Guys what the fuck. She’s not allowed to be uncomfortable with fame? Would you rather she not express yourself lest certain consequences of her music’s popularity trouble her? Should Jeff Mangum have just left In the Aeroplane in the vault to avoid the harsh glare of the spotlight? At least Sia is keeping things interesting. And she’s writing some killer jams. Stop whining.

Holy shit I’m so glad I’m going on vacation right now and will avoid my desire to post about 1,237 times on this thread….So this will be my last one…(please pardon my unmitigated gushing)

The final minute or so of “This Modern Love” where everything dissolves into that drum roll and then the frenetic guitars kick in is my single favorite moment in my life as a music fan. It’s so absolutely perfect. It astonishes me every single time I hear it. “Do you wanna come over and kill some time? Do you wanna come over and kill some time? Throw your arms around me?” I am actually welling up as I listen to this song and think about how this album affected, and continues, to affect me.

And I couldn’t agree with Chris more. Other albums from this era do carry more cultural weight. But this is the best album from the era. Period. Every song feels like a single. Everything feels perfect.

And now I can go on vacation with a smile on my face.

Thanks Chris. Thanks Stereogum.

Crazy that those lyrics were the real deal. Who knows, maybe next we’ll find out that Mark Hoppus really did go to that party.

You gotta hand it to those aliens for being so damn good at always abducting people with zero credibility.

I know, right? I’m all like “Mom, we should probably start working out again”, and she’s like ” Yeah, maybe next week”, and then I’m like ” You said that last month”, and she’s like “Whatever”.

And then I go have violent intercourse with your mother to relieve stress.

Pitchfork’s headline reads, “Jack White Writes Irate GuacamoleGate Letter”. That’s kind of sad, really.

Beyonce should be at #1

Good grief. This girl sings about California more than Anthony Kiedis.

same, it’s appalling isn’t it? how can adults actually think that music geared towards tweens is good? are adults that emotionally and intellectually stunted that Taylor Swift actually speaks to them? That’s tragic. Or thinking that Beyonce is as good as Beck…that’s such a fucking preposterous thing to think. Beyonce herself does very little. She’s an entertainer, not an artist, and she’s not as good an entertainer as Beck was at her age either. Before she started performing in her underwear nobody gave two shits about her, either. Poptimism is fucking retarded. I think that a lot of people profess a love for that shit as a way of showing that they’re not sexist, racist or homophobic. Little do they know that having bad taste is just as much a sin as those other qualities. People are supposed to grow out of empty assembly line pop, not grow into it.

Then he should learn to write better.

Fuck any piece of shit who would be so callous as to give that statement a down vote. Y’all need to go follow Diplo’s twitter feed.

Conor Oberst’s accuser accused someone of rape before it was cool/trendy (insert Bill Cosby joke). Oh no, I made a rape joke. Daniel Tosh told rape jokes before it was cool/trendy.

Shut up, Sia.

Dear d-tits,

I saw your question in the FJM AOTW thread a little late. Been a crazy week (I’ll explain below), but I will happily explain my “hatred” of fade outs now.

It all started in 2007 when my Aunt gave me a big spindle of burned CDs of various classic rock albums from her day and age. I popped in a greatest hits CD of The Police, and three songs in I was squish-facing the fact that every song had a fade out. I was doing research since I was going to Bonnaroo for the first (and last) time that year, so I was confused as to how they had all these famous songs with fade outs but would obviously have to give those songs proper endings live. Why not give me the proper ending on the album! I guess it seemed excessive to me to have every other song have a fade out, almost like a lazy, default ending.

To demonstrate my point, try this out the next time you’re listening to a song you like. Let’s say it’s a 5 minute song. 3 minutes into listening to it, take the volume on your Zune and turn it down little by little until it’s at 0. Feels like you’re cutting the song short? That’s how a lot of fade outs make me feel. I’m sitting there going, “Come on! Keep jamming for at least 1-2 more minute(s)!”

There are plenty of exceptions. mbv’s “only tomorrow” incorporates a fade out to end what I like to call “the infinite jam.” An infinite jam is when a song builds momentum until it reaches a melody that is so well earned and satisfying it could go on forever. Often times they will go on for quite a long time, until the fade out comes in to signify, to me, that the song is still going on somewhere in the world, forever. It’s a happy feeling, but you have to use the beginning of the song just right to be able to achieve that infinite jam. Then you have Women’s “Eyesore” that fades out, but if you listen closely, you can actually hear the song coming to a close. Fade outs at the end of albums are usually A-OK with me, since the fade out is being honored by preceding actual silence. It’s like you turned the volume down, shut down the system and closed the curtains. I could go on.

But it’s really crazy that you asked me about fade outs this week don don. It just so happens in the past two weeks I got to witness my dear grandma compose her own fade out. It started two weeks ago when we got her out of the hospital and back into her own bed. There she tried to speak with her family, though it was mostly unintelligible. A few days later it was less speaking and more sleeping. Soon after administering some morphine, it was just sleeping and breathing. This past Monday morning, the volume of her breathing went from 1 to 0, ending her life’s album. I’ve had loved ones just keel over and die, but never got to witness one transition so effortlessly, painlessly and peacefully from life to death. So I will say that a fade out can sometimes be very thoughtful by giving you an early heads up that something you love is about to end. It certainly makes the grieving process a little easier, as I feel my mimi achieved “infinite jam.”