Too Late… Too Soon… Right On Time
Six albums I missed circa 2009-2010, three songs from fall 2011’s most anticipated releases, and the record of the moment.
The Beatles – Rubber Soul [reissue]
It was my first Beatles album, and now, as many years later as the age I was the first time I heard its original digitization, I’m finally listening to one of the 2009 reissues, and gosh, it sounds just unbelievably great (in a room, in a car, maybe even on a boat). Joy among joys is the opportunity to hear exactly what Ringo is doing, as he’s the Beatle whose playing style I’ve always felt the strongest emotional attachment to. Total charmer.
Brian Wilson – Reimagines Gershwin
I’m not entirely sure what the “reimagining” entails: this could have been called Brian Wilson Sings Gershwin, as that’s his main agenda. And he sings beautifully, if you’re willing to believe he no longer dreams of achieving Godly harmony.
Women – Public Strain
Those fleeting moments in Beatles and Sonic Youth songs of awesome musical convergence that sometimes seem like accidents amidst the main thrust of the song, but which you wish would go on forever (recent example: the mad bridge of “Wait,” intensifying and then backing down)… Those are the moments from which Women create entire songs. It’s all buildup to “Eyesore,” one of those closing tracks in which everything that can happen does, and spectacularly, before it goes marching off into the distance. A band should be so lucky to release a second album so good that it can legitimately end with a fadeout.
Pet Shop Boys – Yes
Rock critic John Gill got in a bit of trouble for “outing” the Pet Shop Boys in 1986 when he detected “homosexual subtext” on their debut Please, and now, 25 years later, I’m worried to suggest that the subtext persists. They remain a little silent, more than a little ironic, but probably because they’ll never wholly rejoice in any kind of life; we’re still waiting for resolution on the typically cool Yes.
Tracey Thorn – Love & Its Opposite
Thorn has weathered three decades of changes in fashion, and now makes music that might be called fashion-less—not unfashionable, but operating free from the ravages of fashion. Relationship-based pop music has that advantage, when it chooses.
Vera – Pupils Black To Black
Montana duo recalls the scalding, deep-voiced melodies of Salem 66 and Throwing Muses, but related noises briefly surface in its breathless rush: you might sense they’re aligning themselves with the era of Echobelly and Lush, or the simultaneous one of Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill and Team Dresch. Vera has roots in a late 90s Missoula music scene, but also suggests that in Montana, the only “scene” a person really belongs to is a pile of albums on the bedroom floor.
Real Estate – “It’s Real” (from Days)
Television recorded a song called “Days” in 1978, and now here’s Real Estate, another band worthy of evoking such a concept of time, and dreaming the perfect dream of four.
Twin Sister – “Bad Street” (from In Heaven)
The ethereal disco of “All Around and Away We Go” is no longer an idea shared among friends, but the real thing. In Heaven is the rare debut album that promises to be an event, regardless of whether it lives up to past strangeness.
M83 – “Midnight City” (from Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming)
Anthony Gonzalez leaves behind his teenage characters, because now he wants so badly to give them a monument they might lose themselves inside.
Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia
We knew a rescue was necessary, but couldn’t have expected it would be pulled off so completely. He’s so much in love, we have to forgive him any lack of self-awareness.
