Focused on the Music, Vol. 6

Top 75 New Albums of 2012.


Part VI-- Numbers 20-11:



20.  MDNA
Madonna

There's a dichotomy of intent with regard to this album that should probably have killed its chances at succeeding as either the tale of Madonna's divorce from Guy Richie or as the first album of a new deal with her label.  She manages to balance both and delivers one of the better albums of her late career in the process.

The formula is the same as it has always been: take pop, mix it with dance, throw in a dash of electronica and then do something to shock the listener.  The difference here is that the shock is how bare Madonna lays her emotions.  Chick was hurt bad by this divorce and, perhaps more than ever, allows her listeners inside that pain, regret and conflict, with lyrics ranging from, "I tried to be your wife/Diminished my self/I swallowed my light", to, "Every man that walks through that door will be compared to you forevermore".  The regret stands out the most in these songs, probably because it is least-expected. 

What was absolutely expected was the open pandering for sales which, while it has always been a part of the Madonna formula, is taken to new levels as a result of the new record deal and LiveNation tour deal.  Enter M.I.A, LMFAO, dubstep bass drops and collaboration with the foul Nicki Minaj  -- basically all the stuff from this album that you've heard on the radio.  Gimme All Your Love (48), Girl Gone Wild (124) and such provide the sales, while songs like Falling Free and Love Spent provide the substance. 

The two paths this album is taking are for the most part mutually exclusive, with the notable exceptions of the Richie-slaying, Gang Bang and the best song on the album, I Fucked Up (138).  This separation of purpose is what gives the album its authenticity, however.  Anyone who's been through a divorce knows that while it can be gut-wrenching  and downright exhausting, you still have to get up and go to work everyday.



19.  The Ringmaster General
Dave Stewart

Moving to Nashville doesn't necessarily mean one has "gone country".  Dave Steward reaffirms that with this, his second record made since relocating to Tennessee last year. 

The followup to 2011's Blackbird Diaries has Dave again collaborating with ladies from all across the musical spectrum.  Be it Joss Stone, Alison Krauss or Diane Birch, Stewart again finds a way to select just the right partner for each of the songs.  His producer-at-heart instinct probably go a long way in making this so but, much as a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, Stewart realizes that going it alone is not the wisest move, so he enlisted Mike Bradford to assist in the production.  Together, Stewart and Bradford prove that a pedal steel and stings can be inserted into a song with neither irony nor condescension.  While not a full-on Country album, (far too much of a Blues and Rock influence), this is definitely within striking distance thereof.

Written and recorded in five days, Stewart and company entered the studio armed with only their instruments and a list of the people who would be guesting on the record.  Clearly Stewart is at his best when collaborating with others, as his voice, while competent, is in no way unique.  His lyrics can tend to opt for the easy cliche over the deep thought but his guitar playing is outstanding and he wisely defers when sharing a song with a stronger singer.  There are some excellent songs here, such as Drowning in the Blues, with Krauss and really only one clunker in the bunch, (the dreadful Girl in a Catsuit with Orianthi, she of the ill-fated Michael Jackson This is It tour).

Or favorite track: God Only Knows You Now, with Jessie Baylin (currently charting).



18.  Holy Weather
Civil Twilight

This sophomore effort from the South African - turned L.A. - turned Nashville trio represents a significant artistic leap.  These guys get it.  With rich textures, superb vocals, and catchy hooks, this should be the album that brings these guys mainstream.

While atmospheric piano ballads on their eponymous debut generated huge buzz on the underground indie scene, that has not yet translated into an explosion into the musical consciousness of the listener at-large. That is the listener's loss, as this album is everything that is right about music today.

This album reaches its true heights through lyric.  There's the spiritual bent of lead song River (It flows through walls of stone/It flows in between the bone/It has flowed since the divine exchange/It flows forever unchanged); the internal struggles of first single Fire Escape [62](I don't want to fill my body/With drugs I can't even name); the heartbreaking imagery of one of the most beautiful songs we've heard all year, It's Over (But they won't know/That my heart is driftwood/Floating down your coast).  Blended with superb musicianship, be it the haunting strains of It's Over the plaintive longing of Doorway (49)or the comparatively frenetic River (currently charting), there's an underlying kinesis throughout these eleven songs that draw you into a world you don't want to leave. 

Refusing to be typecast, the band goes from bass-driven rocker to trippy piano jaunt to indie acoustic to arena anthem, all the while maintaining the intensity throughout.  Rather than sounding disjointed, this genre-hopping only reinforces the energy of the album.  The result is an inviting, intriguing listen.

When we drew up the list for this countdown, we had this record in the mid-50's.  In the weeks it has taken to listen to everything in more detail and write up reviews it has made it into the Top 20.  If we were to revisit this list in six months, it may very well crack the Top 10.  We just hope more people hear this band because the next step for them is probably going to involve some level of selling out in order to keep their deal if this album doesn't sell.  And that would be a pretty damning indictment of the state of the music industry, when any jackass from American Idol can get a record deal.



17.  Someday
Susanna Hoffs

We bought this album because Susanna Hoffs is hot.  There was nothing else released the week this came out and we'd dug some of the stuff she'd done over the last few years with Matthew Sweet, as Sid and Susie.  But mostly, it was because she is hot.

Turned out to be an excellent purchase.

The two Sid and Susie albums were comprised of covers of the "other" songs of the 1960s.  While the main focus of those who write about music is screaming guitars and screeching vocals, folks (pun only semi-intended) like Simon & Garfunkel and Burt Bacharach were making hay with a more melodic sound.  Those were the focus of the Sid and Susie projects, as both Hoffs and Sweet were heavily influenced by this softer side of the '60s.

On this record, Hoffs takes the natural next step from those collaborations and presents an entire album of original material, recorded in the style of these 60's and early 70's classics (The record was released under the Baroque Folk record label).  Think of it as a sequel to Billy Joel's An Innocent Man: where Leave a Tender Moment Alone leaves off chronologically, Someday's first track November Sun picks up.  And like that album 29 years ago, Hoffs pulls it off without a hitch.

Exacting in its execution, this album is a flawless period piece without being derivative; it is authentic without being regressive.  Hoff's voice at 53 is still as light and vulnerable as ever but age has softened the edges a bit -- to her benefit.  Melancholy is more credible in this voice, happiness less cavity inducing.  Her guitar work remains top notch throughout.  With a rhythm section including Lindsay Buckingham and production accoutrement such as harps and flutes, this album is a smooth 30-minute, ten track journey along the lesser-known musical byways of the most turbulent of decades.  While not the kind of music we typically prefer, this is one of the best executions of an album from concept, to recording, to production, to release that we've heard all year.

