I thought this could be the counterpart of “song of the moment” but more discussion focused, albums/artists, less song-focused. maybe this exists and I missed it.
anyway I’ve been listening to a lot of Tainy, this is the producer behind a lot of Latin urbano hits, worked with artists e.g. Bad Bunny, Young Miko, Karol G. and he came out with his album DATA(2023). his production is crazy, drums always knock, pretty creative drum programming, and switches up the beat often. there’s also a sort of ambience or atmosphere with a lot of his reverb-y synth and vocal layering which I enjoy.
I’ve been trying to get into XTC lately. That band had so many different stylistic strands woven together in so many different ways. The thing for me is, when certain of those strands interweave, it’s like the best shit I’ve ever heard, but every other combination of their styles leaves me totally cold. I like when they’re lush, psychedelic, pastoral, and introspective. Which means, of course, that Skylarking is my favorite album of theirs.
All excursions beyond that album have been mixed at best, but I’ve found songs I really like on several of their other records, especially their later period. There are a few songs on Oranges & Lemons and Nonsuch that I can’t get enough of.
I’m a fan of their Dukes of Stratosphear stuff too, which was my entry point to their work (and it took me a decade of listening to those albums before I could find my way into their XTC work).
I have been trying to decode the Gilbert and Sullivan show Utopia Limited (specifically the Orchestra of Scottish Opera recording) and am finding it unrewarding but the few good ideas very compelling. Basically a parody of British Empire with a particular focus on turning a whole country into a limited liability company. Unfortunately there’s too many threads left dangling so it’s hard to enjoy it as a whole. This is the bit to study:
Also saw someone big up Susumu Hirasawa and Siren is a lot more effortlessly enjoyable.
I’ve got The Mountain on repeat the most atm but I think I know its shape now.
Otherwise have been getting into S.H.E. to fill the void that K-Pop left
i have really struggled with XTC too actually. i often say that i have a love/hate relationship with them. in addition to Skylarking i generally like the Drums and Wires/Black Sea era a lot but it’s often spotty for me outside of those. they’ll have songs i really like and then ones that just baffle me. so maybe this is a good invitation to share some deeper cuts i like.
i generally like English Settlement all the way through, though it’s a double album so there are some weaker tracks. i never see this (“Yacht Dance”) song mentioned that much but i really like the main guitar riff on this by Dave Gregory
Mummer tbh i think is one of their more underrated albums, i see it usually considered near the bottom but it has less of the overwritten/overfussed on songs that some of the later albums have that bother me. that’s not to say it’s a perfect album, i just find it generally a more chill and less hard on the ears listen than a lot of the albums after this one. this song (“Great Fire”) has always been a favorite:
The Big Express is when you really start to get into Andy Partridge overwriting the songs and the production just being too compressed. i saw Todd Rundgren mention that the production on Skylarking was deliberately trying to tamp down on that particular impulse. this album is a cult favorite for some people but i just can’t get into it. “Reign of Blows” is a track i still kinda like but also has some kinda cringy lyrics, classic Andy Partridge:
Oranges and Lemons is another people like but i just generally find pretty overproduced. it has too much of that late 80’s adult contemp sheen on it. however, there are a few more songs i like on it vs. The Big Express. i like the slightly darker Scarecrow People and the white guy psuedo afrobeat of Poor Skeleton Steps Out in particular:
Nonsuch has a lot of the tendencies of Oranges and Lemons (overwritten songs and kinda cheesy/suffocating production tendencies) but i generally like it more than the previous overall. it’s probably a fairly underrated album vs. the rest of their catalogue because i don’t see it talked about much at all. i think Wrapped in Grey in particular is one of the best songs Partridge ever wrote:
i like the sound of Apple Venus Vol 1. a lot tbh - i think they kinda escaped the suffocated studio sheen of the 80’s and developed into something a bit more interesting here. people often share Easter Theater, which is a great song, but i personally like this one a lot - i consider it the theme of Jeff Bezos and many other rich guys:
i still never have listened to Apple Venus Vol 2. but maybe one of these days. but anyway hope you appreciated the deeper cuts. here’s an Andy Partridge deep cut from one of his “Fuzzy Warbles” demo compilation a lot of people like that never made an album for some reason. ofc it has classic Andy Partridge slightly creepy lyrics that are possibly about sex:
anyway, that’s XTC: a band i’ve invested a lot of energy into for whatever reason over the years but always liked more in theory than in practice. but still has a lot of worthwhile stuff.
Nice, I’ve heard some of this stuff (I like Poor Skeleton Steps Out too), but haven’t spent much time yet with Big Express, Mummer, or any solo stuff. Thanks for the road map!
Honestly, for me it’s just constant frustration that they never put out another album nearly as classic and cohesive as Skylarking. Now that is an ALBUM!
yeah. English Settlement has the variety of songs of Skylarking, Black Sea is perhaps their otherwise most consistent (but it’s more one sound/less developed songwriting wise) and Apple Venus Vol. 1 and their Dukes of Stratosphear material are also very solid-to-great forays into 60’s-inspired psych like Skylarking is. but none of their albums have all of that stuff at once like Skylarking. i think working with good producers like Steve Lillywhite or Todd Rundgren who could undercut some of their worst tendencies was important but it seems like Partridge was not the kind of guy who liked to take orders from anyone at all, even when he probably should have.
oooh that reminds me of the side-project of Damon Albarn, The Good The Bad and the Queen.
Their Merrie Land album (7 years old already, what the ….) has locked in this sad vibe of glorious times gone by to a T:
From Opener
to closing track
this album goes places
and most songs feel like they tick a specific box
that normally shouldn’t work as an album, but somehow that collage of an album works because to me it reflects the different personalities that make up a country — chase a certain group out of your country and you lose that variety.
