Bored by the pre-debate spin cycle and inspired by Lots of Co’s alt.homecoming mix, I went scouring the Internet yesterday evening for some of the mixes Max mentioned (such as “Without Vader“, a.k.a. Eminem v. John Williams) and found Bass 21, which includes a number of versus versions for perusing and/or downloading to the iPod. Enjoy. (I must admit a particularly guilty fondness for “Go Toxic,” a.k.a. Britney v. Yaz.)
Tag: Music
Postcards from “The Old Him.”
“‘Chronicles: Volume One‘ leaves much to be said in future installments, and much good reason to look forward to them.” Ex-film critic Janet Maslin peruses Dylan’s “flabbergasting” Chronicles for the NYT. Update: Along related lines, Salon compiles a list of First Dylan meetings.
Dollar Bill on Springsteen & Stipe.
“The 50-50 split is not between Democrats and Republicans, but those who vote and those who don’t. That’s right: nearly 50% of eligible voters chose not to vote in 2000. The underlying challenge of our democracy is to change this non-participation and to ensure that the core values of citizenship and active participation in the electoral process overshadow the domination of big money and corporate power.” Sent to me by Chris at Do You Feel Loved, the inimitable Bill Bradley emerges from hiding to admire the Vote for Change tour in USA Today.
Love will be our strongest weapon.
“So am I with you or am I against? I don’t think it’s that easy, we’re lost in regret.” This line (from “The Outsiders,” featuring A Tribe Called Quest‘s Q-Tip) emerges as the central theme in Around the Sun — R.E.M.’s 13th album — which was released today. And, while it may take a few more listens than usual to differentiate among the many glum mid-tempo tracks on this album, I’d say Around the Sun is easily R.E.M.’s most cohesive album since Monster. Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and new drummer Bill Rieflin have finally emerged with a confident sound that incorporates the musical experimentation of Up and Reveal with the classic jingly-jangly R.E.M. we all remember from the Bill Berry era. In fact, I think Around the Sun compares favorably to the Automatic days, when the Athens boys enjoyed their widest popularity stateside with a similarly disconsolate set of songs.
Early word on Around the Sun was that we were in for a very political album, one swept up in and honed on progressive outrage over Dubya excess. And, while such sentiments appear explicitly on “Final Straw” (released in 2002 during the build-up to the war in Iraq) and “I Wanted to Be Wrong” (“We can’t approach the Allies because they seem a little peeved.“), Michael Stipe’s political sermonizing is never as overt as, on say, “Exhuming McCarthy,” “Cuyahoga,” or “Welcome to the Occupation” in the Life’s Rich Pageant/Document era.
Instead, for R.E.M. this time around, the political is personal. In fact, the band doesn’t seem angry so much as disheartened. From the opening track (and first single) “Leaving New York” (“It’s easier to leave than to be left behind“) a large majority of songs on Around the Sun dwell not on political causes but on the “Aftermath” (also the name of the second single) of shattered relationships…the turmoil, bitterness, conflict, and — eventually — grudging acceptance that accompanies a love run its course. On the cascading “Make it All Ok“: “So you worked out your excuses, turned away and shut the door. The world’s too vast for us now, and you wanted to explore.” On “High-Speed Train” (whose crunchy metallic drone makes the minor-key railroad rock of Driver 8 seem like a pleasure ride): “You’ve mirrored my best disguise and turned it back on me.” On “The Worst Joke Ever“: “Some things don’t hold up over the course of a lifetime.” On “The Ascent of Man“: “I’m so in love I won’t attract, and with my hands tied I won’t crack, ’cause in my mind I called you back.” This despondent cloud over the album reaches its apex — or nadir, actually — in the album’s relentlessly downbeat stand-out track, “Boy in the Well“: “It’s that sinking feeling, you know what it’s bringing on…I see it, I feel it, this town is going wrong.” Forget “Fall on Me“: On Around the Sun, the sky has already fallen, and it’s all about picking up the pieces.
