Stream of Consciousness & Music Reviews

      I don't have much to say about A Hard Day's Night other than it's good. It's classic Beatles pop-rock, you really can't go wrong with that. Every song is around only 2 minutes long and the total runtime is a half hour; it's short and sweet music that's pleasant to listen to. The guys are really good singers, especially with the vocal harmonies that pop up which can sound really good. Same thing with the guitar; there's occasionally a really good guitar riff that sounds better than I actually expected it to be. Biggest complaint that I have is that the backing can feel empty sometimes. It'll sometimes sound like just the vocals with maybe 1-2 instruments quietly looping off in the distance. Luckily this doesn't diminish the quality of the songs too much and doesn't happen that often, so it's not a big deal. Nice music which is nice to listen to.     Highlights: A Hard Day's Night, I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, I'm Ha...

      It is now a tradition to review an Aphrodite's Child album every Christmas eve (except they only have one more album after this so it won't last very long). Speaking of let-downs, this album falls very short of its predecessor End of the World. I liked that album so much because of how zany and chaotic the music was while still remaining coherent. This album, however, seems to have done a hard left turn and decided that most of the songs should follow a rigid structure of verses and choruses, which really diminishes the sound because of how it feels like it's forced into being more uniform. The same goes for the general sound too; it's much more generic and bland and just less interesting to listen to. The instruments feel more uniform and "doing what they're supposed to do" which makes the music more boring as a result. Also, the vocals don't sound anything like they did in the first album. You can tell that it's the same guy singing, but hi...

    I think that Daft Punk has mastered their craft. I genuinely don't know what to say, this was just an incredibly great album, at least on par with Discovery. The duo have near-perfected their groove and rhythm here, with every track being infectiously funky. The sound alone is phenomenal, thanks to the unique integration of the synthesizers they're known for. Oddly enough, this album feels more acoustic when compared to Discovery, despite it using the aforementioned synths and sci-fi vibe just as much, if not more due to the heavy emphasis on themes of space and the future. The more relaxed overall tone makes the songs even better just for casual listening or having on in the background while still retaining the detail and complexness that makes it amazing to really analyze as you listen and pay attention. And the addition of having other artists on to record and produce some of the songs helps for the tracks to feel distinct from each ot...

      The debut album from Ace of Hearts (not including two EPs released last year) sure is an album. I've been following this band since they formed in early 2020 so I want to be nice about how I describe this. The music isn't bad, I like it a fairly good amount, but it feels lacking; it really is a first album, in that it just hasn't found its footing yet. I feel like there's some definitive element or style that's missing from the majority of the album. It's perfectly fine indie-rock and it sounds like a few of the songs have taken inspiration from Daft Punk, which I'm always up for, and sometimes reminds me of ELO, with how it incorporates strings and synths throughout. Unfortunately, the uses of these areas of creativity aren't utilized that effectively; there's nothing to really define the sound or feel of the music. I think that the brightest look forward for the band is in the (maybe) title track of the album "A Life Frozen in Time"...

    I'm doing the ELO album first this year. Mostly because I just want to listen to it since it's somehow been a year since I last let myself listen to a new one (I really need to get around to doing these reviews more often); but hey, at least this has a pretty great offering! Just a heads up, I'm going off of the version of the album on Spotify, which I believe is the double album version. Secret Messages continues the band's trend of experimenting with their music a lot, but now in somewhat familiar ways. It carries on from what Time did, having an eclectic mix of sounds and genres throughout the album, but now it almost has a similar feel to the days of Eldorado or Face The Music. It returns to trying to mix together modern rock elements (which at this point would be the 80's) and more classical elements, such as strings, but also some other various older styles, such as a more heavy emphasis on blues and soul throughout the songs. And of course they still reta...

      I don't review movies, but I wanted to write out my thoughts on Scotland, PA in full. Scotland, PA is an adaptation of Macbeth set in the 1970's, with Scottish royalty traded in for fast food. Spoilers for both the movie and the original play (both are good, I suggest watching them, the play probably has productions on youtube and the movie is free on pluto), and I'll be speaking as if you already know the play. I'm looking at the movie in two lights: how good it is as just a movie, and how good it is as an adaptation of the play.      Firstly, how well does it stand on its own? I'd say it fairs pretty well. The fast food setting is intriguing enough, especially after "Mac" kills Duncan and buys the restaurant. The progression of the building along with McBeth's rise is nice, especially since the set design of the place is amazing (although I am a sucker for that retro fast food look, so I'm probably biased here). And along with the sets, the...

    After months of development, the thing that I've been working on is finally complete! I semi-proudly present the "Choose Your Own Square-venture!" A small choose your own adventure game that's focused around the simple concept of a plain square. It's a little difficult to discuss the premise without directly spoiling some of the content, so I'll leave it to you to see everything that it has to offer. If you have any questions/feedback/problems/etc., please either contact me on Twitter or with a comment on this post and I will be more than happy to talk to you about it! Link to the game!     A small note that I recommend you read before playing the game: this is the first time that I've worked with any sort of code. And on top of that, this is in a coding language that isn't as common as something like Java or Python. So if there's any jank or things that aren't working like how they're supposed to, I apologize and encourage you to reach...

