Afterlife

Arcade Fire's fourth studio album Reflektor is due out next week and today, the band released a brand new lyric video for the song called Afterlife, featuring footage from a 1959 French film, Black Orpheus. I'm digging it more and more, but I bet it will work even better in the context of the whole record.

So is this gonna be the biggest album of the year or what?

Thursday night edit: Following today's leak, the band is streaming the whole album on YouTube. That was quick.

Turin Brakes

Turin Brakes is one of those bands that Sparkle introduced me to back in the day, and although I could never call myself a huge fan of theirs, I've given their albums a fair couple of spins during the years. Namely the songs like Fishing For a Dream or Last Chance stuck in my mind.

The English duo has recently released a sixth studio album called We Were Here. What's it like? Well, it's pretty much like all their other albums. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you're craving some acoustic indie/folk rock and all your Augustana CDs feel highly overplayed, chances it will suit your mood.

On a sidenote, this is the 300th post on this blog, we're three years in and still counting. Back in March 2010 I honestly didn't think it would last this long. Thank You for all the support. Here's to hoping we make it to post #1000 one day. :)

Paul McCartney: New

I am a huge Beatles' fan, and I've always been. But I have to admit that, unlike with George or John, I've never really got into Paul's post-Beatles stuff. Nothing that he released either as a solo artist or with Wings did excite me very much, that is, with the notable exception of the 1973 album Band On the Run. Well, to be perfectly honest, it's not like I've listened to everything he's ever released. Not even remotely. Fortunately, though, the release of New has been generating a lot of buzz and I for once fell victim to it.

I am listening to the album for the first time as I am writing this post, because much to my surprise, I have been enjoying it a lot right from the very start. When approaching a record from a music bard like Paul, you do it with a certain idea of what the artist will sound like, and more often than not, he falls right into that box. Not this time around, though, because New sounds amazingly fresh and contemporary from the opening riff of Save Us to the last note of Road. (And then some more...) Yet, this is the same Paul he was when Please, Please Me came out. He's effortlessly a churning out tunes with such an ease in the way only he can, and you will hear hints and echoes of many Beatles' songs, from Love Me Do to A Day In the Life. It's an absolute joy to listen to. The album is a clear statement that the now 71-year-old McCartney has many tricks left up his sleeve and still a lot of things to say.

Best tracks: Alligator, On My Way To Work, Early Days, New

Rewind the Film

Come their eleventh album, most bands would have already started to fade away, went through countless line-up changes or dissoluted altogether. When a band has been together for this long, it usually struggles to come up with something fresh, game-changing, or otherwise significant. More often than not, it sticks to repeating the same old formulas that paid off in the past. Not the Manics, though. Having been together since 1986, they've become quite good at reinventing their sound, and it doesn't seem they're gonna stop anytime soon.

To anyone, who followed this Welsh trio at least vaguely in the last few years, it may come as a surprise that Rewind the Film consists mostly of slower, mellow ballads, and that it even features very little of Nicky Wire's typical electric guitar. Send Away the Tigers and Postcards From a Young Man were both big, stadium rock records, while Journal for Plague Lovers, which was composed entirely of lyrics left behind by the presumably deceased guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, saw the band return to its raw, punk rock roots. On the contrary, Rewind the Film reminds mostly of This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours, an 1998 album which included their most popular single to date If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. It's an acoustic based and melancholic album, full of gentle melodies and featuring some powerful guest vocals. But don't let this fool you, the Manics are as angry and biting as they've ever been.

This is the sound of a band clearly in its prime. The fact is all the more fascinating considering they've released an album like this almost thirty years into their career. Manic Street Preachers are an interesting phenomenon indeed and still a force to be reckoned with.

Rewind the Film's follow up, Futurology, is due out early next year. And it's gonna be a lot more spiky, heavy and guitar driven. Both albums were recorded simultaneously.

Best tracks: This Sullen Welsh Heart, Show Me the Wonder, Rewind the Film

Do you know how to read morse code?

