Hardwired

I don't know much about Janelle Monáe, but she's been releasing music since 2003; since then she's made three EPs, with a debut album out this year. She released Tightrope in February, but I only heard it earlier this week:







I really like the playing on this; it sounds "vintage," but not gratuitously, more like it was actually recorded with real instruments. The strings are subtle and the horns towards the end are really smooth, with a real 'cool' '60s sound. Vocal delivery in the verse is really tight and good marks for general sassiness.


I also apologise for my shocking inconsistency re. fonts and sizes... woops.

Weak

I'm really weak. I couldn't resist buying Sufjan Stevens' The B.Q.E. any longer. I know what I said before, that I would wait until it came down in price... but over a month later and it was still rip-off priced. What can you do?

It IS bomb though. It came with a poncy DVD and a little plastic disc with a cartoon on it which you can view with a View Master.

I love you long time

I'm sitting in the peaceful periodicals room of the geography life. Even Downing College looks dreary in this weather. I know what you're thinking - where is this going?

Nowhere.

The real point of this post was to say that, yes indeed, "I love you long time" and that literal people have been literally asking me to get back on the blogging express. FIRST STOP!

http://www.swift.fm/questlove/song/22383/

Aha, I know what you're thinking again! "George Michael singing Careless Whisper - so fucking what?" That's a fair question, no doubt, but just give it a listen... mmmm. This was recorded in the sleepy Alabama town of Muscle Shoals, the nowhere-ville which just happens to be one of the epicentres of American rhythm & blues and popular music - the cream of the session musician crop will undoubtedly be playing on this. It has less of the shine of the standard recording, but the sound is lush (check that organ) and the last minute is fabulous.

More to come soon(ish).

15012010

That's today's date, unless you live in Fiji, Tonga or some other island paradise, where it is in fact already tomorrow. Isn't time amazing? I always like to imagine what it would be like if the Pacific Date Line hadn't been invented.

2010 had some good sheeeeeeeeit in store, including new albums from LCD Soundsystem, Yeasayer and everyone's favourite creepy-voiced harpist, Joanna Newsom. Also to look forward to is a collaboration between Danger Mouse, producer and artist probably most famous for being one half of Gnarls Barkley, and the Shins' James Mercer which they have names Broken Bells. I have been into the Shins for quite a while so it's interesting to hear something from Mr Mercer out of his usual context. The slightly hip-hop beat of The High Road is not a stranger to the Shins, who used one on Sea Legs, from 2007's Wincing the Night Away, but the whole feeling of the track is quite different. It's not ambient, but has a real lightness. There are chanted background vocals and weird high-pitched noises and it all sounds very American indie, not a bad thing at all.

The High Road by Broken Bells

I will write something more substantial soon.

Fools gold

In the past I've asked for and received a little pile of new CDs for Christmas, but this year I got money towards a camera. How pretentious.

I've bought a bit of new music recently, some of which I mentioned last time - Florence and the Machine's "Lungs". "Rabbit Heart (Raise it up)" is as hugely thrilling as last time I wrote, particularly the near-silence between the bridge and the chorus (to unfairly demarcate a work of genius). Honestly, in the context of the song, or at least the two seconds either side, that silence is my favourite bit - I <3>

The new stuff I haven't mentioned before is by Maps, who are the only band/artist I've ever heard of coming from Northampton, though I'm probably just ignorant. I heard "You Don't Know Her Name" on the highly recommended "Sci Fi Lo Fi vol. 3" compilation and decided to buy 2007's "We Can Create". I need to give it a proper lesson, but listening to it driving along the M25 and home yesterday morning I kept breaking the speed limit - probs a good sign. Maps released a new album this year which leaves the shoegaze revival for a heavier dance territory, which I'll try and listen to soon.

What I really wanted to write about today was Steely Dan's "Aja". When I was starting out learning the drums in my mid-teenage years I used to trawl drumming websites and forums for hints, tips and information. Alongside the classic rock of the 1970s which seemed to have influenced so many of the people who were writing about drums on the internet, Steely Dan's "Aja" was always named as a "must listen" for budding sticks-people. I duly bought it and have always returned to what is an absolute masterpiece of taste and control. Seriously, how the FUCK did they manage to get SO MANY incredible musicians to play on one album? Reading the liner notes, it's absolutely remarkable, and the proof is in the listening - regarding the drumming, which I can't help but listen out for, it is perhaps one of the greatest ever collections of performances "playing for the song", which is what I wish more musicians would strive for.

