Long weekend, you ask, what's that? Well, in New England, Monday is Patriot's Day. I looked it up once and I've already forgotten. I think it has to do with a battle somewhere, but it is my finding that the natives don't know, either. To them, Monday is Marathon Monday. And it is Marathon Monday for everyone and you fall into only two categories--you either run the Boston Marathon (they were already fucking up Boylston Street last night, I noticed) or you drink all day long. As big a fan of day drinking as I may be, this paper isn't going to write itself. (Though I keep staring at it, in the hopes.)
I do have two new albums I've been listening to as I work: Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What and Lia Ice's Grown Unknown.
Ok. The Paul Simon album. I mean, it's decent. I think The Afterlife (the single most people praise as being "humorous") is obvious. Hell, most of the album is obvious. And I also find the religious overtones--even if they are darker rather than praising or preachy--annoyingly bleed through more and more. Hell, they aren't really even "overtones" anymore.
Overall it lacks the sort of lyrical nuance and mystery his older albums have. And with each passing year since Graceland, the music itself seems to get out of hand. Like it's almost overbearing on occasion. After reading that he was going back to his old-school manner of song-writing from the 70s, I guess I had higher hopes that it would be a little more stripped-down musically? So overall it struck me as disappointing, but I'm working on it.
I may be in the minority here.
This one's not bad, Rewrite, and he's certainly still having fun.
(I want to give Jimmy Fallon shit for gushing at the end, but I would probably look just as idiotic. Oh! And more on Fallon in a second...)
I don't dislike the album. And I would still go see him in concert in a heartbeat and overpay like a motherfucker with a giant grin on my face. If only I were going to be in town! :(
Here's hoping the repeated listens make it grow on me.
Lia Ices is an artist I stumbled on completely by accident while surfing the interwebs. The cheap description would be "Cat Power and Sarah McLachlan mixed together but still different." I read something like that somewhere. I get the Cat Power thing, not so much the SM. But I like this artist more than Cat Power, who for some reason often annoys me.
Anyway, Lia Ices seems to be a fairly unknown artist from Brooklyn, and she played at this year's SXSW. But I'm really enjoying the album. I always buy myself a new album during the last couple weeks of the semester to abuse while I study. I aim for mellow, for obvious reasons. Past selections have been Carrie Newcomer and Frightened Rabbit. I was going to opt for Mumford and Sons, I'm really curious about that album and have heard nothing but good things, but I ended up favoring the obscure.
Ok, back to Jimmy Fallon, or rather, his Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It's not as gross as it sounds at all.
I only had a couple bites in order to be less chunky myself, but it was perfectly tasty. Since they're clusters, if you didn't already know while eating it, I don't think you would suspect "potato chips."
No comments:
Post a Comment