Sunday 15 September 2019

Log #155 - From Celluloid to Wax - Discovering New Music Through Django Unchained

Eddy Bamyasi


Beirut The Flying Club Cup
Jim Croce Photographs and Memories
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Anthony Hamilton Ain't Nobody Worryin' 
John Legend Once Again
Tangerine Dream Cyclone

Miserabilist - a person who appears to enjoy being depressed, especially a performer of or listener to gloomy music.

[That's the definition from the Collins English Dictionary]

As a genre of music miserabilist is perhaps undeveloped and lists of artists so described are not forthcoming. However I'd wager the term is made for American Alt-Country outfit Wilco. 

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, their fourth album from 2001, kicks off with one of the worst songs I've heard from them... I Am Trying to Break Your Heart has a nursery rhyme like melody which singer Jeff Tweedy can barely raise any energy to sing. It's so down tempo and uninspiring. 

I want to hold you in the Bible-black predawn
You're quite a quiet domino, bury me now
Take off your Band-Aid because I don't believe in touchdowns
What was I thinking when I said hello?

What was he thinking? What is he on about?

Luckily the album actually improves after this depressing false start and second track Kamera is a little more uplifting, albeit the lyrics aren't... 

Phone my family
Tell 'em I'm lost on the sidewalk
And no, it's not okay

Or maybe I spoke to soon - the third track is back to depression again and I sort of lost the will to live after that.

Hang on, the fourth track is quite jolly.

Oh, I don't know, maybe it's Wilco at their schizophrenic best. I guess I conclude it's not an easy listen and just could be one of those classic slow burners (I do doubt this having had it in my collection for well over a decade).

OMG, I've just googled "Wilco Albums Ranked" and it comes out on top. Jeez, what am I missing? And the usually reliable Pitchfork gave it 10/10! Really? That's a score that should be reserved for the likes of Astral Weeks or Blood On The Tracks. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot should be docked two points for I Am Trying To Break Your Heart alone. 

I've said this many times on this blog: It's the singing that counts for so much and while I'm on the subject of being underwhelmed by the Wilco singing I move on to a new band for me, Beirut...

Unfortunately they would appear to be another group (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, even, say it softly, Radiohead) where the vocals provide a barrier to my enjoyment.

I say "they" but Beirut is actually American musician Zack Condon's solo vehicle. Condon plays trumpet and ukulele (yes). Other musicians lend hands on accordions, trombones, violins and pianos. The result is described as a sort of indie/world/old-time/gypsy/busking music centred on European folk influences - Condon's first album had an Eastern European flavour, this one French. 

It's an ambitious project but doesn't quite hit that unique sweet spot Tom Waits has made his own. I was on the verge of confining the CD to the "back to the charity shop" bin but it could be a grower if I can tune into Condon's wobbly voice. Worth another week in the player I'd say.

No such issues with the vocal talent on the rest of the selection this week (I even include perennial favourite Cyclone in here - Tangerine Dream's only vocal based album as far as I'm aware): Three more artists new to me which I picked up after watching Quentin Tarrantino's Django Unchained film. The film and the soundtrack is excellent (better than his most recent much hyped Once Upon A Time In Hollywood film).

Now granted I could have just bought the soundtrack album but I like to hear the artists in their proper individual contexts so I alighted upon this selection from Jim Croce, Anthony Hamilton and John Legend. 

The Jim Croce album is a "best of" compilation which includes I Got A Name from the film. It's a great song rendered perfectly in the film where the two horsemen heroes ride across wide open winter Western savannas. On first hearing I thought it was Glen Campbell - it's got that Wichita Lineman type vibe:

[parental advisory exists on the clips below]



Photographs and Memories includes 14 tracks from Croce's last three albums (he made five in all between 1966 and his tragic air-crash death in 1973). Most are gentle acoustic guitar numbers, some with Nashville strings. There are a few upbeat country rock and bluesy songs too that remind me of Gram Parsons. 

Apart from I Got A Name the other track that I've heard before is I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song.

Unfortunately the two songs I was looking for most from Anthony Hamilton and John Legend don't appear on any of their individual albums: respectively Freedom (also featuring a singer, Elayna Boynton, who unaccountably doesn't appear to have any albums out at all despite a great voice): 




and Who Did That To You? 




Both Hamilton and Legend albums are excellent smooth soul if you like that sort of thing, with the bass and drums (and hand claps) high in the mix. So far the albums have existed for me as easy listening background music and I haven't really alighted upon any tracks that approach the brilliance of the two film soundtracks above (admittedly the vivid film associations count for a fair bit). I hope there are some otherwise the albums will become a minor footnote in my listening history, and I'll just have to get the Django soundtrack after all. Tarrantino certainly knows his music.




About The Author

Eddy Bamyasi

Eddy is a music writer from Brighton, England, named after a Can record. Each Sunday he logs and reviews the albums that happen to be in his vintage Pioneer 6-CD magazine changer, amongst other things.

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