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Moon Safari by Air
Moon Safari by Air
1998 | Electronic
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was very, very hard to put together and I’ve left out so many great songs. I could do a list of 150 songs at least, but ‘La Femme D’argent’ really leapt out. It’s the most electronic of the songs that I’ve selected. To this day, every time I listen to Air, it makes me fall in love with electronic music but in a way that reminds me that you can marry electronic music and, let’s say, traditional instruments, especially the bass guitar. Air are absolute geniuses with basslines, they have a great tone and it’s such a good homage to Serge Gainsbourg and stuff like that. Their sense of melody and structure and building up a song is quite something. They make the best background music that you want to play louder than the conversation that you’re having. I love it for driving, if I don’t know what to listen to, I’ll probably stick on Moon Safari or Premiers Symptômes, which is an EP that’s not talked about that much. So many of their tracks - ‘La Femme D’argent’ being a strong example - are really inspiring from a production point of view. It’s all about the little world that these tracks live in, where it couldn’t be anyone but Air. Bands like Zero 7 have copied Air, but it’s just not as good. You know something has a really unique quality when if you were to try to write a song in that style, people would know straight away; it would be like, ‘Oh, that sounds like Air.’ I think there’s other bands that manage it, take The Strokes when they did Is This It - you can sound like Is This It, there’s a world that that record is in. I could literally go downstairs right now and make a song that’s like Air and people would definitely say it sounds like Air, but if I recorded a song in the style of a band that doesn’t really have a unique quality in terms of recording or production, people would say, ‘Oh, it just sounds like an indie band.’ I never go out and want to copy anything. Rather than listen to it, I basically fast on music when I’m writing and recording, because I’m afraid of subconsciously taking inspiration from somebody else. I mean, you do that any way - you can’t help it - but when I’m asked, ‘What music were you listening to when making this album?’ I tend to reply, ‘No one, really.’ Again, you can’t not listen to music as it’s everywhere, but it’s different in terms of immersing oneself. Like when I got into Scott Walker, I would just listen to his albums, Scott 1, 2, 3 and 4 all the time, but I don’t think you should do that when you’re recording your own music. A while back, I was listening to a song off the most recent Arctic Monkeys record, ‘Four Out of Five’ and it occurred to me that they obviously had been listening to Lou Reed, because there’s that one melody that sounds exactly like ‘Satellite of Love.’ The bit that goes, “Take it easy for a little while…” that’s very obviously “Satellite of Love”. It’s like, come on. They are very open about what they listen to, but that’s just lifted. I think it’s their best record, but in terms of that particular lift they were either aware of it or they were listening to Lou Reed on the tour bus or obsessed with the Bowie/Lou Reed partnership or something. Generally, I do worry about that, because people compare our songs to things. The worst is when people say ‘Shelter Song’ is just ‘Ticket to Ride’, it’s nothing like ‘Ticket To Ride', it’s got a twelve-string guitar on it, that’s like saying any guitar song sounds like Robert Johnson or the Edge or someone!"

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Paranormal Activity (2007)
Paranormal Activity (2007)
2007 | Horror
OK low budget horror
A true less is more film. In terms of budget and the scares. The film is more creepy than anything else, a lot is left to the viewers imagination, which probably adds to the intensity. Most of it is viewed from the cameras point of view and has that home made movie feel to it, which adds realism which also adds to the scare factor. At first I didn't know if this was suppose to based on true events or not, so with that at the back of my mind made it more creepy as well, but it turns out it just likes you to think that is the case. The build up to the bigger events will make you think OMG or make you jump a bit. You'll definitely be listening out for every creek and thud at night after watching!!
  
In the Darkroom
In the Darkroom
Susan Faludi | 2016 | Biography, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Deeply moving, powerful account of identity
Susan Faludi's autobiographical bestseller juxtaposes feminist theory with the transgender change of her father who seems to reinforce gender stereotypes while attempting to establish her own identity.

Her father's confusion over what she believed to be 'female', at the same time denying an abusive past and surviving the holocaust, highlights the troubles of adopting another identity as a form of escape.

Faludi's attempt to understand her father, however, is deeply moving - trying to process her previous actions with her past and her present is an account that many can relate to. Her passion to find out the enigma that is her father is commendable and there were many times I shed a tear listening to this tale of much sorrow.

It really is a masterpiece of writing and will go down as an important piece of literature for this decade.
  
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
1968 | Classics, Sci-Fi
The Kubrick (2 more)
The music
The unforgettable
It's not 5 hours long (0 more)
Greatest sci-fi film of all time.
Not too often you can say a film is perfect in every way, but you can with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Screw movies of today which have to explain everything away or the movie itself is just a set up for the never-ending series of films to follow.

You have to appreciate the visuals, music, and unforgettable vagueness of this film and just soak it all in like looking at a beautiful painting by your favorite artist or listening to your favorite song and repeat it over and over again.

After seeing this movie 20+ times, I see new subtleties in it every time and enjoy it completely every time. Probably an acquired taste for today's generation of MCU fans, but certainly worth your time.