Hello people! Before I get into the meat of my post, I just want to mention that I finally got around to getting Spotify, and I'm planning to start compiling playlists for posts as I go along, so that people can listen to all the songs without having to chase down all the links I so dearly love to pepper throughout these posts. I have no idea how people who read this like to listen to music (or even if you guys actually listen to the songs I talk about at all, or just read the posts), so I'd appreciate it if y'all could let me know your preferred listening method, so I can tailor delivery to meet demand. Here's the link for today's playlist.
Anyway, today I wanted to talk about something near and dear to my heart: indie music. Once again, like apparently everything else I talk about, it's an ill-defined genre. Technically (to switch out my pretentious snob hat for my pretentious pedantic snob hat), it's not even a genre at all; 'indie' just means that it's independently produced music. But come on, we all know what I'm talking about. If the band you're listening to has four guys all playing instruments, the lead singer is doing anything that could come close to being described as crooning, and more than half the guys have beards/stubble and enormous horn rims. We all know where I'm going with this.
And naturally, to start things off I'm going to talk about the Shins. I mentioned them once before, but they're one of my favorite bands, and I won't be shutting up about them anytime soon. They've got several really good albums out, all of which are worth listening to, and other than that there's not much to say. They make good music with solid harmonies and nice, shimmery guitar noises, and you should listen to it. Personally, I'm particularly fond of the songs Saint Simon, For a Fool, Phantom Limb, and Simple Song. They released a new album last year, Port of Morrow, and while it's not as good as some of their earlier stuff, it's worth a listen. Both Simple Song and For a Fool came off of it, and they're two of my favorites Shins tracks.
After The Shins comes Bishop Allen. Bishop Allen is one of those bands that make me feel both smoothly urbane and mildly dickish when I talk about them. This is the type of band you mention when you want to prove you 1) have musical taste; 2) have more of it than the person you're talking to; 3) found these guys back when they were underground, and 4) are a fundamentally better person than every other person you talk too (incidentally, talking about them like this guarantees the amount of people you talk to will get much smaller very quickly). That being said, they do make good music, and I like them a lot. They make (or possibly made, I think they may have broken up) light, fluffy songs that are about love and missed connections and how things are gonna pretty alright, probably (and also sometimes civil war ironclads). It's good stuff to hear when you need optimism and guilelessness. I think my favorite song by them is Shanghaied, which literally has a chorus that goes "La, la la, la la la la la la shanghaied", and is just as delightful as it sounds. Also worth checking out: Dimmer, Like Castanets, and Click, Click Click Click. And yes, the chorus of Click, Click, Click, Click does involve the word 'click' being repeated four times. They really like their repeated chorus lines.
BUT, moving away from groups of twenty-something guys singing about love and stuff and playing their guitars together, my next pick is Matt Costa, a twenty-something guy who sings about love and stuff and plays his guitar BY HIMSELF (not counting his backup band). Frankly, he's pretty much a slightly less mellow Jack Johnson with a higher voice and a small infusion of surf rock. Fortunately, I like Jack Johnson and I love surf rock, so I'm a pretty big fan of his stuff. My favorite song of his definitely Sunshine, because it's simply wonderful. It's probably a metaphor for how he has a furious drug addiction or something, but I couldn't care less. It's great, and I won't let you spoil it for me. Most of his stuff does tend to blend together somewhat, especially if you listen to it all at once, but I still like it. My favorites are Mr. Pitiful, Acting Like a Fool, and Witchcraft. Witchcraft is particularly interesting; it's not my favorite song by him, but it's an almost perfect reproduction of the kind of song you'd hear on a mid 60's surf compilation, and I have to give him kudos for making such a flawless tribute.
And lastly, I would feel ashamed if I failed to mention Death Cab for Cutie. I'm not a huge fan of them, but they're one of the icons of indie music, and they do have some great songs. The only two that I've really gotten into are Soul Meets Body and Crooked Teeth, but man. Those two are rock solid. Well worth taking a listen.
And of course, last but not least, here's a bonus song! Apparently, before Jack White married Meg and they became the White Stripes, he apprenticed as an upholsterer and had a band with his boss. They made an album, which includes the track Pain (Gimme Sympathy), and I love it. It's loud, and kind of terrible, and not technically good at all, but it pulses with pure, unadulterated Jack White, and as a consequence is somehow very enjoyable in spite of that.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Post 12: WUBWUBWUB or: A Gentleman's Guide To Dirty Synth Bass
So I was looking back at some of my earlier posts, and noticed that other than a few brief mentions of Daft Punk, I've almost completely ignored electronic music. That's not exactly earth shattering, I've ignored a lot a of different genres (I'm as aware as anyone that I've made a glaring omission of Mongolian throat singing, and I fully intend to rectify that at some point), but I do tend to listen to a lot of electronic music, and so I wanted to spend some time this week and talk about this stuff, because it interests me.
One reason that I haven't spent a lot of time talking about this stuff is that electronic is just... just a freaking huge subject, you guys. It's a genre like "oldies" is a genre, but somehow even more vaguely defined. ...HOW. I mean, I know I complained about how genres tend to be very vaguely defined in my post on New Wave, but 'electronic music' is one of the single worst offenders, because all that word means is that it's made using electronic tools. So, technically at this point a hefty majority of music that's professionally produced, not to mention almost all pop music since the mid 90's has, at the very least, electronic elements even if it would not be considered electronic per se. It's a mess.
Conveniently, however, there are a ton of sub-genres (and sub-sub genres, yea, even unto the seventh generations), so if you like this kind of thing you can get a fairly solid grasp on the electronic scene with relative ease.
-FAIR WARNING- I both find this stuff really interesting, and have only a moderate grasp of the underlying principles, so the next paragraph or so may be excessively obtuse for many readers, and might also be wildly inaccurate for all readers. You know the risks.
What I'm mostly going to be talking about in this post is the stuff that's referred to overall as "Electronic Dance Music", or EDM. This is, again, a pretty catch all term, but it refers to stuff that most people think of a electronic: entirely synthetic instrumentation, big, repetitive, driving bass and drum loops, and typically not a lot of vocalizing, if any. EDM breaks down into a lot of other things, but I'm going to ignore most of them and focus in on the two types of electronic that I tend to listen to most often: house and dubstep. Both of these are frequently reviled, and there's a very good reason for that; namely a lot of the music produced under those umbrellas sucks hard.
I personally believe that's one of the reasons why stuff like dubstep is so constantly and ferociously reviled; it's not just because only a small segment of humanity finds that kind of music at all appealing (although that's definitely a factor), but also because bad EDM composes a huge quantity of EDM as a whole, even more so than you'll see in most genres, and crappy EDM is even more annoying than crappy music in general. When you hear a crappy pop song, it's typically boring, asinine, and/or forgettable (generally: and). When you hear a crappy EDM song, it tends to be all of those, but also horrendously unpleasant, and a lot of the time they're also ferocious earworms that get stuck in your head and are impossible to dislodge. I won't be linking to any examples, for reasons that should be obvious. You are all welcome.
Anyway, I have a lot more to say about this, but if I let myself get really truly started on the topic I may never get around to actually mentioning specific song, so I'm going to save that frankly enormous tangent for an addendum post that I will eventually write whether or not people care, because this stuff's fun to talk about. So without further ado, let's start off with some deadmaus! This is pretty much classic house, which is to say it's a 4/4 beat at right around 140 bpm, with a structure that starts out relatively simplistic but builds with increasing complexity throughout the song until tapering off and fading out on the drum loop. I promised myself I wouldn't talk about the mechanical aspects of this stuff but it turns out I'm bad at it.
In case that description of house music was as incoherent as I suspect it may have been, tough. I don't have have the technical understanding to describe it in a more user friendly way, so here's a Wikipedia article on it, and best of luck to those who are interesting in finding out more regarding the mechanics. For any remaining readers, here's another house song. Like most of the house I like, I know basically nothing about the music or musician, and found it by the recommendation of a friend. If you feel dubious about the genre, just listen until you at least hit the 45 second mark, because it has a fantastic break.
And on the subject of fantastic breaks, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to segue into dubstep. Yes, I like dubstep; haters to the left. I feel like I have to spend just a little bit more time talking about the musical protocols of dubstep, because it seems like most people have no idea what dubstep is, including those who make it. It's a rather contested genre; different people want to describe it in different ways, but as a general rule dubstep has about the same beats per minute range as house and most types of EDM (135-142 BPM, generally speaking), but is distinguished by not having the drums hit on every measure, which creates the very hollow, nervous feeling that makes dubstep so distinctive. I'm not sure how to properly explain this idea, so let me give an example: Gizmo by the artist Datsik. This is actually just as fast as both the house songs I linked to earlier, but the drums don't hit on every beat and it has much more distorted bass, which makes a very visceral effect on the listener. Listening to dubstep makes you want to flail violently and headbutt things. In case that description didn't make it obvious, it also tends to be very polarizing. People either love it or hate it, but they rarely feel ambivalent.
Frankly, I'll be a bit surprised if many of the people reading this ending liking a lot of the music that I recommend today, as it has a considerably narrower appeal than most of the stuff I talk about, but I like it and want to share some of this stuff with people who would generally skip it, even if I don't end up converting anyone to it. Therefore, let me share just a couple more songs.
Obviously I have to mention Skrillex, if only because he's the only dubstep artist that many people have heard of. I personally like quite a lot of his stuff, but I've found that he tends to be rather hit-or-miss. When I like his stuff I like it a lot, but when I don't it's just incredibly annoying. That being said, my favorite tracks by him are definitely Slats Slats Slats, Reptile's Theme, and Scatta. His stuff is much more melodic and in some ways more easily listenable than a lot of 'classic' dubstep, which means he gets a lot of hate, but honestly the songs are good. They're fun and silly, and would be good to headbang to, except trying to headbang to these songs is a great way to get whiplash really fast. Keeping time with breaks is not conducive to vertebral health.
And lastly, here are two of my all time favorite electronic songs: first, Winter Winds by Fytch, who's some random guy in the Netherlands who makes music that I really like. This is my favorite song of his, mostly because it's awesome. Second, this one is technically more of a mashup than a song, and also it's a seven 1/2 minute dance routine. WATCH IT. WATCH ALL OF IT. I promise it is well worth the time spent. The song(s) is(are?) fantastic, and the choreography and execution are both perfect. You will not regret it, unless possibly you have brain problems.
And most lastly of all, here's a bonus song. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I have a very soft spot in my heart for classic surf rock, and by far my favorite surf group is the Ventures, because they were great and had fantastic steel guitar riffs. Walk Don't Run has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember (literally. I learned about them because my dad had one of the records and he played it constantly when I was growing up).
One reason that I haven't spent a lot of time talking about this stuff is that electronic is just... just a freaking huge subject, you guys. It's a genre like "oldies" is a genre, but somehow even more vaguely defined. ...HOW. I mean, I know I complained about how genres tend to be very vaguely defined in my post on New Wave, but 'electronic music' is one of the single worst offenders, because all that word means is that it's made using electronic tools. So, technically at this point a hefty majority of music that's professionally produced, not to mention almost all pop music since the mid 90's has, at the very least, electronic elements even if it would not be considered electronic per se. It's a mess.
Conveniently, however, there are a ton of sub-genres (and sub-sub genres, yea, even unto the seventh generations), so if you like this kind of thing you can get a fairly solid grasp on the electronic scene with relative ease.
-FAIR WARNING- I both find this stuff really interesting, and have only a moderate grasp of the underlying principles, so the next paragraph or so may be excessively obtuse for many readers, and might also be wildly inaccurate for all readers. You know the risks.
What I'm mostly going to be talking about in this post is the stuff that's referred to overall as "Electronic Dance Music", or EDM. This is, again, a pretty catch all term, but it refers to stuff that most people think of a electronic: entirely synthetic instrumentation, big, repetitive, driving bass and drum loops, and typically not a lot of vocalizing, if any. EDM breaks down into a lot of other things, but I'm going to ignore most of them and focus in on the two types of electronic that I tend to listen to most often: house and dubstep. Both of these are frequently reviled, and there's a very good reason for that; namely a lot of the music produced under those umbrellas sucks hard.
I personally believe that's one of the reasons why stuff like dubstep is so constantly and ferociously reviled; it's not just because only a small segment of humanity finds that kind of music at all appealing (although that's definitely a factor), but also because bad EDM composes a huge quantity of EDM as a whole, even more so than you'll see in most genres, and crappy EDM is even more annoying than crappy music in general. When you hear a crappy pop song, it's typically boring, asinine, and/or forgettable (generally: and). When you hear a crappy EDM song, it tends to be all of those, but also horrendously unpleasant, and a lot of the time they're also ferocious earworms that get stuck in your head and are impossible to dislodge. I won't be linking to any examples, for reasons that should be obvious. You are all welcome.
Anyway, I have a lot more to say about this, but if I let myself get really truly started on the topic I may never get around to actually mentioning specific song, so I'm going to save that frankly enormous tangent for an addendum post that I will eventually write whether or not people care, because this stuff's fun to talk about. So without further ado, let's start off with some deadmaus! This is pretty much classic house, which is to say it's a 4/4 beat at right around 140 bpm, with a structure that starts out relatively simplistic but builds with increasing complexity throughout the song until tapering off and fading out on the drum loop. I promised myself I wouldn't talk about the mechanical aspects of this stuff but it turns out I'm bad at it.
In case that description of house music was as incoherent as I suspect it may have been, tough. I don't have have the technical understanding to describe it in a more user friendly way, so here's a Wikipedia article on it, and best of luck to those who are interesting in finding out more regarding the mechanics. For any remaining readers, here's another house song. Like most of the house I like, I know basically nothing about the music or musician, and found it by the recommendation of a friend. If you feel dubious about the genre, just listen until you at least hit the 45 second mark, because it has a fantastic break.
And on the subject of fantastic breaks, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to segue into dubstep. Yes, I like dubstep; haters to the left. I feel like I have to spend just a little bit more time talking about the musical protocols of dubstep, because it seems like most people have no idea what dubstep is, including those who make it. It's a rather contested genre; different people want to describe it in different ways, but as a general rule dubstep has about the same beats per minute range as house and most types of EDM (135-142 BPM, generally speaking), but is distinguished by not having the drums hit on every measure, which creates the very hollow, nervous feeling that makes dubstep so distinctive. I'm not sure how to properly explain this idea, so let me give an example: Gizmo by the artist Datsik. This is actually just as fast as both the house songs I linked to earlier, but the drums don't hit on every beat and it has much more distorted bass, which makes a very visceral effect on the listener. Listening to dubstep makes you want to flail violently and headbutt things. In case that description didn't make it obvious, it also tends to be very polarizing. People either love it or hate it, but they rarely feel ambivalent.
Frankly, I'll be a bit surprised if many of the people reading this ending liking a lot of the music that I recommend today, as it has a considerably narrower appeal than most of the stuff I talk about, but I like it and want to share some of this stuff with people who would generally skip it, even if I don't end up converting anyone to it. Therefore, let me share just a couple more songs.
Obviously I have to mention Skrillex, if only because he's the only dubstep artist that many people have heard of. I personally like quite a lot of his stuff, but I've found that he tends to be rather hit-or-miss. When I like his stuff I like it a lot, but when I don't it's just incredibly annoying. That being said, my favorite tracks by him are definitely Slats Slats Slats, Reptile's Theme, and Scatta. His stuff is much more melodic and in some ways more easily listenable than a lot of 'classic' dubstep, which means he gets a lot of hate, but honestly the songs are good. They're fun and silly, and would be good to headbang to, except trying to headbang to these songs is a great way to get whiplash really fast. Keeping time with breaks is not conducive to vertebral health.
And lastly, here are two of my all time favorite electronic songs: first, Winter Winds by Fytch, who's some random guy in the Netherlands who makes music that I really like. This is my favorite song of his, mostly because it's awesome. Second, this one is technically more of a mashup than a song, and also it's a seven 1/2 minute dance routine. WATCH IT. WATCH ALL OF IT. I promise it is well worth the time spent. The song(s) is(are?) fantastic, and the choreography and execution are both perfect. You will not regret it, unless possibly you have brain problems.
And most lastly of all, here's a bonus song. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I have a very soft spot in my heart for classic surf rock, and by far my favorite surf group is the Ventures, because they were great and had fantastic steel guitar riffs. Walk Don't Run has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember (literally. I learned about them because my dad had one of the records and he played it constantly when I was growing up).
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Post 11:Covers Are Great. Aren't Covers Great? (Yes, Yes They Are)
Hey. You know what I love? Music. And I love when the artists that I love, love the music of other artists, and therefore proceed to produce covers of said beloved music, and then let me listen to it. It's lovely! Therefore, I wanted to talk a bit about covers, specifically rad covers that are great.
I talked about covers a little bit quite a while ago; in my post on folk music, I may have implied that basically every folk song from the 60's was originally by Bob Dylan. I'm going to go ahead and stand on that, and back it up with a couple of fantastic covers of his stuff. Specifically, Gun's N' Roses Knockin' On Heaven'sDoor (here's the original), and Hendrix's version of All Along The Watchtower (ditto). I mean, I don't even like GnR, and I still love Knockin' On Heaven's Door. And as far as All Along The Watchtower goes, I don't even know what to say. I realize not everyone likes listening to long jamming solos being played virtuoso-style, but I don't see how anyone can hate on this song. It's just... so good at being what it is, even if you don't like it you still have to appreciate it. Personally I'd recommend loving it instead of appreciating it, but I'm not your mom. You should listen to it, though. (also, as a side note: while I was looking up links I found a live cover Jimi did of Like a Rolling Stone, and it's awesome. It's very long and meandering, and overall I prefer the original, but this is still a really good version, well worth listening to).
Next up is something newer and not by Dylan, for once. I'm pretty fond of Mumford and Sons (particularly Winter Winds, which is a fantastic song in every way), and it turns out they've done some rock solid covers! My personal favorite is actually from Disney's Robin Hood; they did a version of Not In Nottingham (original here), and gosh dang son. It is just ridankulous. They have also done a cover of The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, also fantastic, although I wouldn't exactly describe it as ridankulous. To be fair, that's mostly because The Boxer is a really depressing, beautiful song, and that would just enormously inappropriate.
Moving on, here are two covers from bands that became famous through viral hits on Youtube, both of which I'm very fond of. Pomplamoose and Walk Off The Earth have both done a TON of fantastic covers, but I just wanted to highlight a favorite from each of them. I think Pomplamoose' cover of Aerosmith's Don't Wanna Miss A Thing (original) was the first song of theirs I heard, and it's still one of my favorites. Who knew wall of sound vocals sung in a minor key could be so appealing? As far as Walk Off The Earth goes, they've made a silly number of great covers, but one of my favorites is Ice Cream, which was apparently originally by Sarah Maclachlan. I have no idea who she is, but I really like at least one of her songs, when it's covered by a different band in a different style. Still, she has good lyrics.
I would also feel remiss if I failed to mention Cee-Lo Green's cover of No One's Gonna Love You, originally by Band of Horses. I like the original, but comparing it with the cover is like comparing skim milk with heavy whipping cream. Literally, the experience is very similar; one is watery and almost translucent, one is so thick that drinking it straight is almost a physical impossibility, not to mention kind of disgusting. The one you should listen to depends on your mood. If you're feeling slightly strung out and don't really want to gin up the energy to string yourself back together, consider the original. If you want to get keyed up with a love ballad that may actually have more hair on it's chest than Band of Horses does on all its combined chins (for the record, that's quite a lot), go with Cee-Lo. You won't regret it.
Lastly, I have recently discovered that apparently there's a thing where modern bands do shimmery, super synth heavy covers of 80's pop, and I LOVE IT. In particular, I'm thinking of two songs: a version of the Jackson Five's I Want You Back (original) by Discovery, and a version of Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (original) by a band called STRFKR (fun fact: their original name was way less socially acceptable, but they changed it last year when they kept mysteriously not getting any popular notice. I'll let you figure out what it was on your own; it will not be difficult). I love both of these songs, and I really like shimmery synth, and both of these covers are great. Seriously, listen to them and be enriched.
And even more lastly, here's a bonus song (with an awesome music video to accompany it, no less)! Goldfishes song We Come Together is... I'm not sure, exactly. It's possible to swing to, albeit it very aggressively, and it might be considered electro-swing (a genre that holds a very soft spot in my heart, which will have to wait for another day), but I don't think it is exactly. Regardless, it is a great song, and it has a music video where an animated band rescues a princess by fighting a group of evil cats through an 8-bit world. If you can't love that, we need to talk.