Our favorite track: Picture Me (53)



16.  Strangeland
Keane

After their dreadful collaboration with K'naan and other assorted hip-hopsters on 2010's Night Train, this band was on its last leg with us.  They needed to deliver the goods with this record or we were done with them.

What they delivered was a return to the sound that made them famous in the first place and that's not a bad thing.  Critics blasted this album as safe and lacking daring.  However, when one takes chances and is daring and the results suck, perhaps circling back and getting it right is in order.

There are the pianos and strings, paired with weak lyrics of album opener You are Young that will inevitably draw Coldplay comparisons but the album recovers musically (if not lyrically) with lead single Silenced by the Night (25), and by Disconnected (137), the shaky start is a think of the past and the album explores their U2/Springsteen-nodding pop, while throwing the occasional Genesis and even Radiohead curve into the mix.  We question whether ordering the songs differently would have made for a better overall experience but in its totality, this is a vast improvement over the last album, if not quite up to the standards of 2006's Iron Sea.

From the reminiscent Sovereign Light Cafe (60) to the exploratory Sea Fog, we don't see this as a step back at all.  We see it as a renewal of purpose and are much more optimistic about the future of this band than we were at the start of 2012.



15.  We All Raise Our Voices to the Air
The Decemberists

While winding down the tour from their breakout album, The King is Dead (2011 #2 album), The Decemberists taped a few shows and from those recordings culled the best, releasing this 20-song set.  While it does include seven songs from King, as well as their three most popular pre-King singles, the gems of this album are the remaining ten album cuts.

Seeing a great opportunity for the band to get songs from their catalogue out in front of listeners, songs most have probably never heard, they do not disappoint.  There are at  least four or five songs that are radio-ready right now and the rest, while probably not commercial enough (how would they fit the 12-minute Mariner's Revenge Song onto a playlist?), every one of them is an excellent example of the signature sound of the best band to come out of the Pacific Northwest since ever.

Colin Meloy continues to show why he is hands-down the best lyricists in music today and the band, using anything they can get their hands on (dulcimer, anyone?) make some of the most organically beautiful music we've ever heard.  Meloy interacts easily and cleverly with the audience and at several points mentions wanting the crowd to feel as though they've gotten their money's worth.  With topics like the end of the world, the fate of Irish miners in 19-teens Butte, Montana and a joint suicide pact, how could they not?!?

With keyboardist Jenny Conlee battling cancer and Meloy announcing the band would be taking a, "multi-year hiatus", it may be quite a while until we get any new music from The Decemberists.  As a something with which to manage one's appetite until then, one could do much worse than this album.  We can only hope that Conlee comes out the other side of this in good health and the band's break is a short one, for the music world is a little less intelligent with them gone. 

Our favorite track:  It changes almost weekly and we really hope they choose to release some singles from this album but, as it has been out nine months now, it's not likely.  Currently, we're listening to The Bagman's Gambit* quite a bit.

*If you're not going to listen to the whole thing -- it's like eight-and-a-half minutes long -- at least give it to the 2:45 mark, so you can hear the first tempo change.  But we're tellin' ya -- you're gonna want to hear how the story ends.)

Incidentally, if you want to hear the album in its entirety, you can stream it here.



14.  Love This Giant
David Byrne & St. Vincent

When we were one album short of a round number for how many albums we purchased in 2011, we frantically bolted for the iTunes store, deciding we would buy whatever the best-selling album of the year was.  It was Adelle's 21.  Yeah, there was no fucking way that was happening, so we went to Plan B.  Buy something by a local artist.  We ended up buying Annie Clark's album, Strange Mercy and it ended up being one of our favorite albums of the year.

Clark, late of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' band, records under the name St. Vincent and is most often described as "quirky".  She frequently is compared to David Byrne.  When they found themselves together with a horn section onstage at a charity event, this album was destined.  Many a, "what if" conversation took place and eventually, they found themselves in a studio.

In order to listen to either Byrne or St. Vincent, one must step outside their comfort zone and, having an ingrained distaste for horns in general, we had to do so, as every track on this album is layered in them.  Added to that is that, while the two artists share similarities, those only serve to make the differences more stark and the results a bit unsettling.  Byrne is all mania and exuberance, while St. Vincent is the queen of distortion and tempo change.  Those two forces colliding with one another are what give this record it's life.

Be it the tale of reverse evolution on I am an Ape or the notion that perhaps one should become more stupid, so as to better relate to society at large on I Should Watch TV, the pair thrive on people watching then presenting their utterly unique take on things.  And while there is a certain chemistry there, even what might be flirtation, it's more of a general man/woman dynamic than any specific attraction -- like being in love with love.  In this instance, we find it refreshing that the older man/younger woman cliche is never part of the equation.  The album is much better for it.

Our favorite track:  Weekend in the Dust



13.  Blah Blah Reagan Blah Blah Punk Rock
Responsible Johnny

What if Rutger Hauer had a guitar, instead of a shotgun?

Would a hobo wreaking havoc in the streets slaying those in his path with wit, insult and shredding been as entertaining a movie?  Fortunately we have this album to provide the answer -- a resounding yes. 

From the fade-in of lead track and first single Stomp (80), this album takes off running and doesn't stop, in true old-school punk style.  There's no polish here and that's what makes it work.  But don't let these fuckers fool you -- there's some serious talent here.  They put on a good show of being all about drugs, pussy and rebellion and, to a certain extent, they are but beneath that lies a whole lot of depth.  Punk bands are supposed to know what, two chords?  Yeah, tell that to these guys.  Listen to Cock Wig (currently charting) then tell us these guys aren't for real.

Between Hobo Rob Michaud's biting, hilarious and, yeah, we're gonna say it -- intelligent lyrics, the ridiculous talent of Coy VD on guitar and one of the better bassists in the D/FW are in Quel, this is a really skilled set of musicians.  Ripping through 11 songs in just over 24 minutes, this album is the epitome of a punk record: it makes you believe your opinion matters.  It makes you want to share your fetishes, frustrations and mental illness with the world.  And telling someone to fuck off and let you do your thing matters.  Sure, in the end we all realize the world is indifferent to us and our gripes but that doesn't mean it isn't fun raging against the man.  Pop on this album and do so for a half hour.

Whether you want to tell politicos on both sides of the aisle what a jackass they are with Ain't Fer It (I'm Agin' It), feel like shitting all over someone else's perfect idea of what they think YOU should be with Suburban Nightmare, or just celebrate a personal accomplishment with I Didn't Shit Myself While Puking This Time, there is something for everyone here.

Our favorite track: Paranoid



12.  Which Side Are You On
Ani Di Franco

Unless you're an uber-feminist who looks at that Lenin guy and thinks, "he's a little bit right-wing for my tastes", listening to an Ani DiFranco album is like going to certain churches for charity: yeah, I'll listen to your speeches and attampts to convert me but I'm really just here for my dinner.

