Josef K's stupid copycat thread: In which I am given albums which I will then review

[YorkeDaddy]

How long until the first review Josef? I'm interested to see the style you use for this. Partially because I might end up joining this crazy bandwagon at some point too, it seems like an idea everyone likes participating in and a great way to find new music that I normally might not check out

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by DwnWthVwls

it's paradigm..

The fuck is a paragram?

It's a paragraph organized into a geometric shape.

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Ah yes because R Plus Seven is actually somewhat melodic and nice sounding sometimes, can't have that now can we

There's a lot of melody and beauty on Replica too mate, not sure if you're thinking of another album or something. It has a lot more diversity of sounds and I find it to be overall more interesting. But that's my opinion, can't have that now can we?

[YorkeDaddy]

Originally Posted by Frownland

There's a lot of melody and beauty on Replica too mate, not sure if you're thinking of another album or something. It has a lot more diversity of sounds and I find it to be overall more interesting. But that's my opinion, can't have that now can we?

Says the guy who used an absolute to suggest that the album I prefer is lesser than the album you prefer. It appears we've come full circle.

[DwnWthVwls]

Can you guys make a thread for each other.. so every time you annoy each other in someone else's thread you can argue about it in your own?

[Frownland]

Don't worry, I'm leaving this one to die DWV so that we don't derail this thread any further.

[Josef K]

Originally Posted by Norg

Korn-paragram shift

I am so devoted to this thread that I will actually listen to this. Jesus.

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

How long until the first review Josef? I'm interested to see the style you use for this. Partially because I might end up joining this crazy bandwagon at some point too, it seems like an idea everyone likes participating in and a great way to find new music that I normally might not check out

I'll start tomorrow (or, I guess that's today now, but w/e). I was visiting family in California and now I'm back home, so I should have a bunch more time on my hands.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Norg

Korn-paragram shift

****ing hilarious that this is his favourite album (never shuts up about Korn) and he can't spell it! Oh, wait: it's Norg isn't it?

Originally Posted by DwnWthVwls

Can you guys make a thread for each other.. so every time you annoy each other in someone else's thread you can argue about it in your own?

Yeah I agree. This is getting tiresome. Either that, or get a room. I'll pay.

[Josef K]

Album: Mista Thug Isolation
Artist: Lil Ugly Mane
Recommended by: Machine
Familiarity: None, but wow that is a really ugly album cover. Let's do this thing.

1. MISTA THUG ISOLATION (12th Movement): Opens with some, like, noises. I didn't think this was that kind of album, but regardless it's giving me a headache. The one droning thing is fading out a little now, so actually this is kind of cool. I wonder when the actual rapping will start though. Oh, man, this is like an actual melody that I'm hearing now. Crazy. I imagine this is what will play when the aliens beam me up. Now everything's kind of fading out. This is pretty cool as an intro but definitely a little indulgent.

2. SERIOUS ****: Leads with what I assume is the hook. I don't love it - very poppy - but the production is pretty cool. Love the percussion mixed with the sax(?). I can't really make out the lyrics, other than in the hook, but honestly I don't really listen to rap for the lyrics unless I'm listening to Aesop Rock or something. By the second verse, his flow his getting a little more interesting, but if the rapping is growing on me the production is doing the opposite. This doesn't really go anywhere and I can't help but still think of this as an introduction in the same vein as the last track. The hook is still annoying.

3. MANIAC DRUG DEALER III: I like this a little more. The rapping reminds me a little bit of "Jeopardy" by Run the Jewels, though obviously this came out first. I like the piano, and the bridge/outro is cool. Whereas the last one kind of went nowhere, I feel like this one is getting interesting... but then it ends.

4. RADIATION(LUNG POLLUTION) FT SUPA SORTAHUMAN: I like this one the best so far, I think. Production is less reliant on annoying high-pitched noises and the percussion's pretty cool again. The sax during the chorus is a little smooth for me, but I can deal. I don't love the chorus in general - I feel like it's trying to be a poppy hook like on track 2 but there just isn't much there - but, again, the verses are cool. This is nice because it's actually changing up what it's doing (around the 3-minute mark). I like the end of the song a lot, although the transition was a little awkward. I like how even with everything having seemingly changed a bunch, he still fits the same chorus in. I like it more at the end than I did earlier.

