Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

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Viva La Prospekt!


2008
12.18

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[audio:vivalavida.mp3]

Viva la Vida

Following their previous album X&Ycomes Coldplay’s latest and greatest album Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends. I am so taken with this and their recent EP release of extra songs Prospekt’s March, more so than any of their past albums. There is so much great music on these two releases that I had to make a combined CD with a mix that does justice to the whole set.

In fact, my mix is so good that I wonder why Coldplay didn’t release it this way in the first place, on one album. Thematically they work very well together, with the exception of one song, which doesn’t belong anywhere near a Coldplay album. But we’ll get to that song later.

In making their 4th album, Coldplay traveled to South America, seeking to be influenced by different musical tones along the way. And while there is a little flamenco hand-clapping, there is something else about Coldplay this time around. Viva la Vida has a richness of sound and a grandness to it that was missing from previous albums. Where in the past their music could come across as a little contrived, there is a sincerity there now, an emotional core which is so much more powerful to listen to. I literally can’t stop listening to it from start to finish and I neverusually listen to albums that way.

Let’s get to my list:

'Viva la Prospekt'(text)


There is a theme running through the album which I believe begins with The Escapist, a soft opener which builds the first musical theme of the album. In the brief lyrics, Chris seems to muse over death. Such pondering also seems to offer an explanation as to why we might be saying Viva la Vida, or Long live life! Which is why the song Viva la Vida follows, documenting the last days of a king about to be overthrown by revolutionaries and considering his impending demise. In addition, it’s also the most popular song of the album and I don’t see why we should have to wait too long to hear it.

I felt like Death And All His Friendsshould naturally follow, as this is directly from the title. But not only that, it really answers the question for the album. Life or Death? By the end of the song, it’s clear which side this album chooses. And while it returns again and again to the idea of death, it is filled with the love of life and love itself which permeates the album. It’s an incredibly uplifting message with an energy that is then contrasted by the acoustic version of Lost, called Lost?. There are three versions,Lost!, Lost? and Lost+. This acoustic version is the best, with Chris’ bittersweet lyrics tearing away at your heart over a soft piano acompaniment. It’s one of my favorite tracks from the album, although it technically didn’t make it to the album, only to the Lost!EP anda few special releases. The version that did make it to the album, Lost!seems to be a collaboration between Coldplay and Timbaland. It’s on my album at number 15 because it works in a different way to the acoustic version. That leaves one version left, Lost+featuring Jay-Z. You will notice it is missing from my album. If I wasn’t the kind to keep full albums for the sake of it, it would be missing from my computer and iPod as well. I say this as a fan of Jay-Z, but there should never be any Jay-Z on any Coldplay album. More than that, no rapping. I know that Jay probably wanted to prove that he can rap off anything and mark it on the wall as another thing that he’s been in, but it’s just wrong, wrong, wrong. Yeah, Jay-Z you can tryto rap off anything, but in doing so you spoil an awesome song with your god-awful tone. I mean, really? In a song by Coldplay you have to bring up Biggie, Pac and niggaz suing you? Really? As a rap, the idea of success coming back to bite could be poignant in that context. But in this song Jay, your ugly words suck. Hard.

Phew! I had been holding that in for quite some time. Let’s move on.

Prospekts March

Prospekts March

An important theme that I had going through the album was what I think is the trilogy: The Escapist and Life in Technicolor I & II. It’s actually like two pieces of music in three songs. LIT Iis the bridge from one to the other. As a result, I’ve spaced them at the start, middle and end of the album as the themes flow from one to the next. LIT IIfinishes the album with an uplifting reprise to the theme at the end of LIT I,this time with lyrics. I couldn’t have the album end any other way.

One other thing I did was to split up Lovers In Japanand Reign of Love, which were originally put together as one track on the album (for what reason I have no idea). I find it incredibly annoying to have to fast-forward to find a song I like and don’t see any benefit to joining titularly when they aren’t joined musically or chronically. Also on the album was another song after Yes. I wasn’t keen on this, so it got dropped. No apologies.

As for the rest of the album, you can discover it for yourself and figure out my motives behind their ordering. One final thing that I will say though is that the piece of piano at the end of Violet Hillis perhaps the most beautiful thing that Chris Martin has ever written. I have listened to that piece of music over and over and over and over. I have blogged about it before. Chris, if you ever read this, whatever inspired you to write that, just let it out and make a whole album of it.

For the rest of you, enjoy hours of audio ecxtasy!

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Violet Hill


2008
05.15

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[audio:violethillclip.mp3]

I heard the single ‘Violet Hill’ from Coldplay’s new album ‘Viva la Vida’. At the end of the song, it mellows out to just Chris Martin’s voice and a piano which is a magical 30 seconds. I spent about 2 hours listening to those 30 seconds last night on repeat. I hope that Coldplay have more tracks like this when they finally release the new album.

Popularity: 5% [?]

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The Depths of Taste


2007
09.17

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As everyone must know, it was recently the anniversary of 9/11. A lot of emotions come to mind at a time like this, very mixed emotions. The war in Iraq still going, people still dying, while questions still linger over the events that occurred on this day 6 years ago.

But I had to add contempt to these emotions when I heard that two rappers, 50 Cent and Kanye West were beefing due to their releasing their new albums on the same date, 9/11. Everyone knows how shameless rappers tend to be with self-promotion. Most would make even Donald Trump blush. But you’d think that they wouldn’t be so shameless as to use a national day of mourning as the backdrop for their latest album release. Wrong. What’s worse is that they are both competing with each other for the title of “most tastless”, even to the point of 50 claiming he’ll quit if he doesn’t outsell Kanye.

