I have a love/like/hate relationship with Metallica. Love the first four albums, the last two are good and everything in-between is an abomination.
This is a surprisingly good song that seems to be a love letter to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. If you told me this was a long lost Savage song that they were covering I’d believe you.
On one hand I’d like them to break new ground but when they have done that it’s been a disaster. They are best when they stick to what they are good at. Aping the NWOBHM is something they are great at.
At at about 3 1/2 minutes it’s a good omen. Digging a little deeper the album is 12 songs in 77 minutes, so an average of 6 minutes 40ish seconds which is not good. One of Metallica’s issues is their inability to edit themselves.
I’m back, it’s been a while. I haven’t been able to get into the blog to edit it. I figured it out. This is from last week so there will be another for tomorrow’s play list. Enjoy.
Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.
Fugazi “Give Me the Cure” My favorite Fugazi is the first two EPs. Sometimes “End Hits” comes close. Listened to it all.
Hüsker Dü “It’s Not Funny Anymore” Some of the first signs of the pop leaning Hüskers, essential. Listened to it all.
Maritime “Light You Up” Adult contemporary indie-rock. Made it through 1:19.
Guided By Voices “Striped White Jets” As I said before give me the big rock production GBV with complete songs. Listened to it all as it’s short.
Pavement “Stop Breathing” Still don’t like this band, aping a Velvets sound here. No thanks. 34 seconds.
Dinosaur Jr. “Don’t” While I usually say “just listen to ‘Bug'” but this one is not one I need to hear. Stoped at 1:01.
Superchunk “On the Mouth” This is a good one. Fast, raw, when they were fun. Listened to it all.
Minutmen “Take Our Test” Not well versed in the Minutmen, I’ve tried. I liked this one. Listened to it all.
Sammy “Possibly Peking” Finally something I don’t know. This is alright, slink, raw indie rock. I’ll give these guys another listen despite the name. Listened to it all.
Turnstile “BLACKOUT“ Keep hearing how these guys sound like 80’s hardcore, they dont. It’s not bad, the hype doesn’t help it. Listened to it all.
Soundgarden “Full On (Reprise)” Throw away from a great album. Listened to it all.
Black Flag “Black Coffee” I’ve warmed up to Rollins Black Flag recently, Still think “Everything Went Black” is my go to but I’ve been going back to the Rollins stuff. Listened to it all.
Dr. Know “Watch it Burn” Fucking this is the shit. Raw 80’s hardcore. Listened to it all.
Government Issue “Caring Line” The last two GI albums are classics. Psychedelic, Punk, Rock and some great songs. Listened to it all.
Soul Side “Pearl to Stone” The early hardcore Soul Side, love it. Just keep that new stuff the hell away from me. Listened to it all.
Rocket From the Crypt “Sturdy Wrists” When RFTC wrote a catch anthem it stuck in your head. Great stuff. Listened to it all.
Void “Who are You?” From when DC hardcore was far less sophisticated. Raging. Listened to it all.
Gang Green “Alcohol” Their signature song. Good stuff from before they became a novelty band. I’d rather fuck than drink though. Listened to it all.
Spiritualized “Come Together” I’ve tried multiple times to get into this band. Still not there. Listened to all of it to see if it changed my mind. It didn’t.
Lush “Stray” Love me some original wave shoegaze. Listened to it all.
Low “Light You Up” This makes me sad. RIP Mimi. Listened to it all.
Sunny Day Real Estate “Seven” Not sure how this ever got labeled emo. It’s arena rock, Listened to it all.
The Cure “Just Like Heaven” What the hell do you say about this. Listened to it all.
Unsane “East Broadway” Not my thing. I like noise but there needs to be something to hook me in. 10 seconds.
Ted Nugent “Queen of the Forest” Fuck this. I burned all my Nugent albums. Didn’t even start it.
Even later than last year. My favorite 15 albums from 2019 in alphabetical order. Dedicated to Mike “Old Man Juke Box” Bailey who I would have discussed this with. Rest In Peace.
GiudaE.V.A. Sure this isn’t as good as their first two but it’s damn fun glam rock. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3312560575 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Hurry Up ShotgunThis Crystal Vessel 90’s style alt rock. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1616394342 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Le Butcherettesbi/MENTAL Finally combined the chaos with great songs.
