just some miscellaneous impulsive thought exercises:
top five Elvis Costello songs:
1. Everyday I Write the Book (Punch the Clock)
2. I Want You (Blood & Chocolate)
3. Oliver's Army (Armed Forces)
4. Brilliant Mistake (King of America)
5. Alison (My Aim is True)
(yeah, Everyday I Write the Book. I can't lie, I just love it.)
top five Elvis Costello albums:
1. My Aim is True
2. King of America
3. Armed Forces
4. Imperial Bedroom
5. Blood & Chocolate
(as one can see, individual songs in the top five don't really make or break an album.)
top five U2 songs:
1. Endless Deep (Sunday Bloody Sunday - single)
2. The Sweetest Thing (The Sweetest Thing - single)
3. If God Will Send His Angels (Pop)
4. Sunday Bloody Sunday (War)
5. The Fly (Achtung Baby)
(I was going to call this blog entry "it's alright, it's alright, it's all right", but I had to change it once I realized that Mysterious Ways didn't even make my top five.)
top five U2 albums:
1. The Joshua Tree
2. Achtung Baby
3. Pop
4. The Unforgettable Fire
5. All That You Can't Leave Behind
(the hard part for Pop was getting on the list at all. once I had the guts to put it at number five - ironically, it's a fairly unpopular choice - I kept impulsively moving it up.)
top five Smiths songs:
1. There is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Queen is Dead)
2. This Charming Man (The Smiths)
3. Girlfriend in a Coma (Strangeways, Here We Come)
4. Hand in Glove (The Smiths)
5. How Soon is Now? (Meat is Murder)
(it really pained me to not be able to fit Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want and Panic on the list.)
(...The Smiths only had four albums...)
one other thing: I sorta rediscovered Tim (The Replacements album) recently and I've played the shit out of it. I can't seem to articulate enough about it to even think about a "great album" entry, but the sound is fascinating.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
cause you only get respect when you're kickin ass
great album: Nihil - KMFDM (1995)
From their earliest material until the release of Angst in 1992, KMFDM's sound was an almost pure example of the industrial label, a genre in which they are now considered pioneers. Relying mainly on drum machines, synthesizers and samples of metallic/machinery noise, the result was highly electronic, minimalist, and generally in keeping with dance music song structures. Angst marked the transition between this and a more listenable, rock structured sound; particularly with with the songs Light and Sucks. However, it was on Nihil that they perfected this new style, and applied it to every track on the album (except the originally secret title track) to create a consistent and polished album, the most impressive of their catalogue.
Undeniably, one of the major reasons for the creative improvement of Nihil over other KMFDM releases is the heavy involvement of Raymond Watts (PIG), whose presence is felt both as vocalist and lyricist for a great deal of the album. While Watts turns up frequently in the band's history, his artistic involvement here and the unique collaboration between himself and KMFDM frontman Sascha Konietzko goes above and beyond the norm. (A similar collaborative spirit between Konietzko and Tim Skold resulted in the band's second reniassance with 2002's Attak.)
The following two albums, Xtort and Symbols followed in the footsteps of this one, producing some of the band's better songs (Megalomaniac, Son of a Gun, Anarchy) but never reaching the same level of overall quality until the band's sound shifted again around the time of their breakup and reformation in the late 90s/early 2000s.
standout tracks:
Ultra - a hell of a kickoff, this song is one of the more clear embodiments of the combination of electronica and metal that characterizes KMFDM's work.
Juke Joint Jezebel - a more grandiose and lyrically outstanding example of the same. Also uses female vocals to highlight the refrain, a recurring KMFDM technique.
Beast - incredibly catchy and lyrically audacious. This also includes another KMFDM trademark: the repeated use of certain phrases, which rewards long-time listeners. This one contains a throwback to Kickin' Ass, from their early album What Do You Know, Deutschland?
Terror - a fitting title. Terror is easily the most aggressive song on the album, with a smashing guitar riff (worthy of the phrase "ultra-heavy beat") and furious shouted lyrics.
