John Paul Davis

Mixes

I make mixes. And if I like them enough, I’ll upload them here. For you.

The Fixer

In Mixes on 17 January 2012

New mix that’s been kicking around in my iPod for a minute. Originally inspired by a conversation I had with Aaron last fall.

The Fixer cover The Fixer back cover

The Fixer

This will play in iTunes or QuickTime, and on any iPod/iPhone. You may need to right-click to download.

The Dime One – favorite music of 2011

Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older, or perhaps because so much of the loud, fast-paced music of 2011 seems less inspired than the quiet innovations toward which so many of my favorite artists this year leaned, but I honestly didn’t even realize how acoustic and pared-down are the songs in this compilation. Maybe it’s because I moved to Brooklyn, and therefore the loudest, fastest city in the United States. Or, again, maybe I’m getting older.

Either way, I noticed a trend here that’s undeniable: quiet songs with complicated characters, many of them musing on their pasts, and assaying on how those pasts will affect their futures. Whether it’s Paul Simon contemplating his own mortality, Jay-Z apologizing to his unborn child for a lifetime of dodging paparazzi, Elbow’s Guy Garvey looking back to the days when he was aspiring and arrogant, Childish Gambino waxing frustrated on how racism and classism and elitism from blacks and whites alike shaped his personality during his childhood, or U2 literally looking back 20 years to the release of Achtung Baby, which still sounds fresh and innovative and which is arguably the best album of their career, so many of my favorites this year seem to be looking at the timelines of their lives from some mountaintop. Like, I said, I’m getting old.

And, of course, that’s not all that’s going on here. Long-awaited returns by Tom Waits, Feist, The Dears and DJ Shadow made the waiting worth it. Iron and Wine, St. Vincent, the Black Keys and The Decemberists each released albums that build on their already-innovative careers with more innovation and enjoyable surprises. Wilco, Bruce Cockburn, Radiohead, Lil Wayne and TV On The Radio released Wilco, Bruce Cockburn, Radiohead, Lil Wayne and TV On The Radio albums, respectively. Which is not to say I haven’t enjoyed those albums, but only to say they each seem to have settled into a productive and comfortable space.

Newcomers Thao and Mirah were a delight to discover, as were Little Dragon. Led by producer Merrill Garbus (of Tune-Yards) Thao and Mirah take folk-rock to gorgeous experimental places. The result is by far the prettiest album I’ve heard this year. Little Dragon channel Revolution-era Prince so well that one expects to hear any day the Purple One has signed them as a backing band.

One of my favorites this year is Over the Rhine’s The Long Surrender. I’ve long been a fan of this Ohio band, and they continue to grow and surprise me as songwriters and with the many ways they adapt their sound. This album highlights Karin Bergquist’s growth in the poetics of her lyrics set against a lush, textured backdrop built by producer Joe Henry. I’ve noticed over the past few years how strong Bergquist has become as a lyricist. On this album she moves easily from the dense and musical imagery of “Rave On” to the charming storytelling of “Only God Can Save Us Now” to the sparsely haunting Bukowski-inspired “There’s A Bluebird In My Heart.” Linford Detwiler, Bergquist’s parter-in-crime, and the band’s other songwriter, has long been one of my favorite writers, and the album’s closing number “All My Favorite People Are Broken” continues in his exploration of the forms and themes of old Protestant hymns, though this one sounds like something my friends and I might sing around the brunch table.

Another songwriter who continues to push himself album after album is Paul Simon. On “So Beautiful or So What,” he continues developing the themes of family and faith in the 21st century that he began exploring on 2000’s “You’re The One.” Here, he’s clearly learned from his 2006 collaboration with Brian Eno, but unlike most artists who work with Eno, it isn’t Eno’s ambient soundscapes that Simon latched onto but rather his ability to layer complex rhythms and merge old-world instruments with electronic ones without sounding dated. The result is a warm, contemplative album that still experiments with beats, sampling and yet sounds like it’ll stand well with Simon’s classic work.

And then there’s Kanye and Jay-Z. Hot on the heels of groundbreaking albums for each of them (Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3” and Kanye’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”) the duo released an album of duets which is as brilliant as it is frustrating. Part of the problem is that Jay and Ye’s past collaborations have always been instances in which one is the guest on the other’s album. This allowed for each rapper’s very different and distinctive personality to remain dominant and the guest to act as a foil to the host. On “Watch The Throne,” neither Jay-Z’s confident, easy braggadocio nor Kanye’s constant self-examination and mood swings can lead the way and so the album falters at points. Musically, there’s a whole lot happening that’s innovative and fresh. At certain points, lyrically (like with ‘New Day’), the duo live up to the quality the music demands. But, especially in the year of the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, endless listing of luxury cars, couture, and expensive liquor purchased seem tone-deaf. The duo are bold enough, on “Made In America” to baldly unpack the flimsy metonymy they’d like fans to draw between their own wild success and that for which black and poor Americans hope, but it’s a difficult story to swallow. False hope is perhaps better than no hope, but as the American Dream slowly turns into the middle and lower-class’s nightmare, one wishes, along with Chuck D, that the nation’s most recognized rappers had turned their formidable talents toward something other than telling us they own three Mercedes Benzes. None of which is to say I didn’t enjoy the hell out of the album, but during the enjoyment, I can’t help feeling the same way I feel when i sing along to the Stones’ “Brown Sugar” – when should the cleverness and originality of the expression outweigh the vacuousness of the message?

