LogFAQs > #976699485

Listened up to the top 20 in full, just haven't found so much time to write recently

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
- A record I'm very familiar with, another close listen reaffirms how I've always felt - it's frontloaded and as a total experience I prefer its predecessor. Still, BoC's unique flavor makes some of that front load indispensable to my library. I think Julie and Candy is the masterpiece here, there's so many cool textures and layers with all the distorted woodwind fragments, and the dynamic percussion keeps the energy flowing the entire time. Good headphones really bring out the cavernous low end to this one. I don't go back to Geogaddi much in total but I've hit up this one song hundreds of times.

Bjork - Vespertine
- Big fan of this one, the harp-stricken alien winter aesthetic is gorgeous and if it's a 'concept' album it's just a great proclamation of love. A really sensitive, fragile record ornamented with spectacular detail. For me Unison, Hidden Place, and It's Not Up To You are the standout tracks. It's a mood, a vibe, a lush sound, a manic pixie dream girl, a canal, Panama. Bjork is a true original here.

Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber - Jesus Christ Superstar
- I thought I knew this, but halfway through I realized what I knew was called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and this is a separate thing. And I fucked up and listened to the wrong version (whatever Spotify defaults to, not the Australian version) but I just don't have it in me to go through it again. The last instrumental piece John Nineteen Forty-One was by far my favorite, it was good to end on a more traditional liturgical sound.

Barenaked Ladies - Gordon
- BnL is one of those bands I always knew by radio hits but never gave them the time of day at the CD aisle. I liked this more than I expected, the light-hearted spontaneous energy works for me. There's a part in If I Had a Million Dollars where they adlib a bit about buying Dijon ketchup, and it made me think that's what this band is. Ironically sophisticated ketchup. Hello City and Brian Wilson left good impressions with some nice vocal harmonies. Apparently, these guys are still releasing music in 2023, might be fun to check out where they are now 30+ years later.

Binzokomegame Girl's Union - Taiten Mythologia
- The buckwild end of Bhutesha's Silentroom got me going. That's the keeper for me, the rest can be somebody else's treasure.

Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
- Not my favorite of the 90's shoegaze/dreampop/whatever you want to call it canon, but it's short and sweet and easy on the ears. A strong opener and closer helps it feel complete, and strong earworms in the back half like I Wear Your Ring and Road, River, and Rail keep it building a head of steam instead of dissipating into a cloud of ethereal vapor.

Jacob Collier - Djesse Volume 3
- I've been following this guy for a while now, and I kind of get why he's a divisive figure in music circles. He's an undeniably gifted musician, technically proficient and hyperliterate...it's like he has this incredible vocabulary yet he doesn't really have anything to say with it. This is the third time I've listened to this record and it's so well-produced but barely any of it sticks. The catchiest tracks were Runnin' Outta Love and All I Need just because the keyboard part sounded like an Al Jarreau song. And it's nice to hear Rapsody in a different context on a track like He Won't Hold You. I think JC's best stuff is still in his cover arrangements for now.

Green Day - American Idiot
- Another record I appreciated more via list order, because unlike previous British Genius at least American Idiot tries to say something. Not that it really succeeds, for being a politically-branded record I think it's relatively feeble and toothless in its social commentary. But I'll be damned if Billy Joel Armstrength can't sing just enough of a hooky melody to keep every other tune stuck in my craw. Granted, the radio campaign for this album was practically unavoidable at the time and drilled a few into me involuntarily - I was never a fan of Green Day growing up, but listening to the full album for the first time 20 years later, I have to give those hit singles their due. Holiday, Wake Me Up When September Ends, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams still hold up while Whatsername is an immediate favorite that I hadn't heard before. I think it's funny how the album indulges slightly loftier ambitions for a pop punk band - the fussed over sequencing w/ 'two-part' songs, the 8-minute multi-movement opus, the little *presents* between the band name and album title. It doesn't feel ironic and it's sort of endearing.