Disobedience - my personal favorite by the band, and the standout of the album. The combination of an excellent guitar riff with the use of a horn section creates a highly memorable outcome. Another example of the band's penchant for ostentation and melodrama.
Brute - another song that deserves its title, Brute comes in a close second to Terror in terms of scathingly rock-out tracks on this album.
From their earliest material until the release of Angst in 1992, KMFDM's sound was an almost pure example of the industrial label, a genre in which they are now considered pioneers. Relying mainly on drum machines, synthesizers and samples of metallic/machinery noise, the result was highly electronic, minimalist, and generally in keeping with dance music song structures. Angst marked the transition between this and a more listenable, rock structured sound; particularly with with the songs Light and Sucks. However, it was on Nihil that they perfected this new style, and applied it to every track on the album (except the originally secret title track) to create a consistent and polished album, the most impressive of their catalogue.
Undeniably, one of the major reasons for the creative improvement of Nihil over other KMFDM releases is the heavy involvement of Raymond Watts (PIG), whose presence is felt both as vocalist and lyricist for a great deal of the album. While Watts turns up frequently in the band's history, his artistic involvement here and the unique collaboration between himself and KMFDM frontman Sascha Konietzko goes above and beyond the norm. (A similar collaborative spirit between Konietzko and Tim Skold resulted in the band's second reniassance with 2002's Attak.)
The following two albums, Xtort and Symbols followed in the footsteps of this one, producing some of the band's better songs (Megalomaniac, Son of a Gun, Anarchy) but never reaching the same level of overall quality until the band's sound shifted again around the time of their breakup and reformation in the late 90s/early 2000s.
standout tracks:
Ultra - a hell of a kickoff, this song is one of the more clear embodiments of the combination of electronica and metal that characterizes KMFDM's work.
Juke Joint Jezebel - a more grandiose and lyrically outstanding example of the same. Also uses female vocals to highlight the refrain, a recurring KMFDM technique.
Beast - incredibly catchy and lyrically audacious. This also includes another KMFDM trademark: the repeated use of certain phrases, which rewards long-time listeners. This one contains a throwback to Kickin' Ass, from their early album What Do You Know, Deutschland?
Terror - a fitting title. Terror is easily the most aggressive song on the album, with a smashing guitar riff (worthy of the phrase "ultra-heavy beat") and furious shouted lyrics.
Disobedience - my personal favorite by the band, and the standout of the album. The combination of an excellent guitar riff with the use of a horn section creates a highly memorable outcome. Another example of the band's penchant for ostentation and melodrama.
Brute - another song that deserves its title, Brute comes in a close second to Terror in terms of scathingly rock-out tracks on this album.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
New Order's on the turntable, we're dancing
my (top 5!) favorite songs of 2007:
5. Dashboard (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) - Modest Mouse
For any Smiths fan that keeps up with the contemporary indiesque to even the smallest extent, this was a hugely anticipated album. Modest Mouse are a band that, even if (like me) you never exactly loved, it's impossible not to be at least aware of, and maybe acknowledge some level of craftsmanship on their part. With the news that Johnny Marr, the guitarist responsible for the delicious half of The Smiths' sweet and sour formula, had straight-up-no-shit JOINED the band, it seemed that the forthcoming album couldn't help but be fresh, addictive and complex. The actual result was something less than that, often a product of lazy songwriting and noisy sonic repetition (The Parting of the Sensory might be a candidate for the worst song of the year). But on this, the seductive first single from a disappointing album, the listener is invited to imagine what could have been.
4. Kingdom of Doom (The Good, The Bad and The Queen) - The Good, The Bad and The Queen
If Damon can't get along with the old blokes from Blur, at least it's good to hear him rocking alternatively again. (Not that the poppier, dancier Gorillaz albums haven't been good. They're awesome.) Still, this entire album is a return to what made Blur's best work so great. The theme of life from the point of view of a contemporary Londoner hails back to Parklife in particular, the source of many of Blur's greatest songs. This song, second to Herculean (which was released as a single in 2006 and is therefore ineligible for this list) epitomizes those qualities best of any from the new project.
