In the liner notes on “Distance”, Dhruv Ghanekar refers to the axiom ‘You never finish a tune, you have to abandon it’. It was probably this which made him carry forward a tune he had created almost a decade ago, unsurprisingly called “Distance”. And though he may have abandoned it then, now he has eight tracks on an album, constructed around the tune. As one of the finest master of strings on the subcontinent, the appeal of Dhruv’s album lies in its nuanced pronunciation of Indian influences with jazz metrics. The distinct Carnatic influence on “Conscious” and the Hindustani vocal intro on “Sunday” draw on classical Indian music. Another Indian source providing insight is Indian politics for a tongue in cheek reference called “Cunning Politics”, complete with vocal samples of some ‘familiar’ voices and a groovy bass line. An outbreak of bass strings occurs on “Perfect”, and couldn’t have had a better name for its mellow accompaniment of Dhruv’s voice. Rap finds its way on the album too on “Pretty Disaster”, and though the mix of rap and jazz is often treacherous territory, this song notches up the standard by more than a few levels. We hope we don’t have to wait another decade for the tune to reach the next milestone now.
Modern day princess of the keys, Regina Spektor may have shot into the spotlight with the continued success of her 2006 album “Begin to Hope”. But her talent had provided a glimpse on the previous compilation “Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers”, the sound of which has matured well enough on her latest work “Far”. Regina knows her strength lies in her voice and her dexterity on the piano. She uses this to excellent effect, but does not forget all those growing up musical influences while putting together this album. Almost as soon as you enter the album, you are treated to the sounds of wily playfulness on “Eet”, a piano led track with Regina making full use of vocal intonations. Regina is young, and she knows how to use her charms. She may want you to do the boogie on the aptly titled “Dance Anthem of the 80s”, and continue with that pop fuelled energy on “Two Birds” and “One More Time With Feeling”. All isn’t just as chirpy and happy either. Wait till you hear “Blue Lips”, with vocals that would grip your soul with trepidation while leaving a lingering feeling which would begin from the bottom of your guts and grow up to your throat. Such is the appeal of “Machine” and “Folding Chair” too, and by the time you are done with your maiden listening session, you are left mesmerized and forced to go over it again.
It’s eerily funny when you start listening to an album released two decades ago, and the first song starts with a newsreader like voice saying something on the lines of “America is waiting for investors”. Yes, everyone knows that we are facing a financial meltdown, and the shambles the American economy is in. Soothsaying, did someone say? Not so sure if any prophecies regarding socio-economic state were actually present, but “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” contains a message in music which stands as relevant even today. By the time they got together to work on this album, both Brian Eno (as the progenitor of Ambient Music) and David Byrne (having spent time with Talking Heads and other solo stuff) had already built sonic skyscrapers. It was probably a desire to create something never experienced before which led them to sample such abstruse sources as Middle Eastern mountain singers, faith healers and above all, an exorcist. A blend of electronic elements and funk, with insane amounts of inspiration from the Third World, the album has the capacity to induce a trance. Experienced first hand on “Regiment” with its dervish like vocals on a groovy funk bass guitar beat, you retreat into a reverie to the haunting rusticity of the voice. The brush with the transcendental continues as the exorcist gives out a wry laugh while flushing out demons on “The Jezebel Spirit” against staccato funk beats. It does not end there, but pushes further on “Help Me Somebody” as Rev. Paul Morton leaps into a sermon on percussive sounds plugged with funk emerging from the African heartland. The mountain singer returns with his Arabic verses on “The Carrier”, and you get a taste of quaint Arab pop voices on “A Secret Life”, both of which promise to play with your mental state. A record which laid the path for the way electronic resonance would be fused with other material in times to come, the spirits contained within the album are potent enough to shake foundations, when played even today.
Repeating success isn’t an easy task; especially if creations which bear the hallmark of being called standard bearers are already your progeny. After all, Herman Melville wrote just one Moby Dick to achieve a lifetime of eternity. Genius, though, doesn’t lie furtive in glory achieved once. Not only does it lie in making that attempt once again, but going back to inventing the wheel all over again, as they say. Putting fan and record pressures aside isn’t an easy task either. Moby decided to take this less trodden path, though. On his ninth studio album, “Wait For Me”, Moby has tried to do everything he has not done in the past few albums. Most importantly, he cut himself loose from all bindings during the creative process to focus on something as personal as it could get. The result is exuberating with the brilliance of a sheen, which could best be identified with the muted tones of moonlight bouncing off the calm serenity of flowing water.
