WEEKLY ALBUM RECAP #15 -- I FUCKING LOVE TOM WAITS (and more new releases, i guess)

YOU'VE BEEN INVITED TO THE TOWN PLAY!

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accidentally refreshed and deleted like 3 really good reviews that i cannot replicate

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dance-pop | alt-pop

★★½

biig piig is not at all an innovative artist on 11:11, but there is clearly some talent here, which is partially why this album is so frustrating. the songs themselves are good, an experiment that just doesn't work at worst, but this album is WAY too short. there are a lot of really quality cuts here that simply don't get the chance to shine because they aren't given the time they deserve to properly develop. the last 3 tracks also take an acoustic turn for some reason? which is perplexing. [full review on rym]

just listen to Salvation instead

      tracklist

1. 4AM
2. Ponytail
3. Cynical
4. Favourite Girl
5. I Keep Losing Sleep ×
6. 9-5 ★
7. Decimal
8. Silhouette
9. Stay Home
10. One Way Ticket
11. Brighter Day

electropop | dance-pop

★★★★

having... y'know, lived on earth and experienced the internet, hearing the name rebecca black in the big 2025 is slightly surprising. seeing the name rebecca black in the top 20 albums of 2025? much more surprising. i remember hearing about her debut album when that happened a couple years ago and then just never checking it out. it's quick and punchy electropop with a nice hint of hyperpop, topped with really silky vocals that glide over these beats. while this is an incredibly short album, every song managed to leave its impact without overstaying its welcome or feeling unfinished. i listened to this immediately after listening to biig piig, and this is exactly why 11:11 was so frustrating - because it is fully possible to write a 3> minute song and have it feel full and lively and complete. and more on that thought below

for people who wanted oklou to have more oomph

      tracklist

1. Salvation
2. Trust! ★
   
3. Sugar Water Cyanide
4. American Doll
5. Tears in My Pocket ×
6. Do You Even Think About Me?
   
7. Twist the Knife

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i wanna just put some excerpts here from my full review of 11:11, which you can read on my rym:

"a 29 minute runtime isn't inherently a bad thing, but that largely ends up depending on the tracklist itself - think a 29 minute album with fewer, longer, more fleshed out songs vs. a 29 minute album with more, shorter songs that don't get the chance to develop to their fullest potential. it's a quality vs. quantity thing, and 11:11 very much feels like quantity over quality."

"having listened to Salvation right after this only highlights the issues i have with this album more. Salvation is another short and sweet electropop album, but it only makes it even more obvious that the songs on 11:11 simply don't feel finished and fleshed out. Salvation's tracks are also quite short (in fact, Salvation is only 21 minutes long), but they utilize their time perfectly. unlike 11:11, it's clearly quality over quantity. the problem with 11:11 is that the songs feel like they should be longer, and then they just... end."

ok back to it

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post-punk

★★★

there's some interesting stuff going on in the way they play with repetition, especially in the guitar, but at one point does one stop to say "okay this is getting too repetitive"? i think it speaks to their musicianship in a way though, because you have to be pretty comfortable to mess around with arrangements like that. also quite impressive is the fact that if rym is correct, this album was recorded in only 3 days. this is definitely an album that the more you return to it, the more details you notice and the more you get out of it, but the thing about that is you have to have something that lures you in and makes you want to come back to it, and i personally didn't find that.

