Single Reviews: Luscious Jackson, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Veronica Falls

Luscious Jackson – Are You Ready? (self-released, 2013)

Luscious Jackson were one of the great genre-bending pop groups of the 90s, turning out folk-inflected trip-hop, harmonic disco torch songs, slither-funk party raps, and whatever else they felt like. They were immune to classification and impossible to describe in a simple sentence. They were women making the music they wanted to make in an overwhelmingly testosterone-driven market, caring little for conventional labels or genre boundaries. All of that was wonderful for adventurous listeners, but anathema to an increasingly preprogrammed world of corporate radio and starbucks-governed airwaves. The group made a few amazing albums and produced one major hit single, yet they never found the mass recognition that many of their peers enjoyed.

I was (and still am) a huge fan, and as the millennium turned over and the band drifted apart, I followed the separate members through side projects, solo discs, and random appearances on other people’s records.

And at the end of 2012, news broke that Luscious Jackson had reformed. They’re running a pledgemusic campaign to help with the costs of recording, manufacturing, and distributing a new album. And they’ve released a new track, which embodies pretty much everything I love about the group.

Funky breakbeats.  Phased wah-wah guitar.  Half-rapped, half-sung verses.  Big arcs of melody, stacks of vocals, and simple stick-in-your-brain-all-day refrains.  It’s funky, it’s catchy, and it can cause spontaneous outbreaks of dancing and singing along.  It’s the first taste of their music in a decade, and they’ve only gotten better in their time off.  Go to the website, have a listen, kick in a few bucks, kick off your shoes, think of great dance parties gone by, and those yet to come.  Luscious Jackson is back, and we’re ready for them.  Again.  More than ever.

Are You Ready is now available for download on Luscious Jackson’s pledgemusic page.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sacrilege (Interscope Records, 2013)

I was disarmed by the soft opening: Karen O’s voice, a few notes spiraling around. By the time the rhythm kicked in, only a few seconds later, I’d been lulled into complacency and figured that the entire song would just be something in the slow-jam/romantic ballad department. How wrong I was.

Because then, a hip-swinging breakbeat drops by to say hello. The room shifts a little. And the tune turns into a proper rocker, vocals sliding back and forth between breathy and shouting, Brian Chase’s drums and Nick Zinner’s jet-engine guitars clearing the chairs and making room for the party that’s closing in fast. Except.  It’s not just anybody that’s ringing the doorbell – it is, without any exaggeration, a full-size congregation looking for shelter, coming in from the cold, bringing old-timey funk and rapture as their calling cards.

I’m not kidding, it’s an actual gospel choir that shows up in the middle, taking an already-catchy song and shooting it through with power and glory. The electronics and the roof-raising harmonies fit seamlessly, moving from Saturday night to Sunday morning before there’s a moment to think.

As a comeback single, it’s perfectly audacious, and completely in character. It’s a really catchy song and an amazing bit of sleight-of-hand: building from singing and minimal instrumentation into a massive soul shakedown, bringing together the sacred and profane in an all-out garment-rending rock and roll revival.

Sacrilege is now available on itunes.

Veronica Falls – Teenage (Slumberland Records, 2013)

Every now and then, a song hits me square in the middle of my romantic soul.  This is one of those.  It’s an immediate contender for my single of the year, and we’re still only in February.  It’s just under three minutes of pop bliss: jangling guitars, winsome backing vocals, and that beautiful, intangible texture of dreams and springtime and washed-out polaroids.  The first notes hit, and I’m ready for endless evenings of friends and conversation and hopeless crushes and a stereo playing in the background.

The songtitle, ‘Teenage’, is one simple word that conjures up a world of experiences, and the music reflects all that world’s yearning imagery; skies slightly overcast, shimmering in moonlight and reverb, feelings of anticipation and trepidation and starry-eyed consummation, immersed in echo-laden harmony.

This tune wears its influences proudly: 60s girl groups, C86, The Byrds, Big Star, and especially The Smiths.  One could criticize it for lacking in originality, but then one would miss the point entirely – the familiarity is an essential element, using an established vocabulary to brush past defenses and into the part of your heart that remembers being young and wonderstruck.  It echoes ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ in the same way that Johnny Boy’s genius ‘You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes’ echoes The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’, setting a reference point, jumping off from the inspiration, and soaring toward the heavens on a course all its own.

It’s self-aware without pretense, a song about listening to music, the thrill of cranking the volume, holding hands, and headlights in the rearview mirror.  The female/male counterpoint of the voices swirl with the instruments, and in a classic pop-song twist, the lyrics determine the dynamics and structure.  After a joyride of speeding around corners, feeling the wind in our hair, the vocal drops to a simple repetition of ‘it’s alright’.  The pace slows, and the song draws to a close as we pull into the driveway, and step off at our destination with the final notes ringing in our ears.

Teenage and twelve other excellent songs are featured on the new Veronica Falls album, ‘Waiting For Something To Happen’, now available on CD, vinyl, and as digital download.  Teenage will also be released as a vinyl single on March 12th.