DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

6th July 2024

wowaka - Unhappy refrain
J-Rock, Vocaloid, Japanese


(Don't think wowaka ever officially released all these songs on youtube, so this is an unofficial upload)

OMG HATSUNE MIKU OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU MIKU


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Okay now that I have your attention we can talk about this amazing album.

This is the first album here where it's not my first time listening. I'm pretty sure I was made aware of this album through some random online comment which mentioned this together with Mikgazer, which piqued my interest. Unlike the other albums I've talked about, I've actually had the chance to become familiar with this one. However, the first time I listened to this was pretty recently, so I can still talk about the first impressions that I remember.

I think the thing that struck me most about this album is how it immediately felt like a "classic" of sorts. Like a sort of precursor, or something that is the foundation of everything else. I'm not sure how true this is because I'm not that knowledgeable, but what I can say was that that is the overwhelming impression this album gives.

First thing, it was crazy how many songs I recognised from osu. And I realised that most of the songs I recognised from osu were slightly different versions. Assuming that this album is entirely original, it means that wowaka has actually unknowingly defined a lot of my osu experience, indirectly through different versions of these songs, whether by wowaka themselves or covers from other artists. I don't think any ordinary artist could have this type of subtle, outstretched reach.

Another thing was that this really feels like the raw version of the super high-energy, layered, riff-heavy, chaotic j-rock that we hear a lot today. You can hear the rawness leaking out of the timbre of the sounds. Compared to more modern songs, it's unabashedly tinny (not sure how much this is because of the second-hand uploader) and electronically generated, down to the vocaloid singer, yet it uses these qualities to pack a punch more sharp and intense than lots of actually recorded stuff.

The best modern example of this type of music I can think of is Zutomayo, who is is the exact same subgenre of j-rock wowaka is in. Not sure if wowaka was the first to do this, or popularised this or whatever, but this really feels like a precursor to a lot of modern j-rock.

Yet through everything, the osu music, the j-rock precursor, and even through Hatsune Miku, this album manages to fully stand on it's own. Not as anything I just mentioned, but as Unhappy refrain by wowaka. I don't see these songs as just osu songs or miku songs any more, they've gone beyond that and turned into wowaka songs.

Top to bottom this album doesn't really lull (I'm pretty sure I've said this like 3 times now, maybe I'll just stop mentioning this). Many of the songs are so high energy that you feel dizzy from headbanging, and the lower energy songs feel perfect to just sit back and take a break while soaking in the sounds.

My favourites are probably Nichijou to chikyuu no gakubuchi, Toosenbo and Ura-omote lovers, three headbangers of the highest degree. My least favourite was probably Prism cube, the last track, because it didn't feel that special with the usual chaos of wowaka toned down. However, I still liked it and it's amazing as a closer to the album, like this is the most anime ed sounding song I've ever heard.

All in all, this album is an incredible experience.

9/10



Rest in peace wowaka.

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

What do you guys think is the best way to categorise these albums into genres? Should I just give each album 1 or 2 main genres/categories as I've been doing now, or should I copy the genres/styles off of a website? I'm generally not too well versed in genres. I also feel like I could give Unhappy Refrain a more specific genre than J-Rock, but idk what.

Edit: I've thought about it and I think I'm just going to keep going off of what I feel.

Patatitta wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

What do you guys think is the best way to categorise these albums into genres? Should I just give each album 1 or 2 main genres/categories as I've been doing now, or should I copy the genres/styles off of a website? I'm generally not too well versed in genres. I also feel like I could give Unhappy Refrain a more specific genre than J-Rock, but idk what.

Edit: I've thought about it and I think I'm just going to keep going off of what I feel.

just copy whatever appears on wikipedia or whatever IMO

also hyper omega specific subgenres suck ass

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

What do you guys think is the best way to categorise these albums into genres? Should I just give each album 1 or 2 main genres/categories as I've been doing now, or should I copy the genres/styles off of a website? I'm generally not too well versed in genres. I also feel like I could give Unhappy Refrain a more specific genre than J-Rock, but idk what.

Edit: I've thought about it and I think I'm just going to keep going off of what I feel.

just copy whatever appears on wikipedia or whatever IMO

also hyper omega specific subgenres suck ass

The thing is every site has a different list of genres, and some of them will have a gazillion of them. Allmusic.com says Parannoul - After the Magic is "Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Shoegaze, Dream Pop, Emo, Noise Pop, Post-Rock, Indie Electronic" for it's "styles" and "pop/rock" for it's "genre". I have no idea what half of these are, and when I look the genre up and listen to some music the genres sometimes feel very tenuous. I think I'll just say that After the Magic is shoegaze and leave it at that.

