#albumtobe

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[albumtober]

Welcome to albumtober! Here's a handy calendar, a full list and explanation of the prompts is below the cut!

The aim for this project is for people to share their appreciation for albums - not just as a vessel for artists to release songs in bulk, but an art form in their own right! A good album is more than just a collection of music, but instead a curation and this is how to show off your favorites!

Prompts:

Your favorite album of all time - Right out the gate, give us your favorite; the album you'd keep in your apocalypse bunker; the album you'd like to be buried with.

The first album you purchased - Whether it was a CD, vinyl, digital, or even a cassette or 8-track, for collectors, a first purchase often means a lot. What was yours?

An album with a lot of memories - Some albums just hit that nostalgia button.

An album you were recommended by someone - Music can be a way to connect with others - what's an album you were recommended? It could have been a friend, relative, even a stranger!

A "life soundtrack" album - Some movies have such a great soundtrack - do you have an album you'd like at the end credits of it all?

A serendipitous album - Serendipity can be summed up as a happy accident. Sometimes you stumble across something by chance and end up better for it. What's yours?

An album you grew up with - I grew up with a lot of music around me, and it influenced what I listen to today. Any favorites from your childhood?

Free Day #1 - One of 4 free days to plop an album that doesn't quite fit into one of the categories :)

An album you associate with Autumn - The last of summer has faded and there's a comfortable cool breeze blowing in. What's that album for you?

An album you associate with Winter - whether it's the desolate cold or a warm blanket beside a fire - what's your winter album?

An album you associate with Spring - The warmth returns - along with rains that lead to flowers blooming. What album gives you that feeling?

An album you associate with Summer - It could be the delightful days at the beach or the uncomfortable slog of humidity and beating sun, summer has a distinct personality - what album shares that?

An album to play quietly - Some albums deserve to be enjoyed personally.

An album to play loud - Some albums, on the other hand, deserve to be shared with everyone, regardless if they want to listen or not.

Free Day #2

An album you like, but think is overrated - Quite a few albums have a hype around them - sometimes it's deserved, but other times, you just don't get it!

An album you wish was shorter - Got an album with unnecessary bloat?

An album that deserves more love - Maybe it's an artist with little recognition, maybe it's out of the sophomore slump from a well-known one, but god more people need to hear this one!

An album to cry to - We all have one.

An album with no skips - A true rarity: this album doesn't have a single track you don't like.

An album you wish was longer - Maybe the vibes were too good, maybe there was a great track or two that was cut. Just five more minutes?

Free Day #3

An album with cover art you love - You would get this tattooed on your body... or at least a poster of it.

An album with a story to tell - It could be a concept album or something autobiographical. You'd listen to this over an audiobook any day.

A "weird" album - This may or may not even be considered music, but what do you care? It's an album and you like it!

An obscure album - Nobody's heard of this but you (and maybe, just maybe, a few friends) and you wish someone else appreciated it!

An album that had to grow on you - Maybe it took a listen or three, but this one took a minute to stick.

An album with a message - If not a story, some albums have a message or moral to share. Got one that fits the bill?

Free Day #4

A live album - A select few artists just nail live performance, and this album makes you feel like you're right there.

An album you tend to recommend to others - Finally, an album that you recommend to others - maybe for those getting into a specific genre or artist or just one you really like. What is it?

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 20: Aja

(Prompt: An album with no skips)

Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

This album is smooth. This is the kind of album you put down on your brand -new turntable and sit around and listen to and feel wicked cool. Steely Dan, at this point, commanded a veritable army of session musicians to play on their impeccably-produced tracks about various sleazy characters. This is the album every audio enthusiast uses to test their hi-fi setups. That's how good the production is. There's an anecdote about Donald Fagen and Walter Becker spending hours in the studio on the two words "well the" from the "Home at Last" chorus.

The songs themselves are classic Dan, abundant with jazz chords and snide lyrics. Most of the tracks have a lot of smooth saxophone and electric piano, but "Peg" and "Josie" are more rock-oriented. All of the songs are just perfect in that distinctively Steely Dan way. These guys could certainly craft an album.

