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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 13, 2023 8:20:32 GMT
CMAT - Crazymad, For Me (out today Oct 13, 2023) - 8 / 10 at leastOn the DAY that boygenius drops their new EP.......there is something GREAT happening for music, women's music, women in general and it ain't fncking boygenius.......... No sophmore slump for CMAT........the only way this isn't as good as her stop the presses debut (pacinoyes #6 album of 2022) is the element of surprise is gone....now you expect her to be witty, clever, devastating, fun, hilarious, deeply sad .........and boy is she ever: Bigger, more ornate, across more styles, with more musicality and wildly bipolar - this album says some very dark things and this is from someone who started her career with a masterpiece song about suicide (Nashville) while pretending she was going to be a big star........ As original a Pop Music voice as Lily Allen was once - and better at craft than her.....CMAT is a once in a generation artist and in the style she's playing - a Master of Her Crazymad Universe. This album is more clearly her in full mastery of her Art - and it is as uniquely her own Art - as it was for Patsy Cline........or Aretha Franklin to Soul or Amy Winehouse to Neo-Soul or fnck it even more than it was for Lana Del Rey - who has never made full albums this good - and now Lana has never done it twice, you heard me Del Rey MAR bitches ........ CMAT is a better lyricist than all of them btw - as good a female lyricist as I've heard - ever? - This is Part 2 of a genuine 1-2 punch of Cult music .......say you were in on it while it's happening ffs....... A no shit, shortlist album of the year contender .......“The singer combines the genre’s enduring themes of heartbreak and self-destruction with camp humor and a distinctly Irish sense of the absurd. CMAT Makes Country Music Sad, Smart and Strange - NY Times”
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 13, 2023 12:28:52 GMT
The Exbats - Song Machine (Out today Oct 13th, 2023) - ~ close to or at a 7.5 / 10What a day - a straight up great album - by CMAT (see above^) and a good one ...this one - by The ExbatsSort of a split difference between their last 2 records: The great, left-field knockout Kicks, Hits and Fits (my #3 album of 2020) and the still good, Folk Pop of Now Where Were We (2021).........they really like nodding to 60s melodic Pop but are better at less conceptual rave-ups.........they like to expand but are a blast when they are leaner, meaner and more foul mouthed....... Still not many American "bands" right now (a duo, Dad and daughter) have 3 good albums in a row these days - or albums I rate 7 or higher anyway - and The Exbats are very easy to love........simple, unpretentious, endlessly hummable....... Mattsby , a fan and this one won't change that I reckon......
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Post by themoviesinner on Oct 14, 2023 16:39:42 GMT
Hanabie - Reborn Superstar! (2023) -- 7.5/10This album is an odd mixture of metalcore, trance music, hardcore punk and j-pop. It's sound is thick and aggresive, it's pace is relentless, it's incredibly catchy and fun to listen to and, thankfully, at only 30 minutes, it ends before it's jumble of sounds starts to wear down the listener. I enjoyed this a lot, even though it's not the type of thing I usually listen to.
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 27, 2023 5:43:00 GMT
NOBRO - Set Your Pussy Free (2023) - ~ 7.5 / 10
Almost as bracing as their 2 EPs - Sick Hustle and Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar which hit hard and fast........on their debut album NOBRO tries hard to sustain in the longer format and leans heavier into those flash metal solos and the Andrew WK crossed with Pop Punk of The Donnas ...........
They repeat none of their stellar EP tracks - and there were 11 EP tracks ffs - a risky move which also hurt Coach Party's (lesser) debut album - and pretty much doesn't faze NOBRO at all.........except it does:
They do hit a wall they didn't hit on the EPs - tracks 7 through 9 are filler - basically one idea expressed in such a way that it's tiresome after 30 seconds - not songs so much as just generalities set to music (in the case of Nobody Knows - it's sset to Iron Man)
That's a shame because at their best all they want to do is fnck, drink, puke, curse, and they stretch out on 2 wonderful gimmicky songs - A.I. Sexbots and I Don't Feel Like It - and at their best you just admire their swagger......so much.......tighten the songwriting this could have been a Hootenanny for 2023 ...........instead it's just 2/3rds of one
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 3, 2023 4:54:48 GMT
Brigitte Calls Me Baby - This House is Made of Corners 5 song EP (2023) - Um, around a 7 / 10.......maybe? It's something alright.....
