2017 Latecomers: The Opera Comic

So here I am, a victim of The Matrix. Of the algorithms that govern social media, that analyse my likes and my comments and throw out advertising that's designed specifically for me. It's not the first time I've bought a song on the back of a facebook ad, it probably won't be the last. I don't really mind too much, anything that introduces me to cool new music is to be celebrated... although my bank account may beg to differ.

Enter The Opera Comic and their single Fantasise!, released late last year, and very promising it is too if you like literate, orchestral indie pop. Kind of like the Divine Comedy meets The Who, I reckon. You may approve if you wish...




Have you ever bought music on the back of a facebook ad?

My Top 17 Albums Of 2017 #1

Before we get to the Number One, here's the full countdown. I reckon the bottom two have already been elbowed off the chart by a couple of better albums I'm currently listening to, but I'll have to leave those for the new year...


17. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

16. The National - Sleep Well, Beast

15. The Menzingers - After The Party

14. Weezer - Pacific Daydream

13. Grandaddy - Last Place

12. Foxygen - Hang

11. Brad Paisley - Love And War

10. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger In The Alps

9. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound

8. Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Room 29

7. Aimee Mann - Mental Illness

6. Craig Finn - We All Want The Same Things

5. Sun Kil Moon - Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood / Jesu & Sun Kil Moon - 30 Seconds to the Decline of Planet Earth / Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye & Jim White

4. Morrissey - Low In High School

3. The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir

2. Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now

The death of Little England through Brexit, parochialism and Saville. This staggering musical banishing spell urges hope.

More here.

And especially here.




That was 2017. Who knows what 2018 will bring? That new Manic album sounds promising... and it'll be good to have First Aid Kit back.

My Top Ten Albums of 2017 #2

Witty melancholia meets lush indie pop - Jens takes on weddings, tumours and why we're here with panache.

At Babak's school, there is a 3D printer
And he prints out a model of the tumour
That was surgically removed from his back this winter
In its rugged grey plastic, it looks lunar
He puts the tumour in his breast pocket
As we head out for a beer...

More here.

2. Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now



Next: a return to the top for the band who created my favourite albums of 2008 and 2010.

My Top Ten Albums of 2017 #3

50 years of Stephin Merritt's life chronicled through 50 revealing and hilarious songs. Best musical autobiography ever?

More here.

3. The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir

(This one's about one of his hippy mother's many awful ex-boyfriends.)

When I write my memoirs
You will read them with pain and with shame
You'll be searching in vain for your name
For your bleak, insignificant name
When I write my memoirs
Which will be of course in verse
On the subject of you and how awful you are
I will be infinitely terse...

I hope I never run into
Another piece of shit like you
You killed my dog, you killed my mice
You made my house a den of vice

I laboured on your ice cream truck
Whenever I was not at school
You mostly used that ice cream truck
To sit there guzzling beer, you tool

But na na na na
Na na na
You're dead now
Na na na na
Na na na
So I sing
Na na na na
Na na na na
Life ain't all bad

The Magnetic Fields - '77 Life Ain't All Bad

My Top Ten Albums of 2017 #4

World affairs meets oral sex (often in the same song) in Morrissey's least introspective album in ages.

Moz tackles the Middle East, kill-hungry soldiers, police corruption and blowjobs in his usual "sensitive" fashion.

Less "woe is me", more "woe is the world" than ever before... maybe he's finally getting some!

Seventeen words will never be enough to do a Morrissey album justice: this one more than most!

4. Morrissey - Low In High School

Much more here.

!

Next: the best musical autobiography ever?

My Top Ten Albums of 2017 #6

Hold Steady mainman produces better work solo than with band... novelistic songwriting at its most emotionally affecting.

More here.

