On February 24th Beck will release his 12th studio album, Morning Phase. The chameleonic singer has undergone yet another sea change and turns in an effort that is far different from his last major release, Modern Guilt. That album had a fun bounce that surprised summer audiences with carefree jams that tapped into the singer’s urgent roots. Morning Phase, however, is a much more reflective album that plays on the artist’s quieter sensibilities.
Thanks to iTunes Radio’s first play stream, I have enjoyed listening to the album as I cut across the winding back roads that make up my morning commute. The music, like the sun that cuts through the pine trees on my way to work, glimmers and shimmers in beautifully layered instrumentation and bright, floating vocals. Every musical touch is full of well thought out nuance. From the lift of orchestral strings to the quiet strum of acoustic guitar, the album has a quiet, apparitional feel that relaxes the spirit. The lyrics are well constructed and show flashes of Beck’s inventive flair but they do not impose themselves on you like some of the artist’s other works. This album is all about the sum of its parts and while there are standout tracks, like “Blackbird Chain” and “Wave”, the record is best enjoyed in its entirety.
Fans not familiar with Beck’s break up masterpiece, Sea Change, may experience surprise when listening to the mature vocal performance that connects all the tracks together. While it’s not quite as shocking as Bob Dylan’s non-nasal country croon on Nashville Skyline, it does take the listener aback if they are expecting an Odelay style folk-rap repeat. The album, however, will grow on you as each track reveals something new with repeat listening.
Morning Phase may very well make a lot of Best of 2014 lists and it is an early favorite to make Formulate Infinity’s top albums rundown at year’s end. The record also leaves me hoping that after 6 years of exiled experimentation, Beck is ready to go through yet another fruitful period of producing great and varied music. Only time will tell. One thing is certain, his next album will sound nothing like Morning Phase. Until then, enjoy.
Since the devastatingly boring Super Bowl, the pages of Formulate Infinity have been silent. That is about to change, starting with this post on re-commitment.
I’m not sure if it was the birth of my first baby, that I am turning 34 this year, or that I am just a prime target for self-inflicted punishment. Maybe it was watching Pearl Jam kick out the jams in Charlotte without compromise. My generation’s musical representatives reconnecting me to my youthful hopes and aspirations. Whatever the source of inspiration, sometime in early November I decided to recommit myself to some lifelong interests. These pursuits include everything from writing (this blog) to playing music again.
For the average person, there are major hurdles to pursuing what you enjoy. The first hurdle is economic. America has one of the most productive work forces on this earth because we commit ourselves to long hours to get the job done. I often find my work bleeding into the time I spend at home. Technology has become mobile and spread a “work from anywhere” ethos. This has only made the problem more pervasive. That, and the fact that most of us now need two jobs to survive, has put many folk’s lifelong interests and hobbies on hold.
I will always work in the field of public education because I believe in the intrinsic value of working for the public good. Our society, however, has yet to reward our hard-working teachers monetarily for the sacrifices they make in the name of raising the nation’s children. When I am not busy helping these teachers use technology in their classrooms, I am busy teaching two online classes from home. I truly enjoy teaching children across our great state but sometimes I wish the money I make from doing it wasn’t so necessary.
The second major hurdle is life itself. Things happen that derail our commitments. A family member gets sick. A friend in need demands our attention. We sacrifice our time to help others. I have experienced this with my grandfather. It is way more important to live life than write about it. I have spent the last several weekends visiting him and praying for him to recover from a devastating fall. While doing this, I feel an intense guilt that I am spending more time with my family because of tragedy. We have all rallied in the name of helping both my grandparents. I love my family dearly and it will be a long time before I let work and other life pursuits push them aside. That is a young man’s move. Now that I have a family of my own, I know the proper life order of things.
Hurdles, like the one’s I mentioned above, aren’t necessarily excuses but they can veer us off the path we’ve paved for ourselves when it comes to pursuing self-imposed goals. For that reason, I think it is much harder to lose track of those pursuits if you put them in writing. It is one of the main reasons I started this blog. For this reason, I am listing the things I want to continue to work on and improve upon as the year 2014 moves forward.
Here it is writing:
Family: First and foremost, I commit myself to being a family man. The sharing of baby boy with family and friends has been one of life’s great rewards. Next to meeting and marrying my one true love, there is nothing compared to the feeling I get when holding our new bundle of joy. I want to make sure I honor these life blessings by calling, visiting and hugging those I love more often.
Health: If I am truly committed to my family, then it is important that I also recommit myself to healthy living. While I have always been a fairly healthy eater, I am making an effort to moderate other things like drink and sweets. I am also exercising more. I am happy to report that I just finished my first month of Insanity workouts. It’s amazing how much better one can feel when you establish a daily exercise routine.
