One coin, two sides

Above you will find 'Niggas In Paris', one of the finer cuts from the excellent Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration of last year 'Watch The Throne'. In which you will find two of the wealthiest musicians working today rapping about how wonderful it is to be wealthy, and what a magnificent life it is that they live. It's such a wild celebration of indulgence that it's almost a comedy of excess. The album, and tour, continue to make even more money for Jay and Ye, taking them ever further away from their humble beginnings.

Below you will find 'Niggas In Poorest' by Yasiin Bey (who until September last year was rapping under the name Mos Def), which uses the same backing track and lyrical structure to paint a picture of the struggle that the average African American is more likely to encounter.

I only stumbled across this cover today, and I've listened to it at least a dozen times. There's something compelling about his conviction, and I love the way he's subverted a popular track to make his statement. I was just going to post it on facebook with the rest of my video trawl, but I thought it was worth a little more coverage than that.

And that keyboard riff is genius. I imagine we'll be hearing that for decades.

Blurring The Line

As part of my re-purposing of this here music blog to be a place for all my music related ramblings I have increased the number of music related blogs and news sites I regularly check. That way I can bring you, dear reader, all the best and greatest music while it's still fresh and piping hot. The result of this is that I see quite a few stories repeated across the blogosphere as various territories catch on to the news.

Most of the time this is fine. When a new video is released, or tour dates scheduled, or awards are won, I can understand how that qualifies as news. I was struck one day last week when on my way to work, flipping through my various Flipboard feeds, I was inundated with the same item being reported across all the major sites. The problem I had was that the item in question was not about music in any substantial way. It was about the personal/romantic lives of two particular musicians.

Tragically even that much information isn't enough for you to know which story I'm talking about, and I'm not going to exacerbate the issue by going into detail. I don't think that music news should ever be indistinguishable from social gossip, but the line has become blurred.

It is my pledge to you, loyal peruser, that I shall never report the personal lives of musicians. I shall bring you only the juiciest, most relevant, pieces of music news. You will not be inundated with the ever changing parade of who is dating/marrying/divorcing/suing who. The only tearful reunions you will hear about will be on stage or in the studio.

If you want the other stuff it seems there are plenty of places you can go to get it, but this blog will always be about the music. Plain and simple.

Ball Park Music

I do this thing from time to time where I become completely obsessed with an artist, or an album. Sometimes it's a single song. When it happens I listen on repeat exclusively again and again and again. At the moment I'm doing this with Brisbane's Ball Park Music.

I saw Ball Park Music last year. They played Transit as part of a tour of Triple J Unearthed acts. Eagle and The Worm were on the same tour, but they didn't play the Canberra show. No disrespect to the other artists on the bill, but Ball Park Music are all I remember of the night. They played well, but failed to blow me away. I wasn't really paying attention though. I was wedged down the bar end of the club having a conversation with my gig buddy.

As the year progressed upbeat hit after upbeat hit graced the airwaves of the nation's youth broadcaster. Still I was resistant to their undeniable charms. It wasn't until the Hottest 100 that I finally relented and picked up their excellent debut 'Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs'. I've been listening to it almost constantly since. I've even bought both of their previous EPs to get myself as close to the full catalogue as possible (I draw the line at the remix of 'ifly').

Now despite my unashamed love of pop, I normally go in for more of the bittersweet/melancholy end of the spectrum. Which means I'm a little bit blindsided by how much I love Ball Park Music. It's an album of such irrepressible joy, that I defy you not to love it too.

Grouplove - Never Trust A Happy Song

The debut, self titled EP from California quintet Grouplove was one of the pleasant surprises of the latter half of 2010. The carefree sense of fun, combined with the impression that every note of the music was drenched in the California sun, made the small collection of songs a perfect soundtrack to the summer. As a result I've been looking forward to the release of their debut long player for much of 2011.

There's a youthful exuberance to Grouplove's music, and somehow that mood translates. It's hard to not find your troubles melting away as you listen to the album. Like that first summer after the end of school when the whole world seems full of possibility. It's a sound that's perfect for summer barbecues and road trips to music festivals.

For all their youth and freshness Grouplove also sound a little familiar. The counterplay of vocals between Christian Zucconi and Hannah Hooper brings to mind the pop end of the Pixies songbook. The keyboards add such a britpop flavour to the music I'd almost expect to find some of the songs in an episode of Skins. Opening track Itchin' On A Photograph was so reminiscent of erstwhile Irish rock band JJ72 that I listened to one of their albums for the first time in around five years.

For all of their familiarity Grouplove are their own creation though. Effortlessly turning out 12 pop gems in a little over three quarters of an hour. Never feeling too rushed, never outstaying their welcome. Even when they drop the tempo down a notch on Slow and Betty's A Bombshell nothing drags.

At least for our hemisphere, the timing of this album release is perfect. The days are starting to get warmer and longer, and I can foresee another long hot summer soundtracked by Grouplove. Although I imagine that the warmth inherent in the music could make even the short dark days of winter glow.

Kimbra - Vows

It's only been a couple of weeks since I mentioned Melbourne based, New Zealand born Kimbra Johnson. She was a guest on a track on Gotye's fabulous album that I reviewed not too long ago. Her work there, although brief, was perfect for the song, and an integral part of Gotye's musical vision. It left me curious as to how well she'd do out of the shadow of Australia's greatest musical visionary.

