Beautiful Extremes, Etc. – b4bbl3.com

Been a busy time as of recent, just aiming for the weekend and sleeping in when I can. Such is life.

Here are some music that has kept me company this week, some new surprises, some old favorites:

• Sting – Ten Summoner’s Tales (1993): Decent pop rock album with tinges of country thrown in. It was alright. Apparently one of his best, so that may not bode well for me for further exploration in his work. Source: Random pick.
• Swell Maps – A Trip to Marineville (1979): Unhinged post-punk from the minds of brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks (those are their actual stage names). Mind bending, to say the least, chaotic and near incomprehensible at most, yet so very my kind of thing. Fascinating. Source: Recommended by friend.
• Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – Fegmania! (1985): my recent delve into The Soft Boys and Hitchcock’s solo career has been pretty rewarding, giving me that “art” rock experience (I wish the genre was called something else, sounds really haughty) that I really enjoy, while staying different enough from contemporaries in the genre. Fegmania is one of his stronger efforts so far. Source: Currently listening through discography.
• Rx Bandits – …And the Battle Begun (2006): Wild ska punk prog rock. A little too clean in the vocal department for my preference for this kind of thing but I cannot deny his chops and indeed the skill of the band weaving in and out of time signatures like they were nothing. Source: Friend recommendation.
• Richard Thompson – 1000 Years of Popular Music (2003): A live acoustic performance by the wonderful, extremely skilled and consistently awe-inspiring folk musician Richard Thompson. The concept originally was for him to write an article for a magazine on what he considered to be some of the most influential pieces of popular music over the years. His contributions to the article never got published, but Thompson ended up adapting the idea as an hour plus of cover material, tunes ranging from medieval times to the then-huge (and now pretty fondly remembered) hit Oops! I Did It Again by Britney Spears – and quite unexpectedly, he knocked it out of the park with his interpretations. Fantastic live show. Source: Listening through the discography.
• Sleep Token – Take Me Back to Eden (2023): Quite divisive this one – Tik Tok seems to bring out that kind of response – but I’m on the side of saying it’s pretty fun. An intriguing combination of metal/djent, r&b, alternative pop and bombastic arena rock that works more than it doesn’t. Some tunes are quite infectious to hear too. Source: random pick.
• Sparks – This Girl is Crying in Her Latte (2023): synth-pop extraordinaires known for making the odd yet interesting album Lil Beethoven. This new one I don’t care much for, quite repetitive, and the songs kind of slog together in a synthy pulpy mush. It’s alright when its on I suppose, not for me at this moment. Source: random pick.
• The Associates – Sulk (1984): the flipside to the last one – enjoyable, well produced synthpop/post-punk, solid enough. Has the weird different UK and US tracklist thing that bothers me, but alas, good regardless. Source: friend recommendation.
• Foo Fighters – But Here We Are (2023): Foo Fighters being heavy and good still? I’ll take it. Source: random pick.
• Protomartyr – Formal Growth in the Desert (2023): one of my favorite bands in the post-punk revival going on, and this album continues their streak of quality. I love that atonal, heavy sounding music lemme tell you – but here the melody is there but is being hinted at – neat stuff. Source: random pick.
• Stone Temple Pilots – No. 4 (1999): going back and reading on STP, as I am enjoying the records even to this point, and seeing the critiques levied against them, it makes me think two things: one, the critics and grunge fans didn’t know what they had until it was gone; Stone Temple Pilots was one of the more unfairly maligned bands of the 90s, whose influences ranged from that initial grunge period into glam and psychedelic rock which considerably sets them apart from their contemporaries, and they were consistently enjoyable with their singles and their deep cuts. The second part, I wish I was a fan and aware of STP much earlier. Source: listening through discog.