Ryan Adams - Gold

Ryan Adams - Gold

Published in 2001

Wikipedia

First off, let's all thank Will for his album suggestion. He's good people. 

I'll be the first to admit that I have a have blind spot in my musical knowledge. I'm not the only one, and I certainly try to have a diverse taste in music, but country has largely remained a mystery to me. 

I think the reasons for this are a little interesting, so let's talk about it. First off, in my life time, country music has become a bastion of a certain kind of politics that I personally find distasteful. It's a shame that this even enters into the equasion, but popular country has seemed very right wing, and that rubs me the wrong way. This is not a deal breaker for me, obviously, because the gender and sexual politics of hip hop has not prevented me from finding great appreciation. 

Second, there is a deep undercurrent of religious subtext and overt text in country that doesn't appeal to me, mainly the overt stuff.  However, this is something that many of my favorite artist have that I don't and it isn't the end either. 

Thirdly, in mind and to my ear, it all sounds kind of samey. It just doesn't pull me in at all, and the structures all sound the same. I have gotten into bluegrass, folk, and everything that lives around country, but country is still a frontier for me.

Finally, there is an element of looking down from both sides involved. I think all of the above things somewhat strongly, and think those who write songs about the attractive qualities of farm equipment or putting footwear in the posterior of other human beings as if it is our countries sole contribution to the world are not using their songwriting ability to their highest potential. Then, they call me a liberal elitist snob who doesn't know anything from their giant piles of money, so they at least have the height on their side. It's a contentious relationship.    

This album might be my way in. Maybe. I'm definately a Ryan Adams fan now, so that means that I am into at least one country(ish) artist, but I cannot tell how representative he is of the whole of country music. I simply have not heard country music like this before. 

Will specifically asked me to talk about the second half of the album, so that is what I am going to focus more on, but the beginning of this album is a hit parade. The songs are well performed, massively open, and they are very inclusive. I quite enjoy the first half of this album, but it is obviously the easier side to like. 

The second half of this album is amazing. It's well written, smart, funny and engaging. It's a complex work written by someone who obviously has not pidgeonholed himself into one kind of music. 

If I were to single out a favorite song on the album, I would have to say that Sylvia Plath is far and away my favorite. It's a wildly quiet, with hints of humor and genuine emotion behind it.  It's one of those b sides that yu stumble across and are completely absorbed by. I'm happy to have this album on my iPod just for that song. 

The album is beautifully produced, and doesn't fall into the trap that many fall into of trying to sound a certain way. Some tracks are pure rock, some are ballads and some are more traditional country style songs, but they are wide open.

They're also smart. Just really smart songs. They have an elegance you rarely hear, and that is independent of any other consideration.

This is a great album, you should listen to it right now. Get on it, boys and girls.  Thanks again Will! 

"But enough of my yapping, let's boogie."

Matt

PS: Check out some of the blogs up and to the right. Comment, and tell me more albums. 

PPS. I love Johnny Cash, so any complaints must be filed with that in mind.    

The Stooges - Raw Power

The Stooges - Raw Power

Published in 1973

Wikipedia

First off, thanks to my Dad for suggesting this album.  I'm really glad that you did, and consider your musical influence to be one of the reasons that I have the taste that I do.

Instead of calling this month "What albums can I find that I know that I love the artist but have never really listened to the whole of one of their particularly well loved classic albums?" month, apparently I should have just called it Albums (Sometimes Obliquely) Related to David Bowie month.

Let's get down to brass tacks, gentlemen and ladies.  Raw Power is awesome.  It's one of the most driven, well produced, well conceived albums.  It documents rock and roll and is rightfully called a turning point into punk.  It's simply a great album.

The most interesting thing to me is actually listening to it as someone who grew up knowing that The Stooges were a huge influence on the people that I cared about in rock and roll.  It's one of those quintessential American rock bands that everyone knows about, and was unrecognized in it's own time.  To listen to the Stooges now is an interesting experiment in musical time capsule-ism.

Popular music is generally consumed in two ways.  The first way is to consume it on the short term basis, where a massive amount of people get involved with the music, listen and digest it and for the most part, move on.  This is why popular music stations have a generally quick turn around time for most songs, and the songs that stick around are hugely overplayed, because if they have staying power, people will continue tuning in.

