This is a collection of 40 album "reviews" I wrote from 2022 to 2023, in the order I wrote them. The date listed here is when they were initially published to moonrabbithaven.com, as "Death by 100+ Cuts", but various excerpts have also been re-written for Bonus Tracks, the Spotlight On blog. The best versions are all here, and they vary in length and quality. I think there's some good stuff, but you have to do some digging. Maybe skim the album vibe and try something new. Thanks for looking around back here!
Head Hunters – Herbie Hancock (1973)
Starting things off this year with some Herbie– Mr. Hands himself! (Don't look that album up, um..) I got this record for Christmas last year but I think it counts as a January 2022 cut. If it didn't it wouldn't get to be on any list! Head Hunters deserves better. I must've heard most of this album pre-Christmas but it hits different on wax! Maybe. I can't really tell the difference anymore. “Old folks at a block party” vibe
Hollow Knight OST – Christopher Larkin (2017)
Okay, yeah, Hollow Knight's also kind of from last year, but I didn't really listen to it when I wasn't playing the game till 2022 so it counts, whatever. This stuff is so somber, and it hits in January. These albums are listed in the order I wrote them down in the notes app, but I probably spent the most time with Hollow Knight's score (outside of the game, I guess) in the spring, after I got the sheet music book for my birthday. Man, that's nerdy as hell. I probably shouldn't include that I played Crossroads before Pfrancing at a recital. I promise there's only like two more video games listed here. “Lost and cold in the dark” vibe
Wet Land – Hiroshi Yoshimura (1993)
Damn Hiroshi Yoshimura really chills me the hell out. Wet Land's got super good rainy January vibes, and I listened to this a lot looking out the window in the library at school. It's about that time of year again, so this might be re-entering my rotation soon. I associate a lot of music with specific times of year, now that I think about it... I'll keep that in mind over the course of this list. Hey also, the title track reminds me of The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess a lot, do you hear it? Might be that dark choir sound. “Chill, primordial solitude” vibe
Live From Trona – Toro y Moi (2016)
The first of many Toro cuts on this list. I think the sounds from all his prior albums came together really well and a lot of them (What For specifically, which is very over-represented here) sound better live. The concert video on YouTube is worth watching too, if you aren't butt hurt about listening to music through your TV. Get a sound bar. “Chilling in the post-apocalypse nuclear desert” vibe
What For? – Toro y Moi (2015)
A little melancholy, but also optimistic in a this too shall pass sorta way. I'm gonna start keeping these shorter cause I have about a hundred more to do and it's already tomorrow morning. “High energy January, low energy August” vibe
Anything In Return – Toro y Moi (2013)
I think this was the biggest Chaz Bradley Bear Bundick grower for me. The fade out is special at the end of a road trip, in the rain, waiting to go inside till the track's over. “Dancey nap” vibe
Outer Peace – Toro y Moi (2019)
Outer Peace is, um, my least favorite of Chaz Bear's canon. I don't know about this one guys! Outer Peace has been described by my dad (and this blog's Supreme Leader) as "silly", "goofy", and "not really grabbing me." Maybe he just doesn't get it. I'm willing to accept the Supreme Wizard's judgment as fallible, and I do think the album grew on me. But because I'm not particularly rebellious, I gotta agree it's inconsistent and maybe even... patchy. Which my dad's also been described as. I do like all ten tracks on Outer Peace (its brevity also helps contribute to it feeling underwhelming), but whiplash from its rapid-clip vibe-switches stops a real steady mood from setting in, and the shorter tracks make my ears start to glaze over. I don't know if that's something ears can do, or what it would look like if they could, but "Laws of the Universe" to "Miss Me" is still brutal. And "Baby Drive It Down" is boring. Nine out of ten tracks here are good. At least the production stays squishy, and I dig the ways Chaz changes up his vocal tricks. If Soul Trash gets a pass for being all over the place and MAHAL actually pulls it together, Outer Peace is carried juuust enough by its manic-depressive energy to not be a miss. I guess. My closing Toro y Moi take is that Outer Peace is, uh, pretty good. Cool. Another week in the cabin might have helped. “Caring too much about not caring” vibe
Paradise – The Mattson 2 (2019)
