#MWE Reviews, February 2021

Hello there!  February is MWE Month on Twitter, where music writers try their hand at listening to an album a day (that they've never heard before) and firing off their opinion of it in one tweet.  I managed to do it on time this year so if you didn't catch what I was doing on the bird site, here's the roundup (with a handful of expanded entries for uniqueness sake):

Day 1:

Home "Falling Into Place" (2016)

Not a bad little album.  Relaxing, vibey, bloop blip synth stuff.  Kinda like Tycho without guitars and a little more will to dance.  Songs get a little repetitive, but not a deal breaker.  Definitely would've liked to hear this in 2016, because it would have done well on the year end.


Day 2:

Injected "Burn It Black" (2001)

A weird cross between Isle Of Q and Full Devil Jacket with a few harder moments and a lot of Stone Temple Pilots worship.  That's kind of the double-edged sword this album cuts with: It can't decide whether it wants to be nu metal or 90's alternative, is competent at both tropes yet fails to make a decision.  That makes this distinct enough to lift it beyond the muck of their contemporaries, but just barely.  The run of tracks between "Bullet" and "I-IV-V" is pretty solid.

Day 3:

The Offspring "Ixnay On The Hombre" (1997)

Jello Biafra?

Yep.  That's Dave Jerden production.

Mmm hmm.  Definitely made for 90's teens.

You can hear the goofy doofy pivot of Americana already happening.  This sounds like a lobotomized Smash.  The three singles are the only songs you need to hear besides "Intermission" and maybe the closer.

Day 4:

Frank Sinatra "The Voice Of Frank Sinatra" (1946)

Sinatra's first album, originally issued on four 78 RPM records (because albums as we know them were about two years away).  You can tell they didn't upload this to streaming from the original master; there's hella record noise.  One of 'em has a bit rate of about 64 (AND THEN THE SONG JUST ENDED.  IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VERSE IT JUST FUCKING STOPPED.  WHAT.)  Doesn't help the songs are super uninspired, enervated renditions.  Absolute poop. 

Day 5:

Bas Jan "Baby U Know" (2022)

First new album I've tucked into this year, and it's...interesting. It's like Wet Leg and Kate Bush decided to make a 90's alternative record with a bunch of non-traditional instruments for the genre. (Solo on "Vision Of Change" rips)

Day 6:

Unknown Mortal Orchestra "SB-09" (2021)

A single 18:43 track that's ambient Hawaiian-sounding guitar for the first third, then a minute of conversation and dog barking, then a reggae-themed jam, all recorded on what sounds like an 8-track machine.  Then the ending just draaaags for six whole minutes of drone and more talking.  Odd.

Day 7:

Zoot "Zoot Out" (1971)

The Bay City Rollers' big brother.  Sounds ten years older and just as fucking whack.  Then the second side of the album is PROTO HEAVY METAL and okay?  Really hard to pin down or take seriously but there's a handful of moments that make you think you want to.  (Don't).

Day 8:

Genesis Owusu "Smiling With No Teeth" (2021)

I was listening to Childish Gambino's "3.15.20" earlier, and this is that album done right.  This has cohesion, theme and more personality.  (And I LIKED "3.15.20")  If I'd got off my ass and listened to this sooner, it would've made my Top 20 for 2021.  

Day 9:

KoRn "Requiem" (2022)

The best KoRn album in 15 years. Jonathan Davis sounds better than he has in a long time, the production is solid and the band has a killer instinct to them again.  Quite the pleasant surprise.

Day 10:

Asturias "In Search Of The Soul Trees" (2008)

Some nice, vibey chamber prog.  Came up at random in my YouTube recommendations.  And it's a good thing, because this freebooted copy is the only one I can find; they're not even on Bandcamp.  Rip a copy of this if you can.

Day 11:

Ray Charles (1957)

His first album for Atlantic.  I find a lot of music from the 50's doesn't have much life to it, but RAY CHARLES IS THE ACCEPTION.  A live wire of an album from a monochrome time.  Ray was the MAN.

Day 12:

Yoko Kanno "Unimachi Diary" (1998)

Yoko Kanno's my favorite composer.  She can do anything and do it well.  This is a shorter orchestral selection, but it's nice.  Pleasant, airy feeling to it.  Would be good music to hear in the spring.

Day 13:

Janet Jackson "Rhythm Nation 1814" (1989)

Too long, repetitive, incredibly dated but when it hits it HITS.  (It's Janet, so yeah it hits a lot.)  Sadly what's not dated is the social commentary because the issues she brings up have gotten worse in the THIRTY THREE YEARS since this dropped.  Worth hearing if you haven't.

Day 14:

Aeges "Dr0men" (2020)

The pivot to more mainstream faire from stoner metal was unexpected but reasonably well executed, but the vocals were so distracting they took me right out of it.  Not necessarily bad, just...didn't fit at all.

