Well it's almost June now, so that means we're about halfway through the year. This year has been kinda sucky for all of us, and one of the few things that give many of us hope is music, especially new releases. Several of my favorites bands have put stuff out in the last 6 months, here is all of it.
They Might Be Giants - Eyeball EP (Released January 15th)
The hype surrounding this and The World Is To Dig is hype I don't think i'll ever forget. Not counting compilations and live stuff, this was the first new TMBG anything to come out since I became a fan (Became a fan Summer 2024. Last album was BOOK which was 2021.) Eyeball is the best track. Kinda sad they didn't perform it at my show in Detroit :(
The other two tracks are decent but not as good as Eyeball imo. The Elegant Too remix of Eyeball is mid.
They Might Be Giants (again) - The World Is To Dig (Released April 10th or April 14th, depends on who you ask.)
The album everyone's been waiting for. If you thought the hype for Eyeball was big, the WITD hype was MASSIVE. If you read this blog in its early days, I wouldn't shut the hell up about this thing. This was probably the most excited i'd ever been for an album EVER. Character Flaw and What You Get definitely seem to be the fan favorites of the album. Hell, What You Get is already ranked #18 on TMBW! And it's only month old!
Get Down is a favorite of mine. After the full tracklist had been revealed, I had the idea to write down in my notes app what I thought all of the tracks (At least the ones we hadn't heard yet) would sound like. I was off on most of them (I thought What The Cat Dragged In would be a repetitious "Kids gross out Nickelodeon type song") but I was pretty much right on the money on what Get Down would sound like. My note on that says and I quote:
"Get Down - Disco probably, probably about war or some shit like that."
When I heard the song for the first time, I was like "I KNEW IT!" 😂
"Favorite tracks are Wu-Tang, Get Down and Character Flaw.
Atarashii Gakko! - Chanka Chanka (Released May 6th)
Atarashii Gakko are sort of a "guilty pleasure" of mine. Not because they're a bad group or that i'm even guilty or embarrassed for liking them, but because it feels like no one outside of Japan knows who they are (and if there are people that do then I probably don't know them) and I dont want to have to explain to everyone who they are and why I like them.
Unlike TMBG, "Chanka Chanka" is NOT the first new AG! release to come out during my time as a fan, that award would go to
"Sailor, Sail On", which came out in December, and is a track I really liked. "Chanka Chanka" is just fine imo. It has the same "Suzuka lead vocals, Rin rapping, and Kanon/Miyzu harmonizing" structure that like, half of the 88rising songs have, so it feels a bit samey. I don't really like the weird effect they put on Rin and Suzuka's vocals 'til like 0:30 into the song, i think it's on their vocals for the whole song but it's most noticable during that part.
I think the live version sounds better personally, especially Suzuka's vocal's at the end of the chorus.
This is AG's first track in a long while to be released by 88rising, as their previous two (One Heart and Sailor, Sail On) were self-released. Before "Chanka", I thought AG had split from them. Barely any mention of AG by 88 past 2024, their English site atarashiigakko.com, being as stale as Play-Doh left out all night (still says "copyright 2024"!) And no physical releases by 88 in the US since their previous album, AG! Calling. I think they're just tired of AG ATP. (Hell, 88 used AI for the fuckin' visualizer! If that's a sign you hate your artists then idk what is.) They pushed AG fairly hard in the US (They were on Jimmy Kimmel, they had a Nike brand deal, they played Coachella and Head In The Clouds, etc.) And they STILL didn't break into the mainstream like I think 88 wanted them to. J-Pop never really broke into the mainstream in the US like K-Pop has, which is strange considering how popular anime is here. You can't just waltz into your local Target and find J-Pop CDs like you can for K-Pop (Sucks to be me because I want AG CDs!!!)
TLDR; It's fine but they have better songs.
Paul McCartney - The Boys of Dungeon Lane (Released May 29th)
Just like TMBG, This was the first new album by Macca to come out since I became a Beatles fan (I became a Beatles fan c. September 2022. Last Macca album was McCartney III in 2020.) So an almost 6 year gap between albums. Longer gaps between albums seem to be more common for Macca than TMBG (usually about 2 years between albums for TMBG) so this is pretty big! I remember the day "Days We Left Behind" came out, I was so excited to finally hear a new Paul McCartney song after being a fan for 3 years at the point.
I like Ripples In The Pond and Come Inside. It's a good album.
WAUW!!!!
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