2024 Album-A-Day: Week 25

Almost halfway through the year, and not slowing down. Click here to view the playlist with one song from each discussed album in this series, and recommend more albums I should listen to.

June 17th: Things Fall Apart by the Roots

I can see myself getting really into the Roots. First off: Black Thought. He is an unstoppable force on the microphone. I'm not sure if I'm ready to call him the greatest of all MC's as so many have, but I could certainly see myself getting there. I also appreciate that they are, in fact, a full band, which is rare in the hip-hop genre (why, yes, I AM mostly into rock, how could you tell?) Tracks like "Step Into the Realm" and "Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New" and so many others, they not only show how talented the MCs are, but also their chemistry with each other and with the band. My favorite is "100% Dundee," though it was a difficult choice.

June 18th: Emphatically No. by Cheekface

Cheekface strike me as sort of a foil to Jeff Rosenstock. Whereas Jeff Rosenstock's thesis is "The world is chaotic and terrifying and I'm angry and scared all the time but I need to protect the people I love," Cheekface's thesis is more "The world is chaotic and terrifying but I don't really feel like I can do anything about it yet the banality of life is really scaring me." The music is fun post-punk that ranges from Talking Heads-y to Cake-esque, and the flat delivery perfectly matches the tone of the lyrics, see above. I could see myself loving this band's other albums. My favorite song was "Call Your Mom."

June 19th: Fear Fun by Father John Misty

After threatening to for some time, I am finally taking the steps into getting into Father John Misty. This isn't the first time he's shown up, since he was the drummer for Fleet Foxes when they made Helplessness Blues, but he wanted to go in a new direction when he took up the mantle of Father John Misty. This album is full of weird lyrical conceits, such as cemetery sex, and writing novels, and the death and rebirth of the idea of a ladies' man, and the music is, by contrast, warm and inviting. I've placed other Misty albums on my list. My favorite song was "Only Son of a Ladiesman."

June 20th: Inhuman Rampage by DragonForce

One thing I've learned over time is that some artists/bands are better in small doses. Case in point: DragonForce. Every DragonForce song has the same general format, lyrics about grand adventures and epic battles, and gratuitous shredding guitar solos. I like a few of DragonForce songs back in my gratuitous shred phase (I was 15) but a full album listen is.... less rewarding. The band has one speed, and it gets fairly redundant. The interesting moments are where the lyrics become more personal, specifically on "Body Breakdown," and on "Trail of Broken Hearts," which is the only song to dip below 200 BPM. I still love "Through the Fire and Flames," but the album never hits that height again. My favorite non-TTFAF song was "Body Breakdown."

June 21st: Different Class by Pulp

Exploring a little more Britpop. I've loved Pulp's classic song "Common People" for a long time (as well as William Shatner's Shatnering of it, inexplicably featuring JOE FUCKING JACKSON- I can't go on a Shatner Rant right now), but this was my first time with a Pulp album. My main takeaway is that it's more on the early glam-rock side of Britpop than Oasis' Beatles and Rolling Stones influences and Blur's love of the Kinks and the Who. The songs range from upbeat and fun ("Disco 2000") to darker ("I Spy") and Jarvis Cocker has an amazing presence on the microphone. My favorite song was "Monday Morning"

June 22nd: Songs About Fucking by Big Black

In honor of the late great Steve Albini, I checked out one of his more famous non-producing roles. Songs About Fucking is a noisy, abrasive punk rock album whose songs are, deceptively, not entirely about fucking. I mean, there are songs about sex ("L Dopa," "Precious Thing") but there's also "Colombian Necktie," which appears to be about hanging, and "Kasimir S. Pulaski Day," which is about self-hatret. The noisy energy is infectious, and I really like it. My favorite song is "Bad Penny."

June 23rd: Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin

This was my first time with a full Aphex Twin album, after knowing a few songs for some time (I make it a point to listen to "Avril 14th" every April 14th). This album makes me want to hack things. It's ambient, but not in the Music for Airports sense, more in the sense that it iterates on musical ideas gradually, letting riffs float in and out, the songs gradually building but never exploding. There's also vocal samples, but only occasionally. It's a fun listen, and it seems like it would hold up to repeat listens. My favorite was "Ageisopolis."