WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT? and AIN'T NO TIME TO GO, DARLING are songs she shared with the world in 2018 after releasing the treasure trove from her 2016-17 album FULL CIRCLE. Oh, let me just say they are humbling, encountering the common motif of age/ mortality with an eye towards the very moment in which we live to tell tales. They are both delightful, spare, joyous.
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In the sombre days and months since his disquieting farewell, we braced ourselves with his songs. Chris Cornell's voice wasn't going to be commissioned to the flames with death and so he left us with the beautifully executed WHEN BAD DOES GOOD as a reminder of his one of a kind presence.
The spirit of the guitars bleed into this oftentimes melancholic, wistful offering and in a voice wizened by the hard knocks of time, Cornell comes home to a sombre resting point, to the plethora of admirers who are intent on preserving his legacy. This is the song that is a continuation of his storied repertoire post releases of THE PROMISE and YOU NEVER REALLY KNEW MY MIND from the year before.
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Finally, there is the imminent charge of drums and guitars on the hard edged RUN by FOO FIGHTERS, fronted by a growling, feral blast of unforgettable delivery by Dave Grohl in its delineation of liberty ; there's additionally the fugue like structure of his instrumental masterpiece PLAY that will captivate listeners for more than ten minutes of rapt attention, with its changing rhythms complemented by a much needed wordless sonic terrain. It illustrates the improvisations, studied mania that make musicians conveyors of our innermost emotions funneled through differing moods.
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I close this essay by giving a shout out to reissues of THE WHITE ALBUM by THE BEATLES, ELECTRIC LADY LAND by JIMI HENDRIX and HEMISPHERES by Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Famers RUSH, all of which graced an already exciting musical extravaganza for 2018.
Who can resist the lilting melodies of JULIA, LONG, LONG, LONG, BLACKBIRD and DEAR PRUDENCE, eternal singalong fixtures cutting across generations ? Or the angst in YER BLUES, energetic social juxtapositions in BACK IN THE USSR and the sober lullaby GOOD NIGHT. The Fab Four endure as always and this reissue attests to that.
Ditto the pioneering maelstrom of numbers like CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC, A MERMAN (I SHOULD TURN OUT TO BE), GYPSY EYES and COME ON(LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL) by Hendrix hosting his trademark individuality that is as iconic today.
Then dive into the vast pool of textures and pure rock versatility on the collection occasioned by RUSH : the sheer instrumental brilliance of THE SPHERE, LA VILLA STRANGIATO, XANADU and IN THE MOOD suggest an epic journey. So do tracks as THE TREE, touching on the natural world and CIRCUMSTANCES. It is a surreal dream to be drenched in them.
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From veterans, the scene will shift to contemporary artists in coming posts.
FOR NOW, KEEP READING AND LISTENING TO THESE SONGS AMONGST A GALAXY OF OTHERS.
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A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .
Non-FictionI have often wondered about the very curdled natures of our opinions so much so that the perch of imagination simply becomes a bystanding abstraction and real thoughts of genuine merit slip between the fingers. That is a human tendency, to beat arou...
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC : THE NAMES THAT MADE 2018 A WINNER
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