Sigur Rós' Musical Wonderland

Don’t bother asking for Sigur Rós’ new album by name, unless you are familiar enough with Icelandic to pronounce Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust. The album title roughly translates to "With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly," and with this latest release, listeners should be so lucky.
The Iceland band famous for its stretches of sonic waterfalls tones it down for an album as beautiful and anathematic as anything you’ll find this year. Coldplay, eat your heart out.
As usual, all the words are in the band’s native Icelandic (with the exception of the album’s closing track, “All Alright” which is the bands first time singing in English), but the words aren’t too important with Sigur Rós – you get a sense of what they mean by the cascading music behind them.
And what music. Rós usually drenches their albums in electric guitar overdubs and droning pianos and organs, but this is by far their “peppiest” album to date, in the best sense of the word. It’s all acoustic guitars and pianos, with strings and horns that smack of Sufjan Steven’s brilliant Come On, Feel the Illionoise! album. From the up-beat opener “Gobbledigook” to the rippling “Ára Bátur” Rós takes the listener on a journey through a musical soundscape both magic and familiar.
Pick up this album for a dose of pure enchantment, in any language.

"I'm just waiting till the shine wears off..."

Coldplay is a very polarizing band. There are some critics and listeners who completely embrace the band and then there are those (like The New York Times in its infamous review of the group) that think Coldplay is destined to be a mere musical footnote.
I am a member of the former category, and this review of their latest album, Viva la Vida will be as much a review as it will a defense of what I think the band is trying to accomplish.
So, let me begin by saying this: the first listen of Viva didn’t do much for me. I didn’t hate it or anything, but it wasn’t like the first listen to the latest efforts by Death Cab for Cutie and My Morning Jacket where I had to listen to it again right away. I listened, enjoyed it, and was able to walk away with other things on my mind. And yet, as the day progressed, I kept wanting to go back and listen to it again; I felt there were things there that I was missing, and I was determined to discover them.
A day-and-a-half of listening later, I’m pleased to say that I still don’t completely “get” the album, but I love it for that. It’s a rare thing that an album would be so engaging and so hard to pin down at the same time. It certainly makes for a much deeper and listening experience, and any band who can offer that to me is okay in my books.
Like the two aforementioned bands, this is supposed to be a very different release, showcasing a different side of Coldplay than we’ve heard before. Bearing that in mind, I thought it would be best to break the album down a little.

Things done differently on Viva

• Lyrically, Coldplay has always been a very international band. They’re not just concerned with one place, but with the world at large – which is a large reason for their international success. What’s different on this go around is that the album actually sounds worldlier. They’ve worked in some great Arabian style strings, and some great call-and-response vocals. The band is aiming for a world audience, and you can hear it.
• This album does the best job to date of mixing Coldplay’s focus on guitar and piano. Until now, it seemed like each of their album’s focused on one, or the other (Parachutes and X & Y were very much guitar albums, while A Rush of Blood to the Head was totally piano driven). On this album, they’ve finally learned to mix the two together, to the point where one couldn’t really say if it was a piano or a guitar album.
• The lyrics show a different side of Coldplay than on any of their previous albums. There’s a definite lack of love songs, which have basically been the band’s bread and butter (“Yellow,” “The Scientist,” “Fix You”) although the cut, “Strawberry swing” is about as gorgeous a love song as you could ask for. Instead the lyrics show a less confident side of Chris Martin. There are lyrics about God, politics and the afterlife, but all tinted with a hint of apprehension, like these are areas unfamiliar to the singer. And they are, or should be at least. And not just for Martin, but for any human, which I think makes this album extremely relatable. (Check out this month’s issue of Rolling Stone for a great interview with Martin on where he is in his life currently)

Things done the same on Viva

• Musically, you can definitely tell that this is a Coldplay album. Like I mentioned above, they work in more unique sounds, but they’re certainly not trying to alienate their listeners with something totally different.
• The band still sounds like they’re trying to be U2 or Radiohead, as they’ve been accused of from the beginning, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. I’m not sure why when Death Cab and My Morning Jacket gets the comparisons of trying to be more like Radiohead, it’s a bad thing, yet people blast Coldplay for doing it. Both U2 and Radiohead are extremely important bands, and I don’t see any fault with emulating them. Besides, just ask who U2 and Radiohead were trying to sound like when they started? Every band starts wanting to sound a little like someone else: Bob Dylan wanted to be Woody Guthrie, Elvis wanted to be a bluesman, as did Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. U2 wanted to be Joy Division. I don’t see why Coldplay gets nailed for this part of their music.
• Martin still has an extremely affecting voice, which he uses to great effect on this album. Whatever the lyrics are, they always sound earnest and sincere, and you know he means them, which is what makes a great singer.

