1. “Portions for Foxes” - Rilo Kiley. The sheer pleasure of the indie rock guitar here notwithstanding, this is the best, most assured soft rock song since everyone in Fleetwood Mac was breaking up with everyone else. Not that it is exactly an obvious FM radio ready-made, the singer as frank as she is about the helplessness she feels in the face of her own driven sexuality. It'll nestle in there nicely in a few years, though, where “There's blood in my mouth 'cause I've been biting my tongue all week” will elicit instant recognition and “I'm bad news, baby I'm just bad news bad news bad news” will have adults supposedly too old to still be driven by their need for pleasure punching the air and rocking that pretend guitar. Even at our age we are still driven to pleasure, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
2004 singles #1!!! Happy post Xmas!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
2004 singles # 2
2. “Rock the Casbah” - Rachid Taha. A Middle Eastern version of the Clash's parable about the suppression of music was sitting out there waiting for a long time. What better time than 2004 to unleash it, though? So, aside from perfect timing, and how well the thing fits Taha's expert rocking Rai arrangement, what can one say? That this sort of cultural cross pollination is likely to be as repugnant to Osama and his fellow travelers as any other mortal sin? That it is therefore a direct jab at them? That it also sends a message to architects of Iraq, that he isn't fooled? A courageous triumph on several fronts then.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
2004 singles # 3
3. “99 Problems” - Jay Z vs Danger Mouse. Not only can Jay Z ward off ignrant cops and bust beyond guy-trash talk, but the way this marries with the Beatles' most outrageous guitar rave-up is the stuff of Run DMC's wildest dreams. As the poet once said, to live outside the law you must be honest. So I hope Danger Mouse is as well read in his legal rights as his unwitting co-conspirator obviously is.
Monday, December 21, 2009
2004 singles # 4
4. “List of Demands (Reparations)” - Saul Williams. Fast, demanding, exciting and agitated – not just the music, but the poet himself. It is hard to sing about something as monumental as slavery without sounding trite; you might as well just let your outrage and desire for justice take over while admitting that your demands will go unheeded, that you are just shouting in your head or bedroom. And you might as well put baby sound-taunts in it and make them fit.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
2004 singles #s 7, 6 and 5
7. “MKLVFKWR” - Public Enemy and Moby. Yes they damn well are the greatest rock band of our age, and George W. Bush has Chuck and Flav all riled up. So don't expect them to mellow even at their advancing years. Also riled up is the little bald missionary, to the point that he lays down a track completely in keeping with their character.
6. “Food Fight” - Andre Tanker. Why are George and Saddam hurling pies and dropping spam on each other anyway? Tanker thinks he has the answer: “He who control the bread/ want to control your head”. Indeed, all our experience tells us this is so. But wait, the realisation hits: “The food is a foil/ What they want is the oil”. And meanwhile, all across the world, the children starve.
5. “Raise Him Up” - Randy Travis. In which the long-standing country star demonstrates real compassionate conservatism, and makes you believe in it. I'm serious about the compassion, because he is. But more than that, just wallow in this man's voice, with just a touch of grain at its centre and exactly as much power as he should choose to apply to the occasion. Clearly one of the greatest singers of any genre, he makes his performance here, which could fall into camp and never gets near doing so, seem utterly effortless.
The main themes for today were
- poor sleep
- warrent of fitness but couldn't get down to the garage to pick up car
- weather robs good finish to the cricket
Thursday, December 10, 2009
What's in yr changer? part 34
David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. This record is comparable to Sgt. Pepper's: it is over-rated almost by habit, and yet pretty damn great anyway; it sags perceptibly in the middle, even though those songs are entertaining for sure. The difference though is one of sonic imagination, which Bowie for all his creative strength in this period didn't really show, and the lack of a final punch (although it is unreasonable to expect la Bowie to possibly match "A Day in the Life").
Serengeti - Dennehy: Lights Camera Action. This rap-opera is based on a real narrative, to do with a middle aged Chicagoan, his wife Jueles, and the aspiring hip hop artist who seems to be boarding in their basement. The plot isn't telegraphed, and I'm happy to allow it to reveal itself over multiple listens, because it is driven by the expertly drawn, three dimensional characters and their believable lives, details that draw you back in time and again.
Pet Shop Boys - Discography. Makes the definitive case for them as great pop artists. While they lose their punch audibly in the second half, this just means their songs get more subtle, not that they got worse.
Bob Dylan - New Morning. A kind of half way house between the simple song and dance sweetness of his “I'll Be Your Baby Tonight” inclinations and the poetics and sharp-edged literary allusions his older fans craved. While it never reaches the heights of his best work, there are some fine songs here, and they emit the sort of glow you get off the best early 70s rock. One point of interest is the little tour of the north Midwest; although he's set folk tunes in the north country before, this is the first time he's set first person Dylanesque adventures where he grew up.
The Beatles - Rubber Soul. Possibly their best, which is obviously saying something, including the fact that they were never entirely perfect. This may be a small and perhaps necessary price to pay for them pushing the envelope as hard as they did, a far greater good that overwhelms the sins of a couple of lame tracks. McCartney's a powerhouse here, and Harrison is learning really fast, while Lennon's heading for another place entirely. Of the two dubious cuts, which start and end side two, "What Goes On" provides contrast for the peaks around it, and Lennon's jealously murderous "Run for your Life" fails because without narrative context it comes across as just another song from me to you like "Help" or "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".
