When I was 16 and 17 I first made contact with Vampire Weekend. My friend had showed my their track ‘Diane Young’ and I was immediately hooked. They had three albums out at the time: ‘Vampire Weekend’, ‘Contra’ and ‘Modern Vampires of the City’. Their blend of electronic sounds, earthy percussion, intricate melodies and sometimes baffling lyrics had me hooked and I would listen to some their songs over and over again. So when I saw that they had released a couple of new tracks I became maybe a little overly excited.

The track I’m going to talk about is ‘Harmony Hall’ and it opens with a rippling, full bodied guitar lick. I was a little surprised at this as it doesn’t exactly scream vintage ‘Vampire Weekend’ but I enjoyed it none the less. Needless to say, my concerns were quickly put aside as the lyrics came in bringing with them a brilliant, clean melody. The pre-chorus in particular caught my attention:

“Anger wants a voice, voices wanna sing
Singers harmonize ’til they can’t hear anything
I thought that I was free from all the questionin’
But every time a problem ends, another one begins”

Not only does this section carry a beautiful melody, the harmony on “’til they can’t hear anything” is noteworthy and appropriate, it also contains excellently phrased and thought provoking lyrics. The first two lines in particular contain a lot of information in a very efficient, compact manner. The first line sets up the premise that people will always want to voice their opinions, particularly those which disagree with what they see in the world. However the second line brings in an interesting thought that when they voices come together they often drown one another out. I think that this idea is even more interesting when we consider the idea that these singers “harmonize” rather than there being dissonance between them. This to me suggests that the singers in question are agreeing with one another and through this agreement actually block out anything contrary to their beliefs.

This idea is compounded on in the chorus by the term ‘Harmony Hall’ which could be taken to mean an echo chamber. The chorus opens up the texture of the track and creates some tension moving into the post-chorus which reiterates the chorus’ final line:

“I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die”

This just screams Vampire Weekend to me and I love the overall texture, melody and feeling at this point in the song. From this point the songs goes on to develop the musical ideas it has already established, adding new ideas along the way but it finely establishes this balance, sometimes thinning the texture to make sure that the fine melodies aren’t overwhelmed. It returns the gentle, ripping guitar to bring the song full circle creating a track that I think is really special.

Apparently this is the precursor to a new album coming from Vampire Weekend and if this song is anything to go off then I am very excited. It’s been a bit of a wait, six years in fact, and based off this track we might be looking at a more mature, well developed band. If this is the case I hope that they don’t lose the authenticity and charm that their earlier songs had but instead it brings more maturity and more well rounded songs. Either way, I’m extremely excited to hear more as I’m sure Vampire Weekend will take me back to that point in my life through their unique sound.

In my quest to learn more about the most important artists of the last century, David Bowie was going to be unavoidable. There has always been a passive amount of Bowie in my life, his culture importance is unbelievably huge and so I was somewhat familiar with some of his work. I decided to start with Hunky Dory as there were quite a few songs I recognised but I couldn’t be prepared for just how much I love this album.

Released in 1971 it was one of Bowie’s first albums but so many of these songs have gone on to be not only classic Bowie tracks but also songs which have maintained their importance to this day. Any album that can begin with ‘Changes’ and follow that up with ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ has already established itself as a cultural classic.

These first two songs are definitely two of the strongest on the album and they share a lot of themes, many of which help to define the whole album. What stands out in particular is the focus on generational differences, this is pretty apparent just from the title of ‘Changes’ but I think my favourite line relating to this theme is:

 “And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through”

This generational different is mirrored in ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ brilliantly in the chorus:

“Oh you Pretty Things
Don’t you know you’re driving your
Mamas and Papas insane”

I think that not only is this sentiment as relevant today as it was in 1971 but goes some way to reflect how Bowie was becoming something of a counter cultural icon, the somewhat effeminate, long haired Bowie on the cover adds to this.