Insanely specific debut / calling card mix of The Smiths, Roy Orbison, Chris Isaak, Elvis (Presley, not Costello)........so lushly recorded and intricately performed it is simultaneously grand and muted .....I like the last 2 songs maybe the best where they sound like they are breaking free of the "act" but then you realize The Smiths would do a song like "Palm of Your Hand" a lot too - when they wanted to be simple and not categorized......so they fool you twice..... How long until the singer goes solo and starts carrying flowers in his back pocket......I can't wait for Morrissey to comment on ths band tbh.......I think he will likey use the word "rubbish" but be far wittier than just that...... Nikan again (um) who can hear all 5 songs streaming on Youtube .....if he dares
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Nov 3, 2023 7:28:01 GMT
Brigitte Calls Me Baby - This House is Made of Corners 5 song EP (2023) - Um, around a 7 / 10.......maybe? It's something alright.....
Insanely specific debut / calling card mix of The Smiths, Roy Orbison, Chris Isaak, Elvis (Presley, not Costello)........so lushly recorded and intricately performed it is simultaneously grand and muted .....I like the last 2 songs maybe the best where they sound like they are breaking free of the "act" but then you realize The Smiths would do a song like "Palm of Your Hand" a lot too - when they wanted to be simple and not categorized......so they fool you twice..... How long until the singer goes solo and starts carrying flowers in his back pocket......I can't wait for Morrissey to comment on ths band tbh.......I think he will likey use the word "rubbish" but be far wittier than just that...... Nikan again (um) who can hear all 5 songs streaming on Youtube .....if he dares I actually like all of those names mentioned after The Smiths too ) so will definitely give this a go. Our Frank is a wild goose... sometimes I think he talks too much... but other times during random hours of the day I'm like "wonder what he has to say about this".... lel
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 9, 2023 16:58:26 GMT
The Clockworks - Exit Strategy (Will be released tomorrow November 10th, 2023) - ~ 9 /10 ...........but I've only played it once TheAlwaysClassy ....... Delivering on the promise of their pacinoyes raved run of sensational singles - with a wider range of sound. They've discovered the piano - and it's a breakthrough for them.......... a perfect compliment in how it adds colors to their already scintillating Post Punk. Recorded at Abbey Road fs with Bernard Butler ffs - there is nothing "small time" or "niche" about The Clockworks as a band or Exit Strategy as a record. Exhibit A in how you successfully proceed from stop the presses singles to an amazing EP to an ambitious and complex full length - it is almost shocking the artistic rigor they exude over their own record ...........how you can craft a debut - over several years - without changing your sound but refining it............it's hard to know how much Butler or the band gets the credit........both? Exit Strategy is incredibly confident in how it uses the longer album format to maximize ideas and presentation too: Even the old singles they have re-recorded here (13 songs total) - including Advertise Me - are all sculpted into this album's expansive scope in an exciting and interesting way................and that song was already one of their best. James McGregor here instantly establishes himself as the youthful poetic rival to his countryman Grian Chatten (of Fontaines D.C.) - and picking out his best lyrical couplets on Exit Strategy is great (and pretentious) fun........ a lot of young men - literate lads with pen, paper and beer in hand will fall hard for The Clockworks ....... ..............and they ain't wrong .......
