Martedì 24 Dic 2013, 5:36
Albums of 2013http://i.imgur.com/JNkkFjJ.gif
45 – 31
45
Kurt Vile -
Wakin On A Pretty Daze
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/89542853/Wakin+On+A+Pretty+Daze+PNG.png
Kurt Vile is perfect music for anyone you know who happens to be between the ages of eight and eighty-eight. With this album, his fifth, he has clearly proven that he is not to be trifled with in regards to song structure. The album is over one hour and ten minutes long, with the average song length probably reaching over six minutes, yet the entire experience flies by faster than the average pop pre-chorus.
His guitarwork remains unobtrusive and humble, bouncing around all of the other instrumental work and only contributing when the composition begins to sag. It is an extremely competent record.
It is a bit more experimental than Smoke Ring for My Halo, though maybe not as competent as that album. But the adventurism being displayed here is certainly admirable. Vile knows his strengths and is taking a stab at his weaknesses here, and it works for the most part.
These aren't his strongest melodies but the song lengths somehow defy this fault and almost make up for it. They're very good atmospheric pieces, though not great background tracks. It's all very interesting but not in an intriguing way.
Though it's not like Vile has lost his golden touch, any acoustic-equipped musician would kill to have their name on even the smallest excerpt of this material. The songs drag a bit, yes, but it's more of a duller shine as opposed to a non-existant one.
You're not going to get a better bang for your buck than Smoke Ring for My Halo, but this is a good addition to any music collection.
44
Laurel Halo -
Behind the Green Door
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/027/062/0002706222_500.jpg
Ah, my girl, my girl, come, come, sit down, it's been too long.
At this point, with at least three solid releases in as many years, it's hard to conceive of a world where Halo isn't one of the most competent musicians on the planet. Everything she puts her hands on ends up not only radically different from her previous works but also, and most importantly, good.
Again, it's another release that proves that electronic composers are the superior musical minds in the modern world. It all sounds so simple but if only it really were. It's very minimal, and just a tad repetitive, but as an atmospheric piece it's pretty bulletproof.
Instrumentally, Laurel is jumping forward by leaps and bounds, expanding her sound to include some pretty flippin' wonderful chromatic percussion. Honestly, by the time she gets around to putting out another LP, it's probably going to be a game-changer.
It's just really nice to not even be able to complain about anything, neither personally nor objectively. It's everything that needs to happen to music and it's actually happening. What a treat, now what do we say?
*all together*
Thhhhhaaaaaaaank yyyyyyyoooooouuuuuuuu.
43
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Jama Ko
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/86421091/Jama+Ko+bass.jpg
This is flippin' awesome.
The song structure is impeccable, it's borderline perfect even. It lacks any sort of obligation to meet, something that most modern Western music greatly suffers for. It's almost pure expression and I love it.
Instrumentally, it's unreal. It's everything all at once, but it totally works. It's like quintuple helixes, eternally weaving in and out of each other, creating something genetically unique. I've heard more than the standard amount of 'Eastern' music but hardly any with this amount of sheer competence dripping from every note.
It lacks an ego and that is so refreshing. It's probably because there isn't some Mali hype-train following him, and there is no Western Africa version of Pitchfork to jerk off on the pedestal they built for him. It's a record that just exists and that's awesome.
It is objectively better than most of the music that's been released this year thus far. If you're one of those knuckle draggers that pays for music before you buy it, this is one record that won't give you buyer's remorse. It's an entire hour of unadulterated quality, so you'll probably listen to it twenty four times straight when you first pick it up.
The orotund one has arrived, Captain.
42
Savages - Silence Yourself
http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/OLE-1036-Savages-Silence-Yourself.jpg
A few days behind on sleep, I sat down at the computadora and literally thought, "Fine, what's the next piece of crap to review?" And thank heavens this was it.
Post-punk is a few decades past any sort of evolution but also happens to be one of the few genres not requiring it, as it's based entirely on introspection. Despite this, Savages first effort manages to put a different-enough spin on conventional tropes.
