Diesen Klassiker habe ich erst in diesem Jahr wirklich für mich entdeckt und ihn verdammt schnell lieb gewonnen. “Friday I’m in Love” von The Cure stammt aus dem Jahr 1992 und ist einer der schönsten Lovesongs, die je geschrieben wurden. ’nuff said!

Musik alltså. Jag är en enorm periodare och kan lyssna sönder en och samma artist/låt i månader, men det finns massor jag lyssnar på. Har fått någon fråga om min musiksmak tidigare så jag tänkte vara lite snäll och tipsa om bra musik!

Namedropping:

Astral Projection, Afasi & Filthy, Bob Marley, Bomfunk MC’s, Counting Crows, Cypress Hill, Damian Marley, Dezarie, Dison the Dice, Deva Premal, Eva Cassidy, Eminem, Eddy Grant, Frou Frou (Imogen Heap), Governor Andy, Inti, Irya Gmeyner/Irya’s Playground, Infected Mushroom, Kapten Röd, Kingston Airforce, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Looptroop, Lasse Lindh, Lil’ Wayne, Mari Boine, Marlon Asher, Marillion, Nine Inch Nails, NERD, Oingo Boingo (Danny Elfman), Opeth (Damnation-albumet, mesig som jag är), Pendulum, Röyksopp, Ri-Fa, Shpongle, Sting, Sizzla, Svenska Akademien, The Cure, Toto, Timbuktu, The Mo, Treklang, UB40, Xzibit

__________________________

That’s it for droppin’ names. Förutom ovanstående så är det i alla fall en massa random ambient meditation/yogamusik, reggae, psy/goa, hiphop och lite till.

All time favourites:

Av ovanstående all time favourites har jag sett 2 live, kan ni gissa vilka? More importantly, langa musiktips till mig ifall ni kommer på några! ♥

Though there is not a lot of cold weather in Florida, I’ve stumbled onto some albums that are perfect for those who live in a place that has more than two seasons (hot and not so hot).

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago: This is a no-brainer since the band’s name translates to Good Winter.  It’s a haunting, beautiful album that you should listen from front to back.

Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism: No matter what these guys make, Transatlanticism will always been their magnum opus.  Hearing the title song live punches you in the stomach then asks for make up sex with your tearducts.

Counting Crows – August and Everything After: This is a band that peaked with their first album then went to utter hell (except for “Long December”).  However, this is another perfect album that needs to be listened to from front to back (yes, even “Mr. Jones”)

The Cure – Disintergration: Yeah I went there.  Yeah, if you don’t feel anything after listening to it, you have no soul.

The Twilight Singers – Twilight As Played By The Twilight Singers: Greg Dulli is one interesting guy.  On one hand, he’s really obsessed with being a lothario and a private detective.  On the other hand, he’s crafted some compelling music with three different bands (The Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers, and The Gutter Twins).  This is another beautiful album that would go well with dying leaves or six inches of snow.

Antony & The Johnsons – I Am A Bird: Listen to it.  Trust me.

Other than holiday music, what is your soundtrack to the decaying fall and unforgiving winter?

Concerto a meio, gargantas arranhadas, dinheiro perdido, assim foi uma noite maravilhosa na companhia dos Porcupine Tree no Porto.

The Brunettes are coming to you from Auckland NZ, with a new video from their latest album, Paper Dolls. Lyrically, the album combines clever call-and-response levity, an undercurrent of smoldering romance, and a penchant for idiosyncratic storytelling. All are on display in lead single “Red Rollerskates”, which finds Jonathan and (Brunettes co-lead vocalist/instrumentalist) Heather Mansfield solving their relatively ordinary problem (Jonathan walks too fast for his asthmatic girlfriend) with a quirky but playful solution (buying her a pair of red rollerskates and pulling her around with a rope). On “The Crime Machine”, Heather longs to live as a 1920’s Queen-pin, “Bedroom Disco” (fast becoming a live favorite) lives up to it’s title as a stay-at-home party song, and the title track combines surreal lyrics about a stationary fetish with (good) Bond-movie string arrangements and guitar tremolo.

