Get Low

Eleanoora Rosenholm- Vainajan Muotokuva (Released 12/12/07)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrgxAbiXrlc

Why aren't these guys independent pop sweethearts? Hailing from Saku Koivu's homeland of Finland, the music itself can be described as the wet dream of a developmentally arrested female doll fanatic utilizing the creeks and croaks of her proto-maturated musical box collection. Everything on the album is cheery, with faint early eighties ascending synths floating through the air like dandylion seeds. Lead singer Noora Tommila's voice is wonderful, both accessible and estranged. I linked "Maailmanloppu" from their album listed aboved, although I recommend you check out the other tracks for some of the darker, more PSYCHEDELIC tracks, featuring the group's third eye and maybe some influence from an Icelandic crooner we might all know? Not Jonsi Birgisson, for Bjork's sake. Ooops! By the hammer of Thor Bjorksdotter!

I'm guessing the band would probably expect some kind of Bjork comparison because us North American Scum can't tell any Scandinavians apart. Wait, Iceland isn't in Scandanavia?!!?!

If it would please your beautiful heart, please download this album.

David Bowie- Low (Released 01/14/77)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdxIhNOgwBE

It wasn't my intention to write about albums of seminal artists from before the epochal continental shelf of the last decade, but this is after all, my bully pulpit. I will at the very least try to only review albums I'm hearing for the first time (which numbers in the million billions). Anyways, I'm not sure if my dislike for the album comes from the fact that this was the last of the Berlin trilogy I listened to (Be it Iggy Pop's albums or otherwise) and that I just can't rate this as a Bowie album knowing that although Eno didn't produce it, most of the texture comes from his scintillating, bald head. The rough guitar sounds better on the Bowie produced "The Idiot," and the lyrics are sparse sparse s p a r s e. What's impressive is I think the guitar on most of the Bowie sung tracks is the best instrument, whereas everything else is mired in overly Krautrock smog. Does Bowie sing more than 60 unique words on a total of 7 tracks? Even on Sound and Vision (What he regained metaphorically after trying to detox off of Bobby Brown's drug!) it just sounds lazily done, like he knew he was depressed and instead of actually trying to channel anything artistic from it, he just decided to cut some tracks (To help Iggy Pop cut out his trackmarks). I realize that yes, this laid the groundwork for that WEST GERMAN SOUND, but it's not developed quite well yet, and it doesn't have that sheen and relevance, as well as timelessness that Heroes has (Bob Dylan's son should also please call a press conference to announce that he'll never play his cover of Heroes again). I would end less sentences with parenthetical phrases (if I could ever stop doing that) but isn't the Berlin trilogy a rather large and eminent parenthetical statement within Bowie's own life? More m e t a p h o r s to come!

I can't say that this album is terrible, because it isn't, and most Bowie fans, myself included, can still listen to it and appreciate the imminent (not eminent, or self-aware at all) approach of the Thin White Duke's style. But with so much time dedicated to Eno's soundscapes, where Bowie's contributions are the equivalent of if NASA discovered the noises of an indigenous race of space monsters similar to Native Americans, living on the moon. Also, while Eno was simply tapping into Eastern European music at the time, Weeping Wall has a distinct Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians feel. Hopefully that isn't obscure enough so that my points remain somewhat relevant to the ear of the common man!

Speaking of common man, I'm going to Bonnaroo this week, where I'm going to be playing in a 48 hour 20 polytonic key jam with the rest of the hoi polloi. If anything fun happens, I'll clue all two of the people I've linked to this blog on the nature of the merriment (HINT: CATCHING AUTISM FROM DAVID BYRNE).

If you have a soft spot in your heart for David Bowie, please listen to Low. If you just want the best of Bowie, download his actual Best of Bowie album, and just listen to the rest of the Berlin Trilogy.