My (life in) music lists

Tunes

Best tunes of 2011: #1 Frank Turner “I still believe”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date December 29, 2019
8 Comments on Best tunes of 2011: #1 Frank Turner “I still believe”

“Hear ye, hear ye, friends and Romans, countrymen.
Hear ye, hear ye, punks and skins and journeymen
Hear ye, hear ye, my sisters and my brethren.
The time is coming near.”

Well, I did it. As I mentioned in my last post in this series, just over a week ago, I had been quietly planning over the last couple months to wrap this list up before the end of this year so that I could start with a 2012 list early in the new year. This one has been an awesome list and it’s great to finish it up with such a great song, with a message so near to my heart, so close to the start of a new year and a new decade.

I fully realize my number one tune, “I still believe” by Frank Turner, was released as a single in 2010 but it appeared on the British singer/songwriter’s fourth album, “England keep my bones”, the following year, the year of our focus. Again, my list, my rules. I also didn’t even hear this song until 2013, around the time that Turner released his next long player, so I definitely wouldn’t have had “I still believe” at the top of the list for either year at the time. For me now though, this tune is timeless. A classic.

It was my younger brother Michael that turned me on to Frank Turner. He throws me names every once in a while of artists he thinks I might appreciate and more often than not, he’s right. It just so happened that I decided to give Turner a listen on my road trip to my old hometown of Bowmanville in June 2013, a quick trip down to attend my grandfather’s funeral. I arrived the day before his burial, just in time to go the viewing, and spent the night at my Aunt Joan’s place, the house I grew up in. I was pretty exhausted so I retired pretty early. I lay down on a single bed in a room I slept in as a teenager, put on my ear phones, and queued up Frank Turner on my iPhone.

“And I still believe (I still believe) in the saints.
Yeah, in Jerry Lee and in Johnny and all the greats.
And I still believe (I still believe) in the sound,
That has the power to raise a temple and tear it down.”

Frank Turner got his start in a post-hardcore band called Million Dead but went solo as folk and punk type bard in the mid-2000s. That night, listening to the first couple tracks of “England keep my bones”, I immediately likened him to Billy Bragg, but perhaps leaning more towards the punk than the folk. Nonetheless, I could hear in every note, the sincerity and optimism and passion. And of course, like Billy, Turner doesn’t hide his rough-hewn working class accent, nor does he shy from letting us know what he really thinks. And when I got to track three, I just fell in love.

Here’s a song that knows that as bad as things get, whether you’re tired, sick, lonely, or just trying to sort out how you feel about losing your grandfather, there’s always music. Rock and roll and rockabilly and punk. A guitar, drums, perhaps some piano, and a rollicking chorus. Music from way back and off into the future. Frank Turner set fire to the tune that I replayed over and over and over that night, and took away the numbness, and I‘ve been singing along with it ever since.

“Now who’d have thought that after all,
Something as simple as rock ‘n’ roll would save us all.
And who’d have thought that after all, it was rock ‘n’ roll.”

Amen.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2011 list, click here.

Tags 2010s, 2011, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, British rock, Folk-Punk, Frank Turner, Punk, Singer/Songwriter

Tunes

Best tunes of 1992: #22 James “Ring the bells”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date December 27, 2019
2 Comments on Best tunes of 1992: #22 James “Ring the bells”

<< #23 | #21 >>

Now that Christmas is all wrapped up, I thought I’d remind you all what’s happening with my Best tunes of 1992 list before I wrap up the other two lists I’ve been blitzing this month. And this one is pure joy.

Those of you that are not new to these pages will know that I’m something of a James fanatic. I first heard them with their hit single, “Sit down”, and really got into them with the album, “Laid”. Between those two was their fourth album, “Seven”, an album the Mancunian alternative rock band struggled with from the beginning. Half of it was produced by Youth, and only half because they ran out of time with him and given the band’s unhappiness with the results of early recordings. The band produced the rest of the album themselves with some help from Steve Chase. It was finally released almost a year late and wasn’t given the time of day by the music press. However, the band was pleased with the final product and I’m right there with them. I picked it up on CD as one of my BMG music club picks shortly after immersing myself in “Laid” and quickly found my favourites on it, of which this tune is but one.

“Ring ring the bells
Wake the town
Everyone is sleeping
Shout at the crowd
Wake them up
This anger’s deeper than sleep”

“Ring the bells” appears as track two on “Seven” and it sounds like it should’ve been the lead off single, picking up with the uplifting joyous energy where “Sit down” left off. However, they waited and released two other singles prior to unleashing this one. It is frantic acoustic guitar strumming, accompanied by an explosion of sound that will pick you right up out of your seat and get you dancing in a way that you can’t possibly sustain for its five minutes in length. I don’t even know how the band does it. But somehow we find the energy deep within ourselves and lose ourselves to the pure joy that the sounds evoke. Meanwhile, Booth is singing on about losing faith in religion and the freedom that brings and wanting to share it with us all.

