Day One – Scotter
Day Two – E. Kula
Day Three – Amy

FANCY DAN’S 10 FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2008

10. MGMT –Oracular Spectacular

“Time to Pretend” (buy)
Download audio file (Time_To_Pretend.mp3)

Equally tongue-in-cheek and sincere at the same time, MGMT managed to craft an album that captures the spirit of being young. Every song on this record is catchy enough to be a hit, but there is a surprising amount of depth and feeling that lurks beneath the surface. On Oracular Spectacular, MGMT combined influences ranging from disco, glam, funk, psychedelia, electronica and rock, creating a sound where bits and pieces seem familiar, but as a whole it is totally unique. Their music proves that these guys know how to be adventurous and have a great time, but they are also serious about creating music with memorable melodies, convincing performances, detailed arrangements and ornate production, that will make this record hold up over time and will make MGMT an exciting band to watch in the future.

9. Santogold –Santogold

“L.E.S. Artistes” (buy)
Download audio file (Santogold-LESArtistes.mp3)

After initially being touted as a former A&R Rep who became an M.I.A. copycat, Santogold proved with her debut album that she has far more to her than any one-dimensional label could ever define. On her self-titled release, Santogold goes from genre to genre without skipping a beat as one minute she’ll be cooing over new-wave guitars, the next she’ll be belting at the top of her lungs over ferocious tribal beats, and then out of nowhere she’ll be doing a dub-inspired indie rock song. Even though there is so much variety in the songwriting and arrangements, somehow it all comes together as an album. Every song is filled with interesting rhythms, strong hooks, heartfelt vocals, and memorable melodies, making Santogold one of the most exciting new artists to watch just to see what she’ll come up with next.

8. Adam Balbo –Big Kid Now EP

“Big Kid Now” (buy / myspace)
Download audio file (Balbo-BigKid.mp3)

Like a cross between Woody Guthrie and Eminem, Adam Balbo is an indie-folk singer who uses traditional melodies and phrasing, but sings about unsacred topics with irreverent humor and plays around with language in a way that would make most folk purists cringe. On Big Kid Now, Balbo sings with a child-like casualness that makes it sound like he’s making this stuff up on the spot, even though his lyrics are so cleverly constructed and the arrangements are well put together that this EP is certainly not as tossed off as it sounds. Rough around the edges in all the right places, Big Kid Now is focused and consistent in its vision as Balbo uses just a twangy acoustic guitar or a cheesy sounding keyboard, backed with minimalist drumming, to innocently describe the contents of his head. Like childhood, it’s random and profound and trivial and playful as he uses all kinds of 1980s references to Teddy Ruxpin, He-Man, Gremlins, and many more, which makes Big Kid Now the perfect soundtrack to growing up in 1980s America as well as just what it sounds like to be a kid.

7. Bob Dylan –Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8

The most recent bootleg series installment from the archives of Bob Dylan offers a fascinating look into Dylan’s late career rebirth that has resulted in some of his best music yet. Starting with 1989′s “Oh Mercy,” Dylan’s approach to songwriting shifted as he began to work towards making archaic music that blended forms of traditional American music into something that felt deeply rooted in the past, but that applies to the present as well. Tell Tale Signs offers a combination of demos, alternate takes, songs from soundtracks, and live performances from the past two decades that somehow make up a complete work that is surprisingly consistent and satisfying as an album, all while proving Dylan’s continued relevance in modern times.

6. Vampire Weekend –Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend’s schtick of being ivy league-educated young white boys in country club sweaters, who happen to have an affinity for African music, wouldn’t go very far if it weren’t for their ability to write such good songs. Their first full-length album plays like an amalgamation of Paul Simon’s Graceland and The Strokes’ Is This It, which works surprisingly well as Afro-pop hasn’t been combined with a punk sensibility too often before to this great of an effect. The drums and bass lock into a danceable groove while the clean electric guitar nimbly bounces around singer Ezra Koenig’s stream-of-consciousness vocals, where he muses on a variety of white boy topics that rarely make much coherent sense at all. At a mere 34 minutes, the album is a tight collection of songs with a consistently unique sound, making it instantly memorable and a total blast to listen to.

5. The Hold Steady –Stay Positive

“Constructive Summer” (buy)
Download audio file (HoldSteady-Constructive.mp3)

This is the first Hold Steady record where I totally believe them the entire time. On Stay Positive the formula of power chords and sing-a-longs doesn’t change much, although they add some new instrumentation such as a harpsichord, banjo, and talk box, but the songwriting has gotten tighter and more heartfelt this time around. Craig Finn is more convincing and inspiring than ever as he offers up more tales about disaffected American boys and girls who go to shows, drink too much, get in trouble, grow older and are ultimately saved by the healing power of rock and roll. The album plays as a tribute to the saints of rock and roll who gave us hope and something to identify with when all our other heroes let us down. No other band making music today knows the gospel of rock and roll better than these guys.

4. Kanye West –808s & Heartbreak

“RoboCop” (buy)
Download audio file (Kanye-RoboCop.mp3)

In the tradition of the great breakup albums like Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks and Beck’s Sea Change, Kanye West made a minimalist, pain-filled record of raw emotion, that is an incredibly bold statement, especially coming from the world of hip hop. Instead of rapping in his usual style, Kanye chose to sing using the much-debated Auto-Tune effect, which makes his voice sound especially vulnerable, behind tribal beats made from the classic Roland TR-808 drum machine. It’s a pop art experiment that could have failed miserably if not for Kanye’s complete dedication to his craft and willingness to go to a place that few artists would dare to go. As a result, 808s & Heartbreak isn’t as immediate and classic-sounding as his other records, but over time it will hold up as being one of the most unique and effective things he’s ever done, especially in a time when no one in popular music is taking risks like this.

