The sunset threw a tantrum

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Albums of 2021

#48 : Home Video - Lucy Dacus

Some of the year’s best musical storytelling lived in the Virginia songwriter’s third record, her writing newly amplified by subtle hints of pop propulsion and grit that evoked how Elliott Smith expanded his sound. Dacus reflects on her teenage years – of church and bible camp, of budding queer desire amid a culture of shame and damnation, of the fantasies that let her escape these limitations – with such tender curiosity that these vignettes feel less like fixed memories than forensic crime scene reconstructions.

Never heard of Lucy, but female singer-songwriters tend to be my kinda thing, so I was looking forward to it.  And I didn't mind it at all - I like her voice and the songs seem fine, but felt like they would need some careful listening for them to stick.  I liked "Going Going Gone" and also "Thumbs", although I'd have to say that the lyrics are super-dark.  I think I could like it a lot, but it would be work to get there.

In a first for the list, Wikipedia does have an entry for the album, it doesn't contain a lot but does feature this odd curiosity - "In late February 2021, certain fans of Dacus received a VHS tape of a new song in the mail".  I think I'd be slightly intimidated if someone sent me a VHS tape in the mail - and I'd have no idea where I'd play it.  The album was well received critically, but didn't exactly storm the charts - #85 in the UK and #107 in the US.  Her entry also includes the following somewhat strange fact - "she began studying film at Virginia Commonwealth University, but left to pre-emptively eliminate future issues with student debt and estrangement".  "I'm not dropping out - I'm pre-emptively eliminating future issues".  

"Customers also listen to" The Weather Station, serpentwithfeet and Tomberlin - nope, never heard of any of em.  I liked this though - not as much as I think I could though, so I hope to check it (and some of her other stuff) some more.

#47 : WINK - Chai

The truly self-assured rarely make a noise about it, and so it is with the third album by Japanese girl group Chai. To blissed-out, dreamy synth-pop that buoys you along like a lazy river – occasionally spiked by classic rap throwbacks and arcade-game electro – the four-piece dreamily hymn the joys of food, self-acceptance and protest, nurturing their own laid-back take on pleasure activism.

No clue what to expect from this - even after reading the description above.  And what exactly is "pleasure activism"?  Apparently it's doing whatever you want and claiming it's a political statement - I'm glad we sorted that out.  Anyways, having listened to the album, I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it - I can see the lazy river thing, but there's a lot of weird noises in there as you bob along the river.  What it did remind me of (and this is slightly niche) is the games room in Serenity that turns River Tam completely psycho - and I have a suspicion that if I listened to it for too long it would have a similar effect on me.  It's just all a bit too much, I'm afraid.

Again, Wikipedia has an entry for the album but it basically says "it came out and people liked it".  Apparently it's slightly more varied than their previous albums - and yes, I can agree with varied as a comment on it.  "Customers also listened to" Sintaro Sakamoto, Cornelius and Kimonos - I suspect there might be some Asian influences involved. This is all just a bit kitchen-sinky for me though, I'm afraid - and a bit too frenetic to have on as background music.  I didn't hate it, but I've no idea what I'm supposed to do with it.

#50/49 - A fine start
#46/45 - Two pretty good albums