Well, this was a hard one to review - not that it was difficult to like, but not an easy record to understand or come to a coherent opinion on, it was definitely on the weirder side. Next up... whoo boy, busy week. Jay Rock, Brett Eldredge, Metric, and (of course) Lana Del Rey. Strap in, folks, it's going to get messy!
So I occasionally get requests to review albums, but I also occasionally get bands or new acts that will outright send over their new records for me to cover. And for the most part, I try to get a chance to listen through all of it, but between my existing backlog and all the preparation I do for listening to more established artists, I just run out of time to cover everything, even if I like what I see. Plus, considering I do a lot of lyrical analysis, it can be a little infuriating when there's no lyric sheet or additional details provided beyond just the songs, especially if the mixing is poor and the lyrics are unclear. So when I got the email about Elvya, I wasn't initially planning to do much until I caught some choice details. Full name Elvya Dulcimer, her music was reportedly more in the vein of Celtic folk that was on the cinematic side with this being her debut... with narration from Arjen Lucassen, the mastermind behind Ayreon. And if I know anything about Arjen, even though he didn't produce this and I didn't precisely love The Gentle Storm that he did with Anneke Van Giersbergen earlier this year, he's got an eye for quality. On top of that, former Within Temptation and current Kingfisher Sky member Ivar De Graaf was handling guitars and drums, so I have every reason to believe this could be something special. So I decided to check out her debut Untold Stories: how is it?
Okay, time for a confession: as much as I can look back on my year-end lists with a certain amount of pride - the amount of work that's demanded for them is huge, and I always love the reception - they're never perfect. Like it or not, I'm only human and I doubt I could listen to or review every bit of music that's released throughout the course of the year, especially considering I still have a full-time job and other projects and the modicum of a social life here. As such, it's inevitable I'll miss something. And given I've often advertised myself as the 'only country critic on YouTube' - which I can see is starting to slowly change a bit, much to my great satisfaction - the lack of a review for Jason Isbell's critically lauded Southeastern in 2013 stands out like a sore thumb for me. Formerly a member of the Drive-By Truckers before going solo, he teamed up with Dave Cobb for a quiet, understated, incredibly well-written and powerful album that had a level of detail and poignancy that's rarely matched - and if there's an album that would have had a shot at overtaking one of the spots on my year-end list for 2013, Southeastern would have been it. It's not perfect - as much as I think 'Live Oak' and 'Elephant' and 'Yvette' are fantastic, they have to counterbalance the tonal whiplash of 'Super 8', and that's a tough balance - but it would have been close. And though Jason Isbell has been lauded in the country scene for over a decade now as a fantastic songwriter, Southeastern won him more attention than ever. There were even reports that The Voice had tried to recruit him as a contestant, which he wisely declined, instead working on a new solo project Something More Than Free. So while of course I'm going to cover it now, part of it almost feels like penance for shortchanging Isbell in 2013 by missing Southeastern - penance I'm more than happy to do, especially if this album is as good. So, is it?
Man, I was expecting this album to be good, but this was a welcome punch. Damn great record, I find more to love about it with every listen. Next up... you know, I think it's time I finally cover that album. Not that one, the other one. Stay tuned!
It's rare that country music gets angry these days. You know, get the blood pumping for a righteous cause, something that might cause someone to load up a shotgun, grab a bottle of hard bourbon, and roll out to kick some ass. The part of me that loves outlaw country has a certain fondness for this brand of music, but it's gotten increasingly rare in the modern day, especially when the causes behind said songs tend to develop an isolationist streak that doesn't wear well. Like it or not, most of country is a conservative genre, and considering most country songwriters don't tell dark stories any more, it means that anger can come across as reactionary, and that rarely works out well, especially when the cause can be less than just.
And let's be clear, this has been an issue for decades now, but a particularly ugly side of it reared in the mid-2000s, because country was a genre that got increasingly torn on political lines. As much as I don't like the Dixie Chicks, there was a certain righteous rage to 'Not Ready To Make Nice' at getting tarred and feathered by the country establishment for being anti-Bush on the War on Terror. Now history has vindicated The Dixie Chicks years too late for it to matter, but the issue I always took with their statements, musical or otherwise, was that their framing could come across as a little preachy. Which, really, is a classic example of the biggest and most accurate criticism hurled at liberals these days, in that they're not populist and consider themselves above the discourse. If liberals are so smart and want to help everyone, why do we talk down to the audience or not show real empathy?