Joon Yorigami wrote:

what about my AOTY (for now)

xch00F wrote:

there's a man that live next door
eeeeeee my neighbor
eeeeeee my neighbor

Karmine wrote:

xch00F wrote:

there's a man that live next door
eeeeeee my neighbor
eeeeeee my neighbor

Corne2Plum3 wrote:

bump

Patatitta wrote:

Corne2Plum3 wrote:

bump

it's been 19 hours, also, like my thread, they will bump naturally as they write their next review, no need to bump

Patatitta wrote:

Corne2Plum3 wrote:

bump

it's been 19 hours, also, like my thread, they will bump naturally as they write their next review, no need to bump

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

8th July 2024 (actually 9th now oops)

Lamp - ゆめ (Yume)
Shibuya-Kei, Japanese, 2014


(Link to the rest of the album)

10/10

If you read my review of Parannoul - After the Rain, you'd remember that I was hesitant to give it a 9/10 because there was an album that was a 10/10 which was on a different level for me. This is that album.

Just give me one minute of your time. One minute. Turn up the volume as loud as you can without it being uncomfortable (be careful of loud sound jumpscare if you turn it up too high before the music starts), and listen to the first minute of the first song, the one above.

If that isn't the most orgasmic one minute of music ever then idk what is. And yeah that's how this album starts.

If you had asked me at any point in the past few years what my favourite album was, I would've said it was this. And even though I haven't listened to it in a while, after listening to it again today, yeah it's still my favourite album. Like if someone else made this thread looking for album recommendations, this is the album I would've sent first.

I honestly don't have too many words that I want to say to describe this album. One thing I noticed listening to it today was how throughout the album Lamp tries to change things up. First was their song structures. None of them felt like the common song structures we are used to today, most of the songs felt like they were constantly doing new things as the song went on, and even if the song were to go back to something it did previously it would put a fresh new spin on it. In this way, none of the songs got boring midway through. Either the whole song was interesting or the whole song was boring (none of the songs were boring). Another thing that they changed up a lot was the instrumentation. Every song had different instrumentation from the last, and pretty much all of them would blast you with a unique flavour of instruments immediately so your interest is immediately piqued.

Speaking of instrumentation, the ways the instruments played over each other all doing their own thing kinda reminded me of wowaka. There was that same, full feeling in the sound with everything going on at once. A good example of this was the third song ため息の行方. In the middle there's this instrumental section which mostly utilised physical classical instruments (strings, brass, woodwind, percussion instead of electronic sounds). There's like 15 different instruments, no two of them playing the same line, all flitting in and out all over the place. I also really liked how different instruments sounded like they were playing in different places (like how you can get sounds of your left/right headphone to make it sound like it's coming from a specific direction). It was really nice to help distinguish all different things happening, although I'm guessing this was probably just because of how the musicians were seated while recording this.

Ok I want to try and be negative about my favourite album now. Uhh I guess if I listen to too much Lamp everything gets kinda boring and samey? I mean there's 0 artists that I know of that could buck this trend, and the only album to buck this trend for me that I can think of was OK Computer. So yeah actually this isn't that negative when you compare it to how much more pronounced it was with Mezzanine for example. Uhhh I guess the names of all the songs being Japanese is kinda annoying because it makes it harder to distinuguish them? Uhhh my left earbud kept cutting out if I moved too much which was annoying. Oh I know, I guess the tracks maybe did feel a bit more randomly created and placed compared to other albums I've listened to in this thread? But then if you listen to other Lamp albums, you'll each album actually has their own unique carefully curated vibe to it. God I love Lamp.

What was the vibe of this album? It felt like it had a bossa nova influence. It kinda was like the vibe of a really chill cafe, but like really intense lmao.

Uhhh my favourite song, idk probably the first one? And my least favourite? None of them, I liked all of them. With other albums I can pick out favourites and least favourites, but with this I honestly can't.

Whenever I'm feeling down, I know this album is there for me to make me feel like the world is a good place.

Looks like I did have a lot of words to say. Goated album.

10/10

I really hope that I can find more 10/10 albums on this level, but I'm afraid that it might take a while. Right now, I can literally only think of one other album that I've listened to before which is also maybe a 10/10, although I'm not as sure it will be as this one was. Outside of that, the only album I've listened to in this thread that maybe has a chance is OK Computer, I really need to give the songs there another go.

I hope the album cover is ok for OT lol.

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

What do you guys think is the best way to categorise these albums into genres? Should I just give each album 1 or 2 main genres/categories as I've been doing now, or should I copy the genres/styles off of a website? I'm generally not too well versed in genres. I also feel like I could give Unhappy Refrain a more specific genre than J-Rock, but idk what.