3. Reckoner (In Rainbows) - Radiohead
A lot of people who more or less share my views on music have been huge Radiohead fans for a good long while (hey, me too!), found the four years since Hail to the Thief's release in 2003 far too long to wait (again, guilty), and would probably want to kick me in the dentures for not putting Radiohead up higher on the list if anybody were reading this. They might also be puzzled by why I chose Reckoner, generally not considered the best track from the new album. No, don't skip ahead, there isn't another Radiohead song higher on the list. The fact of the matter is that Reckoner is the best song on In Rainbows, a moody yet melodic, familiar but not redundant, lyrically necessary endeavor. Oh, and it's the title track. Or didn't you notice?
2. Phantom Limb (Wincing the Night Away) - The Shins
A marvel of a song, Phantom Limb manages to simultaneously capture The Shins' own particular sound and integrate other influences (particularly The Jesus and Mary Chain - appropriate given the song's dreamy tone) while delivering lyrics that feel achingly relevant and insightful. Lead singer/songwriter James Mercer presents the life of a teenage lesbian with incredible attention to detail, and achieves the sort of depth, fullness and emotional acuity that is worthy of the best written fiction.
1. Born Losers (Hospital Music) - Matthew Good
Though my second or third introduction to Matthew Good's work, I suspect that almost any listener would find this song to be a revelation on some level. Musically, the song is a combination of folk and country influences with the aggressive soul of a rock song that matches its subject matter perfectly. The lyrics are a portrait of twentysomething discontent: the narrator is young enough to lack direction, but old and world-weary enough to have outgrown the illusion of freedom. With lines like "what doesn't kill us now just makes us better whores" and this stanza:
"when the lights come on, this whole place gets ugly
but when they're out, strangers fall in love
she could never say that flat out she don't want me,
cause I could never say that halfway ain't enough",
Matthew Good has written a song that may be about himself, or may be about no one in particular, yet seems to be about all of us in a certain stage of our lives. There are enough details in the song to resonate with any listener, and those that don't match our lives we can nevertheless imagine matching our mood. In other words, the song has the power to transport its listener to the relevant place in their own life as it exists in memory or imagination. Hundreds of songs have been written about adolescence of a certain kind. This song trumps many of them with its honesty and genuine introspection about a much more specific state of mind.
5. Dashboard (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) - Modest Mouse
For any Smiths fan that keeps up with the contemporary indiesque to even the smallest extent, this was a hugely anticipated album. Modest Mouse are a band that, even if (like me) you never exactly loved, it's impossible not to be at least aware of, and maybe acknowledge some level of craftsmanship on their part. With the news that Johnny Marr, the guitarist responsible for the delicious half of The Smiths' sweet and sour formula, had straight-up-no-shit JOINED the band, it seemed that the forthcoming album couldn't help but be fresh, addictive and complex. The actual result was something less than that, often a product of lazy songwriting and noisy sonic repetition (The Parting of the Sensory might be a candidate for the worst song of the year). But on this, the seductive first single from a disappointing album, the listener is invited to imagine what could have been.
4. Kingdom of Doom (The Good, The Bad and The Queen) - The Good, The Bad and The Queen
If Damon can't get along with the old blokes from Blur, at least it's good to hear him rocking alternatively again. (Not that the poppier, dancier Gorillaz albums haven't been good. They're awesome.) Still, this entire album is a return to what made Blur's best work so great. The theme of life from the point of view of a contemporary Londoner hails back to Parklife in particular, the source of many of Blur's greatest songs. This song, second to Herculean (which was released as a single in 2006 and is therefore ineligible for this list) epitomizes those qualities best of any from the new project.
3. Reckoner (In Rainbows) - Radiohead
A lot of people who more or less share my views on music have been huge Radiohead fans for a good long while (hey, me too!), found the four years since Hail to the Thief's release in 2003 far too long to wait (again, guilty), and would probably want to kick me in the dentures for not putting Radiohead up higher on the list if anybody were reading this. They might also be puzzled by why I chose Reckoner, generally not considered the best track from the new album. No, don't skip ahead, there isn't another Radiohead song higher on the list. The fact of the matter is that Reckoner is the best song on In Rainbows, a moody yet melodic, familiar but not redundant, lyrically necessary endeavor. Oh, and it's the title track. Or didn't you notice?
