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J Mascis – Several Shades of Why

(Sub Pop)

On the far side of J Mascis’ fuzzy guitar sounds, which defined not only Dinosaur Jr.’s music but, in turn, marked him out as an alt. Rock legend lies a softer, breezier side. On Several Shades of Why, his debut solo album proper, he engages with his folk-rock influences like never before, which range from After the Gold Rush-era Neil Young and Crosby, Stills and Nash, to Nick Drake. No doubt aware of the deluge of folk / Americana albums in recent years, he has crafted this album with instruments and arrangements that are alien to Dinosaur Jr.’s records and might be more suitable on a Mercury Rev album (Saw, anyone?). Mascis has apparently taken a leaf out of country music-inspired those American alt. rock songwriters.

Opener ‘Listen to Me’, with its simple progression and whispering vocals, feels like an Evan Dando track, while ‘Is it Done’ could easily have been written and recorded by Lucinda Williams. The intricate finger picking and harrowing strings of the albums title track find Mascis at most earnest, and he echoes the feel of the song in ‘Very Nervous and Love’. Album highlight, ‘Not Enough’, a campfire folk-pop song complete with backing vocals from current tour mate Kurt Vile, is the sound of the summer.

The record takes a strange twist towards the end and the penultimate and closing tracks, ‘Can I’ and ‘What Happened’, respectively, find Mascis keeping the line of the record while layering the songs with distorted guitars and taking the album to a dark place. And while the album’s roots influences and pop sensibility may not be for Dinosaur Jr. purists, those with a library-full of the best folk / Americana records of the last ten years have another addition that ever-expanding genre.

Originally published on State.ie

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R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now

(Warner)

“If a storm doesn’t kill me, the government will”, sang Michael Stipe on ‘Houston’, from 2008’s excellent return to form, Accelerate. A weary and worn out liberal after two terms of the Bush administration, Stipe hadn’t been as angry, disillusioned and politically engaged on Accelerate since 1987’s Document and 1988’s Green, both of which tore into the Reagan administration.

Fitting, then, that Stipe should now sing “A storm didn’t kill me, the government changed” on ‘Oh My Heart’, taken from R.E.M.’s second consecutive record with Jacknife Lee. Stipe, here, defines himself and R.E.M. as rock’s survivors, but also its chroniclers of social and political change in America. They are, clearly, more at peace with America and, more importantly, with themselves than ever before. Whereas Accelerate saw them return to the spiky, three-minute punk-influenced pop songs that so defined Murmur and Reckoning, Collapse Into Now finds the band tapping into their tradition yet somehow making it feel fresh, vital and new.

The hallmarks are all here; the bridge and chorus from ‘Discoverer’ could easily be ideas that didn’t make the cut on Document, yet Buck’s Eastern-influenced guitar phrase, which bookends the record, is memorable and unlike anything he’s played before. ‘All the Best’ feels like a distant relative of ‘The Wake Up Bomb’ from New Adventures in Hi- Fi while ‘Überlin’ is a serious re-write of ‘Daysleeper’ from 1998’s Up. ‘Everyday is Yours to Win’ finds Stipe in Urban / 21st Century / Existential mode, as per recent records, all of which folds as strong a first side of a record as the band have produced in their 31 years of recording.

The second side opens with ‘Mine Smell Like Honey’, the most joyous, pop-sounding R.E.M. song imaginable. It’s given a very balanced and nuanced mix by Jacknife Lee, making it sound familiar yet wholly new and exciting. The chorus readily recalls ‘Bad Day’ and ‘It’s the End…’ and is more R.E.M. than R.E.M. itself. By contrast, ‘Walk it Back’ is a slow-tempo, piano-led tune, leading the listener to imagine what 2004’s career nadir, Around the Sun, might have sounded like had the band had the heart and energy to finish and mix it with care.

It’s then back to the stomping mode with ‘Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter’ with backing vocals courtesy of Patti Smith and Peter Buck. It’s the combination of Stipe’s playful lyrics, urgent delivery and Buck’s riff-heavy yet jangly guitar that makes this, and the R.E.M. sound, what it is. Meanwhile ‘Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I’ finds Stipe engaging with Pop Culture as vividly as he did on 1994’s Monster, but with the slow burning, roots feel that so definedAutomatic for the People. ‘Blue’, meanwhile, sees the band ending the record in a natural form. In an ocean of reverb, distortion and acoustic guitar, Stipe’s rhapsodic delivery, coupled with his post-modern, epistolic lyrics, eases through a distorted mic and, backed by his heroine, Patti Smith, finds him signing off with ‘20th Century, collapse into now’.

