BLINK-182 / California [2016]

After losing squeaky-voiced guitarist Tom DeLonge to higher ambitions yet again, veteran pop-punkers blink-182 (vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus & drummer extraordinaire Travis Barker) recruited Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba as a suitable replacement.
2016's California should have been a reinvention of sorts, considering the appetizing experimentation the band was dabbling in with their previous records.  However they played it safe here and produced a pretty standard blink-182 record of yesterday with the added minus of some embarrassing joke songs.  There's a small handful of great songs and potentially tasty melodic moments here but it's mostly overly-polished boredom that might have actually been a bit more interesting with some rough edges here and there.  As a return to form it's an average record but as an album that sets out to prove something it's pretty weak.  

2½ nods to home out of 5

Songs of Note: Bored to Death; She's Out of Her Mind

GEOFF BARROW & BEN SALISBURY / Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One [2012]

2012 was a busy year for Portishead's Geoff Barrow with his side-projects Beak> and Quakers releasing full-lengths I don't know where he found the time to work with composer Ben Salisbury as well. 

Drokk: Music inspired by Mega-City One is what I suspect Barrow & Salisbury intended to be the score for Pete Travis' Dredd film before Paul-Leonard Morgan took over composing duties.  Rather than acknowledging the film, the duo opted to draw inspiration from Mega-City One of the comic books with a cold-hearted John Carpenter-esque blanket of menacing synth cues.  Drokk does nothing to hide it's '80's darkwave influences and relies heavily on throbbing arpeggiators, fuzzy synth strikes and stroboscopic drones spiraling in and out laying down an immensely unsettling atmosphere that threatens to suffocate with paranoid claustrophobia.

3½ Escapes from drokking Mega-City out of 5

Songs of Note: Helmet Theme; Exhale

ANGELO BADALAMENTI / Soundtrack from Twin Peaks [1990]

With David Lynch & Mark Frost's 1990 primetime TV series Twin Peaks becoming a worldwide phenomenon it seemed like a no-brainer to release a soundtrack album featuring composer Angelo Badlamenti's iconic score.
Meticulously setting the tone of the oddball series with perfection, Badalamenti jumped from beautifully melodramatic to feverish-playful jazz, using a small ensemble led by his synthesized string section and flighty piano fingering.  The emotions weave in and out of dark, sad, quirky but most of all very atmospheric to the point that it's very much an unseen leading character of the television series.  As an added bonus to the score, we're graced with three wonderful source songs from the whimsically voiced Julee Cruise, written by Badalamenti & Lynch.
As short and sweet as it is, this is one of those albums that formed me into the person that I am today and it will forever be a defining staple in my collection.

5 dances for men from another place out of 5

Songs of Note: The Bookhouse Boys; Into the Night (performed by Julee Cruise)

THE BOMBS OF ENDURING FREEDOM / The Bombs Of Enduring Freedom (2007)

After James Fogarty (co-founder of TMoA) put a temporary end to Ewigkeit, he started TBoEF, a project that enabled him to focus his energies on creating politically charged industrial/electronic music that's both blackly humorous and paradoxically serious. This first album isn't musically groundbreaking, but it's full of life and highlights how important creative freedom is to the process. He has no one looking over his shoulder. And his distribution methods are the best there is: if all you want is a Digital D/L you can have all of Bombs' albums free from the wonderful Death To Music Productions.

Songs of Note: Beware the Bombs...; G.I. Jesus

3 cracks of the whip out of 5

BATHORY / Jubileum: Volume III (1998)

The third and final Jubileum collection begins with a track from one of the crap Bathory albums, but if you skip past it hurriedly you'll discover six previously unreleased tracks from as early as '84. Yay.
I'm repeating myself, but once again the running order is a disaster. Placing a track from Blood on Ice (1996) after the aggressive Satan My Master is a perfect example of what I mean. Of course we'll buy it for the rare stuff, but the gnomes at Black Mark need a damn good whipping for being so lazy.

Songs of note: In Nomine Satanas; Gods of Thunder, of Wind and of Rain

3 posthumous goats out of 5

KATE BUSH / The Whole Story (1986)

All of Kate's original studio albums to date can already be found on Nut Suite. I skipped over The Whole Story because it's a Greatest Hits collection, but there's a reason it deserves inclusion: it has one previously unreleased song and one track from her first album with a new vocal. That's not a lot of new content for your money, but you can pick it up for the price of a pint, so it's easily worth it.

