Best Albums of 1998: Review: Jeff Buckley: Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk

My Jeff Buckley review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Jeff Buckley
Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
Columbia
1998

On the cusp of Y2K came the final release of original material by the late great Jeff Buckley. Buckley's death is one of remorse for all that could have been for this gifted talent. How is it that we only have one official album from Buckley and he is still considered one of the most influential artists of the '90s? Take your pick of any successful band or singer/songwriter active today and they will most likely say that Jeff Buckley influenced their life. Chris Martin, Fran Haley of Travis and even Bernard Butler said that after leaving Suede, "No-one else has come along who made me feel that natural and unafraid of being myself. . . He made me smile… and encapsulated a lot of things that I'd been longing for, achieving a kind of spirituality in music without it being frowned upon. He stripped away a lot of myths for me about what you should be." Yes, Jeff inspired countless others including well-known rock heroes like Jimmy Page and Elvis Costello, and even Bono dubbed him, "a pure drop in an ocean of noise."

At least he left us with one final collection of songs. Sketches, was just that, a plethora of unfinished songs that were blueprints for the planned future album My Sweetheart The Drunk. This is one thing about Buckley that I never really understood. He constantly doubted himself and his gifts. He could never decide on a certain song or performance. He seemed unsure of next musical path. This is why artists like Ryan Adams should get more respect. At least Ryan releases his sonic experiments as lyrical documents for a moment of time in his life. You record and release these songs and move on. Sometimes you may miss, but they're sonic reflections of times you'll be able to remember.

The worst thing I could say about Buckley was that he second-guessed himself way too often and it hurt his official creative output. Legend has it that these Sketches were never going to be heard. Buckley wanted his band and former Grace Producer Andy Wallace to gather in his new home in Memphis to ceremonially torch these recordings Jeff made with former Television founder and producer Tom Verlaine.

I don't understand this way of thinking—why Jeff? Why would you want to destroy these amazing recordings? As posthumous collections Sketches honors the lyrical gifts that Buckley was blessed with. There are some incredible tracks on these discs. I wonder what frightened Buckley and did the success of Grace haunt him so much that it hindered the next direction of his ever-evolving muse.

Who knows what Jeff was thinking? But what we do know is that the songs on Sketches were some of the most timeless music that Buckley created during his short lifespan as a recording artist. Opening with electric "Sky is a Landfill" where Jeff makes the profound statement regarding his past, "Moving with grace the men despise and women have learned to lose/ throw off your shame or be a slave to the system." At the time he was writing songs for My Sweetheart the Drunk, Jeff was trying to stay away from the sensitive guy serenading women. Ever since the New York Times first reviewed Live at Sin-é along with Michael Bolton's album it flashed fearful future marketing meetings at Sony. "Sky is a Landfill" and "Haven't You Heard," just like "Eternal Life" from Grace are direct reactions to Buckley's fear that his label Sony was trying to sell him as a heartthrob balladeer.

This is why I feel like Sketches is Jeff trying to rediscover his true voice. Just listen to the lyrics to the haunted elegance of "New Years Prayer." Jeff sings "Feel no shame for what you are" like a mantra as if he's trying to convince himself to follow his creative heart. He wanted to distance himself from Jeff that sung on Grace. This is why Buckley originally chose Television's Tom Verlaine to helm the sessions. He knew that it would frighten Sony. He wanted to take back control of his legacy. Jeff wanted desperately to try something new. He didn't want to be a puppet of a major label. Originally he wanted to have the sessions for Drunk a Two Ninas band project instead of Jeff Buckley but Sony balked.

Eventually, he relented and Jeff continued recording. Having moved to Memphis, he wrote a very moving love song, "Everybody Here Wants You" for his paramour Joan Wasser. One of the highlights on disc two is sultry "Jewel Box" as Jeff croons "You left some stars on my belly." Whether Jeff wanted to admit it or not, he was a romantic at heart. His lyrics and voice reflect this. But he wasn't so easy to pin down. He was a lover and a fighter and you can hear the dynamic struggle within themselves on my favorite song on Sketches, "Nightmares by The Sea."

