Fugazi - Red Medicine (Dischord Records, 1995)
Fugazi's mid-decade bout into a more experimental atmospheric kind of post-hardcore is captured here on wax. Margin Walker, my only other vinyl album by Fugazi, has arguably stronger songs on it, but this album works better as a unit than Margin Walker. The first track is the only one of independent note (for me). The song, titled "Do You Like Me", has dissonant voices calling the titular phrase behind waves of reverb-laden sweeping guitar. It's Fugazi at their most avant-garde heaviness, and the influence is apparent in other albums I own. La Dispute's Wildlife is spinning right now and seems to be their own take on Fugazi's signature destructive organization. The perpetual sonic experiment known as Red Medicine doesn't have my favorite Fugazi songs, but it is my favorite Fugazi album for that reason. My copy is the 2009 repressing on black vinyl. As with all Dischord releases, the albums are made to last, and mine has lived well on various shelves for the past few years, and it'll have a definite space there for many more.
Rating: Strong 7
The Get Up Kids/Rocket From The Crypt - Up On The Roof/Free Language Demons split (Vagrant Records, 2000)
This two-song 7" followed up The Get Up Kids's critically acclaimed Something To Write Home About, which is one of my all time favorite albums. The Get Up Kids side features the previously unreleased song "Up On The Roof" and the RFTC side features "Free Language Demons", which is another previously unreleased song. The RFTC song is one of my favorites from the band; the brass arrangements on "Free Language Demons" are anxious and pushing, moving the track along briskly and leading it headlong into the melodic recesses of the mind. The Get Up Kids side does less for me. "Up On The Roof" is a good song, but is one of their worst compared to their two formal full lengths before this release. I, being an enormous The Get Up Kids fan, bought this solely because of their name, but their track is absolutely lackluster. I still love this 7" because of sentiment and the Rocket From The Crypt side, but it is a bit disappointing for the first few listens. The record is pressed on crisp white vinyl but is by far least limited variation (300 on grey, 500 on blue, 800 on orange, and 2000 on white), but it is neat having an album with the short lived Vagrant imprint Heroes & Villains Records name on it. The lyric sheet is on wax paper and unfortunately doesn't feature lyrics to "Free Language Demons."
Rating: Decent 6
I love Green Day and always will, despite how many terrible records they release. Between American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, I can name five great songs. If you add their most recent ¡Uno!, it'd still only be five great songs. Nimrod is different. Nimrod is great from beginning to end. It is both relaxing ("Last Ride In") and heavy (the quick-paced "Take Back"). It has their biggest pre-2004 hit ("Good Riddance") and their least known ("All the Time" or "Prosthetic Head"). It changes genre innumerable times (or 18 times. Depends on how you look at it). Sometimes it sounds like the pop-punk predecessor albums Kerplunk or Dookie, or sometimes it sounds like the turn of the century acoustic-y critically-panned full length Warning. Sometimes it even resembles the punker-than-thou walls of sound on Insomniac. It takes every pre-American Idiot sound Green Day possessed and refined them all to a brilliance since unmatched. The artwork is iconic and still surreal to see on a 12 by 12 piece of cardboard. The album plays well, but could have definitely been a double LP. 18 tracks across two sides kind of crams them in, but the sound quality doesn't suffer much.
Rating: Decent 8
Jimmy Eat World - Invented (Interscope Records, 2010)
Like with The Get Up Kids, I'm a Jimmy Eat World super-fan, or something like that. So from that fan perspective, Invented, JEW's sixth full length release, is my least favorite album. That or Futures, which I haven't necessarily spent much time listening to. Despite this fanatical shortcoming, Invented has some of my favorite Jimmy Eat World songs. "Coffee And Cigarettes" is melodically profound and seems to feature more vocal tracks than most people have fingers. "Action Needs An Audience" would fit on Futures decently, or on Bleed American less well. None of the songs are bad, per se, and the album flows very well. It's by all means a great rock record, but that's where it stops. Jimmy Eat World, one of the greatest emo bands of all time, made a great rock record. There, I said it. Clarity is my all time favorite non-Against Me! album, and the predecessor to this record was my first serious CD purchase ever (Chase This Light, which I still listen to regularly, came out in 2007), but for some reason this album just doesn't click with me that well. It simply pales in comparison. The record itself, however, has some great qualities that make this a more frequent listen. Their (ex)label Interscope Records is a major, and therefore has major cash. They didn't skimp on this release: the gatefold cover is dazzlingly done and features some memorably magnificent artwork. The single LP that comes in this gatefold (best way to package a record) is 180 grams of absolutely mesmerizing audio quality. Impressive.
Rating: Decent 6
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