If the sands in the hourglass clump together in the summer humidity, and they fail to fall through the neck into that tidy pile of time, did any elapse? I'm left wondering about that, since this year has given us a music scene that appears more stagnant and forgettable than ever. It almost feels as if no difference to our lives would have been made if the calendar had flipped directly from December to July. A bit hyperbolic, sure, but we need to find our own way of amusing ourselves when the music is struggling to do it. Let's break it down.
THE GOOD
Chris C: I was tempted to do this in haiku form, since I could probably sum up the first half of the year in that small number of syllables. Maybe one day I will actually sit down and review a whole bunch of records at once in poem form. I'm weird like that. What I can say was good about this year is not much, but for consistency. I appreciate in myself that I am looking for the same thing, aching for the same feelings, from my music. That has pointed me into what we can call emo territory, as it has for the last couple of years. My top two records of the year fall into that category, and I have no shame in saying I am much more in that mindset than anything metal has had to offer. The Requiem and Hot Water Music are easily my most played albums, but I will mention the very recent Sunburst album as the best metal I've heard.
D.M: Much to my surprise, I find myself sitting on ten albums already that I feel pretty good about. Not to say that they're all classics or will even crack my top 10 albums of the year, but given how much scrambling I've had to do in the last few years to cobble together a list at the end of the year, I'm happy to say that I'm probably about halfway done already (convenient, as this is the halfway mark!) It's been a great year for established bands. Combichrist (great!) and Korpiklaani (good!) both with solid albums, and Powerman 5000...well, it's hard to say they're on the comeback trail when they'll likely never match their apex around the turn of the millennium, but they continue on a string of good albums after wandering in the dark for a long time. Plus, some good sophomore efforts, which is always good to see, like Dead Poet Society and Sundrifter.
THE BAD
Chris C: I suppose the good news extends to here, as there hasn't actually been much music I would call outright bad. Green Day tops this list, but maybe that's as much for the difference between hype and reality than anything else. They seem to have lost the plot, if you ask me. Neal Morse makes the list again, as his super-Christian musicals drag on and on, and I wonder who thought re-telling a story that already has a mega-popular musical would be a good idea even if the record was any good. I'll also throw in a nod to Kerry King, not because his record is bad, but because I absolutely hate his decision to make it as close to Slayer as humanly possible. Why don't you keep telling us how angry you are the band ended?
D.M: Kerry only knows how to do one thing. He's trapped in that specialization forever (cue Robert Heinlein: "specialization is for insects.") As the great(?) Leroy Hoard once said: "If you need one yard, I'll get you three yards. If you need five yards, I'll get you three yards.) Anyway, much as for you the bad was an extension of the good, so is mine. If it's been a good year for veteran bands, it's been a bad year for debut records. Of the ten or so records I have highlighted for the year so far, there's only two that are from artists I wasn't previously familiar with, and only one of those is a debut. That seems way out of proportion from my normal course.
THE SURPRISES
Chris C: Those top records of the year both qualify, but I'll move on and say the biggest surprise for me was hearing that Lucifer finally put the pieces together. I had always liked them, but there was something missing in their formula. They found it this time, and put out easily their most engaging album. If Ghost is the glossy, big-budget horror movie, Lucifer is the grimy indie that takes on a cult following. It's nice to hear one of these bands I have hope for actually took that next step.
D.M: Biggest surprise for me was that I didn't expect the resurrection of nu metal! Good, bad or indifferent, there's been a lot of records this year taking their inspiration from Korn and Puddle of Mudd and Linkin Park and whatever else. I suppose it's been long enough now that that possibility was in the offing, but there was no hint of this last year, and suddenly here it is! Almost like a conscious decision by labels to start pushing it, though I have a hard time believing they're that coordinated in trying to steer public taste.
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
Chris C: This can be a long section, if I want to get into it. Basically, every name I was looking forward to this year, and putting my hopes in, let me down. You know how big a fan I am of Bruce Dickinson's 'big three' solo albums, but his new record is what two decades of not making an album sound like. Anette Olzon continues to make her solo albums the worst stuff she's associated with. Cold Years followed up an almost AOTY winner with one that sounds like someone sped up the tape too much. Then there's our old friend Taylor Swift. I won't take us down that rabbit hole, but it's rather interesting that the biggest artist on the planet, at the height of her fame and power, put out such a dull and dour record. Honestly, there isn't even a single from the record I've gone back to since it came out.
D.M: Only one from me in a macro sense, which is that I wanted the PAIN album to be so much better than it was. In the micro sense, there's been a lot of in-experience disappointments. Sons of Alpha Centauri had a cool sound, but then got real Radiohead-y real fast. PAT!i started off great, then it all fell apart by album's end and Sleepmakeswaves utilized an awesome guitar tone, but got mired in a prog-y slog. A lot of that kind of stuff.
THE SECOND HALF
Chris C: I'm not feeling particularly optimistic about the second half of the year. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to the music news, but I don't actually know of all that many records coming out in the next few months I should have my ears out for. The follow-up from Yours Truly is set to arrive, but I've been less than impressed by the two singles, so I'm definitely wary. There's going to be a new Offspring album, which is only interesting to see if they can possibly match how terrible the last one was. No once good band can fall that far, right? And if they can get it completed and out by the end of the year, I would of course be interested to hear how Dream Theater pick up fifteen years after their last album together with Mike Portnoy. There are going to need to be some surprises coming along to keep my hopes up.
D.M: Bunch of releases on the horizon that give me hope - Blues Pills, Powerwolf, The Warning to name a few. Plus, I remain hopeful that I'll get some regression to my personal mean in the way of debut albums that actually catch my ear. So fingers crossed for good new stuff! In the meantime, even though you didn't ask, no, I'm not buying the suddenly surging Mets just yet
No comments:
Post a Comment