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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.
Sorry for the length. Deafheaven's Infinite Granite is a release I've been looking forward to hearing for quite a while now. The singles intrigued me in that wistful yet hopeful let's-see-how-this-goes kind of way because the turn in musical direction bordered on sharp enough to be concerning. After about a half dozen or more listens, that feeling has kind of been validated, but I'm not disappointed either.
It's not bad - far from it, in fact. I think it's a quite competent shoegaze/dreampop record. Tracks like "Lament for Wasps" and "In Blur" have some standout moments I've been hearing in my head over and over the past few days. I see myself returning to it often in the future.
BUT: This album betrays itself by revealing its potential without ever having lived up to it. "Mombasa" is the best track of the bunch by a mile, elevating the entire record purely by virtue of its inclusion... and I don't think it's a coincidence that it also sounds the most like their older releases out of all the tracks. A slow burn that builds to a wildfire, Mombasa showcases what Deafheaven does best by balancing wide expanses of gorgeous sound against savage ferocity and fierce intensity. "Villain" and lead single "Great Mass of Color" also near this territory, but in a way that feels more like it's just in passing, or as an afterthought out of obligation (particularly the latter track).
Overall, Infinite Granite sounds a bit like Deafheaven is holding back for the sake of change. It gives me a sense of malaise, like something important is just... off. It almost makes me feel bad to say, like I'm a bad fan or I wouldn't want them to expand and try new things, but the only times this record truly stands out to me are when it does what I love Deafheaven for, and that isn't very often.
Even though it got a lot of hate for softening up their sound, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love is one of my very favorite albums, and I really enjoy plenty of other shoegaze acts, so I don't think it's an issue with the material not being a crushing blackgaze masterpiece. I think it's when I measure it against the level of expectation set by older releases that Infinite Granite becomes just what it is: a pretty decent shoegaze/dreampop record.
Weird tangent: I've noticed a pattern of bands """"going soft"""" not long after I get into them. I was obsessed with Gojira when Magma came out, Baroness with Purple, Queens of the Stone Age with ...Like Clockwork, Mastodon with Once More 'Round the Sun (granted they had already put out The Hunter but still)... basically, it's my fault this happened, sorry everyone.
EDIT: Having just finished the Pitchfork review, I found myself agreeing with a lot of it. Maybe not everything - IG is a lot more Slowdive than My Bloody Valentine - but yeah. "Deafheaven are capable of gorgeous shoegaze, dream pop, and post-rock tapestries, but their replications of those styles begin to lose their emotional resonance when not interwoven with heavier fare."