3. Lil Wayne –Tha Carter III

“Mr. Carter” (buy)
Download audio file (LilWayne-MrCarter.mp3)

The summer of 2008 belonged to Lil Wayne as this album pushed him into the mainstream and proved that he has the talent to be the next Biggie or Jay-Z, but with a style that is entirely his own. Tha Carter III has a little something for everybody as it is Lil Wayne’s first official release after a long line of mixtapes and guest verses that built up his reputation enough to get people interested and gave him the chance to prove himself with a proper album. Everything about this record feels classic, from the cover art that is in the tradition of hip hop classics such as Nas’s Illmatic and the Notorious B.IG.’s Ready To Die, to the pacing and song choice, to the variety of traditional breakbeats as well as modern production techniques, and above all a flow that is refreshingly creative and endlessly appealing. Often times Weezy raps with such a charming effortlessness, that you wonder how he managed to create this good of an album, especially since he sounds high all the time, constantly cracking himself up and making up words and bizarre rhymes, but that is exactly what makes him so much fun to listen to.

2. TV On The Radio –Dear Science,

“Golden Age” (buy)
Download audio file (TVOTR-GoldenAge.mp3)

With their third full-length album, TV On The Radio have managed to enter a whole new plane of existence and have become one of the most important bands making music today, rivaling the high caliber of a band like Radiohead. Dear Science, is certainly their tightest and most accessible album yet, but surprisingly that doesn’t water their sound down whatsoever and only makes it more interesting as they explore new rhythms, melodies and textures within the conventions of pop songwriting. The production is as dense as always, but within their wall of sound there are catchy hooks, soulful vocals, funky guitar lines and unexpectedly danceable rhythms that make the songs instantly memorable in a way that they haven’t been able to do on their previous albums. It’s essentially a dance record that’s the perfect soundtrack for the end of the world as well as the dawning of “the golden age,” which brilliantly captures the strange ambivalence of 2008, a year filled with dread and hope.

1. The Walkmen –You & Me

“In the New Year” (buy)
Download audio file (Walkmen-NewYear.mp3)

After hinting at greatness with their past few records, The Walkmen have made their first masterpiece that is one of the most rewarding listens in recent memory. It takes time to get to know You & Me, but once you do, it is shocking how many layers of emotion The Walkmen have been able to tap in to. They’ve maintained their sense of musical experimentation that has been present in their past work, but now they’ve embraced subtlety, where the songs gradually sneak up on you instead of hitting you over the head. For a rock band, The Walkmen use a variety of unconventional instrumentation including waltz rhythms, weeping horns, spaghetti western whistling, odd guitar strumming patterns, wobbly keyboard playing techniques, and out-of-range vocals, all while not calling attention to these elements, but instead using them to benefit the mood of each song and the record as a whole. You & Me is a tribute to the kind of vulnerability and love that is only possible between two people and with this album, you’ll be honored to be able to be on the receiving end of a relationship with The Walkmen.

Download audio file (02 Bring The Noise.mp3)
Public Enemy – “Bring the Noise”
(from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back)

When I first heard It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, I thought it sounded outdated and a little too old school for my tastes. After all, it had been a little over a decade since it was released, so it wasn’t surprising that it didn’t seem incredibly relevant to me at the time. The reason I picked it up was because it was one of those albums that consistently made all the Best Albums of All Time lists, in everything from The Source to Time magazine. From what I could tell, its importance and cultural impact weren’t up for debate and it was a classic in every sense of the word. Being a curious music fan with limited knowledge and taste, I wanted to understand what all the fuss was about and see if it could live up to the hype. So after hearing it a few times, I was a little disappointed that it hadn’t changed my life.

That would come later.

It Takes a Nation sat on my shelf for a couple years before I listened to it again. It had become one of those albums in my collection that I set aside before fully absorbing, as I waited until I was in the right mood for it. After all, you can’t force music to reach you when you aren’t ready for it. Like wine, music can require a bit of patience, but oftentimes it’s well worth the wait. So that year I decided I was going to listen to as much hip hop as possible, since it was a genre I enjoyed, but didn’t know a whole lot about. Being a middle class white kid from a small town in Michigan, the only hip hop I was exposed to growing up was whatever I saw on MTV in the nineties. As I was making my way through classics I had missed like Raising Hell, Paid In Full and Three Feet High and Rising, I figured it was time to give Public Enemy another try.

So I put It Takes a Nation back on my stereo and it felt like I just got punched in the face. I was immediately struck just by the sound of it. I’d never heard production as dense as this before. It felt like all my senses were being bombarded at once. How could I have ignored this before, I mean physically? There were samples colliding all over the place from police sirens to James Brown horns and beats to Malcolm X speeches to guitars from Slayer and David Bowie. Plus they were even sampling themselves! It was music that forced you to pay attention to it since there’s so much going on and it’s never pretty. Production team The Bomb Squad wasn’t interested in creating music that was even remotely pleasing to the ears. They wanted to hit you over the head repeatedly and without mercy. Their production assault mixed with DJ Terminator X’s up front scratching technique created a sound that was totally relentless.

