But really, despite Simon’s constant attempts, he is simply a little better when Art joins in. This would be a much better show if they had maintained the same format only substituted Art for Sting. Hell, it would’ve been a better set if they substituted Jello Biafra for Sting.
“Magic” which sounds like something U2 have been working on, something darkly atmospheric full of drum machines and shades of blue… only a little more melodic and relatively laid back for this sorta stuff.
I haven’t been to Rough Trade yet, to be honest I never much liked the store and also, Morrissey’s hit job on the label and stores (and now club!) was enough to make me not very willing to go out of my way to check it out. But I had to get there at some point right, so OK, here we go now
Pharrell came, saw and certainly conquered us just the way he will the charts over the next couple of months. This album should take hi to the next next level! Otherwise, both Rufus hits and DBT in mellow mode are disappointments.
Anything Could Happen – Ellie Goulding – Her breakthrough song was “Lights” but this one made her the real deal, a brilliant hooting track and a study in excitation that turned a dance track into a modern anthem and if the beat was less house and more disco, so much the better – A
The Long Goodbye is the complete, unabridged recording of LCD Soundsystem’s near-four-hour April 2, 2011 farewell show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Produced and mixed by LCD founder and frontman, James Murphy. The Long Goodbye is the ultimate audio document of LCD Soundsystem’s now legendary final show
Officially released last week, it is now available on Itunes and on Spotify and I can’t recommend this mix and match of spoken word and new wave highly enough: it is like this place where Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith (not to mention Karen Finlay, so I won’t, though sexual frankness runs deep).
His ode to Duke ellington is not jazz, it is pop, and it might have a groove but it isn’t taken from Ellington but this ebullient, bouncy, and very tuneful dance number needs none of that to echo a Black Excellence that deserves the term. “You can feel it all over” is as hooky as an advertising jingle and memorable as your own middle name.
Lydia sings more about getting wet than just about anybody you can think of, interesting but a persona rather than a prescription for promiscuity by this 23 year old married woman. I guess she got tired of sucking and sucking and sucking. Whatever you wanna say about Phair, she wrote from experience – A
“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive” is their best song since… wow since “Blame It On Gravity” and it promises that maybe they are really gonna come up with the goods this album plus, whatever the kick might be, the band are awesome live.
Broadway isn’t Orlando and we expect West End great productions not travelling shows. Look, if MacIntosh wants to charge us $50 for orchestra he can get away with putting on a show with a cheap and shoddy looking stage and journeymen singers. Till then, this deserves to rot
Why the late 1976 start date? Where are his peak early 1970s years? It is truly bizarre his label Rhino are not including them and I can only hope that the reason is because they are holding back for one more release. But till then this will do.
After moving over a million units the first week, and half a million the second week, Beyonce has been on the charts for the entire year and counting. 11 weeks? Which makes it the album of the year so far. Meanwhile… the Schoolboy Q and the Kid Cudi have their moments FYI.
The top four are exactly the same as last week, and the following six are minimal changes and NOTHING NEW made it on AND… Oh, I guess that’s all I got.Proof that the US Hot 100 is the most conservative and reactionary charts in the history of the world. FYI
Bent Nail – Nothing – This sounds like shoe gaze yes, but shoe gaze with an attack that is sometimes missing in other bands and a vocal higher in the mix than we’re used to – A-
The album feels like a real experience, it feels all of a piece and when heard as a piece it all works well, it all becomes the story of a misplaced romantic whose twang is so deep it will soon disappear and whose romantic disillusionment is worthy of early Elvis Costello
They both entered the public conscious around the same time and both have distinct personalities while remaining essentially unknown qualities. You never get to the bottom of these guys, all the charm is a layer of finesse to help maintain complete privacy, every action a modulated concern of career and counter career, every event a non event, every story a scolded subtraction.
For those of you who read young Steve Crawford’s number crunching and provocative analysis of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Bruce Springsteen songs that no song on my Top 10 is later than 1992 should come as no big shock. But that two of em came off his solo albums? That’s a shocker right.
this is not crossover, not with Santana featured, not with Drake or Minaj, and not with Marc Anthony: this is too laid back for mainstream, it is too slow and Santos voice… well, I guess it helps being 6’2″ and handsome when selling such lukewarm stuff.
Ron is getting $5905 per MILLION STREAMS. If you are being streamed 57 million times that adds up to real money but while it might add up to real money how many indie musicians are reaching anything approaching those number
A truly superb sample walks the same line to less effect than Kanye, who performs an excellent rap, did on “Blood On The Leaves”. Big Sean is pretty excellent as well and while Ross is a big fat bore, here he bores to excellent effect. Easily the best song on the newbie – A-
GIRL – Pharrell Williams – A blast of pure pop for now people from the former Neptune producer who provides one slice of adult bubble gum after another topped not by “Happy” but the Justin Timberlake featured “Brand New”. Williams grabs his moment and doesn’t let go – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
I get tired of Craig Finn’s shout along singing after awhile. I prefer him when he is, you know, actually singing his songs. Plus, looking at this setlist, no “Our Whole Lives” which, really they should play on occasion.
First a platinum LP, then a best-selling book—and then, at last, an award-winning prime-time television special. In 1974, Free to Be…You and Me burst into homes across America, introducing children (and their parents) to a whole new way of combining education and entertainment
Bill de Blasio has started closing down Charter Schools and while my sympathies are with the schools in question, still I can see the Mayor’s point which boils down to giving public property to private enterprises. he might be doing it for the wrong reasons but it isn’t entirely irrational.
