DUKE

I am not having capitalised letters, to be honest. I think they look ugly and distractive. I've been sticking to those rules ever since, like the iTunes Store does, even though they have become a little sloppy with that. I don't know if there's been a reform of some sort, but "Off To The Races," for instance, hurts my eyes. It's a minor detail some might say, but for whatever reason I just like it properly capitalised or uncapitalised. In the end, it's your free choice! No-one's going to come after you... except me maybe.

There is this tricky lyric for me in "Tennis Court": Pretty soon I'll be getting on my first plane // I'll see the veins of my city like they do in [...] I get so into it that I am always confidently chanting "Spain" at the end. Then I notice my mistake and awkwardly continue humming...

They must have recently changed the release date then.

You heard a song written by Mylène Farmer for Christ's sake. Poor Alizée! She's amazing but always inevitably connected to Mylène Farmer...

On international release date, Nov 11. By the way, I cannot even describe how embarrassed I am for most German or not so German fans that asked questions...

I actually read through the full series of "overs," naively believing it may end shortly, but then I suddenly recalled why it wouldn't:

The leak that was about two minutes long sounded believable in my opinion. I am, however, still suspicious. The audio heard there might as well be the central channel audio of the iTunes Festival DVD included in the limited edition of ARTPOP. Since all discs are likely to be pressed around this time, a factory worker might have gotten their hands on a copy. Note that CDs and DVDs are fabricated separately. It may not be as easy for them to get their hands on the CD. When her iTunes Festival performance became available on-demand shortly after, the audio had been remixed and heavily modified. Since she used a prominent backing track for "Swine" during the live broadcast, her vocals on the studio version can be expected to sound similarly. The source of the recently leaked audio might as well be from the remixing sessions of that performance, since all tracks were required to create a new live remix. It's good, though, to be hearing "Swine" much clearer. I'm not getting my hopes up for this being from the actual album version, but we shall see.

Recent fan here. What a brilliant record, really. Paracosm should be here on Friday.

If you guys could like my cover I'd love you till the end of time because you're dope. http://t.co/AfNSu7Ul71

You should walk up to her, congratulate her on a great album, smile and whisper the following into her ear, verbatim: "Send me the outtakes and no-one gets hurt." Show no facial expression. Wouldn't that be dramatic? I can totally picture that. Oh, and just before she slowly removes herself from you, being both amused and disturbed, but mostly disturbed, you should wave her nearer once more and say: "Follow me on Twitter because I said so." I'm done.

Agnes Obel - "Aventine"

Stunning. 911, I'm on fire... singing the body electric.

I've been listening to quite a few concept records from the 1970s lately, and I noticed that Lorde's Pure Heroine is very similar to them in that it features variations on the same themes. Not necessarily lyrically, but especially sonically there is a certain evenness to it because it seeks sounds from the same sonic vocabulary, so to speak (what an incredibly woolly metaphor to use). I like that a lot, actually, because it is a throwback to classic albums including early experiments with electronic music. I have read reviews criticising particularly that, however, I cannot but disagree with them. To me, the magic of Pure Heroine lies in its flow. I don't want to skip any songs because it's so seamless and concise - something I miss with other current albums. Just wanted to point that out. Did I mention I adore Lorde? Good job there, @SitarHero.

Agnes Obel - "Fuel to Fire"