On the title track, Steve Gadd plays an incredible drum solo (which is acceptable because it is accompanied and framed within the context of the song - no solo drum performances thanks, because they are worse than death) which, legend has it, he recorded, sight-reading from the score, in only two takes. Incredible stuff. But what spontaneously occurred to me while listening to it as we drove home from the West Country the other day, was that in the most gentle moments of the song he makes the cymbals sound like bubbles bursting on the surface of a placid pool. It's the textural richness of the music, making me think such odd things, which demonstrates the true quality and depth - to be absent-mindedly listening to a record I've heard hundreds of times before and hear something so new and fresh that it can conjure such images.

I've thought about metaphors for this before, and I like to think that some music is like fools gold. It's shiny but if you cut it open, it's all "move along, nothing to see here". If you cut open "Aja", there are 24 carats dangling there, making you salivate like a mad animal.

Steely Dan – Aja

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In praise of BBC 6Music:

I've listened to this station (available through DAB or the internet) a lot more than before over the Christmas holiday, and I've been really impressed. The presenters are, for the most part, good company, and you really get the sense they do it because they love the music they get to play. Unfortunately a really irritating track by Frankie and the Heartstrings was playlisted recently but otherwise, good work.

Check it out if you bored of shit Radio 4 daytime plays and the 5th repeat of "The Strand" on the World Service.

Lists, Spinnin' and Laura

It's that time of the year when publications, websites and bloggers make lists of the music they have listened to throughout the year. I haven't listened to enough to definitively rank "the best ten albums", "the worst number one singles" or "Rage Against The Machine's lamest moment" (oh wait, we all know what that was) so I'm going to rank all of the albums I've bought/heard, ignoring any which I haven't given enough time to to make a fair judgement (how unusually reasonable of me!) and say a few words about the top five too. In order of merit...

The XX (s/t)

I listen to music a lot of the time. I prefer to listen through my amp and speakers, but sometimes it's through headphones, laptop speakers, radios and small ghetto-blasters. A combination of the poor quality of outputs and the way that a lot of music is produced, mixed and mastered means that sometimes I want to scream SHUT UP as loud as possible an then go and sit in a quiet room while I wipe my tears and massage my head. No, I'm not a nervous wreck, it's just that too much sound coming out of a small speaker sounds horrible.

Where is all this going? Well, the XX are a band who under the power of understatement and more importantly s p a c e. I love the bravery they've shown in going for such sparse arrangements. Soft, almost whispered vocals, crisp drum programming and simple, NOT-over produced guitars answer my prayers for music which doesn't abuse my ears by being too loud and busy. The production is beautiful, the vocals in particular sounding as if someone is standing right behind you, singing just to you.

My favourite track is probably Islands, with it's great drum track, vocals traded between male and female voices and gorgeous building to climaxes. The is where the XX bring the funk the most, but in their own decidedly creepy way. The other highlight is Night Time with its huge echo as a counterpoint to the loneliness which pervades.

A fantastically dark, engaging album and the coolest looking band since Galaxie 500.

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

This one is near the top of most lists, and deservedly so. All the King's Men in particular is brilliant, but my personal favourite is We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues. The song has a slightly shuffly feel. The wooping and tremulous singing lends a real playfulness which I think really suits the subject matter. So he kissed a girl? So what? It's great to hear a "traditional" rock/pop band setup doing something which sound so fresh.

Scenester moment - my friend knows this band.

Fever Ray (s/t)

It was always hard to tell who was singing on The Knife's releases due to their penchant for pitch-shifting, and Fever Ray does nothing to clarify the situation, with a number of voices appearing throughout the album, all belonging to Karin Dreijer Andersson, the female half of The Knife. If I Had A Heart, the first single which preceded the album sets out the stall - creepy and greyscale, with foreboding bass. The introduction's saw-like rumbling sounds very violent; a chill runs throughout the album which is less violent than the opener, something closer to fear. Seven is my pick, the track which sounds most as if it could be performed by a "traditional" band (though that's incidental). I think the vocal melody is actually lovely, building from the verse into the chorus, with the vocals less produced than in other places - maybe Karin at her most vulnerable.

The darkness of The Knife's Silent Shout is identifiable here but, despite the business of the programming in some parts, the whole feeling is far more minimal, and I think this is a real night-time album.

