This Gaudy Gilded Stage

I’ve already written about my favorite albums of last year. I’ve always listened to a lot of music, but 2007 was a particularly musical year for me. Throughout the year, I accumulated a group of song that I really love, so I thought that I would share a list of my favorite songs too.

Number 1: I can’t decide what my favorite song of the year would be, so I picked two: Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” and “Love is a Losing Game.” These are the best tracks on her hit album, and I think they both illustrate her blend of retro and contemporary music styles quite well. Here’s a live version of “Back to Black:”

Here’s the official video of “Love is a Losing Game”:

I really hope Amy Winehouse is able to pull it together and cut another great album. I think she’ s immensely talented. It would be a shame for that talent to go to waste.

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I’ve spent the past week working like a dog. Classes have started, I have various service commitments, and I’m finishing up an essay for my colleagues to read for our departmental colloquium on Friday.

As I’ve worked, I’ve been listening to albums from last year. I’ve been struck by just how many I bought or received last year, at least fifteen. Listening to them all together — or at least one after the other — has also reminded me just how much I listened to this past year and how much I loved some of the musicians I heard for the first time, including such artists as Amy Lavere, Bright Eyes, Diana Damrau, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Paulo Nutini, and Feist, just to name the ones whose albums I have. If I listed artists whose singles or videos I liked, I’d be here for the rest of the afternoon!

One outcome of this past week has been identifying my five favorite albums of last year, which I’ll briefly write about here. Later, I hope to blog about my favorite tracks and videos too.

My favorite album of 2007 was Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. The album came out in England before it was officially released here in the U.S., so it feels like Winehouse has been around longer than she actually has been. I think this is a brilliant album that combines old school wind instruments and 50’s beats with twenty-first century lyrics. Winehouse has been in the news more for her lifestyle than for her music lately, but this album is too good to be forgotten — it deserves to be remembered regardless of where Winehouse goes from here. I reviewed the album when I first bought it; you can read my review here.

Number two on my list is Mika’s Life in Cartoon Motion. While Mika is still being cagey about his sexual orientation, this is nevertheless one of the gayest albums I’ve ever heard, which is what I love about it. This is pop music at its fluffy best. Surprisingly, perhaps, it’s his “gay” track, “Billy Brown,” that I like least on this album. His other songs are fun, entertaining, and interesting. I’ve seen him perform on Graham Norton’s BBC talk show a couple of times. He also looks like he would be fun to see live. I’ve also reviewed his album previously.

Rufus Wainwright’s recreation of Judy Garland’s famous and highly praised Carnegie Hall concert, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, is number three on my list. Let’s start with the obvious: despite what I say about Mika above, this has to be the gayest album ever recorded. To quote Molly Shannon’s SNL character, “I love it, I love it, I love it!” I’ve always been a bit of a Judy Garland queen, even though I’m a little young to be one. I attribute it to my parents’ refusal to watch any movie made after 1959 when I was a kid. Wainwright sings the same set list as Garland used in her concert, but also gives this music his own personality and artistry. He does kind of channel Garland, but he also “makes it his own,” to quote American Idol. It’s a great concert album, and Wainwright’s voice is perfect for most of these standards. My one objection is to his butchering of one of my favorite Garland songs, “Do It Again,” which he sings in the original key that Garland used. It’s a little too high for him, and I think the song loses something as a result. But just about every other track is a gem, so I’m willing to forgive this one misstep.

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I was watching Logo earlier and saw part of the top ten music videos for the week. One of the videos was Cazwell’s “Watch My Mouth:”

Cazwell is a gay rap artist. On hs website he lists The Beastie Boys as one of his influences; I can definitely see how they have affected his music. In addition, I really like his self-conscious requeering of the aesthetic used by Eminem, but where Eminem is arguably homophobic in his music and self-representation, Cazwell certainly queers the white, urban street-tough imagery. As his website states,

His propulsive beats and tongue-twisting rhymes are carving out a new musical style, while his streetwise fashion sense and eye-popping videos serve up visual panache to match. Cazwell’s art isn’t about lifestyle with a lower case L, the type you purchase off-the-rack after reading a magazine article, but a Style of Life, one which celebrates everyday existence, from his first waking moments to the hazy, shady episodes that unfold in the wee small hours.

I’m immediately fascinated by his aesthetic, as expressed in his lyrics, videos, and fashion sense. Plus, he’s hot. He’s doing something really interesting, something that I think would work as a discussion topic in my gay lit class next quarter. We won’t be reading any recent gay literature, so maybe I’ll show them a couple of Cazwell’s videos and use them to start a conversation about twenty-first century gay male identities, politics, and sexuality.

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I can’t believe that Jill Scott‘s new album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, came out in September and I forgot to buy it! I finally bought it yesterday and have been listening to it as much as possible ever since. Scott is one of my favorite artists, and I’ve loved all of her albums so far. This one is no exception.

