Pain makes for stronger memories, and last night’s performance of Hamlet for this year’s Shakespeare in the Park series will haunt me accordingly. It is hard to pin down precisely why migraines are so traumatic, compared to more serious ailments that threaten actual body integrity or, indeed, more intense pain from traumatic injury. Is it that they are localized within the inner space of the head, seemingly out of reach of comfort? That they are triggered by often unpredictable clusters of probabilities – this change in temperature, that delay in eating, some other slight to the circadian rhythm? That they magnify sense experience into maddening affronts, transmuting elemental light, sound, smell into staggering assaults? Or simply that they mete out an unmerited vengeance, as you can commonly do little more than endure them like stages of grief, anger leading to bargaining, to depression, and occasionally acceptance that one must simply wait and pray for the release of unconsciousness while aggrieved capillaries dilate back to their mundane configuration. Indeed, it seems the greatest injustice to wake from a hard-fought fevered delirium to find that despite finally achieving that occluding release of insensateness, that the pain mockingly remains.

So, what does that tell us about Hamlet? (more…)

So, how do you get out of your head? Isn’t that what we all desperately need as respite, a way to escape the incessant weight of being under your own ceaseless observation? Perhaps, as the Handsome Family put it:

“This is why people OD on pills/and jump from the/Golden Gate Bridge

Anything to feel weightless again”

Let’s go to a concert.

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[spoiler alert: full plot details of both film and comic versions are discussed]

Any film adaptation is automatically a mixed blessing: the chance to see some beloved story translated from a book/comic/radio show/TV show/videogame to the big screen, counterbalanced by the risk that it will get fundamentally ruined in the process. Of these, the trials of moving from books to movies are probably best established—massive plot compression, reduced complexity, characters that don’t “look right,” jettisoning of descriptive language—but comic adaptations are a much newer phenomenon with their own pitfalls. To begin, one might argue that Watchmen is only the second true conversion (what in videogame terms might be called a “total conversion” from mod culture), following Frank Miller’s Sin City, with most other superhero and even explicitly comic book movies often closer to “inspired by” or “featuring characters from” than outright transfers from actual comic runs or specific graphic novels[1]. Even previous efforts to adapt Alan Moore in League Of Extraordinary Gentleman, From Hell, and V for Vendetta, and Watchmen director Zach Snyder’s previous outing with Frank Miller’s 300, diverged quite widely from the source material. By contrast, Sin City was almost a shot-for-shot remake of the Dark Horse series. But even it suffered in the process of combining multiple short story arcs into an attempt to create a coherent longer film, and from the innate limitations of the flat-affect noir patois in which it was composed. Watchmen was conceived first as a 12-part comic run and then collected as a graphic novel, ostensibly providing a more linear narrative to put into a film script. Once the initial jitters that the material would be handled indelicately had passed (Snyder went out of the way to reassure fans), the more apropos question became: does Watchmen even work as a movie? With Snyder’s Watchmen, we have a vastly ambitious attempt to convert what has been called an “unfilmable” work into celluloid. How well viewers think the effort turned out is breaking down along traditional party lines, with mainstream critics bothered by its structure, pulp excesses, and even its slavish devotion to the text (cf. the first two Harry Potter films); and fans thrilled to see familiar scenes brought to life. At the risk of rehashing overchurned ground, I think the movie succeeds and fails precisely by those measures and your ultimate enjoyment will be determined how much you give credence to each. Let’s start with the structure.
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Albums added in February: 17,821

Featured Selections

Apoptygma Berzerk, You and Me Against the World (14)

Apoptygma’s Stephan Groth met stiff scene resistance in shifting from earlier, harsh attack EBM to the kind of epic synth rock exhibited here to great effect. Naturally, cries of ’sellout’ and fan rebellion were followed by the album achieving runaway success, particularly in Tokio Hotel-loving Germany. Anthemic, crashing chords tear the roof off with tracks like “In This Together” and the gripping “Cambodia.”

Asobi Seksu, Hush (12)

Asobi Seksu return with more immaculate, Lush-esque twee dreampop.