So, no, I won't be skipping any tracks on Aja. I'll just put it on the turntable, get myself some hors d'oeuvres and a beverage of choice, and sit around feeling like the most sophisticated loser in the world.

Favorite tracks: "Aja", "Josie", "Home at Last"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 24: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

(Prompt: An album that tells a story)

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)

Another alchemical album from 1974. This bafflingly esoteric rock opera, the last Genesis album to feature Peter Gabriel, tells the story of a youth from New York who goes on a surreal journey to look for his brother, and ends up finding himself.

I've never read anything confirming this, but I would be willing to bet Peter Gabriel has at least a passing knowledge of Hermeticism, esotericism, or at least Carl Jung's psychological alchemy. A lot of Gabriel's work, both with Genesis and in his solo career, seems to contain esoteric themes.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is undoubtedly his magnum opus, his Great Work. The plot is reminiscent of the alchemical phrase "visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem", which translates to "visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying (purifying) find the hidden stone." The literal Philosopher's Stone is not referenced in the album, but our protagonist, Rael, goes under the ground, undergoes tribulations and transformations, is "purified" in a manner of speaking (more on that later) and in the end finds that his brother has his own face, and "his consciousness darts from one face to the other, then back again, until his presence is no longer solidly contained in one or the other." Then everything dissolves into haze. Perhaps Rael himself represents the Philosopher's Stone.

Transformation seems to be a theme in this album. After the lamb lies down and the cloud of death descends on New York, Rael passes out and wakes up in a cocoon underground. The next time he wakes up the cocoon is gone and he's trapped in a cage of stalagmites and wishes he could turn to liquid in order to escape. The cage ends up dissolving on its own, and eventually Rael finds himself in a crowd of people who want to escape but don't know the way out because there are too many doors. Could this be seen as a metaphor for those who seek truth/enlightenment but don't know where to turn to because there are too many possible paths? I don't know! (The song right before this, "Carpet Crawlers", includes a lyric saying "the liquid has congealed." Just thought I'd note that.) Rael escapes with the help of a blind woman and after a near-death experience encounters a pool with three Lamia who embrace him and nibble at his flesh, then die, and he eats them. The pool could be seen as the alchemical vessel of sorts, in which a union takes place. After this, Rael begins transforming into a "slipperman", a sort of diseased being, and the only cure is castration.

There are a lot of things "whipping off your windscreen wiper" could represent in fiction, but here it could be interpreted as purification in a sense, especially since it follows the Lamia encounter and subsequent slipperman transformation. It occurs towards the end of the album, the final stage in Rael's journey. (His brother John also undergoes the procedure, having made it to the slipperman colony before him.) After chasing down a raven which steals the severed member, Rael ends up at a subterranean river. A skylight shows a glimpse of New York above, and Rael has a chance to escape, but John is drowning, and Rael enters the water to save him. As mentioned earlier, it turns out "John" is also Rael, and the two bodies are one self. They dissolve into a haze which "fills everything with its mysterious intoxicating presence." Again, this is rich with symbolism. Water again is entered. Two bodies become (or turn out to be) one person, although in this case the two are the same, unlike the usual alchemical union where the two would be opposites.

The last song on the album refers to "it". What is it? Well, it seems to be something inexplainable, something which is in everything. Is it soul, spirit, Anima Mundi? Is it rock and roll? "If you think that it's pretentious, you've been taken for a ride." I feel like this album really is like some kind of esoteric treatise, and whatever it is can't just be explained exoterically. I could be reading too much into it, of course, but a lot of the symbolism in the album seems deliberate. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is Genesis's magnum opus in the conventional sense, but the term might very well apply in the alchemical sense as well.

Favorite tracks: "In The Cage", "Carpet Crawlers", "Back In N.Y.C."

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 10: T​ê​tu

(Prompt: An album you associate with Winter)

Le Vent du Nord - T​ê​tu (2015)

Le Vent du Nord are a Québecois folk group that play both traditional and original songs. I'm not quite sure why I associate their music with winter; maybe because they're from Canada, or maybe because their band name means The North Wind. I actually saw these guys live once a few years ago when they toured the Northeast US.

