After today, we're only 22 albums in the hole for this supplemental Record Club task. I didn't have it in me to review more than two reviews this week, but maybe I'll bump it up to three next week—especially with seven more RC alumni albums (that we know about so far) getting released this autumn. And then, if I find that I have the energy, maybe I'll do another post with six-to-eight-ish reviews, a paragraph or two each for all the 2025 albums I'm familiar with already.
Released: February 7, 2025
Follow-up to: The Art of Forgetting, Week 217
Still not as good as the best of Caroline Rose, but definitely better than their RC album. I was about to say "step in the right direction," but that sounds incorrect too. It's a step in a different direction for sure, and probably another step farther away from the classic LONER. But I appreciate how year of the slug is content to revel in the lo-fi of it all. There is very little production on this thing. Bedroom pop Caroline Rose is waaaay better than moody indie Caroline Rose.
I feel like Rose's vocals are different there. A lower pitch? To the point that I had to check to make sure I was listening to the right album at first. I don't mind it. I actually kind of like it? It doesn't sound anything like their old shit for this reason now too, but it's all good. Maybe this is a gender-reaffirming thing. If so, I wish them well as the artist they wish to be. I'm not excited that they've decided to release an album that again lacks the sparkle and sheen of that shit that made me love this music in the first place, but I'm content with the idea of Rose committing to a purpose and sticking to it. This is the lo-fi album. Cool, fine, I'm down. Give me "conversation with shiv" and "goddamn train" all fucking day. I just wish she would've written these songs in 2018, and they could've gotten the production they deserve.
GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5 (+1.0 from original review)
Released: May 9, 2025
Follow-up for: to hell with it, Week 147
PinkPantheress' music has always been strangely intoxicating for me, despite the fact that I am absolutely too old for this shit. This is like the Gen Z Stare of music—I'm intimidated, but mad respect for doing what you do, young person. At least Pink is leaning into the throwback explicitly here, doing dance music in a big way, whereas her previous forays into UK garage were more chill. Fancy That is built almost entirely for the dance floor.
You can just tell that Pink is the coolest person in the room. It's not that she's charismatic, or dramatic, or overly mean or overly nice. She's just cooly confident. That's it. You ever see a video of hers? She's just smirking and shrugging. For someone like me, who doesn't know a whole lot of UK garage and certainly no UK garage performed by a 24-year-old woman, this all feels pretty revelatory. I dig this mixtape and I hope she's gotta another 60 years in her.
You can just tell that Pink is the coolest person in the room. It's not that she's charismatic, or dramatic, or overly mean or overly nice. She's just cooly confident. That's it. You ever see a video of hers? She's just smirking and shrugging. For someone like me, who doesn't know a whole lot of UK garage and certainly no UK garage performed by a 24-year-old woman, this all feels pretty revelatory. I dig this mixtape and I hope she's gotta another 60 years in her.
GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5 (+1.0 from original review)
NEXT TIME: Let's just do the three oldest that are thus far unreviewed. Armageddon in a Summer Dress by Sunny War, Mayhem by Lady Gaga, and Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe by Coheed and Cambria.
2 comments:
PinkPantheressOnYourBirthday....I love that you love it....it's so good.....
I'll tell ya, the kids aren't ALL making bad music. Just some of them.
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