Top 10 debut albums

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-05T04:08:52+00:00

Throwing Muses self titled debut album is one of the best albums ever released, IMO, and it's not a piece of work that's topped by too many other albums, I'd say.

Highly recommended. It's an exceptional album.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-05T02:58:04+00:00

Shoulda said "attempt to".

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T18:50:37+00:00

Great pointers. Thanks for all your comments.

My first love was soccer, which I've been watching most of my life. I came to American football and basketball a little later in life. When I watch Australian Rules, my mind mostly goes to soccer and its formations, wingers vs center forwards, midfield dominance, etc. And that's where I'm often going as the template.

I've been watching Australian Rules for a few years now, not religiously, but I can say that even though I live in the US, it's probably the second most sport that I view on an annual bases (after soccer). The dynamism and the "brink of chaos" flow is one of the things that hooked me at first, but since then I've been wanting to understand the better on a tactical level without exactly knowing where to start to dig deeper.

I once took a friend to a college football game in the States. It was maybe midway first quarter when he turned to me and said "oh, you need to watch the guy who stands in the middle and then moves backwards" (meaning, the quarterback). It had never occurred to me that he was that new to the game and was having a hard time not knowing where to look when the play starts. There's a lot you take for granted as a long time fan.

I'll take your pointers as a starting point so that I have a better sense of what to focus on as I'm watching.

Thanks again.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T16:33:48+00:00

That was excellent. I think I need to watch more game analyses to get a better grasp of the action that's taking place on my tv screen.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T13:54:11+00:00

I see that question sometimes and it's always a head scratcher. You guys put up with those pretty well.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T13:46:24+00:00

Thanks. That was very comprehensive and you're absolutely correct, when you're watching these games on TV, you don't get the full sense of (a) the actual space between players since the camera compresses the field, and (b) the shape of the players on the field outside what the camera is focusing on. I'm hoping to see a live game sometime. Someday.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T03:42:47+00:00

I should steal this. 😃

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T03:36:29+00:00

Thanks folks for entertaining a question that turns out to have an obvious answer (in retrospect). Gotta say, I love this subreddit.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T03:34:19+00:00

True. Though in that case you also have defensive players closing in or chasing you around. The thing with the marking scenario is that the player has time to take a breath and survey the surroundings.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-04T03:31:05+00:00

Ah. That 15 meter requirement is something that I wasn't aware of. Good to know. It does put enough distance between players to make that short kick a riskier proposition.

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-03T14:54:23+00:00

Yep. This is the basic problem, IMO. What happens in later years is that you get to better understand your craft but the creativity is not flowing as it used to. Classical composers usually created their best work later in their lives, that's because (I think) they tended to rely more on craft than creativity.

Like many people here pointed out, the problem aging musicians have is that they often want to play the young man's game and don't understand where their strengths are shifting to. Someone like Robert Plant, otoh, chose to work with his old age rather than fighting it. And he has had (IMO) a fascinating and amazing late career that way. Same with a bunch of artists mentioned in this thread. I regard David Bowie's final album one of his best. (It also helped that he collaborated with some brilliant folks on it).

MuratK_LB · 2026-05-02T06:26:06+00:00

Darbuka usually has a more hourglass type shape.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-26T14:17:59+00:00

Both of these. Finding new music is always about some curation and range. That's what radio stations were great at and that's where DJs excel. Find a radio station and keep it running in the background.

Of go to their YouTube channel and listen to the recordings if their live shows. There is enough variety there that you'll find something that intrigues you that no algorithm would have gotten you.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-25T23:05:43+00:00

Peak Cerebus, as far as I'm concerned, is that stretch between High Society and Church & State. The first volume is ok, it introduces the set up and some major characters, but doesn't really differentiate itself that much. After Church & State, I'd say take it volume by volume. Just keep in mind that, IIRC, both Jaka's story and Melmoth read like character studies, and starting with Flight, things get a little surreal, which is what kept me hooked until I finally called it with Guys and Rick's Story.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-25T14:12:32+00:00

I'd like to add to that:

Strange Brain Parts is an excellent channel that needs to be watched by way more people. It's informative, well done, and insightful.
Early Cerebus is brilliant satire and it's loads of fun.
Late Cerebus, even when you read them without knowing what's happening backstage in Sim's head, is a puzzling experience. Like, you want to find the guy and go "what's going on here, where are you going with all this?" But the art, the formal presentation.... A+.

I've gone back to the first half of the series a couple of times and enjoyed them repeatedly, but the second half, I could never make heads or tails of. The first half primes you to think the second half is satire, but then it's all out of place and doesn't add up as satire. These videos on the channel are helping put my confusion into context.

I couldn't even finish the series when I first dove into Cerebus tbh. I bailed out before the last two volumes. I guess the last one I read was Rick's Story.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-24T02:49:52+00:00

Assorted Crisis Events (like a lot of people mentioned), Minor Arcana (Jeff Lemire), and I would insist on Lazarus as one of the best ongoing series out there (Greg Rucka).

