WEEKLY ALBUM RECAP #5 -- the Big One

YOU'VE BEEN INVITED TO THE TOWN PLAY!

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heartbreaking: woman distressed after going outside

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indietronica | idm

★★★½

.this ended up being instrumental with some sampled vocals here and there. i'm not the biggest fan of instrumental albums, i feel like they have to do a lot more than normal to hold my attention. this album kind of suffers from that but not nearly as much as i feared, there were plenty of moments that had me moving. Hong Kong almost felt reminiscent of freddy in space somehow. and in a way it sort of felt like i'd been shot. Nomad Junk starts to falter in the middle, after Kowloon, but it does pick back up. the whole album has a kind of "so retro" vibe to it, which usually ends up feeling very dated. and it does, this album does feel very 2000s, but it ends up holding up surprisingly well. this also marks a new spot on my music map, being malta. you don't see malta show up very often so that's cool. will i ever come back to this? prolly not

for fnaf world defenders

      tracklist

1. Jamboree
2. Hong Kong
3. Kowloon
4. Can't Lie Down
5. Taipei ×
6. Cosmopolis
7. Pan Continental ★
8. The Slow Ones
9. Tokyo Sandstorm
10. House of Representatives
11. Barcelona
12. Proto Guitar

psychedelic rock | neo-psychedelia

★★½

somehow i've made it this far without marking stockholm on my rym map but today we change that... god bless. i haven't listened to anything from sweden in a while, much less anything actually in swedish. nice change of pace. this feels reminiscent of ornatos violeta and i think that's just because their singers kinda sound similar. but that's definitely not a bad thing because i love ornatos violeta. this album is definitely a grower and i think i'll like it more if i ever decice to return to it. my main thing was that it was too long, a lot of the songs felt like they were being dragged on and on. i felt like i was waiting for this to end. two 8 minute songs back to back in the first half was brutal. it has bonus tracks on spotify. i didn't listen to them.

i sat here for like 5 minutes trying to remember what sweden was called and i kept wanting to say swedeland

for people who treat music as nothing but background noise

      tracklist

1. Panda
2. Gjort bort sig
3. Festival
4. Du är för fin för mig
5. Ta det lugnt
6. Det du tänker idag är du i morgon ×
7. Lejonet & kulan
8. Bortglömd
9. Glömd konst kommer stundom ånyo till heders
10. Lipsill
11. Om du vore en vakthund
12. Tack ska ni ha
13. Sluta följa efter ★
    

picopop

★★★★

this is the only album on the list that is also labeled picopop (besides the other plus-tech album obviously) so i was excited. this is the closest sounding to plus-tech squeeze box that i've heard so far, definitely closer to Fakevox. like Fakevox there are some slower moments but i think they're just as strong as the high energy tracks, which is pretty uncommon on albums like this. there's a sort of carnival vibe present on a lot of these songs, my favorites of those being Noel and a worm, the latter of which is built upon a light and bouncy synth that's kind of giving baseball before exploding into this wall of noise at the end. if you've checked out plus-tech squeeze box and want more, i'd say give this a shot

for people who are only made more tired by caffeine

      tracklist

1. Little Prince ★
2. no heart
3. If it's fake
4. a worm
5. Inter
6. Noel
7. a beloved child ×
8. pig pig pig
9. non com-pas men-tis
10. I'm crying on a straight road
11. hasami
12. Can I be your pet?

rock. of some kind

★★★½

i had to add this to rym myself so i was very intrigued. i'm very surprised how much i liked this, but unfortunately i could only find it on bandcamp so it's unlikely i'll ever return to this. there was zero mention of genre on the bandcamp page other than "rock" so i went into this essentially blind, and i was very pleased to hear the electronic influences. The Man With the Harmonica is a great opening track that i felt really set up my expectations well. i'm pretty sure the vocals are all samples? i really like the singer, wish he was more present. i didn't hate the sample(?) vocals, though. there wasn't anything bad here, it peaks at Really Good and at worst is just okay. there's a few songs i liked enough to maybe eventually download, namely The Sweetest Girl I Know, Welcome to Boo Yaa, and Sometimes, which is honestly a really good 3 track run.

