Great game, great OSt machine girl ftw
It's strange because I was a really unhappy person when I was younger but for some reason this music makes me long for the past, a time that never existed, a time when life was simpler in my mind and I was possibly more optimistic although I'd love talk with younger me to see if that is really true. I was definitely depressed and suicidal, angry and indifferent. Definitely more engaged with pop culture and music, and identified with being Californian and from socal but I look back at my time now and realize I was always an outsider, even now.
1 Like
1 Like
That may be true but you shouldnât see it as yourself being fake if you had some âpopâ in you thatâs gone now. Allow yourself to feel and be uplifted if youâre going to be putting yourself down
Iâve always been given shit for it but just maintain my original stance that guys are like self conscious about being emotional and project that. But you shouldnât let that stop you from feeling a way that is probably not bad for you
Welcome to Rate Your Music
1,821,921 Artists
6,704,369 Releases
24,508,034 Songs
141,839 Labels
150,325,797 Ratings
3,436,879 Reviews
824,897 Lists
[
Sonemic Interview: Black Country, New Road
Black Country, New Road drummer Charlie Wayne discusses upcoming album 'Forever Howlong,' friendship as a muse, the evolution of the band's sound, and more in this interview with Cal Cashin.
](https://rateyourmusic.com/feature/sonemic-interview-black-country-new-road/)
Featured reviews
2000s Album Anniversary
Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
3.83 from 12,297 ratings
Genres
Progressive Metal, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
Descriptors
anxious, drugs, lonely, pessimistic, concept album, male vocalist, progressive, melancholic, heavy, alienation, melodic, cold, existential, apathetic, nocturnal, suicide, dark, atmospheric, urban, uncommon time signatures, depressive, misanthropic, complex, technical, rock opera, introspective, serious
Review by olethefirst
After the commercial failure of two albums released on Lava, Steven Wilson decided to try out a new promotional strategy with Roadrunner: this time he started to tour extensively with the new material written prior to recording it in the studio, let alone releasing it.
While it probably helped a lot to polish what was to become the most conceptual Porcupine Tree record, I also feel that the band operated in the studio much more cautiously this time. Fear of a Blank Planet feels much less powerful than In Absentia and Deadwing. There is more perfectionism displayed with finding the right atmospheric textures and arranging the music than ever before, but as opposed to the previous records it's an album that slowly crawls under one's skin rather than exposes all its tricks of the trade.
The opener is a hypnotic alternative metal song that sets the mood for the entire record: lengthy and repetitive, it goes like a downward spiral into a world of depression. In some way it's an update on a similarly groovy opener 'Deadwing'. But it's already the second song that reveals the main problem of the entire record: while it's perfectly atmospheric and full of beautiful melodies, it's also very monotonous with its subdued sound and depressed atmosphere.
Of course this suppressed mood has a lot to do with the concept of the album itself. The album was largely inspired by Lunar Park, a postmodern horror novel by Bret Easton Ellis, which involves a character of an alienated kid. The album includes large chunks of the novel quoted in lyrics ('My Ashes' recites a paragraph from it), some parts of the book are alluded in promo videos, and many sound effects used on Fear of a Blank Planet could be understood only after reading the novel: such are, for example, the sounds of a typewriter at the beginning of the album, interrupted by a PC notification sound followed by a mad laugh. It's good to know that the protagonist of the novel is a writer who receives emails from his dead father. This creepy feeling of a dark presence approaching is quite well conveyed in the album's more than merely melancholic atmosphere.
But the novel wasn't the sole inspiration for the album. The there of social alienation in the modern world there people are surrounded by gadgets and digital media is more autobiographical, reflecting Wilson's own obsession with a laptop. The epidemic of school shootings had defined the album's finale: if Bret Easton Ellis in the novel makes kid run away from the boredom of their yuppie homes, Steven Wilson gives an alternating ending in 'Sleep Together', dedicated to a mass murder followed by suicide as the means of escaping the world's unbearable boredom. Although it's still the runaway song ('Way Out of Here') that delivers the album's most beautifully cynical lyrics:
I'll try to forget you
And I know that I will
In a thousand years
Or maybe a week
Still, 'Sleep Together' is the most inventive moment of the album, being a sort of electronic metal thing that starts with almost dancey drum beat and heavy synths but later transforms into an orchestral metal piece. No wonder this song was later revived during Steven Wilson's solo tours: it's one of the most unique and most memorable things he ever written.
