Best Of 14 (Part 2)

1. Hiss Golden Messenger: Lateness Of Dancers - The first time I listened to to M.C. Taylor and Scott Hirsch's fifth album as Hiss Golden Messenger, I dismissed it. "Somebody really likes Slow Train Coming!" I thought, before moving on. Granted, that was more of an impression I had gotten from their earlier stuff, finding it held back by an almost aplogetic politesse. But the fact is I really like Slow Train Coming, and there aren't many records that sound like It, so I kept going back. Gradually I tuned into the almost outrageous audacity of Taylor and Hirsch's strip-mining of the past, not only Dylan but a lot of other 60's and 70's folk rock. They just don't care what you think and their lack of concern is what cuts them free. I knew I was smitten when I began Tweeting lyrics regularly. "I think I'm obsessed," I told my wife, "I think this is the best album of the year."


Taylor and Hirsch produced the album themselves, calling on a brilliant cast of musicians to make the sound in their heads a reality. They came up with a nice blend of studio polish and casual intimacy ("The name of this song is called Day O Day," Taylor's kid says before that song begins) that fits the songs like a well-worn glove. This is what it sounds like when a band comes into their own. If you need convincing, seek out the earlier version of Lucia, the first song on the album, which they recorded years ago when they were in The Court & Spark. The production on that take is so overbearing you can't even connect to the chorus. Now, when Taylor sings "She was beautiful/It was circumstance/Watch the boat on the water learn to dance," I just nod my head as if I were there on the banks of the wise old river with him.

Among many wise decisions Hiss Golden Messenger made when crafting Lateness Of Dancers, one of the wisest was bringing in Mountain Man's Alexandra Sauser-Monnig to be the sweet Emmylou to Taylor's gritty and slurred Dylan/Parsons. On several songs, her voice limns his gorgeously, blending, echoing and circling around it like touches of color in a winter-gray sky. One reason their partnership works so well is that Taylor is now the complete master of his voice, knowing when to push it, when engage in almost exotic melisma, and when to deliver the words with utmost delicacy, as if they might break under the emotional weight.


Finally, a note about those words. These 10 songs contain some of the finest song lyrics of the decade, line after line of arresting imagery, heartfelt stories and choruses as solid as a hymn. "I lost myself in the jack-knife daylight/I sang "Rock Of Ages" til I was cross-eyed" (Black Dog Wind) or "The dead are here, they never go away/So I never ask them to" (Mahogany Dread) are just two examples of Taylor's plain spoken yet well-crafted writing. He's also not afraid to kick up some dirt on Saturday's Song, evince a beguiling malevolence on I'm A Raven (Shake Children) or not-so-simply rock out on Southern Grammar, making for a varied album.


The title of Lateness Of Dancers comes from the pen of another southern great, Eudora Welty, in her story Delta Wedding and the album is truly a flawless marriage of old and new. Lateness Of Dancers has become so entwined with my soul that I no longer just listen to it, rather I commune with it. Taylor and Hirsch have worked long and hard to get here and I feel truly lucky to have met up with them at this point in their journey.

2. Beck: Morning Phase - Much of the criticism of this remarkable return to form focused on its similarities to Sea Change as Beck assembled the same musicians in the studio for the first time since he made that album over a decade ago. But even if the players are the same, I find it quite a different listening experience, lacking the self-pity that marked some of Sea Change. Somewhat paradoxically, Morning Phase is more distant, even magisterial, while connecting on a deeper level to shared human experience. Follow the drum.

3. Breton: War Room Stories - Album number two from London's post-modernists finds them expanding their sound with orchestral arrangements and pop moves. While America sleeps, they are also becoming one of the best live bands on the planet. Now you can prepare yourself further with the deluxe edition, which adds 11 additional songs.

4. David Greilsammer: Scarlatti & Cage Sonatas - While Greilsammer's technique is formidable, what's more remarkable is his absolute commitment to such different composers. Simply one of the best, most engaging piano records I've ever heard.

5. Hollie Cook: Twice - Another bliss-inducing dose of pharmaceutical grade reggae-pop-dance songs. Prince Fatty controls the boards again, lavishing his usual expert roots sound with strings, harps and a touch of Chic. Keep this one away from the polar ice cap, as we're having enough trouble keeping that thing from melting as it is. Warm yourself when Cook returns to New York on January 8th.


6. Spoon: They Want My Soul - Britt Daniel, Jim Eno and co. add yet another brilliant collection to one of the deepest catalogs in the post-Nirvana landscape, and maybe their toughest album yet. Bonus meta-moment: listen for the reappearance of former nemesis Jonathan Fisk, who gets a drubbing along with "educated folk-singers" on the title track.


