VZ Magazine

It’s getting more and more obvious to me that years, musically, are like the Star Trek movies: the odd numbered ones are the best. (I’m actually not a Star Trek fan at all; that’s just the best comparison I could come up with). For me, 2008 was a major year for music. M83, TV on the Radio, Portishead, and Vampire Weekend were the bands that helped me discover my love for new music after I’d spent two years obsessed with the British Invasion that had occurred thirty years before I was even born. So, to my disappointment, 2009 was a much lamer year. Everybody was clamoring for Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, The xx, and Dirty Projectors. I didn’t like any of that, so I felt very alienated that year (although it did produce some music that I absolutely loved). Then, 2010 came along. Suddenly, I was into it again. I didn’t like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or Sir Lucious Left Foot at all, but between Robyn, Avi Buffalo, The Roots, and Love Is All, it was possibly the best year for music since I’ve been alive.

This incredible year was followed by (what else?) 2011. Once again, I just couldn’t get into it. I began working on my “1,001 greatest albums” project and, as the year went by, I began to wonder if any albums from that year were going to make it (some did). But before I knew it, the year was done and, within the first month of 2012, I was greeted by First Aid Kit’s The Lion’s Roar and the best album Leonard Cohen has put out since I’m Your Man. This is already looking like a great year in the making and, just to prove it, the year has forced me to make a fool out of myself.

In my review of The Lion’s Roar, I wondered how long it would take before an album would be able to top that on my best-of-the-year list. Two weeks. It took two weeks for an album to top it. Apparently, 2012 thought I was denying its awesome power, and decided to show me up. ‘I’ll show you,’ 2012 said. ‘Here’s Dr. Dog!’

Here is Dr. Dog with their seventh album, Be the Void. To be honest, I’d heard of Dr. Dog in the past, but I never really listened to them. I do this often, and I always end up wanting to hit myself in the head when it happens. In this band’s case, however, I may have done myself a favor by waiting until now to listen to them. While their older work is good, Be the Void is excellent. The first track, “Lonesome,” is as perfect as folky indie gets, and the album just gets better and better as it goes on. “How Long Must I Wait” is my favorite, a build-up song that pays in full with an incredible ending chant of the title phrase. Then, there’s “Vampire,” “Big Girl,” “Warrior Man.” Honestly, I love almost every song here, and I still enjoy the hell out of those that I don’t.

If there’s one band I would compare Dr. Dog to, it would be Foxy Shazam. They also released an album earlier this year, which I rather liked. Both bands share the same concept, paying tribute to old rock and roll without ignoring the fact that they are 21^st century bands. However, I prefer Dr. Dog’s version of this sound, because they don’t seem as nostalgic. Foxy Shazam relies on their influences; every song seems to be saying, “Remember this? Weren’t those good times?” Dr. Dog hardly even seem to be aware of how ‘60s-reminiscent their music is; they just play their music and, if it sounds like a certain band or influenced by a certain era, so be it. As long as it sounds alright.

I learned three things from this album:

1. Always listen to any band that has the slightest chance of being good.

2. Eric Slick is one of the best indie drummers today, on par with Chris Tomson and Brian Chase.

3. Never challenge a year's greatness, because it will make you look like an idiot.

Since I was fifteen, I’ve wanted to write about music. Now I’m eighteen, and I am working hard at making that dream a reality. VZ Magazine is a blessing, as far as I’m concerned. I tried writing reviews for Sputnik a while back, but that’s practically pointless. Like any major internet site, the most you’ll get there is people criticizing your writing without explaining why they didn’t like it. So, after a few reviews, I stopped. 

I began writing for my town’s local newspaper last October, and that’s been pretty great. People I don’t even know tell me they enjoy my writing, so at least it’s a step above Sputnik. But, VZ is the best writing experience I’ve had, because their audience is made up of music fans, big (at least bigger than my audience with the newspaper), and polite. I’ve loved writing for them, and I will continue to do so, at least until their audience becomes more like Sputnik’s (which I hope it never does). 

