2008 in Music / ２００８年の音楽

今年はまだ日本語の音楽をあまり聞かなかった、な。実には、倖田來未の「KINGDOM」は俺の一番聞いたアルバム　(-_-);
別に良いJ-POPやけど、絶対この製法音楽は「２００８のいちば〜んです！」と言えないや。

絶対。

多分とても美しい日本音楽が発売した２００８があるだけど、それは僕の世相じゃなくなったかもしれん。ごめん、日本人の友。ごめん、大和魂。

２００８の一番好きなアルバムは、Santogold[myspace.com]の「Santogold」やった。彼女の音楽は筆舌に尽くし難いの。この本間に創意がある音楽は。。。なんとかアーティストの美意識を伝える。

本間に俺の宝ものや。

2008 was a really fantastic year in music; I'm going to have to devote a whole separate post to some of the astonishing concerts I saw in the past twelve months. For this post though, I'm focused on recordings. Speaking of, iTunes music store scoot over - give me amazon.com/mp3 instead. Their daily deals are insane, often featuring recent releases at the mind-boggling price of $1.99. Which my mind is effectively unable to distinguish from 'free'.

From the first time I heard it back in May, I knew that Santogold's [myspace.com] eponymous album debut was going to be the album to beat this year. The thing is, nothing did. Only time will tell if Santi White spawned a magnificent career in 2008 or just a magnificent album, but there’s no arguing that this is the best thing I heard all year. Sonically it’s all over the place, yet incredibly cohesive – influences from new wave, dub, and indie rock dominate, but the hooks are pure, undeniable pop precision. It’s also got legs for miles and miles, with beautifully layered textures that continue to reveal more of the music as the songs grow more familiar. This album is an experience, and should not be missed. Get it, and enjoy it.

Where songs were concerned, Yelle’s [yelle.fr] club stomper “Je Veux Te Voir” [youtube.com] (originally released in 2006, it managed to reach my ears upon wider re-release in 2008) simply could not be stopped. It features hyper-scandalous lyrics that you don’t even have to understand French to love:

Je veux te voir
Dans un film pornographique
En action avec ta bite
Forme patatoes ou bien frites

Ta position favorite
Tes performances olympiques
Mais tu nas rien d’orgasmique

To my surprise, it stood up to heavy rotion – the brilliant build to its explosive finale made it utterly dominate my playlists for weeks. The rest of her debut album Pop-Up is no slouch either. Dance-able French electro-pop? Yes, please!

UTADA = LOL?

Utada Hikaru’s (宇多田ヒカル) American persona UTADA just dropped a new track [utada.com], which is to be the lead-in for her new English-language album. I listened to it on repeat several times before coming to the conclusion that it is, sadly, horrible. Even as one of the very few native speakers who liked her previous English effort EXODUS [wikipedia.org], I struggled to find anything defensible here. The endlessly echoed failure of that album – her lack of English lyrical prowess – hasn’t seen any discernible improvement (she actually uses the line “I wish that I could photoshop all our bad memories” with no ironic intent). The lyrical tone seems ripped straight from Bobbie Brown song… or perhaps an Andy Samberg send-up of a Bobbie Brown song, and is strangely masculine. The music has always been her one piece of solid, defensible ground, but she’s opted for b-grade generic American R&B sounds that have none of her usual melodic hooks.

UTADA, what happened? There is nothing compelling here. You’re still making good Japanese music. What gives?

Happy New Year, 2009

It’s that time again, folks! A New Year is upon us. Now make some resolutions and get back to work, you lazy drunks.

アケオメ〜！