Micshazam's album and song picks

~~MicShazam~~ · 05-29-2018, 02:52 PM

Been a while since any proper update, but at least this time, I'm bringing the goods!

Let's dive right in.

Beth Orton - Touch Me With Your Love

From her 2008 album, Trailer Park. I've been checking a bunch of songwriters out on Spotify and Beth Orton left an impression. Ordered the album earlier today after coming back to it for a moment. Good stuff.

Halo Maud - Tu Sais Comme Je Suis (official audio)

From her 2018 album, Je Suis Une Île. She's not the most solid singer, but the overall impression still wins me over. The vibe of the posted track speaks for itself, really.

Eleanor Friedberger - In Between Stars (Official Video)

From her 2018 album, Rebound. Some laid back, well written pop songs. I might get this one soon.

Elysia Crampton - Oscollo

From her self-titled 2018 album. It's only 19 minutes long, but what I've heard from it so far is... interesting. Experimental electronica world music? Just throwing lables around. Whatever it is, it's neat.

Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca, Tamer Abu Ghazaleh - Teskar Tebki

From their 2017 collaboration, Lekhfa. Not sure what the hell to call this, but check the whole album out on Spotify if you doubt me when I say that it's an interesting album.

~~MicShazam~~ · 05-29-2018, 03:33 PM

Instead of waiting for my post to appear so I can edit it, I'm going for another round!

I really just wanted to post the track just below, but then decided to see what else I could find of interest.

Skinflint - Birds and Milk Bloody Milk (Official Music Video)

A three piece metal band from Botswana with a white dude on guitar/vocals and a green lipstick wearing chick on drums? Not your everyday metal ensemble. I really dig the simple, down and dirty feel of this. The vocalist is corny as ****, but in just the right way. Another pretty cool track from the same band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPe4aizlz9U.

Neko Case - "Bad Luck"

Alt-country queen Neko Case has a new album out this year, titled Hell-On. Judging from this track, the vibe is poppier than usual. I'm probably buying it some time, so I don't want to hear any more from it. I choose to trust that Case knows what she's doing.

Alela Diane - To Begin

From her 2011 album, Wild Divine. Pretty straight forward blues edged singer/songwriter material. I think she's got a good voice and the songs seemed solid when I checked the album out on spotify. Good sound quality on the album too. Just seems like it's good, high quality material.

Jenny Hval - Spells (Official Audio)

Jenny Hval's got a new EP out titled The Long Sleep. This particular track has some pretty great atmosphere going for it. Best use of saxophone I've heard in a while.

~~MicShazam~~ · 06-14-2018, 11:57 AM

Here's the results of the last few days of digging around on the interwebs for new music.

---

Artist: Mitra Sumara
Album: Tahdig
Release: June 8/2018

Mitra Sumara are a New York based Farsi pop band of sorts.
The keyboard playing in the embedded track (below) is simply drop-dead gorgeous.
Currently one of the 2018 albums that I'm most excited about getting my hands on.
I might have to hurry, as this one seems fairly obscure.

---

Artist: Patricia Vonne
Album: Top of the Mountain
Release: March 23/2018

Some very fun, basic American rock music. I love the clear, vibrant sound of this track.
Not exactly the kind of music I typically like the most, but I think this has so much personality and life to it, that I might take the chance and get the album.

Check out the lead single:

---

Artist: Laura Jean
Album: Devotion
Release: June 8/2018

The track below isn't the most original slice of indie pop ever, but I really like the general atmosphere of this and feel like this album could be just my kind of thing.
It's not the highest priority out of all 2018 albums, but I'm likely buying it before the end of summer, or at least the year.

Also note the short synth melody that comes in near the end of the track. Nice. Right up my alley!

---

Artist: Hop Along
Album: Bark Off Your Head, Dog
Release: April 6/2018

I really dig the vocalist and the mix of instruments here.
This album is also among the ones I'm most excited to get my hands on. Raw in a good way and very pretty.
Somewhere between an old school, rootsy vibe and more of an indie hipster vibe. I think a lot of people on this forum would like this thing.