Of course, if Kanye does sell more, nobody expects 50 to quit, because no only are rappers shameless, they are also full of shit most of the time. Usually I like to listen to rap, both to Kanye and 50, but this stupid attitude war, Kanye’s temper tantrum over not getting an award, along with the endless braggadocio that fills their albums, well it just might be that I’m getting sick of rap.

Word to rappers: your album isn’t a poignant piece of cultural history, a statement on the times of the world, given a 9/11 release because of it’s symbolic statement on this very date. This is another album full of you telling us how great you are, how much money you have, how tough you are or how well you rap. The production and the music behind the annoying raps are the only thing keeping me listening.

There, someone had to say it. To be fair though, Kanye West’s album “Graduation” is actually pretty good. In particular “Homecoming” with my idol Chris Martin, “Big Brother”, “Everything I Am” and “Flashing Lights” are awesome.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Songs and Women


2005
12.06

Posted in Music, Opinion | No Comments »

The World Turned Upside Down
Help is Round the Corner
No More Keeping My Feet On the Ground
1.36
High Speed
Such A Rush
Careful Where You Stand
Easy To Please
Only Superstition

This is my shopping list of sorts. See, I’m a huge Coldplay fan and I’ve been scouring their singles for their B-sides. Actually a lot of my favorite songs by Coldplay are the ones unreleased as singles and a few not even on their albums. They’re a great band for a number of reasons, but it must be the combination of sympathy in the lyrics and the timbre of Chris Martin’s voice which makes them my number one band.

Speaking of songs, there is a song which I like by Chaka Khan called ‘Through the Fire’. Many people may recognize it by it’s (sped-up) inclusion on Kanye West’s ‘Through the Wire’. It goes “Though the fire, to the limit, to the wall/For a chance to be with you I’d gladly risk it all…Right down to the wire, even through the fire.” I can’t get over songs like this, where the woman is singing about reaching a breaking point to be with a guy. More than that, she is (and here it comes) submitting herself to the man she loves. It’s a touching submission and it makes me remember the girls I have seen or known who lose all reference to reality for the sake of their heart. It sounds silly, but I’m actually a little jealous of it.

I don’t really believe in equality between the sexes because I don’t really believe we’re equal. I believe that we are fundamentally imbalanced in various ways, strength, emotion, intuition, aggression, and more. This is the natural order of things. I can’t fight or deny that men are stronger than women. In the thousands of years that humans have roamed the Earth I think somehow this imbalance of power must have been counterbalanced in a skill or virtue posessed by women. Men have known for a long time that women were smarter than them. They had their suspicious at least. Why else would they always blame them for doing the devil’s work and punish them as such? Why would they subjugate them and refuse them education if not because they feared the result? We aren’t even near to being equal, but we counter each other’s imbalance in the strangest of ways – like puzzle pieces coming together. Anyway, I just like the reminder that sure women do submit to the man they love. Society today is so full of manly women who are trying to be one of the boys or posess the masculine traits of aggression and crudeness. When I see a girl in an outward display of strength I really cringe. It’s just not attractive (to me anyway). When I see a couple together with the woman playing the aggressive man’s role, I have to turn my head.

Luckily I happen to be in a country which hasn’t really caught on to the western idea of equal rights. I have great confidence that they won’t either. Eastern philosophy underpins the structure of society here. If you can think of a yin-yang circle, you may understand it a little. It’s a cirle made up of two teardrops, one black one white. Inside the black there is a circle of white and vice versa. The black represents the male and the white the female, and already it is clear that we each have a part of the other in us. We are joined together to form a circle, but we should keep a distinct line between what is female and what is male. As long as we keep this distinction and form, the circle is balanced and harmonious.

One may point out the fact that women here seem submissive to everyone and this is prevents them expressing themselves. I used to think this myself when I first came here. Then I was advised that women are actually in control in Korea. The man works hard for the money, but the mother takes all the money and distributes it. The men may always get to speak first and the woman may have to be polite, but within that framework there is more power than you may think by looking.

It’s a complicated subject and altogether too complicated for this blog. I just came here to write down the names of some songs I was after.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Coffee Is The Enemy


2004
08.17

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Posted in Korea, Music | No Comments »

[audio:letdown.mp3]

This song ‘Let Down’ has been in my head all day. It’s so cool, I just keep listening to it over and over, especially the last minute of the song. I’m now singing it at the top of my lungs. The strange thing is, I was in first or second year uni and some british guy kept telling me about how Radiohead’s OK Computer was one of the best rock albums ever. I was like ‘yeah ok’. It never really seemed very good on my first listen so I never considered it. Six years later, here I am, walking around Seoul humming it.

I have decided that coffee is my enemy. As you may or may not know, I have been trying to put on weight due to my loss of a considerable portion since I came over here. Well I had a coffee today in Starbucks while I waited for the (torrential) rain to pass. After the coffee, I couldn’t eat anything, even though I knew that I should be hungry. Therefore, coffee must in some way simultaneously shrink the stomach and speed up the metabolism. After I get off the coffee rush and return to normal i’m usually extra hungry. The best thing to do is avoid the coffee – stick to water and eat eat eat.

I really would’ve liked to capture a few shots of the storm today. It was really pretty in an ugly sort of way. The streets were so dark and dreary due to the heavy dark clouds coming in, but on the horizon the bright sky poked through giving a great contrast. Trouble was, my camera battery is worn out and I can’t plug the charger in. That was why I was out, stuck in the rain. I was looking for an adaptor. I didn’t find one. So no pics tomorrow either.

Popularity: 3% [?]