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ok i’m definitely kind of obsessed with this song now.
I’m seriously angry that the NYC Lana Del Rey show is the same night as the Tori show in DC. If Lana was up against anyone but Tori, she’d win. Video Games may end up being my top track of the year, it’s been haunting me for the last couple months and it resonates more and more as time goes by.
The opening instrumentation alone is stunning, and then the vocals come in and the song becomes devastating. Initially the chorus didn’t work as well as the verses for me, but the contrast of the lyrics and the world-weary defeated tone of the vocals pushed me over to loving it.
Source: hailthepagesturning
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Austra- Lose It (Paper Bag Session)
When I saw Austra a few weeks ago, the one disappointing part of an otherwise great show was that she let her back-up singer handle the high notes in Lose It instead of doing them herself. That makes it especially nice to see her go for them here, even if the notes aren’t flawless.
The song itself loses none of its catchy-ness or power in this stripped-down form, and performing it in this way exposes the melancholy and desperation of the lyrics. The Kate Bush comparisons I saw in some reviews of Austra always felt gratuitous to me (I love Kate a lot, but not EVERY female singer owes a debt to her), but this shows there’s at least a tiny bit of merit to them, even if Austra’s facial expressions are no match for Kate’s.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Liz Phair- Canary
I know Divorce Song, Flower, and Fuck and Run get all the attention but Canary and Shatter are the real heart of Exile in Guyville. The dissatisfaction and loneliness caused from living up to everyone else’s expectations and wishes is expressed in a devastating way here, and it’s one of the best examples of how Liz’s limited vocal range can work to her advantage.
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Tori Amos- Sugar (Milan 2011)
Because I’ve heard the majority of Tori Amos performances since 1996 due to my obsessive bootleg collecting, it takes a lot for her to really truly blow me away. I almost always enjoy her performances, but there has to be something unique or special for it to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This Sugar is one of those special performances. The first thing I noticed is the absolute confidence and power she’s projecting out into the audience. That “yeah, you just try and fuck with me, see what happens” attitude that was so prevalent in every performance from 94-01 and which seemed to completely disappear after 2005 (unless she was playing a character) is back in spades, and its making the performances feel unpredictable again. I’ve heard over 100 performances of Sugar (I told you I was obsessive!) and there are moments here where I don’t know what’s going to happen with her inflections and tempo, and that’s thrilling because every performance becomes about those particular moments and feelings, with no disconnect between the artist and the material.
The next thing to stand out about this performance for me was how tender it was. There’s still the anger and moments of fury that have been a part of Sugar since 1998 (a performance where “you’re just a pussy, my sweet boy” isn’t delivered right is a shitty performance), but “when they find you out…” has an empathy and quiet sadness that gives the song another dimension. Even as she’s ready to take this boy to task and call him on his bullshit, there’s still an understanding of his pain. And of course, if we learned nothing else from the 90’s, we should know that utilizing the quiet/loud (or sad/angry) dynamic makes both parts of a song more powerful.
Finally, how amazing are those ending high notes? It seems like somebody went back in time and gave Tori her 1998 voice again. They’re so clean and expressive, giving a difficult song a perfect finish.
OK, I think I’ve gushed enough for now. But trust me, I could probably go on for a few more paragraphs.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Kelly Clarkson - The War Is Over (Smoakstack Sessions Version)
I should know by now that every Kelly Clarkson album must contain at least one song that is a total gut-punch to me. My December had Maybe, All I Ever Wanted had its title track, and now Stronger has The War Is Over. This acoustic version of the song from the pre-order exclusive Smoakstack Sessions EP is similar to the album cut (enough so that I wonder why Kelly didn’t pick a track that would be a bit more different acoustically) but the slightly stripped back production gives Kelly a chance to deliver a vocal performance that’s a bit less bombastic but has more emotional nuances. Each time she hits that chorus, you can feel the determination in “I won’t let you pull me in…” coupled with the resignation and relief in “but the war is over”. This song (along with I Forgive You) has been my main entry point into Stronger, which I initially found disappointing but which has been growing on me with a few more listens.
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Alanis Morissette- Front Row
So I got a new computer last week, which enabled me to put all my music on one hard drive instead of having it split up onto two externals and my old laptop’s hard drive, and that sent me on a spiral into listening to old 90’s music I haven’t listened to in at least 6 months. I listened to Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis last night, and I was reminded of just how excellent an album it is and how crazy Alanis was for following up a HUGE hit record with 17 stream-of-consciousness rambles, angry rants, and lists about her insecurities. It’s basically one big fuck you to the commercial audience (specifically in Baba and One) and is completely self-indulgent but there’s some amazing lyrical insight and enough beautiful melodies/great guitar hooks that it all works. It’s an album that’s also saved by its sincerity, since you know Alanis really deeply means and feels every word on it, even when how open and unedited she’s being is making you cringe on her behalf.
