Tracks Which Equal Musical Bliss

It's that time of year again. We're heading back to school, back to concentrating on lectures and course readings -- but then there's the age old problem: what music should I load my CD / mp3 player with? Here are ten I can't seem to get out of my head.

Nickel Creek - "Anthony"
Album: Why Should The Fire Die? - 1:55

This song is short, sweet and to the point. Sara Watkins' voice opens the song superimposed over a light mandolin melody, sounding like a sulty blend of Melanie Safka and Allison Krauss. As the song builds, jazzy bass enters the soundscape and the listener is treated to an impressive roller-coaster ride including the best of the band's harmonized bluegrass vocals. Plus the lyrics are uncompromisingly harsh: "He's not looking back," she sings, "because he doesn't want anything I have or anything I am. He says he can't love me." Ouch, but definitely replayable.

Our Lady Peace - "Where Are You?"
Album: Healthy In Paranoid Times - 4:06

Oh, Canada, why do all the greatest bands come from your fine land? And why do your friendly neighbors to the south barely acknowledge your existence? Our Lady Peace has been ignored here in America with a few exceptions since 1997's Clumsy, but have remained post-grunge mainstays in the great white north. If this sweeping single -- which rises to a full crowd chorus in the end that is solid enough to bring the hairs up on the back of my neck -- is an example of the music featured on their upcoming album Healthy in Paranoid Times, it's going to be another album like Spiritual Machines: an epic sonic masterpiece that no one outside a handful of die-hard American fans gets to hear. Let's buck that trend, people! Buy the single, buy the album, and tell radio stations in the area that this is the kind of music we want to hear on the radio.

Hootie and the Blowfish - "Leaving"
Album: Looking For Lucky - 2:35

A breezy bluegrass-country blend from a band no longer worried about the fact that they're no longer top-charting hitmakers in the vein of Cracked Rear View. The band is signed to an indie label now, and their new album debuted at #47 on Billboard this week (sales: 26,000) but don't let that stop you from checking them out. The band that gave us "Let Her Cry" and "Only Wanna Be With You" hasn't changed their style drastically at all. They've found a groove and seem to be happy playing to their diehard fans. If you want to hear something poppier, try "One Love" which is a top 30 hit on the Adult Top 40 charts. "Same scene playing over and over, same sweet passion, same warm blood," Darius Rucker sings, and you've got to give him credit for finding a viable sound and sticking with it. Sometimes a familliar sound trumps innovative music, that's the bottom line.

Kelly Clarkson - "Because of You"
Album: Breakaway - 3:39

It's damned rare to hear an album's fourth single and be stunned at the huge difference between the sound it features and any of the other songs on the album. "Because of You" is an excellent example of a pop ballad that works on a number of levels (much of that success probably is due to production by Ben Moody of Evanescence fame). It's both a rocker and a love song, and it features the kind of bombastic arrangement that top 40 radio loves. Clarkson's album has sold 3 million copies and is already cementing her name among pop's top performers. If only she'll release "Addicted" (which is so different from any of the rest of the tracks, even "Because of You" that it almost sounds as though she's an entirely different artist!) before hitting the studio for a new album, she'll have finally showcased the true depth of this album for the pop world. Finally some artistic credibility escapes from the Idol juggernaut hitfactory!

Weezer - "Beverly Hills"
Album: Make Believe - 3:20

Rivers Cuomo's finally getting some radio airplay to match what I remember from the days of "Buddy Holly" and no matter how many times I've heard the song play, it has yet to lose it's groove! The simple grunge melody coupled with Cuomo's deadpan vocals makes for a party anthem that deserves to be blasted from speakers everywhere. When you move on from this one, try "My Best Friend" on for size. If the airplay success of "Beverly Hills" isn't a fluke, that's the song you'll be hearing a lot of later in the winter on modern rock stations.

James Blunt - "You're Beautiful"
Album: Back To Bedlam - 3:33

Unless you're an online music subscriber or a bootleg junkie, you probably haven't heard this album yet. It doesn't hit stores in the US until October, but James Blunt has taken the UK by storm with his blend of folk rock a la David Grey (and of course it didn't hurt his publicity campaign that he was a soldier in the war on Iraq). "You're Beautiful" may not be the most original track in the world, but it's got an earcatching melody and Blunt does have a quality voice to work with. If the rest of the album's as interesting, it's sure to be worth a purchase at least to fill the void until Gray's next release.

