Usually, records this obtuse and dense don’t end up being very significant, let alone making any sort of appearance on the Billboard 200 (this peaked at #65). And while it may not necessarily sound weird sonically, like the acoustic guitar that accompanies mastermind David Longstreth’s tenor on the intro of Temecula Sunrise, whatever is going on here is enough to confound, like the rhythmic detours that same intro takes between measures, or the lyrics that pay no mind to the meter of the line singing them.
avant-garde
Record #122: David Bowie – “Heroes” (1977)
While it’s part two in David Bowie (and Brian Eno)’s famed Berlin Trilogy, “Heroes” is the only record of the three recorded entirely in Berlin. And Bowie, now free of L.A. and the cocaine-ridden nights it brought him, is much more upbeat here than on Low.
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Record #14: Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009)
I had heard the hype about Animal Collective* a long time before caring about them. I had even bought the Grass EP at my local music store, but the tribal madness the group grooved to wasn’t my cup of tea.
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