You want to know who did this approach a lot better? Singer-songwriter James McMurtry, born in Texas, originally a country singer in the 90s, but it wasn't until 2005 and his critically acclaimed album Childish Things that he really struck gold with songs like 'We Can't Make It Here Anymore' that struck the perfect balance and was named by acclaimed music critic Robert Christgau as the best song of the decade. Nuanced, harshly critical and pointing the finger at the right people, framed as speaking with the people and not down to them, and with a real simmering undercurrent of rage that underscored every brutal detail of his material. It also helped matters he was a great songwriter who had excellent production, a ton of texture, and solid hooks - the man didn't just write great music, he wrote great stories with detail and humanity that you could easily imagine. Throw in thematic cohesion and a solid as hell performance and you can bet he won me over.
Now he followed Childish Things with Just Us Kids in 2008, which kept the sharp writing but cranked up the anger a little hotter with harsher, more aggressive grooves - all positives, I might add - but then for nearly seven years, he seemed to disappear, with only a live album holding us over. And yet now one of the best songwriters in the industry is back with a brand new record - does the fire hold now that Bush and Cheney are long gone?
I need to remember to do these entries the night I post the video... this is starting to turn into a bad habit. Anyway, time for Pink Floyd. Stay tuned!
We're now returning to the realm of independent country - and long time viewers know what that means, another rant about country music's lousy web presence! But you know, I wouldn't keep bringing it up if it didn't have some weight, and outside of some truly stellar country blogs and journalists I follow, tracking down independent country music is often a harrowing task. I get that it's a more 'traditional' or 'old-fashioned' brand of music, but if indie or alternative country wants to maintain its foothold or increase it, some artists need to improve online buzz and presence. Because let's face it, even very mainstream acts are suffering if they don't have that online buzz and hype - even Garth Brooks, one of the biggest names in country music even today who has gone on record calling YouTube 'the devil', has had an at best underwhelming opening week and was forced to hastily launch a web presence days later. And that's a country act who's a household name! As much as I'd like to think that my humble channel has done something to give indie country acts more exposure, the lack of a 'Pitchfork' equivalent or any sort of aggregator for indie or alternative country has left me and other country bloggers scrambling a bit at the end of the year for artists we might have missed. And here's a real glaring oversight on my part - the debut album from Canadian country artist Lucette, titled Black Is The Color. Based out of Edmonton, Lucette was originally on the path for a more mainstream brand of easy listening before she met Dave Cobb, the critically acclaimed producer who worked on Jason Isbell's Southeastern and both of Sturgill SImpson's releases - in other words, she was finally connecting with the right people. She brought an album's worth of material to Nashville to record and scrapped all of it in favour of a darker, more pitch-black Americana direction, with some comparisons made to Nick Cave's Murder Ballads. And major labels would have none of it - Black Is The Colour nearly didn't get released, but now it's finally here and earning a lot of rave reviews across the board. So while it's a little late, I made it a priority to give a few deep listens - what did I get?
So here's an interesting situation: you're an technically minded musician, looking at pushing the boundaries of your craft, and you're part of a band that's on the precipice of breaking into the mainstream. And you know that if you start aiming to push for more complex progressions that are less commercially friendly, it could hold you back from that breakthrough. So what do you do - stick with simpler instrumentation that really aren't stretching you artistically, or forge a new path that will almost certainly be less commercially viable? That was the choice Ivar de Graaf made when he left symphonic metal titan Within Temptation after their critically acclaimed album Mother Earth. And to some extent, it makes complete sense - Within Temptation were always a band with a keen eye to appealing to a more pop-friendly metal crowd, and de Graaf's desire to play more complex progressions and improve his compositional skills would almost certainly fly in the face of that. He still maintained a friendly relationship with Within Temptation and would occasionally play with them on later occasions, but in 2005 he collaborated with his wife Judith Rijnveld to form the progressive symphonic metal band Kingfisher Sky. And here's the funny thing: listening through their debut album Hallway of Dreams in 2007, I definitely saw some real potential but I also was struggling to see the areas where Kingfisher Sky could stand out from the crowd. Keep in mind that not only did Within Temptation release The Heart of Everything that same year, Nightwish released Dark Passion Play in all of its folk-flavoured genre-bending might, and it's not hard to see how Kingfisher Sky might have been overshadowed simply for being quieter and having more restraint, their influences being less film scores and more Porcupine Tree, Kate Bush, and traditional folk. But I'd argue that being a little softer gave Kingfisher Sky a chance to develop their songwriting and acoustic textures, and while they did occasionally fall into cliche, they frequently were able to compensate for it. They followed that album with Skin Of The Earth in 2010, which was heavier and had tuned the songwriting a little finer, but it was at this point the lower production budget was definitely hampering the more symphonic side of the band, and while the guitars had crunch and some of the more progressive grooves were interesting, I found myself wishing that Judith Rijnveld was a more powerful vocalist or they could expand their sound into something with a little more import and scope. In other words, I wasn't sure what to expect with their crowdfunded 2014 album Arms Of Morpheus - I expected to like it, but it's been a crowded year for symphonic metal. So how is it?