As for the quick judgment in the media, I suppose it's a mixture of going along with the overall journalistic opinion on her and being overwhelmed with deciphering who she is. It may be easier for some to write something off as "fake" when the subject you're dealing with is too complex to be broken down in a few words. Also, and I think this needs to be pointed out explicitly, a lot of what Lana does follows an almost story-like type of narration. The way she speaks about her past, the way she sometimes (but definitely not always; more on that later) explains her work and especially the way she speaks in her work sounds very scripted, well-thought-out and partially exaggerated (as in artistically modified). It almost seems as if she is really trying to create an unreality with words and images. All this is doubtlessly essential part of her artistry. She almost succeeds at creating this illusional reality (= unreality), but a conflict of some sort arises when she suddenly spares us "the epic narrative" and austerely speaks about things as they are/were. For instance, when she talks about "this guy" she once was with, she suddenly seems a lot more real. Few people are willing to live and express their lives like Lana does; society calls them dreamers. I am not trying to say Lana is necessarily a dreamer, but she certainly has highly imaginative qualities. I don't think the word "fake" applies to artists and work of arts in general unless we're indeed talking about replica of something. In the end, the CDs, the music videos or even the words she utters are real, so there's nothing fake about that. Considering all of us are experiencing her art in a very intense way, it may be hard at times to put things in perspective, but I am of the personal conviction that what she does should be regarded like a painting in a gallery, presupposing it is a painting and not a photograph. Not that I'm for the institutionalisation of art, though. Why are we presupposing that the art she creates is real? Reality isn't created, reality exists and oh my, I am getting into this a bit too much right now. I am sure that what she does is authentic, but bear in mind that she's proclaimed to be "making [her] life a work of art." She is not creating a standalone piece [of art], she is making her whole life one; her being both creator and creation at the same time. It's not quite as simple as that, though. I reckon that I have mostly been arguing for her making art which shall not be mistaken for reality (what the hell is reality even?), but there is another conflict that arises here. I don't know who of you have met her or seen her live, but we all know how squeaky, excited and disappointingly [irony] humble she is on and off stage. I guess she's real and unreal at the same time. Personally, I think she struggles holding the balance between being a creator and creation of blood and flesh, like all artists do sometimes. I don't know if any of this even remotely answers your questions or meets the purpose of this thread. Well, at least I spent some time thinking on this fairly eventless Wednesday.

Can't you tell how ready I am for this album?

Tori Amos - "Russia (Take to the Sky)"

How can you be so sure it isn't? Not saying that I'm right with my thesis but pretending that it's wrong also qualifies as... "definitely reaching." Anyways, I'm open to hear everybody else's interpretation of that particular part. Also careful with what you define "definitive" (based on?) and "insane" (thank you).

Lots of CDs in here...

I had mine preordered since the beginning of September, but this is not the point of this post... P h o n o l o g y ' s f o r G e e k s A couple of minutes ago I had an enlightenment as to what the first part of second verse in "Applause" meant. I have been trying to figure it out for a while now because... I've overheard your theories // "Nostalgia's for geeks" // I guess, Sir, if you say so... // Some of us just like to read ...have never made any proper sense to me in the context of the song as she explained it. However, being sleep-deprived and having had a funny conversation with @Rafael, I must have been on what feels like when Mary Jane Holland comes around to visit you, giving you a lap dance and leaving back that funny little glowing thing that, when you put it in your mouth, has [i am adapting the lyrics, obviously] one's creativity sprout. In this case, sprout to a level of gagaesk lyrical weirdness. I wondered, why for the love of God, did she suddenly relate to geeks, reading, theories and education? Why making a comment on that in a song that talks about being applauded, being celebrated for one's performance? Wait. Did somebody say a-pplaus-e? [i know this is not the correct syllabification of the word, I am trying to make a point.] Let me break this down as follows: applause → applaus → aplaus → aplus → a-plus? → A+ What has gotten into that Duke to come up with that crap? Yes, I have a history with searching for well-intended puns in certain songs, let's call one of them "Gods and Monsters" in which I saw in-cock-need-o, followed by the "looking to get fucked hard" part, back in the day smiled upon by a fellow appreciated member of this forum, let's call him SitarHero. I still stand by that, but let's take a look at the phonological aspect of "applause" and "A+" Some might say that it does indeed sound similar spoken out loud, but here we go... "applause:" /əplɒz/ "A+ // a plus:" /ə pləs/ Now one look at that. Both terms vary in that the first sound /ə/ is followed by stop in "A+" while it isn't in "applause." Also, there is a variation in one vowel sound since /ɒ/ ≠ /ə/. However, phonetically speaking, /z/ and /s/ belong to the same phoneme, but are different realisations of it. /z/ is a voiced variation of the voiceless /s/ - they are allophones of the phone /s/. All right, phonological point taken, I hope. There is no other way for me to explain that specific part of the second verse but this way, which occurred to me by accident. Judge for yourself, but I am convinced that it's been an odd coincidence (and the power of marihuana and physical pain) that probably made her realise that pun. I just thought I'd share this discovery with you, and I will proceed being judged Sitar style for it. I can take it.

And God bless me... _______

Typical. At this point, I'm hoping that the Japanese release will indeed come with a 16th studio track and not a remix. Let us all take a moment and pray that she yet again prattled away. If so, I am preparing to buy it and hope that this print will come with the foil embossment...

Stromae - "Papaoutai"