Isolation Blues: The Year in Music

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Media

Oh, I know they say I should stay away
Is it wrong to say that I want you anyway?

When the vaccine’s made will we get back to harmony?
If we’re not okay, I will blame it on the pathogen,
Blame it on the pathogen, blame it on the pathogen…

Oh, I’m filling up my time with visions of you
It’s just the right time for isolation blues.

—Ondara, “Isolation Blues”

Even if I mostly gave up blogging this year, I was still listening to music and I certainly wasn’t going to let a year go by without putting up one of my most popular annual posts. If you are a long-time reader of these pages, you know that my annual music round-up usually focuses on singles, generally things with a beat. While this year I found myself drawn to more reflective material as a whole, such as the Ondara song above, I’ve mostly tried to stick to upbeat material here. May it carry you into the new year with a lighter heart.

Besides the French music I discovered in June (French Kiss, ou Comment S’Ambiancer en Temps de Crise and Comment S’Ambiencer en Temps de Crise, Part Deux), here are some of my favorite songs and videos from the past year.

Best in Broken Hearts: Dua Lipa, “Break My Heart” (Future Nostalgia). I can’t think of anyone better to get the party started than Dua Lipa. She is always just so much fun. For obvious reasons, I also really love “Fever”, which is a bilingual outing with Angèle, who I almost put in my French music posts for her “Balance ton quoi” #MeToo anthem.

Best in Break-Ups: Halsey, “You Should Be Sad” (Manic). From the beginning of a relationship with Dua Lipa to the end of one with Halsey, who makes a banger out of the shittiest of situations (though I was very tempted to put the only slightly more optimistic “Graveyard” here instead).

Best in Breed: The Killers, “Dying Breed” (Imploding the Mirage). What? The Killers are still around you say? Yes they are. I didn’t love this album as a whole, but this one was irresistible. It really reminded me of a certain kind of Bruce Springsteen song.

Best in Background Vocals: Sylvan Esso, “Ferris Wheel” (Free). Speaking of Bruce Springsteen, his Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. was apparently one inspiration for Sylvan Esso’s latest. I always love a catchy tune from Sylvan Esso but it is the sample of kids screaming “No!” in the background that makes this one an instant summer classic.

Best in Beatings: Hayley Williams, “Dead Horse” (Petals for Armour). This is one of a handful of songs that made me get most of this album. Really interesting melodies, rhythms, and lyrics.

Best in Bow Wannabes: Raye Zaragoza, “The It Girl” (Woman in Color). A recent discovery that I just can’t get out of my head. I look forward to checking out the rest of her album more closely.

Best in Blaming: This Is the Kit, “This Is What You Did” (Off Off On). There is something about the repetitive nature of the (self) accusations here that really resonated with me in this year of holding oneself and other people accountable.

This is what you get
This is what you did
This is what they want
Why are you still here?

—This Is the Kit, “This Is What You Did”

Best in Brutal Truths: Burna Boy feat. Chris Martin, “Monsters You Made” (Twice as Tall). Speaking of holding people accountable, who better than Nigerian singer and Afrobeat king Burna Boy to take a powerful statement and make an earworm out of it.

Best in Blues: Ondara, “Isolation Blues” (Folk n’ Roll Vol. 1: Tales Of Isolation). If you remember, I featured J.S. Ondara and his debut album, Tales of America, in last year’s music round-up. Looks like he has now dropped the initials and is back with a new album, one that truly speaks to our times. This song was my favorite of the bunch, though I really liked “From Six Feet Away” as well.

Best in Boredom: Echosmith, “Lonely Generation” (Lonely Generation). Another song that speaks to our time, albeit inadvertently, as both this and “Everyone Cries” are from an album recorded well before the pandemic struck.

Best in Beats: Xavier Omär, “Find Me” (If You Feel). While mostly a mellow contemporary R&B singer, this first cut from Xavier Omär’s latest album has a certain bounce that picks me right up after a rough day.

