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What have you been listening to this week?
hey everybody, looks like it's been NINE whole days since the last one so here comes this week's. also, sorry for not commenting in the last one — i'm garbage :)
if you ever notice it's been a week or so and nobody's posted one, feel free to post! just steal the description from the last one (credit to @whom for writing it in the first place) and post away.
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!
Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
I listened to the Kanye West and Kid Cudi album
KIDS SEE GHOSTS. I don't listen to much hip-hop in general but, frankly, my interest was piqued by Fantano giving it such a high score. I enjoyed it - especially the quite alternative sound - and I'm a fan of 'succinct' albums, but it didn't knock it out of the park for me. That said, it's not really my genre - so I'd be interested to hear what other people think who've listened to it.Hip Hop is my main genre.
I like Kanye well enough even though I’m not a huge fan, and I have had a heavy dislike for Cudi since his first album. All that being said, Kids See Ghosts is amazing. I’ve listened 15-20 times since its release.
I didn’t like it very much my first listen, I thought Kanye had some good verses but his performance on the first track (the gun sounds) made me think he wasn’t taking it too seriously. The main thing that made me relisten was the production, and my opinion of it has continued to grow with each listen, it just keeps developing and each new part I notice fits so perfectly. And when the vocals clicked with me it was just an addictive experience.
I usually text my opinions of new albums to my friends, and it’s funny reading them back and seeing how my texts developed from making fun of parts of the album (WHERE DA CHORUS) to “there’s something about this that keeps bringing me back” to “I think I actually like this” to “holy shit this is so good I can’t believe Kanye and cudi dropped my favorite album of the year.”
I've been a fan of Ye and Cudi for quite a while. Cudi has experimented with a lot of different styles over the years. Not everyone approved, thankfully he was and is not afraid to try new things. I do have to admit that some of Kanye's music did not work for me on the first listen, but when I returned to it later I had a different experience. To this day if I hear Flashing Lights I am taken right back to a wonderful evening on the beach in La Jolla.
This week I listened to Digable Planets - Blowout Comb and I did not expect to like it as much as I did. Wonderfully cool hip-hop with some instrumentation that gets me grooving nicely.
I also listened to Swervedriver - Raise, which is definitely need a few more listens through to digest. It's kinda like if you dumped Ride in the desert and told them to play music that fits the desert. Very dry, loud, powerful instrumentation that feels just like the landscape.
To round it off, I also sunk my teeth into Slowdive's Pygmalion Demos which are very... expectantly lofi and fuzzy compared to the final product that the world received. There's some very cool material on this, including Red 5, Changes, and the demos for the tracks that made the cut onto the album. Overall it's less ambient and more dream pop-y than Pygmalion itself.
They've got a live album that's also pretty cool
Oooh, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll be sure to have a listen whenever I'm in the mood and can get around to it.
This week I discovered Heilung (watch the live video if you can) who are a little bit out of my usual sphere of listening, I really really love their sound. I'd love to see them live.
I have also been listening to Courtney Barnett's new album, which isn't as good as her previous one, at least at first listen. But I suspect it will benefit from more listening.
First Aid Kit have a live album out and while live recordings can be a bit dodgy (live music is amazing in person but recorded live is often not so great), they absolutely knock it out of the park.
Finally Orbital's Tiny Foldable Cities has been getting quite a lot of play, despite it being on the radio a lot as well. I'm a huge Orbital fan so there's not really such a thing as too much of them.
Not new to me things slipping on to this week's playlist include a classic Mazzy Star track because it's just so wonderful, and I keep going back again and again to Wolf Alice's most recent album. Not tired of that yet, despite it being several months since I started with it.
This thread comes just in time because I'm starting to get a little bored of my "current" playlist[1] and am looking forward to hearing what other people have been listening to so I can listen to that too.
Oh, and also quick shout out to Lady Leshurr's excellent Black Panther freestyle. She's got an album coming soon which I'm really excited for.
[1] I have a cycling playlist, which is exclusively hard/goa trance; a 'classics' playlist which is older stuff I love too much not to play occasionally and a 'current' playlist which is 4-5 albums that gets replaced every week or so with new stuff, depending on how into it I am and what new things are around at the time. New doesn't always mean just released, it might just be new to me.
That Heilung live video. Wow. I'm not really sure what to say or make of that. Waaaaay outside my usual listening, so I have no point of reference for that kind of music. I really like driving repetitions in music though, so I found myself really enjoying it. Wild--thanks for the share.
I know, right? First time I heard it I was completely transfixed. They're on Season of Mist, which is a metal label, and they have a completely standard black metal logo - but they're not really like any metal I've ever heard. Some of their tracks I could drop in a trance DJ set and you can't say that for a lot of metal!
Really good noises though, and I love that awesome phase-y, almost didgeridoo-like sound the lead dude gets using throat singing techniques.
The whole LIFA album is on YouTube, definitely check it out if you liked that track. Here's how they closed out their live set
Are you in Australia, or has Courtney Barnett broken out of the antipodes?
I'm in the UK. She's been getting airplay on BBC 6 Music for quite some time now, at least since her first album came out a few years ago.
I just started seeing posters for her new album around LA the other week and she was recently on Jimmy Fallon. I think she's been approaching worldwide (semi-)mainstream success foe a while now.
