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DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
14th July 2024

Parannoul - To See the Next Part of the Dream
Shoegaze, South Korean, 2021


Funnily enough, this is not only the first time I'm listening to an artist for the second time in this thread, but the first time I'm listening to an album which is the same genre as an album I've previously listened to in this thread.

The take from my very first review in this thread still stands, I think After The Magic is better.

Interestingly, another take which still stands is what I wrote about this album in another thread months back when I first listened to it. Here it is:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

파란노을 (Parannoul) - To See the Next Part of the Dream

8/10

Really cool shoegaze album, brings you to that place where good shoegaze brings you to. A lot of it sounds kinda samey, but it comes together very cohesively. The drum solo in Youth Rebellion is crazy. Does the funny shoegaze vocal thing where he sounds like he's singing karaoke with a bunch of effects layered on top. My favourite songs are probably Beautiful World and Analog Sentimentalism. Overall 8/10 I enjoyed gazing at my shoe
Do I need to say more?

Damn, past me was super brief with these review/thought things, I feel like every time a write something for an album I have to write an entire essay, when I could just do this lol. Do any of you guys read these, or do you just skip to the rating after giving the first song a brief listen? I'd personally just skip to the rating lmao.

I do have a few more things to add though. First, since then I've listened to this album many times, particularly during a period when I was in Korea. Interestingly, I don't think this effected my listening experience much outside of the massive blast of nostalgia that is Beautiful World, by far my favourite track on the album.

I feel another thing that contributed to past listening experiences not really effecting my listening experience much this time around was that outside of Beautiful World with its amazing guitar tone and catchy melodies, none of the songs are really that memorable. They kinda all blend together into a massive wave of loud guitar sounds.

Yet, somehow this album manages to never feel boring. Not really sure how, maybe it's more to do with the fact that I really like this style of music rather than anything the album does, idk.

Another thing I wanted to talk a bit more about were the vocals. They're probably my least favourite part of this album. Sometimes they feel jarring, especially when the instrumentals that feel so well tuned and perfectly mixed clash with the out of tune singing that you can sometimes barely make out. And a big reason I can be so harsh on the vocals here is because they're done so much better in After the Magic. I have 0 complaints about them there, while upping the production value of their albums Parannoul also upped the production value of their vocals which is very cool.

Enough hating, back to glazing. I genuinely really like this album. It's an album where you can just sit back and lose yourself in the sounds as this album takes you through a ride through it's dreamlike atmosphere. Finishing this album even felt like waking up from a dream, the silence after the album being harsh and disorientating, because of the place this album transports you to.

Also yeah the rating hasn't changed either.

8/10
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Winnyace
760 posts
Joined June 2016
Winnyace
yo, listen to Lupe Fiasco's Samurai. It's jazz hip hop.

Here's my favorite track from the album:
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

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
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
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
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Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

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
I read the ones for the albums/artists I know, which is less than half of them. :D
ClevelandsMyBro
858 posts
Joined April 2018
ClevelandsMyBro

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
really? i like the raw-er sounds on dookie more tho but maybe thats just me
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
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? I'm asking this because OSTs, particularly video game OSTs, have been a huge part of what music I listen to, and I want to acknowledge them here. If they don't count as albums I'll probably still listen to them for this thread but not treat them as an album.

Also how have the views on this thread increased by like 100 over the past 3 hours? Are Dear and the Headlights that popular?
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Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine
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
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
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?
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lostsilver
3,723 posts
Joined November 2022
lostsilver
hmmmm.......
maybe do metallica's self titled album?
and uhhhm.... alsoo.. paranore's riot! album
sorry if i'm bombarding you :<
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Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

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?
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.
IAMACROBA
342 posts
Joined January 2023
IAMACROBA

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
valid, thank you for listening :3
DeletedUser_2024727
DeletedUser_2024727

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

Karmine wrote:

Ar Tonelico.
I haven't played any of the ar tonelicos but have listened to bits of the soundtracks (mostly due to playing charts for it lmao) and there's some wild shit on it. highly recommended
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DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

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
I was planning to listen to them on this thread anyway, I was just wondering if I should count them as albums or count them separately. I think what I'll do is if it has some sort of official release, like as a disc or on a streaming service like spotify, I'll count them as albums and listen to the tracks in that order. For the multiple discs thing, if it's all part of the same packaged but split into multiple discs (like the Undertale ost) I'll treat it as one long album, but if the discs are treated as separate releases (like the Minecraft ost) I'll treat them as separate albums. For the thing about length, idk what I'll do. I wanted to give the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 soundtrack a proper listen because I've listened to it so much as background study music, but it's 7 hours long lmao. The Undertale soundtrack at 2 hours long sounds a lot more doable though.


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.
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine
Fair, I guess I'll suggest some OSTs later. :)

If you do them anyway might as well count them as albums like the rest, it would be kinda weird to have them separated.
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nominomu
706 posts
Joined June 2022
nominomu
i'll put my two favourite albums i guess :3
Synthion - Fairy Tale
kessoku band - kessoku band
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
16th July 2024

C418 - Minecraft - Volume Alpha
Ambient, Videogame Soundtrack, German, 2011


(Link to the rest of the album. If you don't want the cuts between each individual track, there are full album videos you can find, but no official ones to my knowledge.)

After the discussions on soundtracks that we've had on this thread, I chose to listen to this one in particular because of how iconic and conventionally album-like it is.

This is probably the first time I've ever listened to an entire soundtrack album while giving it my full attention. This is also probably the first time I've listened to an ambient music album, which is a style far from the albums that I've listened to that contain more conventional songs.

However, even though there were a lot of new things and a lot of unfamiliarity about this experience, what trumped everything was that these sounds might be the most familiar out of all the sounds I've listened to in this thread, not just for me but probably a majority of you reading this.

Maybe it's unfair to talk about an album while taking into account that it's connected to a larger piece of media and so in a way feeds off of it, while other albums have to stand on their own two feet. However, I don't like looking at things in this way. I think it's better to acknowledge that art isn't a standalone thing, it's often intertwined with many other things, like how for me the albums I listen to are primarily for the purpose of continuing this thread. And I think this is something we should celebrate and fully appreciate, not take away to try and level the playing field. So yeah I'm gonna talk a fuckton about Minecraft.

Minecraft for me is a game deeply ingrained in my psyche, for the lack of a better word. It's a game that I grew up around. I used to voraciously consume Minecraft youtube videos and still enjoy them to this day, and I also really enjoyed playing survival. One thing I didn't do a lot of was play multiplayer, but this wasn't just a Minecraft thing, I barely ever played videogames with my friends outside of Smash Bros. And I think this connection I have with Minecraft is not something that's unique to me, but something that many people from my generation and beyond share, many of them to an even greater degree that I do.

And I think this also goes the other way. It's not just that everyone played Minecraft and developed a special connection to it, but also that Minecraft was a game that was capable of forming these special connections. The atmosphere and vibe Minecraft creates, especially with it's single-player experience, feels special and unmatched with other games I've played. The feelings of serenity, freedom, peace, and loneliness that makes up the vast, green, blocky world. And I think this is in no small part due to the brilliant music.

