The song at #57 on my list of 100 Best Songs of the 2010s is “Fever” by The Black Keys. Originally hailing from Akron, Ohio, but based in the music city of Nashville since 2010, The Black Keys consists of childhood friends Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. The duo have been putting out fantastic music for nearly 20 years, and I love many of their songs – two of which are included on this list. The first of them is “Fever”, released in March 2014 as the lead single from their eighth studio album Turn Blue.
The song, along with many of the tracks on Turn Blue, was co-written and co-produced with noted producer Danger Mouse. The recording sessions for the album coincided with Auerbach’s divorce from his wife, which inspired many of the album’s lyrics. The songs on Turn Blue are generally more melancholy and introspective than those on their previous album El Camino, and represented a continuation of the duo’s departure from their earlier blues/garage rock roots, much to the chagrin of some of their fans.
“Fever” has a slicker, psychedelic rock vibe, with an infectious dance beat and greater use of lush, throbbing synths in addition to driving guitar riffs and snappy drums. And that deep bass line is fantastic! The song was nominated for two Grammy Awards, for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. “Fever” was one of my favorite songs of 2014, and was a big hit on the Billboard Alternative, Adult Alternative and Rock Airplay charts, spending 11 weeks at #1 on the Alternative chart. Unbelievably, it peaked only at #77 on the Hot 100.
The unusual video features Auerbach portraying a sweaty televangelist preaching to an audience as drummer Patrick Carney sits nearby.
Predictions that rock is a dying genre have been made for years, and despite the fact that not much of it seems to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart anymore, there’s still a lot of really great rock music being produced by musicians in America and around the world. One act doing their part to keep rock alive and well is Nashville, Tennessee band The Ivins. Consisting of brothers Jim and Jack Ivins (with Jim on guitars & vocals and Jack on drums), Hatton Taylor on lead guitar, and Regan Akers on bass & vocals, they make a hard-hitting, guitar-heavy style of rock they refer to as “Loud Alternative”. I’ve featured them twice on this blog, first in June 2017 when I reviewed their phenomenal debut album The Code Duello, then again in April 2019 with the review of their single “Certain”. (You can read those reviews by clicking on the links under “Related” at the end of this post.)
Earlier this year, they released a beautiful cover of Halsey’s song “Graveyard”, then followed in July with “Composure”, a song addressing personal serenity and overcoming anxiety that was written and recorded remotely during the COVID-19 quarantine. Now they’re back with “Bloom“, the second in a series of singles they plan to release every two months for the foreseeable future, and which will be featured on their forthcoming second album Conditions. 2020 also saw The Ivins earn a nomination for Best Alt Rock band at this year’s Nashville Industry Music Awards, and Jim Ivins spearheaded a Nashville-centric collaborative album called Quarantunes, which featured more than 50 Nashville musicians, including members of Florida Georgia Line, 3 Doors Down, Daughtry, Tonic, Relient K, CKY, Accept and The Dear Hunter.
“Bloom” is another rousing banger, with an onslaught of jangly and reverb-soaked gnarly riffs delivered by Jim and Hatton’s dual intertwining guitars. Regan drives the powerful rhythm forward with his pummeling bass line while Jack smashes his drum kit with his signature brute force. The blistering guitar solo in the bridge is terrific, as are Jim’s fervent vocals as he sings of his love and devotion to someone who makes him a better person: “That you are with me is just all I need to know. You are the water that makes all my dead leaves grow and cleansed them from poison to thrive in bloom.” He told me that the song was inspired “from personal experience in being a very lost person kind of floating through life, and how it really only takes one person and one connection to turn everything around.
The song at #58 on my list of 100 Best Songs of the 2010s is “Closer” by British electro-rock band IAMWARFACE. The London & Brighton-based act are among my favorite indie bands making music today, and I’ve featured them on this blog many times over the past four-plus years. Their aggressive name is a fitting metaphor for their bombastic, groove-based sound, and I love every single one of their songs, beginning with their explosive debut single “Say My Name” in 2016. But my favorite is their monumental song “Closer” which literally stunned me the first time I heard it in 2018.
The fiercely beautiful track opens with ominous throbbing synths that slowly build into a dramatic otherworldly soundscape, enveloping us as band vocalist Matt Warneford wearily implores to someone with whom he seems to have an obsessive and destructive relationship: “Who, who am I? I’m just living to die. This old night, when it comes, I’ll be free of these old bones.” With that, the music erupts into a maelstrom of grinding synths, fuzzy guitars, buzz-saw bass, and thunderous percussion, punctuated by almost violently crashing cymbals that emphasize the intense feelings of abject desolation expressed in the bitter lyrics. Warneford’s intense vocals are filled with despair and resignation over a love affair that now lies in tatters. “Feel I’m walking on shattered glass. This romance just has to end, to reset, erase, begin again.” The song is incredible, and leaves me covered with chills every time I hear it.
