CD Odyssey Disc 146: Scissor Sisters

This next disc answers one of the great 'what ifs' of our generation. What if disco never died? The answer is here...

Disc 146 is...Ta Dah
Artist: Scissor Sisters

Year of Release: 2006

What’s Up With The Cover?: A man removes his mask to show something that shocks everyone in the elevator of his building. We are left out of the joke, which I think is the joke. I must assume when he takes his mask of he declares, "Ta Dah!" - you know, the album's title.

How I Came To Know It: I saw a video for "Filthy/Gorgeous" a song off of the previous Scissor Sister's album. I bought that album and liked it, so when I saw a video for "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" off of "Ta Dah!" I liked it as well, so I bought that too.

How It Stacks Up: I only have the two Scissor Sister albums. I think "Ta Dah" is the weaker of the two.

Rating: 2 stars.

Scissor Sisters is a band about having fun. The music is basically a disco dance party. Attempts to read too much into this music is a mistake. It is fun, summery and carefree.

They are best when they get their disco freak on. When they try to be more interesting in some tracks, it actually becomes less interesting.

Songs about social issues - maybe there are some on this album, but they aren't interesting enough to stand out. The best they can muster and still be entertaining is the anthemic "Everybody Wants The Same Thing", which is basically a song about staying positive, and realizing we're all in this crazy life together.

A song about being inspired by Paul McCartney (titled "Paul McCartney")? Yes, there is one, but knowing that these guys are in the Beatles side of the Beatles/Stones debate, and the Paul side of the Paul/John debate is hardly a revelation when you hear their music.

Songs about love? Um...yes, there are some, but still a little too complicated a topic for this music. "Ta Dah"'s pop songs about love are just average on this record.

Where this band excels is in laying down disco grooves. The best songs are the appropriately titled "Ooh" which is a song about dancing away your troubles and a song called "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" which is actually a song that makes you feel like dancing. In fact the latter track is one of the better dance tracks I've heard. If you cheered when they blew up that box of disco records back in the seventies, this song might make you feel a little guilty for doing so.

If you don't like to dance, then this stuff is not for you (also, I pity you - dancing is fun). As for me, I love dancing, so this is fine with me. This album isn't going to bring about world peace, but it is going to make you want to dance around and have fun - and sometimes that's good enough.

Best tracks: I Don't Feel Like Dancing, Lights, Ooh, Everybody Wants the Same Thing

CD Odyssey Disc 145: R.E.M.

Before I begin this review, I encourage you, gentle reader, to check out Kelly's comment in the Miles Davis review for "Sketches of Spain". I have one word for you Kelly, and that word is: Word.

Anyhow, after quite a run of 'one and done' in the car, I finally had a combination of car time and disc length that didn't allow a complete listen of an album in one day. Consequently, I've had this album in my car for two days, and almost two complete listens. Just as well, as it had been a while since I'd put it on.

Disc 145 is...Out of Time
Artist: R.E.M.

Year of Release: 1991

What’s Up With The Cover?: Not much. An R.E.M. banner on top of some kind of watery background.

How I Came To Know It: Like everyone else not living under a rock in 1991, I heard "Losing My Religion" on the radio, and saw the video on MuchMusic. I really like that song, but for years "Shiny Happy People" kept me from buying this album - I only broke down a few years ago, after Sheila's other R.E.M. discs put me in the mood to hear a little more.

How It Stacks Up: We have six R.E.M. albums, so the collection is significant, but far from complete. Noteably missing is "Green", which was the album preceding this one. Of the six we do have, I'd put "Out of Time" 3rd.

Rating: 3 stars.

R.E.M. was a pretty big deal in the late eighties and early nineties. While I never minded hearing them, I never really went out of my way to get their music. Sheila changed my mind with a couple of listens of "Automatic For The People" and "Document" - both very good albums.

"Out of Time" is a step down from those, but it still has its moments - some good some bad.

At the apex, we have "Losing My Religion", instantly recognizeable, and still fresh almost twenty years after its release, this is a wonderful mood piece about losing faith in the things that matter to you - I don't think it necessarily is speaking only about religion, although I think that is definitely on the list.

This song's video also inspired a generation of people to affect "Michael Stipe" dancing. You know - where you kind of wave your hand around your head while you bend over slightly and put on your best anguish-face. Strangely, it has never really caught on.

At the nadir of this record sits "Shiny Happy People". Equally instantly recognizeable - equally overplayed in its day. However, instead of a song of substance, we get a goofy "be happy" song, the only redeeming quality of which is the background vocals of B-52 Kate Pierson.

Even the video for this song is awful. The Geeky dude in the band (which Wikipedia tells me is Mike Mills) grinning like an idiot overdosing on Ecstasy, and Michael Stipe riding a stationary bike. Bring back the tortured dancing and the bleeding angels!

Anyway, roughly midway between "Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People" this album lies, and it does all right there. The music itself isn't terribly interesting. I am really into 70s rock guitar right now, and I found myself wondering how R.E.M.'s guitar player stays interested, working the same basic background riff over and over again for 3-4 minutes at a time with no opportunity to wail.

However he does it, the atmospheric quality it creates works well with Stipe's unique vocals. I enjoy this atmospheric sound most on "Belong" the chorus of which is just Stipe going "oh - oh oh - oh" over and over again. Somehow Stipe puts emotional honesty into his oh ohing, though, and so I forgive it it's pop sensibilities.

What I can't forgive is the weird rapping that happens on "Radio Song". Right in the middle of a passable pop hit, some bizarre, totally non-funky college radio interpretation of rap music rears its ugly head. This was actually a minor epidemic in 1991 - and anyone who knows the Rush song "Roll The Bones" knows what I'm talking about.

For all you Rush fans out there - I like "Roll the Bones" as much as the next guy, but that rap stuff in the title track is a painful and disastrous failure. That both crimes happen in 1991 leads me to believe there was something in the water. Some kind of algae bloom, or ergot epidemic.

Final verdict - "Out of Time" has good moments, and a few silly ones and at the end of the day, is a solid, but not excellent record.

Best tracks: Losing My Religion, Belong, Country Feedback, Me In Honey

Figurine: Theocracy of the Pale Knights

I finally finished anther figurine this weekend - amazing what denying yourself time on the Playstation will do for your free time.