After getting over the shock of being beaten by the music, I started to notice how brilliant Chuck D and Flavor Flav were as MCs. The two of them seemed like the oddest couple imaginable with Chuck D’s serious frontman intensity and Flavor Flav’s cartoonish sidekick persona creating a hodgepodge effect that couldn’t have been achieved without the both of them. It allowed the music to be deathly serious and surprisingly playful at the same time. Chuck D was spitting politically conscious rhymes that were as powerful as Malcolm X’s speeches, using a bizarre Marv Albert-inspired sportscaster voice that somehow fit the intensity of the music just perfectly. Whether he was speaking about incarcerated black men, drug abuse, Louis Farrakhan or just about what it’s like to be a black man in America, Chuck D seemed to have an endless supply of words to put into action. Of course, politically conscious rhymes weren’t entirely new to hip hop, but the uncompromising intensity that Chuck D’s vocals had made them seem revolutionary. Plus, he was rapping at such a quick pace that his words sounded like they were bouncing all over this avant-garde collage of sound in a way that made them seem more ferocious. I couldn’t think of any vocalist in music history who meant what he said more than Chuck D. Even if I wasn’t paying close attention to the specific things he was talking about, I wasn’t about to disagree with him. Flavor Flav served as the perfect foil to Chuck D as he provided much needed comic relief that gave the listener room to breathe. Without Flavor, the music would have been almost too much to listen to. He may have been on the same page with Chuck D about most things, but he didn’t have the capacity to take himself that seriously. The two of them together were like a comedy duo that was only funny a small fraction of the time, but listening to them interact and play off each other was constantly entertaining.

That year I listened to It Takes a Nation repeatedly for months on end as the music revealed more and more to me upon each listen. I couldn’t get over the pacing of the album and how every part of it seemed to be in exactly the right place. As the album starts with an announcer pumping up a crowd before introducing the group, it gives the listener the feeling that something amazing is about to happen. “Countdown to Armageddon,” the title of track one couldn’t be any more perfect. Once they drop the beat and Flavor Flav and Chuck D make their grand entrances in “Bring The Noise,” it feels almost like a boxing match has begun. “Bring The Noise” serves as a manifesto as well as a preview for what’s to come on the album, with Chuck D rapping, “Never badder than bad ‘cause the brother is madder than mad at the fact that’s corrupt like a senator. Soul on a roll, but you treat it like soap on a rope ‘cause the beats in the lines are so dope. Listen for lessons I’m saying inside music that the critics are blasting me for.”

“Don’t Believe the Hype”

The next track, “Don’t Believe The Hype,” has a slower, funkier beat, but the rapping is just as fierce with Flavor Flav getting more into his role as a goofy sidekick. Next up is “Cold Lampin With Flavor,” where Flavor Flav gets his own solo track, proving that this is no one man show. Then Terminator X gets to show his stuff on “Terminator X To The Edge of Panic,” reminding the listener of how much of a group effort this really is. To seal the deal, “Mind Terrorist” gives the Bomb Squad a chance to make one of their avant-garde sound collages while Terminator X mixes up some Flavor Flav catchphrases.

Finally, when we get to “Louder Than A Bomb,” it’s clear that Public Enemy has already laid out exactly what they plan to do with the record, so here is when they start to pick up steam. The progression that happens over the second half of the record is unstoppable. It’s almost like when a preacher gets on a roll halfway through his sermon, and starts sweating and crying and shouting at the congregation. They break into the 1-2-3 punch of “Caught, Can I Get A Witness!,” “She Watch Channel Zero?!” and “Night Of The Living Baseheads,” which cover everything from the legal ramifications of sampling to women who waste their lives away watching TV to a tale of drug addicts who used to get their fix from music. At this point it becomes very clear that no topic is off limits to Chuck D. He then gets into the most remarkable track of the record, with “Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos,” which begins with the classic opening lines, “I got a letter from the government the other day. I opened and read it, it said they were suckers. They wanted me for their army or whatever. Picture me given’ a damn –I said never. Here is a land that never gave a damn about a brother like me and myself.” Here Chuck D is at his most fiery and powerful as he offers a rant against the military, the correctional system, and the general treatment of black people in America.

“Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”

Then, without taking a breath, P.E. go into their grand finale and offer “Rebel Without A Pause,” with its screeching sirens and scratching turntables in a sound collage that refuses to quit. When they break into “Prophets Of Rage,” Chuck D reminds us that this is not your typical hip hop record with the lines, “I roll with the punches so I survive. Try to rock ‘cause it keeps the crowd alive. I’m not ballin, I’m just callin’, but I’m passed the days of yes y’allin’.” Finally we get to the last track, “Party For Your Right To Fight,” which is a brilliant send-up of The Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right To Party.” Here Chuck D and Flavor Flav both rap the same lines at the same time, one in each channel, which makes you feel like your head is about to explode. It’s the perfect way to end the most intense listening experience you’ve ever had.

Somewhere along the way, It Takes a Nation has become the album that I measure all albums against. The way it works as a whole, the way it gains momentum and never loses it, the way the vocals match the music at all times, the way every member of the group gets their chance to shine, the way it completely pummels the senses. It Takes a Nation is now also my go-to angry album whenever I feel like I’m about to blow. The beauty of it is that you don’t have to personally relate to all the subjects they are talking about. It’s not what they are saying, but it’s how they’re saying it, despite the fact that they are saying some incredibly powerful stuff. Since I have fallen in love with this album, there have been specific times in my life, when I couldn’t imagine listening to anything else. I’m at the point where I would feel lost without being able to put this record on when I need it most. You can’t ask for anything more from a little piece of plastic.

