Monthly Archive for January, 2012

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AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2011 – #3. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

Published by almostaghost on January 3, 2012 in almostaghost and review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
The King Of Limbs

don't blow your mind with why

In the first season of Mad Men, Don Draper tells a room of hippies that the “universe is indifferent.” This bums them out, but it does get to the heart of Don Draper — this idea is how and why he feels free. (Sorry if you don’t know the character.) Similarly, on The King Of Limbs, Radiohead’s universe is a tumultuous one, and probably also an indifferent one. From within that tumult, Thom Yorke, as always, is trying to feel free.

The first few tracks depict the universe. Oceans bloom, jellyfish float by, the universe sighs. A no-good magpie steals memories, magic, melodies. “Obligations / complications / routines and schedules / drag and kill you,” Yorke sings on the dark “Little By Little.” These are hardly unusual depictions for Yorke, who regularly writes of the havoc in the universe in his songs, from car crashes to ice ages to spinning plates to weird fishes and worms. Metaphors? Sure. But also a world in constant upheaval.

That’s all well and good, but it’s just a set-up for the second half of the album. While this havoc goes on all around, Yorke keeps confronting it head-on. “And while the ocean blooms / it’s what keeps me alive,” he recognizes. This confrontation leads to a freedom, a state of mind, where there’s nothing to fear and nothing to doubt:

- “We will shrink and be quiet as mice / While the cat is away / Do what we want”
- “I will shape myself into your pocket / I will shrink and I will disappear”
- “Jump off the end / Into a clear lake / The water’s clear and innocent”
- “I think I should give up the ghost” (a phrase defined as “ceasing to exist” on dictionary.com)
- “Finally I’m free of all the weight I’ve been carrying”
- “Put the shadows back into the boxes / I have jettisoned my illusions” (on a b-side that didn’t make the album; shared below)

Those are all from the last four songs on the album; and clearly tie them all together. He is free. I’ve read a lot of different interpretive angles about Limbs, from climate change to suicide to dreams to Buddhist rebirth to whatever. And I’m not going to try to get that specific on it (besides comparing it to Mad Men, of course). But that is to say, these are some pretty deep songs when you look at them closely. (Just like Mad Men.)

Musically, of course, Radiohead keeps expanding their sound. My understanding from following them for so many years now is that after every album, they nearly break-up, and then totally rebuild how they create music. The end result may stay the same (killer songs), but the process evolves. The King Of Limbs seems to me to borrow a lot more from electronic music (that gorgeous “cat is away” break in “Lotus Flower,” the creative drums/percussion on “Separator” and “Bloom,” the vocal loops of “Give Up The Ghost,” etc.). In some ways, this is the Radiohead album that feels less like a band performance than ever before; but perhaps that was in reaction to their last album, which totally felt like that.

I’ll be honest here too: out of all Radiohead albums this is probably the one I’ve obsessed over the least. It’s still better than most everything out there though, and that’s why it’s one of the best albums of the year. I won’t claim to be unbiased on this list–it’s Radiohead and I’m me and they’re going to be ranked high. Regardless, I’m sure everyone I know who might possibly be reading this probably has already heard The King Of Limbs. (If not, why are we friends?*)

Radiohead “Supercollider”

Radiohead “Separator”

*lol j/k**
**sort of

- almostaghost

in the night it came for me [now playing volume 01]

Published by breathmint on January 2, 2012 in mixes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Here comes the inaugural edition of my new series for sharing 2012 music i’ve been listening to. RIP “since we last spoke.”

This mix features shoegaze, trash, electro-pop, classical inspired, and more.

http://8tracks.com/breathmint/in-the-night-it-came-for-me-np-vol-01

- breathmint

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2011 – #4. The Kills – Blood Pressures

Published by almostaghost on January 1, 2012 in almostaghost and mixes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
Blood Pressures

fate with a single blow has custard pied me now

A couple of albums ago, I mentioned how there were few albums I listened to more than The War On Drugs’ Slave Ambient this year. The Kills’ Blood Pressures probably got my most plays. There was a 2-3 month period earlier this year where I was working 14-15 hour days, 7 days a week. I took to playing Blood Pressures on my headphones every evening at full blast for a nightly jolt of rock energy, to get me through the last few sleepy hours of work.

So I have probably ranked it higher than it should, but I cannot deny–when I look back at the music of 2011, this was one of the defining albums for me. The album was perfect for that energy jolt. Even now, when I’m in that mood, I can play it in the car, and the windows start rattling and it’s AWESOME. Their loud choppy guitar riffs are infectious, the window-rattling lower end and relentless drums are exciting, and Alison Mosshart does the highwire seductive roar better than anybody around.

