• Music Talk

    From Matt Munson@1:218/109 to All on Monday, July 28, 2008 23:59:27
    The former leader of the Replacemnts, Paul Westerberg releases a track called 49:00. its 49 minute track thats for only 49 cents on amazon.

    Pitchfork media discusses more. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/142448-paul-westerberg-4900




    On December 31, Paul Westerberg will turn 49. Now, 49's not the most famous or familiar of birthday milestones, but for a guy who once embodied the frustrations and reckless follies of youth, turning almost 50 may be milestone enough. It means Westerberg's officially old, for whatever that's worth, more likely closer to the end than to the beginning, though given Westerberg's life and career, the man may yet shock us all.

    Certainly 49:00, Westerberg's first album in four years, is a big surprise in and of itself. Even in this age of internet giveaways and pay-what-you-want schemes, it came as a minor bombshell when Westerberg, with no warning, dropped this home-recorded album-- which arrives as just a single long track with no song titles-- selling it for the nice stunt price of $0.49. That's a little bit more than a penny a second (the album runs a perverse 43 minutes rather than the expected 49), which may very well be what Westerberg spent to create it.

    The guy felt the need to get something out of his system-- and get it out fast, free from the usual fanfare, and, most importantly, free from any expectations. 49:00 feels not unlike something Westerberg might have stuck on a cassette and mailed to his best friends in lieu of a Christmas card. Say what you will about Trent Reznor's generosity, The Slip freebie still felt delivered on his rigid terms. The no-frills 49:00, on the other hand, feels downright liberated, absolutely no strings attached, other than the ones connecting Westerberg to his past. If there's anything to be learned from the Replacements' various ups and downs, it's that loose and sloppy, two ways to describe the bash and pop of 49:00, is sometimes the right approach.

    Songs fade into one another like one weak radio signal on a road trip supplanted by the next as the car crosses some invisible border. Two tracks occasionally play simultaneously. Snippets of a dozen cover songs-- Beatles, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, the Partridge Family-- are squeezed into the span of a few minutes. Lyrics fade in and out of the mix, sometimes clearly, sometimes not. "I'm going to stick around and spoil your morning." "It wouldn't hurt to see your grandma every now and again." "Everyone's stupid in our classroom, even our friends." "Whether you're famous or nameless, you never go dancing in the street." "Goodnight, sweet prince." And of course: "I gotta get it outta my system!"

    Best of all, the melodies and sentiments Westerberg has always been able to spin out, seemingly at will, are here in full force, sometimes fragmented, sometimes implied, sometimes more fully formed, but rarely less than heartfelt. And really, that is and always has been Westerberg's greatest gift: To go beyond the context and simply connect, however casually. On 49:00, cobwebs or no, that uncanny ability has rarely been clearer as he channels the spirit of the Stones or Faces, not to mention the Replacements, or other classic rock touchstones, though his own unique spectrum.

    That something so overtly slapdash could still come off so oddly sincere is no small part of the album's appeal (see also: prime Guided By Voices). In fact, if 49:00 turns out to be the rock equivalent of a transitional hip-hop mixtape, and some of these by turns brilliant and baffling bits and pieces end up polished and expanded on a proper album, there'll still be a place for 49:00. It's music with no pretense, no purpose, no baggage, proof that when it comes to labors of love, the latter is a much more important ingredient than the former. - Joshua Klein, July 28, 2008
    --- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
    * Origin: (1:218/109)