Favourite Things I Heard in August 2019

 Albums

1. Thrashing Thru the Passion - The Hold Steady
2.  i,i - Bon Iver

3. basking in the glow - Oso Oso

4. Chasing Summer - SiR
5. Immunity - Clairo

6. -Ugh, Those Feels Again - Snoh Aalegra
7. Lover - Taylor Swift
8. Port of Miami 2 - Rick Ross
9. Inflorescent - Friendly Fires
10. GINGER - Brockhampton

Songs
1.  "RABi" - i,i - Bon Iver
2. "Traditional Village" - Thrashing Thru the Passion - The Hold Steady
3. "Cornelia Street" - Lover - Taylor Swift
4. "Fire" - Chasing Summer - SiR
5. "You" - -Ugh, Those Feels Again - Snoh Aalegra

6. "Tenderness" - Anak Ko - Jay Som
7. "Maybach Music VI" feat. John Legend and Lil Wayne - Port of Miami 2 - Rick Ross

8. "Alewife" - Immunity - Clairo
9.  "Dearly Departed" - GINGER - Brockhampton
10. "So Ready" - Jimmy Lee - Raphael Saadiq

Album of the Week: Alessia Cara Know-It-All

The state of pop music in 2015 is strong, and unsurprisingly, we have the ladies to thank for it.

Taylor Swift's pop opus 1989 is still kicking down doors, and inspiring alt-leaning musicians to publicly embrace a genre they would normally scoff at; Carly Rae Jepsen delivered not just the best pop album of the year, but one of the year's best albums period; underground R&B songstresses like Kelela and Tink are adding vital new voices to the music; Grimes is fracturing the music and using the scraps in unique ways; and we have Adele coming back next week.

Amidst all this, you should make room for 19-year-old Alessia Cara, a musician who takes bedroom R&B and brightens it up with her own pop sensibilities. On her debut album, Know-It-All, she's made an album for the wallflowers, love sick and those on the verge of adulthood.

The undeniable highlight of the album is "Here," a party anthem for those who would rather be anywhere but the party. The song samples Isaac Hayes "Ike's Rap II," and adds some booming drums and bass over tinkling keys. The whole song is basically Cara telling off people who are trying to chat her up at a party: "I don't dance, don't ask, I don't need a boyfriend/So you can, go back, please enjoy your party," and she adds a healthy measure of cynicism and biting wit to the proceedings. Verses like

Excuse me if I seem a little unimpressed with this

An anti-social pessimist, but usually I don't mess with this

And I know you mean only the best

And your intentions aren't to bother me

But honestly I'd rather be

Somewhere with my people

eloquently shows the nimble mind of a person who knows where they belong. It deserves to go into every party mix, if for no other reason than so the people who don't want to be there (and trust me, there are always a few) have something to nod along to.

As evidenced on the album, Cara's wheelhouse is love songs that capture the surprising way love comes along and changes people.

"Outlaws" makes the best use of a horn riff since Ariana Grande's "Problem." The lyrics are a dash of Jay Z and Beyonce's "'03 Bonnie & Clyde," run through Drake's lonely worldview. It's the kind of escapist pop song that rock music has traded on for decades, but I'll be damned if Cara doesn't sell the hell out of it.

"I'm Yours" it's the cynic's love anthem, with verses like

How dare you march into my heart

Oh how rude of you

To ruin my miserable

And tell me I’m beautiful.

It's a song for everyone who has fallen in love when they were least expecting it, and is a catchy example of the kind of smart humor Cara possesses as a songwriter.

"Stars" is among the best love songs of the year, and is a swooningly romantic ode to loving someone who adores you for who you really are. Cara really sells the moment of acceptance in lines like

See I need you

And sometimes we need to

Shed our facade and be just who we are

All broken and torn, then we could be stars.

Almost everyone can relate to that heart-stopping moment when you reveal who you are to someone and it only makes them love you more. It's a rare occurrence, and all the brighter for it.

For a first effort, Know-It-All is brimming with promise and potential. Cara knocked it out of the park, and more than lives up to the album's name. We should all be excited to see what she does next.  

Know-It-All is out on Def Jam.

Also recommended this week:

Justin Bieber's trap pop return, Purpose.

Logic's space-rap sophomore release, The Incredible True Story.

Mark McGuire's lovely classic-rock techno, Beyond Belief.

One Direction's last album before a hiatus, Made in the AM.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow's EP, Planning Weed Like It's Acid / Life Is Loss.

A Tribe Called Quest's reissue of their debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Ty Dolla $ign's long awaited full-length, Free TC.

Album of the Week: Ryan Adams 1989

This week is an obscenely good one for new music, and truthfully Ryan Adams' cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 isn't the best new album. Right now, I'd say it's a fistfight between Chvrches' killer-good sophomore effort and Drake and Future's joint mixtape, What A Time to Be Alive. But it might be the most interesting.

Despite all the excellent releases this week (see the recommended list at the end of this piece), Adams has received the most ink, and there have been some truly, truly wonderful things written about it. The debate surrounding Adam's covers revolve around how seriously many (particularly in critical circles) are taking Swift's work, now that a man is "legitimizing" it, and there are certainly valid points you can read on both sides of the topic.

For myself, the clearest answer comes from the artists themselves.

Swift has been vocal in her support since the project was first announced, and rightfully sees that Adams isn't trying to improve her work. He's high-fiving her on creating something he connected to on a deep and personal level.

