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| Hey look, I have a report I should be doing
Apparently I have written a long review of the Radiohead album Hail To The Thief and posted it on Amazon.com. Now I'm putting it up here, presumably to hide it from the sane half of my brain when it comes out of its stupor. Or something. Jesus. Why can't I ever write these when I'm awake?
Looking Back, Stepping Forward.
Being someone whose musical tastes didn't really awaken until midway through high school(2002), I've had sort of a fractured take on Radiohead. Like anyone alive during the 90s, I heard nothing but glowing reviews of the band wherever I went, but I'd never personally listened to them and neither had my friends(Uncultured I know, so sue me, I live in the middle of Michigan for crying out loud), so I ended up getting defensive toward the whole idea of accepting them. "What do the critics know?" -Lots of the teen rebellion and whatnot.
Anyway, I eventually decided that it was foolish to ignore the advice of experts, and after a somewhat limited Amazon.com research session, picked up OK Computer in the winter of my Freshman year in college. I loved it, finding it in fact to be nothing like anything else I had ever listened to - epic and deep, beautiful and paranoid, comforting and frightening - a spectacular album.
Over time I worked my way through the rest of the Radiohead discography, first back to The Bends (The soulful, angsty, accessible one), and then forward to the tripped-out, apocalyptic adventure of Kid A, which felt like being an alien in a spaceship and watching the Earth itself crumble away.
Now, a year later, I reach Hail To The Thief, the end of the line, and I find myself wondering, what does it have to say?
I'm not going to pretend to be a total expert on Radiohead, after all, I didn't get into them until a year ago, and I still don't own Amnesiac or Pablo Honey. However, in that short year they've become my favorite band, and I've come to admire the creativity and vision that they've seemed to represented peerlessly with every album.
One of the things I've admired the most is the way that each successive album, from The Bends to OK Computer and especially Kid A, has broken new ground and done something musically that no one expected. So, when I learned about Hail To The Thief, I was surprised and a little worried to learn that it seemed to lack a cohesive direction. I (ever pessimistic) was afraid that it was a simple and tragic story of a band stagnating at the end of its creative journey. Maybe it is - I suppose only time will tell.
However, more than anything else, Radiohead's newest album feels like a crossroads. It borrows elements from all their previous work, and puts them in the same context to compare and reflect on. The theme may be the confusion and contradictions arising in the "Post-911" world of today, but individual songs take on the general shapes of things past. There are sweeping, multi-part OK Computer style pieces like "2+2=5," "Sit Down, Stand Up," and "Sail To The Moon." There are sleek, cold electronic tracks like “Backdrifts,” “The Gloaming,” and “Myxomatosis” that continue the trend set by Kid A and Amnesiac. There are stripped down, hearfelt songs like “There There,” “Scatterbrain,” and “A Wolf At The Door” that call to mind The Bends.
All in all, Hail To The Thief seems to me like a sort of spiritual “greatest hits” collection. A look back, a moment of remembrance, and a gift to all the long-time fans that have been along for the ride since the beginning. A moment taken to acknowledge that, whatever past accomplishments they represent, whatever the future may hold, Radiohead are, simply an excellent band, whether they have something to say or not. | | |
| Change is good
OR
Horrible change, the end of all that is good and sacred
I guess I kind of forgot to mention that I left this Xanga behind about a week ago. (Poor form, I know.) It's not you, Xanga, it's me! I just... I need things that you can't provide me right now, like editable html and 100 more MB of image storage space. Let's still be friends, though!!
Well, if anyone wants to escape this collapsing husk and join me in the land of milk and honey, here is my new address. And don't worry, you don't have to have an account to leave comments there, unlike some blogs I know. | | |
| VIDEOGAMES: WHY YOU FUCK
I am gonna do this. I am gonna break the wall- I can! I can because I belive it like a choo-choo train. I'll just skip and jump and free-associate from one topic to the next until all the pieces fall into place like a puzzle, and the puzzle is "Where's Waldo", and I found Waldo, and Waldo is Coherency.
I blame videogames man, and do you know why? Because they fucked me!!
