Mark Lager’s Songs of the Decade part 2 (2015 – 2019)

Listen to this playlist and other gems today on Mark Lager’s radio show ‘Thursday Trips’- streaming online Thursdays 7-8 P.M. (Mountain Time) at: http://www.primcast.com/radio/610946

“Change of the Guard” (Kamasi Washington)
An accurately named opening track from the equally appropriately named mammoth, monolithic triple record The Epic, this is incredible jazz for a new generation. Bandleader Kamasi Washington (born February 15, 1981) on tenor saxophone (following in the footsteps of influential predecessors Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, Wayne Shorter) creates arrangements that are positively panoramic, especially on this track with its orchestral choir and symphonic string section surrounding Cameron Graves on piano, Miles Mosley and Thundercat on acoustic and electric bass, Ronald Bruner Jr. on drums, Leon Mobley on percussion, Ricky Washington on soprano sax, Ryan Porter on trombone, and Igmar Thomas on trumpet.

“Medicine Hat” (Pond)
Australian band Pond’s two most recently released records are ‘80s style synth pop that sound like a mess. Man It Feels Like Space Again is their greatest and most psychedelic record. Shiny Joe Ryan steals the show with the penultimate track, which starts off Stones circa Exile on Main St. diggin’ Krautrock blues. Halfway through this acoustic blues–it’s a headphone wet dream, the song suddenly ascends into an orgasmic rush! You wish the cosmic coda would go on forever!

Pond – Medicine Hat from Mark Lager on Vimeo.

“Throwing Stones” (The Black Ryder)
Aimee Nash’s lyrics/vocals and Scott Von Ryper’s instrumental arrangements make The Door Behind The Door their most epic and expansive album. This track is the cinematic centerpiece of the record. “Moonlight Mile” guitar and Spiritualized gospel choir. Awe-inspiring.

“Hypnophobia” (Jacco Gardner)
The title track from Jacco Gardner’s (born April 9, 1988) record of the same name, this showcases the Dutch multi-instrumentalist’s gifts for arrangement and mood. Atmospheric acoustic guitars and electronics, deep bass, and mysterious vibes make this a late night driving soundtrack. It is surprising that Jacco Gardner has not yet been hired by a studio to score a movie since his music is so fantastically filmic.

“Child” (Valet)
Portland, Oregon musician Honey Owens created a bliss-out classic (similar to the most shining moments on Slowdive’s Souvlaki) with her album Nature, especially this closing track. Close your eyes. Her beatific, blurry, ethereal vocals and the gorgeous guitar layers wrap your ears in a womb-like cocoon until you become the consciousness of her infant child to whom she is singing.

“Somewhere Tonight” (Beach House)
2015 was Beach House’s peak year. It could be argued that the two records they released that year, Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, were the best albums of 2015 because of how cinematic, dreamlike, magical, psychedelic, and trippy the two records were (“Levitation”, “Days of Candy”, “The Traveller”, “Elegy to the Void”). This closing track from Thank Your Lucky Stars is, perhaps, Victoria Legrand’s and Alex Scally’s most perfect track: a nocturnal slow dance song which is stunningly sublime.

“Stargazer” (Golden Dawn Arkestra)
This Austin, Texas band released their debut record in 2016. This opening title track floats through outer space during the first two minutes and then transforms into a danceable, head-nodding groove–band members singing in unison and guitars and keyboards vamping as a funky rhythm section and jazzy brass section lead the jam.

“Into the Wasteland” (Zun)
Guitarist of Yawning Man, Gary Arce’s music is cosmic desert psych rock. Kyuss were heavily influenced by Gary Arce’s southwestern jamming and covered the band’s “Catamaran”. Burial Sunrise is Gary Arce’s greatest record, containing lyrics and vocalists (John Garcia, formerly of Kyuss, and Sera Timms.) “Into the Wasteland” is the hypnotic, heat mirage soundtrack to an acid trip while wandering through white sands.

“Seventeen Landscapes” (Heron Oblivion)
This sinister, 7-minute track is the standout song on Heron Oblivion’s self-titled debut. Meg Baird’s ghostly, mysterious vocals and pastoral lyrics sound like storm clouds in the distance drawing closer each minute (“voices thunder”) while the fuzzed out, heavy, intense guitars crackle like lightning.