Here’s the first video from the album, “Hate on Me:”

One of the things I like about Jill Scott’s music is its sexy wordiness. Her lyrics are definitely about adult experiences, desires, and relationships without being trashy. Take, for example, the lyrics to “Crown Royal:”

Your hands on my hips pull me right back to you, I
Catch that thrust give it right back to you, you’re
in so deep I’m breathing for you, you
Grab my braids arch my back high for you your
Diesel engine, I’m squirting mad oil ah
Down on the floor til my speaker starts to boil

I like that sings about having sex with the man she loves in such explicit terms. As one of her earlier songs asserted, she is not afraid to tell it like it is. She keeps it real. This is definitely an honest album.

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As a kid, one of my favorite singers was John Denver. I was too young to think of him in these terms, but I’m sure he was one of my first crushes. This past Friday was the tenth anniversary of his death. He died in a plane crash on October 12, 1997. He was only 53 years old.

I heard “Annie’s Song” playing in Kroger yesterday, and it reminded me of how much I had loved him as a kid. I’ve been intending to get a copy of his greatest hits or something, and hearing him yesterday finally gave me the impetus to do so. So, I’ve been listening to his music while I’ve been working on an article (on something entirely unrelated).

What strikes me about him now, not having listened to his music for such a long time, is just how pure his voice sounds. I’m also impressed by how sincere his lyrics come across as he sings them. He reminds me of Kate Wolf, another great folk singer. Denver acted in movies, like Oh God, and appeared on numerous television shows, mostly notably The Muppets. But it’s his music that endures.

“Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and “Sunshine on My Shoulder” are all so iconic. Listening to them now definitely makes me nostalgic for the 1970s. I love his hair in some of these old videos!

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I finally downloaded Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Of course her singles and very public personal problems with drugs and bulimia have been all over the place for the past six months or so. I wasn’t too keen on “Rehab” when I first heard it, but I loved “You Know I’m No Good.” So, I checked out some of her other tracks on Youtube and decided that I liked her sound enough to buy the whole album. Here’s “You Know I’m No Good:”

Since buying the album, I’ve fallen in love with two additional tracks, “Love Is a Losing Game” and “Tears Dry on Their Own.” While she has a basic retro sound in all of her music, these tracks show how diverse that sound can actually be. “Love is a Losing Game” is a quiet, simple song that uses that quietness and simplicity to express such pathos about love, while “Tears Dry on Their Own” is almost an anthem of the self-sufficient woman who can get over failed love and start anew. Its up-tempo chorus is really catchy and triumphant.

Here’s “Tears:”

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It all started with seeing La Vie en Rose last month. Afterwards, I was looking on YouTube for a clip of Edith Piaf singing the song from which the movie takes its title. I found it, but I also stumbled across this clip:

This clip is from Grace Jones’s “A One Man Show” from 1982. I think her version of this classic song is genius, and now I’m obsessed with her music. She’s clearly a brilliant performance artist.

I only barely remember Grace Jones from the early ’80s. She started as a vocalist in the late ’70s and then moved on to modeling and movies (campy pics like Conan the Destroyer, Vamp, and the James Bond film, A View to a Kill). She is, of course, known for her androgyny. Hers was an incredibly influential look, and I read that her severe haircut influenced men’s haircuts throughout the ’80s. Here’s what the Christian Science Monitor says about her:

Grace Jones took the disco world by storm with her predatory poses, flashy style, and androgenous looks. Her music mixed punk energy with reggae rhythm.

Ms. Jones was born in Spanishtown, Jamaica, in 1952, but moved to Syracuse, N.Y., at age 12. She became a top model in her early 20s. In 1977, her debut single, “I need a man,” became a disco classic. Several successful albums followed.

After disco’s demise, Jones became a pop star and a poster girl for the ’80s nightclub scene. “Slave to the Rhythm” (1985) was her most enduring album. She also pursued performance art and starred in films, including “A View to a Kill” (1985) and “Conan the Destroyer” (1984).

I’ve been listening to a collection of her early hits for the past week or so. So far, my favorite tracks, besides “La Vie en Rose” are “Libertango,” “Pull Up to the Bumper,” “Breakdown,” and “My Jamaican Guy.”

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Last night, PJ and I went to Rufus Wainwright’s concert at the Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in Columbus. We’d been to this venue once before to see Natalie Merchant. In general, I think it’s a good place to see smaller bands — it’s not too big, you can get pretty close to the stage, and they serve beer and other drinks. This time, we sat in section A row J.

As you can see, that means we were fairly close to the stage. It’s an outdoor venue, so the problem this time was the weather: it was so hot. Add the heat to the fact that the seats are relatively small and bound together and you get a very uncomfortable concert. I had the added difficulty of having to share about a third of my seat with the guy next to me, who took up more room than his own seat provided. Even after sunset, it was terribly hot.

But the concert itself was great. There were two opening acts. The first was A Fine Frenzy, which is the stage name used by Alison Sudol. Here’s a sample of her music:

Her set was pretty short and took place in the blazing sun. But especially considering the heat, she did a great job getting the crowd ready for the subsequent acts. (PJ and I also really liked her drummer, who impressively played percussion and a guitar on one song!)

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