Consumerism (Follow-Up)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Bought 3 albums today.

Amerie: first half uniformly gorgeous, love the 86/87 washed-out synth-soul-pop she's using as a template, love the way breaking up songs has become her "thing" post 1-Thing. Second half slows down, I tune out, there's still stuff to like but not itching to hear the back end again.

Dizzee: usual curate's egg - "Pussy'ole" is funny, savage awesome, so is "Where's Da Gs" tho sadly no chicken noises on that one. There is an awful lot of putting ppl down for not being real on this album. DO NOT WANT to know what Dizzee thinks of the state of the world, Lily Allen collab disappointing, enough lust and venom on eg Flex, Bubbles, Da Feelin to make this a "keeper". I'll probably listen to it more than his other albums tbh.

Rihanna - just started listening, very pop but also sounds weirdly thin: where are the BIG ENGINE REVS that have made her number one for eleventy weeks? Futher reports possible. "Breakin Dishes" is good.

What do you think of these PLATTERS? If you've heard them. What else should I be buying in my newly ALBUM-FRIENDLY state?

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Rihanna's album gets better the further in you get and by the end has turned into sonic awesomeness. I love how the distinctivenes of her voice makes the extreme variety of styles hang together and form something cohesive in a way which 'A Girl Like Me' really doesn't, despite the fact it's more sonically similar overall. 'Rehab' is absolutely phenomenol, 'Say It' is sweet and more of her previous style, as is 'Sell Me Candy' and 'Good Girl Gone Bad' is truly fantastic. 'Push Up On Me' and 'Don't Stop The Music' make more sense in full album context; they somehow don't sound as good as they actually are as openers and I'm not sure why.

Other things to buy I would recommend include, much to my mental discomfort, the new Good Charlotte album. It's one of the most perfect pop albums I've heard over the last few years and so balls-out absurd it's amazing. Also it is all about Hilary Duff which somehow makes the whole thing even better than it is already. I even like the track with the two utter idiots from Avenged Sevenfold (WORST BAND EVER) god help me. It slightly reminds me of Son Of Dork's album, if that had had insane electronic bits and more of a disco sensibility. Actually thinking about it I think it's just his voice that's reminiscent of that. Anyway, it is very very good, for all the fact it quite patently shouldn't be.

Calvin Harris' album is good but not rush-out-and-buy-this-now good. However, if it was in the bargain bin for five quid I definitely would.

I haven't heard the Amerie and have very little urge to hear the Dizzee unless it is exceptionally noisy.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

a little disappointed with the tracks i'd not already heard on rihanna (i downloaded about half of it, and they were all good uns), but i know some will grow on me - and i'll let them.

amerie, i'm in half a mind to get myself. dizzee is just not my thing - i bought playtime, and i just couldn't find much i liked.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Second half of Amerie is v much a grower (though it's not really the second half as such! I've found that a lot of r&b albums - eg JT last year - get criticised for ballad-heavy second HALVES when it's usually only three or four ballads at the end). But anyway the SECRET AMAZINGNESS on Because I Love It is 'Crazy Wonderful': those sensual swells of bass, and "I wanna kiss you all the time...that's how I go through lipstick" is a BRILLIANT lyric.

The Lily Allen track on Dizz's album is the first time I've thought she was worthwile on anything! I really like the bonus proper grime track at the end. "I like to move it move it. You want beef? Prove it."

'Breakin' Dishes' should be so good, I love the lyrics, the song itself I think is a grimly unfun version of 'Maneater' though :(

The Kelly Rowland album is out next week and I would heartily recommend that. Otherwise my favourite albums this year not so far mentioned are Tori Amos (you might like this! Agitated Fleetwood Mac-esque MOR with gorgeous hooks and mental concepts), Björk (if you don't like her yet this won't change your mind), MIA (the German one - elegant and brittle minimal techno, quite jittery, sounds like the soundtrack to lots of late night city walks).

Some good space disco around now too - the Studio album, and Lindstrom & Prins Thomas's Reinterpretations.

The other MIA's album is going to be REALLY GOOD.

Unrelatedly...

[celentari.livejournal.com]

Did my track reach you ok?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I bought 5 albums last weekend, of which:
- Mercromina - Desde la montaña más alta del mundo (Spanish shoegaze-indie-pop, what I went in the store for. I had it MP3 but it's Spanish indie and the band broke up last year so felt I should snatch it while I could even at 16 euros (so you know I like it!)
- Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (already had the MP3s but felt obliged since I didn't buy the last one) - unremarkable but nice to feel like you've voted for the right candidate
- Valérie Leulloit - Caldeira (French, um, whatever it is they do - folk-pop-chanson, former singer of Auteur de Lucie) - The only thing totally "new" and I haven't listened to it yet although the single is groovy in a Madeleine Peyroux kind of way
- Françoiz Breut - Vingt à Trente Mille Jours
- Françoiz Breut - Une Saison Volée (also had the MP3s) - I would describe her, especially "Vingt," as kind of NOIR indie-chanson. Quite fun in that way.

(Am just now looking to leave work, otherwise I'd write something more helpful for you punters.)

Says something about (my) buying habits, though - two "new/recent" albums and three ones 2-5 years old - and only one "new/unheard."
Also absolutely none of it poptimist material (sorry Lex!)

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

You should go and buy:

Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II
Dragonforce - Inhuman Rampage
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Turisas - The Varangian Way

My fave alBUMs of 2007 so far

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The list of faves I posted on ILM four weeks ago:

Björk - Volta (even if you think you know her, this will surprise)

Jordan Pruitt - No Ordinary Girl (Best singer of the current teenpop crop, no contest. Songs all good to great. No filler.)

Ono - Yes I'm a Witch ("remix project": old vocals, mostly entirely new backing from trendy indie and Wire-friendly acts. Results: variable, but Yoko shines throughout)

Gui Boratto - Chromophobia (Kompakt, you know the drill. Or maybe not. This is colourful and dancefloor-friendly, though still short of banging/boshing. Works well as an alBUM to listen to.)

Low - Drums and Guns (the most un-Low-like record they've ever made! Still very indie though)

Au Revoir Simone - The Bird Of Music (cf. League of Pop: trio of pre-Raphaelite young ladies with casios make dreamy indie-pop, with emphasis on the pop)

Spirit Catcher - Night Vision (slick electrohouse from Belgium, not a million miles from Daft Punk but with their rough edges smoothed off)

Clubbers Guide to 2007 (Ministry of Sound mix from the beginning of the year. All the big club hits from the first five months of this year are present and correct. Love this!)

...and I'll now add the Rihanna alBUM to the above list. I commented on this on your earlier thread today.

Recent purchases that I've only listened to once so far:

Ellen Allien - Fabric 34 mix
Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High
Rush - Snakes and Arrows
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Reinterpretations
Ghosts - The World Is Outside (probably this will turn out not to be the classic I was hoping, but there are a few tracks as good as the two singles)

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

i haven't been in a mood to listen to the amerie (even though i was the only one to vote for the last one (), you ingrates), but i figure i'll find my moment. (and speaking of r+b, how is it that the ne-yo album has been UNGETTABLE on slsk forever? wasn't it like the number one album in the country?!)

i played the field album to death earlier in the year. we've been in a cooling-off period, i'm seeing other people, but i'll never stop loving it.

gui barrato, many enjoyable tracks on, but ever since i played it through and realized how something about it falters in the last third, i haven't been trying to hear it as an album.

the other day a colleague came in to my office and said 'is this still the same record?' - yes; lcd soundsystem again and again.

i also played the deerhunter album to death earlier in the year, less lately, but it's still good when i play it. ted leo i expect to warm up to over a year or two (but individual songs on it i've already come to love).

hyphy hitz most enjoyable rap long-player this year. the devin the dude has been good, but seemed a little more monochromatic than earlier records. very much looking forward to ugk, should it ever drop. i got a leak of the turf talk record; it didn't seem as impressive as the hype around it had suggested, but i'll keep listening.

Soothing Sounds

[giddyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

these are the perfect new recs for the rearing of children

spooked summer - hototogisu
remains - religious knives
sheer hellish miasma (expanded/remastered edition) - Kevin Drumm
rainbow - boris w/ michio kurihara

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I agree with your review of Dizzee Rascal, though 'Suck my dick' makes me flinch. I never thought I'd love a song called 'Pussyole' though!