Culling the Herd: Andrew Bird, Anjulie, Arrested Development, Asa

Covering a bunch of singles and incomplete albums here...

Andrew Bird, "Fitz and The Dizzyspells" - 2 stars.  Bury it.

Nothing wrong with it, I guess, but will I miss it when it's gone?  No.  No, I will not.

 

 

Anjulie, "Boom" - 2 stars.  Bury it.

It starts well enough, with some 60s feedback guitar...but then she opens her mouth, with the faux-baby voice and the weird euro accent, and I can't get to the skip button fast enough.  No.

 

 

Arrested Development, "3 Years, 5 Months, etc." - 3 stars.  Hold it / Bury it.

I only had / have 3 songs from this album - "People Everyday," "Mr. Wendal," and "Tennessee,"  Now it's two - I remember that I burned "Tennessee" because I read somewhere that it's an important song.  Which it is, I guess, but it doesn't do much for me, at least not as much as the other two.

Asa, "Jailer" - 3 stars.  Hold it.

This song really snuck up on me - at first I was put off by the accent and the slowness, but she has an interesting voice that stays that way.  A good song, worthy of more listens.

Culling the Herd: Anita Baker

Anita Baker, "Rapture" - 4 stars.  Hold it / Bury it.

Let me start by saying that I love Anita Baker.  She's a really cool chick, from everything I've ever seen, and always seems so happy to be singing.  She's terrific.

And this record is a great one.  Some of my favorite "traditional" R&B songs ever are here:  "Caught Up In The Rapture," "Sweet Love," "You Bring Me J0y," "Been So Long."  But there are a couple that I just don't listen to any more, and skip when they come up..."Mystery" and "Watch Your Step" are going to go.

I'm sorry, Anita.

Culling the Herd: Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse, "Back to Black" - 5 stars.  Dig it.

It's really impossible to me to write about this record with anything resembling perspective.  I first heard of Amy Winehouse probably sometime in early 2006.  She was a couple of years past the release of her first record - "Frank" - which had gotten some terrific reviews.  She was also getting some notoriety for her boozy / incoherent live shows.  At the time, I was newly sober, still struggling at times with staying that way, and the last thing I needed was to start listening to drinking music.  Yeah, ridiculous, but hey.

Then, in late 2006, "Back to Black" was released, fronted by the first single, "Rehab."  Oy.  My first reaction was that it was a gimmick song, a Macy Grey "I'm so high I can't speak" thing that I could ignore.  And it is, on some level.  I had no interest (see above), but the critical buzz continued unabated, and once I listened to the rest of the record...oh, my.  I talk about Alison's voice, but this is every bit as good in entirely different ways.  Deep, expressive, sweet, nasty, sexy...it's all of those, and more, on top of a fantastic backing band (I later read that some tracks are backed by Sharon Jones' backing band, the Dap-Kings, and it shows).  It's a remarkable record, all the more so because she wrote almost the whole thing...at age 23.  "Tears Dry On Their Own" is an Ashford / Simpson song, and "Back to Black" is a collaboration with producer Mick Ronson, but the rest are all hers.  How can someone so young have such world-weariness, without some hard, hard living?

And now she's dead, if not from an actual alcohol and drug binge, then almost certainly from the things she did to herself over the years - look at the cover of "Frank," then look at this cover.  She aged at least a decade in those three years.

The question, then - could she have done this record and stayed clean?  Part of what made her lyrics and her voice so compelling is the very thing that killed her.  Adele has an amazing voice, but she doesn't have the edge that Winehouse did, or has not yet shown it.  Sometimes the brightest flame, etc.  But this record is a real keeper.

Culling the Herd: Amanda Blank

Amanda Blank, "Hey DJ" - 5 stars.  Dig it.

Another free download, either from an itunes collection or Starbucks.

I'm generally not into this kind of stuff - as Lou Reed wrote in the liner notes to "New York," "best to stick with guitar guitar bass drums drums drums" - but this song just kicks my ass.  Fabulous hook, big, sexy voice, propulsive electronic bass line that goes right to my hips.  Just a terrific dance record, also a great running song, to be played as loud as possible.

