Mini-Album Reviews: January-May 2019

Welcome to the blog! In this new segment, I'll be reviewing a bunch of albums I've heard this year rapid-fire style. Since I've only gotten the chance to review one full length album on this blog this year, I've decided to review a bunch of random albums in a paragraph or less. I didn't really enjoy reviewing the Saor album, to be honest. Don't get me wrong I absolutely loved the record and I still consider it the best album of the year so far, but I feel much more comfortable reviewing movies in a longer format, and I feel awkward reviewing albums in a longer format. I enjoyed doing my best and worst albums of 2018 list however, so I wanted to do something similar for reviewing albums. Consider this an experiment. If it works out, I may release one of these every two months or so. If not, I may not do this very often or at all. That being said, let's get to reviewing these albums, starting with one that did nothing for me.

Papa Roach - Who Do You Trust?

This album is really a case of "What were they thinking?". Papa Roach have never been a band for me, but I loathe this album as much as I do because they're disservicing their fans as well. Some tracks feel like Papa Roach and could please fans, like the title track or Renegade Music. Even if these aren't for me, they do have a real energy to them that I can at least appreciate. However, they soon take the Imagine Dragons route of making lazy, stale pop songs like Elevate, Problems, and Come Around that are just so bland. Say what you want about Papa Roach, but I wouldn't necessarily call their music forgettable, but here, they turned that up to 11. I would have a hard time defining these as Papa Roach tracks, and that not in a good way. Bands like A Perfect Circle with Eat the Elephant and Paramore with their self-titled record and After Laughter changed up their sounds beautifully to further explore sonic territory with plenty of great ideas in their heads. However, this Papa Roach record does nothing except exist in a state of disappointment and embarrassment. Skip this with every will in your being. Next.

Grade: D-

Chasms - The Mirage

Ah, now here's something I can speak strongly of, and the best part? You've probably never heard of this album or band before. The only reason I know of this is because it showed up in my recommended on YouTube Music (I've since stopped using it; I'm not paying for "Listening off the app"), and yeah, this is legit. It's a gorgeous, atmospheric mix of dream pop and ethereal music that's so beautifully put together and wonderful to listen to. You're know what you're in for immediantly with the opening cut Shadows, which is easily one of the finest tracks of the year. The vocal melodies, samples, and dream pop guitar all work to create a lush, other worldly atmosphere that strongly carries throughout the rest of the record. The rest can be said for the rest of the album, especially Deep Love Deep Pain and Tears In The Morning Sun, which alone make the album worthwhile. My main problem with the record is the track run times. For the most part, these are songs that are 5 to 7 minutes long, and some of the tracks get super repetitive. It makes the album feel too long going back, but besides that, this album stands as perhaps the most underrated record of the year. It's a terrific example of atmospheric music that drags you in and keeps you in throughout. Absolutely worth the dive. Check it out.

Grade: A-

Since we've now gone super underground, let's go with something way more recognizable.

Billie Ellish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

If you want something different than what the Hot 100 is typically offering at the moment, you HAVE to hear this record. Eilish (And her brother Finneas on production) has delivered what will probably be the best pop album of the year here. This is an excellent mainstream record, and it surprisingly doesn't feel that way. It feels like something that would get attention, but it would just miss the Hot 100, but this record has blown up, and the single Bad Guy is one of the top 5 most popular songs in America at the time of this writing, and that's for good reason; It's catchy the production's great, and it's twisted in the best way possible (I also learned it on bass. Pretty fun to play). The same goes for the rest of the record on tracks like You Should See Me In A Crown and All The Good Girls Go To Hell, but it also gets  emotional on When The Party's Over, I Love You, and Listen Before I Go effectively as well, and those are track remain some of the strongest on the record and of the year so far for me. The song 8 is really the only weak track on the album, with Eilish's voice modified to sound like a child's being extremely weird and a bit irritating. The rest of the track is also pretty boring otherwise, but man, does the rest of this record deliver. Listen to this now. 

Grade: A

The Damned Things - High Crimes

While there's a good chance you don't know this band, you've definitely heard music from some of the members of this hard rock supergroup. In this group, you have members of Anthrax, Fall Out Boy, Alkaline Trio, and Every Time I Die. If you know anything about any of these bands, this seems like a project that would fall right on its face, but it works so well, and you know what? This is definitive proof Fall Out Boy should break up. The members that aren't Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump have a terrific outlet for hard rock with some awesome, catchy melodies that Fall Out Boy refuse to bring to the table (Lake Effect Kid was the exception, but that was a late 2000s demo). There's so much fun to be had with this record, like the opening cuts Cells and Something Good which are supremely catchy and have great instrumentals. It's not a particularly deep record, but it's not meant to be; This is the record you put on when you want to jam out to some rock songs, and it does a wonderful job at doing so. Easily one of the most fun records of the year.