Still like to dip into this album, or listen to it from beginning to end!
I listened to the radio today, FM 97 or something. There’s Take me home country road by a youngster male voice. I sung with the radio but I don’t know which version it is. And there’s another song write by the guest for this channel, the DJ super hype on this and played it twice, seems named Every Thursday With You.
a couple of days ago i watched the music documentary Pavements (2024) by Alex Ross Perry, about the band Pavement.
anyway, you get to read my in depth thoughts on this documentary and the genre of “critically beloved indie rock” of the 90’s and 00’s here, should you choose. it’s something i’ve been thinking about a lot.
but yeah, been re-listening to some songs after spending many years away from Pavement for the most part. i didn’t really appreciate how much synths play a factor in this song, and several others. you hear new things every time!
even with the couple of songs that rip off The Fall, i am still impressed by how much they expressed a fully formed sort of aesthetic idea with this album so early on in their career. and i think “alternative rock” would probably have been better for it if Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain did break them into the mainstream. but you know, they still released a lot of good material regardless.
The 2nd side of Rainbow Seeker by Joe Sample had lowest listening records in my vinyl collection, less 3 times? I guess because I bought it so many years ago just only for the sample of Dear Mama: In My Wildest Dream. I listen to the 2nd side of this album today, I found myself really love the last one called Together We’ll find a way. Especially mine is Japanese version, the album title Rainbow Seeker translated by 虹の楽園 (Rainbow Paradise) is a bit of out of meaning but gimme a more lonely sense of this vibe in the end.
I am working through tidying up my digital music library which has formed over the span of like 15 years or so, carelessly. Yesterday I decided to really assess whether I like American Football or not. Like maybe I just downloaded that first record long ago because it was recommended and I never listened to it very seriously.
For as much as that band gets mentioned in association with midwest emo it surprised me hearing the whole album for the first time in forever that it feels more like a post-rock album. It’s almost Talk Talk like.
Maybe it shouldn’t surprise me so much that the emblematic album of emo music for young web searchers these days is an album which doesn’t really feel very emblematic of the genre. Maybe it’s rude of me to imply this, but tourists always want a palatable experience which communicates to their expectations, right? Something less produced or melodic or pretty maybe wouldn’t work as well as a bridge for certain people.
It’s a good album though, no hate intended. Just curious about its modern fame. I still prefer caP’n Jazz though
okay this is really hard for me. im gonna leave this window open and try to talk about music as i listen to it today
first new thing i listened to, found in an ‘experimental’ music discord im in (i never really established myself in the local scene in seattle so instead of shows i go to discords now). its not the kind of experimental im into but it definiltey sounds like some movie soundtrack shit so good job attaining your goal. enjoyed but will not download
got posted in canias discord. i hate the guitar, skipped
found in “other music” channel in beach boys discord. love the bassline. this band has a member with the same first and last name as my brother, which is like saying i have a brother named michael smith too!!! wow!!! i feel like i have such a blind spot with austrialian 70s and 80s music for the most part
I have other drafts of other days but talking like music as I listen to it for the first time seems so embarrassing
i’m happy that weird internet tracker-adjacent (?)/instrumental music will sometimes come up in my youtube recs like this, but sometimes bummed that my own music never seems to get any kind of (even small) algorithmic spikes like this one did
still would much rather live in a world where i get rando recommendations like this though
this is another rando instrumental/noise album the algorithm recommended me. i told the person who uploaded that it reminded me of ilkae and bug bus piano. amazing how a lot of this stuff reminds me of Pistachio Island, which is from 2001.
this one also came up at some point. feels like zoomer The Microphones a little bit, or 90’s slowcore
Last night just happened to listen to Sky Ferreira’s “You’re Not the One” after a long time. I really like this album, Night Time, My Time and I guess I can join the chorus of people online who cry “Sky… come back ”
which reminded me that she had a song at the end of Babygirl, that I remembered being pretty good.
saw people on rym saying this song is “so hatchie” and that made me look into that artist. what i found i wasn’t much of a fan of. but the production does bring strong reminiscences of 90s 4AD records despite not really matching any of that stuff in content
posted this in song of the moment but im fucking obsessed with this!! the little taste of johnny carson in the beginning and match point works SO WELL with star guitar. brian wilsons last solo lead until 2012!! amazing
jed posted this a couple years ago and it sounds so much like a nikki dungeon i keep coming back to it
oh nevermind new 17 hour dennis defour dropped when i wasnt looking im set for a few days
no one’s posted to this thread for awhile, so i guess i’ll bump it
i keep getting recommended these very obviously 90’s aping Gen Z guitar bands that get blessed by the algorithm. i’ll share a few of them that i actually liked. this song was pretty good. kinda like Built to Spill ish? def emo/post-hardcore adjacent as well.
feel kinda weird about how everything suddenly is shot on VHS or uses VHS filters. i like the style but it already feels like it’s getting oversaturated. it’s probably not going away any time soon sadly.
i already mentioned this Australian band. this is still very 90’s inflected but a bit more Strokes-y. can’t tell if it’s some Australian equivalent of industry plant or they just got blessed by the algorithm because they don’t have much material out there and their other song isn’t nearly as good.
not VHS or algorithm core but still extremely 90’s - this is a Seattle band that my friend told me about - i think they know the main person/guitarist?
anyway, those are actually songs i liked all or at least part of. i skipped over a lot of algorithm core i don’t really like. i’ll probably come back to share whatever the algorithm feeds me next time i go down this rabbit hole just to see what i get.
My wife has really got into this band Ak’chamel, so I’m checking them out today. And they’re very cool. They have the atmosphere of some Sun City Girls albums, but more dead horizon western qualities. Truthfully, this album, Rawskulled, could work quite well as an alternative soundtrack to Fallout 1.
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