Heartache With Hard Work

Working on my end-of-the-year posts, so look for those in a few days. In the meantime, let me just congratulate our Congressional representatives. It’s been a surprisingly eventful lame duck session. While no one is going to like everything that happened (the failure of the DREAM Act is pretty aggravating to me, for example – and then there’s the tax deal that pretty much everyone is ticked about for various reasons), there is a lot to like here.

Taking a look at the bigger picture, it remains true that the institutional structure of our government (and the Senate in particular) is pretty broken. But that’s just a testament to how amazing the 111th Congress really was. Health care, financial reform, stimulus, the fair pay act, SCHIP, an end to DADT, etc. For all the complaints I’ve made over the years, I’ll take a day and just give my thanks.

There’s Harry Reid who somehow survived the election and came big during this session to get DADT done, to secure the votes on START, and to show that he really does know what he’s about in this job.

There’s Barack Obama, who has really showed his mettle in the last two months. Whether you’re pro or con, there’s no denying that he’s demonstrated some deft political agility that people thought he lacked. I’m not a big fan of the tax deal, but it’s a lot easier to swallow when it seems like he actually managed to get a fair amount in the deal…and when getting that compromise done paved the way for passing some of these signature progressive items.

There’s even Joe Lieberman of all people, who was instrumental in shaming those who were opposed to DADT repeal, not to mention in the dull work of actually rounding up the votes. I still hope he goes down in flames in 2012, but for all the invective he’s received, the guy still has come up big in a few important ways. As annoying as he’s been, it seems hard to argue that things would be better if he had been kicked out of the caucus as some proposed back in 07 and 08.

And then there’s the thousands of gay service members who were forcibly discharged, and the many thousands more who were forced to live in secrecy. It’s been a long time coming, but things are finally starting to turn the corner on that front. I was incredibly down six years ago, when anti-gay sentiments seemed to have been instrumental to Bush’s election. I thought it might take decades for America to escape its retrograde politics on this question. Now, just a few years later, that seems far less apt. There’s still a ton of problems, of course. But we’re winning, and the landslide is getting bigger every year.

Anyways, end-of-the-year lists should be done before Christmas.  Check back soon.

Brighter Sky and Darker Weather – The Sinister Turns

We’ve all got bands that we love and simply can’t understand why they’re not more popular.  For me, The Sinister Turns are that band.  Anyone who has been reading for awhile probably knows about my fixation with them.  Their first record (a 5 song EP, no less) was one of my favorite albums of the entire last decade, for example.

So I’ve been waiting for quite a while to hear something more from them, which means their new record Big Plants for the Weekend was one of my most anticipated records for this year.

And that excitement was well-founded.  While Big Plants doesn’t quite live up to the sheer magic of their other work, it also does not disappoint. While this is noticeably the same band–all the energy and excitement inspired by Turn to the Left remains on fine display–it’s also a clearly distinct piece of work.  It has a looser feel, and sounds far less compact.  Their older work was aggressively packed with energetic movement and bright sounds, this affair is looser.  The sound is less compact.  There are wide expanses of open terrain, punctuated by melodies that swoop in and out, or by drums that rattle off like machineguns and then fall silent.  The result is a more darker feel to the same sort of songs.  The playfulness remains, but it’s far more restrained.

The song that sits most perfectly in between these two forms has to be “Brighter Sky and Darker Weather.”  Not coincidentally, it’s also my favorite track.  The drums here are insistent and forceful.  The guitars play a dual role: on the one hand they almost function as another layer of percussion, on the other hand adding some dark textures to the quieter moments of the verses.  In that sense, it reflects the more sinister turn (clever, no?) of the new record.  But once things really get going a couple minutes in, the straightforward power pop sentiments become far more clear.  And by the last minute you’ve got a blistering piece of rock goodness.

“Calypso” works in much the same terrain, working the space between darkness and light without succumbing into the grayness of dusk.  The transition moments (0:46, and 1:36, and 2:24) when are probably my favorites on the record.