The main themes for today were
- sore neck
- slowly winning comprehension
- Popmatters rock critics think middling white indie is better than hot internationalist hip hop, thus demonstrating they have no idea what makes a great single. They probably hate the Black Eyed Peas for daring to be popular.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
2004 singles #s 10, 9 and 8
10. “Common People” - William Shatner. Perhaps this song's bullet proof. More likely Shatner's just a great actor. Whichever way, this is one hell of a reading (and Joe Jackson and Ben Folds deserve credit too).
9. “Bridging the Gap” - Nas feat Olu Dara. A rapper and his jazz player dad evoke the 1960s Chicago of Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf and share much love. And out of these somethings old and borrowed make the blues the most thrilling new sound of the year.
8. “99 Problems” - Jay Z. Many of Jay's several problems are caused by being young, black, and insufficiently deferential. Usually Jay Z is not a role model I would consider recommending, but he comes close here. Although these beats would withstand search and seizure (unlike those of its illicit remix, more about that elsewhere), they maintain a tough, don't-mess-with-me front. The question it all raises is, why should anyone have to keep dealing with this sort of bullshit just in order to be getting on?
Song of the day, 8 December 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
2004 singles #s 13, 12 and 11
13. “Don't Look Back” - Silkworm. Music about itself must not only be very clever to avoid risking coming across as fey, it helps if there is actual music to boast about. So it is a good thing that Silkworm's indie rock is both hard hitting and committed, or the effect might have fizzled.
12. “Hoist that Rag” – Tom Waits. His patriotism seriously frayed, his huge bellow is enriched by what could easily pass as Senegalese salsa until the devastating guitar solo – some of the best music of his career.
11. “Galang” - MIA. This street-life manual is also the sound of pop shifting - a cascade of beats, ground shaking bass, electronic noises for flavour, a celebration of London dialect, a huge hook-chant that might stand in for the promise of a riot to come. It is not entirely new music: broadly the ragga and hip-hop derived two-step/ grime/ whatchawannacallit had been around a while, some of it more radical-sounding. But this also represents the encroachment of the world into the western mainstream, not the first, certainly not the last, but the one best able to suggest its explosive potential, a potential we have perhaps yet to fully experience.
The main themes for today were
- the axe falling (on Peter Fulton)
- beautiful sunshine
- Rumpole of the Bailey
Saturday, December 5, 2009
2004 singles #s 16, 15 and 14
16. “Fit But You Know It” - The Streets. One of the funniest pieces of dramatic irony to be jammed up the charts in like, ever. Talk about a tosser. But it is also a worthy placer here due to having one of the most entertaining and simple sample riffs, in, like, forever.
15. “Worry Too Much” - Buddy Miller. These were dark years, and it isn't yet clear how intact we'll emerge from them, so I don't actually think this bluesy-sounding Christian's fears were over played. He sounds positively sane in fact.
14. “All Falls Down” - Kanye West feat Syleena Johnson. West is well known for his humility (for example when he attends an award show) but his history just makes the statements here about self-consciousness more poignant. And the argument he mounts connecting institutions, self-esteem, materialism and black achievement almost leads you to believe that his people should simply by-pass the education system altogether and get what they want out of America their own way.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
2004 singles #s 19, 18 and 17
19. “Killer Parties” - The Hold Steady. Tales of a youth almost not survived, but they're stronger for it. Although this is mid tempo, the music's sonic details are beautiful and Craig Finn's narrative details telling.
18. “We As Americans” – Eminem. In which the artiste discourses upon the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution, having dedicated a number of previous songs to the first, in particular the speech clause. (I await his disquisition on the tenth Amendment, by the way, which I have always found just a touch mysterious, to wit: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people". I'm sure he could link that to the beef he had with the guy from The Source). The music here is sombre and pessimistic, rocking gently but not without its hook. The lyrics contain some of his most brilliant and complex rhymes, including a pun that bought him a visit from the US secret service.
17. “Mosh” - Eminem. An heroic failure, with some vivid imagery. A leader that just snaps back, mosh pits grinding in the slow motion rain at 1600 Pensylvania Ave, Bush a lone soldier in Iraq trying desperately to impress his father. Its flaw was that it failed to name John Kerry, and its failure was that Eminem couldn't bring the 8 million strong army he claims to command out to vote for him.
The main themes for today were
- rain, again
- epiphany while reading about Paul Henry's comments about Susan Boyle: we are living through the ascendancy of the asshole
- rain, again
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
2004 singles #s 22, 21 and 20
22. “Fire Fire” - MIA vs Diplo. Mash-up heaven, in which the Bangles weave like an Egyptian through a jungle of beats.
21. “Skin (Sarabeth)” - Rascal Flats. These country stars have come here today to test out how much you can take. Tearjerkers are a staple of the genre, even if good tearjerkers are rare. So, are you tough enough to embrace a tale about a young girl with cancer who gets to go to the school prom? Come on, whaddaya made of?
20. “Jesus Walks” - Kanye West. At last, a fresh hip hop sound. And it is from a less than likely source: his previous productions seemed to me at least to be part of American hip-hop's general blanding-out during this period. His smarts, though – no one paying attention would doubt those.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
2004 singles #s 25, 24 and 23
25. “Guajira (I Love U 2 Much)” - Yerba Buena. A sad tale of love separated by borders. Or is it just this groove they can't live without, a groove that can't possibly be confined?
24. “Formed a Band” - Art Brut. From such modest ambitions are legends made: “We're going to be the band/ That writes the song/ that makes Israel and Palestine/ Get along...”
23. “It's a Hit” - Rilo Kiley. And its a bullseye for each of four targets, first throw. They lead off with a smoking-gun-holding ape who may have fancied himself a real decision maker, but who, once the war starts, panics and throws his shit at the enemy. Whoever could they possibly mean?