Word: grates
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...list. The first half left you with that cold Stereolab feeling inside; the first few songs after "Free Design," their most recent single, showcased their new-found rock-out tendency, leaving you reeling with the overwhelming strength of their steroid-pop. But after a while it started to grate on the eardrums and sounding the same, like the never-ending conclusion to a bad U2 song riddled with screeching feedback and twisted bass-lines stretched out to the point of anguish. Who said there was no such thing as too much of a good thing...
...future.) But nowadays, music acts seem to come in pairs--a fascinating and, surprisingly enough, beneficial twist. For instance, the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync (add in 98o, Boyzone, Five, etc.), Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears... Without the opposition, each type of act would grate on us--like the Spice Girls who quickly dissolved when we tired of their singular prissiness. Having a popular nemesis who takes away your market share (though I'm pretty sure, contrary to what record execs think, that most Backstreet Boys fans hide N'Sync albums in their closet...
...other law kicks in when, partly because of the intensity of White House media coverage, the incumbent begins to grate on your nerves. By the time George Bush the Elder left the White House, you were tired of him and tired of Kennebunkport and tired of all those numbingly respectable Cabinet officers who looked as if they'd all gone to Andover together. And you were sick to death of that wretched dog. You were starting to miss the buccaneering days of the Reagan Administration, during which TIME once devoted several pages to mug shots of all the Reagan officials...
...define Hefner wholly in terms of other bands because their inoffensive songs sound thoroughly derivative. Nothing's new, but nothing's unlistenable. Closest to unlistenable are "The Librarian," wherein Mr. Harding's vocals grate irritatingly over a harmonica, and "Tactile," a too-lengthy acoustic-like drag. "The Sweetness Lies Within" and "A Hymn for the Postal Service" display lovely guitar-work. "Love Will Destroy Us in the End"--despite containing the line "We feel so empty and our late twenties should be better times"--is pleasantly anthemic, the best three-minute pop song on the record. Or at least...
While noting what he called the "special features" of Leverett--backing to Memorial Drive, a heating grate near an entrance that attracts the homeless in cold weather, the difficulty of securing and isolating non-common areas in Leverett Towers and the number of small children of resident tutors--Georgi announced that access to all common areas of the house would be available from 8 a.m. to midnight...