Bizarre
Tonight, I went to Virgin Megastore and bought some CDs.
Among them was the Radio 1 compilation Established 1967, which features covers of a track per year for each of the past 40 years. The songs are performed by 'today's greatest artists', which means there's a lot of Pigeon Detectives and the Twang and that sort of thing littering the scene. Alex Petridis described the record in a review last week (a review of a different album entirely, mind you) as the work of someone who hates music and is doing a good job to bring others round to his side, but curiosity got the better of me. Plus, not all of the acts are as bad as Paolo Nutini; there are some people I actually like.
So far, it's the Gossip's melodramatic 'Careless Whisper' that has me the most pleased, although Kylie's 'Love is the Drug' is all right in a phoned-in sort of way. I'm currently playing Klaxons' 'No Diggity' (yes, you read that right), and it basically sums up my reaction to this whole project: WEIRD. But not terrible? I'm trying to decide. Of course, some of these people make it easy: Just Jack, for example. His take on 'Lovefool' doesn't take much analysis -- basically it features everything bad about his music and none of what's good.
I don't know. A lot of the music seems unnecessary; a lot of it seems intended to make you laugh, or at least scratch your head, as you ponder just how ironically you're meant to listen. 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Girls Aloud is pretty much the apotheosis of that: they sing 'listen to Iron Maiden, baby', and you wonder, Does Nicola even know who Iron Maiden are? But then you wonder, Do I even know who Girls Aloud are?
What you don't wonder is if you ever need to hear the Fratellis covering 'All Along the Watchtower'. The answer to that is definitely no. As for Keane doing 'Under Pressure'? Don't even get me started...
Anyway, I went to Paris for a few days last week.
Here are some photos.
Among them was the Radio 1 compilation Established 1967, which features covers of a track per year for each of the past 40 years. The songs are performed by 'today's greatest artists', which means there's a lot of Pigeon Detectives and the Twang and that sort of thing littering the scene. Alex Petridis described the record in a review last week (a review of a different album entirely, mind you) as the work of someone who hates music and is doing a good job to bring others round to his side, but curiosity got the better of me. Plus, not all of the acts are as bad as Paolo Nutini; there are some people I actually like.
So far, it's the Gossip's melodramatic 'Careless Whisper' that has me the most pleased, although Kylie's 'Love is the Drug' is all right in a phoned-in sort of way. I'm currently playing Klaxons' 'No Diggity' (yes, you read that right), and it basically sums up my reaction to this whole project: WEIRD. But not terrible? I'm trying to decide. Of course, some of these people make it easy: Just Jack, for example. His take on 'Lovefool' doesn't take much analysis -- basically it features everything bad about his music and none of what's good.
I don't know. A lot of the music seems unnecessary; a lot of it seems intended to make you laugh, or at least scratch your head, as you ponder just how ironically you're meant to listen. 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Girls Aloud is pretty much the apotheosis of that: they sing 'listen to Iron Maiden, baby', and you wonder, Does Nicola even know who Iron Maiden are? But then you wonder, Do I even know who Girls Aloud are?
What you don't wonder is if you ever need to hear the Fratellis covering 'All Along the Watchtower'. The answer to that is definitely no. As for Keane doing 'Under Pressure'? Don't even get me started...
Anyway, I went to Paris for a few days last week.
Here are some photos.