Brighter Blights..

Today while I at work, I snapped out of listening to nothing but music from 2008 (as I have been doing since probably Christmas week - listen, those 100 or so albums take a lot of time to finish when you have to do things like work and celebrate with friends and family). Scrolling through my iPod, I settled on listening to Chaos and Disorder by Prince and continued on with my day.

Chaos and Disorder may potentially be the most underrated album in Prince's catalogue. It was released as he had changed his name, as a way of getting out of his contract with Warner Bros. blah blah blah... It's got some great guitar sounds on it. I would go so far to say it might be his most guitar-centric album, second to Purple Rain. Yeah, the songs aren't as strong, but they also don't try to hard, either. Prince's discography is filled with tons of ambitious albums - or, at least, albums that were driven to prove something. Chaos and Disorder is one of the rare glimpses into what the man does when he's just making filler. Some standout songs that have been forgotten by his subsequent weirdness include: "I Rock, Therefore I Am," "I Like It There" and the title track.

Next on my playlist, I gave Bob Dylan's Knocked Out Loaded a shot. I actually just had a conversation with a friend saying not to get involved with Dylan's 80s output until he's gotten just about everything else (this from someone who thinks the deluxe version of Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 was worth the $120 price tag). I say this, though I have to admit I haven't listened to Knocked Out Loaded or Saved more than a couple times. That said, giving this one another chance, it is fair to say it is one of the more underwhelming entries in Dylan's recorded output.

However, it's notable that I like this one a bit better than its predecessor (Empire Burlesque, long my least favorite Dylan album until I happened upon Saved). It still doesn't strike me as memorable, but "You Wanna Ramble" and "They Killed Him" are unmemorable but pleasant. "Brownsville Girl," an 11-minute epic, is generally considered the "hidden gem" of this album, and after listening to it here and a few other places (the box set Dylan, namely), it finally feels like it deserves the designation. That might also because it's so long and there are so many lyrics that some of them are bound to be insightful/poetic/etc.

My point in this post? Dig in those crates and give another shot to the albums you didn't like the first time around (not that I ever disliked Chaos and Disorder) - you never know what gems you'll find.

I couldn't find any YouTube clips of either Prince circa-Chaos and Disorder, or Dylan circa Knocked Out Loaded (there's a surreal video of "Brownsville Girl" out there, though, that seems to meld stock footage with Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It?" video), so I leave you with this video of Dylan on Letterman in 1984, doing "License to Kill."

Mx4's Top 50 Albums of the Year

Firstly (perhaps finally?) I present to you, my top 50 albums of 2008... in alphabetical order... BY ARTIST!!!

 

(pausing for the oohs and aahs)

 

1. Adele - 19
2. Black Milk - Tronic
3. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
4. The Bug - London Zoo
5. Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows
6. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
7. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
8. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter than Creation's Dark
9. Elzhi - The Preface/Europass
10. eMC - The Show
11. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Pt. 1: Third World War
12. Estelle - Shine
13. Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux
14. The Fireman - Electric Arguments
15. Firewater - The Golden Hour
16. The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers
17. Foxboto Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!!
18. Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy
19. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
20. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
21. Jazmine Sullivan
22. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue  
23. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
24. The Knux - Remind Me in 3 Days...
25. The Kills - Midnight Boom
26. Koushik - Out my Window
27. Lil Wayne - The Drought is Over Pt. 6: The Reincarnation
28. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster
29. Love Is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night
30. Nas - The Nigger Mixtape
31. Neon Neon - Stainless Style
32. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
33. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
34. No Age - Nouns
35. Old 97's - Blame It on Gravity
36. Pink - Funhouse
37. Portishead - Third
38. Q-Tip - The Rennaisance
39. Quiet Village - Silent Movie
40. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
41. Santogold - Santogold
42. Shugo Tokumaru
43. The Silver Jews - Look Out Mountain, Look Out Sea
44. Times New Viking - Rip It Off
45. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
46. The Very Best - The Very Best Mixtape
47. Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing
48. Weezer - Weezer
49. Why? - Alopecia
50. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

In total in 2008, I purchased (or downloaded, in the case of a lot of mixtapes) something over 100 albums (iTunes says 122, but it includes both discs of some albums, some reissues and the occasional career-spanning boxed set, which I don't count). This was an interesting year - the album is dying, slowly and painfully. People aren't buying them (except me). Record stores are slowly going the way of the dinosaur and record companies the way of Lemmings when I play that game on the SNES (hint: I suck at it).

 

If anything, the state of the music industry has given artists chances to experiment with promotion and distribution.

Lil Wayne and Nine Inch Nails were the most successful (and in Wayne's case, ubiquitous) at this, as both promoted themselves in the form of free music (seriously - raise your hand if you actually bought one of Weezy's mixtapes). It's these models and streaming albums before the street date on MySpace that might be seen more in the future.