Well, the gangsters drove Preludes and sold this one weed called White Tiger
Wirth Park had a body
The holiday guy couldn't make change
The parking lot scene still existed, but not without problems
I came back to St. Paul and things had progressed and got strange

I got stuck in a snowbank
I was too drunk to drive to Edina
Right there is proof of my faith that God watches us
And the North Stars went south
And my friends all went out to Seattle
I stuck around town
Hit the bars then wait for the bus

6. Craig Finn - We All Want The Same Thing



Next: prolific doesn't begin to cover it.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #7

70s Americana and a Laurel Canyon vibe: "sad, slow & acoustic" yet packed with a sly wit.

More here.

7. Aimee Mann - Mental Illness

(Really struggled to pick one stand out track: they're all great.)


Next: Even better without his band? We all want the same thing.

My Top 17 Albums Of 2017 #8

8. Jarvis uncovers dark (& pervy, obviously) secrets of a Hollywood hotel room while Chilly jazzes the ivories.

More here.

Magic box / Upon which life leaves a stain / Which we can watch / Again and again / Oh you taught us to kiss / Taught us so many things / Do you mind if I ask:
When do we get to join in? / A magic window / A most marvelous confection / But windows are for looking through /Not for checking out your reflection

(Trick of the Light)

8. Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Room 29




Next: mental illness never sounded so good.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #9 / My Top 90 Mid-Life Crisis Songs #10 My Top 90 Mid-Life Crisis Songs #11

Mature and nuanced Americana songwriter adopts a rockier sound to take on Trump's United States of Anxiety.

I’m a white man looking in a black man’s eyes
Wishing I’d never been one of the guys
Who pretended not to hear another white man’s joke.
Old times ain’t forgotten.
There’s no such thing as someone else’s war.
Your creature comforts aren’t the only things worth fighting for.
You’re still breathing. It’s not too late.
We’re all carrying one great burden, sharing one fate.

More here.


9. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound



Another two-fer today, as I squeeze in yet another song about growing old... although Jason Isbell has some pretty sound advice for us on the Mid-Life Crisis front...

I hope you find something to love.
Something to do when you feel like giving up.
A song to sing or a tale to tell.
Something to love, it’ll serve you well.

Mid-Life Crisis Songs 11. Jason Isbell - Something To Love



Next: A chilly hotel room... fortunately, an old friend's there to warm us up.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #10

10. Angsty, Lebowski-loving millennial hits singer-songwriter gold channeling Vega*, Mann* and O'Connor***. Young people also cry****.

*Suzanne, not Alan.

** Aimee, not Michael.

***Sinead, not Des.

**** "Strong men also cry," is another quote from the greatest film ever made.

10. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger In The Alps

More here.

Jesus Christ, I'm so blue all the time / And that's just how I feel / Always have and I always will / I always have and I always will.

(And let's face it, a certain Mancunian miserablist would be pretty happy with that chorus too.)




Next: Argonauts not needed.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #11

Celebrity chums add depth* and chuckles** to a play-it-safe set. Still country's most incisive raconteur.

*John Fogerty, duetting on the title track: a worthy update of Creedence's Fortunate Son.

**Mick Jagger, given the chance the play the louche lizard again on Drive Of Shame.

See also this: the year's best song about growing old. Still makes me laugh and cry.

And as for the internet...

Your grandmother's in an open casket
You're in a suit and shades
You take your iPhone out and snap it: #sadday
You oughta be ashamed

Posing in the bathroom mirror, in a skimpy little two piece
In the background there's a toddler, cryin' on the toilet seat...

 

You oughta be ashamed, of your selfie
Now why you gotta go and tweet it?
When you really oughta just delete it
Now we all want to unsee it but we can't
You oughta be ashamed (but you're not)

Next: This is what happens, Larry...

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #12

Glorious homage to showstopping 70s pomp; tongue firmly in cheek. "They don't make 'em like this anymore."

12. Foxygen - Hang



Next: all's fair with modern country's finest wordsmith.

My Top 17 Albums Of 2017 #13

Marred by tragedy*, Grandaddy's return** makes discarded tech*** a metaphor for Jason Lytle's divorce. Haunting and weird.


