10
votes
What have you been listening to this week?
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! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)
Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/
Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.
I have been listening to the soundtrack to The Death of Stalin, a film covering the immediate aftermath of Stalin's death in 1953. The OST has a focus on booming orchestral arrangements, though it's peppered with solos and more light, upbeat ticks occasionally. I think it does a great job of expressing anxiety and melancholy feeling, but there's great urgency in most of it. The film is bookended by Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, though this is not included in the OST itself.
Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/album/2YjGcCP6ntG2C0KAzSNone?si=zeSJubgbR1-TJli5Y4lnJw&dl_branch=1
I found a great album of soul covers of Earthbound tracks, and it's been on repeat for me for the last few days.
https://supersoulbros.bandcamp.com/album/motherlode-3
This is less what I've been listening to and more what I want to hit up, as this was a big release week for me. New albums are out from Clairo, Tones and I, Barenaked Ladies, and Illenium. Meanwhile Shirobon and mekaneko put out a collab EP.
Also, in case anyone here wants to feel really old: the Barenaked Ladies album is out on the 30th anniversary of their first commercial release -- The Yellow Tape.
Oh, and also "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls just turned 25.
What do you think of Illenium's new album?
I've only listened to it once so far (and admittedly didn't give it my full attention), but it didn't really grab me. I'll come back to it a few times in the coming weeks and see if it grows on me.
Great new albums came out recently!
Vince Staples' self-titled is a very solid project from him. I feel like his hooks are generally improved, and I loved the instrumentals. There was something I still kinda wish the album had to grab me.
'Modest Mouse - Golden Caskets' has been in a heavy rotation as well. I was kinda wary of this one, because the loosie singles the band released in the past few years didn't grab me at all. I guess they worked through whatever they were working through in their "dead rats on instagram" phase, because this album fucking slaps. Highly recommended!
Shoutout to Pond and their upcoming album '9'. The singles so far have been top notch!
I'm very much a 'The Moon and Antarctica is the last good one' MM fan / oldster. The Johnny Marr stuff is all too poppy / over-produced. That being said, you're right about this album slappin'. I wish there were a cut without the weird singing on Acid Trip and all group vocals, though.
I'm mostly bothered by the poor pitch correction at the start of We're Lucky ("These are the STARRRS and these are the SEEEDS and..")
yeah, there are a few really strange things on this record. I spent the afternoon going through the early records --- they're so good.
I've got this decent bootleg from a Seattle show in '99 that I haven't listened to in a long time.
Yeah. The Moon and Antarctica is still my favorite. I think this is the best thing they've put out since We Were Dead..
yeah, I agree with that. March into Sea or whatever that first track on We Were Dead... is such a killer opener. I think I'm going to head back into a little Modest Mouse season.
There are so many killer records I leave out of the rotation. Too many, really.
At least we can always go back, right! :)
The Beths - Jumprope Gazers - very indie rock stuff
This was probably my favorite album of 2020! I initially didn't like it as much as their debut but it slowly grew on me, and now I think it's nothing short of fantastic from start to finish.
I ended up staying up one night because some of the songs are just stuck in my head. It's a great album for sure! So glad I stumbled on to it. Any recos similar?
Not really, unfortunately. I'd love more that sounds like them too!
Some thoughts that I would have (songs to check out in parentheses): Charly Bliss (young enough), Ozma (Nervous), Stars (Ageless Beauty), Metric (Now or never), Hannah Georges (Robotic). Stars are my fav for sure. If you think of any let me know!!
Recently introduced to Armenian Jazz artist Tigran Hamasyan. I'm digging it so far.
https://open.spotify.com/track/44EGL1bzLuJCbatX7h9tMF?si=1D5WBNRlSeqGRsnd131PnA
The last Amenra, featuring the singer of Oathbreaker on backing vocals, it's like the self-flagellating sludge-doom fan wet dream, not too sure what to think about it yet but I like the spoken word parts :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEI5tJDD2fc
Screenwriter's Blues by Soul Coughing. I love the track, but it's in a genre I can't quite pinpoint which sucks. I wouldn't exactly call it spoken word, but I'm not sure what else to call it either.
A warning, I've recommended it, but it's got decapitated pig heads on the cover. Haram by Armand Hammer, who is billy woods and ELUCID, produced by The Alchemist. I'm a fan of woods' and ELUCID's work, and any album they do, solo or together, or with other collaborators, is solid. billy's delivery is always at least a little aggressive, and both are lyrically dense as hell. It's also partly because I'm excited to be seeing them and Open Mike Eagle on a double bill in September.
Various things by An Endless Sporadic, an instrumental prog rock band many have heard in a couple of Neversoft games (two Tony Hawk games, and at least one Guitar Hero) that the drummer, Andy Gentile (aka andyTHPS, legendary THPS player turned designer) worked on. Their first EP, "Ameliorate" had most of their work that brought them to prominence. I've been listening to that EP and their self-titled album a lot both for nostalgia, and I just love that specific sort of prog rock sound, especially the stuff Zach Kamins is doing on keyboards, which I swear does a lot to define their sound.
Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea