Took in a first pass of Bruce Springsteen's The Promise yesterday.
Enjoyed it immensely, though my strongest overall impression is that he made very good choices thirty-three years ago, because not one track here screams out as better than anything that did make it onto Darkness On The Edge Of Town.
I'm sure Boss fans will love it, but be careful, critics are really overpraising it, swayed in large part, I assume, by it's historical cache...from a purely musical standpoint, it's a delightful, solid listen, nothing more, and not quite as strong as the contemporary but very similar feeling The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. Again though, just my first impression, which has been known to change dramatically with repeated listens.
Also worked through another pass on Eluvium's Similes...not enjoying it as much as I did '07s Copia, but have to say album closer Cease To Know is a stunner. A song couldn't be more aptly named...a very static, but gorgeous, eleven minute ambient groove, the song seems able to to stop time and force me into a mind-emptying, peaceful state every time I hear it. At this point, I'm almost certain it will end up closing my best of 2010 electronic/experimental mix coming on St. Patty's Day 2011.
Finally, halfway through another pass on Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part Two. Can't say I'm digging this one too much, but then, outside of Sly and Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On...have never been a big fan of soul music done in this kinda loose, amorphous, sometimes almost grooveless style. Just feels like there's nothing instrumentally concrete to hang onto.
On the Coachella watch. not looking good for the Stones.
In their place, Kanye West and Neil Young seem to suddenly be getting a lot of buzz...have never seen Neil, so would love that, and how do you not go for Kanye after the mega-smash he just dropped with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (which I could see being considered the second greatest rap album of all time after Nation of Millions a few years down the line if it ages well), but still, will definitely shed a tear if Stones not headlining that Coachella mainstage, the best sounding venue on the planet, for one of 2011's three nights.
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