Albums of 2018

DocBrown
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by DocBrown »

prosecutorgodot wrote: It's a mid-rocking rock album, female lead vocals. I liked it, but I think some of you might like it more, like the DocBrown-Jirin-type crowd.
Hey, we need one more! Three's a crowd :D

But I did enjoy "Painted Shut", so I'll be sure to give it a listen. Thanks, prosecutorgodot!
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Live in Phoenix
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Live in Phoenix »

Yo La Tengo
Studio albums
1986 Ride the Tiger
1987 New Wave Hot Dogs
1989 President Yo La Tengo
1990 Fakebook
1992 May I Sing with Me
1993 Painful
1995 Electr-O-Pura
1997 I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
2000 And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
2003 Summer Sun
2006 I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
2009 Popular Songs
2013 Fade
2015 Stuff Like That There
2018 There's a Riot Going On

What the fuck, with some of these. I feel like I'm being attacked while reading these. I don't even think about album titles 99.99% of the time, with Yo La Tengo forcing me to the other .01%. I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One is their best one, and maybe not coincidentally their highest-rated album... Maybe they could be the next Radiohead if they just got their album titles in shape.

Compilations
1996 Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
2000 Mishmoshi-Moshi
2005 Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs: 1985–2003
2006 Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics
2008 They Shoot, We Score
2016 Murder in the Second Degree

The bar is perhaps lower for compilations, though there's an issue in both lists of reusing other song/album titles. Actually They Shoot, We Score (compiling film work) is pretty clever.
Jirin
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

Did I just get ‘You peopled’? ;)

Will add it to my list.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks- Sparkle Hard

Stephen Malkmus, leader of Pavement, just released what's probably the third or fourth best Pavement LP yet (no faint praise, honest), and it's not even by Pavement. Sparkle Hard is the Jicks' seventh album, and it's an immensely satisfying release. While the album covers much of the same stylistic ground as Pavement, namely, guitar bass drums alt/indie rocking and rolling, the band's playing is much tighter here, far from the loose compositions that filled albums like Slanted & Enchanted and Wowee Zowee. Sparkle Hard also contains some real surprises, like on the song "Refute", a male/female lead vocal duet with a strong country music vibe, and the nearly seven minute long "Kite", which is one of the few songs on the album where the guitars really let loose for some real gnarly maximum shreddage, dude. But it's the song "Middle America" that's the highlight of the album, as it's here more than anywhere else that Malkmus gets to show off his knack for writing a killer pop tune. It's easily one of the best songs of the year, and it's on an album that has been one of the best surprises of the year.

Verdict: A seriously good album

Courtney Barnett- Tell Me How You Really Feel

I am convinced that Courtney Barnett couldn't make a bad, or even mediocre album, if she tried to. After the absolutely stunning Sometimes I Sit and Think..., as well as last year's great collaboration with Kurt Vile, Lotta Sea Lice, it was no small wonder that Barnett's latest LP would shoot right up my list of most anticipated albums of 2018. But although the album is strong, I can't help but feel as if it's a minor letdown.

Tell Me How You Really Feel combines most of the elements that make Barnett one of my favorite artists of the decade, but almost always in ways that feel a little lesser than past efforts. Sure, Barnett's a very talented guitarist, and her guitar work is on display here, but wasn't it so much better when it was so raw and noisy and fuzzy and distorted like on "Over Everything"? Sure, her penchant for writing about the minutiae of life is here as well, but wasn't it so much more poignant on "Avant Gardener" and "Depreston"? Sure, she can bring the hooks, sometimes big mean serious hooks, like on "City Looks Pretty" and "Crippling Self Doubt...", but weren't the hooks so much more...hooky...on songs like "Elevator Operator" and "Pedestrian at Best"? Placed in a vacuum, Tell Me How You Really Feel is a very good album. But when compared to her past efforts, I can't help but feeling it's a tad bit slight.

Verdict: A minor disappointment, yet still a strong album overall
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

Listening to Hop Along. I totally get why you would think ‘us types’ ;) would like this as it sounds a lot like Waxahatchee and Vagabon.

But this is also why ‘I think you would like this’ type of recommendations don’t tend to work. Because if it’s not in a style that appeals to you, you probably won’t notice the nuances that elevate from good to great among the core fan base.

Just like people who don’t love Community didn’t see anything wrong with season 4.
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prosecutorgodot
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by prosecutorgodot »

[spotifyplaylist][/spotifyplaylist]
Jirin wrote:Listening to Hop Along. I totally get why you would think ‘us types’ ;) would like this as it sounds a lot like Waxahatchee and Vagabon.

But this is also why ‘I think you would like this’ type of recommendations don’t tend to work. Because if it’s not in a style that appeals to you, you probably won’t notice the nuances that elevate from good to great among the core fan base.

Just like people who don’t love Community didn’t see anything wrong with season 4.
Alright, thanks for the feedback Jirin. Glad you listened to it.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

Sorry if I came off like a jerk in that post. A better way to phrase it is: I've had much better success finding new music asking people what they like than asking people what they think I would like. For just the reason that you have much more expertise in making judgments within music you love yourself.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Pusha T- Daytona

Just when I was getting scared that Kanye had lost his edge, Pusha T releases Daytona, a seven song album where every single beat sets the standard for what a "dirty" or "nasty" or "sick" beat should be. Case in point, there's a moment about thirty seconds into the excellent opening track "If You Know You Know" where this triumphant organ sample comes in and all you can do is just sit back and wonder how the man does it. Every song on Daytona is either fully produced by, or at least co-produced by, West, and after the recent bullshit that he's been spouting off, it's so satisfying to know that his talent for crafting beats is still intact.

But enough about the drama of Mr. West and back to Daytona. Much has been made about the album's length, and for good reason. Daytona is seven songs and 21 minutes long, barely long enough to be considered an EP, much less a full-length studio effort. But apparently that's how Pusha T wanted it considered, and so it shall be judged accordingly. With all that being said, as an album it's easy for me to wish that Daytona was a bit longer. I figure that 10 songs over 30 minutes (or so) would be perfect for the album, but as it stands, I figure it's better to have a 21 minute album of consistent greatness than a 40 minute album that's bogged down by a couple of filler songs. The brevity of Daytona does have one huge advantage though, and it's the fact that the album has an insanely high level of re-play-ability. It's all too easy to just put the album on and keep listening to it after the first listen is done.

As for Pusha T himself, the man could rap his grocery list and make it sound dangerous. So when he's rapping about cocaine (because when isn't he rapping about cocaine?) it makes even a square like me feel like I'm a hardened coke dealer. Crafting that sort of immersive experience takes a great deal of talent, a talent that many would-be Pusha Ts utterly lack, and the greatness of Daytona is of the same sort that the best crime movies embody. One of the year's best for sure.