Day 15:

Khruangbin "Con Todo El Mundo" (2018)

If Mdou Moctar joined The Brand New Heavies, but they vibed out too hard and forgot to make something of consequence.  Interesting for about 15 minutes, then you get the idea.

Day 16:

Amon Tobin "Bricolage" (1997)

The second album to ever score a 10 on Pitchfork (which they later de-canonized).  And hearing it 25 years later, it feels like this was the first drum & bass album the reviewer heard and it blew their mind.  But when you think about how Amon made this WITHOUT A DAW I give it credit for that (even if it is way too long).

Day 17:

Stevie Wonder "My Cherie Amour" (1969)

I hear tell Hotter Than July is the Stevie album du-jour for #MWE '22 because it's the one after his "perfect" streak, so I decided to go opposite field and find the one right before it kicked off.  (I also still needed an album from the 60's, having managed to check the 50's and even the 40's off my list.)  

Considering this sounds like the Time/Life collection of Tom Jones's Greatest Hits, Stevie smokes through it as only he can.  He even does a really dope version of The Door's "Light My Fire".  

Day 18:

Death Grips "The Money Store" (2012)

Not sure if it's my thing, but it's visceral and interesting.  Definitely an album you need to hear several times to take in.  Liked the back half more than the front (except the opener; "Get Got" rules).  Need to read the lyrics along with it next time; kinda hard to parse.

It's an album you can't observe or absorb in one sitting; it's too big.  There's just too much signal coming at you through the speakers, and boy does it sound like it.  It's frantic to get out everything it's trying to say, but the bits you catch the first time will be fascinating enough to make you want to delve deeper.

Day 19:

Taylor Swift "1989" (2014)

Aside from Folklore and Evermore, the only Taylor album I've pressed play on.  The singles are good (except "Bad Blood" holy geez; and the mid-section of "Shake It Off" still makes my skin crawl) but the rest is forgettable.  And oddly flat for all the passion and melodrama they're trying to sell.

Day 20:

King's Kaleidoscope "Zeal" (2019)

If Kenna joined Minus The Bear, they ditched the guitars and went major key and Christian.  Really interesting because I wasn't expecting a lick of it. 

Day 21:

Boards Of Canada "The Campfire Headphase" (2005)

Warped, spaced out home movies for the ear depicting a childhood you didn't actually have yet feel painfully nostalgic for.  (The word for that is "anemoia".)

Day 22:

Childish Gambino "Awaken, My Love!" (2016)

Really good until the one after "Redbone", then slams to a halt until the last track.  Still one of the best CG albums, and probably Top 5 or 10 for 2016 now that I hear it.

Day 23:

Dessa "A Badly Broken Code" (2010)

Every song on here had at least one line that made me raise an eyebrow (some had more).  The only other project of hers I've heard is Chime, so the scale is definitely different; less melodrama more drama.  All the songs are solid.

Day 24:

Curved Air "Air Conditioning" (1970)

Wow this one sucked. Lots of early 70's prog rock cliches done badly and even mixed badly. They get better as the decade goes on, but they really stumbled out the gate. 
  

Day 25:

Dumb "Club Nites" (2019)

I liked the garagey, quirky attitude of this one but the speak-singing gets old faster than you want it to, to the point where this 35 minute album feels about five tracks too long.  (The one they do in French should've been the last.)

Day 26:

Grace Potter "Daylight" (2019)

Grace Potter's sort-of return to form.  The three ballads in a row don't help, but most of the rest is pretty decent.  Still some kinks to work out after 2015's disastrous Midnight, but a step in the right direction.

Day 27:

The Physics House Band "Incident On 3rd" (2021)

An instrumental prog band has a three-way car crash with a jazz quartet and a post-rock band.  And out came this album!  Oscillates too wildly between busy and quiet.  Have to really be in the mood for it, but still interesting.

Day 28:

Marvin Gaye "What's Going On" (1971)

Seemed a fitting way to wrap this up.  As angry as I am at the world now, this comes off as kinda hippy dippy, but honestly if I looked at this rationally it's putting its heart out there and it's in the right place.

That being said, I didn't like this album.  It's repetitve, the lyrics are all kind of vague (save "Inner City Blues") and in trying to be one long suite, it feels like one song that blurs together.  It feels muddled, which I'll grant you, is a symptom of being depressed, but 'eh.  I'll admit this album is important for the continuum of music history, but I'm not getting much out of it in 2022.

For the stats nerds (by decade):

1946
1957
1969
1970, 1971 (x2)
1989
1997 (x2), 1998
2001, 2005, 2008
2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 (x2), 2018, 2019 (x3)
2020, 2021 (x3), 2022 (x2)

So that's that.  Stick around for the Spring 2022 Hit Mix, coming your way in the next couple of weeks!

Love Over Fear.