1/25/15

This is one of my favorite pop hits of the past 10 years covered by an artist, who,musically, has never received the highest of accolades but has cemented celebrity through other mediums. But credit where credit is due - Jared Leto crushes this performance of Rihanna's "Stay" that I stumbled across on YouTube tonight.


From the moment Leto begins to sing, he promises a fierce performance. The first crack in his voice on "cold sweat hot headed believer," sends shivers down my spine. For a cover, I love how dedicated this is to the original, strict and dramatic piano with subtle percessuion to highlight slow builds to a melodic climax. His voice in the final chorus, bellowing and screeching those long high notes, is nothing short of rock star status. Just when I was getting tired of spending bored afternoons and lonely evenings practicing the same old chords and songs, feeling like I can't bring anything new or original to the performance with my barebones skills, there is some evidence that keeping true to the song, in its,message and sound and integrity, is worthwhile indeed.


"It's not much of a life you're living
It's not just something you take, it's given
Round and around, and around, and around we go
Oh now, tell me now,

Tell me now, 

Tell me now you know...

Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay."
~Stay
Rihanna, Unapologetic

1/15/17

If ever a day almost reaches its inevitable end without my heart getting caught in my throat, or without remembering the beauty that is just being, may I always remind myself to go listen to some acoustic Ryan Adams, and everything will settle into where it ought to be.

This performance of "Desire" for Austin City Limits is tender and quiet, the version of Adams that I think I like second-best, after the slightly manic howling one. I ought to go back and listen to "Demolition," it's been quite some time and it never captivated in the ways "Heartbreaker," "Easy Tiger" or the Cardinals records did, but I'm quite happy to indulge in this for now (I also love his to this performance preface as reported by Rolling Stone). I am such a sucker for this kind of song structure, the one that's an endless, silky, melody repeated for each line, without any kind of interruption. It's the kind of song you can write when you latch onto the perfect little sequence of three or five or seven notes that can be cycle through. Adams, who is equally adept at spinning a soul-shattering chorus, finds a stunning one here, and he softly lifts his voice to let it lilt away, letting the three-syllables of the title express so much more than he bothers to say.

"Two hearts fading, like a flower.
And all this waiting, for the power.
For some answer, to this fire.
Sinking slowly. The water’s higher.
Desire.

With no secrets. No obsession.
This time I'm speeding with no direction.
Without a reason. What is this fire?
Burning slowly. My one and only.
Desire.

 

You know me.
You don't mind waiting.
You just can't show me, but God I'm praying,
That you'll find me, and that you'll see me,
That you run and never tire.
Desire."
~Desire
Ryan Adams, Demolition

1/14/16

I started checking out some live Marianas Trench performances in preparation for their Feb. 6 concert in Pittsburgh, and I couldn't be more excited. Those harmonies! Those high notes, that Josh Ramsay is able to scream out without missing the next beat. I couldn't be more obsessed, or impressed.

This song crept up on me as a favorite from "Astoria," but hearing it acoustic creates a new intimacy. The recorded version sounds like it ought to to head up a parade, with a baton-baring Ramsay as grand marshal, but the stripped-down setting reveals a little more self-reflection. I love re-hearing it this way, and I love this as an anthem of reclamation, the underlying theme of "Astoria" that becomes clearer the more you listen between the lines.



"God, it's been so long wide awake that I feel like someone else I miss the way that you saw me or maybe the way I saw myself
But, I came back to you broken and I've been away too long
I hear the words I've spoken and everything comes out wrong
Just can't get this together, can't get where I belong
Who do you love?
Well, I've been deep in this sleeplessness, I don't know why
Just can't get away from myself
When I get back on my feet, I'll blow this open wide and carry me home in good health
Screaming, 
Who do you love? Who do you love?

