MicShazam

Checked out some new music this morning. Here's what I liked the most.

Melvins - Stop Moving To Florida
(Frome the upcoming album Pinkus Abortion Technician)

I can't say that I'm currently a fan of Melvins, but I've been feeling curious about them for a while.
Heard a track here and there, but kind of forgot to follow it up with a full album listen.
I like the rich and punchy sound of everything in this new single.
The drums and bass especially make me think that I could get on board with this.
I get a Faith No More feel from this particular song, but let's see where the rest of the project goes when it's out.

The Ragbirds - Breakdown
(From the 2016 album The Threshold & the Hearth)

Very beautiful, evocative folk pop of some kind.
Reminds me of a variety of things, Neko Case and Faun Fables among them.
I think this track speaks well of the album, not to mention that I found it on Ted Gioia's best of 2016 list -
so I would dare to buy it without needing to hear any more. It's on my 2016 albums list now.
Good stuff.

Ana Burch - Tea-Soaked Letter
(From the 2018 album Quit the Curse)

I don't usually like this sort of folky, rootsy, jangly, americana pop, but I think I quite like this.
Ana Burch reminds me of KT Tunstall, just musically richer somehow.

IBON ERRAZKIN - Lazy Afternoon
(From the very recently released 2018 album Foto Aérea .)

"A peculiar and utterly mesmerizing collection of music".
This is how a short description of this album began on this months Editor's Choice section on Allmusic.com.
Curious, I checked out a random track and I can believe that this album will be quite a ride.
Check it out for yourself.

MicShazam

(Post 1/2)

Here's some music/muzak for you to enjoy/be tormented by. I like all of it, of course.

Creepy Nuts(R-指定＆DJ松永) / かいこ

Yes, this Japanese group is named "Creepy Nuts".

Infected Rain - Mold

Infected Rain - Stop Waiting

Sounds very nu-metal, but with a dash of metal core. I think they could become a pretty good band if they keep at it. They've got some hooks and good sounding production. I won't hesitate to say that I'd rather listen to this than a lot of the samey, gray noise getting produced right now under the banner of metal. I find the pop sensibilities of this band refreshing.

JINJER - Words Of Wisdom

JINJER - Sit Stay Roll Over

JINJER - Just Another

Unlike the above group, Infected Ran - who I take some kind of interest in - I'm 100% sure that I genuinely like Jinjer. I bought their album King of Everything recently, but I don't have a full opinion on it yet. When this band is firing on all cylinders, they're making me think that maybe mainstream metal isn't in such a sorry state after all.

Deftones - Acid Hologram

Deftones - Beware

Honestly, for years and years I didn't like this band at all. It's only recently that they've somehow suddenly clicked with me. Perhaps it's that I've listened to so much modern metal over the last few years. My ears have become accustomed to the sounds of -core this and that nu-metal that - no longer only understanding and respecting the sounds of old-guard metal. All of a sudden, Deftones seem like a band that I could grow to like quite a bit.

MicShazam

(Part 2/2, version 2*)

*"Connection reset". Great. I tried to preview this before I posted it and lost ALL that I had written. This is my attempt at re-creating that post word for word. Write your lengthy posts in Notepad, kids. You'll be sorry if you didn't.

Hollie Cook - Postman
From the 2014 album Twice.

Last time I was on Plug, Rostasi played some Hollie Cook and I loved her right away. It was probably a different track than this.

Jane Birkin / Serge Gainsbourg - La Javanaise
From the 2017 album Le Symphonique.

I missed this one last year, but it's Jane Birkin, so I'm interested automatically.

Janelle Monáe – Make Me Feel
From the upcoming album Dirty Computer

Not sure what to think of this new single, but her previous two albums were really good. I'm picking this one up sooner or later.

Kylie Minogue - Dancing
From the upcoming album, Golden.

Kylie's upcoming album was supposedly recorded in Nashville and takes some inspiration from country music. This seems like an all round terrible idea, at least if I'm judging from this first single. I plainly don't like this and find it pretty uninteresting. On top of that, it seems to me that the recording is kind of bungled. Listen closely to Kylie's voice during the chorus. Am I crazy, or does that sound like overcompressed, oddly distorted garbage? What the hell!?

Dir En Grey - Fukai
From the recent compilation, Vestige of scratches.

Dir En Grey - Beautiful Dirt
From the recent compilation, Vestige of scratches.

Both of these tracks are - like the last Dir En Grey track I posted in this journal - newly re-recorded versions of older Dir En Grey songs. I quite like these new versions and feel tempted to buy the album just for that. Or, that is to say, there's possibly a few other items of interest on the 3 disc compilation, but I'll have to look further into it to be sure. They had a single a year back that isn't on any album, so that's hopefully on there. Maybe there'll be some live tracks or b-sides as well. I'm enough of a super-fan to be excited over mere scraps.

MicShazam

Another bunch of tracks.
Just some things I've been checking out this evening.

Anat Cohen Quartet - Putty Boy Strut
From the album Luminosa.

Clarinet player Anat Cohen doing her thing.
Pretty sweet if you take my word for it.

