Writing About Music
As a Christmas treat, I have decided to allow myself to write about music. I do not really discuss music with anyone, though I have found it difficult to separate my musical tastes from other parts of my life, and in particular, my thinking about knowledge and expertise. It took until far too late in my life to realise that there was a connnection between my love of punk rock music, and my love of philosophy and thinkers that espoused the punk ideal of 'do-it-yourself', even if those thinkers would not have thought of themselves as punk. In the back of my mind, I keep threatening to write something some day about 'what punk is', and the politics contained therein. Every so often, some liberal commentator writes an article called 'where are all the punks?' or something to that end. The premise is always to point out that injustice is happening, and no one is loudly screaming 'fuck off' in response. They are wrong in numerous ways, and I find it annoying. Just as I find it annoying when right-wingers and edgelords claim to be to 'new' punk rock. In neither instances is it because liberals and conservatives cannot, in principle, demonstrate a punk rock philosophy. Rather, it is that, in practice, both subscribe to an aesthetic understanding of punk, and miss the deeper philosophy which, in my opinion, is what makes Ivan Illich and Paul Feyerabend much more punk than, say, Sid Vicious. But this is all a blog for another day...
I'm going to discuss some of my favourite albums to be released in 2024, and then a few additional albums which did not come out this year, but which are no worse as a result.
Groundwork by Animal Byproducts
This is probably my favourite album of the year. I would be biased towards it regardless, with Animal Byproducts being a group hailing from Manchester and Leeds, my very specific part of the world. Fortunately, the album is very good regardless of the local connection. Something which is quite charming about it is the subtle, playful Britishness of it. For a genre so dominated by America and working class Americana, I like this different vibe--I hesitate to call it Dad Punk, but I fear we must.
The album opens (and closes) with the sad but comforting horns of old England and the village green, while the feeling this creates, I think, is both celebrated by the group, and subtly mocked. Old England is dead (in fact, it has never been alive, merely a myth in the finds of an icnreasingly old Britain), but the ideals of peace and community survive. Animal Byproducts weave this theme, in my opinion, throughout the album. My two favourite songs, As If Not Now and Do Cavemen Dream of Android Sheep are exemplars of what I mean. In the former, the band mock the notion that as if not now / it will happen then, calling for an embrace of the moment; an embrace of life.
But this is juxtaposed with the natural theme, and the vibe of old England, when they ask the listener to consider as if a thrust never sang at four AM, which I interpret both to be a reminder that self-expression and living in the moment is both natural and beautiful--there is nothing to say that when we want to sing we should not, just as there are no rules which the thrust feels it must obey. The latter--probably my favourite song on the album--bemoans our lack of community and deeper relationships in modern life. It is easy to take this song merely as an anti-establishment or anti-capitalist anthem, and certainly, there are moment which feel as though nuance is lacking ('cos your colleagues are all robots / and they don't have much to say).
But again, look at the themes, both lyrically and musically. The desire for a renewed community, for friendship and social life, are at the heart of the myth of old England, while also destroyed by late-stage digital capitalism (so if you're dying for some dialogue / just hit me up and we can talk), and something many of us want. And, at the end of the song, we get the climax, the call for rejection, and in part to remember that what keeps us isolated is our own commitment to these rules, to the narratives of life, to social expectations of what it means to grow old: all I want's to see myself grow young / come on it's fun / don't you give in.
Neglected Objective by The What Nows?!
I don't normally listen to too much ska punk, by Neglected Objective by The What Nows?! is a very fun album.
I suppose in some ways it is quite formulaic of a ska punk album--lots of big energy mixed in with some silly lyrics, and some deadly serious. Fuzzy, for instance, stands out as a song which is obviously the band just having fun (it is about a werewolf who cannot keep his face cleanly shaven until he falls in love), though when put into context with the opening track, 1010000001, which is about the march of machines and nuclear war (they'll decimate / the human race / just targets in a database / thousands of years will be erased / and we will curse the name Bill Gates) or Shut Up, a long about mental health (Shut up turn off / these toxic thoughts).
This back and forth is a constant throughout the album, though as I say, not something I think is necessarily strange for ska punk or punk in general. Old Pages is an explicitly political song--an attack on right-wing narratives in America that increasingly perpetuate falsehoods and discrimination (this system chooses / who wins and who's executed / stand behind the thin blue lie / looking to get your boots licked). But it is followed by my favourite song on the album, Lovely Assistant, which I find a bit more cryptic (it's chorus would be interpreted as being about fake news, and thus a counterpart to Old Pages, but I don't think this is strictly accurate--one could equally interpret the song as being about someone who is cheating, and how the person being cheated on wilfully allows themselves to be deceived. This might explain why two female singers are featured on this song?).
