Reviews by galway_rat

May 3, 2025

HL: “Mogwai Fear Satan”, “Yes!”, “Tracy”

The spoken word about making up a ‘bit of a sketch’ reminded me of the Limmy Show. Probably just that Glasgow accent.

It has a beautiful finale, the question that I won’t quite be able to answer this afternoon is: “Was the journey worth it?”
It was definitely heavier and noisier than I expected, but I guarantee there will be times where I’m looking for that dense atmosphere.
Just doesn’t happen to be today

May the 1st, 2025

HL: “Waiting on the World to Change”, “Gravity”, “The Heart of Life”, “In Repair”

There are many albums I want to like more than I do, but much fewer ones that I want to hate more than I do. Continuum belongs in the second category. Good job John Mayer 👍

I’ve come a long way from dreading to hear that opening track at my grocery store job

3.5

April 30, 2025

HL: “10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⊠ ⊠”, “29 #Strafford APTS”, “8 (a circle)”, “____45_____”

I figured from the song titles that this would be left field compared to “For Emma Forever Ago”. Yet many of the tracks are still recognizably Bon Iver, odd IDM production aside. “God” and the title track aren’t too far removed from his self-titled album from 2011 (though I will add, it is quite the leap from FEFA to that one).
Though Bon Iver’s own records are regrettably absent from the original list, I did get a glimpse of his experimental side in both Yeezus and MDBTF, from Kanye (that Nazi sympathizer from ChiTown).
Still, I needed two full listens to process this, even though it’s pretty short. Critics praised the lyricism; I have no idea wtf he was singing since I was more focused on the vocal treatments and sampling.
Still, listening to it this morning was a weirdly invigorating start to the day. Will keep this in my digital library!

April 29, 2025

HL: "Runnin' Around", "Give Me Back My Man", "Private Idaho", "Devil's In My Car", "53 Miles West of Venus"

QUICHE LA POODLE 🐶

April 27, 2025

HL: “About You”, “Don’t Look Back”, “Neil Jung”, “Going Places”, "I'll Make it Clear"

Delightful

Today is an apology tour of sorts; in addition to hearing this for the first time, I also revisited Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque (album #420). I've long been a sucker for some jangly guitar, but to quote me from 2023: "there were a few times about midway thru the record where I didn’t realize one song had ended & and another started."
And I will admit, Grand Prix can be a bit samey as well, though it shows a bit more diversity, with occasional brass and organ. But when the overall sound is so bright and melodic, how could I fault them for sticking to that sound?
Both this and their prior album have absolutely stellar harmonies, which I don't think I fully appreciated two years ago.

May 2, 2025

HL: “Spanish Train”, “Lonely Sky”, “A Spaceman Came Travelling”, “Old Friend”

The one song of his I really knew before- besides THAT one- was “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”, a great slice of 80s pop.

This is quite different, though bits of synth and strings suggest he wasn’t content to be just a folk troubadour. Knowing he toured with Supertramp around this time makes a lot of sense to me.

1924, lords and ladies, modern day London- de Burgh really plays with time in this album.

And while the production dates it to a specific time, 50 years ago, I found myself enjoying those stories more and more as the album progressed- though personally I like the ones about supernatural beings more than the one about the stripper.

April 25, 2025

HL: "6L GTR", "Panic Attack", "Ticket Inspector", "The Price of Smokes", "Emperor of the Beach", "Getting Better"

5th Australian act so far on the user list, and 5th that I had no idea about beforehand (after Gang of Youths, the Sports, Gurrumul and Foetus)

I don't care for punk...

...but I like this

7/10

"The Caretaker conjures a quieter, more introspective spirit, lost in his own mind amidst a low-lit labyrinth of ever-decaying and antediluvian shellac phrases. Sourced from a mysterious collection of 78s, these vague snippets of archaic sonics reflect the ability of Alzheimers patients to recall the songs of their past, and with them recollections of places, people, moods and sensations." - from Bandcamp

"If this music was a food it would taste like a single hard-boiled egg that’s really dry"- Dylan in the YouTube comment section

Hi, it's me, the one who brought the spooky ghost jazz.

First off, compared to 'A stairway to the stars' and 'Everywhere at the End of Time', it doesn't evoke horror in the same way. Despite the alienating treatment on big band fragments like "Libet's delay" and "Tiny gradiations", I find the overall effect to be less despair and more saudade ("Longing, melancholy, nostalgia"- Oxford dictionary)

My fascination with repurposed samples in music probably goes back to my Beatles obsession as a teen, with tracks like "Revolution 9" and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" making use of tape loops from old recordings. However, it wasn't until COVID lockdown, when I discovered both the Caretaker and this generator, that I became aware of the word "plunderphonics". The Avalanches, DJ Shadow, Beastie Boys & the Bomb Squad are all examples of plunderphonics at its best, and I credit this website for exposing me to them. I’ve never known that technique used to such great emotional effect as the Caretaker does.

Ironically, I didn’t have much of an emotional reaction to hearing it tonight, as I was trying to examine it more critically. After all, I could have put Future Islands on this list, or Japanese Breakfast, or the Guess Who. Did we need another electronic artist from the UK?

But then the warped orchestra of “The sublime” kicks in, that one heartstring gets pulled and I remember why I keep coming back to this before so many of the albums I’ve heard.

