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IN 2022 I WILL LISTEN TO YOUR ALBUM OF THE YEAR


Lamp, broken circa 1988

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I didn't forget! There's like no chance I'll listen to them all in 2022 this year! Woohoo!

Rules:

  1. First Come, First Serve.
  2. If you nominate two, I'll listen to zero.
  3. No guarantees that my review will be positive.
  4. If someone suggests your album I'll ask the both of you if you have another album you'd rather I review. First Come First Serve still applies.

This year, I haven't been listening to a lot of new music because I've been trying to close up loose ends as I prepare for a real big transition next year. So I didn't listen to a lot of the big stuff this year, and I have a big list of stuff I meant to hear from this year. However, in lieu of knowing for sure, the new album I've listened to the most is "God's Country" by Chat Pile. Over the last two years I've had my eternal fill of noise rock where the vocalists just tell you they suck over and over like it's profound soul-searching, only to later just be telling on themselves. Fool me once, etc. Chat Pile hits those same veins of dark atmosphere and tension, but through just looking at the world around them and not just roleplaying as a guy who pretends he sucks. On top of that, I feel they're the best in class of the Jesus Lizard lineage, a style of rock band that mostly annoys me.

Show me what you got! Please. Please show me what you got.

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OOOOH am I still blocked for the Neptunian Maximalism?  Because that still rules and they have a new one coming out in 23 that sounds exactly the same. 

 

My favorite album of the year hands down and has been since like February is Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C. 

Best concert I've seen all year .... only concert I seen all year.  But it was Lawful Jr. and Mia Metal's first show ever, so it's the best concert they've ever seen too. 

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  • 1 month later...

Think I've settled on Krüller by Author & Punisher as my album of the year. Long time since an album has grown on me like this one, at first I was disappointed that there was nothing quite as hooky as my favourite track on his last album, but when it sinks in, it really sinks in. The title track was lodged in my brain for a solid week.

I liked the Chat Pile album a lot, and it's in my top 20 for sure, but I think I still carry a torch for noise rock where horrible deviants sing about being horrible deviants. I'm probably a prick, but I'm just not there yet for very on the nose shrieking about how homelessness is bad, it made me cringe a  bit. Grimacesmokingweed.jpg is incredible though.

 

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12 hours ago, SturmCRF said:

Think I've settled on Krüller by Author & Punisher as my album of the year. Long time since an album has grown on me like this one, at first I was disappointed that there was nothing quite as hooky as my favourite track on his last album, but when it sinks in, it really sinks in. The title track was lodged in my brain for a solid week.

I liked the Chat Pile album a lot, and it's in my top 20 for sure, but I think I still carry a torch for noise rock where horrible deviants sing about being horrible deviants. I'm probably a prick, but I'm just not there yet for very on the nose shrieking about how homelessness is bad, it made me cringe a  bit. Grimacesmokingweed.jpg is incredible though.

 

I love both of those albums.  Grimace is a masterstroke, and so is Why because of how it really fucking provokes a reaction out of people.  Yeah, it's a very childlike take on homelessness but I think that's the fucking point.  The soundtrack and "Lake Time" that just came out are fucking genius as well.  A Chat Pile country song?  Who knew that would rip? 

A&P's Portishead cover is fucking aces. 

BTW the new Neptunian Maximalism is even better than the first.  But I'm sticking with Fontaines DC.

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18 hours ago, SturmCRF said:

I liked the Chat Pile album a lot, and it's in my top 20 for sure, but I think I still carry a torch for noise rock where horrible deviants sing about being horrible deviants.

After the Alexis Marshall allegations from Kristin Hayter I had to cash out on that entirely, but I can't navigate that conflict for anyone but myself.

I was surprised to see a reply to this (I say "a reply" because I have lawful on ignore) and honestly the timing blows because there is A LOT OF UPHEAVAL happening in my life right now so I will get started on this in January when I'm more in the mood for new things. So, if anyone else wants to participate, go for it! Submission is open late this time!

