Adult Mom - Soft Spots (2017 Full Album Leak Download)

I don’t know anything about this band. They got me on their name alone, so let’s see what they’re up to.

https://adultmom.bandcamp.com/album/soft-spots-3

Ephemeralness

Awesome song name. Nothing special in the first bars. Should I judge immediately? I am partial to sparse female-vocal folk and this looks to be going that way. There’s a bit of an edge to this like they might break into Vivan Girls hard rock any minute.

They didn’t.

Full Screen

Well, kind of. This is definitely a “girl power rock it with confrontational lyrics” gig where the first song was just easing me into it. This song is a heck of a lot catchier for sure. Guitar solo warning at 1:04. It only lasted 20 seconds, which is still about 10% of the total song. I need to start assigning solo/song ratios to determine safe listening levels for the solo-averse like me. I can’t understand some of the lyrics but if I could I think maybe they’re funny. There are some annoying laughs or arguments playing under the last part and it’s a mess.

J Station

I’m thinking the first song was a fake-out. Here’s some hard snare hits and distorted chords (although the distortion is pretty light). I wish their voices were a little more melodic – they’re kind of flat and without a lot of character. ||

I think the song restarted when I came back to it. Yep. I’ll ride it out. I still want their voices to be more singsong. It would add just enough to make this stand out from a thousand other bands but so far nothing is doing that. Not bad, but not remarkable. Second time through didn’t do anything more for me.

Patience

The song name is telling me to give it some time. This song opens with “candid” talking. It’s the second time this album has done this trick and I don’t like it. Better than the answering machine message gimmick, but not by much. I’d like to think that this song is called “Patience” because it’s twice as long as all the others and they didn’t think people could stick out four minutes. This is a “real love” song and it could be better than it is. I do like the lines “Sometimes when we are walking/I can only mention trees” but it doesn’t go anywhere. Now that I’m looking up the lyrics to this song there are really only a handful of lines in the whole thing. So maybe not worth enduring four minutes of tinny hi-hat cymbals for.

Tenderness

I was going to type something about this song needing more than one note and by the time I got to it the song was over.

Same

Slow acoustic strumming…back to the first song’s style. I don’t love it but I like it better than the rockin’ last few. They should do more of the background “ooooh” vocals on their songs. Even if I got tired of it at least it would be distinctive. There’s a digital trumpet or something on here that’s out of place. The song overall is not bad though.

Steal The Lake From The Water

Wow…the album is almost over. I guess that’s what happens when all your songs but one are only two minutes long. There’s some filter on the guitar and vocals on this song to make them sound distant and crackly. Do I think that after the intro they’ll kick in and remove the filter? Yes. Did it just happen? Yes. Too easy to predict this whole album. They almost discovered the concept of melody on this song but HAHA JUST KIDDING WE ONLY SING ONE NOTE. It’s really too bad because there are some neat parts to this song like the edge to the guitar sound but it all gets buried in Generic Hard Indie Rock Sound.

Drive Me Home

The filter from the last song stuck around for the acoustic guitar. The “oooh”s are back. I think I like them best because they occasionally hit more than one note. There are some layers to this song but by this point I’m pretty burned out. I could listen to old Liz Phair and Mekons and have a better time but I don’t do that very often because they’re both pretty coarse compared to a lot of what I enjoy now. This isn’t throwback music either though so I don’t know what they want from me.

First Day Of Spring

Sort-of-quiet lead-out song. I forgot it as soon as I listened to it.

Final score: Two clever names out of five. Not the worst album in the world but also not much of anything of note. If it had even one strong element I could advocate for this album but everything was thoroughly mediocre.

Download links:

Zippyshare

Israbox

Kingdom Leaks

Newalbumreleases.net

Planetarium (Let's Be Honest, People Are Only Looking For Sufjan Stevens) (2017 Full Album ZIP MP3 Download)

I didn’t know anything about this album and I liked it that way but then I made the mistake of looking at words that were in front of me when I found it and now I know that it was for some dumb play that I never would have seen and was made by some people that I really don’t like (Sufjan Stevens) and some that I probably like but not as much as the main guy from The National (the guy who I don’t know from The National). But I do really like space and themed concept albums so here I go. Technically this isn’t my first time hearing some of these songs but I’m not counting having it on in the background for a few minutes last night because I was mostly paying attention to killing robot dinosaurs.

http://www.planetariumalbum.com/

Neptune

Some light piano, breathy vocals, sentences that start with “For I…” like it’s some kind of medieval ballad. Why do I hate Sufjan you ask? Probably because he seems talented and passionate and creative but never quite hits any kind of greatness. I don’t even know if it’s him singing right now (it sounds like a light version of Antony and the Johnsons) but it still makes me remember why I hate him. I wish I didn’t know that this was from a play, or whatever it was. All I can think while the string kick in and the high notes tinkle is of someone in a leotard mincing across a stage backed by painted cardboard planets. I’m going with this song is meant to be an introduction because it didn’t really go anywhere.

Jupiter

Static, crackle, pop! This is definitely more like a real song. Some high voice again, so I hope the whole thing isn’t sung in high voice. But this has a nice strong beat while still being mellow. Tossing in “By Jove” is a nice touch. Actually, I like most everything about this song so far! The digital noises make me think of being on the floor of a laser show and everything is working together just right. There’s still a few minutes to go so hopefully I get to bob my head for all seven minutes. The robot voice is lightly Daft Punk-y. Maybe the whole album will be light (lite?) versions of other bands. The electric robot voice guitar solo halfway through isn’t the best but it’s not killing the vibe and this interlude is working out well. Oh man…definitely Daft Lite. The robot saying “Jupiter is the loneliest planet” is so fun, even if it’s wrong (Mercury is the loneliest, duh). The finale rides the laser show glory into the sunset. Five lasers out of five for this song.

Halley’s Comet

I hope this song is about Swordfish. Oh geez – it’s over. It was only 30 seconds long.

Venus

This song starts off a little ponce-y but I think that’s going to happen all the way through this album. It’s a safe assumption at this point that even if the performers weren’t wearing tights that the musicians definitely were. Did he just moan “Cherokee jeep in the yard”? Huh. I guess he did (https://genius.com/Sufjan-stevens-bryce-dessner-nico-muhly-james-mcalister-venus-lyrics). Holy crap – these lyrics don’t make any sense. They’re just an assortment of interesting-sounding phrases. Oh well, that describes most human communication anyway. The robot voice doesn’t work as well here but mostly because I’m tired of the moaning vocals and random lyrics.

Uranus

Hahahaha. Uranus. The warbling notes and scratchy intro make me think of mid-90s alternative pop. I’m just going to have to accept the moaning high voice at this point. There are a lot of horns on this song and they sound like a Disney movie. This song is pretty disjointed. I am writing in short, declarative statements. Seven minutes might be too much for this song. I can’t understand what he’s saying. The space sounds are out of this world. This song should have been called Urandompileofbaroquespacecrap. I barely made it to the end.

Mars

I’m partial to Mars because I go there to get more candy bars. It also pretty much has to be better than Uranus but it’s also seven minutes long so I’m wary. So far it has some percussion that sounds a little like a space battle with lots of space guitars playing their scales. ROBOT VOICE TELLS ME “IN THE FUTURE THERE WILL BE NO #@$#@$#%$#%$#$#%”. I will never know what will be in the future because I can’t understand the robot prophecy. Too much distortion so I’m turning the volume up. I’m just being shouted at by horn blasts now but it’s not entirely offensive. It just feels like I’m watching a space battle movie with the language track and sound effects turned off. A man is telling me what’s in the future now but I’m over it. Just living in the moment. The last part of the song is performed by a boy band in New Space Egypt.

