Bad New Music

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VideoGameCritic
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Bad New Music

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 30th, 2021, 3:26 pm

Normally I'd be psyched if all my favorite bands released new albums at around the same time. However, this new crop of records sucks!

Garbage: No Gods No Masters
I could have tolerated the hate-filled, overtly-political lyrics if the songs were any good. They are not. None of these tracks even vaguely resemble a single, much less a hit single. How I miss the days of Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl.

Foo Fighters: Midnight Medicine
This might be my favorite rock band of all time. Granted, I haven't really LOVED any of their albums since 1999 (There is Nothing Left To Lose), but their subsequent albums were at least OK. Until this one, which is unlistenable.

St Vincent: Daddy's Home
I always loved her weird eclectic style but this one sounds like a late-night lounge act. The songs are slow, lazy and all kind of blend into each other. A real slog to sit through.

Weezer: Van Weezer
Not the ode to hard rock I was expecting, sounds like a bunch of outtakes from a previous album. "Blue Dream" which incorporates the Crazy Train riff into a song about fish in the sea is just embarrassing.

The only new music I've really enjoyed lately is Goldmine by Gabby Barrett - a country/pop record.

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velcrozombie
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby velcrozombie » July 1st, 2021, 9:45 am

Villains by Queens of the Stone Age comes to mind. One of my favorite rock bands, coming off one of their best albums (...Like Clockwork), puts out a disc that to this day I've never been able to make it the entire way through. What really twisted the knife was seeing them live a month later and watching the opening band (Royal Blood) blow them off the stage. What sounded taut and powerful on the records was a slurred, echoey mess live. I didn't listen to anything by them for about two years after that, although I'm happy to say that most of their records still hold up. I wish I'd been able to see the early 2000s lineup with David Grohl, Nick Oliveri and Mark Lanegan instead.

jon
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby jon » July 1st, 2021, 8:59 pm

Foo Fighters were my favorite active band around 1997. There was a song that I think is one of their best, Down in the Park. It's a cover of an obscure band I think, but it was fantastic. I think it was from around 1995 or 1996. I really like their first 2 records. Although now I listened to The Colour and the Shape after 20 years and the production is great for the radio hits, but the album tracks could've maybe been better if they were recorded raw like the first album.

As far as new music, I try to be very careful. About a year ago or less I finally listened to one of Noel Gallagher's EP's and it was awful. For every Warrant that comes out with a great album in 2017 there's a lot of not so good albums.

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Matchstick
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby Matchstick » July 1st, 2021, 9:43 pm

jon wrote:As far as new music, I try to be very careful.


This is my mantra, too, though I tend to apply it to any sort of media - movies, music, video games, etc. Maybe it's just being old and cynical, but I've finally reached that point in my life where I feel like it's just all been done before.

This can be exciting (to hear a song that is a clear callback to an older song, for instance) but in most cases, I'd rather just stick with what I know. I can listen to albums from my younger and more formative years and know I'll love them just as much now as I did then. It can be fun to take a chance on new material, but oftentimes, you have to be prepared to be disappointed going in.

I tell myself this with gaming, too. I'll see a new game coming out, then turn to my wife and say something along the lines of, "What's the point of playing something that I know I won't like as much as Wave Race?" Halfway kidding, halfway not!

On topic, I was plesantly surprised to see that Goldfinger had been recording new material recently, and finally gave a few albums a chance in recent months. The Knife, released in 2017, even had Travis effin' Barker on drums, while Never Look Back, released last year, had a fun-in-the-sun energy that immediately drew me in. Sure, sure, ska-punk has never been a life-changing genre, but it's rare to hear something nowadays that makes me feel like I'm 15 again, mentally dropping me right back at the skatepark on a hot Summer day.

Plus, it never hurts to have a babe-in-a-cartoony-spacesuit on your album cover!

Image

EDIT: As much as I liked Ska as a kid, it still blows me away that bands like The Aquabats have managed to hold on after all these years. While I can't bring myself to listen to any of their recent albums all the way through (huuuuuuge shift in tone, meant for a different audience) Kooky Spooky, released in 2020, started off with a track called "Karate Body" which just made my day. The band has always had a huge Devo influence, and Karate Body managed to nearly out-Devo Devo, in my mind.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but if I were blindfolded and not told who wrote the song, I'd think "Karate-Body" was a long-lost Devo demo track. Also has a random Van Halen "Panama" reference in there that just made me laugh like nobody's business. The rest of the album, though? Definitely not for me.

newmodelarmy
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby newmodelarmy » July 2nd, 2021, 7:30 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Foo Fighters: Midnight Medicine
This might be my favorite rock band of all time. Granted, I haven't really LOVED any of their albums since 1999 (There is Nothing Left To Lose), but their subsequent albums were at least OK. Until this one, which is unlistenable.



I am a huge music fan and look forward to new music, no matter what the genre as I have fairly eclectic musical tastes. I have never been a huge Foo Fighters fan, I like many of their songs but don't think they have ever delivered a "great" album. Of course, that is my opinion. A guy who works for me encouraged me to listen to their new album which I did and it is awful. The production is just terrible and the lyrics seem to have been written by a five year old. If you are looking for a few "new" bands/albums I would recommend the following:

Cheap Trick "In Another World"-Great Pop/Rock album. Great album, not a Cheap Trick fan or like me, haven't listened to them in 30+ years? Doesn't matter, check this album out, it is awesome. Took about two listens to get hooked.

The Dead Daisies "Holy Ground"-Probably the best hard rock album since AC/DC's "Back in Black", in my opinion.

The Night Flight Orchestra "Sometimes the World Ain't Enough"-if you like 80's pop/rock bands you will like these guys, check them out.

And of course, New Model Army's 2019 release...."From Here"..absolutely fantastic album from my favorite band.

Robotrek
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby Robotrek » July 3rd, 2021, 12:03 am

Enuff Z'Nuff's Diamond Boy effort was weak. It sounded awful. Though I enjoyed the effort that they put out with Brainwashed Generation.

Wait, did I just publicly announce I like Enuff Z'nuff?

Den
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby Den » July 3rd, 2021, 2:22 pm

Weezer is one of my favorite bands but Van Weezer isn't doing it for me. The single, I Need Some of That, is awesome, but it's the best track on the album by far.

jon
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby jon » July 5th, 2021, 11:18 am

I just saw on Apple Music that Counting Crows came out with a new album (never bought an album of theirs but they were good in the mid 90's and have listened to their first couple albums on Apple Music). But the last thing I remember hearing from them was the unfathomably awful "Accidentally in Love". I'd sooner listen to a band like Nickelback's entire discography than one spin of that song. I volunteer to be the eight billionth and first person to listen to the new album.

bluenote
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Re: Bad New Music

Postby bluenote » July 6th, 2021, 8:39 am

This is of course a gross generalization, and there is definately exceptions to the rule, but I find most bands' later releases just never compare to their prime years. They are almost always inferior to their first 4 or 5 albums.

Again, there are some exceptions, (Beatles, AC/DC's newest album was pretty damn good, etc), but for the most part this is what I find.

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Re: Bad New Music

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 6th, 2021, 4:04 pm

I may have been a bit hard on Van Weezer. At least their songs are light-spirited and fun. They don't try to ram their social commentary down your throats. Not their best album but there are some decent songs there.

The new Garbage album has about three good songs, which is three more than the new Foo Fighters album.


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