This time I painted a flag bearer and his accompanying drummer. I love to do flags because you can put anything on them that you want. I decided to make these guys soldiers in the army of a mythical country called "The Theocracy of the Pale". I could tell you more, but the first rule of fight club is 'don't talk about fight club', so I'll just leave that name hanging.

Here they are as a pair: Now here's just the drummer. He is a pretty intent looking drummer, but I think if he is going into battle he might want to bring along a sword as well. And here's the standard bearer. This guy wisely did bring a sword.

Next up, I'm repainting a couple of old figures. There is an extra step in these ones wear you have to strip all the old paint off before you start, but I'll get into that when I post them.

For now - onward for the Pale!

CD Odyssey Disc 144: Blue Rodeo

This disc is totally gross! And by gross I don't mean like a Nickelback song - in fact I recently realized that burning a Nickelback CD would be an insult to fire. Maybe we can bury them all in the Canadian shield...

But I digress - it is gross because it is the 144th review on the CD Odyssey. Get it - or did I totally gross you out with that joke?

As the crowd buzzes about how I shouldn't quit my day job, I'll settle in and review this album.

Disc 144 is...Tremolo

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 1997

What’s Up With The Cover?: I think it is a close up of a microphone. Maybe it has something to do with Tremolo, whatever that is. Anyway as album covers go - boring, but inoffensive.

How I Came To Know It: Blue Rodeo is a Sheila band - the first band she ever actively tried to get me into. It worked. "Tremolo" is just Sheila buying every Blue Rodeo CD - this one is from around the middle of their career, and would've come out the year we got married, thirteen years ago. Time flies.

How It Stacks Up: We have twelve Blue Rodeo albums now, which is all of them. This is not one of my favourites, although it is still good. I'll say 9th or 10th out of twelve.

Rating: 3 stars.

"Tremolo" came out in 1997, only the second album since their masterpiece, 1993's "Five Days In July", and still living in that mammoth album's shadow.

The record has its moments, but I didn't find any songs that had that wow factor. Part of the problem is my old saw - too long. The album has fourteen songs, already straining at the limits of reasonable. Add to that a number of tracks over five minutes, and two over six, and it is just a little too self-indulgent. The songs themselves are competent, and well played, but many of the long ones really could shave a minute off and be that much better.

The exception to this is "Frog's Lullaby", which comes in at a whopping 7:05. No amount of shaving minutes would make this song passable - it is annoying at any length. One of those Greg Keelor "I am so stoned!" moments that needed to be reeled in before it got started.

It is more than a little ironic that track eleven on "Tremolo" is called "Dragging On"; at this point there are still three more songs to go (including the aforementioned frog song). If they had cut the album off at "Dragging On", it would have a better overall flow, and the lesser tracks would have a better chance to establish themselves in the listener's ear.

On the positive side, Keelor does deliver a winner with "Disappear", which is a great song, and one of Sheila's favourites I am recently advised. I'm not sure what it is about - a failed relationship or a flawed, but successful one. I think it is maybe about Greg's kids getting older, but I don't have an emotional frame of reference to be sure. That's my best guess, anyway.

Jim Cuddy has two excellent tracks of his own, "Falling Down Blue" and "Fallen From Grace" (yes, Jim excels at various types of falling down on this album). Cuddy's voice is adept at capturing loss, while simultaneously providing an undercurrent that encourages you to keep holding on.

Holding on for Blue Rodeo is also worth your time. This album and the one that preceded it ("Nowhere To Here") are lesser efforts to my mind, but they are followed by a couple that really reinvigorated my interest in the band. While "Tremolo" is not my favourite, it keeps the pilot light on and let's face it - average Blue Rodeo is far better than any album by a lot of other Canadian bands with bigger record sales.

Are you listening, Nickelback? If you are - My voice must sound really weird to your talentless ears.

Best tracks: Falling Down Blue, Fallen From Grace, Disappear

CD Odyssey Disc 143: Loreena McKennitt

Recently there was a reign of terror a certain "MK" (I won't type his full name for fear that he will appear behind me if I do). Now there appears to be a second round of random terror, as Loreena McKennitt is rolled for the second time in three discs.

Oh no! I've typed her name - what is that behind me? The rural setting, the ill-fitting prairie dress...could it be? No! No! Noooooo...!!!!

Disc 143 is...Elemental
Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1985

What’s Up With The Cover?: Another piece of bad folk photography. A frightened Loreena McKennitt runs across a field in the fading light, wearing an ill-fitting 19th century peasant undershirt. Is she going to leave her harp out like that? The dew will definitely damage the tuning!

How I Came To Know It: I just covered this, but I liked the album "The Visit". "Elemental" was just me digging through the collection. Although it is her first album, I bought it third overall.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Loreena McKennitt albums. I'd put "Elemental" at about 4th out of those six.

Rating: 3 stars.

Having just reviewed McKennitt at Disc 141, I don't have a whole lot to add in a general sense. I'll just say she is an excellent example of Celtic folk music, and a Canadian original all at the same time.

"Elemental" is her first album, and is aptly named. It is far more traditional in its approach than any of her other recordings by a wide margin.

Most of the songs are traditional folk songs that have been around for a very long time. "Blacksmith" and "She Moved Through the Fair" are both standards I've heard any number of times. That isn't to say they are bad, and in fact I haven't heard either any better than when in her hands.

The songs that are McKennitt tunes, are her setting famous poems to music. On this front, her interpretation of the Yeats' poem "Stolen Child" is one of my favourites on this or any of her albums. This is her first effort in putting famous poetry to music - a skill she perfects with "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Highwayman" on later albums.

"Stolen Child" tells the tale of a young child abducted from human society by faeries. It is a retelling of the story of the changeling, which I've always been fascinated by. A changeling in Celtic myth is a 'fey child' that replaces a human child, while the human child is taken away by faeries. Usually the fey child looks like the original baby, but behaves differently, and has powers or insight beyond what is mortally possible.

This alienation myth of one's own child is a fascinating one to me, and wraps up any number of subconscious fears we feel into one story. What it means I don't know, but I always find Yeats' imagining compelling - particularly given it focuses on the human child being drawn away by the natural beauty of the world, rather than simply stolen. When you match the power of Yeats' vision with the ethereal quality of McKennitt's songwriting talent, you get a winner.

