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Pop Rock Nation

Author: Pop Rock Nation

  • Still Slow, But Moving…

    The music industry is slowly waking up from it’s January slumber. No huge releases are scheduled out this week, but a couple of acts who have modest followings poke their heads out (just like the groundhog…what can I say, I’m early), including Grammy-nominated pop star Natasha Bedingfield. If you don’t know who Bedingfield is, you’ll remember her big hit “Unwritten”, which I believe is a shampoo commercial now? Anyway, her sophomore release, titled N.B. (how imaginative!!) hits stores today despite having been out in Natasha’s native U.K. for something like six months now. Allegedly, the British version is much better, having been sliced and diced to make it more “palatable for American audiences”, which is another way of saying people who do marketing for major American record labels don’t know their asses from their elbows.
    At any rate, there’s also a new covers album from indie darling Cat Power, a brand new CD from alt-country faves The Drive-By Truckers, and a new set from equally mellow Jack Johnson associate Matt Costa…perhaps whetting appetites for Johnson‘s own new set, which arrives in two weeks.
    Let’s take a quick side jaunt around the news for a sec to fill this out, huh?
    A news report quoted the Associated Press as saying that they’ve already created an obituary for Britney Spears. Now, I’m all for the Brit-bashing, but don’t you think that’s a bit creepy??
    The Writers’ Union has stated that they will NOT strike the Grammy Awards, happening in less than three weeks. With the Oscars under threat of being cancelled (and a less-than-stellar list of nominees), this may be the last major award show you see for quite some time. Although considering the list of nominees and scheduled performances (a list that so far only includes the overexposed Beyonce and the predictable Foo Fighters), this could potentially be a snoozefest.
    Finally, in the “this might be worth waiting for” department, George Michael (memba HIM?) is writing his memoirs-for the SECOND time. The pop superstar initially wrote an autobiography called “Bare” back in ’90, which wound up baring little at all. In the time since, he’s lost a lover tragically, fought with various record companies, torpedoed his own career, come out of the closet and gotten busted numerous times for drug or sex-related offenses. If George lets it all hang out, this could be really, REALLY good. Happy Tuesday!!

  • New Music Wrap-Up: January 15th, 2008

    Well, I spent yesterday telling you how worth it Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear reissue was. Hope you got it, ’cause ain’t a whole lot else coming out today!!
    January is typically the music industry’s equivalent of the graveyard shift, so I don’t have a hell of a lot to recommend to you. Among new releases, there’s a new album from Ringo Starr (who no one has cared about new music from in about 3 decades) and there’s the sophomore effort from neo-soul act Raheem DeVaughan, whose first album I liked well enough, but was annoyed by because it was copy-protected. Those of you into world music might also want to check out the new one from Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
    Far as reissues go, if you’re having a Nineties jones, you now have The Spice Girls’ Greatest Hits to satiate you. I figure if you’re dumb enough to spend hundreds of dollars on Spice Girls concert tickets, $10 for the CD will just be a drop in the bucket (yeah, I know that’s kind of mean…they’re probably worth a GH compilation). There’s also the same love songs compilations trotted out by the likes of Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin & Billie Holiday (to capitalize on that Valentine’s Day dollar) and…not much else.
    So, hopefully, in the event that you do make it out to a CD store today, you’ll at least find some good 2007 albums to catch up on!

  • "Here, My Dear": Revisited (An Appreciation)

    There have been many great breakup albums over the years. Most are not specifically related to the end of a relationship, but sound good when the lights are off and you’re sitting alone in your apartment with a bottle of Jack (see: White Ladder by David Gray). However, occasionally you’ll hear an album by an artist reeling from a breakup who has decided to put all his or her energies into documenting the end of a relationship and it’s aftermath. Examples of that would be Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love and Beck’s Sea Change.
    …And then there’s Marvin Gaye’s 1979 masterpiece Here, My Dear, an album that will leave you slack-jawed at it’s beauty as much as it will leave you scratching your head at it’s weirdness.
    A little backstory for you. Marvin’s first wife was Anna Gordy, the sister of Motown Records’ founder Berry. Their marriage ended acrimoniously in 1976, at which point Marvin was already dating the woman who would go on to be Mrs. Gaye #2, Janis Hunter. As part of the divorce settlement, Marvin was asked to record an album and donate a significant portion of the royalties to his soon-to-be ex-wife.
    I’m pretty sure Anna Gordy expected nothing like Here, which is essentially a musical document of their courtship, marriage and breakup. As such, it is one of the most lyrically forthright (and disturbing), honest albums ever recorded. Musically, it’s the equal of any album released by Marvin that decade (and if you’re reading this, I’m sure that you’re aware of how highly What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On figure in the lineup of classic albums).
    It’s disturbing to hear Marvin’s heavy inhaling and exhaling during the funky yet tortured “Anger”, even more so to hear him hear him ask “what I don’t understand/is if you loved me/how come you turned me in to the police?” in the jazzy suite “When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You?”. In between, Marvin grumbles about having to pay his ex’s attorney fees and not being allowed to see his child. He shouts out the year of the couple’s marriage and divorce in the middle of one song like a deranged carnival barker. He then dedicates a love song to Anna, practically howling her name with a mixture of desire and disappointment. By the album’s end, he’s “Falling In Love Again”, but after hearing him audibly go insane over the course of the album, you wonder if he’s just fooling himself, and if you know anything about Marvin’s tragic end less than six years after this album was recorded, you’ve gotta imagine that he probably was.
    Here, My Dear gets the deluxe two-disc tribute treatment from the folks at Hip-O Records tomorrow (1/15), with alternate takes and a second disc which assigns contemporary producers like Prince Paul and ?uestlove to the songs on this album. This album was excellent enough that I will be purchasing it for the THIRD time. Whether you’re a Marvin fan, an aficionado of soul music or someone who just loves artists that are unafraid to be honest in their work, I advise you to do the same.
    Here’s a Youtube clip of “Anger”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything with Marvin singing anything live from the album, so this will have to do: