Frippertronics
praise jimmy
Emeritus

Reviews 149
Approval 97%

Soundoffs 434
News Articles 30
Band Edits + Tags 611
Album Edits 1,574

Album Ratings 3842
Objectivity 79%

Last Active 10-27-22 11:13 pm
Joined 01-25-13

Review Comments 19,513

 Lists
12.15.19 Fripp_Decade, A Work in Progress, or ho01.14.19 Nintendo Switch
04.17.18 Here be some records Sput sleeps on the ♦02.05.18 2018 Review a Random Album Game ♦
12.11.17 Fripp's 2017 ♦10.26.17 Rec No. 11: Simplicity on a Plastic Dis
10.19.17 The Sput-Folk Union of 201710.10.17 The Clock Strikes 10: The Long and Wind
10.02.17 Noisetober10.02.17 The Nine Lives of Rec Roulette
09.28.17 Rec Rouletteight09.18.17 Rec Roulette 7even
09.03.17 Shoegaze Time, or The Gang Goes to a MB09.02.17 Rec Roulette Sixth Phase: Prototype
08.26.17 Rec Roulette Round Fiver: Locked Myself08.18.17 Rec Roulette Round IV: Con/Text
08.10.17 Rec Roulette Round Three - Black Light 08.06.17 Rec Roulette Round 2 - Politque
More »

Fripp_Decade, A Work in Progress, or how to give up lol

Or, the Phatnsaucy TV Big Happs Awards Ceremony
100Lupe Fiasco
Tetsuo and Youth

2015
Hip-Hop

If you told me years ago that Lupe Fiasco would even grace a decade list, I'd take it rather humorously. After all, the man had graced us with a notorious stinker in "Lasers," a record that strived to reach a larger audience but resulted in Lupe coming dangerously close to becoming a punchline, but thankfully only established his habitual inconsistency, in terms of the quality of his work. "Tetsuo and Youth" comes storming right out of the gates, emerging from it a reinvigorated artist that has regained the fire, or so to speak, with the epic "Mural," a song that makes every single frustrating moment that any fan had enduring all the more worth it. The added bonus? You have 70 more minutes and several other career highlights, such as "Chopper" and "Adoration of the Magi" to keep you company.
99Midori
Shinsekai

2010
Punk

The swan song from the beloved Midori, "Shinsekai" only turns the formula the classic "Aratame Hajime Mashite Midori Desu" had perfected and turned it upside down, took to great lengths to fuck with it, and reinvented it on an album that toys further with the rather ugly combination of taking cutesy pop melodies and repeatedly hammering it with a sledgehammer - the sledgehammer is called punk. This is not to say Midori had lost their edge, but had learned to hone other aspects of their sound, making their final album also their most refined and perhaps accessible. However...this doesn't stop them from going all the way in and just making a frenzied mess of what a melody even is. You won't come out of this unscathed.
98Black Marble
It's Immaterial

2016
Coldwave

"It's Immaterial" is a tricky album to really accurate gauge - it's the type of album that pushes you away, yet slowly entices you in its spell. I can't say it's exactly enchanting nor can I say it's cold, but it certainly has that quality to it that lends an air of mystery, something that urges you to keep your attention. Blink and you'll miss it. Not necessarily a hidden gem, but an album often overlooked undeservedly so.
97Young Widows
Easy Pain

2014
Post-Hardcore

I cannot tell you how obsessed...how enamored I was with this band in particular back when "Easy Pain" was new. I was in awe - the record that whetted an appetite for that aggressive, rhythmic sound but had texture, deviation, melody. It was something, in retrospect, that was absolutely tailor-made for 16-year old me. An album that just keeps going and going, taking no prisoners and only further cementing their legacy as one of the finest hardcore acts of their era. Then they went absolutely quiet and now...we are left with this as their most recent statement. I highly doubt this is it from them, but in the event it was, it was one hell of a way to go out.
96Andy Stott
Passed Me By

2011
Dub Techno

Andy Stott, god bless him, was fucking on one when he made "Passed Me By." For all that its worth, if he never recorded anything else again, this record would be a testament to his greatness. I could blather on about the intricacies of those metallic rhythms, those shift-pitched vocals or whatever else the man threw in the mix on "Dark Details," it wouldn't do the album or even the man any justice than acknowledging he got it absolutely right on this one.
95Rook (CA)
Shed Blood

2018
Post-Industrial

"Shed Blood" features an individual rightfully incensed: at herself, at those who've wronged her, at those who've failed her, and at the world. Yet, for all the potential for Rook to drown in her own angst and using her tragedies as a potential crutch, Rook bares all for to see and uses it as her strength to exorcise her own personal demons. "Shed Blood" is an album that is cathartic for both artist and audience.
94Black Midi
Schlagenheim

