Albums I've Heard Via Some Form of Newfangled Technology
Submitted by AJDaGreat on Wed, 12/22/2004 - 12:45
Tags:
- the iTunes network at UPenn
- Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of the Bewilderbeast (Though this tries to be a pop album, it ultimately seems too lo-fi to actually attract the mainstream crowd. That's alright with me, as I thought the music was fantastic and unique.)
- Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (They wear their influences on their sleeves and still manage to sound really unique. The songs are so melancholy and yet listening to the album is not a downer, it's really quite enjoyable. If this sounds like a paradox to you, then you really ought to hear this fantastic album. In fact, I think I'll change my best albums of every year list...)
- Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People (Weird enough to be really unique and original, but not too weird as to be inaccessible - welllll, maybe on "Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl." But all in all, a really fantastic album.)
- Carbon Leaf - Echo Echo (See discussion.)
- Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head (About as good as pop music gets. It's accessible, enjoyable, easy to listen to, and the lyrics are good without being heavy. I really liked this album.)
- Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live (The few new songs, Folds's occasional comment, and the audience participation don't do enough to make this album interesting. It's unnecessary, but still quite enjoyable.)
- Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (Gorgeous, LONG instrumentals that are a delight to listen to.)
- Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump (A pretty good, certainly competent album, that I couldn't really get into. I might like it more with future listens, but I have too much new stuff to listen to right now.)
- Green Day - American Idiot (A punk opera of sorts that states its mantra in the anthem "American Idiot" and then proceeds to tell of its rebellious characters St. Jimmy and Whatsername, who feel isolated and repressed by post-9/11 America. If the guitar tends to sound similar on all the songs, that's only a reflection of the album's punk roots. By far the most interesting and intelligent thing I've heard from Green Day. A fantastic album.)
- Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (I really can't see this comparison to Joy Divison. Sure, the voice sounds similar occasionally, but Joy Division is far more cold and gloomy. Interpol is more enjoyable in my opinion. A really great album.)
- Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (Nothing too new here, but really enjoyable and soothing. A great album.)
- Billy Joel - An Innocent Man (Jumps from genre to genre with style and is enjoyable all the way through. At least half of the songs on this album are classic Joel.)
- Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (Yeah, a work this sprawling is bound to have some filler, but it may be less than you would think. This 3-CD collection experiments with so many genres of music and forms an orgy of pop music that knocks you off your feet. Bravo, Magnetic Fields. Brilliantly done.)
- Manitoba - Up in Flames (Alright, I'm sold. While I still have reservations about rap and techno, henceforth (from Feb. 8, 2005) I will no longer say that I dislike electronica. Make a note of it. Up in Flames just adds another album to the list of electronica I love.)
- Mates of State - Team Boo (Like the Fiery Furnaces, when Mates of State are singing, I often have no clue what they're talking about. But also like the Fiery Furnaces, the music is so infectious you can't help loving it. In truth, I had only planned to listen to the first song to get a taste and listen to the rest later, but when I heard "Ha Ha" I said, "Wow. I have to listen to the rest of this." I didn't realize there were no guitars until the AMG told me so, so I guess their claim that you don't miss them seems accurate.)
- Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets (A good album, but I didn't really like the sequencing. It starts with brilliant musical explosions and then gets progressively slower and quieter, simultaneously becoming less memorable IMHO. But of course, I've always been a big fan of "Rapunzel.")
- Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West (I guess I feel this this album is to M&A/Good News as Slanted and Enchanted is to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Listening to Lonesome Crowded West as a whole is a unique experience, but the individual songs are stronger on the later albums. Still a pretty awesome album though. P.S. Does anyone else feel an odd compulsion to sing the title of this album to the tune of the Velvet Underground's "Lonesome Cowboy Bill"?)
- Pavement - Wowee Zowee (See discussion.)
- The Postal Service - Give Up (See discussion.)
- Radiohead - The Bends (Maybe not as revolutionary as OK Computer, but a little easier on these ears. Just MHO of course.)
- Radiohead - Kid A (I liked this a lot more than I expected to like a techno-ish album by a band I find pretty overrated, but that bar isn't set particularly high. I honestly couldn't care less how influential Radiohead is; that still doesn't mean I want to listen to their music. Nah, the truth is, I did like this album, and that pleasantly surprised me, but I still think it's overrated.)
- Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (The last three songs were messed up, so I didn't hear all of it, but I did like what I heard, after the first song.)
