I'm not sure if NPR should be using phrases like this in a review...

BLOT: (17 Jun 2011 - 05:03:18 PM)

I'm not sure if NPR should be using phrases like this in a review...

I like The Bad Plus's Never Stop, both the album and the song, and you can hear the song via NPR's Song of the Day - The Bad Plus: Jazz As Instrumental Pop. In the midst of all sorts of lines like "it recalls electronica: not just King's propulsive, streamlined playing, with its metronomic bass drum and disco-like hi-hat rhythms, but also the minor-key drama in its melody. The arrangement favors the repetition that makes hooks stick," right before a line about how they are capable of more (I'm not sure if that's a dig at the album or a thumbs up for the band, or both); the review/musing made me laugh with this line:

Since NPR is, you know, one of the places criticized for these exact same things, not to mention one of the few places where you can hear modern jazz, it just felt a little ironic. What's more, the jazz to which I listen, including contemporary releases, rarely feels quite as methodical as The Bad Plus's does. I mean, one person's Binary System is another person's Sun Ra, sure, but I like the passionate music games the genre still tangles with.

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: June 2011