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I only put a few up this year. Oops.
yes
- The Pathetic Aesthetic, The Librarians
- Fun punk pop that I found off Manda's favorite band list. Really, not
so deep at all. But fun! With vague resemblances to Weezer and Green
Day, though less produced. I especially like "Peace and Quiet" and
"Rockstar."
- In an Off White Room, The Album Leaf
- Soft atmospheric post-rock, much of it fairly sweet. Which I like.
But I must warn you, it doesn't stand out or anything. It's not lilty and
happy and spacey like Mum. It's just good mellow fuzzy stuff for when you
want to hang out on a couch and read peacefully. The title track, "Off
White Room," is especially relaxing, with birds and water and white noise
and stuff.
- #1 Record/Radio City, Big Star
- Borrowed from David, who said I should listen to them because they're
folksy, melodic, and poppy (all things that I like) and from Memphis. And
I liked them! Or a lot of the songs, at least. Like "The Ballad of El
Goordo" and "Thirteen" and "Give Me Another Chance," I like those a lot.
Oh, and "Try Again" and "Watch the Sunrise," too. I like the light
strumming. And the harmonies. Simple stuff like this gets me every time.
- ReDirection: A Polyvinyl Sampler, Polyvinyl
- Sampler from various bands on the Polyvinyl label, like Aloha Coast,
AM/FM, Saturday Looks Good to Me, etc. Much better than the free sampler
I'd gotten. Ranier Maria's "Breakfast of Champions" and "Artificial
Light" are both great, as are "A Best Man (Put My Girlfriend on Fire)" by
AM/FM and "Gas the Nutsy" by Pele. And Matt Pond PA's "This Is Montreal"
has some lovely acoustic guitar strumming.
- Updates, American Analog Set
- Electronic remixes of American Analog Set songs. Like they're trying
to go all Postal Service or something. I'm not sure why I got this rather
than one of the regular AmAnSet albums. Maybe it's that I really really
like the remix of "The Postman," which, gosh, is very very pretty. But
"We're Computerized" is pretty as well, and "Know By Heart" has a great
groove. And "Aaron and Melissa" is okay. But "Desert Eagle" and "These
Days" are a little to monotonous to me (even though they're monotonous in
that gentle way that I often like).
- Science Faire, Apples in Stereo
- David points out that allmusic gave this album a pretty bad review,
but whatever! There's some great stuff on here, and nothing nearly so
annoying as on Her Wallpaper Reverie. And the guitars are loose and lo-fi
and jangly (I think "Turncoat Indian" really epitomizes this), and I love
that stuff. So many songs---like "Tidal Wave," "Motorcar," and "Not the
Same"---just make you wanna say whee! And even mellower songs like
"Haley" and "Time for Bed/I Know You'll Do Well" are great, in their lazy,
loping ways. And "Rocket Pad" ("calling all the kids in America/bring
along your Moms and Dads/they still love to turn up the stereo/think about
the fun they had/and did the kids turn out so bad?") is one of my favorite
songs ever! Also, I think this album rocks (in a surf rocky way) more
than the other Apples albums, not that that's saying much.
- Fun Trick Noisemaker, Apples in Stereo
- More sedate than the other Apples albums. Nice and mellow to listen
to, though. I really really like "She's Just Like Me/Taking Time," with
its sweet strumming. And I enjoy "Green Machine," "Show the World," and
"Pine Away," too. There are some annoying songs, yeah, like "Dots 1-2-3."
And I swear, I could've sworn Dressy Bessy played "Glowworm"---that, or a
song very much like it---before. So now it's gonna bug me till I figure
out which of their songs "Glowworm" sounds like.
- Tone Soul Evolution, Apples in Stereo
- Some great songs ("Seems So," "About Your Fame," and "Silver Chain,"
which really wows me), some so-so ones ("What's your #?," "The Silvery
Light of a Dream"), but generally a pretty enjoyable album.
- The Best of, James
- Yes, it's a cheesy album, but I love it. "Come Home." "Sit Down."
"She's a Star." "Laid." "Seven." So sugary-optimistic!
- Finally We Are No One, Mum
- Mmmm. Wow. Tranquil. Peaceful. Blue. Everything is beautiful.
Everything is hush. Everything is bits and pieces. Even the song titles
are beautiful. "Green Grass of Tunnel." ("It drips on my head through a
hole in the roof.") "We Have a Map of the Piano." "I Can't Fell My Hand
Any More, It's Alright, Sleep Still." So lovely. I especially like the
squishy sounds in "E/Half Noise." It is everything I wish my writing
could be, put into music.
- This Is Just a Modern Rock Song, Belle and Sebastian
- It's one of the mellower EPs, yeah. But I pretty much like all the
songs except "I Know Where the Summer Goes," which for some reason annoys
me. And the beginning of "Slow Graffiti" sounds an awful lot like this
song that my mom sings to herself.
maybe
- Polyvinyl Sampler, Polyvinyl
- It's okay. I mean, it has a song by a group I really like (Mates of
State, AM/FM, Ranier Maria), and it has one song, "The Ghost of What
Should've Been," that is so glorious and hushed that it's a great find.
But everything else is not so memorable. Even the songs from the groups
that I like. But I got it for free, so it's not a big deal.
- Handsome Western States, Beulah
- Eh. I don't really love any of these songs. But I like "I Love John,
She Loves Paul," "I've Been Broken (I've Been Fixed)," "Delta," and "Dig
the Subatomic Holdout #2." But even those I don't like all that much,
compared to their songs on other albums.
- Velocity of Sound, Apples in Stereo
- Zippier than a lot of other albums. Take "Rainfall" and "That's
Something I Do," for example. Zippy! Though some songs do drag, like
"Where We Meet." And for some reason this album just doesn't hook me.
Like "Better Days" and "I Want," which are zippy, sure, are also just
kinda boring. Oh well.
- Her Wallpaper Reverie, Apples in Stereo
- All the little half-minute-long interludes (and that one long
interlude, "Drifting Patterns") are really really annoying; that theme is
like fingernails on a chalkboard. Which is too bad, because there are
some nice songs on the album, too, like "Shiney Sea" and "Strawberryfire"
which are lazy and shimmery and really really Beatles-like. And I really
like "Questions and Answers" (maybe because it sounds a lot like Dressy
Bessy's happy girlypop.) And "The Benefits of Lying (With Your Friend)"
was one of the songs that got me hooked on Apples in the first place. So
I think the whole album is a mixed bag. Because gosh are those annoying
bits really annoying.