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This year I've been trying to listen to new albums and I think I've been doing a pretty good job. I've been sucked into Jellyfish land for a while and I've been making my way through the members' solo and side projects. But I've also tried to balance all that with other random albums. Anyway, this week I listened to four new albums. Well, three albums and one EP.
Also disclaimer that I'm not a professional reviewer or critic obviously, I'm just some girl who likes talking about music and sharing it, because music is one of the most important things to me. I'm gonna be doing more of these in the upcoming weeks as I discover new music.
SEED - LING (1994)
I found this album randomly. I got a video for a performance of their song "Doe" recommended to me on Youtube, and I clicked because the guy on the thumbnail (the lead singer/bassist) looked a bit like Roger from Jellyfish 〜(￣▽￣〜) Like I knew it wasn't him obviously, but hey man I think guys with super long hair are neat.
Anyway, I liked the song so I decided to venture out further, and I found this album. Right away I liked the cover and the name. Haha get it? It reads "seedling". I made this joke in my last bulletin, but whatever. Okay now onto the album's actual contents.
This album has 12 tracks and a total runtime of 1 hour 6 minutes, the last track being 20 minutes long. The heavier tracks have a very grunge-y sound, and I know grunge is more of a buzzword than a music genre, but it's an easy way to describe this sound to someone who hasn't heard the album. The mellower songs are your run of the mill 90s alternative rock songs with acoustic guitar parts, vocal harmonies and sometimes they go slightly into psychedelic territory I'd say.
One thing I can definitely say is that the basslines were super good all throughout.
I went on discogs to see if the lyrics were on the album art, and luckily they were, and after reading them, honestly I think the lyrics are pretty good, these guys were pretty good lyricists tbh.
It has some really good guitar riffs, especially in "Tortoise Shell", "Doe" and "You Should Not Take These Things For Granted".
Personally, my two favorites were "Tortoise Shell" and "Mariposa". The latter is the aforementioned 20 minute track. Which I suppose on the original release must've been the last track and then a very long hidden track, but on the internet and streaming services it's all one continuous track. (EDIT: I went on discogs and indeed this seemed to be the case. The hidden track, according to discogs anyway, is called "See You In The Sunlight") My favorite part were the trumpets that would pop up sometimes.
After listening, I went on RateYourMusic to see what people's opinions of it were, because I'm nosy like that. Most of the reviews called it cliché or generic, and I mean, it's not not generic sounding, I'd say it only really gets interesting in the second half if you're not paying attention to the lyrics, but I personally liked it all the way throughout, but it's true that my favorites were also the heavier/more psychedelic ones where the leading riff was from the electric guitar instead of a constant acoustic rhythm. I don't think that something sounding cliché automatically means it's garbage.
If we have to give it a numeric score, I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
SODA STEREO - DYNAMO (1992)
I'm not sure how well known they are in the english speaking world, but here in LatAm Soda Stereo are rock legends, and for good reason.
Should I write this review in spanish? Probably, but I think that if I write in english I can make this album reach more people who would've otherwise never heard of it, since this album isn't one of their better known ones. I've listened to a couple songs on this before, but I had never sat down to listen to the full album.
It's kind of a departure from their usual sound, since this one is more of a shoegaze/dream pop album. From everything I've read, this wasn't very well received when it came out, but people slowly warmed up to it over the years and now it's very highly regarded among shoegaze listeners in Latin America.
This album also has 12 tracks (almost all the albums on this blog entry are LOL) and a runtime of 56 minutes.
The vibes in this are really good. It's dreamy sounding all throughout and it's easy to get lost in the music. But don't be fooled, it's not one-note, it's actually quite experimental. The tracks that showcase these experimental aspects the best are "Camaleón", "Sweet Sahumerio" and "Claroscuro".
Again I wanna give a shoutout to the basslines, which are something I'm always paying special attention to. "Nuestra Fe" had my favorite bassline of the bunch. It's also just a groovy tune. I like the sampled voices that appear in the background during the instrumental breaks, and those little "beep boops" from the synth.
And speaking of voices, the vocals and lyrics are good, but that's very obvious because it's Gustavo Cerati. Like of course the vocals and lyrics are going to be good.
My personal favorite is still "Luna Roja", which is one of the more popular ones (〜￣▽￣)〜 but "Camaleón" is a close second. It's super catchy, man.
This one gets a 4/5 from me.
