After completing my first play-through, in some mixed-up order thanks to iTunes being weird, I can say with confidence a few things. First, which I knew beforehand, the tracks brush several different genres, occasionally within the same song. Second, Hicks may become one of those artists (I am fond of several) whose music far exceeds their lyrics in quality; however, what is cringe-inducing today may become (like many of Paul McCartney’s lyrics) a cause for fondness in the future. Indeed, I already look back on much of Hicks’ Under the Radar in this state of mind.

My challenge in writing this review, as I will gladly confess, will be to strike a balance between forgiving the album’s various sins based on my fan status, and condemning Hicks based on any expectations I may have harbored over the past two years. Should anyone feel I have done either of these things, please feel free to call me out in the comments! On to the tracks…

“The Distance” immediately twangs country at me, the sort of bass-heavy alt-country that I actually listen to. The chorus rings 1970s anthemic. The verse lyric demands attention, a plea for neighbors, countrymen, and all peoples of Earth (here’s where the 70s anthem comes in) to realize we are more alike than not, and thus “The Distance between us fades away.” I do find it entertaining that these sorts of songs are always very musically jingoistic– I rather don’t expect to suddenly hear Arabic melodies and Czech rhythms– but I’m certain it’s meant to be uplifting, and indeed it is. My only question is about the short drumroll at the end. Huh?

“What’s Right Is Right” was the first single, released a month ahead of the album. As noted above, I did listen to it as soon as it was “leaked” (in quotes because it was a marketing strategy). It’s a MOR love ballad with a sax solo in the middle that doesn’t stray too far from the melody. There are some odd vocal phrasings that I am pretty certain are the result of digital splicing in the studio, and they can be jarring to my ear, although I have not seen any other such reactions, so maybe it’s just my hypersensitivity to that sort of thing. What I really like about this track is the Wurlitzer/B3 combo (I am a keyboard geek) and Nathan East’s bass line that seems to be more mobile than in most MOR arrangments.

“New Found Freedom” will be a sing-a-long song at concerts. Again we’re reaching into the anthemic, with a driving gospel chorus. At this point, I feel it necessary to point out that while the song has a lot of energy (may I say I am in love with Nathan East? The bass lines on this album are the shit), Hicks’ vocals only join in that energy occasionally. I realize that his strength is in live performance, and it has been said that he’s some kind of energy vampire that feeds on the audience, but he seriously needed a fire lit under his butt while recording. I’m getting more joy out of the (uncredited) backup singers.

The other early leak, “Nineteen”, is a story about a football player who gets a college scholarship, then joins the Army after 9/11. The last verse, ambiguous in lyric (the soldier he saved gives a speech in his honor, but it is uncertain whether it’s a eulogy, as the Purple Heart may be awarded for either being wounded or being killed in the line of duty), becomes less ambiguous with the slowing-down of the music and the plaintive “He was only nineteen” that ends the song. The song is quite definitely country and should play well on those stations despite our new era of Hope. (For a fascinating read about “cancer country”, which I think needs a co-genre of “soldier country”, try this 2007 Slate article.) It’s a good song, but I won’t be playing it often, since this stuff always makes me cry.

A tame, distant piano intro belies the pop-Latino-Caribbean syncopation of “Once Upon A Lover”. Anyone familiar with Hicks’ concert version of “Hold On To Your Love” will not be surprised at this attempt; however it will certainly confuse the uninitiated. The vocal highlights of this song are the trilled R in “Senorita” and Hicks’ largely sustained high range and falsetto. I also adore Brian Gallagher on flute. There seems to be (and this may just be the digital format) a lack of dynamic range in the vocal, and I hope there will be more along the lines of purring in live performances.

“Seven Mile Breakdown” will likely be familiar to denizens of the Birmingham music scene. A country blues jam co-written by Hicks and good friend Wynn Christian of Spoonful James, “Breakdown” has driving rhythms and a very familiar female backup vocal (Sharon White, as on most of the album, but it reminds me of Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock’s “Picture”). Here is where I finally hear the energy that I know lies latent in Taylor Hicks at all times, perhaps because he has such a strong bond to the song.

“Maybe You Should” is a modern yet timeless broken-hearted piano ballad. It has some absolutely gorgeous chord changes behind a pretty static melody. Lyrically, it is the first-person story of a man who thought he had true love, but perhaps does not. I would rather have seen this as the first single; misery sells, and it’s just a much better song– in terms of songwriting and in terms of recording– than “What’s Right Is Right”. I look forward to hearing it in concert; if Hicks learned to play the piano for it, I would probably die happy.

“Keepin’ It Real” is a fun New Orleans stride piano tune that (finally!) briefly features Hicks’ harmonica and sends up Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, O.J. Simpson, and the celebrity culture in general. One can conclude that it reflects Hicks’ desire to stay either under the paparazzi radar or above the superficial fray, although he rarely likes to actually clarify such things, letting his songs speak for themselves. This one could easily stand on its musical merits, bringing little new to the genre but reviving it for a new generation.

One starts to think, around the time that “I Live On A Battlefield” begins, that Hicks has rarely had a good relationship in his life. This funky groove is an exercise in metaphor, comparing a (mutually) destroyed love to a post-apocalyptic landscape. Hicks’ over-attack of the T’s in the phrase “Now shattered lord and battered/Lie scattered all around” lie in stark contrast to his lazy treatment of the line “My new home is a shell hole filled”, which I could not figure out until I read the lyrics, thankfully included in the booklet. (And he was doing really good on the enunciation until that point!)

If you’re looking for the goofy Hicks, you may almost find him in “Wedding Day Blues”. The enjoyable narrative finds our hero stealing a bride away from her own wedding– well, from the reception, booting the groom from the getaway limo and ravishing the bride…. but not before getting drunk and eating the cake, presumably before it was cut since he was then “asked… to leave”. While I wouldn’t recommend this as a way of getting your girl back, it does make for a good song, and the bluegrass fiddle playing the wedding march in the middle is a nice, if obvious, touch.

Rounding out the “official” album is “Woman’s Gotta Have It”, a tag-team remake of the Bobby Womack song featuring Hicks’ American Idol classmate Elliott Yamin. This old-school R&B slow jam shines, in my opinion, because of Yamin’s presence. Hicks has mentioned in interviews that he had Yamin come into the studio and they recorded together, and you can feel the way they played off each other. Hicks’ voice is more lively, and he graciously takes backing vocals while Yamin takes the lead on the second verse. Their harmonies are engaging and their voices complement each other quite pleasurably. Hicks has mentioned wanting to perform this song live with Yamin; my suggestion would be a co-headlining tour next year.

Hicks has annoyed his dedicated fans by releasing three “bonus tracks” to three different outlets. My download from iTunes included “Yes We Can”, an Allen Toussaint song that coincidentally echoes President Obama’s campaign motto. While I have no doubt that Hicks truly feels all of these happy “come together now” mottoes, and that is why he has included so many such songs on this album, the theme does get a bit repetitive. There is nothing wrong with the song, and the track is actually an old all-star recording over which Hicks has laid his vocal so I can’t complain about the musicianship. However, barring a USO tour (not a bad idea, actually, since Soul Patrollers have been inundating our troops with Hicks’ albums for years now) or a festival involving Willie Nelson or Bono, I can see little but fraternity fatigue for these songs in the future.

I’ve also managed to acquire the Target exclusive bonus track, “Indiscriminate Act of Kindness.” I can only assume that I’m broken, because while everyone on the fan boards seems to be emotionally devastated by this song, I started falling asleep before the first chorus. It stretches on for more than seven minutes. In an attempt to stay awake, I did some research on Foy Vance, the songwriter. “IAOK” was a B-side; the A-side was “Gabriel and the Vagabond”, which was used on Grey’s Anatomy, probably for one of those interminable montage sequences. I’ll grant that Hicks seems to be engaged with the source material, but that’s not enough to interest me.

Finally, I will not be reviewing the WalMart exclusive track at this time, because apparently none of the CDs actually made it to any of the stores. There is a rumor that people who pre-ordered the CD on WalMart.com will be getting their copies complete with “Hide Nor Hair”, but if things do not clear up soon, we may have to consider this a lesson learned about releasing four different versions of the same album. Apparently, I did hear “Hide Nor Hair” at the Baltimore shadow show last month, but I was sick throughout the performance and couldn’t tell you a thing about it. So my impression of the final bonus track will have to wait until A2M and WalMart get their act together.

For those who really didn’t like what I had to say here, please stay tuned for Mac’s review…

Which raises the question — hit records these days go to the same trendy songwriters, over and over, and ignore the living geniuses. Neil Diamond got his start writing for the Monkees, certainly he doesn’t need the money, but he must have songs in the vault that would work for young pop and country stars, and join his catalog of enduring classics. Elvis Costello is a brilliant melody maker, who can be starkly beautiful or just as angry as ever, still the boundary breaking post-punk genius.

When a young singer like Clay Aiken sings classics of the 70s or 80s, it’s dismissed as “just a cover”, and the new music is forgettable. Maybe the answer is to get the “old guys” who still have the stuff to write new classics for guys like Clay.

The best way to illustrate the hit ballad is to examine the songwriting successes of Diane Warren. I cannot stand her songs, or her personally, but she has had more hit songs than any other songwriter in the 20th/21st centuries, so where better to start?  Artists to look at are Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.

With dance songs, we built from the bottom (the beat) up. With ballads, we move in the other direction, starting with the lyrics. Lyrics should be about love, or miracles, or other inspirational things, or occasionally about lost love. Think of your average American Idol “coronation” song — you want a song that conveys both grandiosity and happiness.  (There actually used to be a random word generator on the Internet that would create a random AI song.  If anyone still has the link, please let me know!)  Use a lot of words, too, especially in your verses, and make sure to have a bridge. The bridge will come in handy later when you get to the chord and key changes. When you write the chorus, make sure to include lots of open vowels — oohs, ohs, and ahs. Avoid ee’s, because they sound screechy when held and hiccupy when Mariah goes into melisma (a/k/a “runs”).

Which brings us to the melody. Long, sweeping phrases and an opportunity for the eventual singer to show off his or her vocal range and breath control are key. (Unless you know you’re writing for someone with no vocal range or breath control, like Madonna or Britney.) Don’t write too many notes, as a basic outline is fine. The singer will have their own style for filling in the blanks, honed over years of impressing Star Search judges. The singer’s style will also serve as a reminder of the genre they have been pigeonholed into: a country singer will be more yodely and a pop singer will be more punchy. Also, your chord progressions will provide them with a guide.

So what’s all this about chord progressions and key changes?  Well, other than providing support for the melody, chord progressions let everyone know if the song is happy, sad, uplifting, depressing, inspirational or whatever other emotion you’re trying to impart.  In fact, it can be all of these things in turns!  Without going into detail (I’ll save that for another post) there are literally hundreds of kinds of chords and combinations of chords that can convey with subtlety or with a 2×4 over the head what mood your song is in.  This is more complicated than simply putting the song into a major or minor key.  And speaking of key, remember back up there in the lyric section when I was telling you about the bridge?  The bridge (as well as the final chorus) is an excellent place to throw in a key change.  Some key changes are done for mood, but much of the time in the hit ballad, a key change serves as an opportunity for the singer to do some showboating and go up a fifth (that is, from “do” to “sol”), thereby conveying both “I am inspiring you” and “I can sing even higher notes than I was before!”  The inspirational part actually dates back to the music of the early Catholic Church, and it’s pretty much ingrained in most of Western civilization.  The showboating part didn’t show up until opera was invented.

The least important part of a ballad is the bass and percussion.  In fact, many ballads will neglect the bottom of the sound spectrum entirely.  One big exception is anything sung by Barry White, because he is the bottom of the spectrum.  Another exception is anything else that’s meant to be seductive.  Bass often moves slowly, and therefore it is associated with sexy movements.  As for percussion, the drummer gets the most exercise in hair metal band ballads, since he was sitting there anyway.  Also, the timpani (big kettle drums) are popular when you get into the grandiose, inspirational parts of songs, because they are incredibly dramatic.

Now, while I was discussing chords, I neglected to mention instrumentation.  There are several options, depending on your mood.  With your traditional Diane Warren ballad, you’ll probably find piano (the instrument she composes on) or sweeping string sections.  If your ballad is being played by a rock band (or a hair metal band) you’ll want a distorted or fuzz guitar; other bands might employ organ, depending on the makeup of the band.  Another option is brass, although you will be leaning more towards French horns and tubas (low register) than trumpets and trombones (high register), unless you’re at the “inspirational” part of the song.  Sexy saxophones of all flavors are also good, especially for makeout songs!  In the modern indie-rock tradition, there are a lot of acoustic guitars and pianos with very spare arrangments; in fact, this seems to be incredibly popular right now.  I’m pretty sure Sarah Bareilles and Colbie Caillat dominate this sub-genre on the ladies’ side.

So that pretty much sums up the midtempo ballad.  Questions?  Comments?  Let me know what your favorite love song is, try to shoot down my arguments, whatever strikes your fancy.

I’ll be back in a few days with my discussion of novelty songs, the freaks of the hit world, and their apparent decline in the past decade.

My personal experience is that there are two “usual” types of hits: the uptempo dance number, and the midtempo ballad (a/k/a makeout song). In this blog, I’m going to examine uptempo songs. Later, we’ll cover ballads, and the third, rogue category, the novelty song (which can occasionally fit into one or the other of the first two categories). Now, on to the hits!

