#but on relistens it’s actually so catchy and fun and the tone shift to get in the water is crazzzyyyy

[themoonstarwarrior]

PLAYLIST SHUFFLE TAG!

Okay, so @viterbofangirl tagged me in this and I need to start learning to post my own shit, so what the hell, why not?

Rules: you can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to! put your favorite playlist on shuffle and list the first 10 15 songs, then tag 10 people. no skipping!

(I couldn’t stop at 10 so I added 5 more, sue me)

I have very random music taste and I listen to my music on shuffle alot, so I made a playlist of the ones I like the most (that way I don’t hafta skip 150 songs to get to the one I feel like) so I’m gonna use that one.

1) History of Violence - Theory of a Deadman

Hoo boy starting off light huh?.... Yeah so, I was in the drive thru at Sonic when I first heard this on the radio and was immediately like “holy shit”. Instead of like metaphors and poetic subtlety, it’s just straight up like “here’s a poor abused woman who resorted to murdering her shitty boyfriend/husband cuz she couldn’t take it dum dum dum”. Even though the actual situation is not the same, this song is perfect for getting across the internal issues and turmoil of my character Mikey. Its so perfect I’m even planning to animate something for it...... if I ever get around to learning animation that is.....     

2) The Vengeful One - Disturbed

Two songs in and I look kinda emo.... But hey this song is soooooo cathartic! I love me a good heavy rock song, and the drums and electric guitar are perfect for my ears to absorb. This song gives off a feeling of overwhelming power mixed with a coldness and disdain for the bad in the world. Obviously, thats not my usual temperment, but its an interesting one to explore! Especially when I’m trying to get into the head of characters that exude that like my OCs Spark or Ryu. Plus its fun to sing in the car X)

3) Enter Sandman - Metallica

Okay this one is just a classic! Same thing with the drums and guitar they both slap SOOOOO GOOD. I don’t really associate this song with any of my characters or fandom favorites, but it DOES give me a super strong urge to learn the drums. EXXXXXXXXIT LIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! OFF TO NEVER NEVERLAND!!

4) We Are Giants - Lindsey Stirling ft. Dia Frampton

I don’t really to listen to music by band or artist, but I LOVE Lindsey Stirling!!! She’s probably my favorite musician! This is such a good song, especially for someone like me. Its a positive song that talks about feeling alone in a crowd and unimportant to the world, but how you really do matter and shouldn’t be afraid to dream big and shoot for the stars. It really speaks to me and the vocalization is so good (especially for singing), not to mention the official music video is animated and AMAZING!

5) Cetus - Lensko NCS

I dunno if anyone knows this song, but damn its good. Its one of those Royalty-Free songs that people look up for their channels, which is how I found it in the first place, but I loved it immediately. Its a peppy 8-bit electronic bop that turns a little Irish jig at the end and honestly I think if I ever start an animation channel I’m totally gonna use it! (Also go support Lensko he make good beats!)

6) Sanctuary - Utada Hikaru

I did not grow up with Kingdom Hearts, and only played KH2 within the past year n’ a half. But good God, the moment that Cinematic Opening came on and this song started playing I swear I astral projected into a daze of feelings without names. I know that “Simple and Clean” is the quintessential Kingdom Heart song that gives everyone feelings, but IMHO Sanctuary blows it out of the water. As beautiful as the animation was, or how curious the occasional backwards lyrics are, or how weird it is having high-res Goofy and Donald in what is essentially an anime opening, I really can’t be distracted from this song when I play.

7) Chemical Plant Zone (Rock Remix) - Zerobadniks

Chemical Plant Song is like, one of the TOP Sonic songs by popular vote (and we know how awesome the Sonic series is musically so thats saying something!), but I could never quite vibe with the normal 8-bit version. I think I first heard this as someone’s ringtone and was immediately like “THATS PERFECT THATS EXACTLY HOW I NEED IT!”. The rock makes the song soooo much better and honestly gives the song the perfect vibe. Unfortunately, it took FOREVER to find cuz none of the Rock Covers of this song were the right one. In fact, tbh, I’m not even sure whether Zerobadniks is the correct artist..... that’s just who everybody was crediting when I found it. 

(imma include the link i found since its a little hard to find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqJiZEM6aPI )

8) The Wolf - SIAMES

YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS???? THIS IS A GOD-TIER ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO. I found the video first, and seriously, if you haven’t seen it YOU NEED TO!!! The beat works perfectly with the images on screen and the story being portrayed is really intriguing, with the lyrics adding to atmosphere without necessarily describing the visuals shown. Even without the animation, the song itself is a banger. It bring to mind the feeling of intense motion forward, but unable to decide whether its movement TOWARD something or AWAY from something. I love listening to this on a nighttime drive.

