Every week, I add a number of new albums to my monthly Spotify playlist, listen to them and if I like them enough (or just find them interesting enough to want to listen to again), they go on my favourites of the year long list. I get my recommendations primarily from Stereogum, Metal Injection, Spotify's algorithms and occasionally, real life humans.
These albums were the last to be added to my August 2019 playlist. You can find the Faves 2019 long list here.
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
This is Lana Del Rey's sixth album. Six! I hadn't fully appreciated how prolific she is until I just checked that now. I'm a casual fan of her work. I generally listen to her output, always enjoy it, think she has an amazing voice and has made some beautiful songs, but rarely go back to her stuff between releases (with exception of Summertime Sadness, which is on one of my playlists). Maybe my listening habits will change with this album, named for an American author and artist I'm not too proud to admit I haven't heard of.
The songs are mostly typical of Del Ray's lush, sad-pop sound and boast her casually revealing lyrical frankness. There's some squishy synth sounds on some of the tracks; I'm not sure I can recall her utilising that before, but I welcome it. It's mostly produced by Jack Antonoff, of whom I am a big fan. That said, the highlight of the album for me was one of the tracks he was not credited on, The Next Best American Record. I really enjoyed this album. Didn't really dig the cover though.
On the long list? Yes
Joan Shelley - Like the River Loves the Sea
Joan Shelley is an American singer-songwriter in the folk tradition, of whom I was previously unaware. This album was pretty enough, but it failed to leave too much of an impression on me unfortunately. She has a lovely voice. The album artwork is much nicer than Lana Del Rey's. Apologies - a lot of the time, if the music doesn't really grab me, I won't have a lot to add to these notes and I have no desire to be any more negative than is absolutely necessary. I'm not a super folky guy, but if you like the genre, perhaps give it a look?
On the long list? No
TOOL - Fear Inoculum
Pharmakon - Devour
Oh, I think I put this on my list by mistake. Probably got Pharmakon confused with Phantogram. Though apparently I listened to the previous album in 2017. Pharmakon is a noise project by Margaret Chardiet and unfortunately it's not really my thing. A lot of distorted soundscapes with distorted shouting in the background. Whilst I have a lot of time for the idea of a noise band, I don't think it's something I've fully convinced myself I actually like it practice. If anyone can advise how to get into this sort of thing, I'd welcome that. I imagine its interesting live.
On the long list? No
I've some more albums left on my list, will update later x
These albums were the last to be added to my August 2019 playlist. You can find the Faves 2019 long list here.
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
This is Lana Del Rey's sixth album. Six! I hadn't fully appreciated how prolific she is until I just checked that now. I'm a casual fan of her work. I generally listen to her output, always enjoy it, think she has an amazing voice and has made some beautiful songs, but rarely go back to her stuff between releases (with exception of Summertime Sadness, which is on one of my playlists). Maybe my listening habits will change with this album, named for an American author and artist I'm not too proud to admit I haven't heard of.
The songs are mostly typical of Del Ray's lush, sad-pop sound and boast her casually revealing lyrical frankness. There's some squishy synth sounds on some of the tracks; I'm not sure I can recall her utilising that before, but I welcome it. It's mostly produced by Jack Antonoff, of whom I am a big fan. That said, the highlight of the album for me was one of the tracks he was not credited on, The Next Best American Record. I really enjoyed this album. Didn't really dig the cover though.
On the long list? Yes
Joan Shelley - Like the River Loves the Sea
Joan Shelley is an American singer-songwriter in the folk tradition, of whom I was previously unaware. This album was pretty enough, but it failed to leave too much of an impression on me unfortunately. She has a lovely voice. The album artwork is much nicer than Lana Del Rey's. Apologies - a lot of the time, if the music doesn't really grab me, I won't have a lot to add to these notes and I have no desire to be any more negative than is absolutely necessary. I'm not a super folky guy, but if you like the genre, perhaps give it a look?
On the long list? No
TOOL - Fear Inoculum
Despite my musical upbringing as a rock and metal fan in the early 2000s, I never really listened to TOOL until now. I kinda saw a bit of their headlining set at Download Festival 2006, but sloped off to watch Ginger and the Sonic Circus. That's the extent of my TOOL listening history. I'm aware that they were touring their album 10,000 Days at the time and this is their first record since then. What a long time to wait! That's almost as long as people waited for Chinese Democracy.
The band's sound is less challenging than I'd imagined and I generally thought this was quite accessible stuff. It's lots of long, riff focused rock songs with some quite decent vocals. Sorry, I'm aware that most TOOL fans are hardcore and that's probably reads as an incredibly underwhelming appraisal to them. But I liked it! Is it similarly offensive to say the band they most reminded me of is Ghost? But less silly. Well, a bit less. What exactly is 'Fear Inoculum' supposed to mean? 13 years and couldn't even think of a sensible title...
On the basis of this, I will go back and listen to their old stuff.
On the long list? Yes
Pharmakon - Devour
Oh, I think I put this on my list by mistake. Probably got Pharmakon confused with Phantogram. Though apparently I listened to the previous album in 2017. Pharmakon is a noise project by Margaret Chardiet and unfortunately it's not really my thing. A lot of distorted soundscapes with distorted shouting in the background. Whilst I have a lot of time for the idea of a noise band, I don't think it's something I've fully convinced myself I actually like it practice. If anyone can advise how to get into this sort of thing, I'd welcome that. I imagine its interesting live.
On the long list? No
I've some more albums left on my list, will update later x
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