Bob Dylan
Modern Times
[Columbia Records; 2006]

This is the first time I have ever attempted to write about Mr. Bob Dylan.  He has always been one of the most important people in my life and has gotten me through numerous hard times, but I have never been able to come up with the words to describe my sincere appreciation and gratitude.  Add that to the fact that there are far too many people already writing about Dylan and not even getting close to describing the depth of his power and influence.  I never would have even considered writing about him in the past, but after watching him exist in the 21st century, I feel that I can now attempt to see if my words do him justice. 

It’s true that Dylan has always been accessible in that he is able to appeal to the masses, but in a spiritual way that prophets like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. have been able to do.  There is an enormous myth that surrounds him and has been ever since he wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind” in the early sixties.  However, it seems like the myth has become even more exaggerated among the younger generations, who see Dylan as a sort of father figure of the twentieth century.  When Dylan was just a baby-faced kid performing folk songs in Greenwich Village, other people could sense his importance, but he was still thought of as being just a kid.  To the younger generations today, it is nearly impossible to imagine him in this way, since we see him as a holy paternal figure, instead of just as a gifted artist.  Jack White was recently quoted saying, “I have three fathers: God, my biological father, and Bob Dylan.”  This mentality is prevalent among the X and Y Generations, who grew up listening to their parents’ records while hearing a mystical quality in Dylan’s artistic voice.   Young people are finally getting the opportunity to hear Dylan’s new records at the time in which they are made, instead of hearing them decades after they’ve been released.  This has allowed me to see Dylan as a human being for the very first time.  I have suddenly realized that this person actually exists on earth, in the present, along with me and everybody else.

It is amazing that Dylan’s music is so human and accessible to people of all different ages, yet he still maintains this aura of divinity.  In that way I guess he could be considered Christ-like, being 100 percent divine and 100 percent human at the same time.  His music reaches deep into the spiritual realm and the nature of existence, while his songs take and ache and make love and break just like a little girl.  In recent years it seems like he has attempted to shed some of his mystery and present himself in a more mortal way.  There have been several projects that Dylan has been involved with in the new century that are different from anything he’s done in the past.  Every week for the last few months he has been playing DJ and hosting “Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan” on XM Radio, in which he seems to be having the time of his life.  On this program you can hear his great sense of humor shine through, with lines like “I bumped into Charlie Sheen last weekend and he had this to say about fathers.”  It is quite bizarre to hear Dylan talk so much while he raves about the music that is nearest and dearest to him.  On this show he plays a lot of the music that had inspired him in his younger years, along with artists of today that he seems to appreciate like Beck and The Streets.  By hearing him talk about his tremendous love of music, it reminds us listeners that he is a music fanatic just like you and me.  We also got to see the human Dylan in last year’s Martin Scorsese-directed documentary No Direction Home, which portrayed Dylan as a kid being exploited by the people around him during his formative years as an artist.  It featured a surprisingly frank Dylan of today looking back on this difficult time when the role of “spokesman of a generation” was thrust upon him.  The film allowed us to see from his perspective and removed our fixation on the mythic Dylan of the sixties and forced us to focus on the young artist who frequently felt used and abused during this period.  The year before that he released part one of his autobiography, Chronicles, which also offered a glimpse into how he felt during different eras of his career.  He wrote about the time in the seventies when obsessed fans would stalk him and go through his trash and look in the windows of his house.  After hearing him talk about the toll this took on him and his family, you can’t help but feel awful for ever putting him up on a pedestal. 

In 2003, Dylan co-wrote and acted in the film Masked And Anonymous, in which he played a character that is expected to save the world.  The story takes place in a decaying futuristic society in which Dylan’s character Jack Fate gets sprung from prison in order to put on a concert.  The film was full of unusual characters and situations in a world gone wrong, and the best part was seeing Dylan play an exaggeration of himself who was regarded as some mythical hero.  Dylan has also managed to shock his fans by making bizarre television appearances over the last several years: he was a guest star in an episode in the sitcom Dharma & Greg, he was featured in a Victoria’s Secret commercial, and most recently he performed in an iPod commercial.  Judging from these strange appearances, it is clear that Dylan does not take his messianic stature too seriously and has no intention of maintaining his mystique.  In fact, Dylan has spent his entire career trying to convince people that he is not God or any other ridiculous role that has been thrust upon him.  He’s always just wanted to be an artist and a musician that had no responsibility or obligation to try and save the world.  On one of his early albums he sang, “Ain’t no use a-talking to me, it’s just the same as talking to you.”  Since the beginning of his career, Dylan had a humility about him that people chose to ignore while they made him their personal savior.

With his latest album Modern Times, Dylan has again managed to write terribly moving songs about the human condition while questioning the spiritual world around him.  The songs offer tremendous insight into what it is like to be a living, breathing human being existing in a world that seems like it is falling apart.  The album is full of imagery of impending doom, but it also offers redemption somewhere along the line.  This is a reccurring theme that is evident from the beginning of the album. The first two songs are given the titles “Thunder On The Mountain” and “Spirit On The Water,” which include classic spiritual terms that depict the presence of God in the physical world.  Dylan begins by predicting the coming apocalypse in “Thunder On The Mountain” while he searches for a way out.  The song is filled with fear and chaos over reeling and rocking Chuck Berry-guitars while Dylan plays the prophet and also the drunk who finds it funny that the world is ending.  By the end of the song you feel overwhelmed with the madness of the world, but you manage to have a smirk on your face.  Dylan cools it down with the next track “Spirit On The Water” where he plays the heartbroken romantic who thinks love, or at least sex, is the answer, while the music swings to a charming beat.  Early on he sings, “When you’re near it’s just as plain as it can be. I’m wild about you gal, you ought to be a fool about me.”  But just when you think Dylan is writing a simple love/lust song, he plunges deep into the darkness.  Later on he sings “I wanna be with you in paradise and it seems so unfair.  I can’t go to paradise no more, I killed a man back there.”  This is just the type of image Dylan loves to use and this album is filled with all sorts of these lines.  These opening songs set the pace for the entire album, which goes back and forth between love and death and mystery and murder and God and the Devil and innocence and corruption and the spiritual and the physical and humor and heartbreak.   

