February is Music Writer Exercise Month #MWE • Page 47

Day 2 is The Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin from 1999. This wasn't quite what I was expecting - was expecting something a bit louder, a bit more raucous, a bit more experimental, but it was mostly nice and pretty sounding psychedelic pop that was more Beatles-esque than I expected.

I saw Flaming Lips live a few years ago, not knowing anything about them, and they had confetti and big inflatable robots and fireworks and all sorts of stuff, and sounded dynamic and aggressive live and really fun. This wasn't what I was expecting from this record, but it was still pretty pleasant sounding throughout.

 

Whitney was a genius who had a preternatural feel for when to embellish or add vocal flair and was a huge success. Mariah lifted from Whitney and had a lot less taste, but at least at first, she was involved in the writing enough that she still had feel for preserving the song. Then Christina came along and just did Mariah's most tasteless tics with the pedal down at all times and ruined the public's conception of singing forever.

/rant

 

Interesting. Never really thought about it this way, but the evolution of that style of melismatic singing has always been fascinating to me. It really got overused for awhile there.

 

Day 2: Metallica’s St. Anger
Went in expecting two things: a bad album and a terrible snare sound. Both were there, but it didn’t come off as terrible as I expected. Don’t get me wrong, it’s bad. Maybe it’s my lack of investment in Metallica and hearing it nearly 20 years after all of the hype leading up to it, but this album isn’t infuriatingly bad. Does the production suck? Absolutely. Everyone talks about how bad the drums are, but my least favorite part of the whole project were the vocals. Some sections sounded so raw (in a bad way) that it sounds like they were recorded and then just slapped in. I was also surprised by the variety of (bad) vocal styles, hearing things that reminded me of everything from Creed to poorly executed System of a Down imitations. All in all, it’s not good. With that said, I could see the potential for a better album in there. I heard some riffs and heavier instrumental sections that could have been great if handled better. Hell, just shortening most of the songs probably would have made it at least 25% better. Even a good composition can be ruined if repeated to death. To conclude, I listened to St. Anger and all I got was a confusing hour and fifteen.

 

the album is good. frantic rocks.

 

big big BIG fan of this

 

Every bad thing said about it is true, and yet…I still like it.

Would I like it if they hadn’t snapped right back to form with Death Magnetic and Hardwired and it wasn’t this weird, gnarly little aberration? Probably not.

 

That’s the wild thing about this album, I found myself enjoying various parts throughout despite the insanity. Plus it’s long enough you kind of get used to the production.

 

the snare is good

 

I’d even say, snare sound aside, the production actually suits what some of the songs were shooting for. “Frantic”, “St. Anger”, “Shoot Me Again”, etc. are brutal, nasty songs that want brutal, nasty production

 

The Birthday Party grew on me over the course of the record. I don't know if I'll return to it ever, but when they really get into the heavy howl shriek shit, I'm on board.

 

Boys Life is okay. Definitely a band that I might have loved when I was first getting into the genre, but now it's kinda just washing over me. Not bad, but no songs made me stop what I was doing and check the name.

 

Unfortunately how I feel about this band as well

 

Day 3 is Things Fall Apart by The Roots from 1999. This is definitely an album that'll need multiple listens, as there's a lot going on in these songs, and as always for a first listen, I only ever catch a handful of lyrical snippets, which from what I know of The Roots, is a big selling point. There's lots of different vocalists, and songs that twist and turn, so it's a dense and long listen - clocking in at about 70 minutes.

Good stuff, a bit exhausting, and no doubt an album that'd reveal more, the more time I spent with it too.

 

toro y moi’s underneath the pine for me in a bit

 

Checking out There is Nothing Left to Lose by the Foo Fighters. The Foo’s were one of my first favorite bands and my first concert. I’ve listened to/owned pretty much all of their albums except for this and the most recent one. Not even sure why I missed this one, just never got around to it.

 

Got Ready to Die today.

 

Had Alexisonfire's Crisis today. Not sure how I missed this band...

 

HOLY SHIT this was so good

 

Great place to start with the band and I personally think the album can still contend with stuff coming out now.

 

Interesting. I know the name but never really knew what the band’s sound was. Might need to check it out, I like chill wave from time to time.

 

It's close but I think it is my favorite album of theirs

 

I take it back a liiiiittle bit, the last song where they get weird with it is good