Monthly Archives: October 2018
I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.
Catalog
CD
- Bob Dylan, Time Out of Mind
- Childish Gambino, “Awaken, My Love!”
- Godley & Creme, The History Mix, Volume 1
- Megadeth, Rust in Peace
- Morphine, Cure for Pain
- Nakamori Akina, CRUISE (Remastered)
- Tracey Thron, A Distant Shore
- Yaz, Upstairs at Eric’s
Reissues
CD
- Camouflage, Voices & Images (30th Anniversary Edition)
Vinyl
- Julee Cruise, The Voice of Love
Tags: bob dylan, camouflage, childish gambino, godley and creme, julee cruise, megadeth, morphine, nakamori akina, purchase log, tracey thorn, yaz
Just in time for the holiday season, a whole slew of box sets make it on the release calendar.
Thought Gang, Thought Gang, Nov. 2
So essentially a Julee Cruise album, minus Julee Cruise? David Lynch and Angelo Badalamanti recorded the material on this album from 1992-1993, but only now does it become public.
Midnight Oil, Armistice Day: Live at the Domain, Sydney, Nov. 9
You can’t watch a Midnight Oil performance without wanting to be Rob Hirst when you grow up.
Kate Bush, Remastered on CD 1, Nov. 16
Kate Bush, Remastered on CD 2, Nov. 30
Kate Bush’s early works suffered the fate of many albums rushed to a CD release — the vinyl masters were used without any consideration of the medium’s expanded dynamic range. Fans have been clamoring for better sound, and in fell swoop, Kate unleashes her entire catalog remastered.
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Hometown, Dec. 5
Yeah, it seemed about time for a new AKFG album.
MONO, Nowhere Now Here, Jan. 19
Tamaki on vocals? Electronics? Are they going glitchy like tourmates Low?
Vinyl
Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Nov. 16
I was wondering when this album was going to get reissued on vinyl.
The Police, Every Move You Make: The Studio Recordings, Nov. 16
In addition to the five studio albums remastered at 45 r.p.m., this box also includes a disc of rarities. I just might find an old copy of Message in a Box instead.
Kate Bush, The Red Shoes, Nov. 16
Kate Bush, Aerial, Nov. 30
Kate Bush, Remastered in Vinyl, Nov. 30
The remastered releases also include vinyl issues, but in the UK, the records will be available in four boxed sets as well as individually. One box set includes remixes and covers. I don’t feel the need to upgrade the vinyl I already have, but I’ve had my eye on The Red Shoes and Aerial.
Tags: asian kung-fu generation, brian eno, kate bush, looking ahead, midnight oil, mono, the police, thought gang
I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.
New releases
CD
- Jason Isbell and 400 Unit, Live from the Ryman
Catalog
CD
- Benjamin Britten, String Quartets 2 & 3 / Sinfonietta (Amadeus Quartet, Vienna Octet)
- Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual
- Hot Hot Heat, Make Up the Breakdown
- John Zorn, The String Quartets
- Kahimi Karie, The Best of Trattoria Years Plus VCD
- Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, The Heist
- Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels, Live 1973
- Simon and Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence
- Talking Heads, Little Creatures
- Various Artists, Trojan Reggae
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphonies Nos. 40 and 41 (John Eliot Gardiner; English Baroque Soloists)
Vinyl
- Boris, Pink
- Icicle Works, Icicle Works
- Frida, Something’s Going On
- Painkiller, Guts of a Virgin
- Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
Reissues
Vinyl
Tags: benjamin britten, boris, cyndi lauper, frida, gram parsons, hot hot heat, icicle works, jason isbell, john zorn, kahimi karie, kylie minogue, macklemore, painkiller, purchase log, robert palmer, ryan lewis, simon and garfunkel, talking heads, various artists, wolfgang amadeus mozart
Semisonic’s 2001 album All About Chemistry was an early entry in my Favorite Edition list that year. By the end of the year, it had been crowded out by a lot of really good Japanese indie rock. (AJICO’s Fukamidori and fra-foa’s Chuu no Fuchi would top the list.)