Autechre, Amber (11)
-, Incunabula (11)

Before they got self-consciously experimental to the point of becoming ‘difficult’ music, Autechre put out some wonderfully melodic IDM in Incunabula and Amber, which would be followed shortly after by Tri Repetae.

Scooter, Jumping All Over the World (24)

It’s Scooter. Jumping All Over the Place is pretty much self-descriptive.


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Albums added in January: 14,007

eMusic Feature

Saddle Creek Essentials

Featured Selections

Andrew Bird, Noble Beast (12)

Andrew Bird continues to veer further away from his swing jazz roots with the Bowl of Fire while continuing to produce consistently pleasing pop/folk concoctions, with trademark violin, whistling, and lyrical flourishes to challenge The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy.

Client, Heartland (12)
-, Untitled Remix (12)
-, Xerox Machine (6)

Not as immediately infectious as preceding albums Client and City, Heartland takes a few listens to gell, but ultimately still delivers the retro synthpop with a bit more Gary Glitter stamp and stomp, particularly the Alice Cooper-esque “Lights Go Out” and their cover of Adam Ant’s “Xerox Machine.” The Untitled Remix includes primarily mixes from Heartland plus collaborations with Douglas McCarthy and fellow synthetes Replica.

Stoa, Silmand (13)

More silky-swoopy neoclassical darkwave from ex-Hyperium act Stoa.

Maria Taylor, Lynn Tweeter Flower (11)

Both Taylor and fellow Azure Ray bandmate Orenda Fink get several older solo releases added (below), while Lynn Tweeter Flower represents the latest output of AR’s more straightforward half.


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Albums added in December: 16,452

Major additions this month from the Metropolis Records back catalog, featuring Darkwave/EBM/Industrial acts like Clan of Xymox, Combichrist, Covenant, Haujobb, KMFDM, Suicide Commando, Velvet Acid Christ, VNV Nation, and Wumpscut.

Featured Selections

Cranes, Cranes (11)

Cranes choose their eighth album to go eponymous, four years after Particles and Waves. Alison Shaw’s child plaint remains a constant in their dream pop repertoire, backed with the familiar strumming of Jim Shaw, and accompanied by the bell-like tones from their more recent outings.

Gotan Project, Live (24)

As it says on the tin, live renditions of Gotan Project’s electronic-flecked nuevo tango add spice and uncertainty to their more battened-down studio versions. The album covers material from their tours supporting La Revancha del Tango and Lunático, plus two orchestral reworkings.

Sigur Rós, Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust (11)

Translating as “With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly,” the fifth release by Icelandic post-rockers Sigur Rós adds more upbeat whimsy than earlier Hopelandic laments and includes their first song in English, “All Alright.”

Hector Zazou, L’Absence (11)

A companion album to Strong Currents, featuring some of the same featured female vocalists (Nicola Hitchcock of Mandalay, Caroline Lavelle, Emma Stow) plus others including actress Asia Argento, and a rare male voice by the French singer Edo. Sadly, among the last of Zazou’s collaborative efforts before his untimely death late last year.

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[No album count this month; I didn't check in time.]

Featured Selections

Au Revoir Simone, Reverse Migration (13)

Remix collection of the entirety of 2007’s The Bird of Music, with “Sad Song” and “The Lucky One” both earning double dips. Some tracks are actually more stripped down rather than built up, such as the spare Slow Club mix of “The Lucky One” which concludes in a rousingly messy chorus round.

Lisa Hannigan, Sea Sew (10)

Longtime musical partner of Damien Rice, Irish sweetheart Hannigan was set free amid some untoward drama, but confidently breaks out on her own on Sea Sew. The album enjoyed early success with the leadoff single “Lille.”

Ladyhawke, Ladyhawke (12)

Kiwi Pip Brown plunders the dusty chest of 80s pop and pulls off the new-new wave secret soundtrack to a John Hughes film that never was.

