The Dodos, or I guess just Dodos now but I'll ignore that, dupe us for a second. No Color opener "Black Night" is very nearly a return to form, sounding jangly and lively and even if it's rare there are the reverbator-soaked yelps from Visiter, and it's exciting and Meric Long's voice seems to just be getting smoother with experience. My run-on should tell you that if you haven't hit that play button up there, you should. It's a great and fun song, and after the ultimately forgettable frumpy slump of their last album it's refreshing.

Even the couple of tracks after it are good as well, playing with those quirky loudQUIETloud dynamics. Long's melodies are in general much smoother than anything on Visiter, a lot of the manic energy from that album is still somewhat absent, replaced with an almost laid back and comfortable vibe. "Sleep" is another obvious highlight, with an oddly metered chorus eventually accompanied by strings that make it oddly beautiful and powerful---especially when the near-Beatles style breakdown/freakout kicks in at the end.

But then the album gets kind of boring. Maybe it's the same problem that last album that shall not be named had, where everything just sounds too similar. I wonder why that is? I don't know enough about music to even begin to guess, which is unfortunate 'cause I'd love to be like, "They're all in the same key!" or "His melodies are too similar because he relies on the same modes!" or something that sounds intelligent. Maybe it's just that all the songs are too noisy now. Visiter was an album full of moments of silence, where you could practically feel the emptiness of the room these two lone guys were playing in. That feeling is now gone, and with it much of the charm.

A lot of Visiter was great because of how brave and experimental it was. There hasn't been another "Walking" from The Dodos. Long's voice hasn't soared like that on an album since, and that's sad. That ridiculous but charming "Undeclared" song exists in no other forms. The weird twangy solo riffs of "Jody". Their songs were full of randomness, you could never really be sure exactly where they'd go next. They should take a page from Rilo Kiley, how Blake Sennett always has a funny-odd little track on each album, and make sure they touch on certain quirk cornerstone left-hooks every album. On No Color every song seems to sound a bit like the next. Maybe it'll grow on me over time, but I don't know if I'll try to let it.

"Black Night", great song though!

I'm totally pissing away my repeat rules this month. I got kind of hooked on this song yesterday and decided that I absolutely had to post it or else I was cheating not only myself, but you, the pure innocent.

This song that perfectly transcribes one of those moments where you feel like you're absolutely overwhelmed by life and can't take it anymore and you sit down to write it out and it comes out into this tiny little list of inconsequential things and you look at it and think: Damn, that's a tiny little list of things... but... but my dog died last week!

So what do you do? You put it to some ridiculously awesome music via super-fast finger-picked guitar and vocals that teeter over into the realm of wailing and you got yourself a kick ass song.

If Frightened Rabbit writes songs about what it's really like to be inside a normal guy's head (and they do, for the most part), then The Dodos write songs about what it's really like to be inside the mind of an endlessly conflicted, hopelessly middle class, and irreparably melodramatic man-boy in his woman-battered and emo early twenties. Ben Gibbard, eat your heart out, you can never be this young again.

I also feel this song is an appropriate follow up to yesterday's song... though I can't remember what yesterday's song was, now. Weird. What was it... I posted Donovan the other day... Was that yesterday? No! It was John Lennon yesterday! Bonus track rants... Jesus, in 24 hours my whole memory falls apart. No wonder my conscience is so clear.

My work schedule usually doesn't land me in the office until noon, but starting today until a week from Monday, I'm working a morning schedule so I'll be writing these posts from work. If they lack in quality (or increase in quality), then you should start paying me hourly to write on this website so that I can quit my job and dedicate myself to entertaining you with my words. $15/hr will get you "staires! a song every hour!" seven songs a day, five days a week. Any takers?

This is my first official 'repeat' of an artist. I figured waiting three months in between artist repetitions will keep things relatively fresh without making me get super bored wading through the numerous 'one decent song wonders' in my collection.

The Dodos are one of my favorite artists (see my eljay best of 2008) and everyone I know seems to enjoy this song, even people who don't care for the rest of The Dodos' music. It's got a perfect mood to fit the lyrics.

In the past I probably would have written some long diatribe about my struggles with religion but nearly a year ago I realized that the whole believing in God thing seemed kind of foolish and now I try not to dedicate any thought to it because it seems like such a ridiculous waste of brain power.

I'm not going to loop myself in with atheists, because they seem so militant. It's like, even though they don't believe in God, they have to be so ridiculously enthusiastic about it that it's practically a religion to them. I don't want to stereotype atheists, as I'm sure there's probably a lot of non-outspoken atheists out there who don't try to peddle their anti-God shit in the same way jay-dubs try to, well, suck all the love and joy out of your life (and try to kill their babies/children by refusing blood transfusions).

Arguing religion is just pointless. An atheist arguing against god with a Christian are just two morons blowing air at each other. What's there to argue? One believes in something you can't prove (at all, no matter what) and the other believes that the other is a moron (which you can't really prove, either). What is there for debate? How is there even a debate?

Even Isaac Newton believed in invisible fairies that fought against gravity to carry a thrown ball. (But he was already kind of out there, and to be fair this was back when everyone thought alchemy was real science.) It's not wrong to believe the world is full of wonder and things we'll never understand (or see with our own eyes, or eye, for the cyclops in the audience), but to let something like that influence your life is absolutely silly. If you've seen Yes Man (which is funny and I recommend it, though "I Love You, Man" was more 'down to earth'/realistic) then you'll understand this comparison: everyone's got their own book, their own something to believe in. For some, it's the Bible, for others it's The God Delusion, for some (like me, I guess) it's the Principia Discordia. It's just such a shame when people take these things too seriously, unless it's the Principia Discordia, which you can never take too seriously. The Principia demands seriousness, as well as koala blood and the forcibly removed clitorises of African women, fnord.

Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!

This is my #1 song of 2008, listened to more than anything else. The Dodos came in as #1 on my music of 2008 post on my eljay. This is probably the quintessential Dodos song, though it doesn't feature any of the loud yelling / echoing / screaming of Visiter, it's still a great example of their teenage boy style of songwriting.

What does "boy you wish you hadn't dialed before you wrung" mean? I mean, it's meant to mean "now you feel bad about marrying this bitch" but what does it really mean? You can't wrung without dialing. I don't know. Sometimes I hate lyrics. I'm all for metaphors and similes or whatever but at least have them make sense. He could have used something like "boy you wish you just kept getting the milk for free" or something. Whatever.