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LargoLagrande.
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PANDA BEAR - Person Pitch
Starting an album with a clattering of industrial rhythms sliding into a huge clap-and-stompalong with angelic vocals and what sounds like the Brotherhood of Man on a vocal loop tip not far removed from Suicide or Laurie Anderson is one way to make a mark. The fact that Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox himself, sings like Brian Wilson and produces his voice to sound like it is another, though it has to be said that it just makes his Animal Collective membership all the more clear at this point. Person Pitch is very much an end product of a variety of musical trends in whatever can be called indie rock in the early 21st century -- big-sounding, absolutely dedicated to texture and sonic playfulness, and somehow aiming to make a lot of interesting ideas seem kinda flat. There's no question there's both an audience for Panda Bear's work and the sounds he's playing around with, and to his considerable credit he creates a series of moody and memorable loops throughout. Songs like "Take Pills" and "Good Girl" are miles away from the rhythm-by-numbers of many of Panda Bear's contemporaries; importantly, after so many bands that just want to sound like late-'60s Beach Boys lock, stock, and barrel, the fact that there's a recognition that production and beat technology didn't stay frozen in time stands out. At its best, with the song "Bros," there's a beautiful transcendence that lives up to all the promise that has surrounded Panda Bear's work, the song slowly but surely evolving into a fantastic epic that could easily stand on its own as an EP. Still, the sweetness is almost too gooey, and what should be providing a healthy contrast ends up dragging the best instrumental moments down more than once, almost literally getting in the way of the striking sonic collages. It may be heresy to some, but conceivably Person Pitch would be at its best if it were strictly instrumental.
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[...]c’è anche una logica di composizione modernissima, secondo la quale la canzone sta tutta nel canto, mentre gli strumenti formano un tappeto ritmico assemblato con la logica del loop e della ripetizione della misura, del “break”, che ovviamente qui è una porzione di materia sonora grezza, più che un groove in quattro quarti (per quanto non manchino le tessiture ritmiche tradizionali o addirittura gli sconfinamenti nel rumore e nel caos semi-organizzato).[...]
[...]è superfluo soffermarsi sui singoli pezzi: ogni porzione dell’album è una diversa declinazione della dicotomia tra melodie aeree e base musicale solida ed eterna, si tratti di celebrazioni festose (“Bro's” oppure la prima parte di “Good Girl/Carrots”) o di momenti più meditativi (“I'm Not”, tanto per dirne una).
In questo disco non c’è una macchia, non c’è un ombra, e ciò è tanto una forza quanto un punto debole: se cercate eterogeneità e schizofrenia, bussate ad altre porte; se invece siete disposti a lasciarvi investire dal treno di questo hippie stranamente simpatico fatevi avanti, le porte della comune sono sempre aperte.. -
LargoLagrande.
