CHALLENGE EXTRA Top 10 Q-BGLT Albums of 2015 by Bill Realman Stella
10. Sam Gleaves ~ Ain't We Brothers Gleaves can lay claim to the new voice of 2015, clear as mountain air, and bright as a brand new penny. Perfectly balanced between beautifully sung, arranged, and performed songs in the acoustic Appalachian Bluegrass / Country Folk traditions, and authentically real, openly Gay lyrics rarely heard in those traditions, Sam Gleaves' first album of primarily original songs is a tribute to love: Love of performing the music that has lodged itself deep within his heart, and music to express love for and about his heart's desire. "Ain't We Brothers", the title track, is a Country music story song with an activist's insight that the personal is political, and that connecting individuals working toward common goals builds community. Based on the true experience of a West Virginia Gay coal miner's struggle with harassment, the chorus is a call to our higher angels, grounded in nerve and sinew: "First things first, I’m a blue collar man/ With scars on my knuckles, dust on my hands./ You probably wouldn’t have ever known/ That I’ve got a man waiting on me at home./ To tell you the truth, I don’t want to fight,/ I just want to say one thing outright to you/ Ain’t we flesh and blood all through,/ And ain’t we brothers too?" That's a question that has to touch and melt the hardest heart. But the album's centerpiece is "The Golden Rule", featuring the album's producer and Grammy-winning Folk and Family music dynamo Cathy Fink. If I were a betting man I would say this song will become a surefire Top 10 surprise hit. Starting with a plaintive, churchy piano before launching into an uptempo singalong, the words dream aloud for equality and grace for all. "The Golden Rule"'s honest, naive message put to song would cut through all the pop electronica on the charts as a singular alternative. Gleaves faces us toward a better future, and gifts us that vision, gift wrapped as a throwback tied to the songs of brotherhood and peace of the 70s, 80 and 90s. Speaking of melting hearts, this here atheist wants nothing more than to give a return hug to the embrace of the lyrics "In my God’s Bible, you can read it all./ 'One who loves another, they have fulfilled the law.'/ When the hate is spoken, this I know is true:/ Do unto others as you’d have them do to you" "The Golden Rule" strikes a golden chord. Love of Bluegrass does not contradict Gay love. Rather, they beautifully compliment each other. Hear every track of Ain't We Brothers starting here.
9. Faith No More ~ Sol Invictus Roddy Bottum, talking about the song that broke a seventeen year drought of new Faith No More music, said "Something called "Motherfucker" just felt like a nice place for us to kick off a new chapter." Bottum, the real name of Faith No More's keyboardist and songwriting contributor ("We Care A Lot", "Epic") has been Out in a leading Hard Rock / Metal band before practically anyone. Not to dismiss the fact that Sol Invictus is a fantastic album packed with guitar-thick tracks peppered with piano (the most-overlooked essential ingredient of any great rock band) but history is important here too. Publicly out since an interview for an English rock newspaper in 1993 (for context, Elton John was known as the most Gay-identified Rock musician for decades, but also as someone who'd recently ended his heterosexual marriage), Bottum asserted to Lance Loud in The Advocate, decades before it became commonplace for celebrities to focus on supporting Gay youth, that the context of coming out for him was that he "thought [it] was an important angle, and I don't mean that in an egocentric way. Kids who are into hard rock and who may be dealing with the possibility of being gay themselves don't see a lot of positive role models." In the same interview he captured, as well as anyone ever has, the Catch-22 aspect of being an Out public figure: "From now on anytime my name will be brought up, my sexual preference will be one of the first things discussed. It's a way of categorizing people that seems kind of creepy to me. I mean, it shouldn't be like that, right? How many aspects of a personality are there? So many." Today that attitude is so commonplace that we take it for granted, but in its day it was rare and brave. Sensible, forward-thinking Rock musicians? Hell yes! This is what I've long expected of the musicians I love: observant and often articulate people who came to smart conclusions many years before the rest of the public catches on. While the public at large enforced the image of stupid headbanging sex-addicts on Rock & Rollers (that selffulfilling prophecy played itself out), some held on to convictions that Rock spoke volumes (not just with volume). The songs on Sol Invictus confirm those convictions. The dynamic and dynamics-filled "Sunny Side Up" melds funky Living Color-worthy Rock to an elegant keyboard-led chordal progression. "Superhero" questions our modern culture's predisposition to build up the god-like qualities of leaders' characters to sell us on them (then to sell us the story of their fall, all just fodder for entertainment). And the huge, demanding sound of those tracks, and of "Cone of Silence", and of the entire album really, delivers a gut-shaking impact many bands can't fulfill no matter how loud and aggravated their stance. Hear every track of Sol Invictus starting here.