Being an election year, we really expected the proselytizing to be unbearable.  We were surprised to find this not to be the case.  Taking out the title track (173), an update of the 1931 labor anthem that, ironically (or intentionally) ignores the fact that labor has as big a part in the state of affairs as anyone else) and the ridiculous Amendment (seriously?  in 2012 you are still railing for an ERA?), this is a surprisingly apolitical album.  There are oblique references to abortion on Life Boat and a benign dabbling with environmentalism on Splinter but for the most part, these are personal tales of life and love that at times are simply stunning.

For someone so wrapped up in issues -- perhaps because of that fact -- a song like Mariachi (68) literally makes one sit back, relax and enjoy being in the moment.  And that is where this album succeeds.  Be it the early navigation of a relationship and finding out one another's strenghts and weaknesses on Unworry (20, 2013) or an ode to the benefits and downside of weed, while taking a swipe at the president she loves on J (dude could be FDR/But he's just shifting his weight), this album resonates with the simple, articulate telling of personal tales we can all relate to, regardless of political stripe. 

DiFranco's delicate voice and superb guitar work come together to make some truly beautiful sounds on this record, highlighted by Albacore (8), the most beautiful song of 2012. This album was an unexpected surprise and we're glad to have picked it up.  Its very existence reinforces the wisdom of not judging a book, or in this case, album, by its cover.



11.  4th Street Feeling
Melissa Etheridge

We've got more love for Melissa Etheridge than any straight man you'll ever meet.  Most of this is not a result of the music played on the radio though.  Billy Joel once said, "if I only heard the Billy Joel records they played on the radio, I would hate Billy Joel."  While we wouldn't go that far, we definitely appreciate Etheridge's music mush more as a whole than we would as a greatest hits package.

On the heels of 2010's superb Fearless Love, the release of this album was as highly anticipated as any of the year. 

When we listened the first time, our reaction was, "meh".  And the second.  By the third we were thinking we might have a dud on our hands.  Then we listened to it on our motorcycle and the whole thing changed.

Part of the issue was song ordering.  The title track is just awful and it is the second song on the album.  That, coupled with a change in producers threw us a bit.  This is Melissa Restrained and we'd not yet heard that.  The first time we were consciously aware of an artist intentionally "holding back" in order to give a better performance was in the 1989 movie In Country.  In a supporting role, Bruce Willis deliberately gave a subdued performance and it was exactly what was called for.

The same theory is at work here.  The crescendo is more so when one is not screaming all the way there.  It took a bit to get used to but the effect is brilliant.  The label went with something more traditional with lead single Falling Up (27) but that is the exception more than the rule.  This is a dark, stark, bluesy set on which Etheridge plays all the guitars.  Rumbling bass lines and strident, if not necessarily soaring, choruses permeate this back-to-basics record.  Always good for some tongue in...cheek lesbian fun, there's Rock and Roll Me and references to he ugly, very public custody fight in Shout Now but the standout track is when she breaks out -- a piano? -- on A Disaster* (currently charting).  While this album took a while to grow on us, it's simple approach allows Etheridge to show just how talented she is both musically and vocally.

*Sorry about the quality; it's the best we could find online and that's sad because this is a great song.  This version is just her with a piano, whereas the studio version has full band accompaniment.  You can probably get a better feel for the song by previewing it on iTunes, as this performance really does not do it justice..



Up Next: The Top Ten.
Previous: 75-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31, 30-21.

Focused on the Music, Vol. 5

Top 75 New Albums of 2012.


Part V -- Numbers 30-21:



30.  The Evil Empire of Everything
Public Enemy

 

The second of two albums released in 2012 to commemorate their 20th anniversary, this album sets out to make a statement about the fate of a nation.  Be it the economy, immigration, welfare, warfare or race relations, no stone remains unturned, no dark corner unexposed by the lyrical spotlight of Chuck D.

Unfortunately, a kid in a hoodie hijacked the first half of what would have been an excellent album and PE spends six songs bemoaning the fate of the black man in a white man's world.  It's overkill and spills past the fifth track, Beyond Trayvon and the album really doesn't recover until after the Flavor Flav palate cleanser 31 Flavors, a full six tracks in.

It's not that we don't think racism is still a problem in America -- it is.  It's that until there's an actual trial and verdict in the George Zimmerman case, we might not want to put Trayvon Martin up as the poster child.  Give him a song?  Sure.  Expand that into a discussion on racism?  Absolutely.  Beat your listener down with over twenty minutes of bitching about a problem that, while still present, is much better than it ever has been?   That's a good way to knock a Top Ten album into the 30's and necessitate Flavor rebooting the album at track 7.

From then on, this album is greatness.  Chuck D spares no rod and spoils no child, as he tears through foreign policy ("One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"), immigration (Deserted in the desert\Wild wild west\Hurt to the dirt\Anti-immigration against brown skin\Sounds like brown shirts"), racism ("From the pages of the Cress Theory\I know you hear me") or the state of hip-hop ("Sometimes fame ain't got nothin' to do with work"). 

This album had the potential for greatness.  Perhaps it's fitting that, much like the fragile state of improved race relations, it was derailed by something so simple as a random act of violence on a Florida night. 

Or favorite track: Riotstarted (feat. Tom Morello & Henry Rollins)



29.  ¡Uno!
Green Day

Green Day of the last decade has essentially been current-day Queen.  Rock operas and "message" albums and all manner of ostentationness.  Enough already with trying to transcend the genre.  It was time to shut the hell up and play.

With this, the first of three albums released in two-month increments during the second half of the year, they do just that.  Simple chords, easy lyrics and a return to the sound that made them famous in the first place.  Nothing earth shattering.  Nothing revolutionary.  Just straightforward songs about sex, lust, fighting the man and being the shit. 

After ten years of beating us over the head with their self-importance, this was exactly the record they needed to make.

Our favorite song: Sweet 16

 

 

28.  Psychedelic Pill
Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Yet another act who released multiple albums in 2012, this was the second record put out by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the followup to June's kiddie-songs-redux Americana.  This time it was all original material and, yet again, Young scoffs at convention.

In 2010, Young took a guitar and amp into a studio and created an album using nothing else.  He then recorded a bunch of songs typically heard in a nursery school and released it as Americana.  This time around, he's reviving AOR.  With two songs stretching past the 15-minute mark and an opening cut running 27:36, dude is clearly unconcerned with the admonition that, "if you're gonna have a hit, you've gotta make it fit", as lead single, Walk Like a Giant [43], comes in at 16:27.

The 15-minute track is a forgotten art and that's a shame.  When a song goes this long, it gives the artist myriad opportunities to allow the music to express what words cannot.  In this world of instant gratification and incessant impatience, it's nice to be able to take the time to let the art develop.