Grade: A-

Astronoid - Astronoid

This is an album that's frustrating to me, not because it's bad, but because it's potential wasted. The thing is, this band has a really great sound that they've referred to as "dream thrash", which is a very good description of their sound. Their vocalist has a high pitched voice that blends with the soothing yet aggressive guitar work and the even more aggressive drumming. It's unlike anything else I've heard this year, and that's for the better. The tracks Lost and Ideal World highlight this sound extremely well and are terrific songs in general, but the rest of the album has a major issue; Every song sounds the same. They all have a similar structure, similar guitar playing and drumming, and similar vocal melodies to one another. On my first listen, I thought maybe it would take another listen or two to tell the tracks apart, but nope. They all sound the same to me. However, I do love this sound, and it's a great record to have on in the background, but that's about it. I do want to see where this band goes in the future, and I hope they develop their sound further to make every track unique and interesting. I like it fine, but that's about where it ends.

Grade: B

Weezer - Teal Album/Black Album 

So, Weezer released two albums this year, and since I like Weezer a lot, I decided to cover them both in this segment. Let's start with Teal.

The Teal Album was a surprise for many. It released without any prior announcement, and it was all cover songs from various different artists. Everyone from A-Ha to Toto to TLC to Michael Jackson was covered on this record, and to mixed results. Their cover of Take On Me captures the original's spirit well, Everybody Wants To Rule The World is also solid, and their take on Mr. Blue Sky is also enjoyable. However, there are also some stinkers here, like their cover of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson (Which, after that documentary, was a bad move), Paranoid by Black Sabbath (Sung by guitarist Brian Bell), and their cover of No Scrubs by TLC, which I honestly love listening to because it's one of the most white things I've ever heard. It's so bizarre it's hilarious. It's mostly a pretty meh collection, and while not offensive for the most part, should probably be skipped.

Grade: C+

Now, let's talk about The Black Album. This record had a lot riding on it; It was coming after the disappointment that was Pacific Daydream and the band needed somewhat of a comeback, as well as the hype that this would be darker and much different than anything they've done before. The thing is, for the most part, this album really isn't. Does it experiment in spots? Yes. Too Many Thoughts In My Head and Byzantine experiment with tropical tinged beats and instrumentals that work well, they delve into pop much better than they did on Pacific Daydream with Zombie Bastards and I'm Just Being Honest, and High As A Kite is a Beatles-inspired ballad that's one of the best songs they've released in the 21st century (Seriously, if you're gonna listen to one track from the record, have it be this one). The issues with this record come with how inconsistent this album is sonically. With the amount of exploration this did here, the album becomes messy to listen to, and it gets annoying because of that. Another thing is the lyrics are really bad in quite a few tracks on here. While I may dig Too Many Thoughts In My Head's beat, it's lyrics are random and sporatic, and not in a good way, Living In L.A. suffers from generic "Afraid to talk to a girl" lyrics, Piece of Cake's lyrics are dreadfully repetitive to the point of annoyance, and California Snow feels like they're trying to be that one "Cool dad" at the neighborhood barbeque. The thing is that while the majority of these songs are decent, they suffer from not being developed enough and being placed in the album poorly. I don't hate this record; It's better than Pacific Daydream, it has some really solid tracks that I enjoy returning to, and it's full of good ideas, but it's just disappointing. This could've been so much more. I'd say listen listen to the first three tracks and I'm Just Being Honest if you want the best tracks, and please do listen to High As A Kite. The rest you can skip.

Grade: C+

So, that's about it in terms of albums I wanted to discuss at length. There are plenty of other albums I heard this year so far, but these are ones I wanted to discuss. It's been a pretty good year so far for albums, but I've yet to find my A+ of the year yet. Maybe in the future, but for now, I'm content with what we've gotten. Please do check out the albums that seem interesting to you. There's a lot of good stuff here, and there's nothing like listening to good music. Thank for reading. Bye.

