I've no idea why, but I'm feeling some serious fifth-grade, Hysteria-era Def Leppard nostalgia tonight, and the video for "Animal" is just the ticket. [1]
[1] Oh, and: Hysteria is on neither Amazon MP3 or iTunes? That seems like a bad decision, somewhere in the whole music business chain.
This is pretty incredible: Edwyn Collins (of Orange Juice), who had a stroke back in 2005, drew illustrations of birds as part of his recovery process:
Then I drew my first bird, a widgeon. It's quite crude, but I was pleased with the result. Each day I drew at least one bird. I was tired back then, but my stamina has grown. I could see my progress with each bird. Up, up, up. It's encouraging. The thing is, it's not just about switching to my left hand; my brain isn't the same as it was. Until recently, I only liked to use cheap notebook paper. Pencil drawings only. Everyone is telling me to use colour, but all in good time. I need to perfect my technique. I'm a creature of habit. But I'm now using posher cartridge paper. It changes your style.
Three years after his stroke, Orange Juice will be reuniting for a show, and Collins will perform on stage. (via Idolator)
New Beyoncé! That's always good news, and "If I Were a Boy" is my favorite type of Beyoncé, in the vein of "Irreplaceable": spare instrumentation, lots of private drama and emoting, and a video full of very intense and meaningful looks. There's also "Single Ladies" [1], but I'm just a total sucker for ballads, so "If I Were a Boy" hits the spot:
[1] "Single Ladies" really isn't doing it for me, yet: listening to it makes me feel like I'm losing at a video game, over and over and over.
What with the singing whilst riding a white horse, and the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" cover, &c., I really kinda wish I'd seen the Of Montreal show chronicled so faithfully by pretty much every music blogger in New York, by now.
From Robin Thicke's Something Else--which I actually like quite a bit, overall--comes this contender for most unintentionally funny line of the year, one that, every time I hear it, I can't help but think, "really?". [1]
It's from "Dreamworld", which, I guess, is Thicke's updated version of "Imagine", i.e., it's full of very earnest wishes for what would make our world a little better. And it's this specific line, which you should read as if it's prefixed with, "wouldn't it be great if...":
Energy would just fall down right from the sky, yeah
Which, the first time I heard it, I was like, "hmm?" And then, the second time, I was like, "but... it does!"
And then I started second-guessing myself, sure that Thicke must mean something more profound, like: wouldn't it be great if we used all of the energy coming from the sun rather than being depressingly dependent upon foreign oil?
And that was when I realized that I'd spent far too much time thinking about Robin Thicke and his lack of knowledge about how things work.
[1] And thanks to Anil for reminding me of this yesterday.
A lovely video, for a lovely song, from a lovely album: Britta Persson's Kill Hollywood Me, available only on import, is one of my favorite albums this year.
And this is the very charming video for the title track:
A brilliant, manic video (via Idolator), also available on Janelle Monae's official site (with better audio quality).
David Ramsey's "I Will Forever Remain Faithful" (via Sasha Frere-Jones) is one of the best things I've read in a while, and does a better job than most critical pieces of explaining Lil Wayne's appeal & importance.
Every paragraph is quote-worthy, but I especially liked this:
An eighth grader wrote his Persuasive Essay on the topic "Lil Wayne is the best rapper alive." Main ideas for three body paragraphs: Wayne has the most tracks and most hits, best metaphors and similes, competition is fake.
I'm loving Lloyd's Lessons in Love, even though there's something a little exhausting about it (in a reach-for-a-cigarette kind of way).
In addition to the always-fabulous "Girls Around the World" (best song of the spring/summer, I think), my current favorite is "Year of the Lover", which features this (slightly ridiculous) opener:
Don't make plans for dinner--
I'm a put you up on the stove and take off all of your clothes;
Girl, watch me cook.
And speaking of, um, mood music, I'm always reminded of one of my favorite Amazon reviews of all time, this one for MC Solaar's Prose Combat (a fantastic album in its own right):
Here is what I did: I took "Lover's Rock" and "Diamond Life" and "The Best of Sade" and "Seal" and a French Rap CD called "Prose Combat" by MC Solaar, put them all in my 5-CD changer and put it on automatic shuffle. I had this girl over for dinner who I met in a department store when I was downtown shopping. I got some oysters from the fish store, sliced 'em open on the half-shell, cracked open a bottle of Asti Spumante (that's Italian Champagne) and dimmed the lights. This whole scenario was straight out of this book I read called "9 Free Secrets of New Sensual Power" which is basically some kind of sex-memoir/instruction book for higher consciousness, that is DOPE! So she comes over and I light some candles, we start dancing to all that Sade music and that killer-sexy French rap (that the guy in the book also turned me onto,) and one thing just naturally led to another, just like it said he would ...
Starting with Solange's "Sandcastle Disco", the new Genius inside my computer made a playlist for me that included Janelle Monae's "Violet Stars Happy Hunting!" (from Metropolis: The Chase Suite), reminding me how much bizarre fun that song is.
It's all androids and manic energy, and it's just what I needed.
And I think to myself
(Impossibly, they're gunning for me)
Wait, it's impossible
Now they're gunning for me (and the police are after you)
And now they're after you (For loving, too)
