Wednesday's Emotional Setup: Mahgeetah
My dad's favourite band is the Allman Brothers. So I grew up with a fair amount of exposure to (good) Southern rock. Something about it is like comfort food to me now.
In other news, there's recently been a small debate amongst Stylus staffers about whether your list of "favourite" records versus your list of "best" records are any different, and more importantly whether they _should_ be. I think they are, and I don't think that's a problem.
My Morning Jacket and their new album It Still Moves is a perfect example. I think it's one of the best of the year, and one of my favourites as well. But it does rank differently. If I'm trying out "best", it's top ten, maybe top five.
If I'm doing "favourite" it's number two with a bullet, directly behind Elefant's Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid (another example of the same phenomena - I connect to it emotionally, but I don't think most people would, and absent that, it's just a good, competent, strokesy record). It's southern rock, tons of reverb (they record singer Jim James in an empty silo, ferchrissake) and lots of good music that reminds me of the stuff I heard growing up.
The first track, 'Mahgeetah', is a highlight. Stretches out to almost six minutes, complete with big ending breakdown. I love the way James' voice (which is great) expands during the line "So, are you ready to go, my lady?" I love the riffs. I love the reverb. It's classic sounding with grace and humility.
But I'm not to pretend that I expect everyone else to like it as much as I do. I could see, in a different context how the beginning could seem mannered, the ending bombastic, etc. I think you'd be wrong if you felt that way. But I could understand nonetheless.
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In other news, there's recently been a small debate amongst Stylus staffers about whether your list of "favourite" records versus your list of "best" records are any different, and more importantly whether they _should_ be. I think they are, and I don't think that's a problem.
My Morning Jacket and their new album It Still Moves is a perfect example. I think it's one of the best of the year, and one of my favourites as well. But it does rank differently. If I'm trying out "best", it's top ten, maybe top five.
If I'm doing "favourite" it's number two with a bullet, directly behind Elefant's Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid (another example of the same phenomena - I connect to it emotionally, but I don't think most people would, and absent that, it's just a good, competent, strokesy record). It's southern rock, tons of reverb (they record singer Jim James in an empty silo, ferchrissake) and lots of good music that reminds me of the stuff I heard growing up.
The first track, 'Mahgeetah', is a highlight. Stretches out to almost six minutes, complete with big ending breakdown. I love the way James' voice (which is great) expands during the line "So, are you ready to go, my lady?" I love the riffs. I love the reverb. It's classic sounding with grace and humility.
But I'm not to pretend that I expect everyone else to like it as much as I do. I could see, in a different context how the beginning could seem mannered, the ending bombastic, etc. I think you'd be wrong if you felt that way. But I could understand nonetheless.
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