 

But enough about the business end of things -- if I were about business, Tha Carter III would be on my list. Here's some music I think deserves a highlight:

 

Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows

I've said my piece about this one before, but I think I should take the time to say that it's my favorite album of 2008. The critics at Slate.com treat 2008 as a mediocre year in music, and I almost agree with them. Like I said, this is my favorite album of the year, which is not to be confused with my choice for the best. It hits some higher points than most other releases this year ("ATL," "The Weight of Her," "Ponce de Leon Ave"), to the point that its one bum track ("Song for the Metalheads") is forgiveable.

 

Song for the Metalheads

This might become an extended rant sometime in the future, but I was on RollingStone's news blog and noticed a lot of people bemoaning that they cover - gasp! - pop music and things other than "rock." One person wrote that they should put Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters and the White Stripes on the cover (as though none of those artists have had any covers on the mag). Granted, their current cover story (a fictional, satirical interview with George W. Bush) is probably something that they should leave to The Onion, but the fact is "rock" as it was defined in the 90s is just about dead. Music moves on, and 2008 is no exception. Looking at my list, I don't think any of the rock albums there would play nice with the Pearl Jam crowd, except maybe No Age or Times New Viking. Maybe Portishead, since they're contemporaries... Maybe Guns N' Roses.

 

Weezer toured with the Foo Fighters once, but everyone thinks Weezer sucks*.

 

As though to prove this, no one gave a damn about Chinese Democracy. If it wasn't made in the 90s or by Jack White, I guess it sucks in the public conscience.

 

Weezer and the Art of a Helluva Pop Song

I will never fault Rivers Cuomo for not writing another Pinkerton. Why? Because people usually move on. Lennon only wrote one John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Dylan only has one Blood on the Tracks. Another Pinkerton or blue album from Weezer might sound like an All-American Rejects album. So Weezer has been doing the right thing for their entire career trajectory, pumping out killer single after killer single and solid, if not all-time classic, albums to go with them. Seriously -- does anyone realize how great a singles collection by Weezer would sound? How well-crafted and deceptively simple (yet skillfully nuanced) the latter-day singles would sound? Especially when put up against the singles from the first two albums?

But Weezer aren't the only band I would credit for having great pop sense: Green Day-- err, I mean, Foxboro Hot Tubs-- have also been told to cut the pop shit out when the topic came up on Digg. Yet their past two projects? A challenging rock opera about the post-9/11 America featuring 9-minute suites and obliquely political lyrics and an homage to garage rock. Indeed, there is nothing more pop than that. What exactly makes "Longview" less pop than "American Idiot?" Because it's about masturbation? I sigh at post-1980s rock more than anything.

 

Meanwhile, in the same corner, Los Campesinos! and Love Is All released three albums between them that probably could've held their own against Weezer (the blue one) or Dookie on any day in 1994. Love Is All reminded me of some old Stiff Records sides -- goddammit it's good to be alive!

 

2008: The Bippinest' n' the Boppinest'?

I will admit, firstly, that Lil Wayne's The Drought is Over Pt. 6: The Reincarnation is not by itself one of the top 50 albums of the year, but I felt that I have to acknowledge the awesomeness of the continued existence and success of Weezy. Also, it has the best album cover of the year.

Yeah, sure, no albums/mixtapes he does are particularly consistent, but this, Tha Carter III and The Dedication 3 all had killer tracks: when the man is on, he is ON. Yes, he has a penchant for embarrassingly lame lyrics occasionally, but over all, he's probably the poster boy for how music might get distributed or recognized in the future. It's not the albums that matter, it's individual songs. 

Remember: even if you're ankle-deep in shit and knee-deep in cold water, you can still be shoulder-deep in ice cream sundae and have your head encased in a pizza with your favorite toppings.

 

At least, that's how I feel about Wayne's output.

 

But hip hop had a great year, with Kanye (arguably - and I argue "hell yes" and rest my case) putting out a helluva breakup/conceptual album and The Knux releasing an amazing debut. Q-tip came out of the wilderness. Black Milk and Elzhi between them have 3 awesome albums (I counted Europass and The Preface as one because a lot of songs overlap). eMC is the best supergroup since the Wu... The Show is both hilarious and moving and thought-provoking. It's possibly my favorite hip hop album of the year. Finally, Wale's The Mixtape About Nothing is probably the best use of Seinfeld since syndication.

And men weren't the only ones kicking ass! Estelle's Shine, Jazmine Sullivan's Fearless and especially Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part 1: Third World War were absolutely spectacular. I especially love Sullivan's Motown-throwback sound that still comes on as hard as any rap music released in the past decade. New Amerykah is something else, though, an absolutely amazing piece of work that is at once foreboding, fearful yes resilient and strong.