Edit: I've thought about it and I think I'm just going to keep going off of what I feel.

Patatitta wrote:

btw I may steal your total counter for my thread

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

9th July 2024

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Hip-Hop, Rap, American, 2015


(Link to the rest of the album)

Rap has never really been my thing. As a genre of music, it kind of stands opposite to the things I enjoy about music, I feel. I like interesting sounds, I like strong melodies, I like things that make me feel certain ways, and rap doesn't really do any of this.

It's not that I dislike rap, it's just never been my thing. It's never really given me what I want out of music.

And this album was no different. I didn't really find any of the music particularly interesting, yeah it was cool but nothing particularly grabbed me and made me go whoa (outside of Wesley's Theory, that song was actually pretty epic now that I listen to it again).

However, what I was really enjoyed were reading the lyrics. What I've done with every English album so far was to look up the lyrics on Genius, and read along to them with the vocals. Doing that really enhanced the experience of this album, as I'm usually really bad at distinguishing what people are saying when there are other sounds happening.

I think it was around the song Institutionalised when I had an epiphany. What if I changed my perspective. Instead of listening to this as music, how about listening to this as poetry, musical poetry. Instead of listening to the sounds, I would listen in and take in the words, with the sounds adding to the experience. It was then when it felt like something really clicked.

Never thought I would do this for an album but spoiler warning I guess

As a work of literary art, out of all the albums I've listened to in this thread, To Pimp a Butterfly is probably the best. I've never seen a narrative done like this in a regular album. It felt like I wasn't listening to music but experiencing a straight up musical, with Lamar, his 46 different voices, and all the other vocalists as actors up on stage.

With the poem to Tupac as the framing device, each song detailing Lamar's thoughts and experiences, the negativity, the evil, and even the good. All leading up to the final track Mortal Man, where we learn of why Lamar wrote this album. To share his wisdom from his experiences and to send a message. Through tackling the social issues of the African American community, combing through and exploring each one, he ultimately says that everyone should be together to face greater injustices.

But even more, this felt like an extremely introspective, self reflective work about Lamar himself. Not only did this album feel like it was written to say what Lamar wanted to say, but to also deal with his own feelings and doubts, and to explore who he is as a person and what was his purpose. We see that the reason for the messages he tells the black youth listening is because he feels like he has a responsibility to do so as the next one up.

This is not something I come across often, but when someone's own life is expressed as well as this, it is one of the most incredible things.

Compared all of this, me not liking rap really feels like a really insignificant thing.

Yet sadly the music is the thing that holds the album back for me. As incredible as it was, I don't really want to listen to it again, and so it can't be a 9. It does feel a bit wrong to rate this album in this way, when I feel like it was trying to do something else.

8/10

(Also this album is downgrading Mezzanine to a 7 rip)

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

9th July 2024

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Hip-Hop, Rap, American, 2015


(Link to the rest of the album)

Rap has never really been my thing. As a genre of music, it kind of stands opposite to the things I enjoy about music, I feel. I like interesting sounds, I like strong melodies, I like things that make me feel certain ways, and rap doesn't really do any of this.

It's not that I dislike rap, it's just never been my thing. It's never really given me what I want out of music.

And this album was no different. I didn't really find any of the music particularly interesting, yeah it was cool but nothing particularly grabbed me and made me go whoa (outside of Wesley's Theory, that song was actually pretty epic now that I listen to it again).

However, what I was really enjoyed were reading the lyrics. What I've done with every English album so far was to look up the lyrics on Genius, and read along to them with the vocals. Doing that really enhanced the experience of this album, as I'm usually really bad at distinguishing what people are saying when there are other sounds happening.

I think it was around the song Institutionalised when I had an epiphany. What if I changed my perspective. Instead of listening to this as music, how about listening to this as poetry, musical poetry. Instead of listening to the sounds, I would listen in and take in the words, with the sounds adding to the experience. It was then when it felt like something really clicked.

Never thought I would do this for an album but spoiler warning I guess

As a work of literary art, out of all the albums I've listened to in this thread, To Pimp a Butterfly is probably the best. I've never seen a narrative done like this in a regular album. It felt like I wasn't listening to music but experiencing a straight up musical, with Lamar, his 46 different voices, and all the other vocalists as actors up on stage.

With the poem to Tupac as the framing device, each song detailing Lamar's thoughts and experiences, the negativity, the evil, and even the good. All leading up to the final track Mortal Man, where we learn of why Lamar wrote this album. To share his wisdom from his experiences and to send a message. Through tackling the social issues of the African American community, combing through and exploring each one, he ultimately says that everyone should be together to face greater injustices.

