Music Review Madness 2
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends! If you missed it, this is the second post in a series that began with this post. I won’t repeat everything I say in the introduction to that one, but in brief I’ve been compiling lists of albums to listen to and picking my favorite/favorites to briefly review for a little over a year now. My previous post reviewed the first 19 rounds of albums. This post reviews the next 15. I don’t plan to just turn this into a music blog, and I hope to write about music outside of this format as well (as I have already done once or twice), but if you like drama, self-seriousness, self-deprecation, experimentation, maximalism, prog, psychedelia, emo, post-rock, math rock, grunge, industrial, power pop, or theater, I think my picks are worth checking out, and I hope what I have to say about them is useful.
Round 20:
“Quest for Fire” by Skrillex
“Emperor Tomato Ketchup” by Stereolab
“Sour” by Olivia Rodrigo
“Pool” by Porches
“Cool Patrol” by Ninja Sex Party
“Third/Sister Lovers” by Big Star
“Funeral” by Arcade Fire
“Crime Slunk Scene” by Buckethead
“Gravity Kills” by Gravity Kills
“Franz Ferdinand” by Franz Ferdinand
“Hiding Places” by Billy Woods and Kenny Segal
“Body and Soul” by Coleman Hawkins
“Gun” by Gun
“Pacifisticuffs” by Diablo Swing Orchestra
“A Light for Attracting Attention” by the Smile
My favorite album of this round was “Crime Slunk Scene” by Buckethead. Metal albums generally don’t win their rounds, and purely instrumental albums never have before. There’s always a first, and shockingly this wacky guitarist who pumps out an album a second and wears a KFC bucket on his head made some shockingly beautiful music on this album. “Soothsayer (Dedicated to Aunt Suzie)” is the obvious highlight, and it joins a very short list along with Eddie Hazel and Frank Zappa, of guitarists with the technical skill and emotional nuance needed to keep me engaged through a ten minute song that is entirely guitar solo. Aunt Suzie would be proud. Aside from this the opening track “King James” is another obvious highlight that goes for the more beautiful side of metal. The other tracks do blend into one another a bit more - there’s a reason instrumental albums usually underperform on these lists - that said they are still excellent, and definitely have a bit more of the experimental funky (slunky?) sound I was expecting. The drumming is also a highlight - the fast and loud metal drumming on this record is used better than most contemporary metal albums. It is used sparingly with chemistry and attention to what the guitar is doing rather than just throbbing on. It reminds me more of old masterclasses in metal drumming like John Bonham’s on “Achilles Last Stand” and Cozy Powell’s on “Stargazer”. Really accomplished sound all around.
Honorable mentions: “Funeral” by Arcade Fire, “Pacifisticuffs” by Diablo Swing Orchestra, “Gun” by Gun, and “A Light for Attracting Attention” by the Smile.
Round 21:
“Naked City” by John Zorn
“Begin to Hope” by Regina Spektor
“You’ll Rebel to Anything” by Mindless Self Indulgence
“Britpop” by A. G. Cook
“Amused to Death” by Roger Waters
“Monarch of Monsters” by Vylet Pony
“Dummy” by Portishead
“Gensho” by Boris and Merzbow
“The Argument” by Fugazi
“McCartney II” by Paul McCartney
“It’s a Wonderful Life” by Sparklehorse
“Bigtop Burger: OST” by Worthikids
“Complete Communion” by Don Cherry
“Alice in Chains” by Alice in Chains
“Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison
My favorite album from this round was “Monarch of Monsters” by Vylet Pony. Oh boy, this is a prog double album rock opera with screamo and pop metal elements based on a novella-length MLP fanfiction with furry erotica for a cover and a masterpiece-tier rating on progarchives. I challenge anyone to fact-check one word of that. If this makes it sound like a funny album I can assure you it takes itself very seriously. If anything the album oversteps on edginess in its attempt to explore heavy themes like cycles of trauma and redemption through punishment versus love, and the artist made a much needed content warning. The Tumblr-obsessive-unemployable-art-student ethic seems to make almost too much sense with prog once you see it, this feels like the sort of album that could have reproduced the genre in all its criticisms and glories by accident if it wasn’t for obvious nods like the “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” quote in “Princess Cuckoo”. Musically it’s often more similar to some of the darker, dronier, witchier moments of prog’s descendants. The brutal 22-minute climax of the album, “Sludge”, alternately sounds like Rose Kemp, Lingua Ignota, and Swans. The effort is gratuitous but unshakable, and I suspect it will be very polarizing.