Best parts of Viva

• The song, “Viva la Vida” has to be one of the catchiest string-driven songs since The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony.” I’m not sure why it wasn’t their lead single, but since each Coldplay album seems to spit out about three or four singles, I’m sure this one will be one of them. If it’s not, whoever is in charge of that should be fired.
• The fact that they don’t put their lyrics in the book is something that would normally drive me crazy, because when I first listen to an album, I like to shut myself off with just the music and the words. Unfortunately, I can’t do that with Coldplay, but – whether this is intentional or not – it makes the listener pay closer attention to the words to catch them all, which makes the listening experience a longer and better one for it.
• Using Brian Eno and Markus Dravs (producers for U2 and The Arcade Fire, respectively) allowed Coldplay to take all the new directions that they did on the album. Sometimes you have to change things up, but that’s not always a bad thing.

So, we return to the question, how is the album? Is it their best yet, as some are saying? I don’t know for sure, but an album that encourages listeners to examine it to get the full effect, and a band that changes things up when they could stick with the formula, certainly earns its merits to me.

"Meet the new boss..."

I left my job of seven years on Thursday. I’d worked at a record store since my junior year of high school, when my mother owned the store and gave me a job there. I was raised on music, but it was through working there that my tastes fully expanded into styles and artists that I probably never would have found myself listening.
It was kind of bittersweet, saying goodbye, though I don’t really think of it as a full-on goodbye, since I’ll still shop there and visit my friends who work there. Still, it was odd to turn in my key and walk away, knowing that a long-running chapter of my life was over. I had good and bad experiences there – like at any job, I would imagine – but it seems to me that the positive outweighs the negative in retrospect. I remember crazy Christmas Eve days, dealing with all the customers, quiet summer nights rocking out to some great music, and some great friends made.
I keep playing one of my favourite lines from Almost Famous over and over in my head: one that I think truly express how I feel about leaving this job behind – “If you ever get lonely, just go to the record store, and visit your friends.”

"Oh! This feeling is wonderful! Don't You Ever Turn It Off!"

Imagine a funeral in an old southern town. The entire populous has gathered around the ornate gazebo in the middle of the town square, where a young southern lily, clipped before her time, gazes from her open casket at the mourners. Around her are the family, preacher and a band to play the hymnals. Up to the front of the band walks a lone gentleman in a red Civil War coat, his face painted white to match the deceased. A single acoustic guitar starts to play, and that man begins to sing, “I’m going down to Rose Marie’s…”
That scene if from the Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There. That man is My Morning Jacket’s front man, Jim James. A band that loves contradictions, ignore the beautiful sadness of the aforementioned scene, and focus on the brilliant madness that is Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket’s latest release.
All the comparisons that have been flying around about the album being comparable to Radiohead’s Ok Computer and Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are right on the money. MMJ has taken the best from their two best albums (It Still Moves and Z) and thrown them together to create something immediately recognizable and totally different at the same time.
There is no doubt that James is one of the best singers in rock right now, as he gives evidence of over and over again on Urges (listen to him on “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 1” and “Two Halves”). The band is in incredible form – in my opinion, they’re the only band around today in any genre that can pull the gorgeous, melancholy sounds out of the steel guitar like on “Look at You” and then go into straight jam-out southern rock on “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2.” They may be an unconventional lot to look at, but that doesn’t mean a thing: their music is straight from the soul, and that’s what matters.
There’s a mix of influences on the album: you can hear Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers, and Radiohead. Still, I don’t think anybody counted on hearing Prince, ala James on “Highly Suspicious.” His voice is creepy and hilarious at the same time – who could listen to the song and not be curious what “peanut butter pudding surprise” is? – and his cackles and wails will send shivers down your spine.
For my money, the best cut on the album is the quiet, “Librarian.” The acoustic guitar and vocals are amazing together, as they weave a story of a young man who has a crush on the town librarian. The song is full of great lines: “ramble up the stairwell, into the hall of books…/since we got the Interweb these hardly get used,” and is full of the longing that every nerdy guy can relate to.
In a year full of promising new releases, you’re not going to find anything as adventurous or rewarding as Evil Urges. I strongly suggest you let the magical urges of this phenomenal band sweep you away.

