2018: Albums of the Year?

The question mark in the title here is very deliberate. This list is to be taken even less seriously than my usual 'year' lists. I have paid attention to exactly 32 albums from 2018 out of goodness knows how many - far too few to be considered a proper overview.

One of the things I really like about the 1970s lists I have been doing is that many of those albums have been with me for years, if not decades. They have had their opportunity to grow on me. These records have not. Between now and, say, 2020, I'll buy more records from 2018 and I will listen to the ones I have more. Some will grow on me and others will fade.

Nonetheless, this is a place-marker, a suggestion as to what has stood out and is worthy of a comment. I'll not say much, I don't think.

These are in reverse order.

Blood Orange - Negro Swan

This is Dev Hynes fourth album and if this album matches the others, it'll take a long while to grow on me. It has begun that process, I think, but I am still finding it strange. Typically the first time I listen to his records, I find them curious 80s RnB throwbacks slightly too reminiscent of Prince. However, I am sufficiently tempted to return to them and each time new bits and pieces emerge and eventually I recognise something special. Time will tell with Negro Swan but it's looking promising.


Alele Diane - Cusp

I find Alela Diane's voice like a prettier, more delicate version of Nico. Her voice has a similar stridency. Her medium is a folksier Americana, though, and she has a far stronger sense of melody. The voice, though, forbids any whimsy and tilts towards the foreboding, the mournful - songs of loss and uncertainty.


Pusha T - Daytona

The first Kanye West production this year is the best, I think (although I did quite enjoy West's own Ye and his collaboration with Kid Cudi Kids See Ghosts). The beats are inventive and latch onto my mind and don't let go. The opener (If You Know You Know) kicks a steady organ, bass, drum rhythm which is catchy enough in itself but it is punctuates with sped up samples and other effects, adding hooks to hooks. Every track is simply fun to listen to.

Let's come at it another way - Kanye has been extra Kanye this year. There's a lot of people who would have been happy to see him tumble, especially with people like Kendrick ready to take his crown. And yet, when this came out, everyone jumped back on the Kanye train.


NAO - Saturn

This British neo-soul singer was new to me but I picked this up on the basis of a few good reviews and did not regret it. It's very much a slow to mid-tempo affair with deep grooves that make me want to nod my head. Irresistible.


Robyn - Honey

There's a lot of discussion about how this album is the first after six years for Robyn and how this follows a difficult time in her life and such like. That is great. What I care about more than any of this is that she is back and she is still awesome. She still does what she does better than anyone - uptempo dance pop music that doesn't feel like drunken nights out are its only relevant arena. Instead, while they have the bass, the beats, the fun, they are also well-crafted and thoughtful records. Robyn's back.


Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

For many, this has proven album of the year. Despite the fact that it is on my list, I am actually a little disappointed in it. I've loved Janelle since her first EP and for me, this record represents a step backwards. There are a number of deeply catchy tunes and, please don't get me wrong, this is a fun album but it tilts too much towards the obvious. Monae's dependency on Prince feels a little too on the nose. And, I feel a little uncomfortable saying this since I wholly agree with Monae on pretty much all things, the 'wokeness' of the album feels overt to the point of being distracting.


Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour

According to Metacritic, this was album of the year and it was only then that it hit my radar. As a result, it's still new to me and settling in. All the same, it was easy to see why this made the splash that it did - it's gorgeous. It's country music but it tips its stetson firmly popward. But Kacey Musgrave seems more grown up than Taylor Swift and so it feels more grounded, less frothy. It has more of a yacht rock feel to it, and that to me, ain't no bad thing. I have a strong feeling that this will definitely be a regular player.


Courtney Barnett - Tell Me What You Really Think

I was a big fan of Barnett's debut album proper Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. I appreciate the Dylan comparisons but I am wary of them. Lyrically, she is very very engaging (and I think that they will continue to grow on me) but the nature of her songs feel more ephemeral than Dylan. Either way, regardless of what she is or is not singing about, she matches them with melodies and songs that are catchy and engaging and make you want to come back and spend more time with them.


U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited

Like several people this year, I only discovered Meg Remy (U.S. Girls) this year. Apparently, she's been about for a few years, beginning with more avant-garde sound collages (as I understand it) and has gradually crept in towards more straightforward song-writing. I'd suggest that she is a catchier and more pop-savvy Bat For Lashes. It is basically art-pop but definitely at the more more fun end. M.A.H. is protest song via Abba and a glitterball. I love it.


Kali Uchis - Isolation

I have been wittering on about Kali Uchis forever now. Everyone must be SO bored. To be honest, I figured that she'd be sitting in album of the year territory, but no... Despite having a higher critic score than many of her peers, she was passed over. This caused me some consternation...

I decided that the most likely reason was that Isolation is so summery, it feels a little out of place in the colder days and darker nights. Uchis's voice is warm and summery and somewhere between Latin and Jazz and just oozes balmy summer nights. She is so well versed in popular music, especially girl groups, bossa nova, reggae, as well as 70s soul, that the album covers a lot of ground. But it never feels like it has to try - it almost feels sleepy.

I'm heading to the Primavera Sound festival in May, Kali Uchis is playing. I'm not going to pretend like she isn't one of the main draws!

2018: Things That Made Me Happy

Note that there is no question mark in this title!

We hear so much about what makes us unhappy. And there are plenty of things that make us unhappy. I enjoy a good complain - I'm quite good at it, but I think that it can become quite psychologically unhealthy. In contrast, what I think is quite good for us is to celebrate the things that make us happy.

This post is, unusually, going to be rather personal. I make no apologies.

In approximately ascending order of happiness:


Health

My health is not perfect. I am nearing 50 and stuff is faltering. I've also had an ongoing anxiety-type thing that is still interfering with me a little. But despite all this, by and large, I am in good shape. This is really good and I should be grateful for that.


This Blog

This is far from being an awesome blog as I am sure you will attest, but I enjoy it. I am inconsistent about it, should perhaps plan my posts a little more, perhaps post a little more even. But it's been nice to keep the ball in the air, so to speak. People have been really lovely in commenting a little and giving me a little feedback. This makes me very happy.


Music

As you might have guessed, I love music and finding new music. And this year has been no exception. Obviously there is the records released this year (talked about here) but also older ones that I have somehow missed. I never fail to be blown away by things.


