Leaders of the Free World

New page of Visual Diary... mix of uni notes, ideas & fanarts. :>
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Collaboration! Vera, Marijka, Virginia & me.
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So I'm collecting albums these days. It's part of my post-splendour new music kick, though not all of it is new.

Right now: Grabbing Angus & Julia Stone's Down the Way and A Book Like This.

Most Recent: Brand New's The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me, basically got because I found myself falling for their track "Jesus", and so I expected the rest of it to be that mellow... and it wasn't.

Just Worn In: Elbow Discography. I really loved Elbow's Seldom Seen Kid, which I'd discovered on the plane back from Queenstown a year ago. Finally I got to grabbing all of their stuff. Just now, just today (well last time I was all-nighting a project), I finally wore all these songs in like a new shoe and now I really, wholeheartedly enjoy all of them. Which makes me a fully-versed Elbow fan, I guess.

A discography by an artist is a big gamble, and undertaking it depends on your willingness to still love that artist after hearing tens of hours of material that might span decades. Even if you love one album cover to cover and want to hear more, getting the entire catalogue of their work is a BIG step, and it usually shatters your preconceptions of what they're about. No matter how much I loved the Pillows while I was at RMIT, I've still to get through their entire 15-year back-catalogue, and the old stuff sounds REALLY aged (1990 for god's sake!).

It's a gamble, because sometimes you WILL hate an artist you're meant to love, not for lack of trying.

It's like that if you decide to try out an artist, too. Do you go for the newest album? The best-selling? The most acclaimed? What's a good "in", after you've heard a song or two or just read a review that tickled your fancy?

Well I can't say that I'm any better at the game after a few weeks of heavy collecting. But it's still fun, and I'll stick with it until it stops being so. And hey, you can just delete stuff that you don't like. :>

So anyway (while I'm procrastinating), here's a list of my inbox atm:

• Tame Impala - Innerspeaker (A bit cool, better live)
• Angus & Julia Stone - A Book Like This, Down The Way
• Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, Funeral (heard someone raving about them across the room, grabbed 2 albums from either end of the career I think? still undecided :/)
• Arctic Monkeys Discography (Retrospectively realised these guys are awesome.. but... I'm still a little overwhelmed with a wall of rock-sound after all this indie tripping.)
• Bliss & Eso - Running on Air (I really enjoyed Flying Colours, rhymes are a bit juvenile sometimes but that's part of the FUN. And their samples are wicked, and include Kasey Chambers....WAITWHAT?)
• Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (You gotta expect something awesome from a guy who locks himself up in a cabin in the wintery woods and, while hibernating, puts together a soulful healing album. It's lovely, even the tinniness of homebrew recording is.)
• Brand New - The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me (I thought I'd like the later album better, but the song that got me interested was my "in" on this album. Like a few tracks now, not sure I'll ever like some others. Heavy rock sound, I'm just not in the mood for it)
• Elbow Discography (love it! Covers the same ground as Coldplay but not radioplay-murdered, and his voice is LOVELY.)
• Gorillaz - Plastic Beach (I liked Demon Days once I wore it in, and a lot of people didn't... I think less people will like Plastic Beach, but I've kind of been on an electro-kick. It hit the spot for me. These cartoons are friggin' COOL.)
• Jamie T - Kings & Queens (He sang that Sticks & Stones song, ya remember? One of my first albums after Splendour and every minute hit the spot, esp. in contrast to Tame Impala. I've overheard it now, and his slummy brit-rap is really hard to understand sometimes, but it's kinda more poetic than just rap about being young and getting drunk/high a lot (looking at you Eso).)
• MGMT - Congratulations, Oracular Spectacular, Climbing to New Lows (HMM I was really into MGMT for a week there, and Congratulation's hard to hear if you like OS a lot. I got sucked into thinking about it as a Take That Stupid Fans album, like a lot of ppl did, but reading some heartfelt interviews kind of warmed me to it. And by that point I'd worn all the songs in. I've got some ANCIENT tracks from their uni days, too. Heheheheh...)
• Mumford And Sons - Sigh No More (I think everyone has to have this album, if they're into indie music in 2010? Like Angus & Julia Stone? I really like it, some of the lyrics are a bit hmmm for me, but their raw energy and passion is lovely. But uh, really..."folky".)
• Passion Pit - Manners (Another post-splendour one. Seeing them live was fun as... they kind of filled the hole that Congratulations didn't)
• Philadelphia Slick - Culture Industry (Heard some of their raps on T61 and really enjoyed them... looking forward to this)
• School of Seven Bells - Disconnect from Desire (They had 2 albums, not sure if I got the right one? Love the atmosphericness of it, but some tracks are hard to tell apart. Not worn in yet)
• We Are Scientists - With Love & Squalor (HAHAHaha IDK if you should invest in music just because you like the videos. I like a few tracks, but it's that harder rock sound that I'm not feeling atm, and kinda simple.)

I really, really need to clean out my inbox.

HAHHAHAHAHAHAaaaa time to get back to work! '_'