One-sentence reviews: On the playlist, part the second

Back in January, I was presented a gift certificate for turning around an impossible deadline. Back in December, I failed to make use of my eMusic quota. Back in November, I recorded an album for NaSoAlMo that got me listening to a lot of minimalism.

All these events culminated into a 54-hour playlist currently loaded into my Winamp player.

A few other events got me on an acquisition frenzy. The Advocate did not reprise its Top Indie Music Artists of the Year list for 2006, so I have to do my own research. (Ugh. Work.) And Jpopsuki has had some really great stuff loaded up in the last few weeks. Huge offerings of Hamada Mari, TOE and Onitsuka Chihiro? Coolness!

So I haven’t really been starving much where the listening is concerned.

  • Aram Khachaturian, Piano Concerto in D-Flat/Sonatina/Tocatta I like this recording of the Tocatta better than the one I found on eMusic back in March 2006.
  • Aulis Sallinen, Chamber Music Critics raze him for being tonal? Where’s the tonal?
  • Bloc Party, Silent Alarm and A Weekend in the City The ’80s. Again. I’m just listening to see what the big gay deal is with Kele Okereke.
  • Camper Van Beethoven, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart This album is all over the place, in a good and unsettling way.
  • Chara, "Sekai", "Crazy for you" and "Fantasy" Union is on my shopping list when I fly back home to Hawaiʻi for vacation. (I just hope Book Off or Hakubundo will carry it.)
  • Deee-Lite, World Clique I’ve owned this album twice before, and I think I’m going to make it three.
  • Depeche Mode, Music for the Masses I actually liked Violator better in the ’90s, but now, Music for the Masses has a better shelf life.
  • Depeche Mode, Violator Four filler songs, but six great singles.
  • Dudley Saunders, The Billy White Acre Sessions This is some hard rockin’ stuff from a gay folkie. Surprising. Well, no wonder it’s suprising — it wasn’t Dudley Saunders. eMusic messed up and gave me part of an album by a band called Troubled Hubble.
  • Grizzly Bear, Horn of Plenty and Yellow House Gay lead singer + Haunting, soothing lo-fi indie rock = a trip to Waterloo Records in the near future.
  • Harry Connick, Jr., She I had to sell this album for cash when times got tight, but a trip to Mininova made me remember why I liked this album enough to see Connick at the Waikiki Shell in 1995.
  • James William Hindle, Town Feeling Gay British folk musician offers up a stunner.
  • Janet Jackson, Control Oh, Janet — when did you abandon melody?
  • Julee Cruise, Floating Into the Night A very formative album of my youth, rediscovered and re-appreciated.
  • Kronos Quartet, In Formation The very first CD I bought, and oddly enough, I never listened to it.
  • Living Colour, Time’s Up Incredibly underrated album.
  • Patty Griffin, Children Running Through If this is what Patty Griffin sounds like rocking out, it makes me curious to listen to Flaming Red.
  • Prince & the Revolution, Parade Side A of this album really rocked my world back in the late ’80s.
  • R.E.M., Murmur I don’t think I really warmed up to this album when I heard it as a teenager, but as an adult, I find it far more fulfilling than the albums that introduced me to the group (Green, Out of Time).
  • R.E.M., Document An ambitious album on a budget.
  • R.E.M., … And I Feel Fine: The IRS Years, 1983-1988 The impetus for my upgrading Document and Murmur from long-gone cassettes.
  • Sinéad O’Connor, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got I guess I’ve come around to liking this album more than I did when it first came out, but it still doesn’t hold a candle next to The Lion and the Cobra.
  • Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees I got "Kiss Them for Me" stuck in my head.
  • Sleater-Kinney, The Hot Rock I’m sad they are no longer together.
  • Steve Reich, Phases: A Nonesuch Retrospective I won’t complain over the lack of Clapping Music because just about everything in this boxed set is incredible.
  • Sugababes, One Touch I still love "Overload".
  • Technotronic, Pump Up the Jam An album that dated itself the moment it was released, but still incredibly catchy after all this time.
  • The Replacements, Don’t Tell a Soul I owned this album on cassette, and however much I love the writing, I gotta say the commercial sheen really does sound pale compared to the band’s raucous early work.
  • The Replacements, Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? How did I never grow up with this band?
  • The Shins, Wincing the Night Away I’ve reached the conclusion Oh, Inverted World! is a good album, but the Shins are not very impressive as a band on the whole.
  • Tommy heavenly6, Heavy Starry heavenly I feel sorry for the folks who bought all the singles — the coupling tracks are almost all here, and there are only four additional songs. I like it anyway.
  • Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman I put this album on to get through The Grapes of Wrath back in high school, but I didn’t really get how good the album was till now.
  • U2, The Unforgettable Fire If this album is so unforgettable, how come I don’t really remember it after having sold it for cash a few years back?
  • XTC, Oranges and Lemons Had this one on cassette, but really, does anyone need anything other than Skylarking?
  • Yaida Hitomi, It’s a Brand New Day Buried by everything else, but I don’t get the impression this has the same clarity as Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.