The Batlord

TBH that album's kinda gimmicky. It's got some fantastic hooks but it tries so hard to sound like a modern 80s pop album that it doesn't have much personality, and the production is bland to boot. I think the solidness of at least some songs combined with the different approach suckered in a lot of people. Madonna's Confessions on the Dance Floor does a lot of the same things while being a lot better.

That's just a silly little fun album. Approved.

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MicShazam

Turns out there's a reason why people only remember a couple of their songs. George Michael had one hell of a voice, but Wham! was a questionable outlet for said voice. So much corny production everywhere. Makes me happy the 80's are long gone. I still like Last Christmas, but that one isn't even on an album, so it's safe to say their albums suck.

I wanna get a full impression of Pure Heroine first, but if I like it at all, Melodrama would follow eventually no doubt.

That pretty much describes my take on that 80's flavored Taylor Swift album that everyone was raving about a few years ago. I thought it was a thin cup of tea and stuffed in too many shallow 80's cliches instead of just trying to focus on solid songs. There's still not one single Swift album I can get along with.

I guess I've liked some songs off that Madonna album. Moments on the album kinda did Abba better than they did themselves.

Hollaback Girl is pretty annoying though. But I'll survive it.

The Batlord

I love the first half or two thirds of 1989. It tries to be 80s cause pop in general was trying to be 80s at the time (maybe still today I don't know) but doesn't dive so headfirst that you roll your eyes. And the songs are pop majesty so **** you. This is one of the absolute jams of the last decade of pop. I love how Taylor is being self-aware while also unintentionally showing that no matter how self-aware she tries to be she's still crazy. Not that I would know anything about that.

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The Batlord

I feel like our differences in pop are basically the same as our differences in metal and illustrates a lot of the stupid stances on pop that so many people (men) have. You don't have much of an ear for aggression in metal and also don't seem to have much of an ear for bombass club thumping pop whereas both are what I'm about, and I think our differences kind of show that both aspects of those genres are actually really linked. I mean Slayer killing your eardrums really isn't all that different from Ke$ha killing the dance floor when you really think about it. It's just energy.

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MicShazam

She might be due for a second chance by now, but I really haven't had a good track record with Swift.

MicShazam

I have a tendency to like pop albums with some layered production and maybe often a slightly melancholy undertone. I've noticed that my favorite pop albums are not really the most bright sounding ones. I love a moody pop album like Kylie's Fever, for example. That one is like the ideal pop album for me, pretty much. Body Language being close behind, and that album has a lot of details in the production that really give it some flavor with repeat listens. Variety, layered music, synths and vocal performances with some personality and nuance. Hooks are still very important, of course. It's pop.

Charli XCX is pretty straight to the point though, and I like the two albums I have with her.

But yeah, I think I don't think there's that far from catchy, energetic thrash to catchy, energetic pop. If you think about it, much thrash is centered around a succession of shameless hooks. It's just that those hooks come in the form of riffs.

The Batlord

Prexactly.

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Anteater

I dunno why anyone bothers with Taylor Swift when you can get real 80's pop revivalists like Dana Jean Phoenix or groups like GUNSHIP on queue. The synthwave scene is where it's at boys n' girls.

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Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

The Batlord

I bother with Taylor Swift cause she got bangers. I don't give a **** about your revivalists. I get enough of that in metal.

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MicShazam

I kinda got sick of the synth wave stuff I heard already all the way back around when Drive came out and people started ripping off Kavinsky.

Most of the synthwave music that I've heard is just very musically obvious and banal. Of course I haven't heard nearly everything. But a friend of mine was really into it and threw various tracks at me now and then.