Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

So what do you get if you add Bruce Springsteen and the Kill....wait that's far too patronizing and sloppy a way of summarizing the brilliance of Gaslight Anthem's seminal '59 Sound. The late twentieth century has seen the return of the great American song writers, finally overcoming the bland "hard rock" that dominates the charts. Sure everyone loves Foo Fighters but lets face it their boring as fuck, they haven't released anything genuine thrilling in a long time, and they are the prototypical American band. Sure they had the Strokes and Interpol but they were rejects, they were more European and the Strokes were just plain hated. Finally in Gaslight Anthem they had a band, a brilliant band, drenched in American music history, you can feel the rage of a young Bruce Springsteen in Brian Fallon and you can even see the evidence of fellow New Jersey legends Bon Jovi in their music, no its not power pop but every song on this record despite its gritty blue collar appeal is catchy as fuck. The album is loaded with immediate punk rock Great Expectations, '59 Sound, Old White Lincoln, High And Lonesome all rock and thrash perfectly, there tight and addictive. But that isn't what makes the Gaslight Anthem stand out from the crowd, what makes them amazing is that they can write these powerful emotionally fraught ballads and somehow there just as catchy and immediate as a throw away rocker like Backseats, its remarkable. This is an album that hangs together perfectly and by the time you reach the height of the ballads you'll realize this is no band of one trick ponies, this is a serious band, with serious song writing credentials. Right smack dab in the middle of their album is their unquestionably best song and absolute epic Miles Davis And The Cool sung with all the small town heartfelt sentiment that's been lacking from Mainstream American music since the Boss got old. It's full of beautiful memories of lost loves and such brilliant truism ("My How The Years In Our Youth Pass On") and this combination of amazing imagery ("You Move Like A Dream I Had, Woke Up Sweating In My Room") and straighforward honest storytelling ("Cause I've Never Had A Good Thing, And I've Always Had The Blues"). It's staggering, whether Fallon is talking about drug re-ups, impressing girls or the pounding Jersey rain he can conjure these amazing images and irresistable hooks.

It's almost too obvious to say but he is the heir to Springsteen but he doesn't hide his love for the Boss, their happy to acknowledge their infulences The Rivers Edge throws it in our faces "No Surrender My Bobby Jean...I'll Take You To The Rivers Edge" not exactly subtle is it? But who cares their proud of the Boss and New Jersey, and they are making emotion packed, incredibly affecting, raw urgent rock and roll music. Seen in its entirity its a jaw dropping album, so tightly knit, so well crafted, it all hits the spot perfectly. Only Backseats could be considered for the cut, but even then you'd be losing some staggering songwriting. The Gaslight Anthem have brought the good old fashion east coast American storytelling back again, it's good to see an American band proud of their heritage and saying fuck Joy Division, The Smiths and England we're proud of where we come from, we're going to make music that might not be scene, but by the time we're done it's going to be fucking cool again, and guess what it is.

So after making one of the greatest albums of the ninities (the best depending on whom you ask) in Soft Bulletin how do you top that, what do you with the first first album of the twenty first century. You never felt that any pressure was really on Wayne Coyne, he was always going to get on with doing whatever he wanted to do, and continue to make Flaming Lips records. Honestly how many of the great critical artists dance on stage with Giant bunny rabits or run over the audience in a plastic bubble? The question was more what would the follow up sound like? The answer of course was friggin fantastic. The album is consistantly wide screen and beautiful, but constantly cooky, suprising and quite frankly off the wall.

