Recent CD Purchases

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
Post Reply
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

It has been a good year for Chanteuses- so far. The latest effort by Madeleine Peyroux is a good example. "The Blue Room" takes a novel idea- revisit the musical ideas behind Ray Charles's "Modern Sounds in Country and Western [both volumes]- and uses them as a frame work to craft a late night, smokey, and soulful modern day version of that album- not a note for note revisiting but a carefully crafted interpretation which reinhabits some of the core songs from that classic like "Take These Chains From My Heart" and "Born to Lose" and combines them with sly and witty reinterpretations of some modern classics like Randy Newman's "Guilty", The Everly's "Bye, Bye Love" and Warren Zevon's "Desperadoes Under the Eves". Her readings are true; they swing and linger after the record stops. A very solid addition to the 2am and I am the only one in the club genre.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Your beloved Crowell and Harris has had some very strong reviews here. Only just come out here.

I've ordered the new Edwyn album and John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts album, also getting v good reviews. These are my two next gig outings, and I also order three CDs 'used very good' off Zoverstocks for £6 linked to my last (J Marr) which are the first three Electronic albums. I really loved the first one back in the day.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

It is nice to see they are receiving some solid recognition for this record. I am honestly enjoying it. Their voices meld so well. Am eagerly anticipating their show a week from today in Boston. I can ask for very little- the wonderful company of my wife, a day of viewing art on Huntington Ave. and their show that evening. 8)
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

"Sing the Delta"- Iris Dement. Had I bought this record when it first appeared in late 2012 it would have headed my best of list for that year. As it is, along with Dylan's "Tempest", it is easily my favorite from last year. It is difficult not to overpraise it.

Why? The title song is probably the best explanation. It is a song about looking backward, having moved onward from a place, a time. It is also about a marriage and about having the courage to allow one's partner to move onward, to want the best for another. It is also about faith and doubt. It is about love and loss. It is about dirt and hard work. It is about life's many faceted tears and tribulations. It is about memory. It is about being able to tell these human truths in a plain spoken manner accompanied by simple piano melodies, a rattling drum kit and the occasional haunting refrains of pedal steel guitar. It is about using a god given voice, a powerfully unique one, to sing of these things. Finally, it is about being honest with one's self and acknowledging that all the pain and joy of one's life just exists and is ephemeral-faith is a fragile thing as attested to in the heartjolting song "The Night I Learned How Not to Pray" as experienced by a four year old girl- that all one has is one's faith and that a pointed epiphany can occur when one accidently hears on the car radio Ms Franklin testifying "Precious Lord Take My Hand" and its accompanying comfort of knowing that "If that ain't love, the truest kind, if that ain't love stars in heaven don't shine."

I have made up my mind that when I pass on I want Ms. Iris to send me off in her powerfully unique manner with these words of her's:

Once you were the dawn, the dusk, and the night
Without the dream of holding you tight
my days turned to black, I could hardly take breath
I stumbled my way thru a fate worse than death
But like the Phoenix that rose right out of the fire
I came back too, from a bed of desire
and shook from my wings the ash from the pyre
and headed back home.

After all this is the woman who added her inimitable quiet dignity to the end of the Coen Brothers' "True Grit" with her elequent vocal reading of "Leanin' on the Everlasting Arms". Ms. Iris is a national treasure. This record truthfully testifies to why EC cited it as one of his favorites from last year. A first listen allows it to seep slowly into your listening pores. It lingers and intensifies with each successive spin on the record playing device.

