Today's Music That Is Great But Not Super Friendly is Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, by M83. No history lesson today, let's just talk about the album.
This album (well, double-album) is pretty great! It's got a desolate feel to it; the sound is almost exclusively electronic post-rock in nature. By that I mean the tracks are drawn-out synthesizer driven affairs, mostly, with a number of other instruments and effects, and not much in the way of vocals. Some songs are more uptempo than others, but there really isn't much you can dance to here. I don't think most of the songs are as emotional as the tracks on Before the Dawn Heals Us, but rather more scientific (if it's possible to say that about an album like this). The overall mood is spooky, really, as though this is what you would hear in the night if the Thompson Twins got really into synthesizers and then died and decided to haunt your house. This album seems to make the assumption that our future will be both our past and our science fiction, and that this is what it will sound like.
I don't know that any one track highlights the album, but the title track is fairly epic. There are some really interesting tracks here: "Birds" is a fine opener, "In Church" and "Tsubasa" are strong, "Cyborg" and "America" are also pretty good. The whole album is consistently strong; I can't say it will appeal to everyone's taste, though. If you like your music more 'organic', then this may not be for you. If I was to have a party where I invited a lot of sexy, well-read gothic robots, this is definitely what I would play for them.
In Other News:
Today was perfectly gloomy until the sun came out and ruined everything.
I am sore as hell today. Mostly good-sore, but the gym is not going to be much fun.
I have a cousin's wedding to go to in a small town this weekend. If you don't have any plans this weekend, and are extremely desperately bored, you can go with me. Otherwise I'll probably hang out with my 18 month old nephew, drink Bud Light from a plastic cup, and check my email on my phone about 6,000 times. Should be ok, though.