When I listen to Careful Kid, between the up-close, dry vocal recordings and playful, expressive performances across the instruments, it feels like I'm listening to a generationally talented local band that I love. I can picture it, the college backyard show, the mix of dirt and grass beneath our feet, the sky a dusky backdrop to the bushes and trees overhanging the red peeling fence, the singer, eyes closed, who can't help but grimace and smile and move to the music, the keyboardist ... read more

*Found Sounds Recording Project // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music*

The in-class discussion of our pieces today helped me understand how I approached this project. Hearing others’ protestations that their music wasn’t serious, was bad, didn’t match what others were doing, etc., was really kind of heartbreaking to me. If there’s one thing that this class taught me, it’s that music’s validity and importance is utterly separate from whether it’s good or bad, ... read more

I remember the first ever show in the local scene that I went to. The year was 2022, the day was my long-time friend Anthony’s birthday, and his band was playing their first (and what ended up being their only) show. Held in the dirt-filled backyard of one of those single-story homes with sprawling, fenced-off front and back yards, it was the only show where I saw reclusr not headlining. Paul (lead guitar, vocals) still had intact his mysterious, towering cabinet that he placed his ... read more

*Listening Journal #4.2 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music*

Here is an excerpt from my brain dump that I wrote to try and get over my hump of writing about this album:

"For Teens of Denial, all I want to do is enjoy the album. Many of the struggles that I’m experiencing in my 20s are reflected in the lyrics of this album which is undeniably about your college years. It’s something I haven’t felt in a while; so much music that is emotionally affecting to me these days is ... read more

*Listening Journal #4.1 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music*

There is an elephant bellowing a campfire in a white and black forest, at night but with no shadows nor depth - it is captivating and intriguing and possibly everything yet nothing at all as it trips over itself trying to grasp onto the blowing wind as if it can tug it into a stop. Songs switch violently, and the layering of seemingly every single instrument and voice never lines up. The micing of the instruments extracts every single ... read more

This shit snatched my waist in less than 22 minutes

*Listening Journal #3.2 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music // NOT REALLY A REVIEW*

This album is front-to-back solid, while also containing quite a few highlights. In one particular way, it is unlike anything I’ve heard before, and that is the drums. They’re somewhere between the extremes of chiptune and synthesized to sound real, and they contain so much variety and color as a result of not being “full” and taking up space. There’s so many different effects and ... read more

*Listening Journal #3.1 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music // NOT REALLY A REVIEW*

Such a sad, lonely album. It’s this fantastical psychedelic dream world with castles and cavemen and shapeshifters (basically the cover art) but in between Rieger sings about how he barely belongs anywhere and everything will come to an end eventually. Speaking of that cover art, it comes from “The Land of Make Believe,” a painting done by Jaro Hess in the early 1930s. Every landmark and fairy ... read more

EDIT: Why the heck does this fractured, sloppy-ass review have so many likes lmao. Is a look into my pre-writing process that engaging? Just curious atp
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*Listening Journal #2.2 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music // NOT REALLY A REVIEW*

Here are a trimmed-down version of my notes for this song:

The Fox
“Land ho!” - weirdly dissonant, goes against what we expect ... read more

*Listening Journal #2.1 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music // NOT REALLY A REVIEW*

This record is so difficult to talk about succinctly. I was trying really hard to look at the “how” instead of the “what” during my note taking session. I believe the piano may in some way carry with them the fires of hell. With the amount of drones present on this album, PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE stood out as the first song to strip nearly everything away to just one piano, one voice. The piano ... read more

*Listening Journal #1.2 // WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music // NOT REALLY A REVIEW*

Like a Rolling Stone
So many instruments that are all kinda doing their own thing: piano, bass, electric guitar, harmonica, organ, tambourine, and drums
This song reads as an acrid, bitter attack towards some female character, but the song is far more compelling to me if I read it as Dylan talking to himself. “How does it feel?” hits so much harder/feels much more honest as an expression of ... read more

*Thoughts from WRTG 3020 - Writing on Music // NOT REALLY A REVIEW*

For the first album assigned in this class, this is a difficult album to talk about. To our modern ears, it just feels like "yep, this is rock, this is 1964 music." Almost all of the songs on this are also covers of classic rhythm and blues songs, with one of the only two originals being an instrumental. How in this, then, are we gonna see The Rolling Stones?

Upon first listen, I was immediately taken back to a ... read more

No esperaba que este álbum fuera muy bueno, porque los álbumes de remezclas me decepcionan tantas veces, pero este es una agradable excepción! Me siento que a menudo remezclas electrónicas no sirve para la música, o la música no sirve para los estilos electrónicos, pero en este caso tanto la agresión como los momentos de belleza en las canciones de Nathy se están siendo capturados y amplificados por estos productores (en ... read more

My first impression of Björk’s music is that it sounds like if the composer for the Earthbound soundtrack collaborated on an album with, well, Björk

Free Palestine

My friends’ music. I wish the vocals were louder, but knowing them it’s very intentional. Check it out!

I am surprised at how many things are coming together for me on this introduction to Crystal Castles. Starting off with Untrust Us, there's already an undeniably catchy melody and a head-bumping beat that we will see many different spins and variations of going forward, but it's really the tone of those vocals(?) that serve as an interesting signifier for what Crystal Castles is all about. This track is a banger, no doubt, but that vocal line just feels so uncanny valley, and ... read more

¡AY!

An infectiously undaunted exploration of the galaxies within us, soundtracked by quirky and nostalgic pop production, a story told through captivating hooks and poetic prose.

Listen to this album, then go translate the lyrics, you lazy bums

For recordkeeping: 80, 80, 90, 80, 100, 80, 80, 90, 80

I'm not a big fan of the beach. But, for some jacked up reason, I still end up going every summer. I think of every past experience I've had at the beach, all the discomforts of blazing sun and burning sand and sitting in a cramped car for 3 hours round trip, of seaweed and tangled hair and aching muscles, and every time I seriously doubt if I'm gonna accept my 3rd invitation in the span of 2 months. But, I've always said "yes." And I probably always will say ... read more