Verdict: Cocaine
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Chvrches- Love Is Dead

A lesser version of Every Open Eye, which was a lesser version of The Bones of What You Believe. Still a perfectly decent album, but a little on the long side (49 minutes isn't all that long, but this thing could've culled a couple of songs and been all the better for it), and it's lacking a song as great as "The Mother We Share" or "Recover" or "Leave a Trace". The album's biggest flaw is the song with Matt Berninger (who is usually a great artist), "My Enemy", which sounds so anemic, partially due to Berninger's vocals, which are a total drag on the song, slowing everything down to a molasses-like pace and killing any momentum the album had going for it. On a positive note, the opening track "Graffiti" is a great burst of synthpop fun, with a catchy hook that recalls some of the best moments on the band's first two albums. Overall you could make a really solid EP out of the four or five best songs from Love Is Dead, but not much else.

Verdict: Decent, but diminishing returns
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bootsy
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by bootsy »

Nick wrote:Chvrches- Love Is Dead

A lesser version of Every Open Eye, which was a lesser version of The Bones of What You Believe. Still a perfectly decent album, but a little on the long side (49 minutes isn't all that long, but this thing could've culled a couple of songs and been all the better for it), and it's lacking a song as great as "The Mother We Share" or "Recover" or "Leave a Trace". The album's biggest flaw is the song with Matt Berninger (who is usually a great artist), "My Enemy", which sounds so anemic, partially due to Berninger's vocals, which are a total drag on the song, slowing everything down to a molasses-like pace and killing any momentum the album had going for it. On a positive note, the opening track "Graffiti" is a great burst of synthpop fun, with a catchy hook that recalls some of the best moments on the band's first two albums. Overall you could make a really solid EP out of the four or five best songs from Love Is Dead, but not much else.

Verdict: Decent, but diminishing returns
Yeah I'm seeing subpar reviews. This is too bad as I loved their debut.
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acroamor
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by acroamor »

1. Dream Wife - Dream Wife
2. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
3. U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited
4. Lucy Dacus - Historian
5. Caroline Rose - LONER
6. Camp Cope - How to Socialize and Make Friends
7. The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time - stage four
8. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
9. Jack White - Boarding House Reach
10. Grouper - Grid of Points
11. Jon Hopkins - Singularity
12. Soccer Mommy - Clean
13. DJ Koze - Knock Knock
14. Beach House - 7
15. First Aid Kit - Ruins
16. Migos - Culture II
17. Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
18. Frankie Cosmos - Vessel
19. Kali Uchis - Isolation
20. Screaming Females - All at Once
21. tUnE-yArDs - I can feel you creep into my private life
22. Father John Misty - God’s Favorite Customer
23. Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base and Casino
24. Loma - Loma
25. Iceage - Beyondless
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by notbrianeno »

Essential (5/5)
Beach House | 7

Excellent (4.5/5)
Pusha T | DAYTONA
Janelle Monáe | Dirty Computer
Rae Sremmurd / Swae Lee / Slim Jxmmi | SR3MM
The Voidz | Virtue
Jon Hopkins | Singularity
Jonny Greenwood | Phantom Thread
Mount Eerie | Now Only
A.A.L. (Against All Logic) | 2012-2017
Post Malone | beerbongs & bentleys
Young Fathers | Cocoa Sugar

Great (4/5)
U.S. Girls | In a Poem Unlimited
Gas | Rausch
Tinashe | Joyride
Migos | Culture II
Porches | The House
Amen Dunes | Freedom
Don Broco | Technology
Playboi Carti | Die Lit

Good (3.5/5)
Cardi B | Invasion of Privacy
Car Seat Headrest | Twin Fantasy
Rhye | Blood
Skee Mask | Compro
Arctic Monkeys | Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
Hayley Kiyoko | Expectations
MGMT | Little Dark Age
Ty Segall | Freedom's Goblin
Ravyn Lenae | Crush EP
The Weeknd | My Dear Melancholy,
Kali Uchis | Isolation
Various Artists | Black Panther: The Album
Kacey Musgraves | Golden Hour
No Age | Snares Like a Haircut
Iceage | Beyondless
Kylie Minogue | Golden
Preoccupations | New Material
Maluma | F.A.M.E.
Scallops Hotel | Sovreign Nose of (Y)our Arrogant Face
K. Forest | When It's All Said and Done EP

Decent (3/5)
SOB x RBE | Gangin
Panopticon | The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness
David Byrne | American Utopia
The Soft Moon | Criminal
Tune-Yards | I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
JPEGMAFIA | Veteran
Jack White | Boarding House Reach
Peggy Gou | Once
CupcakKe | Ephorize
Johnny Jewel | Themes for Television
Profligate | Somewhere Else
A$AP Rocky | Testing
Grouper | Grid of Points
Charlie Puth | Voicenotes
Saba | Care for Me
Soccer Mommy | Clean
Blanck Mass | World Eater Re-Voxed EP
Shirt | Pure Beauty
Ought | Room Inside the World

Mediocre (2.5/5)
Efrim Manuel Menuck | Pissing Stars
Jeff Rosenstock | POST-
John Tejada | Dead Start Program
Son Lux | Brighter Wounds
Anna von Hausswolff | Dead Magic
DJ Koze | knock knock
Justin Timberlake | Man of the Woods
Django Django | Marble Skies
Fall Out Boy | M A N I A
H.C. McEntire | Lionheart
Mouse on Mars | Dimensional People
Nils Frahm | All Melody
Shame | Songs of Praise
Young Thug | Hear No Evil
Maxo Kream | Punken
J. Cole | K.O.D.
Camilla Cabello | Camilla
Yo La Tengo | There's a Riot Going On

Poor (2/5)
The Men | Drift
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Kanye West- Ye

Okay, so this whole thing feels like something I dreamed up one night and now I'm trying to explain to someone the next morning. It has that dream logic to it, where it makes sense when you think about it for half a second before it totally falls apart. Just imagine trying to describe this thing.

"Okay, so there's this new Kanye album out. But it's only 7 songs long. And not even long songs, the album itself is only 23 minutes. But it's not an EP. It's an LP. And the first song keeps talking, yes, talking, about pre-meditated murder and the cover of the album is a picture of Wyoming, because there was a listening party for the album in Wyoming, and, wait, wait, come back here, I'm not finished talking about the album!"

With all this aside, how is the actual music? Well the first song "I Thought About Killing You" has this fantastic spoken word intro about killing oneself accompanied with some absolutely ghostly production, before transitioning into a more traditional "banger". It's a solid song, but it constantly feel like the introduction to something much longer and meaningful than what this 23 minute long album can provide. This album's second song, "Yikes", is yet another banger, and the album's best song. Lyrically the song, and the rest of the album, deals with drug abuse, paranoia, and manic depression, with the song concluding with a rather haunting, yet very short, spoken word piece by Kanye which seems to capture the mind-ravaging thought processes of someone in a state of total mania.

The album goes downhill on the third track "All Mine", which is just too slow for the album and really hurts the momentum that the first two songs had. "All Mine" is followed by "Wouldn't Leave", which is a touching tribute to all the women who stand by their men, even when those men are drug abusing paranoid manic depressives, like Mr. West. It's a pretty good song, with soulful vocals in the chorus and bridge, but nothing mind-blowing. After that comes "No Mistakes", which at just two minutes long feels more like an interlude than a song proper. The song also contains a soulful chorus in the vein of "All Mine", with uncredited vocals from Kid Cudi and Charlie Wilson. "No Mistakes" has dramatic production and a sky-high chorus, but it still feels like it's the start of something bigger, something more grand and fleshed out.

