SOUNDTRACK: MGMT-Oracular Spectacular (2008).
I bought this album a few years after it was hailed as the best album by everyone. I never quite realized that they did all the songs I knew from it, but I was pleased that I bought it. Then I promptly lost the disc. I found it about seven months later in another case (doh!). And I have given it a number of listens since then.
I’m confused as to why this album was so popular. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just not sure why it was so hailed. It’s a strange kind of record. There are a number of dancey hits (which aren’t really that dancey or anything), but there’s also a bunch of trippy psychedelic stuff as well.
The opener, “Time to Pretend” has a wonderfully catchy keyboard line that expands into a wonderfully simple, but catchy verse/chorus. “Weekend Wars” reminds me of some of the weirder alternative hits of the early 90s. The sound is kind of trebly and slightly off, but the middle of the song is full of beautiful swells of keyboards, giving it a strangely hippie vibe.
“The Youth” is a slower track which has a gentle sound and a nice chorus. It’s pretty far from the danciness of the opener. “Electric Feel” brings in some disco and funk. The keyboards are very 70s trebly with a big bottom bass.
The standout track is “Kids.” It marries the weird keyboard sound of the opener with a wonderfully catchy riff. It also has a simple chord structure and big drums. It’s the kind of song that sticks in your head from the first time you hear it.
The second half of the disc is where things change and the more psychedelic aspect so the band come in. The album was produced by Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips) and while that style is evident in the front of the album, it’s hidden under the more brash punk sounds. n the last few songs the punky elements are absent and the psychedelia shines through. “4th Dimensional Transition” is a wash of interesting sounds. “Pieces of What” is a simple acoustic guitar with vocals that sound like they come from outer space. “Of Moons, Birds & Monsters” never really coalesces, although the parts are interesting. “The Handshake” is another folkie kind of song with overtones of David Bowie (who is never really absent anywhere on the disc) especially at the end of the song. “Future Reflections” ends the disc with a synthy ballad.
The disc is quite different from the first five to the last five songs. And I find that when I’m enjoying the hits, I’m less excited by the trippy parts (which meander as opposed to the immediacy of the hits). But I think I could find myself enjoying the vibe of the second half of the disc more if the first half didn’t prep me for that stark pop punk sound. I guess it has something for everyone.
[READ: June 28, 2011] Slapstick
I tend to read books that are long, or at least that feel long. So Vonnegut is like a guilty little pleasure. I read this in three lunch hours. And it felt like something of an accomplishment.
I can honestly say I didn’t enjoy this one as much as his previous books. It was a lot darker and felt a bit more mean-spirited than his others. True, Vonnegut is nothing if not mean-spirited, but there was something different about this one. Was it that the protagonists were two meters tall with six fingers and toes and for the first several years of their lives spoke in nothing but baby talk? Was it that they were so reviled by their parents that they were sent away to the parents’ second home and allowed no visitors? Or was it that Manhattan was now called “The Island of Death?” Or maybe it was just the repeated use of “Hi Ho” at the end of virtually every paragraph.
Or maybe it’s that the story doesn’t really feel complete. There isn’t a lot of story here, but as with lots of Vonnegut, there are a lot of little details that join the story together. The novel is constructed as chapters, but within the chapters are very short almost paragraph long sections separated by dots. These little paragraphs sort of work as small scenes, with most having a kind of punch line at the end (this is not too dissimilar from Breakfast of Champions, but the sections are even smaller here).
The two aforementioned protagonists are as described. But although they speak in nothing but nonsense syllables, they are in fact quite intelligent. Indeed, when they put their minds together (literally) they reach epochal levels of genius. And when they put their heads together they write several massively intelligent treatises and the most popular child-rearing manual in history, So You Went and Had a Baby. Well, actually, Wilbur wrote it for Eliza is illiterate (she just has most of the brainstorms). Technically, the real protagonist of the story is Wilbur, for these are his memoirs. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2003).
How do you follow up the fantastic Soft Bulletin? If you’re The Flaming Lips, you simultaneously pull back and push forward. I often thing of Yoshimi as Bulletin part 2 but that’s really not right or fair. Yoshimi has a more Pink Floyd vibe: it’s quite mellow and folky. But nothing the Lips do can be completely commercial, so you get things in every song that add immensely to the sound, yet prevent it from complete accessibility.
I feel like I never really knew this song until I heard Cartman getting cattle-prodded for not knowing the words. I listened to that version all the time (but I can’t tell if I like that version or the one on Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics better [“Fall on your knees, and hear the angels… something” “VOICES!”]), and what it did was give me a real appreciation for what a cool song this is. The chord changes are very satisfying without being really obvious. And, it’s not an easy song to sing. But I have liked every 
version I’ve heard: from Cartman to Avril Lavigne (whose first two verses on Maybe This Christmas, Too are the most vibrato-free singing I have ever heard. I’m quite certain she’s flat all the way through, and yet her voice is so unaffected it’s totally disconcerting. Tell me what you think…it’s available 
I Just Read About That... 