I thought this would be nice to follow along with The Big Music Releases (whatever that might mean in this day and age). I guess that mainly means Kanye and Silk Sonic, and uh .
i’m mostly creating this thread to bitch about the much-hyped (for jazz) release of
some of the lyrics on this are absolutely insipid. but nice harmonies etc. whole thing feels like a thundercat album minus the life experience. i’m ragging on it but it’s really just fine i guess. nothing memorable jumping out at me. there’s a second where a horn player sounds like they’re quoting Coltrane “My Favorite Things” solo which was neat.
it’s probably a case of, i’m too ignorant to understand why it’s so amazing, or so on
I need to actually get back into albums. Ive become one of those tracks people.
Heard the Anderson Paak track from the Domi and JD Beck album and thought it was fine. It’s consistently decent but I’m without much more to say on this new wave of highly competent new jazz groups like various Louis Cole projects and the like. I’m glad they exist.
Struggling with the new Gorillaz track (Cracker Island) not sure I can really get into it but the hook is slowly worming into my brain. Hoping for something as generally strong as Song Machine.
Have been really enjoying the Air Twister soundtrack by Valencia (Valensia?) except I’ve not been able to find an ‘accessible’ version outside of preordering it from Playasia or something. Can’t get Gregorian-choir-does-a-Queen-tribute-act out of my head.
I appreciate that there’s lots of new style-recombinant 90sish rock music fronted by women.
I think the new Soccer Mommy is the best yet but I have a proclivity for production density. I listened to the whole thing on repeat constantly. The shoegaze and electronic elements are well-studied. The title “Sometimes, Forever” evokes answering questionnaires for a psychiatrist.
On the other hand, I’m a little disappointed that the new Beach Bunny doesn’t quite have the pointed political dimension of “Blame Game” or “Prom Queen.”* But it is infectious and positive in a way that’s nice for unsure footing after a month of bumming myself out catatonically listening to the aforementioned feel bad record.
* I still think about Tobi Vail’s complaints about guitar pedals from time to time (which I suppose makes it a de facto good aesthetic criticism) and think Beach Bunny is the counter example — here’s a woman running a Telecaster direct into an amp and singing about sexual harassment, managing to make it an earworm melody at the same time. Young women turn out to her shows to mosh in droves.
oh shit i should listen to that domi & jd beck album, didn’t realize they’d finally actually released a project. i’ve really enjoyed the various recordings of live performances ive seen from them in the past few years
i wish i liked my checkered future more, but i really can’t get into basically any act in the gecs-inspired bedroom production scene online. eichlers is a cool dude tho, and i’ve liked some of his tracks. god i still need to listen to that new catbite from last year and jer’s solo album from this year and the we are the union record from last year … i’m behind as shit on big ska releases recently
anyway after 4 years of no new shit (which i can only imagine they’ve done to inconvenience me specifically), Pool Kids finally put out their new (self-titled) effort! its REAL good, i think you owe it to yourself to check it out if you like their particular genre of mathy audiotreecore like This Town Needs Guns or Tricot. (also if you’re into that shit and haven’t heard their 2018 album Music to Practice Safe Sex To, i also think you should check that out, it was absolutely one of my favorite records that year) the production is pretty moody and … uh … underwater-…ey? which i wasn’t expecting cuz the singles they’d been teasing didn’t have that vibe atall but i’m into it
i also listened to that new J-Hope album Jack in the Box cuz its singles were pretty good and showed a genuine love for hip-hop (particularly Arson) … but it turns out besides the singles it’s actually mostly pop and pop rap, lmao. i wasn’t that into it, but Arson is still a good track, and MORE is oveall pretty good, even if i cannot stand how absolutely toothless the production on its hook is. i just vehemently despise every time a track is trying to seem cool and edgy by having guitars or yelling or a tiny bit of vocal fry but they make it sound so fucking sterile
For the record I think that Eichlers is filled with real good half ideas. The songs usually have a hook and then end. But it is the only bit of soundcloud emo ritalin rap adjacent that I’ve liked as the old white dad. For recent ska period yeah that WATU record that I find beautiful and moving and actually helped me understand the head space of a lot of the trans people in my life. I kind of dismissed it the first listen but the songwriting is really really good.
just to clarify for my stupid brain, are you saying that beach bunny is a counterexample in that it is not an example of what tobi is talking about? like, this is the positive affirmation of tobi’s negative/critical expression?
tobi’s criticism, while provocative and intriguing, ultimately feels provincial in a way. “why are people who play guitar focused on performative introversion” just seems like taste projected as praxis?
Here are some recent album releases by a few of my favorite well-known* groups.
Although I like all of these, I don’t think any of them is an example of the group reaching new heights. So for each, I will also list the most recent previous album that for me was a real standout.
Delerium’s last great album, in my opinion: Nuages du Monde.
Depeche Mode’s last great album, in my opinion: Ultra (too old to be on Bandcamp). Though several subsequent albums have had some of the best songs, none has quite measured up as an album for me.
Diary of Dreams’s last great album, in my opinion: Freak Perfume (too old to be on Bandcamp). Though Elegies in Darkness had some excellent songs that almost brought it there.
Ladytron’s last great album, in my opinion: self-titled.
kind of. “prom queen” and “blame game” are thoroughly pop songs without a shred of punk in them but they’re no less political than “suck my left one.” listening to either helps get over the transubstantiation of punk to praxis
since i wrote that one of my shared goals as a musician is complicating that argument
i’m sure everyone who is into the work of either dude involved here has already heard it, but JPEG and Danny dropped Scaring the Hoes Vol. 1
and arizona noise legend Lana Del Rabies released her new album, Strega Beata, which she’d for a very brief period used as her name as an artist before switching back to Lana Del Rabies (also this album has the tracks she’d made during that time) i haven’t actually listened to this yet but like, her shit has always been good
Really like his wife Neggy Gemmy’s stuff though her new album veers off into a lot of directions, has a lot of y2k dance on it along with some of the more shoegaze dream poppy stuff she used to do
new deerhoof very important 