    Is this dance music? I don't listen to dance music; I generally like shorter songs that get to their point fairly quickly, whereas (I think) dance music is typically drawn out to let people enjoy the beat/melody/whatever. Somehow, Daft Punk manages to accomplish both of these things at the same time in Discovery. The music revels in it's robotic sounds and heavy beats, while also managing to play around with the various elements of the music in fun ways. For example, in Short Circuit the song starts off fast and energetic and as it goes on gradually begins to slow down and near the end it starts breaking down, making it sound like the track is 'short circuiting'. Clever. Speaking of playing around with itself, the album does a lot of sampling throughout, incorporating them greatly in the songs (and sometimes making the samples the entire song, such as in Superheroes or High Life) which works very well with the heavily edited and robotic sound of everything. And that...

      Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about Led Zeppelin, apart from the small tidbits I picked up while looking up the lyrics for the album. I'm doing this album because a friend requested it. That being said: this sure is rock and roll, huh. I hate to be a contrarian or buzzkill here, but this just isn't "greatest album of all time" levels (as I saw many  people say it was). The music is just ok at best, with one or two exceptions. Most of the songs on here are just the minimum standard for rock. Like, when I think of "generic rock song" this is what comes to mind. It's not inventive or too creative with it's music, and a good amount of the songs follow the same structure complete with nearly identical bridges in some of them. A couple songs might hint towards the album maybe having a more blues-oriented style, namely Rock and Roll and When the Levee Breaks, but every other track shoots down that thought with the aforementioned genericness. A...

      This is not where I expected them to go. A small disclaimer: the only other Black Sabbath album apart from this one that I've heard is their self titled, so I'm jumping from first to fifth here. That said, this is very much not the direction that I thought that they would head. This album is much lighter than their first, with the haunting, heavy feeling that it had being completely vanished. Now, there are more upbeat guitar solos, and even synth solos (which I was pretty surprised and pleased by). Throughout the whole thing, everything just sounds less doom-ful, if that makes sense. The skill of the band is still here in regard to their instruments, if just a tiny bit lesser than what I've heard from them before. The same cannot be said for the lyrics and vocals. I'm so split on the lyrics here. I never really go into the lyrics in these reviews because they usually serve their purpose really well or are, at the very least, passable and just nothing special. Thi...

     The sky was a vibrant blue. There wasn’t a cloud anywhere in sight. It was well lit, as if someone was holding a flashlight up to a piece of tissue paper. You could look up into it and swear you were staring straight at a painting. To go along with the picturesque sky was some of the best weather that Cardium had seen in many years; a constant 67 degree temperature keeping you cool but not chilled, and a slight breeze of warm air coming by at what always seemed the perfect time. Yet it's only witness had no wonder or awe about it.      Cardium wandered along the cliffs, adrift in a thoughtless state. Nothing crossed his mind, nor had anything for what he felt to be quite a while. Not the near-perfect weather which had persisted for days, nor how the sun never seemed to budge even an inch in the sky. Not even the grass below his pacing feet, which was all a deep crimson as though it had been bathed in blood. Cardium might have been intrigued by these t...

 hello . I think I'm here now . although 'now' isn't a very good descriptor . did I use descriptor right ? I don't now . it has been a long time since I've been in school .  that doesn't matter . you should be able to get this . I've been trying to get this through for a while . I think I have at least . this medium should do well enough . there are still some kinks in getting this to work . hopefully this will still get wherever it needs to go . you cannot respond . you've never met me . chances are you never will . I don't have any precise control over where I go . I'm able to sway it somewhat but the final decision is not mine . everything is foggy . and pitch black .  keeping on track . you should know who I am . who am I ? do you already know ? my name isn't any good . there's no way it could belong to me . it's belonged to so many others . it wouldn't fit anymore even if I was the only one to have it .  I should stop get...

      How have I not listened through a ZZ Top album yet? No clue, but here we are. You know 'Sharp Dressed Man', right? If not, then what rock have you been living under? I think the best way to describe the general sound of Eliminator is "Sharp Dressed Man, 11 times in a row"; that is to say, the music blends together a little. That's not necessarily a bad thing since ZZ Top's unique noise is pretty good, but it leads to some of the tracks being forgettable when they're up against the more famous songs, like 'Sharp Dressed Man' or 'Legs'. But like I said, that sound that every track has is a good one for sure. ZZ Top utilizes a combination of blues and and an almost country-style rock that you could say is akin to something like Creedence Clearwater Revival. This is especially apparent in their long instrumental breaks and guitar solos, which lend themselves greatly to the general song structure of the album, and just lets the instruments...

     Hello. Most of my writing pieces on this site aren't actually stream of consciousness in form, I do usually do some revising and put at least a semblance of thought into my work; I just chose to name this after stream of consciousness because it sounds cool and is vaguely similar to how I write. This piece, however, will  actually be stream of consciousness, mostly because I have things in my head that I want to get down but have no real place to go, so I'll just be leaving them here. I won't be tweeting this one out like I usually do with posts on here, so if you're reading this: hello.      I want to talk about life. Not necessarily existential-type stuff, although it may be pertinent to at least keep in mind. So, just get "deep" for a second and think about your own mortality, the fact that no matter how influential you are you'll never truly make any lasting impact, and the time before and after the universe. Now, let's actually  talk abo...