What makes Collapse Into Now such a triumph is its authors’ engagement with their sound, their mythology and their knack for being able to make it feel like a record by an up and coming band. The form of the album is one of a band that have realised that there are many dimensions to their sound and songs. Thankfully, for the first time in a long time, R.E.M. are happy to be themselves.

Originally published on State.ie

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(Cooking Vinyl)

When a journalist asked Rufus Wainwright what sound he was aspiring toward on 2007’s Release the Stars, he replied, “I’m going for the sound of cash registers.” Tired of winning the respect of fellow practitioners, bored of his reputation as a ‘songwriter’s songwriter’ and frustrated at his lack of crossover appeal, he craved a hit song and radio play. The same story goes with Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith. Feted by everyone from Bob Dylan to Elvis Costello, Feist to Nick Hornby and even Chris Martin to Michael Bublé, Sexsmith, like Wainwright, has been at the mercy of his craft. So entrenched in the styles and techniques of past masters, Sexsmith’s records belong neither to the mainstream nor the alternative scene that has flourished in his native Canada in recent years. He is not name-checked by the same people who listen to Bill Callahan or Ryan Adams, nor has he been warmly received by fans of Elton John or indeed Michael Bublé, with whom Sexsmith recorded a cover of ‘Whatever it Takes’ from Sexsmith’s 2004 album Retriever.

On Long Player Late Bloomer, his 11th studio album, Sexsmith is going for broke. Enlisting fellow Canadian Bob Rock (Metallica, Bon Jovi), the end product is an accessible, radio-friendly, Technicolor pop record full of songs that would have troubled the charts in the 1970’s. Opener ‘Get in Line’ is full of snappy, confessional verses about being the bridesmaid and never the bride: ‘Heavey clouds all around/ And the Sun refuses to shine…better get in line’. Its country leanings are homely, the hooks infectious. ‘Believe it When I See It,’ like single ‘Love Shines,’ is eerily reminiscent of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles work. His progressive and fluid melodies, coupled with Bob Rock’s generous mix, full of slide guitar, strings and piano, scream “radio play, please!!!” very, very loudly.

Sexsmith’s preoccupations with small town life – a consistent theme throughout his previous ten records – are not drowned out by Rock’s lush arrangements. ‘Michael and His Dad,’ one of the best songs Sexsmith has ever written, is a simple story about a widower and his son. Set against a jaunty pop tune, the sudden and unexpected turn of intensity in the middle eight is beautifully timed. Sexsmith sings ‘Mother’s gone to the land of safe keeping/ Michael walking from the grave/ says “Dad, she’s only sleeping”’ with an urgency and syllabic precision rarely heard in contemporary pop music.

At times, however, the record is too concerned with its accessibility. Sexsmith eschews the character of previous releases and, throughout, one hopes for an even balance between Sexsmith’s gift for crafting the ideal pop song and the more intimate, intense songs of previous releases, where he is accompanied solely by a guitar or piano. There are though enough rich and well-crafted pop songs here that will, in an ideal world, win Sexsmith, a host of new admirers.

Originally published on State.ie

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Daniel Martin Moore – In the Cool of the Day 

(Sub Pop)

It all started on a 9-foot Steinway piano in a radio studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. On that piano, kept in-house and once used by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Martin Moore rediscovered his love of Appalachian folk songs and family gospel music, both of which he had heard growing up in Cold Spring, Kentucky.

From the opening bars of ‘All Ye Tenderhearted’, performed a cappella, it’s clear that a smooth, sparse set of songs is set to follow. Moore has stayed very close to the feel of these spiritual songs and hasn’t, thankfully, diluted them with a twee, quirky, indie-folk kitsch feel for fans of Bon Iver or The Low Anthem. His voice, smooth and light, doesn’t intrude too much; the piano, guitar and banjo (courtesy of Jim James of My Morning Jacket) does much of the work. Even more, refreshing is how Moore underplays the songs. Instead of over-dramatising gospel music, as performers often do when bringing the songs to life through folk instruments, he plays them as he would if he were at a session in the corner of a bar.

All of this said, Moore adjusts and adapts the material to make it work for the album. Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s ‘Up Above My Head’, is much more restrained than Tharpe’s electric guitar driven version, which uses classic gospel handclaps as percussion. Moore, instead, performs it as he would a Django Reinhardt number and this relaxed feel, complete with gently shuffling drums and a fiddle, neutralises the flow of the record and moves just a couple of steps up from the most tranquil songs included here.

