It has been over a week since Wilco dropped Star Wars as a free download on their website. They then followed it up with a blog post with advice of other acts you should support with your extra Wilco cash. An established act that gets it.
I have had several days to marinate in it and I love it – total feel of a Wilco album, but something new too. I like that the songs are short and compact and that it has a messy feel – not shoddy, but not over produced either – a nice fine line.
The album kicks off with a noisy instrumental track “EKG” that is all about dissonance. One of the great things about Wilco is their comfort with pop rock, folk and prog (sometimes in the same song). For example the next track, “More…” Opens with a folky strum only to trip into beatlesque high gear with some great noise guitar spicing up the mix.
“Random Name Generator” is a great sounding pop rock jam with an edge (think Velvet Underground or Big Star). This is “roll down the windows and turn your car radio loud enough to annoy your neighbor at a stoplight” kind of jam.
“The Joke Explained” has a dylanesque vocal and lyric backed by a George Harrison solo rock, that is Wilco in a nutshell.
“You Satellite” evokes Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. A drone of buzz saw guitar mixed with jangling guitar. Tweedy does his best Lou Reed rap over the drone. The song ends with an extended jam.
“Taste The Ceiling” is easy listening Wilco folk rock. Classic Tweedy: plaintive vocals bleat.
“Picked Ginger” is a nice heavy groove – it sounds like Wilco is passing AC/DC through their system.
“Where Do I Begin” is more plaintive bleating that starts cool, then simmers and finally boils over the pot as it fades to black.
“Cold Slope” is a cosmic mess of Wilco’s full repertoire of sounds yet it works – a tight rope walk.
“King Of You” has the band sounding absolutely Replacements like including Tweedy’s phlegmatic pronunciations.
Magnetized” ends the album with a dirge that flips itself into a pop beauty. A gorgeous love song.
Overall I am loving this album. It sounds less deliberate than the typically Wilco album and that is the charm. It is a revealer – rewarding new flavors after each listen. There is so much going on beneath the surface the leaves will have fallen before I hear all the nuances. A great summer gift from arguably America’s greatest active band. I can’t wait until the LP version is available (CD release date is August 21 and vinyl a little later, on November 27 – Record Store Day).
Sometimes an excellent new release has more to do with receptive ears. I have listened to pretty much everything Mark Knopfler has ever released (solo and with Dire Straits), but somehow Tracker really resonates with me. It is a nice fusion of his Celtic folk and the Dire Straits sounds.
The first cut “Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes” starts out with an Allman Brothers feel and then eases into Knopfler’s Celtic groove. The transition is so smooth that you begin to understand the folk foundations of the Allman’s music. Pretty damn brilliant.
“Basil” is a beautiful folk ballad that is classic Knopfler story telling. This could easily be a boring folk ballad, but Knopfler spices it with great lyrics and is amazing guitar tone. Absolutely gorgeous. His dry baritone is beautifully augmented by female harmonies (uncredited – as are all the musician except the “featured” vocalist on the last song of the album).
“River Towns” is gentle rolling ballad about a river sailor on shore leave. The song has a gorgeous lush sax solo. The music and the lyrics are perfect melancholia (one of my favorite musical moods).
“Sky Diver” has a nice beatlesque sound.
“Mighty Man”opens with very cool George Harrison sitar sounding slide guitar riff. Lyrically it is candid reflection of life from a worn out tough guy.
“Broken Bones” has a nice J.J. Cale groove. Cale is one of Knopfler’s most significant influences. If you are Dire Straits or Knopfler fan and you have not discovered J.J. Cale you have got to check out his Cale’s catalog. You can get lost in the sedate funkiness of the riffs that are the foundation of this song. Pure ear worms slinking though my mind.
“Long Cool Girl” is the most Dire Straits like track on the album. The song oozes sexy infatuation.
“Lights Of Taormina” is so dylanesque I had to double-check the credits that this was not some long-lost Dylan song. But it appears to be a Knopfler original. Knopfler does not attempt to hide his influence – the album art behind the songs lyrics is a live shot of Knopfler and Dylan from the 80s. Musically and lyrically the song evokes “A Simple Twist Of Fate.”
“Silver Eagle” is the most acoustic song on the album. Another melancholy remembrance.