Writing: My recommit to writing, with this blog, is obviously in full effect. I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts, opinions and memories, even if it has been for a limited audience. Writing often is how you improve your craft. It has been a long time since the days when I used to scribble poetry into a spiral notebook, but I feel that I have reconnected with that young version of myself by maintaining this blog. While I hope to write a book someday, this blog will help me prepare for the moment when I am ready to pursue it full tilt.
Music: To me, playing music is an extension of writing because I often play to channel my own self-expression. While it is difficult to carve out the time, I have been lucky in this category. My friend Jan recently loaned me an electric guitar and I am now playing and recording with it. My new MacBook Pro makes this so enjoyable. I’ve even found a way to turn my iPhone into an effects pedal. Very cool. Just got to keep it in headphone land so I don’t wake baby boy, lol.
Hopefully, this list will help me remain accountable to these pursuits. No matter what, number one will always be number one. The other re-commitments should hold up but it will be a challenge. One day at a time, living life to the fullest should do the trick.
In 1986 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted 10 of rock’s most influential musicians into its inaugural class: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and . . . The Everly Brothers.
Phil Everly, the younger brother of the influential Everly music duo, passed away yesterday. The vocal group has had far-reaching influence ranging from other singing duos like Simon and Garfunkel to the harmonizing style of Rock and Roll acts like The Beatles. The Everlys took the clean instrumentation of Nashville and turned it on its head with teenage themes and early rock arrangements. Their music has a timeless quality and their greatness can still be heard to this day. While they produced countless hits like “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love” and “All I Have to Do is Dream,” they also produced whole albums of brilliant and captivating songs.
I was recently reminded of this brilliance with the surprise re-recording of the Everly classic, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, by Norah Jones and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. The new album, Foreverly, manages to please the ear at every turn. While Jones has long been known to have multi-genre vocal chops, Armstrong’s deviation from the comfort zone of his punk garage-rock scream is a true revelation. He has a natural croon that blends masterfully with Jones’s smoky feminine sound. The album’s arrangement and instrumentation are different from the Everly’s original recording. The record does, however, stay true to the Everly’s singing sound. The masterful harmonizing of Jones and Armstrong really sets the record apart from other cover albums. With so much music being overproduced and auto-tuned to death, it is refreshing to hear real singers singing real music, uncompromised. The album serves as a touching coda to The Everly Brothers body of work as yet another generation of musicians discovers their contribution to Rock and Roll.
So if you have time today, give thanks for the songs the Everlys taught us. Their music is for the ages. From one younger brother to another, thanks Phil!
After reviewing my 2013 Albums of the Year list, I noticed I forgot to mention my three honorable mentions. While Dylan’s Another Self Portraitwas a revelation, these three albums also received heavy rotation.
Honorable Mentions:
I picked up the Sarah Jarosz’s Build Me Up From Bones and the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Made Up Mind in Blowing Rock, NC on a family tailgating trip to see the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Both records are exquisite. This is Jarosz’s third album and she continues to refine her bluegrass femme fatale sound. I’ve been a fan since her first record release and the wisdom and heartache in her voice resonates throughout her work. While only 22, Jarosz presence is as timeless as the bluegrass tradition itself.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Made Up Mind record is also stellar. I saw Derek Trucks when he was thirteen at a local spot in Greensboro, NC. To this day his solo guitar performance of “America the Beautiful” is the best rendition I have ever heard. Derek has now transformed his solo project into a family band that feature his fiery soul singing wife, Susan Tedeschi, on lead vocals. The record will blow you away. It is by far one of the bluesiest, grooviest, earth quaking recordings to break through this year.
Last but not least is the 20th Anniversary release of Nirvana’s In Utero. The super deluxe edition comes with 3 CDs and 1 DVD, a remastered version of the album plus 31 bonus tracks, 17 live tracks from their Live and Loud performance at Pier 48 in Seattle (12/13/93) and 11 bonus videos. The packaging does not disappoint either. This is all window dressing, however, for one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Putting it back in the rotation taps you into the loud purity that made Nirvana the tour de force of 90s rock.
With F.I.’s Favorite Albums of 2013 officially in the books, it’s now time to turn our attention to the music that could have been. Relying heavily on Sound Opinion’s Best Albums of 2013 Podcast and Album of the Year’s Best Albums Aggregator, I have assembled the following list. The review blurbs are from the music sites referenced in parentheses.
The list itself is fairly eclectic and references artists that at one time, or another, received heavy rotation on my iTunes music player. Mazzy Star, Deltron 3030, NIN and Nick Cave have long-held my high regard and it’s great to discover new music from such venerable acts. Of these artists, Mazzy Star’s new album excites me the most because it’s been almost 17 years since their last recording. Their wispy-daydream sound is enchanting and I cannot wait to rock baby boy to sleep as we listen to Hope Sandavol sing under pedal steel stars.
