The Day(s) of Many New Albums, Part 3, Final (8/30/2012 19:00)

The fact that the Baltimore Grand Prix costs more than it brings in, and that politicians are too dumb to know that negative numbers are bad, means traffic was horrible, and I was able to finish the rest of my albums on the way home from work.

Shall we...?

Purity Ring
Shrines
Genre: Witch...house? Is that a...a thing? Listened: 8/30 while at work.

Don't judge a book by it's cover, and don't assume that a band called "Purity Ring" makes either overt Christian rock, or extremely sarcastic screamo. This might be the best new discovery apart from DIIV.  The songs are dark, but have great beats. Imagine if a three-way between Crystal Castles, Sleigh Bells, and Chromatics produced some weird offspring, that would be Shrines. If dubstep was good, it would be Purity Ring.

TNGHT
TNGHT EP
Genre: Umm..some kind of electronica? Listened: 8/30 on I-495

This album was weird, to say the least. The music wasn't particularly bizarre, it was just that it clearly should have had lyrics and didn't. No, I don't think all music should have singing, I'm not a rube. TNGHT has clearly made what should be hip-hop beats, but there's no one rapping.  The lack of lyrics means that songs crescendo for no reason and then just sort of die off. Then there's the last track, "Easy Easy," which uses a sample so annoying Gilbert Gottfried flashed out of existence, because there can be only one.

Jessie Ware
Devotion
Genre: Pop soul, because "soul pop" would mean some other kind of music. Listened: 8/30 on I-95

This is the direction that Massive Attack should have gone on their way to finding success, rather than 10,000 Windows or whatever that was. Ware's voice is amazing, and the trip-hop-style backing is the best pairing of alto R&B singer and massive bass I've heard in a very long time. Doomed to obscurity no more, hopefully.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
Mature Themes
Genre: Psychedelia is the best thing I can come up with. Listened: 8/30 from the BP on 295 to Route 40...that's right, I got through a whole album in 1.8 miles. Thanks a lot, Grand Prix.

Pink's Before Today, despite being highly acclaimed, was the worst piece-of-crap album I have ever heard in my entire life...IN MY LIFE. That, fortunately is not the case here. To explain Pink's music is difficult. Imagine the weirdest stuff the Beatles ever wrote. No, weirder. Like "Glass Onion" playing backwards over top of "Revolution 9." Now that you're there, look off into the horizon. Far beyond that, where the curvature of the Earth makes it impossible to see, and sea monsters lie in wait for Spanish galleons, there is a land where INLAND EMPIRE is considered the greatest movie ever, cricket is a way to achieve transcendence, and Chuck Palahniuk doesn't seem like a pretentious douchebag. That is where Ariel Pink goes to get inspiration for his music, which even confuses the hell out of the people there. That said, Mature Themes is maybe the most fun I've ever had listening to an album. I mean, come on, he sings an entire song about schnitzel. How can John Maus ever compete with that?

Swans
The Seer
Genre: Experimental...to say the least. Listened: God, I could not finish this leviathan in one sitting.

Swans' The Seer is, by a wide margin, the most boring album on this list. I was going to say, "the worst," but remember, Dirty Projectors were on here two posts ago. Every song is over five minutes. One is 19, another is 23, and the title track is 32 God-forsaken minutes. It is also the most horrible thing put out since Deerhunter made a psychedelic mixtape. The first six minutes, at least, of the 32:14, is ambient...bagpipes. You read that correctly, ambient bagpipes, with, like, this clicking sound in the background the whole time. That's when I gave up. Somehow, this album is getting critical acclaim. Apparently "professional" music critics don't mind hearing the sound of their own brain melt.

Wild Nothing
Nocturne
Genre: Dream pop. Listened: 8/30 for the three tracks it took me to realize I'd heard this before.

See: Passion Pit's Gossamer on Part 2 of this article. I don't feel like expounding anymore, but let me just say that there's only so much MGMT and Beach House knock-off music one can listen too without falling asleep in a bathtub.

Matthew Dear
Beams
Genre: Electropop. Listened: 8/30 on the last stretch of Route 40 and over and over ever since.

I have been waiting all day to get to listen to this. I finished it as I started writing this segment. Matthew Dear's strange version of club music is the most awesome thing in this whole set of articles.  2010's Black City was one of the best of that year, and surely Beams will be one of this year's. It's jumpy, fun, easy to listen to, and yet so complex, it makes you want to keep listening. Thank God I got to this album before I lost all faith in music.

This has been quite the experience. I learned that DIIV, Purity Ring, and Jessie Ware are great new acts, that Matthew Dear hasn't lost his touch, and that listening to that much "experimental" music in one sitting is probably damaging to your mental health.

I suppose I should just keep up with things instead of binging like this, huh?