Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsTed Leo/Pharmacists The Tyranny of Distance Lookout Records It has been a goddamn long time since I wrote a music review. There are a few reasons for this, which I might as well go into now, since it will all tie into what I think of this record eventually. The big thing was that I decided that it stopped being fun the second that I started getting free records in the mail, which is not to say that I didn't discover some great bands that way, but it inserted this feeling of obligation into something that started out as me just putting up reviews in my spare time in the hopes that someone who liked some of the same things that I did would like more of the things that I liked. It became a method of turning spare time into worry-inducing work. I felt bad when I didn't write reviews because people took the time and money to send things to me, and I felt bad when I did write them because someone always managed to get pissed off about them, and I don't even write negative ones! Maybe it's just because I don't deal well with responsibilities. Whatever it was, I stopped wanting to do reviews. Once this happened, I got pretty disenfranchised regarding the whole concept of music criticism. A review takes less than two hours to write, while an album takes considerably longer and involves much more emotional input, so who cares what a review says about an album? What gives a music reviewer the authority to decide whether someone's artistic outlet was successful or not? I can't answer shit like that. I decided that the reason that I started writing this stuff it the first place was still pretty valid, though: I like a lot of music, and I'm sure that there are other people who like the same things, so if I tell them that there's something else out there that's wonderful and they get it and like it, everyone's just a little bit better off. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think judgment means anything as regards to music, but recommendation is still useful and even fun. There's no need to involve it in discussions of interpretation, it's just a wider-reaching version of "hey, listen to this." The point of all of this is that there's a record that I like enough to stop worrying about whether or not my writing is good enough and just say so. As long as the message that this is one of my favorite albums of the year comes across, it's all right. So, the record that's good enough to make even a confused person like myself write my first music review in four months is Ted Leo's The Tyranny of Distance. I've decided that I can't really depict how something sounds without resorting to meaningless references and platitudes, so I'll cut that part short. In general terms, this is a perfect example of brilliant indie rock songwriting - it's smart without being cloying, catchy without being thin, talented without being showy, energetic without being hyper, and substantive without being dense. It's not straightforward rock, but it's not convoluted rock, either and this is actually the most pop-infused Ted Leo album I own so far. Plus, Ted has a great voice and is a really gifted guitar player. Listen to "Under the Hedge" (you can find an mp3 on the Lookout site) and you'll see what I'm talking about. A comparison to anyone who has ever written a great indie rock song would probably hold up, so invent your own, I guess. The more important thing is that this record has been on my turntable for pretty much all of the last month, and as far as I see it when a record not only stands up to repeated listens but grows better each time the stylus goes across it, it's a complete success and the listener should shout its merits from rooftops because that kind of thing doesn't happen as often as I would like to think. Total score: 825 out of 825 |