---

Artist: Karim Sulayman - Jeannette Sorrell
Album: Apollo's Fire - Songs of Orpheus
Release: April 6/2018

Again, a bit out of my comfort zone with some classical vocal.
This guy has pipes! Very stirring delivery and the material seems interesting.
I didn't find a Youtube video, but the Allmusic page for the album has some song previews that should give you a very good idea of the level of quality of this project.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/songs...s-mw0003154776

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-09-2018, 01:31 PM

Not sure where to post this, so I'm posting it in my probably dead journal:

https://imgur.com/a/Z5vVc2w?grid

It's an Imgur album of all the 2018 CD's I want to get my grubby hands on.

**Frownland** · 07-09-2018, 01:41 PM

You liked the Dead Cross record enough to buy it? I was disappointed to the point of outrage.

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-09-2018, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

You liked the Dead Cross record enough to buy it? I was disappointed to the point of outrage.

Haven't bought it yet, but I think I'd dig it. A bit on the shallow side, but it's got energy. I'm feeling split on the issue tbh. I agree that it was disappointing, but I like it enough to buy it. IMGUR loses the filenames these pictures have on my PC, so what's lost in the transfer is that these albums were sorted in three degrees of importance. Dead Cross was not in the top tier.

~~MicShazam~~ · 09-14-2018, 12:13 PM

Gonna re-open this journal. I'm feeling like ranting and raving about great music.

This album is why:

https://open.spotify.com/album/6nY9YhtdlDCPWKF9m9txU5

Suggested to me in the Spotify discover section. I literally discovered this album barely 20 minutes ago and I've already ordered the CD on Amazon. I'm blasting it loud on Spotify right now and I've got goosebumps. I ****ing love this!

It's a sort of alt rock with some post rock vibes. Elph should check this out, but he won't when I say it's good

Kristeen has a super powerful, in your face singing style. It's gonna be a love/hate sort of proposition. The music is just so juicy and full sounding and so full of all sorts of little compositional touches that make me think of all sorts of other artists, early Kate Bush among them. Holy **** I'm loving this!

Check it out.

~~MicShazam~~ · 10-04-2018, 12:29 PM

Having not kept up with this journal at all, there's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to catch up. I've currently got a list of no less that 56 new albums that I'm interested in this year, and I'm finding more pretty often.

Not to mention all the albums I've bought already and all of the back catalogue albums from previous years... It's hopeless. So I'm just gonna mention a random few things that I'm checking out/excited about right now in this moment.

Madder Mortem - Liberator

From their upcoming album "Marrow". I found their previous album somewhat disappointing, but I still like this band a lot. This song is giving me some hope that this album will correct course. This album doesn't exactly reinvent their style, but Madder Mortem is still a modern prog metal band that's pretty much doing their own thing.

Farao - The Hours

This song is from 2014. Never heard of this Norwegian indie pop/songwriter before. Pretty much right up my alley. Her voice is not the most unique thing ever, but still great. It's really the songwriting and instrumentation that brings this one home. The video is really, really nicely made too.

DIR EN GREY - Aka (赫)

Quite against what I expected, I'm not very excited about this new Dir En Grey album. I'm gonna buy it, but the mixing job really bugs me and they're just not really doing anything new. The last five albums were amazing, so this one feels like a kinda weak thing to have waited 4 years for. Oh well... I'll probably like it a bit better once I finally get the CD and listen to it a bit more in depth. I just feel like most of the songs are kind of lacking in memorable ideas and the sound quality sucks (aside from having plenty of bass, which is great).

Stam1na - Enkelinmurskain

The second single from their new album which is coming out very soon. I'm so excited about this! The album is titled "Taival" and comes out around the 12th. I'm gonna spin this one non stop for a week when I get it.

I really dig the vocals here. The chorus is a real ear worm and that whole instrumental section is just great. Exactly my kind of metal guitar solo!

Still a top 5 metal band for me? Yup.

LE PRINCE MIIAOU - VICTOIRE (Official)

This French indie artist has an album coming out later this year. I bought an older album a short while ago when first having heard the above track on Facebook. I dig that other album, so I'm looking forward to this new one a lot. Interestingly, it's a complete stylistic change. The album I have is a mix of modern indie pop and retro pop/rock vibes with some novel production elements. This new album seems to take way more of an electronic/dance/rhythmic approach. Also makes me think of 80's new wave a bit.

