Over the
last couple of days I explored a “best of 2008” album list with limited
success. I picked ten albums on the list that intrigued me and gave them a
chance to wow me. I was less than wowed. I only made it through three of them
and only one – James McMurtry’s “Just Us Kids” will one day end up in my
collection. The experience got me thinking what my favourite 2008 albums are.
Here are ten that you should check out in no particular order:
- Bonnie Prince Billy “Lie Down in the
Light”
- Drive-By Truckers “Brighter than
Creation is Dark”
- Frank Turner, “Love, Ire & Song”
- Hayes Carll, “Trouble in Mind”
- Imelda May, “Love Tattoo”
- Laura Marling, “Alas, I Cannot Swim”
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Dig,
Lazarus Dig!!!”
- Okkervil River, “The Stand Ins”
- Pack AD, “Funeral Mixtape”
- Sera Cahoone, “Only as the Day is Long”
OK,
technically that was in alphabetical order. But check them out, and while you’re
at it check out that James McMurtry record – it is also good. On with the next
review!
Disc 1195 is… Lotta Sea Lice
Artist: Courtney
Barnett and Kurt Vile
Year of Release: 2017
What’s up with the Cover? The artists in question with
their preferred weapons. See how all the black and white is opposite, even down
to the guitar design? It’s art! Vile is even holding his guitar backward to
further the mirror effect. That’s right, dear reader: to southpaws like me and
Courtney, it is the rest of you who are playing backwards.
How I Came To Know It: I like Kurt Vile and I like
Courtney Barnett so when they put this album out it seemed a natural winner. I
bought it having heard one song.
How It Stacks Up: This is the only album they’ve put out together
so it can’t really stack up.
Ratings: 3 stars
With its dreamlike
layered sound and slowly developing songs “Lotta Sea Lice” is best enjoyed
either stoned (like the National Post’s Marie-Danielle Smith explores here) or on headphones on a rainy day. I opted for the latter.
When I first saw that
Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile have done an album together my immediate
reaction was “of course they did!” The style of both artists - from their monotone
vocal delivery to the big echoing sound of their guitars - is remarkably
similar.
Listening to them play
together is like hearing two awkward but thoughtful people find a friend. No
more sitting in the corner of the cafeteria alone! The songs are full of raw
explorations of uncertainty but it is done as if you are floating in warm water.
A little duet here and there, and some complementary guitar work and suddenly
you’re not so alone after all.
For the listener, the
record creates a rainy day whimsy that absorbs you. The lyrics here are not
terribly creative, but they have a stark honesty that perfectly matches their
plain language. When on “Continental
Breakfast” they throw in a funky metaphor like:
“Like better luck performin’
Telekinesis on a priestess”
Or the slightly
quaint, slightly uncomfortable image of
“I was friendly with this girl,
Who insisted on touching my face”
That serves as the
opener for “Untogether” the words stand
out all the more; a sudden epiphany of language that then subsides into the
gentle roll and pick of the guitar work.
For me the star of the
record is the guitar work, particularly on the Kurt Vile numbers. His guitar is
a sort of anti-siren that instead of leading you onto the rocks, just leads you
out to sea where you find yourself a little lost, but chill with the
experience.
While all this made
for a pleasant listening experience, there were also times where the songs
meandered a bit. To be fair, this sort of indie stoner rock is designed to
meander, but there were times when I wanted a bit more out of the melody. At
some point I wanted to stop just floating in the current and catch a wave into
shore, and that isn’t what “Lotta Sea Lice” is about.
I think this music
would be great to just chill out to while you are doing something else, but most
of the time I think of music as an active listening experience and so for me “good
when doing something else” is less of a selling feature than for some people.
For all that, “Lotta Sea Lice” is a good record with some great guitar moments
on it and worth a listen.
Best
tracks: Over
Everything, Continental Breakfast, Peepin’ Tom
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