P.S. The record's ninth song- "Mornin' Glory" may be the single most sensual and yet spiritual song I have encountered in many years.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
ice nine
Posts: 1213
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 9:54 pm
Location: A van down by the river

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by ice nine »

Just downloaded The Music is You:A Tribute to John Denver. My Morning Jacket's track 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' was available as a free track and I was hoping all the other tracks would be just as excellent. They were. All the artists do a fine version of their respective songs. I have never been a big Dave Mathews fan, but his 'Take Me To Tomorrow' is very good. Amos Lee, Kathleen Edwards, Lucinda Williams, Old Crow Medicine Show all shine. Brandi Carlile and Emmylou do a beautiful job on 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think that you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt
- M. Twain
User avatar
verbal gymnastics
Posts: 13637
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2003 6:44 am
Location: Magic lantern land

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by verbal gymnastics »

Tooth & Nail - Billy Bragg

Worth the money alone for Goodbye Goodbye.

It's a shame he doesn't get the credit he deserves as one of the best writers of love songs this country has. He will forever be associated as a political songwriter but he has written some of the most beautiful love songs.
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

The new one by Tom Jones Spirit in the Room has my ears on fire- it is that good- when combined with his effort from last year- I want to sing his praises all day long. He is a person who has found a way to reinvent himself and have it seem most genuine- good on him! This version of Leonard Cohen's song "Tower of Song" is now Tom's and Tom's alone- when he sings about being born with that golden voice there is no irony just an epiphany for me. Like he did last year with Dylan's "What Good Am I" he has taken an under appreciated song and totally made it his own:

http://youtu.be/3JWiPFT0v2c

And lest anyone think he only now found his soulfulness, check this one out from 1969:

http://youtu.be/9Kg0v0Er8Ak
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Interesting. I can't take him seriously - call it listening with prejudice but I couldn't sit through an album of his voice. I've always seen him as a TV/Vegas performer, not someone with an identity beyond that of The Beloved Entertainer (partly because he isn't a songwriter). That said, nice cover of Tower of Song. Don't think I want to hear him doing Tom Waits, though. Even the NME are fairly kind, but they echo my feelings completely re him wanting to reinvent himself a la late era Cash with Rubin:

http://www.nme.com/reviews/tom-jones/13189

Any integrity he's aiming for here is seriously compromised artistically by his participation in series 2 with will.i.am and Jessie J in godawful talent finder show The Voice (not that I'm watching it, he may have left it for all I know).

Interesting clip with C, S, N & Y. Never knew Neil shared a stage with Tom once upon a time.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Well to each his own- I do think you are cheating yourself out of some good aural fun. Sir Tom has truly and successfully molted with a late career renaisannce not unlike Mr. Cash. He and Nick Lowe are the two artists that immediately come to mind with honest late career rebirths for me. I do not say buy the record but put it on Spotify- it just might grow on you. He now owns those two songs hands down for my ears. A real surprise for me was the record he did with Jools Holland back in 2005- that one is ear candy and chock full with vintage R&B and artists just having fun.

That 1969 video clip is a hoot- that pained expression on Neil's face is priceless. Quite a natty dresser as well- gone the torn jeans and flannel. Tom more than holds his own and seems to be having great fun. I liked the look on Crosby's face as he glances at Tom before heading to the mike to sing some harmony.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Interesting. I can't take him seriously - call it listening with prejudice but I couldn't sit through an album of his voice. I've always seen him as a TV/Vegas performer, not someone with an identity beyond that of The Beloved Entertainer (partly because he isn't a songwriter). That said, nice cover of Tower of Song. Don't think I want to hear him doing Tom Waits, though. Even the NME are fairly kind, but they echo my feelings completely re him wanting to reinvent himself a la late era Cash with Rubin:

http://www.nme.com/reviews/tom-jones/13189

Any integrity he's aiming for here is seriously compromised artistically by his participation in series 2 with will.i.am and Jessie J in godawful talent finder show The Voice (not that I'm watching it, he may have left it for all I know).

