Music

Albums

Dodie – Build a Problem

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Released – 2021.05.07

I am not sure what first brought me to Dodie’s music, I know a lot of her fans came from her previous life as a regular YouTube Vlogger. I can say it was quite a bit before the release of Build a Problem. This is her first Studio Album, though she has released 3 previous EP albums, though the third one, Human, has most of her best known tracks, with Monster probably being her most well known. She also has a pretty large amount of additional “unreleased” tracks on YouTube and other channels.

This little bit of background is rather essential to some of what I want to talk about on this album, Build a Problem.

Anyway, I enjoy Dodie’s music enough that I had tickets to see her back in 2022, though things fell through and I could not make the show for a couple of reasons (COVID was ramping up again, and my wife had a medical procedure come up). Her music can probably be best described as modern emotional folk music. There is a lot of airy feel to a lot of her songs, and they incorporate a lot of more traditional acoustic style instruments along side some modern electronic mixing and layering. Most of the songs have a strong emotional push around relationships, loneliness, anxiety, depression, and being a bit of an “outsider” at times.

All of these themes are very much present in the themes of Build a Problem. The album open with a short interlude in Air So Sweet, before going into the first proper track with Hate Myself. It’s not the “title track” but it is where the album title comes from, where the phrase Build a Problem shows up as part of the opening lyrics:

Could it be different? Did I ruin the day?
Oh, do you look angry? Oh, what did I say?
Filling in the gaps, build a problem that
Neither of us need, something wrong with me

Hate Myself is one of the better tracks on this album, it’s showcases a lot of the strong parts of Dodie’s songwriting and layering in structure. I don’t know that it’s my favorite track, but it’s certainly up there. The theme of this track is basically the idea of being insecure in a relationship, and possibly overjudging one’s self based on the reactions of the partner. Essentially, building a problem, in one’s head, where a problem may not actually exist. Which only leads to more self hate and insecurity.

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Though Hate Myself is a bit more upbeat and “poppy” sounding, things turn down and become a lot more reserved for most of the rest of the album. I’m just going to go over some of my personal highlights from the album with commentary on the rest after.

Probably my favorite track on the album, is Cool Girl. I just really like the way this song slowly builds over the course of the track from something relatively low key to something rather grand. I also really like the use of the stringed background instruments, which is also part of the overall build. The video is also a One Take, which is like my kryptonite for video media, so that pushes up my enjoyment even more.

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The next few tracks, Special Girl, Rainbow, and Four Tequilas Down are all pretty good.

The two “bonus” tracks, Guiltless and Boys Like You round out my list of actual “top tracks” on this album. I believe they are “bonus” in that they have both been released for a while, they just, never had a proper album release. Guiltless has a lot of really fun and interesting structure to it. The lyrical sections are kind of quiet and quaint before dropping into this fuller chorus moments. It ends with this really fun little layered loop of some of the lyrics of from the track previously.

Boys Like You has a decidedly different feel than the rest of the album but it’s still a great track that does deserve to be on an album. It’s quite a bit more punchy in it’s melody than the previous tracks, and feels a bit like a different era of Dodie.

So, as for the other tracks. I have the ALOSIA (A Lot Of Songs In A Steam) Deluxe version of this album, but for now I’m just referring to the other tracks on the album itself. I really like the tracks mentioned above, I kind of really dislike most of the ones I didn’t mention. I do like this album, but it also feels like, another EP’s worth of tracks, with a bunch of half finished tracks intermixed in to pad it into an album. This isn’t really a criticism of Dodie by any means, and maybe it’s just that I just don’t resonate with these tracks for whatever reason.

It doesn’t really harm the album as a whole, especially since you know, we live in a digital age where it’s easy to pick out the tracks one most enjoys. It just feels like maybe there was some sort of behind the scenes deadline that came up too fast and things maybe could have felt a bit more complete in places.

Albums

Paramore – This is Why

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Released – 2023.02.10

Paramore’s 6th album, This is Why is certainly a testament to the chaos and craziness that has enveloped society in the past few years. With 6 years since the previous album, there has certainly been a lot going on and it shines brightly through in the themes of a lot pf tracks on this album.

It opens with the title track, which sort of sums up the overall feel of what is about to be presented, This is Why (I don’t leave the house). With lyrics suggesting that the opinions of people in the world have gone off the deep end a bit and become just a bit scary hear.

