It Stinks! (Dave plays a critic)
Quick notes for five albums I bought in the last month.
Secret Machines: Ten Silver Drops
Uneven breakup album that is brilliant in moments. The opener “alone, jealous and stoned” is dynamite sad bastard music. A little long in parts, it’s good to see prog rock done well, but the flow of the album as a whole is tarnished by the two songs that are industrial prog compared to the quieter, slow burn songs of the rest of the album. Whenever the bass replaces the drums as a rhythm, I tend to tune out.
In its moments, it’s the best kind of breakup album; it allows one to wail in the misery before inducing a lovelorn purge. The downside is that this doesn’t make for everyday listening.
The Streets – The hardest way to make an easy living
It’s somewhat strange being a Streets fan in the states. I hate to say it, but it’s his voice, as good as his rhymes are, there is a lot of difficulty in introducing newcomers to cockney rhymes over Garageband beats. Part of the appeal came his antithesis to American hip-hop, it was about being a suffering 20-something, instead of boasting about hos, he was talking about the foolishness of taking a girl’s trust for granted.
And it was about drugs and boozing, filled with the highs and the lows, missing the scene and the first time yet watching friends fall by the addiction wayside. The opening track is about a tour ravaged Mike doing bumps in the morning to temper him out.
Some of the beats are predictably low-tech, which is fine, because it’s the atmosphere he created with them in his previous two albums (Dry your Eyes, it’s too late, Stay Positive), but he really upgraded a few here, to the point where you may hear them from mixtapes of US rappers or bought right out, if Mike’s into that kind of thing. The title track and Two Nations- originally slated for the Biggie Duets album, but left out for reasons that translate as nobody knows him here)
Good album for those who like him, it’s not going to win him that many new fans, but all things being…probably the weakest of his three albums thus far. But once again, his sleeve photos are fantastic.
The Artic Monkeys – Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not.
A decently solid album, yet it’s hard to judge because of the extreme hype behind it. I only heard one person mention The Strokes and loved the album from it’s opening track. But I had heard abot the Artic Monkeys for two months and from thirty different sources. So it’s hard to know whether this is just a solid album with overblown hype, a bad one forced down our throats (not the case here, the push was as grass roots for the first stage as it gets, and will be copied for decades), or a great album that all of us rock fans have been dying for but don’t want to go out on a limb to canonize first.
It sounds like a small album, and maybe that’s the problem. Or it is for 2006, as this album makes the Strokes almost prog by comparison. There album is too clean, in the sense that if this album was recorded on equipment from the 70’s it would have an edge to it that it doesn’t. While they are not going to have a song track like Orgasm Addict, they sound at times like a more Americanized Buzzcocks (And I know they are Brits, but roll with it).
Speaking of Orgasm Addict, I am going to relay my favorite part about this album, which are the capital F Fantastic titles of the song. My three fav’s (not including the lead single)
1. You Probably Couldn’t see for the lights but you were staring right at me
2. Perhaps vampires is a bit strong but…
3. Red light indicates that the doors are secured.
Bottom line… Solid, and flashes of some seriously good writing. The band as a whole has to evolve, or it’s just the post-punk fodder we want instead of Good Charlotte, and not the kick ass rock and roll like Jesus Of Suburbia we are dying for, yet thankfully not gay… like Fallout Boy. Wait for the next album.
By the way, a woman in NC called their concert experience a liberal, gay extravaganza. That, made my week.
Going back to The Streets album, I like the parts about drug use because of the context, and it’s exactly why I change the channel on any rap song where they rhyme Bacardi or Patron, or Hennessey. Quoting the atmosphere at a party is easier than rhyming love with above, and just as common.
One of my top five Streets songs is Weak become heroes, because it gets the point of taking illicit narcotics for the first time. Somewhere between feeling a sublime sensation never known before and having to deal with the lack of control that comes with it is as high on the degree of difficulty of replicating as it gets for writing. That’s why, for all of his shortcomings, Hunter S. was so impressive. Maybe more magnificent was his ability to recall it later, but that’s another point. It’s easy to write about the high. It’s just as simple to write about a hangover. Combining the two so that the listener connects a moment in a song or book to a time they had some long time ago.
