“What Time Do You Call This” sounds like a typical (but typical in a good way) swooning melancholy masterwork, like the National if the national were from the UK. It is prime Elbow, it isn’t “My Sad Captain”, but it is tasteful melodic gripper and yet another in their consistently awesome catalog of swooners.
A big hit in the UK, it is an almost perfect album within its own secret world, a haunting and beautify and, yes, big sound that can move you to tears of joy or boredom with equal ease. But it gets you here and as Guy notes on “My Sad Captain”, what a perfect waste of time.
Numbskull – Wesley Wolfe – Art pop masterpiece about dealing with lowered expectations and doing it yourself and really not compromising too much on the road to eternity.Maybe a coming of age or maybe a dealing with it.
A good week for concerts. I went three for three, Lady Gaga followed by Lily Allen, followed by Elbow and all three were a whole lot of fun, though I think, maybe, Elbow were best. Still, two of these will make my best of the year list and the third maybe should as well.
Sometimes a bore, sometimes self-important (though not on stage), and sometimes they really do suck, yet they include you in and have the rouseiness of a football stadium with the subduedness of a manic depressive. They are one hit away from breaking really big in the States so catch em in nightclubs while you can
I can’t predict Tuesday’s concert, the only one I have seen on this tour was the Itunes film and it was terrible, but maybe this will come theretofore, maybe this will work. I definitely plan to find out Tuesday. I’ve seen her three times, freat once, lousy once, okay once… let’s see what we get at Madison Square Garden.
Typical Girls – The Slits – M.I.A. mentioned the late great Ari Upp at yesterdays Webster Hall gig, and listening to this great song from back when the fractured rhythms sound so much like an ancestor of M.I.A. and in a way the entire modern House scene it is worrying, it makes you think we didn’t give the Slits their due – A
Z – SZA – New r&b gets it right for once; temperate but crazed, sexual mood music by SZA,with the obligato rap added by the likes of Chance The Rapper who exactly captures the mood of hazed out sex; pure seduction and she doesn’t even know if she wants you.
I’m surprised to see Eels on the UK charts, I didn’t realize he had a following in the UK and kicking myself for forgetting Paolo Nutini tickets were going on sale for his June 12th gig at Webster Hall. I did the same thing with Amy Winehouse years ago and didn’t scalp a ticket… maybe this time?
Golden – Lady Antebellum – Golden – Moribund country song featuring Stevie Nicks who has too much life in her voice for this nasty little love song with weak rhymes and melody by numbers. Whatever happened to these guys? – C-
The album is excellent and so was 2011’s build a rocket boy which I dismissed out of hand. What can I say? I couldn’t hear it to say my life. I think it is Garvey’s voice that put me off, he sounds like Thom Yorke if Yorke was a baritone. Anyway, all is forgiven
166 songs so project out and you are looking at 700 700ish mark for the year, down from last year but not by much. The month itself found two albums just filled with great songs, GIRLS and ABout Last Night, plus the awesome art rocker by Elbow.
The Take Off And Landing Of Everything – Elbow – A sort of uncool, unelectronic, art band on their sixth album and first post-major breakthrough and they manage to top just about anything they’ve even done with the possible exception of “My Sad Captains”
D’Angelo’s live album from ’95 is a flat out masterpiece and a sad reminder opf a promise he just couldn’t keep. Was it two years ago ?Love was telling us the final over a decade late new D’Angelo was 90% finished? And what happened next? A handful of cancels and that is it, D’Angelo disappeared again
I know I trashed Hold Steady earlier this week but I said it might be a grower, I love the line “heartbreak hurts but you can dance it off.” And I know I said the new Belle was a bummer, but this is a good song. And I know I hate Avicii but the remix album is terrific.
Fire Away – Skrillex – Very laid back for dance, rather than fire away it moves around a skittish drum pattern into waves of moogie distraughtness and straight up notes on a piano. We had a word for this when I was growing up, dubstep – C+
I listened to the album a few times over time, a track here and there, and I thought that it was decent. Once I got the chance to sit down and listen to it in its entirety, without any distractions, in the quiet with some headphones, I didn’t want to stop listening, It’s epic. It’s cerebral, a little introspective and full of brilliant lyrics
The week belonged to Tomas Doncker’s True Groove All Stars, their two hour concert at The Cutting Room Tuesday night set the standard for all! A perfect compendium of real soul music that never stopped moving. Meanwhile, Lorde act her age if not older, at a simple, unadorned straight ahead gig at the dreaded Roseland that did her nothing but favors.
Much better than the singles collection, elbow is growing on me and growing on me. The band broke through a couple of years but never really made it all the way for me till now. Indeed, qute the opposite. But I went back to some of their earlier material and it may have been my ears letting me down. Whatever, this is definitely a keep.
Peter Stampfel’s full frontal attack on the NSA is funny as hell, “Studies everything you post on twitter, who is drawn to watch you on the shitter…” , is sure ths ong of the week, though close runners up Elbow and Young Money are bringing up the rear nicely. Still, after two stupendous week of new releases, this is the week that fell to earth.
Better Off (feat Vince Gill) – Sara Evans – This isn’t much of a song and where the hell is Vince Gill because if he is singing he must be way low in the mix. Still, at least it’s country – B
As a long time Elbow sneerer please allow me to eat my words as this superbly melancholic and astune album of love’s labors losts will undoubtedly repay close listening with a crying jag. Imagine the National meets Radiohead, now subtract the whimsy – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
Not much going on this week, unless the thought of a new Elbow album excites you in unusual ways, it sure doesn’t me. Or Metronomy, who should be fired if only for the crap band name, or a Young Money compilation except if our friend the lovely and popular Chanel West Coast is on it.
We’re A Winner – The True Groove All Stars – You think it is the harp that makes it and it is, until Tomas Doncker growls and until Jenkins goes falsetto on your ass and then it isn’t any more but suddenly it dawns on you this is Tomas’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and everyone here is a winner – A
