MUSIC REVIEWS, 8/31/23
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The knock on 2023 music is there's not much to say about it. Honestly, we've needed a lesser year for awhile now. This is time for a reset; a refresh. I barely have time for music lately, but I have had some, and it turns out, I have a little bit to say, so here's a few reviews for you:
Alton Allen "We Might Not Be Friends After This"
If not for "Hide" and "What It Feels Like", my entire review could be "even more Tame Impala". Like...Meek Impala? Yeah, let's go with that.
Nuria Graham "Cyclamen"
Reminiscent of April March's Chrominance Decoder and Jasmine Rogers's Blood Red Sun, but with a few chamber instruments and Eastern European flair. A pleasant listen through and through.
Sleep Token "Take Me Back To Eden"
There's some decent musical ideas buried in the first few tracks, but MAN do they drop the ball. Every song is the same late 2010's pop rock radio version of R&B crashed into some ridiculously low tuned guitars seemingly out of nowhere (and never often enough).
You know what? I actually think I have it: Imagine Dragons mixed with VOLA's last album, but with the things that could make either of those things appealing so separated and diluted by gray nanogoo they turn into the turgid dross we have before us. Sprinkle on a little late period Bon Iver to taste. It gets worse as the album goes on, not helped by its unwillingness to rise above 80 BPM. Punishingly slow can be done well, but you need something to hang onto. A performance, a lyric, a vibe, fucking SOMETHING.
I'll be honest, I still kind of like "The Summoning" (which is what put them on my radar in the first place), but outside of that this is gunning for my bottom ten with a large arsenal. It...it just keeps getting worse the more you listen to it! It's astonishing in its talent for sucking! Remarkable!
The Damned "Darkadelic"
It's wild how this album suddenly becomes memorable on track six, because I could not tell you a thing about tracks one through five, and I just heard them. Don't know what it is, but once "Wake The Dead" was in full swing, it made me start paying attention. "Follow Me" is okay, but better than the first five. Then "Motorcycle Man" has a pulse! It lives! And it would fit a B-Monster Movie aesthetic, because it's old man punk rock for those who survived long enough to do it into their seventies. They've earned it, gosh darnit!
And they keep proving it. "Girl I'll Stop At Nothing" is also fairly high octane all things considered. I'm a sucker for late-period albums from bands that still have a little in the tank. A very specific kink, but sign me up, I guess.
Dave Matthews Band "Walk Around The Moon"
Man, was "Madman's Eyes" a bait and switch. I put that on the Summer Hit mix, was kinda interested, but the rest of the album is the slowest, dullest music they've ever shoveled out. They've done great slow songs, but none of these have anything to grab onto. (Except the song "The Only Thing"; that at least had a heartbeat.)
Echosmith
If Sylvan Esso wrote demos for Taylor Swift's Midnights and got rejected for taking it too much to the adult contemporary extreme. That sentence should send most of you running for the hills and be the death sentence that makes no one dare speak this band's name again, but hold up a second.
Yes, this is basic. It's normie. Maybe even a little wack. But y'know what? This fucking life has failed to have any stability, any normalcy in it for over a decade, and I've HAD IT. If I wanna sit and vibe to a song like "Greedy" for a few minutes because it doesn't demand something from me, doesn't make me think about new problems I've never considered, doesn't make me hang on the melodrama of the singer and care about how it relates to them (not that I usually do that anyway), doesn't hit me in the face with a shit ton of polyrhythms and complicated crap...then I'm gonna. It's a breath. It's a palette cleanser.
Look, no one WANTS to be the glass of water of music, no one SETS OUT to be a breathing exercise when you wanna be an Olympic Floor Routine, but we still NEED shit like that. The spaces between the big things. The air we need to process. And a band like Echosmith does it...well enough. There are three tracks on here that are too basic even for me. But my point still stands!
Next time, it's already time for the Fall Hit Mix 2023. That one is proving to be a challenge to put together. I'm not really sure how long to make these, if I should keep them tighter or pile every single thing I hear in. Let me know, I guess. Calls to action and whatnot.
Stay determined.
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