Beyond the obvious grammatical faux pas of starting each paragraph of the article “50 Songs Every Man Should Be Listening To” with the word Because (example: “Because these reunited Brooklyn-based alt-country pioneers are staging two comebacks- one for themselves, the other for the kazoo.” referring to the song Me No by Clem Snide), Esquire has gone out on a limb to not only advise it’s readers to listen to some pretty horrible music (new Guns N’ Roses, new Metallica, any Coldplay at all) but their reasons for listening to the songs run the gamut from being straight up absurd, to downright offensive.
Chuck Klosterman advises Esquire readers to listen to a song by Benji Hughes based on the way the musician appears on the cover of his album. “The moment I saw the cover, I knew: I was going to love this music.” Now, don’t get me wrong; I love Klosterman’s writing. His breadth of knowledge of popular culture makes his writing immensely entertaining, and usually allows him to have pretty astute analyses of music and musicians. But then again, only half of his writing actually seems to take itself seriously; the rest of it is mostly incomprehensive dribble about his inability to cope with women and reality. So chalk this one up as one of Chuck’s misses, because to judge the quality of an album or song by the cover art is as absurd as deciding to buy a dog because you think the dog food package looks cool.
But it gets weirder. The 13th song that “Every Man Should Be Listening To” is Sex on Fire by….James Morrison? WTF? Didn’t Jim Morrison die in 1971? Upon further internet based research, it has come to my attention that there is a British singer-songwriter (whose parents must have been huge Doors fans) who plays soft acoustic pop. Now, I admit I know very little about his musical abilities, or how well he plays this song. But cmon! The Kings of Leon just put out (in my opinion) their most listenable album to date. It may not be their best, but it’s certainly their most approachable, as evidenced by them finally getting radio recognition in the
But let’s move on to where it gets downright offensive. Describing Dear Wife off My Morning Jacket’s Live from
While there are many more decisions that I disagree with, I will commend the editors of Esquire for posting songs by Dan Auerbach (When The Night Comes), The Raconteurs (Old Enough), and Mos Def (Quiet Dog), three great bands/artists who do not get nearly enough recognition. The rest of the suggestions look like a cross between a Top-50 Hit radio stations daily playlist, and last weeks posts from Pitchfork, two forms of media that I try my best to ignore. (Sidenote: I do check Pitchfork from time to time, but I find their offerings to be repetitive and boring, a la Sufjan Stevens and M. Ward.)
So while the editors of Esquire may have had a few “hits,” try not to give too much credence to the rest of the article; after all, these are the guys who tell us how to dress and which cocktails will impress our friends the most. Music, understandably, is not exactly their forte.
My Morning Jacket- Hot Fun in the Summertime (live @ Bonnaroo) [Sly and the Family Stone cover featuring a healthy dose of Jim James' falsetto]
Dan Auerbach- When The Night Comes
The Raconteurs- Old Enough (live acoustic)
2 comments:
Just the latest episode of Esquire's unabashed elitism making them look like asses to classy guys who know better. Good call.
oh g-d, I can't stop laughing hahahah
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