So I made it through three of the albums on my list yesterday. Quick takes:

King Crimson, live, 7/30/82: From the King Crimson Collector's Club, which puts out "official bootlegs." (Doesn't that sound kind of like "certified pre-owned?") Perhaps the best live release to feature the early 80s quartet of Fripp, Belew, Levin, and Bruford. (There was a time there where Belew was on everything coming out; notably Remain In Light.) This is a great record (yes, I still call them that) to listen to while working, if you like nervous frenetic music driving you like espresso for your ears. But its also oddly beautiful. Nervous, frenetic, and oddly beautiful describes Crim's best work. A total keeper.

New Pornographers, Electric Version: I didn't go for their first one, but my friend Minty and others seem to be ga-ga for this one, and it was Magnet's #2 of 2003, so I figured I'd give it a try. I found it to be oddly compelling on first listen (and Magnet said you still find hooks after 100 listenings.) I'll have to re-visit the first in this light. Called Power Pop, but I'm not quite sure; the hookiness is far more off beat than traditional Power Pop. Beguiling.

Wilco, A Ghost is Here: I wanted to like this. And I really tried. I haven't tried so hard to like a record since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. But I just don't get it. It sounds like something I ought to like-- as did YHF-- but I just don't seem to get drawn in, by either one. Frankly they lost me at Summer Teeth, which I know people think is great. I am not knocking the band; people whose taste I respect tell me Foxtrot was a classic. I just don't seem to get it. I must not be wired that way. Meanwhile, I still think their alt-country adieu, the double Being There, was brilliant. So what do I know?

Labels: The tunes