Fallen leaves

Collaborative shot between Jesse and yours truly.

Been working on slowly reorganizing my flickr site, incidentally, although the weddings page still needs a Major overhaul. In all honesty, maybe it’s time for JoshAmbrose.com? Maybe over winter break? Who knows…

The ongoing Evolution “debate”

Huxley's Illustration

I just read an interesting conversation the AV Club had with Richard Dawkins.

I think the most interesting thing he says this time is when he tries to clear up the idea that we’re descended from monkeys. Like ourselves and chimpanzees, our common ancestor lived about 6 million years ago.

Call me an ignorant pleb, but therein lies the problem with both Evolutionary Theory and Creationism.

THEY’RE RIDICULOUS. Whether it’s a Cosmic Being breathing life into dust or Biological Change occurring millions of years ago, both are Completely outside the realm of our understanding–if nothing else, by the sheer weight of time itself. Furthermore, something out of nothing is an inherently crazy notion–and both evolution and creationism start with Nothing. After all, Stephen Hawking has repeatedly suggested that the genesis of life on earth was started by an asteroid from another planet…

Therefore, I feel free to consider both of them with an equally open mind and respect both scientific inquiry and faith. I think they both make good points and in the end, if I continue to believe in a God that may or may not have said Bang at the beginning, does that make me that much stupider than any other human that speculates about what was going on a few million years ago?

Special Feature: Scott vs. Josh!

Scott

Even if you don’t have a soft spot for soft stuff, “Declaration of Dependence” by Norwegian pop-folk duo Kings of Convenience is an important album. Forget that it’s beautifully minimalistic, that it has enveloping atmospherics, or even that it runs at a comfortably relaxed pace: this record is just plain good music.

I always have trouble describing how great this album is without drawing an analogy to Simon and Garfunkel. You know, the delicate vocals, contagious harmonies, and tasty finger-picking guitar. On top of this, the Kings have done a nice job of spicing things up with the inclusion of the extended string family, adding some violin, bass, and piano here and there to create a unique feel for every song. The percussion section is conspicuously absent, but this doesn’t stop the album from being rhythmic. In fact, there are some surprisingly catchy grooves propelling the otherwise low-key music. This focus on upbeat tempos saves the album from the slump that snags similar efforts. Lyrically, the words are very introspective, a good match to the musical mood.

On top of the obvious merits of the music, the recording quality is top notch: lots of breaths and finger noise capture an aspect of intimacy in the performance.

Overall this album is consistent, relaxing, enjoyable, and easy-listening. 85/100

Josh

For the last year or two, indie-rockers have enjoyed a high wave of reverb-drenched  70s nostalgia. I’m no enemy of the trend–I find the quirkiness of Midlake particularly endearing, and I’m hugely sympathetic to the stacked vocal harmonies of Fleet Foxes. One blogger favorite I’ve completely failed to connect with, however, are the Kings of Convenience.

Frequently compared to the legendary Simon and Garfunkel, KoC unfortunately capture all of the former duo’s sugary smoothness and none of their politically-informed wordplay. Instead, on their latest album we’re treated to a bunch of saccharine meditations on relationships.

All too often the songs are structured with rhythms that often bear an uncanny resemblance to up-strum patterns employed by Flight of the Conchords. If only the lyrics had even a bit of the Conchords’ irony–instead, we’re treated to song after song of endearingly heartfelt boy-wants-girl tripe that is undoubtedly meant to be tender and endearing, but is instead just…cute (intimate recording techniques and all). It’s all the confessional, singer-songwriter honesty of Damien Rice or The Swell Season, but with none of the passion.

At their best, KoC sound like a “sensitive” soundtrack to a hipster chick-flick. At their worse, they sound like a band that’d be right at home picking up their instruments for a quiet scene in a thirty-year old Barbara Streisand rom-com. 42/100