March 15th 2008 10:30 pm
At totally unrandom 10
While killing time on last.fm, I ran across a tribute to The Magnetic Fields. Since I’m going to see them tomorrow (!), this is delightful timing. Here come some ratings! (all titles and artists come from the ID3 tags)
- Monica Y Carlos - Yeah Oh Yeah. 4 stars. While Carlos sounds like someone kicked him in the nose a month ago and the swelling hasn’t gone down, I like Monica’s voice. A stripped down version with some quick tempo drumming and piano, this feels a bit more upfront and less sly than the Magnetic Fields version, which is a nice change of pace. Not quite as good as the original, though.
- The American Icons of Rebellion - Busby Berkeley Dreams. 4 stars. A thinner, more Americana-ized version both in instrumentation and voice. There’s no real violence done to the original and the song’s pleasant enough.
- Evripidis and His Tragedies - Time Enough for Rocking When We’re Old. 3 stars. I think everyone’s going to suffer vocally in comparison to Merritt, so I’m going to stop mentioning that, after this. Where Merritt’s vocal gives a wonderful, comforting lullaby quality to the song, the vocal on the tribute is far too Mercury Rev-esque for me. The drums, too, are wrong, here being too martial, like they’re going marching instead of dancing. The backing vocals remind me of the backing vocals on Leonard Cohen songs, which is neat.
- Iji - When the Open Road is Closing In. 2 stars. A really pale imitation.
- Steinbeck - I Think I Need A New Heart. 4 stars. They’ve traded in carefully crafted quirk for sloppy punk and it absolutely works. It sounds like pre-Born to Quit Smoking Popes.
- Microfilm - The Desperate Things You Made Me Do. 2 stars. Way too synth heavy for me.
- Abrevadero - All My Little Words. 2 stars. This is my absolute favorite Fields song, and this version makes me want to hit things. I guess I don’t do change well with favorite things.
- Secret Owl Society - 100,000 Fireflies. 2 stars. I got bored listening to this and wrote an email.
- Tinyfolk - I don’t believe you. 3 stars. A cross between John Darnielle and David Cross put through a filter of Nintendo sounds. It’s almost mesmerizing in it’s awfulness. Also, it’s funny.
- Redbear - I Don’t Want to Get Over You. 3 stars. Jonathan Coulton doing Neil Young in a coffeehouse. Passably amusing.
8 Comments »
stevenraymorris on 23 Mar 2008 at 1:13 am #
Your review is amusing if a bit condescending. I’m not much of a drooling Magnetic Fields fan, but I do enjoy Abrevadero’s cover on it’s own terms. Steinbeck’s cover is actually my least favorite on this comp.
Any other songs jump out at you in later listens? good or bad?
music reviewers on 24 Mar 2008 at 4:20 am #
the references this reviewer made to popular music should discredit any of this man’s opinions on music.
Scott on 24 Mar 2008 at 6:26 pm #
Steven:
I liked the brooks (a tiny ocean)’s version of “Born on a Train” a good bit. There’s something in her vocal production that’s familiar and I’m annoyed at myself that I can’t place it, nor can I describe what I’m hearing.
Something that I should have written about Steinbeck’s cover the first time: it plays in the same sonic space that The Lemonhead’s “Mrs. Robinson” does, and it’s a space I enjoy visiting.
I pretty clearly failed in my job as a writer in a couple areas (not counting grammatical errors, the one on Tinyfolk’s song is wonderfully hysterical). The first is the condescension you get from the piece. I wasn’t going for a Your Band Sucks vibe. A random yahoo on the Internet who uses hyperbole too much style was much more my intent.
The other major error was that I rushed the piece out, barely listening to each song I reviewed twice. As a self-confessed “drooling Magnetic Fields fan,” that’s completely unfair to people reworking the songs. Another element to the rushing was not making sure that my points were as clear as they should have been. “All My Little Words” is one of my favorite songs by any band, and part of the love for the song is based on events unrelated to the actual music. The elements I have emotional resonance with in the original are either missing or are buried in places I don’t hear them in Abrevadero’s cover, and I had hoped that my one off line about not dealing with change well would be sufficient backpedaling from my overwrought offerings of violence. In retrospect, it isn’t.
I’m sorry for both mistakes.
(side note: I also noticed that I spelled Redbear’s name wrong in the review, something which I’m going to rectify shortly. My apologies.)
“music reviewers”:
Thank you for your kindly meant, detailed critique of my writing.
stevenraymorris on 26 Mar 2008 at 4:53 am #
Hey Scott,
Thanks for taking our criticism’s so kindly, I think i jumped the gun a bit with my “drooling fan” line and I apologize for that.
I also got a bit defensive because I’m on it, but you haven’t mentioned mine yet. So i probably shouldn’t be so defensive. =)
-stevenraymorris
Scott on 26 Mar 2008 at 7:33 am #
Drooling fan’s actually pretty well correct, and a good filter to read my review through.
Tinyfolk on 16 Apr 2008 at 5:25 pm #
I’d like to thank you for giving me my favorite “press” quote to date, which I currently have prominently displayed on my myspace. Thanks. :D
Scott on 18 Apr 2008 at 8:57 pm #
Happy to oblige, especially with a typo that just makes it so much a better quote.
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