Jay Reatard: Blood Visions - Amazing or overrated?

Why not talk about the music for a moment.

I think this is very very excellent and yet it showed up nowhere (maybe I'm wrong) on all the decade lists which seems to suggest that most people don't think much of it. It is probably my most played album of the last five years and its punky-power-poppy goodness always gets my foot a tapping and eventually my beery mouth a frothing. Because I can't really see any flaws with it I'm going to go ahead and call it a masterpiece.

So there.

I think it was on P4K's decade-list.

I was meaning the important lists. Tee he.

But true. At 200. I guess I thought it should have done way better than that.

An incredible record. Also one of my most played albums of the last five.

It IS mastered really, really loud, right? I always seem to get my eardrums blasted when one of the songs comes on shuffle.

Jay was the master of over-compression, pushing ever track loud, yet eking out breathing space to make those bulldozers of sound seem nimble. Part of why Blood Visions stands out is his confidence to let tracks buzz before a note is played. The way layers cut on and off, it would probably seem feebly stitched together with lighter loudification.

He wrote so much and moved on so rapidly from his 1979 spazz punk to his 1989 Flying Nun stage, I bet there's a whole set of Blood Visions quality riffs and hooks lying on a hard drive somewhere. But with mixing is so integral to his style, riffs and hooks alone might not add up to much.

time may heal the wounds / but i will kiiiiiiill you slowly

^^^ badass lyric imo

def

my old band did a one-off show with some "contemporary covers" in may of 2007, and it was a THRILL playing "fading all away."

sooo I completely slept on this dude while he was still with us (RIP)—dumb name + it seems like a lotta ppl were mining this same vein at the time (c.2007 or so)—then he died and it was like, well, it would just be weird to get into him now...

..... then last week, for reasons that are unclear to me, I downloaded this album. and WOW, it absolutely fucking slays!!! so weird/confrontational/punk, but with great pop-rock sensibilities at work... I find myself slipping into goofy David Bowie croon while singing along in my car, which always means you're doing something right. current fav = "I See You Standing There"—the creepy flat affect of the verses makes me think of Devo

blood visions is a straight up classic

I think I'm in love

the only other thing I've heard is the split single w/ Deerhunter, which is great. I don't think I knew this existed at the time; otherwise, I feel like a co-sign from one of my favorite bands would've definitely made my ears prick up

yeh this album is a+ stuff, so many great pop hooks. check out the Singles 06–07 comp too.

blood visions is a straight up classic

― monotony, Thursday, February 28, 2013 12:33 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^this

Love this album. Was playing the LP on Tuesday at home sick from work and thinking this could be my favourite album of the 00s

Anyone seen the documentary "Better Than Something: Jay Reatard"?
Is it worth checking out? Just got into Mr. Reatard and damn, he is amazing.

check out the Singles 06–07 comp too.

yup! also, they both fit on a single CD!

periodically go through phases of being obsessed with both My Shadow and Death is Forming

'nightmares/'searching for you' is so wrenching

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yayayayaya

Watched the doco - 'Better Than Something' this weekend. Thought it took a while to get going but then became pretty compelling. Understand Jay Lindsay much more now - inspired by his lack of compromise and manic artistic energy. Some douchey friends and hangers on - but I guess that is par for the course. Some amazing women in his life too - his mother seemed very supportive where many would have freaked out. Plus an amazing amount of good songs left behind. He did alright with his life I think although its such a shame etc...

currently playing this real loud for the first time in a long while. it's v good