July 31st, 2024
Smiley Smile (1967, The Beach Boys)
{43}
Oof this is a rough one. I listened to Pet Sounds for the first time a few days ago and loved it (still need to review it). Unfortunately, this follow up is one to forget. I know a little bit about the production and how it was born out of the ashes of Smile. I have to agree with some other reviews I've seen saying this album is "underbaked." Almost every track feels about 50-60% finished. Gone are the excellent instrumental hooks that saturated Pet Sounds. Instead, we're left with mostly limp instrumentation and pretty rickety verses/choruses. Just not great. "Vegetables" and "Gettin' Hungry" saved this from two stars, and not by much. I'm still very excited to get around to Smile Sessions eventually.
July 28th, 2024
Pinkerton (1996, Weezer)
{70}
I think this is my first true-full listen. This album has been in and around my life for a long time, but I'm not sure I've ever conscientiously listened to it front to back. El Scorcho is still a banger—I've always known that—and I still have the lyrics memorized after more than a decade. Shout out to my brother-in-law for showing me that song at an impressionable age. Otherwise, just solid-to-great power pop filled with that certain sort of angst that I don't find cringe or offensive (seems others are unable to say the same).
July 25th, 2024
Scream Bloody Gore (1987, Death)
{80}
Killer. Through four tracks this was set to be my first five star album, formally anyway. That one-two of "Infernal Death" and "Zombie Ritual" was just the tits. "Mutilation" and "Regurgitated Guts" lost just a touch of steam and didn't have riff hooks that floored me like the first four tracks. A return to form with "Baptized in Blood," another little lull with "Torn to Pieces" and "Evil Dead," and then a strong finish with the titular, final track. Mind you, even the songs I didn't love I still enjoyed. This is just such an aggressively awesome debut album. I'm so pumped to work my way through the rest of Death's discography.
The energy here is constant and doesn't let up. Yet, amidst the frenetic pace and technicality, nearly every song managed to surprise me with a tasty riff, breakdown, or both. Chuck Schuldiner's voice is perfect—a voice filled with menace and anger yet one that still finds space for varying tonality and articulation. I also loved the mixing of the bass. It cut through plenty of times and provided that groove alongside the ever present drumming.
July 24th, 2024
Icky Mettle (1993, Archers of Loaf)
{63}
Some crunchy lo-fi atmosphere here. Everything is solid, with a few standout tracks along the way: "Web in Front," "Learo, You're a Hole," and "Sick File," amongst a couple others. Definitely some standard fare as well, which all sort of bleeds together. The guitars have plenty of drive and establish more than a couple genuinely catchy riffs amidst the noise. Pretty good stuff all told.
July 22nd, 2024
Consume Red (1997, Ground-Zero)
{90}
Well that was fucking awesome. 25 minutes of hojok act as a herald of apocalyptic change—incredibly repetitive and yet transfixing. I did occupy myself with other things as this section ran on, so I can't vouch for whether or not I find it truly overlong. (I wouldn't knock anyone for saying so.) That said, once we reach the halfway point, the textural layers build and stratify into something truly special. Once the drums come in at about 30 minutes, the rest is history. They thrum and pulse underneath the ever-wailing horns as you're pulled further into the chaos, static and electronics. All this meets its climactic finish in those last 12 minutes as the walls of sound clash and the discord reigns. This is the soundtrack to the alien invasion. Beautiful and awful.
July 21st, 2024
Ænima (1996, Tool)
{38}
First Tool full-album listen. Woof. Not what I was hoping for. I just finished the listen and I couldn't tell you one track from another (other than a few of the standouts). This is a really muddy project, with guitar parts that sound nigh identical track to track (again with a couple exceptions) and breakdowns that are equally worn out by the end. All the while, Maynard's pretentious, faux angst-ridden lyrics cover everything in this sophomoric veneer. Maybe the rest of Tool's discography is more effectively intellectual, but once I actually started following along with the lyrics about half way through... needless to say the spell was broken. Stinkfist, Eulogy, and Forty Six & 2 are good, but the rest of this album, especially the second half, bleeds together into a mushy soup.
July 18th, 2024
Time Machines (1998, Coil/Time Machines)
{77}
A hard one to rate. Listened to this one while stoned and I felt like I was in a sound bath. It was pretty glorious. Have yet to listen to this one sober, and I'm not sure I want to change that. Each track sustains the overall build and yet offers a different texture, allowing the time to pass surprisingly quickly given the length and lack of relative dynamics. Now, to do the four eponymous drugs and see if Coil got the soundscapes right.
July 18th, 2024
Music for the Jilted Generation (1994, The Prodigy)
{78}
An album that finds time to explore some different pockets of the genre. There are some songs in here that are a welcome break from the more frenetic big beat tracks. Most tracks had me in the groove, head bobbing. Favorite tracks were "Break & Enter," "Poison," and "3 Kilos."
July 18th, 2024
Üdü Ẁüdü (1976, Magma)
{80}
Texturally rich. So many interesting riffs, especially bass lines. Wonderfully paired with esoteric chanting and alien ambiance. Such a striking sound. Here's to exploring some more Magma and Zeuhl as a whole.
July 10th, 2024
Heavy Black Frame (1999, Tram)
{64}
I'm no expert when it comes to slowcore, so I can't say how well this stands out from the run-of-the-mill. What I can say is that I enjoyed it. A few lulls along the way, but at least every other song would find a way to catch my ear. This album achieves that balance of somnolence and intrigue that I'm looking for in this genre.
May 31st, 2024
Crookt, Crackt, or Fly (1994, Gastr del Sol)
{35}
Hmmm... not too enjoyable or stimulating. Incredibly discordant and strained pretty much across the board. There are moments where the riffs and grooves rise from the chaos (and are accentuated by that dichotomy), but they are clawed back into chaos before they have any time to breath. Any sense of mood seems unestablished, so I come to the end of this album both sonically and aesthetically disappointed.