Intensely emotional singer-songwriters might be the genre for which I have the lowest threshold for crappiness. The second the singer seems to be going over the top without sincerity (through my slightly jaded perception, I suppose) or is lacking the vocal chops to pull off his or her grand statement, I completely tune out. If you're gonna sing about your shoes filling up with rain at a funeral, you better bring it, or I'm gonna dump the water on your overly maudlin head. A select few can pull it off, and when it's right, it can be magical. Astral Weeks by Van Morrison defies description, so I'll describe it for you here. Apparently he went into the studio, showed the musicians the lyrics, and just told them to play it how they feel. The jazz musicians went off, and somehow it worked. Sometimes the album sounds shambolic and exuberant, and other times it sounds balanced and peaceful. If there could ever be a benevolent exorcism performed, I think Morrison's vocals on this album would be the result. Though it would interesting to do a remix of the album with Linda Blair's Lucifer-channeling voice singing these tunes instead of Van. Just to see how it would turn out. Emo-classic-horror-core.
Jeff Buckley blew up when I was in high school. He died very young, as did his father, so of course the talk about him focuses as much on that mythology as on the music itself. He pulled off really emotional lyrics because he had an amazing voice, and could play the gee-tar like a champ. Grace is a great album, and these are two of my favorite tracks.
PS: There are four new albums I've been looking forward to that I HAVE to listen to this week. I am convinced (or hoping desperately) that I will really like at least one of these albums. I really need some new music.
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