This isn’t the big statement the title might’ve lead you to think it would be. It’s really just a moderately clever way to hide the fact that this post is just sending you over to another site to read a review I wrote: This time, it’s for Jim O’Rourke’s All Kinds Of People ~ love Burt Bacharach which is maybe my favorite album released this year. See? Not even rap-related. Sorry.
But yeah, something’s going on with all this rap blog nonsense we all love and occasionally hate and it’s neither good or bad, it just is. Namely, discussion isn’t all that important, not that it ever was, but even less so now, and well, you’re seeing less writing because of it. Not gonna name names or speculate, but I think this is the same feeling that many rap bloggers have as of late.
At this point it’s like, do I want to work on a bloggy thinkpiece after a long-ass day of work only to see little to no interest in it, or do I want to just like hang out and play Super Mario Bros. Wii or do I want to write something that’s pretty damned close to what I’d say on my blog, for someone who’ll pay me? The second two options look a lot more appealing these days. And right now, the Baltimore-based Splice Today allows me to basically say whatever the hell I want for 500 words, twice a week, which is cool, and a good way/reason for me to touch on new releases and stuff I usually avoid because everyone else is talking about.
I’ve always linked my off-blog writing here because to me, it’s all part of the same thing, and as of late, it’s probably a bit obnoxious because it’s all you’re seeing, but I hope to use these reviews as discussion points on this blog, and then, get back into a real schedule with actual content here right along with it. So yeah, my review of Jim O’Rourke’s All Kinds Of People ~ love Burt Bacharach:
Jim O’Rourke’s All Kinds Of People Love Burt Bacharach is pretty much impossible to get a proper handle on, but that’s fine by me. It’s a collection of Bacharach hits and obscurities, performed by O’Rourke and friends—like Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Wilco’s Glen Kotche—and crooned, more often than not, in broken English, by his Japanese noisenik buddies. Musically, it floats around in some weird, nerd headspace that’s part junk playing in a small town Chinese/Sushi buffet, and part timeless, baroque pop. It’s absolutely brilliant.
“Close To You” is the opener here and O’Rourke’s version features The Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono on vocals and switches the lyrics to make it a big, teasing, ego-trip: “On the day that I was born, the angels got together, and decided to create a dream come true.” Musically though, it’s less revisionist—as he does on most of the album, O’Rourke pays polite homage to these unimpeachable Bacharach classics, while gently placing his own from-20-different-angles musical perspective into the mix.
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Congrats on getting something halfway stable in Splice Today. And I feel you on the rap blogs. It was all good just a week ago (ummm, or a year ago).
quan
14 Jul 10 at 7:12 am
Good review man, thanks for reminding me I need to revisit this. Some really interesting arrangements on here.
Berto
14 Jul 10 at 3:32 pm
A really good article, and a good review. Double bonus for getting paid for it. ;o)
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realizme
15 Jul 10 at 7:45 pm