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.
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!
The Mountain – Gorillaz
8.6/10
For the longest time I told people, “I’m not really into the Gorillaz”, quickly followed by a clarification saying, “I don’t dislike them, I’ve just never really listened to them”. When I finally did delve into their extensive discography, I felt like such an idiot. The Gorillaz make so, so much incredible music, fusing genres new and old to make such high quality music.
While their releases following 2010 masterpiece “Plastic Beach” have been inconsistent, to say the least, I’m very relieved to say that this record is probably their best since then. Thanks to a huge array of features, great tunes and a massive Hindustani classical influence (for some reason), the album feels super refreshing.
The album tells you immediately that you’re in for something special when it opens with “The Mountain”, a track entirely composed of traditional asian instrumentation. Sitars, flutes and percussion open the record, sending you off on your Indian-inspired odyssey. After that though, they take great pleasure in showing that they’re back and they mean business with “The Moon Cave”. It features all the Gorillaz classics: the classic synthy basslines, simple drumming and radio-filter voice of 2D (Albarn) mixing singing and rapping.
This is a super easy formula for success, but the different variations on it are all extremely pleasant. “Orange County” features a super catchy whistle lead backing Albarn’s vocals, variations of the vocal style with heavy autotune in “The Empty Dream Machine” and the implementation of the various Indian influences into their style in tracks like “The Shadowy Light”.
Constantly innovating on themselves while knowing what made them so loved in the first place is what I adore about this record. It feels like both a love letter to themselves and a step in a totally different direction.
If there’s one thing you know if you know Gorillaz, it’s that the wide genre array allows basically any reputable artist to feature on the album. Names like Black Thought of The Roots, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Paul Simonon of The Clash and many others dot the tracklist and bring their own unique influence while still catering to the Gorillaz’s vision.
There were parts of this album I didn’t like. Though I felt “The Manifesto” had an incredible payoff at the end of its seven minute runtime, the first half being close to reggaeton (one of my least favorite genres) was very offputting. I also would have liked to see a bit more rapping on the record.
While it’s never been incredibly prominent in their previous works, I still felt there wasn’t quite enough for me to hear on this album. The track “Delirium” also kind of feeds into the boring, cheesy, european synthpop sound I didn’t like on “Cracker Island”. The interlude “The Hardest Thing” features repeated vocal motifs that appear right after on “Orange County”, but the two don’t blend into each other, leading to the former feeling, a pace-killer.
Overall though, this is one of the best albums of the year and in my opinion, dethrones Gorillaz’s self-titled “Gorillaz” as their third best album. It’s not touching “Demon Days” and certainly not “Cracker Island”, but it comes damn close at times and for that I have to applaud them. Gorillaz are very hard not to like, so I think everyone should listen to this album.
Nothing’s About To Happen To Me – Mitski
6.6/10
Ah, see: it’s funny because if you look at the album cover, something is about to happen to her.
I don’t really care for Mitski. Yes, ridiculous take I know. I’m not going to come on here and hate on her music or anything, the opposite really. Her back-to-back-to-back of “Bury Me At Makeout Creek”, “Puberty 2” and “Be The Cowboy” is one of the better of the 2010s. I can say that almost objectively. This album is more of what I like about her.
Though I’ll never shy away from a long album, it can be nice for an artist to put out something in the 30-40 minute range and Mitski tends to play in those bounds on virtually all of her releases. Sometimes, you don’t need longer than that to express all of your emotions and execute all the ideas you’d want to. Sometimes, it’s even impressive when done correctly.
Musically it’s quite nice. About what you’d expect from her. It’s got cutesy country infusions, gorgeous vocals and a focus on singing and songwriting over the composition. It’s executed nicely throughout and though I prefer her more rocky-esque outings, this one still served me nicely.
My main issue with this album is a rather difficult to express one. It feels, without heart at times. Not to say Mitski doesn’t express herself here. It just feels like it lacks the kind of soul that records like “Puberty 2” had. It doesn’t feel emotionally lackluster, no. There are plenty of great, heartburning lyrics to have throughout. “So I’ve been trying to stop trying, To be like someone you’d still like, Maybe if I could, you already would” from “Cats” is one of my favorites.
It’s just, I’m not sure. A bit hollow? It doesn’t exactly feel like Mitski is really suffering through all the terrible things happening during each of the songs, rather that she is playing the role of the protagonist. When you’re watching a movie, an actor should completely dissolve into their character to the point where you no longer see “an actor”. By the end of “Marty Supreme”, I forgot Timothee Chalamet was an actor, and wasn’t actually table tennis pro Marty Mauser. Mitski fails to do that here and it’s unfortunately critical to the album’s success.
