Just some thoughts

I haven't gotten around to writing a whole lot lately and I really want to start back up again.  I'll probably do another music review around the corner at some point here, but for now I just want to talk about... stuff.  I wanted to note an artist in particular I've been thinking about a lot lately: Eminem.  A whole lot of controversy swirls around Eminem, but regardless, I think he's an incredible rapper.  Yeah, he's losing a bit of his flair and originality, but he's still a lot of fun to listen too.  An album that's grown on me a lot is "The Marshall Mathers LP" mainly because its when he was at his prime.  He was still the angsty, angry white rapper that he stepped into the spotlight as in "The Slim Shady LP" and is just starting to realize his potential which was most clearly seen at the height of his career in his 2002 release "The Eminem Show." 

The first time I heard Eminem was at Sam Goody,  an old music chain that was shut down a few years ago.  They played music videos in the store a lot, most of them didn't catch my attention at a whopping ten-years-old, but Eminem's video for his first hit single "My Name Is" is an animated cartoon.  Automatically I remembered Eminem.  The next time I experienced Eminem was through his appearance on Dr. Dre's song "Forgot About Dre."  This was actually the first rap verse that I learned and I learned it in 6th grade.  "Now days everybody wanna talk/ But they got nothin' to say/ 'Cause nothin' comes out when they move their lips/ Just a bunch of gibberish/ Well, mother fuckers that's because the forgot about Dre."  Even now I still remember it. 

After this I payed attention to him a little bit, but not a whole lot.  It wasn't really until about the release of "The Eminem Show" that I really started to listen to Eminem.  I memorized all the words to "The Real Slim Shady"  and I knew at least the chorus to several other songs.  After his "Encore" release in 2004, however, I started to get a little annoyed with Eminem.  He had started moving towards the pop scene; his songs didn't have that same edgy and angry feel that I loved; I started to really get annoyed with him.  "8 Mile" didn't really help either, seeing as how he had blown up into this mainstream artist.  Everyone was asking me if I had heard of Eminem and I was getting sick of it because I had started listening to him about 5 years earlier.  I stopped listening to Eminem for a long time

It wasn't until last year, my freshman year in college, that I remembered him.  He hadn't done anything in a long time and part of me was happy about that.  I went home the same day I thought about him and I got a few of his older albums, "The Marshall Mathers LP" among them.  Not until I actually listened to this album all the way through did I realize that I had actually already listened to it a long time ago.  At one point in time, a friend of mine bought it, listening to it over and over again, the song "Criminal" in particular.

I've started listening to Eminem again more recently and "The Marshall Mathers LP" has really impressed me.  Lyrically, Eminem has always been great.  His controversial subject matter has always pushed the envelope, Eminem even goes as far to add recorded phone messages from his producer on his album saying how he doesn't know how he's going to sell the album.  Eminem has always had a knack for being a comedian, but its really his hard, edgy approach to rap that makes him great. He not only pushes the social boundaries for rap content, but he pushes it personally.  He talks about killing his ex-wife, Kim, and bringing his daughter Hallie along while he does it.  On another note though, in "Stan," he acknowledges the sort of effect that his music can have on people and tries to tell  them that its just him messing around.

I don't think that Eminem is the best rapper of all time, but he's definitely in my top 5 personal favorite rappers.  He's a lot of fun to listen to and if his angry and often disturbing lyrical content doesn't bother you, I would definitely recommend listening to him.  He's not like many other artists and in all honesty, there haven't been any other white rappers have even come close to Eminem's success.  His newer stuff isn't great, but some of it is still worth a listen.  Out of all of his albums, I would recommend "The Marshall Mathers LP" and "The Eminem Show" because that is the true Eminem that originally rose to fame out of Amityville.

Blog Battle?

So it turns out that my friend Colin at Adrift and At Peace has decided to derail my recent Spoon reviews saying that I'm defending them "based on a number of arbitrary criteria that don't seem to have a whole lot to do with the music Spoon released..."  Fair enough, fair enough.  I'm not saying that Metacritic is the be all and end all of music reviews, however, they are a credible source for them.  They average reviews from several credible sources and give listeners a mean to go off of.  I know that I personally use it not only as a way to figure out if I should spend my time on a certain video game based upon several credible sources, but I also use it to find new artists that have received high reviews (Fionn Regan, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and Citay among them).  Metacritic hasn't let me down so far and I'm going to keep using them and I would still recommend them to everyone.  It just so happened that their "Band of the Decade" turned out to be a band that has grown on me over the past three years.  