(My French isn't quite good enough to be able to fully understand their lyrics, but I can kind of get the gist of some of it if the lyric sheet is in front of me. I took French for like five years in middle & high school, but I'm probably quite out of practice by now.)

A lot of the songs on this album seem to be about tragic situations. "Pauvre enfant" is about an orphan, and "Noce tragique" and "Chaise ardente" are both about the death of a young lover. (In the latter, the Devil gets involved.) The music, too, is often plaintive. It's not all sad, though: there are also some lively reels and other instrumentals.

Favorite tracks: "Noce tragique", "Loup-garou", "Amant volage"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 4: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery

(Prompt: An album you were recommended by someone)

The Comet is Coming - Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery (2019)

A couple years ago I was at a local basement show and ran into a guy I went to high school with. We started talking about music, and I mentioned that I was into progressive rock with synthesizers. He said, "Have you heard The Comet is Coming? You'd probably like them."

He was right.

I'm not sure entirely how to describe this music. Spiritual jazz? Fusion? Funk? Cosmic music? All of the above? Shabaka Hutchings plays relentless saxophone licks over Dan "Danalogue" Leavers' synthesizers and Max "Betamax" Hallett's drums. The music is at times chill and laid-back and at other times driving and energetic, occasionally almost reminiscent of early Kraftwerk. All of it is instrumental, except for the 4th track, "Blood of the Past", which features powerful spoken word by poet Kae Tempest.

Favorite tracks: "Blood of the Past", "Super Zodiac", "Timewave Zero"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 23: New Skin for the Old Ceremony

(Prompt: An album with cover art you love)

Leonard Cohen - New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974)

Another Leonard Cohen album. I've chosen it for this prompt because not only is it a Leonard Cohen album, the cover art is from the Rosarium Philosophorum, a 16th-century alchemical manuscript. The woodcut illustration depicts the hieros gamos or sacred marriage, representing the union of opposites. (This theme reoccurs often in alchemy and Hermeticism. Sun and moon, matter and spirit, etc. The completion of the Great Work is often represented as the "Rebis", a unified being which is both man and woman. This shows up in a couple of the other woodcuts from the Rosarium.)

On to the album itself. Cohen plays his nylon-string guitar as he did on his previous albums, and a small array of musicians on various instruments fill out the rest of the sound. "Chelsea Hotel #2" tells of a liaison with a certain famous woman in the titular hotel. (Cohen later regretted revealing who the song was about, so I won't say here who it was.) "Is This What You Wanted" and "A Singer Must Die" show Cohen's distinct sense of humor. (There is a certain dry humor to some of his stuff if you know where to look for it.) "Who by Fire", on the other hand, is a solemn song with lyrics that draw from Jewish liturgy about the fates inscribed on Rosh Hashanah and sealed on Yom Kippur. [I'm not Jewish so if I got anything wrong about this, please correct me.]

I'm not 100% sure how the alchemical illustration ties in to the album, but Leonard Cohen was an intelligent man so I'm sure he didn't choose it for no reason. Perhaps it represents the "old ceremony" referred to in the album's title, since that act is the oldest ceremony of all.

Favorite tracks: "Who by Fire", "Take This Longing", "Lover Lover Lover"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 11: Changeability of Strange Dream

(Prompt: An album you associate with Spring)

上海アリス幻樂団 - 夢違科学世紀 ～ Changeability of Strange Dream (2004)

I was going to go with Close to the Edge for today's prompt, but I've already used it, so instead I'm going with one of the music CDs from the Touhou Project. If you don't know what Touhou is, it's a video game series that takes place in a closed-off fantasy world in Japan. The music CDs, although entirely instrumental, tell the story (in the liner notes) of two college students in the outside world who investigate paranormal and otherworldy phenomena. Changeability of Strange Dream is the third entry in the series.

A lot of the Touhou games and CDs have a strong seasonal vibe, with the stories, graphics, and even the music all contributing to the association. This album has less strong of an association, but some of the tracks (particularly the more hopeful-sounding ones) do make me picture Spring. "Evening Star" and "Doll Judgement" are a bit more intimidating-sounding, but they're the themes of characters who initially appeared in the game Perfect Cherry Blossom, so maybe I'm associating the characters with the season.

