Maestropolis: Still Going.

Disc Four:

01. The Raveonettes “Attack of the Ghost Riders”
How was I to know they wouldn’t just be a one-off? This is a great little single, a three-minute B-movie starring James Dean with a soundtrack by the Jesus & Mary Chain. But, oh, how very much better they would get. From the Columbia EP Whip It On, 2002.

02. The Delgados “All You Need Is Hate”
Sure, it’s a conceptual lift from the Beatles (or, more specifically, John Lennon). But the music is Elton John circa 1970, or Standard Indie Orchestral. With a fuzz guitar gently weeping somewhere in the background. The lyrics remain disquietingly opaque; they’re satirical, or are they? Why is charity a joke that friendly cities think that we’ll believe? Or am I just hearing Jimi Hendrix kiss this guy? From the Mantra LP Hate, 2002.

03. The Thrills “Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far)”
The hook: they’re Irish, but they love California, or the idea of California they got from late-60’s Beach Boys records and early-70’s Eagles records. So, not unnaturally, they sound like a Beach Boys/Eagles tribute band. But really it’s the banjo, I think, that puts it over the top. From the Virgin LP So Much for the City, 2003.

04. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band feat. Norah Jones “Ruler of My Heart”
Hey, shut up. Norah Jones’ voice is one of the great gifts of being alive today. Of course she doesn’t even slightly hold a candle to the classic Irma Thomas version of this song, any more than the Band did “Ain’t Got No Home” better than Frogmouth. But this track is wonderful just to hear that tuba puffing the intro. And is there a slight electronic touch to the song, or is my mp3 just screwed up? From the Rope-A-Dope LP Medicated Magic, 2002.

05. Billy Bragg & the Blokes “Take Down the Union Jack”
The ultimate in long-distance Anglophilia, I suppose; my throat still tightens a bit at the final line: “to be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England dot co dot uk.” Although it did take me forever to decipher the line about Gilbert & George taking the piss (they’re conceptual artists). I really don’t understand why more folksingers don’t play Gibsons. Like an acoustic is so much more authentic. From the Elektra LP England, Half English, 2002.

06. Electric Six “Danger! High Voltage!”
Garage-disco, baby! (And that’s gar-ahjj, not garridge.) It came to the attention of the cool kids in the room because Jack White is doing the call & response thing, but it was such an instantly lovable track that it even ended up on the Charlie’s Angels 2 soundtrack, in overproduced form. Disco needs more skronky saxophones that sound like they stepped out of a sweaty 50’s r&b nightclub. Fire in the Taco Bell! From the Beggars XL LP Fire, 2003.

07. Simian “La Breeze”
Demented pop, like some alternate-universe version of Supergrass where they listened to Aladdin Sane instead of Electric Warrior. That false start is great to play in public, for the same reason that watching a scary movie you’ve already seen with someone who hasn’t is great. What kind of phasing do they use to get that rubbery guitar sound? Delightful. From the Astralwerks LP We Are Your Friends, 2002.

08. The White Stripes “Ball and Biscuit”
A monster, stomping behemoth of a track that chews broken bottles and spits them back in your face. (You can actually hear the exact moment of the spitting. It’s at 5:37, when Jack decides not to go back to the main riff, and just keep doing his best Jimmy Page. Meg, of course, John Bonhams throughout.) Guitar solos aren’t punk? Then fuck punk. From the V2 LP Elephant, 2003.

09. Craig Armstrong feat. Evan Dando “Wake Up in New York”
The chaser; Dando (from the Lemonheads, not that that really means anything to anyone who wasn’t in college in 1992) sounds like he was personally just pummelled by Jack White before coming into the studio to sing this song. Meanwhile, the strings wax and wane with robotic precision, and if you really try hard, you can fall in love with New York to this song. From the EMI LP As If to Nothing, 2002.

10. The Be-Good Tanyas “The Littlest Birds”
I’ve never even really tried to understand the Mormon mindset, but listening to this song makes me start to question whether polygamy is so bad. (Metaphorically, ’k? Let’s keep our panties untwisted.) Harmonies like this make any song with just one woman’s beautiful voice seem boring. The fact that the lyrics are basically a female version of “Freebird” is icing on the cake. From the Nettwerk LP Blue Horse, 2001.

