All of My Favorite Bands are Making Noise

This seems to be a good season for music so far. I've already got three albums on my OMG-need-this-now list, and one of my favorite bands is coming out with another. Let's review, in order of least to most excited.

Oddly, I'm least excited about the new Radiohead album that came out behind my back when I wasn't watching. They've been my favorite for about ten years - basically since I heard friends gush about them and I explored their sound to find out why. I love their experimentalism and that even though, in Spousal Unit's words, they're droney and sleepy, they're not easy listening. Each album takes effort to read behind the first notes and decipher the deeper meanings.

That said, In Rainbows was the new OK Computer. Those two albums are probably going to be the best they ever achieve, so I fear that The King of Limbs will be another Amnesiac - very experimental, still a good listen, but less cohesive and more a jumble of sketches thrown together.

At least, that was what I feared before reading reviews. One said this is Radiohead's "most immediately accessible" album yet - easier on the ear from the start than their others. I don't know if I like that, because one of my favorite things with a new Radiohead album is listening to it for days on end until I decipher it. For me, it's fun, like reading code to find the hidden meaning, to solve the murder.

I hope this album is awesome - Lotus Flower is promising, but we'll see about the rest.I've only heard one song from Bon Iver's new self-titled album, and I don't even know which one it was, but I liked it. Justin Vernon is from my hometown, Eau Claire, and we even went to the same high school, though he graduated before I started. Even then, he was a legend of sorts.

Before I listen to the new album, I have to give his old one a chance. I've only heard a few songs from it, but it just didn't catch me in any way. Maybe it was something about the stratospheric falsettos. Everyone I've talked to about Bon Iver loves For Emma, Forever Ago, and the title certainly thrills me. Maybe we just need to sit down over a cup of tea and have a heart-to-heart.


In one review of the album, lead singer Ben Gibbard said he was embarrassed about the "self-loathing" in their last album, Narrow Stairs. Hopefully that means Codes and Keys, if not happy, is at least a bit less depressing.

I heard You Are a Tourist on the radio earlier this week, driving home from errands. After it was over, I had to turn off the radio - nothing else could live up to that song at that moment, and I wanted to let it reverberate in my mind. I love New Song Nostalgia. I already knew I wanted the album, but this song cemented it for me. (Definitely not the chorus girls in the video, though.)

My one eternal sadness about Death Cab is that they don't do vocal harmonies, and as I've said before, harmony is my favorite. You Are a Tourist almost has some of that - but singing in two different octaves isn't quite harmony. Getting closer, though. And that carefree guitar part is perfect.


This album isn't out yet, but I'm so excited for it. It doesn't have a title, it doesn't have a release date. But after Viva La Vida, who wouldn't be thrilled for a forthcoming album? I love how each one has its own unique sound - definitely recognizable as Coldplay, but so different that there's clearly a reinvention between each one. It's no less so with Every Teardrop is a Waterfall.

I'm a little nervous at lead singer Chris Martin's comment here that some "bad stuff" was happening in the band. I hope they stay together for another decade or two - the world needs more music like theirs.

Comments

  1. JoeJune 24, 2011 at 12:04 PM

    King of Limbs is in the stack on top of the shelf downstairs. Bon Iver be coming in the mail any day now- I can leave it out for you...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sally Anns and a Can of Spam

Image
Sally Anns are one of my favorite cookies. By their taste alone, they evoke a sense of home and comfort, reminding me of the kitchen at my grandparents' place and the simple happiness of mid-afternoon sweets. They're the only food that evokes the thought, This would be better with a cup of coffee. Making them was a good Easter activity, especially as I was stuck away from the family due to unpacking (the books are now free!) and yard work shenanigans (such as finding a dead mouse in the yard, which was lovely). With help from my mom, I found the recipe in the family cookbook (my great-great-grandparents are on the cover, and other awesome old pictures are scattered throughout). I decided that the transgression of buying a can of Spam (just once) was worth it for the sake of the cookies. Poke holes in the bottom of the can to allow for air flow. I didn't have enough butter for a full batch, but half of one made 18 Cookies of Unusual Size. I made the mistake of...
Read more

Pitman's Shorthand

Image
I found the strangest book yesterday, at Paul's Bookstore on State Street. It's an illustrated copy of  The Vicar of Wakefield  by Oliver Goldsmith. That's not the strange part - the strange part is that it's in "the style of phonography" and is completely illegible to me. Page after page just has these little squiggles instead of nice Roman letters. The cover says the book is in Pitman's shorthand (Pitman is the publisher); it's the title page that says phonography. If I remember right, the publishing date was abbreviated to the '60s, which must be the 1860s, based on the apparent age of the book and the fact that Pitman was alive then. Phonography, or Pitman's shorthand , is a phonetic version of English, written in those little squiggles, which emphasize particular sounds. Gregg shorthand is now more common (at least in the U.S.).
Read more

The Beatles' Help! Scarf

Image
Remember when I posted about making Beatles-themed crafts after seeing Cirque du Soleil's performance of Love? I've finished the first one. Here's a refresher of the original Help! scarf. Source And here's my version: a massive thing that I gave my sister for her birthday. In these shots, it's wrapped around her neck twice. I didn't measure the beast before I sent it to its new home, but it's probably about 8 feet long. Made with Caron yarn on size 8 needles, this tube scarf was 40 stitches in the round. Each block of color is 20 rows. The only tricky parts are getting a smooth transition between colors and what to do with the yarn ends inside the tube, but they are easy problems to solve. When you transitioning, knit a normal row with the new color, then pull tight the last stitch of the previous color. That last stitch shouldn't disappear entirely, but it will be close, and your problem will be solved. Then, because this scarf ...
Read more