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…
It’s a bit surprising with all of the material in our collection to get two popular albums two days in a row. But today’s Random Album of the Day is Universal Mother From Sinéad O’Connor. For personal reasons, I love that this is today’s selection. I’ve always liked Sinéad O’connor’s music, but have under-listened. So I’m always glad for the excuse to listen.
Rating: 9.8
Favorite Track(s): “Fire on Babylon”, “My Darling Child”, “Red Footbal”, “All Apologies”, “Scorn Not His Simplicity”, “Tiny Grief Song”, “In This Heart”, “Thank You For Hearing Me”
Today’s Random Album of the Day is the Violent Femmes Self-titled Album. Of course this is a well known classic. So much obscure stuff comes up on the Random Album of the Day it throws me off when its something this well known.
There isn’t much that needs to be said about this album. It is a classic album and it’s very good.
Rating: 10
Favorite Track(s): “Blister in the Sun” is of course a classic. “Add It Up”. “Please Do Not Go”. “Prove my love”. “To the kill”. etc… Too many good songs,
The Random Album of the Day is On The Goddam Radio from Squinch Owl. This is really good indie folk if not straight up folk.
I really like Squinch Owl even if the recording quality on this isn’t super. The singer’s voice is awesome. This is recorded on a radio show which might explain the sound quality to some degree.
I suppose the songs blur together some but in a good way. Like it’s so consistent. Anyhow this is enjoyable music if you’re into this kind of folk music. The album also has a good flow to it. And the lyrics are really good.
For what its worth, their Homeware Bound album has a more normal recording.
Rating: 9.5
Favorite Track(s): “Think No Worse of Me” breaks out and you immediately notice her voice. “What We’re Going To Be For the Rest Of Our Lives” feels very anthemic. “We Will Do Great Things” is really great and well let’s hope we do! “Going Home”‘s stops and starts are great.
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 another 7″ single. This one is “Hanging Out in Havana” and “Far Out” from What Tyrants. What Tyrants falls somewhere between garage punk and post punk. They are a trio from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
I really like this. The two songs sound similar but distinctly different in a good way. The music is tight and flows well. Very solid 7″ record.
Rating: 9.5
Favorite Track(s): “Hanging Out in Havana” borders on surfer garage punk. I like it. I think I like “Far Out” more with its more submerged sound.
Keep or Trash: Keep. Looking into picking up their LPs.
Today’s Random Album of the Day is a single from Shirthole with the songs “Stay Away” and “I Wear What I Want”. This is Riot Grrrl from New Jersey. And I love Riot Grrrl!
This is a single so a quick review. I really liked this.
Rating: 9.7
Favorite Track(s): “Stay Away” is good but “I wear what I want” I just adore for its rebellious riot grrrl nature!
Keep or Trash: Keep. And notably there is a brand new EP release from this band so I’ll be picking that up too!
Today’s Random Album of the Day is the Nuttu Nurin EP from Olimpia Splendid. This lady band hails from Finland! These folks are fun noise rockers! A bit on the experimental side with sound.
They are a lot more Sonic Youth than Dinosaur Jr in that sense. “KL” could be on Sister for example. Really good droning sounds in that song. “Jukka-Pekka” reminds me of later Mecca Normal with screaming.
Rating: 9.5
Favorite Track(s): “KL” is a steady ride. “Jukka-Pekka” as the screaming and rhythm really works for me. “Cheeseballs” is my favorite song on the EP. Just upbeat, screams, and enjoyable.
Keep or Trash: Keep. I got some of their material on vinyl for a reason…
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 another Daytrotter Session. This one from Kevin Seconds. Kevin is probably mostly known for his band 7 Seconds. But here is doing singer songwriter type material.
This is solid stuff. It definitely has a troubadour-ish sound. Honestly I’d probably love these songs if the lyrics were more protest oriented. It feels like this sound should be that. But it isn’t protest oriented here. Which isn’t to say it’s not good, because it is good. Enjoyable in fact.
Rating: 8.5
Favorite Track(s): “New and Beautiful” is so joyful
Keep or Trash: Delete. When all I have from an artist is their Daytrotter I’m tempted to delete but this is good enough to keep. But I deleted it anyhow because I don’t see me listening to this much.