The other notable literary tip of the hat on the record is "Lullaby" which features McKennitt's music again, this time accompanied by a male actor (Douglas Campbell) reading a poem by William Blake. It begins:

"O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war! - When the senses
Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed
Fight in the troubled air that rages, who can stand?"

Groovy sermon, and better heard than read.

McKennitt also gets a guest singer (Cedric Smith) to handle "Carrighfergus" which has been a favourite of mine for years. It is the story of a man who wants to get across the sea to Carrighfergus to see a woman he loves, but has no boatman to help him. Since the sea is too wide, he decides to get drunk, and wander from town to town until he gets sick and dies. OK, it is not a heroic song, but it has a nice barroom quality and is fun to sing along.

Musically, the album is very sparse and traditional, and in places I found myself wishing for some of the braver choices she would make in later albums. I will say that "Come By the Hills" is notably beautiful and has a kick ass harp riff. The kind of thing I can get my folk-mosh on for. Yeah - you read that right, punchy.

This album is a solid entry in McKennitt's discography. It may be primarily old folk standards, but it is an early display of her deep talent, and sets the stage for what is to come.

Best tracks: Stolen Child, Carrighfergus, Come By the Hills, Lullaby

CD Odyssey Disc 142: Miles Davis

Today the Odyssey was...a jazz odyssey!

Disc 142 is...Sketches of Spain
Artist: Miles Davis

Year of Release: 1960

What’s Up With The Cover?: The colours of spain meet Miles Davis. This is a very attractive cover - folk musicians take note - it doesn't take a lot to make it look nice.

How I Came To Know It: Eight or ten years ago I was hungry to try some jazz. I had heard of Miles Davis by reputation. I was in the lineup at A&B Sound and a guy in front of me was buying jazz. I asked him what Miles Davis album I should get. He said "Kind of Blue" and I said, "great" and left the lineup to go get it. As I walked away he called out "also Sketches of Spain!" I went with "Kind of Blue" but about a year later I got "Sketches of Spain" as I hadn't forgotten his advice.

How It Stacks Up: I have two Miles Davis albums - but soon I will have only one. It won't be this one.

Rating: 2 stars.

In my early twenties, I really wanted to get jazz, but then the feeling passed. In my early thirties it returned, and with it came this album.

I first listened to "Sketches of Spain" while painting our bedroom. I paid very close attention, knowing that in jazz this is probably important. I ended up lying down for a second to really listen to it, and fell asleep at about track 6.

I can't remember how many times I've put it on since that day, but not very many. It always seems to make me feel either sleepy or enraged.

That isn't to say Miles Davis can't play - that would fly in the face of the facts. His trumpet playing is rightfully famous. On this listen I marvelled anew at how he can so perfectly control long, soulful notes, with slight variations of force within the same note. At least I think that's what he's doing.

That said, Miles Davis in real life never had a problem speaking his mind, so I'll take a cue from him. He plays a good trumpet, and he is obviously famous for a reason, but I don't dig him.

This stuff is all just a little...boring. It noodles all over the place, and yet the noodling reminded me more of bad early James Bond music, rather than a clever reimagining of Spain through music. At any minute I expected two bikini clad gypsy girls to wrestle in a knife fight over Bond's affection (I think that was in an early Bond movie).

I'll be the first person to admit I don't get jazz, but this Odyssey isn't about what other people think of the music (except of course the comments page), it is about my reaction. This style of jazz has a pretentious quality to it. It is aimless meandering music, which somehow is considered so cool that it is beyond reproach. Well, not with me.

While listening to "Sketches of Spain" I actually found myself thinking about another kind of music that I just don't get - techno. Like jazz, techno music seems highly focused on being innovative, doesn't feel the need to get anywhere and is widely regarded by its devotees as 'cool'.

This particular version is a remastered copy with three bonus tracks, taking the album to a whopping eight songs (the first one is 16 minutes plus). Obviously given my reaction, adding three tracks, and a second day in the car did not further endear me to Mr. Davis.

Thelonious Monk - I feel you. Miles Davis - I don't feel you, at least not on "Sketches of Spain."

This is no doubt the most highly regarded album I don't like, but I can't fake it. It is only the 5th album in the Odyssey to hit the 'sell' pile. I remain hopeful "Kind of Blue" is better, but for today, I'm done with Miles Davis.

Best tracks: Solea is pretty good, but I don't upload from albums I sell, so it won't be gracing my MP3 player now or ever.

CD Odyssey Disc 141: Loreena McKennitt

Time to take another trip down to my folksy past. I am in a bit of a hard rock phase right now, so the Odyssey’s ability to transport me into genres I don’t play as often is welcome indeed.

In fact, a side effect of this whole experience is that I am finding myself simultaneously interested in all different musical genres.

Disc 141 is...Parallel Dreams
Artist: Loreena McKennitt

Year of Release: 1989

What’s Up With The Cover?: Folk music is great, but the covers can be painful. Here we have Loreena McKennitt, sans hair product, trying to look mystical on the edge of a lake. Pictures like this always look like they were taken by a family friend, rather than professionally done. In Loreena’s defence, this album was before she broke ‘big’ on the Canadian folk scene – so the style budget was probably pretty tight.

How I Came To Know It: I heard a song from the album that followed this one, (1991's "The Visit”) and when I bought that album I was an instant fan. “Parallel Dreams” was me doing what I do best – drilling into the collection. It was the second Loreena McKennitt album I would buy.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Loreena McKennitt albums. Of the six, I’d put this one probably second or third, but more likely second.

Rating: 4 stars.

Loreena McKennitt is a great example of how talent and hard work can equal success without compromise. For most of her career she marketed her own CDs, with no management company - selling the discs from her own house, and running her own mail order business, in addition to writing, performing, producing and arranging her own tours. There is even some great footage of her going to record stores in New York to lobby managers to display her discs more prominently, or to play them while people shopped.

When “Parallel Dreams”, came out in 1989, McKennitt was still toiling in relative obscurity (at least I had never heard of her). It is a shame, too – so often the album right before an artist hits it big is some of their best work, but is overshadowed by what comes after.