Luis Fonsi - "Nada Es Para Siempre"
Album: Paso a Paso - 3:59

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for well-written latin pop music. It's my father's fault, he's a spanish teacher and every year for Christmas and birthday gifts me and my siblings get spanish language records and the ilk. Be glad that Ricky Martin's not around anymore, and get your asses out there to buy Paso a Paso ... this, the first single, which recently entered the Billboard 100, is mindbendingly simple AND catching, with a hook you'll keep humming all day, even if you don't know a stitch of spanish. Step out of your comfort zone a bit, you'll thank yourself later!

Josh Gracin - "Stay With Me (Brass Bed)"
Album: Josh Gracin - 4:23

This is a surprisingly impressive track from Josh Gracin, a definite adult entry onto the list of country songs you need to hear. Gracin successfully has avoided the cliches that have become part and parcel in the country industry these days (even his patriotic "The Other Little Soldier" exceeds expectations) and "Brass Bed" is among the top songs on the album. If there's any justice in the world, this stunningly orchestrated single will rocket to the top of the country charts. "Come and lay your head on this big brass bed," he sings. "We'll be alright as long as you stay ..." As long as he keeps his head on straight and doesn't let others control his musical destiny, Gracin could become a real hitmaker in his chosen genre, which would be a good way to wake up the Nashville "elite" quickly.

Green Day - "Wake Me Up When September Ends"
Album: American Idiot - 4:45

This is American Idiot's rock-operatic answer to the schlock of the band's "Time Of Your Life" that we all had to endure a few years back. But coming as it has right after the dual success of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Holiday," this song is continued proof that the album is the band's best work since their debut a decade ago. This should be another top ten hit, if you don't already have the album you definitely need to consider spending the $15. You're not going to find another album of this depth in the pop punk genre. If only crappy bands like Good Charlotte could sound this good ten years from now.

Marc Broussard - "Home"
Album: Carencro - 5:03

Opening with a grooving percussion stomp, Marc Broussard hits this song like a freight train with his astonishingly real Louisiana blues vocals! This is a song that has been out a good while but which I feel has been unjustly ignored ... it's not just anybody who can write a catchy song that is as intelligent as this, while also making it sound timeless. "This greyhound is delta bound, my baby boy done finally found his way home!" Broussard sings, and I feel like I've finally found something worth yelling about from a rooftop. Take his advice: "Drink from the water" of this track and the album it leads off. You won't hear a more accomplished debut this year.

The Warren Brothers - "Barely Famous Hits"(BNA Records, 2005) * * *

This package of pseudo hits and a few new tracks could have been a terrible album. The Warren Brothers are perhaps best known for their show "Barely Famous" on CMT, on which the band self-depreciatingly looks at their seven year career that has nearly given them success (but not quite). It's laughable really, because they're making fun of themselves ("We're the Cato Kailins of the McGraw family!" they've said about their friendship with "truly famous" friends like Tim McGraw) which is great for TV ratings but terrible when it comes to making a mockery of their music.

I'd expected this album to sound terrible. But I was wrong. Songs like "Greyhound" and "What We Can't Have" are top country tracks by any standard, and a quick listen to their earlier material suggests this band's had all the talent they needed for years. Just not the right promotion. And "Hey, Mr. President" is the first look at George Bush through country eyes that doesn't make me want to puncture my ear drums. Written as a letter to GW, the song asks starstruck questions like "What's it like on Air Force One?" and semi-joking comments about politics ("I guess it takes a lot of pork barrels to run a government") mixed in with serious questions about the war in Iraq and our president that are truly poignant. "I cannot imagine how hard it must be to tell some soldiers mother that they died for their country," they sing. "Mr. President, do you ever feel alone? I bet you wish you could just move back home ..."

Okay, so it's not quite subtle. But considering the jingoistic nature of most country hits, the Warren Brothers succeed on this album a lot more than they miss.

