User:Scotthecooly

In oppose to having my dreams wither away into oblivion and having their ghosts come and haunt me at various times throughout my days, I am going to write an article about some of the best music of the year. I will do it as sincerely as possible, but the problem is that my dreams are like tides and they keep floating over my face causing me to drown.

2007 was a great year. I spent the whole time thinking, what are the best albums going to be. Which ones can I write about in the school newspaper. I really did. As I navigated through treacherous passages on route 87 I thought about the artistic merit of the Field’s From Here We Go Sublime and on subway trains I envisioned the ranking of Oh No Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms. Then I decided that these albums weren’t worthy of me talking about so I decided to never talk about them ever again. I honestly don’t know why every critic and their dog had a cow and a seahorse about From Here we Go Sublime. I guess my musical taste hasn’t developed enough to appreciate post modern techno. It is all right for what it is, but it definitely isn’t the best album of the year. And I think Burial has showed us that. And I think that Sunset Rubdown has potential to be the next Animal Collective, but of course Spencer Krug needs not the validation of me. This year trend wise was a year of electronica. We as a society have watched I lvoe the 80s. So we have the unique perspective of being able to think about how pseudo pop culture celebrities will look back on this era. I think that the defining thing is definitely going to be the use of synthesizers. Their use is unlike in the 80s, where they were novel, saying hey look at me I’m a synthesizer. In the nineties and 2000s they were used insincerely. They were saying look at me I’m a synthesizer but I have no emotion. I am only in the background. Now they have come into their own. A lot of this years most prominent albums feature them, like Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline by Stars of the Lid, Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem, Blackout by Britney Spears, and Shock Value from timabland. Many of this years most successful albums are digital for a digital age, and feature a feeling of electronic futures. However they aren’t making a statement like in the 1970s with Kraftwerk. They have officially imbedded themselves into music so much that the lsitner doesn’t even notice all these crazy synth and sampling coming out of Kanye West, 50 Cent, et al. So now I present a list of what in my clearly correct opinion are the best albums of the year. But then again my brain is itchy. Or maybe it is in spite of that. The best way to tell is to consult with NPR.

1. The Reminder – Feist Nowadays Feist is exploding all over the place like a bomb that can travel through time really fast so that it can explode all over the place. This is no doubt due myriad advancement in civilization over the course of the last 4000 years, most prominently music theory, consumer electronics, and advertisements. The songs of Leslie Feist have been in commercials for some sort of phone, and some sort of Ipod that has come in a bunch of colors. Now everyone is aware of her. This is great. Feist isn’t something one keeps to itself. Feist is a many splendid thing; an artist who must be spread to the masses. That is why her album The Reminder is number one, because it is the album which calls for people to give it attention. I just think that it has some deft harmonies and beautifully familiar melodies, coupled with lyrics dealing with universal emotions like longing, hope, nostalgia, and sea lions. So that is why Feist is number one.

2. Person Pitch – Panda Bear/ Strawberry Jam – Animal Collective This albums are prety much the same thing. No they aren’t however I group them together, because as most teens and tweenyboppers know Panda Bear is in Animal Collective. The albums are very different. They are similar only in the fact that they are very different. One who is not a connoisseur of this particular brand of music would be able to identify them as being very different from the rest. But from each other they remain very different. Person Pitch is an album that is great. There is a lot of harmony and melody, and sampling. However it is very spiritual sounding in its nature. This is true also of Strawberry Jam which features crazy sounds coming around simply but beautiful harmonies and sporadic melodies. Strawberry Jam is epic in its scale and its experimentation. It is equivalent to it s name of Strawberry Jam, because it gives off that feeling. So therefore Person Pitch and Strawberry Jam are tied for 2nd.

3. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – Spoon This album is pretty sweet. It is not as good as Illinois by Sufjan Stevens, but it is made by a band from Texas. This album is third because it is just really good. What more do I have to say. It is just real happy. It is like Akihabara in that it is all happy. Yeah there is some sad. But just think about the happy and you are good to go.

4. Neon Bible – Arcade Fire. (see wildcat News Gazette Crier Sun Globe from March for extended review) If you like Bruce Springsteen, who incidentally released the album Magic this year in October, and it was pretty good, then you will appreciate the Arcade Fire. Maybe I am the only one who feels that way, but both have anthemic songs of yearning for something, a past, a childhood, cars, love, all that stuff can be found in both their songs.

5. Mirrored – Battles. Basically it is like Don Caballero only interesting instead of really boring. It sort of reminds me of the webcomic Toothpaste for Dinner, for no good reason. But really, this CD is real good times. If you liked Footloose, you’ll love this. It basically is what the SAT II’s for Math would sound like if they were mathrock albums. And no words!

6. Kala – M.I.A. It is rap that isn’t annoying, so it gets an A++. I wish I knew enough about computers to make an obscure joke about the C++ language, but I don’t. But serisuly MIA is real cool. I don’t even think it is rap.

