Best Song: Baba O'Riley
1.) Baba O'Riley
2.) Bargain
3.) Love Ain't For Keeping
4.) My Wife
5.) The Song Is Over
6.) Getting In Tune
7.) Going Mobile
8.) Behind Blue Eyes
9.) Won't Get Fooled Again
Who's Next is a masterpiece with one flaw. All the songs are over shadowed by the opener. Not only is “Baba O'riley” the best song on the album, it is one of the best songs ever written. The synth loop was ground breaking and avoids the usual dated feel that comes with most synths. The song manages to send chills down my spine every time I listen to it. The synth comes in and I am anticipating the drums and bass. Then I am waiting for the vocals to burst in with Daltrey's signature roar. The guitar is really just the icing on the cake at this point. One of the things that makes the song is how minimal the song is, while still being an arena shaking tune. Every arena band after The Who wishes they could have a song like this in their catalog and not a single one comes close.
But like I said after "Baba O'Riley" nothing seems quite as good till the last three songs pick it up again. That doesn't make the rest of the songs bad, just underwhelming. Both "Bargain" and "Love Ain't for Keeping" are two great songs that showcase the musicianship of the band just fine. "My Wife" is our John Entwistle song on the album and is one of his best. It is a little dark like all his songs, but it showcases his arrangement skills more then anything else. The interplay between the bass and drums is certainly the main focus of the song, as it often is with The Who. The guitar is there to keep everything together, bass, drum, piano, and horns all can use it as their time keeper.
"The Song Is Over" is a little pretentious and the synth part seems a little dated so if you where going to pass on one song it would be this one."Getting in Tune" on the other hand is one of those songs about music full of comparisons between music and life. Not only is he getting in tune with the song but with life. Just like all of the songs the rhythm section makes the song reach another level. John Entwislte is my favorite bassist, and Keith moon is my favorite drummers. They both knew how to keep their parts interesting without going off track with pointless fills and solos.
Of course now I can really get pumped again, "Going Mobile" is almost as good as "Baba O'riley". I love the acoustic guitar part that feels like it is being played by Pete Townshend sitting in the passenger seat of a car with his feet out the window. The entire songs succeeds in filling the mind with images of traveling, making it one of my favorite songs to listen to in my car. "I'm an air-conditioned gypsy." is probably my favorite line on the entire album. "Behind Blue Eyes" is all about the slow build. I have heard people complain about the arena rock bridge almost ruining the song. This is the exact opposite of the truth. "Behind Blue Eyes" needs the full arch to make it work. It needs to build dissipate and resolve so it can stand alone and appear to be attached to the final song. A lot of penultimate songs suffer the fate of being considered an intro to the closer and "Behind Blue Eyes" avoids that.
And what a closer we have! "Won't Get Fooled Again" is over 8min long but never once feels like it is over staying it's welcome. Well maybe a little during the guitar solo but it earns that little indulgence with the main body of the song. Rebellious to the core but in a call to arms to be savvy, not to just follow because they are told to. Who's Next fell in a string of classic albums by The Who that started with The Who Sell Out and ended with Quaraphenia. Who's Next is merely the third best of these four classics, what are the next two? We will just have to wait and see won't we...
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
So You Want to get into…The Mountain Goats Part 1
So I was reading over my Frank Zappa post and I think I realize the problem, I tried to put too much into one post. So from now on this feature will be a multipart chronicle of my own personal journey through an artist catalog. So with no further ado let’s begin
Heretic Pride
Best Song: San Bernardino
1.) Sax Rohmer #1
2.) San Bernardino
3.) Heretic Pride
4.) Autoclave
5.) New Zion
6.) So Desperate
7.) In the Craters on the Moon
8.) Lovecraft in Brooklyn
9.) Tianchi Lake
10.) How to Embrace a Swamp Creature
11.) Marduk T-Shirt Men’s Room Incident
12.) Sept 15th 1983
13.) Michael Myers Resplendent
When I was first introduced to The Mountains Goats I hated them. I was not a fan of lo-fi and wasn’t interested enough in the lyrics to let them lift the song. While John Darnielle does a good job at tugging at your emotions and it a great writer, he will never be my personal savior or my favorite lyricist. It was a couple of years after that initial taste, while getting some music from my sister, that I first heard “Dilauded” off Sunset Tree. I asked her “If he can write songs like this why doesn’t he do it more often?” I was immediately directed to get Heretic Pride.
Heretic Pride is without a doubt the place to start if you don’t like lo-fi (If you love lo-fi more then anything you may want to avoid this one at first). The use of strings is near perfect through-out but it suffers from a songwriting perspective as compared to his earlier stuff. I tend to lose focus about halfway through the album and really have trouble remembering how the later songs go. I could also do without the opener. “Sax Rohmer #1”. Its not that it is bad, it is just an inferior version of “Autoclave”: Same acoustic pattern, same vocal delivery, but the lyrical hook for “Autoclave” makes “Sax Rohmer #1” completely superfluous.
The highlights are what make this album worth it thought. Both the title track and “San Bernardino” are among my favorites Darnielle has ever written. “Heretic Pride” uses the upbeat music and vocal delivery as the perfect foil to the scene in the lyrics of the heretic being burned. “San Bernardino” is…just beautiful. The drawn-out and pizzicato strings, the rolling guitar, and the best lyrics on the record. It is a masterpiece. “New Zion” is the poppiest thing on the album, a great song to sway to, and full of stray guitar lines. “So Desperate” is a very simple song; nothing but guitar, voice, and some pizzicato strings. It is the perfect song to close the album on…
But wait a minute, THERE ARE SEVEN MORE SONGS!!! Well not for me there isn’t. I just lose all will to keep listening after “So Desperate”. Which really isn’t fair since at least one of these songs is the best on the album. “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” is just as good a song as my other favorites, and is one of the rare opportunities to really see Darnielle ROCK. But because I am done with the album by this point I don’t think of it as being off Heretic Pride. To me it like a single and not part of the whole.
So despite this album only keeping me interested half of the time I give it a good and hearty recommendation, if only because once you assimilate Heretic Pride you are ready to start reaching into the brilliant encyclopedia of songs by John Darnielle. But before we delve back lets take another step forward for the smooth transition between this and the older work.
Next time on So You Want to get into the Mountain Goats: Life of the World to Come
Heretic Pride
Best Song: San Bernardino
1.) Sax Rohmer #1
2.) San Bernardino
3.) Heretic Pride
4.) Autoclave
5.) New Zion
6.) So Desperate
7.) In the Craters on the Moon
8.) Lovecraft in Brooklyn
9.) Tianchi Lake
10.) How to Embrace a Swamp Creature
11.) Marduk T-Shirt Men’s Room Incident
12.) Sept 15th 1983
13.) Michael Myers Resplendent
When I was first introduced to The Mountains Goats I hated them. I was not a fan of lo-fi and wasn’t interested enough in the lyrics to let them lift the song. While John Darnielle does a good job at tugging at your emotions and it a great writer, he will never be my personal savior or my favorite lyricist. It was a couple of years after that initial taste, while getting some music from my sister, that I first heard “Dilauded” off Sunset Tree. I asked her “If he can write songs like this why doesn’t he do it more often?” I was immediately directed to get Heretic Pride.
Heretic Pride is without a doubt the place to start if you don’t like lo-fi (If you love lo-fi more then anything you may want to avoid this one at first). The use of strings is near perfect through-out but it suffers from a songwriting perspective as compared to his earlier stuff. I tend to lose focus about halfway through the album and really have trouble remembering how the later songs go. I could also do without the opener. “Sax Rohmer #1”. Its not that it is bad, it is just an inferior version of “Autoclave”: Same acoustic pattern, same vocal delivery, but the lyrical hook for “Autoclave” makes “Sax Rohmer #1” completely superfluous.
The highlights are what make this album worth it thought. Both the title track and “San Bernardino” are among my favorites Darnielle has ever written. “Heretic Pride” uses the upbeat music and vocal delivery as the perfect foil to the scene in the lyrics of the heretic being burned. “San Bernardino” is…just beautiful. The drawn-out and pizzicato strings, the rolling guitar, and the best lyrics on the record. It is a masterpiece. “New Zion” is the poppiest thing on the album, a great song to sway to, and full of stray guitar lines. “So Desperate” is a very simple song; nothing but guitar, voice, and some pizzicato strings. It is the perfect song to close the album on…
But wait a minute, THERE ARE SEVEN MORE SONGS!!! Well not for me there isn’t. I just lose all will to keep listening after “So Desperate”. Which really isn’t fair since at least one of these songs is the best on the album. “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” is just as good a song as my other favorites, and is one of the rare opportunities to really see Darnielle ROCK. But because I am done with the album by this point I don’t think of it as being off Heretic Pride. To me it like a single and not part of the whole.
So despite this album only keeping me interested half of the time I give it a good and hearty recommendation, if only because once you assimilate Heretic Pride you are ready to start reaching into the brilliant encyclopedia of songs by John Darnielle. But before we delve back lets take another step forward for the smooth transition between this and the older work.
Next time on So You Want to get into the Mountain Goats: Life of the World to Come
Saturday, October 16, 2010
#43 Aerial Ballet
Best Song: One
1.) Daddy’s Song
2.) Good Old Desk
3.) Don’t Leave Me
4.) Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song
5.) Little Cowboy
6.) Together
7.) Everybody’s Talkin’
8.) I Said Good Bye to Me
9.) Little Cowboy (reprise)
10.) Mr. Tinker
11.) One
12.) The Weeping Willow
13.) Bath
Ah Harry Nilsson, one of my absolute favorites. Beyond creating amazing music, he was simply a fascinating person. He would follow up his biggest commercial hit with an album full of bluntness and profanity, only to follow that album with an album of Hollywood standards. A real anomaly in the music world it is nice to still feel his echo in some indie bands today.
