Song of the Hour: “Dance with Me Baby” by Ben Rector

This isn’t a new song. It appeared on Rector’s 2010 album Into the Morning, a great pop record overlooked because artists like Rector, Dave Barnes, and Drew Holcomb aren’t taken seriously by anyone who hasn’t seen their live shows. It’s not even the most popular song on that album. That honor would go to “When a Heart Breaks” or “White Dress” or even “Loving You Is Easy”. It’s easily the least-produced song on the album, with Rector’s voice accompanied by a simple acoustic guitar and minimal piano chords. But for me and my wife, it’s our song.

It’s our song, because Vicky put it on the first CD she ever made me before we had even started dating. It’s our song, because it turned out to be one of the few songs we both love, since she tends to grimace when my music is playing. It’s our song, because while I was in Laos, it was one of the things God used to remind me what I would be coming home to. It’s our song, because sang it to her when I proposed. It’s our song, because it was our first dance at our wedding. It’s our song, because when I hear it, I’m reminded of how full of love I am for her.

A lot can change in a year. We bought a dog. We traveled to Nashville. We moved (on up) from an apartment to a duplex. Our Sooners annihilated the SEC in the Sugar Bowl. But this song remains the same: a perfect 5-minute capsule of my feelings for the love of my life. Happy Anniversary, Vicky.

May’s Notable Music

Hits

The Black Keys, Turn Blue: If Brothers weren’t a perfect album, Turn Blue would be my favorite Black Keys album. As arguably the biggest arena rock band (Arcade Fire might have something to say about that) that has also achieved something close to critical acclaim, the Black Keys don’t have anything left to prove. And this is the first album where that statement has actually sounded true. They’ve reteamed with producer Danger Mouse (who, apart from sporting one of the most annoying names in pop music, also produced their middling 2008 album Attack & Release, “Tighten Up”, and El Camino), and after their masterpiece of blues rock, Brothers, and an album that tried to make every song a single with mixed results (El Camino), the Keys (Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney) have seemed to settle into a groove. People have claimed Turn Blue as the Keys’ breakup album, since Auerbach is in the middle of a messy divorce, and the lyrics do seem more preoccupied with being wronged (“Year in Review”) and people’s potential for sin (the title track). But they seem most preoccupied with their own potential for great variations on blues rock, allowing Danger Mouse to complement their bare-bones riffs with stylistic flourishes.

Crowder, Neon Steeple: The David Crowder*Band (I’m legally obligated to include that asterisk, btw. Okay, that’s not true, but I’m including it in the hopes that someone will explain to me why they stylized their band name that way) could not have picked a better way to go out in 2012 than their final album Give Us Rest and their last tour. The band’s split, by all accounts, was amicable and due to a desire to pursue different musical paths. Mr. Crowder is now making music under the moniker “Crowder”, which doesn’t exactly scream “new direction”. And lo and behold, Neon Steeple, his new album, sounds more or less like a less guitar-driven DCB album. The dearth of any sense of newness or originality is a little disconcerting, but can I really complain about a solid album of David Crowder music? It would be nice to see what other veins Crowder has in his musical body rather than only either straight-up worship music or neo-bluegrass hymns. But when the results produce 10-12 great songs that would have stood out on any DCB record, who needs innovation?

tUnE-yArDs, Nikki Nack: “Water Fountain” is one of the best songs of the year, a blistering screed on political corruption that also doubles as a playground chant. While Merrill Garbus fills the song with her unmistakable yelp, the song’s pots-and-pans rhythm section press her lyrics into increasing fits of anger and cynicism. But is it flippy-floppy of me to say this song gives me joy? Ever since M.I.A. fell off the map after her brilliant record Kala, no one’s been able to harness world music in protest the way she did. Garbus’s last record, w h o k i l l, was a small slice of Afrobeat heaven. She already exhibited a talent for exposing institutional issues in songs like “Powa” and “Gangsta”, but w h o k i l l was content to remain in its small bubble. Nikki Nack reaches both farther and wider, with stronger production that doesn’t leave behind her signature homemade approach.

Misses

Coldplay, Ghost Stories: I like Coldplay, but sometimes I hate liking Coldplay. They get a pretty bad rap in this more enlightened age that has forgotten that A Rush of Blood to the Head was a pretty great album. But it’s not the fact that other people think they’re bad that bothers me- it’s that I’m starting to think they’re bad. After the dud of X&Y they came back strong with the nearly brilliant Viva la Vida, but it seems like without Brian Eno they didn’t have any more ideas. Mylo Xyloto was all pop pretension, and their new album Ghost Stories is a misguided attempt to return to the more stripped down roots of their first album, Parachutes. Back then, Chris Martin and Co. still had something resembling mid-20s angst. As tumultuous as Martin’s life is right now, they’ve lost whatever passion used to come through in their music.

Lily Allen, Sheezus: Ditto for everything I just said about Coldplay, without the references to Chris Martin and Brian Eno and with references to the fact that “Air Balloon” and “Hard Out Here” are awesome.

