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Last Active 12-23-19 9:27 pm
Joined 09-16-14
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| May 2017 resumé
Given what kind of year it's been thus far, May may have been the most fruitful of them all. It's not that it had the highest amount of albums I adored, but their qualities might easily surpass any other month. As always, if you're reading any of this, write "I like your big hairy cat, mate." in the comment section. 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 | | 55 |  | Veil Of Light
Front Teeth
Menacing, upfront, beating electronics, mixed with distorted, disjointed, disinterested vocals. That's the premise of this album. Veil of Light's third output is probably their most realised venture into the territories of odd Industrial branch of Post-Punk. It is dark, technical, but chaotic as well. There is a sense of apathy in it, that threatening sign of hostility and alienation that make it just a notch more intriguing. It's an album of dysrhythmia and disillusionment. No catchiness, no brightness, no hope. Just darkness and accepting the truth of your mundanity. 6/10 | | 54 |  | Grayscale
Adornment
Full 11 tracks of nothing interesting whatsoever. Kind of amazing in and of itself. 4/10 | | 53 |  | Amiensus
All Paths Lead to Death
Pure death and destruction. This is surprisingly short, considering bands like this usually tend to exaggerate the epicness of their records. Still, a damn enjoyable Death Metal album, albeit too short. 7/10
Gehenna, Desolating Sacrilege, The River | | 52 |  | Slaegt
Domus Mysterium
A bit dragging, but also fantastically produced and bitingly played with tangly riffs and growling vocals that actually aren't that obnoxious, although growls are usually a no-no for me. 7/10 | | 51 |  | Dreamcar
DREAMCAR
A little too ambitious for its lack of ideas, but ultimately fun enough to carry through. It's fine, but nothing special. 6/10 | | 50 |  | Moss Harvest
Taking Care
Bonechilling, agoraphonic, but also solitary and hazy. I feel like some psychologically damaging jumpscare is about to occur. Or is this a soundtrack from a surreal psycho-thriller set in an abandoned town by the bayside? Either way, it is obscure. 7/10 | | 49 |  | Chino Amobi
Paradiso
Musically dense, atmospherically abstract and with a strong sense of some kind of obscure dystopia, this record pushes its roots deep into your brain and doesn't let go. 8/10
Blood of the Covenant, Negative Fire III, Blackout, Nkisi (Edit), White Maetel, Paradiso, The Floating World Pt. 2, that triumphant ending of End (The City in the Sea) | | 48 |  | Kill No Albatross
Lost in Darkness and Distance
It is quite alright instrumentally at times and the overwhelming atmospheric crescendos do tend to have a certain effect, but other than that, this is a dreary mess. 5/10 | | 47 |  | Las Robertas
Waves of the New
Sure, it's a little trippy, a little dizzying and a little odysseyic, but in no way memorable or even interesting enough to keep me hooked from start to finish. Points for the pleasant atmosphere and effort, though. 6/10 | | 46 |  | Progenie Terrestre Pura
oltreLuna
Prog-infused Black Metal on paper sounds like a questionable idea, one that could either turn up gold or become unbearable. I am glad to report that oltreLuna is a success. It's a monstrous and dissonant record full of bombastic atmosphere and magnetic energy. The Prog elements, turns out, go along with Black Metal more than well and everything sounds grandiose and enthralling. My only gripe is that it doesn't try to stick to your memory almost at all, it's just raw energy and power for the sake of showcasing it. Also, the production is somewhat messy at times. But otherwise, this album's futuristic nature and beastlike instrumentation is worth a listen. 7/10
Pianeta Zero, subLuce, oltreLuna | | 45 |  | Free Throw
Bear Your Mind
Raw and throttling Emo record full of the good kind of Lo-Fi production and typical for the genre, but nevertheless engaging instrumental passages. Overall, it is quite a standard release, but for what it's worth, it is quite a decent enough listen. 6/10
Randy I Am the Liquor, Weak Tables, Dead Reckoning | | 44 |  | ostraca
last
