This album was great. Much better than I remember it. I mostly remember being slightly underwhelmed because the album I previously had heard from cat Power was the excellent and VERY accessible The Greatest. And, while I still feel The Greatest is well the greatest, I can see much more clearly, or rather, hear much more clearly how much is going on with this seemingly simple and slow album. The notes and the vocal intonations are all so drawn out and soulful and sad and perfect here its awe-inspiring. Cat Power has a truly unique and in my opinion all-time great voice. She is just a force with her way of expressing herself.
The lyrics I think were good. When I caught em they seemed good. Whatever that is all I have, folks!
The music is lush one moment and stripped down and slowed down most of the rest. The deliberate pace of many of these songs at first kinda turned me off. But as I sunk in to my proverbial seat and really made myself comfy in this musical world I started loving the slow and intentional pace of these slow building and slowly revealed tracks.
Anyway, this was great! And looking at her discography I was reminded of how many great albums and critically acclaimed ones she has put out over the last 25 years and boy am I excited to jump into it (at some point).
I cheated with this one. After listening to Civilians earlier in this tourney, I was so intrigued by Joe Henry's other acclaimed releases, I couldn't help myself and I went and listened to this masterpiece 2 times through. Eek kinda puts that excellent Cat Power album at a disadvantage. Oh well.
I am not in a super talkie mood, but I do wanna say that this album is almost "perfect" whatever that means. Every track is so rich, so meticulously and perfectly produced (Henry is a highly acclaimed producer. He has produced Aimee Mann, that excellent Solomon Burke album Don't Give Up On Me, Ani Difranco, Loudon Wainwright III, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Bragg, even fucking Allen Toussaint and Joan Baez... the guy is a badass. ). Every detail is artfully and precidely presented in the mix, and as a result the grooves of this album... oh my god, they are fabulous.
One thing I love about the album is the contributions of Ornette Coleman. The old legend himself comes in and steals the show a couple times, especially with the way he provides the heart and soul of the classic opening track, and especially especially with the closing track (called a bonus track, which is stupid)
EDIT: I wanted to point out that that final solo Ornette track is actually a HIDDEN track. my bad. Okay back to the album talk.
Really the whole session band is so incredible here and they all do so much to enrich the deeply groovy, smoky, bluesy vibe of these songs.
I love Joe's vocals here maybe even more than on Civilians. At least equal. They are like Tom Waits-lite. So seductive, so deeply soulful and natural and I jst love em.
Anyway, when I first heard this album a week ago I was gobsmacked by its atmosphere and its power and its well, near-perfection. Now after several listens I'm just gonna say its a 5/5. That's the 4th and probably final time that's happened in this tourney out of 62 albums. Pretty amazing.
blah blah.... Joe Henry wins, thus getting 2 albums into the next round. If you're a betting man, I think you should put some money on Henry getting at least one of his albums to the final four. _________________ -Ryan
Okay, let's talk about this. Its rare that I hear an album that sounds so damn similar to an earlier artist as this album - in almost every way - sounds like Neil Young and specifically Harvest.
I remember when I was getting into the Felice Brothers' self titled album shortly after release I had a similar reaction that album's similarity to The Band.
I don't see it quite as much, but I imagine a lot of people that listen to Kristian Mattson (aka The Tallest Man On Earth) from about 2006-2010 feel he is essentially aping acoustic Dylan.
Joy Division to Interpol comes to mind as well.
Of course their are many Zeppelin impersonators (Heart), and many other legendary artists' copycats. Okay, you get the point.
The list goes on and on. But I still don't believe I've ever experienced the level of similarity (Tribute? Copycat?) as is evident from track 2-4 of Israel Nash's Rain Plans. I hear "Who In Time" off this album and I believe this nearly exactly what Harvest 2 woulda sounded like had Neil Young not driven his career into the ditch, so to speak (in the greatest way ever).
I felt I needed to mention that, because I was at internal war listening to this album for at least the first half. On one hand I am telling myself to just listen and enjoy this PHENOMENAL in almost every way Americana album. On the other hand I'm asking myself questions, like "If you give this tribute album 4-5 stars what does that even mean? Are you giving it that grade based off Nash's own creativity and musicianship or because he was able to mimic one of your all time faves?". It was all confusing and unnecessarily so. Still, that thought so thorughly overshadowed this album I felt I needed to mention it straight away.
What do you folks think of artists not just clearly being inspired by someone, but seeming to try to capture very aspect of their music for their own album (voice tones, lyrical flow, drum sound, chord choices included)?
Anyway, about this album. Its actually quite excellent. Its fucking incredible. Its damn-near cosmic country/folk rock. The psychedelic parts where Israel is being most himself are phenomenal and spacy and those songs marry the earthy sounds on the psych sounds incredibly well. The more straight forward and familiar folk rock songs are also brilliant and once I ignore that I accept I am not listening to a lost bootleg of late 1972 Neil Young, I can say they are just exactly what I want to hear in this style. The harmonies, drums, guitars, atmospheric/somewhat psych parts, the wistful and yearning vocals and the words all are fantastic.
