0.32.0 - Guess Who's Back, Back Again (Weeks 33-35 Part 1)

 

This Week:  What I Did On My Summer Vacation Part One

Bad news for the haters.

Not only did I make it through my incredible summer vacation to Australia, I also somehow managed to listen to forty eight different albums in the course of the leadup to, enjoying of, and returning from our wonderful trip, meaning I am still maintaining a healthy average albums-per-day of just over 3 (though this week, with jetlag and chaos at work and my stubborn broken tooth playing up again, my album listening has been way down).  I've also given myself a huge task to catch up on trying to write something about every single one of those albums, so my goal over the next few days is to get all 48 of those albums covered, divided into two parts (this being the first) and also then catch up and write the 700th album blog post I ran out of time to do before we went away.  When I have those in the bag, I'll feel ready to start adding albums to be "to write about" list again.

So, this is part one, a brisk 18 albums to cover, and given the success of the lightning round before, I'm once again going to limit myself to 50 words per album if only because time is finite and my concentration span has been devastated by jetlag.  Each of these albums I listened to at some point before or after the actual "being in Australia" part of the holiday, as all those albums (covered in part 2) were from Australian artists.  I've subdivided these albums into three groups of six, so let's jump in while this coffee is still keeping me awake.

This first tranche of songs are mostly pre-holiday tunes.  We had a long drive down to London and a night in a hotel before our flight, and there's nothing Catherine loves to do more pre-holiday than clean everything within an inch of its life, so between that and the ride down there I had plenty of time to listen to music.  The Cat Empire album was a recommendation from some friends of Catherine's we met up with down in London prior to our flight (their teenage children love live music also so they get very impressed at our 'down with the kids' credentials.  I talked about Kendrick with their 16 year old son.);  The Stevie Ray album was because I was heading back to work after the vacation and a shot of The Blues seemed appropriate.  

Holiday is the Magnetic Fields album I've listened to the most; for me is the embodiment of the indie lo-fi sound of the 90's.  Hot take alert:  I think this album is better than anything Pavement ever released.  

Future Nostalgia is going to go down as an all time pop classic.  Dua Lipa may have some wobbly credentials when it comes to maybe stealing bits of other peoples music, but she works some magic with them.  The Love Again video does funny things to me.

New Eyes I listened to because I was cleaning and it was by Clean Bandit.  One of the songs includes lyrics about how some people find electronic music repetitive and therefore boring.  I love a lot of electronic music, but this felt exclusively designed for high people in clubs.  Repetitive and boring, sorry.

Gothic Summer is the second The Veronica's album I have listened to this year, which beats my previous 48 years of life where I have listened to none.  Short and sweet, it didn't leave a mark in the way The Secret Life Of... did but still enjoyable pop punk.

Texas Flood is one of the best blues albums of all time, and I listened to it miserably jetlagged while reading through over 1000 unread emails, which I'm pretty sure is the worst way to consume it.  It's still outstanding though, even if I'm Cryin' and Pride and Joy are basically the same song on the album twice.

Bird In Paradise was the only non-Australian album we listened to while in Australia.  Our friend Nick described them as Ska Jazz Latino fusion which reflexively made me wince, but we gave them a fair shake.  Felt like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones had just listened to Buena Vista Social Club 200 times in a row and then sat down to make a record.  Jazzy, upbeat, good road trip music, but feels like maybe it needs to be seen live to get the proper experience.

OK, six done.  That only took three days, in which I have been massively jetlagged, had recurring dental issues, and found out the company I work for is firing about 50% of the people I've been working with for the last three years, which has made it hard to get excited to come here and write.  But now its the weekend, I did a session at the gym, had a bath, Catherine is out, and its time to finish this article before it kills me.  What's next?

These were all albums I listened to across the twenty-six hour flight from Sydney to London.  I'd listened to nearly every Australian album I had downloaded so felt I was on safe ground once I was travelling away from the Antipodes.  I had originally downloaded a bunch of Post-Rock albums in the hope they might help me sleep better (I don't sleep well on planes) but then I had second thoughts about listening to a bunch of albums by a band called Explosions in the Sky while on a long-haul flight.  Felt like tempting fate, so I cleaned up some other stuff I had downloaded before caving once I ran out of other new music to listen to.

angel in realtime. is the second Gang of Youths album I listened to on this trip, and I'll save my discussion on them for the Australian Band portion of the catchup, but this continued my trend of being incredibly intrigued by their music and wanting to listen to more of it.

I listened to hello this is the setlist for my tour by GAYLE because of ToddInTheShadows.  I downloaded some videos to watch on the plane, and I like their Worst and Best lists.  Then I remembered hearing this song on the 2022 worst list and decided I should listen to the album.  I don't know if it's a real record you can buy, but Spotify calls it an album and I am counting it.  It's really incredibly basic modern girl pop punk with nothing particularly notable about it, just a collection of pretty route one angst guitar.  I loved it, it was a perfect album for a 20 hour plane ride and I think everyone should listen to it.  I don't care what Todd says, abcdefu is catchy as hell.  10/10.

