Friday, January 05, 2007
chris 40-36
40 "please visit your national parks."
oxford collapse.
remember the night parties.
[sub pop].
"forget forget forget those times / always cut through so easily."
if there is any song on this countdown that you should listen to as loud as possible and shoud along as loud as possible, it's this one. it reminds me of my days of being 12-years-old and jumping around, playing air guitar, spit shooting out of my mouth as i make so much racket in my room i get a headache and my mom checks on me to make sure i'm okay. and instead of me having this really "i'm so mad i'm so into this angry rock music" devil-look on my face, i've got a giant adorable grin and my hair's all messed up.
39 "something isn't right."
herbert.
scale. [!k7].
"and if the details are too much to comprehend / an e-mail's there on your laptop to see."
you just can't get much sexier than this. this cheese is so elegantly and minutely sculpted that you'd swear it was pure audio ivory. the pulse is your heart, the strings are her eyelashes fluttering through the air, the horns and guitars are your hands making the perfect moves around her flawless hips, the smooth verse is your entry to the dance floor, the stuttering chorus is your hesitation to make the move, and the hasty outro is your decision to dance alone. because it's not like you can do much with another human when you're making love to your headphones.
38 "air (featuring doom)."
dabrye.
two/three.
[ghostly international].
"at first he couldn't tell she had a chromosome missin / kept a spare somewhere."
last year, i introduced the first hip-hop song that made my favorite songs of the year list. this year, we've got two on the list and here's the first. apart from the general sci-fi spook-hop feel of this inspired yet modest masterpiece, there are two specific elements i think everyone should listen for, in order of obviousness: 1) the elongated keyboard walk up the scale that continually lifts the song into the back of your head and 2) the intricate po-mo tale that mc doom weaves possibly about a guy mistaking music for reproduction, religion, and drugs. see!!! hip-hop can be intelligent and still talk about runnin' smack, booty chasin' and thunkin' beats!!!! too bad the reverse is not true (i'm looking at you, pitchfork).
37 "1918-1926."
shogun kunitoki.
tasankokaiku.
[fonal].
moment @ 1:10
one drumkit, three keyboards, with mouths closed and aimed at the sky. oh and don't forget as many spoonfuls of syncopation that you can possibly come up with the aforementioned combinations of instruments, because you need as much as you can get in order to mess with one's brain as much possible while still feeling completely cohesive and unbelievably controlled. it is the melding and mixing of the machinations of humanity with the humanity of machinations, including all of the battles for achievement, progress, and hope that arise from this very conflict.
36 "rough gem."
islands.
return to the sea.
[equator].
"they want it fast but they don't want flaws."
it took me a while to forgive the unicorns for choosing the glossy over the lo-fi, but i think while the unicorns are better on an album level, this track blows any specific unicorns track out of the water due to its sheer magnitude and attention to the bones in our body that shake and rattle in giddiness in response to candy-coated orchestration. it's curiously downtrodden for being a confection for the ears, but when it all comes to a head in the last 30 seconds, it's made the slight trip down a greener-than-a-leprechaun grassy knoll a serene and unforgettable experience.
i love you because i know you'll come back to see #s 35-31 very soon!!! ¶ posted by chris at 11:15 AM
40 "please visit your national parks." oxford collapse.
remember the night parties.
[sub pop].
"forget forget forget those times / always cut through so easily."
if there is any song on this countdown that you should listen to as loud as possible and shoud along as loud as possible, it's this one. it reminds me of my days of being 12-years-old and jumping around, playing air guitar, spit shooting out of my mouth as i make so much racket in my room i get a headache and my mom checks on me to make sure i'm okay. and instead of me having this really "i'm so mad i'm so into this angry rock music" devil-look on my face, i've got a giant adorable grin and my hair's all messed up.
39 "something isn't right."
herbert.
scale. [!k7].
"and if the details are too much to comprehend / an e-mail's there on your laptop to see."
you just can't get much sexier than this. this cheese is so elegantly and minutely sculpted that you'd swear it was pure audio ivory. the pulse is your heart, the strings are her eyelashes fluttering through the air, the horns and guitars are your hands making the perfect moves around her flawless hips, the smooth verse is your entry to the dance floor, the stuttering chorus is your hesitation to make the move, and the hasty outro is your decision to dance alone. because it's not like you can do much with another human when you're making love to your headphones.
38 "air (featuring doom)."
dabrye.
two/three.
[ghostly international].
"at first he couldn't tell she had a chromosome missin / kept a spare somewhere."
last year, i introduced the first hip-hop song that made my favorite songs of the year list. this year, we've got two on the list and here's the first. apart from the general sci-fi spook-hop feel of this inspired yet modest masterpiece, there are two specific elements i think everyone should listen for, in order of obviousness: 1) the elongated keyboard walk up the scale that continually lifts the song into the back of your head and 2) the intricate po-mo tale that mc doom weaves possibly about a guy mistaking music for reproduction, religion, and drugs. see!!! hip-hop can be intelligent and still talk about runnin' smack, booty chasin' and thunkin' beats!!!! too bad the reverse is not true (i'm looking at you, pitchfork).
37 "1918-1926."
shogun kunitoki.
tasankokaiku.
[fonal].
moment @ 1:10
one drumkit, three keyboards, with mouths closed and aimed at the sky. oh and don't forget as many spoonfuls of syncopation that you can possibly come up with the aforementioned combinations of instruments, because you need as much as you can get in order to mess with one's brain as much possible while still feeling completely cohesive and unbelievably controlled. it is the melding and mixing of the machinations of humanity with the humanity of machinations, including all of the battles for achievement, progress, and hope that arise from this very conflict.
36 "rough gem."islands.
return to the sea.
[equator].
"they want it fast but they don't want flaws."
it took me a while to forgive the unicorns for choosing the glossy over the lo-fi, but i think while the unicorns are better on an album level, this track blows any specific unicorns track out of the water due to its sheer magnitude and attention to the bones in our body that shake and rattle in giddiness in response to candy-coated orchestration. it's curiously downtrodden for being a confection for the ears, but when it all comes to a head in the last 30 seconds, it's made the slight trip down a greener-than-a-leprechaun grassy knoll a serene and unforgettable experience.
i love you because i know you'll come back to see #s 35-31 very soon!!! ¶ posted by chris at 11:15 AM