"All young lovers know why
Nightmares blind their mind's eye
Your rube is young and handsome
So new to your bedroom floor
You know damn well where you'll go"

He sounds sinister but he's still trying to seduce you. It's a rock song with beats that even the luscious will swoon over. Speak of the swooning, "Morning Theft" has to be one of the most beautiful songs that Jeff ever recorded. He has some of the most incredible lines Buckley has ever written. Where do I being? "A heart that beats as both siphon and reservoir" is a highlight but my favorite has to be:

"You're a woman, I'm a calf
You're a window, I'm a knife
We come together
Making chance in the starlight"

By the finale it's difficult to accept the light that was Jeff Buckley has gone out and will never spark again. Thankfully, Buckley's mother ended Sketches with the song she played at Jeff's funeral. "Satisfied Mind" is Jeff Buckley. It's his creed, his ideal and describes the way that he lived, loved and left this earth.

"Money can't buy back all your youth when you're old
A friend when you're lonely, oh peace to your soul
The wealthiest person is a pauper at times
Compared to the man with a satisfied mind"

Jeff Buckley didn't create music to make money. He wrote and recorded because it gave him meaning. When he sung his soul and spirit soared. These Sketches were reflections of the dichotomy that was Jeff Buckley. He may have never really been satisfied with any take that he recorded; I hope he left this world the way that he soulfully sung this cover version, with a "Satisfied Mind."

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.21.2008

Best Albums of 1995: Polly Jean Harvey: To Bring You My Love

My Polly Jean Harvey review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Polly Jean Harvey
To Bring You My Love
Island
1995


"I was born in the desert
I been down for years
Jesus, come closer
I think my time is near

And I've traveled over
Dry earth and floods
Hell and high water
To bring you my love"

To Bring You My Love was simply PJ Harvey's baptismal leap in the Delta water, before her storied commercial rebirth Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. Thanks to the stellar production by Flood and John Parrish you can hear Harvey dive inside the lyrics of her Southern-inspired tides, searching for creative salvation within the sinister soul of The American Blues. During "Down By The Water," as Harvey sings "Little fish big fish swimming in the water/Come back here, man, gimme my daughter," you can hear lyrical odes to one of her heroes while growing up, Leadbelly, particularly his classic tale "Salty Dog." And you can hear these same blues influence, throughout, that Polly Jean was reared on while growing up in Dorset, England.

But there's also a touch of post-modernism that lifts Harvey's style of into a twisted sort of 21st Century blues that's timeless, twisted and out of this world. Lyrically inspired by the dark prose of Tom Waits and soon to be lover Nick Cave, Harvey's lyrics lean toward serial killings in "Working for The Man," drowning of children in the already mentioned "Down by the Water," and deep penetrating sexual role reversal of "Long Snake Moan."

Some of my favorite numbers have a legendary acoustic Latin flavor. "Send His Love to Me" is a highly erotic plea to the heavens to send her back the Lover she so desires. To Bring You My Love closes with the Cave-inspired, western themed "The Dancer." In between orgasmic wails of affection, Harvey sings.

"'Cause I've prayed days, I've prayed nights
For the lord just to send me home some sign
I've looked long, I've looked far
To bring peace to my black and empty heart"

To Bring You My Love is a longing for a woman's independence and search for true love in a wasteland of misogynistic blues of despair and loss of God. You can feel this in her bloody and heart-clenching lyrics. These aren't the domestically spirited songs from last year's White Chalk. The incarnation of Polly Jean Harvey that emerged in 1995 is one of a siren sonically slithering around the tales of these desolated songs like an outlaw seductress. You feel her sensual spark oozing from her soulful croons as she attempts to lure her lover to bed in "C'mon Billy."

What I remember most of hearing To Bring You My Love for the first time is that Polly Jean isn't just trying to seduce us, she slowly lures us inside of her world of sex and death with a voice that sweats a scent that we cannot resist. The funny thing is that these songs aren't as commercially accessible as Stories from The City, Stories from The Sea but are equally as memorable.

