#i can barely memorize 5 sentences and this guy is out here memorizing full pieces of text

[jeremysknoxes]

bro how smart is wylan-

[crescentmoonrider]

Fics I sorta want to write, sorta don’t want to, probably never will (a non-exhaustive list)

A:tla/LoK

Of the inequality of palindromes

What it is : A canon divergence in which Noatak and Tarrlok leave together, build the Equalists much earlier, and the world once more descends into war. Avatar Aang is killed, Equalists occupy most of Earth Kingdom and spread the mercy of the Spirits-sent brothers who will make all equal, and a young Korra is raised behind the walls of the Northern Water Tribe. Also Jet is here, somehow, and would probably be one of the PoV characters, maybe along with Tarrlok ?

Why I want to write it : Lots of potential here for a lot of stuff, I’ve always loved Tarrlok and Noatak’s story, I already made a few sketches after the inciting dream and I kind of like what this all looks like. Lots of situations, lots of characters, lots of trauma. I feel like it could work with a non-chronological storytelling - or at least less chronological than A viper-lizard’s tales - and I’m curious to see how I would go about structuring that.

Why I don’t want to : The Timeline Is Fucked !!! I seriously have no idea what would be going on with the dates and ages of most characters and just trying to figure out and make sense of that stuff is killing me. Also, it would be Long, and Viper-lizard will probably have exhausted me by the time I finish it, so starting another long fic would be. HHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ace Attorney

I will fill your thermos with Worcester sauce or so help me

What it is : A canon divergence in which bratty prosecutor Miles Edgeworth and Diego “I think I am a good person but I’m barely there” Armando somehow join forces to take down Dahlia. They’re both douchebags who despise each other. It’s a great collaboration. They meet one young and innocent Phoenix Wright at the legal library and it’s all downhill from there.

Why I want to write it : Douchebag duo !! Reluctantly working together !! I want these two to interact and to barely resist kicking each other in the shins like the little brats they are. And well, I’ve already made Content(TM) for this, so I’d say it speaks to how much I like the idea. There is a scenario somewhere in my mind and in the sketches I did.

Why I don’t want to : I’m barely in this fandom anymore (if I ever really was) and I don’t like research. What the fuck is a legalese and do I need to know it to write about lawyers ? Whatever the answer may be, I’ll have to look shit up, and it will take time, and I’ll get distracted, and the fic will never write itself.

Hannibal (NBC)

Ode au pêcheur (long ver.)

What it is : A role-reversal AU, in which Hannibal is not a cannibal but still a psychiatrist, and Will is a teacher and profiler with a, uh, taste for uncommon meats. They still meet during the Shrike case, which is what the current Ode au pêcheur is about, and this would be the following events.

Why I want to write it : For one, I already wrote a short piece for this verse, so jot that down. But also I want to explore the change in dynamics, and also Hannibal being completely fucked up but in a different way. And writing Will as this kind of mysterious and fascinating being through Hannibal’s eyes... yeah, that’d be good.

Why I don’t want to : I spent hours reading the scripts, deciding what I would and would not keep, how to phrase it, for a 878 words standalone. I do Not want to know what I’d do with a long fic.

Six Sibylline Books (oracles willfully blind)

What it is : A Psycho Pass AU, with Will as an Enforcer specializing in profiling, having been declared a Latent Criminal since he was 6, because of his high empathy. He lives in fear of the day his Coefficient will reach 300. Hannibal is, of course, criminally asymptomatic, and working as a therapist for the government.

Why I want to write it : Let’s be honest, these two in the Sibyl System would be a fucking mess, and I for one am here for it. Mostly I want to see Will struggle with his place in this world, and watch what his Becoming would be like. Hannibal as a worse version of Makishima who just does shit for fun is terrible too, I love it. He probably wouldn’t even try to do a revolution and pretend to help people, the asshole.

Why I don’t want to : I Would Die. Two very complicated shows with literary references and philosophy mixed in just about every sentence, and a very well-rounded world as the setting ? Instant death. Or a very slow one, induced by the constant need to reference every little detail.

