23

Today's Music That Jason Isn't Crazy About is Blonde Redhead's 23. This album is one that I bought on a whim, after having heard the title track (also the album opener). I thought to myself, "If this album is collectively half as good as '23', then it will be amazing." As it turns out, the album isn't half as good as the one song. It's not atrociously bad, but I really don't care for it much.

This album doesn't stray too far from the BR formula, maintaining a strange and tense feel throughout the album. The vocals are high-pitched from both singers (one male, one female) and suit the instrumentation well. My greatest complaint about the album is that it doesn't offer any surprises. Each song seems to give away all of its hooks and sonic elements right away, and doesn't have much in the way of lyrics. It's sort of like having a book with a dozen chapters that all cover the same portion of a story, without any conclusive passages. I have to say that this is typical of other Blonde Redhead albums as well, and that I probably won't actively seek any more of their music. I wanted to like this album, partially because I spent actual money for it, but I couldn't get into it at all.

As a whole, BR seems to settle for trying to be strange rather than inspiring or challenging the listener to any great degree, and I think the music suffers for it. This album is particularly characteristic of this affliction, and as such, I couldn't recommend it much.

I should talk a little bit about '23', the album opener. It's pretty dark and driving, and actually has a little sonic build to it. This song really makes me want to chase things down and pounce on them; it's also a really good driving song for when you are driving to something important. I attribute part of this song's effect to the presence of actual drums. If the whole album was like this, well, then I'm sure this blog entry would be quite different.

In other news:
This is going to be the longest week ever.