The same upbeat feel refreshes ‘Dark Road’, known better to American roots aficionado’s as G.B. Grayson and Henry Whittier’s ‘A Dark Road is Hard to Travel’, where Moore stays faithful to the musical arrangements but gives it a fresh feel and even adds on lines here and there. Throughout the record, he skillfully shifts the mood, most notably in ‘In the Garden’, which here, is bass-led with lilting piano lines, restless drums and Moore’s crisp voice.

With the help of Jim James, Moore has crafted an album that clocks in at 30 minutes, leaves a lasting impression and convincingly taps into an important traditional form of American song. And as good as the covers, and indeed a couple of Moore originals- are, the winner here is the sound, feel and overall production values of the record. A must for fans of Bob Dylan’s Modern Times, Elton John & Leon Russell’s The Union and other assorted T- Bone Burnett produced albums.

Originally published on State.ie

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Jenny & Johnny - I'm Having Fun, Now
Jenny & Johnny – I’m Having Fun Now

(Warners)

The efforts by male and female duos in recent years- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, She & Him, and now Jenny and Johnny- have seen an oft neglected form back in vogue; quirky and gimmicky though it may seem. A couple off- stage, the fluid chemistry between Rilo Kiley front woman Jenny Lewis and Scottish-American singer-songwriter Johnathan Rice is convincing and produces hummable melodies and memorable harmonies. Lewis, in part, leaves the country and folk roots of her excellent solo debut, Rabbit Fur Coat, behind and taps into her indie- pop roots through Rice. His versatile vocals and range can be haunting, angelic and aggressive (sometimes all at once), which work well against Lewis’ fine, piercing vocals that recall country music’s Great Dames: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Loretta Lynn.

At the core of I’m Having Fun Now is, as the title implies, two friends and lovers going through their record collection and discovering what pop music has influenced them both. Opener ‘Scissors Runner’ is a perfect example of the definite influence of 80’s and 90’s indie pop music, recalling both Reckoning- era R.E.M.’s ‘Second Guessing’ and The Lemonheads’ ‘Alison’s Starting to Happen’ from ‘It’s a Shame About Ray’. ‘Just Like Zeus’ begins with the drone of guitars so reminiscent Of The Jesus and Mary Chain but quickly blends with the country pop that so defines the record.

Like many male/female duo records, the lyrics are often informed by gender politics and in ‘My Pet Snakes’ Lewis bashes female sell-outs with the ribald humor of Alex Turner (“I don’t believe in sucking my way to the top’). Such brash, sweeping statements are countered by the beautiful, dreamy Americana of ‘Switchblade’, led by Jonathan Rice and indicative of his solo work- particularly Trouble is Real. It’s followed by the Rilo Kiley- esque ‘Big Wave’, the flagship single of the record. Covering the current economic crisis, it doesn’t take an unusual angle or offer new insight into the situation or the lives of those affected, as a John Prine or Conor Oberst song would. Although the melody and harmonies are infectious, the lyrics (“And we save our money in good faith/ and we work hard for a living wage/ but still the banks got a break”) sounds like trite, teenage poetry. The final track, ‘Committed’, is a rollicking country- rock tune that, although too close for comfort to Billy Ray Cyrus’ ‘Achy Breaky Heart’, is a hilarious run through recent events in America (For God and Country/ For Michael Jackson’s monkey).

Fans of Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley and many other acts associated with Saddle Creek records will, inevitably, love this very companionable album that connects with contemporary America through a love of old records. A recording chemistry that no-one can fake and contagious harmonies that you’ll be singing for weeks on end. Most of all, it’s great fun.

Originally published on State.ie

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Ray Davies – See My Friends

(Universal Records)

As if to confirm his status as an “Elder Statesman of Rock” status, Ray Davies has turned in his second album of reworkings and collaborations of Kinks songs. Like 2009’s Kinks Choral Collection, See My Friends feels like a tokenistic record. The inevitable question is this: does anyone need t re-record songs by The Kinks?

The answer is a resounding “no”, but you can’t deny his effort here. Some of the covers add extra dimensions to Davies’ songs, and they transcend the nostalgic boundaries that the original recordings can invoke. Springsteen’s ‘Better Things’, for example, feels like a Tom Petty number and the sentiment of the song’s chorus: “I hope tomorrow you find better things/ I know tomorrow you’ll find better things” is classic Springsteen. Similarly impressive is Lucinda William’s excellent version of ‘Long Way from Home’. Williams and Davies remove the song from the piano-led, English folk-tinged original and turn it into a rough n’ ready, alt. Country ballad, complete with Hammond organ. William’s voice, full of character, and Davies’ harmonies give the impression that, whatever the style, it’s a great song.