8. Kat Robichaud and The Darling Misfits ~ Kat Robichaud and The Darling Misfits If ever there was a contestant from NBC's "The Voice" whose follow up album should have been a big commercial success, it should have been Kat Robichaud. A Gay rights advocate and ally with a dedicated San Francisco following (How about diverting our considerable diva-crowning energies to Kat, for one, rather than all those you-knowwho's?), Robichaud's album is big on heart, daring and ideas. It's a Rock & Roll carnival, filled with moves that shouldn't work but do, big time. You've heard this kind of thing tried, and failed, before, if you've ever heard any band try to put on a spectacle and wind up sounding cheap instead. But she gets it much better than right. Robichaud and company sound like they've engaged a magical movie musical's worth of talent to come up with these dramatic, fun and entertaining tracks. Just look at that album cover. The music delivers what it promises: a hardfought win over the potential - and the potential chaos - that can be found on a Rock & Roll stage. The stakes raised here are high - not an easy thing to accomplish within the scope of "mere" music - and the aural payoff is first-rate. Driving drumming, growling guitars and classic Rock keys support Robichaud's powerful, expressive vocals. Effects, strings, background vocalists, horn fills, solos - these extras are not extras: they more than effectively keep things fresh. This is one album where the absurdity of writing about music, which I call Dancing to Architecture (because that's what writing about music sometimes feels like) is in full effect. One has to listen to have the experience. But in this instance, to read Robichaud's song titles, in sequence, should suffice to illuminate every corner of her clever circus: The Elephant Song, Uh Oh, Somebody Call The Doctor, It's Cruel That You Should Be So Beautiful , Rock Stars Don't Apologize, Electrotica [STOP. Read that again. Yes, it did. Yes, it does say Elect-rotica.], Out Of Chrysalis A Light, Of Course There's Still Room, And Now Ladies And Gentlemen A Dirge, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Definition Of Pretty, The Apple Pie And The Knife, Why Do You Love Me Now (click links for videos), The Elephant Song (as Sung By The Ringmaster). <-- Right there, see? "Ringmaster"! Told you it was a circus! Hear every track of Kat Robichaud and The Darling Misfits starting here.
7. Kacey Musgraves ~ Pageant Material Mostly co-composed by Out songwriter Shane McAnally, who also produced the entire album, this material - the songs - deserve their own winner's parade. Like 2013's stellar Same Trailer, Different Park, Pageant Material 's songs are so good and so well-produced that it's as if they arrived via time warp from some great stronghold of Country-infused Pop classics. I can imagine this music succeeding in any era from the 1950s to now - In other words, these songs aren't just strong, they transcend decades. The album heads out with "High Times", a "Let's not bullshit each other" statement of the purpose and recurrent pun. The title tune, "Pageant Material" commits to the switcheroo: "I ain't pageant material", but it's all good because "I ain't exactly Ms. Congenial/ â&#x20AC;Ś / I'd rather lose for what I am than win for what I ain't". Out Lesbian Brandy Clark co-wrote four songs as well, including the hit "Biscuits", and you don't have to get hit over the head to get its message, a reminder to "Mind your own biscuits", as someone's mother used to say. Every song in this set comes with its charms. But one song, helmed with an ordinary title, steps into the especially extraordinary: "Somebody To Love" begins with the plain and unusual harmony of two fiddles playing in unison, then in fourths, then in unison again, evoking calm bagpipes. That continues as Musgraves sings the opening verse, joined for verse two by a harmony vocal and an arpeggiating nylon-stringed acoustic guitar. The result is a unique magic that sets a tone of familiarity and uncertainty. "Somebody To Love"'s lyrics speak universally, and with special meaning for Q-BGLT folks: "We're all good, but we ain't angels/ We all sin, but we ain't devils/ We're all pots and we're all kettles/ But we can't see it in ourselves/ We're all livin' 'til we're dying/ We ain't cool, but man, we're trying/ Just thinking we'll be fixed by someone else// We all wrangle with religion/ We all talk, but we don't listen/ We're all starving for attention then we'll run/ We're all paper, we're all scissors/ We're all fightin' with our mirrors/ Scared we'll never find somebody to love." Country Music prides itself on telling stories about real people, featuring clever turns of phrase and plaintive harmonies. But Pageant Material executes every expected move with such finesse that Musgraves and McAnally take all that to a new level of all that. Hear selections from Pageant Material starting here.