Best in Boozers: Little Big Town, “Sugar Coat” (Nightfall). It was so hard to pick just one song from this album. In fact, when I first listened to it, at one point, I turned to the Math Greek and said, “I don’t think there’s a bad song on this album” (which, if you know me at all, is something of a miracle). I think the harmonies on “Next to You” best showcases them as a group, and of course I love “Wine Beer Whiskey”, but I’ve chosen to feature “Sugar Coat” below, mostly for its incredible lyrics.

And finally we get to the song(s) that I listened to more than any other. And really, it wasn’t even close. If this one doesn’t get at least a nomination for an Oscar, I will be very, very disappointed in the Academy.

Best in Not-Björk: Molly Sandén (My Marianne) & Will Ferrell, “Húsavík” (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga soundtrack). Of course, while this works just perfectly in terms of the film’s story, you shouldn’t sleep on the toe-tapper “Double Trouble” either.

I know what some of you are thinking, Will Ferrell? Yes, really.

And I also know what the rest of you are thinking, “Play ‘Ja Ja Ding Dong’!”

Ok, ok, fair enough.

And, on that note, let’s leave the hellscape that was 2020 in our rearview mirror and welcome 2021 with open arms!

For previous Year in Music round-ups, see
Unapologetic B*tch: The Year in Music (2014)
Surf’s Up: The Year in Music (2015)
The Year in Music 2015: Missing Links
Getting in Formation: The Year in Music (2016)
Shadow, Take Me Down: The Year in Music (2017)
Cowboys and Angels: The Year in Music (2018)
Bad Guys and Hopeful Gals: The Year in Music (2019)

*Note to email subscribers, there is embedded video in this post that may not appear in your email. Please click through to the actual post to see the complete list of selections.

Comment S’Ambiencer en Temps de Crise, Part Deux

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French, Media

Protège ton pouvoir.
Conserve ton savoir.
Protège ton histoire.
Préserve ta mémoire.

(Protect your power.
Conserve your knowledge.
Protect your history.
Preserve your memory.)

—Marcus Gad, “Pouvoir”

Did you think that French Kiss, ou Comment S’Ambiencer en Temps de Crise was all there was? Au contraire, mon frère. Here are some more songs I recently discovered, with a few lessons on geography.

First up, some French reggae artists speaking truth to power.

French note: Marcus Gad is singing about his native New Caledonia, an archipelago in the South Pacific. The status and terminology for what used to be referred to as the DOM-TOM (French overseas departments and territories) is changing all the time, nowhere more than in la Nouvelle-Calédonie, which has seen various independence movements and related unrest since the 1970s. Most recently, in 2018, voters rejected full independence and New Caledonia is a Collectivité sui generis, or special collectivity of France, with its people holding French citizenship and having representation in the French Parliament.

Above, the lead singer of the Paris-based Danakil, a reggae band that often explicitly takes on human rights issues, sings with Natty Jean, a reggae singer from Dakar, capital of le Sénégal.

French note: Although Wolof, not French, is the lingua franca of Senegal, especially in and around Dakar, French remains the official language of the country. For this reason, along with its strong musical heritage, many Senegalese artists (Youssou N’Dour, MC Solaar) can be found singing in French on the world stage.

French note: The pop-up labels that appear above each person lip-syncing to this song about judging people based on their appearance are as follows: Ellen, phys ed teacher; Frank, banker; Mohammad, music conservatory student; and Mike, veterinarian.

Speaking of not judging a book by its cover, the two lead singers of I Woks are Savoyards, that is, from la Savoie (like my family originally!), a French departément in the Alps, known more for its cute ski villages than for reggae. However, in this video they are walking through Belleville, which, for simplicity’s sake, let’s call the Brooklyn of Paris.

On est venu danser, oublier que tout va mal.
(We came to dance, to forget everything’s going badly.)

—Tal, “Mondial”

And now for something completely different, a song I found while looking for stuff related to France winning the 2018 World Cup (le Mondial). Tal is actually one of the singers that Marina Sofia recommended in the comments in my previous post on recent French music. I hadn’t made the connection until I went back through some of the songs I had set aside for future use.

French note: I’m not sure where Tal is starting off on her road trip through France. Based on the timbered house (maison à colombages) in the background and the snow, it is likely in the northeastern part of the country, but these types of houses can also be found in Normandy, Brittany, and the Auvergne, so who knows. What I do know is that she makes a stop in Marseille to pick up Soprano, featured in French Kiss, ou Comment S’Ambiencer en Temps de Crise.

In a similar vein of brotherhood and common humanity, here is Soprano with Black M. Two years later, Black M would go on to write another song about brotherhood and working together, this time with Youssou N’Dour for the official song of Les Lions, the national soccer team of Senegal.

French note: In French, the suffix -ot is used as a diminutive. For example, Charlie Chaplin, aka the Little Tramp, is known in France as Charlot. So the term frérot indicates little brother, kid brother, or even bro (but without any of the negative connotations sometimes associated with this term in English).

Le petit Guinéen chante pour le Sénégal
C’est la même chose
Sénégal, Guinée, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire
On est ensembles, Afrique de l’Ouest

(The little Guinean is singing for Senegal
It’s the same thing
Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire
We’re all together, West Africa)

—Black M, “Gainde (Les Lions)”

Speaking of the 2018 World Cup, because of the time difference, I watched most of the matches at the Alliance Française de San Francisco, which opened early on the days with French matches. Besides being conveniently located in my neighborhood, it provided the added bonus of a clearly pro-France crowd and broadcasting the games via TV5 with French announcers. To express my French pride, I usually wore the marinière my aunt bought me while we were traveling through Brittany.

French note: Originally worn by French sailors, or marins (hence the name), and generally associated with la Bretagne where many are made and sold, la marinière was first brought into regular play in the French fashion world by Coco Chanel. It re-emerged again in the 1960s with Yves Saint Laurent integrating the look into his haute couture collection and a number of other designers picking up the look, notably Jean-Paul Gaultier.

In any case, imagine my delight when I found a song dedicated to this most stereotypical of French garments, and one with excellent word play to boot. One example of this word play is “J’sais pas si t’es au courant”—a phrase that normally translates roughly as “I don’t know if you’re aware” but in this sense (following “L’océan nous emporte”), could be interpreted literally: “The ocean is carrying us away, (but) I don’t know if you are in the current.”

A “good” marinière is made of thick, tightly woven material. They are quite durable and last a long time and, in theory, could go from person to person as in the video. I don’t know if it is intentional, but at one point in the video we clearly see that this marinière is from Saint James, one of the best-known manufacturers of this type of shirt.

If Hoshi is more in the singer-songwriter tradition of Jacques Brel, Clara Luciani might be said to be carrying on the other great musical tradition of 1960s France: the pop-rock style known as Yé-Yé, popularized by the likes of Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan. And, since what’s good for the gander is good for the goose, let’s hear a little about sisterhood, shall we?

And, to close, something else completely different. I have no idea what this song from Franco-Moroccan rapper Lartiste is saying (and not just because half of it is in Portuguese), but I think we can all agree that it’s a banger.

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French Kiss, ou Comment S’Ambiancer en Temps de Crise

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French, Media

Je suis français
Ils veulent pas que Marianne soit ma fiancée
Peut-être parce qu’ils me trouvent trop foncé
Laisse-moi juste l’inviter à danser
J’vais l’ambiancer…

I’m French (but)
They don’t want Marianne to be linked with me
Maybe because they think I’m too dark
Just let me invite her to dance
I’ll liven her up…

—Black M, “Je suis chez moi”

Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

While I started out strong at the beginning of the year, 2020 soon became an epic clusterf*uck. Beyond the ongoing political nightmare, global pandemic, and civic unrest, what was supposed to be a relatively straightforward French gig quickly turned into something that could be a business school case study in how not to manage a project. It soon took over February and, after vowing not to have that happen again, I nevertheless found myself clocking in over 150 hours in the first two weeks of May. No, that is not a typo, or exaggeration. Of course, I’m thankful to have the work, but the added stress on top of everything else has really been too much to bear.

Did I mention the shelter-in-place orders in both San Francisco and Los Angeles have meant that the Math Greek and I have been sharing my studio apartment for over two months? Well, I’m happy to report we haven’t yet killed each other, although we are now under curfew so I suppose there’s no telling what may happen. I hope wherever you are reading this you are doing your best to stay healthy, safe, and sane. It’s a challenge in the best of times to be sure.

In case you need a little motivation to get you through the next few days, weeks, or months, here is one good thing that came out of my long hours: I had to catch up on recent French music and discovered a few artists that have both something to say and a way of saying it that makes you want to get up and dance. They got me through more than a few all-nighters this month. As with Stromae, I can’t believe I’m only learning of them now (especially given that they have sung with, among others, Shakira and Sting), but if you are in the same boat, here are three favorite selections from each. Enjoy!

First up is Black M, or Black Mesrimes, a Parisian rapper and singer-songwriter whose real name (referenced in the first video) is Alpha Diallo.

French notes: Marianne is the symbol of the French Republic, notably featured in the Delacroix painting La Liberté guidant le peuple. The expression s’ambiancer comes from Francophone Africa and roughly translates as motivate, liven up—basically that you are getting ready to party.

French note: This song plays on the French game of effeuiller la marguerite, the original version of “he loves me, he loves me not” which uses the following text in rotation for each plucked petal: elle m’aime… / il m’aime… 1) un peu (a little), 2) beaucoup (a lot), 3) passionnément (passionately), 4) à la folie (madly), and 5) pas du tout (not at all).

Next up is Gandhi Bilel Djuna, better known as Maître Gims, or simply GIMS. He was born in Kinshasa, but grew up in Paris. Like Black M, he got his start as a member of the hip-hop collective Sexion d’Assaut.

French note: This song alludes to Jacques Brel, a Belgian singer-songwriter from the 1950s–1960s noted for his lyrical texts, whose “Ne me quitte pas” is referenced in an early hit by Maître Gims (“Bella”).

If you don’t speak French and are looking for something you can understand at least half of, the above song is a mix of French and English, with Sia singing the English lines.

And, finally, there is Soprano, né Saïd M’Roumbaba, who originally hails from Marseille (note the accent on the motivational coach in the first video) and is just brimming with positivity.

French note: The coach’s third step is called the accent circonflexe because that is the shape one’s arms make.

French note: Among other famous names, this song references the following French celebrities: soccer star Zinedine Zidane, actress Monica Bellucci, Olympic gold medalist Teddy Riner (judo), and actor Omar Sy.

And on that note… Je vous fais le coup du ninja!

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Bad Guys and Hopeful Gals: The Year in Music

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Media

There’s a new revolution, a loud evolution that I saw
Born of confusion and quiet collusion of which mostly I’ve known

—Lana Del Rey, “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have…”

Yesterday, as I was sitting with the Math Greek in a San Francisco diner finishing up my coffee, “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish came over the speakers and, just as I realized I was unconsciously bopping my head along to the music, I noticed that the elderly black woman next to me was doing the same. And that pretty much sums up my year in music. I didn’t follow it as much as I have in the past and, along with everybody else and their mother, always seemed to come back to Eilish, who was inescapable despite the fact that I never listen to the radio of my own accord.

In any case, as I have for done for the last six years, here are some of my favorite songs and videos from the past year.

Best in Bad Guys: Billie Eilish, “Bad Guy” (When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?). Sure it was everywhere but that doesn’t mean it didn’t deserve to be. Both infectious and on point message-wise. I liked a number of songs on this incredible debut (especially “Bury a Friend”) and it was the first album I bothered to get this year.

Best in Bright Sides: Lana Del Rey, “Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – but I Have It” (Norman Fucking Rockwell!). In many ways, the antidote to Eilish, but absolutely haunting. Bonus points for best album title of the year.

