tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69215670048643155412024-03-08T14:03:14.581-05:00Signifying Sound and FuryReading and Writing about MusicPeter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.comBlogger200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-10727043033061990312024-01-21T20:25:00.000-05:002024-01-21T20:25:29.153-05:00Favorite Tracks of 2023 (Double) Playlist<p>Earlier this week, I shared <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2024/01/my-favorite-new-albums-of-2023.html" target="_blank">my favorite albums of 2023</a>. But, per usual, I have curated a playlist of favorite songs from 2023 that aren’t on those albums. I did not notice until after I put the list together, but none of the main artists in these songs are white men. I guess that is one overarching theme, but I'm also pairing the tracks together in 7 separate themes. Here we go:<br /></p><p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/4nd5XQfoLJooRCJQAqDkNH?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><b>1&2: Things are changing</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Sampha: “Spirit 2.0” from <i>Lahai</i></b> – This song by British artist Sampha bottles the feeling of hope in a new situation, even when things didn’t go great last time.<br /><br /><b>Sen Morimoto: “Feel Change” from <i>Diagnosis</i></b> – This song from Japanese American artist Sen Morimoto, is about not liking change but knowing that it continues to happen whether we like it or not. I love the musical irony of the constantly changing meter below the lyrics “nothing will change.”<br /></p><p><b><br />3&4: Modern Spanish flamenco</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Israel Fernández: “Despierta (Bulería)” from <i>Pura Sangre</i></b> – A bulería is a particular type of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buler%C3%ADas">flamenco song or dance with a particular kind of rhythm,</a> and often features improvisation from the singer. This bulería is telling us to “look forward, wake up”; in other words, don’t dream about the past, but plan for the future. The song also features some non-traditional effects and instruments. <br /><br /><b>María José Llergo: “Rueda, Rueda” from <i>ULTRABELLEZA</i></b> – This flamenco-influenced song is even less traditional, with the chorus sounding more pop than flamenco. “Rueda” means wheel and in this song refers to a cycle of party/touring life that this singer has found herself in, which is working out okay for her now, but if she stops what she is doing, she is worried that there will be bad consequences.<br /></p><p><br /><b>5&6: Chicago black girl power</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Noname: “beauty supply” from <i>Sundial</i></b> – From the iconoclast Chicago rapper Noname, a song about how maybe standards of beauty—even if they are in protest of other standards of beauty—maybe are still not healthy. Strangely, Spotify tags this song as having explicit lyrics, when the same (single) word is featured multiple times in the “clean” version of one of the Olivia Rodrigo songs from <i>GUTS</i>.<br /><br /><b>Jamila Woods: “Boomerang” from <i>Water Made Us</i></b> – The masterful Chicago songstress and powerful lyricist with a track about feeling excited yet trepidatious that your ex wants to get back together, and is asking—is it really going to be different this time?<br /></p><p><br /><b>7&8: Classic Celtic, new twists</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Claire Hastings: “Ca’ the Yowes” from <i>Lullabies from Scotland</i></b> – A beautiful old Scots song about a shepherd from an album of Scottish lullabies. Like Claire Hastings, who dreamed up this album while caring for her child, I think we should all sing songs in 5/4 to kids.<br /><br /><b>Nuala Kennedy: “Whirlpools: The Lighthouse Polka” from <i>Shorelines</i></b> – Did you know that polkas are considered traditional dances in Ireland and have been played there for 200 years? This one is by Kennedy, though.<br /></p><p><br /><b>9&10: What the heck is going on?</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Genevieve Artadi: “Black Shirts” from <i>Forever Forever</i> </b>– Maybe the title of this track lured me in. It's a fun, quirky jazz-influenced song about missing someone before they’ve left (on a business trip?); I don’t really mind that the words don’t scan well. “Black shirts” are what the singer is wearing until their significant other gets back.<br /><br /><b>Carly Rae Jepsen: “Aeroplanes” from <i>The Loveliest Time</i></b> – A prolific songwriter, Jepsen often comes out with a “Side B” album not long after a “main” album comes out. This album was the Side B of <i>The Loneliest Time</i>, one of my top albums from 2022. Usually, I’m not that excited about Side Bs, but this one has a higher percentage of great tracks, including this one, which thematically is really more about loneliness (unrequited love) but is also very weird harmonically, has three-bar phrases in the chorus, has a 2nd verse that pretends to be a bridge—and then the song transitions to an unexpected outro.<br /></p><p><br /><b>11&12: Not sure what is going on here, either…</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Samaïa: “Avlanskani Cuneli” from <i>Traversées</i></b> – In this album, this French female folk trio sings songs from a lot of different cultures and languages. I think this track is in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laz_language" target="_blank">Laz</a>, a language spoken in modern-day Turkey and Georgia. The song is also in mixed meter: 3 + 3 + 2 + 2.<br /><br /><b>Tricot: “Oool” from <i>Fudeki</i> </b>– This song was actually from late 2022, and is actually a lot less weird (especially metrically) than many songs from this all-female Japanese band often labeled as “math rock.” You can hear their complex layered approach. I’m not quite sure what it is about, from what I can find—maybe an office romance, but they find out they are different outside the office, like <i>Severanc</i>e?<br /></p><p><br /><b>13&14: Been away</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway: “Alice in Bluegrass” from <i>City of Gold</i></b> – What do you get when you cross <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> and bluegrass music, and then throw in various references to drug use? This song.<br /><br /><b>Haim: “Home” from <i>Barbie: The Album</i></b> – There are quite a few noteworthy tracks from this movie album, but this one from sister trio Haim is the best—though it is quite a bit more earnest than, for example, Lizzo’s ridiculous “Pink” acrostic poem (K is kool?).<br /></p><p><br />In the words of Ben Folds: “But wait, there’s more!” I had a hard time paring down my list of great songs from this year, so I created a 2nd list of favorite tracks of 2023. I’m calling it “Yes White Elephant” because there are a lot of varied tracks and I’m giving you no background—just put on shuffle and enjoy whatever you get.<br /></p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/7FezB73E82EWYzCk1yN5WZ?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-77131814211135219282024-01-18T22:16:00.000-05:002024-01-18T22:16:28.683-05:00My Favorite New Albums of 2023<p>First, I want to apologize for not getting this list out sooner—I had a setback in mid-December, prime list making time, when I got a double ear infection and all music sounded muffled and out of tune for 3–4 weeks. My ears eventually recovered (though still not quite back to normal) and I was able to narrow down my favorites from the crowded field. I thought for sure that because of certain life events this year, I would listen to less new music than normal this year. But it turns out the number of 2023 albums I listened to was pretty typical: 61. Here are my top 6, which for the most part manage to combine great music with lyrical content that are not just simple love songs, but resonate with our social condition in 2023.</p><p><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/5Jshp99HBceJEaAeyre8Pr?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i>What Matters Most</i> by Ben Folds</b> – I wasn’t expecting Ben Folds to be relevant in 2023, but this may be the most timely album I heard this year. The album is (mostly) a beautiful and earnest evaluation of what is important in life. And while Folds deals with the darker side of humanity, he also shows a halo of hope. Definitely check out the expansive and classically-inspired “But Wait, There’s More” (a phrase that cuts in several ways) and the conversational “Kristine from the 7th grade.” One warning: “Exhausting Lover,” a story of a bad decision, is for mature listeners only. <br /></p><p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/2ruZGj3O7oL91f9re3BXLq?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i>Celebrants </i>by Nickel Creek</b> – This album, written on a grand scale, works better as a whole; not many singles here. Honestly, I’m still working out the meanings of this album, but I can say that it is a post-pandemic album that deals with what happens we are used to meeting and seeing each other, but suddenly that all changes; “Celebrants” refers to people who are taking part in a party (celebration), though normally it is applied to religious ceremonies. If you want some entry points, I’ll pick a favorite song from each member: “The Meadow” (Chris), “Stone’s Throw” (Sean), and “New Blood” (Sara). The pair of instrumental tracks “Going Out…” and “...Despite the Weather” are instant classics.</p><p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/1fI8kMIJtBWyqMZFFRwIsn?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i>The Sorrow Songs (Folk Songs of Black British Experience)</i> by Angeline Morrison</b> – Morrison loves the power of British folk song, but realized that there aren’t many songs from that tradition about the experiences of British Black people like her. So, she researched historic Black British experiences and wrote her own folk songs to document. She interspersed the songs with a few short quotes from non-Black folks. A powerful album from a great voice. For a taste, check out “The Hand of Fanny Johnson,” inspired by a mummified hand buried by an English family in 1996 that had been passed down for 200 years, claiming it was from the family’s black servant. You should really check out the beautiful album liner notes, which <a href="https://www.angelinemorrisonmusic.com/the-sorrow-songs-lyrics" target="_blank">you can read or download here</a>.</p><p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/7zqZjoz3JgqDbFA5qkCvFc?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i>Dusk Moon</i> by Rura</b> – This all-instrumental album from this Scottish quartet is great from start to finish; if you want to dip your toes into some smoking yet nuanced trad music, try “Dusk Moon,” “The Grove” or “The Crossing.” Or just put the whole album on as some background music.</p><p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6tG8sCK4htJOLjlWwb7gZB?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i>This is Why</i> by Paramore</b> – Like other albums on this list, this one is channeling post-pandemic angst and anxiety. I feel like the band watched <i>The Good Place</i> as a starting place for their research of modern moral quandaries. But no song tackles too much—each has a laser focus. It is hard to pick an entry point because every track is good, with a mix of driving, danceable, catchy music and clever lyrics. But why not start at the beginning, the title track “This is Why”? “Running Out of Time” is funny, sad, and serious all at the same time. “Big Man, Little Dignity,” one of the slower songs, draws from the ‘80s in a good way (and is maybe about Trump?). Bass clarinet fans, like myself, keep your ears open!</p><p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3JkLkXIokxYZebpeOOqKK8?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b> <i>GUTS</i> by Olivia Rodrigo</b> – My favorite album of the year may be the sophomore album from Rodrigo—it is musically catchy and lyrically memorable; it’s got ballads and bangers. Besides deftly channeling some big feelings (love, jealousy, anger, disillusionment), Rodrigo shows she is a master of musical irony. For example, the first track “All-American Bitch” ping-pongs from a controlled, measured arpeggiated guitar to a frenetic punk song, while using music and contradictory lyrics to emphasize the impossible expectations heaped on young women. Another favorite, “Get Him Back,” is a master class in double meanings. I’m posting the clean version of the album here, but you can easily hear more expletives, if you want to feel the anger more—anger at mostly the patriarchy; but also herself.<br /></p><p></p>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-79161376001503750662023-01-21T21:17:00.000-05:002023-01-21T21:17:20.957-05:00My Favorite Tracks of 2022 (and late 2021) Playlist: I Can't Go Back/Birdsplosion<p>Last week, <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2023/01/my-favorite-new-albums-of-2022-and-late.html" target="_blank">I featured my top albums of 2022</a>, but as usual there are a lot of other individual songs from 2022 (and late 2021…) not on those albums that I want to share. As I sifted through my favorites from the year, I decided on a theme—“I can’t go back,” taken from a line in “Rosy” by The Regrettes. These songs all could be about going forward and not being able to return to where you started, which is always true—but especially true post-pandemic.<br /></p><p>But wait, there’s more! I didn’t create just one playlist this year—I made two. This year I listened to so many songs inspired by birds, featuring birds, or sampling birdsong, that that theme needed its own playlist, “Birdsplosion.” One example of on-theme music released this year was the 5-part mega-album <a href="https://www.audubon.org/birdsong-project"><i>For the Birds: The Birdsong Project</i></a>, which was conceived of during the pandemic and benefits Aududon. The physical version of this album fills <i>20</i> LPs. There were all types of content, including poetry read by celebrities, ambient music, songs by artists you’ve heard of and by many you haven’t heard of. You can listen to it yourself, if you like (or if you can just watch a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ_wSKpOvLU" target="_blank">video of Andrew Bird imitating birdsong to videos of birds here</a>), but I’ve included a small sample from the collection below, interspersed with tracks from other artists who featured birds in their music this last-year-and-change. Anyway, from my listening, I decided it's really hard to write compelling music based on birdsong—the source material is often too repetitive and lacks direction. The songs that succeed take the source material and manipulate it to bring some direction; hopefully, you will hear that in some of these selections. Of course, another path is to write about birds without using their songs at all, of which there are several examples here.</p><p><br />I’ll say a little about all of the tracks from both playlists below.</p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/4rJBQD5Nc5CteT3dxFeTnb?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>“I can’t go back”</b></h3><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Momma: “Speeding 72” from <i>Household Name</i> </b>– Not a great artist name, though the title pun is funny; but nonetheless a great song to play while driving fast in a car.</li><li><b>M.I.A.: “Puththi” from <i>Mata</i></b> – I’m not sure many people noticed that M.I.A. came out with a new album this year. This particular track appealed to me with more South Asian mixed in to the hip hop than other tracks on the album.</li><li><b>Phoenix: “Season 2” from <i>Alpha Zulu</i></b> – A light bopper from the veteran French Band. Their English words don’t always make sense.</li><li><b>Sylvan Esso: “Alarm” from <i>No Rules Sandy</i></b> – I’m usually not a huge fan of loop-based music, but this track keeps me unsteady on my feet at the same time I want to be dancing. I love how the main refrain sounds like an alarm, especially the word “alarm.” And when you’ve heard an alarm, you can’t go back.</li><li><b>Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway: “The River Knows” from <i>Crooked Tree</i></b> – A haunting story about a sexual assault from a childhood friend, culminating in situation that no one can go back from. Guitar prodigy Tuttle is a rising star in folk and bluegrass scenes.</li><li><b>The Regrettes: “Rosy” from <i>Further Joy</i> </b>– A song about changing your mind about a relationship, moving from friendship to love. This album's style is a departure from previous punk Regrettes' albums, moving in a more pop direction.</li><li><b>Perfume: “Spinning World” from <i>Plasma</i></b> – Japanese idol group Perfume has been making music together since 2001, lasting far longer than many J-pop idol groups. And they’ve still got it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F27FkOytdYA">If you want to be a little freaked out, watch the music video</a> (even though the video has a translation, I’m still not sure what the song is about).</li><li><b>Regina Spektor: “One Man’s Prayer” from <i>Home, Before and After</i></b><i> </i>– This song seems to start okay, but you gradually realize that the male singer persona is a poster child for toxic masculinity, and as the audience, we become more and more alarmed. Alarming, but also kind of true. I do think the heavy production takes a little away from the songwriting. <br /></li><li><b>Muna: “Anything But Me” from <i>Muna</i></b> – A breakup song with a very real message for those who should really step away from toxic relationships (like the one in the previous track?); I love the one-liners, especially the first one.</li><li><b>Heal & Harrow: “Cutty Sark” from <i>Heal & Harrow</i></b> – At first, I thought this track from Scottish musicians Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl was about the famous clipper ship on display in Greenwich, England. But it turns out this song is about the witch for which the ship was named. The whole albums is about Scottish witch trials from the 16th–18th centuries.</li><li><b>Raveena: “Rush” from <i>Asha’s Awakening</i></b> – I’m not going to go into the Punjabi space princess concept, which in my opinion doesn’t really hold up, but New York musician Raveena still does a great job melding South Asian and pop music (though the 13-minute guided meditation is not for me). This track perfectly characterizes joyful anticipation.</li><li><b>Lizzy McAlpine (featuring Jacob Collier): “Erase me” from <i>five seconds flat</i> </b>– Although this song is from Lizzy McAlpine’s second full-length album, she was new to me. I didn’t listen for very long before I figured out that the multi-instrumentalist jazz-pop prodigy Jacob Collier was also on the track. I think the song is about someone who is in too deep in a relationship and can’t see how to exist without the other person.<br /></li><li><b>Mattiel: “Boomerang” from <i>Georgia Gothic</i></b> – I encountered this album trying to keep track of Georgia musicians, and this track won me over with its off-kilter meter. Also, by pairing “party in the USA” with “party in the Hudson Bay.” I’m not sure exactly what the track is about, but perhaps it is about trying to go back and failing?</li><li><b>Gwenno: “Kan Me” from <i>Tresor</i></b> – I first featured Gwenno, a Welsh musician who sings her recent albums entirely in Cornish, in my 2018 year-end list. “Kan me” means May song, and it celebrates the beginning of summer.