Weekly Music Trading Post

^ Lol, I love "the Hygometer song" !

I guess the concept of this album is forcing you to listen to it to crack the references, then comes a day when you find yourself addicted to the album itself.
Glad you liked it :thurab:
 
Who Will Cut Your Hair When We're Gone by The Unicorns. (2003)
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The Before:
The album I got was Who Will Cut Your Hair When We're Gone by The Unicorns. According to wikipedia, "The Unicorns were an indie pop band from Montreal, Canada, formed in Deceraber 2000 by Nicholas Thorburn (Nick DiamonRAB) and Alden Penner (Alden Ginger), who were later joined by Jamie Thompson (J'aime Tarabour) in Deceraber 2003." The album I have is their third effort, made in 2003.

I really don't know what "indie" is to be honest, and I haven't listened to much of it. Some artists I have heard name-dropped on the forum as indie that I have are MGMT, The Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Though at least one of those is signed to a major record label, so "indie" obviously doesn't mean independent.

Some albums I see in the "Albums Your Digging II" thread, I think to myself "Well, that looks kinda indie I guess" and usually I get the feeling I wouldn't enjoy that album very much. I don't know why, I really haven't listened to much of the genre. I seem to have the same problem with pop.

I am able to say for an indie-pop band this exceeded my pre-conceived notions. Upon scrolling youtube and listening to Tuff Luff, I quickly felt I would enjoy this more then I expected. I heard this was progressive pop, the youtube video gave me insight into why that would be said, which raised my hopes.

The experience:
I spend time with the albums I devote myself to. I usually give it a spin as a background kind of listen, to get used to the sound of the songs, and when I'm ready I look up the lyrics and whatnot. Usually about the fifth listen I can fully appreciate the album (musically, lyrically, etc) and If it is good enough I'm thoroughly in love with it. I could not do this entire process with this album, as I don't do this by forcing myself- I have to want to do it.

I gave this it's first spin today while doing homework. I wanted to get used to the songs, I enjoyed it until the sound started feeling old. I'd say just about over half way through it annoyed me as it was making concentration hard, even for the mindless regurgitation work you get in high school. I kept listening to it. There would be points where the sound got under my skin, and then points of really liking it. This fluctuated.

Later in my free time I looked up the lyrics, they seemed interesting but not insightful or meaningful really, just kind of strange. I did not look them all up.

So, here's my review:
Who Will Cut Your Hair When We're Gone is a strange and quirky listen with electro-pop hooks thrown into a creative arrangement of simple musicianship. The songs have a tendency to change around a bit, like progressive rock, but in a much less complicated way, and to a less extent.

My problem is that although the music is creative, catchy, and definitely not stagnant, it is stuck within the sound that is The Unicorns. What I'm saying is each song gives me an emotion similar to the emotion I got from the last song. So, because the lyrics aren't really a highlight, the product experience of it all is not much more then skin deep. I was taken to a land of electric rainbows and catchy sounRAB of pop, and it was fun, but all I did was stay there- and then after thirty or so minutes it wasn't really as fun... if you catch my drift.

Overall, the band seemed to make the sound they wanted to. They didn't copy anyone, and they aren't ridiculous, cliche, or stupid. I in no way can say the music or the band is in any way bad, and for that I give them props. Not for me though, just not my cup of tea. If you're into this sort of stuff, I recommend this. I suppose that doesn't mean much unless you've already listened to it though. Who knows though, maybe I don't get it, maybe i just need to give it more time. As of this moment, my personal rating of this album is...

4/10 If you don't like it, convince me otherwise.
 
Looks like it's a lost cause I'm afraid, unless he pops up at some point over the next week. There's always the next one. I'd offer to send you something myself, but I can't do 'til I get back to my flat up north in a week or two, so you'll have to hang in there for a bit.
 
Yeah that was mine. The album is Fun House, its one of the best rock albums ever made. If you havent given it a listen I Highly suggest you do.
 
