Ok, so yeah, I have to admit that being unemployed right now does grant me an inordinate amount of free time. On top of that, for the past few weeks I've been having a really hard time sleeping... these days I sleep maybe about three/four hours a day, and that's it. That means that a lot of my waking time is spent during the night - very often I spend whole nights writing, or reading, or whatever. It's a sort of forced procrastination due, in part, to the mere fact that there's nothing else to do at night, so I take the road more frequently traveled and just stay home.
So what do I do at night? Well, when I'm writing or reading I actually prefer to remain in silence. It helps me to concentrate, and also gives me one less unwitting source of inspiration... I find myself writing parts of things that I'm listening to or watching into whatever my project is, and though I don't have a problem with that, insofar as it helps things move along, when it actually becomes detrimental to my stories, then I'd rather be in total isolation.
Given that, whenever I'm doing something else, like playing Solitaire or SFIV, I like to be listening to something. I've already posted about some of the really neat stuff I've been listening to lately, with the promise that I'd write about something really peculiar I've been listening to as well, but that particular post will only be done sometime around next week.
Ok. With all that out of the way, I am very pleased to say that this here band - Blacklist - are plain awesome. This is one of the best things I listened to in ages, and considering that I hated, hated, hated it the very first time'round, that's saying something.
Wow, there, hoss! 'Hated', you say? That's right. So what happened is that when I downloaded these guys I don't know, a year or so ago, maybe, they were considered the band du jour, the bee's knees and all that. First time I listened to them, I was in Sister Ray, one of the best record stores I've ever had the pleasure of spending money in, and I went up to the counter where asked a really nice looking girl if we were listening to the new Interpol or the new She Wants Revenge. The girl - suddenly not nice at all - looks at me all disgusted like, disgusted!, I say, and tells me, 'Like, no?'
Ah. 'So... what is it, then?, asks I. She shook her head sadly, and replasked, 'Blacklist?'.
How hard was that? I make a note of it, go home, download it, and listen to it. I could only think : 'Utter Shite'.
What was on offer, was more of the derivative post-punk revival in the vein of Interpol, She Wants Revenge, Editors, Catpeople and god knows how many. Worse, this sounded to me something so badly ripped off of White Lies, that I almost threw up.
Never again did I pay any attention to them. And then a few weeks ago, while pondering on what I'd listen to next... Sure, why not?, let's give these guys another chance. And after only a few minutes, I was asking myself what drugs I had been taking months ago, because these guys are really good. Yes, the sound is derivative of their own influences, but they take no shame in showing off just how influenced they are by the darker bands of the 80's... in fact, I think that Blacklist are the band that managed to out-80's the 80's themselves.
From beginning to end, they take us on a trip where you can see some Duran Duran, some U2, a lot of Joy Division, certainly a good deal of Manic Street Preachers, and ridiculous as it might sound, I see a little bit of Paradise Lost there as well... it's not very recognizable, but it's there. Where these guys shine is in the lyrics department. A far cry from the tired and tried words of most other bands today, and certainly even farther away than the nonsensical childish musings of White Lies, they incorporate the words and works of famed philosophers and authors, embuing them with an overtly political charge, making them all the more relevant and poignant.
There are a number of really great tracks here - my favourites being the darkly anthemic 'Language of the living dead' and 'Frontiers', and 'When worlds collide'. The very last song, 'The Believer' is one of the most The Smiths - like songs I've ever heard, and that's always a plus.
Once again, I highly recommend these guys. The whole album is on repeat right now!
'Midnight of the century' (2009)
1 - Still changes
2 - Flight of the demoiselles
3 - Shock in the Hotel Falcon
4 - Language of the living dead
5 - Odessa
6 - Julie speaks
7 - Poison for tomorrow
8 - Frontiers
9 - The cunning of history
10 - When worlds collide
11 - The believer
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