April 3, 2012

100 Songs. 100 Words. (The 5 Songs I Forgot to Post.)

Michael Jackson – Billie Jean

Choose Your Own Adventure

You are an unstoppable musical juggernaut, arguably the most gargantuan ever. Rich, famous, respected, beloved, you’ve got the whole world in your sequined hands.

What do you do for an encore?

A) Squander your talent, money, and sanity (chisel your nose to spite your face), gradually losing your grip on that world, letting it fall to the dance floor below.

B) Take five minutes to listen to yourself. Hear yourself as the whole world hears you. Can’t you hear your bassline? Listen: Metaphoric, hyperbolic, onomatopoeic, the bass is like a monster’s heart, da da dumming monstrously.

Ben Folds Five – Brick

Bricks, drowning, the day after Christmas? The images are coded, but the sound is crystal clear. The funereal chords, the catch in the throat. The unheard scream, the deafening whisper. Burdens so heavy they threaten to sink. Repression so deep it threatens to surface. Gifts unwanted, already opened. Cold and wet and lonely and selfish. These mysteries, as a boy, I thought I understood, but now, as a man, I know I don’t. These topics are unknowable, unthinkable, unspeakable. Unsingable, unplayable, and now, I know, unwriteable. The tune reveals more than a paragraph can, more than I would ever dare.

Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Can I talk about the intro, which always steals my breath, the way the guitar, like, kisses the synths? The way the drums, like, tap dance, on tiptoe? The way the whole thing’s like a sunrise, or something? Can I talk about the voices, weird, otherworldly, finding each other and fitting together, hands in gloves, or hands in hands, all of the parts, like, saving the whole? Can I talk about the bridge, which, I don’t know, soars, or maybe explodes, or really, ascends? Can I talk about the song, and only the song, and not the one who listened?

P.M. Dawn – Set Adrift On Memory Bliss


Critics praise rappers for being cinematic. Few were as filmic as the great* P.M. Dawn, who captured a scene, and my eternal admiration, with a flow that literally flowed, like a Steadicam:

“The camera pans the cocktail glass, behind a blind of plastic plants…”

The group was perfect only once**: This line, this verse, this lovely song. Even as a kid, as I rapped and bopped along, I knew it meant something deeper than dancing.

I was, and am, what the title said.

*Here, “great” means “underrated.” Also: “actually pretty great, really.”

**Or, “one time more than most of us.”


The Righteous Brothers – Unchained Melody

How did it feel to make this song? The singers, musicians, writers, engineers – the eavesdropping janitors, hushed hangers-on – did they shiver, tear up, swallow lumps, forget breathing? The high note – THE high note, the highest, the holiest – fluke or fate or living fiction? Did they try to repeat it, or know it was impossible? Did they know what they’d done? Could they recognize its timelessness? How does it feel to hear this song? The fan scribbling gibberish – slow dancer, dreamer – must he succumb? Will he always surrender? The note says yes; the words are redundant. This song feels like _____.

The Year in Tweets: Music

Follow me at twitter.com/thegreatwebber

The 13-yr-old me wouldn't recognize the 31-yr-old me's music tastes.

I finally figured it out. My favorite genres of songs are as follows...

Songs about heroin, real or metaphorical. Songs where a black rapper menaces white ppl, esp. cops. Songs by, for & about teen girls.

So I guess I don't really listen to everything.

Tupac hasn't released a new album in awhile. I wonder what he's been up to.

Decemberists: New sound is old sound: short, sweet, sepia-toned. Melodies shine, slide guitar sparkles, old-timey wordplay reigns supreme.

Robyn: Dance pop that actually makes me want to dance. Too bad I'm late to the party again.

Sugarland: Country music for people who hated country music before discovering Sugarland. Another CD of classic rock riffs & sassy singin'.

Adele: Brand-new album already sounds classic. Young soul makes old soul sounds. A voice like this cannot be tamed.

No one could croon a rap hook quite like Nate Dogg. RIP.

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day w/ Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks." As if I needed an excuse to listen to music.

Eisley: Kids grow up, get divorced, rock out. Sad & Smarter songs are true. Less gorgeous, more aggressive, new sound seems transitional.

This new #Eisley CD is growing on me. Like grass in your yard when the snow melts away.

Currently listening to another country icon, Dolly Parton. God, she's great. So sassy! My education continues.

If a female singer can be described as sassy, chance are I'm a fan. Even that lil Rebecca Black has pluck!

moxie, pizazz, zeal & etc.

As I continue to listen to both of their albums on repeat, it's clear Kaiser Cartel is my favorite band of the last year.

I can't defend Katy Perry as a singer, artist or sex symbol. But damn, Teenage Dream is like magic or something.

Bright Eyes: So distracted by insane man's skits I forgot to mention music. It's more poppy, less rootsy, more melodic... less memorable.

Leave the skits to the rappers, Bright Eyes!

