Disc 17 TERMINAL BLISS BRUTE ERR/ATA
2 thank you for your patience this ends abruptly. full on screamo one time fee has a little bit of a metal melody - thinking dragonforce. Echoing, brewing chants and 8 Billion People Reported Missing - drums are particularly good on this one. I love how they just take the lead and echo back and forth inside my skull, and the power chords just kind of brace against them and flow with so much resistance that they somehow feel calm on the surface. Tumoresque - March of the Grieving Droid - good vocals for singalong and a headbang breakdown at the end. Hidden Handed - more headbang and some painful guitar squeals, then a spacey noise pedal finish to the album. Disc 18 Tiara & Andrew Roller Skates 1 This Old House -- A duet with eerie intro, the echo of the two together kind of sounds like Appalachian indie music, but the female singer sings clear soul music. 2 Runaway Soul -- Still very eerie and etherial, the image of rollerskates, and a little girl who defied expectations. I think we will have to piece together how past meets present. A few flat notes kind of suggest that the little girl had a little sadness in her. 3 Roller Skates -- Slow tempo and and lightly strummed nylon guitar strings continue to be the voice's main companion. The bass makes a great beat for this song. 4 Crop Circles -- Intro to this song is a clip from a modern unsolved mysteries show about the paranormal. I am so glad this is coming out. I really like this duo's musical feel -- it's soulful, easy listening but it is a little haunted and creepy. Funnily enough, the spooky haunted feel has disappeared on this track after the intro, banished by the bongo beat. 5 Trouble in the Water -- a western twang is back and it just ever so slightly keeps this folk song from reaching the bottom of its harmony. its a little like reflections keeping you from seeing the bottom. I don't know why it's troublesome, yet tranquil. 6 Technicolor --- back to soul and reminding me of Tracy Chapman on this one for the deep feeling she conveys about simple wishes, and the repetition, the particular notes from the guitar, and the beautiful, clear voice!!! 7 Lie Next To Me -- R&B + dance, still the easy-listening, shows the skill of guitarist. Kind of dark and troubled 8 Not Even Human -- how the speaker feels now, Disc 19 WKNDR Rising 1 Wanted To Be Saved -- Rhythmic softer rock, bright, warm. Singer's voice has a hint of Irish -- refers to James Joyce! 2 Bridges -- These songs are revolving smoothly around and return to joyful refrains that celebrate faith in another person. 3 title track introduces the promised flute. It sounds really cool! You can hear it like it's next to you! And it's bright like the music which celebrates love and the other being like a ray of light. 4 Say It's Not Today -- I think this song is saying no to doubt? Putting off doubt? And being grateful for the daily questions because they are satisfying. I like the part about seeing stars in their eyes, but them being deceitful? 5 Won't Make You Love Me -- Song about independence and love -- you have to find your own light! 6 Letting you go -- The flute is pretty on this one again -- the next song copies the same chord progression, and kind of backtracks? After letting them go, keeps waiting for, still believing.... 7 What I've Been Waiting For -- This one I think I have heard on the radio before. 8 Push on Through -- 9 Straight Line --- "there's nowhere to hide from this crooked line inside of my mind." Do you want me at all? Pushing through outside yourself, trusting another person, the speakers find strength in that act, in commitment. 10 Tidal Wave --- I'm now listening to the punk album that inspired this whole prize and think that this song and the song "Holding On" share a particular feeling! So , having gone in ABC order, this is a nice way to wrap up the shortlist listen.
