March '24 - Albums I listened to for the first time 💜

Here's all 7 albums I listened to for the first time in March!!! Hope you find something you like there💜

💜 Heyday - The Church 💜
• jangle pop, post-punk, neo psychedelia
• fav songs: Myrrh, As You Will, Columbus
"I embraced a machine, I went through the routine, and I hid from the people who were trying to find me"
The Church's Starfish is one of my favorite albums of ALL TIME, and somehow I had never listened to Heyday in full despite meaning to for years. Guess what, just like Starfish, it's a masterpiece. To me, The Church's music is an experience. It's like a drug trip. I like to listen to it lying face up in my bed, with my eyes semi-closed on a warm sunny day of spring, it makes me feel like I'm having an out of body experience. The psychedelic instrumentals make my spirit rise up and I can feel it abandoning my body, wandering through different planets and nostalgic sunny parks. It's the soundtrack to a hazy, trippy dream. I'm Alice and The Church is the sound of Wonderland. Heyday is no exception, it feels like the sunlight through the trees hitting your face, so ethereal, so otherwordly, makes my heart ache with bittersweet nostalgia for something that possibly never even happened.

💜 Ocean Rain - Echo & The Bunnymen 💜
• post-punk
• fav songs: The Killing Moon, Nocturnal Me
"In starlit nights I saw you, so cruelly you kissed me, your lips a magic world, your sky all hung with jewels"
What can I even say? It's a certified post-punk classic. It's dark, it's silly, it's a staple of the genre. I can't believe I had never listened to it in full until now (despite trying many times). Amazing instrumentals. I know I chose the most popular songs as my faves, but come on... There's a reason they're so popular. The Killing Moon is an all timer masterpiece in every possible way and will never not be one of the best songs of all time. Ian McCulloch says god told him to write it, lol. Great album!

💜 ¡Viva Zapata! - 7 Year Bitch 💜
• riot grrrl, grunge
• fav songs: M.I.A., Rock A Bye, It's Too Late
"Does society have justice for you? Well if not, I do." 
So morbid, so punk, so good. Exquisite guitar riffs and basslines that really complement Selene Vigil's agressive vocals singing death-obsessed lyrics. This album has a very tragic backstory that haunts all the songs throughout even when they're not explicitly about it, the deaths of two people close to the band, former member Stefanie Sargent and Mia Zapata of The Gits (the album's namesake) heavily inspired it, and to make a piece of art so powerful like this after what happened to the band is just such an amazing thing, its anger is so cathartic. Even though it's a dark album, it still has time to have fun in some songs and I love the experience as a whole. I genuinely thought It's Too Late was written by the band but turns out it's a cover from The Jim Carroll Band, it's one of the best songs on the album and the fact that I thought it was an original really speaks to the cohesiveness of the album imo, the lyrics fit in so perfectly with all of the themes that I thought they wrote it, they really knew how to choose a song to cover to complement the rest of the album and add to its tone, it feels so complete. To me, this album is the epitome of the riot grrrl genre, and I think M.I.A. should be included in every feminist punk/rock playlist. "Does society have justice for you? If not, I do". This album is rightfully furious and it's not afraid to express it. Viva Zapata!!!!!

💜 Ultraviolet - All About Eve 💜
• dreampop, gothic rock, shoegaze
• fav songs: Freeze, Blindfolded Visionary, Phased, Outshine The Sun
"The sacred and the scared align and call on me to break the ballerina's spine"
All About Eve is one of my favorite bands, and they're not easy to describe when it comes to genre. Their self titled debut is one of my favorites, it's more folk rock inspired and very '80s, kinda like a goth Fleetwood Mac. This album on the other hand is extremely different sonically, it resembles darkwave and really cements AAE's status as a goth band. I don't know if I prefer this direction for the band over the sound they started with, but I LOVE both of them. This album..... So COLD. Airy shoegaze, windy, majestic. Julianne Regan's vocals work more as an instrument, they're a lot less atethe forefront, more subdued than before, but the harmonies she sings in almost a whisper compliment the icy instrumentals perfectly. The chemistry is so good. One thing it does have in common with the band's earlier work is it's ethereal quality, Ultraviolet and self titled both feel like they could be straight out of a fairytale, albeit in very different ways. Self titled is a folky tale of forests and witches and red riding hoods picking up windfall apples while Ultraviolet is a dark nocturnal fairytale about being stuck in an ice palace, tinted in frosty shades of blue, sparkly yet sad. I loved this album so much, again, it's an experience, it's like being softly swept off your feet and taken away by the wind. Let yourself be and let the music take you places.

💜 Fairytales of Slavery - Miranda Sex Garden 💜
• ethereal wave, gothic rock, neoclassical darkwave
• fav songs: Wheel, Cover My Face, Transit, Peep Show, A Fairytale About Slavery
"When did you realize that you'd never be free?"
Honestly kind of a masterpiece. Absolutely gorgeous and sometimes devastating. Miranda Sex Garden are so unique. I'm absolutely obsessed with the contrast between the heavy, noisy instrumentals and the beautiful madrigal vocals. I can't think of any other group that sounds like them. This is not your typical goth band, the 3 vocalists started out as classic a capella singers in their debut Madra, and later switched to mixing the same pretty style of singing with noise rock, ethereal wave, and sometimes neoclassical inspired instrumentals. The voices are still at the forefront and are the main attraction but they work so much better with the accompanying instruments. Again, a wonderful surreal experience (GREAT album to fall asleep to, speaking from personal experience, particularly for a half-asleep daytime nap, great soundtrack to strange deams) with a FANTASTIC atmosphere. Romantic goth realness, I'm absolutely obsessed with this album and band.

💜 Bread and Jam for Frances - Switchblade Symphony 💜
• trip hop, darkwave
• fav songs: Funnel, Soldiers
"Your dreams are filled with blood and gore, now they're right outside your door"
Nothing will ever top the masterpiece that is Serpentine Gallery for me, but this is a good mix of goth and trip hop, very eclectic and I really like how it mixes genres. Funnel is an incredible song, so clean. Tina Root's opera trained vocals absolutely shine in Soldiers, another absolute favorite. We NEED more goth artists with opera-trained vocals, it's seriously one of my favorite things and it works so well. A fun even if sometimes a little cheesy album for weirdo goth b(w)itches <3

💜 The Lion and the Cobra - Sinéad O'Connor 💜
• alternative rock, singer-songwriter, art pop
• fav songs: Just Like U Said It Would B, Troy
"And I love you, God I love you, I'd kill a dragon for you"
Oh how I love you Sinéad, a true revolutionary, the best example I can think of in music of wielding your vulnerability as a weapon. Even songs that aren't inherently sad make me want to cry (Just Like U Said It Would B..... always makes me tear up). When people bring up the concept of female rage in music (which lately is a lot), Troy should be one of the first songs mentioned. Genuinely one of the best songs ever written imo. I love Sinéad's lyricism for how imaginative and unorthodox it is, and she had the voice of an angel; a very angry, passionate angel. I wish I could sing like her. Beautiful beautiful album, raw and sensitive and so clearly straight from the heart, it's like reading through someone's diary. And the album cover perfectly matches the energy!!!! 

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