I take back what I said earlier, “Beryl” is the most Dire Straits like track on the album. The song is a salute to Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge an English writer. I am not familiar with her but after reading her Wikipedia page I am intrigued.
The album closes with “Wherever I Go” a nice duet with Ruth Moody (of The Wailin’ Jennys). The song features another gorgeous sax solo – such a great sound weaving in and out of Knopfler’s guitar tone.
Just a side bitch from a vinyl buyer: why, when you pay top dollar for an album, do you not get a digital copy? Especially when you are denied bonus tracks on the deluxe version (which is half the cost of the LP version). This is especially annoying when the artist is a Troglodyte with regard to streaming.
Overall this is delightful album and my favorite Knopfler solo album since “Sailing to Philadelphia in 2000. There is nothing particularly innovative here (Knopfler pretty much shot his innovation wad in the late 70s/early 80s), but this is the work of a great craftsman and in my book great craftsmanship is a beautiful thing. Most of the songs drip with melancholia, but as I mentioned earlier I love a sad song – very Irish (Celtic music yet another Knopfler influence).
Mick Jagger is a freak of nature. He rocked his ass off in Minneapolis. How a guy in his early 70s can rock like a teenager is beyond comprehension. The band legitimately defended their title as the “world’s greatest rock and roll band” and they did not even seem like they were trying that hard.
My wife and daughter accompanied me to the show and one of the cool features that it rained all day and we stressed all day about a wet show. Just as warm-up act Grace Potter started her set, the rain cleared and it was a dry evening for the rest of the show. A great memory for me will be my young adult daughter discovering the quintessence of rock and roll in Keith Richards. She was mesmerized by his multitasking (cigarette in is pick hand).
Set list:
Jumpin’ Jack Flash / It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It) / All Down the Line / Tumbling Dice / Doom and Gloom / Bitch / Moonlight Mile / Out of Control / Honky Tonk Women / Before They Make Me Run (Keith Richards on vocals) / Happy (Keef again) / Midnight Rambler / Miss You / Gimme Shelter (with opener Grace Potter as guest vocalist) / Start Me Up / Sympathy for the Devil / Brown Sugar ENCORE: You Can’t Always Get What You Want (with Minneapolis choral group VocalEssence) / (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Less than a week later it was time to check out the Sticky Fingers reissue. What a deal Target has: the two CD edition with a copy of the LP mailed to your house for $20 (in 4 to 6 weeks – good to lower expectations – I was delighted when it showed up in 10 days).
Sticky Fingers is a an absolute classic. I can’t declare a favorite Stones album but Sticky Fingers is right there in the mix and “Can’t You Here Me Knocking” is my favorite Stones song.
The album flies out of the starting block with a rock and roll classic “Brown Sugar.” I never realized what a fucking depraved song it was until I heard Ryan Adams cover it as dirge in concert many years back. Who but the Stones would juxtaposition fun rollicking music with lyrics about the slave trade?
About 15 years ago a guy at work turned me on to this album. It was his favorite album and it was not available on CD and so he had a Japanese important. He lent it to me and I dubbed a copy for my collection. To this day it is still not available except as a Japanese import on CD (fortunately it is on Spotify).
I was on East Lake Street (Minneapolis) this past weekend so I stopped into Hymie’s and found a nice vinyl copy for $3. The LP was issued in 1971 long before Scaggs became a big star (but he was a cult favorite at the time).
Scaggs hit the big time in 1976 with the LP Silk Degrees. That album rode a thin line between disco and R&B. Scaggs was enough of a rocker to keep it real. I assume, by the center label, the $3 LP I found in the Hymie’s crates was a post Silk Degrees reissue – but it is still a nice piece of wax.
When we backtrack to an album like Boz Scaggs & Band we can see he where this white boy got so much soul. The album features a nice large band with horns. It features blues, R&B, soulful country and at times foreshadows the slick sound of Silk Degrees. It is slick and raw at the same time – like a well mixed cocktail (I assume the great engineer/producer Glyn Johns had something to do with that).
Scaggs penned or co-wrote every cut on the album. Scaggs greatest feature is that he has such a unique voice – which is instantly recognizable. He makes every song his own. It’s an easy voice that has just a bit of a smirk.