27.  Clockwork Angels
Rush

We're staying north of the 49th parallel here for a bit for an album that took a couple of years to be released.  In June of 2010, Rush released a single, Caravan, with a "b-side" of BU2B.  We worked with a guy who loved Rush, so we bought it and surprised him with it.  Then in 2011 they released the single Headlong Flight (198, 2011) before finally turning the whole album loose this June.

We've not been typically been all that into prog rock but our buddy has made some headway in helping us at least appreciate it some.  The musicianship on this album is superb and, despite clearly having been pieced together over the course of a few years, the record has an absolutely cohesive sound.  It's a rich, full-texture album that makes for an interesting listen.  We're not particularly fond of Geddy Lee's voice (sorry Kelly) but it works within the context of the material.

Our favorite tracks, Carnies (81) and The Wreckers (currently charting) are probably the most straightforward, non prog-y songs on the album, which probably makes sense.  Still, we find this to be the kind of record we notice something new about with each listen and we're glad our buddy turned us onto it.

An interesting note on this album is the cover art, wherein a clock with alchemical symbols rather than numbers shows the time to be 9:12pm, or 2112 in military time, a clever nod to their album of the same name.



26.  XXX
Asia

We'll admit we had no idea Asia was also a prog-rock band.  We knew Heat of the Moment, Only Time will Tell and...yeah, that's about it.

So when we bought this album we were thinking 80's pop band with new material (XXX representing their 30th anniversary) and were hoping for fresh over faded.  The first time we heard the album we hated it because it was so far from where we were coming as listener.

We put it aside for a while and gave it another try and, much like Rush's Clockwork Angels, it grew on us.  Bury Me in Willow would have been a Top Ten single in 1986 and Faithful  makes a good run at the standard power ballad.  The intensity of I Know How You Feel comes pretty close to recapturing the sound of their early 80s hits, while not leaving them sounding like a band living in the past.

The lyrics on this record aren't always up to the task of the formidable music and the call-and-response harmonies on Al Gatto Nero don't quite work but those shortcoming aside, this is a solid effort and a personal revelation to us of a band that had more depth to it than we'd previously known.

Our favorite song:  Face on the Bridge (30)



25.  ¡Dos!
Green Day

The second Green Day release of the year (¡Tre! was released after the 15 November cutoff) is markedly better than the first installment of the trilogy.  Whereas ¡Uno! was a regression to the mean kind of record, ¡Dos!, while still maintaining that connection to the roots, starts to expand upon the sound and experiment some.

The album opens and closes with Billy Joe Armstrong strumming and singing a ballad.  In between there is ribald funk, nods to everyone from The Strokes to James Brown, great musicianship and a fucking rap song!  And the rap song, Nightlife, (featuring a great Mike Dirnt baseline), is actually not the worst thing we've ever heard.

Our worst fear was that these three albums would essentially sound the same, basically being a bunch of songs recorded at the same time and divided into three albums as a marketing trick (the band is only getting credit for one album on their contract from the trilogy).  Most bands go into the studio with way more songs than they need for an album and the bad ones never see the light of day.  What we hoped was not happening was that we were getting all the shit along with the 15 or so songs that were album-worthy.  This doesn't appear to be the case, as evidenced in the progression of quality from ¡Uno! to ¡Dos!.  We're really looking forward to ¡Tre! now.

Our favorite track: the Foxboro Hot Tubs-sounding Stray Heart.



24.  Former Lives
Benjamin Gibbard

Ben Gibbard takes a step away from Death Cab for Cutie with this, his first solo album, recorded in the wake of his divorce from the New Girl.  Playing almost all of the instruments and singing both lead and background, he explores the usual emotions of love and, more often, love lost, with odd effect.  While these are songs he has written over the course of the last decade but never recorded, they are amongst the least-specific of his songwriting career.  Whereas his work with Death Cab, by definition more collaborative, are quite specific in subject, this project, created almost entirely alone, lacks all such specificity and as a result, is probably the least personal we have heard him.  Whether this is a defense mechanism or just how it worked out, we don't know.  Still, we walk away from this solo album not knowing more about Ben than we did before.  While that feels like a lost opportunity, we can't help but like this album. 

As he shed "Ben" for "Benjamin", he also eschewed the urge to pick the ingénue du jour for signature duet Bigger than Love (currently charting), instead opting for Aimee Mann -- a clear effort to transform from tortured artist wise beyond his years to simply one who is wise, as he explores alt county (Broken Yolk in Western Sky), blues and even mariachi music (Something's Rattling [Cowpoke]).  This is the rare album that sounds just like what it is -- a collection of songs written at very different times, with different moods and motives, that still work together as a set.

Ben may have had it rough over the last few years in his personal life but Benjamin is better for the wear. 

Our favorite track: Gibbard's ode to hometown Seattle, Teardrop Windows



23. Glad All Over
The Wallflowers

We didn't know what to expect here. It had been seven years since the last Wallflowers album, 16 since Bringing Down the Horse. Were we gonna get something similar to Jakob Dylan's excellent Women and Country (Number 4, 2010), a soulless money grab or a bad nostalgia trip?

Turns out, we got none of the above. It's no mistake that the first single to this album is entitled Reboot the Mission. That's exactly what they have done here: they have taken their core sound and expanded on it without gimmick; they've reflected on it without looking backward. As a band that tried to be the voice of a decade, they do an exception job of showing us how those kids in the early '90's turned out, what whey deal with now and how they articulate it.

Like a beaten leather jacket that just feels right when you put it on -- but still looks great when you do, we slid right into this album and its two solid opening tracks, thinking this is about where we'd expect the band to have evolved. Then the next five songs showed us how much we underestimated them.

First One In the Car, aside from a bothersome lyric and potential grammatical error at the end of the chorus is an instant Wallflowers classic in their heyday style.  First single Reboot the Mission introduces the new drummer and serves as a de facto mission statement for the record (pun unintentional).  It's a Dream carries things along nicely until the spectacular Love is a Country, which is quite possibly the best song they have ever recorded.  Just when we were recovering from being blown away from that song, the band goes full-on, "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" on Have Mercy on Him Now before scaling things back to earth or, in this case somewhere below that, with The Devil's Waltz.

Performed flawlessly, yet with just the right amount of restraint, the music cloaks Dylan's lyrics in a shroud of something close to spirituality. The effect is stunning and absolutely took us by surprise.

Our biggest fear with this album was that some A&R douche at Columbia Records would get a hold of it and kill it through poor single selection, leaving Love is a Country and Constellation Blues by the wayside, in favor of songs more similar to the band's older stuff. Fortunately we were wrong, as Love is a Country was recently named the second single. This is fortunate because more people will be prompted to purchase this excellent album, having heard it.



22.  The Haunted Man
Bat for Lashes

Raw. 

