NEW ADDS: Bob Dylan, The Weeknd, & more!
Pandemic newsletter the second has arrived! Please remember to get some sunlight, eat regularly, and be attentive to the needs of yourself and those around you. Here's hoping the five new adds this week bring you some listening joy!
- Lucy Talbot Allen, Music Writing Director
Bob Dylan - "Murder Most Foul"
“Murder most foul, as in the best it is,” says the King’s Ghost in Act I Scene V of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Little did the King’s Ghost know that “Murder Most Foul” would also title Bob Dylan’s latest (and longest ever) single, in the year 2020. With such a powerful allusion in the song’s title, I hope Dylan knew what he was doing.
Dylan released “Murder Most Foul” on March 26. Almost immediately, critics, reviewers, and Dylanists picked it up as an ode to music. Dylan sings the story of John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, and how music was the key to our nation’s healing. His lyrics are filled with allusions to classic bands like The Who and The Beatles. It’s not hard to see what Dylan was going for. But, as with all Dylan music, there’s no fun in stopping when it’s easy. What else can we discover among the sounds in “Murder Most Foul”?
Ignore the lyrics for a moment. Soft waves of strings, piano, and eventually drums backdrop Dylan’s dark and bardic voice. A double bass crescendos and decrescendos in sync with Dylan’s vocals. A fiddle does the opposite, coming in to punctuate each line with simple, hopeful exhalations and a few bright bursts of melody. The music resembles a film score, one that might accompany some historical tale from America’s past, and it harkens to Aaron Copland’s orchestral work Lincoln Portrait. That comparison makes a lot of sense; “Murder Most Foul” and Lincoln Portrait each pay tribute to presidents assassinated. Simply put, Dylan’s track gives listeners a deep and inspiring sense of America.
The American-sounding backdrop to the song is very powerful, especially paired with allusions to popular music. But the music Dylan chooses to reference is not all American. He references English rock bands like The Animals and the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Think of that American-sounding backdrop as the setting for our story, and think of these references (especially those international sensations) as the subject. We see that Dylan’s take on healing is quite global. While the victim of and the audience to November ‘63’s tragedy were American, the process of healing was certainly not. The whole world had a part in repairing “the soul of a nation been torn away.”
Now, that’s ironically prescient, isn’t it? We can interpret Dylan’s song as a message of love, to care for your neighbors both at home and internationally. But, why pick John F. Kennedy’s assassination? The Cold War, which JFK played a very important role in expanding, was certainly not an example of international brotherhood and care. Further, Hamlet is a tale of murders, revenge, paranoia, and hate. You may say that it’s too nitpicky of me, that Dylan is a songwriter and not a historian. But that’s exactly what he would want, I think. Dylan is meant to be analyzed. His shadowy, mysterious persona is constructed with scrutiny in mind. He thrives on it. I guess there’s just more analysis to be done with this song.
For now, though, I’d rather focus on the lighter aspects of “Murder Most Foul”. There’s a lot of pain and fear in the world right now, and healing will be the next step for all of us. Keep in mind that we’re all in this together, that every person will need each other’s support. And each other’s music!
- Jon Ranieri, DJ
RIYL: Bob Dylan, Blood On The Tracks; Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark; Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring; Pete Seeger, God Bless The Grass; Gil-Scott Heron, We’re New Again
FCC: Clean
The Weeknd - After Hours
The Weeknd’s first studio album in nearly four years isn’t just a massive push: it’s an effort to create an entirely new identity.
On Starboy, he was braggadocious– crooning about sex, love, drugs and the intoxicating double-edged sword of fame. The album was the auditory equivalent of melted chocolate, fringed with just enough electronic, poppy production to get it on the radio– possibly a portent of the RIAA triple-platinum status it would soon attain.
But on After Hours, Abel Tesfaye is offering the world a reintroduction to himself. Occasionally simplistic in its lyricism, the album often falls flat musically. For most of the first half of the album, his beats smack of soft Garageband EDM, or the trap that your cousin might make in a dark basement.
In verbiage, it’s often a litany of oxycodone, heartbreak, an overdose, and an “Escape from LA.” Tesfaye skitters away from exploiting the impressive vocal range we’ve seen in the rest of his discography. He is reliving this breakup, these drugs, that sex, Chrome Hearts jangling, in his bed, with his eyelids peeled open over and over again– perhaps that’s why instead of a shout to break four years of silence, the Canadian-born crooner gives us a monotone whimper on a silver platter.
That is, of course, until he doesn’t. Despite some lackluster production, the ‘80s inspired segments on songs like “Save Your Tears'' and “Blinding Lights” save the album from fading into mediocrity entirely. Snazzy synth and snare drums inject some life back in the album, defying even its oft-weighty subject matter. Unfortunately, it’s clear on the album which of his songs are singles– the highlights of After Hours are the songs we knew about before After Hours was even out.
Piecemeal though the rest of it may be, Tesfaye does show he has potential. The intro of “Alone Again,” the outro of “Faith,” and some bits of “Snowchild” positively sparkle into being, capturing exactly what drew his audience to him in the first place as an R&B maestro who deftly sidesteps in and out of the pop and hip-hop realms. It is only when he stays in one place for far too long that he loses himself.
But at the end of “Until I Bleed Out,” the last song on his 56-minute odyssey, I found myself wanting more of Tesfaye– what he does do well is weave together a narrative that makes you want a happy ending for him.
He’s scared, looking for an out, doesn’t need love, doesn’t need drugs, trying to reconnect– and when After Hours is done, perhaps true to its name, you are left wide awake, with a void in your chest. Flawed though it may be, the album is undoubtedly human, and announces that Tesfaye is trying to assume an entirely new identity– it’s just not clear what that identity is.
- Nisha Venkat, Music Department Intern
RIYL: Portishead, JMSN, Cocteau Twins
Recommended Tracks: 9, 11, 14
FCC: Explicit (tracks 5, 6, 7, 8, 12)
Shadow Show - Silhouettes
Combining elements of 60s garage-psychedelia into a 21st century modern pop-art incarnation, Shadow Show projects a vision with the world in their display: a spectacle of light as curious as shadow.
Hollow Fortyfives - Weekender
Los Angeles rock & roll trio Hollow Fortyfives have released their new EP, Weekender, which intends to blend rock and roll with power-pop in order to create a playlist for the specific type of debauchery that inevitably creates camaraderie.
“We didn’t make Weekender for people to sit and listen to,” says drummer/vocalist Travis Corsaut. “We want something that makes them want to get up, party, dance, do something, anything.”
Division of Laura Lee - Dodge Bullets
Ever since their first gig in 1997, Division of Laura Lee has kept their audience in constant shock. Their mix of energy, dark unapologetic lyrics and solid songwriting could almost be likened to a drug, a very addictive drug.