“Say It All Again” attempts to make something monumental and mostly succeeds.  This is a mini-overture, with a number of themes running through.  There’s some soft/loud dynamics with a quiet beginning that bleeds into some slicing guitars and a chorus that sounds a little bit like riding down an avalanche.  And then four minutes in it switches gears completely, almost sounding like a new song.  But, to wrap things up, all is brought back together for a final crescendo.  It’s a great song that–while not entirely succeeding–still offers some wonderful thrills.

“Glass Eyes” is another more experimental song that mostly works.  It has some funky time signatures layered with a more straightforward piece of indie pop, with even some good old fashioned keyboard synths.  The result is a slightly disjointed song that’s hard to place into a single sonic landscape, great to listen to even as it’s the tiniest bit disconcerting.

The final two tracks on the record are a bit more straightforward.  Which actually ends up making them a little bit less compelling.  “You Are Not Supposed to Pass This Test” never quite hits the mark.  It’s good but doesn’t blow you away.  And things close with “The Book Of Therapeutic Psalms” which starts out as a lovely little piece of lilting pop and then builds to a screaming crescendo that works on its own terms but doesn’t quite mesh with the earlier half.

Big Plants For The Weekend is not the best record of the year.  But it’s not tremendously far off either.  Which makes it all the more surprising that no one seems to have heard it.  C’mon people, it’s only 5 bucks!

And Now – jj

It’s taken me awhile to get on the jj bandwagon, but I think I’m finally there.  I thought their record last year was good but it never really struck me.  I still picked up nº 3 and listened through a few times, thought it was nice, and set it aside for a few months. It’s only been in the last few weeks that I finally gave it the attention it deserves.

It’s that sort of record – unassuming, quiet, gently languid.  They dabble in electro-pop, but this is a record meant to provide a soundtrack to late autumn sunsets, not to dance parties.  It also evokes some Eno-inspired psychedelia, but only in a loose sense–it’s gently relaxing more than it’s explosively evocative. This is watercolors, not Jackson Pollack.  But in a good way!

In short, it’s a dreamy piece of pop, which trails along with you, never really demanding your attention but rewarding you if you offer it.  I’d have a hard time humming any of it, but that’s a feature not a bug.  This is a record that invites you to experience the moment as nothing more than the path toward the next moment.  There’s no particular need for memory or ego.  You just drift…and everything seems right.

It’s Sunday, so that means it’s time for me to say something provocative. So here goes: 2010 has been a pretty miserable year for new music. Obviously, there’s been a lot of stuff I like. But as I think about my likely top 5 records for the year, I note that four of them are from bands who have produced at least one record in the last few years that was superior. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for the year.

Are there secret good albums out there I don’t know about? If you’ve got suggestions, please leave a comment and let me know. I’ve still got a couple weeks to come across something that will really blow me away before I have to declare the year a failure.

El Kilgore has a post about civil liberties, discussing the argument of false equivalency.  Namely, that people flip-flop on whether intrusive federal policies are good or bad depending on whether their team is in charge.  Kilgore says that this is not really true with the left.  At least, that a fair amount of the left-leaning civil liberties folk have remained critical of Obama.  This is obviously true, but is not really what interests me about this.

For me, the question is: why is it so unreasonable for people to flip-flop on these matters depending on who is in charge?  Presumably, you have a fair amount of trust in the people that represent your political positions.  You’d like them to have the power to accomplish what they want–because you think they will use that power wisely and judiciously.

Contrariwise, you do not trust the representatives of the other side.  Because you disagree with their political priorities, you will not want them to be able to use extensive powers to accomplish them.  You will not trust that if they violate civil liberties that they do so for a good reason.  You may find them personally odious (as is often the case – political arguments get filtered through the lens of character judgments), but that’s not even necessary.  You might believe, for example, that George Bush has all the best intentions in his intrusions but you think he is wrong in his judgment of what counts as a good reason.  If that’s the case, it would be pretty reasonable to stop complaining about the same practice if conducted by an administration who principles you do trust.

I don’t personally hold to this logic, but I don’t think it’s crazy if people do reason this way.