Best in Beacons: Maggie Rogers, “Light On” (Heard It in a Past Life). You may remember that I included Maggie Rogers way back in my 2016 roundup for her single “Alaska” (which also appears on this, her first studio album).

Best in Beverages: Lizzo, “Juice” (Cuz I Love You). Like Maggie Rogers, this is not Lizzo’s first appearance in my year-end roundup. I also love “Truth Hurts” but that one is not really from this year so I didn’t feature it here.

Best in Beats: Lucky Daye, “Late Night” (Painted). There are not many songs that actually make me want to get up and dance, but this is one of those songs.

Best in Broncos: Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road” (7). If you know me, you know I love westerns. I do like this song, but the video is what truly sold it for me.

Best in Building Additions: Joy Williams, “Front Porch” (Front Porch). Speaking of Nashville sounds, Front Porch is the second solo effort for Joy Williams after her work in The Civil Wars (the duo officially split in 2014). If you like the sound of this single, I recommend you check out the whole album.

Best in Bodies of Water: Jake Xerxes Fussell, “The River St. Johns” (Out of Sight). In a different folk vein, Fussell is a Southern folksinger in the purest sense. All the songs on Out of Sight are traditional songs in the public domain.

Best in Bathing: Freya Ridings, “Holy Water” (Freya Ridings). If you find yourself missing Florence + the Machine, check out this single by a (relative) newcomer to the British music scene.

Best in Brooklyn: Sharon Van Etten, “Comeback Kid” (Remind Me Tomorrow). Sure, Van Etten moved to Los Angeles this past fall, but both this song and “Seventeen” seem very much infused with the vibes of her former home.

Best in Brutal Truths: J.S. Ondara, “American Dream” (Tales of America). Ondara grew up in Kenya listening to American music on his sister’s battery-powered radio and resolved to move to the United States to pursue music. Lucky for us, in 2013, he won the green card lottery and moved to Minneapolis at the age of 20. This is his debut album and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Best in Bluegrass: Molly Tuttle, “Take the Journey” (When You’re Ready). If you like a good guitar pick, look no further than this single from the debut solo album of Molly Tuttle, which contains perhaps my favorite lyric of the year—”You can try to control the weather, but the rain inside you is still gonna fall.”

Best in Blues: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, “It Ain’t Right” (Kingfish). Speaking of guitars, there are more than a few songs from Ingram’s debut album that I could have put here. His talent shouldn’t be surprising—he hails from Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of the blues, which I wrote about over in Mississippi Delta Blues. Run, don’t walk, to listen to this guy’s whole album.

Best in Boozers: G Flip, “Drink Too Much” (About Us). It is probably not surprising that my favorite song from this debut album by Australian singer-songwriter Georgia Flipo, which chronicles the ups and downs of a relationship, is about the regrets that come with drinking too much. Something that all too many people have started to do lately if recent news articles are to be believed. Personally, I can believe it. Here’s to better times ahead.

And, on that note, on to the rest of 2020!

For previous Year in Music round-ups, see
Unapologetic B*tch: The Year in Music (2014)
Surf’s Up: The Year in Music (2015)
The Year in Music 2015: Missing Links
Getting in Formation: The Year in Music (2016)
Shadow, Take Me Down: The Year in Music (2017)
Cowboys and Angels: The Year in Music (2018)

*Note to email subscribers, there is embedded video in this post that may not appear in your email. Please click through to the actual post to see the complete list of selections.

Opera 101—(Don’t) Kiss the Girl

Tags

Adaptations, Opera

There you see her
Sitting there across the way
She don’t got a lot to say
But there’s something about her
And you don’t know why
But you’re dying to try
You wanna kiss girl

—Howard Ashman, “Kiss the Girl”

The Prince tries to have his cake and eat it too and gets his just deserts in Rusalka. Photo by Cory Weaver.

