Stranger Than Paradise

Olympic-sized event for diminutive
Icelandic pop star



Physical State: sleepy
Mental State: sluggish
Music: Pascalle's show on RadioIndieRock
Fashion sense: green shirt, black shorts

Yes its true. For the Olympics this year we'll see none other than my Madonna, Icelandic experimental pop queen Bjork, performing for the opening ceremonies. A great coup for her and another demonstration that Europeans understand her as North Americans do not. Be sure to check it out on tv either 1pm or 7pm ET in repeat.

Anyways I hear Yanni was already booked (kidding). Did anyone consider calling Vangelis? What's that guy up to these days anyway? Come on man, what happened after Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire dude?

Of stuff and nonsense. One musical
wank away from a total piece of crap



Physical State: weary
Mental State: annoyed
Music: The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
Fashion sense: brown shirt, tan shorts

Have you ever heard the phrase "just because you can, doesn't mean you should". Well that pretty well sums up my impression of the new album from Brooklyn's Fiery Furnaces. After a wonderful and charming debut in the form of The Gallowsbird's Bark, I was looking forward to this new album. There is a lot of talent here between brother and sister but far FAR too much noodling nonsense this time around. A lot of the songs have some great shining moments that get thwarted by some other instant musical detour (sometimes like 5-6 times in a song, its like 6 different songs in one). Its almost like Eleanor and Matt had bouts of severe A.D.D. when they made this rock opera/concept/pretentiousness/what have you album. There is no song structure from start to finish and a lot of the songs go on for 8-9 minutes! I wanna get off. There's lovely piano and Eleanor's singing then its fucked up by Matthew doing some guitar wank or synthesizer break that comes outta nowhere (and quickly takes the song in that direction). At times I felt like I was listening to a tape cassette stretching in the tape deck. (Let's not mince words here, Steve). Maybe its because their first album was such a triumph, so interesting and widely acclaimed that they thought "this time 'round let's make 20 albums that we want to make and put them in one before someone finds out what we're up to". Even Sgt. Pepper's had some starts and finishes to their songs (and they had reasons for weirdness), so did Syd Barrett. This is neither of those.

As a stage play or an animated film this cd would probably be great, but to listen to it in between Cat Power and Massive Attack, its just not possible without attitude. Just when you begin to love a little musical interlude, you're whisked off to some other annoyance and another musical non-sequitur. Maybe this is their point, to not resort to pop cliches and predictability, but hell I don't get it and I'm not even halfway through my first listen. Talk about your growers, man this one's gonna be a lot of work. Bad Friedbergers, Bad Geoff Travis for letting them have too many drugs and studio access.

I would say the only way you should have an association with this album is if someone gives it to you (or if you're interested in listening to what sounds you can get out of a truckload of equipment with no desire to have it make music that people would want to listen to). Harsh words but I loved their first album so much I feel totally let down and unimpressed. It seems that Rough Trade offered them tons of studio time to play around and so...I return you to the opening sentence at the top of this commentary for reference.

Pitchfork of course gave it 9.6 out of 10. Maybe I'm just stupid.