“Standing Stone” by Paul McCartney [in-class, 9/3]

Immediate responses:

• thought-provoking, distant melodies coming into unison later in piece…
• Film score, with many instrumentals
• Western influenced –> reminiscent of Copeland
• scattered, jumbled, stark sounds
• similar to 9th Symphony…

Response to Greil Marcus’

Marcus’ observations on Springstein’s concert contradicts what Roth says about how blogging about a concert may allow you to feel as though you were there. Marcus suggests that nothing will provide for that experience except spending on Bruce’s performance. He does a solid job of comparing Springstein’s new album to his older, more familiar ones. I was a little confused on whether Marcus suggests the album or not. The first few paragraphs make it seem like he does not, but then he appraises it. I’m actually not quite sure if one should let the audience know if he or she, whoever the reviewer is, liked or disliked an album when writing about it…? 

It is engaging that he mentions specific songs and that Springstein creates a story within his CD, which allows the listener to remember and engage the music better. Dropping lyrics from certain songs then giving explanations on how the listener may interpret it to relate to one’s life will reach a wider reader audience, this is good, I like that Marcus does this.

NYTimes article on ‘best of’ Classical CD Reviews

Obviously, everyone who knows that the music industry is booming knows that classical music is lagging behind, as Roth and the NYT both highlight. Regardless, buying an anticipated CD as opposed to downloading it from itunes of getting a burned disk feels different. Especially if your obsessed with the artist and have been waiting months for that CD to be released. 

Articles like this one that have various CD reviews that have just been released, will be released, or are old timers are the most exciting to see in newspapers or magazines. Basically, the more music you can find out in a short period, the better! However, it seems hard to consolidate the album review to a few sentences… Since this article is the ‘best’ CD’s, the reader can go into each album’s description with good intentions and anticipation to listen.