Chris Listens To Music – CHRIS PHILPOTT

It is wild to think that Conor Oberst’s masterwork turns fifteen years old this week; it feels like just recently that I was enjoying the music video for this albums best song “Four Winds”: Conor and the band play the song – with its overtly anti-religious lyric; ‘The Bible’s blind, the Torah’s deaf, the Qu’ran is mute / If you burned them all together you’d get close to the truth,’ he sings as the second verse starts – in front of a crowd of bible-belt Americans who get increasingly angry, throwing rubbish on to the stage while they finish the song.

The video is a testament to how self-aware Oberst is; his music is punctuated by moments of real emotional truth (the opposite of Rex Orange County from yesterday). And it displays the disparity implicit in Bright Eyes’ music: the group are ostensibly a bluegrass-tinged folk band, but lyrically explore subject matter that their peers don’t tend to go near.

Cassadaga is named for a town in Florida which is (or was) commonly referred to as the ‘psychic capital of the world’, so no wonder the album is unapologetically spiritual.

My favourite track here is “No One Would Riot For Less”, an acoustic-driven ballad that explores destiny. Cassadaga is a beautiful album.

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CLTM (Chris Listens To Music) is my attempt to listen to a new album every day; you can follow my efforts on Instagram here (and send recommendations), and if you like what I’m doing, support my efforts by shouting me a cuppa at Buy Me A Coffee.

CLTM2022 #093: Rex Orange County – WHO CARES? (2022).

By cphilpott

On April 10, 2022

In Chris Listens To Music

Rex Orange County – the Orange is apparently pronounced with a soft G, like the start of orangutang – is a pop singer from Hampshire, England, who rose to fame following a collaboration with Tyler, The Creator on his hit album Flower Boy. And I know that sounds like an odd pairing, a rapper from California and a pop singer from Colin Firth’s hometown.

WHO CARES? is Rex’s third solo album; the singer recorded it with Dutch musician Benny Sings in just under a fortnight in Amsterdam, and it sounds like it. It is an album that sounds like very little care was taken with it. The beats are bland, straight-forward. The strings are completely overcooked, often distracting from the song in which they feature.

Lyrically, this is a completely risk free endeavour, the pathos on display recycled from a million other pop songs. ‘Girl, if you want it / There’s no good reason not to love if you want it,’ he sings on “If You Want It”. ‘7 AM, I’m wakin’ up / Guess that I shoulda kept the curtains shut / I’m gonna be a better man someday,’ he sings on “7AM”. Ugh.

Worse than all of this, WHO CARES? is boring. In a world when pop music is enjoying an explosion in popularity and creativity, this might be its worst sin of all.

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CLTM (Chris Listens To Music) is my attempt to listen to a new album every day; you can follow my efforts on Instagram here (and send recommendations), and if you like what I’m doing, support my efforts by shouting me a cuppa at Buy Me A Coffee.

CLTM2022 #092: Dream Widow – Dream Widow EP (2022).

By cphilpott

On April 9, 2022

In Chris Listens To Music

I have no intention of watching Studio 666, the horror comedy film the Foo Fighters released earlier this year. And, to be honest, I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to return to the Foo Fighters catalogue following the passing o+G101f Taylor Hawkins.

I haven’t been the biggest fan of the group in the last half dozen years, but Foo Fighters have been a big part of my music collection over the years. Honestly, I feel heartbroken that this might be the end of the group – I can’t imagine them just hiring a new drummer to replace Hawkins.

All of that said, I was curious to hear Dream Widow, the EP released to coincide with Studio 666 and supposedly recorded by a fictional band within the film. In reality, Dream Widow is almost entirely Dave Grohl: the Foos frontman plays guitar, bass and drums, and sings on the album, with a few appearances from Foos keyboardist Rami Jaffee and guitarist Jim Rota.

The result is a collection of tracks that is almost an homage to the thrash metal of thirty years ago. It’s a little bit Slayer (“March Of The Insane”, “Encino”), a little bit Metallica, a little bit Black Sabbath (“Cold”, “Becoming”), and a little bit Foo Fighters; you can’t help but hear it on “Angel With Severed Wings”.

You know what? It’s pretty fucking good, and its a testament to how talented Dave Grohl is. Honestly, I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed Medicine At Midnight last year. Its bittersweet to think this might be the last Grohl we hear for a while.

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CLTM (Chris Listens To Music) is my attempt to listen to a new album every day; you can follow my efforts on Instagram here (and send recommendations), and if you like what I’m doing, support my efforts by shouting me a cuppa at Buy Me A Coffee.

THIS IS NOT HIM. THIS IS HIS WEBSITE.

Category: Chris Listens To Music Page 1 of 26

CLTM2022 #094: Bright Eyes – Cassadaga (2007).

CLTM2022 #093: Rex Orange County – WHO CARES? (2022).

CLTM2022 #092: Dream Widow – Dream Widow EP (2022).