Song of the Week: Blown A Wish

"once in love, i'll be the death of you"

[A/N: For some strange reason, I feel partially obligated to write SOMETHING about the VMAs last night. I mean after all, they're one of the more relevant awards show for people in my age group. I saw Gaga perform but then immediately lost interest afterward. Miley's nonexistent ass was a big to-do, but whatever. That awards show stopped being interesting after Madonna infected Britney with the Madonna Curse. But I digress...]

Like any other sane person that has the gall to call themselves a "fan of music," I adore My Bloody Valentine's 1991 breakthrough album Loveless. It's pretty much a perfect album. It improved on the backbone of an idea that began with 1989's Isn't Anything (a brilliant album in its own right) and led the way for the rise of the shoegaze genre throughout the '90s. Loveless combines most of the things that I, and countless others, love about music (guitars, attitude and catchy melodies). What the band (or Kevin Shields, rather) executed so well here is balancing the harsh and relentless wall of guitar noise with under-mixed vocals (both Shields and bandmate Bilinda Butcher contribute vocals here). It may come off as jarring and impenetrable at first, but with the right amount of patience it's not hard to warm up to it.

Nowhere is this more apparent than on "Blown A Wish." The song blasts in on an icy wave of glacial guitars with Butcher's vocals cooing out from underneath them. Like most of the other songs on the album, there are no peaks or valleys; it's a straight shot. It's a three and a half minute kaleidoscope of aural beauty. I'm not even sure what most of the sounds are that make up this song. I can only assume that they're guitars. But they sound how steel would if steel could emote. They wail and moan behind Butcher, who here sounds as if she's the most motherly ice maiden of all time. Her vocals are so detached but she finds a way to tie the listener in with the song itself. A dazzling reminder as to why Loveless remains a classic to this day.

Song of the Week

"you must work in symmetry. you must earn their empathy."

Crystal Castles' second self-titled album (otherwise known as (II)) is an exercise in restraint and excess. The album takes on many guises and forms, from the jarring, dissonant distortion of tracks like "Doe Deer" and "Fainting Spells" to the larger than life synthpop walls of sound of "Pap Smear" and "Suffocation." With these new textures and soundscapes, Ethan Kath and Alice Glass built and expanded on the formula that made their 2008 debut so damn appealing. On "Empathy" the duo flirt with their 8-bit instincts but push past their comfort zones and end up in '90s R&B territory. Glass' voice (always distant, but nevertheless an omnipresent specter) sings of what I can only interpret as a message for those of us growing up in these uncertain times of the 21st century: give society your unending compassion, they need it, but remain true to the fucked up individual inside you.

Lady Gaga's "Applause" Music Video

the patron saint of mainstream pop music returned today with the video of "Applause," the first single from her upcoming album ARTPOP. the video finds our gaga playing the clown and trying on a variety of different guises: from a swan to even stefani germanotta.

it's a fun video. it definitely makes up for my muted response to the "Applause" single. thank god she didn't go overboard with a message or meaning. i mean, there's a ton to be taken away from this video if you're a fan, but it doesn't turn off the average viewer (which plagued most of gaga's Born This Way era music videos).

Pre-order ARTPOP and purchase Applause here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/artpop/id687591810