Sigur Rós has always struck me as a band I could probably like, but my exposure to them has always been at inopportune times.
I was under the mistaken impression the band’s third album, () (I like to call it Two Hot Dogs Facing Each Other), would be the kind of subtle ethereal as Wayne Horvitz’s 4+1 Ensemble.
It wasn’t, and I returned the disc to Waterloo Records when I discovered a debilitating scratch on it.
Then I listened to Takk …, and when I heard the driving conclusion of “Glosoli”, I thought, “Huh. Just like mono and Explosions in the Sky”.
Takk … got under my skin, and before I knew it, Sigur Rós had me.
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After achieving crticial and commercial accolades for 1985’s Hounds of Love, Kate Bush released two albums not considered her most shining moments — The Sensual World in 1989 and The Red shoes in 1993.
And then she recorded nothing else for 12 years.
In 2005, Bush re-emerged with Aerial, an album quite out-of-step with anything happening in popular music at the moment.
But it makes me curious — what would have happened if more than decade hadn’t passed between releases?
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It’s been nearly 20 years since Madonna commandeered the imperative, “Shut up and dance”.
It’s an imperative Madonna at times has lost sight of herself.
2003’s American Life was described by its performer as an “angry” album. It can also be described as scattershot and cold. I can’t see how she ever thought Mirwais would add any value to her work.
For her eleventh album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna recorded with her touring music director, DJ Stuart Townsend, a.k.a. Les Rhythmes Digitales, in his home studio.
The result is one her strongest, most focused albums in years.
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