"Woman At The Well" is up there with some of the best country rock songs you'll hear. Reminded me also of the great song by Songs:Ohia that starts Magnolia Electric Company album (I'm drawing a blank and my foot is falling asleep and I just can't be bothered. If you've heard that album you'll know the song I'm talking about, the one that makes you cry every time you hear it, that one.) Anyway, yeah that song is a 5/5 for sure. As is "Rain Plans", as is "Through the Door", and "Who In Time". The point is there are some truly marvelous songs here. And the albums is so lush and inviting and understanding and consistent. Its fab.
If you like The War On Drugs, you may like this (although this is not nearly as good as the last 2 WoD albums in my humble opinion. Nor half as unique).
Okay, Imma close this, with a grade: If this was Neil Young I'd say 5/5 new found masterpiece. But as its not him but someone quite similar, i'll give it a 4/5 while giving it a sideways glance.
okay, anyway, back to the matter at hand, this UNIQUE album. By Rachael Yamagata. just finished this album. I will say less but I did like it a lot. The first disc, 2/3 of the album is really quite beautiful, and her soulful singing is awesome. The last half or rather 1/3 with all the hard rock songs was just not nearly as beautiful or imaginative. Still first 51 minutes built up lots of good will and I loved most things there. If first majority of album is a 4.1-4.2 range out of 5, and the last 20 minutes is a good-ish 2.75-3 (as of now on first listen) then I'll give this a 3.8/5. In theory this means it loses to Rain Plans... but this is tough... I need to think about which album I liked more.
I was more consistently impressed by the craft and production of Rain Plans but I felt more comfortable and MOVED by Elephants... and I also feel that there may be more layers to unravel and become familiar with on the Yamagata album. And also I kinda am giving a small penalty to Nash for being so great at sounding like someone great which i know is stupid.
anyway, enough! I am giving the win by a hair to Rachael Yamagata! But that Chelsea Wolfe album isn't amazing and maybe when it comes back up in this tournament I'll throw in a wild card in the form of Israel nash and make it a 3 way fight. _________________ -Ryan
okay guys we fucking did it! i mean I did it. what I mean is I legit just listened to all 64 albums plus a couple random throw ins over the course of 10 days. That's like 7 albums a day plus another 15 new 2021 albums plus some other disrelated albums, so lets call it 85 albums some about half heard twice, that is about 125 albums in 10 days so like 10.2 albums a day. okay now i'm actually embarressed. why did i get so into this?
okay! not embarressed anymore. I had a moment is all. The point is we finished round 1. Next I will re-seed and re-organize and decide upon how to do the next 32 album relistens and 16 matches. So stay tuned for that i guess.
okay guys we fucking did it! i mean I did it. what I mean is I legit just listened to all 64 albums plus a couple random throw ins over the course of 10 days. That's like 7 albums a day plus another 15 new 2021 albums plus some other disrelated albums, so lets call it 85 albums some about half heard twice, that is about 125 albums in 10 days so like 10.2 albums a day. okay now i'm actually embarressed. why did i get so into this?
okay! not embarressed anymore. I had a moment is all. The point is we finished round 1. Next I will re-seed and re-organize and decide upon how to do the next 32 album relistens and 16 matches. So stay tuned for that i guess.
Peace!
That's mental. Good job Ryan, I'd feel a burnout if I tried listening to any genre for the whole week, even metal or jazz which are the genres I can kinda always bump. I'm already feeling a bit less hyped about the hip hop tourney (it's been what, like 2-3 weeks?), so I took a few days off of that heh. _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
That's mental. Good job Ryan, I'd feel a burnout if I tried listening to any genre for the whole week, even metal or jazz which are the genres I can kinda always bump. I'm already feeling a bit less hyped about the hip hop tourney (it's been what, like 2-3 weeks?), so I took a few days off of that heh.
Yeah, well I think I may have inflated that number a slight bit, maybe I only re listened to 20 albums but still its in the 8 albums a day range always playing in the background almost every spare moment.
Thankfully, genre-wise and era-wise there was some variety. At one point I was doing this same level of thing for just 1965-1970 singer/songwriter albums and with the same era and such similar aesthetic choices over and over it started to bore me badly. With the varying styles (at least somewhat) of country or rock or pop jazz or folk etc, this project hasn't burned me out quite so badly. Although some days when I heard yet another song about not recognizing yourself in the mirror, or some other trope, i did get annoyed. _________________ -Ryan
Mostly listening to old familiar faves today while doing a big clean up of my year charts and adding new discoveries. Those year charts are a fucking mess! I can't remember what 1/3 of the albums on them even sound like. So I'm removing those obvious blanks and fleshing out after and trying to do re-ranks in many cases for the first time in 4-5 years. Not being super thorough. Maybe I will at some point but damn its time consuming.