So, there are moments of greatness as wonderful as on any other Porcupine Tree record of 1999â2009 era, but the album leaves an impression of being too same-ish overall. Rare outbursts of technical extreme metal help the record not to slip away into blandness. The explosions of 'The Pills I'm Taking' (the second part of 'Anesthetize' epic) and the aforementioned 'Way Out of Here' are two of the most extreme parts ever played by Gavin Harrison, and he's the guy who played 'The Letters' in the Double Quartet.
While Wilson had enough time to polish the material during the live presentations of the new stuff, a part of this album was still put on the record too hastily. I am speaking of 'Sentimental', of course. A much better counterpart to it, utilizing the same chorus but titled 'Normal', was finished after the main album's sessions and got eventually released on Nil Recurring EP. Being an extravagant combination of flamenco acoustic guitars, death metal riffs and Wilson's trademark multi-layered vocal harmonies, it would have made a much better inclusion on the album in place of 'Sentimental' if it was completed in time, adding a needful refreshment to the whole thing.
Just like pills, trains, ghosts and serial killers, the topic of social alienation is one more recurring theme in Steven Wilson's art. And like many artists, he's prone to remaking things from time to time. Hand. Cannot. Erase. eventually became a sort of remake to Fear of a Blank Planet, which expressed a similar sentiment in a much better way. But if you still are looking for the more depressed and more metal-oriented aesthetics of the 2007 record, you might as well pick Anesthetize live album/video instead. Containing the album performed in full as well as the most of Nil Recurring outtakes, this performance regains the power that the studio recording sadly lacks.
Expand review
2010s Album Anniversary
Damn. (2017)
3.66 from 61,064 ratings
Genres
Trap, Pop Rap, Contemporary R&B, Political Hip Hop
Descriptors
introspective, conscious, male vocalist, death, existential, rhythmic, sampling, serious, urban, passionate, political, concept album, eclectic, spiritual, sombre, melancholic, religious, Christian, self-hatred, psychedelic, anxious, poetic, pessimistic
Review by FjordCity
There's a lot going on here and in a different way from To Pimp A Butterfly. The jazz is sitting this one out and the funk has taken leave. However, the soul element hasn't gone anywhere and neither has the eclecticism. Its more of an electronic and futuristic Kendrick this time around, with a weird artificial vibe. Very human, but also from another galaxy. I imagine chrome plated buildings and cities in the sky when I listen to this. The all caps, one word song titles add a sense of uniformity that make it all the more future like. Still, the past lingers in many corners.
The opening of the LP is chilling and powerful, with soulful sounds coming right out the gate. The strings, spoken word segments and backing vocals harken back to the great soul songs that utilize this technique; "1990" by The Temptations is the best example I can think of because like that fantastic and criminally obscure tune, I hear the future. And both songs are equally grim. From there, Lamar kicks things into gear. "DNA." features snippets of journalists criticizing his work and hip hop in general and he's not one to take this lightly. The song is bathed in vocal effects and edgy production techniques, giving it an otherworldly feel.
Yet, to me, much of the music on the album is more mellow than hardcore. Oftentimes it has a beauty I'd liken to abstract art. So many tonal shifts and unorthodox production. An announcer of sorts appears at different points on the record, providing some comic relief. A beat appears on "LUST." that goes from backwards to forwards. We have underwater chorused guitar on "PRIDE." And there's all the vocal effects; sped up, slowed down, distorted, even backwards. They capture the moods of each song perfectly. And for "LOYALTY." we have the magic of Rhianna. It seems that every hip hop track she guests on turns to gold. The guest parts are actually very limited here, its mostly an introspective Kendrick taking the limelight.
For a lot of the record, much of the lyrical content deals with reflection and rumination. He talks about his fears and doubts, how the world views his work, friends, family and God. How a man named Duckworth got his start. The political aspects play a role as well, but they aren't overtly to the fore. This is simply a man giving you his take on things in a take it or leave it fashion. "FEAR." is the song I consider to be the centerpiece of the album and one that covers very personal matters. Its a very slow burning, introspective and soulful number.
Its great to hear him going in new directions like this. Strikingly different from his previous works, DAMN. is the sound of a man reaching for new horizons.
I meant to only copy paste the DAMN review but Im on my phone and dducke dot up as a result.
Imon my phone because the mods made it impossible for me to login via my computer.
1 Like