My Masters

Who'd have thought a few years ago that I would have had the chance to go back to university and do my Masters degree? Not me. Who'd have thought that it would have gone so well? When I began, I was just happy to be given the opportunity, but to come out with a Distinction was a massive thing to me. I am generally of the opinion that I am more lucky than talented (etc.) - I just happened to be in the right place and so on - but this was a real counter-example, and that makes me happy!

PhD

Again, much like the MA, this is incredible and I keep having to pinch myself to confirm that it is really happening. I can't believe that I have been given the opportunity to do this. I have the opportunity to learn about interesting things, to go to interesting places, and to meet interesting people. That's pretty damned cool!


Friends

One thing that has come from the MA and PhD is more friends. I am really lucky and grateful that I have such a number of friends in so many circles. I have close friends who I see most days and friends at university, but also old colleagues and old students. People are so lovely and it is awesome to spend time with them.


Family

Ditto following friends. I am lucky to have a family that love me and do their best to support me. Bonus point: they're not mad!


Che

Watching Che grow up over this last couple of years has been amazing. As anyone who knows us will be aware of, Che's teenage years were a struggle. Like most parents and their teenage children there were moments that I could have killed her. I always knew that that time would pass but it was sometimes hard to see the wood for the trees, and I have no doubt that if it were Che writing this post she would have her own frustrations with me (and likely some of them are well justified!) Anyway, my baby is all grown up now. Seeing her manage work, her own place, Ronnie, her new little brother, is awesome to me. And she passed her driving test and got a car!


Vincent

Who saw this coming? Well, me, for a little while anyway. But he's here now and he is lovely and awesome and charming. Of course, he is only 5 months, so all that needs to be considered through that prism. It's ridiculous and yet perfectly natural how much his dumb stupid smile cheers me up. And his laugh! And his 'talking'. It warms this dead old heart, I tells ya!

Bella

There is one person that makes all this worthwhile in a way that no other does. She looks after me and cares for me and sees me in a way that no-one else does. I can't believe how wonderful Bella is to me. She should know better - she's so clever and yet she still indulges me and makes me happy. I hope that I make her as happy as she makes me. I don't figure my chances to highly, but I'll keep trying!

2018: TV and Movies of the year?

The question mark in the title is deliberate. I have neither watched enough TV or movies this year to even begin to make such a suggestion. All this is, then, is a brisk overview of some bits and pieces that I have particularly enjoyed from the year.

A measure of how much of a deficit is in place regarding what I have watched against what has been produced is illustrated, at least in part, by the fact that I was originally going to do two posts - one for movies and one for TV - and then I realised that I have not seen enough genuinely remarkable cases of each to fill such posts. More so, at least two entries here should properly be considered 2017 releases. I'm not going to worry about it...

Anyway, here, TV first and then movies, are my picks - in no particular order:


The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)

Scary Sabrina, I call this. The original show with Melissa Joan Hart, I call Happy Sabrina. Sad Sabrina is Buffy, The Vampire Hunter. (So far as I care to discuss the matter, they're all sort of the same - teenage girl navigates 'muggle' life and a new-found super-natural reality.)

Of course, it's not super scary, but it tries. It's still mostly silly but it has a greater sense of foreboding than either of the other shows. Either way, I found it pretty entertaining. I like that it tries to be stylish and a bit gory and a bit 'woke'. I'm looking forward to the next season.

The Deuce (HBO)

This is a David Simon show. I needn't say too much more. Like The Wire, it contains a world that is both intimate and sweeping and the world in this case is Times Square, New York in the early 1970s, when it was still full of skin flicks and prostitutes. Primarily, the show revolves around the intersecting stories of Vincent's attempts to run a bar and Candy's move from prostitute to getting behind the camera. It's gritty and unsentimental whilst being utterly honest and true about it's characters. Everything is shades of grey - even the worst villains have human warmth.

The Terror (AMC)

This horror drama blew me away early this year. That said, the horror element was oddly superfluous in that the drama offered enough tension and intrigue without requiring much of the apparent threat from some mysterious arctic beastie. In brief, The Terror concerned a pair of ships tasks with finding a short cut through the arctic wastes in the mid 19th century. The pig-headedness of the commander resulted in the ships being stranded for three years and the crew turning on each other. I'll say no more but the psychological terror of such a scenario was deeply compelling to me.


The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime)

I'm still watching season 2 of this, but I have been loving it so much. It concerns a Jewish housewife at the turn of the 1960s who gets caught up in the nascent stand-up comedy scene in New York. My friend Paul didn't gel with it finding it overly mannered. I can't argue with that conclusion but I hold it as a strength. It is deftly choreographed both in movement and dialogue, coming across a little like a stage play. The supporting cast are also excellent. I am loving this show!


Taskmaster (Dave)

OK, I know - I am really pushing the 2018 inclusion here. This show properly started in 2015 and I began watching it in 2017. However, it was in 2018 that my enthusiasm for it got out of control. Bella and I rewatched all seven seasons this year and I still can't quite decide which one was my favourite, although I sadly must confess that I find season six the weakest.

I don't need to tell you the premise, do I? If you haven't seen it, please just go watch it. It's on Dave or the UKPlay channel.


Hereditary

Horror films have been massively on the upturn in the last few years. I think that the potential of the genre is really beginning to become apparent. Really good horror movies are rarely about the ghosts, ghosts and monsters that are present within them. Instead, they are metaphors come to life. The director of Hereditary said that he wanted to make a film about suffering that took suffering seriously. In particular the effect that it has on families and the way that that suffering manifests through the generations. In this case, the death of the matriarch and the issues that she possessed begin to manifest in her daughter and her two children. This is presented in a Rosemary's Baby type story that is genuinely unsettling.


A Quiet Place

John Krasinski has had an incredible year. IMDB tells me that he has been busy in the time since The Office concluded in 2013, but I have largely missed him until both this incredible film and 'Action Jim'. (Action Jim is better known as Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan adaptation.) The latter was very entertaining in a 24 cum Homeland kinda way, but this film, also directed by Krasinski, is on a whole other level. The synopsis suggests a future where most people have been killed by creatures who are blind, but with incredible hearing. Krasinski's family (in the film), along with real-life wife Emily Blunt, survive by using sign language. The movie is so small in scope it has a real intimacy and so when things go awry (you knew they were going to), there is a real sense of investment. The film is a solid achievement and a real indication that Krasinski's career is looking pretty healthy!