7. Matt and kim – Matt and Kim. This album came out in Ocotber 2006, but I iddn’t notice it until March therefore it must have come out in March. And these quirky duo with quirky melodies remind me of me at my age right now. Their songs are about angst and getting arrested, and sports. They are a lot about sports. It is a combiantion of happiness and sadness mized together so that it is like a jovial homeless person hanging aroundt he hynes Convention Center that I met once. He was sort of depressing, but he was so nice and cool that I didn’t even notice. He probably was a performance artist/ stockbroker who was pretending to need my change.

8. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone – explosions in the Sky. Why not?

9. Flying Club Cup – Beirut I love Beirut. You love Beirut. We love beirut. Beirut is like Umbria. Crows like Beirut. Lebanon likes Beirut. Jordan likes beirut. It is secluded and not well known, but it is even more beautiful than Tuscany. Early Colour photgraphy gave the album its name. And I think color photography is a good mechanism for exposing the beauty of the world. Thank goodness facebook has motivated everyone to capture his or her lives. And my life, when captured will feature me listening to “Nantes”, and thinking about Nantes.

10. In rainbows – radiohead. It wasn’t the ebst, but it is still better than you so, I wouldn’t be talking.

11. Untrue – Burial. Who is this Burial fellow? No one knows. Really. Look it up on wikipedia. He is anonymous like the author of Primary colors. And out of nowhere, this man or woman unleashes this epic work I don’t know how to eal with it.

12. New Moon – Elliott Smith. I can’t believe it is over.

13. The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse – The Besnard Lakes This album is good but it isn’t going to be on the list.

Interlude. There are no clear winners from this year in music. It is real hard to tell what they are in that year when you are in it. However after fiver years you can tell better. But it gets vague after the top five. bUt let's count down some great signles from this year.

1. “umbrella” – Rihanna I don’t really know enough about Rihanna to talk about any more of her music, but I can say that Umbrella is the best song of the year. The song is full of such pathos and sorrow and longing for that umbrella. And what is it? And umbrella. Rihanna really shows her vocal talent in this beautiful beatutiful song. Not only that she can walk en pointe, which she demonstrates in the music video. Plus jay-Z raps on it, and I’m always gonna be down with that. That is why I say that Umbrella is the number one song of the year. It is a defining example of what 2007 music is all about. A catchy number one melody, electronic ness. It makes me forgive Rihanna for the song which butchered “blue Monday” called “shut up and drive” I really love the song umbrella, and if it were our national anthem I would sing it with pride. 2. “White Dove” John Vanderslice – This is the number 2 of 2 on this minilist. I just feel that this song is such a poignant statement about campaign finance reform that everyone should look for bootleg concert footage of it on google video. Thank you.