But even more, this felt like an extremely introspective, self reflective work about Lamar himself. Not only did this album feel like it was written to say what Lamar wanted to say, but to also deal with his own feelings and doubts, and to explore who he is as a person and what was his purpose. We see that the reason for the messages he tells the black youth listening is because he feels like he has a responsibility to do so as the next one up.

This is not something I come across often, but when someone's own life is expressed as well as this, it is one of the most incredible things.

Compared all of this, me not liking rap really feels like a really insignificant thing.

Yet sadly the music is the thing that holds the album back for me. As incredible as it was, I don't really want to listen to it again, and so it can't be a 9. It does feel a bit wrong to rate this album in this way, when I feel like it was trying to do something else.

8/10

(Also this album is downgrading Mezzanine to a 7 rip)

Lapizote wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

9th July 2024

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Hip-Hop, Rap, American, 2015


(Link to the rest of the album)

Rap has never really been my thing. As a genre of music, it kind of stands opposite to the things I enjoy about music, I feel. I like interesting sounds, I like strong melodies, I like things that make me feel certain ways, and rap doesn't really do any of this.

It's not that I dislike rap, it's just never been my thing. It's never really given me what I want out of music.

And this album was no different. I didn't really find any of the music particularly interesting, yeah it was cool but nothing particularly grabbed me and made me go whoa (outside of Wesley's Theory, that song was actually pretty epic now that I listen to it again).

However, what I was really enjoyed were reading the lyrics. What I've done with every English album so far was to look up the lyrics on Genius, and read along to them with the vocals. Doing that really enhanced the experience of this album, as I'm usually really bad at distinguishing what people are saying when there are other sounds happening.

I think it was around the song Institutionalised when I had an epiphany. What if I changed my perspective. Instead of listening to this as music, how about listening to this as poetry, musical poetry. Instead of listening to the sounds, I would listen in and take in the words, with the sounds adding to the experience. It was then when it felt like something really clicked.

Never thought I would do this for an album but spoiler warning I guess

As a work of literary art, out of all the albums I've listened to in this thread, To Pimp a Butterfly is probably the best. I've never seen a narrative done like this in a regular album. It felt like I wasn't listening to music but experiencing a straight up musical, with Lamar, his 46 different voices, and all the other vocalists as actors up on stage.

With the poem to Tupac as the framing device, each song detailing Lamar's thoughts and experiences, the negativity, the evil, and even the good. All leading up to the final track Mortal Man, where we learn of why Lamar wrote this album. To share his wisdom from his experiences and to send a message. Through tackling the social issues of the African American community, combing through and exploring each one, he ultimately says that everyone should be together to face greater injustices.

But even more, this felt like an extremely introspective, self reflective work about Lamar himself. Not only did this album feel like it was written to say what Lamar wanted to say, but to also deal with his own feelings and doubts, and to explore who he is as a person and what was his purpose. We see that the reason for the messages he tells the black youth listening is because he feels like he has a responsibility to do so as the next one up.

This is not something I come across often, but when someone's own life is expressed as well as this, it is one of the most incredible things.

Compared all of this, me not liking rap really feels like a really insignificant thing.

Yet sadly the music is the thing that holds the album back for me. As incredible as it was, I don't really want to listen to it again, and so it can't be a 9. It does feel a bit wrong to rate this album in this way, when I feel like it was trying to do something else.

8/10

(Also this album is downgrading Mezzanine to a 7 rip)

considering your gripes about rap and hip hop, i'd like to suggest a post-Graduation Kanye album

either My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Life of Pablo, or Yeezus (the latter is cool if you like "aggressive and noisy" music)

ye also works if you want a shorter album

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Lapizote wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

9th July 2024

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Hip-Hop, Rap, American, 2015


(Link to the rest of the album)

Rap has never really been my thing. As a genre of music, it kind of stands opposite to the things I enjoy about music, I feel. I like interesting sounds, I like strong melodies, I like things that make me feel certain ways, and rap doesn't really do any of this.

It's not that I dislike rap, it's just never been my thing. It's never really given me what I want out of music.

And this album was no different. I didn't really find any of the music particularly interesting, yeah it was cool but nothing particularly grabbed me and made me go whoa (outside of Wesley's Theory, that song was actually pretty epic now that I listen to it again).

However, what I was really enjoyed were reading the lyrics. What I've done with every English album so far was to look up the lyrics on Genius, and read along to them with the vocals. Doing that really enhanced the experience of this album, as I'm usually really bad at distinguishing what people are saying when there are other sounds happening.

