Category — Music Much?

Facial hair and folk. Maybe I just don’t understand. I have no intention of belittling these people for their grooming style, simply to speculate on this recent phenomena within’ folk.

Perhaps it’s some sore of 60′s revival; the spirit of Vietnam era folk bubbling up during recent times of war and general unrest with Iraq. Seeing as many of these people may have grown up listening to the music of the 60′s on mom’s old record player, it seems entirely plausible. The whole life style may have been deeply ingrained by folk heroes past, only to manifest itself 4 decades later in a mirror global climate. Even if their music isn’t as overtly topical as that of their predecessors, their style speaks in volumes. “Stickin’ it to the man” so to speak with a scruffy homeless look. Saying, “hey! I don’t approve of your war or your politics. So I’m gonna rebel in the most non-confrontational way I can. I’m not gonna shave. Then sing about stuff in a sombre, post modern, folk revival explosion. Take that!” (feel free to replace “explosion” with your favorite noun of substance.)

Maybe they’re just like me and don’t care to shave every day during the cold winter months. I guess it just adds up on some people faster than others.

The following is a short list of notable beards.

• Sam Beam – Iron and Wine

• Devendra Banhart

• Will Oldham – Bonnie ‘prince’ Billy and many other projects

• Justin Vernon – Bon Iver

• Robin Pecknold – Fleet Foxes

• Jim James – ok I know he’s not realy a ‘folkie’ but lets face it, that’s an awesome beard

In my opinion, the best album of the year. Shearwater – Rook. Epic, beautiful, and complex. It grew on me rather quickly after I heard it for the first time and it continues to grow with each listen. In the style of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, it lends itself to epic landscapes and textures while not becoming overwhelming.

I’m not sure where, but I recall reading a review of this album claiming it to be a rip off of the aforementioned Talk Talk experimental album. I immediately dismissed this accusation only to remember it when going back to listen to Sprit of Eden recently. It raises an interesting question: where do we draw the line between homage, influence, and plagiarism? I think, a simple solution could come from asking whether the music (in this example) acknowledges the existence of the previous work. Praise or criticism aside, I feel that the lack of shame and self-awareness of similarities by default leads the new music away from plagiarism. As weak an argument as it is, I also think that time plays a factor as well. In this case, Spirit of Eden was released exactly 20 years prior to Rook. It’s then safe to assume that the creative input that came from Shearwater most likely has influence of the Talk Talk album if not some deep seeded affection for the album from years of enjoyment (much like many who appreciate Spirit of Eden). An example of the opposite would be the more recent ‘butt-rock’ movement. Bands like Nickleback have had many copy paste bands to follow (none worth mentioning including Nickleback… *dry-heave). These all came out at the same time with songs that follow a single equation (once again, all so terrible, it makes me shudder).

Regardless, I also marvel at the growth and backgrounds of the bands. Talk Talk started as a forgettable synth-pop band that sort of fit the mold of the 80′s. Through the records you can sort of hear the creative minds ticking in their heads. They took a big leap forward in recording Spirit of Eden by letting all of that experimental musing spill out in one record. Shearwater has had a similar growth pattern. It started as a side project where Will Sheff could put down some of ballads that wouldn’t really work with Okkervil River. As the project sort of started to grow on its own, Will sort of started to fade into the background (assumptions I make only from listening to Shearwater’s back catalogue). The sound of Rook started to trickle in to various songs on the earlier albums. Polo Santo really started to have its own new sound. That sound that we would only catch glistens of in earlier work. Rook to me is the apex. They got it down.

It’s like watching something amazing blossom in nature. Shearwater grows and evolves in a single steady direction. It’s really quite exciting to watch. Get this album. Play loudly in a dark room and close your eyes. You can feel the textures and see an amazing display as Shearwater takes your senses places that sound familiar yet new. If you hear the bonus song ‘North Col’, it will hit you like a brick wall as it doesn’t fit on the album at all. Rather than being annoyed it really demonstrates what I have been preaching over the years of the concept of an album.

Akron/Family. It’s not new. It’s not old. It’s not really folk. It’s not really rock. It just is. Another one on my instant classics is their debut self titled album. Much like all of my favourite albums, it evolves and changes into something new and amazing every time you listen to it. It pushes the envelope of music in a passive way. It’s not in your face with a “look at me because I’m different and deserve attention” sort of way. But rather as a speck glimmering off in the distance only to spark the curiosity of those keen enough to go off looking for it (overtly poetic? I know, I try too hard).

At first listen, it’s actually hard to get into. I found myself actually cringing at some points to the scattering of non familiar sounds throughout the music. The first track “Before and Again” is an example. A 2 note 8-bit sounding blip seems not to fit. Its very easy to hear a song like this and think ?Yea… not for me. It’s hard to see past a lot of the first impressions that this album gives off (at least with my experience). How can this amount to anything? It seems so slapped together. The lyrics are even hard to understand, since the oddness (if we could just agree that that’s a word for a moment) of the music is so blinding that the lyrics are almost an afterthought. It’s hard for me to express my opinion on this album, since it’s meaning and tone are so elusive in the sense that each listening is different. I guess that’s what makes it so great.

If I can digress for a moment, I would like to mention a great NPR show out of New York called Radio Lab. Its basically a well produced show that delves into natural phenomena with a scientific and entertaining standpoint. Writing only from memory, I recall an episode on music from several seasons ago. Essentially, what sounds strange to us and almost painful to listen to, to the point where recognizing or understanding it as music is an alien concept, but through repeated exposure, we can learn to hear the music and complexity. Eventually, we can learn to like what we hear. Now I’m not saying that Akron/Family is not recognizable as music, but some aspects of it are just hard to make sense of when we hear it.

Now you’re thinking at this point “But Mike, if you apply this to anything you can pretty much train yourself to like anything you hear! How can you distinguish good from bad in this case?” I guess in the end, music appreciation is all subjective. I don’t have a good argument for that. You can either trust me when I tell you something is good or you can (as I’d prefer) make your own judgements. All I ask is that you be patient, particularly with this album.

I don’t like to do track by track analyses, because I feel like that takes away from the concept of an album. I’m not doing album reviews here, but rather recommendations. If I were to take apart an album track by track, I feel like I would be somehow contributing to the raising trend of worshipping the false idol of a single. If an album is not complete from beginning to end (for better or for worse) then its hard for me appreciate or consider it. YES LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM ONE OF THOSE. Call me a purist, or a snob, but the creation of a good album is a dying art.

Bellow is one of the more accessible tracks. Please use it in guiding you, but don’t let the single tracks I post here deter you in any way from experiencing the albums as wholes. I like to believe in my blissful ignorance that all albums have thought put into them.