April 2016 résumé PART 2
The original list ran out of space, so I'm making another one. This is no best-of list, it is just a bunch of records I've heard, that were RELEASED this month. Not the ones I've heard this month, but ones that were RELEASED this month that I've heard. Therefore, as the time goes, I'll be adding more items on the list, since I listen to stuff constantly. By the way, the names occasionally written under the comments are titles of songs that I recommend. If there are none written, it's either because I didn't like enough of them or because I can't point out a highlight. And now a score guide: 10/9 - 5; 8 - 4.5; 7 - 4; 6 - 3.5/3; 5 - 2.5; 4 - 2; 3 - 1.5; 2/1 - 1 |
| 79 |  | Gallant
Ology
A little bland, but often striking Pop album. Yeah, nothing much else to it. I don't think I'll hear of Gallant ever again. 6/10
Talking to Myself, Bone+Tissue |
| 78 |  | Sleep Weather
Lake Joy
A little strange to hear this the way it is. I expected some harsh, maniacal magnificence, but instead got myself a fairly patient, calm affair that just barely reaches the Post-Hardcore genre... just barely. 6/10
In the Bend, Shoes to Fill |
| 77 |  | FM-84
Atlas
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh... how bland was this? 5/10 |
| 76 |  | Eths
Ankaa
This just didn't grab me at all. You need to make an extrea effort to sound of having this much variety in your music and still come off as samey and repetative. 5/10 |
| 75 |  | Rogue Wave
Delusions of Grand Fur
A plain and unimaginative album that doesn't pretend it's something uber-important, but also doesn't try that hard on delivering semi-acceptable material. 5/10 |
| 74 |  | Three Trapped Tigers
Silent Earthling
I mean, the instrumental component is pretty good, but my god is it tedious. 6/10
Silent Earthling, Kraken |
| 73 |  | The Boxer Rebellion
Ocean By Ocean
I appreciate the soothing, atmospheric and echoic sound on this and the vocals are nice sometimes, but I really don't care for the songwriting or any of the arrangements. It's just not interesting to me, although I can clearly hear that it could be. It has some sort of ASMR kind of quiality to it. 5/10
Big Ideas, Redemption, You Can Love Me, kind of Let It Go |
| 72 |  | Bear Hands
You'll Pay For This
A happy-go-lucky album that went full obnoxious-go-boring. 5/10
The Shallows, Chin Ups |
| 71 |  | Teleman
Brilliant Sanity
Really sweet and uplifting Indie Rock with somewhat romantic, but simultaneously melancholic edge to it. 7/10
Düsseldorf, Glory Hallelujah, Tangerine, English Architecture, Melrose, Devil in My Shoe |
| 70 |  | Moskus
Ulv Ulv
Oh look, it's audio-boredom. 5/10 |
| 69 |  | Deep Sands
Endless Reflection
Though certainly interesting from a songwriting perspective, the EP loses me in its unnecessarily muddy production. 6/10 |
| 68 |  | Methadone Skies
Colosseus
I like the songwriting and the instrumentals quite a bit, but the production needs improvement, because as of right now, it really drags the whole thing down for me, unfortunately. 6/10 |
| 67 |  | Greater Pyrenees
Greater Pyrenees
Who knew that this would turn into one of my absolutely most adored Folk albums of the year. Every song is sought through with emotions and powerful delivery with both vocals, instrumentation and lyrics. Gorgeous album. 8/10
It Moves, Homemade Blood, Noise, Categorize, Biographer |
| 66 |  | Iron Mountain
Unum
An instrumental Doomy beauty full of exciting surprises in form of unexpected instrumental additions to the production. 7/10 |
| 65 |  | Angels and Airwaves
Chasing Shadows
Though this certainly isn't terrible (probably because it is so short), but it still is just another generic chorus-driven AandA four-track that really had no reason for existance. You'll like it maybe only if you're AandA fan, otherwise indifference shall be your stance. 6/10 |
| 64 |  | John Carpenter
Lost Themes II
Even John Carpenter makes sequels, but not even John Carpenter can make them better than the originals. 6/10 |
| 63 |  | Cordova
Cordova
Oh goodness, I didn't know there was an alternative to sleeping pills. This album is so perfectly uninspired and blunt I had a hard time not only sitting through it, but also even trying to recall what exactly I've just heard. The vocals are only good for the yelling, but unfortunately most of the time we are presented with absolutely terrible sombre singing that is completely unbearable. Now, normally if you cut all the quiet and slow parts of the album and left it all only with the hard-hitting stuff (which would be about 15 minutes), I'd find it a bit redundant and slightly unoriginal, but at least energetic. However, on here even that seems like a saving grace from the dull and tedious rest of the album. This is a perfectly boring and sleepy album in almost every way, from the horrendous vocals to simplistic instrumentation. It is so bad in fact, that apart from the rare shrieking/heavy moments, I can acquire all remaining positives to a pretty cover artwork. Horrendous album! 3/10 |
