Poets tend to be society's outsiders. Perhaps it is that distance or perspective that makes them such keen observers of both nature and the physical impact we as humans have on it. In addition, poets need to work on several different levels of abstraction. Some are naturally inclined to extract the most precise single word to describe a situation, while others circle it in their writing granting us their viewpoint of struggling to create their art.
Carl Phillips set out to create his own world. As a quiet young African-American male in a military family in the Pacific Northwest, Phillips took refuge in the classics of poetry. Studying Latin and Greek, Phillips often brings classical forms to his works. However, as he discovered himself and found his place in this world, his poetry began to embrace more modern ideas of spacing and broken thoughts. This exchange of the love of myths for the love of others often makes his poetry as effective in its original "author-driven" read, as it does when you parse it out to assign meaning to his well-crafted words. Phillips' works feel metaphysical while leaning into the physical need for connection.
After years of writing and teaching, Phillips' 2022 book "Then The War: And Selected Poems" took home the coveted Pulitzer in 2023. Written between 2007 and 2020, these works capture the ache of being human, while feeling as personal as words shared between text messages or down a lonely phone line.
"And If I Fall" is exemplary of Phillips' ability to fuse the history of poetry and art with our modern need to not only be heard but be heard explaining why we must be heard. On paper, that sounds redundant and self-aggrandizing. However, hopefully as a brief examination will demonstrate, "And If I Fall" is more revealing and humanizing.
There's this cathedral in my head I keep
making from cricket song and
dying but rogue-in-spirit, still,
bamboo. Not making. I keep
imagining it, as if that were the same
thing as making, and as if making might
bring it back, somehow, the real
cathedral.
Phillips opens with a glorious image, "cathedral in my head." First, it may make you realize that you too can create objects in your brain that are far larger than anything you might encounter in the single day. The cathedral, of course, is a place of worship, and most importantly - the center of worship. Most cathedrals have spires that reach like arms to the sky, and even a throne for those of the highest honor within.
However, Phillips' "cathedral" is constructed from "cricket song and dying, but rogue-in-spirit, still, bamboo." Therefore, this is no ordinary cathedral and these descriptions are worded mysteriously. So "cricket song" and especially "rogue-in-spirit" follow the constructions of phrases in ancient poetry. Yet what do they have in common? Crickets "sing" to attract female mates and fend off other males. While, bamboo is hard on the outside and hollow within. It seems that we are dealing with a "cathedral" built from paradoxical parts. "Rogue-in-spirit" may indicate that this building is against the grain, and furthermore, the use of "dying" might be questioning it. So a one-time invasive species (bamboo) is now welcome, but always aware that it might be just as easily removed.
As Phillips progresses, we as readers are privileged to be a party to his thought processing. Notice that he vacillates from "making" to "Not making." "Not making" even exists here as its own thought with no breaks, like a stop sign or perhaps even meant to negate the earlier instance. The first "I" in Phillips' poem is a major piece. For the first time, we know that he is addressing us. In addition to this, it is one circuitous thought (that we slightly abbreviated to make the point.) There are no descriptors here, no surgically chosen words that flash pictures in your brain. This is the rhythm of thought drilling down from its use to its point. "Making" is the marker for yet another level descended from imagining to remembering. Now, we know that the inspiration for the "cathedral" is real and tangible. Now we know Phillips' true conclusion is not to create one from thin air, but to resurrect one from the past.
cathedral. In anger, as in desire, it was
everything, that cathedral. As if my body
itself cathedral. I conduct my body
with a cathedral's steadiness, I
try to. I cathedral. In desire. In anger.
In this circuit, Phillips beautifully uses the rhythm of his words and repetition to sound almost like a prayer. Note how it begins with "In anger, as in desire" and ends with the recursive call to close those loops "In desire. In anger." In addition, "In anger, as in desire" sounds in meter like something read from a book of prayers. Where the end, slows down in its pace to lead toward benediction and/or resignation. "That cathedral" was everything, points to it being in the past, and implies a hint of regret. His body is cathedral, and he tries to find the same path to the overwhelming feeling and impact. Phillips is even somewhat scientific about it ("I conduct my body with a cathedral's steadiness" sounds like a note from an experiment) while completely attentive to moving "cathedral" from a noun to a verb. We now know this feeling that has sprung from the imagination, was a memory that one can color as it wishes - until it realizes that the wish can never conform to a previous reality.
Withdrawn, perhaps even at peace. Phillips ends with two lines repeated like a mantra. Two ideas like two people always have an effect on one another. Someone is not just the memory skating around on the ice rink of your florid mind - they too think about you.
Light enters a cathedral the way persuasion fills a body.
