Yay, sleepy drums. Put me in the mood for…here it comes…Leonard
Dylan Reed Morby whoa whoa whoa low voice. Strong start, at least in the sense
that it sounds like it could have been on the last album and maybe I just
missed it. I like opening with a transition from day to night. The panflute
halfway through as the moon comes out is a little heavy-handed, but at least
it’s in the background. I still appreciate the effort, and the snare rolls once
it happens sound like ocean waves rolling in. B++ but I can see some extra
credit in time because the composition seems very intentional.
Crybaby
Song two starting now…Anonymous Rex has colored this for me in
advance by saying I will know it. But I don’t know it yet. Good job me for
forgetting everything that happened yesterday. (PS I listened to the first four songs by mistake yesterday) But hopefully he meant I’d know
it because it’s pretty darn good. If the first song and a half are any
indication the writing is really strong on this album. Hooray! There are
lyrical themes within the song and already alluded to between the first two
songs, unless I’m projecting. Solitude, hands, hands, alone. And I will
definitely sing “COME ON, CRY, CRY BABY” at the top of my lungs to all the kids.
1234
Oh yeah, I do remember 1234. Bad job me for remembering what
I forgot. This song is fine I guess but I remember wishing it was further back
in the album and now I still do. I can’t understand some of the lyrics because
RETRO FUZZ, Y’ALL and also HEY DID YOU KNOW MORBY LIKES THE RAMONES? I know the
names of the Ramones. I don’t know that I need a chorus to perform memory
drills. Yes, they died so thanks for reminding me.
Oh good, song four gets right back to it. I appreciate
masculine voices singing about loving males – Bill Callahan does it well too
without making it about gay/straight. The breathy “haha” is so great and I love
the line “for you to remain a part of me”. But guitar solo within the first
minute and a half. It’s no Wilco but it’s still a guitar solo so I’m glad it
ends quickly. Overall the imagery in this is terrific. I really like songs with
a “train” beat (Orange Blossom Special!) and this is right up there with the
nice figurative addition of him being the train with people getting on and off.
Kind of makes me wish I had been on a train more than like three times in my
life and then only for short tour rides but then I remember that all public
transportation is terrible so I’m happy I haven’t.
More crying! Yay! “dryereyes” is a nice strange combined
word. I like using it almost as an instrument instead of words. Morby says
“ain’t” a lot. I wonder if he really talks that way or if it’s an affectation.
Some Lou Reed doo-wop in this which only adds to the Lou Reed impersonation.
This song is OK but doesn’t do a lot for me.
I hate story interludes or “skits” on albums. This one is no
better, and this woman’s voice is annoying. I could do without those 41
seconds.
Good thing this song has a beautiful guitar sound to kick it
off. Don’t tell me no stories, guitar. Is this instrumental? I’m not sure.
There’s no singing after two minutes but I’m OK with that because I’m still mad
about the stupid woman. Oh wait…now singing. I wish this album and song weren’t
called City Music because the cover and Morby already kind of look like
Moonface and now I’ll always confuse this with City Wrecker. I can live with it
though. Maybe the dumb story was to leave me more open to this concept. Did you
know that Tom Waits made a song “Coney Island Baby” 25 years after Lou Reed
did, who in turn made one like 10 years after a doo-wop song named the same
thing? I need to listen to this more closely because I started to wander. Oh
yeah, clap clap clap at four minutes. I wonder if the two-minute break points
are intentional.
Tin Can
Tin can up in the sky? Go Bowie! I have the softest of spots
for songs about lonely astronauts. And he mentioned Stranger In A Strange Land
indirectly! Kinda wishing this Tin Can wasn’t so herky jerky – every time it
gets going it stops again. It deserves to be catchier because it talks about
breathing and YAY there’s the sun again. Lots of sun and moon! But guitar solo,
oh no. At least he doesn’t let them go on too long. I might force myself to
like this song. It’s not the greatest the first time through but I think I can
learn to love it. Now there’s some soulfunk at the end and I have to be missing
something. Maybe this is the progress of time represented musically. Or a funk
soul brother.
I feel like the album is losing me but at least not in a
smooth jazz sax kind of way. This song is kind of sleepy and so am I. The
bongos are bongos. I think I’m being hypnotized. I don’t like the 60s chintz of
this song one bit. Each of the parts on their own might be fine (maybe not that
screechy high voice in the background) but together they don’t do anything for
me. Hypnotism failed.
Come on now…finish strong! The third to last song is called
“Night Time” but didn’t we hit night time a long time ago? I just peeked ahead
and see that next we’re going to heaven. I hope someone dies in this song.
Maybe this Ezra person. Isn’t Ezra a boy’s name? Why is he saying “she”? Is
Morby Jewish enough to know an Ezra? Why isn’t this song making me focus on it?
Maybe I got hypnotized after all. There’s a good head-bobbing rhythm to this
song but it’s no Neil Young. I’m digging the ebb and flow of the album at this
point, even down to the ordering of the songs where they recede and then grow
in length. I like when artists can use clichés (“bright lights, big city” here)
but not have them sound trite. The line “if you walked a mile in my shoes, what
would you choose?” reminds me of Dylan and Lou Reed at the same time. Nice. The
way this song closes out is great.
Time for death, “Pearly Gates”. Give it to me. Aaaand…you
didn’t disappoint! What a delightful opening line! “In my time of sorrow/do you
have a song that I could borrow” brings me right where I need to be. The “Sweet
Jane” theft is totally forgivable here. Oh hey, heavenly choir. I like that,
but I don’t like the electronic organ afterward. I think we had that same organ
when I was a kid. But then a kettle drum, more choir, and lines like “little
girls with long hair/throwing songs into the air”! At this point it’s going to
be hard for Morby to mess up this album for me. I might actually like it more
as an “album” than the last one. I should definitely make a proclamation like
that before I’ve even listened to the album all the way through once.
Crap! I missed the intro to this because I was focused on
something else. Skipping back now. Hey, he whispered “1, 2, 3, 4” and that ties
back to song three. I’m so pleased with all the conscious decisions on this
album. Reincarnation with the threat of true mortality is such a good concept.
More head nodding and a cowboy snare drum tap in the back – I’m good with this.
The church bells ring, cry, and sing which is lovely writing. So many other
artists would have just chosen one but this is so poetic because each word has
its own connotation. I’ll write a high school English paper about this album
instead of a live review. This song is absolutely working for me as a perfect
close to the album. It’s nice and sleepy but has some meat to it if you’re
still awake enough to realize that he counts off to close out the song/album as
well. Is it the end or another beginning.
Brilliant. I want to listen to it again right away but now I
need to find Girlpool. (PS this already happened go see http://paperstreetleakco.blogspot.com/2017/05/girlpool-powerplant-2017-full-album.html and http://paperstreetleakco.blogspot.com/2017/05/girlpool-powerplant-2017-full-album-320.html)
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