Elvis Costello & The Roots - "Walk Us Uptown" (2013)

Elvis Costello and The Roots - Wise Up Ghost (2013)

When I first heard that Elvis Costello and The Roots were going to collaborate together and record an album of new material I was a number of things. Surprised, curious, sceptical just to name a few, but for one sure thing I was very intrigued to find out how these two completely different artists would sound together and what they would ultimately come up with on record. The result was Wise Up Ghost, which has just been released in the past week or so.

I would describe the sound of Wise Up Ghost as being a mixture of styles. It seems to have a bit of everything from funk to R&B, dub to straight out pop, and even jazz influences. Some of the more Roots-influenced tracks on the album also have a similar groove based feel to them to the 1970s experimental funk of Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone. That’s just what I think, Costello himself however is more descriptive in describing the sound of the album stating that it is a “cauldron full of powders and potions, frogs and fingers, and that’s what I call rock and roll”. With this unusual description I kind of guess where he is coming from in that he is basically saying that it is everything and anything, and doesn’t necessarily need to be labelled in anyway. The songs themselves were written from scratch in the studio and started as skeletons before gradually being built up into actual compositions. Considering that the album was initially made with no record label, or indeed deadline attached, there was no pressure on them during the recording process letting them focus entirely on the music and experimenting with sounds.

The Roots themselves as a standalone act are a huge standout on this album and contribute significantly to the overall feel of the album. Just their presence alone transforms Costello’s sound completely, taking it into the realm of funk and R&B to the point where it’s unrecognisable for Costello. Listening to this album you become even more amazed at the musical talents and abilities of The Roots as a band and as musicians, and just how revolutionary they were as a predominantly hip-hop act that played their own instruments. Their ability to adapt their style of playing to suit different artists and styles is simply incredible, and it shows on here as they fit so well with Costello. This might have been a surprise to me at first, but then you realise that a lot of Costello’s early 80s work with the Attractions was influenced by R&B and soul, therefore the fact they work so well together on this release should probably not be entirely surprising in the end.

I’ve talked a bit about the actual collaboration between the two artists, but what about the songs themselves, what actually stands out? Well the songs are an eclectic mix overall, but do not stray too far from the R&B/funk area. “Walk Us Uptown” is a groovy R&B styled track complete with horns and a funky rhythm section, while “Refused to Be Saved” and “Wake Me Up” are both funk influenced with some nice Herbie Hancock like keyboard playing. “Trip Wire”, one of the standout tracks on the album is a beautifully sweet pop ballad and offers a nice counter to the more groove based tracks, while “Cinco Minutos Con Vos” has a slow trip hop feel to it. In fact if Costello wasn’t singing you could be forgiven for thinking this song was a lost Massive Attack track. Finally, album closer “If I Could Believe” is a track which is reminiscent of the work Costello did in the late 90s with Burt Bacharach, and has a sort of slow piano based pop-jazz sound to it. This track is one the standouts on the album and is also a nice tender way to close the album when you consider the albums overall complexity and the immense detail of some of the tracks.

So far Wise Up Ghost has had a positive response from music critics and has been well received for its imaginative nature and detail, while Costello’s chameleon knack of going from style to style across releases has also gotten a favourable mention. Some criticisms I would have of the album would be that there are a couple of lesser tracks which didn’t really appeal to me, most notably “She Might Be a Grenade” and title track “Wise Up Ghost”, but these are the exception rather than the rule. Some of the tracks are also a bit labour-intensive to listen to and tend to go on too long without doing much of interest to the listener. Such criticisms however do not take away from the overall feel of the album and the depth of quality on display. In conclusion I would say this collaboration was a success, and I applaud both The Roots and Elvis Costello for attempting something that initially to me seemed quite radical. This album took quite an effort to listen to at first as the material is quite complex in places and at times can tend to waver a bit from any particular formula or song structure, but it does get better with each listen and with this comes even greater appreciation. So overall an interesting and probably worthwhile collaborative experiment by these two artists and in the end all I can say is that if you give this album a fair go it is definitely a grower.

A-

- Sam

 

Warren Zevon - Tenderness on the block (1978)

Warren Zevon - Excitable Boys (1978)

Warren Zevon is one of the forgotten artists from the 1970s California singer-songwriter era and has tended to be overlooked in favour of many of his contemporaries. Part of the reason for this is probably because he is not your typical rock star with his very distinctive voice as well as what I would describe as his quite nerdy looks complete with Harry Potter glasses, not entirely keeping in line with the glitz and glamour of the mid-70s California pop world. However, despite this, his musical talents are undoubted and it was on his third album Excitable Boy where everything moulded together in what is one of the great albums of the period.

Released in 1978, Excitable Boy was Zevon’s third album and it would also become his best selling release. It was on this release where he combined his often humours lyrics and overall quirkiness with a California pop-rock sound complete with gorgeous harmonies, a formula which obviously worked well in appealing to a mass audience. The music on this album is a mix of up-tempo pop rockers and slightly mellower piano ballads, while it is the wonderful harmonies of the large array of backing vocalists on display including some of Los Angeles finest in the form of Linda Ronstadt and J.D. Souther that gives many of the tracks a laid back California feel. Opening track “Johnny Strikes Up the Band” is a stomping guitar rocker, while title track “Excitable Boy” has a Beach Boys feel to it and features a storming sax solo and a section of female backing vocalists. Excitable Boy also notably contains Zevon’s most recognised song “Werewolves of London”, a song that went on to become a classic rock radio staple and which in recent years was sampled by Kid Rock in his smash hit “All Summer Long”. “Accidently Like a Martyr” is a beautiful piano pop ballad in a similar style to the great singer-songwriters of the 70s period, while “Tenderness on The Block” features some of the most infectious harmonies on the album, harmonies that would give The Eagles a run for their money. This is definitely a standout track on the album and one my favourites, I guess I am just a sucker for good harmony vocals.