It ended up on the chopping block when money got tight a few years later.
This glowing review attempts to capture my enthusiasm for the album, but it reads pretty clumsily. “Blip on the proverbial pop music radar”? How did I find such phrasing acceptable?
Most reviewers I read at the time would use lyrics to explicate a songwriters’ state of mind, but I tended to write about what’s happening musically. I don’t do so on this review because Dan Wilson is a clever lyricist, and I actually paid as much attention to the words as the music.
That’s not to say I did a very good job of explaining how.
It’s tough to remember how prevalent the likes of Limp Bizkit and Korn were at the start of the 2000s, but my description of Wilson’s voice is a reaction to that. It also looks like a take a dig at Wayne Coyne, but in a way, it’s a dig at Wilson for having a smooth voice.
I’ve actually missed having this album in my collection. In the years since letting it go, I would crave hearing the title track.
But I also have to find some amusement in my naive enthusiasm for it. As voracious as my appetite for music was, I can’t say my knowledge ran deep nor wide. All About Chemistry seemed revelatory for its wit and melodic sense. I may have even played it on a shift at Waterloo and got some questionable looks from co-workers.
It’s an enjoyable album, but it’s not as profound as I thought it was.
Rewind takes a look at past Musicwhore.org reviews to see how they hold up today. The albums featured on Rewind were part of my collection, then sold for cash only to be reacquired later.
Tags: rewind, semisonic
I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.
Catalog
CD
- Alban Berg, Wozzeck (Claudio Abbado, Vienna Philharmonic)
- Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’
- Digable Planets, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
- Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Pictures at an Exhibition
- French Frith Kaiser Thompson, Live, Love, Larf & Loaf
- John Adams, Century Rolls
- John Coltrane, Sun Ship
- Megadeth, So Far, So Good … So What!
- Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure
- The National, Boxer
Vinyl
- Morton Feldman, The Viola in My Life / False Relationships and the Extended Ending
Reissues
CD
- Johnny Hates Jazz, Turn Back the Clock (Deluxe Edition)
Tags: alban berg, bob dylan, digable planets, emerson lake and palmer, french kaiser frith thompson, john adams, john coltrane, johnny hates jazz, megadeth, morton feldman, purchase log, roxy music, the national
Yeah, I confess — I bought this album because of the cover.
Sonic Boom Records holds an annual clearance sale where new, unopened vinyl records are steeply discounted. I stopped when I spotted Bobby Long’s A Winter Tale as I flipped through the stacks. “Hmm, he’s … photogenic,” I mumbled to myself.
Having never heard of him, I made a note to check out his music later.
Bobby Long is a Brit, but his music is Americana. He signed with ATO Records in 2010 and released two albums and two EPs on the label. I found it remarkable that he managed to snag the attention of a large indie label such as ATO, rather than graduating up to that level.
Then I found out he’s buds with actor Robert Pattinson of the Twilight movies. One of his songs, “Let Me Sign”, wound up on the Twilight soundtrack. That would help.
A few streams and two days later, I went back to Sonic Boom and picked up A Winter Tale and its follow-up, Wishbone, for $5 each.
These kinds of … “impulse” purchases are prone to a Halo Effect, so it’s tough to gauge the effect of the cover art on my opinion.
I can say this much — he’s not bad.
Long’s rough-hewn voices comes from the Tom Waits school of delivery, and his writing is as rustic as anything you’d find on a Whiskeytown album. But he wouldn’t knock Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson off of any critics’ lists.
If any criticism can be lobbied at Long, it would be his music is probably too safely Americana. Subscribers of No Depression journal would probably eat it up. I’m not sure how much of a blip he would register outside that demographic.
Wishbone is the better album, but its cover photo is not as … compelling.
All that aside, Bobby Long turns out to be a satisfying discovery.
