{"id":4852,"date":"2022-01-05T13:24:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T13:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4852"},"modified":"2022-12-18T12:01:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T12:01:45","slug":"music-modern-johnny-sings-songs-in-the-age-of-vibe-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=4852","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Modern Johnny Sings: Songs In The Age Of Vibe, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Wow! What a talented guy Theo Katzman is. Not only is he an ace drummer, singer and guitarist, but he\u2019s also an excellent songwriter and producer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music here is kind of pop\/rock. But those two words fail utterly to encapsulate the richness of Theo\u2019s music. It\u2019s very indebted to the best sounds of the late \u201860s and the early to mid \u201870s, something also attested to by the album cover design. But it\u2019s also very contemporary, partly thanks to his amazing voice, partly the postmodern magpie gleanings in the music, and also the very high production values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was any justice in this world Katzman would be massive. A global superstar. He\u2019s very much an heir to folk like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell; raw talent with oceans of genuine heartfelt soul. Ok, so I guess, given how much I\u2019m diggin\u2019 this, on my 50th birthday – a present to myself! (BTW Thanks Patrick for the Amazon voucher with which I bought this.) – and my first full listen through, I ought to do a track by track appreciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album – digital only (at this juncture) – starts with the fabulously positive yet raunchy rock of \u2018You Could Be President\u2019. Am I right in thinking this first appeared online under a different name? Whatever, it\u2019s just terrific. The first thing to note is how beautifully produced it is. As Theo\u2019s an excellent drummer, it shouldn\u2019t perhaps surprise that the drum sound is literally perfect. Crisp and dry, yet dig the rich timbres of the toms in the fills!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This first track also combines an extremely funky folk-rock guitar riff, with a simple yet clever verse structure – two measures of 4\/4 finished with one of 3\/4, juxtaposed with a kind of \u2018primary colours\u2019 style chorus, and ending on an epiphany of vocal prowess, including a phrase for our times \u2018yeah, no\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Death Of Us\u2019 struts with an elastic funk. Lovely little touches, like congas and guiro, enrich the delightful groove. Whilst \u2018You Could Be President\u2019 has a sublimely musical\/soulful and tasteful slide guitar solo, \u2018Death Of Us\u2019 features talk-box. Like the font on the cover, it\u2019s super-\u201870s, in the best way possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What Did You Mean (When You Said Love)\u2019 is chosen as the favourite track in a lot of the online reviews of this album I\u2019ve seen. And I can see why. I love it. But it\u2019s not my favourite track. Perhaps because it\u2019s the most \u2018contemporary pop\u2019 sounding on this near flawless album. That said. It\u2019s bloody brilliant. And grows on me with every listen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katzman\u2019s vocals (that phrase was just rendered as \u2018Katzman avocado\u2019 by my iPhone\u2019s predictive text function!) are incredible. And on this track he uses his skills in a performance that puts me in mind – ever so slightly – of the kind of vocal performances favoured by TV talent show judges. But whereas those performances are too often like very well performed karaoke, here it\u2019s the artist themself bringing these skills to bear on their own material. A quite different proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track four, \u2018Hardly Ever Rains\u2019, hits closest to my own emotional tenor, with it\u2019s clever yet soulful and very 60s-70s folk rock vibe. Poss\u2019 my favourite track (thus far!) Katzman\u2019s more baroque pop tastes come to the foreground on \u2018Lily, of Casablanca\u2019, with it\u2019s more complex arrangements and jazzier chord voicings. Once again this talks directly to my own tastes and preferences. But as superb as it is, I admire this one more than I\u2019m moved by it. If that makes sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I miss about not having this on CD (or even vinyl*) is not being able to read stuff as I listen, as I write this. Darting between the Amazon Music app and Notes is annoying! Anyway, back to the music: \u2018Best\u2019 is slightly funkier, rhythmically, and one of the tracks that helps earn the album an *explicit* warning. It\u2019s another of the harmonically richer numbers, as opposed to the folksier ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talking of which, \u2018100 Years From Now\u2019 sounds, esp\u2019 as it starts, like one of the latter, although actually it\u2019s quite subtly harmonically rich, belying the quite stripped down mellow vibe. Many of the songs here are surprisingly mature lyrically, mixing a homespun philosophical vibe with a modern burned-out take on the \u2018age of ego\u2019. In a way this track captures the essence of Theo; witness the near solo passage, just guitar and voice, which starts the verse about the pal meditating in a Thai monastery. And even the way it ends says something astonishingly simple yet profound. In the midst of an intense chorus, perhaps like our lives, it just suddenly stops. Theo, you, sir, are a genius! Brilliant!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Darlin\u2019 Don\u2019t Be Late\u2019 continues the shockingly strong succession of musical excellence. There\u2019s so much in the mix. From the whole torch song and jazz tradition, of harmonic movement\/resolution, to shades of everything from Steely Dan to \u201880s Bob Dylan, with The Eagles and all sorts in a soulful bouillabaisse of utter gorgeousness. It sounds very different from Jeff Buckley\u2019s amazing Grace<\/em> album, but it has an equivalent, if somewhat warmer more organic richness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018(I Don\u2019t Want To Be A) Billionaire\u2019 is terrific. More funky, with a kind of N\u2019Awleans bounce, it addresses the current climate of Mammon worship blighting the world, and perhaps the US in particular. \u2018I don\u2019t want to sing along, if a computer wrote the f*ckin\u2019 song\u2019 he sings, in an impassioned way. Amen, brother Theo, I\u2019m feelin\u2019 you deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Like A Woman Scorned\u2019 is terrific musically – as is absolutely everything here (the cover says \u201812 good songs\u2019, and for once they ain\u2019t joking!) – and very interesting lyrically, as it addresses the contemporary state of the \u2018battle of the sexes\u2019. Theo is great at articulating some difficult things, and making art out of his musings on a subject that concerns us all, whether we like it or not. I\u2019m not being ironic when I say\u2026 good man!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Fog In The Mirror\u2019 mines the starker seam of Theo\u2019s muse – and, quite unbelievably, as I type this he sings \u2018a sad romantic looking for a muse\u2019 – damn, but I do love a spot of synchronous serendipity! I think this one is competing with \u2018Hardly Ever Rains\u2019 for my favourite. I\u2019m essentially a melancholy soul! And that aspect of many artists often touches me deepest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so we arrive the final track, \u2018All\u2019s Well That Ends Well\u2019. It\u2019s worth pausing here to note the role piano plays on this album. With a CD or vinyl I\u2019d hope for instrumental credits. So far I\u2019ve not found any. Is Theo playing piano, as well as all the other things we know he does? And which tracks is he drumming on? As a fellow muso I love knowing such things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musically the final track is another that could stand for the whole album. It moves effortlessly between ultra minimalism, such as the final verse, which strips right down to piano and vocals, before building to a rich chorus with the whole band, only to end on the minimalist vibe, so quiet and delicate you can hear the dynamics pedal of the piano being released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there you have it, the whole album, track by track, as I see and hear it. Now that I\u2019ve listened to the whole thing Amazon Music has served up \u2018Browns At Home\u2019 by The Greyboy All Stars, which – as much I might want to object to such algorithmic stuff – is perfect! But, discipline,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow! What a talented guy Theo Katzman is. Not only is he an ace drummer, singer and guitarist, but he\u2019s also an excellent songwriter and producer. The music here is kind of pop\/rock. But those two words fail utterly to encapsulate the richness of Theo\u2019s music. It\u2019s very indebted to the best sounds of the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Modern Johnny Sings: Songs In The Age Of Vibe, 2020”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1gg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4852"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7603,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions\/7603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}