Music Reviews

I’m gonna be honest here for a second, I was kind of a sucker for Hayley’s last project „Pedals For Armor“, where she experimented with more electronic and funk elements and it overall made for a pretty messy yet enjoable collection of songs – but with this new record over here, I had kind of a hard time getting into it, beacuse of the different sound palate this album is obviously going for – I gave it like listens but nothing ws clicking with me – one time I even fell asleep by like the third song and woke by the end of the album. But yesterday I gave it a patient, uninterupted listen and it finally clicked – this album has actually much more going for it, the it may sound, it’s just not as immidiate as Petals was.

Right of the back, the mood is set with the opener „First Thing To Go“, which is a somber song with some gentle guitar plucks and a piano lead that works its way in in the second half – it’s a really nice way to show off the sound this album is going for. The second track „My Libm“ showcases more of the same, with a more psychedelic chorus and actual drums, which are a rarity on this album, most of the song being just soulely accoustic ballads. Though „Asystole“ is another song to break the formula with more detailed and textured instrumental and beautiful melodies – i adds more variety in the tracklisting. Now from this point on, the tracklist gets a little stale after a while – as I said, this album doesn’t have much else going for it than the gentle plucking at you heart strings accoustic ballads, so it gets kind of unintresting after a while. Some exceptions to this include „KYRH“ standing for „Keep You Right Here“, which switches things up, but not by much, instead of a regular accoustic guitar ballad you get a piano-centred ballad – execution is different, but the outcome is the same. Now I’m not saying any of these songs are not made from a genuine place of love and have no artistic depth to them, they certainly have, but it’s all very personal, as Hayley sings about her past relationship expiriences and I personally just don’t relate to much of anything here. Also the tracklisting uses a fair ammount of ambience to fill in the void that surrouds many of the songs here and it works fairly well, great examples being „Good Grief“ and „HYD“. I also thought the song „Over Those Hills“ deserves a mention as it is one of the most, if not the most, instrumentaly rich song here – it starts off basically like any other song here, but slowly builds tention throughout until finally exploding in the final third – the sharp drums and electric guitar are a breath of fresh air. The second to last track „Descansos“ is purely an instrumental ambient piece, with Hayley’s distant background vocals giving the track a really chilling atmosphere. Now I guess the closer „Just a Lover“ does tie things up together pretty well lyrically and even instrumentally as the track offers more much needed instrument variety again. Overall nothing groundbreaking but a great closer nonethenless.

So yeah, there just isn’t much to be said about this project really – it obviously comes from a very personal place and I can appriciate that, but I just don’t stay invested in this feeling all the way through and the album is kind of all over the place – still a nice little release from Hayley, definetly an easier and more easy-going listen then her debut LP, but not much more enjoyable.

Decent 6/10

After a long wait, the debut album from the UK collective Black Country, New Road finally arrived and I gotta say, it’s everything any of us could’ve wanted from it – like serioulsy, who debuts like that?? Anyways this album is only 6 songs long, all of them ranging from 4 to 10 minutes in length, this makes for a pretty cohesive listen.

