Recently in Music Category

A friend posted this on Facebook, and I reposted it there, but I have to share it here. It's SUBLIME. It's PERFECT, one of the best things western civilization has ever produced. We should beam it into outerspace along with a statement affirming that this is one of the finest, most complete representations of our culture.

I mean, it's really funny, so funny that I have to start watching "Extras," the show the clip came from. And will you check out Mr. Bowie!?!!! The man will be 63 on January 8, 2010, and look at him! He's still gorgeous! He still has a fantastic voice and what looks like his own hair! I have long believed that he is the coolest person the 20th century managed to produce, and this reconfirms my opinion. He was Ziggy Stardust, and the Thin White Duke, and the freaky guy in Labyrinth, and he provided the voice for a character based on him on Spongebob, and now he does this! Is it any wonder I worship him? I think it must be completely awesome to be him, and to know him.

Anyway. If you haven't already seen it, watch it. Enjoy. I bet you'll watch it twice, and post it to YOUR facebook page too.

Somehow I missed the fact that the Strokes' first album, Is This It (is this WHAT?), had two different covers, one for the open-minded people across the ocean, and one for the prudes on the west side of the Atlantic.... You know, Americans, who are either Christians or feminists. The former object to anything that might arouse someone, and the latter object to the objectification of women and their bodies.

I found an image of the British cover because the Guardian has named the album the fourth best album of the current decade. I personally found the album boring and forgettable when I encountered it with the prudish American cover, but I will certainly remember it from now on. And I won't be listening to the Strokes ever again.

After reading that article, I clicked on a link to a story about Adam Lambert and what was or wasn't wrong with his kissing a guy during his performance at the American Music Awards. (Side note: I didn't think there was anything wrong with the kiss, and I agree with this assessment about the offensive nature of some of the reporting on it.) To summarize: nothing wrong with men kissing men; why isn't anyone questioning larger issues in the performance, including the fact that

Something that surprises me is how surprised other people are to learn that I have been a devoted fan of Lily Allen for several years now. OK, I acknowledged months ago that my music collection is dominated by earnest British dudes, but what, I'm not allowed to have nuances and layers?

"I just thought you'd find her a bit...young. And frivolous," one friend said. "I thought I'd be able to convince you eventually that you'd like her, but I never imagined you would've discovered her and grown to like her on your own," another told me.

But I did. I was intrigued by the reviews I read of her first album, Alright, Still--it kept showing up in all these "Top Ten Albums of 2006" lists. So when it was finally released in the US, I bought it, 'cause what the hell else was I going to do with twelve dollars and change?

And I LOVED it. OK, there were a couple of totally stinky songs on it that frankly I prefer not to think about. But overall, the album was so...cheerfully foul-tempered. So seriously frivolous. So innocently filthy. I loved the contradictions.

I would have said that NO ONE could ever improve on the way the Smiths would match really poppy, happy, upbeat music with totally dark lyrics, but Lily is pretty good at it in her own way. "Alfie" is my favorite song on the first album, an aggressively happy, boppy song sung to and about her little brother, Alfie, who sits in his room all day smoking and doing drugs. It has this really annoying grammatical redundancy (my mon frere), but I can forgive that, 'cause I just love the song SO MUCH.

Here's a Facebook meme I was tagged to participate in, but because I prefer my blog to Facebook I'm doing it here.

Instructions: This is harder than you may think! Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that, no matter what their critical or commercial significance, shaped your world. When you finish, tag 15 others. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it!

So. Here's my list, in chronological order of when they entered my life or made their impression.

Splotchy asked for contributors to another playlist, and I was able to volunteer in time to get my suggestions included in the official list.

He called it "ROYGBIV" for reasons explained here. The rules specified that the title of each selection had to contain a color, and that color could not be duplicated in any other song title.

Some participants followed the ROYBGIV color scheme rigidly. Not me--I tried to broaden the palette. The full list is here.

I sorta had a hard time with this, because I realized that a bunch of songs that do not have colors in the title still evoke colors for me. "Papa Don't Preach" by Madonna is bright blue. "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince is bright orange. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" by the Smiths is a very deep pink, occasionally bleeding into burgundy. This is the only tinge of synesthesia I have, a gift I have always envied. It made me feel slightly better about myself to realize that at least music is a multi-sensory experience for me.

