Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Wednesday June 2

I love how much I’m learning because of this project. Apparently “bwyd” means food in Welsh. I had never bothered to look it up before.

As you can see from the cover, Bwyd Time is more acidhead craziness from early in GZM’s career. There are a couple of nice instrumentals on this album (they set the mood of spooky ancient Wales pretty well) and one of my favorite GZM songs, “Iechyd Da” which means “Cheers!” Definitely this album veers into Pink Floyd/Lord of the Rings territory a bit – there’s a bunch of fantastical spoken word creepiness/storytelling on a couple of tracks.

My big complaint  is that they have the worst-sounding synthesized drums on this album. Methinks this was too early for them to have a proper drummer or drumkit. But luckily it follows that since drums aren’t big priority to them at this point, you don’t hear them too often or too far in front of the mix.

Listened: Tuesday June 1

Modest Mouse is another touchstone band in my life.  Building Nothing Out Of Something is their album of “castoffs” – vinyl singles, B-sides, and rarities.

This band has some of the best “castoffs” I have ever heard.

All these songs are amazing and so much fun to sing along with. Modest Mouse has a tendency to write really long songs, but somehow they make them seem short and you never want them to end, especially on this album. Interstate 8, Broke, Grey Ice Water, Sleepwalking, and Other People’s Lives are in my top songs of all time list.

Isaac Brock loves his driving metaphors and they abound here – Interstate 8 is about a freeway in the shape of the number 8. The music in Broke is beautiful, plus “Sometimes I’m so full of shit it should be a crime” is a great lyric. Ditto “Other people’s lives are more interesting cos they ain’t mine” – one of my mottoes in life.

Listened: Tuesday June 1

Buddy Holly is ear crack. You can’t get his songs out of your head. The influence he had on the Beatles is also immediately clear. My favorite song of his is Rave On, mostly because of its use in Pleasantville as the song that busts everyone out of their stupor, as a good rock song should.

I recently learned from Radiolab what a cry break is – Buddy Holly is one of the rare practitioners of this (sometimes to a ridiculous extreme) in pop music versus country music, where it normally occurs. In fact, I believe at heart Buddy is actually a country singer.

(Side note – from the same radio show I also learned who Ahmad Zahir is. I wish I could find his CDs in the US, but it seems difficult. Music fans should definitely give a listen to the show – you will learn something).

Listened: Tuesday June 1

I was shocked when I read a review of Broken Bells in Spin recently. They thought Danger Mouse‘s production rendered it detached and clinical. I don’t know what planet they were on.

When I first heard this album earlier this year I loved it right away, which is rare for me. A lot of times it only takes me a couple listens to get into something, but this was immediate. It sounds modern, funky, relevant, and beautiful.

Danger Mouse is a total workaholic. Whenever I read down his list of projects my head spins. But they are all awesome: The Grey Album, Gnarls Barkley, later Gorillaz albums, Dark Night of the Soul, etc. And James Mercer’s voice is also as lovely here as with the Shins. It all flows together great.

Those of you reading this blog for some new music suggestions – this is one of them you should check out!

Listened: Tuesday June 1

Bob has a crapload of albums starting with B. I hadn’t noticed before.

As I’ve noted before, I love a lot of the Bob songs, but sometimes there are a couple on any given album that I skip because they’re too far down the hole. However, that isn’t the case here; I love Bringing It All Back Home as a whole and I think it’s really cohesive.

There are so many things to see here: the addictive speedhead rapping of Subterranean Homesick Blues and On The Road Again, the beautiful poetry of Love Minus Zero/No Limit, She Belongs to Me,  and Baby Blue, the trippiness of Mr. Tambourine Man, Gates of Eden, and It’s Alright Ma.

I used to think I didn’t like Maggie’s Farm, but upon listening at work, the lyrics really spoke to me. You can be deep in the drudge and feel it when you sing “They sing while you slave and I just get bored, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more…”

Listened: Tuesday June 1

I remember being home from college for the summer at my parents’ house in 1999, reading the Ben Lee email digest every day and waiting for Breathing Tornados to come out. People who had heard him perform live kept reviewing and analyzing songs he previewed, teasing us all with their inside knowledge. Even then, the amount of data about such things that you could get over the internet was pretty limited and less immediate than it is now.