Interesting clip with C, S, N & Y. Never knew Neil shared a stage with Tom once upon a time.
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/170 ... -the-room/

This piece, Otis, speaks to how I feel about this record better than I ever could. I hope you can find a way to give the album a chance- it is that good.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
Poor Deportee
Posts: 671
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 7:30 pm
Location: Chocolate Town

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Poor Deportee »

Jack of All Parades wrote:
Otis Westinghouse wrote:Interesting. I can't take him seriously - call it listening with prejudice but I couldn't sit through an album of his voice. I've always seen him as a TV/Vegas performer, not someone with an identity beyond that of The Beloved Entertainer (partly because he isn't a songwriter). That said, nice cover of Tower of Song. Don't think I want to hear him doing Tom Waits, though. Even the NME are fairly kind, but they echo my feelings completely re him wanting to reinvent himself a la late era Cash with Rubin:

http://www.nme.com/reviews/tom-jones/13189

Any integrity he's aiming for here is seriously compromised artistically by his participation in series 2 with will.i.am and Jessie J in godawful talent finder show The Voice (not that I'm watching it, he may have left it for all I know).

Interesting clip with C, S, N & Y. Never knew Neil shared a stage with Tom once upon a time.
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/170 ... -the-room/

This piece, Otis, speaks to how I feel about this record better than I ever could. I hope you can find a way to give the album a chance- it is that good.
Bought this on iTunes two days ago...only to realize that I had haplessly downloaded the standard rather than 'deluxe' version, which has Lone Pilgrim and When the Deal Goes Down on it (two obvious must-haves). Oy vey. Fortunately the merciful gods of iTunes have agreed to refund my money, which I will put toward the proper 'deluxe' edition.

Having listened to the compromised 'standard' version, though, I'm happy to affirm Jack's assessment. The backing is excellent and effortlessly organic, and the vocals? Simply stunning. He just inhabits these songs, making them come fully, truly alive as never before, wringing new meaning from some, taking others to a different place. His voice - more cracked and pitted than in the past, and richer for it - is subdued, heartfelt, genuine, yet still suggestive of deep, tremendous power. The delivery is all judicious artistry; the voice itself, just a gift. Money, hype - they can't buy that. It's God-given.

My only quibble is with the cover of 'Bad As Me.' I don't hear it adding anything to Waits's version, except some cool strings, and it's the one case where the original recorded vocal might actually be superior to that of Mr. Jones, due to its sheer intensity and dementia. Frankly, if Jones were to cover Tom Waits, I'd have wanted him to pick a better composition than this one. Maybe next time.
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

She & Him Volume 3- have been playing this one repeatedly over the last two days. To my ears it is the strongest of the three records they have released to date. I think for several reasons: assured vocals by Ms. Deschanel, better than expected songs from her pen and a more muted sense of past pop confections in the production.

Her style of lyric writing tends to the trope of opposition- witness this from the exhuberant song taunting a former lover that opens the album "I've Got Your Number, Son":

"What's a man without all the attention?
Well, he's just a man
And why do you fear that no one will hear what
you've got to say?
Who am I without all your affection?
I'm a nobody too
I'm not above being unloved if that's how I've
got to pay."

Here is a video of the song:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 9wPwMujVbw

It is tempting to think that the bulk of the songs address her recently concluded marriage to Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard. That probably is the case. Dont' really care. The material is adult as it takes a clear eyed look at a relationship's deterioration. The album is like a 'pop' version of Billie Holliday's "Lady in Satin". You can bring the girl down but you cannot break her spirit. M Ward plays behind the scenes supplying delicate guitar accompionment and understated production that lets Ms Deschanel's natural voice stay in the fore front of the mix where it more than hold's its own. I also like the lessoning of a reliance on covers. This time there are only three including an exhuberant version of Blondie's "Sunday Girl". Good job- I think I will still be playing this one in the coming years.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
ice nine
Posts: 1213
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 9:54 pm
Location: A van down by the river

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by ice nine »

