A Year in Music (Something Changed)

Instead of simply rattling off another list of my favorite albums released this year, I thought that I would provide a sampling of what's been on heavy rotation this past year, a partial soundtrack to my 2012 if you will. So here we go, in rough chronological order . . .

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stage Whisper: "When you've been stuck here on the doorstep of nothing to forsake, well, you might as well be anyone's to take . . ." Every album Gainsbourg has released has been stronger than the previous, as her voice grows more mature with each outing. Listening to this disc, I discovered that I now find her live versions of many of the tracks from IRM more powerful than the original studio takes from only two years ago. (Meanwhile, her voice is also sounding more like her mother's, especially when singing in French).
Favorite tracks: "Memoir", "AF607105"(live), "Just Like a Woman"(live)

Pulp I: One of my first challenges of 2012 was charming a potential date through a mutual obsession of Pulp. In the end, it was pretty unsuccessful, but I am not going to complain about anything that led me to put Pulp's underrated This Is Hardcore back into regular rotation.
Favorites: "The Fear", "Glory Days", "Like a Friend"

Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas: "The splinters that you carry/The cross you left behind" Cohen is a master, one of my all time favorite singers, whose influence I am sure has seeped into my own poetry both consciously and otherwise. I offer no qualified praise for his most recent album, as others have, but plainly declare it without caveat a beautiful collection of songs. His last two albums have been a return to the feel of Recent Songs, which, in my mind at least, has been quite welcome.
Favorites: "Come Healing," "Going Home", "Show Me the Place"

Belle & Sebastian I: I was hanging out in the Village waiting for a delayed date, when I decided to see what was in the used CD section of Kim's. Hmmm, Tigermilk, that one Belle & Sebastian album I never got around to buying. Bought it, put it on at home the next day and  . . . wow. How exactly did I get by all this time without this disc? Stellar. (Oh the date? Complicated. It ended up going no where, but that's truly a story for another day . . . )
Favorites: "Expectations" "She's Losing It" "Mary Jo"
   
The Doors, Strange Days: Indeed they were, Jim, indeed they were . . .
Favorites: "People Are Strange" "Moonlight Drive"

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde: Still capable of revelations after all this time . . .
Favorites: "Visions of Johanna," "Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"

The Walker Brothers, No Regrets: Some uncanny timing & all of a sudden, so much more makes sense . . .
Favorites: "Hold an Old Friend's Hand", "Burn Our Bridges"

Johnny Cash, American IV, Live at San Quentin: Several years ago (yes, I'll admit that it was when Walk the Line was released) I tried to get into the music of Mr. Johnny Cash, yet for whatever reason it did not resonate with me at the time. Yes, I liked it (as familiar as it is, can anyone deny the hook of "Ring of Fire"?), yet something was missing. Maybe I needed time to pass, my ears to mature, or circumstances to shift. Whatever it was, it only took the first few notes of each of these albums for me to stop whatever I was doing at the moment and realize what I had been missing out on all this time . . .
Favorites: "The Man Comes Around," "Give My Love to Rose," "Wreck of the Old '97" "Darlin' Companion"

Scott Walker, Classics and Collectables: Someday, someone, somehow will reissue the remaining Walker albums from the 60s/70s that have never been on CD. Until then, we'll just have to get by with the second disc of this anthology. The record executives may have calling the tunes (literally) but he sang them oh so lovely . . .
Favorites: "The Me I Never Knew," "I Have Dreamed" "This Way Mary"  

Pulp II: The difference that a few months makes: from trying to seduce some gal through the internet to standing in Radio City Music Hall with my dearest love, basking together in the fact that we were actually seeing Pulp live. Not an imaginary story, not a dream sequence. This. Actually. Happened. Wow.
Favorites: "Common People" "Razzamtazz" "I Spy" "Something Changed" "Do You Remember the First Time" & all those countless other songs that I have been obsessed with these past 15 odd years . . .

Spiritualized, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light: Following up on the strength of Songs in A&E, Mr. Pierce has put together another beauty of layered rock music. Yes, he may still subscribe to the rule of "why use just one gospel choir, when you can use two," but it works, oh so so well. If you've got some good stereo speakers, this is the time to use 'em . . .
Favorites: "So Long Pretty Thing," "Life Is a Problem"

Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swingin' Lovers: What better way to begin a Memorial Day weekend than with this classic album? Some things simply don't age (OK, "Making Whoopee" kinda does, but damnit, he still sings it like a pro . . .).
Favorites: "You Make Me Feel So Young," "Too Marvelous for Words"

Belle & Sebastian II(Push Barman to Open New Wounds): As I said, some things never grow old, this two disc collection of gems being among them. 
Favorites: "String Bean Jean," "Belle & Sebastian", "This Is Just a Modern Rock Song," "Jonathan David" "Marx & Engels"

J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concertos: Eight discs of a Baroque master's music to soak up, which may take awhile (several months later, I'm still absorbing it all) but well worth it . . .  
Favorites: Concerto #5

Bob Dylan, Tempest: Another stellar late career album from Mr. Zimmerman. Plus, who would have guessed 50 some years ago that not only would he eventually record a 14 minute long piece about the sinking of the Titanic with a gloss, but it would be among the most moving songs of his career?
Favorites: "Tempest" "Soon after Midnight"