The prominent bass is here, the crisp drums are here, the male/female vocal duets are here (yay!), and the lyrics point inward. It's all here, but it's mixed much deeper than most post-punk releases. Most have this nice crunch gain and grain to them, this is pretty smooth and sharp. It's a treat, let me tell you, a band that actually knows what they're doing.
I think the vocal comparison to Geddy Lee is a bit unfounded, considering the whole, you know, gender thing. I hear the similarities sonically but the phonetics couldn't be more different. Instrumentally, it warms my heart it does. Every nail on every head. The guitar on Waiting for a Sign is just the best. And the all-around jazz of Marshal Dear? To die for.
Structurally, these compositions are pretty solid. They're conventional enough to draw in a crowd and unique and fluid enough to get them to stick around.
They could use a bit of evolution in their unique sound though, it's not quite enough to separate themselves from their peers. Don't get me wrong, they stand out with this record but they haven't earned the distance they're capable of yet.
Check it out, keep your eye on them, I'm thinkin' they put out a pretty phenomenal sophomore effort in a year or two (hopefully the latter).
Husbands is definitely Song of the Year material.
41
How to Destroy Angels - Welcome Oblivion
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130203172249/lyricwiki/images/9/99/How_To_Destroy_Angels_-_Welcome_Oblivion.jpg
We live in a world where the new Nine Inch Nails album is worse than the How To Destroy Angels debut. Let that sink in for a second. Not that there's anything wrong with HTDA, but Nine Inch Nails?
This has a super nice atmosphere to it without getting super annoying and cliche. They could have easily gone the dark'n'glitchy route and preached about the federal reserve and all that, but they went with some slightly vague introspection and it actually worked. Huh, go figure.
The best tracks tend to be the ones already released last year on the An Omen EP but the 'subpar' efforts are ridiculously far off, so it's not like you get giant plateaus of quality then crap, quality then crap.
And I for one really appreciate Mariqueen's vocals, I don't understand the complaints. She certainly sounds a billion times less try-hard than Trent these days. She doesn't snap into the American Idol show-stealing and she isn't stumbling through anything above mumble-core.
It sounds like an interesting extension of their work on The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo scores, for better or worse. The lyrical content suits the spare composition rather well, and the general expanded song structure is more than welcome with the atmosphere they're trying to pump out.
My name is Jesse so this is where I point out how cool it would have been to throw a tuba or trumpet under some of this. Oh yeah, that would have been cool. And some strings too, that would have actually worked. Sparingly, of course, but not out of the question. Really, there's not much that it does wrong, if anything, and doesn't really have any spine-crippling faults. Granted, it's not particularly earth-shattering but it does just fine.
But let's just be honest: good basslines=good album.
Hey look, it's an album that's over an hour long that I didn't give a bad review, mark it on the calendar.
40
Bibio - Silver Wilkinson
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/89416087/Silver+Wilkinson+WARPCDD235.png
YEP. YEP. WE HAVE CONFIRMATION. THE TARGET IS BEAUTIFUL AND WE HAVE A DIRECT HIT.
This is Bibio's best work in quite some time. Holy crap, this is ace. For the love of God, don't let the plaid twentysomethings get ahold of this one.
Instrumentally, it is so pure. The worst two words a human can utter in succession is 'real music' but this record definitely encroaches on the territory of objective worth.
Vocally, it is so anti-ego I can't even stand up straight. The vocals aren't added over the composition, they're mixed in with it. Oh heck yeah. It is so unabrassive all the while being ever so imposing. Totally quality from the top to the bottom of the tracklist.
Atmospherically, nothing even comes close, certainly not from any of the albums released by other artists so far this year. This is extraordinarily cohesive and coherent. The dialectics are second to none, blooming profusely between tracks.
I adore releases that are this melodic with exceptionally minimal composition. It is a faultless approach: give them what they need, but only just. Like the bass on this album, dear Lord, it is so flippin' perfect. And most of the time it's only two alternating notes. On a standard rock release that would be lazy and contrived but in minimalism its entirely ethereal.
Even when he lets some electronics meander around in his work, it still works all the way from a practical to a conceptional level. It's no Aphex Twin work, settling for something a bit more basic, but it works in the pieces phenomenally. The sampling is pretty neato too.