From fable to fumble, from stable to stumble, nevermore
I'll say goodbye to my demons and all my break-evens, ever yours
I, I won't come back to you broken, I won't stay away too long
Even if words I've spoken seem to still come out wrong
I'll get my shit back together, get right where I belong
Who do you love?
Well, I've been deep in this sleeplessness, I don't know why
Just can't get away from myself When I get back on my feet,
I'll blow this open wide and carry me home in good health
Screaming, 
Who do you love? Who do you love?"
~Who Do You Love,
Marianas  Trench, Astoria

1/13/2016

"Before I die, take me to the place where we wrote our names wrong, but they shared a space. Branches and leaves gathered between where you are right now and where I wanna be. Between earth and sky, we'll build a fire so high they'll turn all the lights out and all will sing: 'I am alive, I deserve to be.' "
~Rage Against The Dying of the Light, Harmlessness
The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

I've been listening to Harmlessness daily for about a week now, and I can't believe how much I messed up not getting around to sooner.

I didn't listen to "Harmlessness" in full before making my AOTY list, and therefore excluded one of the most moving rock records of the year, right up there with Turnover. I've been familiar with The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die for awhile, and caught them on their headlining tour with The Hotelier last year, and while I was impressed by their showing I found their sound a little too disorganized for my taste, too much space and dissonance, not enough hooks, not enough cohesion.

"Harmlessness," though, is nothing but cohesive, as well as continuous and flowing and sad and poignant and beautiful.

There's something so polished about this record, though it still clings to the free-flowing thoughts that made TWIABP such a strange, enigmatic act from their debut. I love how it delves into the most insecure of thoughts, how it embraces so many sounds and strings, how it is difficult to tell where one song ends and one begins, flowing into an hour of broadened sound.

The startlingly quiet and warm intro track drew me in immediately, and the mysterious narrative of "January 10th, 2014" kept me engaged, as much as the rhythmic, cyclical melodies did. So much of this is poetry, the divulge-it-all and capture-the-moment kind. Later on, the last 55 seconds of "Haircuts for Everybody" sounds like what it feels like to cry, and when I heard that, that was when I knew I'd be playing this record over and over again, that I would not, could not, forget about it.

With so many bands, the sophomore album is a bit of a failure because it tries to recapture the lightening in a bottle that happened the first time. I wonder if the musicians of TWIABP ever had that moment of anxiety about that, or if they were confident the bolt struck them at the right time.



"Change your life. Please, change your life.   Change my life. Please, change my life. 
We spent the last twenty-three minutes hallucinating over the phone.  I kept both my hands still while we saw the same building explode. Wreck this thing. Please, take it off the ground."
~Haircuts for Everybody, Harmlessness
 The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die 
 

1/8/2016

The year begins with a healthy dose of shallow electropop, courtesy of Halsey. I didn't get into her record "Badlands" until it kept cropping up on AOTY and 2015 wrap-up lists her and there, and I'd heard "New Americana" enough to be intrigued by her style. I wound up listening to this record at least once a day this week, hooked on its hooks, and getting into the dark, moody vibe that's bound to take over radio playlists in 2016. I know I shouldn't like it. I think I'll be bored in another week. But it's edgy enough and too fun to turn off.

I dig the overall place these songs are coming from, overproduced and underdeveloped as they are. Between the likes of Halsey, Lorde and Alessia Cara, there's this growing cadre of female pop singers who write these really cutting, wry songs, ones about ditching the trendy scene, embracing weirdness, and cherishing introspection and originality over boy-chasing and booty-shaking. I'm into it, no doubt not as much as I would be if this was the narrative when I was in high school, but I'm glad that ~today's~ high school girls get to hear these messages in mainstream media, from the flavor-of-the-month pop stars, who are making it the norm to reject what you're sold and oppose patriarchy, an attitude that's for far too long been considered anti-establishment when equality ought to be the message from the top down.

"I sold my soul to a three-piece
And he told me I was holy
He's got me down on both knees
But it's the devil that's trying to
Hold me down, hold me down
Sneaking out the back door,
Make no sound
Knock me out, knock me out
Saying that 'I want more, this is what I live for.'"
~Hold Me Down
Halsey, Badlands