Black Energy

Some ominous ambient building noises…did the boy band lose the space battle? Did their tights get torn? For all my complaining I’m actually kind of enjoying this album. I don’t think I could actively listen to it all that often – this song is just ambient and not that interesting at that – but it does feel a lot like having a mediocre movie on in the background. Looooooots of space ambience. Still going. Gone.

Sun

DING DONG DING DONG More glossy space sounds. I’m really hoping for an actual song this time around. Getting kind of burned out on space sounds. It was just a whole bunch more ambient space sounds.

Tides

One minute long and still a ton of space sounds but a little bit of a melody. I think my dad listented to this when he was meditating in the ‘80s.

Moon

IS that a space panflute? This is actually a for real song so that’s a relief. It’s pretty…flamboyant. I think the alien boy band is now wearing ruffled shirts over their tights. There’s a nice interlude with ticking and clicking and toy piano. And it wasn’t an interlude. It was the whole last half of the song. Sure. Whatever.

Pluto

I’m peeking ahead and I don’t think this album needed to cover quite as much of the cosmos as it does. That’s not a dig against Pluto (you’ll always be a planet to me) but it’s kind of a lot. I think this song was on the last Sufjan album but with instruments instead of space trumpets in the background.

Kuiper Belt

I’m pretty checked out. Spacy, even.

Black Hole

Hopefully there’s not too much black energy in this black hole because I really need a pick-me-up and OK that was also only 30 seconds.

Saturn

A song-like song? Can it be? I’m definitely wishing the whole album had been like the handful of “Daft Punk in tights” songs I’ve heard so far. This takes half the song to realize it needs a beat but when that finally kicks in this is a pretty good pop song. The last seven songs not so much. Honestly, I don’t know how good this song really was because it tasted like water after being stranded in the desert for a few days.

In The Beginning

Are these songs in the right order? Not that I need the beginning to be at the beginning but there’s not a lot of logic behind why the order is the way it is and now I’m wondering if that ambient run in the middle was supposed to be spread out a little more. Probably not, but this track (it’s not a song) definitely could have kicked off the album.

Earth

Overwrought romance. That’s all I can think with the way this opens with rolling cymbals and gentle notes. The Thorn Birds? Holy crap it’s 15 minutes long. There’s a lot here that’s not really song so this is definitely not a sci-fi “Desolation Row”. I kind of wish they had broken it up into “Earth 1”, “Earth 2”, “Earths 3-5”. There are some nice parts in here but all in all it’s way too unfocused to pull off the 15-minute gag. At least some of the musical themes repeat here and there but some of the annoying parts come back too. The ending is stupid.

Mercury

At least at the start this song sounds like what I thought the whole thing was going to be. It wasn’t. I want my melancholy space opera! Pretty solid closing track. Too bad a good chunk of the album stunk.

Jesus…that was a long album. Or was it? I don’t actually know, but it felt like it took all day. I don’t know that I’m going to go on a space journey again anytime soon unless it’s on in the background.

Rating: Two space boys out of a five-boy band

Download links:

Sendspace

Outerspace

Innerspace

The Secret Sisters - You Don't Own Me Any More (2017 Full Album FLAC Download From God)

https://thesecretsisters.bandcamp.com/

Tennessee River Runs Low

I only heard part of one song from this band but it was enough for me to give the whole thing a shot. I’m a sucker for folksy women singers. So far this has a Ditty Bops ragtime vibe but with mountain men playing the back-up band. There’s a little bit of me that hates what I’m hearing because they sound like they’d be busking outside a farmer’s market with at least one of them wearing a washboard but the plunky banjo and sweet harmonies is doing right by me so far.

Mississippi

I hope the song names cover all the states in a region. The women got a little husky here while they tell me about child abuse and alcoholism. The slow, dark tone doesn’t feel as natural here. In fact, this kind of sounds like modern country-pop just with the production tricks stripped away. The strings are nice (I will say that every time there are strings) but the song is telling not showing and I’m not listening. The last minute of the song is really nice through. This should have been the whole thing.

Carry Me

No state in the name. OK song. Couldn’t hold my attention.

King Cotton

No state in the name, but she’s saying “Alabama” every other word so I’ll count it. By this point I’m feeling like the put-on aspect is too overwhelming for this to have any kind of staying power but it’s not entirely unpleasant. This song in particular is pretty catchy and bouncy with a little saloon piano carrying it along.

Kathy’s Song

“The only truth that I know is you” isn’t the deepest line ever in a song but it was good enough to pull my attention. This is a pretty song AND it has some strings. I think this is supposed to feel sadder than it does but either way it was nice to listen to. Very calm and clear, like the morning after sleeping on not making a bad decision.

He’s Fine

This song bops right along but doesn’t say anything meaningful. I’ll go ahead and assume this is their summer party jam.

To All The Girls Who Cry

I should like this song. I really should. But I don’t. It’s mostly a vocal duet and piano and instead of sounding like a tortured ballad it sounds like a middle school talent show. Even the token strings in the last minute can’t save it. I hate all the girls who cry and this song too. I’m feeling like these songs all should have been about half the length. This kind of music can be fun but you don’t want it to stick around too long.

Little Again

Ooh! The toy piano or whatever that high noise is that opens this album is a treat! The lyrics are a little saccharine but I can still listen to the song and smile as long as I don’t listen to closely to the words.

You Don’t Own Me Anymore

I think this song was written just so that AMC could buy it to feature in an artistically shot show about white trash and the human drama that wends its way through the trailer park. It’s kind of roadhouse blues but GO WOMAN GO I’M TAKING CONTROL AND WALKING AWAY. I guess. I don’t know anything about walking away.

The Damage

Plodding and dark without being hammy. At least as hammy as the last dark song. This song makes me think of a nursery rhyme gone wrong, probably more than a little because it has a “big bad wolf” walking beat. Which probably means “Little Red Riding Hood” but whatever. I think there was a lot of stuff like this in movies in the early ‘90s. I wouldn’t listen to a whole album of this style but it’s an appropriate departure.

‘Til It’s Over

Opens with “Can I sleep…” and the inflection is just enough that I can pretend it’s a direct reference to Willie Nelson’s “Can I sleep in your arms tonight” but in this case she hangs on sleeeep and finishes with “… ‘til it’s over”. I could be reading too much into it but now she said “tears on my pillow” and that’s a song Willie sang, plus he sang about tears a lot. So this is a song for Willie and therefore I love it.

Flee As A Bird

Great song name. Less great song by a minute in. Long, drawn-out a capella so I can’t understand what they’re saying. OK, now I can thanks to the banjo speeding them up a little. Hey, is this a hymn? I’ll check. Yes! It’s a hymn! (http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/l/fleeasab.htm) That’s a pretty good hymn.

Album rating: Three and a half ominous hymns out of five. Not bad, but I'll probably only listen to it once or twice more.

Update: This album was better upon repeat listens. I wouldn't update it's ominous hymn score any, but it was definitely more enjoyable the more familiar it became.

Download links:

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Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up (2017 Full Album MP3 Download 320 Fox Meat Eat It)

I’ll say this right out of the gate – I don’t care about Fleet Foxes. Everyone here is all gaga for them but I just don’t get it. I don’t dislike them, I just don’t care. But I’m really going to give them a chance here and so now time to listen and review.

