Album Review: Scratch My Back

I promised to debut a new feature here today, and here it is…the album review. You can find reviews of music practically anywhere…and I can’t say for sure that mine will be radically different. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t try. First off, I’ll probably end up mostly reviewing albums & songs I love (after all, why would I want to give an album I hate a post of its own?), unless I have something special to say about a disappointing recording of some sort. Second, some new releases  might pop up now and then, but for the most part it’ll be stuff that I’ve come to know and love (or loathe). Third, there will be no star ratings or letter grades. I’ve never been that great at physically rating music (I usually just slap 5 stars on the stuff I put on my iPod), and I’ve noticed that sometimes reviews can be more effective without an “A-” or “3/4 stars” or something. (Example: The BBC’s absolutely outstanding music reviews, the link to which you can find in my blogroll.) And finally, I want to hear your opinion. Do you violently disagree with me? Did you like a sentence I wrote? Do you have another take? Do you have an entire review of the album you’d like to give? I’d love to hear your viewpoints on whatever albums I review, so by all means fill up the comments with your thoughts. And without any further ado, Harmony Avenue’s inaugural album review.

Album Name: Scratch My Back

Album Artist: Peter Gabriel

Released: February-March 2010

There are few things more prevalent in the music world than a cover. Who doesn’t love the chance to take on someone else’s song? There have certainly been covers albums that have been lazy (I won’t name names…), and those that have been incredibly ambitious, and there have been even more of them in between, but even among a great deal of varied company, Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch My Back” stands virtually alone. Rather than taking on treasured jazz standards, classic rock, or classical repertoire, Gabriel has chosen to cover songs largely from the past decade. With a full orchestra (minus drums). It seems crazy, cerebral, indulgent on paper to have the former lead singer of Genesis singing the likes of Arcade Fire, Elbow, and Regina Spektor with a bunch of strings and brass…and when you think about it, it kind of is. But it works. In fact, it does more than work…it breathes. It lives. In short…it’s incredible.

There are two clear elements that elevate “Scratch My Back” to be worthy of this kind of acclaim–the absolutely gorgeous arrangements, and Gabriel’s own emotional, vocal commitment to the songs. John Metcalfe’s orchestrations move and flow with the different songs, and at many instances throughout the album, they’re simply and utterly stunning. “Mirrorball” builds from a soft, subtle dissonance into an astounding, rousing climax. “My Body Is A Cage” lets all hell loose, then calms down into a beautiful fade-out with a heavenly chorus of voices. “Flume” quietly smolders and burns with beautifully restrained energy. And so it goes throughout the disc…the textures, the instrumentation, everything seems to come together to perfectly complement Peter Gabriel’s vocals. It isn’t just background on this album, it’s an equal partner in the musical journey.

As for the vocals…Peter Gabriel can still wail and shout and cry out. His voice is older, but it’s still remarkably expressive, and he finds just the right balance between gravitas and heart. They’re breathtaking, heartbreaking, full of release, and world-weary…usually all in the same song. His emotional commitment lifts “Scratch My Back” from the level of ‘nice idea’ to ‘brilliantly executed labor of love.’ He puts his heart and soul into these songs, and despite the fact that many of them are less than a decade old, his careful, elegant delivery makes them feel like old friends.

Only two songs fall a bit flat here…in a rare misstep, nothing new is really added to “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” (it’s an absolutely beautiful song, but has been covered more originally and effectively by many other artists), and “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” gets a little bit too bogged down in trying to create its own atmosphere. Otherwise, this is an outstanding record…one that offers new and exciting aural pathways on each listen, one that both uplifts and acts as a sort of catharsis, and above all, is some dang great music. It takes a bit to get used to, and it doesn’t give away everything on the first listen…but over time, the listener will discover that it’s an amazing treasure of music, and arguably one of the most engaging, rich cover albums that’s ever been recorded.

(Want to take a listen to this album for free? You can, here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/feb/04/peter-gabriel-scratch-back )

Artist Spotlight: Local Natives

It’s Harmony Avenue’s second post! Cue the confetti.

Today’s artist spotlight is (hopefully) a complete 180 from Monday’s. I want to make sure to keep y’all on your toes, and make sure I’m just not sharing artists from one tiny little corner of the music spectrum. (And tomorrow I’m planning to debut a new feature of this blog. Haven’t quite decided which feature it will be yet, so stay tuned.) For now, let’s get on with spotlighting a great indie band from LA…

Local Natives!

So who are they exactly? And how did I discover them? Well, one night early this summer, I was watching “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” It’s my favorite late-night talk show, and whenever I get the chance to view it I do. Anyways…the musical guest that night was…Cher! OK, obviously it was Local Natives. They played the following (titled “Airplanes”):

Except it was live. And I absolutely loved it. It was quirky, I loved the involvement of the piano, and in something I rarely hear rock-ish bands do, they sang in harmony. Like actual, legit harmonies. And the song really made me happy. So I downloaded it.