I think it was around the song Institutionalised when I had an epiphany. What if I changed my perspective. Instead of listening to this as music, how about listening to this as poetry, musical poetry. Instead of listening to the sounds, I would listen in and take in the words, with the sounds adding to the experience. It was then when it felt like something really clicked.

Never thought I would do this for an album but spoiler warning I guess

As a work of literary art, out of all the albums I've listened to in this thread, To Pimp a Butterfly is probably the best. I've never seen a narrative done like this in a regular album. It felt like I wasn't listening to music but experiencing a straight up musical, with Lamar, his 46 different voices, and all the other vocalists as actors up on stage.

With the poem to Tupac as the framing device, each song detailing Lamar's thoughts and experiences, the negativity, the evil, and even the good. All leading up to the final track Mortal Man, where we learn of why Lamar wrote this album. To share his wisdom from his experiences and to send a message. Through tackling the social issues of the African American community, combing through and exploring each one, he ultimately says that everyone should be together to face greater injustices.

But even more, this felt like an extremely introspective, self reflective work about Lamar himself. Not only did this album feel like it was written to say what Lamar wanted to say, but to also deal with his own feelings and doubts, and to explore who he is as a person and what was his purpose. We see that the reason for the messages he tells the black youth listening is because he feels like he has a responsibility to do so as the next one up.

This is not something I come across often, but when someone's own life is expressed as well as this, it is one of the most incredible things.

Compared all of this, me not liking rap really feels like a really insignificant thing.

Yet sadly the music is the thing that holds the album back for me. As incredible as it was, I don't really want to listen to it again, and so it can't be a 9. It does feel a bit wrong to rate this album in this way, when I feel like it was trying to do something else.

8/10

(Also this album is downgrading Mezzanine to a 7 rip)

considering your gripes about rap and hip hop, i'd like to suggest a post-Graduation Kanye album

either My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Life of Pablo, or Yeezus (the latter is cool if you like "aggressive and noisy" music)

ye also works if you want a shorter album

Ok I'll listen to the first one, unless you want me to listen to all 3

cr0w wrote:

aough this is a such a good thread I can’t wait for the 4-6 you put on Small Steps Heavy Hooves RAAAAAAH

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

yes!! You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

yes!! You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

idk what that means but yay

sametdze wrote:

wasnt it long haired slick back white t shirt or something

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

yes!! You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

idk what that means but yay

And I got that red lip classic thing that you like

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

yes!! You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

idk what that means but yay

And I got that red lip classic thing that you like

Omg i get it it's the lyrics to my favourite Taylor Swift song!!!! How tf did I not realise

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

yes!! You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

idk what that means but yay

And I got that red lip classic thing that you like

Omg i get it it's the lyrics to my favourite Taylor Swift song!!!! How tf did I not realise

there's 3 swifies here now, same you and me

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Scyla wrote:

omg swiftie here!

am I a swiftie now

yes!! You got that James Dean daydream look in your eye

idk what that means but yay

And I got that red lip classic thing that you like

Omg i get it it's the lyrics to my favourite Taylor Swift song!!!! How tf did I not realise

there's 3 swifies here now, same you and me

we will create an army

Aireunaeus wrote:

Tf why is my song in the list lol 😭😭

sametdze wrote:

review this album

cr0w wrote:

SOMEHOW YOU BECOME MORE AND MORE HUMAN. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

cr0w wrote:

SOMEHOW YOU BECOME MORE AND MORE HUMAN. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

What does this mean

Was I not human before

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

11th July 2024

Green Day - American Idiot
Punk Rock, American, 2004


(Link to the rest of the album. These videos aren't official but for some reason this is the only one that has all of the tracks, in the right order, without the random extra stuff that happens in the music videos, that is also not the deluxe edition, so yeah this is somehow the best playlist for this album on Youtube I could find.)

The music wasn't fully to my taste, but I overall had a good time with the album.

On one hand a lot of the music sounded pretty similar outside of a few moments because the instrumentation/vocals pretty much always sounded the same and was utilised in the same straightforward ways, but on the other I also appreciated how at certain moments the music really captured the vibe behind the lyrics. A good example of this was the song Give Me Novacaine, where the music during the verse felt like a pleasant, drugged state while the music during the chorus felt like it was expressing the undrugged feelings that made the protagonist want to take drugs in the first place.

I say protagonist because this album has a narrative. After an opening which sets the stage for the album with the concept of the "American Idiot", we meet our protagonist "Jesus of Suburbia", a representation of the disillusioned American youth during the time the album was made. Yeah more stuff happens but I don't really feel like going through and summarising the entirety of it. I guess a spoiler warning for the story of this album because I will mention some more stuff, but honestly I don't think knowing spoilers will really change much because the story wasn't that interesting honestly.