I just remembering being so being excited and extremely turned on by Polly Jean and her sultry voice. It was no accident that she wore that scarlet dress in the video from "Down by The Water." Polly Jean was reincarnated from a tomboy songstress into a sexy siren. She was the imperfect dangerous damsel that I dreamed would take me away from my isolation. With every spin she sent me inside her songscapes of danger and desire.

I finally witness the dark world of To Bring You My Love come to fruition this past year when I saw Polly Jean Harvey live in Los Angeles. She opened with the title track, and the bluesy guitar riff that comes out of nowhere on the album came alive on stage as she stood there, elegant and stoic, minus the red satin dress from the video. As you hear on the album, Polly Jean came to bring us her love. The reason I love her so is that she's a daring and uncompromising artist that's unafraid to show us the dark side of her lusty soul. To Bring You My Love is the bravest example of this from her eclectic catalog. It's one that I frequently go back to, and has evolved in my ears from a young man's fantasy into a journey while discovering the true meaning of love, lust and dreams. To these ears, To Bring You My Love is the ultimate musical canvas brought to life so wickedly by Polly Jean Harvey.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.18.2008

Best Albums of 1993: Review: Suede: Suede

My Suede review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Suede
Suede
Nude/Sony
1993

The grand rise and tragic fall of Suede was an era of my life as a music fan that I will not soon forget. Even before their first single was released, Melody Maker threw a hefty title to the band as they dubbed Suede the "Best Band in Britain." How could this be, you ask? Suede were anthem inspiring anti-heroes and lyrical saviors to Smiths fans searching for musical salvation after the demise of their favorite band. Lead Singer Brett Anderson and guitarist Bernard Butler single-handedly took up the mantle that went missing when Morrissey and Marr split during the release of Strangeways Here We Come.

When Anderson and Butler placed an ad searching for a drummer in a UK music paper, guess who answered? Mike Joyce of The Smiths. This was not an accident—to my devoted ears Suede were The Smiths of the nineties. Brett Anderson made Moz-like declarations such as "I'm a bisexual without a homosexual experience." But on wax is where you heard the most similar vibes as Butler's guitar roared next to the gentle purring of Anderson's elegant vocals; it mirrors the way Marr's riff reflected the wailings of his counterpart's musings. Morrissey, himself, covered one of their b-sides "My Insatiable One" as an ode to these new British pioneers.

From the opening riffs of "Metal Mickey" you felt the power of Suede's glorious melodies. A legion of music fans and I were hooked from the beginning. Even from across the pond, in my own little world in San Antonio, Texas, Suede took me over. They hit a light that had gone out after Strangeways and turned me on with their muse. Suede were the first UK band of the '90s that I worshiped, and I went out and bought all of their UK singles. There was something about their songs that transcended their unique UK background. I connected with them instantaneously, like I did when I first discovered "There's a Light that Never Goes Out" a decade earlier.

Suede were far from a musical replicant of The Smiths. The Smiths and their music represented the growing malaise and madness of growing up in England during the Margaret Thatcher regime of the eighties. Suede had more of a glam-inspired glory that represented the beautiful brawn of the overindulgent '90s.

I waited for the debut album to arrive in America. I even went out and bought it on vinyl and CD as imports. All it took was one spin of Suede and I became an instant disciple. Just listen to the opening number as Brett sings, "Because we're young, because we're gone/ we'll take the tide's electric mind, oh yeah?" He did it for us, for all of us. Anderson wrote about for the lost, lonely and lustful freaks, like me, that were outcast in their individual cosmos.

