Left and Leaving vs. Hot Fuss

I thought I had put Hot Fuss on the list.  I went back and reviewed and saw that it didn't make the cut for me... but it was in the running.  There are some Killers songs that are great.  So it is with great sadness that I report here that the entire album now sounds dated to me.  I -remember- liking it more that I do now.

SO... Left and Leaving?  Honestly, a little blah BUT better than my listening to the Killers.  It had a good quality that initially really appealed to me, but never had anything that stuck in my head.  Felt a little anonymous, even after repeated listenings.

Decision: Left and Leaving.

Post Punk Showdown

If Borat started a band, it might sound like Gogol Bordello, a punk gypsy band that draws on Romani folk music traditions of eastern Europe. That's not exactly a fair comparison: Sasha Baron Cohen's fictional Borat is from Kazakhstan; the lead singer of Gogol, Eugene Hutz, was born in the Ukraine. And as Hutz himself told the LA Weekly, "Just because somebody has an accent and mustache doesn't mean a fucking fuck." Still, there are some similarities worth noting: Hutz seems to share Borat's fashion sense, for one.  Both  are also brilliant performers--Gogol Bordello is reputed to be one of the best live shows out there, if the online raves are to be believed.

And one final comparison:  like the hapless victim co-stars of Borat, I am never quite sure whether the whole thing is for real or just a send-up. Hutz's accent is so thick, his voice so abrasive, and his syntax so mangled that the overall effect, for me, is comic. I admit that Super Taranta is my first experience with Gogol, but songs like "Supertheory of Supereverything" can't be serious, can they?



 Parodic or not, Hutz's lyrics are often hilarious, though I'm not exactly sure if I am laughing with or at Gogol Bordello. The sound of the band, a kind of klezmer-on-steroids, doesn't change much throughout Super Taranta. The band has an amazingly international line-up, with members from Russia, Israel, China, and Ethiopia. And their sound is highly original, driven by the accordion, power chords, and echoes of folk melodies. The combination is unlike anything I have ever heard, and as grating as Hutz's voice is, the songs grew on me.

 The Yeah Yeah Yeahs is another post-punk band, more popular than Gogol but similarly committed to the punk sensibility.  The band is fronted by Karen O, whose raw vocals belie her Oberlin Conservatory musical pedigree.  Fever to Tell has been in my collection for a few years now.  Its best songs, such as the opening track "Rich," have a tightly controlled fury.  "Rich" seems aimed at, well, rich people, and it might make a good theme song for the Occupy Movement:



Beyond anger--at rich people, at ex-lovers--there is not a lot of emotional depth here. The lyrics seem to diminish with each listen, though Maps" is a striking, downtempo break-up song. And Karen O's frenetic sexual energy holds a lot of the lesser songs together. Overall, though, Fever was a fatiguing listening experience. Neither of these albums will be on my frequent play list, but for sheer audacity and originality, I'll give this round to Gogol Bordello.

 Decision: Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta

American Idiot vs. Eveningland

The best things in life follow a stream of consciousness.

First impressions of Eveningland: This reminds me of someone...Sarah McLachlan, who held my obsession back in the early 90s...or...Cowboy Junkies? Very pleasant. Will I want to keep listening?

First impression of American Idiot: This sounds like Green Day. It rocks, mostly. But I think it's derivative, but of what? [Oh...I bet I think it sounds like it's ripping off something all right, but I suspect the reality is that I have some exposure to this album, so it's ripping off itself...speaking of idiots...]

The failure of my first listens required a change in strategy. We've shared our favorite music with each other, but we haven't shared the context. Many of my favorites are also attached to times, places, people--this is what we listened to when we fell in love, or that summer when we were doing this or that, or that band that rawked as we were sweeping W out of office. Mr. Rozema, there's more to music than the worst lyric you can find ("Baby face, baby face, open the door, let me unpack my case...")

Let me put myself in e.e.'s shoes as I give Eveningland another go. I'm sitting in my Prius (I'm jealous), tooling around the Twin Cities or the U.P. But the car is too quiet, so the music sounds exactly the same. Still very pleasant, but a little too country for me (I can only define it as the things I like that are a little country aren't too country, whereas those that don't hold my attention are too country). I like it and would listen to it were someone to play it, but I'm not going to be playing it myself.

