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Yes, it's more than a month into the new year, but I've been listening back, back to a few excellent discs I missed in 2008. Each came through a different back channel. One -- Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" -- I discovered after it appeared on a bunch of New York Times Best of 2008 lists. Another -- She & Him's "Volume One" -- was on a friend's list. A third -- Thea Gilmore's "Liejacker" -- was an impulse buy, prompted by recalling a booking agent rave some time back. And the fourth -- Susan Tedeschi's "Back to the River" -- was the suggestion of a tastemaker -- Birdland's Barry Friedman.
Justin Vernon, who goes by the name Bon Iver (from a misheard line on "Northern Exposure"), retreated to his father's hunting cabin looking for some solitary after the breaking up with his band and his girlfriend. He wasn't planning to record a lo-fi acoustic album, it just happened. What he created is a raw, layered and deeply honest piece of work. just
Vernon's falsetto, often layered and eerily echoed, forms the guileless allure of the disc. On the most immediately catchy song, "Skinny Love," he sings over a strummed guitar:
Come on skinny love just last the year
Pour a little salt we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
He grows increasingly frustrated. “I told you to be balanced,” he rails, “I told you to be kind. Now all your love is wasted? Then who the hell am I?”
The next cut, "The Wolves (Act I and II)" features him tapping his guitar as his multitracked falsetto resignedly rails against his former lover. It's the emotional core of an album where the lyrics are often impressionistic, amplified by the spare production and Vernon's singular vocal style.
All of that makes "For Emma, Forever Ago" an intimate, remarkably affecting and catchy, yes catchy, listen time after time.
On Thea Gilmore's "Liejacker" Joan Baez does a duet turn with her recent touring partner and it first sounds like something Baez has done before -- hand over the folk torch to a promising newcomer (though GIlmore has released four albums and isn't yet 30). As you listen to "The Lower Road" it's clear the torch isn't being passed. It's been taken by Gilmore, whose voice is more nuanced and emotional than her elder admirer. In fact, "Liejacker" shows a mature, typically thoughtful Gilmore fulfilling the promise of earlier efforts by rounding off some of the rough edges.
She's more confessional and the spare folk production suits these songs and her voice, from the opening "Old Soul," a duet with The Zutons Dave McCabe, through the catchy upbeat folk rock of "Come Up With Me" and on to the soulful "Roll On." Erin McKeown provides backing vocals on one track and Steve Wickham of The Waterboys) plays fiddle on another while Laura Reid fills out the sound with her cello.
Fans of artists as diverse as late career Rosanne Cash, Baez, Eliza Gilkyson and Annie Lennox will find something to like on this disc.
I thought She & Him was just another lame vehicle for a moonlighting actress, Zooey Deschannel. After Minnie Driver and Scarlett Johansson, not to mention Bruce Willis, who can blame me? Little did I know she and Ward were channeling the best of Sixties and Seventies pop music. "Volume One" is a simple, utterly appealing record that won't leave your player for weeks. Deschannel, who sings in a cabaret jazz group, milks the sweet innocence of her voice, but rocks hard enough to please Phil Spector. Listen to the girl group backing on "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" and "I Was Made For You." There haven't been girl group songs this fun since The Ronettes. "This Is Not a Test" and "Change Is Hard" with its pedal steel guitar sound like California cool Linda Ronstadt circa 1978. There are nods to pop country (of another era) on a couple of tracks, including the weeper, "Got Me," and that works, too, as does the Hawaiian guitar on a smoldering cover of The Beatles "I Should Have Known Better." In fact, there's not a false step on this. It's cozy, catchy, and a welcome find.
Blues rockers are a dime a dozen so I didn't rush to buy Susan Tedeschi's "Back to the River." My failing. She kicks it off with a hard rocker that would make Joplin or Joan Jett blush. But Tedeschi uses her blues foundation to branch into other genres. Listen to the funky guitar intro to the title cut, a combination of Bluesbreakers and Little Feat. And then there's Tedeschi's voice, which is a powerful mixture of Joplin's power (but on key) and Raitt's sexy passion. She also knows how to pick writing partners. Tony Joe White ("Polk Salad Annie," "Rainy Night in Georgia"), husband Derek Trucks, Gary Louris of The Jayhawks and Sony Kitchell lend a hand. The only cover is a horn-fueled, funkified version of Allen Toussaint's "There's a Break in the Road," a superb choice. Doyle Bramhall II of The Allman Brothers and husband Derek contribute their guitar pyrotechnics.
The writing tackles some of the usual subjects, but also delves into politics ("Revolutionize Your Soul"), the New Orleans tragedy ("700 Houses"), and balancing family and career ("Can't Sleep at Night"). With "Back to the River," Tedeschi has injected some much-needed life into a genre threatening to fade away into blandness. |
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