Some Songs Considered

“Suicide Demo for Kara Walker” - Destroyer 
(Words: Kara Walker, Music: Dan Bejar, available on Kaputt, Merge Records 2011) 

Music Diary Project Day 2 (Context here) 

Overall, this was a pretty “quiet” day. First, an omission from yesterday though:

“Break (All of the Lights)” - Childish Gambino

I heard this Monday afternoon while going through Google Reader. Childish Gambino is actor Donald Glover’s (best known as Troy from Community) MC name. Glover put out a bunch of self-released mixtapes and albums (with his “official” debut due later this spring), and this track (which splices together parts of Kanye West’s “All of the Light” and its gorgeous instrumental interlude) shows his strengths as both a producer and lyricist. I’m finding myself liking his tracks more and more each time, meaning either I’m getting used to his style or he’s honing his craft. Either way, I’m game for hearing more. 

Kaputt album - Destroyer 

Tonight when I got home, I played Kaputt on my computer speakers and sprawled out. Kaputt, both by nature of liking it and from getting it early in January, is the new album I’ve listened to the most times so far this year (iTunes says 15 times, plus a couple spins of the CD in my car), and several times I’ve played it in a similar way to today. It’s a little unnatural for me to listen to a Destroyer album this way (and perhaps it’s this quality that turned off some people to it), as Bejar’s songs demand some unpacking. There’s certainly a quality to this album that rewards deep though, but it also seems to get lost in while listening. Now that I’ve heard it so many times, the melodies are familiar and comforting.

“Suicide Demo for Kara Walker,” which appears at the top of this post, might be my favorite song so far this year. I like the combination of different sounds, in particular the light touch of the flute near the beginning and the subtle disco groove in the middle. Over its eight minutes, it goes in a couple interesting directions without making any drastic shifts (and in a way, that’s one of the things I find appealing about Kaputt specifically and Destroyer in general - the subtle movements within a larger aesthetic style). Most notably, the lyrics feel different because Bejar didn’t write them; artist Kara Walker gave Bejar a series of notecards with phrases on them, and Bejar wrote music around her words. It makes the storytelling more fractured than Bejar’s circuitous style. It still tells the story in an oblique way, but rather than doubling back and elaborating on itself, it gives shards of the story individually, eventually piling up the way one’s notecards might pile up. Then again, maybe I’m just projecting more of the process upon the final product.

(I enjoyed reading your suggestions last night and this afternoon, even if I didn’t get a chance today to follow up on any of the interesting things you folks are listening to this week. I’ll see what I can do tomorrow). 

How about you - what did you listen to today?

“It’s Only Divine Right” – The New Pornographers
(Words/music: Carl Newman, available on Electric Version, Matador 2003) 

In the past week, I’ve seen a few misconceptions about the New Pornographers that sparked the obsessive music geek in me.  I’ve seen it intimated that Destroyer, the prolific musical output of New Pornographers contributor Dan Bejar, was Bejar’s side project.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bejar contributes a few songs to the New Pornographers and generally doesn’t tour with them anymore.  I bit my tongue, writing this off as a mistake in wording (he is better known for being in this band than for his solo output), but an even odder gaffe made me proclaim out loud at my desk.  While going over guests on the forthcoming New Pornographers’ album (which supposedly has many of legitimate guests), “A.C. Newman” was listed as one of the guests.  This baffled me – in certain parts of the internet, this would be like saying Paul McCartney made guest appearances on several Beatles albums!  Newman is best described as the leader of the New Pornographers and, if anything, does his solo albums as side projects. 

I make this assertion because (thus far), Newman saves his best songs for the New Pornographers.  Not to diminish his two solo albums, both fine discs, but it takes maybe half of the New Pornographers’ Electric Version to see what Newman’s songs feel like when he’s firing on all cylinders.  “It’s Only Divine Right” marries many of the best qualities of Newman’s songwriting – a driving beat, gently tangled melodic lines, and some clever wordplay.  It’s equal parts bouncy and bombastic, enjoyable and edgy.  Most importantly, it puts all of its parts to their best use, particularly Neko Case’s beautiful voice.  Personally, I think Case sounds best when singing Newman’s songs, and it’s her harmony notes that bring “It’s Only Divine Right” toward pop godliness.  Whether she’s doubling Newman’s lyrics or singing the series of rising notes right after the hook, Case’s voice adds a different texture to the song.  While she sounds terrific when she takes the lead (“All For Swinging You Around,” among others), she’s equally deadly in this comparatively minor supporting role.  Like a skilled director, Newman knows how to get the best performance out of his company of players by balancing egos to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

More on The New Pornographers: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Your Blood” – Destroyer
(Words/music: Dan Bejar, available on Destroyer’s Rubies, Merge Records 2006)

To those of you who don’t know Dan Bejar’s music, I’ll tell you that this song sounds a lot different than “‘Your Blood’ by Destroyer” might have sounded were I to describe the song based solely on the two names involved.  Somehow, I imagine Bejar likes that sort of misdirection; his songs defy typical genre labels, calling for the even less-telling adjectives “quirky” and “eccentric.”  Whether composing mini pop-suites complete with MIDI synthesizers or twisting the pure pop of the New Pornographers a couple times each album (and his contributions are always among my favorites), Bejar has a way of making these less-than-likely decisions sound catchy.  Against whatever odds one might place on a pop song successfully referencing several of Camus’ works, Bejar succeeds.

