Karengirl

2018 Favorites:

1. Metric "Art of Doubt"-Alternative/pop-rock
2. Razorlight "Olympus Sleeping"-Neogarage/Britpop
3. Blue Stones "Black Holes (Solid Ground)"-Alternative/blues-rock
4. Albert Hammond, Jr. "Francis Trouble"-Pop/rock

Runners-Up:
Mike Shinoda "Post Traumatic"-Rap/rock
The Voidz "Virtue"-Alternative

Zhanteimi

Oh my goodness! Has no one heard this?


Anybody know Änglagård? Well, All Traps on Earth is a new project started by Änglagård’s founding member and bassist Johan Brand. His new album, "A Drop of Light", is like a mix of Änglagård and Magma. Well, more like layering than mixing, but whatever. Brand has his daughter on vocals for this one. Enjoy!

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Zhanteimi

LetsTalkMusic

Exo

It's impossible to hear all the releases from a given year. I've been so busy with work and also going through a very long back catalog in my home listening that I've only really been able to listen to about 25 new releases this year. So, this top five is very preliminary as I need to really catch up but I wanted to get something down before the end of the year.

1. Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want
2. Nils Frahm - All Melody
3. John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album
4. Mothers - Render Another Ugly Method
5. Yo La Tengo - There's a Riot Goin' On

2-5 will likely change. I'll expand to a top ten once I catch up but that's what I got so far.

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LastFM

SUPREME POO BAH MODERATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

Zhanteimi

Edgy, confrontational, dangerous? It's none of these things; it's a simplistic and boring rock album with some distortion on the master bus. It's a Hot Topic version of dangerous music, which explains its broad appeal.

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Zhanteimi

LetsTalkMusic

MicShazam

No music is dangerous no matter how much attitude it has. It's just sound. What that Daughters album has, that people love, is atmosphere. At least that's how I see it.

windsock

If Daughters aren't edgy and confrontational I don't know what the **** is.

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RYM
Last.fm

MicShazam

To me, that album mostly doesn't register as "confrontational". I hear it as a form of post rock/metal hybrid. Post rock is more expressive of angst and other emotions, but not so focused on attitude. I don't know what edgy would mean in 2018 since everything has been done to death. Nothing feels edgy to me, that's for sure. The most provocative music in a time where every manner of abrasive music has been done to the furthest extreme, it seems far more challenging to dare make something embarrasingly earnest and pretty.

MicShazam

lol I know that. Although some music makes me want to inflict self harm. Mostly some of that tepid pop-R&B crap they're playing on the radio around these parts.

But doesn't all that subversive art lose it's sting really fast? I think it does.
Your grandma will protest music like Daugters, but for your average music geek, it should be pretty been there done that in terms of the more "dangerous" qualities of the music. Doesn't mean it's not good in a variety of other ways of course.

MicShazam

What direction is even left then if you wanna do something provocative or challenging? Maybe focusing on making the lyrics as politically charged as possible. MAGA-rock!

MicShazam

I agree with that. What I'm thinking about is more how music affects those who are used to listening to all manner of underground material. That Daugters album, for example, would probably have seemed really offensive in some way to me 20 years ago, but now it's nothing new. I've listened to albums that are just straight up screaming and noise, so it's nothing surprising on that level. Seems to me that music has to focus on being actually very well made to have any impact on me, since the act of making abrasive music in itself is unimpressive when you've heard it done so many times before. I like that Daughters album because it's so creative and artfully made.