This is a call to all blogcritics.
A year ago this week, in fact a year ago next Friday, I got word that the axe was going to fall on my incredibly rewarding yet aggravating music-industry job. The label was going through some changes, and one change was that music fans would no longer be needed. Or so I editorialize.
Upon hearing the news, I went out and did the proper music-industry thing; got straight shitfaced on tequila and beer. I knew it was coming. The dumbest Labrador retriever ever born could not have missed the signs. But that didn't make the fact any more fun. And so; tequila.
Now, a year later, I find that I've lost touch with that thing that I went into the business to cultivate-- my enthusiasm, my mania, for awesome fucking rock and majestic thunderous roll. I don't buy records. I don't go to shows. I don't read the magazines, not even Mojo. On the other hand, I also no longer compulsively analyze everything I hear from a marketing-cost-per-unit perspective, which is nice, but the joy which I bled away at some point during the end days of my too-short career never quite came back like I hoped it would.
Tonight on the train home, I got kind of sad. I was listening to "In A Silent Way" and as the disc got to that part about 11:30 into "Shhh/Peaceful" where Teo Macero really screwed up the edit and two parts mash together like a B-flat trainwreck, I realized that a few years ago, that shit would have given me chills. Not so much any more. Music comes second in my life right after family, and several steps before food, shelter, and Italian shoes. And yet, meh.
So I need all y'all's help. Despite my limited resources and lack of shelf space (in fact, my wife has forbidden me from exceeding my current 30 shelf-feet cd footprint), I need to know. What music in the past couple years has set your ass on fire?
Article comments
1 - Natalie Davis
This may seem like a schlocky pick, but so be it: Recently, I was out driving and listening to the radio, when a song came on that grabbed my interest. It was the new single by Live, and it made my heart fill up with joy, my eyes fill up with tears. In order to avoid an accident, I had to pull over when Ed Kowalczyk sang this line:
"I don't need no one
To tell me 'bout heaven.
I look at my daughter
And I believe..."
A mix of sadness and elation washed over me as I thought of my dad, who adored his baby girl, and my own beloved and beautiful girl. It was bittersweet rapture -- few things other than music can touch me quite that way.
Of recent stuff, Live's latest, for sure, and Warren Zevon's The Wind. Music that makes you think and makes you feel -- that is the ticket.
2 - Al Barger
Oh, solicit me for advice on hot records, I'll keep you up all night!
Everybody knows that the album of the year for last year was Elvis Costello's When I Was Cruel. That's the obvious place to start. [Don't bother with the crappy new North album.]
You definitely need all three of Macy Gray's albums.
In short, the officially approved list of the greatest albums of 2002 is HERE. Here is the cool list of singles.
I haven't paid attention to your politics, but there was exactly ONE good anti-war song for the Iraq war, Sananda Matreiya, aka Terence Trent D'Arby's "Daddy Can I Have a War?" available for download from his website. I dig it much as a song, and if you are of a more pinko persuasion than me, you might like it extra much.
And could you elucidate some more on the Miles Davis edit you mentioned? I stopped to listen to the album, and I couldn't hear it.
3 - Tom Johnson
I'm with Al on When I Was Cruel. As much as I like North, it is not essential like Cruel and is just too moody to recommend highly for the criteria - it has not set my ass on fire. What did set my ass on fire last year was Rush's Vapor Trails, but I would highly suggest also picking up Rush In Rio because that performance will have your ass so singed you'll be able to dip the crusty flakings in your favorite sauce for a crunchy flavor treat.
Give the Derek Trucks Band's Soul Serenade a spin too. That album has really wormed its way under my skin in a way I could not have predicted when I first heard it. Same with his "other" band, that bunch of Allmans' new one, Hittin' The Note.
I'm also putting a recommendation out on the new Living Colour, Collideoscope (tune in tomorrow, Sunday maybe for a review from me,) as it's been in very constant rotation the past week or so.
This is a great question, it had me pondering my CDs again - what did set my ass on fire in the past year. Not much, sadly. I need to think about this some more.
4 - Johno
Wow... thanks for the comments so far. I really erred in not getting "When I Was Cruel," that much I'm sure of.
Al, My mistake. The botched edit is at 10:42. Start listening at 9:00. You'll hear the keyboards start doing a climbing chromatic thing around 10:10 or so, and everything builds nicely to a climax which is the edit. To my ears, it has always sounded just wrong-- no continuity at all, out of time, just kind of bad. Which is strange because I can find no similar instance any of the other Teo Macero/Miles Davis productions.
One more thing: It's a D-Major trainwreck, not B-Flat. My bad for trying to write after four martinis and a beer.
I'll see if I can get a clip made and posted to my own site for you to hear. That might not be possible because the 1940s-vintage telephone wiring in the 250-year-old house I live in is giving me a blazing dialup speed of 126 bits per second this morning, which is some 3000 times slower than acceptable.
Also, my politics on the war notwithstanding, I really dig Terence Trent D'Arby and would welcome a quality antiwar song. I'll check out the song if my internet speed improves by several orders of magnitude, or do it at work. Thanks for the suggestion.
Keep them coming!!! Johno needs more!
5 - jadester
A few albums:
(Artist:Album)
3 Doors Down:The Better Life
Halfway To Gone:Second Season
The Pixies:Complete B-Sides
Audioslave:Audioslave
(ok so none of them are new. they might, however, get you interested in rock again, assuming you haven't already heard them =+)
6 - TDavid
Johno - perhaps go grab yourself a subscription to Rhapsody and you can listen to over 400,000 tracks for 10 bones a month [review here]. There is a free trial so you can try it out on some of the suggestions in this thread.