No/NoDiagnostic Nuwavy goodness, well when the guitars are prominent. Tapers off and gets more generic on the songs with less guitar. Go Wisconsin! [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2418662106 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Raketkanon#3 This is a weird one. Kind of like Faith No More without the funk and more Gary Numan. Listen to a few tracks as it’s all over the place. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3426652370 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Redd KrossBeyond the Door Classic glam/power pop/punk rock kings return. Once again they make a catchy album that retains their sound but is different than all they did before. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2122783215 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
RideThis Is Not A Safe Place An odd case of liking the band better after their reunion. “Kill Switch” is my favorite song of the year. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1969405503 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
StarcrawlerDevour You An amalgam of 70s and 80s rock that they put their own stamp on. Lots of hooks. Why isn’t everything on bandcamp makes this much easier.
SwervedriverFuture Ruins On par with their first two albums. Nice surprise. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3288388686 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
The HussyLooming Garage rock usually isn’t my thing. Usually the songs aren’t this good. Go Wisconsin! [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1813453384 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
The Neptune Power FederationMemories of a Rat Queen Aussie classic metal done with lots of flair lead by the Imperial Priestess. Pretty over the top which makes it better for me. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3805787157 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
UV-TVHappy Punk shoegaze. Great when the woman is singing, less so when the dude is. Some killer songs on this. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1043076915 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Versing10000 These guys love Sonic Youth. Very 90’s alt rock. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3068514945 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
White ReaperYou Deserve Love Power pop that stands out above the deluge. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2361582558 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Young GovGov 1 The best of the year. Power pop as good as anything that has come before it. “Gov 2” isn’t remotely as good. [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3776892109 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]
Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.
Again giving me a bunch of stuff I like. Maybe I need to listen to more metal on Apple Music?
Sparklehorse “Someday I Will Treat You Good” Was ready to hate the hell out of this. I think I like it. Listened to it all.
Replacements “Valentine” Week 4 with Replacements. “Please to Meet” me is equal to Cheap Trick’s “Lap of Luxury”. Totally limp. I tried, lasted to 1:59.
Seaweed “Start With” Hey, we talked about this album last week, it still rips and it’s still better than the city Spanaway . Listened to all of it.
Echo & The Bunnymen “Do It Clean” I like Ghost’s cover of their song “Noturnal Me”. This song isn’t as good as “Nocturnal Me”, either version. Listened to all of it.
Mission of Burma “Progress” A lesser Burma song is better than most.. Listened to all of it.
Superchunk “Mower” From the “classic period”. I like the faster songs better. Listened to all of it.
Guide By Voices “Drag Days” Prefer the super rock production on “Isolation Drills” and “Do the Collapse.” At least this is a whole song. Listened to all of it.
Moving Targers “Less than Gravity” Sounds like Hüsker Dü filtered through Boston (the city). Big fan. Listened to all of it.
Nervebreakers “Hijack the Radio Down to the Hospital” Don’t know this. Shrug. Listened to 2:26.
Seam “Dust and Turpentine” Another one I listened to last week and it shows up here. Of course I like it, I listened to it last week. Listened to all of it.
Reigning Sound “Drowning” Sloppy vaguely 60s sounding, I’ll just listen to something from the 60’s. Made it to :53.
Big Black “Bazooka Joe” A novelty band. Listened to all of it.
Half Japanese “Firecracker” Nope, I hope someone got stuck listening to Primus as I listened to a bunch of that last week. :22 as I was across the room and it took a little bit to skip this.
Oblivions “Bad Man” Overly distorted generic garage rock. Tried but only got to 1:27.
X “Johny Hit and Run Pauline” Any Cow Punk is too much Cow Punk, save X and The Gun Club. Listened to all of it.
Wire “Two People in a Room” I would have hated this when it came out, time cures some things. Listened to all of it.
Crass “General Bacardi” Somebody was listening to a ton of Crass last week so I expected this. It’s fine. Listened to all of it.
The Spitfire Boys “British Refuge” For all that is holy use distortion on both guitars. Listened to all of it.
