Slow Night, So Long

The Kings of Leon are one of the truest rock and roll bands in the world right now. They play the type of rock music that your parents will probably dig because it's a throwback to the golden age of the genre. Their first two albums, Youth and Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak, were definite rock masterpieces flawed only by an obsession with promiscuity and hard partying. The forthcoming Because of the Times finds the band thematically tackling different issues and writing some catchy ass tunes along the way.

I'm sharing my favorite tune (so far) from the disc, a catchy little affair known as "Fans", which moves forward brilliantly thanks to a jangly little guitar riff. This album will be up there with the best of 2007 which is a year that has already proven to be golden for music releases.

Kings of Leon - Fans

Swedish...I Wish I Was

Once the dust settles 2007 may well be remembered as the greatest year for album releases from this decade. Already there have been critically lauded releases from Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Of Montreal, The Apples in Stereo, Boris, The Smashing Pumpkins, Menomena, The Shins, and Lily Allen, while sure to be brilliant releases are around the corner from Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes, Radiohead (!!!), Patrick Wolf, Air, !!!, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, El P, The Kings of Leon, Wilco, Bjork, and perhaps the most highly anticipated indie album in years: The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible.

However, there is one album I'm hoping does not get lost in the shuffle as the year progresses and more of these high profile albums begin to steal the spotlight. Swedish indie rockers Peter Bjorn and John have truly crafted a wonderfully eclectic collection of songs in Writer's Block which was released in 2006 but only recently has been receiving the attention it deserves. I've posted the first proper track on the album, "Objects of My Affection", for you all to hear. It's a driving, pulsing smoker of an indie rock track. Let the wistful lyrics and marching beat invade your soul.

Peter Bjorn and John - Objects of My Affection

And So He Grows Up

It's been a long time coming.

That is -- Conor Oberst turning the corner in his songwriting abilities. It's been obvious since the kid first picked up a guitar that he some pretty special songwriting skills. He immediately learned to write his own simple songs rather than take the route most beginner guitarists do and learn countless cover songs. The early Bright Eyes songs showcased an obviously pained soul with a knack for clever wordplay. Some of the songs on Fevers and Mirrors and Letting off the Happiness suffer from being tuneless despite having brilliant lyrics. Lifted is an album where Oberst started to show real signs that he was capable of moving away from the self-indulgent ballads of pain ("Arienette", "Something Vague") and more towards the well-written songs ("June on the West Coast") that had put him into a class of the best songwriters in modern music. However, the real gems on Lifted ("Laura Laurent", "You Will") are outnumbered by the type of self-indulgent pain ballads ("Nothing Gets Crossed Out", "False Advertising") that make people hate Oberst so fucking much. These songs are incredible, but they are incredible because of what they mean to mostly adolescent listeners -- myself included. It's tough to imagine a jaded 40 year old shedding tears as Conor Oberst sings "I fell under the weight of a schoolboy crush".

The dual releases of 2005 from Bright Eyes found Conor making one truly outstanding record (I'm Wide Awake) and another mostly self-indulgent disc (Digital Ash). The songs on I'm Wide Awake were mostly well crafted and found Conor growing up both as a songwriter and a person. "Landlocked Blues" was easily the finest thing he had ever written and was truly the moment when he distinguished himself as better than Ryan Adams or John Darnielle or even Jeff Tweedy because none of those guys have written a song as perfect as "Landlocked Blues". Though Conor wrote a lot of songs around this time that focused more on their lyrical content than on musical prowess ("True Blue", "When the President Talks to God") none of them seemed to make it onto I'm Wide Awake.

Now Conor is preparing the release of the mostly lackluster Four Winds EP and then his sixth proper full length Cassadaga. The latter promises to be the most accomplished album that Conor has ever been a part of making especially judging by the tremendously catchy first single "Four Winds". I first heard "Four Winds" at Bonnaroo 2006 when Bright Eyes opened their set with it. I found the tune to be stuck in my head for the rest of that weekend and beyond. Now that the studio recording of this tune has leaked I have been nearly unable to stop playing this song on repeat. It blows "Landlocked Blues" out of the water and truly is the most impressive track this band has yet recorded. If "Landlocked Blues" really was Conor turning the corner and honing his craft then this song is great proof of it. Try to not get this one stuck in your head and look for Cassadaga in early April.

Bright Eyes - Four Winds

We Will Ne'er Be Broken Hearted

This song has the power to change your life.

The ratio of songs in existence to songs that can change your life is something like 1 : 100,000,000,000,000,000 [I wish this keyboard had an infinity symbol].

You have to trust me on this song though. No matter what genre of music is your favorite this song can speak to you. Every time I've seen Ted Leo perform live with his Pharmacists he has ended his sets with "Biomusicology" which is easily his greatest song to date. The beginning of this song is like the grayest day imaginable giving way to a blazingly beautiful sun. That sun casts shimmering light all over the puddles and wet grass and presents you with enough beauty to fill you up 'til you can't help but smile a bit. Ted Leo knows how shitty this capitalist existence can be,

"Or come to find
that loving is labor,
Labor's life and life's forever -
Or come to see
that keeping's not giving,
You get what you've given,
you get what you deserve;"

he understands how meaningless life can seem on this backdrop of concrete and pavement and how hard it can be to breathe in this consumer-driven nightmare. Yet Mr. Leo offers a gleaming light at the end of the seemingly perpetual tunnel. "Oed und leer, das meer," Leo quotes Wagner's Tristan and Isolde/T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland". The translation is "the desolate and empty sea". Ted gives us a chance to find happiness though, "look beneath the glassy surface. All the songs you hear down there they have a purpose." Music has the power to improve our lives astronomically. It is why I write in this blog and share these songs. It is why some people are still alive. I cannot imagine who I would be without much of the music I've listened to. "All these songs down there they have a purpose." Beneath this seemingly barren wasteland of a world there are things -- not necessarily just music -- that make life unbelievably worth living. I think of [to paraphrase Morrissey and The Smiths] all the songs that made me cry and the songs that saved my life. I think Ted really sums up the power of music with the final powerful stanza,

"All in all,
We cannot stop singing.
We cannot start sinking.
We swim until it ends.
They may kill
and we may be parted
but we will ne'er be broken-hearted."

If we never stop singing we can "swim" through this "vast sea" that is life. It's an empowering song and is easily one of the most inspiring tracks I have ever heard. Let it invade your mind for weeks and then join me in seeing Ted Leo in May at the Avalon. I can guarantee you he will play this song and it will give you mad chills.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Biomusicology