Songs of Note: Experiment IV; Wuthering Heights (New Vocal)

5 meters in the red out of 5

BJÖRK / Homogenic (1997)

Homogenic is difficult to describe in words. It's composed of many typically opposing elements but somehow manages to exude a lot of warmth; but not in the traditional sense, because it's an often frightening and chaotic fervour. Then, like the seasons, it'll change, becoming chilly and distant. There are parts of it I despise, but I can't deduct points for that because the sheer power of the electronic beats, the soaring intensity of the strings from the Icelandic String Octet, and the unique vocals that drill through your ears are so radically different from anything else I've ever heard that I'm in awe of the end result.

Songs of Note: Jóga; Bachelorette

4 states of emergency out of 5

BLUT AUS NORD / 777 – Cosmosophy (2012)

The final part of the 777 trilogy is a heavily layered work that gives us the last 5 tracks in Blut's 18 track opus. It opens unassumingly, before kicking away the safety net with black metal coldness wedded to an industrial riff structure. The aggression is fluid; it ebbs and flows in a natural way, right to the very end. But like I said at the beginning, it's multi-layered, so when you take the time to explore what lies beneath the surface, you'll find both complementary and conflicting emotional states just waiting to grab hold of your consciousness.

Songs of Note: Epitome XIV; Epitome XVIII

4 seasons out of 5

BOWLING FOR SOUP / The Great Burrito Extortion Case (2006)

The balance struck here between BFS’s full-body-in-cheek ditties and heart-string plucking musings is, as Jaret would say, exceedingly rad. It hangs together pleasantly--if not exquisitely--by not overstaying its welcome or feeling fleeting because of an overabundance of silliness for its own sake. If you're new to this party, you're in luck. The songs of note include a perfectly encapsulated version of their manifesto and an example of how they can take you by surprise through simplicity.

Crank this shit up and drive.

Songs of Note: I'm Gay; Why Don't I Miss You?

3 Coming Out Anthems out of 5

BEYOND DAWN / Revelry (1998)

After Norwegian Black Metal hit a creative brick wall, the avant-garde movement sprang up; Revelry was part of that. A lot of it actually sounds like Black Metal slowed down, mapped to a Swans template. Vocalist (and guitarist) Espen Ingierd even sounds like Michael Gira. If I was to describe it in one sentence, I'd call it 52 minutes of sleazy lounge music for the depressed metal fan.
It's a difficult album to engage with because it's so glum, but it reveals more introspective, experimental layers as you give it more and more of your attention. The only downside with that approach is that you risk becoming a depressed metal fan and may never look at a trombone the same ever again.

Songs of Note: Love's (Only) True Defender; Three Steps for the Chameleon

3 sad dogs out of 5

KATE BUSH / 50 Words for Snow (2011)

It took me a couple of years of on-and-off listening and a life-changing event to fully appreciate parts of Aerial (2005), so maybe 50 Words for Snow will be the same. Kate's voice is still bewitching, and I love that each song is a little story connected thematically to all the other stories, and I love the eerie sadness dancing between the complex silences, but like the snowflake of the opening track, when I try to grasp onto it, it melts away. Perhaps I'm not yet ready to accept the depth of relaxed maturity that's on offer herein. Maybe someday it'll click with me. I hope so, because I get the feeling it has a lot to offer the correct mindset.

Songs of Note: Snowflake; Among Angels

3 wet sheets out of 5

KATE BUSH / Director’s Cut (2011)

If we must have an album of reworked Kate Bush songs, then who better than Kate herself to do it? There's a valid reason for the genesis of the idea that I don't have room to explain, so you'll need to google it if you're interested.
The result is less appalling and pointless than most of the other re-recordings by other artists that I've heard over the years; that's not bias talking.
The songs, taken from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) are all great songs, and Kate's lower key gives many of them a significantly different feeling, as does the new arrangements on some, but in most cases the originals are still superior; that may well be bias talking, because it's difficult not to directly compare them when you're in love with the originals as much as I am.

Songs of Note: Flower of the Mountain; Deeper Understanding

3½ analogue hugs out of 5

KATE BUSH / Aerial (2005)

Kate took some time off after The Red Shoes (1993); it ended up being twelve years, but she came back with a double album that's structured similar to her masterpiece, Hounds of Love (1985), in that it's split into two distinct halves.
Disc One (A Sea of Honey) is a collection of eclectic and mesmerising songs about life and people. It's often cryptic and has many hidden depths. Contrast that structure with the simplicity and beauty of Kate's slightly deepened vocal delivery and you'll discover one of the album's great strengths.
Disc Two (A Sky of Honey) has nine tracks but needs to be experienced and appraised as a whole piece, like The Ninth Wave. It's a complex and multi-layered arrangement that tells the story of one twenty-four hour period, a single summer's day, which may take months or even years to fully appreciate.

