One thing I hope to do on this site is explore some of my favorite (and not so favorite) music. Some ground rules; I will not be discussing jazz, rap, new country, new metal, or any other type of music that I don’t enjoy. Doesn’t mean it is not good music, just that I don’t care about it.
To science up the process, I will create and explain some of the things I look for in enjoying a song, artist, or album. Good music should be the right balance between talent, originality, absurdity (good or bad), mood, and random crap. Let me explain these characteristics one by one.
Talent is perhaps the trickiest thing to evaluate. By talent I mean technical prowess. Talent is interesting because a group like Everclear, that has many great songs, is clearly void of talent. While a band like Phish, which clearly is overloaded with talent, has very few great songs. I’ll go beyond Phish and invoke the “jam band clause.” Jam bands are often groups that go over the top on proving how good they can play their instruments to make up for having crappy songs. The same can be said for many 80s hair bands that feature insane guitarists but a library of songs that is 90% crap. Nonetheless, you can’t be a good band without some talent, it matters.
Originality is another interesting category. Bob Dylan had good songs, as did Donovan. But Dylan was original, Donovan was not. For a more recent example look at Pearl Jam and a group like the Nixons. I like “Sister,” but there was no originality there. The type of originality I like best is originality that kind of sucks. A guy like Tom Waits, or Ween, the Violent Femmes, and in some ways The Band. Originality that sucks I guess is people with mediocre to horrible voices that somehow make it work (people that wouldn’t make it to Hollywood).
Absurdity is my second favorite category behind mood. This is tricky because it is all about balancing the level of absurdity of the lyrics, the album, the singer, the subject manner, and the time period. A bad use of absurdity is on Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy where the song Bugs is un-listenable. You have a serious album from a serious band with one song completely out of whack. A good example of absurdity is Prince’s When Doves Cry. As a rule, no one should ever make a song called When Doves Cry, but Prince and his thing fit perfectly in line with it. David Bowie is the god of good absurdity, who else could have a catchy tune with the refrain “gotta make way for the homo-superior.” Bad absurdity is that same David Bowie singing Christmas songs with Bing Crosby.
Mood is the most intangible of my categories and also my favorite. Does a song or an album set a mood? The Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan are the pinnacle of mood-setting in my book. To a lesser degree the Beatles could do it, and the Stones could do it with a song (see Ruby Tuesday) but never with an album. A recent album that sets a great mood is Beck’s Sea Change. Older Belle and Sebastian albums are also fine examples of mood setting.
My last category is random crap. These are sounds and other things that either add or detract from a song or album. The robot talking on OK Computer is bad random crap, destroying any vibe and flow the album had. Anything by Everclear post-1997 is bad random crap where a group made up for lack of talent by throwing in random sound effects. The Minus 5’s Down With Wilco is good random crap that sets the mood. Basically, any sound that shouldn’t be there but is qualifies.
