50 weeks. 5*10 weeks. 25*2 weeks. It's shocking that I've managed to keep this up for this long. I mean, it was shocking for the first 49 as well, but multiples of 10 feel more important.

Here's the playlist, and here's the AOTY list.

December 9th: R Plus Seven by Oneohtrix Point Never

Listening to this album, I would never have guessed that avant-garde electronic artist Daniel Lopatin would go on to produce for The Weeknd if I didn't already know that. This album is based entirely around pre-existing MIDI sounds, and the songs are mostly pretty atmospheric, sometimes lush, and sometimes unsettling. Much like the cover, it's very abstract, and Lopatin says that he used MIDI sound effects to make every musical idea seem exaggerated. I don't know if that's the impression I get for it, but it makes for an interesting listen. My favorite is "Inside World."

December 10th: Ringo Deathstarr by Ringo Deathstarr

This is the third, and certainly final, recommended album, coming from NeverNcolor_13. This is a shoegaze band, more in the vein of MBV than Slowdive, from what I can tell, although I'm not a shoegaze expert. I get that from the all-consuming guitar riffs and ethereal vocals from both singers, who both stand on their own pretty well while also having good chemistry together. The songs range from pleasant and lovely to headbangers, and the band succeeds on both fronts. "Just Like You" was my favorite track.

December 11th: Love by Cloud Cult

If this band turned out to be an actual cult, I don't know how surprised I'd be. They definitely look like they could be on some Spirit Science bullshit. Aside from that, this one's fun. This album has the sensitive folksy numbers I expected, in kind of a Sufjan Steven vein such as "Meet Me Where You're Going", but you also have power-pop songs like "Good Friend" and noisy rockers like "Complicated Creation," and none of them feel out of place. This band also does this thing at their shows where someone is painting behind the band during the entire show and they auction it off at the end, and I think that's cool. My favorite track was "Good Friend."

December 12th: Bocanada by Gustavo Cerati

I don't know that much about late Argentinian rocker Gustavo Cerati, or about Argentinian music in general, but this is a really good album. From what I read, this album came after the dissolution of the rock band Soda Stereo, of which Cerati was a member, and he went in more of a triphop direction with this album, playing many of the instruments himself. As such, the music is psychedelic and largely sample-based, and even if my Spanish is utterly terrible, Cerati's voice is fragile and angelic, and the lyrics (after some google translate) are beautifully poetic. My favorite track was "Puente."

December 13th: Earth by Sault

This mysterious collective of anonymous musicians has built up an extensive discography over the past decade, and after listening to this album, I fear I chose the wrong place to start. There's a lot of what I can only describe as drum circles on this album, songs that are repetitive in a way that kind of wears on the ears, but also great vocal and instrumental performances. Maybe earlier albums are more focused, or maybe I just need to spend more time with this one to fully get it. The best example of what I'm talking about is "Fields," which has this one bass line and percussion rhythm for most of the song, but then at the end you get this great blues jamming, and I don't know what to do with the rest of it. I'm just going to assume I don't have the proper context yet and return to the subject at a later date, with "Stronger" being my favorite song on this album for the moment.

December 14th: Study In Brown by Clifford Brown and Max Roach

Rarely does my jazz listening predate Kind of Blue, so this was an enlightening look at hard bop. These compositions are full of wild improvisation, and driven by Clifford Brown's trumpet playing and Max Roach's drumming. My favorite thing about this album is the interplay between all the band members, especially between Brown and tenor saxophonist Harold Land. What this album reminds me of the most is John Coltrane, specifically A Love Supreme, which is a high compliment for any album. "George's Dilemma" is my favorite track.

December 15th: Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks

I'm going to return to this album the next time the weather's nice. This is the kind of warm and soulful music that I love to listen to while walking when the weather's nice. Parks and her cowriter Gianluca Buccellati create these soulful bedroom pop compostitions built around fun r&b grooves, jazzy guitar work, and lyrics about love and everyday life, and it's breezy and fun to listen to. I'm struggling to find artists to compare Parks to, because she pulls from so many different styles that I find her sound hard to pin down. There's some clear influence from Erykah Badu, but she sounds kind of like pinkpantheress sometimes, and her lyrics sort of remind me of Moses Sumney. I've heard the song "Black Dog" before, and I think that's a great representation of the sound of this album. My favorite track is "Hope," not counting "Black Dog" because I'd already heard it.

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