The album also plays into the wider culture at the time through its songs titled for Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan. While I find Andy Warhol the better song, the intro especially showing traits of the more experimental approach which Bowie became increasingly capable of on an album which is full of reasonably poppy tracks, they come together to show how this album is something of a time capsule for its era, seeped in culture and feeling. This culture and the themes of generational difference come together beautifully on what is perhaps the best track on the album, ‘Life on Mars?’.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how good ‘Life on Mars?’ is but I still want to take a moment to say, how good is this song? I’ve heard it before but listening to it as part of the album really gave it another dimension. Its somewhat metaphorical and obscure lyrics seem to make a lot more sense in the context of ‘Hunky Dory’ and its dynamic, swelling composition is just tremendous. The piano which follows the vocals throughout the whole song is really excellent and stands out as one of the most intricate and thoughtful pieces of music on the album.

As for the other pieces on the album, I didn’t really find myself enjoying ‘Eight Line Poem’ or ‘Quicksand’ a great deal which may be more of a reflection on how great the other tracks are (it certainly doesn’t help that ‘Eight Line Poem’ is between ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ and ‘Life on Mars?’). I found ‘Kooks’ and ‘Fill Your Heart’ to be pleasant, pop, tracks which on some listens I really enjoyed but on other occasions I really wanted the slightly more alternative and interesting sound which I associate with Bowie. ‘Queen Bitch’ found itself in a similar situation where I generally enjoyed the track but it sometimes feels a bit left out from the rest of the album, perhaps down to its sound but I think it also unfortunately falls in the same category of being surrounded by other songs which are simply outstanding.

The final song on the album however, ‘The Bewlay Bothers’ is something of an outsider, I was unfamiliar with it before listening to ‘Hunky Dory’ but its become one of my favourite songs on the album. Its lyrics are obscure and abstract and the narrative which it tells hardly makes sense but its pulled of with so much style and emotion that I believe it works brilliantly. It’s dynamic crescendos and imagery come together to create a song which really stands out in an album full of classics. The lyrics:

 “Now my brother lays upon the rocks
He could be dead, he could be not
He could be you
He’s chameleon, comedian, Corinthian and caricature”

are some of my favourites on the whole album and always stand out when listening through.

So overall how does ‘Hunky Dory’ rate? Brilliantly. In trying to give myself a bit of an education I’ve really got a lot more appreciation for why Bowie is such a cultural icon. ‘Hunky Dory’ is an example of how to bring together new, exciting sounds which are both of their time while also being timeless classics. It’s made me love songs which before I would have only recognised and brought some tracks to my attention which I’d never really listened to before. I really can’t wait to listen to more Bowie now and see where he goes.

 

The Impossible Kid is Aesop Rock’s seventh solo album but for me it was my first exposure to someone who is quickly becoming one of my favourite artists. The album was released in 2016 by Ian Bavitz (Aesop) at the age of 40 and his experience really bleeds into the sound and lyrics of the album creating something that I found really special. Some of the sounds on this album are like nothing I’ve ever heard and I was really taken back by just how creative this whole album is while make sure it gets the basics so, so right.

Pretty much every song on the album has its own personality and this gotten across through an excellent balance of compelling narratives and strange, dreamlike metaphors that work together to create some really interesting themes which are maintained through the whole album. I could go on and on about almost every song here (and I probably will at some point) but right now I want to talk about a pair of songs on the album that I think together give a really strong impression of Aesop’s music and what you can expect from this album. The two songs I want to talk about are Rings and Lotta Years.

Rings, really sets the mood for the whole album. It’s an insight into Aesop’s past as an aspiring visual artist and considers not only what could have been but also the importance of art in his life.

“It was soothin’, movin’ his arm in a fusion
Of man-mad tools and a muse from beyond
Even if it went beautifully wrong
It was tangible truth for a youth who refused to belong”
Aesop Rock, Rings

This part of the first verse really shows just how well Aesop can draw together his lyrical skills with inventive imagery while all the time reinforcing the themes at the core of the song.  In this short section, Aesop is able to give us a really beautifully concise impression of his feelings towards his art as not only a relaxing activity but one which meant a lot to him as a kid no matter what the outcome of it was. It was the process of creating it which was really important to him, not the result. However, this positive feeling is always in doubt from the very beginning of the song with the very first lyrics referring to how he “used to draw”. This idea is explored further in the first verse with this short section:

 “I left some years a deer in the light
I left some will to spirit away
I let my fears materialize
I let my skills deteriorate”
Aesop Rock, Rings

