Some good new music at last

At the grand old age of 35, a person can feel impossibly out of touch with the music scene today. I should know. Having grown up browsing (and buying) records and CDs, I often feel sad that I can no longer bandy names of exciting new bands about with confidence, often having no idea at all what they sound like, just an inkling of what the music press had to say.

It's not that I don't try (The Thrills, The Concretes, Radio Dept, The Killers, Keane), but these days, I find new music doesn't connect immediately with me like a Kate Bush or EBTG CD might. Perhaps it's a lack of familiarity, or it could just be the generation gap. K.L. and I were just saying the other day that every decade that we can remember spawned distinct new genres of music (punk, New Wave, House etc), but not this decade. I'm tempted to agree that other than throwing up the exquisite Belle & Sebastian, the defining characteristic of the 2000s seems to have just simply been Retro - mixing up past trends in new ways (even B&S is said to be retro Nick Drake). Some people even say that this decade has just been about rock bands discovering that you can put a dance beat to guitars. But that could just be the grumpy, stubborn old man in me talking.

Anyway, to the topic of this post - new music that I bought recently that genuinely excited me, even if it excited me because it was cleverly retro haha.



First, The Arcade Fire, whose second album "Neon Bible" sported a cover I was immediately intrigued by. And after reading a few reviews (thank you atarashi), I grew even more curious about this Canadian band that has been described as "Baroque rock". Yes, it was extremely "multi-layered" as many trendy ensembles these days are, and yes they play intelligent classical instruments like the cello, the harp and the accordian. But oh the sound! At some points it was XTC in dub, then it was a little Elvis and a little Johnny Cash. Other times it sounded just like 4AD alt-country band Tarnation, and even a little like U2 - or rather what U2 might have sounded like if only they would stop churning out safe US adult contemporary rock. Very intriguing indeed.


Then, LCD Soundsystem's new album "Sound of Silver", which currently has the highest score on the excellent review site Metacritic (89 from 22 reviews!). I had heard about it from M., who told me he didn't like it because it was too "aggro". My goodness, it's a little bit Bowie, a little bit Nitzer Ebb and a little bit Talking Heads. It's The Cure set to hand-clappy disco, then it suddenly turns into early New Order meets early OMD. Astonishing! "Watch The Tapes" is Adam Ant stripped down, and the title track is Heaven 17 from their "Penthouse and Pavement" era. I had to play tracks like "North American Scum" and "Someone Great" over again just to confirm I was hearing what I was hearing.

Suitably humbled, my conclusion is that the 2000s still rock after all.

Another day, another rave review...

It goes without saying, of course, that Tracey Thorn's new solo album "Out Of The Woods" is brilliant. But I'm getting reminded of this with every new review that comes out, like this one by my extremely discerning colleague K.C.


ALBUM OF THE WEEK

OUT OF THE WOODS
Tracey Thorn
Virgin
4 STARS

A QUIET re-invention has always been the modus operandus of Tracey Thorn, one-half of the British indie acoustic-turned-electronic duo Everything But The Girl, who had gone on a hiatus since 2002.
Still, few expected the re-emergence of the songstress especially as a sultry disco version of her former early-1980s persona as a college folk singer.
After all, she has been sequestered at home raising twin daughters and a son with her musical and real-life partner Ben Watt.
Out Of The Woods signals that she has never lost touch with what is intrinsically cool about this English couple – a modesty that underscores well-honed artistry, and a wariness of critical reception despite the big success of a remixed version of Missing by DJ Todd Terry in 1994.
Just look at her canny roster of collaborators.
Several songs here, including the so-retro-it’s-hip single It’s All True, which Thorn has dubbed as “pure 80s New York dance pop”, are helmed by British electronic whiz-remixer Ewan Pearson (Ladytron, Goldfrapp).
He joins dance names such as Tom Gandey (aka Cagedbaby), Metro Area’s Darshan, Mood Music’s Sasser Lindblad and computer nerd and 1980s-obsessed Martin Wheeler, who drapes enough chintzy sass to update Thorn’s sound but without turning her into the sixth member of glam outfit Scissor Sisters.
Take her cover of legendary American disco cellist Arthur Russell’s Get Around To It, which exemplifies her knack for lending warmth tempered with melancholy chill:
“I get excited/You get excited/Why should you fight it,” she sings in her trademark plangent purr over upbeat motorised synth funk, starlit keyboards effects and some saxophone tooting by The Rapture’s Gabe Andruzzi.
It’s an organic flow of warm and cool, a slice of electro soul and minimal house with Thorn oozing ineffable chic and intimacy at the same time.
Whether it’s the looped piano glissando in Easy, the fairy-wand balladry of By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept or the besotted thrills of Raise The Roof, the music reveals Thorn at a different phase of her life, untouched by the whims of fashion, and yet open-hearted enough to accept innocence.
One only has to listen to the opening track, Here It Comes Again, a lullaby accented with violin, cello and harmonium, where the singer adopts a rare falsetto, as if an angel comforting a child of violence: “Your mother’s blue/And your father too/It’s in the family/So where does that leave you.”
Heartbreaking, and heartbreakingly beautiful.

