As it’s new comic day and I’m a pure contrarian, I’m going to talk about things that aren’t comics. The reason for this is twofold: first, I want to give Christina something to read, as she’s a good friend who doesn’t like comics as much as she should (even if she likes it when I hook her up with some high-quality Colombian Batman product) and secondly, I’ve had the urge to write about music of late.
I’ve listened to Waiting For The Siren’s Call a few dozen times since it came out and I think that once you get past the first two songs (which are stunning in their awfulness,) there’s a really good record that could use a little trimming up front and at the tail end. The title track is where Waiting… swings into full gear, a tune that sounds like it was borrowed from the same Technique recording session that gave us “Mr Disco” (my favorite song by the band) and it’s followed by the catchy, insistent “Krafty,” boding well for the rest of the record. “I Told You So” sounds much, much more like a song by vocalist Bernard Sumner’s Electronic project than a New Order tune in its own right, but “Morning Night And Day” and “Dracula’s Castle” are where the same band that recorded “Temptation” seems to have found itself two decades later - pure dance rock.
Many people on the message boards do not like “Jetstream,” but this is because they are suffering from some kind of mental debilitation, obviously. The song has spelling in it, OK? It’s got spelling and the chick from Scissor Sisters doing vocals. “J-E-T (you are so good for me) / You are my jetstream lover / you’re how I wanna be.” That’s right up there with “Eleanor Rigby” in my mind, and it may beat that Beatles tune because it’s got spelling in it. Other excellent songs featuring spelling include “Washington, D.C.” by the Magnetic Fields and Elkland’s “I Need You Tonight,” where “disco” is spelled. You can’t beat that and you shouldn’t try because your mind will shatter.
The highlight for the album has to be “Guilt Is A Useless Emotion,” a snarling slab of technopop that’s propelled by bouncy beats and Peter Hook’s bass pinning the whole thing together perfectly. Ignore the rather dodgy lyrics - New Order’s only sporadically excellent in that area, and revel in the fact that this is a group of 50-year-old men making music that sounds more vital than people half their age. It does not, however, feature spelling.
“Turn” reminds me of the guitarrier songs off Technique with a bit of that Brotherhood sweep mixed in. I forget I like it, then I hear it and go “Oh, that’s really quite nice, isn’t it?” It’s one of those upbeat tracks that has sadness running through it, which is always a winner with me.
Much like the first two tracks, I think that the album’s finale (discarding the US inclusion of a remix of “Guilt…”) needs to be kicked to the curb. It sounds like a Primal Scream b-side from the Rocks period and, frankly, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Blech.
You all know how I feel about the Pet Shop Boys; even at their worst (see Release,) they still outperform anyone else writing pop songs on either side of the Atlantic with the possible exclusion of Stephin Merritt, who’s now savoring his second mention in this blog post. (Japan may have a secret weapon and I’m hedging my bets here.) With this volume of the Back To Mine series that DMC puts out, you get the chance to find out what they listen to when they’re not making records of their own. This is great for two reasons: people like myself who better want to inform themselves about the music that inspires these guys get a chance to peek at their record collections; everyone else just gets a nice selection of tunes that stands out quite nicely in a sea of samey-samey compilations.
Chris Lowe’s CD represents music he plays for his friends when they come over to his beautiful apartment. You get the dirty synthpop of Savage, the Bobby-Orlando-produced ecstatic “Passion” by The Flirts (a record I’ve loved for years), Italian disco records, gospel, and even Queen and Dusty Springfield make appearances. I put this on while writing last weekend and noticed it seemed to fly by with each tune making me smile a little bit more with the possible exception of Queen, who needed to learn the art of the fade-out at the three minute mark on all of their songs.
Neil Tennant goes a little more cerebral with his CD with a selection for late-night listening: electronic, ambient, classical, and pop are all blended together perfectly and this serves as the perfect soundtrack to quiet contemplation without sliding into the wank territory of Whalesongs Volume 9: Now With Cheesy Synth Chords. Highlights include opener “Traum” by Fairmont (a bleeping bit of slow-chugging warmth), “Microgravity” by one of my personal favorites, Biosphere, and the finale, Edvard Grieg’s “Melodie Opus 47 No. 3″ as performed by Emil Gilels - I am not embarrassed to say I got a bit of a lump in my throat as it wrapped up. This record may have a bit of an edge for me, as I feel like I’m getting a bit more of an education when I hear it, which may not be the point for many people but I’m a bit of a freak like that.
I received the import version of this collection rather unexpectedly, but you’ll be able to buy an American version starting on July 12 and I daresay you’d not regret spending the cash one tiny bit.
I rushed out and purchased the DVD of Lil’ Beethoven Live In Stockholm by Sparks the day it came out because I’ve not yet had the chance to catch the brothers Mael live in Stockholm or anywhere else, so this was a chance to see how they were holding up. Their previous concert video from the Balls tour is what had made me a fan, so this one had some high marks to hit and for the most part, it succeeds pretty admirably once you get past the fact that the album they’re touring around, Lil’ Beethoven wasn’t exactly meant to be performed live without a full symphony orchestra backing the band up.
This means that there’s pre-recorded tracks and lots of them. As I’m a fan of electronic music, this doesn’t particularly bother me when it’s bits, bloops, and bleeps, but when it’s orchestral sounds seemingly coming out of nowhere, it’s a bit disconcerting and the Lil’ Beethoven material (performed as a complete set for the first half of the show) really suffers for it; only “I Married Myself” and “My Baby’s Taking Me Home” really perform well as songs in their own right in the live setting, but the more-than-adequately clever video material and staging helps you enjoy the entire set well enough. The second half, a retrospective set that includes wonderfully obscure tunes and their more familiar material could have been a tad bit longer, but I think it’s just because I constantly want more from these two - I’m greedy like that.
There you go - I like things that aren’t comic books, but they seem to be things that not many other comics fans like. I know I enjoyed it when Dorian did his not-going-to-talk-about-comics week and even if my blog has sort of slowly transmogrified into being primarily about my favorite visual medium, I’d like to try this sort of thing a little more often than I have been of late.