Tags: bobby long, vinyl find
I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.
New releases
CD
- Wayne Horvitz, The Snowghost Sessions
Catalog
CD
- Beyonce, Dangerously in Love
- Bill Frisell, Quartet
- Charles Mingus, Pithecanthropus Erectus
- D’Angelo, Brown Sugar
- Love, Forever Changes
- Ponga, Ponga
- Soundtrack, Grease
Vinyl
- Camper Van Beethoven, Take the Skinheads Bowling
- Doctors’ Mob, Sophomore Slump
Tags: beyonce, bill frisell, camper van beethoven, charles mingus, d'angelo, doctors mob, love, ponga, purchase log, soundtrack, wayne horvitz
If ever I had an on-again, off-again relationship with an album, it’s Marquee Moon by Television.
Kronos Quartet introduced me to the band when they covered “Marquee Moon” for the compilation album Rubáiyát.
I didn’t get around to listening to the actual album till the early 2000s, when file sharing and a record store job made access to music easy. At the time, the likes of Interpol, the Killers and Franz Ferdinand were repackaging Joy Division, Duran Duran and Gang of Four (respectively) to much acclaim.
Television was a commonly cited influence and a gap in my knowledge of pop culture. So using my employee discount at Waterloo Records, I bought a copy of Marquee Moon.
I eventually sold it back to the store because I needed cash, but I had miscalculated my attachment to the album.
Marquee Moon had the disadvantage of being a garage rock influencer, and my tenure at Waterloo eventually soured me on the genre. That is, my co-workers played way too much garage rock, and I dislike it to this day.
But the album had already sunk its hooks into my subconscious. Over the subsequent decade and a half I would not own it, certain riffs would play in my head. The stuttering open of the title track, for one. The cadence on the word “Evil!” another.
If I encountered a track from Marquee Moon playing in the wild, I would start humming along as if the album had always been a part of my youth. It was an odd reaction to a work I relinquished but was unwilling to reacquire for more than what I originally paid.
I would eventually spot a used copy of a remastered version, and I’ve welcomed Marquee Moon back into my collection. Then I played it in its entirety and remembered why I may have let it go.
Marquee Moon was not designed for the compact disc format. The epic length of the title track makes sense as a conclusion to Side A, but it’s less effective when building to a mid-point. On CD, the subsequent tracks seem to lose steam. On vinyl, it feels like a reset.
Tom Verlaine’s voice is an acquired taste. The Kronos cover of “Marquee Moon” seemed to lack a clear melody. Listening to Verlaine’s delivery serves as an explanation.
But it’s tough not to be lured in by the guitar interplay between Verlaine and Richard Lloyd or by the funkiness of Fred Smith’s bass lines.
I may not feel much sentimentality for Marquee Moon, but I’m certainly charmed by it.
Tags: television, the ones that nearly got away
I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.
New releases
CD
- Craig Armstrong, Sun On You
Vinyl
- Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer
Catalog
CD
- Amuro Namie, SWEET 19 BLUES
- Backstreet Boys, Millennium
- Bill Frisell, In Line
- Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP (Explicit)
- Freedy Johnston, Can You Fly
- Huun-Huur-Tu, 60 Horses in My Herd
- John Adams, Doctor Atomic Symphony / Guide to Strange Places
- John Adams, El Dorado
- k.d. lang, Absolute Torch and Twang
- Lisa Gerrard, The Mirror Pool
- Lou Harrison, Scenes from Cavafy
- Love and Rockets, Earth, Sun, Moon
- Semisonic, Feeling Strangely Fine
- Shakira, MTV Unplugged
- Shudder to Think, 50,000 B.C.
Tags: amuro namie, backstreet boys, bill frisell, craig armstrong, eminem, freedy johnston, huun-huur-tu, janelle monae, john adams, kd lang, lisa gerrard, lou harrison, love and rockets, purchase log, semisonic, shakira, shudder to think