We’ve been driving around
a lot since we arrived, and I’ve learned that Boston rock radio stations have
two basic settings: a) songs which belong on a mixtape somebody made for your
high school reunion: when you hear them for the first time in a long time, they
have kind of a thrilling, guilty-pleasure quality to them, but after multiple listens
within a narrow window they become horrifically tedious; and b) songs from a
band called “Aerosmith.”
Setting a) includes tunes
like “Back in Black,” by AC/DC. As a
red-blooded American male, I shamelessly concede that the hi-hat-plus-muted-power-chord
count-in before the triumphant opening Emaj always gets my motor running, but
by the time the third solo rolls in, and Brian Johnson is pummeling you with his
umpteenth “HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY,” you realize there’s a reason you don’t
spin this record at home so often.
Same goes for tracks
like “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “Eye of the Tiger.” They possess a certain loin-tugging allure,
but after hearing them for the tenth time in a single weekend, you’re ready to
steer your car into Fresh Pond. “Cum on
Feel the Noize,” “The Final Countdown,” “I Want You to Want Me:” the list goes
on and on. Or rather, it doesn’t,
because the list only has a few dozen songs on it.
Don’t get me wrong: these
are all great rock performances (okay, maybe not “The Final Countdown”). And far be it from me to doubt the
magnetism of Robin Zander or the charisma of Rick Nielsen. The point is not that these aren’t good songs;
it’s just that IMHO there are other songs worth spending time with. And it makes me wonder about the mentality of the supposed listener. Are there really
people out there whose aren’t interested in hearing anything recorded after the
first Bush administration?
Of course, it’s not
called commercial radio by accident.
The playlist is curated purely and specifically to lubricate the wheels
of commerce – to keep the listener engaged long enough to make it to and through
the next batch of ads. Classic rock targets
demographics (Boomers and older Gen Xers) who
spend a lot of money. And I imagine
that, by delivering a steady infusion of songs which those demographics associate
with their teenage years, the program directors are seeking to push certain buttons. Buttons which might be labeled “freedom,” “fun,”
“sex,” “drugs,” etc.
Still, those listeners
have other choices, especially nowadays.
So why is that a market like Boston can still support a good half-dozen
classic rock stations, even when a gazillion other songs are only a Bluetoothable
phone swipe away? I suspect that some
people simply like to be reminded of what it felt like to be 16, especially
while sitting in a mind-numbing commute.
Nostalgia for lost youth is good business.
As I put my top ten list together for 2020, I realize there’s an undercurrent of music snobbery
going on here. As if, by faithfully sitting
through a bunch of albums made by people who are closer to my daughters’ ages
than to mine, I demonstrate my superiority over the guy who Pavlovianly cranks up the volume at the opening bars to “Love in an Elevator." A strong case could be made that the same
quest-for-lost-youth/fear-of-death is motivating both of us.
More importantly: rest
in peace to the lead
guitar player for the first band I ever saw live, and who pretty much single-handedly
redeems any classic rock playlists he's on. Thankfully, he's on all of ‘em.
My listening schedule
was truncated this year by our move to the US, but I still managed to cobble
together a Critics Poll ballot for 2020.
Top Ten Albums of
2020
10. Kiwi Jr. -- Football Money
You listen to this and
you realize that Pavement took themselves much too seriously.
9. Andy Shauf -- The Neon Skyline
Linear narrative indie
folk rock. Vocals bear more than a passing
resemblance to Paul Simon
8. The Beths -- Jump Rope Gazers
Seems at first like a
fairly standard power-pop quartet fronted by a woman, and then it occurs to you
that she’s singing melodies which remind you of someone, and that someone is
Joni Mitchell. The band is also
super-tight. I see that they’re Kiwis, and this year this does seem to be the
year for quality releases from ANZAC acts.
The video for “Dying to Believe” is also great.
7. Peter Oren -- The Greener Pasture
Indiana baritone sings about horses and cows, which you might expect, and about humanity and technology, which you might not. The subjects collide beautifully in the album cover art, a cattle ranch envisioned by Sim City, and by “Don’t Eat Their Feed,” which is not actually about hormones and antibiotics in cattle feed. Or is it?
6. Sarah Walk -- Another Me
This feels like it’s not at all my genre, mainly because I am not a lesbian, but I found this irresistible. I love her singing voice, and she employs a nifty trick of riding on the same note with the vocals while chords are changing underneath (this worked pretty well for John Lennon). Tim Merle’s drumming is also outstanding, even though he only plays on like 2 songs.
5. Morrissey -- I Am Not a Dog on a Chain
I understand that we
are supposed to disapprove of Morrissey now, because of things he’s said about
Brexit or something. I'm sorry to say I haven’t been
paying attention to all that, but I can say that when it comes to how one
should consider mass media, or one’s mortality, the Moz is still worth a listen.
4. Poppy -- I Disagree
Like the demonic love child of Mr. Bungle and Girls’ Generation. At first glance, she might seem like she’s trying to ride in the slipstream of the latest Harley Quinn major motion picture release. But the songs are really good, and the backing band is really, really good. Not something I’d listen to on a quiet, rainy Sunday afternoon, but this demands attention, in the same way a carjacker demands attention.
