woo, the first album of the month! call it cheating, but i listened to this album a couple months ago. but it’s the best album to discuss first, because when it comes to describing music i like, this really hits the nail on the head. i’ll be honest, like pretty much everything about this album. new plastic ideas is the second studio album by the underrated olympia-based band unwound, released in 1994.
what do you get when you combine post-hardcore, noise rock, and emo, along with a DIY indie rock ethos? you get new plastic ideas. you get an album that’s sharp, angular, and cathartic.
as a whole, this album is angsty, transportive, and dark. it’s cynical, bitter, messy, and nihilistic. but there’s a kind of sophistication that runs throughout. you still have that raw creative energy, the occasional mistakes and roughness, but everything feels more intentional and precise. the guitars alternate between noisy, atmospheric, and melodic; the bass is driving and prominent; and the drums bring out the right amount of intensity just when the song needs it. the guitars are definitely the highlight. the vocals and lyrics deserve some credit, too; while they’re a bit buried under the rest of the instrumentation and i wouldn’t call them masterwork, there are moments of genuine cleverness and emotion in the lyrics. and i mean, how cool is it to use “let her” as a homophone for “letter” in a song called “Envelope” which also happens to be about isolation and a possible breakup?
perhaps my favorite part about new plastic ideas is that each track is just great. the songwriting isn’t weak anywhere, and no song can really stand out because each song is just great and unique in its own way. if i had to choose a few standout tracks, they would be “Hexenzsene“, “All Souls Day“, and “Fiction Friction“. “Hexenzsene” is a melodic, almost pop-like song that almost sounds daringly optimistic, and soars into intensity before mellowing back into tranquility. “All Souls Day” is a blast of noise, tempo changes, dissonance, and occultism. “Fiction Friction” is a slow finale that turns from agony to oblivion. and i could keep talking. i could keep talking about “Arboretum“, “Abstraktions“, and pretty much every other track on this album, but that’s just something you’ll have to experience for yourself.
tracklist:
q-street 