7. The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger: Midnight Sun - After so many years championing Sean Lennon's talent, it is very satisfying to see him have his moment with this collection of beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant psyche-rock.

8. Hamilton Leithauser: Black Hours - "Don't know why I need you, I don't need anyone," Leithauser sings on this triumphant album, his first without his band The Walkmen. Perhaps he's singing to Paul Maroon, the guitarist in that band, who is nearly as essential to the success of Black Hours as Leithauser himself. Perhaps less needed was the help of Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, whose two contributions are not at the level of the others, but the vinyl edition sounds fantastic and comes with four more wonderful songs that are.

9. Tweedy: Sukierae - In a year filled with excellent releases from Wilco world, Jeff Tweedy, with the able help of drummer son Spencer, released this songwriting masterclass. With songs that are alternately haunting, arty, funny, and pure pop, Tweedy proves that there's still life in the White Album paradigm.


10. Nicole Atkins: Slow Phaser - Smart, sleek, hook-filled pop is hard to come by, although there is plenty of over-praised music masquerading as such. Atkins is the real deal, a complex character with huge voice that can swing from smoky to sweet. Tore Johansson, who produced Slow Phaser free of charge to help Atkins out after Hurricane Sandy took out her house, proves that all Swedish producers aren't calculating chart-hounds. Every track is filled out with well-placed touches that serve the songs perfectly and enhance their inherent catchiness. I find myself singing We Wait Too Long and The Worst Hangover ("Operator, operator, give me number 911 - I'm dying") among others, at odd moments, like as soon as I wake up. If you procrastinated on buying this since I last wrote about, I forgive you as it is now available in a deluxe edition that features a storming live set taped earlier this year at Detroit's Masonic Temple. Now, you have no excuse.



Coming soon: The Best of the Rest of 14 and Out Of The Past (Reissues and Other Older Sounds). What's your Number One?

2014: Mid-Year Report

When it comes to eating, I believe in a balanced diet. Like the other day, when I was ordering a mango, strawberry and blueberry smoothie. The other person waiting at the cart said, "What, no banana?" I told her that I had already had a banana that morning and that the mango would give the smoothie plenty of body. I failed to mention that the banana had been atop a waffle, drenched in maple syrup and sprinkled with toasted pecans - all part of a balanced diet.

When it comes to music however, all bets are off. If I want to gorge myself on James Brown or Wagner, or if all I want to listen to is hip hop or instrumental music, there's no earthly reason to reconsider. I follow my muse and feed my soul without any external obligation. However, I do occasionally take stock and note what I'm not listening to just to make sure I'm not missing out on anything. Over the years, I have noticed that most of what is in heavy rotation is dominated by males. Besides my beloved Holly Miranda, brilliant Björk, delightful Hollie Cook and a few others, female artists I love have been few and far between. It's not for lack of trying as I'll listen to anything once. Neko Case, St. Vincent, Tuneyards, Sharon Van Etten, Tori Amos, and many other critical darlings just do not do it for me - I'll say no more.

No problem there, right? I'm just feeding my soul. Except - I'm also feeding my 15-year-old daughter's iPod and I want to make sure she's exposed to plenty of music in which she can see herself reflected. So, in early this year I asked her, "Would you like to have more female voices on your iPod?" She said yes, so I began to marshal the troops: Björk, Hole, The Raincoats, The Slits, Emmylou Harris, Solex, and other wonderful records from the past. Then something happened: before I had a chance to start loading anything onto her iPod, I noticed that I was listening to more women's voices than ever. Problem solved! The culture had come through - for my daughter and for me, something which you will see reflected in the list below.

The Best of 2014 (So Far)

1. Beck - Morning Phase A few months have not diminished the glory of Beck's achievement - in fact, it's only gotten better.

2. Hamilton Leithauser - Black Hours I'll have much more to say about this extraordinary album soon.

3. Breton - War Room Stories - America may still be sleeping on this London-based band, but they keep moving forward, adding an orchestra to their patented blend of post-punk rhythms and contemporary electronics.

4. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness Her first album, Half Way Home from 2012, showed a beautiful voice married to a promising songwriting talent, but added up to a somewhat one-note affair. There was definitely something going on, but barely a hint of the commanding artist that we hear on her second album. Her decision to open up her sound to a full band and work with producer John Congleton means that her songs now find full flower with intensity and variety. Touching on the elemental power of bedrock artists like Hank Williams and Roy Orbison, her voice emerges fully formed on this instant classic. Each song gets the arrangement it deserves and the respect Congleton has for Olsen comes through loud and clear on White Fire, a stunning song that does not attempt to improve on Olsen's voice and haunting finger-picked acoustic, and Enemy, which sets her voice far in front of some whispery strumming. Hi Five, Angel, high five.

