Music

I rarely look forward to new albums, but I’ve heard two tracks so far from Yeasayer’s 2/9 album “Odd Blood” and they’re excellent.  The songs, “O.N.E.” and “Ambling Alp,” were released early as free downloads.  Pre-released songs are usually the best songs on the album, but I’ll still be downloading the rest of the album on faith when it comes out next week.

I’ve also downloaded a handful of tracks from Rjd2 and Four Tet’s new albums. Very good so far.

Any albums coming up that you are looking forward to?

I went to an outdoor ukelele concert this evening. One of the singers had a crowd of kids in front of him and was chatting with them between songs.

SINGER: “Do you want me to play a fast song or a slow song?”
KIDS: “FAST!”
SINGER: “How did I know you were going to say that?”
LITTLE BOY: “Cause we’re children!”

For me, it’s Smooth Criminal. Twenty years later, it still holds up. Obviously, Thriller and Beat It are great, but I don’t want to highlight what everyone loves already.

I’m surprised that I’m a little wistful that Michael Jackson died. I’m not a fan of celebrity culture or feeling sad when strangers with nothing in common with you pass away, but his death reawoken some old memories I haven’t thought of in a while, like trying to learn how to moonwalk or (and this will seem bizarre to most of you) a sense of joy watching Weird Al Yankovic parody Beat It with Eat it.

Link to Smooth Criminal in the sidebar for a while…

A question for anyone out there who is into music. What songs or albums in 2008 did you find yourself listening to over and over again, even months after you first heard it?

I listen to a lot of music so most of it blurs together and is quickly forgotten, regardless of how much I like it during the first few listens. There’s only six songs + artists that managed to stick with me throughout the year (all on the 2008 mix, of course).  The current Song of the Week is one of them (see SotW on the right).