</li><li><b>Robert Glasper, esperanza spalding, and Q-Tip: “Why We Speak” from <i>Black Radio III</i></b> – This is the third album in which pianist/songwriter/producer Glasper has collaborated with a lot of different artists; this song (in which spalding sings more French than English) is an anti-capitalist plea to remember the real reasons for living. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_VI2QflNSM">You can watch the lyrics video (not translated, though) here.</a><br /></li></ol><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>“Birdsplosion”</b><br /></h3><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Aoife O’Donovan: “Sister Starling” from <i>Age of Apathy</i></b> – Birds as metaphor.</li><li><b>Seu Jorge and Flor Jorge: “Good to See” from <i>For the Birds, the Birdsong Project</i>, Vol. 2</b> – Birdsong as compositional material (I wish I knew the bird!).</li><li><b>Ingrid Henderson: “Reels: The Dance of the Storm Petrels & Swallows of the Sea” from <i>Message in a Bottle (Brath sa Bhuideal)</i></b> – Birds as inspiration.</li><li><b>Rudresh Mahanthappa: “Oreals” from <i>For the Birds, the Birdsong Project</i>, Vol. 1</b> – Birdsong as compositional material.</li><li><b>Rachel Newton and the Spell Song Ensemble: “Swifts” from <i>Spell Songs II: Let the Light In</i></b> – This once seems to actually be about the bird.</li><li><b>Les Mamans du Congo and RROBIN: “Loango Weaver” from <i>A guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa</i> </b>– Birdsong as compositional material. This is just the latest albums in a whole regional series featuring songs based on birdsong—separate from the Audubon album.<br /></li><li><b>Shabaka Hutchings and esperanza spalding: “Morning Rituals” from <i>For the Birds, the Birdsong Project</i>, Vol. 5</b> – I think bird as inspiration, but there could be some borrowed birdsong compositional material here, in addition to the birdsong in the background. spalding is the only artist featured in both playlists!</li><li><b>Olivia Chaney: “The Hawk and the Crow” from <i>For the Birds, the Birdsong Project, Vol. 2</i></b><i> </i>– Birds as metaphor.</li><li><b>El Búho and David Rothenberg: “SupercurlU” from <i>Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds</i></b>. I think a little of bird as inspiration <i>and</i> birdsong as compositional material. This track is from an entire album based on curlew birdsong. Also, birds and bass clarinet? How could I not like it? That's like like my brand. <br /></li><li><b>Woodkid: “Altamira Oriole” from <i>For the Birds, the Birdsong Project,</i> Vol. 3</b> – Birdsong as compositional material.</li><li><b>Lyre Lyre: “Sam’s Chicken” from <i>Gin and Strathspey</i></b> – Birds as inspiration, and a fun way to end the Birdsplosion with this Scottish fiddle/cello/guitar trio.</li></ol><p><br /></p>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-28195595464871681662023-01-15T15:36:00.001-05:002023-01-15T15:46:59.848-05:00My Favorite New Albums of 2022 (and Late 2021)<p>In additional to listening to several podcasts focused on new releases, I spend a lot of time listening to whole albums of new music (often more than once). In 2022, I did more album listening than ever—I listened to 43% more new albums than in 2021, for a total of 73 new albums. Also, I decided that it was unfair of me to not consider late 2021 albums that I didn’t learn about until 2022, so that brings the total to 83 albums under consideration. From those 83 albums, I picked my favorite 6 to highlight for you; curiously (or not), all but one of the artists I’m highlighting have showed up in my previous favorite albums lists in the past four years. One note: although my final highlight list does not include any albums by People of Color, about 30% of the new albums I listened to were by People of Color—many of those that I loved, I included in my yearly playlist, which I will post next week. Here are my 6 picks, listed in the order I heard them:<br /><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/5XptR8Eatr8J2KlcO7heEA?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i> Hell on Church Street</i> by the Punch Brothers</b> – The Punch Brothers releases often make my top albums (last time for <i>All Ashore </i>in 2018, I think), but this is a strange (yet familiar) project where they covered not just one song, but an entire album by Tony Rice, <i>Church Street Blues</i> (1983), which itself was an album of covers. Of course, they put their own spin on the songs. Check out the first and last tracks, “Church Street Blues” and the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.<br /><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/1sHYyBeTBczpD87Bt3f8rz?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i> El Sur</i> by Girl Ultra </b>– Spanish electrodance/pop singer Girl Ultra was a new discovery for me this year, but I might actually join a dance party if this album was on; it has great production and catchy melodies. “Bombay” is the off-balance hit from this brief album, but I can imagine that the whispering and repeated “zzz” in the chorus could be annoy for some people—I decided I like it. Check out <i>El Sur </i>if you are looking for an alternative to more stereotypical Spanish-language music. Warning: some explicit (Spanish) language (at least Spotify says there is; I haven’t been able to figure out where).<br /><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3H6pbRzmpQa6eqCXn7rgO8?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i> Emotional Creature</i> by Beach Bunny</b> – Their previous album, <i>Honeymoon </i>was one of my favorite albums from 2020, and Beach Bunny caught my attention again with even more alt-rock, tightly-constructed musical vignettes. This album is more upbeat than their first album, with more happy moments describing the first sparks of love—but digging into the lyrics, there is always something more complicated. While the chord progressions aren’t novel, the band finds lots of ways to make the arrangements interesting. I especially recommend “Entropy” and “Weeds,” but all the songs are solid writing.<br /><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6RWLJx7kQLSnwwPyTqPj0U?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i> Expert in a Dying Field</i> by The Beths</b> – The New Zealand group’s previous album, <i>Jump Rope Gazers</i>, was also one of my favorite albums from 2020, but this albums is even better. They combine catchy melodies, smart lyrics, clever insights, and charming harmony vocals. The memorable title track takes an academic saying and applies it to a long-term relationship that is about to end. Also check out the very loud track “Silence is Golden,” but all the songs are good.<br /><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3t8Mg6VN6dwY7NqSWriMC1?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i> Sleeping Spirals</i> by Hannah James and Toby Kuhn</b> – Even though Hannah James’s album <i>The Woman and Her Words</i> was one my top albums of 2019, I somehow didn’t find out about this late-2021 album until sometime in 2022. James is working with a smaller ensemble this time with some overdubbing, but you’d never guess that just two people made the mix of cello, accordion, foot percussion, and voice. I love her new (“The Giant”) and traditional (“There Ravens”) folk-y storytelling songs, even if it is cryptic sometimes; there are also several beautiful purely instrumental (include voice-as-instrument) tracks. If you want the best of storytelling and instrumental, you could try “Jealousy,” treating a timeless theme that also is pointedly about today's social media.<br /><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="352" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3l2Gi0hMjZV2uvKoWlFkoQ?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><b><i> The Loneliest Time</i> by Carly Rae Jepsen</b> – Jepsen’s <i>Dedicated </i>made my 2019 favorite album list. This album doesn’t quite rise to that level, but I will say this—this album came out on the same day as Taylor Swift’s <i>Midnights</i> (one of the biggest albums of 2022) and I listened to them both back-to-back on a road trip. This album was hands-down better than Swift’s—Jepsen keeps coming up with original and surprising song ideas (both musically and lyrically) and then expertly executes them (maybe she is better at working with collaborators...?). You might think from the title that this was a pandemic album, and much of it probably was made during the pandemic, but that theme doesn’t take front seat. I think my favorite tracks of this stuffed album are the very funny “Beach House,” about a string of very bad dates where first impressions didn’t always match up with reality; the breezy and cheerful “So Nice”; and the trippy “No Thinking Over the Weekend” (maybe it is the flutes that won me over?), one of the three “bonus tracks.” But there is really something for everyone here.<br /></p>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-79246148147816695852022-03-12T13:51:00.000-05:002022-03-12T13:51:21.254-05:00Two 2021 Celtic album recommendations<p>Sometimes I come to albums in the next year after they were produced, and regret not putting them on my end-of-year lists (we really need to come up with a better system for this—maybe this year, best of 2022 and 2021 albums I finally heard?). This post features two albums from Fall 2021, both of them folk music. I'd say this was a St. Patrick's Day post, but neither of the albums I'm recommending are really connected to Ireland, though they might broadly be considered Celtic.</p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/1jaefCs3uyCLgCqKYpNa9r?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><p>The first is <i>Message in a Bottle</i> by Ingrid Henderson, a Scottish harpist. No, it doesn't have anything to do with Sting's "Message in a Bottle"; instead, the album is inspired by an event in 2008, when "a nine year old boy from Armagh placed...a message in a
bottle off Northern Ireland and ten years later it washed up on Canna [Scotland]" (there's your Irish connection). Henderson mixes her music with natural sounds, like the sea, and the rest of the album soothes like those natural sounds. Birds, sailors, and mermaids are featured topics. Besides instrumentals, there's singing in Scots-Gaelic and English, too. My two favorite tracks are dance music, though: "Jigs–Port na Culaidh & Port an Luig Mhòir" and "Reels–The Dance of the Storm Petrels & Swallows of the Sea." <a href="https://ingridhenderson.bandcamp.com/album/message-in-a-bottle">Also available on Bandcamp</a>.<br /></p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/1t2lamjePzZC7rQdgYA82M?utm_source=generator" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe><p>The second album is <i>Reclaim </i>by Mishra, a group from Sheffield, England. While their style is "traditional," their use of Indian tabla, banjo, low whistles, bass and clarinet (and sometimes bass clarinet) puts them solidly in the realm of "fusion." But it is not just the instrumentation; the melodies occasionally borrow from Indian music (and other traditional music). The songwriting might vary in quality, but the arrangements are always inventive and unexpected. <a href="https://mishramusic.bandcamp.com/album/reclaim">Also available on Bandcamp.</a><br /></p><p>Enjoy! <br /></p>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-931744180768732432022-01-13T19:55:00.000-05:002022-01-13T19:55:03.266-05:00Favorite Tracks of 2021 Playlist: Things Aren't Quite Right<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last week, <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2022/01/my-favorite-new-albums-of-2021.html">I featured my top albums of 2021</a><b>,</b> but there are a lot of other individual songs </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">from 2021 </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">not on those albums</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to share</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As I sifted through my favorites from the year, I again noticed a theme—this year, all these songs are about subjects and situations that aren’t quite right. I guess that is a pretty good general theme for 2021.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-65d854dc-7fff-94b2-6241-6f4ab10d0cba" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/6kqs47FALr5sXPL4TSwJ0F?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve organized my 2021 playlist into six pairs of songs:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Anthony Kiedis" by Remi Wolf </b>and "<b>Jealousy, Jealousy" by Olivia Rodrigo</b> are both songs from young debut artists that are insightful commentaries about problems they are encountering—and the older generations can relate, too. The former is about dealing with the 2020 pandemic shutdown, and the latter is about the effects of social media. Both also feature fresh, fun, humorous music despite the heavy topics. FYI, Anthony Kiedis is the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in case that helps.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Savage Good Boy" by Japanese Breakfast</b> (a.k.a. Michelle Zauner) and "<b>Fly as Me" by Silk Sonic</b> (Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak in a 1970s throwback project) are both satires on toxic masculinity, throwing a light on how ridiculous it can be by inhabiting that space. Great lyric writing in both songs—as the songs go on, each character gets more ridiculous. Japanese Breakfast has some great production, and Silk Sonic somehow call back the 70s and update the sound at the same time.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"The Tradition" by Halsey</b> and <b>"Bloody Soil" by </b>Northern Irish band<b> The New Pagans</b> are both about the exploitation of young women—no shortage of that still going on. Like Silk Sonic, both find inspiration in older musical genres to help tell their points—"The Tradition" uses English ballad melodies and form (though with some added production and off-key creepiness) and "Bloody Soil" calls back to early 80s U2 rock crossed with Sonic Youth noise rock.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Harmony Road" by Sting</b> and <b>"The Princess and the Clock" by Kero Kero Bonito</b> are both about escaping a bad circumstance not of the protagonists’ creation (or at least wishing to escape). I’m sure many of us can relate to feeling trapped and isolated. While "Harmony Road" isn't one of the best Sting lyrics, I’m always there for weird meter Sting and folk-inspired Sting (plus a Branford Marsalis sax solo). "The Princess and the Clock" is typical KKB quirky electropop, with a fantasy story. A fairly typical form is spiced up by three pregnant instrumental interludes.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Make it right." by Tune-Yards</b> and <b>"Reach Out" by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo de Augustine</b> are about fixing things that have gone wrong in the past. Tune-Yards are also into quirky production, and you can hear it here, along with some unexpected repetition. "Reach Out" is loosely based on the 1987 German fantasy-meets-romance film </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wings of Desire</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (The German title is better: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Der Himmel über Berlin</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the Heaven/Sky over Berlin) where angels listen to the thoughts of Berliners. It features the light, airy Sufjan production you’ve probably heard before. While the song definitely feels like a whole, a melodic section does not repeat until almost </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2.5 minutes</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> into the song. For those counting at home, the sections look like: ABCDEDBA. So that’s cool.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Indigo" by Katherine Priddy</b> and <b>"Homeward Bound (For Ana Grace)" by Johnathan Blake and Pentad</b> are both about going home after a terrible experience. For "Indigo," the experience was a beloved tree breaking in the storm—though I think also a hard life. Those chord changes and the folk-inflected (and sometimes overdubbed) vocals get me every time. "Homeward Bound" is dedicated to the daughter of two other musician friends of Blake; the daughter died in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. It’s not that often that the drummer of a group is the bandleader, but if more weird 5/4 meter jazz are a result, I’m all for it. Also: I can’t get enough of the vibraphone in small ensembles like this.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;" />Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-27305918042409037732022-01-06T17:43:00.000-05:002022-01-06T17:43:38.598-05:00My Favorite New Albums of 2021<p><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">2021 has been a strange year. A year in which there were new albums by Sting, Chris Thile, and Imagine Dragons, and none of those made my list of favorite albums. I picked 6 out of the 51 new albums that I listened to from 2021 to highlight, in no particular order:</span></p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/0KuAi49HdkjHiuL7TjKsud?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><span id="docs-internal-guid-1c4310b7-7fff-23c9-e2f2-989a6b805c84"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-style: italic;">Screen Violence </span>by Chvrches</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> – The Scottish electropop trio’s best album since <i>The Bones of What You Believe</i> (2013), its songs deal with the (mostly bad) effects of living your life through screens—which many of us have been doing. Try out “Asking for a Friend,” which is about how easy it is to say things online that you can’t take back, or “Good Girls” (explicit language warning) about living up to unequal gender expectations. Pretty much every song has a great melody and thoughtful organization.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/7l7XRFukaHudjfpaLhprBG?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>La Grande Folie</i> by San Salvador </b>– This was my top discovery for the year. A six-person vocal-and-percussion group who sing folk-inspired music.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> They all grew up in the small French town Saint-Salvadour and perform in the Occitan language, the historically traditional dialect in their region (though they learned it as a second language). Try out “Fai Sautar” and you’ll probably be hooked and listen to the rest of the album.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6y9LbrjY2TpaLvtbE7FTkc?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Star-Crossed</i> by Kacey Musgraves</b> – While I agree with most critics that it is not as good as <i>Golden Hour</i>, my favorite album from 2018, I still thought Musgrave’s "divorce album" had a plethora of well-constructed, well-produced, great tracks. She has some insightful minute, emotional observations along with a few empowering sing-alongs. Musgraves continues in a country fusion style; you can have a good cry while having a dance party. Check out: “Good Wife,” “Breadwinner,” or the out-of-this-world flute solo in “There is a Light.