The dark video, which was filmed in stark black and white in a decrepit, abandoned warehouse, has a gothic quality that’s at once disturbing and breathtaking. Warneford is shown singing the song while a ghostly Simona Martini, dressed in a torn and dirty gossamer gown, does a stylized, almost tortured modern ballet dance. It’s absolutely brilliant.
I’ve been participating in an album draft conducted by fellow blogger Hans for his excellent blog slicethelife, in which I, along with he and eight other bloggers, have been choosing some of our favorite albums. The latest category was ‘greatest hits or compilations’. I have a lot of greatest hits albums in my collection, as there are a number of artists and bands who had several songs I love, but I didn’t want to necessarily buy any particular album of theirs. (I’ve purchased far too many albums because I loved a particular song or two, but then had to suffer listening to a lot of filler tracks, or else skip them altogether.) For those artists, a greatest hits compilation was the perfect choice for me, as I would then have all or most of their songs that I liked on one record.
My pick is “The Temptations: All the Million-Sellers”, which was released in 1981 by Motown as one of their series of ‘Motown Compact Classics’. While not necessarily my favorite ‘greatest hits’ album, I chose this particular compilation over others in my collection because it contains only 10 songs, every one of which I love and consider to be the very best by the Temptations. Frankly, many of the greatest hits albums I own still contain at least a few of what I feel are throwaway songs. With this compilation, there’s no need for me to skip over any tracks. I also like that the tracks are arranged in chronological order, which I think is essential for all ‘greatest hits’ compilations, as it gives us a better feel for how the artist or group’s music evolved over time.
Track listing:
My Girl
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
I Wish it Would Rain
Cloud Nine
Runaway Child, Running Wild
I Can’t Get Next to You
Psychedelic Shack
Ball of Confusion
Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone
The Temptations are one of the longest-running music acts, active in one form or another since their origins in 1960! They were known for their precise choreography, stylish suits, distinctive harmonies, and the fact that they were a true ensemble, in which all five members’ vocals were prominently featured on many of their songs. Like the Beatles were for rock music, the Temptations were a major influence for many male R&B and soul acts to follow in their footsteps.
The group’s lineup has changed numerous times over the years, but their lineup during their early ‘classic’ period of 1964-68 consisted of David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams (no relation to Paul), Eddie Kendricks and Melvin Franklin. Gruff-voiced vocalist Ruffin sang the first three hits listed above, but was kicked out of the band in 1968 due to his increasing cocaine abuse and numerous disagreements with fellow band members. He was replaced by Dennis Edwards, another gruff-voiced vocalist who sang lead on “Cloud Nine”, “I Can’t Get Next to You”, “Psychedelic Shack”, “Ball of Confusion” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”. Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams left in 1971, Kendricks to pursue a solo career and Williams for health reasons. Otis Williams is the last surviving founding member of the Temptations, and at 79 he continues to perform. He also owns the rights to the Temptations name.
I love their first big hit “My Girl”, but “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” is just so damn catchy. And you gotta love those smooth dance moves!
One of my favorites of their songs is “I Can’t Get Next to You”, which was their second single to reach #1, in 1969. I especially love the opening where we first hear clapping and yelling, then Dennis Edwards says “Hey everybody, hold it hold it, listen”, followed by a jazzy little piano riff before the song kicks in. I also like that all five members’ vocals are prominently featured.
Perhaps their most beautiful song is the 1971 hit “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”, which was their third #1 single. By the early 70s, many of the Temptations longtime fans were frustrated by all the psychedelic songs with social and political themes they’d been releasing, most notably “Cloud Nine”, which touched on the struggles of living in poverty, with oblique references to using drugs as an escape, and “Ball of Confusion”, which touched on a litany of social, political and environmental problems of the day, many of which are still applicable 50 years later. These fans longed for songs more in the smoother R&B style of the group’s early days. In a 1991 interview, Eddie Kendricks recalled that many Temptations’ fans were “screaming bloody murder” after the group delved into psychedelia, demanding a return to their original soul sound.
Songwriting duo Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong had written the lyrics to “Just My Imagination” in 1969, and finally decided to have the group record it in late 1970, with Kendricks singing lead vocals. According to Wikipedia, the song was recorded in the midst of a bitter feud between Kendricks and the Temptations’ de facto leader, Otis Williams. Dissatisfied and frustrated with Williams’ leadership, Kendricks began to withdraw from the group, and picked several fights with either Williams or fellow band member Melvin Franklin. This would be the last song Kendricks (and Paul Williams) would sing with the Temptations.
