FKA twigs – LP1

LP1

FKA twigsLP1 Young Turks YTCD118 (2014)


LP1 is basically music in the style of new electro R&B, like The Weeknd, which makes some overtures to various electronic pop genres mostly originating from the UK.  But there is something else going on here.  Experiments and outsider music are being co-opted in pursuit of conformist commercial success in the usual channels.  The lyrics of this album evidence a sort of low self-esteem protagonist degrading herself for external validation.  That at least is what it tries to be.  There is a strong sense that this is very contrived music.  It resembles the sort of “feminism” that — idiotically — declares adherence to stereotypical gender roles to be revolutionary, like “shopping as identity”.  This is immanently self-defeating more than anything.  Although perhaps this appropriates some interesting bits from other sources, the conclusion remains: fail.

Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove

One Nation Under a Groove

FunkadelicOne Nation Under a Groove Warner Bros. BSK 3209 (1978)


Landing on major label Warner Bros., Funkadelic combined the more accessible elements of Parliament (the funk version of the band) and Funkadelic (the rock version of the band) to arrive at the sound of One Nation Under a Groove.  The edges have been rounded off some of the rock guitar solos, and the funk is a little less hard — you don’t HAVE to dance, but you still very well could.  Things glide by pretty comfortably though.  This is definitely shooting for the widest possible audience.  So, sure, this is probably the easiest entry point.  But at the same time, this falls short of the crazy (and I mean CRAIZEE) unique, grooving, classic music the band made elsewhere.  But you could more readily play this for some squares you know (yeah, you know some) and they would be less likely to shit their pants listening to this one than some others.

Funkadelic – Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow

Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow

FunkadelicFree Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow Westbound WB 2001 (1970)


The debut was pretty jammy, and this one is too but, for better or worse, it’s even more freaky, loose and psychedelic.  The black Grateful Dead?  Sort-of.  If you come to this looking for well-defined “songs” you’ll be disappointed.  But guitarist Eddie Hazel proves the star.  He lights up side one.  This one has its place.  It can’t compete with what came next though, the stone-cold classic Maggot Brain.

Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young

America Eats Its Young

FunkadelicAmerica Eats Its Young Westbound 2WB 2020 (1972)


Funkadelic made an abrupt turn with their fourth album.  Rather than extended psychedelic R&B jams, George Clinton & Co. had shifted away from guitar as a centerpiece of the music to vocal harmonies.  Some of this could pass for vintage soul, and one track even could fairly be called country rock.  Listeners who appreciate Funkadelic as being one of the stranger and weirder rock acts of their day may not warm up to this much, but on its own terms this is a successful album.  It marked the group’s first attempt to be more commercially palatable.  The approach makes a certain amount of sense, considering that attempting to duplicate or top Maggot Brain would have been futile.

Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

Bruce SpringsteenGreetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Columbia KC 31903 (1973)


Bruce Springsteen’s debut delivers brilliant folky rock storytelling. At this point, he was concerned with more than just rock anthems. His purpose was something humanistic. Springsteen had that in common with Van Morrison. This album tells of hope for human perseverance. Triumph over adversity is the common thread through all the songs.

Here he is believable. The songs matter, and they matter to more than just their characters. Springsteen was confident to make the everyday an event. It was kind of a pride thing. The sound is a little sparse. Sometimes Springsteen isn’t quite sure of what lies ahead. He leaves just enough rough edges to give Greetings a homespun charm.

Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. did not make Springsteen a star. He was still just a kid from Jersey. The album is humble and endearing in a way that none of his later albums were.

Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle

The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle

Bruce SpringsteenThe Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle Columbia PC 32432 (1973)


The Boss took a very significant turn with his second album.  His debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. was quite obviously influenced by folky singer-songwriters.  It also had a youthful exuberance with a sentimental and even romantic attachment to gritty urban concerns.  All that managed to be a strength because of the overall sense of earnestness it had.  For some reason, that debut wasn’t a big hit (perhaps a very minor one), and continues to be less popular with fans than what came later.

Springsteen’s second album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle makes a conscious effort to cast off any remnants of folk influence.  In place, there is a reliance on heavy production.  This album tries very hard to sound contemporary, and simply “big.”  Overproduced?  Yes!  Springsteen’s vocal adopt some dramatic flairs (like “Kitty’s Back” with his reaching vocals, set against a hushed vocal chorus, and similarly with the sappy orchestration of “New York City Serenade”).  The keyboards and guitar sound more synthetic, with self-consciously jazzy inflections.  And isn’t “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” just basically a re-write of “Blinded by the Light” from the last album?

