12/4/15

Post "Coming Home" New Found Glory records are all sort of a noisy blur to me, I never paid much attention, but I am unashamed to admit how much I enjoy it when "Vicious Love" comes on YouTube. Impossible-to-ignore chorus, solid harmonies and those sweet, sweet Chad Gilbert progressions. (Also, how have I never, in all these years, tagged New Found Glory before?!)



"I could have given up a thousand times
In the past that was so easy
When the thought came to my mind
There was no convincing me
Plant my feet to face it all
Side by side or a phone call
Living in tension with you
Still feels better
Better than I’ve ever known.

We’ve got a vicious love
We mix our tears with blood
No clock will stop for us
It ticks by
We fight as hard as we love
We’ve got a vicious love."
~Vicious Love
New Found Glory, Resurrection

11/30/15

Now I've been given the gift of persistence
But it's become a curse
Unraveling backward
In the distance I heard a dirge
I can see a man
On his face there's no trace of time
There's a strange and mad idea I must find

If I try to change direction
I might not find what I'm looking for
But this bitter disposition
Well now must surely run its course

~Mizzy C

City and Colour, If I Should Go Before You

Timing is a blessing sometimes, in the sense that you happen to click with an album two days prior to hearing its headlining tour. No surprise that it is from City and Colour, in the cleanest and smooth and almost jazzy-ish we've heard from them yet.

Dallas Green's voice is as fragile yet shimmering with a confidence as always. There's an extra boldness, maybe coming from the extra back-up of a full band composing these songs together. I love the emphasis on guitar solos, plugged-in ones on full, retro Gibsons.

This coming from a listener who is still wowed by "The Hurry and the Harm" all the time. I'm so so excited to see him perform for the first time at a great venue Wednesday night....and even more excited to find I may be able to make it to an in-studio live session tomorrow!! Private!! My heart may literally may explode,and I couldn't be any happier to see fireworks.

I’m looking for a way out
For a place that no one knows
Please take me away now
Somewhere it don’t feel so cold

Troubles on my mind
Troubles on my mind
For the rest of the days I’ve cried
For the rest of the days I’ve cried

I’m searching for a paradise
That I just can’t seem to find
I’m searching for a paradise
For the time of my life

I’m searching for a paradise
That I just can’t seem to find
I’m searching for a paradise
Gonna go where the spirit guides
~Paradise

City and Colour, The Hurry and the Harm

11/25/15

I don't like Adele. I don't! Never have. Found her annoying from the start. But, she's apparently the newest record-setter for album sales, I don't really care for her voice, or her sap, but goddammit if I wasn't hypnotized by this performance (which I only found because I was reading about a producer on The Fader during my lunch break).



I gotta give it up for this. And I have to watch it again. Her vocal ability is spot-on as she nails every high note and run-on melody. The song is less annoying lyrically than some others, and the setting of simple gutiar parts and back-up signers in the studio is exactly the way ballads should be recorded live. I also love the little two-note guitar part that starts before the pre-chorus, the way it builds into something more. Her change-up of lyrics it the final chorus has a peel-back-the-curtain effect. And, in full disclosure, earlier today I saw a recording of her performing that too-ubiquitous "Hello" single w/Jimmy Fallon and The Roots as one of their rather clever classroom instrument renditions, and it was pretty impossible to not enjoy it, if only for noticing the great instincts and reactions of the band around her song and performance.

Ugh, so, am I changing my tune on Adele? Meh. I am not going to purchase "25." I'm not!! But maybe I won't mind as much when she comes up in random playlists, knowing that her performance skills are so incredibly strong, and her sense of romance in her lyrics maybe isn't all radio cliches after all.

"Let me photograph you in this light
In case it is the last time,
That we might be exactly like we were
Before we realized
We were sad of getting old
It made us restless
I'm so mad I'm getting old
It makes me reckless
It was just like a movie
It was just like a song
When we were young."
~When We Were Young,
Adele, 25

11/23/15

 
"Been missing my roots
I'm getting rid of the flash
Nobody needs a thousand-dollar suit just to take out the trash
Ain't gotta be alone to feel lonely
I'm gonna turn off my phone, start catching up with the old me
It's high time
To slow my roll
Let the grass just grow and lean way back
It's a fine time
To let it it all go
I've been too low, so it's high time."
~High Time
Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material  

In what appears to be a few short years Kacey Musgraves has gone from a just-hatched country star to one of the most interesting female songwriters of this era -- in my estimation, at least. Her latest album "Pageant Material" is one that has steadily grown on me over the past few months - from a few cursory listens to singles that caught my ear, to listening through the album a few times through headphones. What I hear is not the standard country-girl songwriter that Musgraves, at firsts glance, appears to be, but rather a storyteller sharing her perspective of her upbringing, her opportunities, her growth, with as much honesty and wit as one can muster.

Like, she's legitimately funny, which is something that is so hard to do in lyrics. But in her blunt, quiet way, Musgraves shares a perspective that is patient as much as it is eyes-wide-open, and with that comes a sense of humor. Musically, these aren't exactly country radio primetime, in the way Maddie and Tae or Kelsey Ballerini have secured for the time being, but I think they're more elevated than that - there's quintessential lap steel, more than a few whistling and handclaps for a honky-tonk vibe, and some really beautiful falsetto moments. "Pageant Material" is a collection of songs that are all well-composed individually, but ones that stand together stronger. A chorus as tongue-in-cheek as "Biscuits" rings a little more true and honest followed by the serious wondering about self-doubt and self-love in "Somebody to Love."

The thoughtfulness behind a call to a life-well-lived "Die Fun" is dually noted, as is the occasional unfortunate truths that we feel about our loved ones outlined in "Family is Family." But what strikes me as most unusual, and unique, and worth celebrating about "Pageant Material" is how Musgraves chooses to focus on so many other topics rather than romance. Not that she can't write a love song - "Late to the Party" was instantly one of my favorite tracks - but she tackles so many other realms of thought and feeling, ones that speak to finding her place in the world as an adult and a woman and a person of many persuasians, rather than as simply a woman who is looking to love and be loved.

Once during a music class in high school, probably my junior year, a teacher asked us what most music was about. The answer, written on the white board in blue marker, was "Love." That's what sells records, Mrs.Hamilton told us. And she wasn't wrong, that's what pulls at our soul the most, those are the feelings with struggle with the most....but there is so much more to us than that, even as artists to explore. With "Good Ol' Boys Club" and the title track, Musgraves stakes her claim as an intelligent writer, an observant citizen of our modern age, and a damn wry lyricist.  But she also doesn't run from matters of love and companionship, rather, she puts them in context of a life as colorful, adventurous and open-minded as she frames herself to be.



"Let's put a little more in your glass
Walk around and spend all our cash
Just let me grab my poncho, I don't care where we go
If we speak the language you know we don't even have to come back
We can't do it over
They say it's now or never and all we're ever gettin' is older
Before we get to heaven, baby let's give 'em hell
We might as well
Cause we don't know when we're done
So let's love hard, live fast, die fun."
~Die Fun,
Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material 

11/12/15

There's a post going around IG that says "Toss your hair in a bun, drink some coffee, put on some gangsta rap, and handle it." I feel that way sometimes but about Tool.

"Angels on the sideline,
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused.

Don't these talking monkeys know that
Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys,
Where there's one you're bound to divide it.
Right in two."
~Right in Two
Tool, 10,000 Days