The Eleventh Annual Jaybee-bies: My 2021

Executive Summary:

Better than 2020. 

Abstract:

At first, I thought 2021's edge over 2020 was slim, and only because of not having a fascist in the White House. (Don't worry, there are still plenty in Congress.)

But in fact, it was a year of musical richness.

Yes, I did my usual "disappointment" post, but when I look back on how much enjoyable pop music I heard even while doing deep dives on LVB, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Bill Evans, I'm a bit stunned.

Best Humans:

Stephen Colbert

Bernie Sanders

And way too many others to mention.

Worst Humans:

Pretty Much Everyone at Fox News, although Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, and Jesse Watters all deserve special mention.

Kristen Manchin

Apologies for not bothering to mention all the new dictators who are actively making the world a worse place.

Best Books:

A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson.  Easily the best popular science book I've ever read.

Connections, by James Burke. A companion to the 1980s series, Jimmy actually knows of which he speaks.

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. And yet another book about how we humans think. Bu the best one, and really, the one all the others are based on.

Best Movies:

I didn't really see many for obvious reasons, so I don't really give a shit. Or is that vice versa?  But here are the ones I did see. 

Don't Look Up: What is the issue everyone is having with this movie? It's funny, bleak, entertaining.

Spiderman: No Way Home: I'm not a huge superhero movie person (I used to be a big comics person, though.) but this one got me all choked up.

Get Back: A lot less depressing than Let It Be. But so so sad given what would ultimately happen.

Best TV:

What We Do in the Shadows

Derry Girls

Music Awards:

Most Work (But Worth it): 

Thelonious Monk (8 album set!), 

John Coltrane (8 album set!) 

Bill Evans (12(!) album set (leftover from last year.)

Time to slow down, Jaybee?

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): 

Weyes Blood Titanic Rising Stately, serious, perfectly good, quite playable for company, but no intensity.

Most Surprising (and Not Necessarily in a Good Way): 

Township Jazz and Jive: But in this case in a great way.

Most Disappointing: 

Spoon: Fine, but nothing to shout about.

Big Thief: Same here. I guess I like to shout.

Best Artist: 

The continent of Africa, apparently. (More on this next time.)

The Best of My Year:

1. Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher - A sweet voice, a gift for melody, and a good sense of humor in trying circumstances.

2. Fontaines DC: A Hero's Death - With its similar arrangements throughout, each song still somehow sounds unique.

3. Perfume Genius: Set My Heart on Fire Immediately - Pop musician goes baroque and somehow manages to pull it off. It just wore down any reservations I had.

4. Dramarama: Cinema Verite - Is it a songwriter album or a rock n' roll record? Both.

5. Etran de L'Air: No. 1 - It's amazing what energy and momentum you can generate with just a couple of guitars, a set of drums, and an enthusiastic audience.

6. The Paranoid Style: A Goddamn Imposible Way of Life - So many words! So many in-jokes! But the singer articulates them all and the band has just the right combo of sleaze and swagger.

7. The Go-Betweens: 16 Lovers Lane - The best Australian band ever provides yet another reason why they are. 

8. Waxahatchee: St. Cloud - Kate Crutchfield made an almost perfect rock and roll record a few years ago with Out in the Storm. This time she nearly matches that feat, this time with country music.

9. Humperdink: Hansel and Gretel - Not being familiar with German, for all I know the lyrics consist entirely of variations on the phrase shove that old bitch in the oven! And yet it's lovely and sometimes sublime.

10. Rachid Taha: Bon Jour - High-quality rock music that just happens to be made in Africa.

Honorable Mentions/Also-Rans/Tieds for Tenth: Toots and the Maytals: Funky Kingston, Ya Ndest Dalienst: Belalo, Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow, Teenage  Fanclub: Bandwagonesque, Spiritualized: Ladies and Gents We're Floating in Space, The Rough Guide to Music of the Sahara, Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures, Jocelyn Pook: Flood, Teddy Bears: Devil's Music, Elizabeth Cook: Welder, TV on the Radio: Dear Science, Various Artists: Township Jazz and Jive.

With so many also-rans it sure seems like a pretty good year.

Some of the best songs I heard this year can be found here.

Conclusions:

My cup ran-eth over.

Too bad about the rest of the country.

Some Good Old - and New - Rock 'n Roll

If you've been following me lately, the closest I've come to actual rock 'n roll has been by way of Niger with Etran De L'air (which absolutely counts, by the way). 

This is not due to snobbery. It's just I'm a big believer in the law of diminishing returns, and familiarity breeding contempt. In other words, the very opposite of Classic Rock radio.

I'm also so in awe of music itself that I assume it's a limited resource and we'll eventually run out. So with that kind of mindset, can you blame me for wanting to rotate the crops a bit? Aside from turning me on to all sorts of not rock 'n roll, when I finally do put on a Classic Rock station I actually enjoy it. (Unless, of course, they insist on playing the same shit again and again.)

Another factor that plays into this is that, upon hearing a great "new" band, I no longer immediately buy their entire catalog. It's as if, I don't want to ruin the effect of that first record.

And at the very bottom of it, there's vanity: I don't want to turn into the guy who sits around saying music isn't as good as it used to be. Let's face it, he hasn't listened to anything for decades so why would anyone give a shit what he thinks?

And there are too many of these guys already, and what they're saying is so utterly unoriginal and wrong they should get a new hobby, like gardening or homosexuality. Seriously. It'll do them good.

But in the meantime...

Dramarama: Cineme Verite (1985)

Finally, a good, unique, rock 'n roll album – one that I missed in the mid-80s, even though (actually, because) there were a couple of hits on it.  John Easedale's got a limited vocal range (which he only pushes too far once or twice) but he's sure got vision.

And the band backs him up, no matter the style a given song commands, and makes it all come alive.

Ah, but with nary a synth to be found, they were denied stardom. (F*ck Duran Duran, by the way.)

My version is a bit long, with eight extra cuts, but hey, that's what you get with vision. Definitely worth it.

A-

"Some Crazy Dame"

Fontaines D.C: A Hero's Death (2020)

D.C., as in Dublin City - a far cry from Drama in New Jersey. 

And thus almost the opposite of Verite. The lyrics are very basic and repeated like chants. The singer has a deeper voice. The tempos rarely get past medium. And the arrangements are the same throughout. 

And yet, it's all very compelling. Maybe because I usually associate this approach with disdain/contempt a la Johnny Rotten in Public Image Limited, whereas here there is a much wider spectrum of feeling tending toward the compassionate and life-affirming

If you consider "life ain't always empty" as a stirring chant, that is. But you had to be there.

A-