And I think back to Drive By Truckers classic, and one of the five front-runners for song of the decade, “Let there be Rock,” and the line: One night when I was seventeen, I drank a fifth of vodka, on an empty stomach, then drove over to a friend's house. And I backed my car between his parent's Cadillac's without a scratch. Then crawled to the back door and slithered threw the key hole, and sneaked up the stairs / And puked in the toilet./
I passed out and nearly drowned but his sister, DD, pulled me out.
That’s a moment. It’s the start to a long story session where everyone around the table launches into idiotic tales of the like. The sense of transportation is what I like best about DBT, well that and there love of booze and their whole sound which is right out of the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers/ Exile stage.
This is southern rock, and it’s as pure as rock gets. Blues bases, filled with internal sorrow and self-loathing from the five tenets of great rock music starting points:
1. Drinking (check)
2. Cheating (check)
3. Gambling (check)
4. Panging for love (check)
5. Heartbreak (check-mate)
Up, up, and away you go from my blog has it best, simply why are these guys NOT rock gods at this point. And hey, while were at it, Brian House, if I owe you anything, it’s a thanks for that 2004 summer where you played this in your old Chevy Blazer. Steve McQueen was from Indiana, and I’ll never forget it.
That and we’re in year 23 of our friendship. I miss you hombre.
And so…
A Blessing and A Curse – Drive by Truckers.
At this point I love this band so much, if they pulled a Weezer and made a stinker like Maladroit and ruined everything I liked about the band, I still would recommend the album.
Thankfully, DBT don’t call a sellout an album. There are three great songs on the album, Aftermath USA (points for the Stones ref), Space City, and World of Hurt. Gone are the tacit ties to the confederate homeland, the songs are about the life, but not about the place of the south, and while maybe it’s about branching out, it lacks the sense of place. There is no “boys from Alabama” or reference to the Southern Thing, but the mood is still there, it’s just not directly implied.
But this album is really good. And it continues the DBT streak of opening lines that few will ever match. On Decoration Day, “Marry Me” opened with the line: “Well my father didn’t pull out, but he never apologized.”
For Blessing and a Curse, the closing track starts with: “Once upon a time, my advice to you would have been to go out and get your self a whore. I guess I’ve grown up, because I don’t give that kind of advice anymore.”
If you don’t get the greatness of that line, maybe DBT isn’t for you. For everyone else, you know why I and so many others love DBT, because as they say “to love is to feel pain.”
There ain’t no way around it.
And the finale.
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm.
So maybe I’m behind the times. I don’t know why I didnae buy this album when it came out. But as it is, and I know I haven’t listened to all of Emancipation of Mimi yet, I am calling this the best album of 2005.
And the PS.
The opener off of Gnarls Barkely, Go Go Gadget Gospel is effin great. Everything I want from this genre of music.
This is probably the least Ghetto album from a “Major Black (American) Artist” in years. It’s not spectacular, but it’s really good, and it’s a case study of how to play to ones talent. You give a voice like Cee-Lo’s meat to be a melodic voice, and not a harmonic one to the PCD, and you have the producer know what he is doing. I would like to hope that this is continuation of a great idea set by Rick Rubin / Jay Z and letting producers who know what to do with an artist, instead of selling outside beats (Swiss Beats/ Neptunes/ Track Stars/ Jazzy Phay. Etc.). Lets match the makers to the artists, not t’other way round. Negotiation, not commerce, makes for great music.
Secret Machines: Ten Silver Drops
Uneven breakup album that is brilliant in moments. The opener “alone, jealous and stoned” is dynamite sad bastard music. A little long in parts, it’s good to see prog rock done well, but the flow of the album as a whole is tarnished by the two songs that are industrial prog compared to the quieter, slow burn songs of the rest of the album. Whenever the bass replaces the drums as a rhythm, I tend to tune out.
In its moments, it’s the best kind of breakup album; it allows one to wail in the misery before inducing a lovelorn purge. The downside is that this doesn’t make for everyday listening.
