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Joan of Arc - So Much Staying Alive...
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Tyler Baber [Decapolis Music Staff]; Age: 19; Top 5 bands: Starflyer 59, Pedro the Lion, Havalina, Godspeed You Black Emporer, Joan of Arc Musical preferences: I like music that makes me feel, anything that evokes a strong emotion is good to me. Likewise anything that sounds fresh or original will get an enthusiastic listen. Lyrics are as important as talented musicianship.
 Joan of Arc is, was, and may always be Tim Kinsella and an ever rotating motley crew of Chicagoan musicians. So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness is the band’s fifth full length album on Jade Tree Records.
I first encountered the unique voice of Tim Kinsella last April when I heard a song by the Owls on a Jade Tree sampler. My curiosity overwhelmed me and I proceeded to investigate the Owls further. I then went on to teach myself about Cap’n Jazz, the Owls’ big fraternal twin brother. Over the summer I heard my first Joan of Arc song (“I Love a Woman (Who Loves Me)”) and I was captivated. It was so…bizarre, like nothing I had ever encountered before. Intrigued, I proceeded to purchase the band’s 2000 release The Gap and 1999 album Live In Chicago. I couldn’t get enough of the stream of consciousness style lyrical content, the seemingly thrown together intricacy of each beautifully played instrument, or the avant garde production. This was music for the post modern. These were sounds for the privileged elite. I wanted in on it.
And if strange and inaccessible music was what I wanted, I was not disappointed when I heard So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness. This is exactly what my pop radio listening friends hate about my favorite music: it is modern art. It sounds like everything was thrown together in a meaningless glob, but in actuality it is a beautiful and elaborate amalgamation of sounds and colors and words and splendor. The casual listener hears and says “This means nothing.” The appreciators and the critics hear and say “I need more.”
In all actuality, the latest Joan of Arc offering is much easier on the ears than some of the more adventurous and production oriented efforts of the past, not the least of which being the noise oriented The Gap. So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness could be the antithesis to the latter album. The recording process was entirely analog and more emphasis was put on lyrical content. And this time the words are laid out in a semi-coherent pattern, not unlike more traditional songwriting forms(!). Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that this album is less of a Joan of Arc release and more of a conglomerate of Kinsella and his bandmates from Friend/Enemy, Cap’n Jazz/The Owls, and members from other Chicago bands. The traditional elements of Joan of Arc are all there, but they are cleaned up a bit, not unlike trying to present a punk son to his grandmother. The album seems as if it is about to burst with rebellion against the norm but traps this pent up desire with seeringly ironic wit and charm.
New instruments are explored, traditional methods are performed. Joan of Arc explores where so many other groups have gone before and makes it all sound new and strange. From the piano plunkings on the album’s standout track “Participation Billy” to the cowbell on “The Infinite Blessed Yes,” the only thing this album could use to improve would be more cowbell (because what couldn’t benefit from more cowbell?).
On their newest album Joan of Arc weaves a shiny chrysalis around all of their previous works and lets us listen to the emerging wet, wavering butterfly. It seems so old and familiar and yet so new and beautiful. So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness is a great introduction to one of the independent world’s best bands and a litmus to test the rest of 2003’s releases against.
Grade: A strong and solid A- |
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