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#r&b
Monday, May 30, 2022
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The Clash - Combat Rock + The People's Hall: liked
"Liked" applies only to the second disc - not worth re-buying a great album for this.
Craig Finn - A Legacy of Rentals: 7 (B+)
Update (December 2025): Upped a notch on a fourth or fifth play.
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
:-( [Four listens. At last, a Lamar album that critics don't all fall over themselves trying to make album of the year, so I don't have to justify not buying it.]
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Friday, May 27, 2022
Felt - Remaining studio albums - batch review
Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty - 6 tracks, 30 minutes, so really more of an EP. Three listens. Honorable mention.
The Splendour of Fear - largely instrumental based around long guitar passages inspired by classical guitar music, with only tracks 2 and 5 having any lyrics. One or two listens.
Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (a/k/a The Seventeenth Century) - short instrumentals; 19 minutes. One or two listens.
Train Above the City - no Lawrence, all instrumentals in jazz style. One or two listens.
The Pictorial Jackson Review - Eight songs on side one; two Duffy instrumentals on side two. Listened to side one three times at ~20 minutes. "Bitter End" is the only keeper of the eight ("Christopher St" and "Don't Die on My Doorstep" come close). Honorable mention for what is essentially an eight song EP. Listened to side two twice.
Various Artists - Crucial Reggae Driven by Sly & Robbie: 7.5 (high B+)
Vinyl is too expensive and CDs are unremastered, but #multiartistcomp anyway.
DJ Maphorisa & Kabza De Small - Scorpion Kings ep [honorable mention]
:-) [An "ep" at 12 tracks and 76:41? Four listens. Cover below to avoid confusion.]
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Juluka - Stand Your Ground [honorable mention]
I'm breaking protocol and posting a cover image for an honorable mention, because I bought this on vinyl when it came out, and it has a complicated background. I remember being hugely excited, because I had loved Scatterlings so much and had listened to it over and over. This one was a big disappointment, but it wasn't terrible. Here's the background, from Wikipedia: "The album debuted four new Juluka songs: "Kilimanjaro", "Look into the Mirror", "Fever", and "Crazy Woman". The six remaining tracks are songs that were previously released on Juluka's 1983 album, Work for All. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, an alternate album was released: The International Tracks (MINC, 1984). This 7-track EP has the same cover art and new songs as Stand Your Ground. The difference is that, instead of the songs from Work for All, The International Tracks has two new remixes and one reissued track: "Umbaqanga Music" from the 1982 album Scatterlings." Got all that?
Sunday, May 15, 2022
The Front Bottoms - batch review
Albums:
The Front Bottoms (2011)
Talon of the Hawk (2013)
Back on Top (2015)
Going Grey (2017)
EPs:
Rose (2014)
Ann (2018)
I listened to all of these at least three times. I also sank alot of time into wondering what grade to give them all, and which of them to buy, if any. I note that the highest grade Hull gives to any of them is the debut, at straight B+. Christgau would have me buy all of the albums, except possibly for Going Grey, which may be the one I like the best. Very frustrating ouevre to parse. Allmusic is no help.
In the end, I would say that these all hover around 7 (B+) to 7.5 (high B+).
Seigneur Tabu Ley [Rochereau] - Yola: 7.5 (high B+)
Only 32 minutes total, plus track three, called "Africa Now" here, I am certain I have on some other release. The last song is some kind of out-of-character Afrobeat experiment. So, at B+, I'm not buying for two songs totalling about 16 minutes.
Friday, May 13, 2022
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Moby - Play: 7 (B+)
Honestly, in a vacuum I may have put this at honorable mention. Not sure what everyone hears in this, but it's not them, it's obviously me. Christgau A+ and Hull A also. Maybe one day I'll learn, although I do note that, despite the A+, the former did not list this on his Top 50 of all time list. I also have to note that it was dropped on the third version of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time, after being included in both previous versions. I do think it sounds nice, but it lacks any soul of its own to my ears.
Moby - Move [EP]: 8 (A-)
This is what my copy looks like. Got thrashed one great spring evening. The next day, I was bummed it got beer all over it, but now I love how it looks. My second favorite work of his.
Moby - 18 [honorable mention]
:-) [Goes on forever, alot of the songs sound the same, sounds alot like Play]
Moby - Animal Rights: 7.5 (high B+)
Normally, I would not shelve this (# [dance/electronica]), but, as this was his punk-ish move, I have it.
Friday, May 6, 2022
Afghan Whigs - Up In It: 7 (B+)
Very claustrophobic- and/or noisy-sounding mix. If you listen through that, you can catch glimpses of some powerful songs. Probably more of an honorable mention, if that; but I possess it, so I'm erring way on the side of over-rating. Really almost more of a curiosity. Anyway, I guess that makes me a Whigs completist, except for Big Top Halloween, which seems so rare that it's almost non-existent.
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Pavement - Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal: 8 (A-)
Have this, and all the other remastered/expanded versions of 5 original studio albums. None of the extras on this one are that notable to me.
