redwing42

Just to piggyback, "You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into" is, in fact, a fun album. Dawn of the Dead is a legit banger.

I'm 45, I mostly ignored nu-metal, and came to emo a bit late in the cycle. One thing I do know, though, is punk. This album (or the band in general) definitely has a classic punk feel to it. I appreciate female representation in the genre, which you don't hear often enough. I think the lead singer's vocals have just the right amount of gravel to them. The writing is clever enough to allow some smirks through the misery. It is very specifically an album of (lost) love songs, which is different than most classic punk, but it works.

I came across this band on Sirius XM's Faction Punk channel. I would rather they put the Marky Ramone channel on the regular broadcasts, instead of banishing it to internet streaming, but I take what I can get. Amidst the usual playlists of NOFX, Against Me!, Green Day, and Blink 182, there are the occasional gems that really stand out. Sincere Engineer is one, as is Bully, whom I also recommend (but is a bit more indie rock then pop). I'm glad that punk is not a lost genre at this point, even if good stuff can be hard to find.

The whole album is good, but Hurricane of Misery is one of my favorite modern punk songs, period. Not entirely sure why, but it just strikes a chord for me.

I've got a general background in Classical music, but I haven't exercised my ear for it in quite a while, to the point that I really have to think to point out specific differences between composers and such. I watched the live performance without the attached ballet, for reference. It reminded me of The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas in its stylings. If we are talking about specifics of the performance, I would have liked the percussion/tympani to be a bit more forward at times. The composition itself was no "Pictures at an Exhibition" or "The Planets", but I enjoyed it well enough. I should look into more single movement self contained performances like this.

Also, English Horns are ridiculous instruments that are terribly named.

"Jazz Police" may be one of the stranger songs we have heard in this club, and we heard "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" a while back.

I enjoyed this album, and didn't mind the 80s styling. Obviously, the lyrics were front and center, which is usually a negative for me. The mix allowed me to focus on them, however (I often have trouble picking out lyrics from songs until after multiple listens). The songs were interesting and varied. "First We Take Manhattan" was a great opener and really set a tone. "Everybody Knows" is tremendous, and "Tower of Song" definitely painted some pictures. This was the first time I've listened to a Cohen album, and I'd definitely revisit his works in the future.

I have to admit that I was expecting something different from this album. When I hear "Darkwave," I think goth or industrial music. You know, Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, things like that. That is not what this is. To me, it almost sounded more reminiscent of synthwave, but absolutely has that movie soundtrack feel that others have mentioned. Certain tracks also would feel at home in a JRPG. I liked the sound of this, but couldn't really pick out individual tracks that I preferred. It was interesting and enjoyable, but generally forgettable for me, I think.

I was also left unfulfilled by this album. It was pretty good, and I generally enjoyed it, but none of the songs really had that punch to really grab me. Short comments because I'm catching up, but I'd be interested in seeing if some of their other songs/albums have a little more of what I'm looking for, because this one was close, but just lacking a bit. Favorites: "...But You Are Vast," "Small Skeletal"

Looking forward to Operation Darkness. That's a game I really wanted to love, but I fell off it very quickly.

Castlevania was the first Souls-Like.

Seriously, though, this was the first NES game I owned (along with Duck Hunt, Gyromite, and Gumshoe). It has a special place in my heart, though I never did beat it without save states. The music is absolutely top notch, and the graphics really pop. But fuck those pits, and fuck the Reaper.

I'm only familiar with Nina Simone in passing, so I didn't know quite what to expect here. "Singer Spotlight" is not my favorite style of jazz, so this album started off slowly for me. It started to turn on Pirate Jenny and Jim Crow Gone, then Go Limp was fun and very cute with the banter, and Mississippi Goddamn was great. I've listened to politically charged music before, of course, but mostly in the rock or punk genres where there is a lot of music going on around the message. Even one of my favorites in Harry Bellefonte was often a bit more circumspect or light hearted in his commentary (at least within his songs). So to hear something so stark was almost a bit uncomfortable, in a good way. My teen daughter was in the car while I listened to it, and she enjoyed it. I don't know that I would go so far as to say I would come back to it, but I am glad it was on the list.

I'm going to preface this by saying I was about 20 years too old for Emo. If it had hit while I was in high school, I may have gone way down that rabbit hole. That said, I enjoyed (and still enjoy) emo music quite a bit, and that was my entry point for AFI. I think there is little question that this is one of the top two or three albums in the entire genre, if not from an artistic standpoint than from pure radio play and recognition. FYI, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is also high on my playlist, but MCR isn't nearly the band that AFI is.

I have a lot of respect for the longevity of AFI. They went from being a solid punk band to a preeminent emo band and then to a solid adult alternative rock band. It does seem like it was really a right place, right time situation for the band, as you can hear the slight changes in their sound over the course of their discography which kind of . (I know that emo didn't just suddenly start up in the 2000s, but I'm generally talking mainstream). Sing The Sorrow and Crash Love are kind of the bookends of this mainstream emo trilogy, with Decemberunderground being the dark middle chapter.

I think it is a pretty solid album top to bottom, but Love Like Winter was the song that really got me into the band in the first place. Endlessly, She Said, The Interview, and 37mm are probably my other favorites, but again, not really a weak track on the album. Maybe Miss Murder is lower on the list for me.

I saw the band live in 2019, opening for High Flying Birds and Smashing Pumpkins, and I had very mixed feelings about it. They put on a great, though short, set. But I personally would have replaced six of the eight songs they played. That said, don't sleep on their newer albums. I haven't listened to them all yet, but the 2017 album is very good.