Kekkai Sensen

Fallen Hellsalem

What it is : A noir AU in which Daniel Law is a hardboiled detective who has been looking for answers regarding the disappearance of his younger twin brother for the past three years. A two-parters (by which I mean, two fics of consequent length, or a Huge fic with two very long main arcs), with the first case introducing the world through Steven A Starphase being accused of murder and needing Daniel’s help to find the real culprit. Turns out he didn’t do This murder but is also a crime lord involved in the disappearance of many other people, reigniting Daniel’s quest for answers. The second case is actually much more focused on the actual investigation surrounding Marcus’ disappearance, with Daniel gaining an apprentice in the person of Leonardo Watch, and learning to let go of the past a little.

Why I want to write it : I made a 5 page comic of the very first scene in 20 days. I just really like the noir aesthetics, and also Daniel. I have something resembling the beginning of an actual plot. I love Daniel. Did I mention I love Daniel ? It would be very interesting to have to actually think things in advance and build a case that makes sense.

Why I don’t want to : It would be so much work !! Two parts ?? Two fics for one story ? Or even just a Mega Fic - I would just fucking die. Also, while having to figure out how to build a case that makes sense is a fine challenge, it’s also a Lot of work, especially when I’m more the type of writer to figure stuff out as it comes, or to plan for Big Emotional moments and then turn the plot around it so that it all works organically. I’m not really a planner of plots, more of scenes. Plots kinda just happen. And that doesn’t fly for detective stories if you want it to be decent.

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Psycho Pass

The blind Sibylla (long ver.)

What it is : A canon divergence directly following the events of The blind Sibylla (in which Akane shot Makishima during episode 11). Makishima didn’t die but is injured, still somehow escapes ; meanwhile Akane is kind of scouted by Sibyl because she shot a guy with the intention to kill him and her Crime Coefficient didn’t rise, and she considers the offer. Kogami gets a phone call that leaves him sick to his stomach, and he too has to make a choice.

Why I want to write it : I mean, I already wrote two short chapters on impulse, so it’s more of “why I want to continue it”. Anyway the answer is that I’ve got ideas and I want to see where they go. Also if I can get Kagari and Choe Gu Sung to stay alive that would be swell.

Why I don’t want to : Psycho Pass Is Complicated. The worldbuilding is on point, but that also means fucking it up is incredibly easy. Also the literary references. It would be a lot more work than I am used to putting into my writing and I really don’t feel like memorizing the wiki and constantly rewatching the series just to get everything as accurate as possible.

Reborn

The illusion of love and the reality of hate

What it is : A TYL 186918 story about Hibari and Mukuro navigating their hate-relationship and trying to make it work. Especially after Mukuro was thought to have been killed by Byakuran. Would involve Mukuro asking Ryohei for advice because he is literally the only person in a stable relationship who has any idea what he’s doing, and also he knows what Hibari is like. A contract is drafted. I’m not saying Mukuro and Hibari get hate-married but. They get hate-married. Kind of.

Why I want to write it : I’ve wanted to explore a full-blown, healthy blackrom for a while now, and these two are one of my oldest ships, and also one I’ve written a lot for in the past. Love me a good mix of fucked up shit and humor. And boy would there be fucked up shit between these two.

Why I don’t want to : Two words : Sex Scenes. I can’t imagine this story (or this relationship, for that matter) without sex, as it would be one of the most primal way they have of communicating with each other, along with fighting. But I’ve never written smut in my life. Also I barely remember the TYL arc (better than the later ones, but not by much) so I’d have to look that up again, and probably more (likely re-reading the whole thing), but that’s a minor issue.

Red Raven

Cave Canem

What it is : An early canon divergence in which Ricardo gets lost in the panic of the five days of blood and is believed to be dead, while Walter meets Calogero at Castor Arte and decides to follow him around out of a mutual hatred of the Scaggs. Anyway Ricardo joins the Red Ravens because he believes he was abandoned and can’t trust the mafia anymore, while Walter more or less gets adopted by Calogero and becomes Laura’s right hand.

Why I want to write it : I just. I love this manga so goddamn much,,,,,,, Also Walter and Ricardo are very similar while being pretty different, and the changes in dynamics a switch would make are. Pretty darn interesting. I made sketches. I want to see what would stay the same and what would go differently. I want to send more Red Raven content into this world.

