Waking Ear

Sondre Lerche/"Sleep On Needles" -- My continuing struggle to distinguish my opinion from Pitchfork's has taken a mighty blow with Faces Down, this Norwegian's debut LP. Rob Mitchum described the album as the one Beck should've made, and dammit, I thought the same thing on first listen. Without reading the review first. I swear.

It's lazy and slouchy like Sea Change, but there's spirit in this, an underlying hope that keeps it from hitting the snooze alarm more than three times. There are surprising sounds and campy background vocals. It's a fun sad album.

So I've made some changes to the sidebar. I'm taking out Paul's album art quiz until he produces another one. Same goes for Thomas' trivia question. Thomas hasn't visited in a long time, and he took Waking Ear off his blogroll because he doesn't love me. But I still carry the torch for Oh, Manchester. Whimper, whimper.

Stevie Nixed and Kortbein are gone. I like 'em both, and they say interesting things, but I don't read them regularly enough -- I like my opinions a little more condensed. And people can stumble upon them through a thousand other blogs.

I thought about dropping Ineffable, since it doesn't really fit thematically with the whole music thing, but I still think it's a funny read. Same with Fwah.

Nick doesn't have regular Internet access anymore, so his site's off the list.

The rest are on there because they're highly recommended. The Rub is the best in the game, NYPLM and TMFTML are snarky fun, Oh, Manchester is exhaustive and exhausting, Flux Blog is adventurous with its audio, and Bicycle, Badger and close your eyes are the musings of seasoned vets.

Among the lesser-known lights, The Leptard blends music and life with grace and sensitivity. Foolish Daily Thought is the work of one of my best friends in the world. And somebody get over there and show via Chicago some love. Jondaddy's feeling down.

I'm adding Kate Sullivan, who has become one of my daily reads with her brash, witty, creative prose.