(And also I don’t feel like absolute garbage like I did after EATEOT)

HL: "All you are going to want to do is get back there", "Moments of sufficient lucidity", "Libet's delay", "Mental caverns without Sunshine", "Tiny gradiations of loss", "Camaraderie at arms length", "The sublime is disappointingly elusive", "Their story is lost" (bonus track)

April 25, 2025

HL: title track, "Blitzregn baby", "Dieter Meyers Inst.", "Christiania", "Jævel av en tango"

My worries that this would just be more post-punk revival were quickly dashed. Interesting use of cabaret and Eastern European folk alongside more mainstream rock. Of course, much of the themes are lost to this Anglophone, so all that really helps paint the picture of a mental hospital are the ever-changing genres & the occasional Bone Machine-esque clanging percussion.

Thanks for sharing!

April 23, 2025

HL: "Heart Cooks Brain", "It's All Nice on Ice, Alright", "Lounge (Closing Time)", “Cowboy Dan”

Both this & the Moon & Antarctica have been on my radar for a while, at least as long as I’ve had an account with RateYourMusic.

The first time I tried listening to this (within the last year), I got through the opening track "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine" and gently switched to something else. There's a time and a place for that noise, I thought.

Now that I’ve heard the whole Lonesome West, that song is among the better tracks here. Still not in love with Isaac Brock’s vocals, though he & the band do show versatility within 75 minutes. The mumbled “Long Distance Drunk” does nothing to foretell the howls of “Shit Luck”. The pretty riffage in “Trailer Trash” contrasts with the occasional funk of “Lounge”.

Maybe this will join indie rock albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Slanted and Enchanted someday; critically acclaimed albums that took me actual years to truly appreciate.

3.5/5

April 24, 2025

HL: "Zion's Blood", "Dread Lion", title track

Incredible album cover

There really is a strange lack of dub on the original list. Sure you hear its influences a lot, in the Specials, the Sabres of Paradise, David Holmes, Public Image Ltd.- the list goes on.

Kinda like another album within the genre, East of the River Nile (Pablo), I spaced the hell out while listening to it, but in a good way :)

April 20, 2025

This is either a cacophonous experiment gone awry or one of the best albums I’ve heard in a while.

Fuck it, it’s both

I knew “Conquistador”* and “A Whiter Shade of Pale” before today; I adore Brooker’s vocals, particularly in the latter, so I was surprised at how much this album is sung by other members of the band.
However Fisher’s voice in the symphonic “Hesperus” and “Pilgrims Progress” works just fine.

Procul Harum (also the Moody Blues!) are from a time of early prog that the List instead represented with bands like Spirit and Traffic. I wouldn’t knock out either of those bands for A Salty Dog, but I do appreciate it for those aforementioned symphonic/prog elements, as well as the yearning for the sea. Oh I yearn, Jerry

HL: title track, “Boredom”, “All This and More”, “Pilgrims Progress”

April 18, 2025

*co-starring the EDMONTON Symphony Orchestra, yay Canada

notice us please 🍁 🍁 🍁

April 17, 2025

Own this CD (bought it because it has "Cannonball", a song I learned from a busker in Galway) Listening to it for the 1st time today, though

Mixed feelings about “Delicate” as an intro to the album; it’s aggressively gentle. But after the album ended, on the strange 3-part final track, I have to take off my hat to Mr. Rice (and also Ms Hannigan) for how the whole album is structured. Stable and melodic at first, but then more unpredictable as the relationship disintegrates.

April 16, 2025

Bob fookin Seger

4 all-time hits and 5 decent tracks that keep the good times going

April 21, 2025

HL: title track, “Who’s Your Boyfriend”, “Choke on a Cock”, “Losing on a Tuesday”

April 14th, 2025

HL: “Sgt. Baker”, “American Life”, “Tommy the Cat”, “Fish On”

Only knew this band as the ones who made the South Park song. Wasn’t particularly *excited*, but definitely curious.

The mix of funk metal with more esoteric, avant-garde elements sounds like a recipe for sensory overload. Not today 🫡

While enjoyable on its own merits, it oughta be in the book just to prove the Residents’ Duck Stab was actually influential, and not just an isolated curio from the 70s

April 19, 2025

The fact that this guy has collaborated with Nick Cave, The The & Einsturzende Neubaten shouldn’t surprise me, because so far, Nail evokes all 3. Particularly the last two.

An abrasive and ugly album, but also somehow arranged like an operetta, with instrumental flourishes and an explosive finale.

I didn’t love it today, but I respect its convention-shattering ways.

April 11, 2025

HL: "Chinese Water Python" (instrumental), “Linctus House”, “Glass Hotel”, “Sweet Ghost of Light” (bonus)

Ranges from nonsense poetry (“Certainly Cliquot”) to more lucid moments (“Executioner”, “Aquarium”), but much is still up to interpretation. I also revisited Hitchcock’s album on the original list, Underwater Moonlight, and remembered how little I understood his lyrics back then. I guess omitting the harmonies, punky rhythms and psychedelic noise of the Soft Boys makes me engage with his surrealist turns of phrase in a way I haven’t before.

I can see this growing on me with time. He’s coming to my city this year, and I will admit, this piqued my interest a smidge

3.5 and rising

April 15, 2025

HL: “Bells For Her”, “The Wrong Band”, “The Waitress”, “Cornflake Girl”

A few recent listens have been releases from an artist already on the original list. And while I think this doesn’t quite leave the shadow of her previous album Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink is the best example yet of somebody who could have been better represented. This is grand and lush, while still being pretty idiosyncratic and off-kilter.
I’m going to Google some lyrics now, and feel pretty dumb about not knowing what a cornflake girl is