The group’s fourth and final #1 hit – and in my opinion their best song ever – is the darkly gorgeous masterpiece “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”. Somewhat of a return to the group’s psychedelic soul sound orchestrated by Whitfield and Strong, the song was both a musical and stylistic departure for the Temptations. Beginning with an extended instrumental introduction lasting nearly four minutes (a style pioneered by artists like Isaac Hayes, and used in later songs like Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby”), each of the song’s three verses is separated by extended musical passages, in which Whitfield inserted various instrumental textures in and out of the mix. It’s like a psychedelic R&B symphony, which is probably why I love it so much. That said, the Temptations were reportedly unhappy that Whitfield’s instrumentation was given greater emphasis than their vocals on the track.
Lyrically, the song is about a now-deceased father who left his wife and family to lead a life of debauchery and crime. It was originally written by Whitfield and Strong for soul group The Undisputed Truth, whose recording of the song failed to attract attention. They then had the Temptations record it, and it became one of their biggest hits. Four of the group’s members were prominently featured on vocals, each taking the role of siblings questioning their mother about their father. Her repeated response, sung by Dennis Edwards, was chilling: “Papa was a rollin’ stone. Wherever he laid his hat was his home. And when he died, all he left us was alone.” For years, I’d assumed the falsetto vocals were by Eddie Kendricks, but I now know he’d left the band prior to the song’s recording, and those vocals were sung by Damon Harris.
Here is the long version of the song, with it’s extended instrumentals:
“My Girl”, “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)”, and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”, are included among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the Temptations at number 68 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of all time.
Four Thousand Miles is a unique rock band with an international pedigree, in that each of its four members are from a different country, hence their name ‘Four Thousand Miles’. They started out as a collaboration over the internet, and grew to become a music project after finding that each of their own unique styles blended well together. The four band members are Alex Fearn from Liverpool, England on vocals and rhythm guitar, Lionel Pacreau from Bordeaux, France on lead guitar, Alex May from Atlanta, Georgia, USA on drums, and Liam Sibbald from Prestatyn, Wales on bass.
They’ve gathered together on a number of occasions in Liverpool to record music and film videos, and released their excellent debut single “Lonely” this past Valentine’s Day. The followed up in April with “Reflections”, which I reviewed, and are back with their third single “Demon on the Run” which dropped on Halloween. Like their previous singles, the song was mixed and mastered by Simon Jackman at Outhouse Studios in Reading, Berkshire, and delivers more of their outstanding hard-hitting melodic rock.
The guys are all terrific musicians, and really up their game with “Demon on the Run”. It’s a beautiful rock song, with stellar dual guitar work by Pacreau and Fearn, highlighted by gorgeous chiming guitars in the verses alternating with bone-crushing riffs in the choruses. Sibbald drives the powerful rhythm forward with a deep, pulsating bass line while May smashes his drum kit with impressive force.
The heartfelt lyrics are a plea for help from someone experiencing an emotional breakdown, feeling isolated and alone in their struggle to try and overcome their demons. Fearn’s powerful vocals rise to the occasion as he passionately wails “Do you know, do you know at all, what it feels like to lose control? Do you know, do you know at all, what it was like when I needed a miracle, to help myself. There was nobody, nobody else. I was lost and scared, but never running away. A miracle. Nobody else was saving me from myself.“
The song at #59 on my list of 100 Best Songs of the 2010s is “Bang Bang” by Green Day. The legendary rockers proved their staying power with the 2016 release of their 12th studio album Revolution Radio, 26 years after their first album 39/Smooth in 1990. The album’s hard-hitting first single “Bang Bang” stays true to the band’s penchant for topical themes, with lyrics that speak to America’s culture of gun violence and mass shootings in an era of narcissistic social media: “I want to be a celebrity martyr. The little man in my own private drama. Hurrah (bang bang), hurrah (bang bang) the hero of the hour. Daddy’s little psycho and Mommy’s little soldier.”
The explosive song’s musical high points are Billie Joe Armstrong’s furious guitar riffs, Mike Dirnt’s pummeling bass line and Tré Cool’s awesome galloping drum solo. And Armstrong impassioned vocals sound even more angry and intense than they were on American Idiot. I love it!
The song at #60 on my list of 100 Best Songs of the 2010s is “Life Itself” by British psychedelic art pop band Glass Animals. They have a distinctly unique sound, and I really like their music. From their second album How To Be a Human Being, “Life Itself” is one of the most interesting and musically complex songs on this list and I adore it. The band employs all sorts of colorful instruments, from harps and tom toms to tambourines, piano and unusual guitar synths to create an exceptionally strong and exuberant track. Lead singer Dave Bayley’s distinctive vocals are hypnotic and mesmerizing, as are the cheeky lyrics about being a millennial slacker: “I can’t get a job, so I live with my mom. I take her money but not quite enough. I sit in the car, and I listen to static. She said I look fat, but I look fantastic.”
