Before: Ut oh. I don't think this is gonna be good. Prove me wrong, Rolling Stone, please...
After: So I'm two minutes into the opening song, "Woman", and call me an optimist, but this isn't as bad as I was expecting. I'd heard some deeply frightening admonitions about this band- so bad I almost chickened out and did 463 first. But the predictable confluence of big, heavy drum beats and 80s guitar licks isn't scary. Groan-worthy, yes, but nothing to procrastinate.
I could totally do zumba to "Rocket". A great variety of rhythms that invite many kinds of moves to bounce along to.
The alliteration and cliches are flowing like resentment for Trump (if I read this in 10 years, Trump is a frontrunner for the 2016 election... eek!!). But unlike that bozo, they're sort of tasting like that first shot or two of the night and then going down easier after a few. Grateful for acclimation!
Maybe I spoke too soon. "Love Bites" is painful. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" is not what you'd hear at my kind of bar (although yes to pool tables!)
The diamond in the rough lies in "Armageddon It": the chords of "give me all of your loving" feel so good. Honestly a little frustrated with myself that I'm admitting slight deference to Def Leppard. Let's move on ASAP...
I do give these guys credit for releasing music that involves some very outlandish, primal sounds. I'd be too embarrassed.
The last song gave me the vision of being stuck at a dive bar in rural Nebraska: Animal head trophies adorning the 70s wood panel walls, lights down low, cigarette smoke wafting through the ubiquitous beer bottles held in hands of country music-belting blue-collar workers. It's good fun, just not for me. I think I'd have one of those miniature emotional meltdowns like when it's 4 am and you feel like you're the only one awake and the world feels off-kilter. Very lonesome with a generous dash of discombobulation. Needless to say, I immediately switched on some Brandi Carlile to get the taste of Def Leppard of out my mouth the second it finished.
However, I'm glad I gave it a listen. Hopefully not much more in my life will I hear them again, but it's been real, #464!
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Thursday, December 10, 2015
465: The Magnetic Fields, "69 Love Songs"
Before: Zero recognition.
After: Oh my goodness. This album (or rather, compilation of three) and its ingenuity is a compelling reminder of why I began this project. For some odd and sad reason, I never found the Magnetic Fields until recently, but how thankful that I finally have!
Volume 1:
"Absolutely Cukoo": Transcendent. Wow. Blew my mind too much to eke out a coherent, complex assessment.
(Some wine and speakers are definitely influencing this bliss.)
"All My Little Words": That bajo. Those chords. I'm hooked.
"Chicken... Head": It's like he slipped that phrase inside the lyrics effortlessly- didn't center the song around a conspicuously fun lyric. Bravo. It sounds like someone woke up this guy at 4 am and he nobly agreed to sing for the track and, like everything this [imagined persona] does, it effortlessly results in being fantastic.
"Reno Dakota": The word play is UNBELIEVABLE.
This whole album has me shaking my head!
What are these sounds?
Why are the songs beginning seemingly halfway in?
How did these people write SIXTY NINE distinct yet all unbelievably unique songs!?
Why have I never heard of them (The Magnetic Fields) before?!
These similarities are peculiar and so lovable.
"A Pretty Girl is Like": YES.
Volume 2:
"Roses" is very erratic and unstable and random and unsettling. Just like love.
"Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old" has quite a funny factor. Some lyrics:
The quick sounds in the background of "If You Don't Cry" are incredibly salient. They're affecting my other senses... it sounds like a rubber ball bouncing, so I imagine engaging in that endlessly satisfying act of squeezing a rubber yoyo like I used to carry around with me everywhere as a young'n...
Volume 3:
I listened to this while cooking a deconstructed stuffed cabbage casserole. So, while not able to recommend specific songs, I will say that the album opened spectacularly, as predicted, and towards the end, took on a few witches' hats and other eerie costume pieces. This is not to say the musical quality decreased, but it just took a turn I wasn't entirely enamored with. However, let me reiterate how absolutely wonderful the first 2/3 of that album is: packed with love songs that, if I had to teach what "variety" meant, would be the PERFECT exhibit A.
After: Oh my goodness. This album (or rather, compilation of three) and its ingenuity is a compelling reminder of why I began this project. For some odd and sad reason, I never found the Magnetic Fields until recently, but how thankful that I finally have!
Volume 1:
"Absolutely Cukoo": Transcendent. Wow. Blew my mind too much to eke out a coherent, complex assessment.
(Some wine and speakers are definitely influencing this bliss.)
"All My Little Words": That bajo. Those chords. I'm hooked.
"Chicken... Head": It's like he slipped that phrase inside the lyrics effortlessly- didn't center the song around a conspicuously fun lyric. Bravo. It sounds like someone woke up this guy at 4 am and he nobly agreed to sing for the track and, like everything this [imagined persona] does, it effortlessly results in being fantastic.
"Reno Dakota": The word play is UNBELIEVABLE.
This whole album has me shaking my head!
What are these sounds?
Why are the songs beginning seemingly halfway in?
How did these people write SIXTY NINE distinct yet all unbelievably unique songs!?
Why have I never heard of them (The Magnetic Fields) before?!
These similarities are peculiar and so lovable.
"A Pretty Girl is Like": YES.
Volume 2:
"Roses" is very erratic and unstable and random and unsettling. Just like love.
"Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old" has quite a funny factor. Some lyrics:
There'll be time enough for rocking when we're old
We can rock all day in rocking chairs of gold
but tonight I think I'd rather just go dancing
There'll be time enough for rocking when we're old...
There'll be time enough for talk in the nursing home
Darling, time enough to write an epic poem...
There'll be time for sex and drugs in HeavenHow original is that?!
when our pheromones are turned up to 11
but tonight I think I'd rather just go dancing
There'll be time enough for sex and drugs in Heaven, my love
and time enough for rocking when we're old
The quick sounds in the background of "If You Don't Cry" are incredibly salient. They're affecting my other senses... it sounds like a rubber ball bouncing, so I imagine engaging in that endlessly satisfying act of squeezing a rubber yoyo like I used to carry around with me everywhere as a young'n...
 |
| Hours of amusement, right there. |
I listened to this while cooking a deconstructed stuffed cabbage casserole. So, while not able to recommend specific songs, I will say that the album opened spectacularly, as predicted, and towards the end, took on a few witches' hats and other eerie costume pieces. This is not to say the musical quality decreased, but it just took a turn I wasn't entirely enamored with. However, let me reiterate how absolutely wonderful the first 2/3 of that album is: packed with love songs that, if I had to teach what "variety" meant, would be the PERFECT exhibit A.
"My Only Friend" has some chords that cut through life's static like a hot knife and grasps your attention.
These songs have rhymes that make you think twice. By this I mean that, yes, some rhyme like they were fraternal twins. But other word pairs shun this traditional scheme but RHYME ANYWAY. Like, they just FIT even though they don't sound alike at all! I don't want to write the lyric I'm referencing because it'd dull it down considerably. But it is in the same stanza as "If someone told me I'd succumb" in the song "Long-Forgotten Fairytale".
The Magnetic Fields doesn't seem to have a lead singer, but instead a great spread of equally strong voices with unique personalities and stories. The music is so witty in its lyrics, auditory landscapes, and whole sound. Real pioneers.
The sixty-nine songs tackle love in all sorts of contexts. Family love, romantic love, lack of love, old love, sad love, self-love... these three albums are an exploration of all the shades of love, a permutation of all the emotions and actions and words one can associate with love.
What an experience!
"The Way You Say Goodnight": The singer insists that he could write an entire song about the way his eye's apple says goodnight. Adorable. He follows through in the best way.
The last song, "I Shatter", sounds like a Dalek straight out of Doctor Who. A little strange, but because it's The Magnetic Fields, it works.
Magnetic Fields, what a supergroup you are! 9.5/10, easily!
This Pitchfork review says much of my thoughts. IT'S WORTH THE READ.
Some excerpts:
"Each song contains its own small epiphany... this is truly an album you can get lost in."
"The album never feels like a ponderous, pretentious artistic statement (unlike most multi-CD releases). Stephin Merritt and company sound like they approached this ridiculously ambitious project with the most casual of airs, idly plucking melody after divine melody out of the air like low-hanging fruit from a tree. It's how pop music should sound, really: so natural and feather-light that you never notice the amount of effort that went into it."
"The songs themselves? Well, I could write a thesis dissecting each and every song on this album, but that would take months. As a prism refracts light into a spectrum of colors, 69 Love Songs not only refracts love into a spectrum of emotions, but also refracts the love song itself into a spectrum of musical forms."
#465 is probably my strongest reinforcement for beginning this project. Unbelievably grateful for having heard this masterpiece.
These songs have rhymes that make you think twice. By this I mean that, yes, some rhyme like they were fraternal twins. But other word pairs shun this traditional scheme but RHYME ANYWAY. Like, they just FIT even though they don't sound alike at all! I don't want to write the lyric I'm referencing because it'd dull it down considerably. But it is in the same stanza as "If someone told me I'd succumb" in the song "Long-Forgotten Fairytale".
The Magnetic Fields doesn't seem to have a lead singer, but instead a great spread of equally strong voices with unique personalities and stories. The music is so witty in its lyrics, auditory landscapes, and whole sound. Real pioneers.
The sixty-nine songs tackle love in all sorts of contexts. Family love, romantic love, lack of love, old love, sad love, self-love... these three albums are an exploration of all the shades of love, a permutation of all the emotions and actions and words one can associate with love.
What an experience!
"The Way You Say Goodnight": The singer insists that he could write an entire song about the way his eye's apple says goodnight. Adorable. He follows through in the best way.
The last song, "I Shatter", sounds like a Dalek straight out of Doctor Who. A little strange, but because it's The Magnetic Fields, it works.
Magnetic Fields, what a supergroup you are! 9.5/10, easily!
This Pitchfork review says much of my thoughts. IT'S WORTH THE READ.
Some excerpts:
"Each song contains its own small epiphany... this is truly an album you can get lost in."
"The album never feels like a ponderous, pretentious artistic statement (unlike most multi-CD releases). Stephin Merritt and company sound like they approached this ridiculously ambitious project with the most casual of airs, idly plucking melody after divine melody out of the air like low-hanging fruit from a tree. It's how pop music should sound, really: so natural and feather-light that you never notice the amount of effort that went into it."
"The songs themselves? Well, I could write a thesis dissecting each and every song on this album, but that would take months. As a prism refracts light into a spectrum of colors, 69 Love Songs not only refracts love into a spectrum of emotions, but also refracts the love song itself into a spectrum of musical forms."
#465 is probably my strongest reinforcement for beginning this project. Unbelievably grateful for having heard this masterpiece.
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