effinpeaz
Been fairly lazy this week–it is vacation, but I’ve been taking it slow. Too slow, I think. But it’s okay. Lots of stuff I should cover as well–new albums bought, current addictions, etc. etc. Have to say I do like the look of iTunes 9. The new layout of the iTunes store is very snazzy as well. They rolled out something called iTunes LP. Sort of takes the digital booklet a bit farther. I got the new Muse album that way. It has pictures, videos…pretty cool.
Speaking of new Muse album, it’s good. In saying that, I’m saying I’m not disappointed. I think I was worried initially, but I haven’t had to convince myself that it was good. It just is. I know some are dissing it, but honestly, I think it’s solid. I probably will do a big post Saturday commenting on it further. I have other albums I want to touch on as well, so we’ll just make a date for that.
The past few days have seen a little bit of a recession in terms of my heavy listening to Band of Horses and Silversun Pickups. Both of whom I had seen in concert the past few weeks, both of which owned my ears for the days afterward. If you asked me to choose, though, I’d say BoH wins. Seriously concert of the year in my opinion. They really need to come back. Anyway, the past few days, I had been listening to Muse heavily (sparked by listening to The Resistance), picked up The Strokes again (okay, not First Impressions though, should listen to that), Interpol (Turn on the Bright Lights…ugh so good), The New Pornographers (Challengers!), Stars (should listen to them more), and Radiohead. Hadn’t had a good long while with RH, so it was nice to get back on that again. I knew a few friends who were having serious OK Computer moments. Sometimes I legitimately fear listening to Radiohead, and this morning was one of them. So, I put on TOTBL to delay it, only to put on OKC after.
It was pretty lovely. I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t listened to it straight through in a while, but I kept getting surprised. I was reading something on my computer when the first few chords of Exit Music started and my eyes immediately widened. The tamborine at the beginning of Electroneering also caught me by surprise. And I was reacquainted with the nasty 1-2 punch that is No Surprises and Lucky. This is how I describe No Surprises. After hearing something like Climbing Up the Walls (which ends pretty uncomfortably and leaves you on edge), No Surprises comes in and is like the person there that helps you back up, gives you a hug as you recover.
By the time you get to “Such a pretty house and such a pretty garden” (the harmony of which can go to heck, because it makes it worse), you find yourself wanting to give the person comforting you a hug back, like they need it a whole lot more than you do. By the end of the song, you’re pretty much hanging onto each other for dear life. That song, as intially cutesy it may sound, is devastating at the same time. Then you have ringing that starts Lucky coming right behind and it’s all too much. Lucky is the song that clinched Radiohead in my top spot. Jigsaw is without a doubt my favorite RH song, but Lucky is what nailed it for me.
It’s such a brilliant song. I don’t know why it didn’t hit me when I first fell for OKC. It would’ve negated Interpol as the top spot before I had even heard of Interpol, haha. (I had first listened through OKC in 2004, got into Interpol 2005)
Anyway, the reason that I wanted to blog (initially, anyway) was to give a mention to a Belgian girls choir called Scala. I’ve first heard of them when I heard their cover of ‘Creep,’ working with the Kolacny brothers. It’s really lovely. I kind of cringe at some RH covers, but for the most part, it’s been good. Here’s their cover of Exit Music (for a film). I think it captures the mood perfectly. It’s eerie.
I’ve also listened to Christopher O’Riley’s album of RH covers which is very very nice. Nice to study to too, by the way. Of which I should probably get back to doing….
-j
