The Highwaymen - The Road Goes on Forever
Country
Final album

Four words: Cash. Jennings. Nelson. Kristofferson. It's no secret that I don't like country music, but as it turns out, when you have a supergroup that combines the quadrilateral talents of all the most beloved stars in the genre (only two of whom are still living today, unfortunately), you get a pretty good album. Go figure.

It's not the kind of album that'll convert you, by any means, but it's hard for me not to be won over by just the sheer novelty of it, especially knowing that this is the last time they'd ever collaborate. The opening track, "The Devil's Right Hand," was written by my guy, Steve Earle, and is probably my favorite track.

That said, this is probably not even the best Highwaymen album. Try the first one instead, if you wanna hear the best they've been able to produce together. This one's worth a listen, but perhaps not if you just hate the genre out of pocket.

7/10

---

General Public - Rub It Better
New wave
3rd album

This is just some shitty reggae-infused new wave that probably sounded out of date in 1995, let alone 2020, notwithstanding some of the homoerotic overtones (not that there's anything wrong with that). Pretty strong "why the fuck am I listening to this?" material.

5/10

---

Duran Duran - Thank You
New wave
8th album

These guys are okay, but this is pretty much just a throwaway covers album. The song choice is definitely interesting, though—from Bob Dylan, Led Zep, and Lou Reed, to Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash—and I don't fully understand the logic behind these choices, but judging by the album cover and the title, it appears that Duran Duran just wanted to pay tribute to a bunch of artists that inspired them and nothing more.

That's all well and good, but none of the material is very interesting. I enjoyed the cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" (and Reed himself reportedly gave it high praise, saying it was the best cover of his own material that he'd ever heard) and "Drive By," the only original song on the record, is pretty interesting as well, but this album got completely slammed by critics for some reason. Q magazine in particular said it was the worst album ever made.

I mean, it's not that it's good, but I honestly don't know how you could come to that conclusion. It's just whatever. Not memorable, not useful, goes in one ear and out the other for the most part, but completely inoffensive. If a record has to be bad, this is as bad as I'd ever want them to be.

5/10

---

Montell Jordan - This Is How We Do It
R&B
Debut album

This is the one with that dumbass "THIS IS HOW WE DO IT" song on it, which is easily one of my least favorite popular songs that apparently came out in 1995. Everything else is just typical hyper-sensual R&B trash, and I have nothing nice to say about it. By all accounts, the guy does have a nice voice, but if he didn't, he wouldn't have a CD, so I need a little bit more than that. There's only so many songs about licking vaginas that I can put up with.

4/10

---

Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side
Power metal
5th album

This was pretty neat. As far as metal goes, I don't really think it does anything special or unique, but the band does seem to place an emphasis on dramatic narrative storytelling in their lyrics. Besides that, they pretty much just make really cool and shred-happy metal music. Every song is as epic and grandiose and empowering as you'd expect it to be—but depending on how much metal you listen to, the appeal may not come across to you at all, or it might just seem lame or passé to you. As someone who finds himself in the middle, though, I liked it.

7/10

Imagine my shock when this thread hasn't been necrolocked yet... Anyways, I'm bringing this back momentarily. I'm bored, I'm quarantined, I have nothing else to do, so let's review some old fucking albums.

In the context of 1995, these will represent the month of April, and after this batch, I'll have sixteen more to listen to, and ten more that I've already heard to post my thoughts about. I'm not sure if I'll head straight into May after I'm done just yet, but probably not. This shit takes for-fucking-ever, and listening to bad music (which 90% of music is) can be extremely discouraging.

---

Daddy Yankee - No Mercy
Reggaeton
Debut album

This is the guy who would end up recording "Gasolina," and being featured on "Despacito"—although, hopefully, you've been living under a rock and haven't heard either of those songs.

This debut isn't actually that bad, though. I don't love it, but he raps really fast—at least twice as fast as Eminem on "Rap God" at certain points—which I think is inherently impressive if not fun to listen to, even if the lyrics are shit. I wouldn't know if the lyrics are shit, however, because I don't understand Spanish anyway, which is somewhat of a bonus.

The beats are kinda shitty, but Yankee's aggressive, rapid-fire, and in-your-face delivery makes up for it. I think most of you would probably find his flow extremely irritating, and I can completely understand that. Personally, I like his energy, although it can get a little grating for me sometimes, too. As such, I can't really give it a strong recommendation—although I do kinda see how he got so big just from this album alone.

6/10

---

Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
Indie lo-fi
8th album

I'm not gonna beat around the bush—I don't really get this one. I'm definitely not opposed to the concept of lo-fi music, but GBV's particular brand of it kind of makes me question a few things. The record is an average length at 40 minutes, but it has almost 30 songs. This basically means that there isn't a single track that goes above the 3-minute mark. One track, "Cigarette Tricks," is a mere 18 seconds.