- Elliott Smith - Either / Or (I remember liking this album while I listened to it, but I don't really remember it at all now. Maybe I'll listen to it again.)
- Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse (Not as consistent as Daydream Nation or Sister, but a lesser album from Sonic Youth is still better than the majority of music out right now. Definitely some great stuff on here too.)
- Spoon - Kill the Moonlight (Very catchy and extremely enjoyable.)
- The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free (This is an album I should really dislike, but I found this rock opera so appealing in the ways it found beauty and pain in the mundane and ordinary. The lyrics are more poetry than rap, and the music is fantastic. I'll have to check out Original Pirate Material.)
- The Strokes - Room on Fire (See discussion.)
- The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? (I really loved this album. An underrated gem that reminded me of Apples in Stereo.)
- Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (If this album was by another band, I'd probably like it more, but it seems a little underwhelming from the band that brought us Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. That may not seem fair, but alas, that's how I felt. There are some good songs on here, but I'll never understand why a band would make a song like "Less Than You Think." If you actually make it through the last 12 minutes of that song once, you'll skip it every other time.)
- Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (I'm not always a fan of country music, but this album is really very wonderful and affecting.)
- Napster to Go (this music-renting program actually kinda sucks, but my brother signed up while I was at college, so I figured I'd make the most of it)
- Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked for the Holidays (Even a huge BNL fan such as myself was unwilling to shell out 20 bucks for a holiday album, mainly including quirky covers of traditional holiday songs, but with a little new material. It was actually better and more original than I expected, but my guess is that most will have forgotten this album by next Christmas. Spoils the funniest moment: )Spoiler: Highlight to viewI did think the "Happy Birthday to Jesus" was hilarious, however.
- The Futureheads - The Futureheads (Now this is a great album. All the spirit of the best 70s punk music, and it's tons of fun to hear.)
- J. Geils Band - Blow Your Face Out (Tons of rip-roarin', toe-tappin' fun, but maybe not the best introduction to the band. I can't really describe it, but I felt like I was missing something. It was weird.)
- Love - Da Capo (Starts with six damn fine songs, ends with a meandering jam that isn't terrible but feels very out of place. Those six songs are fantastic, however.)
- Massive Attack - Blue Lines (When it's separate from all that annoying, self-important, "I'm so cool I need to shout what I'm saying" attitude, maybe I actually can appreciate rap / hip-hop. I liked this album a lot more than I expected to.)
What are your feelings on these albums?
Good question. I loved Echo Echo, and may have to pick up that album or at least find some way to burn it. A fantastic piece of folk-rock music. I enjoyed Wowee Zowee quite a bit, perhaps because its experimentation with a vast array of genres reminded me of an early They Might Be Giants album. Not as good as Pavement's two classic albums, but certainly worth a listen. Give Up was good but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was listening to a Yoshimi wannabe. Room on Fire bored me. It's actually a decent album that could possibly grow on me if I listened to it more often and paid more attention to the lyrics, but on first listen it felt like Is This It Part Two with fewer hooks.
With the die-hard fans, Wowee is often the favorite.
Of course, my favorite is Crooked Rain, which makes me whimpy mainstream boy. La vie.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Really? Did that change? I could've sworn at some point your favorite was Slanted and Enchanted.
Me, I haven't made up my mind quite yet. I think the set of songs on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain are better, but listening to Slanted and Enchanted as a whole is a really unique experience. I dunno...
Even I change my mind from time to time...
They are both fantastic albums, but lately, Crooked Rain has won the race in my ears. I listen to it waaaaay too much.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yoshimi? Really? I never connected the two, besides the electronic aspects...but that's just a genre similarity.
I think I'm going to include a one-liner every time I listen to an album from now on. Keep in mind that these are only based on listening to the album once and don't really reflect a whole lot of time spent.
I'm so glad that you like The Streets! It's a great album.
Also, I have sad news...The Unicorns broke up two days ago. They were so young...
I'm really glad that my recommendations weren't too far off, and I'm overjoyed to hear that you're giving Electronica a chance...I've recently become quite fascinated by Dance/Electronica, and it's good to see I'm not alone.
I hope the rest of the music year treats you well.
Re: "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" vs. "Cowboy Dan"
All the friggin' time!
The other day I found myself lying on my living room floor at 5 o'clock in the morning with all the lights off, and I was listening to Godspeed You Black Emporor!...it truly made me connect to the album for the first time since I bought it a few months ago.
Genius.
That does sound like quite an experience!