Shout Out Louds - Optica

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4L._SY355_.jpg

Genre: Indie Pop/Synth-pop
Year: 2013
Place of Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
General Pace: Mellow-moderate

Worst Song: "Sugar." Nasally vocals. Would not have chosen that as the opener. Vocals smoothed out after that, though.
Best Song: I liked the last two minutes of "Glasgow" the best. Honorable mention: "Hermila."

The electronic parts of Optica are reminiscent of '80s-sounding pop, but the rock parts of this group sounded like any other indie band out there, sorry to say. It's not until track 9, "Hermila," where the band allows cracks in their veneer in order to let the audience in, if only briefly, but by that point I had simply lost interest. Overall, pretty safe and bland stuff.

I finally remembered to add the random album pickers to the OP. Searched around for a moment on my own, but couldn't actually find any more than the two suggested so far.

----------------------------------------

Aranis - Roqueforte
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....11RWPx31mL.jpg

This one turned out to be a real gem! Google refers to it as "experimental rock". It's all cellos, flutes and such, but I guess it does have a very kinetic, rhythmic vibe to it. I really liked most of this album. Great use of harmonic shifts and multiple layers of instrumentation playing along with and against each other. Everything on this album sounds great and the compositions are generally interesting. A slight Balkan vibe now and then. Not sure where Aranis is from (edit: ****ing Belgium?! Oh well...).

Fortunately, it's easily available on Bandcamp right here: https://aranis.bandcamp.com/album/roqueforte

Frownland and Janzsoon should probably make sure to check this out. Maybe also Grindy.

Not sure if anyone else has been doing it this way tho I assume you have. I don't skip any albums when they come up. I always listen to the first suggested. Even if it's an artist I know, I still listen to it.

Again, I assume everyone is doing it this way.

I've been using Spotify so far. Writing random letters in search or looking in the "discover" section. Then I pick the first thing I don't know what is.

I didn't think to do it that way. I feel like I'd skip more if I did that. The generator at least presents an album. But hey, whatever works. I tend to like it more if I don't know the album already tho. Most times anyway.

Using the discover section isn't random at all since that's curated based on your listening habits.

I skip them if they look too ****ty in a genre I don't mesh with. Mostly old ****.

Whatever works tbh. I was just curious if we were all doing it the same way. Doesn't really matter at the end of the day.

I was curious is we should be skipping EPs? RYM is popping up a lot of them that look interesting, but so far I've been purist about a disc having to be a full-length release.

I've thought about that too but so far I've not run into that issue. I imagine a good way to combat that is just maybe listen to the next album of that band that came after the EP? I guess it's not as random then.

I mean it's up to you but don't see why you should.