The Poetist

One of my favorite pastimes is browsing music at Tower Records, or really any music shop with a wide selection and plenty of headphones.  I think I might be one of the few people left who enjoy buying cds.  I like to buy cds, and I often do if a good one costs $15 or less; but I’m also completely wedded to my iPod and the 20GBs of music it lets me cart around every day.  Buying through the iTunes music store is all well and good, but it lacks the immediacy and physicality of listening then buying at a store.  So, here is what I think:

You should be able to buy music at a record store and have them immediately upload the music to your mp3 player.  That way you can have all the fun of an afternoon at Tower while not giving up the convenience of digital mp3s.  This could work even better at the Apple store.  They could have a digital library of all the albums that they offer in the online store, and keep a few hard copies of the latest and/or most popular albums on display.  They wouldn’t need to stock the cds so they could save so much space on inventory but you could have the fun of walking around and looking at albums.

… you saw it here first ^_^

Somehow on my way back to Mitaka from brunch in Harajuku/Omotesando I found myself listening to music at Tsutaya and Tower Records in Shibuya.  I quickly passed a few hours listening to the latest from:

Kanye West, Common, Unkle Jam, Kelly Sweet, High School Musical 2, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, James Blunt, the Foo Fighters, Jill Scott, and New Found Glory, among others.

Kanye West/Graduation:  I’m drawn to his song ‘Stronger’ because a) I love the Britney Spears anthem of the same name and b) he samples a song by Daft Punk that I enjoy – ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.’  I read what the Rolling Stone had to say about the album – they essentially said that you start out liking this album and then it grows on you.  Honestly I wasn’t so impressed with the few tracks that I caught auralglimpes of but I do trust Kanye and his musical talent.  I wasn’t moved to buy it.

Unkle Jam/Unkle Jam: This musical group has been featured on MTV Japan’s international hit list, but they haven’t made it into the U.S. iTunes music store.  Which is too bad, cause this group is FABULOUS!  They’re an example of what I consider a new trend in crossover dance music – various genres that produce quality tracks which you can also dance to.  The best current day example I can think of is Under the Influence of Giants.  I think the key element is the addition of funk to other genres; rock in the case of UIG, I’m not sure what the base genre of Unkle Jam is, Tower Records listed it as (I can’t quite remember) either soul/black or hip-hop/black.  A good example from the past might be Sly and the Family Stone.  But I’ll get on with it…

I jotted down notes on the first 5 tracks.  The 1st track exemplifies why the music is so awesome: they combine falsetto singing with a good solid baseline and the upper range sounds often found on dance tracks.  It works.  The 2nd track provides a very interesting sound – but not so much so that it’s too distracting to dance to.  In fact, it’s perfect to dance to because there is a beat for every dance ability!  The beat is sub-divided and then the tracks laid on top of each other to create a kind of 3-part harmony.  So instead of hearing 3 different tones you hear the same tone expressed in 3 different note lengths.  It’s hard to describe, but absolutely brilliant to listen to!  The 3rd track really sucked.  A ballad, it sounds like it was sung by an earnest high schooler trying to express his elementary love for some cute girl at school who probably likes him back.  The vocals are just bad, and the lyrics ridiculously cliched: “you are like a flower, girl, blooming in the garden.” To give the group credit some people can get away with songs like this (R. Kelly/Dream Girl from the Chocolate Factory), but they can’t.  Ultimately it’s the type of song only a mother or doting girlfriend could appreciate.

Track 4 was good.  Track 5 provided another ballad this time sung by a tortured soul, singing to express himself when he thinks no one can hear him. This soul can sing. Aaand I felt compelled to note the 11th track. Do you remember City High? It’s like most of their songs, but worse. Do you know that Black Eyed Peas song ‘Anxiety’ from Elephunk?  That’s the level of quality I’m talking about here. The song starts off with a list of hurtful actions (presumably towards an ex-girlfriend) that the singer introduces with “I never meant to…” Sounds harmless enough but then the hook: “It’s something that I learned from daddy…” A little part of me vomited inside when I heard that.  I mean, really… The tone of the song really didn’t fit the rest of the album, and if they were trying to make a social commentary on the lack of role models for young males they just came out sounding incredibly stupid.  Great album though – I want to buy it.