| 62 |  | Black Milk and Nat Turner
The Rebellion Sessions
An intriguing instrumental Hip-Hop album that shows how talented both of the collaborators are with instruments and production. 7/10 |
| 61 |  | Mr. Lif
Don't Look Down
D'you want some seriously good, punchy and clever Underground-Rap? Well, here's something. On this album you'll find not only great tunes, but also a bunch of interesting features. 7/10
The Abyss, Let Go, Mission Accomplished, World Renown, Don't Look Down |
| 60 |  | Sturgill Simpson
A Sailor's Guide To Earth
Sturgill Simpson presents us his emotional and powerful tearful and joyful ride throughout his psyche. 7/10
Welcome To Earth (Pollywog), In Bloom, Call To Arms |
| 59 |  | Drake
Views
Man, it really took me a long time to get to this one. Well, the Hotline Bling/One Dance hype got us to an album that has nothing much to offer besides those two songs. I honsetly dislike One Dance, and Hotline Bling I am thoroughly indifferent towards. This record is mostly a collection of boring, flavourless and redundant tracks with little to no compelling songwriting. With Views Drake throws me into even more confusion as to how exactly is he popular. His lyrics are mediocre, his vocals are bland and the music is completely tedious. I might actually be skipping his discography from now on. 3/10 |
| 58 |  | Acid Mothers Temple
Wake to a New Dawn of Another Astro Era
I know that they're doing basically exactly what they were doing back in their hayday, but this just doesn't seem that interesting to me now as it did back when I was a little shit discovering the world of music for the first time. 6/10 |
| 57 |  | Ustalost
The Spoor Of Vipers
Well I can see the potential, but the production is just so damn ugly. It doesn't even sound like the band was trying to go for that retro 90s Black Metal production, it sounds more like they couldn't do better. 6/10 |
| 56 |  | Miserable
Uncontrollable
Half of this album consists of gorgeous dreamy and slightly ambient little blisses, and the other is just pure emotional outbursts. And the tracks seem to compliment each other pretty well, the quiet ones serving as some sort of interludes between the noisy parts. However, my issue with the album is that the quieter tracks don't stick out almost at all. They're just sort of hanging in there and serve merely as a breathing point for when you're done with the heavier tunes. And the vocals too sound far from any revelation. 7/10
Uncontrollable, Oven, Violet, Saudade |
| 55 |  | Audacity
Hyper Vessels
Another one of those upbeat and psyched, ye superfluous Indie-Punk records...Yeah, there's nothing beyond 'it's okay' that could describe this record. 6/10
Umbrellas, Hypo |
| 54 |  | Melt Yourself Down
Last Evenings on Earth
It turns out that there can be something much weirder than Ukandanz, Imarhan, Flamingods or Khun Narin this year. However, this album doesn't entirely rely on ethic and culturally traditional musical instruments or vibe, instead it starts off as an oddball mesmerising Jazz-Fusion album and the slowly progresses into World-music-inspired psychosis. 8/10
Dot To Dot, Communication, Jump The Fire, Bharat Mata, Yazzan Dayra |
| 53 |  | The Enid
Dust
The Enid deliver the most clihéd, typical and kitsch Classical music-inspired Prog Rock with as accessible and pretty overarranged music, silly lyrics, actually bad vocals and complete overall redundancy. 5/10 |
| 52 |  | Autolux
Pussy's Dead
This is an utterly unengaging record full of dull yet potential-carrying songs. The album has a very specific dreamy atmosphere it goes for, but it always takes a nosedive with the instrumentation and vocals for me. Egh. 5/10 |
| 51 |  | The Algorithm
Brute Force
I dedicated this whole year (well, more like 20% of it actually) to Prog Rock/Metal and my attempts at finding a great album of said genre(s) that I'd love. But now after hearing the Algorithm's latest ominous and bruting record I have an urge to go back to all those Prog albums I disliked so much this year and think how much better could they have been, if they were electronic instead of instrumental. Brute Force is a harsh and mind-bending album that uses all the tropes of modern Prog-Metal, but all to an incredible effect. 8/10 |
| 50 |  | Erik Blood
Lost In Slow Motion
What happened here? It took such a nosedive since the Transom EP, and that was released just two months proior to this. Every song is simply a completely forgettable Indie Rock tune with as much personality as a make-up paint he used on that cover. 5/10 |