Cut It Up – The Lawrence Arms

So the Democrats are going to actually have a vote on extending only the middle class tax cuts.  I’m torn on this.  I think it’s good politics, but it’s only good politics if they can actually control the message.  It should be simple: ‘we want to give you tax cuts but the Republicans are holding that hostage to tax cuts for the very very wealthy.’ Part of the problem, though, is that a fair number of conservative Democrats are going to join the Republicans most likely.

We’ll have to see.

I’m also torn because I think the ‘middle class tax cuts’ are bad policy.  I don’t really understand how we got the point where many people seem willing to accept that the initial tax cuts were a terrible idea when passed, particularly given the supposed mania for controlling deficits that has swept (a small set of people who imagine themselves to represent) the nation.  If the deficit is a serious short term problem, then there are few bigger culprits than these very tax cuts.

It’s all enough to make you wonder whether these Very Serious People might in fact be Not Actually That Serious At All.

So my ideal world would be the one where there’s no compromise and ALL the cuts simply expire. Of course, that depends on the Democrats being able to withstand a new round of tax cuts that the Republican/conservative Dem coalition might muscle through in 2011.  I’d be willing to put up with any amount of ridiculous demagoguery about the tax cuts as long as nothing actually passes.  If Republicans want to scream themselves hoarse about the need for tax cuts next year, they are free to do so.

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) – The Arcade Fire

I’ve spent a while trying to figure out if I have anything unique or interesting to say about The Suburbs, the newest record from The Arcade Fire. The thing is that I mostly agree with what everyone else seems to be saying. This is a good record, occasionally very good. The sophistication of their sound has grown, the songwriting remains good, and it is refreshing to hear a band able to meld irony and naivete without having it come off embarrassingly.

The ‘concept’ part, that it’s a record about the experience of the suburbs, is moderately enticing. They certainly give some depth to the idea, but it’s not like there is any piercing wisdom here, or deep truths unveiled. You get basically what you’d expect. The suburbs come off as a conflicted space, but the two dominant themes that emerge are probably dissociation and boredom. That’s good as far as it goes, but unfortunately is just not that conducive to the sort of rock-landscape that the band is best at producing.

When they’re at their best, they’re making music so big and brash that it transcends any reasonable expectations. The reason Funeral blew people away is because of moments like the wordless chorus of Wake Up, the “here’s the sun, it’s alright!” part of Rebellion (Lies), or the entirety of Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels). These songs were bright, the shone like jewels in a dark night. With Neon Bible they made an effort to build something a little different.. If the feel of the first record was magic and wonder, the second was dark apocalypse. Still, though, the general theme worked in terms of the musical styles on offer.

The problem with The Suburbs, then, may simply be that it’s just a bit listless. The underlying force of the record doesn’t quite generate enough churn to sustain the premise. This isn’t a problem with any particular song, all of which are good and some of which are great. It’s just that listening to the whole record leaves you feeling just a bit uninspired. Where is the next gear? Where is the moment of escape? They can’t provide it, perhaps because the entire point of the suburbs is the endless sprawl that permanently establishes itself as your horizon of possibility. Or, perhaps, it’s simply that they already wrote their epic songs about the suburbs (see the Neighborhood songs on Funeral) and had nothing new to add?

I get the sense that the band really wanted to produce something that mattered. And that they were very cognizant of the Sky Blue Sky problem. Basically: when the effort to produce a more ‘mature’ sound just ends up in a drab and anodyne affair. They do manage to avoid that trap. The problem, instead, is that they seem to have written themselves into a box. The logic of the project demands a unity in the structure that militates against precisely the explosive moments that would bust the constraints.

“Ready to Start” has a nice lope to it. But it doesn’t quite generate the dark urgency you’d hope for because it never departs from that pace. As a single piece of work, that’s fine. But it’s a theme that consistently reappears. “City With No Children In It” is another nice piece of sonic texture, but spins in a self-enclosed circle. If you’ve heard 5 seconds of “Month of May” you’ve heard the whole thing. It’s a good five seconds, to be sure. It just doesn’t change. “Suburban War” makes a gesture toward escape, which is well-appreciated. But it still exhibits significant restraint and caution. Even the very good “Half Light II (No Celebration)” feels like it is one big push away from something truly grand. Again, there is a very good case to be made that this particular song is the better for not going big. I certainly think so. It would be too easy to set off the fireworks, and it would erode some of the beautiful raggedness of it. But in the context of an entire album, it begins to grate.

