Hongkie Town

Trying to have a relatively quiet week. Catching up on music a bit.

I buy a lot of CDs, I download a lot of music. There's a large percentage that I'll listen to once and like, but it doesn't "break through" to the level of something I'll play over and over again. I go through moods, reflected by playlists on my iPod that I haven't played in ages - a bhangra list, some Arabic pop, something I call "crap pop" (big production guilty pleasures like the Jim Steinman stuff from Streets of Fire, Dan Hartman, Londonbeat, Bon Jovi - stuff that on a normal day I would never admit to listening to). Some times I retreat into classic rock territory, other times I'll put on some mindless trance or garage (one stalwart, don't ask me why, is a bootleg of an Underworld club gig from '99). And I know I have a tendency to like new rock that sounds like old rock - not saying it's good or bad, it just is.

Two recent albums have broken through and are getting multiple replays.

"Through the Windowpane" by the Guillemots is my latest discovery. These guys released three EPs, this is their first full album. I'd call it almost absurdly ambitious, moving from quiet passages that remind me of that song from the movie in which Natalie Portman plays a stripper (can't recall song title or movie title right now) to huge sweeping rocking densely layered moments. Some reviews are citing Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley but to me this is more reminiscent of Mike Scott and the Waterboys back when he was in his "big music" phase of "This is the Sea."

"The Corner of Miles and Gil" by Shack. This band, led by two brothers, has apparently been around for more than a decade, but flew under my radar. The title attracted me - was it some tribute to classic Miles Davis/Gil Evans recordings? Not even close. For the most part it sounds like classic 60s (or 90s?) Brit-pop, like an album the Small Faces might have made if they collaborated with Burt Bacharach. Plus quirky lyrics like this from "Tie Me Down":

In that little cupboard
There's some ties (some ties)
And dad's in the Navy
So use a granny knot

The New York Dolls reunion album seems promising. I'm on the fence about Muse but other people seem to be going bonkers over their latest. Something called the Bombay Dub Orchestra is fitting some of my moods - they sound exactly the way you'd think from the name. Faithless's Renaissance triple disc DJ set was a letdown. Night Ripper by Girl Talk (or is it Girl Talk by Night Ripper), a mad mash-up, has possibilities. The new Scritti Politti's nice. So's Tom Petty's latest. And DJ Shadow's. And Thom Yorke. And Serena Maneesh. And Scott Walker. And ... and ... and ...

Lots to keep my ears busy. Too much music, too little time.