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back to the first one,
Revival, since it isn't getting any props other than from me. if you love classic country songs, you will find one on there called "Barroom Girls" that can stand tall with almost anything in the canon. several others on that disc come close.
since then, on Hell and Time she tried, and mostly succeeded, to invent new forms of old music, which is also good.
i know people who couldn't get into Revival w/o going through Time first, and i know peoplep for whom the reverse is true.
― southern lights (southern lights), Friday, 15 August 2003 13:10 (twenty years ago) link
Why Time (The Revelator) Is A Perfect Album
It's playing right now and even if this is the only
time I think it's a perfect album that's Ok because
we're all trying to live in the moment right? Here we
go.
1. It combines personal stories with historical facts,
figures, myths, events which I am a sucker for. I
think trying to understand yourself and understand the
history of your surroundings (and maybe how the two
are connected) are two of the most important things
you can while you're alive (naive off the cuff
statement, I know). She also references a lot of her
musical inspirations too which is hard to do
gracefully (Steve Miller, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Gram
Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris ["now you be emmy lou and
i'll be gram" from I dream a highway])
2. Every song has a gorgeous unique melody. This is
rare rare rare rare. Not one clunker.
3. I want to sing that rock and roll is recorded
live. This is really one of the touches on the album
that signify genius to me. Usually the inclusion of a
live song a studio album is a bad idea. But here it
works. Brillianty. Why? I don't know for sure.
Sometimes I feel like the album's a movie, or a story,
and "I wanna sing..." is the first scene where we see the characters
play a show in front of an audience (instead of the
studio songs where she's singing right to the camera
lens/studio mic). They've been on the road for the
whole story and this is their first stop. It's a nice
pit stop on the journey. Plus the fact that David
Rawling's solo gets applause makes me smile every time
because, damn it, he really earns it!
4. It's got a song that ends with the line "and the
great emancipator took a bullet in the head" and then
3 songs later a song begins with "and the great
emancipator..." Different melody, different
arrangement. God damn. It's like one story, cut in
half, from two different view points.
5. "Everything Is Free Now" How can someone make a
song about internet music downloading so god damn
heartbreaking and sad? Ask Gillian. This song gets
my neck hairs standing every time. It's sad but it's
also got this great fuck you undercurrent. Oh oh...i
forgot...
6. She says the F word in the first song and it's
totally unexpected and understated and really gives
power back to that over used curse word. "Fuckin'
Outta Site" - there is no lyric book so I could be
wrong but it would make me sad if this wasn't the
case.
7. Lyrics in general. "But ever word seemed to date
her, Time's the revelator..." She's stating her
intentions pretty clear up front with this line. It's
a simple line but it always send my mind off in 8
different directions. She's got some really abstract
lyrics for such a folkie traditionalist:
"I’m an indisguisable shade of twilight
Any second now I’m going to turn myself on
In the blue display of the cool cathode ray
I dream a highway back to you "
That's positively psychedelic to my brain. Does it
give you the shivers? What girl with a guitar has
ever sang the word cathode? No one but Gillian is the
correct answer.
8. It closes with a 15 minute three chord song that
has one basic melody that it never strays very far
from. Not only is it not too long but sometimes I
repeat it a couple of times. It's an epic about loss
of love, the history of music, and the whole damn
thing. Where did she get these pretty ribbons to tie
everything together with?
David Rawlings can show off and play some wild licks
as he shows us in "I Wanna Play..." but he just lays
back most of the time and accentuates Gillian's songs
perfectly. I look at the pictures in the booklet, the
pattern on her dress, the way the tile floor of the
studio looks...everything seems to be signaling to an
elusive theme that can be felt on this record but not put
into words.
It's there for the taking and digesting
time's the revelator,
Ryan
www.thestairs.com/motelcandlewasters
― motel candlewaster, Friday, 15 August 2003 19:28 (twenty years ago) link
thirteen years pass...
two years pass...