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WILCO - A ghost is born (2004)
It's hard not to wonder if Wilco's breakthrough 2002 release, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, would have been such a critical success and so eagerly embraced by the indie rock community if it hadn't become such a cause célèbre thanks to the band being unceremoniously dropped by Reprise Records, and then signed by Nonesuch after the album had become a hot item on the Internet. Much of the critical reaction to the album, while almost uniformly enthusiastic (and rightly so), had an odd undertow that suggested the writers were not especially familiar with Wilco's body of work, registering a frequent sense of surprise that an "alt-country" band would make such an adventurous album while ignoring the creative shape-shifting that had been so much a part of Jeff Tweedy and company's approach on Being There and Summerteeth. The irony is that 2004's A Ghost Is Born, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is also the Wilco album with the strongest stylistic link to its immediate predecessor, as if their new fans are being given a moment to catch up. A Ghost Is Born hardly sounds like a retread of YHF, but the languid, ghostly song structures, the periodic forays into dissonance, and the pained, hesitant vocals from Jeff Tweedy that were so much a part of that album also take center stage here. But while much of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had a cool and slightly removed feeling, A Ghost Is Born is considerably warmer and more organic; the extended instrumental breaks in several of the songs (two cuts are over ten minutes long) sound more like a group in full flight than the Pro Tools-assembled structures of YHF. And while Wilco's former secret weapon, Jay Bennett, is now out of the picture, the rest of the group (especially multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, and guitarist/co-producer Jim O'Rourke) fill the gaps with admirable grace and strength. If A Ghost Is Born has a flaw, it's in the songwriting; while this album is a "grower" if there ever was one, revealing more of its unexpected complexities with each spin, there are no songs here as immediately engaging as "War on War," "Heavy Metal Drummer," or "I'm the Man Who Loves You" from YHF, and while "Hummingbirds," "Handshake Drugs," and "Wishful Thinking" are tuneful and charming, they lack the resonance and emotional impact of Tweedy's strongest work. And the album's most purely enjoyable tune, the witty "The Late Greats," closes out the disc after the 15-minute drone dirge of "Less Than You Think," dramatically blunting its effectiveness. A Ghost Is Born confirms what old fans and recent converts already know -- that Wilco is one of America's most interesting and imaginative bands -- and it's brave and compelling listening. But if you're expecting another genre-defying masterpiece, well, maybe we'll get one of those next time.
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"A Ghost Is Born" è un'altra svolta (come ogni suo predecessore in fondo): atmosfere chiaroscurali create attraverso improvvisi lampi scagliati nella nebbia, squarci di lucidità gettati in una languida narcosi dei sensi, improvvise impennate pop accanto a sofferti pianti di chitarra, parole fragili come cristallo intonate da un canto rotto, commosso, in procinto anch'esso di frantumarsi sotto il peso di significati molto, forse troppo, profondi e intristiti.
Il suono complessivo del lavoro appare stranamente alterato, quasi che fosse passato attraverso il filtro di un eterno autunno fatto di malinconia e inquietudine: il sole splende, ma lo si osserva attraverso l'animo irrequieto di Tweedy, corroso dalle ultime dolorose esperienze personali e quindi meno carico di quella deliziosa ironia che ne aveva caratterizzato le precedenti produzioni.
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COMMENTO PERSONALE: E' un disco complesso, non immediato. I Wilco sono in assoluto tra i migliori musicisti del momento, i loro concerti fan paura, mischiato al fatto che Jeff Tweedy è uno dei migliori compositori degli ultimi tempi, tutto ciò è un biglietto da visita, un cartellino timbrato in quasi tutti gli episodi del cd. Spesso la voce di Tweedy, infusa di malinconia sembra lì lì per spezzarsi sulla melodia, riprendendosi poi in episodi più allegri.
Da citare il fatto che Jeff fosse in cura per problemi psicologici (a quanto ho capito), costretto ad assumere quelle che lui chiama 'handshaken drugs'.
Sebbene si perda a tratti la vena 'ironica' dei classici Wilco di YHF (capolavoro assoluto dell'ultimo decennio), sebbene Tweedy inizi a risentire degli anni che passano e dei propri fardelli, l'ascolto (sebbene impegnato) è comunque gradevolissimo. Insomma, i Wilco son sempre i Wilco.. -
LargoLagrande.
