Stream of Consciousness & Music Reviews

 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...

    I know my gushing over ELO may be getting tiring at this point, but it's my blog so stuff it. I love this album. So much, that I want anyone reading this to stop reading and go listen to it right now. Seriously, it's that good; plus I don't want to spoil anything. Read further at your own caution. As you may have guessed, Time is another conceptual album, not unlike one of ELO's other albums, Eldorado. And similarly to Eldorado, this album is a near masterpiece in my opinion. It tells the story of a man from 1981 transported to 2095 and how he struggles with it. The way that it's told, both how it's shown through the music and lyrics and the ambiguity at all turns, works so massively in favor of the theming of the album. Much like with my review of A New World Record, I really can't do this album justice with my own words. Even outside of the narrative, the music is amazing. It features synth more than ever here, which has already proven to pair very wel...

      What the hell did I just listen to? I feel like that sentiment is exactly what the Greek band Aphrodite's Child was trying to convey with End of the World. The album is like a combination of psychedelia rock, prog rock, pop, and metal. This odd concoction sounds like it wouldn't work very well, but it surprisingly does. The constant switching between trippy, excitable moments and slow ballads works really well and I have no idea why. One part might be the vocal performance, which manages to be haunting at times, other times loud and frantic, and sometimes both. I can't really credit a name to it because multiple members of the band are credited with being vocalists but there aren't any specifics past that. All I know is that what they offer goes pretty well with the overall trippy feel of the album. One thing I do know is the keyboard (played definitively by Vangelis Papathanassiou) is easily the best aspect of the music. Much the vocal performance, it's a...

      I said almost  none of them were related. One of my friends said I should listen to this and I figured that I could listen to 2112 and this back to back since I was already planning on listening to the former anyway. And speaking of 2112, Signals feels a bit underwhelming since I'm listening to it hot off the heels of it. While 2112 was wild and high energy excitement for the narrative portion with a slow cool down on the b side, Signals is like low energy practically the whole way through with only a few moments of intensity. Every element of the music is the same, but just feels lesser in a way. Lee's vocal work matches that of it in 2112, but is much less energetic and doesn't have nearly as much dynamic impact. And the same can sort of be said about pretty much all the instruments too. They seemed less involved and sort of melded together. It still had a similar sound and was still distinctly Rush, but it was like an AI tried to replicate their music and wa...

      Where do I even start with this one. I've said it for other albums and I'll say it here too: This album is very highly regarded and for very good reason. It's a goddamn experience listening to this thing. The first track alone could be it's own standalone album and still be amazing. The narrative told by that first track is just so excellent. It touches on some bases of human psychology and society in what it says about authority with the Priests and the  inherent profoundness of music to us. And for me, it seems to have a similar structure and theming to that of Eldorado by ELO, one of my all time favorite albums, as well as Anthem by Ayn Rand, a novella that I adore and highly recommend. Unfortunately, the B side of the album feels underwhelming by comparison. Going from the Grand Finale of 2112 into A Passage to Bangkok feels a bit disappointing. There are good songs in the rest of the album with good stuff in them; it's just a bit of a let do...