ihavebeenfloated

When I listen to albums that don’t particularly catch my fancy, but that aren’t particularly bad, I’m going to just save them up and write a post detailing my minor thoughts on them. Usually this should just be a catch-all for mediocre albums. I just don’t think I should ignore them.

I Am Kloot – I Am Kloot (2003)
Their sound reminds me of early Radiohead, in some ways. If you managed to combine Pablo Honey and some of the skill Radiohead had on OK Computer, you’d probably have something that sounds like I Am Kloot’s self-titled album. I don’t think any of the songs particularly stood out to me, and over all the album left me feeling a little lukewarm.

I Am Kloot – Gods and Monsters (2005)
This is the latest album from I Am Kloot. They definitely improve on themselves on this one. There’s actually at least one catchy song on this album, and it’s Over My Shoulder. Be sure to give it a listen if you have a chance. The rest of the album? Better than the self-titled, admittedly, but still not particularly memorable. The singer’s voice is excellent on this one.

Smog – Red Apple Falls (1997)
I really wish I liked this album more. It’s got that “cool” factor because it has a thematic consistency with apple imagery, but aside from that it’s so monotonous that it actually brought me very close to falling asleep. (Usually a monotonous album can be so exciting to me if properly done that it doesn’t put me to sleep, honest!) It’s not a bad album by any means, I just feel that I’ve heard it better done by Andrew Bird on his latest The Mysterious Production of Eggs. The experimental blending of genre, the similar voices, the odd lyrics (admittedly in Red Apple Falls they’re telling a specific story), but Smog’s effort just falls flat.

Stephen Malkmus – Face The Truth (2005)
I listened to about half of this album a week ago. I probably wont be listening to the rest of it. For those not in the know, Stephen Malkmus is the former singer of indie ubergroup Pavement, who I don’t particularly care for either. (With the exception of the song Cut Your Hair.) This is his latest solo effort. It’s inventive, kind of cool in some ways, and then it’s also surprisingly by the books as it seems to follow current solo-rocker trends, following Franz Ferdinand in his footsteps.