Touhou is a series that I've been a fan of for quite a while, so it's only natural that it would be represented this Albumtober.

Favorite tracks: "上海紅茶館 ～ Chinese Tea", "夜が降りてくる ～ Evening Star", "ヴォヤージュ1969"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 5: The Getty Address

(Prompt: A serendipitous album)

Dirty Projectors - The Getty Address (2005)

When I saw this CD in a local record store, I couldn't even read what it said. The writing on the cover looked like another language's alphabet. What country was this album from? It wasn't expensive, so I decided to buy it and find out.

As it turned out, the alphabet was stylized English, and not only was the album from America, the album was about America. The Dirty Projectors' fourth studio album tells a bizarre story about a young man named Don Henley who goes on a spiritual quest through the (modern, developed) wilderness to find the shape of love, and ends up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he falls in love with a tour guide named Sacagawea. The lyrics don't do much to explain the story: visions of black gold and eagles and Andy Warhol's wig mingle with incomprehensible choirs and chopped-up chamber instruments. The liner notes are essential if one wants to understand the narrative. It seems to be a commentary on capitalism, Manifest Destiny, and extraction of natural resources, but it's also a story about a journey to find love.

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 31: Hellfire

(Prompt: An album you tend to recommend to others)

Black Midi - Hellfire (2022)

A lot of people think rock music (or "guitar music") is dead, with the only exceptions (other than metal) being basic, uncreative, derivative acts like… i shan't say, but you know what kind of stuff I'm talking about. A lot of the people who say this have clearly never heard Black Midi.

Starting out as a noisy, mathy, post-punk-esque band, they quickly matured into a prog-rock dynamo following in the footsteps of King Crimson. Their third album, Hellfire, released in the summer of 2022, is exemplary, with startling dissonant riffs, calmer jazzy sections, moments of gentle acoustic guitar, and even elements of musical theatre. Guitarist and frontman Geordie Greep described Hellfire as an action film, and the album certainly is cinematic at times. It's loosely a concept album of sorts, with songs mentioning wrestling, war, murder, and Satan himself. A character named "Private Tristan Bongo" reoccurs in a couple of songs. It's certainly a lot less straightforward than classic rock operas like Tommy or The Wall, but Black Midi seem to like challenging their listeners. You'll probably never hear them on your local rock radio station, unless it's run by, like, art students or something. But if you're the kind of person who only listens to what's on the radio, you're missing out.

Favorite tracks: "Welcome To Hell", "The Race Is About To Begin", "Dangerous Liaisons"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 19: Fragments of a Rainy Season

(Prompt: An album to cry to)

John Cale - Fragments of a Rainy Season (1992)

When I first read the prompt list, I thought for sure I was going to end up choosing another Leonard Cohen album for this entry. Instead, I decided to go with an album from his Welsh counterpart.

John Cale is known to many as the mysterious multi-instrumentalist who played viola, bass guitar, piano and organ on the Velvet Underground's first two albums, but he also has an excellent solo career, with songs ranging from sophisticated compostitions to "dirty ass rock'n'roll", and from beautiful and poetic to dissonant and tormented. This live album, mostly Cale himself at a piano, features selections from across his career. He plays two covers: a dark and menacing rendition of Elvis's "Heartbreak Hotel", and (at the very end of the album) an iconic performance of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". I'm generally of the opinion that most Cohen covers aren't on par with the originals, but John Cale's cover is a notable exception.

Fragments also features three Dylan Thomas poems set to music: "On a wedding anniversary", "Lie still, sleep becalmed", and "Do not go gentle into that good night." The latter is one of Thomas's most famous poems, and Cale's musical interpretation is unexpectedly jaunty. It actually works. The rest of the songs are Cale's own, and the lone piano puts the focus on his brilliant songwriting. John Cale has somewhat of a reputation as a dark and depressing songwriter, but there is also quite a lot of beauty amidst the bleakness.

