Pause

Today's Music of the Day is Pause, by Four Tet. This album came to me by way of eMusic, on the heels of the wonderful Rounds.

As unfair as it may be, I have to compare this album to Rounds, at least a little. Pause is a fine electronic and instrumental work, one that has foreboding touches but that keeps from being intentionally ominous. It's a pretty good listen, maybe a little inconsistent - sometimes I'd like the tracks to be a little more aggressive. "Everything is Alright" is probably my favorite track on the album, and it's definitely among the more uptempo tunes here. This is less a criticism of the album and more a statement of personal taste - I tend to enjoy the songs that push the envelope a little more.

And to contradict myself, I'm listening to Low as I write this.

So, to sum up a review that barely needs a summary, Pause has a couple outstanding tracks but is okay overall; it's good, but no Rounds.

In Other News:
I have the next five days off. Woohoo!

Happy Thanksgiving. Maybe I will post some more after the break, possibly even during. I have my doubts, though.

Lost in Translation

Today's Soundtrack That Kind Of Suffices For An Album is the soundtrack to the film Lost in Translation. This soundtrack was in all likelihood put together by the film's director, Sofia Coppola, and really served to accentuate the moods of the various scenes. I don't want to give much away about the film, but it's one that I really liked and related to when it was in theaters several years ago. I have to admit that I rewatched it recently, and it hardly had the same effect - I attribute that mostly to my changed outlook on life. Maybe the film was never really that good to begin with. In any event, the soundtrack has aged very well.

The prevailing sound here is electronic and reserved - tracks by Squarepusher and AIR fit the mood if not set it. There are a couple upbeat songs - "Too Young" by Phoenix and "Just Like Honey" by the Jesus and Mary Chain - but even these tracks are as wistful and longing as anything on the album, perhaps just more direct with their emotions than some of the other songs. Kevin Shields contributes a couple tracks that work well alone and in the film's context - one of these (I think) is My Bloody Valentine's "Sometimes".

If I have a favorite track on this album, it's AIR's "Alone in Kyoto", a quiet instrumental piece that is probably my favorite AIR song as well. Really, this is a hushed, introspective soundtrack, and it really fits well with the movie, regardless of the merits of either. To discuss this sountrack more would require me to delve into the film, and I would have a difficult time doing so without taking a personal approach, so I think the blog entry ends here. Just be thankful you got anything today, there are kids in Africa who don't even get self-involved fools posting blogs about music.

In Other News:
Tomorrow I have a 7 mile run that should be ridiculous. I bet it will be fun for a couple miles, then I will just hope for it to end. Maybe there will be something to chase!

Absent w/o Leave

I'll post here again, I swear. I just downloaded my eMusic quota for the month, so hopefully you'll get a post before the holiday. But maybe not. In any event, I'm alive and well, stop freaking out.

Also I've been using Pandora again. (Pandora is, of course, a web-based radio-type service, not a person, get your mind out of the gutter.) While Pandora is nice, it doesn't lend itself to blogging about albums very well.

Wish me luck, Saturday is a ridiculous freakin' race that I only have a 60% chance of surviving. Should be fun.

New Pornographers B-Sides and Bonus Tracks

Today's Music That Is Just What You Would Expect From The Title is a bunch of random New Pornographers tracks that I got for buying Challengers early. As this isn't really an album, I will actually review the individual songs, albeit briefly.

I decided that I will rate the songs on a scale equating my approval for each song to a certain condiment. That scale is as follows, in ascending order of approval:

mayonnaise - disgusting. thanks a lot, white people.
ranch dressing - stop putting this on everything. it's not a freakin' condiment!
ketchup - not so great.
marinara sauce - better, but still not quite there.
barbecue sauce - now we're talking
mustard - yellow and toxic, just the way nature intended. delicious.
basil pesto - done well, it's the cat's meow.
hot sauce - yes, please.

So now, the songs:

• The Arms of Mary / Looking at a Baby - pretty good stuff, even with the religious overtones. Maybe not the best NP track but still good. Score: mustard

• Failsafe Demo - I'm not overly fond of this song but I do like it. I prefer the album version, with Kathryn Calder doing the vocals (A.C. Newman is the singer here, which is fine). Score: barbecue sauce
  
  
• Silent Systems - not bad, either, but a B-side at best. Score: barbecue sauce
  
  
• Showstoppers Demo - I think the album version works better for a song like this, but it still has a little magic. Score: Mustard
  
  
• Go Places lite mix - pretty good! While I like the album version, the bare-bones version means less to compete with Neko's voice, always a plus. Score: basil pesto
  
  
• Speed of Luxury - I'm a little surprised this didn't make the album, but it's definitely worth a listen. Good stuff, here. Score: basil pesto
  
  
• Myriad Harbor Demo - okay, I guess. Not my favorite Bejar song. Works better with more instruments and a larger sound in general. Score: Marinara Sauce
  
  
• Fugue State - not bad, just lacks the dynamite hook of the better tracks. Score: Barbecue sauce
  
  
• Fortune - Really strong, probably would have been the first or second track to be added to the album if something had fallen off. Score: basil pesto
  
  
• Joseph, Who Understood - probably too sappy for what I would normally expect, but it might be my favorite track in this group. Score: basil pesto

So there you have it! Overall, this is a good but not great group of songs. I really like some of them, but I have a hard time picking this over one of the New Pornographers' albums.