Is this album a serious attempt at music? It's hard to tell. I couldn't tell you if there's any songs that I like, because none of them last long enough for me to make that call. But they also don't last long enough for me to feel annoyed by them if they sucked. The entire album just kind of bleeds together into this big blurry mess, kind of like the days spent during a lockdown.

This is, more or less, how all GBV albums are. It's just kind of their style, I guess. I can't say that I'm personally into it, because I like my music to have some semblance of effort or purpose woven into them, but I can respect the desire to do something different than what everyone else is doing. I just struggle to recommend it on virtually any level.

6/10 (feeling generous)

---

Sugar Ray - Lemonade and Brownies
Proto nu metal
Debut album

If you're over the age of 20, the answer to the following question is an assured "yes," but otherwise: Have you ever heard the song "Fly" by Sugar Ray? If not, I apologize for linking you to this obnoxious earworm.

Anyways, yeah, that's these guys. Until they made reggae-flavored pop music, they actually used to make nu metal before it exploded in the late '90s to early 2000s—and it was no less cheesy and stupid in 1995 than it was afterwards.

Here's an embarrassing fact about me, though: I actually enjoy me some nu metal, albeit in progressively small doses as I get older. An album's worth of the stuff is probably a bit much for me nowadays, especially when this particular record has some super dumb jazz piss-takes thrown into it. It was also produced by the film director who goes by the name of McG, and if you don't understand why that's absolutely hilarious, I apologize.

No matter how much I try to deny it, though, "10 Seconds Down" is still kind of a banger, and "Danzig Needs a Hug" is not only a hilarious song title, but a pretty nice cool-down moment on the record as well.

At the end of the day, it's still just really shitty and dated bro music to the core, but I'm still able to find things to appreciate about it, even if it's only in an ironic sense. You could say it's my favorite kind of stupidity, although I've been weening myself out of it, and I ultimately blame my parents for getting me into the genre at an early age.

5/10 (but in my heart, it's a 6/10)

---

Strapping Young Lad - Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing
Industrial (death?) metal
Debut album

This is probably the loudest and most unhinged album I've covered so far—but if you can't tell by the title, it's done in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek fashion, where it doesn't take itself very seriously. It really is insanely heavy, though, to a point where it's actively hostile to the ears. There are some tracks on here, like "Drizzlehell," that are just absolutely out of fucking control with their noise levels. It's like you're stuck in an echo chamber filled with hundreds of people screaming at the top of their lungs in the most exaggeratedly horrifying way possible, or something.

At the same time, though, if you're somebody who looks for music like this, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd consider this to be lightweight shit. It's hard to tell with you degenerates sometimes.

Me personally, it was a bit much, in the same way that death metal is a bit much. But I did appreciate some of the more composed moments, like on "In the Rainy Season" or "Skin Me." There's definitely something positive to remark about music that activates your fight/flight response, or makes you feel like you're under attack, or being chased around by a crazed yet inexplicably musclebound lunatic on the street with an ax.

If any of that shit sounds like fun to you, maybe check this one out, but it's worth noting that frontman Devin Townsend has since disowned this album as "record company bullshit." Take that as you will, I suppose.

6/10

---

KMFDM - Nihil
Industrial dance
8th album

I'm not huge on these guys, but for the time being, this is probably my favorite KMFDM. Just really solid industrial music with a fiery political intensity, similar to the Atari Teenage Riot that I raved about several months ago, albeit not quite on the same level. I don't have much to say about it besides that. It's just cool music.

If you like Rammstein, you might consider trying these guys out—especially if you like aggressive EDM, because while they're not metal by any means, they do possess that familiar "angry German music" energy.

7/10

i haven't been a fan of the amazing atheist for years now, but the video he just uploaded on this subject covers how i feel to a T and more or less answers all of your questions:

honestly my entire perception of transformers has been completely tainted by michael bay

Quote from: ಠ_ಠ on May 27, 2020, 11:23:39 AM

I will never understand the appeal because I find the tropes and especially their idea of "cute" as being viscerally disgusting. Had weeb friends in middle school/high school and I genuinely tried to like it, watched several shows and even read some manga since they pushed it onto me really hard. Instead of converting me like they wanted, it had the opposite effect and I went from not really caring to flat out hating anime. Also made me realize how fucked up Japanese culture is.

I kinda get this too, though probably not to the same extent.

Though I'm also just not a big cartoon person in general, the only one I'd say I'm genuinely a fan of is Clone Wars and even that is about 35% shit.

maybe give Legend of the Galactic Heroes a try

it's about space warfare, and it takes itself very seriously

i personally find it boring, but i think it has baconshelf written all over it

Quote from: Verbatim on May 26, 2020, 09:03:28 PM

Quote from: MetaCognition on May 26, 2020, 07:47:44 PM

What is it you study, again?

english and compsci

Since when were you doing compsci

same moment i realized that i needed a minor to get my degree

went for compsci because i already had a few credits in it from that time i switched

sex work is whatever

it's not an enviable position to be in, but i don't necessarily cast judgment either

i cast more judgment on the people who create a demand for sex work

Quote from: Ian on May 26, 2020, 11:34:54 PM

How cringe is his Twitter?