I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar

Oh my god. I don’t know if I can take any more mumbling albums. It’s been a run of them lately so the opening mumbling isn’t getting off on the right foot with me. Real guitar strumming and singing kicks in pretty quickly so already I’m feeling better. ABRUPT STOP AT TWO-AND-A-HALF MINUTES and now back to our song. As long as they use that trick sparingly I’m OK with it. But now it happened again, this time with bird sounds. And now it’s happening more frequently. The main song part is decent but mostly sounds like a big group of hippies dancing and singing at a party and the orchestra happened to stop by for a drink. Not a lot else going on from what I can tell but that would be fine if not for the jerking. A different song just started. Like a totally different song. Why make this all part of the same track on the album? The title has three songs in it but unless the third is very short there will be only two. I think the door opening break has the same song after and the lapping waves lead to…who knows. The hippies are clapping for themselves but I’m pretty sure I only heard two songs and a lot of ambient sounds from their party.

Cassius, -

Stylized punctuation in song titles is the hot thing this year. The intro to this song has an Animal Collective vibe. Good animal collective, not the more recent stuff. These foxy foxes aren’t as good at this kind of singing as their animal buddies. I guess you need a forest to make a psychedelic folk song. Even as a so-so imitation I still prefer this over the first song. I really want this kind of music to grab me so I can sing along and/or bob my head in time but they appear to be opposed to that. Every time I get bobbing this song stops too. The family-centric chorus is catchy even if I don’t quite know what they’re talking about with “Wife, a son, a son, a son, and a daughter”.

Nice transition! Oh wait…it’s still the same song. Well, I liked the transition to a new song at around four minutes but it turns out they’re making another song sandwich.

||

I got distracted and a whole song and a half played without me realizing it. I only noticed because the foxy dude said “ossified”. Let’s rewind.

- Naiads, Cassadies

…

||

I instantly got distracted again. Let’s rewind.

Well this sounds pretentious. Maybe that’s why my brain let me get distracted. “Complicit” isn’t even that big of a word but the way it’s delivered here sounds like it just popped up on someone’s “Word Of The Day” calendar. Even the strings (which I normally love) aren’t doing anything for me. And the piano feels lumped on. Pretentious song name and lyrics, dull song, bad job.

Kept Woman

This sounds like the age of Aquarius. With the word “ossified”. Andrew Bird can barely pull off the 10-dollar words but these guys should stick with the five-dollar ones. There’s some aimless strumming and ambient piano tinkling over a rambling reflection on…the nature of self? That’s a reach. I have no clue because this song is putting me to sleep.

Third of May / Ōdaigahara

I had to look it up, but Ōdaigahara is a mountain in Japan. Wikipedia has no remarkable facts about it so I have to assume that one or more of the band members saw it on a trip and thought it was so great that they had to tell everyone about it using a song with a hard-to-type and (yet again) pretentious name. This song is actually pretty catchy but I spend the first two minutes learning about a stupid mountain so now that I’m paying attention I’m not heavily invested. Good thing it’s nine minutes long. Oh, and there it stopped. Because there’s probably another songburger about to be made. I’m not a fan of this song slash song gimmick. Let me peek ahead. Great news, it doesn’t happen anymore.

Good god does this song go on. I thought it was done a few times now and it just keeps jolting itself awake. Should have stuck to 3 ½ minutes.

If You Need to, Keep Time on Me

Why are select words not capitalized in the title? The structure of the title/chorus is making me nuts. It’s ||  so forced || and artificial. There’s a lot of reaching here to make sure that everyone knows just how smart this band is. I don’t care – just make a catchy song. This song is not catchy. It’s pretty much just the name of the song over a handful of piano chords. That I’ve listened to parts of like three times now because I keep getting interrupted.

Mearcstapa

What the hell, song names? I’m spending this whole album having to look you up because YOU DON’T MAKE THE SONG ANY BETTER BY BEING OBSCURE. This album is full of references designed to impress girls with things that girls aren’t impressed by. Apparently this has something to do with cryptozoology, which I should be into. This song at least doesn’t stop, go silent, and then start a new song but it still pretty much does that by overlaying two songs together. There’s kind of a light jazzy thing happening here and I don’t like it. I’m getting pretty bored.

On Another Ocean (January/June)

I feel like I’ve heard this song before but I don’t think I actually have. It’s just a song that sounds like it could be pretty much anything soft and acoustic. The songs are getting pretty sparse at this point in the album, like some of the musicians fell asleep or walked away because of all the pretentious word-dropping. It doesn’t sound stripped-down, just empty. BOOM halfway through a song starts! That’s an awful long intro to endure though. The song part of the song is decent, kind of like a non-dreamy Beach House. I guess. I’ll still choose Beach House over this every time.

Fool’s Errand

We’re back to the hippie dance-fest. As I was typing that this song was probably my favorite on the album so far there was an awkward bridge less than a minute in. My biggest issue with this album is how fickle it is – it can’t commit to any one sound or even one song. Every song is four or five parts of songs awkwardly taped together. Cheap tape at that, because things keep falling off. I no longer like this song.

I Should See Memphis

I bet this band likes some pretty cool stuff. There are lots of hints throughout the album but I feel like this is pretty overt. “I’ve heard about Memphis because lots of cool stuff I like talks about it…” But they’re that dull guy everyone knows who has great taste but no one wants to talk to him because there’s nothing there under the surface. Now that I’ve trashed them with minimal information, I’ll say that this song is doing all right by me so far. The stupid break in the music they can’t seem to stop doing still happens halfway through but it does a reasonable job of continuing the overall musical themes. Very folky with strings, probably my new favorite song on the album except for when he says “Osiris” for no reason. Honestly, I can’t remember most of the other songs.

This song went silent a minute before it was over and then some distorted echoing vocals started up. I thought it was a new song, but I guess it’s all part of this one. If you listen to it, just skip this part. I don’t know what the hell it’s supposed to be except for a way to mess up people’s mixes if they want to put this song on there.

Crack-Up

This song is fine I guess. Big surprise, it stops almost exactly halfway through and becomes a new song. If I cared enough I’d go back and see if it really happened on every single song but I don’t care so I’m going to definitively say that it did. I'm pretty sure the album closes with the sound of someone running away.

Album rating: Two dull stars out of five. I still don't care about Fleet Foxes.

Download links:

Tacobell.com

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Kelly Lee Owens - Kelly Lee Owens (2017 Full Album Download 320 RAR Review)

https://kellyleeowens.bandcamp.com/album/kelly-lee-owens

S.O

Why isn’t there a period after the “O”? Does this stand for something or does it represent a stylized dragon in love with a pig and their tiny pigdragon egg? Listen to those gauzy, slight too-high vocals and ambient sounds. Not grabbing me. OK, here’s some electro-conga drumming so there’s at least a beat now but the vocals aren’t really grabbing me. It would help if the song could hit a groove but it isn’t happening. Oh whoa. Those are some coins falling all over that conga drum. THE END, SONG

Arthur

The falling rain is much nicer than the falling coins. That first song kind of put me on edge. Oooooh! I like the Ooooooh singing broken up by tiny cuts and now this bassline is building up just fine. Busting into the actual song makes the rain go away and I’m a little sad about that. There’s a solid Juno Reactor feeling to this song (or should I say “track”? Electronic music fans always say “track” instead of “song” but I’ll stick with “song”). The rain and static are cutting in and out here and there and so far there have been no actual words. I’m a fan. At 2:30 the vocal sounds start to overlap and almost harmonize and I’m a superfan. I could listen to this song and stare at the ceiling or sky for a few hours and feel fine. A fine fan.

Anxi.

