I’m trying something new, dedicating an entire entry to an album review. Is this thinking ahead? My last entry was my 2000-word opus on the essential albums of 2023. If I write reviews as the albums come in, I’ll save all that time at the end of the year. When I wrote the Essential Albums blog, I realized that I didn’t have that much to say about some of them, they could have been left off the list; if I keep up the writing, I won’t do that again. I will write reviews on albums whose quality I can concisely explain. One request, if you are a musician, please don’t ask me to write a review. If I said I loved every album by everyone I know my opinion would be worthless. Sometimes the album is great enough but I’m not up to the task of explaining why. I don’t want to have to explain this to people I care about.
The first album to cross my transom this year, Likely Story, from Mad Agnes, meets all the qualifications for being reviewed. What makes this more impressive is that they don’t have new band smell but aren’t part of my close social circle. I don’t have a reason to be prejudiced towards them. When talking about Mad Agnes it is superfluous to discuss the quality of their harmonies. Along with We’re About 9 and Uncle Bonsai you can expect harmonies that don’t just sound beautiful but have intellectual content. They appeal to the Bach part of my brain. The harmonies go someplace.
Oconee is not just a full-fledged madrigal, but it might explain exactly what happened at the Tallahatchie Bridge. I’d like to think they were thinking that when they wrote the song. I’ll ask. They might not be part of my close social circle, but they are part of the full circle. It’s a big circle.
The first song I’ll be playing on Gord’s Gold is Lullaby for RBG. They describe it as a lullaby, but I hear it as an ode and patriotic anthem. Most political songs just hit you over the head with a message the target audience agrees with lets the listener feel like part of the tribe and just as important generates antipathy to those that don’t.
I love the songs’ use of language. There are rhymes that are perfect but catch your attention. There’s the use of words you don’t expect to hear in a song. The Nothing You Can Do begins, “The prednisone zone is the place you go when the headache’s bad and the sleep has flown, and there is no feeling more alone you know.” I’m in pain now albeit in my shoulder not my head, but I totally relate. It’s so rare to hear such wordcraft.
Not only are the individual songs great but they hold together as a unified work of art. This is a hell of a start to my musical year. The album is not available yet, but I’ll be playing tracks from it starting January 18. Hey it’s nice to wrap up an entry in under 600 words. This might be the way for me to go for now.
*There is no “A” in the band name but I like it in the title.
Wise Madness 