“Your Blood” may as well be called “The Freewheeling Dan Bejar,” as it glides across a crisp shuffle with tinkling piano and bluesy guitar fills.  I imagine Bejar, complete with his giant poof of hair, walking down the same cold Greenwich Village street captured in that Dylan album, quietly singing along to his companion in that tunefully nasally tone he uses so well on this track.  The voice merits a Dylan comparison not because he specifically sounds like Dylan (he doesn’t to me at least) but because it may put some off initially.  However, just like Dylan, Bejar knows how to use his vocal capacity – not to sing arias, but rather to open a valve and let his subconscious mind flow freely, tangling itself with these dense melodic threads.  Usually, it’s these melodic knots that make Bejar’s songs so interesting, but here all of the threads braid together naturally.  Where some of his other songs require some patience, “Your Blood” satisfies immediately.  Sure, there are different sounds to appreciate each time (recently it’s the burst of guitar accompanying the “Tabitha takes another stab” line), but few of his songs are both immediately and continually gratifying.

More on Destroyer: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“Gypsy” – Fleetwood Mac
(Words/music: Stevie Nicks, available on Mirage, Reprise 1982)

At some point, whether it was when they covered “Dreams” on their live album or in a review somewhere, I started thinking about the similarities between the New Pornographers and Fleetwood Mac.  Aside from the obvious touchstone – both groups feature both male and female vocalists – these two groups represent a rock band as a collective.  Both groups combined singers and songwriters with distinctive styles coming together as a pro-pop coalition.  Their eccentricities – whether Lindsey Buckingham’s distinctive fingerpicking or Dan Bejar’s off-kilter narrative perspective – slot in right next to their knack for melody and their often expansive stage presences.  It’s also a mutually complementary association to me.  While Fleetwood Mac wrote some schlocky singles, they composed some modern classics as well.  Similarly, mentioning them in the same breath as the New Pornographers might encourage some to go deeper into their catalog (Rumors and Tusk to start, if you ask me) while serving as a coronation for the NPs as the new pop torchbearers.

“Gypsy,” a rare bright spot in the band’s diminishing 1980s work, only solidified my connection.  It might not have the same energy or edge as something like “All for Swinging You Around,” but it contains the same sort of melodic density as those songs by tying together several different melodic strands simultaneously.  The harmonies – both in the vocals and the strings – shine like a shimmering reflecting curtain behind Stevie Nicks.  On “Gypsy,” Nicks sings with just enough emphasis and vibrato to seize the spotlight without overpowering the rest of the song.  Ironically, Nicks sounds a lot like Neko Case (or, perhaps, Neko Case’s best vocal performances with the New Pornographers remind me of this specific Nicks vocal performance).  While Case’s solo material often treads in darker, more nuanced waters, her vocals with the New Pornographers give her a chance to use the brightest, most powerful parts of her voice.  Finally, it’s the new wrinkles tossed in at the end, whether it’s the glockenspiel doubling the melody or Buckingham’s spirited guitar line, that make the song so compelling to me.  “Gypsy” ends up in the same category as my favorite New Pornographers’ songs: tracks that I have to resist the urge to press “repeat” on when I hear them.

More on Fleetwood Mac: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

“New Ways of Living” – Destroyer
(Words/music: Dan Bejar, available on Your Blues, Merge Records 2004)

Calling Dan Bejar’s songs “strange” shortchanges both the man and his compositions.  Whether providing a handful of digressions from Carl Newman’s straight-forward power-pop with the New Pornographers or spinning densely melodic songs with Destroyer, Bejar challenges himself creatively with each new release. Still, “creative” might not be the first adjective one might think of when hearing “New Ways of Living” for the first time, as the rapid changes in tempo and Bejar’s exaggerated intonation make it sound like a bizarre piece of musical theatre.  This works for Bejar mainly because he’s too clever to fall in the trap of “musical theatre” meaning “be as literal as possible.”  The song has the same types of odd imagery, self-referential jokes, and wordplay that led fans to create a wiki resource devoted to Destroyer and Bejar’s songs.

However, “New Ways of Living” endears itself to me more for its musical quirks than its pseudo-Sondheim vocals.  The quick tempo changes at the beginning work well because the quick snare drum rolls drive from the gently strummed introduction into the piano vamp.  Bejar’s choice to use MIDI sequencing liberally across the Your Blues album gives this song a dream-like quality.  The synth-strings that come in sound slightly metallic yet not obscenely synthetic; instead, it makes the song sound slightly off-kilter and other-worldly.  Even the blatantly canned effects, such as the weird horn arpeggios right at the end of the track, somehow make sense – even if it sounds like iTunes telling me that my CD finished ripping, it somehow fits into Bejar’s arrangement. All of these musical factors – the shifts in tempo, the MIDI accompaniments, and the slightly over-the-top performance – make Bejar’s song unique and yes, strange as well.  Like all of his best songs, “New Ways of Living” sounds like pop from a parallel cartoon-like universe – one where pop songs bend and warp slightly, twisting into something entirely new by the time it’s done playing.

More on Destroyer: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm