Thursday, December 7, 2017
#2736 Dr. Know - Plug-In Jesus And Burn Valu Pak
No wonder Slayer covered these guys on Undisputed Attitude. Dr. Know sprint through thrash-adjacent sloppy hardcore, vomiting lyrics as depraved as anything off of Reign in Blood. The sequencing is super weird on this hacky combo pack compilation, but it works - a bunch of tracks off their brilliant, borderline-painful '84 debut, a surprisingly-hooky dip through their '85 EP, before closing, inevitably, with Fist Fuck. Which is an even nastier song than its name suggests. It's about as punk as punk gets 4/5
#2735 Slayer - Undisputed Attitude
Slayer does a pretty good impression of a hardcore punk band, surprising nobody. Araya's vocals aren't quite right, but the rest of the band's as effortlessly breakneck as ever. There's not a lot of depth to it, but you ever need to get pumped up to fucking kill somebody, this'll do 3.5/5
#2734 Renaissance - Renaissance
I love prog. Proggy prog prog.
Those rippling piano runs, a Renaissance signature, are in their purest form here.
Prog gets knocked for intellectualizing rock with classical scaffolding, but the best classical was a gutpunch, the rock of its era, slicing to the emotional centers. And that's the side of quote//unquote classical you get here, that hypnosis by myriad notes, that jazzy bassline rambling, that surrender to sheer density, with those rock and roll backbeat shortcuts to what-you-need. Those ghostly vocals, reaching out for Radiohead songs still so long in the future
It's all very pretty, all strangely outside the hand of man, a more-mysterious version of everything good about early Genesis, which is to say very good indeed.
Jettison ye notions of coolness and you'll find something that people worked very hard on, trying to make the best songs ever, and coming surprisingly close. A swirling, euphoric masterpiece of weightlessly arty music 4.5/5
Those rippling piano runs, a Renaissance signature, are in their purest form here.
Prog gets knocked for intellectualizing rock with classical scaffolding, but the best classical was a gutpunch, the rock of its era, slicing to the emotional centers. And that's the side of quote//unquote classical you get here, that hypnosis by myriad notes, that jazzy bassline rambling, that surrender to sheer density, with those rock and roll backbeat shortcuts to what-you-need. Those ghostly vocals, reaching out for Radiohead songs still so long in the future
It's all very pretty, all strangely outside the hand of man, a more-mysterious version of everything good about early Genesis, which is to say very good indeed.
Jettison ye notions of coolness and you'll find something that people worked very hard on, trying to make the best songs ever, and coming surprisingly close. A swirling, euphoric masterpiece of weightlessly arty music 4.5/5
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
#2732 The Walkmen - Pussy Cats Startting the Walkmen
Why? Why remake this lazy album lazily, track by track, note by note? It probably wasn't very hard to make, so I guess maybe the question is, why not? I guess you got me there.
Harry Nilsson's original Pussy Cats failed to improve on any of the songs it covered, but at least he gave them his own spin. The Walkmen just recreate Nilsson's spin precisely - even recreating seemingly spontaneous moments like the singalongs on Loop De Loop and the namedrops on Rock Around the Clock. It's not that it's an altogether bad listen, exactly, but it's a confoundingly pointless creation I can't find any reason to revisit, other than out of morbid curiosity 2.5/5
Harry Nilsson's original Pussy Cats failed to improve on any of the songs it covered, but at least he gave them his own spin. The Walkmen just recreate Nilsson's spin precisely - even recreating seemingly spontaneous moments like the singalongs on Loop De Loop and the namedrops on Rock Around the Clock. It's not that it's an altogether bad listen, exactly, but it's a confoundingly pointless creation I can't find any reason to revisit, other than out of morbid curiosity 2.5/5
#2731 Harry Nilsson - Pussy Cats
Why? I guess because Nilsson and John Lennon needed a project, so they banged out a bunch of songs, mostly covers. None of its essential, none of the covers improve greatly on the originals, except for the Dylan song which was improved by replacing Bob Dylan.
The second side's the only one worth hearing, the mournful Save the Last Dance for Me // Black Sails pair's interweaved with the rollicking Loop De Loop // Rock Around the Clock set. It's a dizzying bit of sequencing that's actually a lot of fun. But mostly, Pussy Cats feels lazy; it's nothing you'd give a second listen if it wasn't for the famous names on it 3/5
The second side's the only one worth hearing, the mournful Save the Last Dance for Me // Black Sails pair's interweaved with the rollicking Loop De Loop // Rock Around the Clock set. It's a dizzying bit of sequencing that's actually a lot of fun. But mostly, Pussy Cats feels lazy; it's nothing you'd give a second listen if it wasn't for the famous names on it 3/5
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
#2730 Twisted Sister - Under the Blade
Glam rock was more or less dead by 1982, but Twisted Sister'd been doing it too damn long to change horses. Their debut's a fearless, fabulous hard-rock listen, all anthemic fistpumpers packed with screaming guitars and sneering vocals. The production's a little flat, and the rhythm section's a little stiff, but that's kinda just the era for you. Its enough to make you wish they'd made it big sooner 3.5/5
Friday, December 1, 2017
#2729 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Polygondwanaland
KGLW continue their run as best psychedelic band going, putting out their 4th (!) album of the year (the second great one). If they're trying to outrun the expiration on some kind of deal with the devil, they're getting their souls' worth.
Polygondwanaland's sound matches its title, it's a meandering, bewildering, some hybrid of their Microtonal strangeness and Murder of the Universe's existential post-body horror, with a sinister synth serpent lurking in the reeds. A few of these riffs and rhythms are starting to sound familiar, but it feels like a callback, another thread running through some shapeshifting tapestry that feels like it'll go on forever.
People are slowly catching on. Let's reconvene in 20 years and check in on this prediction: these guys are going to be _the cult rock band of the 10's 4/5
Polygondwanaland's sound matches its title, it's a meandering, bewildering, some hybrid of their Microtonal strangeness and Murder of the Universe's existential post-body horror, with a sinister synth serpent lurking in the reeds. A few of these riffs and rhythms are starting to sound familiar, but it feels like a callback, another thread running through some shapeshifting tapestry that feels like it'll go on forever.
People are slowly catching on. Let's reconvene in 20 years and check in on this prediction: these guys are going to be _the cult rock band of the 10's 4/5
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