Slowcore Smells, but Sexx Sells

Low – Trust vs. Beck – Midnight Vultures

I haven’t listened to Trust in a while, and I’m glad I listened to it twice. The first time through I thought, “Wow, that really must have been a phase, because listening to this now just makes me cranky” (or should I say Kranky?). The second time through, days later, I liked it better, and remembered why I liked it before. Trust certainly has its moments, and my favorites include “Time is the Diamond,” “In the Drugs,” “Last Snowstorm of the Year,” “Little Argument with Myself” and “La La La Song.” And lots of other tracks on the album keep grabbing me too.

Ultimately, though, I don’t think the folks of Low are at their all time best here, and even if they were, I can't give them the prize this round. Trust is a bit more poppy than much of their earlier material, but songs that seem to announce themselves as possible college radio picks (like “Canada,” “In the Drugs” and “Last Snowstorm of the Year”) sometimes don’t jive with the more ponderous material (“Candy Girl,” “Tonight,” etc.). I’m sure someone else could defend why they DO fit together, so I’ll state the obvious: that’s my biased diagnosis. Speaking of the more ponderous material, the song “Candy Girl” both agitates and exhausts me, as do the shalalalala’s that wind down “John Prine.”

I can certainly respect Low’s more ponderous material generally, by the way, because their music takes time and devotion, and its rewards for close listening are hard earned. At the same time, it is the definition of mood music. You gotta wanna go there.

Then there’s Midnight Vultures. It’s not my favorite Beck album, but still, wow. To start, Beck has put out albums for a good fifteen years that seldom fail to surprise. This is one of the reasons I fell so hard for Sea Change: it was uncharacteristic heartbreak from a chameleon and comedian. Insert sad clown joke here. In addition to offering the unexpected, many of his albums bear much repetition and age well too.

On Midnight Vultures, Beck wins points in my book for channeling Prince (see especially “Peaches and Cream”) and heralding those dorks from Flight of the Conchords in “Debra.” I could go on for a while about different musicians he’s calling up and shooting down here, but I gotta do some other stuff with my life, or so they say.

Let’s talk lyrics now. There are, if I may be so juvenile (and this album sure inspires juvenilia), a million WTF lyrical moments on the album:

For example, look closer at “Peaches and Cream,” where you encounter beauties like “Peaches and Cream / You make a garbage man scream” and “Give those pious soldiers another lollipop / Cuz we’re on the good ship ménage a trois.” And then the song concludes by going into the refrain of the spiritual “Keep your lamplight trimmed and burning.” Like I said, WTF.

And then teenage geekdom reigns supreme in “Debra,” which is the story of an out-of-touch dude’s mall hook-up fantasy. Lines like “Baby, step inside my Hyundai / I said gonna take you out to Glendale… / For a real good meal” seriously make me wonder if Bret and Jemaine were listening back in the day.

Finally, just to make sure I don’t give all the other great songs on this album short shrift, how often do you want to attempt to dance (or car dance, or couch dance) through the first six or more tracks? Speaking of which, how is it possible that Thriller didn’t make anyone’s list? I’m ashamed of myself.