Word: songcraft
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...bliss of “Stillness Is the Move.” Though the quality diminishes slightly in the last couple of songs, “Bitte Orca” is a fascinating statement from a band that had seemed reluctant to focus their talents on straight-forward songcraft rather than the hit-or-miss tendencies of experimental rock. “There is nothing we can’t do,” declare the lovers in “Stillness Is The Move,” and it seems that, for Dirty Projectors, the same holds true...
...always tempting to define most French musicians by where they fit on the Chanson Française spectrum, that openly defined yet traditional Gallic brand of dramatic songcraft made famous by singers like Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf decades ago. Is a band's m.o. to perform "chanson" with an ironic rock twist? Is that chanteuse doing classic chanson writ modern? It seems that French musicians can't just simply be musicians. But Keren Ann can, and she's not even French...
...Sporting its fair share of hooks, beeps, and drum machines, “The Magic Position” often hides its own musical depth with flashy pop flourishes. But despite some of this lighter fare, Patrick Wolf certainly proves that he is more than capable of good old fashioned songcraft. That said, nothing’s perfect and “The Magic Position” certainly isn’t, either. The album starts out strong, with the powerful and enticing “Overture.” Title track “The Magic Position?...
...Yorkers are incapable--they're just obstreperous, which makes the arrival of their first great rock album such a shock. They haven't rid themselves of their beloved guitar fuzz, but on songs like Reena and the sublime Jams Runs Free, the noise takes a backseat to focused songcraft and real, live hummable riffs. To top it off, Kim Gordon has emerged from her decade-long Nico-soundalike contest and is enunciating again. Calling it a career best would only make them angry, so let's just say it's really good...
...comebacks.” The Artist reached his creative apogee in the late eighties with his landmark double album, “Sign ‘O’ the Times”, and each of his subsequent releases has struggled to recreate that recording’s effortless songcraft, crack musicianship, and irrepressible joie de vivre. Prince’s high-profile disputes with the label executives at Warner Brothers Records, and his failed bid for release from his multi-album contract, are usually blamed for the precipitous drop in quality of his early nineties recordings. But the truth...