The first four tracks of the album form their own little miny story/concept of the title character Yoshimi battling the dreaded pink robots. It starts with the glorious pop gem Fight Test it apes Cat Stevens but does anyone other than Cat Stevens care? It's big warm uplifting pop, with the simple but affecting story that some times you have to step up to the plate and fight for what you believe in, "I Thought I Was Smart, I Thought I Was Right, Thought It Better Not To Fight, I Thought There Was A Virtue In Always Being Cool". It's one in a series of stark contrast accross the album, between the straight forward emotional songwritting and the more complex conceptual beautiful spacial arrangements. The next part of the story is the beautiful slowly sweeping One More Robot Symphony 3000-21 before leading natural in the the Epic two part title track based around a delicate accoustic guitar line before the ballad morphs into a huge eltectro grooveathon, It's an absolutely gorgeous centre piece. The album is clearly tackling the notion of confronting your demons and standing up for what you believe in but also Science fiction themes of Artificial intelligence and emotion. The album then opens up and becomes a walk accross a giant artifial parie somewhere in outerspace. As I alluded to earlier the album then drops back from the huge wide screen imagination to simpler beauty in the form of Summertime and then the majestic Do You Realize? The latter is one of those perfectly written pop songs, it sums everything up so succinctly just like the Beatles when they sang "I Want To Hold Your Hand" however while the Lips take a while to get the big honest pay off ("Do You Realize? That You Have The Most Beautiful Face") First they tackle the big themes of life death and mortality but take these huge debates and waves of emotion and simplify them beautifully "Do You Realize? That Someday Everyone You Know Will Die / And Instead Of Saying All Of Your Goodbyes, Let Them Know / You Realize That Life Goes Fast / It's Hard To Make The Good Times Last / You Realize The Sun Don't Go Down / It's Just An Illusion Cause By The World Spinning Round". It truly is one of those rare perfect songs, that manages to tackle such pure sentiment and complex considerations in perfect unision. A Sublime endnote to a remarkable album, from one the world's most intriguing forces.

Well in the words of Lil'Wayne we've just been discussing some "heavy duty shit" but now its time to have some fun. Make no mistake Lil'Wayne isn't all fun and games but lets face it even when he's rapping about Hurricane Katrina his swagger is so slick and his vocals so Wheezy (they don't call him that for nothing) you can't help but smile. So lets start out with the fun shit, 3 Peat kicks of the album in jaw dropping style, a nonstop free style to start the album, and its slick as fuck. Mr. Carter is obviously aware of just how much better he is than his US competition "Shit, Get On My Level, You Can't Get On My Level / You'd Need A Space Shuttle Or A Ladder That's Forever / However I'm Better If Not Now Then Never / Don't You Ever Fix Your Lips Unless You About To Suck My Dick". To be honest most rappers would need a space shuttle to get on Wayne's level he's right on the money with the daffy Phone Home "We Are Not The Same I Am A Martian". He might as well be from out out of space because his flow is undefinable, he goes at his own pace, and he's funny as fuck and always sharp as a tack "They Don't Make 'Em Like Me No More / Matter Of Fact They Never Made 'Em Like Me Before". Then there's the awesome Mr. Carter where he shares the mic with fellow Carter "the greatest of all time" and totally shows up Jay Z's dated swagger. The album is just stacked with hits the dirty bass bombshell and endless flow of A Milli, the throwaway parody of the rap game Lollipop, the club stomper I Get Money featuring a typical irrestible T-Pain chorus of I'm On A Boat proportions, then there's the slowee for the girls Ms. Officer with Bobby Valentino he's covering all the bases and totally owning everything he attempts.

So your two records into your career, you've made some decent music but you've yet to make an impact, what do you do, well if your the White Stripes you release White Blood Cells a collection of amazing three minute bluesy rock stompers. The longest track on this record clocks in a 3:32, its all short short blasts of music, that leave you wanting more rather than thinking christ I wish this song had ended three minutes ago. Of course Jack White decided to bring the hits with him this time out there was Fell In Love With A Girl with its sizzling riff and desperate bluesy howl, then their was the quirky Hotel Yorba a cute little lovely song that gets ingrained into your head bouncy folk guitar and its stomping gold old time beat. Then there's the equally quirky school yard innocence of Let's Be Friends which has recently been given new life thanks to Napoleon Dynamite and finally the brilliant Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground with its fuzzy distortion fueled riff that suddenly drops into some elloquent plucking while some of Jack's most subtle song writing goes to work "If You Can Hear

A Piano Fall Then You Can Hear Me Coming Down The Hall / If I Could Just Hear Your Pretty Voice, I Don't Think I'd Need To See At All". Its easily to forget beneath the wild howls and supersized blues riffs that Jack White is a talent songwritter, unfortunately, intricate sentiments like the one above would be smoothed out and turned into smash hits like Hardest Button To Button but back in 2001 the Stripes were blues to core.