And then there's Adams. In some wonderful and thoughtful interviews he's given about 1989, Adams highlights his affection for Swfit's work. He rightfully points out how bulletproof Swift's songwriting is – not just on her latest release, but everything since she hit the scene – and he's absolutely right. She puts hooks into her hooks, and writes with a startlingly relatable clarity. Just check out the myriad of demographics her fans come from – you're as likely to hear "Shake It Off" blaring from high school students' car as a police officer's.

To be clear, Adams' version of the album isn't better than Swift's in any way. The best songs on it ("Style," "I Wish You Would," and "Clear") only match the originals – none supersede.

The most interesting versions are the stripped-down ones – versions you might consider the most quintessentially "Ryan Adams." All of a sudden, "How You Get The Girl" is a torch song for the broken-hearted, and "Out Of The Woods" sounds like it was recorded at the Café Wha in New York.

Adams pulls in his influences in a myriad of ways. Take the Springsteen touches he gives to opener "Welcome To New York," or the way he turns "This Love" into a tears-in-your-beers piano ballad, a la Tom Waits.  

If you can listen to Adams' 1989, and understand that he's paying homage to a top-tier talent, then I think you're approaching the project the way both he and Swift wanted. He's not throwing rocks at the throne – he's kneeling before it.

1989 is out on Pax-Am.

Also recommended this week:

Angel Haze's ferocious return to form, Back to the Woods.

Big Grams – the collaborative project between Outkast's Big Boi and Phantogram.

Chvrches' stellar, glittering Every Open Eye.

Dead Weather's Dodge and Burn – yet another project from Jack White.

Disclosure's electro-soul sophomore album, Caracal.

Drake & Future's off the cuff, What A Time to Be Alive.

Fetty Wap's long-awaited, self-titled debut.

Patty Griffin's fiery folk album, Servant of Love.  

Silversun Pickups' reliably enjoyable Better Nature.
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die's startlingly lovely, Harmlessness.

Album of the Week: The Decemberists What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

There's a scene in the bootleg cut of Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous where Patrick Fugit's rock journalist is talking to Billy Crudup's budding rock star about their favorite music. They're riffing about the little details in music that people remember, and Crudup mentions Marvin Gaye's "What'sHappening Brother" and a single "woo" at the end of the second verse – a "woo" that completely hooks the listener.

"That's what you remember. The silly things, the little things," he says. "There's only one, and it makes the song."

For me, there's a similar moment three minutes and thirty-nine seconds into "Lake Song" from The Decemberists' latest, What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, where singer Colin Meloy delivers the lines "Set the ghost of your two footprints/That they might haunt me when you're gone." On the word "gone" he adds an extra lilt, a slightly more sing-songy enunciation that gives the word a quiet, but devastating lift. It kills me every time I listen to it, and I've listened to it a lot.

What A Terrible World… is a stunning tapestry of these kinds of moments, and arrives halfway through the first month of 2015 as the year's first great album. It may lack the cohesive structure that made The Crane Wife and The Hazards of Love so interesting, but it's tough to argue when Meloy and company are churning out songs as smart and goddamn pretty as they do here.

The Decemberists' last album The King Is Dead came out four years ago and brought with it the group's biggest commercial success at the time. All of sudden radio stations that would've blanched at playing the band's earlier work were playing songs like "Down By The Water" once every couple hours. The album's success was mostly due to the band's ability to marry its brilliant, erudite lyrics with a little less jagged Neil Young-esque instrumentation.

It felt like after all the new attention The Decemberists needed to step back a spend a little time with themselves before venturing forth again and the time has clearly been well spent. The sound more energized here than most brand new bands.

What A Terrible World… continues to expand the band's sonic palette, whether it’s the George Harrison style guitar work on "Philomena," Nick Drake-like acoustics on "Lake Song" or "Till the Water Is All Long Gone," which sounds like they lifted wholesale the Spanish guitar picking from Van Morrison's "Beside You."

As always with this group, the storytelling and lyrics are really what make the album special.

The album kicks off with the most self-aware song this side of a Taylor Swift hit, "The Singer Addresses His Audience," which features Meloy wryly singing lines like "We know, we know, we belong to ya/We know you grew your arms around us/And the hopes we wouldn't change." Meloy leaves it to the listener to decide if they want to read it as grateful, sarcastic or a mix of both.

On "Till the Water Is All Long Gone" Meloy seems to be channeling lost civilizations and centuries of political strife into a simple ballad about defending one's daughter (it's also the second song to mention coming down from a mountain – a reference to the band's return after several years of quiet? Discuss amongst yourselves.)

The album wraps up with the stellar one-two punch of "12-17-12" and "A Beginning Song." The former title is in reference to the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and tackles the aftermath of an event that reminded the country again (as if there was any need for it) that even our children aren't safe in school. "Oh my God, what a world you have made here," Meloy sings and you can hear his broken heart in the delivery.

"A Beginning Song" ends the album on a more hopeful note by asking the listener what he or she is waiting for, when the time is now to chase one's dreams or goals. It ends with the band chanting the bright light "is all around me." It's gorgeous, and an early contender for best album closer of the year.

If Crowe is right in Almost Famous (and let's face it – he is) then it really is the little things that make music special and The Decemberists are experts at adding little touches for everyone. Like a novel in short stories, they've created a masterclass in the craft with What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World. Act accordingly.

What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World is out on Capitol.