The last album you listened to

I've often characterized Sufjan Stevens' output as the soundtrack for the Peanuts cartoons as written by a manic depressive.

I'm also curious if he'll ultimately make more progress in his efforts to release state-themed albums or Christmas-themed albums.

... What, music?  I got nothing.  I haven't listened to a new album or even an unfamiliar album since the fall.

The mere mention of Republica instantly puts me in mind of going shopping in Peterborough in the mid-90s, because "Ready to Go" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" were absolutely ubiquitous on shop radios. They were tied in pretty well to our version of the riot grrrl movement, but I think that was more about the look than any auditory similarity. I never heard anything more from them (I don't think most people did), but those tunes are must-haves for 90s parties and club nights, and I'd still much rather listen to them than certain other British mainstays of that era (Oasis, Suede, Ocean Colour Scene, etc) because they at least had a bit of oomph.

Well, as you said, they tried to sell a sort of hybrid sound of house and rock which didn't really excel as either, and resulted in a kind of edgy-cute that may have foreshadowed the mainstream explosion of the paradox that is pop-punk. On the strength of the two singles I'm familiar with, I think they survive as 'amiable enough'.

Republica - Speed Ballads (1998)

I'll admit it, guys. I looked at that heavily airbrushed portrait of Ms. Saffron on the album cover, looking like the protagonist of a third-rate cyberpunk novel with her goofy fur boa, and I thought to myself, "jesus this album is going to be shit." So I gave it a spin, figuring that, like, you know what, I wouldn't mind listening to a cruddy house album. Except... it turned out to be a decent pop album! Right after I peg these guys as a house group in pop-rock drag, they turn around and become a pop-rock band in house drag. Which on first listen made me think "God damn it, guys, pick a genre and stick with it!"

But I've listened to the album three times now (I know, I know) and it's sort of grown on me, largely because it's so counterintuitive. Here's a good example: There's a track on the album called "Millennium" about, uh, Y2K (I didn't mention this on their debut but this band has "mid 90's" tattooed in the shape of an L on its forehead), and the production is suitably electronic for the first fifteen seconds or so. Until the guitar comes in and the song takes a hard veer into Steppenwolf territory for about two minutes, until out of nowhere comes a frickin' violin solo?? A lot of the album feels like this, where the Garbage blip boop stuff is the glue holding together a bunch of genre mashups that are hypothetically nonsensical but sound absolutely normal here. The album has a bit too much glue, if you ask me, where the strength of the compositions is slightly marred by all the Garbage blip boop stuff.

The big surprise here is how weirdly... pedestrian the subject matter is. Like, half the songs on this album are about sitting in your room, eating Haagen Daaz and watching Bruce Lee flicks. (There's literally a song on this album called "Kung Fu Movies" which is about watching... well, you know.) Which is weirdly earnest, much more so than the "I'm gonna beat people up and have lots of wild sex, motherfucker!!!" vibe of their previous album. It's more Ballads than Speed, in other words, and more girly than gynoid. And actually surprisingly good. Not a masterpiece but like, four-out-of-five-stars good.

This must be what guttersnipe feels like when he hears someone raving about La La Land.

Like, I really like mashups, like, really really like them. I've even made a couple myself. Which means that my Youtube recommendations are filled with mashups. (Or invitations to listen to "Drop Dead Gorgeous" again. You've recommended the video fifty times YouTube, take the hint.) And I listen to most of them, and most of them... are not good. Not just not good, like, actively awful. Like, there are uninspired mashups-- take instrumental and have the Smash Mouth guy sing over it-- but there are so many people who don't even realize that you need to adjust the songs so the vocals and instruments are in the same tempo, let alone the same key.

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that Mouth Sounds/Silence/Moods ruined mashups by dint of being so good. (Zarn, you have heard these albums, right?)

I find it rather difficult to discuss music in any great detail, or more specifically, put across exactly why this song or album works for me above so many others. People can talk about melodies, grooves, technical skill, or smart and/or meaningful lyrics, but more often than not, it's just the style of the music that appeals to someone, and there may be no rhyme or reason (relating to those things above) beyond that. And most people who say they're into "all kinds of music", if you actually looked at their CD/record collection, or the playlist on their iPod, it's 80% or more similar material, and some other random things that they barely ever listen to.

There's so much music available at our fingertips these days that it's hard to find much common ground. And recommending music to most people is generally a complete waste of time. Either they're locked into their pattern of only listening to a few mainstream artists, or they listen to so much music that they develop a fussy snob attitude that looks down upon anyone who isn't totally enamoured with, or familiar with, this or that hip new artist (that will probably be forgotten in five years' time).

And right now, more than any time in the past (that I can recall), I find myself as indifferent to the many critically-acclaimed artists/albums out there as I am to the critically-reviled ones. It seems like there's a finer line between the two than ever, and without actually reading some reviews, I find it awfully tough to figure out why Artist A gets gets praised while the very similar Artist B gets trashed.

I listened to it, that was pretty nifty. Where did that whole CD spiel come from?