Grant Smith
Grant Smith
Recent Stories
Long exposure
“ ‘My Maudlin Career’ is the sort of album that makes you want to stare out windows. With it off.”
Swoon bitchez
To name an album “Swoon” is to announce a not unimpressive ambition. A psychosomatic one, of sorts — a desire to arrange beats and tones in such patterns as to cause physical symptoms in the listener: to make the blood rush to places where it shouldn’t rush, to force the body into retreat. To make ’em weak at the knees and light in the head.
A soundtrack for the dull
Junior Boys’ latest — the obscurely titled “Begone Dull Care” (Google it for a kick) — is best experienced as a complete album.
Bjorn in the USA ok!
Since World War II, proficiency in English has been a requirement for entry into one of Sweden’s lovely, publicly financed universities. While I assume this policy was implemented to enhance Swedish economic competitiveness, its primary result was, of course, ABBA. (Ed. note: Cannot reverse first “B.”)
Bromantic poetry
Comedies don’t win Oscars. Of course, there are exceptions to this statement (Pixar, Cohen Bros.), but “I Love You, Man” will not be one of them.
Let’s go on an adventure!
“The International” is a title that doesn’t seem to tell you much. Globe-trotting espionage thrillers are about a dime a dozen; marketing wisdom would seem to require some indication of what sets this one apart.
Tears for “Years”
Some say our culture is unhealthily obsessed with youth. I’m not sure if this is true. But then again, I’m a young person who’s been accused of having an old soul (most recently: an acquaintance, instructed to choose a candy that best fit my personality, offered a box of Good ’n’ Plentys). So I suppose my perspective on the issue is somehow warped.
Franz minus math equals bad
Since Franz Ferdinand’s emergence out of some vague early-2000s Glasgow dance-indie “scene” of which I can’t seem to recall another member, their music has been most often associated with the vocabulary of geometry.
A case of mixed ‘Blood’
Let’s first discuss the letter “b” to get that whole issue out of the way. Bon Iver (stage name of Justin Vernon) offers four songs on “Blood Bank,” his most recent EP: “Blood Bank,” “Beach Baby,” “Babys” [sic] and … “Woods.” I won’t venture into the letter’s symbolic potential, but the alliteration hints at a coherence that isn’t quite there.