I talked about covers a little bit quite a while ago; in my post on folk music, I may have implied that basically every folk song from the 60's was originally by Bob Dylan. I'm going to go ahead and stand on that, and back it up with a couple of fantastic covers of his stuff. Specifically, Gun's N' Roses Knockin' On Heaven'sDoor (here's the original), and Hendrix's version of All Along The Watchtower (ditto). I mean, I don't even like GnR, and I still love Knockin' On Heaven's Door. And as far as All Along The Watchtower goes, I don't even know what to say. I realize not everyone likes listening to long jamming solos being played virtuoso-style, but I don't see how anyone can hate on this song. It's just... so good at being what it is, even if you don't like it you still have to appreciate it. Personally I'd recommend loving it instead of appreciating it, but I'm not your mom. You should listen to it, though. (also, as a side note: while I was looking up links I found a live cover Jimi did of Like a Rolling Stone, and it's awesome. It's very long and meandering, and overall I prefer the original, but this is still a really good version, well worth listening to).
Next up is something newer and not by Dylan, for once. I'm pretty fond of Mumford and Sons (particularly Winter Winds, which is a fantastic song in every way), and it turns out they've done some rock solid covers! My personal favorite is actually from Disney's Robin Hood; they did a version of Not In Nottingham (original here), and gosh dang son. It is just ridankulous. They have also done a cover of The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, also fantastic, although I wouldn't exactly describe it as ridankulous. To be fair, that's mostly because The Boxer is a really depressing, beautiful song, and that would just enormously inappropriate.
Moving on, here are two covers from bands that became famous through viral hits on Youtube, both of which I'm very fond of. Pomplamoose and Walk Off The Earth have both done a TON of fantastic covers, but I just wanted to highlight a favorite from each of them. I think Pomplamoose' cover of Aerosmith's Don't Wanna Miss A Thing (original) was the first song of theirs I heard, and it's still one of my favorites. Who knew wall of sound vocals sung in a minor key could be so appealing? As far as Walk Off The Earth goes, they've made a silly number of great covers, but one of my favorites is Ice Cream, which was apparently originally by Sarah Maclachlan. I have no idea who she is, but I really like at least one of her songs, when it's covered by a different band in a different style. Still, she has good lyrics.
I would also feel remiss if I failed to mention Cee-Lo Green's cover of No One's Gonna Love You, originally by Band of Horses. I like the original, but comparing it with the cover is like comparing skim milk with heavy whipping cream. Literally, the experience is very similar; one is watery and almost translucent, one is so thick that drinking it straight is almost a physical impossibility, not to mention kind of disgusting. The one you should listen to depends on your mood. If you're feeling slightly strung out and don't really want to gin up the energy to string yourself back together, consider the original. If you want to get keyed up with a love ballad that may actually have more hair on it's chest than Band of Horses does on all its combined chins (for the record, that's quite a lot), go with Cee-Lo. You won't regret it.
Lastly, I have recently discovered that apparently there's a thing where modern bands do shimmery, super synth heavy covers of 80's pop, and I LOVE IT. In particular, I'm thinking of two songs: a version of the Jackson Five's I Want You Back (original) by Discovery, and a version of Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (original) by a band called STRFKR (fun fact: their original name was way less socially acceptable, but they changed it last year when they kept mysteriously not getting any popular notice. I'll let you figure out what it was on your own; it will not be difficult). I love both of these songs, and I really like shimmery synth, and both of these covers are great. Seriously, listen to them and be enriched.
And even more lastly, here's a bonus song (with an awesome music video to accompany it, no less)! Goldfishes song We Come Together is... I'm not sure, exactly. It's possible to swing to, albeit it very aggressively, and it might be considered electro-swing (a genre that holds a very soft spot in my heart, which will have to wait for another day), but I don't think it is exactly. Regardless, it is a great song, and it has a music video where an animated band rescues a princess by fighting a group of evil cats through an 8-bit world. If you can't love that, we need to talk.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Post 10: On Gum, Bubbles, and their application Re: Pop music
Ok, I have a confession to make. Sometimes (more often than I am entirely comfortable with admitting in a public space, to be honest), I like to listen to really stupid pop. Let me be clear here; I'm not just talking about classic 80's schlock like Wham!, at least not exclusively (although who doesn't love Wake Me Up, am I right? ...Please tell me I'm right). I'm talking Venga Boys and Aqua. Yes, that Aqua. I'm talking about bubblegum pop in the purest, most literal sense of the word: the type of music that is not only absurdly sweet and leaves a faintly nauseating aftertaste, but that miraculously manages, somehow, to actually SOUND neon pink. I remember once seeing a an aphorism that said something along the lines of "there should be no such thing as guilty pleasure music. If you like something enjoy it and don't feel bad." Frankly, I disagree. I honestly and unironically enjoy the songs I'm about to share with you, but I am not proud of that fact. Just because a jelly doughnut with ice cream on it sounds DELICIOUS does not mean that if I saw you eating in public, I would not judge you. I would absolutely give you the judgement you so richly deserved, and then I would ask for one, because I'm really hungry and that sounds kind of amazing.
-Fair warning, this is mostly going to made of objectively terrible 90's pop, because these are my most deeply buried guilty pleasures. I do like some more recent stuff, but I don't feel like there's any real value in introducing people to Lady Gaga. Either you've heard of her, or you have somehow managed to steer clear of all popular culture for the last five years, and have more pressing concerns.-
I would feel frankly remiss if I didn't start the list off with, naturally, Aqua. Aqua is as central to my perception of bubblegum pop as hideous bleached tips and choreographed dancing (both which Aqua had in spades, not coincidentally). Their most iconic piece is Barbie Girl, of course, but they actually have a couple of others that I really like. Most notably, Dr. Jones and Candyman. Looking back at these with the jaded glasses of maturity, it's depressingly obvious that every song I'm talking about was made as absolutely filthy innuendo, but that's all part of the joy. If you don't feel like you need to rinse out both your mind and your ears after coming off an Aqua binge, you're doing it wrong.
Next up is Ace of Base. Also 90's, also featuring lots of promo shots of bleach haired dudes singing with their razor sharp cheek bones, but with twice as many female vocalists (for a total of two) and switching out the neon music videos for artful bloom effects and atrocious green screening, the other favorite staple of 90's music videos. I listened to a ton of their stuff growing up, but my favorite song was always Beautiful Life, because who doesn't love three chords, a keyboard and a drum set? I've also always loved Cruel Summer and All That She Wants.
This next one is slightly less well known and a bit more recent, but he's also one of the most ridiculously fun listens I know of. Mika is very much a spiritual successor of Freddy Mercury, basically a more androgynous, higher pitched and glam-oriented version. I think we can all agree that this is awesome, and the music backs it up. The first Mika song I heard was Grace Kelly, and it's still one of my favorites, but he's got several singles worth checking out, like Lollipop (which, now that I think about it, feels kind of like a spiritual successor to Aqua, complete with an over the top music video and some innuendo that has all the grace and subtlety of a root canal from Andre the Giant). Another particular favorite of mine is Big Girl (You Are Beautiful), which is a delightful tribute to the classic Queen song Fat Bottom Girls, basically just Fat Bottom Girls 2: Fatter & Friskier.
