2008: A Midyear Report

We're 6 months in to 2008 now, so here are five albums that I think you will want to know by the time we get to "Year-End List" season.  Most of these will probably get overlooked by the Grammys, but don't be surprised to find most of these on the December Top 10 list of your favorite music publication.     

The "Ghostly, Acoustic" Album of the Year

For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver

Bon Iver's debut is a spectacular mix of acoustic guitars, adventurous production, enigmatic lyrics, and tight vocal arrangements.  The tone and structure of the album reminds me of Antony and the Johnson's I am a Bird Now, but the vocal style reminds me of a far different modern masterpiece: TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain.  This influence is also brought to bear in the little flirtations with electronics and pure sound that creep up and add depth to the album's production.  I may not understand any of the lyrics, but much like an early R.E.M. album, the words themselves are hard to make out by just listening anyway.  But music has enough emotional power that the words don't even matter, the voices become just another instrument in the magical mix of the music.  If I had to pick right now, this would be album of the year.  Absolutely beautiful.   

The "Unbelievable on the First Listen, Pretty Stale by the Tenth" Album of the Year

 Feed the Animals by Girl Talk

Mash-Up albums are one of those post-Hip Hop oddities that are difficult to judge artistically. They are almost all derived from DJ Shadow's landmark Endtroducing... the first album to contain only sampled sounds.  Part of what made that record so successful critically was that the samples he took were from old soul records nobody remembered.  Taking sounds nobody cared about before and making them exciting takes a great ear and real talent.  With Feed the Animals, it's a different story.  These are some of the most recognizable songs from all different eras and genres.  The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Kelly Clarkson, Lil' Wayne, Nirvana, Radiohead, and "Jessie's Girl" all poke their heads out of the frenetic, unpredictable flow of this album.  As a result, the first time you hear it, the random blitzkrieg of songs is stunning. However, upon further inspection, you realize that speeding up "The Weight" so that Levon Helm sounds like Alvin of the chipmunks cheapens what for many people is a very emotional song.  Similarly defiled classics include "God Only Knows" and "The Message".  While some of the combinations of verse with background are inspired, like the way that the cadence of the opening verse lines up with the bass from "Gimme Some Lovin'", but more often than not, there is no evident method to the madness, and what you're left with is the hip-hop equivalent of a great bar band with an identity crisis.   

The "Brian Wilson Meets Nick Drake on the Farm" Album of the Year

Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes

With an emphasis on big vocal harmonies and lush arrangements, this album proudly bares the influence of Beach Boys' mastermind Brian Wilson.  But there hasn't been an album this joyful with lyrics so dark since Nick Drake's dying masterpiece, Pink Moon. "White Winter Hymnal" perfectly exemplifies this dichotomy because, like most of the tracks on Pink Moon, the lyrics are terse but evocatively tragic; meanwhile, the voices move almost as if in a jubilant round, like a playground sing-a-long.  As a result, the album can suit a variety of moods and deliver on multiple levels.

The "Summer on the Quad at Columbia" Album of the Year

Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

I swear this is not a joke.  The best album of effervescent, sunshine pop for this summer was made by five sweater-vest wearing Ivy Leaguers called Vampire Weekend.  The album recalls Paul Simon's afro-pop masterpiece Graceland, but also mixes in elements of Western chamber music.  They even brought a string quartet to their SNL appearance earlier this year.  And the quirky lyrics, dealing with everything from random bus rides to the veracity of rapper Lil' John, are just the perfect level of nonsensical for when you're sitting on the grass, soaking in the sun.

The "OMG!  That Dinosaur Skeleton Just Ate Fall Out Boy!" Album of the Year   

Accelerate by R.E.M.

If I told Peter Buck in 1983 that R.E.M. would make the most dynamic and thrilling mainstream rock album of 2008, he would have slapped me upside the head faster than you can say Murmur.  But R.E.M. have taken a rather serpentine career path.  Just when many were ready to put their career to rest, they return with their most assured, propulsive set since Bill Berry's departure from the drum stool.  R.E.M. have finally woken from their slumber Around the Sun and remembered what it takes to be a great rock band.  Fortunately, they decided to Document it so that the rest of the world can remember, too.    

