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12-26-2014, 05:00 PM | #31 |
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01. Swans – To Be Kind Only a truly impressive instrumental performance could prevent that Sun Kil Moon album from being my favorite album of the year. Swans’ latest 2 hour monster, To Be Kind, is that performance. This is truly awe-inspiring. I loved their last album The Seer for its fearsome, expansive textures. It was bewildering & intense & one of the best (though hardest to listen to) albums of the past decade. This new album doesn’t lose any of that intensity, any of those expansive textures. But what it adds is serious groove. There’s a groove and a fierce drive to these songs that makes them catchier than The Seer material. This is an album that defies words in many ways, or at least it takes a certain amount of specific words – think an entire Cormac McCarthy album – to properly communicate how this album sounds, how it makes you feel. It really does sound like you’re out on the prairie and all of the bad things in the world are about to descend on you. Michael Gira takes repetitive bass & drums on many of these tracks & adds layers of repetitive sound on top: a cacophony of instruments including lap steel guitar, bells, viola, wind chimes, horns, backing vocals, synthesizers, layers & layers of percussion, and of course Gira’s intense lead vocals that are sometimes plainly spoken and sometimes yelled like a beast would yell. There’s no moment in 2014 music more unnerving than Gira singing “I’m just a little boy” only to be met immediately with a Greek chorus of humiliating laughter. There’s perhaps no more imposing study in the power of repetition and slow build than the album’s centerpiece 35 minute long song, “Bring the Sun/Toussaint L’Ouverture” which builds for 14 minutes like the whole planet is going to collapse and THAT is only a lead-in to a chanting tribute to the Haitian revolutionary who led the successful & violent slave rebellion on that island; those powerful 35 minutes are accidentally topical – they make me think about the kind of violence that might be necessary to actually get some justice out of an American police state that violently oppresses African Americans. Ultimately, the way you feel when you listen to these tracks is going to be very individualized. It’s like if a haunted house were also a contemporary abstract art gallery: there’s room in these sparse lyrics and in these gargantuan songs for your subconscious to run amok. This is an intimidating undertaking to listen, but it carries my fullest recommendation. |
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12-26-2014, 05:07 PM | #32 |
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What did you guys listen to this year?
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12-26-2014, 10:56 PM | #33 |
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NewChief, pass the bourbon to me & chime in here.
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12-27-2014, 08:45 AM | #34 |
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I've been looking forward to your list all year, because I found it, personally, to be a strange year in music. Like you said, not lots of pop stuff that I loved. More metal that I liked than usual. There was nothing that really stayed in constant rotation for me, but I had a few that I listened to a lot that you didn't include and some areas where we coincide.
I tried to post last night, but I was on my phone and suffering technical issues, so this will be with a cup of coffee instead of bourbon. So here are my random thoughts: First of all, I'm glad to see that Swans made your best of the year list. That was mine as well. I think it suffered a lot, in critic eyes, from from the success of the Seer as well as dropping early in the year. Still, I'm not sure that there was another album that had the impact on me as this one (and that's saying something with my love for RTJ2). I didn't put RTJ2 up top, either. I loved the album. I really did. However, the hype leading up to it was absolutely incredible for me. The videos. The Meow the Jewels kickstarter. The huge essays detailing the friendship of Mike and Jaime. I was more in love with these guys before the album dropped than I've ever been with any other artists. As such, it was nigh impossible for the album to not slightly disappoint. It's probably around 2 or 3 on my best of list, so it didn't disappoint much. I was also happy to see Panopticon on your list. I loved Kentucky, but didn't even realize that they'd (technically he?) had released another album until it started showing up on all the end of lists. Anyway, I liked this one quite a bit as well. The TVOTR album is the first one of theirs that my wife has said, "Who is this?" when grabbed her phone and quickly added it to her Spotify playlist. That has to be significant in some way because I've tried to hook her on them with every album they've released to no avail. This one stuck, though. I STILL haven't gotten to listen to the D'Angelo album with headphones, but I've listened to it like 6 times on our portable bluetooth speaker. It's funny that you say it needs headphones, though, because that's exactly what I said to someone else online when discussing the album. There's just a lot of fuzzed out stuff and layers in the production that I think will sound better on headphones. Now for the omissions: Water Liars Water Liars: Probably my favorite band in the world right now. Justin is from my area. They've been playing in small venues here a long time. They're literate as hell, and they make music that really just appeals to my southern upbringing. Hiss Golden Messenger Lateness of Dancers: one of my friends is probably the biggest Sturgill Simpson fan boy I know. Like, he's obsessed with him and wants to start doing DMT at 40 basically because Sturgill does. For me, Hiss Golden Messenger does everything that Sturgill Simpson doesn't. They're not really analagous bands, but if I've got to put a "country" type band for 2014 on my list, then I'm going with these guys. YOB: Clearing the Path to Ascension. This was the year of Doom for me. Pallbearer. YOB. SunnO))). Earth. Damn it was a good year in Doom. Despite my Arkansas love for Pallbearer. YOB's album was the best of the bunch, imo. Giant Squid. Minoans. I probably shouldn't be able to include this, because I didn't even discover it until Stereogum released their best of metal list. But damn. I like this album a lot. You know I like my "metal" mixed with some other genres. And this album keeps me interested from start to finish. Atlas. Real Estate. Yes. It's a throwback. It's probably not even their best album. Damn if I didn't listen to it a lot on road trips, though. Pharaohe Monch: PTSD. I listened to this concept album quite a bit after it first dropped. There are some clunkers on here, but I found the whole album to be his most accessible and enjoyable offering from his catalog. YG: My Crazy Life. I probably listened to this rap album more than any other. That's in large part because my rap listening often happens at the gym, and this album suits my needs for "gym music" more than any other. Still, I loved this. Finally: Y no War on Drugs? (just kidding. Outside of the first couple of tracks, I didn't love it as much as everyone else seemed to, either.)