The second way is the fan's way of consuming it.  In general, these are the people like me, who get obsessed with an album, listen to it over and over, at different points in our lives, and try to find the meaning and beauty over and over.  The music is purely there for us to continue listening to it, and we consume it over a long time, drawn out.  Some of these albums you grow out of, but many are the backdrop of continuity that a music fan has in their lives.  

The Stooges seem to be designed for that second kind of consumption.  The popular music crowd would dispose of them quickly, but for lonely young people, looking to voraciously attack an album, make it their own, and understand every moment and subtext, this album would speak to one in a way that most others wouldn't,  The songs have a power that is not just because of the volume or speed, or even lyrically, but because it sounds like the guys are playing at you, not to you.

This album is not perfect by any means, and it is highly derivative.  At times, Iggy goes into a Doors like cover mode, which is perfectly serviceable, but I wish that they had more free reign to go all out on this album.  Some parts slow down too much to get the full power of the sound out of me, and some of the songs are just good, not great.

However, this album has Search and Destroy on it.  If an album has a song like Search and Destroy on it, it is immediately not optional.  Search and Destroy will make you give up writing music, if you go into it thinking that you're better than the Stooges.

Music, by it's nature, moves.  Any style of music that stagnates is going to be cut off, or be celebrated in small circles.  However, the cutting edge of music is also unappreciated.  When Iggy and the Stooges start playing, you can hear where they came from, and you can hear where music is headed.  This doesn't mean that this album is the reason, but it is a signpost of things to come, and that might be the highest praise an album can get.

"And I shall sing the song that ends the world,"

Matt

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Published in 1971

Wikipedia

For the third week in "Why the fuck have I never listened to an album by this artist, what am I slow?" July, I have chosen to disclose one of these albums that is truly shameful. True some people have probably never heard some of my favorite artists, and I am sure my music knowledge is imperfect to most, but this is truly shameful.

You see, I have never owned a David Bowie album. Well, that's not precisely true.

The only David Bowie album I have ever owned is a greatest hits compilation.

I know, boo hiss, boo hiss.  But I have a good reason, and it is due to me getting really into this album. I think I have figured out why albums have never appealed to me for David Bowie. It's because his songs are too good.

Yes, Matt I Write A Blog Glorifying The Art Form That is The Complete Album Butler may be admitting that sometimes singles are better than albums. Sometimes a song is so good that it overshadows that which surrounds it that it is a let down to listen to the rest of it.

Hunky Dory is so trancendent in it's first half that the second half an only be a disappointment. Seriously. Changes, Oh You Pretty Things and Life on Mars on one side of an album? Yeah, the game is over. We all lost. David Bowie cracked the code to the universe and this is what came pouring out of it.

Look, just listen to Life on Mars right now. I'll wait.

That is the moment that the first side of this album leaves off on. What the fuck can you do after that? Where can you go from there?

So, ultimately we get to the back of this album. What do you want me to say?  It's not great, for David Bowie. It could be great not in this context, and I quite like the songs, but compared to where we started, what can one do other than be a little disappointed.

It's still an album by one of the greatest artists of all time. It's still has three of my favorite songs. It's never going to be topped by a Nickleback album. It's just impossible for it to sustain the amazing pace of the first half.

This album is classic and perfect as it is. If you like a single by David Bowie you should be listening to it already, and if you don't know David Bowie, we should hang out and you'll love him.

"The third silence was his"
Matt

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

Published in 1983

Wikipedia

A recent (as of writing this) complaint about the album project has crept up.  Looking through the archives, I have realized that this complaint is a good one. It's difficult for someone like me to admit, but it's definately true.

Out of all the albums suggested to me, I have been negative about one, neutral about two, and think the rest are good.  I have not really let go and torn up someone's favorite album.  I think there is a perfectly valid reason for this.

First, let's just admit it.  I've mainly gotten suggestions from my friends.  My friends are awesome people, and therefore have considerable taste.  That taste extends to music, and therefore they only suggest good things.  These good things vary within good, but for the most part, they're just solid.

Second, I don't go out of my way to listen to shitty music.  It's not like I have a giant wheel of crazy suggestions that I need to get through, so when I am picking an album to do, I try to find a good one that I have something to say about.