I would recommend that if you get a chance, read Colin's review of TV on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain."  Seeing as how I have listened to this, but am unable to review every single thing I listen to, he's a good source to go to as well.  I would argue him in concerns to TVotR being the band of the decade and I would even further argue "Return" being the album of the decade, however both are strong contenders.  I mainly took advantage of Metacritic naming Spoon as band of the decade as an opportunity to highlight some of their albums over the past ten years.  I will finish my three part review of Spoon with their 2010 release of "Transference," however, afterward I will do some research and come up with MY own choice for album of the decade and maybe we'll have another rebuttal from Colin.  Hey, this could be fun.  Either way, you're getting to know about more and more good music, right?  Keep watching, this could get interesting.

EDIT:  I've decided that narrowing down my album of the decade would be too difficult, so I'm going to split it up into a few different artists of the decade in their respective genres.  As of right now, I'm not sure how many I will cover, but I will definitely cover the following: Hip-hop/ Rap and Indie/ Alternative.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know, and I will definitely take them into consideration.

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga ga ga ga...

Time to move onto part two of three of my Spoon artist review.  This review is for Spoon's 2007 release "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" (great title, I know), the album that made me fall in love with them .  The album received an overall Metascore of 84, with a 91 from Entertainment Weekly and an 80 from Rolling Stone (much better than the 60 Rolling Stone gave "Kill the Moonlight").  Although Spoon's rating from "Kill the Moonlight" drops a bit, they still fall within the "great" standing with "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga".  They still keep their unique style, balancing a rock and ambient styling.  The opening song, "Don't Make Me A Target," really eases you into their style with a slow rock beat that reminds you of the Spoon you heard in "Killing the Moonlight."  The lyrics in this album are still creative with verses such as "Here come a man from the star/ We don't know why he goes so far/ And he keep on marching along beating his drum."  Spoon still manages to keep this song relatively minimalistic with their lyrics.  Its not a huge ballad song, but the song stretches itself out with various instrumental segments (one piano piece in particular that speeds up the tempo of the song) and simple, yet deep lyrics.

The pace of the album keeps sort of a medium pace for the next few songs and then gets a little groovy with "Don't You Evah."  This song for me really expresses who Spoon is as a band.  They have fun playing music; they mess around with their sound, but still keep true to who they are; they care about making music and love it.  Lyrics such as "Bet you never think it feels right/ Famous-sounding words make your head feel light" really express how Spoon feels (or so I can imagine).  They experiment with their sound constantly and some times its sounds a little weird at first; you don't really feel like they're still Spoon; you don't feel like they're keeping true to themselves.  In the end though, its still the same old Spoon I love to listen to and their "famous-sounding words make [my] head feel light" (cheesy, cheesy, I know, I know). 

To really emphasize how much Spoon likes to experiment with their music, you have to listen to "Eddie's Ragga."  At the beginning of the song there's a few sound effects and some synthesizing.  Throughout the song, the sound effects drop out, but the synthesizing creeps in every now and again like a ghost.  Furthermore, Daniel's sings two different tracks instead of having a back-up vocalist which gives the song a sort of eerie feel.  The double voice over of Daniel really bring his style of singing out and this is really his song of emphasis on the album.  "Eddie's Ragga" leads into a trumpet accompanied song, "The Underdog," which really gives Spoon that alternative rock feel.  However, right after this, Spoon plays another sort of "out there" experimental song, "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case."  This song has many voice over tracks with Daniel, much like in "Eddie's Ragga."  This song, if any on the album, has a very minimal amount of lyrics, with only six lines of lyrics that are repeated throughout the song.  The instrumentals within the song are very diverse and include a few instruments that aren't common to the band (a sitar-esque instrument comes in towards the end of the track).  