À tout à l'heure is a bit too single-y for my taste though, it feels like it was thrown in there to bring up the average BPM as opposed to having anything before or after it justify its inclusion. Business Park erases it's errors though, allowing the record to end on a great note.
Other than that slight mishap this is phenomenal, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
39
Sister Crayon - Cynic
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iU-izIFmL.jpg
Sister Crayon is the best.
This EP, not too hot-on-the-heels of Bellow further encapsulates the band in an unpoppable bubble of self-contained talent. They can't be touched.
They continue to have the most groovy un-groovy songs around. The bass is totally fine but all the other instrumentation is trying to fracture it, in the best possible way. So yes, instrumentally, they're still top notch if not a little better.
Vocally, Lopez is still all too wonderful. She nails the monotony but easily rises to more eccentric notes and conquers a very jagged range. It doesn't hurt that the lyrics aren't super stupid either.
It's not like they took a very extreme detour from the sound of their last album but this EP does more than enough to excite partakers for their next LP effort.
Being honest, Other alone is better than most full releases this year.
38
Tokimonsta - Half Shadows
http://img.futuresoundblog.com/?w=500&h=500&src=http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/5411/00tokimonstahalfshadows.jpg
I have no idea what this chick thinks she's doing but our wedding is next month, if you're in town. We hope you can make it.
She is pretty much single-handedly righting the wrongs of k-pop, and she's not even Korean. This isn't superficial, cripplingly synthetic, or depressingly derivative. It's not the most original electronic music the world but at least it's unique.
This is like Flying Lotus meets Amaze 88, it's all kinds of niiiiiiice. There's this really dark atmosphere and tone to it, almost like an OFWGKTA release but with a slightly sharper blade to it. It's very apparent that the young lady cut her teeth in live shows.
The sampling and production cuts are at least interesting, which is more than can be said about pretty much all modern electronic (thanks to Garageband and the death of crate diggers). I give her an album or two before she's pasting together some seriously inventive melodies out of nothing, heck, she's almost there already.
This is so nice. These are the sort of electro-dance albums that need to be climbing their way up the charts, none of this Disclosure crap.
I think she needs to slightly refine her sound a bit (a similar observation could be made about her previous album, though that admirably had a different sound than this one). By no means should she ever just start humping genre tropes but finding what makes a Tokimonsta record a Tokimonsta record should be a priority for LP3. Because she has the talent, the competency, and the general approach down, we just need to hear that unique twist. I've got faith in her, she's already almost there.
This is one for both all points on the spectrum. It's by no means the number one album you need to listen to, but it really wouldn't hurt.
Nice vocals though, especially for a dance album.
37
Wale - The Gifted
http://www.yourmusicfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/wale-the-gifted-500x500.jpg
The first track is called Curse of the Gifted, where Wale shows us that, while he obviously isn't humble, he is kind of talented.
Let's just get this out of the way right now: this is an hour and ten minute hip-hop album, so it's not getting a superb review. But it should also be known that this is immensely better produced and composed than most hip-hop albums.
I really walked into this just knowing that it would be absolutely terrible, I am so happy to be so wrong. This is some straight-up Marvin Gaye-lovin' hip-hop, which I am all about. This is infinitely better than the average 'too long' rap record. Finally.
Soul-hop, let's get more of that. This album proves it works. The melodies are sharp, the rhythm is strong, the combination can't be topped. Granted, the kids these days (or any days) don't really approve of anything that doesn't condone their desire to hump anything they can, so it's not like this'll ever actually take off. But still, this is solid.
This isn't one of those 'better than it should be' albums, this is objectively sound. The structure is battle-tested, the composition is a billion times less cliche than one would expect, there is some serious songwriting going on here.
Lyrically, it's not even close to the stupidest thing in the world. It's totally fine even. It doesn't get misogynistic or trivial or just downright primitive, there are actual dimensions of emotional depth. I know right? This is actually pretty good!
The sampling is also just as brilliant as it is terrible. The soul samples are totally amazingly awesome but throwing in Tears for Fears doesn't work at all, especially that song (all of you instantly know which I'm referring to). But, more often than not, the good makes up for the bad.