Finally glad to get this out. Very good album, by the way, definitely worth your time. So, apparently that last Special Comment went 'tumblr viral', as it was. Kind of cool, I guess. Okay, next up is The Arkells, who I just discovered dropped a new album! Stay tuned!
You know, for being the only country music critic on YouTube, I haven't covered a true country record in quite some time. Hell, I haven't even really talked about the state of bro-country in a while, which used to be part of my general purview! Well, believe it or not, there's a reason for that: mostly because country music seems to be in a profoundly confused place right now. The leading acts in the bro-country wave seem to be running as fast as they can back towards something close to neotraditional country while those that are sticking around seem to be actively getting more belligerent and worse. And while I do mostly like Maggie & Tae's 'Girl In A Country Song' for its wit, you can tell they're being pushed by Big Machine in order to play both sides of the equation. And that's not even touching on the more electronic-inspired edges creeping into country music courtesy of Jason Aldean and Sam Hunt, none of which sound remotely cohesive or close to good. It's gotten to the point where 'Hope You Get Lonely', arguably the worst song from Cole Swindell's self-titled album - an album which is on my short list of the worst albums of the year - is starting to rise up the charts. So on second thought, let's completely ignore whatever's happening in the mainstream and talk about a country record that I've gotten a couple of requests for that came out earlier this year, from an act that's the furthest thing from mainstream polish. This band is called Hurray For The Riff Raff, a stripped-down borderline-acoustic folk and southern gothic-inspired group who gathered a fair bit of buzz after their very solid 2012 release Look Out Mama, which I really liked for its grimy mix and the exposed edges in the production. But while the band might have some traditional elements in its instrumentation and frontwoman Alynda Lee Segarra's voice, Hurray For The Riff Raff lies significantly further to the left side of any political spectrum, both in promoting a queer image and singing about some loaded political subjects in their material. That, if anything was enough to attract my interest, even if it took me far too long to get to them. Anyway, after releasing a Kickstarter-funded album of covers titled My Dearest Darkest Neighbor, they released a new album and their major label debut titled Small Town Heroes earlier this year, so I finally took the time to check it out: how is it?
Believe it or not, I kind of feel a little sorry for Ed Sheeran. See, like the majority of the world, I discovered Ed Sheeran through his breakout hits 'The A-Team' and 'Lego House' and immediately dropped him into the 'white guy with acoustic guitar' subgenre for which I just don't care. But to be fair, Ed Sheeran was one of the entries in said subgenre that stood out as better than average - he came across as sincere, he wrote some interesting melodies, and he was willing to take some risks with the subject matter in his songs. Take 'The A-Team', a song where Sheeran sings about a dying crack addict - and then frames the song as a classical tragedy. Maybe it's just me living in Toronto the last two years, but when I think of crack addicts, the image is less of 'an angel in white' and more of a fat belligerent mayor who became an international laughing stock and yet will likely win re-election because... Toronto. But putting that situation aside, it turned out that the image of Ed Sheeran that I originally formed from his singles wasn't quite accurate, because while there still was the sincerity and acoustic elements, there was also a fondness for hip-hop on that first album that reminded me a lot of early Jason Mraz albums with the actual courage to step into slightly edgier subject matter. The hodgepodge of influences painted the picture of an interesting songwriter who was too sincere and awkward for his own good and whose occasional offbeat goofiness or darker touches made him hard to nail down. But at the same time, those strange dichotomies, awkward lyrical choices and pop culture references also made Ed Sheeran a little hard for me to take all that seriously - which is a shame because on some level, I kind of like the guy. I don't think he'll ever be an act I can consider as 'cool' or more than a fun oddity, but I respected his creativity and honesty, and thus was curious what would happen with his second album, x. What did I get?
I'd argue this isn't one of my better videos, but I wanted to make it all the same. Damn good band, damn great album. And speaking of great, Sage Francis is coming up soon - stay tuned!
