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Burial

if it's the reclusive life that Burial seeks, he might just be his own worst enemy, because his new album, Untrue, bests Burial's fans' wildest hopes for the followup. Burial was a worthy, sometimes thrilling record-- an impressive debut-- but it sometimes lost focus, particularly when it attempted to carve out something closer to "proper," clubwise dubstep. But Untrue maintains the style and the vibe of the first album and yet does it better. It's a deeper album-- richer, more complex, more enveloping. The irony is that almost nothing has changed. Burial still makes his beats (at least, so he claims) with relatively lo-fi audio editing software, eschewing the comfort of sequencers and MIDI clocks. His string sounds, which on Burial let many a critic to call his music "cinematic," sound as unabashedly canned as they did last time, and his manipulated vocals-- warped, time-stretched, pitch-corrected-- are just as unabashedly emotive.

-Pitchfork Record Review (8.4/10), 11.13.07

I've only had this album for a week so I'm not ready to call it "Album of the Year" but it just might be. It's haunted me since the day I bought it (8.99 in the Amazon mp3 store, also available on eMusic) and I find my mind constantly returning to its complicated rhythms. Right now, it falls as #3 on my 2007 album chart.

It's just that good. When listening to this track, I want to sing along. I randomly break out in dance. I head nod. I listen intently. I listen casually. I listen all the time.

I haven't sat with the album enough to form a compelling review and maybe I'll get to that later. For now, I just want you to enjoy as I am.

Ghost Hardware

Burial

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So iTunes sales appear healthy, fueled by sales of new iPods.  However, once that growth slows, Apple will need to do a better job of selling more songs to existing iPod owners.  The inability to play those songs on non-iPod devices in the future and the fear of losing your music collection once you exceed the five authorized computers you can share your iTunes songs on might have something to do with the lack of enthusiasm once the initial novelty wears off.

- iTunes Sales are Just Fine, Thank You by Erik Schonfeld, The.next.net, 12.14.06

I've gone back on my claim last year that I was switching to strictly digital music and am now purchasing CDs again (as well as downloading un-DRMed music from services like eMusic, subscription stuff from URGE and the freebies from napster and iTunes). There are several reasons, vox being one of them. I music blog here pretty consistently and want my tracks to be tagged the way I want them and to have the artwork included and to be playable. Apple's m4p files are out of the question and their m4a recommended file import format doesn't tag in the smart ways that mp3 files do. I want to share my music and I want it portable, neither of which is something I can get out of the iTunes store.

Also, I miss album inserts and going to the record store. I used to be at Amoeba or other record joints at least once a month, now it's like once a season. That's not right. It means I don't catch music out of the corner of my eye. I've been driven by internet zeitgeist all year and that isn't enough.

So, back to CDs for me.

I'm so old school.

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To a theme. There are lots of cute ones but I'm not sure if any one of them is quite me yet. I'm going to keep trying them on until I find one I truly truly like.

For Your Sunday Listening Pleasure:

Theme From Shaft

Kashmere Stage Band

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