Favorite tracks: "Paris 1919", "Fear (Is a Man's Best Friend)", "Hallelujah"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 21: Fishbone

(Prompt: An album you wish was longer)

Fishbone - Fishbone (1985)

The energetic debut from the Los Angeles ska-punk band, this album is only 26 minutes long. Of course, that's to be expected, since it's only an EP after all. But I still wish it was longer! I'll have to listen to some of their full-length albums.

(Kind of want to make a YouTube video that shows pictures of Pr*nce Ch*rles and the other royals while "Ugly" plays in the background but I don't want to get copyright striked or something.)

This review is as short as this EP!

Favorite tracks: "Ugly", "Party At Ground Zero", "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F."

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 18: Beat

(Prompt: An album that deserves more love)

King Crimson - Beat (1982)

Beat is occasionally regarded among King Crimson's weaker albums, probably due to the rather 80s sound and Adrian Belew's bizarre lyrics, but even a weak King Crimson album is still a great album. Less aggressive tracks like "Heartbeat", "Waiting Man", and "Two Hands" might sound reminiscent of 80s pop (but the good kind, like Peter Gabriel), but the rest of the album is as characteristically Crimson as anything else they put out. The instrumental "Sartori in Tangier" features Robert Fripp shredding eerily over Tony Levin's driving bassline, "Neurotica" is noisy and chaotic with Belew's motor-mouthed vocals and screeching guitar sound effects, and "The Howler" is a dissonant homage to Allen Ginsberg.

Beat continues Discipline's style and merges it with sophisti-pop and world music influences, creating an album which, although perhaps not as classic as its predecessor, is still not bad at all. (In a way, this parallels King Crimson's second album, In the Wake of Poseidon, which comes off as a slightly less classic version of In the Court of the Crimson King.) Beat shows that King Crimson is good no matter what form it takes.

Favorite tracks: "Sartori in Tangier", "The Howler", "Neurotica", "Waiting Man"

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 13: LUX

(Prompt: An album to play quietly)

Brian Eno - LUX (2012)

When I read today's prompt, at first I thought "There's no such thing. Any album that I'm actively listening to, I wouldn't want it to be quiet. Maybe not loud, necessarily, but certainly not quiet." Then I remembered Eno and his philosophy of ambient music. I've visited this category before, for the "soundtrack" prompt, but had to revisit it today since ambient is the only genre of music I could think of that sounds just as good when played quietly.

LUX was released in 2012 and consists of four long ambient pieces. Serene and sophisticated slow piano notes reverberate endlessly over faint swelling strings. It's fitting that the recording was first installed in the marble columned Grand Gallery of an Italian palace. (The second place was a Japanese airport terminal.) Like much of Eno's ambient work, LUX is calm and unobtrusive, and would be a fine soundtrack for reading, writing, contemplating, meditating, etc. The first time I listened to the album, I had it playing in the background of a Minecraft game, and it suited the serenity and loneliness of the landscape just as well as the game's own ambient soundtrack usually would have. I won't be listing favorite tracks today, as the four long soundscapes sort of blend in to one another. And really, isn't that the goal?

[albumtober]

Day 10: An album you associate with witer

Florence + the Machine - [Lungs]

This album is the soft, quiet winter nights with light snowfall and warm cheeks. It's melancholy, airy, welcoming. There's a cold to Lungs, but it's a welcome chill that reminds you that you're alive. Definitely something I love to put on while cooking.

[heavenlymusickcorporation]

Albumtober Day 7: Alison Krauss + Union Station Live

(Prompt: An album from your childhood)

Alison Krauss + Union Station Live (2002)

When I was a kid, my mother would play a lot of CDs on road trips to prevent me from getting too bored. One that got a lot of play was this phenomenal 2-disc live album, featuring bluegrass standards, love songs, and even a few originals. Alison's voice is angelic and her fiddle playing is excellent, and the rest of the band (Jerry Douglas on dobro, Dan Tyminski on guitar and mandolin, and Ron Block on the banjo) are equally impressive. Anyone who's seen O Brother, Where Art Thou will likely recognize the band's renditions of "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Down to the River to Pray", and both are performed here. I knew those songs, as well as the others on this album, long before I saw the movie.

Favorite tracks: "The Lucky One", "Down to the River to Pray", "The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn".