The Truth is out there. So is chapter 63.

[valis2]

This has to be the most fun I've ever had writing a chapter. Real melodramatic, angsty stuff, cut with realism...well, as much realism as you can have in the HPverse.

In moments like these I love writing more than...well, a lot of things. What an experience. I OD'd on The Beekeeper and now I'm adrift on a cloud of happy, happy, happy and accomplished feelings.

I am so psyched. I really think it might be the best of all the chapters so far. It came together near-perfectly.

Off to bed. Must sleep now.

Comments

[gypsyjolie.livejournal.com]

So, what did you think of Beekeeper?

[valis2.livejournal.com]

This is the mini-review I left on pen_and_umbra's journal:
--------
I love Tori, have many of her singles and all of her LPs.

She does tend to wander a bit. And she has different phases. And a few different styles of music, which is great.

My fave albums are Choirgirl and Venus, and I also really enjoyed Scarlett a lot as well. Pink is also enjoyable, and contains the song that really converted me to Tori-ism, Past the Mission.

So with that said, I have to say that the new album was definitely a progression from Scarlett, almost a companion album in its fluidity (in complete contrast to Pele, which seemed quite jagged and unfocused to me). I have always liked electronica Tori a lot more than I like Tori's "Me and my rambling Piano" songs. I'm just not a ballad person, honestly, and a lot of her songs are so stripped down and divergent that I'm unable to muster enthusiasm for them. Don't get me wrong; I do like a few of the Me & my piano songs; I just like electronica Tori a helluva lot more.

So Beekeeper is a very polished album, just like Scarlet; it has a lot of Me & my piano and only a little electronica Tori; it also seems like it has a little of her Pele live-sound experimentation going on. So I love a few of the tracks (The Beekeeper track is absolutely AWESOME), but the rest of the disc isn't totally my cup of tea. That's fine...I bet the Me & My Piano fans were really disappointed with Choirgirl, whereas I love Choirgirl a lot.
---------

After a few more listens I still think that this is a good album, though it doesn't have as many standout tracks for me as Scarlet did.

I am so incredibly glad she's so prolific! I've been waiting forever for a new Kate album, so everytime Tori puts out a new album I'm ecstatic.

[gypsyjolie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review. :) I thought that Choirgirl was a cheap sellout the first time I heard it, but I love it now. I think Earthquakes is still my favorite, but Pink and Choirgirl and my other staples. I wasn't a big Scarlett fan, but I can listen to A Sorta Fairytale everyday and not hate it.

Kate Bush?

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, girlfriend, if you have not listened to Kate Bush, get thee to her Hounds of Love cd. She is amazing.

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much the opposite in that I prefer live Tori with only piano to anything else, including the actual albums and Tori-with-the-band. For that reason VENUS was easily my least favorite Tori album because she seemed to be "hiding" behind all those keyboards during a time when she was really unhappy. I listen to VENUS and feel a little badly for her, though there are some songs I like on that album.

I've only heard BEEKEEPER once, and liked it a lot, though I don't really know the songs that well yet and don't feel very qualified to even figure out yet which ones I really like (though Mother Revolution is probably one of my faves at this point).

Given your tastes, I hope you know Imogen Heap's work, and perhaps even Regina Spektor's. Regina is piano-based, so perhaps that won't appeal to you, but she's very much in the post-Kate mold. Imogen is amazing, and easily the most interesting/creative female singer/songwriter of the past 5 or 7 years. Her first album I MEGAPHONE is a masterpiece that only grows in power the more I hear it. She's had more success with a second album though, which has a lot more keyboard programming in it and was done as a collaboration with Guy Sigisworth. That album is called FROU FROU, and songs from that have gotten a lot more airplay than her original album did (even though the first album is far better, I think). FROU FROU is actually, technically, the name of the duo she formed with Sigisworth, although she's still a solo artist at heart.

She's got another solo album finished now, but they seem to be waiting to release it until they can find an American label to handle it at the same time it comes out in Europe. She's British, and something like 6 feet tall, freakishly tall. And freakishly talented I'd say. She is THE shit.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I watched a special on Regina Spektor, and I plan on purchasing her album. I will definitely look into Imogen Heap, sounds fascinating! Thank you so much for mentioning it.

Oh, and I'm 5'10", so with two-inch heels I, too, can be freakishly tall! w00t! ;)

I always love music hints...so kind of you to give me new ideas. Thanks!

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

Just for the record, the CD of Regina Spektor's that I think is really amazing is her PREVIOUS CD, called "songs" which she recorded in just one day when someone who owned a studio with a piano in it said "i'll give you an afternoon to record as much as you can." The new album (called "soviet kitsch") while more elaborately produced I think doesn't quite have the rampant creativity and edge that the "songs" one did. But it's obviously geared a little more toward being commercial.

I could send you a few mp3s of imogen if you want. Email me at mcmoricz@aol.com -- it might take me a couple of days to get around to it, but I definitely think the whole world should know Immi!

Go you for being freakishly tall too! ;)

here's imogen's website, although all the full samples on there are Frou Frou or later, so there is nothing from her amazing (and much edgier) I MEGAPHONE debut album.

http://www.imogenheap.co.uk/

check out the "must be dreaming" video though....it's MUCH cooler than the "breathe in" one.