For me and probably a lot of people, what stands out the most about this album is how nostalgic it is. You scroll through the comments of any track, and there are countless comments of people commenting this exact thing. But is it really just because we listened to these tracks a lot in our childhood and had experiences attached to them? I played tonnes of games during my childhood, some more than Minecraft, and yet it's only Minecraft, alongside Pokemon that have this magical, nostalgic feeling. I think there's something about this music, something that elicits these strong feelings of nostalgia.

Maybe I'm speaking out of my ass, but I think this is because of the nature of the music. Ambient music is not something which you groove to, relate to the lyrics, or feel intense emotions. Instead, I feel what ambient music tries to do is to explore softer feelings, without any other musical things and distractions in the way. Especially this album, which has many tracks that elicit a warm, comforting, calm feeling. And I think it is because of this warmness, as well as just the unique iconicness (apparently I just made up this word) of the music, the album is able to feel so nostalgic.

One thing that was kind of a question mark going into to this album was that this wasn't music intended to be listened to by itself, but as background ambience to complement a game. Then, how well would this work as a standalone album? Well, a lot better than I expected. You can tell that this isn't just the Minecraft OST slapped onto a CD, there was great effort in crafting this album.

First, the ordering of the tracks feels really good. Most notably I feel like the first two tracks serve as a great introduction to the album. The first track, Key, is soft and dreamlike with the underwater sounding instrumentals. After that, the second track, Door, sharpens the sounds, and feels like waking up, into the world of Minecraft where the possibilities are endless. The second track also introduces the main Minecraft leitmotif, which sets the table for the rest of the album. I can't really say the same thing about the ending of the album though, the last two tracks felt kinda random and haphazardly thrown in to me.

Second, the tracks are arranged so that often one track will flow straight into another. This effect is lessened by the hard cut between the tracks in the Youtube playlist, but you can still tell that there are many tracks which flow directly into each other. These smooth transitions serve as glue to really up the cohesiveness of the album, into one continuous experience instead of just a collection of tracks from a game.

Third, there is a surprising inclusion of many tracks that aren't present in the base game. Maybe they were rejects for whatever reason, but they don't feel out of place in this album at all, but as integral parts of this album. And then there's tracks like Door and Death, tracks that I'm not too sure were even intended to be in the game, but feel like they were tailer made for this album and perfectly capture the essence of Minecraft despite not even appearing in the game. Were these tracks really made just to be in this album? If so, they really show how much care was put into crafting this album.

And yet you can still hear how these tracks were made to be played in-game. Many of them start off quiet, slowly fading into existence, then become loud and full, before fading off again. In-game this allows the tracks to seamlessly flit in and out of existence without clashing with the silence which comes before and after, while effectively changing up and establishing the atmosphere of the game. And in the context of the album, this leads to a pleasant series of peaks and troughs as you listen to the music.

My favourite example of this was the track Dry Hands. It starts off with the piano kind of sporadic, like it's trying to play the song but isn't quiet able to. And then suddenly, the song comes together. I imagine it kind of like a bunch of waves. At the start, the waves are random and disorganised, in their natural state, no different from the background sounds of nature. And then, suddenly, they all harmonize into a single song for a brief magical moment, before drifting apart once again. It's truly beautiful.

The next track, Wet Hands, is probably my favourite track in the album. I feel like it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of playing single player Minecraft. It's just a single, lonely piano part, like the single, lonely character that you control. It plays a melancholy, yet hopeful and warm tune. Even with how vast the world of Minecraft is, the single piano makes it feel small and warm, which effectively makes it leave the scope of the game, and instead represent the comfy, snug feeling of being in your room, on your computer, playing Minecraft, instead of the in-game world.

And not every track has the same comfy, nostalgic ambient music though. There's actually quite a lot of variety in the tracks, with Thirteen being a personal standout, exploring how Minecraft can also be scary and intimidating when you are lost in a claustrophobic, dark cave with monsters around every corner. Cat and Dog were also standouts in this regard. I thought they would be jarring compared to the rest of the album because I knew they weren't ambient background tracks but music disk tracks meant to be brought to the forefront, but no, they're fucking bangers, and they don't feel out of place at all.

I was honestly worried that a full album of ambient background music would be boring, but this may have been the fastest an hour long album has come and gone for me.

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.

Truly an album of all time.

9/10

1535 words jesus christ I think this is my longest one yet.
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DeletedUser_2024727
DeletedUser_2024727

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.
I agree with you that osts can bring up feelings and experiences tied with that media, but that's kind of my point when making the distinction between osts and music created on its own. if you listen to a soundtrack after enjoying that game, your experience with that soundtrack is pretty much inextricably linked with your experience with the game. I would expect that most people who listen to soundtracks, particularly video game soundtracks, are listening to them after playing the game. the context of the music is informed, in part, by how it's used in the game. the forest temple theme from ocarina of time is fucking incredible and gives me goosebumps every time I hear it, but it will never make me feel anything other than what it felt like stepping into the forest temple for the first time playing it on the n64 as a kid.

I feel most soundtracks are like this, especially when we're talking about rpgs, even if the physical release is ordered in the same way the music shows up in game. the undertale soundtrack is great, but imagine you've never played it. would you get the intended experience of that music just by listening to the soundtrack? almost cerainly not. most of the songs are super short, mostly because they're motifs to be looped in game. if you look at the play counts on spotify, it's pretty clear that people aren't listening to the soundtrack from front to back, they're listening to specific songs, their favorites from the game. and I think that if anyone said they've listened to the undertale soundtrack but didn't play the game, people would call them crazy and tell them they need to play it lol.

there are certainly soundtracks that stand on their own though, don't get me wrong. two of my favorites are the tetrisphere and new tetris soundtracks by neil voss. I've never played either game, probably never will, but the soundtracks unironically have some of the best idm/breakbeat tracks from the late 90s. the minecraft soundtrack is another good example, the game's so open that any context provided to the music from the game is going to be pretty blurry. another really cool quality about it is that it's so heavily influenced by one specific artist. it's hard to recommend music to someone whose favorite song is something like one winged angel without just recommending boss themes from other video games, but if you like the minecraft soundtrack, you really, really, need to listen to music for airports by brian eno.

at the end of the day tho this doesn't really matter since it's all art and your own enjoyment and interpretation of said art is the only thing that does matter. personally if you ask me for my top 10 albums of all time, soundtracks won't be on that list. but if you ask about my top 10 songs of all time, that's a different story.

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.
lmao honestly when I talk to people about ambient music I'll usually recommend the minecraft soundtrack if I can
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Farfocele
1,072 posts
Joined April 2020
Farfocele
listen to Celeste's OST
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
17th July 2024

moff-P - High Collar Record
Shoegaze, J-Rock, Vocaloid, Japanese, 2012


(Link to the rest of the album. No clue if this is an official upload or not, it's probably not.)

Not much to say about this album, I was just enjoying myself and vibing along with it.

Interestingly, this is probably the most unknown thing I've listened to on this thread so far. The song with the most views in this album playlist was flashback, 0217, and that's probably mostly it's on Mikgazer.

The variety on the album was pretty cool.

My favourite tracks were probably Water room, Water moon (the 6th track) and それでも僕は歌を唄う (the 7th track).

Vocaloid shoegaze gotta be one of my favourite things fr fr

8/10
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Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta
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
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

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
👍
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

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
Last edited by Karmine , edited 1 time in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
18th July 2024

Radiohead - Pablo Honey
Grunge, Alt-Rock, British, 1993


(Link to the rest of the album)

After OK Computer, I've decided listen to a bunch more Radiohead albums. And I thought that if I were going to end up listening to all of them, why not go in chronological order. So this is Radiohead's first studio album, Pablo Honey.

It was interesting to see how different this was compared to OK Computer. Compared to whatever they were doing in OK Computer, this album feels a lot more straightforward and conventional. I was kinda taken aback at how straightforward and cheery/energetic some of these songs were lol. Like did these guys really go on to make OK Computer? That's some crazy character development.

I honestly didn't enjoy this album as much as OK Computer. While OK Computer feels like a really special album, this one was just enjoyable to listen to, but nothing special. Outside of the first two and last two tracks which I really liked, I honestly didn't feel much for the rest of the tracks.

Uhh I honestly don't have much more to say, expect more Radiohead albums in the future I guess.

7/10

I'm actually so hyped for Camellia tomorrow
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 3 times in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
Didn't get to finish the camellia album today, I really want to watch Akolibed's stream now

EPic album thoguh
ClevelandsMyBro
858 posts
Joined April 2018
ClevelandsMyBro

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

I really want to watch Akolibed's stream now
i've sat here trying to log on to my twitch account for the past hour because the 2fa code wont send to my phone and apparently they use authy or whatever the fuck so now i made a new authy account but apparently twitch already made one for you which i dont even know about and now im sat here hearing hitsounds and occasional russian mumbling in the background not knowing what to do.
MangaGrumpy
344 posts
Joined May 2022
MangaGrumpy
i put in Gorillaz - Gorillaz (2001)
Corne2Plum3
Global Moderator
1,830 posts
Joined November 2019
Corne2Plum3

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Didn't get to finish the camellia album today, I really want to watch Akolibed's stream now

EPic album thoguh
+2 pp
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
19th July 2024 (20th now because of Akolibed)

Camellia - U.U.F.O.
Hardcore, Japanese, 2021



(This was literally me for 2 whole hours split into two sessions, I'm surprised I don't have a headache)

Holy moly

As many of you probably have, I found Camellia through osu, and have enjoyed many of their songs to the point I will occasionally seek them out to listen to them. However, this was the first time I've ever listened to a full Camellia album.

At two hours long, this is by far the longest album I've listened to on this thread, the rest all being around one hours long. I was pretty intimidated and apprehensive about the length at first, but the album was so rich and full that I was never bored. Maybe the fact that I listened to this album over two different sessions helped as well. I think this was also the first time I've ever stopped listening to an album halfway through and picked up where I left off later. In the future, I'd like to avoid doing this though, I think there would probably be albums where doing this could lessen the experience for me, though this album wasn't one of them.

What really stood out about this album was how whimsical and fun it was. Each track played with it's own, unique, fun idea which you could tell from the title, and they all sounded like Camellia was just having fun exploring all these different ideas. To a song incorporating Russian bass, to a song exploring an alien jungle dance party, to a literal osu meme song and a "furrycore" song, the one thematic throughline through all of this madness was that every track was a fun, mad adventure, and I guess like aliens and other mysterious stuff. It was also really cool to see Camellia really able to capture the vibe of whatever unique ideas they were playing around with.

Adding onto that, there was an incredible amount of variety of this album. It was two hours long, but throughout these two hours Camellia somehow manages to explore like every single fast paced EDM genre in existence, and put his unique Camellia spin on it, a big reason why this album felt so full and never boring.

Another thing that really stood out was the amount of detail that you could gleam and things to engage with as a listener. I feel like a lot of the best music has this aspect, where you kind of cognitively engage with the music instead of just vibing along. Well Camellia isn't exactly Kendrick Lamar or Dvorak in this regard, I found myself having a lot of fun finding details in Camellia's music, from what exactly he did to play with certain ideas/genres, to how tracks 22 and 23 felt like spiritual successors or at least took inspiration from Exit this Earth's Atomosphere and GHOST respectively, two of Camellia's previous tracks, to how you could hear the Toby Fox influence in Myths You Forgot as well as the specific contributions of the other artists featured (the lineup was crazy, he got BTMC to do some vocals? And 8bitdrummer on the drums?), to all of the little sounds making references to certain things, especially in WYSI, and even to a little bit of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu in Electromagnetic Stealth Girl Born In Philadelphia (although I may be tripping about this one).

And tying all this together is the fact that Camellia is incredible at composing music. From the highs and lows of the music, to how he plays with different musical ideas, to how he keeps the whole song fresh and changing, to the detail of the instrumentation, to how everything in the song builds up to the patented "Camellia" drop at the end which makes me literally forget that anything else exists, it's all so good.

Yeah uh I liked this album a lot.

9/10

Btw I'm not exactly and EDM expert so I had trouble with what to put as the genre of this album. It also didn't help that Camellia basically listed a different genre for each track. In the end I settled on "J-Core", because looking at other J-Core artists you see artist like T+Pazolite, REDALiCE, LAaur, Kobaryo etc, super rhythm gamey EDM artists that I feel like Camellia would fit into for generalisation purposes. Please enlighten me if this in incorrect or if there's a better way to label this album than just "EDM".

Edit: Changed to "Hardcore".

And I think that this album fully cements the fact that I want to explore more J-Core in the future. I've listened to so much of it just playing osu, and I'm ready to take that next step as an osu gamer.
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 3 times in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

MaxIsABigKaiju wrote:

i put in Gorillaz - Gorillaz (2001)
I already added it to the list
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine
Instead of J-core I'd just call it hardcore, it's less specific.
Banger btw.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
I wonder if miku being in one of the tracks is enough to summon marco
Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta
honestly i'm mixed on camellia, from time to time they release a song that IS peak but their average song quality is not that good?, I did try to listen to that album before when it came out, but I just didn't really get into it, in terms of hardcore EDM/osu songs, I much prefeer kobaryo
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

Patatitta wrote:

honestly i'm mixed on camellia, from time to time they release that IS peak but their average song quality is not that good?, I did try to listen to that album before when it came out, but I just didn't really get into it, in terms of hardcore EDM/osu songs, I much prefeer kobaryo
Yeah he releases a lot of stuff, most is mid and some great.
Kobaryo is amazing.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
20th July 2024 (2 today because I want to catch up from skipping yesterday)

Lamp - 恋​人​へ (For Lovers)
Shibuya-Kei, Japanese, 2004


(Link to the rest of the album)

This album makes me simultaneously feel like I'm in love we've just started dating and everything is peachy, and depressed because I've never been in a relationship before.

9/10
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 3 times in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

Karmine wrote:

Instead of J-core I'd just call it hardcore, it's less specific.
Banger btw.
Would you also say the other rhythm game edm artists fall into the same genre?
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Karmine wrote:

Instead of J-core I'd just call it hardcore, it's less specific.
Banger btw.
Would you also say the other rhythm game edm artists fall into the same genre?
Depends which but in general yeah, there's speedcore, jcore, gabber etc. All can be grouped under the hardcore umbrella.
Some don't really do that (like tomosuke) but then there's other genres that would describe whatever they do.

EDM also works but it's so vague it encompasses basically everything so not exactly useful.
Corne2Plum3
Global Moderator
1,830 posts
Joined November 2019
Corne2Plum3
imo I would just label Camellia's U.U.F.O album as EDM, given the large amount of genres covered. For example I don't think the hardbass one could fit in "J-core"
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

Karmine wrote:

EDM also works but it's so vague it encompasses basically everything so not exactly useful.
Yeah that's why I didn't want to label it as EDM, because it feels like labelling every rock album I've listened to as "rock". I feel like I'd want to be more specific than that.

