Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jackie Blue]

This album is the business.

I seem to be in the vast minority of people who liked TA - and in fact, all their other albums - on their own merits, rather than "getting" the "joke" that one annoying Pitchfork reviewer referenced when he said "I liked Trans Am better when I didn't get the joke."

I don't even necessarily think there's a joke to get.  I've seen them live, I've heard all their albums, and I don't think they're being ironic.  I think their diversions into krautrock, prog-rock, 80s synth pop, Spacemen 3 drone, etc etc... I think those are all things they're mixing in because that's just what they really want to do.  I think they're trying to let hipper-than-now people know that there's nothing wrong with enjoying things that aren't studiously "cool".

That they are immaculate and very precise musicians doesn't hurt.

In many ways, Sex Change sounds more like their second and third albums than anything post-Futureworld, but it manages to throw in some really great changes as well - there's some pseudo-lounge singing, some heavy old-fashioned riff-rock, lots of lasting appeal.  I'd say it's their best since Futureworld and definitely a massive improvement over the fairly boring Liberation.

[Jackie Blue]

Er, Liberation was the last one before this.  Are you thinking of TA?  TA came out between Red Line and Liberation.  You should listen to Futureworld if you haven't.

If you like Red Line, I think you'd like this one a lot.

[Jackie Blue]

Yeah, that whole Trans Am/Hummer thing was kind of surreal.  I'm not sure I could honestly say I'd turn down a million bucks to let someone use my song in a commercial, but then again, I'm dirt poor.  If I were living comfortably I would probably turn it down.

A lot of people didn't like TA.  I loved it.  "Cold War" is the best song New Order never wrote.  "Basta" is just so ridiculously fun.

Yes, Red Line is so completely varied it's barely an "album".  Every single song sounds different from every other one.  Sex Change goes back to their more thematic albums, but not entirely - it still throws in some wacky combinations.

When I saw them live, the place was so packed I had to stand on a couch.  It was for the Red Line tour and I was about ten feet from the singer, standing on this couch with two cans of beer, one in each hand, and the whole show I kept yelling "WOOOOOO!" and "I WANT IT ALL!!!!"  And then when they played the encore and they did play "I Want It All", the singer looked at me, smiled, nodded his head, and winked.  It was a beautiful thing, man.

EDIT: By "standing on a couch" I mean I was standing balanced on one arm and the back of the couch, above the people sitting on it.  Piss drunk.  Rocking the fuck out.

I miss being 25.