I weren't gonna vent - but what a turn of events
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.11.23 : Antiphon - Alfa Mist (2017)
Never heard of artist or album and I listened to it very early in the morning, so my brain wasn't up to making assumptions about what I was going to experience. But actually, it turned out to be a very good "early in the morning" album - nicely mellow "ambient jazz" (and I can also see it working well late at night). Nothing really jumped out at me and it's not really my kind of thing, but usually I just mentally switch this stuff off after 5 seconds so I was pleasantly surprised to be kept engaged by it - there are some fine musical skills on there. I struggle to imagine I'll remember it even exists the next time I need something like this, but if I do then I'll be pleased to revisit it.
The channel gave this one thumbs up, one "Mmmm - nice" comment and a weird discussion about Gran Turismo's scratch'n'sniff marketing. Obviously. Wikipedia has nothing on the album and not an awful lot of the guy, but he sounds intriguingly talented - I'd be interested to know how many people played on the album because I suspect a lot of it was done by him is his studio, which just happens to also have his bed in it.
"Customers also listened to", to my complete unsurprise, a load of people I'd never heard of. And I won't be rushing to check them out but neither, after having listened to this album, will be I running away screaming, which may well have been the case previously.
20.11.24 : Ritual - White Lies (2011)
I thought White Lies were kinda heavy-ish and I'd heard some of their stuff and not really got into it, so wasn't exactly looking forward to this. But I had totally confused them with someone else - they're much more of a 1980s Joy Division. And whilst I don't generally mind the 80s sound, I found this got very dull very quickly and suffered from the most appalling cliches - "if i'm guilty of anything, it's loving you too much" actually made me laugh out loud. This is one for all the miserablist teenagers out there - and it may not surprise you to hear that I'm very much not a miserablist teenager.
The channel gave this two thumbs and one new joiner. And at no point did anyone say "Mummmmm - that's soooo unfair". Wikipedia states it was met with mixed reviews but gives no examples, which is very unlike it. I was surprised to see it got to #3 in the UK though - and even more surprised to see it got to #95 in the US. It also tells us that it's "the Hartridge twins" on the cover, as if everyone knows they who they are - the internet doesn't enlighten me any further except that their sister was a Youtuber who was the first person in the UK to die in an accident involving an e-scooter.
"Customers also listened to" Editors, We Are Scientists and Glasvegas - all of whom I would pick above this offering, I'm afraid.
20.11.25 : The Voice Of Trucker Youth - Mexican Pets (1996)
The title just made me think "wtf would trucker youth sound like?" and then "Hold on a minute, wtf is trucker youth anyway?" so I think we can say I was suitably intrigued. Hmmmm - it's OK, I guess. At first listen, it feels like a perfectly fine example of that sort of thing from that kind of time but it doesn't really have anything that makes It stand out from the crowd. It feels like an album I could have gotten into at the time and if I had, it would hold a load of memories so I'd still love it - but I didn't, so it doesn't. The sound quality on YouTube really is appalling as well, which doesn't help matters.
The channel included a particularly fine introduction/explanation from the nominator which scared away all the thumbs ups, but there were at least a couple of positive comments. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album but does tell us that the band "never featured a permanent drummer and a string of players graced the stool including two guys called Eric, both of them American". And what more could you possibly need to know about them?
"Customers also listened to" - no idea, since this album doesn't exist on my streaming provider of choice, I'm afraid. A "fine" but no more than that for me, I'm afraid.
And so, in a totally unexpected turn of events, the winner is the ambient jazz offering from the intriguing Alfa Mist - I liked this considerably more than I was expecting to.
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