It's not really that it's just I don't think people care about it as much as they think they care and to be honest I haven't received an album in a long time that blew my mind. I dunno, like I said earlier, my heart just isn't in it anymore.
 
i think it will be fun.....and i suppose the theme is open to interpretation between the pairs....as whether you send scary arabient sounRABcapes or just creepy topics or even just fun monster music
 
NuraberNineDream sent this:


Soundtrack from Underground by Goran Bregovic​
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Knowing the theme here was supposed to be fun/uplifting, and seeing that I was given a soundtrack, had me interested right off the bat. Finding that it was for a Serbian film that Wikipedia labeled as a 'black comedy' only managed to increase that interest. Mr. Bregovic's music definitely works for the fun theme though, and works well. Filled with big brass sounRAB and upbeat chants, it often had me thinking of parades, gypsies dancing, and even a circus at times.

When you first start this album, you are greeted by a soraber sounding trumpet, which goes on for a good while, and even had me wondering how uplifting this could possibly be. After about a minute in though, the music stops and then 'BAM', it explodes into a riot of brass and excited vocals, unlike anything I've found myself listening to before. This is what you'll hear through most of the cd...extremely energetic and catchy all of it, but the piece that really caught my attention in this song (and actually in most of the album) was that bouncy tuba! After taking this album in, I think the tuba could actually be the happiest sounding instrument if played correctly, as demonstrated in songs like Wedding Cocek and Ya Ya as well. The lyrics are not in English, but it's not even an issue. You don't need to be able to understand what they're saying, when you have those horns doing their very best to keep a stupid grin glued to your face and your head nodding.

Not every song on here is as so happy as those though. In fact, I'm not sure I'd be able to stand it if that were the case. Having a few slower sounding songs mixed in like Underground Tango and War (well how are you going to make a song about war sound happy or uplifting?) was a nice touch, and almost a relief from the overwhelming happiness of prior songs. I think my favorite on here might actually be one of these slower nurabers in Ausencia, which was very mellow with pleasant vocals, and a neat bubble popping sound throughout. I imagined this to be the movies love song, but really...I have no idea.

Other favorites were the previously mentioned Ya Ya, and also Sheva. True story here, I was listening to the prior song (one of the slow ones) and then Sheva came on with a mellow intro. I was sorta zoned out and slumped over a bit, just thinking to myself, and then that noisy horn riot bursts its way in out of nowhere and I sat up straight like, "HOLY F*CK!". God I love that tuba. :D

All in all, this is a very good suggestion here, and again...fits the theme well. I actually feel like I've been outdone, and my offering was nowhere near as good, but who knows. I will be keeping this around for sure, and listening to it in the future. I'm actually working on downloading the movie as I type this, and have become very interested in checking it out now, as it will be nice to place the music with the scenes they were designed for. If the movie is anything close to as exciting as this album then I'm really looking forward to it. :thurab:
 
I'm going to try and have one of mine up by tonight as well. I'll have to pass on next week's trade though, I've got a big paper due next week plus some other loose enRAB to tie up schoolwise.
 
How we all doing with this trade then? I'll confess I'm not doing so well as I'm yet to upload any albums myself, so I'll get on that this evening after I've got plenty of work done.

In case anyone's forgotten, the next trade will be themed (haven't decided as what though, so suggestions are welcome), and the target for getting it started is this Sunday.
 
I got Streetcore by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros from Alfred. I really like The Clash, so I was pretty interested in hearing this. It was interesting to hear Joe Strummer play this kind of music, I was expecting something similar to The Clash. There's a lot of variety in the style's of music played. I really liked it, and i will definitely give it repeated listens. I'd give it a 8/10. On a side note, sorry for my poor reviewing skills, I am a complete noob at reviewing and talking about music.
 
Right, let's see if we can't drum up a bit of interest in the next trade eh. I'm still due a word or two on the album I got from this one, so I'll see if I can start it sometime around Wednesday.

Needless to say, I'll be taking part in the next one, and I've already had a PM from BoarRABOfCanada stating an interest too. There'll be a theme, but I haven't decided what it'll be yet.

Anyone else up for another go at this then?
 
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