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3 hours ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

After the Alexis Marshall allegations from Kristin Hayter I had to cash out on that entirely, but I can't navigate that conflict for anyone but myself.

I was surprised to see a reply to this (I say "a reply" because I have lawful on ignore) and honestly the timing blows because there is A LOT OF UPHEAVAL happening in my life right now so I will get started on this in January when I'm more in the mood for new things. So, if anyone else wants to participate, go for it! Submission is open late this time!

Pretty silly to have me on ignore for making you listen to bad ass music my friend

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure it's for everyone, but Suede aka The London Suede (they toured USA/Canada last month with the Manic Street Preachers) delivering an absolute banger was a lovely surprise. Brett Anderson's really matured as a vocalist and a lyricist, and relative minimalism suits them as....they're a great band with an underrated rhythm section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHJd1Z1G3M4&list=OLAK5uy_l1NAKALxmguFVdcm8UhHrqECJINlSZZVQ&ab_channel=SuedeHQ

Suede - Autofiction - LP - Neon Music Hungary

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So the last two years I put a decent bit of work into figuring out what my album of the year was (naturally I still stumbled upon my favorite '21 release in about February of this year) (I like how I make that sound like work, all I did was listen to a bunch of music) and I got it down to a final four earlier this week. Figuring out which of those four I liked best though... man I went back and forth so many times.

Shoutouts to BackxWash's His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering (felt it was probably more guilty pleasure good than legit good) and Honningbarna's Animorphs (don't speak a lick of Norwegian but great high energy punk album) as I liked them both a bunch but my final two was Ashenspire's Hostile Architecture and Soul Glo's Diaspora problems and... while it is somewhat different from Black Midi I could see one who disliked them also not caring for Ashenspire for my official pick is:

 

Soul Glo: Diaspora Problems

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  • 3 weeks later...

Alright! Let's get started!

I know Author & Punisher cuz he's from my city! I listened to this album once last year, around when it came out, and went "this is neat" but I didn't retain more of it. I'm more than happy to give it another shot under any circumstances, and these circumstances will do nicely.

Spoiler

"drone carrying dread" is how you know this is someone from San Diego. Did you know San Diego makes all the Predator Drones? Neat little fact to tuck away with all the "we have the biggest zoo! we have comiccon!" stuff. These are some big fukin chords so you know I'm having a good time. The other Author & Punisher stuff is less melodic than this so it's neat seeing him expand. It's very Deftones adjacent, though with a slower beat. I love this opener just in general, of just being thrown into the deepend of what this record is gonna sound like.

And there's that A&P sound that I know! I'm brought back to thinking about Deftones here, which I need to specify is a good thing because the Deftones fuckin rule. It's at this point that I realized that this record has guitars and that's probably what's creating the bridge between A&P and Deftones for me right now.

Still having a great time! Though I gotta say this one maybe feels more cheesy than the others? The drama isn't as natural through the sound and the pacing, but the instruments are attempting to convey it as such and it's not really working so much. I see this track has a Tool man on it so I'm gonna blame him lol

Major key just feels fucking weird on an A&P record, though I do appreciate how it's using the sliding notes to put dissonance into the song to make it uneasy. Without that, it would just feel like a bro-y Beach House song, or like The War on Drugs discovered power electronics. It's a neat tune and a good counterpoint after the last one.

Ok this also feels really weird and also has a tool man on it so that's 2 for 2 on Tool Man Songs not working for me. It's weird hearing him write around someone else's rhythm section, especially when the drummer is very consciously trying to play in their style. At points it feels like an A&P cover.

It was a few minutes before I realized this was a Portishead cover, and it's doing the right thing where they're keeping all of the lyrics intact instead of being like "I am man portishead, I change all lyrics to man," though I won't lie and say it didn't throw me for a loop at first.

