Jon Brion: Meaningless
It’s long, but there’s a lot of goodness in this one, so do your best to perservere.
Last June, Lizzy and I tagged along with the whole VICE crew to Chicago for the VICE-curated Intonation Music Festival, but due to the shitty timing of that whole hiatus ordeal, I didn’t get a chance to review the incredible weekend here. This is extremely regrettable, but not because you really needed to hear me rant any more about how good Bloc Party is or how transcendent it was as the stage lights illuminated the rainy mist of the evening during “This Modern Love” or how life-changing “Uniform” was. Rather, I’m most troubled by the fact that I didn’t get a chance to attempt to convey truly how mind-blowing Jon Brion’s epic set was. Fortunately, Pitchfork was there and summed it up way better than I ever could, but even that can’t do justice to what, for me, was one of the most unexpectedly-amazing performances I’ve ever witnessed. Going into it, I’d never heard of Brion’s apparently-infamous live show. All I really knew about the guy was that he’s considered a musical genius (and rightfully so, might I add) and that he produced the last Kanye album (on which he also played drums) and the superior version of Fiona Apple’s Extraordinay Machine. I was also aware of his extensive work scoring films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, I Heart Huckabees), but with no knowledge of the existence of his solo material I had no idea what to expect from his live show. Little did I know, I was in for the best performance of the festival (sorry Bloc) and a show unlike anything I’d ever seen.
The main focus of this post, however, is Brion’s incredible solo album, Meaningless, the existence of which I was unaware of before the show but which I made sure to acquire immediately after the festival. In 1997, Brion signed with Atlantic-subsidary Lava Records on the strength of his four-song demo, but he was dropped from the label after turning in Meaningless in 2000 and the album would go on to be released independently by Brion in 2001. To this day the album remains an independent release and his website directs you to CDBaby.com, one of the few places you can purchase the record (which you should probably do as soon as possible).
Meaningless is a collection of brilliant pop gems, that sees the multi-instrumentalist hopping from genre to genre without disrupting the album’s impressive cohesiveness. While remaining extremely enjoyable throughout, the album is indeed front-loaded in terms of quality, as the first four tracks contain the album’s three best songs. Of these, “I Believe She’s Lying” is the clear standout, a truly elite pop gem that stands up against anything released in the last few years. Riding a breakbeat rhythm and a frenetic guitar riff, the song is a self-described “fear of commitment anthem”, featuring lyrics contributed by former-girlfriend Aimee Mann and vocoded back-up vocals, an awesome production touch on a song that doesn’t immediately appear to lend itself to electronic flourishes in any way. Opener “Gotta Start Somewhere” makes its money on an undeniable chorus and was one of the original four-track recordings that got him signed to Atlantic, but still pales in comparison to the pop-perfection of “Believe”. The album’s penultimate moment occurs on ballad-esque “Ruin My Day”, a poignant post-post-breakup anthem with brilliant lyrics contributed by Jeff McGregor on one of his two co-songwriting credits on the album. Vocally, and to an extent, musically, Brion’s closest peer is Ben Folds, but Folds hasn’t put out anything that’s even come close to impressing me on the level that Meaningless has since the days of the Five. Despite Brion’s near-celebrity status as one of music’s brightest minds, the album is criminally underappreciated, as I’m yet to meet another person whose heard it and even the omnipresent Hype Machine’s results for “Jon Brion” turns up only a few cuts from the album amongst a sea of Brion’s more well-known soundtrack and production work. This post serves as my official effort to rectify that situation, and I implore you to download the tracks below as incentive to purchase the album for yourself.
MP3s:
“Gotta Start Somewhere” - Jon Brion
“I Believe She’s Lying” - Jon Brion ((highly recommended))
“Ruin My Day” - Jon Brion
ELSEWHERE/ODDS & ENDS:
- If Brion’s got you in the mood for more Folds-esque piano-based pop-rock (so many hyphens!), get over to Green Peaness as fast as humanly possible to download Air Traffic’s excellent debut single, “Just Abuse Me”, because, well, it’s just way good.
- Also in the category of “way good”, I’ve been really into Los Campesino’s “You! Me! Dancing!” after getting a hold of their four track demo, only to find out that Adrian over at ATG beat me to the punch and posted on them way back in July. Get on it.
- New Imogen Heap? Don’t mind if I do. Taken from 4AD’s fascinating Plague Songs compilation, on which ten artists each contribute one song based on one of the ten biblical plagues that take place in the book of exodus, Imogen Heap’s “Glittering Clouds” details the darkness and horror of the plague of locusts, albeit in a more danceable fashion than the subject matter might lead one to expect. Another excellent b-side from Ms. Heap, causing me to further wonder why it is that - outside of the singles - Speak For Yourself drowned in mediocrity while all of her non-album tracks consistently impress me.
MP3: “Glittering Clouds” (The Plague of Locusts) - Imogen Heap
- As if the fact that the Long Blondes’ debut LP, Someone To Drive You Home, is barely over a month away from being released isn’t exciting enough, the band has to go and announce that they’ve once again teamed up with super-producer Erol Alkan on the three b-sides for their upcoming single, “Once And Never Again”, out October 23rd. Do the right thing and pre-order all three formats for £5 (approximately way more in American dollars) to ensure that you don’t miss out on any of the Alkan-Blondes goodness. Need I remind you how incredible “Fulwood Babylon” is?
- Finally, how about those Redskins today? Specifically, how about Santana Moss’s superhuman performance? 4 receptions, 183 yards, 3 TDs, 0 suicide attempts (yeah, that’s low). Haven’t decided yet if it trumps the last time he decided to remind us just how immortal he really is, but the Skins are definitely back on track.