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New Gorillaz album out. Torrented a copy, will give it a thorough listen later tonight.

New Mark Lanegan album out. Will be down at the record store to pick it up tomorrow and will give it a thorough listen then.

New Incubus album out a week ago. Will probably pick that up when I'm at the record store, too.

Also my copy of Lunatic Calm's second album, , finally arrived. Imported from Japan.

In other news, Tool's Justin Chancellor and The Crystal Method's Scott Kirkland are teaming up for a new project called Bandwidth, with two remixes already released and original music currently being worked on. So if I don't see new Tool or TCM albums this year - both sorely overdue - maybe I'll get this new thing to hold me over.

Oh and I guess A Perfect Circle is working on new material, too. So that's two bands waiting on Maynard to release new material.

2017 is shaping up to be very interesting indeed.

In post 200, Majiffy wrote:New Gorillaz album out. Torrented a copy, will give it a thorough listen later tonight.

Good album. Not up to their first 3 releases but definitely a lot better than

First half the album feels too much like instead of but I guess that's really the direction he's been going with this since Demon Days.

Production is top-notch all across the album, as is to be expected by now from Gorillaz.

Top tracks in my opinion are Strobelite, Saturnz Barz, Momentz, Andromeda, Carnival, Let Me Out, Sex Murder Party, She's My Collar, The Apprentice and Circle of Friendz. Most of those are the Albarn-heavy tracks - I'm a bit biased towards tracks that feature his vocals over others'.

I'd give it a 7/10.

Couldn't get into it at all myself. Saturnz Barz and Ticker Tape are the only tracks I've kept.

Not that it's bad, it just has a lot of qualities that I don't particularly enjoy in music, so it was pretty much the antithesis to my personal tastes. The production (particularly the overly electric drums) rubbed me the wrong way, I don't enjoy rapping and with the overall focus on said rapping I felt that there was a lack of strong vocal and instrumental hooks overall. I imagine it's much more enjoyable to those who have a taste more sympathetic to hip-hop and rap, but that's not me sadly.

The second half is much less rapping and much more Albarn singing.

Start over again with Andromeda first, I think that was the beginning of the shift away from rap.



Just got home from the record store with Incubus and Lanegan. Ripping Lanegan now, Incubus next, then I'll pop them on my NWZ-A17 and give them a few passes throughout the evening.

I'll give reviews either tonight or tomorrow, depending on when I'm done. Might do Incubus first, because Lanegan is a much deeper consumption that I'm almost certainly going to rate high and listen to several times.

Everyone who loves Humanz is just a blind fan at this point. The album feels like a complete and utter flop. It's literally just a complication of artists that I can't see anyone in their right mind listening to in a normal musical palette over production that is a load of jumbled sound bytes with no real purpose.

In post 204, Lil Uzi Vert wrote:The album feels like a complete and utter flop

No that was

This is at least partially better than that.

Iced Earth released a "video" for a song from their upcoming album "Incorruptable" - not their best for sure, but not bad

In post 203, Majiffy wrote:The second half is much less rapping and much more Albarn singing.

I guess but even a lot of the Damon singing lacked hooks

Take Busted and Blue, it was pure vocals, but there was pretty much no strong hooks in it from listening, and the backing was barely existent.

I did listen to the full album so it's not like I gave up before it got good or anything, it just very much wasn't my thing.

Anyway since we're on the topic of Albarn, I listened to The Good, the Bad & the Queen for the first time today, and that was a brilliant album. I've always preferred Damon compositions of the alt rock style. Largely enjoyed the lo-fi sort of production, but it got on my nerves occasionally, particularly in the climax of the title track where the drums seem to dominate and I can barely properly hear any other bits.

In post 207, Davsto wrote:

In post 203, Majiffy wrote:The second half is much less rapping and much more Albarn singing.

I guess but even a lot of the Damon singing lacked hooks

That's fair, but I've always been a fan of the more melancholy / moody Gorillaz tracks that aren't necessarily catchy.

One of my favorites is Rhinestone Eyes, although it could be argued the synth breakdown in the "hook" is still a pretty catchy diddle.



And yeah, GB&Q's was great.

You should check out Tally Hall, you'll probably like them.

dude has fantastic sound design and compositional skills, and now he's making chamber pop? FUCK YES

How really awesome is the new Incubus album?

It's hard to put down on paper, really.

I've been listening to it for hours now. I haven't YET listened to BRAND NEW MARK LANEGAN, one of my FAVORITE ARTISTS OF ALL TIME, because I'm still listening and loving 8

I hate the production sheen that Skrillex put on this album. I hate that it sounds polished, and "new", and ugly, and distorts at just the right places

I HATE THAT SKRILLEX ACTUALLY PRODUCED AN ALBUM I CAN POINT TO AND SAY HE'S A GOOD PRODUCER. BECAUSE WHAT HE DID HERE, HE DID RIGHT

I still say Glitterbomb is the best track on the album and I will stand by that. Followed by either Surveillance or Throw Out The Map

But can I get to the review now? Okay, cool.