"I feel so used...so unsatisfied"

Published in 1968, John Updike’s brilliant novel, Couples, was no doubt a shock to a country that was doing its best to keep sexual taboos under the table as much as possible, especially with the “swinging ‘60s” hitting their full stride. Updike’s brutally honest, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking look at the sexual behaviour of a small town – that really could be Anytown, U.S.A. – spent nine months on the New York Times Bestseller List (a number that couldn’t be more fitting) and caused an uproar in the country.
The novel’s focus is on Piet Hanema, a thirty-something living with his wife and two daughters in the east-coast town of Tarbox. The pair is a part of a group of about a half-dozen couples who get together on a regular basis – being the town’s upper-class – and have their own little club running. Updike then takes the reader underneath the surface of theses facades, where the gossip about who is sleeping with who turns out to be true, more often than not, and where couples trade partners like square dancers.
The explicit descriptions of sex is probably what caused such criticism of the book, but never before – and rarely since – has a novel tackled American sexuality in such an honest way. Every base gets covered, from marital to extramarital sex, from sodomy to masturbation, and childbirth and abortion. Almost anything that sex touches on, so does the novel. It’s not all pretty – nor is it meant to be – but it’s honest, and is always the case with Updike, honesty – no matter how ugly – is of the utmost importance.
Fans of Updike’s famous “Rabbit” series will see a lot of Robert Angstrom in Piet Hanema, but the characters that he populates Tarbox with are both unique and familiar at the same time. In true Updike fashion, the action is all personal, with no big blowouts – on the external level – but instead quiet loss and desperation.
For a study of American sexuality – in fiction form, mind you – you’re not going to get a better window into the American viewpoint than Couples. It may make you feel a bit soiled at the end, but hell if that’s not the point.

Two Things You Never Want to See Made...

Politics is usually a subject that I do my best to avoid discussing (going along with Linus’ brilliant advice – “Three things you never discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin) but since they’ve been at the forefront of all the news lately (which is nice, for a change as opposed to Britney Spears or whoever) I thought I’d write about my political “views.”

I’m a registered Democrat, for what that is worth – though I did that mostly so I could have a say in the primaries – but I don’t consider myself a Democrat, or a Republican; I like to think of myself as an independent, and I am really not a fan of all the categorization that goes along with belonging with one party or the other. To me, that’s one of the main things that is keeping this country down right now – we’re too divided. I can’t stand people – and I know quite a few – who won’t even listen to what the other party is saying. As a journalist I know that that is getting only one side of the story, and there are always two sides, even if we don’t want to see them. People who think Republicans are all backwards thinking Evangelicals or that Democrats are all atheist anarchists is total bunk on both sides; to be sure, I’ve met people on both ends of the spectrum who fit those respective categories, but I don’t think that describes the bulk of either party. Anyone who immediately discredits someone because of their political party, to me, is just as bad as someone who immediately discriminates based on race or religion.

What really sends me off the deep end when it comes to politics is when God gets dragged in. I love the bumper sticker that says, “God isn’t a Republican or a Democrat.” I think one of the smartest things that our founding fathers did was create a separation of church and state, and it drives me up the wall to see that barrier crumbling more and more. When you go to religious services and have your priest/pastor/minister/rabbi/imam or any other leader tell you how to vote, that’s a bad sign, just as it’s a bad sign when a leader uses his/her definition of “God” to justify their political actions. If it were up to me, candidates wouldn’t even be allowed to say what their religion is during the election season; it just shouldn’t be a factor. This is what probably scares me most about the way the American government seems to be heading; history has shown us time and time again the death and misery that comes from using God to justify wars, and I worry we will fall prey to that trap. God is above any political classification, and should be treated as such.

