Durand Jones & The Indications: “Love Will Work it Out” (2021)
Durand Jones and company seem to have dug through the dustier crates of vinyl for the inspiration to create the soulful symphony that is 2021’s Private Space.
The mix of vocals between Jones and falsetto (and drummer) Aaron Frazer, along with cool vibes by Joel Ross create a magical retro sound that calls to mind Earth, Wind & Fire’s jazzier moments, with a sprinkling of Philly soul and maybe a touch of Bobby Caldwell.
While the tyrics touch on topical issues such as the pandemic and racial tensions, the message of this soul-soothing song is a hopeful one.
Los Manolos are ten friends from Barcelona whose airplane wing shirt collars make them a risk to go airborne while performing, Or walking briskly.
Their mirror shades, Elvis sideburns, neon suits and bell-bottoms certainly lend them a distinctive…uh, flare.
And their music, like their look, isn’t for everybody. But if you happen to like rumba with a rock attitude, they could be the life of your next partido.
“Amigos Para Siempre”, whose music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, may sound familiar. It was written for Sarah Brightman and Spanish tenor José Carreras to sing at the closing ceremony of the the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games.
Los Manolos themselves also performed at those same ’92 closing ceremonies.
This version of “Amigos” reached number 3 in the Spanish charts.
How this soft, silky slice of faux-80’s soul-inflected disco pop missed the Hot 100 is a mystery to me–like the appeal of so many artists who do inhabit the upper reaches of said singles chart.
The video is a hoot too. In an Instagram post Mayer joked: “I needed to make a video for ‘New Light’ but nobody could agree on a budget, so I went to a place downtown and made this with a company that usually does birthday and Bar Mitzvah videos.”
Somewhere there exists a VHS tape, recorded in the 90’s, of my young offspring lying corpselike across the living room floor and furniture, pretending to be dead, while the spooky intro to this song begins to play from my boombox.
As the organ swells they slowly rise like zombies, then as the band kicks into the playful uptempo section of the preamble, the kids bounce around the room in random, goofy improvised dance–something like a precurser to the Harlem Shake. Or something. I guess you had to be there.
What my kids to this day refer to as “The Dead Song” was Montreal band Mashmakhan’s idiosynchratic 1970 #31 hit “As the Years Go By”, which depending on your age and awareness at the time may be unfamiliar, or possibly exists on the edge of your musical memory. The band never charted another U.S. hit.
But their heartfelt, anthemic examination of the manifold meanings of the phrase “I Love You” is deserving of four minutes of your attention. Dancing like a zombie is optional.
This seems like the kind of song that could only have come from the era it did–indeed, compositionally the closest comparision in terms of chart hits may be Zager and Evans’ “In the Year 2525” of the previous year, although that song was much more commercially successful, claiming the #1 chart position for 6 straight weeks.
But hey, “As the Years Go By” was a million seller in Japan.
And in my house, too, “The Dead Song” was a big hit.
Brazilian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Marisa Monte’s legendary status in her native country hasn’t exactly made her a household name in the US–at least not yet. But then again, she doesn’t pander to American audiences with English-language records a la Selena, Shakira or even Juan Luis Guerra.
But her divine, operatically-trained voice does translate. And the melodies of her compositions, inspired by classical, Brazilian soul and bossa nova music, certainly can touch the heart even if the words of the song (in this case “The First Stone”) are a mystery.
One of the great singers, one of the great talents of her generation.
Sweden’s Ghost inhabit–haunt, really–a world of their own on the musical landscape. Inspired by Alice Cooper’s sense of the theatrical, Opeth’s dark vibe, Dio and BOC’s riffs, and ABBA’s songwriting, Ghost create their own uniquely creepy stew of something I want to call Halloween Rock.
The final track of 2018’s Prequelle LP is a ballad, and stands alone as such, even if a listen to what precedes it–a bombastic metal conceptual album revolving around Europe’s black plague–lends it some dark undertones.
The bell tolls and pipe organ don’t hurt, either.
Ghost’s best work is dark, twisted and creepy. But also beautiful, inspired and thrilling.
Every Moment Has A Song 