Distorted, ugly and monstrous. This piece is such a testament of rage and emotional confusion that it makes my blood full of adrenaline just thinking about it. 7/10
Waiting for the Crash, Childlike, Worn Away | | 43 |  | Macseal
Yeah, No I Know
Quite a generic release with some interesting instrumental moments, but ultimately quite a timid songwriting and vocal execution. It's just a typical Emo Schlager, what d'you expect? 6/10
Next to You, These Things Happen | | 42 |  | The Tidal Sleep
Be Water
Raw, abrasive and visceral Emo Punk that just just balances itself on the verge of becoming a fully fledged Screamo Hardcore. This is just a well-crafted and dissonantly executed heart-wrenching release full of pain and anger. Just as I like it. 7/10
Bandages, Words, Sogas, Poisons, Wreckages | | 41 |  | The Mountain Goats
Goths
The Mountain Goats are back with an unconvincing and boring record that just wouldn't stop dragging with its unimpressive songwriting; the instrumental arrangement and some of the lyrics are nice though. 5/10
The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement, Shelved | | 40 |  | Trvth
Arcane Sages
Production-wise, this might be the closest anyone has ever come to recreating the old sound of DIY bands from 80s and 90s, but still sounding semi-acceptably. Now, everything else just sort of sounds like a duller version of pretty much everything you've ever heard in the Black Metal genre. 6/10 | | 39 |  | Oxbow
Thin Black Duke
If I was ever to make an album poking fun at all of those artsy bands that make obscure gibberish music for Pitchfork readers to jerk off to, I'd sound something like this. 5/10
Other People (I guess it's the only one that I didn't detest in the end) | | 38 |  | Woman
Happy Freedom
Sleeper hit of 2017! I was somewhat fond of their 2016 EP Fever. I felt like the band displayed a certain amount of finesse and naturally I was curious as to how would that translate on a full-length album. And now I know that the result would be easily one of the catchiest and most magnetic and electrifying Pop albums in a long time. This thing is so insanely good. It's fun, adventurous and it mixes all sorts of instrumental and songwriting influences, while still maintaining a certain smooth nature and flow. The melodies alone on this thing deserve a praise. It can go from movers to smoothers to coolers and still sound carefree and blissful. It's an incredibly rewarding and intriguing album that most definitely deserves your attention. 8/10
Dust, Marvelous City, Concrete Jungle, Control, Money, NYD, 2072, The End | | 37 |  | Solstafir
Berdreyminn
This is a weird one. It's technically a metal album, but the vaguest and most un-metally one out there. From its whiny clean vocals to it melodically sappy instrumentation, it's an odd experience. And I would normally be absolutely okay with this kind of bleakly executed brand of metal, at least that is original. But on here, the songwriting just bored me to death. It's easily one of the most boring metal records this year, no doubts. 5/10
Silfur-Refur, Blafjall, Samband I Berlin | | 36 |  | Wale
Shine
When all the parts are ther, but none of them work. 4/10 | | 35 |  | Diagrams
Dorothy
This album has some truly beautiful melodies and profoundly gogeous instrumental arrangement. It's moody and has somewhat bleakly bitter atmosphere. And all that is its strength, but also its arch nemesis, because a lot of the time you'll feel like it's just kind of bland, when it's trying to sound deep and moving. 7/10
Under the Graphite Sky, Crimson Leaves, Winter River | | 34 |  | The Amazons
The Amazons
Surprisingly enough, this is a hard hitting and fun album that may not provide any philosophical satisfaction, but certainly is almost althroughout enjoyable. It's not perfect, of course. The vocals are okay at best, the production is overbooming and the songwriting is samey and the lyricism is somewhat silly. But in spite of all that, it is just a dumb fun album. 7/10
Stay With Me, Burn My Eyes, In My Mind, Black Magic, Junk Food Forever, Raindrops, Ultraviolet | | 33 |  | Mizmor
This Unabating Wakefulness
Admittedly, when it hits hard it sounds as dismal and punishing as one would want. However, the vast majority of this 15 minutes long EP is an odd directionless acoustic detour. 6/10 | | 32 |  | Roger Waters
Is This The Life We Really Want?
