Yeah, it's a surprisingly solid release. Bodak Yellow is still a bad song, but I was really happy that the rest of the album sounds almost nothing like it (maybe only Drip does, but it's better)
I really like this EP a lot. It's very good, focused, and a good showcase of what interesting stuff Abel can pull off for people who aren't interested in listening to the almost 3 hours, 30 track a long trilogy, AKA "the casual Weeknd listener" (like myself). This EP made me finally go back and listen to House of Balloons which is surprisingly great, so I think this EP is a success in that sense.
Also Call Out My Name is a fucking great track
The album is an overall meh but Colors is a great track, possibly the best on the album (other than Dreams, which I refuse to accept is part of the album despite being released almost two years prior). I mostly blame the production though - most songs aren't that bad (even if a bit reductive) but the loudness and production choices regarding drum sounds make it a partly grating listen
You should watch Moonrise Kingdom. Besides being possibly the best Wes Anderson film to date, it's the one that usually wins people over (at least the ones I know)
So with Stereogum's comment section being one of my favorite places to discover new music, I thought it'd be fitting to recommend you guys two great albums from two of my favorite Israeli bands working right now that just came out last Friday. Both of these albums are in English & are on Spotify so if any of what I write sounds up your alley I really suggest you check them out!
The first of these bands is Garden City Movement, which have been covered here in the past. They make electronic music that's somewhere between chillwave and post-dubstep, and scattering EPs and singles for a few years finally released their debut album, Apollonia, which is really fucking good. Very chill nu-jazz/electronic stuff, very well produced, I really recommend listening!
The second band is Acollective, which is my personal favorite local band (mostly thanks to their incredible live show). They just released their third album The Coming of Light after a few years of silence, and it's very well-made and well-written indie rock, more to the folky-er side, and their new album is just a really pleasant listen start-to-finish IMO. Hopefully someone here enjoys this album as much as I do :)
Hope everyone listens to a lot of good music this week!
Preoccupations got snubbed, but their album is great and y'all should definitely listen to it.
Looking forward to hearing Messthetics too, the singles were killer
This album is so, so good. Fits somewhere between the first and second self-titled albums sound wise, and I think I like it more than Preoccupations already.
Honestly one of the best bands going on right now
Holy shit. This is one of the greatest albums of all time, and one of my very favorites. I really want to go, but I can't imagine hearing this being played without Matt Tong or Gordon Moakes. A major part of why this is such an unbelievable album is that it had the best rhythm section in 00's indie rock, and I just don't think it could sound the same without it.
I still really want to go, though.
I have! I enjoyed it a whole lot, his band is really great and the live renditions are way jazzier, in a good sense. I think I paid about 50 for a ticket as well but that's just because live shows from abroad here are always ridiculously expansive, so... I still say do it, you'll have fun!
This! I never really got the love for Swing Lo Magellan, I thought it was a big step down after Bitte Orca. It's not a bad album, but I rarely listen to it, whereas Bitte Orca still gets a lot of spins (because, well, it's an 00's indie classic)
I thought the self-titled was incredible, and it was one of my favorite 2017 releases (placed in my top 10!). It's not perfect - some of the lyrics is embarrassing, there's at least one bad faux-rap verse, but overall most of these songs are crazy good compositions, which succeeded in being completely different from previous DP material while still being distinctively DP. Up in Hudson is one of my favorite songs from last year, though I liked the "original" version better (the one on YouTube which has a different intro).
Glad to see in this comment section that I'm not alone in this - in the end of the year discussions I've seen mostly negative comments on the album, but at least here it felt that it was rarely about the music and more about the break-up, which is really not my business so I don't feel like I have to pick sides. If both sides make great music after the separation, I'm all for it
Last month, a local promoter was teasing a "big" show that they just completed booking in a Facebook post, which always means there's some US artist coming our way. In that post they were talking about how that artist was "a huge deal" and is "going to blow everyone's minds", and gave a hint that that artists' biggest hits included numbers and/or dates.
Pretty soon, someone in the Facebook comments of that post suggested that the promoter booked Smashing Pumpkins - it was a few days before the reunion tour was finally announced, and they assumed those big hits were 1979, Zero and Thirty-Three. They made a pretty reasonable case for it being Billy and co.
Based on that comment alone, with no actual idea what was booked, I found myself getting really hyped-up for the imminent SP tour announcement. I was listening to all the classic SP albums after YEARS, realizing how much I loved them a few years ago and how amazing they still sound, etc... basically got very excited about seeing SP before anything was even announced.
A week later, SP announced the tour, which obviously only included a North-American leg. I thought to myself, maybe they're going to reveal a European leg in a few days, so I better wait for the promoter to finally announce whatever show they were putting on. Not an hour later, the promoter finally puts out a new Facebook post regarding the promised show:
They booked Azealia Banks.
Fuck Azealia Banks.
How is this a millennial thing to do? who releases EP's these days? I'm talking about "big" artists, not new & upcoming bands. I think it's more of a 90's thing - SP, Modest Mouse, Mogwai, Pavement - they all kept releasing EP's deep into their career, but it doesn't happen very often nowadays, and when it does it's mostly album outtakes (and not something that was recorded specifically for an EP)
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