The other half of Chaz Bundick Meets The Mattson 2 Presents Star Stuff! That made my list of favorites last year, and I went deep on both sides of the collaboration. This album was nice when we learned Clover had a heart thing and would maybe live another year about a year ago, which felt worse than it sounds I guess. (She's doing pretty OK.) “Paradise” vibe
Gongjoong Doduk – Mid-Air Thief (2015)
This album is a headache. I listened to a bugged out Japanese-localized version Spotify recommended out of curiosity and kind of liked it a lot! The strangeness was what grabbed me, but once I dug deeper into Mid-Air Thief (also known as Hyoo, Gongjoong Doduk, and Bird's Eye Batang)'s catalog, (who changes his name more than a DID TikTok-er,) I unearthed a lot of good, weird finds. “Static shocks under a fuzzy blanket” vibe
Dr. Octagonecologyst – Dr. Octagon / Kool Keith (1996)
This album was one of the first I had on vinyl, courtesy of my dad, who shares an affinity for LPs you can't play in the living room. (Dr. Octagon opens with audio from an Adult Film, These Walls opens with Kendrick Lamar having sex, etc.) I always liked the top streamed Dr. Octagon tracks on Spotify, but the entire project ended up taking a couple years to warrant repeated front to back listens, for some reason. Still a classic. “Just happy to be here” vibe
Bar Slut – Crack Sabbath (2004)
I saw a Crack Sabbath show with my dad in February and I still stand by their Milestones cover vs Miles Davis's. The original sorta drags in comparison, I think! Crack Sabbath's only studio outing is a highly Gen X album, and so fun to see in person. “Biker club book club” vibe
Mwandishi – Herbie Hancock (1971)
My piano teacher / guru's favorite Herbie album. Really lush. I put this on in the car for my grandparents on the drive back from Portland to Boston and we vibed out, so 5 stars. Classic. “In a clearing, in a rainforest” vibe
Crossings – Herbie Hancock (1972)
Basically more Mwandishi. A little more melodic. Classic. “Ancient mystery” vibe
Crumbling – Mid-Air Thief (2018)
The second Mid-Air Thief project on this list is smoother and more chilled out than Gongjoong Doduk, losing a little of its predecessor's unique sound. While Crumbling's probably the better record of the two, and I dig Summer Soul's vocals, this one didn't push my ears as hard and was less memorable as a result. “Under a blanket” vibe... I listen to a lot of music in bed OK
Live! – Bob Marley & The Wailers (1975)
As an entry-level enjoyer, this is what I put on when I want to hear some Bob Marley. LIVE‼️ has scored a couple step family bonding sessions and the hits have pretty good intergenerational reach. “The right kind of night” vibe
Underneath The Pine – Toro y Moi (2011)
Either Underneath The Pine or MAHAL is my favorite Toro album. Not counting the one with the Mattson 2. Or the live one. That makes Underneath The Pine my favorite... solo, studio, classic, Toro album. And it's always given me really strong Pacific Northwest vibes, I'm not sure why. Not just cause I live in the Pacific Northwest though. Man I'm just full of riveting takes today. “Looking up at a tree” vibe
Selected Ambient Works – Aphex Twin (1992)
The Aphex Twin guy really should have done the Half-Life soundtrack. This album sounds so much like the original Half-Life music... sort of sterile. But calm and brain-smoothing where Black Mesa's frenetic and unsettling. “Hanging out in an alien's room” vibe
Rabbit Songs – Hem (2002)
Maybe it's just cause I got to see my friend's dad play their music as a kid, but Hem is deeply soothing to my rabbit brain. For years, my mom would put on their album Departure and Farewell to get my brother to stop crying. I could be associating their sound with that sweet relief, too. Whatever the explanation, this stuff has special properties. “Brooklyn, nearly winter” vibe
Is This It – The Strokes (2001)
I was trying to find the song Take It Or Leave It by Cage The Elephant when I accidentally played the Take It Or Leave It off of this album instead. Then I played the rest on purpose, and it was pretty good. My dad said people only got so hyped over The Strokes when this came out cause it had been forever since anyone'd heard guitar, and I told him he was a contrarian, so that I could also be contrary. “Suburbs” vibe
Michael – Les Sins (2014)
Starting an album off with the most hype track is super messed up, and so many people do it. There's literally nothing worse than knowing you've already heard the best an artist has to offer, and there's still at least a half hour left. This secret Toro y Moi project is not an egregious example of this disturbing trend by any means, but I still wish there were a couple more solid dancey standouts on display here. “He named the album after his dog” vibe
World Clique – Deee-Lite (1990)
I would like to have been around when this was playing everywhere. I know people kind of append "Bubblegum" to random genres instead of just saying the music makes them happy, but this has gotta be bubblegum dance music. I wanna join the world clique. “Apartment party” vibe
