Summer Well

There you go, theoreo, something new to read :) You should write more often too! Anyway, this blog post will be about Interpol's new self-titled album. I haven't listened to it that much yet, but I find it excellent. In an article, the album was described as being "somewhere between the first and the second album", and that description is pretty accurate. For this album, Interpol went back to their independent label, having worked with Capitol for their third album. I personally liked Our Love to Admire a lot, but I can see how working with Matador provides better results for them. I already knew four of the songs on this album, i.e. the songs they played at their show: "Success", "Summer Well", "Lights", and "Barricade". I like "Summer Well" a lot, although it sounds a bit better live. "Lights" is a pretty intense song. At first, I thought the guitars on "Barricade" were a bit too much, but that song is growing on me now. "Always Malaise" has an awesome title. "All Of The Ways" is a slow and intense song. In "The Undoing", Paul sings in Spanish :) Throughout the album, Paul's voice remains as strong as always. It is pretty sexy to hear him curse in "Try It On" ;) I believe this album will remain for some time in my car!

Half Light II (No Celebration)

Arcade Fire’s latest album, The Suburbs, is sooooo good. It took me less time to appreciate this one than Neon Bible. In some ways, there seems to be a lot more going on in The Suburbs than in the last two albums. The tracks I like a lot are « Ready to Start », « Modern Man », « Half Light II (No Celebration) », « Deep Blue » and « We Used to Wait ». For once, I also like the tracks where Régine Chassagne is the main singer, i.e. « Empty Room » and « Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) ». The Suburbs is one of the two new releases that have been in heavy rotation in my car this summer. The other one is High Violet by The National, which came out at the beginning of the summer. It is pretty depressing for a summer album, but it is also incredibly good. Another CD which has been playing a lot in my car lately is Carla Bruni’s first CD, Quelqu’un m’a dit. Also depressing, but that is some really pretty music.

Eet

CDs I've listened to recently:

Battle for the Sun by Placebo: Placebo came into my life at a time when I needed that angst. Upon hearing their last CD for the first time, my first reaction was: "Jeez, this is bad music!" There are some pretty cool songs on there, though. I find one of the singles, "For What It's Worth", supremely annoying. The song "Battle for the Sun" is as repetitive as it is addictive. 

Far by Regina Spektor: The first time I heard this CD, I liked its middle portion the best, and I didn't find any of the songs as catchy as her previous ones, say, for example, "Better". However, I know find the first half of the CD to be very strong. I love "Eet", "Machine" and "Laughing With". "Folding Chair" is a nice, happy song. The highlights of the second half of the CD are "Dance Anthem of the 80's" and "One More Time With Feeling".

Spinnerette by Spinnerette: Lots of catchy, interesting songs. Simply put, a good listen.

Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper by Julian Plenti: Julian Plenti is the side project of Paul Banks, Interpol's lead singer. His songs are really... interesting. What can I say? That's what they are. Of all of the songs on the CD, "On the Esplanade" is the only one that doesn't really do much for me.

Sapphire

I met Alex McCurdy last summer in France. He released a little while ago an album on MySpace. You can listen to it here. It is not for the casual listener. It requires you to listen to every single word that is said, or else it just sounds like crazy stuff. An attentive listen, though, is rewarding. Lyrics aside, the music itself is very interesting. These guys are obviously having fun with their instruments, and they are coming up with pretty cool things. Alex also does some solo work that can be found here. Those songs are more melodic. The "Knock, Knock" song is HILARIOUS. He is also a poet. I strongly recommend the "Alex Show" series.

Where The Wild Things Are

 The hype surrounding Patrick Watson has always kept me far away from him. However, the recent release of his second album Wooden Arms prompted me to give him a listen. I'm not all for the utterly unmanly voice, but this is, after all, some pretty cool music, with lots of crazy instruments. "Fireweed", which opens the album, builds up slowly and offers us a small climax. It was the second song of the album to be released as a single. At first, I wasn't convinced by the first single, "Tracy's Waters", but it has now won me over. "Beijing" is a pretty great song. "Wooden Arms" and "Big Bird In A Small Cage" are very beautiful. "Hommage" is an instrumental piece, and I am certainly incapable of telling you to whom is Patrick Watson making a hommage. I don't like "Traveling Salesman" so much. There isn't any singing in "Down At The Beach", but it is still very interesting. "Man Like You", "Where The Wild Things Are" and "Machinery Of The Heavens" are pretty...

Quote

Steven Wright is a really great comedian. His comedy album I Have a Pony came out in 1985 and its follow-up I Still Have a Pony was released in 2007. He talks very slowly and has a characteristic deadpan humor. Here is the first part of an interview with him and Craig Ferguson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEqcn-n6-oU

Modern Guilt

Modern Guilt was released on July 8, 2008. It is Beck's latest record. It doesn't particularly stand out in any way. It is very short, and very electronic. Perhaps further listening will someday reveal more about this album.

All You Need Is Me

Morrissey's latest album came out in February. It is titled Years of Refusal, and it is quite good. Morrissey still rocks out immensely. Lots of short, catchy songs. Only two slower songs: "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore" and "You Were Good In Your Time". And that great voice of his... I will be looking forward to more listens of this album in the future.

O Valencia!

I first heard "O Valencia!" on a compilation. The Decemberists are part of this year's lineup at Osheaga and they put out a new album a month ago. For all those reasons, I decided to get one of their albums. I didn't feel like getting their newest album, though, so I got The Crane Wife. Having heard only "O Valencia!" from them, I thought they would be a cliché indie band, but "O Valencia!" is actually the happiest song on the CD. (It's not that happy, actually. I just checked the lyrics... As a music listener, I don't pay that much attention to lyrics.) The music gets quite tragic at times, such as on "The Island" and on "When The War Came". "The Island" is one of the album's epic, multiple-parts, 10-minutes songs, the other one being "The Crane Wife 1 and 2". "The Perfect Crime 2" is a surprising and catchy song. In the second part of the album, things get a bit slower, with "Shankhill Butchers" and "Summersong". All in all, I'm glad The Decemberists aren't as cliché as I thought they would be.

The Royal We

I got the new Silversun Pickups album, Swoon. It came out last week. I first heard their song "Lazy Eye" on Rock Band 2. (I know, shoot me.) I think that song is pretty catchy, and there seemed to be a lot of buzz around the new album, so I decided to check it out. Honestly, though, I don't really understand what the buzz is about. They seem pretty average to me. I often feel unqualified to write an album review because I don't know shit about music theory. Perhaps someone who does could help me understand Silversun Pickups. What baffles me the most about this group is that the vocalist is actually a man. He sounds like a tough girl to me.

Anyway, let's break it down: "There's No Secrets This Year" and "The Royal We", the first two songs, are catchy enough. What makes "Growing Old Is Getting Old" interesting is that it becomes very different midway through. "It's Nice To Know You Work Alone" is kind of a silly song. "Panic Switch" is a cool little song. "Draining" and "Catch & Release" are also cool, but are on the slower side. As for the rest of the album, I do not care enough yet to write anything about it...

Hysteric

What the hell is wrong with HMV?? It's Blitz! was out of stock at their store!!! I had to go buy it in a friggin' library... Oh well, it's not that important. What is important is I GOT MY HANDS ON THE NEW YEAH YEAH YEAHS CD :D

Some people hate reviews that focus on the songs individually rather than on the album as a whole, but those are the reviews I enjoy the most. That's how I deal with an album. All in all, what I can say is: there's some incredible music, right there. Karen O's vocals are as awesome as usual, on every single song. I love "Heads Will Roll" ("Off with your head!"), but every song is great in its own way. "Runaway" is kind of sad. Generally, I tend to find some songs really sad without any good reason. "Little Shadow" is a great closer.

The CD I got had a shitload of acoustic songs on it: "Soft Rock", "Skeletons", "Hysteric", as well as "Little Shadow". They are all gorgeous :D

The art inside the CD "box" is also very original. To know what it is, buy the album in a CD format :) A CD is a beautiful thing to possess...

Slave To The Wage

Damn!! I've been buying way too many CDs these days, digital or otherwise. What the hell is wrong with me??

Here are the CDs I bought in the last month or so:

Is This Desire? - PJ Harvey

This Business of Art - Tegan and Sara

Only By The Night - Kings of Leon

Haughty Melodic - Mike Doughty

Dying To Say This To You - The Sounds

War Child Presents Heroes - Various Artists

Black Market Music - Placebo

Acid Tongue - Jenny Lewis

And these are the CDs I intend on buying soon:

Traffic and Weather - Fountains of Wayne

It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever - Explosions In The Sky

Give Up - The Postal Service

Urgh.

Running To Stand Still

I have finally bought the War Child compilation. When I first heard of the concept, I thought it was very cool: an artist from the old generation chooses one song he believes is the most important amongst all of his songs, and then chooses an artist from the new generation to interpret it. Perhaps this concept was more or less applied severely, but if it was, some pretty cool things appear: for example, Leonard Cohen's favorite song of his would be "Take This Waltz", and I love that song too! And so we discover Bob Dylan likes Beck, The Clash like Lily Allen, The Ramones like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blondie likes Franz Ferdinand, and Iggy Pop likes Peaches. Yeah Yeah Yeahs' song is pretty cool, and Elbow's version of "Running To Stand Still" is tears-worthy. I also discovered an Elvis Costello song I didn't know, and The Like's rendition is pretty catchy. 

Closer

I finally gave in and bought Kings of Leon's Only By The Night on iTunes the other day. I was already listening to "Closer" and "Sex On Fire" non-stop so I figured I could buy the CD. I have always found Kings of Leon a bit too Southern for my taste, but their sound makes me happy these days. "Closer" is pretty bleak compared to the rest of the CD. "Crawl" might be the song that rocks out the most on the CD. "Sex On Fire" still works for me, every time. "Use Somebody" is such an easy song. It's the kind of song a guy writes with every intention of getting into a girl's pants. I love "Manhattan" and "Notion", and "Cold Desert", the closer, is a sad, slow song. 

I am eagerly waiting to buy Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new album. :)

what I'm listening to at the moment 2

1) Leonard Cohen. What a poet. When you are in a certain mood, he is exactly what you need. Here is my list of Leonard Cohen songs:

"Suzanne"

"The Stranger Song"

"So Long, Marianne"

"Bird On a Wire"

"The Partisan"

"You Know Who I Am"

"Famous Blue Raincoat"

"Night Comes On"

"Take This Waltz"

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

"Democracy"

"Anthem"

"A Thousand Kisses Deep"

2) Debut by Björk. Great stuff.

3) I have just heard The Sounds' Myspace. They are a Swedish group, not that recent, touring with No Doubt this summer. Unfortunately, we will not be getting them in Montreal. We will be getting Bedouin Soundclash instead. (...) They're kind of dancy. Maybe I'm just sold to them because the singer is female. It's my feminist side.

From now on, I will attempt to be Grey's Anatomy/One Tree Hill-like and give each of my posts a song name. Points are given to the reader if he/she guesses whose song it is, without cheating, if possible. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

CDs I still have to buy

In alphabetical order of artist.

1) Talkie Walkie - Air

2) The Three E.P.'s - The Beta Band

3) Medulla - Björk

4) Teenager of the Year - Frank Black

5) Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons - Blonde Redhead

6) I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning - Bright Eyes

7) Paris 1919 - John Cale

8) Murder Ballads - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

9) The Dandy Warhols Come Down - The Dandy Warhols

10) Odditorium or Warlords from Mars - The Dandy Warhols

11) Welcome to the Monkey House - The Dandy Warhols

12) Green Mind - Dinosaur Jr.

13) Before and After Science - Brian Eno

14) The Singles - Feeder

15) Here, My Dear - Marvin Gaye

16) Dry - PJ Harvey

17) Is This Desire? - PJ Harvey

18) Uh Huh Her - PJ Harvey

19) Celebrity Skin - Hole

20) Live Through This - Hole

21) Pretty on the Inside - Hole

22) Fun House - Iggy & the Stooges

23) Raw Power - Iggy & the Stooges

24) The Stooges - Iggy & the Stooges

25) Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

26) Loveless - My Bloody Valentine

27) Substance - New Order

28) School of Rock - Original Soundtrack

29) Westing (By Musket and Sextant) - Pavement

30) Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

31) Doolittle - Pixies

32) Surfer Rosa - Pixies

33) Trompe le Monde - Pixies

34) Black Market Music - Placebo

35) Placebo - Placebo

36) Sleeping With Ghosts - Placebo

37) Without You I'm Nothing - Placebo

38) Third - Portishead

39) Berlin - Lou Reed

40) Transformer - Lou Reed

41) Bad Moon Rising - Sonic Youth

42) Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth

43) Goo - Sonic Youth

44) Horses - Patti Smith

45) Love. Angel. Music. Baby. - Gwen Stefani

46) If It Was You - Tegan and Sara

47) So Jealous - Tegan and Sara

48) This Business of Art - Tegan and Sara

49) Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes - TV on the Radio

50) I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too - Martha Wainwright

what I'm listening to at the moment

1) PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. I love the song "Good Fortune".

2) Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell and Show Your Bones. I'm more familiar with Fever to Tell, though. My favorite song is "Cold Light" and listening to "Tick" in class makes me want to get up and dance away.

3) The Clash's "Straight to Hell". M.I.A. got her opening riff for "Paper Planes" from this song.

Man I don't listen to current music.

On a side note, the guy who created Playmobil is dead!! Noooooooooo. And apparently, the Super Bowl was cut off by an X-rated movie in Arizona.