What also made the Stripes so powerful was their concise bluesy guitar work, you can feel just how D.I.Y this album is. There are no choirs or symphony orchestras just stripped down rock and roll. It's this stripped down fragility that makes the music so powerful and bold, when Jack is singing his soul out and trashing his guitar in anger on The Union Forever you do feel like its just one lost lonely soul out there. It adds great emotional depth, to the tracks and makes them feel doubly powerful. It's amazing how much emotion the Stripes convey, ultimately they have three tools, Meg wailing on her drum kit, Jack making his guitar cry and roar, and his desperate howl. It's the latter that is the fierest weapon on his record even overpowering Jack's mighty Montgomery Airline. Jack sounds almost on verge of tears when he croons with such great desperations, and Jack is certainly the great male blues singer of his generation. White Blood Cells is ultimately sixteen tracks of concise soulful bluesy rock and roll, it's that simple, and it's utterly fantastic.

So whose the bar room band in the world? The Hold Steady of course, it's not even close, they play the kind of rock and roll that's meant to be played to the drunken masses in a dark, dirty intimate setting. However while they may be the best bar band in the world the Hold Steady are so much more than that, they are making a legitimate case to be the best band in the world. They have a knack of combining rousing guiar and jazz piano with some of the best songwritting of the decade. Craig Finn has hit upon one hell of a purple patch, four albums in four years and he's still hasn't run out of insane tales of blood, booze, drugs, desperation, love and sex, in fact he appears to be getting better and better. So Boys And Girls In America said good bye to the spoken word tracks and hello to the all singing all dancing Craig Finn. He weaves intricate tales, routed around familar characters Gideon, Holly and Charlemane who can be followed across all four albums. So its vital that you pay attention to each and everyword that comes from Finn's mouth as he rarely says anything short of genius. He's the back alley poet telling tragic stories of drug and drink fuelled depression, this album may occasionally sound like a party but its rooted in tragedy. Take the most obvious single Chips Ahoy it sounds like a fun romp but its actually the tale of a woman in deep depression "How I'm Supposed To Know If Your High / If You Won't Let Me Touch You / How I'm Supposed To Know If Your High / If You Won't Even Dance". The characters in these tales aren't having fun and singing in Irish bars their lying in hospital in First Night or the girl who tragically is gonna "walk around a drink some more" on Party Pit. Of course there's the brutally honest Citrus with its heartfelt refrain "Lost In Fog and Love was Faith And Fear, I've Had Kisses That Made Judas Seem Sincere". In many ways its like a depressed old school American Arctic Monkeys rather than knowing joking about a chavy drunken adventure, the Hold Steady detail drinking in the streets and ODing. This sounds like some heavy shit, and while alot of Finn's poetry is heavy the guitars have been cranked all the way up to 11 and there are some romping stompers that can't really be described as feel good but you'd be forgiven if they had that effect (Massive Nights, Hot Soft Lights, You Can't Make Him Like You). The Hold Steady at heart make good old fashion rock and roll, they want to be AC/DC but they've got too much soul, these are guys that have seen some scary sites, and see modern life for what it is, they detail it, but never sound preachy, they just tell one hell of a story and that's what Girls And Boys In America is, one hell of tale with some "Massive Highs and some Crushing Lows".