*Founding member & bassist Kevin Garcia died of a stroke, aged only 41, just a few weeks after the album's release.

**Their first album in 11 years.

***A classic Grandaddy theme / trope.

13. Grandaddy - The Last Place

Forget the words, the pictures are nice
And dream of a girl or somebody else’s life
I'm trying a road that’s dead on the end
That’s how it goes, so copy and save and send

(A Brush With The Wild)

I just moved here, and I don’t wanna live here anymore
Countless lovers everywhere, I never know what’s gonna happen
They see me coming for a mile, all the while they were laughing

(I Don't Wanna Live Here Anymore)

More here.

Next: Just f-in breathe.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #14

Rivers* unashamedly goes pop**.

Pinkerton*** fans go ape.

Infectious tunes + sharp, witty, nerdcore lyrics =  another Weezer winner.****


*Rivers Cuomo = Weezer mainman.

**But without the awful contemporary sheen that marred this year's Elbow / The National albums.

***Weezer's heaviest album, held up by musos as their pièce de résistance, but actually a bit hard going.

****But nowhere near as good as last year's White Album.

14. Weezer - Pacific Daydream

I wanna have the feeling someone's in love with me
You gotta choose between the internet and me
People don't bring me joy
I think you get the point
I'm on an epic quest
Pursuit of happiness

(QB Blitz)

She got a bachelor's degree in physics and a job in computer programming
That's pretty cool for a singer in a band so I knew we would end up jamming
Later that night we went to a gig and she asked for some advice
"What do you do with your hands when you're singing, do you just hold onto the mic?"

(Mexican Fender)

Everyone wants to be cooler than everyone else
It's a hip hop world
And we're the furniture

(The Beach Boys)




Next: They're back! Like they never went away.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #15 / My Top 90 Mid-Life Crisis Songs #10

15. The Menzingers - After The Party

Springsteen-infused post-emo punks make huge-hooked guitar anthems out of the misery of turning 30.



Today's a two-fer, because I've been meaning to feature this album in My Top 90 Mid-Life Crisis Songs since I took a (successful) punt on it a few weeks back.

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #10: The Menzingers - After The Party

After The Party is an album full of songs about the first truly terrifying mid-life crisis we all face - turning 30. Seems so long ago now, I can't even remember how it felt, but I know that wasn't a particularly positive time in my life and I doubt that particular milestone helped any (although now, of course, it seems an age devoutly to be wished for: if only I could go back there, knowing what I know now...)

It all starts with Tellin' Lies, a song which sets up the album's big question: "Where we gonna go now that our twenties are over"...

Oh yeah, oh yeah, everything is terrible
When buying marijuana makes you feel like a criminal
When your new friends take a joke too literal
Making you feel like the bad guy

Then comes Lookers, a track constantly harking back to the old days "when we were both lookers". They exist now only in sad old photographs...

Lost in a picture frame
The way my body used to behave
The way I smiled in the moment
Before it permanently froze
But that was the old me
I was such a looker in the old days

Then there's the excellent Midwestern States in which our narrator complains about the mundane realities of real life now that magic has worn off...

Been having problems with our landlord
He said he's taking us both to court
She got her hours slashed
And my unemployment's drying up fast
We both got worthless diplomas from worthless universities
Two bachelors in worthless studies
But at least it made our parents happy
And cost a whole lot of money

All of which leads to the title track, and the realisation that the only way to survive adult (post-20s) life is to find yourself a fellow survivor with whom to cling onto the wreckage.

We put miles on these old jean jackets
Got caught up in the drunk conversations
But after the party, it's me and you
After the party, it's me and you

The video does a pretty good job of illustrating "growing up" too... 



Next: Buddy Holly goes POP!

My Top 17 Albums of 2017... #16

16. The National - Sleep Well, Beast

Matt Berninger's intriguing imagery and sly wit wins out against flat, contemporary over-production*. Storytelling saves the day.


