Apr. 1st, 2009

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Two songs about the s3Xor. In the first, the narrator hopes for a lot, doesn't discuss the possibility of not getting it, but that possibility is the premise of the song. In the second, the singer wants more but wonders if she's right to expect it, though obviously she is.

Jamie O'Neal "Like A Woman"


Lily Allen "Not Fair"
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I made this post in this lj conversation, which was, among other things, about this jukebox conversation. But I think I add some interesting thoughts about what's going on in country itself, its own uneasy relationship with its musical vocabulary:

There was a lot of projection amongst Bradley and friends, obv., buying into their own pretense of self-righteousness, but for what it's worth, I don't think Lily completely pulls the music together. The tune is strong [by which I mean warmly beautiful, which the off-hand delivery downplays], the singing is strong [by which I mean authoritative, even while being off-hand, so the beauty sticks], it's a definite TICK, but the rhythm never settles into a groove and the steel guitar feels like an added touch, not integral to the music. Of course, that latter point (steel guitar, banjo, etc. not feeling integral to the music) is something I could say about a lot of actual country from the '00s, "country" signifiers thrown in to pledge allegiance to styles that the rest of the particular song is busily superseding. (And at this point I could go ten years without hearing another Johnny Cash shoutout or tribute, but now I'm running off-topic.)

And "music not settling into a groove" - to steal John Piccarella's phrase, it's a sort of "forced rhythm" - can sometimes be a virtue; I haven't decided yet if it suits "Not Fair." In country, throwing countryisms in as touches is occasionally liberating - as on the first Big & Rich album, where one point of all those touches is that they're somewhat arbitrary, that they're choices, not requirements, and so Big & Rich are signaling that they can and possibly will choose to do anything. But on many country records the touches aren't choices* so much as signifiers that are trying to run cover for the other musical choices that a song is making. The touches can be distracting, innocuous, poignant, pretty, etc., which varies from song to song, obviously.

*Well, the performers/producers are certainly choosing to use the signifiers, in that they could decide not to, but this doesn't feel like a happy choice.
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Here's my list of top singles so far for 2009. Haven't been listening to enough country, hip-hop, reggae, um, not enough of everything, actually. "New Style" is the only one certain in my top ten at the end of the year. I was going to write a little blurb for each but realized I didn't have time if I wanted it posted today. But I do want to use the phrase "exuberantly grim," so, briefly, about the ones that we haven't much talked about on lj:

Jamey Johnson, "High Cost Of Living" (second track here): Exuberantly grim! It's a drunkalog, basically, and the apparent grimness is to try to fend off the call of the wild. The title and the lyrics in the chorus are built around a pun, and the track ends with Jamey laughing encouragement to his guitar player.

MC Lars f. Brett Anderson and Gabe Saporta "Hey There Ophelia": The rap is a witless retelling of Hamlet, the joke being that ha ha let's pretend the whole thing is about neurosis and let's mix our ordinary casual vernacular into Shakespeare's eloquence. It did make me laugh in exactly one instance ("I'll have them re-enact the murder, watch my uncle's expression/The play's the thing to catch the king, and teach him a lesson"), but what I'm rating is the music that runs through this, a recasting of Therapy?'s "Screamager" that ramps up the anger and drama and gorgeousness of the original, tremendous singing from Anderson (she of the Donnas), yanks me out of the dumb playlet and into the combined taunting and sorrow of actual punk rock: I'm fucked up and that'll show you/I'm fucked up and it's awful.

Caitlin & Will "Even Now": A duet where a couple play breakup and infidelity games to hurt each other and to get even, without knowing how to stop the hurtfulness or stop loving one another, but the way I've said it is clumsier than the song's way. I'm posting the video (under the cut) 'cause according to the person who posted it on YouTube, "it's totally country awesome, yes it is, just totally! Yes! OMG! It is just incredible, the best country video in years and probably the best ever made! WOW! Like OMG WOW!" I perhaps don't agree, but it's a good song.

ExpandTop Singles, first quarter 2009 )

ExpandEven Now )

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Frank Kogan

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