æʃliŋ, ring racers purropawgandist @aescling@cat.family

Green Day - American Idiot

I ended up enjoying this one quite a bit. A very consistent album with a high density of iconic songs--I didn't realize so many of the Green Day songs I have heard before all came from this one album. I don't recall any low points here, just some really entertaining and consistent pop punk.

Jamie Page - Constant Companions (Deluxe Edition)

I first became aware of Jamie Page when youtube decided to share with me the music video to Radiant Revival from the Hatsune Miku youtube channel, a song I greatly enjoyed. This album was essentially more of the same, songs full of bombastic, jpoppy chord progressions with clean enough production to keep it from going out of hand and the addictive, lyrically-dense songwriting to keep me engaged. I got pretty burnt out by around the 2/3 mark of the album though, as many of the songs blended together for me.

I was particularly impressed with Teto's tuning here, there were moments that I wouldn't have been able to clock as coming from a vocaloid if I didn't know the artist before listening. I will give a special shoutout to "I Wish That I Could Fall" for its orgastic chorus. I've probably replayed this song like, 12 times since first listening to it.

Billy Talent - Billy Talent I && II

I don't remember much specifically from these albums but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Devil in a Midnight Mass was a particular highlight.

Radiohead - OK Computer

I am reminded of the times when I watched Pulp Fiction or Cowboy Bebop for the first time, where I was just like "oh, the reason this is revered is because it actually is that fucking good." Wowee! Holy shit!!! This was an extraordinary album!!!! Every song is so lush and wonderfully produced oh my god!!!!!! I love art!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kanye West - Graduation

The third of the legendary three-album run which started Kanye West's career, and unfortunately the worst of the three. I had extremely high expectations because The College Dropout and Late Registration are some of my favorite albums of all time, and while this album was good it fell far short of my lofty expectations. Much of what makes Kanye unlikable in his later work starts here, it is first time I can recall Kanye being so misogynistic in his music (Drunk and Hot Girls is one of the worst songs I have ever had the misfortune of listening to).

This album feels less cohesive than the previous two--the first half of the album has more adventurous production (I don't any rap song that has sounded quite like Stronger) but much less substantive lyrics than Kanye is capable of, while the second half of the album is a return to form, full of the soul beats and lyricism that made his first two albums special (Everything I am and Big Brother are particular highlights).

Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

This was a fun r&b? pop? album about being young and having lots of sex and feminism also there's a computer motif tying it together that I don't understand. I particularly liked PYNK, that was a banger.

Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust

Ooh, I didn't like this one. The production feels flat and loud, there's little space between instruments and it kind of sounds like the songs are being squeezed out of a tube. This is particularly egregious with track "The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)" where the chorus features an extremely high-pitched synth that plays along with the melody that the lead singer, who also has a very high-pitched and nasally voice, and it just sounds awful.

Despite these issues there were three songs that I enjoyed a lot. "I am My Own Muse" sounds like something that would be in a Jujustu Kaisen AMV whose video title has the word "aura" in it (in a good way). "What a Time to Be Alive" is just fun as hell, and "We Didn't Start the Fire" is such an awful and misguided effort that it wraps around and ends up being so bad it's good.

逃走鮑伯 - 逃走鮑伯

An enjoyable punk album. Unfortunately, I feel that I lost out due to the language barrier here.

Ethel Cain - Perverts

I had no idea what I was getting into with this album. I have never heard of "drone music" before and 90 minutes of atomspheric music that sounds like the backing track a horror videogame is a very strange thing to listen to when you're starting to get delirious eight hours into a car ride on an empty and pitch black Ohio freeway.

I had severe ADHD music preferences and listening to slow-paced music is a big ask for me so it was a lot of work to get through this whole thing. That being said, the atmosphere and production are incredible here. Houseofpsychoticwomn was unsettling as hell and as someone who grew up Christian and experienced severe sexual repression, Pulldrone made me feel something that I can't fully explain or understand. I give this album "i respect the hell out of the art but it really was not my cup of tea" out of 10.