5. David Greilsammer - Scarlatti & Cage Sonatas This addicting collection is an inspired dialogue across the centuries, expertly conceived and brilliantly played by Greilsammer. Piano record of the year.

6. Hollie Cook - Twice You don't have to know that Cook is rock royalty (her father is Paul Cook, drummer for the Sex Pistols) to fall in love with her lighter-than-air voice and blissful take on reggae and lover's rock. Working again with British reggae savant Prince Fatty, they concoct a fantastic follow-up to the 2011's debut album. Adding strings, harps and loads of atmosphere, Cook and Fatty have again made a perfect summer album. Now there is a bit of imperious steel to her voice, too, which keeps the whole enterprise from dissolving like sugar under a waterfall. I can't get enough.

7. Hospitality - Trouble This Brooklyn-based trio ably dodges the sophomore slump by adding a dose of darkness to their sound and further exposing the protean talents of Amber Papini (singing and songwriting) and Nathan Michel (production, percussion, songwriting, etc.).

8. Courtney Barnett - The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas This Aussie singer-guitarist takes a little Nirvana, a dash of Lou Reed, a few shakes of Noise Addict-era Ben Lee, and adds her own wry twist with songs about asthma attacks, failed romance and being young. Everything is a little woozy and behind the beat so you feel dragged along, almost by the sheer force of her personality. Live, she takes things further, increasing the dynamics of the songs and rocking hard. She's clearly become a better musician than when she recorded the songs collected here, but no less fearless, which bodes well for her future.

9. The GOASTT - Midnight Sun The full on psychedelic freak out I always knew Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl had in them. Great songwriting, too, full of wit and imagination. Catch The GOASTT at a free concert in McCarren Park on July 30th.

10. Isaiah Rashad - Cilvia Demo Even with a good album from Mobb Deep and an almost great collaboration between genius producer Madlib and young gun Freddie Gibbs, this has not been a stellar year for hip hop. Rashad, however, is on to something. Signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, the same firm that helped break Kendrick Lamar big, he's put together an extremely strong debut. Equally thoughtful and filthy, Cilvia Demo is laden with gorgeous, lush beats, creating a very involving experience. Even with no less than nine producers, the album holds together very well and Rashad is clearly enjoying the radical dissonance between his nasty lyrics and the beautiful music he's selected. One to watch.

11. Kate Tempest - Everybody Down Another hip hop bright spot comes from a far more unlikely source. Tempest is the youngest poet to win the Ted Hughes Award but has also been honing her flow for the last dozen years. Both talents come to the fore on Everybody Down, a song cycle about the confused collisions of young people trying to make it - and connect with each other - in today's England. Producer Dan Carey crafts forward thinking grooves that move the body as much as Tempest's lyrics touch the emotions. The album somehow reminds me of Vikram Seth's novel-in-verse, Golden Gate, in that it uses a very structured format and some familiar tropes to tell a very individualized, particular story. We'll see how the accompanying novel, due in 2015, handles the material. Tempest's husky voice is surprisingly versatile, modulating and taking on the tones of her characters in a real tour de force show of skill and theatrical talent. And people who read the New York Times are still wondering if hip hop is music.

12. Kojiro Umezaki - (Cycles) Shakuhachi virtuoso Umezaki uses his evocative instrument and polyglot tastes to connect the dots between head and heart, future and past on this absorbing collection.

13. Glenn Kotche - Adventureland Wilco drummer Kotche makes huge leaps as a composer on the seven movements of Anomaly, performed with the Kronos Quartet, and indulges in his taste for the quirky on several "haunted" shorter pieces. The best of a clutch of releases from Wilco members, although, Macroscope by The Nels Cline Singers isn't far behind.

14. EMA - The Future's Void Erika M. Anderson took a couple of years off after the searing (even tortured) revelations of Past Life Martyred Saints but has returned strongly with the carefully crafted, gnomic pronouncements of The Future's Void. She brings the same emotional commitment (and a caustic wit on So Blonde) to songs that are often about our current engagement - OK, obsession - with technology, that she brought to more personal material. It's hard to tell if she's judging the moment harshly or simply pointing it out, especially when the songs have such a lustrous techno sheen. Maybe this was the music Bowie's girlfriend heard on the radio after she crawled into the holographic television in TVC 15. Whatever her point of view ultimately is, this isn't the first time someone's made a great record by having it both ways.

15. Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal Last year's Light Up Gold so quickly took its place in the firmament of NYC rock, that it's almost easy to take the follow-up for granted - another Parquet Courts record, they're always good, aren't they? In reality, they're still a young band and they continue to both refine their sound and draw more into it. This time around there's also no question that they know exactly what they're doing - and that they are very, very good at it.

16. Siinai - Supermarket Now I've never been to Finland, but if the kosmisch music - both creepy and ecstatic - on Siinai's concept album is any indication of what it's like to shop there, I think Fresh Direct may have a new market to explore. I don't take the concept too seriously, however - this may just be the best Krautrock album of the 21st century. Layering synths with a tangible excitement that's contagious, Siinai have created a compulsively listenable series of soundscapes. Go ahead, put it on next time you're in the Stop & Shop - just don't blame me if you forget a few things on your list.

17. Eno-Hyde - Someday World I'll admit to being a complete dilettante when it comes to Underworld, having struggled to find anything in their catalog as satisfying as Born Slippy. When I heard Eno was working with Underworld main man Karl Hyde I wasn't sure it would add up. Turns out this might be my favorite Eno project since his last collaboration with David Byrne, the marvelous Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Both Eno and Hyde can come off as pretty chilly and cerebral, but they go for a warmly emotional sweet spot on most of the 12 songs here. Standout track Daddy's Car blends nostalgia with Afro-futurism, and The Satellites is suffused with space age optimism. A Man Wakes Up is almost a happier companion to Once In A Lifetime, and if it's chilliness you seek, When I Built This World has it in spades. Slightly proggy sections alternate with robo-Eno singing about how he filled the world he created with regret, guilt, pain and sin. It makes a nice pair with Bowie's If You Can See Me - but some who call Eno a god might want to reconsider. Hyde is in fine voice, avoiding some of the indulgences of his Underworld days, but best of all is hearing Eno's even, intelligent tenor again. They must be getting along as a second album, High Life, is just out along with an app, and perhaps we have Hyde to thank for getting Eno back on stage, at least on TV.

18. Nicole Atkins - Slow Phaser I came across Nicole Atkin's honeyed mezzo thanks to an off-hand reference to her on Holly Miranda's Instagram. While I sometimes wish Holly would lay off the social media and finish her album already (she started her Record A Record PledgeMusic project in 2011!), I am grateful for the pointer to Slow Phaser. This a great well-produced collection of pop songs, with heart, soul and wit to burn. Each song features a distinctive arrangement, with the disco groove of Girl You Look Amazing and the synthesizer throb of Cool People being especially catchy, and Atkins applies her gorgeous voice to her rich melodies and amusing lyrics with welcome restraint. For the life of me, I can't imagine why she doesn't get more attention.

19. Golden Retriever - Seer A duo of modular synthesizer and bass clarinet does not sound too promising, yet Matt Carlson and Jonathan Sielaff have managed to create a varied series of pieces that harkens back to the early days of exploratory electronic music, while still sounding completely up to date. There's simple beauty here, like the bird-songs of Archipelago, as well as the doomy outer-space landscapes of Petrichor, which is somewhat reminiscent of Harold Budd's classic Gypsy Violin. Flight Song is filled with yearning and soars along dreamily like a slightly edgier Vangelis track. While improvisation is definitely a part of their process, there's a sure compositional hand here keeping Seer tethered - and fascinating.

20. Perfect Pussy - Say Yes To Love I've already written about the live experience of Meredith Graves and co., but the album is a slightly different proposition. While some of the free jazz wall of sound is still here, along with sonic references to hardcore punk, there is also a well-deployed touch of pop sheen, especially on Big Stars and Interference Fits. Putting ambient sound art interludes into the mix, courtesy the electronics of Shaun Sutkus and controlled feedback from Ray McAndrew's guitars, adds welcome respite to the onslaught while also providing distance from the churning emotions of Graves's singing and lyrics. While they're not very prolific - there are only eight new songs on the album, which they pad out with four live tracks - it's dense enough that it deepens with repeated listens. With a name like Perfect Pussy, they were always going to attract rubberneckers, but they're in this for more than just sensationalism - I know I get a lot more than that out of this exciting record.



What will the rest of the year bring (besides Morrissey and the long-awaited return of Spoon)?

Pianos In Context

Beethoven was a pirate. He was all too happy to sell the same work over and over to different publishers in order to reap more revenue from his compositions. One could imagine that were he alive today he would have no problem with multiple recordings of his pieces, as long as he got a cut. But from the listener's point of view, there's always the potential for over-saturation when it comes to music composed centuries ago: How many virtuoso and brilliantly recorded performances of Mozart or Beethoven do we actually need?

