Said the Gramophone

If It Were Left Up To Me

Portishead - "Deep Water"

Much of the new Portishead (I hadn't thought about this band in about 8 years) sounds oddly mashed together, with new and fascinating beats bullying Beth Gibbons' totally time-capsuled (but still lovely) vocals to an effect much like the musicians aren't paying much attention to each other. But the shortest song, the 1:39 "Deep Water", is exactly in step, it shares glances and grins. Completely different from anything they've ever done, and probably will ever do, it's out of place on the album, but I'm very thankful they included it. As some kind of proof, some sort of document that even Portishead, the dreamiest of underwater trance-weavers, is sometimes awake, at the table, making music to a crumby morning. [get the LP and a 'P' USB stick]

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from a Japanese bargain bin:

Lazy Knack - "僕は僕の手で君を選んだ"
song

I can't say I'm totally disappointed with Lazy Knack, because I kind of knew what to expect. I was surprised, however, to find this cd came with a 32-page booklet. Usually reserved for collector's editions or retrospectives, Lazy Knack brought that out on their debut. But, true to their name, it's 24 pages of photos of them, all from the same photoshoot but with different backgrounds, and 8 pages of lyrics. In terms of the song, it's nice and peppy, it has a memorable, and even moderately likable chorus, and it's sung by two sexy sixteen year olds, it's a pretty run-of-the-mill moneymaking machine from 1995. But the booklet is what makes it worthwhile. It even reminds me of a hilarious part of my childhood brain I had forgotten; revealing people's blood type as some kind of "stat". Shimizu is type A and Katsuki is type O. But I didn't really need to tell you that, you can hear it in their voices. [Buy]

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Elsewhere: Barrett's Book Report