2012

This is my first post of the new year.  2012 is well under way and by now everyone is past that awkward phase where you are constantly writing the wrong year on checks and such.  It's been a great year so far.  I'm excited about the music that I'm currently finishing up for "Never And Forever".  That project was started a year ago and has come along very quickly compared to other releases of mine.  Of the final 8 tracks that will be included, 5 are (mostly) completed and the remaining 3 are well on their way to completion.

Most recently I have been working on track #6, "Anything At All".  This is probably the darkest song on the album.  I'm not sure that "dark" is the right word.  It has several different parts to it.  The verses are the "darkest" and slowest parts, while the chorus is decidedly quicker and livelier.  The last third of the song is altogether different as well.  It builds and builds to a (hopefully) thrilling climax.  In theory (and in my mind) it all will sound great...it's now just a matter of getting the sound and feeling that I want in the studio process.  I'm making progress but it's not where I want it just yet.  I'm also having trouble coming up with a vocal melody for the verses that I am completely satisfied with.  The original melody that I had written has grown stale and boring in my mind.  I've got a few other ideas, but I haven't decided on anything yet.

I'll keep this blog updated as things progress.  If you've read this far, thanks for your interest and support.

James

1. "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes

The Fleet Foxes self-titled debut album was my favorite album of the year back in 2008, so I had high hopes for this release.  It exceeded expectations.  Fleet Foxes does something with their music that is not an easy feat to pull off.  On the surface it can sound like a retread of so many styles of music that are now decades behind us, and yet the songwriting is so good, so pure and fresh, that it feels vital and relevant to an entirely new generation.  This album is filled with beauty and craft that reminds us of what has gone before, and yet is not limited by those references.  This music is alive.  The songs are big and beautiful but never overblown.  There is a certain timelessness here.  This is music that people will still be enjoying in another 20 or 30 years.

2. "Bon Iver" by Bon Iver

Music, at its best, has the power to transport you to another place.  It can stir feelings, emotions, and thoughts within you that can be difficult to comprehend, let alone try to explain.  It can bring you to tears and yet leave you unsure if you are in fact sad, or just incredibly happy.  Just as all of the most important events in life, the best music is a poignant mixture of sorrow and joy.  

There are many moments on Bon Iver’s self-titled second album that strike that perfect balance between light and darkness, sorrow and  joy, happiness and despair.  Moments so breathtaking that any attempt to explain them in words only leaves the speaker frustrated and lacking.  This album is an incredible accomplishment.  Everyone needs to experience it.

3. "The King of Limbs" by Radiohead

Deemed a “lesser” Radiohead album by many, this is still something that 99.9% of humans couldn’t dream of producing.  It represents a left turn in a career full of left turns, and yet the second half is more straightforward and beautiful than they’ve sounded since...maybe ever.  At only 8 tracks, it feels like two very different short EPs that have somehow been  stuck together on one CD.  A fascinating listen.  Perhaps not the best album for newcomers to Radiohead, but a solid addition to their catalog.

4. "The Whole Love" by Wilco

Despite the widespread opinion of this album being some sort of “return to form” after a couple of lesser albums, this is really just business as usual for Wilco, who never really stray too far from “form” anyway.  Apart from the electric guitar freak out of the 7 minute opener and the unparalleled beauty of all 12 minutes of the closing track, there are not many other surprises to be found...just a bunch of completely solid Wilco songs.  And that’s never a bad thing.

5. "The Year of Hibernation" by Youth Lagoon

“Youth” being the key word here.  This album sounds like a 14 year old boy made it in his grandmothers basement.  In actuality songwriter Trevor Powers is a 22 year old who records in his bedroom at Boise State.  The production is muddy and overly saturated with reverb.  In a fragile, weak voice we hear of posters on bedroom walls, hunting for snakes, memories of simpler times...in a nutshell, being caught in the strange place between childhood and adulthood.  As unlikely as all of this sounds, somehow it all just works.  “When I was seventeen, my mother said to me, don’t stop imagining, the day that you do is the day that you die” Powers sings on “Seventeen”.  Lucky for us, this album never stops imagining.

6. "Burst Apart" by The Antlers

Unfortunately I didn’t discover The Antlers first album, Hospice (2009), until earlier this year.  That being a devastating and emotionally brutal concept of an album that completely draws every bit of feeling you could expect from it’s title, it could simultaneously rip you apart while at the same time trying to put you back together again.  I’ve never heard or felt anything quite like it.  It would definitely have been my top album of 2009, if only I’d known it existed.  

But alas, this review is not about that album.  Compared to Hospice, Burst Apart took a while to for me to really get into.  I think I’m beginning to realize the reason for that is because a lot of the music of Burst Apart is just a bunch really good musical ideas rather than “songs” in the traditional sense.  The beauty is in the subtleties that you often don’t notice until the 5th or 6th listen.  This may not pack the emotional wallop of their previous effort, but maybe that’s a good thing.