Public Service Broadcasting - Go!
that synth hook is great, it's a bit too blandly indiefied+danceable aside from that. the 'chorus' is stupid.
6/10
P.E.P.E. - Shadilay
topkek. more italo-disco on these lists though pls, this really isn't one of the better examples despite its retrospective notoriety.
4/10
Last Flight Out - Plus One
not just a boy band but a christian boy band. terrific.
2/10
Pere Ubu - 30 Seconds Over Tokyo
god, what i would give for a full album of songs in the style of this single. zabu is right that this isn't quite representative of ubu overall, but that's a bad thing (although THE MODERN DANCE is rly good in a somewhat different way). incredible paranoia and doom here, makes 'electric funeral' sound like the smurfs. the vocals are excellent you heathens.
the B-side is great too, their version of krautrock is better than most krautrock.
9/10
The Gathering - Liberty Bell
you can make it heavier or faster or give it a cranberries vocalist or whatever but i know shitty post-rock when i hear it
3/10
Hot Snakes - LAX
this band peaks high but struggles for consistency, and this is a case in point. magnificent verses, there's more beauty and emotion in those opening bars than in anything else on the list (that'll be the wipers influence), but the relative dullness of the chorus is only emphasised by how much it repeats - picks up a little at the end when the accompaniment ramps up, but still.
7/10
Egypt - Touch Ground
just not my thing regardless of genre.
4/10
Catherine Faber - Providence Skies
quite lovely.
7/10
The Lillingtons - Black Hole in My Mind
fine but just a bit generic and repetitive.
6/10
Air - Seven Stars
people who find it difficult to get into silent movies should try watching some with modern scores - it really is the most wonderfully dreamlike medium if you can get past the initial inaccessibility, and A TRIP TO THE MOON was the grandfather of that dreaminess no doubt. i don't find this downtempo/dream pop sound particularly fitting or transporting though.. it's aight. legrand's vocals are kinda like self-parody at this point which doesn't help.
5/10
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression
could definitely do with shaving off a couple minutes in the middle, and idk if it's on theme, but whatever it's probably not gonna win anyway and it's magnificently batshit.
8/10
John Murphy - Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)
pretty overwrought, which is probably why they keep using it in the walking dead.
5/10