Third collaboration, and I think this one works the best of them because what Vytear is contributing is a different tonality on top of what A&P does. See, the rest of his sound is HEAVY bass and and drums, so working with a bassist and a drummer doesn't do as much for him as working with someone who's in a totally different part of the EQ band like Vytear spends their time. In turn, this becomes the most exhilarating song on the record, because of the ways in which it is dense in a contrasting way from the rest of the record. Good shit.

Not an ending ballad, but I wasn't expecting one here. I thought at first it wasn't a great ending to the record but then the bridge hit and I got it better. This track does have that dramatic pacing and movement he strove for earlier on the record, where the tension isn't raw dissonance but in how it's progressing and expanding. I like how it melts down as well.

= = =

Good time! Huge chords! San Diego represent!

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  • 3 weeks later...

My album of the year for 2022, and it was a super close battle, is "The Endgame" by Treat.  Just edging out "Force Majeure" by H.E.A.T and "Shifting Time" by Giant.

Edited by Tabe
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  • 1 month later...
On 3/26/2023 at 12:41 AM, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

hey, quick update. I have had a string of terrible happenings to a degree that's kind of hard to parse and I'm still recovering. I will get to this, because I gave my word that I would and I stick to my word, but I don't know when because I don't want to make new memories while things are so bad.

I hope that through everything, you'll come out on the other side ok. I'm sorry it's been a rough go. Life can definitely be a gauntlet at times. Sending good vibes. 

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  • 4 months later...

Things are, finally, not so bad. I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about these records. By the way, if anyone else wants to submit stuff even though the "deadline" is closed, I don't mind. I will say that I'm probably going to relisten to Author & Punisher at some point during this process given that it's been six months since I heard it.

  1. "Sometimes, Forever" by Soccer Mommy
  2. "Krüller" by Author & Punisher*
    *pending relisten

While it's neat that there's a pseudo-indie rock revival and that it is mostly centered around women, I would be lying if I said the discourse around it has not acted like a hellish barrier keeping me from ever thinking about Phoebe Bridgers without thinking about a culture war for dumbasses over a television show performance. I will do my best to not let that inform me listening to this record.

Spoiler

I remember hearing this big rant about how you should never open rock records with guitars and I feel like that's some conditional advice ever that gets passed around as conventional wisdom. It ruined what could have been the best rock record of the 2010s (load up "Attack On Memory" by Cloud Nothings and put No Future No Past last instead of first and tell me that's not an intergalactic banger). I really like the outro hanging on chords and moving against the movement of the rest of the song. It makes it feel like the song is about the past and now that the words are done it's arriving at the moment of the feeling those memories made.

The big arpeggio coming out of Chord Vamp City is a fantastic way to signal that it's a new song. It's at this point I notice that this is produced by Daniel Lopatin, about a few years after I would have sought this out exclusively because it was produced by Daniel Lopatin. It's some pretty standard Loud Quiet Loud stuff, though the piano buried in the mix of the quiet parts is doing something for me. It makes it sound like it's part of the bass guitar, so when it sits on the note a chord sounds out down the hall. On the other hand, I don't really love the vocal mix and performance? It's very lyrical music and it's hard to make out what's being said. Like she's not a bad singer, but somewhere in the recording process, annunciation is being lost.

Ok if we're just gonna keep making sure every song sounds this different from the last this is gonna go a long way for me on this record. Even from the records of this school of indie rock that I like a lot (Hop Along comes to mind here) there can be a bit of "wait which song is this?" happening over a long record. This song rules, even if it's basically "i can have a little abuse of power, as a treat."

The intro to every small scene's joy division wannabe's first song made me smile. I don't really appreciate the soar here not bringing some of the tonality back into the verse. I mean I've definitely had mixer presets that I've slowly merged from one to the other for the chorus of a song, so like hey I can't say I haven't done it. I think the song suffers from going too harshly Verse Chorus in the sound of it. I get why you'd feel the need to do that after getting super weird on the last track, I just think it feels like an overcorrection.

oh boy, ballad time. Funny enough, my favorite record from 2023 is like a lot of ballads, so maybe something's changed. This is one of the parts where the Lopatin is the loudest. For as much as he plays at sophistication and acts like doing arena tours with NIN and being The Weeknd's best buddy are huge departures, he was built for big theatrical moments. This is fine but it's not moving me. This is also a nice point to remind of my general policy of not commenting on rock lyrics because I feel like most of the time it's not worth commenting on.

