02/20 - 02/24.

Batman Forever soundtrack

I have a weird fascination with this record. It functions as a remarkably inclusive snapshot of music in 1995. Really! Consider the track list:

U2, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"

PJ Harvey, "One Time Too Many"

Brandy, "Where Are You Now?"

Seal, "Kiss from a Rose"

Massive Attack with Tracy Thorn, "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game"

Eddie Reader, "Nobody Lives Without Love"

Mazzy Star, "Tell Me Now"

The Offspring, "Smash It Up"

Nick Cave, "There Is a Light"

Method Man, "The Riddler"

Michael Hutchence, "The Passenger"

The Devlins, "Crossing the River"

Sunny Day Real Estate, "8"

The Flaming Lips, "Bad Days"

So, you got U2, enjoying the beginning of their renaissance at the time, whose song from this record was a big hit. You have Seal contributing one of the most successful pop songs of the year (maybe the decade). You have then very popular Brandy singing a song written and played on by then very popular Lenny Kravitz. 1995’s radio is well represented.

Digging a little deeper, Offspring’s cover of The Damned represent the mid-90s punk revival. Massive Attack’s Smokey Robinson cover represents the flourishing trip hop scene, with guest vocalist Tracey Thorn, whose main gig, Everything But The Girl, had one of the biggest “alternative” hits of the year. Speaking of alternative music, Mazzy Star is another big name from the era, joined by relative newcomers The Flaming Lips and stalwarts PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. Hip hop is underrepresented with just a Method Man song, but in 1995, Method Man was the breakout star of the relatively new Wu-Tang Clan, and rapidly becoming one of the biggest rappers in the country. Even Sunny Day Real Estate is in there, representing the nascent emocore movement. Who would possibly expect Sunny Day Real Estate to appear on the soundtrack to a Batman movie?

If you had to make a time capsule of the musical landscape of 1995, your work is done immediately. Just make a copy of this.

U2, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"

Aesop Rock, Bazooka Tooth

Aesop Rock’s 2nd album for Def Jux really upped the ante. Behind that weird cover by the fantastic illustrator Tomer Hanuka (I love it when people I like work together) are some of the densest, most dizzying productions Ace has ever been associated with, and lyrics that rise to the occasion. Coming off the decidedly less chaotic (but no less great) sounds of the sample heavy Labor Days and the more minimal Float, this thing was the sonic equivalent of an explosion. It was so weird and offkilter that it apparently caused some tension between Aesop and then-labelmate Vast Aire, even. Aesop backed off of the schizophrenic sound and pacing of this album on subsequent material, but controversies aside, it’s a truly engaging record that demands many listens to get its full measure.

Aesop Rock, “No Jumper Cables”

Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend

I think the people have turned on these guys. But when this album came out, it was a bright spot in a bland period for music that year. Not much going on, and along comes this bright, catchy thing. It wasn’t the most exciting, the most innovative, the most meaningful record, and I coulda done with a lot less lyrical content specific to going to college in Boston, but it was fun to listen to. Sometimes, that’s enough.

Vampire Weekend, “M79”

Craig Finn, Clear Heart Full Eyes

Speaking of fun to listen to... not so much, this. It’s actually much more different from The Hold Steady, Finn’s regular gig, than I expected. The instrumentation and arrangements of the songs are far removed from the... I sort of want to say “classicist rock” sound of their albums. Stripped down, with doses of country and folk styling and a much more spare production feel, it also features a different lyrical content than The Hold Steady. Finn’s stories obsessed with drug and alcohol abuse, initially a hold over from his previous group, Lifter Puller, have given way to a lyrical focus more on a nostalgic devotion to rock music itself on recent records, but none of that is really present on Clear Heart Full Eyes. The material presented here feels at once more personal and autobiographical but also abstracted. For example, religious imagery has been a staple of his work, and an obsession with Jesus winds through the songs, but in a way that makes it hard to tell if Finn even believes in Jesus in the first place. It's the lyrics that prove the album's undoing for me. There is a lot of repetition in the 11 track running time, and while repetition isn't bad in and of itself, in this case it makes the album feel kind of slight. The repeated themes and phrases from song to song don't help this feeling of running in circles. All in all, a frustrating listen.

Craig Finn, “No Future”

Dirty Projectors + Bjork, Mount Wittenberg Orca

This wacky team-up is based on a live performance by the two entities of a set of music written by Dirty Projectors mastermind David Longstreth in 2009. If you know much about The Dirty Projectors and Bjork, it's basically everything you expect. They can't resist adding Bjork's voice to the exquisite chorus that has become The Dirty Projectors' most powerful weapon a few times, and the results are delightful. But, of course, she also steps forward for lead vocals often, and in that role she operates much like she always does. Longstreth also handles leads vocals a few times, while at other times the chorus of Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian and Haley Dekle take center stage. The things they can do together remain spectacular. Certainly less accessible than The Dirty Projectors' last album, but probably more accessible than recent material from Bjork, Mount Wittenberg Orca is an exciting experiment.

Dirty Projectors + Bjork, “On And Ever Onward”

There you go.

--D