There can be fewer more uplifting stories than that of Dizzee Rascal, when a 16 year old Dylan sat writting I Luv U he could hardly have foreseen that six years on he'd be the countries biggest hit maker, and one of our countries most loved Artists. It makes you feel immensely proud of Dizzee and the British record industry looking back now, to see how he's transformed from angry dissolutioned youth to the countries good time party host, frankly its Bonkers. Sorry I couldn't resist. Flash back to 2003 when Dizzee dropped Boy In Da Corner there couldn't have been a more appropriate title for his debut. Dizzee was the boy sat in the corner of a bleak concil estate, witness gang life, the drug game, murders, benefit cheats, single mothers and overwhelmed by hopelessness all he could do was sit and watched, forced into the corner, with his back against the wall by the weight of the world. That's where we find Dizzee on the sublime album open Sittin' Here being crushed by the weight of his existance and morality "I'm Just Sitting Here, I Ain't Saying Much I Just Think...I Think Too Long And I Think Too Deep...Cos It's The Same Old Story, Young Intelligent Yaps In Hospie Flats / Cos It's The Same Old Story / Benefit Claims and Cheques In False Names" it goes on in kind before Dizzee is led to the inveitble conclusion "I'm Sitting Here Depressed And I Don't Know Why / I Pull Myself Together And Tell Myself To Fix Up / And I Keep Myself From Bawling But My Eyes Erupt". It's powerful tragic frank assesment, while Mike Skinner reveals in his street level story telling, Dizzee is depressed and confused.

Musically you'll feel like your ears have been raped, its sharp, japping, edgey, dark and frantic, it's almost anti rythemic, but it works, it's the definitive Grime sound (that at this point was yet to be defined), over the top of that Nighmarish cacophany, Dizzee doesn't have swagger he yelps with the anger desperation and passion of a 70s Punk rather than a Jigga Man. There are of course two quotes that every review of this album has to include, and they are too vital to overlook for the sake of originality. Dizzee declares himself "a problem for Antony Blair" its not the crass boast of low level thug, it's a depressing statement on the relaties of east london, Dizzee is a major problem for Tony Blair not because he's a knife murderer, but because he represents a lost youth that desperately needs help, unfortunately this is a problem Tony never managed to solve. Then of course there is the genius of I Luv U and its macabre throw away brilliance, dealing with underage pregancy with tragic disregard reflecting deep societal apathy "Pregant! What You Talking This For / Fifteen, She's Underage That's Raw, And Against The Law,

Five Years Or More". In Boy In Da Corner Dizzee created a tragic document of inner city life, with all the tragic, vile, visercal anger of a voiceless bystander finally able to set the worlds to rights. Thankfully Dizzee got it all of his chest in one angry burst, and he can go about making festival fields bounce in unision to the grand children of Fix Up Look Sharp.

Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss someone untilt there gone. This couldn't be truer of Daft Punk. Nowadays they hardly ever make records, they rarely bother with terms just as accessibility, their too busy being robots, playing live is just a hassle that they endure every couple of years seemingly just to prove how effortlessly better they are at it than everyone else, then of course there's the morose avante guard movie about robot love, is it meant to be ironic, serious, art or just a big joke who knows, who cares people stopped caring long ago because all they want Daft Punk to do is make music. Make us dance, make us smile. Daft Punk are after all legends for a reason, it's not because of amazing PR it's because there music is so strong, stronger than it first appears. There is an art of getting from place to place, in rock it simple you have arrangements you go from point A to point B, dance moves all over the place, it blends, it suprises, but it always has to feel right, because it's about cultivating a groove, this is what Daft Punk understand better than most. See their mind blowing live show, its a two hour experience, there are no breaks, no rest, the light show never stops, the beat never stops, it simply evolves. So when critics listen to Daft Punk albums they often miss the point, they wonder why each track isn't a One More Time, they don't see that a Daft Punk album is one unit, that can be repositioned, reblended and remixed into any order, shape or form. Tracks like Cresendols and Night Vision make little sense in the world of a conventional LP, where they seem like mechanical slices of pre programmed prog dance, but these aren't tracks to put on your iPod or sit listening to as you browse the internet, these are tracks to be weaved into one another, to blend with whatever the hell Daft Punk want. The fact that unlike Norman Cook they use excusively there own materiel live is paramount to Daft Punk's vision, Homework, Discovery and Robot Rock were created to share the same space.

