Notes on Current Listening (a lot)

Justice -†. Pretty much Daft Punk's Discovery redux, but you do know that Discovery is totally awesome, right?

Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Delay Sustain Release. This band was created because of Justice's (see above) remix of Simian's "We Are Your Friends," but only one or two songs on this record come close to matching the genius of Simian. This is a good album, but I liked Simian better as a dance-rock band than a dance-dance band.

M.I.A. - Kala. Wow. This music, more than any other I can think of, captures the sheer chaos of the "globalized" world. It's paranoid, dangerous, exciting, international, optimistic, wholly concerned with money, driven by technology. (I can't emphasize enough how right feels to hear MIA juxtaposing the sounds of the developing world with constant references to mobile phones because if I can just get on my I-don't-live-in-the-US high horse for a minute, that is totally how it is, people send text messages while squatting in piles of discarded electronic goods, they check their email and then kill chickens for dinner, etc.)

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black. Far surpasses Joss Stone as Best 21st Century White English Girl who sounds like a 20th Century American Black Woman. One listen to this record and it feels completely classic. Apparently she's in the tabloids a lot, but honestly the only news I have heard about her is that she is in tabloids a lot.

Jay Chou - I'm Busy (aka On the Run aka I'm Very Busy). My students' (and 500 bazillion other Chinese kids') favorite singer allegedly goes "country" on a record that has one vaguely country-ish single. The rest is the currently en vogue pop pastiche -- a few pop-rock ditties, a few crunky hip-hop songs, a lot of schlocky ballads. To be honest, I totally love exactly one (1) of the songs on this album. I don't know what it's called.

Carsick Cars -s/t. Beijing indie rock band. I'm still on the fence about whether this is generic or exciting. It's easy to get caught up in the idea that Beijing 2007 = New York 1977. Ultimately this isn't groundbreaking, but it's fun to listen to. China's version of Pavement?

Olivier Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time. Wow, a 20th-century classical composer that I don't have to just pretend to like! This is beautiful stuff, but I need to listen a few more times. (Not a "best of 2007" pick, since it's from the mid-20th century.)