Five Others to Think About (expect some more verbiage on the subject later):   

The "This Guy Must Write Songs Like He Breathes" Album of the Year 

The Age of the Understatement by The Last Shadow Puppets

The "Small Sounding Guitars and Banjos" Album of the Year 

Visiter by The Dodos   

The "You Mean These Guys Are Still Alive?" Album of the Year 

Boo! by Was (Not Was)  

The "Brian Eno Makes Every Band Better" Album of the Year 

Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends by Coldplay   

The "Seriously, You're Going to Love It When It Come Out" Album of the Year 

This is a Concept Album by Big Roy and the Twigs

Picking Up the Pace: "Child's Christmas in Wales"

Hello World, 

I haven't posted in a while.  I haven't had time to truly plumb the depths of an album to the necessary degree to craft something suitable, but don't worry it's coming.  In the meantime, here's a bit of travelogue for you.

It wasn't exactly a "Child's Christmas in Wales", having been June and with me no longer classified as a child, but who doesn't want a needless and frankly inaccurate John Cale reference whenever they can get it?

But really, it kind of was.  Because I don't know about you, but nothing makes me feel like a kid in a candy store like getting the opportunity to shop at the Guinness certified World's Oldest Record Store.

Spillers Records started selling sheet music in the 1894, and have been selling whatever form of musical stimulation the common people have consumed in all subsequent eras.  Today, they continue to sell CDs and LPs, including a nice little local artists section.

The local artists section was handy because I can't really tell you much about the history of Welsh music.  I know that Super Furry Animals are Welsh, but I can't really tell you much about them.  A nice modern power-pop band, but I haven't really listened to them.

I picked up homemade EPs by Hornby Pylons and Little My, just because they were cheap.  I also bought Executive Timber by Yellostone because it was recommended by the sign on the wall and it sounded good at the listening station.  I haven't explored them much since, but I will give you detailed thoughts later.  Not that they'll be easy for anybody on this continent to track down anyway.

Overall, not the greatest record store in the world by any stretch, they were a tad pricey for your everyday purchases and didn't have an extensive collection of obscure rarities, but definitely a worthwhile stop if you're ever in Cardiff.  

Still rocking Rings Around the World,

Roy Matsunaga

"Left of the Dial"

In case you didn't know, the title of this blog comes from a song by The Replacements on their classic 1985 album Tim.  This is what it looks like:

For those unfamiliar with The Replacements (known as The 'Mats by those in the know, which you now are), their most famous followers are the Goo Goo Dolls, who's more rocking tunes are derived almost directly from the 'Mats, though with a much more polished vocalist (at least on their well known songs).

Tim begins with "Hold My Life", which is one of a handful of tracks on the album that sounds like an outtake from Murmur (R.E.M.'s 1983 debut) with Paul Westerberg's weary wailing instead of Mike Stipe's incomprehensible mumble-singing and edgier, more distorted guitars.  

The next track of real interest is "Kiss Me on the Bus", which is another track heavily influenced by R.E.M.  However, this track also displays the naive childishness of their first album, Let It Be.  That album contained such classics as "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" and "Gary's Got a Boner", but the closest they come to such sentiment is here, where Westerberg pleads that this girl kiss him on the bus home from school.

Although the Replacements have always had the image of the scrappy midwestern drunks throwing records together through sheer force of will (I remember when I first bought Tim, the clerk at CD World said that their music really dropped off when Westerberg got sober), they have always managed to write a track or two with real emotional impact, and this album features two stunners.

The first is "Bastards of Young", a hard rocking anthem about a generation without identity or place in the world.  Think of it as the mid-80's post-punk equivalent of Richard Hell's "Blank Generation".  The chorus almost sounds like it was recorded by a bunch of drunks in a bar, screaming at the top of their lungs with their own version of punk's nihilistic, 

"no-future" vision.

The second is the song from which this blog gets a name.  Starting with R.E.M. in the early 1980s, a new radio format really came in to its own, and that was college radio.  With conventional radio becoming slave to the pocket of the major labels and their increasingly safe, commercial output, college radio became the primary outlet for new, interesting bands.  These stations broadcast at lower frequencies than normal stations, and were thus "Left of the Dial". 

This is not to discount the album's other brilliant tracks, most notably album closer "Here Comes a Regular," a moving portrait of a life being wasted away in a small town bar.  Musically, this songs sounds like it belonged on Big Star's dying opus Third/Sister Lovers.  The influence of Alex Chilton on the band was confirmed when The 'Mats penned a tribute to him on their next album.  

Elsewhere there are punk screechers about cultural conformity (the New York Dolls-ish punk boogie "I'll Buy") and drugs ("Dose of Thunder"), as well as a lighter ditty about how flight attendants think they're so great, but they're no more than a "Waitress in the Sky".  

5 Stars (out of 5)