The Unforgettable Fire, Miles Davis, and Miles Davis & The Unforgettable Fire

The Unforgettable Fire. It's not exactly an official press release, but as AtU2 reports, the bags used for merchandise at the European U2 shows are touting a remaster for one of my top-shelf desert-island albums this fall. The real surprise: they show not just a reissue but a box, suggesting a super-deluxe, 2CD/1DVD package similar to the Joshua Tree reissue.

A CD or DVD that contains more than a couple of songs from the '84-'85 tour will instantly be crowned my favorite disc of the year, case closed. Despite all the U2 hits to come, I'd argue those were the best U2 setlists ever, featuring songs that would afterward get shelved for decades if not forever.

Miles Davis. The Sony/Columbia catalog older than two years old hit eMusic last week, and naturally one of the most extensive artist catalogs involved belongs to Miles Davis. Personally, I've been trying to figure out if any of his live electric-era releases are worth picking up. It's fun. It also led me to give Bitches Brew the first spin in a while. I'm often more of an In A Silent Way kind of guy, but "Spanish Key" melted my face, in the best way possible. (Sadly, on all of YouTube, there's only a 2-minute snippet.)

I don't have much use for the second great quintet, featuring Hancock/Williams/Carter/Shorter. The songs often offer too much prowess, and too little song. But the more traditional ensemble work before that, and the famous electric albums that followed, stand up after even 45 years. How many artists can give you two distinct bodies of favorite music featuring radically different sounds? Miles Davis, Neil Young, and ...?

Miles Davis & The Unforgettable Fire. The U2 news and Miles coming to eMusic within a few days of each other was cool enough. The weirdness entered when I came across a few references to the "fact" that when Miles Davis was on his deathbed, the music that the jazz giant specifically requested was ... The Unforgettable Fire. Anyone have a source for this? Because in terms of favorite artists colliding and resulting in a slightly more sensible universe, that is one crazy, beautiful motherfucker of a factoid.

Wilco (the inevitable review)

(My partner in part-time internet crime should probably be writing this review, given his penchant for the parenthetical. And he will likely weigh in at some point, but here we go.)

First thing first, I should state that I love Wilco so much that I have a hard time coming up with anything interesting to say about them. I won't pretend to have a critical voice here. Sorry. Wilco is a pantheon band for me. I know. A college-educated guy who wears glasses and chronically over-thinks his relationship with bands loves Wilco. Shocker. So I'll admit right upfront that I love this album, and that I would probably work hard to find something to love even if I thought it was awful. Having said that, I'll also say that this is not the most impressive 43 minutes of music Wilco have ever put out. Some songs drag, and this is the first Wilco album to not contain anything that stretches the meaning of Wilco. You know what, though? I'm fine with that. If Sky Blue Sky was too low-key for you, you should probably keep walking, as the only innovation on (The Album) is that this is the first Wilco album to not innovate.

8 of the albums 11 songs make strong impressions right off the bat. The opening putative title track ("Wilco (the song)") could be a hit with a push. "One Wing" recycles bits of "On and On and On," but is a nice showcase for the band's unique ability to ride tension and release. The one-two punch of "Bull Black Nova" and "You And I" bifurcates the creepy and romantic that resides in songs like "She's A Jar" and "Via Chicago," with the former giving guitarist Nels Cline some serious freak-out time and the latter featuring an almost not-there vocal assist by Feist (did she sing the song before actually hearing it for the first time?). Those of us always in love with the poppy side of Wilco get 3 fantastic bits of lost Beatle solo album charmers ("You Never Know," "I'll Fight" & "Sonny Feeling"). "Everlasting Everything" closes things off with some nice dynamics, and is yet another touching version of Tweedy's dusky tributes to comfort in impermanence.

That leaves 3 songs that don't leave much of an impression. "Deeper Down" searches for something it doesn't quite find, while "Country Disappeared" sounds pretty much exactly how you'd think a Wilco song called "Country Disappeared" would sound. "Solitaire" is an austere Drake-y number and kind of a snooze. Of course, it will have to go without saying that every song is illuminated by the standard Wilco instrumental brilliance. Oh, I can't not say it. Every song is illuminated by the standard Wilco instrumental brilliance. There. Happy?

Look, my standards for Wilco albums are pretty low. I'll listen this one into the ground like all the rest. While (The Album) is surely a step down from the career summit of Sky Blue Sky, it's still better than just about anything else you could listen to. The streak of brilliance is over (the 5 album stretch from Being There to Sky Blue Sky goes right up there with anyone else's 5 album stretch. Anyone. Dylan, Beatles, Springsteen, whoever). The middle age of Wilco begins here.

Neil Young's Archives: COMING SOON!

As you're no doubt aware, Neil Young is like totally about to release the first in a series of his long-awaited Archives on April 28th. This 10 disc blu-ray only release will be a boon to long-time Shakey fans, who have been waiting for years. The Middle 8 has received its press copy and will be reviewing it in full in a few weeks, once the press embargo has been lifted and the editors have had a chance to absorb the mammoth amount of fascinating music.