More dots! What does it stand for??? Is it anxiety? Because it’s making me anxious. BUM BUM BUMM sorta ominous bass beats and then here come some more humming women. Or ladies. Some women find “ladies” offensive but some ladies find “women” offensive. Oh yuck. The humming sort-of word singing was pretty nice but the spoken word stuff is a stink. About two minutes in and it all fades away to clickity-clackety Plastikman fun. This sounds like carrying balloons and running around a museum while going “eeeeaaaaaoooooouuuuu”. So far in this album I’m most in favor of the vocals when they don’t result in words. Because just before the end of this song there’s some more irritating talking. At least it’s edited into chopped up bits so I can’t really understand what she’s saying.

Lucid

Well those are some pretty strings. Thanks, strings! Real words being sungspoken now that I can really understand and – GREAT NEWS – she’s saying the name of the song right away so I don’t forget it. I’m totally forgiving of that with singing but the talking aspect makes me much more critical of the content. Not that I can really tell what is being said most of the time. “Different from the rest”, “where we ought to be”, LUCID, LUCID, DON’T YOU SEE. I think. I don’t know. This song is kind of bugging me and it just did the same trick the last two did where a stronger beat comes in a minute before the end. Let’s try something different next time, Kel. Lee Ow.

Evolution

 Opens with “Eevolution. Evolution.”. Tomato, tomahto? The backing beat sounds kind of like a Tim & Eric joke so I hope DJ Douggpound is on this song. Pretty fun music overall but the dispassionate minimalist talk-singing just isn’t working for me. I’m not going to be tha revolution OR see tha reevolution unless you really make me feel it. Adult. pulled this off but other than this song making me nostalgic for a Best of Rave Vol. 2 CD I had in 1996 I don’t get anything out of it. If she was even slightly more singing and/or passionate the insipid lyrics would be harder to hear and easier to leave open-ended.

Bird

That shrieking sound does kind of sound like a bird I guess. Ooh –glockenspiel! This has a very pretty intro. Now please don’t screw it up by saying “Bird. Buhrd.” over and over for five minutes. Strings! Or horns. Or both. I dunno. It’s still working though. YEAH two minutes in and still no talking. This is my favorite song so far. The beat came before the last minute of the song and it feels like an ev // I don’t remember what I was thinking it felt like. I went back and listened and it’s kind of jungle night-time wind-down hyphen-using music.

Throwing Lines

This song opens with some of the same sounds that closed out the last one. I would have liked it better if there was a more direct link but then would have been annoyed at the slight break between songs because Play Music still seems to have an issue with seamless playback. The sweeping bass tones in this song are exceedingly pleasant. The vocals are just as insipid as ever but the words fell away pretty quickly back into just “mmmmmm” and “aaaaah”. This is the sleeping in the hyphen jungle after a long day bird watching song. This song pairs very well with Bird.

CBM

The album seems to be hitting its stride. I like the timbre of everything I’m hearing with a fast but soft tapping over some bass and then NO! PLEASE STOP WITH THE RAVER SPOKEN WORD CRAP! I wonder if there’s a word-free remix of this album. I want to keep all the vocal sounds but none of the words. This song is just as strong as the last two except for the fact that she keeps talking every minute or so. I wonder if she knows how annoying it is and that’s why she’s trying to get out of the way on the cover.

Keep Walking

I just realized that the stylized dots disappeared from the song names after the first few songs. At this point I doubt they meant anything though because while the music is pleasing I don’t get a lot of “deep thoughts” from this album. This song has singing that’s close to actual singing and it’s not even so bad. Lots of held notes overlapping and even the repeated “keep walkin’” command isn’t annoying me too much. I haven’t heard the last song yet but I’m going to strongly recommend starting this album by listening from Bird to the end and then treating the first five songs as an appendix. This song does feel a little out of place after the last few since it’s more like Radiohead than Rave Til Dawn but I’ll still take it in place of some of the songs on the first half of the album.

8

Is that an oud? I hope it’s an oud. Or an electric zither. Some kind of strange stringed instrument. This song has a lot of build-up, which I’m more than fine with as long as no one starts talking. I’m thinking about song name meanings so I’m probably reading too much into it but is the “8” supposed to be a sideways infinity symbol? The first two minutes of the song feel like a space journey. Great news – the vocals are breathy and nonsensical, just like I like them. Definitely outer space. After the introduction I’m walking down the empty corridors of a spaceship wondering where everyone else went. I don’t think I’ll get implanted by an alien baby, just that I’ll probably die out here alone but in the long wait for the end I’ll discover so much more about myself than I ever did through all my missed opportunities back when I had human contact. OK, I love this song. The whole album should have been this. In fact, I think at almost 10 minutes this should have been its own album. The rest of the album would be the appendix, except for the first five songs which would be the appendix to the appendix.

Download links:

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Zippygator

(Sandy) Alex G - Rocket (Full Album Leak Sand In Your Pants Download)

I should have written an intro before I started listening but I didn't. It wouldn't be fair for me to say any more than that.

https://sandy.bandcamp.com/album/rocket

Poison Root

Well hey there, banjo. Nice to hear you. Humming, mumbling, buzzing I like this all right so far although it just kind of sounds like Old Hickory who sounded like folksy Nirvana. Or wait, is that Califone I’m thinking of? Probably both. The strings are a really nice touch – like the way they work their way up the scale and into the sky. I’m starting to get a little bored though because it’s just the same mumbled phrase over and over and the music isn’t going anywhere. Hey look at that, it’s over now.

Proud

This sounds a lot more like a real song. Sorry, a real POP song. Maybe I just wasn’t in an artistic enough frame of mind for the last song. This has a nice bounce to it and it’s nice that he wants to give his baby a bottle. I kind of wish the vocals were a little more at the forefront. It sounds like he’s trying to hide his voice among a chorus of high-voiced singers and I want to hear his voice separated more. I’m trying to figure out the lyrics because I think this is one of those “I’ll say something positive at the start of the song to throw you off but then get negative at the end to make you sad” songs. I guess. So far the lyrics aren’t remarkable but there’s a nice interlude with lots of “oooooh” parts. Not loving the way this song closes out though. Kind of flat and dull compared to the rest.

County

Oh god…high voice. Whitney killed high voice for me last year and now I’m overly judgmental about it. It just seems like such a cop out and I don’t even know who likes it. JUST SING NORMALLY. This song is trying to be…groovy? I don’t quite know. A minute in and it just lost track of itself with a weak guitar solo over clumsy bass guitar. None of the three instruments playing are in time with each other. Good thing high voice is back to not tie it all together. What the hell is going on here? So far there are two (mostly, I’m not quite done with this song) non-songs and one song. 33% song ratio so far.

Bobby

Yay, more strings! This better have some good singing. Nope. More weak warbling hiding with another voice but not actually singing together. At least it sounds more like a real song again, but I’m really starting to get fed up with the vocals on this album. The female vocalist is actually pretty nice from what I can hear BUT I can’t hear her very well because I’m not allowed to. No one is. This chorus might be kind of catchy if the sound of rosin dust falling off the violin wasn’t louder than the vocal track. Oh hey, right near the end and it’s actually getting a little louder. Should have been there from the get go. The lyrics are actually a little grating now but this is the best song so far. Sometime in college I realized that a lot of musicians would say things like “I know what you’re doing” and “I know you I do I do” when they didn’t have actual lyrics because they sounded introspective and rhymed. Sandy Alex, I know you, I do I do.

Witch

I would put money on that this song is just going to be a couple of sustained notes and echoing mumbled vocals with no real structure. Halfway through and I’m going to win this bet with myself. There’s a shrieky woman in the background – is she the witch? She’s being drowned out by a shriekier shrieky noise. Hey look at that, he’s trailing off everything 30 seconds before the song is over. I win money from me.

