on 12/12/03 3:24 pm, skip at thisparadise@sbcglobal.net wrote:
If you recognize someone as a real artist -- whether that person if John Zorn or even Justin Timberlake (I'm sure there's someone out there)
You see this in last weekend's NYT? "Justin Timberlake proved himself with a series of sublime R & B songs" -- it was in Kelefa Sanneh's review of the "underrated" JC Chasez's debut. He also begins a different review with the phrase "this promising emo band from Long Island ..." which pretty much guaranteed that I would read no further (perhaps one needs to be a Longislander to agree). On the other hand, he says nice things about Kelis (and her ditty "Milkshake," which has become unshakable from my noggin), so Mr. Sanneh hasn't gone off his rocker completely. Phil @ TNT PS: I've also heard that KS is a very nice, smart young man, so this is in no way intended as a dig. Nowadays, I feel like this kind of caveat is necessary on this list!
Have you heard the album? I mean, Justin Timberlake is a pro singer (and dancer), so it's not unthinkable that he could make a good record. Look at Michael jackson's OFF THE WALL. Totally a masterpiece of its kind. Why not Justin. That said, I'm not gonna buy it sight uunseen. sh
on 12/12/03 12:46 PM, Oppenheim, Phil at Phil.Oppenheim@turner.com wrote:
You see this in last weekend's NYT? "Justin Timberlake proved himself with a series of sublime R & B songs" -- it was in Kelefa Sanneh's review of the "underrated" JC Chasez's debut. He also begins a different review with the phrase "this promising emo band from Long Island ..." which pretty much guaranteed that I would read no further (perhaps one needs to be a Longislander to agree).
On the other hand, he says nice things about Kelis (and her ditty "Milkshake," which has become unshakable from my noggin), so Mr. Sanneh hasn't gone off his rocker completely.
On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 14:16, skip heller wrote:
Have you heard the album? I mean, Justin Timberlake is a pro singer (and dancer), so it's not unthinkable that he could make a good record. Look at Michael jackson's OFF THE WALL. Totally a masterpiece of its kind. Why not Justin.
I haven't heard the whole album, but the singles are very good. "Rock Your Body" pushes all the right buttons. OTOH, I also rather like Britney Spears's new album, with which I've been tormenting my coworkers for the past couple of weeks. Though one of them has noted aptly that it would be a *killer* disc with a competent singer. And there's one point where her voice is so obviously pitch-tweaked that they just run with it and turn it into a sort of virtuoso vocoder solo, which is (I think intentionally) hilarious.
On 13 Dec 2003 03:03:53 -0800 Joseph Zitt wrote:
OTOH, I also rather like Britney Spears's new album, with which I've been tormenting my coworkers for the past couple of weeks. Though one of them has noted aptly that it would be a *killer* disc with a competent singer. And there's one point where her voice is so obviously pitch-tweaked that they just run with it and turn it into a sort of virtuoso vocoder solo, which is (I think intentionally) hilarious.
Be careful Joseph, you are loosing your avant credibility :-). In fact in your top ten, what was really interesting was the fact that they were all mainstream, not even one record that could be called experimental. Patrice (wondering what Joe has against Christina Aguileira).
On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 13:07, Patrice L. Roussel wrote:
Be careful Joseph, you are loosing your avant credibility :-).
In fact in your top ten, what was really interesting was the fact that they were all mainstream, not even one record that could be called experimental.
Yeah. I find that I'm listening to less "experimental" CDs these days, and rarely listening to improv discs more than once. Much of it is that I'm working in a record store where most of my listening is to mainstream stuff. I'd like to spin more classical and jazz, etc, there, but there are a few hurdles: for the most part, we can only play stuff for which we have gotten promos (since we're not allowed to open discs to play them), and which we have in stock. With the high ambient noise in the space from the air conditioner, escalators, and the like, we're also effectively limited to stuff with a narrow dynamic range, which rules out most classical, as well as much jazz, since, for example, bass solos are effectively silent. And there's a practical limit to how grating things can be without driving away customers: while we spin a lot of earlier Coltrane, for example, his solos on the live "A Love Supreme" on the recent double-disc reissue of that were too much for many to take. And I'm becoming increasingly interested in hearing and doing music that reaches people emotionally, rather than having most people nod their heads in confusion and say that they found it "umm... interesting". I find that while I've gotten a lot of somewhat edgier stuff, I'm not getting around to listening to it. I have several recent Cage CDs, as well as Rzewski, Art Ensemble, etc, that I grabbed the moment I saw them but are still sitting unplayed. The one non-mainstream record that I've been grooving on most this year is Stan Getz's "Focus", which I discovered through a track from it on "The Definitive Stan Getz" which we have in playstock. But that was a reissue, so it didn't show up on my list.
Patrice (wondering what Joe has against Christina Aguileira).
PS: I've also heard that KS is a very nice, smart young man, so this is in no way intended as a dig. Nowadays, I feel like this kind of caveat is necessary on this list!
What I noticed about Mr. Sanneh is that he obviously has a very soft spot for R. Kelly, writing three or four articles on him this year. I can't understand this predeliction but I read all of them ;-) Regards Franz Fuchs
What I noticed about Mr. Sanneh is that he obviously has a very soft spot for R. Kelly, writing three or four articles on him this year. I can't understand this predeliction but I read all of them ;-)
It's of course "predilection". Here's K. Sanneh's last piece on R. Kelly: http://makeashorterlink.com/?C1EC52BC6 (or: www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/arts/music/06KELL.html? ex=1383454800&en=c88fd9cee2a44f1b&ei=5007&partner =USERLAND) Scott Rosenberg's weblog has some pointers about how one can make permanent links for NYT articles: http://blogs.salon.com/0000014/2003/11/19.html Regards Franz Fuchs
participants (5)
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Franz Fuchs -
Joseph Zitt -
Oppenheim, Phil -
Patrice L. Roussel -
skip heller