I think the most interesting aspect of this album is it's edgy cultural criticism of America. It kinda feels like the "America bad" type of vibe you read on the internet from young people but from 2004 with the punk style of the rebellious youth back then. In this way it feels like a pretty cool time capsule of the culture back then. I also read that this album was also culturally massive, but I don't really get much from that being being too young and also not American.

However, even though this album started off as edgy and that was pretty cool, the later parts of the story mellow out and loses it's punk edge for me. Maybe that was the point of the album, at the end they do say the protagonist became the "American Idiot" they were so against at the start of the album, and maybe that's just the progression of life, but this made album a lot less interesting/entertaining for me. Overall if you look at the narrative in isolation from the music, I don't think it's very compelling or good. Or maybe I just give 0 shits about romance in music.

Funnily there's also this one song in the album Wake Me Up When September Ends which is just a random song they put into the album with 0 relevance to the rest of the album. It does fit in though, and you can interpret it as a breakup song as part of the story. But it's also maybe my favourite song?

I also really liked Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I felt like those were the two standouts musically. This probably also has to do with these two songs being the ones I was familiar with before listening to the album, but them being the two of the most popular songs is probably due to these being the most standout ones.

In the end, I do see the appeal of this album and why so many people like it, but I personally didn't like it that much.

I feel like my review/thoughts on the album this time were pretty negative, but I did still enjoy the album, just not to a massive degree, nor did it leave a strong impression.

6/10

NicNock wrote:

you choose

you can actually do both i just wanted to put this somewhere

sametdze wrote:

wait wtf the black pencil song actually counts as one

ClevelandsMyBro wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

11th July 2024

Green Day - American Idiot
Punk Rock, American, 2004


(Link to the rest of the album. These videos aren't official but for some reason this is the only one that has all of the tracks, in the right order, without the random extra stuff that happens in the music videos, that is also not the deluxe edition, so yeah this is somehow the best playlist for this album on Youtube I could find.)

The music wasn't fully to my taste, but I overall had a good time with the album.

On one hand a lot of the music sounded pretty similar outside of a few moments because the instrumentation/vocals pretty much always sounded the same and was utilised in the same straightforward ways, but on the other I also appreciated how at certain moments the music really captured the vibe behind the lyrics. A good example of this was the song Give Me Novacaine, where the music during the verse felt like a pleasant, drugged state while the music during the chorus felt like it was expressing the undrugged feelings that made the protagonist want to take drugs in the first place.

I say protagonist because this album has a narrative. After an opening which sets the stage for the album with the concept of the "American Idiot", we meet our protagonist "Jesus of Suburbia", a representation of the disillusioned American youth during the time the album was made. Yeah more stuff happens but I don't really feel like going through and summarising the entirety of it. I guess a spoiler warning for the story of this album because I will mention some more stuff, but honestly I don't think knowing spoilers will really change much because the story wasn't that interesting honestly.

I think the most interesting aspect of this album is it's edgy cultural criticism of America. It kinda feels like the "America bad" type of vibe you read on the internet from young people but from 2004 with the punk style of the rebellious youth back then. In this way it feels like a pretty cool time capsule of the culture back then. I also read that this album was also culturally massive, but I don't really get much from that being being too young and also not American.

However, even though this album started off as edgy and that was pretty cool, the later parts of the story mellow out and loses it's punk edge for me. Maybe that was the point of the album, at the end they do say the protagonist became the "American Idiot" they were so against at the start of the album, and maybe that's just the progression of life, but this made album a lot less interesting/entertaining for me. Overall if you look at the narrative in isolation from the music, I don't think it's very compelling or good. Or maybe I just give 0 shits about romance in music.

Funnily there's also this one song in the album Wake Me Up When September Ends which is just a random song they put into the album with 0 relevance to the rest of the album. It does fit in though, and you can interpret it as a breakup song as part of the story. But it's also maybe my favourite song?

I also really liked Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I felt like those were the two standouts musically. This probably also has to do with these two songs being the ones I was familiar with before listening to the album, but them being the two of the most popular songs is probably due to these being the most standout ones.

In the end, I do see the appeal of this album and why so many people like it, but I personally didn't like it that much.

I feel like my review/thoughts on the album this time were pretty negative, but I did still enjoy the album, just not to a massive degree, nor did it leave a strong impression.

6/10

giving 6/10 to green day is kinda generous lol

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

NicNock wrote:

you choose

you can actually do both i just wanted to put this somewhere

I think this is broken but I'll choose the first one I guess

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

13th July 2024

Three Days Grace - One-X
Alt-Metal, Canadian, 2006


(Link to the rest of the album)

I don't really have much to say about this album, it didn't leave much of an impression on me nor did I find it very interesting.

