Conmaniac
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Soundoffs 60
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Album Edits 198

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Last Active 12-25-22 12:45 am
Joined 08-07-14

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 Lists
04.30.23 (PRIZE!) MAY REC COMP: 2CON23 EDITION04.06.23 con tracks his 2023
01.05.23 2con22 ♦02.13.22 con’s debut EP (SVMMERCAMP) ♦
01.06.22 con's best o' 202111.16.21 svmmercamp! ♦
10.18.21 101 lists / '21 to-checks01.04.21 cons2020/100th
12.27.20 im sure of what im doing now thx11.26.19 con(1)23
05.03.19 Rest of Con's Music05.01.19 CON RAPS?!? ♦
03.01.19 X-Conmaniac11.26.18 con's feelin 22
11.05.18 new.old10.08.18 'eighteen update
07.27.18 Con's Band, First and Last Album07.23.18 this is the new wave.
More »

POST PUNK OFF, A COMPETITION ROUND 4

RULES: A sister-competition to the "Con VS Unique Emo Crown". Two competitors rec 30 albums, 1 at a time, to 3 judges. A new round of recs will be presented once all three judges have finished rating/listening to both albums. This will continue until a total of 30 albums will be presented, 15 from each competitor. Winner will be determined by the highest AVG but tie breaker will be whoever had the best rec and each judge gets 1 vote for that.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NEW RULE: Competitors who fail to submit their recs within 1 day after each list's creation will have .5 deducted from their score for EACH day late ____JUDGES: Conmaniac, DeadlyNightShade, neekafat_____ COMPETITORS: UniqueUniverse, Tyler.,teamster_______ EMO COMPETITION: http://www.sputnikmusic.com/list.php?mode=1&listid=176039#comments
1Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures

CURRENT SCORES: **(not including Deadly's round 3 scores)
UniqueUniverse: 40.5
Tyler.: 42.3
teamster: 36.3
2Preoccupations
Preoccupations

UniqueUniverse rec

Con: After the first few songs I thought this was going to easily be the worst album in this round as the first few tracks are terribly drab and monochromatic. Before listening, I was horrified to find out that Memory lasted for 11 minutes, but afterwards a noticeable shift in the album’s tone appeared, much to my delight. The second half of this album ranges from amazing to okay, but the highlights just barely make up for the snoozefest before it. Still gonna have to mark it down a bit, but I could see this album growing the most with repeated listens (neeka take note...). 3.3/5
3Preoccupations
Preoccupations

Neeka: While the album was off to a rough start (let’s just say “Monotony” lives up to its title), after the startlingly long “Memory,” things more than pick up. The epic itself is likely the best moment on the album, with a momentum and power that was sorely lacking on the first act of the album. The varied song lengths give a sense of unpredictability to the album, and the two minute-long tracks “Sense” and “Forbidden” add more than they take away from the albums aura. The muscle featured on later tracks such as “Simulation” is impressive, and certainly implies that this is an album that clearly deserves further listening. 3.4/5

Track Ratings: Anxiety: 7 -, Monotony: 6 +, Zodiac: 6.5 +, Memory: 8 -, Degraded: 7.5 +, (Sense), Forbidden: 7 +, Stimulation: 8 -, Fever: 7 +
4Preoccupations
Preoccupations

Deadly: Preoccupations begins rather drearily with downtrodden opener “Anxiety” which features vocals that sound as if the lead singer has worn down to his last thread and is ready to fall apart. A fitting tone being set as the song is basically about being bitter and losing faith in just about everything due to an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Throughout the album it seems as though instrumentation and vocal delivery is done in a way that pairs with each set of emotions the songs discuss lyrically. At times this can result in rather repetitive structures most notably in “Monotony” but as I’ve stated, this is done quite purposefully. There is a clear and present scheme at work and a clear buildup as the album progresses. The true shift in sound occurs on “Memory” Where new elements are brought into play and things truly begin to take off both instrumentally and vocally. Soundscapes build and instrumentals boost to eminent heights on tracks like “Degraded” which starts off dreamy and
5Preoccupations
Preoccupations

Deadly (cont.): innocent until you are punched by the crushing bass riff halfway into the track paired with fast tempo drums which pummel the listener. Unfortunately, I was left feeling a bit saddened by the rather slow and mundane closer “Fever” which fails to impress. Considering the way the album takes off from “Memory” onwards I didn’t expect to have the energy dropped on the closer. 3.6/5
6The Sound
Jeopardy

Con: This is post punk at it’s most visceral, The Sound appear impassioned and angry at the world and for good reason. A very consistent album that relies on gritty riffs and some nice, modern-sounding synth work which adds to the atmosphere a ton. Even a saxophone appears which caught me off-guard but was very welcome. And finally, this is an album with two obvious standout tracks, namely Missiles for its epic vocal chorus and delivery. It’s a solid album, but personally I’m not the biggest fan of the straightforward, repetitive post punk seen on this album and it’s really the only thing holding me back from giving it a higher score. 3.9/5
7The Sound
Jeopardy

