outkast forever

Or: '100 Reasons Why Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is the album of the year unless Chicks On Speed or Basement Jaxx can trump it'.



Numbers 1-12.

1. The way 'Ghettomusick' goes "chill-for-a-moment>INSANE-SUPAFAST-HAPPY-HARDCORE-MAXIMALISM-INTENSITY>caaaaaalm, caaaalm, mellow>AAAAAARRGGGH-HERE-WE-GO-AGAIN-BREAKNECK-BREAKBEATS-WAAAAH!"

2. The way the production on 'Unhappy' is the sound of Big Boi rubbing his belly in satisfaction after eating Timbaland for breakfast with some waffles.

3. The way that 'Bowtie' is the perfect Saturday night out anthem, and how the horns on that track make me grin insanely.

4. "My name is Cupid Valentino, the modern day Cupid..."

5. When the piano comes in during Andre 3000's rap on the above 'Happy Valentine's Day'.

6. The little emotional kickers that tear at you in the lyrics to 'Unhappy' - "your forget your happiness came and went like mom and dad's relationship", boo-hoo...

7. Jay-Z's guest verse on 'Flip Flop Rock': "why that, why this, niggas wanna hijack the flyness, I'm on a whole different plane..."

8. Killer Mike's verse on 'Flip Flop Rock': "watch 'em as they gawk and they gander, you can follow or lead like Commander Picard" - goofy, but delievered with total seriousness and conviction - thus brilliant.

9. Shout-out to public housing!

10. The jazzy, playful romance of 'Love Hater' - who can resist the sentiment "everybody needs someone to rub their shoulders"?

11. The lightness of touch with which Dre warns fools to "stop actin' hard and shit" on 'Love Hater' - "I'll smack the fuck out ya!" sounds so much COOLER in falsetto.

12. How, um, 'fat-positive' Big Boi is on 'The Way You Move': "especially the big girl, big girls need love too, no discrimation here, squirrel: so keep your hands off my cheeks, and let me study how you ride the beat: you big freak."

I've noticed this slightly irritating trend lately whereby otherwise intelligent people who like a band or artist, but are aware that many of their peers do not, preface their praise of the artist in question by saying something like "I know it's not very cool to like Travis, but..." - thus effectively short-circuiting any subsequent debate by painting the naysayers as fickle fashion victims.

It seems necessary, surprisingly, to point out that most of the people who take exception to Travis do so because they think that their music, from the second album onwards in particular, is just not very good. In fact they think it is quite bad. In terms of lyrical content, sometimes very bad. As this story illustrates (link via No Rock'N'Roll Fun).

""Don't rehearse, this is the last verse/ In the hearse, going through your purse": Jesus , Mary and Joseph. I bet the Pope is shitting himself.

(Well, actually, he probably is... but, 'y'know... not for fear of Fran Healy's incisive social commentary.)

Assertion: when it comes to love, people usually get the relationships they deserve.

(And yeah, I would have thought that was fucking harsh a year ago - but it was as true at that gloomy time as it is at this happier one...)

what it takes?

Further to the last post: this is interesting - I didn't realise that Alex's sexuality has never actually been in question, just 'played down'. Which is kinda funny, because while she's never said it explicitly in anything I've seen, in many other ways it couldn't be any more obvious - not just the anvils like the love of Ani DiFranco, the look, the obvious crush on Carolynne, the cover of 'Tainted Love', the self-penned song called 'Not Your Average Girl', but also the way she interacts with the camera when she performs live: "playing down" is not the phrase that springs to mind in conjunction when one looks here for example.

Let's be clear about something: in six months, Alex could be as annoying as Dido - I think coming out of something like Fame Academy, people always have the potential to go either way, as it were. But within the context of the show/competition, I think the fact that she not only won, but was a clear favourite from quite early on, is very interesting. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the British music-buying public is into gentle angst right now, but I think it is surprising and encouraging that someone who combines the specific qualities of youth, angst, vulnerability, androgeny, queer sexuality and - well, 'uniqueness' for want of a better term - can be so instantly accepted and championed. And she *is* a little unique - unlike Peter, she hasn't just been slavishly aping her heroines (Ani DiFranco & Annie Lennox) thank God, and she's not boring enough to be Tracy Chapman or Suzanne Vega... Beth Orton sometimes springs to mind, but I think Alex is just that bit more intense than any of these people - there's that disarming thing she does sometimes when she just seems to stop caring about how her vocals 'sound' and start belting it out with a scary degree of emotion (like when she ripped into "but I'm not the only one!" in her cover of 'Imagine', which almost made that dire song tolerable) - you could call it emo, I guess, although I wouldn't (I like her too much). I think you can also make a comparison to T.a.t.u., if you're not entirely cynical, in that they clearly did appeal to teen/pre-teen girls who may or may not have been questioning/discovering their sexuality - except Alex doesn't have the creepy/discomforting aspects of exploitation (perceived or genuine), voyeurism, etc.

Apparently her single will be out on Nov 17...

never stop reachin'

To the victor, the spoils.



I have always trusted the music taste of the great British public. Sometimes they disappoint me. Not this time, though. Well done, Alex!

Months until she appears on the cover of Diva - two or three, tops?

last night I had a dream

Updating this thing can seem like such a chore sometimes, even if all I have to post is happy stuff.

Saw The Rapture on Tuesday night - just me and Red, heading into town after agreeing that even though we'd taken the next day off work, it didn't feel like a big night out - we were too tired, didn't feel glamorous enough. But slowly, the adrenaline started to kick in, and with it, the excitement. By the time we were sitting on the floor of the oddly-deserted upstairs bar (which resembled a dance studio, and is easily Heaven's biggest selling point as a concert venue, because 90% of the punters are clearly too clueless to locate it, making it a great place to retreat from shit support bands and enjoy some breathing space), it had become a very pleasant night out - and then the between-acts DJ dropped 'Light Ya Ass On Fire' followed by 'Pump It Up, and I was ready, and then on they came.

I don't really have time for a full review, but I'll just say that it was a great gig, one that couldn't be marred even by the occasionally over-talkative or drug-fucked members of the audience. I think The Rapture clearly have the potential to become one of those bands that a smallish group of people invest a lot in - because they write songs which manage to pull off the trick of commenting on the things which they also sound like or serve as the soundtrack to - that is to say, the highs and lows of a life that flits between nocturnal hedonism and almost existential melancholy/loneliness ('Olio', 'Sister Saviour'), or the unnerving simplicitly of being in love, even if you're a jaded 21st century young thing ('Open Up Your Heart', 'Love Is All'). In this respect, they remind me of - and I swear I'll be the only person who ever says this, EVER - Pulp, the Pulp of 'F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.' or 'Monday Morning'.

The highlight of the gig is when they segue from 'Killing' into 'Sister Saviour', like on the album, and the crowd, recognising the track, start singing the "hey-ey-yeah-ah!" bit in advance. This obviously tickles the band so much that Jenner drops it in as a call-and-response during both 'I Need Your Love' and 'House Of Jealous Lovers'. It's one of those moments that makes you realise a band has found its fans, and that a bunch of people have found their band. Which is something I can't explain if it doesn't already make sense to you, but no matter how many times I've seen it happen before, it's still exciting.

Oh, and they're also obviously really sweet guys. Awww.