Black Mountain, MGMT, Hello, Blue Roses & Blood on the Wall

By MegJeph

Friday January 18, 2008

Black Mountain — In the Future
Jeph: I like this album. Most of it just sounds like good rock. Can’t complain about that. I don’t like that part in “Bright Lights” where they’re like: “Light bright light bright light bright…” for 16 minutes. That just gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Meg: That’s just you, though. You’re the kind of guy who likes “good rock” and is deathly afraid of repetitive singing.

Jeph: I dunno. It’s all about how they say it. It gives me the spooks something awful – as if evil spirits are trying to get down my throat and into my heart. Yikes! Good album, though. I might lend it to my brother.

Meg: Good idea. I just hope this album doesn’t give your brother “the spooks something awful”.




MGMT — Oracular Spectacualr
Whenever we have to review albums that are entirely instrumental, Jeph usually complains about the lack of singing and makes some long-winded statement about how instrumentals are boring. This album is one of those cases where we both agree that the absence of lyrics and singing would have been a bonus. The music and recording both succeed (they sound pretty good, in fact), but the lyrics would have been more appropriate if they were written on some junior high student’s binder or jeans. And the singing is as obnoxious as the band’s bio (on their website).




Hello, Blue Roses — The Portrait is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty…
Meg: One thing I can say for sure about this album is that the band is called Hello, Blue Roses and they also have a song called “Hello, Blue Roses.” Interesting.

Jeph: I noticed something too. The singer (the person in the band that isn’t Dan Bejar) is a visual artist, and the album title is about painting a portrait. I guess that’s something. Some sort of coincidence maybe. Or it might be an intention of some sort. Either way, I noticed it.

Meg: Another thing I can say for sure is that I think I heard a xylophone on at least one of the songs. That is about all I can say for sure. There just aren’t a lot of things to be sure of in life.

Jeph: That’s for sure.




Blood on the Wall — Liferz
Nobody needs to make this music. It’s just not called for.