6. John Grant ~ Grey Tickles, Black Pressure Nerd Bear to the rescue! A singer/songwriter at the peak of his talents, Grant delivers sharp-tongued lyrics and Electronica tinges for you to unleash your funky white boy to. With a third critically acclaimed album in five years (following Queen of Denmark and Pale Green Ghosts), he's doing the only thing one could do in the face of success: Move to Iceland, to find a home, community, and inspiration. "Grey tickles" could be said to arise from the way his lyrics stimulate one's grey matter. His "black pressure" is more personal, about balancing a life acknowledging demons and enjoying happiness he has worked for. Highlights: Vocals that channel Frank Zappa's silly/snide delivery and bass range on "You & Him" and "Snug Slacks", the fact that finally someone wrote a song called "Snug Slacks", the manic, pizzicato strings on "Guess How I Know", and and every insult to somebody's character that begins so smoothly that you should have seen it coming but don't. To indulge in the "favorite obsession" of so many, how can one not feel all warm and tingly in the face (ahem) of lyrics like "And what we got down here is oceans of longing" ("Down Here") and "Now let's get you out of those and see what kind of punch your manhood packs" ("Snug Slacks" again)? And how undeniably genius is a lyric that skirts being misunderstood as dour cynicism, only to be an inventive expression of love in the highest degree? Witness "Disappointing", a list song with a twist: "Ballet dancers with or without tights/ Central Park on an autumn day/ Will always be stunning and never cliché [Chorus] All these things they're just disappointing/ All these things they're just disappointing compared to you/ There‘s nothing more beautiful than your smile as it conquers your face/ There‘s nothing more comforting than to know, know you exist in this time, in this place." Awesome video, too. Hear every track of Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, starting here.
5. Mashrou' Leila ~ Ibn El Leil I didn't expect this. Who in America would have? Who'd have expected a band from Lebanon would be creating some of the most innovative yet accessible sounds in Rock? And that its leader is an Out Gay man? Hamed Sinno is that man, and Mashrou' Leila is that band. I. Love. Them. Mashrou' Leila,a Lebanese five-member Alternative Rock band, formed in 2008 at the American University of Beirut. They're well-known in the Levant and Europe, but by singing in Arabic they've been a tougher sell in the U.S." 3 Minutes" is a swinging track with a melody that sticks to the roof of your brain, with Haig Papazian's violins played tauntingly. You can appreciate it without knowing the meaning of the lyrics at all, but in translation the lyrics are heavy and awesome: "Why bother being, instead of becoming?/ Anyway, all things live to die as a new tune./ The difference between freedom and submission is agency./ I made the choice. I permitted it. I said it.// Call the devil by his name, and call a musician a liar./ Half the things I feel, I imagined altogether." "Djin" projects a tribal, ritualistic aura which takes me on a trip, way back, to the guitar-light shades of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil". "Maghawir" critiques violence in the wake of two recent Beirut shootings. Not to say it's all serious - Not at all! "Falyakon" reminds me of the joy and abandon of Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" So. Have you been complaining that everything sounds the same? That nothing sounds new anymore? Discover Mashrou' Leila. Listen. Watch. Believe. You can discover them for yourselves. Music videos with the English language lyrics of the entire new album are at my OutGayMusic YouTube channel starting here.
