Good day friends! It's list month! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be diving into my favorite and least favorite material of the year. Starting off this week, we have 10 of the biggest disappointments of the year!
10. Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want
It’s been a long year of reviewing music. I’m a tired man, and I’m ready to relax for a week or two. But something keeps bugging me, what’s up with this album? People seem to love the hell out of this thing, with many coming to me with the feared “Album of the Year” title. This new Daughters album is good, I get that. But this quite frankly isn’t what I want to hear, nor expected to hear from the longtime Noise Rock vets. Is it that wrong to want to hear Alexis Marshall go all out and give us the same chaotic performances we got on their self-titled album? No, I don’t think so. And don’t get me wrong, I do think the band’s new approach to tension is a breath of fresh air. But this still just isn’t for me amigos.
9. The Men - Drift
In 2016 The Men released “Devil Music”, and showed The Men return to a much grittier, darker sound like we heard in the early days. It wasn’t a perfect album, but it was an exciting album for its own reasons. And hell yea, I was excited to hear this new one too. But the absolute last thing I thought I would hear on “Drift” would be The Men at their most tame. There are heartbroken Country tracks (something they’ve nailed in the past) and Classic Rock driven highway tunes (something they’ve ALSO nailed in the past). But The Men just sound like they have no idea what they’re doing. On “Drift” they never seem to just stick with a sound for more than a few minutes, which could have been exciting. But it just ends up being really directionless.
8. Legend Of The Seagullmen - Legend of the Seagullmen
Oh boy. What is it with Mastodon-oriented offshoots that just rub me the wrong way entirely? With the names associated with this project, this has so much potential. Danny Carey? Brent Hinds? A concept album about some legendary people of the sea and a heavy nautical theme? This should be fucking gold. And sure, some of the early moments show the members having some completely ridiculous fun. It’s over-the-top and practically goofy at points, which is pretty much where I wanted to hear this album. But the second half of this album completely derails, showing the super-group rush to button up this storyline which wasn’t really supposed to be taken seriously, to begin with. The result is a bloated, puzzling album that comes off so rushed and rigid at the end of the day.
7. Børns - Blue Madonna
Ok, so this isn’t exactly the most disappointing album of the year, and it’s not even that bad of an album. But the quality of tracks here compared to the first Børns album is absolutely astonishing. On his debut “Dopamine”, Børns created a series of catchy Indie Pop anthems that were oozing with personality. “Blue Madonna” is just painfully average sadly. The production isn’t nearly as glamorous, and outside of “Faded Heart”, I can’t remember any choruses here that actually stuck with me. And like I said, in the past Børns’s performances had been larger than life and gigantic. Why do I feel like he’s limiting himself half of the time on this album? There are certainly highlights, but I was expecting something huge.
6. A Perfect Circle - Eat The Elephant
A Perfect Circle, the legendary Alternative Metal supergroup return after 14 years with an album that could have been a whole lot better. The first few tracks on this one are actually totally fine, even reassuring that Maynard James Keenan hasn’t lost touch with what made APC so great. Hell, when Maynard gets his head out of his ass for a few minutes, this comes off as genuinely well thought out material that’s a great Alternative to Metal. Which yes, is what was originally so great about A Perfect Circle. But no. So much of this album doesn’t have a tooth in sight, and I’ve heard more personality on Nu-Metal albums. It’s a one-dimensional, self-centered “Metal” album in 2018, I’m not interested. And let me just say, the fact that Maynard has been reduced to piano ballads like “So Long, And Thanks For All the Fish” in 2018 is absolutely terrifying. Not looking forward to that new Tool album.
5. Ghost - Prequelle
So. What the absolute fuck happened here? Let me be straight. I have absolutely not an issue in the world with a band taking a new direction, at least to some extent. It’s going to happen. Hell, I don’t even have a problem with a Metal band taking a more metal approach. Look at Behemoth, “I Loved You At Your Darkest” is their most human album by FAR and it’s amazing. With “Prequelle’ the Swedish modern legends throw Metal almost completely out of the window for a collection of sappy, cinematic ballads. If we got maybe one or two of these sprinkled throughout, this would be fine. And it’s not like the band has lost their edge because tracks like “Rats!” are legitimately fantastic. Not to mention, Ghost has taken their legendary campiness to new levels of ridiculous, which is something I love. But so many of these tracks barely feature guitars and just made me lose so much respect here.
4. Panopticon - The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness
So let’s get this right on the table, this album has lessened on me a little. Now, this one is a tough one by any means. On paper, this is Panopticon’s most ambitious and interesting album to date. But now, this just seems a little extra to me. With this absolutely gigantic album, we get one disk of Black Metal and one disk of warm Bluegrass and Folk. And honestly, a good chunk of this album is either exciting or beautiful. But at the end of the day, it’s just sloppy and way too much. The cruel reality is, in these two gigantic discs or material there’s only really enough truly great material for one album. The rest of this album is just a little bland, as some of the later metal tunes get a little too faceless, and by the end of disk 2, I needed a coffee. This could have been the next great chapter in one of Metal’s finest current acts. In its place, we got two gigantic disks where we basically have to trim the fat ourselves.
3. Lykke Li - so sad so sexy
Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh BOY. I don’t know when Lykke became so faceless or obsessed with being this Pop Star that she clearly isn’t comfortable being. You know, in the past I’ve admired just how fearless Lykke has been and her ability to bring together different genres. But here, she throws away her sense of adventure and in return, we just get so many whiny lyrics and faceless jams. This is barely an Indie Pop album. This sounds like a no-name Pop star trying to become more edge. And oh my God the more Trap oriented tracks here, I have to stop talking about this.
2. Animal Collective - Tangerine Reef
The year is 2018. One of this generation’s most influential and genuinely experimental bands have returned! Hmm? What’s that you say? The best songwriter in their troop is M.I.A.? And what’s that? It’s a visual album completely based around life in coral reefs? Oh boy. Oh, there’s more? Half of these tracks do nothing without the visual experience? Half of these tracks don’t have vocals or anything resembling a tune? It’s almost an hour long?! Oof.
Justin Timberlake - Man Of The Woods
So let me paint a picture for you all. Justin Timberlake, one of the most legitimately cool figures in modern Pop. Creator of brilliant albums like “FutureSex/LoveSounds” and “The 20/20 Experience”. With just how bare this album was for decent Pop music, I just wanted to hear Justin doing what he does best. But what we got, was a self-indulgent and bloated Pop album that shows Justin desperately trying to expand his sound. Now, that’s fine, as a matter of fact, I respect that. But this isn’t the definition of “Cool” This isn’t hip, this is tragically uninteresting and what sounds like a collection of leftovers from his last few albums. I don’t want to get into this, because we’re gonna be touching down on this in my “worst albums of 2018” list. But this was the biggest back-step of any artist I heard this year by far.
No comments:
Post a Comment