2024 Album-A-Day: Week 30

30! 30 weeks! Click here for the playlist, and suggest albums for this series. (Exactly one person has done that so far.)

July 22nd: Bacdafucup by Onyx

This album's cover directly mirrors that of Straight Outta Compton, in that the group stand menacingly over the camera as one of them carries a gun. If you recall, I liked some songs on that album while others were underwhelming. This album is less consistent. I already knew and liked "Slam" and found myself enjoying "Here n' Now" and "Phat (N' All Dat)," but listening to this album front to back does not give you a deeper appreciation for these songs, other than enjoying them a great deal more than the other songs. Also, the skits. Don't like 'em. This is a running theme. (Looking at you, Pharcyde.) My favorite non-"Slam" song was "Stik N' Muve."

July 23rd: Imagine by John Lennon

I'd heard the title track before, but never the full album, and I'd already done Plastic Ono Band, so this seemed natural. Aside from the songs I already knew and loved, ("Imagine," "How?") the album is very solid. "Gimme Some Truth" is the angriest song on the album, and it's a lot of fun, as is John's diss track to Paul "How Do You Sleep?" My favorite track is "Oh Yoko!" Incidentally, it's only recently becoming known that Yoko co-wrote a lot of the lyrics to "Imagine."

July 24th: Among the Living by Anthrax

Anthrax is the one of the Big Four of Thrash Metal that I am the least knowledgeable about. Interestingly, they're the only band in the Big Four to not originate from California, but from NYC. On this album, Anthrax portray themselves to be proud nerds, with a song about Judge Dredd ("I Am The Law") and more than one song about a Stephen King book ("Among The Living," "A Skeleton In The Closet"). The riffs are, characteristically, relentless and precise, but the distinguishing factor of this band is Joey Belladonna's vocal style, which is less distorted than that of his contemporaries, such as Dave Mustaine or James Hetfield. I like this album, but it's not my favorite thrash. That's still Metallica. I'd be willing to check out more, though. My favorite track was "One World."

July 25th: 6 Feet Beneath the Moon by King Krule

The only King Krule song I knew before listening to this album was the opening track "Easy Easy," which is, in my eyes, a masterwork. I don't really have the words to describe why, but I love it dearly. The album did not disappoint. Most of these songs have walls of reverb guitar and Archy Marshall's imposing baritone singing about the frustrations of working-class life in London, and I really like songs like "Border Line" and "Cementality." The standout, for me, is "A Lizard State." I'll be listening to more of King Krule later in this project.

July 26th: Brick Body Kids Still Daydream by Open Mike Eagle

Open Mike Eagle is the only rapper that I know of that proclaims how much he loves They Might Be Giants. It's also amazing that he managed to get TMBG guitarist Dan Miller on opening track "Legendary Iron Hood," which is a banger. The nerdy references and high concepts don't take away from Mike's street cred, as proven on "Hymnal" and "Happy Wasteland Day." Mike's flows are as complex as his lyrics, and the beats have a great groove. My favorite track is "Brick Body Complex."

July 27th: Original Pirate Material by The Streets

My sister says British people shouldn't rap. I disagree. This album is a lot of fun. Mike Skinner's brash Birmingham flows and dubby garage beats create something equally as idiosyncratically English as the 1978 parody film the Rutles: All You Need Is Cash. Skinner raps about the English nightlife, types of people he dislikes, and the everyday struggles of the middle class. It's a blast front to back, and my favorite track is "Has It Come To This," though it could easily have been "It's Too Late."

July 28th: Roman Candle, Elliott Smith, and From A Basement on the Hill by Elliott Smith

I'd already heard Either/Or, XO, and Figure 8 before, so I thought I'd finally finish the job. There's an element of whiplash in listening to his first two albums immediately followed by his posthumous final album, for two reasons. The first is length. Roman Candle and the self titled are both >40 minutes in length, while From A Basement is almost an hour. The second reason is that in the time between the self titled album and his untimely, tragic, and continually mysterious death, Smith's music had gotten grander in scope and heavier. There are songs on From A Basement that are heavier than the loudest moments on Figure 8, namely opener "Coast to Coast." The first two albums are both exemplary of the Elliott Smith I'm used to, with spare instrumentation, double-tracked whisper signing, and the most depressing lyrics you've ever heard. From A Basement is more varied, but no less morose. "King's Crossing" is among the sadder songs ever written. Also, weirdly, "Ostrich & Chirping" a 30-second instrumental composed by engineer David McConnell is on this album entirely by accident. My favorite song on each album are, respectively in order of release, "Condor Ave," "Southern Belle," and "Shooting Star."