2. Phantom Limb (Wincing the Night Away) - The Shins
A marvel of a song, Phantom Limb manages to simultaneously capture The Shins' own particular sound and integrate other influences (particularly The Jesus and Mary Chain - appropriate given the song's dreamy tone) while delivering lyrics that feel achingly relevant and insightful. Lead singer/songwriter James Mercer presents the life of a teenage lesbian with incredible attention to detail, and achieves the sort of depth, fullness and emotional acuity that is worthy of the best written fiction.
1. Born Losers (Hospital Music) - Matthew Good
Though my second or third introduction to Matthew Good's work, I suspect that almost any listener would find this song to be a revelation on some level. Musically, the song is a combination of folk and country influences with the aggressive soul of a rock song that matches its subject matter perfectly. The lyrics are a portrait of twentysomething discontent: the narrator is young enough to lack direction, but old and world-weary enough to have outgrown the illusion of freedom. With lines like "what doesn't kill us now just makes us better whores" and this stanza:
"when the lights come on, this whole place gets ugly
but when they're out, strangers fall in love
she could never say that flat out she don't want me,
cause I could never say that halfway ain't enough",
Matthew Good has written a song that may be about himself, or may be about no one in particular, yet seems to be about all of us in a certain stage of our lives. There are enough details in the song to resonate with any listener, and those that don't match our lives we can nevertheless imagine matching our mood. In other words, the song has the power to transport its listener to the relevant place in their own life as it exists in memory or imagination. Hundreds of songs have been written about adolescence of a certain kind. This song trumps many of them with its honesty and genuine introspection about a much more specific state of mind.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
with LPs of Mary, and photos of God
A couple of nights ago, after I first posted my little manifesto on Al Stewart, a friend and I got drunk and listened to some. My friend seemed impressed by what he heard, so we listened to some more, and I offered to do a CD for him. I thought I'd share what I ended up putting together. Now, I know this differs somewhat from my earlier recommendations about how to approach the Stewart canon... chalk it up to space restrictions, an attempt to appeal to my sense of another person's tastes, as well as the simple fact that my own favorites within Al's oeuvre are constantly changing.
1. Year of the Cat (Year of the Cat)
2. On the Border (Year of the Cat)
3. Flying Sorcery (Year of the Cat)
4. Apple Cider Re-Constitution (Modern Times)
5. The Dark and The Rolling Sea (Modern Times)
6. Clifton in the Rain (Bedsitter Images)
7. Gethsemane, Again (Zero She Flies)
8. Manuscript (Zero She Flies)
9. Burbling (Zero She Flies)
10. Electric Los Angeles Sunset (Zero She Flies)
11. Running Man (24 Carrots)
12. The Last Day of June 1934 (Past, Present and Future)
13. Joe the Georgian (Between the Wars)
14. Class of '58 (A Beach Full of Shells)
15. Mr. Lear (A Beach Full of Shells)
16. Katherine of Oregon (A Beach Full of Shells)
17. Almost Lucy (Time Passages)
18. The Night of the 4th of May (Orange)
Now, go ahead and download it from your preferred legal music service. Don't steal music, especially not music this good.
By the way, there supposedly exists a much longer (13 minutes or so) version of the rock and roll tribute epic Class of '58. I haven't heard it myself, it may only be available on the single, but if you get a chance to hear it, it should really be something.