The backbone of a danceable song is the backbeat. (It even has “back” in it!) This usually consists of drums (or some kind of percussion, drum machine, etc.) and some kind of bass line, either from bass guitar, “stand up” double bass, or maybe the left hand of the piano or organ player. This is what you tap your feet or fingers to, it’s what you move and groove and shake your booty to. It’s what made people on American Bandstand say, “It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it, I give it an 8.5″ for many, many years. If you haven’t got a beat, you haven’t got a hit dance song.

If you’re reading a score, the backbeat is on the bottom. Building upward, you find the instruments that play (or create) chords: keyboards, guitars, and string and horn sections. Chords are nice; they move around and create a mood, and then they resolve and finish the song (or section). Without getting into the technical details, I’ll just say that there are ways of doing this that are “usual” and ways that are “unusual”. The usual suspects are simple triads (made of 3 notes) and that’s your basic rock ‘n roll or punk song. When you get a songwriter who really knows what s/he’s doing, and s/he does something unusual, then you get a song that’s not only mass-market enjoyable, but stimulating. People actually like that. However, they don’t like “weird”, so if you’re using this post as a songwriting guide (I hope not!), be careful of weirdness.

Up at the top of our hypothetical score are the lead “instruments”, which can be just about anything that plays a melody: lead guitar, vocals, piano, sax, and if you’re Jethro Tull, flute. Here’s where the “catchiness” factor of a hit song comes into play. Like Blues Traveler said, “The hook brings you back.” So what’s the hook? Hum or sing your favorite song. The part you know best and sing loudest is probably the hook! Oftentimes, the hook is the title of the song or the fun part of the chorus. It gets repeated a lot. And in a hit song, it should be easy for the majority of people to sing. Most people who listen to the radio and enjoy songs are not trained singers, and they don’t have the range of, say, Mariah Carey. (I do, but this isn’t about me.) So take pity on your shower singers and car karaoke stars, and watch the range.

Finally, and this is optional: the lyrics. I say this is optional because there are plenty of songs out there that people sing that do not have lyrics. One of my personal favorites is… um… well, I can’t remember the name of it, because it doesn’t have any words! Oh well. Maybe I’ll remember it for the next installation of this mini-series. Anyway, if I could hum it through the blog, you’d probably know it too. And I hum or la-la-la along with tons of classical music that doesn’t have words. So lyrics are optional. And if you do have lyrics, frankly, they don’t have to make sense. In fact, it probably helps if they don’t. And if, like “Louie Louie”, the words are slurred? That’s pretty much an instant hit.

I’ll be back in a week or so with Midtempo Ballads, or Seduction In 12/8 time. Your homework assignment is to listen to the popular dance music of your generation with an ear to what I’ve discussed here, and report back as to whether I’m right. Class dismissed!

As a singer/songwriter, she paved her own way in the early 70’s and was able to almost seamlessly achieve and blend critical and commercial success – not an easy feat.  Of course, her success is even more impressive given that she’s rarely toured, suffering through bouts of debilitating stage fright throughout her career. 

Interestingly, when I listen to Carly’s music, it sometimes doesn’t feel right for the stage anyway; her delivery and lyrics are so intimate and personal, often, that it feels more like you’re sitting across the table from her sharing a cup of coffee and that she’s not really singing so much as speaking to you – not some generic audience, but YOU – with her carefully crafted words.

While she, indeed, possesses a distinctive voice – you know it as soon as you hear it – Carly’s gift isn’t necessarily her vocals per se, but her ability to tell stories through her songs, stories that draw you in, but always remain open to interpretation, and never offer an easy resolution.  I love that about her music.  That 30 years after the fact, people are still guessing the mysterious subject of her hit, “You’re So Vain,” is a testament to her ability as a storyteller. 

Many artists sing about relationships gone bad, or cheating lovers, but there was something about Carly’s composition and delivery of this song that raised the stakes somehow – people just HAD to know, and they still want to know.  “You walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht…” — one of the best opening lines of a song ever.

Speaking of opening lines, while each of her songs, as a whole, tells a story, her brilliance as a songwriter is showcased in the power of her individual lyrics to tell stories of their own, apart from the larger narrative of the song.  I’ve been moved sometimes by a simple lyric – a phrase or two that plays over again in your mind and evolves and becomes imbued with new meaning each time you hear it. 

