Phil Vassar, Prayer of a Common Man

I have this insane urge to call up Phil Vassar, like we're friends or something, and tell him that his new CD is INCREDIBLE and I'm just so damn proud of him.

The songwriting is solid as always, but he's taken some major leaps and bounds in his sound. I've always said that Phil isn't just mainstream country. He doesn't make the same album over and over again. His self titled debut and American Child did sound fairly similar, but with Shaken Not Stirred, he went a little more Billy Joel and even Ray Charles, with his Greatest Hits (for which he recorded six or seven new tracks of songs he wrote but that were made popular by other artists) he went for a simple, more acoustic approach, and with the new album, Prayer of a Common Man, he took yet another direction. Some of the tunes are a little more radio friendly, but some of them, especially the first track, I almost want to use the term avant garde. The ones that are a little more typical are still produced differently... in a way that you feel as if you're listening to the music in an arena (with a good sound technician...) rather than from a machine reading a disc. It feels energetic and LIVE.

Of course, he's also on a new label this time around, which is something I didn't realize was happening until I read the liner notes and noticed he thanked his "new family" at Universal South. Another thing I noticed... no mention of Julie, and no wedding ring in the photos. Somebody got a divorce...

The music though. Man, the music. I'm a fan.

The disc dropped YESTERDAY. Go out and grab it. Let's give this man some great first week sales. He deserves them.

Rediscovery

Do you ever buy a CD, so excited to fall in love once again with a favorite artist, and find that what's inside just isn't speaking to you? You can pop that old album into your CD player and everything feels the same, but these new songs, which you assumed would bring you just as much emotion in one way or another, really say nothing to you at all?

But then, months, maybe even years later, you pull it off the shelf and decide to give it another try. All of a sudden, everything clicks. You get it. The music gets to you. You are completely satisfied in the fifteen dollars you spent, even if it was four years ago.

Vanessa Carlton's Harmonium.

Now, truthfully, when I bought this CD, I listened to it quite a bit. I liked the aesthetic of the pianos and the strings and the rock guitar, and even though the girl can't sing, something about her voice just works with the music. I was so incredibly innocent when I bought this album, though. 2004, man, that was a long time ago. It took me listen after listen after listen to put together the meaning of "White Houses," and hello, it's pretty obvious what "White Houses" is about.

Still, though, Be Not Nobody meant so much to me in terms of my entire high school self. I understood every note and every word on that album, even the cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black." It all made sense. Harmonium never really did.

'Til tonight.

Granted, some things on this album will never, ever speak to me, because they include some very spiritual views that are so far from my own that I just can't even imagine. However, my mind has opened up enough since my days as a high school senior and college freshman to be able to hold an appreciation for the lyricism and musicality of them all.

The things that do speak to me, though, just all of a sudden made sense. Part of that is because very recently, the poetic side of me has been awakened. I've always known poetry would be a major part of me at some point in my life, but damned if I could understand it until now. Something in my head has just clicked, and words that have never made sense make sense now, and that's part of what's going on with this music. Part of it, though, is that I'm not quite so young and innocent anymore. I've been through a lot more than I had by the time I moved out of Mommy and Daddy's house, and that's not to say that these experiences have been bad, or that I have any regrets. They haven't and I don't. But I've grown up, I have a greater understanding of myself, of the world, of the human condition... Certain things I continue to be naive about, and I hope I can stay naive about some of those things. But in this case, right here, I'm awake, and I get it, and Vanessa and I are on the same page.

I'm not going to sing her praises, though. After the semester of pop/rock lit that I've been through, and the last month of my life with a boy who spins silver with his words, it's hard to impress me with poetic prowess anymore. She's not incredible, but the fact remains that tonight, I finally got it, and that makes me extremely happy.

Boy you swallow truth like honey
as you spew your lies upon me
sweet and smooth as it goes down...



On another note, I bought Radiohead's In Rainbows, I think in November. I listened through it once or twice, and completely forgot about it. Radiohead and any other band with that similar aesthetic... they've never really been my thing. But I figured it was worth a few bucks, since I wouldn't have to pay full price, and maybe I'd expand my musical palette. Yeah, I wasn't such a big fan.

But yesterday, I decided I was in the mood for something different, for some real... SOUND. And I pulled it up, and it's been playing nearly nonstop since then. I hadn't even bothered looking at or paying attention to lyrics, because I just wanted the sound at that point. I needed to assimilate myself to the band, to the instruments they were using, to the chord progressions and melodies... the reason I didn't like it at first was because it all sounded the same to me; I didn't know what I was listening for. Tonight, I finally started recognizing this piece and that piece from different songs, and decided it was time to pull up the lyrics, and OH MY GOD, do I love Radiohead! I don't absolutely connect with everything these lyrics say, but situations and emotions are portrayed so well that I almost feel as if I'm there, feeling them too. Not to mention, they're just intelligent. I've been all over Wikipedia looking up this reference and that, and it's funny, because I'm now learning about other cultures through my music. German culture specifically. Weird, right? So weird. But I'm in love.

So. That's that.

Thoughts on either of these albums, or another you have felt the same about? Discuss.