Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Friday June 11

I consider Destroy to be a very modern-sounding dance/electronic album that samples the 80s. As opposed to so many these days trying to completely ape the 80s. It’s a British version of Röyksopp’s Melody A.M crossed with Daft Punk.

Mylo seems to like to have the vocals in his songs repeating lists (and I like lists so probably that is why he appeals to me) – Muscle Car has women huskily talk-singing a list of classic American muscle car models and Destroy Rock & Roll features what sounds like a fundamentalist preacher repeating a list of Top 40 groups he objects to.

Based on that list, it’s fun to try to guess the year the sample is from. My guess is 1984. I had to look up who Morris Day and the Time, Apollonia 6, and Fashion were. I figured Apollonia had something to do with Prince and apparently so do Morris Day and the Time. I had heard of Patty Smyth, but I didn’t know about Scandal, so I had to look that up too. The speaker also really messes up the pronunciation of Cyndi Lauper (“Cyndi Looper”) and David Bowie (not even pronounced the weird British way “Bowww-ie”, but “Boooie” like the knife) which makes it just that much more square and therefore amusing.

From this I conclude that I love songs that make me do research. If you pay attention to details, pop culture trash does really help you learn trivia facts – a Bob Dylan song taught me who shot Jesse James (Robert Ford), which has come up at pub quiz before.

Listened: Friday June 11

Deluxe is like a high school time capsule to me. I don’t think I had listened to it since then, and the popular songs aren’t even played on the radio anymore, so it was locked away in my memory like not too many other albums.

Therefore, this was the most arresting “Wow, I am not a kid anymore” album yet in the project. I realized how far back I had to go in my mind to remember experiences and emotions associated with this album. I saw BTE at Live 105’s BFD 2 – it’s been so long that they don’t even number the BFDs anymore!

I was happy to realize that while it’s a little “of the 90s” sounding, it’s not too dated. It’s also a great album! This was the polar opposite of my reaction to Core – I thought “Wow, maybe I did have decent taste!” Also interesting to note – according to wikipedia, apparently they still exist as a band, at least as of 2009. I hadn’t heard any news of them in years and years. Power to them!

Listened: Friday June 11

I have to thank my coworker Kristine for turning me on to Delhi 2 Dublin. They’re Canadians who mix Irish and Indian music. The rhythm section is mostly the Indian part and the Irish part is mostly fiddling, but that’s not strictly the rules. There’s also some rapping, but not a ton. It’s high energy, positive party music.

According to Kristine, who saw them at a Bhangra dance night in San Francisco, they put on a great show. I hope to catch them the next time they come to town.

Listened: Thursday June 10

Oddly enough, I hit a bit of writer’s block when trying to think of what to say about Definitely Maybe. I remember it being a big deal when it came out, but the much more critical Oasis album in my past is their next album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. Indeed, to this day, that’s the Oasis album I go back to regularly.

But Definitely Maybe was helpful during that first year of high school when I was really getting over the Top 40 music of my middle school life and deciding that rock music was more challenging and pleasing to me. The songs from this album were all over Live 105, mixed in with Green Day, Offspring, Weezer… it’s mostly part of a general soundtrack of change.

This is also from before the time I knew the Beatles, so I was ignorant of how much of their stuff Oasis ripped off. Maybe Oasis was a part of getting me ready to go Beatles crazy like I did the following year.

Listened: Thursday June 10

Since it’s the first alphabetically, Deconstructed was the first Bush album I have heard in many years. It’s a remix album, which is kind of a bizarre idea if you know Bush’s music.

Even though I was quite the fan back in high school, I don’t think I listened to it much even when I originally bought it – the remixes are very pedestrian and not at all innovative with the original material. I look forward to hearing the real songs later in the project to see how I feel about them. This album wasn’t much help.

Listened: Thursday June 10

A couple of years ago Dear Science was the album that all the cool people were in love with. I had been hearing good things about TVOTR for years, so I decided to take a chance on this. And it’s a good album, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t bowl me over. To be fair, I haven’t listened to it much. Another one to add to the “listen more” pile.

Listened: Thursday June 10

Belle and Sebastian continue their love of 60s music and sexual confusion with Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Topics include a lighthearted look at workplace sexual harassment, cans of coke used as weapons in domestic violence, Mike Piazza’s sexual orientation (which is impressive, as I don’t imagine Scottish people tend to follow many American sports rumors), and a teenage boy wearing a dress with a melted Toblerone secreted underneath it. Don’t ask.

Stuart Murdoch’s voice just gets better and better as the years go by – he sings very prettily here. Many fans seem to think the band is weaker without Isobel Campbell, but I don’t tend to miss her.

Listened: Thursday June 10

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a relatively new fan of Pink Floyd. Seeing Roger Waters perform Dark Side live at Coachella a couple of years ago was pretty awesome.  Though it was kind of bizarre they included all the incidental sounds and samples in the show, not just the songs. I know it’s the classic example of a concept album and therefore people really consider it all as one entity, including the sounds, but that was nearly taking a live show too far, more like it was a recreation, not a performance.