torsdag 17 Nov 2005, 11:14
And by "reviews", of course I mean mostly random, incoherent thoughts-out-loud. I went a little crazy this month with the buying of the records and the CDs and all of these things, mostly because I kept finding such great deals on eBay. I'm still waiting for several of these to arrive, and one is sitting in my apartments' office right now waiting for me to pick it up. But I thought I'd say a bit about what I've heard so far.
Wilder (vinyl; 1981)
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. This is early eighties post punk, and I expected every song to sound alike, as many of Joy Division's songs do. But Julian Cope seems to have a "wilder" imagination, and this record goes places. I was happily surprised to hear horns in just about every track. Think of a more joyous Joy Division with a horn section and you're halfway there (Don't you hate it when music reviews spout off such cheap nonsense?).
Pulp - This is Hardcore (4-track single, Part 2) (CD; 1998)
I didn't know until this morning that there are two This is Hardcore singles. That's weird, isn't it? "TiHc" is a favorite song of mine, and I thought I might enjoy some remixes, especially since one of them is called the "Swedish Erotica Remix". Sorry, but that sounded too interesting to pass up. Sadly, none of these remixes are half as interesting as that, and now that I know what's on "Part 1", I sure wish I had found it first. I might get that next month.
delirious? - The Mission Bell (CD; 2005)
Acorndirect came through! They wouldn't answer my e-mails, so I was getting worried. This arrived yesterday, and I suppose I'm one of very few Americans to own a copy so far. I listened to a third of it this morning on my way to the post office (where a Roxy Music CD had arrived from Russia) and to work. This is the first time that a delirious? album hasn't blown my mind within the first few moments. The clips I heard a month or two ago were quite indicative of the album's sound, unfortunately. This may come as a surprise to those of you who have heard me go on and on about this band in the past.
Now if you're really into Christian music as a lot of my friends are, I think you'll really enjoy this album. It's good Christian music. But speaking as a musician and as a diehard delirious? fan, this seems like a pretty poor effort by them so far. I've read a bit about how much they put into this album, but to my ears there's just nothing new here, and nothing so far that comes close to reaching the bar set by their previous albums. It's as if they're looking for a new audience (the WOW audience, perhaps?). The opening track is extremely mellow for a delirious? opener (Many of you will hear this song on the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe soundtrack). Track 2 starts out promising with an Interpol-type sound, but once my hero Martin Smith starts singing, it's just another song for Christian radio. Track 3 contains rapping. Yes, rapping. And not even good rapping. I just Googled it because I had no idea it was there–it's tobyMac. tobyMac on a delirious? album. Boys, boys, what were you thinking? I can't tell you how much this frustrates me. Did they actually have him flown over to England for that, or did he do it over the phone? They could have found someone off the street to do the performance he gave (Can you tell I'm not a dc Talk fan?).
So, I never thought I'd say this, but I wouldn't recommend the new delirious? album to anyone. However, I'd recommend their last album, World Service, to anyone because it's outstanding. And some of you have heard me talk about their 2000 album Glo, which no one else has come close to touching so far, to my knowledge. Sorry, delirious?; I'll be waiting to hear what you do next, and I'll see you on tour.
More to come, including Roxy Music and David Bowie, and I don't even remember what else I bought. I really don't. Take care, now.