Photo courtesy of The Decemberists
The latest song Stuck in my brain (“Simbie”) is an appropriate one for once: “June Hymn” by The Decemberists. The chorus just keeps rolling around in my head: “And once upon it/Yellow bonnets/Garland all the lawn/And you were waking/And day was breaking/A panoply of song/And summer comes to Springville Hill.” Their latest album, “The King Is Dead” is spectacularly great! It’s like a cross between Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen with better melodies, thrown into a 60s blender in the future using colors from Mario Paint and telepathically force-fed into your brain! I can’t believe that after six albums and finally achieving critical and their largest commercial success that singer-songwriter Colin Meloy plans to have the group take a three or four year break to do “other things.”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
When the muse hits you, you have to listen to her! She doesn’t stay forever, man! You should be working at maximum output during this stretch, especially after you refined your process. There are reasons why the first five albums were mainly only critical successes. I hope that their recent good fortunes, including their most recent tour, will help to change his mind.
At this point, almost halfway through the year, this is the odds on favorite for album of the year. Now I know there is still a lot of the year left to go, and I would be ecstatic to have other great albums push it further down the list, but it is a lock to make most critics Top Ten Lists!
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A trip to Surreal Land:
I was surfing the cable channels the other day and I ran across something that was so bizarre I almost needed a defibrillator. There it was, on the local PBS station, in plain sight: The McLaughlin Group were discussing the breakdown of society caused by Lady Gaga. (ODWITS!!!!!!) I’m not even going to pretend that I know who’s on that show, but it crossed the weird line to even have some of them sticking up for her as a role model. This was after a slew of statistics like “Lady Gaga” has now sold more than 15 million CDs!” and “Lady Gaga” currently has 22 million followers on Facebook!” At least Pat Buchanan was honest enough to admit that “until that report, I wouldn’t have been able to pick Lady Gaga out of a police lineup.” To which, in response, everyone agreed that he would have been able to. (DOUBLE ODWITS!!!!)
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Christina Perri Lovestrong courtesy of Christina Perri
I have a teenage daughter, and she and her friends are currently hooked on “Bang Bang Bang” by Christina Perri. You’ve been informed!
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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace!
Q
