It’s New to Elliot: as suggested by Gwen Werner
Gwen is a very recent acquaintance of mine, as I’ve only known her for a couple years, and that was through her now-husband Ryan, whom I met the same night as her. She didn’t know me at all, but Ryan told her who I was (being Bob Bucko Jr’s cousin helped contextualize my presence at a show in Dubuque), and we all had really fun conversations. It’s the same comfort that caused her to once send me a message saying, “We’re in your town. Can I come hold your baby?”
I’ve twice seen Gwen and Ryan do public readings of their writing here in Des Moines. It is not easy to stand up in front of people and read your own work, and it’s especially not easy when it’s as raw and honest as Gwen’s stuff. She writes with elegance about the confusing messiness through which she has lived, and she can tell you about some of her worst decisions with the occasional wry smile that tells you it’s okay — you can smile along with her. Gwen has a really great collection of essays called I’m Ruining My Own Life that you should order from her.
Gwen had me listen to very good records this week, and I thank her for that. Let’s see what’s on deck.
Hop Along — Get Disowned
I saw great reviews for Hop Along’s 2015 record Painted Shut when it came out, and boy oh boy did I fall in love with that record. I should have immediately checked out their previous record, but I never did, so Gwen is helping me get my life together here.
Frances Quinlan is the guitarist and singer for Hop Along, and I think she’s one of the most talented women in all of modern music. Her voice shivers and quakes and rattles buildings, all with a poise that tells you she doesn’t care when her voice cracks or sounds imperfect. In those moments when she lets herself go completely, she achieves an honesty in performance that I rarely hear anywhere.
So obviously, Get Disowned is pretty good. I don’t love it quite as much as Painted Shut because it’s a bit more of an oddball record. The songs are quirky and not always easy to grasp. They stop and start and do unexpected strange things, like sudden bursts of cello or just more sparse arrangements where Quinlan is prominent. I have no problem with her being front and center, but I dig Hop Along a bit more when the full band is propelling her forward. Still, this band is so dang cool, and y’all should hit em up.
My Opinion: 7/10
Los Campesinos! — We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
I haven’t gotten to say this in a while: because I am a dad now, I get to call myself Daddy whenever I want, and therefore, DADDY LIKES THIS RECORD. It’s a good one for Daddy.
Los Campesinos! have been making records for quite a while, and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is their second record, from 2008. It is a frenzied, measured whirlwind of the very best that indie rock and emo have to offer. They even have a violin and a glockenspiel, and they don’t ruin everything. Imagine that! This is youthful, exuberant stuff — super-charged rhythms and a whole mess of lyrics jammed into small spaces. Los Campesinos! are Welsh, and you can most definitely tell they have thick-ass accents. Lead singer Gareth sings like an overbearing smart-aleck emo guy, but he throws himself wholly into it, and his accent makes him sound intelligent. Sorry, that’s just a provable linguistic theory. It’s all backed up by catchy melodies and excellent riffs. I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot lately about other bands here, but I must move forward and dig into the rest of Los Campesinos!’s records, just to see if they kept up this level of go-for-broke craziness.
My Opinion: 8/10
The Gap Band — Gap Band IV
One of the last records I would have expected Gwen to send my way was something from The Gap Band, but it really shouldn’t be surprising. “You Dropped a Bomb On Me” is good enough to get any living person herking and jerking on the dance floor without a care in the world. This is that 80’s style of pop-funk where the bass is very synthesized, keyboards are the star of the show, and guitar is a background player just trying to get noticed. It’s a lot of flash, not so much on the hard-hitting social commentary, but that’s okay. The Gap Band just wanted people to dance, and much of this record is up for that task. The best songs are the previously mentioned “Bomb,” “Outstanding” and “Early in the Morning” — upbeat jams with some oomph to them. If IV was all like that I’d be pumped on it, but unfortunately it was the 80’s, and it was mandatory during that decade that all pop bands had to have three or four garbage ballads on their record. It probably had something to do with Ronald Reagan, that bastard. “Season’s No Reason to Change” and “I Can’t Get Over You” are romantic filler junk and nothing more. Andrea was listening with me, and she hated those songs. Gap Band, you were supposed to please the ladies and you couldn’t even do that!
My Opinion: 6/10