One of the strong features of Excitable Boy apart from Zevon’s wonderful piano playing and unique vocal style is his ability as a songwriter and in particular some of the themes he focuses on in his songs. On “Veracruz” he dramatizes the US occupation of Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution, while “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” is about a fictional character called Roland who gets involved in the Nigerian Civil War during the 1960s. The theme of war continues on “Lawyers, Guns and Money” which represents Zevon’s humorous take on Cold War paranoia. So not only are the melodies and harmonies infectious on this record, but the song-writing is varied, vivid and interesting, ensuring that the listeners are kept amused with characters such as Roland the gunner and lyrics talking of seeing werewolves with Chinese menus in their hand walking in Soho. This is just the quirkiness and unusual mastery of Warren Zevon, showing why he is such a good musician and how his music makes for such good listening.

Excitable Boy gave Warren Zevon a larger audience and saw him crack the top 10 on Billboard, but he would struggle to capitalize in the long term on the openings this album gave him in terms of exposure. Although he would continue to retain his cult following in music circles and would earn the praise of people such as Dylan, Young and Springsteen, commercial success would elude him throughout the rest of his career and he eventually died prematurely in 2003, age 56. Warren Zevon is to this day still in many ways a cult figure in music and you have either heard of him or you haven’t. The 70s California singer-songwriter period and the music that came out of it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and people often view it cynically as a coked up bland period for music where money ruled the roost. This might be the case in some instances, but this album Excitable Boy by a nerdy looking guy with a strange last name proved that there were exceptions, and that in the end some of the music did sound good.

A-/A

- Sam

 

 

Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid (2009)

Keep It Hid is the debut solo album by Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, and is also so far his only non-collaborative solo album. Released in early 2009, the year before Brothers would catapult the Black Keys well in truly into the global music spotlight, Keep It Hid is an interesting album in that it is quite a diverse and varied album musically and is by no means a complete carbon copy of Black Keys material. This album rather than being a full on blues rock album contains a mixture of styles, with Auerbach moving between delta blues, garage rock, blues rock and even. This mixture of styles across the different tracks gives the album a nice balance and allows Auerbach to showcase other sides to his musical pallet, with the results speaking volumes.

Opening track “Trouble Weighs a Ton” is a rootsy pastoral folk tune of which when I first heard it I thought I was listening to a Mumford and Sons album. I certainly wasn’t expecting a Dan Auerbach solo album to start with a soft folk tune, but I was pleasantly surprised that it did. “I Want Some More” has an early-Black Keys feel to it with its swampy rhythm and dirty blues sound, while tracks such as “The Prowl”, “Keep It Hid” and “Street Walkin’” continues this theme with heavily distorted guitars and a blues rock template . “My Last Mistake” is one of Auerbach’s most poppy songs out of all his repertoire including his work with the Black Keys, and his also one of his best. Written in a similar vain to the tracks on Keys album El Camino, this is blues pop at its very best in the form of a driving backing track of guitar, bass and drums, as well as a very catchy melody which bounces along at you as you listen. The heavier blues tracks on this album are separated out nicely by some softer tracks where Auerbach shows off his tender side more so than he ever has done on any Black Keys album for mine. “Real Desire” is a beautiful soulful blues ballad laced with organ and very delicate guitar playing, while “When The Night Comes” is just Auerbach playing acoustic guitar and singing accompanied by a synth backing track. Album closer “Goin Home” probably gets the award for the softest track on the album and would also be in contention for the most beautiful, with Auerbach’s delightful finger picking and heartfelt vocal delivery floating along together in tandem in what is a gorgeous end to the album. What this album shows if anything is that this man can write softer soulful tracks just as good as he writes hard out blues rock epics, whilst singing them as equally as good.

A standard out feature for me on Keep It Hid was the overall production of the record, a task that Auerbach took on himself. Not only is Auerbach a wonderfully talented musician, but he is also a very good producer and it shows on this record where he pays careful attention to the needs of each track in attempting to get the right feel for each individual song, rather than an overall feel for the album. This comes across in the music, of which I noticed when listening is by in large less full on and fierce than the albums of his other band. The blues-oriented songs have a roughness about them and it is on these tracks where Auerbach uses distortion of the guitar and on occasion the vocals, while the folk and soul tracks have a beautiful simplicity to them with minimal production apart from the odd bit of echo. Overall I would give full marks to Auerbach for the production on this record in creating a sound and feel that I would describe as being quite organic in nature and very well suited to the eclectic mix of sound and style on display.

In conclusion then, I would say that Keep It Hid was an excellent debut for the Black Keys front man who showed with this release how he isn’t just a one dimensional blues rocker. Auerbach does a fantastic job in showing off his full range of musical abilities both as a songwriter and a player on multiple instruments on this album, while also giving a glimpse of his softer side as a song-writer, in particular showing how he can write tranquil folk songs as well as down to earth soulful blues. Keep It Hid is well worth a listen if you are into the Black Keys, especially their earlier work, and want to find out what Auerbach sounds like on his own. I thoroughly recommend this album, and I am sure you will be just as pleasantly surprised at the quality of the material as I was.   

A-

- Sam