Of course, the interpretive possibilities are endless for anything written before the dawn of recording, but it helps to have something extra for me to re-engage with works that are well-represented in the catalogs of every label. Hence, context.

In the case of Leif Ove Andsnes's new recording of Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 2 &; 4, this is his second release under the rubric The Beethoven Journey. Like the first, which included Piano Concertos 1 & 3, this features the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Andsnes conducting from the keyboard.

In truth, beyond making "the composer's music the centerpiece of my life as a performer and recording artist," Andsnes has not created any grand structure on which to hang his exploration of Beethoven's music for keyboard and orchestra, which will eventually culminate in a disc of the fifth concerto coupled with the Choral Fantasy. One could even get a whiff of marketing behind the whole thing. But stop sniffing and put the damned disc on, or do whatever you have to do to hear it.

When you do, you will experience some of the most sheerly sublime music-making imaginable. Especially in Piano Concerto No. 2, the transparency of texture, the rhythmic articulation, and the continuity of line put into focus everything you could want from these works. Andsnes seems to demonstrate a stylish self-effacement, managing not to insert himself in an obvious way between the listener and the notes on the page.

While there is no claim to "authenticity" behind Andsnes's approach, the choice of a chamber orchestra was a wise one, avoiding the encrustations of doubled instruments and allowing Beethoven's sparkle to shine through. And there is plenty of sparkle, most notably in the earlier of the two works. About ten years separates the composition of the two concertos and there is a marked difference, with a slightly squarer sound to No. 4, with its big tuttis and sections of churning drama. It seems a bit more "professional," with the merest diminishment in the sense of discovery and joy.

But overall, this is fantastic sounding stuff, flawlessly performed and recorded, and can surely hold its own next any of the great recordings that I've heard. Old Ludwig Van himself might have let the license to this recording go for less than his usual rate, delighted as he would be to hear his music so well presented.

Having grown up in the rock era, I make a distinction between recordings and records, with the former being a more straightforward presentation of the music and the latter involving studio techniques, sequencing or some other kind of artistic intervention between the performance and the listening experience. Perhaps also because of the times in which I grew up, I tend to enter into a closer relationship with records over recordings.The Andsnes Beethoven is most definitely a recording, but David Greilsammer's spectacular Scarlatti: Cage: Sonatas is a record - and one of the best of 2014 so far.

Juxtaposition is a fairly common strategy in the world of classical music as a way of injecting new life into old repertoire but rarely has it been employed so well. Greilsammer picked up on the connection between Domenico Scarlatti and John Cage, both as seekers of the new - inventors, he calls them - and men simultaneously in and out of their times.

The program is uncomplicated: Greilsammer carefully selected eight of the more than 550(!) Scarlatti keyboard sonatas and half of the 16 sonatas from Cage's Sonatas and Interludes and goes back and forth between the two composers in a sequence of his own devising. He performs both men's work on modern instruments, although naturally Cage's music is played on a piano that has been prepared with screws, nails and other items.

A beautifully rounded performance of Scarlatti's Sonata in D Minor, K. 213, starts off the album, it's crepuscular introduction seeming to rise out of the ether itself. Greilsammer's mastery of dynamics and the warm tone of the recording makes for a performance so assured and convincing that I can hardly believe he managed to shave 90 seconds off the length of Ivo Pogorelich's benchmark recording. How can it not sound frantic? And then Cage's Sonata XVI & XV starts up, placing stars in the same sky Scarlatti gazed upon over 200 years earlier - and I swoon.

That's the record - startling consonances and dissonances across time, all presented as beautiful music, no ideology in sight. The lack of pedantry should convince listeners from both sides of the fence to hear both Baroque and avant garde sounds as Greilsammer does, as dessert not medicine.

This is not the first time Greilsammer has pursued the "compare and contrast" method of making a record. In 2012 he released Baroque Conversations, which combined a variety of Baroque era piano music alongside modern works. While the playing was as articulate and expert as it is here, it felt like a bit of a stunt. Not so here - focusing on two composers helps and there is real artistry in the sequencing this time around. For example, Greilsammer wisely holds the big block chords of Cage's Sonata I until the middle of the collection, forming a sturdy backbone to the album. And just when you think Cage is the only one who gets to stomp around the playroom, along comes Scarlatti's D Minor, K. 175 a couple of tracks later, throwing bizarre chords left and right and having a high old time - you will, too.

For a sampling of the sounds from Scarlatti: Cage: Sonatas check out this video with David Greilsammer literally swiveling between the conventional piano and the prepared one to play bits of the sonatas.