Trollheart Listens to Every Album on Wiki's List for 2017

Trollheart · 09-28-2017, 01:02 PM

Album title: Vessels
Artist: Starset
Genre: Space Rock/Progressive Rock/EDM/Electronic
Nationality: American
Release date: January 20
Position in Discography: Second
Fear Factor: Low
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Reasonably*
Never heard of this band, but you have to admire someone who has a PhD in electrical engineering, has conducted research for NASA and taught at the International Space University (sounds like something out of Douglas Adams or South Park!) though I do have to admit that as it starts it sounds more like post hardcore or something rather than either of the genres mentioned above. We'll see though. Yeah. I find it hard to see either anything I would recognise as prog rock or space rock here. Not quite sure why those genre tags are assigned to this artist. It is, in fairness, good, even very good. But I feel the genres here are wildly misrepresented, or at best, misassigned. Even electronic, EDM? Don't see it, though in fairness I'm a lot less familiar with those ones than I am with the others. Still, go into this expecting any of the mentioned genres I think you may be disappointed. Go in expecting a decent rock album, you'll be all right.

Check out more from this artist? Maybe
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? *This question doesn't make sense on this occasion.

Expectation Index: 5

GD · 09-28-2017, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I find it hard to see either anything I would recognise as prog rock or space rock here. Not quite sure why those genre tags are assigned to this artist. It is, in fairness, good, even very good. But I feel the genres here are wildly misrepresented, or at best, misassigned. Even electronic, EDM? Don't see it, though in fairness I'm a lot less familiar with those ones than I am with the others. Still, go into this expecting any of the mentioned genres I think you may be disappointed.

Yeah, I think you're better off not relying on wikipedia for genre information. From many of the previous releases you have reviewed it seems to be wildly inaccurate a lot of the time. RYM says this album is Alternative Rock and Electropop. That sound more accurate to you?

Trollheart · 09-28-2017, 02:54 PM

Album title: Another Day
Artist: Steve Ashley
Genre: Folk/Protest Music
Nationality: English
Release date: January 20
Position in Discography: Twelfth
Fear Factor: Low (ish)
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Not really no
Folk and country are a little similar to me: you can have really great, classic or just good albums and artists, and you can have terrible ones. Much of the folk I've heard has been a little dreary and boring (though not all) and to be honest, if this guy is anything like yer wan Julia Byrne I won't be staying long. Well it's not bad to be fair; the old protest song goes well with the harmonica and the Jew's harp, though I do wonder how an almost eight-minute folk song is gonna hold up? That's coming up soon, so stay tuned. To be honest, “There Will Be Pain”, which only falls slightly short of five minutes, drones on for what sounds like two minutes more than it needs to, so I don't hold out too much hope for “The Paper Song”, the aforementioned eight-minuter. Okay well it was entertaining, and not too bad, but it definitely dragged a little. “What Do You Do?” is a total waste of time, less than a minute of him talking and laughing at his own “joke” I guess, but the next track is at least nice.

“For Bruce” is interesting: an acapella tribute to, I assume, someone other than Sir Bruce Forsyth, while “Land of Love” hits out pretty harshly at the NHS. Mind you, much of this is sharp political satire put to music (mostly acoustic) and it's quite good. It's enjoyable but I admit I did find it something of a struggle to get through. I'm just not that big a fan of either folk or protest music to appreciate this, but if it's your bag you'll probably get a lot out of this album.
Check out more from this artist? He's all right but I don't think I'd be in too much of a hurry
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Maybe. Probably.

Expectation Index: 1

Trollheart · 09-28-2017, 05:02 PM

Album title: A Shadow In Time
Artist: William Basinski
Genre: Ambient, Drone
Nationality: American
Release date: January 20
Position in Discography: Twenty-Fourth
Fear Factor: Relatively High
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Not really
I think what triggered the Fear Factor was the use of the word “Avant-garde” when I looked up this guy, but basically ambient and drone don't hold too many fears for me, he said with ill-conceived confidence. This will be interesting: like Mike Oldfield a few albums back, this is a two-track effort, running to a total of just over 43 minutes, and given that the first track is a tribute to the late Bowie, it's pretty sad and haunting. Quite amazing that this is apparently made up of chewed-up tape loops. Yeah, you know, I read that someone said this went by faster than expected, that you lose yourself in the music, and I rolled my eyes. But yeah: I thought we were about three minutes in, checked and we were halfway through the track. It is quite hypnotic and engaging. And now track one is over. That was pretty ****ing cool I must say.

