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Hunty Bear

Reycism: The Year In Reyview, 2019 Edition

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3 hours ago, Andres said:

Highlights: "Equally Lost," "Anywhere U Go," "Sweettalk My Heart," "Jacques," "Are U Gonna Tell Her?," "Glad He's Gone"

Okay, I see some exemplary taste here, other than "Equally Lost", which is quite banal! These are all my other faves, though. jj2

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Much of the drama around the BROCKHAMPTON/Ameer Vann saga has already been discussed at length in Twitter thinkpieces. It was even musically chronicled in last year’s diaristic iridescence. Though I was initially a fan of the bold, expressive stylings of iridescence, its erratic and chaotic nature made me realize in retrospect that it never quite clicked the way I expected it to. If iridescence is chaos then GINGER is clarity. GINGER sees the boys finally meaningfully addressing their feelings, putting pen to paper, and sealing the void that Ameer’s departure left in the group’s musical chemistry. The end result is a deeply somber and dirgey record; fans craving the vibrant, buoyant sound of the SATURATION trilogy might be left disappointed, but it’s very gratifying to finally see them hitting their stride as a group unit again, which was something that iridescence lacked. That being said, despite easily being their most cohesive album to date, there’s more than enough variety to cater to fans of their back catalogue: the “SUGAR” → “BOY BYE” sequence for the nostalgic SATURATION stans and “I BEEN BORN AGAIN” for the fans who preferred the most experimental sensibilities of iridescence. Like its namesake, GINGER has detoxifying qualities; naturally, on GINGER, we see the band members working through all of the traumas that shaped their careers until this point. The expulsion of those ghosts (“DEARLY DEPARTED”) feels cathartic even for us fans invested in their story. Maybe that's the point!

tKm9eZb.png?1 "NO HALO", "SUGAR", BOY BYE", "GINGER", "DEARLY DEPARTED" 

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Lana Del Rey is obviously a 2010s phenomenon: she’s always been one in the eyes of the gays, but the cruel, sexist and subjugating optics that tainted her rise to stardom and cult success — one that certain critics *cough* Pitchfork *cough* have tried to retroactively reevaluate — anchored that potential down. Despite six (or four or five, depending on how pedantic you are) decade-defining and paradigm-shifting opuses (including Lust for Life, which I’m still gonna pretend to enjoy), it seems that the world has finally caught up to her legend with the release of her masterpiece, Norman Fucking Rockwell!. I’m not of the (strangely ubiquitous) opinion that Lana has revamped her style, since all of the hallmarks of a Lana album are still present in the album’s lore: Old Hollywood Glamor, the failed American Dream, fast cars, and even sporadic mentions of voodoo witchcraft. Instead, Lana has refined this tried-and-true recipe to perfection and tested it to lavish instrumental landscapes (the title track, “The greatest”) and freeform song structures (“Venice Bitch”, “Happiness is a butterfly”), richer than Lust for Life but more digestible than Ultraviolence. Critics have seemed to particularly gravitate towards this album’s incredible lyrical content, hailing her as the next “Great American Songwriter”. This isn’t an unfair appraisal of the album: she’s never been as visceral and autobiographical than on the threadbare “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it”, more politically tasteful and poignant than on the apocalyptic “The greatest”, and more resolved and poetic than on the wistful “Mariners Apartment Complex”. Still, I think that this is a fragmented assessment of what makes this album an album of the year contender. She’s spent the whole decade informing trends and illuminating the indie and pop soundscapes of the whole decade, but Norman Fucking Rockwell! benchmarks the first time where the lit culture has finally caught up with her and embraced her as the pallbearer for the current zeitgeist. It’s a testament to her talent and vision (as well as our Reycist minds, too) that instead of bucking down to onslaught of misogynistic venom and hate spewed at her by media establishments, she persisted with the very same vision that guided her earlier work and is now in the pantheon of 2010 greats.

tKm9eZb.png?1 "Mariners Apartment Complex", "Venice Bitch", "The greatest", "Bartender", "Fuck it I love you", "Norman fucking Rockwell", "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it"

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Charli is comprised of the same chemical configurations as most of her work post-SUCKER: a lot of moving parts, a lot of features, and a lot of percussive and glitchy PC Music samples. Yet it still feels like a refinement of her newfound musical orientation that has sustained her (flop) career for the past three years, seamlessly fusing the conventional pop stylings of Number 1 Angel with the experimentalism of Pop 2. The end result is a scattershot, yet incredibly fun and endlessly engaging experimental pop record. Charli has hailed Charli as her most “personal” album to date, and the intimate songwriting on the album is a testament to that: highlights like the shimmering “Gone”, the cascading “Official”, the cathartic "Cross You Out", and the revelatory “February 2017” are confidential insights into the temperamental and volatile mind of one of the most forward-thinking popstars of this decade. But she compensates for that restraint elsewhere on the album, particularly on “Shake It”, which is one of the most disorienting, inventive, and erratic electropop bangers I’ve ever heard. The fact that there’s ample space for both energies (as well as ample time for her to pass the mic to the 14 guest collaborations) says a lot about her musical vision: it might not be the most cohesive or consistent album, but it just wouldn’t ‘click’ if it was organized in a different permutation or catalogued by a different artist. Charli is an album that only its namesake could pull off, and thankfully, it worked.