Endgame Spoiler Review

This film needs no introduction. You all know what it is, and you've probably seen it already. It's Avengers: Endgame, the biggest movie of the decade and a conclusion of over 20 films in the MCU. I have been a fan of this franchise since the first Avengers movie came out back in 2012, and before that I thought superheroes were lame, but I've loved the MCU ever since. It's been awesome to see it grow more and more expansive and impressive with time, and this film looked to take this franchise to an ending and also a new beginning with this film. For many of the original Avengers, their contracts were coming to an end, and the films have introduced plenty of new characters to create a new Avengers team for the future. This wasn't just another Marvel movie, this was an event waiting to happen, and it ended up being that. It's made well over 2 billion dollars worldwide, and may pass Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time. But does it deserve it? The answer is yes. Absolutely yes.

Well, let's talk spoilers since this is a spoiler review and if you haven't seen the movie yet go see it you do not want to be spoiled trust me you don't now leave. For those who have seen the film, stick around!

Let's start by talking about one of the film's biggest surprises; Thanos dying in the first 10 minutes. I was in a state of disbelief when they actually did it. I didn't know what they'd do for the rest of the film. Would there be a main antagonist at all? Would there by another, even more serious threat? It was perhaps the most surprising part of the film for me, because killing off the character who was the main character of the last movie is so bold, but it worked. It set up a feeling of hopelessness found throughout the first act that I loved. The characters go through some minor changes, such as Cap not feeling hopeful as always and Thor's new, um, look (We'll get to that in a bit), but the character that I really like what they did with here was surprisingly Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson did an excellent job portraying Natasha's need to help people, but knowing she can't, at least not fully. This is easily the best Black Widow has been in a movie, and that says a lot, considering how much I enjoyed her role in The Winter Soldier. Robert Downey, Jr. also pulled off arguably his best performance as Tony Stark, particular in the scene when he comes back to Earth and he faces off against Cap. Downey pulled off Stark's anger to absolute perfection, and it's one of the best acted MCU scenes I've seen to date, and possibly even the best. Basically everything from the first act was great and a solid set-up for what was to come.

My only real problem with it was the pacing, which made some things feel rushed, particularly Clint's turn from Hawkeye into Ronin, which wasn't really developed that much and I wished they delved into that further. Still, that scene where he takes down all those guys in Japan in one take was really well done, and reminded me of the Russo Brother's first Marvel movie, The Winter Solider. It felt more violent and realistic than many Marvel action set pieces, like that film, and if it had a sequel with Hawkeye in it similar to it, I could see this scene being in the film.

Anyway, let's get to the second act, the part that worried me the instant I heard they were doing it; Time travel. This is something I did not want to see incorporated into the film ever since it was rumored back even before Infinity War came out. The thing is I love the way they do it in this movie. I like the idea that time travel can't change the past, but rather it only creates a new future for the people who visit it. Apparently, this is how it was done in the comics at some point (I don't read comics, so I can't say), and it's a unique way to do time travel. It also doesn't erase the previous movies, which would make the build-up to this movie feel irrelevant and kind of pointless, and several of the great movies that took place before Endgame would either be erased or altered drastically. This also leads to some of the best scenes in the movie, like Cap vs. Cap, which, while brief, was super fun and well-choreographed. In this brief scene, it was interesting to see the older, more jaded Captain America face off against his pre-Winter Soldier self (I know I've referenced that movie multiple times now, but it's one of my favorite MCU movies), and see the differences between them, which was apparent in pretty obvious ways.

My favorite scene in the second act however was the interaction between Thor and his mother. His was something I was not expecting, and it made the whole "Fat Thor" idea worth it. I liked his arc of falling from grace and learning he still be worthy because 1. It makes sense for his character, because he went through hell throughout Ragnarok and Infinity War and 2. It was different for his character in the best way possible. His character in this film has been extremely divisive, with praise and hate going in both directions, and I understood the hate on my first watch, However, on my second watch, I realized that this was the best way to take his character because he would've gone through a PTSD-type scenario and not want to do much in the way of hero work. It really was a wonderful arc and it lead to this great moment on old Asgard. This felt like he was saying goodbye to his old life and realizing he was meant to do something other than rule Asgard.

One other scene that stuck with me was the scene where Cap and Tony go to the 1970s and Tony sees his father. That scene felt like his character's arc was finally concluding, and in a smooth and brilliant way. I didn't expect them to pull Howard Stark into the film, but I liked how they did it and the scene itself had great dialogue and acting. I'm glad they put that in the movie.

