Songs of Summer
While away those long summer afternoons with some music!

By Terry Weller

If the last few months were an album, it’d be a cracked compilation record. Not broken because someone dropped it, but for the selection of albums it has spun. In a year that has seen the eardrum-hurting, mind-numbing boom of dubstep, we take a look at the albums that weren’t just assembled in a basement by tone-deaf idiots but are meant for nothing less than posterity.

Album: Old Ideas
Artist: Leonard Cohen
Genre: Folk
Label: Sony

Leonard Cohen’s tower of song is a whirlpool of the exacting erudite, the darkness in the pure, the hope of good, and a fine-tuned mix of all the three coming together. The singer-songwriter, novelist remains the man. Back with his 12th studio album, the first in eight years, the 77-year-old is still at the top of his game dabbling in what he does best as his self-explanatory album title goes. The writer of ‘Suzanne’, ‘I’m your man’, ‘Hallelujah’, etcetera cleverly writes in a third person’s remembrance. Listening to ‘Old Ideas’, the idea of evolution and change fails to matter.

In the opening number, Cohen murmurs, “He wants to write a love song, an anthem of forgiving, a manual for living with defeat.” If a choice was given, we know that no one could do it better than the Canadian himself. The closing number, ‘Different Sides’, is a grand closing finale - his lyrical salute to farewell is not apologetic nor plays a dirty blame game, it’s a simple deduction that is gritty and at once kind. If the eloquence of the written word and a gruff voice is your salve, look no further than the genius of an album by this old school master. Like black coffee, he’s an acquired taste, but anyone who appreciates the good stuff knows there’s no turning back. This album is proof that the ‘lazy man in the suit’ continues to impart lessons to anyone on songwriting, living, learning, and unlearning.

Album: Born to Die
Artist: Lana Del Rey
Genre: Pop
Label: Universal

Before there was the sultry and brooding, all-American, Miami-influenced Lana Del Rey, there was sweet all-American Lizzie Grant. Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, she received superstar success and infamy for her new avatar but in her own words, the latter became easy to deal with as her album, “Born to Die” became No. 1 in seven countries.

A product of the times we live in, Del Rey was quick to shed her sweet, teenage vibe behind and emerge better than ever. Whatever the critics might say, the 26-year-old has taken it all in her stride - her appearance in Saturday Night Live did equal harm and good to her - and her popularity is growing more than ever. Her debut (as Lana Del Rey) album has a lot of varied influences - from the decadence of the Ratpack and the words of Vladimir Nabokov (‘Off to the races’), the deliciously gloomy musical stylings of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Games’ (‘Blue Jeans’), Portishead (‘Born to Die’), Poe (“Video games”), to name a few, and Del Rey manages to do justice to each one.

Album: Le voyage dans la lune (English: A trip to the Moon)
Artist: Air
Genre: Electronic; ambient
Label: EMI

Sophia Copolla’s ‘The Virgin Suicides’ was an unvarnished showcase of an American family. It was an unapologetic display of all that’s twisted - perfect on the outside but riddled with slowly rotting roots and fraying seams. The scenes from the haunting movie were electrified by the ambience created by the music of Air.

Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air might still not be household names, but their music is always never short of fitting for the ambience they create. Old-fashioned sound mixed with an ever-evolving take to producing music, the Versailles duo are to the contemporary what Henry Mancini was to old Hollywood romance classics.

Their latest album is the background for the updated version of the 14-minute long 1902 silent sci-fi movie, A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune) by Georges Méliès. How would a trip to the Moon sound? Save the terrible instrumental versions of Michael Bolton songs that airlines so seem to highly favour, one hopes Virgin wouldn’t play music by some of the super-successful but punishing bands and artists they have in their line-up. The music should be the edgy sound of Air. Even better, Air should produce songs especially for the trip. Come to think of it, ‘So light is her footfall’ seems to have been a premonition of the duo’s talent way back in the day. Victoria Legrand worked on ‘Seven Stars’ while Brian Reitzell co-composed ‘Who Am I Now?’ which is written by Annie Hart, Erika Forster, and Heather D'Angelo.

Funny fact: The movie lasts 14 minutes but all the songs of the album last almost 30 minutes!

Album: Rise Ye Sunken Ships
Artist: We Are Augustines
Genre: Indie-rock
Label: Oxcart Records

Once in a while, you hear a new band so good, you’re surprised their records don’t decorate your house. You curse yourself for not being the first to hear their music and mostly hate yourself for not being them. This is the feeling one gets after listening to We Are Augustines’ ‘Rise Ye Sunken Ships’. New Yorkers’ Eric Sanderson (bass) Rob Allen (drums) and guitarist Billy McCarthy’s (previously with Pela) have launched an album that is at once moving and addictive.

Sticklers to perfection, We Are Augustines re-recorded their album as it wasn’t “strong enough”. An original draft isn’t available with us for comparison but we reckon the second effort was work enough as all the songs -12 of them - are all brilliant efforts. Stand out songs include ‘Chapel Song’, ‘The Book of James’, and ‘New drink for the old drunk’.

The lush riffs and bridge of almost each song is as therapeutic as the words of the songs. Like the name of the album, the mood is uplifting, the imagery vivid, instruments potent (but never overwhelming), and the voice of Billy McCarthy is the sound of daybreak after a storm swept night of misery.