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 18, 2023 17:49:48 GMT
The Dwarves - Concept Album (November 17th, 2023) - 7 / 10 The Dwarves have been around for almost 40 years - they are in their late 50s (?) .........and this album or half of it anyway is genuinely shocking in how much fun it is - from a band who named an album Blood Guts & Pussy ffs - and regularly (still) writes noise about killing people: Concept Album has a good deal of Pop on it - and when it works it's a weird Frank Zappaesque kind of marvelous take on Pop (Punk) ........very similar for a few songs to Screeching Weasel & Dr. Frank Portman's worldview ( Mattsby).......and if they wanted to they could have cut this in half - cut out the crap and made an immature tuneful classic......... but it's too patchy for that. Ah well.......BUT how clever is this record when it's not about punching (or killing, sigh) people? This clever: We Will Dare - by far the best song here - mimics my favorite song of all-time's title (I Will Dare), sorta of winks to Lookout Records in the 90s, the video lovingly mocks wrestling, disses Barbie, and Disney and the lyrics flip the bird to cancel culture.............. and best of all - it stars Punk Rock personality - and future pacinoyes Celebrity Crush - Madd Lucas - who is cute af btw as Our Punk Rock Barbie......................one of the 2023's sweetest songs...........and as they say themselves: "We're the answer to all of our prayers"
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 20, 2023 16:09:27 GMT
Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions (2023)
I'm not into hip hop music, but once in a blue moon I hit on one that works for me. While ITS doesn't measure up to the one true great rap album (The Other Side of the Looking Glass), it is filled with humor and heart. There are no truly catchy beats or melodies, but as a lyricist Aesop Rock can usually create a vivid picture. As an album, this flounders - it is far too long with too many mid tracks, and the concept is held together with glue and duct tape, desperately attempting to fit together - but there are enough high points here to justify its existence. There is a lot of compassion in pieces like Aggressive Steven and On Failure (melding perfectly with good natured humor), and a satirical bite to the more concept heavy tracks like Mindful Solutionism or the non sequitur ending of Pigeonometry. Point is, it's mostly pretty good stuff, and one of the best rap albums around. 7/10
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Post by Joaquim on Nov 20, 2023 17:06:25 GMT
Not as good as his Fontaines DC stuff but there’s still stuff here I like a good deal, and it’s much better than the majority of the garbage that’s around today of course. Grian Chatten quickly showing that he’s either rock’s savior or its final dying light. He’s even posing like the savior on the cover. 7/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 20, 2023 21:25:08 GMT
Grian Chatten quickly showing that he’s either rock’s savior or its final dying light. He’s even posing like the savior on the cover. 7/10 Closer to Rock's poetic savior / King to me which goes with the territory of World's Best Current Band - but I also rated ~ 7 / 10 too and I love Fontaines like all kind hearted people with ears do........... but 1 song here is close to the very best and bleakest Fontaines songs (I Love You, Oh Such A Spring, Liberty Belle etc) All of the People made my top songs list for 2023 - and man I'm pretty sure the band must be pissed that he kept this for himself Prick
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 22, 2023 18:49:06 GMT
Bad Nerves - Bad Nerves (2020) & Alive in London (2023) - ~ 7 / 10 (both records)
I praised their new single yesterday but that song (USA) is from a forthcoming record...the 2 albums they've made so far have good things (the drummer, the energy) and bad (the singer often, the songs consistently)
A band desperately in need of a producer to streamline them and have them edit their work.......some of it hits .....and it hits hard too
Could be great .......on a single or two definitely ........or one day......on an album
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 28, 2023 16:17:59 GMT
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (1974)
This is supposed to be humor? The music is repetitive and unimaginative too, but I love Ruth Wallis's uninspired music because her jokes are actually clever (the phallic puns in The Admiral's Daughter, the many uses of wordplay to describe the beautiful breasts of Sweater Girl). Where's the humor in saying "Don't eat the yellow snow" or making the shocking claim that masturbation exists?
And then he has some pieces that aren't comedy, but he's a shit musician and blunt as hell as a lyricist, so they don't work either. What a terrible album. 2/10
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Post by Martin Stett on Nov 29, 2023 15:10:10 GMT
Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch (1985)
I had high hopes for this one after listening to the magnificent opener (the video above). Unfortunately, this is kind of standard industrial, dissonant stuff on the whole. It's not bad, but disappointing for an album that comes after all of the demons of hell chanting a lullaby, y'know? 6/10
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Post by themoviesinner on Dec 3, 2023 7:19:41 GMT
Sakis Tolis - χ ξ ς΄- The Seven Seals of the Apocalypse-(Revelation 5:7) (2023) - 9.5/10This is a concept album based on the seven seals of Revelation 5:7 (as the title suggests, as most of the lyrics are taken straight from the Bible) and it's an incredibly immersive experience. It creates an apocalyptic atmosphere, unlike any other album I can think of, and the feeling of doom and destruction is just breathtaking. A reletively simple album, but what it sets out to do it does incredibly well. A perfect soundtrack to the apocalypse. This is probably Sakis Tolis' best work since Rotting Christ's Aealo, released back in 2010. pacinoyes I don't know if you'd like this, but I recommend it, simply because it offers a really unique experience.
