#3 Discovery

It was going to happen eventually that I was going to come across an album that I had not yet heard, and indeed an album to whose genre I am not at all particularly endeared. One thing that annoys me about other reviews is when they say something along the lines of “It is good taken in the context of its genre”, they basically mean that is just less shit than other albums that just sound the same. I refuse to buy into that method of labeling.

Having said that, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Discovery. It is not something I would have listened to save for this self imposed project and all I really knew was One More Time from watching Rage when I was younger and, of course, Daft Hands.

Not only is the album catchy as hell, but there is a whole bunch of interesting/cool stuff going on. For example, Aerodynamic and Veridis Quo have the sort of layering I find impossible to dislike or be cynical about in any way. As somewhat of a segue, Michel Gondry once said:

I hate cynicism. I wipe it from me. I don’t like cynical people. I don’t like cynical movies. Cynicism is very easy. You don’t have to justify it. You don’t have to fight for it.

I really like this quote and the reason I bring it up is twofold; one of Michel’s more salient works is a Daft Punk film clip and the other is I don’t think that this album can be approached from the cynicism that was automatic for me at the prospect. (Jay Z’s album is soon on my list so I will have to work really hard to overcome that :/ ) To do so will be to miss out on how lovely Digital Love and Something About Us are. I love that with all of the tools and complexity enabled by electronic music, Daft Punk have been able to keep things simple and beautiful in so many places.

Another thing that surprised me about the album is how inoffensive it is, while there is some distortion of voices, it is all done for effect and never feels out of place. Often the ‘distortion’ is to make them sound pure and sincere. I suspect that my finding it so normal on a listening now speaks to how ubiquitous their distinctive style is.

Now that I have gushed about all the things I loved about it, I have a couple things to mention that were less attractive to me. There are a lot of songs on there and it severely stretched my attention span. I really like the beginning of the album but it really trails off in the mid sections and the end to me. I can’t point to specific songs that I dislike, but neither can I point to many songs that I connect song with title in the second half, it felt like they all bled into each other. All in all, I was really glad I have this a listen and, depending on mood, it may get more plays (or at least some songs).

#2 Funeral

I was introduced to this album by Nick who was working on the set of a film production at the time. He was talking to some people at work about The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me and the circumstances surrounding its creation (lots of people the band knew kept dying) and apparently Funeral has a similar backstory.

The first thing I noticed about it was the cover, because I am lazy, the first thing I judge an album by is its aesthetic and The Arcade Fire had done well on first glance. But this may have been due to its resemblance of the superlative In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. My first listen was a little stilted as I was being shown the album, it is kinda awkward when one person is trying to show another person how awesome an album is by sitting over them listening to it. I try not to do that anymore, I simply hand them a cd and say “Enjoy!”. I didn’t dislike the album at first but I was not as in love with it as I soon would be.

Later that evening I was off to see The National play and while we were waiting for the main act to come on, the venue played Crown Of Love in the background and I was struggling to remember where I had heard this really good song before. I did work it out and resolved to give Funeral a proper listen.

It is really really really really really really good.

Although to be fair, any album with piano, strings and these sort of sounds is going to sit pretty well with me. And it should with you too. I can’t really name a song I don’t love but I do have some favourites! Neighborhood #2, Wake Up, Crown Of Love and Rebellion (Lies). As trite as it sounds, I recommend this album to anyone who likes music.

Also: Trailer!

#1 Kid A

Recently, Pitchfork Media made an ordered list of the top albums of the Naughties. Rather than degenerate into some pretentious diatribe about how band X had a much better album than Y and how criminal it is that The National band Z were not included in the top 20, I’m going to pseudo review the top 20 albums save the ones I really really doubt I will enjoy. And by pseudo review, I will talk about what it means to me.

Because I am elitist, I will start from number 1.

I was a very late convert to Radiohead, mostly because the indie community at large goes gaga over every little thing they do and I am suspicious of that. As it turns out, the indie community was right and Radiohead is just plain awesome. I started off with OK Computer and, on advice, quickly gave The Bends and In Rainbows a decent go. I loved all of them.

Some months later I decided to give the, somewhat maligned, middle albums. I gave them all the once over and decided that the other ones were better and didn’t touch them for a few months. Then some new guys started at work with whom I could have conversations about music. When the topic of Radiohead came up one of them stated confidently that Kid A was their finest album. I doubted him then and still doubt him now. But I gave it some more listens and thought it wasn’t terrible (It was at this time when my love for Amnesiac became pronounced).

I don’t really understand why this album is so revered. There are things I really like; the first couple minutes of Everything In Its Right Place and The National Anthem for example, and Morning Bell is just gorgeous (But I prefer the Amnesiac version!) and Idioteque is fantastic. I just find that at times the album seems self indulgent and even boring. Maybe I just don’t get it.