Instead of compiling a list of ten albums/artists that I liked in 2007 (which would, of course, involve confessing that I listened to more than my usual share of Timbaland and Timberlake), I’m going to wax poetic (prosaic?) about one record and one show, and why they made my year. Here goes:
Best album of 2007: The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour
Unlike earlier Weakerthans albums, which tend to fade in, build up, and fade out, Reunion Tour is, with a few exceptions, a highly successful exercise in decrescendo. The deceptively-titled opener, “Civil Twilight” (it sounds, you know, slow), throws down. Three songs later, “Tournament of Hearts”–likely a dark horse by Weakerthans standards but my personal favorite on the album–sets impulsive lyric energy (“have to stop myself from climbing / on the table full of empties / to yell…”) against a backdrop of growling guitar and insistent drums. I’m still not quite sure how Jason Tait manages to make his kit sound like the entire percussion section of a high school marching band, but the result is infectious.
After “Tournament,” the album shifts into a set of down-tempo elegiac tracks: the heart-wrenching “Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure” (the followup, of course, to Reconstruction Site’s “Plea from a Cat named Virtute”); the spoken-word “Elegy for Gump Worsley”; the bittersweet tribute to moving, “Sun in an Empty Room”; and, finally, the kick-drum laced “Night Windows,” which–if the song’s casualty is indeed a fallen solider–is the most moving anti-war ballad I’ve heard in a very long time.
Following this potential sobfest, the short, slow “Bigfoot” makes peace with the album’s losses (“the visions that I see believe in me”), and then “Reunion Tour” (slightly more upbeat) and “Utilities” carry the album to a hopeful close. It’s this thematic arc, plus John K. Samson’s almost-but-not-quite-through-the-nose plaintive singing style, plus the deceptively simple musical arrangements, that makes Reunion Tour simultaneously so comforting and so smart. I dub it “album I would like to curl up inside”: pretty much the highest rating I give.
Best live show of 2007: John Vanderslice at The Middle East Upstairs (September 28, 2007, Cambridge, MA)
I generally believe it’s a huge mistake to conflate a musician’s stage persona with the rest of their real-life existence, and vice versa–to me, it seems similar to mistaking a novelist for one of his or her characters. But that doesn’t mean that a stage act can’t give me warm fuzzies, because this is what John Vanderslice does every time I see him. On this particular occasion, it certainly didn’t hurt that Boston-based Bishop Allen were opening: they played a flawless set. Ultimately, though, John Vanderslice’s set was the memorable one, because it was horrifically flawed yet completely awesome.
To be honest, even though JV started off with a great rendition of “White Dove” (from the latest album), the first few songs he played didn’t have me hooked. I’m a huge fan of older Vanderslice (pretentious of me, I know), and the first twenty minutes of the set were pretty heavy on Pixel Revolt. Since I was pretty tuckered out anyway, I was planning an early exit. Then the mic sound cut out. As the techs attempted to repair it, John Vanderslice walked to the edge of the stage and, with one of his bandmates on violin, did an acoustic duet. At the song’s close, sound was still not restored. Vanderslice then informed us that he planned to finish the whole set and give us our money’s worth, and it was at that moment that I knew I was in for the long haul.
Vanderslice and his band each grabbed an (acoustic, of course) instrument, climbed down from the stage, headed out to the center of the floor, and ripped through two more songs. Once the sound system was restored, the band went back onstage and performed a few songs from Life and Death of an American Fourtracker, including an amazing rendition of “Underneath the Leaves.” In the wake of the stripped-down, unamplified songs, the song’s synth hook really came alive.
For the last song, the band again unplugged their instruments and moved back out into the middle of the throng for “Keep the Dream Alive.” The song started out slowly and quietly but turned into a group celebration. As the song progressed, people in the audience started not only singing along to the words, but adding “la la las” and handclaps in place of missing instruments. I’m so used to shows that rely on amplification that I often forget that the real root of music is hitting things and singing, and that no power outage can stop that. John Vanderslice reminded me, and at the end of the night I left with goosebumps.
Photos courtesy of http://www.theweakerthans.org and http://www.barsuk.com.
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