Contrast that with The Roots’ “undun,” a concept album that tracks the life story of a gangster not lucky enough to spin his hustling into a Jay-Z-like rap career. Much as Jay-Z likes to tout his “realness” and his ties to his teenaged career as a crack dealer, the plain fact is that he’s been a multi-millionaire for 15 years and is out of touch. Meanwhile the Roots have found a fresh, interesting way to address the harsh realities of the street without having to put on airs of gangsteritude, all which pushing themselves musically and lyrically. Black Thought is the best he’s ever been, and ?uestlove closes the album out with a suite of instrumentals that sound more like chamber music than hip hop, complete with Sufjan Stevens guesting on piano. But it works, beautifully, and stands as a testament to the fact that hip hop is still vital art form.

All in all it’s been a fantastic year for music.

The Dime One cover The Dime On cover

The Dime One

This will play in iTunes or QuickTime, and on any iPod/iPhone. You may need to right-click to download.

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Badly

In Mixes on 28 November 2011

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Badly cover

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Badly

This will play in iTunes or QuickTime, and on any iPod/iPhone. You may need to right-click to download.

Here I Am Lord, Knocking At Your Door

In Mixes on 17 April 2011

Here I Am Lord, Knocking At Your Door cover

Here I Am Lord, Knocking At Your Door

This will play in iTunes or QuickTime, and on any iPod/iPhone. You may need to right-click to download.

The Devil Sold Me His Soul

In Mixes on 8 April 2011

The Devil Sold Me His Soul cover

The Devil Sold Me His Soul

This will play in iTunes or QuickTime, and on any iPod/iPhone. You may need to right-click to download.

drowning in bourbon & brushstroke

In Mixes on 11 February 2011

drowning in bourbon & brushstroke cover

drowning in bourbon & brushstroke

This will play in iTunes or QuickTime, and on any iPod/iPhone. You may need to right-click to download.

I Know Damn Well Y’All Feeling This – Favorite Songs of 2010

In Mixes on 19 December 2010

2010 might well be called Year of the Monster, at least so far as my favorite albums of the year go. I’m never good at picking just one favorite, and this year, there’s a two-way tie for my favor in Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and The National’s “High Violet.” Both albums grapple with themes of self-doubt, self-worth, and the inner darkness of their characters. Kanye’s “Power” and The National’s “Conversation 16″ both are rather blunt confessions of inner brokenness and fear. In the case of Kanye, one suspects his characters are not too different from Mr. West in real-life. He cops to immaturity and wrestles (not just on this song, but on the entire album) with how his flaws directly ‘power’ his talent:
“My talent, creativity, purity and honesty are honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts. Reality is catching up with me, taking my inner child. I’m fighting for custody with these responsibilities they entrusted me as I look down at my diamond-encrusted piece I’m thinking no one man should have all that power…”

Kanye is a master of double and triple-meanings, and this small snippet is no exception. Is his “piece” a gun? If so, what a metaphor for his own talent, which has proven to be both dangerous and beautiful. Or perhaps the “piece” is his diamond cross. In which case it calls to mind Christ’s plea to his Father – “take this cup from me.” Either way, when Kanye gets to “no one man should have all that power” one gets the sense that he means this in both the traditional sense that too much power corrupts, but also in this other sense, that his inner demons, which power his talent, may be too much for him to handle.

The National take a different, more sorrowful approach. In “Conversation 16″ the character confesses in the chorus: “I’m evil.” He spends the song lamenting how difficult a person he is, and admitting to his partner that he’s both aware of how much a burden he has become, and yet how unable he is to change.

The theme appears in other places – Michael Jackson’s posthumously-released “Monster,” is both a callback to “Thriller” and a sarcastic rant against his many detractors. Over the Rhine’s “Rave On” paints a vivid picture of young, restless, out-of-work men channeling their energies into daredevil flirtation with death.

Overall, this has been a fantastic year for music. A lot of established artists have pushed themselves to new creative borders, and a lot of newcomers have brought game-changing work.

I Know Damn Well Y'All Feeling This cover