Music is a mirror of what's going on around us, locally, regionally, nationally, and finally globally. Music, like every other artistic expression, reflects on contemporary times one way or the other. Books, paintings, and of course music are to be comprehended in the social, cultural and political context, in which they are generated. The times are changing, and so is music. Is it? Well, sometimes it seems it isn't changing at all.
Take "Silver & Gold", Neil Young's latest CD. Listening to it for the first time sends you on a time-journey way back into the early 1970s, when he released "Harvest". The music seemed to be "out of time". Not saying "out of synch", because that's a completely different matter.
Not sure what Neil Young forced to record "Silver & Gold". Maybe he wants to show us that music is ... well, music. Just that. Perhaps he believes good music will survive any time machines, and any real fan of Neil Young will agree. But there's still this "deja-vu" experience with "Silver & Gold".
This CD is lovely, melancholic Neil Young, and it's all we've already listened to in the past decades. Nothing new ... which is probably the news he wants to convey.
A different thing is Douglas September's "IO" from 1999. This is a singer-songwriter of the exceptional class. His songs are haunting, his voice could make us feel paranoid, his lyrics are sometimes too much to swallow. This guy sounds so terribly "normal" that we may need to see our faces in the mirror to check whether there's a cat on our shoulders.
Douglas September generates the melange of emotional conditions and intellectual obsessions which reflect urban ways of life as much as urban ways of death. He does not circumvent any topic, he simply attacks it with the tools of music, arrangements, and lyrics. Arrangements, by the way, seem to be substantial for his performance. He's not as expressive as Jeff Buckley, his voice is simply too "simple", but he generates similar emotions.
Finally, two ladies of rock, who offer amazing music: Ani DiFranco and Aimee Mann. Ani DiFranco's "Up, up, up, up, up, up" (1999) is an exquisite collection of sounds, melodies, rhythms, and lyrics of a woman who knows how to play with music and how to play the music. She's an unbelievably talented musician, a playful singer, and serious producer of her own stuff.
Take "Silver & Gold", Neil Young's latest CD. Listening to it for the first time sends you on a time-journey way back into the early 1970s, when he released "Harvest". The music seemed to be "out of time". Not saying "out of synch", because that's a completely different matter.
Not sure what Neil Young forced to record "Silver & Gold". Maybe he wants to show us that music is ... well, music. Just that. Perhaps he believes good music will survive any time machines, and any real fan of Neil Young will agree. But there's still this "deja-vu" experience with "Silver & Gold".
This CD is lovely, melancholic Neil Young, and it's all we've already listened to in the past decades. Nothing new ... which is probably the news he wants to convey.
A different thing is Douglas September's "IO" from 1999. This is a singer-songwriter of the exceptional class. His songs are haunting, his voice could make us feel paranoid, his lyrics are sometimes too much to swallow. This guy sounds so terribly "normal" that we may need to see our faces in the mirror to check whether there's a cat on our shoulders.
Douglas September generates the melange of emotional conditions and intellectual obsessions which reflect urban ways of life as much as urban ways of death. He does not circumvent any topic, he simply attacks it with the tools of music, arrangements, and lyrics. Arrangements, by the way, seem to be substantial for his performance. He's not as expressive as Jeff Buckley, his voice is simply too "simple", but he generates similar emotions.
Finally, two ladies of rock, who offer amazing music: Ani DiFranco and Aimee Mann. Ani DiFranco's "Up, up, up, up, up, up" (1999) is an exquisite collection of sounds, melodies, rhythms, and lyrics of a woman who knows how to play with music and how to play the music. She's an unbelievably talented musician, a playful singer, and serious producer of her own stuff.
Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article New CDs for Neil Young, Douglas September, Ani DiFranco and Aimee Mann in Mainstream Rock Music is owned by . Permission to republish New CDs for Neil Young, Douglas September, Ani DiFranco and Aimee Mann in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
