Gordon Winslow’s Best of 2008

I don’t claim this is any sort of definitive best of 2008.  There are many albums I want to buy that I haven’t yet, and I’ve got a small stack of albums I have bought that I haven’t absorbed yet.  This is the best of what I’ve heard from 2008 so far.  My picks here will shock absolutely no one who is a regular reader of this site.

I don’t think 2008 was a very good year for music.  Since I started reviewing albums for this site in June, I’ve rated exactly one album four stars out of five (Mudcrutch) and none higher.  Let’s hope 2009 is a better year, and that there are some 2008 treats that I will soon discover that will change my opinion of this year.

Except for Mudcrutch, albums are in no particular order.  Links are to my original review.

How square is it to have a Tom Petty album at the top of a best-of list?  Well, that’s how it is.  You youngster musicians out there are just going to have to work harder if you want to convince me to be hip.

Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch

Tom Petty reunites his original band with stellar results.  “Scare Easy” is the killer single that Tom manages to put on every album, but the whole thing is great.

Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight

Thanks to Jason for turning me on to this band.  “Heads Roll Off” is a good candidate for song of the year.

Rocket From the Crypt – All Systems Go, Vol. 3

Is it fair to list a bunch of demos recorded between 1997 and 2000 as one of the best of 2008?  Why not?  Do you think that album that came out in January was recorded in 2008?  This just took a little longer to get released.

Essentially a lost album from a band I adore, and randomly stumbling across it at the record store was my happiest musical surprise this year.

“No Way At All”:

The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust

The Jesus and Mary Chain may not record any more, but their disciples do.  Here’s the lovely “Blush.”

Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal

Austin legend does it again.  “Sister Lost Soul” is another contender for song of the year.  I’d embed it, but the copyright police have yanked it.  Can’t have you hearing it!  It might make you want to buy the album or something.  Nope, can’t have that.

Bitch Session Continues: Here’s a decent live version, but not being able to share the studio version with you really sticks in my craw.  It takes a special kind of genius to think that making it impossible for people to hear a not-very-famous musician is the best method of convincing people to plunk their hard-earned money down for an album by said musician.

Martha Wainwright – I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too

I thought this well-reviewed album would get more attention.  Maybe that’s why I write on a blog for free instead of having a career as a hot-shot A&R guy (A&R job offers welcome).  Here’s “You Cheated Me.” Video mildly not safe for work.

Paul Westerberg – 49:00

A welcome return to form for the former Replacements frontman, and only 49¢!

Some Songs Worth Mentioning

This section is especially random.

“If I Don’t See You Again” by Neil Diamond

I panned the album, but this song is amazing.  Get it back together, Neil!  I love you at your best.

“Lost Coastlines” by Okkervil River

Jason didn’t care for The Stand Ins.  I liked it better, but not “best of year” better.  This song is pretty great, though.

“Russian Roulette” by Jesse Malin

It might not be right to include a cover on a best-of list, but I was stoked to hear a great version of an unjustly obscure song.

My review of his album, On Your Sleeve, is here.

“Plan to Marry” by Lucinda Williams

A rough patch on the second half stops Little Honey from making my best-of list (although it’s still worth your time), but this song is a thing of beauty.

As for this year in pop…

“Bad Influence” by Pink

After the stunning I’m Not Dead, Funhouse was a letdown.  It wouldn’t be a Pink album, even a mediocre one, without some killer tracks, though, and there are some here.  “So What” is the big single, and I like it a lot, but “Bad Influence” is the one that gets stuck in my head for days on end.

Wind me up and watch me go!

“Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis

There wasn’t any glorious, guilty-pleasure radio pop in 2008 as awe-inspiring as last year’s “Umbrella” by Rihanna, so far as I know.  This one from a Simon Cowell discovery comes closest.

So that’s it for this year!  I’ve really enjoyed our first year of (mostly) music-blogging.  Special thanks to my co-bloggers for always coming up with fascinating posts.  It’s pretty cool to look forward every day to seeing what’s new at your own blog.  I think this would be my favorite music blog even if I didn’t write for it.

Teenage Death Songs: “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson

Part two of a grisly series.

“Tell Laura I Love Her” is one of the most famous teenage death songs.  When I was a very young kid in the late ’70s, my playmates and I would sing the opening lines…

Laura and Tommy were lovers,
He wanted to give her everything,
Flowers, presents, but most of all, a wedding ring.

…to make fun of whoever had a “girlfriend” or “boyfriend” at the time, of course substituting for the names “Laura” and “Tommy.”  I doubt any of us had ever heard the song, and I’m pretty sure we had the melody completely wrong, but it’s still some sort of signifier of how much the song had permeated the popular culture that little kids were singing variations on it nearly twenty years after it was released.