The problem with trying to do Radiohead or Portishead if you're not from a country with a huge hard-on for class lines is that it'll sound like the spooky song on a disney soundtrack. That about covers all I have to say here.

Going from the obvious Radiohead Song to the obvious Wilco song is hilarious, and luckily these days I'm in way more of a Wilco mood. "oh but those pedals could make it shoegaze!" yeah but the drum mixing is Glenn Kotche holding a knife to the EQ engineer's neck like "you will make my fills audible or so help me..." I'm enjoying this one as a breath of fresh air tonally.

Ballad #2! It's at least more interesting than the first one, as I'm actively trying to parse what's being sung about right now and that didn't happen on the first one. Alas, I can smell the ending ballad coming.

Radioportishead Attempt The 2nd. Women tend to have a few really clear advantages in rock and roll construction, and one of them is definitely on display here: they can play low end on a guitar without worrying about where the frequencies of that part of the guitar and their vocals will overlap. There's a reason high pitched singers are valuable in music, and it's because it gives the midrange a lot of room to roam comparatively. This song is more successful at the sound profile than the first radiohead song.

I'm gonna check if this was a single real quick. No it wasn't, and I think that's a wasted opportunity because I think it'd be hilarious to put this on the radio and then suprise attack people with the other stuff, but I am "a fucker" as it's known, so of course I'd like that. I've spent a lot of time listening to country music in my back yard both thanks to my neighbors and my friend who insisted on playing some the last time they came by, and if I had this handy then I would've played it.

ENDING BALLAD. 😖

= = =
If you would have known the amount of records I have like this, you wouldn't have assumed I'd hated this. And for the record, I do not. I think there's some genuinely good songs on here, and there's nothing actively offensive for the length of it, even if I went in hard on the Haunted Mansion tune. It's OK!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  1. "Sometimes, Forever" by Soccer Mommy
  2. "Autofiction" by Suede
  3. "Krüller" by Author & Punisher*
    *pending relisten

I am vaguely aware of Suede. My biggest memory of them is at one point I was sitting around with my best friend while we were drinking beers and playing songs, and they have one song where the vocalist goes "lulla-ba-by" and I asked "did they just say lulla-ba-by" and she said no. Then the chorus looped around again, and they did it again, and I pointed right at the speakers while staring at her while she laughed and hid her face. I couldn't tell you what they sounded like.

Spoiler

Oh, ok, they sound like a band that started in the 90s, as they are. The two stage explosion into the soaring chorus is nice! Usually there's not as much put into the build into a chorus if that's the way you're writing. Good, solid, formula stuff. I do not use formula as a negative here, though I'll admit if this is "minimal" then what have they been up to?

I feel like spoken word segments in rock songs are falling out of favor, which I am pretty sure is a good thing? It's nice that they occasionally go by The London Suede, because then I don't have to go confirm this is British as it sounds British as fuck. Granted, given that it's the genuine article, it doesn't sound as out of place as it would for a young band to be writing like this? I dont know how to explain it other than like "this sounds like it's written for a Glastonbury set".