The rest of the album features some of Dylan’s liveliest and most satisfying blues numbers like “Rollin’ And Tumblin’,” “Someday Baby,” and “The Levee’s Gonna Break,” where his guitar players make the case that they could be Dylan’s best ever sidemen.  Throughout the album, the band sounds incredibly rehearsed and confident, while making each of their respective parts quite interesting without drawing attention away from Dylan. The heavy material that Dylan came up with could have caused a sense of urgency in the songs, but instead the songs take their time as the band plays with a strong sense of patience.  “Nettie Moore,” moves along to the sound of a steady heartbeat, but never manages to speed up and get out of control, even as its power progresses.  It’s amazing how much restraint the band shows with the way they approach these songs.  Their subdued playing allows Dylan to achieve some of his most beautiful performances in the deeply emotional songs “When The Deal Goes Down” and “Workingman’s Blues #2.”  Modern Times ends with another one of Dylan’s great epics, but “Ain’t Talkin’” sounds more mysterious and dark than his other classic album closers.  When Dylan repeats “Ain’t talkin, just walkin,” it sounds like he has hellhounds on his trail.  It is a frightening way to end an album and it suits the themes of Modern Times just perfectly. 

Modern Times continues on the path started by 2001′s Love And Theft with its contemporary twist on American Roots music such as blues, rockabilly, and ragtime.  The ten tracks on Modern Times seem to have more weight to them than the ones on Love And Theft, probably due to Dylan’s mastery of the different musical genres and the darker subject matter.  On Love And Theft he seemed to be having a lot of fun trying out archaic musical genres, while coming up with new ways to approach his lyrics.  That album featured so many great lyrical moments, full of creative, playful phrases and even a knock knock joke at one point.  On Modern Times he uses much more traditional rhyme schemes while writing in a more direct way.  During several songs, you get the impression that Dylan is writing some of his most heartfelt and sincere lyrics, but he always manages to bring in the darkness just before he gets overly sentimental.  He still seems to be having some fun with Modern Times, but the apocalyptic feel running throughout it gives for a much heavier listening.  It’s almost like he combined the musicality of Love And Theft with the darker, introspective lyrics of 1997′s Time Out Of Mind.  However, of the three albums, this is his masterpiece.  Modern Times has an epic feel to it with almost every song running at least five or six minutes long with a total running time of over an hour.  Instead of feeling overblown like a lot of longer songs tend to do, the songs on Modern Times feel like there is absolutely no fat or filler.  The album gives the impression that Dylan really edited himself during the writing process and only put in what was absolutely essential, even if he did have quite a bit to say.  Like most of Dylan’s albums, there is a stream of consciousness vibe to it, although the editing and execution of each individual song implies that he put a lot of thought into making this album.  By serving as producer for the second time in his career, Dylan has figured out exactly how he should sound.  These combined factors have made Modern Times one of Dylan’s all-time best pieces of work.    

This album represents a sort of breakthrough for me since I value it as a brilliant piece of art, with a deep spiritual resonance, but I no longer think of Dylan as God.  There is way too much humanity in Modern Times for it to be thought of as the word of God.  As I’ve watched Dylan over the last few years, I’ve finally realized where he has been coming from as a person living in this world.  His power and importance, as always, is staggering, but the reason he is this way is because he is able to express exactly what it feels like to be human.  

[Preview Modern Times and purchase it here.]

-Posted by Daniel

I’ve been amazed at all of these music fans who turn their back on a band they used to love simply because they were able to reach a broader audience. For example, there were so many people who liked The White Stripes when they weren’t so popular, but now that they are superstars these fans could care less about them. This notion has absolutely nothing to do with the music. Music fans used to have loyalty and trust in the artists that they loved. When a favorite artist of yours put out a new album or came to your town, you spent your money on them just to show them support and gratitude. Now it seems that people have adopted such reactionary personalities that they are constantly looking for something new that no one else knows about. If your parent or your neighbor or your little sister likes the same song as you, then something must be seriously wrong. This way of thinking has plagued so many people, who are constantly using music as a fashion to define their personalities, and so if you like an artist that everyone likes, then basically you have the same personality as everyone else. Who are we to use artists to form our identities?

Let’s enjoy all of the music we can and not question it. If it gets your feet moving, your heart pounding, your fingers snapping, your gut aching, your mind expanding, or your hips telling the truth, then that’s what matters. Music is for the uplifting of the individual and collective spirit and does not need to be ranked.

So let’s drop all the pretenses and come to understand why these songs are bumping in every nursery, school yard, office complex, and retirement home across the country.