New Year's Resolution: Post more often. Ideally, once a day at minimum.

And now I kick off the new year with a video by Shugo Tokumaru:

*Everyone. Is. Wrong.

Second Thoughts on Chinese Democracy

After last night's post, I came in to work thinking about Chinese Democracy, whose release is just about imminent.

I am not a Guns N' Roses fan; I like Appetite for Destruction well enough, and about six songs (maybe) between the Use Your Illusion albums, but over all, they always seemed overrated to me. Appetite's solos always seemed to lose a little bit because of Axl's wailing over them, and a number of the songs seemed to drag with endless codas with more noodling and yelping. Don't get me wrong: it's a damned good album; just not my cup of tea. I also certainly respect Axl Rose's talent, but I have to recognize that he can reach too far sometimes.

So I approach Chinese Democracy as less a GnR fanatic and more as a pop culture connoiseur. I've made more than my share of jokes at Axl Rose's expense, doubting every release date until the finished thing was available for listening. Because of that, it certainly is a must-listen, and on my first listen, all I heard was the bloated instrumentation, the overcooked production and the strange defensiveness with which Rose sings much of the time. Perhaps, too, there are too many songs (or just the album is too long) - lots of them feature long introductions that don't do much for the song. A shorter, leaner album might have been more ground-breaking or impressive.

But you don't spend nearly 15 years making an album and come out with 40 minutes of "Welcome to the Jungle," either.

Every song on Chinese Democracy is immense, and the album must be respected for Rose's willingness to stick to his guns. Rock history is plagued with albums whose ambition was too much to handle (Townshend's Lifehouse, Brian Wilsons's Smile) or cases where an artist lost interest (Weezer's Songs from the Black Hole). Rose deserves a large amount of respect for sticking to these songs for all these years. You can hear, in every arrangement, how these songs sound pieced together from multiple sessions, multiple players, multiple arrangements and takes and attempts. I am reminded of the scene in Walk Hard during Dewey Cox's LSD/Brian Wilson phase: endless takes with an army of musicians. "I'm seeing... more didjeridoos... an army of didjeridoos... 500,000 didjeridoos!"

Yet at the same time, it probably required an army of musicians to get this right according to Rose's vision. So much of Chinese Democracy is large-scale, requiring so many players with different skills on different instruments. This ambition also clouds some of the intent, as some of the album strikes a "what was he trying to do here?" kind of chord. The collage of speech samples in "Madagascar" exemplifies this (why is Axl quoting "I Have a Dream?" I really honestly don't get it).

On my my second listen, the hooks and appeared more clearly, and the ambition dulled down a little to see the album more clearly. Will it make my top 10 list for the year? Regrettably, no. The songs still sound a teensy bit like a mess, albeit a deeply sculpted, molded mess that took about 14 years to complete. The Pro Tools age has let obsessive-compulsive artists like Rose play with their songs until everything is perfect, which can unfortunately hinder any sense of spontaniety.

The joys in this album are not in catharsis, or necessarily relating to the songs (though I bet it's certainly possible). The joys in this album are found in its sheer craftsmanship. It is damned impressive in that sense: what other band (man) can pull off music of this size and scope? Certainly not, say, Weezer. Or The Killers. Or Fall Out Boy. All the reviews that say that Axl Rose is the last of his kind are absolutely right, for better or worse. Honestly... I think it's for worse, but one can always hope that he inspires some other megalomaniac with deep ambitions and a far reach (Hey, has anybody been keeping tabs on Incubus?).

One must also wonder what's next for Rose after this. Will he cut another Guns N' Roses album? Retire? Would he live long enough to cut a new album, starting from scratch? All I know is that this album definitely makes me want to dig Appetite and throw it on the turntable...

Chinese Democracy preview (via Myspace)

Some Random Thoughts for the Week...

I haven't been able to be at this blog so much this week, but here are some random thoughts:

• Chinese Democracy
I have heard Chinese Democracy!

...But I am not a Guns N' Roses fan. It strikes me as a set of songs that would have been a let down in '98, let alone '08. However, non of it is offensively bad -- but just about all over it is over-produced. The New York Times had a pretty good summary of it.


• New Release Tuesday
No New Music Tuesday this week; I picked up Beyonce's first album because it was $4 used and Belle and Sebastian's BBC Sessions, which aren't really new music and therefore were not given a post. I need to pick up more Belle and Sebastian is my main thought on that situation -- the BBC Sessions are quite good with some interesting (if not drastically different) versions of a lot of their older songs.


• So what have you been listening to?
Last week, I got The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968. I've listened to 4 of the 9 discs - all of it, excellent soul music. Today, Nuggets came in the mail, which is probably another 4 CDs of 60s excellence. I've got a lot of music to sort through this weekend!

