So I've done another 4 of these in the past 2 days. Here
they are.
Yo La Tengo - Electr-o-Pura (1995)
Smog - Red Apple Falls (1997)
Pavement - Wowee Zowee (1995)
Bjork - Selmasongs (2000)
Yo La Tengo - Electr-o-Pura
1 - Decora
droning and feedback, as per usual. Buried vocals, also as per
usual. semi-driving beat. "we fall deep into the past" nice "take
this chance with me cause it's your last" also nice. Dunno about
this moaning thing georgia is doing, perhaps saying "decora?"
Fucked up guitar solo. Go ira go. Not great as far as openers go,
but not bad.
2 - Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)
Hmm, "return to hot chicken" on i can hear the heart... is an
instrumental. This song is 7 minutes long. Aha, lyrics. Whoa, they
made ira's voice scary. This song is creepy. "I hear the whispers
everywhere i go" ok, so i think this guy's girl has left him
because he's a psycho crazy. And now he's getting even more crazy.
Yeah, this is a real dark and creepy song. "and i hear footsteps
that aren't yours / they sound like yours but they all do." Oh
jesus. If i ever feel the need to become insane, i'll pull this one
out. It's great, but god damn is it scary. It's making me really
really tense right now. And this jarring guitar solo does not help.
Ah. Thank god its done.
3 - Hour Grows Late
Ahh. Pretty noises. It's slow. "his soul is my cheap laugh" ? organ
playing. Nothing special there.
4 - Tom Courtenay
Up and cool. Ira spat out a lot of names that i didn't recognize.
Oh well, i like the music. Yeah, not a clue what's going on here,
but i like the song and the way ira is singing it.
5 - False Ending
Instrumental I bet. One minute, feedbacky guitars and fast drums.
Whatever. Too short to really register.
6 - Pablo and Andrea
slidey electric guitars and a simple beat. georgia. love her voice.
Love both their voices. "now you'll sit showing me tears if you
want me to stay" hmm. Yeah, this one works fine. "I waited for you
as the trees swayed out of time." Cool.
7 - Paul is Dead
Abbey Road, right? Nice song, i'm hearing the lyrics, they're just
not sinking in. Fun background "doot doos" throughout.
8 - False Alarm
We had false ending, now this. At 5 minutes i'm hoping not another
instr. Sounds like an alarm. Hmm, dunno how i'm feeling about this
one. I don't think it's working all that well. Ha, "well is it
really true? / Well, i know, i mean, i guess, uh, why not" Yeah,
this is kinda cool in its weird way. It's kind
disjointed.
9 - Ballad of Red Buckets
another feedback heavy mid tempo. Don't have much to say about this
one. 2,4,6 have all been very good. 7 and 8 were not bad either. So
far, not killer ylt material, but nothing i won't revisit.
10 - Don't Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2)
Phew, not as scary as the other hot chicken. Georgia singing. Liked
the first hot chicken much more. This is slow and acoustic guitars
and georgia being all etherial and shit.
11 - (Straight down to the) bitter end
ok, rocking out a bit. Hmm, not a very happy ylt album. There's
been lots of anger and shit. "You remind me where i don't want to
be." I like it better when they right pretty love songs.
12 - My Heart's Reflection
bass and purty electric stuff. slow midtempo. no words. Oops, there
they are. "I want to see my heart's reflection in your eyes." There
we go, yo la tengo. Hmm, weird kinky vibes in the second verse.
Hmm, since the second verse, the songs been just bass except for
guitar fills after each line. And on the third verse the guitar is
just getting weird. Cool song.
13 - Attack on Love
hmm, jazzy bass line, crazy guitar, and spoken word. Interesting.
Crazy fucking drum solo. Yeah, this track is a pass. Well, the
middle part really sucked, the spoken words parts aren't THAT bad.
don't think it was the album cut though.
14 - Blue Line Swinger
I hear playground noises. uhoh, 9 minutes. If I know my Yo la
tengo... It's been 1.5 of a drone and some drum beats and itinerate
guitar. This is good. Slowly building. Yeah man. Although, i'd feel
better if this came at the end of a song that had words... i feel a
little cheated with an instrumental. Oh well. I'll still get into
it. Wonder where this is leading. OOOH it's georgia! "you won't
talk about what you see when the lights are out" OK, this is a full
out song. That intro kicked ass. Hmm, one verse, sounds like a rock
out end jam now. Was that all? Nope here's another verse. OK, that
was a pretty kickass closer.
Overall, not YLT's best work, but still damn good. 2,14 rule.
4,7,8,12 better than the rest.
Smog - Red Apple Falls
1 - the morning paper
ugly bass and out of tune guitar. Ah, there it goes. trombone.
nothing real special here, singing about how the morning paper
sucks and he's just gonna stay asleep. little piano happening here.
This song wasn't nearly as dark as anything on dongs.
2 - Blood Red Bird
I do enjoy this guy's voice. Yeah, so this song just keeps going.
