MicShazam reviews his favorites

[MicShazam]

Since I killed off my music journal, I've arguable been ****ting on music a lot more than I've been praising anything, and that's unfortunate. I was thinking that I wanted some sort of outlet for all of the music that I actually adore, but it also had to be a fairly easy thing to keep up with.

I'll try to do some sort of mini-review format, and see if I can keep it going and make it into something of substance. No way I'm doing a regular journal. Journals suck and I'd like it if people commented freely in here.

Believe it or not, I actually like some music. Some.

First real post in just a moment.

[The Batlord]

[MicShazam]

No. But that said, since this is not a journal, you can rec me anything you want. I'd only write about it if I end up thinking it's really good though.

[The Batlord]

You can't even react with a couple sentences to say how much it sucks?

[MicShazam]

Artist: Roxy Music
Album title: Flesh + Blood
Year: 1980
Album link: https://open.spotify.com/album/1qPdwK9Ew939DdtkACLMvD

This is the worst Roxy Music album by far. Or so people will tell you. Sure, it's pretty sleek and approachable. Quite poppy, not very art rock, and even sort of AOR at times. It's grown on me a lot over the years and my favorite songs on this album are some of my favorite Roxy Music songs overall. I'd say that some of the simpler radio rock songs like "The Midnight Hour", "Oh Yeah" and "Over You" make it easy to see why some fans would object to this album, but I just kind of like the overall vibe of this album at this point.

Of course, "Avalon", the album that comes after this, is even more sleek and soft, but that album seems a lot more well liked by people in general.. Perhaps because it has more of a unique and cohesive style to it. "Flesh + Blood", in comparison, is sort of a hodge podge (Same old Scene has disco elements ffs!), and on top of that, several of the songs are covers.

I think "Avalon" is a great album, but for me, it just doesn't have quite the highlights that "Flesh + Blood" does. Check out the hightlights I've selected below. Those pretty much make this album a classic in my eyes.

Highlights:
Same Old Scene
My Only Love
Rain Rain Rain
No Strange Delight
EDIT: Listening to the album again, I realize that Eight Miles High also belongs here.

Favorite rating: **/***

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

You can't even react with a couple sentences to say how much it sucks?

I guess I can. I'm not gonna be a total thread format nazi. I guess I can just focus on the albums that I consider my favorites and then take whatever people might throw at me whenever I feel like it. Sure, why not.

I'm just gonna have to try and put the emphasis on positive responses to music. I'm whining enough about music that I don't like elsewhere.
Maybe try and hit that 75% / 25% balance.

[The Batlord]

https://open.spotify.com/album/7IUBCTbnmlCAbynjch5Yc1

[MicShazam]

Artist: Depeche Mode
Album title: Some Great Reward
Year: 1984
Album link: https://open.spotify.com/album/5wfikaEZXnQTXWBZ5osw9A

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but "Some Great Reward" has been one of my absolute favorite albums for many, many years.

There's a very unique atmosphere to this album. I like the other, similar sounding Depeche Mode albums from this era, but this one just has that certain something about it that even great albums like "Black Celebration" and "Music for the Masses" don't have. I mean, I love "Black Celebration" almost as much, but in a certain sort of way, it's not even close to digging as deep into my mind.

Listen to a song like "Lie to Me" (link below). I love absolutely every single detail in this track. It's sublime. The mellow melancholy of this track. Those dark bass lines. Those synths... Gorgeous!

Honestly, I might find that a few tracks here are a bit silly, but the album is so amazing for so much of the run time that I can live with songs like "People are People" and "Master and Servant".

I once watched a Depeche Mode documentary where I saw how they experimented with different sounds for this album. It's paid off in spades as there's a lot of interesting sonic textures all over this disc. My favorite track off the album, the closing track "Blasphemous Rumours", has some metallic rattling and distorted gargling voices. I saw in the documentary how Martin Gore dragged a metal rod through a metal window frame to create one of those sounds. The great thing is how the end result is a very catchy and melodic album and not just a collection of noise experiments by any stretch.

A couple of my favorite tracks, "Stories of Old" and "If You Want" are even sort of oddball. I feel like the former of the two is an unsung hero of the Depeche Mode discography. I just love everything about that song.

"Some Great Reward" is a great album with a few minor blemishes. I'd take a flawed diamond any time over a perfectly polished piece of glass, so I'm still going to insist that this album is truly great, despite how I think a couple of the songs are quite less than great.

No other album sounds or feels quite like this. I think that a lot of Depeche Mode albums are really good, but this one is at the very top for sure.

Highlights:
Lie to Me
Stories of Old
If You Want
Blasphemous Rumours

Favorite rating: ***/***

[Trollheart]

Interesting.
I don't quite understand your rating system though. Is ***/*** 3 out of 3 stars? And if so, why not just make it ***? Or 3? Or just say everything is rated out of three? And on that, if that is the case, doesn't that really restrict you, in that you can only have a 1, 2 or 3 rating? Or have I got all this wrong?

[MicShazam]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Interesting.
I don't quite understand your rating system though. Is ***/*** 3 out of 3 stars? And if so, why not just make it ***? Or 3? Or just say everything is rated out of three? And on that, if that is the case, doesn't that really restrict you, in that you can only have a 1, 2 or 3 rating? Or have I got all this wrong?

It's just a rough rating of how high the album would be out of all of my favorite albums. Three stars means there are few albums I love as much, but one star is still a favorite album, since that's all I want to review.

And I'm writing "***/***" so you know how high the scale goes. Two stars (or whatever) don't mean anything without some context.