29 jun 08
First album I’ve been excited about in a while
I’m in a familiar but frustrating place again, where all the music I have is over-listened and tired and I can’t find anything new I like. Through it all, though, I’ve been listening to Phantom Planet’s new album, Raise the Dead, extensively.
I’ve been a Phantom Planet fan for a long time, but I was still struck by the fact that I liked this new album immediately. The catchy songs are just so damn catchy, and they are backed up by more complex/more rockin’ songs later on in the tracklist. For me, it’s a nice balance between their earlier stuff and their self-titled, the first album released after Jason Schwartzman’s departure.
Raise the Dead took almost two years to make, and is influenced by Alex Greenwald’s fascination with cults and cult leaders, most notably on the song “Leader”: “Now we’ll put you in our uniform / Everyone will be reborn / Wear us over where your heart is / Your new life with us has started.” Here’s an LA Times article with a little more info.
You can listen to a few tracks on the band’s MySpace page. My favorites are “Do the Panic,” “Leader,” “Ship Lost at Sea,” “Too Much Too Often” and “Leave Yourself for Somebody Else.”
Mark!
Wow. I really, really like how clean your site is. :-)
But I wish I could comment on old entires. But I guess that just means I have to not wait around and be late about it. But then um, I just wanted to have the 3rd sentence in a row to start with ‘But’.
Yay for the weekend! Hm. I think we have a friend that works somewhere in the AJC. goes to find out
03 jul 2008 • 2:59 p.m.
Mark
I was going to post the above comment on your post where you announced moving domains to this one from notmyself - since posting a comment in this one just to say hello! and nice blog! seemed too far off topic from the Phantom Planet post.
And I decided against saying something like, ‘oh cool, I think I’ll actually give this CD a chance’ just to make it fit.
But still. You’re awesome. Thanks.
03 jul 2008 • 3:07 p.m.