Lol I wish my age 15 was about like love and stuff. I can't connect with nostalgia stuff like this because I hated being young so much. Musically, it's keeping itself seperate from the other songs by shifting gears very quickly, avoiding the slow build nature of the past two songs. I get the feeling we're approaching balladtown.

intro be like hey yall hear of the smiths???? I really like the chords in the chorus a lot. I wonder if this is what goes for a ballad for them, because it's more calm than others. Either way this is my favorite song on here so far just because of my chord fixation. Every time that second chord in the chorus hits and the band lowers while the singer rises, 1) it helps make the point of the bitter toxicity outlined in the lyrics, and 2) it makes my ears real happy

This, too, is extremely fucking british rock music. They get credits for having four chords in the chorus, cuz I was totally ready for it to be the same two chords over and over. Oh it's over. I didn't have anything else to say I guess

OH BOY PIANO BALLADS ARE AN OPTION. Every time you hear me grousing about balladry, you'll be able to hear it here. You know there's ways to break up the pace that don't include slapping a piano to a metronome like it's more sad than any other instrument. This now means that an ending ballad is an option, which would be REALLY DISAPPOINTING to hear out of a song called "Turn Off Your Brain And Yell." It is vital that I am wrong about that being a ballad.

This is not a great way to pull out of balladtown. We're only really gonna have one more fast song aren't we? At least it's brief.

Well here's the thing that should have been the first thing out of balladtown. It even starts with synthy/stringy held notes, and it picks the pace up after slowing it down. I liked this alright, and I imagine this'd be my best friend's favorite song on here.

Lol ok spoke too soon it'd be this one, this is goth as shit. This is also a very british chorus methodology, of the erupting major key strings. Feels very Pulp to me. You know, David Thomas of Pere Ubu once said that the thing he wants most out of his guitarists is to move their fingers as little as possible. This is the pop version of that impulse. There's frankly not very much happening in the way of playing, which I guess might be where that minimalism comment comes from. It's all very stock standard for this sound, but it's hitting the requirements of that sound so like yeah, if this is your thing it rules.

Ok if we're doing the ballad now so we can set off the fireworks at the end of the record, fine, great. I think the thing that causes me to think rock ballads are so terrible and then not mind, say, Weyes Blood, is that it feels like rock ballads are them playing at being sophisticated and articulate, which feels too often like a put-on. That idea makes me want to write some things, which is at least a point in favor of the song, or maybe more accurately a point in favor of doing this whole exercise in the first place.

Ok, well, we're not ending on a ballad, so that's cool. This feels like a set ender, or at least a first-set-before-the-encore ender. Oh ok I looked up their recent setlists and this is actually how they're opening sets and that works too! I like the gesture of like "You've heard the record and it stops like this, so we're gonna pick up from where the record leaves off." Plenty of opportunities to yell "CITY NAME! HOW ARE WE TONIGHT!" etc. Purpose built rock.

= = =
I have no soft spot for British rock mass production stuff, but this was fine all told. If you already have a relationship with the band, I get how it'd be album of the year. Coming in cold, with no great appreciation for the british music industry, it's fine.

 

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Yeah, 'return to form' albums obviously don't work as effectively if you don't have much of a prior relationship with the band.

'Life is just a lulla-la-by' lol....Everything Will Flow from Headmusic.....which was their 'patchy, grasp often exceeding reach with a new producer and their lead singer on crack' album. The occasional ridiculous pronunciation was definitely part of the gimmick tough (see 'Marid-ju-ana' from 'She' on 'Coming Up'). I thought 'Everything Will Flow' was a bit empty, but not in a good way, though there are some good tracks on that album.

I think I liked 'Black Ice' a lot more than you did. 

It's fair to say that you have to earn your ballads, and 'What Am I Without You?' is *a lot*. But I do think the way they build it back up after the second chorus is very well-played. Obviously it's a song about the relationship between the band and the fans.....but it could very easily be a song about wrasslin'. In many ways, the album as a whole is about age and maturity, growing up and maybe not growing old, but trying not to try too hard to not grow old either. So whilst yeah you have the slightly punky spikiness that is actually a bit of a departure for the band, you also have the 'sheen of consummate professionalism' lol that I think does at times give things a big boost.

I am looking forward to what they do next.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi. I'm back again. Things got worse again for a second but that's good now too.

