The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 351

...isn’t that album not out until the fall

 

If you're accusing us of cheating...


....


....you're not wrong.

 

Looks like we’ve got another CMCScandal on our hands

 

You guys are more than welcome to make that trade




Along with a trade you can actually do this week :)

 

You know for someone who hasn’t participated in months you sure do lurk here enough

 

I read the reviews

 

You could be writing them too :)

 

@Night_Sky 's second recommendation for me is:

My Blood Valentine: Loveless (1991) Sire Records



Loveless is the second full length studio album by Irish rock band, My Blood Valentine. Like my previous review of Slowdrive's Souvlaki, Loveless is considered an essential record in shaping shoegaze, maybe even more so.

Despite the two records being under the umbrella of shoegaze, they are vastly different in sound which goes to show you how diverse the genre can be. While the center point of Slowdrive's music is the vocals, the exact opposite can be said of My Bloody Valentine. Immediately upon hitting play you will be bombarded with a chaotic swirling of guitars, synths and drums with lead vocalist Kevin Shield's sugary sweet vocals coming in seconds later. At the time, a sound combining reverb soaked guitar and with pop vocals was unheard of. You can see the influence this record had on bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and The Pains of Being Pure of Heart.

Production wise, this record further divides itself from that of Souvlaki by almost burying the vocals in the mix or with so much reverb they become almost impossible to understand. Like Isis's Panopticon, this is not the focal point of the album and lets the instrumentation take the spotlight. The whole album has these swirling, chaotic, reverb soaked guitars and synths that create a "wall of sound". On, To Here Knows When, they bring in dueling violins that dance around your head like bees and you are not sure where to focus your ears. I just love the sense of atmosphere to this record and taking a pop sound and completely turning it on it's head. The album is 49 minutes long but never feels that way as each song is different than the next while also feeling closely related.

Thank you @Night_Sky for letting me venture into shoegaze a bit!

RIYL:
Shoegaze, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Favorite Songs:
To Here Knows When
Sometimes
Soon

 

@Jim Morgan and I traded recently and they gave me:

I the Mighty: Where the Mind Wants to Go/Where You Let It Go (2017) Equal Vision Records



I the Mighty are a rock band from San Francisco, California and this is their fourth full length record. This is my first time really listening to the band but I have read that this album is a departure from their previous post hardcore sound and sees them going in a more pop rock direction similar to bands Deaf Havana and Emarosa while also incorporating some progressive elements like Dance Gavin Dance even utilizing the vocal talents of Tilian on the song Silver Tongues.

Lyrically, lead vocalist, Brent Walsh has a fantastic voice that fits the sound the band creates perfectly. The album as whole is sort of a concept album in dealing with the emotions that occur with ending a relationship, whether it is a personal relationship or being away from your friends.

I must say that this album instantly grabs you and makes you fall in love with it right from the start with the opening track, Degenerates all the way through to Where You Let it Go. I will say that at times the band can get a little too "pop" for me on songs such as Symphony of Skin and Escapism but this is forgivable since the album as a whole is just fantastic and made me want to hit play time and time again. The production on the album is fantastic and about as good as you want a pop rock record to be. I love the vocal harmonies between Brent and the band and gives it a very anthemic feel that will having you singing along in no time. I am truly sad I missed this album last year but I am glad I was finally able to listen to it.

RIYL:
Pop Rock
Emarosa
Deaf Havana
Dance Gavin Dance

Favorite Songs:
Degenerates
Sleepwalker
The Sound of Breathing
Silver Tongues

 

Great review! This was a top-15 album for me last year. I really dig the pop sensibility so I'm excited to hear that Deaf Havana album. Can't get enough of Pet Names and 111 Winchester.

 

It's taking me so long to write my review of Rumours because I cannot decide how I feel about the album. I was at a point earlier when I didn't want to listen to it anymore (like EVER) and then I decided to give it another shot and thought "hey maybe there's something here."

 

Everyone welcome our newest member, @xapplexpiex !

 

Emecia - Familiar Spirits (2018)



So @Nate_Johnson gave me this album the other week to reivew. For those that don't know them from Nates own awesome review of this album a few weeks back, Emecia are a post-hardcore band from Adelaide Australia.

So straight away I knew I'd dig this album, it's got all the traits of post-hardcore that I like, crunching guitars, great pacing, soaring vocals and awesome screams. One (probably long forgotten) band they remind me of especially in the melodic vocals is Emanuel. If you want a comparison that's less obscure though they kind of sound like if you were to take an a emo band from the early 00's like The Used or Saosin and then gave them a big blast of heaviness from a band like Every Time I Die, then add a little extra tech-metal guitar style guitar playing a la Protest The Hero.