How does DAG listen to Green Day? You got me...I know him from English 101 and the interwebs...he's a man with a range of tastes. That's not going to help much. But what did help was getting the right track list rather than relying on a random list from Grooveshark. Turns out I'm a sucker for a concept album in which the songs belong together, and American Idiot flows well. This is good. So good, I'm listening to it again right now.

This isn't a mystery--American Idiot moves on to the next round.

Black Angels vs Jay Brannon

Anyone who has seen the move Shortbus will have no trouble remembering Jay Brannan.  His contribution to the movie soundtrack was fit in perfectly, but I had a hard time listening to him for an entire album.  He certainly is beautiful, but I don't find him to be a strong enough singer to sustain my interest for an entire album.   I did find a cover of The Freshman that swayed me a little, but that gem is outside this review.

The Black Angels were new to me and psychedelic rock was a welcome change.  The Angels certainly pass the "is this an acceptable soundtrack for walking the NYC streets?" test.   When I left the office today after 10 hours, Sniper at the Gates of Heaven really hit the spot.

Winner:  The Black Angels, Passover

808s & Heartbreak vs. Demon Days

Full disclosure: I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to hip-hop. For example, listening to Kanye's 808s for this assignment was the first time I heard auto-tune used in a non-ironic capacity. I had preconceptions of both of these albums -- Gorillaz based on the two tracks I had heard before, Kanye based on vague notions of him out there in the culture. My mental image of what Kanye would be was somewhere between what he was in 808s and what the Gorillaz were in Demon Days. I was hoping that all of Demon Days would be like the songs I was familiar with, but it wasn't -- it was quite a bit broader than that, and so while on first listen I maybe didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to, it is a broader, deeper, and ultimately probably better album than the one I was expecting to hear. (As of this month, that is officially known as the Blunderbuss effect.)

After reading Eric Everman's last reviews, I am listening right now to Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and while doing so isn't affecting my ultimate decision on 808s vs. Demon Days, it does make it a heck of a lot clearer. MBDTF is ambitious, sprawling, energetic, personal, charged.  808s sounds like a mediocre hip-hop artist trying to imitate the Kanye of MBDTF.

Demon Days is fun, kind of all over the place, to the extent that there were some dud tracks, but all in all enjoyable. I don't expect it to make the semifinals or anything but it beat the heck out of 808s.

Decision: Demon Days

The Dark Twisted Swans of Procrastination

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy vs. Seven Swans

First Listen, several months ago

My Dark Twisted Past is clearly at the top of it's genre.  Most hip hop sounds like you could produce it with a few controls similar to a fancy screen saver, but hey, this sounds pretty good.

Seven Swans is clearly an experimental alternative folk concept album by someone who was home-schooled.  The swans seem a bit thin, but there are seven of them so the fight is on.

One month on

In the interest of science, I've listened to Seven Swans on repeat for the past two weeks, sometimes six to eight times a day.  When I close my eyes I hear bells and choirgirl backup singers singing vowel sounds.  I begin to notice things, like how the angle where the floor meets the walls seems so jarring and expected.  And then, I discover I love Seven Swans.

Meta

I prize my acquired tastes.  I instantly liked candy, but later learned to love cilantro.  What about really good candy verses the ultimate in acquired taste?  And what is the Death Match 99 really about?  Is it about my tastes?  Or my ability to judge the quality of music on an objective scale?  Or guess how others might rate the same music?  Its difficult.  And what is up with Seven Swans?  I love Sufjan (from prior to the Death Match) but then someone picks what must be his most quixotic (or worst, depending on how where you come down on the questions above) album to throw into the match?!

Like, half a year passes while I think about (then forget) all this.

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Winner:  My Dark Twisted Past
An album I will likely not listen to again.

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May Day!

Happy Second May Day, everyone!

Stale assignments:

• Eric E.--My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy vs. Seven Swans
• Tim--Mezzanine vs. Michigan
• Nate--XTRMNTR vs. Demon Days
• Eric A.--American Idiot vs. Eveningland

Fresh assignments:

• DAG--Weakerthans: Left and Leaving vs. The Killers: Hot Fuss
• Steg--Low: Things We Lost in the Fire vs. Robyn: Body Talk
• Anne--Brian Jonestown Massacre: Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? vs. Mumford and Sons: Sigh No More
• Rob--Gogol Bordello: Super Taranta! vs. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell
• Sara--The Black Angels: Passover vs. Jay Brannon: Goddamned
• Steve--Brandy Carlisle: The Story vs. The Decemberists: Picaresque