Mar 24, 2025 Some amazing threads by @Wreckless , @DiggleDogg69 , @Yeez , and etc., have given me inspiration to start doing something similar myself. My plan for fighting the plagiarism allegations is rather simple: I intend to write about albums I enjoy; be it ones I listened to for a thousand times already, or ones I freshly discovered. Although the primary purpose of the thread is to archive my favorite records, it will also (hopefully) function as a place where the forum’s users - those bored enough to actually end up here - might stumble upon some music they end up liking. I will be posting irregularly, whenever I feel like yapping my a--- off lol. The albums I covered so far: Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991.) The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985.) MGMT - Congratulations (2010.) Silver Jews - The Natural Bridge (1996.) Touché Amoré - Stage Four (2016.) Pulp - Different Class (1995.)
Mar 24, 2025 Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991.) Talk Talk is a band that underwent total transformation with their two final records. The albums Spirit of Eden (1988.) and Laughing Stock (1991.) see the band break free from the shackles of synthpop and new wave - genres that made them big in the first place. Now, I’m not a hater of synths or jolly 80s dance tunes, I love em to bits. Thank god, though, that the Mark Hollis led outfit followed through with a radical shift into a more art-rock, post-rock and even ambiental space. Laughing Stock is the absolute culmination of this evolution. This album is f---ing amazing. It may require some patience, but once the dreamy electric organs, paired with the warm guitars, click, the songs get under your skin. As much as I’ve tried over the years, I am yet to find something I dislike on here. Laughing Stock is immensely poetic and powerful. The lyricism here invokes something visceral, and so does Hollis’ performance. The vocals act as an instrument that additionally furthers the atmosphere achieved by the great production. The singer is one with the music, nothing is out of place.Sometimes I listen to this project when going to sleep because of how laid back it is lol. The vibes when you’re barely awake and this is playing are insane. It literally has me ascending. Feels like an acid trip. That said, this album may take time to click for some. Years back, when I was first listening to it, I was bored out of my mind. Now it is one of my all time favorites. Seriously, I love this thing.
Mar 25, 2025 The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash (1985.) I’ve been familiar with The Pogues for years now but sadly only dove deeper into their music after the passing of their frontman, Shane MacGowan. This is a record that I’ve revisited very recently and only then did I fall in love with it. In my opinion this album is not only a cornerstone of folk-rock, it also gave birth to a whole new genre of music - folk-punk. Technicalities aside, this amazing LP is so innovative because of the badass way in which it blends elements of celtic tunes and shanties with these rough styles and topics pioneered in the 70s and 80s by the forefathers of punk. The band on this album sounds absolutely spectacular and sets the stage perfectly for the late MacGowan’s songwriting. His songs cover a variety of topics, there’s the opening track The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn which epitomizes the alcohol-fuelled lifestyle of the frontman. This is a joyful tune with a materialistic worldview which only gets better upon further listens. The instrumentation on it sounds like a st. Patrick’s day parade and is real ear candy for those who don’t find music like this grating. Although this song kicks the album off perfectly, it does not reflect its themes entirely. Hidden behind these musical tales of folk heroes and traditions of long ago are a bunch of innovative tunes which give testimony to the album’s impressive songwriting. I’d point out the song The Band Played Waltzing Matilda which is a gut wrenching composition about the atrocities of war and its consequences on the survivors. This is just one of the examples of how The Pogues embodied the social-commentary element of punk music, but did it in a drastically different way. I’d most definitely recommend this album to all the fans of folk music. I also see it as a must-listen for everybody who enjoys punk, too. The project is a classic and a real gem that I’m grateful to have discovered. RIP to Shane MacGowan
Mar 27, 2025 MGMT - Congratulations (2010.) I’ve been a fan of MGMT for the longest time and can confidently say that it all started with this album. Congratulations is the duo’s sophmore effort which sees them expand on the motifs and ideas found on their acclaimed debut record Oracular Spectacular. Besides having been proof of the duo refusing to be boxed in into the ‘feel-good, movie soundtrack’ synth-pop music styles present on their first record, Congratulations was also a show of great artistic improvement. As Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser polished all the flaws and imperfections (mostly of technical nature) that dragged down the quality of Oracular Spectacular, they stumbled upon a new niche to build their catalogue upon. MGMT always nurtured the psychedelic feel of their music, but it wasn’t until this album that they fully embraced it. While their debut at times felt psychedelic and hypnotic, the song structures just were not