Audio

I’d been searching for a copy of Blake Mills “Don’t Tell All Our Friends About Me” ever since Matt Carr of Everybody Taste stated it “might be the best goddamn country song I’ve ever heard”.  You see, Blake Mills is a rare musician these days when it comes to content, a student of quality over quantity.  It’s quite amazing that he manages to be both an in-demand session/ touring guitarist (He’s played with the likes of Dawes, Band of Horses, Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, Julian Casablancas, and Conor Oberst) and record producer (he’s produced records from Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Dawes, as well as smaller groups like Haim and Jesca Hoop) and so unique in his own songwriting, a hyper-aware conversationalist who can make poignant ballads out of the minutia of everyday life.

Here, in a session for The Wild Honey Pie , his rhythmic and emotive acoustic guitar playing stretch out across the barren ruins of a fruitful relationship. His voice, immediately identifiable with its warbled tenor bears a striking resemblance to when Bob Dylan let his guard down on albums like Nashville Skyline, emotionally resonant and heartbreakingly intimate. You know that he’s writing from the soul when the words “I know I fucked up, I know I fucked up” unfold in their repetition, both as admittance of guilt and an attempt at solace.

His only album Break Mirrors still remains a powerful debut after hundreds of plays, from the family story of “It’ll All Work Out”, the relationship of “Wintersong” which transforms from soul-aching to soul-shaking with its abrupt shift to Fleetwood Mac territory halfway through to the studio mastery of “Hirsoshima” replete with a beautiful slide solo.  

Mills is a man of many talents, and if you ever have the chance to see him, don’t miss out. 

Don’t Tell All Our Friends About Me (The Wild Honey Pie Sessions) – Blake Mills

Bonus Tracks:

It’ll All Work Out (The Wild Honey Pie Sessions) – Blake Mills

Bluchell (Analog Edition Sampler) – Blake Mills

Support independent record labels by downloading the Analog Edition Sampler

Find Blake Mills debut Break Mirrors here on iTunes. For the more vinyl inclined, Analog Edition also has a double A side limited release 7" featuring “Hey Lover” and “Wintersong”, you can grab that here.
 

Wild Life, Paul McCartney’s follow-up to Ram, and first LP with his new band Wings was a critical and commercial failure upon release. Much of the problem came from McCartney’s ill-advised decision to make it an impromptu album, inspired by a story of Bob Dylan cutting an album in three days.  Yet McCartney’s strengths are in well developed melodies and here there are a lot of cuts that were just trying to stretch the album into an album. One could however make the case that if there were EP’s at the time, you could have made a pretty decent one out of the material present. (It’s also important that you listen to these songs with good headphones or speakers, because those arrangements aren’t gonna stand out on just any laptop speakers, and it’s worth it)

Wild Life (The EP)

1. Wild Life
2. Love Is Strange
3. Tomorrow
4. Little Woman Love 

“Wild Life” is one of the more polished numbers, a bruising, bluesy number that not so subtly alludes to the barely visible line between humanity and animality. McCartney’s musicality is on full display here, building from a simple acoustic number to a melody that’s brimming with tension. I’d love to see this used in Breaking Bad, I think it would work fantastically 

“Love Is Strange” is a cover from 1956 by a little known R&B group called Mickey & Silvia but you’d hardly know it from the tickling Hawaiian-Afro-Cuban guitar lines that flicker about in the long instrumental introduction. For people who are so quick to lambaste Paul McCartney’s later group, they’d never know this was Wings. 

“Tomorrow” is a number that could have found a home on the musical Annie. It’s pretty cheesy, but once again McCartney saves the number with some inventive arrangements, the backing vocals are especially effective here a la “Mr. Sandman” that act as a bridge in between verse and chorus. 

“Little Woman Love” showcases McCartney’s boogie-woogie piano playing, and it’s a song that throws subtlety out the window, celebrating rock & roll in the biblical sense, despite its overt nature, it’s really fun. 

Before “Somebody That I Used To Know” defied all expectations for an out of nowhere indie song to top the charts, Wally De Becker aka Gotye had made a record called Like Drawing Blood  (which would be an excellent recommendation for those who have only heard of his latest album) with similar (read as samplers who did their homework) production. Heck, Wally De Becker is credited for Assembly, Collection, and Performer in that order. Whatever your qualms may be about the future of music, Gotye has the voice and know-how make a hook out of any genre, and this Northern Soul romp of “Learnalilgivinanlovin” is no exception. A far better “I Feel Better” from his latest Making Mirrors, the harmonies and the vibe are top notch. Would love to see it used to ironic effect on Breaking Bad.

Learnalilgivinanlovin – Gotye

A lost classic (and a Kinks cover to boot) off of one of the Akron duo’s best efforts Rubber Factory, “Act Nice & Gentle” combines the groups hard hitting blues edge with a sunny 60’s vibe. One of the sweeter songs in their entire catalogue, it’s certainly helped along by Dan Auerbach’s vocal mimicry guitar leads and Carney’s not so subtle swagger.

Act Nice & Gentle – The Black Keys