Geof’s New Music: 21-27 May 2006

Wow, I’m incredibly tardy in getting this out, aren’t I? I’ve kept finding reasons to put it off. Ah me. Part of it is that I have been … unenthusiastic about the choices I made for this week.

• Beck Interview/Concert at WXRK-FM [New York, NY, USA] on 28 Aug 1996.
• Mindy Smith at the Paste Festival [Atlanta, GA, USA] on 23 Oct 2005.
• Over the Rhine at the Paste Festival [Atlanta, GA, USA] on 22 Oct 2005.
• The Bedhead Compilation of Ryan Adams live bootlegs, Volumes 1-3.
• Sufjan Stevens [Los Angeles, CA, USA] on 16 Jul 2005.

Suffice it to say that none of them have blown me away: the Beck stuff is half-interview and a decade old; the Paste recordings are merely passable audience jobs, the Ryan stuff is just too new to me and too hard to relate to so far [though it's growing on me], and the Sufjan recording is both only a fair audience recording and, seemingly, on another bad night for the venue’s sound. A lot of flat notes from his backup singers.

Anyhow, let’s go to what I spent two whole weeks listening to, because I feel way better about this:

• Bruce Springsteen’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. At first blush, I was feeling like this would be a 3.5-star album for me, because I didn’t feel like anything would merit five stars. Well, that changed as the two weeks went along: “O Mary Don’t You Weep”, “John Henry”, “Erie Canal”, and “My Oklahoma Home” are favorites. I’m giving this four-and-a-half stars.
• Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans. I was prepared to not like DCfC. I was prepared to think that I was too old to be listening to it. I was wrong. The only track that leaves me “meh” is “Different Names for the Same Thing”, just because the phrasing of the vocals is … awkward. I love “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” and “Your Heart Is an Empty Room”. Four stars.
• Ryan Adams’s Love Is Hell. Oh, Ryan. Many folks hate on you, but I don’t. I have more of your music on tap for next week, too! Anyhow: “This House Is Not for Sale”, “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home”, “Love Is Hell”, “City Rain, City Streets”, “I See Monsters”, and “English Girls Approximately”—as I understand it, a favorite of Scott‘s—all get five stars from me. The disc as a whole gets four-and-a-half stars.
• Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia. I’m not as enthusiastic about this as I am any of Ryan’s solo stuff [although I love Caitlin Cary's voice, and I think I'll be getting some Tres Chicas soon], but it’s still got some good stuff. I liked “Reasons to Lie”, “Sit & Listen to the Rain”, “My Hometown”, and “Easy Hearts” very much. Four stars.