The argument that we've shifted from an album culture to a singles culture has been made in many places. I will not continue it here but rather will forge ahead like an extremely large animal in a store full of breakables.
For me, 2008 was the year of the summer ballad. Partly because of all the great shows in McCarren Park, few of which I actually attended, and partly because of some fun backyard barbecues with Courney Miller's iPod piped in. But mostly because it was a kickass summer.
So here goes, in no particular order, "My Favoritest Musical Sounds from 2008":
1. The Teenagers: "Feeling Better." From the 2008 album, "Reality Check." You may remember the Teenagers as the snarky, heavily-accented French synth-pop group who made everyone's ears burn at the shameless profanity in 2007's "Homecoming." "Feeling Better" is almost as mean-spirited, but it's poppy and anthemic, and while the premise of the song is parody, you still get a taste of that eternal theme: the special bond between distraught youngsters and their rock & roll. "The Streets of Paris" off this record is pretty good, too.
2. The Ting Tings: "Great DJ." I love an insta-hit, and this one from a previously obscure British duo takes the cake as the ultimate summer dance song.
3. Cold War Kids: "Hang Me Out To Dry" OK, ok, I only like this song because I first heard it while sitting in Nita Nita's garden this summer sipping a dark & stormy and reading some trashy novel. But what more is there to life?
4. MGMT: "Time to Pretend." If the Jefferson Airplane's "Lather" could write a song for himself, this would be it. Is there anything sadder in the world than growing old? And is there anything more smug than two twenty-somethings writing a sonic-boom-busting-balled about it? Couple this with "Kids" and the rest of the album "Oracular Spectacular" and you've got yourself a deal.
5. Girltalk, "Feed the Animals": I've only heard pieces of it (how do you know? you ask) but holy smokes is this a good record. It's heartening to know that the musical trick that brought us the Tori Amos/Nirvana techno split also produces batshit crazygood dance music.
6. Fleet Foxes "White Winter Hymnal": The revival of folk and bluegrass finally reaches the SXSW crowd in full force. If hipsters reach any further back into musical history for inspiration, we'll all be digging Pavarotti on wind-up Victrolas by 2010. Mark my words. But this tune is meticulously executed where it could be maudlin, and that's what separates this wheat from the banjo-playing, heartbreak-singing chaff. And, it's pretty gorgeous to boot.
7. Sigur Ros, "Gobbledigook": Did you know this song has no time signature? Bob Boilen was way too excited about that. This, too, is another song that's essentially about running around McCarren Park tipsy and sun-dazed with your friends. Trust me, that's what they're saying in that Laplandish lilt. And yes, Itty, I agree, seeing them at the MoMA was gorsh darn fun.
8. Mates of State, "My Only Offer" Once lyrically cloying and sounding not unlike two cats making love on a warm summer's eve, these two have finally made a good record, of which this song is representative. The toning down of the caterwauling is probably a result of having quiet down their band practice because the babies were sleeping (Here ends, I promise, the slightly mean-spirited yet ultimately lighthearted teasing about being a grownup). But the result is good, and the slightly muted approach perhaps one they should have adopted years ago. C'est rock.
Old/other stuff I really got into/discovered this year:
-Sam Cooke. From a frigid night in Jersey in 2007, conveniently before the election of BHO.
-Wilbur de Paris. Thank you, Bob Boilen.
-Dinah Washington. Thank you, thrift store across the street from The Thing before it moved to Montrose.
-Records in general.
-Podcasts. The above-mentioned Bob Boilen's "All Songs Considered," along with KEXP's "Music that Matters," are wholly responsible for any new music I may have heard. (Can you tell my internet's been busted for the past 2 months?) Also heard: The Sound of Young America, This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion, Planet Money with Adam Davidson, Marketplace, CBC's Canada Reads, Book Tour, B&N's Meet the Writers, It's All Politics, and the New Yorker's Campaign Trail. All more or less new to me.
