Antitrust: It's about computers
I'm now qualified to say that it's also pretty awful.
Music isn't very exciting for me right now. I haven't listened to any new albums lately and I don't have a whole lot to say about any older releases. Usually, I find that the solution to musical boredom of this nature is the radio, so just last week, I started flipping through a bunch of random pop and hip-hop stations to get a better feel for what's hot these days. Unfortunately, even after a week, I still don't think I have a good feel for what's going on in the world of U.S. radio. Radio stations these days have an annoying habit of not identifying artists or song titles. Even worse, I've only been listening on my drive up to work, when silly, obnoxious morning talk shows dominate the air waves. It's all been pretty disappointing so far, but it can't hurt for me to summarize my recent re-introduction to Denver radio.
The Good: (In no particular order)
1. The revamped 102.1 playing Daft Punk's "Digital Love" and Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At" in the same morning.
2. The new Nelly single.
3. No Alicia Keys.
4. No Creed.
5. No Moby.
6. Denver's country music stations are hilarious.
7. No Doubt's "Hella Good" (and I am NOT a No Doubt fan).
8. The Peak is dead.
9. Eminem.
The Bad:
1. Everything that the revamped 102.1 plays except Daft Punk's "Digital Love" and Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At".
2. There's now only one hip-hop station.
3. No legitimate oldies station (maybe I just don't know what it is).
4. Morning talk shows.
5. Blackstreet's "No Diggity" (not terrible, but a little too old for me to hear it as often as I do).
6. I still haven't heard the Tweet single, which is at the same time incredible and incredibly sad.
7. The end of the age of Timbaland?
8. Severe Britney and boy band drought. This wasteland of second rate pop stars doesn't cut it.
9. The current state of guitar based pop in general.
The Horrible:
1. 93.3, Denver's official Gorillaz fan club.
"Sometimes the bat is just a bat"
(Don't read if you haven't seen "The Natural". Spoils the whole movie.)
Ok, I'm not even going to touch this. An amusing read, but well...uh...yeah...whatever you say mister.
I was finally able to find a place online that sells Kelis'
Wanderland for a reasonable price. I've listened to the album twice now, and the first thing that strikes me is how blatantly unedgy her vocals are this time around. The spunk that she exhibited on
Kaleidoscope doesn't seem to be present anymore. While I understand that this second album is supposed to be more autobiographical, I don't think it helps her cause to eliminate the role-playing elements if it means turning down the attitude as well. For me, that was part of what distinguished her as a real talent in my eyes, not just another mediocre voice who's fortunate enough to work with a super producer. I did eventually realize that she was indeed a fine singer, emotive, daring, and fun, with an excellent sense of timing and stage presence, but I still think the sassiness she had shown on
Kaleidoscope was one of the most identifiable qualities of her recording persona. I should note that this particular complaint of mine is actually pretty miniscule when considering the album as a whole. The rest of the music is of course incredibly dense and nice to listen to. I'm just not yet at the stage where I can anticipate the flow of the music well enough to determine whether it's great or merely good. It took me a little while to fully appreciate
Kaleidoscope, so I'm hoping that this new change in vocal style is just something for me to nitpick about until I REALLY understand what's going on.
What's happening with the new Sigur Ros album?
The relevent parts:
"Well, we're kind of bored with making it so we want the album to come out ASAP, September - October 2002 even. What we have still to do is Kjartan's guitar and organ parts and then all vocals. We have a month to do all that as we have booked a studio in England to mix the album. We booked Peter Gabriel's Real World studio in Bath from the 15th of June."
Yay!
"I would say that the main difference is that this time the production will be less polished. The sound will be much more bare and alive. And far fewer little slick things and much less sweet stuff. I think playing the songs a lot at concerts and then recording them hasn't been a very thrilling experience for us. I think next time we'll record the songs as we make them. Try to keep them fresh for us."
Hmmm...I'm a little curious what he means here. I guess I never really considered anything off of
Agaetis Byrjun as "polished". Most of their songs are drenched in enough of a thick haze that it keeps the music from sounding overly clean. I hope they're not trying to say that they want a more stripped down sound. I think what made
Agaetis Byrjun sound so animated was the interplay between all those earth-shaking low frequencies, fuzzed-out roars, and pretty orchestral elements. It was a sound made up of extremes, and I'm not sure if I see it working with an increased emphasis on rawness. The "less sweet stuff" thing concerns me as well, especially if it means less "Svefn g englar" and "Staralfur" and more "Flugufrelsarinn". That can't really be a good thing, can it?
I once put forth the notion that Smog's
Dongs of Sevotion was better than
Knock Knock. Just let it be said that I'm not really sure what I was thinking then.
Wish I could say more, but it's really as simple as that.
