Everything Everything—Get to Heaven (2015):
Seemed at first like it was going to be interesting, but ended up wearing out its welcome (358/489)
The Housemartins—London 0 Hull 4 (1986):
Very straightforward 80s britpop. Bit tepid (359/489)
311—Music (1993):
Sounds like a less-polished RHCP. Not a fan (356/489)
Danny Brown—Atrocity Exhibition (2016):
I thought for sure that his voice was going to grate on me, but it really fits the frantic unhinged tone he's going for here. 5 outta 5 (357/489)
Slapstick—Slapstick (1997):
Was ready to be annoyed about a "-punk" act going 54min, but it's a compilation from a band that didn't really publish. Maybe an interesting story, if nothing else (354/486)
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong—The Great Outdoors Jam (2017):
Regrettably mediocre jam music (355/486)
BABYMETAL—METAL FORTH (2025):
Def still a novelty act. Fun enough, though.(351/483)
Paco de Lucía—Almoraima (1976):
I'm a sucker for spanish guitar. A+ (352/483)
Lift To Experience—The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads (2001):
Opened strong, but then settled into replacement-level post-rock (353/483)
I was always a Bombadil liker, and I'm proud to report on this latest read that I still am
Less Than Jake—Hello Rockview (1998):
Tony Hawk Pro Skater Soundtrack ass. This clocks in pretty damn late to the party on ska, but right in the middle of pop punk's reign. It's worse than other ska that's come up on here, and middle of the pack among the pop punk.
Album 350/477
The Who—Quadrophenia (1973):
Despite inventing the indulgent concept album as we understand it, I’ve always liked The Who’s efforts there less than those of Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, etc. Even Jethro Tull mocking this kind of thing with “Thick As A Brick” works better for me
Album 349/477
I feel like the site culture feels bad for reasons beyond just who the users are, so it's gotta be something more structural that could improve the art talk. Something like private accounts & opt-out for people's posts hitting the discovery feed, more tools to filter out the greek chorus.
These days I'm mostly treating it as a training ground to write more concisely online
Tom Petty—Wildflowers (1994):
Better than the one on the main list, but it's still pretty much just oldies radio to me (347/469)
Current 93—All the Pretty Little Horses (1996):
I sometimes like it when an album's this far up its own ass, but this one's not really my type (348/469)
Garmarna—Vedergällningen (1999):
Weird swedish folk rock thing with kind of an electric stink on the first couple tracks. Listened to it yesterday morning while buried under two feet of snow, so it fit the mood really well. I liked it.
Album 346/469
Tyler, The Creator—Flower Boy (2017):
I owe it some more listens. Normally it puts me to sleep when hip hop clocks in at this tempo, but this one held my attention the whole time
Album 344/459
Lady Gaga—Artpop (2013):
DotA epic plays youtube ass. From that brief era when pop producers were making the talent get in on this "dubstep" thing that was sweeping the clubs. Props for committing 110%, tho
I'm floored by how much I enjoyed this. Weirdly consistent for a pop album
Album 343/459
The Civil Wars—Barton Hollow (2011):
Started as pretty decent sleepy music, but got more Generic Country as it went on (Album 341/459)
Lizzy McAlpine—Older (2024):
I'll be honest, I'm a week behind on posting this one here, and I remember nothing about it (Album 342/459)
Mac Miller—Circles (2020):
Another one where reading up on the context makes me feel vaguely guilty for not liking it very much (Album 339/459)
Eric B. & Rakim—Paid In Full (1987):
Music so dated that it's looped back around to being cool again (Album 340/459)
Jason Isbell—Foxes in the Snow (2025):
For being Not My Genre, the country & singer-songwriter entries here have been surprisingly decent (Album 337/459)
Zero 7—When It Falls (2004):
Moon Safari at home. Pretty alright, though (Album 338/459)
Modern Life Is War—Witness (2005):
There is so much goddamn hardcore and post-hardocre on this stupid list. I grow weary of it.
Album 336/459
Counting Crows—August And Everything After (1998):
I mean it just kind of is what it is. Mid-tempo, a little bit whiny, production holds up pretty well, but the thing's just fucking boring. "Music compatible with shopping" as the wise man once said
Album 335/459
Warren Zevon—Excitable Boy (1978):
Top-shelf Dad Rock, and good hanogver music. I'd considered sending this one in & I'm glad someone else did (331/459)
Deafheaven—Sunbather (2013):
Excellent stuff, probably the first Shoegaze-adjacent thing that I've actually liked without needing to try (334/459)
M83—Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (2011):
Only "Midnight City" broke containment. Very representative 2010s indie pop. Maybe more nostalgic than enjoyable (318/459)
Avenged Sevenfold—City Of Evil (2005):
Terrible. US bands can't do power metal, *way* too insecure for the necessary flamboyance (328/459)
BABYMETAL—BABYMETAL (2014):
Bit of a meme band, was a fun shock for the first few, but the bit got old pretty fast (301/459)
of Montreal—Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (2007):
Poppy indie. "Adventurous" which usually > "Maudlin" for me, but also often = "Annoying," unfortunately (307/459)
Talking Heads—Stop Making Sense (1984):
My preferred Talking Heads era, and more deserving of a slot on the original list than most of their actual entries (286/459)
Swans—To Be Kind (2015):
I was getting bored of post-rock, and then this completely got me back on-board. Outstanding work (294/459)
Ween—Quebec (2003):
I want to like these guys more than I actually do, but fun enough (280/459)
Bo Burnham—Inside (2021):
dunno if "aged badly" is exactly my feeling, but the time-capsuleness of it doesn't overcome that it's just kinda obnoxious. Probably did Burnham some good to make tho (284/459)
Accidentally fell off with posting these on here, though tbf the hit rate hasn't been very good for a while. Memorable ones below:
Bright Eyes—I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005): Lyrics-forward can be tough for me, and I should maybe one day get over my distaste for slide guitar (275/459)
Getting a head start on Fellowship and I'm taken aback by how much this slaps. I know I was like 13 when I last took a crack at it, but I remember it being a lot drier than it is
Unparalleled 60s Kitsch: Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3fZhJN4Tdc
Screenshot from the Rankin-Bass Hobbit cartoon: "Dopesmoker Edition," where all the audio has been replaced with Sleep's "Dopesmoker." Created by Gary King.
