comments on 30-21
30. like jim croce, stephin merritt only knows one way to say i love you: with a song. quite unlike mr. croce, merritt isn't a sensitive singer-songwriter; his forebears dwelled in the brill building, writing songs that were made to order. in this case, the order is every shade of love and every genre within reason.
29. eno's green world is a soundtrack without a film, and the audio account alone proves to be most satisfactory. the listener is taken on safari -- dark trees, big ships, sombre reptiles, little fishes: one by one, each passes by with a few strokes of a synthesizer, chords from a guitar, and masterful usage of air & space. the ending, however, seems strangely unresolved.
28. with their fourth lp, the pixies were set to ride the grunge wave to superstardom...and then they released a heavy metal album. that's how the myth goes, anyway. while it sounds little like the prevailing seattle fare of the day, trompe le monde is not a heavy metal album. okay, well, "planet of sound." but besides that, tlm had the band returning to the rock sound of doolittle and showing off the tricks they learned on bossanova. most bands would've been quite pleased to end their careers with the epic "motorway to roswell," all tinkling pianos and resounding backing vocals. maybe "the navajo know" is symptomatic of why they never found success, and why tlm is their greatest record.
27. ghosts & the machines. the mononymic titles and his declarations in "heaven" give off the impression that david byrne is bored. fine by me since it means less distraction from the music, which funks and disorients and startles. repeated listening leads one to believe that there's something at work both behind the grooves and byrne's lyrics. a certain ineffable that cements this as my favorite of the byrne/eno era.
26. the title says it all. otis never was very convincing as a singer of happy songs, and so an invitation to the blues has never been more enticing.
25. like ohio players' albums, you can tell a lot about a roxy album by looking at its cover. the model seems utterly drained, unable to lift a finger. she also seems to be lost -- standed, even -- in some unknown locale. on stranded, darkness falls, phones ring and no one's there, and all that lives dies. bryan ferry looks in the mirror and, improbably, he doesn't like what he sees.
24. the beatles make their solo audition tapes, and only ringo's career would best his material on abbey road. divided, it stands.
23. he may not have penned his own material, but it's arguable that no other popular performer put more of himself -- his mannerisms, his attitude, his state-of-mind -- into his records than frank sinatra. when the time came to record wee small hours, he had very little left at all to put into it. the result: one of the most emotional and expressive albums ever produced.
22. there are two kinds of people on born to run: jersey boys, longing for something better, who are miserable; and city dwellers, living in the shadows of the skyscrapers, who are also miserable. one group is leaving at night, heading towards a meeting, driving down the two-lane highway with no destination known; the others hide on the backstreets, seek shelter from the falling tear drops, and feel like the whole city is crying. springsteen inflates his characters so we can them above the towers and buildings, and he turns up the volume so the music can be heard above the din of the city and the roar of the engines. where they're going, no one knows, but they just can't stay home any longer.
21. the sound you hear at the beginning of station to station is the express train sweeping la bowie away yet again, in search of a new sound like he does every year. it takes him through funk and disco, into proto-industrial, with a final destination in a johnny mathis ballad. produced by bowie so he could recreate every footstep and every unexplained noise he heard in his coke-addled head. kids, take note: like many albums on this list, this album was created with the benefit of MIND-ADDLING drugs. lots of them.
posted by fred solinger 9:19 PM

 
solomon burke just released an album. which is nothing new: the king of rock 'n' soul has probably been issuing albums for twenty+ years now on small blues & soul labels. what makes this album different from any album he's released since leaving atlantic records in 1968 is that it's getting fantastic reviews. and unlike any solomon burke album previously released, this one features new songs from fans like van morrison, bob dylan, tom waits, nick lowe, brian wilson, carole king, and elvis costello. question: where can i buy it?
posted by fred solinger 7:34 PM

 
tim, might i suggest the following arrangement:
michelle branch = ani difranco
vanessa carlton = tori amos
avril lavigne = alanis morissette

(it's quite possible that avril has not reached australian shores yet. she's canadian, she's angry, and she skates: the perfect pedigree.)
posted by fred solinger 5:12 PM

 
last night's american idol:
well, simon was obviously right about who the two losers were, and it was the two with whom he went out of his way to say what nice guys they were: jim and a.j. (yeah, jim does seem like a nice guy; but a.j. has always been my least favorite -- he has the wimpiest voice and he seemed to have the biggest attitude, e.g. anytime he entered a room.) jim needed to sing some high-octane four tops number, but instead he chose to blend into the scenery of the newly-refurbished american idol set by performing the commodores' "easy." a.j., on the other hand, gave his larynx a workout with...another leisurely stroll through "my cherie amour." maybe he hasn't sung it before, but he makes every song sound the same. these two shouldn't make it through tonight or, as simon said, it will be a DISASTER. it would be a lamentably american thing for the voters to think, "i'm not going to let some frog tell ME who an american idol is," and then vote for either of these two.

