Love being a losing game was a big theme back in 2003, the year of Beck’s Sea Change and its equal partner in romantic shame, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers. So why did one become instantly lauded as one of the greatest albums of all time (Sea Change) and one fall through the cracks (Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers)? The simple answer would be name recognition, with Beck holding the obvious advantage over a Brooklyn by way of Cincinnati band’s sophomore effort. Yet Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers is the better album.
Pressure Drop, the follow-up to 1974′s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley would find Robert Palmer at an interesting crossroads in his career as despite the great craftsmanship on his previous LP he was still vastly unknown outside of the NYC music scene. As a result, Pressure Drop was not as cohesive as an album due to the desire to be more commercial. Unfortunately for Palmer, 1976 was a time where schmaltzy and breezy arrangements were in high demand and despite his best efforts this makes the album quite dated. However, the highlights on here stand up along with the best of Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley, from the title track (a cover of the famous Toots & The Maytals tune), to the slow burn of “Fine Time” as well as the rollicking “Riverboat” and “Trouble”,it’s quite clear (even from the album cover) that Palmer and his crack session band of Little Feat and the Muscle Shoals Horn Section and even James Jamerson (the bassist of Motown fame) have a whole lot of fun.
To many people, Robert Palmer represents the power of MTV when music videos were in their heyday, a man whose sartorial talents were the great substance behind numbers like “Simply Irresistable” and “Addicted To Love”. Both numbers are products of their time and suffer greatly as a result, propelled by the videos of attractive women peddling instruments as sex machines and little else. But that was before I discovered Robert Palmer, the same Robert Palmer whose fame was a product of the badly aged MTV generation, had a much more compelling career before ever making it big.
One of the most amazing facts of stumbling upon his 1974 releaseSneakin’ Sally Through The Alley is the fact that this little known expat managed to lock down both The Meters and members of Little Feat, along with session greats like Cornell Dupree and Bernard Purdie to back him through an extraordinarily funky trip down NOLA inspired, hot-laced grooves. Palmer oozes charisma, and he makes clear right away that he is an excellent interpreter of other’s songs, feeling comfortable handling everything from Little Feat drug odes to Allen Toussaint R&B, mixing in his own songs with nary a change of pace.
Just in time for everybody to tuck in to the most lazy and food filled day of the year. As always the tracks are all free downloads, but support these wonderful artists if you can.
Man Who Lives Forever (Rollo & Grady Session)- Lord Huron
Lord Huron has been a band that is constantly defying my expectations, they’re due out for a well deserved full length album this coming year and if Man Who Lives Forever is any indication of where their sound is going, look for them to be all over the indie airwaves next year.
Possibly the greatest talent to emerge from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante has shown that he’s no one trick pony and a masterful songwriter in his own right, Song To Sing When I’m Lonely is one of my favorites, starting with a melody right out of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Blitzen Trapper have the new Americana sound locked down on their most recent full length, American Goldwing. Think of it as Wilco with a little more drawl and optimism. Not many bands these days can write a narrative as compelling as this Portland group.
Critics of The Head and the Heart stated that their debut album was filled with derivative sounds of Americana, on “Coeur D’Alene” all they can note is a perfectly crafted pop song.
Quite possibly my favorite song of 2011 with its off-kilter rhythms and technicolor arrangements, Temple lures you in with the first few notes and by the time his charming lilt comes into the fore there’s no letting go.
White Denim is one of those bands that can make prodigious skill seem par for the course for their songwriting, “Handwriting” being an intriguing guitar run through that makes you wonder how they’re playing what they’re playing and can still mold it into a conventional song form. The pedal steel puts a nice touch.
If not the best thing to come out of Iceland, by far he is the most underrated. Sure his name might never be commonplace in pop music but he is as well deserving as any singer-songwriter out there right now.
Gotye shows the creative intensity that we used to expect out of Beck, but this Australian troubadour proves his equal and more through his clever approach at arrangements and his chameleon vocals.
Livin’ In The Jungle- Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears seem intent on bringing R&B back to what it once was, the hard propulsive blues that brought the Black Keys into prominence with Brothers only with more of a funky kick and a wicked horn section.
James Hunter wowed Van Morrison with his debut Believe What I Say even getting the man himself to duet on a couple tracks with him, if Sam Cooke had managed to live to old age this croon might be what we were in for.
When it hits me that she’s gone/ I think i’ll run for president/ Get my face put on the million dollar bill/ So when these rich men that she wants/ Show her ways they can’t take care of her/ I’ll have found a way to be there with her still
Within the opening of “Million Dollar Bill” Taylor Goldsmith managed to portray the sadness, jealousy, and ultimately love that’s still present when your lover has left you. Proof why he’s one of the greatest songwriters of his generation.