2019
Noise Rock

Let's be fair and just admit Black Midi is good. Like, really, really good. As in potentially "the" next big thing everyone's been waiting for for years. The type of band many others that we've been promised would become the new trailblazers, the pioneers, the artistes if we want to get sophisticated with it a little. But all hyperbole aside, Black Midi truly put out something people are going to be talking about for years to come. Comparisons to any other group, whether it be Pere Ubu, Slint, Swans, or whatever other band that had an obvious influence on Black Midi is entirely irrelevant when you have such an enduring concoction of pure noise lying in front of you.
93The Brave Little Abacus
Just Got Back from the Discomfort...

2010
Midwest Emo

"Just Got Back..." is one of those albums. You know the one. The one you immediately fall in love with, the one you can't stop thinking about, the one you can't stop listening to, the one you find more and more to appreciate about it. It speaks to you on such a level that it feels like it was made specifically for you.

This is not that kind of album, but it's indeed one of those albums that changes lives and has a great love for Malcolm in the Middle. That's how you know you got a classic on your hands.
92Angel Olsen
My Woman

2016
Indie Rock

This was my introduction to the world of Angel Olsen, one of enduring heartbreak, of the pains of romance, of the trials of getting older and enduring. I can recall "Intern" just immediately putting me at ease and just giving me this feeling of comfort that doesn't come too easily. Simply put, Angel was at her best here - melding together that time-tested indie sound we've become all too accustomed to and revitalized it with incredibly stellar songwriting and melodies. It doesn't make any promises to reinvent the wheel, but tricks it out and makes the journey more comfortable.
91Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Push The Sky Away

2013
Art Rock

Cave and the gang meant business when they recorded this, didn't they? You can say it's because it's in my wheelhouse, but the spacious and ethereal soundscapes coupled with that underlying tension is just the finest match made yet. Even ignoring some of the clunkier lyrical moments on this album, Cave is at the top of his game here.
90Duster
Duster

2019
Slowcore

Don't pull the "it just came out" bit on me, I'm confident that we have an all-timer on our hands with the group's eponymous effort and the comeback that has been a long time coming. I won't pretend to be a fan whose been waiting a lifetime for this moment - I was quite young in their drug-addled heyday, but have found much more to appreciate about Duster with the passing of time, especially in light of this reunion. They pick things up immediately where they left off and don't bother with pleasantries. An album for the ages.
89Max Richter
Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works

2017
Modern Classical

Max Richter seriously has a way to tug at the heartstrings and get those eyes misty, doesn't he? On "Three Worlds," Richter comes dangerously close to full-blown melodrama, but thankfully keeps things reined in until the colossal "Tuesday" comes into play - then the floodgates open and we're subjected to wave upon wave of mournful strings, reflecting the tragedy of its subject matter, Virginia Woolf, perfectly.
88Yeule
Serotonin II

2019
Ambient Pop

Yeule put out one of those records that completely blindsided me. An album I had little to no interest in at first glance, yet captivated me with its fairly charming aesthetic, the attention to detail she had in her compositions and the moments that truly left me in awe. "Veil of Darkness" was that moment - a display of harsh noise after a record full of lush ambient pop, a cluster of darkness after the hazy fog. Yet, once we emerge from it and into that lonesome and ghostly final lyric, it only goes on forever, never fading out, but cutting to black.
87Kanye West
Yeezus

2013
Hip-Hop

It's amazing how time can vindicate something, but that's certainly what time has done for the reputation of Yeezus. Say what you will, but this was the final and wondrous gasp of an artist at the top of his game and as the finest in the game, in the mainstream at the least. Look to the mastery West displays on "Blood on the Leaves" for example. West's ambition was at its peak here and it's no question that it was also West at his finest as well.
86Alva Noto
Xerrox Vol. 3

2015
Glitch

A rather silly description made by a friend reduced "Xerrox" to "the soundtrack of being abducted by aliens and getting probed." Funnily enough, he almost had a point in his assessment. "Xerrox," much like the prior installments in the trilogy, are rather alien-sounding, very otherworldly and abstract. It isn't a stretch to say it's a truly surreal experience, but feels closer to the soundtrack to astral projecting your body throughout numerous galaxies, unchanging and unable to age.
85Airospace
戦場ヶ原 ひたぎ [vol. II]

