"So many CDs! None of them are useful." -Me

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V/A - MENTAL GROOVE: WHERE IS HERE


I got this CD for one reason and one reason only: "The Beach" by Miss Kittin & The Hacker. Their "Frank Sinatra" had earned them so much goodwill that I was checking for them for months after it came out on 12. They did not really follow up on the hype so much in a lot of ways, but this track was so good I made it the last song on Metal on Metal.

BEST SONG: THIS

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JEFF BUCKLEY - GRACE (DELUXO VERSION)



This is funny because Eli just posted that Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" is better than the original which both I and Archie Bevins think is hilarious. Jeff Buckley, Jeff Buckley, where do I begin. Girls love Jeff Buckley. I mean like LOOOOVE in the same way they love their cats and Halloween. Him being shit-housed and walking into a river notwithstanding, I guess he was a talented guy, or at least was reasonably talented. It's hard to say, what with him being the son of Tim Buckley, growing up in a musically affluent household a la Mark Ronson or Sean Lennon or whoever else, how much talent is actually inhered, but he sure was dreamy! Girl could get lost in those eyes.

Jeff Buckley was literally a character from Beverly Hills 90210:



Despite this, he performed his "serious music" with such a serious seriousness you had to gag that he had no humor about himself. The only people not gagging are girls who are in love with him. Have you ever been attracted to a girl bc she is hot, and she is like a painter or a collage artist or a musician or whatever and has had her dubious artistic tendencies justified every step of the way because she is hot? Encouraging hot people to follow their creativity is pointless. Hot people are not good at being creative. This is why James Franco's books are terrible, Scarlett Johansson should never talk, and why Stephen King is a good writer and Bob Dylan is a hideous looking man.

On the flipside of this, have you ever known a California sunshine faux hippie guy who just lazed around with his shirt off, practicing yoga and hypnotizing girls with BS philosophies about "how we're all energy man"? That guy, with a larger and more consuming need to be recognized as a genius on his own terms, is Jeff Buckley.

(I don't like Jeff Buckley!)

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PHOENIX - IT'S NEVER BEEN LIKE THAT



Phoenix are cool. I never listened to this album. They are "French Strokes" etc and all their songs are always off-kilter for that reason. It's like when you see Japanese approximations of American culture: it's right for the most part on paper, but in execution there's something missing.

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ROXY MUSIC - COUNTRY LIFE



The best thing about Roxy Music is their record covers. That's it. There should just be a book of pictures of all their album, 12" and 7" covers and maybe a CD insert that has their 5 best songs. I never fully understood Roxy Music. Were they basically arty Pink Floyd? Consider: [Brian Eno/Syd Barrett] recorded early on with [Roxy Music/Pink Floyd], then left to become a full-time crazy person, and then [Bryan Ferry/Roger Waters] took full control, and focused the band's energies to producing songs about [being quasi-gay/war, British class inequalities, trappings of rock stardom, crazy diamonds continuing to shine on parts 6-9].

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MARVIN GAYE - TROUBLE MAN



I did not listen to this either. I bought it bc it's "important." Although it has this "ill break" on it, "kid"!