Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Friday October 8

If Jesus or Buddha were teaching today, I think they would sound something like Faithless. I know this is a big trip to lay on the band, but the beauty, guidance, and righteousness of songs like Mass Destruction, I Want More, and Love Lives On My Street, could pass muster as philosophical and religious teachings – love is the answer (not possessions) and the prisons are only in everyone’s minds. It could come across as preachy or cheesy, but it doesn’t.

It’s a great bonus that the beats are addictive and beautiful as well!

Listened: Friday October 8

No Need To Argue is a high school era CD for me and I probably haven’t listened to it since then. There’s a lot of decent music to be found here, but I have to admit the vocal acrobatics and the tendency to be very repetitive with some of the lyrics doesn’t hold up to multiple listens very well.

That said, songs like I Can’t Be With You, Zombie, Ridiculous Thoughts, and No Need To Argue take me back to that mid-nineties time and sound like it was yesterday, and I mean that in a good way. I revisited My So-Called Life recently – yes, I watched all 19 episodes in the span of a week… what? – and the style and tone of that show is exactly what this music reminds me of. Hearing it, I could be 15 again, watching 15-year-old Angela Chase.

Listened: Thursday October 7

Let’s get it out of the way now – similar to Vertigo from How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, Get On Your Boots from No Line On The Horizon is  throwaway single.

That said, the rest of the songs on this album are as good as anything U2 did on Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby, just with a maturity they couldn’t have brought to the game back then.

Moment of Surrender brings me to my knees every time I hear it (fittingly enough). Lyrics like “The stone was semi-precious. We were barely conscious. Two souls too smart to be, In the realm of certainty. Even on our wedding day” touches me and makes me want to know what’s going on in that scene. Similarly “I was speeding on the subway, Through the stations of the cross. Every eye looking every other way, Counting down ’til the pain would stop” rips my heart out at the thought of being alone and struggling in a big city, surrounded by strangers.

In FEZ-Being Born, the modern rock gospel style of producer Brian Eno leaps off the album and pulls you up to its level. Bono’s classic ecstatic screams help you reach up there, too. White As Snow has some gospel tinges too, but is more of a song painting, full of vivid imagery that makes me think of kids growing up, years ago, in both Ireland and Afghanistan. The Edge’s guitar adds bursts of color to the scene.

Cedars of Lebanon is probably the most perfect song on the album – another beautiful painting in sound, ending with a kind of invocation that fades to black: “Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you. Make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you. They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends, Gonna last with you longer than your friends.”

Despite all of Bono’s globetrotting and stumping, when U2 get together, they still put out beautiful music with its finger on the pulse of what’s going on at the time. This is why I continue to keep my ear open, waiting for the next one.

Listened: Thursday October 7

With Night Falls Over Kortedala, Jens Lekman grows up. Sonically, this album is miles above Oh You’re So Silent or When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog – clearly he has a real studio and equipment to work with now.

The famous and fabulous drama (I Remember Every Kiss), catchy lyrics (The Opposite Of Hallelujah, Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo), and entertaining scenes and short stories (A Postcard to Nina, Your Arms Around Me, Shirin) are all kicked up several notches.

Particularly in the latter song, a paean to a haircut and the person giving it, his obvious love of Morrissey shines through – anyone remember Hairdresser On Fire?

I can hardly wait for Jens’ next offering. He improves with every album.

Listened: Thursday October 7

News and Tributes is yet another fabulously energetic brogue-a-thon from The Futureheads. I don’t think it quite lives up to the ruleage of their debut, but it’s still very fun to sing or shout along to.

Listened: Thursday October 7

New Forms was one of my first “electronica” purchases. This was the soundtrack to a lot of studying in college and is still good for working in modern times.

When I saw Roni Size at Coachella 2010, I was surprised how little their sound resembled this album. It was definitely not drum and bass-like. Much more like a rock band. Which is pretty cool theoretically, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the drum and bass.

Listened: Thursday October 7

New Day at Midnight was David Gray’s followup to White Ladder. I’m sure it let a bunch of people down who wanted another White Ladder. It’s not that. The listener can almost absorb the fact that he’s in a much different place in his life with this album. There won’t be another White Ladder because he’s not that guy anymore.

I love his songs because they’re emotionally resonant songs sung beautifully. I don’t really know what’s going on in many of the songs, but I can feel it anyway. The stresses on the words seem to fall in the right place, even if I can’t intellectually figure out why.

Listened: Wednesday October 6

It’s somehow very fitting that Nevermind immediately follows Never Mind the Bollocks. The transition is musically seamless.

Nevermind was released when I was in seventh grade. It was a big part of the fabric of my adolescence as a result; it was just everywhere. I remember Smells Like Teen Spirit was one of the first singles I ever bought (a cassingle, mind you) and I also gave it as a gift to my friend Megan when she turned 13, along with Enter Sandman by Metallica. When Smells Like Teen Spirit was played at middle school dances, people would without fail “slam dance” (that’s what all the teachers called moshing) for about a minute and then it would be broken up.

I remember that I bought Nevermind several years after it came out (in high school) from my friend Justin. I’m not sure why he was getting rid of it, maybe he needed the cash. I hadn’t bought it before that time because a bunch of the songs were played on the radio all the time anyway, and I was a cheapskate. But I think I decided at that point that I needed to make sure I owned it, because it was important.

One side note, nothing makes me feel old like hearing about the baby on the cover being a grownup now. Stop telling me this stuff!

Listened: Wednesday October 6

Any true fan of the punk revival in the early nineties would have bought Never Mind The Bollocks. Even if we didn’t really grasp what the first go-round of punk was actually about.

I admit it – the summer before I was a senior in high school, my friend Audrey and I saw the Filthy Lucre tour at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View – one of the least punk venues in the world! It was a pretty crappy show, as one might expect, but I can say I’ve seen the Sex Pistols. From a lawn.

When I listen to the Sex Pistols with a critical ear I notice that while the bands they influenced such as Rancid and early Green Day were bratty and liked to imagine themselves as rabble-rousers,  the Sex Pistols are simultaneously very aggressive and angry in both lyrics and music, but also catchy and singable. I imagine that’s really difficult to do, even if you’re trying really hard to achieve that balance.

Rancid and Green Day are singable, but at most they come off as just somewhat annoyed or angsty. Maybe the secret ingredient in the Sex Pistols soup is the English class system. However, even other English punk bands of the era did not achieve the anger/catchy balance as well. The Clash came close, but they still couch their anger and disdain in well-crafted music.

I’ve recently seen Johnny Rotten and PiL at Coachella 2010. It sounds impossible, but imagine the aggression of the Sex Pistols turned up to 11. After the first long, very loud song bled into another, we decided it was time to find another stage and get our hearing and sanity back. I have to give the guy props for still busting out like that at the age of 54. But only props. Not my ears. Or sanity.

Listened: Wednesday October 6

It was going to be hard to top Funeral. We all knew that as we waited for Neon Bible. Thing is, I don’t think Arcade Fire topped it. Neon Bible went in a totally different direction, neither higher nor lower. The artistic quotient went up, the communal happy indie feeling, not so much.

Even if I discount the biblical nature of the title, it’s still obvious this record was recorded in an old church. The lyrical subject matter, choral backing vocals, and heavy organ use make no secret of it. The feeling of questioning the religious lifestyle one grew up with hangs heavy.

This album is certainly darker in tone than Funeral, which I appreciate at some times more than others. It’s brilliant, righteous, and sometimes painful, as good art should be.