2013
Hip-Hop

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to claim Airospace struck gold with "Hitagi Senjogahara [vol. II]" but the reality is that he certainly did and has been trying desperately to recapture that magic for years now. And for good reason - it has the best beats, best lyrics and best samples all put on an Airospace record to date and is tastefully handled to boot. Add in the very notion he also sounds like he gives a damn here as opposed to any album or recording post [vol. II] and you can see why people flock to this one a lot. The finest flash-in-the-pan this decade.
84The Flaming Lips
The Terror

2013
Neo-Psych

Then, on the other hand, we have the recorded disintegration of a band who are at odds with life and disillusioned with all that it has to offer. "The Terror" is the Lips' "breakup album" in a way, coming in the wake of the double whammy of Wayne Coyne's divorce and Steven Drozd's relapse after years of sobriety. If "Embryonic" was the band doing absolutely anything they wanted and relishing in the chaos, "The Terror" is the band surrounding themselves within the storm and facing the very embodiment of said chaos, the violent consequence of such reckless abandon. Normally, there'd be some sign of hope, of some potential light at the end of the tunnel, but "The Terror" doesn't even signal at there ever being an end to such internalized anguish and self-reflection, instead forcing you to stew in your own cold despair.
83Sachiel
Human Instrumentality

2017
Grindcore

The absolute closest thing to a local band I'll ever know, Sachiel just doesn't stop kicking ass. They continue where Discordance Axis left off, Evangelion references and all. "Human Instrumentality" doesn't just soundtrack the titular event, it "is" the event in musical form.
82Chief Keef
Thot Breaker

2017
Hip-Hop

"Thot Breaker" is admittedly one of those albums where I find more and more to appreciate about every time I go back to it, doubly so when when it's among the finest in CK's rather daunting output. Yet, this collection of what you could consider 'love songs' is not only the most entertaining CK has ever been, but the most direct and interesting he has been in a long time.
81Low
Double Negative

2018
Glitch Pop

I previously stated this was Low's defining moment, or something along the lines of that. While it may be a bit too soon to truly state that for sure, I still hold up the idea that it is indeed one of their finest moments as a group, bringing that lethargic goodness to a whole 'nother level with a masterwork like "Double Negative."
80Suuns
Images Du Futur

2013
Post-Punk

The sophomore effort from the Montreal group, "Images Du Futur" is the very moment everything falls right into place for the band and things start clicking. Confronted with this refined, yet intense sound that could be lazily described as just indie rock, but toys with krautrock and post-industrial as well to differentiate them from the others in the pack. "2020" is quite honestly the sound of the future.
79St. Vincent
Strange Mercy

2011
Art Rock

Even thinking about this album greatly frustrates me, especially with the knowledge of what was to come and what we have now been left with. "Strange Mercy," much like "Actor" before it shows a sign of things to come - something far much more daring than the last; more adventurous, in-your-face, even more enticing. That did not fully come to pass. "Strange Mercy," however, makes such sweet promises, of an artist who was willing to take every risk under the sun and run wild with it. Not to say Ms. Clark didn't do just that, but one would think it would result in her outdoing herself with an album that is both outrageous and down to Earth.
78Leonard Cohen
You Want It Darker

2016
Chamber Folk

Counted amongst a litany of death involving many of his contemporaries, Cohen's bowing-out is both graceful and tragic to listen to. It doesn't make any pretensions and bluntly gives it to you - "You want it darker?" Christ, how much darker can it really get? Well, the man shows you and regales you with his own tales and trials, experience from someone who has witnessed death and is approaching his own blissful embrace with it. You can picture it very well - "String Reprise" coupled with that powerful reprise from "Treaty," the weary croak that accompanies it. Cohen finishes, the ensemble fades - the curtain rises. Our hero takes a bow and walks into the dark. We have now come to terms.
77Fever Ray
Plunge

2017
Electropop

"Plunge" could be described as the wild, disheveled younger sister to The Knife's masterpiece "Shaking the Habitual," but doubly as pissed, confrontational and eager to make a point. While "Plunge" misses where "Habitual" hit its mark, "Plunge" is just as daring and vocal about what defines the artist as a whole. It doesn't strive to be any more formal or clear, but instantly gets to the point with what it wants to do, whether it comes off as too brash or too on-the-nose is up for interpretation but the way it goes about its own merry way ("That's not how to love me!" just gives it away, our artist just screaming in defiance at the taboos forced upon her) is awe-inspiring.
76Father John Misty
I Love You, Honeybear