The album is a great taste of the 70s when a skilled singer songwriter could throw down a diverse set of cuts in a great studio with a top-notch band. This album will appeal to baby boomers and retro R&B loving millennials – something Mark Ronson would have created if he was sent in a time machine to the 70s.
An album title has never been more appropriate. This is a three-hour tour de force – a 10-piece jazz band augmented by a 32-piece orchestra, 20-member choir and a featured vocalist (Patrice Quinn). I come to this as a jazz fan and I am guessing most ears will be coming from a hip hop aesthetic. This is not hip hop based jazz like Robert Glassper, but rather pure jazz. I will be curious to how the hip hop audience takes to it. I won’t bore you with the back story as it is better told elsewhere.
One of my favorite books is Michael Chabon‘s Telegraph Avenue. A key “character” in the novel is a jazz record store (Brokeland Records). It is not hard to imagine The Epic playing 24 by 7 in the store. The album juxtapositions John Coltrane and soul jazz – imagine Trane on CTI Records.
Kamasi (and other soloist) shred on top of elaborate arrangements that would not be out-of-place on a David Axelrod LP or a Mingus LP. The arrangements are elaborate, yet the soloist sound totally spontaneous and improvisational. Kamasi’s wailing sax solos evokes both Coltrane and an expert rapper’s flow – sometimes at the same time.
There is a lot to absorb here and it is going to take me weeks to fully appreciate this album, but I feel compelled to post after just a listen and half because I am sure this is a masterpiece and I feel the need to shout from the mountain. This is both devotional to the jazz cannon and a completely modern reinvention. This album has the potential, like Mile’s Bitches Brew, to turn on a new crowd to the beauty of the jazz form. Finally I love the ambition of this album: an amazing combo (but even that is oversized), a jazz orchestra, a choir and classic vocalist. It dashes from one place to another (Stevie Wonder, Trane’s Classic Quartet, Axelrod’s jazz symphonies, etc.), yet never sounding disjointed – it is a cohesive whole. I am gobsmacked. More later if I can climb my way out of this pleasure-dome.
When Mumford & Sons came on the scene in 2009 their sound was fresh, but by the time their second album came out in 2012 they were over played and I was bored with them.
The boys did what they had to do on Wilder Mind – they changed up their signature sound – including banning the banjo. This is dangerous stuff tampering with the recipe, but if you are a real musician you have to evolve.
I like the new sound. Sure at times it evokes Coldplay, but I think that is a superficial criticism.
“Tompkins Square Park” – The first time I heard the song I thought Coldplay, but subsequent listens it remind me of Don Henley’s “Boys Of Summer.” Not a bad influence for guitar strumming and banjo plucking band trying to find a new voice.
“Believe” really has the Coldplay sound, but Marcus Mumford has a much more unique and interesting voice than Chris Martin. This works for me. Full disclosure I like Coldplay and most other U2 influenced bands so it is a guilty pleasure to consume this kind of pop.
“The Wolf” takes Mumford & Sons signature hard and fast strummed acoustic guitars and substitutes electric guitar and rock drums. What do you get? A great sounding U2 song.
“Wilder Mind” the band hits their stride with the new sound. They sound like an evolved Mumford & Sons and not someone else. They have a legitimate new voice on this song.
“Just Smoke” – Again I feel like this song sounds like an appropriate evolution. Maybe a little Dave Mathews Band sounding – but I think that is a good place for them to go (I am not a DMB hater).
“Monster” is a quite ballad that really highlights what a cool pop voice Marcus Mumford has. Very nice melancholy tune.
“Snake Eyes” is a little taste of old M&S – opening with acoustic guitar. But then it goes atmospheric. Then big electric guitars. This is going to sound great in arena.
“Broad-Shouldered Beasts” has a nice little Led Zeppelin North-African groove.
“Cold Arms” is a nice mellow ballad accompanied by some stark acoustic guitar.
“Ditmas” by this point in the LP, the band sounds completely at home in their new style.
“Only Love” starts out as the quietest song on the album but ends with a bang. This song is likely to draw the Coldplay accusation. But again Marcus Mumford’s voice is so much more interesting than Chris Martin’s – this sound fits the boys like a glove – it is a great steal.
“Hot Gates” ends the album on a solemn note. A bit of dirge, but with a certain magnificence.
