Failure - Fantastic Planet [Alternative/Space Grunge]

Like many other snake people, the last five to ten years or so have been a gradual rediscovery of the 90s for me - I used to hate Smashing Pumpkins, wasn't big on Nirvana, wouldn't go near the R&B scene, and the electronics and graphics cultures being mined recently for vaporwave A E S T H E T I C seemed tacky and useless. That being said, I rediscovered the sad, bittersweet, heavy, and distorted sounds of alt and grunge bands (among other things) and it really scratched a good musical itch. But by now I naively thought I had juiced the 90s and early 2000s for everything I wanted until I found this album. It's one of those serendipitous records that fills a psycho-emotional desire that had been scraping around inside me all this month.

I first listened to "Another Space Song" and I immediately fell into it - the bass growling and elevating the guitars and vocals into a wide and washed out soundscape swirling around your head like a heavy opiate. The vocals are perfect, that bittersweet whisper resigning at the end of each phrase, but still gently holding onto the note like an abandoned wild animal.

More so than any album out of this genre and decade I've heard, Fantastic Planet, completely fills my ears and mind - slow, plodding, reflective, complacent, visceral, and just absolutely thick. What makes it more impressive is: 1. They're a three piece band, and 2. Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards produced this album (as well as their previous two) on their own. To me the album is excellent, and three songs on it - Another Space Song, Saturday Savior, and Stuck On You - absolutely floor me.

If you haven't already heard, or if you're in a somewhat sad mood, take a lil listen...