Friday Music - My Process

I am not a reviewer. I tried to be once, my problem is though I can't really judge things objectively to a degree. Music is subjective, and while yes I am aware music ratings and stuff are also all dependent on who is reviewing, I really don't like the idea of me influencing someone's experience. If I tell you an album sucks, and you decide to take my opinion at face value, you could be missing out on your new favorite record. I really don't want to do that to people. That's why the reviews you see on albums here are mostly positive and contain no rating system. They are meant to tell you about the experience of the album, not necessarily analytically breaking it down.

Also, uniqueness is a lie. Half the stuff we listen to sounds like something else. We aren't looking for something "fresh and new," no, we're looking for something that we like. If that happens to be new, then cool. Otherwise we're normally listening to our favorite bands and not much more.

Anyway, point of this article is to simply just document my search through music on Fridays, to see if there's something there that interests me or I really want to listen to. It's a fun process honestly.

First off, you don't need to care. My process can be summed up in one sentence; I let the music and lyrics speak to me, and I let it hook me rather than trying to force or listen to anything specific.

Look, we don't live in 1988 anymore. I don't have to take a chance on a cool album cover, spend hard earned money, go home and listen to something until I like it. No, streaming made music ever more accessible and made all of us music hunters. It allows us to formulate our own music tastes and make finding new and cool music way more accessible than it ever was before.

So how do you wade through all of that crap? I think we all need to accept something very basic before I go into that - we're all going to like what we're going to like. It isn't like you're often going to dive into stuff and find something's sound you hated before and now love. In reality, you end up finding branches of the same tree. Sometimes those branches lead to other trees, but it's all really subjective. I've been accused of "hating everything" and being "too picky" on what I listen to. Okay, that's fine. I don't care. If I love it, I'll listen to it. If I don't, I won't. You should take the same approach.

So if I had to break down my process, it's literally opening up new records of the week in Apple Music and digging through it. I look for things that capture my attention, and then I glance at songs names and start poking. There's a lot I look for, and there's a lot that turns me off. I just play and neutralize myself while I listen... again letting the music speak to me. It might speak sweet nothings, it might make my skin crawl, it might make me move, or it might bore me to death. I never really know. I just poke and let it take me for a ride, get off, ride another, get off, etc. etc. until I get tired of it.

Even though as of writing this, it isn't Friday, but I do this every Friday anyway, so I'll stick with the name. Alright about to Open Apple Music and get started!

Apple Music > Search > I am starting with metal. Because I like metal. Lay off!

blessthefall - Gallows - Interesting cover art of a church, red and dark. Usually screams melodic to me. Let's listen. "Wake the Dead" - It's not bad. Straight to the point metal. Chorus kicks in. Vocals seem a little too crips, but I can forgive it. I heard enough. "Gallows" - the title track. Again, standard metalcore. "Somebody Else" - it's not bad. At this point, nothing is catching me very hard, am a little bored.

Green Carnation - A Dark Poem... - I just really liked "poem" in the name, got my attention as maybe something a tad more in depth than most. "As Silence Took You" - I don't know what I think. The lyrics are kind of cheesy, though I like the epic guitar tone and riffs. "The Shores of Melancholia" - I am hopping around the song a bit. I don't think I like the singer honestly. It sounds off to the music to my ears.

Before the Dawn - Cold Flare Eternal - I loved 2012's Rise of the Phoenix. It had me following the vocalist to his other band Wolfheart. "Stronghold" - I can immediately catch the different singer. It's not a bad track though. "Mercury Blood" - I got very sameness vibes from the previous track. I was about to turn it off and the chorus hit. I kind of like the vocals over what is pretty standard Before the Dawn. "Shock Wave" - Neat intro. Okay, going to save this album to listen to a little later.

Tallah release a new album. I know I am going to give it chance regardless, so saving it for later listening.

ten56. - IO - just the weirdness of it alone caught my attention. "Snapped Neck" - electronic elements, death core vocals over metalcore sort of... "Good Morning" - Definitely so far unpredictable. It's kind of wild. Hopping now from a few other songs to see if I like any of it. Some of these are a little too wild for my taste honestly.

Nailed to Obscurity - Generation of the Void - These guys sound familiar. Have no idea what to expect. Sounds like some tech death. "Glass Bleeding" - I'll be honest, was not expecting the clean part so soon. This track captured me enough to save it.

At this point, I realized the writing here is getting in the way of listening, so I am just going to rapid fire these a little more.

Suotana - Ounas II - Absolutely riff heavy. Reminds me a ton of like... the style of Children of Bodom. It's always worth a good listen, I just never really dug this sound.

Sublime Eyes - IV: The Serpent's Coil - AWESOME artwork. The bass tone is nasty, man I love it. Music was pretty cool. I already know I won't connect to these very specific story driven lyrics, but I'll give the music a chance. Saving off.

lowheaven - ah the album doesn't matter. I turned it on and started listening to vocals and they are grating on my ears.

Progeny of Sun - Prophets of the Void - Nothing stands out to me here, personally. Sounds good, feels good I guess. I find myself daydreaming instead of listening.

Hexrot - Formless Ruin of Oblivion - It immediately started and I really didn't like the production. I am 40 seconds into one song and it's changed riffs like 7 times already. Man, just a no from me.

Apple Music > Search > Get this, I clicked on "Indie"

Big Thief - Double Infinity - Why does everything have so much reverb? It makes all the tracks sound flat.

Cool Whip - Flame in My Heart - I don't have anything positive to say here. Not even sure they know how to operate their instruments.

Saadi - Birds of Paradise - Very electronic and eccentric. I respect it. Don't like it though. It's kind of repetitive.

Apple Music > Search > Country... not sure what I'll find, but okay.

I poked through a few, I really didn't find anything worth saving off.

So now I have a healthy backlog of music to check out. Do I have a process for that? Well no. There's a reason though; I have to be in the right mindset to listen to something new. Maybe it's my personality, maybe it's my energy, maybe it's my ADHD, but I can't just randomly say or schedule a time to say "I need to listen to new music." It will legit give me a headache.

In all truthfulness, anything that stands out as amazing, I'll download and listen to immediately. It happens maybe once or twice a year. Everything else just ends up in that backlog. Anything you see that I said I saved off, it's there. That list is long, and realistically I'll never get to all of it.

I tend to return to it every now and then, and couple of times year, I'll listen to a handful of things.

I just decided to drop this so that maybe others understand that it shouldn't be a pressure filled endeavor to find new music. Just listen as a listener and listen to the way it makes you feel. You don't find great albums every often.

Anyway, thanks for the quick tag-along. Have fun!