Light enters a cathedral the way persuasion fills a body.
—
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New music this week by Mik Davis at T-Bones Records
KENDRICK LAMAR - GNX [BLUE 2LP/CD] (PGLang/Interscope) // Fresh from Grammy wins with "Not Like Us," Kendrick Lamar's blistering 2024 album will finally be released on wax - just in time for his domination of this Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show. Any word on maybe making that Debbie Deb sample in "Squabble Up" worth something to the original voice (even though Kendrick did do his due diligence?)
SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY [AMBER GALAXY LP/CD] (Dead Oceans) // Sharon Van Etten has been a reliable singer/songwriter/actress for over a decade. Her restless creative mind probably contributes to her never breaking through. However, that is her best feature, because she finds a way to fit in anywhere. One of her best singles ever is the earthshaking duet with Angel Olsen "Like I Used To" from 2021 where both powerful voices continue to top each other until the tremendous ending. Or if you like, listen to how noodling with synths on "Remind Me Tomorrow" leads to the beautiful coming-of-age song "Seventeen." There are countless examples of her voice working into any background. So, she turns over this record to elevate her band and explore Post-Punk. The Siouxsie-like warble has always been there if you think about it. With a synth-drenched bleak Goth background from The Attachment Theory, "Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)" becomes a showstopper - without trying. The irony here is that for years Van Etten has been putting in the work and squeezing everything she can from her effort ("Are We There?" still brilliant, still heartbreaking.) However, when she sings in the dark "Afterlife," her voice pulsates as much as the band until she injects the song with hope. Who knows this trip to the dark side may be her path to success.
SQUID - Cowards [CLEAR LP/CD] (Warp/Redeye) // With the dissolution of Black Midi, UK's experimental band Squid takes the reins on their third album. Like the underrated "O Monolith," this is Art Rock pushed to its limits under the weight of Psychedelic Pop and Jazz. Nothing feels off limits here, themes are brooding ("Building 650" which dissolves in a Pavement-esque dramatic break) and circus-like ("Crispy Skin" gets frenetic and then slows to a crawl that keeps you anticipating when they will hit the gas pedal again.) Squid remains at their very best when they write songs like powderkegs waiting to go off, and smartly hide the hooks inside the explosion.
DREAM THEATRE - Parasomnia [BLACK ICE 2LP/CD] (Inside Out) // On their first album in 16 years (with returning drummer Mike Portnoy,) Prog/Metal gods Dream Theatre stretch their massive riffage around seven tracks across 71 minutes. The Metallica-esque chug of "Midnight Messiah" does not so much as develop thematically, as it gains steam like the band is shoveling coal into the locomotive. Elsewhere, "A Broken Man" charges out of the gate like 80s/90s Rush and finally catches fire around a spiraling synth solo where they even throw in some time signature switches and a Yes-like organ part.
MICHIGANDER [GREEN LP/CD] (Michigander) // Years after numerous singles and EPs, Jason Singer's Michigander finally has is album-long statement of purpose ready for the world. While it does show some refinement of sound (Singer uses his doubled vocals and effects to make everything massive) but nothing beyond where he first hit the charts in 2018. Single "Giving Up" is a logical next step to an artist that wants to sound like Manchester Orchestra and the other artists who make "earnest Indie Rock." However, dotting the stadium crunch of Rock with synths and pianos is nothing new, while sing-song lyric melodies like "if i had a dollar every time I made you mad/I'd be the richest man alive, sell everything I had" show some promise and a sync-ready moment for Singer.
FACS - Wish Defense [LP/CD] (Trouble In Mind) // On the final album to bear the engineering sound of the late Steve Albini, Chicago's FACS strip their Post-Punk/Art Rock sound down its bare minimum. The effect is thrilling. "Your Future" is an abstract, squelchy race through guitars battling over occasional bass notes and a drummer who sounds like he staying ahead of the beat as a form of attack. No worries, everything that "Wish Defense" has on its brain for squall needs to ring overhead like an air siren ("Desire Path") to better make room for the pinpoint stop/start of their take on Post-Hardcore (the title track.)
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS - Apple Cores [LP/CD] (ANTI/Epitaph/AMPED) // The modern chapter of Jazz continues its evolution thanks to a new generation of players more eager to play than write compositions that are knowingly difficult. Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has a beautiful Coltrane-esque voice on his horn. For his ANTI debut, he strips everything down to saxophone, bass, drums, and mbira. With Chad Taylor's groove-based patterns, Josh Werner has a lot of room to move around but never take away from the power of Lewis. "Prince Eugene" is a slow burner where you feel like Lewis is "talking" with his horn and its Pharaoh Sanders-styled central melody. The funk-based "Five Spots to Caravan" depends more on Taylor's circular percussion, but turns into a tour-de-force for Lewis' wailing, trilling, and melodic riffing. Jazz has not wielded this manner of raw power in a while.