While not on the official list, Beck’s Song Reader deserves recognition. He is one of my favorite all-time artists and I totally dig the concept behind his latest album. Only released as sheet music, Beck has invited the world over to share their interpretations on his site, Songreader.net. It’s a brilliant mash-up of both old and new technologies. While the available amateur recordings are a blast, I cannot wait to checkout Beck’s own interpretations from his official Song Reader Celebration concert.
The other half of the list are albums by artists that managed to stay off my musical radar. It will take a lot for them to supplant 2012’s late year discovery, Gary Clark Jr. and his fantastic Blak and Blu album. With Spotify fired up, the early returns on these new acts sound promising. The Savages bring a mean punch and according to the guys at Sound Opinions, have a lead singer whose live presence is the biggest thrill since Kurt Cobain. John Grant is the best singer-song writter on this list and he has received high praise across the music publishing spectrum. Caitlin Rose and Parquet Courts were both shared by my brother, the infamous Uncle B. Rose’s work is in the alt-country vein and the Courts offer punky punch pleasure. Low has my interest peaked because their album was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and if the song Plastic Cup is any indication, they are an inventive band worthy of air play. Last but not least is Darkside. Their Psychic album is strictly for headphone land and I cannot wait to take in its sonic vapor. It promises to defy genres and should serve as a great mental-escape soundscape.
Mazzy Star: Seasons Of Your Day(TinyMixTapes) Seasons of Your Dayis album music that is supposed to be played in sequence on a record player with a cup of tea and a good book. As ever, it’s rapturous makeout music. It’s music for unrepentant daydreamers. But the record’s dusty functionality should not be held against it, especially when the people involved have spent so many years carving out such a particular niche. Sandoval and her collaborators may never modify the melancholy torch that they bear, but they keep that fire masterfully for those of us who still have a yen for patient, no-frills sounds that happen to serve as a miracle balm.
Savages: Silence Yourself (PRETTY MUCH AMAZING) Savages’ smart reorganization and shuffling of punk, post-punk, krautrock, and noise music into something brutal, jarringly confrontational, and completely singular is a breath of fresh air and an unignorable statement of power and resistance.
John Grant: PaleGreen Ghost (MusicOMH) On the strength of Pale Green Ghosts, John Grant should rightfully be entering his own. It’s a towering achievement, building on what has come before while expanding it in astonishing ways. This is undoubtedly one of the best albums of the year and after so many thwarted attempts, the world is finally Grant’s for the taking.
Deltron 3030: Event II (HipHopDX) The album’s intro, narrated impeccably by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, informs us that Event II takes place 10 years after the events of the first album (i.e. in the year 3040). “Event II” is a true spiritual successor to the original Deltron 3030 project, and it’s everything fans could have asked for.
Low: The Invisible Way (A.V. Club) Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produces Low for the first time here, and it can’t be a coincidence that there’s a marked, if stark, country-rock tint to Invisible. It’s as if Low has taken its tried-and-true songwriting formula—a slow buildup into a smoldering climax—and stretched it to the length of an entire album. And an entirely superb one.
Caitlin Rose: The Stand-In (MusicOMH) Those who were endeared by Rose’s debut may be surprised, hopefully pleasantly, by the change in tone and attitude shown on The Stand-In. Nevertheless, it is a delightful record – one that could well see her high-kicking herself into major success. It would be well deserved.
Nine Inch Nails: Hesitation Marks (ALLMUSIC) Hesitation Marks makes it quite clear that Trent Reznor is no longer an angry young man but rather a restless, inventive artist who is at peace with himself, and the result is a record that provides real, lasting nourishment.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away(CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND) Richly arranged, masterfully sequenced, and full of brooding, Push the Sky Away combines the stately beauty of The Boatman’s Call and No More Shall We Part with the intensity of Grinderman/Lazarus-era Cave while managing to sound like neither.
Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold (The Fly) An album of urgent art-punk verve and rattling brevity, its 15 songs pass in 33 raucous and immediately re-listenable minutes. It’s a pitching and yawing listen, and it’s compelling and punchy in a way that’ll have you bouncing straight out of your chair.
Darkside: Psychic (Spin Magazine) The pair’s influences range from Dark Prince-era Miles Davis material to Portishead’s Dummy (see “Metatron”) to dark disco (“The Only Shrine I’ve Seen”) to even a few licks of Portuguese fado, all of it spare but sensuous — mood music for watching e-cig vapor curl.
On February 24th Beck will release his 12th studio album, Morning Phase. The chameleonic singer has undergone yet another sea change and turns in an effort that is far different from his last major release, Modern Guilt. That album had a fun bounce that surprised summer audiences with carefree jams that tapped into the singer’s urgent roots. Morning Phase, however, is a much more reflective album that plays on the artist’s quieter sensibilities.
