The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 67

Send me a DM, let’s talk shop

 

Okay @Fucking Dustin and I have agreed.

He has me listening to:

Jeff Rosenstock - Worry
Trophy Scars - Holy Vacants

I have him digging into:

+44- When Your Heart Stops Beating
Story Of The Year- Wolves

Yes I recommended Wolves to two different people this week. I like the album that much and it needs more recognition

 

Nfdv2 and I are exchanging and we have settled on:

Nfdv2 will be listening to:
Architects-All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us
Between the Buried and Me-Alaska

I will be listening to:
The Mountain Goats-The Sunset Tree
David Maxim Micic-Who Bit the Moon

 

This week I was paired with @ComedownMachine, who recommended these albums to me:

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz - Tyranny (2014)
I'll be honest, I've only heard a few songs by The Strokes. I had no idea that Julian Casablancas of The Strokes had another band until Michael told me who it was - Casablancas' signature raspy vocals weren't present until the end of track 5. I really enjoyed this album, and I'm surprised to see hate for it online because it's pretty great. This is a very diverse album, utilising electronics, keyboards, punk rock, and ambience. 11 minute opus "Human Sadness" reaches a beautiful, melancholy post-rock height half way through the song, and immediately became a stand out. My other favourite tracks are "Where No Eagles Fly", "Johan Von Bronx", the stunning, alarming "Dare I Care", and "Nintendo Blood". Album closer "Off To War..." is underwhelming, but doesn't impact the quality of the album, which is excellent.

No Hope Kids - Our Time Apart (2016)
The title track opens this album in spectacular fashion, the guitar feedback echoing Radiohead's Motion Picture Soundtrack. Throughout my listens to Our Time Apart, I found a youthful energy mixed with a ton of experimentation. Take the rocking, tongue-in-cheek "God Complex" alongside acoustic, tender "Dearest Daisy", it's clear this group is fond of all styles of music and dares to push boundaries. "Isolated" is gorgeous but perhaps too short! I adore "Look In Your Eyes", the warped vocals are fun and convey all the emotions present in the album - anxiety, love, self doubt, depression. The Cure influenced "This Time" is glorious. Our Time Apart is an exciting, strong debut album and I so look forward to hear what's to come!
Oh, and this is @ComedownMachine's band. Check it out!

 

@Mary V thanks for the write up! I’m glad you actually enjoyed both (especially mine). Good thing you knew God Complex was tongue in cheek haha

 

Tongue in cheek is a lyrical technique that I love

 

WE ARE BEGGAAAAARS!!!

*goosebumps for days*

That album is the best thing ever to come out of Europe.

 

The album is a very personal one for me. The loss of Tom to cancer is devastating and especially at such a young age. His struggle of acceptance and denial of his disease is very evident throughout the entire record. Having had leukemia myself at a young age and survived it makes it even more real that nobody is immortal.

 

Gone With the Wind I cry every time.

 

I was matched with @ChaseTx this week and was recommended two great albums. I had been meaning to check both of these out because of the high praise I've seen them receive here, but this finally pushed me to make it happen. One of the reasons I love this club. Without further ado:

Camp Cope - Camp Cope
This album has a similar sound to a lot of the current indie/emo records I've heard lately, but the quality is definitely a step above most of what I'm familiar with. I hear some Courtney Barnett in the melancholy sound and vocal style within a lot of these songs. The lyrics are excellent throughout, focused on storytelling that is descriptive, personal, thought-provoking, and often uncomfortable. Love how the album opens with "Done," which has more of a driving rhythm in comparison to the rest of the album. It also has some really well-placed and tasteful lead guitar licks. "Flesh and Electricity" settles into a nice groove behind some pretty crushing lyrical content. "Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams" contains more masterful writing, taking on some big social issues through a series of vignettes. Another favorite moment is when "West Side Story" builds from slow and quiet to a frenetic climax at the end. Overall, really great album that will stay with me, especially due to the lyrical content.

Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
I could draw some parallels between this album and Camp Cope in that the excellent lyricism continues here, and it is similarly personal, descriptive, and sometimes uncomfortable. I think the songwriting on this album comes across a bit more introspective at times. I can see why Bridgers is often mentioned alongside Julien Baker, as the vocals are the focus of the tracks. However, the instrumentation isn't always sparse, and at times it pleasantly surprised me by pulling my focus to the background flourishes. The first track "Smoke Signals" is hypnotizing in its simplicity, featuring some beautiful strings and a very vulnerable vocal performance by Bridgers. The lyrics of "Funeral" were heartbreaking and made me stop what I was doing and focus exclusively on the song for its entire runtime. Another highlight was "Scott Street," with its relatable lyrics about the passing of time and growing away from someone. It also features a beautiful instrumental vamp in the last few minutes that slowly builds into the outro. I was surprised by and really enjoyed the Conor Oberst feature on "Would You Rather" as well.

I plan to continue to revisit both of these albums. It's a pleasure to listen to artists who write this well, and both of these albums are track after track of really gripping writing. Thanks @ChaseTx!

 

Glad you enjoyed them! Phoebe is easily one of the top 3 or so albums released this year imo

 

You hooked @Patterns in Traffic up Chase! Both classics

 

sort of hurt I wasn't invited to this..

 

I was paired up with @mattfreaksmeout this week and was assigned two albums.

Farewell Continental
Hey, Hey Pioneers!
2011



I had never heard of Farewell Continental before and I was surprised to learn that it is Justin Pierre's (Motion City Soundrack) side project. I have always enjoyed Motion City Soundtrack, so I was looking forward to checking this album out. It certainly did not disappoint! This 14 song album is only about 39 minutes long, so most of the songs are in the 2 to 3 minute range and the album really flies by. I read that Justin started this side project during the recording of Motion City Soundtrack's album "Even If It Kills Me" and wanted to make something less poppy. Musically, this album reminds me of Motion City Soundtrack's first album "I Am The Movie" but it would be a disservice to Farewell Continental to say that they're the same as Motion City Soundtrack. Farewell Continental has another vocalist, Kari Gray, and I really loved the interplay between her vocals and Justin's vocals. There were some songs where Kari provided the lead vocals and Justin provided more of the background vocals, some songs that were the other way around, and some songs that were about 50/50. There are some songs on the album where they really did a good job with the call and response technique with back-and-forth vocals.

There are a couple more quick things I want to note about this album. This is the first (and to date, only) studio album of theirs. They do have a couple EPs though, which I will be checking out. It's also of note that this album was released between Motion City Soundtrack's "My Dinosaur Life" (2010) and Motion City Soundtrack's "Go" (2012).

All in all, a really fun and enjoyable album to listen to. I would strongly recommend this to any fan of Motion City Soundtrack (especially their older work).

My favorite tracks on this album to date are Capybara, The Greatest Of All Time (How You Feelin' Now?), Radio Radio: Are You Getting This?, The Explorer Settles Down, and The Reflecting Skin.

----------------------------------------------

Say Anything
I Don't Think It Is
2016



I've been a fan of Say Anything since their release of "...Is A Real Boy" in 2004 and I enjoyed their follow-up albums "In Defense Of The Genre" from 2007 and their self-titled album from 2009 a good bit. For whatever reason, I never really connected with their 2012 album "Anarchy, My Dear" or their 2014 album "Hebrews" and I probably only have listened to those two albums a handful of times. I wouldn't consider those bad albums though. When "I Don't Think It Is" was released in early 2016, I read a couple negative reviews and that, in combination with my indifference toward their past couple releases, pretty much caused me to ignore it.

I try my best to go into a new album with an open mind and without any preconceived notions, but I have to be honest and say that I did not like this album. I hate how most of the album sounds. A lot of the album is fuzzy and distorted and I just think it sounds terrible. That aspect of the album was hard for me to overlook. I think that a lot of Say Anything's songs in the past have been really catchy, but after my first listen of the album I struggled to remember any catchy songs or moments on the album. I don't mind some of Max's vocals, but I wish the songs were better and more interesting.

I don't have much more to say about this album and I really hate to pile on the negativity. I'm sure there are a good amount of Say Anything fans that enjoy this record and it's possible that some of the songs translate well live.

One small highlight for me was the unexpected Frozen reference in the song "Princess" (after seeing that movie roughly 150 times with my kids I think I love it).

A few standout tracks to me are So Numb, Jiminy, and Attaboy.

