There are some really fun moments, when they hit a groove and stick with it for a while it rocks out pretty hard. Just don’t get attached to any of the grooves, they don’t last very long.
Favorite tracks:
Been a Long Time Cousin
Republic of Rough and Ready
City Folk Sitting, Sitting
It’s like they’ve found the perfect ratio of normie music moments to keep you from taking off your headphones and muttering “what the fuck was that?”.
That being said it’s still a pretty challenging listen.
Listening to this feels like you’re never going to escape the cycle.
The guitar playing and the drumming (the album is just guitar and drums) are amazing, like top peak level musicianship. The songs themselves are so technical that they are borderline unlistenable.
Album of the Day #110
Hella - Hold Your Horse Is (2002)
This sounds like I just took a bunch of research chemicals and I don’t know where I am. Like I’m stuck in a land of rock n roll that is also trying to teach me the secret laws of the universe.
Thank you brother ❤️
I wrote this piece about the rapper Proof who died 20 years ago this month. It’s about mourning musicians who die young and I talk about Kurt Cobain and Proof’s song ‘Kurt Kobain’ and predicting your own death. I really like how it came out and you might too!
open.substack.com/pub/jmsdirt/...
album of the year™️
Ultimately it was cohesive and FUN. The songs are still bopping around in my head, I imagine they will for a while
Favorite tracks:
Please Please Please
Bad Chem
Espresso
Dumb & Poetic
Lie to Girls
but it tackles all of it with a lighthearted approach that was really refreshing to listen to.
The music is a bizarre mix (compliment). Funky modern disco tracks, a couple slow ballad-esque songs and one track that felt like a nod to classic country (+1 for the inclusion of pedal steel).
In the back half it clicked for me and I really enjoyed just the funky quirkiness of the whole thing.
It’s also very funny, which I did not expect. It isn’t a self serious thing though there are personal songs on here and emotional topics
Album of the Day # 109
Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet (2024)
DO YOU WANT TO FEEL GOOD? Listen to this album. It was so much fun, so bright and funky. Masterful pop music. It’s weird it took me most of this album to really get a read on it.
episode 108
Favorite tracks:
WITHERED
NobodyHome
TheOne
Fable
ItsTimeToGo
PickUpThePieces
He hits a lot of different flow styles. Speed raps, more slow melodic stuff, a lot of singing. I like him singing more than I like him rapping. His vocals do a great job meeting the tone of the production and the whole thing feels very cohesive.
The beats are ethereal and haunting and all that. A really cohesive vibe. It’s a short album with a long track list so there is a lot of different sounds to sink your teeth into. Production really shines, it’s as much an instrumental album as a rap album.
Album of the Day #108
BONES, grayera - WITHERED (2022)
If you like magi and knights, beats that knock, sad boy music and a variety of rap styles then this is the album for you. It’s a combination that you don’t know you need until you hear it. Incredibly fun to listen to it.
It makes all of the songs more dynamic but at the same time holds on to the whole “this train is barely staying on the tracks” feeling I got from their first album.
Favorite tracks:
Shed
Society
You Can’t Say Kingston Doesn’t Love You
Crescent-Shaped Depression
Your Screen Door
27
Stab
The fucking guitar on this album is so good. That’s the biggest leap for me. It sounds so much better, not only in the guitar tone itself but the leads are so cool and interesting.
Normally I like that but with this I kept wishing I had more.
It felt like a huge leap forward from the first album. The tone of the songs was more mature. The band sounded tighter. The vocals were more confident and the “pushed to the limit right where the voice breaks” scream was more defined.
Album of the day #107
Title Fight - Shed (2011)
This is everything a perfect punk album should be. It is energetic and emotional and sincere and it makes you feel nostalgic even if it’s your first time listening to it. My only real beef with the album is that it is so short.
I don’t know if post hip-hop is a genre yet (?) but that’s what this feels like to me. It’s undeniably hip hop instrumentals but it’s also downtempo and ambient and sneakily intricate. Lots of layers of sounds to get lost in.
Favorite Tracks:
Soonerlater
800 Star Constellation
Florence Reece
It sounds like electronic music that was made to be listened to in nature. The songs are complex but they leave you room to breathe and they provide you moments to kind of pause and absorb what you’re listening to.
Album of the Day #106
Televangel - Anthropocene Blues (2018)
This music makes you feel like you’re going to have a good day. It is cinematic. It can be the soundtrack to a movie where you are maybe not the star but at least a semi-main character (being the star doesn’t seem like much fun to me).
There’s so much going on in some of the songs that it feels like you’re hearing things that aren’t there. Like you don’t know where the sounds are coming from but they’re out there somewhere waiting to come at you.
Favorite tracks:
Black Mambo
Hazey
Wyrd
Cocoa Hooves
The music is weird (compliment). A blend of all things pop/electronica with dizzying percussion. The vocals kind of add to the whole aura. They are subdued and hypnotic and his voice has an addictive quality to it like man just say anything and I’ll listen.
Album of the Day #105
Glass Animals - Zaba (2014)
Listening to this feels like you are on acid in the jungle. Not in a scary way but in a way that it feels slightly overwhelming but also like you’re on a fun ride but also you don’t know when or how it’s going to end. There’s colors everywhere.
me and the boys on the USS Abraham Lincoln eating boiled boot leather and sharing stories about the most Realistic Pussy we've ever seen
Some of these songs take a few to get going but when they do they really go. The guitar is really heavy. Once they’re hitting their peak it feels like you’re getting crushed by a pile of bricks (compliment).
Favorite tracks:
Toxic Sun
TV Suicide
Queen of the Drunks
Mr. Lonely
Sometimes the vocals are an in your face scream or just pure singing with crisp clarity. Sometimes they are so buried into the track that they almost act like just another sound, just another piece in the collective aura.