9) Burn the House Down - AJR

If you ask me, the best way to make a pop song better is to add either violins or trumpets. For this song, it was definitely the trumpets that first caught my attention, and the rest of the song kept me listening. I don’t really know how to describe the vibe of this song, and I don’t have a specific character or story in mind when I listen to it, so its a little hard for me to talk about it. I think the best way I can describe this song and what draws me to it is a feeling of nonchalant go-with-the-flow attitude to shenaniganry. Almost an undertone of “We’re hooligans in a situation that we probably should get out of, but hey we’ve got life and each other so why worry?” At least that’s the closest I can get to a verbal description heh...

10) Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell - The Offspring 

DANCE, FUCKER, DANCE, LET THE MOTHERFUCKER BURN!!!

So this also has a KICKASS animated music video, but its technically combined with the song “Dividing by Zero”. Now the video works SO well with both, and the shifting artstyles reflect the differing tones of the songs PERFECTLY. However, I have a preference for both the animation and the song on the Slim Pickens half. Its fun to listen to and sing at the top of your lungs and its SO CATHARTIC. Again I cant really describe what my head does when I hear it, but I think you can probably feel a similar vibe if you watch the music video. 

11) No Heaven - DJ Champion

The first time I finished the original Borderlands, I had been playing for days on end, had just finished a long battle with the Destroyer, and sitting back relieved to have beaten it and reflecting on how much I had enjoyed the adventure. Then this song started playing. For what I believe was forty minutes this song looped on my TV while the credits rolled. By the time the credits finished I was pulling up the song to listen to again! What an absolutely PERFECT cherry to add to this experience. This song perfectly encapsulated the chaotic, trigger-happy, morally ambiguous craziness that I had enjoyed and absorbed in this game. Every time I hear it now, I imagine myself in the wastelands of Pandora, driving haphazardly across the sandy dunes as my companions and I shoot and blow up everything in sight. You know, living the dream.......     

12) Hit & Run (Wolfgang Lohr Remix) -  The Electric Swing Circus

I fucking LOVE electro-swing! The electronic beats and rhythm blend so well with the wild and energetic freedom of swing. A lot of electro-swing gives me a vibe of wild movement, reckless abandon, and freedom from constraint. I think this song melds all of these feelings the best! As the last song might have indicated, despite my general nice and sweet temperament, there is a part of me deep down that is an absolute gremlin secretly enamored with chaos, insanity, and a general disdain for law and authority X). But whereas anything Borderlands related has a more “morality is an illusion blowing shit up is real” air about it, this song is far more peppy. More of a “good-hearted but insane” type of chaos, like an 100mph car chase where you end up sailing over the train tracks JUST as the train passes.

.... I may have gotten a bit off track lol 

13) Kickstart my Heart - Motley Crue

I love this song, but I have to be VERY careful when and where I listen to this. I love songs that make me feel like I’m going a million miles per hour, like I’m gotdam Sonic the Hedgehog. Unfortunately, I may or may not have had multiple instances of listening to this song in the car and abruptly realizing that I’m going like 15mph above the speed limit...... So yeah, regardless of absolutely perfect it feels to play this song while speeding down a nearly empty highway, please be careful and drive responsibly!!!

14) I’m Born to Run - American Authors

Imma just up and say it. This song is a Sonic song; like not like actually from the series but a song for the character. This song encapsulates Sonic as a character better than some of his ACTUAL THEMES (and remember Sonic music are bangers!). Its a song about freedom, living life as it comes, and not letting anything slow you down. Frankly I’m surprised they didn’t make this song FOR the Sonic series, or even the movie! Speaking of which, ironically I heard this song right after watching the Sonic movie in theaters, so yeah there’s no way I can associate it with anything else. 

15) Opa Opa - Antique

Oh, what a PERFECT way to end this list! This may be one of my absolute favorite songs of all time! I don’t remember exactly how I found this song... I think I had just relistened to Dalar Mehndi’s “Tunak Tunak Tun” and was looking for other catchy non-english songs and BOY HOWDY I found one! I know nothing about the band or what the song’s about (its in greek and i dont speak it), but this song is just a masterpiece of retro, pop, and dance sounds. This song feels like the musical and lyrical manifestation of dance and movement. I really REALLY wish I could dance JUST so I can express how happy and free this song makes me feel! This is the BEST song for me to end this list with!

***********************************************************************************

JESUS, this got long..... Sorry about that XD. It was fun though, and hopefully somebody was vaguely interested in my ramblings.

Guess I need to tag people now? How about @tharkflark1, @rockmilkshake, @neonbuck, @drawingsdrawingseverywhere, @birthgiverofbirds, @puccafangirl, @kalcat, @biblestudybussybopsbabey, @monstrous-milktea, and @memecage! I think there are a couple of people here I haven’t talked to though soooooo..... hi, I hope you don’t mind the tag X)

 Anyway hope you enjoyed and/or want to do this too! This took for-fucking-EVER to type, so imma go fuck off and watch youtube or something now...