Natasha Khan, who uses the stage name Bat for Lashes, is emotionally raw in this album.  She appears naked on the album cover.  No air brushing, no makeup -- hell, it's even a black and white photo.  But there she is, carrying the weight of a naked man on her shoulders, like so much emotional baggage.

That's what this album is, a painstakingly poignant portrait of navigating through the ghosts of one's past, as we evolve into who we are meant to become.  From the grandiose title track to the spare Laura, the answers are at times as complicated as the questions.

If life were simple, why would anyone bother exploring it?



21.  Tempest
Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan of the 21st Century is a gravelly old man who can regale you with tales of basking in the glow of the love of a woman or scare the shit out of you with the story of her husband kicking in the door and gunning the bitch down.  He rasps and hacks and wheezes his way through his stories and you can't help but listen with rapt attention, for when he's gone, so are the tales.

And that's the reality of being a fan of a 71 year-old man who still smokes like a chimney. 

Tempest is a lot like Dylan's recent work, in that it has a very organic, rootsy feel to it.  The music is very much alive and comes from a place that feels much more sincere than much of his earlier work.  Now, be it the state of the world or simply the state of his mind, this album is also much darker than anything we've heard form Freewheelin' Bob in quite a while.  Even the song names are aggressive:  Pay in Blood, Long and Wasted Years, Tempest (the latest of which is a 14-minute retelling of the only voyage of the Titanic).  Aside from that shipwreck, Dylan sings of a murder/suicide on Tin Angel, genocide on Early Roman Kings and the murder of John Lennon on Roll on, John.  Dark stuff.

Even the lighter fare has a dark twist to it.  Soon After Midnight ends up as a love song in the 50s spare rock vein but not before the target of Bob's affections takes all his money and he passes over "the killing floors", encountering Charlotte the harlot who dresses in scarlet.  Good times, indeed.

We're glad Bob Dylan lets us sit on the porch with him and listen to his stories.  We'd just better stay the fuck off his lawn. 

Our favorite track: We were unable to find a decent copy of Soon After Midnight online, so here's a link to the album's lead single, Duquesne Whistle.


Up Next: Numbers 20-11. Previous: 75-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31

Focused on the Bang-Bang

pan·a·ce·a

/ˌpæn əˈsi ə/ Show Spelled [pan-uh-see-uh] 

noun

1. a remedy for all disease or ills; cure-all.

2. an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties:
His economic philosophy is a good one, but he tries to use it as a panacea.

The events of 14 December 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut were nothing short of horrific.  A man willfully gunning down small children defies even the most widely stretched logic.  It leaves a society with nothing but unanswerable questions and a desire for vengeance that can never be sated. 

In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, I refrained from any reaction on Facebook, simply changing my status to, "There are just no words. I don't know how they possibly could but may the families of the victims in Connecticut somehow find peace. And may God bless them."  And I let that be it as far as my response because there really were no words.  There still aren't. 

As expected, social media was immediately lit up with calls for the banning of guns, arming teachers, locking up all the mentally ill, declarations of love for one's children and about a thousand other examples of people piggybacking their personal cause onto a tragedy.  Other than a few pointed replies to the posts of others, again I held my tongue.  The time for a reasoned analysis of how to minimize of not prevent these types of incidents is not in the hours immediately following a shooting spree.  Emotions are too raw and people are not thinking clearly. 

Yet every Tom, Dick and Harpo has an, "easy solution" to the problem.  Let's take a look at each of the most popular ones and I'll tell you why it, in and of itself, won't work. 

1) Banning guns will prevent school shootings.

It's an annoying cliche but it's true -- if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.  Taking away the weapons of innocent, law-abiding people will only serve to give the unlawful weapon holders an advantage -- we'd be essentially sending society to a gun fight with a pocket knife.  The overwhelming majority of gun owners are in legal possession of legally obtained firearms and do not use them to commit crimes.  Taking away their weapons is like taking away everyone's motor vehicle because a mall percentage drink too much alcohol and get behind the wheel.  It simply won't work.

Then there are the Second Amendment issues.  While one may argue where the limits are in terms of what types of weapons can be owned, the 2nd Amendment clearly allows for some type of individual ownership of firearms.  Between the NRA, other lobbyists and regular people, there is no way that amendment is ever going to be scrapped -- and no way enough states would ratify an amendment repealing it.  That, in and of itself makes this whole, "solution" a non-starter.


2) Arming teachers will prevent school shootings.

Teachers are just like any other cross-section of society.  There are smart teachers and there are dumb ones.  There are responsible ones and there are irresponsible ones.  There are poised teachers and there are hotheads.  Giving blanket permission to all of them to strap up is lunacy.  What happens the first time one of them fails to secure their weapon and a kid gets ahold of it?  Or when a teacher flips out and guns down his or her class?  Do the school districts pay for the guns?  Do they pay for the training insurance companies would surely require in order to cover an armed campus?

You see, it is just not as simple as giving all the teachers guns.


3) Putting armed guards on school campuses will prevent school shootings.

How did that work out in Columbine?

The thing with armed security is, it ain't cheap.  Finding a qualified armed security officer is not like hiring a janitor.  Many school districts are having trouble finding money to pay for books.  How are they going to pay for the selection, qualification, salary and insurance for armed guards?  If they contract it out to a security company, it is even more expensive -- and the district loses control of the process.  What happens when a guard uses poor judgment?

It may sound mean but the simple fact is that most security guards are such because they were not qualified to be a police officer.  Do you really want someone like that walking around your kid's school with a gun?

Could an armed guard conceivably prevent a shooting spree?  Sure.  Is it likely?  Not very.


4) Allowing retired military veterans to volunteer for armed patrol of school campuses will prevent school shootings.

Look, I have much love for the military but this is one of the worst ideas I have heard.  It is a widely-acknowledged fast that we as a nation do a poor job of caring for our veterans -- particularly for the mental health of our veterans.  So we give them guns and turn them loose on school campuses?  That's a good idea?

Again, you are running into insurance liability issues, administrative costs, hiring and screening costs and the fact that, just as with any other cross-section of society, just because someone wears a uniform doesn't necessarily make them a good person.  Could some sort of a program where National Guard troops are used on a rotational basis, in lieu of their annual training deployment?  Sure.  But just  handing combat veterans guns and putting them in schools is not the answer.


5.  Letting God back in school will prevent scool shootings.

You know who pray every day in school?  Amish kids.  Guess what -- their schools get shot up, too.

Children who attend public school are not getting their religious education there, nor should they.  Kids in public school receive their religious education at home and in their church.  The values they learn there are the ones with which they go forth.  Having postes in the hallways of their educational facilities that read, "Jesus Loves You", are not going to have any effect on thse beliefs one way or the other.