"Ghost Town" and "Violent Crimes" round out the tracklist, the former being an ode to the struggles inherent to relationships, the later being an ode to West's young daughter. They're dramatic songs, the former with a prominent guitar in the mix and belting vocals, the later with its chorus of singers, but they're not enough to avert any feelings that there should be something more here.

Ultimately Ye is a pretty good album by a fantastic artist. Sadly, it's the first Kanye album that feels inessential.

Verdict: Good
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Father John Misty- God's Favorite Customer

The latest album from Mr. Josh Tillman, God's Favorite Customer, arrives just a year after his magnum opus, the sprawling social commentary-filled Pure Comedy. But if you're thinking that you're just going to get Pure Comedy Part 2 here, well then you may be in for a surprise. The truth is that God's Favorite Customer is nothing more, and nothing less than ten relatively straightforward songs, no grand overarching narrative, no decrying society's evils.

Musically, words like "lush" were invented to describe albums like this. "Just Dumb Enough to Try", for instance, contains drums and piano and electric guitar and a string section and a bass and an acoustic guitar and a mellotron. And the album's opening track, "Hangout at the Gallows", contains most of the instruments listed before, but with the addition of a tambourine and a crumar and a bass synthesizer and a horn section. It's fairly beautiful stuff, but it's probably for the best that the album is only 38 minutes long, lest a listener drown in the album's dense instrumentation.

Lyrically, Mr. Tillman ditches most of the irony that was found in his earlier work for a more direct sincerity, best evidenced by the sheer amount of love songs found here, like the aforementioned "Just Dumb Enough to Try" and "Please Don't Die". Father John Misty is a balladeer at heart, and as much as I loved his previous two albums, there's something innately satisfying about him living up to that trope, and crafting an updated version of the sort of piano-lead rock that 70s stars like Elton John and Harry Nilsson pioneered. With God's Favorite Customer, Mr. Tillman continues one of the best musical streaks of the decade. It may not carry that sort of all caps IMPORTANCE that his earlier works may have, but that's no matter. Instead it contains something else. A whole lot of love.

Verdict: Short and sweet
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Kanye West and Kid Cudi- Kids See Ghosts

Maybe it's due to my lowered expectations, but I actually found Kids See Ghosts, the new collaborative effort from Kanye West and Kid Cudi, to actually be a slight improvement over West's week old album Ye. The operative word here being "slight". Much like Ye, Kids See Ghosts is seven tracks over 23 minutes, and as such, never really gets a chance to develop into a fully formed entity. Some would call an album like this an EP. Mr. West and Kid Cudi disagree.

Kids See Ghosts starts off with a genuine head-scratcher of song, "Feel the Love", which is a rather straightforward hip-hop song until about the halfway point, at which West gives a bewildering attempt at what I can only assume is scat singing, nearly derailing the song before coalescing into the beat. As far as openers go, it's...memorable. The album's second song is "Fire", and is built around a sample of the novelty song "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" by Napoleon XIV. The song contains little details of note.

However, the album vastly improves on the Louis Prima-sampling "4th Dimension", and on the five and a half minute long "Reborn", the later of which is a passionate ode to redemption and features prominent vocals from Cudi on the chorus. Musically these songs are a bit richer than the album's first two tracks, and more closely approximate the rich colors found in the Takashi Murakami cover art. The album hits its high point on the penultimate track, "Kids See Ghosts", which features a minimal drum beat and an eerie, otherworldly synth line that snakes its way through the song, like something from a haunted house soundtrack.

Overall, Kids See Ghosts feels like the sort of album that would've had its moment back in Summer 2009, when the hype for Kid Cudi's debut album was reaching a fever pitch, but before the MTV VMA controversy in September of that year nearly ended West's career. As it stands now, Kids See Ghosts is a decent-good album nine years too late.

Anyway, here's a track list I worked out, taking the best songs from Ye and Kids See Ghosts. It only comes out to about 36 minutes, but I feel like it's a much more fleshed out album than its source material...

1. I Thought About Killing You
2. Yikes
3. 4th Dimension
4. Wouldn't Leave / No Mistakes
5. Ghost Town / Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)
6. Reborn
7. Kids See Ghosts
8. Violent Crimes

Verdict: Kanye name-dropping Herzog & de Meuron on the title track made the architecture nerd in me smile.

Snail Mail- Lush

How is it that some pieces of music are so apt at embodying a particular season? Snail Mail's debut album, Lush, contains no lawnmowers or cicadas or birdsong, but it might as well, considering the fact that the album's lethargic indie rock strumming is practically synonymous with summer. Now, I know I just called the album "lethargic", but you really have to take my word for it when I say that I never meant that as an insult. Far from it. But lethargy and teenage ennui go hand in hand on Lush, an album where the 19 year old Lindsey Jordan broadcasts bedroom rock odes to the summertime blues.

Nowhere is this sense of sun-kissed sadness better represented than on the album's fourth song, "Heat Wave". The song is only five minutes long, but transitions seamlessly from one distinct section to another and then to another, giving the song a sort of epic feeling of sprawl to it, not unlike Sonic Youth's "Teen Age Riot". The song, like many of the songs on the album, contains something of a non-entity of a chorus, a chorus that comes and goes without the listener ever really recognizing that what they just listened to was the song's refrain. But whereas for some artists this quality might be the sign of poor songcraft, in the case of Snail Mail it actually helps bolster the album's hazy laid-back attitude. The bulk of the music on Lush is made from your standard guitar/bass/drums/perpetually bored sounding indie rock singer, and as such, the album isn't exactly reinventing the genre. But what it does it does well. An exciting debut by an up and coming artist.

Verdict: Anthems for a Nineteen Year Old Girl
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by PlasticRam »

New ratings in bold.

MGMT - Little Dark Age 8.6
ASAP Rocky - Testing 8.5
Pusha T - Daytona 8.3
CHVRCHES - Love Is Dead 8.3
Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts 8.0

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited 7.9
Migos - Culture II 7.9
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake! 7.8
Lil Yachty - Lil Boat 2 7.8
XXXTentacion - ? 7.6
Dessa - Chime 7.5
Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer 7.4
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino 7.2
A.A.L (Against All Logic) - 2012 - 2017 7.2
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour 7.2
Kanye West - Ye 7.1
Shame - Songs of Praise 7.1
Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer 7.0
Rae Sremmurd - SR3MM 7.0
Kali Uchis - Isolation 6.9
Eels - The Deconstruction 6.8
Iceage - Beyondless 6.7
SOB X RBE - Gangin 6.7
J. Cole - KOD 6.6
Playboi Carti - Die Lit 6.6
Mount Eerie - Now Only 6.5
Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy 6.5
Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy 6.2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My all-time list at 600 albums:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/galfond/ ... -albums-1/
I feel like that
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Romain
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Romain »

For now, here are the albums I really like so far in 2018:

Django Django - Marble Skies
L'impératrice - Matahari
Eels - The Deconstruction
Cascadeur - Camera
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Sophie- Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides

I won't pretend to entirely understand the appeal of PC Music. Songs like Sophie's "Lemonade" and QT's "Hey QT" are innovative takes on pop music, but there's always something there that makes it hard for me to totally connect with the music. Maybe it's the blurred line between sincerity and irony that's responsible for this wall. Maybe it's not. Whatever the reason, I had enough interest in the catalog of PC Music to check out the sophomore release of what has to be their most iconic artist, Sophie.