Maybe I could say that it's "various EDM genres" and not include it as a genre for my favourite albums of each genre.
DeletedUser_2024727
DeletedUser_2024727
edm is accurate as like a collective genre label for something like a camellia album where all of the tracks can vary wildly between them and within themselves, you might have one track that's mostly dnb, or hardcore, or some kinda -step. they're basically compilations. I think j-core is useful in the same way, I like to use j-core to describe edm that sounds like it should be in a rhythm game. rhythm gaming has been the primary influence on how j-core has evolved over the years, and this is kinda uniquely japanese, or at least has been for a while. obviously some j-core artists make hardcore tracks but these are very very different forms of hardcore when compared to the more european styles of hardcore like the outside agency or obsidian

Patatitta wrote:

honestly i'm mixed on camellia, from time to time they release a song that IS peak but their average song quality is not that good?, I did try to listen to that album before when it came out, but I just didn't really get into it, in terms of hardcore EDM/osu songs, I much prefeer kobaryo
it's insane to me that his albums audibly clip on spotify/bandcamp, he's pretty awful generally imo. kobaryo rips, big fan of t+paz too. I don't listen to j-core all that often but if/when I do, it's usually to check out a new kobaryo or t+paz album
MangaGrumpy
344 posts
Joined May 2022
MangaGrumpy

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

MaxIsABigKaiju wrote:

i put in Gorillaz - Gorillaz (2001)
I already added it to the list
Oh
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
This isn't an album but I'll give my thoughts on it

porejiikt - い自分を 守-


It was pretty cool sounding, especially after 2:55 with the volume turned way up. Outside of that it didn't really feel like the track had that much to offer. It was pretty samey throughout it's entire runtime, and it also didn't really feel like it really went anywhere or did anything interesting. Although I could definitely tell there was some effort in this department, it wasn't enough, and it could've definitely been composed better in that sense maybe idk.

6/10
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
21st July 2024

MALIKLIYA - 誄:Condolence
Prog Metal, Japanese, 2019


(Link to the rest of the album)

Don't have too much to say about this, it was pretty epic.

This album kinda reminded me of Ne Obliviscaris. Not just with the songs like 葬:Burial, but in how the songs seemingly went and did whatever they wanted without adhering to much, and how the melodic parts felt like it was written more as formality to whatever was going on a lot of the time instead of the star.

Also not sure how it never occurred to me how shoegaze guitars would fit really well with this style of metal even though in my head I put them in the same category of "loud sound music".

7/10

I feel like this album is kinda in a weird spot because I don't like it as much as the 8/10s but I like it more than the 7/10s

(Note from the future: It was bothering me enough that it spawned it's own tier.)
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 5 times in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
What do you guys think of me splitting the 9/10s into two separate tiers and shifting everything else down one? Not sure if I'll ever use the 4/10 or 1/10 rating with my current rating system.

Like this:


9/10 is empty until 10/10 fills up and stuff gets shoved down

Edit: Actually you know what I don't care about opinions anymore I like this

New rating scale:
10 - My top 10 favourite albums
9 - I liked it nearly as much as a 10/10 but unfortunately it lands outside my top 10 favourite albums
8 - One of my favourites, I want to listen to it again and again, but not a 10/10 or a 9/10
7 - It was pretty epic and I liked the whole album, but not as much as a 8/10. I'm still very interested in checking out the artist's other works
6 - It was kinda epic, but I didn't like it as much as an 7/10 nor do I feel like checking out the artist other works
5 - It was cool, still enjoyed it
4 - It was forgettable and left no impression but I ultimately still enjoyed it
3 - It left a slightly sour taste in my mouth
2 - I have a straight up negative impression of this
1 - My top 5 least favourite albums
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 4 times in total.
Kaaruumii
861 posts
Joined November 2021
Kaaruumii
aireus latest song is booger banger my ladies go listyen now

Aireunaeus
3,089 posts
Joined December 2021
Aireunaeus

Kaaruumii wrote:

aireus latest song is booger banger my ladies go listyen now

Lmaoooooo
Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta
man your rating structure is weird, for me

7/10 is mid, something you would listen to, enjoy it, but maybe not come back to it, it's mediocre

below 5 is you couldn't finish it and if you did it was only because it was that short

top 10 is just peak, no need for it to be a top 10 or whatever, just peak



the rest, you can figure out with those refence points
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

Patatitta wrote:

man your rating structure is weird, for me

7/10 is mid, something you would listen to, enjoy it, but maybe not come back to it, it's mediocre

below 5 is you couldn't finish it and if you did it was only because it was that short

top 10 is just peak, no need for it to be a top 10 or whatever, just peak



the rest, you can figure out with those refence points
yeah the 10/10 and 9/10 thing is weird but I've been rating other media similarly for a while

7/10 has always been decent, mid has always been like 4-6 for me. I think it's definitely shifted down from how I usually rate though, but because I have the entire scale from 1-10, I'm gonna use all of it.
lostsilver
3,723 posts
Joined November 2022
lostsilver
you can deny this one if you want but can you do you get what you give - zac brown band?
sorry if i'm requesting alot
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

lostsilver wrote:

you can deny this one if you want but can you do you get what you give - zac brown band?
sorry if i'm requesting alot
dw if it's an artist that I haven't listened to before and you aren't doing like 10 requests then I'll probably listen to it
z0z
521 posts
Joined February 2018
z0z
wac - ongaku
Dilly_P
156 posts
Joined August 2018
Dilly_P
Preacher’s Daughter - Ethel Cain
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
22st July 2024

9mice - ASPHALT
Russian Hip-Hop, Russian, 2023


(Link to the rest of the album)

In order to honour the new rank 1 osu standard player 9MlCE, I decided to listen to a 9mice album.

I didn't know where to start so I just listened to the one that was the highest rated on rateyourmusic.

And uhhhh yeah this is the first time I'm not gonna finish an album.

I can't get into it at all when I try to give it my full attention, it sounds so goofy.

Maybe 9mice is a lyrical genius but I can't tell because I don't speak Russian.

If someone convinces me whatever is going on in this album is actually epic and worth listening to I will give it another listen, maybe this is just an acquired taste I need to get used to.