for people who drink out of measuring cups

      tracklist

1. Talking Haunted
2. Ordinary Voices
3. Wish Defense ★
4. A Room
5. Desire Path ×
   
6. Sometimes Only
7. You Future

indie rock

★★★

a band that has always angered me because their first album was spectacular and nothing else they've done since has come close. while a 2.76 might be slightly harsh, this is not an exception. the common theme in this album is that the verses are great and then the chorus hits and it's just so Meh. i can't say i'm disappointed because it's not like i'm expecting anything as good as their debut but alex kapranos still sounds fantastic and it's clear that they still have something good left in them so... where is it? not to say that this was bad but, again, it's overwhelmingly just like Yep This Is It. there's some genre exploration in the first half, which is fine - Hooked is a funky synth punk banger, very she wants revenge. but then there's nothing else like it?? and it's back into regular indie rock. it actually almost moves into sounding, like, billy joel inspired? Night or Day is also pretty good, a piano driven moment that's probably the most reminiscent of classic franz ferdinand. at its core, this feels like a decent attempt at reheating nachos but like, only the toppings. without the chips. which i didn't really think was an option

for people who order a plain burger

      tracklist

1. Audacious
2. Everydaydreamer
3. The Doctor ×
4. Hooked ★
5. Build It Up
6. Night or Day
7. Tell Me I Should Stay
8. Cats
9. Black Eyelashes
10. Bar Lonely
11. The Birds

modern classical

★★★

a collection of short and sweet classical piano pieces. it's very relaxing. i like the strings. i don't have much to say about classical. if you like classical then check it out👍

for sitting at a little corner cafe and looking mysterious and nonchalant

      tracklist

1. Glare of Us ★
2. Melting ×
3. Mr. Squirrel
4. Murmuration
5. Agatha's Letter
6. Evening Bell
7. Zapad Slunce
8. Ticket to the Rome
9. Sonsoz
10. Melting - Alternate Version

alt-country | singer-songwriter

★★★

a country album from... the netherlands? the guy has a decent enough voice for country, all things considered. it just feels like something is missing? country isn't exactly my first choice to sit down and listen to in my free time so i don't think i can quite articulate what, but like... idk. you can tell it's not american. the vocals mainly but also the instrumentals have a noticeable lack of soul (for lack of a better word) in comparison, i guess. that sounds mean. Coming Down is pretty good though

for people who swear they don't listen to country and then turn on like trampled by turtles or something

      tracklist

1. Not So Precious Memories
2. Up in the Hills ×
3. Coming Down ★
4. There Ain't Much Left of Me
5. With My Eyes Closed
6. Lost Lovesick Lonesome Blue
7. Sam
8. I Think It's Time
9. There Ain't Gonna Be Nobody Miss Me When I'm Gone
10. Shooting Words
11. Waltz Through the Night
12. Wandering Heart
13. Mother the Mountain

psychedelic pop | neo-psychedelia

★★★

before i say anything, i must admit - i do not care for animal collective. i've heard Strawberry Jam and i came really close to liking it but it just didn't click. i thought, hey, this new panda bear album might be a nice way to give em a second chance! yeah it's still just ok. his vocals are just kind of annoying at times, but there's still some good moments, most notably Anywhere but Here. there's some notable dub and reggae influence in songs like 50mg which keeps it more interesting than it would be otherwise. it feels like he's trying to make this into a nostalgia "oh this sounds vaguely familiar" kind of thing but i just don't think he leans into that enough. some of it is mildly interesting, but only some. and only mildly.

for people who really want to hear beach boys reggae

      tracklist

1. Praise
2. Anywhere but Here ★
3. 50mg
4. Ends Meet
5. Just As Well
6. Ferry Lady
7. Venom's In
8. Left in the Cold
9. Elegy for Noah Lou ×
10. Defense

emoviolence | metalcore | sass

★★★★

11 minutes of straight bangers. normally this hyper-short archetype of album doesn't do much for me but for albums that sound like this i find it ideal - it's just enough to get the point across without overstaying its welcome

90% of my friends list will enjoy this

      tracklist

1. Tonight, We Die in Battle...
2. Tomorrow, We Rise Again ×
3. Jane Is a Vampire!
4. Punk Girl at the Rock Show
5. Our Time Will Come ★
6. I Killed Barbie
7. Motion
8. Jane Is a Werewolf!