Bill Fay, Life Is People: "Souls arriving constantly/From the shores of eternity/Birds and bees and butterflies/Parade before my eyes." A collection of meditations on the universe and our place in it, our search for love, grace & peace, all conveyed through lush arrangements and with Fay's typical humility. No less than his "Time of the Last Persecution" (written 40 years ago in response to the killings at Kent State), music for the days we live in . . .
Favorites: "The Healing Day", "Never Ending Happening"

Wolfgang Mozart, Don Giovanni: The opera I spent the most time with this year, including a revisiting of the current production at the Met. It also inspired a one-act play which I might return to for further tweaking in the new year, or I may abandon, or, well, we'll see . . .
Favorites: "Madamina, Il Catalogo E' Questo" 

Dave Brubeck Quartet, Live at Oberlin: Even before Mr. Brubeck's recent passing, this was one of my more highly played jazz albums. It's a perennial favorite, which now has added poignancy to it . . .
Favorites: "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)"

Luke Haines, The Oliver Twist Manifesto: Sly, poppy, philosophical, irreverent, brilliant . . .
Favorites: "Oliver Twist", "Christ"

Meanwhile, there's a stack of year end acquisitions that I need to catch up on -- what? Oh, and there's a new Thao and the Get Down Stay Down out in a month? Better get listening . . .

Cheers all, and best wishes for 2013.

 

Returning with a Poem

Sorry that I have been away for awhile, but, there has been much going on in my life. I am happy to report, though, that these developments have been quite positive & I am in good spirits. It also pleases me to say that I have been keeping at my writing, composing new pieces and performing them around the city. Today, I would like to share with you a poem which was inspired by music. For a few years now, I have been a fan of the Portuguese tradition of fado. Introduced to this music by one of my oldest friends, I quickly fell in love with its sounds and melodies. Last December BAM hosted a weekend of fado concerts, which I eagerly devoured. The vast majority of the acts were quite strong and the audience very receptive. The first night I was so swept up in the music that, after leaving the main stage, I was compelled to check out the cafe for even more fado. After the show ended, I stopped in a nearby bar for a drink, and wrote a poem. As a final note, I should add that the word fado is usually translated as "fate."

 

Fado

Fado is a mournful music

Made up of somber rhythms

And solemn tones

Comprising a lament,

As well as an acceptance,

For what once was

But now has been lost.

Yet, its songs may not always be funereal;

At times they might contain the sounds of celebration

Set to a more lively tempo

Offering up defiance

In the face of circumstances

Which try to confine our movements.

We strain, instead, to be their master

By proclaiming our fado

In a voice of our own choosing.

 
For those interested in sampling the diversity of fado, I would recommend Carlos Saura's film Fados. Not a talking heads history, but instead a series of performances which run from traditional to contemporary, all of which are strikingly staged. (That Saura is well known for his ability to capture dance on film is readily apparent). Here are two excerpts, both featuring Mariza, one of the most well regarded living fado singers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4jNIi7QYPM&feature=BFa&list=PL240757B2F57FE380
&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0_rHpY3wf8&feature=BFa&list=PL240757B2F57FE380


Cheers. 

Praying to the Wind

Sometimes a piece of music may speak to you of a particular time & place even if it had been recorded decades prior, even if you already possessed an established relationship with the piece of music. You hear the lyrics, you feel their meaning and are able to relate them to your own circumstances. Such was the case with me and "We Came Through" in the days following the attacks of September 11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgnUX7kBD9s&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLC981C1A0BBE1C331

"We Came Through" was written and recorded by Scott Walker for his 1969 album, Scott 3. I have long held Walker in high regard as one of my favorite musicians, as well as being fond of "We Came Through" as an outstanding song from a record full of stellar tracks. My own interrpretation of the song is that within it, Walker is taking stock of his historical moment, examining the state of the world. What he sees is not encouraging, painting a vision filled with war & flames, dead heroes & expired hopes. What has been accomplished, what has been purchased with all this sorrow? Not much. The singer can merely claim that "we came through." That is his generation's great achievement: we survived it all.

Or "salute the men who died for freedom's sake [but] we won't dream, for they don't come true for us, not anymore. They've run far away to hide in caves, with haggard burning eyes. Their icy voices tear our hearts like knives."

Listening to these lyrics in the days after September 11, I gained new associations that ten years later, I am still unable to shake whenever I hear the song. In the immediate aftermath of the day's events, those "icy voices" hiding out in caves, cutting through us like knives took on fresh faces. As the shadows of the attacks grew longer, as I myself grew more pessimistic, the more strongly I felt as though Walker's words could relate to my own historical moment. Witnessing yet again "our kings and countries raise their shields . . . as Luther King's predictions fade from view" I would be left wondering often during the years ahead if all that my generation could claim for our own time was simply that we had survived it as well. 

There's one other song that I associate with that day, but, in a more positive light. When eventually it grew late, and the time came to switch off the TV and attempt to sleep, I needed something to clear my mind of all the horrible images of the day. I reached for music, as that is what most reliably sooths my spirits, something of beauty to remind me of the good things that people can produce, the happiness that we can spread instead of hate. In this instance, I chose John Coltrane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugIRAe2yvw

Peace, everyone.