What's a Listening Log? Well, the idea is quite simple. It's a weekly segment that consolidates all the mini-reviews Dozens Of Donuts has given on RateYourMusic over the past week, split between the Past and Present. A straightforward grading scale has been put in place, ranging from A+ to F-, with C acting as the baseline average. There is no set amount of reviews per week, just however many I get around to reviewing. And don't expect week-of reviews. I wait one month - with at least three listens under my belt - before I rate and review an album. Enjoy!
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With all but two albums in my Beatles rear-view mirror, here comes quite the proclamation: White Album may be my favorite. Now, Abbey Road and Let It Be are still left, with Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band vying for ultimate reverence, but ambition can't be understated. And White Album is chock full of it. Across these 30 songs we see The Beatles experiencing complete musical freedom, collectively forming under the header Pop Rock, but diving into so many conflicting genres one can't help but admire the fearless proclivity. Even down to 'Revolution 9,' a song I abhor for the precedent it set by popularizing esoteric pretension, for the thought of John Lennon and Yoko Ono disavowing Paul McCartney's approval seems wholly apropos for White Album. Besides Paul, you wrote and submitted 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road?,' I don't wanna hear it.
Again, those are far and away my two least favorite tracks on here, and yet their placement feels precariously suitable. White Album is defined by daring attempts at genres The Beatles never previously tackled and heretical humor that skirts the ideology rampant in music today of making purposely bad tunes. Examples of the former; The Blues of 'Yer Blues,' Hard Rock of 'Helter Skelter,' Glam Rock of 'Cry Baby Cry,' and Orchestral Lullaby of 'Good Night.' Examples of the latter; 'Wild Honey Pie,' 'Don't Pass Me By,' 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road?,' and even though I enjoy it for its ludicrously-cheap chorus, 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.' Though time has abated it, the over-the-top eccentricities of White Album can still be felt.
Sewn within these paradoxical extremes are an album's worth of The Beatles' best material, which is why the White Album's capricious ambition gets the pass it does. There's too many standouts to describe, many of which have been covered to death: 'Back In The U.S.S.R.,' 'Dear Prudence,' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps,' 'Blackbird,' 'Mother Nature's Son,' 'Revolution 1,' blah blah blah you know the apples of everyone's eyes. However, there's one I need to single out for while it's not my favorite Beatles song (that still goes to 'Tomorrow Never Knows'), it's undoubtedly their most beautiful: 'Good Night.' After enduring the slog of 'Revolution 9,' there's nothing more pristine and sterile than those weighty, orchestral strings that fly gracefully over the moon like any one of Disney's animated classics. Couple that with Ringo Starr's placid tranquility and Lennon's idealistic lyrics and you have an all-time great that'll forever stand the test of time. It's the beacon of White Album, the blinking light promising greener pastures, the savory treat after a hearty, filling meal.
A-
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2019 | Post-Industrial | Listen
MIXING CLUSTER HEADACHES AND FEVER DREAMS
Stepping into Patricia Taxxon's discography is like entering a minefield. There's ticking time bombs everywhere, making it nearly impossible to discern which ones to investigate first. Some, upon detonation, fizzle with a paltry puff. Others, like Foley Artist, rupture into a torrent of fire and brimstone. Taxxon's untethered audacity and knack for uninterrupted experimentation has cemented her in the annals of outsider music, accessible only to those who bear fondness for jack-of-all-trades types. She's not afraid to storm foreign ground, backlash for inexperience be damned. By my estimations, Taxxon released ten albums in 2019. Yes, ten. The one before this, The Best Day, a venture into House. The one after, Pix & Bix, teensy Bitpop. As for Foley Artist? Let's just say it's an inhospitable trudge through an identity crisis using Post-Industrial as the main scourge.
And it's phenomenal. Sure, tracks like 'Springtime Is Here' and 'Breastbone' are a little heavy-handed and tedious, overemphasizing unnerving and unsettling Power Noise that treats gaps of silence with as much skin-crawling tension as the blurts of demoniac bass. But the rest - apart from the transitory 'Señorita' - is stunning, declarative, and borderline groundbreaking. I'm reminded of Xiu Xiu's origin, as Jamie Stewart's emotional instability gave way to both panic-induced outbursts and torpid, internal contemplations. We see both, back-to-back, with 'Safe Skin' and 'Deconstruct.' The former mashes Digital Hardcore with Industrial Hip-Hop brilliantly, with a legitimately aggressive and taxing verse that takes visceral to the next level. The latter spins in a different tune, bearing some similarities to Anohni's gender tumult as a breaking, oddly Christmas-esque chime cacophony swells behind her.
Then there's 'I,' a largely Ambient quiescence that I'm only a fan of because the duality between the mediative state and the billowing EDM club complex is satisfying and not too unbearable a lapse. But then there's 'Jailbreak,' my absolute favorite. With a chorus that ascends to the rafters ("Patriciaaaaaa comes as herself"), 'Jailbreak's' uplifting exaltation is so because it's, quite literally, Uplifting Trance. Much in the same way of a noted Fuck Buttons discharge, only with weeping vocals to boot. It's a perfect closer to Foley Artist's grim outlooks, providing a necessary exculpation that reassures listeners of Taxxon's stance on life and her prospects for the future. I wish I had heard this in 2019, for cracking the top ten of my end-of-year list would've been an easy feat.
A-
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