So when I reviewed Sharon Van Etten's pretty damn solid album Are We There a few weeks back, I made reference to the acoustic musical genre that I cheekily branded 'white girls with acoustic guitars', and how while there are more acts in this vein I like than their male counterparts, I couldn't say I was a huge fan of the genre. I wasn't saying you couldn't make good music with just a girl and an acoustic guitar, but that sort of basic, minimalist setup requires every element to be on point or it'll get distracting. So what do you get when you get two white girls with acoustic guitars put together? Well, you get First Aid Kit, a Swedish country folk duo of two sisters that started on YouTube and was first discovered through a coincidental connection to one of the members of The Knife. After a cover of theirs of the Fleet Foxes went semi-viral, the duo began to release albums, starting in 2010 with The Big Black & Blue. And while I was struck by some of the intriguing songwriting that showed flavour beyond their years, it was an album that did suffer from amateurish production and a fair number of rough edges. Their second record The Lion's Roar was much stronger, with richer and more diverse production that leaned more towards country, and some of their best songwriting to date. This was a duo with serious melodic chops, and when fused with wryly clever songwriting and measured delivery, it was enough to set First Aid Kit away from the crowd and get me intrigued about their new album, Stay Gold. And honestly, as good of songwriters as they were, they were still just an acoustic duo and I wasn't sure how their signing to a major label would turn out for the band. Was I concerned for nothing?
Here's a fun fact about my 'job' as a music critic here: people send me music they want me to cover or talk about all the time, which means I'm almost always slammed with more material than I'll ever be able to cover. But believe it or not, I do listen to nearly all of it and I'm always on the lookout for material that deserves more mainstream attention, or at least the attention of record labels hungry for new talent. But here's one of the unfortunate things about working in the era of the internet: thanks to iTunes and the relative ease of distribution, it exposes a ton of talent who might otherwise get ignored. But at the same time it floods the market and makes finding true superstars a real challenge - separating the wheat from the chaff takes time, and when I still have a full-time job and have to cover hundreds of professional acts, it makes hunting through the independent or underground scenes incredibly difficult. And as much vitriol as I spew at the record industry, they simply have more resources in sweeping through the talent pool and finding marketable stars (managing them, however, is an entirely different issue). But even on that note, I'm floored that none of the major labels have swooped in to grab up Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter Vienna Teng yet, because it's been a long time since I've seen an act as professional and talented as this. She's been around for over ten years on the fringes of the indie folk and pop scenes, and has always gotten rave reviews for her albums when they've bothered to pay attention, but maybe it was an issue of marketing or promotion from her label or not having that killer single, because she seemed to fly entirely under the radar. So she did what indie acts have had some success with in 2013 - she founded her own record label to release her newest album Aims, all the while finishing grad school. So, from a recommendation, I took a listen to that album: how was it?
Wow, review number fifty, and only one of them have broken a thousand views. Eh, this sort of shit takes time, I've accepted that. Next up is Tyler Farr and the newest update from bro-country. Spoilers, it doesn't end well.
You know, for as many solo female acts I've reviewed this year, I haven't actually covered that many girl groups, or at least in the traditional definition of a pop girl group. I mean, the closest would probably be Icona Pop, but that was a duo and after that? Savages and Echo Bench were girl 'bands', not precisely fitting the stereotypical definition of what would be considered a girl 'group' in the vein of, say, the Spice Girls or TLC. The truth of the matter is that girl groups haven't been nearly as successful in North America than internationally, where they continue to exist to this day, particularly in j-pop and k-pop. Of the international girl group acts, I probably like the UK-based girl group Girls Aloud the most, almost to the point where I'd consider them my favourite of the genre (although most of the credit must go to top-notch producing team Xenomania). Yes, seriously - as with boy bands, girl groups didn't quite go away in the UK, and while they didn't quite crossover, acts like Little Mix and Fifth Harmony have achieved some minor success stateside thanks to the influence of Simon Cowell. And really, it's only been a matter of time: as soon as boy bands starting coming back, I knew girl groups would be right around the corner. So with that, let's talk about HAIM (I guarantee I'm pronouncing this wrong however I say it), a group that really toes the line between girl band and girl group, and which broke into public view last year. These three sisters all do play their own instruments, but they claim to draw a lot of their influence from mid-90s female R&B acts like TLC, which is why I stand by the 'girl group' mention. Strangely, though, many critics have drawn the much sharper comparison to not girl groups or girl bands, but to Fleetwood Mac of all things. That, plus the critical acclaim, was enough to catch some interest from me, and I gave their debut album 'Days Are Gone' a listen. What do I think?
Jesus Christ, this took way too long to upload. The internet has been terrible all evening, but finally I got it up and working in order to get this review up. Honestly, I'm kind of really happy with this review - it's more free-form than ever, and I'd like to think that there's some decent emotion here too. And for good reason, because Dream River is incredible. Returning to country tomorrow, stay tuned.
