Recently spun

Aces High is an epic masterpiece of I mean wow. Otherwise it's alright to listen to, but gets quite repetitive and it does it quite fast, plus the lyrics are rather ridiculous. Not in a funny over-the-top way, nor offensively stupid way, just kinda okay whatever you do your thing but I'll get my kicks elsewhere kind of way. This is all of course just because I'm not that much into heavy metal, but if this type of music tickles your brain, I'm sure this is precisely IT.

As a side note, I used to listen to almost nothing but Iron Maiden when I was in my pubescent years, and I listened to it so much & all the time that I eventually got a horrible Iron Maiden hangover and started to listen to Nirvana and 60s stuff and so on, and after that I've never really listened to them again almost at all... except some months ago when I suddenly thought that hey what the hell it's Iron Maiden time and blasted Run to the Hills the first time in like 10 years or so. And man oh man if it isn't some tight fucking rock and roll that song!!! As are all of their best really, especially Aces fucking High. So summa summarum, no more Iron Maiden hangover yay, but I still don't feel a particular attachment to this type of heavy metal as a style in general. Except for the truly great songs. And they are great indeed they are they are yes.

Live Dylan from those magical years when he was really surfing on the wave of who knows what, probably even he doesn't really, but man if the music he created during those years isn't AUDIBLE MAGIC CRYSTALLIZED then I don't know what is.

Musically though I do prefer his studio albums to his live performances as the former are more well-packed and concentrated. His loose and often laid-back, even tongue-in-cheeck style of interpreting his own songs is interesting and I do respect it for sure, and at this point of his career they also still sound generally very good, but often the studio pieces just work their way into your cosmic nervous brain ecstasy explosion astronaut system a bit better. The latter part of this particular record, i.e when the Band (well Hawks) kicks in is some tight fucking rock and roll though.

More straight-forward piano-oriented and very well-played jazz combined with the occasional random electronic whatthefuck experiment. Not the quintessential kind of Sun Ra that I was a bit expecting and that I haven't listened to yet almost at all, but 'tis alright anyways. Gets slightly boring at times though when listened via recording, 'less you're a fan I suppose.

I've never liked black metal. Like, at fucking all. So I was quite pleased with myself when I finally after all these years voluntarily got to listening some, and actually found it surprisingly un-unpleasant, even somewhat interesting, though not exactly groovy. Suits well for a wintery midday painting session I found. The latter electronic pleasantly repetitive ambient half I actually liked rather much.

Very tight improvisational psychedelic late 60s-early 70s garage mayhem kind of stuff. The vocal track isn't very audible, but it doesn't really matter and actually just brings a nice subtle extra touch to the overall soundscape. Interesting, recommended.

Oh John! His persona just simply melts trough from the speakers or headphones. Honey. Sleep well.

Amazing early bottleneck & ragtime guitary wizardry with a touchingly honest vocal delivery from old Willie. These old blues recordings are so enormously touching and heart-warming and beautiful in all their raggedness.

Yona really enjoys rapping and her voice suits for doing it, but the songs themselves, neither the production nor the lyrics, just are not that good, and absolutely nothing when compared to her lyrical, more melodic masterpieces such as Matka, Niitty ja taivas, Pilvet liikkuu minä en, Uusi sävel, everything from Vaikenen laulaen etc. It's a fun idea to use samples of her own songs though, and Nättii eipä is a very good piece, it feels like not the first but like third or fourth truly warm spring day after a long winter, when you've gotten over the 'hey what the fuck is going on it's warm and light is everywhere am I going crazy' feeling, and now you can just fully embrace the spring with its gentle promise of upcoming summer. Its really an excellent piece with its delightfully optimistic sunny general feeling and a pretty refrain.

Well this then is an album full of easy and calm indie singer/songwriter pop. Very pretty, peaceful, and well-constructed. The layered guitars and Adriana's beautiful voice shine out especially.

Took me totally by surprise! I was expecting easy and calm indie singer/songwriter pop, but got an ultra tight half an hour worth of rock and fucking roll where a 20-something lady with a POWERFUL voice dives full-fucking-deep into the essence of raw musical truth.

Been listening to this for years here and there and finally got around to rate it. Dark and gloomy soundscapes with very interesting rhythmic constructions. Not the kind of unique masterpiece as the later Untrue (that album.... wow), but still definitely worth listening. Spaceape is especially zoooommmmm in its drony hypnoticnesssss.

Asa is by far my favorite Finnish rapper, and there are many that I really like so it's a big thing to put it so. But Terveisiä kaaoksesta and Loppuasukas just are simply inexplicably wonderful pieces of art, lyrically (shamanistic dreamscapes combined with a stark political overtone, which totally gives space to pure cosmic beauty precisely when needed) and musically (mainly acoustic instruments and beats with a cool-as-ice neat production with the occasional electronic well-timed addition).

So I was a tad disappointed by Love, which uses samples from the records of the classic 70s Finnish eponymous rock label. The beats are fine, nothing that really catches your ear but they work alrite. It's just that, well, it seems like Asa doesn't really have much to say. Like, anything. The verses are somehow hollow, throughout the whole album, with the exceptions of Rakkaiden kuvia, which is an honest and pretty love song, and Taulu, that did get quite a lot of radio play and for a reason, because it is a catchy song with a nice melody, production and refrain by Anna Puu, although also in that song the lyrics are again otherwise quite empty.

It's not offensive though and plays in the background like anything, but it's just kinda... boring.