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12-27-2014, 09:05 AM | #35 |
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I don't think I gave the Hiss Golden Messenger album enough spins. I liked it fine enough, but it might have been a bigger grower on me if I'd have given it the chance to.
I'm glad we're on a similar page re: War on Drugs. That album was not the revelation to me that it apparently is to so many people. I actually never listened to the YG album in full. I dunno why I never made time for a full spin. The YOB and Pallbearer albums landed in that 31-35 ranking for me just off the list. If I were ranking "best" albums they might have made it, but I'm generally going to play faster paced metal more because I lurve riffs. |
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12-27-2014, 09:08 AM | #36 |
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If you listened to every song and album that came out this year you STILL could not make an objective claim.
It's not a personal failing either. Quality of art is always, in some measure, subjective. |
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12-27-2014, 09:08 AM | #37 |
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Nice work, Reaper.
The 5 best things I heard in 2014. 5. Gas Chamber - Hemorrhaging Light - 7 note hardcore from Buffalo that breaks the mold of same ol same ol hardcore. 4. Sammath - Godless Arrogance - At the minimum, 95% of Black Metal makes me chuckle, then there's this. 3. Fistula - Vermin Prolificus - Long running, drugged out, sludge from the Midwest paired up with the best DIY label in the game made for the best sounding record I heard all year. Looking back, "Pig Funeral" was an uncomfortable premonition in 2014. 2. PLF - Ultimate Whirlwind of Incineration - PLF could write an acoustic K-pop album and it would still be the best metal album of the year. Dave Callier is why metal will always be my one love. 1. Water Torture - Pillbox - Dual bass and drum noiseviolence also from Buffalo. This is a game changer as their style mostly lends to an under 10 minutes 7", but they've glued their songs together with ominous noise parts to create the best full length I heard this year. EPs and Honorable Mentions: Nomads - s/t 7" - cop hating crust from LA Cave State - s/t 7" - the best powerviolence 7" of 2014 Antichrist Demoncore - s/t 12" - "I hope that Dorner's ghost comes back to seek revenge". Best lyric of 2014 Sixbrewbantha - new 12" - this could possibly be the best grindcore release of 2014, but it doesn't officially drop until 12/31. |
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12-27-2014, 11:31 AM | #38 |
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I didn't expect the Sun Kil Moon and Swans albums to be your 1/2; but I can't argue with it.
I haven't given 'To Be Kind' a fair enough number of listens; I'll get on that. I was kind of frightened to listen to this album after 'The Seer'. Their music hurts my brain. Last edited by Pablo; 12-27-2014 at 11:38 AM.. |
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12-27-2014, 03:53 PM | #39 | |
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12-27-2014, 03:54 PM | #40 |
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I agree with you. Professional critics have a "more" objective viewpoint that they write from but that isn't full objectivity of course.
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12-27-2014, 03:55 PM | #41 | |
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12-27-2014, 06:39 PM | #42 | |
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The Seer was a few listens then put it away for me, despite understanding that it was awesome.
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12-27-2014, 06:41 PM | #43 | |
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12-27-2014, 06:57 PM | #44 | |
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I'm absolutely more irritated by the onslaught of handwringing articles and tweets from sanctimonious music critics about Kozelek than I am Kozelek's surliness itself. |
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12-27-2014, 07:00 PM | #45 | |
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Now, I think that Koz was completely doing it just for kicks and to keep his name in the hype cycle, but that the "feud" was so one-sided made it feel a little icky after a bit.
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