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/424bxvpYyNDM2DFFibeKs0?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>I Know I’m Funny haha</i> by Faye Webster </b>– An Atlanta native signed to a hip-hop label, this indie album took me by surprise with its musicianship. I know this album isn't for everyone; it’s definitely a downer and Webster's vocals are often more breathy than necessary. The album's strengths are in the songwriting and the instrumental hooks, often in the chorus; these hooks take the album from good to great. Try: "Better Distractions," “Kind of,” or "A Dream with a Baseball Player."</span></p><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/3FK0O5gu17HYHEtbelgZaV?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Blue Heron Suite </i>by Sarah Jarosz</b> – Jarosz’s <i>World on the Ground</i> made my top album list last year, but I think <i>Blue Heron Suite</i> is a better album (well, technically EP, I think). It was written and recorded back in 2017–2018, and I’ve been waiting for a commercial release for a long time! The suite looks back at happy morning childhood walks with her mother on the beach in </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Port Aransas, Texas—written at a time when both her mother and the town were not doing great. The blue herons in the suite are a symbol of hope for Jarosz, hope that we all need. Also, herons are objectively cool. Jarosz has a talent for songwriting, mandolin and guitar-picking, and atmospheres. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It should be listened to from start to finish (no shuffling!), with musical themes interwoven and re-orchestrated throughout, but if you must pick, try “Morning” or “Blue Heron.”</span></p><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/1qMFjBarjO2xD15BwXZguD?utm_source=generator" width="100%"></iframe><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Pressure Machine</i> by The Killers</b> – I’ve never really been a Killers fan, but this album struck closer to home than anything they’ve ever done. And when I say closer to home, I mean it’s a homage to Brandon Flowers’ childhood growing up in Nephi, Utah, about an hour south of where I grew up (also, Flowers and I are the same age). Flowers’ characters are not blameless nor pristine, but pitiable, struggling to make ends meet, and under the shadow of the opioid crisis. The sound is more acoustic and Americana-inspired than previous albums. Almost every track starts with an interview from a Nephi local (though I wish these soundbites were separate tracks). “Quiet Town” or “Sleepwalker” are good introduction songs.</span></p></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-23144155484851813912021-04-22T22:30:00.000-04:002021-04-22T22:30:16.356-04:00Atlanta hip hop collecting on Emory Libraries' blog<p>I wrote a blog post about my work at Emory Libraries collecting audio recordings of hip hop from Atlanta artists. You can check out out here: </p><p><a href="https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/woodruff/news/collecting-atlanta-hip-hop-recordings">https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/woodruff/news/collecting-atlanta-hip-hop-recordings</a></p>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-25980602225384973532021-01-19T20:09:00.003-05:002022-01-05T20:28:20.209-05:00Favorite Tracks of 2020 Mix: Despair to Hope<p>Last week, I featured <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2021/01/my-favorite-new-albums-of-2020.html" target="_blank">my top albums of 2020</a>, but there are a lot of individual songs from 2020 not on those albums I want to share. As I sifted through my favorites from the year, I noticed a theme—the protagonists in the songs are all dealing with something bad, from annoying to unpleasant to horrible. But depending on the song, how they deal with the problems is different. I've arranged the songs in a general order of despair turning to hope, with lots of gradations between. I hope you enjoy the mix!</p><p><b>My Favorite Tracks of 2020 mix: Despair Turns to Hope</b></p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/4eQTX5APt0Aw3NW9zu20bi" width="300"></iframe><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Halsey: "Graveyard" from <i>Manic</i> – </b>A captivating exploration of an unhealthy love with unhealthy consequences. The production is stellar—pay attention to the clapping, particularly. Technically, this song came out in 2019–but the album came out in 2020, so I'm counting it.</li><li><b>Lido Pimienta: "Te Queria" from <i>Miss Colombia</i> – </b>This album takes its name from an incident in 2015 when Miss Colombia was mistakenly announced as the winner of the Miss Universe pageant. Pimienta, who is also from Colombia but now lives in Canada, uses this metaphor to describe how she has been treated in the music industry. The singer in this song (that title translates as "I liked you") falls in love with someone, thinking that the love would be reciprocated—but instead, she realizes her love would never be returned. So she dumped them. Pimienta creates a unique sound with steel drum and low saxes.</li><li><b>Norah Jones: "Hurts to Be Alone" from <i>Pick Me Up Off the Floor</i> – </b>The protagonist in this jazzy song deals with a breakup. I love how this song starts with the singer saying "never hurts to be alone" but in the end, she realizes that it "hurts to be alone" after all. Though this song was recorded before the pandemic, I'm guessing in this period of social distancing, now even more people can relate.</li><li><b>Lady Gaga with Ariana Grande: "Rain on Me" from <i>Chromatica</i> – </b>In this catchy dance-pop tune, while the protagonists are feeling down, they are choosing to take their depression as an indication that they are alive—and dancing it out.</li><li><b>Watkins Family Hour: "Fake Badge, Real Gun" from <i>Brother Sister</i> – </b>From two-thirds of the newgrass band Nickel Creek, <i>Brother Sister</i> marks the first time Sara and Sean wrote songs with only each other. This song is about a type of person we've seen a lot of in 2020—people who take it upon themselves to broadcast and enforce their own point of view, especially when that view differs from the facts or the law. You know, the type of people who stormed the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to take out their own judgements on the U.S. Congress. The message of the song, though, is that the truth will win out in the end. I hope that is that is the case.</li><li><b>Ohmme: "Mine" (single) – </b>Speaking of<b> </b>distasteful people, this song is about people who think everything is theirs, even though they didn't really make any of it. I love how the music is catchy but also captures the absurdity of people who look at everything and say "mine." I think my favorite (and true) line is "Nothing trickles down that isn't bleeding." The unconventional harmonic progression is pretty awesome, too.</li><li><b>Phoebe Bridgers: "Chinese Satellite" from </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Punisher</i><b> – </b>This song, from many people's album of the year, is about the problems of belief in modern life—wanting to believe in an afterlife, but struggling because of what you have experienced. I love Bridgers's images of 1) wishing on a Chinese satellite because the stars aren't visible because of light pollution and 2) her SciFi vision of going home. I also love the little production touches like the background satellite beeping and the judicious use of strings.</li><li><b>Buscabulla: "Nydia" from <i>Regresa</i> – </b>This song kicks off the more hopeful half of the mix. Buscabulla is a Puerto Rican married couple band. They wrote this song soon after they moved back to Puerto Rico from New York. This song is inspired by Nydia Caro, a Puerto Rican singer and actor, and is about depression and writer's block, with a hint of hope in some spoken lines at the end.</li><li><b>Dua Lipa: "Don't Start Now" from <i>Future Nostalgia</i> – </b>In perhaps the catchiest dance song of the year, one that feels in conversation with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," while the protagonist has suffered a break-up, she's taken control and figured out how to move on, even when her ex wants to come back. I have to love that prominent bass line in the chorus—and the way it drops out in the pre-chorus.</li><li><b>Brian Ó hEadhra & Fiona Mackenzie: "Chan Eil mi gun Mhulad Orm" from <i>Tuath: Songs of the Northlands</i> – </b>This Scots Gaelic song for waulking (the beating of woven wool to make it softer, usually done by groups of women) is about how even though the protagonist isn't getting married while everyone else is, they won't marry an old, ugly man—but instead hold out for a brainy lad. The accompaniment, which starts sounding a little like plucked strings, turns into a pretty awesome electronica background underneath a processed voice. The production also underlies the song's theme of not wanting to be stuck with the past.</li><li><b>Twice: "Say Something" from <i>Eyes Wide Open</i> –</b> In this macaronic (a fancy way of saying it is in two languages) song from a K-Pop group, the protagonist is ready for something to happen between her and someone else and has a lot of hope that it will happen soon. I guess this is the year for disco nostalgia, though this has some 80s-facing touches, like the piano fills and the sax outro.</li><li><b>Angelica Garcia: "Guadalupe" from <i>Cha Cha Palace</i> –</b> Here, our Latinx protagonist is seeing some inspiration for how she want to be—from the Virgin Guadalupe, a woman who holds power that doesn't come from her looks. This music hits you hard and features a lot of open fifths, which serves to highlight the religious theme.</li><li><b>S2_Cool: "Shun the Yuck" from <i>Shun the Yuck</i> – </b>Yeah, I know, more updated disco. But it comes with an inspirational message. I know <i>I'm</i> done with all the "look at me." The intro grabs your attention and the flute is a cherry on top.</li><li><b>Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams: "Trust Love" from <i>RWBY,</i> Vol. 7 (Music from the Rooster Teeth Series) –</b> I got into this (admittedly ridiculous) American anime this year. I especially got into the music, the songs of which are by a Berklee School of Music professor and sung by his daughter. This is the opening credit song for season 7, which besides shredding, has another inspirational message—trust yourself and your friends and get to work. If Guitar Hero comes back, this one might be featured.</li><li><b>Katy Perry – "Smile" from <i>Smile</i> –</b> Katy Perry has always been hit or miss for me, but this song was a big hit. While not written about the pandemic, there are certainly parallels. The message: sometimes, our trials end up making us better. This song always gives me an extra push when I'm out running.</li><li><b>Childish Gambino: "47.48" from <i>3.15.20</i> –</b> Atlanta native Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino), fresh off winning the Record of the Grammy for "This is America," put out this album simply titled the date it came out, which was right when everything shut down. This final track (which started in 48th second of the 47th minute) is a letter (and conversation) to/with his son, the message being: the world has a lot of problems, especially for Black people, but can still be a great place.</li></ol></div>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-52097493035257519232021-01-14T21:31:00.002-05:002021-01-14T21:34:51.594-05:00My Favorite New Albums of 2020<p>Despite the massive changes in how 2020 was lived, working from home for most of the year, I surprisingly listened to about the same amount of new music this year as last—I listened to 77 albums new to me this year (one more than last year), 56 of them produced in 2020. Also like last year, I am choosing to highlight seven of those new albums.</p><p>Before I start, I should acknowledge that I realize that with one exception, all the music here is was made by white people. The albums to which I listened were more diverse than this top seven selection might lead you to believe, and next week's best of 2020 mix will highlight more of that diversity. Though looking back at my top albums for 2017, 2018, and 2019, all the artists were also white (mostly American, but usually with a European group or artist). I think the lack of diversity in my top albums reflects the lack of diversity among musicians in my favorite genres, though perhaps I am just not hearing those with more diverse voices. I purchase audio recordings as part of my regular job, and the majority of the music I purchased this year was from Black artists. Two recordings featuring Black artists that got a lot of buzz this year you might want to check out are <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/6cx4GVNs03Pu4ZczRnWiLd?si=rr8j2fMDSpm_KtETYGlezw" target="_blank"><i>Run the Jewels 4</i></a> and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0GPmuVuCdC5hCsiuy1wXle?si=71CD89boSCSQ5B1narQNWw" target="_blank"><i>Untitled (Black is...)</i></a> from the mysterious collective SAULT.</p><p>I should also mention that I believe all the music on these seven albums was recorded before COVID—I didn't plan my favorites this way, it just happened—so this music wasn't written to address the pandemic; again, next week's best of 2020 mix will cover more of that ground. Instead, these albums cover themes of relationships (mostly failed ones), depression, leaving a small hometown, cultural exchange, and hybridity. And I enjoyed them pretty much from start to finish. Here they are, in order that they were released:</p><iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6QZyKchQivUBTSMcoBmlPa" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe><p><b><i>Honeymoon </i>by Beach Bunny</b> – This first full album from this Chicago indie group is raw and angry and depressing, but in a good way. Its tightly-constructed musical vignettes depict the breakup of a relationship. "Promises" and "Colorblind" are good entry points, though there is a lot disagreement about what the best tracks are—they're all good!</p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/5g5YMRlbLBECA9ba7BQ7Jj" width="300"></iframe><p><b>Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn </b>– The pairing of banjo's first lady and a Chinese guzheng virtuoso seems strange, but Washburn studied Mandarin language and culture in college, frequently living in China. I first saw Fei and Washburn perform in a concert in Chapel Hill, NC, back in 2013, and the second half of the concert they decided to something totally experimental they called The Wu Force, which they described as "kung fu-Appalachian avant-garde folk-rock," some of which worked. While this album is not that genre, I think a couple of earlier versions of these songs were performed at that concert. I am surprised, though, that it took so long for them to record an album together. I love the conversation between the two folk traditions—and you can tell they are just having fun. Perhaps the best entry point to what they are doing is the opening track, "Water is Wide / Wusuli Boat Song," a melody of an American and a Chinese folk song.</p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/4HXpQ5KQBVWN25ltjnX7xa" width="300"></iframe><p><b><i>Petals for Armor</i> by Hayley Williams</b> – I'd heard about Paramore, the band that Williams leads, but hadn't gotten into their music. But I heard a couple of songs from this solo album and needed to hear more. While still produced and written mostly by Williams with Paramore bandmates, the music on <i>Petals for Armor</i> is more complex, varied, and subtle than their previous work. The lyrics and music of the stylistically wide-ranging album bring you into the intimate thoughts of the protagonist(s), and then the hooks keep you thinking about the content. The album originally came out as three EPs of five songs each. "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris," a lyrically complex song that features background vocals from supergroup Boygenius, and the reggae-influenced and hummable "Dead Horse" are good entry points.</p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/7vI29Msu8k0wpFUittUvAH" width="300"></iframe><p><b><i>World on the Ground</i> by Sarah Jarosz</b> – I've been following this singer and multi-instrumentalist since 2015, when an algorithm pushed one of her albums to me, and this time the algorithm was totally spot on. This quiet, reflective album is not necessarily my favorite of hers, but it is still thoroughly enjoyable. It's somewhat autobiographical, about what happens when people leave the small Texas town where they grew up. "Johnny" is probably the best track, with some of the same feeling as "Green Light" from her previous album <i>Undercurrent</i>. The best lyrical turn comes on the chorus of "Maggie": "Drive across the desert in a blue Ford Escape; hopefully this car will live up to its name." I also love the waxwing oil color album art.</p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/4qNGDMsRNqDQZPkTWyyeRF" width="300"></iframe><p><i style="font-weight: bold;">Women in Music, Pt. III </i><b>by HAIM </b>– Both of Haim's previous LP albums made my best-of-year lists, and while I'm not sure this album is quite as even as those previous albums, it is still a solid album with some great tracks—and perhaps more experimental in their musical and lyrical approach. While all the tracks are good, the 2nd half of the album really shines, such as "Man from the Magazine" about sexism in the music industry and the three "bonus" tracks which originally came out as singles in 2019. Warning: some swearing is involved.</p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/5rwWTJEIAyzBbRjEU0BTfA" width="300"></iframe><p><b><i>Jump Rope Gazers</i> by The Beths</b> – This sophomore album by this New Zealand band grew on me with repeated listenings. It's impeccably produced, with just the right amount of harmony vocals. I love the audio irony of "I'm Not Getting Excited" and the chiming guitars in "Out of Sight," but the whole album shines.</p><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/7wzk09dSUheVfhTB2l7tSt" width="300"></iframe><p><b><i>Acid Croft, Vol. 9</i> by Shooglenifty</b> – This is the psychedelic rock-fueled folk dance album that the world needs right now, from a veteran Scottish band. And with tune names like "Squat Lobster" and "Hunting for Angus," how can you go wrong?</p>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-86764948763856322152020-09-01T21:31:00.001-04:002020-09-01T21:31:25.908-04:00Album Review: Taylor Swift's Folklore—cool songwriting experiments, but overusing tricks<div class="separator"><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/folklore-Taylor-Swift/dp/B08DC84LWL/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3M1PEZUJXVBJP&dchild=1&keywords=folklore&qid=1598922867&s=music&sprefix=folklroe%2Caps%2C175&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img alt="folklore" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81OReT%2B-6JL._SX425_.jpg" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div>People who (still) read this blog know that I can't NOT review a new Taylor Swift album (though my review of 2017's <i>Reputation</i> was just done in a <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/12/best-pop-songs-of-2017-mix.html" target="_blank">"best pop songs of 2017" post</a>); this includes the surprise release of <i>Folklore</i> in late July.
