Mar 24, 2025

Some amazing threads by @Wreckless , @DiggleDogg69 , @Yeez , and etc., have given me inspiration to start doing something similar myself.

My plan for fighting the plagiarism allegations is rather simple: I intend to write about albums I enjoy; be it ones I listened to for a thousand times already, or ones I freshly discovered.

Although the primary purpose of the thread is to archive my favorite records, it will also (hopefully) function as a place where the forum’s users - those bored enough to actually end up here - might stumble upon some music they end up liking.

I will be posting irregularly, whenever I feel like yapping my a--- off lol.

The albums I covered so far:
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991.)
The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985.)
MGMT - Congratulations (2010.)
Silver Jews - The Natural Bridge (1996.)
Touché Amoré - Stage Four (2016.)
Pulp - Different Class (1995.)
The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt (2010.)

 

Mar 25, 2025

The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash (1985.)



I’ve been familiar with The Pogues for years now but sadly only dove deeper into their music after the passing of their frontman, Shane MacGowan. This is a record that I’ve revisited very recently and only then did I fall in love with it. In my opinion this album is not only a cornerstone of folk-rock, it also gave birth to a whole new genre of music - folk-punk. Technicalities aside, this amazing LP is so innovative because of the badass way in which it blends elements of celtic tunes and shanties with these rough styles and topics pioneered in the 70s and 80s by the forefathers of punk. The band on this album sounds absolutely spectacular and sets the stage perfectly for the late MacGowan’s songwriting. His songs cover a variety of topics, there’s the opening track The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn which epitomizes the alcohol-fuelled lifestyle of the frontman. This is a joyful tune with a materialistic worldview which only gets better upon further listens. The instrumentation on it sounds like a st. Patrick’s day parade and is real ear candy for those who don’t find music like this grating. Although this song kicks the album off perfectly, it does not reflect its themes entirely. Hidden behind these musical tales of folk heroes and traditions of long ago are a bunch of innovative tunes which give testimony to the album’s impressive songwriting. I’d point out the song The Band Played Waltzing Matilda which is a gut wrenching composition about the atrocities of war and its consequences on the survivors. This is just one of the examples of how The Pogues embodied the social-commentary element of punk music, but did it in a drastically different way.


I’d most definitely recommend this album to all the fans of folk music. I also see it as a must-listen for everybody who enjoys punk, too. The project is a classic and a real gem that I’m grateful to have discovered.

RIP to Shane MacGowan

 

Mar 24, 2025

f--- ye bro we turning this b---- into facebook.

 

Mar 24, 2025

Can I make a thread too?

 

Mar 24, 2025

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991.)



Talk Talk is a band that underwent total transformation with their two final records. The albums Spirit of Eden (1988.) and Laughing Stock (1991.) see the band break free from the shackles of synthpop and new wave - genres that made them big in the first place. Now, I’m not a hater of synths or jolly 80s dance tunes, I love em to bits. Thank god, though, that the Mark Hollis led outfit followed through with a radical shift into a more art-rock, post-rock and even ambiental space.

Laughing Stock is the absolute culmination of this evolution.

This album is f---ing amazing. It may require some patience, but once the dreamy electric organs, paired with the warm guitars, click, the songs get under your skin. As much as I’ve tried over the years, I am yet to find something I dislike on here. Laughing Stock is immensely poetic and powerful. The lyricism here invokes something visceral, and so does Hollis’ performance. The vocals act as an instrument that additionally furthers the atmosphere achieved by the great production. The singer is one with the music, nothing is out of place.Sometimes I listen to this project when going to sleep because of how laid back it is lol. The vibes when you’re barely awake and this is playing are insane. It literally has me ascending. Feels like an acid trip.

That said, this album may take time to click for some. Years back, when I was first listening to it, I was bored out of my mind. Now it is one of my all time favorites. Seriously, I love this thing.

 

Apr 21, 2025

Pulp - Different Class (1995.)



I don’t really vibe with the concept of guilty pleasure music and the whole deal of concealing one’s enjoyment of something because it is considered subpar by the wider audiences. That said, if I were to conform to that notion and proclaim that certain type of music is a guilty pleasure of mine, 9/10 times I’d be talking about british pop of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

This subgenre spawned a ton of s-----y, forgettable music. For every 10 corny britpop albums you listen to, you will be lucky to find one that does something impressive, fun, and authentic. There are some bands (Oasis, Blur…) who managed to subvert this status quo with some of their releases, but even they (looking at you, Oasis) later fell off and started dropping musical turds that painted the rest of their catalogues with the brown hue of s---.

Pulp is a band that succeeded in staying authentic up until the very end. I keep talking about this group way too much and am probably making everyone tired with my pointless soliloquys aimed at celebrating this band’s output, but bear with me; perhaps I condition you into agreeing.

Pulp is a project centered around Jarvis Cocker. An artist who has been active since the 1980s. He’s a very prolific guy whose music had been falling on deaf ears for more than 10 years following the band’s inception, the public did not want to give it a shot at all. This all changed in the early 90s when the band’s earlier material started taking off. This was the prelude to the release of Different Class, the album I am writing about today.