It is no surprise upon discovering that there is an air of melancholy looming large over the entire album. After all, pain is one of the most powerful personal feelings known to mankind. Moby, while cocooning himself into his two bedroom apartment to work on this album from his home studio, fills it with sentiments which could be found in no space other than your personal aura. Most tracks are instrumental in nature, with minimal use of vocals. But wherever present, they have been used to an effect which serves to accentuate the delivery of the instruments. Loss of love coupled with feelings of guilt and remorse abound on the album. The slight refrain in the progression of keys served alongside humming female vocals layered atop each other in harmonization exhorting you to “Wait for Me” sums it all on the title track. These aren’t industry heavyweight names which lend their vocals; they are Moby’s neighborhood talent waiting for discovery. Discovered they lie now, as you immerse yourself in the haunting beauty of the voice on “Hope is Gone” which lays bare the ravaging emotion undergone upon experiencing love second time around. Similar is “Jltf1” which builds an instrumental intro on keys and guitar, and makes way for vocals on the following “Jltf” which progresses into a standard rock entrée with subtle keyboard nuances garnished by headily nimble female vocals. “Division” makes for a perfect beginning to the album, with its short delivery on the keys. A perfect echo to this instrumental track is found later in “Stock Radio”, a heavy on reverb sound clip of less than a minute. “Mistake” seems to be a bit incongruous, with its up-tempo treatment of beats and male vocals; the subject though remains the same. The best of all though, is reserved in the form of soft gospel vocals trimmed upon “Walk with Me”, and the soaring soul vocal samples of “Study War”. And how could you keep aside the abstinence atop “Pale Horses”, mixed with the psycho thriller laden instinct of “Shot in the Back of the Head” (the video for which is incidentally shot in animated motion by good friend and legendary director, David Lynch).
“Wait For Me” is no “Hotel” or “18”; it contains none of those dance happy club tunes. Nor does it have the form of energy that consumed “Play”. The form of energy here is different. Call it age, if you want. But Moby has transformed his sound to make this one of his most accessible albums, which can be played in the emptiness of your room, minus the gallivanting crowd.
With a sound which identifies them more with the indie rock culture, despite being tagged to mainstream labels, Wilco continues with this dichotomy on this self titled release. More than a decade and half of being together (and losing bandmates on the way), the album is remarkably distanced from their previous works. Yet in ways more than one, it continues to stay grounded in what they have come to stand for. Being the ‘soul sister’ for Radiohead across the Atlantic, the spaced out guitar work smeared on the album levitates you mightily “Deeper Down” with its spooky texture. Much of Wilco’s influence is stuck in the 60s. “Solitaire” with its acoustic guitar work and two part vocals reminds you in a vague manner of the Simon and Garfunkel style of country music. The opener “Wilco (The Song)” with its chugging 60s style guitaring provides excellent assurance in the form of frontman Tweedy’s voice, while “Bull Black Nova” sucks you with its sparse staccato beats into the vortex of a storm waiting to happen. The only track which doesn’t quite go with the overall structure is “You and I”. But that’s more because of the change of subject to love and longing rather than musical style. Canadian queen Feist provides perfect company on vocals here. And though some might find this album somewhat digressional from its predecessors, but then just like Tweedy says on “You Never Know” – “I don’t care anymore”.
After spending almost a decade with popular alternative act Matchbox Twenty, front man Rob Thomas embarked on a solo career. The stupendous success of partnering with Santana on “Smooth” would have surely provided him the much needed impulsion for his debut solo album “Something to Be”. While most of his life he has been thrashing angst through his vocals, grinding his larynx, on “Cradlesong” he decidedly takes a slightly easier approach. The album is more pop than rock. He really doesn’t need to prove a point here because he has effused much higher decibels of energy in his previous avatars. Which is why when you see him dealing with issues of love and relationships on most songs, it doesn’t really seem to be as revolting. He serenades with a “Cradlesong” to a fictional beloved, who occupies much of his imagination elsewhere. “Her Diamonds” contains enough salt to prove itself as the lead single, with its pop guitar hooks set atop subtle African percussions. No wonder, it is already moving up the charts steadily. The infectious bass line on “Natural” sets you at ease as you proceed ahead, and hit the thrashing brass highs on “Wonderful”. Later on the album though, he turns a bit more somber by resorting to country aided folk tunes on “Getting Late” and “Years from Now”, both of them apparent indications of how he is catching up with fleeting time at his age.