On second thought, I'm being too hard on Bright Eyes. It's not their fault my expectations were higher.

Lupe Fiasco: Political party music. It's got a nice beat. Dems & Reps & their enemies can dance to it.

REM: Return to form. Everybody still hurts. Monster riffs from jangly survivors. (Really, expectations met.)

Beethoven: Most deaf.

Beastie Boys: 3 wisecrackers are wiser now, still droppin' science, passin' mics, and etc, still exceeding everything I ever expected.

Best Coast: Simple but not simplistic. Cute but not cutesy. Slightly grungy or at least, like, reverb-y. I waited too long to listen again.

Britney: Every time she comes back, I pretend I don't care. Then I get the album & play it on repeat for a month. Then I resume pretending.

The Head & The Heart: Folsky, woodsy indie rock. The band name is literal; it's where the harmony hits you.

Avett Brothers: Folksy, woodsy, mossy, enchanted, etc. More great music to get lost in (like a forest!), wherever & whenever.

Eisley, Eisley, Eisley... I wish I could get my favorite band trending.

#Eisley #Eisley #Eisley

Bon Iver: More abstract yet expansive than before. It's growing on me slowly.

Radiohead: It took even longer to grow on me, months. Better than I initially thought but...

Radiohead: They're repeating their droning non-guitar experiments & I'm repeating my dissatisfaction.

Lady Gaga: Not as avant garde as she thinks, but heavier, more industrial & more exciting than you're probably thinking.

Lady Gaga: Has anyone compared it to Ace of Base yet?

My Morning Jacket: Wow. Best surprise of the yr so far. Beauty & shock & classic-rock epicness. 1st listen floored me like nothing else.

Foo Fighters: They're back! Return to form! Rawk! At least the 4th best FF album! Damned w/ faint praise, but solid as hell.

Thompson Square: Splits the difference between Lady Antebellum (honey) & Sugarland (raw sugar).

The Band Perry: Dixie Chick w/ background bros. Sass & sap & songs that stick.

Paul Simon: Unsurprising: Another beautiful comeback record. Shocking: Guitar album of the yr?

Weird Al: His parodies still amuse my inner 13-yr-old, but it's his originals that amaze my inner 32-yr-old. No joke.

Baseball Project: No sophomore slump here. Each & every song is a triple, at least.

Waking up to Nat King Cole on the turntable.

Watch the Throne: This is monocle music!

Watch the Throne: The soundtrack to playing Monopoly with actual money.

Watch the Throne: Music to burn dollar bills to.

Watch the Throne: I can't tell if it sounds good, or if it just sounds expensive. Thoughts?

Mumford & Sons: Is there still room on the bandwagon? The banjo makes me jump. The songs roll along like steam-powered carts.

This week's turntable: Carole King & Billy Joel. Unfortunately not at the same time.

Death Cab for Cutie: Still winsome after all these years. Headphone music for lonely hearts.

Civil Wars: Their voices intertwine like bodies in sheets. Whispered prayers for mended hearts.

Civil Wars: If I were either singer's partner, I would not approve of this band. Joy & John Paul are way too intimate!

Rootsy, folksy, acoustic, harmonic... I've listened to this stuff a steamboatload this year. What to call it, Americana?

REM: I'm missing them way more than I thought I would.

St. Vincent: Weeks later, she's still melting my face. She's also implanting her gorgeous melodies directly into my brain.

The Runaways are the best jailbait rock band of all time!

She & Him Xmas album: Totes cozy. It's not too early to celebrate, is it?

Cake: The return of deadpan rock/pop... funk? How do u classify? Why do I luv it? When did I forget they're 1 of my faves?

Cake: Despite or because they sound exactly the same?

Not that I've been listening to it or anything, but the last Avril Lavigne album is surprisingly profane for, well, an Avril Lavigne album.

Bjork: Beats & strings & wildwoman howls. Listenable, even likeable, but law of diminishing returns and all that.

Tori Amos: Classical song cycle about goddesses or something. Listenable, even likeable, but see previous tweet.

MyMorningJacket & DeathCab: Still listening to both on repeat. Shocking! MMJ revives classic rock. DeathCab's still like sad and stuff.

Florence + Machine: Expansive, pseudo-mystical, big-bigger-biggest. Sound is great, songs r just good. I miss her old eclecticism.

Lykke Li: Fantastic solo female pop-rock, sure. But overrated by indie critics who don't listen to any other solo female pop-rock.

Feist: The album I never knew I wanted her to make. Not as immediately poppy, but richer, more rewarding. Perfect for lonely times.

Miranda Lambert: My fave country star kills me w/ kindness this time. Killer riffs, killer metaphors, but less, um, killing.

Pistol Annies: Miranda Lambert forms a posse, gets drunk, burns down a house. Adorable! That's the Miranda I fell in love with.

Sunny Sweeney & Ashton Shepherd: 2 more country chicks I just discovered. My ghost from Christmases past continues shaking his head.