What Music are you listening to? Discussions Welcome!

Patient-X said:
Vienna, the greatest number two single. Kept off number one by "Shaddup You Face" by Joe f*****g Dolce :mad:
Click to expand...
Yeah it's absurd, quite a lot of great singles were kept off the No.1 charts in the 80s like The Whispers "And the Beat Goes On" and Duran Duran's "Save a Prayer"
 
Well, I've spent two days with and had two full play-throughs of Manic Street Preachers - Resistance is Futile and my verdict is... That it is severely disappointing.

Now I'm a long time Manics fan who thoroughly enjoyed such divisive albums as Know Your Enemy and Lifeblood, and this is the first time I've ever felt this way. Even the albums I consider very mixed bags like This is my Truth... and Rewind the Film have at least a few stand out tracks that I'll return to, and which on the first playing still made me grin and think "Yes, this is what I like about the Manics", but Resistance is Futile just feels totally forgettable from beginning to end. It feels like they've finally exhausted their musical and lyrical creativity. I know more than a few older fans believe that already happened a long time ago, but I always stubbornly disagreed and was happy for them to explore and experiment with sounds and genres, but I think I must now sullenly shuffle over to join their ranks, with a sad glance back over my shoulder as I go.
 
Can anyone recommend and good K-pop bands to listen to?

[Just a mention, I like a lot of Japanese Idol groups, so if thats any help when giving recommendations]
 
So yesterday while listening to some black MIDI on YouTube, I happened upon a sample in one of them I recognised from a song I'd heard a couple of weeks ago in a shop and which I really liked. But since I've lived in the internet rather than the real world since about 2001, I had no idea of the title of the song or who the artist was.

So I searched down the comments, and finally I found someone who had mentioned what the sample was. "Great!", I thought, and went to the artist's official channel to listen to the song again. I wondered what their other songs were like. I started listening to them and realised I had heard several of them before, but since they use different vocalists I had never realised they were by the same artist. I was quite happy to have found a new and different artist I like.

And today I open my news app and he's dead.

 
So, I was left alone to look after the dog this week when my parents went away, and as such I had to walk him! This was a fantastic opportunity for me to discover some new albums whilst out on my travels, something I don't do anywhere near as much as I should. Over the week, I managed to get through 5 albums, so I thought I'd share my general thoughts on them.

Visions-Haken
Haken is a band I've dabbled in slightly before, but I've never actually taken the plunge in listening to a full album of theirs before now, but I'm really glad I did, as it was really good. I picked this one out of their catalogue because I'm pretty sure I read that it was the closest in sound to Dream Theater, my favourite band, and you can definitely hear that influence shine through, especially in the epic 20 minute closing track, which sounds very inspired by Octavarium, both in terms of music and the theme presented in the lyrics. These guys definitely have some talent, and I'll certainly be checking out their other efforts at some point.

Recommended Tracks:
-Insomnia
-Shapeshifter
-Visions

Pinkerton-Weezer
I know I'm super late on this one, but this album is just fantastic. I can somewhat see why it was poorly received at the time of release, it is quite different to the album that preceded it, but I'm very glad it has come to receive the praise it deserves in recent years. Although the music is great, being just as catchy as you'd expect from Weezer, it's the lyrics that really make this one for me. You can tell Rivers really poured his soul into these songs, as they all feel very personal, yet despite how specific a lot of the subject matter can be at times, there are some single lines that are depressingly relatable, and will resonate with a lot of people. At a brisk 34 minutes, Pinkerton doesn't mess around, its all killer and no filler, with there not being a single subpar song on the album. Would recommend to just about anyone.

Recommended Tracks:
-Why Bother?
-Across The Sea
-El Scorcho
-Pink Triangle

Kezia-Protest The Hero
Being on a massive Protest The Hero kick of recent, I thought I'd check out their first album, as it is probably the one I had overlooked the most. Although a decent enough album, I have kind of spoiled myself by hearing newer albums first, as despite the sound being so uniquely Protest The Hero, it's just far less refined here than it would be on later albums. There aren't as many great riffs and catchy hooks, and there just aren't as many songs that stand out on the album. Perhaps I just need to give it a couple more listens, but not a whole lot was standing out on first listen.

Recommended Tracks:
-No Stars Over Bethlehem
-Blindfolds Aside
-Turn Soonest to the Sea

Iowa-Slipknot
This is an album I thought I wouldn't like going by what little I'd heard of it, and it turns out I was totally right. Although not without merit, Iowa is an album that is just too aggro for me to really enjoy. From beginning to end, it is just unrelenting anger, devolving into a series of tracks I can only somewhat tell apart, sounding really quite samey after a while. I got into Slipknot via their third album, Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses, which is more hook driven, and tones down the edge, making for a more enjoyable listening experience than what's presented here, in my humble opinion anyway. I'm glad I did give this album a chance, there are some songs I like a fair amount, but when listened to back to back in one sitting, it's just a little bit too much for me.

Recommended Tracks:
-People=****a
-Disaserpiece
-The Heretic Anthem
-I Am Hated

Colors-Between The Buried And Me
I've wanted to get into this album for so long, and I've tried a couple of times, but I just could not get past the extreme metal vocals, however, now I've given this album a full listen through, I can honestly say I love it. Mind you, this is in spite of the vocals delivery, which I still find to be pretty unpleasant for the most part, but honestly, the sheer level of musicianship on display and the technicality of the music makes it worth pushing through, as it's just sublime. At a sparse 8 tracks in length for an hour long run time, you can multiple epic length songs, pushing over the 10 minute mark, and it's in these tracks where the album shines, transitioning seamlessly between different styles, genres, and time signatures, all while still making for fantastic listens, rather than showing off for the sake of it. I'd say this is another album that will require more listens to fully appreciate, purely because of how complex the music is, but even on first listen, it's not hard to see why this is a prog metal classic.

Recommended Tracks:
-Sun of Nothing
-Ants Of The Sky
-Prequel to the Sequel
-White Walls
 
Listening to this kind of thing at work sort of keeps everyone else quiet while i'm trying to think, and being instrumental the lyrics don't distract me.



And This one for @Neil.T

 
Time to go back to the funk as BRADIO continues to one of my favourite artists of all time thanks to their funky music. Seriously how can you not love these tracks:






And yes all of their music are available to listen on Spotify!
 
Peter Gabriel finally has his albums on Spotify. So is one of my favourite albums, probably due to it being one of the albums that my dad had on tape and thus was on repeat, along with a few others, on the car tape player on holidays. Currently listening in my van over the Bluetooth.

 
D1tchd1gger said:
Peter Gabriel finally has his albums on Spotify. So is one of my favourite albums, probably due to it being one of the albums that my dad had on tape and thus was on repeat, along with a few others, on the car tape player on holidays. Currently listening in my van over the Bluetooth.

Click to expand...
I love me some Peter Gabriel. So is one of my favourite albums, definitely one of his strongest.
 
Back
Top