Roger Waters is back with an obtusely critical and political, but musically vivid and utmost exciting album that only showns how much of a great musician he is and that he still got it after all these years, not shying away from showing cracks in his voice. 7/10
Deja Vu, Broken Bones, Bird in a Gale, Wait for Her | | 31 |  | Hooded Fang
Dynasty House
Hooded Fang turn even more obscure and transform their Psychedelica into a sort of tripping Psychopathia. It's not crazy, it's just really oddball. But what is up with those vocals? The previous record had such vibrant vocal performance, but here it seems as if they weren't even that interested in singing at all. 6/10
Mama Pearl | | 30 |  | Loss
Horizonless
This album is really eerie and unsettling. It is incredibly slow and dark and the vocals are quite dissonant. But when it all comes together it is mostly really odd and...well...horizonless. And this sort of formlessness and attempts at being as dismal as possible lead to such an extent that even interlude tracks with no real instrumentation are more interesting and captivating than the rest. Because, although the heavy moments often do sound gratifying, they never last all that long and eventually fail to elevate the tracks from the abyss of ideas and their lack of any sort of musical reward for waiting through all of that nonsense. 5/10
i.o., The End Steps Forth, from the full tracks probably When Death Is All, simply because it is the only one fully realised into something that is anything | | 29 |  | Tigers Jaw
spin
It has some decent songwriting in it, but for whatever reason the vocals made it so much blander than it was before. Oddly enough, I feel like had the vocals been rougher, it would improve or even absolutely twist the whole experience around. 6/10 | | 28 |  | Joshua Thorne
Dear Listener
On this album you'll hear some occasionally intriguing storytelling, but also a little all-over-the-place, and some quite surprisingly pretty music. My main issue might be Joshua's delivery itself. Though his voice is somewhat soothing, his emotionless and straightout flat delivery simply makes everything much more obscure than it needs to be. Makes me feel like I'm listening to an amateur meditation album that is secretly supposed to make me join a cult. It gets to a point where the only actual highlight of the album is a track that feels least like it belongs on the album. It's Red Herring and it is the only track with actually singing vocals and some instrumental variety. Yeah, sorry. 5/10
Parable, Red Herring, when Scene Missing gets all distorted at the end | | 27 |  | Quaint Blue
Two Houses
By the end of this blandfest you WILL beg for the sweet release of death. 4/10 | | 26 |  | Do Make Say Think
Stubborn Persistent Illusions
I'm quite fond of Do Make Say Think's past material, although admittedly never to a point of being a keen listener or even a fan. I suppose all of my fears have come true on this latest album, on which the band's style and atmospheric approach heads basically nowhere. I was disconcerted with their music in the past, but now, even though most tracks manage to eventually elevate into some sort of rewarding and dramatic outcome, they all still sound quite unengaging and disheartening. I just can't sense the passion anymore. That and the total lack of memorability makes up for quite a let down of an album, sadly enough. Even though its instrumental pastiche is truly impressive. 6/10
partially Horripilation, Her Eyes on the Horizon, Return Return Again | | 25 |  | Scale the Summit
In a World of Fear
Oh god, this was tiring. It's not that Scale the Summt's new album lacks instrumental finesse, it doesn't (as most other Prog albums, it doesn't). It's just that the musicianship showcased on this album leads effectively nowhere and every single song leaves a gutload to be desired. There is one major problem I always had with Prog Metal and Djent in particular. That problem is that, while the bands are trying to showcase their instrumental abilites, they completely skip out on songwriting and leave the albums sound absolutely unengaging, simply expecting you to wow at how good they can swing that bass. That never worked for me. And nowhere has that problem been more present than on Scale the Summit's latest wasteland of an album in their already dreary sortiment. In a World of Fear is such a ridiculously unbearable listen, exactly because the band simply goes nowhere with any of the songs. Nothing is too hard or challenging, it's just tiring. And that's all there is to it. 3/10 | | 24 |  | New Kids on the Block
Thankful
Newsflash, these guys are still around, turns out, and they are not all godawful...yeah, it's basically their past stuff, but set to a modern renewed production. 5/10 | | 23 |  | White Ward
Futility Report
I love the addition of saxophone, I just wish it was incorporated in a more interesting way than just a mood setter in the slow downs, because it drowns in the heavy moments. Speaking of which, this album contains some truly fantastic ones. 8/10
Stillborn Knowledge (God, I love this track), Black Silent Piers, Futility Report | | 22 |  | PWR BTTM
Pageant
Sometimes obnoxious, sometimes overbooming, sometimes actually catchy and nice Pop album that show much less extravagance or artistic weirdness as people have told me it would. Think of it as rocky Perfume Genius, but instead of flashy personality there's flashiness for the sake of flashiness. 6/10 P.S.: Yeah, I'm not gonna delve into that rape shit everyone's talking about. I'm here for the music, nothing else.