In fact, like I said, it is hard to Know how good an album is until about five years alter. It is only after five years of saturation and meaning can we truly grasp the life of a great work. Surely people didn’t know that Micahengelo’s David was good until after five eyars. So here is a list of the top albums of 2002. 1. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot- Wilco. DUH!! As a music critic I am legally obligated to refer to this album as number one for 2002, and I gladly oblidge because it is such an important album. 2. A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay. This is a great album. No matter what you may think about it being pop or meaningless. The past five eyars have shown us what n etirnal album this is. Just think about all the songs from this album tthat have been in movies. Like Clocks and In my place and so forth. Truly a a definitive album of our generation. 3. Sea Change – Beck. Anywone who knows me knows that my favorite Beck album is Sea Change. This is because it expresses an emotion that we can all relate to. Sadness and despair, and nostalgia. Its really one of the great albums of ever. 4. About a Boy – Badly Drawn Boy. Such a good soundtrack. Especially for a Hugh Grant movie. I didn’t notice it back in 2002 when I was 12 but now I really can appreciate this almost Paul Simon like album. IT s songs have to this day, five years later, caused people to think about what it means. 5. Yoshimi battles The pink robots – the Flaming lips.Think about all the kids at Berklee who are trying so hard to be good musicians. But no matter how hard they try, they can never top Yoshimi battles the Pink robots, so they should just drop out of college and move to an impoverished land and build irrigation canals. 6. () – Good times. Now that we have had that interesting diversion, let’s discuss the worst songs of 2007. There are three of them. 1. “Crank That” – Soulja Boy. Back in August I was thinking, nothing can be worse than “Beautiful Girls” by that dude. But no. then people start doing this dance to this song. It is a pretty terrible song; a pretty annoying song too. It is actually downright repulsive. Someone leeps saying “you” over and voer again in a really annoying voice. WHY IS THIS IN A SONG? That is so annoying. I don’t want to hear it once, or twice or thrice.. and the song is terrible. It is also simple. It is just a steel drum playing three notes, and someone talking. I could make this song in two seconds. I mean I make terrible music, just listen to one of my demo tapes, but it isn’t as bad as this. And there is annoying music out there. But that annoying music isn’t popular. How is this song popular? How does it have any appeal at all? There is some kid who is 5 months younger than me telling me what to do. Don’t ever tell me what to do! I am the best party in town baby. I don’t want to crank your soulja boy. I don’t know what that means, but I do know that it is probably some sort of euphemism for something I couldn’t do to the Prime Minister. And now 24 million people are doing it, so now it isn’t a little joke, it is just some thing that a bunch of people are doing mindlessly. There is nothing good about this song, and then it is inexplicably popular. I mean come one. Why???? I can’t even ironically like this song. I just hate it. Honestly I wish there were memory holes so I could throw this song down one. Because it is terrible. Don’t you dare call this rap or music or anything. It is just some sort of CIA ruse to see if the American public can be fooled into doing some dance. Pretty soon the CIA will be making you dance all your civil liberties away. But in all honesty I have the most utmost respect for soulja boy as a person. 2. “Beautiful Girls” - Sean Kingston. So here is another song by someone in the class of 2008. Well, “Stand by Me” is a good song. This song isn’t. But what happened in this song, is that a good song, “Stand By Me” was taken, and its elements were sampled. Now you had a good song, with classic words. This would be so hard to ruin. But then pretty much the worst lyrics ever were put on top of this good song. This makes a trashy song. If you have the good song and replace its lyrics with terrible ones, I am going to have to judge the original component of the product which are the lyrics. And the lyrics are terrible. “Beautiful girls make me suicidal,” is the worst song lyric statemnt I have ever heard. This is so sexist and misogynistic. Just because a girl is beautiful doesn’t mean that a relationship with them won’t work. How is this beautiful girl making you suicidal. Why should this girl be responsible for your happiness. She is her own person and maybe if you treated her as an equal and didn't’ put her on a pedestal this wouldn't’ happen. Also the singer seems to be angry at the happiness of others. It will never work. It won’t? This is ridiculous. Furthermore there are lies all over the place. In the second verse Sean clamis to go to jail in ’99. But we are the same age. And we were both 9 in 1999. So you went to jail as a nine year old? I guess it can be assumed that the speaker isn’t you Sean, because if you truly were suicidal then you would be in the process of committing suicide. I would have to call 911 because you’d be in the midst of a life threatening medical emergency, since that’s what being suicidal is. Basically Sean kngston isn’t suicidal. He is a parasuicidal histrionic person who wants attention and tries to get it through suicidal threats. Well that is lame because some people really are suicidal, and if Sean Kingston were suicidal he would be dead now. And Sean kingston I want you to know that I like you as a person, and it isn’t your fault american people like this song so much. It is theirs don’t worry about it.\

Well the Grammy awards nominations have been released let’s see what they think. We probably disagree.

Jamie Y Carlos Despues de El Fin De La Catrino Dos. Despues del fin de La Catrina: El Último Secreto nada mala va a pasar a ellos. Sí, será unas privaciónes, pero nada que su amor no puede vencer. Sus amor es demasiado poderoso que Carlos y Jamie no van a Puerto rico, pero ellos reciben Rhodes Scholarships estudiar a Cambridge, en el Reino Unido. A Cambridge ellos se licencian con licenciaturas en Radioastronomía y Semióticas. Es porque tu amor que ellos estudian estes cursos. De lo contrario ellos no tendían estas cosas individualmente, sin el uno el otro. Ellos eran poder porqe de sus amor. En el RU ellos se casan y compran una casa. Carlos gana 900 mil libras por mes , porque fue un importante guía del Astronomía al rey. El Rey no tiene hijos o hijas. Él ha muerto una noche en el baño. En el testamento del Rey, el Rey llama Carlos a el heredero al trono y Jamie a el nuevo reina. Durante del el primer 10 años tan el rey y el reina del RU, fue una edad de grande prosperidad. Todos los naciónes que habla ingles quieren ser un parte del RU para una otra vez. Así Carlos y Jamie invitan todos paises del mundo juntan el RU. Y todo país del mundo juntó el RU. Carlos y Jamie estaban feliz que ellos controlan el mundo. Jamie parió 24 hijos. Cuando ellos tienen 95 años el mundo fue en un edad bueno, sin guerros o hambre. Un hombrede los Green Lantern Corps dio ellos Anillo de poder, y ellos hace Linternas Verdes para el universo, y ellos movan a Oa vivir con loas Guardianes del Universo para siempre. Porque amor es el mejor cosa de los unviseros.

El Fin

And those are snippets of my dreams. Always follow them or you will be be away.

here is a sonnett

I met a girl from a lonely dead town Who said: “dashed is this dream of me and you Fantasies are false; through fact they drown Maybe it would last if my feelings were true You built me a pyramid of devotion But it was a showboat. Should men live in tombs? Vessels of passion sink into the ocean Submarine sandpits will waste away The waste is like our love, it is too bad To conclude I am leaving you today”

Then she was gone it was not super rad

Now I’m among dead in New York City

Destroyed Like an H-bomb for lily pads

Shelley! Daft loves sink like boats to Lerici