popwreckoning

Four years ago, when West came out, a Lucinda Williams album was still an exciting thing. Somehow, in the time between then and now, the anticipation has been lost. This probably has a lot to do with her last album, Little Honey. It sounded like leftovers from the West sessions, and it didn’t have much to recommend by itself. The good news is that Lucinda is back, and back to being great. Blessed starts off with the first single, “Buttercup”, and it’s a doozy. The bluesy riff that opens things up is worth the price of admission alone, but the lyrics are great as well. “You will never cop to the damage you’ve done/ you will never stop because it’s too much fun” she sings. Then the chorus hits: “now you want somebody to be your buttercup/good luck finding your buttercup.” Lucinda Williams is back, and she has returned to tearing off the faces of the men who screwed with her. It’s a good thing.

 A few songs later we have “Born to be Loved. It’s a nice little blues song. Lucinda sounds happy. If Blessed is anything, it’s her fat and happy record. It’s an album in the tradition of Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey and Everclear’s Learning How To Smile Vol. 1, and quality-wise, it’s squarely in the middle of the two. There are more rockers (“Seeing Black”), more love songs (“Sweet Love”), and at least one great folk song (“Ugly Truth”). Lucinda mentions her age (57) in the song “Copenhagen”. It’s amazing to see a woman my mother’s age exuding this kind of fire. Blessed is as good an album as any she’s produced. Her multifaceted personality shines throughout, and I’m reminded constantly of the first time I heard the classic Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album. It’s spectacular that she’s still producing work of this caliber. My hero, Vic Chesnutt once sang “I settled down on a hurt as big as Robert Mitchum and listened to Lucinda Williams”. Her albums can be healing, exhilarating, and confounding all at the same time. Blessed is as good a place to start as any, but I’d recommend starting with Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, and working your way forward.

Track listing:
01 Buttercup
02 Don’t Know How You’re Livin’
03 Soldier’s Song
04 Blessed
05 Awakening
06 Ugly Truth
07 Copenhagen
08 Seeing Black
09 Born To Be Loved
10 Kiss Like Your Kiss
11 Convince Me
12 Sweet, Sweet Love

It’s almost not fair that the U.S. never got to experience Glen Hansard before 2007’s “Once,” because as of 2009, he has a 15-year history of making great bluesy-folk Irish rock with his band The Frames. And his experience mixed with 21-year-old Czech songwriter Marketa Irglova’s unsullied piano and vocals, the two once again creative a dynamic and poignant album, Strict Joy, following their 2007 Oscar win for “Falling Slowly” from the film “Once.” On their second record together, The Swell Season has expanded their musical and emotional repertoire without going too far out of their original intention.

Strict Joy opens on a bluesy Van Morrison-like tune, “Low Rising,” which was an odd choice to open the album, as its somewhat repetitive melody doesn’t hit me with a strong sense of what the album is going to encompass. And to be honest, the rest of the album doesn’t sound a whole lot like “Low Rising.” It’s a cool instance of showing the breadth of Hansard and Irglova’s songwriting, but I would have embedded it in the record as a nice change up, and started the record on track number two, “Feeling the Pull,” as it sounds to me like a sunrise. Like waking up to a sunny day with frost on the windowsill. That shows more what the album is – joyful, but still with those cold moments.

“The Rain,” “Feeling the Pull,” “High Horses” and “The Verb” provide the upbeat core of Strict Joy, which is what makes it different than The Swell Season’s first effort in 2006. This album isn’t nearly as melancholy, although it does have its moments. Stand out-tracks include the choir-laden acoustic ballad “In These Arms,” “Fantasy Man” led by Irglova’s slow lilt, and the Frames-esque throwback “Paper Cup,” which features a great guitar solo that almost sounds like Spanish finger-picking and Hansard’s soulful rasp.

Strict Joy also features a diversity of instruments and mixing, with more strings, harmonica, and even some more high-tech mixing on “Two Tongues,” and an almost Celtic-folk vibe on “I Have Loved You Wrong.” Strict Joy shows how an unlikely pairing can come together in such a way that makes perfect sense. Hansard and Irglova don’t sound like a couple of people who just got together to make music, they sound like they’ve been making music together for much longer than you’d expect because of Irglova’s age. But that may be just a sign of the group’s musicianship and undeniable chemistry. Strict Joy isn’t quite as fresh as the Swell Season’s first effort back in 2006, which people forget preceded “Once,” but just as beautiful. I’d like to see where they go next, now that the songs aren’t as strongly ingrained in our minds as the story of “Once,” whether it is fact or fiction.