As <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2012/11/taylor-swifts-red.html" target="_blank">she did with <i>Red</i></a>, Taylor cultivated new sounds by inviting new collaborators, this time The National's Aaron Dessner and others. She is also more explicitly songwriting the stories of other people (though <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2012/11/songs-fact-or-fiction.html">she has actually been doing that for a long time</a>). <div><br /></div><div>Like many of the glowing reviews I've read, I agree this is not a bad album; the production and arrangements keep interest, like the subtle, string-like effects on "Cardigan." The songwriting is often complex: verses made of up many chained subphrases that build over time, like in "Mad Woman" and "Epiphany," and return sometimes unpredictably; in the layered duet in the last half of "Exile" with Bon Iver, the melodies accentuates important words; "Mirrorball" has a verse and chorus that both sound like choruses. There is some great lyric writing ("My Tears Ricochet" about her split with her label, Big Machine records) and nice turns of phrase (like "I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere" in "This is Me Trying.")</div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand, after listening a few times, I am not sure that any of these songs are going to jump back into my head like many of Swift's other songs (I just had a "Cruel Summer" from 2019's <i>Lover</i> stuck in my head this week). At 16 tracks, this is a long album, and some of the songs seem a little longer than they need to be, maybe a little more contemplative than I prefer.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Songwriting staples, connecting but more blandly than necessary</h3><div><br /></div><div>While Swift is still using <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2019/10/album-review-taylor-swifts-loversome.html" target="_blank">“devils roll the dice” motif that plagued <i>Lover</i> and <i>Reputation</i></a>, at least the motif is not used quite as prominently or often. The most obvious use is in "Peace," where it was employed almost exactly as in previous Swift songs. The motif occurs repeatedly in the chorus of "Cardigan," mostly in its downward form. It is also in the pre-chorus of "Mad Woman." </div><div><br /></div><div>But Swift has a new songwriting strategy that would, again, be fine if she used sparingly, but instead she uses it over and over on <i>Folklore</i>. Her chained subphrase strategy of writing (mentioned earlier) often puts these long phrase structures over the same repeated chord patterns, sometimes even into the chorus—this leads to choruses that don't arrive as forcefully, and songs seeming longer and less varied than they might be. Songs on <i>Folklore</i> that fit this pattern: "The 1," "Cardigan," "Mirrorball," "Seven," "August," "Peace," and "Hoax"—that's almost half the album using this songwriting strategy. The production tries to obscure the laziness of the chord changes, and mostly succeeds, but I am left with tracks with too much sameness. Even "Mad Woman" and "Epiphany," though they vary up the chords with the subphrase chains, end up with very little contrast.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">The bright spots</h3><div><br /></div><div>I think three songs rise above the crowd in <i>Folklore</i>: </div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>"The Last Great American Dynasty" is a great story song with a conventional song structure—but the story pulls us along, as we wonder if something horrible is going to happen to the described woman. But at the end, instead of condemning her, Taylor connects herself to the supposed misbehavior, critiquing those who think women (especially rich women) should behave a certain way ("Mad Woman" is another explicitly feminist song, with a similar "pot calling the kettle black" message). </li><li>"Invisible String" almost falls into the chained-subphrases-over-the-same chord trap, but Swift varies up the chord changes in the middle of the verse megaphrase, and throws in a nice contrasting bridge (I think we could have an argument about whether there is a chorus at all; the catchy melisma, perhaps the best candidate for a chorus, seems to use the same chords as the beginning of the verse). The plucked string texture that pervades the song is lovely. And to add a bit more interest, the chord pattern changes over the last return of the melisma, reminiscent of the chords used in the bridge, taking us out of the song à la "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" (the “devils roll the dice” motif also occurs in "Invisible String," but only briefly and in the middle of a phrase; somewhat disguised, at least). </li><li>The production and songwriting of "Betty" reminds me of <i>Fearless</i>, which I'm sure is intentional, since Swift is telling a high-school story similar to the songs on that album. It's pretty amazing she can recall that style. I wonder what would happen if Swift next tried to write a whole album pretending to be her teenage songwriter self? Not that I think she should, if she didn't want to.</li></ol><div>What did you think of <i>Folklore</i>?</div></div>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-13218178680267986152020-01-04T21:30:00.005-05:002021-01-14T21:32:28.849-05:00Favorite tracks of 2019 mix<style type="text/css">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: normal;"><a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2019/12/my-favorite-new-albums-of-2019.html" target="_blank">Last post</a>, </span>I presented my top six albums of 2019. But I wanted to share additional songs not on those albums that you should check out, so I made a mix. 2019 featured a bumper crop of socially-conscious songs, probably more than any other year since the late 60s, and I included some of my favorites in the playlist. I left off Billie Eilish and Lizzo, however, because they seemed omnipresent already. Here’s a Spotify playlist and some brief comments about each track (in no particular order):</div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Ariana Grande: “NASA” from <i>thank u, next</i> </b>– My favorite album from Grande’s quick <i>Sweetener </i>follow-up. Also, space exploration as metaphor is up my alley.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Molly Tuttle: “Take the Journey” from <i>When You’re Ready</i></b> – Tuttle is the reigning Bluegrass guitar virtuoso. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2019/07/08/739518737/molly-tuttle-plays-a-mean-guitar-on-when-you-re-ready" target="_blank">Check out her flying fingers playing this song here.</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Avril Lavigne: “Bigger Wow” from <i>Head Above Water</i> </b>– Did you know that Avril Lavigne is still writing some decent music? Here’s an example.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Jamila Woods: “BETTY” from <i>Legacy! Legacy! </i></b>– Each song on Woods’ sophomore album is inspired by a historical figure, many of whom were black. This one is inspired by funk musician Betty Davis, who was “not your typical girl.”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Santana and Buika: “Bembele” from <i>Africa Speaks</i> </b>– Yeah, Santana’s still making music, too. He worked on this album with Afro-Spanish singer Buika.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Tacocat: “Hologram” from <i>This Mess Is a Place</i></b> – My favorite palindrome-named pop-punk band put out a great album this year mostly addressing the politics of 2019 and this is probably the best song on it; the message is that power can be an illusion.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Sheryl Crow and St. Vincent: “Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You” from </b><i><b>Threads</b> </i>– Yes, Sheryl Crow put out music this year, too (this time with a bunch of collaborators), and this great song sounds like classic Crow and reminds me of <i>Veronica Mars</i>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>MUNA: “Number One Fan” from <i>Saves the World</i></b> – Maybe the most catchy and danceable song of 2019, it also is self-affirming.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Common Holly: “Joshua Snakes” from <i>When I Say to You Black Lightning</i> </b>– The first line of this all-over-the-place song about an abusive relationship got my attention. The flute solo is a plus.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening: “O-U-T Spells Out” from <i>Hollowbone</i></b> – A combination rock folk song and magic spell with a Northumbrian bagpipe solo/dance break.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Coldplay: “Orphans” from <i>Everyday Life</i></b> – I am usually not a Coldplay fan (they don’t really know how to write bridges), but this song is pretty good—and it is written from the perspective of war refugees, who are normal people, too. The song even has a bridge—sort of.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Twice: “Fancy” from <i>Fancy You</i></b> – You have probably heard of BTS, but Twice is another K-pop idol group you should know about. The form is fun—I’m not sure if the song has two pre-choruses or just a long two-part chorus. Also, definitely a bridge.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Karine Polwart and Seckou Keita: “Heartwood” from <i>The Lost Words: Spell Songs</i></b> – A group of folk musicians read Robert Macfarlane’s book <i>The Lost Words</i> about many nature-related words dropped from the 2007’s Oxford “Junior” Dictionary, and were inspired to create a companion album of songs; this song comes from the perspective of tree inviting the lumberjack to give up.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Taylor Swift: “The Man” from <i>Lover</i> </b>– Swift’s first album tackling social issues includes this great song, probably my favorite from the album, addressing sexism in the music industry.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Amanda Palmer: “A Mother’s Confession” from <i>There Will Be No Intermission</i> </b>– Looking at my top music from this year, I am apparently a fan of 10-minute story songs, and this is an expressive one from Amanda Palmer about being a new mother. I went to Palmer’s tour, which featured her performing this song (with a sing-a-long section), plus a version of <i>Little Mermaid</i>’s “Part of Your World” figuratively sung by an unborn fetus. The part-standup show was almost four hours long; luckily, there was an intermission.</span></li>
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<br />Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-25816583984061146732019-12-26T23:39:00.000-05:002021-01-14T21:32:35.073-05:00My favorite new albums of 2019<style type="text/css">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As fringe music becomes ever more accessible, it also feels like I am listening to a smaller fraction of it every year, even as I spend more time listening. I listened to 76 albums new to me this year, 53 of them from 2019. Here are my seven favorite new albums from this year, in no particular order (all images link to the Amazon.com listing):</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lumos-HARRY-POTTERS/dp/B07RJ9NWD3/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=lumos+harry+potter&qid=1577330064&s=music&sr=1-3" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71mqDTFqJcL._SL1200_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Lumos</i> by Harry and the Potters </b>– The first original music in 13 years from the pioneering Wizard Rock band composed of brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge, all material from the album is drawn from the seventh book in the series (<i>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows</i>), which I serendipitously</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> l</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">istened to on audiobook this year. The content is unsurprisingly relevant to today’s political environment, such as the tracks “On the Importance of Media Literacy Under Authoritarian Rule” and “No Pureblood Supremacy.” But within the effective narrative arc of the album, there are also short humorous and deep character reflections such as “Gone Campin’” (which builds up to the phrase “swordfish of Gryffindor”) and “What Happened to the Cat?”. And don’t miss “Hermione’s Army,” the disco-inflected track about the awesomeness that is Hermione Grainger. Probably the album that has given me the most joy this year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Amidst-Chaos-Sara-Bareilles/dp/B07NHQHWV6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VWMRCCL7BJA7&keywords=amidst+the+chaos&qid=1577330502&s=music&sprefix=amidst%2Cpopular%2C193&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/915pBoxc2dL._SL1500_.jpg" style="font-family: Times; text-align: center;" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Amidst the Chaos</i> by Sara Bareilles</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> –<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Bareilles’ first studio album in six years, as she took some time off from recording to create (and star in) <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2016/03/the-music-of-waitress.html" target="_blank">a broadway musical</a></span>. The album deals with love, loss, and also ventures into politics. Highlights include “Armor,” which was inspired by the 2017 Women’s March, and the emotional “Fire.” I was able to see Bareilles on the last stop of her live tour in November, a quality show with excellent, versatile musicians and use of stage effects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/August-Trio-Dhoore/dp/B07ZLHX212/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=august+trio+dhoore&qid=1577330619&s=music&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img height="283" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71bTmwGXHsL._SL1238_.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>August</i> by Trio Dhoore</b> – A folk instrumental album from a trio of Flemish brothers who play accordion, hurdy-gurdy, and guitar. The album is based on the story of a Flemish fisherman who survived 33 trips to Iceland in the 18th century. Most of tracks feature accordion and hurdy-gurdy playing in octaves with sparse and sometimes complex guitar strumming, but there is plenty of variation to hook the listener throughout the album.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dedicated-Carly-Rae-Jepsen/dp/B07Q7VF8BT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=R35AJVK4JHNV&keywords=dedicated+carly+rae+jepsen&qid=1577330692&s=music&sprefix=dedicated+%2Cpopular%2C206&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61INzuue2ML._SL1200_.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Dedicated</i> by Carly Rae Jepsen</b> – This album is chock full of catchy, synthy tunes, including “Now that I Found You,” “The Sound,” and “Feels Right.” If you are in doubt of its quality, consider this—the first time I listened to this album I was running a race, and I won 3rd place in my age category, having never placed in a running race before.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Front-Porch-Joy-Williams/dp/B07MWR2XW6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=5D7PL9R35CEE&keywords=front+porch+joy+williams&qid=1577330794&s=music&sprefix=front+porch+j%2Cpopular%2C196&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71YvQ3lp5WL._SL1200_.jpg" style="text-align: center;" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Front Porch</i> by Joy Williams</b> – A solid, rootsy, and spare album (with a touch of gospel) from this former member of the Civil Wars; an improvement her last solo project, 2015’s <i>Venus</i>. Highlights include “Canary,” “Front Porch,” and “When Creation Was Young.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Songs-Ingrid-Michaelson/dp/B07RLHQQL1/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=stranger+songs&qid=1577330944&s=music&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91XNpprH2yL._SL1500_.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Stranger Songs</i> by Ingrid Michaelson</b> – This pop and synth-laden tribute to the 1980s and inspired by the TV show <i>Stranger Things</i> is a stylistic departure for Michaelson, who is normally known for acoustic pop, but her songs still shine. Standout tracks include “Jealous” and “Missing You.” I recommend to fans of Michaelson’s earlier work and the TV series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Words-Hannah-Jigdoll-Ensemble/dp/B07XW5VD31/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=jigdoll+hannah+james&qid=1577331079&s=music&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><img height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KsK7Nu9xL.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>The Woman and Her Words</b></i><b> by Hannah James & the JigDoll Ensemble</b> – Hannah James (voice, accordion, and foot percussion) fronts this quirky English folk group. The memorable, mostly original songs have imaginative, thoughtful, and eclectic lyrics and arrangements. Highlights include “Hush Now,” a lullaby sung to a dead victim of American gun violence and the 10-minute story song “The Woman and Her Words,” about a workaholic husband and father. As someone with a weakness for irregular meters, I also must recommend the instrumental “What the Hell Was That?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Soon, I will post my b<span style="background-color: white;">est pop songs of 2018 mix, so get ready.</span></span></div>
Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-42221310944365281702019-10-27T15:12:00.000-04:002019-10-27T15:12:04.781-04:00Album Review: Taylor Swift's Lover—some great songs, but there's this one thing...<style type="text/css">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Taylor’s Swift’s seventh album, <i>Lover</i>, came out at the end of August to mostly good critical reception and (perhaps inevitable) high streaming and album sales. And Rolling Stone, in their October 2019 Taylor Swift cover issue, predicted that <i>Lover </i>will win album of the year in the coming Grammys.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I personally approached<i> Lover</i> guardedly, being a Swift fan since the second album, but perceiving a general quality dip in 2014’s <i>1989</i> (<a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2014/11/album-review-swifts-1989otherwise-great.html" target="_blank">see my review here</a>) and 2017’s <i>Reputation</i> (<a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/12/best-pop-songs-of-2017-mix.html" target="_blank">see my short review here, buried in my best songs of 2017 mix</a>). To recap, my justification for feeling that the quality has lagged recently has nothing to do with her move to pop, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the studio production, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">h</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">er collaborators, or her performance. Instead, I feel like her melodies/songwriting have become less well-crafted and the emotions she channels in her songs harder to relate to—I think at some point, she stopped writing from the point of view of an "everywoman" and started writing from the viewpoint of privilege (with some exceptions). In preparing to write this review for<i> Lover</i>, I went back and listened to hours of Swift’s previous material (which was great!), and while it was occasionally jarring when my iPod shuffled from the first eponymous album to <i>Reputation</i>, it was not the whiplash that I expected; I even occasionally had a hard time guessing which album particular songs came from. After this exercise, though, I stand by my previous reviews—of course, there are some great songs in both <i>1989</i> and <i>Reputation</i>, but there are a greater quantity of ho-hum songs than Swift's first four albums.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">So, my question to answer in this review—is <i>Lover</i> a return to form? Or a continuation of the pattern of her last two albums?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Can we connect?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Let’s tackle the emotional and “everywoman” aspect first. I do think that <i>Lover </i>for the most part comes from a place of privilege that is hard to relate to, especially “London Boy” (<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2019/08/taylor-swift-london-boy-londoners-reactions.html" target="_blank">even Londoners have a hard time relating</a>). Some of the best-written songs on <i>Lover</i>, however, take on typically Swiftian narratives: “The Man” and “You Need to Calm Down.” And while both focus on common critiques of Swift, I think a lot of people, especially women, can still relate to being subject to discrimination and harassment, and Swift has a humorous way of confronting these issues and giving us a window into her world. The rest of the songs on the album are easier to connect to than the songs on the two previous albums, especially “Soon You’ll Get Better,” a heartbreaking song about wanting a loved one's health to improve and “Death by a Thousand Cuts” about a small-town breakup (that isn’t Swift’s).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Melodies matter</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Moving on to songcraft, one thing I discovered going back through Swift’s large back catalog is that the song construction, removed it from the production, really hasn’t changed much in the recent albums. I think it would be pretty easy to re-write many of Swift’s newer songs as country, and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>several would be improved by fiddle or banjo solos and a harmony above the melody. You can see proof of this in Swift’s recent NPR Tiny Desk Concert, where <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/16/770318649/taylor-swift-tiny-desk-concert" target="_blank">she plays stripped down versions of a couple of <i>Lover</i>’s songs</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">And many of <i>Lover</i>’s songs are better than anything on <i>Reputation</i>; the aforementioned “You Need to Calm Down” and “The Man” are both well-constructed songs with important themes and catchy melodies in the verses and chorus plus good bridges. I often find the chorus of “I Think He Knows” stuck in my head. “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” while not having a terribly interesting verse or chorus, won me over with clever bridge riffing on the high school cheer “Go-Fight-Win,” and ends up one of high points of the album (and of course, in an uncommon but totally-called-for song form, the bridge comes back later in the song, a la “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”). There are also some interesting production choices in “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and “It’s Nice to Have a Friend” that I think set those songs and their writing apart. (Though forgive me for commenting on the one turkey in the flock—I agree with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753189805/stream-taylor-swifts-new-album-lover" target="_blank">Lydnsey McKenna of NPRs description of “ME!”</a>: “a half-hearted, half-baked not-quite-hit with a spelling interlude”).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Devils roll the dice…again and again and again</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Now, there is one exception where I have seen that Swift’s songs have changed over time, and not for the better. It is the overuse of one particular motif. This is the motif, which I am going to call in the “devils roll the dice” motif (from the lyrics in “Cruel Summer”), though I will show below that this motif has been used by Swift for some time before <i>Lover</i>:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(same note) 3-and-4-and-(up in pitch) 1. This is usually repeated at least two more times. The "Up" note sometimes is an indeterminate pitch, but is most often a 5th higher than the first note.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Here are the songs on <i>Lover</i> that use this motif or a variation of the motif (with timings, if you want to listen along):</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Cruel Summer” pre-chorus (0:22, “devils roll the dice”)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“I Think He Knows” pre-chorus (0:29), same note is repeated longer before the Up</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Me!” pre-chorus (0:24)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“The Man” pre-chorus (0:18), variation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Paper Rings” pre-chorus (0:24), variation with the Up on the offbeat instead; the verse in this song also has an inverted variation of this pattern, a repeated 16th notes on the same pitch followed by a drop</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” chorus (0:52), variation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“I Forgot that You Existed” beginning of chorus (0:34)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“London Boy” end of verse (0:46)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“You Need to Calm Down” beginning of the verse (0:12), built around the motif, with the Up note in the middle of long phrase of the same note</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Swift did not begin using the “devils roll the dice” motif in <i>Lover—</i>she repeatedly uses this motif in <i>Reputation</i>, too:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“…Ready For It?” verse; the verse is constructed of a string of these motifs, some inflecting up and some inflecting down</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“I Did Something Bad” pre-chorus (0:30), variation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Look What You Made Me Do” pre-chorus (0:45), variation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Getaway Car” pre-chorus (0:30), variation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“So it goes…” chorus (0:46)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Dress” (beginning of verse)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Call it What You Want” (beginning of verse)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Afterglow” end middle of the chorus (0:57), variation</span></li>
</ul>
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<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Once you start hearing it, it is everywhere!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Does Swift use of this "devils roll the dice" motif extend back in <i>1989</i>, too? Yes, but only in one song: “I Know Places” seems to be the first time that Swift uses this pattern (<a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2014/11/album-review-swifts-1989otherwise-great.html" target="_blank">although I discuss at length in my <i>1989</i> review how many of Swift’s songs in <i>1989</i> feature melodies of mostly one note</a>, which may have been a precursor to this motif). But unfortunately, she seems to have stuck on it from that time forward.</span></div>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A challenge</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I would like to say that the “devils roll the dice” motif is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitmotif" target="_blank">Wagnerian-style leitmotif</a> that borrows meaning from other contexts; but unfortunately, it is just lazy songwriting. Swift especially leans on the motif for her pre-choruses—a short, choppy phrase to build tension into the chorus relief. And it does work, which is why she keeps using it. And if she only used it occasionally, it would be fine. But she uses it and variations on it so much, the motif is getting old.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p4">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Maybe I am just being the person Swift is criticizing in “You Need to Calm Down.” But I do think avoiding this songwriting crutch in the future could lead to better songwriting. If Swift is reading this, I challenge her to write the next album without the “devil rolls the dice” motif! She did it on her first four albums, and she can do it again. Also, an occasional banjo or fiddle solo would make my day.</span></div>
Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-13898078977685379922019-10-02T11:18:00.000-04:002019-10-02T11:19:00.747-04:00Sting Appreciation Day '19: Album Review: Sting, My Songs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Songs-Sting/dp/B07PVN3KYH/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=sting+my+songs&qid=1569977544&s=gateway&sr=8-2" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqL0sTevBFCgP1SAxBzheMxPOOa2XRjQSN-duimPlw0e8ppVqqA2_WKhOJfwfzdrmwF72FpOsDvFHq6hjmZxxK3TLHud0mKT6SFf74y4GDB6HuYivm19b355WsvhxGnxkN_l43LJK52XUG/s320/Sting+My+Songs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, for Sting Appreciation Day, I will quickly review Sting's latest album <i>My Songs, </i>which came out earlier this year, in March. Didn't know that Sting came out with a new album? Well, you not knowing is not that surprising—the album does not feature new material, but instead reworks classic Sting hits. How much does Sting re-work his material in <i>My Songs</i>? Unlike 2010's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonicities" target="_blank">Symphonicities</a></i>, the answer is not very much. Besides some slick drum beats, the synth equivalent of rainstick effects, maybe even some electronic rhythm accompaniments, and some short extra interludes, the songs are pretty much the same as the originals—the structure of each song, the vocal delivery, and even any lead instruments. One exception might be "Fields of Gold", which was re-worked to be more guitar-centric and folky, with a fiddle replacing the Northumbrian pipes (and a subtle, though inexplicable, drum machine); still, the structure of the song remains the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, we appreciate you Sting! These are still great songs. But unless you are a die-hard Sting collector who needs every last version of something, I would recommend that you can skip this one.</span>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-50988957174720839462019-08-28T21:23:00.002-04:002019-08-28T21:24:17.684-04:00Old music in the time of streaming<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOiU1xPFkFggmMR3zP1L248-vwYgVkm22d8NFkv14HbNVLsaLEczfv_2X-fQYOWBsrsW3AQmfmQ35PllMknnjUeQD8grFKp3idS-CpWhWbKOMjIC4Ez5DQfqvuW9nu79zIVFKpSYeteATE/s1600/Stream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOiU1xPFkFggmMR3zP1L248-vwYgVkm22d8NFkv14HbNVLsaLEczfv_2X-fQYOWBsrsW3AQmfmQ35PllMknnjUeQD8grFKp3idS-CpWhWbKOMjIC4Ez5DQfqvuW9nu79zIVFKpSYeteATE/s320/Stream.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not this type of streaming. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a data-v-247c12f1="" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/73091661@N00/4686400648" style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1779ba; cursor: pointer; font-family: "source sans pro", sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none;">"Truckee River, Tahoe"</a><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "source sans pro", sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: start;"> </span><span data-v-247c12f1="" style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "source sans pro", sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a;">by</span><a data-v-247c12f1="" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/73091661@N00" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1779ba; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">UnofficialSquaw.com</a><span style="color: #0a0a0a;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "source sans pro", sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: start;">is licensed under </span><a class="photo_license" data-v-247c12f1="" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=rich" style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1779ba; cursor: pointer; font-family: "source sans pro", sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin-right: 5px; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 </a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
A few weeks ago, NPR produced a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/22/743973811/a-borrowed-world-streaming-as-the-new-reality" target="_blank">series of new articles about the opportunities, perils, and possible future streaming music</a> as it has become for many the main way of accessing music. These articles were an update of a series they produced in 2015, <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2015/06/streaming-round-up.html" target="_blank">which I covered on this blog</a>.<br />
<br />
While this new series of articles covered some important issues in the new world of streaming, such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/23/744224851/khalid-is-the-shooting-star-of-the-playlist-era" target="_blank">how new stars are made</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/25/745062630/the-green-new-deal-where-spotify-stands-and-where-artists-wish-it-would" target="_blank">how artists get paid (or not)</a>, even <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/20/743775196/the-success-of-streaming-has-been-great-for-some-but-is-there-a-better-way" target="_blank">how music is written differently</a>, I noticed one strain that was absent in the coverage: how people find and listen to music that is not coming out now. There were several in-depth reports of pining after old methods of distribution (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744466017/the-language-i-learned-from-cassettes" target="_blank">cassette mixtape</a>s, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744469830/remembering-the-bottled-lightning-of-music-tumblr" target="_blank">Tumblr</a>, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/23/744463689/a-requiem-for-audiogalaxy-the-digital-wild-wests-best-outlaw-record-store" target="_blank">early alternative streaming services</a>) that helped people discover music, but even those focused on how people found the new music of time.<br />
<br />
But there is a lot of music out there that is not new, but undiscovered to many people, and what is apparent from NPR's coverage is that the major streaming services care less about this older music than promoting new music.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Not on streaming?</h3>
<br />
It turns out there is a lot of older music that is not available via streaming; it was only ever distributed on physical formats. It costs a non-negligible amount money to put and keep music online (not just the format transfer, but keeping track of rights and revenue), and if the music doesn't fit a service's criteria, it doesn't get posted. Jazz and classical music are only 1% each of the music market, but they and other genres produce a lot of music. Because there is so much music online, many assume that <i>everything</i> is online—but this is patently false.<br />
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<h3>
Where does music go to die?</h3>
<br />
Modern streaming services, like the old-school record labels, don't take care of things that they don't think are going to make them money. This was part of the reason that the master recordings that burned in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html" target="_blank">Universal fire</a> were stored in bad conditions and not cataloged well—Universal did not justify spending money on something that wasn't making money for them now. For streaming services, how do they decide when a song or album isn't worth posting on their platform? What about taking down songs or albums or genres that aren't earning enough money or have rights problems too complicated to deal with?<br />
<br />
The Universal fire also showcases the ephemeral nature of recorded music—it has to be stored somewhere, even if it only is distributed via streaming. And unlike with physical media, where multiple copies are distributed that can be re-discovered, the access-only model streaming services control what who has a copy. What happens when streaming services decide an album that was only released on streaming should be taken down? And then a fire or simply bad cataloging causes the label or streaming service to lose track of the music? Or, maybe more likely, a popular streaming service suddenly goes bankrupt and shuts down overnight? (After all, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/6/18214331/spotify-earnings-financial-announcement-profits-music-streaming-podcast" target="_blank">Spotify has still never really made a profit</a>).<br />