"300" through pink glasses

Here's M.'s review of "300", which pretty much sums it up actually...

OK,
Mixed bag... you gotta watch it for many reasons though!
Sometimes I was on the edge of my seat, sometimes I wanted to laugh but I was sitting next to a lot of mats and their girlfriends and didn't wanna spoil the show for them.
For sure it's a homoerotic movie but it's a white one! (Xerxes's Persian horde is made up of Asians, Africans, Africans, Africans.. did I say Africans? but they obviously DON'T go to the same 24hr hot shit GYM that the Spartans do!)
BUT still - there's something in it for all men, hetero, homo, metro. It gets your heart pumping for all the wrong, wrong, wrong reasons!! LOVELY!! Ignore the horrific lag in between the special moments, money cannot buy a sense of drama, just thumping pomposity. Concentrate on the glorious killing, the amazing camera and cgi work, CONCENTRATE on the bodies clad in their leather cod-pieces. And the dedication to bringing the feel of the graphic novel to the screen is stupendously dedicated. 5 stars for that baby!
Loved the music, loved the bodies. The history is completely dodgy but who cares about history in this world? OF course we know the Spartans were Dorian by descent and they did NOT (sic) introduce pederasty in ANY form into the Greek peninsula. (Because Leonidas calls the Athenians boy-loving idiots - trust me to catch that.. and trust me to know that the Athenians were Ionians - not the original creators of that man-young boy shit)
Xerxes is really Yul Brynner crossed with Christina Aguillera. 9 feet tall, impossibly choreographed and would have been menacing (finally a homo villain worth my respect? No, I'm afraid, the voice synching and his eye-direction were all slightly off and I felt I could have done better with his eyeliner.)
I've been to Iran... the average Joe on the street in Tehran has more sex appeal in one finger than Xerxes here has in his whole make up team.
It seems that, no matter what the odds, the glories of Spartan (substitute white pro family) power will always win out against the lesbians, homos, freaks, elephants, money and masses of the rest of the world (because that is what Xerxes' hordes were made up of!) because they have better health clubs, hair removal, steroids, growth hormones and better lighting! And they do NOT indulge in body piercing neither do they tolerate the deformed or the sickly. And above all, they don't go to late night clubs, bars, discos nor read Arena or Vogue.
They do have the most amazing hair-removal specialists I've seen and I want to see it again just to check out all the muscle stretched taut over smooth skin...
Above all watch the movie in it's 'digital' format on large screen.
Otherwise... don't rent the DVD.

You Keep It All In

It's been almost a month since I posted anything here. Several times I tried but nothing ever went beyond being just a draft awaiting publication. So for the sake of just documenting what's going on right now with me, here is a list of (seemingly) random thoughts on this humid mid-March night.

1. I'm going to a retro party tomorrow but I don't have any retro clothes. And anything that looks vaguely retro in my closet doesn't vaguely fit anymore.

2. "300" was a lot more fabulous and stylish than I expected, and in my mind at least, approaches the lofty heights of "Gattaca".

3. A year after the breakup with C., I think my feelings are finally beginning to settle down. Yes I messaged him on the one-year anniversary of the breakup, but I didn't think much about the message or his lack of a response after that. And I realised that I was messaging partly because I told myself specifically to never forget that day or that date.

4. What I am thinking about, however, is that I might finally be ready to commit to a relationship again - because I'm starting to feel some very real feelings again for someone. I think I totally underestimated how much I actually do like E.

5. I also discovered how much I really like The Beautiful South, which split up last month after 19 years together. I'll really miss having them release these fiercely smart, cynical yet optimistic albums every few years or so that leave you strangely upbeat about life and love.

The perfect love song it has no words it only has death threats
And you can tell a classic ballad by how threatening it gets
So if you walk into your house and she's cutting up your mother
She's only trying to tell you that she loves you like no other
No other, she loves you like no other.
- "Something That You Said", Choke (1990)

This reign of plastic that replaced the reign of gold
Couldn't have known that you would feel so undersold
If love was built on hindsight then you surely would have seen
You were joining hands with the Tupperware Queen
Yes you gave a groan when I took that throne
But can you choose a queen when you behave like a drone
Where the silverware's not expected and certainly never been
That's the ideal kingdom of this Tupperware Queen
- "Tupperware Queen", Painting It Red (2000)

When was the last time you felt so happy you had to give yourself a good pinch
When did you ever feel one of life's highs without using stepladder or winch
That's why the lifeless crave the past 'cause when they're flogged, stoned, lynched
They can watch the living fizzle out to nought without even moving one inch
That's what keeps you alive
The thought of undeserved death
That's why cynics deep-sea dive
Just to watch someone healthy lose breath
That's what really makes you tick
When the fearless are stopped in their tracks
Optimism looks up counts the stars
Pessimism looks down and counts cracks
- "Life vs The Lifeless", Gaze (2003)