The ninth track on the song definitely shows that Spoon can be more complex lyrically.  "Finer Feelings" talks about how many people, lacking love in their lives, often look for it in other places.  In concerns to this song, they look for it through commercialism: "Sometimes I think that I'll find a love/ One that's gonna change my heart/ I'll find it in Commercial Appeal/ And then this heartache will get chased away."  This verses make it seem as though this song is really personal to Daniel.  He makes it sound as though he's been looking for love everywhere and then suddenly, when he "was dreaming in the driver's seat/ When the right words just came to [him]/ And all [his] finer feelings came up."  Although commercial appeal could stand for a material love, it may also be the case that "Commercial Appeal" is a sort of code word for a person.  Spoon really pours themselves into this song, much more so than any of their other songs.  The personal tone, however, is not solely within "Finer Feelings," but there is also a very personal touch in the final song of the album, "Black Like Me."  The sole line that expresses this is repeated several times throughout the song: "I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight."

Although Spoon tends to successfully have very minimalistic lyrics like in "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case," in this album they show that they can also have very personal and complex lyrical songs like "Finer Feelings" and "Black Like Me."  This album doesn't have the same vast diversity in playing style and sound like "Kill the Moonlight", Spoon manages to find a tone that fits them and they seem to not be experimenting around as much.  However, this experimental aspect of Spoon that has really helped them to stand out, has not completely disappeared and can be seen in songs like "Eddie's Ragga" (which would have to be my favorite on the album).  Again, although weaker than "Kill the Moonlight," Spoon still produces a strong album and continues to produce quality music.  Overall,  I'll have to give Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga an 88.

Kill the Moonlight

"One of these days Alice, pow!  Straight to the Moon!"

Let me first start this by reiterating that Spoon is Metacritics band of the decade from 2000-2009.  Now, let me explain to you what they had to do to achieve that standing.  There are three criteria to be in the running for band of the decade: (1) The band must have released at least 3 albums from 2000-09; (2) At least two of those albums must be "great" (a Metascore of 81 or higher); and (3) the average (mean) Metascore for all of their releases from the decade must also be an 81 or higher.  In saying that, Spoon edged out the next closest competitor, Sigur Ros, by 1.8 points.  They released a total of 4 albums within this time, all 4 of them receiving a "great " status.  The last album to my three part review (Transference), however, was released in February of 2010 and is not included within the decade score.  In saying that, onto "Kill the Moonlight."

"Kill the Moonlight" is the best reviewed album of the decade for Spoon, receiving an overall Metascore of 88 in 2002, receiving a perfect score of 100 from Entertainment weekly and an 80 from Billboard.  If anybody has ever heard a Spoon song, its most likely from "Kill the Moonlight."  The song they've heard?  The upbeat, fun-loving, "The Way We Get By".  After hearing this song, most would assume Spoon to be one of those upbeat alternative-rock, slightly indie bands, however, if anyone has ever listened to any of their albums, they would know better.  The thing that makes Spoon so great is not only their variety in song "feeling", but playing style.  

One minute, you listen to "Jonathon Fisk" and definitely get a rock feel from them, with a constant guitar strum in the background accompanied by a four count drum beat. The lyrics "Just like a knife, down on my life/ so many ways to set it right" in particular have that rock feel.  However, if you listen to the song just before that, "Stay Don't Go," you would almost think you're listening to an entirely different band were it not for lead singer Britt Daniel's unique singing style.  "Stay Don't Go" definitely has more of a trance feel with some simple synthesizing and a looping beat box in the background, which, surprisingly, never gets irritating.  When compared to the complicated lyrics of "Jonathon Fisk," the lyrics of "Stay Don't Go" are surprising minimalistic, the chorus consisting of only three lines: "Confession is stay don't go/ ooh it is/ ooh let's stay don't go."  Spoon manages to keep their own unique flavor and radically change their playing style at the same time, which makes them such a joy to listen to over and over again.