The title of this project leaves little room for imagination regarding what kind of thematic approach the music on it would take. Almost in a Charles Dickens-like manner, the tracks here are built upon topics of wealth inequality of the UK at the time. These topics are reimagined through Cocker’s unending wit, his edgy lyricism, and talent for painting a lyrical picture that hyper realistically portrays the realities of the country’s subcultures.

Moving on from the pretentious tangents about this album’s background and the context in which it was recorded, I will take some time to touch on my own personal highlights and what, to me, makes those songs so great.

Scratch that. Now that I think of it, choosing favorites from this project seems impossible for me. Over the years my experience with this album and the good times it made even better have caused a shift in my brain under which I perceive this tape as a single, viciously fun song. The immaculate flow of the project has a lot to do with that as well.

I am more or less purposefully embracing the irony of describing something that is meant to be filthy, emotional, and unapologetic with this Britannica vocabulary. I partly feel like Pulp deserves its flowers in form of a serious review.

The album opens with Mis-shapes, the song wastes no time and swiftly kicks off with its lively instrumental. This song, like every other on this record, is a stellar example of the singer’s great sense of melody. Not just melody, the way he manages to display his personality, too.

The song Pencil Skirt is a pretty simple track. Again, this album is not really about impressive playing of instruments; it thrives with Cocker’s edgy, borderline narcissistic approach to storytelling. I have got to mention that this album throughout makes such good use of spoken-word segments. Those add so much flavor.

The tracks Common People and Disco 2000 are ones that most people have probably heard of. Bangers, imo. I hate to be that guy but reading the lyrics while listening really elevate these songs from cheap MTV anthems into something iconic. It is all in the nuances that make the theme of, well ‘different class’, pop.

A prevalent motif on this album, like on many others, is drug use and how the consequences of partaking in these forbidden fruits of the lower class can affect one’s mind. Again, this is done in a way that does not condemn such a way of life. The tracks almost seem pro-drug. There’s Sorted For E’s & Wizz, a song about the notorious Stone Roses performance @ Spike Island. A lively tune with, again, great melodic personality. My favorite’s gotta be Bar Italia, though. What a gorgeous track. It really takes me back to my party days, lol.

It’s probably very obvious that I have a soft spot for this record; I find it formative for me and one of the more important projects in my music-listening history. The album might not click for everyone, but the ones who get it, they absolutely get it, man.

It sucks that the band never saw the acclaim they deserved. I hope their next release in two months will get more recognition. The upcoming album is their first release in 25 years. Although I’m unsure about what to expect sonically, I don’t doubt one bit that it will be absolutely spectacular.

 

Mar 27, 2025

MGMT - Congratulations (2010.)



I’ve been a fan of MGMT for the longest time and can confidently say that it all started with this album. Congratulations is the duo’s sophmore effort which sees them expand on the motifs and ideas found on their acclaimed debut record Oracular Spectacular. Besides having been proof of the duo refusing to be boxed in into the ‘feel-good, movie soundtrack’ synth-pop music styles present on their first record, Congratulations was also a show of great artistic improvement. As Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser polished all the flaws and imperfections (mostly of technical nature) that dragged down the quality of Oracular Spectacular, they stumbled upon a new niche to build their catalogue upon. MGMT always nurtured the psychedelic feel of their music, but it wasn’t until this album that they fully embraced it. While their debut at times felt psychedelic and hypnotic, the song structures just were not there. It lacked a kind of complexity that the duo later acquired with experience. This album played a big part in that.

The thing about Congratulations that keeps blowing me away even afer all these years is how well it is sequenced. Not only does every song have its place on the tracklist, each song offers limitless interpretations as well. Seriously, the writing on most MGMT records is absolutely amazing. It shows great variety of topics and moods alike. Side by side these slightly mystical songs with no concrete meaning, appear tunes that pay homage to the duo’s musical influences. The song Siberian Breaks is a 12 minute masterpiece of neo-psychedelia with amazing production and unfathomably innovative pacing and lyricism throughout; it is only logical that MGMT would follow this song, their magnum opus, with a sweet tune about Brian Eno. Although there is a sonical signature that is consistent throughout the album, it keeps you guessing about what each following track will be going for. This goes a long way in making the project so playful and engaging. As MGMT ventures into new territories and experiments with indie rock & prog instrumentation, they leave you asking yourself what these guys were doing making generic synth-pop in the first place. Congratulations sounds like the work of two seasoned veterans who approach their craft with great mastery. It is a project that is both grand and intimate, indie yet big-budget. There is a lot to admire about this record, it is such a great, one of a kind album.

I’d like to conclude this by warmly recommending anyone who may be reading this to give Siberian Breaks a listen if they haven’t heard it yet. Even more so to those who smoke lol. Light one up and give it a spin for sure!

MGMT created a gem with this album, one that I believe will keep aging well and reaching new listeners for years to come.

 

Mar 24, 2025