The second track then is much more upbeat and bright, really very uplifting. Damn fine stuff, all told. I might find myself getting into this drone malarkey you know...

Check out more from this artist? yes
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes

Expectation Index: 9

Trollheart · 09-29-2017, 09:38 AM

Album title: Mouth Moods
Artist: Neil Cicierega
Genre: Mashup/Remix
Nationality: American
Release date: January 23
Position in Discography: Third
Fear Factor: Moderate
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No
I'm familiar with the idea of mashups, may have heard one or two, but a whole album of them? Will that not wear thin? Let's see. Hmm. It's certainly clever, all those snippets of different songs mixed together and somehow it doesn't sound like a total mess. The “Popcorn” one is clever. The song “300MB” is ****ing hilarious; “think about the capacity of a three hundred megabyte computer!”

Must be from early eighties. Now they're talking about CD-ROMs. Oh my sides!

Floppy disks! Oh, please stop! It's too much! OK, the production on “Dear Dinosaur” is beyond ****. I don't know if it's just the YouTube version – which was the only way I could get this – though every other track up to this has been fine – or if this is making some statement about prehistoric recording techniques, but it's ****ing awful. Like those old dropouts you used to get on cassette tapes (what do you mean, shut up grandad?) or a radio badly tuned in. Awful.

I guess it was intentional, as we're back on track now with “Annoyed Grunt”. The sampled “D'oh!”'s here are great and really worked in well. This is very clever stuff, and by and large, very entertaining. The “YMCA” mashup is particularly impressive. Yeah, this was fun. Bigstyle.

Check out more from this artist? Quite likely
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yeah

Expectation Index: 8

Trollheart · 09-29-2017, 10:03 AM

Album title: Yes? No?
Artist: Suzy
Genre: K-pop/Soul
Nationality: Korean
Release date: January 24
Position in Discography: Debut
Fear Factor: Low
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Getting there
Another K-pop album eh? Or, rather, an EP, just six songs. Well there's a difference here as there's a definite balladish tone to the opener, and it's very soul. Very nice. I'd say it's one of the better K-pop albums (all right, all right! EPs!) that I've listened to, but technically it's more soul than K-pop. Ah ****! Some idiot is rapping in Korean now. Where was the need for that? Did not fit in with the song at all. Overall though very solid and enjoyable, more mature than your usual K-pop, though again as I say, not really what I'd think of as K-pop.

Check out more from this artist? Yes, when she releases more I may listen all right
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? I have no doubt I will

Expectation Index: 0

Trollheart · 09-29-2017, 10:37 AM

Album title: Drum Chord Theory
Artist: Matt Martians
Genre: Electronic/Hip-Hop
Nationality: American
Release date: January 26
Position in Discography: Debut
Fear Factor: High
Familiar with this artist?No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No
Not a bad start: kind of more leaning on the electronic side than the hip-hop, initially at least. As it goes on it acquires quite a soul feel too. “Southern Isolation” is a good example of this, sense of the Isleys or something about it, very relaxed and cool and smooth. “Alotta Women/Useless” is very annoying though. I could also do without the backwards scratching on whatever the **** it is at the end of “Down”, but overall I don't hate this. Can't say I love it, but I can't say I hate it either. I suppose if I were rating normally it would be slightly higher than a Meh, but not that much.

Check out more from this artist? Unlikely
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? I guess

Expectation Index: 0

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard · 09-29-2017, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Album title: Mouth Moods
Artist: Neil Cicierega

the novelty of this one wore off after a few listens but it was still really enjoyable on the first run through. kinda forgot about it until now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Album title: A Shadow In Time
Artist: William Basinski

could be my AOTY. absolutely mesmerizing. i listened to it daily during the month of its release.

Trollheart · 09-29-2017, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qwertyy

the novelty of this one wore off after a few listens but it was still really enjoyable on the first run through. kinda forgot about it until now.

Yeah, I doubt it would survive multiple listens. Some of it was very interesting though. I'd listen to the Homer one and the YMCA one a few times.