Christopher Robin

If I have an Achilles heel, it is the dynamic of childhood to adulthood and the urge that we put away childish things. It is important to grow up, of course, but childish things can still speak to us. Not only can they, but they should and we should listen. One iteration of that dynamic is Puff the Magic Dragon, where Little Jackie Paper grows up and abandons Puff, who is left sad and lonely. Winnie the Pooh is another. When Christopher Robin grows up, despite his promises, we know that he will forget Pooh and the One Hundred Acre Wood. This film forces a grown up, miserable Christopher Robin to revisit his friends and shows how they refresh his outlook on life and revitalise his relationships.

The film is, of course, silly and a little sentimental and elements of it tilt towards the obvious. Nonetheless, the portrayal of Pooh and Piglet and the others is very charming - a nice blending of the Disney version and the original E.H. Shepherd illustrations. Ewan McGregor is right as Robin as his Hayley Atwell as his wife. The story is heartwarming and engaging - I loved it!


Tag

I don't have a huge amount to say about this except that it was really stupid and I enjoyed it a lot. It concerns a bunch of friends who have maintained game of tag since childhood and, despite being the 40s, have not put it behind them. It is stupid and is pretty obvious, but I bought into it and enjoyed it beyond reason.


Jumanji

Again, much like Tag I am not inclined to say too much. Again, it is silly and stupid and sort of obvious, but again I enjoyed it enormously. The premise is similar to the Robin Williams original, four disparate kids (breakfast club style) are brought together for a detention of cleaning up an old stock room. In it they find a video game - a magic video game where they are all transported into the world - Jumanji and then they have find their way back. No big surprises...

However, part of the joy of this is seeing the kid's characters represented as video-game cliches. The nerdy weak kid is Dwayne Johnson, the stuck up princess is Jack Black, the jock is Kevin Hart, the bookish nerdy girl is played by Karen Gillan. Again, nothing surprising. But for a dumb movie, I found a lot to be entertained by.


Disappointment of the Year: The Meg

How can you mess up Jason Statham and a giant shark? To be fair, it wasn't terrible but it was a lot less than it should have been. Sad face.

(Apparently studio interference de-fanged it....)

Ten Other Albums From 1973

Last week I finished the 'best' of 1973 post. Of course, all of those albums are super-amazing, etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda. All the same, I listened to a whole pile of albums and several were noteworthy for a bunch of reasons. Some were great in some respects, but just didn't quite make the cut; others had moments that were stellar but were disappointing elsewhere. Some were really not great, but were very interestingly not great. Here is where I would like to note a few of these...

In no particular order:

Runners Up Award

The O'Jays - Ship Ahoy

Philadephia International Records (PIR) had already had some monster hits with the O'Jays. 1972 had seen the release of Backstabbers, which contained two monster hits - the title track and the evergreen Love Train, which pointed the way towards disco. This album has only the one massive hit, Now That We've Found Love, but is quite likely the better album.

It's cooler and heavier. Check out the intro to For the Love of Money. It's been sampled to death of course, but how cool is that bass line? The title track is a lengthy vocal workout, one a slow, mid-tempo groove. There are a couple of up-tempo tracks; Put Your Hands Together is made for the dancefloor and People Keep Tellin' Me is a 70s throwback to Motown rhythms. So musically, it's cool, but a key element of what's cool about this is that it is evidence of the socially conscious dimension of Gamble and Huff's label. It's easy to think that PIR is all love songs, but here it's about the people. Even the massive single, which sounds like a love song, isn't. Rather than the finding of love within a couple, it's societal - once we overcome our differences and cease to be divided as a community, what are we to do then? How will we make the best of it?

Runners Up Award

Gary Higgins - Red Hash

Another tale of woe here - sort of. Higgins had a pretty decent career rolling along, living in Connecticut and playing gigs in Albany, supporting other artists. He was then caught in a drugs bust and sentenced to prison for selling marijuana. Just before going to prison, he gathered some friends and quickly cut this record. After prison, he thought the time had passed and he entered mainstream society getting jobs and whatnot. In 2005, the album was picked up the label Drag City, since it had achieved a cult status. It was re-released to critical acclaim!

And it's gorgeous. It's sitting in the same sort of West Coast folk rock tradition as Dave Crosby (despite being 2000 miles East). It's all acoustic guitars, flutes, occasional strings and sweet melodies. It has a melancholic tone - tales of loss and fear, space and openness. This is not urban music. It is a record for quiet nights in. I don't smoke dope anymore - it's been a very long time. Nonetheless, I'd suggest that if I did, this would go down very nicely.


The Award for The Album That Could Benefit the Most From a Quick Edit

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Don't get me wrong, this is a very good album and it has some of Elton's very best songs on it. Bennie and the Jets is incredible, the title track is phenomenal. Candle in the Wind is a beautiful to tribute to Marilyn Monroe so long as you can convince yourself to forget that it was ever associated with Diana. And we could carry on. Of the albums 17 tracks, I'd suggest that there's half a dozen gems and probably another half dozen songs that if not gems, are still pretty incredible.

But then there's a handful of songs that should never have made it this far. Social Disease is often commented upon as a song that should not be here, but my personal least favourite is Jamaica Jerk-off. Cod-reggae is never a good look and singing about jerking off is not going to make up for that. There's also something a bit off about All The Girls Love Alice. It's a story about a straight girl who prostitutes herself to ageing lesbians until she kills herself. I can live without that. All in all, these tracks are faltering steps in an otherwise great album.


The Award for the Unjustly Maligned

Yoko Ono - Approximately Infinite Universe

Amongst the things that annoy me in the universe - and despite my efforts it's a long list - one seems to occur more often than makes sense - it is total assassination of Yoko Ono. Sure, she's avant garde and difficult; she's not for everyone - she'll never be mainstream (whatever that is). But let me speak frankly - the criticisms of her whiff a little of ignorance, misogyny and perhaps even racism*. Like most artists on the fringes, what she does is not easily accessible and sometimes appears absurd or at least jarringly different. When it is placed against the traditional it is doubly jarring - such as the famous clip of her joining in with Memphis Tennessee alongside John and Chuck Berry. Even I'll admit that Berry's reaction when Ono comes in is pretty funny. But it does not constitute a dismissal of what she does.

