Indier Than Thou: January 2008

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Year List Things Pt 2: The Days of Yore

This actually has nothing to do with anything, basically, but I thought I'd put together a list of things that SHOULD have been on the list last year. Because, you know, they should've been on the list, last year. By last year, I mean '06, not '07 which is technically already the REAL last-year. My little Best of '07 thing will probably only be finished years from now. That's okay though, because no one reads this and because... because there's a writer's strike, yeah. Yeah.

Please click the link in the title of this post, by the way.

And now without further ado...

5. Paris Hilton - Paris
It reggae...! No, this isn't actually on this list because I want to make fun of it. I've nothing to make fun of here... it's great. I don't really like hearing everybody's bull about "oh she's famous for nothing and she's such a bad influence and she's a lazy rich whore and she's disgusting and everything she stands for is repulsive and - " well, shut up, assassinate her if it bugs you so much. Also, I can't remember if I put the Charlotte Gainsbourg album on last year's list (but I remember in any case that I was close to doing so) and people are allowed to genuinely like her without getting stuff thrown at them. Why's that? It's the same deal. Rich and successful daddy, lots of arguably undeserved cash, thriving or once-thriving-not-so-much-anymore supermodel career, unimpressive voice that's doctored quite a bit, most likely they don't write their own songs (I know Charchar doesn't and I doubt Paris does)... the only thing different is the sex tape. Or so you might think. Maybe that link's not quite as extreme as whatever Paris did, but still. The other difference is Charlotte being Eurotrash which is not as frowned-upon as it should be... instead, people seem to respect it. But really. Ew. Europe. Anyway, this album achieves everything it sets out to achieve (it's catchy, poppy, dancey, etc.) which is more than can be said for a lot of albums by all those Respectable Artists that seem to be all the rage lately.

4. Elton John/Lee Hall/Liam Mower/etc. - Billy Elliot: The Musical, Original Cast Recording
This is beautiful. Here, this speaks for itself:



Watch the whole thing! That's an order. If it doesn't give you the shivers then you have a heart of stone.

3. Tool - 10 000 Days
Admittedly this album had to be forced on me, practically at gunpoint, really. But something very good that can be said about it is that even when I was trying my very hardest to dislike it (I just don't want to look like one of those Bret-Easton-Ellis-obsessed, Bill-Hicks-teeshirt-wearing, drug-doing Edgy types, okay? Gosh!), I ended up... loving it. The guy's got a really good voice, really flexible, haunting, too - I mean, once you get past how annoying he probably is in person. The drums on this album are just...just...wow, you know? I usually don't give a shit about whoever's drumming, it's usually just some angry young man hitting things and that, but on this album...shiiit. According to a friend of mine this is "polyrhythmic drumming". No idea what the hell that means. But it sounds, um, exciting? Like lots of running horses! The lyrics can be lame though; so, so lame.

(But kind of funny, too! I was going read the whole list of comments looking for someone who responded to "try pulling your foot out of your mouth asshole!" with "what's a mouth asshole?" but it really just wasn't worth the trouble. But then like... is it your mouth's asshole?)

2. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
The number one reason this made the list was that I like Beirut a lot, but don't feel like Flying Club Cup is going to be on my list for '07 just because, I dunno, this stuff is a little repetitive. I like it a lot but there's stuff I like more, so. So I'm putting this here just to prove I'm not ignoring it (and to tell all two people that read this blog that I think Zach Condon is the most attractive man alive).

1. Anathallo - Floating World
Pitchfork gave this a pretty nasty review. Like...really nasty. The Sufjan Stevens comparison and the comments about the lyrics are accurate enough that they sting... but seriously? Given what that stupid site says about Animal Collective, they should... well, they should shut up. I'll save the Pitchfork rant for another day (or maybe never, basically: the people working for Pitchfork Media all suck! Bah!), but hey, go ahead and read the review up there but imagine that everything they say about the album was meant in a good way. Then buy or download the album, and like it, because it takes a lot less effort to enjoy than "Marc Hogan" would have you think. It's great. Or if it isn't I'm just young, dumb and easily impressed. Both options are equally possible but I like the first better and because of the first two thirds of the second one (try and work that math out, whheeeeee) I think that you should agree with me.

And, Bonus!

Best of 2008 (maybe, who knows): The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
(oho! oho! such a hacker i am!)