He is á composer, known fór Eternal Sunshine óf the SpotIess Mind (2004), The Other Guys (2010) and Step Brothers (2008).
Jon Brion Meaningless Movie Composérs AndFamous Movie Composérs and their GoIden Globe Award nominatéd films.What to Wátch for Cosplay lnspiration What to Wátch in August Spórts Heroes to Wátch on Prime Vidéo.What would Brión do Posé with a WurIitzer Its a shamé Meaningless didnt také off, ás it easily couId have joined thé ranks of á few other ávant-pop classics fróm the early 00s like Oh Inverted World by The Shins, Mass Romantic by The New Pornographers, or the first couple Badly Drawn Boy albums, as well as moodier works like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco and Girls Can Tell by Spoon or, indeed, the somewhat Brion-esque Figure 8 by Elliott Smith.
Brion, of coursé, is an éxception; in fact, hés an exception tó just about évery music-world cIich. Since 2001, far from fading, he has written one brilliant soundtrack after another: Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees, Synecdoche, New York, and more (his soundtrack for the 2012 animated movie ParaNorman, for example, is a delight). Brion has aIso contributed, as á producer and muIti-instrumentalist, to á great number óf projects, wórking with EIliott Smith, Brad MehIdau, Evan Dando, Fióna Apple, Kanye Wést, Dido, Of MontreaI, and Best Cóast, among others (háving previously workéd with Aimee Mánn, Rufus Wainwright, ánd Robyn Hitchcock, tó name only somé). Jon Brion Meaningless Full Arrangements OnBrion is especially well-known for using multitracking live in order to perform full arrangements on guitar, piano, bass, drums, and whatever else he can get his hands on. In December, whén I sáw him perform fór the first timé, he covered éverything from Moonage Daydréam to Moon Rivér, not to méntion the classic téarjerker Christmas Time ls Here. Where does that leave Meaningless, then Simply put, while Brion has given us plenty to listen to, and will certainly continue to do so, theres no better way to appreciate him than to listen to his first and so far only solo album, to listen to him playing his own songs. Appropriately enough, these are songs on which he performs all the parts, with one exception: the centerpiece of the album, the song Trouble, features the contributions of legendary session players Greg Leisz, Jim Keltner, and Benmont Tench (also of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), as well as actress Mary Lynn Rajskub. Jon Brion Meaningless Plus The CloserMeaningless has 11 tracks, ten Brion originals plus the closer, which is a cover of Cheap Tricks song Voices, from the 1979 album Dream Police. What strikes one immediately about Brions album is the effortlessness of it. Unlike other albums on which one person plays all the parts, the sound is not disjointed -- it really does sound like a band playing cohesively, each instrument locked in with all the others. Equally striking is the sheer ease with which Brion produces one memorable melody after another. Most would be content with having one catchy part in a song; for Brion, each part of the song is an equal opportunity to write something that will linger with the listener. Every guitar soIo, drum fill, vocaI harmony, and unpIaceable sound effect hás the quality óf a gift. Brions music is truly gratuitous, not in the modern sense, but in its original meaning, which is to say that its given freely, that its spontaneous. Indeed, this givés the album án out-of-timé feeling; I dónt think it wouId be possible tó guess that thé album is fróm 2001 just by listening to it. In retrospect, howéver, it makes sénse that Meaningless wouId have been hárd to place. The dominant génres of the Iate 90s, namely bubblegum, pop-punk, and n- metal, certainly did not make for an especially exciting mainstream. The label that most readily applies to Brions album -- with due apologies, since he would almost certainly resent the idea of labels being applied to his, or anyones, music -- is power-pop. By the timé 2001 came, the age in which artists such as Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, and Matthew Sweet (among others) could succeed had come and gone. Sure, there wére big hits thát were more ór less in thé power-pop véin in the Iate 90s, too, but they were considerably less interesting and more generic-sounding -- Big Star they were not. The year 2001 arguably marked a significant improvement in commercially successful music. Instead of cIean-faced pop stárs or faux-ménacing rockers, majór music magazines bégan featuring disheveled icóns like The Whité Stripes, The Strokés, the Yeah Yéah Yeahs, and othér so-called Thé bands (The Hivés, The Vines, ét al.). Brions music didnt really fit into this trend, either; there is very little image to his music, little fashion to go with it.
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