Fittingly, the album ends this back and forth. Worth It is a lovely song about the joy of music, despite age and life making music (writing, performing, and enjoying it) harder. The band proclaim that despite it all, music is worth it. Then, Braindead comes in as a somber song about some betrayal or familial strife ( forget you lived / do not forgive / what you did to me when we were kids / no save the date / no final wake / you're already dead in my brain), quite a powerful conclusion to an album that, throughout, doesn't hold back. I often think about great lyricists (as a shitty songwriter), and my first listening of Neglected Objective left me with the feeling that not too much was going on, here. But over repeated listenings, I have changed my mind. I think there is purposefulness in the lyrics throughout the album, even if I do not always know how I should interpret them, and I like that quite a lot.
Meant to be Forgotten by Superflat
Superflat's Meant to be Forgotten is the first of three instrumental albums on my list. The album is a sequel or a part two to Meant to be Superfluous, which came out in 2023 (and which has quite a fun song in Dolce Disco, the opening track). I know very little about vaporwave or electronic music, and so I have no idea if the production of Superflat's music is that good or not. I do know that there is a lot of sampling in vaporwave, so I am not criticising that per se. Though, there is a bit too much rough sampling throughout, in my opinion (by which I mean just inserting an audio clip without transforming it or using it to great ends--this is a problem which arises on Meant to be Superfluous, too, though is also used to great effect in Aesthetics). For instance, I am not a huge fan of the middle track, Y2K The Computer Bug That Almost Ended The World, which seems to feature raw audio from this video. Musically, I think it's a bit lazy, and creatively, surely a greater array of clips could have been gathered, and clips from the time period, too?
Highlights on the album are definitely Nightcrawler, which again I am sure is sampled to shit but which achieves a cool, dark vibe to go with the name. Likewise, I Can't Let Go is a stand out track, doing so really cool things (like muffling parts of the audio) to make the song feel much bigger than it is. That the whole album is meant to be, aesthetically, the decay to Meant to be Superfluous' pointless consumerism, these two tracks really hit that vibe.
Seeker by Carbon Based Lifeforms
This is the second of the instrumental albums. I came across Seeker, I am ashamed to say, through the YouTube recommendation algorithm. I cannot write to music with lyrics in it, so I listen to a lot of instrumental music, and this album by Carbon Based Lifeforms was recommended. Another thing: I do not listen to a lot of different instrumental music; I will find one album or playlist I like and listen to it for a few months on end. So that is what happened with Seeker.
From the album's title and cover art, the listener is invited to imagine some kind of space exploration setting. With this bias in mind, I think the tracks do an excellent job of painting a space voyager soundscape. The opening track is a slow building track around a monotonous beat, though where it might be sinister (the constant tick-tock, and so on), it is quite warm (almost curious), I guess to encourage the feeling on sitting on the launch pad, still home, but also anxious that one soon will not be. Much of the album up until Nukleator is then filled with relatively dark, ambient tracks which should fill the listener with feelings of floating in a great void. Then, of course, Nukleator comes in with a degree of triumph that implies something has been found, or at least, that the journey has progressed. Nukleator is one of those big tracks on the whole album. Whatever has been found isn't obvious; whether it is good or bad or made ambiguous by tracks like Departed, which draw much more on industrial cyberpunk electronica than some of the more relaxed ambient sounds of earlier. This is the first feeling of something artificial or mechanical on the whole album.
This is followed by Gone, a much softer and sad track which--as the name implies--suggests a study of something which once was there, but now is gone, or departed. Perhaps the explorer found something, and the something found the explorer, and it ran? As far as a space story goes, that would be a fun twist--rather than humanity stumbling across its own demise, stumbling across something that does not want to be found. This leads into the closing 'act' of the album, the three songs Rymden3000, Sync2n, and ...and On. Put simply, this is the explorer choosing to follow what they discovered but which left, taking that triumphant but also terrifying leap into a greater unknown. The first track of the three builds up this feeling, the second demands the listener reckon with the terror and uncertainty, and the third invites the listener to linger in the wonder of mystery. This whole final act could be the soundtrack to a remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Now, I am quite aware this could all be my projection. It is, after all, an instrumental album. But what I think makes Seeker a great album is how it allows the listener to construct this story. One can read into and out of each of the different beats within the album, and interpret what information is given in a different way.
For Alltid by Old Amica
The same is true of the third and final instrumental album on the list, which is For Alltid by Old Amica. This album popped up on my bandcamp feed, and normally would not be the type of thing I'd give too much time. Though, for personal reasons, I seemed to have been quite receptive to the sad peacefulness that the album conveys. Unlike the two other instrumental albums, where I can perhaps tie in a plot or a multitude of vibes to conjure up an image in my mind (of decay, or of exploration), For Alltid only really leaves me with a feeling--a kind of sad but comforting melancholy. For instance, when a muscle swells, it hurts, and it is not something you really want to happen. But the swollen area also becomes warm, a sensation associated with comfort and safety and home.
