A Work of Art

The hype surrounding Black Swan was huge and while reviews had been favourable as i entered the packed cinema I could not help but wondering whether all these people would be satisfied with this arty psychological thriller that had found itself in the mainstream.

The film undoubtedly has a depth to it which people who see the film on a whim might not engage with. It is an allegory for the relationship between the artist and his or her art - the amount of physical and mental energy they give to their craft and the pain and perfection it brings. The parallels to Aronofsky are obvious and similarities can be drawn to themes he presented in his previous film, The Wrestler.

Yet what makes Black Swan special is the fact that while doing this it can still attract the mainstream audience. Aesthetically the film is amazing and the sound is used flawlessly, however Natalie Portman's performance is what will draw the biggest plaudits. She makes the audience feel the vulnerability of the white swan before shocking them with the ruthlessness and violence of the black swan, a performance surely worthy of an oscar.

Black Swan is a film that will thrill and make you think. For the majority of people who see it, Aronofsky's work will make you do at least one if not both and he can be extremley proud with the time, effort and though he has put into his art and, while not perfect, its very impressive.

N.B. As are the film posters.

Murmur - R.E.M.

Before sitting down to listen to Murmur, the debut full-length album by alternative rock band R.E.M., I read some other critic’s reviews. I was shocked that an album had gotten full marks from so many critics across the board and was interested to see how it would stand up almost 30 years after its release.

The first thing that struck was its expertise instrumentally. Bill Berry’s considered drumming, Mike Mills’ melodic bass lines, and Peter Buck’s chiming guitar chords, while fitting together similarly in each song, each time provide a layered, indie pop classic with a different feel. Pilgrimage is dominated by Mills’ prominent bass line, while Buck moves from reverberating chords on 9-9 to upbeat guitar chops on We Walk and of course his famed wide open-string guitar jangles which are prevalent on most songs. Although this is notably not the case on A Perfect Circle, a song composed entirely by Bill Berry, based around honky-tonk piano and a slow drum beat, and exemplary of the band’s variation on the album.

In the same way Michael Stipe’s vocals also undergo various guises on the album. He goes from his highest register on Radio Free Europe to lowest on Catapult, while adopting almost a yodel on Moral Kiosk. However, it is his lyrics and their delivery, which gives the album its name, which are most intriguing.

While his rambles are barely audible on 9-9 and completely obscure on songs such as Sitting Still and Shaking Through, there are tantalising hints that he is not just mindlessly rambling. The ‘empty mouths’ on Talk About The Passion suggest a hunger song, while the reference to ‘Laocoon and her sons’ in Laughing may be a reference to his own art and how people interpret it.

It is these two things which make R.E.M. and Murmur so special. Instrumentally, they are a pop band. Buck’s guitar hooks and the vocal interplay between Stipe and Mills are chart friendly, however their lyrics take them above this label. They are band for artists; they know what they are trying to say but this doesn’t matter – they allow people to interpret their songs however they want.

Approaching 30 years on this hasn’t changed. These songs are relevant to the past, the present, and the future, and still hold the same mystery and emotion that they have always held. There is only so much that can be said about music like this; people have to go out and see what it says for themselves. Maybe, like Laocoon, this is an artistic ideal.

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Read more: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-rem-murmur1/#ixzz163UpzByn

Recent acquisitions...

Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix


For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver


Rumours - Fleetwood Mac



xx - The xx




...classic albums, old and new.

DRAW!

I first played Metal Gear Solid when I was about 9 years old and have recently started playing it again. I did not remember much of the game, however what did stick in my mind, and what came rushing back when I started playing again, was the first boss battle against Revolver Ocelot.

He was everything a boss should be; mysterious, sinister and iconic and as he began his dialogue I began to remember the shudders I got as a child when, at the beginning of the gunfight, he suddenly and venomously yelled 'Draw!'.

Stanley Donwood

Stanley Donwood, the man behind all of Radiohead's album covers from The Bends onwards, plus the Radiohead Bear, above, has just had his work put on show in the U.S. for the first time, in the San Francisco gallery FIFTY24SF. The exhibition entitled Over Normal is one I would love to have the chance to go and see and is sure to be enjoyable, interesting and provocative.

Desire Enlargement

This Is Happening - LCD Soundsystem

This Is Happening is purportedly the last album LCD Soundsystem will make. It was always going to be a hard for a band whose first single, Losing My Edge released in 2002, was an era-defining electro masterpiece, however James Murphy and Co. only went on to bigger and better things, releasing two full length albums of intelligent, unique dance music. This Is Happening is no different.



The album starts with Dance Yrself Clean, a nearly-nine minute long collation of electronic sounds which leads into a pumping bass beat. The song highlights Murphy’s evolution into a talented lyricist; lines like ‘talking like a jerk except you are an actual jerk’ intrigue and amuse, and the album is full of lines that revolve in your mind after a listen. The following song Drunk Girls is seemingly the one and only radio-friendly song (the other eight tracks all run over five minutes, some almost double that) with its thumping refrain, and again showcases Murphy’s astute and humorous lyrics: ‘drunk boys keeping pace with the paedophiles’.

