Name your last couple of CD purchases and give a brief review.
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights: This came out in 2002, but I didn't buy it because of the merciless hype engine surrounding this band. "Oh no," I said, "not another hyped-up New York band. This band must be as @#%$ as a certain other New York band led by a certain moron possibly named Julian Casablanca." One listen to the CD divested me of this belief. They take the New York rock sound and almost make up for the shameful travesty of The Strokes. Please don't pay attention to people when they tell you that these nice NYC boys sound like Joy Division. Vocally the similarity is there in terms of the downcast delivery, but this record is so far beyond anything Joy Division ever shat out that the comparison is laughable. Musically hypnotizing, thematically diverse, and highly listenable. Listen to the track "NYC", and bear in mind that this is Interpol's debut LP. Wow.
(Key tracks: NYC, Obstacle 1, PDA.)
Radiohead - Com Lag (Japanese Import): Never thought I'd find this one sitting around. But there I was in a very run-down music store flipping around the rock section, and lo and behold, there sat Com Lag, the ten track EP released in Japan only, complete with Japanese cover art. Relax, it was just an insert; Thom Yorke's consistently schizophrenic CD art is still in English.
As everyone knows, with each era in Radiohead's music comes a paradigm shift in Thom Yorke's art; new drawings, new music, new themes. A mass of different ideas are generated and thrown into songs which may or may not materialize. Thom inevitably trims these down into a sleek package for a final album. What we find in this elusive CD are relics from the Kid A/Amnesiac/Hail to the Thief eras; everything that was cut off when making those three records, with a bent towards the political themes of Amnesiac and HTTT. Thus what the CD amounts to is a very useful tool for fans to use in filling in the blanks left by the three aforementioned albums, but something that will leave the uninitiated dumbfounded.
Included are four reworked and six new tracks, a veritable grab bag of Radiohead @#%$ for fanboys like me to drool over. When I say grab bag, I mean grab bag; this is a totally miscellaneous, unrelated bunch of tracks. A live version of "2+2=5"; a remix of "Myxomatosis" (cleverly titled "Remyxomatosis"); an alternate version of "I Will"; the first version of "Scatterbrain", "Skttrbrain". Highlights of the new fare are "I am a Wicked Child" and the brilliant "Gagging Order". If you can listen to "Gagging Order" without being emotionally effected, check your pulse because you're probably dead.
In short; great for fans, inexplicable for non-fans. If you love Radiohead and want a bunch of new goodies to tide you over until the next disc (which could be a while), this is great and more than worth the cover charge. I mean, EP or not, it's ten new songs (and a video on the enhanced CD bit), the same length as Kid A and Amnesiac. Otherwise, the effort required to find it and considerable cost won't be worthwhile.
(Key tracks: Gagging Order, I am a Wicked Child, Sktterbrain.)
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights: This came out in 2002, but I didn't buy it because of the merciless hype engine surrounding this band. "Oh no," I said, "not another hyped-up New York band. This band must be as @#%$ as a certain other New York band led by a certain moron possibly named Julian Casablanca." One listen to the CD divested me of this belief. They take the New York rock sound and almost make up for the shameful travesty of The Strokes. Please don't pay attention to people when they tell you that these nice NYC boys sound like Joy Division. Vocally the similarity is there in terms of the downcast delivery, but this record is so far beyond anything Joy Division ever shat out that the comparison is laughable. Musically hypnotizing, thematically diverse, and highly listenable. Listen to the track "NYC", and bear in mind that this is Interpol's debut LP. Wow.
(Key tracks: NYC, Obstacle 1, PDA.)
Radiohead - Com Lag (Japanese Import): Never thought I'd find this one sitting around. But there I was in a very run-down music store flipping around the rock section, and lo and behold, there sat Com Lag, the ten track EP released in Japan only, complete with Japanese cover art. Relax, it was just an insert; Thom Yorke's consistently schizophrenic CD art is still in English.
As everyone knows, with each era in Radiohead's music comes a paradigm shift in Thom Yorke's art; new drawings, new music, new themes. A mass of different ideas are generated and thrown into songs which may or may not materialize. Thom inevitably trims these down into a sleek package for a final album. What we find in this elusive CD are relics from the Kid A/Amnesiac/Hail to the Thief eras; everything that was cut off when making those three records, with a bent towards the political themes of Amnesiac and HTTT. Thus what the CD amounts to is a very useful tool for fans to use in filling in the blanks left by the three aforementioned albums, but something that will leave the uninitiated dumbfounded.
Included are four reworked and six new tracks, a veritable grab bag of Radiohead @#%$ for fanboys like me to drool over. When I say grab bag, I mean grab bag; this is a totally miscellaneous, unrelated bunch of tracks. A live version of "2+2=5"; a remix of "Myxomatosis" (cleverly titled "Remyxomatosis"); an alternate version of "I Will"; the first version of "Scatterbrain", "Skttrbrain". Highlights of the new fare are "I am a Wicked Child" and the brilliant "Gagging Order". If you can listen to "Gagging Order" without being emotionally effected, check your pulse because you're probably dead.
In short; great for fans, inexplicable for non-fans. If you love Radiohead and want a bunch of new goodies to tide you over until the next disc (which could be a while), this is great and more than worth the cover charge. I mean, EP or not, it's ten new songs (and a video on the enhanced CD bit), the same length as Kid A and Amnesiac. Otherwise, the effort required to find it and considerable cost won't be worthwhile.
(Key tracks: Gagging Order, I am a Wicked Child, Sktterbrain.)