It keeps up the theme with the second track, The News which tears apart the media a bit with its constant need to emphasize everything awful in the world and drive people to constant fear. It also keeps a bit of the thread from This is Why with its bit:

Far, I’m far So far, from the front line Quite the opposite, I’m safe inside But I worry, and I give money And I feel useless behind this computer

Where our hero is still keeping it safe, by not leaving the house. This theme of reclusive paranoia follows through on the tracks You First and C’est Comme Ça (It is what it is).

The 5th track on the album is one of the most amusing, tracks on the album Big Man, Little Dignity, which is themed around the idea that the “big man” thinks he is hot shit, but he is not as great as he thinks he is. Dignity is also used as an amusing euphemism, with the big man’s ” li-li-li-li-little dignity”.

I touched a bit on You First but I wanted to throw in there I find it amusing that it has the lyrics ‘I’m both the killer and the final girl” given the theme of CHVRCHES Screen Violence, which even has tracks called “Killer” and “Final Girl”.

From a purely sound and structure perspective, I think Figure 8 is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It sort of rebounds between flowing lyrics and a bunching chorus. I rather like how blunt that transition is and how the track just sort of keeps pushing along.

Liar takes a much more mellow tone from the previous tracks, which is a trend that continues along through Crave and Thick Skull to close out the album. Thick Skull being an interesting and dramatic ballad that serves as an almost self reflective song.

Overall, I enjoy the whole album, but think I enjoy the front half a bit more than the back half, even though the back half probably has the better songs, they just aren’t quite as “catchy”. Funny enough, because all fo the singles from this album come from the front half. I can’t really compare it too much tot heir previous albums as the only one I have any real listening time with is Riot!.

Listening Habits

The Annual Playlist for 2023

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A few years ago, I was sorting through some older music, and came across old Mix Tapes and CD-Rs.  It’s really fun because unlike digital music, these are essentially static playlists.  This is a window into what I was listening to at that time.  And no, you didn’t misread that, Mix Tapes.  and they were mostly from the 90s era.  My first car didn’t have a CD player, it just had a cassette deck.  Teenage me would regularly visit the local library and check out a variety of CDs, then spend the week picking out my favorite tracks and recording them to tapes.  I also recorded some from the radio.  I had a stereo with a dual cassette deck so I could easily copy some back and forth among my tapes.

Here is a fun blast from the past for ya. I had a thing for a while where I would make little custom art for my tapes too, most of them had Gunsmith Cats artwork but I also did some for Dance Dance Revolution as well.

Something really amusing I noticed here is that “Car Tape 3” includes 2 Alanis Morrisette songs, both of which are on my 2023 playlist (below).

Digital playlists aren’t quite as robust.  They are honestly kind of a pain to deal with over time, because the files can move around and then the playlists essentially just break.  But I did try to sort of replicate the experience of an annual playlist after the nostalgia trip of these tapes and CDs.  Basically, usually sometimes in January, I make a new playlist for the year, simply named, for example, “2023 Playlist.”  For the first few I would star with the previous year and seriously trim it down.  More recently I just start from scratch.  The idea is, it can evolve over the year though.  Essentially, i start with a “best of” from previous years, music I want to listen to “now” in January, then over the course of the year, I might remove some songs, and I might add some songs.  

The bigger point is, I have the old lists, if I wanted to go back and listen to things, though, that would also still have the digital music problem of, “The music was moved/removed and the list is broken.”  

But at least I do still have the list.      

More recently though I have been thinking of sticking these in a more meaningful file for future nostalgia (Ironically, a song that I debated adding to this year’s list but decided not to in favor of other Dua Lipa tracks).  Probably some sort of simple Excel file or something, then I can eventually manipulate the listings in 5 year when I decided to do some sort of retrospective blog post and list out “This song was on 8 out of 12 Playlists!” sort of nonsense.

For now, I wanted to just, post the list, for the start of this year.  I’ll alphabetize it by artist, but the order doesn’t matter, these are always just played on shuffle.