Fugazi “Repeater” Ahhhh the Fugazi album that everyone pisses themselves over. Whatever. I particularly don’t like this song. :15 then skip.
Black Flag “Black Coffee” I listen to “Everything went Black” for all my Black Flag needs. Listened to all of it.
Bikini Kill “Alien She” I don’t think I ever listened to Bikini Kill. Don’t think I missed much. Listened to all of it.
Pansy Division “Pee Shy” This is a really dumb song. 1:59 as I was doing something.
Texas is the Reason “The Magic Bullet Theory” Does anyone else in a band think, “people are going to find out I listen to my own band?” I do but don’t care if everyone knows. Listened to all of it.
The Cure “Fight” Robert Smith could go toe to toe with any thrash metal band’s white high tops. Listened to all of it.
Beck “Side of the Road” The only Beck album I like all of, I like Nick Drake too. Listened to all of it.
Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.
Way too much stuff I liked this week.
Replacements “Take Me Down to the Hospital” 3 weeks starting with the Replacements kicking it off. It’s Not Funny Anymore… Listened to it all.
Hüsker Dü “It’s Not Funny Anymore” Best song in the 3 weeks of doing this. Listened to it all.
Fugazi “Great Cop” Their first EP is their best. Listened to all of it.
Jawbox “Cooling Card” Better than Fugazi. Listened to all of it.
Seaweed “Card Tricks” “Spanaway” rules, yes I know this is off of “Four”. Ever been to Spanaway? Listen to the album instead, Listened to all of it.
Bob Mould “Black Confetti” Pastiche of himself painting by numbers. Skipped at :45 seconds.
Hard-Ons “Don’t Wanna See You Cry” When the Hard-Ons are on they are the best Pop-Punk band, they are on here. Listened to all of it then listened to the rest of “Love is a Battlefield of Broken Hearts”.
Wire “Mannequin” This surprised me at how normal of a pop/rock song this is, never noticed before. Listened to all of it.
Superchunk “ Black Thread” I haven’t paid attention to Superchunk since “Come Pick Me Up”. Wait they did a cover of “Mad World” by COC, I listened to all of that and skipped this at :35.
Man or Astroman “Destination Venus” If you can’t improve a song or put your own stamp on it don’t cover it. Made it to :45.
Lungfish “Invert the State” You’re testing my patience with 3 weeks of this band, maybe :22 seconds.
Cocteau Twins “Feet-like Fins” I just listened to this album, then “blam” here it is again. That’s Apple Music for you. Listened to all of it.
Smoking Popes “I Know You Love Me” This song is about Jesus, or a girl. No it’s about Jesus. Listened to all of it regardless.
Maritime “Don’t You Say No” I listen to my own bands too. Listened to it all as next thing I knew Bob Welch is bleating at me.
Bob Welch “Sentimental Lady” If this was “Ebony Eyes” I would have listened to it. Skipped once I realized it started.
David Bowie “Changes” I don’t know what to do with this except listen to it all.
Todd Rundgren “Hello It’s Me” Sometime in the ‘70s in the backseat of my moms car heading to Target. I probably bought a Black Sabbath tape. :41 then skip, what’s with the yacht rock this week?
The Pretty Things “She Says Good Morning” You’ve worn out your Beatles, Stones, and Kinks albums do yourself a favor and check this out. Listened to all of it.
The Third Bardo “I’m Five Years Ahead of My Time” When you’ve worn out the Pretty Things albums. Listened to all of it.
Pink Floyd “Lucifer Sam” If you played this for the vast percentage of Pink Floyd fans they’d have no idea who this is. Listened to all of it.
Painted Faces “Anxious Color” No wonder I’ve never heard of this. Skipped at 1:06.
The Litter “Sombody Help Me” Somebody went too far down the late 60’s psych hole. Skipped at :15.
Built to Spill “Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly” Off their best album, all downhill after this. All 6:15 of it.
The Decemberists “California One/Youth and Beauty Bridge” Apparently none of my Apple Music friends like Metal. This is bullshit. :03 of torture.
Red House Painters “Byrd Joel” Sour bastard bellowing about something. Fuck this guy. :20 to see if I could stand it.
Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.