The album opens up with the ballad "It's Okay to Cry", a song that features Sophie's actual voice, a first for her music. As it turns out, Sophie's voice is quite lovely, and although the song may be a rather slow way to start the album off, it does make for quite the beautiful introduction to the album, while also serving as a quasi-mission statement for PC Music as a whole, and their ethos of acceptance and individuality. The album then takes a hard, and I mean hard, left turn on the following tracks "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping", which feature the distorted vocals found in her earlier work, as well as aggressive electronic production, similar to that of Arca at his most abrasive. Merging these two disparate sounds together on one album, that of Sophie the balladeer and Sophie the avant-pop visionary, is quite the undertaking, and it's understandable if the album sometimes comes up a little short in this regard. There's only so much one can do to make this marriage work, but Sophie tries her damn hardest.

Where the album falters is in its interminable middle section, running from tracks four through seven, which feature a few captivating moments spread throughout lush electronic meandering. These songs make for decent mood-pieces, but almost none of it stays in the mind after it's over. That being said, this musical haze almost justifies itself the moment it ends and the album's highlight, the stunning "Immaterial" comes on, totally breaking the spell and hitting the listener with a blast of sugar rush manic pixie stick avant-dance pop. You know that part in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" where the song just enters this utterly bizarre middle section, that seems to go on and on and on and, if you're a first time listener you're just sitting there wondering when it'll ever end, and then all of a sudden Jimmy Page cuts right through the hard rocking fog with what has to be one of the coolest guitar riffs ever and it absolutely justifies all that preceding fuckery? Well the moment that "Immaterial" comes on isn't quite as satisfying as that.

But it's close.

Verdict: Because we're living in an immaterial world, and I am an immaterial girl
Last edited by Nick on Sun Jun 17, 2018 3:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by StevieFan13 »

So...Beyonce and Jay-Z just put out an album.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

StevieFan13 wrote:So...Beyonce and Jay-Z just put out an album.
If there are any Tidal users reading this who have heard the album, I'm curious as to what your thoughts are (I am not a Tidal user).
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by StevieFan13 »

Nick wrote:
StevieFan13 wrote:So...Beyonce and Jay-Z just put out an album.
If there are any Tidal users reading this who have heard the album, I'm curious as to what your thoughts are (I am not a Tidal user).
That goes double for me.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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PlasticRam
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by PlasticRam »

I hope at some point it gets released on Spotify too.
I feel like that
acr0320
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by acr0320 »

Some of the best albums I've heard this year:

7
Golden Hour
Dirty Computer
God's Favorite Customer
Daytona
Kids See Ghosts
Hope Downs
Lush
Hell-On
Sparrow
Boarding House Reach
Age Of
Tracyanne & Danny

I'm gonna have to give Everything is Love a couple more listens, but first impressions were pretty good. I wouldn't put it above either of Beyonce or Jay Z's best solo works, but it's definitely a solid album that may grow on me.

Nasir was also pretty good, particularly in terms of its production, but it left me wanting more. You could tell Nas played it safe, just like Kanye did on his, and so just like Ye this album has moments of greatness but overall just leaves me wanting a lot more.

Overall I would consider the G.O.O.D. Friday experiment a success so far, with 2 albums that I really really like and the other 2 being ok. Looking forward to Teyana Taylor's album to close out this five week run, though I honestly have no idea what to expect
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FrankLotion
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by FrankLotion »

acr0320 wrote:Some of the best albums I've heard this year:

7
Golden Hour
Dirty Computer
God's Favorite Customer
Daytona
Kids See Ghosts
Hope Downs
Lush
Hell-On
Sparrow
Boarding House Reach
Age Of
Tracyanne & Danny

I'm gonna have to give Everything is Love a couple more listens, but first impressions were pretty good. I wouldn't put it above either of Beyonce or Jay Z's best solo works, but it's definitely a solid album that may grow on me.

Nasir was also pretty good, particularly in terms of its production, but it left me wanting more. You could tell Nas played it safe, just like Kanye did on his, and so just like Ye this album has moments of greatness but overall just leaves me wanting a lot more.

Overall I would consider the G.O.O.D. Friday experiment a success so far, with 2 albums that I really really like and the other 2 being ok. Looking forward to Teyana Taylor's album to close out this five week run, though I honestly have no idea what to expect
I agree so hard with literally all of this!
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Rob
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Rob »

PlasticRam wrote:I hope at some point it gets released on Spotify too.
Surprisingly, it is on Spotify in this region:

Jirin
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

Eels - The Deconstruction has been climbing my list. It reminds me of Blinking Lights And Other Revelations only a more tight single album.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Beyoncé & Jay-Z- Everything Is Love

First came the accusations of Lemonade. Next there was the apologies of 4:44. And now we have the third and final chapter in this Beyoncé/Jay-Z album cycle, Everything Is Love, the reconciliation.

So is this album a Return of the King, the culmination of everything that came before, the climax to end all climaxes? Or is is a Dark Knight Rises, a pale and plodding imitation of prior successes?

Well the album doesn't fit all too comfortably into either category, but it's certainly leaning closer to the Dark Knight Rises side of things. For two artists who have a wealth of catchy, hook-laden songs in their discography, Everything Is
Love
is woefully short in memorability. The album starts off admirably, peaking on the second track, the banger that is "Apeshit". But once the album hits the midway mark it begins to lose the plot. The fourth track on the album, "Nice", is essentially a non-entity, with an inane hook and a boring and repetitive beat that just goes nowhere. The fifth track, "713" is just an inferior re-write of the Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg classic "Still D.R.E." (one of the greatest rap songs of the 90s in this reviewer's opinion).

The major pleasure on Everything Is Love comes from Beyoncé's rapping, which is surprisingly competent. She's not a lyrical genius here, but she's more than able to hold her own against Jay-Z, and it's clear that she has a well-developed sense of flow. The album's highlight, the aforementioned "Apeshit" provides plenty of proof to this claim. But this point aside, Everything Is Love is still a mediocre album that could have been so much more.

Verdict: A great concept with middling execution
Last edited by Nick on Thu Jun 21, 2018 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
letmeintomyzone
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by letmeintomyzone »

Nick wrote:Beyoncé & Jay-Z- Everything Is Love

First came the accusations of Lemonade. Next there was the apologies of 4:44. And now we have the third and final chapter in this Beyoncé/Jay-Z album cycle, Everything Is Love, the reconciliation.

So is this album a Return of the King, the culmination of everything that came before, the climax to end all climaxes? Or is is a Dark Knight Returns, a pale and plodding imitation of prior successes?

Well the album doesn't fit all too comfortably into either category, but it's certainly leaning closer to the Dark Knight Returns side of things. For two artists who have a wealth of catchy, hook-laden songs in their discography, Everything Is
Love
is woefully short in memorability. The album starts off admirably, peaking on the second track, the banger that is "Apeshit". But once the album hits the midway mark it begins to lose the plot. The fourth track on the album, "Nice", is essentially a non-entity, with an inane hook and a boring and repetitive beat that just goes nowhere. The fifth track, "713" is just an inferior re-write of the Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg classic "Still D.R.E." (one of the greatest rap songs of the 90s in this reviewer's opinion).