"I was born as a pantomime horse
Ugly as the sun when he falls to the floor
I was cut from the wreckage one day
This is what I get for being that way"

The words that came out of Brett's mouth made each of us feel like someone out there understood us, how we felt in not belonging. We all felt Brett's heartfelt croon from the same song, the epic "Pantomime Horse." Brett, also, talks someone off the edge of suicide with the touching "Sleeping Pills." Anderson seems to have a knack for bringing to life the euphoric state of distant emotional attractions. "What does it take to turn you on?" he asks in "Animal Nitrate." You also can't forget the feeling of falling for the crush in the addictive chorus of "Slow down/she's taking me over" of "The Drowners." One of my favorites is the back beat rhythms through the soaring sensation of leaving the comforts of your friendly confines as you pack your bags in "Moving."

But to me, the memory of Suede remains from the closing number on their debut tour when I saw the band in concert before Butler left the group, as they played the last song on their self-titled album, "The Next Life." With Bernard playing the keyboards and Anderson singing his high pitched heartening pitches in a song about the end, "The Next Life" ended up being the lasting legacy that foreshadowed the eventual shattering of the relationship between Anderson and Butler.

I'll never forget seeing them together alone on the stage during that one song. To this day, Suede's performance of "The Next Life" will go down as one of the top five musical highlights ever. Even to this day, when I spin Suede I think of the promise of all that could have been. What if Butler hadn't left? Would Suede have been immortalized like The Smiths? In my mind, they were the best, and should have been the greatest band of my generation. This was the ultimate album from the sweet and the sour Brit Pop era that was the '90s. To me there was no other.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.14.2008

Best Albums of 1992: Review: Morrissey: Your Arsenal

My Morrissey review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Morrissey
Your Arsenal
Sire
1992

When Johnny Marr left The Smiths, he didn't just abandon one of the best bands ever to come out of Manchester, England but he also put the future of Morrissey's music career in peril. Looking back everyone knew that Morrissey was the heart and voice of The Smiths, but he soon realized that Johnny Marr was the backbone and soul of the band that changed music in the '80s. Without Marr, Morrissey had seemed to have lost his confidence.

They say band splits have parallels to real life divorces between married couples. If you think about it, creating music between a select few is a very intimate experience. Morrissey, being a very private person, very rarely sans Marr allowed anyone inside his secret circle. So after The Smiths broke up, he had lost more than his guitarist, Morrissey lost his creative partner.

After trying and failing to try to keep The Smiths alive with Ivor Perry as Marr's replacement, Morrissey turned to producer Stephen Street and a new collaborator, guitarist Vini Reilly. His first attempts at creating music post-Smiths became an instant success. The lead single "Suedehead" and the album Viva Hate were hailed as masterpieces. As Johnny Marr struggled to find his own space in the music world, Morrissey seemed to strike success with his first try without Marr.

This sweetness would not last, for a familiar pattern of distrust that was apparent during the reign of The Smiths would rear its ugly head during Morrissey's illustrious solo career. Moz had a falling out with Viva Hate producer Stephen Street over royalties. He proceeded to dump Street and work with Madness producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who produced both single "November Spawned a Monster" and second album Kill Uncle, which many fans and critics dubbed a lackluster effort. The problem with Uncle is that Moz used session musicians to record the album. There seems to be spark missing from some these performances. Besides the fact that the album comes in at less than 35 minutes, everyone just expected more from Stephen Patrick Morrissey.

But the naysayers did not stop Morrissey from embarking on his first world tour without The Smiths. He recruited a proper backing band and took off to America. In the States is where Morrissey found the most love and adoration, so much so that Moz soon made his home in California. Despite the album's initial lukewarm reception, Kill Uncle's tour, thanks to Moz's new band, was a rousing success, and Morrissey went directly into the studio with former Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson to produce his third.

From the opening roaring riffs of "You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side," one could easily tell that Your Arsenal was a new phase for Morrissey. Morrissey had the muscle and gang-like mentality of his new band members, which included guitarists/writing collaborators Boz Boozer and Alan Whyte. Because of Ronson and Morrissey's desire to steer his songs away from his trademark lyrical witticism, the music took center stage on Your Arsenal.