there. It lacked a kind of complexity that the duo later acquired with experience. This album played a big part in that. The thing about Congratulations that keeps blowing me away even afer all these years is how well it is sequenced. Not only does every song have its place on the tracklist, each song offers limitless interpretations as well. Seriously, the writing on most MGMT records is absolutely amazing. It shows great variety of topics and moods alike. Side by side these slightly mystical songs with no concrete meaning, appear tunes that pay homage to the duo’s musical influences. The song Siberian Breaks is a 12 minute masterpiece of neo-psychedelia with amazing production and unfathomably innovative pacing and lyricism throughout; it is only logical that MGMT would follow this song, their magnum opus, with a sweet tune about Brian Eno. Although there is a sonical signature that is consistent throughout the album, it keeps you guessing about what each following track will be going for. This goes a long way in making the project so playful and engaging. As MGMT ventures into new territories and experiments with indie rock & prog instrumentation, they leave you asking yourself what these guys were doing making generic synth-pop in the first place. Congratulations sounds like the work of two seasoned veterans who approach their craft with great mastery. It is a project that is both grand and intimate, indie yet big-budget. There is a lot to admire about this record, it is such a great, one of a kind album. I’d like to conclude this by warmly recommending anyone who may be reading this to give Siberian Breaks a listen if they haven’t heard it yet. Even more so to those who smoke lol. Light one up and give it a spin for sure! MGMT created a gem with this album, one that I believe will keep aging well and reaching new listeners for years to come.
Mar 30, 2025 Silver Jews - The Natural Bridge (1996.) The Natural Bridge, one of my all time favorite records released by one of my all time favorite bands - Silver Jews. On second thought, I’d hesitate calling Silver Jews a true band since, as made clear by the record I’m writing about right now, the outfit was masterminded by David Berman, who was its sole permanent member. One of my picks in the AOTWclub was American Water, a record that features equally brilliant performances from both Berman and the members of Pavement. This album, although similar in some ways, has a different origin story. Jealous of the success of Pavement and the band’s founders - Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, Berman turned inward and decided on working on a new album. He had decided that the new record would pretty much be a solo effort and thus teamed up with the Drag City producer Rian Murphy who’s job was to make Berman’s ideas come to fruition. The Natural Bridge is unlike any other Jews’ record. You can really hear this loneliness and isolation caused by the absence of Malkmus and Nastanovich - Berman was coming up with these songs on his own, which, in my opinion, is what makes them this great in the first place. Something I’ve noticed with Berman’s music is that he tends to start off his albums in a very iconic manner. Thus, the Natural Bridge starts off with the track How to Rent a Room and the lines: No I don’t really want to die, I only want to die in your eyes. This is just one of the examples of the alienation that irradiates this project. Now, Berman was always a pretty miserable and depressed person. Although most his songs are poetic and brilliantly written, one does not play them in a feel-good context when searching for sonical rays of sunshine. The Natural Bridge takes the darkness, the pessimism and the great songwriting of Berman’s music and pushes all of those to even greater heights. I cannot stress enough how amazing his writing on here is. These songs are prime examples of how talented this man was. Some material on here makes it clear that this was written by an actual poet. (Seriously, Berman was academically educated for this stuff.) The dense writing on here makes me glad that the project features music more subdued than, for example, American Water. It is simpler, more rustic and does not aim to impress with never before heard guitar sounds and solos. This is precisely what makes the record feel so familiar and comforting. It isn’t flashy or grand. The singing isn’t perfect, and the compositions are not experimental nor as ambitious as they are on his later albums. The simple instrumentation gives room to the lyricism, and it does so extremely well. No, the stars don’t shine upon us we’re in the way of their light. - Ballad of Reverend War Character To me this is as good as country rock, folk-rock, americana, or whatever you want to call it, can get. It shows how brilliant yet sincere Berman was. While at times desperate and self-loathing, this record is also witty as h--- in the way it tackles some of these philosophical topics and the nuances of living. Berman wears his post-modern literary influences on his sleeve while simultaneously showcasing their main ideas in a different light; one that perhaps can’t be called a light due to its dark tendencies and gloomy symbolisms. What If life is just some hard equation On a chalkboard in a science class for ghosts And you can live again But you’ll have to die twice in the end In the end/ we’ll meet again. - Inside the Golden Days of Missing You Cannot recommend this record enough. Easily my favorite SJ album.