Honorable mentions: “It’s a Wonderful Life” by Sparklehorse and “Amused to Death” by Roger Waters.
Round 22:
“Bullhead” by Melvins
“Deceit” by This Heat
“Nicks and Grazes” by Palm
“Haunted” by Poe
“Mellon Collie and…” by The Smashing Pumpkins
“U.F.O.F.” by Big Thief
“Avalon” by Roxy Music
“Shmap’n Shmazz” by Cap’n Jazz
“Monoculture” by Sainthood Reps
“Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Rick Wakeman
“Nite Flights” by The Walker Brothers
“Melt” by Peter Gabriel
“Is This It” by The Strokes
“An Evening Wasted…” by Tom Lehrer
“So Jealous” by Tegan and Sara
This round was pretty great, and I think my favorite is a tie between “An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer” by Tom Lehrer and “Deceit” by This Heat. The Lehrer is the first winner of its vote to also be my favorite of its round - mind you it tied for both the vote and the favorite but still, well done! There aren’t a lot of musical frills to this one, just a dry, polymath professor between a piano and an audience. it’s a comedy album from the late 50s that, aside from some outdated language and the particular music styles it parodies, could have come out yesterday. Some songs like “the Elements” are just impressive musical feats in their own rights, and he manages to sneak in some clever rib or wordplay just about every sentence, it’s just such a fun album.
“Deceit” is maybe a more typical winner for one of these album rounds, which is to say, creepy experimental post-punk. The sound is largely driven by the out-of-tune chorus and short angular guitar licks - a bit like “Duck Stab” before it mixed with “Spiderland” after it, but with more of the punk attitude and subject matter of its great ‘81 contemporary “the Flowers of Romance”. “Deceit” is in this way more grounded in its era, and in defiance - musical and political - of much of it. I could stand to hear more variety in the sound, but it is a consistent album, and that consistency also applies to its quality.
Round 23:
“Symphony No. 4” by Charles Ives
“Transmissions” by Starset
“Every Night Something Happens” by Lost Crowns
“The Great Annihilator” by Swans
“Replica” by Oneohtrix Point Never
“Roller” by Goblin
“Wider than the Sky” by 40 Watt Sun
“Folk Songs for Solar Sailors” by Leslie Fish and the Dehorn Crew
“Underground Vol. 1: 1991-1994” by Three 6 Mafia
“John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” by John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band
“I Got Heaven” by Mannequin Pussy
“Channel the Spirits” by the Comet is Coming
“The Midnight Sector” by Phantom West
“Modern Vintage” by Sixx: A.M.
“Embrace” by Embrace
My favorite album of this round was “Replica” by Oneohtrix Point Never. When I put electronic albums on my list only to almost always be disappointed, this album is what I am looking for - it reminds me a bit of Tortoise’s “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” and James Blake’s “The Bells Sketch”. The songs are very ambient, but with some melodic skeleton that gives them substance as songs. There are weird and off-tune notes, but the sound is too gentle to come off as unfriendly, there’s almost an uplifting undertone - lacey and blue. OPN’s vaporwave background is on full display, but not as the guiding tone, more a well-used vocabulary that makes everything sound just a little like a distant memory. The second half is still good, but the first half is substantially better, and I can’t help but see the killer EP buried in the good LP.
I also want to give “Modern Vintage” by Sixx: A.M. an honorable mention. This album confirms Sixx: A.M. as one of my favorite alt metal groups. The middle drags a bit, but the rebellious/tongue-in-cheek/hopeful attitude throughout gives it substance even here, and in some of its best moments like “Gotta Get it Right” and “Before it’s Over” it sounds a bit like My Chemical Romance - there’s just something about angsty Queen fans in substance use recovery I guess.