Why I don’t want to : This fandom is comprised of three people and a crow, and I know myself well enough to be certain I’ll have trouble staying motivated in these conditions. Also this would be Long, I can feel it. And I don’t really have a scenario planned, so that’s that.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Snow blossoms

What it is : A canon divergence (?) in which Fai (the dead one, not our Fye) is a dream-walker and meets child Kurogane a few times this way. At one point, Kurogane promises to find Fai and Yui and to help them, no matter what. Later, the then grown Kurogane is eternally confused by Fye’s presence for one more reason.

Why I want to write it : It’s an old headcanon of mine that Fai is a dream-walker, I figured I might as well do something with it. Also I want to write this kid !! Give him some life !! And of course the KuroFye angst might just triple from this. Also, the truth is that I started this one (in January 2018...), and it looks promising. I already have a structure for the first arc, so that’s neat.

Why I don’t want to : For one, it would be Long, and as mentioned earlier in this post, I don’t think I’d have the strength to go through this again. For two, TRC is a cool story that I like a lot, but I hardly think about it anymore most of the time.

W.I.T.C.H.

Whispers under my skin

What it is : A canon divergence in which Cedric (still in his kind librarian skin) seduces Matt as a way to get to Will, and it backfires horribly when he realizes he is loved by this human and Phobos will never love him like that, and he will never get what he really wants. So at the final battle in Meridian, instead of going full Super Saiyan Lizard, he betrays Phobos. He gets badly injured, but he also gains a half-freedom as thanks from Kandrakar, in the way of a human life (plus some minor magic if the girls allow him to) and a duty to help the Guardians in their mission.

Why I want to write it : Like many of my dream-inspired things, it is very weird, and for once I think it’s a very good thing. Yes I had a dream in which Matt and Cedric had A Thing, no don’t ask me how that happened I don’t control my brain. Anyway, I’ve always liked Cedric and I want to explore his character, and the dynamics he could form with the girls in such different circumstances. Also, I’d get to play around with the magic system, which is very cool.

Why I don’t want to : I re-read my w.i.t.c.h. comics maybe once every two years, and while some of them still make me cry (why did you have to die you filthy lizard man), it’s probably not enough of a basis to start a Long Fic. Also it would be Long and I am tired. And ! I don’t have nearly enough references at home and that means I’d have to look shit up, and the wiki is Not Great, from what I’ve seen.

[casualarsonist]

Dissociation - The Dillinger Escape Plan review

The Dillinger Escape Plan have always held a rather strange place in my musical upbringing. At the time I started listening to them, they were far and away the most extreme band I had in my catalogue. I’d been listening to Strapping Young Lad for years, for example, but for all the rage in the lyrics and the cacophonous wall-of-sound production, Devin Townsend can’t help but be a funny guy and there’s a core of melody and cohesion that colours all of the band’s music. It took me a long time to discover the melody and cohesion in DEP’s tracks, and I remember clearly the exact time and place in which I first heard the jazzy breakdown in the middle of Miss Machine’s Highway Robbery, and how, after listening to that track and that track alone for many months, I slowly started to unpeel the onion and find the layers that lay behind many of the other songs on the album. 

And if that jazzy breakdown was a pipeline into DEP’s world, their next full-length album, Ire Works, was the floodgates opened wide. It’s still, in my opinion, their most consistent album (quality-wise) by a mile, and not because it explores the melodic possibilities of their music more than any other release - it’s still mental, a record that can barely sit still for more than ten seconds before it pulls an about-face on the listener and races off in a completely different direction. But when it does this, you can always, always see the benefit of it doing so. It’s not about the music being digestible, it’s about the choices making sense for the song, and I understand that if I try to categorise the quality of a ‘mathcore’ release by how sensible it is I’ll be buried under a pile of internet manure, but I think that you can make an excellent mathcore album that is also fun and engaging. DEP did this, more than once, and it’s why they were one of the biggest bands in the genre. The intensity, the melody, the electronic experimentation, it all fit together within Ire Works as one great, unstoppable wave that flowed perfectly from start to finish. Even though it was rarely the same from one moment to the next, the band’s instincts as to when to hold onto an idea and when to let go were impeccable. It was a natural evolution from their previous effort, and a refinement of everything therein, and while the follow-up to Ire Works - Option Paralysis - is also a fantastic album, the band didn’t really manage to capture their own capabilities in such a pure and balanced form again. 

