Album review of blink-182's self titled/untitled Alright here we go. @JediMasterKevo182 was given a rare opportunity to witness someone listen to a blink-182 record for the first time. It's 2018. Who hasn't heard a blink-182 album, even by accident? Me, that someone is me. I was more of a New Found Glory kid. We've all heard the singles, and I pretty much already knew the words to "I'm Feeling This" and "I Miss You" because I was a high school student who existed in the early 2000's. That's what this album sounds like to me. With the flange-bathed drums being the first thing you hear when you hit play, you're immediately transported to 2003. I've never sat down and listened to a blink album until tonight. Hell, I think I've even listened to an Angels & Airwaves album unintentionally at some point in my life prior to this. But this album, man. It made me nostalgic and I didn't even grow up listening to this band. That's a hard thing for music to do, at least for me. Who hasn't made fun of Tom's vocals at some point? Whatever they may be, they fit perfectly on this album, which sounds like it was a party to make. I had the Wikipedia page for this album open while listening to it and sending @JediMasterKevo182 live updates at the same time, and for the recording of this album the guys apparently rented out a house in So-Cal and played PPV porn on the TV 24/7 while smoking hella weed. A lot of work went into it, and a lot of stress came out of it, as the whole process took more than twice as long as it usually did for them to make an album, which was usually about 3 months (this one took 8-ish). Oh yeah, the album. There's plenty of experimentation here, as Tom brought on his expanded horizons from his post-hardcore tendencies from Box Car Racer. With a broader sonic spectrum, synths, a stand-up bass, strings, vocals recorded with a vintage mic through a shower, and an industrial loop were sprinkled in throughout the album's 14 tracks. Hell, even the B-side "Not Now" has church organs. There is even a 3/4 time signature somewhere in the music!! Mark & Tom's voices play off of each other so goddamn well. The bass tone is perfect. Travis kills the absolute shit out of his drums and there were times when I found myself marveling at how much of a beast he is, only to listen to him reel it in and throw some weird jazz/funk fill in here and there. This is a pop punk album right? I had a blast with the album, spending the first listen taking everything in while reading about the recording and writing process. Seriously, the footnotes on this album's Wikipedia page are longer than most band's actual Wikipedia page. The second listen? Enjoyed in the shower with a shitty 4% beer. I was actually dancing to this album in the shower. There are very few times when I want to listen to an album immediately after finishing it, but I couldn't help it. I don't know what came over me. I was pantomiming a stand-up bass during "I Miss You." I even tried to sing along when I sure as shit didn't know the words to 86% of the album. Whatever, I was a sophomore in high school again. I had braces. The Star Wars prequels were changing my mind about the franchise (they are bad). MTV still played music. I was mentally apologizing to my high school ex-girlfriends by the time I turned the water off. This album, man. Thanks again to @JediMasterKevo182 for sharing with me, as I know it's a special album to him. Hell, I might even check out their other stuff. Who knows. This album has turned me into a rebel for the moment. Good-ass songs: all of them Bad-ass songs: all of them except "All of This" RIYL: shower beers, dancing alone at weddings where you don't know anyone while drunk, keg stands, alcohol in general, and summer.
So for this week I had @js977 and they gave me Ryn Weaver's The Fool and Good Tiger's We Will All Be Gone. I'd not heard of either of these artists so I was looking foward to delving in. Good Tiger - We Will All Be Gone (2018) After some quick googling I found out this album is made by a collection of ex-members from other groups I'd actually heard of before. It contains ex-members of Tesseract, The Faceless and The Safety Fire. They play alt-rock that has a proggy, tech metal influence. It reminded me of a few bands like Arcane Roots, The Mars Volta and Night Verses. This album was pretty damn good, it took me a little while to get into it but once I did I loved it. I can see this growing on me with more listens and I'll definitely be returning to it. There's great riffing all over this release and the guitar parts are all intrinsically put together. The highlight though are the vocals man that guy can hit some high notes. My fav tracks on it were: Blueshift, Salt of the Earth and Float On Ryn Weaver - The Fool (2015) Out of the two recs this week this was the one I was really looking forward to checking out as @js977 had billed it to me as an excellent pop album and in the past year that's one area of music I've been really delving headfirst into. I was right to be excited for this album, it's really really good. She's got such a great voice and there's some real great pop hooks on this album. OctaHate was the big single off this album and is an absolute belter of a track, looking at Wikipedia Charlie XCX helped write this track which doesn't surprise me as she's pretty damn good at writing songs that get stuck in your head for days. This album's got a nice folky/indie vibe to some of her vocals on a couple of the tracks which is a nice change of pace in songs like Pierre, Traveling Song and The Fool. I've listened to this album a lot this week and I don't see me stopping anytime soon as it's so great. My fav tracks on it were: Stay Low, OcatHate, Sail On and Promises Anyways @js977 absolutely nailed it this week with their recs, especially with Ryn Weaver.
Amazing review! You truly have embraced what we do here in CMCS and we are lucky to have you. Keep up the good work!
This is cool as fuck, a band I manage played with Good Tiger and Mongol Horde on tour recently. Very cool to see a bunch of under the radar recs in here lately.
Just so you know, I'm planning on posting my Brian Fallon write-up on Monday! I want to spend a little more time with that (and also the last few days have been quite a departure from my normal routine).
Sounds Good. I hope that means you're loving that one! How's your daughter feeling today? Any better?
It’s about damn time buddy! @Nate_Johnson up for a new partner? This guys cool, I went to a TBS show with him lol
Yeah, it’s great! Doing better today, but not well enough to go back to daycare yet unfortunately. Thanks for asking :)