Anyway. Here are my offerings:

Via Dale I learned of a very cool playlist compiled by Splotchy.

I missed the deadline by a LOT, but if I had been able to submit suggestions, I would have included

88 Lines about 44 Women The Nails
1959 Sisters of Mercy
3 Strange Days School of Fish
6'1" Liz Phair
2cv Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
The 15th (Originally by Wire, covered by Fischerspooner)
1000 Umbrellas by XTC

And of course, 99 Luftballons by Nena, even though someone else already put it on their playlist, because it is my all-time favorite song about the end of the world. I even like it better than 1999 by Prince.

OK, I know that if some of my best friends read this entry, they're going to be pissed, but I'll say it anyway:

The Republican party is to politics what punk is to music.

Both decry anything "elite," both privilege raw emotion and anger over intelligence and expertise--not that they have no use for intelligence or expertise; they're just not as important as being pissed off. Both say that exploring solutions isn't as important as venting your rage over the fact that you've been wronged by the system.

The meme I provided last time required you to answer questions about your life with random songs from your itunes program.... I thought, why not choose the answers, from the songs I like best? I have friends who never rate stuff, but I do--I assign one star and five stars and there are even songs I hate so much that I uncheck them from the program, though I don't delete them because I want to preserve the integrity of the album they're on.

So I took Wednesday's questions and devised a new meme. For this one, you answer the questions by going through your top-rated songs and finding ones whose titles actually help answer the question, more or less.

And because my favorites are weighted heavily in favor of 80s pop, some of it a tad obscure, I've included videos for some of the stuff that never hit the top 40.... also videos I really love. For instance, I love Robert Smith in the bear suit, but just about everyone who watched MTV in the late 80-early 90s saw the "Why Can't I Be You?" video.

Anyway. The videos do not provide the answers to the questions; the titles do.

1. How would you describe yourself?
True to Live (Roxy Music)

2. What is your motto?
Express Yourself (Madonna)

3. What do you think about often?
The Politics of Dancing (Re-Flex)

4. What do you think of your family?
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pink Floyd)

I haven't done a meme in almost a year. My favorite of the ones I've seen bouncing lately around blogs I read is a version of the last one I did, oh so long ago; even though some of the questions are different, I don't see much reason to do it again, so I'm going with the meme I like second-best.

I got this from McCutcheon's Squishy Thoughts. Here's how it works: you take the questions, get your itunes ready, and hit "next." Each song that comes up is the answer to the question before you.

I think the quiz was designed by high school students, because there is an emphasis on things like "best friends" and "the person you like." Some of the questions were so adolescent I had to change them, and I also had to put the whole thing in some coherent order--they were utterly random. I know, I know, that's really geeky of me, to revise a meme, but I can't help it.

Anyway, despite those flaws, the meme still appealed to me, so here it is. It tells you more about my music collection that it does about me, but what the hell.

1. How would you describe yourself?
Sixty-eight Guns (The Alarm)

2. What is your motto?
Send for Henry (Trashcan Sinatras)

3. What do you think about often?
In Dulce Decorum (The Damned)
That one’s true--I do think about World War I fairly often.

4. What do you think of your family?
Big Sister’s Clothes (Elvis Costello)
Indeed!

It’s easier to say ‘I Love You
than ‘Yours Sincerely’
I suppose
All little sisters
like to try on big sister’s clothes

Here's a review of an album I'm going to buy when it's released next week: Seventh Tree, by Goldfrapp.

I have all three of Goldfrapp's previous albums, courtesy of Matthew in Belgium. I like Black Cherry and Supernature, their second and third albums, respectively, just fine, I guess, though I think the cover art for BC is amateurish and Supernature is a little too poppy disco-y for me--when Ms. Goldfrapp starts channeling Olivia Newton-John a la "Physical," I can't help but grit my teeth a little.

It's the first album, Felt Mountain, that I love. Imagine if the Cocteau Twins had been asked in the early 80s to do the soundtrack for some James Bond movie set in space. FM is sultry and sexy and spacy and ethereal and just creepy enough to be intriguing and edgy rather than grating. I'm hoping that this album, which the reviewer labels "psychedelic folk" and which apparently features vocals as incomprehensible as those of Elizabeth Fraser, has some of those features. I'll let you know. In the meantime, if you haven't explored any Goldfrapp, now might be a good time.