2024 Album-A-Day: Week 42

Do you know where your towel is?

Click here for the playlist, and feel free to suggest albums for me to write about for the remaining ten weeks of this project. I find it unlikely anyone will at this point, but consistency is important to me.

October 14th: Deathcounsciousness by Have a Nice Life

This is one of those albums I'd heard spoken of in music-nerd circles for a long time before hearing any of it, or really knowing anything about this band. After listening, it certainly sounds like a cult classic. It's shoegaze with heavy post-rock and post-punk influences, with an overwhelming darkness to it. I'm sure you're sick of hearing me say this, but this is an album that might take me a few listens to fully get it. I understand the appeal, but I don't really resonate with it yet. I must note, apparently they're fans of House of Leaves, which is always cool, and they wrote these cryptic liner notes in a sort of HoL style. "Deep, Deep" was my favorite.

October 15th: The Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground

I've listened to The Velvet Underground and Nico a bunch of times, but this was my first time with this album (although I had already heard "Candy Says," which I really love). This album has neither Nico nor John Cale, but it's still distinctively VU. Doug Yule establishes him as a likeable presence, in contrast to Lou Reed's jagged edge, and even drummer Moe Tucker gets to sing on closer "After Hours." There's accessible, catchy songs like "Candy Says" and "That's the Story of my Life," and weird freakouts like "The Murder Mystery" and they're all distinctly Velvet Underground. My favorite was "Pale Blue Eyes."

October 16th: Fantasma by Cornelius

This scratches an itch I'd forgotten I'd had. This hits my brain the same way FLCL and Jet Set Radio and even Splatoon kinda do. The shibuya-kei sound is infectious and bubbly and trippy, and even if I'm not a Japanese speaker, I really like Cornelius' voice. I love these hooks as well, from "Clash" to "Ball in Kick Off," these songs really stick with you, and they make me want to rollerblade around Tokyo with a ragtag group of punks and gansters. Unfortunately, I live in the US and can't rollerblade for shit. My favorite was "Star Fruits Surf Rider" because it's basically everything I like about this album compressed into one song.

October 17th: Selected Ambient Works Volume II by Aphex Twin

I added this to the list after listening to Aphex Twin's first collection of ambient works, and.... I don't know if I like this one. I was originally going to say that I merely didn't like it as much as the first, but... this is 2 hours long, and these tracks don't really work for me as ambient music, usually just being kinda unsettling. I do not want to imply that this is bad; a lot of people really like it, and I feel like this succeeds at what it's trying to do, but I guess this one's not for me. My favorite track was "#17."

October 18th: Thirteenth Step by A Perfect Circle

I've listened to some Tool, so here's one of Maynard James Keenan's other acts. A Perfect Circle seems less proggy and more radio-friendly but still clearly written by Keenan. These chugging riffs are really infectious, and the album has a running theme about addiction. I really love the bass on "Weak and Powerless" and the lyrics on "Pet," which- okay, I'd heard "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" before, and when I heard this song I got confused, and then learned that that song is a reworking of "Pet" with the topic shifted from drug addiction to the Iraq War. Odd. Anyway, I like this album, and "The Outsider" is my favorite track.

October 19th: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version by Ol' Dirty Bastard

Yet another solo album from a Wu-Tang Clan member, which serves as yet another instance of me thinking that the members of the Clan are better together than apart. I do like this album, more than Liquid Swords, and ODB is a lot of fun, but I feel like a full album of him is a bit much. On a Wu-Tang album, all of the members can play off each other, support each other, trade verses, and it was a lot of fun. Maybe I'm just more used to ODB in a full group context, but I don't love this album like I love Enter the Wu-Tang. "Cuttin Headz'" was my favorite.

October 20th: El Oso by Soul Coughing

This album is often algorithmically recommended to me, listed as similar to acts I love like Beck and Fountains of Wayne, and I am so glad I finally listened to it. This band, that I will admit I know very little about, has a sound all their own. First off: THE DRUMS. HOLY SHIT THESE DRUMS. They're absolutely unstoppable. The lyrics have an almost Cake level of jaded cynicism, with humor reminiscent of Beck, and these songs are also really catchy. I'm surely going to relisten to this a lot. "Circles" is my favorite song from this album.

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