You could tell from the one two punch of "Side" and "Glamorous Glue" that this collection of songs was the finest of Morrissey's young solo career. Dare I say even better than Viva Hate? I believe so, there's confidence in all of his vocals on Your Arsenal. Even on the laid back brilliance of "We'll Let You Know," Morrissey has never sounded this proud and alive.

With Ronson at his side, it's no coincidence that the chord progression of Morrissey's "I Know it's Going to Happen Someday" sounds similar Bowie's "Rock and Roll Suicide." So much so, that Bowie honored Moz by covering the song on Black Tie/White Noise. You may also recognize the guitar lick from "Certain People I know" as being eerily similar to T-Rex's "Ride a White Swan."

I still believe the best song on Your Arsenal is "Seasick, Still Docked." This song gets overlooked by many fans and critics alike, yet to me the lyrics of "Seasick" reflect the true essence behind the emotional mindset that is Morrissey:

"I am a poor, freezingly cold soul
So far from where
I intended to go
Scavenging through life's very constant lulls
So far from where I'm determined to go"

Those lyrics foreshadow an unfortunate uncertainty in Morrissey's future. The joy that Morrissey felt while recording Your Arsenal with Ronson would not last long. Soon after the albums release Ronson succumbed to cancer. The sadness of this loss for Morrissey would inspire him to write and record the best album of his career.

The explosive musical force felt round the world was the spark heard on Morrissey's Your Arsenal. This album encapsulated one of the happiest times where Morrissey found a home in Los Angeles, and a band and a producer who understood his every creative need. It would be sweet but short lived. And just like most events in this Mancunian singer's life, change would be coming. The results would be extraordinary with in the voice we have come to adore. Morrissey and his glorious sound have always reflected the desired longing inside our very own heart looking for a home. Because of the creative realization of Your Arsenal, his next stand would cement Morrissey in greatness.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.13.2008

Best Albums of 1991: Review: Massive Attack: Blue Lines

My Massive Attack review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Massive Attack
Blue Lines
Circa-Virgin
1991

We all were witnesses to the birth of trip-hop when Blue Lines was born in 1991. Back then, besides Public Enemy, I wasn't much of a fan of the new style of inner city rap because as Morrissey once sang, "it said nothing to me about my life." But there was something about Blue Lines that sent ripples around the music world. Massive Attack created a genre. Without Blue Lines there wouldn't have been Portishead or Tricky, and I would argue that U2's Achtung Baby, released later on that year, would have sounded different without the massive influence of this band from Bristol, England.

Blue Lines blends the magic of soul, funk, rap, rock and reggae all into one beautiful sound that, at the time, was revolutionary. Before Achtung Baby, Massive Attack was the first commercial band to reveal a major influence by Gulf War I. Blue Lines was a direct response to world on the brink of world war. The uncertainty of our future reflected on the sound of Blue Lines.

"Gunmen and maniacs
all will feature on the freak show
and I can't do nothing about that, no
But if you hurt what's mine
I'll sure as hell retaliate"

I remember that time, watching the bombings on TV. I myself had a fear that I would be drafted for a war that I didn't believe in. Sound familiar? Massive Attack took that fear and turned it into "Safe from Harm," "Five Man Army" and "The Hymn of the Big Wheel."

But I loved Blue Lines for Massive Attack's take on the politics of Love. And no song blends the sound of hurt and longing than "Unfinished Sympathy." This is a 21st century soul song with elements of dance, strings and that voice by Shara Nelson. She perfectly voiced the sound of ache that we all feel when love is on the edge of breaking down and falling out of our control.

Blue Lines also brought us two voices, polar opposites that I will always be thankful for, the vintage reggae vox of Horace Andy and the sinister rapping vocals of my main man Tricky. I connected with the title track, which sounds like a sleek, jazz-like rap number where trip-hop found its groove. My favorite line has to be Tricky's when he sings, "…Adrian mostly gets lonely/ how we live in this existence, just being/ English upbringing, background Caribbean." Those lyrics reflected how I felt during that year, alone with far of the future and the unknown and I connected with my namesake, Adrian "Tricky" Thawes.

