Now Downloading: New Releases 01.31.12 - Leonard Cohen

This week's collection of releases finds two at the opposite ends of life (and, well, art) in Leonard Cohen and Lana Del Rey. Elsewhere, look out for new releases from Imperial Teen, The Ex-Girlfriends Club, Hospitality, The Pines, Ringo Starr, K'Nan, Mike Doughty, and the Jealous Sound.

Playlist: New Releases 01.31.12 (Rhapsody) / Spotify

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Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
Purchase [mp3] / Spotify

I love to speak with Leonard
He's a sportsman and a shepherd
He's a lazy bastard living in a suit
"Going Home"

I always forget that music was Leonard Cohen's 2nd vocation, not releasing his first album (The Songs of Leonard Cohen, 1967) until he was 33 years old. He was the one "New Bob Dylan" that was older than Dylan. He's 78 now, and the age is starting to show, his voice deepening to a point that it's otherworldly in delivery. In an interview with the New York Times, Cohen confessed that mortality was on his mind in the writing of Old Ideas, and like many who reach the end of their road, Cohen turns to religion, here in the form of Gospel hymnals and an old man's ruminations from a dusty pew. "I've got no future, I know my days are few" he sings on the single "Darkness," and Cohen sounds tired, but in a reclined, luxurious way. Where in the past, Cohen might have used this scenario for sexual despair, he's not as much a sexual being, admitting "Hey, I don't miss it baby... I ain't got no taste for anything at all." "Show Me the Place," meanwhile, is the cornerstone of Old Ideas, a kind of updated "Hallelujiah" (or, perhaps "If It Be Your Will," from 1984's Various Positions). While he probably should've ended the album with this beautiful hymnal, it's hard not to fault him putting down his Ace in the first third. Life's too short at this point to wait for dessert.

Free AOL Album Stream

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Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
Purchase [mp3] / Stream via Rhapsody


After all the hype and attention, there's a fine pop EP you can cobble together from Lana Del Rey's debut release, Born to Die. "Video Games" can keep a small boat like that afloat, but all the misfires over across this full length release is just too much weight for any great song to bear. While it seems like this review, nee, 'blurb' is kind short, I just don't see the point of dedicating anymore digital ink to Lizzie Grant. There's been plenty enough as is, and I don't really have anything new to add.

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Imperial Teen - Feel the Sound / "Runaway" [mp3]
The Ex-Girlfriends Club - Boo Hoo / "The Witch" (Sonics cover) [mp3]
The Pines - Dark So Gold
Hospitality - Hospitality / "Friends of Friends" [mp3] / "Betty Wang" [mp3]
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Ringo Starr - 2012
K'naan - More Beautiful Than Silence / Free AOL Album Stream
Mike Doughty - Question Jar
The Jealous Sound - A Gentle Reminder
The Internet - Purple Naked Ladies
Hit the Lights - Invicta / Free AOL Album Stream
Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class / Free AOL Album Stream
Elephant Micah - Golden Gate Groove: The Sound Of Philadelphia in San Francisco 1973 / Free AOL Album Stream
Hospitality - Louder Than Thou / "If I Were a Surfer" [mp3]

tags: music, album review, leonard cohen, lana del rey, indie rock, new releases

Lost "Everybody Loves Hurley": Wondrous Boat Ride

One of my favorite things about this last season of Lost, oddly enough, is the music backing the previews for the next week's episodes. Previously, we've heard Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" and this week it was "Wondrous Boat Ride" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, a scene that used to give me nightmares* as a kid:


Its inclusion here probably speaks to the recent chatter that Jacob's adventurous search for an heir was a lot like the one Willy Wonka put on in his factory.

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Some may remember that the original cut of the film had headless chickens that were understandably edited out later thanks to the reaction from kids like me.

Previously: Happily Ever After

Who Listens to the Watchmen? Music from the Motion Picture

When director Zack Snyder originally professed his desire to stay as true to the Watchmen graphic novel as possible, in some interviews he also extended it to the music choices as well. The much lauded source material uses a lot of musical cues throughout, so it stands to reason that some would find their way into the film's soundtrack. The first, and most hard hitting of those songs, is Bob Dylan's epic "Desolation Row," a song whose 11-minutes of lyrical poetry might even be more formidable than Zack Snyder's task of bringing Watchmen to the big screen.

Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
"Desolation Row" - Bob Dylan

The song kicks off both the graphic novel and the soundtrack released this week, and how it's handled gives us our first cue as to how Snyder (along with his trusted musical sidekick Tyler Bates) handled the task of making Watchmen accessible to the masses. Snyder and Bates chose to have My Chemical Romance do a sped-up three-minute version of the song to play through the end credits, butchering two birds (Dylan and the source material) with one stone. As to why they went this route, the track record for Snyder and Bates (2004's Dawn of the Dead, 300) show soundtracks that at times are as subtle as a monster truck rally. It's entertaining to be sure, but not something you expect to hear Bob Dylan set to.