Horse

I kind of like the song names on this album but WHAT AM I LISTENING TO? Synthesizer poop being thrown at a row of wind-up clapping monkeys? That has to be a funny statement because it has a poop joke and a funny “k” but this is not a funny song. Or a good song. Or even a song at all. Is this supposed to be something I can appreciate artistically? It ends with 20 seconds of someone going “eeeaaagh, uggggh” like when kids in middle school would mock people with disabilities. I’m being mocked.

Brick

This is getting worse. I should have stopped after the first three songs. Godheadsilo can pull off the drum/bass/distortion thing – The Sandyman can’t. Even if I decide I like this album I will never listen to this song again. Mixed in with the basement thrash there’s a part that sounds like Anthrax’s jokey songs played through a child’s tape recorder. Except children don’t have those any more and neither should this band. Or is it a guy? I don’t care. I hate this song and anything would be better.

Sportstar

Funny robot voice. Almost a real beat. Piano…notes. No, the piano is just being hit randomly. The rest of this could be fine if it builds up to something. Anything. So far my main issue with this album is that it is afraid to commit. It goes nowhere. Not looking good for this song either. Hey, piano break! This is close to a song I could like but man am I in a bad mood after the last song. Also I still can’t hear the vocals and I can guarantee the song won’t commit to a structure and will eventually mumble its way out.

Yep

Judge

I’ve already judged by this point. Sorry, goat album. I think this is a Metallica cover. Whispermumble atonal singing. I wonder if the out of tune stuff is on purpose or if he(?) just doesn’t realize that everything is half a step off from where it should be. My headphones just told me “battery very low” and it’s the first time I’ve ever been happy to hear that. We’ll see if the headphones can stick out five more songs after this. This is another song where there are aspects of the music I might like if they weren’t paired with THE SHRIEKING SOUND YOU HEAR WHEN YOUR EARS ARE RINGING BECAUSE YOU JUST GOT HIT IN THE HEAD.

Rocket

I’m getting tempted to skip to the end of songs at this point but it’s not fair so I won’t. This opens with a plunky saloon piano bit…and then I missed the whole song. Totally checked out. Not going back.

Powerful Man

Almost real singing! The powerful man sings powerfully. Ish. Clear voice, clear guitar, clear violin…hey, I’ll take it! The lyrics are awfully trite (I never raised a kid but I bet I’d do a good job if I did) but whatever. This is better than anything else on the album even if it sounds like a high school band’s first attempt at playing something other than what their teacher assigned them. Even the background vocals are OK (but flat, of course). Solid C+. Extra credit for the BATTERY VERY LOW PLEASE CHARGE NOW part at the end.

Alina

This sounds like a real song too! The pick scraping works pretty well in the intro but god am I sick of these vocals. Back to the mumbled faded vocals again. Still in the top three songs on the album but the piano is just going up and down the scale and it’s starting to distract from the rest of the song. One minute intro…now start singing the real song? Nope. More guitar pick. And now the same loop from the first minute. Dammit. It just got demoted to being only in the top four songs on the album. Who am I kidding…I’m not keeping track. Another song that goes nowhere

POWER OFF

I missed the last minute.

If my headphones had battery I would have listened to these two songs but they didn’t so I won’t.

Big Fish

Guilty

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(Sandy) Alex G - Rocket - 2017

1) something something poison tree. Songs that start with a mumble like this drive me nuts. The sound drowns out the lyrics. Obviously, not important enough to feature on the song. This exact same effect could be achieved by humming. By the end.. this guy knows everything, and I hate everything he knows.

2) Okay this song isn't horrible. It's got an alright groove and the lyrics aren't drowned out by music. I'd give this song a solid B- on a scale of 1 to 10. So, a low 8. That's the only thoughts i have on this song. It's meh. Maybe meh+ just because I disliked the previous song.

3 - 6) okay these were kinda just background noise as I was trying to get some work done. not a whole lot to write about because I wasn't paying attention, but that sort of thing happens in a live review. Nothing we can do about it now. Nothing jolted me out of my work to make me want to write anything down. So, I guess that's a review.

7) Why... This is the song that jolted me out of work to write something down. This is... awful. I hate everything that's happening to me right now. This is just rubbish. This better be a setup to a much more relaxed song because if the rest of the album is like this, I'm not going to make it. Oh, it just gets worse and worse. Calm the hell down.

8) Yep. Exactly. Much calmer so far. Okay. so maybe that was the plan of the album. ho-hum, you know you're going to lose your audience.. So you punch them in the ear with noise and garbage. Then you try to lure them back with some repeating piano tunes. This song is okay-ish. I think I'm still upset after the previous song.

9) What in the hell is going on? This feels like a bunch of songs thrown together and we'll call it an album. I can't tell if there's a theme or anything going on here. Is it just madness? I can't understand any of the lyrics - that always makes me feel like they aren't good enough to listen to. Oh good. A ridiculous spot to throw in some distortion. So far.. I hate everything.

10) Rocket. okay title track. Show me the money.I do like this intro, but I'm pretty sure I just heard a dog's collar rattle in the background. 90% sure that's how they are making that chain noise. Maybe Sandy Alex G knows that I'm a sucker for strings. Wait.. that's it!? an instrumental track - a pleasant intrumental track with a dog collar? Sweet. Best song on the album so far.

11) Alllright. Did the album take us through 9 tracks of rubbish to get to this point? A nice acoustic guitar base, lyrics, and a voilin. yes please. Whoooa.. This song is trying to meld together so many things. I'm not sure if this is all coming together, but it's interesting. Haha - I don't know what to make of this. I... think I like it, but I want to listen to this a few more times. No time now though. Onward and upward.

12 - 14) Okay these songs worked out for me. Back to working and I caught myself bobbing my head and digging the groove as the songs went along. Nothing that pulled me out of the groove and I suspect that if I went back to listen to this set again, I'd have a similar reaction.

Overall... well, I'd say skip to the title track and go from there, then after song 14, start at song 1 and go from there. I still think I'd bail once we hit song 7. 7-9... terrible. Whoever put the album together thought that they should feature those songs in the 7-9 range, but they should have just cut them form the album.

Aldous Harding - Party (Full Album 320 FLAC MPEG DIVX Download)

The only things I knew about this album going in before writing this live review:

• A 30-second snippet of “Imagining My Man” was interesting enough to catch my ear
• Mrs. Rex pointed out that Aldous looks an awful lot like the ex-Mrs. Rex and as a result couldn’t make it through more than half of the video for “Imagining My Man”

Blend

“Hey man…” OK, sure. I’ll listen. What do you need, wispy but also husky-voiced woman? I hope you don’t need me to remember your name, because I keep thinking it’s “Alura” and not “Aldous”, mostly because “Aldous” is a boy’s name. You don’t sound much like a boy, but maybe I’m just being old-fashioned. I could do without the fake old-timey warble in your voice that crops up sometimes. So far this feels like an intro song and not actually something meant to stick in your head – maybe it would be good to listen to in the background when it’s raining. Nope, I already have Portishead for that. And like that it’s over. Didn’t do so much for me but at least I’m not mad at it for having to listen to it.