2015
Indie Folk

For what it's worth, FJM turned out to be yet another one-album wonder for me, never approaching the heights he reached with "Honeybear," which is to attest to its resounding balance of cynical "holy shit i'm so much smarter than you" moments that bleed through any moment of sincerity he puts on record and an ear for taking the songs on here in directions you wouldn't exactly expect them to go, for better or worse. File under: "if you really wanted Elton John to listen to honky-tonk all night and then write an album about getting married."
75Van Dyke Parks
Songs Cycled

2013
Art Pop

Parks's first record since 1995 is one of those comeback records that unsurprisingly went under the radar - while his name is being dropped by everyone under the sun and his own legacy, with or without "Smile" (The Beach Boys) being invoked when discussing it, the man himself has always kept to himself and just kept on writing. A good deal of the material here dates back to the turn of the millennium, with a great deal focusing on true events ("Black Gold" being explicitly about the 2002 Prestige oil spill, "Wall Street" focusing on the consequences 9/11 had on New York, etc.). As with a great deal of VDP's work, his balancing act of blunt lyricism and juxtaposing it with vibrant music adds a subtle layer of darkness to it at times, if not crossing the line into getting too immersed in the drama.
74The Body
I Shall Die Here

2014
Drone Metal

"I Shall Die Here" is perhaps one of the most punishing albums I've had the pleasure of experiencing in my teenage journey, discovering artists, sounds, movements and genres I never even considered to exist before. Its tortured, extremely desolate soundscapes coupled with Chip King's banshee shriek of a vocal is the stuff your personal night terrors are made of.
73Have a Nice Life
The Unnatural World

2014
Post-Punk

"The Unnatural World" is exactly what HANL needed to follow "Deathconsciousness" up with, and it's what fans needed at the time, even if they were disappointed to not get another mammoth lo-fi drone punk masterwork. What we did get instead, however, was HANL in a more concise and direct format and with better songwriting, even if that was never truly their strongest suit.
72Caroline Polachek
Pang

2019
Art Pop

Yet another personal surprise in a decade full of them, "Pang" satisfies that secret need for sugary sweet pop music that I tend to forget I am an absolute fool for, but doubly as unsurprising, Caroline Polachek drops these sudden one-liners that are subject to being stuck in one's head or quoted ad infinitum. How many times have you quoted or seen someone mention "Show me the banana" and get back to me on that.
71Matmos
Ultimate Care II

2016
IDM

It samples a washing machine and turns it into an album-long cycle that bends and curves through these cavernous textures and dense, cold rhythms and does that and even more within the span of a single wash cycle. That really says it all.
70Machismo
Severe Disconnect

2013
Power Electronics

"Severe Disconnect" is one of those tapes that needs to be heard to be believed. It's not a game-changer, but confronts its audience in a way very few even dare attempt. Absolutely recommended for the faint of heart, "Severe Disconnect" is an experience that's sure to have you squirming in discomfort because it doesn't hide anything from you, it bares all for you to see.
69George Clanton
100% Electronica

2015
Chillwave

I wholly credit this inclusion due to someone continually pestering me to listen to it for well over a year before I finally relented (aka bothered to remember/download it) and admittedly, I took a year too long to really get to it and even truly appreciate it. "100% Electronica" is definitely one of those albums that will come to define a genre, and even inspire artists for years to come, if its reach does get that far.
68Xiu Xiu
Angel Guts: Red Classroom

2014
Synth Punk

"Angel Guts" is a fucking ugly album, rife with paranoid ramblings, fraught with inner demons and borne of a desire to purge one's desires completely and return to nothing. But, much like many Xiu Xiu albums before it, the final and most extreme act, the climax, never comes - it merely is stalled until we reach this point once more. You can hear the despair, the loathing and every little bit of disturbed energy Jamie Stewart puts into his music at full blast here and it's hard to really ignore. At the end of the day, I just wanna give the man a hug and buy him a drink.
67David Bowie
The Next Day

2013
Art Rock
[tie]

At this point, I cannot separate either "The Next Day" or "Blackstar" from one another, for me, they represent the final rise and fall of the artist once known as David Bowie. We witnessed a comeback that was a decade in the making, bound to happen, sure, but not in the way he pulled it off. "The Next Day" was a statement we were all anticipating: "I'm back." Bowie was out here writing catchy rock songs and even toying with different sounds when the usual three-minute pop song began to bore him (see: "Heat") and we were all the more happier for it.
66David Bowie
Blackstar

