Green

Today's Music of the Day is R.E.M.'s Green. No R.E.M. history lesson, just music talk today.

I rather like this album, though it probably isn't my favorite R.E.M. album. Stylistically, it is kind of across the board. There are some straightforward rock songs ("Orange Crush" and "Turn You Inside Out"), some more jangly emotional songs ("You Are the Everything", "Hairshirt") and some oddly dour tracks ("World Leader Pretend", "I Remember California"). Then, of course, there's "Stand", the song Michael Stipe hates. "You Are the Everything" is a sweet song, and anyone worth their salt likes "Orange Crush". Some of the songs just seem to lack direction ("Hairshirt", again), though.

The album as a whole is certainly 'literate' in that it isn't Def Leppard, but it seems to have slipped into a simpler style than its predecessors. Given how political and driving the previous album, Document was, it was hard to look on this as being a real step forward, despite some strong songwriting. The more polished R.E.M. of Out of Time and Automatic For The People wasn't really present yet, but some of the songs on Green are creeping towards that sound. Again, I think Green is a solid album, but it didn't have the personal touch that the earlier works did. Though I like the albums that would follow Green, albeit to varying degrees, it's hard not to look on this album as a bit of a fall, as something we settled for but couldn't really love.

In other news:
I need some more music, after all. And I'm really sore today.

Witching Hour

Today's Music That Had All Sorts Of Potential But Only Kind Of Lives Up To It is Ladytron's Witching Hour. Now, first, let us get some things straight. This album is pretty good, but I don't know that it really lives up to its potential. It has a lot of things going for it - some wicked songs to say the least, but also some clunkers.

My first exposure to this album was somehow hearing "Destroy Everything You Touch" on Myspace or BetterPropaganda. Or maybe it was on KURE? I don't remember. I was able to download it on BetterPropaganda, which made me very interested. It was electronic and dark, with this sexy vaguely synthesized lady voice droning over the top of it all. It made me think of sexy lady robots laying waste to an entire city, just marching down the street in perfect time wearing go-go boots and carrying flamethrowers and rocket launchers. Um, anyhow, the rest of the album is kind of like that. There are some more mellow songs that don't quite match the energy of "DEYT", but a few good ones as well. The album kind of borders on quasi-European electronica but sometimes becomes its own parody, like good hard rock (Iron Maiden, I'm looking at you). I guess I wish the album was able to maintain its intensity more than it does, for it just sort of peters out. Especially in the second half of the album. Still, Ladytron does make fairly interesting electronic music that is sometimes laid back and sometimes rockin'. I hope that in the future they'll be able to capture the magic which they only held fleetingly on this album.

In other news:
I can't believe I didn't blog about Ladytron before now. Maybe I did? Who knows. I've got to get some of my old music back, like Mogwai and Sam Roberts and the Secret Machines. Damn it!

American Recordings (I)

Today's Music That We're Lucky To Have is Johnny Cash's American Recordings. Now I won't go into a great deal of history about this album, and its follow-ups, but there's a pretty good story about it, and how Johnny Cash was coerced into making music again when he had pretty much settled into retirement. To make a long story short, we're fortunate to have this music. This was the first of five 'American' albums; the last of them was recorded not long before Johnny passed away.

And it's good! It's pretty simple stuff, mostly just Johnny playing guitar and singing. The first song, "Delia's Gone", is a nice ballad about a man who shot his lover, a sweet tune. The entire album is less morose but maintains the same simple tone. It's unironic, earnest music that I think should appeal to everyone (though maybe not all the time; I wouldn't put this on during a party unless I wanted everyone to leave). So give this album a listen. I know that taste in music is subjective, so you may not like it as well as things that are louder or easy to dance to or that have more clever 'pop culture' references. But then again, you might also be a tool.

In other news:
I'm not quite there but I'm close.

Pink

Today's Music of the Day is Pink by some group called Boris. I don't really know anything about Boris, save for the ten minutes or so I've been listening to their stuff.

Boris is pretty heavy. Really loud, semi-cacophonous music that makes me sometimes want to brood and sometimes want to jump on everything. I don't know that I'd call it 'heavy metal' but it's not shy by any means. Maybe if Hendrix drank a lot more and couldn't play the guitar nearly as well this is what would have happened. I guess I would consider peers of these guys to be maybe Blur or possibly almost Mogwai. No, maybe not; if Mogwai played everything three times as fast and disregarded their great sense of build they might be Boris. And yet, I kind of like Boris for what they are.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I got this CD from the library; I just picked it up because I had no prior opinion about the group or the album. Sometimes that actually works! Not always though.

In other news:
I got some other CDs, too; I'll review them as I listen to them. They are:
Johnny Cash, American Recordings
John Coltrane, Blue Train
David Bowie, Best of Bowie (yeah, i got a greatest hits album, i feel bad about it myself)
Editors, The Back Room

And that's it! Have a decent enough weekend and stay warmish.

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

Today's Music That Is Too Weird Not To Love is The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Now let me preface this by saying that I want to like the Flaming Lips. I really do. Wayne Coyne seems like a decent enough guy, and apparently the Lips really put on a great live show. They've resisted selling out for a long time (in music years, anyway) and have really only risen to some level of fame in the past few years. But I can't get into their music that much. I realize that I probably will never get into the hipsters' union by admitting this, but I didn't really care for The Soft Bulletin, and At War With The Mystics didn't do that much for me either. I haven't really taken the time to listen to much of their other work, even though a girl burned some of their albums for me on a date once. (I couldn't keep the CDs, not permanently, it was strange. Nice girl though.)

The point is, I rather like Yoshimi. I suppose it has enough elements of psychedelia and science-fiction kitsch to appeal to me, and the music is endearing in a way that both acknowledges and ignores a sense of irony. "Fight Test", the opening track, is admittedly pretty cheesy, but even it fits with the general concept of the album (and this is a concept album, make no mistake). I suppose I may never 0utgrow guitars that can't quite stay in tune, lyrics about women who fight robots with karate, songs that make a mockery of the synthesizer.

The sound of the album is very 'space-rock', for lack of a better term; this is what cheesy science fiction movies sound like in my head. It's dreamy music, though I expect it to have a polarizing effect on people who listen to it. I suppose this album sounds like what would have happened if Roger Waters had Prozac in 1980 and watched a lot of Bruce Lee movies, and probably Star Wars a dozen times for good measure.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this album? I once looked at its lyrics on some website. The lyrics for "Fight Test" and "Yoshimi pt 1" were there. The lyrics for "Yoshimi pt 2" were listed as (screaming).

In Other News:
I feel okay about things today. I'm not quite where I want to be, but I feel renewed in a lot of respects. Also I need sleep.

Begin To Hope

Today's Music That Jason Appreciates Even If He Doesn't Necessarily Love is Begin To Hope, by Regina Spektor. Now, I don't know that this album will ever make it into a regular playlist of mine. It's not exactly my type of music; I happen to think that if I brought it home, my White Stripes albums might beat it up, and my Dandy Warhols albums might get it high and try to have sex with it. But I do kind of like it.

It's mostly Spektor playing piano and singing upbeat pop music. This isn't your Beyonce-type pop music, or whatever the kids are listening to, but something a little more mature. Spektor's voice is wonderful; I assume that birds are silent and insecure when she sings. She has a real trademark warble, a lovely voice that makes me think of her as something of a happy Fiona Apple. (This is probably a good thing even though I adore Fiona Apple immensely.) Spektor is a fine piano player too, and she's only guilty of being too cute in one or two places on this album; even though it's bright music, it never quite ventures into Disney/musical territory. I can't really say this is workout music or party music or being depressed music, but it's hard to listen to this album and not be in a good mood, even if the songs aren't really about anything. (Neither are A.C. Newman's, and his music is always good with me.) So I guess this music is like someone who is just too nice for me to be genuinely close to, but definitely someone I could be friends with and appreciate.

On a related note, Regina Spektor is adorable.

In other news:
I thought about doing a 2007 year in review post and still might. But not today.

Thunder, Lightning, Strike

Today's Music That Will Make You Dance Like You've Got Ass In Your Pants is Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go Team. This is a really fun album! I would see this band in concert without a question, and probably have a good time too. It's almost all instrumental, sort of like if the theme from "Hawaii Five-O" came to life and started making danceable horn-driven music. I was smitten from the first track ("Panther Dash"), which is probably still my favorite, even if the second track ("Ladyflash") has a better title. Anyhow, the music is very energetic and happy without being irritating - this is what Architecture in Helsinki should have become. It's a little immature, not really as emotionally deep as, say, Explosions in the Sky, but some things are to be appreciated for what they are and not what they're supposed to be. I could see myself listening to this stuff at the gym, due to its mood and intensity. It might be good party music also, if you want people to dance at your party.

In other news:
The bar is open! I'm leaving.

Alright, Still

Well you can't win all the time. Today's Music That Jason Couldn't Stomach is Alright, Still by Lily Allen. I didn't care for this album at all - Lily Allen seems to be a British Hilary Duff. Maybe that's not the right comparison, but I don't keep up with my self-infatuated teenage girl media stars, and couldn't tell you which one has the current most popular album full of songs about 1) how great their relationship(s) is, and 2) how awful their relationship(s) is. Anyhow, this album seems full of self-important jingling fluff; if it were water you would be hard-pressed to drown yourself in it. I'm sure it is/was terribly popular among adolescent Myspace-using girls recently, but it's probably a little late for me to fit into that demographic. I know Lily Allen is 21 years old or something close to that, but when you have someone like Zach Condon of Beirut making such incredible music at a similar age, it's hard to accept Lily's disposable pop songs when there isn't much in the way of voice or instrumental talent behind them.

In Other News:
I got some decent albums from the library yesterday, more reviews forthcoming. I know I've been blogging less lately but hopefully I can rebound in January.