ethanhunt
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Post by ethanhunt on Apr 14, 2021 13:26:53 GMT -5
Daughter was definitely one of my favorite albums of the year. happy to see another fan
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 3:22:38 GMT -5
10. Set My Heart on Fire Immediately by Perfume Genius
If I'm being perfectly honest, I did not expect this album would end up as high as it did in the end. Not that I was lukewarm on the album when I first gave it multiple listens, because it still would've made this list regardless. Mike Hadreas is still a beautifully emotional and evocative performer and songwriter; something about the way he capture intimate sexual experience. It's not merely the eroticism of the stories, it's also the shy nervous euphoria - the moments of connection, not just the feeling of being lovestruck, but also the realization a potential bond could be formed, even if it doesn't last that long or even that he was mistaken. All of the complexity is fully realized in song form.
And yet, something about the album just clicked with me on my last listen. Perhaps despite its length, I'd never realized how lively and dynamic the production moments were on this album. Not just the quiet reflections like 'Jason', but the great stab at shoegaze on 'Describe', more upbeat moments like 'Without You' and 'On the Floor', the touches of 80s synth on 'Your Body Changes Everything', and the touches of lively instrumentation throughout with harps, guitars, and perfectly timed percussion. All of it snuck up on me in a way I didn't expect, I didn't notice it but once I did I enjoyed the album even more than I had. I know length has been the common critique amongst people but I think it's worth giving this album another listen if you haven't already. Even for the beautiful piecemeal moments, Mike Handreas captures true love and sexuality more than any artist was able to in 2020 and I think that's worth sampling immediately.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 3:27:05 GMT -5
9. folklore by Taylor Swift
...did you really think I was gonna go this list WITHOUT mentioning Taylor Swift?
By now, folklore and its sister album evermore, have been thoroughly dissected by everyone: Taylor Swift stans, music critics, and even casual music fans. It's already gone down as one of the biggest female albums - breaking records upon its release, there've been countless theories and interpretations shared about the meanings of the songs and the tracklist, and it's practically reinvented Taylor Swift's image from the bubblegum popstar she'd been for her entire career, into a "serious musician with indie cred". And as much as I would like to nitpick and say that yes, both of her albums do run a tad long and there's not much dynamics in the tracklist, or that Taylor Swift has always been a talented composer and songwriter; and that this album was simply more cohesive and consistent than her other releases, but sometimes it is just fun to go along with the consensus and say this is her best ever album, and one of the best singer-songwriter albums of last year. Sure, the album does run a bit long but when the runtime is filled with all time career highlights: 'exile', 'august', 'betty', 'mirrorball', 'this is me trying', even 'cardigan'. The stripped back production from Aaron Desner and Jack Antonoff should also be praised, giving the room for Taylor's vocals to sound great while also being well composed.
Even now, I'm still discovering new things to love about the album: the story-book sequencing of the album. I've also been rotating which songs I love, the great turns of phrase on all 17 songs, how unlike other previous album, folklore actually ends on a downbeat note, it's just an album I really could talk for hours and hours. I'd recommend it but by now I think most have already listened to it a dozen or more so times...and I think I will to.
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born
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Post by born on Apr 19, 2021 3:57:11 GMT -5
Mike & Taylor showing up back to back with two of the best albums of 2020 (both with b&w covers)
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 4:21:19 GMT -5
8. Reunions by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
For these final 9 entries (folklore - onward), I could make an argument for actually being the best album of last year, and with this being my easiest to explain because...it's a Jason Isbell. He's still a great writer as ever, being able to be populist yet still progressive in his politics and as heavy and at times on the nose but also honest in his demons and storytelling as well. From the opening of the album, asking what he's actually done to help those who need help in society, being in the backseat and being supportive of his wife whom lost a friend to suicide, and of course the love songs like 'Overseas' and 'Only Children' - capturing the nightly vulnerability and anxiety. It's not precisely new ground but it's still compelling and engaging nonetheless, partly because Jason Isbell is a natural, down-to-earth performer. The mantra: "It gets easier, but it never gets easy" might go down as one of the subtly brilliant moments of music last year.
But it's not just the writing that's fantastic, the music itself is also wonderful. Beyond the wonderfully expressive and pained vocals, the instrumentation and more alternative country/rock Americana direction is a great fit for the writing and allows Isbell to really belt out with the reverb. It's simply a solid, smart country release that's still bold, ambitious, and brave in it's writing. Now that Jason Isbell is being more listened to by the AAA crowd, I hope he finally get a wider attention that he deserves.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 4:59:48 GMT -5
7. Brave Faces Everyone by Spanish Love Songs
I guess the easy picks for this list continue.