Imagining My Man

Whoa, that’s a deeper voice! This song is apparently about a man too. Alura’s super into dudes. Is the ultra-low voice (with some strange slurring) supposed to be her “man voice”? I’m 90 seconds in and for the first song and a half she’s not really winning me over no matter what her gender. Oh god…this song is six minutes long? CHILDREN SHOUTING HEY TOGETHER HOORAY! That part was nice but it went away pretty quickly and now I am definitely having a harder time with the vocals, especially when she SINGS. SHE IS SINGING NOW CAN YOU TELL BY THE WAY SHE IS SIIIIIIIINGING? I like the two-line chorus all right but by three and a half minutes I’m pretty tuned out to the rest of it. But I do want to listen to Regina Spektor now instead. Too bad, musical wife Regina – I have a commitment to Aluradous for the next seven and a half songs. I was going to say that the last two minutes of the song are just like the first four but a fuzzy saxophone just butted in for the last minute and now there’s no more singing. It makes me think of when a Muppet jumps into the frame and knocks a human out of it. I hate fade-outs but this song has one.

Living The Classics

Lots of finger picking on the guitar and hey right away now we have baby voice singing. And I think she just pronounced “disk” as “deesk”. Wheere is thees women froooom? I just looked it up. New Zealand? I’ve heard a lot of people from New Zealand talk and they don’t sound like this. Maybe she’s part sheep. That’s a New Zealand stereotype, much like the one where women have woman names and sing in the same voice all the time. She’s really breaking from what I know about New Zealand. But I’m mostly focused on that because this song is kind of terrible. Songs three and four on an album should be the best ones! That’s an album rule and there she goes again breaking rules. And then it just ends.

Party

This song is called “Party” and starts with “he took me to a clearing…”. Is this going to be a love song, a breakup song, or a creepy forest assault song? There’s a thumb jammed in her mouth by minute one so it could be any of the three. Oh god. The way “I was as happy as I will ever beeeeeeee” is delivered gets right to the base of my skull. I get that she doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into one vocal style but so far she hasn’t really done any of them well. This sounds like a less creative CocoRosie. I was going to compare her unfavorably to a different female artist on every song but I forgot on the last one. Sorry.  Halfway through this song at least some other people start singing along to even out the sharp edges of her long eeeeeeeeeeeeee’s. That’s a nice bassoon too. Too bad it’s basically repeating the same tricks as the fuzzy sax on song two.

I’m So Sorry

The finger picking is starting to grate on me. Oh Jesus…another different voice. And at this point I’m pretty sure the odd pronunciations of words are a side-effect of trying too hard to sing in weird voices. This song is just casual finger picking (think a tired drunk guy fiddling with an acoustic guitar as the campfire turns to coals) and low, low, low voice. HAHAHA I think she just said someone brought her some milk. She said “it just goes down” and then a chorus of angels repeats it in high voice. Maybe this song was a rejected attempt to create a soundtrack for an ad campaign for milk. I don’t have a female artist to compare her to this time because I don’t know too many women artists who would commit something like this to an album. I feel like Hope Sandoval could have fallen into this trap if she didn’t click with David Roback but that’s a reach. She’s way more talented than Adorama. At least the song forgot about itself around the same time I did.

Horizon

She sounds like PJ Harvey here, right? “Darlin’” with a snarl over single piano chords – any second now she’s going to start rocking- crap. Another weird voice after the PJ Harvey voice. JUST CHOOSE ONE PLEASE. I was actually really excited about this album after the snippet that I heard but Im looking ahead and 3 ½ more songs feels like an awful lot right now. No drums, no guitar, no beat, nothing but weird voices, the occasional piano chord, and a buzzing sound. There are almost parts of songs here but she can’t commit. Maybe that’s why she was so man crazy earlier. I don’t even know what she’s saying any more but I’m not skipping back to figure out what she’s saying about princesses. I bet if this woman made visual art it would be a doll missing an eye in a wedding dress with a spot of blood on it lying on one side of a bed with the mattress missing.

What If Birds Aren’t Singing They’re Screaming

Did she get the name for this song off a 15-year-old goth’s brand new clever T-Shirt? Hey guess what, another different voice. I’m not going to note it from here on out because it’s a safe bet that the last two songs will also have new voices. “I got high and…” No kidding. You don’t say. I never would have guessed. If she hadn’t just spent six songs destroying my faith in her intelligence I might give this a chance of being commentary on falsely insightful observations but I’m almost sure it’s just her jotting down stupid ideas she and her friends had while smoking weed. This song is no good.

The World Is Looking For You

Warning: This song contains lots of sustained vocal notes. I don’t know what else to say at this point. Aside from “husky” voice this song is indistinguishable from “I’m So Sorry”. Maybe it’s the same song and she’s playing a trick on me. I feel like Laura Marling could have fallen into this trap if she didn’t click with Charlie Fink but that’s a reach. Do you like what I did there?

Swell Does The Skull

The name of this song bugs the hell out of me. What an archaic and pretentious way to structure the phrase. Hey guess what, this song also has no drumming. Or piano. Just that good ol’ guitar and “I don’t waaaaaanaaaaaa be a siiiiiinnerrrrr…”. I get the sense that she really wants to sound older and more experienced then she actually is and is overcompensating. Oh – is that a small string section way in the background? I actually like that effect but it’s not enough to save the song or the album for me at this point. For no reason at all halfway through the song a light distortion filter is applied to her voice and it sounds like misguided production tricks rather than any kind of artistic vision. I guess you add in “with weird voices” and that’s my review of the whole album.

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You know what...don't download this album. It's terrible.

Kevin Morby - City Music (Full Album Direct Download Torrent Link)

Why does it have this cover? I know I said it before but wow do I still hate this cover. He’s so pouty and maudlin. I’ll put this in the same “poor choices” category as the recent Moonface album. You have long crinkly hair guys, we get it.

https://kevinmorby.bandcamp.com/album/city-music

Come To Me Now 

Yay, sleepy drums. Put me in the mood for…here it comes…Leonard Dylan Reed Morby whoa whoa whoa low voice. Strong start, at least in the sense that it sounds like it could have been on the last album and maybe I just missed it. I like opening with a transition from day to night. The panflute halfway through as the moon comes out is a little heavy-handed, but at least it’s in the background. I still appreciate the effort, and the snare rolls once it happens sound like ocean waves rolling in. B++ but I can see some extra credit in time because the composition seems very intentional.

Crybaby 

Song two starting now…Anonymous Rex has colored this for me in advance by saying I will know it. But I don’t know it yet. Good job me for forgetting everything that happened yesterday. (PS I listened to the first four songs by mistake yesterday) But hopefully he meant I’d know it because it’s pretty darn good. If the first song and a half are any indication the writing is really strong on this album. Hooray! There are lyrical themes within the song and already alluded to between the first two songs, unless I’m projecting. Solitude, hands, hands, alone. And I will definitely sing “COME ON, CRY, CRY BABY” at the top of my lungs to all the kids.

1234 

Oh yeah, I do remember 1234. Bad job me for remembering what I forgot. This song is fine I guess but I remember wishing it was further back in the album and now I still do. I can’t understand some of the lyrics because RETRO FUZZ, Y’ALL and also HEY DID YOU KNOW MORBY LIKES THE RAMONES? I know the names of the Ramones. I don’t know that I need a chorus to perform memory drills. Yes, they died so thanks for reminding me.  

Aboard My Train 

Oh good, song four gets right back to it. I appreciate masculine voices singing about loving males – Bill Callahan does it well too without making it about gay/straight. The breathy “haha” is so great and I love the line “for you to remain a part of me”. But guitar solo within the first minute and a half. It’s no Wilco but it’s still a guitar solo so I’m glad it ends quickly. Overall the imagery in this is terrific. I really like songs with a “train” beat (Orange Blossom Special!) and this is right up there with the nice figurative addition of him being the train with people getting on and off. Kind of makes me wish I had been on a train more than like three times in my life and then only for short tour rides but then I remember that all public transportation is terrible so I’m happy I haven’t.

