Today's featured shit

I always wished that Beth Orton would learn how to sing. Everything else about her music was great, but man, every time that mouth would open up, well, you get the idea. Florence & the Machine have convinced me to stop hoping for this pipe dream to become reality.
“Dog Days Are Over” features some amazing chops, and the accompanying music dovetails nicely with it. It’s quite amazing. And I can’t help but think that I am in the act’s target demo, because tracks like “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” bring to mind such famous acts as Sinead O’Connor and Bananarama.
I hate to agree with the stickers they put on the CDs, but it’s true. The third great song on this album is indeed “Kiss With a Fist.” The beat sounds like a KT Tunstall, but it has vocals that match the rest of the albums. Musically some comparisons could be made with White Stripes as well.
“Girl With One Eye” is also good, and not just so I can feel better about picking out a song on my own. “Drumming Song” sounds like a saner version of something Ruby would do. “Hurricane Drunk” sounds like something that would have played in an early-’90s teen movie.
I really enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would. Its pandering to me did not feel like it, so it let me focus on being entertained by it.