THE LICKERISH QUARTET - THREESOME, VOL. 1 (2020)
Back into Jellyfish land (Jellyfish is my current band hyperfixation, okay?), The Lickerish Quartet was a group that Jellyfish members Tim Smith, Eric Dover and Roger Manning Jr. (Basically the entire Spilt Milk lineup but without Andy) put together during quarantine. They released three EPs and then called it quits in 2022, which is fine but I'm bummed I didn't discover these people when this project was active （；´д｀）ゞ
This EP has four tracks and a runtime of 19 minutes, so it's gonna be a short review.
I would say I liked half of the tracks, which is to say two of them: "Fadoodle" and "Lighthouse Spaceship". Which are also the more high-energy poppy tracks. The former is really funny (lyrically, as you can tell from the title, it's basically a bunch of really old-fashioned euphemisms for sex strung together), and the latter is just epic with its 6 minute runtime and different sections. It's almost proggy I'd say. Is that a word? Proggy. You know kinda like prog rock. Whatever.
"Bluebird's Blues" and "There Is A Magic Number" were good, but they didn't really stand out to me. Slow acoustic songs are a dime a dozen these days and I just have a hard time with songs that have modern production.
I don't know. But anyway, their voices are still on point! Which I like. The harmonies are very good all throughout.
Hmmm, I suppose it'd get a 2.5/5 from me. I was gonna listen to the other two EPs, but it was getting really late when I listened to this last night, so I'll save them for next week.
SPARKS - MAD! (2025)
I can't stop reading this album title like that stupid Donald Trump tweet where he says "Sad!".
Anyway, this is the new album by Sparks, one of my favorite bands! I listened to it today because I thought it had come out today, but it came out yesterday (*facepalm*). But whatever! I wasn't in a rush to listen to it first or anything so it's fine.
This album, again, has 12 tracks, and it has a runtime of 46 minutes. Like many modern Sparks albums, it combines a bunch of different genres together into their own signature sound. There's touches of classical, rock stuff, but I'd say it's mostly electronic pop. But not like mainstream electronic pop. Like electronic pop through the lens of people who have 50+ year old music careers.
It however manages to stay fresh, which I admire a lot about them. Even now that they're pushing 80 they still make cool songs. I listened to this one with my mom, because she likes Sparks too. "Those grandpas are so cool", she says.
My favorites were "Don't Dog It", which was high energy electropop with a violin. I could see this playing at a club. (I don't go clubbing so maybe I'm wrong.), "Do Things My Own Way" which is the first track and also the first single that dropped back in February, which was also my mom's favorite. This one is more straightforward rock.
"My Devotion", another one of the singles, was also pretty good, and the standout here were the vocals. "A Little Bit Of Light Banter" and "Lord Have Mercy", the last two tracks, reminded me a lot of classic Sparks, 70s-80s era, which is the era of Sparks I'm the most fond of. I liked them both a lot because of that. The former reminded me a bit of "Bitten By The Monster Of Love" in the instrumental part.
Between you and I here, I don't really care much for modern Sparks. I don't care much for modern music in general even from the artists I like. I don't know, there's something about modern production that I don't like but can't pinpoint. But I liked this one more than 2023's The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. MAD! is more streamlined probably, but I think it's pretty solid. 3/5 for me!
Anyway, those are all my album reviews for now! I love listening to new music :o)
Comments
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Marcos Sueños
Thank you for making this. I got three albums and one extended play to listen to now. And thank you for writing in English for the album from Latin America, you're right when you say you can get more people to discover them so thank you again!
thanks for reading and commenting! ^_^ if you do listen to any of them, i'd love to hear what you think.
by ⭒˚｡✧˖°❁ Alexia ❁°˖✧｡˚⭒; ; Report
dustbin
let's make proggy a word now
i'll have to give that lickerish quartet album a listen, i've really liked what i've heard from jellyfish AND i like prog. cool reviews dude!
thanks man! the other songs are pretty normal not many rhythm changes or longer runtimes it's just that one song that is kinda proggy haha. will write more of these when i listen to more new albums.
i still think you should listen to the rest of spilt milk (in order so you can really experience the crazy tonal whiplashes all throughout LOL)
by ⭒˚｡✧˖°❁ Alexia ❁°˖✧｡˚⭒; ; Report
you're so right. i hope i don't put it off forever... it's a really cool album and i'd hate to miss out
by dustbin; ; Report
music is forever brother it will always be there for whenever you feel like listening to it
by ⭒˚｡✧˖°❁ Alexia ❁°˖✧｡˚⭒; ; Report