Culling the Herd: Alison Kraus (+ Union Station)

The year was around 2000.  My marriage was in the shit, although I was fervently pretending that it wasn't, and I was doing a bit of travel for work.  San Diego, Orlando, Houston, Omaha - about three overnights a month, but it seemed like a lot.  This was before everyone had an iPod, but I still carried tons of music with me - I had a crappy portable CD player and I'd stuff a 16-CD case in my carryon, plug in through the flights, and sleep off last night's drunk.

The CDs were great, always some favorites that we'll talk about eventually, but I'd get tired of them, and at some point I'd plug my headphones into the armrest for the in-flight music.  "Hey," I thought once, chuckling to myself, "maybe I'll try the bluegrass station.  Ha, ha."  I think the first song I heard was "Broadway," by Alison Krauss.  And Holy.  Shit.  I have no idea what I was expecting, but man, oh man, what a song.

It was the start of a huge left turn in my musical tastes - I immediately scarfed up the "Now That I've Found You" collection, grabbed some Nickel Creek, started trolling the bluegrass section at allmusic.com, made some unfortunate CD burns from the library that we'll visit later...Alison (we're on a first name basis, now, she and I) remains my favorite of the genre, not only because of That Voice, but also because AKUS still creates, as allmusic.com, writes, some of the "freshest bluegrass around."  I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I know that the music remains vital, interesting, and varied.  I just wish they were more prolific as a group.

Alison Krauss, "Now That I've Found You" - 5 stars.  Dig it.

So, about That Voice.  It's a remarkable instrument.  Clear, expressive, vulnerable, and it's on full view here.  On "In the Palm of Your Hand," and, most notably "I Will," it rings through some leisurely, sometimes surprising instrumentation (are those bongos on "I Will?") and cuts right to the front.  The word that always comes to my mind is piercing.

It's a compilation, though, and of solo work at that, and that shows a little bit.  while "I Will," "Broadway," "When You Say Nothing At All," and "In the Palm of Your Hand" stand among my favorite songs of all time by any artist, the record is not as cohesive as some of here AKUS records.  Those records might not have as many truly great songs, but they seem to hold together better as groups.  Weird.

Also weird - I've always loved "I Will," (well, obviously) and only just found out that it's a Lennon-McCartney, from the White Album.  And Alison absolutely blows it out of the water.  Where McCartney's is full of his tin-pan alley schmaltz, trying for emotional impact by being "small" (big surprise), Alison turns it into something truly emotional by, you know, SINGING it.  It's the difference between an average voice and a great one.

Alison Krauss + Union Station, "New Favorite" - 5 stars.  Dig it.

I haven't yet said it, but here goes...I have a Major Thing for Alison.  She's a babe, sure, but it has a lot to do with the voice.  I think it comes from the opener here - "Let Me Touch You For A While," content aside, is just a sexy song, if a bluegrass song can be considered sexy.  Again - that voice...piercing.  The song is a slow burn, unfortunately followed by Dan Tyminski (we'll talk about him when we reach the Ts of this project) and the contrived-feeling "Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn."  Things pick up from there - "Lucky One", "Choctaw Hayride", and "Crazy Faith" keep things moving, and while there isn't a true classic until the closing title track, the whole album feels like it's of a piece rather than a compilation, and kinda greater than the sum of its parts.

Alison Krauss + Union Station, "Lonely Runs Both Ways" - 5 stars.  Dig it.

"Gravity" starts things off with a bang - again, it's a slow burn, but it's also a really well-written song, full of longing and melancholy.  It's perfectly suited to her voice, and she kills it by underplaying it a little bit and letting the lyrics take care of things.  The next track, "Restless," is somewhat the opposite - she pushes things, but the band really, really shines, not only in a denser sound (including Alison's staccato violin fills) but also in backing vocals.  The song isn't much, but they kill it anyway.

The rest of the record is similar to "New Favorite," in that it's a pleasure to listen to - a nice cohesive group, some really good songs ("Crazy As Me" and "My Poor Old Heart are both very good) and a big finish, with "If I Didn't Know Any Better" and "A Living Prayer" achieving near-classic status.