1. Year of the Cat (Year of the Cat)
2. On the Border (Year of the Cat)
3. Flying Sorcery (Year of the Cat)
4. Apple Cider Re-Constitution (Modern Times)
5. The Dark and The Rolling Sea (Modern Times)
6. Clifton in the Rain (Bedsitter Images)
7. Gethsemane, Again (Zero She Flies)
8. Manuscript (Zero She Flies)
9. Burbling (Zero She Flies)
10. Electric Los Angeles Sunset (Zero She Flies)
11. Running Man (24 Carrots)
12. The Last Day of June 1934 (Past, Present and Future)
13. Joe the Georgian (Between the Wars)
14. Class of '58 (A Beach Full of Shells)
15. Mr. Lear (A Beach Full of Shells)
16. Katherine of Oregon (A Beach Full of Shells)
17. Almost Lucy (Time Passages)
18. The Night of the 4th of May (Orange)
Now, go ahead and download it from your preferred legal music service. Don't steal music, especially not music this good.
By the way, there supposedly exists a much longer (13 minutes or so) version of the rock and roll tribute epic Class of '58. I haven't heard it myself, it may only be available on the single, but if you get a chance to hear it, it should really be something.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
every word, that I've said, that you have heard
Although there are those unfortunate souls who aren't familiar with a single one of my top five artists, it seems like Al Stewart is the most unknown of them. This strikes me as particularly tragic, since he's also my probably my single favorite songwriter and recording artist out there. Now, maybe I'm just the kind of guy who can't develop that kind of attachment to anybody that's a household name, but I've found that there really is no other songwriter whose body of work I find as reliably resonant and enchanting as Mr. Stewart's.
On my last birthday I completed my collection of what I saw as Al's complete discography. He's released 17 albums, from his 1967 debut to 2005's A Beach Full of Shells, with a new one on the way quite soon. I include in my count his two live albums (one of which was released with a handful of then-new studio tracks as well) but don't include any of the various compilation albums that have been released under his name. It was the culmination of 11 years of fandom, beginning with my theft of his most famous record, Year of the Cat (1976) from my dad's collection in 1996.
Al's fans in general have a love/hate relationship with Year of the Cat. On the one hand, the radio hits that resulted from Al's collaboration with Alan Parson's tend to obscure the bulk of Al's prolific catalogue. Year of the Cat itself and Time Passages probably aren't the first songs I would play anybody to try and show them who Al Stewart is as an artist. On the other hand, they're both very good albums. Every single track on Year of the Cat and almost every track from its follow-up, Time Passages, is a success both sonically and artistically. It would be impossible for me, and I suspect many other fans to deny that these two albums are what got us hooked on this artist.
But they don't necessarily give the right impression of what the bulk of Al's catalogue is all about. Sure, he's had his weak moments, and the least of his albums are dotted with poppy, trendy sounding attempts at rejuvenated radio success. But Al Stewart himself is at the core a songwriter, one who has shown himself to be continually capable of exceptional insight and poetic achievement. Personally, I find myself returning most frequently to Al's earliest work, his days of twentysomething student obscurity in the coffee shops of London, writing insecure romantic epics like the 18-minute Love Chronicles, or Night of the 4th of May. But there are other flavors to his work that are equally valid. In particular, Al has a preoccupation with historical subject matter that has been the inspiration for a number of great ballads. He has the ability to put himself into a convincing reproduction of what might have been a historical figure's mind, and the listener into their world. There's a quality of idealism in these songs that isn't tarnished by their lack of naivety.
I could write much more about Al, and likely will as this blog continues. But for now let me bring this somewhat rambling argument to a close with some examples of where I think one should begin to enjoy this phenomenal singer-songwriter:
Here's a link to an entry from another blog with much the same thrust as this one. Though I don't agree with all of its analysis, it is much more in depth than what I've written here.
On my last birthday I completed my collection of what I saw as Al's complete discography. He's released 17 albums, from his 1967 debut to 2005's A Beach Full of Shells, with a new one on the way quite soon. I include in my count his two live albums (one of which was released with a handful of then-new studio tracks as well) but don't include any of the various compilation albums that have been released under his name. It was the culmination of 11 years of fandom, beginning with my theft of his most famous record, Year of the Cat (1976) from my dad's collection in 1996.