<br />
In these cases, the music ceases to exist, for all intents and purposes. I predict that in 30 years, 2050, our era will be known in music circles as the “lost years” because there will be a lot of music that just isn’t available because no one was able to collect it and streaming companies decided it was not worth preserving.<br />
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<h3>
Under protection...from preservation</h3>
<br />
Before the 2018 Music Modernization Act (MMA), there as no federal copyright protection for sound recordings produced before 1972, but instead a loose patchwork of state copyright applied. The MMA patched up this loophole, at least as far is streaming is concerned, but in doing so, it greatly extended protections for older music—which while these protections are good for a few artists and acts that are still well-known and popular, the protections are certainly bad for lesser-known music. Long copyright terms before passing into the public domain only hurt the chances that preservation will occur for these older recordings—and there are some major preservation problems. Magnetic media (such as cassette tapes) and even CDs not stored in optimal conditions may deteriorate in less than half of the time of their copyright terms, so we may get to the point where we are allowed to copy recorded music, only to find it doesn't exist anymore. The MMA does allow some preservation exceptions for recordings that aren't being commercially exploited, but there are some somewhat cumbersome steps you need to take first—and these exceptions would not have been part of the law at all if some library organizations hadn't lobbied for them. Finally, those services that <i>do</i> take the steps to preserve these recordings have to pay a lot of money to digitize and keep the recordings accessible—and who knows when someone will decide it is not worth it for their organization, either?<br />
<br />
Let's figure out a way to keep old music available, okay?<br />
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What do you think?Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-19757636644807473612019-03-16T14:21:00.000-04:002019-03-16T14:23:42.016-04:003 new Irish traditional music albums for your St. Patrick’s Day playlist<style type="text/css">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I’ve written about before on this blog (<a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2014/03/how-to-get-some-real-reel-irish-culture.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2013/03/4-irish-groups-for-st-patricks-day.html" target="_blank">here</a>), I am not a big fan of the way most people celebrate St. Patrick’s day in the US. I think one of the best ways is to listen to Irish traditional music—and to help you celebrate, I’m presenting 3 new albums of Irish traditional music (all from the last year) that you can add your holiday playlist. In no particular order:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gap-Dreams-ATLAN/dp/B079BJKLXB/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=gap+of+dreams&qid=1552757657&s=gateway&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImOnPqx8zqIqus3dIVQVuFkFv6qeuo7KwS3TlvX8oPxcRFBtZXHsVtzq8nrOSFZwnxrIxAz1e0GN_7WhALTjoSDlVd0qeAYZsRxrfnPK7qwkdOGNumba61QvfsSVoFKGmIOT3sEHjCsUx/s320/GapOfDreams.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>The Gap of Dreams</i> by Altan</b> – This group from Donegal has been around for over 30 years and is still coming out with great music. Tracks rotate between songs in Irish, English, and purely instrumental, both traditional newly composed. (If you follow the link to the Amazon page, notice that the artist is listed as “ATLAN”—a misspelling that hasn’t been corrected in the year the album has been out; funny if it wasn't so sad. Metadata fail.).</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cas-Lunasa/dp/B079VRQZTN/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cas+lunasa&qid=1552759835&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spell" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="500" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpHsc-WQ1caFysgCR-nTqc1phNVXcKa3FT_GrXx16qYGKl7FGJHgm1vGBQIf5C1m7mxY4wXF-zUB9Eb0M1hLGRxtCMp4on9ScZU81Fl_5rCpFFjQEF5hyphenhyphengObL9QqsB8PL1tJR3TWcs-hQ/s320/CAS.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>CAS</i> by Lúnasa</b> – This mainly instrumental band has been around for more than 20 years, but hasn’t released new music since 2010. Besides their typical awesome instrumental tracks, the band teams up with some guests vocalists such as Natalie Merchant and Mary Chapin Carpenter. All songs with vocals are sung in English.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H8MWB35/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9CFVGoz-MDDxQ9SKlVx7jVSIx0i1HRhQgOFFUDOO-VvB2TehKvVE0P2mJZtjT-C15VYUBF4jM-V_Ho29DSrEff02swlqNwGCRvtXcxh5eYM7WytFTcZBC0PI7wwmqxxFmlkD2uUTIoPKz/s320/Allt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Allt</i> by Julie Fowlis, Éamon Doorley, Zoë Conway, and John McIntyre</b> – Two power couples of Celtic traditional music, one couple from Scotland (Fowlis and Doorley) and one from Ireland (Conway and McIntyre) got together and recorded an album that includes songs from both places, in both Scots-Gaelic and Irish. So, maybe not purely Irish…but you probably can’t tell which are Irish and which are Scottish, right? I am not sure I can. Anyway, it is a great album.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day, and remember to celebrate immigrant populations and our cultural inheritance from them, such as those, like the Irish, that used to be vilified in America.</span>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-22712354358523204142019-01-06T21:09:00.000-05:002019-01-06T21:09:57.133-05:00Best pop songs of 2018 mix<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2019/01/my-favorite-new-pop-music-albums-of-2018.html" target="_blank">Last post</a>, I presented my top six albums of 2018. But there were plenty of new songs in 2018 not on those albums that I would recommend checking out. I made a Spotify playlist and some brief comments about each track (in no particular order).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Spotify playlist link: </span></span><a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6buyUdcHoXGGDLC8KJpa9w" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6buyUdcHoXGGDLC8KJpa9w</a><br />
<div class="p1">
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kali Uchis: “Your Teeth in My Neck” from <i>Isolation</i> </b>– The production is of this track is exciting (and a little retro), and its theme of wealth and class is equally retro/current.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>David Crosby: “1967” from <i>Here If You Listen</i></b> –The Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash is still writing music, and came out with a pretty good album with his much younger touring band. This track's production is a throwback, but comes across as still fresh.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Gwenno: “Tir Ha Mor” from <i>Le Kov</i></b> – Gwenno’s 2nd album is entirely in Cornish, an almost dead language—so remember that writing good pop songs is a good way to make your almost-dead-language relevant again. The song's title means "land and sea."</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Tune-Yards: “Heart Attack” from <i>I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life</i></b> – This album, written partially in response to criticism about lead singer Merrill Garbus’s cultural appropriation, came out at the beginning of 2017, so I think some reviewers forgot about the album. But it had some great cuts, like this one.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: “Koino Hana” from <i>Japamyu</i></b> – I had to throw in a J-Pop song from fashion icon's Kyary’s latest album this year.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Oh Pep: “What’s The Deal with David?” from <i>I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You…</i></b> – An upbeat, funny song about a toxic relationship.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Alessia Cara: “All We Know” from <i>The Pains of Growing</i></b> – The best track from a solid sophomore album from last year’s Best New Artist Grammy-winner.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Courtney Barnett: “Nameless, Faceless” from Tell Me How You Really Feel</b> – A solid anthem for the #MeToo movement, describing and reacting to anonymous online comments by men; featuring a Margaret Atwood quote in the chorus.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Poppy: “Time is Up”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>from <i>Am I a Girl?</i></b> – I love a bit of post-apocalyptic science fiction in my pop music; I for one, also, welcome our new robot overlords.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Moira Smiley: “Bellow” from <i>Unzip the Horizon</i></b> – Written with Merrill Garbus from Tune-Yards, it draws influences from world music and invites women especially to speak up for themselves and their ancestors.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Sting and Shaggy: “Crooked Tree“ from <i>44/876</i></b> – You probably missed this, but Sting and Shaggy came out with an album of new music in 2018 (and it was nominated for <a href="https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/2019-grammy-awards-complete-nominations-list#14" target="_blank">Reggae album of the year by the Grammys</a>?). The album's music is mostly uninspired, but I have the admire Sting’s audacity to do a reggae album with a Jamaican after making his career doing “white reggae” with the Police in the 1980s. This song was maybe the best, and probably the most Sting-like. Read the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/05/03/607804138/sting-and-shaggy-on-the-wonderful-luxury-of-making-reggae" target="_blank">NPR review of the album here</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Honorable mention) <b>Natalia Lafourcada: “Hasta La Raíz ” from <i>Hasta La Raíz</i></b> - This song by a Mexican artist was actually from 2012, but I discovered it this year, and it’s definitely my favorite song I discovered this year (actually, a large portion of my new favorite music that I discovered this year wasn’t from 2018). Here’s the weird music video:</span></li>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Hour-Kacey-Musgraves/dp/B079TKSMYQ/ref=tmm_acd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1546634793&sr=8-1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Golden Hour" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51k7S8%2BkLDL._SX425_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Golden Hour</i> by Kacey Musgraves</b> – Hands down my best album of the year, and I don’t consider myself a country fan—perhaps because Musgraves wasn’t very country-orthodox in her style for this album, mixing in drum machines, disco beats, and tall, jazzy chords. She also uses approachable, clever lyrics, filled with relatable emotion. <i>Golden Hour</i> made most top 10 lists this year and is so solid that I’m not really sure which track to start with—“High Horse,” though, is probably my favorite new song of the year (and has a strong disco influence). “Space Cowboy” is the surprise hit on the album, I think, and succeeds partly because of clever wordplay and poking gentle fun at country stereotypes. The frothiness and comedy of “Velvet Elvis” is a welcome addition.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ill-Be-Your-Girl-Decemberists/dp/B0794MC5CZ/ref=ice_ac_b_dpb_twi_aud_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546635116&sr=8-1&keywords=decemberists+i%27ll+be+your+girl" target="_blank"><img alt="I'll Be Your Girl" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1KEPeonC-L._SX425_.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>I’ll Be Your Girl </i>by The Decemberists</b> – I count some Decemberists’ albums among my favorites, but there </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">recently </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">has been a dip in quality in their output—so I was surprised when they put out this solid album early in 2018. Their success this time around seems to be channeling their inner emo, angsty, fantasy-loving suburban teenager (despite having passed that stage themselves long ago). The upbeat, chipper “Everything is Awful” is the anchor single, with some fun antiphonal singing. “Rusalka, Rusalka</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">/ Wild Rushes” is everything you would want in a classic Decemberists song</span><span class="s2" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">—</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">epic folk rock storytelling ending in a death (maybe, two?) to catchy tunes.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Ashore-Punch-Brothers/dp/B07DKS65GV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546635232&sr=8-1&keywords=all+ashore+punch+brothers" target="_blank"><img alt="All Ashore" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71cRGjoVJ8L._SX425_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>All Ashore</i> by Punch Brothers</b> – Punch Brothers have yet to put out a bad album or EP, and Chris Thile tends to produce better music with collaborators. This group continues to push the boundaries of bluegrass, with innovative textures and song structures, some starting one place and ending in a very different place. The headliner is “All Ashore,” an expansive track that analyzes a seemly-broken family. “Three Dots and a Dash,” on the other hand, is a straight-ahead instrumental that could be from a Nickel Creek album. “Jumbo,” of course, is funny, elbow-in-ribs song about Donald Trump (with plausible deniability). I didn’t buy tickets to the Punch Brother’s live show in Atlanta this year because I wasn’t sure they could keep producing quality music, and then I listened to this album and regretted my decision (but the concert was already sold out).</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Origins</i> by Imagine Dragons</b> – Last year’s Imagine Dragons album, <i>Evolve</i>, made my <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/12/my-favorite-new-pop-music-albums-of-2017.html" target="_blank">best albums list last year</a>, and I wasn’t prepared for another excellent album from the arena-fillers. They continue write catchy melodies and to find and invent new sounds throughout this album. Dan Reynolds’ vocals are somewhat unique in pop—and my theory is that he is taking some of varied word flows from hip-hop and incorporating them into Imagine Dragons' version of rock. Some entry tracks for this album (besides the hit, "Natural") are “West Coast,” where the group shows off their acoustic chops (including a mandolin?), and “Digital,” whose timbre and style turns on a dime—which I think it kind of the point in a song about “chang[ing] everything.” “Love” is an anthem against the current moment of resurgence of hate rhetoric in the U.S. Not sure what the music has to do with "origins," but cool cover art!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="s1"><b><i>El Mal Querer</i> by Rosalia</b> – A critical darling this year by this young Catalan performer, this album got a lot of press for flamenco purists not liking it (though I never actually saw any of those negative reviews). Flamenco, with its showy vocals, fancy guitar playing, and complicated clapping is pretty awesome, and I think it is about time someone mixed it with hip-hop</span><span class="s3">—</span><span class="s1">and Rosalia did it almost seamlessly. Two tracks to sample the mixture is “Pienso En To Mirá” and “Di Mi Nombre.” Supposedly, the album is organized around a manuscript from the 13th century, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Kiss Yr Frenemies</i> by illuminati hotties</b> – A thoughtfully-produced album (Sarah Tudzin, the brains behind the project, coming from a production background) masquerading as a indie garage band record, it features 11 poignant, well-phrased short stories (some under a minute). Standout tracks include “(You’re Better) Than Ever,” a well-paced post-breakup song, and “Paying Off the Happiness,” a happy Millennial lament about monetary and emotional debt. “The Rules” and “Patience” add some slow poignancy. The occasional semi-voiced vocal stylings, however, while well-intentioned, occasionally grate on my ear.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Later this week, I will post my b</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">est pop songs of 2018 mix, so get ready.</span></div>
