Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Friday June 18

Explosions in the Sky is a great name for this band Woody introduced me to. That’s what their music sounds like – beautiful explosions in the sky.

EITS is very dreamy, ambient, and dramatic rock music with no lyrics. They’re reasonably famous for being used as mood music on TV shows like Friday Night Lights. It’s also great driving music.

Hearing this reminds me of when Woody and I first were going out, since it was one of the first CDs he shared with me, so it elicits very positive feelings when I hear it.

Listened: Friday June 18

• Despite being a long time Underworld fan, Dubnobasswithmyheadman was the last album of theirs I acquired – odd because it’s the first album Karl Hyde and Rick Smith released as Underworld (though they had released 2 prior albums as Freur).
• I enjoy it, but it’s definitely on the upswing of their evolution to the smashing Underworld years, since they aren’t to “smashing” yet. This album is quite mellow and almost hushed compared to their later style. It’s only on the singles like Dirty Epic/Cowgirl where they present some remixes that help me understand how they got to the Beaucoup Fish Underworld era.

Listened: Thursday June 17

I remember Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan being a big thing amongst cutting edge rockers (e.g. Pearl Jam) back when I was in high school. Despite being someone open to world music and such, I really hadn’t ever listened to him until quite recently, when I heard about Dub Qawwali on NPR. I get it now; indeed he was a great singer.

Gaudi (who I had never heard of until the story either) is an Italian electronic music artist who decided to mix early NFAK recordings with electronic reggae/dub music. At one point he uses a recognizable part of a Kraftwerk song as the backing instrumentation. All this on paper sounds slightly odd, but works really well in practice. You could conceivably listen to this during the more active parts of a yoga class, but it’s not so slow and mellow that it puts me to sleep as I work. It’s good for those times when I need to be productive, but I’m coming down from a very busy period to a more regular level of work.

Listened: Thursday June 17

The Whitest Boy Alive is the latest band from Erlend Øye of Kings of Convenience. Where KOC are more acoustic and harmony based, the Whitest Boy Alive is very cool, groovy, and mellow. Almost jazzy.

I love Erlend – onstage he has the most understated charisma ever. Probably because he is Norwegian; I think it’s a Scandinavian thing. He’s very deadpan and soft spoken, but hilarious and ironic (and completely without malice). He is a great musician and songwriter as well, but I would pay to watch him read the phone book, because I am sure the commentary would be great.

Listened: Wednesday June 16

As I mentioned earlier, Elf Power is a big collective of hippie musicians from Athens, Georgia who play well-constructed but somewhat tripped out music. I think A Dream In Sound is even more similar-sounding to their Elephant 6 label-mates Neutral Milk Hotel than Creatures. In a way they also sound a lot like GZM, especially in that they have some dreamy instrumentals.

This is definitely the style of music that was considered indie and cool about 10 years ago. Though big collectives of musicians like Arcade Fire and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are still flourishing in “cool music” circles today.

Listened: Wednesday June 16

This is not the American hardcore band Embrace. This is the English band Embrace. I had no knowledge of the hardcore band until I started looking for the English band and kept finding the hardcore band!

Their sound is similar to Oasis (but much less in-your-face and charming) or Coldplay. Drawn From Memory was acquired back in my years of digging for obscure British music. The songs are very catchy and sing-alongy, but they never really stick with you for some reason. They also lean a little bit towards overproduction for a rock band – lots of strings and orchestration. I don’t know why they never came to America like so many other bands of the time did. They’re even still a band – unlike Oasis or the American hardcore band!

Listened: Wednesday June 16

I don’t remember how I discovered Matthew Jay, but I am so glad I did. Draw is brilliant and sounds so effortlessly great. His sound can be compared to Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. Sadly, this is the only album released when he was alive (his only other release is an EP, coming later in the project).

I was shocked as I checked BBC News during a break at work in 2003 and learned that he had died mysteriously in a fall from a high rise in London. We were nearly the same age, so it was distressing to hear of someone that young dying who wasn’t known for being troubled. It was ruled a suicide, but several inconsistencies surrounding the incident throw that into question. However, nothing new has come to light since then.

This album took on even more poignancy after that. It’s frustrating to think someone this good only got to release one album!

Listened: Wednesday June 16

Like any teenager, I had to buy a Doors album. I don’t think I took enough drugs (try none) to really get into them, though. Plus they love the organ a little too much. That sound can get pretty old pretty quickly.

I can see the attraction though. When they were starting out, I am guessing a guy singing as plainly sexually charged as Jim Morrison did was unusual. Also, the darker edge to their music is unusual for the time for a popular band.

Listened: Wednesday June 16

Doob Doob o’ Rama is another album of crazy Bollywood songs; this is a collection of movie music from what sounds like the 60s and 70s. The song Jan Pahechaan Ho was used in the opening of Ghost World, which is one of my favorite movie openings ever. This album will have you singing songs to yourself for hours that you don’t even understand!

Listened: Tuesday June 15

Even though Belle and Sebastian EPs are not albums, I just had to include them. I love almost every Belle and Sebastian song, so the opportunity to hear them all as part of the project motivated me to cheat a little.

I don’t know what it is about it that makes it so great, but the reverbed lighter-strike intro has to be the coolest sound to ever start a song. The bass is also great on all four of the songs.

I have always wondered about the lyrics to String Bean Jean – did her trousers really say 7 to 8 years old or just 7/8? Because those are two different things, and knowing how illogical women’s sizes are, I could see how a guy would get confused. I have no earthly idea how a normally developing female, even a really skinny one, could fit into clothes designed for a normal 8-year-old. At the very least they’d be too short.

But maybe no one else has taken their Belle and Sebastian lyric critique to this insane a level before…