Ariel Ballet starts with the very bouncy “Daddy’s Song” which immediately sets the tone for the first half of the album, with amazing vocal overlays that showcase Nilsson’s confidence in his voice. This is followed by the greatest ode to a piece of furniture ever “Good Old Desk”. Harry Nilsson once joked that the song was actually about the initials of the song, G.O.D; but had to constantly tell people that it was a joke. Another treat is “Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song” a story of a pop star that goes from famous to washed up but still loved. The vocal wah-wahs at the end are my favorite on the whole record. If you are wondering about the weird title on this one, well it has a simple explanation. Mr. Richland was a music publisher and this was his favorite song on the album.
“Little Cowboy” is actually a lullaby that Nilsson’s mother used to sing to him which it just sweet. “Together” is an anthemic song that serves as the side closer if you are listening to this on vinyl. Even with out that physical break, it still represents the end on the good times of the first half with its final line.
The second half start extremely strong one track that everyone probably knows already, a cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’”. There is no doubt that this is the definitive version of the song, the rollicking upbeat guitar is the perfect foil for the subtle darkness of the lyrics. “Mr. Tinker” is another story of a has-been but unlike the singer in “Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song” the tailor is no longer needed.
After the depression of “Mr. Tinker” we get treated to the greatest song about loneliness ever written. “One” is among the best songs Harry Nilsson ever wrote. The simplicity of the piano is what makes it. What is the perfect amount of notes to represent feeling lonely? Why one of course. It also has the most profound line on the record, “Two is just as bad as one it’s the loneliest number since the number one”; suggesting that it takes more then just being with someone to be happy. Unfortunatly we do get a small let down in the final track. “Bath” isn’t bad; it just feels like a fake Hollywoodish ending after all the depression of the second half. If you don’t mind tinkering with the artistic vision of an album I would suggest changing it on you MP3 player so “Bath” starts the album instead of ends it. This won’t be the last we here from Harry Nilsson, oh no. This is the first of four on the list.
1.) Daddy’s Song
2.) Good Old Desk
3.) Don’t Leave Me
4.) Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song
5.) Little Cowboy
6.) Together
7.) Everybody’s Talkin’
8.) I Said Good Bye to Me
9.) Little Cowboy (reprise)
10.) Mr. Tinker
11.) One
12.) The Weeping Willow
13.) Bath
Ah Harry Nilsson, one of my absolute favorites. Beyond creating amazing music, he was simply a fascinating person. He would follow up his biggest commercial hit with an album full of bluntness and profanity, only to follow that album with an album of Hollywood standards. A real anomaly in the music world it is nice to still feel his echo in some indie bands today.
Ariel Ballet starts with the very bouncy “Daddy’s Song” which immediately sets the tone for the first half of the album, with amazing vocal overlays that showcase Nilsson’s confidence in his voice. This is followed by the greatest ode to a piece of furniture ever “Good Old Desk”. Harry Nilsson once joked that the song was actually about the initials of the song, G.O.D; but had to constantly tell people that it was a joke. Another treat is “Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song” a story of a pop star that goes from famous to washed up but still loved. The vocal wah-wahs at the end are my favorite on the whole record. If you are wondering about the weird title on this one, well it has a simple explanation. Mr. Richland was a music publisher and this was his favorite song on the album.
“Little Cowboy” is actually a lullaby that Nilsson’s mother used to sing to him which it just sweet. “Together” is an anthemic song that serves as the side closer if you are listening to this on vinyl. Even with out that physical break, it still represents the end on the good times of the first half with its final line.
The second half start extremely strong one track that everyone probably knows already, a cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’”. There is no doubt that this is the definitive version of the song, the rollicking upbeat guitar is the perfect foil for the subtle darkness of the lyrics. “Mr. Tinker” is another story of a has-been but unlike the singer in “Mr. Richland’s Favorite Song” the tailor is no longer needed.
After the depression of “Mr. Tinker” we get treated to the greatest song about loneliness ever written. “One” is among the best songs Harry Nilsson ever wrote. The simplicity of the piano is what makes it. What is the perfect amount of notes to represent feeling lonely? Why one of course. It also has the most profound line on the record, “Two is just as bad as one it’s the loneliest number since the number one”; suggesting that it takes more then just being with someone to be happy. Unfortunatly we do get a small let down in the final track. “Bath” isn’t bad; it just feels like a fake Hollywoodish ending after all the depression of the second half. If you don’t mind tinkering with the artistic vision of an album I would suggest changing it on you MP3 player so “Bath” starts the album instead of ends it. This won’t be the last we here from Harry Nilsson, oh no. This is the first of four on the list.
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