Most of you guys probably haven't touched a physical newspaper in months, but the newspaper is still important to me, one of the few unfortunate souls without regular access to the internet. My time in Scotland has made me an admirer of the printed press. On Saturday though, the most foreign of days, there is no paper. There is football and the pub in the early afternoon. But not this week, as my Hibs are away to Celtic, and there's no way I'm going to Glasgow.
So instead, I find a Saturday like today. Slow with introspection and full of music.
1. "Kingston" - Field Music (from Tones of Town)
Tones of Town is one of the finest albums of 2007, and "Kingston" is Field Music at their best. This gem is a gorgeous moment of chamber pop that's more Left Banke than say Steely Dan, who these boys from Sunderland are oft-compared to. When I saw the band in October, they mentioned that "...You're So Pretty," one of the stand-outs off their self-titled debut, felt a bit trite upon revisiting so they had to coax each other into playing it. "Kingston" isn't quiet trite, but far from Shakespeare. The tune does contain sharp lines such as "the weather's changed/but has your mind?" and it shows a marked growth in the band's pop lyric sensibilities. More than that, "Kingston," while just as tight and rhythmic as any offering from the group, holds ernest sincerity, an air of regret and misplaced priorities that the wonderful string arrangements reinforce and resonate. It's a very impressive song and album, showing promise that Field Music could soon escape the shadow of their more well-known English brethren Maximo Park and the Futureheads.
2. "Sycamore" - Bill Callahan (from Woke on a Whaleheart)
Pulling my head out of the sand momentarily last week, I discovered that Bill Callahan of (Smog) was releasing a new album under his own name which I promptly got my hands on. Unsurprisingly, Woke on a Whaleheart seems to be just as solid as a (Smog) outing on first impression. "Sycamore" stands out distinctively with a solid bass groove and a dreamy guitar arrangement. The recording is superb, employing a number of different guitars and back-up voices to great effect. These more thoughtful arrangements pick up right where the more fleshed out tracks on 2005's A River Ain't Too Much to Love left off, and with a delivery as steady as ever, Callahan reminds us while he's still head and shoulders above the rest of the singer-songwriter rat pack.
3. "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)" - Elton John (from Honky Château)
A lonely tribute to the rocket man, woman, and what the hell, Air Force pilot, who inspired such a disastrous news week for NASA. Admittedly, Sir Elton John's astronaut was a bit more elegant (and a tad less criminal) at expressing his domestic longing more than say, the now notorious, diaper wearing, pepper spraying, love crazed rocket woman Mrs Lisa Nowak. But if we only heeded Elton's warning, we would have known that she wasn't quite the woman we thought she was at home, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a long, long time before she ever gets back into space. Mars- or prison for that matter- ain't the kind of place to raise your kids, Mrs Nowak.
4. "The Great Salt Lake" - Band of Horses (from Everything All the Time)
The last person on earth finally listen to this record, I'm absolutely enthralled with how HUGE some of the tracks sound. Their big single "The Funeral." showed what the troupe of equines were capable of, but this track just destroys. To me, "The Great Salt Lake" isn't really as reminiscent of Neil Young as it it is of big open spaces and hopeful imperialism, which are essentially two things the United States has come to mean to me after spending these months abroad. Standing mouth agape at the Great Salt Lake, or maybe the Grand Canyon, this isn't an inherently American dream. I've met Scottish folks who long for such small feelings, but they lament that its too far away. Hell, it's too far for me. I've barely been west of the Mississippi.
The "hopeful imperialism" isn't as creepy as it sounds, I mean that. I haven't gone all manifest destiny in my time away. It's a simple idea inherent in our upbringing that urges us to take something and make it better than we found it. It has been disastrous as a military and political strategy, but I'm not really qualified to speak about those ideas, so I won't.
What I'm trying to say is this: a crucial pillar of the "American Dream" is that you can and should take something and make it your own and make it better. That makes it all the more brilliant when you hear a line like, "we'll be the next Omaha." This can ONLY be American, and damnit, if that doesn't make you a bit proud as an American, run along to Canada.
5. "You Can't Hurry Love" - Forests (self-circulating demo track)
"Glorious," my friend Will summed up this latest effort from New Jersey's Forests. Forests represent a less heard-of manifestation of the American Dream making its way across the country as we speak. There are kids in their rooms with their laptops, staying up all night reading Wikipedia, posting to message boards about music no one gives a fuck about, all the while crafting these little electronic bursts of genius with Fruity Loops, Audacity, Cool Edit, or maybe the occasional pirated copy of Reason or Recycle. The simplicity of home recording and digital composition is the best things to happen for the youth of America since drugs. With only the most remote hope of any commercial viability, these producers must be making music because there's a pure and simple desire to create something out of nothing, eking a voice out of silence. Nothing short of "glorious," indeed.