Anyone who's spent time on the internet looking for underground music has heard about this album. Dozens of internet reviewers have praised this album to no end, many of them putting it as their top album of the year. And while it was just short of making the Top 5, all the praise given is well deserved and this album absolutely meets the hype given. It's fitting an album with a song called 'Kick' and with a title asking us to pretend to be brave feels like as brutal as it is. It's not precisely a heavy album instrumentation wise, though the production does go hard in places and lead singer Dylan Slocum can absolutely howl his lungs off. Even if the lyrics were basic pop punk pablum, this would still be an enjoyable punk release. But as everyone, myself included, has highlighted so much, it's the songwriting that tips this over the edge.
As I mentioned in my Best Songs list, there's just devastating honesty in how in confronts modern societal issues. The effects of climate change worsening, a middling economy where it seems no one's allowed to succeed, the perpetuation of all these problems from the younger generation's apathy to everything. And yet, like with Jeremy Bolm, despite the tragedy of it all, whether or not it's out of sheer dumb stubbornness, the band's still gonna keep fighting. Hope is indeed a radical lifestyle and activism for righteous causes is living dangerously, and they're still going to do it. Because doing good is the only thing that matters in the end. We're all people beaten down by the world but we're gonna put our brave faces on anyway and do make the most out of life.
It's emotionally powerful and resonant punk music, and from an act that just debuted, for their first swing to be this much of a homerun, it shows brightly what the future of punk could be this decade.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 5:17:48 GMT -5
6. RTJ4 by Run the Jewels
And speaking about heavily political music...
There was an interesting thought I saw the other day in a Discord server I'm in, that aside from straightforward songs about loving someone, political lyrics should be avoided when you're starting to write music. Not for any concern of alienating people of differing views but more out of fear it might age or date the music, especially with any specific references to events. And I perfectly understand that mentality: after all, art can hit and be explosive in the moment but once all that adrenaline fades, will it still be worthy of revisiting.
So with all that said: not only is RTJ4 tragically still relevant and important as it was 6 months ago, just from a music standpoint, it still goes hard as hell and is easily the duos second best project after their acclaimed sophomore effort. As expected, Killer Mike and El-P deliver precise blows to the former administration's policies: gentrification, caging immigrant children, police brutality, none of it is new...and both men know it. It's not just about calling out the present problems, in all of their material, both emcees have been smart to realize how long-standing these prejudices in society are. And like the punk and post-hardcore music highlighted on this list, both men also know hope and activism are dangerous, most likely futile choices in life. But where's the fun in giving in to nihlism? Fuck that, they say!
Like the music of Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine, Run the Jewels makes the type of angry anthemic music that'll be just as powerful 20 years from now as it was when it was first dropped in the midst of worldwide protesting against police brutality. Truly music that will never be forgotten and will always have a spot in society, truly a revolution and attitude that will never die, no matter how much those in charge will try to kill it.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 8:02:05 GMT -5
5. Fetch the Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple ...do I need to say anything else?Do I even HAVE to say something?You all know what this album is: already it has gone down as one of the most critically acclaimed albums of all time. It's appeared on dozens of lists for the best albums of the year, topping a good chunk of them. It's even gone through the backlash phase of people "not thinking it's that good". And...maybe it isn't all that good. I mean if I'm being honest, this isn't even my second favorite Fiona Apple album. Surely months after all the critical hype has quieted down, it isn't as good as it was when it first dropped? Well considering the high placement on this list, I think you know the answer to that. Fetch the Bolt Cutters more than lives up to the hype. But before we dive into the lyrics, I think it's worth pointing out that the instrumentation and Fiona Apple herself are worth praising and are just as eye catching as the songwriting. Fiona really challenges her vocal timbre throughout: every remembers the odd Dolphin laughter of the opener, but the barking howls on song Heavy Balloon and the end of Cosmonauts, the self-harmonizing on 'For Her' as well as doing her own backing vocals for various songs, even the stewing venom in her voice on 'Newspaper' and 'Rack of His'. All these tricks add some much need animation and even levity to the album, does the instrumentation. The piano and drum compositions are the standouts, but the ramshackle percussion striking throughout. It's not as immediately memetic as some of the song on The Idler Wheel... (though 'Cosmonauts' and 'Relay'And then we have the extremely feminist lyrics calling the sexist system that hurts and traumatizes women in various ways. We obviously have. Being kicked down when told to shut up, unhealthy and unsatisfying married women, even women turning against each other for the sake of their men, being gaslit, becoming trophies, and many more shades of emotional abuse. It's a viscous cycle of hurt people hurting others - as she says on 'Relay': "evil is a relay sport where the one who's burned turns to pass the torch".Like with folklore, I could honestly go on and on about this album and its writing, all the little idiosyncrasies and lyrical moments, I could talk all day but you don't need me to sing its praises. It's been showered in praise by nearly everyone that if you haven't taken a peak, even a little, I honestly don't know what to say to.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 8:29:58 GMT -5
4. Take a Chance on Rock 'n' Roll by Couch Slut (massive cw: explicit mentions of rape and sexual assault)
Of all the albums I was going to talk about for this list, this is the one I've been thinking the most about what to write about. Based on the content warning I just gave, I think you know why.