Round 24:
“Wealth and Hellness” by Human Zoo
“Ommadawn” by Mike Oldfield
“Let’s Cheers to This” by Sleeping With Sirens
“Bodies” by Sidi Bou Said
“Out of Step” by Minor Threat
“Glassworks” by Philip Glass
“Dissociation” by The Dillinger Escape Plan
“Folklore” by Big Big Train
“Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev
“Punk in Drublic” by NOFX
“Ars Longa Vita Brevis” by The Nice
“As the Love Continues” by Mogwai
“Weightless” by Aeges
“Welcome to the Breakdown” by I Fight Dragons
“The Writing’s on the Wall” by Destiny’s Child
My favorite album of this round was “Bodies” by Sidi Bou Said. Many “Cardiacs Family” bands I’ve heard have the Mixolydian chaos down, but fundamentally lack the ability to herd this into the hooks and choruses of a great experimental pop song. While Sidi Bou Said sounds more alternative, with more than a little Fleetwood Mac in the vocals and guitar, it is the closest I’ve heard to Cardiacs in a long time - probably in no small part thanks to Tim Smith’s production of the record. Sometimes the lyrics also have the suggestively cheeky absurdism of Cardiacs in songs like “Wormee” and “Brittle”. Other times it feels like the lyrics are about something, like discomfort in the human condition on “Magnet”, or alcoholism on “Ode to Drink”. If you’re looking for it there, the album isn’t on Spotify, and now holds the honor of being maybe my fourth favorite album that isn’t. Worth a trip to Bandcamp.
Honorable Mentions: “Wealth and Hellness” by Human Zoo, “As the Love Continues” by Mogwai, and “Ars Longa Vita Brevis” by the Nice.
Round 25:
“Hawaii: Part II” by Miracle Musical
“All Hail West Texas” by the Mountain Goats
“The Lion and the Cobra” by Sinead O’Connor
“Riddle Box” by Insane Clown Posse
“Broken Social Scene” by Broken Social Scene
“Counterfeit Arcade” by Shayfer James
“Still Bill” by Bill Withers
“The Doors” by the Doors
“Public Image: First Issue” by Public Image Ltd
“Woyaya” by Osibisa
“Those Deep Buds” by Dog Faced Hermans
“Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog” by Norma Tanega
“Meteora” by Linkin Park
“Give Up” by the Postal Service
“The Black Album” by Metallica
This round was a tie between “Hawaii: Part II” by Miracle Musical and “Counterfeit Arcade” by Shayfer James. “Hawaii: Part II” is a bit uneven, but more original and frankly haunting than Miracle Musical’s past life as Tally Hall. The songs are largely built on an interplay of modified drum, bass, piano, and mellotron sounds, blending classic and psychedelic pop elements – and even some IDM, for instance in the album’s glitchy palindrome masterpiece “The Mind Electric”. The whole thing has enough pastiche and sound manipulation to sound more “hypnagogic” as I’ve heard it called occasionally, compounding the sense of a found object given by the false implication of a “Part I”, and the band’s initially hidden identities.
“Counterfeit Arcade” is a more even, more minimalistic album that reminds me of That Handsome Devil, Geordie Greep, and especially touring partner Will Wood. While Father John Misty sounds like Wood’s later material, the rowdy bar blues and cabaret elements on this record sound more like his early material. James sets himself apart in the moments where he luxuriates on lines a few beats longer than expected, which has a surprisingly strong effect on the overall sound of his songs. The lyrics have the wittiness of this circle but without Wood’s and Misty’s thematic ambition. Either way, if this is building to an emerging scene/genre it could be one of the best developments of the last couple decades in music.
Honorable Mentions: “The Lion and the Cobra” by Sinead O’Connor and “The Doors” by the Doors.
