demagogue on 14/10/2007 at 03:50

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I've heard this so many times before. I remember going on a Radiohead odyssey a few years ago, because so many friends were recommending them and on paper they have all the ingredients of music I would really love ... mavericks, incisive lyrics, minimalist powerful chords...

So I really tried to absorb the songs, just as I had done for other artists whose songs really became a part of my fabric as the songs sank in and became personal, esp ones with lyrics that rewarded careful listening with some depth ... Beatles, Dylan, Paul Simon, Hendrix, Sting, XTC, Talking Heads, Smashing Pumpkins, Belle & Sebastian, Peter Gabriel, Foo Fighters (at least their "thoughtful" songs).

I always felt like Radiohead songs should have been absorbed like the others, like it was part of that kind of crowd, but for some reason I find it hard to get as personal a connection with them. I started with Pablo Honey. I don't know if it's because I'm not listening to them carefully enough, or just not enough, or if I'm not listening to the right songs. I mean, I definitely like them, the lyrics are good on paper, but they aren't connecting at that personal level that other people talk about. They remind me of the Verve with more edge ... British, the style of vamping, some emo ... almost emotional ambient pieces. Maybe they just haven't grown on me and I need to give them another listen or twenty.

Toxicfluff on 14/10/2007 at 20:18

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I really like the Burial album, but I don't think it's the world-turning masterpiece sitting on the razor's edge that everyone makes it out to be. It is cutting edge in that it was released just last year and is the first big crossover from an underground scene far from the middle-class Brit music press that've jumped all over it with a voracity that'd outdo starving bees around a honey vat. But the reason it's crossed over so successfully is that said press have been waiting for an accessible entry into this scene for some time, and Burial has enough smoothed edges and elements familiar from electronica acts and the trip-hop lot to provide it.

As for In Rainbows, I haven't listened to it enough yet to give a properly measured opinion. So far I can say that Nude, Reckoner, Videotape and All I Need are the standout tracks for me, and that Wierd Fishes.. has some of the worst sounding skins I've heard all year.

Stitch on 14/10/2007 at 23:45

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When I wrote these words I had barely made it through the album once and I was hoping I'd come to eat my words. While I still find In Rainbows to be Radiohead at their most flat, the album has grown on me and I find it incredibly addictive. The first two tracks haven't quite caught on yet, although I love the way they sound, but from Nude on out the album is ace.

Aerothorn edit: the album is only free if you consider the music monetarily worthless.

demagogue on 15/10/2007 at 11:35

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Yeah, I should summarize my last post on that same point. What's the best album to start with if you're wanting to get into this band on a deeper level than just knowing a few singles?

trevor the sheep on 15/10/2007 at 13:38

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(http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/releases/?id=10244#) more clips of the burial album. toxic, i mostly ignore reviews in the mainstream press and such so the adulation from the "middle-class" british music press (is the average music journalist ever going to be anything but middle class) you speak of has passed me by, except perhaps for impenetrable pretention wank-fest 'The Wire' giving the first lp album of the year last year and pitchfork's mostly positive one, i don't know who this 'everyone' is that you refer to. burial still seems to be fairly unknown to the average listener, perhaps less so than the rest of the dubstep scene (although the skream/digital mystikz vein of things are most likely more well-known at this point). i'm really looking forward to this album and think any recognition this gets is rightly deserved, plenty of dudes inside "the scene" are agreeing that this next one has the potential of being an album-of-the-00's contender, i guess whether this is hyperbole will only be known in hindsight

(besides the guy makes the tracks entirely in soundforge, how fucking insane is that)