Here's a classic Otis Redding performance for y'all. It's a Youtube vid that a creative writing teacher had my class watch as his example of "Going out into the crazy." Best homework ever!

Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness

Bond Themes

Just saw Quantum of Solace. I liked a number of touches, but if they copied the Bourne-style directing for even a minute longer, I might have gotten dizzy. Overall, a respectable entry in the series. I'd like to see Camille come back as sort of a Moneypenny-esque character Bond flirts with but doesn't sleep with, but obviously I'd come back to the next one in any case.

Oh, this is a music blog, yeah? Well, as far as Jack White/Alicia Keys' collaboration goes, I don't know. As a song, it's okay, and as a Bond theme, it's okay. It sounds an awful lot like a rejected Raconteurs song, though, with Alicia Keys' (wonderful) voice being fed through some effects. It almost sounds like Jack White singing duet with Brendan Benson after a bike riding accident. Not awful, by any means, and the title sequence was quite good.

To part, here's a couple Bond themes:
Paul McCartney - Live and Let Die
Duran Duran - A View to a Kill
Tom Jones - Thunderball

And, my favorite:
From Russia with Love title sequence

CMA's: Really? Fourth in Five Years?

...the title is my reaction to finding out that Kenny Chesney won his fourth Country Music Awards Entertainer of the Year award in five years. And, skimming the list and comparing them to repeats from past years, it's no wonder people tend to think of country music as an old and stagnant form of music for Republican devotees. It isn't, but this isn't helping.

That said, I will readily admit that the most recent thing to get me excited for modern country music are is that one Carrie Underwood song where she's smashing up a car in the video. Oh, and I guess Hank Williams III's theme for Monday Night Football... But I think that has more to do with me relating to being ready for some football (!!!!!!) than actually liking the song. That is to say, I know little about country music after Willie Nelson* and Waylon Jennings' prime.

I almost wonder if it's possible that this comes down to a lack of choices; perhaps the genre has slowed down. I have to believe that there are more up and coming and worthy artists out there - and I also refuse to believe that the same artists came out with masterpieces in consective years. For any award show, it cheapens the award when this happens. Imagine if, I don't know, The Beatles** won a Grammy "Album of the Year" every year that they were together and the Rolling Stones won "Song of the Year" from 1964-1972. Makes things seem kind of cheap and predictable, I think. Also, c'mon, no one new has risen up over the past few years?

*Willie Nelson still puts out music seemingly annually (if not more). Is he disqualified from the Country Music Awards for being Willie f'n Nelson?

**Yes, you could make an argument that every Beatles album from A Hard Day's Night onward potentially deserves it. I really don't think that's true, but the argument's there.

New Release Tuesday: Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows

On Tuesdays, I'm going to try to post a review of at least one new release out that week. This week, Butch Walker is releasing yet another album (this would be his third release this year, including the live album/DVD Leavin the Game on Luckie St.), and it's by far his best. One might even argue, perhaps, that it is his best record ever.

Of course, I'm a Walker stalker (c), so take my opinion with a grain of salt. For what it's worth, though, I never felt quite this way about 1969's Maya (though "Wreck Me" is still a tremendous song). While that album sounded a bit like a Echo & the Bunnymen tribute, Sycamore Meadows feels like Walker consolidating his strengths and bringing a personal touch that has lurked underneath his work without ever showing itself overtly.

This could especially be true about his previous album, The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites. That album was a party record, but its personal touch was all in perspective: it was simultaneously Walker's ode to and critique of the party life and Hollywood, but its observations rarely ventured inward. It was a party record for the moment that stays vague enough to outlast the trends it decries, crafted to be an impulsive listen.

Sycamore Meadows, too, is an impulsive listen, but as a quiet record. One could argue that this is his Sea Change, maybe, in its naked emotion. A fire destroyed everything he owned last year, and that event hangs over the proceedings like a ghost, as songs dictate Walker's life in LA ("The Weight of Her"), Atlanta (The absolutely breathtaking "ATL) and New York ("3 Kids from Brooklyn"). This adds a sense of personal catharsis that was missing from the craftsmanship of his previous work, despite their resonance. Yet, Walker avoids being insular on much of the album by doing what he does best: writing a damned good breakup song. Much of the album, from the jumpy "Going Back/Going Home" to the pensive "Passed Your Place, Saw Your Car, Thought of You," reflect on feelings of loss.

And yet he manages not to lose his sense of humor. "Ponce De Leon Ave" and "3 Kids from Brooklyn" brim with jokes and puns. In the same way, each song manages to be distinctly catchy and memorable - perhaps more diverse and comfortable than any work he'd done before. In these ways, the solid craftsmanship of his production work meets a more singer/songwriter-ly sense or his music-as-art, making Sycamore Meadows a real winner.

Butch Walker's Myspace