This album starts out with what feel to be two generally whatever lead-single type tracks. , and . Good enough. Simple fresh Incubus.

Then comes . Now as a single, this track makes absolutely no sense. It's complete garbage. In the sense of the album - keep with it - it sets the tone

So the notion of the album is set here at Track 03 - it's a direct shot at radio rock that they were forced into producing back in their major label debut days. You're going to sound very polished but you're falling apart

Then onto the next track, . What they used to have to make: "I was your friend and ended up your victim", and how it destroyed their creative flow

Following the anthem of Glitterbomb, there's a great dichotomy between "we're undefeated/I'm not dead yet", with the production values of the two defining one as the unstoppable train towards the top of the charts, and the other being the creative essence of the band.

A really nice dubsteppy take on their old love songs like Summer Romance - I love how Skrillex rolls the bass here. - god I fucking hate saying those words, "I love how Skrillex". Please don't ever make me say those words ever again, Sonny Moore.

Anyway in a form of trope inversion, they take their love/sex song format and give a love song about being alone. It mirrors the thematic of the album - feeling alone and separated from everyone else as they were hitting the top of the rock charts, but no one to really express to/with.


A great musical interlude that reminisces about their past hits and the lyrical thematics therein. Also gives the ears a nice break before


This'll probably be the song that everyone wants to be the single. It just like a summer day - god, hell, I kinda wanna stop listening right now and go outside
Lyrical nugget: "It's time for us to come out of hiberation"

And yet doesn't that all seem so traveled? Done before? Boring? Moving on


Holy shit

Okay wait hold on pause the record let me take that in

(But you gotta get to the end of the song)

Starts off with a fucking dial-up noise
Pounding drums, riffing guitar, makes you want to grab a deck and hit the pavement



Anyway in the album thematic this is where they dropped under the radar in order to reclaim themselves



Lyrical note: "I will embrace my assailants/Love in a time of Surveillance"

Phew okay lets take a breath


I could talk on end about the sound design done here by the band's DJ. I could RANT AND RAVE about that guitar tone and delay holy fuck I love that delay

This is a great little instrumental and serves to break up both the flow audibly and also work as the space between going on hiatus and eventually coming back together to


When you're the one making the rules, why listen to what anyone else has to say? Why have them dictate what makes a hit, what makes an album? , says Incubus, with this triumphant finale. We're done playing by the rules and we're going to keep doing what made us who we were to begin with: being one of the pioneering edges of rock by blending everything. Even ...

Boyd signs the album off "Chaka khan, motherfuckers"

And this one really kicks some ass here, people. I undersell how really good this track gets. The breakdown is phenomenal - give it a listen yourself,



Holy shit, man, you're



This album was made to be repeated

Lyrical snippet: "You're a song I never want to hear again"


The lead single off the album. The song I've been hearing so much shit about from everyone everywhere.

And after the album you just heard, this is Incubus' question asked and answered. You wanted a packaged, prepared radio single that is guaranteed to dominate the rock charts for months, by a band that everyone loved and has come out of hibernation to give us







And then I'm back to listening to this fucking album again, like a Nimble Bastard they've got me listening to this awful piece of shit album on repeat, absolutely amazed at how everything is PERFECTLY MIXED AND BLENDED TO SPEC

And yes, everything does sound exactly what you think you're hearing there, audiophiles

How do you see the stars from that far down? -


/10

Now I'm going to take a quick break and take care of some mafia games and then maybe I'll get around to reviewing this new Incubus album

Okay so alternative reading of Glitterbomb that is a 100% personal read: It's a kick-ass reclamation song for survivors of sexual assault.

As a victim myself, all of the emotions and words here are just exactly on. Nothing more really needs to be said.

In post 212, Majiffy wrote:... and then maybe I'll get around to reviewing this new Incubus album

wait, wasn't that what you just did?

Bittersweet moment: I was briefly dating a very fantastic criminal who loved Incubus' early work, who would absolutely love this new album, but because she's so good at dis a pear'ing I'm left listening to it alone and thinking of her.

No fun.

In post 214, drealmerz7 wrote:

In post 212, Majiffy wrote:... and then maybe I'll get around to reviewing this new Incubus album

wait, wasn't that what you just did?

Although it's nice to hear that what I thought was going to happen on this album when I first heard the singles was indeed the case.

One of these days I'll be able to put this CD down and listen to MARK FUCKING LANEGAN HAS A NEW GODDAMN ALBUM OUT

I don't know what younger generations know these days, so I'ma post this - from the days when hard rock was at its best

Good band. Still my favorite of the grunge output.

In post 211, Majiffy wrote:How really awesome is the new Incubus album?

better than morning view?

I liked Make Yourself more than Morning View but they both suffer from some very nasty over-compression that was doing the rounds in rock music during that era.

I hope they remaster them eventually.

I don't think I ever really heard an Incubus song I liked, can you please post one of their best?

What kind of sound are you looking for? They're pretty diverse.

it's not the sound, it's the quality of songwriting

from musical composition to lyrics

I can take it as heavy or as soft as they do, I just want a very good song