Before we go any further, at this point a warning is in order. “Parallel Dreams” is not for the faint of heart. It is a hard core folk album, with very few of the pop sensibilities like we saw with the Dixie Chicks. This album is Celtic folk, where the lead instrument is a harp.

If you can get past that, then you’ll be well rewarded. McKennitt has a high, haunting voice that has few equals. Her later work adds a lot of more modern, new age elements but “Parallel Dreams” captures her in a very raw way, and lets her singing and storytelling come to the fore. When listening to this album, you really feel like you’ve been transported back to ancient Ireland or Scotland.

Of the eight tracks, McKennitt writes the music for seven, and the lyrics for four of the six that aren’t instrumentals. The other lyrics and music are ‘traditional’ which on Celtic folk records is…er…traditional.

I particularly enjoy the “Huron ‘Beltane’ Fire Dance", which I believe is McKennitt merging Huron Indian chants with fiddles inspired by the Celtic holiday of Beltane (she tackles the more famous holiday of ‘Samain’ on the album’s opening track, “Samain Night”). The “Fire Dance” has a rolling quality that makes you feel like you are dancing around a bonfire, even when you are actually in your car, stuck in traffic.

Bar none, however, the best song is the traditional, “Annachie Gordon”, a song about a young woman who wants to marry her true love, but is instead betrothed by her father to another man, who has (as Monty Python so aptly puts it) ‘great tracts of land.’

This song is a tragic tale, told in a time when people legitimately died of a broken heart. Of course, people still die of it, but modern medicine likes to call it something else these days to make us all feel a little bit more in control of our feelings. I have played “Annachie Gordon” easily one hundred times – and in the excitement of my youth, I’ve inflicted its full 8:22 on any number of victims over the years. It chokes me up every time.

While ‘Annachie Gordon’ is a five star folk song, there is one track on this album that annoys the hell out of me – that being “Dicken’s Dublin (The Palace)”. It is not enough that this song references one of my least favourite Victorian authors (as in – please sir, can I have some less?). No, added to this is some young English boy babbling on about life being tough in the streets of the city. If I want to hear about the down and out I prefer the master - Shane McGowan. Dickensian-inspired eight year olds need not apply.

Despite the abomination of “Dicken’s Dublin” this album is solid work, and has a couple of the better folk songs I’ve ever heard. It isn't the first Loreena McKennitt album I'd recommend, but it is probably the second.

Best tracks: Samain Night, Huron ‘Beltane’ Fire Dance, Annachie Gordon, Standing Stones.

CD Odyssey Disc 140: Dixie Chicks

I've had a pretty good run of music lately. It is almost like this collection I'm going through was personally chosen by me!

Disc 140 is...Home
Artist: Dixie Chicks

Year of Release: 2002

What’s Up With The Cover?: The three members of the Dixie Chicks stand on a prairie road, looking smokin' hot. They're wearing quite a bit of eye make up for country girls - and I like it.

How I Came To Know It: I saw a video on CMT many years ago for a song called "I Can Love You Better" and really liked it, so I bought their debut album (not this one). "Home" was once again me seeing a video on CMT (this time for "Long Time Gone"). I held off, but when I heard their remake of "Landslide" I bought it (I've yet to buy a Dixie Chicks album for just one song, since I'm leery of anything that comes out of Nashville these days).

How It Stacks Up: I have two Dixie Chicks albums, this one and their debut, "Wide Open Spaces". I think this one is the stronger of the two.

Rating: 4 stars.

I'm always slightly embarassed when I go to buy a Dixie Chicks album. I mean, they have that pop quality to their country, courtesy of Natalie Maines' rock n' roll chops. Also, will people think I bought it because I think they're hot, rather than for the music? Will those people be a tiny bit right?

If it were really true I'd readily admit to it, but the truth is, those factors discourage me more than encourage me, and while I want their other albums, I haven't had the cajones to buy them and defend me choice at the record store counter.

Every listen to "Home" reminds me how stupid all these egotistical considerations are. The Dixie Chicks are incredibly talented country musicians. They don't write all their songs, but the ones they do write are good, and the ones they don't are well chosen.

Also, these women can really play. And anyone who challenges that is frankly spending too much time staring at the cover and not enough time listening. Any song would prove it, but "Home"'s lone instrumental, "Lil' Jack Slade" will really drive the point home. Emily is a maestro on the banjo - more amazing because I believe the story is that she picked it up because sister Martie already played the fiddle.

And can Martie ever play the fiddle. I've listened to my share of fiddle music - irish folk, scottish folk, cape breton folk, bluegrass and others (and yes, they are all different). Martie is not just competent, she makes you feel the music, and that is the difference between a competent fiddle and a brilliant fiddle. It is all in the heart, and these girls have the heart.

"Home" is them getting back to their more bluegrass and country roots after a slow move toward pop on their first two releases. The natural concern is that amazing rock voice of Natalie Maines isn't going to suit the music, but actually it gives it an updated and refreshing quality to songs that otherwise have a very old feel.

Speaking of which, while listening to this album, you may be tempted to check and see if they are singing old standards, but they are in fact brand new songs. When songs sound timeless, that is a good thing. It means they are going to last.

There are a couple tracks that don't grab me, like "Godspeed" which I'm pretty sure is a song about one of the Chicks' kids, and "White Trash Wedding" which has a bit of a novelty air about it. That said, even these songs are well constructed, and well performed.

Standouts on this album are numerous, but I like the way the disc starts with "Long Time Gone" which is a song about getting back to your roots - a thematic introduction to the album to follow. They even take a gentle poke at Nashville's new country scene (and deservedly so):

"We listen to the radio to hear what's cookin'
But the must ain't got no soul
Now they sound tired, but they don't sound Haggard
They got money but they don't have Cash
They got Junior but they don't have Hank
I think, I think, I think."

Take that Hank Williams Jr. and in case you weren't sure - yes, you suck.

I'm also really taken with "Travelin' Soldier" the story of a Vietnam vet who befriends a girl before he ships out, and writes her faithfully until he is killed on duty. This song always chokes me up. The story is simple, but it is presented with an emotional honesty, and is a beautifully crafted tale of tragedy.

