My first music essay, “Cooley’s Law of Gravity,” appears in the newest issue of Utter Magazine.  The essay examines the songwriting of Drive-By Trucker’s singer and guitarist Mike Cooley to consider whether the mystery of great pop music can be solved with repeated listening.  Here is the hook:

“The singer, legs astride stage left, was all gaunt angle—square chin, bony shoulders, even his white flying V guitar.  But his music, while pointed and direct, tumbled out in a rounded twang to a bumbling beat.  From the moment Mike Cooley began singing, backed by his band the Drive-By Truckers, I strained to catch every word, like his girl waking up ‘sunny side down,’ the narrator ‘too proud to flip her over.’  As the pedal steel swirled among the lyrics, I felt in my limbs that curious blend of calm and energy when a song sounds exactly as it should.”

Read the full essay.

Jack White – Blunderbuss
I have already written about White’s first solo album here.  The music lives up to expectations and constantly surprises the listener with its range of style and sound.  White pairs clarinet, piano, a soulful duet, and a cover of Little Willie John’s “I’m Shakin’” with the insistent drum beat and blistering guitar work for which he is known.  Blunderbuss also tops my three year-old daughter’s list. 

The Lumineers – The Lumineers
The debut album from this Colorado trio is a pleasure from start to finish.  The folk rock sounds provide a sturdy base for simple yet clever lyrics, including one of my favorite rhymes: “I made her laugh / I made a pass” from the charmingly self-deprecating “Classy Girls.” 

River Giant – River Giant
The second folk rock trio to appear on my list, River Giant is a relatively new band whose self-released debut will be re-released on CD and vinyl by Devil Duck Records in April 2013.  I have already written about the powerful sonic alchemy created by the band.  The album is built of freight train folk and sweet melody that promises a bright future for the Seattle trio.

Alabama Shakes –  Boys and Girls
Another debut, this powerhouse album shows that soul music is alive and well.  Brittany Howard’s vocals recall the gritty, sweet sound of Janis Joplin as she belts out lyrics about love and living atop the soul-influenced rock.  And the first track, “Hold On,” is a sure cure for the winter blues.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – The Heist
Another self-released Seattle album, The Heist is the debut of rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis.  The duo tackles a wide range of subjects, including the mundane—shopping for deals at the thrift shop and video games—to heavy hitters like addiction and marriage equality, creating an album that is both fun and emotionally affecting.  And the infectious sax riff of “Thrift Shop” will stick with you well into 2013.

For a more comprehensive list of 2012 music, check out KEXP’s list of top albums as voted on by listeners.

River Giant

2012 continues to be a great year for music, including stirring debut albums from Alabama Shakes, Of Monsters and Men, and the Lumineers.  But my favorite is the debut from Seattle trio River Giant, comprised of Liam O’Connor, Kyle Jacobson, and Trent Schriener.  The self-titled album follows their EP, Vernon’s Cast, from 2010.  Music writers and DJs note the band’s folk sound, including their honeyed harmonies, often comparing them to Seattle’s Fleet Foxes.  But River Giant weaves the folk into hard-driven rock, often bolstered by distortion that recalls Pearl Jam and the nineties alternative sound.  And, like those bands, River Giant, draws influence from the classic rock of the seventies.  Evocative of Neil Young’s rich nasal whine, the three members’ voices soar over and then sink into the songs that span the ten-song debut.

River Giant playing at a benefit show for the Ballard Food Bank

River Giant covers a wide range of sonic territory.  Some songs pound the body while others lilt into the ears.  My current favorites represent both ends of the spectrum.  The first song, “Out Here, Outside,” opens the album, “Leave this damn kitchen / Come on outside,” in a sweet plea to ditch the domestic for a dance in the fine night air.  You can almost hear the couple’s dusty shuffle in the lazy waltz, which provides the foundation for soaring harmonies.  But the song that really grabs me is “Fast Heart,” opening with an angry, interruptive guitar riff that breaks into accordion arpeggio, weaving a mystical sound that captures the obvious influence of the natural world on their work.  Watch River Giant play “Fast Heart” in a recent appearance on KEXP.  Alternating these opposing sounds, the song recalls music by Bush, Pink Floyd, and Crazy Horse, creating a strange alchemy that defines River Giant’s sound.  Weaving through every song is the three-part harmony, which comprises the softer songs and fills the intentional gaps of the hard-edged ones, to seam together the ten tracks into an album about love, loss, and the boring bits of life in between.

Listen to the full album on River Giant’s Bandcamp page, where you can also download it for a steal.

2012 is looking like a great year of music.  This is the first in a series of posts about promising albums for this year.

Jack White – Blunderbuss

Jack White has been recording with various bands for fifteen years, but 2012 marks his first solo release.  White claims that Blunderbuss is “an album I couldn’t have released until now.  I’ve put off making records under my own name for a long time but these songs feel like they could only be presented under my own name.”  White’s ensemble work—in the bands The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather as well as his production and performance on the Cold Mountain soundtrack and Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose—prove him to be a versatile and talented musician.  Considering the intentional way that he conducts his career and business (note that he also runs his own label, Third Man Records), I am excited to hear music he considers uniquely his.

While the album won’t be released until April 24^th, you can sample the flavor of the much anticipated album with the first single, “Love Interruption.”  (You can preview in iTunes or listen to the whole song with Spotify.) The instrumentation seems particularly American in its quirky blend of organ, guitar, and clarinet, a peculiar choice for pop music that just works here.  White sings his spare, intense lyrics, with the support of singer-songwriter Ruby Amanfu, with a crisp enunciation that reinforces his message.  Which, if you’re anything like me, will be knocking around your brain a lot until April 24^th.