11. The Joe Jackson Band “Take It Like A Man”
And for one great, glorious track, he proves that sometimes you can go home again, with slightly punchier production. Seriously, the song could be an outtake from Look Sharp!, it’s so nervy and funny and rocky and unnecessarily complexly piano-soloey. Suck it, Webster’s. (And, hey, Joe, bravo for rhyming “icicles” to “bicycles” and almost making it work.) From the Rykodisc LP Volume 4, 2002.

12. Paul Westerberg “Let the Bad Times Roll”
I heard this song before I’d ever heard any Replacements. (Yeah, yeah, I suck. Sorry for being born the wrong year, dude.) So the gravelly whine had no associations for me, whether of nostalgia or betrayal; in fact, it just made the words that much cooler. Props to Westerberg for coming up with a brilliant, this-is-our-pop-moment title, and then writing lyrics to match it. From the Vagrant LP Stereo, 2002.

13. Macy Gray “You Got to Be My Mother’s Son-in-Law”
Macy gets her Billie Holiday on. Remember when “I Try” was inescapable for a year? Now I kind of miss her, don’t you? This is just a silly soundtrack cover song, sure; but I don’t really hear enough swing anymore, and if there’s any modern singer whose voice was tailor-made for the stuff, it’s her. From the various-artists Sony LP Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: Music from the Motion Picture, 2002.

14. The Bygones “The Book”
Obscure-as-hell Nebraska band who want nothing more than to be Bob Dylan with the Rolling Stones as his backing band. For the space of the guitar solo here, they almost manage it. Otherwise, the jury’s still out on whether the country-Dylan lyrics are brilliant or gimmicky. From the Derailleur LP Circles, 2002.

15. Bebel Gilberto “No Return”
Another cover! What the hell, man? But, no, you have to hear this one! I used to be kind of a Kinks fanatic; this song, on Something Else, was nice and pretty, but I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be bossa nova until Astrid’s daughter-in-law Girl-from-Ipanema’d it to spacey perfection. From the various-artists Rykodisc LP This Is Where I Belong: the Songs of Ray Davies and the Kinks, 2002.

16. Tricky “Mission Accomplished”
One of the downsides of being an Anglophile is that you’re always hearing about these great bands which you just missed by about a decade. Tricky apparently never lived up to Maxinquaye, but nobody told me until I had fallen in love with this tightly-wound bit of trip-grind. (Like that? I got a million of ’em.) From the Epitaph EP Mission Accomplished, 2001.

17. Virginie Ledoyen “Mon amour mon ami”
Ooh, French pop! Sung by an actress who isn’t a singer! Wait, not Brigitte Bardot? Actually, it’s so much less twee than it sounds, but there’s still plenty of twee left over. I appreciate the 40’s production; it would be terrible if they tried to put anything electric in it. Still, of course, most right-thinking Americans should hate it. In French. From the various-artists WEA Music France LP 8 femmes: Bande originale du film, 2001.

18. The Avalanches “Frontier Psychiatrist”
Is there even anything to say about this track? I must have listened to it hundreds of times by now, and I’m still unpacking the different sounds in my head. All that’s left is that pinnacle of laziness, quotation: A record? record? record? record? To an optometrist! Tighten your buttocks and pour juice on your chin, indeed. From the Modular LP Since I Left You, 2000.

19. Solomon Burke feat. the Blind Boys of Alabama “None of Us Are Free”
Possibly the last great soul man (assuming James Brown never records again). On Sundays, he preaches from the pulpit, which makes this song so inspired. The Blind Boys are his congregation here, and Reveren Burke doubles at the organ. Listen for the wildcat roar as he returns to knock the chorus home one more time. Oh, and the song is true. From the Fat Possum LP Don’t Give Up on Me, 2002.

20. The Cooper Temple Clause “Did You Miss Me?”
It seemed like this would be the perfect bookend to the album. Starts out slow and a little Pink-Floydy, and slowly builds to throbbing, burning noise, complementing the Raveonettes at the beginning of the disc perfectly. Otherwise, not really an interesting song. From the Mourning LP See This Through and Leave, 2002.

21. Nick Lowe “Between Dark and Dawn”
But then I realized that the disc had to end with this. Because if you don’t love Nick Lowe’s music, I’m not sure you qualify as a human being. From the Yep Roc LP The Convincer, 2001.