Band: Death Cab for Cutie
Album: The Forbidden Love EP
Best song: “Photobooth” is far too twee. But, really good. I’m of two minds.
Worst song: See above.
I can’t fucking stand Zooey Deschanel.
This isn’t a new thing, nor am I the only one. She has got an attractiveness about her that is hard to deny. She has those big Bambi eyes and her hair frames her face well and whatever. She’s pretty. Hooray. Continue reading
Band: Radiohead
Album: The King of Limbs
Best song: “Lotus Flower” is amazing.
Worst song: “Codex” isn’t much.
This is not about an album, though, you should listen to King of Limbs, especially “Lotus Flower.” I don’t do reviews for Memorial Day, instead, I do a rehash of this, the eulogy I never said. The one I’ll rewrite for years to come. (Last year’s is here. The one from 2010 is here. The album name The King of Limbs makes me think of Taft because he was all knees and elbows and because he loved Radiohead. Also because I love Radiohead. Yes. It’s a stretch.
May, for most of my life, has been a pretty happy month. When I was young, it was the real start of spring; Chicago Marches and Aprils were rainy and unpleasant when I was little. It was the beginning of the fun part of baseball season, when teams and players took shape. It was playoff hockey and basketball. We started going outside consistently for gym class at school. Eventually, college let out for the summer in May. One of my closest friends has a birthday in May. My sister got married Memorial Day weekend. Cinco de Mayo is one of my favorite holidays and it’s my life’s work to get it as popular as St. Patrick’s Day (drinking holiday, bad food, colder weather). Continue reading
Band: Blur
Album: 13
Best song: “Coffee & TV” is a great song.
Worst song: “Mellow Song” isn’t much.
It’s odd to think of the weird trajectory that music videos have had in the culture. With the Beatles’ feature films Help and Hard Day’s Night, the band set the stage for similar stuff they’d later explore in promotional films, which would become music videos. Indeed, artists like Bob Dylan ended up cutting similar pieces: Continue reading
Band: Miley Cyrus
Album: The Time of Our Lives
Best song: “Party in the U.S.A.,” of course.
Worst song: Oh, whatever.
In a radio interview I can’t find now, Ricky Gervais was talking about different types of art and called a song (any song) “The greatest piece of art someone can create.”
Since the album’s resurgence in the mid- to late-1990s, technology has — in my eyes — made it such that singles have become the preeminent want to digest music. iTunes and other such MP3 services make it so everyone can make their own playlist of songs they enjoy. Hit singles mean more and more songs become hits. Continue reading