Vidual –

La Lune –

Alright, so I wanted to also dedicate one of the Monday LPs to highlight an album released specifically last year. As mentioned last week, 2017 was a pretty amazing year for music. If I had to come up with just one thing that defined the year’s music, it was the “comebacks” from bands who had been on hiatus for years. This list includes such impressive bands like the Fleet Foxes, Gorillaz, and LCD Soundsystem. And that’s not including the albums that had multiple years of work and hype put into their projects, like the ones Lorde, Queens of the Stone Age, The XX, and The Foo Fighters all released. And while it would be impossible for me to pick an “album of the year”, I did want to choose an album that is a fine example of a record that really stood out amongst the comebacks.

The OOZ (2017), by King Krule. Wow. What a record! A full double-LP album with solid song after solid song that adds up to over a full hour of music. The ultimate reason I ended up choosing this one though probably has to do with my first impression of the album, which (surprise!) wasn’t actually too positive ^^;

First off, who is King Krule? “King Krule” is really the second stage name of the very young musician Archy Marshall. He originally began recording music under the name of “Zoo Kid” at the age of 15 in 2010. The genre of his music is extremely hard to nail down with just one word, but if I was given two words, they would be “dark jazz.” And yet, even that doesn’t really incapsulate his punk vocals, the occasional surf rock guitar riffs, or sometimes the slow rap sections. Even if you’re not a big fan of his musical style, it’s indisputably unique and instantly recognizable, which should say at least something about the music.

Tested and treated (often incorrectly) for a multitude of mental health issues while growing up, he often makes mention of his struggle with depression and insomnia in his lyrics. Several tracks are also filled with distinct love stories, while other songs become abstract in meaning and rhyme. The record The OOZ would spawn three singles before its release, “Czech One”, “Dum Surfer”, and “Half Man Half Shark”. While I would probably now consider them some of the best the album has to offer, all three didn’t really click with me on my first listen. I could easily understand the critical praise for his uniqueness, but it was a uniqueness that didn’t honestly strike me as something I would find myself earnestly listening to. Those three singles do a great job of hoisting his “freak flag” pretty high, but I initially mistook that as all his music was about. After listening through his full length album though, my opinion radically changed.

King Krule masterfully crafts slow, quiet songs along with intense, dark tunes. The OOZ is impressively paced with highs and lows, making sure every song is exactly where it needs to be. In an attempt to insure you give King Krule a solid first listen, I figured I’d discuss two lesser known tracks from the album. The first one is “Vidual”, which is a great example of the more surf-rock side of his music, even dabbling into psychobilly. The title is short for “individual” and is meant to express how Archy does not see himself as a “collective” personality and tends to keep his distance from others. The lyrics are filled with dark images and becomes more and more surreal as the song progresses, but ultimately tells the story of a toxic relationship that ends with both sides badly burned.

The other tune, “La Lune”, is on the opposite side of the spectrum in musical style and tone. The title is the French word for “The Moon” and features some of his more cryptic lyrics from the album. The tune is hauntingly beautiful, with different guitar tracks prancing around a simple, grounding bass part and two harmonizing vocal parts from Archy. If these peak your interest, I’d implore you to go check out the rest of the album or at least the three singles. If the second song is what caught your ear more though, then I’d actually direct you towards his previous album, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon relleased back in 2013. It features more of this quieter, stripped down sound, with several songs made up of just him and his electric guitar.

This is an album the I really wanted to highlight from last year, but there really were just so many noteworthy records as well. Apart from the comeback albums, there were also the impressive albums by Moses Sumney, St. Vincent, and others that don’t really fall into this category. And don’t forget about the ridiculous FIVE albums that King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard were able to put out in just the span of one year! Hopefully, I’ll try to cover some of those records before too long…

Why May I Not Go Out And Climb The Trees? –

If You Look At The Picture Too Long –

So if y’all remember from last year I ended the year with the band that had the biggest impact upon me that year. That spot went to the classic rock/blues/prog/folk/metal band Jethro Tull, and while there was a lot of great music that I discovered in 2016, it was fairly easy to decide upon an artist. This year, not quite as simple. Joining a monthly vinyl subscription and becoming a more serious concert goer and record collector tends to broaden your musical horizons. ^^; But! I finally decided upon…

Alabursy (2015), Daniel Norgren. Hey, it’s that Swedish Folk singer again! There was some amazing music I was introduced to over 2017, but there really isn’t anyone that holds a candle to Norgren for me. I still get goose bumps to this day thinking back to his small, yet powerful, performance at a local bar in downtown Denver.

