currently listening to

God, I'm totally neglecting this blog. So, a quick one:



I've never been hugely into Natasha Bedingfield - I find her a little abrasive, some might say - but this is by far my favourite song at the moment. I love the lilting beat, the background harmonies and the lyrics are cute without being cutesy. Not so sure about the Sean Kingston interlude and some of the altered-sounding vocals, but those are minor hiccups. This is pretty close to pop perfection.

Also listening to:

In Love With A Girl - Gavin DeGraw

The chord structure is very much I Don't Wanna Be part 2, and the lyrics are a little reminiscent of something Pat Monahan (Train) might deliver, but for all that, it works. The upcoming album is to be self-titled, according to Billboard. Not sure if that's a bleak sign.

my 2007 in music - part 2

I edited the last post slightly because I wasn't very happy with it. I'm still not. But oh well. Thanks to Chris for getting my ass into gear about writing this next post.

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Biggest disappointment: Heroes and Thieves - Vanessa Carlton


(sorry, Charness)

The hype: songs test-driven at her Melbourne concert sounded promising, new and supportive label, positive reviews, addiction to first single Nolita Fairytale, and the trouble I went through to find this album: looked for it on the release date, found out shipments got delayed, when it was in store, it had to be retrieved from the back room, and I paid more than normal full price for it.

I will say straight off that this is not a horrible album - it was just horribly disappointing. I think Miss Carlton sums up her own album for me in the song Home - "they search for the colour they can never quite see / cause it's all white on white". And that is exactly what is wrong with this album - it is blandly pretty, with not enough musical complexity. For the most part, the melodies are based around your stock-standard chords and that is bo-ring. We even get two bridges that sound virtually identical - Nolita Fairytale bridge, meet your twin sister, This Time, which is in the same freaking KEY for crying out loud. And sometimes the melodies get echoed by three different instruments while they are being sung AS WELL - why why why? Plus, honestly: "I'm a sycophantic courtier with an elegant repost"? How Briony Tallis.

Anyway. This album will probably be reviewed in full, so I will reserve some of the scathing comments till then. As well as some of the positivity.

Runner-up: Greatest Hits - Spice Girls


The hype: The Spice Girls get back together. Need we say more.

The only Spice Girls album I own is the maligned Forever, which is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Hence, I was excited to finally own on disc the classic songs of my high school years - Wannabe et al. And I thought I would be listening to this album non-stop for boppy nostalgic funness. But the truth is, it's managed 4 paltry plays in its entirety on my iPod. Why? Well, yes, I still love songs like Say You'll Be There and Spice Up Your Life, and discovered Too Much. But overall, I feel like it's just too patchy - Mama and Move Over are low points in the first half of the album, and then the singles from Forever feel very out of place, and the new songs are dross - and so I never really feel like listening to it. Maybe I should just learn to use the 'skip' button.

Dishonourable mentions:

Little Eve - Kate Miller-Heidke


She's amazing live, and I enjoyed her Circular Breathing EP, but somehow this, her major label debut, lacks oomph. The singles Words and Make It Last are quirky and fun, but the slow songs come off a little boring, and... I don't know. I may have to get back to you on this one.

Older stuff by Fountains of Wayne


Traffic and Weather, their 2007 release, made me think that they would be my new favourite band. First, I got their B-side collection, Out-Of-State Plates, and found it rather up-and-down. But okay, they're B-sides - maybe that's natural. Then I ordered Welcome Interstate Managers from 2003, which had the uber-fun Stacy's Mom, but also found that patchy. So, meh.