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09 Feb 2010 03:26
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07 Feb 2010 13:12
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06 Feb 2010 19:35
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06 Feb 2010 02:03
“…it’s got too many notes…”
February 5th, 2010Despite the sheer level of bombast and confused—and confusing—showmanship displayed at this year’s Grammy awards, there was nothing about the show that could be considered controversial. In fact, with its largest audience since 2004, the program can be considered, in business terms at least, a stunning success. But where there isn’t controversy, you can be sure that someone in the news business will create some, and sure enough, here comes MTV, that bastion of journalistic integrity, doing their best to maintain what is now a week long debate over Taylor Swift’s inability to hit certain notes in the chorus of “Rhiannon”, and whether that inability invalidates her entire career.
Just to keep the debate humming, and no doubt to keep his client’s name in the papers (as if she needed the publicity), the owner of Swift’s label, Scott Borchetta, gave an interview providing a defense that ran along the lines of the importance of emotion over technical proficiency, and in the process took a swipe at American Idol. This brought out Kelly Clarkson, who quite rightly felt insulted, though she made it clear that her beef was with Borchetta, and not Swift herself. Swift, meanwhile, with wisdom beyond her years, has kept her mouth shut about the whole thing.
What many of those currently following this apparently meaningless debate may not realize is that it isn’t new. For well over a year, country blogs have been full of comments about Swift’s occasionally erratic pitch in live performance, and the debate has moved pretty much along the same lines it has on MTV over the last week: she can’t sing and her music sucks vs. she can too sing vs. she can’t sing but it doesn’t matter because her records are still great.
My own opinion is that despite obvious technical limitations, Swift is still an excellent vocalist, and an even better songwriter. I’m also tempted to say “who cares as long as the records are good?” Except that a lot of people care, and they care for a very important reason: Swift represents the future of country music, and everyone, whether they like it or not, knows it. They also know that that future is going to be a lot different from the present, in ways that many people may not have even realized.
In terms of the current debate, one piece of the future Swift represents is the ultimate collapse, for a time at least, of the cult of the vocalist, which has ruled country for several years now. Listening to the country top ten over the last few years, it’s been impossible not to notice the almost fetishistic attention that is paid to vocals, especially among male singers. Whether it’s the tenor keening of Rascal Flatts, or the craggy baritone of someone like Trace Adkins, vocal perfection and detail is a central part of their records’ appeal. As such, the songs are no longer the point of most country records, but merely the vehicle for various vocal pyrotechnics.
Oddly, less attention seems to be lavished on women’s vocals (women are somewhat out of the picture in country right now, anyway—though they’re making a comeback, there are only nine in the current country top forty—another area where Swift could end up changing things). In the current market, women are required to be either belters or vamps, and little else (the whole redneck woman phase seems to have faded), and the prettier their voices are the better. Carrie Underwood is the obvious reflection of this, and no doubt Swift’s manager was thinking of her when he made his comment about American Idol. The only major exception beside Swift is Miranda Lambert, and even she had to soften her violent ways to finally get to number one; the others are mostly old-timers like Reba McEntire and Martina McBride.
Swift steps away from this completely. Not that her voice isn’t pretty enough, but because her primary focus is on her songs, not her voice. Not that her songs aren’t shaped to her vocal strengths —of course they are. But that’s because she wrote them, not because she chose them to fit her voice or show it off. And this is another area where Swift could have a major impact on current country. When she accepted her first award Sunday night and thanked her record company for letting her put out an album consisting entirely of her own songs, she wasn’t just rambling, she was helping to overturn a major country paradigm. Few country performers, and certainly not teenagers straight out of high school, record their own material, even if they’re capable of writing it. Only major stars who have proved themselves in the marketplace get to do that, and even then few do.
But if Swift does represent sweeping change in the country market, no one in the country establishment is resisting it. They’re well aware that the music has been in the doldrums the last few years, just like the rest of the music industry, only worse. Like every other genre, country album sales are down over 30% the last couple of years, and without the benefit, so far, of catching on digitally to compensate. They desperately need someone like Swift, who, besides selling a lot of records, promises a whole new paradigm for the industry and its audience, something that more traditional performers like Carrie Underwood or Lady Antebellum could never do, despite their sales.
So they’ve given Swift every award they could think of, and more so. Who can blame them? Name another performer who could generate a week of debate among a non-country audience over a couple of bum notes?
Carrie UnderwoodGrammy AwardsKelly ClarksonLady AntebellumMartina McBridemiranda lambertMTVRascal FlattsReba McEntireTaylor SwiftTrace Adkins, , No Comments »
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31 Jan 2010 22:14
This explains so much
January 31st, 2010“Around here, we feel like Putumayo World Music and Whole Foods Market kind of grew up together…” –Dan Storper, on the Whole Foods blog
New this week—1/31/10
January 31st, 2010Taylor Swift—”Today Was a Fairytale” #2 As songwriting, this is rehash; Swift has gone over the same ground many times before, though this pares the idea down to its basics in an appealing way. The real appeal, though, lies in the fact that, even more than the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of Fearless, this clears away the production clutter that was that album’s greatest weakness. With every record Swift seems to have a clearer idea of what she’s aiming at and how best to attain it. She may be not just the biggest pop star of the moment, but also the smartest.
Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris—”Baby” #5 Catchy and sweet, and even Ludacris keeps it clean (though it’s impossible for him to sound as innocent as Bieber does). Bieber is still doing a young Michael Jackson imitation and little else, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially with hooks as catchy as this.
Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge & Rihanna—”Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)” #16 Despite Jay-Z’s confused attempt at making sense of tragedy and Bono’s meaningless plea for volunteers (who would only confuse things by this point) this is better than anyone had a right to expect. Jay keeps the song at groundlevel by emphasizing specific realities and personal loss, while Bono and Rihanna soar on the chorus. Jay-Z’s and Bono’s egos are incapable of not pushing their own agendas, but the overall effect manages to cancel both out. One of the few benefit records I’ve heard that may be worth listening to after the fact.
Justin Timberlake & Matt Morris featuring Charlie Sexton—”Hallelujah” #48 This performance has a lot to recommend it, but I still find it irritating that “Hallelujah” has become the go-to song for anyone who wants to sound seriously spiritual and sincere, the same role previously played by “Amazing Grace” and “People Get Ready”. The problem is that “Hallelujah” isn’t really about spirituality so much as it uses spiritual imagery and Biblical references—David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah—as metaphors for the irresistible, baffling powers of love and lust. Cohen was singing about love and lust and music as acts of God, but not the kind of acts, like Haiti, to which that phrase normally refers. He wasn’t channeling the Book of Job, he was channeling The Song of Solomon. Timberlake and Morris sing beautifully—I especially like the way their voices seem to break and strain as they reach for the final notes, as if singing “hallelujah” in these circumstance was both the hardest and most important thing one could do—but the song doesn’t mean what they try to make it mean, and in this context it’s confusing more than anything else.
Lady Antebellum—”Our Kind of Love” Better than the last two singles-of-the-week, not as good as the first two, which adds up to mediocre.
Rihanna—”Redemption Song” #81 Rihanna has a voice, and she wisely keeps this rough and tries her best to focus on the emotion, but she isn’t much of a singer, and the song is beyond her. It would be unfair to compare her to Marley, and this is a hard song to sing under any circumstances, much less under the time constraints she was working with here, but this sounds unsure and amateurish. And the background, except for the guitar part lifted largely from Marley’s original, is pure mush.
Bob MarleyBonoCharlie SextonJay-ZJustin BieberJustin TimberlakeLady AntebellumLeonard CohenMatt MorrisMichael JacksonRihannaTaylor SwiftThe Edge
Something to look forward to
January 31st, 2010Alex Ross’s new book, Listen To This, comes out in September. Sounds like the first three chapters alone will make it worth reading. His idea about “music…as a way of knowing the world” is something I’ve been fumbling around myself, in my own peripatetic, procrastinating way. And if you care about “art” music at all and haven’t read The Rest Is Noise, you should.
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27 Jan 2010 16:41
New this week—1/24/10
January 27th, 2010Sade—”Soldier of Love” #58 Sonically this is stunning, especially the drums, which switch seamlessly in sound from a military tattoo to distant artillery to nearby gunfire—it’s enough to make you believe that they spent the entire eight years between albums getting the sound right. The lyrics are banal, though, no matter how gorgeously sung or perfectly set they may be. Their/her attention to musical detail is so complete that they seem to have completely missed the oxymoron in the title, or considered the possibility that they’ve never found real love because they think of it as a battlefield to begin with. That’s the trouble with perfectionism: once it latches onto an idea, it can’t abide contradictions.
Lady Antebellum–”Ready To Love Again” #72 The ever-more-questionable single-a-week campaign continues, and sure enough, here comes the dreck. This sounds like the closing credits music for some Lifetime Channel original movie. Should you really issue four singles to preview your new LP if it’s only two singles deep?
Jay-Z + Swizz Beats—”On To the Next One” #78 Jay-Z sounds fine (though a bit defensive—when has anyone actually accused him of being a virgin?), but the real star is Swizz Beats, who seems to have decided to take up where Timbaland left off (or gave up). His productions have always been fun, but this one has just enough added seriousness and menace to take it up another level.
Snow Patrol featuring Martha Wainwright—”Set the Fire To the Third Bar” #86 As far as I’m concerned, any guy who writes a line like “the laughter penetrates my silence” doesn’t deserve to be reunited with his girlfriend, no matter how many lonely bars he mutely wanders through. He certainly doesn’t deserve Martha Wainwright, who nonetheless almost succeeds in saving the song, if only because her sweet, simple harmonies distract you from the relentless downtrodden wallow of the lead vocal.