Paris Hilton – “Stars Are Blind”

Here is an artist that people would love to see fail miserably, but too bad for them. Despite all the negative expectations, this song is really good and has the potential to be quite a memorable hit song, especially since it sounds like nothing else out there at the moment. It has an insanely catchy chorus and reggae beat that has a similar feel to Blondie’s “The Tide Is High.” Ms. Hilton has a pretty and soulful voice that defines her sexuality as well as her sincerity, and every time she sings, “Let’s see what this love can do,” it’s surprisingly moving. It’s the kind of sentiment found in Bruce Springsteen’s early work, as it’s an embrace of the world’s mystery and a commitment to living and discovering love. Ms. Hilton was recently quoted in the press explaining how hearing her album makes her cry because “it’s so good.” Even she seems surprised at how good of an artist she actually is. Just from her first single, she has proven to have a lot more to her than people think. You gotta respect her boldness by putting so much of herself into her album, knowing that she could turn into a Kevin Federline-type punchline, even more so than she already is. ”Stars Are Blind” is one of the best songs of the summer and could quite possibly be sung in karaoke bars for the next few decades and not as a joke.

Stream “Stars Are Blind” and other Hilton tunes.

Christina Aguilera – “Ain’t No Other Man”

This is exactly the kind of music Christina Aguilera should be making. It finally feels like she’s found herself as an artist by focusing on her powerful voice and her love of big band jazz and rhythm & blues, instead of trying to compete with the dance pop of Britney Spears. After spending most of her career trying to be nastier than her contemporaries, Ms. Aguilera seems to have adopted a more subtle and conservative style of music, which suits her much better and is a hell of a lot more sexy. “Ain’t No Other Man” is a true-blue love song that includes lyrics that are as sincere as they come. The song still oozes sex appeal, but in the way Aretha Franklin or Etta James are able to do with only their voices, without resorting to taking off their clothes. The production boasts a contemporary dance beat along with vintage horn samples that prove that she’s not simply trying to create old-timey music. By combining American roots music with a modern twist, Ms. Aguilera has managed to show artistic promise and depth as she has figured out how to be herself. “Ain’t No Other Man” is her best song yet.

Stream “Ain’t No Other Man” and other Aguilera tunes

Justin Timberlake – “Sexyback” (featuring Timbaland)

You gotta respect an artist that tries new things on their sophomore album. Justin Timberlake was able to surprise all the boyband haters a few years ago with Justified as he seemed like the perfect candidate to be the Michael Jackson of the new millenium. This time around, judging from his single “Sexyback,” he has adopted a new style that is much more influenced by the robo-funk of Prince than the disco-pop of Michael Jackson. In fact, the FutureSex/LoveSounds album cover consists of Mr. Timberlake smashing a disco ball! Instead of relying on The Neptunes again, he choose to have Timbaland and will.i.am produce his new album, giving it a much more futuristic sound. On “Sexyback,” his vocals are distorted and subdued, which is totally unexpected from a former boyband singer. For someone who is always able to rely on his signature soulful voice, it is admirable that he doesn’t depend on old tricks to get his point across. Timbaland’s production is in his regular hit-making style, but Mr. Timberlake appears to be the one giving the track it’s originality as he reinvents himself again.

Stream “Sexyback” and other Timberlake tunes.

Fergie – “London Bridge”

Here’s another artist that people love to hate, even though she has quite a bit of talent and, judging from her first single as a solo artist, she is destined to become a major pop star. It should not matter whatsoever that she was a member of Kids Incorporated when she was a child or that she supposedly gave the Black Eyed Peas a mainstream makeover. What matters is that she has a great voice and sings and raps with playful charisma, creative lyrics, and memorable melodies. This song is in the tradition of the playground choruses of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” or Kelis’s “Milkshake,” using the ancient art of singing about sexuality with children’s themes. She’s smart in using the London Bridge as a sexual metaphor that is open to a few different interpretations, instead of the painfully obvious 50 Cent track, “Candy Shop,” where he invites you to lick his lollipop. During the verses she admits, “I’m such a lady, but I’m dancing like a ho, but you know I don’t give a fuck, so here we go.” It’s the kind of statement that makes you want to lose control and join in and be as nasty as you possibly can without feeling guilty. Fergie sounds a little like Missy Elliott in the way she sings and raps with a heavy accent and sense of humor and playfulness, but she still sounds like she’s being herself. There won’t be a more fun song released this year.

Stream “London Bridge.”

Beyonce – “Deja Vu” (featuring Jay-Z)

Ms. Knowles had the very difficult task ahead of her of creating a hit song that was as good as “Crazy In Love” for her new album. She managed to do so by crafting one of her strongest vocal performances yet. Beyonce seems to be at her most confident as she begins the song by asking for bass and then high-hat and then 808 and then her man Jay-Z. It is a great way to introduce the song and displays her confidence as a singer and hitmaker. This is one of the most bass-heavy songs to come out this year, which makes it stand out among the other current mainstream hits thanks to its melodic groove. Every part of this song is memorable, including the intro, verse, bridge, chorus, and Jay-Z’s rap, which offers yet another reason he should come out of retirement. The song is so memorable that you swear you’ve heard it before, hence the title “Deja Vu,” but not in a way that makes it come across as unoriginal. The track feels timeless since it incorporates elements of the past few decades of music, while fitting right in with the music that’s being made today.

Stream “Deja Vu” and other Beyonce tunes.

