WEEKLY ALBUM RECAP #1 -- who up surfing they butthole

YOU'VE BEEN INVITED TO THE TOWN PLAY!

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noise rock | art punk | experimental rock

★★★½

i didn't quite know what to expect going into this as my only prior exposure to butthole surfers was Pepper, which is a FANTASTIC song. i did like this but i don't think it was anything special. very weird, which i will always appreciate, but not my personal choice flavor of weird. i am tempted to listen to more from them, though, so i guess it succeeds in that aspect.

i didn't listen to Negro Observer since it isn't on spotify and, to be frank, i didn't care enough to seek it out elsewhere.



for fans of anything strange and vulgar

      tracklist

1. Concubine
2. Eye of the Chicken
3. Dum Dum
4. Woly Boly
5. Negro Observer (didn't listen to it)
6. Butthole Surfer
7. Lady Sniff
8. Cherub ★
9. Mexican Caravan
10. Cowboy Bob ×
11. Gary Floyd

art pop | art rock | progressive pop

★★★★★

"Japan strikes again" - Joe Santagato

i'm not even gonna make a bad joke here. just go listen to this.

      tracklist

1. 宗教
2. ドッペルゲンガー ×
3. 迷彩 ★
4. おだいじに
5. やっつけ仕事
6. 茎
7. とりこし苦労
8. おこのみで
9. 意識
10. ポルターガイスト
11. 葬列

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indietronica | geek rock | indie pop

★★★★★

i am of the belief that this album will forever be underappreciated for what it's done. gizmodgery was super ahead of its time - the living tombstone? lemon demon? yeah it all started here. we're at a point now where this type of album is basically a cliche, but at the time this was very unique. this album's whole gimmick is that it was made entirely with toy instruments, which i've always found insanely impressive. the lyricism is the perfect amount of stupid and silly, which i think is perfectly shown on Pattycake and Trunk Fulla Amps, the latter of which is nothing more than just a repetition of variations of its title but it works stupidly well to make a catchy tune. there are some "meh" moments on here, namely Chameleon, in which they attempt to go for a more hip-hop influence, except they already did that better on the previous track 5 Alive. oh, and Dead Man is one of the biggest ear worms of all time.

for people who were lemon demon fans during the pandemic but i mean that in a good way

      tracklist

1. I Am a Little Explosion
2. 5 Alive
3. Chameleon ×
4. Dead Man ★
5. Trunk Fulla Amps
6. Pattycake
7. Ordinaire
8. Miracleworker
9. Hi, My Name's Cindy
10. What a Fool Believes
11. 9 Lives
12. Ilovetoloveyourlovemylove.
13. Trunk Fulla Amps (clean version)
14. Resurrect (bonus track)

britpop | glam rock

★★★★★

i find myself usually listening to the highlights of this album rather than just listening to it in full, and i'm not sure why. from the limited knowledge i have of britpop as someone who is very Not British, this is by far my favorite britpop album, and that's mostly for its glam rock elements. i love whiny male vocals and brett anderson fills that bill perfectly. Filmstar has been playing on loop in my mind for weeks, and Trash and Beautiful Ones have for months. i do think the last 3 songs kind of drag this down (not by much), especially Picnic by the Motorway. i'm generally not as much of a fan of suede's slower moments and it really just doesn't do it for me.

     tracklist

1. Trash ★
2. Filmstar
3. Lazy
4. By the Sea
5. She
6. Beautiful Ones
7. Starcrazy
8. Picnic by the Motorway×
9. The Chemistry Between Us
10. Saturday Night

post-punk | experimental rock | gothic rock

★★★★½

i don't listen to this a lot, which is a shame because it's really great. it's the perfect blend between the gothic rock of Children of God and White Light from the Mouth of Infinity and the excellence that would be Soundtracks for the Blind. some of swans' best material resides here, most notably in my opinion Killing for Company and Celebrity Lifestyle. i never really see songs from this album come up in swans discussion and it really hurts. jarboe is great as always, Mother / Father is really not brought up enough, i don't think. i think this album is a great place to start if you want to get into swans and don't want to commit 2 hours to one album (yet).

