#FlashbackSunday Leonard Cohen – Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1968)

Of all the singer-songwritters around the music world probably one of the most iconic of all is Mr. Leonard Cohen. He was the first folk artist to make approach to the sound without being part of a political folk movement, such as Joan Baez or the king Bob Dylan, and though he has been an inspiration to everyone that takes a guitar in his hands and tries to become a singer-songwritter the real contribution of Leonard Cohen is the expansion of the genre of folk.

The nature of his songwriting is very lonely and with literal references due to his past as an author on both poetry and a novelist, he touches with complexity stuff like love, relationships and religion. Something that inherited from novels and poetry his songwriting is the expression, only a novelist is capable of creating characters that discover each other without saying who they are, sort of mirror characters that reflect realities of another, the way of composing his songs have this sort of story telling complexities, and everything started in 1968 with “Songs Of Leonard Cohen”, it was his first album at 33 years old and started with his version of “Suzzane”.

“Suzzane” is one of the most iconic songs of Cohen, first recorded by Judy Collins in 1966 then when he made his album he recorded his version, this songs is the one that has most covers of Cohen, covered by artists like Neil Diamond, Nina Simone, Halley Belafonte, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos and many other influential artists, not to forget the Beck tribute to Cohen making the complete album along side with Devendra Banhart and MGMT in 2009, for one of his record club albums.

Also in the movement of creating a new kind of folk, Cohen was on the center of the movement that later reached maximum capacity with other singer songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond and Tim Buckley (father of another legendary artist Jeff Buckley, who someday I’ll flashback to him as well).

I’m just here to say that this album has is great or that it has historical importance, but in part is important to understand a lot of artist who admit and covered songs of Cohen due his amazing influence such as Nick Cave, Jeff Buckley with his famous cover of “Hallelujah”, Nirvana with the unplugged “Pennyroyal Tea” and the list goes on.

Part of the good music I cover in this blog has Leonard Cohen written in the veins, that’s why I thought it would be important to take some time and pay my respect.

Tracklist:

1. Suzanne
2. Master Song
3. Winter Lady
4. The Stranger Song
5. Sisters of Mercy
6. So Long, Marianne
7. Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye
8. Stories of the Street
9. Teachers
10. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong

Rate: 10/10

Google That Shit!

#Flashback Sunday #Oscar2011 Justin Tumberlake – Futuresex/Lovesounds (2006)

Another actor who’s got a movie nominated tonight is Justin Timberlake. He’s better known as a singer and a well respected one, but since 2006 he doesn’t make an album and have been doing decent in the movie industry. Its common for a lot of singers to cross over from acting bus as a musician Timberlake has done a lot of things, from boy band cutie to well respected music solo artist. In his first LP Justified he did a very pop Michael Jackson album, and the results were big, he did better than with ‘N Sync and had the opportunity to dance and flash his singing as a solo act.

The kid was known for beat box and everyone could predict that on any minute he’ll become another white guy with hip hop sensibility and would look for the way to relate to that with baggy jeans and sneakers, and the idea will always be to sing and dance and make a big show. Surprise to everyone, in 2006 he’s last album to date amazed a lot of people, he took hip hop beats and made them flirt a little bit more with synthesizers and the flashy voice was toned down, also the image changed, he became this cool guy with swagger. The entire concept had a primal idea, bring sexy back, and he did so well that no respectable music critic judge the record as a disposable pop record, everyone knew that he was in the beginning of a huge success.

This LP was changing stuff of the mainstream pop and taking it to unexplored levels, not necessarily experimenting with sound to a big level, but giving personality to the project adding early hip hop sounds, funk and a flow between genres not common for a mainstream pop record. The contribution of Timbaland in this record adds a lot of power and crank to the songs, but the talent of Timberlake and personality is what definitely makes the record, or else Timbalad’s works would have been more critically acclaimed than this.

In music land, Timberlake made a big tour with Christina Aguilera, popped a booby of Janet Jackson on the live Superbowl broadcast, and then started to peruse a movie career no real steps in wanting to come back to music, but one thing he accomplished was that as a musician he’s not only a selling force of mainstream proportions, but also he can deliver respectable music quality that have the consumers happy and the everlasting pop culture impression insured.

Funny Fact: He made one of the videos with Scarlett Johansson, who’s also in this FlashbackSunday of 2011 Oscars with two different movies nominated.

