There is a time in my life where I would have just eaten this up.
Tag: Neo Psychedelia
Munki (1998)
I have always found these guys overrated, so I am wondering what I am doing here, listening to a later album of theirs that even the fans are divided over. I’m not even speaking to the one Mary Chain fan I know about this record. So what am I doing?
Porno for Pyros (1993)
I don’t love Jane’s Addiction. One reason for that is that I had just heard way too much about how great they were before I ever heard more than a couple of songs. The other reason is Farrell’s voice, I don’t love it.
Porcupine (1983) by Echo and the Bunnymen
I really enjoyed Heaven Up Here and I perhaps had too-high expectations when I first listened to this record. The first time I heard it, I wasn’t feeling it. A lot of that had to do with listening to War for the first time in ages at the same time, as both records were released …
Moon Safari (1998) by AIR
Due to my podcast, I often find myself listening to music that is outside of my entirely wheelhouse and don’t know what to do with it. But sometimes I find an album like this where I recognize elements but I also don’t have the listening context to know why these elements arranged in such a …
A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982) by Siouxsie and the Banshees
I am really big fan of JuJu for many of the same reasons I like this record: there’s this balance between the dark. “gothic” lyrics and Siouxsie Sioux’s vocals, and the often shimmering neo-psychedelic guitar and sound effects. But I definitely get a sense of deja vu. And I get that sense even though this …
Tone Soul Evolution (1997) by The Apples in Stereo
I am not very familiar with Elephant 6 but, to the extent that I am, I am familiar with weird, idiosyncratic indie pop bands, with a big emphasis on the “indie.” I assumed that Apples in Stereo would be along the same lines as the other Elephant 6 bands but, at least based upon this …
Urban Hymns (1997) by The Verve
I have made no bones about my dislike of Oasis, a band nearly everyone else seems to love (or at least enjoy). I don’t like their songwriter’s songs, I don’t like their sound and I find their biggest hit to be poorly produced. So what the hell am I supposed to do when I have …
Dots and Loops (1997) by Stereolab
Stereolab do their thing. It’s a very particular thing that sounds like no one else and, for that, they should be commended. They invented this kind of fusion of lounge, krautrock and pop, and that’s to their credit.
Fantasma (1997) by Cornelius
I have heard Fantasm described as ‘the Japanese Beck.’ It’s a comparison that sounds kind of ridiculous but is also kind of appropriate. It’s inappropriate inasmuch as Cornelius had been releasing music with Flipper’s Guitar well before Beck was known to most of us (is Beck, therefore, the American Cornelius?) but it is appropriate inasmuch …
Sweet Oblivion (1992) by Screaming Trees
As I feel like I am always saying, the problem with hype is that you hear the hype before you hear the music.
The Perfect Prescription (1987) by Spacemen 3
Programmic music is often hard for, whether it’s some Romantic composer trying to conjure up a storm or a picnic, or someone trying to show me what a drug trip is like, I often find the concept unnecessary to my enjoyment of the music.
Earth Sun Moon (1987) by Love and Rockets
I love Bauhaus and, initially, I think I found it hard to get into these guys simply because they are not Bauhaus, which is unfair. It’s unfair because these guys are very much their own band, particularly with the wind instruments. (By the way, that flute solo is hilariously Ian Anderson, who I would have …
Forever Now (1982) by The Psychedelic Furs
This is my first Furs record so I cannot comment on whether or not it’s some kind of sell out (doesn’t sound like it!) or some kind of compromise of their earlier sound, which I have never heard. I can comment on the music and try to comment on the context, as I am an …
Be Here Now (1997) by Oasis
The first time I heard this was like a revelation. Who was this band? Even though it’s the same producer, this album sounds so much more “rock” than Morning Glory. I thought I might have finally figured out what everyone else has.
With a Little Help from My Fwends (2014) by the Flaming Lips et al.
I avoided the Lips’ cover of The Dark Side of the Moon like the plague, figuring that was an album that absolutely did not have to be covered and also because I’ve been finding the Lips’ willful weirdness to be increasingly maddening and hard to follow. (I have no idea if I’m going to like …
The Faming Lips and Heady Fwends (2012)
I want to make some kind of Supernatural joke but I can’t come up with one because I don’t watch the show.
The Flaming Lips live at Yonge & Dundas Square, June 16, 2012
A brief word before this review: I am a music fan first and foremost and everything else is secondary. So I don’t put much stock in performance (beyond whether its musically good or not) and so don’t get the wrong idea.