WEEK 3

Nobody Said It Was Easy
The Four Horsemen

Just listened to this one for the first time in more than a decade. I remembered thinking only the first two songs were good. Now I see I was wrong. GRADE:D

The Bachelor
Patrick Wolf

Garage chamber music from outer space? Pacha's last cowboy DJ on mescaline? I'm not sure how to describe Patrick Wolfe, except to say his music takes you on a tour of a world that would be better never to exist but only because flesh is weak and we are all the heroes if only in his dreams. Easily one of '09's best records (I know it was a pretty dire year). GRADE: A

Preliminaires
Iggy Pop

Actually, I found this strange piece of work, combining as it does two of my favorite humans (the Ig and Houellebecq) an irresistible curiosity at first. On subsequent listens, I've been enchanted by its subtle beats as well as Iggy's well rehearsed French phrasing. The songs melt together into a jazzy river of unfilled dreams. The album somehow manages to capture the ennui of the expat American arriving in the left bank only to realize he is decades too late and that Paris is gone.

It doesn't compare with the stooges but stands alone. Fish Tank, if that is his real name, owes me a pint in Boston. GRADE:B

Swim
Caribou

Moving from 60's psychedelic pop to 70's psychedelic funk, Caribou has made yet another album that I will listen to again and again. I suspect it will not fail to improve my mood each time I do so. There is something in this approach to music that calls to my soul. Sure, much of it is electronic but it manages to sound more organic
by way of the ENIAC as designed by Leonardo's dreams. Dance the dance of the cosmos to this one, it is the soundtrack we'd all like our lives to live up to. GRADE:A