"No no, not in the Christian sense of the term, in the Mirage of Blaze sense of the term."

[petronia]

Who was confused because they wanted to post an lj entry complaining about lj being dead? You don't have to raise your hand, just answer in your heart. XD

Anyhow, this is last Friday's batch. I will make a separate entry for today's batch, because it's easier for me to memory that way. Either that or I will write some sort of craze-eyed Mirage of Blaze character analysis entry using lyrics from Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion as section headers, and conveniently forget to post mp3s, but I think I will have to because um a number of people out there have not heard said album. (There used to be a rant in this paragraph that named names, but I deleted it. XD) I should point out that while I have actually made the statement in the title of this entry with regard to Songs of Faith and Devotion, it is misleading because Kagetora is in fact several people's Personal Jesus. Just not literally, which gives bad odds to the good guys because Yuzuru is definitely whatever he is in a literal sense.

Where was I...? Oh, yeah, mp3s. Ignore everything I write today and just go for the downloads, as I've had no sleep and am in an incoherent rambly phase, not to mention insane from lj posting withdrawal. Which should be obvious ahahahaha. (Also, sorry canis_m but not very dansudansu. ;_;)

Fantasia Barrino feat. Missy Elliott - Selfish: and yet no one calls me on multiple logs of this track in my last.FM playlist. Should I assume you all like it as much as I do? XD I do like it, for the best-case-scenario reason i.e. her voice. Otherwise the song is... er, great actually. Catchy. For better or worse, doesn't sound like it has a thing to do with American Idol. A season or three behind the curve, by which I mean it's got a bit of a bhangra sample and is not crunk. (Disclaimer: sometime around "Crazy In Love" I stopped paying attention and it took me forever to figure out what people were going on about when they said crunk, although I had an intuition they meant That Yeah-Yeah Song With The Synth Stabs I Had Only Heard While Dancing and was relieved to find I was close, since it was obviously the most interesting thing to happen to the R&B Top 40 front since I wandered off. I don't mean that I judged it to be the most interesting thing, I mean that everyone started jumping up and down when The Synth Stabs came on like they did for the brass flourish in "Crazy In Love", and did so repeatedly until I felt obliged to track it down.) Missy Elliott adds exactly what she added to that Ciara song, which is to say qualitatively not much. On maybe the fifth listen I realised the song is an exhortation to monogamy that couldn't give offense to anyone if they tried to take it, not that there's anything wrong with not giving offense, because it's not as if the Marvelettes' "Please Mister Postman" is calculated to shock - to give an example - and I have recently rediscovered my Great Shiny Fobby Love for "Please Mister Postman". (It is fobby. So is ABBA, and Karen Carpenter, and Roxette. It's like polyester pants; if you're not mainlander Chinese, you're just wearing polyester pants. If you're mainlander Chinese, it's fobby.**) But probably I would have stopped listening to it about then, just like I stopped listening to Ciara - sorry, but I really did, it doesn't have lasting power even with that weirdly goth-two-step-like electro rhythm ^^; - except Fantasia actually sounds as if she could have been a Marvelette. Or, um, someone like that, because my always-tenuous grasp on musical history fails me. The breakdown with the piano two minutes in, it's timeless.

In conclusion, it's about her voice.

EDIT -- I make no sense. 'The Synth Stabs' is Usher's "Yeah". 'That Ciara Song' is Ciara's "1 2 Step". Neither is posted here, but they are not all that difficult to find. :P

Handsome Boy Modeling School with Cat Power - I've Been Thinking: been listening to this track a lot. I'm not sure if it inspires me to purchase the album - Janni owns it, am I right? XD - but I can listen to the one song forever. It flows so lulling-smooth - Cat Power does Sade and does her well, as has been pointed out - that it takes one a while to realise the lyrics don't quite make sense, and then one doesn't care. Stream of consciousness but not bebop's joyful glossolalia, more like the way thoughts pass through one's head in the hypnogogic state just before falling asleep. In that moment one'd say anything to the person with whom one's sharing the pillow. The music emphasizes the narcotic effect: there's this steady heartbeat pulse, and all these instruments that drift in, contribute a few scattered notes or a few bars of shivering tremolo, and drift out again like the musician's nodded off and forgotten to keep playing. Over and over. Eventually even the beat dies away; the spell wins, heads droop and hands still on frets and stops, and Beauty's Castle falls silent.

Cinnamon - Cakes and Pies: This is one of those tracks I lose for a while on my hard drive, re-discover, and listen to a few obsessive times before losing it again. Before I heard the soundtrack to Katamari Damacy I might have made up a phrase like "Sanrio IDM" to describe it, but now I will just call it "music for the hypothetical rolling-up-desserts level". Meaning that Katamari Damacy is its own microgenre in more ways than one, and I really have to buy this game.

The Japanese part of the lyrics completely make the song.

Kelis - Milkshake: you've heard it but ayatsujik hasn't, because she's been studying you slacker. I admit, the conversation that led to the posting of this mp3 involved Mirage of Blaze. No further glosses will be made.

** Insert own joke re Chinese Democracy and Axl Rose's love of Karen Carpenter. Or was that Kurt Cobain?

EDIT -- yet another reason Depeche Mode is so great: Martin bloody Gore knows the difference between "lie" and "lay". DARREN HAYES I'M LOOKING AT YOU.

Comments

[calintz.livejournal.com]

Re: the Handsome Boy Modeling School track. Oh, agreed. I love the way you describe it (eeeee) cos that's exactly how the song is. <3<3 (Listening to it right now, cos. XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ooh, glad someone agrees. XD The paragraphs of rambling come from repeat-listening - it's one of those songs that reward attention.

[dipping_sauce]

OMG I'VE WANTED AN MP3 OF MILKSHAKE FOR SO LONG.