Quote:

could be my AOTY. absolutely mesmerizing. i listened to it daily during the month of its release.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Trollheart · 09-29-2017, 12:15 PM

Album title: Tourist in This Town
Artist: Allison Crutchfield
Genre: Synthpop/Indie Rock/Pop
Nationality: American
Release date: January 27
Position in Discography: Debut
Fear Factor: Low
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? A little
Average RYM Score: 3.08
I don't know either of the bands this lady was in (PS Eliot or Swearin') so this is all new to me. Starts off quite low-key and then suddenly explodes into life. She certainly has a decent voice.”Dean's Room” has a nice new-wave vibe to it, lots of energy, “Sightseeing” has a haunting, yearning feel, mostly driven on piano, while the rolling percussion and buzzy synths really make “Mile Away” something special. Good album. I wouldn't say great album, but certainly worth a listen.
Check out more from this artist? Maybe, though this is her debut so not possible for a while
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yeah I do like a bit of synthpop

Expectation Index: 0

09-28-2017, 01:02 PM	#241 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Vessels Artist: Starset Genre: Space Rock/Progressive Rock/EDM/Electronic Nationality: American Release date: January 20 Position in Discography: Second Fear Factor: Low Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Reasonably* Never heard of this band, but you have to admire someone who has a PhD in electrical engineering, has conducted research for NASA and taught at the International Space University (sounds like something out of Douglas Adams or South Park!) though I do have to admit that as it starts it sounds more like post hardcore or something rather than either of the genres mentioned above. We'll see though. Yeah. I find it hard to see either anything I would recognise as prog rock or space rock here. Not quite sure why those genre tags are assigned to this artist. It is, in fairness, good, even very good. But I feel the genres here are wildly misrepresented, or at best, misassigned. Even electronic, EDM? Don't see it, though in fairness I'm a lot less familiar with those ones than I am with the others. Still, go into this expecting any of the mentioned genres I think you may be disappointed. Go in expecting a decent rock album, you'll be all right. Check out more from this artist? Maybe Check out more from this genre or subgenre? This question doesn't make sense on this occasion. Expectation Index: 5* __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-28-2017, 02:54 PM	#243 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Another Day Artist: Steve Ashley Genre: Folk/Protest Music Nationality: English Release date: January 20 Position in Discography: Twelfth Fear Factor: Low (ish) Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Not really no Folk and country are a little similar to me: you can have really great, classic or just good albums and artists, and you can have terrible ones. Much of the folk I've heard has been a little dreary and boring (though not all) and to be honest, if this guy is anything like yer wan Julia Byrne I won't be staying long. Well it's not bad to be fair; the old protest song goes well with the harmonica and the Jew's harp, though I do wonder how an almost eight-minute folk song is gonna hold up? That's coming up soon, so stay tuned. To be honest, “There Will Be Pain”, which only falls slightly short of five minutes, drones on for what sounds like two minutes more than it needs to, so I don't hold out too much hope for “The Paper Song”, the aforementioned eight-minuter. Okay well it was entertaining, and not too bad, but it definitely dragged a little. “What Do You Do?” is a total waste of time, less than a minute of him talking and laughing at his own “joke” I guess, but the next track is at least nice. “For Bruce” is interesting: an acapella tribute to, I assume, someone other than Sir Bruce Forsyth, while “Land of Love” hits out pretty harshly at the NHS. Mind you, much of this is sharp political satire put to music (mostly acoustic) and it's quite good. It's enjoyable but I admit I did find it something of a struggle to get through. I'm just not that big a fan of either folk or protest music to appreciate this, but if it's your bag you'll probably get a lot out of this album. Check out more from this artist? He's all right but I don't think I'd be in too much of a hurry Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Maybe. Probably. Expectation Index: 1 __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-28-2017, 05:02 PM	#244 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: A Shadow In Time Artist: William Basinski Genre: Ambient, Drone Nationality: American Release date: January 20 Position in Discography: Twenty-Fourth Fear Factor: Relatively High Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Not really I think what triggered the Fear Factor was the use of the word “Avant-garde” when I looked up this guy, but basically ambient and drone don't hold too many fears for me, he said with ill-conceived confidence. This will be interesting: like Mike Oldfield a few albums back, this is a two-track effort, running to a total of just over 43 minutes, and given that the first track is a tribute to the late Bowie, it's pretty sad and haunting. Quite amazing that this is apparently made up of chewed-up tape loops. Yeah, you know, I read that someone said this went by