User
Soundoffs 102 Album Ratings 1287 Objectivity 77%
Last Active 03-21-22 4:50 pm Joined 03-04-21
Review Comments 769
| Sleepy Slowcore Mornings
A genre I've been on the outskirts of for a little while - enjoying an album here and there but never fully diving right in. With mornings often grey & dreary at this time of year (and in the UK), it seemed to be the perfect time to delve in and spin a few whilst I start my working day with emails, coffee & staring out of the window.
The list contains albums I've heard recommended in various lists & threads on this site and ones I've stumbled across more randomly. Some new, some classics and nothing in any particular order. I'm not a music reviewer, but I thought I'd give each album a 'sound off' type of comment. I will update as more sleepy mornings occur. | 1 | | Red House Painters Red House Painters
I have given this a few spins now, hoping for it to reveal its secrets to me. The first left me thinking it was decent enough, but nothing overly special. Things have slowly been warming up since then, but not to a massive extent. I feel this could definitely use a little trimming here and there but, for the most part, I like the meandering journeys. The guitar occasionally has that tone & shimmer that reminds me a little of The Smiths or perhaps The Cure. This keeps the sound of several tracks feeling a little more positive & upbeat (relatively speaking) than the sombre, longing lyrics suggest.
I do not like the seemingly never-ending 'na na nas' in the latter on both Katy Song & Funhouse (plus whatever the vocals in the last 5 or so minutes of Mother are) - it distracts me from the development of the music beneath. Good songs, don’t get me wrong, but it just drags on to their detriment. The second half of the album (New Jersey-onwards) loses some lustre for me as well.
3.1 | 2 | | Idaho Year After Year
This one is hitting the spot a little more – has a little bit of dirge and a fuzzy quality to it. Maybe a couple of grunge influences here and there? Jeff’s baritone takes a little getting used to in some songs as it occasionally creates a drone-like quality, but it really adds to the melancholic atmosphere. The songs rarely build into any sort of crescendo (although Here To Go really does explode), but they are composed & concise enough not to outstay their welcome or meander into nothingness.
4.0 | 3 | | deathcrash Return
I’ve had this playing on a few mornings now. I enjoy the soft, almost whispered vocals, which float above the meandering song structures. It’s peaceful & contemplative with just a few nicely timed metallic crashes to prevent the record from drifting away into nothingness. A little more immediacy might help in one or two places as this is a meaty album with few gear changes. I’ve heard more than a few voices say this offers the slowcore genre nothing new and faithfully copies the sound of several of the bigger names with advancing anything, but I’ve come across this with fresh ears before getting to some of the ‘big hitters’. Consequently, I really like it and just instils further anticipation for this journey.
3.8 | 4 | | 40 Watt Sun Perfect Light
This is the album that alerted me to the wonders of slowcore. It actually started when a first heard ‘Stages’ from their previous album on a random playlist. It stuck with me over the years and prompted me to check this album when I saw it pop up on the sput new releases page back in early 2022.
I am so glad I did – WHAT AN ALBUM. Since hearing this for the first time, 40 Watt Sun has made it into my top 5 bands on Spotify Unwrapped, I’ve seen Patrick live three times and I own two of their albums on vinyl. It’s soft, pensive and achingly beautiful – my absolute go-to if I’m looking for something stripped back and melancholic.
4.9 | 5 | | Songs: Ohia The Lioness
It's a gorgeous sunny morning and I'm weirdly full of beans, so no need for slowcore this morning. However, it gives me the perfect opportunity to discuss this album, which I've heard a hundred times. It was actually Patrick (40 Watt Sun) who did a live cover of Lioness at one of his gigs that had my partner & I frantically searching Google & YouTube for the song after the show as we missed the name & artist when he introduced it.
Anyway we found it, we loved the original song and we loved the album so much I ended up importing a vinyl copy of it from Canada for that extra fuzzy warmth only vinyl can give you (slowcore was made for vinyl). It’s melancholic, it’s sombre, it’s beautiful…it’s perfect. No further notes required.
5.0 | 6 | | deathcrash Less
In a similar vein to their debut effort, but with only 7 tracks across a 38 minute run time, it’s a more concise effort. I will say though that the opener, Pirouette, is the first track I’ve heard by these guys where I was like “hurry up with this intro and get to the good stuff already.” I don’t like it quite as much as Return, but it’s still a good one.
3.6 | 7 | | Slint Spiderland
This one definitely has a different overall vibe – very grungy in places (Nosferatu Man) and actually a little unsettling at times (Don, Aman). It’s dark in a slightly creepy, unnerving way, rather than sad & melancholic. Washer, however, is almost exactly what I’m after on these sleepy mornings – excellent track. Quite an array of influences in a short 6 track run which is difficult to pull off, with the grunge off the first two tracks not really appearing again until the end of the final track. As a whole album, it may take a little while to fully click for me (I would imagine the high praise for this album is warranted), but there’s a lot here that I enjoy.
3.7 | 8 | | Duster Stratosphere
Interesting spacey vibes going on here, which is pretty cool. Whilst hardly upbeat, the pacing of the album with shorter song lengths & interludes keeps things fairly tight & interesting. Rhythmic and hypnotic with a dirgey, lo-fi vibe at times, enhanced by the airy vocals being buried somewhat in the mix. This is what this list is about – fitted the grey, miserable morning weather, yet transported me away from it a little bit.