I can’t wait to watch the movie which screened last night at Highline Ballroom. It is a documentary about their 2012 tour and it all ends up in the Czech Republic, in court, with Randy Blythe staring down a murder charge… this live song is great by the groove metal band – A
Pharrell’s joyous all dancing all smiling, all aboard performance was the best and Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go”, tailor made for the Oscars, a big bland musical theatre pastiche that, not unlike self evident influence “Wicked”, is simply not good enough musically to matter
There are weeks and then there are WEEKS!! Drive By Truckers 12th album gets pride of place… until I listen to it anyway. I was really thinking of Pharrell instead but I dunno how good Mr. Neptune is when you get right down to it, “Happy” wore out its welcome with me some time last summer
Foxes (aka Louisa Rose Allen) is yet another DJ’s discovery, this time Zedd discovered her and this song is her second hit. The album is dropping May 12th, though whether we get it, and whether we care, is a subject of some debate.
Imagine if you will, Oasis meets Primal Scream and you’ll have Reverend And The Makers, whose third album is really good and who have continued the gradation from opening for Oasis on their final tour to becoming a phenom in their own rights.
My Stunning Mystery Companion – Jackson Browne – His last great moment, finds Jackson at a melodic high water mark with a cracker band and a guitar so tuneful it could bring tears to your eyes. Also, it reminds me of an ex and a future I reached – A+
To say Strait gets Petty is to underestimate how Strait transforms it to the sort of country rock you just plain don’t hear anymore. For one thing, all you need to get Strait rocking is the word “ridin'” and he is off: “Tonight we ride, right or wrong”
There is somebody I really wanna see. Cat Stevens. And it is because of Stevens I went out of my way to score a ticket. But before we discuss him, let’s talk about everybody else.
the only good thing about this relationship is given the circumstances, Rihanna is forced to get on stage at a reasonable hour and not keep the world waiting –like Madonna and Lady Gaga before her, half the damn night so see her royal indifferenceness
I’ll take Illmatic at # 1, so fair enough. You can imagine, I dunno Stereogum, or we ourselves, compiling it. But the voice of socialist New York, up against the wall, left wing, stood up to Murdoch, world beater Voice. That is just sad.
Paul Simon? The boy with the thorn in his side. The thorn’s name? Sting , of course. The thought of these two together at last fills me with some unnamed and unknowable dread. It is a horrifying concept of finality, death, despair, the great unknown
Don Giovanni Showcase – Music Hall Of Williamsburg – February 7th, 2014 – A veritable who’s who of power punk 2014, lead by the unquestionable brilliance of Shellshag, with supergroup Upset in the middle and Worriers at the top of the evening. If they have begun at 730pm instead of 830pm I could have caught Laura Stevenson as well.
The Christian Life – The Louvin Brothers – As a child of the 60s, it is the Byrds version I know, and as a Gram Parsons fanatic you better believe I adore his version but having said all of that, the Louvin Brothers harmonies here equal, aybe surpass the Byrds – A
“We’re a group, we make popular songs, I’m a girl, I’m quite young, but I’m maturing fast. Why do people have to make things so complicated for us? Why can’t they take Altered Images at face value?” Clare sighs, shrugs, smiles, giggles
I decided to get smart and leave “Best Songs Of 2014” as an essentially list of faves by release date and add another list of just clear up the top ten, maybe top 20 by the end of the year songs in order of preference. Welcome to yet another list!
“Wild Wild Love” is stickier than toffee apple in a three year old girls curls, and the rest of this includes two quasi experimental performers going mainstream and a garage band from the 1970s still doing t to tremendous effect in 2014. The past two weeks have been easily the best of the year.
It is like grunge without the loud/soft stuff and with much more sonic pounce in its step, but also without the sense of a scene to make sense of it, unless you consider former members of Male Bonding a scene – B+
I took a look at the setlist and I liked what I saw on the hitmakers no nonsense down to business hit song after hit song setlist. If you don’t see what you want from Strait here, check yes and no elsewhere because I sure do.
As my friend Philip Poyner put it: “You know, when you manage to make Tales From Topographic Oceans look both unpretentious and brief, you may want to ask yourself “At what moment in my life did I first go SO FAR off the rails?”
Burn Your Witness For No Fire – Angel Olsen – With her sophomore album, Angel redefines her singer songwriter loner folk Billy “Prince” Billy approved experimental classic songs for electronic full band and it works on nearly every track. High five.
A handful of real good singles by U2 (yes, really), Beck, Miranda Lambert, The Civil Wars, and some albums that really stink (hi Eric Church!) have a couple of good songs. Altogether 102 songs and listen to em all here:
Lovers Who Wander – Dion – the follow up to “Runaway Sue” is just as good, no really. Dion has recovered and now he doesn’t care and with the same back, the same melody, the same concept, he finds something new. Astonishing – A
With the single “Heaven Knows” as the opening song and “Jackie”, the other single, as the penultimate moment on the seven song EP, great songs anchor the set. “Why Don’t You Tell Her” adds twang and “Sunshine” a guitar solo
John Legend performs the terrible drag of an “All Of Me” on the Grammy’s once and the next thing you know he has a top ten hits. Legend is Alicia Keys in male drag and he is just as boring a performer though not without a certain amount of charm, true. None of that charm is at work here. None of it.
Yeah I saw “Frozen” and a fun movie no doubt but compare it to even second tier Disney, “The Jungle Book” say, is there anything comparable to “Bare Necessities”? The truth is there is nothing remotely close to the greatness of the Sherman Brothers anywhere .
