consume

Having just tiraded about music for a while, here are the discs that are looking to appear on my 2000top10 list. Keep in mind Pj Harvey is releasing a disc next week, and that last year’s favourite came out November 16th. Here we go, in a slightly biased order… Peter Mulvey the trouble with poets, Aimee Mann Bachelor No.2, Victoria Williams Water To Drink, Veruca Salt Resolver, Juliana Hatfield Beautiful Creature, Elastica The Menace, Tracy Bonham Down Here, Madonna Music, …. and i’m sure i’ll be adding a few more in the weeks to come as i pick up the discs i missed. If you know that i totally skipped over something worthy, point it out, by all means. I mean, i would have never bought Beautiful Creature (it was a donation to my collection from the promo bin at the phila. weekly) and it is definitely going to make my list, so i obviously could have missed out on some other good discs. And, no, i didn’t really like Belle & Sebastian’s. And, yes, i still have to buy Elliot Smith’s. Okay.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2000/10/1205431/

Dave Matthews Band sucks. Really. They are surely decent enough, but the amount of hype they are prone to receive makes me want to hate them all the more. After having listened to some of Before These Crowded Streets last night for the first time in a while, i was simply struck by the fact that i listen to easily a dozen bands that are more dynamic than DMB. Matthews is all about abstract storytelling and thinly veiled sexual metaphor while the band totally obscures Dave’s dynamic guitar playing. On some songs like the uniquely executed “Stay” i love every second of it, but otherwise i am left reminiscing about when “Ants Marching” first came out and i could never discern between DMB and Blues Traveller.

I know that DMB are all talented musicians, and i know they’re a band and not a backup for a solo act, but jesus, why does every drunk frat boy and arty college girl love them so much? The only argument in their favour comes from the blue Luther College set that features Dave Matthews and his sideman Tim Reynolds all alone. Here we can see that Dave goes way beyond his empty bombastic vocals and prolific undifferentiated songs to prove himself as one of the premier singer-songwriters in our generation. Of course, afterwards he went back on tour with his DMB, which lets me easily forget why i found any reason to like him at all. But, i do have those blue discs…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2000/10/1205319/

I can’t tell if Nelly Furtado is some horrid Jennifer Lopez wanna-be or an almost Patti Rothberg. Anyone listening to the first song on her album might say the latter, but past that all bets are off. The disc honestly isn’t too good, but i think that’s mostly the fault of her producers. He writing is fine and could develop into something great, and her voice is incredible. Oh well… her original influences aren’t exactly singer-songwriters, but as she grew older she picked up some great artists like Portishead, who are a personal favourite. Nelly does achieve some great pop moments on the disc, but they’re too muddled with stylistic confusion on the other tracks to make a difference. I look forward to a second effort.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2000/10/1203284/