The Streets – The hardest way to make an easy living
It’s somewhat strange being a Streets fan in the states. I hate to say it, but it’s his voice, as good as his rhymes are, there is a lot of difficulty in introducing newcomers to cockney rhymes over Garageband beats. Part of the appeal came his antithesis to American hip-hop, it was about being a suffering 20-something, instead of boasting about hos, he was talking about the foolishness of taking a girl’s trust for granted.
And it was about drugs and boozing, filled with the highs and the lows, missing the scene and the first time yet watching friends fall by the addiction wayside. The opening track is about a tour ravaged Mike doing bumps in the morning to temper him out.
Some of the beats are predictably low-tech, which is fine, because it’s the atmosphere he created with them in his previous two albums (Dry your Eyes, it’s too late, Stay Positive), but he really upgraded a few here, to the point where you may hear them from mixtapes of US rappers or bought right out, if Mike’s into that kind of thing. The title track and Two Nations- originally slated for the Biggie Duets album, but left out for reasons that translate as nobody knows him here)
Good album for those who like him, it’s not going to win him that many new fans, but all things being…probably the weakest of his three albums thus far. But once again, his sleeve photos are fantastic.
The Artic Monkeys – Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not.
A decently solid album, yet it’s hard to judge because of the extreme hype behind it. I only heard one person mention The Strokes and loved the album from it’s opening track. But I had heard abot the Artic Monkeys for two months and from thirty different sources. So it’s hard to know whether this is just a solid album with overblown hype, a bad one forced down our throats (not the case here, the push was as grass roots for the first stage as it gets, and will be copied for decades), or a great album that all of us rock fans have been dying for but don’t want to go out on a limb to canonize first.
It sounds like a small album, and maybe that’s the problem. Or it is for 2006, as this album makes the Strokes almost prog by comparison. There album is too clean, in the sense that if this album was recorded on equipment from the 70’s it would have an edge to it that it doesn’t. While they are not going to have a song track like Orgasm Addict, they sound at times like a more Americanized Buzzcocks (And I know they are Brits, but roll with it).
Speaking of Orgasm Addict, I am going to relay my favorite part about this album, which are the capital F Fantastic titles of the song. My three fav’s (not including the lead single)
1. You Probably Couldn’t see for the lights but you were staring right at me
2. Perhaps vampires is a bit strong but…
3. Red light indicates that the doors are secured.
Bottom line… Solid, and flashes of some seriously good writing. The band as a whole has to evolve, or it’s just the post-punk fodder we want instead of Good Charlotte, and not the kick ass rock and roll like Jesus Of Suburbia we are dying for, yet thankfully not gay… like Fallout Boy. Wait for the next album.
By the way, a woman in NC called their concert experience a liberal, gay extravaganza. That, made my week.
Going back to The Streets album, I like the parts about drug use because of the context, and it’s exactly why I change the channel on any rap song where they rhyme Bacardi or Patron, or Hennessey. Quoting the atmosphere at a party is easier than rhyming love with above, and just as common.
One of my top five Streets songs is Weak become heroes, because it gets the point of taking illicit narcotics for the first time. Somewhere between feeling a sublime sensation never known before and having to deal with the lack of control that comes with it is as high on the degree of difficulty of replicating as it gets for writing. That’s why, for all of his shortcomings, Hunter S. was so impressive. Maybe more magnificent was his ability to recall it later, but that’s another point. It’s easy to write about the high. It’s just as simple to write about a hangover. Combining the two so that the listener connects a moment in a song or book to a time they had some long time ago.
And I think back to Drive By Truckers classic, and one of the five front-runners for song of the decade, “Let there be Rock,” and the line: One night when I was seventeen, I drank a fifth of vodka, on an empty stomach, then drove over to a friend's house. And I backed my car between his parent's Cadillac's without a scratch. Then crawled to the back door and slithered threw the key hole, and sneaked up the stairs / And puked in the toilet./
I passed out and nearly drowned but his sister, DD, pulled me out.
That’s a moment. It’s the start to a long story session where everyone around the table launches into idiotic tales of the like. The sense of transportation is what I like best about DBT, well that and there love of booze and their whole sound which is right out of the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers/ Exile stage.
