One of the intriguing qualities of Andrew Bird’s work is what seems to be a core of serenity, beyond joy or sorrow, isolation or community; and I wonder if the quality of his attention—dispersed among his creativity and his responses to the beings and things of the larger world—is a key to that serenity: no single thing is his focus.
Category: Music reviews
Musicians in the Poor Man’s Provence: fiddler Cedric Watson, triangle player Christine Balfa, and the band Feufollet
While playing some of the traditional music of the American south, the Creole and Cajun music of Louisiana, the creative artists Cedric Watson, Christine Balfa, and Feufollet, render that music as the exciting music of the present, of now: these musicians choose to honor tradition but are more inclined toward improvisation and invention than imitation.
Sorrow, Solace, and Sense: Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan’s Sunday at Devil Dirt, The Dears’ Missiles, and Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs (with U2’s No Line on the Horizon)
Sorrow sometimes comes to us out of our aching need, but more often it comes to us out of loss: it can be rooted in frustrated hope and yearning; and it can be stoked by our having held and lost something we wanted, barely understood, and wanted to know much better, something we wanted to hold for years—with the pain of separation and memory and regret following in its absence. Sometimes the beloved and lost thing is love, and sometimes it is youth or youth’s pleasures and possibilities.
Journeymen: Over the Top or Under the Weather, by the band Last November, featuring Luke Pilgrim
Critic: The first couple of times I heard Over the Top or Under the Weather, I was surprised by the energy and topicality, and the last few times I wished that it had a deeper, more resonant purpose. Musician: Our real goal with Over the Top or Under the Weather—We weren’t trying to write the best record ever or to re-invent rock and roll… we just wanted songs people could relate to and songs that wouldn’t sound dated in a few years.
Adrian Thaws, alias Tricky, Delivers Complexity You Can Dance To: Knowle West Boy
The dynamic, fun, imaginative, and thus far well-received album Knowle West Boy features the genre-bending collaborations of Tricky with members of his own boutique label Brown Punk. Tricky is great at presenting complexity, including personal and social contradictions, for which he has found a musical language, mixing very different sounds.
Beyond Category: Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple and St. Elsewhere; and Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On
Thomas Callaway’s voice, in which I hear traces of Sam Cooke and Al Green, is not the kind one would expect to be heard and appreciated in a culture in which so much excessive and false masculinity is celebrated; and yet it has been heard—and it resonates in the hearts of many: androgynous, clear, dramatic, soulful.
Intelligence is Bliss: Vampire Weekend and the Beatles’ Rubber Soul
By Daniel Garrett Vampire Weekend (featuring “Mansard Roof” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”) Produced by Rostam Batmanglij XL Recordings, 2008 The Beatles, Rubber Soul Produced by George Martin EMI, 1965 (for Paul Zakrzewski, Rebecca Terner, Keith Hudson and Alfredo Garcia)…
A review of Clare Bowditch and The Feeding Set – The Moon Looked On
The Moon Looked On shows Bowditch’s continued growth as a musician and vocalist, showcasing her superb songwriting skills, and the terrific collaboration she’s developed with The Feeding Set. She continues to grow in both the innovative quality of her work, and in the risks she’s prepared to take artistically.
Against the Fable of One True World: Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters
Sometimes after walking in Manhattan late at night, a bit melancholy, though enjoying the faces, the buildings, the lights, I would stroll into a downtown music store and put on head phones at one of the listening stations and hear some of the songs on pianist Herbie Hancock’s 2005 album Possibilities: I liked the songs on it featuring Christina Aguilera (“A Song for You”), Annie Lennox (“Hush, Hush, Hush”), and Jonny Lang with Joss Stone (“When Love Comes to Town”). Herbie Hancock, who began playing the piano when he was seven, has long found ways of combining his own musical sophistication with popular taste.
A Musical Statement of Significance: Lucinda Williams, West
West is a significant musical statement; and it is more impressive for arriving at its significance by unusual directions, such as in the songs “Mama You Sweet” and “Unsuffer Me” and “What If” and “Wrap My Head Around That.”