Tracklist:

1. Futuresex/Lovesounds
2. Sexyback
3. Sexy Ladies/Let Me Talk To You Prelude
4. My Love
5. Lovestoned/I Think She Knows Interlude
6. What Goes Around…/…Comes Around Interlude
7. Chop Me Up
8. Damn Girl
9. Summer Love/Set The Mood Prelude
10. Until The End Of Time
11. Losing My Way
12. (Another Song) All Over Again

Rate: 8/10

Google That Shit!

#FlashBackSunday #Oscars2011 Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008)

Tonight is Oscar night, so I decided to post actors who have music projects and also acted on a movie nominated on anything this year, being Scarlett Johansson one of these actors. In 2008 Scarlett made a record called “Anywhere I Lay My Head”, containing Tom Waits cover songs, it was amazing to listen how a beauty of the proportions and fame of Scarlett didn’t turn to music to become even more famous, doing a crossover with blond bimbo quality like Mandy Moore.

The album is full of references of the tom waits sound but in moments she makes them darker and add instrumentation making them a little bit more epic sounding than the original songs, also the sentiment she uses when singing shock a lot of people, singing her songs almost like she didn’t care how they were sounding, just needed them to come out; it was that feeling of unawareness of the voice just putting the emphasis in the sentiment.

Another beautiful side of this LP was the echo and Shoegaze that she created in every track; it was really a smart way to not wanting to be better than Tom Waits, but to update the songs and the sounds with a smart approach to some other music genre, something that a cover is all about. This was a smart album and is not a milestone in the history of music but adds to Scarlett’s mystery and charm as an Icon, no mater if is for the fashion, indie or movie industry.

She explored the blues and the jazz and mixed it with Shoegaze and synths getting close to Dream Pop in some songs, she later got out the album she made with Pete Yorn, but this was her first solo music project, might not be a successful one, but it was a good one.

For 2011 she acted on Iron Man 2, big blockbuster that landed nominations of Visual Effects, today I’m not celebrating her as an actress but taking the opportunity to talk about her music. Hope you like it.

Tracklist:

1. Fawn
2. Town with no cheer
3. Falling down
4. Anywhere I lay my head
5. Fannin’ street
6. Song for Jo
7. Green grass
8. I wish I was in New Orleans
9. I don’t want to grow up
10. No one knows I’m gone
11. Who are you?

Rate: 7.6/10

Google That Shit!

#FlashBackSunday Tom Waits – Alice / Blood Money (2002)

Tom Waits has a very interesting story and persona surrounding him; in love with a woman with a successful marriage of more than a decade, artistic personality, talent, and a persona that can be both, enchanting and deeply mysterious. In concerns of his music career, it has had commercial ups and downs, but always a vision, always a sound, always a direction, always a commitment that only true artists have. Not to count points that he has one of the most expressive voices out there. He recently entered to the Hall of Fame, so I don’t have to spend a lot of words talking about him, for he is a true living legend, but I decided to do my tribute talking a little bit about him.

The power of his expression comes from he’s existential search of how to portray his feelings, since early on he had poetic and acting sensibility, read and was involved in the beat movement and had a passion for Jazz, blues and naked emotions, so it was only a matter of time for him to explore these sounds to express himself. It starts with a waits sounding like someone else and finding his true self along the way, and that’s the amazing thing of listening to his records, you can actually know this journey of self discovery without knowing anything about his life, in time he became a success as a Broadway and off Broadway actor, published author, monologue writer, and a true artistic reference of the music history of US of A, but with that also a great inspiration of global recognition in being someone with a unique sound in music.

But lets talk about 2002, he did something very bold and fantastic, he had material to make a new record, but he saw that he had two different visions, a romantic and fatal melancholy side on one hand, and an ironic, strong minded and political side on the other, and before putting out a set of songs that had nothing to do with one another he decided to take one at a time, so he published two albums, “Alice” and “Blood Money”, both with songs that have find a cult following and was the introduction of Tom Waits talent to a younger generation. Don’t forget even Scarlett Johansson’s first LP that was a cover ode to Tom Waits, some covers of this LP’s.

The fist one in alphabetical order, “Alice” is a heartbreaker that has a lot of sentiment, talks about love, suicide, death, and the adventures of “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Caroll, music like has just little polka characteristic sounds of Waits, you find the his vulnerable side, the soft side, the side that you can fall in love with, the waits of the whisky bar, the late night Waits with the original mystery edge in songs like Lost In Harbor or Watch her as she Disappears, and the killer (and I mean Killer) theme song Alice, a song so good that I don’t see anyone on earth not liking it somewhere along the way, one of those songs that in life you’ll get to like at some point.