Dry Your Eyes 

More crying! Yay! “dryereyes” is a nice strange combined word. I like using it almost as an instrument instead of words. Morby says “ain’t” a lot. I wonder if he really talks that way or if it’s an affectation. Some Lou Reed doo-wop in this which only adds to the Lou Reed impersonation. This song is OK but doesn’t do a lot for me.

Flannery 

I hate story interludes or “skits” on albums. This one is no better, and this woman’s voice is annoying. I could do without those 41 seconds.

City Music 

Good thing this song has a beautiful guitar sound to kick it off. Don’t tell me no stories, guitar. Is this instrumental? I’m not sure. There’s no singing after two minutes but I’m OK with that because I’m still mad about the stupid woman. Oh wait…now singing. I wish this album and song weren’t called City Music because the cover and Morby already kind of look like Moonface and now I’ll always confuse this with City Wrecker. I can live with it though. Maybe the dumb story was to leave me more open to this concept. Did you know that Tom Waits made a song “Coney Island Baby” 25 years after Lou Reed did, who in turn made one like 10 years after a doo-wop song named the same thing? I need to listen to this more closely because I started to wander. Oh yeah, clap clap clap at four minutes. I wonder if the two-minute break points are intentional.

Tin Can

Tin can up in the sky? Go Bowie! I have the softest of spots for songs about lonely astronauts. And he mentioned Stranger In A Strange Land indirectly! Kinda wishing this Tin Can wasn’t so herky jerky – every time it gets going it stops again. It deserves to be catchier because it talks about breathing and YAY there’s the sun again. Lots of sun and moon! But guitar solo, oh no. At least he doesn’t let them go on too long. I might force myself to like this song. It’s not the greatest the first time through but I think I can learn to love it. Now there’s some soulfunk at the end and I have to be missing something. Maybe this is the progress of time represented musically. Or a funk soul brother.

Caught In My Eye 

I feel like the album is losing me but at least not in a smooth jazz sax kind of way. This song is kind of sleepy and so am I. The bongos are bongos. I think I’m being hypnotized. I don’t like the 60s chintz of this song one bit. Each of the parts on their own might be fine (maybe not that screechy high voice in the background) but together they don’t do anything for me. Hypnotism failed.

Night Time 

Come on now…finish strong! The third to last song is called “Night Time” but didn’t we hit night time a long time ago? I just peeked ahead and see that next we’re going to heaven. I hope someone dies in this song. Maybe this Ezra person. Isn’t Ezra a boy’s name? Why is he saying “she”? Is Morby Jewish enough to know an Ezra? Why isn’t this song making me focus on it? Maybe I got hypnotized after all. There’s a good head-bobbing rhythm to this song but it’s no Neil Young. I’m digging the ebb and flow of the album at this point, even down to the ordering of the songs where they recede and then grow in length. I like when artists can use clichés (“bright lights, big city” here) but not have them sound trite. The line “if you walked a mile in my shoes, what would you choose?” reminds me of Dylan and Lou Reed at the same time. Nice. The way this song closes out is great.

Pearly Gates 

Time for death, “Pearly Gates”. Give it to me. Aaaand…you didn’t disappoint! What a delightful opening line! “In my time of sorrow/do you have a song that I could borrow” brings me right where I need to be. The “Sweet Jane” theft is totally forgivable here. Oh hey, heavenly choir. I like that, but I don’t like the electronic organ afterward. I think we had that same organ when I was a kid. But then a kettle drum, more choir, and lines like “little girls with long hair/throwing songs into the air”! At this point it’s going to be hard for Morby to mess up this album for me. I might actually like it more as an “album” than the last one. I should definitely make a proclamation like that before I’ve even listened to the album all the way through once.

Downtown's Lights 

Crap! I missed the intro to this because I was focused on something else. Skipping back now. Hey, he whispered “1, 2, 3, 4” and that ties back to song three. I’m so pleased with all the conscious decisions on this album. Reincarnation with the threat of true mortality is such a good concept. More head nodding and a cowboy snare drum tap in the back – I’m good with this. The church bells ring, cry, and sing which is lovely writing. So many other artists would have just chosen one but this is so poetic because each word has its own connotation. I’ll write a high school English paper about this album instead of a live review. This song is absolutely working for me as a perfect close to the album. It’s nice and sleepy but has some meat to it if you’re still awake enough to realize that he counts off to close out the song/album as well. Is it the end or another beginning.

Brilliant. I want to listen to it again right away but now I need to find Girlpool. (PS this already happened go see http://paperstreetleakco.blogspot.com/2017/05/girlpool-powerplant-2017-full-album.html and http://paperstreetleakco.blogspot.com/2017/05/girlpool-powerplant-2017-full-album-320.html)

Download links:

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Kickfile 

Emperor X - Oversleepers International (Full Album Download Solar-Powered 320kpbs )

So these aren’t initial impressions. Or even second or third. This is like the sixth time I’ve listened to this album this week, which is probably a little telling about what direction this live review will go. I heard €30,000 (more on that to come) at the start of the week and immediately went and listened to the whole album. That’s not necessarily a done deal because it’s happened before with poor results (I’m looking at you, The Thermals) but it seems to have worked out pretty well this time around.

https://emperorx.bandcamp.com/album/oversleepers-international

Wasted On The Senate Floor

I actually thought this song was too noisy the first time around. I could hear some of the lyrics but not all of them and I was annoyed by the ska horns and what felt like overtly political lyrics. Man, would I have ever loved this song in high school. It’s pretty catchy in the chorus area but I still can’t really tell what he’s saying. I think that’s a good thing because I feel like I’m humming along to a song I don’t like.

Schopenhaeur In Berlin

Flu shot, immunity…there’s a lot of talk of illness on this album ranging from mild irritation to terminal. Oh neat, I just noticed that in this song we’re passed out on the floor and in the last song we were wasted on the floor. I love the continuity here even if I didn’t love that last song. Some discussion of flights too and I know from my future psychic ability that there will be lots more time spent on airplanes on the album. I really love the way the guitar strumming blends with the drumming on this song. I don’t actually know who Schopenhaeur is and maybe it’s not relevant but it feels like a name that was chosen because LONG FOREIGN NAME I’M BOTH CULTURED AND INTELLECTUAL. You know what, it’s fine. Because I love songs where the singer says “la la la” and he does that here.

€30,000

OK, so I’ve been waiting and waiting and have to finally get to it: DAVID CROSS VOICE. Part of what got me paying attention to the song the first time I heard it was the fact that I was 100% sure it was David Cross singing. To the point that I searched everywhere online to see if “Emperor X” was a pseudonym for him since he’s done that in the past (Sir Willups Brightslymoore on Aqua Teen Hunger Force). All I could find was someone else asking the question on Twitter but only one mention || But back to this song – it’s so good! The intro sets you up perfectly for a sharp but sensitive burst of sound and then it’s catchy with a pretty chorus of voices in the background. Which is even better because this song is depressing as hell. As a single song this is some of the best writing I’ve heard recently. I love using the numbers in each line to move the song along through the language of going back and forth in this awful process. About 30 seconds from the end there’s a goofy “NYAH, NYAH” refrain underneath everything else that makes me smile because 1) It’s not as annoying as it probably should be and actually works with the song and 2) It really sounds like David Cross.