RATM guitarist Tom Morello adds another side project to his already existing alter ego as the Nightwatchman. Teaming up with Boots Riley (ex The Coup, an influential rap group from the 90s), he forges their political inclinations to form SSSC. It isn’t much of political message on their self titled debut album, but more of scathing incisiveness being leveled at the mega financial corporations which bought about the downfall of the global economy. The lead single “100 Little Curses” personifies the message in the form of well aimed shots from a quiver filled with mocking jabs ranging from damning their bubbly to wrecking their stretch limo. Boots has his way with words, both as a rapper and poet. The elegiac verses on “The Oath” begins with his poetic ruminations which are full of vivid metaphors before progressing into a chorus which undeniably has the catchiest hook to have come out this year (alright muthafucka, fight muthafucka…), and fails to leave you even long after in the form of echoes in your head. Similar is the effect of ‘Clap for the Killers’, a biting diatribe which pokes fun at politicians and pseudos. ‘Fight, Smash, Win’ though does bring back memories of Morello’s time with Rage. His guitar work contains the same punch now, though it has just mellowed down, in keeping with his current vocalist’s delivery style. With a relevant message, it is to be seen how deep the groove lines etch a mark.
Some grow up faster than most others. For Paolo Nutini, the journey from being a teenager making foot tapping pop melodies to a grown up adult belting out some seriously mature music has taken all of just two years. His second album “Sunny Side Up” released recently stands in stark contrast to his 2006 debut on “These Streets”, which contained the chart topping singles “New Shoes” and “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty”. Paolo’s may have been born a Scotsman, but on his second album, it feels as if his lineage includes a mix of American country and Caribbean soul. Just like something between a Dylan and a Marley. The ska infused opener “10/10” immediately registers the maturity in direction Nutini has acquired, and puts this song as one of the best on the album. The lead single “Candy” follows closely enough, with some moving work on the chords. Paolo draws inspiration from multiple genres and blends them all in. The swing inspired “Pencil Full of Lead”, the country beats led “Simple Things”, the soulful “High Hopes” – all give testimony to the talents of this prodigious lad. He doesn’t forget his roots though, with Scottish country tunes on “Worried Man” and “Tricks of the Trade”. For detractors of his debut work, this is sure to make them sit up and take notice. With a direction set well now, this album should shine as his coming of age work.
Growing up amongst the brothers who made up Golden Period of Hip Hop, Mos Def has seen it all. And to a large extent, made much of it all too. His groundbreaking album “Black on Both Sides” cemented his reputation as one of the most in demand MCs known to us in the recent past. His artistic transgressions (read acting), it seems however weren’t allowing him to follow it up with a worthy successor. The wait has been well worth it. Because “The Ecstatic” has everything which is needed to make it one of the best hip hop records to have been released this year. Working with some of the most prolific producers, he has crafted beats and verses which derive influences from places as diverse as Bollywood (“Auditorium”), Middle East (“Wahid”), and Latin America (“No Hay Nada Mas”). A shooter of a track on this album is the opening “Supermagic” which begins with an Islamic incantation (more to do with his faith probably, because “Wahid” begins on a similar note too). A surprise waits on “Auditorium”, which features quaint Bollywood samples from the long forgotten 70s movies and Mos Def humming the tunes under his breath. Some beautiful pieces filled with sarcasm are used to good effect as samples on a few tracks (“The Embassy”), which don’t fail to leave a sly smirk. As you move towards conclusion, don’t miss out on the contagious R&B on “Roses” and the energetic funk moves on “Casa Bey”.
Fist of God - MSTRKRFT 
It’s Not Me, It’s You - Lily Allen 
Dark Night of the Soul - Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, David Lynch 
