Thought I'd take a moment while wifey's away prepping for her regional rap battle tonight to jump in with another couple recommendations. First one's for the Louisville foursome Houndmouth who recently put out their sophomore album, Little Neon Limelight. Similar to their debut, From the Hills Below the City, the album showcases the band's fantastic four-part harmonies and winning melodies, filtering them through the band's "little bit country, little bit indie band" recipe maker. And that's part of the problem -- it's what made me leave the debut off the annual "best of" list, having completely forgotten about it as an option, and it's what's kept me from writing about these guys until now -- the songs often feel too polished and artificial, more the result of engineering than emotion, and that keeps them from fully resonating and sticking with you.
It's a known problem for these holler back/retro/revivalist bands -- how do you hearken back to the sounds and sights of earlier times and bands without sounding derivative, unoriginal, or insincere? It's why for every winning success (The Decemberists' Her Majesty or The King is Dead, Fitz & the Tantrums' debut) there are plenty of others that are vacuous, terrible messes (The Decemberists' Hazards of Love, Fitz & the Tantrum's follow up album). What sets the winners from the losers is the ability to draw on those elements of yesteryear and connect them with the modern heart; to spark a feeling of nostalgia or loss for those things, rather than a bland, cerebral recitation of them. It's the difference between memory and missing; heartfelt and history lesson.
Similar to their debut, this album is filled with the requisite mentions of devils and preachers, stagecoaches and whiskey, gold and guns, as well as references to cocaine and "shove it up your ass" rebelliousness, but the effect often feels forced and insincere. The latter smacks of false bravado, like a popped collar Georgetowner getting tattoos and a motorcycle, while the former feels like borrowing someone else's wedding vows -- the words work, but it feels fake because there's no real emotion behind them.
The Lumineers' debut (to pick another contemporary) resonated so strongly for that reason -- it was a
big, bleeding heart that used similar imagery to the stuff here, but
stands in stark contrast to this result. And it's why those other bands are so uneven -- do I really believe Colin Meloy gives a shit about his pirate ships, architects, and engine drivers or that Michael Fitzpatrick cares as deeply about 80s synth pop as he does soul music? No, I do not. But sometimes, they convince you -- when they drop the pop artifice and Mad Libs style songwriting formulas ("I need another word for 'pistol' and an old-timey conveyance: have we tried 'donkey caravan' yet?"), they can be great.
And so can these guys. The harmonies are truly exceptional -- tracks like the opening "Sedona," "Black Gold," and the stately gem "Honey Slider" show how well guitarist Matt Myers, bass man Zak Appleby, keyboardist Katie Toupin, and cans man Shane Cody's voices meld together. And the melodies are equally winning. (The slow-burning "Otis" and "Darlin'" shine, in addition to the above.) What prevents it from fully resonating is that unguarded heart. So hopefully the band takes their own words to heart, as they shout on the penultimate song -- "SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT! SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT! TIL YA BELIEVE! TIL YA BELIEVE!" Here's to hoping they do, because both their albums are full of songs you'll find yourself singing along to or pleasantly listening to in the background. If they can dial in that last element, as they do on the following song, "Gasoline," they might be truly great.
Check out that unqualified winner here -- naked emotion, hushed harmonies, and simple lyrics that feel like confessions. It resonates like a howl in the woods, despite the muted volume. Here's to more like this in the future:
The other one that I keep coming back to and finding myself unable to fully embrace is the amalgam that is The New Basement Tapes and the album, Lost on the River. Part of that is undoubtedly due to the process -- find a cache of unrecorded Dylan lyrics, assemble a group of musicians with rather different sounds (Elvis Costello, Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Marcus Mumford from Mumford and Sons, among others), and see what happens when you hit record. And what you get, by and large, is a really good set of songs that keeps the country/throwback vibe going.
The biggest critique here is the need for an editor -- at 20 songs long, there are a handful of tracks that probably didn't need to make the cut (for me, that means most of Costello's and Rhiannon Gidden's tracks, which seem arch and schmaltzy at times, in comparison to the others -- "Married to my Hack," the title track and "Hidee Ho" ones, "Six Months in Kansas City," etc) and their presence takes away from this being an outstanding album. James' and Mumford's songs are the unequivocal highlights -- the former's "Down on the Bottom" and "Nothing To It" and the latter's "Kansas City" and "When I Get My Hands On You" are all fantastic. Great vocals, great melodies, great songs that probably work better in their hands than in Dylan's. Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith's songs round out the affair nicely ("Liberty Street," "Florida Key" among them) and are worth a listen. Plenty to like here, just use the scissors when downloading.
Check out Mumford's "Kansas City" here -- vintage Mumford vocals, all bruised emotion and soaring heart, and a great melody to boot. Enjoy!
We'll break the country vibe and go out with a funky little pop song from electro producer Big Data to get the blood flowing again, the ultra catchy ear worm "Dangerous." There's nothing fancy going on -- just Joywave singer Daniel Armbruster's cooed lyrics and a simple four note bass line -- but those two elements are enough to get you moving, and that bass line will be stuck in your head for hours. Pop music at its best, check it out here:
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