Scalzunfield

I've always said the two most important songs on an album are the opener and closer: start it off strong and leave me wanting more at the end. This album does that with a couple of 10s. Unlike most artist that seem to tack on/close with the slowest or unnecessary last song, Wilco seems to understand the importance of sequencing as such. My ratings:

1. Art of Almost - 10/10

2. I Might - 9/10

3. Sunloathe - 3/10

4. Dawned on Me - 8/10

5. Black Moon - 7/10

6. Born Alone - 10/10

7. Open Mind - 5/10

8. Capitol City - 5/10

9. Standing O - 7/10

10. Red Rising Lung - 7/10

11. Whole Love - 9/10

12. One Sunday Morning - 10/10

If anyone can spare two for Chicago on 12/12, it would be wonderful.

I think I'm in love with this one. Better than anything off the last one except maybe Bull Black Nova.

Quite sad, especially if alcohol was involved.

He definitely wasn't the one I pegged as going first out of that bunch.

Congrats Bruins. You were the better team this time.

It wasn't hard when their goalie showed up 7 times and the Canucks starter showed up right around 50%.

I like that Boston gave them the finger not only on the ice, but on the scoreboard as well. Hopefully they use this as a momentum-builder for the rest of the series.

Loved the rough treatment given to Burrows after his slash on Thomas too.

And because they're a bunch of biting bitches.

Yikes, that was ridiculous. Hopefully a suspension is coming for Burrows.

It just reminds me of the scrum from a couple years back between the Hawks and Canucks when Burrows' method of "fighting" was to yank Duncan Keith's head to the ice by his hair only.

Ever since I saw that, I've had zero respect for this clown and have referred to him as the "Hair-Pulling Fairy."

He's now the "Biting, Hair-Pulling Fairy."

A classless act.

I liked their first record enough, saw them at ACL in '08 (and found it a little awkward).....so i was never a fervent follower, so i think i can approach Helplessness Blues from an objective standpoint. This record, in my opinion, is gorgeous. And it it's a huge grower. It took a number of listens to really sink in.

 

It's much better than the first.

It's going to be the slowest grower yet. I can't listen to the new one in the car because I get sleepy almost immediately. In fact, I still have no idea what's after about track 4 or 5. I just cannot seem to get into it. Any suggestions on tracks during the latter half of the album that perhaps have some more excitement?

Deerhoof all the way. Not a fan of the other two so it was easy.

But I adore Deerhoof and I'd put them ahead of most other bands anyways.

I get the feeling from the set lists they've probably been really focused on the album in the days leading up to the tour and not so much on the live show. I'll take it as a hopeful sign even though it may be disappointing for the show-goers if you're taking in more than one show on this tour (or all of them - I'm looking at you bböp). Thanks for the set lists and also the mental picture you gave me way too early this morning.

At this moment, I agree with you 100% on your points here, but keep wondering if it's just a grower. I saw them last night here in Seattle and felt the show was good, not great. Someone mentioned that they lacked assuredness on stage and I think that pretty much sums it up. The vocal harmonies were amazing to experience live, but I think you need more than that to elevate the performance and really connect to the audience in some of these bigger places that they are playing. They looked a bit uncomfortable up there.

I saw them at Pitchfork and it was really my introduction to them. I'd heard great things about them but their live show is, for lack of a better term, awful.

When they actually play songs, it's great. But there is less than zero stage presence when they play and there are some "Grateful Dead-esque" tuning gaps where, as previously mentioned, absolutely nothing is happening. There's no acknowledgement of the audience either. I'm waiting on the new album to show up at my door but am mostly indifferent to the band themselves and probably will never check out their live show again unless it's a free ticket.

I just finished listening through for the first time and out of the 10 or so albums I've heard this year, I'm placing it around 10th. I could see myself never listening to it again.

I loved In Rainbows. It was the first album by Radiohead I actually "got" since The Bends. But this album is yawn-inducing.

Rosie O'Donnell has more to say.

Every time she opens her mouth, it's a stream of feces that spews forth. I'm not surprised she's never heard of them and that makes me happy for the band. She's up there with Ann Coulter in my book: she needs a muzzle.

What a coup for the band though. It was good to see the Grammys get something right for a change.

That said, I feel like this was a make-up Oscar for the last two albums, much in the same vein as giving AGIB a Grammy after snubbing YHF.

This album has been slowly growing on me. I initially felt like it was a slight step above Hazards Of Love which was the biggest disappointment I could have imagined.

But this one has definitely been a grower.

My introduction to the band was Her Majesty. That album I listened to once and filed it away for nearly a year before picking it up again and totally "getting it." So this not liking it at first deal is not uncommon for me in regards to the Decemberists.

I don't know if it's just because I hear too much Republican rhetoric, but the only things I've heard about Rham are negative. Nobody seems to be able to find anything positive to say.

Granted, I'm not into politics (hate talking about it just as much as religion to be honest) so I don't look into it much, but one thing I do know is that 99.9% of politicians are complete douchebags. The one running the country is a douchebag, the one last one who ran the country was a douchebag (albeit on a far greater scale) and everything points to this guy being another douchebag politician.

I have a hard time paying money for something that ultimately will support a politician like this so, as much as I love Jeff, there's no way I'm hitting this one.

I just don't feel this one at all: almost all the songs seem to be your basic 4/4 beat and at the same tempo so it's tough to distinguish between tunes. And that's after Hazards of Love was just a bad album IMO. I'm thinking the next release of theirs is most likely a "preview before buying" album. Sad to move them into that category after all they did up through The Crane Wife. A lot of these songs feel like they'd be fairly comfortable among the first two Decemberists' albums, but the problem is none of the songs on this record touch anything on those two so it feels more like a B-sides collection than anything.

I feel like Meloy is similar to Jay Farrar: we've seen all we're going to see out of him and maybe even a little more than that, but it's long behind them now. And for all the little excursions and attempts at other styles, it still all sounds like a re-hash of what they've tried before.

Childhood abuse is a "gift that keeps on giving" for lack of a better term. Doing something like that on a young mind still being formed is despicable and breeds more sexual abuse in the future. Once perpetuated on a child, that child will grow up to do the same to other young children and so on for generations. The same goes for beating children: abused children grow up to abuse. It's a horrible cycle that, seemingly, only years of therapy can help.

Just a tragic story, but it's not surprising as these are the kinds of mental issues child abuse causes.

The XX. I find their music dull, boring, and emotionless.

Agreed. Have never made it through the album once. I've fallen asleep every damn time. Thank goodness I tried listening at home before in the car...

The highly praised artist I absolutely cannot stand is Prince. All these people rave about him and call him a genius. Hardly. Listen to his stuff: it sounds 100% dated. There is no Prince song from the 80s that still sounds fresh now: it's 100% 80s. Sure, he has a few decent tunes but for every decent one there are about a dozen absolute junk. Also, he is an INCREDIBLE blowhard. Everything out of his mouth drips with self-importance so it makes it even easier for me to absolutely despise any of his music. Don't get me wrong: he's a great guitar player and I could watch him play all day as long as 1) he wasn't singing or talking, just playing, and 2) it was NOT his song (except for maybe Purple Rain).

Looks like they've really gotten their credibility back. Katy Perry's up for album of the year.

Nominee List

On the bright side, at least Mavis' album is up for one and the Black Keys and Arcade Fire get some nods.

I think it will be a more song based effort this time. I think they pushed the prog concept stuff to the limits on Hazards of Love.

Man, I hope so. The Hazards Of Love is a pretty rough listen. I haven't listened to that album straight through since the 2nd day after I got it and I rarely go back to listen to any of the songs from it. Hoping for better things this time around.

Dr Dog

Deerhoof

My Morning Jacket

Andrew Bird

Low (man were they terrible though)

Preston School of Industry

just off the top of my head

I think that performance demonstrates why I love music. Blissful.

my wife had hers die a couple of weeks ago. i think she got 1.5 years out of it? she loves it, and will get another one.

Therein lies the reason I got a Nook instead. I read about issues with Kindle's reliability and some piss-poor customer service from Amazon regarding it.

The Amazon battery is also non-replaceable. Nearly all of the competitors have replaceable batteries. IMO, well worth the few bucks more you'd pay to NOT have a Kindle.

And I LOVE Amazon otherwise...

I'd go on a rant about retarded right wing Christians here, but I'll just suggest a good listen through Todd Snider's "Conservative Christian..." tune instead.

Either that or put on the entire New Pornographers discography and keep smiling.

Couldn't even make it through a listen. Tried three times then gave up.