This album, Alabursy, remains my favorite outing of Norgren’s. Like several of his other records, it both begins and ends with beautiful, calm instrumental tracks. This record is possibly more subdued than some of his other works, but it is able to craft this sublime atmosphere that is so utterly unique and a perfect match for his musical style. This record is the ideal choice to just wind down with at the end of the day, or listen to for your daily quiet moment. The songs on the album are a mix of introspective lyrics and mellow stories that relate back to themes of fear, loneliness, and yet beauty in the small everyday things.

I could give the usual spill here of “how it was so hard just to pick two songs,” but I feel that should just be a gimme for this album. In the end though, it felt only fitting to choose the first song I heard from Norgren (“Why May I Not…”) and the opening song from the concert (“If You Look At…”). The track “Why May I Not Go Out And Climb The Trees?” immediately caught my attention on my first listen, and while “Moonshine Got Me” and “Black Vultures” cemented my interest in the artist, “Why May I Not…” easily remains one of my favorites. This was definitely the tune I was most excited about when Norgren began to play it at the concert.

“Why May I Not…” tends to stand out from the other tracks on the album Alabursy, with it’s distinct back-and-forth, two-person dialogue structure for its lyrics. The speakers can be understood as a young child and an adult (probably the child’s parent). It follows this structure of presenting the child’s question followed by an answer from the adult. The child’s questions are given in a simple and innocent way, while in contrast the adult’s answers feel cold and purposefully frightening to the child. The answers are also framed in such a way that the listener realizes that aren’t meant to be taken literally. For example, the response to the title question is that the “trees have fingers that may steal the eyes from thee”. While trees don’t literally have fingers, you can read the deeper worry the parent may have for the child’s safety.

“If You Look At The Picture Too Long” is a little more complicated of a tune, and yet simpler. While Norgren and his two other band members (Anders Grahn and Erik Berntsson) technically walked on to stage with the instrumental track from the beginning of this album (“The Summer Chafer”), he opened the night with this tune by himself on the piano. I wasn’t closely familiar with it prior to the performance, but it peaked my interest to go give it a closer listen afterwards. The lyrics present us with a beautiful painting, but the speaker warns that the closer we inspect it and scrutinize it, the less real it becomes. We begin to doubt its vision, or more specifically the vision of the artist responsible for the painting. I’ve ran the lyrics through my brain several times now and I’m not confidant I could give its ultimate meaning, but it provides a fun brainteaser and some gorgeous poetry.

I believe Norgren’s albums are finely crafted from start to finish, but I really can’t stress enough how it’s his live performances that take those excellent songs and truly craft them into something even greater. When live, Norgren is free to take his simple songs and transform them into long, impressive jam sessions occasionally punctuated by his poetic lyrics. Slow songs shift to faster speeds each time he repeats the tune, but then slow down to almost nothing but a crawl and a single instrument. The constant shifts and turns, as well as his emotional delivery of the vocal parts, make for an unforgettable performance.

2017 was an amazing year for music and I could have easily chosen something released this past year. Sadly, even with the abundance of spectacular music from last year, it was also filled with some extremely heartbreaking losses of some very talented musicians. As we move on into 2018, I hope we remember the highs and lows from last year, honor the memory of those no longer with us, and seek out ways to make 2018 the best it can be. Cheers! ^^

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) –

I hope everyone is having a fine Christmas so far! Here’s a rather short, quick, and simple LP Monday choice, but I hope you enjoy it ^^

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (1971), John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band. The first Christmas-related release by a Beatle after their breakup. They used to send an annual Christmas single to their fans in the Beatle fan club, and each one of them would write a Christmas tune during their solo years, beginning with this song by John.

One of Lennon’s many anti-war Vietnam songs, he said he took a lot of what he learned with his hit “Imagine” to write this song. “Put your political message across with a little honey,” he discovered. The song would release in the US in December 1971, but it wouldn’t chart or achieve much success initially. Due to its later release it received less radio play and wasn’t given an appropriate amount of time to gain popularity before the season was over. However, with its delayed release in the UK till the following year, it would do quite well over there since it would release with plenty of time before the holidays. Ultimately it would chart its highest though shortly following Lennon’s death in 1980. Since then it has slowly become a Christmas classic.

One more fun fact about the song is the commonly misheard beginning. At the start of the song Yoko whispers “Happy Christmas, Kyoko” followed by John whispering “Happy Christmas, Julian”. This was mistakenly listed as “Happy Christmas, Yoko” and “Happy Christmas, John” on the lyrics sheet for their compilation album which this single appears on. The actual names spoken are Kyoko and Julian, Ono’s and Lennon’s children, respectively.

