Believer music issue jam-packed with goodness

Once I got over the confusion over a book magazine that publishes only 10 times a year setting aside two of those to cover music and visual arts, I learned to love The Believer‘s annual music issue. Actually, it wasn’t hard. Much as the magazine’s usual content offers some of the best, most interesting coverage of books available, The Believer‘s music issue is one of the sharpest looks at the state of music that you’ll find.

The new issue is no exception. In fact, whether it’s a faulty memory on my part or an uncanny ability to target my tastes on their part, I can’t remember a more satisfying music issue.

The first thing to do when a Believer music issue arrives is to check out the included CD. This one, compiled by Daniel Handler (better known as Lemony Snicket), is a gem. The disc offers some incredible music that, unlike most included with magazines, features songs unavailable elsewhere because they were recorded specifically for this project. The Believer/Handler asked several songwriters to submit acoustic versions of new songs, and 14 did.

One note: If there is a target audience for this disc, I’m it. Which led me to look up Handler on Wikipedia and found what I was looking for: He’s three months younger than I am, which more importantly means that he graduated from college at the same time. No wonder this disc seems so good: These are artists that, by and large, were making a name for themselves when we were in high school, college and slightly beyond.

While I know my tastes have expanded since that time, it’s also safe to say that the artists I hold closest to my heart are those I discovered in the decade-long window between entering high school and settling fully into the working world. So, acts like Sam Phillips, Robert Scott (The Bats), Mike Scott (The Waterboys), Lloyd Cole, Dave Wakeling (The English Beat), Mark Robinson (Unrest) et al are right in that wheelhouse.

The Scott song, “A Wild Holy Band,” is magnificent. Despite it’s 10-minute run time, it held my interest from start to finish, a story song worthy of any next-Dylan tag Scott might have been saddled with at one time. The Dave Wakeling song makes me think it’s high time for an English Beat revival, while tracks from Stephen Duffy (The Lilac Time), Lisa Germano and Stuart Moxham (Young Marble Giants) make me think I ought to re-evaluate my ambivalence about their work.

Moving beyond the disc and into the issue’s pages, I’m again struck by the breadth of what is covered here. In the past, the magazine has been accused of pandering too much to the hipster demographic, but any nods to that corner are more than balanced this time out by pieces about the post-breakup Beatles, Lawrence Welk, jazz guitarist Pat Martino and a look at the costs associated with staging an opera. Sure, there is an interview with indie darling Phil Elverum of Microphones/Mt. Eerie and a Q&A with Thom Yorke, but if anything these are pieces that are likely to put the hipsters at ease with the rest of the content, not the other way around.

Arthur Phillips, who wrote the fantastic new novel The Song is You (which I’ll boldly say is the best novel ever written with music at its center), has an interesting (particularly given the success of his doing so in his novel) piece about the constant debate about whether one can accurately describe music with words in Dancing About Architecture.

Joe Hagan, whose article about reclusive singer-songwriter Bill Fox in the 2007 music issue was one of the best things The Believer has published, looks at singer-songwriter Benji Hughes, another performer who doesn’t seem to have found the best way to present his music — or the right partners to help him do so when he does.

All in all it’s a very solid issue of one of the best magazines out there, and one any music fan would do well to drop $10 to acquire.

Past Believer music issues:

2008
2007
2006
2005
2004