The Click Five - "Greetings From Imrie House"(Lava, 2005) * * * 1/2

Blending the best of 90s era bands like Athanaeum with today's hitmakers including the adult alternative styles of Jimmy Eat World, Bowling For Soup and Fall Out Boy, The Click Five have crafted an infectious album of potential hits. From the opening strains of "Good Day" to "Just The Girl" (which screams out Top 10 Hit with its chorus: "She's bittersweet, she knocks me off of my feet! I can't help myself, I don't want anyone else ... she's too much for me, but I keep coming back for more.") Greetings From Imrie House is the kind of album you just have to crank up as you drive eighty-five down the interstate. And "I'll Take My Chances" has the slowed down ballad sound down to an art form, sure to send teenage girls into waves of passionate bliss. It's not rocket science, just a decent cleanly-produced power pop record. What the hell's wrong with that?

Chris Thile - "Deceiver"(Sugar Hill, 2004) * * * * *

The Music
Chris Thile - "The Wrong Idea"
Chris Thile - "Locking Doors"
Chris Thile - "I'm Nowhere and You're Everything"

Chris Thile has long been known to the bluegrass community as an avant garde free thinking musician bent on bringing the genre into the new millennium in style. Many appreciate his creative stylistic flair evident in music from his contemporary bluegrass band Nickel Creek, while others want him burned at the stake for destroying an honorable genre. It's difficult to deny that he's an astonishing creative presence in the midst of a musical community hellbent on staying a century in the past.

But this, Deceiver, is not Nickel Creek. That is evident by the end of "The Wrong Idea," which opens as a traditional bluegrass number, then morphs midway into a crunchy rock number in which Thile sings about what his friends would think if he arrived in the morning with the girl he spent the whole night talking with. "I'm nineteen," he sings, "and I've kissed two girls, that's all. You're sixteen and you're one, is that against the law?" As the song develops to rock operatic proportions, he mourns the potential loss of his "good guy" reputation in the eyes of the world. It's a track that doesn't overstay its welcome. The song is lyrically and aurally complex for a piece less than three minutes in length. The song can be heard repeatedly and something different stands out on each listen. Impressive indeed from an arrangement standpoint.

The album's depth grows from there. "Locking Doors" is a funky number that blends bluegrass, blues and jazz into an upbeat groove decrying closed-mindedness in life. The song's protagonist, Marvin, keeps locking all his doors lin life (broken down into three acts: 1) describing his homophobia, 2) describing his religious contradictions, 3) describing his need to look hardcore, ironic since he's afraid to ever try anything new). It's another track that is almost operatic in its scope, and though Thile could have become pretentious and condescending, he instead comes off as lyrically introspective.

To add further depth to his opus, Thile hits us with the best track of all in "I'm Nowhere and You're Everything," which is both the most "bluegrassy" and most original track on the entire CD. A masssive track in its scope, he sings of his personal self-voyeuristic qualities as a songwriter:

I came from California with
An appetite for my own myths
Of music, love and what they mean
I'm told it's borderline obscene

while contrasting this with his partner's struggle to escape a world of stifling religious conservatism:

You came from Illinois with a
Cup of your very own to sip
Never on route for very long
Just there or doing something wrong
Or so your friends and parents said
But if you hadn't you'd be dead

The whole song comes together in the quick-as-a-bullet chorus, in which both his and her stories come together in a biblical context:

I could write a song and have the Lord
Put you and me in a cup he tries to pour
Out looking in at the passengers from the wing
I'm nowhere and you're everything

It's a stunningly evocative piece, both an impressive aural soundscape and a personal lyrical journey. This is another song that may take more than just a singular listen to sink in. Something which could be said of the entire album, thirty-four minutes of intense musical joy that requires rapt studious attention to detail in order to fully appreciate it.

Chris Thile is an emerging artist we all should follow intensely. If Deceiver is a prediction of the direction he wants to take with his solo career, coupled with what he's already done in crafting Nickel Creek's own pioneering sound, it becomes difficult to fathom what could come from his mind in the future. Deceiver is one of the best albums released on a major label in years, and it's only regrettable that I hadn't heard it sooner. I'm sure you'll feel the same way once you let the music into your head.