gray/matter

eMusic Picks – July

August 1st, 2008 @ 8:05 pm by gray

Albums added in July: 13,106

eMusic has (finally?) garnered a Web 2.0 makeover, adding in the obligatory design elements: large type treatments, pastels, glassy controls, AJAX motion, and of course gradients. Each album is also now festooned with related content from YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, and 17 other ’social networking’ sites. Fortunately many of these are collapsable so you can avoid them if you’re not doing more than just grabbing an album.

What I find most exciting, in suitably pedantic fashion, is the inclusion of much higher resolution album artwork. eMusic still features a lot of releases that are difficult to source elsewhere, which also includes finding quality cover art. Their prior thumbnails were even smaller than the iTunes default badge, let alone suitable for environments like CoverFlow or the iPod Touch. If you’re appreciably obsessive, you may want to go back into your download library and upgrade some of your album art, although it should be noted that some albums still have only the smaller original image and patchwork default images reminscent of Sierpinski triangles.

Featured Selections

Einstürzende Neubauten, The Jewels (15)

Collection of tracks originally offered to band supporters via the band’s site at neubauten.org. A step back from the more-conventional songcraft of previous works (e.g. Alles Wider Offen) to earlier experimental flair. Doubtless this is due to the origin of the tracks, which were constructed based on idea cards similar to Eno’s “Oblique Strategies” and taking lyrical cues from dreams.

Head Like A Kite, There Is Loud Laughter Everywhere (13)

I originally discovered Head Like A Kite via Pandora suggestion based on a playlist derived from the Cranes, though they sound very little alike. Loud Laughter, HLAK’s second album, takes more chances, covers a wider range of influences, and includes the irrepressive “No Ordinary Caveman.”

Nine Inch Nails, The Slip (10)

Trent Reznor’s online promotion experimentwas to distribute the album digitally for free as a reward to fans (still available on the band’s site). Along with Ghosts I-IV, the album restored my faith that Reznor &co. could still put out quality material that wasn’t generated by the same algorithm and sound blender combination that composed much of The Fragile on. Since you can download the album for free elsewhere, the main motivation to purchase here is to support NIN as you might buying the physical copy.

Ratatat, LP3 (13)

Jubilant rock carnival instrumentals make for infectious playground listening.

The Secret Meeting, Ultrashiver (10)

Collaboration between Curve’s noisemaker Dean Garcia and Collide’s vocalist kaRIN. With Collide already being among the most Curve-esque of the darkwave contingent, the crunch-clash result is the kind of beautiful noise you would expect.

See Also

The Archies, Sugar Sugar (14)

Architecture in Helsinki, Like It Or Not (5)

Beach Boys, Stars & Stripes (12)

Bola, Shapes (9)
-, One (4)

Bubonix, Please Devil Send Me Golden Hair (11)

Can, Out of Reach (7)
-, Inner Space (8)

Csilla, Signifire (13)

Cut Copy, Hearts on Fire (4)

The Damned, The Black Album (12)
-, Machine Gun Etiquette (11)

Dark Sanctuary, Les Memoires Blessees (13)

DJ Spooky, Sound Unbound (45)

Dr. Dog, Fate (11)