Right now, I’m firmly in support of Senator Barack Obama. I think he is a revolutionary leader in the vein that would have made the founding fathers proud. He’s young, charismatic, one hell of a speaker, and seems totally sincere and willing to devote his all to serving his country. It sickens me that people are circulating rumours about him being a “closet Muslim,” because not only is that not true, but even if it was, so what? I don’t remember anything in the Constitution saying that the President must be a Christian. I think he’s going to change the country for the better, and cannot wait to see him elected into office.

Here I’ll give a few bullet points on some “hot issues” and my stance on them:

Gun control: I’m all for this, but I certainly don’t think guns should be banned. I own a shotgun to go hunting with my father and brother, and I see no reason why I should be forced to give that up. I’m all for more restrictions and procedures to make sure guns don’t fall into the wrong hands, but I certainly don’t think they should be banned.
Death penalty: This is a tough one, which I struggle with a lot. On the one hand, I think that death is a pretty easy release for criminals, and if you really wanted to make them suffer, than a life sentence would do the job far better. On the other hand, I understand that if the crime stole away a loved one or someone dear to you, I can understand how the desire for vengeance would be present and how one could want the murderer to suffer the same fare. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but I don’t think I have the right to tell anyone “no” if it could assuage their grief.
Abortion: I put this issue with the death penalty category, in that I can see both sides of it. I was raised Catholic – though I’m so liberal, that most Catholics wouldn’t consider me one – so I do understand the importance of the child as an individual in a woman, and if I were to ever come up against that situation, I would only leave abortion as the absolute last resort. That being said, again, I cannot justify forcing my thoughts on the population of the women in this country as a whole. Who am I to tell a woman who was raped that she has to keep a baby, or that she has to carry this load that she is not ready for. I – and the government – has no right to do either, and I understand that.
Immigration: We wouldn’t be a country without immigration, so those who want to build walls on our borders are crazy; even if said walls were built, people would just get through another way, and besides, it is contrary to the whole spirit of our country. I think it needs to be monitored and handled better – though the details are beyond me, since I don’t know enough about the issue – but I think stopping it totally would be betraying one of the core parts of our country.
Health Care: I don’t know enough about this to write much here in detail, except to say that our country needs to change it’s health care in a big way. The stats are everywhere showing how far behind other countries we are, and as someone who has just left college and entering the world, this is something I’d love to see worked on.
Social Security: Again, something I don’t know enough about, but I know it will be important to my family and me in the future, and I know that it needs a big push as well.

I do have great hope for our country, and I know what we can achieve when we are united. I just hope we get our act together sooner rather than later…

Creature Comforts #1 - Rainy Days

I know it is summer and we’re all supposed to be relishing the sunny days that we are gifted with for these three-ish months of the year, but for me, give me the warm, grey rainy days any time.
It’s certainly not to say that I hate the sunny days by any means – too many rainy days in a row has me hankering for the sunshine – but since I tend to get sunburned, no matter what I do, I’m usually in the shade on those beautiful, bright days.
To me, rainy days are perfect.
Especially during the summer, when they’re warm rain, not the frigid stuff that falls every other time of year. I always see them as natures benevolent “go-ahead” to lay around the house, and take it easy. I have so many fond memories of spending a day in comfortable clothes, reading all day, or throwing myself a solo film festival. I’ve created entire mixes of music or bought certain albums based on how they play on rainy days (jazz is always a good way to go – especially Keith Jarret’s The Melody at Night, With You – but James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen are also great choices). I’ve done some of my best writing with the clouds as my only company, and I defy you to come up with a better sound to lull you to sleep than the pitter-patter of rain falling on the roof.
As has so often been noted in literature and in films, the best things that happen to a person don’t take up a whole lot of space in the description, but the horrible things go on for pages and pages. Such is the case here; I love rainy days so much, but I cannot fully articulate why. They just feel right, too me. In one of my favourite songs, Norah Jones sings, “It never rains when you want it to,” but when it does, enjoy it.

"God, I'm glad I'm not me."