I’ll end this short entry with this Christmas short film, directed by Wes Anderson and featuring Adrian Brody. Yes, technically it’s an advertisement for H&M, but it shows off the style and charm of a normal Wes Anderson feature film. It also features this song in its closing ^^

A Christmas Song –

Wond’ring Again –

Christmas is quickly approaching, with only one more week to go! So to help get y’all in the holiday spirit I decided to grab a Christmas tune from my library. Hope you enjoy!

Living In The Past (1972), by Jethro Tull. It’s been about one year since last featuring one of Jethro Tull’s albums on LP Mondays. At the time I described them as “the band that had the biggest impact upon me last year,” and a year later I still easily list them as one my all-time favorites. They’re also quickly becoming one my Christmas traditions with their excellent The Jethro Tull Christmas Album, which features arrangements of classical Christmas melodies along with a large selection of original Christmas and winter-related tunes they wrote over their career. But today I’m talking about a different Jethro Tull album.

The compilation album Living In The Past consists of a few unreleased songs, but is primarily a collection of their early singles. Several of the songs on the album were remixed slightly and were reworked in stereo, only ever having a mono release prior to the album. Along with all of the singles and early cuts, the third side contains two songs from their live performance at Carnegie Hall in 1970. The album itself is packaged more like a large hardcover book that opens up as a booklet with over 50 featured photos of the band. The second and second last pages are actually record sleeves that hold the two LPs. As you can tell from the photo, the gold lettering on the front cover of mine has faded with the years. Later reissues would use different packaging materials, change the back to list the tracks, and would also change the colors to a more reddish maroon and yellowish gold for an overall brighter color scheme.

Enough talk about packaging though, what about the songs? The first one is bluntly titled “A Christmas Song” and was originally released as the B-side of their third single “Love Story” in 1968 (but was also included on a few B-sides of their next single “Living in the Past”). The song features the usual sarcasm and humor that several of Ian Anderson’s lyrics tend to carry with them. As a whole, the song warns against the “thoughtless pleasures” that comes with the holiday festivities and our tendency to forget what the holiday originally was meant to celebrate. He poses the question: How we can feast when there are others in the world suffering? Eventually the speaker concludes that this is “just a Christmas Song” and decides to join in with the celebration. Side note, the song would amusingly get a sequel more than 20 years later titled “Another Christmas Song”.

The next song is a little different than most others on the album. “Wond’ring Again” is actually a very early cut of the tune “Wond’ring Aloud” which made an appearance on their famous album Aqualung. The original version addresses the fact that we are using up the Earth’s natural resources and contemplates the future that our children will be left with. The first two verses discuss this through satire while pointing out that the poor and weak are the first subjected to our mistakes. The third and final verse changes focus from the illustrated satire to a first-person interaction that acts as symbolism against the rest of the song.

The Aqualung version is less than half the length of the original cut, consists of almost entirely new lyrics, and is stripped down to only a simple acoustic guitar, piano, and an added string part. As for the lyrics, the original is often seen as being more pessimistic when compared to the romantic lyrics of the second version. There is no publicly known reason the song was changed for the album and there are many fan theories behind the alterations made to the piece. Some argue that the second version could be interpreted as a love song written to Anderson’s newly married wife, while others point out the fact that the original cut was the final song their ex-bass player contributed to. Another popular belief is that it was too heavy of a subject matter and did not nicely fit in with the already complicated themes of god and religion that Aqualung dealt with. I think these are all contributing factors, but would probably give more credit to the idea that it did not fit smoothly on the album. Several of the songs on Aqualung tend to be long, serious (or at least sarcastically serious), and occasionally grave in tone, but they are offset with short roughly one-minute tracks that are almost the complete opposite. Some of these songs are happy, some sad, some just silly, but they offer the listener a short break from the complicated themes of the album and provide a delightful bridge to the following song.

I’m honestly torn between which version I prefer, but I do believe that “Wond’ring Aloud” is the best fit for its place on the Aqualung album. However, “Wond’ring Again” has its third verse, which is just so…perfect! If you’re looking for the best of both worlds though, a few years ago they officially released an amazing mash-up titled “Wond’ring Aloud, Again”. Jethro Tull’s wacky antics and silly sense of humor isn’t for everyone, but Ian Anderson really does have a knack for poetry and the courage to tackle deep, compelling topics. They may be rather eclectic in their tastes and influences, but their music ends up ironically becoming very niche in nature.