As is his penchant, Mr. Lif’s 2016 album was a concept record, this one based around the idea of a society that had stamped out culture completely. As with his other concept albums, it connects better on some tracks than others, but I appreciate the ambition. Meanwhile, the collab with L’Orange on the beats is all great, so overall, it’s another great record.
[Read More]Black metal pioneer Bathory (which was pretty much just Quorthon) pivoted away from the pure black metal of their earlier albums towards Viking metal, more or less establishing that genre too. Hammerheart is one of the key albums of that genre, and if you wanted more bombast in your black metal, Bathory can help you out.
After Pretty Hate Machine, there wasn’t any new music from NiN for several years, due to label disputes. When the dry spell lifted, it brought a six-song EP (not counting the two bonus tracks that weren’t really connected) of fury. Broken sounded to my ears like a totally new direction for the band, which was actually OK with me, as I had really moved away from industrial dance. It really was a preview of what The Downward Spiral was, and is just an excellent set of tunes.
[Read More]Action Bronson bubbled up from the underground after making the transition from chef to rapper. After breaking his leg, he decided to try making his hobby into his main career, putting together his debut Dr. Lecter, a fun album full of energy, food metaphors, and tons of rhyming. It’s an entertaining listen, but it remained to be seen if Bronson would move past the Ghostface worship. His next album, Well-Done, a collaboration with Statik Selektah, answered that question: no. No, he would not.
[Read More]Some all-time greats today. And, I suppose, the Beatles.
I think Revolver is The Beatles’ best record. But can we talk about that cover? Terrible. And it won a Grammy for “Best Album Cover”, which is a thing they apparently hand out awards for! Apparently it wasn’t just the Beatles who were high all the time.
(NB: of course it’s impossible to find the original on YouTube. So, I picked Elliot Smith doing a cover.)
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