This dismissal is tragic. She was an fascinating artist and made several records that contribute interesting and important elements to contemporary rock music - especially music created and performed by women. Unsurprisingly, she is held as a key influence by many female artists from the 80s onwards - Kim Gordon, Kim Deal, Cat Power, Peaches and so on (check out the list of people that have sought to collaborate with her!)

Approximately Infinite Universe comes at a turning point in her career. She has not abandoned the out and out avant-garde that is characteristic of Fly or Plastic Ono Band (with John Lennon), but she is turning towards more straightforward song forms. It's not absent, but the stereotype of her shriek cum yodel, takes a backseat to more straightforward singing. It is true that Ono's voice is not a typically strong one, but that fragility reflects different elements and allows for other feelings to become part of the music. (Good singing can obscure the point of a song sometimes just as much as bad.) The songs here are not uniformly amazing, let's be honest. Some of them are just OK and as a double album, perhaps some (a fair amount of) editing would have benefited. But there are some outright great tunes - one of my favourites is Death of Samantha. It concerns the efforts a person will go through to look like they are OK, when they are dying inside. Here, the frailty of her voice adds to the delicacy of the lyrics.

Lyrically, she has a directness that is refreshing. Check out I Felt Like Smashing My Face In a Clear Glass Window concerning the alienation she felt in respect to her parents. All over a jaunty rock'n'roll tune, no less. Or What a Waste, even more jaunty, engages with the inanity of anti-abortion campaigners, and how perhaps it would be better for women to withhold sex until men begin to understand the true meaning of equality. There was no-one quite like her and it is plain that she brings so much to the party.

So can we quit harping on about her now? It's really silly.

* Would she have been SO criticised if she were male or white? White, maybe - male, certainly not - especially the riding John's coat-tail trope. (Especially since she had a respectable career in conceptual art long before she met John!)


The Award for the Best Cover Art

Mustafa Ozkent - Genclik Ile Elele

This little nugget deserves our attention for at least one reason - it is my very very favourite album cover ever. I mean just look at it. A chimp, all dressed in a nice yellow sweater, hosting a radio show, with loads of unravelled tape! Hilarious! And the dynamic, exciting, genre tags - rhythm and soul, blues and jazz, rock and pop. Total nonsense of course, but it's hard not to love this sleeve.

The record, well, it's OK. It's kind of funky, 70s, europop. It's the sort of music that people danced to in movies from 1971; movies that thought they were cooler than they actually were. That or music from TV montage sequences. It's crisp and the drumming is on point - you have to give it that. The second track in particular could have been an awesome break-beat. But in truth, the sleeve is much better than the album. I don't begrudge the album space in my collection - there are far worse records hanging around, but it's never going to make a best of list. But it is the very essential of remarkable - I like to remark about it!


The Award for the Best Riffage

King Crimson - Larks Tongues in Aspic

I'm not a massive prog rock fan but neither am I allergic. Obviously Dark Side of the Moon made the top ten. Genesis' Selling England By the Pound was largely enjoyable. On a similar note, there wasn't that much heavy rock on the longer list either. Zeppelin and Sabbath were there, as were Blue Oyster Cult and Queen. But the best riff by far is found on this record, on part one of the title track. It is a monster. I strongly recommend turning it up really loud.

That's all I have to say, really.


Award for Having the Most Instruments You've Never Heard Of Before

Planxty - Planxty

Apparently no-one is quite sure what 'planxty' means. The sleeve notes suggest that it might be a corruption of  'sláinte', which means 'good health'. It might often be given to a particular tunes, as it is here for track 3, Planxty Irwin. I don't know anything about that, but I do know that this is one of the three best Irish folk albums I know of (the others being The Dubliners' debut and Sweeney's Men's second album Dreams for Me). It's possible, I suppose that there are better, but I hope to never find them as my head might explode. There's only so much awesomeness I can handle.

It was inevitable that Planxty were going to be good since they were comprised of serious talent. Andy Irvine had come from the aforementioned Sweeney's Men. Christy Moore had already made a name for himself on the London folk scene. Both Donal Lunny and Liam O'Flynn had established themselves as first class session players of the bouzouki and the uilleann pipe respectively. While they fixed themselves on traditional Irish music, they imbued it with energy, vigour and atmosphere, somehow finding a way of marrying the purism of tradition with the dynamism typical of contemporary rock music. Perhaps the best illustration of this for me is their version of The Blacksmith. It's a classic traditional tune, and this is one of the best versions I know. The bulk of the song is sung over guitar and mandolin (or what I take to be a mandolin anyway), but at the end pipes and drum come in, and it is awesome.

Award for Token Jazz Inclusion

Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters

Who's cool as fuck? Herbie Hancock. That's who. He was a prodigy at 11, joined Donald Byrd in '61 and Miles Davis shortly after. He played with Davis for five years before going solo. This album, Head Hunters, was the biggest selling jazz album to this point. He veered between fusion and acoustic jazz by way of classic electro single Rockit in '83. He's still at it. He is a bona fide genius, so far as I am concerned.

Head Hunters is seriously funky. The opener, Chameleon, kicks off with squidgy bass and then jittery guitars, all wah-wahhed up (I don't know the proper terminology). When the horns kick in, we're a step and a half from Stevie. If you're sitting still, you might be dead. The version of Watermelon Man is impossible to resist, all pipes and bass and killer drums. This is happy time music. Sly is back on more traditional jazzy territory, lots of skittering rhythms and changes - still, it is super cool and feels like a 70s film noir set in a lagoon. Album closer, the strangely titled Vein Melter, cools everything right down and is smokey and comforting. One of my top 3 straight jazz (i.e. not vocal) records.

The Award for Girl Group Least Likely to Yell 'Girl Power'

The Three Degrees - The Three Degrees

There were plenty of girl groups in the 70s - some great groups like Love Unlimited, Labelle, The Supremes (sans Ms. Ross, of course). But for a little while, the top of the pile were Philadelphia International's own The Three Degrees - Prince Charles' favourites.

