ChelseaDagger

I clicked this thread, based on the proverbial credit line of (what will inevitably prove to be short-lived) respect that you've earned lately, due to (1) Valtari and (2) The Cat and the Hat.

After briefly scanning your (thank-God-there's-finally-a-short-one-on-this-mother-****ing-website) journal, this album held the most draw, and therefore I have chosen to give it a listen, as I'm more of an "album cover-to-cover" kinda girl than one of those track-hopping whores.

I'm on "Ariel" right now, and so far it hasn't been a disappointment. Perfect for cranking up during a nature documentary in which the British narration has grown tiresome. Bonus points for helping my kiddo doze off finally.

Key

I'm very happy to see that you're enjoying Distant Satellites. It's been getting a lot of play from me lately as well, and you quoting my post made me want to go listen to it again, and of course, I love listening to it.

Happy to see you checked out this journal as well, there'll be lots more content to come!

ChelseaDagger

We shall see. A true lady never tells whether or not she has subscribed.

Key

Thrice - To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere
Release Date: May 27, 2016

Honestly, I didn't even know this album existed until a few days ago. And since it was released this year, that gives me the option to give it both my review overall and the impressions I had on it through my first (and probably only) listen. But before we do that, let's get a little bit of background for those that aren't too familiar with this band. Hell, if you're not familiar with them by now, you must be living under a rock.

Anyway, people know Thrice for their albums such as The Illusion of Safety and The Artist in the Ambulance. I know them however from their Vheissu album and onward. I've given the other albums a listen, obviously. I find them rather enjoyable and would listen to them any day of the week, however, Vheissu and even The Alchemy Index albums are both phenomenal in terms of the band getting themselves to do something different and doing it properly. I would listen to those albums any day of the week at any time and never be disappointed. However, with any band, there has to be a point where the music becomes a bit too much to bare and to a point, it gets to feel unimpressive and lacking of any sort of creativity, and unfortunately, that's where the most recent album sits for me. I purposely left out Beggars and Major / Minor because I haven't given them a fair listen to really judge them, so I'm staying away from those until I find the time to listen to them. Lots of albums, not a lot of time, know what I mean?

It's a shame really, but yes, the album left me not only disappointed, but left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. I've come to know Thrice for their usage of being able to be heavy, and a little soft simultaneously. Obviously if you listen to Vheissu and The Alchemy Index albums, you'll know what I mean. This one however felt like it was directly influenced by old school Blink 182, which to some isn't really a bad thing, but for me, it's not the Thrice i've come to really get enjoyment out of. The vocals seem to be lacking as well, and it's not easy to listen to a song the whole way through if you can't stand the vocals. It really doesn't sound like typical Thrice and that's a problem for me, being a fan of theirs since the Vheissu years.

By all means, feel free to give the album a listen, to at least give it it's fair shot at either being your liking or not. I don't know, there's just been so many good releases this year, and for a band like this to not be up to par with a lot of the other great releases brought out this year is just disappointing. Hopefully they make up for it in the next album that is or isn't yet to come. We'll see, but for now, I plan to just stick to what I know and enjoy Vheissu and The Alchemy Index albums.

Key

Killswitch Engage - Incarnate
Release Date: March 11 2016

Holy ****, talk about coming back stronger than ever. I swear, every single time Killswitch Engage releases an album, it's better than their last, and yes, that includes everything they've ever done. Incarnate is their most recent album with Disarm The Descent being the one released before back in 2013 when Howard Jones departed and Jesse Leach returned to sing for them, and man, what a fantastic replacement. They could not have gone with a better decision on that, and i'm sure there would have been other great choices, but i'm glad they went with a vocalist that people already knew, which to me, made it a much easier transition to get used to. But anyway, enough about that, let's talk about the album.