Fast forward to a few months later…and “Airplanes” is still all I’ve heard of Local Natives. A friend from BYU that lives in California posts something about they’re going to a Local Natives concert, and that reminds me…I’ve only heard one song by them. (My bad.) I checked out their MySpace, loved what I heard, and got the rest of their music. I was that hooked.

One thing I love about Local Natives is their incredible sense of melody. Their music, like many indie bands, is weird and different. You can’t always hum along to it, per se. But the tunes, the chords, the harmonies, the instrumentation…it’s all just gorgeous. There’s an underlying beauty about it that really draws the listener in, I think. Listen to this cut, called “World News”:

I also love their amazing lyrics. “Airplanes” and “World News” are two great examples. Once I started listening closely to both songs, the lyrics started really speaking to me. These songs really started painting pictures in my head. And they have really uplifting, inspiring messages…but not ones that you’re beaten over the head with. How often can you find that in indie rock music?

Well, enough of me rambling about. The best way for you to discover the beauty of their music is to listen…so to close it out, here’s two more songs from their debut album, “Gorilla Manor” (“Stranger Things” and “Camera Talk” to be exact):

Check out their MySpace (with more great music and more info about the band) at http://www.myspace.com/localnatives. If you shun MySpace, their website can be found at http://www.thelocalnatives.com/.

I’ll be back tomorrow, Friday, and hopefully Saturday with some more posts. Gracias for reading!

Artist Spotlight: Ella Fitzgerald

Here we are! The first official post on Harmony Avenue.

A few times a week (this week I’ll be doing three, though I plan to make it two times a week in the future), I’ll be a spotlighting a musical artist that I think you should know about, or that I want to celebrate and share. Since this is my first post and I’m not entirely sure how many potential readers I have, I’m going to start things off with one of my favorite artists of all time, albeit one that is pretty well-known (in the future I’m probably going to focus on more on lesser-known artists for the most part). Let’s turn the artist spotlight on…

Ella Fitzgerald!

Ella is known as “The First Lady of Song” (in some cases, “The First Lady of Jazz”), and during her nearly 50 years of recording, certainly left an incredible legacy in both the world of jazz music and of popular song in general. She was best known for her Songbook series, where she paid tribute to various composers of the Great American Songbook. Here’s an excellent cut from one of those:

She also was known for her stunning live performances and terrific improvisational abilities. A terrific example of this? Her 1960 performance of “Mack The Knife” in Berlin, where she forgot the words and started making up lyrics on the spot:

Here’s another great scatting performance of hers:

So how did I get acquainted with Ella’s music? About six years ago, we got a new computer and I was introduced the world of downloading music. It’s around this time that I started exploring all the music out there on the Internet…and I started fostering my love for jazz. Believe it or not (seeing as she’s essentially my favorite artist of all time today), Ella was far from the first jazz artist I came to love. (In fact, there was a duet of some sort she’d recorded with Barry Manilow on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” that I hated, before I knew about her other music. I also didn’t care for her version of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” at first.) But one day I was looking around on MSN Music (may it rest in peace ), and for some reason, I started listening to her music at an incredible pace. Her voice! The swing! It sounded so amazing. Before long, I had downloaded quite a lot of her music. To this day I still don’t have every Ella Fitzgerald song I’d like to, but I’m pretty dang close. I’ve even read her biography (by Stuart Nicholson, an excellent read called “Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz”) twice.

One part of Ella’s repertoire that I think is obscenely underrated is her pop covers. I’m a big fan of covers, and I don’t like how a lot of jazz fans look with disdain on jazz artists doing songs from the pop world. I think Ella did terrific on a lot of non-jazz numbers. Here’s a great live cover of the Beatles:

I also admire how she kept singing and singing until only a few years before her death. Although her voice deteriorated a bit as she grew older, she still had incredible vocal artistry up until the end. Here’s a fine clip of her singing “How High The Moon” with Manhattan Transfer at the 1983 Grammys (she was 66!):

Ella lived a terrific life, and I strongly encourage you to check out her music. (You don’t have to listen to all of it in one night…and really, you probably couldn’t. She recorded a heck of a lot.  :) )

That’s my first artist spotlight. I’ll probably be tinkering with the format a little as I go along. If you have any ideas or feedback, please let me know in the comments. I also welcome any suggestions you might have for artists I could spotlight…although I have a long list of great musicians in mind, there’s always more terrific music out there. More posts to come this week. Thanks for reading!

Some words of welcome…

Howdy, and welcome to Harmony Avenue. This post will eventually be far, far away on another page, but I thought I’d take a moment to introduce myself and get this blog started before I start officially posting. So why am I starting this blog? Music has always been a huge part of my life, and I’ve been wanting to make it a focus of my blogging activities for a while. I see this blog as the perfect opportunity to do so. I want  Harmony Avenue to be a place for music and discussion. I’ll be posting such items as artist spotlights, album reviews, music recommendations, songs of the day, and even occasionally my own music. I hope to make this a true reflection of my own love of music, and an opportunity for all of you to express your passion for music as well. I want to keep this blog fun, exciting, and a celebration of the power of music in our lives. Join me in helping to make Harmony Avenue truly…if you’ll pardon the pun…harmonious.