What I'm listening to. How about you?
I've been making an effort to listen to more new music lately. I'm afraid of becoming one of those people who listen to the same dozen albums over and over again for the rest of their lives without taking in anything new. Not preemptively -- I began recognizing the symptoms and rushed to treat them.
So here's some of the new stuff I'm listening to. How about you?
Jay-Z - American Gangster
The new Jay-Z album, inspired by the Denzel Washington/Russel Crowe crime flick, is as good as people are saying it is. I'm not even a huge rap fan -- I'm not even a moderately huge rap fan. But I feel about Jay-Z somewhat the way I felt about Wayne Gretzky -- even if I didn't particularly care for the game, I'm astounded by the talent.
The Hives - The Black and White Album
The Hives just never stop rocking my socks off. It's always amazing to me that a Swedish garage rock band is consistently so much better than most of our American garage rock bands. And on this album the band's carefully stretching itself, getting stranger and funkier like the Stones in the early 1970s -- but without the preoccupation with country music. Go listen to "Tick Tick Boom" and "Well All Right!" right now.
Duran Duran - The Red Carpet Massacre
I was never that big a Duran Duran fan and I wasn't waiting on the edge of my seat for their comeback. Still, I have to admit this could be a fun album in small doses, when you're in the mood for it. The same mood (really tired, sugar high, actual high) in which you'd drop your defenses and toss your pretensions and admit that you really liked Britney Spears' "Toxic," for instance. "Skin Divers" and "Nite-Runner" are both fun.
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
People kept telling me I had to listen to this. I read good things. So I did. I gave it a chance. But it's hippie music for hippies, and not even very fun hippie music (like, say, Rusted Root or certain Grateful Dead tracks). It just makes me sleepy.
Comments (3)
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Joe,
It is a good thing, you making an effort to listen to new music, and all.. Several years ago Jerry Reed, Bobby Bare, Mel Tillis and Waylon Jennings got together and cut an album, "Old Dogs". The songs, all written by Shel Silverstein, range from LOL to bittersweet. Even a young man like yourself can appreciate this classic. Do try it and I'll bet it finds a permanent place in your collection.
Old Dogs
Posted on November 16, 2007 11:45 AM
I try to dig into old stuff when I get in a rut.
For a while there a few years ago, I searched out all these bands that Clapton had played in: Blind Faith, Cream, etc., and listened to those and then tried to find the bands that those players were in. Turns out there were a bunch.
Posted on November 16, 2007 7:04 PM
The new Hives album is pretty hot, yeah, but I think Howlin' Pelle should axe proper lyrics altogether and stick to "YEEAAAAHH!!" and "WOOOO!!!," because -- let's face it -- the "real" lyrics in Hives songs are kind of bad, and yet there are few other singers this side of Iggy Pop who can make nonsense shouting sound as meaningful as Howlin' Pelle can.
Last few weeks, I've been listening to the new Mother & the Addicts album, "Science Fiction Limited"... a LOT. While I've heard several "better" new albums this year, this one scratches a particular itch. For one thing, it contains what's certainly the least crass dance-punk I've heard since Q and Not U broke up. For another, the singer's "Mother" persona is pretty compelling -- Mother is, in a way, the ur-hipster, that rare guy who thinks he's smarter, more clever and more experienced than everyone around him and is actually correct in this view of himself; he's the guy who goes to the club and is grossed out by the meat market on display, yet who can still toss out a pervy aside with the best of 'em. Mother can smell your game a mile away -- and yet he himself is merely an observer, a commentator. I think maybe I like this disc because I can relate, and because I'd like to paw through Mother's record collection?
I think anyone of our generation who likes contemporary indie rock with guitars and stuff should check out The Narrator's "All That to the Wall." In one way, it's a very good Chicago-style indie rock record, and in another way, it's probably the best commentary on what it means to be in one's twenties in an era in which no one really expects us to do anything of note until we turn 30 -- for The Narrator, these expectations are both liberating and rather unsettling. We're free, but adrift. I don't know if The Narrator addressed those points on purpose -- the lyrics are mostly kind of abstract, really -- but I'm convinced that they nailed it.
I like Liars' new self-titled album quite a bit -- Every record they put out is quite different from the one before it, and by this point I feel like they're essentially leading us through their record collections and replicating certain parts therein on each album. This one is pretty direct, raw and rockin'. It's a fairly straightforward post-punk disc (as straightforward as arty post-punk can be), with a lot of killer riffs and big hooks, elements they're not necessarily known for. Creepy and menacing, but certainly their most accessible album yet.
Still listening to Band of Horses' "Cease to Begin" a lot. I'm glad they loosened up a bit -- I thought their first album was a bit too austere, and I was surprised when I read interviews with Ben Bridwell and discovered he's actually hiliarious. This album maintains their expansive sound, but it's rootsy and fun, and there are excellent vocal melodies on every song.
That's been my autumn so far, although I still feel my favorite albums of 2007 came out much earlier this year.
Posted on November 18, 2007 7:27 PM