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Disc 5 Book of Wyrms Occult New Age
The album overall has a grunge, original metal, Black Sabbath feel. The stated goal: to wig out normal people? Funny purpose for a band that seems geared towards touring in the Virginia and neighboring states and knows their venues. 1. Meteoric Dagger: Immediately welcoming, the spacey femenine vocals are distant and alluring, laid-back and cool. Kick drums, finger tapping buzzy solos are in your face. 2. Colossal Yield: Motoring intro sounds and spacey things that remind me of classic rock. The music is metamorphic and groovy. Edgier guitars and a low riff gets a little fuzzed out and sounds like wind tearing the music. Momentarily soft, and then a bagpipey solo wraps this song up on an upswing. 3. Albrionlilly: I'd listen to a whole album's worth of this beautiful classical acoustic interlude. Some soothing bridge notes, this song is still expanding on a wayward adventure. 4. Hollergoblin: Down and heavy, a couple of those hammering notes tell us this song is a battle #. Convos between rhythm and lead, lots of different voices of guitar, this is the "groovy" track this band promises, with fuzzy, muted solos and swing jazz arpeggios lull us into a momentary pause that is filed with drums and then vocals again. This is a long song with several phases. In the ascension to a third part, I like the hoofbeat bass drum, the mixing where volume is given to the rhythm guitar and it's tone sounds really nice. Then SHREDDING happens!! 5. Keinehora: more groove infused with acoustic on a spacey sludgy melody. This is a very out there song with unfamiliar language and then the spooky warning that basically you never know who can hear you. 6. Speedball Sorcerer: Great title, kickin rhythm and a random chime, lots of groove. 7. Weatherworker: Fave track, this song moves through phases with ease and ends with some cool play with volume. 8. Dracula Practice: another favorite track with a great guitar solo, "stinging leads" that have me picturing this guitar as a battle horn, mirage, earthquake-induced volcanic activity is not an event but just normal activity. As this metal music smoothly reaches it's conclusion, the excitement of apocalypse is dulled, and im left just as chilled out as when the first song flew in, blacking out the sun. Disc 6 Caro From My Room Beautiful, creative, simple and personal - self-released singer songwriter tracks that remind me of the time of kind of safe, purposeful discovery that was college. Immediately thinking of the Cars. I hear a story about coming out taking place about 1/2 way through this album and it's really interesting the way the speaker is pretty tentative about their feelings, making decisions and then falling back on reflections - this is a very intimate "pretty" confession. 1 Winding roads : offbeat intro and a chesty, alto singing voice. The tone of the keyboard and repetitions make it feel like a mixtrack. Song is indirect and breezy. Marlena on the Wall is a song I really like. Here, I feel like the full lyrical lines gain momentum towards the end. 2 Pretty : I'm thinking of Rhianna. There is a lot of pop to this melody even though the quality and tone of the music is so indie and low fi. Speaker's tone is direct and confessional. 3 alright, you win : Tempo pickup with a 4x4 and chimes. A soulful reference to Amy Winehouse highlights the way this song 4 adored : Autotune is funny here with the memories of taking shots in a stranger's basement on New Year's. This one is maybe a little like Robyn - melancholy and mild, very simple, and light. The keyboard sounds a little more like an organ, 5 prism : Layered autotune here with the title -- it kind of sounds like the voice is coming through a prism. This is just a short statement, not worrying about rhyme or rhythm too much - the message here is important and the music feels like it's coming to the aid/ comfort of the coming-out feeling. 6 blue eyed girl : simple, personal, this is like a letter to a friend. acoustic and vocals. 7 summertime : FAVORITE TRACK FAVORITE TRACK I love it. Great bassline and catchy refrain. 8 mountains : About trying to restore a relationship, going back to the mountains. The nimble acoustic guitar follows her gentle, flowery voice over some nice lines written that make this love story feel simple and beautiful. Disc 7 DJ Harrison Tales From the Old Dominion This is a pretty fabulous album - the first few tracks feel a little bit like scattered and independent creative tracks, which kinda works, like DJ music - there's a range of atmospheres here that makes me think each piece could be elaborated upon. Consistent and unique are the voices of acoustic guitar and bass that are so smoothed over and polished - they are embedded in these beats but add a richness that makes it kind of hard to place this music -- it's not a