Few albums last year really got under my skin, really unnerved me as this half hour of heavy, screaming agony. The heavy crushing instrumentation and production throughout, truly a rushing wall of sound stopping just before every song ends to punch with an even more cacophonous sound. I could talk about the vocals from Megan Osztrosits and how raw, and righteously angry she sounds. I could even talk about the extremely painful lyrics that stuck with me when I first read them, I literally couldn't listen to any other music that night because the details were just so horrifying.
I could go into more detail...but the truth of it all is that none of that praise matters or is going to alleviate the subject matter of this album. There's no clever wordplay or turns of phrases to dissect, it's all pure pain. This album is here to remind us rape is bullshit and that it is an unforgiveable thing to happen in an unsympathetic world. There is no silver lining from an event as horrible as it is, no recovery arc for Megan, at least not now. There might be the slightest bit of venomous catharsis in calling rapists as well as cops not believing victims "selfish, idiot pigs" but catharsis doesn't bring closure. She still gets no palpable justice for all of this and there is no growth as a person from all of this. All the more evident by an absolutely closing track.
{Spoiler}{Spoiler for the final song on the album (CW: drugging, sexual assault)} The album ends on a spoken word track retelling an event where she and her friend drugged at a party, stripped down, and filmed. She wakes up to find her friends and get out as soon as possible. Their other friend finds the camera, giving out his address so the rapists can find him and he can beat them for what they've done. It's an album I'm scared to even recommend even lightly because of how explicit the subjects. It is art but it's the furthest thing from entertainment is little to be entertained especially when it seems like so little of it seems performative or has any sense of artifice. I'm still left shaken even now as to if I like the album beyond the blunt emotion of it all.
If nothing else, no piece of media: music or otherwise, has shaken me to the core, has terrified me as much as this album. Take from that what you will.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 9:47:36 GMT -5
3. SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama
So for the longest time, I was so sure this was going to be my top album for 2020. As I was finalizing this list, I started second guessing myself as to why. After all, it was just a pop debut with solid pop songs. Sure it was well-produced, well performed, and well written, but it was just pop. It wasn't all that good, right?
Well one last listen re-affirmed why this is not only one of the best albums of last year, but one of the best pop albums I've ever listened to. Make no mistake: this may seem like the typical pop project but especially for her debut album, this is a bold project that immediately establishes Rina as one of the most exciting and interesting acts in music right now. What I love most about her music is the same reason as to why I love about Carly Rae Jepsen's music so much: simple fun upbeat pop music but isn't basic and is the farthest thing from being brainless.
It's actually impressive how despite the bubblegum aesthetic of it all, Rina was able to slide in commentary about commercialism, toxic friendships, cultural appropriation of Japanese culture, depression, systemic societal trauma within the family, even the interlude talks about the human impact on the environment. And all of this with impressive poptimism: not only in that Rina has buckets of natural charisma and unique personality as a vocalist, but also in paying tribute to pop music. The way she uses the pop music imagery of the 2000s - with the obvious Britney Spears and Christine Aguillera influence, but also the touches of nu-metal on STFU! and Akasaka Sad, the way Who's Gonna Save You actually sounds like a live concert, how Chosen Family and Tokyo Love Hotel sound strikingly similar to old karaoke waiting music, and all of this with some of the catchiest hooks of the year. This album is simply a dopamine rush to listen to, and fascinating to dissect aka the best type of dance pop that should be in the mainstream right now.
There are a ton of acts right now shaping to be decade defining for pop and I can hope that Rina is up there with acts getting hits right now. With her imagination and creativity, I can only imagine how good pop music in the 2020s is gonna sound like.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 10:18:01 GMT -5
2. Shape & Destroy by Ruston Kelly
The reason this album is quite is actually because of very personal reasons which I shall get into in a little bit. Rest assured though, even if I didn't have a personal connection with this album, this would still be in my top 10 albums of this year.
I had heard good things about Ruston Kelly heading into this album but I wasn't expecting it would hit this hard. Like with Spanish Love Songs, Jason Isbell, and Touche Amore, it's an album all about confronting past demons and still being able to keep your head afloat. The aftermath of his divorce from Kacey Musgraves looms heavy amidst seasonal bouts of depression and alcohol abuse. Ruston's immediately rasp not only sells the pain, but never to the point of being overly somber or melodramatic. It feels human, earned but above all else humble in its presentation. And for a country release, it's amazingly atmospheric: there's an damp, cold cavernous aura to the songs, so much so that he even finds a way to make trap snares work! Trap snares in a country song and it's good! And it works because it fits the suffocated and trapped feeling of being in a cage of your own design. Even as the first song tries to be upbeat and wild, Ruston comes down - barely clinging on to hope even as the desire to give up seems so tempting. Which makes all the moments of brevity, of light and especially the closer "Hallelujah", feel even more victorious. That the light was achieved in the end.