3/10

Edit: I finished the album while browsing reddit, it was fine as background noise. Maybe through exposure I can upgrade this to a 4
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 2 times in total.
Kobold84
Global Moderator
1,341 posts
Joined September 2013
Kobold84
IOSYS - ワァオ！ ハイパー電波チャン
DeletedUser_2024727
DeletedUser_2024727
seconding iosys, BANGER album
lostsilver
3,723 posts
Joined November 2022
lostsilver

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

lostsilver wrote:

you can deny this one if you want but can you do you get what you give - zac brown band?
sorry if i'm requesting alot
dw if it's an artist that I haven't listened to before and you aren't doing like 10 requests then I'll probably listen to it
ok! thx for the info ^^
Polyspora
473 posts
Joined September 2019
Polyspora
ok so am I supposed to recommend an album or song?
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

Polyspora wrote:

ok so am I supposed to recommend an album or song?
albums




I'm wondering if in terms of audio quality there's something better I can do than just watching random youtube videos using a random pair of earphones that I'm not sure where I got but sound better than the samsung ones that come with your phone

Is it even worth bothering looking into this audiophile stuff?
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 1 time in total.
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

ok so am I supposed to recommend an album or song?
albums




I'm wondering if in terms of audio quality there's something better I can do than just watching random youtube videos using a random pair of earphones that I'm not sure where I got but sound better than the samsung ones that come with your phone

Is it even worth bothering looking into this audiophile stuff?
It's probably fine as long as the audio isn't trash quality, even cheap earphones from known brands are decent nowadays.
Quality of the audio file is the easiest you can act on and costs nothing, there's no point having good audio equipment if you listen to 96kbps mp3 files.
reffty_gag
379 posts
Joined July 2023
reffty_gag
xi - Parousia
z0z
521 posts
Joined February 2018
z0z

z0z wrote:

wac - ongaku
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

reffty_gag wrote:

xi - Parousia
Banger.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
23st July 2024

The Weeknd - After Hours
R&B, American, 2020


(Link to the rest of the album)

Is the weeknd ok

6/10
z0z
521 posts
Joined February 2018
z0z
was about to ask where the queue was but damn it's long
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
24st July 2024

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
Rap, American, 2012


(Link to the rest of the album)

I was wanting to give Kendrick Lamar another shot after relistening to some of the tracks on To Pimp a Butterfly (TPAB) and enjoying them a lot more than my first listen, so I chose to listen to his other giga critically acclaimed album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (GKMC).

Through exposure I definitely feel like I've gotten a lot better feel for rap, to the point where I really enjoyed the tracks on this album. It's not one of my favourite genres or anything, but it's now something that I can happily listen to and appreciate. As songs from just the sound alone (ignoring the lyrics), I particularly enjoyed Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe, Poetic Justice and Good Kid.

Compared to TPAB, one thing I did differently while I was listening to this album was I didn't look up the lyrics at all, and instead just listened to the music. I was worried about the lyrics being harder to understand this way, but I thought it would allow me to better appreciate the music, as well as have a more proper experience of what story the album was wanting to tell and what it wanted me to feel. And I thought whatever happens it would at least be an interesting experience since with TPAB I was extremely reliant on reading along with the lyrics.

And I think it did help me appreciate the music more, but that might have also been because I've been coming onto rap/hip-hop in general. Another thing was that I was quite surprised how much of the lyrics I could make out, I thought it would be a lot less because usually I'm really bad at hearing what people say when they speak especially if there's other noise going on. Although it was still a lot less than when I was actually reading the lyrics alongside the music, especially when I lost focus (I was kinda tired while listening to this). Although I wasn't able to catch everything, I was still able to follow along somewhat with the narrative aspects of this album.

And yeah this album has a narrative aspect as well, so spoiler warning I guess.
Unlike TPAB where the narrative aspects are fairly straightforward, GKMC has a non-linear narrative, meaning that the tracks are out of chronological order. I think this confused me a little bit while I was listening to the album because I felt like I didn't have a good grasp of what was going on. I only learnt of the non-linear structure of the narrative upon looking it up later, where things made sense.

Personally I think this kinda works to the detriment of the album, because while it's clear that there is some sort of narrative going on, you can't fully understand it unless you've looked into it afterwards, which creates a kind of barrier that you can't really get past to fully immerse yourself. Apparently Kendrick chose this non-linear structure to really get listeners to dig into his lyrics and piece things together themselves, but for someone like me who just wants to listen to the music and maybe experience a story in the moment and is going to do research later by reading what other people have found, I would've preferred it to be more straightforward so it would've been more accessible to me on an initial listen.

However, what I will say is that even with the chronology of the story out of order, the tracks flow really well thematically. It feels like a coming of age story. Kendrick starts off as a "sinful" teenager happily engaging with the bad parts of the "maad city", and things start becoming more reflective and dark in where we are more directly confronted with all the bad things about this life. The climax of the album is the end of Swimming Pools (Drank) and the first half of Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst where Kendrick comes face to face with death with a guy getting shot. The second half of Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst, Real is the turning point, with Kendrick (and his homies) maturing in the wake of this event, through his family and God, and learning to love himself in Real. Finally the last track is an pretty cool closer, where it feels like Kendrick says that even through all the messed up things he still loves his city ultimately. Or at least this is what I gathered from listening to the album and doing some research on the tracks.

I also have to mention that the music helped with capturing these things beautifully. Shoutouts to Backseat Freestyle and Swimming Pools (Drank).

I think overall I enjoyed the narrative aspect of TPAB significantly more than this. TPAB felt like a good movie that you'd think about a lot even after you've finished watching it, while GKMC felt just kinda cool. Not only was the narrative of TPAB a lot more digestible, but to me the ideas were a lot more interesting as well. And it's not like GKMC didn't have it's moments, but nothing reached the sheer emotion of u or the interestingness (for lack of a better word, I aint Kendrick lol) Mortal Man and the fake interview with Tupac. I'm sure that GKMC would be incredibly interesting to take a deep dive into, but it wasn't that interesting when I listening to it for the first time.

And purely musically, I think I like TPAB slightly better, but this is subject to change.

I'd take everything in the last two paragraphs with a grain of salt though, because I listened to both albums in different ways and with different context.

Overall, I'd definitely say I've become a rap enjoyer, thanks Kendrick. I'll probably check out his other albums too.

6/10

4 extra things:

1. With the weights finally lifted from TPAB, it has now risen to 10/10, and then prematurely downgraded to 9/10 because it's probably the first 10/10 I downgrade because it's the one I like the least musically.
2. There's no way I can put this in the same tier as After Hours by The Weeknd. I was thinking the same thing for 誄:Condolence by MALIKLIYA, so they get the 6/10 tier all to themselves with everything being shifted down once again. Taylor Swift keeps taking strays, I'm sorry Taylor 😭
3. It's crazy how much my rating scale is shifting downwards, at the rate this is going I might need to have increments of 0.5 instead of 1.0.
4. I'll update other stuff tomorrow because I want to sleep and need to do my gacha game dailies
Kaaruumii
861 posts
Joined November 2021
Kaaruumii
50 Cent - The Massacre
DeletedUser_2024727
DeletedUser_2024727
cool that you're introducing yourself to rap, there's a lot of good stuff out there that either subverts or critiques the stereotypical topics of drugs, gang violence etc etc and ppl write it off without looking for it
with that said tho seeing gkmc rated a 6/10 is wild lmao. your opinion of course and it's very interesting to see that rating
I still havent listened to mr morale yet, I've heard that one is particularly heavy. damn is probably his weakest album

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

ok so am I supposed to recommend an album or song?
albums




I'm wondering if in terms of audio quality there's something better I can do than just watching random youtube videos using a random pair of earphones that I'm not sure where I got but sound better than the samsung ones that come with your phone

Is it even worth bothering looking into this audiophile stuff?
definitely but beyond a certain point you get diminishing returns and it quickly stops being worth it. also a lot of good headphones are more neutral so if you're used to the garbo stuff like skull candies, those are heavy on the bass, partially to draw attention away from blemishes in the mid and higher ends. I have this dac and these headphones and that's basically all I need. karmine is correct about bitrate stuff, if you're listen to low quality audio like that it just makes the audio compression artifacts sound a little more hi-fi lol.
Last edited by DeletedUser_2024727 , edited 1 time in total.
Winnyace
760 posts
Joined June 2016
Winnyace

xch00F wrote:

I still havent listened to mr morale yet, I've heard that one is particularly heavy. damn is probably his weakest album
Yeah, it is very personal. DAMN seems to be considered among his weakest albums by hardcore K.Dot fans, mostly because from what I've listened to it, it sounds more commercial than TPAB and is more aggressive and that's about it. Either way, DAMN is great if you want a certain vibe, that being of aggressiveness, and still listen to someone who can write some damn good verses and flows.

