Alex Colville - Horse And Train (1954)
Lets start with a whimper off Arca's new album Xen. Many of you know Arca through his production credits on Kanye's Yeezus, and FKA Twigs EP2 and LP1. His debut full length Xen is unlike anything I have ever heard and is a strong contender for AOTY. The track "Wound" has a beautiful cinematic feel to it with a soaring orchestral backbone. Once the empty and cold vocals roll in the track transcends to the next level. The lyrics are undecipherable and that's OK because the pain you're feeling is also hard to put into words.
What happens when you combine the hopelessness and trashiness of Florida with the shame of being associated with Skrillex? Hundred Waters! Signed to Skrillex's OWSLA label, Florida natives Hundred Waters have a pretty dark brand of synth pop. Their label debut "The Moon Rang Like a Bell", was the soundtrack to countless nights of crying myself to sleep. The highlight of this amazing album is the track"Down From the Rafters". Lead vocalist Nicole Miglis has a beautiful and haunting voice that fills up whatever empty room you're in.
Oh hey look its our favorite depressed frontman Thom Yorke! His newest album Tomorrows Modern Boxes is a music lovers "quart of ice-cream after a breakup" One of the standout tracks is "Interference".
The description from Rock Genius sums this one up perfectly:
"In the song, Yorke sings about the transience of our lives, our loves, our identities. We have moments in time that seem to be so eternal, but in reality it will and does come to pass all so suddenly."
Lets close out with a track from Sharon Van Ettens ultra depressing "Are We There?" This one always leaves me speechless so I wont say too much about it and spoil it for you.
I would say this is a good playlist when studying for midterms, but lets be honest you don't need to study, you are going to fail all of them.
-Adam
I've crawled out of my dissertation den to lay down some additions of my own. When the pressure's on and you have to not fuck up at all because otherwise you've wasted three years of your life, you will not get your degree and good luck getting a job in this post-industrial landscape of Northern England it is difficult to stay peppy. So I don't. Have some existential Brian Eno to help with that.
And when you see them all, somehow managing to live it up, go out an do what your stereotypical students do and manage to write a dissertation too. You wonder if it's all in vain, spending time writing when you could be out with them. If only you lived closer to the town center and didn't have a 1 hour commute to do, perhaps it would be. Don't dwell on it though, distract yourself and sit down with a brew and read over some academia again.
You are again wracked with doubt about whether your work is good enough, or will ever be good enough. As the last render of the night's bar slowly fills to complete, you look outside and wonder if winter is getting darker every year. Shutting down your workstation, you clamber off to bed. Another early morning bedtime. The small things make it worth it, tomorrow's another day and we can do it all again.
-Claude Van Foxbat
