MY HUSBAND'S MUSIC

On the questionable value of my beloved's collection. Archive

[myhusbandsmusic]

Darkthrone - Panzerfaust

Regarding all instruments but the voice - way beyond decent. Clearly classic. But fucking hell, the vocalizations: impossible to take seriously. Was the mixing intended to highlight how wretchedly pubescent and pathetic this is? Loose-jawed flapping of miserable guts. Hand this guy a knife and fucking move on. p.s. Regarding the fact that back of this cd actually claims not just "True Norwegian Black Metal", but also "The Most Hated Band in the World" - enough with this shit. Self-defining statements are NEVER attractive. (Unless you're a fool who's seeking someone to follow, ya?)

[myhusbandsmusic]

Echtra - Sky Burial

Excruciatingly beautiful solitude. Looking up, alone. All things speak; all omens surround. There is here an end to all dualism - ecstasy and ruin sit each inside the other, and they move. As one recedes, the other simultaneously ascends, and eventually, there is no way to tell which part would destroy you, which part would create. Heavy, steady, in all ways revelatory.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Color

Capable of being loosed from the impositions of intellect and philosophy, this work moves in scenes of almost shocking purity: the wind and its discovery of the hair on your arms; the lungs in love with the ribs, lost in the rapture of inhalation; a fire seeking revelation from a silent piece of wood; undertow's arms to sinking ship. Totally present tense, elemental for better or worse. The open hands of pianists. Leaves recognizing dirt.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Godflesh - Pure

The body loves a beat, just as it does tough guys with soul. Bloodied but understated. Apocalyptic and confronting without ever having to sweat. But sweat it does, persuasively.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Bauhaus - Burning from the Inside

Never underestimate the power of the brilliantly strange. Spiraling washes of sound make a spectrum here of wonderful and eerie entities. Throughout this work, the poetic density of each element offers a meaningful overlay upon a backdrop of twisting, emotive weirdness. Best: this never offends by fronting. Take heed, assholes!

[myhusbandsmusic]

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

This revolting, goofy, country-club drivel is the whitest thing I've had to sit through in a while. You like pastels? You like faux erudition? Every part of me that wants to watch the world liquefy in acid streams of blood and fear is goddamn alive and well when this waste is on. Know, officially, that if you make room in your life for this superficial moaning, I think less of you for it.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Lurker of Chalice - Self-Titled

As barren as it is fecund, this work is an entire fucking world. A wet, open ribcage, with myths above and bones below. The paradox of entering the underworld and finding it more dead than alive. Grotesque and grandiose. As raw and straight from the gut as it is thoughtful. This is so morbidly significant, there's little in the realm of words that could bear it true justice. Done.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Boris - Pink

Being pink, as we all are on the inside, this album is insufferably human. It contains:

1. romance and running across fields

2. carpeted pit floors and the cool kids standing by

3. occasionally taut darkness (personal fave)...

It is consistent only in its chaotic, overly emotional inconsistency. Sound like anyone you know?

[myhusbandsmusic]

Billie Holiday - Solitude

Attentive, patient ghosts caught in half-shattered, barely lit chandeliers. 

[myhusbandsmusic]

Isis - Celestial

A spectrum that sits low in the body. As if in the marrow, riding the waves of bone grinding against socket. Focused, a walking heave. Light comes in, passing through wound, and then gravity drops, makes another fall. Tighten and drop open, push and pull, let the rush come. The alchemy of body and weather. 

[myhusbandsmusic]

Leviathan - A Silhouette in Splinters

Utterly - the soul of the sea's unknowable depths. A moving, growing, sentient darkness. Fully alive. A voice like low ships' creaking. An undertow both murky and reflective. The terrible, complete peace of giving in to drowning and all the teeth and eyes that now come near. 

[myhusbandsmusic]

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

Strings made into celestial grind. Earthy and downright heroin chic alongside the raw, orbital sphere of the guitars. Rooted bass, but all else blown out at the edges. Unfortunately, the cumulative effect of all this pitched fuzz is a dull headache, but when this space first hits, it does briefly ensnare. By the end, I want to shave my head, dive into the deep end of a mud puddle, and go senseless. Not the best of scenes.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Giacinto Scelsi - Quattro Pezzi Per Orchestra - Anahit - Uaxuctum

A frightening temple from the start. Animal gods prowling. Strings pull tight forever, aimed at every part of the body. The skin waits to be struck, and it itches, crawls meanwhile. A study in exorcisms. 

[myhusbandsmusic]

Falkenbach - Heralding the Fireblade

Finally - consider me bewildered. At first, this was way too bright and repetitive, nearly as incessant as those souls who love to hear themselves talk and take up much more space than they've ever earned. And...I know not if anyone's used this already, but this is definitely Theatre Metal. There are inexplicable sing-alongs, gloomy dramas, sweet interludes, cyclic movements...But then, on too few tracks, paradise happens with guitars. The folk side of this project is persuasive, and I admit that I've succumbed to its call. What's most impressive is all that this album tries to pull off, despite varying degrees of success. There's something different happening here with enough driven regularity that I give this project much respect. Keep them fires burning.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Sage Francis - Personal Journals

This is substance, a re-imbuing of symbols with power. Possessed, refined. Cruel, sophisticated. Emotionally shameless. An education via blow after fearless blow. This one's poetic without losing neither shred of authenticity nor the clearest of perspectives. Smooth evocation, straddling much without dilution, the knife-edge of sharp word play. Learn from this.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Antaeus - De Principii Evangelikum

While inarguably consistent, this is ultimately really dull. Efforts were made to distinguish each track, but only in - literally - the opening seconds. Otherwise, thoroughly mediocre. And you know, I am sick to death of mediocrity. How much effort people put into sounding (or looking, or speaking, or fucking, etc., ad nauseam) like others. How ugly of a world this makes. Face the mirror until your own insignificance turns you to ash.

[myhusbandsmusic]

Striborg - Embittered Darkness / Isle de Morts

Formulaic and tinny. Insects swarming and working really, really hard, then pausing to explore caves / make honey / sleep and dream; then hey, sunrise, little wings, let's be fuzzy! Direct path to a serious headache.