“Tell Laura I Love Her” is the sad tale of Tommy, who enters a stock car race to win a $1000 prize so that he can buy that wedding ring for Laura.  For reasons unknown, his car overturns and bursts into flames.  As he is pulled dying from the flaming wreck, he sings the chorus:

Tell Laura I love her,
Tell Laura I need her,
Tell Laura not to cry,
My love for her will never die.

The end finds poor, heartbroken Laura alone  in a chapel, praying for Tommy.

The song was a number seven hit for Ray Peterson in 1960.  Ray Peterson’s best-known other works include the highest-charting version of “Corrina, Corrina,” and the original version of “The Wonder of You,” subsequently transformed into an epic by Elvis Presley.  He later became a Baptist minister and died in 2005.

“Tell Laura” was written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh.  Jeff Barry went on to marry fellow songwriter Ellie Greenwich, and the two wrote a number of girl-group classics, including perhaps the most famous teenage death song of them all, “Leader of the Pack.”  They also discovered Neil Diamond.  Ben Raleigh also had other hits, but his most famous composition other than “Laura” is almost certainly the theme to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

In 1961, the delightfully-named Skeeter Davis released an answer record, “Tell Tommy I Miss Him,” which lets us know what Laura was saying in that prayer in the chapel.  (It’s really just the same song with different lyrics.)

Other posts in this series below the fold:

Class Act: Neil Diamond Offers Fans Refunds After Lousy Show

Classy

Why can’t more people be like this?

Singer and songwriter Neil Diamond is offering audiences of a recent Ohio concert a refund and asking for their forgiveness after he performed with a raspy voice earlier this week.

Diamond, 67, was diagnosed with acute laryngitis after the August 25 show in Columbus, Ohio, and the “Sweet Caroline” singer released a statement on his website Tuesday apologizing to fans through the lyrics of his past hit, “Play Me.”

“Dear Fans in Columbus, I haven’t let you down before and I won’t let you down now,” Diamond said. “Until you hear from me again remember, You are the sun, I am the moon. You are the words. I am the tune. Forgive me. I love you.”

The last time I saw Social Distortion, I think Mike Ness was drunk.  The playing was incredibly sloppy and the set was short.  I paid $35 of my hard-earned money for the pleasure of getting pissed about being ripped off.  No refund was offered.

It’s nice to see that someone out there realizes that concerts are quite a sacrifice for some people.  In addition to the ticket price, there are the ridiculous service fees, parking, babysitter if you have kids, rapacious food and drink prices, and so on.  If people are willing to go through all that  just to see you perform, you owe them the best that you can do.

Good on Neil Diamond.  It makes me wish I hadn’t had to pan his last album.  Now I feel like I should write a good review of 12 Songs, which deserves one, to make up for it.

Album Review: Neil Diamond – Home Before Dark

Home Before Dark opens with a tour de force, “If I Don’t See You Again,” which can stand with the best songs of Neil Diamond’s long career. It’s seven minutes with a protagonist who seems to be rehearsing what he’s going to say to a lover. He begins by acknowledging how she’s changed his life for the better–“I hated sleeping around”–while assuring her that if she leaves, “it was a hell of a ride.” From there, he muses on how madly in love he really is:

Who am I kidding? I’m going nowhere.

I can’t even get through an hour without you.

By the end he’s considering leaving her:

It’s time for saying goodbye

‘Cause if I stayed for too long

You’d get to know me too well

And find that something was wrong

It’s a portrait of a man who has found something incredible and has absolutely no idea to how to handle it, and it’s magnificent.

“If I Don’t See You Again” overshadows an album that, while far from a classic, has its share of good moments. Good moments don’t always make for a good album, though, and Home Before Dark is not nearly as consistent or enjoyable as his Diamond’s comeback record, 2005’s 12 Songs.

On the good side? Certainly “Another Day (That Time Forgot),” a pretty piano-and-guitar duet with Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, is a highlight, as is the single, “Pretty Amazing Grace.” The closer, “Home Before Dark,” is also worth a listen. There are others.

However, the album feels interminable, especially the second half, which is considerably weaker than the first. Contributing to this problem, five of the songs are six minutes or longer. Often the material is strong enough to support these lengths on a song-by-song basis, but the cumulative effect just wears the listener out after awhile. Worrisome: on some songs, Home Before Dark marks a partial return to Diamond’s cheesy side, the side that often causes to people to lump him in with Barry Manilow rather than crediting him for his significant songwriting achievements.

As a producer, Rick Rubin has done a pretty good job of making the music sound good. However, a strong producer is also an editor, and he has failed in that role. Cutting out four or five of these songs and sending Neil back to write another two good ones would have benefited Home Before Dark immensely.

12 Songs marked a creative rebirth for Neil Diamond. Let’s hope Home Before Dark is just a sophomore slump.

“If I Don’t See You Again”: