Are Seven

Just because it’s raining out and you feel like listening to dark, tense music doesn’t mean it can’t also make you want to dance.

Crystal Castles, “Crimewave”

download | buy mp3s from Amazon
Not to say that this song is perfect, but I wish more dance music was like this. Most of them sound great through a booming system on the dance floor but will bore you to tears if you sat on a couch with it playing at mid volume. This song combines a moody, dark-room feel with an irresistible beat and a vocal hook that’s tangible and yet almost ambient, chopped into so many pieces that you can’t pick at just one, but still delicious as a whole.

Added to my library this week:
Billy Bragg, Mr. Love And Justice (Deluxe Edition). It’s both the best and the worst decision Billy Bragg has ever made to release his new album in two versions: full band and just him and his guitar, the way he used to be. It’s great in that you don’t have to feel frustrated that his new stuff isn’t like his old stuff. He gives you his new stuff as his old stuff. But it makes the full band versions sound totally superfluous. All that studio time and all those musician hours, and yet every single bit of it is routine. Country-ish song? Put pedal steel in it. Sounds like a gospel song? Put a gospel choir in it. It’s. So. Boring.

I really want to give the full band version as much of a chance as the solo version, but the songs are already somewhat limp as it is. Hearing them without massive compression and uninspired playing at least lets me enjoy it.

Anyone heard anything of interest this week?

* I may have mis-heard this line, but I like my version better.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.