Album of the Year

[rickg]

I want to encourage others to write about their favorite album of the year and post it here too.

[rickg]

Artist: Ian Moore
Album: To Be Loved
Writer: Rick Galusha

Album of the Year 2008


One of the fancies of listening to music is following the career of an artist or band, waiting for that moment when all the facets merge and the artist accelerates to the ‘next level’ of their career. For fans of Ian Moore, his latest album, ‘To Be Loved’ is that great leap forward.


Anyone that recalls a young Ian Moore, seeped in the atonal chunka-chunka-thud of the Austin sound; where the guitar slinger prevails (and melody lines suffer), will not recognize Moore’s music today. While Austin, Texas has become somewhat of a Mecca to music, their blues-rock sound is dominated by a muddy, bottom-heavy movement whose remaining momentum has gone with artists such as Doyle Bramhall Jr., Jimmie Vaughan and Chris Duarte.


For a time young Moore dealt handsomely within Austin’s arena. Nearly a decade ago Moore changed direction and, for lack of a better term, started a near Indie Rock / Singer & Songwriter career. For those that have hung around for the outcome, it was…weird. Listeners heard an artist redefine himself; searching for a sound all his own. As noted in a recent edition of Mojo Magazine, true creativity in the rock genre comes from outside the system, based upon rejection, desperation and driven artistic vision.
I recall riding in a car with Moore, who had recently become a father for the first time, when he told me he was willing to “bet his career” on the shift from an Austin based sound to this new venture. When asked if the move was premeditated effort to reach a larger audience, Moore was clearly not at ease with the precept that he was making a commercial move. Frankly, having met Ian a few times, heretofore I had to look for a value in his music that, for me, was difficult to find. I was drawn to the sound but couldn’t figure out why. That there was talent buried within that meandering was not questioned; that there was direction and forethought was given. The entertainment value of Moore’s guitar albums failed to reach me: I simply didn’t “get it.”


With the release of, ‘To Be Loved’ Moore has landed with a wonderful record that is at once full of melody lines criss-crossing across a palate of tonal colors and creative sensibilities as it unravels peeling away layer after layer. The continual introduction of new instruments, tempos and creative melody lines keeps this album fresh. Instead of being blues based Moore has delved back to the mid-to-late 1960’s to grasp the vast creative influences of the then new artform and bring them together in a contemporary setting.


In August 2008 Ian Moore, now of Seattle, released what was, for me, the most interesting album of the year; ‘To Be Loved.’


Leaving behind the built up mythology of an Austin blues-rock sound, Moore has reached back into the psychedelia of later-Early Period Ray Davies (Kinks) and pre-success era Pink Floyd for a unique yet fresh sound. This album has more in common with “Swingin’ London” than the electric blues of 1950’s Chicago. For example, on the albums ninth track, ‘Colvo’s Passage’ Moore uses a vocal passage similar to the oft used Pete Townshend’s vocal lines of ‘La-la-la’s” heard during the passages of, ‘A Quick One While He’s Away,” “Our Love Was, Is” or “La La La Lies.”


On the title track, To Be Loved, Moore taps into the creative juices of the studio-only-years of Lennon and McCartney, or perhaps Andy Partridge, for a wonderful, complex shifting tempo track that slowly builds, twists and uses backing vocal lines and other instruments to create a audio bed from which to build. It is compelling and creative.


On ‘Innocent Maneuvers’ Moore’s uses a David Gilmore guitar styling’s set against an early period Bowie twelve string ballad to juxtapose against a moving storyline of lost friendship. “I was asking around about a girl I used to know. We were twins when we were young, but she changed. We were both bound by numbers and the spirit of logic. Somewhere she found Jesus and her math went away.” It is a perfect and careful balance between a sound that was and the contemporary; leaning softly on nostalgia but incorporating the contribution of the genre’s predecessors.


In a coda, this album has nothing to do with the blues other than, “What ever happen to Ian Moore?” What’s happened is that Moore chose a different route and after some attempts may well be laying the ground work for a wonderfully creative period of songwriting. I realize Moore is neither commercial nor widely recognized. Perhaps the allure of becoming a foot solider in the ‘Ever Tortured Artist Effect’ compels me to look beyond the vapid emptiness of today’s collapsing music industry machine. If you’re looking for an album that is immediately consumed – this is probably not for you; however, if you find the experience of listening to music to be interactive affair rather than passive background, I strongly suggest, no, encourage you to seek this record out and prepare to experience an album that is both panoramic and moving.