Kero Kero Bonito - Bonito Generation (2016)
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Aggressively silly and colorful bubblegum pop songs about selfies, goldfish, trampolines, etc. Production is fantastic and sounds exactly like the album cover looks.
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Quiet and intimate anti-folk songs with Kimya Dawson's characteristic simple, goofy sound. Despite her songs often sounding like innocent children's songs, she's never shied away from difficult lyrical themes and this album is a good example of that. Some genuinely harrowing songs here about addiction and sexual abuse but always mixed with Kimya's trademark humor and positivity.
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Warm and uplifting jùjú music from Nigeria. Sort of a mix between Christian congregational music and complex Yoruba folk music.
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Hypnotic progressive electronic/ambient. Still sounds futuristic even today. A lot of early glitch sounds before glitch music was really a thing.
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Just a titanic, ruinous, masterpiece of an album. The lyrics of rape, domestic violence, sexual abuse, Biblical judgement and apocalyptic vengeance are literally stunning. And the lyrics are matched and even exceded by Kristin Hayter's vocals and musicianship. She transitions from black metal screeches over death industrial electronics to glass-shattering operatic crescendos to genuinely blissful, gentle piano liturgies. It's not fun to listen to, but if I had to pick a "best" album I've ever heard, this would be it. Hayter is currently the most talented, most original and impactful musician I know of. Her whole discography is a masterpiece but this one stands out to me. I cannot sing its praises enough.
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Lovely glitchy indie/folktronica. One of my lesser-known all time personal favorites. Sounds like beams of sunlight and houseplants and iced tea.
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Blissfully pretty chamber folk, new age, and min'yō music mixed with field recordings and various musical recordings from around the rural village Masakatsu Takagi made this album in. A portal to a beautiful, peaceful, Japanese village.
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Monumental modal jazz mixed with blues. Half the credited musicians on this are as celebrated and influential as Miles Davis is. One of the most famous and lauded jazz albums for a reason.
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Simple, nostalgic, small-town emo-revival/pop-punk done extraordinarily well.
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All the albums I've put on this page are albums I think are perfect from front to back. Albums that if any tiny detail were changed, they would be worse for it. Illmatic is somehow the most perfect in this list of perfect albums, if that makes sense. I want to put on surgical gloves just to listen to it.