Andy's voice is the anti-thesis of Tricky's. Horace's vocal of "One Love" is more of hope. This dichotomy makes Blue Lines a classic. It's not just a meditation on the end of the world, there's optimism with shades of despair sprinkled throughout this brilliant debut. Can you imagine our world now if Blue Lines never was released? There would have been no Maxinqaye or Dummy? And from there, so many other bands would never have been inspired to create music. Think of Massive Attack as The Velvet Underground of their day. Those who connected with this album started bands and made music that helped shape our and future generations.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.12.2008

Best Albums of 1990: Review: Jane's Addicton: Ritual de lo Habitual

My Jane's Addiction review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Jane's Addiction
Ritual de lo Habitual
Warner Bros.
1990

My mental portrait of California was formed by song. The Doors and Beck brought to life images of Los Angeles that were beautiful and strange. But no band was stranger or more seductive, musically speaking, than Jane's Addiction. Oh how I loved myself some Jane's Addiction. They were our generation's Led Zeppelin. Jane's were the forefathers of the Alternative movement, and lead singer Perry Farrell created the Lollapalooza music festival that introduced underground music like Nine Inch Nails and Siouxsie and The Banshees that I adored so much.

Everyone gives props to Nirvana for changing music. Jane's lit the spark of the revolution that was started with 1988's Nothing Shocking. What a year, I was still a naïve outcast in high school. This was before the Internet when I would discover all of my new music endeavors on MTV's "120 Minutes" and inside of Rolling Stone Magazine. There's one such article that I read in Rolling Stone about a band that was recording their album when they rushed out of their studio to the streets of Hollywood to watch someone bizarre accident. Immediately after reading about this outlandish L.A. band I went out and picked up Nothing's Shocking.

The thing about Jane's, and why their music is so timeless, is that they blend various musical styles—funk, metal, vintage rock, acoustic and Caribbean flavors all mixed perfectly with the surrealistic lyrics written by lead singer Perry Farrell. To this day, spinning Nothing's Shocking is like setting off tremors of elation inside of me. It's electric, eccentric and defines the chaotic splendor of modern day Los Angeles.

Nothing's Shocking was an underground classic at my high school and among my circle of music geek friends. We adored that album and for two years eagerly anticipated the arrival of the new fix of Jane's Addiction. But the album kept on being pushed back. There was talk that it may never be released and this was even before of the drama behind Chinese Democracy. But it happened. One day after coming back from vacation I walked into to the San Antonio record shop, Hogwild Records, which my brother and I used to frequent every week to spend our pay checks on vinyl and tapes. That's when I saw the Holy Grail on the shelf; I discovered that Ritial de lo Habitual had been released while we were on vacation. Besides Pretty Hate Machine, Ritual is the one album that I have purchased again and again through out my young life. You know what happens you play out a tape; you scratch, misplace or sell a CD.

Ritual was the soundtrack to my summer of 1990. And to this day it's my favorite album of the '90s. From the opening salvo of female speech in Spanish, I knew that this would be my record. It was daring, controversial, sexy, loud, intimidating to outsiders, an instant classic. I so connected with this record especially the line "I am skinny bones, I am pointy nose but the motherfucker makes me try." Jane's Ritiual is the personification of my teenage angst coming to life. They reflected the pain and anger of how it was growing up an outcast in a world where I felt I didn't belong. And this was a band that felt like outsiders in Hollywood. They understood what it was like to be a freak. They were the kings of the freaks. And no one was freakier than Perry and his guitar-slinging sidekick David Navarro. Navarro's solo in "Three Days" was even nominated as one of the 100 greatest of all time. From start to finish, Ritual is simply the sound of decadence put brilliantly to wax. No other album better defines a generation of creative misfits than Ritual del Lo Habitual. To this day, I believe Jane's and The Doors are two bands that best define Los Angeles. I am eagerly awaiting the reissue, digitally remastered with bonus tracks. When you hear Ritual, you're listening to classic music from the '90s that will ultimately outlive us all.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.11.2008