There are a few other songs that are true to the original, one of which is Billie Holiday's "You're My Thrill," famously blasted from the Owl Ship (see above panel) as a sort of foreplay for Night Owl and Silk Spectre II as they take part in a spontaneous rescue mission (which also, interestingly enough, acts as a form of foreplay). In the movie version, all this superhero foreplay leads to a Leonard Cohen climax of "Hallelujah", making the song both a cliché and party to what amounts to a cheap joke. Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" gets the cliché treatment as well, sombering up a funeral. Meanwhile, the most entertaining portion of the film is the opening montage, which utilizes the Bob Dylan tagline for Ozymandias' Nostalgia Perfume ("The Times They Are a-Changin'"), which shows that you can be true to the source and build upon it.

Playlist: Songs from the Watchmen Graphic Novel
Tracklisting and page/scene references

A separate release for Tyler Bates' score came out this week as well, and sounds influenced by film scores of the time period, most notably the synth sounds of Vangelis (Blade Runner) and the pulsating rhythm of Jan Hammer (Miami Vice). But another strong influence here is the music of Phillip Glass, specifically, his work for the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi, which is even more apparent by the presence of two of Glass' songs, "Pruit Igoe" and "Prophecies," utilized so well in the film for Dr. Manhattan's backstory. Bates' opening song on the release, "Rescue Mission," borrows heavily from Glass' "Pruit Igoe," abandoning its minimalistic feel for a more muscular and pulsing approach. It's an interesting route to go, but when you see how Glass' original music works in the scene, you kind of wish for more of that, instead of the bludgeoning rhythms (and visuals, for that matter) that bookend the experience.

Previously: Novel Soundtrack: Watchmen

Framed by The Frames

Last night concluded the amazing two-parter from Life ("Dig a Hole" and "Fill it Up") and cemented the drama as a weekly must see. The second-hour especially had many goose bump-inducing moments, especially with song choices, including the use of The Frames' "Finally" for the ending. Why then do I get the feeling that Life has given us the best it has to offer, and can only disappoint from here on?

Now that Crews has found the real killer of the crime that sent him to prison, how long can it survive just putting together the rest of the puzzle? So much of this series relies on Damien Lewis' powerful performance that the episodes suffer from any straying from his story, and how long can it really take now to figure out how he was framed? For now I guess we can only trust that the writers can work there way around these obstacles.

Meanwhile, though, last night's episode had many moments wreaking havoc on my '10 Best TV Music Moments' list that I'd already started. Right off, they used the slippery instrumental intro from "El Rodeo" from Kyuss for Crews return to prison. Next was the cover of Richard and Linda Thompson's "Shoot Out The Lights" by the legendary band X, which they recorded over a decade ago for a Thompson tribute album called Beat the Retreat. John Doe and Exene Cervenka harmonize while Charlie tosses his Zen cassette out the window, signaling that he's ready to lose control. There was already a signal, though, at the end of the previous hour, when it The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" played out the episode, which we know from it's many prior uses that things are about to 'get real'.

The goose-bumps only got bigger as the show went on, as next up came Leonard Cohen's classic "Who By Fire," backing Charlies' interrogation of Hollis along with the search for the shotgun swallowing snake. Cohen's lyrics "who by high ordeal, who by common trial?" were so right for nearly any scene with Charlie, but here especially. Then comes the slow building of The Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Down Boy," which climaxes when Charlie stands up looking over the two men he just surgically cut down with two shots. Down, down, down boy... good boy.

And finally, literally, when Crews makes his triumphant return to the station after having nabbed the real killer Kyle Hollis, it's to The Frames' "Finally," making the half-season come full circle, as their song "Dream Awake" played in the pilot as Charlie comes home after getting out of prison. That they use The Frames to frame the half-season works on so many levels, and not just because the series' mystery is about Charlie being framed for murder. The lyrics to "Finally" fit so well into the ending, and the series so far, it's almost as if frontman Glen Hansard
wrote it after watching.

Did you fall on your way
its a long way down
welcome back to your place
i hope you know it now
cause its true what you say
were the wrong way round
and the lie that cut the worse
has been resolved, then reversed... finally

Playlist: Life Eps 110-111
1. "Ride" - Liz Phair - Ep 1.10, opening
2. "Ooh La La" - Goldfrapp - Ep 1.10, discovery of old cellphone
3. "Fleur De Saison" - Emilie Simon - Ep 1.10, enter wild party
4. "Hello Hello I'm Back Again" - Shivaree - Ep 1.10, Connie shows up at the precinct
5. "Gimme Shelter" - The Rolling Stones - Ep 1.10, ending
6. "El Rodeo" - Kyuss - Ep 1.11, Charlie approaches the prison
7. "Ahead of My Time" - Teddybears w/ Daddy Boastin' - Ep 1.11, Charlie leaves the prison, approaches crime scene
8. "Shoot Out the Lights" - X - Ep 1.11, Charlie tosses Zen cassette out window, drives to Hollis residence
9. "Sorry" - Gram Rabbit - Ep 1.11, Charlie gives away his car
10. "Who By Fire" - Leonard Cohen - Ep 1.11, interrogation of Hollis / search for snake
11. "Down Boy" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Ep 1.11, Charlie stands up and looks over the two men he just killed
12. "Finally" - The Frames - Ep 1.11, they bring Hollis in, Charlie is greeted at the station

Previously: A Tale of Two Shows (Life Ep1.09)