May 26, 2006

May 26: Weekly Music (v1.n5)

Music this week has been limited:

Elephant - White Stripes. I copied this CD from a friend, as part of a large and diverse group of albums that I thought were even marginally interesting. Luckily, I’d burned this one as a regular CD before my iTunes went off the deep end. This week, I started spinning it. And I haven’t stopped since. The bare arrangements are garage-band, of course, but there’s something almost NWOBHM about a couple of the tracks – and Jack White’s delivery helps, especially in (track 2), which is reminiscent of Diamond Head’s Lightning to the Nations, of all things. There is a Beatle-esque moment, and even a fairly vivid early Smashing Pumpkins moment in there somewhere. Track 7 has an element of Led Zeppelin/Robert Plant in its acoustic phrasing and sweet melody. Track 8 is a blues track. And onwards.

The music is simple yet confident enough to come across and make its point strongly. Earlier in the school year, I heard a rocking cover of the Hardest Button to Button, before I knew that it was the WS. I listened to it afterwards, and liked the song that much more.


Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers. So I got the discs, and I’m trying to digest the 28 tracks. I don’t think this is the best of their career - though I think that it’s really hard for a double album to fit that bill (many would argue that the Beatles together and independently break out of that over-generalization, but whatever). I think that there are a few really good songs on this thing, and a bunch of tracks that blend together. Still, it’s not as much of a disappointment as X-Men III, which was by far the worst sequel I’ve seen of anything since... Godfather III? Well, maybe not that far back, but it was pretty damn lousy. I’ll give more updates on the Stadium when I have a chance.

4 comments:

flygirl said...

re: the white stripes, the newie is a goodie, get your hands on it if you can. loiked them poems, new messaih..

that photo in your title bar calls out for a caption contest.

Rage said...

Will have to check it out. Thanks for the tip! Been having computer issues, so haven't visited in a while, thanks for not returning that favor.

Don't think that the messiah was me (right saurav?), but I decided to use the line for my reply anyway.

And I don't like to share my captions, but feel free to suggest. :)

flygirl said...

i thought i had the white stripes newie on itunes and would have, er, communicated it to you but alas it turns out i don't.

no worries mate. nothing much happening down here in any case.

captions: oh i do like yours, but it would be fun to come up with some more :-) that pic is such a classic it suggests all sorts of things.

Rage said...

Well - suggest away! I would love to hear new options for it - and don't think that I'll be changing the picture again!