. 

As with last year I will be attempting to as objectively as possible observe my subjective reactions to the various music I encounter throughout 2016. I will then attempt to document as well as I can, which of that music I "liked" the most. I will attempt to put a list of less than 100 albums together by the end of the following year complete with boring, self-analytical, bullshit criticism of other people's art that I do, apparently, have the audacity to rank in terms of my own personal self-satisfaction. 

I am not a writer or blogger by passion or intent, so I have no sense of routine or drive that involves making sure I finish this series. Not that I am expecting any mass uprising at the sudden and effective end of 2014's journey. WTH do you have against run on sentences as long as they logically add up to a complete thought? 

I did listen to some music in 2015 and have a few of my favorite songs saved to a spotify playlist. Check it out HERE!

For the morbidly curious, here is what was left of 2014 that I never got around to writing about. I've linked to each album where possible. Everyone have a safe and happy New Year!

41. Temples - Sun Structues

*40. Kid Cudi - Satellite flight: The Journey to The Mother Moon

*39. Ema - The future's Void

38. Maximo Park - Too Much Information

37. Hardworking Americans - Hardworking Americans

*36. The New Medicants - Into the Lime

35. Christina Perri - Head or Heart

34. Kevin Seconds - Off Stockton

33. Dell The Funky Homosapien - Iller Then Most

32. Mogwai - Rave Tapes

31. Dave Barnes - Golden Days

30. Dum Dum Girls - Too True

29. Within Temptation - Hydra

*28. Elbow - The Take Off And Landing of Everything

27. Issues - Issues

26. Fairweather - Fairweather

*25. The Fray - Helios

24. Step Brothers - Lord Steppington

23. Ice Nine Kills - The Predator has Become the Prey

*22. Raimundos - Cantigas de Roda

21. Periphery - Clear

20. AJ Croce - 12 tales

*19. Cynic - Kindly Bent To Free Us

18. Young the Giant - Mind over Matter

17. Arthur Beatrice - Working Out

16. Correspondents - Puppet Loosely Strung

15. Of Mice and Men - Restoring Force

14. Blood Red Shoes - Blood Red Shoes

**13. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything

12. St. Vincent - St. Vincent

11. 2NE1 - CRUSH

10. Bass Nectar - Noise vs. Beauty

09. Lawrence Arms - Metropole

08. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Wanderlust

07. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues

06. Calle 13 - MultiViral

**05. La Dispute - Rooms of the House

**04. JonWayne - Cassette on Vinyl

**03. Phantogram - Voices

02. Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

01. Rick Ross

*check this out

** dude, seriously, give this one a chance

Demons, Drag Queens & Danes

44. Demon Hunter - Extremist


The opening track, titled Death vibrates that frequency at the back of the pituitary. The one that releases epinephrine.

Truly, I was expecting death-core grind-fest 666 hell-on-earth music. Brace yourself. It's only kind of like that. I think.

Heavy and Hooky. Not afraid to be very pop-friendly while still maintaining a suitable amount of heavy imagery and brutal sound engineering.

In fact, fun surprise. I just looked up the Wikipedia to see who engineered/mixed this beauty. Turns out it was Zeuss. And it is a Christian Metal Band. Wow. That is one genre that I can truly say I normally discount before even hearing it.

So there you go, Do Christian-Metal-Kids already talk about this band as if they sold out? The last half of the album starts to sound a bit too "icky" for my likes, but the production and performances alone make this worth listening to. I'm going to check out the rest of Zeuss' catalouge.

If you are an actual Satan-Worshiping death-core listener, I believe it would be possible to slip Death into your ipod and none, but the most hard-core Hard-Cores would know the difference. However, by the time the album finishes playing out, I remember why I instinctively judge Christian Hard-Core.

Check out this video for Death and you will not see some straight-edge kids in skinny jeans shrieking into a mic. You will see what you see.

I'm not your gateway
I'm not your prodigal son
I am the vile lesser-than
Just who do you think I am?

I'm not your standard
I'm not your vision divine
I am no sacrificial lamb
Just who do you think I am?

I am death

It's worth watching this lyric video for Artificial Light as well. In between the invasive death-kiks and actual guitar shredding there is a call for reform and and action. A yearning of devoted worshipers with scant few teachers to show them the way.

43. RuPaul - Born Naked

In many ways, this is also an experiment in honesty. I'm very curious as to why some collections of sounds produce a certain physiological and physiological result and others do not.

I logged my reactions to these albums as I listened to them. While I would never listen to this in any situation that I can possible imagine outside of this blog, it represents a great moment to try and dissect what the hell I am actually trying to accomplish here. What is it about this record that would make me put it on this list, knowing that I was going to have to try and defend it later?

This album has great bass sounds. Even with small speakers, there is a definitely thump. I know it is characteristic of this type of music to have that thump and I also realize that there is basically a scientific formula for achieving it along with millions of plug-ins to do it "Automagically!®". But one could also say that all painters have access to the color red so what makes Picasso's red better than another artist's red? 

I realize I've just compared RuPaul to Picasso. Hey look over there! (NSFW)

  
42. ꜛ20. MØ - No Mythologies To Follow

Shit. I should have saved the Picasso reference for this album. Scandinavian pop music. Some would say that it has always been great. I might be one of those people. The first CD I every owned was Ace of Bass. Hasn't there been a seemingly endless parade of Scandinavian pop ever after? One might even be able to argue that the combined influence of Scandinavian songwriters rivals that of the Beatles or entire genres, such as "Techno". Wait, that's Swedish? OK, got it. All music comes from Sweden or Denmark, apparently.

Each song paints a picture dripping with emotion and authenticity. Never Want to Know has a nice 50's groove that is perfectly tainted with some fancy new 21st century production techniques. The whole record is a great study in solid changes and confident pacing.

I believe this is a break-up record. And is among the best I've heard. As I'm writing this and listening over the tracks again, I believe that I ranked this way too low. This should be a top 20 album.

Upon my first listen, I was a little turned off the seeming derivative nature of the style. Perhaps I only have room in my heart for Adele. Lorde snuck in there somehow for a moment, but is gone now.

However listening again, I hear a vulnerability and rawness that is much different than the reigning Queens of pop. When Adele is the most popular and highest selling artist of the last 10 years, one can expect to have many imitators. But what Adele brings to the table is impossible to imitate. MØ is a serious contender because she is not imitating, she is exploring her own unique frequency.

I'm making an executive decision. I'm moving This album to #20 and switching it out for the current album in that spot. Check this Album out and let me know if it seems like a fair swap!

 Bonus 42. AJ Croce - Twelve Tales

Jim Croce's son. This album was at #20 previous to my blogprovisation above. 

A classic sounding record by a classic songwriter. Lyrics are clever and meaningful. The production is clear and clean. If you aren't into folky Americana Pop, this won't convert you. If you are, add this to your collection. When someone complains that no one makes music like they used to. Put on Tarnished and Shining and tell them to shut the hell up and go buy an AJ Croce record.