To be sure, all this oppressive dwelling on lost loves can be tough to take, and I can see how some critics might feel like R.E.M. have hit a thematic rut here. Even “Wanderlust,” the only relatively peppy track on the disc, doesn’t avoid the album’s general gloom: “Looks like the world revolves around me. Looks like it’s falling down.” Simply put, it’s hard not to come out of a listen to Around the Sun feeling somewhat dejected. But the payoff is there, in a way, in the last track (strangely enough for R.E.M., also named “Around the Sun“): “Hold on world ’cause you don’t know what’s coming. Hold on world ’cause I’m not jumping off. Hold onto this boy a little longer, take another trip around the sun.” Soon thereafter, in the final moments, “Around the Sun” changes keys, a ray of light pierces the clouds, and the album floats away in a sort-of-Beach-Boys shimmer (done much more successfully than any of the attempts to do this on Reveal): “Let my dreams set me free. Believe. Believe. Now now now now now now…“
As with love, Around the Sun seems to argue by the end, so with America. R.E.M. could easily have hammered the anti-Dubya agenda much harder on this album, and judging from early reports on the Vote for Change tour, it sounds like they’ll be doing so extensively at their live shows. But, in a way, Around the Sun sets its goal at something broader. Don’t let Dubya’s travesty of an administration dishonor your admiration for the American ideal. And don’t let the pains, compromises, and betrayals of this world steal from you your heart. “Do I even dare to speak? To dream? Believe?,” asks “Around the Sun.” The answer is Yes, “Give me a voice so strong I can question what I have seen.” Hold on to the dream. Believe.
Music to My Ears.
“Unlike a lot of political issues, this is literally life or death. Kerry understands how the world works, in a way that Bush does not. When Bush ran the first time, I realized something: I want my president to be smarter than I am. I don’t ask much, but I want him to be smarter than me.” Mike Mills of R.E.M. and several other musicians make the case for Kerry to Rolling Stone.
Man out of Time.
“Being the patron saint of a certain kind of woman-hating dweeb is not a great career. Let me say that, right out.” Also in Rolling Stone, Elvis Costello reflects on his journey thus far, on the eve of two new albums, The Delivery Man and Il Sogno.
Read books, repeat quotations.
“A few years earlier Ronnie Gilbert, one of The Weavers, had introduced me at one of the Newport Folk Festivals saying, ‘And here he is…take him, you know him, he’s yours.’ I had failed to sense the ominous forebodings in the introduction. Elvis had never even been introduced like that. ‘Take him, he’s yours!’ What a crazy thing to say! Screw that. As far as I knew, I didn’t belong to anybody then or now.” On the eve of Chronicles, his long-awaited first volume of memoirs, the freewheelin’ Bob Dylan sits down with Newsweek and offers up a choice excerpt on the price of fame (which reveals why Self-Portrait is pretty lousy.) It sounds like he’s elided over some of his more interesting periods for now (Blood on the Tracks, the Christian years), but this should still be quite a fascinating read.
Tomorrow’s Gaining Speed.
In anticipation of Around the Sun (out October 4), R.E.M. have released a free download of new song snippets on iTunes (also available here and here), which includes “Leaving New York,” Around the Sun,” “Wanderlust,” “Electron Blue,” and “I Want To Be Wrong.” That goofy voicemail intro aside, I think this is strong stuff by our boys in Athens, easily better than Reveal and definitely more confident-sounding than the intermittent greatness of Up. “Electron Blue” — R.E.M.’s best run at an synth-driven tune yet — just might be my new favorite song-of-the-moment. And with the official word that the Tribe’s Q-Tip is also on one of the tracks (“The Outsiders”), this could be the choicest R.E.M. album in a decade or more.
Crying like a fire in the sun.
R.E.M. talk Around the Sun and, in discussing their dwindling popularity Stateside, pay credit to Bob Dylan. Notes Peter Buck, “In 1975, people thought he was going to be president. Now he plays 3,000 seat theatres. His last two records are the best things he’s done in years. So I won’t calculate who our audience is. I’ll take whoever I can get at whatever level I can get them.'”
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Play “Free Bird”! Actually, hold that, don’t. Apparently, Lynyrd Skynyrd will jam for the GOP, along with ZZ Top, the Charlie Daniels Band, 38 Special, and the Marshall Tucker Band. Not exactly a Murderer’s Row of musical talent, are they? I’d take the Vote for Change lineup over this crowd any day of the week and twice on Sunday.