Anways onto the actual album, it comes flying straight out the gates with opener Croweater with its fast paced tempo, huge sounding guitars and intensely screamed vocals. After that this album doesn't really let up at all until it finishes. There are some huge sounding tracks here, Legacies and Sleeper particularly stood out to me especially with the main chorus of Legacies which reminded me of Bert's style from The Used. The closer Victims was really good too, I really liked the lyrics to the chorus on this one "I won't bite my tongue, it won't happen again, I'm not giving up, I'm not giving in, we won't let you win". Which from what I gather with the brief research I did is about their own personal issues in dealing with depression. [edit] apparently I got this bit wrong it’s actually to do with coping through being diagnosed with Cancer, sorry for the mix up, still my sentiment remains it’s a stellar track with awesome lyrics.

So all in all this is a really great album and definitely something I'll be going back to in the future, I'm not sure if it's made it into my top 10 AOTY yet but it's certainly in with a fair shout for it. One thing I also have to point out is just how awesome that artwork looks, the colours on it are so damn vibrant.

RIYL: Emanuel, Protest The Hero, The Used
Favourite Tracks: Victims, Croweater, Sleepers and Legacies

 

This is rad. How does one join?

 

If you wanna join, you are basically in!

 

Awesome. I'm down!

 

You’re in! Welcome aboard! I’ll be making pairings today, so stay tuned to find your partner

 

Fantastic review and the whole album is his thoughts about coping with his diagnosis of cancer. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

@Pete.Emecia

 

Alright everyone, it’s time for CMCS pairing time!!

CMCS Pairings
Session 07/23-07/30
—-

@SamLevi11 // @summertimejesus

@Bad Frequencies // @Kvothe

@Nate_Johnson // @xapplexpiex

@anonimito // @Night_Sky

@broken22 // @Davjs

@Petit nain des Îles // @teebs41

@ineverlose // @bachna84

@Jim Morgan // @Micool1

@Chase Tremaine // @edisnfg

@Patterns in Traffic // @Anarchivist

@iCarly Rae Jepsen // @Kiana

@ugman_2000 // @Bad Frequencies

@disambigujason // @JRGComedy

Did I forget you or you wanna join? Let me know!

 

That makes a lot more sense with some of the lyrics, that'll learn me to read the first thing that came up on Google.

Pete if you do check in on here I hope that you've been given the all clear or at least taking well to the treatment. Thanks for writing such an awesome album.

 

@Petit nain des Îles lets do this thing, I'm feeling something wild this week

 

Pete is the drummer but I’m sure he will let Scott know you are thinking of him!

 

Paired with Jesus. Let's get holy.

 

Review time. A while back @Micool1 gave me this album to review.

The Cary Brothers - Bruises

I was given this a few weeks back now. The Cary Brothers is an act I had never heard of before, so it was interesting to listen to something so new to me, and something out of my comfort zone. Despite the “brothers” part of the name, this is actually a solo act, and Bruises is his latest album, coming out earlier this year.

The album starts with the longest song on the album, the almost seven minutes “Nothing in the World”. It’s a slow start with some nice picked guitars and some decent vocals, but the whole song felt too close to something like Maroon 5 for me, and at almost 7 minutes long, it really wasn’t a start to the record that I enjoyed.

Unfortunately this continued through tracks two and three. “Say”, the second track, definitely had a more electronic pop feel and was more upbeat to begin with, but as the track progressed it moved back into the style of the first track.

Luckily tracks four and five are easily my favourites on the record. “Crush” has a nice electronic drum beat and vocals that sound inspired by Joy Division, and the whole song worked really nicely. “Cool City” meanwhile had an atmosphere that sort of reminded me of “Who Says” by John Mayer, with it’s simple acoustics and laidback attitude. Both of these tracks had different feels and I enjoyed both quite a lot.

At this point I was really expecting the second half to take off but other than track seven, another nicely produced track that was more upbeat and felt alive, the second half was more of the same.

I wouldn’t say this is a bad record, but it felt flat to me for seven of its ten tracks and it just wasn’t the sort of thing I enjoy. Some of the lyrics I certainly saw the appeal of, and it’s very easy listening, but ultimately it isn’t something I will return to.

4/10

Recommended Tracks: Crush, Cool City, Past Come Round

Sorry that I didn't get on with it but it's definitely not a bad album, just not my thing.

 

I've been paired with the awesome @Bad Frequencies again and we've traded the following

I've given them:

Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of Colour
Alexisonfire - Watch Out!

They've given me:

Out Of Service - Morning
Real Friends - Composure