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</style>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-42915379699319149352018-05-01T18:04:00.000-04:002018-05-01T18:05:02.917-04:00It was 1 year ago today...Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One year ago, a duo called <a href="https://www.paletteswapninja.com/" target="_blank">Pallette-Swap Ninja</a> did the unthinkable—they merged two of the most well-loved and influential pieces of media of the last 50 years into one seamless whole. They did this by <span style="background-color: white;">completely rewriting the lyrics to all the songs from the Beatles’ </span><i style="background-color: white;">Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band</i><span style="background-color: white;"> with lyrics about </span></span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope.</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And further, each song follows chronologically </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in order</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the plot of </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Star Wars.</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And then they made a </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8s6sSjUyaxUk3mCUqiNuJiMNxs9QdthO" style="background-color: white; color: #737373; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">*video* of the whole thing</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes, I know I already blogged about </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.paletteswapninja.com/2017/05/01/new-album-princess-leias-stolen-death-star-plans/" target="_blank">Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans</a></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> as one of my </span><a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/12/my-favorite-new-pop-music-albums-of-2017.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Favorite New Pop Albums of 2017</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. But it deserves revisiting on its anniversary date. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope you didn't miss out on this amazing album last year. If you did miss out, I'm here for you. If you have already experienced it once, now is a good time to revisit!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The more I listen to </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, the more impressive the feat is to me. Here are just a few examples of the amazing parody writing:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Luke is in the desert and whining," is followed by "Whaaahh!"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"She's Leaving Home" is about Luke leaving Tatooine</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several times, instrumental solos are replaced with <i>Star Wars</i> themes—probably most effectively by inserting the cantina band music into "Being From the Space Port of Mos Eisley" </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Within You Without You," a song originally about Eastern philosophy, is now about the mystic Force (with R2-D2 sounds used effectively to call-and-response with the sitar)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Instead of barnyard animal sounds at the end of "Keep Moving" ("Good Morning"), we get various sound clips from the escape from the Death Star</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The reprise of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> comes back just as the plans are needed again in the plot (and the inspired </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"One, Two, Yavin IV" countdown at the beginning)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In "A Day in the Life", "Then Obi-won spoke and I went into a dream" right before the high, dreamy vocalise music, and the Death Star exploding right at the iconic moment when the music reaches the top of the long orchestra crescendo</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The audio is available as a free download. Props to Pallette-Swap Ninja for putting out something publicly that </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">both</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Disney and Apple Music (fairly litigious organizations) might considering suing them for—even though the album clearly falls under fair use as parody.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">May the 4th be with you (and check out their related Beatles-</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Star Wars</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> single, </span><a href="https://www.paletteswapninja.com/2017/12/13/new-song-leia-organa/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Leia Organa</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">).</span>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-76205239172138964022018-01-20T15:16:00.000-05:002018-01-20T15:28:30.677-05:00Failure to critique hyper-masculinity in the Killers’ “The Man”<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the top-selling albums of 2017 was The Killers’ <i>Wonderful Wonderful</i>, which debuted no. 1 on the billboard charts in late September. The lead single on the album was “The Man”, released back in June 2017. “The Man” is a great song, with a catchy rhythm section and melody, certainly one of the best songs The Killers have produced. There is lots of room to breathe in the melody, and they have fun playing with all of that space. The form is interesting: the chorus doesn’t come in until 1:25 into the song, after two verses and some stalling, and this delayed entrance (the first time out of the tonic key) comes with a big payoff. The 2nd time around, the chorus (B) has this pretty awesome vocal-heavy extension (B2) that only comes back after the 3rd chorus and bridge (B–C–B2). Just a few more small touches that make the song: try just following the bass on a listen—it is just spare enough during the verse, and gets increasingly complex as the song progresses, raising the tension. And I think my favorite thing in the song is this rhythm guitar 16th note figure that only comes in during the 3rd chorus.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The video is pretty great, too—it presents several versions of lead singer Brandon Flowers (or perhaps one version in different timelines) in different hyper-masculine poses: as a sequined cowboy gambler, a Las Vegas show performer, a playboy, a wannabe motorcycle stunt artist, and a guy in a wife-beater grilling steak and shooting guns outside his trailer. By the end of the video, though, all of the versions of himself have been abandoned, thrown out, shown to be a facade, or failed in some other way. Through the video, “The Man” can be read as a self-deceptive ego-trip, a satire and critique of hyper-masculinity.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The problem with the song is, however, that separated from the video, the music and lyrics do not actually convey any critique of the masculine caricature it depicts. There is no lyrical content from the song that ever signals that the hyper-masculine is something to avoid—instead, the character claims that they’ve got nothing to learn, don’t need any help, and don’t care about anyone else. The lyrics never venture quite far enough into absurdity, or at least far enough that someone taking the song at celebratory face value would notice. The lyrics never show that “the man” <i>does</i> need help or is <i>not</i> at the top of the game. This is especially problematic given our cultural moment—for example, the #MeToo movement, who criticize the very type of entitled men described in “The Man”, a movement that gained steam just a few weeks after <i>Wonderful Wonderful </i>came out.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The music doesn’t convey any satire, either. Music <i>can</i> provide irony (see my <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2014/03/irony-in-music-bnls-shopping.html" target="_blank">post from 2014 about BNL’s Shopping</a>), but in “The Man”, while the rhythm section and falsetto background vocals borrow from disco (a historically un-masculine genre), the song swaggers throughout with fist-pumping facility. There is no attempt to take down “the man” musically. Sure, this type of swagger is what rock music is good at—one could argue that is the original point of the genre. But while the video suggests an attempt that the song is something other than a celebration of toxic masculinity, the source material doesn’t give any hint of that.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a song that is supposed to critique, it is entirely too easy to take it at face value.</span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By contrast, Sting’s best song on <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/02/album-review-sting-57th-and-9th.html" target="_blank">his latest album 57th and 9th</a> was “Petrol Head”, a song also depicting hyper-masculinity, but instead with an automotive angle. It is a much more lyrically clever song and, while still not critiquing its masculine caricature much (there is a somewhat deprecating verse), the song is cheeky and inventive enough that its lack of critique is more forgivable—hyper-masculine people usually don't make lengthy allusions to Moses. Well, maybe Charlton Heston.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ll be listing to “The Man” for a while to come—after many repeated listens, I still haven’t gotten tired of it—but always with a grain of salt, and trying not to sing along with the toxic masculinity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What do you think?</span></div>
Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-27649732077653005382017-12-21T12:22:00.001-05:002018-01-18T20:40:23.953-05:00Best pop songs of 2017 mix<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/12/my-favorite-new-pop-music-albums-of-2017.html" target="_blank">Last post</a>, I presented my top six albums of 2017. But there were plenty of new songs this year not on those albums that I would recommend checking out. I made a Spotify playlist and some brief comments about each track (in no particular order):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spotify playlist link: </span><br />
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/22ja4zectgsaxjr4azetwviqi/playlist/5pbw4aPmmpKa9uxRZHGbE5"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://open.spotify.com/user/22ja4zectgsaxjr4azetwviqi/playlist/5pbw4aPmmpKa9uxRZHGbE5</span></a><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Jonathan Coulton: “All This Time” from <i>Solid State</i></b> – <i>Solid State</i> may not have really worked as a concept album or graphic novel, but it had some good tracks, including this one, which is every bit as good as classic JoCo. Also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvVNxqosZ7s" target="_blank">check out the awesome video.</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Kesha: “Spaceship” from <i>Rainbow</i></b> – Kesha shows both her Nashville roots and her millennial sensibilities in this banjo-lead track, which could have been co-written by Sufjan. I didn’t know I needed a Country-SciFi track in my life, but apparently I did! This is for all those people who feel like they don’t belong here.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beck: “Dear Life” from <i>Colors</i></b> – I prefer the more upbeat Beck, and this track delivers, with its jaunty piano and unexpected chord progressions. Add some depressing lyrics for some cognitive dissonance for an excellent recipe. And of course, there is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERoS6y5zE0Y" target="_blank">quirky lyric video</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aimee Mann: “Patient Zero” from <i>Mental Illness</i></b> – My favorite track from Aimee Mann’s latest album. As always, she excels in clever wordplay—I really enjoy the musical layering at the end of the track. Listen closely to hear Jonathan Coulton singing backup.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sylvan Esso: “Radio” from <i>What Now</i></b> – A catchy, almost radio-friendly track that also critiques pop music and the industry, culture, and fame machine behind it. The quick detuning right at the beginning of the track warns that this isn’t a typical pop hit. I dare you to try *not* to dance. You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riQLL65OMfQ" target="_blank">watch a live, completely re-imagined acoustic version of the track here</a>. Warning: there is an explicit phrase in the 2nd verse.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Somi: “Gentry" from </b><i><b>Petite Afrique</b> </i>– Not many songs about gentrification, but this jazzy track about New York from an African immigrant hits home. The chorus features a masterful word trick switching between “I want it back” and “I want it black”, and also having the music devolve into African drumming. Somi has a great voice with a large range and color. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Halsey: “Now or Never” from <i>Hopeless Fountain Kingdom</i> </b>– Just a nice, tight, present pop song with a log of space.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Chris Thile: “Falsetto” from <i>Thanks for Listening</i></b> – Thile puts the “false” in “falsetto” in this ode to the age of “fake news” from his album of collected Songs of the Week, originally heard on Prairie Home Companion, which is now called <a href="https://www.livefromhere.org/" target="_blank">Live from Here</a>. Extra credit for note placement of the word “falsetto” while Thile sings into his falsetto. And as always, good mandolin work. Is “Froggy” a symbol of the alt-right or Trump…?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lorde: “Supercut” from <i>Melodrama</i></b> – I really like the concept of this song—looking back on a relationship and seeing only the good things in a relationship, like a highlight reel, but then remembering that there were some bad parts, too; but maybe those the good parts were worth the bad parts? The pre-chorus is the best part of the song, a welcome interruption leading to a simple but effective chorus.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I’m With Her: “Little Lies” from <i>Little Lies</i></b> —This is the title track from the first EP of this acoustic newgrass supergroup of Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan. I was able to see them perform this summer, and their music is all about the magic of the three voices working together. This song is delightfully quirky, starting and ending in an expected place. I’m excited about their <a href="https://www.imwithherband.com/" target="_blank">first full album coming out next year.</a> Note: I’m With Her as a band name was coined before the Hilary Clinton campaign adopted the motto. Here's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zITEAK1i0k" target="_blank">link to the YouTube video</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>U2: “The Blackout” from <i>Songs of Experience</i></b> – U2 keeping it simple doing what they are good at, with a rocking, sing-along song about our political moment, both in the US and the UK. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaJCFHXcWmM" target="_blank">Check out the video, too</a>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Taylor Swift: “New Year’s Day" from <i>Reputation</i></b> – If you can get past the sex and myth-making on Reputation (can Taylor write a song <i>not</i> <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2012/11/songs-fact-or-fiction.html" target="_blank">about her “Taylor Swift” character</a> on a Taylor Swift album?), the music is actually pretty good, overall better than her last album, 1989, though perhaps without the stand-out hits. This statement from my <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2012/11/taylor-swifts-red.html" target="_blank">review of 2012's Red</a> is still true: “most of Taylor Swift's songs are invitations to ride on her emotions. What I think she's best at is bringing out (or bringing back) strong emotions from the past or present." I think this is still true on Reputation—it is just that a few of the emotions petty and/or shallow or otherwise hard to relate to. This song is one of the exceptions, with Swift back to her country-esque confessional mode instead of her trying-to-be-R&B-catty-mode. On a somewhat unrelated note: Swift really should have actually written a chorus for "Look What You Made Me Do".</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enjoy the playlist! And happy New Year! I’m hoping for more blog posts in 2018. Which shouldn’t be hard, considering how little I wrote this year.</span>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-77544635822417141932017-12-18T22:10:00.001-05:002017-12-18T22:10:21.039-05:00My favorite new pop music albums of 2017<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's been a while since I last posted, but now is a good time to catch up and review music from this past year. I’m going to stick with popular music for this post, mostly because that is what I’ve been listening to the most, and thanks to a trial of Amazon’s music streaming service, I was able to listen to a lot more new music than normal—this year, I listened to 33 albums of music that came out in 2017. Here were my 6 favorite albums, in no particular order. Strangely, I don’t think many of them made it on other year-end lists I’ve seen:</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Binary-Explicit-Ani-Difranco/dp/B071V6CJXV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513636846&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+difranco" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.amazon.com/Binary-Explicit-Ani-Difranco/dp/B071V6CJXV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513636846&sr=8-1&keywords=binary+difranco" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoMojfJ8YOulAwjKhWf00GaLs5EAhmtdGgBR_xywlswpHb7SdjFSPpE2ycNe9PV-5rHkAUVBgj0Evh9QrfM3UIW39BTEVO1GYU95dvntjy4stTE-0f55hevEL3OMy7lvNYSbxyzE0euJmw/s320/binarydifranco.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b><i>Binary</i> by</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Ani DiFranco </b></span>– It is rare for an established artist like DiFranco to come out with an album that is consistently good throughout. Experienced and successful artists often have to walk the thin line between sounding like their most old, successful, loved material, and still sounding new and not completely covering the same thematic ground. This is hard and not always successful (<a href="https://prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/u2-songs-of-experience" target="_blank">I’m looking at you, U2</a>). But for this album, DiFranco was able to take inspiration from her past jazz-flavored material while delving into current topical themes. Standout tracks include “Play God” (first featured in the anti-Trump <a href="http://www.30days30songs.com/" target="_blank">30 Days 30 Songs website</a>) and “Spider”. These are not vapid love songs; instead, you get to rock out while you rethink your place in the world; even the slow songs have music that keeps pace with the lyrical content, with unexpected instrument combinations.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Something-Tell-You-HAIM/dp/B072F9C8QL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513636991&sr=8-1&keywords=haim+something+to+tell+you" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.amazon.com/Something-Tell-You-HAIM/dp/B072F9C8QL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513636991&sr=8-1&keywords=haim+something+to+tell+you" border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="466" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2xM3Od3ej4UNfvhrmcsaLvrNsMIDpfvOMRvAX-DrT5xi8tkWwRZvbk071PdsIUmh4_BHMlSGyQTd-uEZcXyFdoD_GXbFi2oqaPIVvIx5e7yYe80oOrZSfu8hXNc664n6LYe0MxHsQ2eK/s320/SomethingHaim.