~~MicShazam~~ · 10-24-2018, 09:27 AM

I felt like just posting some of the stuff I've been listening to the most recently. It's not necessarily new music, although much of it probably will be.

Actually, I was thinking I wanted to post more about music, but I don't know in what form, so for now, I guess I'm just dumping some tracks that I like under some flimsy pretext.

Stam1na - Solar

Stam1na - Merivälimatka

Both of the above tracks are from the new Stam1na album, "Taival". It's a pretty varied album and the above tracks demonstrate the heavier side and the more melodic side of the album.
My favourite part of the album is probably the 3 part song cycle in the middle. There's just a lot to appreciate here if you give the album a good listen.

Kristeen Young - Kill the Father

I bought all three albums she's made quite soon after hearing one of her songs. There's just basically no way in which I'm not digging this. It's like a heavier Kate Bush mixed with PJ Harvey and some post punk influences. Awesome.
And of course I think she's a fantastic singer.

Ihsahn - The Eagle and the Snake

Ihsahn's new album, "Ámr" still isn't quite having me convinced, although I'm liking it more with every spin. However, it did prompt me to go back and listen to every prior album of his again. This reminded me how much I like the album "Eremita", from which the above track is taken.

Anneke Van Giersbergen - Physical

This summer I was listening a lot to this album so hearing this song again already feels kinda nostalgic. Reminds me of good times and sunlight.

~~MicShazam~~ · 10-24-2018, 09:58 AM

Part deux or something.

Ana Burch - 2 Cool 2 Care

From the album "Quit the Curse" which, much to my surprise, is in the running for being a top 10 album of 2018 for me.
I'm getting a lot of new albums now, so I don't know where it will stand when the year is over, but you can't argue with the songcraft here.

"But MacShizzle, you have really bad taste in music. We've talked about this already and everyone agreed."

Shut up.
It's a good album.

Arkona - Tseluya zhizn'

Is every metalhead on MB that's not listening to the new Arkona album making a huge mistake?

Duh. The above track speaks for itself!

Very much in the running for my personal top 10 albums of 2018.

Barbara Morgenstern - Brain****

I'm posting this song, but I haven't even heard it! I love Morgenstern so much that I don't want to spoil the album in advance.
All the rest of you who don't care so much can check out the single from "Unschuld und Verwüstung" above.

The Agonist - The Moment

Kind of maybe starting to be a top 10 metal act for me. It just scratches an itch, you know?

05-29-2018, 02:52 PM	#171 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Been a while since any proper update, but at least this time, I'm bringing the goods! Let's dive right in. Beth Orton - Touch Me With Your Love From her 2008 album, Trailer Park. I've been checking a bunch of songwriters out on Spotify and Beth Orton left an impression. Ordered the album earlier today after coming back to it for a moment. Good stuff. Halo Maud - Tu Sais Comme Je Suis (official audio) From her 2018 album, Je Suis Une Île. She's not the most solid singer, but the overall impression still wins me over. The vibe of the posted track speaks for itself, really. Eleanor Friedberger - In Between Stars (Official Video) From her 2018 album, Rebound. Some laid back, well written pop songs. I might get this one soon. Elysia Crampton - Oscollo From her self-titled 2018 album. It's only 19 minutes long, but what I've heard from it so far is... interesting. Experimental electronica world music? Just throwing lables around. Whatever it is, it's neat. Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca, Tamer Abu Ghazaleh - Teskar Tebki From their 2017 collaboration, Lekhfa. Not sure what the hell to call this, but check the whole album out on Spotify if you doubt me when I say that it's an interesting album. Last edited by MicShazam; 05-29-2018 at 03:50 PM.

