John Vanderslice - Emerald City
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Music CD Cover
Artist: John VandersliceEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-07-24
Music Label: Barsuk
Soundtracks:
- Kookaburra
- Time To Go
- Parade, The
- White Dove
- Tablespoon Of Codeine
- Tower, The
- Minaret, The
- Numbered Lithograph
- Central Booking
Free Music Notes for Emerald City
Free Music Review: Vanderslice continues his winning ways
Hit: 4 Stars
In 2005, John Vanderslice released his fifth studio album, the brilliant "Pixel Revolt", which for me was one of the top albums of the year. The prolific Vanderslice (6 albums in 8 years) took his time for once, and took 2 years to come out with a follow-up album.
On "Emerald City" (9 tracks; 38 min.), we find a very different Vanderslice from "Pixel Revolt". Indeed, gone are the dreamy audio landscapes, and instead we get a much grittier and urgent sound. The lyrics of Vanderslice remain as difficult to penetrate and understand as ever, if not more so, although the main themes are dealing with the world as we know it post 9-11. I for one am not all that high on the actual lyrical content of songs, but more on how it sounds, and as mentioned before, this album sounds much more rooted in the everyday life than Pixel Revolt. Check out "Time to Go" or "White Dove", with a piercing guitar and stomping drums. The best songs of the album are actually found on the second half of the album: "The Tower", "The Minaret", "Numbered Lithograph" (with great lines like "You left me at the table to go to the ATM/I've never felt lonelier" while the song is awash in reverb) and the beautiful closer "Central Booking", the most reflective and introvert song on the album.
In all, while "Emerald City" is a very nice album, albeit not quite at the same height of "Pixel Revolt", but at 38 min. it's over before you know it and you want to play it again. Vanderslice remains an icon in the indie-rock community, and deservedly so. I saw Vanderslice recently in concert (opening up for Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks) and he and his band put on an outstanding 50 min. set, of course playing a lot of songs from "Emerald City". If you have a chance to see him live, don't miss him.
Emerald City Poster
With the album title referring to the Green Zone in Baghdad, the latest from John Vanderslice is rife with fractious circumstances on a grand scale. His writing was fueled not only by inescapable global realities, but also an ultimately futile process to obtain a visa for his French girlfriend. The contrast of small personal details against a backdrop of larger sociopolitical events is what makes such riveting characters come to life in his songs. Eschewing broad specifics and flat reportage, his poetic bearing makes the slivered glimpses of lives in flux feel as resonant as a next-door neighbor or a family member further afield, but connected by phone. All of these lyrical aims would fall flat without Vanderslice's consummate compositional skills. These are first and foremost hook-filled songs, and it is upon repeated listenings (which they can't help but draw a listener into) that more complex matters of darkness, grief, love, hope, and death begin to emerge. --David GreenbergerVanderslice recorded this album in the midst of anguishing legal limbo after a visa application for his French girlfriend was rejected by US immigration. The album takes its title from a reference to the "Green Zone" in Iraq, but its themes are broad.
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