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 6, 2023 23:18:36 GMT
Sakis Tolis - χ ξ ς΄- The Seven Seals of the Apocalypse-(Revelation 5:7) (2023) - 9.5/10This is a concept album based on the seven seals of Revelation 5:7 (as the title suggests, as most of the lyrics are taken straight from the Bible) and it's an incredibly immersive experience. It creates an apocalyptic atmosphere, unlike any other album I can think of, and the feeling of doom and destruction is just breathtaking. A reletively simple album, but what it sets out to do it does incredibly well. A perfect soundtrack to the apocalypse. This is probably Sakis Tolis' best work since Rotting Christ's Aealo, released back in 2010. pacinoyes I don't know if you'd like this, but I recommend it, simply because it offers a really unique experience. Finally got around to playing this song more than once - I'll give the album a listen too -and I kind of like it a bit .........I like songs that have this specific quality of being static and propulsive at the exact same time (like The Stooges No Fun etc)- almost like marching in place but so that it becomes like a mesmerizing thing..............at about 1:40 where the melody floats above and then sounds like it's bubbling under whie repeating the same effect later so you have this push and pull outside the main rhythm throughout.........that video is a real nightmare inducing trip ...........
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 8, 2023 20:35:13 GMT
Radio Free Alice - Radio Free Alice EP (2023) - 7 + / 10
Yet another fine band from Australia - and this one could be special in a big way......but tbh only 2 of these 4 songs from these kids are special but......... they are all cool and all show a tremendous upside.
At their best they sound like the band The Strokes didn't want to be and don't tell me there's not a need for that - because that hole has existed for a long time ........and only The Strokes themselves sometimes fill it post-Roon on Fire
One to watch......
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 3, 2024 8:53:52 GMT
Sprints - Letter to Self (January 5th - 2024) ~ 7.5 / 10 ....or a bit higher maybe if I'm in the mood The heaviest band I like - and I have liked them for a while - since this amazing ascendancy of recent top tier Irish acts (post 2019): Sprints not only sing about panic attacks - their music most closely approximates having one than any I can think of. Other bands flirt with this idea - lyrically maybe - but Sprints make it whole - songs snap in place with discomforting ferocity - in some way as to overwhelm the senses...........they often are not songs but howls......and often end suddenly in a way that leave you a bit shaken This debut -- from one of my best bands without an album - who now all have albums btw - (Clockworks, NOBRO, Wet Leg) - is kind of great but also kind of exhausting .......that' s how pulverizing they can be across 11 tracks. The Back Catalogue LP (2022) was a perfect setup for this new record: That compilation of EPs / singles mixed Art Rock, Post-Punk and Alterna-Pop to startling effect (my #9 of 2022) - and I might prefer that tbh because it hinted at what this record pours on thick ...... But Sprints recap everything they do well on Letter To Self to make that seem like an appetizer to this full meal: Startling tempo changes, Nirvana/ Pixies loud / quiet push-pull, Fontaines DC drone-like repetition passages (they must love that 2nd Fontaines record), jarring locked-in stop / starts and even more therapist-diary lyrics about losing their mind. not being able to breathe, drowning etc There's a bit of metal in Sprints - not so much in solos and structure but in sonic swoosh and clang - in the roar of the sounds and precision - they can really play .....I mean it as a compliment and not........but they are just going to hear the compliment part
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 7, 2024 0:41:28 GMT
Sleater-Kinney - Little Rope (January 19, 2024) - ~ 6 / 10The greatest all female Rock band of all time - and one of the great American Rock bands regardless of gender too............ but not so much nowadays .......... For an insanely long time - 1997-2015 on 7 straight albums - starting with album 2 - Sleater-Kinney was special. Dig Me Out (1997) - my favorite all female band Rock album ever - that they would improbably, at times actually equal on each of the next 6 albums. That was a staggering, consistent quality streak........ Little Rope has Sleater-Kinney still pounding away and still "meaning it" but without dynamism, hooks or their trademark spastic fury..........here they write slow burners that at most get to lukewarm and might thrill their NPR audience .........but this is their 11th album - and it's the 3rd in a row that leaves me a bit bored ......... This will get a lot of raves - they always do - their last 2 did too........but I can't remember one song after No Cities To Love (2015)....... Where is this album's Jumpers? Bury Our Friends? Entertain? Get Up? Also this band is deeply hurt by the leaving of drummer Janet Weiss - for the 2nd album in a row - who was this bands f'n Keith Moon ...... .........and then there were two:
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 10, 2024 23:38:31 GMT
The Vaccines - Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations (Jan 12, 2024) - 6 / 10
The Vaccines are a band made fun of by hip people for not being "great" - it's not their fault they aren't The Cribs or The Strokes......and while they were never an album band - they were a surprisingly sharp singles band and a better one than they get credit for there too.