This is southern rock, and it’s as pure as rock gets. Blues bases, filled with internal sorrow and self-loathing from the five tenets of great rock music starting points:
1. Drinking (check)
2. Cheating (check)
3. Gambling (check)
4. Panging for love (check)
5. Heartbreak (check-mate)
Up, up, and away you go from my blog has it best, simply why are these guys NOT rock gods at this point. And hey, while were at it, Brian House, if I owe you anything, it’s a thanks for that 2004 summer where you played this in your old Chevy Blazer. Steve McQueen was from Indiana, and I’ll never forget it.
That and we’re in year 23 of our friendship. I miss you hombre.
And so…
A Blessing and A Curse – Drive by Truckers.
At this point I love this band so much, if they pulled a Weezer and made a stinker like Maladroit and ruined everything I liked about the band, I still would recommend the album.
Thankfully, DBT don’t call a sellout an album. There are three great songs on the album, Aftermath USA (points for the Stones ref), Space City, and World of Hurt. Gone are the tacit ties to the confederate homeland, the songs are about the life, but not about the place of the south, and while maybe it’s about branching out, it lacks the sense of place. There is no “boys from Alabama” or reference to the Southern Thing, but the mood is still there, it’s just not directly implied.
But this album is really good. And it continues the DBT streak of opening lines that few will ever match. On Decoration Day, “Marry Me” opened with the line: “Well my father didn’t pull out, but he never apologized.”
For Blessing and a Curse, the closing track starts with: “Once upon a time, my advice to you would have been to go out and get your self a whore. I guess I’ve grown up, because I don’t give that kind of advice anymore.”
If you don’t get the greatness of that line, maybe DBT isn’t for you. For everyone else, you know why I and so many others love DBT, because as they say “to love is to feel pain.”
There ain’t no way around it.
And the finale.
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm.
So maybe I’m behind the times. I don’t know why I didnae buy this album when it came out. But as it is, and I know I haven’t listened to all of Emancipation of Mimi yet, I am calling this the best album of 2005.
And the PS.
The opener off of Gnarls Barkely, Go Go Gadget Gospel is effin great. Everything I want from this genre of music.
This is probably the least Ghetto album from a “Major Black (American) Artist” in years. It’s not spectacular, but it’s really good, and it’s a case study of how to play to ones talent. You give a voice like Cee-Lo’s meat to be a melodic voice, and not a harmonic one to the PCD, and you have the producer know what he is doing. I would like to hope that this is continuation of a great idea set by Rick Rubin / Jay Z and letting producers who know what to do with an artist, instead of selling outside beats (Swiss Beats/ Neptunes/ Track Stars/ Jazzy Phay. Etc.). Lets match the makers to the artists, not t’other way round. Negotiation, not commerce, makes for great music.
posted by Indiana at
10:42 AM
1 Comments:
"The least ghetto album from a major black artist in years"?!!? Finally, someone had the courage to say it! Biting. You should be commended. Enough of this black music for black people business. If I as a white man don't appreciate or understand black music, it's shit, it's false, and it should be stopped . . . I will shout from the (suburban) rooftops (but not where any black people might hear it):
BLACK MUSIC FOR WHITE PEOPLE!!!
A MORATORIUM ON CULTURAL DISSONANCE!!!
SAFE BLACK PEOPLE OR NO BLACK PEOPLE!!!
THE BEST MAKERS OF BLACK MUSIC ARE YOUNG WHITE MEN LIKE ME WHO SING ABOUT THINGS I CAN RELATE TO AND I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY ANYONE ELSE WOULD WANT TO LISTEN TO PEOPLE LIKE THEM SING ABOUT THINGS THEY CAN RELATE TO!!!
MY OPINIONS SHOULDN'T BE MY OWN BUT SHOULD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS, THEREBY MAKING ANY AND ALL CRITICISM COMPLETELY IMPOTENT AND INEFFECTUAL!!! (Oh, wait...)
Anyway, your sleeve photos are FANTASTIC, you fag.
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Anonymous, at May 25, 2006 9:41 AM
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