It wouldn’t be the farthest stretch to compare this band with Mumford & Sons, but that would greatly undermine the talent present in this group, the lyrics and vocals alone on this song should guarantee them recognition for album of the year (and yes, the rest of the album is fine too).
For the acoustic guitars and the rolling drum fills that propel this song along and the endearing harmonies that go along with it. Who couldn’t like a band called Tiger Waves? And you call yourselves American.
No matter how many incarnations there was and will always be of tight harmonies and acoustic fingerpicking, it will always sound good, and Jones Street Station isn’t about to change that. But they certainly liven the arrangement up to great success.
“Of all the strangers you’re the strangest that I’ve seen.”
Truth be told, I hadn’t heard much of Lord Huron before this year, despite their two EP’s being released the year before; Into the Sun and Mighty respectively. However I had the pleasure of hearing them live at the Middle East in Cambridge and walked away awestruck by the potency of their music and lyrical interplay. Although they opened for Givers, a great band in their own right, anybody who was listening could reckon that Lord Huron stole the show.
Their music is something akin to Manifest Destiny, with vocals suiting the expansive uncharted landscapes and their instrumentation both American and otherworldly. It would be easy to say that Lord Huron evokes bands like Fleet Foxes with their vocal charms and large atmospheres but it would be a disservice to both to bother comparing the two. Rather their music transcends archetypes and melodrama, laudable in its own right for the sheer listenability of their work.
It might be important to note that both the EP’s, though Lord Huron is a full band live, were recorded by the lead singer himself Ben Schneider, but it’s to his credit that he doesn’t turn the story down a comparative path to Bon Iver’s famous trip out to a cabin in Wisconsin. Although Schneider also hails from the Great Lake region (Michigan) his songwriting isn’t crafted out of an experience of heartbreak, but in the American experience itself, harkening back to the questions of identity and primitivism that few musicians have dared to explore.
Music at its most pure is an escape from the everyday life, inviting the listener to lose oneself in the world that is crafted by the musicians alone and it is in this regard that Lord Huron excels. A discerning ear can pick out the individual instruments in any of their songs (a pedal steel here, a ukelele there, a mandolin at another) but its the cohesion of these disparate elements that makes it work.
Lord Huron is the muse for the wandering mind. Music that’s perfect for sunrise and sunsets and long drives, for the broad realization that spring is upon us and the hope of new life. If Ralph Waldo Emerson had a favorite band, Lord Huron would surely be it. Their craft evokes not only the natural environment but human kind in that natural environment, unchained from the bonds of modern society.
Of the many albums that have come out in my years as a music blogger, there are a choice few that really stand out as excellent albums and one of my favorites, the one that I will start with, is Big Echo by The Morning Benders.
It’s strange to realize that the album, or LP (whichever suits your preference) has once again taken a back seat to the single. Thanks to the internet’s ability to grant us instant gratification, most listeners no longer have the patience to sit through an album. iTunes and other per-MP3 vendors are in part responsible for this, as it’s a much cheaper deal to buy a single song for a dollar than a whole album for 10 or more.
But what of the exceptions? The listeners who do still crave a full album experience? It’s for them that I chose Big Echo, an album whose first 4 tracks are absolutely stellar as stand alone numbers, while the remaining tracks work more as a cohesive unit, one that rewards repeated listens.
It’s been a while but Art of The Mixtape is back in action with a mixtape for these good old summer days whether its lying on a beach, grilling dinner, or just relaxing in your own home, these grooves should put you in the perfect mood for the summer months. This mixtape features classics from artists like George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis, as well as some artists you may not have heard of. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the tunes.
It’s been quite a while since I last put something up on this here blog but now that school is over and summer is here, well lets just say there won’t be weeks in between posts anymore (I hope). In celebration of being done and having free time once again, here is a good old mixtape chock full of music you might not have heard, and if you have you should listen again. As always, all the music here is free to download with the hopes that you go out and support these artists. The full mix after the jump.
Music is at its best when it is at it’s most universal, when it taps you on the shoulder as if to say “I’ve been there too”, It bonds with you and opens your eyes, a friend that never leaves, and you become encapsulated by a sensation to which all other senses have never known. Better than any other media, music teaches us how to love, how to express it, how to feel it, how to long for it and miss it when it’s gone. Theres a reason why love continues to be the most popular subject in songwriting, it is one of the most essential building blocks of humanity, a universal feeling.
Heartbreak, it seems, brings out the best in musicians, and perhaps none were touched more than Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits, whose albums In the Wee Small Hours, and The Heart of Saturday Night both take this universal feeling to a whole new level, in their music they make it breathe, cast a lingering darkness in the air, and place the heart in the creaks and aches of their vocals.
A new feature here on Art of the Mixtape is Small Stack Tuesdays, an ode to those good old 45′s and 78′s from back in the day. The inaugural edition features a great duet from two unlikely sources as well some great other bands recent releases. Stay tuned and enjoy the music.
