Some Singles From NPR From 2013

Soooo...I am listening to NPR’s Critics 50 picks for 2013 and picking them for you.  I am troubled this year that I seem to be listening to more well produced music, often with loops and...God forbid, automated drums.  WTF is wrong with me?  I have been recently wrestling with the paradigm shift that has already taken place in the industry which is away from the CD or Album or the idea that you need to pay for 10-13 songs when all you really want is the hit or the one song that grabs you.  I still like listening to whatever my favorites are doing but have fallen into the habit of just “owning” (buying on iTunes) the one song I really want or maybe two or three rather than the whole CD.  So I am going to look at music in a copule of different ways when looking back on 2013 and NPR’s list seemed like a good way to start but we are talking tunes or singles here rather than the CD they are connected with.  NPR had some interesting stuff I had not heard of and others that I did and here are my thoughts on whaty I gleaned from the list:

1. Bambino: “Amidinine”  This is motorcycle music for you.  I know it is out of season.  They are African Tauregs or some bullshit.  Who cares, this is really good and hooky and has balls. There is something about thisthat I know nothing about and I like.  I think they are from the Taureg tribe from Africa.  I am of the Becker tribe of Webster.  We can march but we do not rock like this.

2. Brandy Clark:  "Pray to Jesus”  70’s Country adapted for modern country poverty… and maybe hope…I don’t know.  “We Pray To Jesus and we play the lotto.”  That sounds like me. This entire CD was well reviewed and I think I probably grab the whole thing but this is “classis country” and I go to tell you, I love it.

3. BUIKA  "LA NOCHE MAS LARGA”  Latin Jazz for a late night…kind of like going to church.  That is all I have to say about that.

4. Haim “The Wire”  Though the intro seems to be “Heartache Tonight” this is interesting in the way Lorde is interesting.  There is something fresh sounding about it.  None essential but a Friday afternoon smile.  I kind of hate myself for even putting this in a list.  I hate myself for a lot of different reasons but let’s add Haim to the list.  I am told the whole CD is good.  I am not sure I can live with myself if I find out.

5. Jason Isbell:  “Elephant”.  If I have not already sold you this album it is my album of the year.  This song is a heart breaking homage to bar culture, cancer and how people die… as best they can.  See upcoming for my list.  Which is… limited but is my traditional CD list. “Different Days”, “Flying Over Water”...lots of depth here.

6. Kasey Musgraves:  “Merry Go Round”.  Really simply well written and performed classic country.  Americana at it’s best.  “Same trailer, different park”, “we get bored so we get married, just like dust we settle in this town”.  That is good shit. I don’t know whether she wrote this song but it is a study in songwriting.  If you like Brandy Clark you should LOVE Kasey Musgraves.

7. Laura Marling “Master Hunter”  NPR calls it "English Cosmic Folk”… Really?  It is driving and literary, she has a sneering little voice and it worth a listen.  It does not sound like most anything else out there.

8. Pedro Martinez Group:  “La Habana”…. there is a critical buzz… all Spanish…brilliant hand drumming… late night…why not?  For simple minded people like me think “quiet, talented Ricky Ricardo”.

9. San Fermin  “Renaissance”  I bought this CD at Euclid Records because of the CD art…it took NPR to make me listen.  Embarrassing.  This is mournful and the song is too “big” but it is pretty.  More listening will ensue.  I report, you decide.

10. Valerie June “Pushing Against A Stone”  Spare like a “Cat Power” song.  But better, with a twang and frankly more interesting.  I will need to check out the whole CD now.  I hate that.

11. Vampire Weekend:  “Step”  The CD is the best thing they have done since their debut.  Once again I have ignored but they are relentlessly pleasant and interesting.  Not enough for me to wax poetically about but seriously, who could really object to having this shit playing softly in the background while talking?  Nobody that you would want to talk to.

12. Waxahatchee:  Hollow Bedroom  All I could think of is Suzanne Vega singing “My Name Is Luka” but then the guitar came in and it got….compelling.

13. The Lorde CD:  I am sure for most of America it is overplayed but I never hear it unless I play it so the song “Royals” and “Tennis Court” are as finely crafted pop as you going to here.  

It has been a pretty good year. So that is NPR and if you don’t pay attention to their web site for music you need to re-evaluate your life.  They keep track of the new stuff as well as classic artists.  Their “Tiny Desk Concerts” are a trove of brilliance that one day might be compared to what the Smithsonian did for the Delta Blues.