Al's fans in general have a love/hate relationship with Year of the Cat. On the one hand, the radio hits that resulted from Al's collaboration with Alan Parson's tend to obscure the bulk of Al's prolific catalogue. Year of the Cat itself and Time Passages probably aren't the first songs I would play anybody to try and show them who Al Stewart is as an artist. On the other hand, they're both very good albums. Every single track on Year of the Cat and almost every track from its follow-up, Time Passages, is a success both sonically and artistically. It would be impossible for me, and I suspect many other fans to deny that these two albums are what got us hooked on this artist.
But they don't necessarily give the right impression of what the bulk of Al's catalogue is all about. Sure, he's had his weak moments, and the least of his albums are dotted with poppy, trendy sounding attempts at rejuvenated radio success. But Al Stewart himself is at the core a songwriter, one who has shown himself to be continually capable of exceptional insight and poetic achievement. Personally, I find myself returning most frequently to Al's earliest work, his days of twentysomething student obscurity in the coffee shops of London, writing insecure romantic epics like the 18-minute Love Chronicles, or Night of the 4th of May. But there are other flavors to his work that are equally valid. In particular, Al has a preoccupation with historical subject matter that has been the inspiration for a number of great ballads. He has the ability to put himself into a convincing reproduction of what might have been a historical figure's mind, and the listener into their world. There's a quality of idealism in these songs that isn't tarnished by their lack of naivety.
I could write much more about Al, and likely will as this blog continues. But for now let me bring this somewhat rambling argument to a close with some examples of where I think one should begin to enjoy this phenomenal singer-songwriter:
- The debut album Bedsitter Images, particularly the title track and Cleave to Me, a successful attempt at a bit of Elizabethan style poetry. The entire album has a great college town coffeehouse feel to it.
- Manuscript, from Zero She Flies, his first attempt at historical songwriting. Also Electric Los Angeles Sunset from the same album, which is the song where he first discovers an electric rock sound.
- The Night of the 4th of May, from Orange.
- The album Past, Present and Future, on which Al tells a story from a different decade of the 20th century on every track.
- The non-album track In The Dark, recently released as a bonus to the newest edition of Famous Last Words, in which he gives a fictionalized account of the Charles/Diana divorce before it ever happened.
- The latest album, A Beach Full of Shells. These days Mr. Stewart has found renewed confidence, knowing he'll never be a full fledged rock legend, he's more comfortable being himself.
- Year of the Cat and Time Passages, of course.
Here's a link to an entry from another blog with much the same thrust as this one. Though I don't agree with all of its analysis, it is much more in depth than what I've written here.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
now, to business gentlemen
five underrated REM songs:
1. Half a World Away (Out of Time) - If the sheer essence of REM's appeal is Michael Stipe's ability to sorrowfully croon, then this mournful masterpiece may be the highest synthesis of their talent. The tone isn't as melodramatic as the band's lyrics can sometimes be, instead telling of a more subdued, everyday, personal pain with lines like "my mind is racing, as it always will/ my hands tired, my heart aches..." Never a single, the song also serves as a reminder that Out of Time may be one of the band's best efforts, rather than just the album that had Losing My Religion on it.
this lonely world is wasted
2. At My Most Beautiful (Up) - While this may be a bit of a stretch for an underrated song, considering its status as both successful single and fan favorite, it's also damn likely to be the best song Michael Stipe has ever written, and is rarely recognized as such. With symphonic backing (a recurring device in the work of REM) and lyrics that express romantic longing with incredible imagistic clarity, the result is lovely and haunting. After all, all the best songs are about unrequited love, right?
