Stream of Consciousness & Music Reviews

      My first requested album! Not specifically for this blog, just a recommendation from a friend, but why not make a review for it anyway, y'know? Emerson, Lake, And Palmer were a prog rock band, and being a big fan of another prog rock band (ELO) myself, I thought I might be slightly familiar with their music. Not even a little bit. The first track opens with light, intermittent drums developing into a barrage of synthesizers, and it only gets stranger from there. A good portion of the music on this album is instrumental, with large portions of songs having no vocals and a few songs that are purely instrumentally melodic. A lot of the sound here is similar to something you might hear in a waiting room, in the background of a video, or while on hold; what makes it different from those is how energized a lot of it, being fast and exciting as opposed to slower, while still managing to retain that semi-chill feeling that the former examples had. It's also a lot more abstr...

      If you couldn't tell, I like this band, so I decided to just get to their next album now instead of waiting. In Discovery, ELO takes a departure from the style of their previous album, now having a lot of emphasis on disco (Disco-very, get it?). This shift to disco is surprisingly smooth and is able to mesh well with the elements of style that they carried over. Unfortunately, this also means even less orchestral elements than their last few albums, with Don't Bring Me Down being their first song to not have any string section. This shift in sound is similar to the one from their earlier albums to their more recent ones, in relation to when this album was released. But while there I feel like the band improved their craft and found a better spot to be in, I feel like it's a little of the opposite here. Like I said in my Out Of The Blue review, that album was peak ELO sound, with it being what they are at the core; with Discovery having that shift over to a more...

      Home's latest album so far (but not his most recent work) and I have mixed feelings over it. It still has the same atmosphere and synth tone to it, but some parts of the music is different. For example, in this album the tracks are a little more experimental with incorporating more organic and natural sounds, like having the music sound like it's being played by an actual instrument at some points. Along with this the songs are structured a little differently too, seeming a little more formulaic in how they play out and not messing with their melodies as much. I still like what he does here, but it loses that sort of pseudo-ambient feel the last two albums had that are a big part of why I like them. On the other side of the spectrum is when a few of the tracks become too ambient, like Fata Morgana or Burning, and they sound like backing tracks for dialogue or camera shots. And on another note, the general feeling and sound is a tad bit weak. The whole albu...

      After a short hiatus, I'm back, and what a better album to use for a bad play on words than Back In Black. ACDC's most famous album by far with a good amount of hits on it, which is why I decided to listen to this one first instead of one of their earlier albums (some of which I do intend to get to later). Much like Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, Back In Black is a tribute to a former band member, the late Bon Scott, and again similar to WYWH, it's a pretty good one. The songs that pay homage to the late singer are really good, in both their imagery and how they portray him, in addition to sounding amazing. Speaking of the sound, it's pure ACDC, exactly what the band is known for, in the style of the instruments (particularly the guitarwork) and the format and pacing of the songs, both of which are fantastic. One gripe I had with a few of the songs was the very overtly sexual themes in them, but that's just me and my weird view of stuff, and I don't ...

 And with my review of "Out of the Blue" the backlog is (almost) completely done! There is one more album that I've already listened to and written a rough draft review for, but I'll post that at a later date; I'll say when I post it and why. Aside from that though, I've gotten through the backlog (and also some more albums added in so that it wasn't just a flood of ELO and a couple other albums). And now that I have, posts might slow down a little, especially writing pieces. I'll still try to post often because I do want to listen to more music and write more stuff, but I do have a life with responsibilities, which means that I don't have all the time in the world, which will slow down posts, especially writing pieces as those take much longer than the reviews.      Here's an explanation to my rating system, since I have some slight worries that it may be a little confusing since it's not what people are used to. Also, I'll say "a...

      Just as the backlog was started with two ELO albums in a row, it'll end with it too. Out of the Blue is ELO's magnum opus, there most important work. I won't say that it's their best (mostly because there are a few of their other albums that I think are better) but it is definitely their most popular album. If someone asks you what ELO is, you show them this. I think that this is a good album to represent ELO as a band because it perfectly encapsulates what the band is, both in the sound and the themeing. The album is one of their longer ones, and thus has a lot more packed in; the third side even tells it's own compressed story in four songs creating "Concerto for a Rainy Day", which is absolutely brilliant. The sound and feel of the music is peak ELO, with the classic combination of rock and orchestral elements, and also nicely integrating some very well fitting pop-rock elements. This is also the album that has Mr. Blue Sky on it, their most popul...

