Still cooling down from the Factual’s epic 1978 countdown, and less than stimulated by the last week or so’s crop of new music (except for the slammin’ new Rich Harrison-produced Amerie single, but the Editors-in-Chief would prefer it if we didn’t mention that), this week we’re just going to hit shuffle on the ol’ iPod and write about whatever comes up. Hell, we’ll even give each song a rating out of ten points in order to give it a little competitive spirit. In more than a year of columning, it’s amazing that we’ve never resorted to this before. Prepare yourself for a potentially horrifying glimpse into our musical library. Here we go.
Plants and Animals – “Feedback in the Field” (from Parc Avenue)
I am endlessly amazed at the DJ abilities of the iPod. While I’m sure that the formula for the shuffle feature does not involve strictly playing songs at random—I imagine it as some sort of algorithm that incorporates genre, play counts, artists and star ratings, if you use them—there’s nothing that could explain the iPod (whom I will henceforth refer to by her name, Rocket Queen) choosing to kick off perfectly with the whistling introduction from “Feedback in the Field,” from Plants and Animals’ Parc Avenue, short of pure magic. Aside from being a sweet opener, “Feedback in the Field” is great enough to convince me that I may have severely underrated Plants and Animals in the past. The whistling intro only lasts a merciful couple of seconds before giving way to a chugging rhythm that carries the two short verses into a funk-influenced classic rock guitar solo that eats up the song’s second half. All in all, this is a pretty good start. (8/10)
M. Ward – “To Go Home” (from Post-War)
I went through a phase a couple of years ago, where I was listening to M. Ward’s “Chinese Translation” back to back with Rilo Kiley’s “Me/A Man/Then Jim” once every couple of hours. The phase only lasted a couple of weeks, and it’s the closest I’ve ever come to really warming to him. M. Ward is a little like Jack Johnson with indie credibility, but with a lot less melody and rhythm to hang your hat on—which is maybe the reason for the credibility in the first place. If I want the kind of half-written, folky song-sketches that M. Ward trades in, I’ll listen to Ryan Adams—who, for all his shortcomings, is less mopey and self-conscious on record than he seems in public. Yet, Rocket Queen picks the one song off of Ward’s 2006 album, Post-War, that could match the ferocity of “Feedback in the Field.” Or at least, in the introduction. By the time Ward’s vocals kick in, he’s lost about a quarter of his momentum—which seems like it’s par for the course for this dude. (5/10)
Joe Cocker – “Delta Lady” (from Joe Cocker!)
This is what I’m talking about with the iPod shuffle—if “To Go Home” were just a little bit of a better song, this sequence would be a hell of an introduction to a mix tape. On “Delta Lady,” Joe Cocker proves what a fine line there is between white blues and schmaltz by erring on the positive side of it, riding the gospel piano with some shambolic vocal strutting. Taylor Hicks eat your heart out. (7/10)
Beulah – “Silver Lining” (from The Coast is Never Clear)
The old me—the me circa 2001, fresh out of college—would have loved this song. Unfortunately for Beulah, these days, by the time I get to the fourth rock song in a row I’m usually a little bored. That shouldn’t stop you, however, from tracking down Beulah’s 2001 album, The Coast is Never Clear—which probably deserved all the praise that The Shins got, if for no other reason than because it included 150% more trumpets. (6/10)
Lifter Puller – “Lie Down on Landsdowne” (from Fiestas + Fiascos)
I don’t love Lifter Puller’s final album as much as I sort of feel like I should, but it and The Hold Steady’s first album are a little bit of a harder sell than Craig Finn’s work before and after them—they don’t have the same friendly hooks that Finn needs to launch his lyrics to their optimum. That being said, “Lie Down on Landsdowne” features a sweet Finn band name line (“He’s in a rock band/ They’re called The Wristband”), a wicked Chad Kubler bass line, and some spacey guitar work by the erstwhile Steve Barone. Finn spends the last half of the song rhyming “jet lag” with “dime bag” and “scumbag,” but then he goes off and throws “junk jag” in there and blows the whole thing. (5/10)