Also particularly successful are Mumford & Sons’ medley of ‘Days /, This Time, Tomorrow’, Paloma Faith’s ‘Lola’, Amy MacDonald’s ‘Dead End Street’ and Spoon’s ‘See My Friends’. In all cases, the artists covering the songs understand the essence of the songs, managing as they do to add interesting angles and context. They strip the songs of any ’60s nostalgia and play the songs for their feel, more than anything.

Less successful are Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora’s audacious and overblown ‘Celluloid Heroes’ and the cringe worthy medley of ‘All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer’, complete with Billy Corgan’s insufferable, sneering vocals, which add little and take more from a classic song. Particularly unsuccessful is Metallica’s ‘You Really Got Me’. It’s nothing more than an exercise in styling a song as heavy metal as possible.

A mixed bag then. The uninitiated should first look to those classic Kinks records- Face to Face, Something Else by the Kinks and The Kinks are the Village Preservation Green Preservation Society- before arriving at this tokenistic cash- in.

Originally published by State.ie

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I Am Kloot – Sky at Night

(Shepherd Moon / EMI)

Manchester three-piece I Am Kloot have spent almost ten years swinging wildly between sounds. Debut album Natural History brought Jonny Bramwell’s distinctively Northern English songs beyond the masses of his hometown and continued the social commentary and wit of his solo album You, Me and the Alarm Clock, released under the pseudonym of Johnny Dangerously. Although Natural History spawned songs that are now staples of the band’s live shows, the album was too quiet, too basic in scope and lacked any element of surprise. The follow- up, I Am Kloot, found the band over– asserting their appetite for crashing rock songs, while Gods and Monsters were the sound of musicians bleeding the life out of their songs in the studio. On I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge, the band hit a groove. Recorded live in their Stockport studio, it was a band capturing the feel of their songs and creating an overarching mood throughout the record.

Throughout Sky at Night – produced by Guy Garvey and Craig Potter of Elbow – Bramwell makes a strong case for his being one of Britain’s greatest living songwriters. Clearly, his closest contemporaries are Shack’s Michael Head and Sheffield troubadour Richard Hawley, both of whom are recalled on opener ‘Northern Skies’ and ‘To the Brink’, respectively. ‘Northern Skies’ is a rambling, travelling folk song, strongly reminiscent of Here’s Tom with the Weather / Corner of Miles and Gil– era Shack. Its finger- picked folk, restless drums and lush strings move the album along in the direction of a fine folk- rock record.

However, ‘To the Brink’ weighs down the euphoric rush of ‘Northern Skies’. A combination of the late- night, down-and-out, character of Hawley’s Coles Corner and Serge Gainsbourg– esque orchestration, which creates a mystique that defines the record’s overall mood: one of soul searching darkness, which is achieved naturally through Bramwell’s vulnerable voice and his use of minor keys. ‘Fingerprints’ continues from where ‘Northern Skies’ took off, only every verse punctuated by a frenetic ensemble that betrays the simplicity of this trio. The song’s coda of maudlin strings immediately leads one to The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’, itself a masterpiece of Northern– English realism.

Lyrically, Bramwell is at his most ribald and witty in ‘Proof’, where self- reflection breathes new life into cliches: “Say, d’you wanna spin another line/ like we had a good time/ not that I need proof”. ‘I Still Do’ and ‘Same Shoes’ find him digging deep and lamenting passed opportunities.

What makes Sky at Night such a success is its constant reach for every song’s real personality. On ‘The Moon is a Blind Eye’, thundering drums and sparse piano lines play behind Bramwell’s voice. Small touches in the mix all combine to create a great song that builds slowly with ease. Only ‘Lately’, with its chorus that’s too- close- for- comfort to Joe Cocker’s version of ‘Get by with a Little Help from My Friends’, intrudes on the album’s continuity. Minor gripes aside, Sky at Night is the sound of a band that have never been more comfortable in their skin.

Originally published by State.ie

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Teenage Fanclub – Shadows

Glasgow’s Teenage Fanclub have never made creative leaps and bounds though they have earned a reputation as a solid band: you always know what you’re going to get with the new Teenage Fanclub record and Shadows is no exception.

