Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

I love the current crop of songbirds (a term which might invoke notions of Eva Cassidy, who has been posthumously overrated) better than any of the old crops — including the class of the 1970s. In fact, I can’t even describe myself as a fan of Joni Mitchell; it’s her voice, rather than material, that renders her music unlistenable to me. So here is the first installment of a (possibly fairly extensive) series of contemporary songbirds I love.

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Rickie Lee Jones

It seems right to kick off with an old songbird. Jones has released one of the most fascinating albums of the year, The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard. Candidly, I didn’t enjoy it at first, but was nevertheless intrigued. The sound is very raw (presumably the album was recorded as live), some songs are objectively mediocre, and Jones sounds like she had a case of severe hayfever. The lyrical matter — religious faith — might put some off as well, although it shouldn’t, for Jones explores rather than preaches. The sound might be described as rootsy folk-rock; some tracks seem like inversions of “Sympathy For The Evil”. This is the sort of album one needs to become intimate with — best on an iPod without distraction — to discern moments of excellence, eureka moments.
Rickie Lee Jones – Circle In The Sand.mp3
Rickie Lee Jones – Gethsemane.mp3

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Mindy Smith

Recently I read a review of Mindy Smith in which the clown-with-internet-acess made an unforgivable statement along the lines of: “Mindy Smith could be to the singer-songwriter genre what Norah Jones has been to lounge jazz”. No she can’t, Bozo! Where Norah Jones provides a new definition for coma-inducing blandness, Mindy Smith engages the listener. Bozo presumably meant that Mindy could become the superstar in her genre, attributing to her an accessibility that could be commercially exploited. Mindy’s music certainly is accessible, but not at such a level as to grab the musically disinterested masses who buy their Norah Jones, Travis and Dido CDs at the supermarket, and feel like riding on the syrated edge of the knife when they put on their Coldplay disc. Mindy Smith will not become Norah Jones’ equivalent because there is a depth, a spirit of independence to her lyrics and the music that score these. And thank goodness for that.
Mindy Smith – Out Loud.mp3
Mindy Smith – Long Island Shores.mp3
Mindy Smith – Falling.mp3
Mindy Smith – Angel Dove.mp3

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Michelle Featherstone

Michelle Featherstone’s music has been featured on several TV shows, from Grey’s Anatomy to One Tree Hill, yet I could not find her on amazon.com, and information on Featherstone is sketchy beyond her website. It seems the album is available only on iTunes. I find that puzzling, for here is somebody with immense talent. The haunting “Falling” from a couple of years ago is what Dido could sound like if she had the ambition to actually be interesting: a bit like the wonderful Mazzy Star (death threats for mentioning the great Hope Sandoval in the same thought as boring old Dido to the usual address, please).

I fully expect “Rest Of My Life” (on Featherstone’s new album, “Fallen Down”) to play when McDreamy eventually settles down with an uncertain Meredith, at which point it will be a hugely sought-after track. It deserves to be hugely sought-after now.
Michelle Featherstone – Rest of My Life.mp3
Michelle Featherstone – Falling.mp3

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Missy Higgins

Huge in her native Australia, Missy Higgins is just delightful with her Aussie wicketkeeper’s twang. Higgins (Missy is a diminutive of her first name, Melissa) has a great line in outstanding lyrics and appealing melodies. The debut album, The Sound Of White, was lyrically a bit downbeat, with themes of death (on the stunning title track she sings to her sister, who died in a car crash), depression and what appears to be a story about child murder. The new set, On A Clear Night (two tracks of which below), has its morose moments, but is a more affirming album. Lead single “Steer” could become an anthem for every newly divorced woman who feels she is taking charge of her life.
Missy Higgins – Where I Stood.mp3
Missy Higgins – Steer.mp3
Missy Higgins – The Wrong Girl.mp3
Missy Higgins – The Sound Of White.mp3

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A Fine Frenzy

Currently supporting Rufus Wainwright on his US tour, and previously the wonderful Brandi Carlile (to be featured soon), A Fine Frenzy is 21-year-old Alison Sudol. Her debut album, One Cell In The Sea, marks her out as a massive talent. Just a couple of fewer songs shorter, and One Cell… could be a strong contender for the songbird album of the year (which right now seems like a mammoth battle between Rosie Thomas and Brandi Carlile). Visit The Late Greats blog for two more songs, including the excellent and very sad lead single “Almost Lover” (video here).
A Fine Frenzy – Whisper.mp3
A Fine Frenzy – Liar Liar.mp3

Prompted by a blog I read today, here are a few random songs with the word Angel in the title. I promised the blogger the April Sixth song after he referred to the lyrics of the Hinder song. One thing leading to another, I’ll add fellow alternative rock types Our Lady Peace and Cold to the mix. But then also some Ron Sexsmith and Mindy Smith, to appease the MP3 blog purists that I have not lost my excellent musical judgment. And, yes, I’m quite aware that there are hundreds of other songs I could have used (at least three Dylan songs, Aretha, Minnie Riperton, three Counting Crows songs…or, indeed, Robbie bloody Williams).

