Recent Music - February 2007
I started writing short book reviews as a way for me to keep track of what I’d read over the years. I was too lazy to do the same for music and I was hoping that making judicious use of Lastfm would remind me of the things I actually listened to a lot.
Well, it turns out that that didn’t really work very well, because it seems like I do most of my listening while at work (where the firewall prevents Audioscrobbler from reporting back to the Last.fm mothership) or on an mp3 player while walking around, so it’s time to do something about that.
I’m still feeling lazy though, and I find writing about music even harder than writing about books, so here’s a list of the stuff I’ve been listening to recently, with minimal comments about whether I thought it was any good or not.
Low-key electronica mixed with tinkly music box sounds. Great for when you want music that you don’t have to concentrate on. That sounds kind of like a backhanded compliment, but I actually like the album quite a bit.
Against The Night - Jason Webley
I first saw this guy when he was supporting the Dresden Dolls on tour last year. I walked into the concert to hear a guy with Tom Waits’s voice playing an accordian and singing the line “Our band of maniacs with knives are playing blackjack with their lives to kill the time until the giant rats attack.” He pretty much became the best support band I’ve ever seen because of that set.
Strings and Harp and odd and dissonant and melodic. I think I like it, but I also think that no-one else I know will like it at all. For the record, I think Warren Ellis’s summary of it as “A yowling autistic playing a harp with a brick” is somewhat unfair.
I like Veruca Salt, but accept that they’re pretty much just another slightly-angry-girl fronted guitar group. If you are ok with that sort of thing, then you’ll like this.
Soundtrack to one of my favourite games ever. When thinking about this I realised that most of my favourite games have fantastic soundtracks, and this one in particular is just achingly lovely.
The Sunlandic Twins - Of Montreal
I bought the album because of the superb video for “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games”, but it turns out a whole album of that kind of music gets on my nerves pretty quickly.
Carl Newman has made some of the best pop music ever (See: Zumpano, the New Pornographers.) Listen to the New Pornographers first, and if you like that, then you’ll probably enjoy this fine too.
Summer Make Good and Finally We Are No One - Múm
Old favourites, but these albums somehow avoided the gaping maw of my mass CD-ripping enterprise way back when I switched to using only MP3s. I recently found the discs again, and have been in zoned-out work-music heaven.
Ring Pass Not - Drop Black Sky
More ambient, backgroundy gothy music that hasn’t quite kicked its way far enough to the front of my brain to make it really memorable. I haven’t really tried listening to it when not deep in concentration at work though.
Everyone seems to rave about this album, and it’s quiet and acoustic and reflective and normally the sort of thing that I really like, but this hasn’t really grabbed me yet. Not bad, but hasn’t stuck in my mind so far.
Black Holes and Revelations - Muse
They’ve become more arch and grandstanding over the years, and I think this is a “We’re selling out huge stadiums” album. Good, but Origin of Symmetry and Absolution were better.
I likes me some Skinny Puppy, oh yes indeed, and this is a very good album by their standards. Buy it if you have even the slightest inkling of liking noisy Industrial music.
Fear Is On Our Side - I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness
I bought this purely because the band’s name is so wonderful. This is a hugely risky strategy - see: the great name but awful music of “Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly” - but it worked out this time as I like the album a lot. Guitar driven, slightly gothy mid-tempo music, but better than that makes it sound.