I totally wrote this album off at one point because I disliked “Elephant Talk” which sucks because this is one of their coolest records ever!
I love how the new wave influence has Belew & Fripp melding their sounds into this continuous flow of intricate, minimalist prog jazz fusion is nothing short of mesmerizing to the ear. Bruford is still super in tune with his powerhouse style of drumming that keeps you on your toe's thanks to his odd array of bells and whistles, bursting ... read more
This album was something of a revelation - flashes of fictitious stories like waking up in the middle of open heart surgery - the disorientation disrupts the horror of seeing your own beating heart, you fall in and out of dreaming - you wake up and begin your drive to work, your thoughts swirling deeper and deeper as you pass the lights that luminate your path towards the everyday, as you unknowingly sink further and further into yourself - loved ones far and obscured behind dark panes of ... read more
The quartet synthesizes John's newfound direction with everything that makes each of these men masters of their craft and it's all on display on this darkly virtuous send off.
All Hail the Sun!!!
* Sun Ship
* Loose & booming drum hits
* Tyner is heavy, direct and fluid
* Coltrane blasts his weigh in with a thick onslaught
* Just sounds like a post Ascension Jones, could've convinced me his playing was from outtakes from that session
* Danger, flying straight forward ... read more
This record kicked so much ass, swings between classic/hard rock and prog were so effective, but man oh man this thing takes a steady drop downhill after Limelight. From ok to just not good, lol I knew the classic rock binge would be tumultuous, but this swinging back and forth from great to not good on these records is throwing me off lol.
Maybe the best hard bop record I’ve ever heard before? The way this mixes the rhythm section is just so tantalizing to the ears. Hard bop is just not a jazz genre I gravitate to very much, but man when you’ve got Miles & Coltrane spitting together it’s hard to not dig it and you cannot underplay just how hard Cannonball goes here, after listening to Kind of Blue again I need to check out more from him, he has this tender, heart on his sleeve style of playing that I ... read more
There’s only a few times on this record where it feels like it dials into a sound and energy that totally encapsulates the hype around this record. The rest of it doodles around or goes off the path with experiments that didn’t add up to much. Maybe this was just a wack first listen, but idk if Zeppelin are for me.
![坂本龍一 [Ryuichi Sakamoto] - Playing the Piano 12122020](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/448953-playing-the-piano-12122020.jpg)
A fair few that don’t land for me (there’s like two), but my god this album is full of some of the most resonate & touching renditions that he’s ever performed.
It's the major Swans folk album, but it's also their first big swing into post rock territory. A sound that would envelop their post 2010 stage of their career. I haven't listened to The Burning World so it's possible that they attempted this combination there first, however form the handful of songs I've heard from that record it's safe to say that this provides a much needed adaptation to that previous attempt. Gira brings a vocal delivery which takes its tone from previous goth rock material ... read more
![파란노을 [Parannoul] - After the Magic](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/516779-after-the-magic_1024.jpg)
Glad to have finally come around on Parannoul. His "go big or go home" lands hard with the proper balance of clean production to match his digital frenzy without things sputtering to far out of the realm of listenable for me. A couple duds still remain, but hell the ambition to have every track be an epic and have it work most of the time is damn admirable.
![坂本龍一 [Ryuichi Sakamoto] - 12](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/573337-12.jpg)
There is a beautiful story to be found in the first and last halves of Sakamoto's final album. "20210310" The fear of death pierces the soul of the artist who yearns to give his life to art, not death. These edges smooth over into an icy, yet tranquil acceptance of reality.
"20211130" So he opens his piano knowing his days are numbered, a patient beauty echoed through his trademark ability to let the notes ring out over a quiet, but resonate blue atmosphere. ... read more
![大象體操 [Elephant Gym] - World](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/806839-world_155901.jpg)
Still holding out the day that an Elephant Gym record fully comes together in both song consistency and cohesion between tracks, but man when they deliver a good track it is on repeat for days and for the most part this record serves a really great little package of jazzy math rock tracks. Communicating the cute and colorful tone yet again with their highly nimble & sporadic style of song writing that really helps to set them apart. This was such a lovely little release to round the year ... read more
END OF YEAR CATCH UP
So this is the boring ahhhh album of the year huh?
Maybe here or there that's kind of true, but honest to god for the most part you guys are just wrong.
My first foray into Lana's work and I gotta say these are some really well crafted minimalistic singer songwriter ballads.
Personal & poetic, but I gotta say she comes up with some really gracious piano melodies that are far more expressive than standard minor chords with no sense of personality to them. This was ... read more
END OF THE YEAR CATCH UP
it’s good.
Doesn’t touch almost anything off of their last record, but it all sounds comforting like home and I enjoy the sound these guys put out even if this record as a whole didn’t do a lot for me. Looking forward to what these guys do next.
END OF THE YEAR CATCH UP
Wednesday is a pretty middling band name, accurate it would be if not for them releasing a record with production so burning hot.
Yeah it's by far the best thing about it, the dry angst contained within vocalist Karly Hartzman is also a delight when paired with instrumentation that juxtaposes harsh fuzz with raw acoustics. Really I don't have many huge complaints about Rat Saw God, broadly it just comes down to their songwriting, at best its casually enjoyable and at ... read more
END OF THE YEAR CATCH UP
The beauty of the moment.
Heavy Heavy is a great title though I must say the album cover doesn't paint the image I think of for this record. Regardless Young Fathers comes through with a musical voyage where each song revels in emotional ecstasy. I just imagine a night setting, lit by a rising sun and torches lit ablaze. This record feels hot and big, but still very restricted to the center of what it gives you. It doesn't take you on an awe inspiring journey, instead ... read more
This is a really difficult album to talk about.
Not only are we dealing with the suicide of a 17 year old who's potential was not just limited to the scope of this incredible first record. In reading his obituary you come to learn that he had an even brighter future ahead of him. Here's an excerpt from that obituary (his family have left some lovely sentiments on his bandcamp page which I have left a link for down below)
"selected at GRAMMY Camp 2023 by the GRAMMY Museum as one of 86 ... read more
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""it's a track that is a journey, a story."
In a sense The Neck's don't make stories within their music. They create static, explorative sonic environments built on repetitions & time manipulation, extensive run times help create the hypnotic effect, creating a mode of stasis where they can add new elements or change the specific details of these repetitions in order to alter the texture of the piece.
What may seem like the exact same thing really isn't at all due to how they play around with microtones, pacing & then adding and subtracting pieces from the overall construct. I agree with your assessment on "Causeway" but it's strange to me that you don't see how elements are weaving in and out of the first two tracks."
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no rating submitted, review gives a 10/10"
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