It's no Shabazz Palaces but it would be nearly bulletproof if the duration wasn't so extended. Each song is beyond totally fine, there's just too many included on the record. It really begins to drag towards the beginning of the second half (which coincidentally contains some of the dumber subject matter) but it's not like the entire record is ruined because of it.
It's sort of a tossup whether or not you should check it out, but you might as well if you have an hour of free time. Jerry Seinfeld is technically on it as well, so take from that what you will.
I just want you to know that I struggled with every fiber of my being not to make an “EEEEEEEEEEVE!” joke.
But honestly, I am physically addicted to LoveHate Thing. It's like finding a new Marvin Gaye song.
For the love of all that is holy, the fact that a Wale record is this high up on this list is proof that this is the worst year in music in a decade or two.
36
Jacques Greene - On Your Side
http://cdn3.pitchfork.com/news/50828/d655e334.jpg
This barely qualifies but I'm glad it does, as it's another promising EP from the Montrealais house producer.
He teams up with How To Dress Well on the title track and the result is rather good. Good enough that you're wondering why this guy hasn't put out an LP yet, even. The percussion is very nice and all of the other elements seem to bounce around it very well. It's a club track in only the loosest sense, at the composition wouldn't be completely out of place on an Active Child record.
Faithful is quite cool too. It has a really, really competent neo-soul feel to it that doesn't fall victim to the same cliches other tracks like it do. The vocals aren't too flashy and it somehow manages to not only stand up but sprint on a very simplistic song structure that would be so easy to criticize for its repetitiveness if not for the brutal fact that it just plain works, marvelously too.
We end on Quicksand and it proves to be a surprise, as it's actually pretty good too, meaning this is a rather faultless EP. Which is odd, especially considering there isn't even an LP anywhere on the horizon. It is free of any prominent lyrics, but the vocal samples used for atmosphere are very well done and add a familiar-yet-necessary tone to the record's conclusion.
Definitely pick it up, it's a very concise and potent sampler to this guy's sound and provokes a sentiment you'll probably echo: where's the LP?
35
Vampire Weekend -
Modern Vampires of the City
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130415230859/lyricwiki/images/8/8a/Vampire_Weekend_-_Modern_Vampires_Of_The_City.jpg
This is the best album Vampire Weekend have ever made. But, when you break it all down, it's still just a Vampire Weekend album.
Their albums used to be defined by the fact that about one third of the songs were phenomenal and the other half sucked crap through a bendy straw (technically speaking), it's very refreshing that this one sends that rainy cloud packing.
But again, it's music for arts students. It's hardly a practical album in any context. What are you supposed to do with it? Listen while you're driving to the coffee shop? This is music for people that give a little much of a crap about coffee.
Percussion-wise, they've always been great and continue to impress. I'm quite fond of artists that use non-percussion instruments to bear the brunt of the rhythmic duties.
Lyrically, I've never had a problem with Ezra. He's a clever wittle guy but sometimes pretentious as balls, not so much the latter on this release though. And man, I really love the pitch altered vocals, takes me back to simpler times.
It's nice enough to recommend but again, it's a Vampire Weekend album. What are you supposed to do with it? Keep it in your fedora so you can scoff at people that listen to Coldplay? I don't know, I don't get out much.
But, if for nothing else, I'm really glad this album exists for the simple reason that it spawned this. Laughing at the shot of him adjusting the head is the reason for my existence.
Son of a… I'm pretty sure Diane Young is one of the best songs of the year by a country mile.
34
Local Natives - Hummingbird
http://blog.kexp.org/files/2013/02/localnatives_hummingbird.jpg
These cats had a pretty cool debut album. They lost their bassist between LPs, though it doesn't seem to have crippled the band as this is a super little record. You know what, it was even worth the wait.
This is what sophomore efforts are supposed to sound like, this is just a large helping of competence with a side of artistic integrity. The music is incredibly accessible but just as unique.
Vocally, this is way too good. It reminds me of Robin Pecknold in some ways but not in any aspect that would suggest cheap imitation. It's nice and very finger-printy.