[jezfletcher]

1000 Albums, 2020: Albums #30-21

This is the first of six posts wrapping up my and Sam’s 2020 Music Project. Once again, as we have for five years now, we’ve hit 1000 albums from the year. In fact, this year, we listened to 1074 albums released in the year (December 2019-November 2020, inclusive), plus 102 throwback albums (not from 2020), and 1698 entities in total, which also includes tracks released as stand-alone singles, EPs and the like.

While we listen to the same set of music, Sam and I have quite divergent tastes, and his choices will be quite different from mine. But I’m hoping for a couple of high-profile crossovers. There are certainly a few albums this year that we both very much enjoyed.

As a programming note, I’m ordering my posts slightly differently this year, in order to keep Sam’s anticipation of my posts as high as possible (after all, he’s the one who most cares about this). Rather than giving the long list of “almost ran” albums right at the start, thereby eliminating all the real contenders, I’m going to count down my Top 30 albums ten at a time, after which I’ll reveal the longer list of outlier albums #31-100. That way, he’ll be thinking “ooh, will Butch Walker be in his top 10??” right up until the last post. Except I’m bound to disappoint him, because Butch Walker comes in at #54.

After I’ve finished the albums, I’ll list my top tracks in two posts: the first will be the outliers, the second will be actual writeups of my genuine favourite tracks of the year. Usually I provide my top tracks without much commentary, but this year I’ve got a collection of ~30 tracks or so that I do want to say something about individually.

Before we get there, though, let’s look through the first set of my top albums of the year.

#30. Saint Saviour - Tomorrow Again (chamber folk)

A great collection of music, with an ethereal folk quality running through it. But they elevate it with chamber instrumentation, in particular some very fine string arrangements. These work perfectly with soft vocal harmonies, and some oddly catchy riffs. It is, in some ways, quite sullen, but the otherworldly quality stops it from ever being less than fascinating.

My favourite track here is a real stand out: Taurus. It fits beautifully with the rest of the album, while also being the exemplar of what makes the album good. The haunting piano riff, which is eventually doubled with intersecting vocal lines is just a beautiful piece of music.

Recommended track: Taurus.

#29. Post Animal - Forward Motion Godyssey (psychedelic rock)

This was an album that took out an Album of the Week award in February, but it was one that I didn’t necessarily think a lot of for the rest of the year. When I came to relisten to it, I was reminded again that this stood out. This isn’t your regular psych-infused indie rock. It has a hardness to it which helps, but more that that, these folks play with harmonic and melodic shifts that don’t necessarily make sense. It almost feels like a new tonality at times—just enough to catch you off guard and make you constantly re-evaluate where you’re balancing in listening to a track.

My favourite track off the album is the self-titled Post Animal, but to be honest, there’s a great deal on the album of similar quality—it’s the combined weight of all of the great stuff that propels this into my Top 30 albums of the year.

Recommended Track: Post Animal

#28. The Jerry Cans - Echoes (Inuit neo-folk)

An album I liked well-enough on the week we listened to it (it took out the third place spot to two albums which are now below it in the list), it took until relistening for me to get it into my head that it was genuinely the best and most interesting album of the week. Combining mildly folk-infused pop rock with Inuit-language lyrics and judicious use of throat-singing, this is the kind of album which you’re forced to consider on its own terms.

Mostly, though, it succeeds by being catchy, well-written rock. The folk parts are just icing on the cake, and provide it with a differentiating point that really help elevate it when you’re comparing it to other top albums of the year. There are a number of good tracks here, but I’ve picked Atauttikkut, one of the ones completely in Inuit and with the best incorporation of the rhythmic throat singing at an appropriate point.

Recommended Track: Atauttikkut

#27. Aloud - Sprezzaturra (blues rock)

This is a surprising entry for me, and it’s likely to surprise Sam as well, as this is another that didn’t stand out that much in the week I heard it. But on the numbers, it was definitely an album that warranted a relisten. And once I’d taken the whole album, rather than just the isolated track I added to my “revision playlist”, I saw what a rich collection of music it was. It’s not specifically limited to blues—it takes in a lot of jazz and soul influences, in the way of an artist like Lake Street Dive (#3 album of 2016 for me). And there’s variety across the album, which makes the whole album a much richer experience than listening to just your favourite track or two. I mean, isn’t that the great point of an album in any case?

Picking out a single track, as a result is difficult, and the one I singled out the first time doesn’t even feel necessary like the best candidate. Instead, I’ll go with Hungry Land, which almost takes a bit of jazz-era Chicago or E-Street Band kind of crunch to it.

