My Listening Hours: Looking Forward

The last few posts (here, here, here) have been concerned with January–March, but there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming months—just have a look at this list. Here are some thoughts on a few of them.

Blonde Redhead: 23 (4/10)
I’ve managed to own every Blonde Redhead album ever produced, while at the same time not really caring about them since Fake Can Be Just as Good. How that has happened, I’m not sure. That’s not to say I haven’t liked the albums that have come after them. If nothing else the band has grown into their own sound over the years and have remained interesting—so sue me if I liked them better when they were a cross between Sonic Youth and Unwound! Did I hear right that one of the brothers is no longer in the band? I remain curious.

Feist: The Reminder (5/1)
Of everything on the horizon, my hopes are highest for this album. My wife and I bought Let it Die while we were on vacation in Paris in 2004 and it has been on steady rotation in our house ever since. That album had its share of songs that crossed way over the line into Adult Contemporary, which has never really sat well with me. But Feist has redeemed herself on those counts for two reasons: first, she said in print that she sort of cobbled together this album, including a few “cheeky” moments, and she had no intention of or idea that it would blow up the way it did. Supposedly the new stuff is more like the good parts of Let it Die (you know which parts those are); second, in her not-to-be-missed fantastic wonderful live shows, she those same awful songs are the highlight of the concerts thanks to the way she reworked them. I have tremendous respect for her songwriting abilities so she better not let me down. Or else!

Bjork: Volta (5/8)
Talk about tremendous respect for songwriting ability. There’s no one that applies to more than Bjork. I wasn’t too fond of her last, Medulla, from the standpoint of wanting an enjoyable listening experience. But I have great respect and appreciation for what she set out to do. And the new one includes collaborations with Timbaland and Lightning Bolt? I wish it was all on the same song.

Mice Parade: s/t (5/8)
Elliott Smith: New Moon (2xCD rarities) (5/8)
Sea & Cake: Everybody (5/8)
Tarwater: Spider Smile (5/8)
Remind me on May 8th to great drunk and wax nostalgic for my senior year of college. If you’re wondering what I was listening to in 1999, this is a pretty good summary. I don’t know if I’ll actually purchase any of these records when they come out, but I will be paying attention to how they’re received and will check the mp3s as they come. If any of them represent a drastic creative resurgence, you’ll see me at Amoeba plunking down some bills.

Keren Ann: s/t (5/8)
I enjoyed most of Nolita, though it got a little somnambulant after a while. Has she grown?

Rufus Wainwright: Release the Stars (5/15)
Some time after Poses came out I had decided that I probably didn’t really need much more Rufus in my life. He does sort of sing the same melody all the time. In a state of supreme ambivalence I listened to Want One in a Virgin Megastore while waiting to meet up with my wife—and I had a conniption right then and there because “Oh What a World” was so wonderful. The whole of Want One, for me, still stands has Wainwright’s creative peak. Want Two, its companion, is his depth. There are some good songs there but that album just did not take. So I find myself back where I was in 2004, ambivalent. Will he surprise me again?

Battles: Mirrored (5/15)
I left the overly complicated mathy shit behind a long time ago, but Battles somehow strikes the right chord. I haven’t liked everything by then—sometimes it’s too techy for me—but their new song and video are great, so I’m getting stoked on this one.

Dungen: Tio Bitar (5/15)
Ta det Lugnt, surprise to me, really got a hold of me. In terms of my own reaction to them (not necessarily their own ability), it might have been a lightning-in-a-bottle moment, but I’ll be curious to hear this.

Wilco: Sky Blue Sky (5/15)
Word is Wilco has retreated from the more abstract direction they were headed on Ghost is Born. I have mixed feelings about that. Ghost is Born really didn’t sit well with me when it first came out but after seeing them on Austin City Limits I went back to it and it really started to grow on me (though it’s still not my favorite). Nels Cline’s guitarwork is just stupendous. But on the other hand they are apparently going back to a more rootsy sound, something closer to their first couple records. Summerteeth remains my favorite Wilco album, so if they could get in that vicinity again I sure wouldn’t complain.

Interpol: tba (6/5)
These guys are going to have to get really interesting for me to give two shits.

Shellac: Excellent Italian Greyhound (6/5)
I’m not a rabid Shellac fan—in fact I think I’ve never heard 1,000 Hurts—but I have a soft spot for At Action Park and the early 7”s, plus I used to really get off on the ten-minute opener to Terraform (but not so much the rest of the album—I was like the Bizarro Shellac Fan that year). I went through a phase from about ’98–’05 where loud records just didn’t do much for me. I’m out of that phase now, so perhaps I should return to Shellac.

Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (7/10)
These guys deliver every time. I’m looking forward to this the same way I’m looking forward to the next Spider-Man movie: I know what to expect, and I expect to enjoy it.

Tegan & Sara: The Con (7/24)
Who ever would have thought I’d be looking forward to a couple lesbians and an acoustic guitar? Yet here I am. I absolutely loathe everything I’ve heard by T&S that came before 2006’s So Jealous. But that album, even with all its whiny self-esteem issues, is inescapably tuneful.

New Pornographers: Challengers (late August)
“It is maybe slightly more epic,” says Carl Newman. I was late to the NP train and am currently in mad love with all three of their albums simultaneously. I’m in a sort of blind-love mode where I think that as long as it’s a new New Pornographers album, I’m going to think it’s brilliant. You’ll likely have to take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Comments

[bdr]

New Sea and Cake song here:

http://www.thrilljockey.com/catalog/preview.html?id=100005537

[Richard]

Only a few on here are likely purchases for me, but that's largely because I'm low on music-funds at the moment. I will definitely be getting the new Shellac, however. (You should absolutely get 1,000 Hurts; it's great. By the way, I also ran counter to conventional wisdom with Terraform in that I LOVED the opening track...)

[pgwp]

Yeah, I wish I had the funds to get all these records. For me, Feist & the New Pornographers are the only ones I'll be buying the very day they come out. The rest are all dependent on cash flow and what I'm most excited about when I find myself in the store...

We have to stop talking about Shellac though. I'm at work and can't go round singing "Il Porno Star" to myself.

"porno star arrive. no english, no money..."