Fergie/Ferg Listening Reports

I am the first person on the internet to make this astute comparison.

Fergie - The Dutchess

I owe Fergie a big fat apology, I was wrong to say that she has an "inexplicable lack of charisma" on "London Bridge" in an old song review (I do tend to flip-flop on those). On each half of the album she actually has a very distinct personality, part 1 she's funny and the album is pretty consistently delightful, eclectic production running the gamut from bleepy hip-hop to lite R&B to heavy-duty soul samplin', and then there's an unexpected transition into to Pink angst-ballad mode (starts at "Pedestal," a Pink R&B number with Gwennishness in the chorus), where she returns for the album's underrated ballads.

"London Bridge" has grown on me, but it isn't nearly as good as some of hte songs on here (I did underrate it before, though). Also, in "Pedestal" she reveals that she's been reading what people write about her on the Internet! HI FERGIE!!!!! (Is the "T" in the title intentional or did they not run it by a copy editor? It could be a buffer letter to help distinguish between one Fergie-Ferg and the other one.) Might be a top ten contender.

MCR - The Black Parade

Wow, I'm really liking this. Tim Burton emo with the deep-on-the-outside feel that Fall Out Boys and Disco Panickers sort of reference without really achieving, all glitz and gaud and pomp (jeez I think even AOL uses that word) and at least one GN'R guitar solo rip-off (from "November Rain," forget which song, but sounds great) and The Wall vibes on whichever track he's pleading to "mama." Not paying much attention to the lyrics [EDIT: This Youtube video of "Teenagers" brings to light, er, interesting lyrics, the Voice refers to 'em as "trenchcoat mafia" lyrics, but I'm not totally willing to accept that, since the song seems to be as much about a fear of teenagers as it is about the fear teenagers might actually induce], but the life & death stuff seems fairly tongue in cheek. The Voice review questions why they haven't "moved on," but it seems to me that they don't take the vampires or the Big Questions or anything else on the album all that seriously; if it's what they need to orchestrate an adorable monstrosity like this, I'm not complaining.

LCD Soundsystem - 45:33

Lots of hand-wringing or, in some cases, excitement about the corporate-sponsored nature of this project. I don't think it's unreasonable not to cheerlead for corporate sponsorship, and I think the reserved shrug that most people have given the project-as-concept is a little odd. Where's all the self-righteous anger that characterized the reception of Paris? Nike is actually bad! This isn't like a Paris Hilton thing where despicable practices/ideas are projected onto a vague symbol for everyone's convenience -- this (excellent) mix REALLY DOES directly fund brutal international exploitation, just like we all secretly feared about Paris bin Laden!

Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Undecided. Not liking it nearly as much as Separation Sunday (I should go further back to Lifter Puller, not too familiar with them), but still processing. Took me a while to come around to the last one, might take longer for this one, should probably find it on CD since the listening party I'd been using might have expired by now.

Killers - Sam's Town

Um, ditto. Sorry this isn't more informative. Gotta say, the teenpopers do the OLD Killers better than they possibly could. They're screwed! Kind of like the album, tho.

Jojo - The High Road

Haven't listened to all of it yet, first half is great.

Gwen Stefani - "Wind It Up"

Yikes. Jimmy Draper sez: "Sounds like Fergie doing Gwen!" which is more accurate than anything else I could probably say about it. The "Lonely Goatherd" sample is a cute idea but the song doesn't really do much with it. Meanders with no clear structure...sounds kind of like a stop-gap, which it is. [EDIT: Actually, this is the lead single from her new album! But the album isn't a "proper" album, sort of a glorified B-sides comp as I understand it?] Interesting: Fergie seems to have (in a way) outdone Gwen and Pink this year. [EDIT: OK, maybe not P!nk.]

Robyn feat. Teddybears Sthlm - "Girlie-Style" "Cobrastyle" (credited as both, but pretty sure the latter is correct)

Nice Robyn melodic rap, sort of a dancehall flow(?), against a light plink-synth and poopy-bass backdrop. Her style is da bomb-di-di-bomb-di-dang-di-dang-diggy-diggy. Anticipating this EP, esp. for the "Jack U Off" cover.

Further comment in comments, if ya know what I mean.

(Oh and apologies to Kelefa Sanneh, whose name I've been spelling wrong a lot lately. Won't happen again.)