The Philly sound favoured lush, sweet soul music. It sat at the vanguard of disco, pointing in the direction of travel without ever (or at least not yet) committing to it. The Three Degrees had been recording for best part of ten years before they signed to Gamble and Huff's legendary label, including two great albums on Roulette records, where they included the psychedelic soul classic Collage. They followed a more straightforward approach at PIR and hit big money with the magnificent When Will I See You Again. It's a gorgeous song but in an era where you have Millie Jackson, Denise La Salle and Laura Lee all beginning to claim Women's Love Rights (Lee), it's horrendously passive. Dirty Old Man is better. They busy themselves calling out some undesirable attention. It's a nice tune, though. However, I most conflicted about the second track. It's a gorgeous slow jam and has a great arrangement and nice orchestration. However, it's called A Woman Needs a Good Man. It is exactly as the title suggests - for a woman to be fulfilled, she needs a man - a strong man at that. Otherwise, well, she's not going to have a great time. 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle' this ain't.

It's a little distracting, but if you can phase it out of your mind, it's great record!


Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement

The Beach Boys - Holland

The music business is full of injustices: people, groups and albums that have been given a bum deal. I have mixed feelings about whether The Beach Boys should be included in this - after all, everyone has heard of them, they are universally acclaimed and considered, along with The Beatles, as one the very very best groups that the sixties had to offer. And that's my point. The typical story is that they produced a slew of great singles, released Pet Sounds in 1967, the song Good Vibrations later that year, and then.... poof! Gone, disappeared.

Except they didn't. Sure Brain Wilson had a massive breakdown and the group ceased to function as it had. But they regrouped, re-purposed, other members began to pitch in songs and they re-fashioned themselves as the decade came to a close and into the 1970s. I'm not going to claim that anything they produced rivalled Pet Sounds, but they made some damned fine records that ought to have received a LOT more attention than they did.

Holland is on one of those records. It has all the lush harmonies that you would associate with The Beach Boys but the music has grown up. It is more complex both in structure and in instrumentation. It is harder, more weary and less idealistic (although every so often Mike Love comes along and scuppers that). It opens with two driving, solid numbers. Both fairly slow in tempo - they move at the pace of the steamboat they describe - but listen to the arrangement! Dennis Wilson is really coming into his own with two great songs; notably Only With You, a delicate, emotionally bared love song, which is gorgeous - one of the best soft-rock ballads of the 70s, beautifully arranged by Brother Carl.

I think that The Beach Boys have suffered an injustice. While this might be no-one's favourite Beach Boys album, more people should know it.



I'm busy working on 1974 lists now, as well as a few notes for the end of the year...

10 'Best' Albums From 1973

Yup, I know it's been a while. I've been busy. But I have not forgotten. I've done 1970-1972, but it's time to pick it up once again and get to grips with 1973. I hope you will agree - 1973 is an amazing year. There were many many classic albums that year. Here are my top ten.

I have changed the way that I have done things. If you are interested how click here, but if not let's get on with the malarky.




These are in reverse order:


Leroy Hutson - Love Oh Love

Leroy Hutson is probably not very well known. This is a shame, he should be. For starters, he was a peer of the great Donny Hathaway, collaborating on the classic, The Ghetto. Secondly, he was Curtis Mayfield's choice of replacement when Mayfield left The Impressions. When Hutson then went solo himself, two and a half years later, he released an incredible run of albums over the 1970s and early 1980s.

Love Oh Love was Hutson's debut solo album and is a luscious example of 70s smooth soul. It has the slight disco groove that will become unavoidable later in the decade, but it is far too well constructed to reduce to being 'just' another disco record. It also bears the unmistakable stamp of Curtis Mayfield in the string arrangements and the lyrical structure at time, but Hutson is too much his own to be a mere copyist. In all, it's just lovely.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Burnin'

I'll admit that for a long time I fell into a weird brand of musical snobbery with Bob Marley. I think his ubiquity, especially with a certain kind of dope-smoking student, along with his willingness to embrace the Eurocentric mainstream (he wasn't Prince Far I or Burning Spear or one of the 'cooler' lesser-known reggae superstars), blinded me to the fact that he was really, really good. I still find the cult of Marley a little silly (he is kind of cool, though), but I am glad that I shook that nonsense off and started to explore his discography. Every record brings something awesome to the mix.

Marley had been recording for best part of a decade before he signed to Island Records in 1973. And what a start! First Catch a Fire, which is a monster, and then this - which is, for my money, even better! It is rougher and less polished than it's predecessor, and thematically, it is darker and more militant. I also has two of the greatest tunes Marley ever wrote:  Get Up Stand Up and  I Shot the Sheriff. What a record!!


Kool & the Gang - Wild and Peaceful

For starters, any album that has Funky Stuff and Jungle Boogie and Hollywood Swinging on it is going to be hard to beat. James Brown once referred to these guys as the 'second baddest', so you know they had some credibility. If you only know them from later so-so efforts like Celebration, I really encourage you to revisit. Anyway, in their earlier days, they sat in a strange nexus between jazz and party music (much like early Earth, Wind and Fire), and their records are an irresistible combination between serious musical chops and getting down. Even when they smooth things out and cool down a little, they chill out so far it's impossible not to want to kick back with them. As they themselves say they're 'scientists of sound, mathematically puttin' it down'.


Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

I imagine that one or two readers might get a little huffy at this - Surely Dark Side of the Moon is the best album of the year, philistine!  To which I respectfully say, Suck it! Write your own stupid list!

Seriously, I like it but I can't say that I love it. In fact, quite often I find the idea of the album boring. I certainly play it less often than I ought because of this. However, when I actually do play it I remember that it's actually awesome, despite pretty much defining Dad-rock for me.

Part of the reason that I don't love this album is because it has extended periods of ponderousness, and while I appreciate this, I don't often enjoy it. It doesn't excite me very much. It's too cerebral and not physical enough. I know that higher in the list there are other 'serious' records, but at least they have the decency to be fun, or pretty, or least make so that I can tap my feet or drum my fingers on my desk. So yes, this is a great record, and undeniably an album of the year. But it's never going to be top.


