Whoa May is over already, huh? This one snuck up on me, I’m not going to lie. I’ve spent much of this month worrying about a presentation I’m giving on Tuesday which I haven’t prepared for yet, so the album wrap-up deadline is here! I haven’t even ordered the album of the month yet. I’m sitting down to write this and I literally don’t know what it’s going to be even. This is some exciting, ground-breaking stuff we’re doing here.
How was yours, by the way? Your May, I mean. Tell me in the comments. Did you survive the “it’s gonna be may” jokes? Did you survive “May the 4th?” Did you do something nice for your mom? We had our weird biggest-snow-year-on-record here, and everything feels off by a whole month because we were still getting buried in mid-April. As it warms, we’ve had spring rainstorms that have piled on to the epic snowmelt and our town stream has been raging. It hasn’t overflowed here, but there’s been some wild stuff happening statewide.
I usually do kind of a personal retrospective but man, I don’t remember anything that happened this month. Frickin’ blur. Let’s get to the music. It’s been a light month for all-time, no-skip bangers. I’m not blaming anyone (though you all recommended every album, I didn’t pick these) but myself (even though I didn’t pick these) and the artists a little because they really let me down (you didn’t, though. Even though you did pick these). I didn’t give out any F grades this time and didn’t actively dislike any of them. It was a little tough finding five is all. Lots of A minuses. Some of them were considered classics that just didn’t hit as hard for me as I would have hoped, even though I will listen to the artists more (so thanks for picking these).
The Top Five
Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon
This was one I struggled with on the first listen and really came around on listen two. I have it going on right now for a third spin and it’s still improving. I’ve listened to a lot of hip-hop over the years but in a really scattered way to where I don’t think I can talk intelligently about it. In general, though, I’ve gravitated to really fast, clever, technical rapping. Cudi’s style is a lot slower and deliberate, but not lazy. He can do the fast stuff, though, as he shows in “Cudi Zone.” My guess is that if you’re fast you can cover weak lyrics, but if you’re clear and slow every word has to hit. The production is pretty thrilling.. “Heart of a Lion” would fit being pumped out of speakers from a club with giant holographic dancers writhing above it in a cyberpunk city. I really ended up loving this thing to little pieces.
Beyonce - Beyonce
You all I’m getting to the point where I cringe a little when I see that the only version of an album I can listen to is the “deluxe” version. Often it means somewhere between 5 and 11 additional tracks. I’m sure I’d love it if I were a long time fan of the original and would love to much on those sweet sweet b-sides, but as just a guy committing to an album a day presumably for the rest of his natural life I just want the original. I’ll be darned, though, if I didn’t listen to every little track on the deluxe version of Beyonce Beyonce. Kanye is on one of the bonus tracks and he’s pretty gross and honestly his verse is kinda gross too. The song still kinda slaps though. Nicki Minaj doesn’t seem like a great person either but wow do I love her on the “Flawless” remix. This is the second Bey album I’ve listened to and the other one was on this list, too. I was, until this year, truly missing out.
Brandie Carlile - In These Silent Days
Speaking of perennial favorites, here’s Brandi Carlile again. This time it’s In These Silent Days. This is her third time making the top five. I loved those previous two albums so much, and picking the top album this month could have been any of these next three. In These Silent Days is incredible, and if I hadn’t anointed and bought The Firewatcher’s Daughter just one month ago, it very well could have been the winner this time. I can’t emphasize enough how much I appreciate this whole five months in experience just for the introduction of Brandi. Due to recent events, I can’t call myself a swiftie anymore and that grieving process has been salved by Carlile. I’m a brandie now.
Neko Case - Hell-On
I had a lot of people message me when I talked about Hell-On telling me that Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is better. This is simply not the way my brain works. I don’t feel the tendency to rank things. I’m just so thrilled to have more art from artists I love. There are times when an entry in a movie or tv series feels like a big step back in quality and that’s disappointing, but otherwise I’m not going to spend any time ranking great things. It leads to finding flaws in things that don’t need that kind of scrutiny to justify a position above or below another great thing. I’m realizing right now that it’s a little silly giving that spiel when I have to pick a favorite, but I’ll let you look behind the curtain a bit: I’ve bought a lot of albums from these lists in addition to the “official” number one. I pick one because I have to. This isn’t the one this month, but I will own it. Because whether or not it’s better than her most known and seminal work, it is gorgeous.
Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
Here’s the biggest surprise to me so far this year. Future Nostalgia is the album I’m buying. This is probably my first album with a viral tik tok song on it, but holy cow does this neo-disco pop hit me in just the right way. Today while frantically preparing my presentation, I listened to the whole thing again. Then, when I found out there was a deluxe version, I listened to that one immediately after. It was all still so fresh and there was a Miley Cyrus song on there! It put me in the headspace that I needed to be in. Like I mattered and could say things in front of an audience that left them smarter than when the entered. Now yes, despite what I said about deluxe albums, the double record is the one I will buy, and yes the Bad Bunny song on there sucks kind of. But I’m not going to hold a bonus track against it. The first record in the package is already no-skip perfection no-brainer gold and the second one would have been great all on its own.
Howie’s Recommendation from the Vault
I’m not going to overthink this because it for some reason became the record of May for me. It’s Crash Love, by AFI. I’ve just had to accept that this is my favorite band even though I refuse to say I have a favorite anything. And it’s simply because I don’t listen to anyone half as much. This month I’ve listened to Crash Love like a dozen times. Coming on the heels of Decemberunderground, AFI’s biggest album ever, it kind of didn’t make a splash. I think that’s a shame because I don’t think they’ve made a more immediately listenable album. I know it’s a bit divisive among fans for the same reason. But if you’ve been turned off by them in the past it may be a nice little entry point and the next time they tour you’ll go see them with me.
Many of the mannerisms that make AFI AFI are muted here. Fewer of Davey’s “oh’s” and no hardcore screaming, it’s just a straightforward, almost glam-rock album. It’s full of hooks and polished in a way that they haven’t been before. It’s the most pop-punk they ever got. People looking for the grungy hardcore act from the late nineties complain about that slickness while Howie just soaks it up. I have this perfect memory of driving home past Jordanelle reservoir in bad traffic from field work in Vernal, filthy and tired, and just screaming along to this record until my voice hurt. It just got re-released on vinyl and I can’t wait to wear it the f out.
Here’s an easter egg for the hardcore readers: if the text in the spreadsheet is lowercase, it means it was recommended by the Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 100 albums. The version of the top 100 list I found online is in all lower-case. If the artist and album are capitalized, it was recommended by someone who follows me on Instagram.