I find it interesting that the people who support this argument are, by and large, folks who claim to believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God.  So by definition, they purport to believe in a God that is so powerfully present, He cannot simply be shooed away form anywhere.  The Christian viewpoint og God is that He is in fact everwhere and the impetus is on the individual to accept the love and grace He offers.  This can be done anywhere, anytime. 

So when someone says, "putting God back in school will solve the problem", what  hear is, "forcing my beliefs on others will solve the problem".  So not only are you contradicting yourself, you're also using God to try to make a political point.  Lovely.

Hate to tell you, folks but if you are a Christian or monotheist of any breed, you must also believe that God was very much present when dude shot 27 people dead in that school. 


6. Putting all the mentally ill in hospitals will prevent school shootings.

There are myriad issues here, not the least of which is that it's a slippery slope you head down when you start talking about forced commitments.  Who decides the criteria?  Who determines length of stay?  Who pays for all of this?

The thing about mental illness is, often times, it goes undetected until a blowup.  It's easy to say, "people had to have seen signs that dude was cracking", yet how many times do you see the neighbor on the news saying, "he was such a sweet boy"?   

Addressing this aspect and not the gun aspect is just as short-sighted as doing the opposite and our society and health care system are simply not set up to do this anyway even if we wanted to.

So what does that leave?  

I think it leaves a very complex problem that will take tremendous effort in many areas in order to effect change.  I think people have to take emotion out of the equation and simply ask themselves what makes sense.  And I think extremists on both sides of the aisle need to be willing to compromise.

That being said, here is what I propose:

1.  Reasonable Gun Policies

Gun control does not equal gun abolition and it never should.  People should absolutely have the right to arm themselves for the protection of their life, family and belongings.  While I personally feel it futile, they should also be able to arm themselves in protection from their government.

How does all this work?

First, the purchase of every weapon in the United States needs to be registered and tracked, without exception.  In order to be eligible for the purchase of a firearm, a prospective purchaser must clear a background check and both a written and demonstrative test.  They are then granted a license to purchase firearms.  They must quality for each type of weapon they wish to purchase, much like one must pass both a car and motorcycle test in order to receive a license for each.  Similar to driving licenses, these privileges must be renewed on a regular basis.

Gun advocates will say this is too stringent.  Too damned bad.  You have a right to a firearm.  That does not mean that right cannot be subject to reasonable guidelines.  In order to be hired and issued a firearm, a police officer must pass a psychological evaluation, written examination and demonstrative test.  The same holds true for a member of the armed services.  It makes no sense to me that we would not also want our neighbors to be similarly qualified if they own firearms.

If you pass the tests and keep your licensed maintained, you can own whatever society decides is an appropriate weapon for personal ownership.  That list can be determined through the democratic process, which is already how it works.  I can't own a fully functional tank if I want one because society has agreed that individuals should not own tanks.  Or ICBMs.  So, whatever society deems an appropriate weapon, have at it.  Just follow the rules everyone else does.

Additionally, folks should be required to make reasonable attempts at securing their weapons.  Almost every public shooting, be it a Luby's, a mall or a school, has been committed with legally purchased weapons.  Where the breakdown occurred -- well where part of the breakdown occurred -- is in the improper securing of these legal weapons.  It is a reasonable expectation to me that anyone who has gone through all the requirements to obtain a legal firearm take every reasonable action to ensure it is not put to illegal use.  Further, it is reasonable to me that anyone who fails to do so is held to some degree culpable for the resultant criminal act(s).

If I leave my gun in my nightstand and my granddaughter pulls it out and shoots herself in the face, guess what -- I'm probably going to jail, as well I should.  Owning a firearm (or knife or truncheon or hazardous chemical or power tool) comes with a responsibility to those around me.  It is on me to be sure I secure these things so that they are not misused.

Yes, people break in to houses and steal guns.  That happens.  Knowing this, it is reasonable for me to lock my guns up.  Now, if they break into the gun cabinet or lock box or whatever it is I have, then ok -- I have taken reasonable precautions and they failed.  If I left them all laying out in my garage though and dude just walks in, takes them and drives to Wendy's to start shooting -- I bear part of the blame for that.  I don't get murder charges but I have certainly failed to prevent something I had a reasonable expectation of happening. 

To me this is not at all lessening the culpability of the shooter.  Sometimes though, there enough blame for more than one person.


2. Real Penalties for Breaking the Rules

The only way regulating legal gun ownership works is if illegal gun ownership is eradicated.

Can you ever get rid of illegal gun ownership and use?  No.  The same holds true for pretty much any legal infraction in existence.  However, society can make the consequences of illegal gun ownership so punitive that it can greatly curtail the practice.

When I was stationed in Saudi Arabia, I saw a man turn himself in for stealing a car, knowing his hand was going to be cut off.  The reason he did this is because he found a gun in the trunk and knew that if he was found with the gun, he would be killed.

Am I suggesting we kill people found with an illegal gun?  Absolutely not but this story shows me that if you make the consequence painful enough, most people will rethink their options.  What those penalties are, I don't know.  But at some point, the juice is no longer worth the squeeze and illegal gun ownership and usage will decrease.

Will this prevent anyone from shooting another person or possibly even a group of people?  No.  But it could help reduce the numbers of incidents.  Will it end all violence?  No.  But I guarantee you it is a hell of a lot easier to click-boom-shoot someone from across a room than it is to physically murder them with a knife, bat or one's bare hands. 

Reducing the number of illegally owned guns will absolutely reduce violence.


3. Take the Mental Out of Health

We could take all of the guns -- illegal and not -- away from everyone and we'd still have only removed a tool from the psychopath's bin.  We will have done nothing to address the underlying causes of his or her behavior.

If your liver stops working, you go to a doctor.  The doctor looks at it, says, "we need to do a, b and c", they do a, b, and c, you pay your copay, if any, and the insurance company pays the rest.  That pretty much goes for private medical insurance, Medicare, Medicaid -- whatever.

If, however your brain stops working properly, you still go to a doctor.  In this case though, you follow the same steps but your insurance coverage is severely limited.  Because it's a mental health issue, not a health issue.  Huh?

The distinction between a mental health issue and all other kinds of health issues needs to be eliminated.  This distinction serves only three purposes:

     1) It stigmatizes the mentally ill and causes many people to not even seek the help they desperately need.
     2) It limits the scope of assistance to those who do seek it to a level that in most cases is insufficient to the task. 
     3)  It allows insurance companies to make more money by limiting their coverage.
 
 I am not getting into a health care debate here and I am not talking at all about Obamacare.  What I am saying is that health care needs to include the whole self.  If that means it costs more than so be it.  The brain is part of the human body!  Its care is absolutely part of maintaining one's health.


