Misc. March Albums

I've been listening to a mish mash of things these past few weeks. Nothing I'm terribly excited about, but some good tracks.

1. Gotta love Kid Creole and The Coconuts. Both Doppleganger and Wise Guy for only $1.99 at Amoeba Records. Total score. New romantic mutant disco that's all smiles. My favorite track has to be "I'm Corrupt" from Side A of Wise Guy.

2. Beck's deluxe reissue of Odelay was kind of an impulse buy. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged very well. There's at least two awesome bonus tracks on here: the ghetto glam throwback "Gold Chains," and "Burro," a mariachi interpretation of "Jack-Ass." Unlike most people who've lost interest in the post-Sea Change Beck, I really enjoyed The Information and am excited about his upcoming album.

3. Polysics' Polysics or Die!!! Vista was a gift from my brother. Fast-paced Japanese electro nerd punk. Great driving music for about a week, but then I got tired of it.

4. Hot Chip's Ready For The Floor has some of my favorite tracks this year, but the album as a whole is sort of a letdown. Things slow down so much in the second half, you forget you're listening to the same album. Their R. Kelly-meets-Jermaine Dupri production on "Wrestlers" is fun at first, but gets kind of annoying. I love "Shake A Fist," "Ready For The Floor" and "Don't Dance."

5. Kylie Minogue's Ultimate Kylie was a bit of an impulse buy as well. I started with disc 2, since it had the tracks I was most familiar with from the last decade. I was living in England when "Spinning Round" and "Kids" came out. Overall, this disc should have been Fever and "I Believe In You." I've been skipping everything else. Loved the fun synth pop from disc 1, songs I was mostly unfamiliar with.

6. Chromatics Night Drive is super awesome horror soundtrack italo disco. I think Johnny Jewel is one of the most creative, minimal electro disco producers today. Amazing that this stuff is coming from Portland/Seattle.

7. What can I say about Vampire Weekend's debut album that hasn't been said? I liked it instantly, but it hasn't been getting played very much after the initial saturation in my CD/iPod player. For a real treat, read this post from Momus, one of my favorite people in the world.

Sea Change

I was one of the millions of people that downloaded Radiohead's In Rainbows last Wednesday. I paid around $7 for it with the reasoning that I'd probably buy a copy with artwork when it gets a physical release.

The first thing I did was burn it on a CD and play it in my stereo. The first few songs were very familiar from the Berkeley Greek Theater gig I saw in 2006.

It's not necessarily a rock or electronic album. It feels more like a cozy winter album and reminded me of Beck's Sea Change (also a Nigel Godrich production). It's calmer and complicated, with few abrasive moments. The band is even more emotive than usual -- can you imagine? An acoustic set of this album would be perfect.


My favorite songs are "15 Step," "Nude," "All I Need" and especially "Reckoner." What a beautiful song. Thom Yorke's falsetto vocals are amazing. The percussion is eerily distant and everything comes together so beautifully with the guitars and strings. Since Joy Division saturation is in full effect, it feels like "Decades."

"House of Cards" is also fantastic. I think the band borrows the melody of The Jam's "That's Entertainment" for the intro and end of the song. It caught me by surprise.

I think it's a great record, but it's definitely a grower. As of this moment, Hail To The Thief is still my favorite Radiohead album, mostly because of "Scatterbrain."

In Rainbows makes Thom Yorke's The Eraser sound like an electro pop record, which I never really thought about. I liked it when it came out, but I was underwhelmed. Strangely enough, the melodies for "Harrowdown Hill" and "The Eraser" have been stuck in my head all week, and I've been replaying them regularly.

I didn't want to get into their business model of suggesting a price for the music, since few people have been talking about the actual music. But overall, I think it's an admirable idea. It can work for a band this big, with a higher ratio of good output over mediocre shit. It won't work for the indie nobodies.