Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/pennysparkle.jpg

Penny Sparkle, is to be released on 14 September 2010 in US (and a day earlier in the rest of the world) on 4AD Records.

from: Blonde Redhead

most of the BR threads are about the specific albums it appears

― st. pancreas (electricsound), Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:48 PM (1 month ago)

Listened to it today. It's alright for what it is, but compared to Blonde Redhead's noisy past, it's like recorded Xanax.

has it leaked?

YES

i'm sure i'll have some detailed thoughts once i hear it. not exactly thrilled by the comparisons that have been drawn to 'the eraser', but intrigued by its budding reputation as a slowburner, particularly since MIAB and 23 were albums that basically floored me on first spin.

this album is very pretty

as is always the case with Blonde Redhead, but still

also the drum machines and HUGE synths on this are a welcome change yet still fit their aesthetic perfectly

HUGE synths are good, looking forward to hearing this

it's almost quiet storm-esque

just read the p4k review. "roxy music on a carnival cruise" is supposed to be a bad thing? my imagination is running rampant with awesomeness.

"...you're left to wonder whether 2010 will produce a more profoundly boring album from a band who actually had a reputation to uphold."

funny that you get this observation in relation to BH on the same day the latest interpol was reviewed.

yeah this album is pretty

pretty fucking snoozy

Interested to hear this before year's end sometime. Not sure I'm interested in paying full price for a "snoozy" album, though...

I'm just listening to the song "My Plants are Dead" via youtube, I don't understand (so far) why this is seen as not a good album. Sounds exactly like The Cure to me if I'm not mistaken, which is pretty lame I suppose, but the songwriting is really good. I hate their style as a band though, god... they think so highly of themselves and have such bad taste.

Listened to this yesterday and although it's got this nice late night vibe to it, none of the songs seemed all that memorable. 'Oslo' sounded pretty sweet and also surprisingly Kompakt-y, probably the best track on first play imo, but even with that I'm totally blanking on how it goes now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7UmArvfW6Y

^ Oslo

listening to this right now and digging the HUGE synths, is this gonna be one of those 'atmospheric' records you put on to soundtrack your work??

Just received this via Amazon. Haven't listened to it yet. I loved "23" but I'm guessing this is not similar to that record based on what I've read.

pfork review was kinda... dickish? made me think the writer never liked the band, which makes me wonder why he was the one to review it...

I used to like this band, and was moderately on board for 23. That said, my first reaction to Pfork review is that it's uncannily identical to my take, to the point where I wonder if I wrote it (I didn't).

Very first thing I was thinking was that PS sounds like it was designed to be played in clothing stores in lower Manhattan. Second was that it sounds like it's aimed at people with a modicum of money and lip service to liking...whatever this is. Maybe this is just so obvious that none of us get credit for noticing.

Review even nails the fact that Asobi Seksu sucksu and Ray of Light was great.

awesome i love music that sounds expensive

That's "expensive" as in "expensive to a 20-something with their first decent paying job."

perfect

i found the asobi seksu comparison based on the brooklyn tie or whatever to be pretty lazy. it's not cool to take a half-assed swipe at a band and assume you've got the readers on board. he should have mentioned what he doesn't like about the latest asobi seksu. it's inaccurate to imply that BH and AS are on an identical trip.

and by ray of light did he mean that madonna record from years ago? what's that got to do with BH?

There are more reasons to link AS and BR than geography (some of which are actually stated, well, explicitly in the article). Shouldn't be hard to dig them up.

Yup, Ray of Light is that album by the old lady. Thought the article was pretty clear on why it was mentioned.

I find myself half-wishing that BR would hook up w/Beck at this point, since they're going down this road anyway. He did pretty great stuff with Gainsbourg.

did not like this at all, my least favorite Blonde Redhead release.

Keep beck away from everyone and everything.

beck did good work on that new Charlotte Gainsbourg disc.

Agreed. Not a beck fan, but that record was great.

agreed

Keep beck away from everyone and everything.

^^

"Here Sometimes" is incredible. Sounds a lot like Sally Shapiro.

pretty fucking snoozy

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, September 14, 2010 2:20 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ha, I used this exact same word earlier today while listening to it.

Yeah, opening track is v. good but I'm finding it hard to muster much enthusiasm about the rest.

i think this might be a sex album

Not disappointing. So nineties in a good way. Admit it, we could all use more Xanax now and then.

Picked this up last night, played a few times, and I'd like to echo a couple sentiments upthread -- (1) on first listen, it totally reminded me of the Cure, particularly Side B of Disintegration ("Prayers for Rain" onward) and I think that's a valid and interesting comparison/ref. point; (2) Nick OTM that it's got an excellent late-night vibe, totally made for cold winter nights, after dark, up until 3am alone, etc., but the songs themselves don't really stand out. I can't remember how a single track goes after three spins... but I loved this album while it was playing!

Whoops I forgot to quote anything from upthread, oh well.

i should say to begin with that i love this band. i think they're one of the best acts of the decade or so, and i like to love everything they've ever done. i think on just a base musical level, how they come up with harmonies and arrangements, their use of rhythm to create constant forward motion, and the different tones they come up with to play off each other, they have always been head and shoulders over 99% of other bands.

but this is kind of weak. about half the songs are good. those that are good are good tho. the middle five are samey and inert. i like the idea of a moody cure bedroom album, and this is the band to do it, but it's just not that great

hmmm that makes me sad, i haven't got this cuz i don't want to be disappointed.

they are such an admirable band...they way they were awesome at super knotty post fugazi/touch&go stuff then became totally excellent at something completely different was quite a feat

and it happened so gradually!

i still think you should pick it up, the good songs are pretty impressive. it's just kind of fans-only at this point i guess.

ah ok i just didn't want an out-and-out terrible album from them

Pretty sure this is more or less a Kazu solo album with the brothers as her backing band.

can't find any discussion of Barragán. it's pretty dull. oh well.

i used to love blonde redhead but goddamn have they gone downhill

they still do all the things they did so well, just w/o any forward motion at all. arrangement and texture are interesting enough for themselves i guess but i don't get what they're trying to communicate, if anything, anymore. each of these songs has the kernel of something that would have been built into something, but they just kind of aimlessly circle around with it for 5 minutes or so and that's it.

i can't remember a thing off penny sparkle atp

Having never seen them before I thought they were pretty good live on the recent tour, but it didn't compel me to purchase Barragan, which was a total snoozefest.

both the last two albums were pretty dull, after two extremely strong albums.

I might put on Penny Sparkle for some background music but that's about the extent of it.

They used to be one of my favourite bands! When they sounded like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_b-WxQo47U

"Misery" onward is notttttttt for meeeeee

yeah, fake can be just as good was amazing.

For a while "Lemons" was my benchmark for a perfect modern album

And they were the best live act in the world before backing tracks entered the picture :( I can't think of any other band that went from A+ to F so instantaneously