I first became fully aware of Cate Blanchett as Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. I remember watching her brilliant performance – I’m not one of those Tolkien snobs who thought the movies totally butchered the books – and recognized her from minor roles she had been in, but nothing massive. T0 me, being in The Lord of the Rings was about as big a role as an actor could ask for.
Afterwards, in the spirit of further support for Rings – like it really needed it – I started paying attention to all the actors wherever they popped up. Orlando Bloom started showing up everywhere, and Viggo Mortenson finally was picked up by Hollywood’s radar, but Blanchett had been doing steady work for years before Rings, and continued right on.
Upon meditating on all her performances prior to Rings and since, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: she is one of the best actresses of this age. No doubts about it.
Not only is she extremely convincing in every role she plays, but her ability to take on real people and bring them to life is truly out of this world. See her portrayal as Queen Elizabeth, her Oscar-winning (and rightfully so) take on Katherine Hepburn, and her most recent – and in my opinion, best – turn as Jude Quinn (a.k.a. Bob Dylan) in I’m Not There. How she lost the Oscar to Tilda Swinton – who did fine in Michael Clayton, but not spectacular – will forever remain a mystery to me. Her portrayal of Dylan just coming off his stunning electric performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, where he alienated the entire folk scene, is so right on, so careful and nuanced, that it is less a performance, and more like a inhabitation. It’s impossible to watch Don’t Look Back (the brilliant documentary of Dylan at this period) without thinking of Blanchett’s Quinn: skinny, androgynous, wired and tired beyond help, while being bitterly sarcastic to a world that doesn’t understand that no genre of music defines him. His angry banter with a reporter from BBC who just doesn’t get “it” is right on, but what really sells the performance is her monologue at the end, capped by the dead on line: “Everybody knows I’m not a folk singer.” That is Dylan at that time, fully summarized in one sentence.
Another thing I think Blanchett has going for her is her beauty. Now, she’s not the stereotypical Hollywood beauty that’s going to bring all the young men and teen into the theatres, like Jessica Alba or Scarlett Johansson, but she has more of a classic, timeless beauty. She reminds me of Helen Mirren, who is still gorgeous after decades of acting. This weird, ethereal beauty allows her to play gorgeous women (see her in the Elizabeth movies and her gorgeous portrayal of Galadriel) to more off-kilter roles (like Quinn and in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou).
The only thing I’d like to see from her is a comedy – she so often plays such serious, demanding roles, but I think in a smart, intelligent comedy, she could shine.
As far as I’m concerned, every film that Blanchett is in, allows the audience a chance to view one of Hollywood’s future Golden Ladies while here fire is burning at it’s brightest.

Do you have soul? That all depends...