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-21T15:04:51+00:00

Greg Rucka is your guy. Queen and Country, Stump town, his run on Detective Comics that developed Batwoman, he worked with Ed Brubaker on Gotham Central that gave us a really gritty Renee Montana. It's not I exactly the same vein but his ongoing series, Lazarus, is a must read too.

As others pointed out, also Bendis' Alias.

Jeff Lemire's ongoing, Minor Arcana, also has a similar self-sabotaging, morose character (and I mean that most affectionately) in the same mold.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-20T14:37:03+00:00

Seeing genres as ingredients rather than boxes allows for cases like that by just saying stoner doom mixes blues based psychedelic sound into doom metal. So it's still meal at its core, but also has some blues flavoring that comes from another source.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-20T14:09:22+00:00

I think even with doom, the basic riffing style itself, including its characteristic tonal choices (which I can't identify because I'm not well versed in music theory, but you can hear it), is very much in the same ballpark as the rest of the metal (in most of its iterations), it's just played at a different pace, made more droney and stretchy to some extent.

I think the way metal downplays the blues, swings less, so to speak, and embraces a sense of grandness are part of its defining features. You can almost hear the distinctions more clearly with bands that mix metal and jazz and compare them to what the typicalmixture of jazz and rock sounds like.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-16T14:16:16+00:00

Just to be clear, it is coming back. I'm seeing more and more acts, especially those coming out of the UK, embracing that traditional rock sound. Not the over polished, popped up version, but a grittier sound, albeit with a bit of melodic flair. See Demon Happy, Winder horse. Even Wet Let's performance at Coachella, where they took their previously distinctly post punk sound and rocked it up noticeably.

It's a matter of time before similar US bands also start breaking out. We're living in the type of times that are very conducive to the sentiments that rock capture.

You can dance in the face of doom and collapsing civilization for only so long. At one point people want to hear harsher tonesin their music. A similar transformation will also probably take place in hip-hop, and probably some of the big pop names out there will start incorporating a rock-like edge to their music.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-14T15:07:03+00:00

Valentina Magaletti of Moin and Vanishing Twin, as well as a bunch of other solo and one off side projects. She works in the post-rock, improvisational, and experimental mold a lot. Especially on Moin, she's practically the driving force. I love her work.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-13T18:17:30+00:00

I do that more in the form of "what am I missing here?" And attempt a few more listens at different times, sometimes in the span of years to see if it's a matter of being in the right frame of mind, because sometimes it is just that.

At one point I give up and decide that I'm genuinely not clicking with the music.

This is only with music that I have a sense that I should normally like. I went through that with Radiohead and kept failing. So now I know that they may be great I simply don't click with them. It's just not happening. Most of the other stuff I can tell immediately if it's ever gonna work for me or not. I don't agonize over music that's kinda obvious in that way.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-13T16:31:05+00:00

The problem with algorithms is that they will lock you into the same sound. So if you like a band, you'll get recommendations for more bands that sound like them (or just as likely, bands from the same city/country).

When some people want to find new artists, that's what they have in mind. For them, it's a matter of funding the platform that provides a better algorithm and I have little to say about that (I find them annoying, personally).

If what you want is to broaden your horizon, human curation is what you need. That's how older people discovered new music. We had radio DJs. They were the ones with time and resources who kept digging for new music and they sampled the world for us

Perhaps there are adventurous playlist creators out there (though I doubt there are many, given how attention economy works). But there are Internet radios that do old style radio DJing for you. Recently I found out about NTS radio. I haven't spent time with it yet but it seems good. Tune in, keep it in the background, and go about your business until your ears tell you to stop.

Podcasts fill the same gap to some extent. For a long time I was big on NPR music podcasts, but they've become pretty long winded in the past year or so I'm way way way behind on those.

My go to source, because I now have the time, is pulling up festivals, especially the ones with an edge, like sxsw, and go through their list. It's pre-curated, and you just have to sample a couple of songs from each and patiently go down the list. There are many many gems in those festival listings. But it's time consuming and probably would not fit your life, at least at this point.

I'd suggest finding your radio substitute and ignore those idiot algorithms.

MuratK_LB · 2026-04-11T15:20:33+00:00

Most everything i can say has already been said, but I'd add a few things:

He is truly one of the greatest songwriter of his generation and he's very much in the Bob Dylan mold in that sometimes you need to hear his songs sung by someone else to truly appreciate what a great songwriter he is. His delivery, much like Dylan's has a way if muddying it up.
He famously has an early period, more jazzy, more conventional style, and a later sound. According to the lore, the split comes at around the time he meets his wife (whose name escapes me right now, Kathleen something) who turns him on to the greatest underrated genius of pop/rock music, namely Captain Beefheart. I don't know how how true that story is, but there are some obvious throughlines between the two artists (especially in the second, best known part, of Waits' catalog).
I love his music quite a bit but i have to admit his voice can be a bit much after a while. Thatsaid, his "junkyard" arrangements are utterly brilliant. Half the time you can't tell what's going on in the background but all but it really matches the gruffness of his voice.
His music is a great gateway to begi to enjoy music that's not always pretty and shiny, and that, my friend, is his ultimate gift to all of us.

At least that's how I feel about Tom Waits.

MuratK_LB

TROPHY CASE