Remember the rock feel I said you got from "Jonathon Fisk"?  Well, that changes immediately afterward with "Paper Tiger."  In this song Spoon has a hybrid of "Jonathon Fisk"'s complicated lyrics and the minimalist style of "Stay Don't Go."  There are only two verses and the chorus, the chorus only said twice, once after the first verse and once before the second.  The band gives you a break in between verses with a repetitive, yet ambient instrumental section.  "Paper Tiger" definitely gives Spoon that softer feel that compliments their more upbeat songs like "The Way We Get By" and "Someone Something".  Balancing out the upbeat rock songs is the more ambient, almost dark toned "All The Pretty Girls Go To City" (which is competing with "Stay Don't Go" for my favorite song on the album).  The song definitely has a bouncy quality with the running bass line, the accompanying piano, and Daniel's repetition of "do d-do d-do".  The way Daniel sings the lyrics makes it sound like sort of a fun, bouncy song, but the lyrics reveal that the song is about young girls going out to the city acting older then they are.  Although the lyrics are subtle and simple, they're poetic in the sense that the say so much with so little.

The last song I have to talk about is "Vittorio E."  This song tops out the album perfectly.  It gives you the feeling that you're almost watching the band rehearsing before a show.  Daniel counts out the beat before hand; the guitarist loses count and has to start over; Daniel's voice echos like he's in an auditorium or studio.  The song later picks up a bit and gives a more lighthearted feeling; the choir chimes in late, almost reminiscent of The Beatles "Because".  The song progresses into a final piece, not just some jam session between the band members.  This song really helps to balance their rock vs. softer feel along with "Paper Tiger" and others.

Other tracks that I love that I couldn't get around to are "Back to Life," "Don't Let It Get You Down," and "You Gotta Feel It."  In all honesty, every song on this album is great and I'm sad that I can't talk individually about each song.  However, each song I talked about should give you a good feel for the album and the band itself and hopefully will convince you to give it a listen.  Overall, I give the album a high score of 95.  Its perfect in almost every way.  Here's to Spoon and here's to the first third of my defense as to why they're the best band of the decade.

Identity is the theft of the self...

So, I know I've been slacking with the music reviews as of lately, but I thought I would talk about something a little different.  I've been working on a project concerning identity.  I took mug shots of myself in several different personas: the army vet, the "wangsta", the cross dresser, the ski bum, etc.  I had a lot of fun with project and although I'm primarily a painter and a drawer, this is probably one of my favorite projects that I've ever done.  Dressing up as each character was fun and although the 8"x10" photos cost a lot of money, it was totally worth it.  Something my teacher talked a lot about today was scale.  Some people had around 20 photos, some around 8 or 10, but they were all 4"x6" and they really just didn't have much of a presence or impact when they were just stuck on the wall.  I had 24 8"x10" pictures, with the pair of mugshots for each of the 12 personas glued to a manila folder.  I had three rows of 4 "case files" and overall it was probably around 6' wide and about 3' tall.  This is how it looked when it was presented:

 

Luckily I had a tiny, tiny, tiny background in stage make-up from doing drama in high school, so doing make-up on myself wasn't awful.  The only thing that was bad was for the upper left photo (the army vet) I put an apple cinnamon teabag all over my face to make it more red and dirty.  Let me tell you, never EVER EVER do that; it burns like shit. I'm really getting into this whole photography thing right now and I'm really liking doing projects with it.  My last project had photos in it as well, but this project was infinitely more successful.  I like it because it really lets the viewer ask, "Who is this person?  Why were they arrested?  Do any of these resemble the artist as they actually see themselves?"  None of these questions can be answered just by looking at the piece.  That's the way I wanted it, ambiguous.  Ask yourself who you are, what your identity is.  The quote I have as the title of this entry is the title of the piece as well: "Identity is the Theft of the Self".  You have to ask yourself, "Is my identity who I really am or who I want to be/ who other people want me to be/ who I want to be for other people?"  Only you yourself truly know who you are.  No one else can even come close to knowing yourself as intimately as you do.

Now, I know there's some die-hard readers of mine who are anxious for another music review, so, I'll fill you in.  Over the course of this week, I will be highlighting my finally decided favorite band (as of right now).  This band is Metacritic's band of the decade: Spoon.  I will be doing a three piece, three album review over "Kill the Moonlight" (2002), "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" (2007), and "Transference" (2010).  I'll most likely post the first of these on Wednesday.  See you then!