I don’t see myself going back to this record over “Bury Me At Makeout Creek”, “Puberty 2”, or any of her other records, really. I still think it’s worth a listen for any of her fans but an album that’s really just “more of the same but worse” is not one I’m too excited about. Still not bad, though.
Hellbent Daydream – Brandon Seabrook
7.7/10
At risk of sounding the most pompous I ever have: I love a challenging listen. This listen certainly challenged me. So much so that I’m still at a loss for words.
During one of my listening sessions for this review, I happened to have a friend visiting. For her convenience, I opted to listen to the record through my bedroom speakers. Around the halfway mark, she said to me: “Cameryn, you have always had terrible music taste, but this is some bullshit. Real bullshit.”
For your reading convenience, I have no choice but to totally agree with her. Absolutely, this album is “Some bullshit. Real bullshit”. It’s avant-garde jazz distilled down to its purest form. It rapidly jumps between exploding, chaotic symphonies, gentle touches of musicality throughout floating ambience and an occasional look at what warmups sound like for the Brandon Seabrook quartet.
Speaking of quartet, how about that lineup? Well, it’s no different from your typical jazz quartet. It’s violin, bass, banjo and piano. I jest, the banjo is more often a guitar. Yes though, that is the full lineup. It is such a unique array that I have to give the group props for the roster alone. Their ability to utilize such an outlandish combination is far more impressive though.
Jazz violin is something that’s become far more common in recent years. Last year I covered Patricia Brennan’s “Of the Near and Far” and its utilization of the violin was perhaps one of my favorite parts. This album is no different, but instead of harnessing the sharp, boltiness of the violin, it instead portrays the dark, creeping sounds it can create.
Each track feels totally different, so it’s hard to say what I really liked or disliked overall. “The Arkansas Tattler” begins like an old bluegrass jig, but it features these ominous undertones. You can certainly tell that something is wrong when listening to it. The synthesizer melody in the background uses a flute-esque instrument that could pass for one, but is ever so slightly alien. The violin is also never totally in key with the banjo, leading to a jarring, anxious vibe. It finally sheds this exterior around the halfway-mark and transitions into a bass solo, before fully shedding its old-time exterior to reveal the terrifying, violin shrieks underneath.
“Hellbent Daydream”, the title track, features a gorgeous guitar tone and is backed by this gorgeous synthesizer, it really all feels like you’re floating in a dream. “Existential Banger Infinite Ceiling” is more traditionally jazzy, and is mostly a piano-solo piece, with only a few adornments from the violin throughout. “Name Dropping is the Lowest Form of Conversation (Waltz)” is mostly marked by its heavily distorted electric guitar through the intro before it crescendos and drops off to focus on the piano and violin.
All in all, the instrumentation was gorgeous, every solo was exciting and the innovations on the genre were all refreshing as a listener. I really enjoyed this record, though unfortunately, I don’t think many of you will.
Stratosphere – Duster
8.7/10
Not many albums are as intertwined with total, gut-wrenching misery as “Stratosphere” by Duster. I personally limit myself from listening to this album too often because it can genuinely catch me off guard on a particularly bad day and ruin it. For that, I must praise it so, so highly.
There’s not a ton to say about each track, that’s the thing. Simple guitar riffs, simple drumming, basslines you don’t even notice and minimal mixing. On paper, there should be nothing that’s so intriguing about this album. That’s part of its genius though. It draws you in with simplicity and captures you with raw emotion. Even when there’s no lyrics (which is most of the record) you can feel the suffering in the emptiness left by the lack of craziness to be found here.
The lyrics, when they sparsely appear, are perhaps the best parts of the album. Take “The Landing”, that only features two lines, being: “Drunk with hope for the better things; The gears all froze for the millennium” and “The same moon as the wrong kiss; South, down, east, left, out”. Absolutely gut-wrenching with Clay Parton’s delivery. It’s really gorgeous in its reveling of misery.
The guitar riffs are great too. Again, there’s nothing here to really blow you away, but it’s a lesson in substance over style. You don’t need more than one or two riffs per song since they’re all so smooth. You don’t need more than a four-on-the-floor drumbeat because it’s not the focus. It’s hard for me to express what’s so great about the album, you just sort of have to listen to it.
In recent months I’ve let my own personal feelings affect my reviews of albums much more. What I mean to say is I may rate an album higher because of a positive memory attached to it, or in this case, I’m rating an album much lower because of bad personal memory attached to it. That’s the thing about “Stratosphere” though, is that I don’t doubt that almost everyone here has experienced something similar, and may even have had this album to go with it.