Not that the Gotye track was my first exposure to Kimbra. I actually saw her live last year. She was the opening support act at a concert I went to at the ANU bar, and at the time I was far from impressed. It's a tough life being a support act, and in my opinion she failed to rise to the occasion. However since that gig I've heard a few of her songs on Triple J and been more than a little impressed.

The album opens with Settle Down, Kimbra's biggest hit to date, which features a lot of layered and looped vocals. It's almost more sonic experiment than song at first, but eventually it settles down into a groove. This is followed by another radio favourite Cameo Lover, a smooth electro glide with a soaring chorus.

Kimbra has an incredible voice. Possibly the best jazz voice I've heard in recent years, and on top of that she's not afraid to do interesting things. Not everything she tries works for me (the couple of seconds of strings that fade up when she mentions 'history' in Two Way Street seemed to be trying a little bit too hard) but on the whole the reward to risk ratio is very low.

Which isn't to say that the whole album is a series of musical and vocal circus tricks. Sometimes the simple things work the best, and around half of the album is fairly straightforward earnest pop, albeit with an absolutely massive voice at its core. In fact in places it even reminds me a little of Tears For Fears.

In the end Kimbra has accomplished an astounding debut. It can be all too tempting for people that can really sing to make their albums a vocal showcase, and rather than doing that Kimbra has actually written a collection of interesting songs. I can't wait to see what she does next.

The Horrible Crowes - Elsie

It's a rare pleasure in this day and age for me to listen to a brand new album for the first time on vinyl. That's not to say that new albums aren't being pressed anymore, far from it. In fact the record part of the record industry seems to be thriving despite (or perhaps as a reaction to) the trend towards digital. The thing is that I'm not the most patient of men, and more often than not I've obtained a new album digitally (either as a download or a CD) long before the black circle can make its way to my local record shop.

I was pleasantly surprised then, when I came home from work the other day to find a suspiciously record shaped package had been left by our ninja postman (he's very good at leaving packages without leaving a trace). It turns out that the good people at Side One Dummy had shipped the international orders of Elsie early so that the record would be there for release. So I grabbed my favourite headphones, and fired up the turntable to listen.

The Horrible Crowes are kind of a side project for Brian Fallon, frontman with one of my favourite bands of recent years The Gaslight Anthem. To form The Horrible Crowes he has teamed up with Ian Perkins, who doubles as Brian's guitar tech when Gaslight tour. In theory The Horrible Crowes will be a home for all the songs Brian writes that aren't right for The Gaslight Anthem, freeing him up to write more of the kind of punk-soul that has made them famous.

The problem ends up being that Brian Fallon can't not sound like Brian Fallon, and he can't write songs any differently to the way that he writes them. Therefore vocally, and musically this is not a big conceptual step from his day job. He sings the songs a little softer, and plays them a little slower, but the heart is the same.

The difference comes down to the production. There's instruments here that would never show their face on a Gaslight Anthem album, things like Hammond style organs, and horn sections. But more importantly there's more space. The songs don't fill in all the way to the edge, which gives the listener more room to inhabit the song with Brian and Ian.

I think it's going to be tough going for this album. Outside of Gaslight Anthem fans it's going to have to work hard to find an audience, and within those same fans it's going to struggle to live up to the alchemy that happens when those four guys write music together. I like the album, and I like the songs, but it's not the revelation I was hoping it to be.

On a side note, the bonus track that arrived with the download (I love vinyl, but I love it more when they give me a copy I can listen to on my iPod as well) is brilliant. An earnest, broken, cover of Concrete Blonde's 1990 classic Joey. I was always a big fan of the original, and this cover is interesting enough to make me love it all over again. I'd say it was worth getting the album just for this track, but that's not really fair to the rest of the album, which is perfectly adequate, but it pales when compared to what I know Brian is capable of.

Seeker Lover Keeper- Seeker Lover Keeper

Super groups are a strange idea at the best of times. Often disparate giants of the music industry, each accomplished in their own rights, come together to create something new. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but more often than not despite being able to see what they were going for you end up wishing that everyone had just stayed at their day job. Having said that, I can understand how it happens. People hear somebody or something that inspires them, and they end up working together.

The baffling thing about Seeker Lover Keeper, a super group of Australian female singer songwriters, is that the three individuals involved (Sarah Blasko, Holly Throsby, and Sally Seltmann) all sound so fundamentally similar that for most of the album it's difficult to tell which of them is singing. Fortunately though there's still somehow some magic at play. Perhaps because they all do essentially the same thing they each wanted to really prove to the others that they could do it well.

Seeker Lover Keeper (which sounds just close enough to 'seek her love her keep her' that it's unlikely to be by accident) is not going to surprise any fans of the three talented artists involved. It's a sweet gentle folksy pop record, with some lovely harmonies. Blasko's otherworldliness, Throsby's sweetness, and Seltmann's yearning (which as previously mentioned do all sound extremely similar) create some truly wonderful songs.

Perhaps the oddest thing about this supergroup is that despite the collaboration each song is only written by one member of the trio. They sing each other's songs, and their own, but they didn't write any of the songs together. Some of these songs may not even have been written for the project and may have just been sitting on the respective shelves, waiting for the right opportunity.

I think this is a really good album, it's funny, it's smart, and it's sweet, but in my mind it's no different to just having a new Sarah Blasko album in my collection (or for that matter a new album by either of the other two ladies).