It's a hit!

The "song of the year" from a "redheaded love object"? Plus: Nonsensical piano doodles from John Cale and climactic music from a Japanese instrumental rock band -- free!

By Thomas Bartlett

Sept. 8, 2004 | After a busy few weeks of rehearsing and searching for protest songs, my pile of CDs to listen to has grown to a truly ridiculous size. In that pile is Björk's "Medulla," which was sent to me late, and which I've still only had time to give a cursory listen. I care too much about Björk to say anything substantial about the record now, except that so far I'm mildly disappointed in it, but I'll certainly write about it here soon.

There are a lot of exciting new records coming out between now and the end of the calendar year, as the release schedule heats up for holiday shopping. Billboard ran an article Monday about the commercial heavy-hitters (Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Good Charlotte, Destiny's Child, Ludacris, Alan Jackson, U2 and more) who have releases planned in the next few months. Plenty to look forward to there (and also plenty not to look forward to ... I like to remember Chris Rock at last year's Video Music Awards saying, "Good Charlotte? More like a mediocre Green Day"), but I'm a bit more excited about the upcoming records from Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Nas and Beck.

A lot has been written recently about Rilo Kiley's "More Adventurous," almost all of it positive, but nothing quite as enthusiastically, fawningly over-the-top as what came from the pen of the Village Voice's grouchy old Robert Christgau. Maybe Christgau's critical faculties are a little too easily blinded by the sight of a young, beautiful girl. Not that Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis doesn't deserve praise, but you have to wonder when he says of her record "there won't be a better song album this year," calls one of her songs "song of the year," and calls her a "redheaded love object" and a "wet dream for indie boys." (Sorry to say, I have it on good authority that she's already seeing someone.)

The song Christgau is so excited about is "It's a Hit," which would have fit nicely into last week's protest song column (it compares Bush to a chimpanzee). I actually think it's one of the weaker songs on the record (a record I'm still on the fence about; the lyrics often seem clumsy, but the melodies just keep sticking in my head), but hey, it's free.

"Zen," John Cale, from "HoboSapiens"
John Cale's brilliance as a producer and as a member of the Velvet Underground is indisputable, but what I've heard of his solo work in the past left me cold. For someone who's been involved in so many exciting musical projects (including the Dream Syndicate, with La Monte Young and Tony Conrad), his own rock albums are oddly generic and studiously boring -- they often sound like blind attempts at accessibility by someone with no pop sense whatsoever. The melodies are mushy and meandering, the hooks toothless. "Zen," the opening track from "HoboSapiens" (released last year on EMI, and rereleased Tuesday by OrMusic), doesn't sidestep Cale's tendency to meander, but instead, and to great effect, embraces it. The melody is completely shapeless, and there's nothing even trying to be a hook here, so you can focus on the two things that matter: the sample-heavy, harmonically ambiguous backdrop (with some nice nonsense piano doodles), and Cale's poetic lyrics: "It's midnight/ And our silver-tongued obsessions come at us out of the dark/ Scrambling to be recognized before tearing themselves apart." Free download: "Zen"

Next page: Music from a Japanese instrumental rock band and a folky duo from Chicago