What have you been listening to this week?

I'm a metal fan and two of my favorite artists just dropped new albums.

Silent Planet - when the end began: Like their other albums, I think they are best when you have the time to listen to the entire album. Some of their standout songs for me are The New Eternity, Share the body, and Depths III. The vocalist who writes their lyrics is a psychologist and has a way of embodying different mental illnesses in a beautifully poetic way. He is easily my all time favorite lyricist.

Architects - Holy Hell: I only just listened to this album today while I was studying, so it definitely did not have my full attention but I enjoyed it. The song Damnation was really catchy and I got a bit distracted from what I was doing. There were definitely other parts of the album that distracted me, but overall I don't think I'm going to like this one as much as their previous album, All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. I wasnt sure what to expect from this album because their guitarist who wrote a lot of their stuff died from cancer just after AOGHAU was released. What made that album so amazing was he wrote it knowing he was going to die, and you can really see that he was disgusted with the greed and selfishness of humanity. But their new album still has that architects sound that I love.

I have a road trip coming up next week, so I plan to give both of these albums another thorough listen then. I've also been going through some 90s grunge and alt rock that I haven't listened to in a while, which has been a nice change of pace.

I've been listening to At War with the Mystics by The Flaming Lips.

If you've never heard any Flaming Lips, it's sort of psychedelic or alternative rock, and this album is my favourite of theirs (although I do love their other stuff too - Yoshimi Battles the pink robots, and Embryonic are two other great ones imo). This album is just such a spectacular mix of diverse sounds and musical ideas that is just really nice to listen through in it's entirety. It's got a bit more guitar through it than some of their other stuff which I like, and can get pretty weird at times but I've been listening to it on loop for basically the last month, not quite sure what put me back onto it but hey.

I've also been listening through Automatic for the People by R.E.M., and basically everything by Flight of the Conchords, which is just a bit of a laugh frankly.

Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band

The misogynistic blaming of Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles has rubbed me the wrong way for such a long time that I thought it was only right that I give Ono's music a fair shake. Ono's Plastic Ono Band was released a year after John Lennon's release of the same name and features a very similar album cover, but the similarities end there. While Lennon's was certainly a little abrasive for its time, Ono cranks the noise to a whole other level. For instance, the "Why?"-"Why not?" suite features Yoko Ono yelling and moaning the word 'why' over and over again in a variety of evocative ways over a droning backing track provided by the Plastic Ono Band. This goes on for about fifteen and a half minutes. Other tracks are similarly harrowing; if you're looking for melody, look elsewhere. Ono's distinctive vocal style, a combination of the hetai singing style of kabuki theater mixed with primal screaming and wailing, make this an interesting listen. All in all, the album is full of musical experimentation and raw emotion, and I encourage those who can appreciate noise and abrasion in their music to give this LP a try.

My 5x5

Even though the year isn't over and I know there are still a few albums yet to drop, I'm starting to think about my top albums. Jeff Rosenstock - POST-, Noname - Room 25, Parquet Courts - Wide Awake, Death Grips - Year of the Snitch, Iceage - Beyondless, Dollar Signs - This Will Haunt Me, The Dirty Nil - Master Volume.

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch but this was a really good year for music. I have to say Parquet Courts may win it for me. The album has not left my rotation since it was released. I liked a handful of songs off previous albums but this was their first release that blew me away. Its highly political without being preachy, and is even thought provoking at times, I love lines like "What is an up-and-coming neighborhood and where is going??" and "Swapping parts and roles is not acting but rather emancipation from expectation" and pretty much every lyrics off of Normalization and Before the Water Gets Too High. It's punk enough to scratch the itch I have for angsty music without being juvenile, it's poppy enough without feeling commercial. The fact that they played on Ellen made it all the better. It's one of those albums that reminds you that rock music can still do something interesting.

I've been giving a few spins to the new Ugress album that was released today. I quite like it.

I got a few of the Triple J Like a version albums. Some really nice covers of songs that really take things in a different direction from the originals.

I'm a little all over the place this week, but thanks too @koan I've got some new stuff to explore.

Yumi Zouma - Willowbank
Via Audio - Say Something
UUVVWWZ - UUVVWWZ (This one is just a fun one, give it a try)
Dream Wife - Dream Wife
Men I Trust - Headroom (digging this album hard)
Now, Now - Threads

I'd love to hear some recs for funky bass with female vocal lead if ya got any!