as far as the others go:
ryan -- one of the judges commented on her outfit, but isn't that the same exact outfit she had on last time? if so, where did the $2,000 go? she doesn't already have a habit yet, does she? otherwise, i thought she performed well enough to get through this round.
justin -- i don't like justin, i'll say that now. he apparently has a weak falsetto and a trite manner with the audience (those fucking winks). others have been nastier elsewhere, but i'll be kind here: he looks more like sideshow mel. still, i respect him because he knows his audience -- mostly teenage girls -- and he knows the tried and true methods of whipping them into a frenzy. if the voting demographics trend towards young females, he's got it sewed up.
tamyra -- she looks great, she sings very well. ideally, she'll win the competition.
nikki -- i really liked nikki. like liked nikki. and i don't mind the kid, but the ex-husband...at her age...no good -- the engagement is off. and simon was right, she did look like she had a daytime tv makeover. i hope she gets through because she does have some grit in her vocals even though "ben" ("BEN"!) didn't really allow her to express that. and she's still kinda hot.
ejay & kelly -- they're like the low-rent justin and tamyra. both of them sing as well as that pair (ejay may have the best voice in the competition) but, again, simon said it well when he stated that ejay wasn't an american idol. he has absolutely no stage presence -- when i saw him performing at six flags on his little film, it all made perfect sense. kelly is a very nice girl, but her voice, though powerful, is also kinda forgettable. like anastacia, another woman who got her break on a tv show (mtv's the cut, if you've forgotten, hosted by the late lisa lopes.) unfortunately, kelly isn't as hot as anastacia. but, in kelly's favor, i bet she knows all the words to the anthem.
christina -- christina is very nice, and simon seems to agree. unlucky for her, he doesn't get the final say. she won't be eliminated until very late when there aren't enough people around to shield her from the fact that she's the favorite of a very few.
r.j. -- almost forgot him, though i've totally forgotten his performance, which isn't a good sign. didn't seem to make the most of his second chance. he should be the next to go.

in general:
-i'd like to see the male singers grow some fucking balls. (but, being a baritone, i would say that.) all of the women are ballsier than any one of them -- with the exception of christina, who probably wouldn't even say "balls."
-paula needs to stop being so damn nice.
-i actually do hope ryan seacrest and brian dunkelman get voted off. (the latter reminds me of a cartoon character i can't quite recall; the former, baywatch's david chokachi.)

bottom line: jim and a.j. have to go. (more music commentary to come, i promise.)
posted by fred solinger 4:36 PM

 
no, that dexy's review is all wrong. it should've gone like this:
32. there would be no place for kevin rowland in the neo-soul movement. he doesn't worship at the shrine of donny hathaway, and he believes that soul existed prior to 1972. he also knows that soul is sweaty, loud, passionate, and very often undignified, traits unbecoming to your average boho-soulster, with their fender rhodes and their chai lattes. his search today would turn up precious little. raphael saadiq. d'angelo. still, he (and i!) know they're out there, but where are they hiding?
posted by fred solinger 1:21 PM

 
comments on 40-31
40. for the most part, as quiet as nick drake, but not fragile: ephemeral.
39. the only zeppelin album i can listen to straight through (even "the crunge"!), amazing for a band with a storied inclination for lapses in taste.
38. sure, the comeback special was a success, but once he announced his return, he couldn't go back to singing "wooden heart" (its influence on bryan ferry's vocals notwithstanding), could he? so he went back to memphis and sang eddy arnold, burt bacharach, john hartford, and gamble & huff like they came from the same hymnal.
37. years of backpacking across europe and singing brel turned him into the songwriter he always wanted to be, but, with his worst chart performance of the 60s, apparently no one was listening. except bowie, ferry, almond, cave, cope, etc.
36. this album has been dropping in my estimation (while new morning rises), but i'll say this for it: it makes me laugh, unusual for a rock record (and even more unusual with "comedy" rock records. which i hate).
35. ages me everytime i hear it, but too lovely to ignore. evokes closing time at a border honky tonk, one couple left on the dancefloor.
34. takes murmur and cranks up the volume, while maintaining the intimacy and melancholy on songs like "camera" and "time after time." simply, their best set of songs.
33. it's interesting that his soundtrack albums, which come with a built-in storyline, tend to be the most all over the place. this one, gloriously so. filmed in panavision and, unlike the film, in technicolor.
32. people who hate this album say it's due to kevin rowland; people who love it say the same. yeah, he's pretentious and affected, but he's also terribly sincere and unafraid of standing before the firing squad, heart in hand. he also had the good sense to make the world's first punk rock soul album.
31. each velvet album seemed to have spawned a different genre (alternative, noise, twee), except for the last, the vu album for classic rock fans. so convincing, in fact, that it fooled fm programmers into thinking that "rock n' roll" and "sweet jane" were hits. and now they are.
posted by fred solinger 12:24 PM

7.16.2002