I just did a search and these recommendations above are available (full CD unless otherwise noted): 3 Doors Down: The Better Life, Audioslave Audioslave, Elvis Costello When I Was Cruel (all tracks except for When I was Cruel No. 2), Derek Trucks Band's Soul Serenade (missing the title track), Living Colour, Collideoscope (missing track 16, 17), Warren Zevon's The Wind, Macy Gray all three CDs (On How Life Is, The ID, The Trouble With Being Myself), Live Heaven (single)
7 - David
I'm actually sort of in the same boat as you, but more because I'm broke than because I'm not interested. Most of the new music I hear is at free or cheap jazz shows (which are pretty plentiful here in L.A., where there's a glut of talent and a paucity of taste), or at Border's or from the library or occasionally the radio.
Anyway, I've been a jazzbo my whole life except high school, when I was a punkbo. Stuff I like lately:
There are two unquestionably great (and very different) jazz singers on the scene now, one man and one woman: Kurt Elling and Mary Stallings.
I've been following guitarist Nels Cline for about 10 years now, ever since he hosted the much-missed weekly New Music Monday at the old Alligator Lounge. He best stuff as a leader might be Destroy All Nels Cline and Interstellar Space. I also really like his work with multi-woodwind player Vinnie Golia. Rockers will know Nels from his work with Mike Watt, which, notwithstanding that I am a former Minutemaniac, doesn't knock me out on record, although he always tears it up live. Nels sounds kind of like a cross between early MacLaughlin and Bill Frisell, with maybe a dash of Sco. He's got an excellent website.
Ozomatli blew me away live, when I saw them at the Watts Towers music festival. They remind me of the great French/Spanish busker/punk/latin/ska band Mano Negra (+a bit of hip hop), which my much-missed French woman turned me on to in happier days. The bits of their studio recordings that I've heard haven't knocked me out, but there are some explosive free live downloads available from their website.
I think one of the really exciting things in jazz is that a long of the best younger musicians, including some who were previously characterized as "neoconservative" are playing very adventurous electronic music influenced both my 70s Miles and hiphop. Good article about some of this stuff at jazzitude called Electric Trumpets (go to the main page for reviews of the albums discussed). I was particularly impressed by what I heard of Nicolas Payton's latest. Seems he's now not only the most brilliant, most soulful and hardest-swinging young trumpeters on the scene, but he's become a visionary bandleader as well.
8 - David
p.s. Good article about aforementioned Kurt Elling at allaboutjazz.
9 - David
Oops. This is the good Kurt Elling article I was thinking of. The other one is OK, too. My God, can he sing.
10 - Taloran
Johno, go over to MP3.com and download everything available by Del Vezeau. He's not a household name, and never will be, but Great Googlymoogly can the man play!
I've put his CDs on my wish list for the holidays.
11 - Andrew Ian Dodge
The Norah Jones CD was pretty damn stunning.
12 - Chris Rukan
British Sea Power - The Decline of...
Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic
Rob Jungklas - Arkadelphia
just fer starters...
13 - Johno
Wow... what great suggestions. Thanks so much!
I'm especially interested in the jazz suggestions, as what passes for "rock" these days is merely poorly produced and mastered dreck. Well, with notable exceptions like the above-mentioned Audioslave, and System of A Down (my favorite rock act of the last 5 years).
I'm going to do myself a favor and check some of this stuff out.
Whoo!!!
14 - Andrew Duncalfe
If you're in the mood for something softer, I'm really liking the new Dido CD- Life for Rent. Quiet guitar melodies and a beautiful voice make it very easy to listen to.
15 - JR
I second the Norah Jones album; that one made me feel good about music again.
From this year, I really liked the debut by folk/rock "supergroup" The Thorns. Not quite as good as CSN's first, but far better than anything the Travelling Wilburys ever did.
Another pop album I liked was "Welcome Interstate Managers" by Fountains of Wayne.
I'm not too conversant in the current jazz scene, but I did like the Charlie Hunter Quartet's remake of Bob Marley's "Natty Dread" album.
16 - Johno
The Norah Jones is nice, but I like it more for the potential that she shows than for the album itself. I still put it on and listen to it, but it just makes me wish Holly Cole had never gone pop.
And what the hell have I been thinking not putting aside $20 for the new Warren Zevon????
17 - BJ
Off the top of my head, the first five records I can think of that I've decided I really like within the past few months*:
New Pornographers - Electric Version
The Come Ons - Hip Check
Snowpony - Sea Shanties for Spaceships
The Black Keys - Thickfreakness
Jason Moran - Modernistic
* Some of them are older than that, but I just figured it out. Also, I left off a few bigger records that I'm sure you already have an opinion on, in favor of a couple that you might not.
18 - jules earl jackson
Hmm, great music...lets see
'Come see me tremble' - Paul Westerburg. Kind of Punk's answer to 'Sign of the times', Westerburg played all the instruments on his home studio but it sounds like a live band jamming. Awesome.
'The Wind' - Warren Zevon. Rock's definitive Requiem. From 'Disorder in the house' to 'keep me in your heart', this blazes a trail for great music.
'Trouble No More' - John Mellancamp, the veteran Indiana boy roars out of the blocks to tell it like it is and stand up for democracy.
Otherwise, with the Western World at war, what the f*ck do Justin, Beyonce, Britany and Christina think they are doing with their little ballads ? Where are Public Enemy and the Clash when you need them most ? Rock's coming back to eat y'all teeny boppers.