05-29-2018, 03:33 PM	#172 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Instead of waiting for my post to appear so I can edit it, I'm going for another round! I really just wanted to post the track just below, but then decided to see what else I could find of interest. Skinflint - Birds and Milk Bloody Milk (Official Music Video) A three piece metal band from Botswana with a white dude on guitar/vocals and a green lipstick wearing chick on drums? Not your everyday metal ensemble. I really dig the simple, down and dirty feel of this. The vocalist is corny as **, but in just the right way. Another pretty cool track from the same band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPe4aizlz9U. Neko Case - "Bad Luck"** Alt-country queen Neko Case has a new album out this year, titled Hell-On. Judging from this track, the vibe is poppier than usual. I'm probably buying it some time, so I don't want to hear any more from it. I choose to trust that Case knows what she's doing. Alela Diane - To Begin From her 2011 album, Wild Divine. Pretty straight forward blues edged singer/songwriter material. I think she's got a good voice and the songs seemed solid when I checked the album out on spotify. Good sound quality on the album too. Just seems like it's good, high quality material. Jenny Hval - Spells (Official Audio) Jenny Hval's got a new EP out titled The Long Sleep. This particular track has some pretty great atmosphere going for it. Best use of saxophone I've heard in a while. Last edited by MicShazam; 05-29-2018 at 03:41 PM.

06-14-2018, 11:57 AM	#173 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Here's the results of the last few days of digging around on the interwebs for new music. --- Artist: Mitra Sumara Album: Tahdig Release: June 8/2018 Mitra Sumara are a New York based Farsi pop band of sorts. The keyboard playing in the embedded track (below) is simply drop-dead gorgeous. Currently one of the 2018 albums that I'm most excited about getting my hands on. I might have to hurry, as this one seems fairly obscure. --- Artist: Patricia Vonne Album: Top of the Mountain Release: March 23/2018 Some very fun, basic American rock music. I love the clear, vibrant sound of this track. Not exactly the kind of music I typically like the most, but I think this has so much personality and life to it, that I might take the chance and get the album. Check out the lead single: --- Artist: Laura Jean Album: Devotion Release: June 8/2018 The track below isn't the most original slice of indie pop ever, but I really like the general atmosphere of this and feel like this album could be just my kind of thing. It's not the highest priority out of all 2018 albums, but I'm likely buying it before the end of summer, or at least the year. Also note the short synth melody that comes in near the end of the track. Nice. Right up my alley! --- Artist: Hop Along Album: Bark Off Your Head, Dog Release: April 6/2018 I really dig the vocalist and the mix of instruments here. This album is also among the ones I'm most excited to get my hands on. Raw in a good way and very pretty. Somewhere between an old school, rootsy vibe and more of an indie hipster vibe. I think a lot of people on this forum would like this thing. --- Artist: Karim Sulayman - Jeannette Sorrell Album: Apollo's Fire - Songs of Orpheus Release: April 6/2018 Again, a bit out of my comfort zone with some classical vocal. This guy has pipes! Very stirring delivery and the material seems interesting. I didn't find a Youtube video, but the Allmusic page for the album has some song previews that should give you a very good idea of the level of quality of this project. https://www.allmusic.com/album/songs...s-mw0003154776 Last edited by MicShazam; 06-14-2018 at 12:04 PM.

07-09-2018, 01:41 PM	#175 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	You liked the Dead Cross record enough to buy it? I was disappointed to the point of outrage. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

10-04-2018, 12:29 PM	#178 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Having not kept up with this journal at all, there's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to catch up. I've currently got a list of no less that 56 new albums that I'm interested in this year, and I'm finding more pretty often. Not to mention all the albums I've bought already and all of the back catalogue albums from previous years... It's hopeless. So I'm just gonna mention a random few things that I'm checking out/excited about right now in this moment. Madder Mortem - Liberator From their upcoming album "Marrow". I found their previous album somewhat disappointing, but I still like this band a lot. This song is giving me some hope that this album will correct course. This album doesn't exactly reinvent their style, but Madder Mortem is still a modern prog metal band that's pretty much doing their own thing. Farao - The Hours This song is from 2014. Never heard of this Norwegian indie pop/songwriter before. Pretty much right up my alley. Her voice is not the most unique thing ever, but still great. It's really the songwriting and instrumentation that brings this one home. The video is really, really nicely made too. DIR EN GREY - Aka (赫) Quite against what I expected, I'm not very excited about this new Dir En Grey album. I'm gonna buy it, but the mixing job really bugs me and they're just not really doing anything new. The last five albums were amazing, so this one feels like a kinda weak thing to have waited 4 years for. Oh well... I'll probably like it a bit better once I finally get the CD and listen to it a bit more in depth. I just feel like most of the songs are kind of lacking in memorable ideas and the sound quality sucks (aside from having plenty of bass, which is great). Stam1na - Enkelinmurskain The second single from their new album which is coming out very soon. I'm so excited about this! The album is titled "Taival" and comes out around the 12th. I'm gonna spin this one non stop for a week when I get it. I really dig the vocals here. The chorus is a real ear worm and that whole instrumental section is just great. Exactly my kind of metal guitar solo! Still a top 5 metal band for me? Yup. LE PRINCE MIIAOU - VICTOIRE (Official) This French indie artist has an album coming out later this year. I bought an older album a short while ago when first having heard the above track on Facebook. I dig that other album, so I'm looking forward to this new one a lot. Interestingly, it's a complete stylistic change. The album I have is a mix of modern indie pop and retro pop/rock vibes with some novel production elements. This new album seems to take way more of an electronic/dance/rhythmic approach. Also makes me think of 80's new wave a bit. Last edited by MicShazam; 10-04-2018 at 01:09 PM.