Vince Staples – Vince Staples (2021)
A good formal introduction to Vince Staples, and I missed it last year. I was familiar through his features, but his features made me really familiar... cause... like his face is smushed onto the album cover... um. This is good commute music, I think. The bus kind of bums me out and I had to take it to school last year, and this was about as long as the ride to school. It's low-key mad at the world, appropriate for a shitty morning. “I gotta get out of here” vibe
Black Focus – Yussef Kamaal (2015)
I learned about the UK's jazz scene this past year, and how there's nothing quite like white boy Islam-convert music. OK. I am now officially deep down the contemporary jazz rabbit hole, and happy to be here. My uncle Gary sent me this album, I'm very thankful. “White dude pulling off a Black Panther cosplay” vibe
Trio Live in Gdynia – McCoy Tyner (2021)
My dad got two Gdynia records and gave me one, which is a cool way to listen to a jazz album for the first time, if you can. Ahmad Jamal recorded my gam gam's favorite Poinciana rendition, but I like the one here, too. Any track that stays good for 10+ minutes is impressive. “Meeting God... and he's The Real McCoy” vibe
Big Fish Theory – Vince Staples (2017)
If Vince Staples' Vince Staples is for headphones, Big Fish Theory is for the car. I'm only confessing cause we're at least twenty paragraphs deep into this thing, but while I was in L.A. looking at schools last April I blasted "Big Fish" off this album driving through Compton. I know, he's from Long Beach, and I'm a white ass dude applying to colleges... It was the perfect crime. “I was up late night balling counting up hundreds by the thousand” vibe
Kirby and the Forgotten Land OST – Yuuta Ogasawara, Yuki Shimooka, Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa (2022)
Okay I think I need to make a rule here: No video game music I didn't listen to outside of the game. That's gonna hurt, but I don't want this to turn into a Games I Played This Year list, especially cause so many soundtracks are hard to talk about without acknowledging their games. Different list. That said... Kirby's gotta be my favorite game from 2022, which is an opinion I would stick to even if a Kirby plush wasn't staring me down from across the room as I wrote it. I didn't listen to the music very often while I wasn't playing the game, but it goes really hard. Man I love Kirby, and I'm frothing at the mouth for the remaster of my favorite one (or old favorite after Forgotten Land, I guess) to drop on the same day as the new Gorillaz album, and right after my birthday! 2022 is the year of the rabbit for sure. Okay no more video games. “Cute new world” vibe
Ray Barbee Meets The Mattson 2 (2009)
Here is another album that really chills me out. I almost underlined it but that would've been too many favorite Mattson 2 projects, and there's more coming anyway. I think the best, most cultured way to describe the sound here is... those big band Mario 3D World tracks but for an entire album. I don't know enough about music to know what kind this actually is, other than that it was maybe in The Incredibles, too. Is that just 50s swing? I don't listen to that stuff dude I have no idea. My main take is that if you liked the music from the Mario level where they're going up the cake with the double cherries, but played by a super skilled jazz trio, you might want to give Ray Barbee Meets The Mattson 2 a listen. “Golden Sunday morning” vibe
Bright Size Life – Pat Metheny (1976)
We've just lazy-rivered down a chill jazz rabbit hole, and it looks like Pat Metheny's here too. Hey, my dad interviewed him! That first paragraph's a little rough but otherwise good job dad. This was a recommendation algorithm listen for me, which isn't as cool as finding it in my dad's records, but I bet he or Darryl has it or has had it at some point. More chill jazz to come, but first, a weird intermission… “Peace in Middle America” vibe
Soul Trash – Toro y Moi (2019)
More Toro y Moi. Thought I'd dish out some Soul Trash after MAHAL, while he's got the blog's attention. In retrospect, the mixtape's a strange sonic bridge between MAHAL and the very different, less good, Outer Peace. MAHAL was in the works before and after the Outer Peace and Soul Trash log cabin sessions and some of its sound crops up, in interludes and a chilled out closer, amid these otherwise hip hop-y demos. Singles with the then-unreleased "Drip" (Soul Trash) and "Way Too Hot" (MAHAL) were peddled during Toro's Outer Peace tour (you can still buy them here), and I think it's cool to see how that dance-y/disappointing album could've turned out, as well as hints of the project's acoustic side pushing up against the electronic. The B-sides off my least favorite Toro y Moi release almost nail down a better vibe, and if you really dig the Chaz Bear Doesn't Care schtick there's a very bizarre Soul Trash companion video waiting for you, too. Thanks for coming dumpster diving. “Dizzy melting universe” vibe