I find it quite strange that I'm a big fan of the more fast paced styles of metal that are popular on osu, but not stuff like this. Not too sure why, but metal in this style really doesn't do anything for me.

I feel like I can draw quite a few parallels with what I thought about the Taylor Swift album and this album, except it's metal and the lyrics are generic edgy lyrics instead of generic relationship lyrics. Lyrics really didn't do anything for me either, maybe I'm just not depressed enough to really feel this type of music.

I thought the last part of the last song was cool, it was really empowering and uplifting which was an amazing way to end such an edgy album.

I don't really have a favourite song, nor a least favourite song.

I did headbang through some of it though.

5/10

xch00F wrote:

ClevelandsMyBro wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

11th July 2024

Green Day - American Idiot
Punk Rock, American, 2004

(Link to the rest of the album. These videos aren't official but for some reason this is the only one that has all of the tracks, in the right order, without the random extra stuff that happens in the music videos, that is also not the deluxe edition, so yeah this is somehow the best playlist for this album on Youtube I could find.)

The music wasn't fully to my taste, but I overall had a good time with the album.

On one hand a lot of the music sounded pretty similar outside of a few moments because the instrumentation/vocals pretty much always sounded the same and was utilised in the same straightforward ways, but on the other I also appreciated how at certain moments the music really captured the vibe behind the lyrics. A good example of this was the song Give Me Novacaine, where the music during the verse felt like a pleasant, drugged state while the music during the chorus felt like it was expressing the undrugged feelings that made the protagonist want to take drugs in the first place.

I say protagonist because this album has a narrative. After an opening which sets the stage for the album with the concept of the "American Idiot", we meet our protagonist "Jesus of Suburbia", a representation of the disillusioned American youth during the time the album was made. Yeah more stuff happens but I don't really feel like going through and summarising the entirety of it. I guess a spoiler warning for the story of this album because I will mention some more stuff, but honestly I don't think knowing spoilers will really change much because the story wasn't that interesting honestly.

I think the most interesting aspect of this album is it's edgy cultural criticism of America. It kinda feels like the "America bad" type of vibe you read on the internet from young people but from 2004 with the punk style of the rebellious youth back then. In this way it feels like a pretty cool time capsule of the culture back then. I also read that this album was also culturally massive, but I don't really get much from that being being too young and also not American.

However, even though this album started off as edgy and that was pretty cool, the later parts of the story mellow out and loses it's punk edge for me. Maybe that was the point of the album, at the end they do say the protagonist became the "American Idiot" they were so against at the start of the album, and maybe that's just the progression of life, but this made album a lot less interesting/entertaining for me. Overall if you look at the narrative in isolation from the music, I don't think it's very compelling or good. Or maybe I just give 0 shits about romance in music.

Funnily there's also this one song in the album Wake Me Up When September Ends which is just a random song they put into the album with 0 relevance to the rest of the album. It does fit in though, and you can interpret it as a breakup song as part of the story. But it's also maybe my favourite song?

I also really liked Boulevard of Broken Dreams, I felt like those were the two standouts musically. This probably also has to do with these two songs being the ones I was familiar with before listening to the album, but them being the two of the most popular songs is probably due to these being the most standout ones.

In the end, I do see the appeal of this album and why so many people like it, but I personally didn't like it that much.

I feel like my review/thoughts on the album this time were pretty negative, but I did still enjoy the album, just not to a massive degree, nor did it leave a strong impression.

6/10

giving 6/10 to green day is kinda generous lol

american idiot is also their best, if any album of theirs warrants a mid score it's that one

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Do any of you guys read these, or do you just skip to the rating after giving the first song a brief listen?

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Do any of you guys read these, or do you just skip to the rating after giving the first song a brief listen?

lmao 😭

This isn't gonna stop me from writing essays though

xch00F wrote:

ClevelandsMyBro wrote:

giving 6/10 to green day is kinda generous lol

american idiot is also their best, if any album of theirs warrants a mid score it's that one

Karmine wrote:

I assumed OSTs don't count because they aren't really albums. Also most of them are way longer than an album and sometimes include jingles that aren't really meant to be listened to.

There are some games that have albums with game music that isn't the complete OST though, like Ar Tonelico.

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

100th post

Karmine wrote:

I assumed OSTs don't count because they aren't really albums. Also most of them are way longer than an album and sometimes include jingles that aren't really meant to be listened to.

There are some games that have albums with game music that isn't the complete OST though, like Ar Tonelico.

Would you say that an OST with a CD release counts as an album if I listen to the tracks on the CD in the order they are on the CD?