Musically this is a fabulous album, Aerodynamic stands out as a staggering work, developing and roaming free, it feels perfect from the opening Gong to the closing outerspacial journey, you think it couldn't be bettered but then you see it mixed gloriously live with One More Time, with snippets of High Life and Superheroes with a light show that memarizes. You get so lost in the effortless creativity of it, that you don't realize your on the otherside of a giant feild and you've lost all sight of mates. This is an album of great dance tracks, glorious retro eighties pop, but discussing individual tracks is fruitless because this is an album to get lost in, to forget where you are, if you thinking about track names, and song lyrics you've missed the point entirely, your just supposed to "celebrate and dance so free".

Sometimes when your dealing with serious themes of meloncholy, depression and dissolution the best way to deal with it isn't to be aggresive and suicidal, it's better to be ridiculous put a smile on your face and sardonically laugh "la lala lala la la". See My Chemical Romance out grew the narrow limmits of emo very quickly. They always knew who they wanted to be, they wanted to be Queen. They wanted to be huge, ridiculous and overwhelming fabulous. They wanted to make a serious mark, understand troubling emotions but do it with a deliciously ironic twist. They wanted huge ballsy operatic themes, they wanted mountianous guitars, sweeping piano arrangements, cabaret finger clicks, hell they wanted the whole hog they even recruited Liza Friggin Manelli. This album would be big, ludicrious and completely unaviodable. They were serving their resignation to the emo genre and in their own words they would "serve it in drag".

So how do you go about being huge, well they obviously looked to historical prescendent, to escape the expectation of being My Chemical Romance the *yawn* rock band, they created the Black Parade the alter ego, their Srg. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, then they reached for the grand old book of rock and roll pomposity and plucked out the concept album. Yes this album is the story of a man sitting in a hospital ward facing his death of sick cancer and dying and joining the Black Parade, passing through hell and all that kind of silly stuff. It was fantastic, completely ridiculous, but fantastic, and if you were mocking them for being pompous and pretentious then your an idiot, this album was designed to ensnare you and make you look stupid.

We get the divariffic The End to start the album, yes we start by dying, its a sad death "If You Look In The Mirror And Don't Like What You See / Then You Can Find Out First Hand What It's Like To Be Me" it's an in your face ballsy start, it's daring you to hate them, but the arrangements are so ludicriously over the top you can't help but be drawn in and you'll find yourself chanting the refrain "Save Me". So after track one, if your deuche you've probably turned the CD off, and after all that's what they want, because MCR are as uninterested in you as you are them. If you did them you missed out as the guitars are set free to bounce, pulsate and thrash blowing away the competition on the ludicriously immediate Dead! Sharpest Lives and How I Dissapear. Then of course there's the singles, and its no suprise MCR ruled the world in 2006 Welcome To The Black Parade is the epic microcosm of the album going from ludicrious to sublime, to even more ludicrious until it settles for plain old fashion genius, the most suprising and thrilling number one in recent memory. Then there's Famous Last Words, Teenagers and I Don't Love You just like the Beatles and Queen before them these boys aren't affraid of showtunes and with a ironic wink and some of the funniest videos in human history, the resistance had faded and MCR had won. The Black Parade was all kinds of silly, but it shows an incredibly versitile band who don't hide from their emotions or their inner campness and their all the better for it, it took nearly fifty years but hard rock finally has its White Album.