It bugs me when people who are REALLY themselves and unique have to kind of "dumb down" to become more commercial. :[ At least neither Tori nor Kate Bush nor Bjork have done this. Imogen really hasn't done it either in terms of the actual WRITING and the content of her music. But in collaboration with Guy S. a lot of the rougher edges of her singing and performance style have been kind of smoothed over to make FROU FROU much more subdued and electronica in style.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Thanks you so much for the link. I will check it out right now...*runs to website*

*Wow*! I will definitely be purchasing her CDs, absolutely. Thank you very much!!

Wow, this is right up my alley, absolutely.

I love that Tori is still putting out music in her own way, and even though she's not charting #1 after #1, she still has such a large fan base that she can tour and produce an album every year.

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Tori definitely seems to do "whatever she wants" and manages to sell enough CDs. Although I think that "venus" was one of the least successful in terms of sales. a lot of casual tori fans never even heard of that one! ;) But then again there seem to be a lot of people who really loved "earthquakes" and "under the pink" but never bought another tori album!

I'm glad you enjoyed Imogen. She is the best out there, in my opinion. she may never be all that famous, but she is genuine, and herself, and fabulous. Regina S. may be headed in that direction too, unless she sells out.

But I have recordings of stuff Imogen recorded when she was in HIGH school (!), and it already has her creative personality firmly established, as well as her creativity in the studio. She's odd, and intelligent, and very talented, and one of those people who I think will just get more and more interesting as she gets older. But that first album I MEGAPHONE takes your breath away. It is one of the greatest albums ever made, I think. Why it didn't do better is indicative of what's wrong with the music business.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are a lot of Tori fans stuck in the "China" loop. I liked her even better after Choirgirl. I loved that album.

Based on the special I watched, Regina is definitely looking to court the mainstream.

Why it didn't do better is indicative of what's wrong with the music business.

I'm never certain if it's the music business or mainstream America.

I love to listen to music, and I continually change stations to listen to what I want. However, according to a couple articles I've read, I'm in the minority (10%). Most people just turn on the radio and listen to whatever is played. They poll people on the phone, and everyone wants to listen to the same Hootie song. Majority rules. If there weren't a lot of people who want to "rock out" to Aerosmith over and over and over again they would not sell as well as they do.

I'm way oversimplifying this, and yes the music business has issues, but honestly one of the root problems is mainstream america, who likes to listen to soft pop hits of today.

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

valis2

Based on the special I watched, Regina is definitely looking to court the mainstream.

I'm not sure if this entirely her doing -- although certainly she is complicit. She's had a particular approach and style and sound for a few years now, but she kind of got "adopted" by some guy from the band THE STROKES. Whoever produces them produced her new album, and I think she was influenced by the authority figures involved. It seems to me that her own writing instincts tend to the stranger, more Bjork-like. The stuff on the "songs" album is almost like a kind of art music, and it's basically the kind of material she was performing live here in NY for a few years and what everyone loved about her.

That style didn't completely disappear with "soviet kitsch," but I'm aware that she has definitely gotten on the corporate bandwagon in certain ways because this new release is a Warner Bros. affiliate. And the way she is being marketed seems designed to make her more mainstream. But if I were to play you some of the stuff on her "songs" CD, i think you'd agree that's it totally unique and the work of a distinctive quirky voice. I suspect that what might happen over time is that she gradually returns to her more esoteric side, particularly if all this new label hoopla doesn't really make her a star.

I mean, she toured as the opening act with the Strokes at her own expense...and now of course the label is paying for her touring both here in the UK, and promoting the hell out of her.

Not that she doesn't deserve it, but I think the irony is that her solo indie album was a ZILLION times better than this corporate release. But I don't know what's commercial or what isn't, god knows. But if she gets a greater following, yet is allowed to "be herself" more on the next album (or has a little more confidence in the face of industry people "guiding" her), she may yet return to her innate bizarre greatness. But who knows. The lure of $$ is stronger than integrity I suppose.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you want a laugh, these are my two Frankenmusic pieces (http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=300945&T=3659).

Song #1 is the first song I tried to make using Acid, Song #2 is better, they're still funny...very beginning work at best.

I love tinkering with Acid...it is fun.

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

Hey, I can't play this because I'm on a Mac and haven't been able to successfully dl a windows media player yet! :[ (it has something to do with security issues on my new laptop which I have to clear up with the place I bought it from, because it was programmed for some kind of resistance to installations without a password...and they didn't give me the friggin' password!!).

Maybe I can listen to it at an internet place! It's very cool you're making music though. I'm actually a professional musician who most of the time composes for a living, although I'm usually doing fairly conservative projects (theater, symphony, dance) and not using as much electronics as I once did....

[valis2.livejournal.com]

A professional musician? How wonderful!

You will laugh mightily at my little songs...

I'm trying to email one...I think it's exceeding the mb limit though. Is .wav format ok? What format would you prefer?

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

.wav might be a little too HUGE for AOL to let through. how about just high quality mp3?

and my iTunes seems to like AIFF much better than .wav files anyway. but i could probably play a .wav on quicktime or something.

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

or if this doesn't work we could try AIM. I'm actually on right now, but I would have to add you to my preferences in order to be "seen"

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I am valis270 on AIM...I've tried emailing .mp3 to you...I can do aiff too if necessary

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

I'm listening now :)

If you have AIM, I signed onto my Morricone1900 AIM account, which has no blocking of anyone.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

All this work for two silly songs... ;)

I'll add you as a contact.