I thought I would have my first post here by about one of the great American art forms: Soul Music. I’m not talking about modern R&B – though I will touch on that near the end of this entry – but the classic soul singers who were pioneers in both music and civil rights.
Soul, like most American – truly American – music had its roots in the blues and jazz. It would not be far off at all to call the early jazz singers like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan the forerunners of the great soul singers. Of course, right before soul you had the early Doo-Wop groups like the Mills Brothers, The Platters and The Drifters, just to name a few in a musical category that doesn’t get near enough respect.
When the great soul singers started appearing in the ‘60s, along with the folk scene and rock and roll, these musicians had an opportunity that many African-Americans didn’t at the time: the penetrated into the very heart of white suburbia. You had the crooners – Sinatra, Bennett, Como and Martin – and then these talented musicians, who were in many cases, the only interactions that white America had with black culture in an acceptable way. What Elvis and the emerging rock scene was doing was taking black music and morphing it into something totally new – and frightening – to many of the older generation. Soul however, through its popularity with all ages, allowed for black culture to get its foot in the door of white sensibilities.
So, what is so attractive about soul music? To begin with, there are the vocals, which drives the music. In almost no other genre of music will you find musicians with the vocal range and diversity that you find in soul. True, the artists have a tendency to have a common, velvety vocal sound, usually more smooth than anything, but that is by no means the norm. Listen to James Brown growl his way through “Papa’s Got A New Bag,” or Aretha Franklin’s tart, no-nonsense delivery of Otis Redding’s “Respect.” Still, there is something soothing and utterly beautiful about the genre. It is the way that these beautiful vocals mix with the lush music that often serves as a backdrop. The music behind soul is always beautifully driven by a fantastic beat – see The Temptations’ “My Girl” as a definitive example of this. The music that came of Motown played by The Funk Brothers is totally engaging and underrated. Some of the best love songs ever are soul songs: from Etta James’ “At Last” to Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” you’re not going to go to any kind of wedding or dance, without getting some soul played.
As much as this is one of my favourite aspects of soul music, this tendency toward love songs has hurt the genre, because many believe that’s all that there is to it. Those people aren’t playing close enough attention to songs like Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” and Marvin Gaye’s seminal album, What’s Going On. These musicians were using their music as a message of change and awareness long after the protest-folk music scene had died at Bob Dylan’s hands in Newport.
Since it’s heyday, soul has morphed over the years into funk, smooth jazz and R&B, and these style’s roots have a tendency to be forgotten. These tributaries from the River Soul certainly have their good qualities, but give me the classics any day.
Ever since its arrival, soul could be felt all over the musical environment, often in places that people would not expect. Sinatra and his lot certainly borrowed from it, and tell me you don’t hear the stirrings of soul in Elvis’ music. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones certainly kept the music of James Brown and Otis Redding in mind, and Van Morrison drops names like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Jackie Wilson on a regular basis in his music. Listen to Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis and you can literally feel the passion she had for making to great a soul-sounding record. The reggae of Bob Marley, especially on songs like “Three Little Birds,” is soul with a Jamaican spin. Imagine classics like Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young,” The Band’s “It Makes No Difference” and Jim Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and think of how easily – and beautifully – they would translate into soul songs.
In contemporary music, you have the emulators who are trying to bring the sounds of old soul back – the best of the lot include John Legend, Musiq Soulchild, Alicia Keys and Corinne Bailey Rae – and those who have taken soul and blended it into their own sound. Listen to “I’m Gonna Find Another You,” the last cut on John Mayer’s Continuum and tell me he didn’t get that from an old Smokey Robinson album, or the music of My Morning Jacket, particularly on the albums It Still Moves and Z, which fuse soul with southern blues and progressive rock. Artists like Amy Winehouse and Duffy are taking the soul sound that Dusty Springfield was trying to create and giving it a modern, British twist. Modern crooners like Michael Bublé regularly dip into the soul songbook and hip-hop artists like Kanye West, Common and Lupe Fiasco regularly sample from soul standards, as did Run D.M.C. and the other early hip-hop artists. Comedy acts, like the brilliantly talented Flight of the Conchords from New Zealand parody to great effect Marvin Gaye’s social music on “Think About It.”
Soul is a genre that has withstood the test of time, not only with class and style, but with a staying power that puts it echelons above much of what is considered “classic music.” For something that reaches into you and changes you, makes your heart skip a beat or appreciate a summer’s afternoon, there’s nothing like soul.

Here’s a list of soul classics and what makes them stand as towers of the genre:

“Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)” – Ray Charles Sextet (1960) – Ray Charles

Charles’ delivery on this heartbreaking song is what makes it hit like a sledgehammer. The song begins with Charles using his signature, Nat King Cole-esque over a beautiful piano and a simple background of bass and drums. The saxophone and piano solo in the middle hardly prepares the listener for the vocal bomb that Charles is about to drop. With the second two verses, Charles’ voice becomes an aching wail, gravely and so emotional it hurts; this is a song from a man who has firsthand experience in what he is singing about: loss and hard times – the song’s name is not an accident.

“The Track of My Tears” – Going to A Go-Go (1965) – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

This song is one that anyone who has been burned by love can relate two. Robinson sings in his creamy voice about a man putting on a charade of being happy and moving on after a break-up, but as he sings, “Look closer and see the tracks of my tears.” The music behind him is swelling and lush, the perfect blend of poetry and music, with the Miracles hitting all the right notes on the background vocals. This is one of the group’s biggest hits, and once again showing the power of soul, had a profound impact on rock. Pete Townshend – the genius behind The Who – became so obsessed with the way Robinson sung the word “substitute” that he wrote a song to celebrate it, according to Rolling Stone magazine. If one word can have that kind of power, imagine what the whole song can do.

