Discussion #2

Part A:  

Kim Cooper’s review of “Neutral Milk Hotel” provides a lot of background information about the band’s album and its strong connection to Anne Frank. The type of research that Cooper did in order to write the track by track analysis is to ask Jeff Magnum himself what the lyrics in his songs meant. By asking the artist, she was able to provide fans with a detailed and well analyzed review of each song in the album. She is able to incorporate this research into her annotations by talking about certain lyrics and rhythms of each song and connecting back to Anne Frank and the meaning behind the song. One annotation that stood out to me was the annotation of the song “Holland, 1945.” Cooper adds in even more background information that she hadn’t added in the beginning because it pertained to this song. Cooper says, “while Anne was not physically in Holland in 1945, the association of the country with the year of the war’s ending nonetheless suggests her presence.” Not only does this help understand the song but also adds meaning to the title of the song as well.

Part B

Tari Gevinson provides a track by track review of Taylor Swifts first three albums as well as her album “Red”. She strategically chooses to vary the length of her annotations of each song to emphasize both her favorite songs as well as the simplicity of the songs that don’t require as much analyzation. For example, in “I Almost Do” she simply says, “Classic cinematic walk-in-the-rain goodness.”  This song does not have as much annotations because there’s nothing much to say and the song is as simple as the lyrics and the general mood when listening to the song. The song has a melancholy feeling that is consistent throughout. Since the song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is one of her favorites, she has more to say. She adds some of the criticism that the song received and how that can affect the listener. She also includes her favorite lyrics from the song just to further emphasize the catchiness. Lastly, in “Everything Has Changed” she says the song is perfect. This annotation shows how a favorite song doesn’t necessarily have to consist of a long review but instead is just a no comment song.

Part C:

Jonathan Lethem reviews the band Talking Heads and their album “Fear of Music” in a live setting. As the number of band members expanded, this caused the bands live sound to change and ultimately change people’s expectations. Lethem says, “David Bryne begins running in circles around the stage, around the band, even behind Chris Frantz’s riser. The gesture is paradoxical mute and eloquent, a singer running away from his microphone and at the same time seeming to say look a all I can encircle.” He captures his own feelings by analyzing the artist behavior on stage to show how the band evolved but not for better.

Part D:

Shea Serrano and Patterson Hood have different variations of the track by track annotations. By focusing on different artists instead of one, they are able to compare and contrast other songs by different artists under the same genre. The goal of doing this is to review and analyze other songs and in the end still tie it back to how in this case “Bonita Applebum” is the best rap love song.