Edit: +200 views now, am I tripping? Hello who are you people?

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

15th July 2024

Dear and the Headlights - Small Steps, Heavy Hooves
Indie Rock, American, 2007


(Link to the rest of the album)

I don't have much to say about this album, it was delightful to listen to.

One thing that really stands out is how modern this album sounds. I'm no indie rock connoisseur so maybe this style of music and these sounds dates way back, but this sounds like it was made in the last 5-10 years maybe, not 2007, it's kinda crazy. Maybe this is a testament to how Dear and the Headlights were truly onto something back in the day.

Another thing that I noticed was it felt very raw and rough around the edges. There were quite a few moments where I felt things sounded awkward, kinda like an inexperienced songwriter was being experimental, but this lended itself really well to the overall rough, "indie" vibe. And it's not like this was the entire album, they had even more pretty cool moments.

Didn't really have a favourite song nor a least favourite song or anything, maybe if I listen to the songs more I'll end up with some but idk if this is something I'll listen to often.

7/10

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Btw what do you guys think about OSTs? Do they count as albums?

If they've been released as a disc or something, should I listen to the songs in that order?

What if the OST spans multiple disks, do I do them separately or all at once?

Karmine wrote:

Ar Tonelico.

Karmine wrote:

Idk, some OSTs are released on multiple CDs so would you only listen to one or all of them? Only one wouldn't make a lot of sense and 4 is a lot imo.
For example FFXIII series OSTs are on 4 CDs each and total 4-5 hours, FFXV is just as long but released on a single CD (they used blu-ray lol).

In the end it's really up to you whether you want to go through that or not lol, it doesn't really matter if they're albums.

xch00F wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Btw what do you guys think about OSTs? Do they count as albums?

it depends entirely on what you're looking for in an album imo. if you're talking about an album as a collection of tracks that may or may not be entirely related, then 100% yes they do. a lot of non-soundtrack music is like this as well, particularly within electronic music. would you consider a hardcore tano*c compilation to be an album? I definitely would.
if you're talking about an album as a collection of songs with an overarching theme, ordered in such a way that tells a kind of sonic story, that gives you an "album experience," then probably not? that's not to say this makes them any less artistic though. some idiots online will try to tell you that video game soundtracks are not "real music" and they are objectively wrong. soundtracks (at least original scores) are written with another artistic medium in mind, and it's difficult to divorce them from that context, if that was when you heard the soundtrack for the first time. sometimes you're listening to the soundtrack because the game was so good.

when it comes to threads like this though where you want to talk at length about the music you listen to, don't make that distinction, they're all albums lol. it's way too limiting and people talking about the art they like/dislike is always a good thing. this is a rly interesting topic to make wall posts about on the internet but it's also a topic for another thread

If they've been released as a disc or something, should I listen to the songs in that order?

in order would be the easiest, they're usually ordered on the album in roughly the same way they show up in the game. I have the skies of arcadia soundtrack on cd and it's like this, with battle music and fanfares kinda interspersed throughout randomly.

What if the OST spans multiple disks, do I do them separately or all at once?

that one's up to you bub lol some soundtracks are massive, especially rpg soundtracks. nier automata's soundtrack is incredible but it's also like 3.5 hours long, not including hacking tracks

xch00F wrote:

if you're talking about an album as a collection of songs with an overarching theme, ordered in such a way that tells a kind of sonic story, that gives you an "album experience," then probably not?

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

I kinda disagree with this bit though:

xch00F wrote:

if you're talking about an album as a collection of songs with an overarching theme, ordered in such a way that tells a kind of sonic story, that gives you an "album experience," then probably not?

I personally find that with OSTs being tied directly to another piece of media, listening to them can really bring up feelings and experiences tied with that media, which the music itself plays no small part in creating in the first place. Especially with story game OSTs, with them being in chronological order it's almost like experiencing the game again but musically, which is a lot more than what I find some more conventional albums do for me. Maybe it's unfair to compare OSTs to standalone albums in this way because the standalone albums don't have the privilege of a supplemental piece of media attached to them though, but I don't think fairness really matters when talking about music in this way.

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Even though this is just videogame music, I feel like you could show this album to someone who has never played Minecraft but is a music enthusiast, and they'd enjoy the album. Yet, it is the experience of Minecraft that I think makes this album so special. And again, that Minecraft experience has a lot to do with the music on this album.

Patatitta wrote:

read title, "vocaloid shoegaze gotta be one of my favourite things fr"

I thought to myself, this must be a 10 then

see review

8/10

Patatitta wrote:

read title, "vocaloid shoegaze gotta be one of my favourite things fr"

I thought to myself, this must be a 10 then

see review

8/10