Anna Calvi - Suzanne And I
From her 2011 self-titled album.

I've known about Anna Calvi for years, but quite recently I've been giving her a second chance.
I do appreciate her forceful vocal fireworks.

CMX - Puolikas hyvää
From their new album Alkuteos.

Reminds me a bit of two other Finnish groups, Stam1na and Waltari respectively.
This band is way more laid back and rock oriented, but a lot of the melodies and textures feel very familiar and very, well, Finnish.

Caligula's Horse - A Gift to Afterthought
From their 2013 album The Tide, The Thief & River's End.

Their newest album from just last year didn't really grab me much, although I tried to get into the band.
Having a bit more luck with some of their older material.
There's a lot of good ideas in the musical arrangements here.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Time of the Assassins
From the album IRM.

I got this album a while ago, basically just taking a chance with it, and it turned out to be one of the better things I've heard i a while.
A pretty much perfectly formed album.
This is one of my several favorite songs off that disc.
It should go without saying that I'm now massively interested in her fairly newly released, late 2017 album, Rest.

The Batlord

Caligula's Horse is a pretty great band name.

__________________

MicShazam

You might be disappointed to learn that they're about as mom-friendly, clean and agreeable as the Jonas Brothers.

MicShazam

I've been going full pop/retard today, so here's some tracks that I thoroughly enjoyed:

Katy Perry - Pendulum
(From the 2017 album Witness.)

Katy Perry - Déjà Vu

I've been spinning this album most of this evening.
Bought the CD earlier today and felt like I probably just ****ed up and wasted money.
Turns out it's pretty rad.

The Dark Element - Last Good Day
(Frome their 2017 self-titled album.)

Got this album recently.
Pop hooks + power metal.
It's got a really crisp sound to it and there's some real ear-worm hooks here.

Lady Gaga - Venus
(From her 2013 album Artpop.)

I got this album a few years ago and always thought it was pretty neat.
It's generally considered a failure for Lady G, but to my ears, it's got the most interestingly detailed songs of her career.
The hooks aren't always as immediate as on the previous albums, so that's probably what sunk it in the eyes (and ears) of the general pop-listening public, as well as the professional critics at the time.
It's not a perfect pop album, but I think it's got some good songs and I consider its quirks more charming than off-putting.

The Batlord

Bro, as much as I love Ke$ha and more people need to give her a fair shake, I honestly think Britney Spears has been given the total shaft from being a teeny bopper pop star from a time before GaGa when all pop stars other than Madonna weren't even given a chance by non-teen girls. She doesn't have the most stellar discography, but she has way better **** than most people would ever suspect. Blackout is one of the best pop albums ever.



But of course you also need to listen to Ke$ha.

__________________

MicShazam

I'm not really checking out any new music and haven't been for a while. I'm busy playing the albums on my record shelf that I've gotten since christmas or just giving some love to some old favorites.

I don't want this thread to just collect dust and generate spider webs until I start checking out new tracks again, so I'm going to post some of what I've been listening to.

I think that I can say without a doubt that my tastes in metal are rather... deviant (as in deviating from what I see other MB'ers gravitating towards). I rarely find myself listening to old-school meat and potatoes stuff like thrash, death metal and power metal anymore. There are exceptions, but it's pretty clear to me that I prefer more modern sounding metal styles and bands that are sort of placing themselves between several different styles.

Here's some kind of half-baked attempt at defining my tastes in metal through a series of songs. I haven't thought this through, to be honest. I wanted to post something, so I'm just gonna wing it:

Crisis - Bloodlines


Dir En Grey - Yokusou Ni Dreambox Aruiwa Seijuku No Rinen To Tsumetai Ame


Stam1na - Ikoneklasmia


Jinjer - Dip a Sail


Waltari - Below Zero


This is basically where my head is at these days, as far as metal is concerned. I need to explore a lot of 90's, 00's and 10's metal to find some more things to listen to. I'm just not feeling 99.9% of all bands in more 80's bound metal genres.
Sure, like Crystal Viper (heavy metal) and Megadeth (thrash metal/alternative rock/hard rock), but it's almost never what lights a fire under me anymore.

It's funny to me that I used to hate these modern metal genres, like nu-metal, groove metal, djent based progressive metal, metalcore, etc. - because these days, it's all that I care about. Every time I check out another old school death metal, black metal, heavy metal (etc.) track, I feel at least somewhat bored and and feel that I can't really relate to it. If you consider my age (born in 1981), you'd think that I would be all about 80's metal, but it doesn't do anything for me anymore, unless it's Megadeth (only a slight exaggeration).

The album that made me realize how much my tastes in metal have changed was King of Everything by the Ukrainian band Jinjer. I bought the album recently and I felt like it made it clear to me that, as a metal listener, I am not who I once was.

Jinjer - Just Another


From now on, I'll do what makes sense and be way more open to everything metalcore, groove metal, and other "new-fangled" metal things that the kids listen to these days. There's no point in pretending that it's not where I was meant to go.

MicShazam

****, I forgot to reply to this. I will give them a full listen eventually, but I tend to forget about 25% of the things I've said that I'll listen to.