The rather intense and artfully-filmed official video made for the song is quite good, but seems to tell a different story than that described in the lyrics. Therefore, I’ll start with the audio video first so you can fully appreciate the sound of the song itself, then you can watch the official video if you so choose.
After more than five years of blogging about music – which enables me to learn about a least a few new artists or bands literally every day – I’m still surprised when I discover an artist who’s been putting out superb music for several years that I knew nothing about. Just goes to show how many talented artists and bands exist out there, making some really great music. One such artist is British singer-songwriter and guitarist Jono McCleery, who’s latest single “Call Me” – which dropped October 23rd – has captured my attention. He also released a beautiful accompanying video for the track on October 29th.
Based in London, McCleery was deaf until the age of four, unable to perceive any acoustic stimuli. But when he turned 11, he picked up a guitar for the first time and took to it immediately. He eventually became part of the lively London “underground” and a member of One Taste Collective (OTC), a project founded in 2004 to support musicians and poets of all styles. Some of the artists who emerged through the collective include Little Dragon, Jamie Woon, Kate Tempest and the Portico Quartet, all of whom McCleery has worked with.
As I do with all artists and bands I write about for the first time, I checked out McCleery’s back catalog of music – which is pretty extensive – to get a feel for his sound and style. After listening to quite a few of his songs, I can unequivocally state that I love his music. He plays an incredibly pleasing style of what I’d loosely call contemporary folk, though many songs feature elements of electronica, world music, shoegaze, dreampop, soul and jazz. His music is characterized by captivating melodies, lush but understated instrumentation and his warm, soothing vocals in a style that to my ears is reminiscent of such artists as Sufjan Stevens and James Blake.
His first release, in 2008, was his self-produced debut album Darkest Light, a collection of eight lovely acoustic folk tracks. He followed in 2011 with There Is, a stunning, more experimental work with a greater emphasis on world, electronic and jazzy elements, and featuring collaborations with renowned artists Fink and Vashti Bunyon. One of the album’s tracks, a mesmerizing cover of Black’s 1986 hit “Wonderful Life”, has been streamed more than 3.6 million times on Spotify.
2015 saw the release of his third album Pagodes, another beautiful work that received widespread acclaim. Deutschland Funk called it “a stroke of genius”, while Rolling Stone described it as a “flawless album”. And in 2018, he released Seeds of a Dandelion, a marvelous album of covers in which McCleery re-interpreted songs like Roy Davis Jr.’s dance classic “Gabriel”, the Cocteau Twins’ “Know Who You Are at Every Age”, Atoms For Peace’s “Ingenue” and Beyonce’s “Halo”, an enchanting track which has been streamed over 8.8 million times on Spotify. Webzine Line of Best Fit called the album “a strong collection of songs, made with the upmost respect for its inspirations.”
Now he returns with “Call Me”, the second single from his forthcoming fifth album Here I Am and There You Are, set for release on November 20th via the Ninety Days Records label. The album, which McCleery recorded in just four days with the help of a few musician friends, is an homage to the Afro-American jazz musician Terry Callier, who died in 2012. I’ve had an advance listen of the album, and it’s every bit as stunning as his previous works. “Call Me” was written and sung by McCleery, who also played guitar. Supporting musicians include Steve Pringle on keyboards, Milo Fitzpatrick on bass and Dan See on drums. Production and mixing was done by Brett Cox, and mastering by Emil Van Steenswijk.
The song touches on the struggles of separation and finding inner strength. McCleery explained his inspiration for the song: “When I revisited the song before recording the album, I decided to dedicate a verse to Terry Callier’s song ‘Dancing Girl’, and these are his lyrics: ‘I saw a dream last night, bright like a falling star, and the sources of light seemed so near, yet so far. I thought I was in flight out where the planets are, moving between day and night. Here I am, and there you are.’ And then more recently whilst listening to the album recordings as quietly as possible, that line ‘here I am and there you are’ stood out. And I decided to use it for the album title.“
The song has an enchanting, almost jazzy vibe that’s at once melancholy and beautiful. McCleery’s gently strummed guitar, accompanied by subtle bass and the softest of toe-tapping beats, immediately draws us in, and once he begins singing the poetic lyrics in his soothing vocals, we’re more than eager to follow along. The instrumentals become more lively and his vocals more earnest in the choruses, and I love the haunting little piano chords that enter halfway into the track.
The gorgeous video was produced by France-based screenwriter and videographer Giovanni Di Legami, and features clips from his movie Idem, starring actors Roxane Colson and Jean Yann Verton.
ECLECTIC MUSIC LOVER 