"More Love" is always touching for me as well. It reminds me of Wailin' Jennys' "One Voice" with an idealistic message that makes you think anything is possible. Even if 'more love' isn't just around the corner, we need songs like this that keep the destination on the roadmap, giving us an emotional belief that we can grow as a species. While these kind of songs can get schmaltzy in a hurry - "More Love" never does.

"Top Of The World" is a song that captures the quiet despair in so many blue collar homes - I think (it's not entirely clear). I'd quote it, but without Natalie's magic voice, it wouldn't have the resonance so I'll just say - listen to it.

Listening to this album reminded me how misunderstood the Dixie Chicks have been through most of their career. For years they were perceived as pretty pop-country princesses. Totally untrue - they are artists who do what they want, and it has happened to be popular with fans. They cross genres when the feel like it, and they do it effortlessly.

They are a talented group of musicians with a lot of important things to say, and although it was painful for them, I'm glad people now see them for who they are, and not who they wanted them to be.

Best tracks: Long Time Gone, Travelin' Soldier, Truth No. 2, More Love, Lil' Jack Slade, Top Of The World

CD Odyssey Disc 139: Leonard Cohen

I started a new album today and wasn't sure I'd get through it on a single drive home. Well, a car accident on the highway took care of that - while I waited for traffic to clear I listened to it twice. I enjoyed it both times.

Disc 139 is...New Skin For The Old Ceremony
Artist: Leonard Cohen

Year of Release: 1974

What’s Up With The Cover?: Naked angels do the nasty. Cohen covers are usually pretty tame, and this one is by far the weirdest - and my favourite.

How I Came To Know It: I've known Cohen forever, but this album I came to late. I actually didn't know it existed until I saw him live on "The Future" tour in '92 or '93. He does a funky version of "There Is A War" on that tour, and I didn't know the song. I had every album he had done, so I was pretty confused, until I finally found this. Expecting the concert version of that song, I was surprised how different it sounded - but I still loved it.

It's odd I hadn't noticed sooner. My folks had a 'best of' on tape, and it had "Chelsea Hotel #2" on it. For some reason it never occurred to me that this song ALSO had to come from some album originally.

How It Stacks Up: I have all eleven Cohen albums worth having (Only "Dear Heather" is a flop). Of them I'd put this one solidly 6th or 7th, depending on how I feel about it, and "Recent Songs" (reviewed at Disc 120) at that given moment.

Rating: 4 stars, but one thin hair from 5.

Not sure what there is to say about Cohen that I haven't said before, so I'll quickly sum up, by saying the man is one of the greatest poets our country - or any country - has ever produced. That he was able to popularize his work with some solid folk songs, and thus bring it to a larger audience, is just gravy.

"New Skin, etc." is still in his early period, where the arrangements are very sparse, and his voice is still relatively high. For some reason his voice is at the perfect stage for me to sing along on this album, and feel like I am in tune (or failing that, out of tune in the same ways Cohen is). That makes this a great driving album for me, but probably not for all the people stuck in the traffic jam with me today.

The record adds an odd title to its odd cover. Cohen's album titles are usually very basic and unassuming ("Songs", "Songs From a Room", "Recent Songs" - you get the idea). This album goes the other way with the evocative and erotic, "New Skin For the Old Ceremony", with art to match.

The music and lyrics are edgier as well, as Cohen experiments a bit with his voice (deliberately rocking out a bit on songs like "Is This What You Wanted" and "Leaving Green Sleeves").

The lyrics, as always, are the strongest element, and once again Cohen uses his unimpressive voice impressively, simply by emoting each line. The man knows how to do a reading.

From the opening line of the opening song you know it is going to be raw, racey and a little bit funny, as he leads of "Is This What You Wanted" with:

"You were the promise at dawn
I was the morning after."

This album touches me in so many ways, and certain lyrics have resonated with me my whole life. In "Chelsea Hotel #2" Cohen tells the story of a short love affair in that storied sixties edifice of Beatniks and hippy musicians. He includes this little tip of the hat to all of us regular folks:

"And clenching your fist for the ones like us
Who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
You fixed yourself, you said: "Well, never mind,
We are ugly, but we have the music.""

Lastly I love the line in the beautifully lustful "Take This Longing":

"Take this longing from my tongue
Whatever useless things these hands have done
Let me see your beauty broken down
Like you would do
For one you love."

There are politically thoughtful songs like "There is a War" which to me is less about any war, than it is about not being afraid sometimes to choose a side . There are mournful mood pieces like "Who By Fire" which for a while featured as our answering machine message, and even comic songs like "Leaving Green Sleeves" which riffs off of the folk standard, "Greensleeves" and makes it a painfully humorous break up song.

Because of the fairly simple musicality on this album, this album is a shade from five stars, but like "Recent Songs" it is often a five star album for me, when it hits me just right. Still, I promised to be a hard marker, so there it is, a hard mark.

Best tracks: Is This What You Wanted, Chelsea Hotel #2, Field Commander Cohen, There Is A War, Who By Fire, Take This Longing

CD Odyssey Disc 138: Gorillaz

The latest roll is the third straight disc from the oughts. Doing this Odyssey has shown me that I have music mostly spread over the last four decades, and a surprising amount from the last ten years.

This one happens to be Sheila's, but they all count for the Odyssey.

Disc 138 is...Demon Days
Artist: Gorillaz

Year of Release: 2005

What’s Up With The Cover?: Profile shots of "the band". As I noted in my review of the Gorillaz' first album at Disc 74, these guys like to pretend they are cartoons. I think it is a bit goofy, but each to his own.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to the Gorillaz. I'm not sure how she found out about them, but she buys their albums, and this is one of them.

How It Stacks Up: We have two Gorillaz albums - we don't have their 2010 release, but if Sheila wants it, I'm sure she'll pick it up. I have enough addictions of my own (I just bought my 4th Budgie album today). Of the two we do have, "Demon Days" is definitely my favourite.

Rating: 3 stars.

"Demon Days" is a good record, in a genre I don't understand very well. I've listed it here as "rap and hip hop" but I could have just as easily gone "electronica". It is the artificiality of that electronic sound that I find a bit jarring (I usually prefer my music more organic).

