Wednesday, April 30
Sigur Ros' ( ) is fantastic. I just bought it through Apple's brand-new online music service. And it's about fucking time that someone would come out with a service like this, by the way. I guess it took someone like Steve Jobs--big ego and all--to get it through the morons in the music industry that there's money to be had on the Internet. Perhaps it was because Jobs' own ego equalled the size of the record company executives' egos that he was able to sway their narrow minds. In any event, the service certainly is promising. Of course, it only has commercial music by the big five record companies, so not much REALLY good music (read: stuff I review at 25) is available yet. But I suspect that deals will soon be struck to change this. After all, what does it take to add a dozen or so Warp and Force Inc. labels onto an already monstrous catalog?
Anyways, Sigur Ros. Fantastic music, much more interesting to me than Radiohead or Wilco, if only because the music is so subtle, so hypnotic, so beautiful. I hadn't bought it before now simply because I bought their first album and wasn't all that interested in it, so I initially skipped the second one. I guess I just wasn't ready for it, the way I wasn't ready for Taylor Deupree's music when I first heard it, the way I wasn't ready for Jimi Hendrix when I first heard Are You Experienced? back when I was about 16. Sometimes, time must pass, your life must move forward to a certain point before you are capable of listening--LISTENING--to something with fresh ears, ears that pick up on the subtle things in an excellent composition, ears that are receptive to certain types of sounds and certain types of songs. I guess my ears are perfectly tuned to Sigur Ros now, but they weren't a year ago. Go figure.
Oh, and I should add--to be fair--that I lived in Iceland for two months in 1984, and my appreciation for Sigur Ros today has a lot to do with the fact that I hear in their music the amazing things I experienced while on that wonderful island: the fire and ice, the green mountains and delicate fjords. Why didn't I hear this "Icelandness" the first time I listened to Sigur Ros? I don't know. Perhaps I was just too into listening to Pan Sonic to hear anything else.
Yes, musical taste is a funny thing.
Anyways, Sigur Ros. Fantastic music, much more interesting to me than Radiohead or Wilco, if only because the music is so subtle, so hypnotic, so beautiful. I hadn't bought it before now simply because I bought their first album and wasn't all that interested in it, so I initially skipped the second one. I guess I just wasn't ready for it, the way I wasn't ready for Taylor Deupree's music when I first heard it, the way I wasn't ready for Jimi Hendrix when I first heard Are You Experienced? back when I was about 16. Sometimes, time must pass, your life must move forward to a certain point before you are capable of listening--LISTENING--to something with fresh ears, ears that pick up on the subtle things in an excellent composition, ears that are receptive to certain types of sounds and certain types of songs. I guess my ears are perfectly tuned to Sigur Ros now, but they weren't a year ago. Go figure.
Oh, and I should add--to be fair--that I lived in Iceland for two months in 1984, and my appreciation for Sigur Ros today has a lot to do with the fact that I hear in their music the amazing things I experienced while on that wonderful island: the fire and ice, the green mountains and delicate fjords. Why didn't I hear this "Icelandness" the first time I listened to Sigur Ros? I don't know. Perhaps I was just too into listening to Pan Sonic to hear anything else.
Yes, musical taste is a funny thing.
