I saw them live back in 2014 when they were promoting this album, shit was absolutely intense, haha.
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Wonderful, I have not listened to any of these which is very exciting. I agree that music seems difficult to write about at least in my experience. Iāve been thinking of doing a list of my favorite albums Iāve listened to this year, but cannot get past the feeling that I can just say āthis sounds real goodā for each of them and get the same point across OR inevitably go into very personal reasons why a particular album resonated with me.
That being said, I like it when other people do it and think this is a good example 
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we already have Music - The Topic! but iāll play along to your twisted little game, @captain
the only two albums i wasnāt familiar with on your list were from great grandpa and this is the kit. both albums gave me that a yearning, sanguine feeling that reminds me of something, but since i canāt for the life of me put a name to what that something is, i think they both happen to nail that rare achievement of making you feel at home in someplace new.
great choices on the rest of your list. very bold choice for a cohen album, slightly less bold but still brave for sakamoto, and inspired pick for the akira soundtrack.
as for meā¦
i took my notebook and wrote down the first 20 or so artists that came to mind. i whittled it down to 12, but my god is it excruciating. iāll present them in the order they came to mind and steal your formatting:
Playing the Piano - Ryuichi Sakamoto
where did i first encounter sakamoto? probably the revenant soundtrack. from there, iām not sure how i got to playing the piano, but iām glad i did. as the title implies, this is a collection of him playing some of his most well-known songs on the piano. since this is the first time i heard all of these songs, it is still strange when i hear them fully arranged. merry christmas mr lawrence is by far his most popular song, but when i hear it here, it sounds like a secret.
merry xmas
Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill - Grouper
can any album conjure up a specific mood like a grouper album? i donāt think so. in some ways, liz harris seems to follow a rule book for creating melancholy, haunting, introspective music, but thereās always just a little something there that makes grouper inimitable. heavy water might be one of the best songs ever made.
heavy water
Tragedy - Vengeance
this was THE hardcore album for me as a teenager and in my early twenties. it is angry and raw but has moments of genuine surprise, groove, and melody. the lyrics and ethos of tragedy defined a lot of my apocalyptic and dark politics of my young and confused life, and you can still trace that line to today. iāve traveled a lot to see tragedy.
"vengeance
Sign o the Times - Prince
it really is his best album, even if it has very stiff competition. he explores every topic youād want an artist to explore, he dabbles in every genre, and man is it all amazing. prince has always been an inspiration to me for his ambition and his contradiction, heās always been an aspiration to me for his ability to write a song. i could never take the place of your man? come on!
i could never
S/T - Warren Zevon
the patron saint of the drunks and fuck ups. zevon songs have meant a lot to me and have given me comfort through death, sickness, debt, loneliness, and helplessness. heās been able to give me that comfort because he can look at all of that for what it is but still laugh. listen to the way he says āyou said you were an actressā in the french inhaler and tell me you donāt want to be three sheets to the wind belting that line into a mic at the karaoke bar.
french inhaler
You Only Live 2wice - Freddie Gibbs
kind of a dark horse pick, but freddie gibbs has such an urgency and immediacy to this rapping on this album that fits the music perfectly. itās a declaration from someone with everything to prove. itās kinda like the album equivalent of goodfellas where as soon as i start listening to it, i have no choice but to finish the whole thing. i listened to this album all the time in grad school. to this day heās been the only rapper iāve bothered to see live at a very memorable club show. sadly i havenāt been a huge fan of gibbsās career after this album.
Storm of the Lightās Bane - Dissection
the problematic fav. this is a masterpiece, swinging between death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and just about everything else. moments of beauty and moments of hatred written with attacking precision. it just kicks ass. music so good that it keeps me coming back to this strange and music genre played by indefensible people.
thorns of crimson death
Kids Return - Joe Hisaishi
this is hard to write about strictly as an album because itās so closely tied to the movie in my mind, but the main motif captures everything i think art should capture. love, bitterness, hope, defeat, resilience, tragedy, playfulness, harmony, resignation. as a piece of music, the album sweeps and moves just like life does.
kids return
Forced Witness - Alex Cameron
this is close to a perfect album for me. it is breezy without being laconic, ironic without being tiresome. alex cameron sings songs about losers without pity but not without humanity. good chance at least one of these songs gets stuck in my head once a month. i should note that this is a dangerous gateway drug to steely dan (which is on another version of this list)
marlon brando
Master of Reality - Black Sabbath
gun to head, this would be the album i play front to back on guitar to save my own life.
and the reason i made the list 12 instead of 10ā
Youāre Living All Over Me - Dinosaur Jr.
idk, this album kinda changed my life when i heard it for the first time. it made me realize indie rock didnāt have to be like, the shins or something,.i remember lying to my parents so i could play a hardcore show in cleveland on a school night. i drew the short straw to drive back home while everyone slept in the back of the van. i put this album on because someone recommended it on a forum and heard all the genres i kept separate in my head put into a blender. music could be anything you wanted. a few years later i grew my hair out and started skipping class to learn how to solo and write stories.