Animal Collective - Merryweather Post Pavillion

Animal Collective, indie darlings? Well, this release wasn't a crossover smash exactly, but a hell of a lot more people were talking about Animal Collective afterwards. I'm not so cynical as to suggest they wrote an album to expand their fanbase, but taking Merryweather as a whole, it is definitely a lot catchier and "poppier" than earlier material, although I was happy that the overwhelming fizzy-drink-sugariness of previous album Strawberry Jam has been toned down a bit.

My Girls is a pulsing treat of a song, with trademark trebly bleeps and high, calling voices but with massive punch at the low end - it translated excellently to the stage at the Forum and Brixton Academy when I saw them; indeed throughout, Animal Collective brought bass to really round out their experimental sound. I also really like the chanted chorus - "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status, I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls." The vocal production on this track is reminiscent of Panda Bear's wonderful Person Pitch and I wouldn't be surprised if he was mainly responsible for this one.

I also really like the understated Bluish which somehow sounds innocently childish and is so honest; it works well as a moment of relaxation amidst the energy of the rest of the album.

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

I was a newcomer to Andrew Bird's orchestrated nuggets with this album, but this was hella convincing - the arrangements and songwriting is so lush and detailed. Fitz and Dizzyspells is upbeat, but with lovely dynamics; it pushes and pulls between feeling like a real stomper and then holding back much more delicately. Effigy is a tour de force of harmony and taste. It's very gentle but the vocal climaxes are so strong.

The instrumentation is fantastically strong across Noble Beast and I think Andrew Bird must be one of the best songwriters around now.

As for the rest of the albums I've bought this year, in order of merit:

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Excellent, and a clear step up from It's Never Been Like That, which was never going to be easy.

The Horrors - Primary Colours. Novelty band obsessed with dressing like Victorian-era goths? Not on the strength of this. Yummy overdriven shoegazey guitars and Sea Within a Sea is so so cool.

Florence & the Machine - Lungs. I'm embarrassingly late to Florence and somehow managed to completely miss her all this year, but Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) is definitely one of the best songs of the year.

M. Ward - Hold Time. Not to everyone's taste, and a bit of a pastiche of early twentieth-century Americana, but I think it's great.

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns. Well done Natasha Khan for raising your game post-Mercury Prize, Daniel is a great song.

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Through the Devil Softly. 1990s indie heartthrob Hope brings the gentlest album I heard all year - deliciously whispered.

The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love. An unfair comparison perhaps, but more in debt to shoegaze and less original than the Horrors, but still good.

Girls. I'm a bit surprised by the high placing of this in other lists. It's OK, but not amazing...

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms. There's not much wrong with this, but they lot the immediacy of Orlando's vocals which for me was the main attraction on Colour It In.

Sky Larkin - The Golden Spike. I liked this when it came out, but haven't revisited it much. Fossil, I and Molten are both really good, but the rest isn't quite up to scratch. I would be surprised if they don't have a lot more to bring, though.

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Phew.

Here's a gem of a track from Mercury-winner Speech Debelle. Bouncy, natural hip-hop. Spinnin'

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Two days ago I walked past the site of where the Astoria used to, at the junction of Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road. Despite a campaign to "Save the Astoria", the building has been torn down to make way for Crossrail and a shopping development (as if Oxford Street needs another one of those...). I wasn't hugely sentimental over it, but I saw some good gigs there, most notably the Bravery and the Von Bondies.

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It's good to hear Laura Marling back, even if it is with a Christmas song. I can't wait for her new album, out sometime early next year.

Ta ta for now.

X-Factor

No, not the fabulous Lauryn Hill song of a previous post, but the cultural phenomenon that has set up camp on TV over the past two months or so. The final was an extravaganza of music and lights; I've said it to anyone who will listen, but the production values of that show BLOW MY TINY MIND, it is unreal. X-Factor must be single-handedly keeping ITV afloat. I remember feeling emo last year watching Beyonce duet with winner Alexandra Burke, who totally upstaged JLS today, but not as much as watching the VTs of Olly and Joe's families... I'm becoming far too sentimental. Olly's a better dancer, but Joe deserved it for that voice.

The power of the TV talent show has been proved and entrenched by this year's X-Factor - the number of global stars who have performed on the show has been amazing.

I don't think John Lennon would have played.