High School Musical 2: I barely got to listen past the first song – which was AWESOME!  What time is it?  It’s summer time… Time for our vacation!  Those days are long gone for me now, but I still love to hear about it.  Surprised that I love this bubblegum pop?  My favorite movie of all time is the Disney movie Newsies, and I have a soft spot in my heart for the Mighty Ducks (all 3) and the v-formation.  I couldn’t finish listening because some 12 year old girl was standing -no- hovering behind me obviously trying to hurry me along.  She was accompanied by a little sister and her father, who helped her out by reaching in front of me to grab the cd.  I took the hint and left.  Later I was listening to a more adult album and I saw that little girl creep up behind me.  I shot her a look that said ‘hey little girl!  Don’t even think about making me move.’  Or at least I just looked at her and she walked away.

Foo Fighters/Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace: Have you seen the music video for ‘The Pretender?’ It’s incredible, so powerful.  But then again, the Foo Fighters are a powerful band.  I only gave this a quick listen as I trust the Foo Fighters and was already won over by the first track (the Pretender).  The Rolling Stone featured a quote from Dave Grohl talking about how the band moved beyond the basic rock sound to include other musical influences, which is usually a good move for mature bands. I bought it.

Jill Scott/Words and Sounds Vol. 3: I barely had a listen but I trust Jill Scott.  Come to think of it, I trusted Joss Stone and was sorely disappointed by her sophomore album (Introducing…).  But I really really trust Jill Scott.  I’m not in a hurry to buy it but ultimately I would like to.

New Found Glory/Brian Setzer Orchestra: I forgot the album names for both groups, but they did essentially the same thing: provided new versions of previously recorded songs.  NFG’s version of songs like ‘Kiss Me’ (Sixpence None the Richer), ‘It Ain’t Me’ (Johnny Cash), and ‘Stay’ (Lisa Loeb) were like empty calories: fun at the time but offering no real fulfillment.  BSO on the other hand, gave the big band/swing music treatment to old classical favorites, and it works!  I could easily recognize songs like ‘Fur Elise,’ ‘William Tell Overture,’ ‘Hall of the Mountain King,’ and ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ – they weren’t sampled or masked – they were played!  I want to buy it ASAP, and I would right now if I were able to activate my new debit card.

Other albums I still really want (and that I may have previously reviewed): Timbaland/Shock Value; Chris Cornell/Carry On… and before I leave Japan – SMAP/Arigato.

I can’t believe I don’t have Big Pimpin’ in my music library!!! How can that happen? I need it for my latest playlist – ’straight thuggin ghetto music’. ::nudge nudge:: ::wink wink::

I also need

• Who Let the Dogs Out by the Baja Men. Yeah, it’s important (for the summer).
• You’s a Ho by Ludacris. For the memories. It would also be useful for my STGM playlist.

In other playlist news, tonight I’m retiring Motor City (motown/doo-wop); Power/ballad (power ballads); and Gospel Rock (a term I got from Rolling Stone, heavy rock ballads); but I have a couple of new longtime favorites that I discovered through these playlists: Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips (?) and Renegade by Styx.

!Recent Discovery!: Macarena is actually a pleasant song to listen to, if you and a bajillion other people aren’t trying to do some silly dance to it at the same time.

I don’t have nearly enough Tina Turner in my music library.

And in case all of this seems really random, it might be useful to know that I have over 5,000 songs in my iTunes. I’m a little obsessed.

Today I spent a delightful afternoon listening to music at Tower Records. They have listening stations all over the store that let you listen to as much or as little of an album as you want. Some highlights:

Sergio Mendes/Timeless
I currently have one song by Sergio Mendes in my music library and while I certainly like it, I had no idea about how beautiful and interesting his music is. I caught an aural glimpse when I started playing the first track, Mas Que Nada. Unfortunately the Black Eyed Peas starting making noise – ahem, singing. They’re a pretty mediocre musical group; fun, at best. They weren’t particularly worse than usual but their style didn’t particularly complement Sergio Mendes, or vice versa. It sounded like two different events going on, like the Black Eyed Peas were out having fun or messing around on the microphone while Sergio Mendes is playing in the background. It doesn’t sound bad, but it doesn’t sound good. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas produced almost every single track on the album, which is too bad. There were a couple of successful collaborations: Berimbau/Consolacao featuring Stevie Wonder, and Timeless, featuring India.Arie. I actually did enjoy listening to this album, but Will.i.am’s vocals are featured on at least half of the tracks, which is 50% too many.