To find out more about this Kiwi artist head over to their myspace page and have a look at all their cool videos and tracks.

Thanks to everybody who commented on my last blog post! I really appreciate you sharing your playlists with everyone and introducing us to some great new music!

As I was responding to your comments, something hit me. You guys have shown us an incredible ammount of support over the last few years. You’ve called your local DJs to request our music. You’ve come to our shows and purchased our CDs. And your votes have caused us to win more contests and get onto more playlists than I could count. Each of you has helped make what we do possible.

Last week was really cool because we had twenty people contribute to our post! But, our anlaytics show that hundreds of people read it. Why is that? I’m not sure. But I feel that it is – at least in some part – due to the fact that so often the creation and delivery of art is a one way street. I want to change that; so I’d like to invite you to take a moment to do three things:

1. Visit atris.wordpress.com (This will be more fun if everyone goes to the same page.)
2. Scroll down to the comment box and introduce yourself. Write a few words about anything you’d like. How did you first hear our music? What city are you from? What are your favorite movies? Pretend we just met at a coffee shop. If you’d like share your blog address, Twitter ID or someplace where we and other people can learn more about you that would be great too!
3. Check the box that says Notify me of follow-up comments via email.

Please don’t do this for us, do this for yourself and for everyone. It takes a certain amount of bravery to put yourself out there; but it’s worth it. We love to get to know people with similar interests, ideas, and opinions. And it’s really cool when group discussions are started. If you have something in common with someone who posts, let him or her know! It makes me feel great to see people responding to my comments, and I love to chime back in to share my thoughts.

Looking forward to meeting you!

-Mason

Après les versions de Katie Melua et Dinosaur Jr, précédemment … celle de The Cure …

En plus, je trouve que Robert Smith vieilli bien. Le maquillage lui va mieux à cinquante ans et les kilos en plus (selon lui, ça serait son épouse qui le préfère ainsi).

On retrouve Porl Thompson, son beauf, à la guitare, et Simon Gallup, le beauf de ce dernier, à la basse. Ils vieillissent bien, eux aussi. Tout le contraire des “vieux beaux” qui essaient de rester “jeunes” et toniques.

The best album cover ever?

Last night on VH1 Europe they did a countdown of the top 25 albums of all time.  Prince made no. 3, and, inevitably, I guess, Thriller made no. 1.  But REM’s automatic for the people made no. 2.  What I found very weird about this, is that people since about the mid 90s have been intentionally forgetting that, between the period 1977-1995, ‘mainstream’ rock, or ‘establishment’ rock, was cosidered by the listening public to be entirely different from ‘alternative’ rock.  At least, that was the case in the US.  In britain, they always seemed to blur the line more, and ‘alternative’ acts often scored top 10 hits, which in the US happened much more infrequently.  But there was still a clear idea that alternative was alternative, and mainstream was mainstream.  And today, people realize this when shopping for music on Amazon:  i.e., “the killers” and DCFC are known to be ‘alternative,’ with ‘emo’ in the latter’s case being a subgenre of alternative:  and everyone has always known that Prince belongs in an entirely different category (of its own–file under ‘weird.’) 

So why are people conflating alternative and ‘pop’ music, to the point where I often hear people lump together alternative with ‘pop,’ so as to distinguish it from ‘R&B’ and ’Dance?’  To do so, I argue, is to entirely miss the point of the ‘altnertive’ movement.  In its heyday, every single person who listened to alternative was aware that it was ‘counter-cultural.’  In essence, alternative contiued the 1960s and 70s trend, which was anti-establishment, and went along with, in some form or another, the popular marxism of the day, which was highly suspicious of corporations, and thus, the record industry.  This of course, presupposes that its listeners have the mental apparatus to appreciate social complexity–to understand society as a system, and/or who are concerned to be articulate about their interation with the world.  Pop music proper, is therefore ‘for the masses,’, i.e., for the majority of people, who, unfortunately, do not have either the will or the IQ power to grapple with complex responses to their environment.  That’s why pop music, e.g. Elvis and Michael Jackson, is generally lyrically incredibly banal.  Both the 60s protest stuff, and, punk, and alternative, and now, things like emo, are thus distinguished by their more sophisticated lyrics.  So, what we are talking about here, then, is music for those who are fortunate enough to have the apparatus and desire to engage with lyrics.  Unfortunately, after 1995, lyrics went out of style (see below) and the entire culture’s level of articulateness, I would argue, has suffered since then.   

