Recommended Albums #22

18 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Recommended Albums Tags: ,

Do Things

Dent May: Do Things (2012)

Dent May’s latest is a departure in style from 2009’s Good Feeling Music of Dent May, which was credited to “Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele”. First, the uke is gone. Do Things makes use of a wider variety of instrumentation to explore a broad range of pop textures. The resulting sound may not be to everyone’s taste, but is decidedly fresh.

More importantly, the songwriting has taken a step forward from May’s past releases. This album is a consistently pleasing listen almost from start to finish, although it may take you a few spins to warm up to it–one must get past the delivery and unconventional sound. After that, though, it’s pure Brian Wilson-informed pop bliss.

May inhabits an idyllic 50’s-60’s pop dream world of happy vibes and positive messages. The instrumentation of certain songs and high-pitched lead vocal may bring the Beach Boys to mind, but the beats are a mix of cheesy Casio keyboard and 70’s disco. In fact, you can match up the beats of certain tunes with the specific disco song they emulate. “Don’t Wait Too Long”, for example, contains the rhythmic skeleton of Chic’s “Good Times”, while “Parents” has the same beat as Shirley & Company’s “Shame, Shame, Shame” with a slower tempo. Maybe this is what the Beach Boys would have sounded like had they formed in 1977, at the height of disco, rather than the peak of a surfing craze.

Contemporary pop may have no single sound that will define it for kids of the future to some up neatly because it’s mostly made up of borrowed and recycled sounds of past eras. You could choose to see this as reason to criticize its lack of originality, but the originality comes in the synthesis of past styles. Let’s face it, almost everything’s been done at this point. What makes the best new pop so much fun is that someone like Dent May can take the innocence of the sixties, the disco beats of the seventies, the synths of the eighties, and mix in a little of that contemporary ironic/homage viewpoint to create a found art from the borrowed parts–a great summer record for 2012.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/02/23/songs-you-may-have-missed-20/

Listen to: “Best Friend”

Listen to: “Tell Her”

Listen to: “Parents”

“Best Friend” video clip:

Recommended Albums #21

18 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Recommended Albums Tags: ,

Rumor & Sigh

Richard Thompson: Rumor and Sigh (1991)

For the uninitiated, Richard Thompson is, quite literally, a legendary British singer, songwriter and guitar god. His renown is somewhat limited outside circles of fans of British folk rock, but catalog is rich with musical treasures waiting for those of eclectic tastes to explore.

Thompson was the teenage lead guitarist and contributing songwriter with the iconic folk rock band Fairport Convention, where he made a huge impact despite his limited time with the band. Shortly after going solo, he made a series of highly regarded albums with his then-wife Linda, herself a leading light of the English folk rock movement. Two of their albums, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Shoot Out the Lights made Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the Top 500 Albums of All Time.

After his early 80’s breakup with Linda, Richard again recorded alone, and Rumor and Sigh is a highlight of his solo career. There’s lots to like here, from RT’s twisted, acerbic outlook, often presented through the point of view of a made-up character (a la Pete Townshend) to catchy almost radio-friendly hooks, to his incredible virtuosity on acoustic and electric guitar, to songwriting of the highest caliber.

“I Feel So Good” is sung from the viewpoint of a newly-freed inmate looking to make someone pay for the time he lost. “Keep Your Distance” is an acknowledgment of weakness in the face of an old love (with us it must be all or none at all). And “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” is nothing short of a modern folk classic–the tale of an ill-fated relationship between a red-headed girl, a hell-bent boy, and his prized bike–featuring some of Thompson’s finest acoustic picking.

If you appreciate intelligent rock with an English flavour and aren’t yet familiar with this man’s work, allow me to hold the door for you: you’re about to enter a dark wonderland…

Listen to: “I Feel So Good”

 

Listen to: “Keep Your Distance”

 

Listen to: “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”

Songs You May Have Missed #150

17 Jul 2012 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

fitz

Fitz & The Tantrums: “Pickin’ Up The Pieces” (2010)

I’m glad a live-in-studio performance video exists for this funky throwback-soul number, although the drummer gets far too much screen time on it. It’s the only way I’d have believed that 1976 Daryl Hall wasn’t singing that lead vocal.

Songs You May Have Missed #149

17 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

guerra

Juan Luis Guerra: “Guavaberry” (1987)

If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Guerra, he’s one of the Dominican Republic’s most talented purveyors of merengue and bachata music, having produced dozens of melodic, irresistible dance tunes and ballads that just drip with romance. Guerra has collected 2 Grammys, 9 Latin Grammys and countless other awards. The Dominican senate has even declared him the ‘National Singer/Songwriter’.

No single song can adequately depict or summarize his career, but “Guavaberry” is certainly one of his most beloved merengue anthems.

Songs You May have Missed #148

17 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

chisel

Cold Chisel: “Forever Now” (1982)

 

Perhaps Australian band Cold Chisel’s best bid for American chart success was this rifftastic little pop truffle written by drummer Steve Prestwich, whose songwriting credits for the band were few.

Alas, while fellow Aussies Men at Work and Little River Band graced American radio in the early eighties, Chisel couldn’t quite cut it in the US.

Shame, too, because “Forever Now” would sound great coming from the jukebox at the local as an oldie today, with nostalgic, half-lit forty-somethings belting out the chorus in unison.

Prestwich died in January 2011 after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor.

Rolling Stones 1964 Newsreel

16 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

(Source: Open Culture)

Just four days ago, the Rolling Stones celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their first concert, which happened on July 12, 1962 at London’s Marquee club. Articles have quoted lead singer Mick Jagger as describing the crowd that evening as the kind of audience they’d expected as a band: “college students having a night out,” an “art-school kind of crowd” who “weren’t particularly demonstrative, but they appreciated and enjoyed the set.” But the Stones’ demographic would soon both shift and expand dramatically: “A few months later we were playing in front of 11 year olds who were screaming at us.” You can witness this very phenomenon in the 1964 newsreel above; perhaps all of the kids lined up outside the theater aren’t quite that young, but we’re definitely not looking at a collegiate crowd. Still, what this full house (“in fact,” the narrator says, “it could have been filled ten times over”) lacks in maturity, they make up for in raw enthusiasm.

Video by Ed Cyphers

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