In my last entry I said I’d write about my sourdough starter. That was a lie. I don’t want to write about that. To be honest to you, my readership, I haven’t been sure about what to write on, and I have also been putting off a new entry because working on this blog was pissing me off! I thought it would be fun to try and build a blog most from scratch, but it (shockingly) has been very annoying. Fortunately, I had a mostly free day at work today, so I spent some time finally reformatting things here with the extremely easy-to-use Gutenberg Blocks by Kadence.

Now that that’s out of the way, I hope to be able to be creating more frequent entries on this site. As I fall asleep most night, I am often gripped with ideas, opening sentences, and topics on which I could be writing. Of course once the morning comes and I turn to my phone, these ideas quickly evaporate. But, I know they’re in there somewhere! And I won’t stop until I bore out each and every one from the inner crevices of my skull! Thats a Peter Promise™.

In the meantime, I’d like to turn your attention to Diamond Jubilee, the newest album from Cindy Lee, the alter-ego of indie musician Patrick Flegel. I admittedly did not know who he was before hearing about this album on RateYourMusic, where it’s currently ranked as the Number 1 album of 2024(!), but now that I’ve been introduced, I’m eager to hear more!

The album is special for a few reasons, one being its barrier to entry. It is currently only available for download on a janky Geocities site (rich coming from me, given how this site looks), and for streaming through a 2-hour Youtube Video. This alone was enough to pique my interest, and after hearing the hypnotizing guitar riff fade in on the opening track, I was convinced to give it a closer listen.

It might not sound like a significant barrier, but after years of consuming almost all of my music through Spotify streaming, it felt like a real commitment to go in and download the album, correct all the Metadata, and reupload it to my Spotify Local Files on both my phone and Laptop for easier listening. In fact, I have been wondering if this required effort has in turn colored my experience listening to the album, making me give it more listens than I might usually give the standard Indie Rock Fare released every Friday.

Regardless, I think that even if this album was available to stream, I’d still be enjoying it. Over its two hour run time it covers a lot of ground. From crooning oldies inspired ballads to orchestral scores and ambient club mixes, it feels as though Cindy Lee is covering every possible source of inspiration and covering it all in a loving blanket of grungy lo-fi production and reverb. On my first few listens, I was reminded of Alex G’s Trick. His lo-fi/Bedroom Pop masterpiece scratches a lot of the same itches in my brian, and covers much of the same ground. This album is, however, much much more ambitious.

Is that ambition entirely successful? I’m not sure yet. Two hours is a long ass run time for any album, and even though I’ve been listening to it pretty constantly for the last three days, the back half of this project still feels pretty unfamiliar to me. Regardless, I think this is a special project that honestly feels like something most people could get something out of. I’ll embed the video below- check it out, and I’ll be back soon.