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JUSTICE - †
Genere: Elettronica
Stile: House, Club / Dance, Elettronica
French boys Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé originally got their start in the music scene playing in bad Metallica and Nirvana cover bands, and the album art of Cross makes it look like a doomy metalcore release, but the record is anything but metal. In fact, it's almost everything but metal. It's a grimy mix of dancehall, techno, '80s R&B, and lounge with Clockwork Orange synths, deadly static crunches, hard-hitting kicks, grinding groans, and a spliced slap-popping bass that recalls Michael Jackson's disco classic, Off the Wall. The songs are scattered and chopped to all hell, but they often feel revolutionary. This is partially due to the duo's "anything goes" attitude. It's as if Justice is reacting to complacency in latter-day electronic music and seeing how far they can take their slicing and dicing before the chopped up compositions fall apart. At certain moments, samples are dissected into such little snippets that it's hard to even decipher the instrument from the clicks and pops in-between the splices. Usually when the songs unravel to this point, they suddenly halt and get reeled back in to cohesion like a fishing lure that has been swept into the rapids. Instead of using their laptops to keep their beats tight and precise, Justice uses them to shake up their songs to such a gnarled, jittery point that they sometimes sound like mistakes. These happy accidents give the tunes a humanistic touch, as though these futuristic beats have been deconstructed by cavemen. While the instrumentals are often sinister and melancholy, as if they were concocted in a cold, cavernous atmosphere (which they were, in Rosnay's basement), the tracks with vocals are perfectly designed for a hot nightclub. "DVNO" has disco handclaps and bouncy vocals that sound like they were ripped from Oingo Boingo, "D.A.N.C.E." is tricked out with a Go! Team double-dutch flavor, and "Ththhee Ppaarrttyy" incorporates a cute-voiced rapper coaxing her friends to get "drunk and freaky fried" over a keyboard potentially lifted from Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. At the darker end of the dance spectrum, "Stress" is an exhausting exercise in patience with a teapot whistle screaming over a tension-building Space Invaders type bassline, and "Waters of Nazareth" combines a crunchy church organ with a bottom-heavy synthesizer rolling in gravel. Admirably random samples dug up from underground sources like '70s Italian prog-rockers Goblin, combined with a reckless abandon and an adherence to melodic hooks, makes Cross one of the most interesting electro-crossovers since Ratatat, and the guys in Justice do an excellent job building on Daft Punk's innovative foundation.
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L’influenza dei Daft Punk è rintracciabile in ogni solco del lavoro di Gaspard Augé e Xavier de Rosnay, che si chiamano Justice dal 2003, dopo essersi conosciuti a un party della capitale francese e aver intuito di voler andare nella stessa direzione. Il singolo “D.A.N.C.E.” è un tributo a “Discovery”: pura eurodisco con cantato femminile ammicante, facile facile, francese ed edulcorata. Archi da disco anni 70 spezzettati a piacimento e bassone sincopato, sorretti da rintocchi di piano profondi. E qui i Justice potrebbero pure stare antipatici, perché va bene citare e adulare, ma qui si sfiora il plagio senza riuscire a sfiorare la qualità degli originali. E’ tutto troppo carino in “D.A.N.C.E.”.
Va meglio quando i bassi grassi e distorti prendono possesso di ogni angolo a disposizione, incastrandosi nelle interruzioni da edit selvaggio sulle batterie, veri e propri stop and go al fulmicotone non corali, impazziti e incontrollabili.
Tanti saluti al french touch e alla melodia, qui si vuole fare - non a caso - headbanging e basta. Perché arriva un momento in cui un party deve tirare fuori la parte più animalesca dei partecipanti e non c’è nulla da fare, per diventare belve ci vuole il rock, che da decenni oramai prova a fare l'amore con la musica da ballo. Questo disco è un simbolo di coito interrotto più volte e mai portato a termine. Una balbuziente testimonianza di come si balla e come si fa una festa oggi, nel bene e nel male. Tra moda, entertainment e in fondo, sincera passione.. -
LargoLagrande.