Silly, LOL, Wash | | 21 |  | Big Walnuts Yonder
Big Walnuts Yonder
Not going to lie, when this album turns all cooky and obscure, it can get incredibly annoying (like on the song Flare Star Phantom). However, for every weird and headscratching moment, there is a gratifying redemption (Sponge Bath). So I am a little lost on where to stand on this, because on one hand, it is sort of artsily silly but on the other it can really get under your skin with all of its magnetic and often mesmerising experimental sound. 6/10
Sponge Bath, Ready to Pop!, Forgot to Brush, Pud, Heat Melter | | 20 |  | Paramore
After Laughter
Paramore's uplifting and quite obnoxious happy-go-lucky approach to music is almost sickening at times, but when it's not, it's actually a refreshing turn-your-brain-off kind of fun. And the weird thing is that there is no actual song that consists entirely of either one of those things. They are all sort of packed into one. Take Hard Times: it has a decent enough chorus, but the childishly silly sound and instrumentation and the occasional background effects simply make it unpleasant to listen to (with one exception). But cuts like 26, on the other hand, do bring my hopes up. In the end, it is quite an inconsistent mess, but one that can sometimes brighten things up for you. 6/10
26, Pool | | 19 |  | Linkin Park
One More Light
Oh boy, I know that you're trying to progress beyond your past sound, but is this really what you want? A mediocre, overproduced EDM? None of the songs have even one intriguing moment in them. I guess you could make an excuse that Talking to Myself has something to their songwriting that seems tolerable. But even then it just gets completely annihilated by the unbearable vocals. Chester Whatshisname's vocal performance has always been the biggest turn off for me in Linkin Park's music, but on here they are just obnoxious to a whole new level. I guess they were tolerable set among Rock music, but once you put them into an EDM mix, they turn absolutely annoying and make the music around it all the more repulsive. I hope LP enjoy this themselves, because I can't see how anyone else would. However, on the other hand, Sharp Edges does sound like your usual summer radio burnout and could be tolerated as such 2/10
Talking to Myself (if I had to pick something) | | 18 |  | Vinyl Theatre
Origami
This...this just sounds like absolutely everything before. 5/10 | | 17 |  | Jlin
Black Origami
This is so perfectly obscure that it eventually becomes almost unbearable. 6/10 | | 16 |  | Harry Styles
Harry Styles
Although Harry doesn't quite come through to his own, this might be the most mature sign that he is in fact not just a boy band pretty face, but a serious musician. The tracks on this record are emotive, moving and contain a lot of charisma. That is, of course, when they aren't a little out of pace. And that, aside form occasionally pretentious lyrics, might be my main issue with the record, it's flow is quite rough around the edges. As I mentioned before, Harry doesn't ome through to his own. In that I mean that his influences and sound direction can sometimes be all over the place. It can go from a stadium anthem (Sign of the Time), to acoustic singer-songwriter Folk (Sweet Creature), to some nonchalant Rock (Carolina). And these styles don't exactly compliment one another and create a feeling that this is more of a sort of mixtape, rather than actual album. 7/10
Meet Me in the Hallway, Sign of the Time, Sweet Creature, Only Angel, Kiwi | | 15 |  | LSP
Waves
Listen, I like the raw emotions and some of the muci is okay, but the vocals are just the worst thing in the history of everything ever. It's like listening to a grown man cry, it's not pretty. 5/10 | | 14 |  | John Frum
A Stirring In The Noos
I certainly appreciate the raw, savage and ruthless nature of the record, it is intense, tight and absolutely brutish. I can't say it's one-dimensional, because if you dig deeper you will find a gauntlet of different influences, from Doom, Technical Death to even some occasional Metalcore, but when it all comes together, the band kind of fails to keep it uptight and everything just sort of falls apart into a messy and same sounding line of earpiercing cynicism in musical form. 6/10 | | 13 |  | Flobots
Noenemies
