Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Has it been twenty days since I went to the post office? I suppose it has. I meant to post a lot of things, but the first one to really hit me hard and cause an action potential is the Brian Wilson album Smile coming out. I'm listening to it now. And, of course it's not what I expected, but a legendary album that didn't come out until 37 years after its expected street date is never what you want it to be 37 years later.

I'll tell you one thing, though, if Brian Wilson could come up with ideas this good that were fresh, he'd kick everyone's ass. He could team up with Jon Brion and stuff and...man...they'd be like a superhero team with an arsenal of weapons like six-part harmonies and calliopes.

Nobody writes hot calliope parts anymore. With the exception of Tom Waits, I guess.

Smile is good, though. It's just hard to say how good and still be objective. It doesn't sound like a pop album to me. I was going to write an equation to show what it sounds like. Like, I could describe Nirvana as (Angst)(under-tuned guitars+oblique song titles)/Billions of fans. I'll work on a Smile equation once I've heard it a few times.