REISSUES
WILCO - A Ghost Is Born [2LP/CD/SUPERDELUXE 9CD/4LP] (Nonesuch) // A band in transition is a dangerous thing. On their first "difficult" album, Wilco exorcised ghosts from the tumultuous "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" sessions while Jeff Tweedy rediscovered writing in the most abstract way yet. Alive with lengthy Television-like guitar jams, "A Ghost Is Born" has the reputation of being the "noisiest" Wilco record (especially due to "Less Than You Think" which is designed to mimic the migraines that Tweedy was suffering from.) However, the earlier sessions at Sear Sound and SOMA captured here for the first time by producer Jim O'Rourke give a lot of context to the extended solos that Tweedy handled before turning over lead guitar to Nels Cline to the album's tour. In hindsight, the new band (including Mississippian Pat Sansone) is taking shape during these sessions.. The 19 new additions are not exactly about "cutting loose" (although they truly do on "Handshake Drugs,") they capture Wilco breaking away from the old mold. Freedom truly agreed with them as the heartbreaking balladry ("Muzzle of Bees") gives way to a weird Randy Newman-based bittersweetness ("Hell is Chrome" and "Hummingbird.") Tweedy's abstract lyrics also are better shaped around piano riffs ("Theologians") and guitar licks (the almost Punk-y "I'm A Wheel.") Finally, they offer one of their best album closers in the benedictionary "The Late Greats" - a song that proves "that the songs that never get sung" or you "can't hear it on the radio" are the ones that provide the most relief and hope for the future.
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND - Where Are You Going: The Singles [2LP] (Legacy) // In honor of their induction into the Rock N'Roll Hall of Fame, this 24-song collection covers DMB from their beginning ("What Would You Say") to most recent ("Madman's Eyes") success. While they are probably best consumed as an "album" band (warning: a lot of "single" versions are here to make room for them all,) putting 30 years of singles in a row does make them sound like hitmakers.
MILES DAVIS - Dark Magus (Live at Carnegie Hall) [2LP] (Legacy) // Seventies Live Miles is always a bit of no man's land for Jazzers. Including electric instruments is still seen by many as sartorial extremes. However, as far back as 1969's "In A Silent Way," (being very reductive here) Miles was incorporating "Rock" elements into his Jazz and turning them into Funk. These were chord changes and riifs that Miles developed on his own, and then in an instant turned over to his band for marathon jams - that were spliced down to appetizing lengths by Teo Macero (again trying to simplify.) 1970's "Bitches Brew" floored everyone and remains the classic statement. However, it is important because it made way for FIVE separate live albums that best illustrate the art of spontaneous creation from Miles. 1970's "Fillmore" is performed exclusively before a Rock crowd - so it finds its peaks in long passages that would likely not thrill Jazzers. 1972's "In Concert" does even more with the underrated "Jack Johnson"/"On The Corner" period making tough, driving funk out of his relentless riffing. However, after a few misses and records cobbled together from outtakes, Miles is lost on audiences by 1975. So he mounts a comeback in the place where Jazz is most revered - Japan. "Agharta" and "Pangaea" capture the afternoon and evening shows on February 1, 1975. The rubbery funk-based minimalism was far from the versions you can hear on Fillmore just five years earlier. In addition, it is a lot of Pete Cosey's guitar and occasionally bleats and runs from Miles. "Panagea" is a blistering run through some will soon call "World Music." Over the two shows (and five years,) Miles has found a way to incorporate the Blues again and add African elements to the mix. This is no longer "Fusion" (that now pejorative word,) this is a higher-degree interpolation of Jazz with other music. However, Miles decided to retire. The vaults were opened, and this March 1974 show at Carnegie Hall rose to the surface. Auditioning two possible new band members in front of a crowd of cognoscenti, Miles is firmly in control. Unlike Fillmore, "Dark Magus" is dependent on all the members improvising and soloing (!) sometimes at the same time. "Moja" is hair-raising for sure, but you can actually hear them finding the common points and veering far away from them. "Wili" is deep funk that never lets up, until "Tatu" sounds like summoning the ghost of Jimi Hendrix. Finally, as if you needed some relief, "Nne" slows down to a crawl several times but never loses its energy. "Dark Magus" is not for everyone - for years it was lumped in with all the other archival Miles that was being assembled into new albums in his absence. For true jazzers, "Dark Magus" may even be the death of Jazz/Rock - but what a way to go.