“Crusin’” – Where There’s Smoke… (1979) – Smokey Robinson

There’s nothing not romantic about this song. Listen to the lyrics about a man that doesn’t want just a one-night stand, but a whole life with a woman. Robinson’s vocals are both pleading and earnest, and the strings in the background make this a must for a romantic drive, a romantic dinner…essentially, a romantic anything. It’s no wonder that Gwenyth Paltrow and Huey Lewis’ version of the song for the film Duets was a hit: with material like this, its hard to imagine it being anything but.

“Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” – Let Me In Your Life (1974) – Aretha Franklin

Everybody knows Franklin’s unstoppable versions of feminine affirmation, “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman” and as such, this simple love song – written by Stevie Wonder - often slips though the cracks. The driving bass is beautifully counterbalanced a flute in the background, and fantastic backing vocals. As is always the case with anything by Franklin, Aretha’s voice is the driving force. She sounds determined in her determination to wait for her love to return to her. There’s no going back for her and after one listen, for the listener, either.

“My Cherie Amour” – My Cherie Amour (1969) – Stevie Wonder

The glittering flute intro to this gorgeous ballad by Wonder gives the listener right up front an idea of what is to follow. The lyrics are simple and heartfelt, as everything is by Wonder. The French flourish added to the song makes it a moving standout from other soul songs. It’s amazing how moving the repetition of “La la” can be when it is mirrored by a lone flute – only with Wonder’s voice could this effect be reached. For a man famous for writing love songs, this one is gold.

“That’s Life” – Gettin’ Down To It (1969) – James Brown

A standard that Sinatra made famous – among others – Brown, the Godfather of Soul, brings his gravely, gritty take to the song. The simple setting (piano, bass and drums) allow Brown’s voice to take the song and soar with it. The mildly fatalistic lyrics are met by delight and barely constrained laughter by Brown. He doesn’t sound for a minute daunted by the troubles that life is going to present, according to the song. Quite the contrary – he’s ready to “pick himself up and get back in the race.” There’s no chance of Brown quitting on this one.

“Let’s Stay Together” – The Right Stuff (1972) – Al Green

This song is musical manna. This is what musical perfection sounds like. A simple driving beat with occasional organ and horn flourishes drive the song, but it’s Green singing that makes it. The man is a wizard with that voice of his, and he reaches the peak of his powers on this number. The lyrics about sticking together through whatever life throws are given a moving immediacy in the song. Green knows exactly what he wants, and he’s going after it. “Let’s Stay Together” is a undisputable testament to the power of soul, of Green, and of love. Perfection.

“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” – Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1966) – Otis Redding

Heartbreak has never sounded more soulful or powerful than on this song. All credit and praise goes to Redding, whose amazing voice drives the song. The music is all in the background, and the song would be just as powerful if he had done it as a solo piece. You can literally feel your heart ache along with Redding as he tries to hold on to a love that is slipping away. There is nothing but power in the song, and nothing but emotion in the voice: emotion that can stop you dead in your tracks.

“Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) – Sky’s the Limit (1971) – The Temptations

The throbbing bass and guitar lines that open up this song are quickly met by the Temptations lovely, wilting vocals – vocals that made them famous. The singer fantasizes with a gorgeous hopelessness and the strings behind him swing to great effect. There’s nothing not beautiful about this song, and it’s lyrics about dreaming about someone who doesn’t even know you are common, but set apart by the delivery here. There’s not much to do but let the song carry you away.

“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) – What’s Going On (1971) – Marvin Gaye

One of Gaye’s great social awareness songs, the song’s intro hooks the listener right away with a catchy bass and piano line. Then you add Gaye’s lilting voice, moving in its fragility, but determined in it’s message: “this ain’t livin’.” About being overtaxed and overworked, the song builds in passion as Gaye brings more and more damnation upon modern society. Yet, rarely has condemnation sounded this lovely. Particular beauty comes out of flowing into a solo piano version of “What’s Going On” at the end of the song. Of course, all of this is a key aspect of the album What’s Going On which is one of the most powerful ever written. This song is a great example of what Gaye was trying to accomplish: use the sweet soul of Motown, but turn it into a method for change.

