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Fresh Album Fridays: Blur, Nas, Andrew Bird, Guided by Voices, and more
Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases arriving at our doorsteps today (and until next week!). Feel free to comment albums that have caught your eye and interest.
Discussion Points
What are you looking forward to listen to?
Have you listened to any of these releases?
What are your thoughts?
What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?
Why Friday?
Most (but not all) new LPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.
~~ Feedback on the format welcome!
New music by blur and nas… is it 1996 again already?!
It’s 30 years since the rise of Britpop, and BBC Sounds have a brilliant 8 part radio documentary about it that I listened to yesterday. Will be interested to check out the new album and see how their sound has changed since.
Andrew Bird - Outside Problems
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Release: 21st July, 2023
Genre(s): Chamber Pop
Country: United States
Bandcamp
Spotify
RYM
Haven't listened to Andrew Bird other than 'Mysterious Production of Eggs', but this was a really pleasant surprise. Completely instrumental, had a really organic, choppy acoustic sound that I couldn't quite place my finger on. Reminded me a bit of Bonobo in parts. Really nice background music.
Guided by Voices - Welshpool Frillies
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Release: 21st July, 2023
Genre(s): Indie Rock
Country: United States
Bandcamp
Spotify
RYM
Blur - The Ballad of Darren
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Release: 21st July, 2023
Genre(s): Rock, Pop
Country: United Kingdom
Spotify
RYM
Ive enjoyed some of Blur's earlier songs and albums, but I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan. I made a point to listen to this album earlier today, but unfortunately it just seemed a bit forgettable to me. The last track ended with what was probably my favorite part of the album on my first listen, and then it was over basically where I wished it started.
I have to listen a few more times, it's possible these are the types of songs that grow on you. Or maybe I'm just not their target audience anymore.
Nas - Magic 2
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Release: 21st July, 2023
Genre(s): Hip Hop, Boom Bap
Country: United States
Spotify
RYM
I like Nas, but he can either barf up his typical Nas sound or crank out a lackluster record. This record is pretty good, though. He really needs more beats like Office Hours.
Ever since he started working with Hit-Boy in 2020 he pretty much hasn't dropped a bad project imo, it's a really impressive run. Both 'Magic' albums seem faster and looser than the 'King's Disease' series, not as lofty but an easier play. Didn't hear a standout track on 'Magic 2', but it never dropped pace across the 30 mins.
One Mic, One Gun has been popping up with all the 21 Savage mixes on Spotify. But yeah, nothing is mind-blowing but nothing is bad either. His level of output is really impressive these days.
Artist:
Ludwig Göransson
Album:
Oppenheimer (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Release: 21st July 2023
Genre: Soundtrack
Country: Sweden
Links: Wikipedia | Spotify
The soundtrack to Tenet might've been my favorite part of that film. Gonna see Oppenheimer on Monday, and I'm really excited as this comment is how I learned Ludwig is doing the score for this one too!
Gateway - Galgendood [Bandcamp]
Disimperium - Grand Insurgence Upon Despotic Altars [Bandcamp]
The Zenith Passage - Datalysium [Bandcamp]
Outer Heaven - Infinite Psychic Depths [Bandcamp]
The Night Eternal - Fatale [Bandcamp] - This came out yesterday- name your price! Great metal album (more traditional heavy metal style, with singing, for those that don't like harsh vocals)
Thanks for this! Do you have any suggestions on following metal releases? I've found most sources I use favour pretty much every genre other than metal, but I want a fair coverage of genres ideally.
There are a few sites (lambgoat, other typical metal sites/blogs), if you do a search for "metal release calendar" that try to have lists of what is coming out based on date. You can also (though it will not cover all genres or bands, because they're picky about what is considered metal) use https://www.metal-archives.com/ and do an advanced search based on date.
I watch a weekly twitch stream where the streamer goes through all the releases coming out a month in the future that are entered in metal archives, and previews/reviews them, as does the community, along with tons of comedy and typical metal banter, etc- the stream serves as a research stream for a curated "metal monthly" show that he puts out later that has his top 5 picks coming out.
I'm also in a discord community for that streamer that has on its own become just a general metal community- and this one has something somewhat rare- it's well-moderated and inclusive, as is the stream. That doesn't mean things don't get spicy from time to time with humor and discussion and whatnot, but it's a rare gem when it comes to metal, IMHO. We rib each other for liking things we don't like- but there isn't really any true "gatekeeping" or elitism, IMO. We might say we hate a band or make fun of music- but it's never aimed at the person listening. You won't be told you shouldn't listen to something, and you'll almost always find others that share your preferences.
The thing about finding a community of like minds- is music suggestions! We all share tons of suggestions with each other, metal and non, old and newly released- and it's a great way to find new stuff that's coming out, old stuff you missed, etc.
It all depends on how deep you want to go, and how into metal/music you are, and so forth, of course. This may sound overwhelming or unpleasant to people just looking for a list of new releases- for that, the sites/searches and metal archives are good bets.
Metal with actual singing! Great to know it still exists, and this Night Eternal album sounds super interesting so far. Thanks for the recommendation.
There's SO much of it still alive today, actually! (I mean I love harsh vocals too but I love me some traditional heavy metal singing too).
