What Are You Listening To?

Been about a year since I last listened to this, but it just really fits my mood.

The Manhattan Love Suicides

(s/t)

It has its moments but I can't say I'm all that impressed. Way too bland, run of the mill, mainstream Indie for me.

The Big Pink

A Brief History Of Love

I like this much better but mostly only for a few songs. Most of the music on this album doesn't do much for me at all but the few that do, I rather like with the standout track being "Crystal Visions".

Kind of remind me a little of The Silversun Pickups in regards that, though they get dubbed by the mass media as being Shoegaze, they really aren't at all other than for a few tracks which do fall into that territory.

Did anyone happen to catch their show the other week at the Black Cat? If so, how where they?

Their Black Cat show isn't until december.


I've been staying away from this simply because of the blog hype (9.5/10 blog-hyped albums turn out to be lackluster run-of-the-mill indie-rock and we already have too much of that). People have called SSPU shoegaze? That's funny. They're as much a shoegaze band as the Smashing Pumpkins.

azaghal1981 wrote:
Their Black Cat show isn't until december.

Haha! Goes to show how much I've paid attention to their calendar. I thought it was last Monday, or the week before.  ::)

azaghal1981 wrote:I've been staying away from this simply because of the blog hype (9.5/10 blog-hyped albums turn out to be lackluster run-of-the-mill indie-rock and we already have too much of that). People have called SSPU shoegaze? That's funny. They're as much a shoegaze band as the Smashing Pumpkins.

Fully agree with you on all points except that I've forced myself to step out of my usual listening mode so I had some idea of what's going on in the massive world of the mainstream. Kind of an educational venture, so to speak.

And yes, I've often heard or read of others referring to the Pickups as being Shoegaze. Short of a couple songs, no fucking way! My thoughts are exactly the same regarding the Smashing Pumpkins whom I've never liked either, though most Gazers do. To be honest, HFS over playing them for so many years has a whole lot to do with why I can't handle the Pumpkins. As far as the Pickups are concerned, other than a couple songs, I just don't think they are that good. At least not up to all the hype.

Next up, 'my' cup of tea.

Mint Julep

Songs About Snow

Absolutely gorgeous! Very soft, clean and pretty.

Girls - Album


This has definitely had a lot of staying power.

Sad Day For Puppets

Unknown Colours

(Sigh) Az, why do I bother? Another very mediocre release. Sounds a lot like the Swedish version of The Manhattan Love Suicides but a little better. Not by much though.

_________________

Now onto something much, much nicer.

Pluramon

The Monstrous Surplus

It shimmers.  8)

Have you heard the new APTBS yet? I started it back when it leaked weeks ago and never finished it. Didn't grab me like the ep's and the S/T did. Pitchfork actually described something accurately for a change.

fuck yeah, john cale.

azaghal1981 wrote:
Have you heard the new APTBS yet? I started it back when it leaked weeks ago and never finished it. Didn't grab me like the ep's and the S/T did. Pitchfork actually described something accurately for a change.

I love it. Granted, this is a band who kill it live but still need to work out some recording issues. Far different experiences. Don't think that "I Live My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart" comes anywhere close to the live performance but other tracks work nicely recorded.

Love that dirty reverb they do so well, even if it is something that works better live. Also really like how they've picked up a little of The Vandelles influence. Works great for them.

With that said, it kills me that I had to miss their show last night. Life sucks like that sometimes. Really wanted to see Darker My Love too. Did anyone here go? If so, how was it?


Btw, as happens quite often, I do not agree with Pitchdork.

azaghal1981 wrote:
Girls - Album


This has definitely had a lot of staying power.

12 days after its release and you were still listening to it. Now that's staying power!

Are you still listening to it, now, a FULL two weeks after the release date?

I've had it since august.

I'll applaud your valiant attempt at being a condescending prick if that makes you happy, though.

Are we dealing with the resurrection of Brian_Walalce here or something?

azaghal1981 wrote:
I've had it since august.

I'll applaud your valiant attempt at being a condescending prick if that makes you happy, though.

Are we dealing with the resurrection of Brian_Walalce here or something?

Now, now I was only teasing. You get an album in August and are still listening to it on October 4 and claim it has staying power? I guess that says much about the disposability of music in 2009. No need to start namecalling!


Did the band comp you an early copy? How were you able to buy it pre-release?

"Good replayability" may have been a better word choice.

Back to the topic at hand:

Stellar Om Source - Rise in Plains

Two long drone-based pretty analog synth improvisations.