Jennifer Lopez/Coma Ama Una Mujer
At first I was wary of Jennifer Lopez’s first ‘all-Spanish’ album. I’ve found that with artists who speak two languages, they often sound better in the one they originally recorded in. Take Shakira – she sounds waaaay better in Spanish. In English she sings with a pop sound, but in Spanish she is a true rock musician. Or Christina Aguilera – technically the only songs I’ve heard her sing in Spanish are translations of some of her well-known English songs but given the fact that that seems to be a practice she has discarded, I can’t imagine her Spanish album did well either. But back to J. Lo. From what I heard at Tower, this is a good album. She has a strong voice that is actually better accompanied by true guitar music, and not repetitive dancebeat tracks. Que Hiciste is the first single and it’s made a pretty strong impression on me. So here’s one artist who has actually done better venturing into new language territory.

Timbaland/Shock Value
The first song on the album opens with a sample of Nina Simone’s famous track, Sinnerman. I was just like whoa – what is he going to do with this? At first I was unsure about the smash-up that is Oh, Timbaland, but I like it. It’s creative, and I love hearing snippets of Nina Simone’s strong distinctive voice pop up on a Timbaland based track. The album is really contemporary and he collaborates with his usual buddies – Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, etc, but he also covers new ground working with the Killers, Fall Out Boy, and Elton John. I enjoyed the Killers and Fall Out Boy tracks – their own musical style was apparent, but not in a competitive way; this is the difference between a producer like Timbaland and a producer like Will.i.am. Basically Timbaland knows what he’s doing. And one more thing – the track with Elton John BLEW me out of the water. I didn’t know what to expect because Elton John has many musical incarnations, but I was rockin out in the store. Foot tapping, head bobbing, body swaying; 2 Man Show is a smooth powerhouse. I didn’t listen to every single song, but from what I heard the whole album is most excellent.

Christina Aguilera/Back to Basics
Christina is a vocal powerhouse. I find it unfortunate that in her early days she was often compared to Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and the like; but those days are over. This is a fun album; not the most vocally interesting, but it’s important for fun music to also be quality. I’ve been wanting this album for quite some time so I don’t have the first-time-listening perspective, and I don’t think I learned anything new about Christina’s talent or the albums nuances, but I can say that two really fun songs are Ain’t No Other Man, and Candyman.

*Joss Stone*
I’m so excited for her latest album, Introducing Joss Stone, released on March 20th. I listened to snippits in iTunes. Sounds good!

*Gym Class Heroes*
Who are these people? They sound like the musical love child of MC Lars +Blink 182.

Want more musical recommendations? See Let Them Have Music.

*This is the slogan of which music store? Hint: I go there about once a week.

Anybody who knows me knows that I love music; and right now I’m going through an intense album phase. Lately I’ve really been respecting the concept of the album – while artists certainly can’t depend on songs being played in any kind of order I like to think that the order matters to them. Listening to an album as a piece is like looking at a series of works by one artist, looking at all of the pieces in a single collection by a fashion designer, or listening to an entire concerto by a composer. Each song, outfit or what-have-you is beautiful and interesting on its own but in the group you can see a theme, how each piece acknowledges it, and how each piece differs from it. In the specific context of music, I really enjoy listening to the different sound variations contained on one album.

These are recent albums I’ve been eyeing:
Nickleback – All the Right Reasons
Fall Out Boy – Infinity on High
Christina Aguilera – Back to Basics
Rodrigo y Gabriela – Rodrigo y Gabriela
Jill Scott – Collaborations

I recently bought these albums:

• Joy Denalane – Born & Raised: thoughtful, soulful music with a slightly 70s sound; good songs are Be Real, Change ft. Lupe Fiasco, Start Over
• Paolo Nutini – These Streets: rock vocals with jazz/rock instrumentals; listen to Last Request, New Shoes, or everything. His voice is beautiful.
• John Cougar Mellencamp – Freedom’s Road: heartland rock with a conscience; some of the best songs are Rural Route, Jim Crow, and Forgiveness

I recently re-discovered Sly and the Family Stone and Three Dog Night. great music.

I’m also really intrigued by iTunes’ Power Ballads compilation. I haven’t quite made up my mind about it, but it did remind me that I can/should update my own power ballads playlist.

Also, if you haven’t checked out the All-Star Tribute version of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” you really should. A link to the You Tube videos here: the original and the updated.

*This is a movie. Have you seen it?