For the past few years, I and a group of friends have been using Spotify to turn each other on to new music. Each month we upload two songs each to create a playlist; we chat about the songs on WhatsApp, and at the end of each month we try to get together to review our picks.
On those occasions where I haven't been able to make our video chats, I've written short reviews of each song. Here is what I thought of December 2022's picks!
December 2022
As we crawl to the finish line for 2022 I find some pleasure in using its dying gasps to write-up the latest TFJ. A great month to wrap up a strange and turbulent year - hey, the NHS is going up in flames and it’d be cheaper to pump liquid gold into my radiators, but at least I’ve heard Wet Leg!
A word on my picks - the Pastor T.L. Barrett one came about from reading up on the life of one of Chicago’s more colourful sons. Has to be one of the few people to have been found by a court to be running a pyramid scheme (he had to repay $1.2 million dollars to his church’s congregants) only to be honoured nine years later through having a road named after him.
The cineastes among you may have heard of Jules Dassin, director of The Naked City and one of the greatest crime films of all time, Rififi. Well, this is his son doing a dopey song about a bunch of cartoon cowboy banditos. For those who detected a note of silliness in the endeavour, please look up the music video on YouTube for confirmation. Somehow, Dassin emerges from the fray looking cooler than could be imagined. The French, eh?! Brexit means Brexit!
‘Seven Red Rose
Tattoos’ - Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler
Yes, yes, a beautiful voice. Not too dissimilar from the one that ‘When the
Night Is Long’ track (a JS pick many moons ago?), and frankly it’s enough to
elevate what is a reasonably ordinary song. Still, I do like the rather sparse
backing, which is redolent of early Tom Waits - back when his material has
about walking around whilst drunk or comparing his penis to an ice cream. It works
because it foregrounds the voice, plus it sounds suitably grown-up. You’ll
never hear tasteful muted trumpet in chart fodder. Good, but not quite great.
‘Superman Lover’ -
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson
A track I knew before this month, but very welcome
nonetheless! I was poised to add a JGW cut in the new year but JC's beaten
me to the jump. I have an unabashed love for Watson, a man who seemingly
couldn’t keep still in any creative sense. When Muddy Waters or Albert King tried
to update their sound to appear hip, the results were embarrassing; Watson
sounds utterly at home as a funkster. Although he did do ‘straight’ material,
my favourite stuff is where he’s a little goofy, as on ‘Superman Lover’. His
soloing is something that has always intrigued - it tends to flow more like a brass
instrument, or even a vocal line. There’s even a song on his Funk Beyond the Call of Duty album where he scats along with the
notes - fun!
‘Shook Ones, Pt. II’
- Mobb Deep
As someone who has affection for the ‘dusty’ production
sound of Wu Tang releases (the pops and crackles of samples taken straight off
vinyl, I guess) I found the sound of this very appealing. Pair with a sturdy
backbeat and you’re cooking; add some guys with superb rhythmic and lyrical facility
and you got a stew, baby. The kind of psych-up track I put one before being
walloped by a bunch of teenagers at five-a-side.
‘Wet Dream’ - Wet Leg
My brain says there’s nothing sophisticated going on here,
but my (dry) legs just won’t stop twitching to what is an infectious,
candy-coated earworm. The vocals are cool and wry, the chorus absolutely pops
out of the speakers and it’s catchy, catchy, catchy. H.G. Wells once said that
the greatest challenge that faces a writer is to get a reader to want to turn
the next page - a feat that doesn’t require the work to be great literature,
but does need it to be intriguing and interesting enough to tempt the reader
into desiring more. That’s what I get from this - it’s addictive, like sugar.
But is it good for you, like sugar?
‘Jet’ - Wings
Jellyfish are one of my favourite power-pop bands (I included one of their
tracks on the ill-fated Christmas-themed month a while ago), and they used to
perform live covers of ‘Jet’. To cue it up they would always say “...and now
for the sexiest song of all time!”. A little drollery involved there, but
Jellyfish liked chewy song structures with strong melodies and big hooks, so go
fish. Yes, this does sound like it was recorded down a 56k baud modem, but that
just adds to the charm. Part of Paul McCartney’s eccentricity as a songwriter
is that he’ll tackle whatever subject floats into his consciousness, which
results in delightfully quirky results like this. The only album cover in this
month’s TFJ to feature a paedophile?