Round 26:
“Let Love In” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Diaspora Problems” by Soul Glo
“Buddy Holly” by Buddy Holly
“Wetdream” by WillyRodriguezWasTaken
“Ahora o Nunca” by Candelabro
“Life Starts Now” by Three Days Grace
“Mellow Yellow” by Donovan
“Slanted and Enchanted” by Pavement
“48:13” by Kasabian
“Etazhi” by Molchat Doma
“Electric Warrior” by T. Rex
“Helen Burns” by Flea
“10 Years” by an Unkindness
“Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac
“O My Heart” by Mother Mother
This round the voters were spot on – the winner was the top voted album, “Let Love In” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The comparisons I’ve heard between Cave and Michael Gira are apt, but this album sounds like Swans in more ways than just the vocals. Tracks like “Loverman” or “Thirsty Dog” have some of the dark country elements and sonic battering rams of 90s Swans, and a similar cast characters with their destructive and perverted obsessions. Cave speaks for them with a misery too practiced to pity, and indeed they tend to sound closer to power fantasies. By far the best track is “Lay me Low” a perfect example of this sort of fantasy which, while more musically spare than many of the others, is so damned soulful I can hardly stand it. I’m also a fan of the trick of closing an album with a reprise of its opener, and the reprise in this case is even better than the opener.
An honorable mention goes to the almost-undecidably-close-behind “10 Years” by An Unkindness 1. This album was ten years in the making, and it sounds like it - with the calm venom of old resentments in the vocals, and quality consistent enough to feel curated over years. All the songs are good except the ones that are great, like “The Prophet” and “Anything”.
Round 27:
“Drama” by Yes
“V” by Spock’s Beard
“In Lieu of Flowers” by Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties
“Howlin’ Wolf” by Howlin’ Wolf
“D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L” by Panchiko
“Juju” by Siouxsie and the Banshees
“Your Favorite Weapon” by Brand New
“Atomic Heart” by Mr. Children
“Wishmaster” by Wishmaster
“Tu Novio Es Una Telerana” by Aero Gros M
“Songs for Simon” by Sam Haft
“The Book of Invasions” by Horslips
“Far Side Virtual” by James Ferraro
“Hurricane Wind” by The Adam Ezra Group
“Beautiful People Ltd.” By Jarboe
I think my favorite album from this round was “In Lieu of Flowers” by Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties. This album sounds somewhat like Bright Eyes, with its cracking-voiced emo-folk-pop, and even the occasional country twang. The writing is more direct and literal however, circling from alcoholism and loss of religion to inpatient. The album’s best songs sound more like Jeff Rosenstock, which to my delight seems to be a trend amongst fifth wave emo groups. Horns for instance, previously relegated to ska punk, are used to powerful effect in the emotional climaxes, and even accompanied by Rosenstockian shouted mantras at the closes of “Smoking Rooms” and “In Lieu of Flowers” – I challenge anyone to listen to these songs without shouting along to the “over again and over again and over again, I miss you motherfuckers bad” and “in lieu of flowers shake the dirt off, I’m with you till the bitter end”. I could stand to hear more variety in the tone of the vocals, but its range of wallow to clarity, connection, and release provides a natural progression for confronting the miseries represented on the album with full sincerity. This album is nothing if not direct, and on those terms it is perfectly satisfying.
Honorable Mentions: “Your Favorite Weapon” by Brand New and “The Book of Invasions” by Horslips.
Round 28:
“The Greatest Generation” by the Wonder Years
“Dopethrone” by Electric Wizard
“Bardo” by Oophoi
“Random Avenger” by Magyar Posse
“The Inner Mounting Flame” by Mahavishnu Orchestra
“Suffocating the Bloom” by Echolyn
“Cello Concerto” by Edward Elgar
“What.” By Bo Burnham
“Happy Hour” by King Missile
“Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” by Dead Kennedys
“Pearl” by Janis Joplin
“Forever Changes” by Love
“The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse” by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
“I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” by Bright Eyes
“Koolaide Moustache in Jonestown” by Don Salsa
This round was a little weak, so the best is more flawed than usual, “What.” by Bo Burnham. The wit is sharper and the bits more memorable than “Inside”, but I feel worse by the end of it - it’s just too much distanced cynicism for 55 minutes straight - if you’ve ever watched like five episodes of South Park in a row and feel kind of depressed afterwards, it’s a bit like that. “Inside” is less mean-spirited to begin with, and cuts it with more vulnerable self-reflective moments, whereas on “What.” it feels like even the self-deprecation comes from behind a protective wall of ice. All this said, I can’t resist many of the bits, including the more absurd ones like “me with my strange choice of adjectives, and you with your muscular teeth and clockwise vagina”, and even some of the mean-spirited ones like “picture a depressed onion cutting itself”. The 20 minutes of studio numbers after the routine also has much more genuine material like “Nerds” and the irresistible closer “Hell of a Ride”. These may be too confident to be really vulnerable, but here Bo does let his ice wall down, even if he insists on bursting through it from his side.