I mean, I'm not like Hillary Clinton, who's like "Grand Theft Auto, why do you hate America" and shit. In fact, I'm waiting for the day when I can play Tony Hawk's Super World Cup Cucumber Raper TURBO in the privacy of my home without being fuckin judged. I mean, come on, a little cucumber nun rape never hurt anybody except the nun, and she had it comin, right fellas? The guys know what I'm talking about.
uhhh Videogames. I blame them because they fucked me. Fucked me!
yo know that thing in your brain that tells you "keep practicaing and you can acheive anything"? -Mine quit. quiiit. It ran away 6 years ago cause it figured it out that "30 minutes of practice every day for a year and you can gradually become a guitar master never" is pretty shit when youve been raised on levels, stages, strategy guides, and goombas, and mooblins, and maga mens, and cheat codes. the real world just can't compare to that shit! its all fucked up but its too late I can't go back!!! I'm down the fuckin rabbit hole is what it is, and you fuckin know what-- we all are man!!!! WERE IN THE RABBIT HOLE!!!! BACUAS THE MAN SAYS SO WAKE UP PEPLE!!!!!!!!!1 THAT MOTHERFUCKER FUCKINNN;ADJ . DALFL DLKSDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
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In twinkies, the filler is the best part
I promised myself - nay, I swore a RUMBLING OATH, that I would tend to my Xanga this time. I would not abandon it to be forgotten, and wander forever in the land of wind and ghosts... -No. No matter how long it takes, no matter how hard I must fight, or how far I must go, I WILL FIND YOU, XANGA! MY LOVE WILL SET YOU FREE!!!
I also swore to avenge my father's death.
. . .
So, uhh... I'll get right on all of that stuff tomorrow.
...Actually, tomorrow's gonna be a little busy... better make that friday.
...Friday-ish.
...Maybe.
. . .
HEY LOOK, I GOT A PROFILE PIC!!!
(Jogs away) | | |
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Trends and curves
OR
The royal we
Well, I haven't added anything in about a week and a half. <---This is an incredibly cliched way to start a blog entry, and is definitely stating the obvious when there's a date right above, but I promise I won't use it to segue into a generic ramble about my day. There's a point - watch as I pull it out of this ordinary hat, that only moments ago was full of ordinary milk.
...Astonishment!
One thing you tend to do when you keep a record of your creative endeavors, be they musical, literary, artistic, or inventive in nature, is look at the gaps in your output, and from them, try to determine what stimulates your creative impulses.* What I've found is that I (And by unsound logical extension, everyone ever) seem to get creative when things change.
It happens in a burst, lasting a week or two at best during an exciting time of life- the first week of college, the first week that you've gotten over a breakup, the first week of summer- you know that week. That week when every little thing you do is some bold new experiment destined to revolutionize your life.
"I'm going to work out and become a new man!"
"An hour of guitar practice every day - it's time to face my rock n' roll destiny!!"
"I used to eat Captain Crunch every morning, but from now on, I eat oatmeal.
THIS IS THE DAWNING OF A GOLDEN AGE!!!"
The problem with all these temporary bursts of creativity is that they don't really infuence your life. You always go back, you get lazy, you fall back into the same ol' orbit, whether it be evidenced by the dusty stairmaster, the non-dusty cigarettes, or the lonely Xanga.
Why?
Wildly pessimistic explanations aside, I think it's because change that feels good isn't change at all. It's just a vacation. When you spend a length of time feeling wonderful for yourself when you so much as fart in the desired direction, it disconnects you from reality. Real, lasting, part-of-the-routine change is all based on doing things both when you do and when you don't want to do them, until you get to the point where you do them regardless of feeling. You become brainwashed. You know it when you see it-
You - It's 5 in the morning. The temperature is 30 degrees out, and there's driving ice rain. I think I just saw a hungry wolf pack go by the window. Why are you putting on your jogging shoes?
Motivated Person - I'm not sure I understand the question.
(Jogs away)
So, all this is just a ponderous, roundabout way of me saying that I'm going to keep posting regularly, even though I might find myself frequently having to force it. So, look for topics to get more and more obscure and strange, as I scrape the bottom of the mental barrel in a vain attempt to keep my brain on the right track. Don't worry, though- with all the turmoil and controversy in the world right now, I'm planning on having enough scintillating topics for at least another couple months.
Next time on Art's Xanga: PUPPIES - ARE THEY, LIKE, SO CUTE OR WHAT
* The other thing you tend to do much more often is go over your old ideas and tear them to shit while displaying a near-total lack of pattern recognition.
" *Pshh*- that Old Art, so impulsive, so naive. Surely, time has made a fool of him. ...But this stuff will be great forever! Submit!! " | | |
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