Judee Sill - Heart Food

I wrote about Judee Sill recently, praising her lyrics. I'm happy to extend this praise to her music in general. But before I do, let me again take a second to note her career - or rather the lack of it and the tragedy that that involved. She was a teenage runaway, getting involved with heroin and bank robberies. But she had two things that worked in her favour; a musical gift that channelled both Bach and Brian Wilson, and a mystical sense of religious passion. These two features are writ large on her two albums.

The beauty and complexity of the songs here are simply breathtaking. Listen to The Kiss - (don't worry about the lyrics no matter what I said last time) - listen to how she uses the harmonies, the simplicity of the piano line, the use of horns, how she can utilise strings so delicately. It genuinely lifts me. It is a song that is honestly breath-taking. You'd think it un-toppable, until you hit The Donor. It is eight minutes of slow building worship. The vocals ebb and flow and rise and catch you as they repeat and become a round of sorts. The bells and timpani draw you on. Seriously, if mystical revelation had a sound-track this would be it.

If you've never heard it, please do so as soon as you can. If you have heard it, pop it on again.

Sadly, after this, she slipped back into heroin addiction and died penniless in 1979.


Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

Too cerebral is never a charge you could make of Marvin Gaye's follow up to What's Goin' On? This is a record with one true objective and a person's brain is not a relevant factor. Marvin Gaye's conflicted sexual attitudes are well documented but there's no doubt which side is winning out one here.

It is possible that this is even better than What's Goin' On? There's no lengthy interludes where he points to God or Jesus; there are no bits that slow down to make you think. It's just over half an hour of the sweetest expressions of sexual love and desire. The album is single-minded in making you groove and the groove is so good - I can't but nod my head, tap my fingers, sashay through the kitchen to make a cup of tea and imagine myself the Lothario that I am not even sure that Gaye was.

Marvin Gaye was a genius. I love him.


Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

In honesty, I struggle a bit with Roxy Music's self-titled debut. I feel like the ideas are there and despite a couple of strong tracks, the album never quite makes it. However, I think they found their feet pretty darn quick because their second and third albums, both released in 1973, are amazing! I have a hard time deciding which I preferred. The third album, Stranded, was Brian Eno's favourite (which I always thought really big of him, since Bryan Ferry kicked him out after the second.) It also has Mother of Pearl on it - a monster of a tune if ever there was one!

But For Your Pleasure wins it.

You can see where the tensions between Brian and Bryan were brewing. The art in art-rock is writ pretty large here. While it is plain that Ferry wants to edge towards more straightforward interpretations, the out-there sound textures provided by Eno are pulling in the opposite direction. Listen to The Bogus Man with its metronomic rhythm and discordant saxophone blurts, Ferry's croon is stretched right out to try to accommodate it. On the title track, the piano is phased as far as it can take while almost everything is stripped away into nothing - it feels like it is decaying before your eyes. And then the dystopian moments of In Every Dream Home a Heartache, which is so dark... But, Do The Strand and Editions of You (especially the latter), in possibly the best double A side ever, both kick ass when it comes to sophisticated pop music.


John Cale - Paris 1919

I could well understand if someone had not heard John Cale or even had spent much time with him, and then listened to this album why they might be a little bemused in its inclusion here. After all, at first listen, it might appear a pretty unremarkable album.

A little context might help. John Cale is, for my money, one of the most interesting and under-recognised artists in contemporary music. If people have heard of him at all, they may know him as the dude that wasn't Lou Reed in the Velvet Underground. This makes me a little sad in that the Velvet Underground, at least in its original (classic) iteration, is at least as much an expression of Cale as it is Reed, if not more so. (As much as I love or respect Lou Reed's further career, he very rarely did anything as interesting as Cale.) For instance, even before the Velvet Underground, Cale was a classically trained musician, learning under renowned avant-garde musicians such as John Cage and Terry Riley. Following the Velvet Underground, aside from his solo album, he produced some albums that have come to be regarded as classics in their own right (Nico, The Stooges, Patti Smith, Happy Mondays and others). And there are his solo albums, which are various in texture and sound.

Paris 1919 might be regarded as Cale's 'breakthrough' album. It wasn't his first, but I read it as the one that people regard as his first fully realised contemporary album. It is a minor key affair, best described as 'chamber pop' - relatively quiet and peaceful - musically very beautiful. It is so delicate, it would be easy doubt that it was the same John Cale of Sister Ray (or even of his own later Rose Garden Funeral of Sores). Cale's own relatively weak voice adds to this sense of fragility. The melodies, however, are subtle and lodge themselves in the mind so firmly, the extend permanently in the mind and produce a sepia toned reality that is warm. As you'd expect from anyone so talented, musically it is gorgeous.

Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run

I genuinely don't care what you think about this being the second best album of a year as good as 1973. I don't care that Paul McCartney can be a bit irritating. I don't care that he did the Frog Chorus or Mull of Kintyre or any of that. I don't care that Paul McCartney will never be as cool as John Lennon (he won't, but that doesn't matter). What I care about is that Paul McCartney has one of the best ears for popular music known to humankind. When he is on form, he will write better than pretty much anyone you care to mention. There's a reason The Beatles are so great - one of them was Paul McCartney.

And Band on the Run is nine tracks of Paul in peak condition. Some commentators have suggested that prior to this, Paul's reputation was already looking shaky. Legendary NME writer Charles Shaar Murray suggested that Paul was the Beatles least likely to re-establish his credibility (after Ringo!). I don't know, I'm certainly no psychologist or anything, but I think that part of the Beatles' incredible fertility of ideas was a product of intense sense of competition between Paul and John. I wonder if this album is so good because that rivalry reared its head a little. I might be wrong, I don't know.

But it is an absolute barnstormer. There are no duff songs at all and there are hooks galore. Besides Kool and the Gang and maybe Stevie Wonder, nothing in 1973 was as much fun to listen to. Listen to Jet: with the reggae guitar line it could easily have slipped into cod-reggae (a tendency that scuppered at least two other huge albums in 1973*) but it doesn't - it keeps the rhythm interesting, just as it should. When the main riff kicks in - a synth-horn blast - it's impossible not to get swept away. Or perhaps the album close: Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Nine. It's jaunty piano line, the supporting swish of synths (there's probably a better word), the endless vamping at the end - what an upbeat close!

It's worth closing by returning to Charles Shaar Murray. Having doubted Paul's credibility he concludes that 'Band on the Run is a great album. If anyone ever puts down McCartney in your presence, bust him in the snoot and play him this. He will thank you afterwards.' Can't argue too much with that...


