Odds and Ends 002
Notes for a Revised Paleontology
Wilco: The Whole Love (Anti-)
Full-on Radiohead electronica Americanized with aw-shucks diffidence, red-blooded guitar, sharp tunes, and exceptionally dull poetry ("Standing O," "One Sunday Morning") ***
The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (Merge)
Four great songs, all of which address mortality directly instead of implying it the way the nine merely ambitious ones do ("Estate Sale Sign," "For Charles Bronson," "Sourdoire Valley Song," "Beautiful Gas Mask") ***
Radiohead: The King of Limbs (XL/TBD)
So much more fun than Eno these days ("Little by Little," "Bloom") **
Comet Gain: Howl of the Lonely Crowd (What's Your Rupture?)
Desperate times catch up with desperate punk love poetry ("Clang of the Concrete Swans," "Ballad of Frankie Machine") **
Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain (Fire)
With nothing much at stake but the shape of his life, Howe Gelb keeps his slow hand in ("Fields of Green," "Better Man Than Me") **
Faust: Something Dirty (Bureau B)
Synth-free after lo these many decades, their experiments have more oomph, especially the Hawkwind homages ("Tell the Bitch to Go Home," "Dampfauslass 2") **
Wire: Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag)
Even formalists get the grays--well, especially formalists ("Bad Worn Thing," "Please Take") **
New York Dolls: Dancing Backwards in High Heels (429)
Weary blues from trying ("Talk to Me Baby," "End of the Summer") *
I understand that our host is no friend of classical music, but I can't imagine all of his readers necessarily share that bias. In fact, I'm curious as to whether the classical music favored by Xgau's readers would reinforce the canon or depart from it in interesting ways, especially since I'd open the poll(s) to pop manifestations of classical music (e.g. Strauss waltzes, Stephen Foster songs, Gershwin tone poems, "third stream" works, e.g. movie scores) that (some) classical purists look down upon.
How about this, if you're not going to say it's the best album ever, at least admit it's the closest rock ever came to being all the things it promised to, and claimed to, be at once. And if you still won't give in, at least say "5.15" is a good song. Everyone likes horns in their rock n roll right?
::awaits for more dislikes::
A-well-a, everybody's heard about the bird
Bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, the bird is the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, well, the bird is the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, well, the bird is the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, well, the bird is the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, don't you know about the bird
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a
A-well-a, everybody's heard about the bird
Bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, don't you know about the bird
Well, everybody's talking about the bird
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
A-well-a, bird
Surfin' bird
Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb, aaah
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-oom-oom-oom
Oom-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-a-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Papa-oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Oom-oom-oom-oom-ooma-mow-mow
Ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow
Well, don't you know about the bird
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word
A-well-a, bird, bird, b-bird's the word
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow
Papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow...
- The Beautiful South: Welcome to the Beautiful South (Go! Discs) 17
- Pet Shop Boys: Behavior (EMI America) 16
- Pharoah Sanders: Welcome to Love (Timeless) 13
- Carlene Carter: I Fell in Love (Reprise) 10
- L.L. Cool J: Mama Said Knock You Out (Def Jam) 8
- The Chills: Submarine Bells (Slash) 8
- Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet (Def Jam) 8
- Beats International: Let Them Eat Bingo (Elektra) 8
- K.T. Oslin: Love in a Small Town (RCA) 6
- David Murray/George Arvanitas: Tea for Two (Fresh Sound) 6
