Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
I don't generally upload music that's already available elsewhere to my channel, but I've gotta make an exception for this one. It's just one of my favorite albums of all time! Recorded by a 20-21 year old Austin Lombardo, I love Money is the very point where Shrimp Olympics evolves from teenage Austin screwing around on a reel2reel, to a true titan of home recording. He employs sprawling, beautiful soundscapes, jazzy instrumentation and LOTS of overdubbing to create this wonderful, beautiful psychic soup of sorts. It's fun, rockin' and every song is catchy enough to get stuck in your head for days on end!
Starting the album, the scratchy, abrasive flutes of "sun song" may take some getting used to, but the song found beneath is fantastic! The ending refrain, "trying my best for you" still randomly pops into my head from time to time four years later! The next few tracks flow into one-another, creating a sort of thematic and musical overture for the album at hand. The tracks "romantic love", a sardonic-yet-saccharinely-sappy love ballad and mission statement "australia" are two certified hits, resonant in their irreverence, but still soulful enough to form a genuine connection.
Side A of the album ends with Tomato Pie, an easy-to-forget, but very fun soft rock tune.
The second side picks up with the all too short "sometimes", an airy, misty-eyed song of longing. Perhaps it's only a coincidence, but the brevity of the "you came into my mind last night" refrain leaves me dearly craving more. It's Austin at his most raw, especially on such an irreverent album, and in anyone else's hands it might seem out of place, but Austin somehow manages to land it. It's a beautiful, poignant moment, and slowly fades out, the emotion washing over us. It quickly brings us back upward, with "alright where am i", "theme from a dream" and "my favorite color", three smooth jazzy pop tunes that wouldn't sound too out of place on any 1972 radio station.
The tracks "wet brain" and "sometimes (reprise)" bring us two guitar-driven tracks for a change, the former being the odd choice of a lead single, and the latter a much more upbeat reworking.
The album ends with its longest, most bittersweet song. The swingin' oddly tropical-flavored Plum is a song about a dying relationship and its consequences. It's a song about times of change, the fear involved, and the casualties of love. It hit me at a sort of perfect time in my life, and in fact what was in hindsight a similar time for the world as a whole. The end of 2019 was a time where everything was looking up, and it felt a change for the better was coming on soon.
0:00 sun song
3:21 i love money (pt. 1)
5:04 the shape of norway to come
7:50 i love money (pt. 2)
8:28 absolutely fantastic style
11:15 romantic love
13:35 frustrated due to
14:51 australia
18:03 now im remember
18:17 tomato pie
21:05 sometimes
23:40 alright where am i
25:06 mellowtron
25:38 theme from a dream
29:06 my favorite color
31:07 wet brain
33:03 sometimes (reprise)
34:19 plum
Buy this album and more at: shrimpolympics.bandcamp.com
I don't generally upload music that's already available elsewhere to my channel, but I've gotta make an exception for this one. It's just one of my favorite albums of all time! Recorded by a 20-21 year old Austin Lombardo, I love Money is the very point where Shrimp Olympics evolves from teenage Austin screwing around on a reel2reel, to a true titan of home recording. He employs sprawling, beautiful soundscapes, jazzy instrumentation and LOTS of overdubbing to create this wonderful, beautiful psychic soup of sorts. It's fun, rockin' and every song is catchy enough to get stuck in your head for days on end!
Starting the album, the scratchy, abrasive flutes of "sun song" may take some getting used to, but the song found beneath is fantastic! The ending refrain, "trying my best for you" still randomly pops into my head from time to time four years later! The next few tracks flow into one-another, creating a sort of thematic and musical overture for the album at hand. The tracks "romantic love", a sardonic-yet-saccharinely-sappy love ballad and mission statement "australia" are two certified hits, resonant in their irreverence, but still soulful enough to form a genuine connection.
Side A of the album ends with Tomato Pie, an easy-to-forget, but very fun soft rock tune.
The second side picks up with the all too short "sometimes", an airy, misty-eyed song of longing. Perhaps it's only a coincidence, but the brevity of the "you came into my mind last night" refrain leaves me dearly craving more. It's Austin at his most raw, especially on such an irreverent album, and in anyone else's hands it might seem out of place, but Austin somehow manages to land it. It's a beautiful, poignant moment, and slowly fades out, the emotion washing over us. It quickly brings us back upward, with "alright where am i", "theme from a dream" and "my favorite color", three smooth jazzy pop tunes that wouldn't sound too out of place on any 1972 radio station.
The tracks "wet brain" and "sometimes (reprise)" bring us two guitar-driven tracks for a change, the former being the odd choice of a lead single, and the latter a much more upbeat reworking.
The album ends with its longest, most bittersweet song. The swingin' oddly tropical-flavored Plum is a song about a dying relationship and its consequences. It's a song about times of change, the fear involved, and the casualties of love. It hit me at a sort of perfect time in my life, and in fact what was in hindsight a similar time for the world as a whole. The end of 2019 was a time where everything was looking up, and it felt a change for the better was coming on soon.
0:00 sun song
3:21 i love money (pt. 1)
5:04 the shape of norway to come
7:50 i love money (pt. 2)
8:28 absolutely fantastic style
11:15 romantic love
13:35 frustrated due to
14:51 australia
18:03 now im remember
18:17 tomato pie
21:05 sometimes
23:40 alright where am i
25:06 mellowtron
25:38 theme from a dream
29:06 my favorite color
31:07 wet brain
33:03 sometimes (reprise)
34:19 plum
Buy this album and more at: shrimpolympics.bandcamp.com
