May 18th, 2006 2:27pm
If I Had The Chance, I'd Ask The World To DanceThis...
If I Had The Chance, I'd Ask The World To Dance
This week's Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, and it includes three freakishly great songs from Spank Rock, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, and the Hank Collective. Also, at long last, MTV/Microsoft's Urge digital download service has finally launched. I've been writing the Pop Informer blog for them, but unfortunately, I don't know how to link directly to it, so you'll have to go through the Urge interface to read the column. (Some of my reviews are scattered around - there should be a few in the rock area somewhere.) I'm pretty happy with a lot of what I've written for them, especially this one entry about Simple Plan's "Untitled" and Eric Carmen's "All By Myself." I'm generally writing about mainstream acts, but for me, that's part of the appeal. It doesn't make sense to write about huge hits on this site or the AP column, and so this has been nice outlet for me. There are quite a few talented writers doing blogs for Urge, so even if you have no desire to purchase wma files (I totally understand!), it's at least going to be a good read.
Nouvelle Vague "Dancing With Myself" - Nouvelle Vague's gimmick hasn't worn too thin as of yet, but their song selection is generally strong enough that even their least inspired bossa nova arrangements serve their basic function as fodder for the soundtrack of an I Love The 80s dinner party. The best cuts from their second album go in more of a cabaret direction, which works wonders for the likes of The Cramps' "Human Fly." However, the only selection that trumps the original is their take on Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself." Removing Idol is enough to win some points with me (nothing against the songs, I just dislike his voice and persona), but the added jaunt and skip in Nouvelle Vague's arrangement serves the song well, resulting in a track that is light and sexy rather than hopped-up and off-puttingly self-conscious. (Click here to buy it from Justin Time.)
The Walkmen "Another One Goes By" - Wait, what? Walkmen, wha' happened? I wasn't totally into that last album, but at least you still sounded like yourselves and included a few undeniably great tracks. What's with the over the top Bob Dylan impression on more than half of the new songs? Is it a pre-emptive strike against fellow Jonathan Fire Eater alumnus Stewart Lupton's Dylan-ish new band, The Childballads? And if so, why did you choose to emulate everything horrible about Dylan (shapeless melodies, the marble mouthed yowling) whereas Lupton absorbed everything great about him (the mystique, the poetry, the ragged grace) into his own persona? The music still has that lovely sepia-toned patina of artificial antiquity, but the singing throws everything off and makes some of the songs quite difficult to sit through. "Another One Goes By" gets it right, and is genuinely pretty and romantic, but I wish that I could hear it without thinking that Hamilton Leithauser was trying to crack me up with his Dylan impersonation on the chorus.(Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
This week's Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, and it includes three freakishly great songs from Spank Rock, A Sunny Day In Glasgow, and the Hank Collective. Also, at long last, MTV/Microsoft's Urge digital download service has finally launched. I've been writing the Pop Informer blog for them, but unfortunately, I don't know how to link directly to it, so you'll have to go through the Urge interface to read the column. (Some of my reviews are scattered around - there should be a few in the rock area somewhere.) I'm pretty happy with a lot of what I've written for them, especially this one entry about Simple Plan's "Untitled" and Eric Carmen's "All By Myself." I'm generally writing about mainstream acts, but for me, that's part of the appeal. It doesn't make sense to write about huge hits on this site or the AP column, and so this has been nice outlet for me. There are quite a few talented writers doing blogs for Urge, so even if you have no desire to purchase wma files (I totally understand!), it's at least going to be a good read.
Nouvelle Vague "Dancing With Myself" - Nouvelle Vague's gimmick hasn't worn too thin as of yet, but their song selection is generally strong enough that even their least inspired bossa nova arrangements serve their basic function as fodder for the soundtrack of an I Love The 80s dinner party. The best cuts from their second album go in more of a cabaret direction, which works wonders for the likes of The Cramps' "Human Fly." However, the only selection that trumps the original is their take on Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself." Removing Idol is enough to win some points with me (nothing against the songs, I just dislike his voice and persona), but the added jaunt and skip in Nouvelle Vague's arrangement serves the song well, resulting in a track that is light and sexy rather than hopped-up and off-puttingly self-conscious. (Click here to buy it from Justin Time.)