lounge beat. Track 5, Hell on Earth, feels a little bit like the West, like desert at night with coyotes howling. Then Track 6 is a smooth disco. After this upswing, the next few tracks are very melodic and slow. 9, Have You Been To? in name, makes me remember Jimi Hendrix, but is carrying on the smooth electro sounds that haven't gone anywhere for the last few songs. But then, the first really lyrical track of this album, Track 10, Furlough, really stands up (quietly, I'd say) like a tree or something to hold onto the pride of Black American culture, that the people have to remember what it was like to be their fathers. Even if that means holding onto hardship and suffering. It sounds like a work song a little bit. The guitar distortion is turned up. Then, track 12, Kawai Voyage, turns back to gentle and sweet music, imaginative stirrings of African heritage that feel like childhood dreams - like memories of the self that have no words. This sequence of songs made me feel proud to be a person kind of. Disc 8 Frames Every Room Tagging Avril Lavigne, Jimmy Eat World, I really enjoyed the beautiful, tempered singing voice, the strong, balanced quality of this edgy, girl power, pop/emo album. Atmosphere is really consistent, and the songwriting is really well-thought-out and concise (emo!) The songs all come off as fun and empowered, and then at the end, the down and difficult songs, I really like because they talk positively about staying in touch with yourself and owning the experience of running away or getting out, of going out on a limb. "I'm not comin' home." 01 Lightweight - Kind of funny concept, but the idea that love is somehow drowning or overwhelming goes with the rushes of drums and wild/mild rolling of the music along with it. 02 Brewery - "Futures" here reminds me of the awesome and polished sound that Jimmy Eat World came out with. I love the lyrics - this speaker is talking about their protected inner self and a harder, outer self. This is the voice of a dreamer, and someone who isn't fully on their own. 03 Tabletop - Wanting to face-to-face talk to someone, to get real, but also keep growing and changing. The speaker wants to be waiting and at the same time, evolving. Track 04, Cold Hard Criminal, is my stand-alone favorite! Like track 01, its a concise metaphor, but this one is fun because it's so mysterious. There are a lot of images and statements that you just have to roll with, without the actual information. I like the way the guitar follows the sung melody so closely. The song kind of owns the lost and confused feeling and makes it soft and sweet. Track 06 Overthinking- pop and soft, the gentle lyrics are just awesome. Guitar bridge is really good. This is like a transition to the second half of this album. Track 07 Two Phones - this is a fast rhythm song that carries the whole way through and cuts off. A person can feel so alienated, they can't reach out for help when they are a stranger to their-self. Somehow, there's a mix of being stoned, being stuck on someone, and the result is being kind of lost, runaway, divided and unwilling to seek help when you have two phones, two states of being, and one of them hypothetically doesn't need help. Track 08 Body Kicks, is pretty cool too. This is a down and anxious song, and out on a limb. Stubborn independence. The singer isn't afraid to take hits. The conflict of a speaker who is tough and proud to be so, has to take some kicks and they even feel how they cause them. She feels like she can't break past it to be "to-have-and-to-hold" with anyone. Disc 9 Giant Big Talk I'm going in ABC order here from the shortlist, and for some reason, here starts the references to Richmond, and they don't stop for several albums in a row. Also, pinch me but the music keeps getting better and better. Where there were samples from Billy Madison earlier, now it's Chris Rock. I really like the way this artist kind of takes the musical essence of Chris Rock's stage voice, and turns it into a little melody. The comedy about family fits into this album dedicated to a son (I think this kid has an older sister,) and I just love the way it opens with some Big Talk indeed -- a big brag about facing death! Track 02 - relates to childhood because the artist feels the same as he did when he came into the world -- Hard. Re- hearing "Protect your Peace" by Ant the Symbol as I hear this mix. Track 03 - This sounds like trap music. But it is upbeat. Track 04 - Finding the musical tones in Chris Rock's voice -- this is a great clip, and makes a cool interlude. Track 05 My Boy This song really opens up. The mixed over, tuneless argument and baby voices are all blended together and just make me think of how babies are still just becoming separate from their mothers, they can't even divide themselves from situations yet, their feelings are probably so strong. And this fight just blends in