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OKKERVIL RIVER - The Stage Names
Data di rilascio: Aug 7, 2007
Label: Jagjaguwar
Genere: Rock
Stili: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Okkervil River broke away from the crowded indie rock pack with 2005's superb Black Sheep Boy, a ragged but ornate barroom romp that drank its way to the top of countless year-end lists by finding that thin vein that separates triumph and desperation and hammering as many nails into it as they could in under 50 minutes. Fans used to Will Sheff's visceral, lo-fi caterwauls may be disappointed in the bruised and elegant Stage Names upon first listen, but further spins reveal BSB as more of a stepping-stone than a peak. "It's just a life story/so there's no climax," from the rousing opener "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" sets the tone, and its floor tom gallop and volatile whoops sound like an unholy combination of My Aim Is True-era Elvis Costello and Transformer-era Lou Reed spilling out of an old player piano. Sheff has proven himself again and again to be a gifted wordsmith, and Stage Names features some of his finest parlor room romanticisms and slacker-poet observations to date. "Plus Ones," a studied rumination on some of popular music's most beloved numerically titled tracks ("96 Tears," "99 Luftballons," "Eight Miles High," "TVC 15," "7 Chinese Brothers," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" etc.) adds an unnecessary integer ("Not everyone's keen on lighting candle 17/The party's done/The cake's all gone/The plates are clean"), cleverly illuminating pop culture's insatiable thirst for sequels and remakes. It's a trick that could easily turn trite in less capable hands, but one of the band's many strengths is its ability to mirror Sheff with arrangements that match the earnestness, wickedness and occasional pomp of the lyrics. Those talents are used most effectively on two of the record's other highlights, the soft and broken "Girl in Port" and the alternately heartbreaking and hysterical "John Allyn Smith Sails," the latter of which chronicles the suicide of poet John Berryman and manages to integrate the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B" so seamlessly that you'd swear it had never existed before. It's not all winsome ballads about backstage passes and gutter bound writers though, as Sheff and company open up the full sneer on "Unless It's Kicks," "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" and "A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene," making Stage Names less of a metaphor for the cinematic lives we wish we could have and more of a reminder that it's us who make the films. [The first 5,000 copies of Stage Names (the "deluxe" edition) came with a bonus disc featuring all of Sheff's demos for the record.]
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Non è solo la presenza ormai familiare di Brian Beattie alla consolle, a conferire agli Okkervil River la confidenza e la sicurezza sfoggiate in “The Stage Names”: è l’affiatamento di una formazione resa sempre più compatta dall’esperienza maturata sul palco, dove sono cresciuti in più di un caso i brani del nuovo disco.
La voce infuocata di Will Sheff domina la scena tra chitarre vivaci, nitidi accordi di pianoforte e robusti accenti di batteria, mentre orchestrazioni e tastiere rimangono per una volta sullo sfondo. Gli Okkervil River inseguono scintille pop finora solo accennate nei momenti più esuberanti del passato, da “The Latest Toughs” a “No Key, No Plan”: persino la copertina di William Schaff si veste una volta tanto di colori sgargianti.
Amanti di una notte avvinghiati alla propria solitudine, mediocri rocker all’inseguimento perenne di un sogno, attrici perdute a cui non rimane altro che il nome di una stella del porno: quelli di “The Stage Names” sono personaggi in fuga dalla realtà, nascosti dietro la propria maschera per paura di lasciarsi ferire da un imprevisto.
Al momento della resa dei conti, resta un unico volto dietro le maschere.
Deve averlo saputo anche il poeta americano John Berryman, cui si ispira l’epilogo dell’album, quando ha fissato le acque del Mississippi prima di gettarsi nel vuoto: di tutti i suoi personaggi, di tutti i suoi alter ego, in quel momento era soltanto uno lo sguardo rimasto a fronteggiare la morte. E mentre la visione del suo suicidio scorre come un’immagine al rallentatore, nell’elegia acustica in crescendo di “John Allyn Smith Sails” irrompe all’improvviso la melodia di “Sloop John B”, non con il sorriso solare donatole da Brian Wilson, ma con quell’ultimo senso di abbandono ereditato dalla tradizione folk. “I’m full in my heart and my head and I want to go home”. Sì, ritornare a casa: è il grido del naufrago che protende la mano verso il cielo. Da qualche parte una casa deve pur esistere, là lungo il corso del fiume Okkervil.
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Nota: l'ultimo pezzo si trasforma in una cover di 'Sloop John B', pezzo dei Beach Boys dell'album Pet Sounds, già recensito nel topic 'Ascoltiamo la musica'
Se non volete rovinarvi l'ascolto degli Okkervil River NON ascoltate la versione dei Beach Boys.