That said, this album is made of pretty groovy stuff. It is a bit overlong, at fifteen tracks, but not so much that it is irritating. I actually think cutting a song or two might disturb the flow, so I'll give that a pass.

On their first release, the Gorillaz had a hit with "Clint Eastwood" so it is kind of funny that this album has a song called "Dirty Harry". It is a good enough track, but my favourite is the funky "Feel Good Inc." The rapping on "Feel Good Inc." reminds me of Outkast, when they aren't sucking (so you know - it has a rare feel).

The album has more range overall than the other Gorillaz record, with some quieter tracks and songs that almost have a narrative quality to them.

There is a particularly wacky song near the end titled "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" which is basically the story of a peaceful mountain people that are taken advantage of by a greedy race that mines the gemstones out of their sacred caves. Of course, this offends their Monkey god, which retaliates by spewing fire and bringing doom to all.

Either that, or there was a mining operation in an active volcano, which went off. It is hard to tell with myths what actually happened, and what is embellishment. As for me, I'm going with the Monkey God story, since it is more entertaining.

This CD is entertaining as well. I wouldn't say it is a love connection, but it is solid, and when Sheila puts it in the rotation on a game night, I am always happy to have it in the mix.

Best tracks: Kids With Guns, Dirty Harry, Feel Good Inc., Dare

CD Odyssey Disc 137: Rush

And now another Weird Moment of Randomness. As you know (or should by now) the CD Odyssey is almost entirely random - I occasionally pick a new CD to review, but that's pretty rare (I like not knowing what's next).

On Friday I reviewed my last album and was preparing to head out to the theatre to see the new Rush documentary, "Beyond the Lighted Stage", made by Victoria film maker Sam Dunn. FYI the documentary is awesome.

Anyway before I left, I rolled my next album and got..."Snakes And Arrows."

This Weird Moment of Randomness brought to you by the letter sssssss.

Disc 137 is...Snakes & Arrows
Artist: Rush

Year of Release: 2007

What’s Up With The Cover?: A vaguely Indian God type figure sits in the background, seemingly presiding over a bunch of snakes and arrows graphics that are going in no particular direction. Also, the figure has a burning fountain of fire in his crotch. No, this does not qualify as the weirdest Rush album cover.

How I Came To Know It: I really love Rush, so I just bought this when it came out. Also, if you are friends with Kelly, you will always know when Rush has a new album out - I believe he has three or four versions of this one.

How It Stacks Up: I have all eighteen of Rush' studio albums. While another album is imminent, for now "Snakes & Arrows" is the most recent. It holds up well against a strong body of work. I'm going to say it is 8th or 9th best, depending on my mood.

Rating: 4 stars.

I haven't rolled a Rush album since I reviewed "Caress of Steel" back at Disc 26. The chronological distance between that album and this one is thirty five years, and even that doesn't span Rush' entire career.

"Snakes & Arrows" is a reminder that bands can still make fresh, interesting music decades into their careers, if they push themselves.

In terms of style, this record is much more straightforward rock and roll than many Rush albums that preceded it. I for one am glad to see Alex Lifeson's guitar being heavily featured on some driving riffs - particularly "The Main Monkey Business" and "The Way The Wind Blows". He even has an acoustic piece all too himself with "Hope". Lifeson has got to be one of the most non-egotistical masters of the guitar in the history of rock and roll (alongside Buck Dharma).

Geddy Lee gets in on the musical act, with his bass coming to the forefront for the third (and final) instrumental on the record - "Malignant Narcissism". Only Rush could have an album with three instrumentals not be wrong.

I also think that this album has some of Neil Peart's better lyrics (which is saying something, since Neil Peart is one of the greatest lyricists of...all...time).

As evidence, let's quickly consider the song "The Larger Bowl" It is a song questioning why some people on the earth fare so well, while others encounter bad fortune at every turn. It is also a pantoum. For those who don't know (I had to look it up) a pantoum is a poem composed of a series of quatrains with repeating lines throughout. The second and fourth lines of each quatrain are repeated in the first and third lines in the next. With me? Like this:

"If we're so much the same, like I always hear
Why such different fortunes and fates?
Some of us live in a cloud of fear
Some live behind iron gates.

"Why such different fortunes and fates?
Some are blessed and some are cursed
Some live behind iron gates
While others see only the worst."

Form in literature has very sadly been cast aside in our modern age, and Peart reminds us that the structure in a work of art doesn't have to be viewed as limiting, but rather can actually add a deeper resonance to your message.

As for what that message is, Peart writes about themes, both personal and global in scope. Whatever he writes about, Peart always seems to elevate any such discussion above any one political or metaphysical view, and help us see the larger patterns.

For example, while he readily wades into the dangerous topic of middle eastern politics on "The Way The Wind Blows" the song strikes a tone that is more introspective and conciliatory, rather than suggesting any particular solution. It ends with:

"Like a solitary pine
On a bare wind-blasted shore
We can only grow the way the wind blows."

On the introspective side, Peart again gives voice to his longstanding metaphysical skepticism in "Faithless". While not exactly the anthemic "Free Will" from 1980's "Permanent Waves", it is nevetheless powerful and moving. While "Free Will" is more defiant, "Faithless" shows the mellowing of Peart with age, while still underscoring his vocal refusal to succumb to any easy answers. Here's just the end:

"I've got my own spirit level for balance
To tell if my choice is leading up or down
And all the shouting voices
Try to throw me off my course
Some by sermons, some by force
Fools and thieves are dangerous
In the temple and marketplace.

"Like a forest bows to winter
Beneath the deep white silence
I will quietly resist.

"Like a flower in the desert
That only blooms at night
I will quietly resist."

As Peart teaches us the value of quiet resistance, Rush as a band has managed to teach us the lesson of rock and roll persistence, and none too quietly over the years. "Snakes & Arrows" is a worthy entry in the enduring legacy they've carved out in the annals of music history.

Best tracks: Armor and Sword, The Larger Bowl, The Main Monkey Business, The Way the Wind Blows, Faithless, We Hold On

CD Odyssey Disc 136: Mark Knopfler

When I said that Mark Knopfler's reign of terror was over it appears I was mistaken. The dice had other plans, and rolled up the third Knopfler album in less than ten reviews. I think the odds of this are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1 in 10,000.