Instrumentally, it's actually more than decent. Especially for an 'indie' record. They're playing with some interesting sound combinations, and while it'd be untrue to say that they're entirely original, the execution is certainly unique.
There were so many moments where I literally said aloud, "Man, that was great" and was sincerely genuine about that excitement. That is beyond rare for a reviewer as jaded as I am.
This is just pure quality, all the way through. Again, it's rare, but I'm going to personally endorse this record. I wouldn't go as far as labeling it 'objectively superior' or anything like that, but it is irrefutably one of the better albums released this year.
There's not much to say. There's nothing of significance that holds it back, it's ultimately a supremely competent experience, and there is an ultimate lack of pandering to a modern audience. This is what it's supposed to be like, people.
I suppose this is one of those reviews that can really only be ten paragraphs long. The album doesn't break convention and usher in a new age of music, but it's fantastic nonetheless.
One of the rare times that an already great band tops their debut with a sophomore release that they can make an entire career out of.
33
Hebronix - Unreal
http://amassing2.sakura.ne.jp/image/jacket/large/2013/22075.jpg
Daniel Blumberg isn't in Yuck anymore!?!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/8db530b52228a0d9688fab9854421f44/tumblr_mfd1nayXai1qzjw8go1_250.gif
Look, I'm going to be honest: 2013 has been crap so far. The year's half over and the best albums of the year aren't really that good. If Yuck were to come out tomorrow, I can say with confidence that it'd be at the top of the list in December by a few miles.
Blumberg has a very special touch to his work that…you're still looking at the gif, aren't you? Fine. I'll wait.
You done? Glad you could join us.
Blumberg has a very special touch to his work that really lends itself to some objective value. He's very genuine with his work, neither the lyrics nor general composition feel very forced. His Oupa work really reinforces this notion. Slow, somber piano ballads are hard to pull off without a noticeably contrived twaaaaaaaang. But he did it, and you know what? I think he did it again.
http://statics.atcloud.com/files/comments/93/938253/images/1_display.jpg
(I bet I'm really winning the kids over with these Don Knotts jokes)
This is what I'm talking about when I want musicians to have some balls with their conventional music. Dan sets this fiesta off with a ten minute slow jam. That takes balls. "Put your catchy single first". That's what they tell you. Nuh-uh, not here.
This guys is playing with some genuinely competent song structure throughout the entire record. None of this 'verse-chorus-verse' crap, he's changing the section based on what the atmosphere and tone call for. Again, you want a citation, you got one.
He's a very self-aware singer, I like that. He knows his limits and only really pushes them to prove a point. He's an honest singer, it's nice. No American Idol winner (hyuck hyuck hyuck) but he'll do.
Instrumentally, and therefor compositionally, it's a solo album. Not a band. So it's not quite as 'full' as the standard release, for better or worse. Usually drawing more from the former. It really does make one long for the good ol' Yuck days, but that's the past. Also known as nostalgia. Also known as gross. Also known as yuck. Whoa, full circle irony, how convenient.
In terms of duration, it could be reigned in a touch. It's only forty five minutes or so, but each song averages about six or seven minutes. Whether or not they actually benefit from being that long, eh, it could use some reigning in.
But hey, it's nice. Not only is it free from basic errors, it's even doing some things right! That's more than can be said about most releases this year. You listen to a song like Garden and it's like, "Holy sweet mother of God, somebody actually knows how to mix percussion stems."
It's kind of scary, this guy insists on simply rebranding himself every release and still manages to change his sound competently through each new alias. I'm pretty sure he's definitely the first artist to ever do that ever. Hey, where's that blonde chick-I mean-yeah definitely check this out, top notch stuff from DanBloo. So good it's scary.
But what would be really scary is if I tried to end on another Don Knotts picture.
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/56/5616/ASQVG00Z/posters/don-knotts.jpg
32
Kavinsky - OutRun
http://i52.fastpic.ru/big/2013/0222/d1/0b7642e9fbb7fe455d8ff414fd4e8dd1.jpg
This is such a weird bastardization of cultures. Not a 'mixing', mind you.