Comunque va detto ad onor di cronaca che lo stesso pezzo di Brian Wilson è una cover di un pezzo ancora precedente. Buffo è che Wilson una volta, davanti agli altri fratelli disse "Bah, io ho in mente come poterla fare", andò al piano e fece di getto quella che è, in versione scarna, la Sloop John B ufficiale, tra lo stupore e l'incredulità generale.. -
ElaineMarley.
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Data di rilascio: 20 ottobre 2008
Genere: Rock
E' gia possibile ascoltare il singolo...che è splendido!!!
Non vedo l'ora che parta il tour europeo.... -
Everything.
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Ehi che bello una nuova canzone degli AC/DC! 
Ah, ma... è... è uguale a tutta la loro produzione precedente...
. -
LargoLagrande.
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non aggiorno sto topic da un secolo ora che noto.
rimedierò prossimamente.
grazie comunque per il contributo.. -
ElaineMarley.
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CITAZIONE (Everything @ 11/9/2008, 23:58)Ehi che bello una nuova canzone degli AC/DC!
Ah, ma... è... è uguale a tutta la loro produzione precedente...
Essendo i loro riff quasi tutti ispirati al blues, è normale che tu la veda cosi...
ascolta gli assoli e ne riparliamo.
Io li amo, qualcuno dice che fan sempre le stesse cose, altri proprio non li tollerano...sono gusti.
. -
Everything.
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CITAZIONE (ElaineMarley @ 12/9/2008, 11:17)Essendo i loro riff quasi tutti ispirati al blues, è normale che tu la veda cosi...
ascolta gli assoli e ne riparliamo.
Io li amo, qualcuno dice che fan sempre le stesse cose, altri proprio non li tollerano...sono gusti.
No, ma anche a me piacciono. Certo che però le canzoni sono tutte uguali, da "Back in Black" fino all'ultimo "Black Ice"... insomma, potrebbero cercare un minimo di variare. Va bene avere l'ispirazione dal blues, ma il blues non è di certo tutto uguale, eh, anzi...
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LargoLagrande.
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vabbè capita praticamente a tutti -se si devono rispettare dei contratti- di scendere col tempo di stile e fare cagate. chi non l'ha mai fatto vuol dire che è morto prima oppure si chiama 
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LargoLagrande.
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JIM NOIR - Jim Noir
Data di rilascio: Apr 8, 2008
Label: Barsuk
Genere: Rock
Stili: Indie Electronic, Indie Pop
His debut album Tower of Love set the bar pretty high for the one-chap band that is Jim Noir. The tunes were all super memorable and the sound was a bliss inducing mixture of burbling electronic beats, layered vocals reminiscent of '60s sunshine pop, trippy arrangements that harken back to the heyday of British psychedelia, goofy lyrics that always bring a smile, and instantly familiar melodies. Apparently, Noir liked the sound, too, since his second album replicates it, refines it and, in the best possible way, retreads it. It's easy to cut him and the album some slack since it's only the second one he's released. If it were his third, or fifth, record to have the same sound and feel, then it'd be a problem. On Jim Noir, it's like a second helping of a particularly good meal. Or more specifically, a second giant cupcake with a big glop of frosting on top. The songs are just as bubbly, the lyrics reach acceptable levels of silly (CDs vs. vinyl, going on a holiday, and having songs stuck in your head are some of the topics covered) and Noir generally sounds like he's having the time of his life making this album. The only problem with the record is that there are no stand-out tracks like Tower of Love's "My Patch" or "Eenie Meenie" to be found. As the stereotypical A&R weasel might say; "I don't hear a single." That could be a fatal flaw except that the overall quality of the record is so high and the sound is so perfect, you don't feel like there is something so terribly important missing. Songs like the lovely ballad "On a Different Shelf," the tough as nails rocker "What U Gonna Do" (which is sure to get played like crazy on Little Steven's Underground Garage) or the impossibly chipper and bouncy "Happy Day Today" are more than enough to salve any wounds and make the album a satisfying listening experience. If the third album comes out sounding exactly like this, we may need to re-examine Mr. Noir and his bubble machine, but for now it's enough to frolic giddily in the froth.. -
ElaineMarley.