(*A similar issue sank this year's Elbow album for me: a band I've loved since the start, striving too hard to cut out the guitars and garner radio play by smothering their sound in a Coldplay-like sheen. Or maybe I'm just getting old.**)

(**Indexes and parentheses are a cool way of cheating my self-imposed 17 word limit, aren't they?)


I get a little punchy with the vodka
Just like my great uncle Valentine Jester did
But he had to deal with those people like you
Who made no goddamn common sense
I’d rather walk all the way home right now
Than to spend one more second in this place
I’m exactly like you Valentine,
Just come outside and leave with me


.

Next: 30 is the new mid-life crisis.

My Top 17 Albums of 2017... #17

Is that enough 17s for you?

As is customary in December, I feel honour-bound to count down my favourite records of the year. And what a year it's been. Where I struggled to fill a Top Ten in 2016, I could easily go 20 this year... but 17 seemed like a good place to stop.

As it also customary at this time of year, I'm already discovering new records that may take the place of albums in this list after a few more listens (Fred Thomas, Jeff Rosenstock, Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile), but the cut-off date has to be December 1st... so I'll write about the latecomers next year.

However, 17 posts between now and the end of the December would be a ball-breaker if I waffled as much as I usually do in these reviews... so this year I'm limiting myself to 17 words per album (plus some choice lyrical extracts). For those of you with short attention spans, that will surely prove a blessing...

17. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

60% genius, 40% pretentious 6th form bollocks...better with choruses. Weirdly, the highlight is 13 minutes long!

More here.

These L.A. phonies and their bullshit bands
That sound like dollar signs and Amy Grant
So reads the pull quote from my last cover piece
Entitled "The Oldest Man in Folk Rock Speaks”
You can hear it all over the airwaves
The manufactured gasp of the final days
Someone should tell them ‘bout the time that they don’t have
To praise the glorious future and the hopeless past

Next... the monster snoozes.

March #10: The Best Album of 2017...

...so far.

I realise that's a pretty bold claim in March, but, boy, do I like the new Jens Lekman LP, Life Will See You Now. I've had it on almost permanent rotation in the car all week (along with one other new album which I managed to fit on the same CD and I'll be mentioning here soon). Usually when I take a new album to the car, I give it time to grow: one spin, then back to something more familiar, revisiting it later. But this one, I've had to fight to get it out of the CD player.

10. Jens Lekman - How We Met, The Long Version

It's been 10 years since I bought a Jens Lekman album, no fault of the artist because I very much enjoyed 2007's Night Falls Over Kortedala; all the fault of my pathetic inability to keep up with all the artists I enjoy. Good pre-release buzz about this record reminded me about Jens, and I'm glad I plunged back in, because there's so much to enjoy here, starting with lead "singles" What's That Perfume You Wear? and Evening Prayer. I will warn you not to listen to any of the other tracks from the album on youtube though as someone has uploaded a bunch of them slowed-down for some reason... and they sound pretty ropey.

Discussing my love for the album with my pal Steve last week, I made the mistake of comparing it to recent John Grant masterpieces... knowing full well Steve isn't really into John Grant. Lyrically, there's certainly that same attention to quirky detail you'll find on a John Grant record (as Evening Prayer ably demonstrates) as well as an obvious love of upbeat, poppy electronica. But there's much more to love here even if you're not a John Grant devotee (a.k.a. you're clinically insane), from a gorgeous duet with Tracy Thorn, Hotwire The Ferris Wheel, which goes all Pearlfishers / Paddy McAloon towards the end (I should have led with that, shouldn't I, Steve?) to the main track I'm concentrating on today, which is the first song this year I've fallen head over heels for on first listen. I love the attention to detail here, how Jens speeds through the creation of the universe and the beginnings of life on earth... only to slow things right down at the moment he asks the girl he fancies to "borrow your bass guitar...not that I needed one". And just listen to the trumpets!

Jens Lekman - How We Met, The Long Version

Seriously, if Life Will See You Now isn't near the top of my year end countdown for 2017, it will have been a truly amazing year for new music.