Here Aesop is reflecting on how his connection with art faded over time. It’s an honest outlook on why he stopped drawing and painting and he attributes this to fear. He never really says clearly what exactly it was that he was afraid of but in a 2016 interview with Julian Brimmers he admits that he “just kinda lost touch with it [art] as [his] life unfolded.” While I think the easy assumption to make would be that Aesop was afraid of failing or that his art would never get his anywhere I’m not so sure. In the same interview he says that creating art was something that he “loved to do regardless of whether or not I was good” and that all the work that he put into it was “based on nothing but a love for trying and doing.” I think the real reason lies in a later verse:

“Eating up his innards, an unfeasible anxiety,
Has brutally committed to relinquishing his privacy
Aligning with the trails of the anti-Midas
Nap on the back lawn, look up in the sky, its…”
Aesop Rock, Rings

This part of the verse is delivered more quickly than the rest of the song and the drum track drops out making it really stand out by building some tension and energy. The way that the drums come back in right at the end releases this brilliantly as the chorus drops in creating a really nice structure for the song. Aesop recognises that the reason why he stopped creating as much art was because of everything else that was happening in his life and that his passions fell away when he was suffering from anxiety and doubt about his own identity. It can be difficult to pursue the things you love when you’re not entirely sure who you are and why you do the things you do and I think that this song really encapsulates this sentiment. The concept of considering yourself as an “anti-Midas”, that is having everything you touch become worthless, is clever, memorable and relatable and I can see how, when you adopt that way of thinking, you may give up on something so important to you. I think that this idea is portrayed by the chorus:

“Shapes falling out of the fringe
All heart, though we would’ve made cowardly kings,
They will chop you down just to count your rings”
Aesop Rock, Rings

The very first line of the chorus creates a very strong impression and for me personally it created an image of drawings falling off the side of a canvas, piece of paper or sketchbook; building on the theme of Aesop’s time as a visual artist. I not only find this visually striking, I also find that it works very well as a metaphor. When the art is stripped away all that is left is a blank space devoid of identity. This could either represent how Aesop felt, that his visual art only acted to hide the fact that he didn’t really know who he was or that once he abandoned it he felt bare and that he had lost something important to him. The chorus follows on with this slightly abstract tone but what I think Aesop is really trying to get at is that in his youth he was very idealistic, but this idealism perhaps made him somewhat detached from the rest of the world and reality. I think that he views his passion for the visual arts as an extension of this idealism as it was something he did, not because he expected anything great to happen from it or because he thought he could make a living from it, but simply because he thought it was worth doing and it meant something to him. I think that on one level he really misses this time in his life but at the same time recognises that he had to change to suit the environment around him. The idea of counting rings is a metaphor for the way in which you can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings in its trunk but I think why this metaphor is actually more complex than it may appear is because Aesop draws attention to the fact that you have to cut down a tree in order to count its rings. By following this metaphor, we arrive at the idea that in looking back on his life Aesop feels that he has in a sense chopped himself down. What this means exactly isn’t clear, but I’ve taken it to say that the only way Aesop can understand who he has become is by looking back on a life that has regrets. It’s only by recognising who he used to be that Aesop can see how far he’s come and even though he’s grown so much, there are still things that define him deep down that he thought he may have left behind in a past that he misses. While this song may seem somewhat depressing, I believe that it can provide a very positive message when we look at Aesop’s actions. If you have a chance to check out Aesop’s Instagram you’ll find that it is full of art that he has created, some of it is really great and makes me angry how one guy can be so talented. This changes the meaning of the song for me. It isn’t about a man who lost a passion but a man who rediscovered something that he thought was lost and is able to bring back some of the idealism and heart that had defined him when he was younger.

The other song that I’m going to talk about is the third song on the album: Lotta Years. This track follows Rings and offers a real distinction. It works on a much smaller scale and offers more of a narrative while still retaining a strong message and a great level of depth.

