Dark Was the Night
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Free Music Notes for Dark Was the Night
Free Music Review: A Good Snapshot of One Slice of Indie Rock in 2009
Hit: 4 Stars
This compilation does a great job of representing a very specific corner of the indie rock world, it is not, however, an all-encompassing "Indie Rock For Dummies" that some have been billing it as. That's not to say I rate this album lower because of this, but compiling a complete picture of something as broad as the indie rock scene is nearly impossible to do in a mere 31 tracks, and it should be noted that this album does not accomplish that impossible feat.
On to what this album IS rather than what it is NOT...
The common thread I found on the first disc was that the entire disc was slow-tempo. You probably could have guessed that with songs by Bon Iver, Feist, Grizzly Bear, The Decembrists, Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens. However, even bands with a penchant for getting louder at times (The National, most notably) present very restrained songs on this disc.
The Dirty Projectors' track with David Bryne is a fantastic starting point for the album. Jose Gonzalez and The Books provide a great cover of "Cello Song", followed by a fantastic duet between Fiest and Ben Gibbard. Bon Iver, The National and Yeasayer add very strong tracks to close out the first half of disc 1. The second half of disc only has one really bad track (My Brightest Diamond's needless cover of "Feeling Good"), but the pacing feels really off. There's an 8 minute Decembrists track, followed by two songs that don't total half of that length, and then things finish off with a 10+ minute Sufjan Stevens track. All 4 tracks in the sequence are good, but the shorter middle tracks get lost, it feels like they could have been sequenced a bit better.
The first disc is remarkably consistent, but also lacks true standouts. The second disc is almost the exact opposite. There are a few true standouts, but the disc as a whole feels completely scatter shot.
Spoon and Arcade Fire bring the energy that was nowhere to be found on the first album. "Well-Alright" is a great pop track, it could easily fit on either of the last two Spoon albums. Arcade Fire's "Lenin" is a s a strong track as well. A very good contribution from Beirut finishes off the excellent start of the second disc. From there, things start to fall apart. My Morning Jacket continues their trend of becoming an extremely boring band (think "Librarian" from their last album), followed by an out of nowhere old-school R&B track by Sharon Jones. A decent contribution by TV on the Radio's David Sitek comes before another seemingly random choice - a Buck 65 rap song. From there the rest of the disc waivers between somewhat exciting (Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers and Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch) to fairly forgettable (Stuart Murdoch, Andrew Bird and Kevin Drew). Of special note, Cat Power's cover of "Amazing Grace" is probably my least favorite track on the album. I'm a big Cat Power fan, but record an original song already! Just an awful cover by Chan...
Phew, I think that about covers it, 31 tracks, the vast majority of which I enjoy, a handful I REALLY enjoy and a select few I will probably skip more often than not. All things considered, I think this is a successful compliation. It is aimed at a specific corner of the indie rock world, but it does a really good job of covering that specific corner.
Free Music Review: 4.5 stars... Indie music bands' all-star compilation
Hit: 4 Stars
I'm generally not much for these types of compilations, but the long talked about and (for me) eagerly anticipated "Dark Was the Night" (2 CDs; 31 stars; 130 min.), a charity compilation overseen/produced by the National's Bryce and Aaron Dressner, is a veritable all-star collection of the best and brightest of indie music bands of this era, and it is quite the listening experience.
Even though there is no single overreaching theme to this collection (as acknowledged by Aaron Dressner in the liner notes) CD1 "This Disc" (15 tracks; 63 min.) brings a remarkable cohesiveness when listening to it. CD1 plays like a greatest hits of indie music, even though these songs are not hits and most songs are brand new. Highlights are too many to mention, but here just a few: the opener "Knotty Pine" is a delightful collaboration of Dirty Projectors and David Byrne. Feist and DCFC's Ben Gibbard excel on "Train Song". Bon Iver is his usual great on "Bracket, W9". The National's contribution "So Far Around the Bend" is my favorite track on this entire album, just superb. The Kronos Quartet's instrumental cover of 'Blind' Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night" is eerie and delightful. (Side bar: the Dressner brothers also curate the annual "MusicNow" festival in their/my hometown of Cincinnati, and this year's edition, slated for mid-March, will headline the Kronos Quartet, can't wait for that!) Iron & Wine's "Die" is a 1 min. little ditty. Sufjan Stevens closes CD1 with a great "You Are the Blood". But those are just the personal highlights for me. there are no weak tracks on this, period. I rate CD1 5 stars.