* Elton's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy both attempt and fail to include reggae. The latter also attempts funk - the execrable Crunge, which is easily the worst thing in the world ever.

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

In 1950 Alan Turing suggested the Turing Test as a way of determining whether something was a person. He could have saved himself some time and simply said we should pop on Innervisions, by Stevie Wonder, and if it has a reaction it's a person. (I am aware that I am also suggesting that if someone does not have a reaction that they might not be a person. I'm OK with this...)

I guess that that is a little unfair on Turing - he was a genius but not a time-traveller.

Anyway, the early 70s were a spectacular purple patch for Stevie. 1972 was incredible - he released two incredible albums, Music of My Mind and Talking Book which has the eternally danceable Superstition on it. Both of them are great. He also produced the first album by Syreeta, his then wife, which is also awesome. I suppose 1973 was a quiet year - he only released one record. But what a record!

Innervisions is flat out incredible. While it doesn't have anything as unspeakably kinetic as Superstition, it is nine tracks of the smartest, funkiest, coolest, deepest, wokest (yes, I did just use that word) music that anyone could hear in 1973. Stevie was always one of the hardest working and most disciplined in the Motown-universe and on this album, much like his magnum opus, Songs in the Key of Life (1976), he brings everything to bear. It is a celebration of all things Stevie. I love it so much!


And also...

A few albums would have made this list, but they've been talked about elsewhere too recently. Roxy Music's Stranded, Al Green's Call Me, David Bowie's Aladdin Sane, Bill Wither's Live at Carnegie Hall, Dr. John's In the Right Place and Lou Reed's Berlin all might have gotten a mention had it not for this rule.

For the same reason, but in reverse, Steely Dan (Countdown to Ecstasy) and Millie Jackson (It Hurts So Good) are being held off until next year.

Other albums that came close but didn't quite make it included: Gary Higgins' Red Hash, Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters, The Isley Brothers' 3+3, ZZ Top's Tres Hombres and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

If you really want to see the whole list in order, click here.

10 Lyricists I Admire

I'm going to keep this brief. It's a long standing point of discussion amongst my friends and I as to the value or prominence of lyrics. It keeps coming up in part, I think, because I find it so interesting. I am mostly indifferent to lyrics. Of the things that stand out when listening to a record; lyrics are typically very low on the list.

I wonder if what we are seeing here is something that is distinctive about my brain and contrasting to the brains of my friends. I have a brain that does not register lyrics as prominently as my friends, who have 'opposite' sorts of brains.

Nonetheless, there are songwriters whose lyrics do register. Below is a list of 10 songwriters who I typically hold to write lyrics worth me making the effort to think about. Or, to put it another way, here are lyricists who have broken through my obliviousness, and whose words have arrested me in some fashion.

In no particular order:


Bob Dylan

Let's get this one out of the way first because it is so obvious. I disagree with those who say that there is nothing much to enjoy beyond the lyrics with Dylan. I'll confess (or carelessly proclaim) that I enjoy listening to many Dylan records without the faintest clue what the words might be. As a songwriter he is excellent and, while lyrics may be part of that puzzle, they necessarily include rhythm, melody, textures, the way that the sounds of the words correlate with the music, and so on. And Dylan is really good at this. For me, at least, I enjoy listening to Dylan without lyrics.

But, when I do register Dylan's lyrics (and with a reputation like his, how could I not?) I know that I am listening to something interesting. As a task, it is most straightforward in the earlier 'protest' songs, Blowing in the Wind, Masters of War, With God on our Side, but even when we get the more personal songs that follow, it is plain that Dylan uses lyrics in a way that very few come close to. And that carries even when the meaning of his lyrics become opaque, as, for me, they sometimes do - they remain interesting and stimulating to listen to. They rarely feel forced or artificial or plastic. If you want to put in the time, you will rewarded at least on some level.

It's worth noting that what I have said about Dylan carries to some degree to everyone else on this list. Especially the only possible rival to Dylan's reputation...


Leonard Cohen

Another confession: I think I prefer Leonard Cohen to Dylan. That is not intended as a slight, I just really love the tone and aesthetic that Cohen conjures, especially on those first half dozen LPs. (All the same, for those who care, the songwriting crown is still Dylan's - his sheer volume, range, consistency, influence, is sufficient to secure it for him.)

Cohen, even more than Dylan, is a poet who happens to write songs. The palette is much more the personal. I find Cohen to be more direct than Dylan but there remains a sense, for me, that there are strata that I am not getting or perhaps even looking for - that there are depths of meaning and interpretation that are religious in importance. Cohen's lyrics often feel like scripture to me.





Gil Scott-Heron

Here is another poet so perhaps it is unsurprising that Gil Scott-Heron's lyrics are worthwhile. One thing to note: unless you are listening to his overtly poetic material (principally his first LP, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox) - Scott-Heron's albums are really easy to listen to without thinking about lyrics at all - the music is cool and loose. But if you start listening to the lyrics, they moves effortlessly from the political (he was massively influenced by Proto-Hip Hop pioneers, The Last Prophets) to the personal - including his own, deeply dysfunctional life. Check out: Pieces of a Man (from the album with the same title), The Bottle, or Johannesburg.


Judee Sill

This is probably the most obscure person on the list. I am sad about this, as her albums are amongst the most beautiful in my whole collection. Briefly, Sill was on the edge of the Californian Folk Rock scene of the early 70s - first signed to the Geffen label. She had had a run of bad luck and bad decisions that led her prison and addiction. Ultimately it was the latter that took her from us, but not before releasing two of the most gorgeous albums from that scene. Her records bring together the sacred and profane like no other. I'm not going to say any more - I'll just type out the lyrics to her song The Kiss. It is both deeply religious and yet sensual and physical.

Love rising from the mists,
Promise me this and only this,
Holy breath touching me, like a wind song
Sweet communion of a kiss

Sun sifting through the grey
Enter in, reach me with a ray
Silently swooping down, just to show me
How to give my heart away

Once a crystal choir
Appeared while I was sleeping
And called my name
And when they came down nearer
Saying, dying is done,
Then a new song was sung
Until somewhere we breathed as one
And still I hear their whisper

Stars bursting in the sky
Hear the sad nova's dying cry
Shimmering memory, come and hold me
While you show me how to fly

Sun sifting through the grey
Enter in, reach me with a ray
Silently swooping down, just to show me
How to give my heart away

Lately sparkling hosts
Come fill my dreams, descending
On fiery beams
I've seen 'em come clear down
Where our poor bodies lay,
Soothe us gently and say,
Gonna wipe all your tears away
And still I hear their whisper?