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CITAZIONE (Everything @ 12/9/2008, 14:25)CITAZIONE (ElaineMarley @ 12/9/2008, 11:17)Essendo i loro riff quasi tutti ispirati al blues, è normale che tu la veda cosi...
ascolta gli assoli e ne riparliamo.
Io li amo, qualcuno dice che fan sempre le stesse cose, altri proprio non li tollerano...sono gusti.
No, ma anche a me piacciono. Certo che però le canzoni sono tutte uguali, da "Back in Black" fino all'ultimo "Black Ice"... insomma, potrebbero cercare un minimo di variare. Va bene avere l'ispirazione dal blues, ma il blues non è di certo tutto uguale, eh, anzi...
Non ho detto che per me il blues è tutto uguale...la mia frase era riferita al fatto che molti pensano che il blues sia tutto uguale...pensavo facessi parte della categoria.
Anche perchè altrimenti la mia frase non avrebbe senso.
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LargoLagrande.
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ELLIOTT SMITH - From a Basement on the Hill
Data di rilascio: Oct 19, 2004
Label: Anti
Genere: Rock
Stili: Indie Rock
Almost exactly a year after his untimely death -- missing the anniversary by just two days -- Elliott Smith's final recordings were released as the From a Basement on the Hill album. Smith had been working on the album for a long time. His last album, Figure 8, had appeared in 2000, and when it came time to record its follow-up, he parted ways with both his major label, Dreamworks, and his longtime producer/engineer, Rob Schnapf, working through a number of different producers, including L.A. superproducer Jon Brion, before recording a number of sessions with David McConnell, which were supplemented with Smith's home recordings. At the time of his death, Smith was still tinkering with the album. There was no final track sequence and only a handful of final mixes; it was closer to completion than Jeff Buckley's Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which he intended to re-record, but it was still up to his family to finalize the record. For various reasons, the family chose to work with Schnapf and Joanna Bolme -- a former girlfriend of Smith and current member of Stephen Malkmus' Jicks -- instead of McConnell, who went on record with Kimberly Chun of The San Francisco Bay Area Guardian the week before the release of From a Basement to state that this album was not exactly what Smith intended it to be. According to McConnell, as well as Elliott Smith biographer Benjamin Nugent, Smith wanted the album to be rough and ragged, and McConnell told Chun that "obviously Elliott did not get his wishes," claiming that three of the songs on the album were considered finished by both him and Smith, but appear on the record in different mixes.
It's hard to dispute that Smith did not get to finalize the mixes, the track selection, or the sequencing -- he died, after all, with the album uncompleted -- but that's the nature of posthumous recordings: they're never quite what might have appeared had the artist lived. Critics, fans, and historians can have endless debates about whether this particular incarnation of the songs on From a Basement on the Hill would have been what would have been heard if Smith had finished the record, but that doesn't take away from the simple fact that the music here is strong enough to warrant a release, and that it offers a sense of resolution to his discography. While it's likely that From a Basement is cleaner than what Smith and McConnell intended, it is much sparer than Figure 8, and it feels at once more adventurous, confident, and warmer than its predecessor. Perhaps it's not "the next White Album," which is what McConnell claims it could have been, but it has a similarly freewheeling spirit, bouncing from sweet pop to fingerpicked acoustic guitars to fuzzy neo-psychedelic washes of sound. It's not far removed from Smith's previous work, but it feels like a step forward from the fussy Figure 8 and more intimate than XO. The most surprising twist is that despite the occasional lyrics that seem to telegraph his death (particularly on "A Fond Farewell"), it's not a crushingly heavy album. Like the best of his music, From a Basement on the Hill is comforting in its sadness; it's empathetic, not alienating. Given Smith's tragic fate, it also sadly seems like a summation of his work. All of his trademarks are here -- his soft, sad voice, a fixation on '60s pop, a warm sense of melancholy -- delivered in a strong set of songs that stands among his best. It may or may not be exactly what Elliott Smith intended these recording sessions to be, but as it stands, From a Basement on the Hill is a fond farewell to a singer/songwriter who many indie rockers of the '90s considered a friend.. -
|Kuja.