| 49 |  | Youth Pool
Dive In
An attempt to move forward into the harmless world of Shoegaze and to a certain extent Power-Pop. 6/10 |
| 48 |  | ASAP Ferg
Always Strive and Prosper
ASAP Ferg manages to create a perfect absence of good on his latest. I just couldn't stand majority of this record. And even when it's not unbearable it doesn't sound good, it sounds like a good rapper on his lowpoint. It's just a song after song of forgettable music and underwhelming performances by a horde of features. But I must admit that it manages to bring up a series of semi-interesting ideas; may the intro string section on New Level, intro on Rebirth or the music on Beautiful People serve as examples of that. 3/10 |
| 47 |  | Astral Path
An Oath to the Void
Damn, talking about gorgeous Black Metal out of nowhere. I'm not sure whether it is due to my first listen excitement (well first three listen-excitement), but for some reason this album really got stuck in my head, even though it is quite a typical album for the genre. It also has its flaws, or rather one flaw. That being the odd interludes that feature nature sounds. They don't take anything from the overall experience, but it's not like they are a particularily necessary part of the album. Outside of that, the music and the beauty of the Post-Metal inspired riffs truly touch deep and keep you gripped until the end, which unfortunately comes quite quickly. 8/10 |
| 46 |  | Bardo Pond
Acid Guru Pond
A collaboration (from what I understand) between Acid Mothers Temple, Guru Guru and Bardo Pond. However, most of the time it's just a muddy, ugly-sounding and tedious recapitulation of all the Psych-Rock clichés. 6/10 |
| 45 | | Lord Mantis
NTW
Look, I get where you're going with this, but I'm just not that into it. 6/10 |
| 44 |  | Hawkwind
The Machine Stops
Ultimately, this is quite an okay-ish record, but the production is really the lowpoint for me. It simply sounds very low, plain and muddy for me, so plain in fact that it hardly brings up any excitement. 6/10
In My Room, The Harmonic Hall |
| 43 |  | Sulk
No Illusions
Sulk ain't your typical Indie band, they don't just use the gimmick of being sweet and a little silly, they actually put effort into doing that. The melodies, the instrumentation and even the vocals all compliment each other on here, although at times it can get slightly generic, all-in-all I unexpectedly really enjoyed this album. Sure it's just another Dream Pop thingie with semi-catchy tunes and all that, but this one has a heart. 7/10
Black Infinity (Upside Down), Drifting, One Day, Past Paradise, The Tape of You |
| 42 |  | John Congleton and the Nighty Nite
Until the Horror Goes
This whole album I was waiting until the horror actually goes away. And to think that this is the guy who made St. Vincent records happen is simply baffling. On here, John Congleton tries a lot of the same disordered and mind-bending instrumental moves as St. Vincent, but they rarely work. Mostly because of their general directionless production that leaves everything sound completely off and almost no instruments pass to one another. And moreover they don't go well with his mediocre vocals. It all sounds like if you play multiple songs at once. Which is a real shame, because underneath all that musical absurdity you can actually hear genuinely nice melodies, good musical ideas and lyrics. Whenever the crazy tasteless instrumental diarrhea stops (chorus on Your Temporary Custodian), the album is great. However all the remaining sheds of potential annihilated by the senseless pasting and production that, as I said, sound absolutely off. It's weird in all the wrong ways. 4/10 |
| 41 |  | Illyria
Illyria
Illyria present an impressive, though rather uninnovative brand of Black Metal that kicks ass, but also has a lot of expendable interludes. 7/10 |
| 40 |  | Prism Tats
Prism Tats
An easy-going Rock record, who's relaxed and slightly bluesy instrumentation is only meant to give you an experience for one time, but one enjoyable time. 6/10
Death Or Fame, Excess, Know It All |
| 39 |  | Astpai
Run From Home
This EP has some interesting melodies and riffs, but the vocals are simply off-putting and the overall Pop-Punk worship are irksome at best. 6/10 |
| 38 |  | Bibio
A Mineral Love
An utter boredom of a record. Drag, uneventful songs that drag out for ove forty minutes and give you absolutely nothing. 4/10 |
| 37 |  | Mice On Stilts
Hope for a Mourning
Sort of emotional and quite intriguing to a certain extent (at times it reminds me of The Dear Hunter), but the execution is just so boring. Each song drags out without any excitement in it whatsoever. 5/10 |
