record_on_display warmthofrelease Something adjacent to the_record_on_my_turntable except the turntable isn't mine it's my roommate's, who is hyper neurotic and wouldn't appreciate a record being left on the turntable indefinitely. But the speakers make for nice display shelves, one of which houses a cool light fixture thing of rearrangeable tetris shaped blocks that our fat ass cat keeps knocking over, and the other of which I use to display one from my admittedly modest record collection. I have a much more boisterous collection of CDs, though I understand that any digitized format is a compromise of quality I would still say CD is the most versatile format. But of course the records are much better for display. I've been doing this basically since I moved in, over time it's displayed many a classic from In_the_court_of_the_crimson_king to Joyce_Manor to Tallahassee to Synchronicity. It's been a pleasant little tradition, a very musical piece of rotating decorum which has brought life and variety into the space that is our living room. Even though we would totally be using that fireplace if it was a real fireplace. 250103 ... warmthofrelease Currently it's my personal favorite record by The_Kinks. No, not Lola. Not Arthur. Not Green. Those are all very good. But for me it's Sleepwalker. There's a refreshing feeling of acceptance and letting go which permeates the record. The songs come from what was supposed to be yet another concept album. It just wasn't coming together correctly and Ray and the boys decided to go a more traditional route and just make distinct songs instead of trying to glue them all together. That conscious letting go, combined with the maturity of their previous successes (and failures (sorry Soap_Opera you're just not very good)) gives this record a starting_over feeling that makes it feel like a breath of fresh air after years of creative congestion. The entire album has that theatrical wit I've always appreciated from Kinks, but the clear standout is the closer. Life_Goes_On will forever be one of my closest most bittersweet redemption songs, and I owe so much of my resilience and acceptance of this strange gift called life to this song and a precious handful of songs like it. And yeah, of course, the album artwork is simple beauty. That's part of why it's on display. It was a nice way to ring in the new year, and for as cool as their earlier records were I really wish this one wasn't so criminally overlooked. As are so many of my favorites. 250103 ... raze i left "diamond dogs" in a place i knew she would see it when i thought we might finally meet in_person. but after being stood_up and blown off seven times in seven years of trying to make something happen, i came to understand the whole enterprise had been doomed from the start. at least we had that phone_call, even if all it did was stir up a little more false hope. her voice was just as i thought it would be, only not. it sounded like she was smirking even when she was crying. maybe she was. i'll never know. 250103 ... warmthofrelease Archers_of_Loaf - All_the_Nations_Airports (sic) Those one_hit_wonders who made that song they showed on Beavis_and_Butthead? No, not Ween, silly. They had like 2 hits. The other one. No not Pavement ugh. These guys! Web_In_Front that one! Well they made a couple albums in the coming years that still rock my socks off. The angry tantric 21 year old me who was having his life take a powerfully cynical turn at the hands of The_Lonesome_Crowded_West was also appreciating Archers at the time. It's so dense and abrasive and unapproachably discordant backed by so much intensity and sincerity, it's something which I can recommend to no one in good conscience but which my twisted angry mind gravitated to like swimming to the lantern of an angler_fish. I'd say in retrospect that Vee_Vee is the better album, but this is the one which at the time made me fall in hate. I owe it very little and very much at the same time. It's cool. I'm glad I bought the vinyl when Merge reissued it. God bless Superchunk and those Carolina guys, they really do run one of the extremely few great and honorable record labels. 250112 ... warmthofrelease Jeff_Beck - Wired No introduction necessary. You know you know this. This is greatness. All I have to say is that I still do think Blow_By_Blow is just barely the better record. But my admiration for Wired is has steadily grown, and in I_just_might_change_my_mind 250206 ... wor/row_has_fucked_up (sigh take 2) My admiration for Wired has steadily grown, and in time I_just_might_change_my_mind 250206 ... warmthofrelease Nine_Inch_Nails - Pretty_Hate_Machine The debut. To put it simply, a game_changer in every way. Some immaturity is reflected here, but also an unflinching ambition from Trent to do his music in his way. World wasn't ready for this in 1989. Maybe recently unified Berlin, maybe a few other parts of dance-progressive Europe, but Cleveland sure as shit wasn't and probably most of the rest of America as well. It can be tough to separate his anguish and his intensity and just appreciate the music for what it is, Something I Can Never Have is a great song but it's also pure torture at the same time. Then there are songs like Down In It, Ringfinger, Kinda I Want To, which have undeniable groove. To this day it might still stand as his most rhythmically infectious work, and that's even if you include Trent's excellent film score work, and certainly if you just limit your scope to NIN. It's not his best, but woah is it a strong first impression. 