Disc 136 is...Sailing To Philadelphia

Artist: Mark Knopfler

Year of Release: 2000

What’s Up With The Cover?: An out of focus passenger jet against a blue sky. I like it, and it captures the spirit of the record to come.

How I Came To Know It: I had bought Knopfler's earlier solo album, 1996's "Golden Heart" and loved it, so this was just me following up. As it happened, "Sailing to Philadelphia" was a much bigger record (big being relative with respect to Knopfler's solo career).

How It Stacks Up: As you are no doubt tiring of reading recently, I have eight Knopfler albums. I'd have to say this is #1 - or maybe tied for #1.

Rating: 5 stars. There are songs that don't fit the five star bill, but when the album is put together and listened to from bow to stern, it is a five star experience. So five, but barely.

"Sailing To Philadelphia" and "Golden Heart" are the beginnings of the folk-rock sound that Knopfler is still playing today (and which I recently reviewed for his last release, "Get Lucky"). He has never matched the quality of the first two records here, but that would be a hard task to accomplish.

When I first bought this record ten years ago, Sheila and I played the living hell out of it. We recommended it incessantly to friends (sorry, everyone) and if there had been a T-shirt featuring it, or a book written about it I'm sure I would've bought those as well. Zealotry is rarely pretty in hindsight.

A few years later, I had to put it on the shelf, for fear of killing all my joy for it. Since then, I've tried hard to buy at least two albums at a time, if for no other reason than to avoid overplay.

It is a testament to this album's quality that it wasn't too long before I was again putting it into the mix. It still stands up today, as fresh as ever.

The first two tracks are the best two, immediately grabbing your attention. "What It Is" is a pure rock and roll number, with a guitar lick that catches you from the opening notes. The guitar here, and throughout the record is Knopfler at his best. A bluesy, atmospheric sound with a rock edge.

"What It Is" is infused with energy, as it thematically bids farewell to Scotland with a song about all things Scotland - it is all pipers and castle walls and ghosts, cold weather, beer and energy. I love it.

The second song shows us the other side of Knopfler's guitar mastery, as he instantly morphs into a folksy classical picking sound. He takes us across the Atlantic to the United States where the record will stay.

"Sailing To Philadelphia" is a duet sung with James Taylor about the creation of the Mason-Dixon line. It is a true folk song, acoustic and touching - putting a human face on the two people who undertook this task. It is a perfect counterpoint to "What It Is" and moreover is one of the better folk songs I've ever heard. Here's the intro:

"I am Jeremiah Dixon/I am a Geordie boy
A glass of wine with you sir/And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland/Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth/To make my mark upon the earth...

"He calls me Charlie Mason/A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born/To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread/But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country/Would join the Royal Society."

I can play it again and again and never tire of the story - more remarkable given that pretty much all I know about Mason and Dixon I learned from this song.

From here, Knopfler applies his considerable talents at both the guitar and songwriting to snapshots of America, past and present.

He writes about segregationism in the 50s from the perspective of a black family trying to find a place to eat ("Baloney Again"), and what it would have been like to be an early western farmer, never meeting your bride-to-be except through letter, untilthe day she steps off the train and you take her home ("Prairie Wedding").

His song about stock car racing, "Speedway at Nazareth" is a brilliant insight into the mind of a race car driver. It is also the perfectly paced to make you viscerally feel like you yourself are behind the wheel. This song to me is always a great counterpoint to the more introspective racing song "Racing In the Streets" by Springsteen.

In his lighter moments, Knopfler writes about what it is like to be a British rock star taking your act to the USA in "Do America":

"Well I've been at it ever since I was a kid at school
Now they love me in Newcastle and in Liverpool
I'm as hot as a pistol I can do no wrong
I've been to Birmingham and Briston playing my song.

"Take a 777 to the USA
Gonna party all night I'm gonna sleep all day
See New York City 'cos I've never been
New York City in a limousine."

This album is Knopfler's love song to America, warts and all. In fact the last image he leaves you with is the desolation of a gambler who has lost everything he owns to his addiction in "Sands of Nevada."

Whether he's celebrating with rock bravado, or digging into the ugly places, Knopfler manages to write a series of songs about a country that are both intimate, and alien. Covering miles of territory, yet never pretending to fully understand what he sees - kind of like that out of focus airplane on the cover.

It is a great record, and if years ago you escaped my haranguing you to buy it - consider yourself harangued. The first two tracks will blow you away - but the next eleven will sneak up on you just as surely with each new listen.

Best tracks: What It Is, Sailing To Philadelphia, Do America, Prairie Wedding, Wanderlust, Speedway at Nazareth, Sands of Nevada

CD Odyssey Disc 135: Oingo Boingo

For the third consecutive day I rolled an album for the Odyssey that was short enough to get through on one drive home from work. Sweet, sweet brevity!

Disc 135 is...The Best of Oingo Boingo (Millennium Collection)
Artist: Oingo Boingo

Year of Release: 2002 but with music from 1982-1990

What’s Up With The Cover?: A bunch of geeks in bad shirts. Surely all eight of these guys can't be in the band - yet they are.

How I Came To Know It: I knew the song "Weird Science" from the movie of the same name(which I loved) but this is Sheila's album, as she likes both Oingo Boingo and the work of their frontman, Danny Elfman.

How It Stacks Up: This is a best of, so it doesn't stack up. That wouldn't make sense. It is also the only Oingo Boingo record we have.

Rating: best ofs can't be rated - that is how the Odyssey rolls, man.

Although I am generally down on 'best of's and compilations, these 20th Century Masters are well put together, and I think the eleven songs on this one are a pretty fair representation of Oingo Boingo's better work.

The album starts off with probably Oingo Boingo's most famous song, the theme song from the movie "Weird Science". The song is OK, if a bit campy. I primarily enjoy how it brings me back to the movie of the same name, where a couple of nerds concoct a strange combination of computer programming and witchcraft to successfully summon Kelly LeBrock.

The movie did for Kelly LeBrock what Whitesnake videos did for Tawny Kitaen; she became an instant sex symbol, and the focal point of every teenage boys fantasy, including mine. I wonder how many Canadian teenagers put bras on their heads and hoped against hope that Kelly LeBrock would appear in their bedroom doorway and ask that all-consuming question: "What do you little maniacs want to do first?"