4. Brandi Carlile ~ The Firewatcher's Daughter Nominated for a 2015 Best Americana Album Grammy, her first, Carlile's fans - including a substantial number of TV hosts and music critics - have found plenty of fine quality songwriting and singing to sink into and enjoy with her latest release. It's a mystery to me how The Firewatcher's Daughter hasn't caught on with a broader audience. I'll take Carlile & Co. over Mumford & Sons any and every time. The differences that cause Carlile to stand out from the mundane pack of revivalists and pseudo-Folk amplifiedacousticians within Contemporary Folk can be heard in the quality of the band's voices. Carlile collaborates with brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth, and the harmonies live and breathe and take flight, most notably on "The Eye". But a measure of how great this album is is its range, and on "Mainstream Kid" the band's Roots Rock instincts take over where Bonnie Raitt's left off. Hear every track of The Firewatcher's Daughter, starting here with "Wherever Is Your Heart (I Call Home)".
3. Original Broadway Cast ~ Fun Home While "Hamilton" has deserved all the acclaim it has gotten this year, this here is the 2015 Tony Award for Best Musical's Original Broadway Cast album. 2014's Off-Broadway / Public Theater Original Cast album took essentially the same spot on my 2014 list, but this recording reveals the way the score has evolved. Fun Home features the best Out song heard in years, "Ring Of Keys". Sydney Lucas embodies the story of a girl having a moment of recognition, that recognition, suddenly clear about who she's attracted to. Her heart-tugging performance is a tearjerking listening experience for me every time. Hear every track of Fun Home, the Original Broadway Cast, starting here.
2. Bettye LaVette ~ Worthy This year I decided that we Q-BGLT folks, long endeared to our divas, needed to champion some different divas. Most everyone among stereotypical so-called divas from Madonna to Ariana bore me silly. I'd like to see more vocalists with a deep range of chops to carry our diva torch. Top of my list is vocalist par excellence Bettye Lavette. A woman who has lived it all, it would do her a disservice to merely call her vocals "smoky" or her style "soulful". Like the best, most engaging singers, every choice she makes, from choosing which songs to sing to how to inflect a syllable, demonstrates mastery. Worthy delivers her gift to us on an elegantly understated but powerful platter. The title song is composed by no less than Out singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier. (Here's her 2014 recording of her song.) Note that Lavette has long been happily heterosexually married, but her recent memoir "A Woman Like Me" honestly and tenderly and bluntly spoke about many aspects of her life, including previous love affairs with women. Hear every track of Worthy starting here with the quiet but not shy "Wait".
1. Sleater-Kinney ~ No Cities To Love Sleater-Kinney is a band that makes new Rock & Roll new again. Most "New Rock" bands catch the ears of each new wave of fans merely by providing a style enough out of favor to seem new to those who haven't been exposed to it for the half-decade they've been paying any attention. But listen to Sleater-Kinney and you'll hear Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, and Janet Weiss find new ways to make simple, powerful music. And you will hear them find new ways to add textures and complexities. Besides, in Janet Weiss they have a great Rock & Roll drummer. Classic Rock fans who are not already Sleater-Kinney fans, I implore you: Take time soon to sit down with No Cities To Love, and with The Woods, their previous album, which may be an even better way in, for those of you inclined to stick with the classic Rock originators. (In fact, "Entertain" from The Woods leads off with drumming that always brings to mind the power and finesse of Keith Moon (without in any way imitating him.) You can't be schooled to come up with the riffs and interplay going on during "Surface Envy". You can't study for the unique perspective of title track "No Cities To Love". You can't set a rhythm machine or utilize software to come up with the patterns and shifts of "Price Tag". The pay off for having open ears is you get to hear the distinctions between Sleater-Kinney's inventions and inventiveness, and how many other bands just imitate and muck around. The most unlikely video of the year, "A New Wave", employs characters from TV's "Bob's Burgers" to draw the best depiction of the fun and joy of sharing a great Rock song. Hear the rest of No Cities To Love starting here. My Rock & Roll heart has been thrilled to have No Cities To Love accompany me throughout most all of 2015, and I hope its power and invention provide you with creativity support and inspiration in the new year and beyond.