I think I’m in love with Mindy Smith. That clear, utterly lovely voice does it for me. This is a really beautiful track from a really beautiful album, 2004′s One Moment More.
Mindy Smith – Angel Dove.mp3

Ron Sexsmith produced one of the albums of 2006: Time Being, a rich, warm set of songs. After more than a decade of making albums, Sexsmith will never break out big, forever remaining the can’t-go-wrong recommendation to the uninitiated. Well, we do hate it when our favourites get discovered, so that’s just as well then.
Ron Sexsmith – Snow Angel.mp3

I did reveal that Sarah McLachlan is a guilty pleasure of mine. “Angel” isn’t my favourite song by any means (that would be “Ice Cream”). This live version is pretty good though.
Sarah McLachlan – Angel (live).mp3

Suzanne Vega has a new album out. Yeah, I also thought she had disappeared. Yet here she is, thoughtfully contributing an angel song from her pretty good new CD, Beauty And Crime.
Suzanne Vega – Angel’s Doorway.mp3

Crowded House are also about to release a comeback album. And here is Neil Finn with brother Tim as the Finn Bothers on their 1995 album titled…Finn. Lovely Beatles style harmonies on this song.
Finn Brothers – Angel’s Heap.mp3

And here is the alternative quartet (I have an emotional attachment to the April Sixth song). Of each group, there is only one song I really like — all with the word angel in the title. Coincidence, or a celestial conspiracy?

April Sixth – Dear Angel.mp3
Cold – When Angels Fly Away.mp3
Our Lady Peace – Angels Losing Sleep.mp3
Hinder – Lips Of An Angel.mp3

And so it has to come pass that my old friend Pandora.com has died on my doorstep. Perhaps not yours, if you live in the US. But where I live, Pandora is gone. Thanks to those idiots who run the recording industry and the judge of the Copyright Royalty Board. It isn’t the Internet that has resulted in dropping sales, but the stupidity of the recording industry which sees an opportunity, and kills it because it doesn’t know what better to do with it.

One attribute of Internet radio which the industry should have loved is that you don’t download the music from that source. You like what you hear, you go on to buy it (or download it, depending on your ethics and access to non-top 80 material where you live). It was free advertising, and a great way to introduce listeners to acts they might otherwise never have heard. I discovered loads of such artists through Internet radio (MP3 blogs likewise are a great source of discovering new material, but you knew that). Perhaps the recording industry wants to kill Internet radio for just that reason: why have independent outfits, hairy armpitted lesbians, ugly guys, clever wordsmiths, and raspy voiced poets detract attention from those mega acts we are supposed to spend our money on: Justin, Christina, Tim, Eminem, Carrie, Fiddy, and so on.

So, to commemorate the happiness Internet radio brought me, here are songs by some acts I do remember having been introduced to by Pandora.com. (more to come)

Ben Kweller – In Other Words.mp3
The original and superior EP recording (on Freak Out…It’s Ben Kweller), with the banjo.

Mindy Smith – Falling.mp3
Wonderful song from 2004′s wonderful One Moment More.

Catie Curtis – Troubled Mind.mp3
Curtis has been around since he ’90s. Never heard of her till Pandora. My point is made.

The Crimea – Lottery Winners On Acid.mp3
Again, the original, not the inferior Top 20 version

Matt Nathanson – Curve Of The Earth.mp3
With Kweller and Kevin Devine, he was the first “new favourite” artist I found on Pandora.

MoZella – Light Years Away.mp3
This became an office favourite when KP’s GF started to dig it. Not too long before that, KP’s GF had been a Bryan Adams (yes, Bryan) fan. Her taste of music, acquired at the feet of the master, is now nearly flawless.

I have nothing much to say today, other than that the weather is glorious today. Instead, here are some of my favourite songs at the moment, a former favourite, and possibly a future favourite.

