“An Album A Day...” reviews

Normally I like to give albums quite a few listens before I solidify my opinion on them, but since I have to listen to a new album each day I can't necessarily do that, so these are very much based on first impressions...

1. Royal Blood - Typhoons
I had this on in the background so I wasn’t really that focused on it, but there were a couple of moments that grabbed my attention, namely the twisted outro to "Limbo" and the groovy riffing on "Mad Visions". "Boilermaker" went pretty hard too. The lyrics are prеtty unremarkable, and the dancе-rock fusion is nothing RB's predecessors haven't dabbled in before, but it was overall enjoyable.

2. Baby Strange - Land of Nothing EPLand of nothing... of value! Ha-ha-ha!

In honesty, this was OK but nothing special. The chorus of "More! More! More!" is offensively generic, but there’s definitely something to be said for the appropriately chaotic dance beat of "Club Sabbath" and anti-religious energy of "I Want to Believe", but it's nothing I haven't heard the Strokes or the Arctic Monkeys bash out before.

3. HMLTD - Don't Leave Me EPIt's an interesting concept - the EP contains just 3 examples from over 6400 possible reworkings of the same base song (I think, it's quite confusing, but you can read more about it here). As for the examples we have, "Don't Leave Me" is pretty straightforward new-wavey stuff, and "Do This By Yourself" has some cool bassy elements but it's far too crammed with sound to be fully enjoyed. However, it’s "Love Is Not Enough" where the EP really lights up, with it’s scratchy string opening giving way to a paradoxical sense of upbeat melancholy, like a mid-'80s Cure reworked for the modern age.

4. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
They certainly do be raging, holy moly!

Actually, what’s extremely striking is how relevant so many of the songs like "Killing in the Name" and "Take the Power Back" are today, particularly in light of last year's events. When I first read the song titles I assumed I'd be force-fed a plateful of empty revolutionary sloganeering, but the Machines (the Rages? The Ragers? The Againsts?) actually deal with some topics that wouldn't really come to the fore of political discussion until almost 30 years down the line. Music-wise, Zack says "Uh!" a few to many times for my taste, but there are some cool moments like the guitar scratchings and funky bass work in the opening of "Killing in the Name", and the full-on heaviness of the Matrix-featured "Wake Up".

Joy Division - Closer (re-listen, but I felt like offering my thoughts)

Unknown Pleasures is a masterpiece of misery, a cold, understated yet rage-filled expression of inner turmoil. Closer contains many of the same elements and is often held in equal regard with their ground-breaking debut, but I struggle to embrace this album with the same enthusiasm. The sound is overall much rougher and harsher than the more atmospheric Unknown Pleasures, and this works well for some of the more intense tracks such as "Atrocity Exhibition" and "Colony", but it makes tracks like "Isolation" and "Decades" sound really weird and clattery, like the instruments are being held together with rubber bands (the synths on the latter are particularly embarrassing). "Decades" certainly doesn’t come close to holding a candle to "I Remember Nothing" as a closing track, and while many praise "The Eternal" for its haunting bleakness, I find it a bit, well (*whisper it*) , a bit boring. I do admire the atmosphere, but it's just a little bit slow and dreary for my taste (so says the Cure fan). Having said all that, there is some good news: the wall of guitar in "Twenty Four Hours" is one of the coolest sonic choices in the band's discography; Stephen Morris has one of his best drum patterns in "Heart and Soul"; "Passover" is masterfully effective in its simplicity. Closer is still a great record, but its low points leave it falling far short of my expectations.

5. Isabelle Norwood - [unnamed composition]Basically, I failed Day 5 because I was busy with work for most of the day, but I'm using this piece of music as a placeholder, essentially, as I spent part of the day rehearsing for a recording of it. A friend and coursemate of mine had asked me in to play on her composition (for an elecrtic guitar--'cello--flute trio). It's quite an interesting piece, quite minimalistic in many ways, since it's based on one small motif transformed and repeated throughout. It shouldn't count really since it's only just over 2 minutes long, but she'll be playing on my own (much more miserable and unfocused) composition next week, so I might end up having to repeat this excuse on that day if I don't get a chance to listen to a full album.

6. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
It's compressed as fuuuuuckkkkk.....

It also contains some pretty damn good songs though, and I was surprised that I actually already knew most of them before going into it. "Don't Start Now" is the main banger on this record, with its infectiously funky bassline, while "Levitating" provides the record with its pop-tastic centrepiece. Most of the tracks are pretty similar, but that just means consistent party vibes all-round, even if it does make anthemic closer "Boys Will Be Boys" feel a little out of place. As poignant as it's anti-toxic masculinity is, it feels like a strange way to close the record, especially when it causes such an obvious thematic clash with the sex-fuelled "Good In Bed" preceding it in the tracklisting.

7. New Order - Education, Entertainment, Recreation (Live)Bernard's voice doesn't really do justice to the Joy Division tracks included here, but "Sub-Culture" goes so hard that it more than makes up for it.

8. India Jordan - Watch Out!
"And Groove" was a right bastard to transcribe.

9. George Michael - Faith
What genre is this album going for? From the acoustic title track, past dance-y tunes like "I Want Your Sex" and "Monkey", through to the jazzy closer, George keeps you guessing for the entire ride. Faith is an album that was probably played around the house a lot when I was young, but it's taken me years to finally sit down and listen to it in full. Assessing it with my now older, more mature frame of mind, "I Want Your Sex" still prompts a few awkward chuckles (and cringes: "Sex is something we should do / sex is something for me and you"), while the other dance tracks are decidedly un-danceable. However, despite these moments and the absolute snoozefest that is "One More Try", most of these tracks are pretty decent, with the shady narrative of "Hand to Mouth" being the mid-album highlight.

10. Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 8
cond. Valery Gergiev/Mariinsky Theatre

Unlike Shosty's previous war Symphony, the titanic Leningrad, which presents a false sense of optimism before having it crushed by Nazi invaders, the eighth plunges you straight into the realms of despair. The opening movement presents mystery and misery in equal measure, while the barrage of percussion in the following movements creates an energy rivalled only by the ferocious scherzo of the tenth symphony. The final movements perhaps get a little bit tedious after a while, but the tense yet quietly triumphant ending is stunning. He does recycle a lot of the techniques and ideas that I've heard in his other works, but this is nonetheless well worth a listen.

11-13 - [failed]Trying to fit these in when I have four pretty significant coursework deadlines for the end of the week is tricky.

14. Röyksopp - Melody AM
This was a nice chilled electronic album to have playing in my ears during a walk in the park. It has a nice blend of upbeat tracks like "Poor Leno" and more mysterious ones like the closer. Elsewhere, "Sparks" sounds like a remixed Portishead track, while the saxophones at the start of "She's So" remind me of something off the back end of Bowie's "Heroes".

The Cure - The Cure
Well, I was expecting this to be a lot worse. Yes, it's too long. Yes, this is mostly the fault of "The Promise" lasting 10 minutes! It's definitely a lot more raw and heavy than anything Robert and co. had made in the previous couple of decades, but it's not the dodgy nu-metal abomination I was fearing from this record. "Lost" is actually pretty great opener, with its unsettling dissonant chords, and "alt.end" is a pretty great track from later in the record. The problem is that I can't really remember the other tracks, beyond the fact that they were loud and rocky. It's probably one of their least remarkable records, which makes it even more confusing that they chose it to self-title it, because this is far from being any kind of definitive statement from the band. It also sounds like there's a lot of borederline self-plagiarism on this record, with quite a few lyrical and melodic motifs seemingly lifted from their previous album, Bloodflowers; "Going Nowhere" in particular sounds like a leftover from that album.

Still, it surprises me that this is often held in worse regard than Wild Mood Swings, as that album really is awful.

