August 2020 Challenge Thread - The Dog Days of Vinyl Playing

Day 18

Bad Poetry Day


RIOT! ~ Paramore

Please just hear me out!!!!!

As time has gone along the more and more I have distanced myself from RIOT. Maybe it's subconscious maybe it's just my mood for what I want to listen isn't all paramore like it used to be. This is my pick and it was tough. I have been having fun with this and just being here make me enjoy this hobby that much more. Don't get me wrong there are things I adore about this album.

That's What You Get, When It Rains, For A Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic, Fences, Let The Flames Begin, and of course Miracle are masterpiece songs to me. I still do hold this in my very small shortlist of 10/10 masterpiece album, but there is just something that I can't ignore every time I listen.

To me it gets to be weaker and weaker as times goes along in paramore's catalog. It is because of the lyrics in Misery Business. Just like so many artists to end up not liking their own creations, I too have grown distant to that song and it has not aged well in my opinion. I never thought of it that highly even when I was singing along at a show.

The offending lyrics:

Second chances they don't ever matter, people never change
Once a whore, you're nothing more, I'm sorry that'll never change
And about forgiveness, we're both supposed to have exchanged
I'm sorry honey, but I passed it up, now look this way


I'd like to think that people in general do grow and change. Granted it was written when teenage angst was a part of the band. I am so glad they have Grown Up (Pun intended) and moved past it. I still adore the album, but it's the weakest for me because of Miz Biz. I still love the band and I had a runner up for Speak Now by Taylor Swift for Better Than Revenge . It was tough to choose between the two because one I regard much higher than the other. It's high time we call out some lyrics for their problems. This album does mean a lot to me and I think we should be able to call out the problems we have with the albums we love.

If your going to ask I agree with the band retiring the song being played live..... if we ever get to see concerts again.

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DAY 15
WATER
Clarence Clarity - No Now
Water is a recurring motif in Clarence's work, sonically the sounds of water pop up repeatedly throughout this album and visually the album cover has what appears to be some sort of water on it. There's also of course the anthemic "Cancer in the Water." I believe back when we did the AMA with Clarence someone actually pointed out his use of water in his work, and his answer was a very Clarence Clarity one.
Yeah it is an intentional part of my sound palette, but I’m not entirely sure why - I just really like the calm chaos of water. And everything dies without water.
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And this finishes up the stack, thanks a bunch @Colonel_Angus 😊
 
August 16 - Leo - Play an album that is loud and demands to be the center of attention.

Red Spektor - Red Spektor

The debut album from some British guitar melters. The music is all good, it's the guitar that sets this group apart from their psyche-rock/stoner/riff machine contemporaries. Screeching, shredding, burning, piercing, en fuego. All ways to describe this puppy.

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August 17 - Case of the Mondays - Play an album that is about work in some manner.


Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue

I work for an electric company. Sometimes the most obvious choice is the correct one. I wish this album made me think of work because I was a space explorer, but it is what it is.

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Day 19: World Humanitarian Day - Play an album by a socially conscious artist.

Some fire picks today y'all.

I'll leave the big hitters to everyone else and throw a little spotlight on Lucy Dacus today. I expect someone to show up with Springsteen at some point and the Boss' influence on Lucy Dacus is fairly obvious. Her first couple albums are full of little beautiful narratives, however her 2019 singles collection gives some serious hints towards branhing out. There's your requisite covers, including a rollicking Bruce rendition, but she put out a few rawer, deeper singles. The one that stands out to me was Forever Half Mast which is a critical but hopeful look at American dissonance from the every person's point of view. I thought it was one of the strongest songs of the year and like to spin it regularly. Recently, Lucy's been fairly vocal on social media in raising money for BLM related cause as well as reproductive rights initiatives and other supportive community measures with both her and her triomates in Boygenius. It was a joy to give both sides spins today for a lot of Lucy and a bit of Bruce.

Lucy Dacus - 2019

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DAY 19
SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS
Jeff Rosenstock - NO DREAM
When Rosenstock decides to get political, he pulls no punches. The title track is one of his best written songs and a timely one for sure. The whole song is great but this passage sticks out:
"The only framework capitalism can thrive in is dystopia
Fuck all the fakers acting like they’re interested in hearing us
When we yell, "Hold accountable the architects of hopelessness and never ending violence"
They'll be like, "Whatever, idiot" and fuel their brand of power
Incorruptible like it exists
Saintly fronts in a system that rewards only the greediest
The only endgame for capitalism is dystopia
And we know all about it but we just don't know what to do
What can we do?
"
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