Alanis Morissette - All I Really Want
Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Alice Merton - No Roots
Alice Merton - 2 Kids
Alice Merton - Funny Business
Alice Merton - Easy
Alice Merton - Lash Out
Aurora - The Woman I Am (Vevo Live)
Aurora - Giving In To The Love
Aurora - Cure For Me
Aurora - A Temporary High
Aurora - Blood In The Wine
Aurora - Animal
Aurora - Hunger
Aurora - The Seed
Aurora - I Went Too Far
Aurora - Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
Aurora - Gentle Earthquakes
Aurora - All Is Soft Inside
Aurora - Churchyard
Avril Lavigne - Here's To Never Growing Up
Avril Lavigne - Things I'll Never Say
Bt - Never Gonna Come Back Down
Bt - Movement in Still Life
Bt - Satellite
Bt - Smartbomb
CHVRCHES - The Killing Moon (Amazon Original)
CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share
CHVRCHES - Gun
CHVRCHES - Recover
CHVRCHES - Killer
CHVRCHES - Screaming
CHVRCHES - Bitter End
CHVRCHES - Violent Delights
CHVRCHES - Good Girls Explicit
CHVRCHES - Death Stranding
CHVRCHES - Never Ending Circles
CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue
CHVRCHES - Graffiti
CHVRCHES - Forever
CHVRCHES - Graves
dodie - Monster (Vevo Live)
dodie - Hate Myself
dodie - Cool Girl
dodie - Monster
Dua Lipa - Physical
Dua Lipa - Good In Bed Explicit
Dua Lipa - Cool
Fred V & Grafix ft. Ruth Royall - Sunrise (Season Mix)
Griff ft Sigrid - Head on Fire
Juno Reactor - Guardian Angel
Juno Reactor - Samurai
Katy Perry - Electric
Kim Petras - Icey (Vevo Live)
King Princess - PAIN
M83 - Midnight City
Magdalena Bay - Killshot
Magdalena Bay - Mercurial World
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Metallica - The Unforgiven
Neil Frances - On the Lookout (feat. Raffaella)
Nigel Stanford - Automatica
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Nirvana - Come as You Are
Nirvana - On a Plain
Orla Gartland - Things That I've Learned
Orla Gartland - You're Not Special, Babe [Explicit]
Orla Gartland - Pretending [Explicit]
Orla Gartland - Flatline
Paramore - Misery Business
Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place
Raffaella - Grown Up (Vevo Live)
Raffaella - Blonde (Vevo Live)
Raffaella - Hell Yeah
Raffaella - Sororicide
Raffaella - Bardot
Raffaella - BUICK
Sigrid - A Driver Saved My Night (Vevo Live)
Sigrid - It Gets Dark (VevoLive)
Sigrid - Deep
Sigrid - Dip My Heart in Confetti
Sigrid - Dancer
Sigrid - Mistake Like You
Sigrid - A Driver Saved My Night
Sofi Tukker - Hey Lion
Sofi Tukker - Awoo (feat. Betta Lemme)
Taylor Swift - Getaway Car
Taylor Swift - This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Taylor Swift - New Romantics
Taylor Swift - Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Taylor Swift - Love Story (Taylor’s Version)
Taylor Swift - You Need to Calm Down
Taylor Swift - Lavender Haze
Taylor Swift - Anti‐Hero
Taylor Swift - Vigilante Shit
Taylor Swift - Mastermind
Tessa Violet - Bad Ideas
Tessa Violet - Games
The Cranberries - Dreams
The Cranberries - Zombie
Wolf Alice - Smile
Listening Habits

My Music Listening Habits for 2022

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It’s that time again, when I ramble on about what I’ve been listening to this year.  I don’t use Spotify so I don’t have a “cool kids” wrap up to share.  Instead you get this!  A blog post!  And some little 5×5 charts made from my Last.fm.  I kind of prefer starting on Artists over Albums, so without further ado, the top 25 for 2022.  Which unsurprisingly, is relatively similar to my previous years.

In a surprise to literally no one, including myself, my top 3 are pretty much the same as they have been for a while.  Aurora, CHVRCHES, and Sigrid.  Actually, I am a little surprised Sigrid is so high, I didn’t listen tot he new album a ton, or much Sigrid that I remember actually.  Aurora and CHVRCHES, not so much, I listen to both a lot.  Heck, I saw Aurora live this year.

Beyond that is a bit of new-ish stuff.  I’m still been digging on Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia re-release, and I picked up a copy of OK Computer to add to that mix.  The Weeknd’s Dawn FM has become a pretty regular listen as well.  It’s an album I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I do.   Orla Gartland and Dodie slot in at numbers 6 and 7.  I almost went to see Dodie (and Orla) earlier this year but my wife had a Doctor’s thing come up and COVID was starting to ramp up again, so I opted to skip it.

Next on the list is Magdalena Bay, a newcomer to the list which a lot of the folks at the CHVRCHES discord recommended.  Another with this honor is Wolf Alice down in the number 17 slot.  I actually kind of prefer Wolf Alice to Mag Bay, but I picked up their album later, so they got less time to be listened to. Wolf Alice is a bit more, guitars and rock, while Mag Bay is more synth and electronic.  Also in this list of “Recommended by CHV People,” is Purity Ring at number 20.