Front Row is one of my favorites because of the contrast between the completely specific moments it describes and the more universal lines that generally come at the end of each verse. “I’d like you to be schooled and in awe, as though you were kissed by God full on the lips” is pretty much how I want everyone to react to me at all times. The production and layered vocals are interesting and unique in Alanis’s catalog, and it’s nice to start the album off with a more relaxed and fun beat before diving into the heavy guitar track/ballad/ballad/heavy guitar track/ballad categorization for the rest of the first part of the record.
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Bruce Springsteen- Growing Up (live at Max’s Kansas City, 1972)
It’s always fascinating to see footage of big stars from back when they were playing tiny clubs or the third band from the top of the bill, since it lets you see their talent (or lack thereof) in a rawer, less refined form and with fewer of the idiosyncrasies that develop over time. Here we get to see a more laid-back (and possibly stoned) Springsteen who even comes off a bit nervous in the beginning of the song. There’s none of the overdramatic enunciation and overblown instrumentation (be aware, those are things I love about Bruce though!) that defined him, but the songwriting quality was always there. The little Dylan-esque vocal moments also made me smile, because you can see Springsteen developing his own voice here but he’s still lifting from others a bit and it’s interesting to more clearly see that influence.
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Robyn- Love Kills (live in Amsterdam)
I got to see Robyn for the 2nd time on Saturday, and while the show may not have been as incredible as the Philadelphia show in August, it was an excellent performance. The setlist was mostly similar to that show, with the obvious addition of Body Talk Part 2 material as well as Show Me Love to close out the concert. Love Kills was my favorite of the new songs performed, although Hang With Me turned into a much more epic song than I was expecting live and was also pretty excellent. I’m still partial to the acoustic version though, so that colors my view. We Dance To The Beat was mixed with pieces of Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do for an interlude that was interesting but dragged on about a minute too long. Still, Robyn deserves some time to catch her breath after the high energy show she puts on with minimal tricks and no back-up dancers, something I can’t see the other pop stars of the moment pulling off (Madonna could, and has, though. Exhibit A, Exhibit B) so I can’t fault her too much for drawing out that mix.
The performance of The Girl and the Robot was noticeably better than before, a definite highlight of the night and a great way to lead into Dancing On My Own. In My Eyes live was an improvement over the studio version, but it’s still not a song I think I’ll ever love. The new mix of Be Mine that’s performed live also desperately needs to be released somewhere, it’s a great reworking of the song that adds a new dimension of anger to the song and takes it to an entirely different place. I do hope Robyn starts performing Criminal Intent live since that’s one of my favorites and it was MIA. I also was a little disappointed that Indestructible didn’t end the show, but I assume Robyn is saving live performances of that for when the dance version comes out. It wouldn’t have fit the mood of this show as well as Show Me Love did though, since it was a perfect sing-along ending that sent everyone home on a high note.
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Tori Amos- Yes, Anastasia (live with the Metropole Orchestra)
I’m going to do a few posts about my trip to Amsterdam, but obviously this review needs to come first. Tori Amos playing with an orchestra wasn’t the only reason I wanted to go to Amsterdam, but it was the impetus for the trip. All told, I spent around $1500 to go to this show. So was it worth it?
Before the show was the meet and greet, which is pretty much what the name implies. Tori comes out and talks to people, takes pictures, signs things, etc. after her soundcheck. The last few M&Gs I’ve gone to, there’s been enough time and few enough people that everyone there got to talk to her. That was not the case this time, since over 200 people were there. Luckily I was in the front and got my Boys For Pele vinyl signed and gave her the “Space Dog” graphic novel I had brought. It was a pretty rushed experience, but still nice. After that, I hung out with some of my friends/acquaintances at the show, and found out one of my friends who has the hook-up had gotten me a front row seat which put me about two seats over from Tori’s spot on stage. (I gave my other seats from earlier to a friend and a girl I met at the M&G) That pushed my excitement and hopes for the show even higher, and those expectations are probably what led me to be a bit disappointed in some aspects of the show.
