Kablammo!

I really have to hand it to the people at BitTorrent. Not only have they created a robust, reliable distributed filesharing system, but they evidently work as a news service as well. Yes, a news service!

You look incredulous, so let me explain. BitTorrent, or, more specifically, a .torrent tracking site, is where I found out that Muse had a new album coming out. Hell, I even found out what it sounded like. Then today BitTorrent, or, more specifically, that same .torrent tracking site, told me all about Starsailor‘s new album.

Song of the Moment: “She Moves She” — Four Tet

Hm, tonight’s the first night in almost two weeks that I haven’t had at least a beer or two. Ah well, such is life.

Thoughts on Muse’s Absolution follow.
NOTE — This is a work in progress, and I’ll keep reediting this entry until I’ve finished it.
NOTE — As of over a month after the original post date, I’ve finally gone back and finished this thing. Heh. ^_^;;

• Intro: Mmm, footsteps. Segues well enough into the next track, I guess, but seems kind of pointless nonetheless.
• Apocalypse Please: Musically, this song reminds me of the whole first half of Origin of Symmetry — it’s got shades of everything there besides that wonderful distortion in «New Born». It’s nice to hear them hammering the living hell out of a piano for once, instead of the usual obligatory guitar, bass and drums. They’ve used pianos before, but not like this. Also, the vocal harmonies, simple as they are, are much appreciated and give the song a vibe that works well.
• Time is Running Out: This song bears a striking resemblance to «Muscle Museum», being similarly bass-driven and cleaving just as strongly to Muse’s quiet-loud-quiet-loud trademark. It’s also as catchy as «Muscle Museum», and makes an obvious choice for a single.
• Sing for Absolution: Inoffensive.
• Stockholm Syndrome: ::sigh:: If Muse showed development as artists on the rest of this album, which they certainly did for the most part, they certainly didn’t with this track. Every aspect of it, from the melody, riffs, and instrumentation to the lyrics, effects, and pacing could just as easily have been present on Showbiz or Origin… and it still had a chance of sounding fresh back then. Nothing wrong with sticking to what worked in the past, I suppose, but I just wish it didn’t sound so godawfully uninspired.
  If I had to pick a song from this album that I guessed would be featured in a terrible action movie, it would definitely be «Stockholm Syndrome».

• Falling Away With You: It’s a real shame that the lead guitar and the vocal part have the exact same melody for the majority of the song, because it does nothing but detract from both. What remains is fairly bland.
• Interlude: Perhaps it was just a riff that Muse didn’t feel like turning into a full song, but at least there’s something to it, and it leads very nicely into…
• Hysteria: Energetic and pretty fun, this is standard Muse fare. Best part: the happy little instrumental bit that is the bridge.
• Blackout: Placed as it is between two high-intensity rockers, this song is in the perfect place for getting its ass skipped for being so downtempo, which is a real shame since it’s such a nice and depressing song. As much as I want to like this song, though, I really can’t bring myself to listen to it all that much, since I feel like yelling at Muse to get on with it and get to the part of the song that isn’t boring. Props for trying something different, though.
• Butterflies and Hurricanes: This is an awesome song, but it could have been even better. I don’t mind a song that slowly builds until it’s really loud, then drops away to nothing and builds up quickly to a final crescendo, except when the «drops away to nothing» part of that plan leaves you dropped to nothing for too long and gets you mired down in an annoying piano bridge. Other than that, I approve.
• TSP: The verse part’s swell, but the intro and chorus are swill.
• Endlessly: As with their other albums, Muse’s most interesting work on this one comes in the form of an atypically light song. In this case, «Endlessly» has a fresh new sound, at least insofar as Muse are concerned, a sound much more electronic than usual. Also, it’s a damn catchy song, and quite possibly the best on the album. In any case, it’s my favourite du jour and I’m going to stop writing about it because the noise of my keyboard is distracting me from its beautiful tones and sentiments. Listen to this song. And then listen to it some more.
  Seriously, I could listen to this song endlessly.

• Thoughts of a Dying Atheist: A slightly pompous name, perhaps, but the lyrics serve it well, and it’s a good song. Especially the «yeah yeah yeah» part at the end of the chorus.
• Ruled By Secrecy: Gentle and sweet, as well as horrifically depressing. Excellent. It’s great to see a band respond to success by putting such depressing lyrics and nice piano riffs in their songs.

