The 2024 Music Thread

[Schlitzbrille]

Taylor Swift as musical artist, good but not my alley at all.

Taylor Swift as transcendent god-queen of humanity, no.

[lanky316]

As far as disposable pop goes, I like Taylor Swift, not enough to have gone on a deep dive but a few of the singles have been enjoyable enough. Like many things and at the expense of drifting into Abe Simpson I don't get why she's seen as so special. It's just fine pop music with some catchy stuff, not like she's some sort of extra special talent.

Of course, when it comes to criticism for old farts who clearly aren't her target audience I'm sure she can just... Shake It Off.

[RPS]

The new St. Vincent is a grower for sure. It's on the same level as MASS EDUCATION. It's really lovely stuff.  Every song is interesting, takes a risk and tries something new. I worried with her last album that maybe she didn't have many ideas in the tank. I was wrong. 

The Nia Archives album is very good. Really listenable and the time will pass. Feels like it transports you to a club in the UK even listening on your couch thousand of miles away. 

Cakes Da Killas new album Black Sheep + is lovely. It's a mix tape in the best possible way. Influenced by deep house, it is a great 30 minute soundtrack for a run or a drink at home. 

The new Justice album sucked. Nothing interesting on it. Felt paint by numbers. 

The new Cloud Nothing was good. I doubt I'll listen to it again - I like the scuzzy, at times free flowing punk stuff they did previously. This was synthy, at times poppy. Sounds like a personal project. 

The Pearl Jam album was okay. It sounded a bit more engaged than the other legacy acts churning out albums to tour. 

 

[GoGo Yubari]

Listened to 20 of the 27 (!!!) tracks on the Beyonce album and it mostly made me miss the gimmick artists would do where they would drop two separate albums at once and just have a thematic link between them in some way. I would have rather listened to the album that felt like it was Beyonce making straight-up songs in the country/western mold for the most part than having to listen to it alongside the album that feels like a Las Vegas stage show about the premise of Beyonce making a country album.

Found the "Jolene" cover to be really corny, from bringing out Dolly Parton to be a mascot character on it to basically rewriting it into a Loretta Lynn song.

[Skummy]

I found the new Pearl Jam album to just be completely boring - plodded along at the same pace, and then I instantly forgot about it.

I'm listening to the new Pet Shop Boys at the moment, and very much enjoying that, as far as old lads still making music goes. It's very much them doing their thing, but luckily their thing is very good.

The new albums that have stood out to me so far this month are:

Paraorchestra's Death Songbook, though admittedly that's right up my street - it's a live recording made of a disabled orchestra during the pandemic, with vocals by Brett Anderson, and it's covers of songs about death and loss, with stuff from Echo & The Bunnymen, Suede, Bowie, Mercury Rev, and so on. 

Melvins' Tarantula Heart - a mixed bag, but the highs are very high indeed.

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Absolutely loved this one, very fun, very groovy.

High On Fire's Cometh the Storm; really enjoyed this one at the time, I imagine it won't hit as well on a repeat listen, but very good doom metal.

I also had a lot of time for the new Cadence Weapon and the new A Certain Ratio, the latter especially.

The new Nick Cave single is utter dogshit.

[Benji]

P.O.D.'s new album slams in a way they haven't for a looooong time. Absolutely love it.

[Lint]

Nevermind

[apsham]

Re; the Taylor Swift conversation -

Spoiler

I'll get a song an album stuck in my head every once in a while but I always tend to find that other people do her songs better by quite a margin. These two dropped on the same day and are both intensely diverse takes on the song but I think both of them connect on a better vibe - which is odd because Cruel Summer is SPECIFICALLY a song about one of Taylor's personal experiences dating. But in the end, G Flip connected with it more because she found some truth in the lyrics regarding queer relationships and Teddy Swims gave it a hell of a lot of emotion.

Ultimately, I found out about G Flip and Teddy Swims this year through this - and they're probably going to end up on my top 10 at the end of the year now.

The best thing that she does is levitate some other artists, but even that's a bit of a mixed bag and too much power for someone to have when you can just pick and choose like that and make someone's career or ignore someone else's entirely for whatever reason. I can't really disconnect her in my head from all the antebellum imagery that she started her career with - and I figured she was entirely away from it but all the recent stuff with "hey, wouldn't it be cool to live in the 1800s without slavery" was... a moment.

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Now on the other hand, something that IS very much in my bag happened because Los Campesinos! is dropping a new album soon and it came out of no where to me. The songs that are out so far are very much for me and have strengthened my resolve that I really fucking need to get some god damn tattoos for that band.

 

[lanky316]

Babymetal are putting on their own festival this week. Alongside them on the bill are Electric Callboy, who have done a collaboration for the occasion.

It's as silly and catchy as you'd expect. Feel good hit of the Summer right there!

[RPS]

The new Billie Eilish is great. I find it hard to really assess her because her success feels accidental. You hear other pop stars and their success makes sense. Listen to Billie's first album and there is no way you'd think she would transcend to this level. It is catchy and accessible, but also strange, abrasive, unconventional and experimental. On her first album, immediately after Bad Guy is xanny, a bizarre auto tuned, blown out ballad about a girl being at a party she doesn't want to be at. On her second album, she embraced bossa nova and went full rock star. People try to emulate her vocal and her style, but those following in her foot steps don't experiment like she does. People try that whispery vocal style without being like "let's have a section of this song that sounds like Nintendo Wii loading screens". 

The first half of this album is a really great pop album. My kids all love Lunch and Birds of a Feather. But it's when Billie gets weird that I enjoy. L'Amour De Ma Ve, the Diner and Bittersuite back to back is like a bizarre fever dream. There is so much going on. It is Finneas and Billie's M.O to transform songs midway between songs but the whole stretch shows how willingly to try new ideas. It's commendable stuff because it shows to me that Billie will have longevity. Fame is fickle, but an ability to make interesting, risky music will mean when the fame fades, she'll still captivate an audience. 

[Skummy]

Some really good stuff out this month. 

The new Camera Obscura is gorgeous, new John Carpenter is just as good as you'd hope from him, new Kamasi Washington is beautiful, and the new Shellac is fantastic if bittersweet to listen to now. On the heavier side of things, I really enjoyed 

Real stand-outs, though, are the Beth Gibbons solo album, which is absolutely fantastic and I would recommend to just about anyone, Mdou Moctar's Funeral for Justice - though I generally think Moctar can do no wrong - and the new Arab Strap album; it sounds exactly like any other Arab Strap album, but thankfully every other Arab Strap album is fantastic.

[RPS]

18 minutes ago, Skummy said:

Some really good stuff out this month. 

The new Camera Obscura is gorgeous, new John Carpenter is just as good as you'd hope from him, new Kamasi Washington is beautiful, and the new Shellac is fantastic if bittersweet to listen to now. On the heavier side of things, I really enjoyed 

Real stand-outs, though, are the Beth Gibbons solo album, which is absolutely fantastic and I would recommend to just about anyone, Mdou Moctar's Funeral for Justice - though I generally think Moctar can do no wrong - and the new Arab Strap album; it sounds exactly like any other Arab Strap album, but thankfully every other Arab Strap album is fantastic.

I'm so behind I need to listen to everything in this post. 

I listened to the new Vince Staples. I know there is a dedicated rap thread but I feel like I can say this free of any scrutiny from those who know better. But is Vince Staples the best and most consistent rapper out there. His albums feel timeless. He's not chasing trends.