Honorable mentions: “Cello Concerto” by Edward Elgar and “The Greatest Generation” by the Wonder Years.
Round 29:
“Radical” by Every Time I Die
“Hero and Heroine” by Strawbs
“True Romance” by Estelle
“Something/Anything?” By Todd Rundgren
“Horse Rotorvator” by Coil
“Out of the Shadows” by the Shadows
“Scaring the Hoes” by JPEGMafia and Danny Brown
“The Dubbs” by Ed Balloon
“Parallel Lines” by Blondie
“Finite Form” by Jack Stauber
“Stranger Heads Prevail” by Thank You Scientist
“Ateriavia” by Anthony1, Exodia, and Sienna Sleep
“Silly Sisters” by Maddy Prior and June Tabor
“Scum” by Napalm Death
“Different Class” by Pulp
The winner of this round was “Horse Rotorvator” by Coil. In my “20 Jazz Funk Greats” review I said that the record wasn’t heavy, just creepy. Well welcome to 1986, and Throbbing Gristle alumnus Peter Christopherson has just put out an industrial metal record that challenges Swans’ own ‘86 release “Greed” in crashing bleakness, but with a richer instrumental arsenal and all of Gristle’s old sardonic brightness. The sound is just more dynamic, from “Ostia"’s endless violin peels to “Penetralia"’s hip hop adjacent beats and collaging, split down the middle with a saxophone freak out that brings to mind David Jackson. It features an almost new wave thwacky drumline shared by “Greed”, which feels better used than in new wave and maybe heralds the point at which this percussion has ceased just being used for bad and started being used for eeeevil. Make sure not to listen to this thing while on anything, even too much coffee and you will start to feel its nails scraping across the back of your sternum.
Honorable mentions: “Hero and Heroine” by Strawbs, “Something/Anything?” By Todd Rundgren, and “Different Class” by Pulp.
Round 30:
“Fish in a Birdcage” by Fish in a Birdcage
“One Size Fits All” by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
“Bee Thousand” by Guided by Voices
“Altocolony no Teiri” by Radwimps
“The North Corridor” by Chevelle
“Apple Crack” by Apple Crack
“Brian Wilson Presents Smile” by Brian Wilson
“LP” by D’Eon
“Rock Bottom” by Robert Wyatt
“Disraeli Gears” by Cream
“La La Land” by Wax Fang
“I Disagree” by Poppy
“Independent Worm Saloon” by Butthole Surfers
“Toilet” by Clown Core
“Relationship of Command” by At the Drive-In
My favorite album of this round was probably “I Disagree” by Poppy. Given the wealth of influences on this thing I struggle to find a comparison, but it probably most reminds me of Kim Dracula’s “A Gradual Decline in Morale”, with its hyperactive metal homebase and long-aughts influences. Where Dracula’s album was focused on the morbidity of trying to stand out, Poppy’s is more worried about the morbidity of conformity. While Dracula makes a more successfully composed album-long statement, Poppy is wildly better at the basics of songwriting and even songs that are all over the place like the bombshell opener “Concrete” feel like all the parts fit together.
I’ll also give an honorable mention to “One Size Fits All” by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The chemistry and confidence of the instruments on this album are incredible, especially considering how strange the sounds often are - proof of the ten years the Mothers have spent practicing this alternate universe of music. What holds the record back from the number one spot is that the songs really don’t cohere that well. Even the most legendary track “Inca Roads” doesn’t sound much like “a song”, just a collection of good musical ideas, only “Florentine Pogan” really delivers for me, and this just isn’t quite enough for me.
