@@@ Ladytron: Ladytron (Ladytron Recordings, 2019) Some mainstream electronic pop rock I got to via last week’s All Music notable release email. The opener, Until the Fire, is a rocker while the second tune (clipped below!) is a midtempo ballad. The singer is meaningful and the lyrics impart a futuristic and artistic intention. The sounds are updated ’80s synth pop rock sounds. This isn’t really for folks like me. I’m not really sure who this is for — maybe thirteen old fantasy fiction loving tweens. As music outside of its intended demographic it’s pretty overwrought drama pop but folks love that. I don’t want to get all judgy and shit.
@@@ Yann Tiersen: All (Mute, 2019) If it’s on Mute it’s gonna be aspirationally sophisticated music. It opens up with the sounds of children playing and some New Age piano with electronic garnish. Lord help us all for we need tough jackets to withstand all the cheese that rains down over us. I couldn’t get to the meat of the song, it was really too much for my fragile sensibilities. The second tune, Koad, keeps the piano, switches the children for bird chirps, and then introduces a multitracked female ‘choir’ with lots of ooo-ooo-ooo-oohs. It’s comforting the way a 2X4 to the back of the head is comforting. I’m on the third tune and Tiersen kept the bird chirps from the second track. I hope those birds get their royalties. I think I hear a harmonium which signifies spirituality. I can’t take it anymore, I’m out like bell bottom jeans. I hope this wasn’t aspirationally sophisticated music because if it was it did not succeed, this is undercover New Age cheese.
@@@ Maren Morris: The Bones (N/A, 2019) This tune occupies the #1 slot on Apple Music hot tracks. It uses the metaphor of ‘the bones’ of a house where the visuals may be frayed but the foundation is strong. The tune uses too sonic signifiers that I loather — first off the excessive use of finger snaps and the breathy, I’m about to cream my panties singing style that has infected modern pop. It is accompanied by a simple, clean electric guitar figure. I believe this qualifies as today’s country music — it’s not country music except in peripheral ways but it retains the earnest feelings country music goes for.
YTD recordings listened to: 104
Good music, not list worthy: 59
Not good music: 40
Best: 0
Honorable Mentions: 0
Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Portal, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Moskus, Kendl Winter, Tkay Maidza, Barro, Daniel Khan, Tallawit Timbouctou, Sumac, Tropical Fuck Storm, Harriet Tubman, Ammar 808, Anais Maviel, Chaka Khan