Beth Orton's video for "Conceived" is so cute! I like the funny green muppet best.
Link via stereogum.
Posts categorized "Music"
January 23, 2006
January 21, 2006
"We give it up, and then they take it away..."
Two songs I can't get enough of in the past couple of days, & have been listening to somewhat obsessively—through headphones at the office, through my somewhat tinny computer speakers while sitting around at home, through another pair of headphones on my iPod while walking down the street to the grocery store tonight.
Destroyer, "Rubies" (listen) [1]
I've never really heard any Destroyer before, & really my only context was from a quote from PopMatters' review of last year's Tenement Halls album, which I remembered because I thought it was really funny [2]:
And even if I was a huge Rock*A*Teens fan from back in the day, how many Tenement Halls records would me and my seven fellow fan club members realistically buy? ... So even if Dan Bejar of Destroyer thinks Rock*A*Teens were the bloody Herman's Hermits of North Carolina, that won't do much for someone who's listening to Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells right now.
But so the first time I heard "Rubies"—which song is, btw, 9 and 1/2 minutes long—I was kind of non-committal about it, because it just felt too long & meandering. But then I found myself thinking about it, not in the way that a really catchy track gets stuck in your head, but in this somewhat nagging way that made me want to hear it again.
& so I listened to it again, and now I actually really love it. Bowie-esque intro + incessantly recurring guitar part == very, very fine by me. And then there's my favorite part, at about the four-minute mark, that "... your blues" that almost sounds like it's sighed, rather than sung.
Girls Aloud, "Biology" (listen)
Oddly enough this is another song that I didn't really love at first. Which is, frankly, incredibly odd, because it's one of the most immediately appealing pop singles of 2005 [3] (I was much more into "Models" last year, is my excuse). But "Biology" also almost suffers from multiple personality disorder, & that may be what put me off at first, but is now just why I love it so:
It starts as some sort of bluesy stomp, heavy piano, &c.—and at about a minute in, it turns into this amazing dance pop, all shuffling drums & keyboards, leading up into the shimmering chorus. In fact, I don't know why I'm even bothering to describe it, as this review in Stylus does a much better job:
Beginning like Meg trying to convince Jack White to go to a lap-dance bar with her, it then crashes head-on into light-as-air Europop, the song is about menstruation or pheromones or something, and OH MY GOD THAT CHORUS is exactly how I imagine ascending into Heaven to feel like, floating yet forceful, it nearly snaps your neck with its little finger.
And yes, that's basically it. It's incredible.
[1] Note that the two "listen" links in this post link to The Hype Machine, which is just an awesome resource for finding streamable music along with song reviews on music blogs.
[2] The context for this particular quote being that Dan Bejar (who, as I understand it, basically is Destroyer) wrote the promotional copy for Tenement Halls that appears on the Merge Records site.
[3] And, as luck would have it, it appears on an album that's seen only UK & European release as of yet (Chemistry). I find it absolutely fucking maddening that albums by some of the best current UK pop artists—Sugababes, Rachel Stevens, Girls Aloud, &c.—don't generally get US release.
January 19, 2006
January 15, 2006
"Ladies, let me tell you about myself..."
I was looking at my last.fm weekly charts today [1], and it struck me that one of the things I love most about last.fm is that, by recording what I'm listening to, it's essentially a recorder of my moods. Like a lot of people (I assume?), I tend to listen to music that reinforces my moods, so my list of recently played tracks on last.fm tends to be very indicative of how I'm feeling. [2]
& so I'm reminded of this quote from High Fidelity:
I like being able to see how I got from Deep Purple to Howlin' Wolf in twenty-five moves ... If I want to play, say, Blue by Joni Mitchell [3], I have to remember that I bought it for someone in the autumn of 1983, and thought better of giving it to her, for reasons I don't really want to go into. Well, you don't know any of that, so you're knackered, really, aren't you? You'd have to ask me to dig it out for you, and for some reason I find this enormously comforting.
From Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, p. 55.
And, yes, so: I could tell you how I got from ABBA: Gold & Pet Sounds—two of the saddest pop albums ever—to the bitter & confessional nastiness of The Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen, to the Dusty-esque resignedness of Cat Power's The Greatest. In four days!
But I don't really need to, because my last.fm profile says it all.
[1] As I am wont to do, periodically.
[2] And of course, it strikes me that my blog can do much the same thing, on a less granular scale—which is, of course, one of the things I love most about it. To whit: this post and this post, both from this week.
[3] Though, I have to say, I prefer the example in the movie, which was Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide."
Nick Hornby does seem to have some sort of weird Joni Mitchell thing, doesn't he? (c.f. also About a Boy, which has loads of Joni Mitchell references.)
January 13, 2006
"You're supposed to have the answers..."
I'm so, so impressed & astonished by Cat Power's new album, The Greatest.
After trying to like Cat Power a number of times—5 or 6 years ago, my sister was really into her, and so on & so forth—I'd sort of written her off as a somewhat annoying, ironic-cover-singing, Joni Mitchell-esque [1] folk-bullshit singer.
Which is why I was shocked—shocked!—to listen to her new album and hear... Dusty in Memphis, part II! It's amazing: those Memphis horns, that gorgeous soul guitar & bass, those backing harmonies.
And "The Greatest," with its Moon River-alike strings, may be one of the best songs I've heard in months.
[1] Which, in my book, is really the kicker: I really, really dislike Joni Mitchell, especially that song about the fucking parking lots.
January 10, 2006
"I've been very aware you've been patient with me..."
I can rest peacefully now, my prayers being answered: I like Pet Sounds. [1]
For years, I've had this thing about Pet Sounds, because it's always at the top of greatest-rock/pop-album-ever lists, &c., and I'm always just like, eh?
What finally brought me around was my love for Dios, & by extension, their love for the Beach Boys. & but also my realization/appreciation of the extreme sadness of Pet Sounds. The hummed (?) melody in "You Still Believe in Me"—which Dios nicks wholesale in "Fifty Cents"—has to be one of the most haunting melodies ever.
So, then: I am content.
[1] Indie-Yuppie, moi? "You might be an indie-yuppie if you put on a CD and secretly pray that you'll like it."
January 05, 2006
Cry me a river—of money!
Oh shit, BillG and JT together at CES! [1]
Announcing MTV's new music service, Urge, together, onstage at Gates' keynote at CES. Best keynote EVAR!
[1] Thanks to Anil for bringing this to my attention.
January 01, 2006
"I want to see some PopoZão!"
Just a short update to my post the other day, rounding up some hot PopoZão link action:
- Download PopoZão from stereogum!
- Sing along with this transcription of the lyrics!
- Just to round it out, enjoy the urban dictionary definition for "PopoZão".