Quite a few regulars on the list for a bit, though I want to comment on how much Raffaella has manages to stay in these lists.  I’m sure I mentioned it before, several times, but I had never hear of her back in 2019 before going to see Sigrid, and I’ve been listening to her music still, years later.  She hasn’t even really put out a lot of new stuff either, a couple of singles and a small sized EP.

I think Berlinist is new to the top 25, but this is entirely from listening to the Gris Video Game soundtrack.  It’s a good ‘relaxing music” album.  

There are a few missing that I’m actually surprised are missing.  Well, one anyway, which is Enya.  Not a new artist by any means, but I ended up with her entire discography, minus one, I think, at an estate sale, and I listened to quite a few of her albums recently.  It feels like it should have been enough to put her up there on the list.  It’s also really interesting because, Enya definitely reminds me of the same sort of, exotic, vocalizing, sort of style of Aurora.

Anyway, next up is the albums list, but a lot will have been covered by the Artists wrap up so I’ll just stick to anything interesting.

And it’s more or less an expansion of the Artists lists.  Most interesting, though not surprising is that every album from Aurora and CHVRCHES appears in this list.

I also noticed I forgot to mention the Cranberries.  Like Enya, I picked up a few Cranberries albums and I’ve been enjoying them.  It’s also funny because, Enya “feels” like an “Earlier Aurora” in a lot of ways, and The Cranberries, “feels” like an “Earlier CHVRCHES” in a lot of ways.  I could actually expand on this a bit with Sigrid too, because Alanis Morissette, “feels” like an “Earlier Sigrid.”

I guess my point is, the more things change,t he more they stay the same, and my overall musical tastes is about the same as it always has been, it’s just added the latest version of the same shtick.

Music

Amazon Music Now Sucks Completely

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Amazon Echo, probably the easiest and simplest way to listen to music I have, had just completely shat itself and it’s so incredibly frustrating.  I don’t understand why companies are so dead set on ruining every product they make (Oh wait, I do, something something endless growth bull shit, but that’s a rant for elsewhere).  I don’t care for Ala-carte subscription based music at all.  Artists general don’t get paid enough cut, and I like being able to listen to my music years to decades later, without paying monthly, endlessly.  I still own every CD I have ever bought.  Granted, I do buy some of my CDs used so the artist still gets nothing from that so I guess that’s mildly hypocritical.   Here’s an article about the change.

https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/amazon-music-prime-100-million-songs-shuffle-mode-podcasts-ad-free-1235416844/

My point is, I buy music digitally.  Hell, I bought a couple of albums just last Friday for #BandCampFriday.  I have literally hundreds of albums and thousands of trcks PURCHASED through Amazon Music.  I’ve been buying music through Amazon for over a decade.  More recently I shifted away a bit because I wanted to get FLAC options but when I can’t find FLAC I still buy from Amazon because the quality offered is still a pretty good MP3.  This made the Echo and Alexa super great because I could just tell it, “Alexa, play Aurora from my library”, and it would play my tracks, or whatever artist or album I wanted.

I even have an echo hooked to my sound system down in the basement so it sounds better.

But this recent change.  This isn’t even an option for music I have purchased.  Like now, as I type this, I played my album, “A Different Kind of Human”.  And it’s just randomly inserted some other random track in.  It’s also playing the tracks out of order.  I even tried playing it from the Alexa App on my phone.  Maybe it works better in the Amazon Music app but I had to dump that because it kept asking EVERY SINGLE TIME I opened it to subscript to Music Unlimited.

Which is the goal with this new Shuffle Play idiocy.  If you subscribe up, you can get all the old features back.  Which I have no interest in.  I own my music, and I already pay too much for Amazon Prime, which is going up AGAIN next year.  I don’t even have it on Auto Renew anymore because it’s like $150/year now and twice as much as when I started subscribing.  I really just want to pay $60/year or whatever for easier shipping.  I don’t care about all this extra nonsense.

I wouldn’t even mind this annoying change as much if it just worked with music I’ve purchased, but it doesn’t.

Looking for some answers or suggestions on fixing this around the web says that a lot of people are upset about this. Not just because of situations like mine where you can’t listen to your own music, but because of things like custom routines and playlists being completely broken as well. A couple that stood out to me were people who had routines set up for their kids to go to sleep listening to particular songs using playlists and timers. Another was how it completely breaks soundtracks to musicals, and I imagine it breaks other similar content with a need for linear tracks that run together like Stand Up Comedy and Dance mixes.

It all feels incredibly poorly thought out and frankly, it doesn’t drive me to upgrade my subscription (which is the point) but makes me want to find a different smart speaker solution that works better with my local network shares. If I were going to subscribe to music, it would be Spotify or Tidal over Amazon.

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