Alison Krauss + Union Station, "Paper Airplane" - 4 stars.  Dig it.

"Paper Airplane" is a classic AKUS opener - just this side of a pop song, Alison front and center, radio-ready.  A terrific song.  The next song - "Dust Bowl Children" is also a classic AKUS second song - Tyminski in the lead, a retro feel, an "older" subject.  Then it's Alison again...the voice is wonderful, the band is terrific, the songs are well-chosen.  It's a good record, certainly, but...well, it just feels like their other records.  That's not a bad thing, certainly.

But it's a little disappointing - this is the first AKUS record in seven years, and while I didn't really like Alison's record with Robert Plant, I'd hoped it would push things in a slightly different direction.  It's good.  It's really good (the cover of Richard Thompson's "Dimming of the Day" has become a favorite)...but it's not a classic.  That I can say that is a testament to how great I think this band is.

Culling the Herd: Adele, Airborne Toxic Event

I know, the post title makes it sound like they're somehow related.  Or not.  When I have single songs, it's just going to roll that way.

Adele, “Chasing Pavements” – 5 stars.  Dig it.

I think this was a Starbucks freebie, and man, what a freebie it is.

Yeah, Adele has a truly fabulous voice, and the song is just quick enough and has a nice hook. I can’t believe she was…what?  19, when she recorded this?  Unbelievable.  Every retro-soul song should sound like this.

Allmusic’s review of the album uses the phrase “voluptuously funky,” which nails it.  That said - I have listened to her albums a couple of times, and…well, they get kinda boring, musically speaking.  Great voice, but at the moment owning one song seems like enough.

Airborne Toxic Event, “Half of Something Else” – 3 stars.  Hold it.

Another Starbucks freebie, if I'm not mistaken.

It’s okay.  I like the wall-of-sound approach, and I have the sneaking suspicion that it’s a really good song in an album context, and it’s not hard to imagine that it’s great when heard as part of a longer sequence…but it doesn’t grab me right out of the box.  I’ll keep it, and keep my ears open for more.

Culling the Herd: ABC

ABC, “The Look Of Love” – 4 stars.  Dig it.

And we start off with a doozy.

I was the only member of my closest group of friends to decide to go to the University of Michigan.  I had decided to be an architect when I was 11, and Michigan was basically my only in-state choice.  I looked at some out-of-state options, but not very closely, and by the time application time rolled around U-M was my only college application…nowadays, that would be suicide, but I had pretty good grades, spectacular test scores, had played sports, had been in the school plays…in those less insane days I was about 100% sure that I’d be accepted (ah, the blindness and naivete of youth).  I had also gotten a nomination to the Naval Academy, but that wasn’t an application per se, but that’s another story for another day.

All of my friends had decided to go to Aquinas College (in Grand Rapids), Michigan State, or Muskegon Community College in advance of a transfer to MSU, so I was left with a blind roommate choice for my freshman year.  I was assigned to Alice Lloyd Hall, at the time home of the ‘Pilot Program,’ an experimental program where some classes were offered in the dorm itself.  It was similar to the Residential College at East Quad, although not as super-granola-ey.  It had some granola-ness, however; it was not party central.

I made some friends, generally as geeky and awkward as I was.  Good guys, all – Stu, and Jack, and Tom, and another Tom, but my roommate was…kinda weird.  Nice, but weird, and I was pretty convinced pretty early that I didn’t want to live with him again.  As it turned out, at one point late in my first semester, I happened to bump into John, a high school classmate and football teammate for 4 years.  We were not close.  He had gone to Sacred Heart and I to Muskegon Catholic Junior High, and those groups often stayed together even after we were combined into the High School.  He was very smart, very strong-willed, very strong–minded, very focused and intense, and while we always got along fine, we had always mostly stuck to our own groups.  So we ran into each other in Ann Arbor, and he told me his hall (in Couzens Hall, right next door to Alice Lloyd) was having a party that weekend.  I hadn’t really gone to any parties yet – we generally went to movies on campus and played backgammon on the weekends (woo!) – and I decided to go.  What an experience.  I walked into a hall where everyone – and I mean everyone – seemed to be best friends, an almost total 180 from my own hall in Alice Lloyd.  Before I knew it I was hanging out there most weekend nights, and going to happy hour on Fridays, and generally just being a part of the group.  The names and faces come flooding back every time I hear this song.  Matt, and Al, and Kristen, and John’s roommate Paul (also an MCC alum, a year older – again, I knew him but wasn’t close).  Eventually John told me that I needed to come and live with them the following year, and with that my social life for the next three years was set.