The major pleasure on Everything Is Love comes from Beyoncé's rapping, which is surprisingly competent. She's not a lyrical genius here, but she's more than able to hold her own against Jay-Z, and it's clear that she has a well-developed sense of flow. The album's highlight, the aforementioned "Apeshit" provides plenty of proof to this claim. But this point aside, Everything Is Love is still a mediocre album that could have been so much more.

Verdict: A great concept with middling execution
Actually it's The Dark Knight Rises
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

letmeintomyzone wrote:
Nick wrote:Beyoncé & Jay-Z- Everything Is Love

First came the accusations of Lemonade. Next there was the apologies of 4:44. And now we have the third and final chapter in this Beyoncé/Jay-Z album cycle, Everything Is Love, the reconciliation.

So is this album a Return of the King, the culmination of everything that came before, the climax to end all climaxes? Or is is a Dark Knight Returns, a pale and plodding imitation of prior successes?

Well the album doesn't fit all too comfortably into either category, but it's certainly leaning closer to the Dark Knight Returns side of things. For two artists who have a wealth of catchy, hook-laden songs in their discography, Everything Is
Love
is woefully short in memorability. The album starts off admirably, peaking on the second track, the banger that is "Apeshit". But once the album hits the midway mark it begins to lose the plot. The fourth track on the album, "Nice", is essentially a non-entity, with an inane hook and a boring and repetitive beat that just goes nowhere. The fifth track, "713" is just an inferior re-write of the Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg classic "Still D.R.E." (one of the greatest rap songs of the 90s in this reviewer's opinion).

The major pleasure on Everything Is Love comes from Beyoncé's rapping, which is surprisingly competent. She's not a lyrical genius here, but she's more than able to hold her own against Jay-Z, and it's clear that she has a well-developed sense of flow. The album's highlight, the aforementioned "Apeshit" provides plenty of proof to this claim. But this point aside, Everything Is Love is still a mediocre album that could have been so much more.

Verdict: A great concept with middling execution
Actually it's The Dark Knight Rises
Good catch! Edited accordingly.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Kamasi Washington- Heaven and Earth

"Fists of Fury", the main theme to the 1972 Bruce Lee movie of the same name, is not a good song. The song, as well as the rest of that movie's soundtrack, is sung by a man named Mike Remedios, and while he has a nice enough voice, he doesn't quite have the gravitas to sell the lyrics, thus turning the song into a lump of cheese. This alone wouldn't make the song bad, but for some inexplicable reason the song's creator(s) decided to place random martial arts fighting sounds (lots of "hi-yah!"s and "kung pow"s) throughout the entire duration of the track, thus rendering it unlistenable. The whole thing lasts a little over three minutes, and when it ends you're thankful.

So it's nothing short of incredible that Kamasi Washington was able to take this forgotten piece of music from four decades ago and re-work it into something that commands your attention. What Washington has done here, on the opening track to his latest album, Heaven and Earth, is take the main theme to Fists of Fury, strip it down to its bare essentials, and then build it back up, and keep building and building and building until what he's left with is a nine and a half minute long jazz-funk odyssey. On his version of "Fists of Fury", Washington does something that all great covers do, he distills the raw essence of someone else's song and makes it his own. And whereas the original song was cheese whiz, Washington and his singers do have the proper gravitas to sell the lyrics, turning the simple ode to a martial arts master into a paean for the oppressed.

But "Fists of Fury" is not just an excellent song, it's an example of the evolution of Kamasi Washington as an artist. Washington has been making jazz music for roughly a decade and a half now, but it wasn't until 2015 that he really broke into the public consciousness, with his studio album The Epic. The album is aptly named, a three hour long effort with about half of the songs exceeding the ten minute mark, and complete with all the spiritual jazz trademarks, wailing saxophones and swelling choirs galore. It's an amazing album, but not exactly a digestible one, and one of the album's main flaws is that, after an hour or two things really start to blur together. That problem is (mostly) avoided on Washington's latest album, the two and a half hour long Heaven and Earth, which features rather subtle, yet still noticeable, changes in his sound. The wailing saxophones and swelling choirs are still there, as are the lengthy songs, but here Washington is more than willing to dip his toes into something a little new.

I've already mentioned the nods to funk on "Fists of Fury", which are also found on the single "Street Fighter Mas", but there's also the free jazz approximation of "The Invincible Youth", the vocoder-laden "Vi Lua Vi Sol", the more pop-oriented "Testify" (also the album's shortest song, which means it's still just a little shy of the six minute mark), and the string-filled "The Space Travelers Lullaby", which manages the incredible feat of sounding exactly like what the title suggests. And although the album is 144 minutes long, it feels so much more compact than The Epic, so much more digestible, despite the fact that The Epic is only half an hour longer than Heaven and Earth.

The are still points, particularly in the last third of the album, where it does feel like Washington is covering ground he has already covered, on both this album and his last. But in spite of this, Heaven and Earth is still nothing less than a fantastic release by a defining artist of this decade. And even when he does repeat himself, he's sure to make it sound just as beautiful as before.

Verdict: Fantastic
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Nine Inch Nails- Bad Witch

Coming in at just a little over 30 minutes, Nine Inch Nails' new album, Bad Witch, is closer in spirit to their 1992 EP Broken than anything they've since that seminal release. But whereas Broken was an industrial blast of angry young man fury, Bad Witch revels more in the eerie and disconcerting, the difference between a great jump scare and a creeping sense of dread.

The obvious blueprint here is David Bowie's Blackstar, and its use of saxophones to create an ominous atmosphere, particularly on the song "Lazarus". On Bad Witch saxophones are used in the same way, as heard on the song "Play the Goddamn Part" and the single "God Break Down the Door", and given the close working relationship between Bowie and Reznor, it's easy to see this new release from Nine Inch Nails as a continuation of the sound that Bowie was starting to explore right before he died.

That's not to say, however, that Bad Witch is little more than homage. Far from it, in fact, because for all the aesthetic similarities between this album and Bowie's last, Bowie and Reznor are still two different artists with fundamentally different approaches to music, and there's a level of aggression found in the music of Nine Inch Nails and Bad Witch that never really seemed to captivate Bowie. That's not to mention the album's penultimate song, "I'm Not From This World", an instrumental that sounds like something off the soundtrack to a survival horror video game, or "Ahead of Ourselves", a raucous rocker in the style of older Nine Inch Nails.

Ultimately Bad Witch functions as both a solid Nine Inch Nails release and a tribute to a man who has been a constant source of inspiration for Reznor. But to think of it in a conceptually sense, as a further exploration of a certain sound, is probably the best way to approach this album.

Verdict: Pretty good
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Death Grips- Year of the Snitch

If you've heard one Death Grips album, or hell, even a song, you know what to expect here. Extremely loud, abrasive, rap music meets punk rock meets malfunctioning electronics that all end up sounding like a homeless man yelling at you in a subway station while a truckload full of computers falls off a nearby building. Sometimes it makes for something genuinely great (The Money Store is one of my favorite albums of the decade, and 2016's Bottomless Pit was one of the best albums from that year). Sometimes you get stuff like Year of the Snitch.