Miley Cyrus—”When I Look At You” #88 Is this what we have to look forward to when Cyrus gives up pop and “matures”? Me, I prefer the Disney stuff, even the cutesy nonsense, to preening power ballads like this. And I’ll bet you whatever you like that the last Hannah Montana soundtrack album will be better than anything Cyrus releases after she leaves Disney.
Keith Urban—”‘Til Summer Comes Around” #92 The music is so portentous and the images so dismal—wintry silence, deserted carnival rides, etc.—that this could almost be taken for one of Bruce Springsteen’s post-industrial wasteland songs. Except Springsteen’s songs are about the death of community, the decline of the nation’s principals and ideals, spiritual devastation at both a personal and societal level. Urban’s song is about missing a girl he made out with on a Ferris Wheel once. The imagery is so overwhelming compared to the subject that after awhile it becomes the subject, which—and I would hope that it’s needless to point this out—isn’t the way songs are supposed to work.
Zac Brown Band—”Highway 20 Ride” #98 A standard country divorce weeper, with extra dollops of self-pity. Brown spends most of the song feeling so sorry for himself he barely addresses the son he’s supposedly talking to. Maybe he should stick to Jimmy Buffett rip-offs and leave the real emotions to people who have some.
Pearl Jam—”Just Breathe” Let’s face it, if it weren’t for the first Doors LP, Ten would probably be the worst “classic” album ever to grace the rock canon. Now, twenty years later, they’re still making the same mistakes: taking sentiment for real emotion, sincerity for real ideas, and vocal and instrumental texture for interesting music. They mean well, and they’ve gotten better, but too often that’s the only good thing that can be said about them. In this case, I wouldn’t even say they’ve gotten better.
Bruce SpringsteenHannah MontanaJay-ZJimmy BuffetKeith UrbanLady AntebellumMartha WainwrightMiley CyrusPearl JamSadeSnow PatrolSwizz BeatsThe DoorsZac Brown BandNo Comments »
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20 Jan 2010 00:08
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17 Jan 2010 10:48
New this week—1/17/10
January 16th, 2010Ke$ha
“Blah Blah Blah” (featuring 3Oh!3), #7
“Your Love Is My Drug”, #27
“Take It Off”, #85 It’s hard not to think of Ke$ha as Reality-TV-Pop, with a musical persona not far removed from the ladies on Jersey Shore. That’s at least better, in some ways, than thinking of her as a female version of 3Oh!3, or a full time Fergie-in-party-mode. The music is suitably garish and blaring, the vocal phrasing party-girl flat, and the character that of a woman who thinks she’s a goddess because she can take five straight shots and still stand up. She explores this a little more deeply and humorously on some of the album cuts—especially “Party At a Rich Dude’s House” (she throws up in the closet) and “Dinosaur”, which is about creepy older men hitting her up—but these three cuts (plus “Tik Tok”) provide everything you really need to know. If you really want to know, that is.Lady Antebellum—”Love This Pain”
#93 There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeve, especially in country music, but when those influences slip from Fleetwood Mac to Bon Jovi, it’s probably not a good idea to emphasize them by releasing the results as a single.Timbaland featuring Drake—”Say Something”
#94 Listen to the background and you’ll notice that, as a producer, Timbaland is still capable of making interesting music. As a rapper, though, he has nothing to say, and Drake doesn’t have much more. And the music isn’t all that interesting.Easton Corbin—”A Little More Country Than That”
#100 I love the conceit of this, where Corbin rattles off a few country and small town cliches, and then pronounces himself even more country in a tone both good humored and dismissive. He then digs behind the cliches and defines country as a form of honor and emotional honesty. It’s a neat trick, and Corbin wisely plays it as low key as possible. Though the song doesn’t build in the way it possibly should, it’s a neat llittle package.- Hot 100 (29)
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16 Jan 2010 01:37
A (very) minor resurrection
January 15th, 2010It’s worth noting, even if it doesn’t exactly call for the ringing of bells and cheering in the streets, that Woody Allen has written something for The New Yorker that’s actually funny. Not fall down funny, or Kugelmass Episode funny, but funny all the same. Everything he’s written over the last few years has felt forced and strained, but this is easy-going, relaxed, and just about perfect. It’s about a murderous cow, and in tone it reminds me of the moose story that was part of his stand-up act in the ’60s. Who knew he still had it in him?
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13 Jan 2010 21:17
New this week—1/10/10
January 12th, 2010Lil Wayne featuring Eminem—”Drop the World”
#18
Unbelievable. The lyrics sound like a Junior High student trying to sound tough and “realistic” (that is, cynical and negative by rote), the music an overblown attempt to accompany a melody that doesn’t exist. Eminem fares better, since he at least understands the form—which Lil Wayne obviously doesn’t—and knows how to pull some interesting rhythmic change-ups within it. But his lyrics aren’t much better than Lil Wayne’s, and no one could save a record as conceptually misguided as this, anyway. Lil Wayne seems to have reached that unfortunate point faced by so many great talents, at which they begin to believe that anything they touch will be marked by genius. Chances are he’ll recover; but will we?- Hot 100 (28)
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