na: lou reed, johann johannsson

(photo by eric reed photo)

A late-in-the-day run through today’s New Arrrivals. NOTE: If you have not voted, you are not permitted to read on.

Lou Reed, Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse: eMusic’s Billy Altman did a great job summing this up, so I’ll turn it over to him:

Loosely built around an overall theme of decadence, with bleak songs exploring everything from drug and sex addictions to sadomasochism and suicide, and produced by Bob Ezrin in the overblown Grand Guignol fashion that he’d later use to much better effect on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Berlin seemed at the time mostly a vengeful act by Reed designed to take novice “Wild Side” fans and rub their noses in “real” life. In retrospect, of course, and given his periodic acts of creative and commercial self-trashing over the ensuing decades (Metal Machine Music, anyone?), Berlin may have had more to do with Reed exorcising his own demons than ours. In any event, one of the great surprises of listening to Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse, a staging of the entire album recorded (and also filmed as a documentary by director Julian Schnabel) in 2006, is realizing just how embedded these strange songs have remained in one’s consciousness.

Johann Johannsson, Fordlandia: He’s back! He’s Icelandic! eMusic’s Andy Battaglia says:

The sound of Fordlandia is effectively classical, with swells of strings and orchestral weather provided by a 50-piece group whose playing always seems more important to Johannsson than his own occasional electronic processing. The effect of Fordlandia, however, is much more modern than “classical” might imply. The album was conceived as a direct follow-up to Johannsson’s beautiful IBM 1401: A User’s Manual, as the second part of a proposed trilogy about technology and iconic American ideas.

Little Joy, Little Joy: Fab from the Strokes.

Amadou Balake, Senor Eclectico: Man, where was this album last week when we were preparing the Afropop hub? Everything here sounds awesome: spry and lively afrofunk that anyone interested in the albums selected for the hub will love.

The Lines, Flood Bank: The Lines are the latest post-punk sensation to be unearthed and reissued but, fortunately, they deserve the honor. Flood Bank rescues even more of their oddball angular anti-funk/punk. Will appeal to fans of early A Certain Ratio and some of the second-tier Factory bands (not a dis).

Wino, A Bottle of Pills With a Bullet Chaser: OK, the third song here is called “Yam Hand,” so that in and of itself does the trick for me. Extra bonus is the fact that everything on this is brutal, nasty scrap-metal music with brutal jagged edges. The word “marauding” comes to mind.

Desolation Wilderness, White Light Strobing: Alex gets credit for hipping everyone to these guys. Super-slow glistening indie pop, not unlike Brighter or Blue Boy.

Goldmund, The Malady of Elegance: Another Alex find; slow, elegant and kind of creepy piano songs, perfect for the encroaching winter.

Various Artists, Digger’s Delight: 10 International Psychedelic Freakouts: Whoah. In how many different languages can we say “awesome”? This sounds exactly as you might expect and then some: heavy, druggy and in languages other than English. Highly recommended.

Danielson, Trying Hartz: Compilation of songs from early Danielson records, along with a few B-Sides. I love Danielson, but think you might be better served by getting Tri-Danielson!!! Alpha and Tri-Danielson!!! Omega for the complete picture.

Travis, Ode to J Smith: I haven’t been up on Travis since their early days, so I can’t really comment with any kind of authority on this record. They certainly sound a lot beefier than the used to. All that rain, I guess.

The New Black, A Young Man’s Death: This band name should be against the law, but dude turns out some kinda charming guitar-driven power-pop. Would have been on the radio in 1992 for sure.

Frida Hyvonen, Silence is Wild: Frida Hyvonen is sad Swedish singer-songwriter who primarily writes gloomy piano ballads. Theoretically I should love this, but it’s not really connecting. Fans of Sarah McLachlan should dig.

The Assistants, Fiction: Straight-ahead guitar pop, mild singer/songwriter flair. Nothing remarkable, but I kinda like the first song. I’m a sucker like that.