Have done this for all 2010s and 2020 year charts and updated my 2010s chart which is finally looking kind of okay. Still some albums I loved that I am sure I am forgetting and still some albums that I am unsure if I really love em enough to be on a decade chart. Outside of the 90s and 70s, there aren't enough albums I truly adore enough to make 100 no-brainer picks for the charts.
here is the 2010s chart if you wanna check it out. The best way to boost my internet ego and make me feel all cuddly and content for a few seconds is to look at my singer/songwriter chart and 2021 chart and overall chart.
I next will write a small comment for the you must listen game on the games forum for the 2020 gorillaz album. then not sure maybe i'll do a deep dive into the 1990s. as i go earlier in time the longer these year chart upgrades take. but its fairly fun.
also do need to do that next tournament, even if my plan is to take it slower with all these revisits. right now I'm listening to Time (The Revelator) to kinda sorta verify if I still think its my fave album of the entire 2000s decade...and yep its just absolutely musical heaven for me.
Okay, I decided upon what the next round of the tournament will look like.
Basically I took all 32 albums that won, I ranked them based off how much I liked them on "first" listen or first round revisit in many cases. Then I simply decided what the top 2 seeds were. They were Old Chestnut and Scar. Then I simply worked my way down in a sort of snake draft style. So I chose Old Chestnut number 1 overall, Scar number 2, then I chose what the next best the number 3 and I placed them under Scar. Then I made pick 4 and 5 and placed them under Old Chestnut. Then 6 and 7 under Scar, then 8 and 9 under Old Chestnut, etc etc.
Now each team had one album I just wasn't all that interested in revisiting maybe I'm just an agent of chaos or maybe these last 2 were the least intriguing. Those were the #16 of both these halves and those were Bob Lind's Since There Were Circles and Agitated Radio Pilot's World Winding Down. Both good albums and I stand by that, but I wanted to get 2 new albums in the mix. Each half had an artist that I really wanted to see represented yet again with albums I can't remember much about or are new to me. In the first half, The one with Old Chestnut, Sandy Denny's Like An Old Fashioned Waltz was present. Well I want to listen to Sandy by Sandy Denny and so I put it in Group 2 as the 3rd Seed in Group 2. I also really loved both of Joe Henry's entrys here (Civilians and Scar) and they both are in the same bracket half. And there is an old school Joe Henry album that is also very respected and I am foggy on. That album is Short Man's Room. So Short Man's Room by Joe Henry is now in group 1 as the 3rd seed.
Stupidly complicated I know.
Here are the 2 halves of the next round:
Group 1
1 Old Chestnut by Ned Collette (2018)
2 Time Fades Away by Neil Young (1973)
3 Short Man's Room by Joe Henry (1992)
4 The Hissing of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell (1975)
5 Like An Old Fashioned Waltz by Sandy Denny (1973)
6 Ys by Joanna Newsom (2006)
7 The Sunset Tree by The Mountain Goats (2005)
8 No Dogs Allowed by Sidney Gish (2017)
9 Songs From Suicide Bridge by David Kauffman & Eric Caboor (1984)
10 The Boatman's Call by Nick Cave (1997)
11 Long Journey by Michael Hurley (1976)
12 Slow Turning by John Hiatt (1988)
13 The Poet Game by Greg Brown (1994)
14 Music For People In Trouble by Susanne Sundfør (2017)
15 99.9 F° by Suzanne Vega (1992)
16 Paris 1919 by John Cale (1973)
Group 2
1 Scar by Joe Henry (2001)
2 Beverly Glenn-Copeland by Beverly Glenn-Copeland (1970)
3 Sandy by Sandy Denny (1972)
4 Seed of Memory by Terry Reid (1975)
5 Sprained Ankle by Julien Baker (2015)
6 Lubbock (On Everything) by Terry Riley (1979)
7 Civilians by Joe Henry (2007)
8 Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara (1988)
9 Fox Confessor Brings The Flood by Neko Case (2006)
10 Year of the Cat by Al Stewart (1976)
11 Hell Among The Yearlings by Gillian Welch (1998)
12 Comedy by Paul Kelly and the Messengers (1991)
13 1000 Kisses by Patty Griffin (2002)
14 Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart by Rachael Yamagata (2009)
15 Pirates by Rickie Lee Jones (1981)
16 Unknown Rooms (A Collection of Acoustic Songs) by Chelsea Wolfe (2012)
---------------------------
I'll be starting from the middle and moving out. so the first matches will be the 8 vs 9 seed matches in groups 1 and 2. Next albums I'll revisit are
The 80s is still my weakest decade musically or at least in terms of how many albums I've heard and how many albums I love. Getting better, but I still don't feel a strong affection for maybe 30 of these albums. Once I get to the point where all 100 albums on that chart is loved and a personal favorite (like the 70s and other decades) I'll be happy. That's when the tough decisions start and I start needing to cut one favorite for another more recent favorite. _________________ -Ryan
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