Is rebellion against one’s past part of human nature? As evolving beings, do we instinctively abandon that which has brought us success in the past for alternate approaches to reach our goals? Hell, no. We are creatures of habit, and we hate change, and don’t you dare change a thing about that which I hold near and dear to my heart of else you’ll have me and my fury to contend with! I get that way sometimes, you know. However, I rarely ever feel that way about music. If an artist doesn’t show some growth and evolution from one album to the next, I’m likely to get bored and find something else to listen to. If I wanted to hear the album the recorded two years ago, then I’d go and listen to said album.
Odd then, that my first reaction to Peter Bjorn and John’s Living Thing was, “This doesn’t sound anything like Writer’s Block“, considering that the singles aside, I really didn’t get into that album the way others did. I liked it enough, and I know that if I go back and listen to it now, after having let it be for more than a year, I’d find a lot there that I can appreciate. What I’m getting at is that I don’t have an affinity for the sound of PB&J circa Writer’s Block, so my initial reaction to the new album’s departure from their successful indie-pop sound had me scratching my head, because, in a nutshell, I think it’s bloody brilliant.
Living Thing amps up the percussive electro-funk and darkens the corners some, adding a gravitas that belies their Swedish pop roots. As if to further distance themselves from the fame that “Young Folks” brought them, “Lay It Down”–the first sample of music released from the album–featured the radio-friendly chorus, “Hey, shut the fuck up, boy!” On the title track, Peter Morén wails, “You don’t have to look me in the eye, you don’t have to love me!” while the spare, Afro-pop arrangement propels the song into an unexpected dreamlike world where fantasy must face reality in a battle to the death. By song’s end it’s unclear just which is victorious, but you’ll be falling over yourself to hit the repeat button and fight the good fight all over again.
Last year’s instrumental album, Seaside Rock, set the stage for this latest set of songs, effectively cutting ties with that infectious whistled melody, and inspiring the trio to delve back into their fascination with electronic music. Living Thing should silence the naysayers who cried “sellout” after the success of “Young Folks”, and those who’ve never given the band enough artistic credit. Living Thing, cold, dark, and brooding, it an alluring beacon on the musical landscape of 2009, drawing you in with it’s charm and humanity.
It’s probably sometime Monday (or later) that you’re reading this, but it’s Sunday morning (and raining) while I’m writing this, so as much as I’d like to have a Juno Awards recap/critique post for you, they haven’t yet happened, so anything I’d write would be utter speculation and a fraud.
So for something undisputed and true, I bring you word of a new single by swinging Londoners Lucky Soul, who charmed the pants off me a few years back with their shimmering pop sounds. “Whoa Billy” picks up where the album The Great Unwanted left off, adding a dollop of production polish to their 60s English pop sound.
Details are few and far between about the sophomore album, but fellow Lucky Soul enthusiast, Frank Chromewaves, says a June UK release is in the works for the tentatively titled, Dark Times Ahead. Judging by this single’s radiant glow, Lucky Soul seem set to banish the darkness for the rest of 2009.
On my recent trip to California, I rediscovered my iPod’s ability to play a single album through from beginning to end. So accustomed have I been to the shuffle setting that the concept of listening to a single album by a single artist in the running order they intended is novel and new. I shouldn’t be as surprised as I ma by how rewarding this is, since most of the time my shuffled music listening experiences have been little more than five second snippets of songs that I immediately skip; unto the next track, looking for something immediate, something strong, some elusive quality that will make me stick it out to the end of the track.
The art of album listening requires time and patience, something I seem to have little of these days. I don’t think I’m alone in this, judging by the reactions I’ve read about Joel Plaskett’s new, triple album release, Three. What is he thinking? Three albums worth of music? Who’s going to sit and listen to three albums at once? Can he really have enough good material for three albums? The short answer to that question is, yes, he does have enough good material. And while you might not think you have time to listen to 3 albums in a row, the total running time is a mere hour and 45 minutes, about the same amount of time it might take you to watch a couple episodes of C.S.I. or 24 in a row (and I know some of you out there have done that–more than once).
What Plaskett has done to help the attentionally-challenged is break the whole thing down into three self-contained and complete albums all there own. Three being the running theme here, many of the songs feature three word repeating titles (“Precious, Precious, Precious”, “Through & Through & Through” for example). Nine tracks per album make each one a neat little nugget, with there own mood and sound. As a whole, the album holds together beautifully, cementing Plaskett’s reputation as one of Canada’s finest singer-songwriters.
So, I’m guessing the burning question on your mind right now is, have I listened to Three all the way through? The answer is yes, I have, and I will again and again and again.
Ahead of next Tuesday’s release of Lost Channels, Great Lake Swimmers exclusively premiered the video for “Pulling On a Line” on the newly re-designed Pitchfork site. Imagine Tim Burton, David Fincher and David Lynch as a three-headed director and you’ll get a sense of what the video is like. Or else just watch it in the embedded player below.
Elbow have recorded a very special version of last year’s Mercury Music Prize winning album, The Seldom Seen Kid, with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road studios, and by all accounts it’s an absolute stunner. It comes out in the UK on Tuesday. Pre-orders are being taken by hmv.com. You can get a taste of what it all sounded like by clicking the link below, but Mac users be forewarned; it’s a Windows Media link.
And last but not least today, Metric have not one, but two videos for “Gimme Sympathy”" which will officially be the lead single off their forthcoming Fantasies album. The first is the standard video, but they’ve also completed an alternate split screen video that simultaneously shows you the official video and a scene by scene behind the scenes look at it’s making. Very meta.
That’s the best way for me to sum up what happened between Carl Barât and Pete Doherty, the dynamic co-frontmen of The Libertines. After two albums–the second of which was recorded after Barât forgave Doherty for breaking into his apartment (he did time for the crime) in retaliation for Barât leaving on a Japanese tour without Doherty–Doherty was told to get his act together and get off the drugs before joining the band. That never happened, and The Libertines ceased to be.
That was then, though, and this, thankfully, is now. I don’t need, nor do I want to go into the roller coastering, tabloid-baiting life Doherty has led since he left The Libertines. You know the score (no pun intended), so there’s no point in rehashing that. Musically speaking, Doherty’s post-Libertines work has been less spotty than his criminal record, which is a testament to his musical instincts and songwriting abilities. His band Babyshambles produced a few choice moments in the past few years (check out Shotter’s Nation, an album that didn’t get the respect I think it deserves), but unfortunately it was overshadowed by Doherty’s extra-curricular activities.
Just when it seems that the world as forgotten about him, Doherty returns, this time as proper Peter, for his first solo album, Grace/Wastelands. A cleaned up, Cavalli-modelling Doherty seems to be back in form on this eclectic blend of genres and styles. Stephen Street takes the reins as producer, and Blur axe-man Graham Coxon sits in playing guitar on all but one track (“Broken Love Song”). Dot “One Dove” Allison, Doherty’s former collaborator Peter Wolfe (aka Wolfman) and members of Babyshambles also join in the festivities, but it’s quite clear this is Doherty’s show. He sounds like a man who has come face to face with the devil, and realized that they are both the same man. The music is muted, spare at times, veering from smoky lounge bar blues to the guitar pop music that made him famous. In short, this is the best Peter Doherty has sounded in ages.