‘GFY’ - Amyl and the
Sniffers
I love the animating spirit behind both the music and the supercharged
lyrics, but I think I’m also faced with a plaint that’s been said before;
formally, there’s little wriggle room for this brand of agit-punk. And I agree with
others who have said that ‘GFY’ could’ve gone either much scuzzier or much cleaner. As
such the production sounds like an awkward compromise whereby they’re aiming to
be kinda dangerous, but perhaps also angling for a mid-afternoon slot on the second
stage at Glasto too?
‘Just Dropped In..’ -
The First Edition
Spotify says it’s the First Edition playing this, but it ain’t. This is the
version that Kenny ‘the Gambler’ Rogers re-recorded a few years after the fact.
As such, we’ve got a slightly cleaner, slightly funkier sound - but it misses
the backwards taping that intro’d the original and Glen Campbell’s guitar solo.
No matter though, this acid-washed tripper is indestructible - cool key
changes, mind-bending lyrics remain intact, and the six-string work here is altogether
very hip. Is that a talk box I hear? Has there ever been a bad song to feature
a talk box?
‘Bleak’ - Opeth
This month I was asked to provide a non-metal fan with a few choice cuts,
and I included the title track off Blackwater
Park. I could’ve easily gone with this, though. I’m in the pro-Opeth camp,
owning a couple of albums and having witnessed them live. If I were to try to
explain ‘Bleak’, I’d say it feels like a puzzlingly arcane machine, powered by
intricately wrought cogs and sprockets, all whirring together in serene
harmony. It’s got enough to keep the church-burners happy, it’s got enough to
keep Crimson-heads like me happy, though in its ‘quieter’ moments it does veer
towards old skool Porcupine Tree, which admittedly is an acquired taste (and
one that I have acquired).
‘Strangers’ - Danger
Mouse, A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, etc.
I feel like I’m going against the grain a little in
preferring the Mobb Deep cut in this month’s hip-hop offerings, but still, this
is good. All contributing vocalists are characterful and adroit in a way that I
enjoy. The sample that anchors everything is pleasingly oblique - about my only
real gripe are the breakdowns in between verses. Who made that creative call?
Man, I know they only last a few seconds at a time and act as a bit of a
breather, but they suck ass. Do something cool next time!
‘Ghost With a Boner’
- Diarrhea Planet
Full marks for name of both track and band. Yes, it does
sound like it’s been recorded in the back of a meat wagon. As far as I can
tell, it literally is about spectral priapism. I don’t think this is music that
bears too much intellectual scrutiny - this is music to be felt. It calls to a
more primal part of us all, a part of us that ponders ‘what about a ghost with
a boner?’, and scratches that itch admirably.
‘Crosseyed and
Painless’ - Angelique Kidjo
Angelique Kidjo is a name I’ve heard plenty, but I can’t
recall ever hearing a lick of her music. Decent, isn’t it? The Afropop backing,
as with many examples uploaded to TFJ, has a rolling, kicky, nagging (in the
best way) quality to it. The brass section burbles and punctuates in all the
right places, and I love the sound of the guitar - it seems to bob and weave
between the lines. But what really shines through is the sheer charisma of Ms.
Kidjo’s personality - she is one of those vocalists who imposes herself onto
her material, which works much to her advantage.
‘Lone Ranger’ -
Julianna Riolino
I’m a bit sad to finish up on this one, because it left the smallest
impression on me. I didn’t dislike it - there was nothing in ‘Lone Ranger’ to
offend. But I’m curious to know where the appeal lies for everyone else? It
sounds like a pretty okay, fairly middle-of-the-prairie slice of Americana to
these ears. Voice? Fine, a bit anonymous. Instrumentation is a touch beige. You
could hum bits ‘n’ pieces, but equally this could dissipate like the last cloud
of an Arizona summer morning.
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