In My Zone
Thesis
If you haven't ordered books for class or packed for your big move, 1:45 AM is not at all the time to begin. You should instead blog and think about sleeping. Or think about the summer you've had. It was my most Based and maybe even best summer. I've certainly smiled a lot. It's putting an excited and nervous smile on my face right now to think that my next blog will be posted from a new home.
Summer Music Review 06
Now is probably a good time to reveal that I'm definitely going to be expanding my year-end list to 50 albums. Seriously fam, I digest music like I'm a fully-staffed webzine. Lately I'd been doing nothing but bump Watch The Throne, until this record caught my eye:
Viscera [2011]
by Jenny Hval
She sings seriously of electric-toothbrush-vibrators and golden showers. Breast milk and erections. Clitoris and liver. So, Norwegian singer/songwriter Jenny Hval mires her music in the reality and unreality of the body. She makes music unafraid of confronting sexuality and sensuality. It is direct, and it is beautiful in its unpredictability.
The song structures here consist mostly of left turns, but often left turns into sweeping and cinematic territory. The music and arrangements are inconsistent (and supposedly improvised about the lyrics), but the feel of the album is unwavering. There is an air of danger and excitement to all of these songs, not just because they bluntly broach the existence of women's taboo sexuality, but because they refuse to stay still while doing so.
The music does seem to respond to and depend on the lyrics themselves, which are nothing short of breathtaking for their imagery and verve. Consider the surreal assurance of these lines: "I carefully rearranged my senses / so they could have a conversation. / Taught them to switch places; / from each pore in my skin grew shimmering eyes / And fingerprints filled the eye sockets." Shape-shifting sound effects score the above words from standout "Blood Flight" until the confused transformation is complete and a driving guitar riff emerges. It's one of many breathtaking moments on the album where the menace or seductiveness of Hval's lyrics are complimented or combated by the perfect arrangements.
If you're at all feeling in the mood for something sad/beautiful/uneasy/inspiring, check it out. Sounds like what I imagine Virginia Woolf would've recorded.
Conclusions
I'm expectedly excited about my apartment with Andrew. Decorating will be a blast. Having my own space will be a blast. Living downtown (a childhood fantasy) will be a blast. So surreal to watch students pour into the once empty streets of campus. Already an autumnal wind was a-blowin' at dusk. The end of summer is a beautiful thing.
LIVE POSITIVE
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