Bob Marley, "Legend"

I have been thinking a lot about a new format for this blog.  The correct choice seems to be taking the entire thing to a video format on YT or a social media platform.  Would this be in addition to, or instead of the written blog?  I'm not sure.  I feel that writing is more suitable for longer think-pieces and collated musings (which is what I tend to do) and shorter snippets where you can comment without necessarily having to say anything profound.  However, video is more immediate and relatable.  

Either way, I could churn out reviews and thoughts of catalog music indefinitely.  That's why I love the Pitchfork Sunday Review so much.  Long form pieces on classic albums with a modern reviewer's perspective.  Eric Harvey's piece on Bob Marley's "Legend" is outstanding -- the best of these PF reviews that I have come across.  It's an extensively researched piece, and I learned so much.  Harvey persuasively argues that "Legend" recast Marley's legacy as a photogenic, radio-friendly crossover star, rather than a militaristic rebel.  In turn, the album flipped the entire popular narrative of reggae music on its head.  In the 70's rock and punk bands would borrow (or steal) from reggae when they wanted to sound dangerous and threatening, in part as a reaction to anodyne FM soft rock.  After "Legend", reggae became the music of sunshine and good vibes for a newfound audience of middle class white listeners who bought the album in the millions.       

I don't believe there's a sensible counter-argument to this.  Marley released thirteen studio albums, and "Legend" doesn't come close to covering all the facets of his music.  David Robinson, the Island record executive who compiled the tracks on "Legend", admitted as much, namely, that they saw a mass marketing opportunity amongst an untapped white listenership.  Is it really such a problem though?  Harvey would say yes, seeing as "Legend" sanitizes Marley in a way that he certainly never would have chosen for himself if he were alive.  However, Greatest Hits compilations always target the casual fan, most of whom buy music sparingly and rarely delve deeply into an artist's catalogue.  More serious listeners can always use the GH compilation as a gateway into buying the individual albums, which was precisely Harvey's experience vis a vis "Legend".  Was Marley wronged moreso than hundreds of other artists whose music has been packaged and repackaged countless times?   Greatest hits collections come with loads of statistical anomalies.  Many of the top RIAA certified albums are compilations, and many of those were double albums (that count as two units).  I believe that "Legend" is the second biggest selling GH album of all time -- albums sold, not units sold -- behind only the Eagles juggernaut GH album.  To paraphase an old saying, 18 million Bob Marley fans can't be wrong.  "Legend" is still a steady seller, confirming its cross-generational appeal.    

My own experience in Jamaica as a foreigner is not meant to be taken as representative.  However, as a personal note, when I was in Jamaica in 1992 as part of a school program, the sellers in the market were only too happy to push any and all sorts of Marley merchandise onto us enthusiastic teenagers.  In Jamaica, a national hero like Marley is a once in a generation public figure, in a sense he belonged to everyone.  When it comes to profiting from his name, capitalism can't simply be split among racial lines.   

Beach House are still amazing

I will never catch up with contemporary music ever again, I am checked out on that front. I'm too far behind even with the music released by my all-time favourite acts, so there's zero chance of getting up to speed on recent releases in general.  Case in point, I intended to post a triple review of three new albums by three of my all-time favourite artists -- Moderat's "MORE D4TA", Spiritualized's "Everything Was Beautiful", and Beach House's "Once Twice Melody".  Each of them had produced at least one Album of the Year by my rankings.  Time passed, and I needed to add another album to the list -- "everything is alive" by Slowdive (their previous comeback record was my #2 of that year, and was in my top ten for the 2010's).  Time passed again.  That was in the summer of 2022.  I still haven't heard any of those albums in full.

Yet once in a while, I still fall down the rabbit hole like I have this week, playing Youtube videos from the "Once Twice Melody" tour on repeat.  When this album first came out, I thought I'd had it with Beach House.  They had more or less stopped evolving.  By "Teen Dream" they'd reached an inflection point, from then on, it wouldn't be enough to sound like star-crossed kids recording twee noodlings in their bedrooms, they needed to morph into a full-fledged, wall of sound-obsessed, immaculately produced band.  And with "Bloom", they did.  

Then they had a brief struggle with stylistic schizophrenia.  They stepped back into the shadows with (the still excellent) "Depression Cherry", and simultaneously recorded the more upbeat "Thank Your Lucky Stars" (a good idea on paper, but the songs weren't really there).  After struggling with the eternal question of whether to retreat further into moody dreampop or burst forth as a commercial indie pop juggernaut, the decision was made: we can do both.  This gave rise to "7", which stayed true to their trusted formulas but sonically, they sounded bolder and richer than ever before, their collaboration with Sonic Boom.  The apex had been reached, the only thing left was to officially become the dream pop AC/DC and milk the same signature style for decades to come.  To me, that seemed to be the marketing strategy behind "Once Twice Melody", so I figured this was the moment I could take a time out from this band.

In a sense, "Once Twice Melody" plays out as expected.  Beach House really only have one tempo -- one that they can slightly boost for the more radio-ready songs, or drag out for the slower ballads, but isn't every Beach House songs kind of a semi-ballad?  They have one instrumental palate -- guitar, keyboards, and drums, and the effects boxes and presets barely change.   Each song drifts along within roughly the same airy, hazy moodscape.  They have perfected the show closing epic with its breathtaking coda, every album has to have one now ("Irene", "Dive", "Over and Over").  

But despite all the signs that Beach House are content to churn out the same content from now until forever, I can still get completely lost in their music.  Victoria Legrand's voice isn't as bright and powerful as it once was, but everything they do on stage is still mesmerizing.  On any given day, their music is more life-affirming than anything else out there.  Everyone has their personal ranking, but "Once Twice Melody" more than holds its own with the best albums in their catalogue.  They have been in a godlike tier for well over a decade, and that's a rare thing.