John Hult
I don’t need to tell you that there is too much music out there. There is too much media altogether and there has been for a long time. Think about it. How many channels do you get? How many did you get when you were 6?
The nice thing about having so many entertainment choices is that there is something for everyone. That’s obvious. But the problem is that there is nothing that everyone can identify with. No Life Magazine. No “Oh Susanna.”
Sure, there are songs that everyone knows?but nearly no songs that everyone likes. Britney is big, and so is Elvis. Most people know all the words, but the music’s appeal is usually connected to age. How many 40-year-olds bought “Britney,” anyway? How many 12-year olds bought “68 Comeback Special?”
Strangely enough, in these intensely demassified times, the new American standards were written by some mop-headed Britons.
Any doubt that Beatles songs are the new folk songs was dispelled last year when the group had 2000′s top-selling album more than thirty years after the group’s breakup.
While the “i am sam” soundtrack doesn’t pack even an eighth the punch of the Beatles “1″?nor should it be expected to?it does have the folk song factor in its favor.
In other words, it is hard not to enjoy this record. The songs are good, of course. You know the words to most of the songs, and the more obscure titles?like Ben Fold’s cover of “Golden Slumbers”?still have the Beatles signature sound intact enough to be recognizable.
The highlights include Sarah McLachlan’s cover of the terminally infectious “Blackbird,” chocolategenus’s painfully understated “Julia” and Paul Westerberg’s similarly performed plea for vitality “Nowhere Man.” But the Stereophonics cover of “Don’t Let Me Down” is the only song that lives up to and outdoes the original.
There is nothing spectacular about this record. But the Beatles were never really about spectacle or hyperbole. Marketing aside, they were just about great songs. So if you want to hear Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, the Black Crowes or the Wallflowers do great songs, this record may be for you. A word to the wise, however?Granddaddy’s pop-punk bastardization of “Revolution” is only for the brave.
The other record to be put to the turbofan litmus test this week is kind of spectacular. It is spectacular to me that I don’t hate this record. I should. You should. But I don’t.
Vermont is an acoustic band (ugh!) that plays slow, quiet, sullen songs (ugh!) and is fronted by an indie wunderkind (ugh!). The wunderkind is the promise ring’s Davey VonBohlen, who penned the lyrics on this emo group’s second outing, “Calling Albany.”
So this depressing, whiny glop-rock should be terrible, right? Not really. It is slow and great to fall asleep to, but Vermont’s borecore is saved by melody and its refusal to take itself too seriously. Songs like
“Larry Bird” and “Commodores 64″ are nicely tongue-in-cheek and keep the mood as light as the songs don’t sound on first listen.
So I suppose I had better thank KSDJ’s venerable indie rock magic man Jeff Ellinger again. This is the second time he has managed to shovel some college-rock crud into my hands and the second time I’ve been better for it.
You can test drive a song or two from either of this week’s selections by calling KSDJ and putting in a request at 688-KSDJ.
So until next week, tood-l-oo and merry listening.
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