5. SLICK RICK: I hate "Treat Her Like a Prostitute". I hope that isn't a problem. Anyway I really don't like the chorus, it's repetitive enough that it's kind of annoying. This first verse is making me blush! I like the keyboard thing I hear in the second chorus. Whatever, second verse is same as the first. Honestly this song's easily my least favorite so far. It's not just casually misogynistic, it's casually misogynistic in a way that a billion other songs have been, and have done better. But, again, those arena-rock keyboard stabs are pretty cool. They can't save the song though.

6. WISHMASTER: I don't like the "whoa-whoa" in the background, but otherwise this production is really nice. Love the strings, enjoying the general atmosphere. He keeps leading with the hook, which I get sort of sick of after a while (that is, not only am I sick of this specific hook, I'm sick of the way he keeps leading with the hook). I like that he speeds up his flow on the verses, sort of different from the other stuff on here. Maybe my favorite so far, definitely would be if the hook were less annoying and if there weren't that chipmunk cheering him on.

7. ALONE AND SUFFERING(INTERLUDE): I'm assuming this is another instrumental. Pretty cool. Oh, wait, no, he (or somebody) is singing now. This is soulful and kind of nice. I appreciate the sort of delicate quality the singing has but it's jarring because the production is kind of annoying in the way it has occasionally been over the course of this album. I don't like the fade out.

8. BITCH I'M LUGUBRIOUS: Like the title a lot. Flow reminds me of Killer Mike again. Maybe I was underestimating him when I complained about misogyny earlier - maybe the album's supposed to be sort of conceptual, like about how he raps about how much he hates and devalues women, but really he's just sad and lonely (hence "alone and suffering" and "mista thug isolation"). Whatever. Anyway, this song's quite good. The chorus annoys me less than others have, and I really like the production, although he could maybe ease up on the percussion here. I really like the atmospheric sound that (I think) he's going for, but the high-pitched noises on a lot of the album, in addition to the drums here, sort of ruin it.

9. CUP FULLA BEETLEJUICE: And now we're in a haunted house. I like how this kind of builds. I definitely started out underwhelmed with this song, but it's won me over and by about two minutes I see why two of the three reviewers on the side picked it as their favorite song. For once the hook just strikes me as catchy and not annoyingly so. Maybe not my favorite so far, but definitely competing with "Radiation" and "Wishmaster" for that title.

10. BREEZEM OUT: So we start with some very '80s synth - might be sampled from something because it sounds familiar to me - but then we end up right back where we've been this whole time. Frankly if your album is going to be 18 tracks long, it should need those 18 tracks. This does not. I'm not getting anything new from this and, while I don't hate this as much as DWV, I'm really not looking forward to the next eight songs. But yeah I guess this is fine. This album's production is a little one-note and I've kind of brought up all the elements I hear: '80s-style synths, atmospheric piano/keyboards, lots of sort of tinny percussion, spoooooky stuff, random high-pitched noises (sometimes the same as the spoooooky stuff mentioned above).

11. HOEISH ASS BITCH: Not into the hook at all. The first verse is pretty good and I like how he integrates the hook a into the verse - I haven't heard him do that before and it's a decent move. I like the bridge because I'm happy to hear him do something a little more minimal, but he doesn't really go far enough. At this point I'm really sick of hearing him call this woman a bitch, not just because I sort of object to the word - I do, but it's used in a lot of music that I like, so whatever - but just because it's really annoying. Like he's sitting there writing the song and he's like "Well I can't think of anything more to say. Better repeat the title eight more times and then something will come to me for sure!"

12. MONA LISA OVERDRIVE: I don't really care for the spoken intro. This is just more of the same. At this point I might not write my impressions of the next six tracks as I go unless something really grabs my attention. Oh, wait, actually this song is growing on me a little bit. More of those '80s synths I was talking about and he again does the thing that I like where some of the instrumental drops out at the beginning of a verse.

13. TWISTIN FT. DENZEL CURRY: We're back with the sax. I like this a decent amount, I guess - it's a little different, at least - but I wouldn't listen again.

14. NO SLACK IN MY MACK: This is giving me a headache. Machine, unless you come in here and tell me that the last eighteen minutes are the best part of the album and I absolutely need to hear them, I'm done with this. (Now watch as Machine says exactly that. My torture never ends.)

15. LOOKIN 4 THA SUCKIN: n/a

16. LEAN GOT ME ****ED UP: n/a

17. THROW DEM GUNZ: n/a

18. LAST BREATH(OUTRODUCTION): n/a

Overall verdict: If it were four songs long and the hooks were (way, way) less annoying, I'd be into it. As it is, thanks but no thanks.

