October 2016 Review

There were some great albums released in October. I've been on the hunt for a solid, guitar-oriented, heavy album all year, and I think this month's crop might just have cracked it. There's been tons of great Hip-hop and pop albums I've listened to this year, but a lot of the guitar albums I've tried have been average, so it's been good to listen to some proper good heavy stuff. There's more coming up next month too. The calibre of the records in October was high, 5 A's were hard to rank, mainly because I didn't want to relegate such high quality albums to 4th or 5th. With a weaker selection, some of the top 5 could have been album of the month. This month's #1 is especially good, and might just sneak into the end-of-year top 10.


The Rest:


2 Chainz - Hibachi For Lunch - C

Hip-hop


Darkthrone - Arctic Thunder - B

Black Metal


Mono - Requiem For Hell - B

Post-Rock


Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Infinity Drips - C

Experimental/Noise/Ambient


The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Third World Pyramid - C

Alternative Rock/Psychedelic


Yelawolf - Hotel - B

Hip-hop


The Best:


01: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation - A

Mathcore/Experimental Rock


This album will be a choice way out of left field for most people. The 6th and final (if vocalist Greg Puciato is to believed) studio album from a heavy/shouty band with about a million notes in each riff is unlikely to be seen on many end-of-year lists in 2016. I wasn't expecting it myself; I've never given The Dillinger Escape Plan much of a chance, barring the superb Aphex Twin cover they pushed out over a decade ago. But this really is worth it. Trust me.

Dissociation's not an album that is easy to listen to, or rewarding in a traditional sense. What makes it so great is the span of different styles touched by the band, and the complex and subtle interplay of melodies that you only hear after 10 listens. There's a Jazz breakdown section in Low Feels Blvd that comes out of nowhere. It's a trip to listen to DEP develop that into a harsh Metal/Hardcore thrashfest over the course of a couple of minutes. That's what keeps me coming back to this record, there's surprises everywhere and progressive sections that need digesting over time.

Dissociation is full of half-time thrashy groove-drops, it has soaring vocal choruses, it has trapdoors that still catch you out after a few spins. There's not much in the way of accessibility here, but if you're listening to Dissociation to relax in the bath, you're barking up the wrong tree. Having said that, the closing pair of string-led songs bring the last 11 minutes back from the stratosphere, and ensure a soft landing. Nothing To Forget is markedly simpler than the other songs while the heartfelt vocal performance from the aforementioned Puciato on the closing and title track is incredible. If this is DEP's last ever album, it's probably the highest note they could reach.

02: Kate Tempest - Let Them Eat Chaos - A

Alternative Hip-hop/Spoken Word


Kate Tempest's long list of accomplishments belie a huge amount of work in her short time on this planet. Barely out of her youth, she's already a celebrated and much-loved wordsmith, known for possessing one of the most extensive vocabularies in UK Hip-hop and having a golden ability to utilise it. When I saw her new album pop up, it was an automatic addition to this month's short list.

Let Them Eat Chaos is a straight-up concept album based around one moment in time shared between 7 complete strangers. The story reflects Tempest's views on the world and modern London, which is explicit from the first few seconds. What makes this stand out however, is the gallons of pathos that flood through and greet you. It's a friendly, welcoming listen. The politics and social commentary aren't abrasive, and the balance between story and rhetoric is perfect.

Tempest brings her characters alive with honest care, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, sympathising with their state. In turn, it makes you care about them, too. The people in Chaos are relateable in the extreme; As I was listening, I began to associate them with real people and faces I know. As the story progresses, through several different perspectives, and backed by some solid Hip-hop beats, Tempest's worldview, both warm and gritty, gets mapped out, and it's hard to disagree with the matter-of-fact common-sense nature of it. Her closing statement implores us all to love and care more. After all that's said and done on Chaos, that's a strikingly positive notion to take home.

03: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Cell Phone Bikini - A

Progressive Rock/Experimental Rock/Psychedelic


It feels like El Maestro is having a clear-out of the vaults with these albums. There's been some filler records that don't warrant much attention, and some of them have alternate versions of previously released songs on them. Hell, one of them even has an Ellie Goulding cover on it. This raft of releases (and with more to come in 2017) seems to be him drawing a line under his solo projects and putting everything out, for better or worse.

Cell Phone Bikini is one of the stronger releases. With an exciting blend of mid-career Mars Volta-esque guitar riffs and some powerful vocal takes from Teri Gender Bender, OR-L's long time musical collaborator, this is a great listen for any fan of OR-L's music. All the hallmarks of a classic OR-L release are on Bikini - His signature freaked-out guitar style, the idiosyncratic off-kilter song structuring, the mumbling distorted singing from his own voice contrasted with an intense, high-range lead vocalist, it's all there. It's a good representation of the breadth of his solo work for someone who's never heard anything he's done.

I don't usually like Teri's vocals on record, and to be honest I don't rate her as an artist/musician full stop. But her turn on Bikini completely lifts the album. It's the best thing she's ever been on, and shows a maturity and passion I've not heard on anything else, Le Butcherettes or otherwise. Her vocals on Suetre y Aire, Amarillo and Sell Yourself In in particular spring out of the mix and bring the songs to life. Bikini is an opportunity for Teri to stamp her brand on an album, and she shines out of each and every song.

OR-L is his generation's Zappa. He's worked with dozens of different musicians and spread out over countless forms of music. His style is hard to pin down, but there's a delightful fusion aspect to his work and it's uniquely weird. He's skipped through several vocalists in his time, and maybe with Teri Gender Bender, he's found a keeper. Bikini isn't the most experimental OR-L album, but it's a great showcase of his and Teri's partnership, and a positive sign for future releases from the duo.

04: Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker - A

Folk/Soft Rock


What can you say about Leonard Cohen that hasn't been said before? One of the most underrated of the God Tier songwriters of the last century, he was inspirational to millions, and enjoyed a career that spanned multiple decades. He succumbed to mortality barely 3 weeks after You Want It Darker was released. This album is his final statement, and deals with his imminent death in a brilliantly optimistic way.

It's impossible to not draw comparisons with this and David Bowie's Blackstar. Both projects are attempts by the artist to capture a final snapshot of their thoughts as the twilight of their existence closes around them. While I didn't really dig Blackstar, Darker is something I understood from the first listen. I think that's because it's simpler. Cohen has always been known for his poetic lyrics before any musical backing. While Bowie was a multi-faceted artist who created music, art and fashion as a package, Cohen's work is intended to be a vessel for his words. Cohen has never been cited for experimental envelope-pushing as Bowie was, simply as a great lyricist.

And so it is on Darker, the music is a gentle breeze accompanying the artist's reflections on an extraordinary life. Some of Darker is touched with sadness, but overall Cohen is content and humorous about death which makes what could be an uncomfortable album an uplifting experience. Cohen's final word is as moving as anything he's ever done, and signs off one of the greatest ever songwriting legacies with style and grace.

05: Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason - A

Progressive Metal

That's October's picks done and dusted. I'm already listening to November's albums, and there are some superb releases already making my top 5 for next month a difficult choice. I'm looking forward to the end of the year top albums list. I'll have the agony of choice - This year has been stellar. As several professional publications release their end-year lists, I'm happy to see some of my top picks rate so highly, and kinda smug to see some of them ignored. I've now listened to over 100 albums this year, and I'm looking forward to putting together a really strong top 20.