Lee picked up a bunch for me. Here's a quick run-down of what worked for me and what didnt'...
CRAZY ITCH RADIO, BASEMENT JAXX (2006).
If you know the band, you know they try everything but their albums are wildly uneven. A lot of the energy seems to be determined by the inspiration they feel/the collab they work with various guest artists, vocalists.
They manage to keep the career going by just having one or two tiny "hits," although I don't think they've had a hit in America in years, since like "Check Your Head" (great vid for that).
The only song I like on here--and I only half like it--is "Lights Go Down" which has a sort of ersatz Gwen Stefani chick singing on it..
Maybe something will grow on me, but I doubt it.
Speaking of crappy music, Lee rented some gay romance movie (TLA, who else) and it was a transparent attempt to redo Brokeback Mountain, a movie I really didn't like at all (nor the Proulx story, nor any Proulx story really). Anyway, the "score" was laughably bad. The guy actually had that creeping, elephant walk type "music" to cue you in when a scene was comic relief. I cringed. It got worse with each scene. I think it was called The Redwoods. The plot was unbelievably dumb, but most TLA movies are just excuses for some young gay bunnies to fondle each other in pretty settings. The director had a good eye, but he overdid the Brokeback shit and you could tell what scenes in other movies he was cribbing a lot. The one guy was cute, though, and there were some hot seduction scenes. But it was like watching models having sex. I felt dirty.
Speaking of hot and feeling dirty...
THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, MIKA (2009)
What can I say bad...it's Mika...
Even some of the songs I like fail in imagination 3/4's of the way in.
Like the one song that begins to sound like the Inevitable Claw Machine in the foyer of every diner in Pennsylvania.
Or the one everybody says is a plagiarism of that Belinda Carlisle song ("We Are Golden"). It is and it isn't. Mostly isn't. "Heaven on Earth" I guess they mean. But the screaming kids chorus is just gay. Not good gay. The other kind.
I like "Rain" and "I See You" (soap opera piano beginning and general excess notwithstanding) and "By the Time."
Oh, "Toy Boy" is very cute, almost cabaret.
If you don't like Mika's screeching falsetto you'll hate this album because he does that a lot here.
This album is nowhere near as brilliant as his last, but I'm being ungrateful because it is Mika.
And he's wonderful even when he sucks.
If that makes sense.
Lots of seventies throwbacks on here, which I love..."Pick Up Off the Floor" is just one that sounds like really good seventies eccentricity..almost Supertramp...no...Supertrampish..but tempo slowed down...not upbeat Supertramp.
I've heard some scary covers by Mika but I bet he could do great Supertramp covers.
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN, MARLENE DIETRICH (1998 compilation).
God, she has to be one of the worst singers ever.
And yet one's ears can't "look" away.
It's like a car crash with a bad accent.
Tranny voice.
Funny when the all male chorus kicks in to try to bring some musicality to a number.
JASON MRAZ'S BEAUTIFUL MESS: LIVE ON EARTH (VOL. 1) (2009)
Jason Mraz can do anything.
Anything he wants and I'm happy.
I used to think he was just a typical pop singer (from songs like "The Remedy") and he is a brilliant writer of pop. But he's just a great songwriter all around and I suspect he hasn't even begun to tap his potential.
And I think he has one of the best male voices in pop music.
I didn't understand what he was doing on first listen with these songs, because I didn't think they were the best live versions or even the best songs chosen (no way)...I'm just talking this disc..it's a two disc set and the other is videos so I haven't been able to burn it and just watched a little...
But then I realized he picked the performances where he had connected with the audience in a very loving and even-level way...which is sort of casually brilliant...I mean, jeez, the guy even covers Lionel Ritchies' "All Night Long" and manages to make it work. I mean you laugh, but that's the intention. And yet he does the song justice. He's not doing it to be an asshole. He realizes the song is like "schmaltz party in a bag." Potato chip pop. Nacho pop.
J.M. is not afraid to write a killer lounge song and be the perfect lounge singer...and I love that...I mean lounge the way George Michael can do lounge...bring in Astrid or something...smooth....
Songs like "butterfly" go right past me, but hetero cruising songs with imagery that obnoxious....well forgive me...maybe he feels that way listening to The Smiths...
I suspect the ideal state to listen to this album is stoned or drunk so I can't be in the ideal state to hear this.
Yet I really did end up enjoying it because I buy the guy completely.
Even when he's being hokey like when he works the audience in his southern baptist preacher "selling" voice as on the intro to "The Dynamo of Volition."
Or when he insist the audience join in his "Ommm" to "send a sound into outer space."
The band is really rather anemic on some of these tracks.
Even the brass is a snooze on some tracks.
But once J.M. starts to sing all is forgiven.
I imagine there are people who wish he would never rap again ( only on a minority of songs) but I'm definitely not one of them.
Yes, it's a collegiate, somewhat smarmy type of "rap," hence instantly suspect, but his lyrics are so damn funny and his delivery is always dead on...and he has speed, which is great...if I had said "flow" you could have slammed your Tims down hard on my toes...one bit of pretension coming down hard on another...
He's written some of the best songs I've heard from a pop star in years.
But alas most of them are NOT on this disc I'm talking about now.
I feel guilty for loving his voice so much, cuz he's so much what I imagine young, white, heteros (the uncool kind probably) like....you know, like "post-preppy" white boys....
But the man can sing.
And write.
And looks pretty to boot.
Czechs are hot.
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