One of my favorite songs of Carly’s is one of her earliest hits, “Anticipation,” a song that she wrote (no lie) while getting ready for a date with Cat Stevens (yes, this all geeks me out).  The song is interesting because given that it was written by a songwriter in her early 20’s,  it’s so smartly reflective about love, lust, the angst of dating, and the heady mix of elation and insecurity one often feels in the early stages of a relationship.  The line I love best in this song, though, is the last line of the final verse:

And tomorrow we might not be together
I’m no prophet, I don’t know nature’s way
So I’ll try to see into your eyes right now
And stay right here, ’cause these are the good old days.

Normally, you hear mature songwriters pining away about the stolen days of youth or the innocence they lost along the way – if they’d only have known then, what they know now, they would have appreciated those “good old days.”  But it seems like Carly always knew, and this is what makes her so special.

One of my favorite songs by two of my favorite artists:

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Here’s another of my favorite Carly songs, that she wrote about her children, featuring her son Ben in the video: 

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Many of our readers are directed here through the Taylor Hicks fan network, so I will introduce Pet Sounds by reminding you that it was Taylor’s first album of the month on HQ back in October 2007.  To people who like to read Top 10 lists, you’ll find Pet Sounds or songs from it at the top of many lists, including “Greatest Album Ever” and many artists’ “Most Influential Albums”.  This jewel of an album, clocking in at just over 30 minutes and packed with some of songwriter Brian Wilson’s best work, was released in 1966 and was a direct influence on its more famous and popular contemporary, the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album.

Like many great works of art, Pet Sounds was not appreciated by the general public in its own time.  The vaguely symphonic sound, more mature lyrics and comprehensive feel of the album were confusing to Beach Boys fans who were anticipating another record full of happy, sun-surf-and-cars pop songs.  It was better appreciated by the tastemakers of the time, the other musicians who were outgrowing the “teenage” phase of rock & roll and getting ready to move into the drug-fueled psychedelia of the late 60s.  Unfortunately for Brian Wilson, a man of fragile confidence, he was about six months ahead of the rest of the world.

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In the above video, Brian sings lead on a demo version of “God Only Knows,” which was named “Greatest Love Song” several years ago.  I’ve chosen “God Only Knows” as representative of the entire Pet Sounds album, because it is one of the best known cuts and also because it really is well representative of the album.  It also happens to be one of my favorite songs.  The album version is sung by Brian’s youngest brother, Carl, because of the emotion Brian felt Carl could bring to the song.  (If you were going to classify the Wilson brothers according to genre, Brian is pop and jazz, Carl was soul and blues, and Dennis, the middle brother, was raw rock & roll.)

“God Only Knows” is a love song, but it is a curious love song.  It begins with the phrase, “I may not always love you,” which does not seem particularly committed until you continue along to, “but long as there are stars above you, you never need to doubt it.  I’ll make you so sure about it: ‘God Only Knows’ what I’d be without you.”  (Please note that the punctuation is not original, this is just how I see it when I hear it.)  Imagine, for a moment, your significant other confessing, “I don’t know what kind of person I would be without your influence on me.”  That is the emotional impact of this song.  Pet Sounds is full of these not-so-obvious turns of phrase, and it requires the listener to actually listen, to stop and think about the words.

For those musically inclined, the music itself should stop and make you think.  Brian was greatly influenced by the jazz harmonies of the Four Freshmen and by the compositions of George Gershwin. At the same time, he was also being influenced by the same thing that everyone else in the music scene was influenced by in 1966: marijuana. He became obsessed with creating the perfect album, and with experimentation in the studio. He spent hours getting exactly the right sound for his songs, hours that his record company saw as dollar signs going down the toilet. To get Capitol off his back, the Beach Boys released the semi-live Party! album and the single “Barbara Ann”. Compare the howling of “Barbara Ann” with the delicate instrumentation of “God Only Knows” or even the island-influenced arrangement of the cover “Sloop John B” and you can understand why teenage fans might have been confused.

However, to certain fans, those who were growing up along with the Beach Boys (all, by that time, in their 20s), or perhaps those who had always been more mature than their peers, Pet Sounds became the soundtrack to a more angst-filled time of life.  The themes of love, loss and pain were laid bare, but always with Brian’s signature hopeful music.  And that is what keeps the album from becoming a vat of depression in which to wallow (although I and many other fans will admit to having done that): there is always a major chord, an uplifting progression, a quirky turn of phrase to draw you out of your despair and appreciate the genius of this music and the beauty of love.

Brian Wilson will be performing at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on Sunday, July 13.  If you would like to experience Pet Sounds for yourself, I recommend listening to it in mono first, as Brian mixed it, and then listening to the later stereo version.  It is available on Amazon.com.

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