What I remember the most about those days with the group was the music.  Motown (the Big Chill soundtrack was out right around this time), the English Beat, the Tubes, David Bowie…some of it was new to me at first blush, some wasn’t.  But they’d play it, and some of the songs would immediately get the entire group out onto the dorm room dance floor.  Sometimes they had organized dance moves (“Talk 2 Ya Later” by the Tubes, or “Golden Years” by David Bowie).  I’d try to join in.  I’d fail.

The Look of Love was one song where I fit right in.  I picked up on it quickly - I heard it one night at Couzens, bought the album the next day, and immediately copied it to cassette.  Those were the days where your backpack had to carry books, plus your walkman player and half a dozen cassettes, just in case.  It became my go-to song when I was able to take over the record player for a few minutes.  I don’t remember the rest of the record being as good, although ‘Poison Arrow’ is a terrific song.

So my first, gut reaction memory when I hear this song is a basement somewhere, John wearing a top hat (he’d do that at parties), and the whole group dancing to this song.  Kristen loved this song, which is probably why I liked it so much and made a point of playing it.  We’d smile at each other, and dance, I’d bump into her, and for a little while I’d pretend we might go out sometime.  Once we almost did, or at the least I walked her home and kissed her goodnight.  She was a great gal, and I think of her every time i hear this song.

Yeah.  Wonder whatever happened to her.

on Culling the Herd, Musically Speaking

I came across a blog post a few weeks back (apologies, but I cant find it and therefore can't give attribution) that reminded me that I have Too Much Music.  Music that I either don't like all that much or won't ever listen to again.  One of the things about digital music (well, digital anything, but that's another issue) is that it's so easy to accumulate that I tend to, you know, accumulate it.  To an absurd degree.  Then, when I want to find something I have to dig through a bunch of crap to get there, and I have ADHD, so I get distracted, and why do I have that anyway and what was I doing again?

Anyway, I currently have over 7000 songs in my iTunes library, not a ridiculous amount but a Lot.  So, I've decided to undertake a vicious, no-holds-barred, sorry but you suck and I don't love you any more culling of my music library, and to compound this error of judgement I'm not downloading anything until I get through it all.  Unless it's something I really want, like a new They Might Be Giants or Fountains of Wayne (both of which have appeared since I made this decision).  Pantheon acts get a pass, but you can bet I'm not going to buy the latest whiny, polyphonic hipster crap by some bearded nitwit like Bon Iver (whoever that is) until I cut some other shit.

So.  Rules.

1 - I'm going to listen to everything at least once, in alphabetical order, by artist.  I also considered doing it in they order the songs were recorded, but I'm pretty sure that some of my leftover new wave stuff from the late 80s is going to suck, and I can't imagine listening to just that for a month.

2 - If it's an album, I listen to the whole thing, in order.  I reserve the right to cut some songs from a particular album but keep others.  For pantheon acts like R.E.M. this is unlikely, but then again "Up" and "Accelerate" were kinda crappy on the first few listens, so it could happen.

3 - I rate it, 1 to 5 stars (which I already do, sorta), but then decide:  Dig it, Hold it, or Bury it.  Sometimes the rating will be album-wide, sometimes just individual songs.  I'm making this up as I go along.

The most important rule is that I Write About It, whatever comes to mind.  Maybe it's why I bought it, maybe it's what girl I was trying to impress, maybe it's the socio-political impact, maybe it's a dirty joke.  Whatever.

So here goes.  Be gentle.