Musical Identity Crisis

I admit it, I'm a bit stuck in the past. It's been mentioned to me. And sometimes in less than kind phrases, a few come to mind, 'prematurely middle-aged', 'you, you were born old and you're gonna die old', (this salvo was lobbed at me by my younger sister in the midst of a fight over, if I'm not mistaken, possession of the CD player) and the ever-popular, if predictable, 'you live too much in the past'.

In answer to my critics, I was perusing an article today that listed current Grammy nominees and predictions for the winners in each category and as opposed to the Oscar Nominees which with the sounds of tumbleweeds and crickets in my head I blanked on every movie and several of the actors. Conversely, I knew many, if not nearly all of the nominees for this years Grammy's.

There is the utterly divine chanteuse, Adele, which, well...words fail me to describe her stellar vocals that have an undercurrent of pathos and pain that hasn't been seen since possibly Janis Joplin. Who, distressingly, I've never liked. Joplins' singing always made me feel sort of itchy and uncomfortable, it was nails on a chalkboard, sandpaper, cat's tongues. It made me think of rashy sore throats.  In country there is the refreshingly natural vocal band 'The Band Perry' two brothers Neil, Reid and their hit-song writing lead singer sister Kimberly. Their music is easy on the ears, romantic, imaginative and intelligent. There's the funky, 'Foster the People' with their 'Pumped Up Kicks' which I liked until I really listened to the lyrics...What can I say except, songs about kids with homicidical tendencies...well they just tend to leave me depressed! Foo Fighters, Cee Lo, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Bon Iver, yes know em' all. Ah...Coldplay. New Album, Mylo Xyolo. I've been listening to it on repeat. The funky electronica 'Princess of China' and 'Paradise'.  Here's the thing about Coldplay, I always love their new album until, after about 50 or so compulsive listens when I realise that it's just a lot of driving piano, ambient yelling or possibly ambient moaning, 'Whoa oh oh, Whoa oh oh's' with backing tracks of blissed-out studio-engineered electronica. It's sort of the equivalent of Lucasfilm when they CGI'd the living daylights out of the three Star Wars Prequels. Then I begin to curse the day when album producer Brian Eno synthesized his first track and went to Tibet to sample monks chanting. I begin to wish for the days when he donned feather boas, played keyboards for Roxy and kept his mouth shut. When he left the art schoolesque creative overdosing to Bryan Ferry.

For me, modern 21st century music is a lot like the heady feelings you get when you start dating someone. At first, you are spellbound, you hang on their every word, you get butterflies in your stomach when you first see them, a sort of bilious nausea if you will. It's very much like having the flu, the lovesick feeling. Then fast forward a few months and you begin to see the cracks, the fact that he chews with his mouth open, how he no longer rushes to get doors for you, how she dominates the conversation with constant mentions of the word 'I', how tiresome her friends' opinions have become. Has he/she changed really? No, it's just that the newness has worn off, the proverbial gilt off the gingerbread. Same with music, did the arrangements really change? Maybe it's just that the cracks are beginning to show.

I went to my favorite $5.00 sub-touting restaurant this evening to pick up a footlong and as I waited at a traffic light, Hall and Oates', 1982 smash, 'I Can't Go For That' came on the car stereo and immediately I was struck at the lushness of the arrangement, at Darryl Halls's soaring vocals, how utterly and unapologetically soulful. Just how damn good it still is 30 years later. For all of the advances in music technology, digitial remastering, etc., you can't beat the sheer musicianship of my perennial favorites, Rush. And I have to agree wholeheartedly with my blogging Yoda, Mr. 'Bone' that Gordon Lightfoot is a revelation in terms of storytelling, like a balladeer of old. 

As for me, yeah I'll keep some of the new on my MP3, Adele, The Band Perry, maybe some Gaga for when I need pumping up for exercise. I'll sigh and keep the Coldplay for the moments of self-loathing. But if some kind of worldwide data crunch occurs and I'm suddenly forced to choose, I'm keeping the Prince, keeping the Michael Jackson (Sh'amone, hee, hee), keeping the Rush, the Billy Joel. I'm keeping the Lightfoot, the Genesis and I'm definitely keeping the Hall and Oates. Keeping the soundtrack to my youth.

So yeah, it's possible I live too much in the past. But there again, it's possible that as with any identity crisis, the answer is usually found in the past.

I'd go on about this, but Coldplay's on again and I've only reached about 28 listens...