Hugh

PS - If anyone wants to see any close-ups of the mug shots, just leave a comment and I'll post a few.

The Shadow of an Empire

 

"Do you like dags?"

Sorry, I had to quote Snatch there, the guy's Irish.  Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan just recently released his follow-up album to his 2006 "The End of Histroy," which was nominated for a Mercury Prize.  Released on February 8th, 2010, Fionn Regan falls into a mess of genres, ranging from rock, alternative, indie, and singer-songwriter.  He received an overall Metacritic score of 82 and a BBC Music score of 80. 

Fionn Regan's new album is a lot of fun.  It starts with the very upbeat "Protection Racket," but he's not just some pop junkie.  He's true to his rock and alternative roots, while maintaining a sort of indie feel.  The one thing that really impresses me about him is that you can tell that he's passionate about what he's doing.  He takes pride in singing the lyrics, playing the guitar tabs, and just creating music overall.  His sound is very original, and I can't manage to really connect him firmly to anybody else.  A few of his songs are a bit reminiscent of Modest Mouse and some of the back beats (guitar and drums in particular) sound a bit like The Fratellis.  

Each song has its own individual flair to it and definitely stands out among the album as a whole.  However, each song isn't so diverse from the one that preceded it that it feels like there's absolutely no connection.  There are no awkward transitions between songs, in fact they all seem to lead into one each other seamlessly, mainly because of Regan's unique sound; that is the one thing that is present in each and every song.  "Genocide Matinee" and "Violent Demeanour" probably have the most radical jump within the album.  "Genocide Matinee" is fast paced and almost furious in its message, whereas "Violent Demeanour" is a more slow paced lamentation.  Although these songs are back to back and one notices a radical change in the pace of the album, Regan manages to make a smooth transition, his unique style and voice as the bridge. 

The album as a whole, if it really conveys anything is his passion for music and how much he wants to stand out from within the music community.  He does this successfully.  He's definitely something new and although he may sound like a lot of indie bands coming out of the wood works right now, he manages to intertwine alternative and rock, with his indie flair, to successfully stand out from the crowd.  Songs like "Lines Written in Winter" and "Lord Help My Poor Soul" really show an insight into the artist's passion for writing his own music and lyrics.  Songs like "Protection Racket" and "House Detective" really show how much fun Regan is having with his music; you can really tell he's doing something he cares about.  Overall, Regan has a really unique style, standing out from what's currently out there, but manages to not change it too radically and to mix genres that are relatively similar to one another.  If you're interested in trying something new that's fun to listen to and is a quick listen, I would definitely recommend this.  The Shadow of the Empire gets an 85 from me.

Take a listen here.

Crazy Heart OST

"Life, unfortunately"

If you haven't seen Crazy Heart yet, you should.  If you haven't heard of Crazy Heart yet, I don't know where you've been (Jeff Bridges is nominated for an Oscar, come on).  Seldom do I go see a movie and after having seen it say, "I have to have that sound track."  In fact, its only happened with three movies: Atonement, Wanted, and Crazy Heart.  Atonement has a great score and is a really beautiful soundtrack.  I originally got the Wanted sound track because at the very start of the song it has a NIN song from "With Teeth".  Unfortunately, that song isn't on the OST, and everything else in it isn't particularly intriguing.  Crazy Heart was the third.  To give you a bit of a feel for the movie, it stars Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, a washed up country star who has resorted to singing in bars and bowling alleys.  Another young country star, Tommy (Colin Farrell), is Bad Blake's protege, supposedly learned everything he knows from Bad Blake, and is a huge country star.  Blake refuses to write new songs and therefore continues to play his old hits, none of which can snag him an up scale venue.  Blake also deals with a drinking problem through out the entire movie, which, if anyone has seen it, reminds viewers of last year's academy hit "The Wrestler".  Later in the movie he meets Jean Craddock, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is an aspiring journalist.  When she asks him where his his songs come from, Bad Blake simply responds, "Life, unfortunately," as he pours himself a bottle of whiskey.