Review: Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst

My Conor Oberst review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Conor Oberst
Conor Oberst
Merge
2008

"…with the coming of Bright Eyes began the part of my life you could call my life on the road." The first lines from Jack Kerouac's On The Road can be seen as a fitting analogy for the creative life of Conor Oberst as a traveling troubadour in search of truth and meaning within the journey of song. I know that Dean Moriarty is the one who led Sal across North America but I believe it's Bright Eyes that did the same for Conor. And just like in that American classic, Conor himself has traveled from East to West Coast and found himself within the friendly mystical confines of Mexico.

There are parallels between the characters in Kerouac's novel and Conor's trip into Mexico. This time he's left behind his familiar moniker and band mates Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott. Conor gathered a few friends, a.k.a The Mystic Valley Band, in Valle Místico just outside the town of Tepoztlán and recorded his first solo album under his own name. The seeds to Conor Oberst came out of the inspirational visit to Cassadaga, Fla., and the experience that spawned the songs from the album of the same name.

Conor Oberst takes off with the very elegant "Cape Canaveral." Unlike most Bright Eyes recordings one is not treated to as surreal an opening number that's usually filled with sampled, spaced out sound effects as in Lifted's "Big Picture" and Cassadaga's "Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)." You can tell that Conor's taking a different approach with this solo effort by letting you into his world from the opening chords.

To me, Conor Oberst sounds like his own version of McCartney, Paul's first solo album recorded away from civilization in a small cabin. Conor's first solo record has this same homemade feel—you can hear crickets in the background and Conor even recorded some of his own vocals while lying in a hammock. It has a relaxing and joyous feel that you connect with as Oberst serenades to you within these magnificent songs.

Conor Oberst's solo album isn't just an acoustic record, as with the help of The Mystic Valley Band, he plugs in on the very electric "NYC - Gone, Gone." There's the "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" era R.E.M.-inspired "Sausalito." But my favorite has to be "Souled Out." I love the lyrics, especially: "I woke up in the age of wires/ I fell asleep at the dusk of man… Fingers crossed in the promised land." I hear this song as a reflection of how far Conor has come from the Digital Ash days of Bright Eyes into the mystical valleys of Mexico. You can hear a sort of creative rebirth in his voice. There's a hints of a smile as he sings in "Souled Out."

Oberst's album ends with the very beautiful "Milk Thistle." You can hear within the lyrics how much Conor has grown. In the past it seems that he has been content singing about being lost in the darkness. Conor Oberst has him bathing in magical essence of Mexico:

"All the light and sound,
This little world's too fragile now,
And there's only one way out.
If you let me slide,
I'll do my best to make things right,
And I know where bound,
Keep going up and down,
Up and down."

Conor's still on a journey, and songs like the rockabilly-flavored, piano driven "I Don't Want to Die (In the Hospital)" reflects his resurrected spirit. This living for the moment and reconnecting with his natural surroundings, this is the spirit that I can truly connect with. It's been a long strange trip for Conor and me. For the longest time I wasn't a believer. Luckily I found someone who showed me the magic and power within his music. After seeing him live at the El Rey Theater, I became a convert. Even more so now, as his magnificent new solo album seals it for me. He is the real deal; a true singer/songwriter with the spirit of Dylan and Kerouac in his soul. Just like those anti-heroes in On The Road, you hear that Conor found his own magic land at the end of his magic road.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.11.2008

Personal Best Albums of the 90's: Review: Morrissey: Vauxhall and I

My Morrissey review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Morrissey
Vauxhall & I
Sire
1994

It seems anytime after Morrissey has suffered a personal loss in his life, he makes a memorable album. After his musical collaborator Johnny Marr left The Smiths, in 1988, Morrissey made Viva Hate. After the rousing success of Your Arsenal, Morrissey was looking forward with a long lasting musical partnership with former Bowie stalwart Mick Ronson. But sadly, Ronson died of liver cancer after producing Your Arsenal. Two other close confidants died in the same year, and the emotional mourning Morrissey felt he poured into the making of Vauxhall and I.