The songs are usually built around meaningless phrases: “the heart is a beating drum,” “loneliness never truly leaves me alone,” “it’s not the door you’re using, but the way you’re walking through it.” They really do not mean much, but they sound good, loud. They’re simple and effective and with just the right touch of power. “I can’t find enough pots and pans / let alone knives in my kitchen / To keep you cooking” — I mean, only the rockingest rock stars could get away with rocking lines like that, right? “Could be a nail in my coffin / and Lord knows I ain’t ready yet!” Alison Mosshart sings on “Nail In My Coffin.” It pretty much sums up most of the songs–a mix of frustration and temptation and whatever else raises your blood pressure.

The songs aren’t all relentless. Songs like “Satellite” show off their ability to weave some uplifting gospel choruses into their rock and roll. Usually these moments are wordless, and short, but they’re there, providing nice breaks from all the intensity. Similarly, “The Last Goodbye” is a end-of-the-night closing-time piano torch song–I’m surprised it’s not the final track on the album. But since it is not, it also acts as a break between the roar of the other songs.

After The Dead Weather had my fifth favorite album of 2010, I definitely count myself as one of Mosshart’s biggest fans now. Her partnership with Hince has turned The Kills into a great band, and their electrifying Blood Pressures was one of the highlights of 2011.

The Kills “Pots And Pans”

The Kills “Satellite”

- almostaghost

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2011 – #5. Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow

Published by almostaghost on January 1, 2012 in almostaghost and mixes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .
50 Words For Snow

shimmerglisten

Kate Bush! After a six-year absence, she put out two albums in 2011. While the first, Director’s Cut, was a relatively useless re-imagining of songs from two of her older albums, 50 Words For Snow included all new material.

One difficulty here is that if I were to explain these songs as ideas, they almost all would sound gimmicky. A song about a snowflake falling? A passionate night with a snowman? A song with 50 words for snow in it? Yetis? These sound kind of silly. Kate Bush, however, is a scientist. These are actually songs about snow. Snow is not just in the background or an atmospheric detail. By using snow so intimately in the songs, looking at it so closely, Kate Bush ends up discovering ideas and metaphors within.

“Snowflake” starts the album, and its repetitive piano mimics a snowfall, slowly pulsing and staying in the same place the whole song. The song is the story of a snowflake “born in a cloud” and falling down to the world. To make this story of growing up even more apparent, Kate Bush’s teenage son sings the whole song in a fairly gorgeous youthful falsetto. (It runs in the family.) Kate sings one line, repeated: “the world is so loud / keep falling / I’ll find you.”

The heavy “Lake Tahoe” uses a similar arrangement, Kate again at her piano with gentle drums. Instead of snow lightly falling, it feels darker and stronger and colder. A male opera singer harmonizes with her a bit, but she sings most of this ghost story, about a woman who drowned and froze in Lake Tahoe, leaving her dog behind. Later on “Snowed In At Wheeler Street,” Bush duets with Elton John. A lot of artists might write tragic romance songs, but only Bush would take “Wheeler Street” into such fantastic fantasy. Instead of being cliched, “love lasts forever,” she writes of lovers finding and losing each other throughout time (from ancient Rome to World War II to 9/11 in New York).

“Misty” begins with her building a snowman, who then follows her into her room. He lies down next to her, “his snowy arms surround me / so cold next to me / I can feel him melting in my hand.” Only Kate Bush could get away with this, and like on “Wheeler Street,” she takes the story all the way. “The sheets are soaking and on my pillow / dead leaves and bits of twisted branches.” Her lover melts away, leaving her hopeless.

“Wild Man” and “50 Words For Snow” show Kate Bush’s linguistic skills. “Wild Man” looks at the myth of the abominable snowman, and how it shows up all around the Himalayas. “From the sherpas of Annapurna / to the rinpoche of Qinghai / Shepherds from Mt. Kailish to Himachel / found footprints in the snow,” she informs, clearly enjoys weaving the names of mountains and Tibetan words into her song. “50 Words For Snow” is just that, a song with exactly 50 words for snow, few of which you’ve ever heard before (“faloop’njoompoola,” “spangladasha,” “anklebreaker,” “vanilla swarm,” “icyskidski,” “sorbet deluge,” “boomerangablanca,” “bad for trains,” to name a few).

Bush’s last album, Aerial, was a 2-disc set. The first disc was more typical verse-chorus songwriter songs, while the second was a thematic operatic piece of music, lacking in choruses, and all the songs flowed together. It is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. That one used the sea as a theme, and was lively and intense. In contrast, 50 Words For Snow is more of a shapeless snowdrift than a sea of waves. The songs may be just as intense, but in a much softer way. The end result is very similar: yet another gorgeous, glorious album.

(Also since all the songs are so long, none of them are under the file size limit the blog will allow me to share. So here’s a fan-made YouTube video for the killer Elton John duet.)

- almostaghost

Life In Mixtape Form #34

Published by almostaghost on January 1, 2012 in almostaghost and mixes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Last 8 days, in mixtape form.

I fell behind on my reviews and won’t be quite done for the new year. I hate to linger on too long after January 1st, so I’ll get the last five albums up and done (and a nice long mix) in the next couple days. Have a good New Year’s! Thanks for reading, on behalf of everyone at this blog.

- almostaghost