Week 49 – Tuesday 3^rd December– Monday 9^th December

Mice Parade – Mice Parade

I took one look at this album cover and said to myself “oh man this is going to get hiptery”. I definitely was not wrong, but it wasn’t horrific. I though some of the songs were pretty good, although not all that memorable. The album suffered so much from same-y-ness that half way through my first listen I thought the album has started over from the beginning only to find out that it was just that the some of the songs were just indistinguishable.

Meh. Pass.

 

Week 50 – Tuesday 10^th December– Monday 16^th December

Dream Theater – Awake

I put this on during a pretty busy day and immediately thought to myself, “Wait, do I have to pay attention to the lyrics as I listen to this? I am not sure I’ve got the time for this right now. I have shit to do.”

I listened to it anyway, but did so as background music while I worked. The justification to do that was the realization of what this music was. This sounded like some kind of spiritual successor to Kansas. Despite the fact that this album was from 94, these guys were ignoring the whole grunge thing to double down on the 80s. Not the best move ever. I am not sure this is what my life needed.

 

Week 51 – Tuesday 17^th December– Monday 23^rd December

The Algorithm – Brute Force

This was cool, but I started to feel the pendulum pull the other way. This year as I have listened to albums I noticed that I for the most part like electronic music more than anything else. And I think this had some of that too. I’ve always like computer sounds as effects, and I think they did this pretty well. I also kind of liked the theme they went with.

But they go to far. There were some things they did on the album that were jarring and annoying. Not to mention that the songs were a little to similar for me. I am fairly sure I could not tell one song from the next on this album if you lined them up.

I don’t know. I think I may have needed drugs for this one.

 

Week 52 – Tuesday 24^th December– Monday 30^th December

A Charlie Brown Christmas (Remastered and Expanded) – Vince Guaraldi Trio

I hate Christmas music. It’s not a slight on the holiday or anything like that, it is just something I have never appreciated. The absolute deluge of the stuff that you encounter as you live life in America from about the the hours after you finish Thanksgiving dinner to the week after you finally remember to write the updated date correctly is well and truly maddening. But that aside, it is just objectively bad music. But every year I stomach it, while doing the most I can to avoid it as much as possible.

It gets particularly bad when you live with flatmates that really love Christmas. I am pretty humbug about most of it, down to the gifts and the chesnuts roasting on an open fire. Some people would call this seasonal depression. I don’t think these people would be all that wrong about it.

When my friend suggested this to me I think I groaned audibly enough for him to hear my all the way in Portland, OR. But all things considered… this album wasn’t bad. The jazz-y twist to the traditional Christmas songs worked well for me. I also have to admit that I have always like the song ‘Linus and Lucy’, despite it being the musical equivalent of a cliched and misattributed quote.

However, I did notice that any songs with singing in them drove me over the edge. I guess that does say something about what I like and do like about this holiday. Maybe this will improve my next Christmas. All I know is that if I hear that I would easily set me own house on fire if it meant I would never have to hear that God damned Mariah Cary song ever again.