for people who felt like their life was over upon finding out steve albini died (me)

      tracklist

1. In
2. I Am the Sun
3. She Lives!
4. Celebrity Lifestyle ★
5. Mother / Father
6. Blood Promise
7. Mind / Body / Light / Sound
8. My Buried Child
   
9. Warm ×
10. Alcohol the Seed
11. Killing for Company
12. Mother's Milk
13. Where Does a Body End?
14. Telepathy
15. The Great Annihilator
16. Out

experimental rock | post-rock

★★★★★

i can't listen to this album frequently. i don't often feel like i can concentrate enough to listen to a 2 hour long album but this week i did. did i zone out every few minutes? yes. that being said, this is one of my favorite albums of all time. She Loves Us is probably my favorite swans song of all time, so it's unfortunate that it's on this album because it ends up kind of getting overshadowed by the Big Ones like Screen Shot, A Little God in My Hands, Oxygen, and even Bring the Sun / Toussaint L'Ouverture (which are obviously all fantastic in their own right).

for fans of watching paint dry (positive)

      tracklist

1. Screen Shot
2. Just a Little Boy (For Chester Burnett)
3. A Little God in My Hands
4. Bring the Sun / Toussaint L'Ouverture
5. Some Things We Do ×
6. She Loves Us ★
7. Kirsten Supine
8. Oxygen
9. Nathalie Neal
10. To Be Kind

alternative rock

★★★★½

that handsome devil will forever be one of the most underappreciated bands of all time. it really is incredible how long they managed to slip under the radar until Charlie's Inferno blew up on tiktok... this album only has 73 ratings on rym T_T. this is everything i love about tdh and is the perfect thing to show why i didn't like their previous album Your Parent's Are Sellouts. The Age of Men is one of the best songs they've ever made, and this is their best since 2011's The Heart Goes to Heaven, the Head Goes to Hell (ironically enough, where Charlie's Inferno comes from), an album which features one of my favorite thd tracks, Twist the Knife. on Exploitopia we see the return of the Twist the Knife-esq style in Gravity of the Situation and Crooked Heart, which made me incredibly happy. this was maybe my third listen? and i'm still liking it more and more... not that it's not without its duds (cough cough Cleanse the Algorithm).

for people who've heard Charlie's Inferno on tiktok (yes you have) and want more of That, please!

      tracklist

1. The Age of Men ★
2. A Million Bots
3. Everybody's Robbing Everyone
4. You're Doing Too Much Cocaine
5. Gravity of the Situation
6. Before You Were Born
7. Tonight
8. About You
9. Buddah Was a Rich Boy
10. Kill the Rat
11. Cleanse the Algorithm ×
12. Crooked Heart
13. The Toilet That Killed Elivs

neo-psychedelia | art rock

★★★★

i remember liking this a lot more than i did this time around. there's really strong highlights on here, but also some not as memorable moments. obviously the big highlight here is Ocean Man, most people's introduction to ween these days (myself included). the biggest standout to me, although not my favorite, is The Blarney Stone, an accordion-driven sea shanty that sonically stands out in a good way. there's an excellent mix of humor and emotion here, between songs like It's Gonna Be (Alright) and Waving My Dick in the Wind, which manage to be my 2 favorites from this album. i understand why this album is so beloved but personally if i wanna listen to ween i'm gonna pick quebec instead.

      tracklist

1. I'm Dancing in the Show Tonight
2. The Mollusk
3. Polka Dot Tail
4. I'll Be Your Jonny on the Spot
5. Mutilated Lips
6. The Blarney Stone
7. It's Gonna Be (Alright) ★
8. The Golden Eel
9. Cold Blows the Wind
10. Pink Eye (On My Leg) ×
11. Waving My Dick in the Wind
12. Buckingham Green
13. Ocean Man
14. She Wanted to Leave

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thank you if you looked through this whole thing! i do not expect a lot of people to care about this lol