And last of all, this may be the greatest song ever made to sing along with. I Believe In A Thing Called Love is awesome, it will always be awesome, and this is one song that I will never feel guilty about loving, because it's FANTASTIC. I mentioned it in a previous post, wherein I also mentioned my love of leaping falsettos, and this song may be the root cause of that obsession. It's the best. THE BEST. If you get nothing else from this post, get this: Never feel bad about loving I Believe In A Thing Called Love, because if you can't love it, you'll have a hard time finding any joy in your life.
Also, here's a bonus song! I've been a bit of an oldies kick recently, and rediscovered the Hollies. They were an interesting band; they had an unusual ability to make lots of good songs that range all over the soundboard, so they end up being easy confuse with basically everyone else. I thought Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress In A Black Dress was a Rolling Stones song until I was like 18. Nonetheless, Carrie Anne is probably my favorite of their songs. It's got good harmonies and a simple sweetness that'shard to pull off without being cloying and saccharine, but I think it manages nicely.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Post 9: To be honest, I just want to talk about MGMT
Hey guys! About a month ago, I briefly mentioned that MGMT is one of my favorite bands, and also said that Congratulations (their second album, the followup to Oracular Spectacular) is by far the best thing they've made. I'm pretty sure I also said that anyone who thinks Oracular Spectacular is wrong and should be ashamed of themselves. In the weeks since, I've been listening to quite a bit of MGMT, and I think I'm going to have to revise that statement. I still think that Congratulations is better, but Oracular Spectacular was way more solid than I've been giving it credit for.
Here's the thing: Oracular Spectacular came out, and they released three songs as singles; Time To Pretend, Electric Feel, and Kids. Pretty much everyone who knows MGMT got introduced to them by one of those songs, and they were all great songs to provide an intro to their stuff. Time To Pretend had one of my all time favorite synth hooks, along with pretty great lyrics and an indefinable charm that still makes it one of my favorite songs by them. Electric Feel and Kids had... a lot less, frankly. They're both good songs, maybe even great songs, but I suspect I'll always resent Kids for being better known than the much more deserving (in my admittedly biased opinion) time To Pretend, and Electric Feel just didn't do it for me like their other stuff. But anyway, once you'd listened to those three, Oracular Spectacular had a few other really great, attention grabbing songs that made you sit up and pay attention, and then everything else kind of felt like fluff. Not bad fluff, but almost a third of the album felt kind of forgettable.
Congratulations, on the other hand, is just this rock solid monolith of ear joy, composed entirely of really fantastic songs. I remember when it was first released, people kept talking about how it didn't have any singles, how it was a cohesive listening experience that was best when you just sat down and listened to it from beginning to end (incidentally, after it came out they ended up releasing four of the albums nine songs as singles, but that's neither here nor there). I ended up ignoring that advice and fixating on almost all of the songs one at a time, listening to each one over and over before moving on to the next one, but I have to say that it is actually really satisfying to listen to end-to-end.
Anyway, this has been one of my favorite albums for almost exactly four years now, so I feel justified in spending some extra time to go over it one song at a time. Haters to the left, Congratulations is worth it.
1. It's Working - I distinctly remember the first time this song made a really deep impression on me, because I'd been falling asleep in an incredibly boring entry-level college class, and after getting out I tried to wake up before going to my next class by listening to It's Working. Then I spent the rest of the day trying to convince my friends to listen to it, because I claimed that it made me feel like there were caffeinated spiders crawling through my bloodstream, and I wanted to share the feeling with the world
--As a quick disclaimer, I did not then, nor have I ever, used recreational pharmaceuticals. It's working just had a really visceral effect on me, that day. Normally I wouldn't feel any particular compulsion to mention this, but MGMT is up with the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd as far as weed music goes, so I wanted to make it clear that their music is really good even when you aren't into the side of it--
2. Song for Dan Treacy - I still don't know Dan Treacy is, nor do I care. I kind of get the impression that this songs about a detective investigating child molesters, but the main takeaway from this song is how great it is. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Song for Dan Treacy is my favorite song off of Congratulations, but it easily fits on my... top seven, at least. That pretty high!
3. Someone's Missing - I didn't really like this song for the longest time, but it grows on you. It's actually kind of an odd song, by which I mean it's only two and a half minutes long, and the first minute forty-five of that feels like an intro instead of a song. However, as weird as that set-up is, it works really well. Also, the crescendo always sounds kind of a like a boozy homage to the Mamas and the Papas to me, which is something I am 100% in favor of.
4. Flash Delirium - This is probably the most standout track on the album, and might be the most well known as well. It deserves it Flash Delirium has all the things a good single needs: flutes, massive wall-of-sound vocals, a magnificent finale that includes lines like "Sue the spiders, sink the Welsh"... It's got all things that are good.
5. I Found A Whistle - This song is a sort of tipping point on the album; after the first four very uptempo songs, I Found a Whistle slows down a bit and show a more ballady side of their music, which sets most of the tone for the last half of the album, and is pretty awesome. As a word of warning, it's a pretty terrible idea to listen to this album as driving music for road trips, especially when you start to get tired. It works really well until you hit this song, and after that you'll find your eyes drifting shut with alarming frequency... or so I have heard.
6. Siberian Breaks - This is what happens when you have like seven different song ideas, and decide to just crank your music up to eleven and daisy chain them together. Siberian Breaks feels less like a song , and more like a twelve minute concept album, which is to say it's AWESOME. It divided into a several discrete sections that blend together, and in spite of how chaotic it seems like it ought be, the end result is a very unified, melodious whole. It also has ridiculously compelling lyrics, including one of my all time favorite lines ever: "It's not the life lesson I'd've guessed/ if you're conscious you must be depressed/ or at least cynical". Seriously, it's a great song-thing.
7. Brian Eno - When I said that the last half of album is mostly slower and more ballady, this song was the reason for the "mostly". Brian Eno may be the most aggressively fun songs MGMT has ever made. It's all driving guitar hooks and wailing keyboards, and it's probably my favorite song of of this whole album. Apparently it's an homage to an English musician who pioneered ambient music in the 70's, which is kind of ironic, since the song itself is ambient like political cartooning is subtle.
8. Lady Dada's Nightmare - Ok, this is the one song that I'm not going to gush about on Congratulations. I just don't like it. It's not terrible, it's easy to listen to, but it's also kind of super boring. This is the kind of songs that makes you think "Man, I kind of want to skip this" a minute and a half into it, simply because it completely fails to make an impression up to that point.
9. Congratulations - I'm not going to lie, this is probably my least favorite song on Congratulations after Lady Dada's Nightmare, but it's pretty good in spite of that. Congratulations is one of the most aggressively passive songs I've ever heard, and I can only listen to it so often as a result of that. It's basically MGMT saying "We won music, so everyone can eat it". I am totally OK with that message, and in fact I heartily endorse the sentiment, but overall I'd rather just listen to Brian Eno two or three times in a row, if I'm aiming for sheer audio satisfaction.