I've found a way to make you... I've found a way... a way to make you smile
3. You Are the Everything (Green) - As much as At My Most Beautiful is complete and emblematic, You Are the Everything is fascinatingly offbeat and experimental. It's high school poetry, almost "emo", if you're one who likes to throw around that term. It isn't as polished or articulate as much of Stipe's best lyrical work, but the emotional state that it attempts to communicate is many times more complex. The lyrics are a breathless, manic flurry of delicate images and illogical superlatives, and there are many gems to be found among its lines.
the stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen
4. Imitation of Life (Reveal) - An unsuccessful single, and widely dismissed by fans as an attempt to recreate Losing My Religion with its rambling, stream of consciousness lyrics (compare that song's "I think I thought I saw you try" to this one's "c'mon, c'mon, no one can see you try"), this song nonetheless contains a great deal of strong lyricism, and catchy pop sound that represents REM at the top of their talent in that particular area.
charades, pop skill, water hyacinth, named by a poet
5. Texarkana (Out of Time) - Another non-single album track from Out of Time, this song is almost entirely the work of Mike Mills, and is one of those great examples of a song by another member in a band that is usually dominated by a single songwriter (another great example: Graham Coxon's fantastic You're So Great in the middle of Blur's self titled album). Again, this song shows REM's ability to do catchy pop tunes, and demonstrates the great track-to-track longevity of the Out of Time album.
I would give my life to find it, I would give it all
I'd also like to give an honorable mention to Everybody Hurts. Somewhere along the line, it became fashionable to treat that song as a joke (blaring from Dwight's car radio on an episode of The Office probably wasn't its finest hour) and I know people who think it's quite overwrought, but I still remember it as poignant, affecting, and an important moment in the band's history.
some other business:
Neil Finn has a cover of The Smiths' There Is A Light That Never Goes Out featuring Johnny Marr on his live album that I haven't been able to hear enough of for several months now.
Tycho, from Penny Arcade, wrote a rant about Paramore's abysmal song crushcrushcrush a while back on that blog that everyone should read.
No doubt due to its use in the ridiculously cool looking trailer for The Pineapple Express, my resistance to the M.I.A. song Paper Planes has been worn down completely. I now like it, and am deeply shamed.
1. Half a World Away (Out of Time) - If the sheer essence of REM's appeal is Michael Stipe's ability to sorrowfully croon, then this mournful masterpiece may be the highest synthesis of their talent. The tone isn't as melodramatic as the band's lyrics can sometimes be, instead telling of a more subdued, everyday, personal pain with lines like "my mind is racing, as it always will/ my hands tired, my heart aches..." Never a single, the song also serves as a reminder that Out of Time may be one of the band's best efforts, rather than just the album that had Losing My Religion on it.
this lonely world is wasted
2. At My Most Beautiful (Up) - While this may be a bit of a stretch for an underrated song, considering its status as both successful single and fan favorite, it's also damn likely to be the best song Michael Stipe has ever written, and is rarely recognized as such. With symphonic backing (a recurring device in the work of REM) and lyrics that express romantic longing with incredible imagistic clarity, the result is lovely and haunting. After all, all the best songs are about unrequited love, right?
I've found a way to make you... I've found a way... a way to make you smile
3. You Are the Everything (Green) - As much as At My Most Beautiful is complete and emblematic, You Are the Everything is fascinatingly offbeat and experimental. It's high school poetry, almost "emo", if you're one who likes to throw around that term. It isn't as polished or articulate as much of Stipe's best lyrical work, but the emotional state that it attempts to communicate is many times more complex. The lyrics are a breathless, manic flurry of delicate images and illogical superlatives, and there are many gems to be found among its lines.
the stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen
4. Imitation of Life (Reveal) - An unsuccessful single, and widely dismissed by fans as an attempt to recreate Losing My Religion with its rambling, stream of consciousness lyrics (compare that song's "I think I thought I saw you try" to this one's "c'mon, c'mon, no one can see you try"), this song nonetheless contains a great deal of strong lyricism, and catchy pop sound that represents REM at the top of their talent in that particular area.
charades, pop skill, water hyacinth, named by a poet
5. Texarkana (Out of Time) - Another non-single album track from Out of Time, this song is almost entirely the work of Mike Mills, and is one of those great examples of a song by another member in a band that is usually dominated by a single songwriter (another great example: Graham Coxon's fantastic You're So Great in the middle of Blur's self titled album). Again, this song shows REM's ability to do catchy pop tunes, and demonstrates the great track-to-track longevity of the Out of Time album.