The OST for Crazy Heart has an incredible compilation of songs from both the actors in the movie as well as several country stars, including Buck Owens, The Louvin Brothers, Ryan Bingham, Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt, Sam Phillips, and a special appearance by Lightnin' Hopkins, a country blues artist from the late 50s to the late 60s.  The originals from the movie are done by Jeff Bridges, Collin Farrell, and an a capella performance by Robert Duvall.  To start out, I need to say that anyone who knows me will say that I listen to any type of music except for country.  I still hold true to that for the most part; I can't stand the twangy, ear bleeding non-sense.  However, for the most part, all of the country in the Crazy Heart OST I really enjoy.  I think the reason for that is because all but one of the artists (Ryan Bingham) are older country artists, which is definitely more tolerable, at least for me.  The use of these older country artists like Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings really helps to develop the character of Bad Blake.  In the movie, Gyllenhaal conducts an interview with Bridges, asking him who his influences are.  With about a 20-30 year age difference, he lists a few artists she's never heard of.  Bad Blake is true to his old country roots and this can be heard in all of the original songs by Jeff Bridges in the OST. 

The order of the songs also leads you through the story line: in the beginning of the movie, Bridges is happy with his life and refuses to change, which can be heard in the upbeat song "Somebody Else"; he then has to confront issues with his relationship to both Tommy (Ferrell) and Jean (Gyllenhaal), represented by the song "Fallin' & Flyin'"; finally, the second to last song of the album, "Brand New Angel," reflects Blake's difficulty in confronting his long present alcoholism.  Jeff Bridges does an incredible job with each performance and if I had heard this before seeing the movie, not knowing who Jeff Bridges was, I would think he was an old time country star.  Collin Ferrell does a subpar performance with all of his songs, but as far as his character in the movie, Tommy, goes, he does an excellent job.

The album really leads you through the story of Crazy Heart, using Jeff Bridges' songs and Collin Ferrell's, accompanied by Robert Duvall's solo as a means.  The other songs, however, don't detract from this storyline.  After having seen the movie, they really connect to each other and fill in the Bad Blake-less gaps.  The most striking artist among these, however, has to be Lightnin' Hopkins.  Not only is he the only African American artist in the OST, but he's the only true blues artist (in fact, I would call him strictly a blues artist before I would call him a country blues artist).  His song, "Once A Gambler" expresses a huge amount of emotion, and really foreshadows the coming confrontation Bad Blake is going to have with his alcoholism, relating Hopkins' own gambling problem.  

The most stand out performances among the actors definitely has to be Jeff Bridges "Brand New Angel" and Robert Duvall's "Live Forever".  Robert Duvall, surprisingly, does a great job with his solo.  His character, Wayne, is the sole support for Bad Blake getting over his alcoholism.  This song really brings the listener back to ground and coveys a strong, wise message that is crucial for Bad Blake within the movie.  This would have to be the most surprising and most profound song within the entire OST.  "Brand New Angel" is a beautiful song, with a somber blues feels, but also a touch of hopefulness.  Jeff Bridges really keeps true to Bad Blake's old country inspiration in this song, really emulating Sam Phillips.  It not only represents old country, but also portrays the character of Bad Blake, who he is, and his story all in one.

The only thing that bothers me in this OST is the repetition of songs.  The song "I Don't Know" is played twice, once by Ryan Bigham and once by Jeff Bridges (personally, if I had to choose between the two, I would choose Bridges' version). These two versions of "I Don't Know" are only separated by one song, "Fallin' & Flyin'," which is also played twice, once by Jeff Bridges and another as a duet by Collin Farrell & Jeff Bridges.  The version of "I Don't Know" by Ryan Bingham and the version of "Fallin' & Flyin'" with just Jeff Bridges, although they covey a more in depth message in concerns to the story line, are a bit useless and redundant; keep the duet and the original by Jeff Bridges.  Overall, that's the only real complaint I have about the album and Jeff Bridges does an incredible job.  Him, coupled with the old country stars and the outstanding Lightnin' Hopkins, really make this a joy to listen to and bring me closer to being a country fan... maybe.  The Metacritic score for this album was an 83, but I'm going to have to give it an 88.

Take a listen here.