After many years of hearing about the under appreciated songwriter Laura Nyro I found one of her CDs in a $5 bin. Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is a beautiful sounding album. For an album released in 1968 it sounds as fresh as relevant as today's offerings.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think that you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt
- M. Twain
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Excellent pick up. I remember a time when the airwaves were filled with her songs either self performed or covered by another artist. You are right- the quality of a good many of the songs on that record and others belies there age and makes them ever fresh to a new set of ears. One of the joys of parenthood for my wife and I was in introducing our three daughters to her music. My wife's best friend got married to her "Wedding Bell Blues". Years ago she approached my father in law about writing some arrangements for her. Nothing, unfortunately, came of it. Maybe you will sample some of her other records.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

The National's Trouble Will Find Me arrived, along with Modern Vampires of the City (which had a card slipcase so absurdly tightly wrapped that in the end I just had to slit it open), not to mention a 'used but good' 8 CD boxset of Mitsuko Uchida playing Schubert (recommended by a certain Jack of All Parades among others). Sigh, now I just need time to play them all. Love what I've heard of The National's, as I knew I would.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

My initial impressions of Trouble Will Find Me are very favorable- not a great jump forward but a satisfying collection of songs. The stripping away of some prior musical excesses has caught my ear. I am finding the accompanying paintings to each song helpful as I try to enter each song. It also takes some getting use to the repetitive lines-it is almost as if the singer in a given song is having an internal monologue with himself. There is a quite a bit to absorb with the multiple quotes to musical influences. I have been immediately taken by "Fireproof". I will have to comment more after further listens.

I hope you enjoy the Uchida-her take on those magisterial Sonatas has always held my ear's attention- delicate but with a subtle fire in her approach.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

TWFM is getting its hooks into me. Overall, yes, it's more of the same, but if anything an even subtler, mumblier, downbeat vibe than High Violet. It probably doesn't have as many standouts as that album, which I would be surprised not to find retrospectively was a career-defining best, and still for me probably best album so far of this millennium, against some very stiff competition. but it's good enough that you play it and want to hear it again. And their subtle songs are slow burners, so often it's not till 4th or 5th listen that it really happens.

Was struck how the first couple of songs both contain typical clever rhythmic twists, with I Should Live In Salt containing an extra beat in one recurring section and Demons having one taken away (7/4, I guess), as if the spare beat in one was acquired by robbing it from the other, and yet even though it plays with your head a bit as it goes against the expected pattern, but it seems to be entirely organic within the song, fitting the words and music perfectly. It takes real artistry to perfect that sort of effect. I've found Bloodbuzz Ohio to be one of the most demanding songs to cover in my band because it's physically relentless but also because the syncopation of words to beat does your head in at first, and yet it works seamlessly, and once you've got it, you no longer can see how it could seem confusing.

About half the tracks strike me as really really strong, for example the sublime I Need My Girl. here it is being unveiled:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEPs3r1yMk
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I am with you 100% as to how this album insinuates itself into one's consciousness. Perhaps not as easily as its predecessor with the multiple hooks that record has, but more in the way as a band they have solidified their usage of emotive melodies that are anchored by drumming of extreme precision and subtly interspersed guitar lines. What you call "gorgeous slow burners". And once the songs glow hot in one's musical mind they tend to settle, linger and dig in for the long haul. You are quite right about the time shift element in the music. Take a song like "I Need My Girl" where the power in the song is directly caused by time shifts.

I am taken right now by the song "Slipped" where the character struggles with her feelings of inadequacy and the guitar parts echo that distinct feeling of emptiness. Memorable line- "I don't need any help to be breakable, believe me." I am also taken by the magnificent final minute of music in "This Is the Last Time". The songs are also filled with references both literary and musical- take the title of the song "Don't Swallow the Cap" with it's nod to Tennessee Williams's demise. Another generation had a writer that gloried in the "Sorrows of Gin". Matt Berninger's lyric vision is fueled by wine. He often seems to my ears to be the cleverest lyricist at work these days as he struggles with pointlessness and a constant search for identity and love and attempts to feel rooted and satisfied in this life. The line from the record that stays with me most after the first week is from "Demons"- "When I walk into a room I don't light it up.".