Let’s cover the bad first. The show started out very shakey, with performances of Star of Wonder and Jackie’s Strength marred by Tori struggling to breathe and using her high “baby voice” which seems to be how she’s coping with losing some of her higher register and what she lapses into when she’s nervous or tired. It just doesn’t work though, since the baby voice can’t express emotion well and is grating. At the 2010 summer shows, that voice was almost completely absent but it returned with a vengeance tonight. Tori was visibly unhappy with how the show was going at that point, but she pulled it together for a nice performance of Snow Cherries From France, and followed it up with several of the songs I and most others really wanted to hear. The mere presence of Snow Cherries in the set reveals the other main problem the show had: The setlist was random and highlighted some of the least impressive songs in her catalog. Does anyone really want to hear Maybe California ever? Or Programmable Soda, which was a fun performance, but come on! You’re going to play that and Girl Disappearing and not do Gold Dust or Pretty Good Year? There were 5 songs I could’ve replaced with at least 30 songs in her catalog and had a better show. There was also an overabundance of material from the Midwinter Graces album, 4 songs plus a “Holly, Ivy, and Rose” improv performance. I think Midwinter Graces is the best album Tori’s released since Scarlet’s Walk, but that’s way too much, especially when only one song from Boys For Pele, one from Choirgirl Hotel, and none from Scarlet’s Walk were performed.
When Tori did play the songs I came to hear though, it was excellent. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that the moment when the strings kicked in during Yes, Anastasia made me happier than I’ve been in months, possibly years. The switch flipped in my brain and the rest of the world went away, leaving just the music. There was a similar moment in Marianne when the orchestra crashed in and it was even better than I thought it would be. Flying Dutchman and Our New Year (which, along with the snippet of Holly, Ivy and Rose, was the Midwinter Graces track I was happy to hear) were similarly excellent. Silent All These Years was performed at the album tempo for the first time since probably 1994, which was a nice surprise although the bridge was marred by some vocal issues. Tori’s piano playing was noticeably more intricate and dynamic than usual, and she showcased it with multiple improvs, some cute and some dark. Playing with the orchestra may have been a challenge for her voice, but she can still more than keep up on the piano.
The encore began with Tori coming out and announcing they were going to re-do the first three songs because the show was going to be aired on the radio and “(she) fucked up”. All three performances were miles better than the first take, which goes to show how much of her weaker initial performance was due to nerves, not a loss of ability. Someone needs to get her back on the good drugs so she can get over her anxiety issues or something. The woman used to film major TV specials high out of her mind (seriously, she has to be on something here) and it was worlds better. Jackie’s Strength in particular sounded great the second time around, but the real surprise of the encore was a completely reworked and amazing performance of Precious Things. It was intense, powerful, and exactly the kind of reinvention I wanted more of!
Ultimately, the show was worth it, even if I was disappointed by some of Tori’s vocals and song choices. There were more than enough incredible moments in the show so that I would have been beating myself up over not going for the rest of my life, and honestly she wouldn’t have been able to play most of what I wanted to hear without doing a 5 hour show. I hope she does more orchestral shows in the near future since I think the shows would only get better as Tori becomes more comfortable with the set-up and can deal with the issues in this performance.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Whitney Houston- I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Acapella)
Tumblr, I want at least 10 remixes of this, the most perfect of pop songs, on my Dashboard by next Thursday. Don’t let me down.
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Kate Bush- The Big Sky
It’s a testament to just how good Kate Bush is that she can make such ridiculous and cheesy music videos and still be taken seriously as an artist. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kate Bush in the last week since I got both The Sensual World and Hounds of Love on vinyl (The new Audio Fidelity marble vinyl remaster is well worth the money, the sound quality is amazing), and The Big Sky has stood out as a song that resonates much more than it used to.
Lyrically, it’s a bit simple, one of the multitude of songs about being a misunderstood dreamer focused on the skies, but its religious allusions and “tell ‘em, sisters” female call to arms add a bit more heft than similar songs might have. The song’s extraordinary quality stems largely from its intense percussion and masterful use of layered vocals to drive the song forward. The vocal layers allow Bush to wander and focus on emotion in her vamping in the last third of the track, and that allows her to fully express the joy inherent in the song, the joy of someone who knows they’re about to take flight.
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Cyndi Lauper- Carey
Joni Mitchell gets covered alllllllllll the time, but usually it’s a bit of a mess. Artists are either too faithful to the original version and suffer in comparison (pretty much every performance of River or The Circle Game, k.d. lang’s covers, etc.) or go too far in the other direction and lose what made the song great. (Sufjan Stevens, I love you, but that Free Man in Paris was an abomination!) Cyndi Lauper’s version of Carey, first performed at the 2000 Tribute to Joni Mitchell, is a notable exception. This downtempo jazzy rendition changes the song’s tone and draws out the sadness about leaving behind an entire lifestyle that’s only implicit in the original. It’s a surprisingly effective reworking, and its delivered perfectly by Cyndi, who shows off a side of her musical talent most people never got to see and gives a beautiful emotional reading.