Once they made a classic single even - Post Break-Up Sex - a terribly sad song, and video that made them sorta famous and that they could never top and which hangs over them like an f'n guillotine........they still can't top it
..........but.......this album - like all of them is very tuneful, very harmless, front-loaded, not too exciting, but not too embarrassing .......a song or two to add to their greatest hits.....their earliest albums were better but you still are just going to have that greatest hits anyway so.......
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Post by themoviesinner on Jan 15, 2024 18:36:25 GMT
Samael - Reign Of Light (2004) -- 9/10Probably my all time favorite Industrial Rock/Metal album. A collection of great tracks, which are dark and hard-hitting, but also catchy and with strangely positive and uplifting lyrics. Fantastic album.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 16, 2024 11:03:55 GMT
The Umbrellas - Fairweather Friend (January 26th, 2024) - 7 + / 10........I guess?Evoking The Pastels ( Three Cheers!), The Sundays Harriet Wheeler but fronting Belle and Sebastian (the uncanny and precise Echoes) and a whole lot of those Sarah Records forgotten acts on this album's shimmering, standout single Gone - which for them rocks hard but for the rest of us just makes you think they remembered to plug in and took a rejuvenating nap. The Umbrellas released a genuinely marvelous standalone single in 2022 which made my underrated list that year ( Write It In The Sky) - and they are one of the few bands that even dabbles in these influences in 2024 that seems like a fully functioning "band". Like The Jeanines masterful / annoying af Don't Wait For A Sign (2022) - but also not as conceptual, gimmick-y, or indebted to Twee Indie Pop tropes........this is not a great "type' of music generally imo.........and The Umbrellas avoid the pitfalls of it by adding a lot of Jangle Pop .......always a good idea These 2 records (both on Slumberland Records, of course) are like the first shots in the most non-aggressive, non-confrontational revolution in US Indie of the 2020s ..............the worst they might do is throw their diaries at you
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 25, 2024 17:07:28 GMT
Green Day - Saviors (2024) - 4 / 10
I have never liked them much but Dookie is sort of a classic (not quite) and each album in their catalog has at least one song worth hearing........until now........
As dispiriting a Rock album as I can ever recall hearing - in recent years anyway - the equivalent of asking for a handout on a street corner.......I'm sure there will be worse Rock records this year.....but maybe none that is more sad........
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 29, 2024 2:15:33 GMT
Brad Marino - Ramones $ Stones - 5 Song EP (2024) - 7.5 / 10........
Companion to his 2023 album and actually better than that was (reviewed in the Power Pop Thread - the good not great Grin and Bear It record)
This time he snags one from that album - about 2 of the best ever bands (duh) and his Alpha and Omega - and does 4 other Ramones-y originals - including this one from his old band (before The Connection I mean) that he updates which shows he hasn't grown up - good for him.........quite a fun left-field surprise
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 3, 2024 20:39:47 GMT
The MC5 - The Big Bang! : Best of the MC5 - 1967-1972 - at least 8.5 / 10
21 songs here - that sums them up better than any proper album they made.......which all had some drawback - despite what people say about them now. No other major American band associated with Punk - Pre-Punk or otherwise - gets summed up with a cherry picked compilation when they actually made albums......which makes them work in a different way. To listen to them now makes them seem more spastic and weirdly quaint too - revolutionaries (sorta), who wanted your dope and to steal your girl and who thought loving Chuck Berry made all 3 by definition equally possible. Probably closer a 9 today - along with the NY Dolls Rock and Roll compilation one of the 2 Pre-Punk compilations that makes you instantly cooler and more well versed in American street culture.........if you need a studio record Back in the USA (1970) is the best and wil do fine - which has its drawbacks but serves as a less tight representation of where they were - and why - in 1970........
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