2013 albums of da year
#5: Jandek - The Song of Morgan (Corwood) To be sure, Jandek plays the long-game, but his ongoing metamorphosis in the public eye from marginal curio to vital avant-garde artist has masked the fact that he hasn’t made a compelling “studio" record since the divisive a cappella trilogy of the early 2000’s. The live albums have been the meat of his recent cult - guided excursions into dark Jandek space, where the jarring, awkward danger of the past has been replaced by the respectful backing of a who’s-who of contemporary experimental musicians. Rare is the man who would turn down a victory lap, and to Jandek’s credit he still more often than not reminds us that he’s running on broken ankles, but to some extent it all feels a bit safe. So thirty four years into the journey, how can this avatar, this product of pure will, stretch his canvas amidst the deconstructed remains of his mystique? The answer: nine hours of Janky jamming on the piano. Working far out of what we assume to be his comfort zone, Jandek uses these 9 hour-long solo piano improvisations to articulate the full range of his idiom - gentle, soothing, focused, aimless, dissonant, harsh - through the previously unexplored musical conventions found in the classic "nocturne." The shock is that it works, and it works in legitimate musical ways that exceed the collection's (admitted) conceptual pleasure as the ultimate Jandek objet d’art. Reflecting neither the height of his powers nor any evidence of their ebb, The Song of Morgan stands as testament to Jandek’s unerring capacity to channel his inexhaustible yen for creation through the beguiling contours of his myth.