“The kid that work down at the local Baskin-Robbins
Got a tattoo of a lipstick print attached above his collar”
Aesop Rock, Lotta Years

The song opens with the above lines and immediately sets a much more literal and grounded feel for this song; this paired with a slower flow and a more deliberate backing track makes it incredibly easy to follow exactly what Aesop is saying. The song therefore lends itself incredibly well to a more reflective sentiment and Aesop does not disappoint. During the first verse he compares his own personality with the “kid that work down at the local Baskin-Robbins”. He does this by comparing their tattoos, the kid’s lipstick print and his own tattoo of bats drawn by his friend Alex. He does so through the following lyrics:

“Look at that neck,
The message is immediate, the guy effs chicks
I spent a lot of years making friends with cool artists
So when they drew me tattoos I could truly feel important
Now some 22 year old inside a cube of brick and mortar
Got me questioning my morals in their corny pecking order”
Aesop Rock, Lotta

The musical, thematic and lyrical construction in this section is just brilliant. It is signposted by a much shorter line that disrupts the flow which up to this point has been incredibly steady and pairs this with a rising synth that becomes part of the mix from there and also introduces a new, unusual percussive idea that really punctuates this line and makes it stand out. Aesop’s thoughtfulness and uncanny ability for analysis then takes over as he deconstructs the differences between their tattoos. He takes the kid’s to simply represent an immediate and obvious interpretation which he explains in a similar manner, that is: “the guy effs chicks”. The whistle in the backing track just adds to this point. On the other hand, Aesop sees his own tattoos as having a deeper meaning. He sees them as being important as they were drawn by a friend who he considers to be great artist and this connection means a lot to him. I think that this idea follows on nicely from the themes he expressed in Rings and show the different ways in which visual art remains an important part of Aesop’s life and that he stills sees its value. Maybe the most interesting about this section is the way in which Aesop brings together these two observations. Rather than reconfirming his own attitudes, this train of thought leads Aesop to compare not only his tattoos but his morals with this 22-year-old “kid”. He overcomes this spiral through the following line:

“I should give a shit less
Cherry – No; Whip – Yes”
Aesop Rock, Lotta Years

The line is intentionally blunt while remaining self-reflective. Aesop’s own introspective attitude causes him to question his own actions as well as those of the people he meets, and he compare their lives. He has respect for the way in which people are able to live in a much more direct manner however, even acknowledging that he has something to learn from this attitude to life and that he could “give a shit less”. He demonstrates this by making the simple decision of having whip but no cherry with his order, bringing the verse back to the grounded setting of the Baskin-Robbins that it began with. It also acts as a brilliant entry into the themes of the song and so leads into the hook which is simply:

“Lotta years,
Uh, lotta years”
Aesop Rock, Lotta Years

This represents what is at the core of the song, Aesop is considering how much things have changed during his life time and what he has to learn from people younger than him. He touches on this during the second verse:

“My mind’s fucking blown
The future is amazing, I feel so fucking old
I bet you clone your pets and ride a hover-board to work
I used a folding map to find the juice place in the first
These kids are running wild, I’m still recovering from church”
Aesop Rock, Lotta Years

This verse shows Aesop’s more comedic side when he plays with typical images of the future while comparing them to how he needs to still use “a folding map” to find his way around. I think the last line of this extract is really interesting as Aesop is considering all the things that young people do while he’s “still recovering from church”. I think this is a interesting phrase as there are religious connotations in other of Aesop’s songs and he seems to consider his own religious upbringing as more repressive than anything else but I think there’s also more to it than that. I think that he’s also saying that he’s spent a lot of time trying to reform his character, if you listen to the rest of the album there’s a lot of mentions of ‘shrinks’, but that he may have finally reached a point where he’s happy with who he is and that he’s ready to embrace the world as the person who he is, even if he has some flaws.

I think that this works nicely to link the two songs together and I think that it gives a small insight into the rest of the album. I think that this provides an interesting outlook from a point of view which isn’t often seen in rap or hip hop. Aesop is approaching an age where he can look back on his life and consider how far he’s come and how he’s changed but also how the world has changed around him. He provides a message which isn’t straight forward which encourages people to reflect on who they are and the things that they think are important and hold on to them. I think he provides a really unique and engaging sound and I can’t recommend these songs and the rest of the album enough. I will definitely still be returning to Aesop Rock when I’m 40.