The thrill of the new: No.5

[aka Sounds of Summer part two]

If the source of my first summertime song was a surprise, the second completely floored me.

It was the internet. Not one of my internet contacts, who are seemingly dedicated to introducing me to music I couldn't possibly find in my local Australian shop, but the great anonymous impersonal web of pages that makes a haystack look insignificant, never mind the needle. I dived into the internet, and struck gold.

The journey actually started because of the number of people complimenting me on my music reviews in this blog, and at Toriforum. That, and the fact that I clearly like writing about music. I decided to see if there was anywhere I could put that inclination to good use.

I can't remember how long it took, but eventually I found a website called The Consensus (link appearing to your right). It's a brilliant idea of a website. Artists submit their songs for review, and 5 different reviewers all write their completely independent thoughts. The only real flaw in the system is that the site needs a certain number of active reviewers to keep things turning over. Since I joined in December supply hasn't kept up with demand, and the list of songs awaiting review keeps on growing. I keep fearing that bands will get fed up with having to wait half a year before receiving a verdict. Shameless plug: if you're interested in writing reviews, please sign up now!

That's the story of the system. The real story, though, is what I found with just my third review (which has only just been published, three months later).

I found Tim Corley singing All I Have. He hasn't been out of my brain since.

[What IS it about a piece of music that can make it click with a certain listener? I like to think I can attempt to define what is great about music (in fact, I'm about to try again!), and while I know I can't do a very good job of this, I remain wedded to the idea that some music is innately better. And yet, something I love can be boring or even bad to another person. Conversely, there are apparently millions of people who have thought that the Bloodhound Gang were worth listening to, which is a viewpoint I simply can't fathom.]

I knew within less than two bars that I liked All I Have. [That in itself makes me question my usual doctrine that the thing I value most in music is a sense of structure - how can a few beats be enough to demonstrate a piece has good structure?] It just got better from there. The song seemed to develop in all the right ways. The chorus had a welcome surprise, yet seemed such a natural extension of the verse. The second verse brought extra sounds that fitted exactly with my half-conscious idea of what was needed.

I think THIS is what I value most about (my idea of) great music. It's not just the initial material that's important, it's the ability to stay true to it. All the best music succeeds in following it's own internal logic and not wavering from it. The rules are set up in the first part, and it doesn't matter how good that guitar solo after the bridge might be, if it doesn't fit with what went before then (to me) the effect will be diminished.

Whereas a song that has no solos but has a chorus that seems to unfold with the inevitability of gravity will capture my imagination.

To say I've become obsessed with All I Have is a minor understatement. The mere IDEA of finding it is part of the thrill, I think. First of all, I was able to contact Tim and tell him how much I loved it, and he replied. He's continued to reply to all my embarrassingly 'groupie' messages.

Secondly, it's my discovery. No-one told me to listen to Tim Corley, beyond the fact that he was one of several hundred people to submit music to Consensus. And it appears no-one else in this country could have told me. According to Tim, I am his first Australian fan. Try and imagine how exciting that is. I'm working hard on gaining fan number two, and the results are pretty positive. I observed several friends tapping feet last time I tried the CD out.

Oh yes, the CD. The reason this is in the 'thrill' series is because I am now the proud owner of the Like Stars EP, which proves Tim is not a one-hit wonder. Besides All I Have it has four superb tracks and one very good one which is continuing to grow on me. Every single one of them demonstrates a songwriter who knows how to shape his ideas so that they fit together. He's not necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel, but he's certainly demonstrating that he knows how to make one.

But it's that one song that I play in my head again and again - and still sometimes play for real more than once in a day. I've had songs do this to me before, but even by those standards three months is an unusually long run of longing to hear the same track.

But enough talking, go and LISTEN.

Sounds of Summer (I)

Yes, I'm back.

The weather has cooled enough for my computer to generally behave itself, there is nothing worth watching on television (possibly the best thing about the Commonwealth Games is how they've cleared other shows out of the way), and most importantly, a free night has appeared in the middle of an otherwise mad and hectic 3-week period and my brain is not so fried that I can't make use of the opportunity.

But don't push it. If the previous paragraph contained any grammatical errors, I don't want to know.

Many ideas for posts have fallen by the wayside over the last couple of months, but the music ones seem intent on hanging around. I have at least five in my mental list that probably won't leave me alone until I write them. So here goes.

Summer ended here a few weeks ago. I don't especially pay any more attention to the latest music at any particular time of year, but during summer there were two songs that made a deep impression, and they both came from unexpected sources.

The first of them came, in a roundabout way, from a 'reality' TV show.

At least, I think that's how people categorise Idol, although it doesn't have all that much to do with reality. Primarily because any new singer trying to make it isn't likely to get more than one song in front of an audience before being passed over like yesterday's bread. Getting to come back week after week is something that most young singers can only dream about.

But the thing I want to say here is, I'll never be able to regard Idol as worthless. The overall quality of the contestants in the Australian version seems to be getting better each time. In the 3rd season I thought that all of the top six singers could carve a decent career out for themselves if they tried hard and made good choices.

And the American version gave us Kelly Clarkson.

The first time I heard her, I hadn't even heard of Idol so I had no bias one way or the other. What I heard was a fairly good singer with a pop tune (Miss Independent) that was catchier than most. Since then I'd heard some average songs, one really catchy one (Since U Been Gone), but nothing bad and nothing to alter my opinion that she won a contest because she was talented, not just by being the most popular girl in class. The girl can sing.

This summer, she found the song to put that talent to good use. Because of You got my attention on the radio because I could hear the conviction and the passion behind the voice. Here was someone who believed that what she was singing meant something. And she was singing a well-crafted tune that rose and fell and reached a definite climax.

There was a period of a few weeks around Christmas where Because of You was close to the most-played song on the radio here. Time and again I heard it in the car, and I'd usually turn it up to hear that strong, committed voice. The thing was, I never quite grasped all of the words. The chorus registered clearly. The verses, well... I actually think I did know the majority of the words, but I didn't put them all together and I think I was more focused on the shape of the musical line. I'm like that.

Then I saw the video. I've hinted before at the power of videos. I don't know whether all musicians realise that power, because I've seen some downright awful examples that have discouraged me from listening to the song they accompany. But a good video brings great benefits.

The video of Because of You somehow made every word of the song register like a hammer blow. I heard everything. I understood what it meant. And when Kelly shed a tear on my television screen at the end of it, so did I. I can't remember ever doing that before. It happened again the second time I saw the video, only a couple of hours later.

Now I hear every word without the need for pictures to remind me. Each time I hear the song (which isn't so often now, the radio has 'moved on'), I marvel at the fact that it's written and performed by someone who might never have had her talent discovered if it wasn't for our obsession with observing other people's lives instead of living our own.

At least she's used the opportunity well.

[Stay tuned for the even longer story of the other song from summer, which has been an obsession of mine for 3 months now and shows no signs of outstaying its welcome.]

Luddite pt.8

Toasters work so much more quickly when you switch them on at the wall.