Friday, December 08, 2006

Love it and leave it

Love it:

I’ve been digging on the new Beatles album, Love. It’s a rework of the band’s most groundbreaking material. It’s also the soundtrack to a new Cirque du Soliel spectacle of the same name. All of these things would usually turn my stomach, because it is easily perceived as a mass-marketed, focus-grouped, generation-crossover gimmick. But, you know what? It’s highly listenable. The sound is very polished. The album feels like a musical trip - in the same vein as Smile, without the bad mojo.

Leave it:

This is starting to get out of hand. In the past couple weeks or so, there have been two big indie upsets. First, The Go! Team are forced to sell out. Now, I’ve been informed that Chan Marshall has followed suit (willingly or not, we don’t know yet). In any case, I’ve come up with a formula to lose your artistic credibility in three steps:

1. Write a sappy love song
2. License it out to an
ethically questionable industry
3. Hang out and collect royalty cheques as the your grassroots, DIY, hipster fanbase becomes disillusioned


Bah! C'est la vie. I hate to leave you on a Friday afternoon without some levity. Here’s a music video that Andrew made me aware of. ♪

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