 

@bree1981 recommended me albums this week

Gouge Away - , Dies

I was completely unaware what to expect going into this album. I didn't know anything about this band at all. Listened to it once without looking up lyrics or anything beforehand. Then read a little bit about the lyrics and stuff about the band/albums. The blend of post-hardcore and punk was interesting, I’m not a big punk music listener and this was pretty good to me. The vocals at times reminded me of The Blood Brothers, the main singer is in kind of the same register (at least in my untrained ears) as Johnny Whitney. The lyrics were politically driven for the most part, I struggled to make out some of them and couldn't find many lyrics online to read along with for every song. I didn't really care for the production quality, sounded like the vocals were disconnected on some songs from the music, could have been my phone/streaming service or earphones but it was noticeable. Overall I liked this album, my favorite song was Wildflowers. I also really enjoyed when the vocalists went back and forth instead of just having the one singer on some songs.

Touche Amore - Stage Four

I knew what this album was about as I had read a few reviews and articles about it and the band in general. I missed them live last spring when they were touring with Thursday and I was disappointed because I wanted to check them out, but I never got around to it. Going into this album I knew it was going to be a little bit of a tough listen due to the personal nature of it being about his mother's battle and eventual loss to cancer. The lyrics were very well written and the music matches them perfectly. I read the lyrics along to listening to it and there were times where I started to tear up a little bit because of how well he's able to describe their relationship and their struggle near the end. I felt his emotion about not being there at the end of her life, and the guilt that he has for that. While this is a very sad and heart wrenching album about a very personal time in his life, it's a very good album musically and lyrically. the only thing that I wanted more of was singing, I wanted him to mix in clean vocals with the screaming, that's just my personal taste though and doesn't take away from this album whatsoever. While normally this would be in my regular rotation of albums to listen to, I just don't know if I can listen to this that often due to the emotional nature.

I'm planning on checking out more of both of these bands in the future.

Thank you for the recs @bree1981

 

Glad you liked Farewell Continental @bachna84! Now you can join me in wishing every day for a reunion or tour of some sort. I love how it's definitely a project driven by Justin, but that he also takes the back seat in a lot. It's cool to hear his influence in ways other than just vocals.

I didn't really expect you to love I Don't Think It Is, but I think it's interesting to hear different opinions on the album.

Still working on your picks. I realized I actually have the Everglow on CD. A couple years ago a friend of mine handed me off a TON of CDs that included pretty much every scene classic you can think of.

But then the CD player in my car stopped working right when I was planning to listen so I didn't make it very far. I'll try to get to it today.

 

Also @WolvesAreCircling182 could you please leave me out of next weeks round if it doesn't create too much of a problem. I don't want to add more albums until I catch up on the previous ones.

 

Not a problem. You’re about the fifth

 

yeah I'll probably be out of next weeks and the week after rounds also since I won't be at work where I listen to new albums.

 

Ok ok finally getting around to @Wall Of Arms recommendations which were Idles - Brutalism and The Maccabees - Wall of Arms.

Idles - Brutalism
It's been a while since I first listened, so I'm listening again and it's even better the 2nd go round. I love that it's just kind of chaotic and bursting at the seems. There's a frenetic energy here - you can feel the band getting lost in their performance. I also like the societal commentary. They feel like an important band for our time. I think they're a relatively new band, so I'm really excited to see where they go.

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms
I'm honored to have been given the opportunity to listen to @Wall Of Arms' namesake album, and happy to report that it was really really great! It reminded me of different things at different times, but I got some Miniature Tigers vibes from them (or probably it's more accurate to say that it seems MT was influenced by them). The one two punch of William Powers and Seventeen Hands was something else. I also really like the singer's voice. It feels a little bit different to me. I will definitely be returning to this and checking out more of their albums over time. Thanks for the recommend!

 

Thank you! Made my day. Hit the nail on the head about IDLES being an important band for our time, they've been going for some years but this debut album really solidified them and their sound. As for The Maccabees, please delve in. They split last year and played farewell shows a few months ago so I'm happy to direct you to anything in their catalogue or give further insight.

 

Looks like I write shitty reviews reading everyone elses.

 

mine are too don't worry

 

I'm almost done with my assignments and trust me my review is not gonna be elegant

 

Wolves deserves an elegant write-up though!

just kidding-I’ve never listened to Wolves