From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V7 #369 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, December 27 2001 Volume 07 : Number 369 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Best of 2001 ["atholbrose" ] RE: Best of 2001 ["glenn mcdonald" ] Re: Best of 2001 ["atholbrose" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 08:50:41 -0500 From: "atholbrose" Subject: Best of 2001 a-ha, "Minor Earth Major Sky" Bar none, the best record of 2001. Unfortunately unreleased in the US; the song "Velvet" was on a soundtrack for a summer movie ("One Night at McCool's") which unfortunately went nowhere, as did the hopes it would get the album released domestically. Basically, a-ha has had all the time you haven't heard from them to perfectly hone their songwriting talents. Morten Harket's voice is just as lovely as it ever was. This album gets played over and over and over and over here, and I'm not even close to a little bit tired about it. It even includes the semi-obligatory "screwed by our record label" song. Radiohead, "Kid A" Radiohead, "Amnesiac" One album or two? Don't know, don't care. Radiohead's "Creep" was being played on San Francisco radio, complete with "fuck" in the chorus, at a time when it perfectly fit in with how I felt about myself. The album wasn't even out in the US, but six months later a record store owner in Albuquerque gave me a promo cassette of the upcoming US release. He got a loyal customer, and I got to hear their other songs. I've always liked Radiohead. I still like "Pablo Honey" and I like these two new albums a great deal. On NPR, before the album's release, they played "Everything in it's Right Place" and I began to anticipate... and wasn't let down. Tori Amos, "Strange Little Girls" My opinion on this seems to be in direct conflict with most of ecto, but oh, well. I hadn't bought a Tori CD since "Boys for Pele". A friend gave me her copy of "Choirgirl Hotel", and I still have it, though I haven't listened that much. I skipped whatever came in between there, but bought SLG on a whim after seeing the video ... and I'm glad I did. I knew most of these songs already, and really like the spins they are given. As a concept album -- well, eh. As an album? Yeah, I like it. It's much less Tori-ful Tori -- less breathy, less pounding, less stagey. It has much more of what I liked Tori Amos for. Plus, the tracks I like to skip ("Bonnie and Clyde '97" because I don't like being that upset, "Heart of Gold" and "...Warm Gun" because I don't much like them) are skippable without damaging the listening experience. Aphex Twin, "druqks" For someone who wasn't going to make any more music, there sure is a lot crammed on to this double CD set. 30 tracks -- some only 15 or 30 seconds long, true -- of wildly varying material, from simple piano pieces to a distorted version of a family "Happy Birthday" to thrashy breakbeat techno (don't ask me to get technical about electronic music genres -- to me, there's "loud" and "ambient" and that's about it) and back again in the space of a few songs, then repeat. Squarepusher, "Go Plastic" Squarepusher is sometimes like Richard D. James without any self-restraint. I bought tickets to a concert in Columbus on a whim, then went out and bought a single to find out what I was in for. I now own all the CDs. "Go Plastic" is his latest, and is great just for including "Big Red Car", but its merits go beyond that. REM, "Reveal" Mmm, REM. New album by an old favorite band that is very comforting, somehow. I think they're kind of like a-ha, slowly perfecting the kinds of songs they like to write and perform. His Name Is Alive, "Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth" My favorite CD of 2001. A lot of times artists release new albums that are departures from their last, trying new things; this is the cue for fans on the 'net to start complaining. And really, there couldn't be much more of a break; HNIA started as weird high-strung pop which veered more mainstream and, one one album -- one of my favorites, "Stars on ESP" -- into parody of song styles -- and with this album becomes a minimalist urban pop group. The album has a set of 12 songs designed to do one thing: show off the wonderfully warm voice of Lovetta Pippin. There's even yet another working of "Are We Still Married?", downtempo and with low, smooth vocals. I can't decide if I like it better than the other versions or not, but I do like it quite a bit. Despite the change in genre -- and the rather un-HNIA-like devotion to only one musical style -- Warren's trademark quirkiness and sense of humor stay true. The songs stay clever and fresh, and feature some vivid imagery. And now I find that time stereo has a web site, and I may be able to fill in some more albums in my HNIA collection... mmm... ... That's not 10 albums, because I can't really think of 10 albums released in the last year that made a big impression on me. If it was just albums bought in 2001, the list would surely include: Mogwai, "Come On Die Young"; Global Communication, "76:14"; godspeed you black emperor!, "raise your skinny fists like antennas to heaven!"; Shivaree, "I Oughta Give You a Shot..."; and, most wonderfully, Brokeback's wistful "Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table". ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 12:17:20 -0500 From: "glenn mcdonald" Subject: RE: Best of 2001 > a-ha, "Minor Earth Major Sky" > Bar none, the best record of 2001. Unfortunately unreleased in the US... I liked this album, too, but even in the parts of the world where it *was* released, it came out in early 2000. Pedantically yours, glenn ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 14:16:55 -0500 From: "atholbrose" Subject: Re: Best of 2001 glenn mcdonald said: > > a-ha, "Minor Earth Major Sky" > > Bar none, the best record of 2001. Unfortunately unreleased in the > > US... > I liked this album, too, but even in the parts of the world where it > *was* released, it came out in early 2000. Oops. My eyes must've gotten crossed looking at allmusic.com, where I double-checked my dates. Sigh. Comments on the album still stand, I think everyone should buy it, and it's certainly been the most-played album this year. So now the HNIA is the best of year :) ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V7 #369 **************************