David Browne
David Browne is a contributing editor of Rolling Stone and the author of Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth and Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Spin and other outlets.
He is currently at work on Fire and Rain, a book that will track the lives and careers of The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young during the pivotal year of 1970.
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With The Wooden Birds' "Sugar," American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny gets quieter than usual. "Sugar" embodies his revamped, stripped-down approach: muted, unplugged, pretty. It feels a bit like a folkish Yo La Tengo outtake, but in this case, the lulling mood is also disquieting.
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With its evocations of both the MC5 and Thin Lizzy, Death's "Keep on Knocking" sounds like it was cut 34 years ago. In fact, it was. From the opening power chords to bassist-singer Bobby Hackney's rushed, garbled vocal, the song has the harried, live-for-the-moment desperation that's always made for great rock 'n' roll.
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Lyrics Born, an indie rapper from San Francisco, recalls a time when hip-hop was almost invariably fun, brisk, and at least somewhat lighthearted. "I Like It, I Love It" speaks to a moment when hip-hop, pop, R&B, and a sing-along hook rolled together as one.
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Hayden's "Worthy of Your Esteem" demonstrates why the singer-songwriter was never meant to be a Beck-level star. The arrangement is pure bedroom-tapes quality, and he still sings in an unassuming, plaintive voice that approaches a mumble. Still, the song is a nuanced beauty.
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All it takes is a single line to make you fall in love with Kathleen Edwards' "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory." Canada's answer to Lucinda Williams is reminiscing about her days banging out cover songs in bars, when she hits a perfect line in the chorus: "You're cool and cred like Fogerty / I'm Elvis Presley in the '70s."
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Bryant's "Wound by a Key" carries on two long-standing pop traditions: songs narrated by music-box figurines and songs featuring kiddie choirs. If Saturn had a lounge band, it might play a song like "Wound by a Key."
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The organ riff that opens Beirut's "Nantes" sounds like a setup for a variation on modern garage rock. But when a tango beat enters soon after, "Nantes" transforms into something else altogether: a new genre that could be called poignant ballroom cabaret pop.
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Built around her crisp acoustic guitar and clear-eyed, observant delivery, "Ludlow Street" — one of the standout tracks on Suzanne Vega's new, New York-themed Beauty & Crime — brings to mind the graceful flow of her early work. -
The track may be called "Our Discussion (of the Matter)," but the narrator of Nina Nastasia and Jim White's gorgeously turbulent song is mostly having a conversation with herself. White's arrhythmic drums only enhance the unsettled emotions in play. -
Gonzalez's "Killing for Love" opens with the intimate sound of fingers caressing guitar strings. His voice never rises above a clear-eyed tone, but Gonzalez's buzzy finger-picking and Erik Bodin's thwacking conga drum combine to form a hypnotic, driven pulse.