Nelly Furtado – “Promiscuous” (featuring Timbaland)

Much has already been said about this song, which has been on the radio for the entire summer, but somehow it still manages to sound fresh. This is the type of song that never would have worked if it was done by an artist who wasn’t Nelly Furtado. She is able to bring a smart sensibility to it that makes it seem like she’s having a blast, but is completely serious at the same time. Ms. Furtado is almost like the female version of Beck, writing singer/songwriter folk songs as well as hip-hop flavored club tracks without skipping a beat. Not many people can pull this off so convincingly. Ever since she first burst into public conciousness, I had a feeling that Ms. Furtado had a lot to offer since she expressed so many different influences. On her third album she has managed to bring out another side of her that fits her quite well, as she is becoming a totally unpredictable artist filled with potential.

Stream “Promiscuous” and other Nelly Furtado tunes.

Jessica Simpson – “A Public Affair”

This is the only Jessica Simpson song I have ever heard that has any kind of memorable quality to it. For some reason, Ms. Simpson has focused most of her music career on unconvincing, syrupy ballads, when she would have been a lot better off making fun, danceable songs like “A Public Affair.” I’m surprised at how much I like this song. It’s almost like a Village People song since it’s so confident in it’s shallowness. At one point the song has a great clapping breakdown that just makes you want to join in a group line-up on the dancefloor. The song has a strong retro vibe to it and feels like it could have been made during disco’s heyday, while taking melodic inspiration from Madonna’s “Holiday.” If Ms. Simpson keeps focusing on making music with a sense of fun, she could turn out to be a much more respectable pop singer.

Watch the video for “A Public Affair.”

The Pussycat Dolls – “Buttons” (featuring Snoop Dogg)

The video of this song first caught my attention since it is essentially a four minute Victoria’s Secret commercial featuring Snoop Dogg. It took a couple of viewings for me to finally start paying attention to the actual song, which is a shame because the song is strong enough by itself. The instrumentation of the song has a sort of exotic feel to it with its Eastern keyboard samples. The groove takes its cue from Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” since it eliminates the bass during the verses and allows the sparse drum beat to stand on its own for much of the time. The chorus of the song repeats quite a bit throughout, but it offers a nice contrast to the verse, while flowing together effortlessly. Snoop Dogg’s rap seems a little phoned in with his cringe-worthy “I thought I saw a Puttycat” theme, but it doesn’t manage to spoil the song. Nicole Scherzinger is the only member of the group who actually sings, but she has a great voice and is able to handle all the vocal parts with plenty of pizazz. Time will tell if this group will be taken more seriously, but if they keep creating hit songs as good as “Buttons,” they could become huge.

Stream “Buttons” and other Pussycat Dolls tunes.

-Posted by Daniel.

Stay tuned for more pop music roundups on the Post-Rockist in the future.  What do you think of these songs? Have they even creapt across your massive music radar?  Leave your thoughts and reactions in the comments box, people. Thank you!

Recently I had the pleasure of seeing Jolie Holland live in her native San Francisco, along with a band made up of her favorite local backing musicians. The show took place in the posh Bimbo’s 365 Club with its elegant seating and two drink minimum. However, it was clear from the very start of the show that this was no fancy recital. I felt like I was in the prescence of royalty, although Ms. Holland has to be the most foul-mouthed queen that ever lived. On the opening track of her fantastic new album, Springtime Can Kill You, she sings, “I feel like a queen on this dirty city bus, look what you’ve done to me.” This line seems to sum up the mystery of Jolie Holland. She’s constantly characterized as an elegant songbird with a voice so beautiful and heartbreaking that she frequently gets compared to Billie Holiday, even though they sound nothing alike. The reason they are so often compared must lie in the degree of beautiful sadness with which they sing. The two of them sound so haunted that the only thing left for them to do is sing. That “lady sings the blues” cliché works for Ms. Holland as well since she looks and sings like an angel, but one that can be found passed out drunk in an alley.

Early into her set, Ms. Holland found herself distracted by a young woman in the front row who was doing her best to get attention and disrupt the show. She handled the heckler in her hometown like a cabdriver would. “Baby girl, if you’re going to be loud you’re gonna have to move and get as far away from me as possible,” she sneered with vehemence. After the crowd cheered to show their support, the heckler promptly shut the hell up, probably out of fear that Ms. Holland wouldn’t hesitate to drop kick her with high heels. Ms. Holland handled the situation with such unwavering confidence that I thought she might be the boldest woman I have ever seen. However, I was proven wrong shortly thereafter when she had a difficult time going into the next song, apparently shaken up from the incident. She may be a street-smart queen, but that doesn’t make her a goddess.

Ms. Holland’s humanity is in fact the best part of her music. The way she attempts to create the most gut-wrenching, emotional performance possible, no matter how many mistakes there are, proves that she is interested in making real human music with a beating heart. Several of the tracks on her recent album were recorded live in front of an audience, in an attempt to get the most honest performances possible, instead of being inhibited by a lifeless studio atmosphere. Judging from the Jolie Holland live experience, she seems to crave the human interaction that occurs between audience member and performer. Throughout all of her songs she seemed to be singing from the bottom of her gut, creating a loud and forceful sound, but one filled with heartbreak, sort of like how Hank Williams used to sing. Live and on record, the phrasing with which she sings has an elastic quality that twists each sound until it fits the exact feeling she’s trying to convey. This technique gives her music its loose, improvisational feel, while she attempts to get to the deepest, darkest place that she can with her voice and her melody.

