So, I've decided I'm going to try to listen to at least one album a day, with a specific focus on mainly listening to stuff that's on my damn list already. That said, this first listen is important because it's one of the first albums I ever put on any sort of "must-listen-to" list, a while before this list was even an actual thing. With that out of the way...
The Academy Is... - Fast Times at Barrington High: I liked the first song, but as it was playing I knew that this album was either going to be really enjoyable or very, very mediocre and samey. I’ve heard enough power pop/pop punk groups to know that those are really the only two avenues they go with me. Unfortunately, this was the latter of the two. Basically all of the songs sound more or less the same, follow the same format and are about sex with various circumstance changes. It wasn’t all bad—“Crowded Room” starts out great and becomes pretty good, and “About a Girl” is pleasantly power pop—but for the most part it was just dull.
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You: I always thought Lily Allen was kind of generic, vapid pop, but boy was I wrong. This album was absolutely wonderful. I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but when you have a prude like me smirking at a song entirely about sex (“Not Fair”), you’re doing something right. “22” is a really sweet, sad track, and “Back to the Start” is nice, but I really fell in love with the album at “Never Gonna Happen”. The music is so odd (accordion synthpop??) and bizarre and amazing that I could not resist it. Having the song “Fuck You” as a follow-up (which had me giggling the the cheerful “fuck you very, very much!”s permeating the track) sealed the deal.
Those two are easily my favourites, but “Who’d Have Known” deserves a mention for being a genuinely sweet love song rather than a cliché piece of work like most love songs are. “Him” is a neat track as well, for pondering God without being pretentious, dismissive or overly-silly. Just plain pondering some mundane things about Him and having a bit of fun.
So yeah, I was very, very, very pleasantly surprised by this album. I’m definitely going to have to check out more of her stuff. She reminds me a lot of Regina Spektor, and a bit of Marina and the Diamonds, but with a much more electronic edge and a bit more sass. I love it.
Panda Bear - Person Pitch: I don’t like Panda Bear’s singing, at least when it’s at the forefront like in the opening track, but when it’s more of a background thing or so vague that you can barely even tell it’s singing, I love the effect it has on the music. Not to mention the fact that the music itself is wonderful; electronic, psychedelic experimentation and samples galore. The first two songs were just alright, but from then on it was quite wondrous. There’s no shortage of creativity on this album, that’s for sure. It also helped once I stopped trying to pay attention to the lyrics, because I honestly found them kind of cringe-worthy. Very good album and definitely recommend. My favourite track is easily “Search for Delicious”, which is strange and fantastic, followed by the atrociously-punctuated “Bro’s”.