Quote from: CMD.exe on May 26, 2020, 11:07:43 PM

Good lord I can't stand to watch that guy after discovering his Twitter.

He is also a litteral cuckold BTW. His girlfriend does porn.

well, just lewd pictures, right

i know people recently turned on idubbbz for this, but i honestly don't see how that makes you a cuck (or why it matters)

Quote from: Verbatim on May 26, 2020, 10:51:41 PM

Quote from: MetaCognition on May 26, 2020, 09:20:18 PM

This doesn't seem particularly pertinent to me. A narrative can have a self-contained teleological orientation without any affirmation of some metaphysical telos. All this would entail is that there is some mythopoeic element to narrativity (depending on how expansively you want to define myth)--if we think a telos is necessary--and that's a bullet I'd probably be willing to bite.

okay, so before i respond properly, do you have a specific example in mind?

An example of what, exactly?

a story with this "self-contained teleological orientation" that you described—an element that is innate to the story, and is not merely inferred—such that its removal would cede its narrative status by reducing it to a mere sequence of events

anything you'd consider a story, basically—the simpler, the better

as a matter of fact, what's the simplest story that you know, or could come up with, that would appear to satisfy all the criteria that you deem necessary? if you'd like, you could even take the six-word example i gave and add to it

Not all of us feel obligated to write a sermon to validate our feelings on some cartoons.

that's fine, but forgive me if i think it's better to post something more thoughtful in a thread asking a genuine question

note the disparity in my response vs. everyone else's responses

as it turns out, so long as you put yourself in a simplistic enough frame of mind, you can enjoy literally anything

I don't think this constitutes a reduction of the narrative down to an event. Narratologically the sentence doesn't qualify; the content of whatever the reader infers may constitute a narrative, but this is a different object to the sentence.

i'm not so sure about that—i for one could not propose any additional information to that sentence which could further qualify its narrative status more than it already has; i think it has virtually everything you need, and if not, i'm not sure what it lacks

is it the lack of telos? the problem with this is that, if you were to be a nihilist, then all of teleology is a myth anyway; so you could argue that there's no point to any story beyond that which you can infer for yourself

so to that end, drawing inferences—parsing meaning from a narrative—is the whole raison d'être of storytelling, even if discovering that meaning is an arduous pursuit

the other items you proposed, again, just kinda seem like personal preferences to me—you would naturally prefer that a story possess these qualities, as i would, because it makes them more entertaining, cohesive, or immediately meaningful, but given the subjective nature of these—what resonates with you may not resonate with me—i'm not so quick to co-opt those suggestions

Is a sequence of events sufficient to be a narrative? If not, what else must be added to this recorded sequence of events in order to make it a narrative?

Candidates I can think of would be something like: causal determination between events, intentionality, internally guiding teloi, some kind of overall thematic structure (e.g. monomythical), authorial pretense, fictionalisation etc.

these things might be necessary for an engaging narrative, but whoever said narratives had to be engaging?

i do think you could essentially reduce a narrative down to "any sequence of events" told with the purpose of relaying some kind of ontological experience—or hell, even just one event, like in that famous six-word story:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

only one event is described in this story—and if you've never seen it before, yes, that's the entire story—and the idea is that other events can be inferred from the terse descriptions, but not necessarily; it's all up to the reader

A corollary question would be what relation does narrative structure have with dialogue; are things like polyphonic novels different in kind in their narrative structure from 'regular' forms of literature, or do they operate with the same notion of narrativity?

it certainly complicates the story insofar as there are now multiple voices telling it, but i think the same general theory applies

What’s the skinny on your writing, at the moment/over the last four years?

as far as my novel goes, the pen has officially made contact with the paper, and as you would imagine, the quarantine has given me ample excuse to work on it more than i ever have—which makes me feel like a gross opportunist, but whatever

i'm at a point where i can play the entire story out in my head like a movie from beginning to end—it's just a matter of getting it all down on the page, which is easier said than done, but relatively speaking, i'm making headway on it

but i'm also pacing myself—a lot of writers will tell you that you should write even if you don't feel like writing, but personally, i think that's an extremely unhealthy way of looking at it, and a good way to burn yourself out, or to start resenting your passion

if i don't feel like writing for a week, i don't write for a week—i'm looking at this as an artistic endeavor, not a commercial one, so there's no sense in rushing if all i want to do is tell a good and meaningful story

i'm also trying to come to grips that it doesn't have to be perfect, and that not everybody has to enjoy it—in fact, it's my intention for it to be somewhat alienating, but comforting to those who absolutely need it

it's a tricky process and it might take me all summer yet, but i appreciate your interest

frankly, nothing has held me back more than college has—enrolling to my university straight out of high school in 2014 was the single biggest mistake of my life, but it'll be all over in just one more semester