The only real exception to this dynamic is the majestic and wonderfully weird “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).” I’ve never been big on Regine’s songs, but she totally steals the show this time around. I’ve heard this song compared to Blondie, which is totally on point, but doesn’t even come close to conveying what’s going on here. If my complaint about the rest of the album is a lack of magic, then this track delivers in full force. It’s like listening to a dream–a world where there is something iconic and intensely powerful about the experience of suburban life. This is really the only time on the record they are able to make the simple accounting of life seem like something deserving the attention they’ve given it. The synths and relentless energy of her voice join together to make it seem like the deepest truths of the universe are being revealed when she exclaims “Sometimes I wonder if the world’s so small, that we can never get away from the sprawl.”

A few other notable songs: on one side there’s “Modern Man” which is much more sprightly than most of the rest of the album, and manages to generate a decent amount of tension, and points to a slightly different tack the record could have taken. On the negative side of the ledger there’s also “Sprawl I (Flatland)” and “The Suburbs (continued)” which are relentless drab and threaten to suck the energy entirely out of the record. This is three records out of three now that the band has given the final track to a pointless waste of time.

I’ve decided to start a new feature.  It’s called Sunday Provocations.  The basic thesis is that I make some provocative point, but make no effort to explain my reasoning or the logic behind it.

Your job, gentle reader, is to tell me why I’m wrong.  Or, I suppose, you could agree with me if you’re so inclined.

Today’s is pretty simple.  Best album of all time: I think it’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.  Someone convince me that I’m wrong.

Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2 – Neutral Milk Hotel

The White Shore – Defiance, Ohio
Her Majesty’s Midwestern Island – Defiance, Ohio

In a review of Mixtapes a few days ago, I mentioned that they reminded me a lot of those folk-punk greats: Defiance, Ohio. Which got me to thinking: what’s up with Defiance, Ohio these days? Turns out they have a new record, called Midwestern Minutes.

Short verdict: it’s good, more or less what you’d expect–but in all the good ways. At 11 songs and under 30 minutes, the constant sensation is movement and energy. There certainly is not the time or space to linger with concepts. But on the whole, that’s a positive. This is record of snapshots, of moving pictures that flicker like an old film reel. Even the four and a half minute “Hairpool” which in some sense serves as the centerpiece feels tightly wound and insistent.

And that is the greatness of the album. It conveys a sense of faded pasts that are still being lived, caught in glimpses and sideways glances. You catch flashes of pain, of great joy, of kids growing up and realizing that the world is growing up faster than them. The songs rush past like cars on a freeway. You peer through the window and see lives being lived. But before you have time to truly wonder, they’re gone and another one follows behind.

Musically, it’s probably the tightest record they’ve released. The songs fit together and the arrangements are a bit more complex. The interplay between guitar and strings is surprisingly delicate. The harmonies swing quite a bit–no one would accuse them of being classically pure singers–but that is exactly as it should be. And the general DIY feel makes it all the nicer when they do belt out a gloriously pure chorus (see “Her Majesty’s Midwestern Island” for example). “A Lot to Do” has a fairly contained angular structure, but the violin comes crosswise and gives it a bit of forward momentum. “The White Shore” is surprisingly dense, with a thick percussive core that provides a necessary counterpoint to verses that threaten to careen out of control: “I will not defend a culture that makes us decide / to assimilate or die / or that defines survival / as running as fast as you can from the places you came from / forgetting the things that have made us / until all that is left is the burning in our lungs / or the pounding in our hearts that only has space for / contempt for the ones who couldn’t quite make it.” And then there’s “Dissimilarity Complex” which gives me the unmistakable vibe of Nirvana’s “About a Girl” which is entirely a good thing.

Each song has its own little glimmer of greatness, and (in this era of songs rather than albums) they also work together nicely. If there is a complaint I have it’s only that this record lacks the single incandescent moment that would vault it into that next level of greatness.  But even without that, this fits comfortably among my favorite records of the year.