A French house DJ with a Russian name mixing Japanese arcade music with a 1980s American film soundtrack approach. It's like, at what point do you just stop accepting genuine innovation. I'm a huge proponent of hip-hop and remix culture, but you can't just cherry pick every little thing and call the final product your own.
It's weird that I have to say this only now, as Kavinsky has been around for a long time but only just got around to putting out a debut album. For those of you that don't know, several(?) Kavinsky songs were featured in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive film. No, not that song. Not the human bean one.
It's interesting though, because he used to be an actor and has plenty of other filmmaking friends. So you can really hear the desire for any of these tracks to be used in a film. They're structured not unlike a score and each have a separate yet cohesive atmosphere. It works, it really does.
But it's this weird sort of 'it works'. This isn't the same case that we had with SebAstian, which was a colorful, chop-and-paste playfulness. Nor is this completely original. It's half-sampled, half-composed, which is interesting. It both gives him too much credit and nowhere near enough. It's genuine but also contrived. It's a rough thing to work through.
It's a concept album though, which is always more than welcome. It's a dumb concept that doesn't have any arc, but it works. Guy crashes his Ferrari Testarossa and then comes back to life in 2006 as a zombie DJ. Again, a dumb concept but it's better than no concept at all. There's not really a narrative through the songs that supports the concept (aside from Nightdrive, which very blatantly advances the 'plot' of the album in the best possible way) but the atmosphere supports it, at least mostly.
It's fine, it's pretty good even. It's not the best 'electro' album of all time (maybe not even the best of this year) but it's worth a proportional amount of time to that of your acceptance of the genre. Or some other pretentious endorsement, I don't care, make one up for me.
31
Kool A.D. - 63
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mifvqaVN2V1qdjc52_1361229923_cover.jpg
Not that the 'previous' effort was bad, but 63 is much, much better than 19. This is the Kool A.D. we signed up for.
Normally, the very last thing you want on an album is more than one producer but there's about a thousand on the typical Kool A.D. mixtape and it's always more of an attribute than a handicap. It gives a sense of eccentricity to the collection, it never really gets boring and certainly doesn't sacrifice substance for entertainment.
It's not as zany as it's mixtape brothers but it's still super humorous while actually being good. It's obviously not a comedy record but it has some genuinely levitous moments spread out through what basically amount to be rather somber compositions. This really does sound like the most Madvillainy-y thing he's ever put out.
This really is the record that most hip-hop artists think they're putting out. It shows that experimentalism doesn't have some weird obligation to insuring that the final result is 'dark' and 'mysterious'. There's more original sample work on this record than pretty much 90% of all hip-hop that's ever existed. That may sound like a bold claim but it's not like there haven't been a thousand stupid rap albums released every week for the past twenty years.
This is just really good. Maybe not 51-tier but it's definitely one of the best releases of this year.
Lyrically, he might even be improving. There's some genuine philosophy lurking under the surface of most of his prose, not there hasn't been before, but not to this level. And the featured artists are actually good and actually add to the atmosphere, that's rare.
And seriously, let's just acknowledge Amaze 88 for a second. The guy is quickly working his way up the hip-hop production ranks. He's like a Madlib Jr., for better or worse. Here's hoping he gets more work, he actually deserves it.
Pick it up, drop it down.
The world endured some great loses this year, Thom Yorke's remaining credibility being one of them. But let's take a moment to reflect on the others we lost.
the jonas brothers
http://www.red17.com/pics/2013/10/jonas1.png
2005 – 2013
The Jonas Brothers are one of those bands that prove you're an idiot. Imagine getting bent out of shape about the fact that they represent(ed) modern pop music. It's all really trivial, right?
They were a flavor of the month band, just like all the others. It's not worth losing your mind over, trust me. Just let it happen. Stop getting so worked up over 'the death of music' every five minutes, it really isn't a big deal.
Swedish House Mafia
http://manhattan2ibiza.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Swedish_House_Mafia.jpeg
2008 – 2013
Not really a loss here. Honestly, if you break it all down to the core, they really just made music for pornos. Even saying that they're a dime-a-dozen would be giving them too much credit.