3. Silvana Estrada -- Lo Sagrado
I want to call this
deconstructed Mexican music. The
elements are there – female vocalist in Spanish, acoustic guitar, cowbell,
horns – but played and arranged in a way that lets something extremely special
breathe through. And the songs are
gorgeous. And the guitar player (who
evidently plays a guitar with like 26 strings on it) is amazing. And the drummer is incredible. The album is not called “The Sacred” for
nothing.
Postscript: the day before we left Switzerland, I was giving a ride to a young brass musician to whom we had given a washing machine and some furniture that we wouldn’t be taking with us. We struck up a conversation, and, upon hearing that he was Mexican, I put this on the car stereo. After a few bars, he said, “Ah I know her. Silvana was my brother’s girlfriend for a while at music school.” Mundo pequeño.
2. Elizabeth Cook -- Aftermath
Evidently this woman
has been singing at the Opry for two decades, but this is closer to Kula Shaker
than Roseann Cash. Overdriven vox,
tight-but-not-uptight backing band, and lyrics that sound like they’ve been
written by someone with some actual Life Experiences.
1. Tame Impala -- The Slow Rush
This isn’t my favorite
Tame Impala album. It might not even be
my second-favorite. But Kevin Parker’s
grooves have a way of insinuating themselves into your consciousness, and in
retrospect, it seems inevitable that an album about time a would end up on top in 2020.
Bonus content for all
you lovers out there: my notes on the listening schedule below. Caveat emptor.
* = recommended
070 Shake – Modus
Vivendi
I didn’t realize until
side 2 that the artist was a woman and not a man, and it forced me to
recalibrate my assessment of this.
Initially I was thinking this was ersatz The Weeknd with a strong 808s
and Heartbreak influence, which it still is to some extent. But for some reason the story of betrayal and
relationship-collapse lands differently when it’s a woman singing about
it. The converse was true when Leo
Marochioli covered “Poker Face.”
*2ndGrade – Hit
To Hit
GBV meet the
Minutemen, with a nod to Real Estate up the Turnpike. Melodies which climb to the top of the water
tower to gaze at the landscape, before unzipping the backpack to get at the
mixed beer cans individually smuggled out of their parents’ fridge.
Angela Aguilar – Baila
Esta Cumbia
She’s got a great
voice, but the rich, creamy sauce of horns, strings, and accordion are laid on
a bit too thick for my taste. Listening
to Francophone radio over here, one often encounters accordions, and these
meetings typically don’t go well.
* Ingrid Andress – Lady
Like
This comes up as “country” on Apple Music, and there’s a wisp of pedal steel on the opening track to orient the listener just in case, but this does not get bogged down in genre stereotypes (she in fact decries the shortcomings of drinking one’s problems away, which is especially welcome). High-quality singer-songwriter stuff in which every relationship is complicated, which hard-hitting couplets like: “Love me or don’t / But you can’t do both”
Fiona Apple – Fetch
The Bolt Cutters
I tried like seven
times to listen to this during the course of 2020, and for one reason or
another I never made it past the third track.
* Vanessa Carlton –
Love Is an Art
One of those female
singer/songwriters whose vocals are recorded with that technique that allows you
to experience every glottal stop as if you were inside her glottal. She grew on me over the course of the album,
and I think she’s at her best when she’s channeling her inner Tori Amos. The piano playing is very good, too.
Gus Dapperton – Orca
Kind of like the Early
November, but after all the distortion pedals had been confiscated. All those emo guys are really theater kids at
heart.
Lana Del Rey – Violet
Bent Backwards Over the Grass
You won’t find this on
Apple Music, because it’s not music per se.
Del Rey released a book of poetry this year, and this is her reading it
over a bed of incidental, reverbed-out electric piano, through what sounds like
an iPhone in her backyard, where the whoosh of traffic and/or the ocean can
also be heard. I happened to read a lot
of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes this year, and with those two as a reference,
Del Rey’s poems are a bit hit-or-miss, but I’m sure her fans are devouring this
like those chocolate-covered açai berries from CVS.
* Lupe Fiasco &
Kaelin Ellis – House
Like the ultra-smart
guy in your freshman dorm who talked about the cosmos and was stoned a lot, but
who was still a really sympathetic character.
Hyper-intelligent and -observant rapping about metaphoric dinosaurs and
shilling on the Internet and covid, over somniferent beats. Guest starring architect and designer Virgil
Abloh, who squeezes every last drop out of the “soul/sole” homophone,
* Carly Rae Jepsen
– Dedication Side B
In CRJ’s world,
romantic relationships aren’t at all complicated. And I suppose there’s a certain point in
every romantic relationship in which things are bright and pleasant and
optimistic and you can’t imagine why it wouldn’t stay like that forever, and
during those times it’s best not to think about it too much and just enjoy it
while it lasts. An interesting contrast
to Ingrid Andress.