Like previous LCD albums, a lot of the best music comes from when Murphy works by himself. Both One Touch and I Can Change are done completely by Murphy (except for some yells by Nancy Whang in the One Touch refrain) and can both be considered as classic LCD tracks, building from minimal beats and glitches into an amazing mixture of sounds and rhythms which only get better with repeated listens. Sandwiched between these two tracks is perhaps the most interesting and best song of the album.

All I Want starts with a simple drum beat before a shameless rip of David Bowie’s Heroes guitar riff. Many critics may discount this song for the guitar alone; however Murphy uses it as a fan of music, rather than someone looking to make money from it. The guitar combined with a light piano chord progression and the perfectly delivered lyrics make for a beautiful song, and it continues to build with miscellaneous blips before closing with Murphy’s desperate cry of ‘take me home’.

The feeling of the band being at the end of an era and moving onto new paths resonates throughout the album, and is perhaps most obvious in the next track You Wanted A Hit which chronicles Murphy’s desire for a hit single, amidst oriental electro twangs, and how he deals with the pressures of tours, interviews and fame after the hit comes.

The next two songs are arguably the weakest on the album, but still demand a listen. The ambiguous lyrics of Pow Pow and comic refrain make for a unique song while the slow, jazzy piano chords on Somebody’s Calling Me punctuated with its long synth drones also is an interesting listen. The album (and possibly career?) closer is Home and the song, just like the album, does not disappoint. It begins with gurgling electro melodies before Murphy’s lyrics perfectly slot in and continue the message begun in You Wanted A Hit; he has lived his dream, and now its time to move on and go home as ‘it won’t get any better so goodnight’.

9

If this is to be the band's last album it will be a great shame, not only for electronic music, but also for the industry as a whole. Not only did LCD Soundsystem make intelligent electro music that you could be moved by, as well as dance to, they also made music in the right way, for the right reasons. A truly great band that should be appreciated by all lovers of music.
My Top 5 Essential LCD tracks:
- "Losing My Edge"
- "Great Release"
- "Someone Great"
- "All My Friends"
- "All I Want"

Article first published as Music Review: LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening on Blogcritics.

Spike Jonze

The first time I came across Spike Jonze's work I didn't realise it. I was probably about twelve and I was watching Jackass: The Movie with some friends at a sleep over. I don't really remember what I thought of the film except that it was fucking funny and I wanted those guys' jobs.

The second time I saw Jonze's work was a similiar situation. I was aboout the same age and I had been playing Tony Hawks Underground on my Playstation 2. After reaching a certain point I unlocked a teaser trailer of a skate video directed by Jonze for the skate company he co-owns, Girl. I didn't really know what I was watching and didn't think much of the video.

However after the release of a trio sucessful mainstream films it is interesting to look back at where Spike Jonze came from, and how good some of his early work is.

Jackass has always been one of my favourite shows and I await anything new they do, as a crew or individually, with eager anticipation. While some people will say that the TV show and the films produced are a horrifying commentary on the atavistic nature of modern culture, there is a reason why the first two films have a combined worlwide gross of $163 million. Jonze, co-creator of the franchise, is clearly an innovator and not afraid to operate outside the normal parameters perceived by most film directors. People enjoy seeing things they haven't seen before, things they haven't had the courage to do, or things they are unable to do. Although critics might not be able to see it, there is a method in the madness of the Jackass crew.

Jonze's innovative nature is shown in much of his work, some may point to Being John Malkovich, others to the video he did for Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice, however it is perhaps best shown in the video I saw on the Tony Hawks game all those years ago entitled Yeah Right!.

The title says it all. In the video Jonze explores the limits of what can be done through editing, employing slo-mo cameras and clever camera tricks on a skate film which leave you wondering how he did that. True Jonze style.



Jonze has done many music videos and although he has done some famous ones such as Weapon of Choice, he also, especially in his early days, did some obscure ones. One such video is for Fatlip's single What's Up Fatlip. Again some of Jonze's best traits as a director are shown here; the video matches Fatlip's unconventional style and lyrics perfectly. A truly unique video for a hip hop song, full of Jonze's quirkiness and stupidity (sorry for poor quality).



What prompted me to write this piece on Spike Jonze was when I saw the last music video he had directed, a song by LCD Soundsystem, a band who I am listening to a lot at the moment, called Drunk Girls. On first watch it may seem like utter stupidity and an excuse to beat up a good band, however once again with Jonze's work there is method in the madness. The egging, setting off of fire extinguishers, the implied gang rape - all of these things seem digusting and wrong to the sober band and viewer, however after a few drinks the feeling changes completley, and things that seemed wrong beforehand might seem ok now, and this is what the pandas act out.

Obviously Spike Jonze is unconventional, and this may cause man to disregard him as an immature director who got lucky. I do not think this is case. He is daring, innovative, imaginative and unique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xT6cdfP_cM