And that's Congratulations! It's not as immediately listenable as some albums, but it rewards you for paying attention to it, and it's well worth the time invested. Go listen to it! you won't regret your choice.
PS, here's a little bit of extra music! I have loved Sooner or Later by The Grass Roots for as long as I can remember, but I feel sort of weird when I listen to it now. I can't make up my mind whether it's a delightfully upbeat song about a guy who got dumped but feels hopeful about the future, or an inappropriately cheerful song about the most determined stalker since Sting. Either way, it's still great.
Here's the thing: Oracular Spectacular came out, and they released three songs as singles; Time To Pretend, Electric Feel, and Kids. Pretty much everyone who knows MGMT got introduced to them by one of those songs, and they were all great songs to provide an intro to their stuff. Time To Pretend had one of my all time favorite synth hooks, along with pretty great lyrics and an indefinable charm that still makes it one of my favorite songs by them. Electric Feel and Kids had... a lot less, frankly. They're both good songs, maybe even great songs, but I suspect I'll always resent Kids for being better known than the much more deserving (in my admittedly biased opinion) time To Pretend, and Electric Feel just didn't do it for me like their other stuff. But anyway, once you'd listened to those three, Oracular Spectacular had a few other really great, attention grabbing songs that made you sit up and pay attention, and then everything else kind of felt like fluff. Not bad fluff, but almost a third of the album felt kind of forgettable.
Congratulations, on the other hand, is just this rock solid monolith of ear joy, composed entirely of really fantastic songs. I remember when it was first released, people kept talking about how it didn't have any singles, how it was a cohesive listening experience that was best when you just sat down and listened to it from beginning to end (incidentally, after it came out they ended up releasing four of the albums nine songs as singles, but that's neither here nor there). I ended up ignoring that advice and fixating on almost all of the songs one at a time, listening to each one over and over before moving on to the next one, but I have to say that it is actually really satisfying to listen to end-to-end.
Anyway, this has been one of my favorite albums for almost exactly four years now, so I feel justified in spending some extra time to go over it one song at a time. Haters to the left, Congratulations is worth it.
1. It's Working - I distinctly remember the first time this song made a really deep impression on me, because I'd been falling asleep in an incredibly boring entry-level college class, and after getting out I tried to wake up before going to my next class by listening to It's Working. Then I spent the rest of the day trying to convince my friends to listen to it, because I claimed that it made me feel like there were caffeinated spiders crawling through my bloodstream, and I wanted to share the feeling with the world
--As a quick disclaimer, I did not then, nor have I ever, used recreational pharmaceuticals. It's working just had a really visceral effect on me, that day. Normally I wouldn't feel any particular compulsion to mention this, but MGMT is up with the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd as far as weed music goes, so I wanted to make it clear that their music is really good even when you aren't into the side of it--
2. Song for Dan Treacy - I still don't know Dan Treacy is, nor do I care. I kind of get the impression that this songs about a detective investigating child molesters, but the main takeaway from this song is how great it is. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Song for Dan Treacy is my favorite song off of Congratulations, but it easily fits on my... top seven, at least. That pretty high!
3. Someone's Missing - I didn't really like this song for the longest time, but it grows on you. It's actually kind of an odd song, by which I mean it's only two and a half minutes long, and the first minute forty-five of that feels like an intro instead of a song. However, as weird as that set-up is, it works really well. Also, the crescendo always sounds kind of a like a boozy homage to the Mamas and the Papas to me, which is something I am 100% in favor of.
4. Flash Delirium - This is probably the most standout track on the album, and might be the most well known as well. It deserves it Flash Delirium has all the things a good single needs: flutes, massive wall-of-sound vocals, a magnificent finale that includes lines like "Sue the spiders, sink the Welsh"... It's got all things that are good.
5. I Found A Whistle - This song is a sort of tipping point on the album; after the first four very uptempo songs, I Found a Whistle slows down a bit and show a more ballady side of their music, which sets most of the tone for the last half of the album, and is pretty awesome. As a word of warning, it's a pretty terrible idea to listen to this album as driving music for road trips, especially when you start to get tired. It works really well until you hit this song, and after that you'll find your eyes drifting shut with alarming frequency... or so I have heard.
6. Siberian Breaks - This is what happens when you have like seven different song ideas, and decide to just crank your music up to eleven and daisy chain them together. Siberian Breaks feels less like a song , and more like a twelve minute concept album, which is to say it's AWESOME. It divided into a several discrete sections that blend together, and in spite of how chaotic it seems like it ought be, the end result is a very unified, melodious whole. It also has ridiculously compelling lyrics, including one of my all time favorite lines ever: "It's not the life lesson I'd've guessed/ if you're conscious you must be depressed/ or at least cynical". Seriously, it's a great song-thing.
7. Brian Eno - When I said that the last half of album is mostly slower and more ballady, this song was the reason for the "mostly". Brian Eno may be the most aggressively fun songs MGMT has ever made. It's all driving guitar hooks and wailing keyboards, and it's probably my favorite song of of this whole album. Apparently it's an homage to an English musician who pioneered ambient music in the 70's, which is kind of ironic, since the song itself is ambient like political cartooning is subtle.
8. Lady Dada's Nightmare - Ok, this is the one song that I'm not going to gush about on Congratulations. I just don't like it. It's not terrible, it's easy to listen to, but it's also kind of super boring. This is the kind of songs that makes you think "Man, I kind of want to skip this" a minute and a half into it, simply because it completely fails to make an impression up to that point.
9. Congratulations - I'm not going to lie, this is probably my least favorite song on Congratulations after Lady Dada's Nightmare, but it's pretty good in spite of that. Congratulations is one of the most aggressively passive songs I've ever heard, and I can only listen to it so often as a result of that. It's basically MGMT saying "We won music, so everyone can eat it". I am totally OK with that message, and in fact I heartily endorse the sentiment, but overall I'd rather just listen to Brian Eno two or three times in a row, if I'm aiming for sheer audio satisfaction.
And that's Congratulations! It's not as immediately listenable as some albums, but it rewards you for paying attention to it, and it's well worth the time invested. Go listen to it! you won't regret your choice.
PS, here's a little bit of extra music! I have loved Sooner or Later by The Grass Roots for as long as I can remember, but I feel sort of weird when I listen to it now. I can't make up my mind whether it's a delightfully upbeat song about a guy who got dumped but feels hopeful about the future, or an inappropriately cheerful song about the most determined stalker since Sting. Either way, it's still great.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Post 8: Hey, New Wave is a Surprisingly Hard Genre to Define!
Hey guys! And probably ladies too, I don't have any real idea of what my audience demographic is like. Anyway, I think I can safely say that from my first post, I have not exactly been secretive about the fact that I really, really like a lot of 80's music, a lot. 80's pop gets a lot of hate, but the fact of the matter is that whether or not you want to admit it, 80's pop is some of the most simply fun, purely enjoyable ear candy ever made. Honestly, if you can listen to Take On Me without having your love of life increased, you have no soul. Forget DeBeers, A-Ha is forever.
