360 records from the year 2000: 165 - 161

165. Godspeed you black emperor: Lift your skinny fists like…

Well, we all know what Godspeed sound like by now. One of the main bands in steering post-rock from the Chicago-style (Tortoise etc.) to the European style which soon after diverged into two distinct paths: the soft – louder – LOUD path which I could never enjoy (Mogwai, Explosions…) and the modern classical path (Sigur Ros). Godspeed dates from right before the 2 paths formed and hold all that inside their music. At the time, I couldn’t listen to them because of that (surely everyone knows the Chicago style was so much warmer and richer than the European styles). Now, as my ideological stance has melted away like so much pretense, I could still point out that so much pathos can’t be beneficial to anyone, and that the vaunted long form tracks (4 20 minute LP sides) don’t cohere as much as they should, but this is powerful music which grows deeper as you listen more, and it’s probably Godspeed at a peak.

At its best: Various sections

164. Black crowes: Greatest hits 1990-1999

The Black Crowes are a band I know more by reputation than by music. I’d figured I’d kind of like it, nice influences, not much personality. Well, I shouldn’t have worried. Most personalities are borrowed goods anyway. The Crowes can write a damn good song and play it with feeling.
As a compilation it seems pretty non-descript: four each from albums one, two and five, two each from albums three and four. No hidden treasures, stray singles, b-sides… things that point to the kind of band sloppy with their talent that I really dig. According to this the story of the Crowes is essentially caught on their albums. It plays out like a classic promise – success – downfall – comeback tale. The first album is young and wide-eyed and hard to resist. ‘Hard to handle’ – I knew that one – was never a favorite of mine, something too strained and pinned down about its delivery. Uptight, not loose and swinging. The other three songs are great. Second album is promise fulfilled, these songs have a new swagger, there’s something arrogant about it, hardened, they’ve nailed their thing and they know it. It’s a little more cynical but it delivers. Then it all turns sour (it always does for a rock’n’roll band, even on the revival circuit): album three is self-absorbed, album four is plain tired and unengaging (songs 9-12 on this set are a slog). But they pull themselves together for a lean, hungry, concentrated comeback on the last record. It’s probably a little over-represented, but I’ll forgive them their enthusiasm. It’s clearly a hard-earned return. Am I near the real story?
It’s an often told rock’n’roll story, and there’s no original twist, so it all comes down to how you tell it, and I like the way they do. I’ll investigate further. Who knows, maybe there’s more gold in the footnotes…

At its best: Jealous again, Twice as hard, She talks to angels, Remedy, Kickin’ my heart around, By your side

163. Dwight Twilley: Tulsa

It took me a while to get into this, at first it sounded like typical journeyman rock, all craft, no inspiration. I thought that for about 3 spins. But slowly these songs started working their magic. It’s not a record gifted with great production: just standard meat-and-potatoes arrangements, the backing players don’t seem to be able to come up with an idea of their own, the sound doesn’t really sparkle. But the songs are really good. One or two started sticking out ‘Tulsa’, ‘A little less love’. Then a couple more ‘Way of the world’, ‘Miranda’, ‘It’s hard to be a rebel’ (really lame title aside). Pretty soon I started digging the meat-and-potatoes stuff as well: songs like ‘Runnin’’, ‘The luck’, ‘Baby’s got the blues again’. You know what these songs are going to sound like, and they do, but in a good way. There is inspiration at work. Springsteen or Petty don’t come up with stuff like this anymore.

At its best: Tulsa, A little less love, Way of the world, Miranda

162. Pinback: Some voices

An EP with songs that sound exactly the same as the ones on their albums.
It’s always very well made, Pinback material. Don’t be fooled by the rough edges on the production, all this stuff is mapped out by engineers. If it was a building, it would be the Pentagon. I like it. In fact I can’t find anything objectively wrong with it. But it still misses that something extra to put it up there: variation, heart? It’s just so contained and detached. You know they’ll never cut loose. God help us if they ever do.

At its best: Some voices, June

161. Rickie Lee Jones: It’s like this

This starts with a one two punch that’s quite something, Steely Dan’s ‘Show biz kids’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Trouble Man’. Not two songs you’d think any version would be able to stand next to the originals, but she manages nicely. And… she makes the songs sound like they belong together, which is certainly not something I’d have thought of.
But after that it slowly peters out. Versions of ‘For no one’ and ‘Low spark of the high heeled boys’ which indeed can’t stand next to the originals. In the second part of the set (older, more standard type songs) there’s an ‘I’ll slide into it’ approach to singing that’s a bit much for me.

At its best: Show biz kids, Trouble man