'Cause I do. :D

Five Star Songs: Side

To celebrate the release of a new Travis album, let's look back at one of their most famous songs to date, Side, from their 2001 album The Invisible Band. The very first time I heard (about) Travis was actually when I saw the music video for Closer. But it was only when I listened to Side, that I fell in love with them, and, well, the rest is history. Travis became one of my all time favourite bands, and since then, I awaited all their albums eagerly. It's a shame they haven't released that many of them over the recent years. On the other hand, if they are all as good as the last one, then I'm okay with it.

Few songs ever havve been so unbelievably catchy and so immediately likeable, and Side is one of those I could never get tired of.

Reflektor

Featuring David Bowie, produced by James Murphy. I'm listening to it for the first time as I'm writing this post, so I have no actual opinion yet. So far, so good. I expect nothing less than an album of the year. Your thoughts?

Five Star Songs: Ballad of Easy Rider

It was only a matter of time before one of The Byrds' songs appeared here. I just didn't know which. Many of the band's songs hold the five star rating in my library, and it's too difficult to pick only one. Well, at least it was before I stumbled across the wiki page of the song Ballad of Easy Rider, featured prominently in the film Easy Rider, and set my eyes on the following paragraph.

The star and script writer of Easy Rider, Peter Fonda, had initially intended to use Bob Dylan's song "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" in the film but after failing to license the track, Fonda asked Roger McGuinn of The Byrds to record a cover version of the song instead. Fonda also wanted Dylan to write the film's theme song but Dylan declined, quickly scribbling the lines - "The river flows, it flows to the sea/Wherever that river goes, that's where I want to be/Flow, river, flow" - on to a napkin, before telling Fonda to "give this to McGuinn. He'll know what to do with it." The lyric fragment was dutifully passed on to McGuinn, who took the lines and expanded upon them with his own lyrical and musical contributions to produce the finished song.

I think it's an interesting fact from making one of the quintessential films of the New Hollywood era, and it gives an idea about the relationship between Dylan and The Byrds.

I've been listening to the band all day. All twelve studio albums arranged chronologically, played front to back. It makes up for over seven hours of incredible listening experience. Right now, I think I like The Byrds a little bit more then every other band, including the Fab four.

Joe South

Among all the famous songwriters from the 1960s, this one name is very easy to overlook. Unrightfully so. Joe South was a musician of great scope and incredible talent.

Born Joseph Alfred Souter in 1940, South started writing hits already in his late teens. Today, he is best remembered for songs like Hush, which he wrote for his former roommate Billie Joe Royal and which later became a huge hit and first top ten single for Deep Purple, or Lynn Anderson's version of (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden, which went on to become one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, and for which Anderson won a Grammy and South received two nominations.

Joe South won two Grammys on his own, too, with the 1968 protest song Games People Play, which has been covered many times by the likes of Tom Jones, Tina Turner or Inner Circle. He was also a prominent sideman, having played on Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools or Dylan's Blonde On Blonde album, among others. 

However, the monstrous success of Rose Garden in 1971 was overshadowed by a personal tragedy when South's beloved brother and frequent collaborator took his own life. Following his brother's death, South retired from the music bussiness and it seemed like he almost dropped off the face of the earth, living on royalties and making only seldom appearances. He died of heart failure in 2012.

I discovered Joe South about two weeks ago, while working on my own Best of the '60s compilation, which I'm about to share with everyone really soon. I was once again doing my research and his was the most interesting name to come out that I hadn't known before. One can only wonder how many great songs he could've written if it hadn't been for the unfortunate death of his brother.

Oddly enough, just as I was writing this post, Lynn Anderson's take on Rose Garden was playing on the radio...

Your Life Is a Lie

What the f!#k? :D

The weirdest video since The Avalanches' Frontier Psychiatrist. But I must say I quite dig it. That guy with the banana is priceless. MGMT's new album comes out September 17. Your thoughts?