The pop album that really isn’t – it’s cleaner, sure, but is it that much cleaner, that much more commercial? Most of their catchiest songs are on their debut and this record just doesn’t feel anywhere near as “commercial” to me as its reputation suggests. I guess they’re a little less aggressive, and a little …
Tag: Noise Pop
Vee Vee (1995) by Archers of Loaf
This is a band that likes instrumentals more than most loud rock bands of their era but, even for a band that likes instrumentals, I’d say it’s a bold move to lead off your second album (the album that is almost always “difficult” for bands of this era) with a track that takes over 2 …
Archers of Loaf Live at Lee’s Palace Wednesday January 11, 2023
Last night I saw Archers of Loaf on the tour for their first album in something like 24 years. Like many ’90s bands, I got into them backwards (listened to their final album first) and can’t say I know them as well as many of their contemporaries. (I listened to their last album, then their …
Seamonsters (1991) by The Wedding Present
We all have musical sweet spots, things we like so much that we just eat up anything that fits into those sweet spots. This album, the first I have ever heard by The Wedding Present, hits me in a few of mine. And I left wondering, not for the first time, why it took me …
See You on the Other Side (1995) by Mercury Rev
Transition albums often have a bad rap. Of course, we usually only know they are transition records in hindsight so it must be that we retroactively apply the term. That or maybe some critic guesses extremely well at the time. (I really doubt it, though.)
Garbage (1995)
As I have said way too many times, I do not like post grunge. Usually, post grunge takes something I like and basically ruins it. However, Garbage avoid many of the most irritating aspects of post grunge, if you can even classify Garbage as post grunge. (In fact, that false categorization may explain why I …
A Catholic Education (1990) by Teenage Fanclub
I’ve heard so much about Teenage Fanclub the power pop/jangle pop band that I really, really wasn’t ready for this. And because I really wasn’t ready for this I might have overrated it a tad. Such is life.
Electr-o-Pura (1995) by Yo La Tengo
My biggest issue with many dream pop bands is that they make music that just doesn’t appeal to me, it’s just a not a sound I particularly enjoy. But there is a subgenre of dream pop which includes noisy guitars, and that’s a subgenre I can usually get behind. That’s the world that Yo La …
Bakesale (1994) by Sebadoh
Harmacy is the only Sebdaoh record I’ve heard more than a few times and so it is the one I also think of when I listen to other records of theirs. It’s also particularly catchy compared to their earlier records, at least as far as I know, which can make it a little bit harder …
Painful (1993) by Yo La Tengo
I have only ever heard one Yo La Tengo album, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, and I suspect it has ruined me for their earlier career (or, perhaps, the entirety of the rest of their career). That record may or may not be their best – I wouldn’t know – but it …
Last Splash (1993) by The Breeders
This is a relatively diverse set of pretty catchy alternative rock songs, most of which manage to sound unique enough to stand out from the sheer number of records like this.
Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements (1993) by Stereolab
I am familiar with what one might call “peak” Stereolab, the sound of the band in the mid 19990s. They are not a band I particularly enjoy but they are a band I respect, given their pretty much utterly unique fusion of styles. (They basically have their own genre, in many ways. And I wouldn’t …
Mezcal Head (1993) by Swervedriver
The thing I like about Swervedriver is their diversity; they are the rare shoegaze band that doesn’t seem determined to one thing and one thing only. (In fact, their diversity might call into question the shoegaze label.)
Boces (1993) by Mercury Rev
There is a time in my life where I would have just eaten this up.
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?
On the Mouth (1993) by Superchunk
By reputation, I always thought No Pocky for Kitty was the Superchunk album to listen to. Then I listened to it and, though I appreciated why people like it, I didn’t love. I see the RYM rating is higher for this one. I think I know why. I mean, maybe I know why.
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.