🎶
it’s been talked about ad nauseum but this really is the best documentary ep. lets you get a peek into the mind of two musical sickos and their insanely precisely engineered album that has been the reason dads with money buy $3000 stereo equipment since 1980
Feb 10, 2024
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kind of memey because it’s on so many “must own records” lists, but it is actually worth it, and it’s definitely an album best listened to worth playing in one setting
Feb 11, 2025
this isn't a particularly rare vinyl release at all - it's still widely in print and very affordable. it's an album very very widely considered a classic. but it is, I think, the moment when I realised what makes buying music more satisfying of an experience than the lifetime of piracy I'd built up to that point.
it comes with a handful of prints and illustrations that really expand upon the feeling of the album. the record itself isn't even labelled, there's no tracklist, the sides are engraved with their descriptions "nervous, sad, poor" and "bleak, uncertain, beautiful". but most notably of all, each of these releases comes with a penny flattened on train tracks behind the studio it was recorded in. I've heard stories of copies of this album coming with handwritten notes of thanks from the label.
it was the first time I think I realised the love and the immense effort that goes into putting music out independently like this, even long after the recordings are done. I mean, I get that this one's a very special case - a lot of high-effort touches to really drive home the art, and to keep doing them decades after the album released. but I think picking this up is a big reason why I'm still buying vinyl ten years later.
the album still absolutely rips, of course.
Jan 10, 2025
🥧
Challenged myself to think of something that I hadn't already recommended and I came up with this one. I could talk about the political themes or the incredible instrumental performances but I'll leave it at saying it's a double album and Steve Albini produced it, and what more do you need?
Oct 30, 2024
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🎼
time frame's approximate buuuut you know it when you hear it. think "poker face". there is so much space and everything's so dry... there is no lushness... the drum samples are unbelievably flat... and yet! and yet! it works so well! the economy of production makes any pop singer's vocals soar even higher than they would otherwise, and really pares the machine of a pop song down to its bare necessities... which is why i think we got so many bangers in this period. there's a lot of good stuff to get into even if it's just for nostalgia
Feb 11, 2024
👨
im unemployed and in art school at 30. it's never too late to not do marketing
Feb 8, 2024
💡
tbf i'm still working on this but: many ppl have the tendency to like, put themselves out in the world with an attached asterisk like "oop! sorry i exist! oop! sorry if you don't like me, i'm working on being the universally beloved human object! oop!" and thusly pre-apologize for every mildly annoying or perceptually uncouth action they will ever take. none of that shit. assuming one is regular and not trying to like, destroy the lives of everyone around themselves, one does not need to constantly explain and apologize for their actions. trust people to tell you if you suck, because They Will.
same goes for art obvs. don't apologize just make it and if people think it sucks they'll tell you.
Feb 8, 2024