Of all time, The Cure’s Disintegration. Lately, it’s been Kangding Ray’s Zero. Exactly what you need from a great techno record
Doing 3 because I’m eclectic. They are different enough that I feel justified.
Tool - Fear Inoculum
Run the Jewels 2 (3 is incredible also)
Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
I can listen (have listened recently and frequently) to all three repeatedly.
Treat yourself to Fontaines DC’s new album “Romance”!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kZT0QOARqqnSdN_UcUN0qBfANvv4hvaq0
Great thread idea, I’m going to listen to a batch of these as they sound excellent! :)
For me I’m utterly loving the new Kim Deal* album “Nobody Loves You More” - it came out today, and oh yes it’s good!
It’s unexpected with style, almost 60s with brass and strings at times, then there’s other songs that sound modern… and beyond making my ears happy, it’s great songwriting :)
*(Former Pixies bassist and the fronthuman for the Breeders)
Kim Deal rocks! She is one of my all time favorites. I didn’t know she was making music under her own name, I will have to check it out! Thanks!
So I went and listened to the tracks on her bandcamp page. And in a couple days I’ll have the vinyl! What a weird album! I feel like it’s bound to get many repeat listens. So much to take in!
Reminds me of listening to the Alvvays albums. Little awkward at first but clearly something unique and special!
So glad I read your post Go-on-a-steam-train
Awesome! I’m really glad! :) there’s nothing like rocking an album on the day it comes out! I’m dropping lead weighted hints that I need it for christmas, that and being broke are the sole reasons it’s not on order already 😂
i don’t do albums. as a kid, we basically only had recorded-from-radio cassettes. when we got a CD player in like 1999, we mostly bought those “now that’s what i call music” collections. i didn’t really listen to music myself at all until like 18-19. i didn’t see the point. as a result i basically can’t sit through an entire album of the same genre.
is this weird?
Probably not, there’s plenty of people who mostly just listen to the radio and don’t own much music. Sounds much the same. If it doesn’t work for you then it doesn’t work for you!
That’s so interesting! As a kid I remember not liking much music until I found some individual songs that I loved, then I couldn’t get enough and albums were my thing!
I’m a bit of both on albums - some I have on end to end no matter what (R.E.M especially), but then there’s some bands I’m like you and wander off halfway through! :)
Trying to think of bands that genre-hop and might be fun for you end-to-end on one disc
that would be interesting! the few “albums” i have gone through recently have all been by mashup artists, so the genres have been all over the place but the “touch” of the artist has been there throughout.
If you ever get into vinyl, you will appreciate the album format a lot more.
we had a lot of vinyl when i was a child. i listened to that one ELO track a lot. i have no real nostalgia for the sound.
You will never hear a recorded song more clearly than vinyl. A good record player patched into a big 1970s cabinet console. The sound is only beat by live music.
Have you considered that maybe you don’t like music?
going from “i don’t listen to albums” to “maybe you don’t like music” is incredibly strange. i listen to tons of music which i love. i just don’t do albums. I buy loads of songs on bandcamp and have multiple constantly growing playlists hundreds of tracks long.
You will never hear a recorded song more clearly than vinyl
that’s just demonstrably not true. maybe on a perfectly calibrated player in a completely dust-free lab environment with no air movement on a never-played vinyl that was just pressed and has never been moved. as soon as one of those conditions fail to hold the sound is distorted. from an acoustic perspective, live music also tends to have really weird sound and it’s usually muddied by the environment.
You like songs. You don’t like music.
It’s what the part in that one song means when he’s singing
he’s the one who likes all our pretty songs. And he likes to sing along, and he likes to shoot his gun. But he don’t know what it means
what a weird thing to say. please explain.
You will just have to discover it yourself.
Sad, maybe
I love the question! I rarely listen to songs or playlists, and almost never algorithm based streams. Instead I put on albums I like. Even in my 10m-15m drive to work, and do that until I’m tired on an album. So, love the question.
Aesop Rock’s Integrated Tech Solutions. Being a long time fan I thought The Impossible Kid was fantastic. TIK was as creative and ponderous as anything he’d done, but often felt more accessible and personally inviting. While accessibility is not something you generally look for with Aesop, that feeling of being personal really made it pay off. Spirit World Field Guide was good and was interesting, but didn’t work for me as much. Maybe it was a case of enjoying TIK so much, and comparison being the thief of joy? But ITS absolutely feels top notch again. Love it.
Also worth mentioning is Powerman 5000. A year or so ago (while on a kick to my youth) I found out they were still making music and had released an album (The Noble Rot) in 2020. Shortly after I discovered that, they released one in 2024 (Abandon Ship.) They’re not great songs, but they’re all great vibes. The songs feel like they 3/4s to being great to me. Like they kept the dial at a 7 or 8 instead of turning it up to 11. And even when they did turn it up, it was only at the very end. Maybe he’s going for something different, or maybe I’ve changed, but the strength feels off. But damn the vibes are still there.
Low – Long Division (and actually any Low album at the moment)
Radiohead - Kid A
Currently it is Phantogram’s latest album, “Memory of a Day”.
EDIT: If your interest is recent releases, then I think that mehro’s latest album, “Trauma Lullabies” is also very good though a tad short.
Was, is, and probably always will be…
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
Sincere by Khalid