As a teaser, we offer a quick glance at some alternate lyrics from some of the many compelling unreleased versions of some of Neil's best-loved songs:

"Keep on slam dunking in the free world!" (recorded 3/17/87)
"I've been to oh-hi-oh!" (solo demo recorded 4/30/70, a few days before historical events took the song in a different direction)
"I waited for you...for a while." (from sessions for album called Album of Songs, 1973)
"You were killed in a hurricane!" (duet with Taylor Phelps, July 1975)
"This piece of bread has the start of mold and it's gettin' old!" (from unreleased version of Harvest that had all the same songs, but all with different lyrics about agri-business, December 1971.)

Things that are awesome about Abbey Road

In a new feature on TM8, we'll discuss the things that are awesome about everybody's 3rd favorite Beatles album, Abbey Road. I'll kick it off...

1. The acoustic guitars in "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

2. How "You Never Give Me Your Money" is kind of like a mini-version of the suite of songs that follow on side 2, and then gets reprised near the end of the suite. Clever!

What do you love about Abbey Road?

2008 Dozen

General notes:
There's no getting around it. 2008 was a serious step-down from 2007. So much so that I spent most of the year still engaged with my favorite albums from that year. There is nothing on this list that gets close to "Magic," "Sky Blue Sky," or "Neon Bible." Frankly, some of the albums listed below might be Palins (looks good at first, curdles into unspeakable horror in the fullness of time). Them's the breaks, I guess. And Q1 2009 looks insane.

Still, there were some pleasures to be found. I didn't do singles here, but if I did, Beyonce would win. On with the ranked in obscure order known only to the author albums!

12 Albums:
Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Momofuku
His best album in a dog's year.

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
The 70s fetishisms are a bit overdone, but it's hard to ignore the power of the songs and the earthy, organic arrangements.

The Fireman - Electric Argument
I don't know what's more unlikely: the fact that McCartney is continuing one of the hottest streaks of his career, or the fact that he's made an album that doesn't sound anything like he's ever done before.

Neil Diamond - Home Before Dark
It's easy to make fun of Neil Diamond, but I wonder how people would react if the exact same album was released by Neil Young (to pick another Neil) instead. Hipsters and Grammy voters would line up 10 deep for the parade, I'm sure. But, alas, many would not be able to take this dark and haunting album on its own terms and it is their loss. If you want to know what songcraft means, this guy will take you to school.

David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Unexpectedly fun, light-hearted and life-affirming.

Kanye West - 808s and Hearbreak
Unexpectedly chilling crazy of an idea record that has no right to work as well as it does. While I'd love to hear what previous collaborators like Jon Brion and a "real" production would have done with these songs, but what we may have lost is made up for with immediacy and emotion. Kanye West may not be the most likeble guy out there, but his willingness to put it out there shows that he has the soul of a real artist. 2008's most WTF record (taking the mantle from 2007's Allison Krauss/Robert Plant collaboration).

Coldplay - Viva La Vida/Prospekt's March
The world's easiest band to love AND the world's easiest band to hate, all wrapped up into one. Make fun of them all you want, but you can't resist them. A huge comeback from "X&Y".

Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers
Speaking of comebacks. I feared we'd lost Aimee forever, but this low-key charmer is chock-full of what made you love her in the first place. The melodic invention is almost all the way back after taking a bit of a vacation.

Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
I don't think this is the best Paul Weller solo record, but I know it's the MOST Paul Weller solo record. If you've liked anything he's ever done before, there's probably something on here that you'll love. And if you love avant-garde jazz, etudes, and spoken word interludes, well you've got some of those as well!

Dr. Dog - Fate
A band that even tries to sound like The Band will always get a break in my book. The Felice Brothers could have snuck into this slot, but Dr. Dog wrote more good songs.

REM - Accelerate
The first four songs on this album have more life and energy than the last four REM albums. The album drops off considerably from there, but for 10 minutes or so, you remember why you ever gave a shit.

Randy Newman - Harps & Angels
Any new non-Pixar Randy Newman music is a joy to hear. Not that the Pixar stuff is bad, but it's great to have adult Randy Newman characters to be horrified by. The title song is the main attraction here, but this record sits pretty easily next to his classics, unlike his last album "Bad Love."

Special Commendation:
Plush - Fed
Not sure how to account for this. It was originally released in Japan in 2002, and didn't get a European release until this year. Domestic release on target for 2020, I guess. In any case, this is a stunner. If you like Eric Matthews/Cardinal and Burt Bacharach and horns and strings and pianos and love and good songs, you can't go wrong here. "Special" as in "hard to justify provenance in a 2008 list" and as in "really worth seeking out."

Honorable Mentions:
Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins
Not nearly as good as "The Stage Names," but this is still the up-and-coming American band.

Adele - 19
She's the real British soul talent right now.

Duffy - Rockferry
An album of surface pleasures, to be sure, but "Distant Dreamer" sounds like Radiohead and Dusty Springfield wrapped into one. Extra kudos to Bernard Butler's production.

