If you have been reading my ramblings here on Popdose, you know that I like a lot of music, and a lot of different musical styles. There are some genres that I am not particularly fond of though. For example, if you said to me “synths and drum machines,” I’d be likely to say, “pass.” The problem is that such a response runs counter to my number one rule when it comes to music, i.e., it’s all about the song. I firmly believe that if the song is great, it doesn’t matter what the genre is, the quality will shine through.
I was a big fan of the Editors 2006 album The Back Room. It was all gloomy art-school rock, but the songs were good, and the sound was guitar driven. The next year, they released An End Has a Start. The album marked the band’s move away from the organic rock sound of drums and guitars, and toward a more electronic future. I hated it. In retrospect, it was the songs that let them down more than anything else. Now the Editors are back with the nearly completely electronic sound of In This Light and On This Evening (FADER Label), and their transition to a synth-rock band is complete. Against all odds, I like the new album. Again, it’s the songs.
Yes, hand-played drums, and bass guitar do appear occasionally. There is even an electric guitar here and there, albeit heavily processed, but by and large, the new album is purely synthesized, drum-machined, and looped. The Editors most identifiable sound however has always been stentorian baritone of Tom Smith, and that is one element that has remained constant. Smith’s is not a voice that will be to be to everyone’s taste, but I like it. The material is predictably gloomy, but the sounds are well recorded by Mark “Flood” Ellis. Flood has worked with U2, Depeche Mode, and Sigur Ros, so he knows his way around synthesizers.
In This Light and On This Evening opens with with the appealingly spacey title track (“I swear to God I heard the earth inhale”), followed by the relationship-as-war drama “Bricks and Mortar.” The beats are danceable, but the mood is dour. There is not a lot of room for hope in the lyrics, but that seems to be the price of the ticket for entry to the art-rock world. In any event, the album presents a powerful set of songs, and it is the songs that carry the day.
The Editors are a band that seem to have successfully negotiated a complete change of direction, if their continued popularity in the U.K. is any indication. Having proven that they can change course, it will be interesting to see what comes next for them.
In 1978, a band I was working with was recording an album at A & R Studios in New York City. In the studio was the keyboard called a Mellotron. We never did use it on the album, but I liked to hit the key that made a dog bark because it sounded just like the dog barking at the end of “Caroline No” from Pet Sounds. I was pretty sure that the thing could do more than that, but I didn’t know how to use it, and I didn’t know anything about the years of innovation that led to my smile when I heard that dog bark.
More than anything else, A Nod Is as Good as a Wink … to a Blind Horse is an album that reminds us. It reminds us of the great songwriter, singer, bass player, and overall beautiful spirit Ronnie Lane, and how much we miss him. Ronnie’s greatest song, “Debris,” is here. This tender tune that he wrote for his father never fails to move me, and when Rod joins in on that bridge, the whole thing becomes simply transcendent.
Are you tired of having it shoved up your ass by the suits? If so, then Conan O’ Brien is your man. After being toyed with by what passes as the braintrust at NBC for way too long, Conan issued an open letter today. What makes his statement particularly powerful is that he doesn’t seek pity, but rather seeks to protect the great legacy of The Tonight Show. Johnny Carson would be very proud of Conan today. Without further ado, here is what Conan O’Brien has to say …
My friend Bob Benjamin is well known as an artist manager and music industry professional. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1996, but Bob never had any intention of letting that keep him down. In 2000, together with Tony Pallagrosi of Concerts East, he put together the first Light of Day concert at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. The headliner was Joe Grushecky, and Bruce Springsteen made what would become a series of appearances at the annual event. The funds were donated for Parkinson’s research in hopes of helping to find a better treatments and support for patients, and perhaps even a cure for the disease which afflicts between 1.5 and 2 million Americans.
Maybe it’s because I’ve read Peter Guralnick’s comprehensive 2005 Sam Cooke biography 
Todd Rundgren is one of rock’s great auteurs. Along with artists like Emmit Rhodes, Paul McCartney, and Prince, Rundgren has the ability to put together entire albums on his own. He writes the songs, plays nearly all the instruments, and produces his albums. The 1970 album Runt is often thought to be Rundgren’s first solo album because later reissues identify it as a Rundgren album, but the fact is that at the time of the original Ampex release, Runt was a band consisting of Rundgren along with Hunt Sales on bass and Tony Sales on drums. Still, Rundgren wrote all the songs, produced the album, and played all the instruments aside from bass and drums (and, I suspect, the strings and horns).
In June of 1967, the Zombies entered EMI’s Abbey Road studios to record their masterpiece, 