You have to love the little shots of Joni throughout and the odd celebrity cameos by Ashley Judd, Rebecca Romaijn (-Stamos), and John Stamos too.
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Joni Mitchell- Carey
Carey is a track that seems to get comparatively overlooked when people talk about Blue, since it lacks the devastating sadness of songs like River or A Case Of You, but isn’t quite as uptempo and joyous as All I Want or have the enjoyable snippiness of California. It’s a song that cuts to the very heart of the album though and perfectly illustrates some of the album’s main themes: the tension between wanting to be in a relationship and the desire to have freedom to both literally and metaphorically keep traveling, as well as the desire for an expensive upscale lifestyle in contrast to a youthful bohemian life.
The song starts with Joni in Greece, coming up with excuses to leave (“My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet”) but there’s no anger or sadness in the vocal which makes it seem like she doesn’t actually want to leave even as she says “it’s really not my home”. The chorus has Joni and Carey getting dressed up to go out for a night on the town. I’ve long thought Carey’s cane is just a thinly veiled reference to doing some coke before you go out, but I’ve also read that he was a real person who walked with a cane so you can make your own call on that one. The Mermaid Cafe verse has such delight in Joni’s voice that it nicely mirrors the emotion of someone getting drunk with their friends (She downs at least 3 rounds of drinks and a bottle of wine) and even though she calls Carey “the bright red devil who keeps me in this tourist town”, there’s affection behind it. Carey’s reappearance in “California” as “the red red rogue” and how she’s returning “strung out on another man” lends more credence to the idea that Joni cared about him more than she let on.
The next verse has Joni fantasizing about the life she could lead elsewhere, with no real certainty or grand plans, just wanting a bit of luxury and beauty (“I’ll rent me a grand piano and put some flowers ‘round my room”) beyond what she has, but ultimately she decides to enjoy her life there and focus on the music and Carey for a little longer, which is also illustrated by the repetition of the first verse, showing the passage of time and how it’s becoming more and more difficult for her to leave. However, that desire for.
The final verse gives us an expanded version of the first verse’s conclusion
Maybe it’s been too long a time
Since I was scramblin’ down in the street
Now they got me used to that clean white linen
And that fancy French cologne
The emphasis on repeating the finer things she misses brings home the idea that her desire for “the good life” is why she’s really leaving, even as she resents the fact that she wants them so much. Joni’s desire for nice things and to not have to live a bohemian life resurfaces throughout her catalog, most notably The Boho Dance and in The Last Time I Saw Richard and River in this album. Even though having a good time with Carey can make up for losing some of her freedom, it can’t make up for the loss of a high-class lifestyle, so there’s one last coke and booze fueled night before Joni really leaves for good but then she’s off in pursuit of something better, even if she’s reluctant to admit that.
Bonus trivia fact for the non-tl;dr crowd: James Taylor plays guitar on California, All I Want, and A Case Of You, all of which are better than any James Taylor song. (I actually like James Taylor, but come on.)
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Tori Amos- Yes, Anastasia
I didn’t think I could get much more excited for the Tori Amos concert w/ an orchestra on October 8th, but 3 awesome things happened that have me filled with childlike glee: I got a free 2nd row ticket from someone who can’t make the show, the Metropole Orchestra confirmed that Yes, Anastasia, possibly Tori’s best song, and Flying Dutchman will definitely be performed AND that there will be the debut of NEW material written specifically for the orchestra.
If I had a shakingandcrying GIF, this is where I’d use it.
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So yesterday I went to Ocean City with my cousins, and was pleasantly surprised to find that there’s a legit record store on the boardwalk now. Since I have pretty much no willpower when it comes to not buying things I want, I got a bunch of records.
- Kate Bush- The Sensual World
- Stevie Nicks- The Wild Heart (So underrated. It’s not quite as good as Bella Donna, but how can you not love an album with Wild Heart, Stand Back, and Beauty and the Beast?)
- Bob Dylan- Blood On The Tracks
- Joni Mitchell- Blue (I was really happy to find an original copy of this and not have to pay $30 for the remastered version which is all 6 different stores I went to recently had. I might still buy the remaster once I have a job though. Side 2 of this is maybe the best side 2 of any album ever.)
- Joni Mitchell- Hejira
You’ve probably noticed that most of these records are 30+ years old, and are records I really should have already. That’s what happens when you try to start a record collection and your parents/family “aren’t really into” music and don’t have any records you can steal.
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