Back in 2013 when Disarm The Descent was released, as I mentioned, it was the first album post Howard Jones, so I was a little hesitant because I wasn't too familiar with Jesse Leach as most Killswitch Engage fans were, but I was keeping an open mind, and god damn, they delivered. Every song on Disarm The Descent was fantastic, and I listened to that album over and over again, and it never grew old. Then when I found out that Incarnate was to be released this year, I was even more excited because I had grown to really love the new-ish sound they have, and I waited patiently for it's release, and once I finally heard it, I have got to say that this makes Disarm The Descent look like a little baby album, and that's tough to do. This album has perfection written all over it, and for me, when all the songs are catchy and heavy and just full of that raw Killswitch Engage sound that I've come to love, it automatically makes me enjoy the album that much more, and this album has got it.

With so far only having one listen under my belt, I can't say which song I like the most, mostly because all the songs have their own feel to them, and they're all fantastic in their own way, so as much as I hesitate to say it, I do have to admit that each song is phenomenal, and that's at the current moment, it's impossible for me to choose which song is the best. Just like many other albums I've heard this year, this one does it's job by making each song better than the last, and it's made for such a wonderful listening experience, which of course means I'm going to listen to this album over and over and over again until I grow tired of it.

Key

NOTE: No longer album of the year. Disregard it being mentioned in this review.


Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)

I know what you're thinking, "it's only August 1st, how can you have an album of the year already?" I'll tell you. I don't think i've been this surprised by an album in a long time. I've been talking about this album more this year than I have been talking about any other album that's been released so far, and there's a lot of albums that I absolutely love and I would talk about them as much as well, but god damn, I really cannot stop talking about this album.

I'm sure there's a bit of confusion as well considering I'm pretty renowned for being one of the biggest haters of Radiohead. Seriously, I tend to go out of my way to **** on their music, and tell the people that listen to them that they have no taste. But to be fair, the fanbase surrounding Radiohead is pretty poisonous, so it pretty much calls for someone like me to say the things that I do, but I digress. I wasn't initially interested in A Moon Shaped Pool, but as I do for albums that are released by artists that I have tried to listen to, or just don't like, I do give them their fair shot to possibly change my mind about the band, and although I wouldn't say A Moon Shaped Pool completely changes my opinion on Radiohead, I do have to admit that they've put out a killer album. And the neat thing about finding enjoyment out of this album is that I've given their previous albums another chance, and although I still hold the opinion that Thom Yorke can't sing his way out of a paper bag, I'm more accepting of that and I have been enjoying some of their older music now. Nowhere near the enjoyment I've been getting out of A Moon Shaped Pool, but I definitely don't hate their earlier work as much as I used to. Still, not saying I'm definitely on board with Radiohead just yet, because unfortunately for me, one great album can't change my opinion about a band altogether, because you don't know if that's the route they're going to continue on with or they'll change their sound completely again.

A Moon Shaped Pool has a lot of what I like about music, and again, I was just as surprised as most people probably are that I'm choosing this as my album of the year, but hell, it deserves it. The album creates an emotion story driven atmosphere while at the same time, taking the atmospheric notion and using it to their advantage. While doing that, Thom Yorke finally doesn't try to strain his voice or do things with his voice that he can't do. He finds a happy medium and he uses it along with the atmopspheric tones throughout the music that makes for a really easy listening and easy going experience as a whole. It's interesting for me to say that I find every single track on this album to be beyond fantastic, mostly because whenever I listen to this album now, I don't skip a single song. In fact, once the album ends, I almost feel like starting it over and listening through it again. It's one of those albums that you can put on in the background, and let your mind wander while at the same time, knowing that you're enjoying the music.

Usually when I'm curious about what other people think about an album, its for albums that I consider to be perfect. I've actually found myself reading other people's reviews on other sites on A Moon Shaped Pool and finding a lot of differing opinions. I do have to say that it's not necessarily surprising given the bands reputation. To me, I've always noticed that there's two sides to reviewing a Radiohead album. You either think the album is a god given gift, or you think it's the worst thing ever written. There's the people that consider this album the best they've released, then there's people that will go so far as to rate it in terms of where they think it lies in relation to their other work. I've seen people consider The King of Limbs better than A Moon Shaped Pool, and I've given The King of Limbs it's fair listen, and I respectfully disagree. The King of Limbs still has the issue of having Thom Yorke feel as though he needs to strain his voice in order to make the music interesting, which if you listen to A Moon Shaped Pool, he discards that completely. If he can continue to just use his voice in a nice calming way, it'd be great for the future of his music.