The record opens up with „Instrumental“ which to everyone’s surprise is an instrumental piece and also the only song on the album without any words sung – it’s a weird yet fitting choice for the opener to this album. The keys are instantly catchy and the groove pretty much irresistible, with some booming haunting melodies and grandious horns in the second half of the track, where the instrumentation just builds until it explodes like an atomic bomb – it serves well as a preparation to what’s ahead of you. The record only gets better from here with songs like „Athens, France“, which is where we are introduced to our protagonist and the song really mathces the tone with that, there is a sense of mystery and temptation, as the track is also not as immidate as the previous one – it takes time with it’s pacing and it moves rather slowly – the pay off in this one is more emotional then anything, the later half is really what sells it. Then we get the very story-driven „Science Fair“, which picks the pace up instantly with again, slowly but surely building instrumentation and exploding like halfway through with some insane horns added in adding a layer of insanity – it’s a really powerful moment in the tracklist, much like every other track. The 10-minute long „Sunglasses“ was one of the teaser tracks released before the album’s release, but that single version was completely scrapped and re-done from the ground – some may prefere the original one, and I completely get why, but this one really fits the tone of the album better, really being the centrepiece of this whole thing. The phases this song goes through are absolutely nuts, from the more melancholic and melodic start to the sheer insanity that is the second part – the horns, the guitars, the drums, everything just blends so well into this magnififcent larger-then-life expirience. Then comes the much neede slow down with the song „Track-X“, which is one of the more lo-fo tracks on the album, also serving as one of the albums most beautiful moments – the strings are what really sells this one, as well as the vocal harmonizing, but it’s really the whole package to be honest. And then we get the closer, the literal „Opus“, which is as good as an ending for this thing could’ve turned out. This is essentially the best parts of this album compressed into one song with the addition of even more horns, even more beautiful melodies and possibly the biggest climax of them all.

So yeah, there could definetly be found more to be said about this beautiful piece of work, but honestly no words can really describe the feeling I get when listening to this – just do yourself a favor and listen to this thing, you defintely won’t regret it. SO FAR my aoty.

Decent 9/10

Now here it is, brand new year and a brand new album from the infamous band Weezer, which I have very… Mixed feeling about, or at least I had before going into this album. Essentially at first I just found the band to be generic uninspired run of the mill rock music, for people who have never in their live even talked to a girl. But I think I finally got Weezer’s appeal with this album and it even allowed me to look back on some of their older material and appricate the band’s sound a little bit more. But the ultimate question we’re all asking, is this new album over here any good?

And right off the back I have a simple answer to that question – yes, that is very much the case here. It isn’t anything ground-breaking or never done before, but it is just a damn solid rock album with a giant orchestral twist through the whole album this time around. This causes the sound of this thing to be incredibly easy-going, larger then life and most of all human, as the title souggets. It also makes for some of the most beautiful and gut-punching moments in the band’s entire catalog, like the song „Mirror Image“, which could be essentialy discredited as an interlude, but the giant walls of strings and the heart- wrenching lyrics legitemately are enough to make me cry – my only complaint about this track is, that I just wished it was longer honestly. Then we also have the single released prior to the album „All My Favorite Songs“, which was the first indicator of the sound the band would be taking with this new project and it was honestly a perfect choice for the first single – the instant catchiness and easy-goingness contrast really well with River’s passionate vocals and it just makes for a fitting opener. Then we get the song „Aloo Gobi“, which runs pretty similarly to the last track with more emphasis on the strings this time. The chorus is also very passionately sung and the „You are not alone“ bridge really makes the song feel like an completely expirience of a song by the end of it. Some other stand-out track include the beautiful „Numbers“ with some insanely beautiful vocal lines from River on the chorus, honestly a contender for one of my favorites on here. The mysterious „Playing My Piano“ is surprisingly enough centred around a piano line that hits around the chorus, which really gives the song a sense of mystery and wonder, it’s a really nice touch, even though the lyrics on this one aren’t as mind-blowing on the first verse. „Screens“ is another quick one, that has more guitar incorporation in it and it honestly just feels kind of repetetive by this point in the album, not a bad track, though there isn’t much else to be said about it. The following „Bird With a Broken Wing“ fortunately picks things up a bit and is actually one of the emotional high-points on this album, realy just a goergous track through and through. „Here Comes The Rain“, as the title suggests, is an obvious The Beattles tribute and a very well done one at that – it also serves as a very much needed positive break point on the album, considering much of the album is otherwise kind of moody and dreamy. The track has this very sunshine-like energy to it with these instant catchy piano chords, that then smoothly lead into the orchestral instrumentation that finnishes the track off. The closer „La Brea Tar Pits“ is like a more grand version of Aloo Gobi, not only with the weird name incorporation again, but with the overall tone of the song, they really feel like two parts of the same song and it manages to close of the album fairly well.