250226 ... warmthofrelease Van_Halen - Women_and_Children_First My love for classic rock runs deep, it's arguably the base of my musical pyramid. But where that love extends into the subgenre of what would qualify as "hair metal" is a bit limited. Miss me completely with Poison. Whitesnake was alright at first. I kind of like Ratt. Maybe a bit of Night_Ranger, a bit of Skid_Row, even a bit of Journey is good for my heart but practically zero Bon_Jovi, Def_Leppard songs are either a strong yes or a strong no, and don't even approach me with any Guns_n_Roses, not even good GnR because I'm just over it. But Van Halen is on a completely different level in my mind, a level of music that I take a lot more seriously than those others aforementioned. Not because they were one of the first, but because they did it right. They found immediate success with their first album, but within their first decade (IE the David Lee Roth days) they showed tremendous evolution. They could be playful. They could be experimental, for a radio rock band. They took risks. They pushed the envelope and expanded the soundscape, and Eddie (godresthim) really did raise the bar for performance skill by himself. They could be sincerely interesting, in a way which measured beyond songs that were designed to get themselves and others laid. Don't get me wrong, there were still plenty of libido fueled songs. But there's also things like Spanish_Fly. And I'll_Wait, in my opinion the best song on 1984 by a mile. And how about the entire Diver_Down album? Even Van Hagar and hell even Cherone had their moments. Their discog is madly overlooked and runs legitimately deep, much much deeper than their radio singles. For me though, the 3-album run culminating in Diver_Down in 82, Oreo creamed by Fair_Warning in 81, and kickstarted by W&CF in 1981 are the highest accomplishments in the storied history of the band. Despite the fact that these were dramatically outsold by 1984 afterwards and by eponymous preceding, these records showed the most intelligence the most playfulness and the most heart. And this one (W&CF) has to be my favorite. It's the ending, more than anything. The track from which the title is derived Could_This_Be_Magic and In_a_Simple_Rhyme is such an amazing 1-2 punch to end a record. It also begins with a very impressive 1-2 punch from the album's hits, Cradle and Everybody_Wants_Some, which is another sophomoric sex_drive song but you can't tell me that's not a fantastic intro. The tracks in between are certainly decent, for the band and for the time. But it's these great huge pillars that hold up the beginning and the end of the record which make it so genuinely special to me. In a genre over-ripe with homogeneity, it shines with a cheeky uniqueness, backed by some performances full of skill vitality and the energy that comes with a really good band entering their prime and hitting full stride. 250312 ... wor/row_has_fucked_up correction, W&CF was 1980 which is what I meant to say 250312 ... warmthofrelease The_Flaming_Lips - In_a_Priest_Driven_Ambulance Before Isaac Brock made his lyrical masterpiece Moon Ant (released January 1, 2000 what a move looking back) there was someone else who had the idea to write about God and religion from an atheist point of view. I know that probably makes you think of irreverence and anti-religion but in both cases Brock and Wayne_Coyne took much much more interesting approaches. Coyne gets into his deepest and darkest themes and ideas here, and the payoff is huge. I love early flips. But I don't listen to Hit to Death for the lyrics. The songwriting on Clouds is alright, but I love that album because of their heroin junkie guitarist they had at the time creating some of the most amazing and satisfying 6 string tones I've ever heard. But Priest is different. I very much enjoy the music, but I DO listen to this one for the lyrics. That's why it's my favorite of all time, and why earlier this week when I found a sealed copy of the remastered vinyl for $22 I could not say no. Finally getting this one on my shelf checked a big one off the list, for sure. 250328 ... releaseofwarmth (Should say for posterity, Priest is my favorite Flips album of all time, but certainly not my favorite favorite. Top 100 most certainly.) 250328 what's it to you? who go blather from