Ooh, "we can continually sink into each other." Nice. Dongs has
some really memorable songs, this one hasn't so far.
3 - Red Apples
"low" style drumming and some piano chords. Now some droning organ.
"I slept in her black arms for a century / she wanted nothing in
return" this guy's voice rules. Now he's singing about the window's
husband's ghost. Creepy. Like this song better than the other two,
even though it has less going on in it.
4 - I was a stranger
pretty little piano thing over bass and slide guitar. this one's a
little fun, liking it. He sounds like a more earnest, more refined
Malkmus. "why do you women in this town let me look at you so bold
/ you should've seen what i was in the last town."
5 - To Be of Use
"most of my fantasies are of .... making someone else cum" hmm, ok.
Saved by the next line "most of my fantasies are of ... to be of
use." Actually makes that first line about cum seem ok. Nothing in
the background here but a guitar slowly picking. sad song. And
who'd have thunk it, with the use of the word "cum." ah shit. song
cuts out. downloading now. Like this one a lot.
6 - Red Apple falls
Singing about the window again. Apparently things with the widow
from song 2 aren't going all too well. Too bad. This is another
nice pretty song. "we can't get past this." He never says what
though... just something she did because of something he
said.
7 - Ex-Con
a little poppy. "whenever i get dressed up / i feel like an ex-con
trying to make good." ha, it's funny, because it's a jean jacket
and tie. A good one. Nothing real special, but fun.
8 - inspirational
mp3 seems of a lower quality here. I guess it's trying to be
inspirational: "if you're living the unliveable / by loving the
unloveable / it's time to start changing the unchangeable / by
leaving the unleavable" Not many words for an almost 7 minutes
song. but it's alright, almost sounds a bit inspirational, heh.
9 - Finer Days
so far it's just voice over a repeating bass note with an
occassional comment from guitar. french horn comment, there. "all
of my old friends / they want me to stay down down down down with
them / i could extend them a hand / but they would only pull it
off." ooh, just got louder and faster and has a piano. that section
is now over.
Overall, not nearly as dark, but also not nearly as captivating as
dongs of sevotion. It's not a bad album, had some good tracks, no
real bad ones.
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
1 - We dance
this is the pavement album that pitchfork didn't seem to like very
much. We shall see. This ain't bad, just a slow acoustic guitar
driven song. And he said "zany" which is always a good word. "check
that expiration date, man / it's later than you think." 18 or 19
tracks on this cd, and it's not even an hour long.
2 - Rattled by the Rush
"I'm drowning for your thirst." some heavy guitars and a harmonica.
Nothing special here. vocal mix is pretty low.
3 - Black Out
once again vocals sound muffled. Nothing special here
either.
4 - Brinx Job
Brinx? malkmus is doing weird voice and falsetto. A little funky i
guess, "we got the money / we got the money / we got the money"
minute and a half.
5 - Grounded
So far this album is lacking the rawness and energy of the first 2
releases, and the depth and production of Terror Twilight. Liked
the first song though. 4 minutes.
6 - Serpentine Pad
This sounds like early pavement now. Not exactly good early
pavement though, unfortunately. malkmus just talking in rhythm like
a punker, with some screaming backgrounds. 1:15
7 - Motion Suggests
this just isn't working for me.
8 - Father to a sister of thought
kind of pretty opening. Vocals overall are still hard to pick out.
This song is just another blur of acoustic guitar and slide guitar,
and some semi-audible lyrics i'm not making out.
9 - Extradition
another bluesy sounding one. Sorry pavement, i'm just not with you
on this one. Of all the albums, i don't remember brighten the
corners very much, but i'm fairly sure i enjoyed it a hell of a lot
more than i'm enjoying this one.
10 - Best Friend's Arm
Loud and completely inaudible. Kind of cool though, it's rocking
me. think i caught "everybody looks like santa claus" in there.
slowed down a bit. "keep it under your best friend's arms" 2
minutes.
11 - Grave Architecture
I like the title a great deal. yeah, this one's grooving. Has those
little off beat guitar hits like in the verve's "sonnet" 2 minutes
and the song is different now. First 2 minutes were cool, we'll see
about this. Loud guitars. Some malkmus screams. another break at 3
minutes. guitar solo. Ok, not bad.
12 - AT&T
This is alright, too. Very wordy. yeah malkmus stutter. great
chorus. "whenever i feel fine / i'll walk the plank for you" jacob
javits? Some weirdness going on here with voices floating around
everywhere. Ok, nice.
13 - Flux = Rad
5 + 4 = Unity? NOpe, not a 5/4 instrumental. Only 1.45 though. Ok,
this is cool, "child don't you know / i don't want to let you go."
and then "i don't want to let you" till infinity. This second half
of the album is really turning around.
14 - Fight this Generation
Hmm, ugly sounding strings. Slow and a bit weird. But more
accessible than the early stuff on the album. NEw phase of the song
at 2 minutes. That's happened a lot on this album. Songs just break
and reform constantly.