That’s all, folks!

What did I learn in class today?

• Benedictine is a pretty nice liqueur.
• “The soul sees nothing that does not distress it on reflection.”
  —Blaise Pascal

Album of the Moment: Absolution — Muse

It’s too bad I can’t stand Dave Matthews’ music, since they’re handing out free tickets to his upcoming Central Park concert a block away from my apartment. Ah well, such is life.

Song of the Moment: “Jambalaya” — Hank Williams Sr.

Why the fuck can IE not render any page properly? What a fucking pain in my ass. I’ve had to reëdit so many entries of this blog because IE either explodes completely or decides to randomly indent stuff where no indentations belong… Cheesus.

$10 says I’ll be forced to alter this entry 5 minutes after I post it in order to maintain some basic level of IE-compatibility.

Song of the Moment: “Mamy Blue” — Dalida

OK, so I watched 6 episodes of Law & Order today. That’s not a crime, is it?

Song of the Moment: “No Surprises” — Radiohead

I’m now back from the World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling; specifically, the finals thereof. Remind me to never in my life fuck with any of those people. Here follows my (admittedly clueless) analyses of a few of the matches.

• Kristie Marano (USA) vs Ewelina Pruszko (Poland) [67 kilos]: U-S-A! U-S-A! Yeah! Suck it, Polacks.
• Kaori Icho (Japan) vs Sara McMann (USA) [63 kilos]: As you can see, McMann had some nice moves there. By the time overtime rolled around, Icho was tired and showing it, to boot. But McMann got overagressive and lost. Tarnation.
• Arif Abdullaev (Azerbaijan) vs Yandro Quintana (Cuba) [60 kilos]: Damn, these guys are good. Quintana was in better physical shape, but Abdullaev knew what he was doing a little better, and was able to keep his early lead despite obvious fatigue. His early lead was due to the fact that he can strike as fast as a viper and then suplex you too.
• Bouvasia Saitiev (Russia) vs Mourad Gaidarov (Belarus) [74 kilos]: Boringest. Match. Ever. There were no earned points in this match; each player gave his opponent two points by failing to clinch properly at some point; the winner was the one with the least fewest passivity penalties against him. That, and both guys were the exact same except for their singlet colours — this match was basically just Ryu vs. Ryu, except with no punches, kicks, acrobatic leaps, throws, fireballs, whirlwind kicks, or dragon punches. Just a lot of Hochuling, essentially.
• Eldar Kurtanidze (Georgia) vs Ali Reza Heidari (Iran) [96 kilos]: Remind me especially not to fuck with either of these guys. Or the 120 kilo guys, I suppose, but I’m too lazy to write about them right now. In any case, both of these fellows have been world champions in this weight class in the past, and they sure act like it, too, Kurtanidze especially. I almost didn’t see the arm throw out of the clinch he used on the [much larger] Iranian fellow, it was so quick, but I sure saw Heidari hit the mat.

In other news, Iranians really really seem to like cheering for their wrestlers.

Re: Harry Goz

See also: The Captain Murphy soundboard

Wotta day. Previous entries notwithstanding, the evening gave every indication that it would be a good one. I had my choice of three parties to blow off (Abbott’s official ‘Studio 51’ shindig, a ΤΔΦ kegger, and something else for which this was the invitation), I had various friends and substances at my disposal, and I had two raffle tickets to win a 15-gig iPod.

Perhaps I should have taken it as a sign when, in short order, I got my ass handed to me in Soul Calibur and my raffle tickets failed to produce anything but a vague sense of disappointment. Not long after, a slight miscommunication had me ready to go to bed out of disgust, ennui, and sloth, when, as luck would have it, I was informed about another tragic death: Harry Goz. He’s cramming pennies with Alvis now, or something.

Mind you, seeing the last third (and then the first third) of Pulp Fiction made the night end on a fairly positive note.

Hm. So far today I’ve definitely successfully alienated a great face-to-face- and online- drinking buddy, and most likely alienated my senior project advisor. Swish! Ah well. I’ll just have to finish this beer and see what else the night has in store.