[Josef K]

Album: Even Wolves Dream
Artist: Anthony Miles / a bunch of wolves, hopefully
Recommended by: Trollheart
Familiarity: none

1. Even Wolves Dream: Whoa, opens with some sick howling. I figured there'd be wolves on this, but I didn't count on the chorus of crickets as well. Now there are some chimes and actual people singing - I think - and now some chill guitar. Honestly too chill, but I can totally see this as, like, a movie score. Could use it with a long shot of somebody looking introspective, or, like, a slow pan over the wilderness just after sunset. I can't hear any wolves anymore, but this is pretty cool I guess. I probably wouldn't return to it but if I were to really need something peaceful this would absolutely get the job done.

Oh, there are some wolves again. I'm kind of not into the howling anymore - this album needs to either commit to the concept and include lots of howls or just cut them out entirely. So, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is he's underutilizing the wolves. I'm only six minutes in but I'm liking this a whole lot more than I expected to. It kind of needs to go somewhere though - if the next fifteen minutes of the track are just this same thing repeating then I'll get really annoyed with it, which will be a shame. So a bunch of instruments are dropping out now and it's kind of doing something different - it's only the guitar (I think) and the strings. The cool thing is that when it gets more silent I hear the crickets some more. Anyway I guess the wolf is back from his smoke break and he's picking up where he left off.

Around the 11 minute mark the track changes things up again, but I'm really getting sick of the guitar or keyboard or whatever that is. It's sort of hard for me to listen to something like this that's just very peaceful and doesn't really build - I like Slowdive, but... that's actually the closest I get to this, or like the Clientele or something. Now we're back to the initial melody that's been played throughout and there are another few wolf howls. Everything has faded out and it's just crickets and wolves now, so I guess the last five minutes are just the track getting back to where it was five minutes ago. But yeah I kind of like the flute or whatever it is. I will say that although I'm not hating it like I did that Lil Ugly Mane album, I will be happy when the track is done. It's just sort of uninteresting. Anyway the same melody that's been repeated the whole time is playing us out and the wolf is back to noise-making.

2. Wolf Companion: I'm going to pretend that the wolves are making sex noises. This isn't that funny but I like the idea of such a peaceful album actually being filled with the sounds of animals violently ****ing - although I'm pretty sure that's what the cricket noises actually are. Anyway we're back with pretty much the same mix of sounds as track #1, but there's more emphasis on what I again think is a choir. Sounds kinda like that Kamasi Washington album I didn't like. I was just listening to very chill, very peaced-out album - Yo La Tengo's Fade - which I love, but I love this a lot less. It's not even terrible is the thing, it's just that it should really only go on for five - wait, stop, those horny wolves are back to interrupting the heavenly choir's party. That's so rude. Oh, well, looks the choir's made a full recovery.

In fact I think the wolves are gatecrashing this album in that they're making noises which kind of clash with the general feel I think he's going for. Like, okay, we get it, even wolves dream. But if their dreams are going to be about wolves, why can't they be about a lot of wolves? I'd love to hear Five Wolves Singing, but that isn't what this is.

I guess I like this track a little more, the strings are pretty nice. Who knows how much I'd like it if it were shorter and if I hadn't just listened to 20 minutes of pretty much the same sound? I called some element of this album "heavenly" earlier, but I think my hell would actually be having to listen to stuff like this for an eternity. Which, you know, is not to say it isn't nice enough for 40 minutes, although it in fact isn't. This was fine for the first few minutes - I was really enjoying it and that really surprised me - but by the end I will be ready to die of boredom.

Around the fifteen-minute mark things fade out again and we just hear the keyboards or whatever. Then the choir comes back in, which is pretty cool. If I had to pick I'd say this is my favorite part of the album yet and I'd be quite into it were it not for the last 35 minutes. That's the thing - I don't think this album is meant for the way I'm listening to it, I think you're supposed to fall asleep to it or something, listen to it in some situation where you won't mind the repetition, but that isn't really the way I listen to music. If Trollheart wants he can blame me and not the album, but I just can't get into this and I'd like it to be over. Luckily for me, it almost is - less than two minutes left. Here are the crickets again, and we end how we began, as the keyboard fades out and we're left with just howls and crickets.

So, yeah, I didn't enjoy that but it was still better than Lil Ugly Mane. DWV warned me about him and I was too foolish to listen.