Just off the top of my head:
Crypt Sermon
Smoulder
Century
Sonja
Nightmärr
Raptore
Enforcer
There are hundreds more
Yellowcard released a new EP today and it’s great! They don’t have the original drummer, LP, with them anymore so there’s a small amount of drumming magic left out but there are some very solid jams.
Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube
Kode9/Burial - Infirmary / Unknown Summer (Split EP)
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Release: 21st July, 2023
Genre(s): Ambient Electronic
Country: United Kingdom
Bandcamp
Leroy - Grave Robbing
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Release: 21st July, 2023
Genre(s): Electronic Dance
Country: United States
Soundcloud
RYM
Bruno Major released his new album today, it's amazing:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/77ecNwHIYZfoOSgQ1FMSAS?si=t1u87_xQReee9FmpLoVvbQ
Meta (so please mark this as offtopic).
Loving these topics, @TooFewColours. But just a small suggestion / request for you all though. When @Whom, @Cleb, @Bauke and I used to do similar recurring topics in ~music in the early days of Tildes we used odesli.co (AKA song.link & album.link), since it provides links to Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Amazon, and a bunch of other music streaming / purchasing services for every song/album. And so I think it's a lot better than just linking to Spotify or any other individual service.
E.g. Here are all the album.link entries for all the albums mentioned in this topic:
Nas - Magic 2
Andrew Bird - Outside Problems
Ludwig Göransson - Oppenheimer @mycketforvirrad
Gateway - Galgendood @0x29A
Disimperium - Grand Insurgence Upon Despotic Altars
The Zenith Passage - Datalysium
Outer Heaven - Infinite Psychic Depths
The Night Eternal - Fatale
Kode9/Burial - Infirmary / Unknown Summer
Blur - The Ballad of Darren
Guided by Voices - Welshpool Frillies
Yellowcard - Childhood Eyes EP @Frinet
There is no album.link entry for Leroy - Grave Robbing yet though. So it's not perfect.
Edit: Wait, I though I recognized your username TooFewColours. LOL, you used to do these recurring album release topics way back in the day too. Welcome back to Tildes! :P
I agree a song.link would be best, and I did try when setting up the first topic. Unfortunately, I think being UK based means I'm ahead by a good few hours before the links go live on song.link. Almost all of the albums I'm listing aren't available on song.link when I create the thread (typically the best chance I get is the early hours before work).
I'm not too keen on going back to retroactively add song.link to each album, and I'm only really able to get these threads up because of the availability I have Friday mornings. A sticky one! Figured most folks use Spotify/Bandcamp, and the RYM link (which I include on all) does typically provide links to other streaming services as well in lieu of song.link.
Ah, that makes sense. Yeah, odesli can often be a ways behind on creating entries for brand new releases. But I would be more than happy to provide the album.links for everything when those entries actually become available, as a reply to all your top-level comments with RYM and Spotify links, if you want me to. That's one of the things I helped with on the old recurring topics, and my intent here was absolutely not to make more work for you, or discourage you from creating these awesome posts. So if Spotify and RYM are the easiest for you to add then please continue to do that. I can provide the album.links later if you want me to.
I suppose so, I just strongly lean towards trying to push people towards what I consider closer-to-the-artist (esp for indies) services like Bandcamp and purchasing music and merch, and away from huge tech companies or streaming services that may take bigger cuts, or when it comes to streaming, pay fractions of pennies per play (or are crappy services for other reasons). I was just allowing my personal music-buying philosophy to inform how I link to things.
At least, when Bandcamp is available. Not all artists are there, understandably and using one of these services provides a wider array of options to support artists- so totally get where you're coming from. Some people also don't have the $ to pay for music vs. streaming it, so also understand that. I'm not against changing the way I do things, just explaining why.
If I should avoid only linking to Bandcamp going forward, then I'll consider using one of those services in the future, or not providing links at all and letting people search it themselves.
I love Bandcamp too, and buy most of my music through them. They are by far the best service for supporting artists, since they take by far the smallest cut. And back in the day odesli didn't even support Bandcamp at all, so we often provided a song.link and bandcamp link (if one was available).
I wasn't trying to imply nobody should ever link to individual services, especially Bandcamp. So by all means, keep linking to Bandcamp (which I wholeheartedly support). So sorry if I gave the impression I was trying to dictate otherwise. But I do think odesli is a better baseline link to provide rather than just Spotify, that's all I was trying to say.
Totally understandable- I didn't want to appear to be argumentative or refusing to cooperate or be open minded, and I do prefer to do what's best for Tildes and readers of the threads as a whole, so maybe being strongly opinionated about my links is quite selfish and short-sighted, after having a moment to think about it.
Maybe I'll use the song/odesli/etc links and just put a comment underneath to "try to use Bandcamp if it works for you!" or something :)
I also realize my final "or not provide links at all" comment might have come off WAY more confrontational than I intended- it sounded petty but was not how I meant it at all- I have commented a number of times on these posts in the past without links, so was just referring to what I've done before... not trying to purposely be less helpful out of spite... haha. As you can tell, I also overthink and read into things a LOT, so apologies for that.
No prob. I was just worried I had inadvertently discouraged someone from participating again... as I apparently sometimes do when making comments, even though that is genuinely never my intent. :(