The Next 5: 11. Fred Hersch ~ Solo "Masterful Jazz-informed solo piano, live in concert" 12. Empire Cast ~ Empire Soundtrack Season 1 "Surprise hit TV series stars multi-talented Jussie Smollett" 13. Joe Jackson ~ Fast Forward "Best new album from 80s hitmaker since 2003's 'Volume 4' " 14. Tom Robinson ~ Only The Now "Intriguing, engaging concept album from 'Glad To Be Gay' pioneer" 15. Steve Grand ~ All American Boy "Worth having for the title track, and its video, alone, but stay for it all" Special "Awards": Best So-called Comeback of 2015: Sleater-Kinney ~ No Cities To Love (#1) Best Q-BGLT Music Video of 2015: "Breath and Sound" Tom Goss, feat. Matt Alber Best Album Title of 2015: "Last Time I Promise" ~ Brady Earnhart (#25 on my Top 30 Q-BGLT list), for its sneakyintriguing double meaning, which both are appropriate to the circumstances of the artist. Briefly: Last Time [that] I Promise, (or) [for the] Last Time, I Promise. Think of it both/either as (a) "This is the last time ever that I make a promise" and/or as (b) "This is the last time I do this (release an album), I promise(, sadly)". Best Song of 2015: "Same As It Ever Was (Start Today)" ~ Michael Franti & Spearhead Best "Sound" Song of 2015 titled "X and Y": (tie) "Sound and Color" Alabama Shakes, "Breath and Sound" Tom Goss, feat. Matt Alber Best Repeat Performance of 2015: On my all-inclusive (not just Q-BGLT) Best of 2014 list, The Original OFFBroadway Cast recording of Fun Home was #7 last year, and #7 in 2015 is the Original Broadway Cast recording of Fun Home. Album Covers of 2015: (tie) Tame Impala ~ Currents; Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings ~ It's A Holiday Soul Party; A Great Big World ~ When The Morning Comes (#23 on the Top 30 Q-BGLT list) for both album and "Hold Each Other" (single) art.
The 30 Best Q-BGLT Albums of 2015 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.
Sleater-Kinney ~ No Cities To Love Bettye LaVette ~ Worthy Original Broadway Cast ~ Fun Home Brandi Carlile ~ The Firewatcher's Daughter Mashrou' Leila ~ Ibn El Leil John Grant ~ Grey Tickles, Black Pressure Kacey Musgraves ~ Pageant Material Kat Robichaud & The Darling Misfits ~ Kat Robichaud & The Darling Misfits Faith No More ~ Sol Invictus Sam Gleaves ~ Ain't We Brothers Fred Hersch ~ Solo Empire Cast ~ Empire Soundtrack Season 1 Joe Jackson ~ Fast Forward Tom Robinson ~ Only The Now Steve Grand ~ All American Boy Halsey ~ Badlands ("New Americana") PWR BTTM ~ Ugly Cherries Angel Haze ~ Back To The Woods (+ "Candlxs", not on album) Esperanza Spaulding ~ Presents Emily's D+Evolution Harrison Blythe ~ Fatal Highway Stose ~ Civil Disobedience (EP) Le1f ~ Riot Boi A Great Big World ~ When The Morning Comes Micah Barnes ~ New York Story ("Harlem Moon") Brady Earnhart ~ Last Time I Promise Melissa Etheridge ~ A Little Bit of Me: Live in L. A. KINGSHIP ~ The Neon Kingdom (EP) ("Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely") 28. Various artists ~ Christmas Queens ("Naughty Or Nice") 29. Nakhane TourĂŠ ~ The Laughing Son (EP) ("The Plague") 30. Rachel Sage ~ Blue Roses