| 36 |  | Chelsea Wolfe
Hypnos / Flame
Chelsea Wolfe manages to sound blissfully, while still being in a tortured mood. 8/10 |
| 35 |  | Blaqk Audio
Material
Standard dancy Pop without any personality. What else d'you expect from AFI's electronic side-project (!). 5/10 |
| 34 |  | Wren (UK)
Host
Quite an intriguing Doom EP that has the same problem as the majority of such records; there is just not a lot you can say about it. It's quite typical, but enjoyable. That's it. 6/10 |
| 33 |  | Naxatras
II
I genuinely love Psychedelica, but this one was just somehow miising its steam and even breath at certain passages, and the production too was simpl put a little out of touch. 6/10 |
| 32 |  | Wrong (FL)
Wrong
Man, this was one ugly and heavy as heck piece. Pretty one-dimensional, but still enjoyable. 7/10 |
| 31 |  | We Are Scientists
Helter Seltzer
We Are Scientists are not exactly the band you first think of when someone asks you to name at least a 100 contemporary Indie Pop-Rock bands. And this album explains why. There is just nothing particularily standing out on here. It's not terrible, but it barely even reaches the above average mark. 5/10
UPDATE: I know what to call it now. It's that music that plays on the background of Spotify ads, but with vocals. |
| 30 |  | La Dispute
Tiny Dots
There is certain interesting homely cosy feeling to this EP. It is slightly boring at times, but then again, it's just a documentary soundtrack. 6/10 |
| 29 |  | Cecil Otter
Dear Echo
Cecil Otter, a rapper I've never heard of before, manages to make meregret not knowing him before in just three fantastic, well aranged and beautifully written songs. 8/10 |
| 28 |  | Tim Hecker
Love Streams
Tim Hecker decided to leave his usual dark and slightly depressing style behind and head in a lighter and sweeter direction. However, the album leaves a lot of its atmosphere hanging and it also leaves the listener wanting more. Sure, this sort of experimentation from Tim Hecker is admirable, but on Love Streams it is still in its incubation state. Maybe next time Tim will perfect the sound. 6/10 |
| 27 |  | Azizi Gibson
A New Life
Every rapper/producer at some point hits that low, where anything he tries just sounds extremely sleepy and boring as heck. Welp, Azizi Gibson just hit that low. 5/10 |
| 26 |  | Woman Is The Earth
Torch of Our Final Night
WITE manage to bring up decadent emotions and power on their album that mixes elements of Post-Metal, Doom and schizofrenic Blackgaze. 7/10
Brother Of Black Smoke, Sorrow And The Floods, Longcrusher |
| 25 |  | Lukas Graham
Lukas Graham (Blue Album)
It seems like every single song on here is supposed to sound grand and powerful, but performed by an artist that has no place performing it. Neither the music is fitting, nor is Lukas' vocal. Lukas Graham is not an adult contemporary artist, nor is he a Pop Rocker, nor is he and Indie Pop singer-songwriter, and nor is he a Post-Grunge Nirvana long-sleeves wearing edgy kid, and he most definitely is not a bubblegum R'n'B singer (yes, there are influences, but not a lot of them). Each song is about the exact same thing. He had a hard childhood (who youldn't with that voice), but he is going to make it big. Well, good luck topping your perfectly godawful lead-single. 2/10 |
| 24 |  | Lil Uzi Vert
Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World
I do admit, this sort of laid back keep-it-cool trap form LUV is performing is quite appealing to me (and I also really like some of the beats). Unfortunately it gets slightly tedious by the end. Maybe next time he manages to get me completely into it. 6/10
Hi Roller, Money Longer, Baby Are You Home, Team Rocket |
| 23 |  | Andrew Bird
Are You Serious
This album contains probably the most beautiful Beatles-ish Folk-Rock tunes that immediately stick to your mind with their tenderness and geniunity. 8/10
Roma Fade, Truth Lies Low, Puma, Are You Serious?, Saints Preservus |
| 22 |  | A Dead Forest Index
In All That Drifts From Summit Down
A very sombre and low-key album that might be just the kind of music that plays in those sad sitcom finales. 7/10
In Paths, Summit Down, Myth Retraced |
| 21 |  | Desaster
The Oath of an Iron Ritual
The music's alright, but the vocals, those really bummed me out. 6/10 |
| 20 |  | Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas
Mariner
So what was Julie Christmas' weak vocals' contribution to this album that could have really been just fifty minutes of instrumentals? 6/10 |
| 19 |  | Youth Code
Commitment to Complications
Pop.1280 took Screamo lessons and started tripping acid and the result is one of the most devilish Technopunk album this year. 8/10
P.S.: It sounds to me like a more aggressive version of any Witch House album.