I don't know if these steps would change anything but i have to believe they would.  Now, my friends on the left are going to say I am being too permissive with all these killing tools.  My peeps on the right will say I am trampling on their freedom.  Frankly, I think they are both wrong.  Like it or not, we have a tremendous amount of freedom in this country and the people need to be trusted to exercise it.  Similarly, the people need to show good judgement in that exercise and live up to the responsibilities that come with that freedom.

In the coming weeks and months there will be all manner of political outrageousness on these issues.  While I don't pretend to have all the answers, what I would suggest to folks is that when listening, immediately discount the words of anyone who you have never heard voice a single positive thing about a position held by the "other side".  They are an ideologue who cares more about being right than getting it right.  Having eliminated them, listen to the reasonable folks, think about what makes sense to you personally and, if you're so inclined, pray on it.

In the end, we all want the same thing.  How far adrift are we that this story only became truly shocking to us when we found out most of the victims were little kids?  And how sad is it that nobody is talking about the fact that 27 people get killed in this country on most days?  The only thing different about 14 December is that they were all in one place.

That thought should scare the hell out of you.  It does me.

It's time for a rational, intelligent national conversation.

Focused on the Music, Vol. 4

Top 75 New Albums of 2012.


Part IV -- Numbers 40-31:



40.  Fallen Empires
Snow Patrol

If you asked us if we were Snow Patrol fans, we'd say no.  This album doesn't necessarily do anything to change that but we still found it interesting, in a variations-on-a-theme kind of way.  Almost every song here sounds the same, which usually drives us nuts but in this case provides for a cohesive experience wherein the listener eventually starts picking up subtle inflections and rhythms.  While we're sure this was not the band's intent -- they just record a lot of stuff that sounds the same -- we're still gonna give them props for it and for some decent lyrics on the vagaries of life and love, like:

"It's the price I guess/For the lies I've told/That the truth, it no longer thrills me"  (In the End) (12)

"You can't find the phone/So you can call it off/But it might be for the best"

"Is he worth all this?/Is it a simple yes?/Because if you have to think, it's fucked."  (This Isn't Everything You Are) (76)

Been there.

Our favorite track: New York  (94)



39.  Superhuman (EP)
Sarah Solovay

This was another mystery buy but we caught it before it showed up in our library.  We saw it on our pre-order list but had absolutely no recollection of having even heard of it.  But it was an EP, was like five bucks so we let it ride and gave it a listen upon delivery.

More Grisham but even Grisham is ok once in a while when you need to just blow through something and not have to think about it.

Our favorite track: A Little in Love  (yeah, the video is annoying.  It's the only one we could find.)





38.  Glad Rag Doll
Diana Krall

This album probably had closet to the most potential of anything we bought this year.  It had all the elements of greatness: superb source material (relatively-obscure gems form the 1920's and 30's), a vocalist known for interpreting standards and a top-notch producer (T-Bone Burnett).  When we downloaded this, we were thinking this might have been 2012's Let Them Talk.

Unfortunately, some production decisions threw authenticity out the window and a real opportunity to make something special was missed.

Most glaringly, no recording of a song from the 78rpm era should ever come in at damned-near seven minutes.  That would be one hell of a big record.  Only two of the 18 tracks are 2:30 or less, with six stretching to at or near five minutes.  That's ok if you are going for some kind of current sound but the upright piano and period-appropriate instrumentation are still there, so it comes across as a half-realized vision.  Personally, we'd have kept everything to around two and a half minutes and even toyed with the idea of going mono on it, with all the instruments in the same room and the vocalist in a booth.

Make no mistake, this is a lovely-sounding collection of songs.  The sound scape is gorgeous, the pacing on point and the vocals, while not what we wanted to hear, are Krall at her best.

And there's the rub.  When we think of Tin Pan Alley songs of the 20's and 30's, we picture a vocalist who's one part carnival barker, one part soul searcher and one part batshit crazy (think Cyndi Lauper at her best).  Diana Krall's just too smooth.  Her smoky vocals are perfect for the music of the 40's and 50's but lack the range of emotion and inflection necessary for the material on this album. 

So, while this is a nice record, it should have been a Cyndi Lauper album.

Our favorite track: 1928's There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth the Salt in My Tears* (Unfortunately, there is no legally obtainable album-version sample of this song available.  The live ones don't sound like the studio version, so we linked a 30 second promo sample.  Sorry)

*For shits and giggles, here's a link to the original 1928 recording (on a 79rmp lacquer record, at that), played on a 1925 Victrola.



37.  Little Broken Hearts
Norah Jones

This must be the year for female crooners trying something new.  Norah Jones, up until now, has pretty much been a one trick pony.  Granted, she performed that one trick exceptionally well but still, smoky jazz vocalist fatale was it.

Enter Danger Mouse. 

The production quality on this album is probably the best of 2012.  While adding texture and depth to the tracks, DM also knew when to get the hell out of the way and let Jones do her thing.  The result is the fullest, richest material of Jones' career.

On Say Goodbye, almost as if she were acknowledging the new direction, she sings, "Bring me back to the good old days\When you let me misbehave\Always knew it wouldn't last\But if you ask I'd go again."

We hope she does.

Our favorite track: The title track (148).



36.  Paralytic Stalks
of Montreal


You will rarely hear an of Montreal song on the radio.  You will never hear anything from this album on the radio -- even a college station.  Ever.  There's not a hook to be found and when the rare melody kicks in, it disappears as soon as one starts grooving to it.

This is probably one of the hardest to digest albums we've ever listened to.  Truth be told, other than some quick sampling to refresh our memory for this piece, we've only listened to it in its entirety twice.  It is a combination therapy session, drug binge, mania cycle, incomplete stream of consciousness -- and it is fucking exhausting.  Kevin Barnes, who does all the writing, singing and most of the playing, says this album is meant to be listened to as a complete work.  It comes perilously close to being a complete mess and we're not sure that it isn't. 

Recorded against a backdrop of classic rock, psychedelia, dance, prog rock and a dash of classical, of Montreal has made a career of making the cacophony cohese.  It never does on this album, as one never feels the release from all that drawn out emotion.  One faces a succession of buildups with no completion.  The effect is either maddening or titillating and the two times we've listened all the way through, we felt each.  If nothing, it has made us think.  And that's one of the best things music can do.

Our favorite track:  Dour Percentage (31)



35.  Good Morning to the Night
Elton John vs Pnau

The "Remix Guy vs Artist" format has been done ad nauseum of late, with mixed results.  This one, however, intrigued us.  We've traditionally been lukewarm toward Elton John.  We like some of his stuff but usually not the stuff most people do.  With this project, Australian techno/dance duo Pnau was given free reign over Sir Elton's 1970-1976 catalogue, to do with as they pleased.