Tkay Maidza – Last
Year Was Weird, Vol. 2
Quality singing and
rapping from an Australian by way of Zimbabwe, or vice-versa. She hits her stride around mid-album, topped
by the barn-burning “Shook.” Brimming
with talent, but I fear she has nothing much to say, and there should be a
one-per-album limit on ending a couplet with “tetris.”
Megan Thee Stallion
– Good News
It’s “of a piece” with
“W.A.P.,” though the album doesn’t quite reach the raunchy glory of the single,
and a full-length becomes extremely tiring.
Her producer’s incessant employment of her vocal quirk of saying “aaah”
like there’s a tongue depressor (or, um, something) jammed into her throat
becomes anxiety-triggering after a while.
Mildlife – Automatic
Psychedelic, groovy,
experimental – all qualities which would normally float my boat. And yet: trying to impersonate Pink Floyd,
much less Tame Impala, is not the sure thing one might think it is. These guys can certainly play, but I got the
feeling, somewhere between the flute solo and the Al Jarreau guitar/scat bit,
that they were showing off.
Roisin Murphy – Roisin
Machine
I was happy to see
everyone’s favorite insane Irish disco queen back at it, evidently with some
strong label support. I really wanted to
love this, and there are some bright moments (“Kingdom of Ends,”
“Gamechanger”), but too often this sounds like standard-issue EDM.
* Nas – King’s
Disease
Like Philip Roth in
his last decades, Nas has nothing left to prove to anyone, yet he still
delivers high-quality stuff that you want to engage with. My only gripe is with the production, which
sounds a little tinny, but it could have been a headphone issue. Also, as a gout sufferer myself (it runs in
the family), I appreciate Nas’s advice on the lemongrass and cherries.
* Open Mike Eagle –
Anime, Trauma and Divorce
Deft rapping over
backwards-sounding backing tracks. “WTF
Is Self-Care?” an early front-runner for funniest song of the year.
The Proper
Ornaments – Mission Bells
I listened to this
while taking one of the cats to the douane to pay the fee that his breeder
should have paid when he (the cat) originally entered Switzerland from Slovakia
where he was born, without which we wouldn’t be able to take him to the US in 9
days, a scenario I don’t even wish to imagine, and which was probably not the
ideal set of conditions for listening to this album. Some interesting chord changes, but I believe
the artist you are looking for is The Clientele.
Caroline Rose – Superstar
Mostly
keyboard-driven, mostly danceable pop music.
The Apple Music notes say this is some sort of concept album, but it
mainly reminded me of the music I used to hear through my gay neighbor’s door
in the mid-90’s. Great bass playing
though, although I can’t find who’s playing, despite extensive googling.
Troye Sivan – In
A Dream
Like the love child of
Justin Bieber and James Blake.
Soccer Mommy – Color
Theory
Young indie-ish
singer-songwriter who strains to hit the high notes now and then, but is
otherwise fine to have on while you’re cooking dinner. “Yellow is the color of her eyes” is a great
song. She’s right to let those chord
changes go on for 7 minutes. Good candidate
for should be sent to the minors, etc.
The Streets – None
Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive
I first need to get
over my need to grammar edit the album title: to change the “Are” to “Is,” and
to delete “Life.” Mike Skinner is back
on the horse, with some bumping electro keyboard and trademark ambivalence
about phones and the people who use them.
He sounds a little tired, but don’t we all at this point.
The Strokes – The
New Abnormal
What does one do when
the denim and swagger starts to wear thin?
Retreat to 80’s synth and guitar sounds perhaps, or try to sing like
Bono? I feel like they may be onto
something with the last couple of ballad-y tracks, but it felt like a slog to
get there.
Taylor Swift – Folklore
A convincing Liz Phair
impersonation, from the laid-back throatiness of her delivery to the carefully
placed f-bombs. This being Taylor Swift,
I’m not sure if I totally buy the casual act, but the songs are certainly good
enough. Oh, look, she just dropped
another album this year as well. I
suppose one can only make so much sourdough.
Devon Williams – A
Tear in The Fabric
Back in the mid 90’s
when I was playing in a band in New York City, we would usually be booked with
four or five other acts, each of which would get around 45-minute sets. One night I remember there was another band
playing which was clearly filled with music school guys: they were all very
good at their instruments, and they were a bit older than the rest of us (the
bass player was probably pushing 40). They
had a bald drummer, who from time to time would wink at the bass player. The songs weren’t terribly good, and it
seemed to me like there was something very intentional about them, if that
makes any sense. Anyway, for some reason
this Devon Williams album reminded me of them.
Fans of The Church and Geddy Lee’s low notes might find this
interesting.
* Hayley Williams –
Petals For Armor
I’ve never really
gotten into Paramore, so I don’t feel like I have the proper context to
approach this. Her people seem to have
listened to some St. Vincent over recent years, and it sounds pretty damn great
in these new Shure headphones I borrowed from my wife. I’m not sure if she has anything interesting
to say, but I recommend this for the drum textures alone.