Neeka: This is repetition done right; taking good riffs and exploiting them as much as possible with changes in pacing, rhythm, and a talented vocalist. While it didn’t blow me away, I really enjoyed this album and can see why it’s considered a classic among post-punk fans. I just wish there was that extra oomph to get it a little bit farther. Very modern-sounding for the time too, I might add. 3.7/5

Track Ratings: I Can’t Escape Myself: 7.5 +, Heartland: 8 -, Hour of Need: 7.5 +, Words Fail Me: 7.5 -, Missles: 7 +, Heyday: 7 +, Jeopardy: 7.5 -, Night Versus Day: 7.5 +, Resistance: 7.5 +, Unwritten Law: 8 -, Desire: 7.5 +
8The Sound
Jeopardy

Deadly: A bombastic and energetic listen, Jeopardy, is an album that just keeps kicking. As said by Neeka, the most impressive part of this album is the ability of the band to know exactly how to exploit their most powerful element in each song. Whether it be through well-placed guitar solos, knowing when a riff is working and allowing it room to breathe and repeat or accentuating intense vocals with instrumentation that pushes the track to the absolute limit. The only thing that may take away from replay value would be the rather vintage production. However, in my eyes this only adds to the experience and I could easily imagine listening to this on vinyl. 4.2/5
9Stellarscope
March of the Lonely

Con: One of the most painful listens of this competition if I’m being honest, March of the Lonely is 9 songs too many and fails to impress in any way. At first the album seems to kick off well with a not-so-post, punk track, but soon this gives way to 13 post punk tinged “we listen to shoegaze” songs with little to no originality. I’ll be blunt, the vocalist is not good, the drummer seems to be ever so slightly off, and the production that appears raw at first is just flat out bad and inhibiting. Although there’s a few gems in the rough, namely the songs where the lead singer is absent, they fail to make enough of a mark to make me consider this a “good” album. I really did like the atmospheric guitar work and some of the juicy basslines that popped in but they were sadly overshadowed by carelessly mixed vocals and consistently off-tempo drumming. This is mediocrity at its finest, try again. 2.4/5
10Stellarscope
March of the Lonely

Neeka: Carelessly throwing genres around like nobody’s business, March of the Lonely sounds like the first demo of a band with a lot of potential, not the work of a group that’s been making music for 15 years. The singer sounds like he’s trying to gargle water after smoking 4 packs a day and the drummer attempts fast fills while being strangely bad at timing. These two bring down the album considerably, and is at its best when not relying on their work. While it functions better as a collection of decent songs than as a cohesive album, it’s really not that bad. It’s just that it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre or this competition. Also, everything Con said. 2.7/5

Track Ratings: Stay Away from Me: 7 +, Fashionably Late, Again: 6 -, Damn, I Hope You’re Happy: 7.5 -, Set the World on Fire: 6 +, Never Fit In: 6.5 +, Overblown: 5.5 +, One Terrible Place: 6 +, Status Quo: 6 -, Hypervelocity Stars: 7.5 +, It Is Too Late: 6.5 +, Island Universe: 5 +, All for You: 6.5 -, Up in Smoke: 6
11Stellarscope
March of the Lonely

Deadly: After finally having trudged through a listen of this album I’m left with nothing but disgust and frustration. I probably should have listened to the title of the first track and stayed away, sadly, I didn’t. March of the Lonely starts off with a beat that seems promising up until vocals begin. Vocals tend to be lackluster at best and are some of the worst I have ever heard. As the album continues, you can’t help but notice more and more things wrong with what’s going on here. A band that has 15 years under their belt should at least be at a mediocre level of playing, but the only members of the band who are not are the guitarist and the bassist. These two members are overshadowed ninety percent of the time by poor off tempo drumming and atrocious mixing. When you have a vocalist as week as Stellarscope you don’t put him at the forefront of the mix, you bury him in the instrumentals. Unfortunately, we are only given a break from his god awful performance for 2 tracks, which are
12Stellarscope
March of the Lonely

Deadly (cont.): the only two that ever achieve or exceed mediocrity (“Hypervelocity Stars” and Island Universe). Despite these two tracks it doesn’t salvage an album of 14 tracks in which they had plenty of opportunity to impress or dazzle the listener. I’d continue to degrade this awful album but I just can’t justify giving it that many words to describe it. 2/5
13Echo and The Bunnymen
Ocean Rain

NEEKA'D
First Score: 3.7
Re-rate: 3.6
Gain/Loss: -.1
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