The Roots - How I Got Over

Sometimes there’s a certain kind of distraction that takes over. And sometimes a blend of restrictions and confinements makes it an arduous task to embrace the singular passions in life. It’s rare that it’s everything from the aforementioned combined – but rare is not never. While it sometimes feels like a sort of cloudy fog that has encapsulated everything in its path, the distraction is a definite kind of solace. An escape from the immediate temporary, a remarkable kind of love that has sustained throughout; the only thing I know for sure is what I wanna do, anytime, anywhere… 

Arguably the hardest working band in music has always been The Roots. I know I’m not going out on much of a limb by saying that but they were the hardest working band even before they became the best house band on TV. But before and during their mainstay as the best house band on TV, The Roots has been making album after album of tremendous music – twelve total studio albums if you count all of their collaborative albums – and How I Got Over is #9. Distinctly a lot brighter than their previous two albums, Rising Down and Game Theory, it’s also the first album after the Bush administration finally left office. So it immediately has a much clearer flow and the songs just sort of gel throughout The Roots’ positive, optimistic point of view. And since they became the best band on TV they’ve also met some amazing musicians who they collaborated with on this album to create some of the better songs.

I need to include “A Peace of Light” because it features the original females from Dirty Projectors. A band The Roots met through performing on the late show and whom they immediately fell in love with. It’s mostly an introduction that features the women harmonizing their vocals into one bubbly, smooth opening that allows ?uestlove’s timeless drums to appear in a light refrain.

Jim James is another hardworking musician who crafts music with his main band My Morning Jacket, as a solo artist and who also did a collaborative album with M. Ward and Conor Oberst as Monsters of Folk. The Roots borrow the melody from the opening song off their album, “Dear God,” and also use James to sing the chorus on “Dear God 2.0” (perhaps homage to “The Seed (2.0)” as well?) The Roots version is a straightforward letter about the pain in the world and how everything from broken homes, to drugs, to jobs, to love can fall apart and how there can be so much suffering in this world. “Why is the world ugly when you made it in your image?”

Joanna Newsom is another hardworking musician as she not only composes all of her music but practically writes poetry when she writes lyrics. Here The Roots borrow her “The Book of Right-On” on “Right On,” for what is probably the best song on all of How I Got Over. Her version features her trademark harp and her singular voice but The Roots version combines it all for a smashing hit that showcases just why they’re one of the best bands, period. – Bryan  

Joanna Newsom - Ys

So I decided to post that classical bit, for the first time in a long time, and I only briefly researched what the Debussy piece, The Sunken Cathedral, meant. That’s where I found the picture I used, which is the Wikipedia image for Ys. Basically, it’s a myth where a cathedral is sunk underwater, near the island of Ys (a mythicaly city that was swallowed by the ocean) and it just so happens that Joanna Newsom (who I’ve written about three times already but never about this album) made an album in 2006 titled, Ys. In turn, this is an equally, amazingly classical slice of life, in it of itself.

 

I knew nothing of this woman until the winter of 2006 when this remarkable album came out.* Some kind of fusion of classical music, by way of Newsom’s tremendous harp skill and the way she blends it with the orchestrations Van Dyke Parks (the guy who helped Brian Wilson write the lyrics to the majority of Smile [i.e. The Smile Sessions/SMiLE]) has crafted, it’s one magical dream of truly classical music. There are clarinets, flutes, plenty of strings; they all flourish together and her harp acts as the meter to it all, while her voice? Her voice is a mixture of far too many to even do it justice. Needless to say, it’s certainly an instrument all its own: it bounces from measure to measure, she reaches through octaves rather easily and wondering “how it could possibly go with anything else but the beautiful compositions that are happening around her?” it makes Ys something truly exceptional. All of this happens on “Monkey & Bear” and "Cosmia," 40% of the entire music here:  the way the dynamics really measure up to each other – the dipping fortes, the delicate pianos, the way her voice is always the star of the show – and on top of this, still to behold, are these richly decorated stories that she’s telling. 

As insincere as it seems, there are still moments of clarity on Ys, where everything is so crystal clear the mind is left to just get lost – in utter awe of what a creative mind is capable of: multifaceted stories, moving and gripping music, encompassing themes of life and adventure, the uniquely stellar quality of a blisteringly gorgeous voice – and knowing how to present it. It was the true depiction of what a bold artist is supposed to create in music: BOOM, here’s my album, in full-glory and it’s perfect, all myriad of sounds inside. It’s five songs long, but a hearty fifty-five minutes of substantially expansive music. Yeah fifty five minutes of bliss – it sounds so nice on headphones, with the vinyl, as loud as possible: you can hear her voice quiver as she breathes, the voice is simply amplified and it shrieks so sweetly – if that makes sense.There’s times where the harp is just chugging along, while the wind instruments bellow behind her, as a drum pounds away, and her voice is recounting this story of the old times – that there’s justice in taking it all in with a book of the lyrics.

