This week, I’ve got another four albums for your listening ears. There will be three new albums from the past week (on a monday to monday basis) and one classic album we’re celebrating the anniversary of.
Just a reminder: if there’s an album YOU want to see covered that we missed (or a review that you disagree with) write a review of your own and submit it right here!
WELLNXSS – Last Dinosaurs
8.4/10
Despite my snobbisness, I do love the occasional 2010’s indie rock. Jangly guitars, catchy riffs and cute vocalizing about whatever girl left you last. There are plenty of these artists. Two-Door Cinema Club, Vacations and the subject of today’s piece: Last Dinosaurs. I’ve been closely following their work since I was shown them in 2018 or so and they’ve been one of my biggest guilty pleasures since. I can’t listen to avant-garde jazz all the time, you know.
This project is what the band has described as a “reimagining” of their sophomore album “Wellness”, with rerecordings of the original tracklist from that record, plus a few new pieces thrown in at the end.
I’m mixed on this album. I’ve listened to the original “Wellness” a couple times a month for coming up on eight years now, so listening to rerecordings is obviously going to give me some whiplash, even if they’re better renditions. I’ll talk about the changes that put me off first. A lot of the tones of the last album I felt were about as good as you could get for the genre. While still pleasant– the lead tone here is something I’m still on the wire about. Some songs I feel work to the piece’s detriment, the grittier, more distorted tone not allowing the licks to fully shine. Others, I think it brings more energy. The rhythm sections sound pretty similar to me, and any differences in tone and playstyle felt mostly inconsequential to the song.
There are some moments I felt got played up a bit too much. The Caskeys, Sean and Lachlan, are great singers, but at times on this album I feel they’re adding too much to their voice. It’s cute for someone like me who’s been with the original for so long that hearing the vocalists have fun with the songs; but if this is to be the definitive take on “Wellness”, new listeners might think they’re overdoing it.
That’s honestly it though. While I was initially turned off by the poppier production I realized that most of the heavier songs on the original sound far better as pop tracks than rock ones. By casting off the guise of being a rock project, the group can fully capture the head-nodding enjoyment that these tracks deserved from the start. To make up for the slightly less interesting lead guitar, the synth sounds are far far better, and it’s clear the group actually knows how to make good electronic sounds at this point in their career.
The new music here is also not so bad. It’s just five songs and they’re all at the very end– so even if they were bad they wouldn’t disrupt the original album’s flow. They’re definitely not as good as the original tracks and are more in line with the band’s newer style (which I’m not too into admittedly). Despite this, they fit in well with the track list and the original final song “Zxro” doesn’t feel totally juxtaposed going into the new stuff. In my opinion though, they should have been an EP. It just makes the record a little too long in my opinion. It’s all good music, but it can get tiresome after an hour.
As for the stuff that hasn’t changed on the new version: well, the tunes themselves I suppose. The guitar melodies are extremely catchy and fun. “Kxrma”, “Wxrl”, “Alwxys”, and many more tracks on the album have truly wonderful lead melodies that line the choruses. The guitar solos here are also so great. Exciting and never pace-breaking. The bass tone is gorgeous though the lines aren’t too exciting– I wouldn’t want the bass to be drawing too much attention to itself in this genre.
The drumming is about as good as it can get for a drum machine. While I do love the fills and authenticity that came from having a real drumkit and drummer like they had on their first album– the electronic loops make the band’s sound stand out compared to their contemporaries.
While a part of me is always going to remain attached to the original “Wellness”, as someone who truly loves that album I have to admit that most of the changes on this album are for the better. For every song I prefer the original rendition, there’s two that I prefer the reimagined one. Give this album a listen if you want something fun, refreshing and groovy.
Nethering – Colin Stetson, Greg Fox & Trevor Dunn
5/10
I was really tempted to leave this segment blank save for the words “technical-slop”. I won’t, but yeah: technical-slop. Up there with the likes of Jacob Collier (vomited in my mouth just thinking about him), Polyphia or Dream Theater.
Colin Stetson is one of the biggest names in the post minimalism world today. If that name sounds familiar, a lot of you probably know him as the mind behind the terrifying, fluttery saxophone on the song “The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man”, used on “That Feeling When Knee Surgery Is Tomorrow” memes a year or so ago. No? Just me who remembers that?
Regardless of where you know him from, his showings in the genre throughout his over two-decade long career are some of the most mind-blowing and impressive music (from a performance) standpoint in the 21st century. That addendum there is pretty important– his music is very impressive from a performance standpoint and not much else.
Don’t get me wrong, the compositions are incredibly grand. The fact that many of the songs on this album were even imagined at all is impressive to me. Despite that though, it’s actually not that enjoyable to listen to. Post-minimalism doesn’t have to be a boring genre; it’s quite the opposite when done right in my opinion. In recent memory, “Promises” by Pharoah Sanders & Floating Points, anything by Kelly Moran and even Stetson’s own work from earlier this decade. All of these outings showcase that when done right, post-minimalism is extremely captivating.
