Today’s Random Album of the Day is Clear Skies Over Black River from Liam the Younger, aka Liam Betson. This is melancholic singer-songwriter stuff. Rate Your Music lists it as Slacker Rock. It lists so many different things as Slacker Rock it seems. I think of it as Indie Folk.
This is heartfelt material. It’s quite good and appealing. A lot of the lyrics evoke powerful imagery or melancholic thoughts. The music is minimalist acoustic guitar mostly. It complements the emotive lyrics well. I like it. I’m an emo girl…
I like the album enough I played it twice!
Rating: 9.6
Favorite Track(s): “Leaving Black River” is sweet and sour and good. “Country Wide” evokes such imagery. I like that. “By The Pines” is also evocative. Love the perspective sung about in “Walking”. I won’t comment on every song, overall the album is very evocative. Even the closer “Clear Skies” hits my mood aptly. This album just works well for me.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is Dying to Meet You from Vaz. Vaz is noise rock. But also I see Rate Your Music lists it as Math Rock which I didn’t think of for Vaz. But I could see how that fits at least a bit. Anyhow, Noise Rock is probably my favorite genre and Math Rock is pretty close.
I don’t listen to Vaz enough. They are quite good. I know I tend to listen to a lot of girl rock so there is that. And Riot Grrrl certainly competes with Noise Rock – though much Riot Grrrl is quite noisy in its own right. So overlap there is. Anyhow I’m off topic.
I really love this album. It’s quite good. Definitely a keeper. If I had a nitpick, the vocals are not my favorite style. They are fine. Just not my favorite style. Personal preference thing. While the guitar riffs are just phenomenal.
Rating: 9.8
Favorite Track(s): “They’ve won” opens the album nicely. I like the opening to “Blue Lip Special” and the song doesn’t disappoint. Those songs are fine but the intro to “Elastik-C” is phenomenal to me. And the song is quite good. I love the angular riffs. “White World of Death” has a great driving riff to it. By the time we get to “Headless Statue” I feel this album just gets better as it goes. “Give Us the Creeps” reminds me of early Sebadoh. That’s a good thing. “Drive-by Swordfight” is good. Really it’s just a good album…
Today’s Random Album of the Day is By The Throat from Eyedea & Abilities. This is considered abstract or experimental hip hop. This is basically two artists coming together with Eyedea (aka Michael Larsen) and DJ Abilities (Gregory Keltgen).
I don’t listen to a lot of Hip Hop. I just never got deep into it. But I do like it at times and experimental music in general is something I like so this is interesting to me.
I quite like this album. It is creative, a big weird at times, a bit opinionated at times. It’s good.
Rating: 8.9
Favorite Track(s): “Sky Diver” my wife liked a lot. I really liked “Hay Fever”. “Spin Cycle” is good. I might have zoned out through a song or two in the middle. “Burn Fetish” has a good rhythm to it. “Factory” is a good closer.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is Real Close Ones from The Ms. The Ms are Indie Rock or Pop. They also get a neo-psychedelic tag on Rate Your Music which they seem to throw around rather loosely. Though it does kind of fit here at times. So maybe it’s always apt.
Overall, this is more of a mellow indie pop album with some upbeat moments. It’s pretty good or good-ish. I don’t think it’ll ever be at the top of my rotation but good is good. I’ll say this – these guys definitely like the Beatles. The influence is obvious. My wife points out the Grateful Dead influence. That makes sense. They are so close to being really good is what we both said but we concluded they were just good-ish. I certainly understand if someone likes them a lot. I won’t judge yah!
Rating: 8.0
Favorite Track(s): “Like a Cloud” has a good poppy anthemic feel to it. “Days in the Sun” makes me think they like the Beatles but it’s a solid song. Actually that’s a thing through the album. “Impossible View” is good. “Papers” is solid. “Breakfast Score” is maybe the best song on the album. “Big Sound” is a contender though. The album finishes strong.
Keep or Trash: Keep. Mainly because I like to keep the digital music for the vinyl that I have and I believe I have this on vinyl.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is An Introduction to Elliott Smith featuring, well, Elliott Smith. I haven’t listened enough to Elliott Smith so here is an opportunity. Elliott Smith’s music is aptly described as melancholic. But it’s melodic and delightful too. I guess it’s Indie Folk or Indie Folk Rock.Whatever it is it is well regarded and for good reason.