They absolutely killed it, (in the good way), taking samples of over 40 songs (and as many as nine on one track, Phoenix), added nothing in the way of new vocals or instrumentation and created an album of eight entirely "new" songs. 

Putting aside the music itself, this is an amazing work of art.  Pnau smartly avoided heavy sampling of John's biggest hits and when they did, layered those samples in such a way that it didn't sound like a knockoff of the original or cause that annoying anticipatory listening experience, where the listener hears a few bars and expects a song to go one way, only for it not to and the listener never recovers to appreciate the song.

As to the music, it absolutely works.  These sound like eight new songs with a surprising breadth of scope.  Pnaul creates an absolutely credible "Elton John channels Pink Floyd" experience by combining elements of Harmony, We All Fall in Love Sometimes, Funeral for a Friend, Sweet Painted Lady, I've Seen That Movie Too, Love Song and Indian Sunset, to create Telegraph to the Afterlife.  They then turn around and go all '70s disco on the title track (127) and British Top Ten single Sad. 

This is the example to which all future remix albums should aspire.



34.  Blues Legend of the Century
Bukka White

 

Our music of the '30s kick and our appreciation of old guys who still record coalesced nicely on the opening track of Robert Plant's new album, which we'll see a bit later in the countdown. 

In a somewhat suprising move, Palmer opens that live album not with music but a spoken intro to the song, Fixin' to Die, calling it, "Bukka White's finest hour".  Liking what we heard, we decided to do a little research to see if it was, in fact, Mr. White's finest hour.

Holyshit!  Bukka White was a bad man!

When we downloaded and listened to this album, we felt like a musical pilgrimage had been completed.  It started with John Melllencamp's 2010 release of original material, No Better than This, recorded with one mic and a 1955 Ampex tape recorder in various hotel rooms, garages and churches throughout the South, where famous blues men had recorded the classics.  It continued with Hugh Laurie's 2011 treatment of blues classics, Let Them Talk, continued with this year's Diana Krall album (#38) and culminates in a revelation we never saw coming.  This guy could throw down.  How good is he?  In our opinion, younger cousin BB King ain't got shit on Bukka.

Our favorite track:  We love everything on this album.  We bought it way too late in the year to give this album the number of listens required to give an informed opinion, so we'll go with the aforementioned Fixin' to Die Blues.

(This particular collection was released in August of this year, thus qualifying as a new album, making it eligible for this countdown).



34b.  Gossamer
Passion Pit

OK, calling the Bukka White album new was a reach.  So, while compiling this list, we went ahead and downloaded a 76th album and placed it here.

Any review we give though is going to be a disservice to the album because we thought we were getting something else when we purchased it. 

When we first heard the band My Favorite a few years ago, the authenticity of their late-80's new wave sound sent a physical jolt of pain through us, the nostalgia was so intense.  We were transported in time to a day when all things were new.  We were on the cusp of adulthood. We could be anything we wanted.  The future was ours!  Then the first track ended and we realized that we were back in the present.  It's not that the present is a bad place; we're quite happy with how life has turned out.  The pang was the realization that the moments that blow you away are few and far between: the first kiss, a life-changing revelation, discovering a new sound.  We cherish these moments but in the end they can be but a tease, when compared to everyday reality.  The exaltation of living again in those moments ended with the sting of realization that we'll never again do so.  The beauty in music though, is that the next liberating moment can be just a few notes away. 

(As an aside, via the wonders of social networking we became reacquainted a few years ago with the first girl we ever kissed.  Later that year, when she married, we bought her a copy of My Favorite's The Happiest Days of Our Lives.)

For some reason, we were under the impression that this band was going to sound like My Favorite or their current iteration, The Secret History, so our expectations were absurdly high.  And while it's a nice little album with the occasional nod to '80s synth-pop and new wave, this is definitely a 21st Century pop album -- with some really dark themes.  There's depression, domestic violence, alcoholism and paranoia, glossed over by a diametrically-opposed score.  The perfect juxtaposition for an album essentially about the protagonist's bipolar disorder.

While it turns out Passion Pit is noting like what we expected, we suspect that with more listening, we will become fans, at least of this record.

Our Favorite track:  Mirrored Sea, as it is the closest to what we had expected.



33.  Texicali (EP)
ZZ Top

ZZ Top had not released any new material in nine years at the time of this EP's released.  What would eventually become four tracks on their full length LP La Futura, (released later in 2012), show a band who has mastered the balancing act of presenting their classic sound, while embracing today's technology.

Thick guitars and growling vocals have a distinctive 21st Century sheen to them, without betraying their signature sound.  Perhaps then it's fitting that the lead single and first song on the album, I Gotsta Get Paid* (66)is a remake of a '90s hip hop song recorded by a local Houston act.  After decades of hip hop artists murdering songs (we're looking at you, Diddy), it's nice to see it go the other way and, apparently, done well.  Skatterkid actually thought it was cool.

Go figure.

*Here's the original, 25 Lighters, if you're interested.



32.  Into the Night (EP)
The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes are our favorite current retro band.  Their sound is a perfect combination of lo-fi scratchiness, ethereal vocals and the proper use of a ProCo Rat pedal.  Think Velvet Underground, Phil Spector, the Ronettes and a heartbroken teenager thrown into a studio and told to not come out until they have created a record. 

This would be the result and it is stunning.  A mere four songs, they come in, do what they need to do, tell their heart-crushing tales and move on, leaving the listener in awe that such pain can sound so beautiful, despite the lack of a happy ending.

Kinda like real life.

Our favorite track:  Too Close to Heartbreak



31.  Live in New York City
Paul Simon

In support of last year's So Beautiful or So What, and with his label's desire to have a CD/DVD package to sell, Paul Simon went on tour and recorded some shows.  Having already done Central Park, MSG and every large New York venue known to man, Simon went a different route this time, playing the 2,500-seat Webster Hall. 

The 90-minute set has a warm, intimate feel we didn't expect.  Although he's always been free with his emotions when writing, we always viewed Paul Simon as a little cold in person.  With his excellent backing band and superb song selection, this is without a doubt the best we have ever heard a 70 year-old man sound in concert and is by far the best we've heard Simon sound live.

Opting for album tracks over big hits, (think Gumboots over You Can Call Me Al) and giving new life to Simon & Garfunkel songs we'd never cared for, (the refreshed, slightly funky 50 Ways to Your Lover was a pleasant surprise), Simon banters with the band and audience and seems a man at total peace with where he and his music stand.  He clearly enjoys playing the new material but was still able to play the older stuff without sounding like he'd done it a million times.

Having seen so many bands go through the motions on a live album, this was a refreshing gem of a record.

Our favorite track: Due to copyright restrictions, the only video we can link to is the promo.



Up Next:  Numbers 40-31.                        Previous: 75-61, 60-51, 50-41