I forgot about this until today. will have reviews by tomorrow morning, sry! @Nate_Johnson so glad you liked the DMM record! you might like his previous records also. he (along with BTBAM) were my entry into prog/djent :)
Sorry everyone but I'm gonna have to pull out of this round, probably next weeks as well. Just too crazy with the holidays and visitors and whatnot. Also I honestly can't remember if I did my review for last weeks round haha. It was a good album too, maybe I'll just write a few words tonight if I forgot.
A little behind from Graduation prep the last few days, I'm finally ready to post some thoughts on P.O.S.'s Never better. The most I knew of him beforehand was passing by his set many moons again at Warped Tour. Now I'm not surprised why he was at the tour. His music blurs the lines of both hip hop and punk. Lyrically, I don't think he's far way from the emo rap movement that has been happening, but he's much better at the task. The nihilistic lyrical themes are present, and it's a bad comparison but it reminds me of my love for Mike's May God Bless Your Hustle from this year. A few friends of mine have gone in depth with me over the years in regards to their "black and nerdy/punk" aesthetic they've had put on them. My favorite tracks happen to be the more traditional hip-hop leaning songs like Goodbye and Lowlight Low Life. I'll have to check out more of his discography.
Don't think I posted it yet. I'mma listen to Shura- Nothing’s Real and Dua Lipa's self titled. @ComedownMachine is gonna listen to rina sawayama - Rina and Rey Pila - The Future Sugar
This week @manoverboard365 had me listen to waxahatchee’s out in the storm. I admittedly didn’t give it as many proper listens as I’d have liked as it was a really busy week, but i did like it. I liked the vocals a lot, and the instrumentation reminded me of Guppy’s, but maybe a bit more to my liking. That said, and i hate to say this since it seemed like the record was well liked around here, but it didn’t stick with me too much. It was nice background music and I’ll be revisiting it to get a better understanding, but i didn’t find it overly memorable. Favorite tracks were Sparks Fly and Brass Beams. Those are really great singalongs.
This week @St. Nate had me listen to Future - EVOL, which I liked but didn't love. I had a surface level enjoyment of all of the songs, but quite a few of them seem to blend together for me. I'm sure I'm missing part of the point, but the relentless hedonist streak in the lyrics really turned me off. Not to mention the amount of problematic lyrics present on the album: "Riding low in a Maybach/ spraying at you like an arab" ...Seriously? That said, I did enjoy the album as a whole and would be interested to know how Future's other material measures up to this album.
@Contender I listened to The Photo Album by Death Cab For Cutie. As mentioned before, I had listened to Plans and Transatlanticism when I was younger, but nothing beyond that. I also saw them play at H&L Fest earlier this year, and they were very good, however they didn't do anything that really made me want to delve into their stuff. I honestly didn't even know they had albums released prior to the ones I had already mentioned. I really enjoyed my time with this. I wish I had heard this when I was in 6th grade and listening to Guster and Keane, because I feel like this would have really resonated with me musically then. A Movie Script Ending is such a jam and on my second listen through I definitely found myself bouncing and singing along. It is just so damn catchy. I did find myself a little less enthralled on the second half of the record, but overall this ranged from good/chill background music to really great indie rock. Solid rec and I'm glad I listened to it cause I honestly would have never gone out of my way to check it out. I'm curious to hear how people feel about their most recent outputs?
Listen to We Have The Facts, the album before The Photo Album. Also I really love their 2015 album Kintsugi. It resonated with me a lot during my last break up but I know a lot of people weren’t as into it
I love Future but almost only because of the producers he works with. He’s not a talented rapper, subject matter hasn’t changed in years, and there are those problematic moments. He has better albums imo, but Evol is a pretty good summation of what he does if you hadn’t heard a full album of his before.
this week @LuigiPeppercorn gave me Zuli - On Human Freakout Mountain and Borns - Dopamine to review Zuli - On Human Freakout Mountain I don't know anything about this band but this is really good. and it's fun. every song has at least one hook that makes me shake my head. great vocal harmonies. "Kubadiver" is probably my favorite song on first listen. they have a familiar sound but I'm struggling to pin down their influences. I was really impressed by this album, though. good recommendation. Borns - Dopamine this is really catchy, too. great vocals, and I have to compliment the musicianship on this album, because there are some really weird, cool sounding parts on here. and then we get to "Electric Love" and I know this one from a commercial. Xfinity or something. "American Money" is a highlight for me. I really like "Holy Ghost", too. I'm a fan of almost all these songs. can't think of anything really negative to say. it's quite good
I'm already done with my listening for this week but I feel like I need to spin both albums one more time before I admit defeat to @Fucking Dustin. hahaha
Alright here's mine for last week courtesy of @ImAMetaphor The XX - XX So I was a little tipsy the first time I listened to this last weekend and it immediately clicked. I went back later in the week and did a regular listen through of it and loved it then as well. I love the dual vocals between the two, and love how sparse the instruments can be at times. It really makes a lot of these songs hauntingly beautiful. So far, my favorites were Basic Space and Islands. I'll be definitely revisiting this album a bunch. Slingshot Dakota - Break I love the lo-fi sound and they really nail it on this album. Her vocals shine and have so much emotion behind them. Some of these songs are incredibly catchy too and have been stuck in my head for most of the week. Paycheck in particular stood out to me. Too Much made me pretty emotional my first time hearing it, that song in particular is probably my favorite on the album and will be something that I'll be listening to constantly now. Overall, I loved this album and I'm very excited to dive more into it and get more into the lyrics. Thanks again! Both albums were right up my alley and I enjoyed them both.
Here are my thoughts on what @mescalineeyes gave me for Week 4. Both were pretty middle of the road for me, but I enjoyed both of them. Fjørt - Couleur - First off this record has dual vocals, which is always a plus in my book. For most I think hearing another language would be off-putting, but I actually am pretty fluent in German (Though I'm a bit rusty), so I was actually able to understand most of what they were saying. Hearing hardcore vocals in Deutsch was strangely satisfying, it definitely lends itself to harsh tones. The politically charged vocals is something I wish that the modern American post-hardcore scene took note of. Stuff like this I don't really enjoy listening to on record that often, but I think I would love it at a live show. Which is a shame since they're a German band, it will probably never happen for me. These Arms are Snakes - Easter - This is a record I would have been all about a couple of years ago when I was heavy into my post-hardcore phase, sick riffs, ferocious vocals, and there's an edge there that I think most of the genre nowadays misses. Mescaline Eyes, the opener was definitely my favorite of the bunch, sadly I don't think the rest of the record matches up to its beginning. At least I now know where @mescalineeyes got their user name!
After much back and forth and realization that our music tastes are very similar @Raditz and myself have came up with our session 5 trades. The saiyan warrior will listen to: Protest The Hero- Fortress Broken Social Scene- Forgiveness Rock Record The earthling will listen to: A Rocket To The Moon- On Your Side HiddenIn PlainView- Life In Dreaming
actually @Mister Lyrical I've been assigning Fjort to almost everybody every week so that maybe one day they'll get enough play in the US to go over there :D glad you got at least some enjoyment out of the records!
@Joe4th I'm glad you enjoyed the albums! I'm going to have write-ups for yours soon, but I've been caught up with finals week and some really nasty personal stuff, so it may not be until tomorrow night or Wednesday morning.
I know I bring this up a lot, but the way Canada & its government supports their own artists is a big reason you guys have as much music as you do. Probably one of the best countries on earth (to be an artist in!)