360 records from the year 2000: 130 - 126

130. Joao Gilberto: Joao voz e violao

Bossa nova – find it here. At first I thought this was a little too sparse – Joao and an acoustic guitar. It made the songs blend into another, all of the focus on the vocals and the words, which I can’t understand. How wrong I was. Yes, I still think that bossa nova played solo is a bit like Miles Davis doing just the trumpet solos from ‘Kind of blue’ by himself. It’s a conversational art. But the beauty is in the details here: the perfectly picked guitar chords, now dreamy and flowing like water, now sprightly and alive, the sonorous voice, the way he talks on ‘Eclipse’ like he’s drifting into sleep. And of course the songs. Fine, it’s not his best, but it’s Joao.

At its best: Nao vou pra casa, Chaga de saudade

129. Van Morrison: You win again (with Linda Gail Lewis)

A completely unnecessary but damn enjoyable set of country, rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm ‘n’ blues covers by Van and Jerry Lee’s sister, who plays piano quite like her brother. Fun, and that’s the last thing I expected from a Van Morrison album in 2000.

I don’t know how this stands up to some 50s and 60s stuff. Well, I do know, but it’s easy enough to forget about that for at least as long as this record’s playing.
Ended in lawsuits.

At its best: Let’s talk about us, Jambalaya, A shot of rhythm and blues, Why don’t you love me

128. Laurent Garnier: Unreasonable behaviour

I don’t want to say it sounds like a trip, that gives a false impression. But it has the hypnotic feel and the enticing mental lull of travelling, airports, driving through continental European highways, snaking around the cities. A little claustrophobic but sedate enough not to mind.

Not knowing much about the evolution of electronic music, I always had the impression that at the turn of the century the French artists brought jazz back into house and techno. Now that I’ve heard more of what was around in 2000, jazz was all around, certainly in British electronica as well. And so it is here, everyone probably knows ‘The man with the red face’. If not, check it out right away. It’s a track which routinely ends up at the top of Belgian lists of best ever dance tracks (not lists of best Belgian dance tracks of course), and no wonder. There’s a jazz feel all over this record, even if it’s mostly synths and not saxophones. But there’s still a difference. The French stuff has that swing to it. I like the swing.

At its best: The man with the red face

127. Jurassic 5: Quality control

Reading about hip-hop is often depressingly like reading Marxist history. Who cares about progress in music, except people in the future who care about old music? Jurassic 5 know progress is only in the eye of the beholder and the beholder might be a fool, they play hip-hop according to the ‘playground rules’ in their own words. Well, it may be a throwback to everything and the Beastie Boys, it may boast a shout-out from a son of a Beatle, it’s still a solid record, that brings fun and swing convincingly back for the 55 minutes of its playing time. More fool the Marxist hip-hoppers swirling headlong into abstract beats and fatalism, the future is theirs.

At its best: The influence, Quality control, Lausd, Monkey bars, Concrete and clay, Swing set

126. O brother, where art thou? OST

Putting a Stanley Brothers track on your album is so unfair. I mean, that song, ‘Angel band’, alone would put this in the top 20. And add to that Harry McClintock’s version of ‘Big rock candy mountain’. It’s exactly the sort of stuff that drives people who grew up on Roxy Music and the Clash up the wall. Why? Because it’s so awesome and it drives a big old stake through the notion that popular music is for the young and restless. Luckily for them, I’ve got to disqualify ‘em. I mean, I would’ve loved for the Stanley Brothers to sing this song in 2000, but they’re clearly not.

As for the rest: This got attention from a certain authenticity-starved crowd who weren’t aware of the originals – you know the crowd I’m talking about (I was working in a world music record store in these years so I certainly know them). I mean, this spawned sequels and started careers. It would be churlish of me to begrudge them their hard found authentic musical experience (certainly hard to find something inexistent). They deserve education just like any of us. 

It’s easy to get cynical about the whole phenomenon. I try to tune that out. But, when you get down to the music, you know, not all of these yodels sound like they really, really mean it. Generally the women (Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris) make a good fist of it. And it’s hard to criticize the songs when the album contains ‘You are my sunshine’, ‘I am a man of constant sorrow’, ‘Keep on the sunny side’, ‘O death’, ‘In the jailhouse now’ and more –certainly more than its share of first class songs. There is some great stuff here, make no mistake, but as a listening experience, a lot of this music, and certainly the music by the male artists, is nice, inoffensive… and a bit boring. I mean, if you’re going to sing ‘You are my sunshine’ and at no point there is a threat of it turning into the saddest song on earth, you’re not doing it right. It may be producer T-Bone Burnett, who just wouldn’t know how to make a really bad sounding record, but mostly it’s the performances. What I’m missing here is a little of the spirit of the old recordings, something that sounds authoritative, something…I don’t know… authentic?
[But what do I know – my four-year old son likes this record a lot.]

Edit: I’m starting to really like having this play too. Who says wisdom comes with age? I was still listening with my cynicism on.

Edit again: Getting better all the time, especially ‘You are my sunshine’(!) We all need a little safety in our lives now and again.

At its best: Down to the river to pray, I’ll fly away, Didn’t leave nobody but the baby, I am weary (Let me rest), [Big rock candy mountain, Angel band]