I don’t know what exactly it is about 80s female-led pop-rock that makes me love it so much. It has all the telltale production–gated drums, chorused bass, metal tinted lead guitar lines everywhere, piano arpeggios–as well as voices bigger than the hair they wore.
Month: March 2012
Record #66: Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
The years between 2007 and 2011 were rather significant for Justin Vernon, the man behind Bon Iver. His debut album had been picked up by a label, and launched him into international (indie) stardom.
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Record #65: Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP (2009)
After Justin Vernon came out of his cabin in the woods with his solo debut, he also came out of the minimalist confines that the instruments in his solitude offered him. Blood Bank EP is meager in tracks, but rich in content.
Record #64: Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)
When I first heard For Emma, Forever Ago, I was a folk singer. And most of my inspiration came from the old country of Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris, as well as the humble figerpickings of Sufjan Stevens and Damien Rice. But I was listening to so much else–Radiohead, Sigur Ros, mewithoutYou–but my musical pallet didn’t have room for too much outside of an acoustic guitar, harmonica, banjo, voice, and occasional trumpet or drum set.
Then I heard Bon Iver.
Record #63: Bob Dylan – Shot of Love (1981)
I have played this record only once besides this listen, and it was the day I got it, after which it was quickly shelved. I remember it being pretty terrible, but I don’t exactly remember why. I’m being reminded a little bit now, though. While it maintains largely the same format as Saved, the arrangements, which were so subtle on Slow Train Coming and so masterfully executed on Saved, are sloppy in comparison. This backing band lacks both the control and the exuberance of the groups that accompanied Dylan on his last two outings. It crosses the line into hokey territory quite often, and it doesn’t help the songwriting.
Record #62: Bob Dylan – Saved (1980)
While Slow Train Coming saw Dylan expanding his folk palette with progressive rock and gospel colors, Saved is almost exclusively a gospel record. The restraint shown by its predecessor is often shed entirely, and background singers, Hammond organs, pounded pianos, and raucous tempos are par for the course here, with Dylan himself even improvising vocal fills between lines like he’s wearing a robe and swaying along in the choir box. Continue reading
Record #61: Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming (1979)
Just about everybody thinks of Slow Train Coming as Bob Dylan’s first record after becoming a Christian*. And while that’s certainly true, and while that makes it a milestone, it often undermines the value of the music therein, which is understatedly magnificent.
Record #60: Bob Dylan – Desire (1976)
After the heavy intimacy of Blood on the Tracks, Dylan cowrote an album (a first for him, I believe) that returned to the outlaw hymns of John Wesley Harding, raging against the establishment and racism put to acoustic guitar, drums, and a violin, which proves a fitting companion for Dylan’s scraping guitar, ragged vocals, and howling harmonica.
Record #59: Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks (1975)
As I had mentioned earlier, breakup records are an important pop music tradition, and Blood on the Tracks is the archetype for the genre. The record finds Dylan in the studio without the Band for the first time in years and returning to the lyric-heavy writing of his earlier material, leading to his first 7min+ running times since Blonde on Blonde.
Record #58: Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. II (1971)
Amidst a critical and commercial slump and rumors that he had no plans to record a new LP, CBS record execs (with Dylan’s blessing) set to making money off of their golden goose, leading to this two disc collection. The result is a truly worthwhile look at a proper genius’s full career, including cuts from just about every album he had released up to that point (excepting his debut, Times, and his critically panned Self Portrait) as well as seven unreleased tunes, including the sneering rocker Watching the River Flow and the legendary Quinn the Eskimo.