Music Reviews, 5-26-2021: Rapid Fire Style

Back in February, there was a Twitter challenge to listen to an album you've never heard before and tweet about it, one for every day of the month.  Well, me being me, it took until mid-April to hit 28, and after that I just kept doing it, so I wound up with 35 tweet-length reviews, so here's what I've been listening to lately and some thoughts:

Steely Dan "Can't Buy A Thrill" (1972) *** and 1/3

Incredibly well crafted from back to front, but aside from "Reelin' In The Years", it made me feel absolutely nothing.

Typhoon "Sympathetic Magic" (2021)

Every song, moreso than the last, intrinsically, with every fiber of its being, is the most acoustic indie sadboy thing you've ever heard as hard as it possibly can. Super not my jam.

Return To Forever "Romantic Warrior" (1976) ****

There are a handful of tracks that are kinda just there, but "Sorceress", "Duel Of The Jester And The Tyrant" and ESPECIALLY the title track more than make up for it. Worth hearing!

Deep Copy "Blue" (2021)

An ambient drone EP (I guess? I don't know anything about the genre). Track 2 I could maybe get into; the rest was ...not even there. Not really my cup of tea. Didn't hate it though, so by default, it's the best album of 2021 so far.

Fleetwood Mac "Rumors" (1977) *** and 2/3

Kinda cheating, since despite never sitting down with this one there were only three songs on it I'd never heard before, but it's pretty good. "Dreams" is an unimpeachable classic and "The Chain" is pretty damn fine as well.

Abusive Muse "Prom Night" (2021) *** and 1/2

A e s t h e t i c, Sega Genesis music. Lo-fi beats 2 realize high school social institutions are bullshit to. Best album of 2021 so far, because it's the only one I've liked. Ended too quick, though; wanted more. (Like sex on prom night!)

Sewerslvt "The World Is Fvcked" (December 2020) ****

They still make music like this? Rad. Best drum and bass album I've heard in more than a decade, and it's from December 2020, so since I count albums released after December 1st for the next year, THIS is the album to beat for 2021.

Billy Cobham "Broad Horizon" (2016) *** and 2/3

Like the big band direction Billy is going with on this one. The songs do feel their length though, even if there's plenty to enjoy about each. Overall, I'd say it's a decent edition to the late-period B.C. cannon.

Esperanza Spalding "Emily's D-Evolution" (2016) **** and 1/8

If you didn't think there was anything unique that could be done with rock music anymore, listen to this and melt with a smile at being proven wrong. This album fucking rules.

The Go-Go's "Beauty And The Beat" (1981) *** and 2/3

"Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got The Beat" don't really prepare you for the dark, minor key stuff that makes up the majority of the album. Also: "Tonite" is every Offspring song before Offspring learned to play guitar. Good stuff.

Talking Heads "Little Creatures" (1985) *

Languid and limp. Aside from "Road To Nowhere" (which RULES), the rest of the album is seven increasingly worse versions of the first track "And She Was" (which is also good, but wow there's a lot of clones here) Generic 80s schlock.

The Weeknd "After Hours" (2020) *

Lo-Fi beats to snort coke and fuck hookers to. I suppose the lifelessness of the music is supposed to invoke how empty he feels, but it doesn't mean it doesn't bore me to death. "Blinding Lights" is good, but missing something.

They Might Be Giants "Flood" (1990) ****

This was neat! A fun time. "Dead" & "Your Racist Friend" are sadly still #BigMoods 30 years on. (And "Minimum Wage" has only gone up $3.45 in the 30 FUCKING YEARS SINCE THIS CAME OUT...) If you want to forget about all that, listen to this!

Harry Styles "Fine Line" (2019) *** and 1/3

Better than I was expecting. The first three songs are unnaturally good. Drags in the middle (5-8 are dif. versions of the same idea; just pick one and move on), comes back around at the end. Solid stuff.

Stereolab "The Groop Played Space Age Batchelor Pad Music" (1993) 1/2 of a *

A collection of sounds and pleasant chords that don't really coalesce into actual songs.

Phonopsia "Horse Time" (2021) *** and 1/3

Bouncy Bandcamp Electronic music that literally made me dance. Not easy to do anymore (though I do like dancing).

Rob Zombie "The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy" (2021) *** and 5/8

It's a Rob Zombie album, all right.  And that's what makes it fun.  Remember fun?  I think I'm starting to.  Stupid in all the right places.  I recommend it.

Jimmy Edgar "Cheetah Bend" (2021)

If the junkyard from The Brave Little Toaster followed up "Worthless" with a trap album, except really really repetitive.  The song with Danny Brown was the only one worth a shit; the rest is just noise.

Chris Cornell "No One Sings Like You Anymore" (2020) *

Pretty cut-rate covers of bog standard songs.  If only we lived in a world where we could have given a bored sigh and a shrug and moved on with our lives instead of feeling obligated to apply some deeper meaning to this because the artist is dead.  But it is what it is.