Anyway, I was trying to think of a reasonable theme to use as an excuse to talk about the eighties, and at first it seemed like New Wave was the answer. There are all kinds of great hits that fall under that genre, right? Turns out that that is true, but it's true in a very inconvenient way, because apparently every song and band in the eighties except for glam, heavy metal, and the last vestiges of disco all fell under the category of "New Wave". It is seriously the most catch-all term possible. It's like classifying Nirvana as "90's": Technically accurate, but deeply insufficient as far as actual description goes.
So, since apparently every song that was made in the 80's was New Wave, let's just talk about songs that are great and have lots of keyboard in them, starting with Blondie. I wouldn't say that I'm huge fan of Blondie, because I'm only really familiar with singles, and I have no idea how good their other stuff is. BUT, that being said, I am a huge fan of their singles. Call Me is pretty much a perfect song, and it isn't nearly as good as Heart of Glass, which in turn is inferior The Tide is High, which I will always love because it has both ridiculously catchy steel drums, and a fantastic trumpet section. The only possible complaint I could have about Blondie is that I can't sing along with the best part of their best song, which is of course the trumpets meshing in with the steel drums in the intro of The Tide is High.
As long as I'm on topic of kicking trumpet solos, I feel morally obligated to mention Our House by Madness. It doesn't have any keyboard, but it does have roughly one full orchestra's worth of brass, along with a string section and maybe the best noise ever to come out of a bass. Seriously, check out the 14 second mark; you will not be disappointed. And on the topic of one-hit wonder British bands with fantastic string sections, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Bad segues aside, I love Come On Eileen. Fun fact: when I was twelve or so I would regularly hijack CD's from my sister Rachael just so I could listen to this song on repeat. Then when I sixteen, I found out that the music video is a bunch of sketchy homeless lookin' dudes wandering around London wearing nothing but overalls, and I felt comforted knowing that my taste in music has always been impeccable.
This next one does not have quite as happy an ending. Have any of you ever seen the music video for Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love? I don't think anyone with good taste will argue that it is definitively the best version of Tainted Love ever made, and also that Tainted love is a fantastic Song, but HOLY DANG is the music video creepy. To be fair, I don't exactly have a clear knowledge of the eighties, but after watching that video I'm pretty sure I'm glad I didn't live through them. My mental image of the eighties is basically women in expensive pantsuits with padded shoulders and unreasonably feathered hair staring at each other and wall street executives through the ugliest glasses any generation has ever managed to produce, but every time I watch Tainted Love that Utopian (???) idyll is covered with a thin veneer of, just, the creepiest sexual tension imaginable. Let's talk about something else.
Like Erasure, for example! Erasure is amazing. They are not a band that I listen to often, but that does not mean they aren't great. Erasure has the unique privilege of being one of the most joyously campy bands ever to make music that's actually enjoyable to listen to (along with Disco Tex of course [I'm sorry, I have a problem]). Seriously, as stupid as their songs may be, they are also really good. Always is a really good song. A Little Respect is a really good song. And Oh L'amour is just hands down fantastic. Also, they did a cover of Video Killed the Radio Star (originally by the Buggles, of course), and I still can't decide which one is better.
And yes, I do like Video Killed the Radio Star, mostly because it's awesome.
I have another couple of dozen songs I really want to talk about on this topic, but I''m running out of clumsy segues, so I'm just going to save them for a later date, and leave you all with one last song: Forever Young by Alphaville. Man, I never realized how many eighties songs that I love had killer brass solos, but it turns out to be a surprisingly large amount! We have been left with a rich history of trumpets, mullets, and neon jumpsuits. Truly we are blessed.
Also, here's a bonus song! I'm a pretty big Beck fan, and I'm also very fond of the film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. This is actually kind of convenient, because it turns out that Beck wrote like half of the soundtrack for the film, and it's rad. Garbage Truck is my personal favorite, but Scott Pilgrim is one of those rare movies where the soundtrack is actually worth picking up, regardless of the film. It is seriously good.
Anyway, I was trying to think of a reasonable theme to use as an excuse to talk about the eighties, and at first it seemed like New Wave was the answer. There are all kinds of great hits that fall under that genre, right? Turns out that that is true, but it's true in a very inconvenient way, because apparently every song and band in the eighties except for glam, heavy metal, and the last vestiges of disco all fell under the category of "New Wave". It is seriously the most catch-all term possible. It's like classifying Nirvana as "90's": Technically accurate, but deeply insufficient as far as actual description goes.
So, since apparently every song that was made in the 80's was New Wave, let's just talk about songs that are great and have lots of keyboard in them, starting with Blondie. I wouldn't say that I'm huge fan of Blondie, because I'm only really familiar with singles, and I have no idea how good their other stuff is. BUT, that being said, I am a huge fan of their singles. Call Me is pretty much a perfect song, and it isn't nearly as good as Heart of Glass, which in turn is inferior The Tide is High, which I will always love because it has both ridiculously catchy steel drums, and a fantastic trumpet section. The only possible complaint I could have about Blondie is that I can't sing along with the best part of their best song, which is of course the trumpets meshing in with the steel drums in the intro of The Tide is High.
As long as I'm on topic of kicking trumpet solos, I feel morally obligated to mention Our House by Madness. It doesn't have any keyboard, but it does have roughly one full orchestra's worth of brass, along with a string section and maybe the best noise ever to come out of a bass. Seriously, check out the 14 second mark; you will not be disappointed. And on the topic of one-hit wonder British bands with fantastic string sections, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Bad segues aside, I love Come On Eileen. Fun fact: when I was twelve or so I would regularly hijack CD's from my sister Rachael just so I could listen to this song on repeat. Then when I sixteen, I found out that the music video is a bunch of sketchy homeless lookin' dudes wandering around London wearing nothing but overalls, and I felt comforted knowing that my taste in music has always been impeccable.
This next one does not have quite as happy an ending. Have any of you ever seen the music video for Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love? I don't think anyone with good taste will argue that it is definitively the best version of Tainted Love ever made, and also that Tainted love is a fantastic Song, but HOLY DANG is the music video creepy. To be fair, I don't exactly have a clear knowledge of the eighties, but after watching that video I'm pretty sure I'm glad I didn't live through them. My mental image of the eighties is basically women in expensive pantsuits with padded shoulders and unreasonably feathered hair staring at each other and wall street executives through the ugliest glasses any generation has ever managed to produce, but every time I watch Tainted Love that Utopian (???) idyll is covered with a thin veneer of, just, the creepiest sexual tension imaginable. Let's talk about something else.
Like Erasure, for example! Erasure is amazing. They are not a band that I listen to often, but that does not mean they aren't great. Erasure has the unique privilege of being one of the most joyously campy bands ever to make music that's actually enjoyable to listen to (along with Disco Tex of course [I'm sorry, I have a problem]). Seriously, as stupid as their songs may be, they are also really good. Always is a really good song. A Little Respect is a really good song. And Oh L'amour is just hands down fantastic. Also, they did a cover of Video Killed the Radio Star (originally by the Buggles, of course), and I still can't decide which one is better.
