Feeding your cat or slicing artichoke hearts
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
21.02.03 : Collapsed In Sunbeams - Arlo Parks (2021)
I've run across Arlo from time to time but not really paid much attention to be honest, but I know she's got a lot of people interested so was keen to listen to this. And I enjoyed it, but it was more mellow than I was expecting - it's got a lovely summer feel to it, which would be lovely it there was lovely summer feel outside to go with it. It's not something I'd go out of my way to listen to, but I'd be perfectly happy if someone put it on.
The channel tells us this was a brave choice being nominated unheard but it gave it six thumbs up, one fire, one nice jazz club emoji and a couple of positive comments, so I think he got away with it. Wikipedia has a surprising amount on the album (137 milliPeppers) which contain some nuggets - I was surprised that she was only 20 because it feels like a very mature work. It also tells me that Phoebe Bridgers and Christopher Breaux were involved in writing the album - and I knew Chris was someone famous, but had to cheat in order to remind myself he's Frank Ocean. The album was very well received critically and commercially - #3 in the UK. It feels like it would go down well in the US as well, so I'm not sure whether it's been released over there yet.
"Customers also listened to" Sault, Laura Mvula and Jorja Smith - all of whom make nice enough noises which provide me with varying levels of interest. And I'd say this is on the nicer level of noise, without necessarily providing a great deal of interest.
21.02.04 : On This Perfect Day - Guilt Machine (2009)
Never heard of album or artist and I couldn't decide whether the album cover meant I was in for something heavy or not, so was a bit apprehensive. And it has hints of heavy, but it's hard to describe - Wikipedia goes for "progressive metal" which I can't say I can argue with because I have no idea what it means by that! I actually didn't mind it - it paints an expansive sonic landscape and sounded good through my decent headphones. And also, although it doesn't have the shortest tracks ever, there's enough variation across the tracks to prevent them overstaying their welcome. Bits of it reminded me of "The War Of The Worlds" - which isn't a bad thing in my book.
The channel gave this one nice emoji, a couple of positive comments and then moved on to discussing the finer intricacies of Geri Halliwell's oeuvre (LEAVE GERI ALONE!!!). Wikipedia tells me that Guilt Machine is a side project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen - but I'm sure you knew this already. The album was well received critically, although they couldn't agree whether it was like his previous work or not.
"Customers also listened to", to my complete surprise, a load of people I've never heard of. But I didn't mind it - even if I was unable to describe it.
21.02.05 : Era Of Diversion - Evol Intent (2008)
Another one I had no idea about (we should probably take this as the default position, shouldn't we?) and the names weren't giving me any clues - maybe something heavy-ish? Ah no - drum and bass which we've not seen for a bit, having gone through a phase where it popped up a lot at some point last year. Although it's more like rap and drum and bass ("hardstep drum and bass" according to Wikipedia) - they make some interesting sounds, but they don't sound like they'd be the most fun to spend time with down the pub though.
"Another pint, Dave?"
"You just don't understand that the media and politicians are conspiring to destroy the world"
"Errr - is that a yes?"
"You just don't understand that the media and politicians are conspiring to destroy the world"
"Errr - is that a yes?"
The channel gave this six ultra-fast parrots, one drum roll, two bass clefs, one thumbs up, a couple of positive comments and a couple of "not for me thank you" comments. Wikipedia has an impressively small sentence on the album - "Era Of Diversion is the first studio album by American drum and bass trio Evol Intent". Which made me feel the need to do further research so I went to the group's Wikipedia page, but there was nothing of interest there so I gave up because I was tired after all that effort.
"Customers also listened to", again, a load of people I've never heard of - hardstep drum and bass just isn't my thing I guess. Interesting rather than enjoyable for me
So - not Evol Intent, but the other two are pretty much neck-and-neck. And Arlo gets the lyrics because they jumped out at me, so why don't we give this round to Guilt Machine? Well done, Arjen.
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