But I think I should get to why this was my second favorite album of last year and that comes with personal baggage of strap in. 2020 was obviously a shit year but personally throughout the year, it felt like I was making progress. I had made a ton of friends through classes, forums, and even playing games. I had learned I was on the spectrum and read up on proper social techniques and etiquette. I had a fixed schedule where I was exercising and reading books regularly. I had even gotten more confident with my self-image.
Yet towards the end of the year, before Christmas Eve in fact, something suddenly felt off. I suddenly started doubting myself, wondering what I was doing with my life and what I would do with it. Suddenly after a year of progress, I felt like I had fallen back to square one for no reason. I felt worthless. And so, as I started to fall back into my depression, while listening through my back catalog for the year-end lists, this album clicked with me like no other album did. Hearing someone say "I'm still alive" and "It's almost over, brighter days will come", that out of the rubble and destruction around you, even if it's by your design, you can still make something out of it. I suddenly felt like someone understood part of my pain.
Now obviously that's my personal experience and you may not have the same experience I do. That said this is still an incredible touching, moving album, with a lot of soul, heart, and empathy put into it, and hands down, one of the best country albums I've ever heard. And while I don't think every country album needs to be this, it really shows the potential the genre has: that an album this moving can come from a medium typically mocked as being corny and old-fashioned. For an album to be this resonant is an achievement all it's own, regardless of genre. It simply is great music you need to hear.
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dremolus - solarpunk
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Post by dremolus - solarpunk on Apr 19, 2021 10:43:11 GMT -5
1. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
And it wasn't going to be anything else.
There is A LOT to talk about when it comes to this album, I don't even know where to begin.
I could talk about how the album lovingly pays tribute to horror movies like Scream, The Blair Witch Project, Candyman, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as other horror cliches like poltergeists, Ouija boards, even the madness of C'thulu is used. But clipping. aren't simply using the iconography of classic horror movies. Like good sequels and adaptations, they building upon the base of them; really dissecting and using the tropes to (pun intended) ghoulish effect, especially when guest stars like Ho99o9 and Cam & China play great frightening side characters to the sotries. And speaking of horror elements, I could talk about how gore is utilized in the album: there's obviously fun exploitation to be had in reveling in the violence but it isn't all mindless slaughter and carnage. Like good horror, they're still a human element at the core of it all which makes all the terror even more frightening.
And building on top of that, I could talk about the furious politics interlaced throughout. Daveed Diggs' agenda was pronounced on There Existed an Addiction to Blood but here, it's even more stark. With the victims of racist murders haunting not just their killers but society as well, how their names will forever be echoed as a dark stain against American culture and history. And of course, I could talk about the mind-blowing production William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. From sampling creepy sounds like floorboard creeks, rusty hooks, old lights rattling, even sampling real EMP audio of ghosts and playing ambient nature sounds of a haunted park for the final track.But it's far from an over-the-top spectacle: like the lyrics, there's texture to the production. The alien-like synths, some of the loudest percussion beats this year, it's al devilish fun to listen to. And of course, Daveed Diggs still being able to ride the beats inhumanely. I can even talk about how despite the harshness of the content and aesthetic of the music is, this is perhaps clipping.'s catchiest album to date, with some amazing hooks on 'Pain Everyday', 'Enlacing', 'Say the Name', and 'Looking Like Meat'.
More than all of that, the reason this is by far my favorite album of 2020 is that out of every album released last year, this project truly felt like a vision was fully realized and without compromised. It's a love letter to the medium while also being wholly original, creative, and boundary pushing for hip-hop. And yet even now, I still feel like there's still parts of this album I've yet to discover and be in awe of.
Even if you are not a fan of experimental hip-hop, even if you don't like horrorcore or even if you don't care for horror in general, I implore you seek this album out. Just for an experience you won't ever forget, I think this deserves your ears and your attention.
It's the best album of 2020 by a country mile and I reckon in 10 years when we look upon the 2020s in terms of music, I'm still going to be marking out on this album as one of the best ever. Truly, this is as a landmark and accomplishment in music.
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𝕡𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕓𝕤
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Post by 𝕡𝕙𝕖𝕖𝕓𝕤 on Apr 25, 2021 19:20:31 GMT -5
I listened to Visions of Bodies Being Burned last night and hoooo wow
“Check the Lock”, “Make Them Dead” & “96 Neve Campbell” are going into rotation. I didn’t think I’d be into such ooky spooky music, who knew (then again, I love Sophie’s “Ponyboy” so I should’ve known)
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