Apr 5, 2025 Touché Amoré - Stage Four (2016.) This is a band that I’ve discovered a few years back but had struggled to connect with their music - until I heard this album. Stage Four is a record that is very bitter-sweet. Although powerful and great all around, it is a conceptual piece which sees the frontman - Jeremy Bolm, trying to come to terms with the passing of his mother. Touché Amoré, sound-wise, is your typical hard rock band which relies on ferocious guitars, punchy drums and powerful screamo vocals to get its point across. This description of the band sounds pretty formulaic, and as such their music up until this project was pretty hit or miss - you either love that kind of stuff, or just avoid it because it is not your prefered choice of music. Stage Four is an album that transcends these stylistic limitations that I myself often place upon the music I listen to by way of trying to categorize everything under certain labels of genres. Despite being a fan of said labels and the technicalities that come with the hobby of being a music enthusiast, I myself cannot argue against the fact that some records are best left untouched during such endeavours of giving everything its specific denomination. This is a record marked by an excruciating sadness. The themes of loss, grief, death, and the frailty of life assume the central position on this album. These songs pretty much abduct the listener and take them into a place of great sorrow; one that they are not permitted to leave until the album’s final track, Gather, ends. This album is fairly short; the 12 tracks divide the 35 minute runtime into a concise musical epitaph of sorts, one that boasts convincing performances from Bolm and the rest of the band alike. While the instrumentals achieve great mix of melancholy and hard-rock punchiness, the singer commands these tracks with his dominant execution of these lyrically harrowing tracks. The writing on this album is seriously impressive and is made even better by its haunting melodies. One has to also appreciate how clear everything sounds; this is not the type of an album on which you’d want to hear muddy, drowned out vocals. The emotional weight warrants that these topics be approached with decency, and the band delivers big time. I’d put this album next to A Crow Looked at Me by Mount Eerie, Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens and Hospice by The Antlers (this one is absolute a---, though) content-wise. It is very mood dependent and does not really make you feel all that good. Still, though, it is an immense piece of music that I’d recommend to anyone that is a fan of feeling miserable. Seriously guys, this is a pretty d--- great record. Here is a small taste:
Apr 10, 2025 Non-typical post but this is as good place as any to share the news of the greatest brit-pop band making a comeback. Pulp released a single from their upcoming album today! It has been like 25 years since their last project and I cannot be more excited. Will definitely write about their classic album, Different Class, someday, but for now I share the excellent new track:
Apr 21, 2025 Pulp - Different Class (1995.) I don’t really vibe with the concept of guilty pleasure music and the whole deal of concealing one’s enjoyment of something because it is considered subpar by the wider audiences. That said, if I were to conform to that notion and proclaim that certain type of music is a guilty pleasure of mine, 9/10 times I’d be talking about british pop of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This subgenre spawned a ton of s-----y, forgettable music. For every 10 corny britpop albums you listen to, you will be lucky to find one that does something impressive, fun, and authentic. There are some bands (Oasis, Blur…) who managed to subvert this status quo with some of their releases, but even they (looking at you, Oasis) later fell off and started dropping musical turds that painted the rest of their catalogues with the brown hue of s---. Pulp is a band that succeeded in staying authentic up until the very end. I keep talking about this group way too much and am probably making everyone tired with my pointless soliloquys aimed at celebrating this band’s output, but bear with me; perhaps I condition you into agreeing. Pulp is a project centered around Jarvis Cocker. An artist who has been active since the 1980s. He’s a very prolific guy whose music had been falling on deaf ears for more than 10 years following