[pantswarrior]

Entertained by the commentary, downloaded a couple tracks. Including the Milkshake one, because I've never heard it either, just seen it quoted.

...

*cries* Oh holy crap...

On the other hand, Fantasia's sounding good. I didn't care for her voice at the beginning of last season, but I had to admit she was a great performer, and eventually it grew on me somewhat. Good that she's not going generic pop-star route.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

In Kelis's defense, there are better Kelis songs. (For that matter, in Kelis's defense her vocals sound a lot better booted onto Franz Ferdinand. XD) Then again, "Milkshake" was the one that really made it big, meaning there are a lot of people who do like it. *shrugs* It underwhelms me as well, although the lyrics are eminently quotable. ^^;

[pantswarrior]

Yeah, judging from a comment in my journal upon posting my reaction to that song, sounds like she must have done something worthwhile.

But oy, that particular song is terrifying. ;) Thanks for uploading it, though, because I'd wondered for a rather long time what the actual song sounded like.

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

i actually really <3 "Caught Out There," if we're talking Kelis. cos who can't be amused by a song with a shouted chorus of "I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW! I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW! AAAAAUUUUUGH!" XDXDXD

i was actually quite shocked at how musically interesting much of the rest of her album is. someone at work had it on their iTunes awhile ago, but i think they don't work here anymore, because everything else in their library has disappeared as well. XD

Kelis + Bjork duetting is interesting, too. XD

also, re: the new HBMS album? i do have it, and if you want anything from it, let me know. you know Sr. Kapranos guests on it as well, riiiight? ^^

overall, while it has its moments, i can't in good conscience suggest anyone buy it. what it really made me do was go and buy the first HBMS album, because i loved that thing to PIECES even though i didn't actually own it until recently. but the new album is such a comparative disappointment on the whole that all of a sudden, i found money just leaping out of my pocket and headed to the record store to march that CD out of there and into my hands. all of its own accord! it was amazing, i tell you! XD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

j00 owe me like whoa (http://www.last.fm/user/touda/) Tho I must admit, the tracks I've seen so far are not as impressive as one would have thot XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

DUDE. XD XD

(Holy shit is he really eighteen ahahaha.)

*happily owes t3h Jazzlah*

[serendip.livejournal.com]

Ah, Fantasia <3 And Handsome Boy Modeling School. I already have milkshake, cos hee kellis <3

I realise that my prior comment is apt, given the title of this entry.

I think I've prolly heard tons of crunk, but I'm still not sure what the sound is. If it's Usher's Yeah track, then well XD

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

i ph34r i may have to buy the Kelis album, because i actually sorta miss it. ^^;;;;;

and again, need i mention the neverending amusement factor of "Caught Out There"? i think this is Soundhog's fault. he has too much fun mashing her up. XDXDXD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

XDXDXDXDXD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I have to say I like "Trick Me" better, tho. XD

Crunk: synths and lots of guys yelling in the background, chorally or otherwise, about sex 'n' booze 'n' all. Usher's "Yeah" is sort of the Hit That Brought It Mainstream But Is Laughably Non-Hardcore To Connoisseurs(tm), I think. XD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

I find milkshake infectious, but I've heard that Trick Me is more popular, so XD Would love to hear Trick Me too. Hmm, more CDs to buy? XD?

[credoimprobus]

If a random person may butt in, I could do you Trick Me if you want. And also remixes, because I am a h0, and mmmm the Basement Jaxx remix.

(I find Milkshake's charm is mainly about the novelty value, which obviously wears off with enough playing to death. So Trick Me's definitely got a leg up on it what with that whole actually having a discernible melody bit. XD)

[serendip.livejournal.com]

You're not random at all, creed XDXDXDXD I know who j00 are.

Would be much much oblilged. Milkshake is a bit of a novelty, but I think that the lack of a discernible melody is not a negative, per se.

Now I want to pimp music, bust most of the stuff I pimp I found through others, so XD Oh well! I will do so at home. (And I believe you are on my flist, so you will be part of the filter.)

[credoimprobus]

Well, I didn't want to presume. ;)

I'll toss up a post with the links in my journal once I've uploaded. Now I just need to decide how many of the remixes to include... *snerk*

(Infectious pimping, eh? XD It can be a bit of a communicable disease, can't it?)

[serendip.livejournal.com]

Tis. I also want people to know what it is I am crooning about on my lj incessantly <3 So of course this means Annie, Junior Boys AND Alcazar <3333

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

i have to interject right here and now that you're making me seriously want a Lil' Jon icon. XDXDXDXD

[squidlet.livejournal.com]

Oh, my goodness, this is the ONE.

(Milkshake)

Thank you! Just d/led the music and am listening to them in reverse order.

[fantabulous.livejournal.com]

I've been looking up and down for Milkshake too. ** hides face in utter embarrassment **

[ayatsujik.livejournal.com]

Omahgawd, you are SO TEH <33333 I must have done something good in a past life to know j00 ahaha XD

am d/ling everything to make my lesson plans bearable (am not studying, am teaching XD or trying to teach). THANK YOU I WUB j00000. have received the mail about the MoB muzak AND my first batch of novels came in, am a quarterway into 1 now <333

*is waiting to hear Milkshake in particular AHAHAHA* [loffs on the petronia]

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

But you've given me dansudansu elsewhere. Am very crushed however as I cannot get the Kelis track to play--I DLed twice, even. It stops after about 2 seconds. Other people seem to have had no trouble with it, and obviously it plays for you, so I must be specially cursed (blessed? is Someone looking out for my best interests?!).

[meril.livejournal.com]

Downloaded. I know I almost never download from people but I joined last.fm to listen to new music and the stupid thing keeps crapping out on me.