Rumored at the time to be his last ever album, Morrissey contacted Steve Lillywhite, the producer who mixed the single "Ask" while Moz was in The Smiths, to work on the sessions for his final record. Vauxhall and I turned into Morrissey's opus, a musical triumph from start to finish. This is his Queen is Dead. After all the condemnation that Moz endured during the early years of his post life after The Smiths, he finally made an album that cemented his legacy in the greatness worth the weight of his talents as a solo artist.

I have to admit, as I have written many times in many reviews and columns, that effect Morrissey and The Smiths had in my young life. Hearing "There's a Light that Never Goes Out" changed me. But years later I unfortunately lost my faith in Morrissey. This was all due to a show in Austin, Texas that he canceled during his Kill Uncle tour. Even with the powerful glory of Your Arsenal with Morrissey coming to my town during that tour, I didn't want to see him live. But Vauxhall and I changed that for me. I still remember the day it came out, with the pink shiny cover, and Morrissey with a stoic-like grin on the cover.

I remember playing Vauxhall, at this record store I worked in at the time in San Antonio, and connecting to Morrissey and his voice for the first time in years.

"There's gonna be some trouble
A whole house will need re-building
And everyone I love in the house
Will recline on an analyst's couch quite soon
Your Father cracks a joke
And in the usual way
Empties the room"

Hearing the lyrics to "Now My Heart is Full" was like hearing a page out of my own life. I kept on listening, and when it came to "Billy Budd," based on Herman Melville's novel featuring a character with a speech impediment, was another song I could relate to. Then I heard the one song that nailed it for me, "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get." That made me forgive Morrissey for his past sins.

"The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get" is arguably Morrissey's best single since "Suedehead." (It's so good that this is the only song he added from his '90s output on his latest Greatest Hits CD). It starts off with a Johnny Marr-esque guitar and then Morrissey's eloquent vocal comes on.

"I will be
In the bar
With my head
On the bar
I am now
A central part
Of your mind's landscape
Whether you care
Or do not
Yeah, I've made up your mind"

I love that lyric. At the time and for years after this song, I was a barfly and this was my theme song. I love the image of having hope for being ignored by someone that you desire. That no matter what happens or how you interact your impression is everlasting.

Then there's the mysterious "Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning" which sounds like a song inspired by Kate Chopin's remarkable story "The Awakening." And then there's "Used to be A Sweet Boy," another song which mirrors the sense I had of myself at the time that I related with Morrissey's lyrics about someone who's not the naïve child anymore. And you hear this on the album. Vauxhall is Morrissey confident, in love, sad and in his prime. It's the true reflection of Morrissey. I think it's telling that Morrissey and Johnny Marr reconnected just before he made this album. And there were rumors of collaboration between to two but sadly this never came to fruition.

Regardless, with the finale of "Speedway," it is his most powerful and personal statement of his career. "Speedway" is Moz standing up for himself against all the ridicule against his detractors that he has felt during his own life. But what I love about "Speedway" is that this is an anthem of empowerment. When he sings, "And when you try to break my spirit it won't work because there's nothing left to break, anymore." It sounds like Morrissey's last hurrah. He was ready to leave us with this thunderous exclamation showing the world his true self and his brilliance one last time.

But it wasn't to be. Morrissey came back, and is still here. Vauxhall and I remains his best solo output of his career and even inspired Radiohead while they were recording The Bends. Besides the underrated Kill Uncle, this is my favorite Morrissey album. It's unlike any of his others because it's not sad in nature. Vauxhall is tender, telling and a timeless statement from an artist who's uncompromising spirit continues to inspire us. Whenever I start to feel any inkling of doubt for Morrissey and his amazing talents, Vauxhall is the album that I put on. Then I remember, oh yeah, this was the one that turned it around for me when I had written him off for the last time. I feel that Morrissey said it best when he sang "long may it last." And he still endures because it's his destiny.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
08.04.2008