The Walkmen "Another One Goes By" - Wait, what? Walkmen, wha' happened? I wasn't totally into that last album, but at least you still sounded like yourselves and included a few undeniably great tracks. What's with the over the top Bob Dylan impression on more than half of the new songs? Is it a pre-emptive strike against fellow Jonathan Fire Eater alumnus Stewart Lupton's Dylan-ish new band, The Childballads? And if so, why did you choose to emulate everything horrible about Dylan (shapeless melodies, the marble mouthed yowling) whereas Lupton absorbed everything great about him (the mystique, the poetry, the ragged grace) into his own persona? The music still has that lovely sepia-toned patina of artificial antiquity, but the singing throws everything off and makes some of the songs quite difficult to sit through. "Another One Goes By" gets it right, and is genuinely pretty and romantic, but I wish that I could hear it without thinking that Hamilton Leithauser was trying to crack me up with his Dylan impersonation on the chorus.(Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
5/18/06 3:42 pm
The Walkmen have made one good album.
This ain’t it.
And Bows + Arrows ain’t it, either.
5/18/06 4:41 pm
thank you for articulating all that about the new walkmen. i’ve been really uneasy about the album as a whole, and what you said is a big part of it. the dylan impersonation is way over the top.
5/18/06 4:43 pm
I’m afraid I may be the only person in the universe that likes the new Walkmen and thinks Nouvelle Vague Part Deux is a utter disaster. Oh well.
5/18/06 5:21 pm
Mazarin’s original “Another One Goes By,” from last year’s (!) We’re Already There, is much, much better. Not quite sure the rationale behind covering a song that came out last year without doing anything with it, but well, yeah.
5/18/06 5:34 pm
Wait, this Walkmen song is a cover???
Oh man, that just makes this record weirder and weirder.
I wanted to mention this in the review, but it didn’t fit - the album cover totally looks like they couldn’t decide whether to visually reference “Slanted & Enchanted” or “Sister,” so they went with both.
5/18/06 5:37 pm
Any word on when Childballads will be releasing their first ep or lp? Or did I just miss it?
5/18/06 5:39 pm
I’ve enjoyed past Nouvelle Vague efforts, but Dancing is a mess. We’ll ignore the fact that there’s nothing bossa nova about it. When I first listened to it, I couldn’t help but think, “is this the best they could do?” It’s a lazy, tired first draft. Underbaked, underwhelming.
5/18/06 5:48 pm
No, the Childballads record isn’t out yet.
5/18/06 6:24 pm
You can download a full Childballds live set from Maxwells on eMusic; the sound quality is godawful for something with an even semi-official release, but the songs sound amazing. Can’t wait.
5/18/06 6:30 pm
This Walkmen song is one of the most moving songs I’ve heard all year. Seriously. I love it.
5/18/06 6:41 pm
I think you just have Stew’s back in the post Fire*eater turf war, which of course is fine, they’re all talented- but I can’t help but feel your loyalty to Lupton is making you a tad biast on the last two Walkmen records. Everything you praised about Childballads is present on the Walkmen material too…
5/18/06 6:49 pm
Well, I do quite like the first Walkmen album and at least half of the second record, and a little bit of this, but I just think that Lupton is a far more talented guy and a vastly superior frontman, going back to JFE. I’ve always felt like Leithauser was a major weak link for the Walkmen, even back around the first album. Those guys are great musicians, though.
5/18/06 7:38 pm
SELLOUT!!!!!!
5/18/06 7:41 pm
I think that the new Walkmen record is totally fucking weird but, for the moment at least, in a really intriguing way. It’s not an easy listen, due to the vocals a lot of the time, it feels at times like an attempt at squashing all chance of any crossover potential (’Tenleytown’, ‘Emma, Get Me A Lemon’) and at others like a bonafide attempt at a hit record (’Danny’s At The Wedding’, ‘Louisiana’, ‘This Job Is Killing Me’). The dramatic tension that this brings about in the music is what’s keeping me listening right now.