Also, yeah, rap is multifaceted and you can find anything from jazz infused albums talking about the artist's problems or things they see around themselves, to the "I'm the best person alive and you're a bitch" type rappers. There's a spectrum, much like how in Pop and other genres there's a spectrum of topics, themes and sounds.
Last edited by Winnyace , edited 1 time in total.
Winnyace
760 posts
Joined June 2016
Winnyace
I can't wait to see what OP thinks of Samurai, since a concept rap album.
Polyspora
473 posts
Joined September 2019
Polyspora
Stranger - Yung Lean

literally life changing
Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta
we respect people with unpopular opinions
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine
Gotta request Magma - Kobaïa
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

xch00F wrote:

with that said tho seeing gkmc rated a 6/10 is wild lmao. your opinion of course and it's very interesting to see that rating
Yeah I feel like it'd be an unconventional opinion to have TPAB and GKMC rated pretty differently, I feel like most people would like or dislike both equally. It's just that for whatever reason I wasn't feeling GKMC as much, might literally just be because of something minor like the fact that I didn't do research beforehand, didn't read along with the lyrics, or simply listened to it after TPAB.




xch00F wrote:

karmine is correct about bitrate stuff, if you're listen to low quality audio like that it just makes the audio compression artifacts sound a little more hi-fi lol.
I'm just listening to everything on Youtube, so I guess I'm at the mercy of the uploader and Youtube's audio compression. Would an upgrade to Qobuz or Tidal which apparently has better quality be worth it? Price isn't that much of an issue because I was thinking that I might get Youtube Premium, I'm wanting a good way to listen to music on my phone without a gazillion ads or having to download everything.




Also I shifted my rating scale for the billionth time, basically I fused the 7s and 8s together and split the 6s into two.
reffty_gag
379 posts
Joined July 2023
reffty_gag
goreshit - semantic of death and its meaning
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
25th July 2024 (it took 4 days to realise I was going 22st, 23st, 24st lmao)

Stray Kids - 5-Star
K-Pop, South Korean, 2023


(Link to the rest of the album)

I've never really been a fan of K-Pop, and this album didn't really change that.

It was cool and I enjoyed it, but I didn't really get into it if that makes sense.

One of the reasons that I might not have enjoyed this album that much is that I'm still not fully sold on hip-hop musically as a genre (this album had a very strong hip-hop influence in the first half), and unlike with Kendrick Lamar, the literary aspect couldn't carry the music because my Korean isn't good enough to understand the lyrics.

I don't think this is that relevant though, because starting from track 8 Collision, the album strays away from the super sharp, biting hip-hop that it was before. Collision sounded more like a typical k-pop track, to the point that the overwhelming vibe that I got form it was that I was in a Korean hairdresser because this is the stuff they always play on the speakers lmao. These variations in style was welcome, but it didn't really change the fact that I still wasn't fully into it.

I think another reason for why I wasn't fully into it could be that I think with k-pop there's quite a lot of other aspects to it outside of just the music, which are stuff that I personally didn't engage with or care about. I feel like the dancing and the aesthetic appeal of the members of the group are a big part of k-pop, but I personally avoided watching the music videos while listening to this album because I had done so with every other album I've listened to. And it's not like I really care about them much in the first place. I think there's also an aspect of idol culture where you'd follow the group members as celebreties/idols, but again, this is something that I don't care about at all. With me being so far removed from the culture of k-pop, I feel like I'm really not the target audience for this type of stuff, which made it harder to enjoy.

And a final realisation that I came to was that to me it felt like the music lacked personality. It didn't really feel like an artist expressing themselves through their music, but something corporately produced, if that makes sense. I could be completely speaking out of my ass about this, idk how these tracks are written nor did I pay attention to any of the lyrics, but that was the impression I got from this album. Like the production was cool, but it didn't really feel like there was anything I could attach myself to.

In fact, while I was listening to the album I was enjoying it to the point I was thinking it would be a 5 or a 6, but now that I've finished it, it feels like a 4 because it didn't really feel like I got anything out of it.

So yeah idk I guess k-pop just isn't something I can really get into. I really liked the rocky Dreamcatcher songs that I've come across while playing osu, but that's pretty much the only k-pop that I've really enjoyed, and it's probably more to do with the fact I generally really enjoy j-rock.

I also wanted to mention that S-Class was my favourite track.

4/10
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 1 time in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
me going on rateyourmusic every time I rate an album because I don't want give something critically acclaimed a low rating, only to see that rateyourmusic didn't rate it highly as well:



(I should really stop)
[ Rynn ]
216 posts
Joined November 2020
[ Rynn ]

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

25th July 2024 (it took 4 days to realise I was going 22st, 23st, 24st lmao)

Stray Kids - 5-Star
K-Pop, South Korean, 2023


(Link to the rest of the album)

I've never really been a fan of K-Pop, and this album didn't really change that.

It was cool and I enjoyed it, but I didn't really get into it if that makes sense.

One of the reasons that I might not have enjoyed this album that much is that I'm still not fully sold on hip-hop musically as a genre (this album had a very strong hip-hop influence in the first half), and unlike with Kendrick Lamar, the literary aspect couldn't carry the music because my Korean isn't good enough to understand the lyrics.

I don't think this is that relevant though, because starting from track 8 Collision, the album strays away from the super sharp, biting hip-hop that it was before. Collision sounded more like a typical k-pop track, to the point that the overwhelming vibe that I got form it was that I was in a Korean hairdresser because this is the stuff they always play on the speakers lmao. These variations in style was welcome, but it didn't really change the fact that I still wasn't fully into it.

I think another reason for why I wasn't fully into it could be that I think with k-pop there's quite a lot of other aspects to it outside of just the music, which are stuff that I personally didn't engage with or care about. I feel like the dancing and the aesthetic appeal of the members of the group are a big part of k-pop, but I personally avoided watching the music videos while listening to this album because I had done so with every other album I've listened to. And it's not like I really care about them much in the first place. I think there's also an aspect of idol culture where you'd follow the group members as celebreties/idols, but again, this is something that I don't care about at all. With me being so far removed from the culture of k-pop, I feel like I'm really not the target audience for this type of stuff, which made it harder to enjoy.

And a final realisation that I came to was that to me it felt like the music lacked personality. It didn't really feel like an artist expressing themselves through their music, but something corporately produced, if that makes sense. I could be completely speaking out of my ass about this, idk how these tracks are written nor did I pay attention to any of the lyrics, but that was the impression I got from this album. Like the production was cool, but it didn't really feel like there was anything I could attach myself to.

In fact, while I was listening to the album I was enjoying it to the point I was thinking it would be a 5 or a 6, but now that I've finished it, it feels like a 4 because it didn't really feel like I got anything out of it.