The number one issue here is the production. Say what you will about the band's earlier work, but they were never slobs with the production. But on Year of the Snitch most of the songs sound so paper thing, with nothing pushed to the forefront of the mix. I'm listening to this album off of Spotify with a pretty good quality pair of headphones, so I know that the problem doesn't lie with me. And so I can't help but feel like the band recorded this album in a garage and then exported the songs at, say, 64 kpbs before the album was uploaded to all relevant streaming services. The guitars on songs like "Dilemma", for instance, sound less like the buzzsaws of their earlier work and more like a punk rock record you're hearing from behind three feet of concrete. It's a huge problem.

Anyway, production aside, the songs here are actually pretty solid. The band isn't pushing any new stylistic ground here (well except for the heavy metal of "Black Paint"), but they've managed to write a series of songs that would be right at home on any of their prior releases. The songs here are loud, they're aggressive, they sometimes feel like they're going to come out of your computer and mug you. But they're nowhere near as powerful as they deserve to be.

Verdict: A little longer in the studio next time, guys
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by JohnnyBGoode »

1. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour
2. Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
3. Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy
4. A.A.L.: 2012 - 2017
5. Beach House: 7
6. CHVRCHES: Love is Dead
7. Snail Mail: Lush
8. Soccer Mommy: Clean
9. Father John Misty: God's Favorite Customer
10. Neko Case: Hell-On
11. Natalie Prass: The Future and the Past
12. Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel
13. U.S. Girls: In A Poem Unlimited
14. Shame: Songs of Praise
15. Lucy Dacus: Historian
16. Tracyanne & Danny: Tracyanne & Danny
17. Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks: Sparkle Hard
18. LUMP: LUMP
19. First Aid Kit: Ruins
20. Hop Along: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
21. Jeff Rosenstock: POST-
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Nas- Nasir

Last year Jay-Z, one-time archenemy to Nas, released 4:44, his album as classic hiphophead thought experiment: what if this legendary rapper who has since fallen off released an album without a single thought of commercial viability or star-studded features and just got back to his roots, to display that he's still "got it"? For Jay-Z the attempt paid dividends, 4:44 was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of last year and reassured his status among those who had begun to doubt him. Framed in this way, Nasir, the latest album from Nas and the fourth album from Kanye's Wyoming project, can be seen as an attempt to replicate the successes of that other famous NYC rapper.

So how does it work out?

Well, first off, the results are much more mixed than 4:44. When Nasir works, it absolutely works, and when it doesn't, well...

First off, the highlights. "Cops Shot the Kid" is fantastic and trim, at just a little under three minutes, and features an absolutely great beat, composed of a voice repeating the song title, looped over and over again. I'm a sucker for beats that should be obnoxious on paper but work out so well in real life, and this beat is absolutely one of them. Additionally, the song "Adam and Eve" makes fantastic use of an old timey piano sample, which manages to skirt around all things cloying and forced and sound genuinely moving.

Now, the lowlights. In terms of pure technical ability Nas still "has it", able to construct flows that flow all serpentine-like through his songs, but in terms of lyrics, Nasir has its blunders. Opening song "Not For Radio", for instance, features some genuine head-scratchers, not the least of which is earnestly claiming that Fox News was created by a black man, and other psuedo-woke college freshman dorm room bong hit type conspiratorial lyrics also find a way to pepper themselves throughout the album as well. And the seven and a half minute long "Everything" takes a full two minutes to even get started, and then when it does get started, the song moves at a molasses-like pace, fulfilling the definition of "boring". In a 46 minute long album such a song would be an unfortunate blunder, but in a 26 minute long one it's damn-near unforgivable.

Nasir has its moments, but it's been six years since the last Nas album, Life is Good. One could be forgiven for wanting a little more here.

Verdict: Decent
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Gorillaz- The Now Now

In some ways I really feel for Damon Albarn. Sure, the guy is a critically acclaimed multi-millionaire rock star genius who has been an icon of the music world for about 25 years now. But last year he released Humanz, the first Gorillaz album in six years, and it was met with an absolute "meh". The reasons seemed to be two-fold. The first was the length. The regular edition of the album was 49 minutes long over 20 tracks, and the deluxe edition approached a staggering 70 minutes in length. The second was that it never really "felt like" a Gorillaz album. The album was filled with guest features from some seriously talented artists, but to many listeners, myself included, the album never felt like it had a coherent identity. So in this way one can think of the latest Gorillaz album, arriving just a year after the last, as Albarn's attempt to set things right. The Now Now is just 40 minutes long over 11 tracks and contains only a few features on just two songs. If this is Albarn's mea culpa I suppose I should feel something, and yet...

I don't. The opening track, "Humility", featuring George Benson, sets a fairly high-standard for the album. It's a poppy tune in the style of some of the virtual band's earlier work, although it's far from "DARE" or "On Melancholy Hill". But after that, things go downhill. There's barely on rapping on the album, barely anything in the way of a memorial tune, barely anything that advances the mythology of the band, barely anything that makes this album feel like a Gorillaz album. If the lack of identity inherent to Humanz was a result of too much going on, then The Now Now has the same problem with the opposite cause. There just isn't enough going on. The album is mostly just laconic spacey-electronic rock songs with Damon Albarn on lead vocals, which never makes for anything outright bad, but it rarely makes for anything outright great. The song "Idaho", for instance, is probably about as exciting as I'd imagine the state of Idaho to be, which isn't a whole lot [1]. There are some nice instrumental touches here and there though, like on the carnival mad house synths of "Magic City", and on the dance-punk aping "Lake Zurich". But these details are few, and they are far between.

[1] My apologies to the great people of Idaho.

Verdict: Ehhhhhhhhhh
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Halfway through the year and here we are...

Great:

1. Kamasi Washington- Heaven and Earth
2. Car Seat Headrest- Twin Fantasy (Face to Face)
3. Janelle Monáe- Dirty Computer
4. A.A.L (Against All Logic)- 2012 - 2017
5. Beach House- 7
6. Father John Misty- God's Favorite Customer

Very Good:

7. Snail Mail- Lush
8. Mount Eerie- Now Only
9. Jon Hopkins- Singularity
10. Arctic Monkeys- Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
11. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks- Sparkle Hard
12. Pusha T- Daytona

Good:

13. DJ Koze- Knock Knock
14. U.S. Girls- In a Poem Unlimited
15. Kanye West and Kid Cudi- Kids See Ghosts
16. Courtney Barnett- Tell Me How You Really Feel
17. Saba- Care for Me
18. Cupcakke- Euphorize
19. Sons of Kemet- Your Queen Is a Reptile
20. Kacey Musgraves- Golden Hour
21. MGMT- Little Dark Age
22. Iceage- Beyondless
23. Sophie- Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
24. Nine Inch Nails- Bad Witch

Decent:

