Subj : Music Talk
To : All
From : Matt Munson
Date : Mon Jul 28 2008 11:59 pm
The former leader of the Replacemnts, Paul Westerberg releases a track called
49:00. its 49 minute track thats for only 49 cents on amazon.
Pitchfork media discusses more.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/142448-paul-westerberg-4900
On December 31, Paul Westerberg will turn 49. Now, 49's not the most famous or
familiar of birthday milestones, but for a guy who once embodied the
frustrations and reckless follies of youth, turning almost 50 may be milestone
enough. It means Westerberg's officially old, for whatever that's worth, more
likely closer to the end than to the beginning, though given Westerberg's life
and career, the man may yet shock us all.
Certainly 49:00, Westerberg's first album in four years, is a big surprise in
and of itself. Even in this age of internet giveaways and pay-what-you-want
schemes, it came as a minor bombshell when Westerberg, with no warning,
dropped this home-recorded album-- which arrives as just a single long track
with no song titles-- selling it for the nice stunt price of $0.49. That's a
little bit more than a penny a second (the album runs a perverse 43 minutes
rather than the expected 49), which may very well be what Westerberg spent to
create it.
The guy felt the need to get something out of his system-- and get it out
fast, free from the usual fanfare, and, most importantly, free from any
expectations. 49:00 feels not unlike something Westerberg might have stuck on
a cassette and mailed to his best friends in lieu of a Christmas card. Say
what you will about Trent Reznor's generosity, The Slip freebie still felt
delivered on his rigid terms. The no-frills 49:00, on the other hand, feels
downright liberated, absolutely no strings attached, other than the ones
connecting Westerberg to his past. If there's anything to be learned from the
Replacements' various ups and downs, it's that loose and sloppy, two ways to
describe the bash and pop of 49:00, is sometimes the right approach.
Songs fade into one another like one weak radio signal on a road trip
supplanted by the next as the car crosses some invisible border. Two tracks
occasionally play simultaneously. Snippets of a dozen cover songs-- Beatles,
David Bowie, Alice Cooper, the Partridge Family-- are squeezed into the span
of a few minutes. Lyrics fade in and out of the mix, sometimes clearly,
sometimes not. "I'm going to stick around and spoil your morning." "It
wouldn't hurt to see your grandma every now and again." "Everyone's stupid in
our classroom, even our friends." "Whether you're famous or nameless, you
never go dancing in the street." "Goodnight, sweet prince." And of course: "I
gotta get it outta my system!"
Best of all, the melodies and sentiments Westerberg has always been able to
spin out, seemingly at will, are here in full force, sometimes fragmented,
sometimes implied, sometimes more fully formed, but rarely less than
heartfelt. And really, that is and always has been Westerberg's greatest gift:
To go beyond the context and simply connect, however casually. On 49:00,
cobwebs or no, that uncanny ability has rarely been clearer as he channels the
spirit of the Stones or Faces, not to mention the Replacements, or other
classic rock touchstones, though his own unique spectrum.
That something so overtly slapdash could still come off so oddly sincere is no
small part of the album's appeal (see also: prime Guided By Voices). In fact,
if 49:00 turns out to be the rock equivalent of a transitional hip-hop
mixtape, and some of these by turns brilliant and baffling bits and pieces end
up polished and expanded on a proper album, there'll still be a place for
49:00. It's music with no pretense, no purpose, no baggage, proof that when it
comes to labors of love, the latter is a much more important ingredient than
the former. - Joshua Klein, July 28, 2008
--- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
* Origin: (1:218/109)
