We were the lights, the deserts, the faraway worlds
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.07.30 : Wasting Light - Foo Fighters (2010)
I don't mind a bit of the Foos, but tend to find a whole album a bit too much - I just get a bit bored with it and turn it off. But I've never tried this album, so maybe it would be different. Nah, not really - it's fine but it's not going to surprise anyone. The songs are all well constructed, but none of them particularly jumped out at me - except for "These Days" but only because it made me think "they've already had "Times Like These" - that's just greedy". And that made me think "I really need to listen to "Days Like These" by Billy Bragg" - which probably wasn't the reaction they were looking for. To be fair, I did like "Walk" as well - although it always ridiculously annoys me when I think the last track on the album is the best one.
The channel liked this a lot (much more than other Foos albums from around this time) and also liked the fact that it was recorded in analogue in Dave Grohl's garage - although the point was made that Dave Grohl's garage is probably still huge! "Walk" also got a shout out for being a fine track. Wikipedia has a surprising amount on the album (321 milliPeppers) - but most of it is to do with the fact that it was recorded in analogue in Dave Grohl's garage and disappointingly at no point do they tell us how big his garage is. Obviously, I searched the rest of the internet to see if I could find out and was extremely pleased to find an NME page which claimed to have a video tour of his garage, but the page was so full of random adverts I couldn't actually find said video, so gave up and decided it wasn't all that important really.
"Customers also listened to" QOTSA, Audioslave and Velvet Revolver - no major surprises there. Overall, I didn't mind this album, but The Foo Fighters are one of those bands I'm just going to stick with their greatest hits, I'm afraid.
20.07.31 : Stranger - Balmorhea (2012)
Never heard of the album or artist - and their name isn't even inspiring me to make a random guess at the genre involved. And having listened to it, I'm going to say it's squarely in the "perfectly pleasant" genre. There seems to be quite a degree of skill involved (as far as I recognise these things!) and it's actually quite nice to have on in the background whilst working (or more accurately, typing this up when I should be working) - but I can't imagine a scenario where I'd think "hmmm - yes, definitely time for some Balmorhea". I think I'd have had a different view if there had been some words - I do seem to have a problem with instrumental albums. And yes, I realise this is entirely my problem.
The channel had two thumbs up and one "nice" comment. Wikipedia has an entry for the band (they're a "minimalist instrumental ensemble" apparently) but nothing on the album at all.
"Customers also listened to" a load of other people that I suspect may also be minimalist instrumental ensembles, but I'm never going to bother finding out, I'm afraid. There's nothing wrong with this and I'm perfectly happy to listen to it but I'm just never going to remember it exists - sorry!
20.08.03 : Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - M83 (2011)
I remember listening to this back in the day and enjoying it, but hadn't listened to it in yonks (it's a technical term) so was pleased to catch up with it again - and yeah, I still like it and it feels very fresh. The tracks flow past you very nicely - it's possibly a little long at 73 minutes, but I can find it in my heart to forgive them because it didn't feel nearly as long as some 50 minute albums. I'm sure they'll be pleased to hear this. I like the pleasingly busy album cover as well.
The channel had two thumbs up and a couple of complimentary comments. Wikipedia had a reasonable amount on the album - mostly about the positive critical reception, but it also did surprisingly well commercially, particularly in the US where it got to #15 (whereas it only got to #44 in the UK, which somewhat surprised me). I was also somewhat intrigued by the fact that someone has created a ballet based upon the album - I imagine that's "interesting".
"Customers also listened to" an odd mix - Gotye, MGMT, Foster The People and Bastille. Very odd indeed. But I was pleased to be reminded about this album and really enjoyed revisiting it. Thanks!
So, three albums from consecutive years - I don't think we've had that before. And it's an easy win for 2011 and M83 for me.
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