Recommended Track: Hungry Land

#26. The Phenomenal Handclap Band - PHB (psychedelic soul)

Again a band which can really pump out those jazz influences, these guys also play with nu disco, experimental pop and dreampop to give a surprisingly diverse album. It’s an album that’s often based around those driving jazz riffs though, even when you get a good danceable track like my top track Riot.

Quite surprisingly, despite this being one of my top albums of the year, I don’t think it’s among their personal best work, meaning that there’s ample room for the 2022-ish PHB album to really blow me out of the water. They’re capable of it.

Recommended Track: Riot

#25. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Reunions (alt country)

This is one of the rare albums where my list will agree with the bulk of the “best albums of the year” lists. It doesn’t happen often—I like to think it’s because I listen to a shit-ton more music than the average music journalist, but this is probably kidding myself. Anyway, despite not agreeing very often, this is a match, and it’s a fine album. Isbell has a strong sense of honest songwriting, and can put together something that’s heartwrenching in both tone and lyrical content. Tracks like It Gets Easier are hard-hitting numbers, while others provide much needed levity.

My personal favourite track on this album is Be Afraid, which has a great hook in the chorus, which feels neatly rhythmically contorted.

Recommended Track: Be Afraid

#24. Badly Drawn Boy - Banana Skin Shoes (indie pop rock)

Part of our music project this year was listening to all of the albums which won the Mercury Prize for album of the year, from Primal Scream’s Screamadelica right through to this year’s winner Kiwanuka from Michael Kiwanuka (which we actually heard as part of last year’s music project). Amusingly, Badly Drawn Boy’s album The Hour of Bewilderbeest, which won the 2000 Mercury Prize came up not long before we discovered a new album from the group, 20 years later. And this is a very fine album. It has that quality I love in established artists’ later work, which is that they feel a sense of freedom of what they’re creating. Here, they’re much less serious and affected than in Bewilderbeest, allowing a fuller sense of humour and fun to their lyrics, and providing more of an upbeat drive.

There’s no less complexity to the songwriting though, and there’s some biting satire to the content. But it’s put into a remarkably delicious container. Often you don’t realise some of these poppy numbers are ascerbic as they are. A couple of really good tracks on here, but I think my pick is Is This a Dream?.

Recommended Track: Is This a Dream?

#23. MOBS - Cinema Paradiso (80s pastiche pop)

There’s always a place for pure pop in my album lists, and MOBS not only provide us with pure pop, they throw it through the magic 80s synthpop filter. It comes out blasting the other end with cheesy neon energy and a oiled-up saxophonist wearing leather pants. It’s high-energy stuff, pulsating with a kind of groove and energy that is too often eschewed in modern popular music.

There are two tracks I particularly love here, Big World and School’s Out, both of which take funk and disco rhythms and throw all the pastiche of the 80s on top. All with a rich, bassy production quality that sounds a lot more modern. I will say that I thought early on that this might be higher in the list than this, but on relistening it felt a little more like a “solid” album with a couple of really great fun tracks on it.

Recommended track: School’s Out

#22. Jason Wilson - Sumach Roots (eclectic folk)

This is an album that over the year since its January release has become something of a meme between Sam and me. Because it was an album we both really liked overall, and yet for both of us, it was difficult to point to any individual songs that seemed to really illustrate why the album was good. Hence the term “a Jason Wilson” entered the parlance, meaning an album that we liked despite the seeming lack of individual standout tracks.

Partially, the reason this is good is its eclecticism. It kind of runs through various modes of melodic folk, perhaps with reggae influences being something of a touchpoint across the album. Wilson assembles a good ensemble of musicians to match his flow, and there’s a consistent feeling of coherence as a result. While it’s hard to pick out an individual track, I personally like the double/half time reggae of Happy Little Sisyphus, which has its own relentless quality as though it’s constantly driving its own rock up a hill. But again, this feels like an album that you can’t gauge just by listening to a single track in isolation.

Recommended track: Happy Little Sisyphus

#21. DMA’S - The Glow (Australio indie rock)

A really good collection of music from the Australian group here. I would have said I “surprisingly liked” their 2018 album For Now, but this is an album I absolutely embraced. It’s also an album I’d somewhat forgotten about until I did relistening at the end of the year. It won my Album of the Week back in July when it was released, but it largely didn’t feature in my thought process for the end of the year until I realised what a concentration of great tracks it has. Criminals, Round & Around, and title track The Glow are great pieces of enjoyable pop rock, infused with just enough aggression and drive to give them an edge.

My personal favourite track though is Never Before, which swoops upwards with an almost ethereal, psych-channeling vocal line, still while bringing the crunchy guitars and driving beat underneath to move it forward. But there’s a lot that’s good on this album, and while this might not canonically fit the definition of “a Jason Wilson”, it’s also an album which feels like it becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Recommended Track: Never Before