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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 27, 2021 12:14:32 GMT
Hoodoo Gurus - Stoneage Romeos (1984) - 8 / 10 ....... maybe even 8.5.......
An album that is better in its shorter version - in its original 11 tracks with no bonus songs added - it's a blast.
It's also an album everybody can like - straight up garage Rock - some of it very funny and all songs are short and catchy. It could have been made in any decade - from the 60s until now.
Also, Nirvana copped the chorus of this one for their song "Breed" too ....
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Post by themoviesinner on Feb 27, 2021 17:42:56 GMT
Radiohead - Kid A (2000) -- 2/10Gave this a relisten, since I wanted to give it another chance and not dismiss it outright after only one listen (which happened several years ago), but my opinion of it didn'tchange at all, it actually became even worse. Apart from The National Anthem, which even that is ruined by some out of place electronic noises and Thom Yorke's annoying whiny vocals, there is nothing on here that I'd call even remotely interesting. Incredibly dull, dreary, lifeless music that just drones on and on without any purpose or proper climax. Radiohead seem to confuse soulful or beautiful with inert and monotonous. It's also an album devoid of any bite or character. It sounds incredibly forced and artificial. One of the worst albums of the 21st century.
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Post by Joaquim on Feb 27, 2021 20:46:24 GMT
Radiohead - Kid A (2000) -- 2/10Gave this a relisten, since I wanted to give it another chance and not dismiss it outright after only one listen (which happened several years ago), but my opinion of it didn'tchange at all, it actually became even worse. Apart from The National Anthem, which even that is ruined by some out of place electronic noises and Thom Yorke's annoying whiny vocals, there is nothing on here that I'd call even remotely interesting. Incredibly dull, dreary, lifeless music that just drones on and on without any purpose or proper climax. Radiohead seem to confuse soulful or beautiful with inert and monotonous. It's also an album devoid of any bite or character. It sounds incredibly forced and artificial. One of the worst albums of the 21st century.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2021 12:18:14 GMT
The I Don't Cares - Wild Stab (2016).......... ~ 9 / 10 In which Paul Westerberg lets Juliana Hatfield sift through his garbage and pick a bunch of winners - some of which already existed - and a more polished production and recording approach than anything he's done since the 90s. He also replicates The Replacements trick of fronting a gang - except this time it's in the guise of a mischievous, fun, romantic couple not as a lone wolf. One day he's going to die and you'll see he had about 30 of these kind of albums in that suffocating basement of his but couldn't be bothered to do this more than once .....and that was with someone helping him pick songs, edit, sing and play for fncksake.
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Post by DaleCooper on Feb 28, 2021 14:29:12 GMT
Julien Baker - Little Oblivions A little more ambitious in the musically in this album from Julien, but I think it looses some of the intimacy that made Turn Out the Lights one of my favorite albums of the past decade. I haven't really listened to it enough to really get a feel of which songs I really like, but there were some that stood out at first listen. Anyway, it's easy to compare Julien to Phoebe (given genre and the fact that they collaborated on the fantastic Boygenius EP) and I think between the two Phoebe is the much stronger songwriter, although Julien is the stornger lyricist. I also really love her voice, can't fathom how anyone can find it vacant, to me it's one of the most expressive and emotive voices in the business right now. 7/10
And about Kid A, yeah, out of all Radioheads albums I have listened to (haven't really listened to Pablo Honey in whole, and barely King of Limbs either) it's the one I have the hardest time to really "get" as a whole. It has some truly spectacular songs in How To Dissapear Completely, Idioteque and Optimistic (a really underrated more straight up rock song) but also a lot of stuff that basically is just experimental noise. I hadn't really listened to it in a long time before giving it a go again recently, and I think it's one of those albums I respect more than enjoy and that I think more highly of when I haven't listened to it in a while.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2021 14:38:30 GMT
Julien Baker - Little Oblivions I also really love her voice, can't fathom how anyone can find it vacant, to me it's one of the most expressive and emotive voices in the business right now. 7/10 Just to be clear I called her singing vacant, not her voice, that's not the same thing and that wording was pretty carefully chosen btw.
Ymmv.