Otis, you are right. They are making some of the best music out there these days. I am glad you will get to see them later this summer. Should be a solid show. In the last two weeks two American bands have released albums that show them creating at new heights. It has been some time since I have witnessed that confluence. I agree with your assessment of "I Need My Girl". I will add "This is the Last Time" as an additional gem, especially that last minute:

http://youtu.be/-VVp-tKqFNY
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

What's the Williams allusion? Did he swallow the cap?

Had the very rare pleasure of listening to it start to finish. Reading the lyrics and studying the pictures, most of which are interesting but could fit with any of the songs. The shredded self-portrait ones are good. I take Nancy Berninger to be his sister. And there's a Dessner too. I don't really like reading lyrics while listening, I like to just listen, but he's so mumbly it helps to get a handle. Great voice. Can't wait for the live thing.

Interestingly his wife co-writes the lyrics (and a thanks to a Jennifer with the same surname in the credits leads me to assume that the Jenny and Jennifers referred to are her.

Was she credited on High Violet? My copy has gone walkies (I blame my son).
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Unfortunately he did. It was one of those sad end of life stories that you would not believe if it were not true. He choked to death on his eye medicine bottle cap while drunk.

His wife was credited for three songs on "High Violet"- she was the former fiction editor at The New Yorker.

This one just grows and grows on me with each listen. These are songs that are built to last, to explore, to live within and with, to burrow into deeply.

There is a new documentary out now titled "Mistaken for Strangers" about Berninger and his relationship with his brother and the band which is directed by the brother. I am going to try to view it one of these days.

Might be my favorite American voice these days next to Jim James of My Morning Jacket.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Gosh, I can't even bring myself to play the Vamp W CD as I don't want it to interfere with my enjoyment of TWFM. I woke today with about 6 of the songs in my head at once. It's an incredibly powerful album. I won't see them till November, so it's a long wait, but it gives me a chance to get to know it backwards. Was checking out recent (March) setlist on setlistfm. Healthy dose of the new album and of course HV tracks, and some of the more celebrated earlier ones like About Today.

Am breaking my National obsessing to get ready for the awesome power of NY&CH on June 11. I'm not sure it's possible for another 4 people to make a sound together that sounds more like 'an enormous yes'. The band sound alone would make you cry, and then Neil's eternally plaintive voice, and then the sublime addition of Billy Talbot's harmonies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfI3AehnirQ
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Poor Deportee
Posts: 671
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 7:30 pm
Location: Chocolate Town

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Poor Deportee »

Everybody's moved on to The National, so - behind the curve as always - I continue to dwell on the latest by that most lamely-named of bands, Vampire Weekend. Having had little prior exposure to these guys, I've been slowly working through the record, which is rich and interesting if perhaps a bit too self-consciously 'studio' for my immediate linking. What has really dawned on me after several listens are the surprisingly (and seemingly largely Jewish) religious preoccupations of this material - most obviously in 'Everlasting Arms' and 'Ya-hey,' but also songs like 'Unbelievers' along with the deliberately churchy harmonies and organs woven throughout. Are their intentions ambiguous? Yes, but I don't think they're being flip or ironic about all of this either. The album may in this respect best be seen as akin to U2's Pop or, say, PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love, and much closer to them than the more overtly theological Leonard Cohen or Born-Again Dylan. It's part of a sub-tradition within pop that sincerely adapts traditional religious themes to hipster sensibilities, purposes and experience.

Of course there are other themes here, most notably the passing of youth and a rising awareness of mortality. They're laced together with these spiritual concerns to make a pretty cohesive existential statement.

