The Cinematic Orchestra, Junip, Kanye West

Late Night Tales

The Cinematic Orchestra

Joe pointed me to The Cinematic Orchestra's entry in the Late Night Tales compilation series. It's a mixed bag with some weak spots—Björk's "Jóga" sort of comes out of nowhere and the vocals are too overpowering for the rest of the album—but there are a few gems. The first three tracks are mixed with consummate skill, and Imogen Heap's "Cumulus" was a nice find. The real winner here is Sébastien Tellier's "La Ritournelle". It starts off with a damn good drum loop and a decent symphonic downtempo groove. And just when it starts to get just a little bit boring at 4:30, well, then the vocals kick in and it's a stop-what-you're-doing-and-listen-because-damn sort of song.

Apparently last year The Cinematic Orchestra also put together a soundtrack for Disney's Les Ailes Pourpres: Le Mystère des Flamants, and anything that lets me use the phrase "Mystery of the Flamingos" in conversation gets points as far as I'm concerned. It's nice, a bit understated and reserved as a soundtrack is supposed to be, though sadly fails to dethrone Le Peuple Migrateur for the top spot in my collection of soundtracks for French films about birds.

But really all that this music is accomplishing is making it very clear how much we need a new Cinematic Orchestra album. "Talking About Freedom" just reminds me of Ma Fleur's "Familiar Ground", and "Crimson Skies" is really "Time & Space" no matter how you cut it. (The vocalists are the same, too, so that doesn't help.) Soundtracks and mixtapes are nice to have, but I'm going to hope there's something more coming soon.

Fields

Junip

I somehow missed that José González has a band called Junip, and that they released an album this year. It sounds—well, it sounds like José González with drums and a Moog synthesizer.

This is not a bad thing.

González, his acoustic guitar, and his distinctive voice are all there, they're just given a bit more oomph. It works fairly well. "Rope & Summit" has just the right psychedelic vibe, and "Sweet & Bitter" is more rock than I would have ever given him credit for. "Don't Let It Pass" most sounds like González' solo work, and it's great. It's not a very surprising album, but maybe it doesn't need to be.

Runaway

Kanye West

I still suspect Kanye might be out of his damn mind, but I've watched Runaway a good dozen times and I can't stop.

Runaway is a 34 minute film, a sort of extended music video, about a phoenix and a dinner party and… actually the plot gets sort of muddled when Michael Jackson's head is rolled out by a hooded cult with bagpipe players as fireworks explode everywhere.

But there's plenty to like. The cinematography and visuals are gorgeous. "Blame Game" rocks a Nujabes-worthy beat, "Power" is jamming, and the "Runaway" single has something very right going on.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but I can't wait until the new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy comes out next week.