************************************************************************************************************ Julien Baker - Little Oblivions (2021) - 5 / 10..........even re-thinking the 5 tbh........ You would be hard pressed to find a new album that I would make more fun of than this one: With its grand poetic conceits, its hushed vacant singing suddenly morphing into vocal gymnastics to match swelling music (EVERY time!), its rave critics reviews and emphasis on lyrical detail - excruciating detail - this is some low hanging fruit on the pacinoyes Please Kick Me scale. The kind of album that people use words like "stunning and transcendent" to describe when I'mmina use words like "exhausting and tuneless" ....but hey for people THIS in touch with their feelings - every miserable last one of them - and into oddly named scented candles - congratulations........ you have just found your album of the year.
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Post by DaleCooper on Feb 28, 2021 14:54:04 GMT
Just to be clear I called her singing vacant, not her voice, that's not the same thing and that wording was pretty carefully chosen btw. Well, be that as it may, for my point it's pretty much interchangeable.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 1, 2021 10:53:37 GMT
Cub - Betti-Cola (1993) - 7 / 10
There will never be a Rock group like Cub again I suspect. Not as "convincing" as them at least - Lisa Marr's band was twee to such a ludicrous girly extent that no "act" is even readable. This is the stuff they actually LIKED - and it plays in their hands as a real life Josie & The Pussycats at a slumber party.
This album - their debut - has a million sugary pop songs on it - so many that it is either the most annoying record ever made or the most fun - if your idea of fun is all you can eat cotton candy.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 2, 2021 11:38:43 GMT
The Only Ones - The Immortal Story (1992) .......(1977-1980) - 9+ / 10
If you gave this impeccably and carefully chosen compilation - with singles, album tracks, alternate versions, B-sides - to someone who has never heard them before, they'll maybe think they were either a very famous band or at least that they were a very great band. Not so much on the first part.........but very much so on the second part........so much so that this album makes a strong case and doesn't even come close to making the whole case.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 3, 2021 11:23:15 GMT
The Beards - Funtown (2002) - 7.5 / 10
A one album only collaboration between the Queen Kim Shattuck and her buddy - Lisa Marr (I just reviewed Marr's band cub and their debut the other day in this thread, see how it's all connected !?!).
Mostly Marr's songs with her lead vocals but Shattuck helps immensely on all arrangements, which in turn makes Marr better - less conceptual / contrived. Shattuck also contributes a few winners of her own that she sings lead on too - which balance things out and keep it from being repetitive.
A sweet, smart and quite charming record....
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Post by MsMovieStar on Mar 3, 2021 12:54:03 GMT
Oh honeys, Agnes Obel's Aventine 8/10. Her music is very cinematic and achingly beautiful.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 4, 2021 11:14:51 GMT
The Airport '77s - Rotation (2021)....... generously (very) slightly above a 7 / 10 because they could use a little encouragement
8 song debut with 3 noticeably lesser ones right in a row, right in the middle which dares you to turn it off altogether.
Two standout tracks : "(When You're Kissing On Me Do You Think Of) James McAvoy" and "Bad Mom!" that are two of the most likable and funny songs of the (dismal) year so far ("James McAvoy" is in the Best of the 2021 songs thread also).
Think Cheap Trick mixed with a revisionist The Raspberries - but those bands wrote for stadiums and this is trying to reach maybe like 11 or 12 Power Pop nerds at most .......and that includes me......... which is both cute and utterly defeatist.
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Post by Joaquim on Mar 4, 2021 19:43:25 GMT
The Only Ones - The Immortal Story (1992) .......(1977-1980) - 9+ / 10
If you gave this impeccably and carefully chosen compilation - with singles, album tracks, alternate versions, B-sides - to someone who has never heard them before, they'll maybe think they were either a very famous band or at least that they were a very great band. Not so much on the first part.........but very much so on the second part........so much so that this album makes a strong case and doesn't even come close to making the whole case. I’m glad Spotify hasn’t taken this one down like they did remains! Not yet at least
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 5, 2021 10:58:16 GMT
Kiwi Jr. - Cooler Returns (2021) - ~ 7.5+ / 10
Very Pavement-y / Parquet Courts-ish....
Highest rating I've given to a 2021 album - along with Sleaford Mods - but this is more tuneful (if less weighty). So much fun they drop a random T.Rex reference without ever stopping to pat themselves on the back which for smart geeks like this - takes a lot of self-control. Maybe not "quite" an 8 but it's close and better than just "good"...