So, it’s no wonder that fans who like the Born to Run Springsteen don’t go for the debut, but will probably like this one more.  This album is chock full of typically disingenuous Springsteen fare.  Springsteen’s attempts to find the glory of middle America have always seemed like something of a joke to this reviewer.  For one thing, once Springsteen was a star his attempts to pass as just another “working Joe” seem fraudulent.  He was a big star, not the little guy anymore.  But it’s the hypocrisy of Springsteen’s writing that really is the most irksome.  His tendency to use irony often stumbles when he simultaneously relies on the very things he mocks to do draw in listeners.  You know, F. Scott Fitzgerald is often described as writing about the dark heart of the jazz age.  Springsteen clearly tries to do somewhat the same type of thing for working-class America of a later time.  But, but, but, the problem is that Springsteen becomes more of an enabler for the worst qualities that cause the very problems he laments.  It’s this sort of passivity, fatalism and sense of powerlessness in the face of powerful, incomprehensible forces that is really quite pathetic, and it makes its appearance on this album and only grows stronger on later efforts.  Fitzgerald never gave his characters the kind of pass that Springsteen does so regularly.  For Fitzgerald, his characters have failings, and they most often fail to accept the inevitable consequences of a wealthy lifestyle until it’s too late.  For Springsteen, escapism is fine, and he’s gonna glorify the here and now, but he’s never going to set his sights on more.  This is found in his songs that pretty consistently stop short of offering any kind of explanation or resolution.  It gives the impression of somebody a little naïve about how the world really works, giving comfort to the likewise ignorant.  Srsly, fuck you Bruce.  This may give short shrift to many great singles and individual songs The Boss has released, that do capture the bleakness of life for ordinary Americans, but the entirety of many of his albums reveal more than a little lack of ambition.

Steve Lacy – Reflections

Reflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk

Steve LacyReflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk New Jazz PRLP 8206 (1959)


Perhaps not a groundbreaking album, but an extremely rewarding one.  Steve Lacy doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves for bringing the soprano saxophone into modern jazz.  His tone was clear, soft and lively, and he was a superb technician (not an easy accomplishment on the notoriously unruly soprano sax).  He greatly admired Monk and this album is entirely covers of Monk tunes.  It’s refreshing to hear a selection of tunes that go beyond the most obvious choices into some that, especially in 1958-59, were probably not well known at all outside of a pretty limited circle of jazz performers and aficionados.  Lacy invigorates each song without betraying the essence of Monk in them.  Probably the best feature of this album is that the tricky rhythms and upbeat quirkiness inherent in the songs are left intact.  Yet everything feels modernized with the more mellow textures that give this set less of a be-bop feel and more of a relaxed, cool one.  The simple fact that the melodies are carried on sax rather than piano provides a wonderfully different perspective from Monk’s own recordings.  This album is also helped by the fact that Lacy’s band is stellar, with Mal Waldron (piano), Elvin Jones (drums), and Buell Neidlinger (bass) each turning in fine performances.  I enjoy this album tremendously and come back to it often.

The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You

Tattoo You

The Rolling StonesTattoo You Rolling Stones Records CUN 39114 (1981)


Wait, what??? Where did this album come from?  Where did it come from??  The Stones ditched the attempts to sound contemporary of Black and Blue, Some Girls and Emotional Rescue in favor of something a bit more in line with what they had been doing ten years earlier.  Yeah, strangely enough it works.  What’s more, the ballads and slower material of side two are about as strong as the rockers on side one.  A weird anomaly and really the last time The Rolling Stones sounded like they had anything worthwhile to offer.

The Rolling Stones – Black and Blue

Black and Blue

The Rolling StonesBlack and Blue Rolling Stones Records COC 59106 (1976)


Black and Blue is something of the black sheep of 1970s Stones albums.  There are no classic tunes to be found, and the songwriting in general just doesn’t impress.  Yet, there is something to say about these simplistic yet gritty jams.  Iggy Pop once gave an interview where he commented about his own most recent record being stupid rock music and sometimes you just need stupid rock music.  Well, Black and Blue is precisely that kind of stupid rock music!  The jams are often quite danceable, especially those with a disco flavor, and work out all right with the help of a rotating cast of guitarists.  This one plays best as mood music, background music.  If that’s not what you want, it’s time to look elsewhere.  You wouldn’t even have to look far, because two years later Some Girls took the stylistically varied approach of this album and combined it with more focused songwriting to generally more acclaim.

Jandek – Glasgow Sunday

Glasgow Sunday

JandekGlasgow Sunday Corwood 0792 (2008)


The main thing about Jandek is that the man behind it, Sterling Smith, has managed to come up with some pretty varied music through the years.  Here he enlists the help of some excellent avant-garde players for a live show recorded October 16, 2005 in Glasgow.  The first track, “The Grassy Knoll,” is performed with the great Loren Connors, with Mr. Smith on harmonica and also doing spoken word and a little singing.  The sort of ambient guitar playing from Connors matched with the poetic recitations strongly recalls Patti Smith and Kevin ShieldsThe Coral Sea, part of which was recorded just months before this (was Mr. Smith in attendance?).  But Unlike Patti Smith’s more dynamic recitations, Mr. Smith is more dark and monotone, suggesting influence from John Cale‘s “The Jeweller” (Slow Dazzle) or an assortment of Current 93 recordings.  The lyrics reflect something of a consistent theme in Jandek recordings, that of seeking escape from something like a professional office-type day job — for a similar scenario, see the interview with Runhild Gammelsæter in the October 2008 issue of The Wire magazine, or even read about the life of composer/insurance executive Charles Ives.  It might be summed up in a line from the Godard movie Film Socialisme: “No more doing evil, it’s vacation time.”  The second track, “Tribal Ether,” is even better.  Mr. Smith is on….drums!  Alan Licht is on electric guitar and Heather Leigh Murray is on lap steel guitar and some vocals.  The guitar cooks and the drums, well, they strangely enough work.  But with Jandek, strange is the new normal.