Sleigh Bells/Cloud Nothings
Sometimes/I Feel I Gotta Get Away/Bells Chime/I Know I Gotta Get Away
I'm happier than I would have figured that they've cut down on their distortion-flaunting pile-of-sound shtick. Several times, in fact, Derek Miller makes me love guitar sounds as bell-like as Alexis Krauss's crystalline soprano, as tapered as her gorgeous gams. Then there's the dying siren that repeats addictively through "You Lost Me"‑-the one that makes me say, So what if the lyric is about singing from the grave, death is real, and anyway, I really want to hear that sound again right about--yeah! After all, "Comeback Kid" does stay positive no matter how brutally Miller pummels his own riffs with that drum sample. That's nice, right? Elsewhere it's just sweet sensation. Succumb‑-succumb. A MINUS
Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memory (Carpark)
Although his voice is lower and his guitar solos are longer, the idea that Dylan Baldi has therefore achieved some sort of maturity is silly. Come on‑-the guy's 20. His attack on memory isn't a young hero jousting with history, it's a callow confusenik trying to forget: that It's all been done before, sure, but that's the least of it. How about: Life is hard and then you die? Or: Old people have all the stuff? Or: I don't have a clue what the world will be like when I'm 40? Or merely: 40‑-that's two times 20, God!? These are all honorable thoughts that have required reiteration and adjustment for as long as I've been alive. Slight individual recalibrations of the noize-toon continuum have oft proved useful in getting them under control. Such recalibrations are harder than they look and much harder than most confuseniks assume. Congrats to Baldi for getting one right. A MINUS
Ideologically they're a problematic band. This doesn't just happen in hip-hop.
Still think so, and don't admire her for it, either.
Carola warned me that "gorgeous gams" was "a little sexist." I responded that Krauss asks for it. Still think so, and don't admire her for it, either.
Still 1969 in my world - and I just inserted another album to the list.
No names, but you can probably figure this one out. I don't like to let the cat out of the bag - but it's a funny tale.
Loathed their first album - and never even bothered with this one - even though Xgau gave high praise. What's this? The track listing on allmusic doesn't match the order on Rhapsody - so while I play it manually track by track in the allmusic order at work two times in three days - it 's just sounding flat - and there's something very off-putting in the production. Finally, I find that Rhapsody's order was correct and Allmusic's is wrong - so not only did listen three cohere - it's pushing me into a new direction and I'm loving it.
Pretty good advice whenever suggesting Abebe.
Actually, it's Björk who presents the project as educational. For example, schools in Iceland use the apps she created to write and perform each song to learn about music. And she's in New York right now presenting the music and educational software at a science museum. For real. As someone who, like Björk, is critical of how music is taught in educational institutions, I want to see this. If she comes to L.A., I'm going for sure. And I'm definitely not her biggest fan.
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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