Irregular Album Roundup #1

Here's a new series filled with musings on various albums I've come across that you deserve to know about. Not quite reviews, yet not quite blurbs. No set timeline. Let's just call them general recommendations.

The Piss, The Perfume - Hayley Mary (2020)

Every few months, I stumble across a song from The Jezabel's 2016 Synthia and face a "Where are they now?" crisis. Opener "Stand and Deliver" remains artsy synth-pop perfection in my eyes, and their knack for fast-paced hooks kept "My Love Is My Disease" and "Pleasure Drive" staples of my workout playlist. Please, please stand and deliver a follow-up soon!

This crisis is only halfway resolved through frontwoman Hayley Mary's debut EP. It's neither the Jezabels in band composition nor in sound, but it is a surprisingly addictive guitar-driven pop-rock affair that's cemented itself as my favorite 2020 release so far. "Ordinary Me" doesn't do much for me, but the other four tracks all carry such tight songwriting and choruses to warrant near daily rotations during my commute. The title track's infectious energy by all means deserves to be on a radio near you.

Oh, and this music video features some top tier dance moves.

Recommended Tracks

1. "The Piss, The Perfume"
2. "Like a Woman Should"
3. "Holly"

Rhythm, Chord, & Melody - The Reign of Kindo (2008)

Is progressive dad jazz rock a genre? Can we make it a genre? We can also throw Steely Dan in there and call it a day.

The Reign of Kindo are a progressive dad jazz rock band who infuse buttery smooth pop songs with trappings of progressive rock and jazz instrumentation. If the word "progressive" scares you off, don't worry - The Reign reign themselves in enough to avoid noodly guitar solos that stretch song lengths well past their due. The focus is always on Joseph Secchiaroli's smooth-as-hell adult contemporary vocals, who pumps out emotional crowd-pleasers time and time again.

This focus unfortunately means certain songs live and die by the vocal performance. Opener "The Moments In Between" is sonic bliss during its soaring chorus, but follow-up "Breathe Again" is hampered by lyrics about tracking and murdering someone who stole your kids' Christmas presents. It reads like unironic dad Taken fan fiction (can we make that a genre too?). "Nice To Meet You" suffers the opposite problem with a saccharine chorus that could use a little bite. It's a shame when misteps like this overshadow what are otherwise at least perfectly competent musical tracks.

"Competent" is probably underselling these guys' chops. The real highlights of this album are when the band comes together to hammer out a freeform atmosphere behind the more measured vocals. Drummer Steven Padin especially plays with a barely contained sense of control in tracks like "Great Blue Sea" and "Till We Make Our Ascent".

The only real problem I have with this album is that it's just a little too smooth and polished at times. Maybe it's just my musical tastes, but I'd like to see this band wild out a little more or at least write more songs with a biting edge to them.

Recommended Tracks

1. "The Moments In Between"
2. "Great Blue Sea"
3. "Let It Go"
4. "Till We Make Our Ascent"

Vengeful Spectre - Vengeful Spectre (2020)

I don't care what genre purists say - I like my black metal with folk interludes to break up the pacing and let my ears rest for a bit. Bands like Ulver have been doing this since the beginning of the genre, and it's a staple of my favorite bands since then. The Chinese black metal outfit Vengeful Spectre follows this trend but mixes it up with a variety of Eastern folk instruments seldom heard in a genre that's primarily Western.

That's not to say Vengeful Spectre is a one-trick pony that deserve a minor footnote in history for what instruments they play. They more than back it up with inspired songwriting that interplays traditional Chinese instruments with ferocious riffs. "Wailing Wrath" is an early highlight with slower 3/4 sections that layer Chinese folk instrumentation on top of melodic black metal riffs. Elsewhere, the take-no-prisoners "Rainy Night Carnage" barrels forward with the sound of ancient armies massacring one another on the battlefield. I can't say I've heard anything that sounds quite like this band. Heartily recommended for anyone who likes a little melody with their black metal.

Recommended Tracks

1. "The Expendables"
2. "Wailing Wrath"
3. "Rainy Night Carnage"

I Look Like Shit - Jeff Rosenstock (2012)

I can't believe I never heard "Twinkle" until recently.

For years now, Jeff Rosenstock has been my musical comfort food. Between his previous group Bomb the Music Industry! and his prolific solo career, this man has penned so many anthems around his anxieties that I can spend hours listening to him when I'm in a bad mood. I wrote a college essay on his influence on the Pay What You Want model. I regularly have dreams of seeing him live. I force him down the throats of everyone close to me. I consider WORRY. the Abbey Road of punk. I love this man.

Despite this, I never got around to checking out his debut solo album until this year. It didn't seem to garner the same critical responses that We Cool? and especially WORRY. did, and it's easy to see why. This feels more like an unrelated collection of recordings than a cohesive album, and looking at it track-by-track, the quality is equally haphazard. The only song I outright dislike is the Pulp cover "Dishes" (it's the boring kind of ska), and there's plenty of tunes elsewhere that lie in the "pretty good" tier, but three songs in particular earn their spot in the Rosenstock canon.

"Twinkle" is a classic Jeff opener, starting with a hint of melodic balladry before bursting away into high-octane pop punk driven by lyrics that read like an anxiety-soaked stream-of-consciousness. "Bonus Oceans" is instrumentally more muted and less electric, but still builds towards a melancholy climax about looking around at your life and wondering "What the hell happened?" Then there's the regretably named "The Internet Is Everywhere". I hate to say it, but I ignored this song for a while based on its title alone. My mistake, as it's actually an intimate and lo-fi acoustic track about wishing a former friend all the best despite a noncordial end to the relationship. It's a deeply personal yet universally applicable examination of a growing maturity over the years.

But seriously, "Twinkle" is top-tier cathartic Jeff.

Recommended Tracks

1. "Twinkle"
2. "Bonus Oceans"
3. "The Internet Is Everywhere"

A Pyrrhic Existence - Esoteric (2019)

If you had asked for my opinion on funeral doom metal before I heard Esoteric, I probably would have told you "that genre certainly exists."

I first got into metal through the prog side where speed and technicality were everything. Atmosphere was great and all, but I wanted atmosphere hammered into my ears through the howling frostbitten winds of black metal or short acoustic breaks in an Opethian epic. Funeral doom never grabbed my attention - playing riffs slower than tectonic plates didn't cut it for this attention span.

Then, on a Christmas morning whim, I sampled Esoteric's latest album. I only listened to the opening track, "Descent", which on its own is longer than some of the other albums on this list. This 28 minute epic captured my imagination and evoked imagery no other metal song has before. Through its ploddingly heavy riffs, I could imagine walking through an ashen wasteland with no signs of life around me. Death and decay surrounded me as the howls of lost souls pierced my ears, but still I pressed forward, spellbound by the promise that something awaited the end of this seemingly futile trek.

If that sounded worse than a first attempt at a creative writing class, that's because I never took a creative writing class. I did, however, read enough mythology growing up to know that this band evokes the pits of the various underworlds I'd always read about as a kid. This journey stretches on for a whopping 97 minutes, but Esoteric always finds some trick to pull out of their hats to keep things varied without ever losing sight of what makes funeral doom special - atmosphere.

I'm happy to report that this has served as a gateway to the genre for me. Skepticism's Stormcrowfleet and Ahab's The Call of the Wretched Sea now grab me with their own mournful takes on the genre. If you like extreme metal at all, give funeral doom a shot - it really is its own thing in a genre crowded with seemingly endless subgenres differentiated only by slight nuances.

Recommended Tracks

1. "Descent"
2. "Consuming Lies"