So yeah idk I guess k-pop just isn't something I can really get into. I really liked the rocky Dreamcatcher songs that I've come across while playing osu, but that's pretty much the only k-pop that I've really enjoyed, and it's probably more to do with the fact I generally really enjoy j-rock.

I also wanted to mention that S-Class was my favourite track.

4/10
Pretty solid review, i can understand why you gave this album a 4/10 (i actually think thats quite generous for someone who isn't familiar w kpop lol). Stray Kids' music isnt for everyone, quite a lot of kpop fans aren't actually fond of their music as well. I also understand why you'd also pay attention to lyrics, but i personally pay attention to the music itself more than the lyrics.

As for the tracks (excluding the last 2 tracks as those were originally released as singles), I personally enjoyed this album, especially the 8th track Collision (i could talk abt this for 50 pages but yea), the instrumentals were amazing and the details really suits the lyrics of the songs. The vocal parts for the first track Hall Of Fame was pretty enjoyable for me too. A fan favorite for this album, TOPLINE was quite a surprise as it sounds more western-like compared to what we have in the industry so far.

I was actually kinda hoping you'd have a good impression on this genre considering the first half of the album sounds pretty kpop-y, especially with the more "loud music" side of the industry (and yes, Collision doesn't really sound kpop-y, at least to me) but recommending something from Stray Kids was probably a hit or miss for first impressions of kpop lmao.

a small note here, i actually dont like S-Class :3c (i actually hated it at first, but it somewhat grew in me).

I'm not a fan of hip-hop or rap in general, but Stray Kids' rap line is pretty strong, combined with 3RACHA's (Stray Kids' producer line consisting of the members Bang Chan, Changbin and Han) weird style of music made Stray Kids' music stick well to me a lot.

Overall, for me it's a 8/10 (excluding the last 2 tracks), I tried my best to be as unbiased as possible and this rating is also based of the music itself and not counting other shit within the kpop industry :) glad i was able to hear your opinion!
Last edited by [ Rynn ] , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

me going on rateyourmusic every time I rate an album because I don't want give something critically acclaimed a low rating, only to see that rateyourmusic didn't rate it highly as well:



(I should really stop)
don't worry, the exact same thing happens to me LMAO, still. I don't really change my rating even if it's totally different than the rating on those type of websites, I just kinda go "well, fuck"
Achromalia
364 posts
Joined November 2016
Achromalia

Patatitta wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

me going on rateyourmusic every time I rate an album because I don't want give something critically acclaimed a low rating, only to see that rateyourmusic didn't rate it highly as well:



(I should really stop)
don't worry, the exact same thing happens to me LMAO, still. I don't really change my rating even if it's totally different than the rating on those type of websites, I just kinda go "well, fuck"
i think sometimes it could register as a feeling of "i hope i'm not insane for thinking this" and "am i missing the point?", mixed somewhat with possibilities like "i'm curious if anyone shares similar thoughts for similar reasons, maybe they could expand on what the impressions i've had in an interesting way with more clarity" or something...

...maybe? that's my intuitive reasoning for why i might imagine it happening for me if i were to try rating albums/songs, though i generally don't refer to these sites bc that's just a lot more work than i care for when i can just enjoy playlists of music i like or at least sort them somewhere if they're not definitively suited to a playlist of favored songs/albums within some kind of stylistic profile
Kaeya x Diluc
4 posts
Joined May 2023
Kaeya x Diluc
my picks are:

Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2
Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Taylor's Version)
Chevy & HOYO-MiX - Inside EP


bonus non album pick:
Sliva Hound - boo Hoo (Silva Hound Remix)
Corne2Plum3
Global Moderator
1,830 posts
Joined November 2019
Corne2Plum3
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

Kaeya x Diluc wrote:

Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Taylor's Version)
I was about to reject this but I'm a swiftie now so I can't 😭



Kaeya x Diluc wrote:

bonus non album pick:
Sliva Hound - boo Hoo (Silva Hound Remix)

This was a lot more pleasant than I thought it would be from the thumbnail

4/10
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 1 time in total.
sametdze
359 posts
Joined July 2021
sametdze
if you're really a swifite review taylor swift's first album, appropriately titled "taylor swift" or something like that
reffty_gag
379 posts
Joined July 2023
reffty_gag

reffty_gag wrote:

goreshit - semantic of death and its meaning
*semantic composition on death and its meaning
Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta

Achromalia wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

DM FOR MUTUAL wrote:

me going on rateyourmusic every time I rate an album because I don't want give something critically acclaimed a low rating, only to see that rateyourmusic didn't rate it highly as well:



(I should really stop)
don't worry, the exact same thing happens to me LMAO, still. I don't really change my rating even if it's totally different than the rating on those type of websites, I just kinda go "well, fuck"
i think sometimes it could register as a feeling of "i hope i'm not insane for thinking this" and "am i missing the point?", mixed somewhat with possibilities like "i'm curious if anyone shares similar thoughts for similar reasons, maybe they could expand on what the impressions i've had in an interesting way with more clarity" or something...

...maybe? that's my intuitive reasoning for why i might imagine it happening for me if i were to try rating albums/songs, though i generally don't refer to these sites bc that's just a lot more work than i care for when i can just enjoy playlists of music i like or at least sort them somewhere if they're not definitively suited to a playlist of favored songs/albums within some kind of stylistic profile
my personal experience with that sort of stuff

I'm just a REALLY big fan of lists like that and ratings, I know many people that are against logging sites like that one under the argument that numeric scoring of art is detrimental to the medium, which I understand but I also disagree with since I believe that it's a really good way to get what is the general opinion torwards any work (as long as the sample size is big enough, something that rym kinda struggles with tho), and also, I love just seeing the list and comparing and analyzing ratings it's so fun

going contrary to works as influential and popular as some of best rated albums of all time kinda sucks, you're forming an opinion a lot of people will criticize, that also forms the anxiety of "maybe I'm missing something/I did not understand what it was trying to say and it's a mitake on me" and also it honestly kinda closes off genres for you, for example, if you were to watch a film, don't like it, and then google it and see that it has bad ratings, that's ok, it's just a bad movie, but if that same movie is like the highest rated work in a genre you haven't really dabled much in, it's likely that you're not going to enjoy the rest of the genre either

although, if you have an unpopular opinion like that, and are able to actually stand your ground and be able to explain properly why you didn't like it in a way that makes sense, I have big respects for you
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 2 times in total.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
26th July 2024

Various Artists - Mikgazer vol.1
Shoegaze, Vocaloid, Japanese, 2012


Mikgazer my beloved

8/10
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL

sametdze wrote:

if you're really a swifite review taylor swift's first album, appropriately titled "taylor swift" or something like that
I'm gonna end up doing every taylor swift album aren't I
Kaeya x Diluc
4 posts
Joined May 2023
Kaeya x Diluc
Linkin Park - Meteora, Minutes to Midnight
Achromalia
364 posts
Joined November 2016
Achromalia
realizing new suggestions in this thread are going to be in the queue for longer than a month, assuming that the rate is strictly one album per day... :'(
Last edited by Achromalia , edited 1 time in total.
z0z
521 posts
Joined February 2018
z0z

Achromalia wrote:

realizing new suggestions in this thread are going to be in the queue for longer than a month, assuming that the rate is strictly one album per day... :'(
albums do take a significant amount of time to listen to
Achromalia
364 posts
Joined November 2016
Achromalia

z0z wrote:

Achromalia wrote:

realizing new suggestions in this thread are going to be in the queue for longer than a month, assuming that the rate is strictly one album per day... :'(
albums do take a significant amount of time to listen to
no you're right, that's understandable, it's just a grievance toward the delayed gratification of actually seeing what someone thinks about the music you've submitted. it may become harder to really remain interested or keep in touch with the thread by the time the 36th day arrives, at which point you may have moved on or may not even be present/active anymore to see it

it's inconvenient for new submissions, but i imagine it could be quite a burden on the listener if the thread's premise is carried like an obligation rather than an interest-- and even with interest in others' submissions, it could be exhausting or time-intensive when you may have other priorities to address

that does not keep it from being something lamentable to the submitter ^^;;
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
27th July 2024

samlrc - A Lonely Sinner
Post-Rock, Brazilian, 2024


Holy moly

I've never listened to anything like this before, and damn.

