july music roundup 2024

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welcome back ta another episode of the Miles' Monthly Music Roundup (TRADEMARK SYMBOL)! july's been a good month for music in my world personally. yeehaw!

Red Vox -- LIVE @ TOOMANYGAMES 2024

not an album release BUT they debuted a fuckton of new songs at the TMG live set! remember how on the last one of these i was so hyped for their next album? i still am but like 20x more now holy shit.

in your head and cheer up are probably my STANDOUTS, especially with in your head's callback to hazy off the what could go wrong? album. fire on gasoline is a fuckin bop an a half (i have been hummin why so suddenly / mind your flattery / fire on gasoline, gasoline, gasoline for days. weeks.) & throw away has a real interestin progression. excited to see what makes it onta the next album!! 10/10

glass animals -- ILYSFM

this was definitely one of my most anticipated album releases of 2024 already lmao. creatures in heaven as their lead single immediately cemented that this was gonna follow the dreamland sound design an i for one as DREAMLANDENJOYER69 (recently accquired the glow in the dark vinyl of the re-release that includes arlo parks' verse on tangerine! shoutout to tautology for this) am SO HAPPY about this.

an i WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!!!!!!!!

dreamland was a reflective album of dave bayley's emotional processing; i love you so f**king much [ILYSFM] is a return to their older style of story albums about relationships. an my god they're bangers is the thing -- openin the album with show pony is a fuckin off-to-the-races banger that's stuck in my head already. ILYSFM has a lotta the dreamland sound but interestinly enough i hear a LOT of the HTBAHB era sound mixed back in makin ILYSFM the most 'balanced' album from glass animals so far i think? it definitely shows how much their style's evolved over the years.

but anyways: this album fuckin slaps. i feel like if i talk too much about each song, just like HTBAHB an dreamland, i'll get way too personal - dave bayley's really good at makin music that strikes a specific chord, an this one invokes simultaniously your love (deja vu) & domestic bliss levels a emotion outta me. this album feels cathartic as fuck. i think white roses, show pony & wonderful nothing are my standout favorites but i have a feeling i'll be buying this as a vinyl lmao. 10/10 yet another no-miss album from glass animals. they can't keep gettin away with it

Megan Thee Stallion -- MEGAN

my hip-hop & rap adventures continue! i think i liked the lead singles ahead of this album more than the full album ultimately but that's aight! mamushi & where them girls at are really fun an interestin to me; i dunno if i'm a full album kinda guy yet in the rap world but the adventure will surely continue. 6.5-7/10 overall personally

yama x botchiboromaru -- HALO

uhhh yeah this's the openin for the second arc of pokemon horizons and this's my music review so fuck it i'm puttin it on here. it slaps fuckin HARD which honestly is ta be expected yama has some credentials already. idk go listen ta it it's good. watch pokemon horizons while you're here as a longtime pokeani fan this blows previous pokeani outta the water an i was a diehard fan until X/Y aight? it's so so so so so good. friede is so cute. anyways,

Kanaria ft. Hatsune Miku -- champion

continuin my vocasynth review trend is, fittinly, the capstone of the project that made me get back into modern vocasynth as a whole - champion is the final song from PROJECT VOLTAGE, i.e the pokemon x vocaloid project! it's one of the shorter tracks an very obviously samples VS! champion cynthia heavily, but like... when a track you're usin as the main motif is already a banger y'don't have to reinvent the wheel. champion is a very catchy banger that does somethin that i think only glorious day (eve ft. hatsune miku) did really really well: it FEELS like a track that could be in a pokemon game! the usage of ingame sfx (damage, critical hit, low hp, faint, potion use, super effective) also is super creative like genuinely i really enjoyed the entire piece. kanaria's a very new producer apparently an this bein my introduction to their music i'm lookin forwards to bringin more a their work in these reviews! 9/10 <3

DECO*27 ft. hatsune miku -- Rabbit Hole

look i'm tryin ta break inta modern popular vocasynth. rabbit hole is one of the ones the vocaloid teens of today are OBSESSED with. an i'm like, oh, yeah!! DECO*27!!!! i know that producer! they made ghost rule!!! so like i went into this song with VERY high hopes & expectations, an.

i've relistened to it like 6 full times an i have come to the very, very disappointing conclusion that honestly this song kind of sucks. it's only a lil catchy at the chorus and even then, compared to DECO*27's older works, i was seriously like... i gotta be missing something. i remember DECO*27 being a REALLY consistently good producer. this is the same producer behind coward montblanc, mozaik role, love doll, the aforementioned ghost rule & liar dance, like, this is a producer who has very consistently put up great work before my hiatus! i HAVE to be missing something!

but... no i really think this song must have a tiktok dance or people just really, really like the risque miku pmv. it's barely catchy (i can only recall the "shinu made pyua-pyua yatten non?" part after six listens. VERY unusual for me.), the beat is extremely boring, and no part of the song really "stands out". i'm honestly really sad because i KNOW deco*27 can do better than this plus the insane popularity of the song... i'm gonna say it. this song is MASSIVELY fucking overrated and it broke my heart. 4/10

32ki ft. hatsune miku & kasane teto -- Mesmerizer

this's another very popular song (63m views in 2 months holy shit) an this time i at least know goin into it it's because of the extremely animation meme-able an tiktok-able dance. the dance is very cute and the animation's really really good. i also am excited to see teto now in the daily limelight with her synthv release! whadda world. so recent ago to me she was still just an UTAU.

i also really like teto's tuning in this but unfortunately this is another song i think is very overhyped. it's very... it's definitely more interesting than rabbithole, an parts of the middle bridge reminds me of the olden days of vocaloid, but a combination of miku's insanely high pitched tunin & teto's tunin in the chorus pushed way too high makes this borderline unlistenable to me. it's just all too much high pitched noise. it's not somethin i would wanna play in project diva (er... project sekai, i guess) & it's not something i'd turn on to listen to casually, so... man, i dunno. the fact this has 63m views and earth-shattering levels of popularity in the modern vocasynth fandom really bewilders me. i give this one a 5/10 cause it's definitely more interesting than the previous song but again: i had high expectations for this one and... got let down.

SAWTOWNE ft. hatsune miku -- M@GICAL * CURE! LOVE SHOT!

an engloid song! this song was actually the winner of the miku expo 10th anniversary contest, also has a very viral animation meme associated with it, and interestingly: also has absurdly high miku tuning. and with THAT being said i really love this song actually, it's really bouncy in the chorus, there's the very, very catchy MIKU MIKU BEAAAAAAAAM, and the chorus gets stuck in my head nonstop. this song fascinates me a lot though cause i very noticeably don't usually like miku english append and haven't since she first released; this song is ALSO tuned so high it does hurt my ears & head really bad. i really think the instrumentals & interjections help carry this song to greatness for me though and the lyrics / chorus are absurdly catchy when i can actually hear them. if you like the bounciness of current electronic jpop this one's for you. 8/10 i would love a gumi eng. or gods forbid maybe a dex cover of this song to be totally honest.

that's it for another Music Roundup(TM)(R)(PATENT PENDING). i miiiiiight do more of project voltage next month just for fun. -_^

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