The fact that such a tune that I obviously love so much is placed low at number twenty-two should serve notice that the rest of this list is going to be great. Prepare yourselves. It’s all coming in the new year.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1992 list, click here.

Tags 1990s, 1992, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Baggy, Best tunes, British rock, James, Manchester, Retro, Tim Booth

Albums

Best albums of 2019: #2 The National “I am easy to find”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date December 24, 2019
5 Comments on Best albums of 2019: #2 The National “I am easy to find”

Two years ago, while counting down my best albums of 2017 list, on which The National’s seventh album, “Sleep well beast”, appeared at number three, I mentioned how at four years, it had seemed like an eternity had passed since their last record. I also talked about how the band always seemed to be pushing the boundaries of what they can be, experimenting with their sound and yet keeping things recognizably The National. And for that, they deserved all the accolades that were heaped upon “Sleep well beast”, landing it on pretty much every year end list (not just mine), and garnering it a Grammy for their efforts.

So back in March when they announced on Toronto’s indie rock radio station and then news spread that a new album was forthcoming in a few short months, it almost seemed too soon. Not that the news was unwelcome by any means, it was just surprising. And it wasn’t even your typical 10 song release, no, it was a true double album, epic, at over an hour in length. It was released in conjunction with a short, 27 minute long film with the same name, starring Alicia Vikander, the same actress that graces the album’s cover, directed by Mike Mills, and whose score is made up of pieces of variations of the songs from the album. The band has said that the album is not exactly a soundtrack for the film and that the film was not based on the album. They were made separately and yet, if you watch the film, which I avoided doing for many months, you can see the influence each had on the other. And also, listening to the album after watching it becomes quite a different experience. It is hard not to see those same images at certain songs and place with them certain meanings and moods which were not necessarily there before.

Indeed, I loved “I am easy to find” before watching the accompanying film but afterwards, it became more complete. Featuring the vocal work of a variety of established female singer/songwriters, from Gail Ann Dorsey to Kate Stables to Sharon Van Etten, throughout the album, it seemed just another experiment at first, but now shows to be even more compelling and heartbreaking. It’s as if the different artists are giving voice to this imagined woman, a ghost, duetting with Matt Berninger and sometimes even taking over, as if he just didn’t have the voice to speak for her.

“I am easy to find” is a complete album, a story, a narrative to be followed from beginning to end, even if it’s not really linear and not necessarily clear. And yet, the songs for the most part can be taken, in and of themselves. The three tunes I’ve picked for you to sample are wonderful examples of this. Enjoy.

“Quiet light”: Talk about heartbreaking. “Quiet light” is about recovering from a breakup, surviving the night when the distractions of the day aren’t there to hide away from the void. “But I’m learning to lie here in the quiet light, while I watch the sky go from black to grey, learning how not to die inside a little every time I think about you and wonder if you are awake.” The instrumentation is an interesting dichotomy of the irregular drum beat, like a hammering, broken heart, set against the gentle brushes of fingertips on the piano keys. This is all interspersed with the random sounds you hear in the middle of the night, the creaks and groans of your empty house, along with the sinking screams of an orchestra’s string section. And, at times, long time Bowie collaborator, Gail Ann Dorsey joins Berninger singing the crushing vocals like a teasing ghostly remembrance.

“Not in Kansas”: If you think this track is long at just under seven minutes, let it be known that it could’ve been even longer. According to Berninger, there are 17 further stanzas that we’re cut from the finished product. It makes me wonder what further could’ve been referenced. As it is, the meandering stream of consciousness namechecks R.E.M., The Strokes, Bob Dylan albums, The Godfather films, and Neil Armstrong. And of course, twice during this random journey, the lilting guitar and Berninger’s baritone are interrupted by the angelic choir of Kate Stables (aka This is the Kit), Lisa Hannigan, and the aforementioned, Dorsey, raining beauty on the litany of pop culture. “Not in Kansas” is a trip I’d take any day.

“Rylan”: In an interview with Pitchfork, talking about “Rylan”, Matt Berninger said this: “Often the recorded versions [of songs] sound the way someone looks when they’re ringing the doorbell to enter the party; they’re all buttoned up and stiff. They don’t really become themselves until they’ve been there a few hours and loosened up.” This is a song that was originally written almost ten years ago, during their sessions for “High violet”, but never recorded, save for YouTube videos in which it was performed live. Yet it has become a fan favourite of sorts, after years of breathing organically, and making appearances on many a set list. It appears The National finally found a home for it and man, does it sound great. Machine gun drum beats and ominous bass lines and synth washes, Kate Stables providing her ying to Berninger’s yang, and a string orchestra finale giving the sadness some uplifting support. Brilliant.