Monthly(ish) Recommendations #1: Pop and Powerviolence
This blog was made so I had an excuse to review older albums that I like, but I also listen to stuff that's newer or just new to me, and figured I may as well share that too. So here you go.
I spend my days digging through the depths of YouTube, Bandcamp, the Metal Archives, Reddit, and many other places, trying to find good music of all types. Metal, hardcore, rock, pop, jazz, hip hop, classical, folk, electronic, pretty much anything you can think of.
Typically I try to find two or three really good albums every month. Sometimes I am successful in that search. This month, I have been, so following are a few of my favorite albums that I have discovered in the last little bit.
Rosemary Fairweather
Heavenly - A Collection of Songs (2016)
(and) Heavenly - A Second Collection of Songs (2019)
Dreampop/Lofi/Indie rock
Whispy, dreamy pop with hints of indie rock, funk, and lofi hip hop. Just generally really chill stuff. Catchy vocal melodies, lots of great basslines and glassy-sounding guitars, with more than enough cool synth melodies and textures to go around. And, of course, 80s-sounding drums, which are my ultimate weakness.
The songs are all low to mid tempos primarily, with reverb-drenched, breathy very high pitched vocals. The lofi influence is very apparent on most of the songs, and as someone who thinks almost all lofi hip hop is unlistenable garbage because of the genre's fetish for sidechained, pumping kick drums and for generally sounding more homogenized than my milk, I actually quite enjoy that sort of vibe when it's in this context.
Fortunately, these albums take the more melancholic edges of lofi with none of the abominable production, combines it with the light, airy atmosphere of dreampop/shoegaze, and the driving groove of funky indie rock, and makes something I can actually listen to and thoroughly enjoy.
Generally, Heavenly - A Collection is slower, darker, and more rock-tinged than A Second Collection. The latter also leans much more to the pop and lofi sides and has punchier but less dreamy production, but both are superb records that I absolutely recommend listening to.
YouTube playlists:
Favorite tracks:
Heavenly: Moonlight, Too Low, Good News
Heavenly 2: MTV, You Talk Too Much
Get The Shot
Infinite Punishment (2017)
Hardcore Punk/Thrash Metal/Metalcore
While looking for Belgian death metal bands, Bandcamp saw fit to recommend me Get The Shot. Get The Shot is not Belgian, nor are they death metal. They are Canadian and they are a punk band. Albeit a punk band with a healthy dose of thrash and death metal in their sound.
They are also the grooviest, most headbangable band I have heard in my life, and close the the angriest band I have ever heard (Though Nails is basically impossible to top in that regard.) I am a lifelong fan of very loud and angry music, so it is a rarity that something truly catches me off guard and surprises me, but this album absolutely managed it. In traditional hardcore punk fashion, the vocals are mostly very distorted, fast screaming/shouting at a fairly high pitch, although there are plenty of gang vocals. some pitched screams, and occasionally lower screams/growls that get close to melodic death metal territory.
The guitars are ridiculously chunky and saturated, with loads of palm muted, galloping power chords. The bass is thick and distorted, and the kick drum in particular is very punchy.
I'm gonna be honest, like most hardcore punk, the album isn't exactly diverse. It's mostly upper-mid tempo groove riffs, feedback, and open string breakdowns, but there were almost no sections that didn't have me getting an intense stank face and headbanging. The short instrumental piece Demon Stomp, in particular, turns into an insanely heavy riff once it gets going.
Anyone who says punk and metal are dead hasn't been paying a whole lot of attention, and this is a prime example of why they're wrong.
YouTube playlist:
Favorite tracks:
Blackened Sun, Hellbringer, Demon Stomp, Eternal Decay, Profaner
Comments
Post a Comment