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CITAZIONE (Everything @ 12/9/2008, 13:25)CITAZIONE (ElaineMarley @ 12/9/2008, 11:17)Essendo i loro riff quasi tutti ispirati al blues, è normale che tu la veda cosi...
ascolta gli assoli e ne riparliamo.
Io li amo, qualcuno dice che fan sempre le stesse cose, altri proprio non li tollerano...sono gusti.
No, ma anche a me piacciono. Certo che però le canzoni sono tutte uguali, da "Back in Black" fino all'ultimo "Black Ice"... insomma, potrebbero cercare un minimo di variare. Va bene avere l'ispirazione dal blues, ma il blues non è di certo tutto uguale, eh, anzi...
Anche io li amo ma sono d'accordo con te non hanno piu' fantasia.. -
LargoLagrande.
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JON BRION - Meaningless
Release Date
-2001
Label
-www.jonbrion.com
Genre
-Pop/rock
Styles
-Pop Underground
-Adult Alternative Pop/ Rock
After many years as a sideman for other people's projects -- including Aimee Mann, the eels, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Jellyfish, and the Wallflowers, among dozens more -- multi-instrumentalist, producer, and general "it man" Jon Brion stepped behind the microphone for his debut solo album in late 2000. Much-anticipated by diehard fans of guitar-based pop music, and especially the rabid cult following of the fractured early-'90s pop outfit Jellyfish, Meaningless delivers. It's impossible to deny that Brion's collaborations have had an effect on him; the influence of Mann is especially strong here (in fact, she co-wrote the jazzy "I Believe She's Lying"), although Brion surpasses the "singer/songwriter" tag by pulling in many of his power pop roots (a cover of Cheap Trick's "Voices" closes the album) and his diverse background in pop music. It could be said that Meaningless cops the style of many of those whom Brion has collaborated with, but in reality it is a representation of the purest form of what Brion has given to the production of those other artists' work. Brion is a wary frontman. Only on the now-legendary (and extremely out-of-print) 1994 Grays album Ro Sham Bo did he take lead vocal and writing credits. That project imploded largely because the premise -- four solo artists who share a band together -- was almost too ambitious. And while Jason Falkner, the most obvious "frontman" of the group, went on to release some enjoyable solo albums, Brion continued on with work mostly as a multi-instrumentalist or a producer. He became somewhat of a legend among the power pop underground, on par with former Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer, constantly backing other deserving artists but never releasing any albums himself. When Meaningless appeared at the tail end of 2000, Brion was fresh off substantial buzz created by Grammy nominations for his work on the score for the movie Magnolia; the reaction from the pop community was immediate, and, in fact, probably more than Brion himself even expected. Given that it is self-released on Brion's Straight to Cut-Out records, he seemed to feel the record would fail. That's not to say that Brion will be an immediate breakout success of the pop world, because that, too, is unlikely. But Meaningless is a lovely, catchy, and personal pop album on par with (and in many cases, superior to) the albums and artists that he has worked with in the past. The catchy, almost circus-like "Walking Through Walls" (co-written with Grant Lee Phillips of Grant Lee Buffalo) screams for radio airplay, while the quiet, piano-based ballad "Ruin My Day" wouldn't sound out of place on Let It Be. The album's opener, the personal "Gotta Start Somewhere," beckons that "I might not have anything to offer you/I might not have anything to say that's new/But you've gotta start somewhere." But that's where Brion's wrong. He certainly does have something to offer..
