Down the rabbit hole. (DBO)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Monday, April 09, 2018, 08:58 (2419 days ago) @ Harmanimus
edited by stabbim, Monday, April 09, 2018, 09:01

Lorde - Pure Heroine

I fully believe this album is a modern masterpiece. I was a little late to the Lorde party - I don't really keep up on what's current/popular (outside of my current avatar, anyway) so I didn't hear of her until like 2015. But I'm 100% into it now - I actually saw her live just a couple of weeks ago.

BTW Lorde is an NMH fan. I saw her tweet lyrics from Two-Headed Boy once. :)

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Yes. Yesyesyes. This album's every bit as good as all your favorite music snobs say it is. Like a lot of people, I suspect, I didn't hear about it until well after Jeff Mangum had gone off the grid. But I did hear about it in time to be invested in the whole mythos, so I could get PROPERLY excited when he came back and started touring again. I saw him back in 2012, solo show at a small venue in Ames, Iowa.

Little anecdote from that show: The venue had noted online and put up signs saying that we should all stay seated during the show, and not come up to the stage - presumably to avoid scaring Jeff back to his cabin in the woods, LOL. But the guy playing the opening act told us to never mind that, it was OK to come up there and actually Jeff would be fine with it. That guy was Julian Koster, also a member of NMH, so we all understood that he knew Jeff personally and we could take him at his word. So everyone got up and stood right by the stage for the whole show. It was magical.

Taylor Swift - 1989

Are you and I actually the same person? I could go on forever about this album, but all I'll say is that it is legitimately one of the best albums I've ever heard, and that is coming from someone who used to say that he "doesn't listen to popular music." Ugh I was such a shit. I think what I really meant back then was that I didn't like music that wasn't real - the kind of thing that's written by one person or group, and then someone else puts their name on it. And say what you will about Taylor, but she is absolutely the architect and driving force behind her own music.

twenty one pilots - Blurryface

Another artist I was late to the party on. I actually should shout out Korny and Sammy here - between them and the lead singer of my favorite band constantly pushing twenty one pilots, I did finally check them out and am now majorly on the bandwagon. Saw them live during the Blurryface era, and that was sure an experience. When I'm old, I'll tell young people about the time that I saw Josh Dunn ride in a hamster ball across a crowd in Omaha.

Also, props for AFI. I still say that Sing The Sorrow is one of the best albums ever recorded. It NEVER loses momentum for a second, the whole way through. There's no pointless meandering, and IMO no "skip tracks."