“Mexico Blues” (Adia Victoria)
Cinematic closing track from Adia Victoria’s (born July 22, 1986) 2016 debut Beyond the Bloodhounds. Where other tracks on the album feature angry Afropunk and Southern Gothic blues (“Dead Eyes”, “Sea of Sand”, “And Then You Die”, “Howlin’ Shame”, “Head Rot”, “Invisible Hands”, “Stuck in the South”), this song is her quietest, most subdued, and most haunting.

“Woman” (Angel Olsen)
St. Louis, Missouri singer-songwriter Angel Olsen (born January 22, 1987) began her career with folk and then incorporated lo-fi garage rock into her 2014 Burn Your Fire For No Witness. Her first two records were underproduced while, in my opinion, 2019’s All Mirrors (cabaret jazz, ‘80s synth pop, and string sections) was overproduced. 2016’s My Woman hits the sweet spot (lo-fi garage rock replaced with atmospheric keyboards and epic electric guitars) and still stands as Angel Olsen’s strongest statement, particularly the penultimate, 7-minute title track. Opening with a moody Mellotron and deep bassline, this track features Angel’s most dramatic, emotional, impassioned lyrics and vocals, especially her powerful performance around the 4-minute mark. The greatest song of 2016. “I dare you to understand/What makes me a woman.”

“Star Roving” (Slowdive)
Slowdive is one of those rare bands (like Mazzy Star) whose reunion, rather than decreasing in quality as is the case with the majority of reunions, returned with a sound just as strong as during their peak years in the 1990s. “Star Roving” might be Slowdive’s greatest song and is the standout track on their 2017 self-titled record. Where many previous Slowdive songs were content to drift, this is their strongest track since “Souvlaki Space Station”–this song contains an energy, excitement, and momentum, an ascent into starry skies.

“Thinking of a Place” (The War On Drugs)
Adam Granduciel (born February 15, 1979), guitarist, singer, and songwriter of Philadelphia band The War On Drugs, recorded two of the best albums of this decade: Lost In The Dream and A Deeper Understanding. A Deeper Understanding most deservedly won the Grammy award for Best Rock Album. (The only time in its history that the Grammys got it right.) A Deeper Understanding is Adam Granduciel’s deeply emotional and powerful masterpiece. This album fires on all cylinders–the world weary vocals and yearning lyrics, as well as the intricate instrumentation which is polished with pristine production. This cosmic, 11-minute epic is the centerpiece of the record. The greatest song of 2017.

“There was pain in your eyes
So you vanished in the night
Missouri River in the distance
Love is like a ghost in the distance, out of reach
Travel through the night ’cause there is no fear
Alone but right behind until I watched you disappear”

“Emigre” (Alela Diane)
Alela Diane (born April 20, 1983), a folk singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon, recorded and wrote perhaps the most powerful song of her career for 2018’s album Cusp. This haunting, sorrowful song is about immigration, motherhood, and refugees. Alela Diane’s contemplative, reflective vocals and lyrics of grief and loss are accompanied by a dramatic, stark string section.

“I can feel the fear hang heavy on the water
Glinting sharply with the pale moonlight
Mothers hold on tightly to your children
As the waves are breaking violently tonight
One by one the children have grown silent
From their mother’s arms, they float away
The roaring sea will wash our quiet bodies‘
Upon the foreign shore, but our souls will find a way”

“L’Inconnue” (Beach House)
Victoria Legrand’s cathedral chants, French poetry, and keyboards, melded with Alex Scally’s guitar, creates a celestial, spellbinding song, one of the standout tracks from 2018’s 7.

“Hillsides” (Israel Nash)
Israel Nash (born January 5, 1981) is, like Gene Clark, from Missouri, and also, like Gene Clark, he created a masterpiece of Cosmic American Music and not only the best album of 2018, but also one of the greatest records of the decade. His earthy vocals and philosophical, poetic lyrics are surrounded by his band’s skillful and subtle musicians on drums, keyboards, slide guitar, and the soaring sigh of pedal steel recorded at his home studio in Dripping Springs, Texas. Lifted is epic: country, folk, and psychedelic rock transformed into spiritually transcendent soundscapes in the superb arrangements of brass, strings, and stunning echoing vocal harmonies.

by Mark Lager

*Listen to this playlist and other gems today on Mark Lager’s radio show ‘Thursday Trips’- streaming online Thursdays 7-8 P.M. (Mountain Time) at: http://www.primcast.com/radio/610946