Which brings me to Dissociation - the final record the band will ever release after choosing to quit while they were ahead and avoid jumping the shark. I honestly can’t find the words to praise their decision enough, because it’s a rare occasion in which an incredibly talented group of people look at what they’re doing and what they’ve done, feel happy with their work, and say ‘y’know what? I don’t ever want to release a bad piece of art. We’ve had an excellent run, let’s end it here.’ As a creative, knowing when to stop is a hard thing to do because it’s almost impossible to judge the worth of your work when you’re inside it, and it’s impossible to know whether you’re capable of topping the things you’ve produced until you’ve tried. And it’s so typical of these guys to have the intelligence, dignity, talent, and class to know when to begin and when to end. They’ve not released a single bad song. They’ve released songs I don’t particularly like, but I can’t ever accuse them of releasing a single piece that can’t be accurately described as art. But in reading reviews about Dissociation, I’ve seen it said more than once that the album is a ‘culmination’ of their entire career, and on this point I completely disagree. Dissociation is, in my mind, more of a return to the beginning - the snake latching on to its own tail. With their last couple of releases in mind, their career reads less like an ascending line and more like a bell curve, which is something that I’ll admit disappointed me, but there’s caveats all over the place, so let me start at the start. 

It took me a long time to buy this album. I wasn’t particularly moved by its predecessor, One Of Us Is The Killer, and found myself returning only every to listen to the title song - a modern classic, to be sure - and I found the relentless, unfocused aggression to be something I struggled to connect with; the band’s abrasive anger has always been something I’ve had to fight to enjoy for the same reason that I don’t listen to a lot of hardcore punk, for example. But it was clear after OOUITK that there was a change in the air as they shed a lot of the musical influences that Mike Patton introduced to them way back when they were in-between singers after their first album, and recorded a fantastic and bizarre EP with him. They were returning, at least in my mind, to the place from whence they came - to the complex and brutal hardcore punk roots that had defined their debut studio album Calculating Infinity back in 1999. The difference between Calculating Infinity and Dissocation, however, is that Calculating Infinity had a sense of humour. Dissocation is a dark album. It’s a reeling, unrelenting, blast of white noise. The few experimental electronic touches that remain create an aura of despair, like the sound of a stalker following you down a subterranean tunnel. Melody has all but been wiped out, and the hooks that offered us plebs a peek through the door of the secret club have been more-or-less tossed away here - those few that remain just aren’t that great. Even the now-requisite last-track ‘melodic’ song is an alienating experience - a mournful dirge left right at the very end of the album, through a forest of dark rage that one must traverse in order to find the light, and it rings like a funeral hymn to mark the band’s end. 

This doesn’t make the album bad. But it does set it as far apart from the rest of their work as the gestational ideas of Calculating Infinity do. In other words, if you come to Dissociation looking for the DEP album to end all DEP albums, you’re not likely to find what you’re expecting. Instead, you’re going to find a conscious choice to make an album that stands apart as something other than another Ire Works, or OOUITK, and being a choice, there are consequences to accompany it - one of those being that it’s just not that fun to listen to. It takes the furious energy of their debut album, and the finesse and flawless production of their modern releases, and leaves most of the entertainment factor out of the equation. Even if I wanted to do it (which I don’t, because I fucking hate them), a song-by-song appraisal is hard to do here for the simple fact that tracks one-through-nine are, for all intents and purposes, kind of the same. ‘Song begins with raucous, frenetic riffing and screaming’, ‘song ends with raucous, frenetic riffing and screaming four or five minutes later’. You know exactly the type of DEP song I’m talking about, except take away a lot of the nuance, and what you’ve got left it is Dissociation. And I know for a fact that those last few sentences will drive purists up the wall, but I own every piece of music the band has released for commercial sale and I listen to them on a weekly basis, and I simply cannot penetrate Dissociation’s ironclad aural barrier. 

