Best of the Year... So Far: Singer-Songwriters
Catacombs, Cass McCombs (CD, MP3)
The somber songs that make up Catacombs are a continuation of McCombs's earlier work A, Prefection and display a mature evenhanded approach to songwriting and arranging. Songs like "Eavesdropping on the Competition," a quiet waltz of vocal harmonies with just a spare drum, rising pedal steel, and piano; and the sweetly disturbing Lennon-esque lament, "My Sister, My Spouse," replace the former hit-or-miss melodramatic flourishes of his earlier work. While "Lionkiller Got Married," anchored by a driving pulse continues the somewhat autobiographical narrative started on Dropping the Writ--its classic McCombs: poetic lyrics, his characteristic falsetto, and tenuous pondering, "I wonder why anyone in their right mind/would get married nowadays."
Middle Cyclone, Neko Case (CD, MP3)
Neko Case's fifth studio album carries all the hallmarks of her previous work: peerless melodies, lyrical imagery, dynamic phrasing, and incomparable vocals. The difference here is the album pulls even further away from her alt-country roots, sounding like a middle '60s album, especially in "People Got a Lot of Nerve," with it's Byrds-esque chorus, in "Vengeance Is Sleeping" which echoes Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell, and in "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth," where Case brings an earthy wholesomeness to the Sparks's original. Another standout, "This Tornado Loves You," (an apt title given Case's all-enveloping approach) is an all-out wall of sound only nearly matching her huge vocals. Like this song, the entire album is loud, warm, and inescapable.
St. Vincent's Annie Clark presents dramatically playful yet fatalistic songs on Actor that course through dark, internal spaces but gleam, glittered with bellike synths and antique-sounding chamber instruments. Shadowy opener "The Strangers" intones "paint the black hole blacker" against a modern ragtime, "Marrow" opens with a shimmering Terry Riley-like modal figure and blooms into an electrified dancefloor anthem, and later "Just the Same But Brand New" is delicate (and still dark) where Clark channels Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser.
Beware, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (CD, MP3)
On a lighter side, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Beware, is reverent, joyful frolic--a marked departure from BPB's usual darkness. It plays much like the soundtrack to an idyllic farm summer--all careless sunny hayrides, impromptu sing-a-longs, and jug-band nights. Owing much to the workingman's Dead, "You Don't Love Me" shrugs off unrequited love as not much to worry about, "I Don't Belong to Anyone" is a waltzy daydream where BPB sings "it's kind of easy to have some fun/when you don't belong to anyone." The lightness continues on "I Am Goodbye." It's effortless and complete with ecstatic hoedown hey-hos.
Marshall on August 05, 2009 at 06:35 PM
Scott has been selected as a "Suggested Artist" in the December 2008 round of the Song of the Year song and lyric competition."There She Go" Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only those artists whose collective works display consistently noteworthy creativity and talent receive such recognition. http://www.songoftheyear.com/webawards/s/scottjoye.htm
The Album: (Right To The Top)is a nice dance beat for your soul.