Well folks it is time for another Nelson tune list.
This one consists entirely of songs
released in 2008.
Being an oldster I have to wax nostalgic. The past few
years remind me of popular music in the 60's.
The single has come back. Due to the increasing popularity
of legal downloading, people (as I have done) are
cherry-picking the best songs off albums, instead of buying
the whole thing.
It is the "wild west" out there again, with a huge
diversity of styles jockeying for your listening pleasure
(and dollars).
LIke the 60's, recently most of the good music is popular,
and most of the popular music is good. The exact opposite
was true in the 70's, and for a lot of the 80's. Neil
Young, Nick Drake, and Graham Parker were very good, but
not popular. Bob Dylan continued to put out good music, to
yawns by the record buying public, while disco and groups
like Kiss sold millions.
Of course every age has popular and bad, and good and not
popular music. It just seems much less pervasive recently,
as in the 60's.
The first song in this set (Sad Transmission), is wildly
imaginative, yet filled with familiar pieces: "girl
group" vocals, hypnotic percussion, noise, and guitar
that sounds like it came from the Pulp Fiction
soundtrack.
DeVotchKa has an extremely unusual style, not to mention a
really interesting name. It derives from the "teen talk"
word for "young girl" used in A Clockwork Orange (the novel
by Anthony Burgess, and movie by Stanley Kubrick).
Vampire Weekend have fused a reggae beat with vocal
harmonies and more melody than usual in reggae.
Nick Lowe, Shelby Lynne, and the Drive by Truckers are
throw backs to the early 70's. Lowe actually started
recording in the 60's (trivia answer: he married Johnny
Cash's daughter).
Enjoy,
Nelson