Non-Prog Album Reviews

Johannes Brahms - A German Requiem (1962)

Genres: Romanticism, Requiem, Choral

Technically speaking, according to RYM, this record is a triple LP, though if it were released today it’d probably just be a double. In fact re-releases that do come in vinyl format are doubles and not triples. I guess the art of making vinyl records wasn't too understood by this point in the 60s still so companies thought that hour long recordings should be triples and not doubles for whatever reason. Or perhaps vinyl formats were a lot smaller. I don’t know, I am a music geek not a music production geek.

Anyways, A German Requiem, or more accurately Ein Deutsches Requiem, was a piece made by Johannes Brahms and was composed between 1865 to 1868. It’s his longest work, being an hour and 9 minutes long, with most of the parts of the suite ranging from 10 minutes plus, except for movements 3 and 4; Herr, lehre doch mich, and Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen.

There are a lot of different versions of this piece out there, but I am looking at the 1962 recording…mostly because it's the only recording I have heard.

Honestly this piece is really good. As a more casual fan of classical, this score has quite a lot to love. It feels very emotional, dramatic, beautiful, and even a little haunting in certain cases. I think the recording done by The Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus does a great job showcasing that, with their lively choirs and beautiful flow through the piece’s instrumentation.

However, I am sort of not a big fan of the last two movements, all things considered. They’re not bad by any means, but they feel like they just drag a bit too long for me. Since I haven’t really listened to any other recording of this classical piece, I don’t quite have a basis, but it does seem like Brahms was weirdly trying to extend those movements in a less than natural flow, which makes me get a bit of an off kilter ending to it all.

Though, to offset this, I really enjoy the production on this album. I don’t quite know if it is because I am listening to this album on streaming and that’s why this album sounds really solid in its mixing, but for early 1960s standards this is very stellar! I can see myself buying this during that time period, putting it on, and being blown away by how good it sounds.

For its worth, A German Requiem is a pretty great classical piece in my opinion, and the 1962 recording of it is equally as solid. There are a lot of great classical pieces out there, and I think that Johannes Brahms did manage to create one of them. Would I say it's the best? No, not by a long shot. But I certainly don’t think it's bad by any means. A fairly strong recommendation from me.

Best track: Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras

Worst tracks: Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, Selig sind die Toten

Villagers - Becoming a Jackal (2010)

Genres: Indie Pop, Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Pop

Rating: 4/5

Indie folk is pretty cool. Same with indie pop. Combine them and you got a recipe for pretty great things. That’s where Conor O'Brien’s Villagers steps in with their 2010 debut release of Becoming a Jackal to show this great combo meal in a tightly knit package.

Never heard of this band before, but after listening to this album quite a bit it became a hit in my ears. I think what I enjoy most about this record is how it delivers its folk aspects. A lot of indie folk groups, at least from what I have heard from the genre, have a more melancholic energy that goes through each track. However, here, I found this record to be more jolly. Sure, it does have some more moody moments, but this certainly sounds more like a happy experience, which I do enjoy quite a lot. I don’t know, I just like positive emotions.

I also like the concept of the album. It's a very loose concept, but it is essentially about a guy becoming a jackal, as the title suggests, with Pieces kind of giving way that the guy did manage to get what he wanted. As someone who enjoys transformation, in both art and literature, I knew I’d get a kick out of this one. I bet becoming a jackal would be fun. It's like becoming a werewolf, but cooler and slimmer. Honestly if I were to become a jackal, I wanna be a black backed jackal, because they look the coolest out of any jackal breeds.

Now I will say I do think this album, while having good music, isn’t the most original in its instrumentation and structure. Honestly at times I thought ‘am I listening to a Decemberist album?’ plenty of times. Sometimes with the more singer songwriter aspects, I thought I accidentally started playing a Sufjan Stevens album. I still think the music is pretty good, all things considered, but I also feel like Villagers wear their inspirations a bit more than just on their sleeves–their whole arms if you will.

Other than that this is a pretty great debut album. I wouldn’t say it's the best of the best of debuts out there, but it ain’t bad by any means. Does make me interested in checking out more of their music, that’s for sure. It's a fun time to be sure, especially if you are looking for more indie folk and indie pop stuff.