In Other News:
I'm not sure if I'm excited or nervous for tomorrow. But I'm glad it's happening. This week needs to end!

Monster

Today's Music That You Shouldn't Hate Even Though Some People Do is R.E.M.'s Monster. This is probably one of the oldest CDs in my collection, possibly only preceded by Credence Clearwater Revival's Chronicle and a few Miles Davis albums.

This album came out in 1995, very much on the tails of the whole 'grunge' movement, and it's hard to say that the album wasn't influenced by grunge in mood if not sound. It's very different from most anything R.E.M. put out prior - while there were some straight-forward rock songs scattered in their back catalog, there wasn't much fuzzy distorted rock in such great chunks. Consequently, I think a lot of people disliked this album immensely. In hindsight, I don't think it was such a bad album, just not the introspective, literate work that R.E.M. had come to give us in the past.

I can't say that this is my favorite R.E.M. album, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think it is a strong work if something of a detour. It does seem as though this album indicated that we wouldn't get another "Losing My Religion" or even another "Everybody Hurts" for a while, if ever, though I believe that the people who became R.E.M. fans due to Out of Time were bound for disappointment to begin with.

There are some wonderful songs on this album, though: "What's the Frequency, Kenneth" is pretty enjoyable, "Crush With Eyeliner" and "King of Comedy" are strong, too. Even the dated and fuzzy "Star 69" isn't bad; some people like "Strange Currencies" but it's a little too close to "Everybody Hurts" for my taste. Even "Let Me In" has its merits, though the story behind it is pretty sad. Basically, the whole album isn't bad, outside of "Tongue", which I will probably never like.

So, to summarize, Monster is awful and you'll hate it. Unless you like things that are fun, in which case you might enjoy jumping around to some of these songs.

In Other News:
Suprisingly, things seem okay today. Maybe? Yes.

It's gray and rainy outside today. This probably makes you unhappy but I love it.

Also, I'm almost unpacked. Finally.

Shenanigans

Today's Music That Isn't So Great But Has A Little Worth is Shenanigans, by Green Day. I think this came from the library, somewhere, in an attempt to bolster my workout playlist. It largely succeeded in that respect, but I'd be lying if I said this album made any inroads into my inner circles of appreciated music.

It sounds like the Green Day we've come to expect, for the most part: straightforward vocals and guitars in a frenetic refined punk sound. That might not seem like such a bad idea, but punk's appeal is not in its polish. The music is pretty simple, structurally and lyrically, and I suppose it might have been more interesting in 1996, but now it's hard to listen to this and not think of all the Fall Out Boys or the Sum 41s and their ilk. The music is uptempo, though, and not awful on the motivational scale.

That's it! No moral. There just isn't enough here to warrant more discourse. I'm surprised I made it all the way through the album today, as I've been on a more instrumental / post-rock kick on this wet and gloomy Friday.

Things I've listened to today:
Thom Yorke, The Eraser
Apparat, Duplex
(the above Green Day album)
some live Explosions in the Sky show from March of this year. (Yeah. It's amazing.)

In Other News:
Snow? Are you freaking kidding me?

I'm almost done unpacking. Maybe a move-in party? Or just a sampling of some beers and wines?

Not Yet

Yesterday, I realized that I have a Four Tet album which I haven't listened to yet. This is a sad thing. I did listen to some of it while I was unpacking, but I didn't pay enough attention to it to justify a full review yet. Hopefully I will have this rectified by the end of the week.

This depressed me today, a little bit, as I thought about what a misplaced album means. As I acquire more and more music, each piece of it means a little bit less. This direction is not what I would prefer; while expanding and refining one's knowledge is admirable, it also means that each thing is too easily categorized and less memorable. I suppose I'll always have a few albums that I discovered for myself or picked up on a recommendation, and loved, but maybe that part of my life has come and gone. Who knows. Sorry for being all serious and such today.

I don't know that I have another music review just off hand, but I'll see what I can do.

In Other News:

YayBama. I wish I could have been out celebrating last night, or doing anything besides trying to sleep, but life rarely stops long enough for me to appreciate it.

I also found some Cadbury Creme Eggs this weekend, that I had initially stashed in my freezer some months ago. Needless to say, they're long gone now.