2016
Art Rock
[tie]

But as for "Blackstar," this was an event, the album where Bowie firmly re-established himself as one rock's last great pioneers, in an era where many of his ilk were dead, dying or content to hitting the oldies circuit and playing MSG or The O2 for weeks on end. Once again, Bowie had decided to take notice of what was going on around him, what people were taking note of and championing as the new innovators, a position he once held in his prime. He wasn't shy of it either, taking great care to give credit to those who had inspired him in this final go at rock immortality. Then as soon as you knew it, "Blackstar" came and the man who created it left this mortal coil, leaving many to ponder what could've truly been, but also what was and would be.
65Kinoko Teikoku
Eureka

2013
Shoegaze

The second and final triumph from this shoegaze act traverses through many of the classic tropes that a good deal of the major shoegaze albums contain but have this succinct power pop twist to it, which is a great diversion from the usual song and dance of completely going in the direction of either being totally non-descript or being so loud your ears will bleed. Much like Ride, however, they changed directions completely after this album and never recovered. And now that they've broken up, we're left to wonder what they could've done instead.
64Nails
Unsilent Death

2010
Grindcore

So, imagine getting clocked over and over and over again in a pit and coming back for more. That's what "Unsilent Death" is; no nonsense, no bullshit, just flat out how guitar music is meant to be. You can't blame me for going back for more, nor could I blame you for doing the same.
63Prurient
Frozen Niagara Falls

2015
Noise/Post-Industrial (?????)

"Frozen Niagara Falls" is one of those records, where for me, it's optimal to tune out everything around myself, turn out the lights and absorb everything that is playing on the stereo. This album absolutely demands your attention, the kind of attention where you even stray for a second and you'll miss something so pivotal to the atmosphere being created before you. Admittedly, it's the most accessible thing Prurient has put out, but that doesn't exactly bog down an experience unlike no other.
62Laurel Halo
Dust

2017
Art Pop (???)

Laurel Halo is my artist of the decade and Dust is one of the many reasons why she should be yours as well. The way she contorts a pop song into something so alien and cold, then slaps a Ghost in the Shell sample in there for good measure ("Moontalk") is beyond hilarious, but so magnetic. She goes through many styles and melds them together into a masterpiece that beckons you to engage with it.
61Lightning Bolt
Sonic Citadel

2019
Noise Rock

This duo just doesn't know when to stop, "Sonic Citadel" being perhaps their finest outing since "Wonderful Rainbow." Containing some of the nastiest grooves they've ever put to tape, Lightning Bolt is at both their heaviest and their most diverse, if something like "Don Henley in the Park" or "All Insane" are examples to go by.
60Death Grips
Exmilitary

2011
Hip-Hop

In retrospect, these guys absolutely peaked with their debut mixtape, perhaps featuring the most interesting work they ever did put together in one place. While they did have another solid album in "The Powers That B," "Exmilitary" is certainly the album where our trio here's ideas were fresh and actually interesting. Sure, the qualities that would ultimately overrule any aspect of their music being, well, good, are evident here - but they're minor and irrelevant to a record that contains arguably half a dozen classics (ex. "Spread Eagle Cross the Block," "Thru the Walls," "Beware").
59Flying Lotus
Flamagra

2019
Nu Jazz/Glitch Hop

FlyLo ditched the jazz in favor of that good 'ol funk this time around and it absolutely works wonders for a record that at first glance is a bit overcooked, but those grooves just refuse to stop. The features - Denzel Curry, David Lynch, George Clinton...the legendary Tierra Whack! - are the finest and most intriguing collection of collaborators ever assembled on a FlyLo album. Cast aside any notion of this being a nadir: this is a bonafide masterpiece.
58Sky Ferreira
Night Time, My Time

2013
Pop

Dear Ms. Sky Ferreira, patiently awaiting your new record, the follow-up to the stellar 2013 album "Night Time, My Time," the album that seems to ponder whether or not it wants to be noisy or lush; cute or aggressive; depressive or outrageous...but still has that charm you hardly find anymore in a pop album. It's been a while, but I know it's gonna be good.
Signed, [...]
57Swans
To Be Kind

2014
Post-Rock

If you asked me three years ago, this would've been in my top five and I'd spout endless hyperbole about how Michael Gira finally fucked the sun, came on the moon and ranted ravenously about wolves and dogs and the old mystic down the hall all to the tune of a broken slide guitar. But now? I can't necessarily feel the same way despite this record being a true blue revival of those classic no wave albums that once punished in dingy bars and concert halls but revamped for a new era and with a frontman who has an expanded palette. Sure, yes, that whole first half is just banger after banger after banger, and She Loves Us is most likely one of the finest things ever done under the Swans name, but it does get to be a bit *too* much after a while. It's an album that thrives on taking what it wants by brute force and just that alone.
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1The Knife
Shaking the Habitual

this was the winner tbh thanks
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