And yes, I do like Video Killed the Radio Star, mostly because it's awesome.
I have another couple of dozen songs I really want to talk about on this topic, but I''m running out of clumsy segues, so I'm just going to save them for a later date, and leave you all with one last song: Forever Young by Alphaville. Man, I never realized how many eighties songs that I love had killer brass solos, but it turns out to be a surprisingly large amount! We have been left with a rich history of trumpets, mullets, and neon jumpsuits. Truly we are blessed.
Also, here's a bonus song! I'm a pretty big Beck fan, and I'm also very fond of the film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. This is actually kind of convenient, because it turns out that Beck wrote like half of the soundtrack for the film, and it's rad. Garbage Truck is my personal favorite, but Scott Pilgrim is one of those rare movies where the soundtrack is actually worth picking up, regardless of the film. It is seriously good.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Post 7: Some Clever Title About Female Singers? I Don't Know What to Call This One You Guys.
Ok, so before I get into the meat of this post, let me say something up-front: I try to have a relatively narrow theme for every week, because otherwise I tend to get really excited and ramble about songs incoherently, which... does not produce posts as readable as I would like them to be. However, for this weeks post, I have no idea what the theme is. I know exactly what songs I want to talk about, and all of them are pretty tightly linked to each other in my head, but on paper the links look tenuous, at best. However, in general, all of the songs I'll be talking about are from bands headed by female leads, and they could generally be described as having a pop sound. So... yeah, I'm glad I took the time to narrow it down like that.
Anyway, starting off let's talk about the Marina and the Diamonds, the (really semantically confusing) stage name of Marina Diamindis, a Welsh-Greek pop chimera that produced one of my favorite bubblegum pop ballads of all time: I am Not a Robot. This is the song I would listen to if I felt compelled to release my strong inner woman, who doesn't need a man in her life. At this point in my life I have never felt compelled to use it for that specific purpose, but sometimes I wish that I could. It just feels wasted when I use it for easy listening. Also, as long as I'm talking about her I should my other favorite song by her, Are You Satisfied. Frankly, her singing style can to get very old very quickly, especially on her inferior songs, but when it works, it works really well. Go listen to her yodel, it's fun!
Next up, Tegan and Sara. They're a pair (or I guess set? I've never great at this terminology, but there's two of them) of twin sisters, who create songs that I really like. Most of their stuff has a relatively minimal with a focus on guitar and two part harmonies, which I'm a fan of. I think I've mentioned this previously, but I have a huge soft spot for well sung harmonies, and they've got a lot of songs that put harmonies to good use. My personal favorite would probably Call it Off, which is just kind of lovely, but Alligator and Back in Your Head are also definitely worth checking out. Also, Walking with a Ghost doesn't really have any noticeable use of harmony, but it was the first song of theirs that I loved, and it's still pretty rad.
Moving on, this next band is a bit less straight pop, really more of a classic Motown vibe. The Noisettes are a band that my sister Rachael introduced me to a few years ago, and for that I am eternally in her debt. I guess you could describe them as indie rock with a light Motown twist, which is to say they're awesome. By far the best song they have is Never Forget You, which always reminds me of Martha and the Vandellas, which is a universal positive in my books.
And lastly, have you guys ever heard of Caro Emerald? According to Wikipedia she's a Dutch jazz singer whose career started in 2009, but my personal pet theory is that she's actually a (presumably Dutch, I have no reason to doubt that part) jazz lounge singer who was somehow transported from the mid 1950's to modern times, and then just kept working on her album. It's a winning effect; her songs have a very old-fashioned sounds that's rather delightful, particularly if you're in the mood for, to pull a name at random, some Martha and the Vandellas. Anyway, my personal favorite Caro song is A Night Like This, followed closely by Back it Up.
And most lastly of all, here's a bonus song! I discovered this song four or five years ago through pandora, and I still feel like smiling stupidly every time I hear it. Key of C is ridiculous, and a little bit retarded, but it's also great. It seems to be composed entirely out of small, ear-catching hooks that loop relentlessly throughout the whole song, and might be the most cheerful song I know, outside of, possibly, Mr. Blue Sky by ELO and Get Dancin' by Disco Tex and his Sex-o-Lettes. Seriously though, it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that Get Dancin' may be the apex of all musical achievement.
Anyway, starting off let's talk about the Marina and the Diamonds, the (really semantically confusing) stage name of Marina Diamindis, a Welsh-Greek pop chimera that produced one of my favorite bubblegum pop ballads of all time: I am Not a Robot. This is the song I would listen to if I felt compelled to release my strong inner woman, who doesn't need a man in her life. At this point in my life I have never felt compelled to use it for that specific purpose, but sometimes I wish that I could. It just feels wasted when I use it for easy listening. Also, as long as I'm talking about her I should my other favorite song by her, Are You Satisfied. Frankly, her singing style can to get very old very quickly, especially on her inferior songs, but when it works, it works really well. Go listen to her yodel, it's fun!
Next up, Tegan and Sara. They're a pair (or I guess set? I've never great at this terminology, but there's two of them) of twin sisters, who create songs that I really like. Most of their stuff has a relatively minimal with a focus on guitar and two part harmonies, which I'm a fan of. I think I've mentioned this previously, but I have a huge soft spot for well sung harmonies, and they've got a lot of songs that put harmonies to good use. My personal favorite would probably Call it Off, which is just kind of lovely, but Alligator and Back in Your Head are also definitely worth checking out. Also, Walking with a Ghost doesn't really have any noticeable use of harmony, but it was the first song of theirs that I loved, and it's still pretty rad.
Moving on, this next band is a bit less straight pop, really more of a classic Motown vibe. The Noisettes are a band that my sister Rachael introduced me to a few years ago, and for that I am eternally in her debt. I guess you could describe them as indie rock with a light Motown twist, which is to say they're awesome. By far the best song they have is Never Forget You, which always reminds me of Martha and the Vandellas, which is a universal positive in my books.
And lastly, have you guys ever heard of Caro Emerald? According to Wikipedia she's a Dutch jazz singer whose career started in 2009, but my personal pet theory is that she's actually a (presumably Dutch, I have no reason to doubt that part) jazz lounge singer who was somehow transported from the mid 1950's to modern times, and then just kept working on her album. It's a winning effect; her songs have a very old-fashioned sounds that's rather delightful, particularly if you're in the mood for, to pull a name at random, some Martha and the Vandellas. Anyway, my personal favorite Caro song is A Night Like This, followed closely by Back it Up.
And most lastly of all, here's a bonus song! I discovered this song four or five years ago through pandora, and I still feel like smiling stupidly every time I hear it. Key of C is ridiculous, and a little bit retarded, but it's also great. It seems to be composed entirely out of small, ear-catching hooks that loop relentlessly throughout the whole song, and might be the most cheerful song I know, outside of, possibly, Mr. Blue Sky by ELO and Get Dancin' by Disco Tex and his Sex-o-Lettes. Seriously though, it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that Get Dancin' may be the apex of all musical achievement.
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