I must stress my own emotional state when listening to this album, and will self-censor my comments appropriately, but that is essentially all I can say about this wonderful album. It is a homogenous feeling, like staring out at the abyss, but also knowing that there is a definite line between the abyss and where you are, so much so that rather than be engulfed with terror one can reflect on the odd beauty of it. I imagine that is what it must be like to visit the far north, or even the Sahara or the steppes--to bring oneself to nothingness but to also not be nothing. If one wishes to have a track recommendation, the final two--Neckar and Till Dig are quite good. There is also an auroura borealis vibe to Gammult Ijus which is quite nice.
80/20 by The Dopamines
80/20 was one of those albums that I put on, and very immediately thought to myself "this is very good." It comes blasting out of the gate with the messy, immature punk rock which I love. The energy of the music serves the purpose of one animating a person, but also shows a group that are not holding back, which is something I very much like to see from a punk rock band. I think The Dopamines earlier album Expect the Worse is great, and regard Public Domain and Cinncinati Harmony to be modern punk classics. 80/20 retains so much of the good stuff that Expect the Worst had, while demonstrating ten year's of evolution (coupled with the polish which comes from higher quality production).
For Heaven's Sake part 2 is a good example of the fun messiness, and also the cringe, which comes which this type of music. That the song lacks a conventional verse structure, showing the playfulness of punk rock, but also that the 'verse' is a 'conversation' between the band about the 'crowd' going wild shows how this music can be cringy (and I admit that). Then, a wonderful and simple chorus comes in and one forgives the cringe. The song then seamlessly moves into The Doctor, which has such a great driving beat a listener cannot help but be swept away in the album. Energy, again, is the word on the tip of one's tongue. This is all but track 3, by the way.
If I were to be critical, and there are things to criticise, the album probably goes on too long. The second half is nowhere near as distinguished as first half. Furthermore, while the sound has evolved a bit and become more polished, it does get tiring hearing the band sting about depression and anti-depression medication constantly. I know they're called The Dopamines, but still. When the indie punk scene has so many bands engaging with such a wide variety of important issues, some diversity would be welcome. I have no doubt the band could do this, and it leaves me feeling like the lyrics are a bit phoned in (which is a shame given how fun the lyrics of Public Domain are).
Some other stuff
American Culture released their debut, Hey Brother, It's Been A While back in May. I was really excited for the album as the first single, Let It Go, is a great song. Even the follow up single, Survive, is pretty good. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is a bit meh. It's kind of weird to hear an American group in 2024 try to recreate the sound of the less popular Britpop/cool Britannia groups, but that's what they went for, I guess.
Dragon Inn 3 relased their second album, Trade Secrets, near the start of last year. It is a fun little album playing on 80s nostalgia. The lyrics are not especially deep and it is actually quite a short album, but unlike a lot of 80s revival I think the songs are relatively interesting and very well done. Teleport, for instance, is a great, catchy song at only 1:51. There is also quite a good cover of Only You, which is dripping in the cool, dark vibes that the group, I assume, is going for given the album cover.
Teenage Halloween released Till You Return at the end of last year, too, and would have probably been my favourite album of 2023 (again, had I bothered to make a list). This album has all of the energy and messiness of a group like The Dopamines but with the variety and cutting commentary which I think just makes the songs land so much more. Be it Supertrans (guess what that's about) to Say It, a song about being a woman in the punk rock scene (and the frequent misogny which comes with it), the album is such a presence they would unashamedly be one of my favourite bands... if they had a better name.
Finally, MSPAINT released Post-American last year, and I bring it up for two reasons. Firstly, it's a phenomenal album. Secondly, I think it's a very important album. I very much think punk should be about trying new things, and doing things differently. Too much punk is actually about recreating the 'punk sound' or the 'punk aesthetic', which I just think is lame. What MSPAINT has done, dropping the guitar and using synths in such a brutal way, is truly groundbreaking. So too is the subtle integration of more hip hop elements into the sound (hip hop often being so much more punk than punks like to admit). Add on top a cutting social commentary, and there is no band I look forward to hearing more from than MSPAINT. Go to tracks have to be Information and Titan of Hope, though all eleven songs are great.
I lied about finality. Lastly, I listen to Stoj Snak's 2016 album Screamer Songwriter for the first time this year, and I love it so much. It is perhaps the best folk punk album since Against Me's Reinventing Axl Rose, which those who know know that that is high praise. I am not sure what they are doing now--I hope music will still continue to be produced. They have a second album I have not listened to get, but I am saving that for when I need some salvation. Everything about Screamer Songwriter is beautiful, and it is the embodiment of what I love about punk rock and music. There is so much soul in this album... and a bit of cringe (White Middle Class Blues comes to mind).