Tool: Fear Inoculum (2019)

Hey…it took Tool 13 years to follow up 10,000 Days, so I figure another six for me to actually get around to really listening to it isn’t going to bother anyone. And honestly, I’m glad for the extra time because all the insane hype and commentary around what Fear Inoculum turned out to be versus was fans wanted it to be was more than a bit distracting and intense. And not just the album: with the rise of YouTube “content creators” it seems everyone has an opinion about the band – they were only good on the EP, they write music that makes you have to “think” too much – I literally just watched a video where that was the complaint. It’s too complex to have any real emotion – that’s another I just saw. I needed to get away from all the rhetoric and just sit back and listen. And guess what? It’s a Tool album, which means for better or for worse to your ears it’s exactly what Maynard, Adam, Justin and Danny wanted it to be. I like it.

ChrisJanuary 15, 2025April 21, 20252 Comments

Vinyl

Geordie Greep: The New Sound (2024)

Here’s a hot take for the prog nerds: most of y’all don’t actually want music to be progressive. You want your progressive rock to sit safe and snug in the catacombs of bands laid to rest 40-50 years ago. You want the comfort and familiarity of long tracks, keyboard jack offs and clean, soaring vocals (god forbid there’s some death growls in there, y’all seem to be losing your minds at the new Opeth). How else to describe the general lack of discussion around an album as ambitiously and confrontationally titled as The New Sound, the debut offering from former black midi (RIP) guitarist and vocalist Geordie Greep?¹ It takes Greep’s former band’s sonic exploration and stuttering rhythms and slaps a fresh coat of Latin and lounge and fiery rock for one of the best progressive albums of the year.

ChrisDecember 13, 2024December 12, 20241 Comment

Vinyl

The Smashing Pumpkins: Aghori Mhori Mei (2024)

It’s not that The Smashing Pumpkins ever went away; it’s that no one really cared whether they were here or not. Billy Morgan was certainly here, churning out album after after that, despite lofty ambitions (last year’s triple disc Atum) and big name producers (Rick Rubin “producing” 2018’s unwieldingly titled Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol 1/LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun) nothing clicked. For me nothing’s really clicked since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Still, I kept checking the albums out as Corgan rotated through various members. After almost 30 years I wasn’t optimistic when Aghori Mhori Mei showed up, but that’s why perseverance and patience pays off. This is easily the Pumpkins’ best record since Mellon Collie, a lean and mean rock album that could have been written in the heyday of the alternative rock revolution. I love it and make no apologies for it.

ChrisDecember 12, 2024December 11, 20241 Comment

Vinyl

Mary Lattimore: Silver Ladders (2020)

Some music haunts you. Some soothe you. It’s a rare album that can do both, and as I continue my search for serenity in the aftermath of, well…just life, I remembered this album from Mary Lattimore was sitting in my collection. A recommendation from my friend Erik (another one of those touchstones for new music I’ve never explored), Lattimore uses her harp on Silver Ladders to evoke ethereal waves of introspection that never creep into sentimentality or schmaltz. Spare and delicate, it lives in the empty spaces it creates.

ChrisNovember 11, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We (2023)

Carrying the trend of softer, comfort music with Mitski, a singer/songwriter I had no previous knowledge of but my wife loved listening to on our local radio station. She got me last year’s The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, and over the last few days I’ve been returning to it, finding comfort in its hushed whispers and delicate melodies. I won’t heap the accolades others have; I have minor quibbles here and there, particularly with the monotony of some tracks, but I was never looking for grandiose ambitions and reinventing the wheel here. I want music that wraps me in a cozy blanket and keeps me feeling okay with myself when I need it, and there are times when that can only happen with an album like this.

ChrisOctober 24, 2024October 25, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (2024)

I feel like too often “darkness” in music is more affectation than anything else. To be clear, it’s an affectation I’m not immune to – when the weather starts to cool and the air begins to chill I tend to reach for more somber, forlorn music. But there’s this rising cadre of music acts that – for better or worse – are framed in my mind as being cultivated and groomed for a very niche audience. One that’s young and entirely too emo-driven for my tastes. It’s a rare artist that can break out of that mold and straddle a more mature perceptive (I’m really showing my “old man yells at cloud” side here, sorry), and with She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She I think I’m coming around to the wavelengths Chelsea Wolfe is putting out. The “why?” and “why now?” of it all are still confusing in my mind, so accept this as a meandering trip to understand better.

ChrisOctober 21, 20241 Comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: alternative

Tool: Fear Inoculum (2019)

Geordie Greep: The New Sound (2024)

The Smashing Pumpkins: Aghori Mhori Mei (2024)

Mary Lattimore: Silver Ladders (2020)

Mitski: The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We (2023)

Chelsea Wolfe: She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (2024)