Meanwhile, 'Step' is easily one of the greatest pop songs I've heard in some time. The second verse in particular is just sublime:

Ancestors told me that their girl was better
She's richer than Croesus, she's tougher than leather
I just ignore all the tales of a past life
Stale conversation deserves but a bread knife
And punks who would laugh when they saw us together
Well, they didn't know how to dress for the weather
I can still see them there huddled on Astor
Snow falling slow to the sound of the master


(And note the "master" - could be, say, Dylan, my personal preference; but it could, again, be "Ya-hey." A minor point in the context of this song, but a telling one in terms of my reading of the overall album).
Last edited by Poor Deportee on Fri May 31, 2013 10:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
When man has destroyed what he thinks he owns
I hope no living thing cries over his bones
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

It arrived on the same day as The National one for me, but I haven't played it yet! I don't want it to interfere with all the songs on Trouble Will Find Me occupying my consciousness as fully as possible! All in good time...
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Poor Deportee wrote:Everybody's moved on to The National, so - behind the curve as always - I continue to dwell on the latest by that most lamely-named of bands, Vampire Weekend.
Uh, can I introduce you to Toad the Wet Sprocket?
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Poor Deportee wrote:Everybody's moved on to The National, so - behind the curve as always - I continue to dwell on the latest by that most lamely-named of bands, Vampire Weekend. Having had little prior exposure to these guys, I've been slowly working gradually through the record, which is rich and interesting if perhaps a bit too self-consciously 'studio' for my immediate linking. What has really dawned on me after several listens are the surprisingly (and seemingly largely Jewish) religious preoccupations of this material - most obviously in 'Everlasting Arms' and 'Ya-hey,' but also songs like 'Unbelievers' along with the deliberately churchy harmonies and organs woven throughout. Are their intentions ambiguous? Yes, but I don't think they're being flip or ironic about all of this either. The album may in this respect best be seen as akin to U2's Pop or, say, PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love, and much closer to them than the more overtly theological Leonard Cohen or Born-Again Dylan. It's part of a sub-tradition within pop that sincerely adapts traditional religious themes to hipster sensibilities, purposes and experience.

Of course there are other themes here, most notably the passing of youth and a rising awareness of mortality. They're laced together with these spiritual concerns to make a pretty cohesive existential statement.

Meanwhile, 'Step' is easily one of the greatest pop songs I've heard in some time. The second verse in particular is just sublime:

Ancestors told me that their girl was better
She's richer than Croesus, she's tougher than leather
I just ignore all the tales of a past life
Stale conversation deserves but a bread knife
And punks who would laugh when they saw us together
Well, they didn't know how to dress for the weather
I can still see them there huddled on Astor
Snow falling slow to the sound of the master


(And note the "master" - could be, say, Dylan, my personal preference; but it could, again, be "Ya-hey." A minor point in the context of this song, but a telling one in terms of my reading of the overall album).
Have not stopped listening to this excellent record- though I will admit to being diverted by the new National album. The Vampire boys make a convincing argument for equal time and you strongly help their case. You have hit upon a fair number of the points that make this record memorable. They are Columbia alums and I am reasonably certain they have absorbed key lessons from the Core Curriculum. It shows in the motifs utilized within the record. I do like the religious themes you point out, in particular the play on 'the Master'. "Steps" at this stage in the year is arguably one of the best songs put out to this point. As an ensemble they have matured nicely and the songs on this record strike me as less gimmicky when compared to their earlier records.

They are also a tight playing machine now with a drum/bass section that throbs and drives the songs forward. And Ezra Konig can flat out sing. This album moves along, it is a jittery urban celebration. As I have been playing it over the past weeks I find myself often jolted back to my own halcyon days in NYC in the mid to late 70's and the feelings and thoughts that enveloped me as I came of age in that same urban Mecca. Konig and his band mates have tapped into a vein of urban angst that comes with living in a world capital with one's adult life spilling out in front of one's self. It is a scary/exhilerating feeling and one that often leaves one asking for a little of that 'warmth' that Konig seeks in "Unbelievers". Can you tell I value this record? As I said elsewhere- this band and The National are currently making vital music. Different sounds but equally honest attempts to come to grips with adulthood.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
Post Reply