07-09-2018, 01:31 PM	#174 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Not sure where to post this, so I'm posting it in my probably dead journal: https://imgur.com/a/Z5vVc2w?grid It's an Imgur album of all the 2018 CD's I want to get my grubby hands on.

09-14-2018, 12:13 PM	#177 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Gonna re-open this journal. I'm feeling like ranting and raving about great music. This album is why: https://open.spotify.com/album/6nY9YhtdlDCPWKF9m9txU5 Suggested to me in the Spotify discover section. I literally discovered this album barely 20 minutes ago and I've already ordered the CD on Amazon. I'm blasting it loud on Spotify right now and I've got goosebumps. I **ing love this! It's a sort of alt rock with some post rock vibes. Elph should check this out, but he won't when I say it's good Kristeen has a super powerful, in your face singing style. It's gonna be a love/hate sort of proposition. The music is just so juicy and full sounding and so full of all sorts of little compositional touches that make me think of all sorts of other artists, early Kate Bush among them. Holy ** I'm loving this! Check it out.

10-24-2018, 09:27 AM	#179 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	I felt like just posting some of the stuff I've been listening to the most recently. It's not necessarily new music, although much of it probably will be. Actually, I was thinking I wanted to post more about music, but I don't know in what form, so for now, I guess I'm just dumping some tracks that I like under some flimsy pretext. Stam1na - Solar Stam1na - Merivälimatka Both of the above tracks are from the new Stam1na album, "Taival". It's a pretty varied album and the above tracks demonstrate the heavier side and the more melodic side of the album. My favourite part of the album is probably the 3 part song cycle in the middle. There's just a lot to appreciate here if you give the album a good listen. Kristeen Young - Kill the Father I bought all three albums she's made quite soon after hearing one of her songs. There's just basically no way in which I'm not digging this. It's like a heavier Kate Bush mixed with PJ Harvey and some post punk influences. Awesome. And of course I think she's a fantastic singer. Ihsahn - The Eagle and the Snake Ihsahn's new album, "Ámr" still isn't quite having me convinced, although I'm liking it more with every spin. However, it did prompt me to go back and listen to every prior album of his again. This reminded me how much I like the album "Eremita", from which the above track is taken. Anneke Van Giersbergen - Physical This summer I was listening a lot to this album so hearing this song again already feels kinda nostalgic. Reminds me of good times and sunlight.

10-24-2018, 09:58 AM	#180 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Part deux or something. Ana Burch - 2 Cool 2 Care From the album "Quit the Curse" which, much to my surprise, is in the running for being a top 10 album of 2018 for me. I'm getting a lot of new albums now, so I don't know where it will stand when the year is over, but you can't argue with the songcraft here. "But MacShizzle, you have really bad taste in music. We've talked about this already and everyone agreed." Shut up. It's a good album. Arkona - Tseluya zhizn' Is every metalhead on MB that's not listening to the new Arkona album making a huge mistake? Duh. The above track speaks for itself! Very much in the running for my personal top 10 albums of 2018. Barbara Morgenstern - Brain** I'm posting this song, but I haven't even heard it! I love Morgenstern so much that I don't want to spoil the album in advance. All the rest of you who don't care so much can check out the single from "Unschuld und Verwüstung" above. The Agonist - The Moment** Kind of maybe starting to be a top 10 metal act for me. It just scratches an itch, you know?