So let's talk about tracks now. I have a few tracks that I consider to be stand out tracks, but again, like I mentioned before, all the tracks work off of each other in such a way that it's nearly impossible to choose just one track that is the be all end all. If I were to choose a few however, I would choose Ful Stop, Daydreaming, and Desert Island Disk. Again, I choose those songs strictly on the fact that I just enjoy them a little bit more than the rest of the tracks, but still, I could switch that list with any other 3 tracks on the album and be just as happy with it. Though, I probably wouldn't take Ful Stop off the list as I'm finding that it is my all time favorite track off the album. I get excited to hear it each time it comes up in the album, and I often times have to hit repeat just to hear it again. The build up at the beginning really compliments the song well, and it keeps going into a wonderfully presented track that makes the whole album complimentary.

If you're a Radiohead fan and you've been hesitant about listening to this album because you're basing your opinion solely on the opinions of other Radiohead fans, take this recommendation from someone that isn't a Radiohead fan at all, listen to this album at least once before you make your judgement, because if you just dismiss this album based solely on other hardcore Radiohead fans reviews, you're seriously missing out on one of the best releases of this year. I don't mean to exaggerate either, but given the nature of albums that's been released this year, I'd be hard pressed if I was to be forced to switch my album of the year with anything else. I do seriously feel like this album has been everything that I wanted to hear out of this band, while simultaneously somehow not making me a fan of the band just yet. Though, I suppose that can change if and when they release another album. If they do release another one though, I hope it's as good if not better than this album. If they switch it up and return to what they did with their previous work, I won't say i'd be disappointed, but it would be disappointed in a way.

Key

Deftones - Gore (2016)

I don't really know what my problem is. I'm supposed to like a band like Deftones, but every time I've tried to give them a listen, I can't really find much enjoyment out of them. Deftones get a lot of respect in the community of heavy rock / alternative whatever, so naturally I felt it was my duty to give the band a shot, and this was back when White Pony was released. Even then though, I knew they had a unique sound, but I couldn't quite understand why so many people liked them. I suppose it's that Radiohead curse that seems to happen where a lot of people like it, but for whatever reason, I don't like it. Gore is really no exception to that rule. I got a few tracks into it before I realized that I was just listening to another typical Deftones album, nothing really spectacular or mind blowing showed up, so I just turned it off and went somewhere else.

I really want to like Deftones, honestly, I do. But if they want to convince me that they're a good band, they need to go out of their way and make something creative. They need to go beyond what they're used to and do something memorable for a change. Every album I've listened to by them, I hear the same distorted guitar riffs along with the vocals that don't really belong. I feel the band could do so much more if they switched the vocals to be something a bit heavier, maybe then they'd be able to pass themselves off as perhaps a heavier grunge-esque stoner band, and not just your run of the mill alternative band.

With this album specifically, I didn't even bother finishing it, because I got bored of it and had to turn it off, like I mentioned. But i'm curious to know if there's something I'm missing. Again, this band gets a lot of love from a lot of people in the heavy rock and metal community, so i'm obviously missing something with them. In terms of tracks that I liked? Well, again...I didn't even finish the album, so I can't really say whether any song is good or not. I listened to the first two tracks and decided it wasn't worth it. Maybe i'll go back and listen to it when i'm in the right mood, but for the time begin, to me, it just felt like a clutter filled run of the mill Deftones album with nothing new to bring to the table. Hell, if that's what gets them their success, by all means, keep doing it. Just know that I won't be listening.

Frownland

Deftones makes interesting music for very very boring people.

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Key

That's kind of what i'm thinking. I've never been able to listen to an album of there's fully. I suppose i'm just looking for something more, and they definitely don't have it.

Frownland

*They're's

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.