      I'm running out of ways to start my reviews. Regardless, here we have one of ELO's more popular albums and with good reason. This album is extraordinary, and has been my favorite album for a long time now (so you can probably guess what my rating is gonna be). I can already tell that my description won't be enough to really tell you why I love this album so much but I can try. Every song is amazing in one way or another. Some songs are really emotional and impactful (Telephone Line, Mission (A World Record)), some are great songs to rock out to (Rockaria!, Livin Thing, Do TYa), and some are an outstanding combination of the two (Tightrope, Shangri-La). The worst song on the album is, in my opinion, a 5/6; when your worst track is still really good, that's how you know that you have something special. Not to mention to parallels between the songs. Like how Among the Clouds connects it's surrounding songs that otherwise are completely unrelated. Or the direct co...

      Master of Puppets, the second Metallica album that I've listened to, is pretty good. It's really similar to Ride the Lightning in it's sound, which is definitely a good thing. This one felt a little better, although I don't really know why; I liked the guitar more here than in Ride the Lightning, maybe just because it had more higher solos. This album is also a little more stylized in it's presentation, such as more inventive guitar and bass solos and vocal touches like in Damage Inc., helping to set it apart from it's predecessor and in my opinion, makes the album better than it. Maybe part of why I liked this album a little more is because I'm getting more familiar with the genre and the band, who knows. If you liked Ride the Lightning, you'll like this too.      Highlights: Battery, Master of Puppets, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Orion, Damage Inc. Rating: 5/6

      The last of the Pink Floyd albums that I've listened through so far as of writing this, and I saved the best for last. A short tribute to former band member Syd Barrett and a damn great one. Every song is great and unique, yet still obviously apart of the same overall piece of art. Every element is amazing: the vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and the saxophone especially is very on point. In addition, you can tell that the band put everything that they had into it; from the long, contemplative instrumental intro of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (about 8 minutes long) to the emotion packed vocals of Wish You Were Here, you can tell so much passion was poured into the entire album. Also, the way that Shine On You Crazy Diamond begins and ends the album, with each "part" of it being similar yet differing it specific areas, is great, and shows how the difference in feel between the two captures the experience of listening through the album. It's great.      Hig...

Malls were a big part of defining the 2000's for teens and their generation. They were a popular location to hang out, with places to eat, things to buy, and a location away from the home, and thus away from the parents, which allows for more freedom. Through the years, malls have declined in popularity among youth, especially with the rise of online shopping, food delivery services, and ways of communicating online, such as social media and various chatting apps and platforms. And with the coronavirus and quarantine of 2020, it looks like "mall culture" may be officially dead.      There may soon be a replacement, though. "Sewer culture", that being hanging out in sewers and drain pipes in the same vain as mall culture, has the potential to be just as big, if not bigger than mall culture was in the 2000's. It can check off almost all of the same factors that made malls so popular. For starters, it's a place separate from the home, allowing for more free...

      ELO's 5th album. By now, they've comfortably settled into their niche with their sound almost finalized and established. This is also the album where the orchestral elements are started to be subdued a little bit; they're still present and noticeable, but they have much less emphasis here. With this change also comes the consequence of the songs starting to sound more generic, like they're trying to be more "radio hits", and in my opinion it loses a little bit of what's made ELO's music so unique in the past. Because of this the songs are hit or miss for me, with the songs either being great or unmemorable (and in the case of one song, truly awful). The popular songs from this album, like Evil Woman and Strange Magic, are popular for reason, that being that they are really good. The other songs are mostly neutral and not that outstanding, like Waterfall or One Summer Dream. There are a few lesser known songs on here that I like just as much as th...

      Next step in the metal line is Metallica's "Ride the Lightning". I went into this one pretty hesitantly, worrying that it may be another just ok album, especially with how the first track went.  Before listening through these metal albums my impression of metal was pretty much "guitar that sounds like you're just playing the lowest note really fast and screaming", which is why the first track had me a little worried. Thankfully, the album as a whole turned out to be much better than it's introduction. The fast pacing works well for the music, I feel like it wouldn't have worked if it was any slower. The guitar was a little split for me; on one hand you have amazing solos with beautiful string work, and on the other is that sort of "playing low notes fast" thing, although that grew on me as the album progressed. One aspect that I have no doubts about liking, however, are the drums, which I thought stood out enough to be noticed and app...