Songs of Note: King of the Mountain; How to be Invisible

4½ spiders of time out of 5

BATHORY / Jubileum volume II (1993)

Vol II suffers from the same thing Vol I did: the songs are structured oddly, meaning the progression that Quorthon's music underwent is lost.
But as before there are some rare and previously unreleased tracks to ensure existing fans double-dip for content they already have. If the music wasn't so damn good, then I'd be hating heavily on the compilation, but I can't score it any less than it deserves. At least Black Mark ended the album with the Twilight of the Gods (1991) material; it works better that way.

Songs of Note: The Return of the Darkness and Evil; One Rode to Asa Bay

4 trips to foreign shores out of 5

VARIOUS ARTISTS / The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

A soundtrack album that collects together good old Country music songs from the good old comedy film of the same name, which was itself an adaptation of a stage musical. The big draw is that it features the wonderful Dolly Parton, who lends her vocal talents to a number of tracks. She even does a duet with the moustachioed Burt Reynolds! That alone should be reason to check it out.

Songs of Note: A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place; Sneakin' Around

3 wipes with soap and water out of 5

BLACK SABBATH / 13 [2013]

13 is Black Sabbath's first studio album to feature vocalist Ozzy Osbourne since 1978's Never Say Die! and bassist Geezer Butler since 1994's Cross Purposes.
With Rick Rubin on board as producer, the heavy metal legends have A LOT to live up to.  So do they meet those expectations?  Well, yes and no.  A band like this could easily fall into cartoon caricatures of their former selves but Sabbath somehow manage to recapture the strengths and sound of their golden days.  Not to say it sits side by side with Paranoid or Master Of Reality but it certainly stands up on it's own two feet.  Now it's Rubin's tight and dry production that's the problem here.  It's almost as if he's trying to suffocate us with too much compression and distortion to fully enjoy the groove of the bluesy songs.  There's a few moments that try a bit too hard but it's mostly standard Sabbath material and sits just fine with me.

3½ tombs of doom & gloom out of 5

Songs Of Note: Loner; Zeitgeist

SYD BARRETT / Opel [1988]

Opel is a 1988 compilation of Syd Barrett outtakes and unreleased material recorded between 1968 and 1970.
In keeping with the raw sound of The Madcap Laughs & Barrett, the mostly acoustic collection is uneven and rough around the edges yet mystifying and awe-inspiring as well.  If you know what you're getting into then you'll probably enjoy hearing the scratched surfaces of these familiar songs and what might have been with the unreleased songs.  The roughness of the album is something that will probably drive away the average listener but as a fan it's a tasty audio scrapbook for the die-hard fan.

3 freakouts out of 5

Songs Of Note: Opel; Lanky

BATHORY / Jubileum: Volume I (1992)

Quorthon was still alive in '92 but he'd publicly called it a day as far as Bathory was concerned (it didn't last, he came back with the Requiem (1994) album, but that's for another time) and so the plundering of the back catalogue by the record label began. Jubileum: Vol I is an uneven and messy compilation. As an introduction it fails; the tracks are all great but Bathory's pronounced evolution over the years means the songs fight each other when taken out of chronological order, which is how they're presented here. As if in apology, Black Mark included a handful of rare and unreleased material. As usual with this kind of collection, I'll link the new songs even though they aren't the best the album has to offer, because some fans may not be aware of them.

Songs of Note: Rider at the Gate Of Dawn; Crawl to Your Cross

4 eternal fires out of 5

BURZUM / Sôl austan, Mâni vestan (2013)

The promise to create three skaldic instrumental/electronic albums is fulfilled. Better twelve years late than never, right? I've been disappointed with his recent metal albums, so it was with a happy nod that I greeted Sôl austan.
It's a concept album, similar to Dauði Baldrs (1997) and Hliðskjálf (1999), that documents a descent into darkness followed by a redeeming ascent back into the light. Burzum fans will know what the 'dark' and 'light' represent.
It's reminiscent of the ambient tracks on his Black Metal albums, but without the contrast it all feels rather empty and samey. It's hard to shake the feeling that it sounds like an age-old video game soundtrack, not the modern film score that it's supposed to be (the film is ForeBears).

Songs of Note: Feðrahellir; Sôlbjörg

2½ compass directions out of 5

BECK / Odelay (1996)

Beck was the counter-culture beat poet of his generation. He's slipped in recent years, but back in the day he was unsurpassed. Odelay takes eclectic cues and influences from all over. There's folk, country, garage, atonal electro, hip hop, calypso, eastern percussion, Beastie Boys style rap and much, much more. It's the musical equivalent of a hazy but purposeful collage of colours and textures cut from magazines with crinkle scissors. You'd maybe imagine that would produce a jarring aural experience, but everything flows beautifully from one trip to the next, meaning the album should be enjoyed as a whole, not split for a playlist.

Songs of Note: The New Pollution; Jackass

5 scratchy record sounds out of 5