380 songs make up my best of 2014 so far, but if I hear a better song than “Leave Your Love” this year it wil be a miracle, a torchy swoony dream of adoration and disassembled love which makes much more sense when now Smith has come out as a homosexual.
Old 97’s and Lydia Loveless failed to change the world on Tuesday, though they were both pretty good, still it ended up being the weekend of Governors Ball and with weather to dream for I dashed from one great gig to another and was sure the better for it. You gotta try it out next year, the only Festival you can grab the subway home from.
The talk dirty stuff is a bit of a dead end. The line here, the one that resonates and which she doesn’t sing on Tuesday night, is “I knew that I was crazy alone; now I’m just crazy for you.” So, yeah a crazy ex-girlfriend but only up to a certain place and then other influences kick in.
At the top, that Mariah Carey Stevie wonder cop is brilliant and I hope it breaks the way “#beautiful” failed to, and what has already broken pop is two huge songs with Iggy Azalea. Both “Problems” and “Fancy” are summer hits for sure. Anything else? Chloe Howl EP is out but probably won’t make a dent till next month.
I am sick of writing about how great the new Old 97’s Most Messed Up is so I’ll tell you how great Lydia Loveless’ Somewhere Else is instead. Between the two, this is probably the greatest double of the year. It is like what we thought Kanye West and Kendrick Lemar were gonna do at MSG when kendrick forgot to show. This is so great it beats out Governors Ball for show of the week. Webster Hall on Tuesday June 3rd. It should be epic.
I would miss most things to see Pharrell Williams at the Apollo, which is where he is playing on Tuesday June 3rd. And I would even if I was a lesser fan of GIRL, a great pop album, because you know that after Pharrell tours (he is setting up Europe for the summer) and plays the much larger Barclay Center (as he will later this year or next year), it will be a production number but the Apollo Theatre which be a much straighter production
The band grab the riff and repeat repeat repeat and the riff is like a melodic lick and then towards the end at the coda, one of the guitars peels itself off for a rock and roll, but not metal, not Hendrix, but rock guitar solo
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
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.
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
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!
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:
Three women have ruled February: Angel Olsen, Katy B and Lydia Loveless which, despite disappointment (relatively speaking) in Little Red is still a very strong effort. Lydia reminds me of Liz Phair, or do I mean Elvis Costello, on her immense and sprawling album of disastrous love affairs. Angel Olsen came of age.
The week belonged to two women, Angel Olsen and Lydia Loveless but on the charts Eric Church has a baffling success with the terrible The Outsider… even Rolling Stone only gave it four stars so you just know it sucked.
these stories of love gone wrong are entirely astounding singer-songwriter country informed pop rock that gets under your skin on the first listen. My friend Mark Deming of Allmusic called it a contender for the album of the year. Well, definitely the week – A
