What are you listening to now? : Non-metal Edition
Ali Farka Touré - "The Source" (1993)
A wonderfully bluesy collection of Songhai music from this widely celebrated Malian guitarist.
Holy Fawn - "Dimensional Bleed" 2022
Alt-rock, shoegaze with some electronic elements. Plays well to my afternoon of number crunching at work, even if not my usual bag.
Muddy Waters - "KIng Bee" (1981)
The last great album from this Chicago blues legend.
Lightnin' Hopkins - "Mojo Hand" (1962)
A highly prolific, lesser-known Texas blues guy.
Big respect for the blues binge, especially concerning the two musician choices above. Muddy Waters is my favorite of the normal blues genre, although I haven't gotten around to King Bee yet.
Going off on another vapor EP binge just to make sure I don't put too much metal on my log, although I still plan on getting through at least on metal album a day, notably for the list challenges and to put some war metal on my in-progress top 100 black metal. But it's really nice to have a lot of relaxing oldschool jazzy stuff for a full weekend off.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - "Gospel Train" (1956)
Bluesy gospel music from Arkansas, USA.
Taj Mahal - "The Natch'l Blues" (1968)
A rootsy, organic blend of blues, r 'n' b & southern rock.
A terrific album, Daniel, as is his S/T from the same year. A massively underappreciated talent.
A couple that I've been spinning while playing with the kids in the backyard:
Buddy Guy - "Left My Blues in San Francisco" (1968)
The Blind Boys of Alabama - "Spirit of the Century" (2001)
This is sending major fucking chills.
God I wish this was a full length song. And that the Edge could write stuff like that on actual U2 albums for once.
Johnny Winter - "Nothin' but the Blues" (1977)
Electric blues from Texas, USA.
B.B. King - "Blues on the Bayou" (1998)
Electric blues from Mississippi, USA.
Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills (1968)
Cold mornings like this bring me back to when I was first getting into albums, especially classic rock, blues and prog. All that's left is pancakes.
I got through three Oneohtrix Point Never albums today: Garden of Delete, Transmat Memories and Again. After that, I checked my log and found out that, out of almost 13,000 albums, I've only heard 38 progressive electronic albums, and half my "top ten" are by Vangelis. I'm gonna remedy this overtime for a while and try to make a good top 100.
Howlin' Wolf - "The Back Door Wolf" (1973)
Chicago blues.
Klaus Schulze - Mirage (1977)
Genres: Berlin School
X is actually in my top 100, although X still doesn't come close to the Blade Runner soundtrack, but it's finally time for me to get through more Klaus Schulze and further my prog electronic experience. I'm adoring the new age ambiance of this. It's simple and right at home in a winter cottage fashion, but it's the kind of album where you still have to look at the sky and wonder about the universe. It's both sci-fi and fantasy in a heavily atmospheric format. It's simple and not complex, but varied and imaginative.
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene (1976)
Even though I not really into prog electronic, this is a strong contender to become one of my favorite albums. Its sense of mood, melody and variety is perfect. If I had to fault it for anything, I guess it is a little cheesy, but it still sounds beautiful.
Getting through some more Jarre today. I'm gonna finish his earliest albums first and go chronologically to help me keep track.
A few from the last week:
Ry Cooder - "Chicken Skin Music" (1976)
C.W. Stoneking - "Jungle Blues" (2008)
Bonnie Raitt - "Bonnie Raitt" (1971)
David Allan Coe - "Penitentiary Blues" (1970)
Electric blues from Ohio, USA.
Cuby + Blizzards - "Desolation" (1966)
If you wanna find out where Led Zeppelin stole (& I mean stole) their early sound from then look no further. Quality blues rock & traditional blues from The Netherlands.
While working on my goth metal chart, I'm also gonna be working on my goth rock chart. I've only heard about 45 albums for each genre, and practically no deathrock, so now's as good a time as any to get through some Christian Death albums. Thing is, I find them overhyped. Most of their songs sound the same, and I don't like how the singer limits himself to only one style of half-talk half-sing crooning. The first two albums were pretty good, but Ashes is getting a bit boring in comparison. Shame, I was looking forward to that "dark cabaret" influence RYM tagged it with. Obviously, Tom Waits does it better.
After years of puting this off after losing interest in the band, I'm finally checking this out for the first time.
The Cure - Faith (1981)
Genres: Post-Punk, Goth Rock
I'm really glad I'm on a gothic binge right now. I've been getting a massive jump on a goth rock chart while slowly working on the metal one. After checking this album out, I think I'll revisit Tristania now that I'm gotten through all the Type O negative albums. But, I've had different feelings about The Cure from most people. I mean, I'll admit that their albums Disintegration and Pornography are very well made, but The Cure just doesn't do the kind of goth rock I like. it feels more rockish and pretty rather than gothic to me, and I was hoping Faith would give me something new, but it really doesn't.
So track one, The Holy Hour, was already a huge improvement over the last goth album I heard before this: Sex and Drugs and Jesus Christ by Christian Death. It was so dull that it made my morning headache worse right after I took aspirin, and I heard it was better than The Scriptures. It really wasn't. The Holy Hour was at least a breath of fresh air in that regard. However, as a rock album, I really don't think this album delivered anything that Seventeen Seconds hadn't already given me. But the album does have its pros, more so than cons. For example, this saccharine vibe is done lightly, letting reverb do the work while the band takes it easy. So while this isn't really a complex album, that easy going behavior is easy to get behind at least. And while the album is reverb-heavy, it never feels like its too much, so the atmosphere stays pure. And many of the songs are doing different things. The Holy Hour is weird and tribal, The Funeral Party is serene and dense and somewhat romantic, All Cats Are Grey is deep and mysterious, Other Voices is fun but simple and the titular closer kind of brings a few of these things together for a real groovy song.
Anyway, I can't say that Faith feels like the legendary goth album I've heard so much about, but I really don't blame a person for being attracted to the strengths of Faith, because those strengths are pretty powerful. Fans of gothic atmosphere will get a damn good time out of this, but an overthinker like me needs more than that.
81/100
My Christian Death exploration is currently in the middle of Prophecies, their tenth of fifteen albums. Gotta say, I like this more atmospheric touch. Even though they're still drawing out songs to an unforgivable extent, their surreal compositions capture insanity well enough, sometimes beautifully. Of course, the songwriting still needs help, so this may just be a spark of creativity.