tKm9eZb.png?1 "Gone", "Cross You Out", "Warm", "Official", "Shake It", "Next Level Charli"

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Caroline Polachek has maintained a steady presence in the indie scene since her rise to stardom with Chairlift, but in my opinion, never a really engaging one besides a couple standout tracks (“I Belong In Your Arms” and “Bruises”). Her solo debut, PANG, on the other hand, is an endlessly interesting and idiosyncratic display of her varied talents beyond just her incredible vocals. PANG wears its influences on its sleeve, reconciling its theatrical Björk and Kate Bush-esque operatic flair with the futuristic shimmer of PC Music production styles. Perhaps it’s not the most innovative album of the year, but it’d be a disservice to the album to assert that considering how cautiously constructed and cohesive this album is. No one curated a better collection of singles to tease their album with this year than Caroline did with PANG, with songs like the soulful “Door”, the vibrant “Ocean of Tears”, and the swaggering “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” shining as some of the best pop songs of the year. And yet, though they are by and large the album’s greatest showstoppers, they ease right into the heady flow that PANG sets with the start of “The Gate” and by the end of “Parachute”.

tKm9eZb.png?1 "Door", "Ocean of Tears", "Hit Me Where It Hurts", "Look At Me Now", "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings"

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23 hours ago, Liam said:

Back to the more tasteful of the Reycist quartet, I can not get into Clairo at all. I have been slack on my listening so there are many albums here I need to listen to.

Closer To You is that bitch 

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Just now, Liam said:

Four solid albums. Pang highlights are correct but I find Hit Me Where It Hurts the weakest on the album.

really? that's an unpopular opinion jj2 I really dislike New Normal and Hey Big Eyes and I'm not too interested in Insomnia but the rest is solid to great! the singles were clearly well-chosen

also tomorrow's my last day of entries :/

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6 minutes ago, Hunty Bear said:

really? that's an unpopular opinion jj2 I really dislike New Normal and Hey Big Eyes and I'm not too interested in Insomnia but the rest is solid to great! the singles were clearly well-chosen

also tomorrow's my last day of entries :/

I love Insomnia and Hey Big Eyes, how dare you. I predict Bubba will make an appearance.

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2 hours ago, Liam said:

I love Insomnia and Hey Big Eyes, how dare you. I predict Bubba will make an appearance.

I think Hey Big Eyes is really derivative, has stupid lyrics and a boring melody jj4 Insomnia I just haven't really gotten around to it! I usually skip it ngl...the rest of the album is generally stellar though! I think I Give Up in particular is an underrated album cut

as for the second statement, you'll see tomorrow if it made my list, my honorable mentions, or none of the above! jj2lol3 

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Highlights: "Go as a Dream," "Ocean of Tears," "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings," "Hit Me Where It Hurts," "Pang," "The Gate"

Caroline Polachek is no stranger to the indie pop scene. Her excellent previous work as half of Chairlift brilliantly showcased her penchant for hypnotically idiosyncratic pop melodies, and PANG only continues this trend. Otherworldly and atmospheric, the record shifts from soundscape to soundscape while maintaining cohesion and forming an identity of its own. Lyrically, while the songs on PANG may deal with very common, human emotions: love, lust, heartbreak, self-doubt, they are presented in a pleasantly enigmatic and gorgeously poetic package. The production, largely handled by Polachek herself along with PC Music alum Danny L Harle, is also consistently brilliant. "Go as a Dream" is an album highlight that evokes Imogen Heap and Björk's Vespertine in the best way possible. "Ocean of Tears" is a breakup song as big and melodramatic as its namesake suggests, with production to match. That's not to say that PANG takes itself too seriously, however, as showcased by the delectable and amusing ode to emotive, wistful longing "So Hot...". PANG is a thoroughly rewarding listen that always manages to both delight and surprise.

 

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Highlights: "Hurry on Home," "Reach Out," "Can I Go On," "The Center Won't Hold," "The Future Is Here," "Broken"

Here's an album I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did, if at all! Rock isn't exactly my favorite genre, but thankfully the St. Vincent influence on this record makes itself very apparent. The record is bold, brash, and rough around the edges, yet the sleek production and the surprisingly catchy hooks help keep the record grounded. The record is also unabashedly political, even when it isn't trying to be. As a triad of female artists in their 40s and 50s, Sleater-Kinney are in a unique position in both the music industry and society as a whole. It's this unique perspective that makes the record so engaging, and it can be liberating to hear these three women simply let loose and be everything that isn't expected of them. This perspective also makes songs like the already exhilarating sex anthem "Hurry on Home" into bold feminist statements, despite the fact that they shouldn't have to be. Even without its political subtext, The Center Won't Hold is just a damn good and enjoyable record in its own right.

 

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Just now, Andres said:

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a shocking inclusion! also the graphic is lit rally impossible to see on dark mode 

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listened to it once but I was never really drawn to any part of it (besides Hurry On Home)

Just now, Andres said:

lit rally overrated luv xx lol3

lit rally her best song...with her best lyrics...by far lol3 and that's on Insomnia luv xx lol3 

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