Rantings, reviews and lists from a person who structures half his life around obsessing over music.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Cat Power - Jukebox (2008)

3.0 ★/6.0 - 6.9

Covers of songs used to be way more popular. What happened? For many, there's just way too much music now. People's hands are too busy listening to stuff they haven't heard to work up the enthusiasm to devote any significant amount of time to reinterpretations of old music. Still, the occasional cover here and then can be genuinely refreshing provided the artist puts in enough of their own flair to warrant the new version. There are some selections on Jukebox where Chan Marshall definitely shows that talent. It's hard to imagine the need for a re-do of Liza Manelli's "New York" or "Hank Williams' "Ramblin Woman," but Marshall's sexy crooning and her band's lo-key somber jamming strengthen the core progressions in unique ways. Lee Clayton's "Steel Stallion" feels like a completely new song thanks to the benefit of revitalized sound quality. And there simply couldn't be a more appropriate track for her to cover than Joni Mitchell's "Blue". The smooth-jazz organs and chords enhance the original with a ghostly quality and immediacy that that ranks it among Talk Talk's best. But Jukebox is just filled with too much filler. Marshall doesn't seem to have much soul covering James Brown and George Jackson and the "why fix it if it's not broken" philosophy applies to a disappointingly grounded version of her own "Metal Heart". The fact that the strongest track is the only new original Cat Power tune is saying something. The sweetly moving "Song To Bobby" is a much more satisfying tribute to Dylan than the plodding soft-rock revival of "I Believe In You", a selection from one of the worst albums of his career, and is enough to get anyone hankering for a genuine Cat Power follow-up to The Greatest. For an example of a cover album done right, listen to The Covers Record. Songs from that album have entered the regular go-to Cat Power canon and a handful have even been chosen for movie soundtracks. That's the mark of a successful cover project. But at this stage in her career, Jukebox is evidence that an EP would probably have been a better choice. Read more...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Vetiver - Thing of The Past (2008)

3.0 ★/6.0 - 6.9

The reason why any genre revivalist succeeds as more than an outdated tribute to an overdone style is because of the unique elements and variations they bring to the table. Let's look at the burgeoning folk scene, for instance. Although more recently dying down, the past five years or so has been honored with spectacular folk-revival albums by artists such as Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. The former introduced a wildly varied take on organic traditionalist styles, given more modern relevance by his crooning, unruly snarls and hippie ideals. And the latter fuses harp-playing, love-it-or-hate-it childlike-yelps, fantastical poetry and conceptual adventurousness, putting her at the forefront of ground-breaking music today. "Freak Folk" may have become a damning tag, but any artists that can fuse such a rootsy genre with experimental, forward-thinking elements deserve a medal or two. With so much competition, Vetiver's self titled debut album earned itself three. A weightless journey through a natural yet fantastic terrain, heightened by dramatic strings and beautifully psychedelic textures, Vetiver is an overlooked album that still sounds fresh four years later. Sadly, the band seemed to levitate a little closer to earth for their sophomore effort. Their influences were a little more apparent and the songs themselves hinted at more traditional soft rock and country territory. As a result, To Find Me Gone is a mildly enjoyable yet unessential album that hasn't aged as well.

So now Thing of The Past is here to make the band's influences 100% percent clear, with covers spanning from Garland Jeffreys to Ian Matthews, and Vetiver has become a significantly less interesting band because of it. Admittedly, many of these songs are super obscure, so the criticism of "what's the point?" isn't warranted. And tracks like Norman Greenbaum's "Hook And Ladder", Biff Rose's "To Baby" and Loudon Wainwright's "Swimming Song" contain timelessly catchy and folksy hooks that deserve to re-presented to the general population. But Vetiver's true strengths shine gloriously on the unconventional tracks. "Roll On Babe" revitalizes Ronnie Lane with a misty weightlessness while "Hurry On Sundown" illuminates the band's love of jamming and classic rock through one of Hawkwind's better known progressive southern ho-downs. They disappointingly remind us that the bulk of the album ditches these exciting elements for pleasant yet forgettable staples, void of dynamics, soul or original flair that would warrant a track to be covered - lifeless renditions of Elyse Weinberg's "Houses", Townes Van Zandt's "Standin" and Michael Hurley's "Blue Driver" for example. This hit and miss affair is saved at the end by Bobby Charles' "I Must Be In A Good Place Now"; a beautifully hushed and unpretentious gospel tune, which makes the album a step above mediocre and even gratifying enough for a listen or two. But much like Cat Power's Jukebox, Thing of The Past takes it's name too literally, coming off as a dispensable relic from the past, and consequently extinguishing a little bit of the inventive and mystical nature that keeps a voice fresh and distinctive even in orthodox territory. Read more...

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Dodos - Visiter (2008)

4.0 ★/8.0 - 8.9

Animal Collective are quickly becoming one of the most influential and important bands of our decade. The decade isn't even over and already bands like The Ruby Suns, El Guincho and now The Dodos are shamelessly parading their love of the tribally rhythmic, psychedelic/freak-folk-pop innovators. Still, it's nice that we haven't reached that stage in the style where the bands and albums begin to get watered down, predictable, and more focused on paying their respects than actually adding something new. So far, each addition to the style that Animal Collective have fathered has introduced a welcome variation on it. In The Dodos' case, they've done away with the alienation that makes Panda Bear and Avey Tare such cult-favorites and capitalized on a stronger embrace of immediacy, whether stripping tracks down to pleasing jingles and throwing in heart-warming vocals that recall Ben Gibbard or embracing psychotic hollers and vicious slide guitars reminiscent of Jimmy Page. The songs on their debut build and reform and have the track lengths to prove it (6-7 minutes usually), but they either do so in a flurry of accessible progressions and harmonies or in an exciting and invigorating punk fury. Arguably, the latter mode gives birth to the album's strongest moments, with shifting epics like "Paint The Rust", "Jodi" and especially the second half of "Joe's Waltz", which is absolutely perfect: a demented folk-rodeo hoedown enhanced with manic cries, exhilerating breakdowns and discordance bursting at the seams. But the former mode is just as necessary in establishing the album's overall flow, with tender and relaxing fragments such as "Eyelids" and "Undeclared", the marvelous wistfulness of "Red and Purple" and "Winter" and the soothing waterfall lullaby, "Ashley" all contributing to the push-pull element that makes the overall experience of listening to Visiter so satisfying.

Although stretching a little too long at nearly an hour, there are very few albums as unfalteringly enjoyable as Visiter. It's a warm, lovable and endlessly repeatable collection of carefree tracks that achieves the timeless sound of two friends having fun, an aesthetic that hasn't been done this substantially since Sung Tongs. Read more...
"How many times must a man look up
before he can see the sky?"