Mattson 2 Play “A Love Supreme” – The Mattson 2 (2018)
I like this rendition of A Love Supreme a lot, even if it sometimes feels a little like watching the live action remake of a classic Disney movie. Like the Lion King one where the cast was stacked with actors you liked but the original was still gonna be better, obviously, cause it's animated (played by John Coltrane). This is still a really nice cover album though– I feel like we don't get these often for entire recordings. The Mattson 2's sound welcomes Coltrane with open arms. A worthy, smooth tribute, I say. “I need to listen to A Love Supreme but I only have 24 minutes, not 32…” vibe
Vaults of Eternity: Japan – The Mattson 2 (2018)
Vaults Of Eternity: Japan (joining Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez as the first and last installments in their respective prospective album series) is a weird one. If that sentence is confusing you, you're ready for this journey. This release is only available on YouTube (and in my Google Drive HMU for the link), probably because it consists nearly entirely of covers of Japanese pop standards... although the two original compositions here did crop up again on last year's Bohsheekwo. Which you can stream. Being a Mattson 2 fan ain't simple. Between YouTube-only albums buried in the far recesses of their website, separate streaming profiles obscuring each new collaborative project, stealth drops with zero promotion (I only found out Bohsheekwo existed a few months ago because I got deep into the new releases tab on Spotify in the bathtub), and albums sequestered away on untranslated Japanese websites linking to region-blocked Apple Music pages (see Chocolat and Akito Meets The Mattson 2), the deeper you dig, the more there is to find with these guys. Vaults Of Eternity: Japan echoes The Mattson 2 catalog's hidden-gem quality over the course of its wild tracklist. Despite the heavy lifting required to find some of this stuff, the duo's buttery sound is always accessible and makes for a damn good time. Thanks for reading. “Guided tour through a musical alternate reality” vibe
RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART – Vince Staples (2022)
Here's our last bank along this lazy river of jazz. It's more Vince Staples, sounding like Vince Staples (the album), but a little less exciting over the course of 40 minutes. After an intro track I really liked, our guy Vince settles back into more of the same since 2021, expanding upon the same style and themes, for better or worse. For my money, his self-titled work checks RAMONA PARK's boxes faster, and with less fat, so it's what I default to when I want to hear this sound, but at the end of the day if you liked one you'll like the other. Or at the beginning of the day, on the bus, I dunno. I heard he's cooking up something Chappelle's Show-style at Netflix. 60/40 chance it actually happens, 50/50 chance it's good, and pasty white basement-dwelling YouTube video essayists will 100% weigh in. Guess I'm being summoned. “California ghost story” vibe
Painting With John Soundtrack – John Lurie (2022)
This just barely, borderline, counts as an album, for my money, but it was my introduction to John Lurie so I'd like to bring it up. Spanning past soundtrack work to Marvin Pontiac, back to reworked soundtracks under the John Lurie National Orchestra, watching the show or checking out the official playlist is as good a place as any to sample this weird ass jazz. The lazy river continueth. “A John Lurie tour, guided by John Lurie” vibe
African Swim and Manny & Lo – John Lurie (1999)
Still getting around to watching these. I can't vouch for their source materials in the way I can Painting With John, but if you're set on hearing these tracks through your TV with my explicit approval, Fishing With John is another good option. Some African Swim and Manny & Lo makes it in. These are two totally separate albums by the way, I don't know why they're always smushed into a double album. I guess cause they both came out on the same CD, or just cause they were short, or something? My head is hurting pretty bad right now. Do you think anyone is going to read this paragraph? Comment the secret phrase if you're reading this. African Swim: “A weird ass day” vibe, Manny & Lo: “A miniature life” vibe
The Invention Of Animals – John Lurie National Orchestra (2014)
The Invention Of Animals is sort of a "Best Of John Lurie" record, pulling original tracks written for Fishing With John. That show's a classic, and the genesis of the off-beat, meditative TV genre as far as I'm concerned. See also: How To with John Wilson and Chillin Island.