But, the main writing project I’ve been working on is a list of the 1,001 greatest albums of all time, which has been in production since about a year ago. This project is a follow up to Dave Marsh’s 1989 book, The Heart of Rock and Soul. In the book, he lists the 1,001 greatest singles, which he believes to represent the heart of popular music. 

I disagree with this idea. To me, singles and albums are both completely necessary, and to put an artist like Television on a lower scale than James Brown just because they excel at different formats is ridiculous. So, I decided to make a list of the greatest albums of all time and, to give singles artists their due, I’ve decided to include many compilations from artists like Sam and Dave, Manfred Mann, and The Shirelles.

This project has been in the making for a long time, and I am thinking it’ll be ready to be posted in April (I hope). It is more about the writing than the list, so I’ll be posting it as a blog series: ten albums a day, every day, for a hundred days. Since VZ has been my primary way of getting my writing seen, I’ve decided to inform their readers of this.

My blog can be found here: http://www.hyperstation.net/ (It’s very incomplete; I haven’t had much time to work on it.) I will be posting updates about the project, articles, and reviews that I decide not to post on VZ, before ultimately posting the list.

I’d like to thank everybody for reading.

A couple tracks into First Aid Kit’s The Lion’s Roar, I decided to start my “best of the year” lists early. That’s how much I love it. The album came in first on the albums list (I have been too busy working on a writing project for the past month and haven’t had much time to listen to new music) and the song “Emmylou” came in first on the songs list… well, at least until I got to “This Old Routine.” Then, that song shot up to number one.

It’s when I hear an album I really love that I decide to start my lists, just so I can put it at number one, and see if any albums can top it. It’s sad to see an album you love move to the number two, or number three, or number four spot; it’s more bittersweet, actually, since it means another record was good enough to top it. I’m sure a few albums will come out that I’ll like better than this one (we’re just exiting the first month of the year, after all), but I also know one thing: had the album been released last year, it would have easily made my top ten.

First Aid Kit is a folk duo composed of two Swedish sisters, Johanna and Klara Söderberg. As somebody whose great-grandparents came to Ellis Island from Stockholm, I must ask… what the hell is it with Sweden? Are the people from there just musically talented by blood, or something? There was ABBA, Love Is All, Robyn, and now these two sisters, who’ve released an album that should make almost every single person on the country charts jealous. Sweden has wonderful food, wonderful people, and wonderful pop music, which are three of the best things in life. Needless to say, I am proud of my ancestry.

Now, where was I? Ah, yes. Johanna and Klara Söderberg. It’s sad enough that an indie-folk duo hailing from Sweden shows more of a country influence than most country stars (today’s country is basically just modern rock with a Southern twang and lyrics about barbeques). But, the saddest part is their ages: Johanna is twenty-one and Klara is eighteen. Eighteen! On “Emmylou,” they sing: “I’ll be your Emmylou/And I’ll be your June/And you’ll be my Gram/And my Johnny, too.” A Gram/Emmylou and a Johnny/June reference in the same song? Where have these girls been all my life? Well, considering Klara was born the same year as me, probably doing the same things I was doing, mixed with actually starting the band I only talked about starting.

But, Johanna and Klara aren’t just retro for the sake of being retro. They back up their country sound with songs good enough to be sung by Emmylou and June themselves and, meanwhile, they show off their great vocal and harmony skills. As I mentioned before, “This Old Routine” is my favorite track on the album. The best part of this song is a high note during the chorus that, even after my fifth time listening to the song, still gives me chills.

Looking at their Wikipedia page (shut up, it’s not like books and other websites have any less a chance of being inaccurate), it says that they have been compared to Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom. I don’t hear it. Where Fleet Foxes flaunt their folkie sound on albums constructed with prog-rock pretention and Joanna Newsom flaunts hers with tracks so overlong that you find yourself checking the clock, Johanna and Klara make songs. Actual songs that don’t take ten minutes to get their points across. First Aid Kit isn’t here to satisfy Pitchfork (whose Rachael Maddux wrote an awful, but positive, review of the album). They’re here to make music and, at a time when somebody can be called a musical genius for making glitchy keyboard sounds, we need songs.

Leave it to the Swedes to take rock and roll back.