Sigur Rós, Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
“With a buzz in our ears, we play endlessly.”
I was given two Sigur Rós albums a few years ago as a gift, and both Ágætis Byrjun and ( ) each got a ton of play. They’re perfect albums to put on and leave alone while working or writing or simply trying to be alone in any other way. While Takk… continued down that same path, the execution felt somewhat stale. Með Suð refreshes the band’s creative output–the sound is still distinctly Sigur Rós, but with less emphasis on the ethereal strings and more confidence in percussion and piano elements.
Unfortunately, “Gobbledigook,” the album’s first single, is, in my opinion, the weakest track on the record. That said, it’s still an excellent track worth a listen, but it masks the beauty demonstrated by the album’s other ten tracks. I’d recommend “Festival,” a nine-and-a-half minute piece that transitions beautifully from wispy desolation to strident uplifting percussion at the halfway point. “Gobbledigook” seems to be the extreme of their creative aim with making the album, but “Festival” is representative of the result of refining that ambition and merging it beautifully with the style Sigur Rós is known for.
Loudon Wainwright III, “Bicentennial“
I bought my dad the first season of Saturday Night Live for his birthday. By the time he had finished it, I had gotten him the second season for Father’s Day. I watched a few episodes with him, but missed most of them. Since then, I’ve been filling in the gaps by making my way through the first season and discovering music I either knew about but hadn’t heard or had no knowledge of in the first place. While I know Rufus Wainwright, I was unfamiliar with his father Loudon. His spastic performance of “Bicentennial” on SNL caught my attention, and I’ve been listening to the full band version off and on ever since–oddly appropriate leading up to Independence Day. Other acts I’ve discovered thanks to SNL include the Stylstics and Bill Withers, and I have a new appreciation for Patti Smith after watching her two performances on the show hosted by then-pres secretary Ron Nessen.
Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
Mashup or sample-based albums are usually novelties, The Grey Album perhaps being a notable exception. The problem is using the source material in an artistically new way so as to make it interesting beyond the initial listener reaction of “that’s pretty clever.” Feed the Animals is an insanely intricate work, managing to leave the samples recognizable yet utilize them in concert with each other to create a new work. It’s the best sample-based record I’ve heard, and it’s up for download via the tip-jar system adopted by many artists since Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Whether you pay or not, it’s worth at least one listen. Two tracks toward the end of the album are my favorite–”Let Me See You” for its noticeable use of the Cranberries and M.I.A., and “Here’s the Thing” for mixing Kelly Clarkson with Nine Inch Nails, a move that had me laughing at how absurdly effective it was. «»