Shit, a line break. Dunno if those're allowed or not. Feels like a dangerous precedent to set, what with these only being a paragraph and all...Right, just this once. What I meant to say was, as per usual, John Lurie's soundtrack stands up on its own. I didn't even know it was conceived for Fishing With John until I looked the album up for this post. The lushest of the lush of his work, The Invention Of Animals makes you feel like you're the subject of your very own nature documentary, and that's cool. “At ease in its natural habitat, the wild Moonrabbit gently floats out from the lazy river and into the vast lazy sea” vibe
MAHAL – Toro y Moi (2022)
Alright, after much deliberating, my mind's made up. Underneath The Pine is my favorite Toro y Moi joint, not MAHAL. Sure, getting into him right at the start of this album cycle made it more special, it's closer sonically to the Mattson 2 one, and... No, I like Underneath The Pine better. Stop. The reason I'm writing about MAHAL here's because the album turns one year old this week! That's wild. Compared to his previous efforts, MAHAL falls towards the rock end of Chaz Bear's sound continuum, but things aren't played as straight as they are on What For?. If that album's sound is maybe more consistent, for better or worse, MAHAL really experiments, which doesn't always come with the commitment to fleshing things out. "Mississippi," a minute and a half plus Jeepney noise, blooms within its interlude-y scope (and resembles Soul Trash's opening track, which I'll talk about soon). I don't think it needed to be longer, but could it have been? "Postman" calls back to Outer Peace's sometimes uninspired nonchalance (see: "I don't / Give a / F**k"), and it does feel a little demo-y. Bouncing but flat, with an awkward bridge, that bassline feels like the main idea on display. Then take "The Loop": one of my favorites, with a verse dropping off abruptly at "Damn!", followed by wandering bass fill. Mr. Bear said somewhere he writes his lyrics last, and I gotta say they can feel like afterthoughts. However! I think that's part of the vision. Toro y Moi always brings the vibes, and the breezy quality of what he's saying (or not saying) serves a unified vision of chillness. It could be cool to hear something dense in the future, but for now I think Chaz has crafted some damn good car music, which is something I swear he said he was going for with the new album. Somewhere. I can't find it. Source: trust. My favorite album from 2022 vibe!
Machine Dreams – Little Dragon (2009)
If you liked Gorillaz' Plastic Beach, check this out. I remember hearing somewhere Little Dragon had no idea who Damon Albarn was when he reached out to collaborate on the album, and didn't really care. Damon must have been a fan though because I think Plastic Beach takes a lot of cues from Machine Dreams, especially noting their shared dearth of synthetic, clicky synths. Did I really just use "dearth" right? Nice. I need to... start cutting these down a little or I'll never finish. “'Puter party” vibe
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar (2022)
Mr. Morale is maybe the purest Kendrick Lamar concept album yet. The striking new production direction is here, the bars and the songwriting are here, the narrative arc is here. And we've even been treated to another helping of controversy, for flavor. I think what we got this time around was great, and a gratifying send-off to Kendrick's TDE canon. Mr. Morale ties up a lot of these albums' themes nicely, and fits snugly in my record crate next to them. That said, I think this is the last time a project like this, from Kendrick, is gonna work. At least all the way, because for as much growth as Mr. Morale shows, it's also clearly laid out some of the boundaries of the K.Dot schtick. If that makes sense. This album has the provocative, moody, opener, the hard to listen to but narratively crucial closer(s), that one weird ass track that pushes it but ends up being fire... all the ups and downs we've come to expect from his formula. I feel like I'm describing something invisible here, but hopefully you can see it a little. I'm starting to see the trappings of such cinematic works as these, and I hope this new era at pgLang sees something looser, and less harshly defined, than what we're used to from the king. I think we're ready, judging by this album's lack of staying power in the hip-hop conversation. Does Mr. Morale really fall back into a well worn groove, placing Kendrick's most exciting work behind him? I don't know, but I'm down for the ride either way. “A hall of mirrors, abstracting and reinterpreting an artist” vibe
Dummy – Portishead (1994)
As a Mother I Sober sympathizer, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers sent me down a Portishead rabbit hole. This began with Dummy, and will conclude with Third and the live album when I get to them. So the Portishead bender is forever continuing, is what I mean. “Antique Halloween” vibe
Selected Ambient Works Volume II – Aphex Twin (1994)
One of only a few albums I am comfortable... SHUFFLING! Gasp. My Uncle Gary says he only listens to albums on shuffle which is just psychotic. He's sitting down for the same length of time either way, needlessly wrecking the intended experience. Maybe if the album's really good every track will hold up out of order? I don't know dude. This one is chill though and it's like three hours, so putting it on shuffle you kind of get Aphex Twin radio. Nothing wrong with that I guess. Maybe Uncle Gary's the only sane one out of all of us. “Ancient underground winter” vibe
My older writing about music...
Song of the week (2021 - 2023)
My favorite music of 2021
Henry's Obligatory Year End Post (2020)