2024 Album-A-Day: Week 43

I don't know if I've said this before here, but I am not built for cold weather. I'm going to have to start going really overboard with the layers soon.

Click here for the playlist link, and if you're so inclined, recommend an album for the remaining 9 weeks of this series. I doubt you will, but you could.

October 21st: Milo Goes to College by Descendents

I knew someday their day would come. Milo Aukerman and company deliver a short, punchy collection of skate punk ragers, and I like it. It's not my favorite 80s punk (that would be Bad Religion), but it has a lot of energy and some powerful riffs. What holds it back somewhat is a few outdated lyrics, such as on "I'm Not a Loser." The songs I already knew were "Suburban Home" and "Hope," which are both enduring classics, "Hope" in particular re-entering my mind constantly. My favorite track was "Bikeage."

October 22nd: The Forever Story by JID

I listened to The Never Story a few months ago, so here's the sequel to that project, The Forever Story. JID is still really good at rapping. Apparently, JID doesn't really listen to other super-technical rap, and there was a brief and minor controversy around this. I'll admit that it's a little odd, but it's not like his music is any worse for this. Anyway, this album is largely a continuation of the sounds of The Never Story, with returning guests such as Earthgang. It's always a joy to hear JID flow, and these songs have great lyrics. My favorite track was "Can't Punk Me."

October 23rd: One of Us is the Killer by the Dillinger Escape Plan

This is an album that, to me, clearly comes from pain, specifically from unhealthy relationships, where both people are at fault and nobody is coming out unscathed. The music reflects this, being off-kilter, dissonant, and overall aggressive. Greg Pucaito sounds like he's tearing his own throat out, the band feels like they're beset on all sides, and the lyrics are things like "One of us will die, but the other won't survive." This album takes a horrible situation and expresses it in the most personally honest way possible. It sounds exactly like what runs through someone's head in a horrid situation like this. My favorite track was the title track.

October 24th: Kimono My House by Sparks

One of these days I'm actually going to watch The Sparks Brothers all the way through. I watched the first 20 minutes once and I never finished it for some reason. I'll get there eventually. Anyway, I like this album. Sparks are flashy, fun, upbeat, and all over the place. The Mael brothers take from many different influences, but come out on the other side sounding wholly unique. The synth work, the punchy riffs, Russell Mael being a complete lunatic, it's all so much fun. "Thank God It's Not Christmas" is my favorite.

October 25th: Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper

Chance The Rapper apparently had a lot of hype as a conscious rapper in the mid 2010s, until his critically panned debut album The Big Day seemed to dash all of that in one fell swoop. On this album, I can see most of where that came from. Chance has that kind of charisma I associate with people like Tyler the Creator and Childish Gambino (who is on this album, and pretty good on that song, even if it does begin with a homophobic lyric from Chance), and these beats are really engaging. I have a few issues, however, such as the aforementioned homophobic lyric, and Chance's somewhat annoying "na na na" ad lib that he does on pretty much every song. It's good, and I like it, but I don't love it. My favorite was "Paranoia."

October 26th: Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy by Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg is a one-man Clash. He wrote an album 1/4 as long as London Calling with all of the same punch, anger, and political weight, all with one guitar and one voice. He sings about working-class British romance like the best Squeeze and Elvis Costello songs, and he's also a die-hard left winger, and that adds an ever-present edge to his music. In case you can't tell, I really like this album and think you should listen to it right now. It's 15 minutes long, unless you also listen to the 30th anniversary album that also features live versions of all seven of these songs. My favorite was "A New England."

October 27th: Mental Illness by Aimee Mann

HOOOLY SHIT AIMEE MANN. I liked Bachelor No 2 a lot, and this album, similarly, kicks ass. Not only is Aimee Mann an amazing songwriter, and an amazing singer, this album also features beautiful string arrangments, lush vocal harmonies, and JONATHAN COULTON!!! HARMONIZING WITH AIMEE MANN! ON SONGS THEY CO-WROTE! The album has this dark tone, but not the kind of darkness that comes from fear, more from a broadly depressive mentality, in an era when it was easy to get depressed. Aimee writes songs with a great degree of emotional nuance; nothing is ever wholly good or bad, it just is what it is. She's sick of everyone's shit, but what else is she going to do? My favorite was "Patient Zero."

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