25. Kanye West- Ye
26. Unknown Mortal Orchestra- Sex & Food
27. Amen Dunes- Freedom
28. David Byrne- American Utopia
29. Andrew W.K.- You're Not Alone
30. Beyoncé & Jay-Z- Everything Is Love
31. Various Artists- Black Panther: The Album - Music from and Inspired By
32. Superorganism- Superorganism
33. Shame- Songs of Praise
34. Nas- Nasir
35. Titus Andronicus- A More Productive Cough
36. Death Grips- Year of the Snitch
37. Gorillaz- The Now Now
38. Chvrches- Love Is Dead
39. Yo La Tengo- There's a Riot Going On
40. Franz Ferdinand- Always Ascending
41. Panda Bear- A Day with the Homies (EP)

Poor:

42. Justin Timberlake- Man of the Woods
43. Cardi B- Invasion of Privacy
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by notbrianeno »

Essential (5/5)
SOPHIE | Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
Autechre | NTS Sessions 1-4
Beach House | 7

Excellent (4.5/5)
Pusha T | DAYTONA
Janelle Monáe | Dirty Computer
Drake | Scorpion
Rae Sremmurd / Swae Lee / Slim Jxmmi | SR3MM
The Voidz | Virtue
Jon Hopkins | Singularity
Jonny Greenwood | Phantom Thread
Mount Eerie | Now Only
A.A.L. (Against All Logic) | 2012-2017
Snail Mail | Lush
Post Malone | beerbongs & bentleys

Great (4/5)
U.S. Girls | In a Poem Unlimited
Gas | Rausch
Florence + the Machine | High as Hope
Playboi Carti | Die Lit
Aïsha Devi | DNA Feelings
Tinashe | Joyride
Migos | Culture II
Porches | The House
Amen Dunes | Freedom
Barker | Debiasing EP
Young Fathers | Cocoa Sugar
Don Broco | Technology

Good (3.5/5)
Oneohtrix Point Never | Age Of
No Age | Snares Like a Haircut
Ezra Furman | Transangelic Exodus
Cardi B | Invasion of Privacy
Car Seat Headrest | Twin Fantasy
Rhye | Blood
Angélique Kidjo | Remain in LIght
Nine Inch Nails | Bad Witch
Various Artists | Black Panther: The Album
Kanye West | ye
Skee Mask | Compro
Death Grips | Year of the Snitch
Arctic Monkeys | Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
Hayley Kiyoko | Expectations
MGMT | Little Dark Age
DJ Taye | Still Trippin'
Ty Segall | Freedom's Goblin
Ravyn Lenae | Crush EP
The Weeknd | My Dear Melancholy,
Kali Uchis | Isolation
Kacey Musgraves | Golden Hour
Iceage | Beyondless
Speedy Ortiz | Twerp Verse
Father John Misty | God's Favorite Customer
Kylie Minogue | Golden
Leon Vynehall | Nothing Is Still
Preoccupations | New Material
Maluma | F.A.M.E.
Scallops Hotel | Sovreign Nose of (Y)our Arrogant Face
K. Forest | When It's All Said and Done EP

Decent (3/5)
SOB x RBE | Gangin
Panopticon | The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness
DJ Healer | Nothing 2 Loose
David Byrne | American Utopia
The Soft Moon | Criminal
Tune-Yards | I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
JPEGMAFIA | Veteran
Jack White | Boarding House Reach
Peggy Gou | Once
serpentwithfeet | soil
The Carters | Everything Is Love
CupcakKe | Ephorize
Johnny Jewel | Themes for Television
KIDS SEE GHOSTS | KIDS SEE GHOSTS
Kamasi Washington | Heaven and Earth
Profligate | Somewhere Else
A$AP Rocky | Testing
Grouper | Grid of Points
Mark Kozelek | Mark Kozelek
Saba | Care for Me
Charlie Puth | Voicenotes
Soccer Mommy | Clean
Blanck Mass | World Eater Re-Voxed EP
Shirt | Pure Beauty
Ought | Room Inside the World

Mediocre (2.5/5)
Doon Kanda | Luna EP
Efrim Manuel Menuck | Pissing Stars
Lucy Dacus | Historian
Jeff Rosenstock | POST-
Parquet Courts | Wide Awake!
John Tejada | Dead Start Program
Son Lux | Brighter Wounds
Anna von Hausswolff | Dead Magic
DJ Koze | knock knock
CHVRCHES | Love Is Dead
Justin Timberlake | Man of the Woods
Django Django | Marble Skies
Fall Out Boy | M A N I A
H.C. McEntire | Lionheart
Mouse on Mars | Dimensional People
Lykke Li | so sad so sexy
Nils Frahm | All Melody
Shame | Songs of Praise
Young Thug | Hear No Evil
Maxo Kream | Punken
J. Cole | K.O.D.
Camilla Cabello | Camilla
Yo La Tengo | There's a Riot Going On

Poor (2/5)
The Men | Drift
Jirin
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

I really like Kamasi Washington’s new album, but also I cannot think of a mood where I would want to listen to it for two and a half hours.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by acroamor »

Jirin wrote:I really like Kamasi Washington’s new album, but also I cannot think of a mood where I would want to listen to it for two and a half hours.
I feel the same way, also with Kamasi's last full-length, The Epic. That's why last year's Harmony of Difference EP was such a nice listen.

Also there's something funny to me about how both Kamasi's new record and Grouper's new record both fall under the title of "album", even though Kamasi's is more than eight times longer.
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Listening to the new Deafheaven album off of NPR. This thing is good. I mean real good. I mean about as good as Sunbather good.

This is beach bonfire metal. Wedding party metal. Rose garden metal. Pacific coast road trip metal. You know?
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

Already a classic tier: (96-100)
1. Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

Potential classic tier: (91-95)
2. Jack White - Boarding House Reach
3. Iceage - Beyondless
4. Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar

EOY list lock tier: (86-90)
5. Eels - The Deconstruction
6. Beach House - 7
7. Preoccupations - New Material

Solid tier: (81-85)
8. George Fitzgerald - All That Must Be
9. Barrence Whitfield & The Savages - Soul Flowers of Titan
10. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
11. Nils Frahm - All Melody
12. Kali Uchis - Isolation

Good but flawed tier: (76-80)
13. Mary Gauthier - Rifles & Rosary Beads
14. Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - Landfall
15. A.A.L. (Against All Logic) - 2012-2017

On the rise/Unproven:
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
Jirin
Running Up That Hill
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

New Gang Gang Dance album after 7 years!

Kazushita. This is almost certain to be my BMAA2018 nom. Not sure it’s Eye Contact level yet, but it’s very good. Less glitchy than early stuff, more melody oriented but with the airy otherworldness you expect from them.
Jirin
Running Up That Hill
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Jirin »

Bodega - Endless Scroll is interesting. It’s like post-punk that’s openly influenced by LCD Soundsystem.

Flipper meets LCD Soundsystem.
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PlasticRam
Into the Groove
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by PlasticRam »

Kanye fans generally really like Kids See Ghosts, but I'm not so crazy about it. I guess I'm not so eager Kanye fan anymore.
I feel like that
Nick
Running Up That Hill
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Nick »

Deafheaven- Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Deafheaven are the indie rock fan's favorite metal band of recent years, and I'm not much of an exception here. The band burst into prominence with their sophomore LP, 2013's Sunbather, an album that combined black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock to critical acclaim. Their followup to that album, New Bermuda, received comparable reception, and set the stage for their latest release, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love.