Brown Recluse

Hey, guess what? Everyone is scared of brown recluses (reclusi?). So here’s another rotten subject contrasted with so far the most mellow song on the album. There’s some John Darnielle hanging out in here with David Cross but more than that there are a few interesting piano riffs climbing up and down the web of spider-related lyrics. Excellent BANG the piano to close out the song.

Tanline Debris

This song hasn’t actually done a lot for me so far. The start-stop nature of it is a little hard for me and makes me think of the parts of Pere Ubu that I don’t like. But the guitar tone and snare drum pretend claps aren’t entirely objectionable. I just want them to be part of a song that doesn’t have a stroke every 15 seconds.

Warmth Perimeter

Wait, is this song from the album? I’m pretty sure that once the new age meditation sounds give way to the baby robot that the baby robot is actually David Cross 2000 Jr and we’re back on track. This is definitely a break from what I’ve heard so far. I guess it’s fine but it sounds kind of like music from a Pride parade float. It pretty much forgets about itself by the end and then it’s over with a little baby robot fart.

Oversleepers International

Oh heck yeah – we’re back on track! Little hand claps that I don’t have to clap along to if I don’t want to and John Darnielle Not John Darnielle is asking me about trust falls. I do, Not John, I do. This song is the perfect companion to €30,000 in tone and content. More airplanes, foreign countries, poor decisions…but just different enough that I can’t decide which I like better. Oh wait…at two minutes there’s a really dumb bridge repeating “It’s not easy to know” with harder guitar and I sure don’t like this part. OK, maybe I like 30,000 a little better. This is still solid and now Not John is asking me if I still believe. I think I do. I really like casual additions like “my choices were lame”.

God Save Coastal Dorset

This sounds like an Andrew Bird song played on a crappy boombox. That’s not terrible, plus Not John just rhymed with “old man”. I’m just waiting for him to say “Scythian empires”. Oh my goth (not fixing it) he just said “empires” after all! Maybe this is all intentional. That’s kind of an abrupt ending, but I guess I was ready for it to be done.

Low Orbit For Ion Cannon

Are these song names supposed to go together? I feel like this has some relationship to Warmth Perimeter but so far there are no farting robots. There are a lot of robot-like things being discussed though. It’s pretty sing-y and I don’t know that Not John is the best singer in the world, especially when he tries to hold high notes. The “hello” echo is pretty fun. I’m ready for him to go back to fast-paced sing-talking though. I don’t feel as much as I’m probably supposed to right now. It was very polite of him to say “goodbye” at the end.

Riot For Descendent Command

More things for other things that are vaguely militaristic in the title. Hahaha…The way this song opens makes me laugh. It sure does sound like a fun adventure to go burn a cop car – I’ll come too! The clapping as a rhythmic device is growing on me, although there’s another herky jerky part in the middle of this song. I’ll be more forgiving here because it’s a tonal change when we prevent the apocalypse together. Sometimes you have to herk and jerk when that happens. I still don’t like when he holds his singing notes but everything else was pretty agreeable.

5-Hour Energy, Poland 2017

Wait, now I’m wondering if these song titles are actually intentional or if this guy is just some trust fund kid who joyrides all over the world and talks about how political he is. I just looked and this song is 11 minutes and 11 seconds. That seems about how long five-hour energy drinks actually last and I love repeated digits so I won’t be annoyed. It took me about 20 seconds to realize it but I think this repeating pulse/buzz started around 3:30. Boy, it’s really going on and on. It’s not too bad though. Easy enough to have in my ears. Feels like it’s picking up a little around nine minutes but it’s still…pulsing and buzzing.

Download links:

Nippyshare

My sketchy personal server

New Kids On The Block - Thankful (2017 Full Album EP 320 MP3 Download)

(see also: http://paperstreetleakco.blogspot.com/2017/05/new-kids-on-block-nkotb-thankful-2017.html)

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Thanks a lot, Anonymous Rex.

1.            Heartbeat

You can tell it’s a heartbeat because it sounds like a heartbeat. If a robot duck had a beating heart. But it doesn’t because it’s only made for quacking and killing and this duck is all out of quacks. But in case I didn’t get the heartbeat thing by the way they were cooing “heartbeat” over and over here are some drum rolls and then sung narration that the drumming is happening JUST LIKE A HEARTBEAT. I’m actually really hoping the rest of the EP follows suit and there are lines like “Baaaaby, now the synthesizer will bleepbloop” and “If you wait for just two seconds, a trumpet will play, now it happened, oooooooh”. It’s kind of hard to live review a song that’s just two 20-second parts repeated until it’s over.

It’s over. I was going to use this live review to complain about EPs but this music is complex enough that I really need to focus on what’s happening here.

2.            Thankful

Even though I don’t know any New Kids On The Block songs, I always kind of thought they were a Christian band. The opening of this song is only cementing that. Of course, for all I know they are a Christian band now. I’d look it up but since it reinforces my personal worldview I’ll just accept it as fact. This Christian song at least sounds different from the last one. For one thing, there are significantly more “oooooooooh” sounds. Mostly this song makes me think “what do I love about How To Dress Well that’s so different from this?” I mean besides that How To Dress Well is good. The obvious answer on this song is that NKOTB (I’m such an insider) have awful vocals and How To Dress Well doesn’t. And maybe trite lyrics vs. something introspective and emotional. But this isn’t about How To Dress Well, it’s a live review of a song that I mostly just missed because I was thinking about a different artist’s music.

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3.            One More Night

Did he open by saying, “she gets me hight”? I think that’s a mix of “high” and “hot”, which is not an entirely unreasonable portmanteau. The music for this is the least offensive but as this album EP goes on the vocals are becoming more and more grating to me. They all sound different enough that I can tell there are different singers but not so much that any of them sound like a unique person. I don’t like the funky guitar at two minutes. I was as funked as I needed to be for this increasingly-ominous song. “Give me one more night to love you” sounded threatening to begin with but by the time the music goes silent at 2:41 I feel like I’m at the climax of a murder drama with already-dim lights flashing on and off in the alley behind an hourly motel.

4.            Hard (Not Luvin U)

Nick Cave taught me to never accept a song with a single letter in the title that’s not “A” or “I”. So right from the start I don’t accept this song. The worst vocals so far with lots of high voice but I’m charmed by the lyrics. I’m 100% sure he’s saying “Baby you’re a muffin and a problem/give me one taste so I can make it stop”. Maybe after the slaughter in the last song he baked his love into a muffin and the problem is that he needs to get rid of all the muffins before the police catch on. It’s so hard to get rid of muffins when everyone is gluten-free! I’ve come around on this one. It’s my new favorite song, not just on the album but ever. All that muffin man talk in the chorus is delightful and the icing on the muffin is the deep-voiced break in the song reminding me IT’S SO HARD. Song of the year, probably of my life.

5.            Still Sounds Good

Hand clapping. Not my favorite rhythmic device. And it took me too long to realize that this was a look back in time and not a song about ogling underage individuals. I appreciate the confidence here, but the overall message of “I refuse to grow or change in any way” doesn’t exactly resonate with me. I think this is supposed to be a summer jam (oh wait, as I was writing that they told me it was summertime – I’m a musical psychic!) but it’s not really a song yet and is just a couple of disparate “retro” pieces adjacent to each other. Remember rapping? I’m pretty sure the rap part is lumping about 30 years of pop culture into 1988. And like that it’s over…that was a worse fade out than normal. If any effort had gone into the production of this EP I’d say it was to intentionally simulate the awkward transitions of 80s radio but I know that’s not the case. A real missed opportunity here to have someone do a poor impersonation of a radio DJ to close out the song and EP experience.

Download links:

Hotfile

Coldfile