So yeah, I actually enjoyed a Weezer album in 2021, crazy times we live in, right? No, but now for real, I really see this as an accoplishment in the band’s catalog and the band themselves should also see this as something to be very proud of. I can see how this may come off as sort of boring to some people, as this is the criticism I encountered most of the times doing my research for this album, but to me, that very much isn’t the case – just listen to the music, pay attention to what is being said and let the overall vibe of this album consume you, then you’ll get what I mean.

light 8/10

So here it finally is, the tenth studio album by the American rockers „Foo Fighters“ is finally here and I gotta say, I haven’t been this confused about an album in a while. On one hand, it’s easily their most experimental and groovy record thus far, but then here I am on the other hand wondering, if that is really a good thing.

So yeah, this album is very much a „hit-or-miss“ kind of expirience. The singles released prior to the album’s release all left me with very mixed feelings and after hearing the whole album, that still hasn’t changed much. To kind of take it track-by-track, we have the radio-ready opener „Making A Fire“, which really is more of a spark then a whole fire – the song immidiately screams car comercial music, though not entirely in a bad way, we have seen much more miserable attempts at making such music in recent memory *cough* Green Day *cough*. One saving grace this song has is it’s instant catchiness and also that, that at the end of the day, it still feels remarkably Foo Fighters, no matter how poppy it sounds. The following track „Shame Shame“ was also the first released single for this album and wow, what a weird choice for a first single – it is easily one of the Foo Fighters most disjointed songs to date, with the weird beat incorporating handclaps and other weird percussion elements, the kind of rough around the edges groove and the overly repetetive chorus – it comes of kind of pretentious, even though the strings that are added in on the chorus are quite a nice touch. The following „Cloudspotter“ is easily one of the worst songs here and there are many reasons to that, but in the end it boils down to two things – one being the at places just AWFUL lyrics and the extremely cheezy chorus, that I legitimately can’t handle. „Waiting On A War“ thankfully picks things up a bit, as it is easily my favorite single released prior to this thing, it’s just this nice introspective accoustic ballad with an instrumental build up and freak out at the end – there is just this anthemic atmosphere going through out and it serves as a much needed break in the album. Following that is probably the grooviest song on the album, the title track „Medicine at Midnight“ which is actually also one of my favorites here – it has this nice lushes instrumental with some funky guitars and weird beat switch-ups and these haunting background vocals, it just comes full circle pretty well. The third and final single released from this „No Son Of Mine“ is probably the heaviest of the three and has this arena stadium feel to it, while still not going full Imagine Dragons – it is also one of the more instant songs on the album, but unfortunately it’s charm quickly weares off. The song „Holding Poison“ is probably the most „old-school Foo Fighters“ song on here, with the addition of some nice synths and an epic guitar solo halfway through, it honestly is like the whole package of a song. The album looses it’s track again though on the following „Chasing Birds“, which is another contester for the worst song on this album for me, it just feels pretty bland and uninspired, the subject matter is really portraited in an non-specific way and it’s just all over the place. The closing track „Love Dies Young“ thankfully ends thing on a high-note with some heavy riffs, Dave Grohl’s iconic rasper vocals and an anthemic tone, it serves as a great closer to this album.

So yeah, the new Foo Fighters, it’s uh… Alright, I guess? Look, I’m gonna be completely transparent here, this was kind of a disapointment for me. Foo Fighters is a band I hold very dear to my heart, so there obviously is a bit of bias for me, but through and through, this is just a mediocre effort from the band – there are some highlights, for sure, I can praise this record for having a ton of variety compared to the rest of the band’s catalog, but that being said, it doesn’t make it an overall statisfying listen. Still, if you haven’t listened to it, then please give it a go, your opinnion may very much differ from mine’s and you may find much more enjoyment out of it then I did.

Strong 5/10