And more good albums from 2006:
Scritti Politti – White Bread, Black Beer
I’ve never liked a Scritti Politti album on first listen. Green Gartside’s voice and his production choices are so incredibly saccharine that they give me the heebies. Having said that, every Scritti album has gone on to become a perennial favourite. There isn’t a single one of the five records that I don’t pull out from time to time and enjoy again.
He’s never made a bad record. In fact, there’s one sheer masterpiece (Cupid & Psyche 85), three truly great albums (Anomie & Bonhomie, Songs to Remember and this latest effort) and one really good one that I pervesely like even more because not many people really got it after Cupid & Psyche (Provision).
Not a prolific career, but a good portfolio to show for 25 years in the pop music business.
White Bread, Black Beer is not as immediately approachable as some of the others. Although it has that same slick pop veneer, the songwriting’s a little more complex and sophisticated. That said, after years of writing pop songs with 20-something chords in them, he manages a real gem out of only one in ‘E-eleventh Nuts’.
No need to talk it up too much — if you’ve ever owned a Scritti Politti album, then you want this one too.
Philip Glass – Symphony No. 8
I probably don’t listen to as much classical music as I’d like to — but I’m always overwhelmed by the sheer volume. I’d like to have a reasonable acquaintance with some of the major works, but I don’t have to rush it. For now, I’ll pick and choose: a bit of Liszt here, a spot of Bach there, a smidgen of Haydn and a dash of Brahms. For the contemporary stuff, I tend to get at much of it through cinema — and like most people my age, I came to Philip Glass’s music through film.
Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi struck me at the time as majestic and moving films — and they introduced me to the contemporary classical minimalism — which led me onto Steve Reich and (the other) Terry Riley.
But for some years now, I’ve been trying to defend Glass against the charge of being repetitive and boring. Unfortunately this charge has been coming from within me, while I’ve been listening to his music. I know it’s supposed to be repetitive — but does it really need to be this samey?
But finally, with Symphony No. 8, Glass makes a work that is exciting and majestic. It starts with a bang and breaks all the rules of restraint and formalism that seems to have tied down much of the minimalism I’ve experienced to now. I’m not sure if he was “allowed” to do this — but I’m really glad he did. It’s dynamic and its theme of constant change provides surprises all the way through.
I’d almost given up on Glass. Most of the rest of the music I’d heard of his didn’t work on me in the same way. I can hear a Glassian signature to it — but it just kind of seemed like work.
But this? This is more like it. It’s still got that something identifiably Philip Glass (I’m not sure I can put my finger on it in a satisfyingly informed way), but it feels like something important is driving this. It has direction, momentum and passion to it.
But if you ever hear me say “I may not know much about classical music, but I know what I like,” slap me.
The Gun Album – The Minus 5
Actually a self-titled record, this is the seventh release from longtime REM collaborator Scott McCaughey. The album’s nickname comes not only from the cover but the five gun related songs throughout. It might better be called the Anti-Gun album.
McCaughey drafts talented friends like Wilco, the Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy, John Wesley Harding and REM’s Peter Buck, and makes a really solid country rock record that has a real masculinity that can only really be described as laddishness — though not the kind you associate with lads’ magazines. There is something decidely Beatlesque about the arrangements, and something pub-chat about the lyrics (though, this being an American record, perhaps lockerroom-chat might be more appropriate).
It’s good, solid songwriting coupled with off-beat lyrics and good solid playing by people who are so comfortable with their craft that they can just lean back and have fun with it.
To be continued…