I don't think Pitchfork really understood the underlying humor in this record. So far I'm digging it a lot.

Jaguar wrote:
Sad Day For Puppets

Unknown Colours

(Sigh) Az, why do I bother? Another very mediocre release. Sounds a lot like the Swedish version of The Manhattan Love Suicides but a little better. Not by much though.

I love that band and album. 

And the new APTBS, way better than their old stuff.  I thought it sounded a bit more Skywave than their last one. 


Placebo - Battle for the Sun
An excellent release for a great band.  I hope they reschedule their Baltimore show soon…

Air - Love 2



so, who has given this a listen?  i think it's an above-average outing for the band, which makes it better than most, but it's not on par with their classics.

there are some horrible lyrics in there ("on the way to the heaven's light, things go up, things go down", sung in a reedicoulos fronche aksent), and the album is rife with crimes against vocoding.  there is a sax line or two, and a flute/recorder part, that i could really do without.

despite these shortcomings, i still like the album.  it's very playful.  had they released "sign sang sung" three months ago, it would have been the indie hit of the summer.  the album is also quite cinematic, this could easily have been a soundtrack.  the highlight of the album is "night hunter", a space jam that would fit perfectly on an old nightmares on wax album.  as always with Air, there are some beautiful analog synths sounds in there </gear geek>.

over-all this album gets a "not bad" from me, good moments but i doubt i'll be coming back to it too often.  worth a listen, and who knows… maybe it'll grow on me.

sweetcell wrote:
Air - Love 2



so, who has given this a listen?&nbsp; i think it&#039;s an above-average outing for the band, which makes it better than most, but it&#039;s not on par with their classics.

there are some horrible lyrics in there (&quot;on the way to the heaven&#039;s light, things go up, things go down&quot;, sung in a reedicoulos fronche aksent), and the album is rife with crimes against vocoding.&nbsp; there is a sax line or two, and a flute/recorder part, that i could really do without.

despite these shortcomings, i still like the album.&nbsp; it&#039;s very playful.&nbsp; had they released &quot;sign sang sung&quot; three months ago, it would have been the indie hit of the summer.&nbsp; the album is also quite cinematic, this could easily have been a soundtrack.&nbsp; the highlight of the album is &quot;night hunter&quot;, a space jam that would fit perfectly on an old nightmares on wax album.&nbsp; as always with Air, there are some beautiful analog synths sounds in there &lt;/gear geek&gt;.

over-all this album gets a &quot;not bad&quot; from me, good moments but i doubt i&#039;ll be coming back to it too often.&nbsp; worth a listen, and who knows… maybe it&#039;ll grow on me.

Your review confuses me. If it's "above average outing for the band which makes it better than most", that would necessarily put it in the top three (of their seven) albums. If it's "not on par with their classics", which two albums are their classics? And if #3 is "not bad", where does that leave #4-#7?

It's "not bad" and you "won't be comiing back to it too often", yet you still "like the album"?




My six word review: Phoenix has nothing to worry about.

Well, the only two other albums of theirs that are actually listenable throughout are Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie. So keeping that in mind, an album of theirs can easily be slightly above average but better than most.

sweetcell wrote:
Air - Love 2



so, who has given this a listen?&nbsp; i think it&#039;s an above-average outing for the band, which makes it better than most, but it&#039;s not on par with their classics.

there are some horrible lyrics in there (&quot;on the way to the heaven&#039;s light, things go up, things go down&quot;, sung in a reedicoulos fronche aksent), and the album is rife with crimes against vocoding.&nbsp; there is a sax line or two, and a flute/recorder part, that i could really do without.

despite these shortcomings, i still like the album.&nbsp; it&#039;s very playful.&nbsp; had they released &quot;sign sang sung&quot; three months ago, it would have been the indie hit of the summer.&nbsp; the album is also quite cinematic, this could easily have been a soundtrack.&nbsp; the highlight of the album is &quot;night hunter&quot;, a space jam that would fit perfectly on an old nightmares on wax album.&nbsp; as always with Air, there are some beautiful analog synths sounds in there &lt;/gear geek&gt;.

over-all this album gets a &quot;not bad&quot; from me, good moments but i doubt i&#039;ll be coming back to it too often.&nbsp; worth a listen, and who knows… maybe it&#039;ll grow on me.

My thoughts are they could have easily outsourced this album, seeing as there are numerous groups doing electronic music with that 60's Bachelor Pad vibe to it.  It's not unlike what Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited have been doing for years.