Round 31:
“Violator” by Depeche Mode
“Next to Normal” Original Cast Recording
“Briny Hooves” by William D Drake
“Elliott Smith” by Elliott Smith
“American Water” by Silver Jews
“Walking With Strangers” by the Birthday Massacre
“Stormcock” by Roy Harper
“Wildflower” by Heather Findlay
“Remember the Future” by Nektar
“Tzenni” by Noura Mint Seymali
“ATLiens” by Outkast
“The Earth Pushed Back” by Have Mercy
“Bringer of Pain” by Battle Beast
“At Fillmore East” by the Allman Brothers Band
“You’re Living All Over Me” by Dinosaur Jr.
The album I liked best from this round was probably the “Next to Normal” Original Broadway Cast recording. For a long time I held off on adding musical soundtracks to my lists so I could wait to see the shows, but it simply isn’t worth the wait considering my lack of progress getting to the shows. This one was recommended to me by a theater-fan friend after learning my favorite musical is “Fun Home”. It’s easy to see thematic similarities to “Fun Home” in the unusual depiction of grief, crumbling family, and lost parental connections between the two main characters. The sound isn’t too far away either, though Next to Normal has more range, touching “Heathers” in its bitterest moments, but maybe most of all “Tommy” - Townsend’s fingerprints are all over these chord progressions. It’s awkward in places but extremely moving and I can comfortably recommend it to any fan of rock musicals.
I’m also giving an honorable mention to “Stormcock” by Roy Harper. It never quite reaches the level of once collaborator Pink Floyd, but anticipates many of their golden age songs. He is more anarchic than them with open-ended, almost ambient folk epics and lyrics that float in and out of sense and between complaints as petty as music critics to those as significant as the lost promise of an end to war.
Round 32:
“Hall of the Mountain Grill” by Hawkwind
“Szobel” by Hermann Szobel
“Love Swings” by Bobby Darin
“Cake Pop 2” by Cake Pop
“Doolittle” by Pixies
“Surgery” by Machinery of the Human Heart
“The Greatest” by Cat Power
“Evening Star” by Fripp & Eno
“Life After Death” by the Notorious B.I.G.
“Punisher” by Phoebe Bridges
“Rize of the Fenix” by Tenacious D
“Preacher’s Daughter” by Ethel Cain
“Ma Vlast” by Bedrich Smetana
“At Last!” By Etta James
“Be More Chill” Original Cast Recording
My favorite album of this round was “Surgery” by Machinery of the Human Heart. The mixing and vocals sound amateur, but even where Marvin Allister doesn’t hit all the notes he clearly knows where every note he wants to hit is. The songwriting is unimpeachable, and between the showtunes influence and confessional lyrics about mental health and therapy, he’s clearly been bitten by whatever bug got Will Wood (or Wood himself). While Wood’s work feels more frustrated by the lack of results from therapy, Allister is nostalgic, likewise grappling with not being fully mended, but with a softer view towards the “surgery”. The album closes in confirmation of this more positive angle with its best if maybe simplest song “Walking Out Alone”, a triumphant classic rock belter to leave a good taste in your mouth.
I’m also going to give an honorable mention to “Doolittle” by Pixies. This feels like the earliest proper alternative album I’ve heard, and not just for its grunge - it has great range from the pop-punk elements of “Debaser” to the almost Cardiacs sound on “No 13 Baby”. The loud/quiet on it I’ve heard so much about really helps give it more of a “stomp your feet to it” heaviness, than a “get stomped on” kind. More than most grunge, this album sounds like it’s on your side.
Round 33:
“Nicotine & China White” by the Hill Country Devil
“And the Ringmaster is Pleased to Introduce…” by A Verbal Equinox
“Wink Wink” by Sour Note Symphony
“Nail” by Scraping Foetus off the Wheel
“Faust IV” by Faust
“Mental Notes” by Split Enz
“John Prine” by John Prine
“An American in Paris” by George Gershwin
“King of the Delta Blues Singers” by Robert Johnson
“Gulag Orkestar” by Beirut
“Imperial Bedroom” by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
“Rainbow Bridge” by Fire-Toolz
“Truth” by Jeff Beck
“Ghost in the Machine” by the Police
“Broken China” by Richard Wright
This round was a tie between “Faust IV” by Faust and “Nail” by Scraping Foetus off the Wheel. The two share a rare mastery of ambience, but Faust has a much more minimalist approach. The lyrics in particular feel like little more than garnish on the cleverly chosen short music passages, overlayed and droned over one another. I’ve been a fan of the results for longer than I realized, as it turns out one of my favorite Cardiacs songs, “Wireless”, is mostly a cover of “Lauft…Heisst Das Es Lauft Oder Es Kommt Bald…Lauft”.
