I hope the festive season has been kind to you, I've spent it playing Hot Wheels, drinking wine and coughing up the illness I've been avoiding over the past 12 months.
But the fun never really ends here at theMusic.com.au, so here is something of a wrap up for you; five things that made me realise why I love music in 2012.
CALL ME MAYBE:
Every year or two there is a slick commercial pop song song that just seems to have all the right elements for the time and place in which it is released. Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe is one of those songs. Cute, innocent, catchy and flirtatious, it's an adorable song that is completely harmless to the teen-girl market to who it is no doubt predominantly aimed. What makes it stand out from the thousands of oh-so-similar cuts of shiny shit that labels throw up against a wall in any given year? If we knew that, we'd all be billionaires, going on a shooting spree in the barrel of fish that is the world of commercial pop music. Whatever it was, Call Me Maybe really connected, there are hundreds of covers of the song online, done by everyone from teenage kids singing into cans of hairspray to hip acts like Ben Howard and fun., but the best rendition in my opinion (aside from the original, which I've listened to hundreds of times and still am not tired of), is by Jepsen herself with a little backing from The Roots (Jimmy Fallon as well, but he just kinda gets in the way) done in a kids classroom.
THE RETURN OF DR JOHN:
While his live performances have been fantastic, Dr John had not released a good record for years. Too stuck in the almost-standard, almost-traditional New Orleans boogie, Mac Rebennack remained a fantastic musician and vocalist, but his music lacked that crazy creativity that made records like 1969's Gris-Gris so mindblowingly fascinating and fantastic. Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys was a fan of Dr John's work from these days and wanted to have him go back to making records that sounded the way they did when he was known as The Night Tripper. While Locked Down might not hit be as bizarrely psychedelic as his initial work, it does see Dr John completely rejuvenated as an artist, which is a real treat to see.
PRINCE WHIPS AUSTRALIA INTO A FRENZY:
We don't really get all that excited about bands coming to Australia any more, maybe because we're a little spoilt for choice. But the Prince tour of 2012 was executed in such a manner that one couldn't help but get swept up in the excitement. First came the rumours – no doubt planted with specific people to get a small buzz generating – that told us Prince would definitely be in the country and that it could well be happening sooner than we know it. Then came the announcement; Prince would not only be here for a series of shows on the east coast, he'd be here in just one month! Then the rumours about the aftershow jams; some were announced and then cancelled just as they were about to begin, some announced just an hour before they started, some of them were legendarily amazing, some of them were completely terrible, but they constantly had Prince fans on their toes and, while occasionally frustrating, it was a pretty fun ride. Then there were the reports of what Prince was doing while he was here, what he was wearing, where his band would party and even Eddie McGuire got involved.
If you are a Prince fan, April and May of 2012 were a hell of a lot of fun.
POST-OFWGKTA-WAVE:
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Odd Future is all so 2011, I'm well aware of that, but it's not the initial hyped period where we are going to see just how powerful this collective are. It's in these years that follow, when the excitement dies down, that we see whether or not they have any staying power whatsoever. Mellowhype dropped a pretty good new record in Numbers, The OF Tape Vol. 2 was fine, without being amazing, and Earl Sweatshirt's return to LA meant he was able to get back to proving why he is being considered as one of the best young rappers in history. Of course Frank Ocean's channel ORANGE ended up being the big Odd Future related news story of the year, the artist dropping a seriously progressive R&B record that seems to tick all the boxes that half of the indie-leaning urban artists across the United States have tried to do in the past year or so.
What's most exciting about this brave post-Odd Future world (I hope you understand how facetious these dramatic turns of phrase are intended to be) is that OFWGKTA has opened the door for similar acts to become noticed – there is plenty of young, gritty hip hop talent around the place and we need to hear it before the rappers become too jaded. For mine the next big talent pool is the Pro Era crew out of New York City – sadly its member Capital Steez is believed to have taken his own life on Christmas Eve – headed up by the very talented Joey Bada$$. Joey's 1999 record was one of my highlights of 2012 and kept me excited about hip hop, perhaps even moreso than Odd Future did last year.
AUSTRALIA: AN ISLAND IN THE STREAM (FINALLY)
Internet music streaming services are a true a game changer in the way we listen to music, the way we pay for it, the way we present it to others and the way we discover new musical treasures. Whether you're into Spotify, mog., Rdio, JB Hi-Fi Now, Pandora or whatever new service has opened up since I stopped checking my email last week, it's very likely that, if you use them, you love them. It's about time Australia was afforded the opportunity to use these services (and hopefully a Netflix style film streaming service isn't far off) but, of course, they have their detractors. I'd like to think that people are still going to buy the music that they love, but I understand that in order for this to happen there may need to be more education for the general public about who makes this music, how much it costs to do so and just how little they are getting paid for their toil.
I'll continue using Spotify, because I think it's amazing, but I'll also continue blowing my hard earned on trips to the local independent record barns around town, buying the records I love and I hope that other people also realise the value in doing so.
