Utada Hikaru– Exodus ‘04
Utada may be Japan’s biggest homegrown pop star of the moment, but she’s always been distinguished from other J-Pop hitmakers by her decidedly Western predilections. The cultural curiosity and multi-genre comfort that made Utada such a sensation in her native country translates beautifully into wide-eyed populism and ultra-precocious global-pop veracity now that she’s once again a small fish in a big pond. Working with Timbaland was less about calculated urban-market inroads and more about fortuitous schedules and the long arm of Island Records. You can feel that lack of premeditation in the song itself, a makeshift epic that’s satisfyingly undercooked, strange as that may sound. The year-specific tag is the surest sign it’s been slapped together, but in the context of the song it works perfectly and poignantly. Maybe Utada hasn’t thought things all the way through, maybe this exodus is nothing more than a silly gambit, maybe she’s just been entranced by the “new music on the radio”. Like Nellie McKay, she’s young and wholly self-possessed, just not yet ready to sound like a careerist.
[visit Utada’s website here, buy Exodus here]
We Versus the Shark- See Carolina’s Fastest Trees (Live)
On Saturday we went downtown to see local math-rock sensation We Versus the Shark (or simply “The Shark” in our parlance). On the way back to the car we walked past the Georgia Theatre and heard a few bars of Leftover Salmon’s jam-band circumlocutions. Made me realize just how much by-the-book math-rock and by-the-book jam-band music have in common—same white-boy wankery, same emphasis on proficiency over popcraft, same feigned but sorely-missing grasp of funk. Both camps probably listen to way too much Zappa. Thankfully, WVTS is anything but by-the-book, adding genuine melodicism, occasional technical restraint, pretension-free post-punk vocalisms, and perhaps most importantly, an actual girl (singer/guitarist Samantha Paulsen, who sings like Carrie Brownstein but plays geetar like Don Cab) to the mix.
[visit We Versus The Shark’s website here]
Toby Keith– Stays in Mexico, [Greatest Hits 2]
I hate Toby Keith. Wait a minute, maybe I don’t, this one’s actually pretty great, morally bankrupt of course, but I’ll take morally bankrupt and hilarious and undeniably well-written over simple-minded jingoistic reactionary claptrap any day of the week. Since so much of pop-country can be suffocatingly hegemonic in terms of moral dieting (take a cup of nu-cue-ler family values and a tablespoon of “tough on terror” and call Bill Bennett in the morning), unapologetic sinning’s strangely refreshing in this context. Country single of the year, Non-Muzik Mafia Division.
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By: Stylus Staff Published on: November 23, 2004 |