Best tracks: I Saw The Dead, Ship of Promises, The Pact (I'll Be Your Fever)

Worst track: To Be Counted Among Men

I hear the phrase "Cash Grab" a lot .  There really isn't a whole lot of money to be made in this game anymore, at this point in time.  Streams and Downloads don't pay much.  Perhaps FISH has enough draw, but not sure.

Isn't Fish in the progarchives database though?

Dapper~Blueberries wrote: ... Johannes Brahms - A German Requiem (1962) Genres: Romanticism, Requiem, Choral ...

C418 - Wanderstop (2025)

Genres: Ambient, Video Game Music, Impressionism, Modern Classical

Rating: 4/5

I never reviewed a video game soundtrack before, and I most certainly haven’t reviewed a nearly 4 hour long album before. However there is a first for everything.

C418 is a very popular musician in the video game scene, mostly because of his two soundtrack albums for Minecraft, that being Volume Alpha and Volume Beta, which are both pretty good albums that had captured a bit of my childhood as I used to play a ton of Minecraft back in the day. However he is also a bit well known in the prog house scene, with his albums of 72 Minutes Of Fame, 148, and Excursions being quite popular in those circles. Now, though, C418 decided to go back into the sphere of video games with an album for the tea based farming and life simulator, Wanderstop.

Immediately the album grabbed my attention for its length, and through the music I found quite the interesting display of old C418 sensibilities, as well as some delicate moments that remind me a bit of works from Brian Eno, or even Philip Glass. C418 is an undeniably great composer when it comes to more impressionistic and ambient works, with scores that range from surprisingly uplifting, to just plain quirky. The Wanderstop soundtrack had my attention in a way, even if that is a bit harder said than done for albums of this length.

The length is a tiny bit of a problem I’d say, mostly because sitting through 3 hours and 30 minutes of ambient and classical music does kind of get a bit tiring for me. Any three hour experiences for any music can, but I think listening to this kind of music for three hours straight is a bit of a toll order. Legit I had to sometimes take a bit of a break from this album whenever I listened to it again because it really does feel that long. I kind of wished C418 did what he did for the Minecraft soundtrack and split the soundtrack up into multiple albums to make the listening experience flow a bit better.

Plus, while the score is quite dynamic for its sake, I will say it's very clear this is a C418 album with his...let’s just say tendencies. His style is really good, but sometimes I feel like some of the songs feel very samey from one another, and at times it also seems like he is trying to make the next big Minecraft album with some of the sounds, particularly that marimba that sometimes shows up, harkening back to that familiar block edge that he is most known for.

I think a great video game soundtrack is one that can be both dynamic for both the composer and the listener. For example, one of my favorite video game OSTs has to be the OMORI soundtrack made primarily by Pedro Silva. That soundtrack is arguably just as long as Wanderstop, but yet it has a ton of different styles and even genres to make it work well within its favor, from the moodily rocking It Means Everything, to the fast paced and heart stopping Tee-Hee Time, to the more sinister and creepy Your Catastrophes.

While comparing a soundtrack meant for a more slice of life game to one for a psychological horror RPG might be a bit weird, I am purely using it as an example for what I wish to see more for an OST. Obviously I am not expecting something hard rocking or thumping for a soundtrack like this, but I did sort of wish for more tempo and maybe even some genre changes. There are surprisingly a lot of genres in ambient music, and I wished C418 would’ve experimented more for this soundtrack. This is also a bit of a complaint I have with the Minecraft OSTs, but due to my rose tinted glasses I cannot be mad at them too much.

However, while I haven’t played the game (yet), I have seen footage, and despite my problems with the score I do think it works quite well with the actual gameplay. It's a cozy life simulator based around tea and farming, with some postmodern aspects like mental health and change. Maybe one day when I buy the game I might end up truly loving the soundtrack in the context of the actual game, but who knows.

Wanderstop, despite its length and some of the problems it has in dynamics, is a fairly great soundtrack album from someone who is best known for his works on more cozy simulator and sandbox games. While I won’t say it is essential, I do recommend at least checking a few songs on the album out, as there is some quite nice stuff to be found on here.

Best tracks: Introduction, Wanderstop Part 2, Photogrammetry, Ginger Part 1, Income Deductions, Cinnamon Part 3, Business Trigonometry, Boredom, Farewell

Worst tracks: N/A