360 records from the year 2000: 170 - 166

170. Shakira: MTV unplugged

Well, with some records I’m just stumped for an opinion. This is really pretty good – how’s that for incisive criticism? Shakira is a fine singer and she knows how to write a song with all the necessary ingredients. She sounds like she has a great rapport with the crowd. I’m particularly fond of a trio of early songs in the show ‘Si te vas / Donde estan los ladrones / Moscas en la casa’. At that point I feel it could become something really good. But there’s stuff here I just don’t get (‘Ciega, Sordomuda’ – what’s that all about with its mariachi horns and weird hoompa-interludes?, ‘Estoy aqui’), and on the whole I just don’t get a real connection from it. Maybe it’s a little too … It didn’t happen.

Edit: I’m growing into this one – even the hoompah bit (it’s for dancing, duh). It’s a real nice pop album. And ‘Inevitable’ is great.

At its best: Si te vas, Donde estan lost ladrones, Moscas en la casa, Inevitable, Tu

169. Richard Ashcroft: Alone with everybody

Points against this record 1. Richard Ashcroft.
In my research for this project I found a letter to a music magazine by a certain John Coan making mention of Ashcroft, a pier in Wigan and ‘running along its length while on a blinding trip’. It’s hard to argue with such convincing logic.
Go to Amazon.com and the man’s biography starts: ‘Richard Ashcroft is the essence of Brit Cool. Like Syd Barrett or Nick Drake before him, Pete Doherty and Alex Turner after him, Ashcroft is one of those rarified rock eccentrics; the type of visionary spirit that’s one of England’s greatest musical exports.’ Good luck with that.
Points against this record 2. The tracklist.
Meditate on this: 1. A song for the lovers 2. I get my beat 3. Brave new world 4. New York 5. You on my mind in my sleep 6. Crazy world 7. On a beach 8. Money to burn 9. Slow was my heart 10. C’mon people (we’re making it now) 11. Everybody
Need I say more? I rest my case.
Point for this record 1. The first half is really good, the second half I don’t mind.
Damn! I feel bad just writing that down, but the truth has its rights. It ain’t easy pulling off this kind of gorgeous lush deep sound, but it works when it’s done right.

Edit: I’ve been going back and forth on the album. There are great moments on practically every song, but about half the songs (maybe more) are somewhat facile at heart. Some of the lyrics, most of the lyrics, are trite. It’s just the way the light hits the record, I guess. Then sometimes, I’m in the right mood and it rolls over me like waves of lapping water. ‘Brave new world’ with its post-chorus rush and ‘You on my mind in my sleep’, an almost Van Morrison-worthy sweeping melody, those two never fail though.

At its best: I get my beat, Brave new world, You on my mind in my sleep, Slow was my heart, Everybody

168. John Hiatt: Crossing muddy waters

Hiatt is like a block of wood. Standing firm in the face of a changing world, that leaves craftsmen like him behind. And that’s the kind of record you get. Sturdy, familiar on first spin, not really exciting, but all the same offering something that a man has worked on with his own hands, some kind of values reaffirmed. It’s not without rewards.

At its best: Crossing muddy waters, Only the song survives, God’s golden eyes, Before I go

167. Charles Lloyd: The water is wide

On the surface nothing much happens. Below the surface everything is still. That’s what’s going on in these sketches. I mean, if this album was any lower-key, it’s be ambient. In context, when after a typically hauntingly/haunted beautiful piano intro ‘Figure in blue’ breaks into the softest of bossa nova strums, it’s like feeling the earth move. As a listener it takes attention to break through the surface and hear the voicings in the piano playing, the heartbreaking moments of unity between soloist and backing trio. Let your attention wander and it’s just background music. Tune in, and it’s sometimes quite breathtaking. Start with the piano – Brad Mehldau is like this band’s Bill Evans. Expand to take in Lloyd’s saxophone playing – his warm and friendly tone, his inviting lines which make every excursion sound like a written melody line. John Abercrombie’s guitar on ‘The water is wide’ and ‘Prayer’, the way the drums play off Lloyd’s saxophone in ‘There is a balm in Gilead’.

At its best: Georgia, The water is wide, Ballade and allegro, The monk and the mermaid, Prayer

166. Dandy warhols: Thirteen tales from urban bohemia

One of those things I didn’t foresee putting myself through, I came upon the Dandy Warhols record. But lo, I found that apart from the expected dreaded drug chic (Bohemian like you, Horse pills, Cool scene), this was a band in control making exactly the sort of music they wanted. Most of these songs are based on chord progressions so classic they might as well be built out of stone, but on top there are confident melodies, thoughtful arrangements, great guitar sounds. So who cares if he’s talking about model girlfriends and Nietzsche on top? Better than you think.

At its best: Mohammed, Nietzsche, Solid, Sleep, Shakin’