Workworkworkworkworkworkwork

MUST WORK.

MUST BLOG.

SO BAD AT BLOGGING (er, on a regular basis, that is).

OK.

HERE ARE SOME ASSORTED OBSERVATIONS:

1. Amy Diamond really does have quite a discography. I have put together what I feel to be an adequate 1-CD Greatest Hits compilation, a la Most Wanted or (more recently) my own Mostly Wanted. You can git it here. [EDIT: track listing in comments]

2. Wow, first half of Sasha Fierce's album is damn heavy. Good ballads, though! Still don't really care for Beyonce in a visceral sorta way, and get the urge to sort of crouch down in a near-fetal position when she starts singing at me. She's always hittin' me with a belt. Perhaps this just means that I am a meek person. I'll letcha know what I think when I get to CD 2. (DUDE, stop putting out 2 CDs with eleven tracks. Though maybe this will be an inverse Lord of the Rings move, establishing an acceptable ~10 track length for full-lengths. Take note, Mariah Carey!) [EDIT: Actually, I might prefer disc 1 -- at least her heaviness there is a bit more...honest. Solid album, better than B'Day in the sense that I can imagine listening to it many times after first listen, but it's really really begging for a reordering. Really.]

3. LOL one of Beyonce's melody lines in "Disappear" reminded me that Thom Yorke totally sounds like Ariel from The Little Mermaid in one song off In Rainbows. An unexpectedly good look for him!

4. WOW, while everyone is talking about important things, I seem to be delving into Blog 27's new one (er, yikes? only heard two songs so far...) and actually paying real US dollars IN A RECESSION EVEN for a Jesus H. Christ album off of CDBaby.

5. Did you know that P!nk has a new album out? Ross tells me that Sasha Fierce-Jones sez it's...y'know, P!nky and no brain. Doesn't surprise me. Glad he singles out "Stupid Girls" as particularly egregious.

6. Good conversations today and yesterday about ambition and how big of a dick Kevin Barnes is.

7. Oh thank god I can go back to ignoring Alaska.

8. Mike Barthel keeps schooling me on how to juggle booooooring priorities and astute musings on pop culture. And political culture. And surveys. And any number of things. BUT! I have been able to participate more in conversations about fair use based on said priorities, which is nice. I also refuse to join Tumblr.

9. To all the single ladies and their single fellas -- do not feel compelled to put a ring on it. You have to know it's the right time for you. I mean yes, I liked it and put a ring on it. But I'm also a deeply insecure person and needed to make sure I could hang on to someone so obviously out of my league.

10. I apologize for presuming how frequently Ne-Yo does his dishes based on a song, which may have been, in part, fictional. I should really listen to his album more than once, shouldn't I? WELL I'M BUSY!

11. What else do I have opinions on. Many things. Whoa oh oh...

Oh! Here are the albums I have deemed anywhere between "[bemused eyebrow-lowering]" and "dreck." If you want to defend any one of them, or commiserate in my disliking, please do:

Alphabeat - s/t
Andre 3000 - Alter Ego mixtape
BYOP - Get Awkward
Bloc Party - Intimacy
Constantines - Kensington Heights
Cheri Dennis - In and Out of Love
Miley Cyrus - Breakout
Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling
Eminelton - Eminem and Elton John
Fleet Foxes - s/t
Girlicious - s/t
Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
Janet Jackson - Discipline
Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head
Los Campesinos - Hold On Now Youngster
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
Katy Perry - Catchy (Kill Yourself)
Kelley Polar - I Need You to Hold on while the Sky Is Falling
Prima J - s/t
R.E.M. - Accelerate
RZA - Digi Snacks
She and Him - Vol. 1
Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
Stereolab - Chemical Chords
Subtle - ExitingARM
Thalisha - Ear Candy
The-Dream - Love/Hate
Times New Viking - Rip It Off
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
Vampire Weekend - s/t
Vanilla Hudge - Identified
The Verve - Forth
The Walkmen - You and Me
Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun

12. Post about a restricted range of highs and lows in 2008 may follow at some point. I don't think it "points" to anything, nor do I think it's self-evident. Peoples have argued against this thesis. But I'd still like to defend it...maybe after being mildly pleased or mildly disappointed a few more times?

13. Oh yeah, Britney put out a new album. How about that! I still don't think I have the full version of it. She's certainly turned some kind of corner, I guess, but I also think people are underestimating how deeply weird she's always been, just more hemmed in either with hooks or by burying the strangeness on an omnibus multi-producer album. "Touch of Your Hand" is a weirder and more effective sex statement than anything on Circus, I think. And probably Blackout, though Blackout wasn't about moments, it was about cohesion and narrative (even if I personally don't think the album narrative matches up with the tabloid narrative of that year), whereas Circus is back to her scattered self, albeit a newish self.

14. What on earth was I thinking when I wondered whether or not I had neologized "monocultural"? Not even CLOSE.

[EDIT: 15. Cassie: "turn the lights off." Beyonce: "turn the lights on." Discuss.]