{"id":5597,"date":"2011-11-24T21:43:47","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T05:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ballsandwalnuts.com\/?p=5597"},"modified":"2011-11-24T21:43:47","modified_gmt":"2011-11-25T05:43:47","slug":"music-is-subjective-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballsandwalnuts.com\/?p=5597","title":{"rendered":"music is subjective, but . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently added three albums* to my iPod: Rasputina’s Oh Perilous World<\/em>, Vox Vermillion’s Standing Still You Move Forward<\/em>, and Portishead’s Third<\/em>. I picked up Oh Perilous World<\/em> because it sounded interesting:<\/p>\n

The storyline of Oh Perilous World, essentially, is an audit of six years of post-9\/11 America and its domestic and foreign policies under President George W. Bush’s administration, but told through a fictional steampunk parallel universe. In this world, America is ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Florida, Mary Todd Lincoln, threatening war and occupation of the small, third-world sovereign of Pitcairn Islands (a metaphor for the Middle East) using her blimps and airships. Her opposite number in Pitcairn is an Osama bin Laden-like resistance leader, Thursday October Christian (in real life the offspring of Fletcher Christian, leader of the Bounty mutineers who settled on island).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and because, well, I really like Rasputina — at least based upon their live album A Radical Recital<\/em> and their debut album Thanks for the Ether<\/em>. The Vox Vermillion album I bought because I liked their stuff on Pandora, and Portishead . . . well, I’m a dope. It’s taken me this long to realize they had a third album. You know — Third<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ve listened to the Vox Vermillion album once. I haven’t even finished Oh Perilous World<\/em>. Neither of them can compete with Third<\/em>. I lack the vocabulary and knowledge to write a decent album review, so here’s a link to a review that does the job quite well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And here’s an amazing song, and a mesmerizing video to boot.<\/p>\n