4.1 | 9 | | Rex C
Definitely a lot of overt folk and even country influences peppered throughout this. Vocals are quite low and a little monotone, but generally fit nicely. The title track in particular wonderful and I can see this growing on me with repeated listens. The only main complaint I had on first pass was that New Son goes on a bit too long as it doesn’t really go anywhere, evolve or add anything different with the extended runtime.
3.8 | 10 | | Duster Together | 11 | | 40 Watt Sun Wider than the Sky | 12 | | Codeine The White Birch | 13 | | Bedhead WhatFunLifeWas | |
Feather
04.17.24 | I recall enjoying that 40 watt sun album, but I am really not familiar at all with slowcore. I also recall listing to that slint album and red house Painters maybe a decade ago and "not getting it", maybe I will revisit. | Icebloom
04.17.24 | Eyyy slowcore is one of the best genres
Can kinda see where you're coming from re RHP - if you don't have the emotional connection, it can be tiring journey. Strawberry Hill is fantastic though
Curious to see your thoughts on 5!
And I'd rec The For Carnation if you're open to recs
| Prancer
04.17.24 | check Bluetile Lounge and Good Night and Good Morning | protokute
04.17.24 | Try Galaxie 500 and Mojave 3 | JohnnyoftheWell
04.17.24 | The For Carnation [2], Bluetile Lounge [2], Karate, and shame on you for repping Deathcrash alongside the greats lol | GiaNXGX
04.17.24 | Bluetile lounge [2] | Demon of the Fall
04.17.24 | damn, why I haven't I heard Duster or Red House Painters yet? Slacking
The For Carnation (3), awesome album
'Mogwai - CODY' is essentially slowcore and happens to be their best album, so that one | cylinder
04.17.24 | Bluetile Lounge - Lowercase is one of my fave albums of all time, unspeakably beautiful. their other album is amazing too
def check Good Night and Good Morning as well, both their self-titled EP and the album Narrowing Type, both are absolutely lovely
i've also seen Cat Power - Moon Pix described as slowcore, that's another one of my all-time faves. give that a peep too
| platttt
04.17.24 | Bluetile Lounge [3] but I Could Live In Hope as well | JohnnyoftheWell
04.17.24 | oh and Carissa's Wierd (probably the best in the genre but I always forget they belong to it because their songs are generously concise)
and stop listening for the 'development of the music' lmao, should be the last thing on anyone's mind with a good slowcore act | Scoot
04.17.24 | duster is stupidly popular because of tiktok | Sunnyvale
04.17.24 | Nice!
I'd echo Bluetile Lounge, Galaxie 500, and Low. Maybe try Things We Lost In The Fire as the best gateway into Low?
I'd also suggest the Red House Painters' album Songs From A Blue Guitar, fairly different vibe than Rollercoaster but it slays. | hangth3dj
04.17.24 | "shame on you for repping Deathcrash alongside the greats lol"
Yeah I'm aware they aren't that popular on here, but for some reason I put it on an really liked it. Kinda fuelled this project a little bit i.e. if this is good, then these genre classics must be amazing!
"and stop listening for the 'development of the music' lmao, should be the last thing on anyone's mind with a good slowcore act"
I guess I'm using 'development' in quite a loose way here. Essentially I like the long, winding & meandering song structures, but I still need it to...go somewhere, you know? And by that I generally mean don't be overly repetitive or get boring and drift into nothingness. I'm not talking about asking/expecting the music to build into a crescendo or change up the pace, lead to a big chorus or whatever (although those things are sometimes nice).
Maybe I mean the word devolve? I don't want the music to devolve into something repetitive and boring, rather than wanting it to develop into something? I've been dealing in semantics most of the afternoon at work, it's frazzled my brain lol. | hangth3dj
04.17.24 | I will make a note of all the recs and add them to the list, thanks everyone. | FowlKrietzsche
04.17.24 | Cool list | SmurkinGherkin
04.18.24 | Does Trespassers William count as slowcore?
It was unbelievably grim in York today so putting 40 Watt Sun on the check out list lol | hangth3dj
04.23.24 | "Curious to see your thoughts on 5!"
One of my all-time favourite albums!
The grey weather has returned, so sleepy slowcore updates abound.
"It was unbelievably grim in York today so putting 40 Watt Sun on the check out list lol"
A suitable choice! | hangth3dj
04.24.24 | @Johnny - any particular Karate album?
@Sunny - that particular RHP album doesn't appear to be on Spotify!? | Feather
04.24.24 | This list has inspired me to check out way more 'slowcore'. Red House Painters and Perfect Light both finally clicked for some reason despite not caring for them at all a few years back.
Are 'The Wrens' (specifically 'the meadowlands' album) considered slowcore? Found them through a song of theirs autoplaying after RHP and it is phenomenal. | Ryus
04.24.24 | check down colorful hill, i like it a lot more than 1 | Sunnyvale
04.24.24 | Ooops, I got the name slightly wrong - it's actually "Songs For A Blue Guitar". It is on Spotify for me, but may depend on the country. | Relinquished
04.24.24 | Honestly yea that’s a better RHP album too | hangth3dj
04.25.24 | @Sunny - I found it in someone's created playlist, but it's greyed out so clearly unavailable for some some reason in the UK. I'll replace it with Down Colorful Hill instead. | denboy
04.25.24 | It's funny, I don't consider Songs: Ohia to be slowcore, but I'm also convinced that anyone who loves slowcore will love The Lioness |
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