Black Rose: A Rock Legend - Thin Lizzy
thin lizzy is like my comfort food. theyāve just been around in my life forever and i love to sing along to their songs in the car, much to my wifeās dismay. they make me happy, and i guess thatās the only reason i need.
ā
before i hit post on this list, i can already see how many things are missing. roxy music, dj rashad, aphex twin, frahm, neil young, the ojays, darkthrone, autechre, moodymannā¦.
i love music so much. i coild make lists lke this forever.
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Jealousā¦ Every day Iām thankful I could see them in 2016. They keep doing their thing but it hasnāt been the same!
I hope itās clear I fight against the same thing, and I donāt think I won this time! One much easier way to write about music is to get lost in the woods of all kinds of extratextual information about the artist, the history of the musicās making, their previous and later output; I wanted to avoid that as much as I could. Personally Iām taking notes from MoHās post.
Put another way, I am expecting your list soon. You cannot escape, Bonsai.
Ha ha! I tricked you @MoH! My scheme to solicit more music recommendations workedā¦!
I am not familiar with anything on your list besides Kids Return, Playing the Piano, and Forced Witness. (I know of Prince, Freddie Gibbs, Black Sabbath, and Dinosaur Jr. of course.) I admire that youāre able to concisely express not just what these albums are, but what they do to you. As much as I gravitate to music ābecause it sounds like that,ā as much itās because music gives expression to some unsung facet of myself. It demands leaning into.
Working through your posted tracks, I got distracted. This āSign ā
ļøā the Timesāā¦ dude
A little after The Revenant came out, I followed Italians Do It Better on Facebook, who shared a lot of posts from Milan Records. I then followed Milan Records, who relentlessly promoted (and probably continue to promote) every single Sakamoto release or reissue. I donāt even think Playing the Piano got reissued, but they posted about it a lot. Probably it was for its streaming debut.
Speaking of Milan, Joe Hisaishi is my favorite artist 364 days of the year. Where is he? INSTANT REGRET
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yeah, i never really considered myself to have a sharp critical mind in that iāve never been to articulate what is successful about a piece of art outside what it means to me. i have a very subjective approach to art that borders on the sentimental. this approach is in contradiction with my desire to ābe smart and culturedā which leads to my taste being like āvan gogh is my favorite painter, but not like thatā
yeah, that album is insane. thereās a million things you could say about it, but one of my favorite observations is how you can have a (very good) by-the-numbers slow jam like āadoreā on the same record as āif i was your girlfriend.ā am open to correction, but i donāt think any musician of princeās size + popularity have experimented across gender like that.
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okay music-heads, how many of you have this on your holiday wish list?
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assouline is right
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idk what music thread to use anymore but i made a playlist of songs i liked listening to in 2024, some new some old favorites, some recommended by the fine people on this forum. iāll probably add more to it before years end but since iām not ranking anything who cares!
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maybe his opinion would turn around if he listened to track 4 off street hassle
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The Transa compilation from Red Hot is incredible! Itās such a big compilation. Iām impressed that thereās such a consistent vision and sound while also being so varied and wonderful. I think Iāll be coming back to this a lot over the winter.
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I keep getting the most incredible videos on youtube of where samples are used in music. This is one I had absolutely no idea about.
Yes, itās true!
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Watched Sulli in your list and shit, I remembered what happened back then.
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Might be the wrong place for this question, but not sure where the right one is!
I want to wall mount one, maybe two guitars, and I want to do them horizontally instead of vertically because it looks cooler. However not really seen a lot in the way of horizontal mounts aside from this one https://www.stringswing.com/horizontal-adjustable-guitar-wall-mount/ I wondered if anyone has used it or something similar to, and if so what body shape do you have on it?
Wall is fine, as itās made of solid brick so itās not a support issue to hold the mount up, but I want to make sure itās not going to damage the body of the guitar at all.
I would imagine the reason you donāt see guitars wall mounted truly horizontally is that it would bend the neck over time, which is why the example you posted is tilted at like 30 degrees. Then again a bent neck is a pretty easy and routine fix anyway
I agree - completely horizontally could cause issues over time, granted that arenāt difficult to fix but if you donāt have to, why bother. The angle in that one I shared is perfect and the wall I want to put it on would have to be angled otherwise it wouldnāt fit. I am after anything thatās not vertical, just because I have the space to do that and while hanging by the neck is fine I was trying to get a cooler look.
I saw Streetlight Manifesto a couple of weeks ago and was brave enough to crowdsurf for the first time. That was a pretty surreal experience.
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yeah you could always just Bob Vila it with something that suits exactly what youāre looking to do. Which raises another question: do they have a english Bob Villa? But thatās for another thread
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I considered building something specific for it, but my knowledge of constructing something that would support something so valuable is minimal at best. Itās why I never designed a stroller. Drilling into walls is fine, Iāve wall mounted things at home already but itās getting something to support it correctly is important. Iāll reach out to the manufacturers and see if they recommend something, get it straight from the source.
Never heard of Bob Vila, and not to move it from another topic, but I have no idea of an English comparison. I donāt watch any UK telly anymore really so if thereās one there someone else would know better than me!
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