This has been on my mind because I said I'd finish it, but I didn't want to say anything until it was all done lest I get anyone else's hopes up. Well, I have. Tomorrow I'll post the last review and maybe in January I'll do some kind of "in 2024 i'll listen to 2023's album of the year" thing. Either way, thanks for your patience.

  1. "Diaspora Problems" by Soul Glo
  2. "Sometimes, Forever" by Soccer Mommy
  3. "Krüller" by Author & Punisher
  4. "Autofiction" by Suede

I'm vaguely aware of Soul Glo. This is how vaguely: A younger friend of mine that keeps me up to date with music (and in return calls me "unc" lol) who only really rarely likes rock music attempted to put me up on this last winter, but December was when The Problems started so I didn't get around to it. Happy to do so now!

Spoiler

Lol I would tell them I feel typecasted but no this is pretty immediately my shit. I had a big awakening towards Drive Like Jehu in 2022 and a reminder that post-hardcore is where my love of music as something More came from. I've also been begging for rock to do something interesting for YEARS and holy shit if they keep this I'm gonna lose my shit. This is the American answer to Sleaford Mods (and I fucking LOVE Sleaford Mods).

The smile on my face during this, man. Holy shit. I guess to explain the post-hardcore thing for a second, the first time I heard a song and understood what power those feelings had was turning on MTV2 one day and hearing "One Armed Scissor" by At The Drive-In. MAN I could've used this record pretty much all year this year.

hell yeah

lmao it is gonna be so hard to not just type "hell yeah" over and over again. I'm having a good time and like idk meeting hardcore at the "yeah these chords work" level is often not the point.

Which is not to say that this is work that should be taken for granted, they're fuckin nailing everything they're doing.

lmfao man it was prescient to invoke Sleaford Mods earlier because this is Extremely American Sleaford Mods. like i've been begging for rock to start pushing in these kinds of directions because it just seemed so fucking obvious to me and hearing it come true is the goddamn best.

Oh man I was making my peace with the inevitable ballad and then hearing it get shoved out of the way did my heart good.

I'm wondering how long it's been since I've heard myself in a punk record. It's been a fucking while, that's for sure.

"No one's left blind by eye for an eye unless you make the same mistake twice" is incredible

Yeah it's hard to write about this record other than just "FINALLY". This is the best song on the album by the way.

yeah this is also pretty much the shape of The Problem, though different in a bunch of ways. MAN I wish I had this earlier in the year lmao

I knew the ending ballad was gonna be a fakeout, and I guess in its way it's a ballad, but either way it's a completely perfect ending to this record.

= = =
That's #1.

This is the kind of record I get from these exercises that justifies me continuing to do it, even if shit got so fucked up this year that I didn't want to make memories for most of it. Thank you for putting this in front of me.

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2 hours ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

Thank you for putting this in front of me.

Man after the prior two years where my first choice was a disaster and the one I didn't go with was the clear better option... well let's just say I'm glad I didn't boff this pick too.

Glad you are at least better enough to drop by to do this and this has been my worst year for music in ages with virtually every album I looked forward to or tried being a swing and a miss, so not having to figure out how to pick a best out of this bunch just yet is actually a blessing 😛

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Alright! That's it! I feel like when I next attempt this I'll be ready to do it at a more regular clip. Thanks again to everyone who still participates in this.

  1. "Diaspora Problems" by Soul Glo
  2. "Sometimes, Forever" by Soccer Mommy
  3. "Krüller" by Author & Punisher
  4. "The Endgame" by Treat
  5. "Autofiction" by Suede

I do not know anything about Treat. I look at this album cover and figure it's a metal band, as it looks like one. I now do a google search. Well, they're not the kind of metal band I thought they were! And, weirdly, old metal bands have tended to do better in this whole thing than younger ones have (sleep not withstanding (i still occasionally just sit back and remember how much that record bored me (cuz I know other metalheads who like sleep))). Before I hit play it finally occurs to me that cover is sperm approaching a speaker cone. 10-4.

