Some Songs Considered

“Landslide” – Smashing Pumpkins 
(Words/music: Stevie Nicks, available on Pisces Iscariot, Virgin 1994)  

I have very fond memories of hearing Billy Corgan’s cover of “Landslide” on the radio in the 1990s.  It was the sole reason I borrowed my brother’s copy of Pisces Iscariot and the only reason I rescued a copy of it from a used CD bin a few years ago.  Thinking back at the kind of Smashing Pumpkins songs I liked then (the guitar heavy ones – “Cherub Rock,” “Zero,” etc) and the ones I disliked (I actively hated “Disarm” for a long time and I’m not entirely sure why – now I’m generally indifferent to it) and “Landslide” seems like an unlikely love.  It’s just as unlikely that a band with so many singles (and so many popular singles too) had such a non-characteristic rarity given semi-regular radio play.  

Ultimately, it’s Corgan’s arresting performance of the song that gives it its magic.  Paired only with an acoustic guitar, Corgan leaves himself exposed in the arrangement.  His nasaly voice, usually wrapped in some pedal-enhanced guitar, somehow works on its own.  Perhaps it’s the way he bends some of his notes, or maybe it’s just that he’s hitting the notes in his range that best suit him, but his voice leaves me captivated every time.  His guitar work is simple yet skillful; Corgan was an underrated guitarist, and “Landslide” shows him as one with more range than I often associate with him.  His overdubbed solo fits in perfectly, blending with his fingerpicking and easing out before his vocals return.  Even if it’s a polar opposite from the Pumpkins songs I generally prefer –the louder, knottier ones - it remains one of my favorites, undoubtedly due to its surprising charm.

More on Smashing Pumpkins: 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