What MUSIC are you listening to?

I can't stop listening to the new Within Temptation album "The Unforgiving". As expected, the album finds the band moving in a more 'commercial' direction, but the songs are very catchy and melodic. Now that Sharon's had her baby, hopefully they can get back to the business of touring and come back the the States again. I saw them on their last US tour in '07 (opening for Lacuna Coil) and was really blown away.

I've been listening to Modest Mouse and Passion Pit.

I just discovered the Original Album reissues, in which 5 classic CDs are repackaged together in slipcases. You can pick these up for $15-20 imported through Amazon.

I grabbed the Original Album series for:

Buzzcocks
Stiff Little Fingers
Steeleye Span
Molly Hatchet
Black Oak Arkansas
The Meters

I owned random individual songs from these bands, but never full albums. Man, I love buying good stuff for cheap.

I just discovered Eva Cassidy and have been listening to her music exclusively for the past several days.

I don't know that I've ever had my expectations for a record exceeded like I have for the new FFS album, released last week. In case you didn't get the memo, FFS stands both "For Fuck's Sake" and "Franz Ferdninand with Sparks".

So you've got a band that sort of fizzled out of public view almost ten years ago (despite being actually really good and continuing to release records) and a pair of eccentric brothers that are in their fourth decade of their musical career, never really breaking out of a cult following. And yet here they are collaborating - despite a track called "Collaborations Don't Work" - on one of the best records of the year.

Thing is, it sounds almost exactly like what you'd expect. You get the arty, angular post-punk-pop of FF with the arty, angular post-glam-pop of Sparks. Clever wordplay and felicitous lyrics abound. Cool synths and glitter rock guitars. Two very distinctive vocals rubber-banding around each other.

Almost every track is instantly memorable- there is some great pop songcraft at work here. But the standouts are "Johnny Delusional", "Dictator's Son" and "Police Encounters".

Having just recently gotten into Sparks, I have to say that this is one of the best things they've done since "Kimono My House" and their early 80s work. It may be the best thing that Franz Ferdinand has ever done.

Superb, and it's on Spotify so you have no excuse if you like this kind of stuff.

Yeah, it's a great album, and a really well engineered one, too. It just sounds really, really good. The video for Johnny Delusional is pretty amazing, too.

I'm a Sparks fan from way back, one who went to considerable trouble to see them a few years ago on one of their rare U.S. dates. FFS is certainly the best thing they've done since Lil Beethoven/Hello Young Lovers and maybe the best thing they've put out since Angst in my Pants. The last few Sparks records were pretty lame, so clearly their creative muses drew a new jolt of energy out of the collaboration process. Maybe there was a little friendly competition going on with the FF guys in the songwriting dept.

Cool to see another Sparks fan on here. FWIW, my three favorite albums of theirs are Propaganda, Kimono My House and No. 1 in Heaven.

Didn't Sparks have a cameo in the movie Rollercoaster?

They sure as hell did! Also their song "Get Crazy" plays over the credits of the very, VERY underrated movie of the same name.

Hmm, don't remember that one. Maybe it's on netflix. Rollercoaster, I loved that movie when I was a kid but it's vague now. It's crazy to think that shit is real these days and not just a summer movie. Sorry for derail.

Barnes, I've been meaning to say that SUNBATHER is really a great album. Thanks for the heads up on that one.

Yeah, the FFS record is REALLY good-sounding...very nice production work, awesome arrangements...the Pitchfork review (I know...don't judge me) made a good point, that it's basically a Sparks record with one of the best backing bands they've ever had.

"Sunbather" is so freaking good, I think that's one of my top records of the past five years, definitely a top fiver. I'd love to direct you to more like it, but there really isn't anything quite like it. There's lot of other shoegazery black metal, lots of other stuff that has that hazy/gauzy kind of sound...but nothing has that almost defiant sense of accessibility, which makes it unusually transgressive for the BM genre. Maybe try Liturgy, another quote-unquote "hipster" black metal band hated by the 100% trve grim kvlt corpsepainters. They aren't as good though.

Sunbather is an awesome BM pop record, very catchy for what it is. Even my wife enjoys it (I think it's the Pixies vibe it has that she digs). But I think the Liturgy album is almost as good as the Deafheaven one... not musically so it's not obvious right away but thematically and lyrically (which is almost a moot point in BM but still) I actually think they're better.

Love the Sparks... I've never heard Franz Ferdinand (only heard of them) so I haven't jumped up to get the new disc but I am curious about it. No Spotify for me (they paid me a whopping 0.31$ last month!!) so I won't be listening to it for free.

I listened to a bunch of Sun Kill Moon recently... very disappointing. I'm kind of sick of these overly whipmy sounding singer songwriter dudes that have no oompf to their voices. His playing was ok and the lyrics were tolerable but the singing just drove me nuts. It's in key and all that but it just sounds way to sensitive and saccharine to me.

So I went back to Tanya Tagaqs Animism from last year... fucking killer record (Jessie Zoobot is easily as important to the record as Tanya is though). So many genre's in there and her voice continues to astound me. Here's a pretty interesting performance from the Polaris Music Prize award show last year (Canada's big music prize organization) where she beat out Arcade Fire (no one saw that coming) and some other heavies.

JonJacob wrote: Here's a pretty interesting performance from the Polaris Music Price award show last year

I love this video. Her version of throat singing is really great, although I still prefer the gold standard of Huun-Huur-Tu. I like the different vibe she brings to it though.

edit: I just rewatched it and realized I was ignoring everything other than the throat singing because it's so bizarre. "different vibe" is a massive understatement.

JonJacob wrote: I listened to a bunch of Sun Kill Moon recently... very disappointing. I'm kind of sick of these overly whipmy sounding singer songwriter dudes that have no oompf to their voices. His playing was ok and the lyrics were tolerable but the singing just drove me nuts. It's in key and all that but it just sounds way to sensitive and saccharine to me.

War on Drugs Suck My Cock is good lol.

I never thought of Kozelek as saccharine sounding, that's wierd. I was going to say you should try Red House Painters but if you don't dig Mark ,well, it's probably useless. I know how you feel though, the vocalist is the #1 thing that will kill a band for me. Well, that might be exaggerating a bit but generally (I'm way too picky, a hater of everything lol).

There's a great compilation of most of Government Issue's stuff. GI was part of the DC hardcore scene back in the early 80s. Essential punk.



Also been listening to The Crane Wives lately. They're a folk outfit out of Grand Rapids.

Hex Sinister wrote:

JonJacob wrote: I listened to a bunch of Sun Kill Moon recently... very disappointing. I'm kind of sick of these overly whipmy sounding singer songwriter dudes that have no oompf to their voices. His playing was ok and the lyrics were tolerable but the singing just drove me nuts. It's in key and all that but it just sounds way to sensitive and saccharine to me.

War on Drugs Suck My Cock is good lol.

I never thought of Kozelek as saccharine sounding, that's wierd. I was going to say you should try Red House Painters but if you don't dig Mark ,well, it's probably useless. I know how you feel though, the vocalist is the #1 thing that will kill a band for me. Well, that might be exaggerating a bit but generally (I'm way too picky, a hater of everything lol).

Ghosts of the Great Highway is a tremendous album from a songwriting perspective, one of my favorite albums from that entire decade, but there's no denying it's melancholy white guy music. The trouble is, his subsequent stuff sounds directionless, less melodic, the arrangements duller, etc. April got all the accolades but, to my ears, that is one boring fucking album. Worst of all, Kozelek has outed himself lately as being one of the biggest assholes in music . Which is hilarious for a "sensitive guy" who trades on wailing voices and sad strummy guitars. I'm sure one day he'll probably try to write off his abrasive public persona as being "performance art" or whatever, since one of the many privileges of being a white dude is getting to play the "Oh, I didn't mean it, it's art" card whenever you want.