It's weird...the connections that music, words and memories can spin up. Like this:
When I was just a kid we would sometimes get these phone calls from an elderly woman. Wish I could remember her name. She always asked for the same person (wish I could remember that name too...let's use "Alice".) Each time I would have to inform this poor lady that she'd dialed the wrong number. She seemed somewhat confused by this. Mostly, after some gentle convincing, she would just say "OK, thank you" and then hang up. One time though, I asked her if she knew Alice's last name. I was pleased to hear that she did, and engaged her some some smalltalk while I looked up the name in the phone book. It was a nearly triumphant feeling to be helping out this lady. Very satisfying.
Until the clicking started.
Our mystery caller had begun dialing her friend's number without first hanging up. It was heartbreaking. She seemed surprised to hear my voice after dialing Alice. I told her that she needed to hang up before dialing the new number.
And with that, she was gone. The confused calls vanished.
That was probably the first time in my young life that I understood the sentiment draped over "Hope I Die Before I Get Old".
Now, it's been a good number of years since that sad situation has come to mind. Today it came back via Rilo Kiley during "a man/me/then Jim":
- a woman calls my house once a week she's always selling things
some charity phone plan, a subscription to a magazine
as i turned her down i always do there was something trembling in her voice
i said
hey, what troubles you?
she said
i'm surprised you noticed
my husband he's leaving and i can't convince him to stay
and he'll take our daughter with him she wants to go with him anyway
i'm sorry i'm hard to live with but living is the problem for me
i'm selling people things they don't want when i don't know what you need
Again, a story of an unusual intimacy via a telephone exchange. This is what the best kind of pop music can do. It's not just a story. If you're really taken with it, you can forget who you are. You live in the story. But that's only part of the magic. The music itself supports the suspension of your reality. While you're engrossed in this new world, you're also humming along, singing, drumming on the dashboard.
This happened to me a lot while listening to More Adventurous. The music shifts from power pop to folk to country-ish ballady things and back. It's great to hear a band play with so many textures. Not just guitar and keys, but mandolins, horns, vibraphones, orchestra bells, glockenspiels, mellotrons and strings. Lots and lots of texture. Jenny Lewis' sweet and expressive voice makes me think of Mary Lou Lord with a little Kay Hanley thrown in.
"Portions For Foxes" has that power pop thing where you're singing along with the very first chorus, already looking forward to the next. "I Never" begins as a country-ish ballad (that sorta wants to become "Hopelessly Devoted To You" meets "Ooh, Baby, Baby") that morphs into a string arrangement at the end, before laying out a dual guitar lead that's almost Allman-esque. Even guitarist Blake Sennett gets into the act with his solo acoustic "Ripchord". All pop music should be so internally eclectic. If there was musical justice, Rilo Kiley would be a household name.
Of course, you (mostly) can't change the world with pop music. But...you never know. Art serves many functions. One of them is building connections from people to other physical and mental worlds. Escapism? Yes, sometimes. But what I'm looking for is empathy.
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
Article comments
1 - Craig Lyndall
Wonderful review Mark. I have been listening to this one for a few days now and I have been pretty impressed too. I am just glad I gave Rilo Kiley another shot because to be quite honest, I thought "Takeoffs and Landings" was far below average. This one on the other hand has that pop sensibility and attention to songwriting that Takeoffs didn't have.
Anyway, there is something about this band that reminds me of Aimee Mann a little bit.
2 - Mark Saleski
thanks craig.
i hear the Amee Mann thing too. also, that singer from Eisley.
glad you liked the review, because only when i finished it did i realize it was 2AM (the coffee, so far, is not helping...)
3 - DJRadiohead
Mark, it's a great review. Now that I have read this and heard a song from them on Duke's podcast I am going to have to have me one of these.
4 - Mark Saleski
thanks. i'm still a little amazed that this band isn't more popular (though with the pathetic state of radio and whatnot...i shouldn't be)
5 - DJRadiohead
And thus the reason so many of us have taken to the podcasting airwaves. I have gotten positive feedback from a couple of the things I have played on mine.
Passing it on... that's the thing.
6 - Mark Saleski
also the reason i'm likin' satellite radio.
7 - DJRadiohead
But they still can't curse as often as Duke and I do, can they? :)
(I want satellite radio, too... someday...)
8 - Mark Saleski
oh, i think they can.
but i'm sure that nobody'll be as good at it as you all.
9 - DJRadiohead
not me, man- The Duke.
Are you an XM'er or a Sirius?
10 - Mark Saleski
Sirius.
11 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Mark, fabulous review, and another example of why you're one of my favourite music writers. and i'll go ahead now and admit that i don't have this one (the podcast track is from the album prior to this, The Execution Of All Things), but yeah, record shop tomorow, tail between legs, or it WOULD be, if it was a tail worth talkin about.
12 - visualsimplicity
For songs with a story, Rilo Kiley's "Does He Love You" is a freaking masterpiece. Talk about a twist that slowly builds and builds as the song progresses. LOVE LOVE LOVE that song.
Oh and, aren't they fairly known? It always seemed to me they seemed to have acquired a bit of that "indie darling" status (not as big as Death Cab but close, I think).
13 - Mark Saleski
thanks duke. hey, this particular cd is the only one i've got...and it was sent to me for nothin', so what kinda fan am i?!!
i've really got to get the others. maybe this weekend.
14 - DJRadiohead
Mark, I bought The Execution of All Things today on account of it being the only one in the store (plus I did like the song Duke played) and I am planning to go to another store tonight to get More Adventurous. Well done, fellas.
15 - DJRadiohead
I just bought it today. Listening to it for the first time. I like it from a 'broad strokes' perspective right now. I look forward to trying to digest it in a more concentrated sort of way.
16 - Mark Saleski
it's better than Elliot Smith.
;-)
17 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
picked this up yesterday, finally. god in heaven, it's beautiful. The Absense Of God is one of the best songs i've heard this year.
18 - DJRadiohead
Rilo Kiley could make another 10,000 albums and they still wouldn't be fit to carry Elliott's casket. ;)
That was harsh. I like the album. I will keep my Elliott CDs closer but I am glad to have added Rilo Kiley to my vocabulary, if you will.