For once in my life I am not turned off by an overbooming Rock induced Hip-Hop, although those short skits were unnecessary. 7/10 | | 12 |  | Moon Duo
Occult Architecture, Vol. 2
Yeah, not a whole lot changed from the last album, not even the mood. 5/10 | | 11 |  | Full of Hell
Trumpeting Ecstasy
Though I appreciate the brutality and the unnerving atmosphere of the record, it just sounds the same a lot of the times. Eventually I found that the only highlights are the more or less melodic longer tracks. 6/10
The Cosmic Vein, Crawling Back to God, partially At the Cauldron's Bottom | | 10 |  | Succumb
Succumb
Apart from the lackluster vocal performance, this album is absolutely insane and as sinister as it can possibly get. Definitely did not expect it to be this ruthless and animalistic. But on the other hand, for how different than any other this album is, there is not that much variety within the style itself. You probably won't experience anything new throughout the whole record, what you haven't heard on like first two tracks already (except for those sudden growling vocals on the closer, but that's about it). Thankfully, in spite of its repetative nature, what it repeats is interesting enough. 8/10
The Initiate, Destroyer II, Bedchambers, Coal Dark Earth, The Flood | | 9 |  | At the Drive-In
in•ter a•li•a
Messy Communist Rock. 5/10 | | 8 |  | Wax Fang
Victory Laps
This might very well be Wax Fang's most prominent, vibrant and mature record thus far, with all of its synth-lead Prog-Pop ballads and romantic atmosphere. But I will say this, time after time they sound like straight out Menomena, down to the almost whimscal bakground instrumentation, like on the song Decathect and a little bit on Exit Strategy. But nevertheless, with an utmost uplifting and energising sound, magnetic songwriting and vocals that sound like David Bowie 2010+, this album is an extremely likeable and instantly memorable collection of sunny and simultaneously musically diverse tracks. 8/10
Pusher, The Things I Do For Fun, Do the Math, Mystery Girl, Lonely Nights, Exit Strategy | | 7 |  | Perfume Genius
No Shape
This is easily Mike Hadreas' instrumentally eeriest and most dizzying album thus far. He definitely took the most ambitious, but also the most experimental and a lot of the times almost hard to swallow step into much more ballsy direction. This album has as many beautiful tracks as it has completely obscure head scratchers. And that may be my biggest issue with this album. It's that previously I could always enjoy Perfume Genius' music ever when it went balls out experimental, because Mike always knew how to keep a certain level of songwriting beauty that kept me engaged and entertained. But No Shape is exactly as the title suggests, it's shapeless. There is little to no flow between tracks or eeven a common sonic/musical concept. It feels like a collection of different musical changes Mike could add to his music, not one particular that he wants to pursue fully.... | | 6 | | Perfume Genius
No Shape
Be it catchy and lighthearted (Slip Away), be it just weird for the sake of being weird (Go Ahead), be it sombre and tenderly beautiful (Every Night), be it just plain eerie and atmospheric (Choir) or be it completely smooth and almost sexy (Die 4 You). And this is not to say that Perfume Genius fails at making these directions work, it's the contrary a lot of the times. But many tracks like Valley or the aforementioned Go Ahead simply sound like he wanted to go as far into experiments as he can and leave the songwriting behind. And there are instances, where Mike can't handle balancing experimental with sweet and creates almost unpleasant experience like on the track Sides, which features a truly profound melody, but is filled out with these ugly background electric guitar riffs that just do nothing for me. Still, it may have been one of the most intriguing tracks on the album... | | 5 | | Perfume Genius
No Shape
Guess it just goes to show you, not everybody can handle pulling St. Vincent on us. This album is definitely a let down for me, but it did make me curious as to which of the directions is he going to go next time, after all he did give us staggering 13 options. 6/10
P.S.: I apologise for the pointless comparison to St. Vincent, I just needed someone with a profoundly weird style, whom I could use as a reference.
