As fall beckons we are greeted with a number of new and interesting releases. Don’t forget that given two stars or five, everything covered here offers something for someone. Be sure to continue supporting our fine, locally-owned record stores, letting them know with your dollars how glad we are to have them.
David Byrne and St. Vincent
Love This Giant
4AD Music
For anyone who saw St. Vincent Annie Clark’s stunning performance at last year’s Moog Fest the prospect of her collaborating with David Byrne is nothing short of exhilarating. Clark, the genre blending songstress, and Byrne, one of the late 20th century’s most artful musical alchemists, join forces to see what sparks fly. At first glance it’s a perfect pairing of cerebral pop. But, has the end product lived up to expectations? The answer is a resounding yes!
Boldly constructed around brass band instrumentation, they manage to avoid the self conscious excess that occasionally thwarts Byrnes’ own post Talking Heads work. Instead, such delights as “Weekend in the Dust,” “Dinner for Two,” and the roustabout shuffle “Lightning,” are given a rhythmic slink that straddles funk, Afro beat, and cool Philadelphia soul.
Recorded at Water Music in Hoboken, close enough to the Manhattan turf both artists inhabit, Love This Giant is buoyed by the presence of ace producer John Congleton and members of the Dap-Kings. But it’s Byrne and Clark’s unique vision that guides the album, while Byrne in particular seems rejuvenated by the collaboration. The result may not be a concept album per se, but the pair explore such themes as individuality, community, love, and death with a thoroughness and cohesion that demonstrates how each helped guide the other into creative spaces they might not have otherwise explored.
Given the density of Love This Giant, it’s a remarkably catchy exploration, and one of the most fun projects to which Byrne has ever been attached. Given the glorious run of Talking Heads that is indeed remarkable. *****
Bob Mould
Silver Age
Merge Records
Penning his memoir (See a Little Light: the Trail of Rage and Melody) seems to have put the former Husker Du front man in a decidedly wistful mood, as Bob Mould’s return to recording spews forth with the sort of kinetic urgency that he hasn’t displayed since the days of Sugar.
Last year Mould revisited his glorious past by performing the album Copper Blue – easily his fiercest and most metal laden work – on stage and in its entirety. Here he takes things a step further by reuniting with bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster to crank up the amps and deliver a searing sixty minutes of power trio rock.
There’s little here that would qualify as finesse – the acoustic guitars seem to have been locked away in a vault – but what we do get is lean and clean muscle, the sort of rapid fire bursts that made Husker such a liberating alternative to arena rock. With rare exception The Silver Age (a coy reference to Mould having entered his 50’s), is in constant motion, seesawing between the tense energy of “The Descent” and the classic power pop of “Round the City Square.”
The material is as lean and tuneful as any Mould has ever written, but mistaking The Silver Age as some mere journey to the past would be a mistake: instead it’s the work of an artist looking ahead, with both eyes on the road and a clear picture of where he’s going.*****
Ian Hunter and the Rant Band
When I’m President
Slim Style Records
Unlike his label mate and fellow 1970’s Brit darling, Nick Lowe, Ian Hunter has never felt the need to redirect his music to reflect changes in temperament and physiology. He’s the same cantankerous bastard that fronted Mott the Hoople, and, if time has taken its toll on the 73 year old rocker, you’d be hard pressed to tell from this record.
Coinciding with the upcoming elections, When I’m President is part protest record and part full blown rock out. Last year’s brief but successful Mott reunion likely gave Hunter an opportunity to pause, reflect, and reload. As such, When I’m President is replete with the same sort of skewed humor that marked 2007’s Shrunken Heads. But, while that comeback disc showed Hunter at his most expansive, the new album takes him (and us) back to his glory days of three chord boogie.
Backed by the rant band, the music is an earthy mix of slowly cooked blues, Stones fashioned rockers, and even a bit of gospel. By interspersing one among the others Hunter deftly emphasizes the strengths of each; the slow numbers make the up-tempo bit seem a bit livelier.
As in his past few albums, there’s a couple of throwaway numbers as well as tossed-off references to his advancing years. But Hunter is too keen a figure – he’s surely done and seen it all – to spend much time dwelling on such matters. He mind is clearly in the present, and that offers more than enough to keep him and his audience happy. ***1/2
Chip Taylor and the Grandkids
Golden Kids Rules
Matching Mole Records
Since his 1996 return to recording (following a two decade hiatus), the composer of “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning” has been on a tear, releasing a whopping 19 albums of new material.
His last few albums were largely a nostalgic look back at the roots of country and rock – early years of which Taylor was an important (although somewhat inconspicuous) part. And while Taylor has written hundreds of songs in virtually every imaginable genre, yet Golden Kids Rules marks his first album of children’s songs, (earlier this year he released F**k All the Perfect People, an album decidedly not for kids).
Golden Kids, recorded with his three granddaughters, promises to be part of a Smithsonian Folkways series celebrating Taylor’s long career. According to the liner notes, penned by Taylor’s brother and actor Jon Voight, the notion of adults singing with the kids is a longstanding family tradition.
The last three songs on the album were written specifically for his son’s wedding, and Taylor, realizing he was onto a good thing, just kept going. They are among the best things here (especially “The Possum Hunter”), while the other tunes straddle a musical line between shuffling folk, country, and roots rock. In other words not much different from Taylor’s usual offerings.
The songs deal with the importance of common sense rules (“Golden Kids Rules”), compassionate ways of dealing with death (“Quarter Moon Shining”), and the importance of goals (“Big Ideas”). “Kids Save the Planet” is an environmental anthem that seems a bit forced, while the paean to generosity, “You Can Come and Play with Our Toys,” belabors an obvious point. Well, perhaps obvious to some. But those are minor quibbles.
The kids sing as well as any other their age, and Taylor clearly enjoys their company. It’s no enduring classic, but for spending an afternoon of quality time, one could do far, far, worse. ***