“A Change is Gonna Come” – Ain’t That Good News (1964) – Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke could do a spiritual or a love song like nobody’s business, but it’s with this anthem – referenced in everything from rock to hip-hop – that he made his mark. His voice is what heaven must sound like, and the lyrics are filled with a somber hope, reinforced by the deep horns and strings that pervade the song. The song’s lyrics “it’s too hard living, but I’m afraid to die,” ring true for everyone at one point – and tragic for Cooke, who died a year after recording this song. This is a Bob Dylan song – it was inspired by Cooke listening to “Blowin’ in the Wind” - from a soul king, and perhaps the best to ever come out of the genre. Just listen to it, and you’ll never walk away the same.

Let Me Tell You What It Is To Write - An Introduction

"Let me tell you what a writer is. A writer takes comprehensive views, holds large convictions, makes wide generalizations. A writer's not English, Mexican, or American. A writer's not a woman nor a man. A writer's not Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, nor snake worshipper. To local standards of right and wrong a writer's civilly indifferent. In the virtues, a writer's concerned only with general expediency. A writer doesn't waste time focusing on fixed moral principles that aren't yet before the court of conscience. Happiness discloses itself to a writer as the end and purpose of life, and art and love are the only means to a writer's happiness. A writer is free of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, and politics. To a writer, a continent doesn't seem long, nor a century wide. And a writer has ever present consciousness that this is a world of...fools and rogues, blind with superstition, tormented with envy, consumed with vanity, selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions, and frothing mad." – Ambrose Bierce

My name is Clarke Reader, and I am a writer. Or, at least, I want to be one.

I’ve wanted to be one for as long as I can remember; I can recall with the utmost clarity the joy I first took from books when my father read them to me as a young man. I have a particularly fond remembrance for the evenings he spent reading me J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Since then, Tolkien has become my favourite author - and a completely unappreciated one in most literary circles, which I’m bound to rail against at some point…repeatedly – for a myriad of reasons, one being that through him I fell in love with literature. As I grew up my tastes matured quicker than my body – I remember being in elementary school and slogging through London with Charles Dickens, in junior high gliding along with Jack London and cursing the phonies with J.D. Salinger. In high school, my literary ambitions reached – for the first time – their fullest outlet, as I dove into Hemingway, Rand, Goethe, Updike, Mongham, and Camus. Since high school – having just graduated college two weeks ago – I’ve delved into Russian, Spanish and African literature, with a venture or two into the Far East. I collect books with a passion, and to any who point out the existence of libraries – for which I am very grateful – I give John Updike’s essay, “A Case for Books” on why I still buy them.

I give this all as an introduction because, in large part, I define myself through what I’ve read, seen and listened to. More often than not, I can summarize a situation or feeling I have through someone else’s words than my own. For example, here would be a great place to quote John Cusack’s Rob Gordon in High Fidelity when he says, “…what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films -- these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the fuckin' truth.” And so it is. In this blog, I’ll be just as likely to write about literature, music and films as I will be to write about what’s going on in my life, or any small forays I make into fiction.

Quoting Tolkien – my literary hero – when he wrote that, “I don't tick. I am not a machine. (If I did tick, I should have no views on it, and you had better ask the winder)” is all I have to say on what made me the kind of person I am, or any one of those cliché, ridiculous questions that are often tried to clear up in any introduction. Any who read this will learn about me in the way that one really gets to know another person: through hints dropped in discussions about things they are passionate about, and through the occasional story from my life. Information I will give here and now – aside from my literary ambitions, my obsession with pop-culture and the fact that I just graduated college, which have already been mentioned – is that I live in the great state of Colorado and am engaged to a woman I am madly in love with. I’m being deliberately vague here for, in accordance with the quotation that began this entry, a writer is no one thing, but embraces everything. Read along to pick up any other details about me.

And at the end, as is so often the case, we return to the beginning. I want to be a writer, and it is to that end that I am beginning this blog. You have to love writing and do it every day to be any good at it, and that is my full intention. I end with a quote from Jorge Luis Borges on the writing lifestyle: “A writer needs loneliness, and he gets his share of it. He needs love, and he gets shared and also unshared love. He needs friendship. In fact, he needs the universe. To be a writer is, in a sense, to be a day-dreamer - to be living a kind of double life.”

Thank you, and welcome…