SPIN Top 40 Of 2003

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I know that "everything fits together all neat" sounds kinda like a lazy way to put things but Since I Left You is probably my #1 example of "how to create a cohesive album-as-entity"

Dan, "Frontier Psychiatrist" is like the everything-goes-haywire moment where every convention of the album gets ratcheted up to obsessively bombastic levels -- Since I Left You's "House of Blue Leaves" sequence. The rest of it's a lot subtler.

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 4 December 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link

(Funny thing: a stand-alone version of "Electricity" was released as a 12" single about a year before the rest of the album was released. Makes me wonder if they ever extracted or constructed single versions of any other tracks; even the "Frontier Psychiatrist" single sounds like it's about to switch into "Etoh".)

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 4 December 2003 20:00 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, one of the interesting things to me about Since I Left You is that, yes, they used over 900 samples or whatever and so it feels so dense -- but some of the same samples (the whinnying horse or the "since I left you" vocal) recur throughout the album, which to me makes it feel a lot more centered and soulful than if every track was throwing 20 different genres into a stew (although that would probably be an interesting album in its own right).

I totally adore "Two Hearts in 3/4 Time."

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 4 December 2003 20:06 (twenty years ago) link

Y'all some PROG mutherfuckers lemme tell ya

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 4 December 2003 20:09 (twenty years ago) link

Also, whereas a lot of sample-filled music feels like a visual collage, with wacky juxtapositions of various media, the Avalanches (with the exception of "Frontier Psychiatrist," probably) feel more like a bright, messy painting: big streaks of different colors that are distinct from each other but also just look like a huge, multihued splash on the canvas.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 4 December 2003 20:12 (twenty years ago) link

(Anthony, I've been worrying about my prog tendencies lately! I was trying to make a mix CD along the lines of Nate's Challenge, and I kept getting drawn to like 12-minute tracks and justifying them for their "mastery"!)

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 4 December 2003 20:14 (twenty years ago) link

(I don't think that post about painting is going to help me, either!)

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 4 December 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link

Obv focusing on the amount of samples used is missing the point whether you like *or* hate The Avalanches! The point is the sonix! And the "diva house" parts are the best parts!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 4 December 2003 22:12 (twenty years ago) link

I like the Spin list more when there were only 20 albums. These big lists seem to just pick every decent album released that year.

― Shmuel (shmuel), Friday, 5 December 2003 08:52 (twenty years ago) link

four months pass...

07 Thursday "War All The Time" In my opinion this was the best album of 2003 and so far 2004, who cares if it was released last year.

― Xeropunk4life, Friday, 23 April 2004 21:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Way to tell 'em.

― sLeeeter kinney (Leee), Friday, 23 April 2004 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link

I agree! That's why Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has been my #1 album each year since 1967!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 23 April 2004 21:59 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

you suck

― tegan, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 00:28 (eighteen years ago) link

tegan i luv u girl, hear good things about pirates, email me back plz!

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 01:14 (eighteen years ago) link

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