Never let me down again
- On my way to the dentist today (generally good, but evidently I chipped a tooth at some point, thanks for asking) I stopped by my friendly neighborhood
independent record store Best Buy and picked up the new Death Cab For Cutie album,
Narrow Stairs, which as it turns out, is actually pretty good. D.C.F.C. have become as of late less a reedy weakpop act and more of a destitute man's Wilco or Radiohead, indulging in more adventurous arrangements and generally developing into a muscular rock band, insofar as Ben Gibbard's immutable feyness allows. If the Big Mac and the Angus Third Pounder can coexist on the same menu board (not a given, if you'll recall the Arch Deluxe), then I guess this is what we call the commoditization of innovation. Sole complaint: "I Will Possess Your Heart," the lead single, clocks in at 8+ minutes, with the vocals starting around the 4:30 mark. What I guess is supposed to be a stab at "experimental" is one of the least worthwhile tracks on the record and comes off like a giant middle finger to the label, which, last I checked moved a million units of
Plans, a pretty boring fucking record. I know that we all don't want to look like sell-outs here, but let's face it, Death Cab are a pleasant, irrepressibly commercial act, and they aren't broadening anyone's horizons, least of all their own, by saying in eight minutes what could be put across in three. Pen hits, make money, buy yachts; don't squander God's gift to you. P.S. Congratulations to Atlantic for resurrecting its
classic old logo (
other one wasn't bad either) and reconnecting with its heritage as a premier R&B label.
-
Installment no.4 of Spectral Sound's
Death Is Nothing to Fear series of EPs (well, no. 5 if you count the marketplace-confusing
DINTF sampler) allegedly hits today in 12-inch and digital formats; early morning scans of iTunes and Beatport revealed nothing, and Ghostly's own webstore is only selling the vinyl at this point. Another Spectral release, Osborne's
Osborne, is already on my short-list; purists bitch that a good chunk of it has already been released on several EPs, but since I don't put out too much coin for techno, I take the "it's new to me" view. Ever since Matthew Dear blew up medium after last year's
Asa Breed, it's no secret that Michigan football is the second-best thing coming out of Ann Arbor these days, and I expect Audion's upcoming
"Billy Says Go" EP to seal that sarcophagus.
- Robert Rauschenberg, a guy who made the world's greatest dioramas,
is dead at 82.
Never let me down again