I do enjoy his music. I think I tend to lose focus on it quickly. It’s not grab your attention music. It’s more I’m having a shitty day and let’s listen to some sad music that helps me somehow feel better music. And it works. It’s all unsurprisingly excellent. Definitely music I could get more into with more listens.
Rating: 9.5
Favorite Track(s): “Ballad of Big Nothing” is a good opener. Anthemic feeling. “Waltz #2” is just a good song. “Pictures of Me” is good unsurprisingly. By “Between the Bars” I’m good and depressed but in a good way. I really like “Last Call”. “Twilight” is gorgeous. “Angel In The Snow” is a song I think I knew before. But I like it. “Happiness” has a nice upward tilt to it.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is Correct from Laser Background. This is a Psychedelic Pop project out of Philadelphia. Perhaps with an experimental edge.
I’m partial to anything coming out of Philadelphia which is why I probably downloaded this at some point. But I’m just not that into it. Maybe it’s my mood and my desire to thin out the collection. It’s objectively not bad at all. It’s weird which is fine with me.
There were parts to this I really liked. The later part of the album is the best of it to me. At least for my tastes. So there is that.
Rating: 6.0
Favorite Track(s): “Belief Possibility” is decent. I liked “Imaginary Strings” mostly. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is good. “Midnight Domestic” worked well for me. Maybe the most melodic bit that I liked and probably my favorite track overall.
Keep or Trash: Trash. I just don’t see myself listening to this.
Welcome to the Radio Shower Weekly Highlight Podcast with Jayne. Issue #8. This episode features three Idaho bands including Hybrid Sheep Organizer, Plum Vision, and Blood Lemon. Leave your comments below…
Today’s Random Album of the Day is a Daytrotter Session from Yonder Mountain String Band. They are listed as having an interesting mix of genres including Progressive Bluegrass and Jam Band.
Jen really liked this album. I was more meh about it. A little bland I felt for bluegrass. They were fine overall and I’d enjoy them live I’m sure.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is a split record with two artists: Hi Ho Silver Away! and Quick Attack. The album is titled Quick Silver Attack Away!
The first half of the album is Hi Ho Silver, Away! And it’s basically pop punk – but pop punk I basically like I guess. Somehow I worry the lyrics are cringe but I won’t catch most of them on the first listen. The music has an emo feel which works for me. The ‘sweetheart’ on “Fence Sitter” I could do without for reasons. But mostly I thought they had a lot of potential. They have a sort of leaning toward an anthemic sound that could really work but maybe here doesn’t quite get to where I want it to.
The second half of the album is Quick Attack. More straightforward and a bit more punk. I like their song-writing. The songs tend to evolve and grow as they go. Or at least some do. And they have a bit more punk in them.
On the whole I feel like Quick Attack helped carry this album though I think I found it through Hi Ho Silver Away! originally. I think maybe I liked their band name and that was enough to pull me in initially.
Rating: 8.0 overall. I’d probably 8.5 Quick Attack and 7.5 for Hi Ho Silver Away!
Favorite Track(s):Hi Ho Silver Away!: “You Know About Stag Beetles??” starts off the album well. Not sure about the lyrics. “Shred the Gnar” I liked. Feels a bit emo in a good way. “20 Miles Per Gallon” had a nice anthemic for the disillusioned feel. “Sand for Sandbags” actually had a nice Uncle Tupelo feel. Quick Attack: “Champion of Vines” is appealing but I can’t put my finger on why. But it isn’t static. It weaves and evolves as a song. “Smash the State Street” is an odd title but the song seems fun. Reminds me of Harry and the Potters without the book based lyrics. I just like the title of “Artistoked”. The music is solid too. I Like “Drench Refrains” for its simple punk thing. “Regina” sounds good. I like that they seem to be having a lot of fun.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is a Demos tape from Sweet Talk. This is a very short album coming in with 10 songs at 11 minutes. They are basically hardcore.
Songs range from 10 seconds to 90 seconds long. The Demo quality helps to blur the songs together a little. But overall it seems a solid demo tape to me. I’m no hardcore expert. But I enjoy it enough. The album never lets up until like the 8th song and that’s for three seconds. It drives hard and intense the whole way.
Rating: 8.0. Maybe higher with better sound quality.
Favorite Track(s): “Old Habits” really rocks. “All-Overs” kind of sounds the same but it’s good so that’s good? “June/July” is a solid tune. I imagine “Greenhouse” being lyrically interesting. Something about “Growing Down” really works for me as things slow down a little. I like the chaos of “Acid Reflux” and dare I say it’s appropriate?