Someone "Orbit II" (2021)  **

The only notable thing about this album is that I originally wrote it down as "Something For Someone" and can now find no trace of such a project ever existing, no matter where I look.  This was perfectly fine (but wholly unremarkable) laid back music.

Chevelle "Niratias" (2021) ***

A reasonably decent rock record with a sci-fi concept to it.  It's a bit too long, which feels weird to say about a 50 minute album, but it could have used a little more variety and/or a song or two knocked off.

Curved Air "Airborne" (1976)  *** and 1/4

Imagine Kansas morphing into a C-Tier Fleetwood Mac, but insisting on keeping their prog roots on the deep cuts, but also a little bit of Jean-Luc Ponty and Southern Rock mixed in, all sung by Olivia Newton-John at her floweriest.  That's this album.  It's fucking weird.  (And oh yeah, this is the first time Stewart Copeland was credited as a songwriter.)

Maudlin Of The Well "Bath" (2001)  *** and 1/3

It makes all the sense in the world to me this band morphed into Kayo Dot in 2003, because this sounds like the analog version of that.  Lots of lush acoustics, songs trying to paint a picture with their sounds and a bit of black metal sprinkled in (which is normally not my bag, but is mixed in well enough here not to put me off).  It's definitely out there, maaan; a lot of twists and turns you won't necessarily see coming.

Senri Kawaguchi "Buena Vista" (2014)  *** and 5/8

There are so many flavors of modern jazz on here and all done so well I don't even know where to start.  Like Maudlin Of The Well, this takes a lot of turns you might not be expecting, and they all work like a charm.

Liquid Tension Experiment 3 (2021)  *** and 1/2

Disc 1 is about as good as the first LTE; a worthy induction into the cannon.  Disc 2 is a bunch of jamming that did not need to see the light of day.  Not sure how to really parse this one...

Aaron Watson "American Soul" (2021) 

What the Cinnamon Toast Fuck happened here?  Everything that made this guy unique on Vaquero has been sucked out like a vampire and replaced by every country stereotype you can think of and then some.  This is GARBAGE.

Dirty Honey (2021)

Greta Van Fleet, but for Guns 'N' Roses.

Alice Cooper "Detroit Stories" (2021) * and 1/2

Alice Cooper makes the kind of D-tier mid-90's blues rock record my dad would've bought and forgot, but for some reason it works?  I can't explain why this is fine but something like Dirty Honey just bounces right off me.  I think it comes down to cred.  This ain't the album of anybody's year, but it'll get the job done on a Sunday afternoon.

Or so I thought until track 9 when this album got DUUUUUUMB.  (Better make that F-tier mid-90's blues rock.)

The Queers "Save The World" (2020) 1/2 a *

This sounds like "Local band: the band."  Except with edgier lyrics.  Dumb, but not in as fun a way as it should be.  ("Shit For Brains" was okay, though.)

Gojira "Fortitude" (2021) ****

[a Tier-list of Gojira albums with "Fortitude" at an A]  Provisionally?

Serj Tankian "Elasticity" (2021) ** and 1/2

If any of these songs had appeared on the mythical next System Of A Down album like they were alleged to be meant for, they would have been a let down.  "Electric Yeravan" is the only song on here I liked 100%, but again, didn't love it.  Serj's voice is about 70% of what it used to be too; he's a lot more nasally now.  If you liked Elect The Dead or Harakiri, this is just below that level, but the first two songs seem...juvenile.  And after Fuktronic last year, I see why him and Jimmy Urine made such a poopoo together doodie-caca-stanky-stank.

Really From (2021) *

Four kids from band class started a band with two kids from show choir, and they made an emo record by way of a downtempo Broadway musical.  Given that I don't like emo or musicals, I wasn't really into this, but it's got chops.

Infinity Shred "EP002 (Recovery)" (2021)

Uninspired to the Nth degree.  Might work as a video game soundtrack, but as an EP it's more vapor than wave.

Arlo Parks "Collapsed In Sunbeams" (2021) *** and 1/2

The 40 minute runtime just breezed right by, which is fitting since the sound is very breezy.  And melancholy.  Arlo is very open and vulnerable, which along with the chill atmosphere, is the main selling point of her music.

I liked each of the songs in a vacuum, but they do tend to be kinda same-y.  They're all at about the same BPM with dead ringer drum beats to back them up.  But overall, I'd still recommend this one, because like I said, all 12 tracks hit (especially "Hope", "Eugene" and "Portra 400").

Hayley Williams "Flowers For Vases / descansos" (2021) ** and 1/2

Like Arlo Parks, but without the drums and vulnerable about different things.  (And in doing research on Arlo Parks, I found out these two were supposed to tour together last year so...makes sense?)  A little too sleepy for me, but not terrible.

So that's what I've got for now.  Stay safe, stay sane if you can, Love Over Fear.