Antonín Dvořák, Rusalka (1901)
Based on: the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová
Setting: Once upon a time in the land of nymphs and goblins

Plot in 101 words or less: Water nymph Rusalka moons about a Prince who moons around her lake. Her father warns that water and earth signs are ultimately incompatible but sends her to witch Ježibaba anyway. Mixed messages, dad! Ježibaba says no take-backsies on her potions but Rusalka is like cool, cool, cool, hit me. And we’re off to the castle for below-stairs gossiping! The fickle Prince likes Rusalka okay but quickly ditches her for some rando Foreign Princess, screaming, “I’ll vote for a woman, just not that woman!” He lives to regret this but only long enough to get the kiss of death from now-will-o’-the-wisp Rusalka.

Sung in: Czech
Memorable Music: “Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém” (“Song to the Moon”)

Do you think the Prince is a hunter? The darkly predatory ballroom in Rusalka. Photo by Cory Weaver.

Upon leaving the first performance of Rusalka that I attended at San Francisco Opera on June 25, I immediately thought to myself, “When does the box office open tomorrow? Because I need to see this again.” Yes, folks, it was that good. Luckily, because I hadn’t yet used either of my subscription upgrades and I was going solo, I was able to score a premium orchestra seat on the closing night for next to nothing. I also bought a second balcony ticket for Orlando because why not? I’m starting to see multiple productions in a run. What is this world coming to?

My love for Rusalka is somewhat odd because, frankly, the libretto is sort of a mess. Things don’t really make a lot of sense. Why does becoming human mean she loses her voice? What’s in it for Ježibaba exactly? Where and why does the “white doe” come in to things? Where does this foreign princess come from? (She is not the witch in disguise as in the Disney version.) Why does the princess spin on a dime and curse the prince? Why does the prince suddenly become “sick”? (Hmm, maybe the princess is supposed to be the witch.) I know it’s opera, but there are limits.

What is going on here? Who the hell knows? But it was beautiful to watch and listen to. Photo by Cory Weaver.

In any case, plot holes and loose ends aside, this production was stunning (Production: David McVicar). A real foresty-looking forest. A gorgeous ballroom. A workhorse of a kitchen. Lovely foreground and background elements (Set Designer: John Macfarlane). Exquisite costumes (Costume Designer: Moritz Junge). Beautiful music, with a superb conductor at the podium in Eun Sun Kim, who was making her San Francisco debut. [Side note: More of her in future seasons, please.] Even the bit of ballet in the castle scene was well done and integrated into the whole—something I find is not often true at San Francisco Opera (Choreographer: Andrew George).

And the singing, my god, the singing.

Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Rusalka and Kristinn Sigmundsson as her father Vodník in Rusalka. Photo by Cory Weaver.

Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen (last seen in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) as Rusalka was a picture of frustrated love and emotional torment, though I sometimes found her movements a bit peculiar. Bass Kristinn Sigmundsson, who I loved in Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) seemed perfectly cast as water goblin Vodník, a grim but ultimately loving father. A highlight of the first act was mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton’s turn as Ježibaba, the witch. After being somewhat overshadowed by Sondra Radvanovsky in Roberto Devereux, it was nice to see her steal the show here.

Jamie Barton as Ježibaba administers her potion to Rachel Willis-Sørensen in Rusalka. Photo by Cory Weaver.

At the castle, tenor Brandon Jovanovich, who I love more and more each opera (Remember him from Susannah?), sang and acted beautifully to express the twists and turns of the crazy plot and the fickle nature of his Prince. In this he was aided and abetted by Sarah Cambidge’s all too brief appearance as the dastardly and world-wise Foreign Princess. And shout out to Laura Krumm, who played the Kitchen Boy with real flair.

Finally, the cavorting of the wood nymphs, led by Adler Fellows Natalie Image, Simone McIntosh, and Ashley Dixon was raucous, fun, and just a little bit sinister.

Adler Fellows Ashley Dixon, Natalie Image, and Simone McIntosh as raucous wood nymphs. Photo by Cory Weaver.

Truly, it was the dark fairy tale you imagine (and hope for) behind the Disney version.