Romanthony
http://24.media.tumblr.com/d63d0ba0b0b360b581cfeb5a912b71d1/tumblr_mn5qu4XdHH1qbk8z2o1_500.jpg
1967 – 2013
I still strongly oppose the existence of Too Long but I'm not going to pretend like little me didn't spend many hours listening to his work on the track which opens that album.
I wish he was a little more prolific but maybe that just adds to the charm.
chi cheng
http://www.laestadea.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/fallece-chi-cheng-bajista-de-deftones.jpg
1970 – 2013
Crap, it's always the bassists, isn't it?
Dang, this sucks. It could have been worse but it's certainly not a situation to celebrate, at least he's not living a sub-standard life anymore.
Sic Alps
http://www.dragcity.com/uploads/artists/241/photos/241/large_The_Sic_Alps-Vanni_Bassetti-01.jpg
2006 – 2013
Hey I got an idea, how about we take any band with even a sliver of promise and have them break up before they ever do anything substantial?
It's so common that I don't even have time to cry.
Turntable.fm
http://cdn2.wiredimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/choose-a-room.jpg
2011 – 2013
Are you kidding? This is absolutely asinine.
You're going to take what is arguably one of the most pure music outlets on the planet, close it down to monetize the model, and then try to get me to buy a shirt in memory of it?
Piss off, this is so flippin' stupid. I can't believe you've done this.
Don't even bother grieving over this, we're hangin' out over at plug.dj, pop on in and show us what you're listening to.
My Chemical Romance
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/47392155/My+Chemical+Romance+26.jpg
2001 – 2013
WHEN I WAS.
A YOUNG BOY.
I am very concerned about the state of music now, as we've just lost yet another band for angsty fifteen-year-olds to listen to. I'm not going to act superior and act like we never covered I'm Not Okay, but I'm not going to act like I didn't feel like I needed to take a shower afterwords either.
They were totally okay for what they were: music for deviantART.
Ray Manzarek
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MmJNRBKfVms/UZqivKifKuI/AAAAAAAAATU/2XFeVnHHJS0/Ray%252520Manzarek.jpg
1939 – 2013
I know I make fun of high schoolers that like The Doors but, either for a millisecond or a lifetime, everyone is a high schooler that likes The Doors. I was. I still have my Doors shirt. I haven't worn it in years, but maybe someday when I'm feeling like I belong on Rodeo Drive (for whatever dumb reason), maybe I'll throw it on again.
Mars Volta
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2009/5/19/1242743018510/Omar-Rodiguez-Lopez-of-th-002.jpg
2001 – 2013
I'm really handling all of these post-ATDI breakups really well.
Gauntlet hair
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music/gauntlethair/boweryballroom/12.jpg
2010ish – 2013
Let this be a lesson for you, kids: if you ever put energy into liking anything, it will die.
donald byrd
http://www.okayplayer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/DonaldByrd-ATrain-59.jpg
1932 – 2013
Life is like this really sucky party and all of your friends start leaving and for some reason you just can't get away from the punch bowl.
Trevor Bolder
http://www.billboard.com/files/styles/promo_650/public/media/trevor-bolder-obit-650-430.jpg
1950 – 2013
Mmmmm. Feel that? Feel that sting? Yeah, at least you're feeling something. That's a good burn, let it sit.
bobby rogers
http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/35/590x/04n24head-381658.jpg
1940 – 2013
lol everyone I have ever loved is dead lol
Jim Hall
http://www.mojo4music.com/media/2013/12/Jim-Hall-in-1955-770.jpg
1930 – 2013
Go read Hailey's. She can give you more insight than I can.
Man, 2013 really was just the worst.
Lou Reed
http://lovegoestobuildingsonfire.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Lou-Reed.jpg
1942 – 2013
You used to be able to tell how big of an idiot someone was based on what Lou Reed t-shirt they were wearing.
A man who understood what battles were fighting, he will be missed.
Henri Dutilleux
http://cdn8.icareifyoulisten.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Henri-Dutilleux.jpg
1916 – 2013
If there were anything that could possibly be said about this, I would have said it here.
For a sample of each album, click the picture below.