faster than expected, that you lose yourself in the music, and I rolled my eyes. But yeah: I thought we were about three minutes in, checked and we were halfway through the track. It is quite hypnotic and engaging. And now track one is over. That was pretty **ing cool I must say. The second track then is much more upbeat and bright, really very uplifting. Damn fine stuff, all told. I might find myself getting into this drone malarkey you know... Check out more from this artist? yes Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes Expectation Index: 9** __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-29-2017, 09:38 AM	#245 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Mouth Moods Artist: Neil Cicierega Genre: Mashup/Remix Nationality: American Release date: January 23 Position in Discography: Third Fear Factor: Moderate Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No I'm familiar with the idea of mashups, may have heard one or two, but a whole album of them? Will that not wear thin? Let's see. Hmm. It's certainly clever, all those snippets of different songs mixed together and somehow it doesn't sound like a total mess. The “Popcorn” one is clever. The song “300MB” is ***ing hilarious; “think about the capacity of a three hundred megabyte* computer!” Must be from early eighties. Now they're talking about CD-ROMs. Oh my sides! Floppy disks! Oh, please stop! It's too much! OK, the production on “Dear Dinosaur” is beyond **. I don't know if it's just the YouTube version – which was the only way I could get this – though every other track up to this has been fine – or if this is making some statement about prehistoric recording techniques, but it's ing awful. Like those old dropouts you used to get on cassette tapes (what do you mean, shut up grandad?) or a radio badly tuned in. Awful. I guess it was intentional, as we're back on track now with “Annoyed Grunt”. The sampled “D'oh!”'s here are great and really worked in well. This is very clever stuff, and by and large, very entertaining. The “YMCA” mashup is particularly impressive. Yeah, this was fun. Bigstyle. Check out more from this artist? Quite likely Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yeah Expectation Index: 8** __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-29-2017, 10:03 AM	#246 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Yes? No? Artist: Suzy Genre: K-pop/Soul Nationality: Korean Release date: January 24 Position in Discography: Debut Fear Factor: Low Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Getting there Another K-pop album eh? Or, rather, an EP, just six songs. Well there's a difference here as there's a definite balladish tone to the opener, and it's very soul. Very nice. I'd say it's one of the better K-pop albums (all right, all right! EPs!) that I've listened to, but technically it's more soul than K-pop. Ah **! Some idiot is rapping in Korean now. Where was the need for that? Did not fit in with the song at all. Overall though very solid and enjoyable, more mature than your usual K-pop, though again as I say, not really what I'd think of as K-pop. Check out more from this artist? Yes, when she releases more I may listen all right Check out more from this genre or subgenre? I have no doubt I will Expectation Index: 0** __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-29-2017, 10:37 AM	#247 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Drum Chord Theory Artist: Matt Martians Genre: Electronic/Hip-Hop Nationality: American Release date: January 26 Position in Discography: Debut Fear Factor: High Familiar with this artist?No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No Not a bad start: kind of more leaning on the electronic side than the hip-hop, initially at least. As it goes on it acquires quite a soul feel too. “Southern Isolation” is a good example of this, sense of the Isleys or something about it, very relaxed and cool and smooth. “Alotta Women/Useless” is very annoying though. I could also do without the backwards scratching on whatever the ** it is at the end of “Down”, but overall I don't hate this. Can't say I love it, but I can't say I hate it either. I suppose if I were rating normally it would be slightly higher than a Meh, but not that much. Check out more from this artist? Unlikely Check out more from this genre or subgenre? I guess Expectation Index: 0** __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

09-29-2017, 12:15 PM	#250 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Album title: Tourist in This Town Artist: Allison Crutchfield Genre: Synthpop/Indie Rock/Pop Nationality: American Release date: January 27 Position in Discography: Debut Fear Factor: Low Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? A little Average RYM Score: 3.08 I don't know either of the bands this lady was in (PS Eliot or Swearin') so this is all new to me. Starts off quite low-key and then suddenly explodes into life. She certainly has a decent voice.”Dean's Room” has a nice new-wave vibe to it, lots of energy, “Sightseeing” has a haunting, yearning feel, mostly driven on piano, while the rolling percussion and buzzy synths really make “Mile Away” something special. Good album. I wouldn't say great album, but certainly worth a listen. Check out more from this artist? Maybe, though this is her debut so not possible for a while Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yeah I do like a bit of synthpop Expectation Index: 0 __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018