2.16.13

On February 16th I listened to Michael Jackson Off The Wall, The Cure Seventeen Seconds, and Alt-J An Awesome Wave.

After listening to Off The Wall, I feel like Thriller could have sounded better, if it were recorded in the same style. Not the disco shit, but the sound of the band. Off The Wall has a warmer, less produced feel to it, and Thriller is too sleek and overdone. Granted, who gives a shit? Thriller is one of the best albums ever made, but maybe there is a little room for improvement? If I ever meet Quincy Jones, I’ll ask him about it… he produced both records.

“Get On The Floor” is the perfect example, it sounds like Jackson is singing with a ten-piece band. The bass is hypnotic, the horns are enormous, Jackson is all kinds of amped up and he’s swimming in the mix of the song. On Thriller he’s a little too far in front and everything just sounds like a backing track. I dunno, maybe? I don’t even know why I care so much.

The first seven tracks of this disc are all hits! Then it’s all downhill from there. Solid album!

I think I forgot how big of a downer The Cure can be. Is that possible? I dunno, but draw a warm bath, find a rusty razor blade and get ready to enjoy Seventeen Seconds.

I didn’t know much off this record, just “Play For Today” and “A Forest,” two classics. Actually, I’d put “A Forest” with some of the Robert Smith’s best shit. The rest of the disc really puts out a funk… not the George Clinton kind.  

“In Your House” sure is creepy and I love it. I think I’ll also spend more time with “M” and “At Night.”

I don’t know what my initial fascination with Alt-J was. The first time I heard “Breezeblocks,” I feel in love with it, and then got more and more tired of it the more I heard it. Now I can’t stand it! It makes me wanna punch my way out of a Philadelphia sports arena on a night the home team is getting kicked out of the playoffs and I’m wearing the opposing team’s jersey. I’m assuming that’s how everyone who was into “Gangnam Style” feels.

I have to make a list of songs that I once loved and for one reason or another I can’t fucking stand. Usually it has to do with overplay, but that’s not the case with “Breezeblocks.” God, I hate it so much I can’t stop listening to it! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

I kinda like “Dissolve Me,” because it’s basically a Modest Mouse song.

I can’t believe this album won the Mercury Prize. Pffft. 

1.5.13

On January 5^th I listened to The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones, The Cure Three Imaginary Boys and Tame Impala Lonerism.

I watched Crossfire Hurricane, the new Stones documentary, right before the holidays and was still high on the band when I threw on their self-titled debut. For the most part it’s all cover songs with one jam written by Mick and Keith. 

I guess some of the covers are kinda cool, but Depeche Mode’s cover of “Route 66” is better. The blues tracks they cover don’t have the howl and passion of the early Beatles cover band days and I doubt I’ll ever listen to this album again.  Did I just dismiss The Rolling Stones introduction to the world?

The song Mick and Keith wrote, “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back)” definitely shows the potential for what The Stones were to become, but it’s really simple and has that right-before-the-60s-got-cool twang. If I take one track away from this album, this is it. I also liked "Little By Little" and "The King Bee." 

Right after “Tell Me” they romp into Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get A Witness” and from the intro I swear to Christ I thought Mick was going to start singing “Ooo wah, ooo wah, cool cool kitty. Tell us about the boy from New York City.” It’s a rather unfortunate arrangement, but not too far from Gaye’s version.

Having watched Crossfire Hurricane I can’t wait to dive into the rest of the band’s discography throughout this year of music. It seemed to me that the band really was shaped by the environment they were born into and they turned the adversities they faced into an endless string of anthems.

I don’t get England and all their “compilation” releases. Here in the states, we do the Greatest Hits thing, but over there, especially back in the day, they really fucked ya with all their different bullshit repackaged releases. I just spent 30 minutes on Wikipedia trying to figure out The Cure’s true discography. It’s a fucking nightmare.

Boys Don’t Cry was the American version of this album but five songs were different.  And then they have like three or four other compilation releases that came out from 1980 to 1986, plus five proper albums and I’m realizing right now why I wasn’t a Cure super fan. It was exhausting! I’m pretty sure the first thing I owned from the band was Standing On A Beach. Which I always thought was called Standing On A Beach, Staring At The Sea. But that’s not the case. I’m so confused.

But, Three Imaginary Boys is The Cure’s debut album released in 1979! I was eight!

I’m pissed I never listened to Three Imaginary Boys before. I’m pretty sure I have never even seen the album cover until I listened to the album. The only real hit on the disc is “10:15 Saturday Night,” but I definitely found some forgotten gems here. Their cover of “Foxy Lady” is a novelty, but tracks like “Grinding Halt,” “Object,” and “It’s Not You” gave birth to The Cure “sound.” If I was more of a rock journalist I could describe that sound, but all I can think of is “tiny toy Rock,” which I think I whipped up while looking at the album cover. (I’m really an idiot.)

Tame Impala are Australian and it’s one of those one guy deals. Kevin Parker basically is the band, I guess. I liked their debut, 2010’s Innerspeaker. It really has a Beatles psychedelic era sound to it. Songwriting wasn’t as strong, but the sound was there. When they put out Lonerism last year, I listened to it right away and it’s more of the same stuff.

The first track starts off super annoying, then nicely makes its statement, but annoying. I would say they should punch their producer in the dick for letting them start off with such a grating track, but Parker produced the thing himself. Figures.

Who’s that fucking guy everybody loves? They call him the musician’s musician. Was in and produced a million bands. Ken Andrews! I refused to Google it. Andrews was in Failure, ON and Year Of The Rabbit, plus he produced stuff from NIN, A Perfect Circle, Pete Yorn and more. Guy’s a genius. The problem is, unless you’re a musichead, you don't know who he is. I would put Kevin Parker’s work with Tame Impala in the same ballpark. (That's me not looking at the camera in a picture with Ken after a Year Of The Rabbit gig.)

“Apocalypse Dream,” from Lonerism, is right out of the Ken Andrew’s offensive playbook with an enormous lush and layered sound. But, Tame Impala add a more distorted chaos to an otherwise squeaky clean mix. (I have publicly bashed rock critics for writing sentences like that one… and here I am.)

The only problem with a record like this is that you can’t connect with it on one listen. It takes some time. Give it a chance if you can.

I dunno, maybe.