Otherside, Slip Away, Just Like Love, Choir, Die 4 You, Run Me Through | | 4 |  | Mac DeMarco
This Old Dog
I mean, it's fine by Mac DeMarco standards a lot of the times. I like some of the lyrics, but good god is the music boring. It's like he took the Dandy Warhols as a main influence on here. 5/10
This Old Dog, when Moonlight on the River gets all dramatic and trippy towards the end | | 3 |  | The Afghan Whigs
In Spades
I'll be frank, the vocals aren't doing it for me, but will I be damned if they don't know how to fucking kick it where they need to. This album is, with the aforemention vocal exception, absolutely on point in terms of songwriting, lyrics and instrumentation/production. It seems that each song hides its own pleasant surprise, be it a background instrument elevating the song's already magnetic atmosphere to a whole other level (horns on Toy Automatic) or a gradually progressing pace, eventually turning more and more emotional (Oriole). 8/10
P.S.: Shoutout to butcherboy for the rec.
Demon in Profile, Toy Automatic, Oriole, The Spell, Light as a Feather, Into the Floor | | 2 |  | Slowdive
Slowdive
Extremely dreamy and beautifully sombre album...at times, other times it's just boring. 6/10
Star Roving, Falling Ashes | | 1 |  | Kasabian
For Crying Out Loud
When You're In Love With A Psycho came out, I was horrified that Kasabian have fallen into the deepest shithole of their career and that they might not be able to crawl out of it. However, this album is all things Kasabian in their most primal and original way, no more Electro/Dancepunk influences, only instruments. Even You're In Love With a Psycho sounds acceptable in the context of the whole album. Kasabian are simply an althroughout capable band. Hell, even when they were going full electronic they managed to elevate their sound to a whole new level. And now they go back to somewhat funkier and less uptight, even cockier and more nonchalant version their original sound. Bravo, you handsome devils. 7/10
P.S.: That album cover though, my god, that is awful. Is making shitty overly primitive cover art is like their thing now? First 48:13, now this?
Ill Ray (The King), Good Fight, Wasted, Comeback Kid, All Through The Night, Sixteen Blocks, Bless This Acid House | |
Conmaniac
05.31.17 | funny enough, the album art and your description for 15 has got me reallll interested. nice list but 28's description is a bit mean ): | Papa Universe
05.31.17 | But it's just so uneventfully boring... | butcherboy
05.31.17 | nice one, Unique.. plenty of stuff here I still need to listen to.. and cheers for the mention.. | Sniff
05.31.17 | I don't know if White Ward sounds amazing or meh. I'll check anyways I think. | Papa Universe
05.31.17 | Oddly enough, I don't see that many people surprised New Kids on the Block are still around... | FullOfSounds
05.31.17 | A lot of stuff here I wouldn't have been turned onto otherwise. Nice! | Papa Universe
05.31.17 | The Afghan Whigs is a little (just a little) bit like the Veils, so you might be into that. | Dewinged
05.31.17 | Sweet list, some stuff I was missing from May. 21 and 24 were hard on my list to check. | wwf
07.09.17 | lmao just saw this tag on my album
< 3 | Papa Universe
07.09.17 | And which one is that? | Relinquished
07.09.17 | seems like u missed what oxbow is about
and what does 17 even mean | Sinternet
07.09.17 | lol at half these ratings
but at least you got succumb down, great record and agree that vocals could have been better | Papa Universe
07.09.17 | @Relinquished: 17 meant that it was trying to sound as experimental as possible, mixing different styles and influences together to create a whole new unique experience, which normally I would appreciate, but on that album, it just sounded annoying.
...maybe I should have just written that in there...
@Sinternet: It's all just a matter of opinion...and Succumb gives me goosebumps. | wwf
07.09.17 | 'And which one is that?'
28 | Papa Universe
07.09.17 | Ah...
...oh | wwf
07.09.17 | lmao |
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