15 - Kennel District
Sounds like summerbabe, this intro at least. Yeah, i can totally
here summerbabe working underneath this. And that's ok, cause i
like summerbabe, so it follows that this song is ok. "can't believe
she's married to rope" eh?
16 - Pueblo
hmm, nope. just another slow generic track. Whoops. 3 minutes
there's a big explosion. This is alright, but not enough to save
the first minutes of the song. oh, and now it's gone. So the song
was cool for 15 seconds.
17 - Half a Canyon
six minutes? that's odd. Sorry stephen, can't understand you. not
an entirely bad song thus far, though. I started doing other things
and the song ended. For 6 minutes, i couldn't understand what he
was saying and the song never really changed. Blah.
18 - Western Homes
god some weird filter running on the voice. This is alright, but
indicative of the second half, not bad, but really nothing standing
out as really good. Oh well, i like the other pavement stuff a
lot.
overall, pavement's weakest outing. A good and strong opening
track, followed by about 8 do nothing, go nowhere songs, and then a
stronger but still pretty weak second half. If i wasn't a
completist, a packrat, and if i didn't have tons of space, i'd save
a few tracks and get rid of the rest in a second.
Bjork - Selmasongs
1 - overture
Sounds like a movie score. Probably because it is a movie score.
Dunno what the details on this disc are, i think all the music is
bjork's, while the lyrics come from the screenwriter? Yeah, it's a
scored overture, nothing really impressive happening here. Ooh,
nice bit around 2:30 that gave me chills. oh yeah, this is cool
now. woooo. ok, back down from that hugeness.
2 - Cvalda
machine noises. More of them. WOnder if this'll be the background
for the song, bjork's crazy like that. My spine on telegram is
pretty phat, all the music is played on exhaust pipes. Ok, we have
a definite rhythm going here. And here's my bjork! "clutter / crash
/ clack" etc., "its music / now dance," now there are some harps.
Never been good at picking out bjork's lyrics, this is no
exception. What a voice. Ha, little horn thing. Oh shit, this rules
"clutter / crash / wack / bang / boom" and this wild big band
musical horn shti underneat and all the machine noises. This is
really quite cool. a cappella, and more machine noises. that weird
chorus again. Ok, this'll do just fine.
3 - I've seen it all
train noise. once again, we have location sounds provided rhythm.
Is that thom yorke? Wait, yeah, i think i remember reading that in
the pitchfork review way back. Wild. This is weird, its a classic
duet, switching off then singing together. But it's bjork and thom
yorke. Fucking thom yorke... why on earth. I don't like this
pairing. This is just not the type of song thom yorke should ever
sing, these lryics are shit. Never saw dancer in the dark, but i
bet the lyrics are shit because they are going right along with the
movie. Hmm. It's such a musical. We got big strings now and this
sounds cool. I still can't get over thom yorke singing these words.
"what about china? / have you seen the great wall? "you've never
been to niagra falls / ... / the eiffel tower and the empire
state?" man, that's just fucked up.
4 - scatterheart.
little musicbox opening and a lullabye from bjork. Now weird
percussion noises and shit. nice little uberbass groove. "i'd love
to redo it just to make it easier for you." "my dearest
scatterheart / there is comfort / right in the eye of the
hurricane." it's funny, because when she says "the" it sounds like
"zee." this one ain't bad. Sounds like bjork. Guess this song is
going out to the kid in the movie she's trying to save. I hope it
comes out on dvd soon. this sounds like it could come off
homogenic. I think i hear some baby crying noises in the back.
That's always creepy, like on Kid A.
5 - In the Musicals
more crazy rhythm noises. high energy song, oh wow, nice
backgrounds during "there's always someone to catch me." yeah,
that's great. this is a cool little song. the "you are always there
to catch me" parts are definitely rup. wonder why i didn't consider
bjork for my coolest people in music thing. She could very well
have made it. bravo bjork, great song. Cheesey but sweet lyrics,
and just kickass music. This could make a cd sometime.
6 - 107 steps
she's counting. started at 5. doesn't sound like bjork at all
though. Whoever it is is on 29 now. ok, bjork came in and is
singing random numbers while the other woman continues on
undaunted. "48 / 51 / 54 / 58 / 64" this is silly. The music in the
back isn't bad though. Wow, "79" really kicked ass. ha. someone
started over and is at 19 now. great orchestration here. what an
odd little song.
7 - new world
"train whistles sweet clementine / blueberry dancers in line" hmm.
not bad. uhoh, chills. "i'm softly walking on air / halfway to
heaven from here." Very pretty song. Big, triumphant
ending.
Overall, really good. I've seen it all was weird and i don't
really care for it much overall. 1 was great for a straight
arrangement. 7 was wonderful, 5 was really good, 4 was quite
good too. 6 was worth it for the kickass "79."
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