ALBUM REVIEWS RECORD OF THE MONTH
We loved Mavis Staples recent single ‘If All I Was Was Black’ so much we couldn’t wait to hear the album, a collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. So Danny Wright gathered Thomas Hannan and LiS’ Dave Rowlinson to talk Mavis, Tweedy and the state of the nation. What are your feelings about Mavis? Have you listened to a lot of her stuff?
I suppose that brings us neatly on to Jeff Tweedy, what did you think of their other albums together?
DR: Honestly, I knew pretty much zip about her until she was on the Gorillaz record other than the Arcade Fire track, but I’ve gone back, listened to lots and seen the error of my ways. TH: I first heard her on Graffiti Bridge by Prince. She was one of the few good things about that record. But yeah obviously there’s a whole back catalogue of Important Shit. DR: When I was learning about her I kept finding out things that blew my mind - ‘whoa, she worked with Prince!’ ‘Nick Cave wrote her a song!’ I listened to some Staple Sisters and discovered Salt-n-Peppa sampled them on ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’. So really I’ve been been listening to her for loads of my life. TH: Yeah lots of awesome people like writing her songs, which is always a good reason for further exploration. DR: Her dad was friends with Martin Luther King Jr! TH: Prince aside, it often seems to be indie songwriters wondering ‘What would this song sound like if I had a fucking awesome voice?’ DR: Oh totally - let’s bring Mavis in for some gravitas…
DR: It shows that this is the first one with all new songs - it’s a more consistent album, I think. Plus, it sounds like Jeff is really having a blast on this record. TH: I like the really sparse, loose arrangements. It’s like dive bar gospel in places. So: it’s obviously a good record? How good? DR: I mean, I really enjoy listening to it - I think as much as it is good, it also feels quite an important record - proper state of the nation stuff. TH: It’s a very good record. One of those latecareer Proper Artistic Statements that would be as loved as her earlier work if only it’d have been around for 30 years or so already. DR: Yeah, a bit like that Johnny Cash record... TH: Exactly, David. But she’s more than earned that. DR: It definitely has an air of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On about it. I mean, it’s not that good, but... She’s said “These songs are going to change the world”. They probably aren’t but can you hear that fire in them? TH: I wish they would, Mavis, I’m into this world you’re singing about. And I believe that YOU believe that, yeah. LiS 40