Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain (2001)
Eels - Electro-Shock Therapy (1998)
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World (2001)
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
1 - lovely head
so she's worked with orbital or someone, and this album is up for the mercury prize. starts with a very bondish synth behind whistle melody. kind of a portishead tip here. whistling was replaced by analog beeps and boops. the harbs and bond arrangement shit is still in the back. sexy lounge singer voice. ooh, the whistling is back and it reminds me of something. damn.
2 - paper bag
mmm, whispered throaty and sexy voice singing about fucking. works for me. very sparse here. oh, here are the warm strings to fill out the background. wow, she's so british: "...when it rains on your head mate / cheers for that." mmm "i'm inside your mouth." she needs to stop. bit more of a "real instrument" feel to this one.
3 - human
just low low bass, tiny incidentals and brushed perc. ooh, got some phat electronics going on now. and the strings from "pyramid song." "throw me down like an old rug." stop talking about sex, missy. crazy horn incidentals here, and more of a dirty primal beat. lots of electronic tweaking being thrown in over the string ensembles. it's too daytime and sunny for this album. nice outro. string break, then beats thrown back in.
4 - pilots
purty. with hints of dischord at the end of phrases. oooh, this is gorgeous at "we're pilots watching stars..." i actually don't like the analog booping machine on this, it seems out of place. i like when the electronic glitching is added, they should do it more. her voice is so out of place in modern music. as is this album, i suppose. this is so not the indie rock scene. this is like 40s music, but with electronics and sex, and complete lack of 40s convention. the analog booping machine is obviously her voice treated now.
5 - deer stop
i've read the lyrics and i declare this song too about sex. namely, her having an orgasm. strings, her and vibes. she's not singing english. yes she is, just barely. i don't know if the lyrics are incomplete, or if her voice is treated so much that i can't make out the words. that being said, the treatment her voice is getting is actually damn cool in this song. fuck that cher effect. this is radiohead land. she goes from glitchy electronic robot to perfect clear voice, it's great.
6 - felt mountain
is that yodeling? yes it is. instrumental of sorts. alison is sort of scatting yodelling whatever the fuck it is she does. i was responding to a work e-mail so i have nothing in depth to say.
7 - oompa radar
that's an odd title. except it makes sense, as there are most definitely "oompa" noises all over this. this is some kind of oompa willy wonka drugged out nightmare. and now we have a nice bacharach arrangement at 1.5. and my dear alison la da daing along. i have a feeling that the oompas are going to come back and steal this moment from me, though. la la la la da sta dee dee dee. here they are, although they make more sense now than the first time. we thought it was over then the oompas broke down the door.
8 - utopia
katie's "fascist baby" song. digging the beat. electronics haven't been so up front all album i don't think. i know the strings are there, but they aren't the center of attention. this would be the correct choice for the single. wonder how cheap the "utopia" ep is, i hear it has a cover of "let's get physical." the image of alison singing that to me is a good one to have.
9 - horse tears
this is definitely an atmosphere album. and working with flourescent lights above and daylight pooring in through windows behind isn't the atmosphere. utopia and pilots really grabbed me, but the rest is begging for a more contemplative, rainy and/or nighttime listen. and i'll be sure to give it that.
Eels - Electro-Shock Therapy
ok, ready to get suicidal.
1 - elizabeth on the bathroom floor
muted electric providing the background here, that and a little keyboard ambience. "waking up is harder when you want to die." wonderful. synth strings now. "my name's elizabeth / my life is shit and piss." now that's an opener.
2 - going to your funeral part i
a heavy bass stomp. mad falsetto. ah, it was a cremation. i'm fairly sure this is elizabeth's funeral. looks like she finally offed herself. this is kind of a poppy song. whatever works, boys.