The Walkmen have made three albums that are all pretty different than the last, whilst still sounding like The Walkmen and that, in my book, is something to be celebrated. Just wanted to chip in on the debate.
Oh, and for the record, I’ve always heard Dylan in Hamilton’s voice. It’s a bit more blatant now, I admit, but since when was Dylan a bad influence?
5/18/06 9:37 pm
the new walkmen is errrwhat! where’s the ambience? where’s the droning tonal shifts? where’s the twinkling piano? where’s the high hats? WHERE ARE THE HIGH HATS?
otherwise. i actually like it even if the dylan thing is kind of distracting. kind of except not really. or something.
this one’s a grower folks.
5/18/06 9:43 pm
and by all that i mean the album not this song.
5/19/06 1:11 am
What’s going on with the Childballads EP? Loog are supposedly going to release that soon, right? When I went to the band’s website and saw that it was under construction/coming soon, I thought maybe they had broken up or something…
5/19/06 1:19 am
Gosh, that Hank track posted in your column is nifty…
5/19/06 1:42 am
Richard, you really can’t go wrong with that Hank album.
5/19/06 2:40 am
I’ve taken that possibility into account, Matthew. I’m just waiting for my finances and my newfound Hank enthusiasm to have similar viewpoints.
5/19/06 8:01 am
Wow.. No kidding about this song being very, very close to the original of, uh, last year.
Apart from some walkmen-eqsue touchs like sleigh bells, it’s the same track.
Thanks to hype machine, found the original here:
http://withoutsound.com/2006/04/18/mazarin
Pretty disappointed in this album. Bows + Arrows is still one of my favorites though.
5/19/06 1:46 pm
I’m so glad other people don’t like the new Walkmen, I thought I was the only one. thank goodness!
5/19/06 7:51 pm
I don’t understand the Hamilton negativity. I’m hard-pressed to think of many frontmen in his league. Everytime I’ve seen them he’s been this incredible, stalking presence on stage. Have you guys ever heard his earlier stuff w/ the Recoys? I find it pretty great, as well.
Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to the Childballads stuff, as well.
5/20/06 5:13 am
Yeah, this song is a cover version of the Mazarin original. Which one is nicer? You decide!
5/20/06 1:46 pm
There ain’t anything horrible about Dylan… get it right or get a new day job!
5/21/06 1:33 am
I was fortunate enough to hear the whole Childballads EP, which is decidely heavier and more soulful than anything Stew has done in the past. His artistic voice has hit a level above and beyond even the best of the Fire*eater stuff (One tune in particular(called Blackbirds) is absolutley fucking top-shelf).
And while I think it’s sort of pointless to compare the Walkmen and the Ballads, I still feel pretty safe in asserting that in Stew’s case, it’s the lyrics that matter (fuck lyrics, the poetry), and any musical/stylistic similarity between the new Walkmen and the Childballads is secondary to this point. That said, any comparison made on these merits favors Lupton hands down, who regardless of any extraneous “turf-war” bullshit (which I believe he’d be the first to laugh out of town) is going to be remembered as a unique artistic voice in a cultural climate of dull formalism long after the Walkmen (still, let me reiterate, a good band) fade.
There is a base level of objective criticsm that precludes the possibility of ever comparing Leithauser and Lupton. Leithauser is a great singer, but Lupton is a great singer and a great poet. And for that reason, Lupton will last.
Deservedly so.
5/22/06 1:50 pm
Boy, people are really hatin’ on the new Nouvelle Vague album. I posted a few tracks myself (here and here); I happen to think it’s okay. On my first listen, “Dancing with Myself” also jumped out as the stand-out track. Yes, it’s not bossa nova, but they don’t really do all their songs in that style. This arrangement goes farther than just being an acoustic version; instead, they re-invent the song.