Or y’know. Doesn’t have to be every album. Some bands have a streak of albums where it makes sense to just talk about those and leave the rest out. (Bonus points if you don’t fact check anything.)
People on selectbutton were talking about Zazen Boys recently and I got the urge to post this. I like to keep mental lists of bands’ discographies and which albums are good or not. Albums are like “texts” where its fun to relate an album to the history of that artist and define an “arc”, and think about what music by other artists or real world context was happening at the time. Not that I’m necessarily inclined to do all of that in writing, but that’s the kind of stuff bouncing around in my head when I listen to albums and pass judgement on them.
Zazen Boys: This one doesn’t really have many standout songs, but the whole thing ebbs and flows like a jazz album. Just a great album to put on whenever, never gets old.
Zazen Boys II: In contrast, this one does have great songs, but it’s very front-loaded, which makes a lot of the songs on the back half feel like filler, even if that wasn’t the intent.
Zazen Boys III: It’s OK in theory to be more dissonant & unrelenting, but the band just fails to mesh well. It’s probably the new drummer’s fault. It’s subtle and hard to explain exactly what’s wrong rhythm-wise, but it’s bad. He did stick with the band & get better though. Their worst album
Zazen Boys 4: I like the first song after the intro, but otherwise it’s just OK. There’s a fine line between return to form & self imitation
the 2012 album: gets better every time I hear it. Tracks that would have been experimental interludes on previous albums feel more fleshed out & serious. I especially like the synth parts.
I haven’t really listened to the new album much but it seems a little worse than the 2012 one.
Gorillaz - Feels a little hollow in places and you really have to be in a lonely quiet mood and have not heard the singles in a long time given how much airplay has deadened them. Good.
Demon Days - A big improvement and the start of Gorillaz trying to do more socially conscious stuff which has aged to differing degrees. More ambitious with musical texture and featured artists. The best B-sides are from this era.
Plastic Beach - Probably their best album on paper. Everything mostly works very well and it avoids the occasionally sanctimonious sounds of Demon Days. Production is excellent.
The Fall - The most underrated Gorillaz album. I’d put it in top 3. The OST to a game that never existed. Mostly instrumental and vocal snippets but the laidback toylike energy of tracks is interesting. Has to be listened to as an album really, no singles on this.
Humanz - Worst album by far. Jumped on the bandwagon of ‘the only art I can make is about how Trump sucks’. Trump sucks but this album didn’t need to. A few decent tracks can be salvaged, Saturnz Barz for instance.
The Now Now - Solid but a little dull overall. They frontload most of the best stuff. Album sounds better on live versions. Kinda lacks it’s own strong identity.
Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez - The most ‘comeback-y’ of them all. Really good track identity thanks to good collaborations with the feats and Albarn’s ambition being pressure-cooked by lockdown.
Cracker Island - Chilled out. Pretty good but lacking a really eclectic feeling in the general sound of the album.
I’d do Bob Dylan but I don’t have the energy right now.
This record marks the completion of JLC’s direction away from seed work earlier in the 90s working with traditional Irish folk tunes, toward a more widely-accessible melodic alternative rock space (think stuff like Goo Goo Dolls). It’s somewhat facile, though - the focus here is rarely on the band, rather on Jay Clifford’s songs and voice (both can be quite spectacular). Matt Bivins does a sort of slam poetry-type spoken word stuff on the record, which is an interesting mix-up from Jay’s agile crooning, but they scarcely rise above that distinction to my ears. While the record is relatively strong throughout, several of the tunes are major standouts, particularly the swelling ballad Cathedrals (which started getting radio play on alternative rock stations by 1999) and My Guitar (rollicking power-pop).
Vertigo (2001)
The songwriting ambitions of Jay Clifford and the sonic ambitions of the band reach new zeniths on this record. This time, they’ve traded the alt-rock affectations for intricate, semi-baroque pop with soaring melodies and a relatively acoustic feel. Contains many of their career highlights like the title track, Come Around, and Mother’s Eyes - the latter by far the most compositionally ambitious tune the band ever recorded. It received a widely mixed reception from critics, who were unconvinced by the increased seriousness (don’t expect another My Guitar here, and even the Matt Bivins attempted mix-up tune Singer is a tedious snooze) and extended runtime (14 tracks in 62 minutes, versus Magazine’s 11 tracks in 41:17). I’m a diehard fan of it, but even I find this record to be a bit overbearing at times. Still, probably the pinnacle of their output.
Between the Dim and the Dark (2004)
The songs are pretty good, but the production (handled by Rick Beato - known for his Youtube channel these days) really flattens and compresses the rich dynamics they were able to achieve on Vertigo. Instead of the multi-part harmonies sung by other members of the band as before, all vocals here are done by Jay himself. While understandable to a degree, this decision robs the band of some of their mojo. The production is slick, but it feels like another reach at mainstream relevance rather than a continued pursuit of any real vision. Still, some of the songs are great and most of them have better live versions without the staid production of the LP. Worth a listen, but the end of JLC’s relevance.
they did some reunion shit but i haven’t listened to it because i listened to jay’s solo shit in the interim and it was bad, so lol