Ulrich Schnauss, Goodbye (10)

Schnauss moves on from his homage to 70s space rock like Tangerine Dream to epic 90s shoegaze like Slowdive and SoulWhirlingSomewhere, right from the aching swell of opener “Never Be the Same” with its crashing synth waves under blissed out vocals. Music for dreams to ascend into.

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Albums added in October: 24,319

eMusic Features

Halloween Ear Candy

Featured Selections

Ani DiFranco

Queen of independent alternative folk, Ani DiFranco makes her eMusic debut with a whole mess of albums – from the earliest on her own label Righteous Babe up through recent studio releases.

Lush, Topolino (12)

Along with the sunny change in style Lush showed on Lovelife, they also put out a blizzard of quality B-sides. This Topolino is one of two regional collections of those (the Japanese version having a slightly different track listing), featuring a number of summery gems. Others are included on the singles also added this month.


Scooter, The Age Of Love (11)
-, And the Beat Goes On (11)
-, Back To The Heavyweight Jam (12)
-, Mind The Gap (14)
-, No Time To Chill (12)
-, Our Happy Hardcore (10)
-, Sheffield (12)
-, The Stadium Techno Experience (12)
-, We Bring The Noise (12)
-, Who’s Got The Last Laugh Now? (12)
-, Wicked! (11)

Along with Dune and Blümchen, I spent a lot of time and even more money tracking down these import albums of happy hardcore mainstay Scooter, many of which never made it far out of Germany despite being in English (although they have had significant success in the UK). In addition to the albums above, numerous singles and compilations were also added.

t.A.T.u., Happy Smiles (12)

Despite losing the tabloid allure of their faux teen-lesbian act, t.A.T.u. continues to turn out enjoyable pop albums. And like their prior releases, this saw dual release – first in Russia as Vesyolye Ulybki (Happy Smiles) and then repackaged as Waste Management.


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Albums added in September:14,769

Featured Selections

Handsome Family, Through the Trees (13)

Funny story – my friend TNG played this alt-country couple’s album essentially non-stop for six months in an office we shared, and I hated it. Now I can’t live without it. I have since sampled the rest of their catalog, and while still quality all, they never top the lyrical genius and sublime modesty of tracks like “Weightless Again”, “My Sister’s Tiny Hands”, “Giant of Illinois” and “The Woman Downstairs.”

The Notwist, Neon Golden (13)

Glitch acoustic-inflected marginal pop, of the Ms. John Soda vein. “Consequence” will remind you of something you can never quite pin down.

Ulrich Schnauss, A Strangely Isolated Place (8)
-, Far Away Trains Passing By (6+6)
-, Passing By (4)

Ulrich Schnauss started out in homage to early Tangerine Dream and gradually evolves over multiple releases into warm 90s shoegazer ambience, sounding like instrumentals left off Slowdive’s Souvlaki.

Hector Zazou & Swara, In the House of Mirrors (10)

It came as a shock to discover that Hector Zazou had died, which I found out simply by reading a user review of this, his final collaboration.


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Albums added in August: 12,936

Featured Selections

Blümchen, Best Of (33)

A fantastic double-album collecting Blümchen’s hits from the happy hardcore of Herzfrequenz to the sophisticated dance-pop of Die Welt Gehört Dir, plus numerous remixes.
[ed. note: Under the revised album credits system, this is an even better bargain - 33 tracks as a 12-credit album.]

Nina Deli, Bricolage (6)

A MySpace discovery, Nina produces hushed post-triphop atmospheric balladry.

Hybrid, Soundsystem 01 (15+12)

Despite being a mix collection featuring numerous high-profile electronic beat artists (Trentemøller, Sasha, Spooky) the composition and prevailing mood frame a much quieter, downtempo, emotive experience anchored by film composers like Harry Gregson-Williams (Kingdom of Heaven, Man on Fire) and John Murphy (28 Days Later, Sunshine).

Ra Ra Riot, The Rhumb Line (10)

Debut album by act often described as a cross between Arcade Fire’s majestic scoring and Vampire Weekend’s jittery pop. Includes their cover of Kate Bush’s “Suspended in Gaffa.”

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