Cheers and Merry Christmas.
N
For me, 2008 was the year of the summer ballad. Partly because of all the great shows in McCarren Park, few of which I actually attended, and partly because of some fun backyard barbecues with Courney Miller's iPod piped in. But mostly because it was a kickass summer.
So here goes, in no particular order, "My Favoritest Musical Sounds from 2008":
1. The Teenagers: "Feeling Better." From the 2008 album, "Reality Check." You may remember the Teenagers as the snarky, heavily-accented French synth-pop group who made everyone's ears burn at the shameless profanity in 2007's "Homecoming." "Feeling Better" is almost as mean-spirited, but it's poppy and anthemic, and while the premise of the song is parody, you still get a taste of that eternal theme: the special bond between distraught youngsters and their rock & roll. "The Streets of Paris" off this record is pretty good, too.
2. The Ting Tings: "Great DJ." I love an insta-hit, and this one from a previously obscure British duo takes the cake as the ultimate summer dance song.
3. Cold War Kids: "Hang Me Out To Dry" OK, ok, I only like this song because I first heard it while sitting in Nita Nita's garden this summer sipping a dark & stormy and reading some trashy novel. But what more is there to life?
4. MGMT: "Time to Pretend." If the Jefferson Airplane's "Lather" could write a song for himself, this would be it. Is there anything sadder in the world than growing old? And is there anything more smug than two twenty-somethings writing a sonic-boom-busting-balled about it? Couple this with "Kids" and the rest of the album "Oracular Spectacular" and you've got yourself a deal.
5. Girltalk, "Feed the Animals": I've only heard pieces of it (how do you know? you ask) but holy smokes is this a good record. It's heartening to know that the musical trick that brought us the Tori Amos/Nirvana techno split also produces batshit crazygood dance music.
6. Fleet Foxes "White Winter Hymnal": The revival of folk and bluegrass finally reaches the SXSW crowd in full force. If hipsters reach any further back into musical history for inspiration, we'll all be digging Pavarotti on wind-up Victrolas by 2010. Mark my words. But this tune is meticulously executed where it could be maudlin, and that's what separates this wheat from the banjo-playing, heartbreak-singing chaff. And, it's pretty gorgeous to boot.
7. Sigur Ros, "Gobbledigook": Did you know this song has no time signature? Bob Boilen was way too excited about that. This, too, is another song that's essentially about running around McCarren Park tipsy and sun-dazed with your friends. Trust me, that's what they're saying in that Laplandish lilt. And yes, Itty, I agree, seeing them at the MoMA was gorsh darn fun.
8. Mates of State, "My Only Offer" Once lyrically cloying and sounding not unlike two cats making love on a warm summer's eve, these two have finally made a good record, of which this song is representative. The toning down of the caterwauling is probably a result of having quiet down their band practice because the babies were sleeping (Here ends, I promise, the slightly mean-spirited yet ultimately lighthearted teasing about being a grownup). But the result is good, and the slightly muted approach perhaps one they should have adopted years ago. C'est rock.
Old/other stuff I really got into/discovered this year:
-Sam Cooke. From a frigid night in Jersey in 2007, conveniently before the election of BHO.
-Wilbur de Paris. Thank you, Bob Boilen.
-Dinah Washington. Thank you, thrift store across the street from The Thing before it moved to Montrose.
-Records in general.
-Podcasts. The above-mentioned Bob Boilen's "All Songs Considered," along with KEXP's "Music that Matters," are wholly responsible for any new music I may have heard. (Can you tell my internet's been busted for the past 2 months?) Also heard: The Sound of Young America, This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion, Planet Money with Adam Davidson, Marketplace, CBC's Canada Reads, Book Tour, B&N's Meet the Writers, It's All Politics, and the New Yorker's Campaign Trail. All more or less new to me.
Cheers and Merry Christmas.
N
No comments:
Post a Comment