with the sweet baby voice. It's really heart-wrenching. I like the advice -- here the speaker acknowledges that growing up can be uncertain, that you have to define yourself, and says "Invest in your friends if they're worth it." Track 06 Swangin' - a deep groove song about friendship, how you can be exposed to suffering and danger with friends, and the old feeling, maybe, of going out with your friends, and assuming a collective attitude - "we want everything we are owed." This is very self-aware. Track 07 Clear the Way a pretty song, I like the funny line "braisin' in the sun." The barbecue culture, family transitions into a more obscure sample Track 08 Skit 2 is almost indecipherable to me, but definitely a male figure discussing family issues -- its so poignant and unfamiliar I literally can't understand.... Track 09 Sum'n Serious : I happen to be drinking a lil'Sumpin Ale (mixed with a sip of cold black coffee! It happened to pair nicely!) I thought this was a realistic song but it ballooned a little at the end. Track 10 Another Chris Rock Sample. "Village Ass Shit" sums up the notions of family expressed here, I guess! Track 11 Watch Your Mouth is about shaking off the things people say about you, even praise. I like this one a lot. Then 12, Real Food, is almost a little too in-your-face for me, but, owning that "I'm a top seeded artist," the speaker uses metaphors from other professions to describe their work, and I think they feel a little bit unique within their family. They are an entrepreneur, and their family regards them as a giant for their talent. Track 13, A final Chris Rock sample that kind of makes me think of the "me too" movement. The album overall is intensely descriptive! Disc 10 Gnawing You Freak Me Out There's so much synergy with the band-name, album title and genre for this group. Btw JAMES GANG RIDES AGAIN. This debut album came to be because of the Covid-19 pandemic cancelling the tour. While Track 01 Contract feels like a home away from home to me, with D.C., beer, and vocals taking a can-a**-backwards backstage to the grunged-out homecoming slow dance melody. Something's chafing for these artists about the whole domesticated situation. They'll sign the contract but it feels a little imposed and fake. Track 02 So Glad I like this song. The title reminds me of Cream "I'm Glad," and the coldness and detached-ness is a little like Cream's tone. This is a cute song, and it's kind of opposite to the attitude of the last song - its more optimistic. Track 03 Summer Heat - This song is so funny and awesome, delving into the qualities of life of young bachelors? With moldy surroundings and lots of videogames. I feel like the song slips on some big shoes for its self, or adopts the metaphors of older and wiser speakers. Guitar solos really stand out. Track 04 Title track, reminds me of "I'm not sick but I'm not well." https://youtu.be/jlnuYos2B4Q This speaker is a little stubborn and unable to adjust. There's a lot of conflict - the speaker resists the other person's definitions. Breaking out with solos and drums, this song breaks away. Irony in the line "I don't want you to." This music kind of basks in that feeling. Track 05 Crenshaw Ave. the country swing slow song about not changing but settling down. This album is kind of about reconciliation. Track 06 - F.A.B. with lots of contrast from the last song, it flexes the heavy side of this band's capabilities. Feels like a live cut. Track 09 Blue Moon New , skipping tracks back into the studio, a fave track, has a really surprising ending. Disc 11 Illa Styles & VeRs IllaVeRs Lots of R&B and brass interludes- smooth and bright. This is kind of like a glamourous rap album. Track 02 Gas in the Ashtray Track 04 Chain Smoking for Dummies Disc 12 Jewell Booker Love Sick 2020 I would give this album a nod for best clarity of message and songwriting. It's really disciplined and determinedly good, at war with itself and completely honest. It demands respect. The album knows where it's from. It draws its strength of identity from church. It's extremely feminine and kind of conventional. But so outspoken. What a cool project - this artist, like some of the other women-singers, struggles with her own voice, being unwilling to compromise her independence. Whether it's the idea of the perfect man, a perfect man who is already married, or a single man who needs to be told. This lady relies on her community in "Who's gonna tell him," to communicate her feelings (that she has learned to have for so long. She worries that it will take as long (half a lifetime) for him to reach the same maturity without help!) or chides her community - the older men to nurture the young men, and the young men to commit to her friends! Track 01 Wildflower is so candid and sums up the entire album. The rest of it just soaks into every crack in the artist's faith, exploring love, marriage