Favorite album of May

A lot of great music came out in June, particularly several new albums by bands I love. Some held up better then others.  The new Hold Steady was initially very disappointing; it's growing on me some (especially The Weekenders), but it's still a weak effort overall and the mix just sounds wrong.  The New Pornographers' Together is good but doesn't match up to Electric Version or Twin Cinema.  Broken Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record starts out wonderful, and mostly is, but falls apart a bit in the second half and is just too long overall.

So leave it to LCD Soundsystem to reign supreme.*

Generally when one album is finished I switch to a different one, I don't like listening to things on repeat.  But This Is Happening is a rare exception, and it's been in my car almost nonstop since release...just like their previous record.  To paraphrase Roger Ebert, I love love love love this album.  I love the Talking Heads and Gary Numan homages.  I love that moment three minutes into Dance Yrself Clean where the song kicks into overdrive.  I love the self-deprecation and goofiness.  It may not be quite as fresh as Sound of Silver, but James Murphy set such a high bar beforehand that I'll let that slide.  (And nothing fully matches up to just how amazing Someone Great is, but that's in my top five songs of all time.)

So get it if you haven't already, whether digital or physical.

* Note: I still haven't heard the new Sleigh Bells, Depreciation Guild, and a few other albums.  But it'd have to be quite an upset to topple This Is Happening.

Seen and Not Seen

It's been a while since I wrote anything more than 140 characters, and I'm starting to get the itch again.  I guess I technically have a journal elsewhere, but in a place that's hardly used any more and is now a pain to even visit due to all the ads.

I'm still not totally sure what I'm going to do with this thing.  The vague plan right now is to use it for talking about music, with occasional interludes for movies or something.  There's a chance I might use it for more creative elements or comedy, but I guess I could also split those off into some other separate location...on the off chance I actually do get fully bitten by that sort of writing bug.  But more likely it will just be mosquitos biting me.

I wanted to name this blog "Seen and Not Seen", but at least two different variations of that are already taken up by squatters who haven't posted anything.  Bastards!