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Something to Tell You </i></b></span>by Haim </b>– I liked it a lot; you can <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/07/album-review-haim-something-to-tell-you.html" target="_blank">read my review here</a>. Six months after the review, the album still holds up.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Search-Everything-John-Mayer/dp/B06Y3HV2N3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513637067&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Search+for+Everything+by+John+Mayer" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.amazon.com/Search-Everything-John-Mayer/dp/B06Y3HV2N3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513637067&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Search+for+Everything+by+John+Mayer" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3LI6SMs03c2hfU8UJA6IzCH6nFhK92g15R6qDyNmzxXhCzzSmlDDP9XEITiEpr3sQBVj4cxBxZkflXIgejRP_nwUAqtkfc9Bvx0dY6ZQvrBeBQs0iIlewW8YbGWS3pFRwz9kBy3b0Zxzp/s320/EverythingMayer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b><i>The Search for Everything</i></b> <b>by </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>John Mayer </b></span>– Originally released as two back-to-back EPs in January and February, this version was released as a combined album in April. I was a big fan of practically everything in Mayer’s first 3 albums, and every album release after that point, I checked in to see if his music has come back to form (besides developing some skepticism about Mayer as a decent person). Finally, for album 7, I feel like he is producing music every bit as good as those early years. While the whole album is good, moving between blues- and country-inflected songs that still feel fresh after repeated listens, standout tracks include the catchy “Still Feel Like Your Man” and “Moving On and Getting Over”, each with especially solid guitar and bass work combined with unpredictable nuggets of musical form and timbre.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/OU%C3%8F-Camille/dp/B074FRJ1BX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513637432&sr=8-1&keywords=oui+camille" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.amazon.com/OU%C3%8F-Camille/dp/B074FRJ1BX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513637432&sr=8-1&keywords=oui+camille" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrD_8k5Aqwqyae1u2_Qo4oWvt0U-bla3qG-azY7mLg-3XsOsGl3zB4jFYwlDf5gUV0c2NbsRY_inGS3eTIE7sjShfm9fklTc4cm1edLJGbloFOBPGSJ9YSaStKON4gnK356j1RDTIAXht/s320/OuiCamille.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b><i>Ouï</i> by</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Camille </b></span>– Speaking of artists that started strong and later disappointed, French singer Camille’s first two albums were really exciting and novel works of art. But her third album, produced entirely in English, felt like an album specifically designed to break into the US market and as such spectacularly failed, lacking the authenticity of the earlier albums. I lost track of Camille after that, but this year I caught wind of her latest, <i>Ouï</i>, a play on French for “yes” and the verb “to hear.” It is every bit as good as those first albums. While she has thankfully abandoned body percussion in favor of drum machines, her supreme, layered vocal delivery (sometimes looped, but not noticeably boringly looped) is still the focus. This album has a lot of variety from medieval to electronic; the album works well as a whole, but if I was forced to pick standouts, I’d say “Lasso” and “Twix”. Even the few songs in English don’t seem to pander.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Evolve-Imagine-Dragons/dp/B071VFNW2H/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513637520&sr=8-1&keywords=Evolve+by+Imagine+Dragons" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.amazon.com/Evolve-Imagine-Dragons/dp/B071VFNW2H/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513637520&sr=8-1&keywords=Evolve+by+Imagine+Dragons" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREOEDb2nNZT67J4z6NOs08Cat-zk978o4-IMdd_9ypvNfnyzVQDE9gnih0NCMPWVoJBX15Zj_oihE861XFxi86paYCz_gRkv1EDc0QskoWkR-IHnXAAUPBIH4fM0vVcRQqVZ0xqzcswRi/s320/EvolveDragons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Evolve</i></b> by </span>Imagine Dragons </b>– Beside the big hits from Imagine Dragons’ previous albums, I really haven’t followed the band, despite them coming out of the music scene in my hometown, Provo, Utah. But I heard the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhP3J0j9JmY" target="_blank">lead single “Believer”</a> and was impressed not only at the depth and vulnerability of the lyrics, but at the originality of the music (to start, how many pop hits are in compound meter?). I took one listen, and then many more listens, to the whole album and was impressed by how varied the album was. Despite being the typical 4-person rock band, each track sounded totally different and none were throwaway or forgettable. From the memorable sing-along chorus in “Walking the Wire” to the mostly-vocal drinking song “Yesterday” to the 80s throwback “Start Over”, this album felt like a classic from the first listen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans</i> </b></span>by Palette-Swap Ninja</b> – Maybe this is not technically new, being a re-working of old material, but I don’t care. I’m including it anyway as one of the best artistic creations of the last year. Having written a few parody songs, I know how hard it can be to write meaningf</span>ul lyrics to extant music. And this is not simply a parody song but a parody album, completely rewriting all songs of the Beatles’ <i>Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band</i>. And not only is it an album, each song in order follows chronologically the plot of <i>Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope</i>. And they made a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8s6sSjUyaxUk3mCUqiNuJiMNxs9QdthO" target="_blank">*video* of the whole thing</a>. Also amazingly, neither Disney nor Sony ATV has issued a take-down order. The first time I watched the video, I thought I was just going to dip in, but then could not stop watching. Every time I have listened or watched, I have marveled at the sheer creatively genius and basked in the ingenuity, besides being entertained. If you haven’t seen it, and especially if you need some Star Wars cool-off after <i>The Last Jedi</i>, give yourself a treat and watch the whole thing. And prepare to be amazed. You can also <a href="http://www.paletteswapninja.com/music" target="_blank">download the audio album for free</a>. So why not? Here is the first track:</span><br />
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Later this week, I will be posting my Best of 2017 Mix, featuring a bunch of new songs this year from albums other than the ones featured here. So stay tuned! Not that a blog is a radio! So maybe stay Facebooked!Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-66987230266550890312017-07-31T19:49:00.000-04:002017-07-31T19:49:27.992-04:00Album Review: HAIM, Something to Tell You<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">When I listened to HAIM’s 2013 first album <i>Days Are Gone</i> for the first time, I was enjoying myself too much to examine what the music was actually doing. 3.5 years later, <i>Days Are Gone</i> still sounds as fresh as it did when I first heard it—it still is in my album rotation and I keep hearing new things when I listen to it. I didn’t really understand the backlash against the album—for instance when<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jim DeRogatis from Sound Opinions said that the <a href="http://www.soundopinions.org/show/410/#haim" target="_blank">album had "too many hooks,”</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">to which I responded “Complaining that an album has too many hooks is like complaining that a novel has too many well-written sentences.”</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Now, HAIM has a brand new album, <i>Something to Tell You</i>, with plenty of new well-written musical sentences, along with some stellar and varied production. Many reviews have been placing this new album squarely in the past, the basic premise being: the music itself doesn't have much new to say, but it is good music. I think that is not quite right—Tom Breiham, <a href="http://www.stereogum.com/1949737/premature-evaluation-haim-something-to-tell-you/franchises/premature-evaluation/" target="_blank">in his Stereogum review</a>, put it better, suggesting that "HAIM’s music doesn’t even belong to a genre"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">because it draws from so many influences and it constructs from these blocks meticulously and seamlessly. And what is new music, but reconfiguring things from the past? But like many music other reviewers, Breihan did not offer up many specific musical elements that were borrowed (though he did point out some little production gems). It's <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2012/09/the-importance-of-musical-vocabulary.html" target="_blank">the comparative trap</a> that so many music critics fall back to—using a band name comparison as a shorthand without explaining the connection, as if bands weren't multi-faceted.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Instead of taking time to point out the borrowings (which I'm sure are not easy to explain, anyway, and is why critics are avoiding doing it), I want to highlights a few great moments in the album that to me seem innovative:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After maybe the twelfth time I listened to “I Want Back,” I was trying to figure out why the song didn’t get boring since there is so much repetition of the short chorus phrase. Besides a lot of the accompanying parts shifting around the melody, I finally noticed that in the 2nd half of the song, the bass line hardly ever comes back to tonic. Besides keeping us wanting more repetition to get back to tonic, it also musically underlines that this person the song is addressing has not, in fact, come back yet. When the final move to tonic happens, it’s with a very thin acoustic strum with some sped-up melody lines (perhaps the melody backwards?) that are just kind of thrown out. The video for this track is pretty good too—catchy, difficult to film, and understated:</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In “Little of Your Love,” there’s a great guitar line that is hinted at, but really only fully realized during the fade-out—leaving us feeling like they are conveying the message: “hey, this song is just as rocking as a we wanted it to be” and leading us to want more.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In “Ready for You,” probably the catchiest song on the album, there are kind of <i>two</i> choruses (which forgives a somewhat uninspired 1st chorus that turns out to be a pre-chorus). In the “2nd” chorus, the vocal harmony parts are so well written, first staying high and then filling out the middle part for the title phrase “I wasn’t ready for you.” At the end of the bridge, there is a weird chromatic descending vocal part leading to a pretty trippy breakdown of the “2nd” chorus. Throughout the song, there is an amazing amount of space in the beat (especially in the verse) that allows for lots of playing—maybe this is what can happen when drummers write songs.</span></li>
<li><span class="s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Right Now” starts out with what seems like a spare 4-beat, but when the harmony voices come in, you aren’t quite so sure—maybe the bass drum is hitting on beat 3, instead? Or maybe the song is in 3 instead of 4? The whole song keeps the listener guessing where the bottom of the beat is. According <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/07/07/535811148/haim-explains-the-heartache-and-joy-of-its-new-album-track-by-track" target="_blank">to an NPR interview</a>, </span><span class="s1" style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this song was actually designed to have all three HAIM sisters playing drums, which was their first instrument—the fluidity of the beat certainly lends itself to that. It is not often you hear that a pop song was developed to solve a musical or performance puzzle, instead of to express an emotion or thought.</span></li>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Finally, a general comment about the album: a close listen reveals a lot of vocal manipulation and sampling—pushing voices high, or low, autotuned, sped up, thrown into low-fi, made to sound like a guitar or extra reverb added for just one note (this alone should place the album squarely in the present). There is so much variation, I can’t help but think that every decision was purposeful. The instrumental decision are similar—several times in the album thick textures will fall away </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for a dramatic effect</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, leaving an instrumental texture we haven’t heard before.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I don’t think this album has as many memorable moments or a well-written songs as <i>Days Are Gone</i> (and perhaps too many sudden endings), but <i>Something to Tell You </i>has musical as well as relationship message to convey and is still a great listen all the way through that keeps on giving. I recommend a listen.</span></span></div>
Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921567004864315541.post-5832064338328428732017-06-26T21:02:00.000-04:002017-06-26T21:02:23.130-04:00Parody and copyright, pt. 2: When the copyright owner holds all the chips<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last March, I wrote about my experience <a href="http://www.signifyingsoundandfury.com/2017/03/what-happens-when-you-post-parody-video.html" target="_blank">posting a parody music video on YouTube.</a> I got some encouragement from my readers to dispute EMI’s copyright claim to the music video, and so I went ahead and submitted my dispute. When I entered the dispute process, YouTube presented me with a list of pre-selected possible arguments for the dispute. I selected the option “this video uses copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder. It is fair use under copyright law,” then wrote a very brief explanation that this music video was a parody and protected under Fair Use. Here's a screenshot of my dispute submission:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLigqrVMK14jXMvuy7ENMZ_nIoRAmCfsgfmVgw69qj-zsVIH54ETjQd8slpfnCtBa3jrM08o9MhlxY0VfoLjMKmW9XmYXg3GgnAns7GCMPuv-PAOfKnvS0gq1ag-DLUr83GOx_SQYpV7hyphenhyphen/s1600/Ganymede+dispute.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="516" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLigqrVMK14jXMvuy7ENMZ_nIoRAmCfsgfmVgw69qj-zsVIH54ETjQd8slpfnCtBa3jrM08o9MhlxY0VfoLjMKmW9XmYXg3GgnAns7GCMPuv-PAOfKnvS0gq1ag-DLUr83GOx_SQYpV7hyphenhyphen/s320/Ganymede+dispute.jpeg" width="308" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />At the top of the screenshot, you see the tail end of the 20(!) organizations that have a copyright claim on “Dynamite.” Also, note the threatening language of terms and conditions.<br /><br />I got a response from YouTube only a few days later in an email: “After reviewing your dispute, Sony ATV Publishing has decided that their copyright claim is still valid.” They are keeping my video up and continuing to monetize it—exactly what they were doing before. I wasn’t given an exact reason, but instead a list of two possible reasons:<br /><br /> • The copyright owner might disagree with your dispute.<br /> • The reason you gave for disputing the claim may have been insufficient or invalid.<br /><br />In other words, the publisher itself (notice the official copyright claimant has changed from EMI to Sony ATV—Sony ATV owns EMI publishing, but I'm not sure why the initial claim when through as EMI and then changed during the dispute) made the sole legal judgement about the Fair Use of their own intellectual property. There is no outside or impartial judge making these decisions—the publisher has all the power. So unless the publisher decides that the music used is a completely different composition (and maybe not even then), they have no incentive to grant the appeal. Further, though I needed to give a reason for the dispute, they didn’t even need to give a reason why the dispute was turned down. I think it is very possible Sony ATV didn’t actually watch the video—instead, they probably researched the person who filed a dispute (me) to see if they had a lawyer. The whole process is fishy, but YouTube probably agreed to the process for two reasons: 1) it is two expensive to hire their own lawyers to handle the appeals, and 2) the publishers have the financial power to slap YouTube with a very expensive lawsuit, whether right or wrong, and YouTube would rather be making money on the videos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now, there is a process to appeal the dispute decision, but from what I understand, the stakes are higher:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKoJltFtwjpmmuahSYH2xZEXzn1ii_NrBvHMXNqI-8VJDBtscwuDJPYNNl5Tw7CJbU4ldMvQZvF9Q3d0Y-IgjwUmqYJphoOSCzwmi6U1ZSj1bErYdpdMyHXqQummJTugp7eRDRr6tGgdY9/s1600/Ganymede+dispute+3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="508" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKoJltFtwjpmmuahSYH2xZEXzn1ii_NrBvHMXNqI-8VJDBtscwuDJPYNNl5Tw7CJbU4ldMvQZvF9Q3d0Y-IgjwUmqYJphoOSCzwmi6U1ZSj1bErYdpdMyHXqQummJTugp7eRDRr6tGgdY9/s320/Ganymede+dispute+3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />If I appeal, there is no option of keeping the video up—either I win and the video stays up without monetization, or it gets taken down. But for the publisher, the decision is exactly the same the second time around—and since I don’t have a lawyer, there is still no incentive for the publisher to do anything but deny my claim again. As I would prefer to have my video up, making a very small amount of money for Sony ATV, I’m not planning on doing filing a second appeal. </span>Peter Shirtshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12127694194498636105noreply@blogger.com3