Currently Listening To...

[Superficial Fan]

This is kind of interesting (that's kind of tentative):

Barbara Panther - Mononlightpeople

About to check out Boris's new Heavy Rocks, I think.

[Superficial Fan]

One of my favorite Oum Kalthoum songs:

"Oum Kalthoum - Ya Zalemni" or Ya Zalamni, or. . .

[Tokyo Jihad]

Here's my CLT playlist for the moment:
clt-6.png

This is for the most part "shit I've been meaning to listen to for forever."

Merriwether Post Pavilion: Is it pretentious? Out the ass! But it's still worth the listen, and once you get past the "Animal Collective"-ness of it, its pretty poppy and catchy. I think the mistake people make is hyping the song "My Girls." Listen to "Summertime Clothes" or "Bluish."

Tomboy: Once graduated from MPP I decided to listen to this supposed early favorite for Album of the Year. While it does grow on me the more I listen, I find it a little too loose and aimless. If I hear how "dreamy" this album is one more time, I swear. "Last Night at the Jetty" is great, "You can Count on me" "Slow Motion" and "Surfers Hymn" are good. As is "Afterburner" but it unfortunately follows a real rough patch in the album. Songs like "Drone," "Scheherezade," and "Friendship Bracelet" are good songs, but don't have enough ideas in them to be five minutes long. Not nearly as enjoyable as Person Pitch, which I only listened to once, immediately after two spins of Tomboy. But hey, not like every Merriwhether song made sense at first. At least the density invites more listens.

Loveless: Another classic I dragged my feet on. I found it really difficult to get through. (But I guess that's the point.) "Only Shallow" I was already familiar with, and some songs like "Soon" and "Sometimes" came pretty easily. But others bleed a bit together (like, so far all the songs between Somewhere and Soon,) but I'm patient. I suppose listening to this album is alot like watching Metropolis or Jason and the Argonauts, on some level you have to marvel those effects and that approach for their time. It is starting to click. "To here Know why" I just don't know...Maou?

Marry Me: After all this "abstract" crap, I needed something more traditional in my life. I literally just listened to it for the first time as I typed this up, after literal years of Maou and others pleading for me to listen. I was not disappointed! I eagerly await queuing this up again. "Your Lips are Red" sent shivers down my spine. The second half of the album is great straight through!

[cjhobbies00]

Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend

Robyn has consistently surprised me for the last 3 years. I'm ashamed that I haven't listened to a full album yet.

[Maou]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad

Loveless: Another classic I dragged my feet on. I found it really difficult to get through. (But I guess that's the point.) "Only Shallow" I was already familiar with, and some songs like "Soon" and "Sometimes" came pretty easily. But others bleed a bit together (like, so far all the songs between Somewhere and Soon,) but I'm patient. I suppose listening to this album is alot like watching Metropolis or Jason and the Argonauts, on some level you have to marvel those effects and that approach for their time. It is starting to click. "To here Know why" I just don't know...Maou?

It's definitely a difficult album to get through at first. It's got a bunch of overly long, droning songs that can take a toll on you. Even a couple of my favorites like "When You Sleep" and "I Only Said" seem to go on forever sometimes. The beautiful thing about the album was that they achieved a unique shoegazing sound without using chorus or flanger effects and Kevin Shields got that thick, layered guitar sound without hundreds of guitar tracks. It was a real eye-opener for musicians (especially guitarists) at the time.

You appreciate the album more when you hear the album's influence in other albums. After being completely familiar with Loveless, try listening to Starla by Smashing Pumpkins. You'll hear the influence and where Billy took the original sound.

Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad

Marry Me: After all this "abstract" crap, I needed something more traditional in my life. I literally just listened to it for the first time as I typed this up, after literal years of Maou and others pleading for me to listen. I was not disappointed! I eagerly await queuing this up again. "Your Lips are Red" sent shivers down my spine. The second half of the album is great straight through!

Ah, another one converted. You should go back and listen to that live of "Your Lips Are Red" if you haven't already. It's different because she changed the key of the song, but still awesome. You'll also be happy to know that her second album is around the same quality even though the sound/mood is almost completely different. I go back and forth over which one I like better based on my mood, but Actor does have my overall favorite St. Vincent track (Just the Same But Brand New).

Also her third album, Strange Mercy, is coming out on September 13.

[so_cold]

"Last Night at the Jetty" sounds quite weird and wonderful. I struggle with Panda Bear's voice though :-/

Originally Posted by Orenji

Makes me wanna play Gran Turismo 5 again XD.

^ That video is amazing and the music gets better and better the more it goes on, you don't even notice it happening.

Looking forward to SBTRKT's album later this month.

SBTRKT - Wildfire ft. Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon) and no generic verse from Drake, thank you.

edit: Wildfire is a free download. http://stereogum.com/699902/sbtrkt-w...e-dragon/mp3s/

[Tokyo Jihad]

Originally Posted by so_cold

"Last Night at the Jetty" sounds quite weird and wonderful. I struggle with Panda Bear's voice though :-/

He puts so much reverb and chorus on his voice its ridiculous. I'm with you on that one. He sounds much better unadorned in his Animal Collective stuff.

EDIT: That I've heard anyway

[justriiingo]

LOVE SBTRKT.

@Jihad: I'm ashamed of you for only listening to Marry Me only after so many years.

Gil Scott-Heron - Winter in America

[so_cold]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad

He puts so much reverb and chorus on his voice its ridiculous. I'm with you on that one. He sounds much better unadorned in his Animal Collective stuff.

EDIT: That I've heard anyway

"Jetty" needs more "I know I know I know I knows" or did he just have 1 so we'd hit the repeat button...? Still excellent though. First impression is that Tomboy seems a bit samey, cherry-picking a 5 track EP just to get the flavour of it might be ideal. But then it might grow. Drat, no Person Pitch on this streaming thing.

And I vote for Human Racing as the best song on Marry Me.

Raphael Saadiq - Just Don't

^ Posting this because someone enjoyed The Answer (live), it's got Yukimi again and it sounds a little like something off The Archandroid so people may like. If Raphael Saadiq's new album was all as good as the last four tracks it would be really something... His more straightforward retro soul/rock n roll style's highly listenable but it's all about the lush orchestral stuff at the end of the album for me.

[Scribble R]

^That was great. Really liked the first half of the song but then it morphed into something wonderful.