Reviews, 6-5-2023

 You know what it is.

100 Gecs "10,000 Gecs"

You ever see High Fidelity (1999)?  There's a band of punk-ass teenagers that steal records from John Cusack's store so they can sample them and they're called I Stole Your Grandma's Wheelchair?

Yeah, it sounds like that, but with autotune, ska, shitposting and queerness.

So basically one of the best things I've heard this year.

Covet "Catharsis"

Weather Channel Prog.  (This is a compliment.)

Instrumental acrobatics that flow nicely, but it starts to overstay its welcome around track 6.  Fortunately, track 7 rebounds, but then track 8 is a mild, mild closer that sounds like any other song they do.  If it had a stronger dénouement I'd be higher on it, but I still think it's pretty good.

Ava Max "Diamonds & Dancefloors"

I'm shocked how much I like this.  It's not doing anything unique, but it's a damn fine dance album, the grooves are tight and for some reason I just buy it.  "Million Dollar Baby" has been stuck in my head since I first heard it months ago (and it's kinda worn through my patience...but only kinda).  If you don't mind having the Dua Lipa we have at home, you could be in for the time of your life.

Yameii Online "Candy"

Y'know, it's weird I haven't heard a vocaloid sing in English until now.  That was probably a thing at some point and I just missed it.  Anyway, it was novel to hear a vocaloid talk shit and flex with lines like "Hoes wanna be me", but after track three it wore off pretty fast.  Then inexplicably the beats got better for the last three tracks and I got roped back in.  An uneven ride, sometimes the vocals are so far down in the mix you can't tell what they're saying, but if you hear the terms "Vocaloid Hyper-Trap" and want to get in on that, listen to this.  It does bump in the whip.

Fidlar "Centipede"

I was ambivalent about their 2019 album Almost Free (more like some of the songs kinda worked and the others drove me up a wall), but this one at a mere nine minutes and forty four seconds outstays its welcome.  Yeah, I like the bite of the noise rock, but the vocals and lyrics are annoying (whereas three, four years ago I might have found them sarcastically charming).  There's enough accoutrements that make them sound like they're trying to be a middle-of-the-road indie band just wearing a noise rock coat instead of committing to one or the other.  And since The Happy Fits snapped me out of my left of the dial coma last year naw.  Pick a lane.  Not the worst thing I ever heard by a longshot, but not exactly ten minutes well spent.

And then I find out this is one of those "EPs" that is just the first four tracks of their new album and their next "EP" is the same four songs with the title track of the new thing stapled on front and I just give up.

JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown "Scaring The Hoes"

More like scaring the top spot on my Best Of 2023 List, amirite?!?!?  (The year is young, but this is easily the one to beat.)

Okay, so the next blog you'll hear from me is...THE TOP ALBUMS OF 2016!!!

It never sat right with me that I failed to pick a number one for that year.  Now I have a robust enough selection (and context to boot), so I feel better about putting that one together.  I still have like 30 albums to re-spin for it, so check back toward the end of June and I'll have something ready to go.  Thanks for sticking with me to those of you still reading after all this time.

Onward and Upward.