Zomby - "With Love" 2013
This album is pretty awesome, and definitely my favorite thing i've heard from him since he was doing glitchy video game sounding stuff like 5 years ago. The first half of this album establishes absolutely no common style at all. It's like he's trying to see how many sub-genres of electronic music he can tackle successfully. I know some people would be annoyed by that, but it makes me like this album that much more. It displays his diversity as a producer. The 2nd half of this album has a more common thread of sound and goes for trap style drum programming over alternately mellow and menacing piano sounds that all kinda swirl around the sound spectrum and are oddly comforting. He has a way of making sparse sounding beats that have many subtleties to tantalize your ear without overwhelming you with sound. It works really well for me. I just enjoy the whole way this album is set up, with mostly 2 minute songs and a lot of them so you never get tired of anything. Check out the video for "With Love", which is the album closer. A weird choice for the single considering how non-representative of the album as a whole it is. The song on the first half of the video is actually a different track from the album called "Overdose" as well. This video is like some weird perfume commercial gone wrong or something. Also check out "Soliloquy", which is a pretty good representation of what a good portion of this album is like. Also check out "White Smoke", "Orion", "Shiva", and "It's Time".
Demon Queen - "Exorcise Tape" 2013
Demon Queen is a collaboration duo between Tobacco and Zackey Force Funk. If you know me, you know i've been highly anticipating this album since they announced it. On the first listen, I admit I was a bit underwhelmed, but that also happened to me with the last Black Moth Super Rainbow album and Tobacco's "Maniac Meat", and I ended up really enjoying those albums a lot. After I bumped this a few times, I quickly realized that this album is as tight as I expected it to be. Zackey's vocals are PERFECT for Tobacco's beats, and inject a new personality into Tobacco's formula, that I think might have been needed at this point in his career. I do hope they continue to collaborate after this album. I really like how there's not necessarily a specific style of vocals throughout the album. Some songs are falsetto sung, some are loosely rapped, some vocals are just talking or shouting. It all comes together well. Check out "Love Hour Zero", which I would consider the crowning achievement of this album, and one of the best songs Tobacco's ever made, which is a bold statement from me. Also check out "El Camino 2", "Swoll Tongue", "Puni Nani", and the song that started it all, "Lamborghini Meltdown".
Nine Inch Nails - "Hesitation Marks" 2013
So here it is, the new Nine Inch Nails album. I'm convinced that most of the other reviews i've read are by people who didn't actually listen to the album, because most of their descriptions of it don't really accurately portray what this album is like. It's like they're looking at the artwork and think "if it looks like Downward Spiral it must sound like it too". This album is definitely the most devoid of guitars out of his catalog, and I know that is one of the reasons why a lot of people I know who are longtime fans are trash talking this album. Another reason might be the simplicity of some of the lyrics. All of that really doesn't matter to me. This is Trent Reznor making a pop album, and he's damn fucking good at it. Out of any of his albums, this one is the most in tune with what is going on currently in the music world at the time of it's release, which some people will look at as a good or bad thing. I think it shows that he is smart, and I think it was time for him to make an album like this. It has me excited about the upcoming tour and how he might make some stripped down and more electronic sounding versions of some of the older songs too. Again, I realize that this probably angers some of the longtime fans, but I applaud the amount of commercial appeal this album has, while still maintaining a level of diversity that keeps someone like me interested. Check out the underwhelming, seizure inducing, David Lynch directed video for "Came Back Haunted". Also check out "All Time Low", "Satellite", and "While I'm Still Here".
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