Scandalous

So with the beautiful thing that is iTunes music sharing, I have had the "pleasure" of listening to two fairly popular modern albums, thus making me "cool" and "hip." I will also use totally arbitrary "star" (out of five) ratings, thus making me ridiculous.

The Killers- Hot Fuss

You know, apparently someone makes shirts that say "Ms. Brightside" or something. That should tell me something, but it doesn't really. The Killers hooks are engaging in the sense that beach novels are engaging. Not teasing us with hints of greatness. Just some decent, poppy hooks that strut like a twelve-year old does- too much ego, and not well-deserved. The music's fairly catchy, but when trying to recall songs, they all blend together. Hot Fuss's texture is too consistent, dulling my senses, lacking sufficient awesomeness to really captivate my attention. But at least it's better than Weezer. (2.05/5)

Coldplay- X&Y

At least they lasted two albums until they sold out. Oh wait... Coldplay are deliberately and consciously trying to shed their modest, nice guy appearance. This album shows my darling Chris and the boys donning sunglasses, slicking back their hair, and turning on the bright lights. Problem is, the transition doesn't really work. After several listens, I find myself more than happy to get the album over with. The wholesomeness, purity, and touch of innocence that graced Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head have gone the way of the cute attempts at getting interesting guitar textures. Out of Coldplay's sound. Speed of Sound is an inferior Clocks. This is Coldplay's equivalent of U2's October. It's not really offensive, and still kicks the crap out of Maroon 5 or whatever the kids are listening to these days. I can only hope that there will be analogues to War and The Joshua Tree to come. (2.35/5)

On Ben Folds: I don't get the attraction of this guy. U2 were blowing their collective wads on every song on their debut, Boy, but Ben Folds trumps their ego and pretension. Everything oversung, as if every song has to both open and close a concert. And if we look past the bombast, we really don't find anything very useful. If "Rockin' the Suburbs" is intended as a hillarious, self-depreiciating, ironic blast of social commentary it doesn't work. It just sounds like a particularly egregious amount of wanking. (Ben Folds gets a 1.35/5 official rating)
(On wanking: Personally, I don't have much of a problem in principle with two-minute guitar solos or a sea of reverb. But without much good stuff to deal with, long solos and studio tricks are wasted.)

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Point the Second: I really feel I lack Jerry's ability to make serious comparisons across the genres, specifically between "rock" and "classical." How am I supposed to compare Abbey Road to Dvorak's 9th? The ways I think about the two genres are too separate for me. I mean, if you put a gun to my head, I would say that I think that Radiohead's Kid A is about as good as Beethoven's 6th Symphony, but I can't make any comparisons.

Also, U2's "All Along the Watchtower" kinda sucks (Unabashed ego without Eno saving their behinds). But this is what comes from having Hendrix's tantalizing version.