She & Him - Volume One
Darling, cute, etc. M. Ward's production was always seductive, but his voice always grated. I guess all he needed was a beautiful and talented actress to get him over the top in my book!

Sun Kill Moon - April
Not as good as "Ghosts on the Highway," but Mark Kozelek's songs are the kind you listen to for decades.

Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog - Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day & Nathan Fillion, et. al.
I loved (love LOVE) the musical Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling." This is a lot more jokey, but Joss Whedon needs to get his ass to Broadway double quick.

Disappointments:
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
"Highly Suspicious" is the most horrible song I've ever heard. Fuck you, MMJ. I'm off the train until further notice.

Ben Folds - Way to Normal
This album feels calculated to annoy. Much of it sounds like the b-sides to the songs rather than the songs themselves. Maybe this is a corrective to the maturity of "Songs for Silverman," but I for one can't wait to Ben Folds to grow up again.

No Line On The Horizon.

The glow of the recent batch of early U2 remasters apparently turned my neighborhood into the suburb of blinding light, as nearly 10 days went by before I managed to see multiple reports about the name of U2's upcoming album.

This post title is the alleged name of the new disc, which represented a re-enlistment of the classic Eno/Lanois production combo. Unlike the pre-release buzz for most U2 albums, there's been no talk about how this will be a "return to their early sound." Instead, the mostly unnamed sources point to it being a sonic adventure more along the lines of Achtung, Baby. Sounds good to me.

Tentative release date for No Line On The Horizon in North America is November 18.

I admit that the title initially struck me as some kind of meaningless rock mumbo jumbo, but the truth is fortunately cooler than that, and even local. According to Bono, it refers to the way that, given the color of the sky off the Irish coast and the color of the water off the Irish coast, at a certain time of day that line can seem to disappear, no apparent divider between sky and sea.

Still a little wordy, granted, but more interesting than the average album title.

The name of my new backup band is ...

... The Reasonable Facsimiles.

Ghosts appear and fade away ...

"One in a million" is such an overused phrase. So let's be a little more realistic. Assuming you already know how to play a guitar and want to write a song, your chance of sitting down sometime soon and writing a song as good as Colin Hay's "Overkill" is more like one in two million. Yet, it's songs like this that motivate people to sit down and try, and inspiring a few one-in-10,000 songs is not a shabby service to the rest of us.

You don't need me to go into all the ways the song succeeds. Also, I don't even watch Scrubs. But even an abbreviated version gets the point across (and the acoustic version reveals the strong writing that much more, imo, as opposed to the original).

It's more human and more musically interesting than its insular contemporary, "Every Breath You Take," which was released exactly three weeks earlier in June '83. "Overkill" is lonesome but not as creepy, and offers those gorgeous chords beneath the title of this entry, but the song was merely a solid hit as opposed to a monster all-time hit. I guess the stalker angle and great cheekbones pay off in the end.

I've been in list-making mode recently, and this would have to be on any list of "modern standards" of the past 30-40 years.

The Name Of My New Backup Band.

This is one of those recurring little exercises, nearly involuntary, that sprout spontaneously and uninvited (think Alien) out of ordinary conversation from time to time (unfortunately for my wife). Occasionally, a name may present itself along with a matching name for the frontman (e.g., Lou Tennant & The Enlisted), but usually, it's just for the (nonexistent) backup band.

Don't take any of these as derogatory toward said imaginary band members. I'd be proud to play a suitcase Fender Rhodes in any of them. (Actually, if you give me a suitcase Fender Rhodes, you can name the band whatever you want.) Anyway, most recent offering at the top. As always, feel free to leave your own in comments.

... and The Hortatory Subjunctive
... and His Druthers
... and The Dumplings
... and The White Liars
... and The Obsolescents
... and His Sense Of Impending Doom
... and The Wooly Chaps

It's been a long time since I did the stroll.

I like it whenever, as Jim Steinman once wrote for his colleague Mr. Loaf, rock and roll dreams come true. Even better is when stuff happens to you that you could not have possibly dreamed in the first place.

I'm pretty sure that's what happened earlier this month to Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, when Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones sat in on the Foo's gig at Wembley. First, Taylor got to sing "Rock & Roll" while Dave Grohl played drums. Then they swapped places for "Ramble On".

All in all, Taylor outsang Dave, and Dave outplayed Taylor, which simplified the decision about which mp3 (192 kbps, 5.67 MB) to offer for your enjoyment via yousendit (thanks, BBC Radio 1 and taper).

Hawkins really stepped up, no doubt about it. And while my window of Foo Fighters enjoyment is fairly narrow (consisting mostly of the excellent There Is Nothing Left To Lose), there is something irresistible about Dave Grohl pounding the shit out of the drums, whether you even like the song that much or not. Throw in what a "fan" Grohl is, and I couldn't let this moment go unblogged.

(I looked for a video of another moment of cross-band coolness, featuring what I think was Grohl's first public appearance on drums in quite some time, helping Tom Petty behind the kit in a pinch for an SNL date, but I'm not seeing it. How's that for some anticlimactic blogging?)