OK Goodnight - Limbo

I don't know why but at the time I listened to it this album left absolutely 0 impression on me. Was it me being absolutely sleep-deprived and delirious and recovering from the trauma of having just listened to Ethel Cain's Perverts? Whatever the case, I gave it another listen while making this writeup and right now I'm fucking with it heavy. I love the proggy instrumentation and the closer "Sanctuary" is stunningly beautiful. I give this album a "please listen when well-rested" out of 10.

IV OF SPADES - CLAPCLAPCLAP!

This one also left 0 impression on me just like OK Goodnight, and unlight OK Goodnight I haven't given it a second listen so I have nothing to say about it, sorry.

The Mountain Goats - The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2

Whoever decided to add a 2 hour and 30 minute album to my listening list, I would like to report you. I was far too sleep-deprived to get anything out of this relatively folksy album constantly interspersed with guys quietly talking in between each track.

All Time Low - Bubblegum

I wasn't fully coherent by the time this album reached but I remember thinking it was Fine, but also wishing that the romantic songs were sexier.

Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak

Kanye's fourth album, and since I have no interest in listening to anything he made after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the final Kanye album I haven't heard that I was still interested in listening to. At this point I had taken a 2-hour nap so I was slightly coherent and able to pay attention again. Ultimately, I thought this album was alright. My biggest disappointment by the lack of introspection regarding his romantic relationships. When MBDTF has more introspection on romantic relationships than this album then you know something is out of balance here.

Given that we know that Kanye and Kim first met in 2003, FIVE years before this album released, I can't hear Kanye writing TWO different songs where he complains to his partner that she is being overly paranoid about the relationships he has with other women and not feel like he is being extremely disingenuous. Especially given how he infantilizes the partner in RoboCop. (It's crazy to think that character Kanye played in his music was, at one point, extremely likeable.)

While 80s-inspired production, drum machines, and lyrics about being deep in one's feelings are now ordinary occurrances in modern rap music, this album still stands out as something quite unique in rap and rap-adjancent music. I've never really heard anything quite like it. I give it an "interesting i guess but fuck Kanye" out of 10.

Blue Scholars - The Long March EP

I've actually listened to this album before but I really wanted to engage with it in more depth so I added it to my playlist. This is socialist (communist?) hip hop and its good? Really good???? I don't know how it took me so long to learn of this album.

The MC has a style that is incredibly dense with internal rhymes and yet you almost don't notice at first--the lyrics feel natural and are able to tell vivid stories, it is truly remarkable that they rhyme as much as they do. The only downside is that this flow is the only flow you hear for the entire album, and it does start to get bit repetitive by the end. Anyway I cannot recommend this enough, it only gets better on subsequent listens.

JID - God Does Like Ugly

I've never actually listened to a full JID album before but I've heard a lot of good things about him. Coming in I expected a lot of lyrical-miracle-spiritual-individual shit given that my only exposure to him comes from Surround Sound and the single he released with Eminem before this album dropped, so I was surprised to find that does not at all characterize his style which is mostly laid back and smooth.

Anyway this was a great album that I need to give another listen. I give it a "I can only remember so much when I am driving and delirious" out of 10.

Duke Ellington, John Coltrane - Duke Ellington & Coltrane

I was driving in the wee hours at night in the mountainous side of Philadelphia and panicking while driving on roads without street lights that turned while descending leading to me only being able to see 20 feet or so in front of my car while on roads whose speed limit was 70, and this was the backing track to that experience. So forgive me for not giving this album much attention during that experience.

underscores - Wallsocket

I first learned about underscores from her song "Music" which might be my favorite song I have listened to this year, so I had high expectations going into this album. I did not realize that Music was a stylistic departure for underscores and was quickly disappointed to realize that Wallsocket is a electronic pop-punk album that sounds like if Olivia Rodrigo had more experimental instrumentation and was also a yandere. Which, writing that out right now, sounds amazing so I should really should give this one another shot lol. Anyway the ability of this album to write something unsettling with instrumentation that feels sentimental, or to completely pull the rug and surprise you with ruinous lyrics on a song that otherwise seemed like a joke, was very impressive. Also "Locals (Girls like us)" was a fucking bop.

Via flickr https://flic.kr/p/111iJyXGo (Eric Kilby)
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