Blood Money on the other hand has a different nature, more animalistic, more messy, dark in a more playful kind or way, also more political messages since the open track “Misery Is the River Of The World”, a stronger voice, from the whisper of Alice that speaks to your ears to the Waits that screams to your chest that gives vertigo and frightens you, don’t forget fantastic songs also in this LP like “God’s Away On Business”, “Everything Goes To Hell” and the softer side that remember the early years with a higher tone like “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, every song hidden behind drunk trumpets and smell of cigars and alcohol.

These are two really great albums of the past decade that introduces one of the great ones of history of music (for me and for a lot of people), I’m sure there will be some other tom waits flashback in the future.

Alice Tracklist:

1. Alice
2. Everything You Can Think
3. Flowers Grave
4. No One Knows I’m Gone
5. Poor Edward
6. Table Top Joe
8. Lost In The Harbor
9. We’re All Mad Here
10. Watch Her Disappear
11. Reeperbahn
12. I’m Still Here
13. Fish & Bird
14. Barcarolle
15. Fawn

Rate: 10/10

Google This Shit!

Blood Money Tracklist:

1. Misery Is the River of the World
2. Everything Goes to Hell
3. Coney Island Baby
4. All the World Is Green
5. God’s Away on Business
6. Another Man’s Vine
7. Knife Chase [Instrumental]
8. Lullaby
9. Starving In The Belly Of A Whale
10. The Part You Throw Away
11. Woe
12. Calliope
13. A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Rate 10/10

Google This Other Shit Too!

#FlashBackSunday Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)

What was Happening in 1998?, a lot of good mainstream for sure, remembering the scene, Natalie Imbruglia and Left of the Middle were still around, Lauryn Hill was the best that ever Happened to R&B in a while, Madonna had what is from many considered her best album to this day Ray Of Light, Glam Rock had Marilyn Manson and he had Mechanical Animals, Smashing Pumkings were huge with Adore, Hole had a their best album out and were getting very pop (ish) with Celebrity Skin, Massive Attack had produced a classic album in Trip Hop, Beastie Boys were out with Hello Nasty and their fantastic song Intergalactic (still in every party), Ricky Martin was not Living La Vida Loca and would be discovered by the world in the Grammys…Oh man! It was a great year for mainstream stuff and it was a time when even watching award shows was a treat because everyone was so good, no boy bands around, no child stars since Hanson, 1998 was the year most of the artists mainstream or not were making an album that will change the course of history and will remain classic for ever. In a few years Smashing Pumpkins wouldn’t be around, Madonna never would be the same, Ricky Martin will be gay, Manson would become bling bling, but a question remains…who was in the tip of the iceberg?

For the indie scene The Boy With The Arab Strap was fantastic but never like If You’re Feeling Sinister, Beck was delivering Mutations and starting his way into scientology, Cat Power had Moon Pix, Air had Moon Safari and Sexy Boy was very sexy and popular, Spoon was doing fine with A Series Of Sneaks, and PJ Harvey did another memorable album asking herself “Is This Desire?”, but there was one band that had produced their second and last album, Neutral Milk Hotel with In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and this was a special one from the cover art of REM’s design team and Jeff Magnum to the music in it.

The producer of this album was singer/songwriter man of The Apples In Stereo Robert Schneider that teamed up to record the album in Pet Sounds Studios, every name here is now classic and the critically acclaimed album included a variety of multi instrumentalists and was made as one set story, all songs were connected with the next and the effect is magic to the ears, trumpets, drums, guitars, everything in the right place, this album remains a classic and still sales, it became one of the most soled albums of 1998 and it remains selling, maybe because also the band never made anything else.

This album is a classic, and this flashback is not a review, is just a remembrance that there was a great time in music when this LP entered the scene and if you don’t know them you should start. The intention of the blog is to present my opinions on music that’s coming out, and say my words on if its good or bad, the flashbacks are just a fun way to look behind and remember what was already a 10/10.

Tracklist:

1. The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One
2. The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three
3. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
4. Two-Headed Boy
5. Fool
5. Holland, 1945
6. Communist Daughter
7. Oh Comely
8. Ghost
9. Untitled
10. Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2
Rate: 10/10

Google That Shit!