Eminem has become so embedded in the mainstream and frankly so overplayed that you almost forget just how visceral and brilliant he was back in 2000. Stan became a chore to listen to back in 2001, you couldn't escape it, but now we're removed from its chart success and we can go back to the remarkable lyricism on display. Eminem puts himself in the body of a demented fan, whose obsession with Eminem has driven him to insanity, he lives his life by Ems credos. It's a mind bending concept, full of dark distrubing themes, murder, spousal abuse as well as the role model status of recording artists. How on earth something so dark became a huge pop single is a tribute to Eminems incredible flow and story telling abilities. This album saw the clash between Eminem's two alter egos, Marshall Mathers the human being and Slim Shady the out of control anger filled monster. Em seems geniunely concerned with the notion that people follow his lead, want to be him, want to wear what he wears and that the media blame him for seemingly all of societies ills. The undoubted highlight remains the incredible wrath of The Way I Am this poison tongued assault on his fans, what people expect of him and how they label him. Eminem seems overwhelmed "The Media Immediately Points Its Finger At Me...When A Dude's Gets Bullied And Shoots Up His School And They Blame It On Marilyn", he's under attack, from every corner and then when he gets a moment to be normal he's bombarded by fans who have to respect for his privacy or his daughter "I Can't Take A Shit In A Bathroom Without Someone Standing Beside It / No I Won't Sign Your Autograph". Is he real is he fake, Eminem simple offers his confused conclusion "I Don't Know / It's Just The Way I Am". There are of course the party tracks like Real Slim Shady, and then there's the seriously scary shit Kim he actually raps about brutally raping and murdering his wife. However just like The Way I Am its the honest and brutal moments that make you stop in your tracks, the disbelieving humble honestly of Who Knew "Never Knew I'd Get This Big / Never Knew I'd Affect This Kid / I Never Knew I'd Get Him To Slit His Wrists / Never Knew I'd Get Him To Hit This Bitch". Unfortunately for all the brilliance of Em's demented flow and genius lyricism, there is a healthy dose of pathetic sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and violence advocating, its a depressing asterix against an otherwise brilliant and thrilling album that defined Ems emotional peak.

I have to say it was a bloody tough call between numbers 10 & 11 one album had to miss out on the top ten, I decided Up the Bracket would make the drop, as while I won't reveal its competitors name, they were both wildly influencial in very different ways, both cultural cornerstones in very different ways, but simply the album that won in the end was better. That was always the Libertines biggest weakness they were always better in romanticised memory than they were in person. They looked great had the right attitude, the right sound, but they never quite had music of a high enough consistancy. Fuck it nothing about the Libertines was consistant and that's why we loved them. What the Libertines did do right was some good old fashion british rock and roll. They were an incredibly affecting band, I'm sure some indie Cindy is crying in her bedroom over the latest Pete Doherty news somewhere. They presented a romanticised vision of Old Albion and contrasted it with the grim reality and had a knack of having the right tone and turn of phrase to create a great poetic moment. Then it struck me, the real reason Up The Bracket isn't in the top ten, is because those magic moments are too sparse, great songs are a plenty and there is some great bounce up and down rock, but it's not as cool as Is This It and it's not as affecting as a great Radiohead record. Around the cool dirty rock and roll of Vertigo, Death On The Stairs, Up The Bracket and the aptedly titled What A Waster were a mixture of hit and miss tracks and the one spark of genius Time For Heroes.

Ultimately that's what the Libertines were, our heroes, we didn't have The Strokes, they were too distant to be loved, but in the fragile Pete Doherty girls could fall in love and men could bellow out his huge chorus in sweaty huddled masses. Then of course there is that one line, the perfect line, delivered sublimely, timed perfected, the moment when Pete Doherty could say he was as great a songwriter as any man walking the face of planet earth; "There Are Few More Distressing Sights Than That / Of And Englishman in A Baseball Cap". So Libertines were the self destructive heroes, they weren't really as good as we all made out, but in Up The Bracket they created a frantic and thrilling album full of great romanticised memories. For their own legacies sake, I hope they never get back together, they can only sully the memory. Whereas back in 2002 they restored our "faith in love and sex and music" and we love them for it.