Below, you will find my hand-picked top 5 musical albums of 2023. Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) Slowdive - Everything Is Alive Fever Ray - Radical Romantics The Kills - God Games Sufjan Stevens - Javelin Honorable mentions: Health - Rat Wars Black Belt Eagle Scout - The Land, The Water,…
Here we are one last time. The final album of the Convocations series. Once again, Sufjan Stevens delivers the soothing sounds of reverberated and delayed synthesizers. The sweet warmth of synth pads and plinky dinky of the arpeggiated melodies. There isn't as much atmospheric tension present in this one as some of the others, but it's a nice bookend to the other pieces. Sometimes…
Here we are again. This time it's the penultimate Convocations album called Celebrations. At times, it reminds a bit of Radiohead's Kid A album. Other times, it sounds like a Brian Eno ambient record. There is a calmness about the smooth synth pads employed. Occasionally, you get some tinky winky sounds with delay like on track V. Back in 2006, Sufjan released a 5-disc…
Annnnnnd we're back! Sufjan's third part of the five-part Convocations album is called Revelations and I'm digging this one a bit more than the last one. It's light and airy. Soothing at times and kind of jarring at others. The 8th track Revelation VIII sounds like something you'd hear in a Poltergeist movie, almost like Sufjan is stuck inside a TV static. I also…
This is the second installment of the Convocations series. As the name implies, this one is a bit more sad than the previous one, though not a lot sadder. Sometimes it is eerie, like in the track number VI. Mostly, it is more repetitive and less fulfilling than the Meditations volume. I've listened to it 3 full times now and only a couple tracks…
This is the first volume of a five volume series called Convocations. Each album will be released weekly starting today. Is it Christmas or something? This is in the same style as the Aporia album he released last year. It's very ambient and moody. At times, it reminds me of Hans Zimmer film scores or Brian Eno. It has a calming effect, almost hypnotic…