and constantly referring to the necessity of God's presence in a relationship, and her faithful love of Jesus. I think any song is just as good as the next on this album. She worries she will be single forever (Who am I,) when she is so devoted to her work and gives so much to her work. Some songs feel like they fit her community: Mista Jesus is about how music relieves the artist when she feels like she is so mixed up and stressed, she might get wreckless. She invites everyone to dance and let it go with her, and it feels like a church gathering song. Can't Hurry Love feels like a wedding first dance. It wasn't a cover of that great song you might be thinking of, though it refers to it, but it's sweet, it lingers on some beautiful notes, and shows off the singer's warmth and strength. I Wish I Didn't Love You is a little dark, forbidden. The speaker has to give up a deep love that is not meant to be. Cool bass solo at the end and a pretty guitar intro. Too Good To Be True is so relatable to me! The feeling of wanting to trust someone so completely, she makes a beautiful play on the words of this title. Made It All Up is a powerful statement. This artist is too much of a woman to be on the side. The beloved person broke her heart by not being honest with her. Black Butterfly, the closing track is really cool- this independent woman experiences a really painful but beautiful transformation into something completely independent and able to fly on her own. Through the whole album, she has been so committed to the concept of a man completing her and this closing piece is just kind of hard to accept, but awesome! Gotta' keep having faith in this artist! Disc 12 Junnie Mac x NameBrand Peace, Mercy & Blessings I have a feeling that this album will be in my top 10. Dedicated in two parts - to the artist's father "Junnie" and his daughter as well, it's kind of a weird album sometimes, because the speaker talks about getting with girls and also about wanting to empower his daughter. In the end, I think everything washes out and there is this awesome Father to Daughter message about being your whole self without regrets, and learning to stand on your own. It's hard to choose a fave album when it has so many explicit words, but taking that with a grain of salt, I begin to appreciate the way this album is really embedded in a bunch of common references/ metaphors with the other rap albums on this short list. What name brands of clothes were they raised on? Glow - pretty epic rap at the end. Moon Juice - this is a little edgy but cool No Post - Apparently the artist was on a plane with Ice Cube. This song is about cherishing moments, about having an identity that might not be on social media, and I like the image of "smokin' weed right by the ocean." This whole album is very outright about smoking and it's nice to think about it being outside. Pastor TVT, Lost Girl are about girls being proud of themselves, independent from their fathers, and then sadly, about prostitution. Solar is a super epic rap catalog. Monument Avenue might win my best song vote, because it's the only one on this whole selection that refers directly to our movement that the speaker rightly demands: "turn monument ave to true art." Like Farther Like Son is a cool spoken word poem about remembering his father. The artist turns from wanting to be a good man because his father always had faith in him, but now has passed, even though he had to live with his mom and rebelled, took advantage of the separation, to Land of the Free back to his message to his daughter - that she has to be strong yet cautious when people are free, but the things in life aren't. That she has to be herself. Disc 13 Matthew E White K Bay Trying to figure out the meaning of this title: I hear "K is love," and I am kind of curious about this artist's background. The sunglasses on the cover of the album really communicate a feeling that the art of music-making has a powerful influence over the speaker's feelings. Fast rhythms - reminds me a little of the Talking Heads. This album intro transports me to a new place. There's rock, rhythm and blues, and DJ jams. More is more! Track 02 Electric Track 03 Nested is kind of merging a southern rock and a electronic, trippy dance music together -- thinking of Dan Deacon because of the quality of the sound samples, the tempo and even the stasis of the title. But then Track 04 Take Your Time takes me back to a more disco place that makes me question whether this artist is merging two genres or rather is rooted in a 70's/80's dance party sound. Tracks 06 and 07 Fell Like and Axe and Only in America are some of the most artistic, theatrical songs on this shortlist. Track 09 Judy feels so so so traditional and devoted to the lady muse. I think her name is mentioned in track 01. But back before the dance beats, this song digs into an earlier 50's rock "you're my anthem." It sounds so awesome with the warm clear and totally sick bassline. Track 10 Shine a Light , I like the falsetto vocals on the acoustic track. They fall a little cold like Bon Iver, and you can really hear the echoing quality that has made the whole album so distinctly vintage sounding. I think the echo in the vocals sounds like the microphone is old-school. And then the deeper, clearer voice is a counterpoint too, bringing out the Southern rock, soulful feel. Disc 14 McKinley Dixon For My Momma And Anyone Who Looks Like Her This album takes best album art! Tied with DJ Harrison. This is an inspiring album. The artist is youthful, musically skillful, and taking complex, poetic raps about learning to face death, and classical piano all together, makes a statement about the bravery it takes to be yourself, when having a strong distinctive voice can be dangerous. make a poet black: The slightly spooky, unwieldy frightening effect of some of these raps reminds me a little of Nikki Minaj. And I think he owns that at one point. This is a song about the world being scary and about how making music and putting it out there can be a little scary too, and how the speaker chose to take the true but not necessarily easy route to be a successful artist. Hints of Spanish/Mexican rap in here too! its a cool song. Mama's Home: "I'm probably doomed to die from my art" Twist my Hair: This song is kind of about pride and the rituals of caring for one another. Very beautiful. Disc 15 Prabir Trio Haanji A mantra of a respectful "yes" guides this tour of memories for a speaker who immigrated at age 10 and to me, this is the most colorful, out-loud album I've heard on the shortlist. When I heard it playing in a social setting, I thought I was listening to Elvis Costello. I love the idea that this music that sounds like the British Invasion all infused with the excitement of sitars and spiritualism - music that, to me, was about exploration and travel and leapfrogging from one strange-yet-familiar culture to a more strange and unfamiliar one, is actually coming back through the tin can phone in the other direction, from an Indian immigrated to America. Add to that, a thirty year time hop. And you get Prabir Trio, and I think it's a really special and unique album that is not afraid to sound extremely classic. Immigrant Song and America, the first two tracks, have the unmistakable feel of Costello punk rock. It's clean, instrumental and has lots of ups and downs, short, repetitive refrains and lots of kickdrum. The music is kinda brash, critical but upbeat. 9 to 5 is kind of seamlessly blending rock and Hindu roots into a distinctive tune. Reminds me of the Beatles. And it's youthful and cool - imagining taking on the 9 to 5, still identifying as an artist, but maybe feeling the tug of love and commitment. Light Up In The Name Of Love is alive with excitement. Something about it feels like its still stuck in an earlier generation. Maybe the expression "Light up," which makes me think of like Traffic or some such. The breakdowns over and over and reverbs in the background that sound like a screaming crowd, even the tone of the guitar, sound classic. Sally Please is just as classic as Matthew E White's "Judy," and like the speaker, she is young and not tied down. She's on the move, and goes out and about. I think she's the American spirit from the 70's that hasn't changed! Bamboo Millions of Dollars jazzy and liberated from the heavy rock. There's more modern and personal imagery in this song, and I like the way the speaker comes away from the pop for a moment, and feels connected to the universe surrounded by a more mundane environment. The song switches into pop punk mode and back to reality again. The jazz bass is really fun. Trumpets. Birthday Song is pretty cool -- the speaker is talking to someone who he views as maybe like a mentee. It gets really heavy - celebrating the noise of electrified music like its new! Silverchair finishes the album with a bang, defending punk, and giving us a song that makes us want to sway, arms on each others' shoulders. Disc 16 Tennishu 2021 This rap album feels understated and mellow. This and Ilya Styles are the most, to me, old school, traditional sounding hip hop on the shortlist. Heavy bass makes this album funky. GuitarSauceNiner, track 9, really stands out for its cool and unique sound. I like the many plays on the artist's name - the artist says several times to youth that they have to be quick or ready to go, like they are wearing tennis shoes. This song puts the dance in my shoes. Savers, track 4, couples a rap with a bassline and a simple beat. This is funky and groovy. "Tennishu always movin at a hundred miles an hour." |
AuthorWe are Kieran and Michelle, two 32-year-old William & Mary grads living in Virginia. Archives
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