Wilco
The new album comes out only in May, but it has been leaked on the Internet. It is easily the Album of 2007 so far (towering over the Shins), and it will take something quite extraordinary to knock Tweedy and chums of that perch. The best track on Sky Blue Sky is “Impossible Germany”, which seems to sample the guitar riff from Thin Lizzy’s “Sarah”. “Shake It Off” is another stand-out track, sounding like the Beatles White Album era going a tad alt.country. Fantastic. Get the album from the brilliant Serenity Now blog, listen to it, fall in love with it, and buy it in May
Download: Wilco – Shake It Off

Bright Eyes
I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning was my album of 2005, and I liked the sampler EP that preceded the April 10 release of Cassadaga. To be honest, I only just got it myself (again from Serenity Now Download-listen-like-buy). So without knowing the album intimately, I have selected the track with the best title.
Download: Bright Eyes – Soul Singer In A Session Band

Deb Talan
I’m going through my chicks-with-guitars (or whatever instrument) phase at the moment. I am in love with all off them. But while my heart belongs to Deb Talan of The Weepies, my ears belong to Mindy Smith, Rosie Thomas and Missy Higgins.
Download: Deb Talan concert and Weepies concert

Mindy Smith
Mindy Smith’s One Moment More album of 2004 is one of the most moving, beautiful sets I’ve heard yet. Mindy has a great expressive and clear voice. Last year’s Long Island Shore was good, but not nearly as good as the debut. Her version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, from One Moment More (and originally recorded for a Dolly Parton tribute album the previous year) is the best I have heard yet.
Download: Mindy Smith – Jolene

Rosie Thomas
Rosie Thomas is not unlike Mindy Smith, but younger. As Mindy, Rosie has a lovely folk-pop sensibility that occasionally veers into country. And, as Mindy, Rosie’s debut was better than the just released sophomore effort (from which this excellent track comes), which nonetheless is very good indeed.
Download: Rosie Thomas – All The Way To New York City

Missy Higgins
Missy Higgins has a strong Australian accent and not a voice one would conventionally describe as beautiful. But the voice packs an emotional punch to her well-written songs, many of them dealing with the darker side of life. “Nightminds”, from 2005’s The Sound Of White album, is about standing by somebody with either deep depression or drug addiction. It is a powerful song.
Download: Missy Higgins – Nightminds

Crowded House
The Farewell To The World live album might have been my pick of 2006, had it not been recorded ten years earlier. The DVD certainly has been on regular rotation chez Any Major Dude’s. To me the live versions almost invariably eclipse, and few more so than the astonishing version of “When You Come”. Crowded House have reformed (minus Paul Hester, obviously) and the new album should be out soon. Brilliant.
Download: Crowded House – When You Come (live)

Ben Kweller
Ben Kweller is infuriating. One minute he’s a bona fide genius, the next he fucks around with lazy riffs and stupid lyrics. Last year’s album, Ben Kweller (how do they come up with these titles?), was very good. “Until I Die” and “Sundress” deserve to be instant classics. But the top Kweller track precedes his album career. “In Other Words” was recorded on a four-track EP before he re-recorded it for his debut album. I wish he hadn’t: this tremendous version is superior. It starts slowly, picks up a bit, relaxes, and then works up to a piano-driven climax that features, of all things, banjos! It’s all quite breathtaking.
Download: Ben Kweller – In Other Words (original version)

Fountains Of Wayne
At first listen, I was only mildly impressed by the new album. After a few more, I love most of it — when I’m not distracted playing “Guess where they stole this riff from”. The ’60s and ’80s are, as ever, richly milked. “Yolanda Hayes” is one of the outstanding tracks on the album (along with a country number I really enjoyed!) — but what the hell does it sound like?
Download: Fountains Of Wayne – Yolanda Hayes

Tim McGraw
Tim McFuckingwhat? Oh yes. I listened to his new album, Let It Go, only for purposes of a CD review, and much of it is the usual cowboy-hatted twaddle. But “Suspicions” struck me. Eddie bloody Rabbit ’70s AOR on a Tim McGraw album? Oh yes. And, tell you what, McGraw does it better than old Eddie. Oh yes indeed. One to file in the Guilty Pleasures folder. The album also features a track called “Kristofferson”, which quite rightly sounds like the eponymous hero.
Download: Tim McGraw – Suspicions

April Sixth
An “alternative rock” band I checked out a couple of years ago only on strength of their name, which also is my birthday. Most of their stuff wasn’t very good, but “Dear Angel” I thought was excellent. And the lyrics resonated with me at the time.
Download: April Sixth – Dear Angel