Ms. Holland’s live band included two electric guitar players, who provided the textures of the songs without ever drawing attention to themselves. The band was without a bass player, relying instead on the kick drum and the low end of the Epiphone hollow body guitar. There was also a horn section part of the time, which included two musicians, one playing trumpet and the other switching between clarinet and tenor saxophone. The band ran through songs off of each of Ms. Holland’s three solo albums with so much ease, even though these musicians weren’t a part of her current touring band. The six of them were so in sync with each other that they played a couple new songs that most of them had never heard before. It was amazing to hear the results of a first time jam on some dreamy jazz and blues that she had apparently just written a few nights prior in a hotel room. I felt like Jack Kerouac hearing improvisational jazz for the first time in a sweaty, low-lit club deep in the city. It was fascinating to witness the spiritual heights the band was able to reach. This is the kind of synchronicty that can only happen among people who completely trust each other with their talents and creativity.

Ms. Holland’s between-song banter alone was well worth the ticket price. She would often praise her band by saying, “Isn’t this a fucking great band!” She also had plenty to say about San Francisco after being on the road for a little too long. “I fucking love this city. The people here are so fucking kinky!” It was a trip hearing her go from these curse-soaked comments right into something like “The Littlest Birds,” where the line “the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs” is repeated so innocently and joyfully that it seems like it was written by a child. Her voice hit me so hard during her first song that I spent the rest of the night trying to get my heart beating normally again. Hearing her live made me realize why I have become so obsessed with her music. Her voice always manages to reach me on a total gut level that pains me deep and lifts my spirit in a way that only a few singers, like John Lennon or Otis Redding, can do to me just with the sound of their voices. During her song “Mexican Blue” she sings, “there’s a mockingbird behind my house that’s a magician of the highest degree. And I swear I heard him rip the world apart and sew it back again with his fiery melody, melody.” I swear Ms. Holland has to be singing about herself because that is exactly what her voice and her melody can do.

(Ms. Jolie Holland is currently signed to ANTI-. You can find media downloads from all three of her studio albums by clicking here. You can purchase her latest album, Springtime Can Kill You, here.)

Jolie Holland’s home page.

-Posted by Daniel

If I’ve said it before I’ll say it again: modern music could use a whole lot more mariachi horns.  Who would have thought an indie rock garage band from New York City would completely relearn the art of songwriting and spend a year studying such oddball albums as Bob Dylan and The Band’s Basement Tapes and The Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies for inspiration.  By immersing themselves in music that was innovative when it came out by sounding so ancient and fresh at the same time, The Walkmen have managed to replicate the same feeling on their new album, A Hundred Miles Off.

The album opens with the track “Louisiana,” which starts off sounding like a Basement Tapes outtake, with its Caribbean beat and boozy drawl, but as it gets going it manages to reinvent itself as something entirely new.  Singer Hamilton Leithauser casually offers some overly optimistic, intoxicated lyrics that recall the excitement of starting a new relationship.  Just before the chorus kicks in he recognizes his blind idealism and belts the line “I’ve got my hands full.”  Just as he finishes, an instrumental chorus begins with mariachi trumpets and barroom piano taking over sounding like an alcohol-soaked fiesta.  The song is surprisingly moving in its progression.  Part of the time it feels like a dreamy love song, while drifting into a loneliness and doubt just before giving up to go get drunk at a party.  It is a bold opening statement, in its adventurous scope and embrace of music of the past, especially within the realm of indie rock.

Of course none of this would ever work if The Walkmen were simply performing an exercise in roots music.  They manage to maintain their garage rock drumming and shrill, hazy guitars, while the keyboards of their past have been replaced with horror movie organs and honky tonk piano.  The overall effect, like all good music, has elements of the past, present, and future combined.

Many of the songs are more like mood pieces with an emphasis on texture rather than songs with a regular verse-chorus-verse format.  This makes the album feel more like a journey than a collection of songs.  The final song, “Another One Goes By,” sums up the entire album by its declaration of wanting to pay attention, but still missing out along the way.  It is a hopeful, hopeless, and brutally real sentiment in a world full of beauty and sadness.  The narrator of the song seems to accept his fate, while letting the foggy ’60s soul instrumentation of the song surround him in his isolated contentment. Leithauser typically sings from the back of his throat in his highest octave, which creates a Dylanesque drunken, gut-wrenching squeal.  He could easily sing in a more conventional lower range, as he does on the tropical lounge song “Brandy Alexander,” but usually he recognizes the depth of emotion he can reach by howling at the top of his lungs.  The overall effect is like the end of a long night of drinking when everything becomes painfully sad, but totally worth it.

It is clear from A Hundred Miles Off that The Walkmen have been trying to listen and learn what they can from those who came before, while still existing in today’s world.  The album has a rebellious feel to it, much like the late sixties/early seventies periods of Bob Dylan, The Band, and The Kinks.  It’s a reaction against the conventions of modern music, but it’s not in complete defiance of it.  The genre of indie rock was originally a broad term meant to imply that it included music that was made on the artist’s terms, instead of those of the music business machine.  However, indie rock, like all invented genres, has often managed to become a cliché with a particular sound.  Just as Johnny Cash challenged country music with his use of mariachi horns on “Ring Of Fire,” The Walkmen have taken a risk of being totally misunderstood by their audience.  It is an admirable move in the world of indie rock where new ideas can potentially be labeled as gimmicky.  With A Hundred Miles Off, The Walkmen seem to have created something out of left field, while challenging conventions and embracing the unknown, while maintaining their indie rock roots.  By doing so they have breathed fresh life into the genre, just when it needs to be reminded of its roots. 

VIDEO: The Walkmen – “Louisiana”

The Walkmen Homepage