Jack Johnson’s latest album Sleep Through the Static is an easy listen. The familiar combination of simple arrangements and a mellow singing style produce a hummable delight. The album’s lyrical content is a bit more socially and morally pointed than his past endeavors but any bitterness or anger is softened by a subtle, unimposing delivery.
Last weekend I saw the Jason Reitman comedy Juno. It was superbly funny, honest and endearing. The characters are refreshingly genuine, the dialog sharp and a potentially polarizing storyline is delicately presented without pretense. It is a comedy along the lines of Best in Show.
Ellen Page plays Juno and is undoubtedly the star, though all the film’s actors performed excellently. JK Simmons is particularly funny as Juno’s father; Jason Bateman is a convincingly pathetic yuppie in the midst of 2/5-life crisis, married to a suburban stereotype well portrayed by Jennifer Garner. Juno’s brazen words and actions provide most of the humor. When Bateman’s character first meets Juno and innocently asks, “Juno, like the city in Alaska?”, Juno simply replies “No,” and offers no platitudes to soften the moment. Not all the humor is uncomfortable or abrasive. It comes hard and fast and will make the film worth watching a second and third time.
Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise, Red Mountain Church: This Breaks My Heart of Stone, Red: End of Silence, The Shins: Wincing the Night Away
My favorite gift to receive is an itunes gift card. I love buying new music and having an itunes gift card gives me no choice but to do just that. Thanks to my generous friends and family I am able to start 2008 checking out lots of good music. The fun is often in the search. I came across the four enjoyable albums pictured above in four different ways.
When I received an email announcing the new Christmas album by Jars of Clay, I immediately pre-ordered it; Jars of Clay is my favorite band and I am a sucker for Christmas music. Part of my excitement was fueled by Jars of Clay’s Little Drummer Boy single, which remains one of my favorite Christmas songs. Each year I buy at least one Christmas album to supplement my itunes Christmas playlist. I was so excited about the album that I broke my rule of not listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving so I could sample the album when I first received it. To my dismay I was disappointed at first listen. The album seemed overly somber. The two most traditional songs on the album, “O, Little Town of Bethlehem” and “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” do not resemble the songs we sing in church each Advent season. A month later it was still the first album I got out to listen to as I prepared blueberry pancakes the morning of Black Friday.
Join the ticketmaster live group on facebook and big, bad ticketmaster will gift you five itunes song downloads. The easy part is joining the group; the hard part is picking the songs.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/020707-ticketmaster-itunes.html
The recent spate of music posts was undoubtedly inspired by this week’s release of Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows. It’s funny how anticipation can creep into the fabric of your conscience and influence your being. Amidst a busy season at work and between a couple of midterms, I got excited about music and decided to start checking some new stuff out. Before making any decisions about an album I purchase I commit to listening to it three times through. After three times through In Rainbows, I can say that it is undeniably Radiohead. The oddly coherent mix of sounds and instruments coupled with Thom Yorke’s unmistakable vocals make for an enjoyable listen.
One of the first comments this blog ever received was in response to my post about Corinne Bailey Rae’s self-titled album. Katie said “…my more recent love in a slightly more rock genre is Regina Spektor. she’s got a smoky tone like Corrine, but rocks with it more akin to Fiona Apple.” I had never heard of Spektor at the time. Then I saw she was listed as one of my brother’s favorite artists on his facebook profile. I didn’t act; anyone who knows anything knows it takes three things to force action. This week I heard a Dashboard Confessional cover album and one of the standout tracks on it is Better; after learning that it was a Regina Spektor song I became convinced that it was my destiny to check this lady out.
Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows will be available October 10. In a not entirely surprising move, unconventional Radiohead decided to let fans decide what to pay for its new album. Partially in response to Radiohead’s announcement, Tech Crunch founder Michael Arrington blogged about the Inevitable March of Recorded Music Towards Free based on economic theory. I’m no Econ scholar (one per family is probably one too many) so I’ll leave that discussion there, but the argument is compelling.
A discussion I’ve had with friends that’s more interesting to me started with the question, how much would you pay for your favorite album? or if it’s a Radiohead album, your favourite album?
I started listening to Dashboard Confessional (DC) my junior year at the University of Kentucky. The quick-fire, clever, somewhat adolescent lyrics and acoustic guitar-driven songs struck a chord with me. My life wasn’t perfect either and I had my share of issues with the ladies. It’s been five years since I graduated and while I like to think I’ve evolved to the good, good or bad, DC is making the same semi-sad music. I still don’t know what emo is but I’m pretty sure I’m not and DC is.
Even so I still really enjoy listening to this album that has just one song longer than 3 minutes. It seems a little gimmicky at times; when Kanye West hears about the first track, Where’s There’s Gold…(which is followed by ‘there’s a gold-digger’), something may go down. Fever Dreams is a classic, mesmerizing DC song that really highlights Chris Carrabba’s vocal talents. The rest of the album will not disappoint any fans of The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most or A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar. As for me, I will listen to this album while longing for the day that Chris finds faith and a nice girl and writes a sunny album about the beauty of this mortal coil.
I was late in jumping on the White Stripes’ bandwagon. I never really got into the songs played on the radio. After Jack Johnson covered We’re Going to Be Friends during a concert I downloaded from archive.org ,I decided to check out what all the buzz was about. I’ve been a big fan of The White Stripes ever since. For my money, the best attribute of The White Stripes is their diversity. From the instruments and voices Jack and Meg use to the musical genres they cross, there is no doubting the creativity and originality of The White Stripes. On the latest album there is a decidedly more bluesy feeling, but not just blues as bagpipes are heard on one of the songs. An early favorite song is You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told). Like the albums preceding it, Icky Thump will endure due to its quality and diversity.