experimental rock | post-punk | synth punk

★★★★

crunchy. whimsy. glitchy, manic perfection. there's microwaves and 5g and vaccines pulsing through my veins and i never thought it would sound so good.

for people who were kinnies in 2021

      tracklist

1. A Tedious Deity Bends Six Tenants' Ears
2. 0 Comfort
3. NERᐯᐯᐯᐯᐯᐯES
4. You Ungrateful Losers
5. Baby Doll, I Love, Love, Love! Your Red Hot Carapace~
6. How to Please a Real Man ★
7. So Alive!!
8. Cruel Useless Music ⟲⟲⟲ ×

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singer-songwriter | piano blues

★★★★

i'm much more familiar with experimental tom waits than his more jazzy blues-y stuff. while it's not what i'd be coming to tom waits for, it's still really fucking good. as much as i love his iconic deep gravelly vocals and more avant-garde persona, there's a different type of charm to the more smooth and tender approach displayed here. Closing Time is tom waits at his most sickeningly melancholic and longing and it's a delightfully smooth experience.

for hopeless romantics

      tracklist

1. Ol' '55 ★
2. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You
3. Virginia Avenue
4. Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)
5. Midnight Lullaby
6. Martha
7. Rosie
8. Lonely ×
9. Ice Cream Man
10. Little Trip to Heaven (On the Wings of Your Love)
11. Grapefruit Moon
12. Closing Time

singer-songwriter | piano blues

★★★½

a jazzier take on the piano blues, though i wasn't as big of a fan as i was of Closing Time. New Coat of Paint is easily the best cut here, it's just so smooth it's almost painful. the sentimentality continues on, and this album does an excellent job at making it feel like you've just stumbled into some shady little bar in the late night/early morning and they have just some Guy (drunk? probably) on the piano.

for late night bar crawls

      tracklist

1. New Coat of Paint ★
2. San Diego Serenade
3. Semi Suite
4. Shiver Me Timbers
5. Diamonds on My Windshield ×
6. (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
7. Fumblin' With the Blues
8. Please Call Me, Baby
9. Depot, Depot
10. Drunk on the Moon
11. The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)

singer-songwriter | piano blues | vocal jazz

★★★★

if The Heart of Saturday Night is for late night bar crawls, Small Changes is acute liver failure. this album is the first glimpse of the more experimental tom waits, being the first notable instance of his iconic low gravelly vocals, accompanied by the same sultry drunken jazzy blues-y instrumentals as the last two. though, these songs are punchier and wittier than anything he'd done up to this point, and chock full of great one-liners - the drunken ramblings of a guy who's truly losing it.

for too-far-gone addicts (any substance)

      tracklist

1. Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)
2. Step Right Up
3. Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone With Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and the Mug and Artie) ★
4. I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward) ×
5. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening With Pete King)
6. Invitation to the Blues
7. Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club)
8. Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)
   
9. The One That Got Away
10. Small Change (Got Rained on With His Own .38)
11. I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)

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shoegaze | neo-psychedelia | indietronica

★★★

i wasn't a big fan of the songs that leaned more into the sort of ps2 y2k atmospheric kind of thing, but the ones that embrace the shoegaze are pretty good

for people who buy off tiktok shop

      tracklist

1. enix wake ★
2. wonder limit
3. nokia login ×
4. blue trio
5. self:heal
6. moonworld

shoegaze | dream pop

★★★

perfectly adequate dreamy shoegaze. sway does a good job of creating a lush, dense yet light and dreamy atmosphere. i liked Fall quite a bit but the rest fell flat in comparison, though this has never really been my kind of thing anyway. i'm picky about shoegaze

for people whose favorite album of all time is souvlaki by slowdive

      tracklist

1. Fall ★
2. Sounds Like Everyone ×
3. Sullust
4. Ever and Ever
5. Opentillate

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remember that if you have any suggestions for albums i should check out, you can leave them here!

thanks for reading (´ ω `♡)