CD2 "That Disc" (16 tracks; 67 min.) is a bit more all over the map, but still provides plenty of highlights, including Spoon's "Well Alright", Beirut's "Mimizan", My Morning Jacket's "El Caporal", the instrumental Riceboys Sleeps' "Happiness", the exquisite duet between Conor Oberst and Gillian Welsh on "Lua" and the next to last track, "When the Dreams Runs Out", a dreamy collaboration between Blonde Redhead and Devastations, just superb. I rate CD2 4 stars.
In all, if you are familiar with many of these artists, this is not to be missed, and an essential purchase, period. If you are not, give this a try and chances are that you'll simply be blown away by the beauty of the music on here, and at the basement price that Amazon is selling this, this is a no-brainer, just get it already. If you are wondering where you can here many of these artists, check out WOXY (BAM! The Future of Rock and Roll), the internet-only station that brings the best indie-music in the country, bar none. Meanwhile, "Dark Was the Night" is highly recommended, and sure to make my "best of 2009" albums when the time comes later this year.
Free Music Review: Interesting genre comp
Hit: 4 Stars
4.5 Stars.
Compilations can be a tricky business. A comp can be boring without enough variety or a difficult listen if it's too scattershot. This one finds a nice place somewhere in the middle, focusing on one particular genre but, in the process, revealing that this genre is perhaps more diverse than I had imagined. It sheds light on some artists I am not so familiar with, which is also a very nice thing.
My favorite non-soundtrack compilation has always been Rykodisc 20th Anniversary, and it is pretty much the standard by which I measure comps. The Ryko comp has a lot of diversity, which keeps it from getting boring, and the song choices are nothing short of stellar. This one measures up very nicely to that classic. The first 3 songs on disc one (David Byrne, Jose Gonzalez and Feist/Ben Gibbard) are kockouts, and other great songs are interspersed throughout (indie mainstays Spoon, My Morning Jacket, The National, Yo La Tengo and the New Pornographers all make some excellent contributions). I also really enjoyed hearing Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings as well as Riceboy Sleeps, artists I had no knowledge of before this comp came along.
However, the comp does tend to bog down a bit in places. Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear were both very subdued and a little dull, especially with one track right after the other. The Kronos Quartet's contribution was vaguely grating. Buck 65 made no sense on this comp. These tracks broke the flow a little but were also interesting enough to be possible growers.
Overall though, it's a great look at an area of indie rock where vaguely like-minded artists are creating some very vital material. The fact that it supports a good cause (and at a bargain price to boot) means that I recommend this unequivocally. Even if you are completely unfamiliar with this genre, there's plenty here for most relatively open-minded people to enjoy.
Free Music Review: "THIS" side defective - UGH.
Hit: 4 Stars
Well, sadly, I ordered this double disk on Amazon and once you have unwrapped the cellophane, you don't qualify for a return anymore. I found that disc 1, labeled, "THIS SIDE", absolutely will not import to my itunes on my laptop. Ugh, this is uber frustrating, to say the least. I have tried over 20 times with no luck. Right now I was able to get the command going, only to find out that the first song is jamming my download. I have imported over 500 disks, so I'm familiar with the process. Has anyone else experienced this problem?Free Music Review: Great mix of talent
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a great cd, and not too shabby of a deal. Some of the other highlights have already been pointed out, but I just want to stress how good many of these tracks are by themselves, let alone together on a compilation. "Service Bell", "Train Song", "Brackett, WI", and "You are the blood" really make the first cd worth it by itself. Definitely purchase this if you are into new music. Aaron Dessner (of M Ward) really produced a winner here.