Now, let's talk about the major death in this second act, that being that of Black Widow. When I first saw the movie, I was mixed on her dying because, while I thought the scene was very effective, I would've preferred if Hawkeye had died. After my last viewing, I understood it better, because it was important for Hawkeye's character to understand he can bring back his family, but that's a cause for sacrifice. I could see this playing a big role for his character in the rumored Hawkeye Disney+ show, where he trains the next Hawkeye. Just a thought.

Okay, now let's talk about that final battle and just the last hour in general. No matter what you thought about the rest of the film, you have to admit this last hour was glorious. The start of it was already great, with the "Big three" taking on Thanos, and especially when Cap gets to wield Mjolnir, which made me want to stand up and clap and I yelled an audible "Oh!" when that happened and other people did the same when I saw it opening weekend. It reminded me of the scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens when Rey grabs the Skywalker lightsaber, and that's a good thing, because I had a similar reaction to that scene.

And then, all the heroes come back. This scene gave me all the chills. The imagery of these two massive armies coming together and colliding is amazing, and the way everyone comes in is great, and I'll admit a got real close to tearing up when that happened. The music, all the great characters, and just the pure scope was all to much to take in at once. And then Cap yells the line (You know, THE LINE) and the movie becomes absolutely insane in the best way possible. The action and FX in this scene are off the charts insane. I don't even know how to describe it. I guess it's like comic book nerd heaven, and I'm 100% for it. It was just insane and wonderful and emotional all at the same time.

It all ends perfectly with Tony Stark's sacrifice. The scene where you realize just how much Thanos would effect the Avengers, and that this movie was willing to kill the character that started it all. That scene where he sees Peter, Rhodey, and Pepper for the last time was so beautiful and well done. That scene was great, but the scene that got me going was between Happy Hogen and Tony's daughter where Happy sees he'll get her all the cheeseburgers she wants was the part that got me most. Maybe it was the fact that Tony actually died had sunk in at that point or the call back to the first Iron Man movie delivered by that film's director, I don't quite know, but either way, it was beautiful.

The ending that's left many people polarized was the very last scene in the movie where Steve comes back as an old man and gives his shield to Sam. This was polarizing not for the end of Cap's arc, which I believe we can all agree that it was the perfect way to end his story, but rather by how did he get there and back and he gave the shield to Sam rather than Bucky. With the first point, in the scene in the 1970s, he gets four Pym Particles rather than the two needed to get back to 2023. Seems pretty self-explanatory, especially considering the fact he's wanted to live a life with Peggy. The other point I entirely understand, however. Sam getting the shield was something unexpected, but there seems to be reason for it. Bucky has been seen as a terrorist and a murderer before, so that probably wouldn't be the best image for the Captain America title. Sam has shown to be loyal and good to the general people, so it makes sense on the level. However, it would make more emotional sense for Cap to give it to Bucky, since he's his best friend, but maybe it will make more sense once I see it in the films.

Alright, now that I've covered the main points I wanted to discuss above, here are some other points I wanted to talk about, but didn't know where to fit above.

- Nebula had a lot of screen time in this movie. I believe this is the most screen time she's ever had in an MCU movie to date, and her arc was one of the most compelling to me. This was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one that made me really like this character. I'm excited to see what they're going to do with this character in the future.

- Really enjoyed Hulk here. The effects on him were excellent, and you could tell Mark Ruffalo was having the time of his life playing this new Professor Hulk. I liked the awkward humor he brought to the role, and his scene with the Ancient One was really cool. Not much else to say, just really like what they did with him.

- Don't understand why Captain Marvel was in this movie. Remove her from the film and literally nothing changes expect for Tony escaping, which could've easily been switched to him and Nebula repairing the Benatar and escaping. She didn't add much, and Brie Larson seemed plenty bland acting wise.

- I wonder if Loki was actually the rat that let Ant-Man escape the Quantum Realm. Perhaps we'll see that in the Loki series? I don't know, I just wanna know what happened to that Loki after he escaped with the Tesseract.

- Ant-Man really was a fun addition to the film. The scene where he sees his daughter older was emotional, and he added a nice amount of levity to the film that made me laugh pretty hard at points (That's America's ass!).

- The scene in the elevator with Cap and all the people from Winter Soldier was a fun throwback. It was worth just to hear Cap say, "Hail Hydra". Man, Cap did get a lot of the best fan service moments, didn't he?

I believe that's it for my thoughts. This is a 3 hour long film, and there's a lot to say about it, even for a movie its length. I'm sure I missed something, but those are all the points I felt a need to discuss, and that's all I have to say about that. Bye.