Word: taut
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...turns a neat trick: reestablishing and sustaining familiar tonal palette over the course of an entire album while eluding the joint specter of drudgery and repetition.Yet rather than a sprawling masterwork, “So This is Goodbye” is a cohesive album, whose melodic bass lines issue taut rejoinders to lazy keyboard echoes, delicate synth arpeggios, and efficient percussion—complete with judicious handclaps, especially on “First Time” (alas, sans cowbell).Despite the album’s electro-sheen and programmatic counterpoint, singer Jeremy Greenspan’s high, reverb-enhanced vocals...
...amicable (she has remarried and lives in London, he's in a committed relationship with a young actress) and they still kind of amuse each other. No great drama ensues from their coupling. And no flashing insights, either - although both notice that their bodies are not quite as taut as they once were. It's a wistful and genially played little piece, which ends with M and W parting ziplessly (as we used to say back in the 70s) by dawn's early light. You have to wonder why anyone thought it was necessary to weigh down what is essentially...
...Honmura An, raw shrimp “melted beneath the teeth with the lush generosity of milk chocolate.” She describes eating Sayori, an extremely rare sashimi, at Kurumazushi: “It was smooth and slick against my tongue, with a clear, transparent flavor and the taut crispness of a tart green apple.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t all soba and sushi during Reichl’s tenure at The Times...
TAPES 'N TAPES THE LOON If you likeindie rock, you probably own a dozen albums just like this Minneapolis, Minn., band's taut, lo-fi debut--and you will want this one too. The lyrics are from the Pavement school of abstraction ("Kelly the insistor/ Your brother is a blister"), and lead singer Josh Grier has the same dry, almost cracking voice as David Byrne. What's original is Tapes 'n Tapes' ability to spin out compelling little mood fantasias, from the spooky isolation of Omaha to the drunken, bluesy instrumental Crazy Eights. The Loon feels eremitic and weird...
...right guy, but his eyesight is failing from degenerative tunnel vision, and the case has taken a bizarre twist: fresh traces of the dead woman's blood have turned up under a new victim's nails. Blauner, winner of the 1992 Edgar for Best First Novel, has written a taut psychological thriller with a pair of conflicted but compelling antagonists and a surprise ending you'll never see coming...