Mood Board:
Hobbit I-IV: - The narration is so conversational - English Pub Guy trolls - Thorin got put in a sack same as the rest of the idiots but still wants to be dignified - Important depiction of The Elves as fancy-free goofballs. Hecklers. - I remember just enough of silmarillion stuff that it’s very funny for Bilbo’s takeaway of Elrond to be “seems like a guy whose dad was important” - ah yeah the named runic weapons, very very norse saga - Rock Giants! Vampire baseball - goblin manhattan project Hobbit V-IX - Bilbo really is the primary template for the arthur dents and rincewinds of future british comedic literature. Self-pitying bois.
- Gollum’s described like something out of a moomin book. Makes sense Tove Jannson did illustrations for an edition of this. - “The answer’s not a kettle boiling over, as you seem to think from the noise you’re making” goddamn man - Whole sequence still rules, especially because these two are pretty evenly matched. peas in a pod. - More Ring Implication & foreshadowing than I remember! - (AH wow it’s because this part was rewritten between publishings! I distinctly remember my mom having a big negative reaction to the “finding’s keeping” line, which is only in the old publishing) - First solid Burgle - Wargs got language!
- Beorn’s so cool. It’s interesting to have gotten the bombadil diversion in lotr, while Beorn just got written out of it entirely. - Fun parallel to Gandalf organizing the Dwarves for this bit compared to Bilbo at the beginning. Still very much a Bit though. - Bilbo taking a page out of gandalf’s book for dealing with the spiders. Bit more swashbuckling. - *Extremely* interesting that Tolkien contextualizes the wood-elves (and elves in general) in this one as a type of faerie from the land of Faerie. Much more traditionally british folklore. - Jailbreaks always welcome
Hobbit X-XIV - much like the odyssey, the big memorable parts are in the first half. Lake town & ascent don’t got much interesting to me. - Narratorial disrespect for dwarves ramps up - Bilbo & Smaug really got the same energy as riddles in the dark. Something in the cant to it, the back & forth Hobbit XV-End - Lol @ the thrush needing to find another bird. World of talking animals but there’s still communication problems - I remember my mom having Thoughts on some of the moral complexities w/ the arkenstone thievery & negotiations. - Coming home to his stuff being auctioned off remains extremely funny
Reading along w/ Shelved by Genre for the Lord of the Year project. Haven’t touched any of this series in over 20 years. Trying to roughly match pace & get notes down before each episode goes up (the *naïve* naïve read). Finished The Hobbit today, notes below:
The Eleventh Hour, by Graeme Base
Sonic the hedgehog falling down a waterslide in labyrinth zone
The Podcast “Homestuck Made This World”
Palmer House from Twin Peaks (shot from s3 finale)
Mood Board
House of Leaves notes Navidson Record >>>>>>> all the Johnny Truant stuff. ch VIII: Interesting that the morse code thing invades the footnotes JT’s definitely making up the sex he’s having during these digressions Holloway going crazy in Ch IX is extremely Michael Crichton (derogatory) The whacky footnote orientation is cute, but also it seems like most of these contain no actual content of interest. more there’re for the vibe of the thing. on the one hand i’d prefer there to be more of a payoff for following the threads, but on the other hand the text had just got done warning me against going too slow.
Page 141: hasn’t happened yet, we’ll see if ai art moves the needle at all page 320: “had exhaustion not caught up with *me*”??? - prefer this less as a clue of Zampanò being a character from the record, and more as a 4th wall break in his narration page 336: Minotaur cuts: curious what the “disturbing coincidence” is - ah ok JT seeing himself in it Book ended: more straightforward than I was expecting it to be, most of the time when it decided to get goofy with turning the book sideways and/or backtracking were not too many layers deep; more for vibe than puzzle-solving
Navidson reading House of Leaves in the void, burning the pages: At first glance, commentary about the act of reading? Writer has big thoughts about writing, as they tend to. Johnny Truant storyline never rose above interminable. Gen X ass notions about depth & extremity. Just go listen to some NiN you fucking dork. The overall structure of this is interesting in that it’s actively prompting the reader in interpretative directions
House of Leaves first read takeaways:
Marillion—Misplaced Childhood (1985):
It's an interesting historical artifact, if nothing else. Demonstrates that 80s production really, really screws up the vibes when trying to cargo-cult Gabriel-era Genesis. Phil Collins & co definitely made the right move by pivoting to pop music
Album 273/427
