Dropout Boogie

It has been a weird fucking year when it comes to what I want to listen to. I've felt lost and unfocused. I tend to always be obsessing over some band... some sound... some era, but for most of this year I haven't felt any strong pull towards anything. When I have locked in on something, it tends to be some oddball thing that I wouldn't typically pay much attention to normally... but now, for some reason, I fucking need it.

At the start of this year, I wrote up a post about a record from The Black Keys that I'd picked up. There was a time when I really enjoyed this band, but I hadn't really given them much thought over the past ten years or so. I bought Thickfreakness on a whim... just to add something else to my cart, but it unexpectedly had me dipping back into those old records, and I found that I was really enjoying them. So much so, that I even decided to give their latest album, Dropout Boogie from 2022, a chance. Damn, that shit was fun and as soon as I found there was pink vinyl version of it, I kind of wanted to own it.

I got tired of The Black Keys around 2010. They seemed to be moving away from that stripped down bluesy rock sound and getting a bit more polish, and I wasn't feeling it. I haven't really paid any attention to those albums they have released since Brothers, but checking out Dropout Boogie had me impressed. This is just a good time. I don't expect it will be something that I return to regularly a year or two from now, but as I'm floundering around this year and trying to find something interesting, this record filled that hole.

Nostalgic For Enforcer

Ten years or so ago, the New Wave Of Traditional Metal was riding high, and near the top of it all was Enforcer. That band was melting faces all over the place, and I felt lucky to catch them on their From Beyond tour when they came through Massachusetts with Warbringer in 2016. By 2019, however, some fans turned on the band when they released their Zenith album. Enforcer were trying some new sounds and injecting a bit more melody, and while some people weren't having it, I still liked the record... although it does sit at the bottom of my album ranking for them and I could have done without the Regrets ballad. Enforcer felt the backlash and with the release of Nostalgia, and word from the band was that they were going to give the fans what they wanted with their new album this year.

I'm not going to lie, when I heard the first single for Nostalgia, my faith in this band was shook. It isn't a bad song, but for a record that was hailed as a return to form, I wanted them to come out of the gates storming, and the first single is a ballad? It did not inspire a lot of confidence. Still, I preordered the album, because it is fucking Enforcer and with their second single, Metal Supremacia, the band showed they could still bring the heat. Goddamn, that song fires me up and makes me hope they do another US tour because I would love to see this band again. Nostalgia is such a great record, and it is cool to see the band back and doing what they do best. You can bet that this record will be near the top of my favorites for 2023.

With the rainbow on the front cover, I took a chance on the multicolored splatter vinyl. As I expected, it didn't come out as nice as I'd hoped, but that's okay, it is still better than the metallic gold option. 800 pressed.

Primus Sucks

I definitely fall into the trap of impulse buying. As I was dicking around on my phone one evening, scrolling through social media apps, I saw an ad for a new vinyl reissue for the Primus album Frizzle Fry. I really enjoyed this record when it came out in 1990. I was still very much into metal at the time, and just starting to discover hardcore, but there in the outside of all that aggression was Primus. They were different, and I liked that they didn't fit the stereotype of what people expected me to listen to so I latched onto all the weird quirkiness that Primus delivered. Now I haven't really cared about Primus since those early 90's, with the exception of a slight increase in interest for the band when I caught them live on the Maine State Pier with Clutch back in 2017... but seeing this reissue and how nice the vinyl looked, well, without much thought I added it to my cart and checked out.

While it has been fun revisiting this record, I'm not sure that I really needed the record. I mean sure, for nostalgic reasons, a part of me would like to have a complete vinyl collection of everything that I was listening to as a kid through the 80's and early 90's, so in that aspect it is nice to have it on the shelf... but there are plenty of records that I definitely should own before Frizzle Fry.

500 pressed on clear with blue swirls with people already trying to flip them to Discogs for stupid money.

When I was buying Frizzle Fry, they also had a bundle option that included the live Primus record from '89, Suck On This. I was making questionable moves already, so I might as well go all in.

I had probably listened to this thing a handful of times since the early 90's, but listening to this record I knew every note and between song banter. Not essential, but still a lot of fun.

Overkill Fever

Overkill is always dependable. Twenty albums in, and this band just continues to be one of the best from the old guard that are still kicking around today. As soon as I heard that they had a new album, I knew that I was going to be picking it up and that it would most likely end up near the top of my list of favorite metal records for the year.

I've been a little slow to get to new releases this year, but once I started spinning the new Overkill album, Scorched, it quickly jumped into constant rotation. At first I was a bit hesitant about the song Fever, and it felt like a weak point in the album, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. It is such a dark and brooding song, and Blitz's voice is so fucking perfect. It was definitely a grower for me, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorites from the record. Overkill can do no wrong.

The amber with green splatter was a bold choice, but I kind of like the look here. 1,000 pressed.

72 Seasons

Metallica work on their own time schedule. It is going to take them 6 or 7 years to release a new album, and if you want to bitch about it, well, the line for the Metallica complaint department starts right over there. Go to it. That shit is so played out. I'm always down for some new Metallica.

72 Seasons exceeds my expectations. Look, there was some great stuff on their last album, Hardwired, but that thing felt a bit bloated and I rarely return to it. This one though, even at 70 minutes, I'm fucking loving it from start to finish (and while the album cover isn't amazing, it is a hell of a lot better than Hardwired). I don't know what it is, but these songs really hit for me. They sound exciting and fresh, and I'm instantly hooked. I absolutely loved Death Magnetic, and this record is hitting me with those same feelings. This is possibly going to be the metal record that I'll be listening to the most throughout 2023.

The "midnight violet" was the indie store exclusive colored vinyl, so on release day, I went to an actual record store and bought it. Felt weird to have to leave the house to get a record and not just have it show up at my door.