On the Beat
Looking Back While Moving Forward
 
– By Jim Byrne –

Whether it’s the return of a 90s rebel, a trip back to old stomping grounds, or an homage to original inspiration, each of these albums conjures up or springs from the past. Together, they’re also some of the best new music of 2008.

Vetiver (Thing of the Past) – “Thing of the Past”, an album of cover songs, is Vetiver bandleader Andy Cabic’s “mixtape to the world.” It’s a near-perfect collection of songs that inspired Cabic as a child and provided me with a fitting end-of-summer soundtrack. Maybe it’s because of Loudon Wainwright III’s “The Swimming Song”, a tune featuring these lyrics: “Oh, this summer I did swan dives/And jack-knives for you all/And once when you weren’t looking/I did a cannonball/I did a cannonball.”

Regardless of the season, this is a can’t-miss album. The harmonica-powered “Hurry On Sundown”, a Dave Brock original, stands out as much as Garland Jeffreys’ melancholy “Lon Chaney”. Norman Greenbaum’s “Hook & Ladder” and Townes Van Zandt’s “Standin’” are another pair of tunes Vetiver successfully re-introduce to the world. Like the LP cover art, “Thing of the Past” feels exactly like meeting up again with an old friend.

Jenny Lewis (Acid Tongue) – This LP was my first experience with the Rilo Kiley frontwoman, and I can only wish that I started listening earlier. Lewis’ second solo album – inspired by nostalgia for her childhood in Van Nuys, California – has made it into my regular rotation on the strength of songs like the dreamscape-creating “Black Sand”, haunting “Bad Man’s World”, and Elvis Costello-backed “Carpetbaggers”.

The unequivocal high point (no pun intended) is Acid Tongue’s title track. Lewis brought in Jonathan Wilson, Johnathan Rice, Farmer Dave and the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson to perform as a male choir in the background. The result is a stunner with Lewis strumming away and leading the chorus. When the track ends with the repeating chorus, “Let’s build ourselves a fire,” you can’t help but want to be there in the circle singing along beside the crackling flame.

One Day As A Lion (Self-titled EP) – For Rage Against the Machine fans who never felt at home with splinter group Audioslave, it’s great to finally hear former frontman Zach de la Rocha back on the microphone. It’s his first studio appearance since the anti-establishment band broke up in 2000, and – in listening to the five-track EP – not much has changed. De la Rocha teams here with former The Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, to bring what the duo calls “both a warning delivered and a promise kept.”

The name of the group comes from the text featured in George Rodriguez’s 1970 black- and-white photo where “It’s better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb,” appeared on a white wall in LA’s Boyle Heights. The sound on the EP is indeed befitting the king of the jungle. One listen to opener “Wild International” and you’ll hear that Zach’s signature roar remains intact.

Jamie Lidell (Jim) – Holy Stevie Wonder, Batman! On Lidell’s third full-length LP, the 35-year-old Briton channels 1960s and 70s soul and delivers an album sure to brighten the colors around you. One might feel the urge to say he’s a male version of Amy Winehouse, but he’s more like the opposite-gender-equivalent of Sharon Jones. Like Jones, Lidell’s authenticity is his greatest strength. Listening to “Jim” is probably the closest a 26-year-old like myself can get to the glory days of Motown. With his captivating voice, Lidell would have fit in perfectly at Berry Gordy’s Hitsville, U.S.A.

Simply put, if you don’t like album opener “Another Day” – or Stevie Wonder for that matter – I don’t like you. Give it a whirl and tell me it didn’t make the world feel just a little happier.