Comments:

Erin. - 2007-01-21 14:06:40
If you don't know Gainsbourg already, I'd start with a best-of album like Initials SG. He was very chameleon like and he wrote great music for decades in a lot of different styles. I'd happily make a few copies for you, & the Arcade Fire too, and send them your way if you were interested.
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Smed - 2007-01-21 14:36:37
You know, it's been a long while since an album knocked me out, track after track. I'll have to think. I know "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet was one.
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lemming - 2007-01-21 15:16:29
I realize that the example I am about to use will not be in quite the same category as many others, but OH WELL. I first heard Amy Grant's Christmas Album "Home For Christmas" as a cassette, ie something with 2 sides to it. Each individual track is certainly fine for playing on the 10, 000, 000 "All Chhristmas, All The Time (until 12:01 December 26)" stations, but each side works well. There's a strong arc and a certain amount of theme - wouldn't work for a whole album, but is nice in two pieces. As a continuous CD, I still love it, but there's a definite change in it as you hit the "turn teh cassette over" point. Theme albums might be a 1970s notion, but being able to set different tones on each side certainly carries on. (Wait, there's a Billy Joel example - well, anyway.) What the 24 hour news cycle has done to journalism (and history) for better and for worse is what the Internet has done to music, for better and for worse.
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teranika - 2007-01-21 21:48:51
I missed part I of this discussion so I'm a little bit out...my friend J is a sound engineer (or was). The advent of online music brokers and computerized mixing has killed his career, and I think also lessened the quality of a lot of music that is produced today. For one, the dynamic range of most recordings is just gone - developed now for the mp3 recording so that it can be heard over the noise of a bus. Also the career of a studio musician has vanished - why hire a real musician when you can fake it with midi sound? And finally, why pay oogabs for an experienced sound engineer when you can do it yourself? The thing is that a good engineer is not just mixing sound - s/he is also an artist, taking the music that little step further to achieve its effect. So this is a small tangent to what you've said....but anyone who has been forced to listen to Abbey Road on shuffle knows how modern technology has messed with concepts...
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