Foetus, along with Coil and Swans, has convinced me that 80’s industrial rock was one of the main highlights of an otherwise lackluster decade. “Nail” shares “Horse Rotorvator’s” shockingly effective formula of orchestral highlights on almost new wave drums, repurposed into a crashing, bouncing march. It doesn’t quite live up to the latter’s musical innovation, but makes up for it with memorable Nick Cave-esque vocals. Sometimes their brutality is gratuitous, but there’s something irresistible in the expressive, almost surreal escalation in the imagery. It fits the goth decadence of the music well enough to justify some excess.
Honorable mention: “Wink Wink” by Sour Note Symphony.
Round 34:
“Winter Songs” by Art Bears
“Ben Folds Five” by Ben Folds Five
“Arbeit Macht Frei” by Area
“Sunrise” by Eire Apparent
“Bricks are Heavy” by L7
“Odds & Sodds” by the Who
“Kyogen” by Ado
“Lovregana” by Ron Nagorcka
“The Fugs” by the Fugs
“Psychomorphism” by Skeleton Staff
“Super Fly (soundtrack)” by Curtis Mayfield
“Arkhaiomelisidonophunikheratos” by Satanicpornocultshop
“Dune” by Klaus Schulze
“Flying Doesn’t Help” by Anthony Moore
“The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most” by Dashboard Confessional
This round was a tough one, but I think I’m going to hand it to the vote winner “Superfly (soundtrack)” by Curtis Mayfield. Soundtrack albums usually disagree with me a bit, and this is no exception - you can tell these songs weren’t designed to line up right next to each other for a continuous 45 minute listen. The quality of the songs is unimpeachable though, incorporating the blues Mayfield was so well-versed in and the funk emerging at the time, but also orchestral elements that really add a whole new depth to the sound. It brings out a gentleness and pain in Mayfield’s high-register vocals and sentimental guitar technique Jimi Hendrix personally learned from him. All of Mayfield’s experience and ambition pays off on a record that warns with melancholy, but never resignation, of the emerging addiction crisis facing black youths during this period.
I’m also going to give an honorable mention to “Psychomorphism” by Skeleton Staff. If you like Donovan, T-Rex, ELO, and/or Jellyfish this record will scratch the itch. A cheeky pastiche I might fault on originality if it wasn’t such a good time.
Finally, in the last post of this kind I ranked the winning albums against one another. This is an updated version of that list, with rankings revised where my opinions of last post’s albums have changed, and to add in the albums from this round:
Masterpiece:
-
Illusory Walls
-
The Normal Album
-
There Existed an Addiction to Blood
-
Mahashmashana
-
Fontanelle
Great:
-
Monarch of Monsters
-
Ants From Up There
-
Hellmode
-
MTV Unplugged in New York
-
Queen II
-
Let Love in
-
In Lieu of Flowers
-
The New Sound
-
Surgery
-
Bodies
-
Horse Rotorvator
-
Crime Slunk Scene
-
I Disagree
-
The Long Dark Blue
Very Good:
-
Man on the Moon: The End of Day
-
An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer
-
Nail
-
Faust IV
-
Next to Normal
-
Deceit
-
The Bedlam in Goliath
-
Homeland
-
Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
-
Plastic Death
-
Hawaii: Part II
-
Counterfeit Arcade
-
Replica
-
Thin Black Duke
Pretty Good:
-
Superfly (Soundtrack)
-
Songs for the Deaf
-
20 Jazz Funk Greats
-
The Black Album
-
What.
-
Biophilia
-
Les Cinq Saisons
-
Pretty. Odd.
Want more reviews, but more rationality-focused and also for movies instead of music? Check out Nick’s Rationalist Movie Reviews!
-
Also known as YourMovieSucks ↩︎
If , help us write more by donating to our Patreon.
Tagged: