2024 Album-A-Day: Week 16

Roughly 1/3 of the way there. As always, feel free to recommend albums for my list, and click here for the playlist.

April 15th: Lonerism by Tame Impala

Every now and then I need to be reminded how much I love psychedelic rock. This album, unlike Tame Impala's later work, is driven by distorted guitar, and I really like this side of the project. "Be Above It" is an opener that establishes the tone of the album, and from there it's jam after jam. "Apocalypse Dreams," which is my favorite non-single on the album, "Music to Walk Home By," and the enduring singles "Elephant" and "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards," whose music video I recently learned was created by the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared people. I'm probably going to return to this one.

April 16th: Siren Song of the Counterculture by Rise Against

I used to get this band confused with Against Me! but they are in fact completely different. This is halfway between pop-punk and hardcore punk, in my opinion. On the one hand, you have thrashing songs like "Give It All" and "To Them These Streets Belong," but on the other hand, you have radio-friendly singles like "Swing Life Away" and "Blood to Bleed." I was expecting this to be more hardcore, but I don't dislike this album. It's not my favorite, but it's good. My favorite song on the album is "Life Less Frightening."

April 17th: All Hail West Texas by the Mountain Goats

Finally going my appointed duty and getting into the Mountain Goats. Case in point: All Hail West Texas is fucking great. The first song, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" immediately gripped me. It's such a powerful story. It does not let up from there. All of these songs are offbeat heartfelt stories that John Darnielle delivers with 100% conviction. The run from "Jenny" to "Riches and Wonders" is a perfect sequence, with that last one being tied with "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" for my favorite song on the album. I surely need to listen to more of the Mountain Goats.

April 18th: Melodrama by Lorde

YA YA YA I AM LORDE okay I'll stop. This album is an electropop tour de force. "Green Light" alone seals this one as a classic, but it doesn't end there. "Sober" and its sequel "Sober II (Melodrama)" are absolute jams, "Supercut" is bittersweet and beautiful, and "Perfect Places" ends the album the way all albums should end: on an encapsulation of the whole album's themes. Melodrama proves that whoever said Jack Antonoff is bad at producing needs to listen closer.

April 19th: Geogaddi by Boards of Canada

This was my first time with a Boards of Canada album, and as such, I don't know if I vibe with this yet, but I can appreciate the effort, which I know is such a cop out, but it's a cliche for a reason. I kind of like this album, "1969" is fun, "Music Is Math" is a nice vibe, and "The Devil is in the Details" is pretty good, but overall I don't know if this is an album I'm going to return to. However, it's equally likely that this album takes some time to understand. I'm open to thinking this is genius.

April 20th: Emergency & I by The Dismemberment Plan

I've seen the cover of this album hundreds of times without hearing a note of this album. Well, I say that, but I feel like I've heard "What Do You Want Me To Say?" somewhere before, but for the life of me, I cannot place where. But I digress; this album is pretty good post-punk. I like the odd time signatures ("A Life of Possibilities"), the weird synth sounds ("Memory Machine"), and the neurotic lyrics ("Girl O'Clock"). This reminds me of Gang of Four in some places, Slint in other places, the Front Bottoms (who probably like this album), and, oddly enough, Toadies (mostly the singing). My favortie on the album is probably "What Do You Want Me To Say?" but I also really like "Gyroscope."

April 21st: Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair

My familiarity with Liz Phair was exclusively a few songs from her worst albums (holy shit, have you heard "Bollywood"? It's inhumane) and thankfully this is far from that. It's sort of grungy, confessional singer-songwriter tunes with confessional and sardonic lyrics, with great examples being "Fuck and Run" and "Divorce Song," which are both tied for my favorite song on the album. It also kind of reminds me of Hole to some extent, but less heavy. It's not my favorite female 90's alt rock singer-songwriter album (When The Pawn... remains undefeated) but I like it.