In Your Heart by A Place to Bury Strangers
I was going to try and write something substantial instead of posting another song. Then this happened. Great band, and another great album. Not much more needs to be said.
Spiracle by Soap&Skin
Austrian Anja Plaschg goes by Soap&Skin. It’s hard really to find the right words to describe her music. It’s pretty dark, at times piano or string driven, and quite sweeping. This is a Pitchfork discovery, but I’m glad they’re giving her some attention. The comparison to Björk is a good one, in terms of strangeness of vocals and the type of songs you’re going to get, but there are major differences too. She, Anja, seems like a strange and shy person. That’s all I could gather anyway from watching a Deutsch language interview with her. I could be way off, as my Deutsch has never been all that good. The whole album is worth listening to, as I can’t imagine most of you have heard anything like this before.
Out of Time by Blur
This is my song of the moment. I’ve never listened to Blur too much. I’m trying to change that. This song is sort of mellow, and interesting. No monster guitar riffs here; they’ve got nice variety to their sound.
If you’re interested in the law, thinking about going to law school, or just have time to waste, this book is up your alley.
Levi does a fine job explaining the importance of ambiguity in the law, and how law evolves over time using a variety of cases as examples. It’s a very short book, but that does not mean it is an easy read. At times, it is quite on the dry side. It also requires a good deal of focus, as the writing style borders on abstruse. With the advent of school near, I felt this book was an appropriate choice. After having read it, I am glad I chose it.
Bump by The American Dollar
Simple, spacey and gorgeous music to relax or zone out to. The greatest advantage of being thief is that it leads to discovery of things you’d otherwise never hear.
A special report from the Economist on the state of the Arab world. Highly recommended.
Unwind by Julian Plenti (Paul Banks)
Album leaks always seem to come in pretty terrible quality. So you’ve been warned, this isn’t going to sound all that crisp. I decided to choose a song that was upbeat, but also very non-Interpol-y. This is Plenti/Banks doing a full on indie pop song. Surprisingly, it’s not that bad. It’s simple, and enjoyable. I think that sums up the whole album for the most part. It has nice variety between mellow acoustic songs, and upbeat rock songs. However none of the songs come across as compelling. I can listen to the whole album and there’s no moment where I think “Man, I really want to go back and listen to song X again.” Then there’s the matter of the lyrics. Banks ambiguity has been replaced with awkwardness and nonsense. The song Girl on the Sporting News sounds like a slightly more serious Flight of the Conchords song. This isn’t to say all the tracks are awful lyrically, some are decent. Overall, this album is a collection of interesting, varied, and enjoyable songs, but still one step short of being something great.
Jealous of Roses by Bibio
Pretty funky song. I like it quite a bit, good for summer listening. The whole album is fairly enjoyable, although at times it becomes a bit more like background music. Still worth checking out.