Thirdly, I find it difficult to be negative about music.  I find the act of creation and recording to be a somewhat beautiful thing, and the fact that someone has put themselves out there enough to have me listen to things is incredible to me.  Even the shittiest of shitty shit has some redeeming quality that can be drawn out of it by the right artist.  For instance, when Travis covered Britney Spears, he brought out a feeling that the song didn't have.  Whoever did the Bob Dylan cover of Rebecca Black's Friday found something beautiful in the inanity of that song.  There is, for the most part, something inside every act of music that can be nursed into something good.

But, if I get something that actively antagonizes me and makes me crazy, I promise to let go with both barrels. I will unleash the pessimistic hyperbolic nature that lives in tandem with my positive hyperbolic one.

Speaking of positive hyperbole, if you haven't heard the Violent Femmes first CD, you should be dragged through a mine full of those creatures from The Decent and under a parking lot full of moving firetrucks.  It's that good.

Growing up, I never realized how fucked up it was that my parents allowed me to listen to Alternative Radio. Alternative Radio is to clean and wholesome as dancing is to that town in Footloose.  Listening to the albums of my youth for this project has been somewhat eye opening.  Not surprising exactly, but hearing it now, over and over, I get a lot more of them than when I was, say, six years old.

If I were to write an alternative rock song book, I'd divide it into roughly four categories. Anger, Lust, Alienation, Weird.  Not that these are hard and fast categories.  For the most part, every one flows into every other one.  This album covers all the bases.

It's, simply put, spectacular.  The production is solid, the vocals are tight, the sound is different, and the songs are fucking awesome.  The singles from this album, Add It Up, Blister in the Sun, Gone Daddy Gone and Kiss Off are just great songs.  Also, for an album with ten songs, five singles seems like a good indicator that they captured something.

As usual, I am just glowing with praise.  So here we go, some things that I don't like about this album.  One, it is too short, and it should be longer. Two, it should already be preloaded into any computer I buy.  Three, the fact that I have never listened to this album before is a shame that I will have to live with for the rest of my life, and I blame this album for doing that to me.

Seriously, though, pick up this album.  It's not optional.  I love this album. I want this album to play for the rest of my life.  You guys are in charge of that.

"Mike, did we take powerful hallucinogenic drugs?"

Matt


PS. Veg Live If Hip

Lou Reed - Transformer

Lou Reed - Transformer

Published in 1972

Wikipedia

I have determined that July will be "Artists I Love, But Have Never Listened To Their Albums" month, which is not only pithy, but also concise.  I believe that there is some wit in there too.  And, at least in this paragraph, there is a bit of sarcasm as well.  So there is that.

This month is devoted to expanding my musical horizons by picking and choosing things that I already love and writing about them.  "How is this different than any other month, Matt?" you might be asking.  I don't know.

Anyway, on to Lou Reed.  Jesus Christ, I love Lou Reed.  I distinctly remember listening to Walk on the Wild Side as a kid, and knowing that I loved this guy.  Every time I hear his distinctive voice, I am just re-enthralled by it.  So it is somewhat surprising that this is the first time that I have ever heard a full album.

If I had a time machine, I'd do some interesting things with it.  Of course, first choice is to go into the future, download some sort of incredible weapons training, acquire a light saber, and go back in time and extinct a dinosaur singlehandedly, but after doing irreparable damage to an ecosystem, I think I would just hop around from time to time and try to find a good concert.  Yes, I'd be the doctor if I could, but who wouldn't?

What time would draw a lot of my attention?  Well, I'm glad that you asked, 1970's New York, because it is definitely you.  See some incredible bands, stop John Lennon from getting shot, you know, the regular stuff.  I'd also love to see some classic TV, and the birth of SNL, but that is a different post.

Lou Reed is just a fantastic talent who I believe to be too good for this world, which is good, because he is otherworldly in the extreme.  He has the ability to milk his voice for the most desperate connective voice, following it with a detached drone, and never sound like he is trying.  It's fantastically well done, and smart as hell.

His otherworldly voice and style is just one reason that I like him.  I also find his songwriting to be powerful without being overblown, and there are light stakes throughout his songs.  He finds subjects that make a difference to him, and he speaks clearly and truly about them.  His inspiration is on display, and his ability in the weird field is second to none.

You should listen to this album, it's fantastically well done.  However, it is an optional album.  I hope to someday meet Lou Reed and tell him how much I like his music, but if I don't at least I finally listened to one of his albums.

"The fuck did I do?"
Matt