the band’s inception, the public did not want to give it a shot at all. This all changed in the early 90s when the band’s earlier material started taking off. This was the prelude to the release of Different Class, the album I am writing about today. The title of this project leaves little room for imagination regarding what kind of thematic approach the music on it would take. Almost in a Charles Dickens-like manner, the tracks here are built upon topics of wealth inequality of the UK at the time. These topics are reimagined through Cocker’s unending wit, his edgy lyricism, and talent for painting a lyrical picture that hyper realistically portrays the realities of the country’s subcultures. Moving on from the pretentious tangents about this album’s background and the context in which it was recorded, I will take some time to touch on my own personal highlights and what, to me, makes those songs so great. Scratch that. Now that I think of it, choosing favorites from this project seems impossible for me. Over the years my experience with this album and the good times it made even better have caused a shift in my brain under which I perceive this tape as a single, viciously fun song. The immaculate flow of the project has a lot to do with that as well. I am more or less purposefully embracing the irony of describing something that is meant to be filthy, emotional, and unapologetic with this Britannica vocabulary. I partly feel like Pulp deserves its flowers in form of a serious review. The album opens with Mis-shapes, the song wastes no time and swiftly kicks off with its lively instrumental. This song, like every other on this record, is a stellar example of the singer’s great sense of melody. Not just melody, the way he manages to display his personality, too. The song Pencil Skirt is a pretty simple track. Again, this album is not really about impressive playing of instruments; it thrives with Cocker’s edgy, borderline narcissistic approach to storytelling. I have got to mention that this album throughout makes such good use of spoken-word segments. Those add so much flavor. The tracks Common People and Disco 2000 are ones that most people have probably heard of. Bangers, imo. I hate to be that guy but reading the lyrics while listening really elevate these songs from cheap MTV anthems into something iconic. It is all in the nuances that make the theme of, well ‘different class’, pop. A prevalent motif on this album, like on many others, is drug use and how the consequences of partaking in these forbidden fruits of the lower class can affect one’s mind. Again, this is done in a way that does not condemn such a way of life. The tracks almost seem pro-drug. There’s Sorted For E’s & Wizz, a song about the notorious Stone Roses performance @ Spike Island. A lively tune with, again, great melodic personality. My favorite’s gotta be Bar Italia, though. What a gorgeous track. It really takes me back to my party days, lol. It’s probably very obvious that I have a soft spot for this record; I find it formative for me and one of the more important projects in my music-listening history. The album might not click for everyone, but the ones who get it, they absolutely get it, man. It sucks that the band never saw the acclaim they deserved. I hope their next release in two months will get more recognition. The upcoming album is their first release in 25 years. Although I’m unsure about what to expect sonically, I don’t doubt one bit that it will be absolutely spectacular.
Apr 25, 2025 at 5:01 AM New Viagra Boys album!!! One of the most interesting bands out right now in my opinion. They have a very fun style. Can’t wait to dive in, Cave World is one of my favorite albums of the 2020s so far.
Apr 25, 2025 at 5:11 AM Never need viagra cuz my b---- look like Anthony fantano but the viagra boys tracks you’ve shared before were cool and they been on my list, def gotta add this to my library
Apr 25, 2025 at 5:20 AM Who knows maybe you become a Viagra boy too. If the album does what it’s supposed to, and your boy is still unrelentlessly viagra’d, a rule of thumb is to hit the E.R. after 2 hours. But fr though, I hope this one is as good as some of their last albums.
Apr 27, 2025 at 6:37 PM Happy to report that viagra boys f---ing delivered big with this album. Currently obsessed with track 2, Bog Body. There is definitely a lot to like on this record though. Pyramid of Health is a top 5 track from them, too. In my opinion.