Love, rising from the mists
Promise me this and only this,
Holy breath touching me, like a wind song
Sweet communion of a kissElvis Costello

Elvis Costello is the only Briton on this list. What's that about? I guess, though, he is so well-school in American song-writing that perhaps it doesn't matter...

I bought King of America when I was about 15. It is very well-regarded but it was never one of his classics. Either way, I was immediately struck by it, despite it being very different to my typical listening habits. It was far more literate and grown-up. While it was obviously clever, it was neither preachy or seemingly like the cleverness was the point - I didn't feel like I was supposed to go away thinking ooh... that Elvis Costello, he's clever, isn't he? He just enabled me to see the world in different ways - whether the song was personal like I'll Wear It Proudly, or political like Little Palaces or just telling a story like Glitter Gulch.

Obviously, I have since bought most of his other records and the consistently striking thing is that here is a dude that can write a song.


Will Oldham (a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy)

Anyone that knows me will be waiting for this one, I guess. Another story-teller who inhabits so fully the characters that he writes and sings about that it is often hard to disentangle the singer from the song. Oldham becomes these losers, Lotharios, back woodsmen and adventurers so completely that it is sort of disappointing when you realise that he is none of them.

And yet, there are insights that he brings. Perhaps my favourite song of all time is his: I See a Darkness. It encapsulates the virtues of friendship, especially in the face of loneliness and emptiness. The only thing that can get us through the darkness of life is the connection we feel to our friends and those we hold close. Here it is:

Well, you're my friend

And can you see
Many times we've been out drinking
Many times we've shared our thoughts
But did you ever, ever notice
The kind of thoughts I got?
Well, you know I have a love
A love for everyone I know
And you know I have a drive
To live, I won't let go
But can you see this opposition
Comes rising up sometimes?
That it's dreadful imposition
Comes blacking in my mind

And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
And then I see a darkness
Did you know how much I love you?
Is a hope that somehow you
Can save me from this darkness

Well, I hope that someday, buddy
We have peace in our lives
Together or apart
Alone or with our wives
And we can stop our whoring
And pull the smiles inside
And light it up forever
And never go to sleep
My best unbeaten brother
This isn't all I see

Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Oh no, I see a darkness
Did you know how much I love you?
Is a hope that somehow you
Can save me from this darkness

Other songs tell different stories. Songs of betrayal, love, loss, victory, purpose and purposelessness. I never get tired of Oldham's songs.


Bobbie Gentry
                                                         
Hardly any songwriter that I can think of is as effective at evoking a mise-en-scene within a song as Bobbie Gentry - and that is within country music, which is typically evocative. Perhaps one of the reasons is that she sings about the world that she grew up in and she speaks the language of the world that she is conveying. This carries when she is offering a slice of life song such as Chickasaw County Child or Papa, Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You which sound so authentic that you can almost feel the dust and dirt beneath your nails. But it carries just as well when she turns to personal matters. In I Saw An Angel Die Gentry captures both flush of love and the tragedy of it's decay in so few words. I value economy and directness in my lyrics. (This is why Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands will always remain opaque to me.)


Ghostface Killah

You'd think that Hip Hop might figure higher on this list. After all, I like Hip Hop and it is densely lyrical. Some of my friends have expressed incredulity that I could like Hip Hop and yet be indifferent to the lyrics. I get it.

However, in the most part it is that very denseness that scuppers it. That and the fact that there is often limited returns. But where the general consensus agrees that the rapper has something to say; they are often too obscure in their references and metaphors for me to catch the meaning; that, and, it's often just too fast to keep hold of in my mind. By the time I have caught one thought, the rapper is already deep into the next - and so on.

This is certainly the case with Ghostface. He is not known for going slowly so the thick kid (me) can keep up. On the contrary, his tracks are a juggernaut. But, unlike most rappers, I will often try to hang on even if I only catch bits and pieces. This is because he tells such wild and engaging stories. When I listen in and catch a phrase or something, it sounds like the best movie I never saw. I always want to catch more, and more.

I rarely do, of course.

Smokey Robinson

Smokey has the toughest gig of all the people listed here, since he is constrained more than any by the limitations of the early 1960s music business - two and a half minutes, easily identifiable and repeatable. It's hard to pack that much into such a song. This is one of the reasons why so many pop lyrics devolve into pap. But Smokey manages to work within those limitations and yet to bring something special. Look at some of his classics - and they are classics; My Guy, My Girl, Shop Around, The Tracks of my Tears, The Tears of A Clown, Ain't That Peculiar and so on. His lyrics squeeze a lot of meaning into very few words. He is easily the most economical of everyone here.





Paul Simon

I'll brook no argument here: Paul Simon is the third person in the Holy Trinity of Blessed Lyricists (along with Dylan and Cohen). From his days backpacking up and down the UK, bumming at empty train stations in the early 1960s to the present day, his songwriting is exemplary. His words are playful and thoughtful; naive and childlike, and yet grown up and reflective. It is arguable that he has written more contemporary mainstream classics than anyone on this list, including Dylan.

I think that the thing that marks Simon out is the crispness of phrasing. Some of his songs slip out of meter and become almost conversational, and yet to hold to the rhythm and the purpose of the song.

I'm listening to his 2011 album So Beautiful or So What? It rivals Dylan's Time Out of Mind as the perfect album about getting old. And yet, it is still innovative in a way that Dylan hasn't been since the late 90s. Simon's most recent album, Stranger to Stranger from 2016 was inspired, in part, by Harry Partch's 43 tones in an octave. And again, it is awesome.

The dude is a genius.



Also rans: Lloyd Cole, Bill Withers, Chuck D, Laura Nyro, Michael Gira, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Rapp, Mickey Newbury, Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Morrissey

Also - it has not escaped my notice that the Holy Trinity of Blessed Lyricists are all Jewish. What are you gonna do? It is what it is.