Today’s Random Album of the Day is Crushing from Julia Jacklin. I adore this album so much.
Julia Jacklin is Indie Pop, Indie Folk, and Indie Rock wrapped into one. She has very good lyrics and great melodies. This is fantastic music.
Rating: 9.8
Favorite Track(s): “Body” is so cogent, so fitting lyrically and so good musically. On “Head Alone” I love the lyric “I don’t want to be touched all the time, I raised my body up to be mine.” This song is soooo good. Honestly the whole album is so good. So I won’t list every song but could…
Today’s Random Album of the Day is a 7″ record from The Effects. They are a math rock band and the two songs on the single are “Blister” and “Old Soul”.
This is solid Math Rock / Indie Rock. I like the guitars quite a bit. There is a good repetitive angularity to the riffs on “Blister”. I was less fond of “Old Soul” dragging down the overall rating. It still has some nice guitar work and is a solid song.
Rating: 8.5
Favorite Track(s): “Blister” is a good song. It drives and drives.
Keep or Trash: Keep. I’m going to check out their full length and see if its worth downloading.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is Outside, the Great Drought from Hyena. I forgot how I acquired this. And I haven’t listened in years so this will be good to hear.
I wasn’t able to find this on Rate Your Music but I did find it on Discogs. I found a review on Soundohm but no stream. Sorry for lack of a stream. So far I’d say this is experimental rock and somewhere between noise rock and folk rock. Definitely indie rock on all fronts.
This album has a good kind of weirdness. I see the 60s inspiration referenced in the Soundohm review. It is definitely there. It’s weird in a good way though and in the end I liked the album. Even when songs have parts I don’t love, they tend to rebound into something I do like. It isn’t exactly a melodic album. More chaotic with occasional melodies mixed in. But if you like experimental rock this is really quite exquisite.
The more I listen to this the more I like it. Yes it’s complicated in a sense. In a very good sense. And definitely a work of art.
Rating: 9.1
Favorite Track(s): “Salutations” is interestingly fun, “Portraits” is good, “I Eat Your Words” is spectacularly complex, “Stilts” because of the weird bit about oil lol
Keep or Trash: Keep. Mainly because I’m 90% sure we have this on vinyl. So I don’t want to delete the digital version because I like having both for stuff in our collection. Plus I liked it. And it’s very much a work of art worth keeping as well.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is Novelty from Jawbox. I honestly never listen to this but there is no particular reason. This album is considered post-hardcore or alternative rock.
This is solid music. Some nifty guitar riffs in this. Occasionally hard hitting, sometimes inventive instrumentation, and overall good music. Not every song was great, but I liked it overall.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is a Daytrotter Session from Jenny O.. Daytrotter was a studio in the 2000s and 2010s that did live sessions with artists and then made them available for download for a cheap subscription.. But generally they aren’t available to stream now.
Rate Your Music lists Jenny O. as Indie Pop and Singer-Songwriter. I wouldn’t say those are wrong but I also feel she’s a bit Indie Rock/Folk on this album maybe. Anyhow it’s a good collection of songs. Two of them are particularly catchy. I would not say spectacular, but enjoyable. I’ve never listened to Jenny O. much but this gives me enough that I’m curious to listen to more.
Rating: 8.0
Favorite Track(s): Learned My Lessons or Lazy Jane
Keep or Trash: Keep. I like it.
As noted above the Daytrotter Sessions can’t be streamed to my knowledge but all of the tracks in this session are on this album. The tracks are Learned My Lessons, Get Lost, Lazy Jane, and Opposite Islands. For some reason Jane is missing the Y.
Today’s random album of the day is Bird Sounds EP from TV Wonder. This is a unique sound I’d probably call experimental indie rock. Which looking at the tags on Bandcamp aligns with their description.
This is really interesting. It has almost competing rhythms at times but layered over catchy melodies. It sounds chaotic but isn’t chaotic at all. It is very entertaining and quite enjoyable. This is exceptionally well done and really well composed.
My wife was pointing out how it sometimes has this muted guitar underneath at times in a way that really works. It is mixed in really well.
Favorite Track(s): Bamboo Frame
Rating: 9.5
Keep or Trash: Keep. This is really good. They are related to the label Geertruida I think as a founder. They are in other bands that I will have to check out.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is Crocus from The Ophelias. The Ophelias are definitely indie music – some indie folk, some indie pop, and some indie rock. Rate Your Music includes Chamber Pop which seems apt I suppose. They formed in 2015 and Crocus (2021) is their third full length album. They also have a newer album released last year so they remain active.
The violin really helps give their sound this consistent ambiance. So much so that the songs can blend together sometimes. This can be good or bad I suppose. But I think it all works overall. The Ophelias have a very pretty sound. They are sometimes catchy, sometimes solemn, and sometimes passionate. It all works for me on a certain level but also sometimes feels like background music. I guess I want it to be bolder somehow. But it is quite good.
Rating: 8.0
Favorite Track(s): Spirit Sent or Mastermind or Neil Young on High
Keep or Trash: Keep. It is very pretty and enjoyable.
Today’s Random Album of the Day as The Blackest Eye, an EP from Aye Nako. They are queer punkers from New York City featuring a couple of California exports from Fleabag.
They were active from 2010 to 2017ish. This EP dates from 2015 and has very good, mature indie punk sounds. I suppose I feel more of a Indie Rock sound. Edgy without being overly noisy. And who doesn’t love a queer punk act? Besides loser bigots.
Their music is slightly aggressive without losing good melodies. The vocals are underemphasized in a good way. Over-emphasis on vocals can be a mistake unless you are making vocals-based pop or something like that. Though sometimes I also think the vocals are too buried so there is that.
They also use good stop and go techniques at times. Something that has always worked for me. Overall, love this album! Love their sound! It was also popular with my wife!
Rating: 9.4
Favorite Track(s): Killswitch or White Noise
Keep or Trash: Keep. Honestly I need more of their material in our collection. Will work on that when funds allow. In the meantime we do have this EP on vinyl which is nice.
Today’s Random Album of the Day was What the Hell do I Know? from Illinois. Illinois is classified as Indie Rock but they are definitely on the poppier end of indie rock at times.
I didn’t love the first song, but the EP settles in nicely with the next two songs. “Nosebleed” is really good. And “What Can I Do for You” is a very nice pop song. I liked Headphones too. So I think overall a good album with a couple of songs I didn’t love.
My wife and I agreed that they are poppier indie rock. She thought a couple of songs would work great on a soundtrack.