3 - cancer for the cure
i totally used this as a s-t title, i wonder where the hell i got it from. hmm, in the first verse we're diggin a grave for mother, grandpa's watching porn, and "father knows best about suicide and smack." oh, this is probably the song on the american beauty soundtrack, that's why i'd have used it. this one is a rocker and it uses a very recognizable horror movie-ish sample. "'Cause Courtney needs love / and so do I / well hee hee hee" nice groove on this. organ hits and all that fun shit.
4 - my descent into madness
nice slow hiphop beat. this is the sound everclear wishes they could ever make. i like the string sample they keep throwing in. this guy is opting to stay in a mental hospital, cause no one bothers him, and the city is just full of "the unloved" anyway. hahahahaha. "come visit me tonight at 8 o'clock and the you'll see how i'm not the crazy one / voices tell me i'm the shit." lots of "la la la"s and it's a really cheery sounding song. ends with "i'm the shit." fantastic.
5 - 3 speed
back to the clean electric from track 1. this is aching to explode. just added strings for verse 2. another sung from the perspective of a girl. "you think i got it all going my way / then why am i such a fucking mess." chills on that line. i take back the wanting to explode, it did with the first chorus, but it doesn't anymore and that's cool. choruses are way pretty. he sounds like someone, i'll place it later.
6 - hospital food
it's another bass and perc stomp, like when 2 followed one. got horns on this, sounds like a dirty morphine song. mixed with a dirty tom waits song. there are my handclaps. verse two was wild. now we got falsetto for the last chorus. this song is fun. ha. "a little hospital food / helps the spoonful of sugar come up."
7 - electro-shock blues
creepy. not too many songs from the perspective of an EST patient. i'm disturbed.
8 - efils' god
who's efil? starts with backwards instruments. another nice little hip-hop beat. falsetto, getting a beck vibe on the vocals. it's like trip-hop but not as dark. that backwards shit keeps getting used, it works. when he said "how efils good" it sounded like "it feels good."
9 - going to your funeral part ii
instrumental. accompanied by a simple, but for some reason rather poignant comic in the lyrics book. bells, clarinet, synth strings. sounds like a variation on the theme in a soundtrack.
10 - last stop: this town
sounds like happyish partridge family stuff. "you're dead but the world keeps spinning." awwww yeah. nice beat happening here. this sounds like another song. "get down." rock. this be phat. catchy as fuck. singing about a ghost flying over his old town and taking his friend with him.
11 - baby genius
is this the matmos L.A.S.I.K. song with a little baby music over it? lot's of background noises happening. ooh, strings now. sounds like a christmas song. nothing special there, but it was only 2 minutes.
12 - climbing to the moon
acoustic guitar? crazy. eek. "so i wrote it all in a letter / but i don't know if it came / the nurse she likes my writing / so she keeps it just like me / so that it won't get away." lovely. good christ: "got a sky that looks like heaven / got an earth that looks like shit / and it's getting hard to tell where / what i am ends / and what they're making me begins." really pretty tune. kind of rousing, in that slow and pretty way. maybe it's wayne coyne he sounds like a little. yes, wayne coyne with jeff tweedy.
13 - ant farm
take's the alt-country sensibilities of the last song and builds. violin playing the back, more tweedy in his voice than ever. and no mention of death.
14 - dead of winter
ah, back to death. finally. acoustic guitar, cello, and that synth choir i've grown to love. this is befitting of a grey winter day. well done, e.
15 - the medication is wearing off
weird blend of litely picked electric, vibes, bells, some kind of horn, and vinyl piano samples. and there's that grooving beat. "suicide e-mail do not delete." kind of a sad song, not about death, but about a definite rut.
16 - p.s. you rock my world
great title. "i was at a funeral the day i realized / i watned to spend my life with you." "i was thinkin' about how everyone is dying / and maybe it's time to live." sounds nice too, nice mid-tempo beat driving along, strings and all that good shit. verses have a nice driving drum beat. wow, this is really affirming, guy at the store didn't give him all his change "but it didn't bothe rme this time / cause i know i've only got this moment / and it's good."
this was a very very nice album demanding more and more listens. i was expecting more depression, but while the lyrics were pretty bad all over, few songs were much worse than just being really poignant and pretty sad.
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World
1 - alternate route to vulcan street
slow piano? odd strings. kind of thrown in in a rather out of place and sporadic fashion. now the strings are normal and pretty. and here's gruf, complete with electronic double. this is really slow. odd choice for an opener. this isn't the way to get me into it, super furries.
2 - sidewalk sufer girl
light acoustic melody and light singing interrupted by chaotic guitars, fun. now it's just light singing, and now the guitars are all in the mix. crazy echo effects or some shit going down. it's still kind of lazy though, i mean it's definitely up and poppy and guitarry, but dunno, it's not as immediate as other super furry stuff. like the choruses are just kind of chill. ooh, oh yeah, double time for the ending, cool. track saved itself.
3 - (drawing) rings around the world
yeah, here's that driving overseas pop rock that i love. i haven't heard harmonies sound this beach boys since the beach boys. hahaha, great part at 1:40. i need this dvd. 5.1 mixes, remixes by real people and dogme films for each song. need that bad. hmm, a minute left what's going on here? lots of vocal samples of phone calls and shit while the music disappears and sonic booping comes in. well that was fun.
4 - it's not hte end of the world?
a little more refined pop that the joyride of the last one. kind of a little groove, but it's working. that's just feel good stuff.
5 - receptacle for the respectable
yeah yeah handclaps. and "ba ba ba ba ba ba"s and oh so many layers. ooh slow down bridge. and now another completely different bridge. "you came to me in peace / and left me in peaces." eeek, scary outro. some guy, maybe gruf, growling the title. hahhaa he just roared, and he's getting less audible and just making growly noises. funny.
6 - (a) touch sensative
instrumental? starts with a break beat that slides into this dark little tapeloop groove. had some girl moaning, and now a piano loop. this is cool.
7 - shoot doris day
huge opening. jimmy stewart and doris day were in what music together? love the strings in this. great great song. "i've got some feelings that i can't get through / i'll just binge on crack and tiramisu" heh.
8 - miniature
40 seconds. incidental.
9 - no! sympathy
bluesy guitar playing, weird. vocals just came in and it's like a cowboy song, if such a thing were to exist. oooh harmonies. yeesh "don't try me for sympathy / i don't feel sorry for thee / you deserve to die." lovely, gents. the "you make me realize..." parts are great. ooh, are we gonna get a skittering ending? oh sweet. starting at 4.5 and now at full fledge at 5 glitchy electronics. kickass. love you. gimme dvd now.
10 - juxtapozed with u
the big single i suppose. it's daft punk or someone electronic voice. and beeping. this is cool, like some old 70s sweeping makeout song. little bossanova guitar at 1:20. the choruses are uhh, so hedonistic, it's great. "just suppose i juxtapose with u" teehee. also, "i'm not in love with you / but i won't hold that against you."
11 - presidential suite
whoa, not worried about being direct: "monica and naughty billy / got together something silly / holy wars out of lusty minutes / another cuban cigar crisis / honestly! do we need to know / if he really came inside her mouth? / how will all this effect me / now and later." it's true, you know. just surprised at how forward it was. hahah second vers "found an icon that gave him a hard on / little boris just can't help himself" so now boris is feeding chicks vodka this is great. nice little bacharachish horn bridge. ooh this is just so thick. mmmmm.
12 - run! christian, run!
pretty long intro. good lord, it's about a mass suicide in a forest "for we know / that heaven awaits us." guess they weren't concerned about keeping lyrics light. ahahahaha "they'll depart on the / midnight train to jordan." complete with chorus on "train to jordan." Now that's just funny. pretty gentle song, nice build through the ending.
13 - fragile happiness
was talking to katie. sounded nice, though.
oh, the album is over. sad. i want the dvd. i'm going to listen to no! sympathy again now.
| peterik@bc.edu guestbook |