Screamadelica - Primal Scream

Remember how we were going to review this album and then you decided that what you really wanted to do was quit doing anything and started going to raves and demanding E from all the other librarians? Remember that?

Well, that's basically the only way for me to figure out why Screamadelica is such a seminal album (according to Allmusic and others). I think you have to be at raves and high on Ecstasy to really "get it" (and probably have to be from Manchester, too, which is so horribly depressing that dancing in a warehouse is actually a huge step above actual life.) Not being an E doer, nor a raver, I decided to do something that would be somewhat similar. I ate a lot of sugar and turned on the visualizer on iTunes. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

"It's full of stars!"

Building a collection like you would build a basketball team

I was having an inner tussle the other day when I was pondering if I was a tool for still sticking with U2, REM, and Radiohead. The adventerous thing to do would be to ditch those bands for something newer and edgier. Say, "Hey, I think the four cornerstones of my collection are Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, No Age, and Bat for Lashes." But, I couldn't allow myself. Quality is quality no matter how popular, right? So, I shouldn't be ashamed. But how can I justify it?

The Lakers help me justify it. How? Well, not from the fan perspective. From the general manager perspective. If you are going to build a championship team, you need unequivocal superstars on the team. Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, people like that. If you don't have those players, you aren't going to win. Simple as that. Look at the roster of teams before the season starts and you can just cross some of them off the list from the get go, because they don't have that star power. As a fan, it's cool to root for the nondescript guys playing together as a team. But you don't win championships with only nondescript guys. You might make the playoffs, but you won't win. no matter how distasteful it might seem on the outside, you need the superstar. Once you have the two or three superstars, you can bring on the role players. You can have tons of role players! As many and as weird as you want because their inconsistencies will be overshadowed by the superstars.

Whenever I think, "Sheesh, things are getting a little weird for me" I throw the ball into my superstars. I play the Bends, I play Achtung, I play Green. Reset the offense. Without the superstars, the team drifts, you rely on the draft (new bands/albums) and you're stuck in rebuilding mode. (Of course, you could be like the Knicks under Isiah Thomas, bringing in a bunch of pseudo-superstars and rotting the team with them. You know, like the Black Eye Peas or something...)

And that's how I justify saying, "Yes, my favorite bands are U2, REM, and Radiohead."

Oxford Collapse collapses

Too bad really. That album that we reviewed gets better and better with each spin. (Yes, I still say "spin" even though it doesn't actually spin on a turntable or a CD player.) Thoughts on the Collapse?

You and Me - The Walkmen

I least have to give the Delgadoes credit. I listened intently to them, trying to figure out if I loved them or hated them. And with Oxford Collapse, the first listen may not have done it for me, but I had that feeling that continued listens would be worthwhile. All this is a nice introduction for my feelings about You and Me by the Walkmen. After about the fifth listen, I realized that the marginal utility for each subsequent listen would be nil. Not only was I getting nothing out of it, it was preventing me from exploring other, more interesting music. So, I stopped listening to it. I can't even comment on individual tracks because they all sounded the same. What did they sound like? They sounded like a NYC band trying to be arty at different tempos. I'm sure there are editors of hipster magazines that are working themselves into a lather describing the detached vocals or the guitars that just rip right through each song. Yawn. Blah. So orchestrated arty, but without any redeeming quality.

The intangible with this album is simple. Would I rather listen to anything else? If it was Jack Johnson, I would rather listen to the Walkmen's You and Me. Other than that, I think I'd try the other band.

Final Rating: D.

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

Here's the thesis for my review: After listening to this album for, oh, five minutes, it was already better than the previous two we chose. I think that means I need to downgrade Oxford Collapse a half-step. Then again, the first real song of the album is Lost Coastlines which might be the best thing Okkervil River has ever done and considering how I consider Okkervil River to one of the premier indie bands of our time, that's saying something. Everything about the song is great...the melody, the bassline, the banjo, the Meiburg singing parts, everything. It really sets such a high bar that the rest of the album can't match. Too bad. I do think the rest of the album's pretty good, but I just can't stop listening to Lost Coastlines. I know, it's a completely unfair review. There are a couple of other tracks that I do really like namely Starry Stairs and the Ex-Girlfriend one. I'm just having ahard time listening to the rest of the album without a nagging voice in my head urging me to flip back to Lost Coastlines.

Intanglible for this album: Does it make me wanna be a rock star? The answer to that is a resounding, "Yes." From the moment I heard Lost Coastlines, I wanted to form a band and play a church talent show or something. Seriously.

Final Grade: I'm giving it an A-. I really should give it an I for incomplete because I haven't given the other songs their proper due. but from the couple of times I have heard the other songs, they are pretty good, so I think a prelim A- is fine, with an open reservation to the A area. That's right. It might become an A album for me. (I hope I'm not guilty of grade inflation. The more of these we do, the more likely I am to realize how I keep overrating albums.)

Hate Revisited

I can't stand this cd.

Nice review. I think you sum it up by saying something just seems off. I think a lot of the effort was lost on me. I feel like everything The Delgados were trying to do on Hate was pulled off successfully by Belle and Sebastian. And I'm not even a B+S fan but that's what it seems to me.

Worst comparison ever

I'm going to say that your "Guns 'N Roses meets the Carpenters" description is the most misleading, inaccurate description of a band...of all time. Hilarious.