internet singles, food crisis

First: internet singles!

I love NIN. I thought I would outgrow it, but I never did. I think deep down I'm kind of a goth kid who wants to party (but still feel deep). One of the great things about NIN is as Trent Reznor has gotten older, he's shifted away from the doom and gloom industrial stomp and really embraced his Depeche Mode/New Order love. Which is great, because I've kind of gone in that direction, too. So, the new single, Discipline, is (in my opinion) alot of fun. Just a simple synth line with an unpretentious melody, and even a little cheekiness (intentional or not). Their other song, Echoplex, was released via a Facebook application (weird.) Initially I was pretty down on it, but since im a giant NIN fanboy, eventually its hypnotic beat + deliberately strange harmonies won me over. Kind of.

Now, Coldplay. I so want to hate them, but honestly, I don't. I liked Parachutes and A Sudden Rush... but didn't like their latest album. My biggest beef was probably how forgettable alot of their music sounds, (see: previous gripes about my hatred of 'background' music) and I wanted a little more urgency. They started getting into it a little with X&Y (which I inherently didnt like because that is the dumbest title for an album, ever. If I were you, Chris, I wouldn't showcase my inability to understand basic algebra.) They really only accomplished it with the fantastic "White Shadows" especially with that booming bridge-into-chorus and the whole "everything you've ever wanted, in a permanent state" awesomeness. But the rest of the album was their usual soppy foot dragging pityfest. Barf.

Violet Hill, their new single, is great. It's great. I love that he starts with a little piano and then throws down an extra fuzzy guitar stomp that takes you awesomely by surprise. I think the lyrics are genius (When the future's architectured/By a carnival of idiots on show/You'd better lie low) and I like that they seem to have a little snarl to them. It's about time.

Food Crisis Time! This is definitely an article worth reading. It's always depressing to see severe crises like these that resonate very little with us (or our presidential candidates!) because of the gap in how seriously we are affected versus how seriously Ukranians and Argentinians are affected. But if nothing else, it should motivate everyone to dismiss this stupid biofuel stuff as inefficient voter-pandering garbage until we can feed everyone. (Maybe that's laying it on thick, but whatever). It's really well written. Thoughts on this?