Scott Walker: Scott 2 and Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel
After seeing the documentary 30th Century Man a few months back, my brilliant wife and I were both hankering to get a proper Scott Walker album or two, no longer content with the six or seven miscellaneous downloads we've accumulated over the years. These two were used at Amoeba, so these two we brought home. Both are pretty much outstanding. Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel might have the edge, since Scott 2's three best tracks also appear on this compilation. Like the Byrds and Dylan, Brel's songs somehow bring out the best in Walker. Songs like "Mathilde" and "Jackie" bristle with energy and drama, while "Next" is just gloriously ugly in its description of a young soldier losing his virginity in a whorehouse. Scott 2, meanwhile, has a slightly less bustling vibe when Walker isn't channeling Brel ("Jackie," "Next," and "The Girls and the Dogs" are the three overlapping tracks). But it does include the stellar "Black Sheep Boy"—not an Okkervil River original, I was surprised to learn (official credit goes to Tim Hardin). And while at times Walker can come off on Scott 2 like a syrupy crooner, his songs draped in orchestration, a quick scan of the lyrics demolishes that interpretation. Even before his late-career experimentation, Walker was clearly operating on a different level—I swear on the wet head of my first case of gonorrhea!
- Scott Walker: Next
- Scott Walker: Black Sheep Boy
Akron/Family, Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free
I flip back and forth between whether I want to include this album on the "best" or the "rest" side of the line. Set 'em Wild is a cohesive, well-composed, well-executed album. It's got great melodies, dynamic highs and lows, and its share of curveballs. I like it! If you told me it was one of your favorite albums of the year, I'd believe you! That said, it is missing that special something, for me, that takes it to that classic-of-the-year level. It's really good, but I'm not doing somersaults for it. Most of the record flips back and forth between songs that seem to throw in all but the kitchen sink—opener "Everyone is Guilty" or the massive "Gravelly Mountains of the Moon"—or really simple tunes like the title track or the They Might Be Giants-ish "River." I like the simple tunes more, though; there tends to be one ingredient in the stew of the headier songs that tastes funny to me—the jam-band feel of "Guilty," the cliche "Auld Lang Syne" outro of "Sun Will Shine." But at the same time I recognize the album would suffer if it were all kept simple. The quiet songs are all the better as an antidote to the woolier moments.
Whereas I give Set 'em Wild an A for effort and a B, B+ for overall quality, my brilliant wife us less forgiving. She finds the band wearing two too many hats—jacks of all trades, masters of none. It's true that nothing here excels to that song-of-the-year, jam-of-the-season level. There's a certain level of mastery that Akron/Family falls just short of hitting. Almost, but not quite. Still, it's a solid, quality record that I haven't grown weary of. As I continue to return to it, I could see myself a few months down the line recanting on some of what I've said here. Time will tell.
- Akron/Family: River
Morrissey, Bona Drag
I know! I know! For whatever it's worth I feel like I've had this album forever, as I knew almost every song here before finally adding a little Morrissey to my collection. What can I say? I've always had the slightest aversion to the guy. He always seems so self-satisfied. And so many Morrissey fans give off the sense of being privy to some special joke that apparently is going over the rest of our heads. But in the last few years I've finally come around on the guy and his songs, both with and without the Smiths. I still think his songs can get a little samey after a time, but when he hits just the the right lyric and just the right melody, it's pretty inarguable.
- Morrissey: Interesting Drug
Mates of State, Re-arrange Us
I don't have a lot to add to my post from a couple weeks back. There's a fine line separating an average Mates of State song from an outstanding Mates of State song, and Re-arrange Us certainly walks back and forth across that line, but there are enough fun ones here--the ratio is about the same as on Bring It Back—that I keep getting drawn back to this record.
- Mates of State: The Re-arranger
Brightblack Morning Light: s/t
All credit goes to my brilliant wife for bringing this one into the house. In fact it might have come into the house well before the period this post is supposed to cover, but I stubbornly didn't pay it any mind. (I tried getting into these guys back when this album originally came out and quickly stamped them overrated.) Then we took a trip to Palm Springs and on the way home—a night drive, no less—my brilliant wife put this album on. Dangers of listening to Brightblack Morning Light while driving at night aside, I was finally pulled into their aesthetic. And you do need to be on board with it to enjoy them: every song is a long, slow, almost tortuously hypnotic blues jam with harmonizing vocals wafting over the top. Over the course of one album the sound goes from being pretty cool to seriously monotonous to nearly brilliant. It's like the slow-core equivalent to David Letterman's "Oprah/Uma" joke. I actually bought their second album at the same time as this one but I've barely put it on. Two albums at once seems like overkill, so I'm soaking in this one until I get pruny; eventually I'll move on to the other.
- Brightblack Morning Light: Everybody Daylight