That courtney barnett album is so good. I like it more than her last album, actually. I think it sounds sharper than her last album, and I definitely think it stands up to repeated listens — i just wish it was a little longer. My favorite track is I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch.
I'm going to give this one some more time, I've only played through it a couple of times, and even then while driving. The lyrics need more of my attention.
How did you feel about her collab with Kurt Vile? I really wanted to like it, but it didn't work for me. I really don't like Vile much and my love for Barnett didn't manage to overcome that.
I didn't particularly care for their collab, but it kind of got me looking at Kurt Vile and I think some of his stuff is fantastic. He namedrops John Fahey in this Guitar Power interview and looking back at his stuff you can absolutely see the Fahey fingerpicking influence — see Songs for John in D (which i'm 90% certain the John in the title is referring to Fahey). Really cool dude.
I discovered Studio Killers recently when they released their latest song "Party like it's your birthday" and I've been listening to all their stuff off and on all week.
Some more of their music:
I've also been listening to a lot of "she" as well.
Some of their music:
I like she a lot. Good energetic electronic music that's got a bit of chiptune flavor to it.
You'd probably also enjoy LukHash if you haven't already come across him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hLY-6jjUQ4
Thanks for the recommendation.
I enjoyed the song that you linked and now I know who I'll be listening to on the way to work tomorrow!
I found a new band recently. They're called Upon A Burning Body. They're thrash/death metal. One of their best songs is called Judgement
Gorillaz. They had a live show in Germany about a week ago and I've been listening to it on YouTube. I want to see them live so much. They're also releasing a new album on the 29th which I can't wait for.
ScubaZ — The Vanishing American Family
some solid breakbeat from way back in 2001. Standout track: The Vanishing American Family.
Visible Cloaks — Reassemblage
weird textural electronic that intentionally evokes 80s/90s Japanese electronica. i find it calming to listen to, but it's weird enough you'll get looks if you play it around friends.
Mouse on Mars —Niun Niggung
i've only recently started listening to mouse on mars, and i'm glad i did. more electronic in the vein of aphex twin, i think? i'm not well versed in how to talk about electronic music, but i guess i'm listening to a lot of electronic music lately.
Dawn of Midi — Dysnomia
here's some.. dark jazz, like bohren and der club of gore as well as the necks. tunes wind and wander and you wonder how you got three tracks in without noticing.
Brian Ellis, Brian Grainger — At Dusk
this is quiet contemplative acoustic folk that still manages to have full-bodied presence. in truth i haven't actually listened to the whole thing yet but i liked the first few songs enough that i think it's probably worth checking out!
Ola Szmidt — Wrapped
a track! this one is more of that vocal harmonies i apparently like so much. she doesn't seem to have an album out yet, but i think i'll keep an eye out for one.
That Visible Cloaks album sounds really interesting, thanks for pointing me in that direction. I like that sort of textural noise from time to time.
The Ola Szmidt track is lovely too. I'm sucker for a nice bit of vocal harmony. It vaguely reminded me of The Unthanks for some reason.
I don't track my music listening very formally, but here's a few songs from albums that have been getting a fair amount of playtime recently for me:
hey nice, ichika's forn is one of my fave guitar eps! flowers is a gorgeous song.
I went to see Nightmares On Wax on Monday so he’s heavily in my rotation right now. One of my favorite songs:
Morse
Saw the review on Pitchfork for Snail Mail by Lush, so I've been giving that a shot. Plus a throwback to Paramore, so I've been listening to Riot, which was a staple of mine in adolescence, so that's been nice.
Other than Kids See Ghosts and catching up to everyone and finally listening to Princess Nokia's 1992 Deluxe, I'm continuing to explore Motorpsycho's discography (currently focusing on their 90s output) and realizing I may have just stumbled across one of the greatest discogs in rock music.
They usually stay in this space where they switch around between indie, psych, prog, and kinda grungy 90s alt rock, often choosing to just hop between them and keep things fresh rather than trying for some fusion. It's not uncommon on one of their albums to hear a heavily emo-influenced lofi indie track right next to a proggy freakout that has a weird metal part in the middle, or something. It sounds like a bunch of buzzwords but these guys are the definition of eclectic, plus their discography is sizable enough that it's hard to paint them with one stroke.
This week I've mostly been revisiting tracks from Demon Box while giving first listens to Ozone and Angels and Daemons. Their music is pretty overwhelming for me so it's difficult to give a review or anything like that, but both have impressed the shit out of me and also blew my mind with their beautiful chaotic noise. Well, that's not all that's on there, but that's what has really gotten to me.
Finally listened to Die Antwoord's newest album. Found it interesting, aside from that been revisiting old pop punk/alt like Bloodhound Gang recently.
Deafheaven have released two songs from their upcoming album, and it seems really promising. They don't have a single bad song though, so it's not that surprising! But it's some good shit: Deafheaven - Canary Yellow
I've been listening to a UK radio station that streams online, OriginUK a lot this week. I have been trying to get FlexFM to stream but so far it does nothing but buffer and I think it might even be a problem on my end.
I'm no longer really tapped into the music scene, but I do still enjoy blasting some DnB! My 3-year-old daughter likes Galantis. Since we are sharing, Here's a classic that popped up on my playlist recently.