Spoiler

It strikes me how funny the evolution of the drummer has been in metal over my lifetime. You think about this era of metal drummer, how it's largely the same beat over and over, this big 1-2-1-2 thing. Thrash hits and they go like a little bit faster doing the same thing, like the other punk kids. Cut to modern day and I dont think I've heard a new metal band have a drummer anything short of a doublebass technical prog rock freak. Are they still making metal bands where the drummer could lose an arm and the catalog doesn't change? Anyways this is extremely standard stuff. I do like the vocal harmony a lot, it makes a meal out of the word "Freudian" which is a neat trick. Wouldn't expect that to be punchy, you know?

i now evoke my rock lyricism clause. It's a good thing that this is the genuine article of a band from this era, because otherwise I would find this a pretty comical Bon Jovi reprisal. This is one of the reasons I google these bands before I listen to the records, because the context does make a difference. They lived through this and it's still their get down (and also probably still their way to make a living making music because they already have fans of This). At the same time, I can just smell the ending ballad coming. I figure we'll get one in the next two tracks as well.

I do appreciate the change in the pacing of verse patterns in these first three songs. The first was a lot of sung melody with the band, and the second had the whole drop the music thing. Important to pace things like this. I love the bridge and chorus on this song, they're choosing really good chords for the theming. Sad sounds, but in an "it's ok to cry" voicing. Very tasteful. Favorite song so far.

lmao I got faked out so hard. When the piano came in I was like "I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT WAS FUCKING BALLAD TIME." They got me. This sounds very subtly autotuned vocally which is really funny to think about glam bands having a bunch of auto tune. They've already got keyboards, just go do the Bon Iver 22 A Million Voice Machine for a whole metal record. Anyways this is a song I guess. There's nothing in it's construction that really strikes me other than the intro.

I guess I hadn't considered the kinds of songs old glam bands would write. It's also funny in the wake of my completion of the video game Alan Wake 2 this month, which I will not explain why that's relevant as it's spoilerish. Anyways I get how a song that amounts to "holy shit I'm gonna die but I'm gonna keep doing this" would come about, I just hadn't considered a glam-inspired band getting any sort of conscience like that outside of bland ambition.

Ok, Radio Country was not the format of ballad I saw coming, especially since they announced a few songs ago that they do have a grand piano and they will be using it. You could play this at hundreds of weddings across the US and they'd have no idea it was a hair metal band. The only giveaway would be the vocalist being an octave up from your Morgans Wallen and your Zacks Brown and such. Ok the Na Na Na part would also be a giveaway.

lmao "THESE KIDS AND THEIR TEXTING" is a hilarious followup to a ballad about being brave because of a relationship. This record is getting older as it's happening, which is kind of how time works I guess.

Return of the vocal drop! It's kind of impossible to read how they're meaning the sudden jesus arrival in the context of the record, if it's supposed to be some kind of influencer takedown or aspiration to be Jesus That Kicks Ass Bro or something. It's also one of the most stock standard songs on here.

ah yes here's the threatened piano ballad. At least the whole band is involved. I started rubbing my temple during the chorus. THEY ARE USING AUTO TUNE THATS AMAZING.

this is the funniest rock song I've heard in years. writing about a hot pepper like you want to fuck it is fantastic work. Innuendo You Can Hire A Music Video Model To. The Lighthouse of Sepulveda. This sucks, gloriously. Great work.

For as much as I've talked trash about how by-the-numbers this is, it is paced very well and doesn't do anything too jolting from song to song. For example, the Dark Love Song (if you traffic in that) should be a good distance away from the positive one, and there's enough space between them here. There's a kind of craft to that, even if this music doesn't resonate with me.

"Ending Power Ballad" beats "Ending Ballad", but only slightly.

= = =

I had a good time listening to this, even if it's not my speed or style of metal/rock/guitar punching. It's very professional and confident, so for anyone that finds something in this sound I totally get why they'd say it's their favorite of the year, given that they do try to address headier stuff than you usually get out of this sound.

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