Lykke Li, I Never Learn: The phrase “power ballad” keeps coming up in relation to Lykke Li’s new album, but it seems a little forced. There’s not too much power behind any of these songs. With the exception of “Never Gonna Love Again”, the last song on the album, every song is kind of a slog to sit through. Gone are the spark-plug melodies of Wounded Rhymes. Instead, Lykke Li has stripped her sound down to give us nary a tune to sing along to. She took her best asset and cast it aside. I’m tempted to do the same with this record.

Off the Grid

John Fullbright, Songs: Upon first listen, John Fullbright’s Songs seemed a disappointment to me. His last album, From the Ground Up, was one of the best records of 2012 and a fun, occasionally angry collection of folk-rock songs that embraced its Oklahoma roots. Songs comes off as a softer record, something I didn’t expect from the writer of “Gawd Above” and something I wasn’t sure I wanted. On my second listen though, Songs struck me as the equivalent of a Billy Joel record. Fullbright uses the keyboard a lot more on this album, but it’s not just that. On closer inspection, his lyrics are still just as insightful and evocative as they were on Ground. I think a third listen will be necessary to figure out just how I feel about Songs.

Comic Book Movies: The Three Marvels

I am the target audience for these comic book superhero movies. I’m a 24-year-old male willing to spend $10+ on a movie featuring characters from comic books originally made with teenagers in mind. I took the bait after The Avengers and started delving into the world of comics: the panels, the trade paperbacks, the graphic novels, the convoluted continuities, the oh-so-temporary terminations of main characters. And I’ve been hooked ever since.

But I loved movies first, so when I go to a superhero movie, I’m watching it as a film first and a comic book adaptation second. Sometimes my affection for the source material colors my feelings about the movie. Take, for example, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which is based on one of my favorite Spider-Man stories. Funnily enough, I can’t say which story it is, because that’s a spoiler all its own. That sentence is probably a spoiler itself for those well-versed in Peter Parker’s history. Whoops.

Peter Parker, played again by Andrew Garfield, is Spider-Man, of course (Crap, is that a spoiler? WHAT ISN’T A SPOILER???), and his girlfriend is Gwen Stacy, played again by Emma Stone. The chemistry between the two stars is again the best part of the movie. There’s some good action involving an underused Jamie Foxx as the villain Electro and the terrific Dane DeHaan as Peter’s old friend Harry Osborne. Also, the scenes of Spidey swinging through the city have never been so exhilarating. But the movie rests on the relationship between the stars, which makes for underserved secondary characters and rushed plot points. However, seeing as the original Amazing Spider-Man comics depended a lot on the soap opera-ish relationship between Peter and Gwen, I was satisfied.

Chemistry of a different kind is at the heart of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This time the formula is the combination of precise action and political intrigue to form one explosive Marvel movie, the best one without the word “Avengers” in its title since Iron Man. Chris Evans returns as the titular Cap, still adjusting to civilian life in the 2010s when the also titular Winter Soldier appears and starts causing havoc. (SPOILER ALERT: Captain American is not the Winter Soldier. I know, it’s confusing.) Cap teams up with the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to find the Winter Soldier and to figure out how to fix the chaos that his appearance sets in motion. This gives Marvel their best chance yet to showcase Evans’ relatable soulfulness and Johansson’s sassy pluck.

Winter Soldier is also the first Marvel movie since Iron Man to actually be about something, or at least something more than simply the battle between good and bad/evil/corrupt. I don’t mean to say that battle is insignificant, but superhero stories have potential to be so much more. Marvel takes the Winter Soldier story and provides an uncanny analog for the complications of drone warfare and unrestricted surveillance à la the NSA, demonstrating some of the boldness The Dark Knight Rises exhibited targeting the Occupy movement in 2012. I like my comic book movies to have good action and strong characters, and I like my comic book movies to have deeper significance. Give me a movie with all three, and I’ll love it.

Two out of three ain’t bad though, and X-Men: Days of Future Past manages to be great. Where Winter Soldier finds significance in its subject matter, Days of Future Past gets by on some of the best character development in a superhero movie ever. Winter Soldier has character development, but it’s mostly at the service of the plot. Spider-Man is all character development and no plot. Days of Future Past’s plot is the character development, with a climax that hinges on a character’s choice rather than a big battle that’s barely more than a trope.

It’s not really about anything though- but that’s okay. Days of Future Past combines the cast of the Bryan Singer & crappy director Brett Ratner movies with the retro cast from First Class by sending Wolverine back in time (basically) to warn the estranged Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) of a dark future that comes as a result of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) assassinating the scientist, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), who created the Sentinels, which are essentially mutant-hunting robots. Does it sound complicated? That’s okay, because the story is so well-organized around the characters and their decisions that you forget the time-travel stuff is bogus. You also don’t care that Singer isn’t aiming for deeper significance by making the mutants a social allegory like in his first two movies. Sometimes a great story and great characters are enough.

Days of Future Past was the only story I hadn’t read before seeing the movie. Spider-Man’s was one of my favorite comic book story arcs of all time, but it was my least favorite of the three. I’m not as much a Cassandra as many actual critics are about the state of Hollywood movies these days. I do wish there were more variance in blockbusters, but we’ll never reach a point when there aren’t good movies being made. And as far as comic book movies go, as long as they tell great stories, what is there to complain about? Consider this target audience member more than satisfied.