I love the new sound and I am glad these guys took the gamble to reinvent themselves. This is arena worthy folk rock. Glorious melancholia.
Fresh Blood is suffering from the same problem as Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear – it follows a masterpiece debut. White’s 2012 Big Inner was an amazing LP and was on my best of 2012.
White is a pop musician whose work evokes Stevie Wonder, Self Portrait era Dylan, Brian Wilson and the the A team of Atlantic Records (Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin). His arrangements drip of the late 60s and early 70s pop: rock instruments with strings and horns.
It is so refreshing in the hip hop era to have lush organic arrangements. White leverages his Spacebomb Records crew (Richmond, Virginia) which includes real instruments and vocalists.
Fresh Blood is a nice sequel to Big Inner. If you are a baby boomer you will have a sentimental smile as White evokes the pop symphonies of Motown and Memphis. If you are younger you will be treated to some wonderfully warm music (think Bon Iver without the computers). Pure ear candy. Love this LP.
2011’s Alabama Shakes single “Hold On” knocked me out. However not much else on Boys & Girls hit me. Not a bad album, just unremarkable. Too retro for me. Sound & Color is a giant step forward in the evolution of the band.
This is both alt rock and soul music. A wonderful juxtaposition. I hear Arcade Fire, Prince, Emotional Rescue era Stones, early Kings Of Leon, Erykah Badu, Queen (without the guitar histrionics) and Smokey Robinson. Not as derivative as Boys & Girls but a brilliant synthesis of influences – it is a fine line and the Alabama Shakes are riding that line like a skilled skateboarder rides a rail.
Pop music always stands on the shoulders of the past. There is nothing new. But an inspired band in its groove who reinvents the past makes it a new moment. The Shakes have done that with Sound & Color.
Brittney Howard has done something fantastic here. She has developed a signature vocal that is neither male or female. It is merely a rock vocal. And that is a great thing.
The Alabama Shakes have pulled of the neatest trick in popular music: they have beat the sophomore slump.
I became familiar with Keith Jarrett by way of his iconic solo improvisation records like “The Köln Concert” (1975 on ECM) and his work with early electric Miles Davis. Most of my experience has been through his ECM releases.
Expectations is a very ambitious album where Jarrett plays in a variety of styles: solo piano, avant garde free jazz, jazz rock fusion, soul jazz and complex chamber jazz.
Although Jarrett was affiliated with Miles, he only made this one album on Columbia. The fact that they dropped him from the label after this brilliant masterpiece hopefully resulted in someone getting fired. It is not like Jarrett was some inaccessible artist. Three years later he would release “The Köln Concert” which has sold nearly 4 million copies.
I only recently discovered this double LP when I found it in a crate for a mere two bucks. I like Jarrett, and although the copy looked a bit beat, up I figured what the hell. It has been sitting in my preview pile for months without a listen. I am moving this summer so I am now aggressively working through that pile so I can appropriately file them before packing them for the move.
I dropped the needle on Expectations the other day and I have been in audio orgasm ever since. First despite what looks like a pretty beat up piece of wax this thing plays VG – you just never know until you spin it. But the real joy is the amazing music.
What I particularly like about the album is hearing Jarrett and his compositions in a larger band context. And who the hell is this guitarist Sam Brown? He is a perfect foil for Jarrett. Outside of his time with Miles I have never heard Jarrett in this context.
I have said this before, but this is exactly the kind of album that keeps me digging. seventy eight minutes of mind-blowing jams. Pure joy at a little over two and half cents a minute.
Per the brewery: “A stout with roasty malt character intermingled with deep vanilla tones, all dancing in an oak bath.”
Per me:
- Nice bourbon odor
- When it first hits your tongue you taste smoke then the bourbon flavor
- As it leaves the tongue you taste the sugar and vanilla – like melted ice cream
- The aftertaste is a more traditional stout flavor
- The burp is bourbon
- After aftertaste is milky
I enjoy bourbon and this is a delightful treat. Most breweries only have a seasonal bourbon beer, but this brew is available year round. This is a treat beer – at $15 for a four pack of 12 ounce bottles – you will want to sip. I suggest a chalice and about 50 degrees. Highly recommend. So good I managed to make it last from tip-off of the Michigan State vs. Duke semifinal to the start of the second half.
Axl's Catch Groove 