2008: Portishead, Roy Hargrove, The Fall, Santigold, Jenny Scheinman, The Roots
Hours of great entertainment
Portishead. Third.
England, April 25
Like coming from a warm and authentic home but feeling alienated by that. Like knowing that your life is exactly what you wanted it to be but finding yourself unable to enjoy it. Like not understanding anything when you are in control of everything. This is one of the very best albums of 2008 and it provides no comfort. Instead, it raises so many questions about itself (How is it that an album this cold can sound so warm? Why does an album this alive sound so dead? How can music so detailed end up so enigmatic? How did a sound this enigmatic find so many listeners?) that ultimately it insists that you also ask questions about everything else.
Roy Hargrove Quintet. Earfood.
United States, April 28
Roy Hargrove must have wanted to write and record an album that could transport listeners back to the heyday of Blue Note Records post-bop and soul jazz, and on this, his last major album, he had the quintet to accomplish exactly that. Especially on the Cedar Walton-penned opener, “I’m not So Sure,” and the ballad, “Divine,” this sounds like the next album Lee Morgan might have made had he not been shot to death by his wife. The musicians, tempos, tonalities, and mix of compositional types all align precisely with their source era, and it’s even the case that the album prioritizes original compositions, much as Morgan’s albums did. About the only difference is duration: this material would have been split onto two records in the 1960s. Bill James once wrote of Rickey Henderson that if you cut him in half you’d have two hall of famers – I think if you split Earfood in half you’d have two full classics instead of one almost.
The Fall. Imperial Wax Solvent.
England, April 28
On Small Change, Tom Waits perfected a kind of fast-talking carnival barker persona that looked to an antiquated street con prototype as its source. On his later albums and especially here, Mark E. Smith has perfected the cadence and tone of an internet message board crank and looks forward laughing to where those cons have taken our country today. He sounds just like the internet.
Santigold. Santogold.
United States, April 29
This album gives a sonically optimistic portrayal of how punk, hip-hop, new wave, dub and indie rock can get along under the authority of one masterful artist. It’s like looking at some producer’s futuristic blueprint circa 1981. It’s like a fantastic music festival without the price tag and the crowds.
Jenny Scheinman. Crossing the Field.
United States, April 29
Jazz of another sort, that looks back to a different time without springing the trap of repertory reproductionism. It’s jazz that remembers when jazz wasn’t required to be avant garde, but could reach out into folk music or Tin Pan Alley to pull in elements of popular and traditional music. It’s jazz made from stringed instruments and clarinet first, drums and guitars afterward. There’s something sepia-toned about it, but I wouldn’t call it nostalgic. Above all else, it is relaxed and beautiful.
The Roots. Rising Down.
United States, April 29
If you could see art in the process of composition, you wouldn’t go to museums – right? And if you could see wild animals in their natural habitats, you wouldn’t go to the zoo – right? And if you could rap over beats made live by a real rhythm section, you wouldn’t tolerate electronic drums for a second – right? So if you go to museums you must not be watching art come into being – right? And if you go to the zoo, you must not have access to animals in nature – right? And if you rap over electronic drums, you must not be artist enough to have a live band behind you – right? Not like The Roots.