Perhaps, like all their releases, it is as I said - an onion to unpeel. But I’ve always found one of the most intriguing and endearing aspects of Dillinger to be the fact that no matter what they’re doing, no matter how extreme, or mainstream their sound, one can always immediately see the uniqueness and worth from song to song. 'Miss Machine’ has been compared in reviews to the type of music one would use to force a dictator out of his barricaded palace, but it’s actually a really eclectic and dynamic album - every song is clearly distinct from the last. So whether it’s different riffing, or syncopation, or melody, or tempo, there’s always something that defines even their most blistering tracks as an individual piece with individual inspirations behind the music. And while I feel like this waned a bit in recent releases, Dissociation is the first of their albums that I feel lacks that uniqueness for the largest part. And perhaps it’s a matter of changing internal influences - ex-drummer Chris Pennie once described guitarist and songwriter Ben Weinman as his ‘musical soulmate’, and was largely responsible for much of the electronic influence (among other things) up to and including Ire Works. Both he and his replacement, Gil Sharone, left the band to pursue more diverse musical endeavours. And as much as I revere the work of current drummer Billy Rymer, perhaps he simply didn’t have the same kind of say in the creation of the last three albums? Although none of these three albums can rightly be called bad, they each get progressively less memorable than the last, and say what you will about the band’s fluctuating accessibility, but it’s simply not as easy to discern between nine songs that all largely follow the same formula. 

And that’s what Dissociation is. A collection of songs that largely follow the same formula, with one reasonably interesting penultimate track, and then a funeral dirge. Of the band’s work, it is amongst the least inspiring, and it’s a depressing album, not for its lack of Dillinger’s typical idiosyncratic qualities, but for its utter lack of levity. Dissociation is a lasting reminder of the kind of ravenous energy the band had right until the end, but it’s probably not the kind of thing you put down and feel glad you listened to. 

5/10

[thejacketpocket]

Rain inside when it’s sunny out

As our species continues into not-so-slow march to extinction, here are some albums that set the mood and passed the time the best for me this past year.  Bandcamp links where applicable.

15. YG- Still Brazy

This was easily the most fun album of the year and it more or less opened with a biographical song about being shot. It’s also the album that has the Fuck Donald Trump song (highly skippable after the first listen), so there’s that. I was more taken with the way his hooks and chants run wide, gleeful circles around each other and how the elastic G-funk bass made summer driving a delight.

14. Kemper Norton- Toll

Based on the 1967 crash of an oil tanker off the coast of Cornwall—the biggest oil spill in UK history—this album sounds like something dark slowly washing ashore in wave after wave. It’s put together from bits of found sounds and ambient textures that are simultaneously claustrophobic and expansive, which occasionally piece themselves together into surprisingly affecting folk music. The net effect is incredibly lonely, and at times like a Belle and Sebastian album without all of the wonderful characters; just one person in an industrial world that’s slowly turning to rust.

Bandcamp link

13. David Bowie- Blackstar

I always expect this album to be a little more unbuttoned when I hear it—and I wish that it was the case—but it’s still more layered and complex than anyone could have hoped for (and has actually made me appreciate The Next Day significantly more). It’s an affecting, first-person narration of a man taking one last look around before abandoning modern life and material possessions and slowly disappearing back into the darkness of the forest. 

12. Eluvium- False Readings On

In what is surely the most fully realized work of composer Matthew Cooper, minimalist passages of strings, woodwinds, and piano are washed over by tape hiss and white noise, and angelic, operatic human voices advance and retreat, part Greek chorus and part gasp for air. Ostensibly an album inspired by themes of cognitive dissonance in modern society, it also serves as an elegy for civilization, sounding like a boat gently sailing toward the horizon, before finally falling off the edge of the world.

Bandcamp link

11. King- We Are KING

Three women reproduce the lush aesthetic of Al B. Sure!’s “Nite and Day” and slather it across an hour’s worth of brilliant songs (if something as fully realized as “Red Eye” or “Supernatural” had been on the Frank Ocean album it would have been ubiquitous), apply it to a no-budget “get in the van” career approach that’s somewhat rare in the R&B world, and fatten the album up with a down comforter’s worth of warmth and texture.

Bandcamp link

10. The Field- The Follower

The front half of this is probably the catchiest stuff Alex Willner has ever made; it’s repetition as pop, as earworms slip in and out, bobbing and sinking in the mix, and the overall compositions become so ingrained in your listening experience that you start subconsciously shifting the sounds around yourself. This is a fairly commonplace quality of such music, lifted here by the infectious nature of the two-and-three-note melodies and the spirited use of whispery vocal samples to effectively generate a ghost in the machine.

Bandcamp link

9. Conor Oberst- Ruminations

Who knows if this guy writes biographical songs or he’s just taking the piss, but this album sounds like the work of somebody who has had his ass kissed for a decade only to have everyone turn on him—which would not be far off from what actually happened to him. It’s a delightfully bitter, nihilistic, and thoroughly lonely album that also happens to contain his loosest and most immediately engaging songs in a decade. Note the fact that the kid who was once called a “next Dylan” has now made his most-Dylan sounding record yet in terms of presentation—all sparse guitar-and-harmonica kiss-offs—as a vehicle to chuckle sardonicly at the long-ago hype.

8. Miranda Lambert- The Weight of These Wings

Maybe her best album, maybe not, but certainly the best vehicle for her singing, with production stripped back just enough to make her voice sound glorious. The album maintains a consistent tone and general wit-and-wisdom vibe across a range of influences, as she tries on Nancy Sinatra's boots ("Pink Sunglasses"), Daniel Lanois' atmospherics ("Runnin' Just in Case"), or Patsy Cline's country soul ("To Learn Her"). Like most double albums, it could be condensed into a one-disc classic (leaning far heavier on material from “The Nerve” side), but it’s not like there’s any truly duff songs on it, either.

7. A Tribe Called Quest- We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service

I've just really missed the group hip-hop album, wherein a handful of MCs pass the mic back and forth—mid-song, mid-verse, mid-line, whatever—over the course of a full album, sounding like lifelong friends rather than brief business partners. There’s something idealistic about it, even if the album's MVP is not any of the MCs but the snare drum.

6. Not Waving- Animals

This is likely my most-listened album of the year, or certainly the one that fit my mindstate and routine in 2016 the best. With its highly catchy two-note melodies and impressionistic spattering of drums, it uses an industrial/punk ethos to sound broken yet alive in a particularly bracing fashion. In a broader sense, delving into Diagonal Records was probably my favorite musical anything this year as they had a lot of releases that I really dug (Powell, Nordic Mediterranean Organization, NHK yx Koyxen, Container).

Bandcamp link

5. Brandy Clark- Big Day in a Small Town

After a debut that didn’t quite do Brandy Clark’s songwriting justice, an extra sheen of production polish brings out the highlights in her compositions, confirming her as one of the best writers working—assuming this was not already confirmed—and a top-rate singer as well. Each song is a Russian nesting doll of melodies that uncork in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable, and her lyrics are flip, casually conversational, and a joy to memorize, say, and sing.

4. Julianna Barwick- Will

This fall, there was an Agnes Martin retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, which I found to be a profoundly moving exhibition. Many of Martin’s works in the show involve small, barely perceptible linework that assembles into patterns on white, cream, or oatmeal colored palettes. If you stand close to the work, you can see the artist’s hand, and get lost in her abstract forests of minimalist design. As you step back, these intricate patterns slowly fade to white, and the entire canvas become a single icy hue. This feeling of erasing yourself as a viewer is invigorating, and for me a much-needed sensation. That’s how I feel when I listen to this album, Barwick’s best since 2010’s masterful The Magic Place.

Bandcamp link

3. Cass McCombs- Mangy Love

This is an invertebrate album that squiggles into new shapes and colors every time you return it, wrapping itself in lush, Van Morrison-like arrangements or squirming away with Grateful Dead-like noodling. Perhaps the best lyricist working today, Cass’ oblique wordplay seemingly rearranges itself into new sentences with each listen, oscillating between storytelling and stream-of-consciousness, surreal and plainspoken, metaphorical and mundane. There’s an angry political heart if you want to hold up a stethoscope to the album, but you can also just settle into the instrumentation, the myriad details, and bits of wry, offbeat humor.

Bandcamp link

2. Solange- A Seat at the Table

I’m not the one to be adding more to what’s already been said about this album, but it’s the rare album to feel bigger than the sum of its parts, giving the impression of something other than an album: a totem of sorts. Discounting country music, “Mad” is probably the song I listened to the most. The second Lil Wayne verse is a heartbreaker every time, and the composition as a whole is therapeutic—a massage that bores deeper and deeper until it hits the spot that releases all of your tensions. The whole album is like that, really.

1. Danny Brown- Atrocity Exhibition

Danny Brown’s pitch-black worldview and performative anxiety felt more J.G. Ballard than Joy Division, but both fit the bill. No album sounded more like 2016 to me: manic, hyperventilating, lips curled into an inverted smile, arms flailing, running downhill toward the smoke and flames. It also cheered me up every time I listened to it.