By the time that alternative came of age, however, I would argue that it had become much more personal.  While the 60s and 70s Woodstock stuff was decidedly public music – to be performed live, e.g., the doors–and often had impersonal lyrics (e.g. Bob Marley– cryin’ lion zion…. what the hey is that all about?), by the 80s, the goth movement brought music into the bedroom, i.e., into the personal minds of the listener.  Morrissey of course puts it best:  ’When I lay in awe on my bedroom floor,” etc. 

Many people put punk together with alternative, but I see a divergence from the beginning.  Groups like Joy Division and the Cure and Souxsie were always much more cerebral, sensitive, and appealed more to the introspective person, rather than punk, which was often so absurd as to be a simple testosterone fest, despite it’s often radical-marxist lyrics.  In short, I think that punk sucks, becasue though it was perhaps good that someone was doing it, i.e., being socially aware in their music, I believe that their methods, which were essentially violent and anarchist, are inherently self-defeating.  Thus I have never been drawn to it. 

Alternative, on the other hand, foregrounded the individal emotional and (crucially) intellectual response to the world, and thus, can be seen as a re-visioning of the eighteenth-century Cult of Sensibility, which was spearheaded by Goethe, and was then brought to fruition by authors such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Jane Austen, and Keats, who, for the first time in history, asserted that the experience of the individual (particularly of the sensitive individual) truly mattered.  The artist figure, the thinker, the solitary philosopher, was worth listening to, they argued, and this could be anyone–not simply the great.  This encouraged reading and thinking and sensitive people everywhere to stop being deferent to their social superiors, and to really take their own inner dialogue seriously.  This is arguably a very crucial step on the way towards mass democracy. 

And this is why I’m interested in alternative music, from the point of view of this site.  I belive that the 1970s and 80s saw a massive increase in the sensibilities of young thinking people–they grew up in households with more money, for one, and they had more opportunities to travel and to interact with other cultures than ever before.  And they had leisure, and many of them, in Britain and the US, studied the arts, even just in high school, this was done seriously, with an emphasis on text, on poetry and literature, and this encouraged many people once again to take this inner dialogue seriously.  Arguably, the 80s bedroom revolution was quite similar to the romantic revolution which emerged after the french revolution:  a public revolution went bust, and so artist figures, who had been so engaged and so inspired by the public’s prospects, now retreated into their own minds, and continued to hold the ideals of the revolution there, in their own private spheres, until such a time as they might once again find public times propitious for their goals of reform, and remaking. 

This is precisely what the 80s bedroom revolutionaries did, and more.  They saw that the 60s and 70s had failed in many ways to produce anything lasting and concrete, besides a welcome liberalization of society–which should not be underestimated.  But they saw instinctually (I did as a high schooler, and I know my alternative friends did), that the political aims of the hippie revolution were largely unfulfilled, swallowed up by the wave of conservativism brought about by reagan (and thatcher).  And so, we moved inward.  We still had ideals, we still cherished the idea of reform–very much so.  But we also began to realize, through introspecton, that our own selves really truly mattered:  our own emotions, thoughts, etc.  But what made the alternative age different from today, ‘the post alternative age,’ is that today’s emo people, I think, have grown up in an entirely self-serving society, which is almost devoid of the ideal of social reform.  In the 80s, there was still some of that public idealism left.  And it made us idealistic, in the best possible way.  We believed that, by reforming ourselves, we could reform the world, make it better.  (see this website–it’s basically proof that i’m still working in that mode). 

I believe that, after about 1995, these ideals basically died, in a big way, in popular culture, and what we’ve been left with is a culture devoid of public ideals.  It’s therefore all been about the desires of the individual, and thus, is essentially unsophisticated:  it’s all egotism.  Emo people are the intelligent version of the ‘gimme’ school.  But their lyrics are still essentially whining–with no underlying vision.  If you have no social dimension to what you do and think, it’s very difficult for this to be progressive–it is inherently centrifugal, I think.  And then, the less articulate version of this has been the triumph of hip hop, which, for reasons we’ll have to leave for elsewhere, has been almost entirely egotistical and self serving, especially after the few attempts in the 80s to make it political (in which case it was tied to the alternative music ethic– NWA and Public Enemy, e.g., did have much that was political in them–but after about ‘93, any impetus to put the political into music fell away, and hip hop returned to simple braggadocio, and glorification of violence, and domination of women–which, when one loses idealism, is all that’s left).

So, to put a time scale on it: i’d say

1950s:  rock invented, in US and britain.

1960s-early 70s:  protest rock– the first ‘alternative rock.’

1977-present.  Punk.  Angry marxist progressiveness.  Ultimately self-defeating.

1977-1995.  Golden Age of Alternative.  Lyrics were foregrounded, personal experience was foregrounded, but enough idealism remained from the 70s age of popular Marxism, that people genuinely wanted to make the world a better place.

1992- Grunge makes its debut.  Mixes alternative with testosterone rock.  Beginning of the end of alternative music.  After this, sensitive artists begin to avoid lyrics.

mid-1990s.  Age of ‘acid jazz’ ‘house’ – etc.  Club music draws the best and the brighest.  But it is a-lyrical, and so, essentially, the age of social engagement fizzles, quite rapidly.  And with it, idealism.  Idealistic music is no longer fashionable.  The only alternative bands who are still producing major albums are some of what we used to call B-quality bands:  i.e., Radiohead and Bjork.  They sucked compared with the giants of the alternative era, but their manneristic squeaking and shapeless music went well with the new anti-lyrical fashion, and so they became huge.

2000-present.  With internet, a great variety of musical styles, but, it’s still true that, when the lyric comes back into fashion, it is now almost entirely personal.  Political, social, progressive agendas are entirely out, and so the music never rises above the purely juvenile.  Whereas Morrissey and Ian Curtis’ poetry has the power of Wordsworth to engage us, and incite us, to think idealistically, the (admittedly good) lyrics of Death Cab for Cutie, or worse, the banal lyrics of the White Stripes, and the Yeah yeah yeahs, never rise above the purely personal of the high school student’s poetry:

‘yesterday i saw a couple/kissing by the train platform/they were so beautiful/i wondered where they were going.’

Etc.  This is drivel–because it’s purely of personal interest.  It has no idealism, thus, no universalism, and that is the essence of good poetry.

So, my argument, then, is that grunge killed alternative, and after that, we hear people talking of ‘rock being in the shitter’ (trent reznor, 1999–unfortunately his album of that year did nothing to rescue it–the inspiration had died–the age of idealism was largely over).  And until the culture once again recovers idealism, it will continue to stay in the shitter.  Read around on this site, and you’ll see how idealism and moving, real, gripping, engaging art have always been entirely intertwined with one another. 

Thus, all of the following albums, from 1977 to about the grunge era (let’s say 1995–though i do include some grunge), are filled with idealism, even if their lyrics do not explicitly sound that way at all.  And a few albums that come after this time have managed to keep some of that idealism, and so they are included here as well.  Even the industrial music which was a subgenre of alternative in the latter part of this period was not anything like ‘white zombie’ or ’tool’ which came later, and which are genuinely antisocial, antihumanist, and violent–and thus antidemocratic.  I would argue, then, that Skinny Puppy is highly idealistic and progressive, while Maynard what’s-his-name’s “Tool”, which dominated the 90s niche formerly held by bands like Skinny Puppy, replaced it with an entirely anti-idealistic, self-destructive, even psychotic atmosphere, which I argue, still holds the dominant position in our society today (see my post on violence condoning torture for more on this).   Ok, then without further ado (and knowing that we’ll have to discuss these choices at a future time):  here would be my top 25 alternative/industrial albums of all time (and it’s basically ridiculous to put them in order, I think):

Dead Can Dance-  Serpent’s Egg, or Spiritchaser; 10,000 Maniacs – Our Time in Eden; The Cure- The Top; Joy Division- Substance; New Order – Substance; Belle & Sebastian – Tigermilk; Depeche Mode – Violator; Pixies – Doolittle; Loreena McKennitt – The Visit; Smashing Pumpkins – Gish; Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes; The Smiths- Louder than Bombs; Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs; The National – The National; REM – Document or Automatic for the People; Skinny Puppy – Mind:  The Perpetual Intercourse; Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas; Sundays – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic; Ministry - Live:  In case you didn’t feel like showing up;  Moby – Play; St. Germain-St. Germain (a-lyrical, but idealistic); Coldplay – Rush of Blood to the Head; Death Cab for Cutie – Plans; Enya – Watermark; Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy; Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral or Pretty Hate Machine.  Lisa Gerard – The Mirror Pool.

Ok, that’s 27.  But what most of these have in common, is that they are beautiful, sublime, epic, and/or highly idealistic.  They are not essentially violent (even Ministry-I’d argue), but essentially the opposite–egalitarian, democratic, progressive, empathetic.  They strive for the good, the beautiful, the just.  And so they receive the Platonist’s seal of approval.

Estos son algunos de los rockeros postulados para que participen este año en el festival que se realiza en Madrid, España en junio de 2010.

La organización lleva trabajando desde hace tiempo para confeccionar el cartel de la nueva edición , por eso en la web se abren las votaciones.

Asi que , a esperar, hasta ahora se nota que el cartel esta muy bueno.

I’m in love with these Mariachi renditions of Marvin Gaye, The Cure, and Annie Lenox. This album is something else—a really good dream come true.

1. Unfortunately for the singer of this song, the yesterday he’s been fearing is now today.

2. If “yesterday (you) got so old” you should be really worried that you might be aging in reverse. The implication of reverse aging is pretty obvious and horrifying, to say the least, since you’ll eventually end up as a hapless zygote.

3. Getting old has lots of wonderful benefits. Not working is one of them. Also having no use for teeth. Only idiots would feel “like (they) could die” or “want to cry.”

4. If yesterday you “got so scared (you) shivered like a child” you should’ve brought a jacket instead of looking like a fucking out of work kabuki actor.

5. Yesterday, and the days before that, we paid attention to our English classes in grade school so we wouldn’t end up saying hideously ungrammatical lines like “Yesterday, away from you, it froze me deep inside” or “That it couldn’t be me and be her in between without you.” (edg)

Well Iowa city, I have about three Radioloveless shows left before I leave the KRUI airways for good. Two shows will consist of my favorite tracks to hear, thus the title of my post. If you listen to the show, I’m sure you’ve heard most of them. Either way, the next two shows will be filled with my favorites. The last show will be my Christmas show, which is always a fun show to do.

I’ll be moving back east next year, after living and DJing in Iowa city for the past 6. I love it here, and I love KRUI even more. Listen in at 89.7 fm or online here. Here’s the show

1. R.E.M.’s Fables of Reconstruction (1985), Driver 8
2. Sebadoh, Bakesale (1994, oh and the naked baby on the cover is Lou Barlow), Skull
(It’s my favorite track from Sebadoh along with lots of other kids my age, thank you Lou for bringing this into my life.)

3. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Pig Lib (2003), Vanessa from Queens
(Steve defines cool, even if I can’t figure out what he’s singing about)
4. Teenage Fanclub, Bandwagonesque (1991), Star Sign
(This just sounds like the 90s to me, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and little.)
5. The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground, Pale Blue Eyes
(Uhm, who doesn’t like this song?)
6. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
This is my favorite Wilco album, I keep coming back.
7. Wire, Pink Flag (1977), 1 2 X U
8. Yo La Tengo, President Yo La Tengo (1989), Barnaby Hardly Working
9. Catherine Wheel, Ferment (1992), Black Metallic
10. Black Tambourine, Complete Recordings, Pack You Up
This track is so short and cool, it just makes me want to go out and be their groupie if they were still around.
11. The Dandy Warhols, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia (1999), Sleep
I can’t help it, I love this album.
12. Big Star, #1 Record (1972), Thirteen
Rolling stone said it was “one of the most beautiful songs about Adolescence.”
13. The Breeders, Pod (1990), When I was a Painter
14. Pavement, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain (1994), Silence Kit (awesome request for Sutcliffe Catering Song but was having issues with my CD.)
15. Built to Spill, Perfect From Now On (1997), I would Hurt a Fly
16. Cat Power, What would the Community Think (1996), Bathysphere
17. The Church, Starfish (1988), Under the Milky Way
18. Cocteau Twins, Head Over Heels (1983), When Mama was a Moth

19. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless (1991), When you Sleep
Pitchfork quoted Loveless as the best album of the 90’s, I might have to agree.
20. The Clash, The Clash (1977), Janie Jones
21. Sleater-Kinney, One Beat (2002), Combat Rock
22. Depeche Mode, Violator (1990), Blue Dress
23. The Cure, Seventeen Seconds (1980), A Forest
24. Archers of Loaf, White Trash Heroes (1998), Dead Red Eyes
25. Guided By Voices, Alien Lanes (1995), My Valuable Hunting Knife
26. Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II (1984), New Gods

Album Cover

Tegan and Sara

“Sainthood”

October 2009; Sire Records

By Emily J Ramey

By now you better know that the indie rock duo Tegan and Sara is comprised of Canadian identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin.  The eclectically charismatic pair of women has been gathering critical acclaim for their raw and distinctive power pop since the 2004 release of So Jealous and its single “Walking with a Ghost.”  However, it was 2007’s The Con and its singles “Back in Your Head” and “The Con” that led to T&S’ international renown and household name status.  Ring any bells?  Okay, fast forward nearly two years.

Now, with their six full length album Sainthood, Tegan and Sara are demonstrating their staying power in a rapid-moving industry as well as their ability to adapt and develop their music as the women themselves mature as songwriters, performers, and musical icons.

Sainthood is a badass girl rock album with strong, driving percussion, sharp, choppy vocals, and clever, buoyant lyrics.  Essentially, Tegan and Sara have recorded an assortment of syrupy love songs turned edgy eighties synth pop by the twins’ tight electronic instrumentation and tensely expressive, angular performance.

Sainthood’s track listing is well-balanced and robust.  A few of the can’t-miss songs are “Don’t Rush,” a grungy, distorted tune, simple and distinguishing with its pithy chorus: “One way or another/I’ll find my way to cover/I sing to find my other;” the album’s first single “Hell,” a catchy tour de force with quick wordplay and heavy, upbeat guitar contradicting its darker content; the silky and dynamic tune “The Cure” with its silvery harmonies, mellow flow, and sanguine lines like, “I know the world’s been mean to you/ I’ve got a cure; hold tight./I know the world’s not fair to you/I’ve got a cure for its crimes;” the post-punk-influenced “Northshore,” complete with rebel adolescent lyrics like, “Don’t save me, don’t save me, don’t save me,” and the repeated chorus line, “There’s something so sick about this/My misery’s so addictive;” and the effortless and unpretentious “Alligator,” a sunny tune of love lost.

Tegan and Sara use simplicity and hazy instrumentation to downplay their lyrics, which somehow works in reverse to highlight the duo’s unparalleled ability to speak to the heart of complications in love and other similar stories.  The Quin women are irresistible, but to be fair, they did warn us: “Watch/With a bit of friction/I’ll be under your clothes./With a bit of focus/I’ll be under your skin.”

410 words

The Cure
Three Imaginary Boys
(1979)1. 10.15 Saturday Night
2. Accuracy
3. Grinding Halt
4. Another Day
5. Object
6. Subway Song
7. Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
8. Meathook
9. So What
10. Fire In Cairo
11. It’s Not You
12. Three Imaginary Boys
13. The Weedy Burton

W około trzy lata po rozpoczęciu działalności pod swoją ostateczną nazwą, The Cure dorobili się już pierwszego długogrającego krążka. Osoby wychowane na późniejszych dziełach, jak “Disintegration” czy “Wish”, mogą po pierwszym przesłuchaniu “Three Imaginary Boys” czuć się nieco zaskoczone, bowiem debiut zespołu Roberta Smitha daleki jest jeszcze od później wypracowanego, okrzepłego stylu.

Na “Three Imaginary Boys” dominuje stylistyka post-punkowa – instrumentarium pracuje oszczędne (przykładowo partie gitar Roberta Smitha i Porla Thompsona są bardzo minimalistyczne), bardzo wyrazista jest za to perkusja. Na próżno szukać tutaj rozbudowanych wielopoziomowych kompozycji, jakie staną się jedną z późniejszych wizytówek zespołu – średni czas trwania piosenek to około trzy minuty, najdłuższe numery mają nieco ponad pół minuty więcej (tytułowy oraz “10.15 Saturday Night”). Liczy się przede wszystkim jak największa prostota, energia wykonawcza oraz niezłe melodie, do pisania których lider zespołu od początku miał dryg – doprawdy trudno oderwać się od dynamicznego “Grinding Halt”, “Object” z pogłosowanym wokalem, całkiem pogodnego “Fire In Cairo” czy melancholijnego “Three Imaginary Boys”. Nieco niepokoju wprowadza “Another Day”, który poniekąd zapowiada, w jakim kierunku zwrócą się The Cure na następnych płytach. Warto zwrócić uwagę na “Subway Song”, nieco kojarzący mi się z bluesem – może to za sprawą harmonijki ustnej. “It’s Not You” to zaś kawałek o ewidentnie punkowej proweniencji. Pewną niespodzianką może być zapewne mocno przyspieszona “Foxy Lady” Jimiego Hendrixa, śpiewana przez Michaela Dempseya (basistę), ale traktować ją należy bardziej jako ciekawostkę, choćby ze względu, że to raczej swobodna gra podczas próby dźwięku, aniżeli poważna próba zmierzenia się z żelaznym klasykiem rocka.

“Three Imaginary Boys” to album lekki, łatwy i przyjemny, daleki jeszcze od nurtu nowej fali i gotyku, jaka obejmie The Cure w następnych latach. To przyzwoite wydawnictwo, aczkolwiek nie pokazuje jeszcze, jakim muzycznym geniuszem okaże się Robert Smith.

Ocena: 7.5 / 10

Ciekawostki:

• Rok później, na rynek amerykański został wprowadzony album “Boys Don’t Cry”, czyli “Three Imaginary Boys” ze zmienioną listą utworów – część zniknęła, a na ich miejsce pojawiły się inne, nie opublikowane na debiucie.
• Robert Smith przyznał, że już w chwili wydania nie przepadał za tym krążkiem. Wolał wtedy nagrać coś bardziej złożonego, a nie tak lekkostrawnego i przystępnego.
• Smith pierwszy i jedyny raz nie miał wpływu na wybór okładki i inne kwestie związane z płytą. Przykładowo wpływ na dobór piosenek miał producent Chris Parry. Od tej pory lider The Cure kontrolował już wszystkie te sprawy.
• W 2004 r. pojawiła się dwupłytowa, zremasterowana edycja krążka, zawierająca na drugim CD rozmaite rarytasy, między innymi utwory z “Boys Don’t Cry”, jakie nie pojawiły się na “Three Imaginary Boys” – zabrakło jedynie “Killing An Arab” ze względu na kontrowersje, jakie zawsze wywoływał.

Bonjour!

Alors voici un petit article dans lequel je vous offre une première vue dans mon univers…musical

J’ai quand même glissé quelque chose qui n’as pas vraiment sa place dans cette photo! On va voir si il y as des connaisseurs

A vos posts!

P-S: n’hésitez pas à cliquer sur la photo pour voir l’image en “taille réelle”