Longtime readers will know I love well produced modern female pop but somehow Halsey never quite made it to my attention until long after the fact.  I understand BADLANDS to be her big album, getting a rerelease and a tour this year, and I listened to it and have no memory of it.  This, perhaps, is the plane ride working against it but its an utter void in my head.  I probably owe it another listen at some point.

Months ago I saw Wet Leg supported  by Katy J Pearson, and downloaded this album of hers to listen to and never did.  She's got a modern PJ Harvey-esque vibe and style that I really liked live and continued to like when I listened to Return, and she's gone onto the list for further discography investigation in the future.

We have Wolf Alice tickets in October, so this was mainly me doing some revision for the gig.  Wolf Alice have a kind of upbeat pop rock intensity that I really like, and did an excellent job of keeping me awake waiting for our connecting flight, even if I think Blue Weekend isn't quite as good as Our Love Is Cool.

Yes, I caved and listened to Explosions In The Sky while in an aeroplane, something I am still amazed the universe did not punish me for.  All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone might be the Post-Rock* album I am most familiar with, and the first or second one I ever heard, but even my comfort with the soaring, drifting guitar lines and rolling percussion couldn't help me drift off to sleep, but was an interesting accompaniment to my developing sleep-deprived mental meanderings at the time.  This is a great album, if you've never tried anything Post-Rock, this is where I would always tell people to start.

Hey, six more done!  Just going to push through and try and get this published this afternoon so I can start thinking about the Australian Bands post before jetlag continues to turn my cognitive function to jelly as soon as it gets to 8pm.

A bunch of new music I wanted to spend time with also came out while we were away and I feel very bad skimming over all of these albums, but that's how it has to be.  Apologies to these artists who I love dearly, you deserve better than this.

I wasn't sure Man's Best Friend was going to work after Short 'n Sweet was so successful.  I was wrong.  Sabrina's positioning of herself as the modern Dolly Parton, self-aware, hilarious, melodic, and catchy all at the same time is triumphant.  I've listened to this album three times so far which considering how much listening-to-new-music time that's eating into is the highest compliment I can give it.  The last four tracks on the album, starting with Go Go Juice might be the most fun I've had listening to music all year.  Do yourself a favour, set aside any preconceptions you have and give this album a try.

I listened to the first The Beaches album back in April as part of a celebration of women-led rock bands and my ongoing love for them, and them putting out a new album this year was a joyous surprise.  It's very in keeping with the first album (which gets no complaint from me) but No Hard Feelings swaps Blame My Ex's tales of relationship recrimination for ongoing thoughts on the reality of being a woman dating other women.  Really liked it, will go back to it again soon I am sure.

The Clearing is the reason we have Wolf Alice tickets, and I'd heard two singles - Bloom Baby Bloom and The Sofa-  before the trip.  It's got a different energy to the other albums, less intense, more relaxed, and it's playing against type left me with questions about it, but the piano riff from Bloom Baby Bloom is stuck in my head, so its possible the album just needs more time to grow on me.  

Nova Twins were my favourite new metal act from a couple of years ago and I've persuaded Catherine to come see them play live for this tour, so I wanted to get familiar with this as soon as possible.  I'm very in favour of the discovery by Metal acts that they can be taken seriously and have fun at the same time, and while Parasites & Butterflies is less outright enjoyable than Supernova, it still promises to be an outstanding live show.  Hide & Seek was the track that stuck in my head from this one.

Of all of these albums, this feels like a travesty to crash past this release because I love CMAT and her music so much.  I've seen two separate reviews suggest that this could be album of the year and I can't argue with it.  She's so smart, so different, she's got incredible energy and no-one is doing it like her or as well as her in music right now.  I've listened to EURO-COUNTRY five times so far since we landed on Tuesday.  I can't help myself.  Please listen to this album, and read my love note to CMAT from a month ago for more context.

I've loved Garbage since their self-titled album in 1995 and I've already declared my sordid ongoing love for Shirley Manson.  Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is so spectacularly a wounded breakup album it made me confused and angry.  "Who would break up with Shirley Manson" I asked, incredulously.  "How stupid would you have to be?".  The whole thing is kind of a bummer, but if anyone deserves to vent their bitterness and frustration on record it's her.  A weird listen as an album, but probably very therapeutic to make.  

Oh god, I've done it.  18 albums covered, another TWENTY EIGHT Australian albums to cover in part two, and then I can put these two weeks behind me and figure out what the last 250 albums I am going to listen to before the end of the year are.  In the meantime, lets proofread this, publish it, then I can have a little lie down before I think about looking at a monitor for any further length of time today.  

To be continued...

* For the uninitiated, Post Rock is a kind of ambient guitar rock style - mostly without vocals, its multi-guitar sweeping instrumental vistas which can be genuinely moving, and as a genre its great music to play when lyrics would break your concentration but you want something on to listen to.  Explosions In The Sky make great movie soundtracks for the same reason.  Worth experimenting with if you find yourself in need of something unexpected to listen to.