*I just remember in early December looking for the newest music and I was reading comments about how the newfound critics were gushing about this new album by Newsom. The cover was shocking sure, it’s easily one of the best in retrospect. And for some reason, people seemed conflicted as to whether they purely loved it or confusingly despised it. That was enough for me to check it out, in entirety, and mind blown is lame for sure but it still sounds fitting when it comes to this album. (I think back in 2006 I was so head over heels for BH&R that this one still maybe wasn’t the top choice (pretty sure it was 2 w/ a bullet) it might still be there now in retrospect, maybe tied for the top. Who knows, for now just classical bliss in the new  age (i.e. six/seven years old).) – Bryan 

Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (Disc One)

I’ve posted about Joanna Newsom before, twice actually. Starters and bias out of the way, I think she’s an absolutely beautiful woman and I always love being reminded to listen to her music. Whether it’s just another excuse to drool all over her gorgeously unique voice and then, in turn, to be able to look for some images to drool of…well, she’s pretty bad-ass right?

I was recently reminded of her when reading a thread on a forum I post on. Basically, the gist of the thread was to put up some kind of mix tape – called Frankenstein’s mix tape – and in it, you could be a master DJ of some sort and come up with an album of songs off your favorite albums of the year. The point being that although they could be diverse, the songs needed to be placed at their original track order at least. Here is the one I came up with for fun’s sake:

1.Dance Yrself Clean – LCD Soundsystem
2. Love Cry – Four Tet
3. XXXO – M.I.A.
4. Locked Inside – Janelle Monáe
5. Gone Baby, Don't Be Long – Erykah Badu
6. I Saw the Light – Spoon
7. Empire Ants – Gorillaz
8. Djohariah – Sufjan Stevens
9. I Want to Be Well – Sufjan Stevens
10. The Undoing – Interpol
11. Animals – Bonobo
12. I’m Not the One – The Black Keys
13. Half-State – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
14. Sprawl I (Flatland) – Arcade Fire
15. Back Up Plan – Big Boi

So anyway, I noticed that a lot of people had the same Joanna Newsom song on their mixes, the fourth song off her triple disc of an album, Have One On Me. If you ever get a chance to see the photos she took for each LP of the vinyl edition, WOW. The first disc is probably my least favorite of all the discs only because of how slow moving the songs are. But “Good Intentions Paving Company” is beyond remarkable, in my opinion. Her voice cracks as she sings but with the piano’s rolling melody and the percussion’s timely touches, the sheer chug of the song is what really gets me moving. The words are especially stirring, “Like I’m in a fist fight with a fog, baby” and to end everything, “When I only want for you to pull over and hold me, ‘til I can’t remember my own name.” I almost feel tired trying to describe it because I would hope that people would click on the video and just listen to the 7-minute song. Not because I’m lazy or it’s not worth it but there’s not really anything adequate enough to say about Ms. Newsom that DOESN’T over-hype it but for whatever it is, she’s a tremendous artist and this song showcases all of her strengths: creative songwriting, her singular voice and her impeccable musicianship. – Bryan

Joanna Newsom

My goodness, that is one beautiful woman. And as stunningly gorgeous as she is to the eyes, she’s the musical equivalent to the ears: magical bliss. As a classically-trained harpist, she experienced first-hand the difficulty in playing one of the most testing string instruments and it provided a firm backdrop in classical music and its sweeping arrangements. But as an aspiring writer, her stories are woven in a manner that it not only surpasses others' stories but clearly eclipses them. And when you combine such astounding aspects, it fuses a wonderful blend of skill, artistry, brilliance and sheer remarkable talent.Please take a small part of your day to listen to “Emily,” and please, just allow it to fill your ears, minds and heads with the ideas that she is presenting. Those strings are by Van Dyke Parks and the mixer of this album, Ys, is Jim O’Rourke. But still, it’s Newsom’s singing (her varying cadence that adds dimension,) her fantastic ability at her instrument and her songwriting and crafting that makes her music so compelling. If nothing else, you can hear something different and witness terrific art (visually and aurally.) - Bryan

March 9: Amazing Release Date & Two Cool Videos

2010 has already gotten off to a tremendous start in terms of music. For many, including yours truly, it has already surpassed all of what 2009 had to offer. I’m working on a list that covers the best releases for the first quarter and that should be up around the beginning of April. But now, March 9 features a slew of albums that are all very deserving of listens.

The cream of the crop (and the crop is immense) is Gonjasufi’s A Sufi and a Killer. An electronic feel with hip-hop beats and roots, the singer’s voice is an unbelievably enigmatic presence. The beats are fuzzy and cracked out with Sumach Ecks’ mesmerizing vocals; think of Flying Lotus’ work (he also produces some of the stuff here) with otherworldly vocals and this is it. The full album (personal favorite so far is “She Gone”) is streaming for free here.

Here is a small list of what comes out tomorrow:
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
Liars – Sisterworld
The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat the Devil’s Tattoo
Broken Bells (Shins frontman James Mercer and Danger Mouse) – Broken Bells
Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Brutalist Bricks

Here is the excellent video (in HD!) to the superb opening song off the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. It’s gripping, moving and sets the album up perfectly.



I’ve been meaning to bring up Joanna Newsom for quite some time now. She’s a beautiful harpist that combines classical music with the experimental side of pop, along with exceptionally written stories. Her first two albums were easily two of the finest releases of the entire last decade and her new one, Have One on Me, is a triple album featuring eighteen songs of sublime music.

I’d encourage you to check it out and to take it all in sections, starting with one disc/record and then slowly moving on to the other ones. Her voice is as gorgeous as ever but the arrangements are tighter with everything retaining a far more focused sound. She’s always shied away from exposure and the limelight but she actually took the stage for Jimmy Fallon’s show, here is that performance. – Bryan