Track Listing:
01. “Low Rising”
02. “Feeling the Pull”
03. “In These Arms”
04. “The Rain”
05. “Fantasy Man”
06. “Paper Cup”
07. “High Horses”
08. “The Verb”
09. “I Have Loved You Wrong”
10. “Love That Conquers”
11. “Two Tongues”
12. “Back Broke”

The Swell Season: website | myspace

Growing up as a teenager from 1994-2001, I felt jipped with the music of my generation. Rap and Hip Hop were the prominent genres, Grunge and Alt Rock were the main rock scenes, and all music I couldn’t relate to. I spent my musical upbringing in my father’s records: The Beatles, The Stones, Zeppelin, Van Morrison, The Spencer Davis Group, Cream, all but to name a few. It’s all that really spoke to me until one summer’s day in 2001 when I saw a music video on TV with a bunch of guys singing some lo-fi garage rock, dressed in clothes not many people were wearing at the time: skinny jeans, fitted leather jackets and beaten down tees. The sound harked back to the 70s and I was confused as to what band from then that I hadn’t heard of. I did some research and found out that what I was watching/listening to was a band called the The Strokes, and to be specific “Last Nite,” and I was blown away to realize that they weren’t a band from the 70s, but instead a new band on the scene. Things changed for me then.

I was pretty ecstatic to be listening to music that sounded more like rock I listened to, that shared the same influences, spoke the same words, had a style. Fair enough to say that I spent the better part of the end of 2001 and 2002 listening to The Strokes’ debut album, Is This It. I truly love every single track on that record. And from there it opened up a whole new world to bands that started trying to emulate this sound, bringing to the foray indie rock and garage rock. Finally, music from my generation that I loved. True, they were labeled as the saviors of rock n’ roll, a completely bombastic remark, but for me, it was true.

And so it is that the lead singer of that band, Julian Casablancas, eight years later puts out his first solo album. Sure guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. has beat him to that, twice over, and all other members have side projects, but it’s different when it comes from the lead singer/songwriter of the group. Phrazes for the Young takes its name from a piece of writing by Oscar Wilde, entitled Phrases and Philosophies For The Use of The Young.

The first single off of the album is “11th Dimension,” which has The Strokes/Casablancas touch to it, but it’s different enough to be Casablanca’s own. “11th Dimension” features the signature lo-fi feel, but has an electronic aesthetic to it, programmed sequencers, light synthesizers and a percussioned intro that beats like a heart. All mesh well against Casablancas’ fuzzed and tired vocals. Another synth flavored track for the ears is “Left & Right In The Dark” that initially sounds like a re working of 80s Rod Stewart (think “Young Turks”). It continues in Casablancas’ laconic style and is probably one of the catchiest/FM styled songs on the album, particularly when he elevates his chords to yell, “Wake up, wake up, wake up…” Album opener “Out of the Blue” starts with familiar guitar strumming and a quick speed, aided and abetted with a New Wave shimmer. What drives the compactness of the song is Casablancas’ disaffected and candid words, “At least I’ll be in another world / While you’re pissing on my casket.”

And those tracks are about as close as it’s going to get to sounding like The Strokes, which only cements Casablancas’ creativity, signaling signs of his bravery to try anything new and diversify his sound. This is best evidenced on “Ludlow St,” that features a melody based on Country, showcasing steel guitars, shuffling percussion, and interestingly enough, Asian melodies, all of which create an image of a slow walking, drawling Western, as Casablancas’ recalls the history of the Lower East Side in New York, the area that was the biggest receptacle of his band’s music. “4 Chords of the Apocalypse” is a large shift in musical style for Casablancas in that it’s a slow and contemplative ballad. It’s a pleasant surprise to see his vocals fit around a different musical aesthetic so different than what we are used to. But his faded and stretched words go a long agreeably to music that inspires the same emotions.

So perhaps many of us have been longing for a new Strokes album and thus the release of the lead singer’s first solo work might signal a further delay, but at least we have it confirmed from his own project that Julian Casablancas has plenty of creativity and talent in him to continue making music with and if called for, without his band. Phrazes For The Young showcases a diversity few would expect from this man, yet a diversity that is more than welcomed on the ears.
Tracklisting:
01. Out of the Blue
02. River of Brake Lights
03. 4 Chords of the Apocalypse
04. 11th Dimension
05. Ludlow St.
06. Glass
07. Left & Right In The Dark
08. Tourist

Julian Casablancas: website | myspace