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is easily the least "metal" of all the band's albums, and maybe the most outwardly beautiful. The opening track, "You Without End" would barely be considered metal, if not for the screaming black metal vocals buried somewhat low in the mix, as the song largely consists of a piano-lead rock tune without any of the wailing guitars or pulverizing drums common to the genre. The album's penultimate song, "Night People" features a male/female vocal duet, and is even less "metal" than the opening track, and it's a testament to the band's keen sense of aesthetic that the song feels just at home here as it would on an indie pop/rock band's release.

But even on the true "metal" songs the band plays around with the genre to great results. Much like their previous albums, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love still mixes shoegaze and post-rock with black metal, but there are moments here that venture into almost cock-rocking territory, like something out of the realms of classic rock radio or anime theme songs. Take, for instance, the little musical digression that comes in around the four minute mark of the lead single "Honeycomb", where the song transitions into the sort of Guitar Hero-esque histrionics that never fail to make me smile. This sense of fun has been found elsewhere on the band's past releases, but it's never been as fully realized as it has been on their most recent LP.

Perhaps this sense of fun is a geographic thing. While the genre of black metal is almost synonymous with the cold Scandinavian landscape, Deafheaven hail from California, and it's easy to see how the sun-drunk mindset of the state's locals could come to infect their approach to metal. This is metal for bonfires and long drives along the Pacific coast and watching fireflies come out as the day fades to night. This is some truly inspiring stuff.

Verdict: Fantastic

Kamasi Washington- The Choice (EP)

A surprise EP that came with the vinyl release of Washington's absolutely fantastic LP Heaven and Earth, The Choice is a five song release, three of which are originals, the other two being covers of pop/soul classics. The overall aesthetic of the album is a bit more restrained than that of his recent LP, a bit more "smooth" and "adult contemporary", but it's by no means boring. Just listen to what the piano is doing on the nearly ten minute long cover of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for an example of how Washington and his band put an interesting spin on the familiar. Overall the album isn't breaking any new ground, but it's still a pretty solid release from a man who releases a metric ton of music.

Verdict: A cherry on top to the two and a half hour Heaven and Earth.
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notbrianeno
Movin' On Up
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by notbrianeno »

Jirin wrote:New Gang Gang Dance album after 7 years!

Kazushita. This is almost certain to be my BMAA2018 nom. Not sure it’s Eye Contact level yet, but it’s very good. Less glitchy than early stuff, more melody oriented but with the airy otherworldness you expect from them.
WHY have I never listened to this band?? It's like Grimes fronting TV on the Radio!
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Romain
Happy Up Here
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Romain »

Django Django - Marble Skie 8,5/10 For me, one of the 2 or 3 best bands on the decade. this album, like the two previous ar full of hits. Very energic and "feelgood" the first to the last second.
Cascadeur - Camera 8,5/10 A long (to long maybe) album, very melodic, a great production. Sensible and rêveur.
Eels - The Deconstruction 8/10 One of the american artist I like the most. This album, like all the other oscillate between good and great.
King Tuff - The Other 7/10 A great song (No man's land) and a bunch of good others. A solid 7/10 but I haven't found the energy of his 2012 album.

Django Django - Marble Skie 8,5
Cascadeur - Camera 8,5
Eels - The Deconstruction 8
King Tuff - The Other 7
discord
Let's Get It On
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by discord »

Soccer Mommy - Clean
Sons of Kemet - Your Queen is a Reptile
Caroline Rose - Loner
Jack White - Boarding House Reach
Snail Mail - Lush
Shame - Songs of Praise
ColmD
Are You Experienced?
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by ColmD »

Similar to my post in the top singles/songs of 2018, I have collated online lists for best albums of 2018 so far. The lists cover from end May to end June and 57 lists in all. Here are the albums listed in order of appearance up to 5 lists
As many of the sites are entertainment and cultural sites there would be a mainstream slant not seen on usual AM lists.


Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer (31)
Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour (29)
Beach House - 7 (26)
Pusha-T - Daytona (26)
Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel (22)
Father John Misty - God's Favourite Customer (19)
Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy (19)
Soccer Mommy – Clean (18)
Kendrick Lamar/Various Artists - Black Panther Soundtrack (17)
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake (16)
U.S. Girls – In A Poem Unlimited (15)
Lucy Dacus - Historian (15)
Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (14)
Snail Mail - Lush (13)
Kali Uchis - Isolation (13)
Amen Dunes — Freedom (12)
Leon Bridges - Good Thing (12)
Saba - Care for Me (11)
Oneohtrix Point Never - Age Of (11)
Natalie Prass, 'The Future and the Past’ (10)
DJ Koze – Knock Knock (10)
Jeff Rosenstock – POST- (10)
Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog (10)
Neko Case - Hell-On (10)
Mount Eerie - Now Only (9)
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Sparkle Hard (9)
Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar (9)
JPEGMAFIA - Veteran (9)
Jon Hopkins - Singularity (8)
Superorganism - Superorganism (8)
MGMT – Little Dark Age (8)
Turnstile – Time & Space (8)
The Weeknd – ‘My Dear Melancholy,’ (8)
Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts (7)
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth (7)
Ty Segall – Freedom’s Goblin (7)
Jack White — Boarding House Reach (7)
Shame – Songs of Praise (7)
Playboi Carti – Die Lit (7)
J. Cole, KOD (7)
Nipsey Hussle - Victory Lap (7)
Sleep - The Sciences (7)
cupcakKe – ‘Ephorize’ (7)
Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (6)
Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You (6)
The Breeders - All Nerve (6)
First Aid Kit - Ruins (6)
Screaming Females - All at Once (6)
Frankie Cosmos - Vessel (6)
Jorja Smith - Lost & Found (6)
Camila Cabello – Camila (6)
Shawn Mendes, Shawn Mendes (6)
SiR - November (6)
A.A.L. (Against All Logic) – 2012-2017 (6)
SOB X RBE, Gangin (6)
Ezra Furman, Transangelic Exodus (5)
David Byrne, 'American Utopia' (5)
Superchunk — What a Time to Be Alive (5)
Yo La Tengo — There’s a Riot Going On (5)
No Age - Snares Like a Haircut (5)
The Carters - Everything Is Love (5)
John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness (5)
Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs (5)
Courtney Marie Andrews, May Your Kindness Remain (5)
Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo (5)
Iceage – Beyondless (5)
Jean Grae and Quelle Chris – Everything’s Fine (5)
Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance (5)
Post Malone - Beerbongs & Bentleys (5)
Illiniq
Strange Fruit
Posts: 79
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Re: Albums of 2018

Post by Illiniq »

Romain wrote:Django Django - Marble Skie 8,5/10 For me, one of the 2 or 3 best bands on the decade. this album, like the two previous ar full of hits. Very energic and "feelgood" the first to the last second.
I like Django Django a lot on record for exactly the reasons you describe, but when you finally see them live, you'll be retracting your best of the decade statement post haste. They're as unimpressive a live act as I've seen this decade.
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