You don't know it yet, but you want to party with Daniel Lanois. He has been behind the console of legends like U2, Emmylou Harris, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and the tambourine man himself, Bob Dylan. If that who's who of undeniable coolness doesn't do it for you, then you are cool—approaching Prince-levels of cool. For the rest of us, living our lives in the Jason Segel regions of the hip spectrum, Daniel Lanois is a god.
In 2006, Daniel got a film crew together and traveled the world, following his studio musicians into the depths of the creative process. The relationship between artist and producer is often a forgotten one. It's a creative friendship that happens off the stage, behind the closed soundproof wall of a windowless studio. In his 2006 film "Here Is What Is," Lanois attempted to open this aspect of musicianship. With his friends, Bono, Brian Blade and Billy Bob Thornton (Lanois' entourage is made up entirely of people with B names: Bob Barker, Bruce Banner, and Betty Boop have all confirmed as a friend him on Facebook), Lanois and his film crew captured live performances, studio sessions, and interviews with some of his collaborators. In noisy, street-side cafés, Lanois muses about the nature of beauty, art, and a little chest of drawers; it's a bit much. Luckily for us, he released an album of the music only and called it "Here Is What Is."
Each track of "Here Is What Is" is different, yet Lanois has pulled them together into a cohesive unit. The instrumentation is most responsible for this unification of sound. As well as a producer, Lanois is a brilliant singer-songwriter and pedal-steel player. His tracks feature the swelling, sparkling tone of his pedal-steel guitar and the low rasp of his Dylan/early Tom Waits voice. His lyrics are simple and honest; there are no story songs or complex poetic gestures, just tight phrases with powerful, emotional vocal performances.
One of the highlights of this album is the drumming. Brian Blade throws together a jaw-dropping performance on this album. His parts are not too flashy and not too simple, but perfectly appropriate for the simple country/alt songs. "Where Will I Be" mixes Lanois' production intuition and Blade's technical skill. The song features two simultaneous drum sets, creating an elaborate but hooky polyrhythm. In songs like "Duo Glide", Blade locks into the beat and never falters. The unrelenting consistency gives the track a perpetual motion forward and creates an infectious groove.
With songs like "Where Will I Be," "Duo Glide," and the title track, "Here Is What Is", Lanois shows off his skill as a songwriter, and it works tremendously well. The rest of the album attempts something a little loftier and at times falls flat. In "Lovechild," a jazz-piano reverie mixed with country-ballad, weeping slide guitar lines feel forced. The textures of the two instruments create a delicate and sweet atmosphere, but this doesn't last too long. Soon the harmonic monotony of the song's unchanging material begins to wear the listener down. This instrumental track is eight minutes long and entirely too much.
"Here Is What Is" is a fantastic album. Its production value is phenomenal and the songs are of another time. Listening to this album is like meeting your coolest uncle, then listening to his stories about Bono...and Benjamin Button.