Thoughts on The Suburbs

So with Arcade Fire shocking pretty much everyone by winning album of the year at the Grammys Sunday night, I figured it be a good opportunity to weigh in on The Suburbs, especially considering that I didn't include it on my 2010 Albums of The Year list.

So why didn't I? Well, the easy answer is that there were five albums I liked better. If I had done an "honorable mention" category this year it probably would have made that. But the honest answer is I just couldn't ever really connect with it. Maybe it's because they were trying to reflect the mundane uniformity of suburban life, but it all seemed a bit samey to me. It just didn't have the same dynamic range that their previous albums have. That said, I totally understand why it won the Grammy. Their competition for album of the year included some hugely popular artists, but their CDs were more collections of songs. The Suburbs is an album in the truest sense of the word. It's a cohesive whole. And in this age where the single song download is king, it's becoming rare that artists actually make albums that are meant to be listed to an hour at a time.

Despite the fact that I didn't love the album, I'm thrilled that they won it. How can you not like a band that has stuck with it's respected indie label when it easily could have jumped to a major? Or that after winning the Grammy, they dropped the price of the album on their website to $5.99? I was so unimpressed with the list of Grammy nominees this year that for the first time since I can remember, I didn't watch a single second of the broadcast. So it's good to see for an awards show that lost it's credibility with me a long time ago, they can still occasionally get something right.

Future Past Perfect

The Church have always been an incredibly active band. When they haven't been touring or recording albums as a collective whole (something they're now in their fourth decade of doing), they have kept busy with so many solo projects, collaborations, and guest appearances that it takes an entire website to keep track of it all. So it's not surprising that they've decided that one tour isn't enough to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Last spring they toured the country for An Intimate Space, an acoustic tour that had them playing one song from each of their albums in reverse chronological order. Now they're taking a break from recording their twenty-fourth album and returning stateside with their effects and amps in tow. This time out, the Future Past Perfect tour will present three of their albums in their entirety. Starting with their most recent, 2009's Untitled #23, they'll proceed back in time to through 1992's Priest = Aura, and conclude with their breakthrough classic, 1988's Starfish.

The tour kicked off last week in Los Angeles, and has already hit San Francisco and Seattle. The remaining dates are as follows:

Feb 11 - Chicago, IL - Park West
Feb 13 - Alexandria, VA - The Birchmere
Feb 15 - Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
Feb 16 - New York, NY - Highline Ballroom
Feb 17 - New York, NY - B.B. King's
Feb 18 - Foxboro, MA - Showcase Live
Feb 21 - Greenville, SC - Handlebar (acoustic)
Feb 22 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

The Church - "Deadman's Hand" (mp3) from Untitled #23
The Church - "Mistress" (mp3) from Priest = Aura
The Church - "North, South, East, West" (mp3) from Starfish

And as if touring and recording with the band he's fronted for over thirty years isn't enough to keep him busy, last week also saw the release of White Magic, Steve Kilbey's second collaboration with All India Radio's Martin Kennedy. People who order the CD through Bandcamp will also receive 5 digital bonus tracks and a link to download a 15 track fan remix album of songs from their first release, Unseen Music Unheard Words, including one by Nashville's own Fraze Tempest.

Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy - "The Other Place (Fraze Tempest Remix)" (mp3)

Catching A Tiger

Lissie - Catching a Tiger

I gotta admit that I didn't know quite how to react when I first listened to this album. Lissie's debut EP, Why You Runnin', was a much more rootsy affair. Catching A Tiger is definitely a bit shinier, a bit funkier, a little livelier and a lot more varied. It was kind of like hearing Norah Jones' last album for the first time... the shock of a new musical setting took a bit of getting used to, but in the same way it's just a new frame for a stellar voice (the comparison is especially appropriate since producer Jacquire King helmed both albums). It probably shouldn't have surprised me that Lissie would switch things up for her next release. All of her bio material describes a kind of wandering soul, who tries on new jobs and new towns with a greater than normal frequency, even by musician standards. That same restless spirit and sense of adventure is at work in here.

Lissie - "Bully" (mp3)

Lissie plays tomorrow night, February 3, at The Mercy Lounge in Nashville. Dylan LeBlanc opens.