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Post by themoviesinner on Mar 5, 2021 17:04:04 GMT
Sear Bliss - Forsaken Symphony (2002) -- 8/10Sear Bliss is a very unique unique black metal band, since they were the first (and probably only) band that combined black metal with brass instruments, such as trumpets and the trombone (one of the founders of the band is a trombone player). This album was their fourth full release and is a mix of the more melancholic, jazzy sound of their first albums and the more bombastic, grandiose and epic musical formula they would develop in their later releases. This album is incredibly strong musically, among their strongest works, but it is marred by an ugly, dirty production that is pretty common and fit for black metal albums, but just doesn't do justice to Sear Bliss' sound, because it differs a lot from other black metal bands. Which is a shame because with a better production (like that of the other albums from the band) this would have been a masterpiece.
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Post by Joaquim on Mar 6, 2021 6:13:27 GMT
This might be an unpopular opinion but I like chairs missing a lot more. They’re both really good but the latter just does it for me more, much more my style. Reuters blew me away on pink flag tho. Like an 8/8.5 and a 9.5/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 6, 2021 11:09:50 GMT
Husker Du - New Day Rising (1985)........... 10 / 10
Too loud......Too frantic.......too relentless.........too good.
So were they.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 8, 2021 7:42:34 GMT
The Contrast - Perfect Disguise ((2008).........(2000-2007))..........7+ / 10
Do you love 1980s era REM? You should ......I do......and The Contrast REALLY does.
Stellar compilation that robs Athens, Georgia's finest blind while still hitting the Jangle Pop sweet spots.
Oh and the funny part is they're British.......
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 9, 2021 11:24:16 GMT
Geoff Palmer & Lucy Ellis - Your Face Is Weird (2020) - 7+ / 10I am a fan of both these guys - at their best, a very big fan - but this first-time collaboration is 6 covers and only 2 originals - it's pretty slight. Still, they are charming together - they cover John Prine and IMPROVE it (2020s cover of the year, below), Palmer (The Connection, New Trocaderos) is a kind of jack of all trades arranger/singer/writer/facilitator and Australia's Lucy Ellis (Spazzys, Lucy and The Rats) has the best female voice in Rock these days - bar none. Great album name too....
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 10, 2021 9:38:31 GMT
Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches EP (1981) - 10 / 10I actually own every version of this released - 6 songs, 8 songs, 10 songs. You could say I shouldn't be so proud of such gross financial irresponsibility but YOU would tell me not to buy the (eventual, inevitable) 12 song version too - so how can I trust your judgment on such things anyway?
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 11, 2021 5:54:21 GMT
Muddy Waters - I'm Ready (1978) - 8 / 10
Companion piece to "Hard Again" (1977) - copying that all-timer's formula and at times hitting the same spectacular heights. The material is weaker but the playing, production and recording is pretty much perfect.
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Post by Joaquim on Mar 12, 2021 7:50:29 GMT
I’ll say a high 7/low 8. Gets a bit too electronic-y for me but there’s still stuff I liked on every song, particularly the drumming on 5 8 6. Think a lot of it is just that the album peaked really early for me. I quite liked leave me alone but they should’ve saved this one for the end. Just towers over everything else on the album for me, it’s the Joy division vibes Yea this one’s at least a 9.5
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 12, 2021 11:55:43 GMT
The New Trocaderos - Thrills & Chills (2015) - 8 / 10
The best and most complete record Brad Marino & Geoff Palmer (The Connection) ever made together and Kurt Baker is here too (on bass mostly) making them a small time supergroup. So if you love the Stones, Faces and Rockpile........well....... this is NOT as f'n good as them ...don't be ridiculous. Still.....a smoking hot, genuine old school Rock and Roll record in a decade where that wasn't done much.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 14, 2021 9:36:28 GMT
Amy Rigby - 18 Again: An Anthology (2002 ........1996-2002) ...... 8 / 10
The upbeat numbers catch your ear first because she has an ear for hooks ........but her ballads are just as good.
Sometimes the ballads are even funnier too......which is saying something .......and which off the top of my head applies to Ike Reilly and very few others - maybe nobody else in her era - which certainly doesn't make many female Ike Reillys either.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 15, 2021 6:24:13 GMT
Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches EP (1981) - 10 / 10I actually own every version of this released - 6 songs, 8 songs, 10 songs. You could say I shouldn't be so proud of such gross financial irresponsibility but YOU would tell me not to buy the (eventual, inevitable) 12 song version too - so how can I trust your judgment on such things anyway? ^ Mission of Burma - Vs. (1982) - 10/10 - Same thing except this is just the 12 and 16 song versions - but this costs more since its a full record and is in multiple copies across more formats ......um.......so I actually spent more.
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