This is another “career evolution” type album that diehard fans disliked, but I loved (see also Kid A). Actually, at their core level, these songs are very similar to Ben’s earlier albums in storytelling and style, but he really went nuts with the sampling and electronic instruments. I think it still sounds good, if a bit dated by now but hopefully just “of an era” if I’m being generous.

I hadn’t listened to this for quite a few years, so I haven’t grown with it. When I heard it again, it really took me back to an earlier time. And I wish Ben wrote such good songs these days, but again I’m getting ahead of myself.

Listened: Tuesday June 1

The Boy with the Arab Strap is one of those touchstone albums in my past. People who like this album are my people and I am their people. This is the soundtrack for procrastinating in college, falling in love, doubting yourself, shopping for music, pondering the meaning of life… all set to pretty, catchy songs

It took me forever to notice that the guy on the cover is evidently being impaled on some implement. And apparently an arab strap is some kind of cock ring. Ooooookay.

Listened: Friday May 28

It pains me to note this as a long time Travis fan, but their later albums don’t have the same oomph as they used to, as a whole. There’re still beautiful songs on The Boy With No Name – 3 Times And You Lose, Closer, My Eyes, Colder – but some of the songs I feel are not up to the usual standard, New Amsterdam especially. “And we meet on Bleeker Street in the park that is central”… ughhh. That sounds like something a wannabe teenage poet would write.

Also, it bugs me that the guitar and beat on Selfish Jean are so close to Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. I know musicians borrow all the time, but sheesh. I like the song in general, but that Lust for Life guitar intro bugs me every time I hear it.

I’m harder on those I love, clearly.

Listened: Friday May 28

I don’t remember how I heard about Dizzee Rascal – I probably read about him in Spin and had to hear what a 19-year-old black British rapper sounded like. The answer is: like absolutely nothing else. He raps incredibly fast and the music and samples have a sound like nothing I can think of, certainly not American rap. He wrote many of the songs in high school in computer labs and the sound of the beats bear that out. Having seen him at Coachella some years ago I can attest that he is an above-average freestyler – he made up several lengthy acapella raps on the spot. He also pushes the limits of your British slang knowledge, even if you know a lot already.

Dizzee has a lot of the normal rapping subject matter – sex, violence, ego – but is a bit more poetic about it than the usual. Jezebel is blunt portrayal of what can happen to girls with no self-esteem outside of their sexual abilities. I Luv U is a song you’ll be singing in your head for ages – Dizzee and a girl bait each other about how the other’s partner is cheating on them and why they should do something about it, all backed with a sample chanting “I I I I I I Luv U” and very computer generated beats.

This foray into a genre of music I don’t normally buy was worth it.

Listened: Friday May 28

Some people don’t realize Boy has two covers. The top one is the international cover (and the Boy is the same boy as on the later War album). The bottom one is the US cover. The story behind the change is that the record company thought the original was too pedophiliac for the US audience. Silly.

Luckily for me, a trip to Australia in high school coincided with my desire to purchase the last U2 album I didn’t yet own – Boy – so I own the international “real” version.

This album is both miles away from modern U2 and similar all at once. Lots of the guitar licks obviously have an early version of the signature “U2 sound”. However, the songs are punkier and less anthemic and funky than later U2. After I got familiar with Joy Division‘s catalog I could really hear their influence in early U2, especially the bass lines.

Thematically the lyrics touch on growing up and aging but not wanting to leave childhood behind:

“A boy tries hard to be a man”

“In the shadow, boy meets man”

“Into the heart, into the heart of a child, I can’t go back”

“A picture in gray, Dorian Gray”

“Boy, stupid boy, Don’t sit at the table, Until you’re able to.”

Boy is an album unashamed to be written and performed by 20 year olds, which, in a modern world so full of adults writing lyrics for teenagers, is refreshing.