Here though, Stetson has sort of devolved into just showcasing his technical skill. Don’t get me wrong, it is very great to hear. Honestly though, it’s just boring to me. I’m sure there’s someone out there who finds it quite interesting but I am not man enough. Despite the runtime being only around 45 minutes or so, I could barely stomach through each listen. I simply lose interest.
Listen to Stetson’s early work, not this.
Love Is Not Enough – Converge
7.1/10
As a certified thrash-head, metalcore is one of the metal subgenres that I usually ignore. It’s up there with nu-metal and djent as the type of stuff that I never really enjoyed, a lot of those artists feel closer to hard rock in my opinion anyways (or as we’d say in metal: that’s poser shit).
This album was actually quite a lot of fun though. While many of the detuned, chugging melodies that are a staple of the genre feel a bit stale, they usually aren’t the focus of each track. When they do occasionally crop up, it’s certainly no fun; this doesn’t happen too often though.
Most of my criticism for this record comes from the mixing. “Oh here he goes, talking about the mixing again!”, I hear you scream. I love rhythm, and when I can’t hear the bass and drums to their fullest– no matter how good the melody section is, it feels naked. That’s the case here. “Gilded Cage”, “Amon Amok” and “To Feel Something” are some of the standout worst in my opinion. What I can pick out of the bass tone is nice, but it’s simply too quiet.
My problem with the drums is less the mixing and more so the tone. There’s a lot of great fills and patterns throughout that I can never appreciate to their fullest because it sounds like an artificial kit. Maybe too much Metallica has rotted my brain and I can’t appreciate drums that are actually played correctly. Either way: it brought it down for me.
The vocals are nice. Average vocal frying that is good to listen to but didn’t exhilarate me or anything. The guitar tone was about what you would expect also.
There’s a lot I enjoyed about this album, it was undeniably fun and a lot of the guitar solos caught me off guard with how interesting they were. I really loved some of the less metalcore-y riffs throughout too, it kept things interesting. There were also plenty of things I didn’t like that brought it down in my eyes. The result is an above average metalcore album that I still think you should listen to.
Geogaddi – Boards of Canada
8.6/10
Normally, the anniversary classics I do for this column are albums I adore that I want an excuse to gush about. Usually in a given week there’s at least a few albums I know and enjoy that I can choose from. This week however, I opted to listen to a modern classic (as modern as 2002 is, anyways) that I had been putting off listening for an embarrassingly long amount of time.
Admittedly, I’m not big into electronic music. It’s only been this past year that I’ve started to introduce myself to IDM and downtempo through the likes of Aphex Twin (who I’m still not sold on) and Oneotrix Point Never (who I do quite enjoy). Boards of Canada, from England, are one of the most popular and well received of these genre definers, and after listening to this album I have to say: I’m really starting to see the hype.
With over an hour to its runtime, “Geogaddi” manages to soothe the ears while keeping your mind piqued through its use of synth swells, cool drum loops and catchy melodies.
The sounds that the Scottish duo utilize on this album are excellent, and no doubt extremely pleasant to the ear. While the patterns and primary melodies are repetitive, that’s more to the album’s strength than to its detriment. It allows each track to capture you in a slowly building, swirling wall of sound. Take the first track (after the short intro, anyways) “Music Is Math”. It keeps this same gentle, plucky synth for the first three-quarters of the track, while slowly amping up the bass, and implementing new sounds and melodies. By the last quarter of the track though, they’ve managed to fade out the original idea effortlessly; the result is what sounds like a new song altogether.
This hyper smooth transformation and progression of tracks is extremely impressive from a musical composition point of view, and it just so happens to be incredibly pleasant to listen to as well.
Most impressive to me however, is the sheer quantity of unique ideas presented here. Tracks like “1969” feature what could pass for a hip hop-esque breakbeat, with a dark, ethereal tune laid overtop. “Alpha and Omega” combine a beat made with bongo sounds and an occasional flute lead with a proto-synthwave styled electronic arpeggio overtop. “The Beach at Redpoint” utilizes a flashing, reverberating sound throughout that– in conjunction with the industrial styled drums and thick, deep calliopes– give the vibe of an alien spaceship sending an “Intruder Alert” throughout its interior.
Those are just the tracks of average song-length too. There’s a ton more ideas spread into the bite-sized, 30-90 second interludes dotted between the highlights that manage to juxtapose the tracks comfortably while not feeling too jarring.
This is one of those albums that is so easy to just “throw on”. Morning, midday, evening, night. Somehow the blend of haunting synths, bouncy drums and eclectic assortment of vibes all coalesces into being one, damn good electronic album. For those like me who are more adverse to the genre, give “Geogaddi” a try: I think you’ll be pleased.