I'm not even sure how to smoothly talk about this lol.

I think if I had to describe it briefly, it would be the musical equivalent of a short, artsy indie game which feels kinda lifechanging when you finish it.

I'm not too sure what the album was about, but my interpretation was that it's about I guess a journey of one's self told through the metaphor of sheep and wolves and some religious ideas.

The protagonist starts in a place of low self esteem and hatred referring themselves as a "sheep" and a "sinner", although it's never made clear exactly how they are a "sinner", making it feel like it is coming more of an internal place than they committed murder or something. The way they talk about themselves as a sheep makes it feel like they're someone insignificant, someone weak who doesn't have agency and can be taken advantage of.

Now that I look at the lyrics again the third track Sinner looks like it's depicting an abusive relationship, so these negative ways the protagonist describes themselves is probably due to this.

After lying down and giving up in Flowerfields as a sacrifice to the wolves, the album has an insane tone shift with Storge, my favourite track in the album. Like I actually shit my pants when this happened, this might be the first time I felt scared listening to an album in this thread lol. Storge feels like the protagonist suddenly flipping a switch getting angry, refusing to be a sheep and wanting to become a wolf themselves. What's interesting is that this isn't empowering, just angry and aggressive, like the protagonist is crying out at the world.

Sleep Theme feels like the abuser trying to control the protagonist to prevent them from running. A small detail that I wanted to mention here is that the vocals are done stylistically differently to when the "sheep" was speaking, making this feel like another person.

Then the last two tracks have a more positive, uplifting vibe, like the hope at the end tunnel of the abuse and negativity and hate, like the protagonist has learnt self-love/self-acceptance. Interestingly, For M. has lyrics written down that I don't remember ever being sung, so idk what that's about.

But what really elevates this album is the music. It's so packed full of different emotions, you can just close your eyes and kinda feel this album. And the way the songs are written it's like they're telling stories within themselves. The singing portions only make up a miniscule portion of the songs, so most of it is just music to which you can let wash over you to bathe in the emotions, and make your own interpretations of.

For an example I want to talk about a moment in Storge in particular, at 33:02 there's this really aggressive moment with loud metal guitars, which at the same time feels like anger and claustrophobia, like this anger is something to be scared of. And then it changes into something else, still the same drumbeat and similar guitars but more shoegazy this time, which feels like an explosion of vulnerable emotion, like the anger ran out and now the protagonist is just crying out with pure emotion, like this is the true nature of the anger that the protagonist is feeling.

It feels rare when you can just close your eyes and album can just wash over you with it's music and make you leave the mortal plane, but this album did.

It also feels like there's an incredible amount of detail and care put into everything, from details in the songwriting and production, even to details in the visual aesthetic of this album. I usually try to avoid any visual component, but the artstyle, the little image for each song, the colours, it all felt like a part of the larger piece of art that was the album, byeond just being a cool album cover or something.

Uh yeah good album you should listen to it

10/10

I wonder what the stuff about the flowers were about, it's a large part of the visuals and is mentioned in the first half as something the protagonist is cultivating, but I'm not sure how to interpret it.
DM FOR MUTUAL
609 posts
Joined March 2021
Topic Starter
DM FOR MUTUAL
28th July 2024

ZUTOMAYO - Hisohiso Banashi
J-Pop, Yakousei, Japanese, 2019


(Link to the rest of the album)

So I was originally planning to cover something else today, but I wasn't too sure if what I wanted to talk about was appropriate so I DMed some mods but they haven't gotten back to me soo...

Uhh ZUTOMAYO is pretty epic yeah hottest osu player take ik

I think out of all the albums I've listened in this thread so far this is probably the one that has the most history for me. I remember my interest in music properly started with anime OPs and EDs. I'd have a playlist of all the OPs from anime that I'd watch in a youtube playlist and I'd just listen to them on shuffle. FMAB OPs, Code Geass OP 1, OPM OP, AoT OPs, all that good stuff. At some point I started playing around with spotify, and while I was making a playlist I ended up checking out the songs that spotify suggested to add to the playlist. I remember, very specifically, that one of these songs was Kansaete Kuyashiiwa by ZUTOMAYO. I wasn't too impressed with the song at first, until I clicked on their page and had a listen to two songs. Byoushinwo Kamu and STUDY ME. Those two songs solidified ZUTOMAYO as my favourite artist until I eventually found Lamp sometime later, at the time when I was properly starting to branch out of anime OPs and starting to explore other music. Back then, it was ZUTOMAYO, YOASOBI, Yorushika and Polkadot Stingray, the big four for me. And ZUTOMAYO was my favourite. Like this album, Hisohiso banashi, was probably the first full album I listened to, as well as my favourite album (again until I discovered Lamp). And revisiting this album now was really a blast from the past.

Throughout the first four songs, this album was a straight 10/10. Absolute banger after absolute banger, with chaotic, fast paced, maximised instrumentals. It felt like listening to Unhappy Refrain all over again, with a similar style and energy. This honestly surprised me, had my tastes not changed in five years? Was this straight up just the most banger album ever made?




Uh I'm tired I'll finish this later bye

8/10
Last edited by DM FOR MUTUAL , edited 2 times in total.
Polyspora
473 posts
Joined September 2019
Polyspora
dead
lostsilver
3,723 posts
Joined November 2022
lostsilver

Polyspora wrote:

dead
this bump was probably needed
Last edited by lostsilver , edited 1 time in total.
reffty_gag
379 posts
Joined July 2023
reffty_gag
so dead that i want to dig a grave for this thread
Patatitta
1,309 posts
Joined February 2020
Patatitta
bro come on it's been 4 days, this thread has lasted way longer than most others on the same topics so I have faith in them, I've had my thread dead for more than 4 days, they just have more shit to do in life other than this


lostsilver wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

dead
this bump was probably needed
no, normally it isn't, it will be bumped it naturally when they finish an album
Karmine
969 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

Patatitta wrote:

lostsilver wrote:

Polyspora wrote:

dead
this bump was probably needed
no, normally it isn't, it will be bumped it naturally when they finish an album
It's needed because it's ILLEGAL to give up the thread, he HAS to continue even if he doesn't want to or he'll be EXECUTED.
Polyspora
473 posts
Joined September 2019
Polyspora
high quality irony over there friends
Ashton
2,006 posts
Joined February 2016
Ashton
I was so close to having mine reviewed nooooo pls continue!!!

(Yes I know I'm hypocritical since my photoshop thread died after a few reqs 😆)
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