Cymbals Eat Guitars – “Living North” (from Why We Have Mountains)
I like Cymbals Eat Guitars for the same reasons I imagine other people like them—because they remind me of Pavement and Lonesome Crowded West-era Modest Mouse. Admittedly, these are traits that normally lead me to dismiss bands out-of-hand, but Cymbals Eat Guitars has all the hallmarks of a hate-able hype band—the indie yesteryear-referencing sound, the unstructured songs, the Pitchfork approval—but they’ve gone and slipped in right under my radar (see also: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart). I can’t even tell if they’re qualitatively good, or just likeable, but the rangy, ecstatic guitar squall of “Living North” makes me lean toward the former. (6/10)
The White Stripes – “Expecting” (from White Blood Cells)
The White Stripes are usually at their best when wielding a thunderous, nearly-metal guitar riff. Unfortunately, “Expecting” tries to fit into the mold of De Stijl’s “Hello Operator” (one of my top two favorite Stripes songs) and doesn’t come anywhere near its playful iconic-ness. (3/10)
Mary J. Blige – “The Love I Never Had” (from Mary)
If we’d gotten to the end of this experiment without any proof that my iPod contains any, you know, black music, I’m sure that Tucker would have laughed. However, I have to admit I’m a little on the fence about this Mary J. Blige joint. My general feeling about Mary is that there’s not a whole lot to hold onto, and “The Love I Never Had” helps confirm that. On the other hand, everything sounds like it’s in place—from Mary’s emotional, erratic performance to the stunning power stabs from the band—and there’s an excellent breakdown at the five minute mark, so maybe it’s a grower. (7/10)
Yo La Tengo – “Moonrock Mambo” (from Summer Sun)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, back to the white stuff. Yo La Tengo’s Summer Sun is a much better album that it’s ever been given credit for—especially if you get rid of half of the songs. “Moonrock Mambo” has a sound that appears virtually nowhere else in Yo La Tengo’s catalogue, but fits in perfectly—it mixes the lite funk they’d experimented with on their cover of Sun Ra’s “Nuclear War” the year before with a lo-fi torch song vocal line, and adds some cooing from Georgia Hubley. Come to think of it, this song is probably one of the reasons the album got slammed in the first place. (7/10)
Jamie Lidell – “A Little Bit More” (from Multiply)
It’s impossible to separate this song from the Target commercial it appeared in, become as ubiquitously obnoxious as Of Montreal’s Outback theme. Unfortunately, “A Little Bit More” sounds as if it was always destined for a Target commercial or something like it. That’s what happens when you take a line that’s not not obnoxious to begin with, sample it, and loop it over the course of an entire song. Someday, maybe we’ll be able to look back and reappraise “A Little Bit More,” focusing instead on Jamie Lidell’s immaculate singing. For now, though, it’s pretty crappy. (2/10)
We’re cutting it at ten, but I was worried that Rocket Queen might be illin’ because it played a cross-section of music so soul-deficient, so I restarted it on shuffle, and it came up on a Devin the Dude track. I swear!
-Martin Brown, 2009
There's a new Rich Harrison Amerie single? Why no love for something so potentially awesome?
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.05.21 at 23:45
Weirdly enough, since I think the "editor" line is referring to me, I'm with Sean. Rich Harrison please!
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2009.05.21 at 23:48
Boom. http://www.thefader.com/articles/2009/5/21/freeload-amerie-tell-me-u-love-me-mp3
At some point I think I was going to add the link and my internet got all wonky on me.
Posted by: Marty | 2009.05.22 at 08:53
Amerie track is fucking sick.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2009.05.22 at 09:04
Now let's just hope the album gets released.
Posted by: Marty | 2009.05.22 at 09:28