Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (Collector's Edition)
[Rhino / Volt; 1965/2008]
Pitchfork gave it a 10.0.
This music...
My folks loved it. I haven't heard this in years. My mother used to call from her room and have me play this over and over. I got so sick of it. But not her. She'd sit up there alone, just listening for hours. Just listening.
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Sunday at Devil Dirt
[V2; 2008]
Pitchfork gave it a 6.3.
There are a lot of directions music can go in until it's gone so far in that direction it has to be endured rather than enjoyed. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of them. It's almost brutal. And I would know, I've been bored by James Taylor in person at a venue so small he could see me leaving.
Jesus. I can't stop yawning and my eyes are all teary. This is aggressive as hell in its own way. Kudos. You guys are like punk rock against punk rock. Borecore. My body can't even handle it.
Eleanoora Rosenholm
Vainajan Muotokuva
[Fonal; 2007]
Pitchfork gave it an 8.2.
If this was exactly itself but in English instead of Finnish, it would be a completely novelty-free Dido album. I think. I don't speak Finnish. But that's what it sounds like to me.
The Strugglers
The Latest Rights
[Acuarela; 2008]
Pitchfork gave it a 7.3.
Joshua Love writes:
"The closing track on the Strugglers' The Latest Rights is called "My Slow Reflection", and it's a title that's pretty damn emblematic of leader Randy Bickford's artistic mission as a whole. His entire aim here amounts to a deliberate examination both of clear, concrete moments and diffuse philosophical states, each impression turned over and parsed with exquisite care."
Joshua Love implies:
"The closing track on the Strugglers' The Latest Rights is called "My Slow Reflection," and I'm somehow okay with that."
{{{Sunset}}}
Bright Blue Dream
[Autobus; 2008]
Pitchfork gave it a 5.6.
I have never been through a heavy Pink Floyd phase. I've always thought this was a kind of strange fact about myself. Pink Floyd do a lot of the things I like (druggy sounds) in music. Maybe it's one of those saving-myself-for-it things. More likely I just don't really like Pink Floyd and I'm under the impression that they do a lot of things I like in music for all of my least favorite reasons (technical mastery of a craft, acclaim-hounding). I think this because my first exposure to the Floyd was the "Learning to Fly" video, which a young me found interminable and weird and boring. Not to mention it's a shitty song, although God knows enough people in the YouTube comments section disagree with me on that point.
I realize it's unfair to cast aspersion on the entire Pink Floyd body of work simply because they sobered up while they were in their 40's, went on a "serious musician" jag, and released a total dud of a single in 1987. It wasn't just them. Shitty music was the order of the day, at least from the corners of the world that would be allowed on Mtv. But: there's an audible seed to be found in the good Floyd of old that can be traced directly to whatever tonedeaf instincts would go on to produce "Learning to Fly." It's not like they turned into different people all of a sudden in 1987. So now when I listen to Dark Side of the Moon or even to a lesser extent Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I can't help but hear the technical-mastery-grasping-at-straws quality to it. And it scares me off.
I know that's wrong. But I wouldn't blame anybody who, through no fault of their own, only ever heard "Saint of Me" and then came to the conclusion that The Rolling Stones suck. To a certain extent, the Rolling Stones do suck and have always sucked, in that they've always without knowing it been the type of people whose egos would drive them to eventually, 40 years later, record a turd bomb like "Saint of Me" and expect everybody to love them for it. That is if they didn't die first. Which is H-U-B-R-I-S with capital letters. That's a fair criticism of the Stones. It's pure me music, always has been. If you let that put you off, it will, and I won't blame you for it. It's not like the Stones need your help or anything.
So as unfair as it is for me to judge Pink Floyd based on "Learning to Fly," it's unfair for anybody to get mad at me because I don't like Pink Floyd that much. I don't have to, and I hadn't heard of them until I saw the "Learning to Fly" video. Repeatedly. At age seven. What do you want from me? I'm at least partially right about this, I know it.
Anyhow, this {{{Sunset}}} stuff is tickling my Pink Floyd kneejerk. Probably because it feels rote and distant and calculated and oh by the way also sounds exactly like Pink Floyd but doesn't even have the benefit of being Pink Floyd, which as far as I'm concerned is a benefit of questionable value anyway.
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