Turns out that it's mass seduction, not mass education - sorry for misleading, although that's probably an improvement. I don't find myself coming across much St. Vincent content on this good internet these days, but I did manage to see this described in a couple places as St.

I was jazzed about this for the entire two days between me finding out about it and it being released, but alas it's pretty weak. This was probably always going to be an issue for Smith, whose breakthrough Ears was most notable for sounding completely unique. There's still some good stuff on here, but for the most part she doubles down on a particular subset of the Ears sound and makes an entire album out of rehashing those more pop-leaning efforts.

I can't front like this isn't as cheesy as the cover suggests, but it remains well worth your time. This may be the single best document of the mid-80s Minneapolis scene, combining the efforts of the city's two best songwriters (Jam & Lewis and Monte Moir) with a killer-to-filler ratio about as high as you can hope for from any release of the era. There's not a ton to say about it; I really like slow jams and Alexander O'Neal is among the most technically proficient vocalists ever.

The annoying thing about defining an era is that you can never quite escape it afterwards. Vocalcity is one of a small fraternity of turn-of-the-century electronic records that slightly older music nerd types absolutely lose their minds over, for reasons rarely unclear to either the modern, hip, handsome listener or myself. If you'll indulge me for a moment, an esoteric analogy for the place of this stuff in the world: in one of the Matrix sequels (the one with the two dreaded, dreaded albino twins), there's a scene where the aforementioned twins have to make an escape from a very fancy house.

This was difficult. At times, it felt like Iris Murdoch's own personal Hip Replacement - having fled London for the ugly, rural coast, a playwright presumes to write a memoir but inadvertently documents all that distracts him from his stated purpose. Nothing can dampen one's enthusiasm for a lifestyle more than someone else fictionalizing its logical extreme; who would have known that it's easier to pick out the shortcomings of a decision when it's framed as someone else's?

Oh baby. This thing starts up and every positive thought you've ever had about LCD Soundsystem is at attention - at some point, the plodding, saturated bass synth transcended mere recognizability and became a full-on sonic signature. It's a refreshing, exciting moment, recalling the universally good feelings that accompany everyone's bank of Dance Yrself Clean memories.

Despite being slated for release tomorrow, this thing somehow still hasn't leaked, which puts me in a tough spot. Contrary to the ugly, oddly specific rumors that today's issue is late because I decided to finish The Leftovers instead of transcribing the Octo Octa interview last night, it's actually due to having spent the day puzzling over what to do here. I was close to trying to spin some bullshit music writing verbiage sound unheard, using phrases like sparkling percussion and leaden synthesizer pulses, but in the meantime ended up executing an ill-fated wait-and-see that still hasn't paid dividends.

You have an idea of what this sounds like, and you're mostly correct. A little less baroque, maybe, but the grizzly boys are doing that same thing they did 5-8 years ago to, somehow, not at all reduced effect. Really, this sounds like the very zeitgeist of 2011, inexplicably aged well as hell.