for people who get really excited for bandcamp fridays, which i think is a joke i've already made but it works better this time

      tracklist

1. The Man With the Harmonica ×
2. Long Hair
3. Boogie Master
4. It's a Joke
5. The Sweetest Girl I Know
6. Welcome to Boo Yaa
7. Sometimes ★
8. Can't Put Down the Arm
9. Time Has Come
10. Big Head
11. Mr Married Man

no genres listed. idrk

★★★★

on rym this is listed as having 12 tracks but all the versions i can find online only have 7 so idk what's up with that (post-listen: the ones i can't find are a different ep that was thrown onto the jp cd). i also had no idea what to expect cause this only has 1 rating. this feels like something my mom would've played a lot in the car when i was a kid. so much so that i sent this to her after i finished it. the instrumentals are fun and snappy, especially on It's Time to Get Down. i really love the vocals, she has that classic white people soul sound if that means anything to you. and the instrumental tracks are just as good - i really love the train horn (i think?) on Moodswing especially, it adds a lot of depth to an otherwise good but sort of flat song. it's a shame that i could only seem to find half of it because the half i found was really great. stupidly underrated.

for people whose music taste was shaped by whatever their mom would play in the car

      tracklist

1. Getting Higher
   
2. The Running Man
3. It's Time to Get Down ★
4. Moodswing
5. The Cup ×
6. Faster!
7. Hallelujah

no genres listed n idk how 2 categorize this

★★★★

there is absolutely no info about this so color me intrigued.. it's fun and infectious, one of the most overwhelmingly upbeat albums i've heard in recent memory. Shine is a great opener with its almost kind of twee pop feel before exploding into the much more experimental and frantic Head Bang! with its sampled vocals, after which it immediately switches back to the same acoustic guitar driven sound on November Song. every song switches it up just enough to keep it interesting and it's this sort of back and forth that makes the whole experience because it left me in anticipation to hear what would come next. this is insanely high quality for having 36 monthly listeners on spotify and only having one album from 20 years ago.

for people who like(d) going to treasure islands in animal crossing new horizons

      tracklist

1. Shine ★
2. Head Bang!
3. November Song
4. Hang On
5. Sleepy Fanfare
6. Mini ×
7. MC2
8. Friday Girl
9. Wendy

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that finishes the insert list! since there were 2 extra days, i picked a couple albums from my backlog to finish off the week

funk | psychedelic soul

★★★★

the cover art is what drew me to this album, and after learning more about this band i was only more interested. cymande, from what i know, is a collective of south american and caribbean musicians that formed in london. this album is a masterful display of chemistry that you don't hear from bands very often, acting as a single unit. the absolute definition of kicking back with a cold one on a summer day, the tropical vibe is unmatched. Cymande pulls from afro-caribbean styles and jazz to make a truly unique funk experience, especially for its time. they manage to strike a great balance between all of the various cultures and genres they pull from and it creates a very inviting listen. i'm a big fan of ending it off with Ras Tafarian Folk Song as i think it serves to really bring in all of the various influences heard throughout the album, and it ends up being one of my favorite moments. i'll have to relisten to this when it isn't 20 degrees out to see if it sticks more.

for people whose only funk experience has been maggot brain and who want to listen to more

      tracklist

1. Zion I ★
2. One More ×
3. Getting It Back
4. Listen
5. Rickshaw
6. Dove
7. Bra
8. The Message
9. Ras Tafarian Folk Song

post-punk revival | gothic rock

★★★★

sometimes you're scrolling tiktok and you hear a song in the background of a hot person's fit check that makes you go Woah and i don't remember what song it was but it was from this album. i expected this to be a lot worse given its score but i really liked this and i think people just hate fun. my opinion of this album essentially boils down to i love synths and i love gothic rock and did i mention i love synths and so putting them together is making an album that is specifically catered to Me. also this is the most late 2000s album cover ever

if this is just worse interpol then maybe i finally need to tap in

for people who have a love/hate relationship with mindless self indulgence

      tracklist

1. Red Flags and Long Nights
2. These Things
3. I Don't Wanna Fall in Love ×
4. Out of Control ★
5. Monologue
6. Broken Promises for Broken Hearts
7. Sister
8. Disconnect
9. Us ×
10. Someone Must Get Hurt
11. Tear You Apart
12. She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not
    bonus tracks
13. Spend the Night
14. Killing Time

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with the first challenge (for lack of a better word) of the year done, i'll be using a wheel to decide what the "theme" of each week will be! i wanted to put a gif here but it is not cooperating with me and i don't really care that much so you'll have to wait to see what it is

 remember that if you have any suggestions for albums i should check out, you can leave them here! i always appreciate more fuel, and i plan on getting to some of your recs this week

thanks for reading (´ ω `♡)