Nothing I really expect to wow me, but definitely a few I'll be checking out. I'm a little more excited for this Killers album than I would have expected to be a year ago, I'm definitely curious about the Secret Machines album, and the GbV fan in me will ensure that I listen to Mirrored Aztec, even though to my disappointment, nothing post classic-lineup-reunion has REALLY stuck with me. Oh and I feel like I've got to at least give the Siamese Dream cover album a spin.
Hopefully at least one of the above lands.
The Greendale tour was a wild thing to see. He had actors and stage props on stage for the entirety of the full-album performances he started the shows with.
Thurston Moore likes the Dead too, ya know.
He also is apples and oranges different in how he plays from Anastasio, but he's definitely not better. At best they're equally good at what they do. But I've seen SY 4 times, Thurston Moore Band once, and Phish 5 times and Phish shows on average beat SY shows six ways to Sunday. SY have the better studio catalog natch.
Awesome surprise for this morning! Legacy! Legacy! was my AotY for 2019 and she's great live, too (whether on the main stage at a festival or a small club)! This is a more minimal, mellow exploration of the L!L! muse, but it's another beaut.
It's bloated for sure; there's not much after "Death or Glory" that needs to be there (except, ironically for "Train in Vain". "Four Horsemen" is good, too).
But everything up through "Death or Glory" is awesome.
On the matter of the rock scene at the time - we all know there was incredible music being released between 1997 and Is This It, but sometimes I think back and still am amazed at how many truly terrible bands existed and flourished in that period. I think about how many stretches in popular music history (starting with the birth of rock & roll, let's say) could compete in terms of the pervasiveness of truly repugnant bands. Maybe the peak of hair metal, but any other times?
I still like this whenever I put it on every couple of years, even some songs that I've seen people talk about as obvious weak points. Definitely lost all interest in them through their next couple albums, though.
My favorite AF album. I liked The Funeral, but I didn't have that deep "generational classic" connection with it that a lot of people did. And then I didn't really like Neon Bible.
So it took me a bit to check out The Suburbs, and I was amazed at how much I liked it. I haven't liked any of their albums since, so it's got a pretty easy path to #1. I think it's bloated like a lot of commenters in here, but not badly so - looking at the tracklist, "Rococo" is the only one that jumps out as a must-skip, but I also don't really remember what a few others sound like - "Wasted Hours", "Deep Blue", even
"Sprawl I".
But "The Sprawl II" (serious AotD contender), "Empty Room", "We Used to Wait", "City With No Children", even "Modern Man" - these are monster songs.
Probably for me, thought AF, maybe by their nature, have the bigger stand-out highlights for me. BSS definitely has more consistent albums, though (both from album to album and song to song on each album).
You Forgot It In People > The Funeral, at least.
I guess I'm misremembering, because I don't really remember Reflektor getting any kind of universal praise. Maybe it was because how little I connected with anything other than the title track, so I'm transposing my shrug onto my memory of the general reaction.
I remember the reviews being solid and it getting some Grammy nods, but the overall reaction seemed a bit muted.
(not saying I've never ever enjoyed one of his podcasts, but it was only ever times when the guest was someone capable of carrying 2+ hours essentially on their own)
That's really what it is, too. A libertarian potato head burnout whose show became such a draw for believers of shunned beliefs, fringe villains, and conspiracy theories that he's practically a king maker, whether that was his initial goal or not. He had Oliver Stone on a week or two ago and next thing I knew Untold History of the US was trending on Netflix.
It's weird because he has such reach that he gets plenty of people I like on there, too (from Jon Stewart to Sturgill Simpson to Bernie Sanders to Cornell West...not as strong on women, I notice), but it's the whack jobs who the show actually matters for because it's the biggest platform they get a lot of the time and exposes all kinds of gullible, no-empathy dumbasses to their demands that we return to the gold standard and whatever horrible claptrap Candace Owens or Milo Yiannapolis have to spout on a given day.
That's some independent thinking, man.
"Don't Say Nuthin" is a definite highlight. "Stay Cool", too. That was the album cycle I got into them on and started seeing them on, so lots of love there. But I do feel like it's "minor Roots" in some ways.
It being The Roots, minor is still very welcome.
Game Theory usually edges out Things Fall Apart as my favorite Roots albums (and so like my #3 rap album and a high ranker overall).
And Malik's verse on "Here I Come" is possibly what pushes Game Theory over the top (even though he drops fire on TFA, too, especially "Adrenaline") in such a close match of two such different albums (TFA is expansive and panoramic, where GT is focused and gritty).
Rising Down is a little less consistent for me, but it's still a great album with highlights ("Rising Down" with that monster Yasiin Bey verse, "I Will Not Apologize", "Criminal", "I Can't Help It") that are as good as anything they ever did.
Interesting what a common thing stripped-down companion albums seem to be becoming. St Vincent had one for Masseduction, Jim James had Uniform Clarity after Uniform Distortion, now this...even posthumous Prince.
I'm not sure it's something that excites me as a whole, but a) it fits with the singer-songwriter trend that's been going on for a couple years now b) this song sounds great.
I still love All Mirrors, though.
It feels weird to put Fontaines as some exception to rock bands getting big when I don't think anyone I know except maybe my one biggest music geek friend has any clue who they are. But I guess it isn't super common for a rock band to even get a Mercury Prize nod these days, so that's something?
Well I'm glad you mentioned the new Black Thought, which I had forgotten about. All the nonsense up there and that didn't make the list?
(not all nonsense, I'm looking forward to the other Philly release, too - Long Lost Solace Find's advance tracks have been quality and I'm looking forward to the album)
I agree with everything you said logically. But I have to say, the greedy part of me is glad I got to see those songs performed on his American Utopia tour and that they kicked ass.
Funny, I had read an article about the new book on The Guardian this morning and thought the Lou Reed story sounded hilarious. Well thanks for making it so easy to confirm, though it's both funnier and darker in full form (but hey, it's not like he died the next day or something)!
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