Commitment To Complications, Doghead, Shift Of Dismay, Lost At Sea |
| 18 |  | Deep Heat
Still Life
An intriguing album up to a point. One that might not exactly wow you, but will definitlely evoke at least some sort of interest. One particularily remarkable moment is that each song seems to feature a different singer. And though the vocal style is usually the same, it is really the variety of voices that breathes more life in already hip and nice to listen to Emo-ish Pop-Punk. 7/10
Pick Up The Pieces, Window, It's Yours, It Remains, Mercenary |
| 17 |  | The Zenith Passage
Solipsist
Is it weird that I wish a Technical Death Metal album had more clean vocals and some atmospheric Black Metal influence? It probably is, but I just though that the music itself really didn't sit well with the truly beautiful cosmic melodies the album featured. 6/10 |
| 16 |  | Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Ears
This features a lot of sweet and pretty music, however none of it remains with you for more than a second after you finish listening. 6/10 |
| 15 |  | Slice the Cake
Odyssey To the West
Unfortunately, although the prologue EP to this album was a very unusual experience for me, the album itself doesn't really hold up that well on a long scale. It has its moments and the haunting imagery of the album really does stick in your memory. However, the frequent genre change that occurs here and there on the album leaves it feel a little bit off and makes your head hurt by the end. In the end, I'll give it the same rating as the teaser EP got, but it is by far not the same 7/10.
The City Of Destruction, The Horned God, Unending Waltz, The Torn Thread, Nameless Faceless |
| 14 |  | Slice the Cake
Odyssey to the Gallows
Who knew that an EP almost not containing music at all could have much more to offer than a typical record. 7/10 |
| 13 |  | Tancred
Out of the Garden
This album is nothing more than a somewhat nice voice set over bland instrumentation, pretending it is all hip and cool. 4/10 |
| 12 |  | Bleeding Skies
You Can (Not) Die
This is not a Prog-Metal album, this is what you've heard from someone somewhere Prog-Metal is like. A lot of fast tapping bass, weeping guitars and deep quick drums. 6/10 |
| 11 |  | Snarky Puppy
Culcha Vulcha
There's just something about Jazz-Fusion albums that fascinates me and grabs my attention. And on this album, the music just flows from one song to another in a relaxing and beautiful fashion, but it also features very little distinctiveness, as it sometimes happens with such albums. 7/10 |
| 10 |  | Xiu Xiu
Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks
An album full of vibrant, stellar and oddball reimaginations of Twin Peaks soundtrack that breathe in a second life into the world of musical remakes. 7/10 |
| 9 |  | Moonsorrow
Jumalten Aika
Moonsorrow are back and this time it's a banger like no other. 8/10 |
| 8 |  | Wode
Wode
Yep, it's alright. 6/10 |
| 7 |  | Bloody Knives
I Will Cut Out Your Heart for This
This is either some very superficial Noise or just some noise. 5/10 |
| 6 |  | Duel
Fears of the Dead
Another Black Sabbath impersonator - and another good one at that. 7/10 |
| 5 |  | Victims
Sirens
As the instrumentals burst out into madness, the vocals are a real letdown. I'm not saying that the music is perfect, it's not, rather it is quite repetitive, but I like the Post-Metal/Stoner influences on here. But again, repetitiveness (not the good type of it) and lame vocals are not doing it for me. 5/10 |
| 4 |  | Kevin Morby
Singing Saw
Kevin Morby comes through with an album full of pretty melodies, sweet Country-Folk instrumentation and good lyricism. Now, those are all ingredients for success, but this record reminds me of all the other completely wasteful Folk album lately, ones that always sound exactly the same, but this is a bit more soulful and beautiful. Although, as I said, it does have the resemblance of a typical repetitive Indie Folk record. It just does a slightly better job at being one of such. 7/10 |
| 3 |  | Sylvan LaCue
Far From Familiar
That strange moment when an album is just good and there is nothing else to say, except that the features are almost all really underwhelming. 6/10 |
| 2 |  | SOTO
Divak
Oh look, Two Steps From Hell makes a colab record with every single Power-Prog-Metal band ever. 6/10 |
| 1 |  | Mantar
Ode to the Flame
Another wasted metal album.The band really knows how to bring the tasty heaviness, but the prodution leaves it sounding so placid that I could hardly get into any of the moments. 5/10 |
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