Also sent in a long list of HMs (the balance of my A-list). Omitting the top 40 finishers (not that that loses much):
- Marcia Ball/Angela Strehli/Lou Ann Barton: Dreams Come True (Antone's)
- Salt-N-Pepa: Black's Magic (London)
- Madonna: I'm Breathless (Sire)
- David Murray: Ballads (DIW)
- Eyuphuro: Mama Mosambiki (Real World)
- Eddie Harris: There Was a Time (Echo of Harlem) (Enja)
- Marian McPartland: Plays the Benny Carter Songbook (Concord)
- Was (Not Was): Are You Okay? (Chrysalis)
- Sonny Sharrock: Highlife (Enemy)
- Betty Boo: Boomania (Warner Brothers)
- Don Pullen: Random Thoughts (Blue Note)
- David Murray: Spirituals (DIW)
- Macka-B: Natural Suntan (RAS)
- Loketo: Soukous Trouble (Shanachie)
- Herb Geller: Birdland Stomp (Fresh Sound)
- Macka-B: Looks Are Deceiving (RAS)
- Marty Grosz/Keith Ingham: Unsaturated Fats (Stomp Off)
- The Deighton Family: Mama Was Right (Philo)
- Bud Shank: Lost in the Stars (Fresh Sound)
- Samba Mapangala/Orchestra Virunga: Virunga Volcano (Earthworks)
- Art Blakey/Dr. John/David "Fathead" Newman: Bluesiana Triangle (Windham Hill)
- Soul II Soul: Vol. II A New Decade (Virgin)
- Daniel Owino Misiani: Benga Blast! (Earthworks)
- Michael Hashim: Lotus Blossom (Stash)
- Michael Formanek: Wide Open Spaces (Enja)
- Digital Underground: Sex Packets (Tommy Boy)
- The La's: The La's (London)
- Sheila Jordan: Lost and Found (Muse)
- Wynton Marsalis: Tune In Tomorrow (Columbia)
- Ali Farka Touré: The River (Mango)
- Either/Orchestra: The Calculus of Pleasure (Accurate)
- Jan Garbarek/Ustad Fateh Ali Khan: Ragas and Sagas (ECM)
- C+C Music Factory: Gonna Make You Sweat (Columbia)
- Digital Underground: This Is an E.P. Release (Tommy Boy)
- Jackie McLean: Dynasty (Triloka)
- Simon Shaheen: The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab (Axiom)
- Archie Shepp: I Didn't Know About You (Timeless)
- Lester Bowie: My Way (DIW)
- Cecil Taylor: Looking (Berlin Version) The Feel Trio (FMP)
- Victoria Williams: Swing the Statue! (Rough Trade)
- Dick Berk: Bouncin' With Berk (Nine Winds)
Going through the 1990 list I'm struck by a couple memories. One is that a lot of my top-rated records were ones that I first heard at Georgia Christgau's house in the Catskills. We met Bob and Carola there and he brought along his usual travel box, and for some reason an exceptional number of them clicked. The other is that a lot of the jazz came from Francis Davis' Jazz CG and Gary Giddins' year-end list, which got me started on my 1990s jazz immersion. I wasn't reviewing anything at the time, but in many ways this year got me going again.
In the latter vein, I'm aware that the Voice's Jazz Critics Poll has been killed this year, and that Francis Davis will no longer be writing for the Voice (although he has one more article in the pipeline -- one that's been there about as long as my Jazz CG draft).
I'll also note that people who know her tell me that Johnston isn't the "villain" here -- the favorite seems to be the New Times brass, or maybe it's just capitalism. But manners would have helped.
Top 10- no more -no less. Tough choices is what would make it interesting.
I totally agree Greg.If we're going to continue with the polling (and I hope we do!), can we start compiling lists of resources that voters use to discover albums? What polls do you follow or reference? Obviously most of us follow Bob's Dean's Lists and many of us follow Pazz & Jop. But there are many more resources online. What are some of yours? Post them here or email me at postwarjazz@gmail.com and I'll compile a resource list. Here's a start: Rocklist.net: http://goo.gl/SYVpD
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
follow msn music
music news
- Emails show AEG lawyer called Jackson a 'freak'
- Arrest warrant issued for 'late' rapper Tim Dog
- Pussy Riot member starts hunger strike to protest court ruling
- Blake Shelton putting together Okla. benefit show
- Beatles' lyrics headed for British Library
- Geri Halliwell thanks 'Viva Forever!' cast and crew for hard work
- Carole King hits D.C. for Gershwin salute
- Ke$ha slammed over urine-drinking stunt
- Aretha Franklin taking June off, postponing shows
- Guitarist Trevor Bolder loses cancer battle
