Let’s discuss any and all music here. You’ve got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Do you have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here, but do please remember to also pay attention to the more niche threads; if your post would either fit better or equally well in one of them, please post it there as well. I absolutely do not want to steal traffic from those threads.

Sigil’s Music Journal (2018-07-12/2018-07-19)

12.  Prefuse 73 – One Word Extinguisher (2003). Certainly my favorite record of Prefuse 73, this is where all the weirdness comes together into something really great. A diverse collection of ideas thrown into a blender and returned as a delicious collection of shakes. 7/10

 

13. Tom Waits – Orphans : Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006) An enormous collection that isn’t really an album, but isn’t really a compilation. It’s difficult to wrap your head around the whole thing, especially when listening to it digitally with no breaks between CDs, which are clearly intended as separate albums. I have a special relationship with the first song “Lie to Me,” because even before we were married, we decided that that would be perfect song to play and dance to when embarrassing our future teenaged children. 9/10

14. Beck – Stereopathetic Soulmanure (1994) I was ready to shit all over this record, but I actually kind of enjoyed it. Perhaps its listening to a fair amount of Sun City Girls, but an album of stupid castoffs, jokes, and other nonsense, doesn’t really bother me anymore. ‘Satan Gave Me a Taco,’ however, is still the best track. 6/10

15. Matthew Friedberger – Matricidal Sons of Bitches (2012) Pretty soon after Friedberger released the final LP in a year long 8 LP subscription series, he released this head scratcher. I’m still not really sure what to make of it, except I don’t particularly like it. 4/10

 

16. M83 – Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003) This is the LP version of this with the vinyl only title track; that track has a lot of arpeggios so I enjoy it. The album as a whole, is still pretty good. But I’m not really sure what else to say about it. 7/10

 

17. District Five Quartet – Decoy (2018) This just came out this year, and features four musicians that I had never heard of before. It’s probably the second time I’ve listened to this, so it’s hard to really form an opinion. But it seems pretty bright and energetic with a few electronic flourishes to keep it hip. 7/10

 

18. Jeff Mangum – Live at Jittery Joe’s (2001). I realize that’s not the normal cover, but when this was initially released it came with a rather large foldout poster in lieu of a booklet or really even a sleeve. So I apparently folded it weird and scanned that in. Anyway, this is a good show. It’s essentially a bootleg, but it’s before In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and there’s a few early versions of songs here. It’s about as good as this sort of thing can be. 8/10

19. Mariam the Believer – Love Everything (2017) I probably don’t listen to this proportionally to how much I enjoy it. Mariam used to be in Wildbirds & Peacedrums, who are generally amazing, but she also floats around some newer jazz circles. This album is much more pop, however. It has a fair amount of backing vocals and kind of feels like something you might hear on a 90s Top 40 station… but a lot better.

20. Swan Lake – Enemy Mine (2009) Three of my favorite musicians in one band Carey Mercer, Dan Bejar, and Spencer Krug. This isn’t quite more than the sum of its parts, but it’s a really good collaboration. The first track and the last are the best, IMHO. The rest kind of bleed together a bit. 7/10

 

21. The Tear Garden – The Last Man to Fly (1992) There’s really not much to set The Tear Garden apart from The Legendary Pink Dots. There are different musicians, but LPD always had a rotating roster anyway, and they’re all working in the same groove anyway. This contains one of my favorite Tear Garden track, “Romulus and Venus.” Probably not as overall strong as their debut (I think? I haven’t listened to it in awhile), but pretty good nonetheless. 7/10

22. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Hearts of Oak (2003). This is a such a great album. Such solid, great songs. I knew of its existence since it came out, because it got a lot of positive press, but I only listened to it within the past few years… after it became out of print. Thanks, Google Play! 9/10

 

23. Tracyanne & Danny – Tracyanne & Danny (2018). Man this sure sounds a lot like Camera Obscura. Oh, that’s because it’s the vocalist from Camera Obscura. This is quite a pleasant album that I put in my collection one day, and never really listened to. I’m not sure if its notable enough for me to ever listen to on a consistent basis, but it’s pretty good. 7/10

24. Robert Miles – Dreamland (1996). Alright, this one is genuinely boring, and was part of my physical collection much longer than it should’ve been. I remember several times, after selling a fair number of CDs, finding this still in my possession and wondering how it survived. It’s not that it’s bad, it very much is what it is, it’s just that I’m not sure if I ever really need to hear this type of music ever again. I was very much into trance for a oddly long time. I made it through it, this time, and even enjoyed some parts but. Ugh. So boring. 4/10

25. Olivia Tremor Control – Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1 (1999). And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, this is one of my favorite records; like The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs this seems like a landmark album for me. This one is probably a little less obvious in its importance as it seems a little more personal. That’s to say, I love this record, but it’s not universally loved. Anyway, this is like a half biodegraded Pet Sounds. That has a lot to do with the references to foliage and the Earth, but it also seems like the sweet pop songs here have skin that has flaked off. For me, it’s a perfect storm of experimentalism and pop that just resonated with me at the right moment. 10/10