I would give my life to find it, I would give it all
I'd also like to give an honorable mention to Everybody Hurts. Somewhere along the line, it became fashionable to treat that song as a joke (blaring from Dwight's car radio on an episode of The Office probably wasn't its finest hour) and I know people who think it's quite overwrought, but I still remember it as poignant, affecting, and an important moment in the band's history.
some other business:
Neil Finn has a cover of The Smiths' There Is A Light That Never Goes Out featuring Johnny Marr on his live album that I haven't been able to hear enough of for several months now.
Tycho, from Penny Arcade, wrote a rant about Paramore's abysmal song crushcrushcrush a while back on that blog that everyone should read.
No doubt due to its use in the ridiculously cool looking trailer for The Pineapple Express, my resistance to the M.I.A. song Paper Planes has been worn down completely. I now like it, and am deeply shamed.
Monday, May 12, 2008
what I'd like to do here is this...
If I'm going to write this blog, and you're going to read it, then I guess I have two principal things to confess here. The first is that I'm highly opinionated about almost everything in art and culture. There's no getting away from that, as most of my friends would tell you. I shout out my opinions at a volume slightly higher than what's normally considered conversational, and I hold to them like facts. The good news is, I respect anybody else's right to do the same. If I'm wrong, I'd love to hear why. What I won't do is treat matters of taste as some kind of intangible, sacred thing. No one is entitled to have an opinion without reasons behind it in any other area of discussion, and I won't stand for it in conversations about music, film and art either. To do that is to take these things outside of the realm where substantial conversations can be had, and to me, that's quite unacceptable.
My second confession is that I'm not the world's foremost expert on anything. In the greater arenas of the internet, or even the world of music blogging, there are sure to be people whose knowledge and expertise outmatches my own by far. This is a hobby for me, albeit one I've had for a long time now and care about quite a bit. What I'd like to do here is write for whoever's interested about the musical opinions of one guy with a little bit of game and some fairly diverse tastes. Oh, and we may branch out into other matters, particularly film and television at times. I haven't decided yet.
I wanted to start off with some kind of music survey, to more or less cover all the bases and serve as an introduction to my own tastes, but I couldn't find a set of questions anywhere to serve that purpose (maybe the subject of a future entry if somebody could refer me to one). So instead, in the style of the masterpiece High Fidelity, I'll just start with my own personal top five recording artists.
1. Al Stewart
2. The Pogues
3. Guided By Voices
4. Damon Albarn (Blur/ Gorillaz/ The Good, The Bad and The Queen)
5. The Smiths
I assembled the list when I was tired of being hopelessly flustered and unsure of where to start when people asked me what kind of music I listened to, usually after berating them for one sonic misstep or another in my presence. It's not the whole picture, but hopefully it will serve as a somewhat effective introduction. And, with all that as my preface/disclaimer, enjoy what's to come...
My second confession is that I'm not the world's foremost expert on anything. In the greater arenas of the internet, or even the world of music blogging, there are sure to be people whose knowledge and expertise outmatches my own by far. This is a hobby for me, albeit one I've had for a long time now and care about quite a bit. What I'd like to do here is write for whoever's interested about the musical opinions of one guy with a little bit of game and some fairly diverse tastes. Oh, and we may branch out into other matters, particularly film and television at times. I haven't decided yet.
I wanted to start off with some kind of music survey, to more or less cover all the bases and serve as an introduction to my own tastes, but I couldn't find a set of questions anywhere to serve that purpose (maybe the subject of a future entry if somebody could refer me to one). So instead, in the style of the masterpiece High Fidelity, I'll just start with my own personal top five recording artists.
1. Al Stewart
2. The Pogues
3. Guided By Voices
4. Damon Albarn (Blur/ Gorillaz/ The Good, The Bad and The Queen)
5. The Smiths
I assembled the list when I was tired of being hopelessly flustered and unsure of where to start when people asked me what kind of music I listened to, usually after berating them for one sonic misstep or another in my presence. It's not the whole picture, but hopefully it will serve as a somewhat effective introduction. And, with all that as my preface/disclaimer, enjoy what's to come...
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