My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise EPThe Sonic Youth influence is pretty obvious on this one, and you can actually hear some of the words! (????) The sound is certainly nowhere near as hypnotic as that of Loveless, but it was still cool to hear the humble genesis of some of those game-changing sounds.

15. The Cure - 4:13 Dream
A few flashes of brilliance but... yeah this wasn't good. I mean what in God's name is "Freakshow" supposed to be?

16. [failed]

17. David Bowie - Let's Dance
The first three tracks are Bowie staples so I knew them already, but no matter how often I hear it, those basslines in the title track don't get any less funky. "Ricochet" is a cool track later in the record; "Without You" is a boring track earlier in the record. "Shake It" is a terrible closer and sounds like pathetic remix of the title track. All-in-all, it's a solid new wave album but definitely the start of the downturn for Bowie's studio album output.

18. 10,000 Maniacs - Love Among the Ruins
R.E.M. + viola

19. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Anyone who dares to speak to me in person about music will know of my absolute adoration for Interpol's debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, and that makes it all the more perplexing that the only other album of theirs that I've ever ventured into is Antics. I, like just about everyone else, had more-or-less written off the rest of their discography owing to what most critics and audiences see as a downward spiral as their career has gone on. This is a real shame because, having listened to it out of sheer curiosity, Our Love to Admire is great! It doesn't step over any boundaries for the band, and some parts of it have Interpol sounding more and more like their own imitators, but there are some genuinely staggering songs on here, from the melancholic opener, through the brilliant "Rest My Chemistry" to its atmospheric closer. Definitely worth a listen for TOTBL fans!

20. Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future
The largely instrumental second half of the album was the best part because it was the easiest to transcribe. Of course this only made the finale more hard-hitting.

21. Tom Jones - Surrounded by Time
80 years old and still got it

22. [failed]//Interpol - Antics re-listenAntics played loudly in the pitch dark while faceplanted on your bed is underrated.

23. [failed]Big L for Lewis Hamilton this weekend. Ouch.

24. Galaxie 500 - On Fire
As per vintagewashingmachine's recommendation...

I feel like I'd have been better off listening to this while lying half-asleep on a deserted hill at 4:00 in the morning, the hazy orange sky hanging over my isolated slumber, a vague blur in the distance. As it was, I was sitting at my desk while dealing with a few song deletion and transcription IQ requests, so not quite the same vibe. One thing's for certain - it's definitely from 1989.

25. Franz Liszt - Grandes Études de Paganini
perf. Daniil Trifonov

The second and third études are nice, but the rest is basically just Liszt showing off with lots of virtuosic hemidemisemiquavers. I kind of wish he'd gone further with the variations at the end, but I suppose that ended up being Rachmaninoff's task to fulfill.

Still, at least it's another "album" to add to the Liszt.

26. Franz Liszt - Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo
cond. Alan Gilbert/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

I really enjoyed Liszt-ening to this piece.

27. 10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged
To be honest, a lot of these tracks arguably sound better with the Unplugged treatment. The bassoons are very nice indeed.

28. Gang of Four - Entertainment! and The Slits - Cut
Two very different post-punk experiences - Cut is much weirder and very reggae-influenced, while Entertainment! is much closer to its punk roots, with a few dance and noise elements thrown in there too. The Slits are easily the more experimental group, pushing the boundaries of the genre far more than any other post-punk artist I've heard, especially with the spoken samples and the bizarre guitar techniques. What's interesting about Gang of Four is how strikingly modern they sound, as in I wouldn't be surprised if some of their music came up in a 2000s post-punk revival playlist. They certainly seem closer to the likes of Arctic Monkeys and the Libertines than Joy Division or The Cure. I'd recommend both for anyone interested in punk/post-punk, but if I had to pick one it would be Gang of Four, although I think some of those tracks, particularly "Not Great Men" and "Damaged Goods", sound a lot better in the rough-and-ready live recording I transcribed earlier in the year than they do on this more polished album.