Naturally, Shadows carries on from where 2005’s Man Made left off. Early on, the significance of the album’s title becomes apparent with the band sequencing the album in three and four- song cycles by Love/Blake/McGinley. In effect, has each songwriter in the band shadowing the other, and the stylistic variety that each member brings to the record becomes more and more apparent.

Gerard Love’s pulsating ‘Sometimes I Don’t Need to Believe in Anything’, which echoes The Boo Radleys’ ‘Wish I Skinny’, is a declaration of middle-aged apathy that sets out a base theme to Shadows. ‘Into the City’, which has the feel of a lazy, hazy Fifth Dimension-era Byrds, shows Love’s versatility as a writer. The album’s antepenultimate song, ‘Sweet Days Waiting’, winds the album down beautifully, with Love whispering an upbeat refrain of sweet, sweet days are waiting there for you.
The classic Teenage Fanclub song is in good health, thanks to Norman Blake. His acoustic power– pop songs add another, if natural, dimension to Shadows. Lead single, ‘Baby Lee’, is a definite nod to the pastoral folk of Songs From Northern Britain and its memorable chorus, predictable Teenage Fanclub chord progression and Blake’s voice are familiar ground to those who possess worn out copies of Bandwagonesque, Thirteen, Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain. ‘When I Still Have Thee’ finds Blake ploughing this ground again, and the humour and rhymes in his lyrics (Well, The Rolling Stones wrote a song for me/it’s a minor song in a major key) afford light relief from the darker material on Shadows, courtesy of Raymond McGinley.

McGinley’s songs are somewhere in between Love’s drifting melodies and psychedelic structures and Blake’s perfectly formed pop songs. Both ‘The Fall’ and ‘The Past’ revolve in a tight structure: both songs are seemingly connected, suggesting that the writer is trying to escape from the past, a history. The choruses of both ‘The Fall’ and ‘The Past’ almost become slogans by the time they finish, while ‘Living with the Seasons’ finds McGinely leaning towards Blake’s folk influenced songs.
The nature of cycles- life cycles, nature cycles, songwriting cycles- is an essential idea threaded through these songs. What is most admirable about Shadows is that Teenage Fanclub managed to make an album that, although a slight departure of sorts, sounds and feels like a Teenage Fanclub album that may very well be part of a late blooming of great work. As a band, Teenage Fanclub has managed to move forward without having to compromise their identity, maturing gracefully.

Originally published by State.ie 

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Bright Eyes / Neva Dinova – One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels

It’s unusual for Conor Oberst to move backward. Over the past ten years, the Omaha, Nebraska native– once described by Rolling Stone as “Rock’s boy genius”– has, in total, released eleven records under various guises including Monsters of Folk and two albums with The Mystic Valley Band. His revisiting of 2004′s One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels – the first four tracks of which are exclusive to the 2010 reissue– is a welcome journey back home to Bright Eyes, his original and best know moniker.

As the title suggests, the sessions began when Oberst and Neva Dinova frontman Jake Bellows brought out the guitars over, well, one jug of wine. The Dylan comparisons, which heightened after Bright Eyes’ magnum opus, the 2005 Iraq Invasion- influenced I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, are largely redundant here. Oberst deconstructs folk songs using the DIY sonic textures that so defined Lifted and Letting Off The Happiness; eighties pop is favored instead of sixties folk, chiefly that of The Cure; whether it’s the guitars on ‘Rollerskating’, which echo ‘In Between Days’, or Oberst’s Robert Smith-style wailing throughout. The contrast between Oberst’s fraught voice works starkly against the smooth, laid back vocal of Bellows, whose earthy tones are reminiscent of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James.

Of the four new songs that grace this reissue, ‘I Know You’ is the most memorable. Oberst’s urgent, weighty inflections recall Leonard Cohen and the overall production of the song- right from his guitar playing to the reverb-heavy snare drum that haunts throughout- has the feel of a long-lost folk album. The abstractions in the lyrics make leaps and gaps that close tighter with each subsequent hearing.

As the record progresses, the mood and feel of the songs prove too sedate, too predictable and what follows isn’t as engaging as the opening four tracks. The novelty of the stylistic comparisons between Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova eventually wears off and the record never fully takes you to unexpected places. What is most visible; however, is Oberst’s growth from a crumbling 20- something-year-old alternative folk singer– songwriter, screaming into a four- track in the bedroom of his parent’s home to a mature, well– paced and fully formed songwriter; undoubtedly the most skilled of his generation.

A record purely for Bright Eyes completists, the uninitiated should first venture to Fevers and Mirrors, and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning to gauge the development of this truly outstanding talent.

Originally published by State.ie