Weird Science also featured an early appearance of Bill Paxton as "my evil older brother, Chet." Obviously not hot like Kelly LeBrock, but ultimately destined for a much more distinguished career, discounting Twister.

But I digress - this is a music review after all.

On that front, Oingo Boingo is a little too eighties pop for me, despite the obvious talent. Too much drum machine for me to forgive at the end of the day. The song I actually enjoyed the most was "When The Lights Go Out", which turned out to be the only track not released in the eighties (it was 1990). Even that song is spoiled with the everpresent drum machine.

One thing I noticed this listen was a distinctly different sound on tracks like "Violent Love", "Only a Lad" and "Wild Sex". It was kind of like reggae on speed, with a horn section. At first I couldn't place it, but then I remembered - there are eight guys in the band. A lineup that big could only mean one thing - ska!

That is not to say Oingo Boingo is ska - they are not. I figure with eight members though, they were artistically obligated to include a few ska tracks anyway. Hey, I don't make the rules.

It is fitting that Oingo Boingo's most famous song was a movie theme - lead man Danny Elfman never made it very big with the band, but is now a much sought after for his skill in writing movie scores. Just as well I suppose - maybe he could do a reboot of Weird Science starring Meagan Fox?

Best tracks: Violent Love, When the Lights Go Out

CD Odyssey Disc 134: ELO

Well from a combination of punk, metal and rock to a combination of pop, do-wop and disco. The Odyssey - it gets around

Disc 134 is...Discovery
Artist: E.L.O. (Electric Light Orchestra)

Year of Release: 1979

What’s Up With The Cover?: An arab boy appears to have received an electronic game of "Simon" for his birthday. No, wait - that's just the ELO symbol. Still, I think the last sequence was red - yellow - blue - blue - yellow. Or did it start yellow - blue - red? Let the hilarity ensue!

How I Came To Know It: This is a pretty big record for ELO. I am pretty sure I heard a lot of these songs as a kid. My more recent 'discovery' of it was buying it one day with Sheila. ELO is a guilty pleasure for both of us.

How It Stacks Up: We have three ELO albums. I'd say this is solidly in the middle of the three.

Rating: 3 stars.

While this isn't my favourite ELO album, I think it was very successful in it's time. The first track is "Shine A Little Love" and the last one is "Don't Bring Me Down," both of which got solid radio play in 1979.

Of course, "Don't Bring Me Down" has one of the most misheard lyrics of all time. Just what does he say after "don't bring me down?" Believe it or not, the answer is "gruce" - or as spelled in the liner notes - "grroosss." I have no idea what it means, and I kind of enjoy not knowing.

Coming out in 1979, it is no surprise that "Discovery" has a very strong disco element - in particular "Last Train To London" which sounds like a Bee Gees song. This is not a bad thing. When I was young, and even through my teens and early twenties I had absolutely no time for disco. If you wanted any street cred as a metalhead it wasn't enough to avoid disco - you had to actively hate it. I took on the challenge with gusto.

How wrong I was though. I still love metal of course, but now there is room in my life for all kinds of disco music - Chic, the BeeGees and ELO when they are feeling funky.

Sometimes ELO doesn't feel funky, and instead channels fifties do-wop. Strangely, this is something that Blue Oyster Cult will occasionally do as well. I think it must be a function of the age of folks like Jeff Lynne and Eric Bloom of BOC, who would've had early experience with that kind of music.

As an aside, when I was a very small kid, I would sometimes get Jeff Lynne and Eric Bloom mixed up. They were both lead singers with great afros, and a penchant for wearing aviator sunglasses in their photo shoots. The fact that both their bands would sneak in a little do wop just added to the confusion.

Speaking of "Confusion", that is one of my favourite tracks on the record - with Lynne singing 'confusion' in staccato falsetto. I love the liner notes he adds to this remaster edition at the front of the song:

"I'd just got hold of the very latest synthesizer, the Yamaha CS-80. The song is based entirely on the sound it made."

Nice, and worth noting at this point that the Remastering of "Discovery" isn't limited to just new liner notes - the production is strong as well. The record sounds great, and while the song list is expanded from the original nine to twelve, two of the three added songs are two little demos under a minute. The third is an inspired remake of Del Shannon's "Little Town Flirt." It is a top notch cover of a song I forgot how much I liked.

This album might not move me emotionally, but it is a lot of fun, and who doesn't love the liberal use of the CS-80?

Best tracks: Shine A Little Love, Confusion, Last Train to London, Don't Bring Me Down, Little Town Flirt

CD Odyssey Disc 133: L7

Before I get on this review, I just want to give a big thank you to Joel and Sherylyn who recently gave me the benefit of their CD lore (and CDs along with). I'm looking forward to hearing this new music with the same enthusiasm Francis Drake once looked out upon the Pacific Ocean - except without all the piracy and what-not.

Now, on to the latest entry in the CD Odyssey.

Disc 133 is...Bricks Are Heavy
Artist: L7

Year of Release: 1992

What’s Up With The Cover?: I'm not sure. I think this is time lapsed photography of a couple people dressed in early nineties attire, swinging lit torches about. It's cool anyway - they even put flames around Tipper Gore's Parental Advisory Label, so it fits in thematically.

How I Came To Know It: Another album I owe to my friend and former room-mate Greg. I always loved this album, and it was one of the first I went out and bought when I could no longer play his.

How It Stacks Up: L7 weren't together that long, and they only made four albums. Of the four, two are really good and of those two, I'd say "Bricks Are Heavy" is the best. So how does it stack up? Number One!

Rating: 4 stars.

L7 were an early nineties all-girl band that I really dug in the day, and still play quite often today. They are a heavy, no nonsense group that will assault your senses. I'm pretty sure the Runaways and the Go Gos wouldn't want to run into these gals in a dark alley - L7 would kick their ass. Well, most of them anyway. Joan Jett could hold her own, of course, and Jane Wiedlin no doubt fights dirty. You'll always be my favourite Go Go, Jane...

As you can see from the tags I put on this entry, I had a hard time figuring out just what kind of music L7 makes. It is definitely rock n' roll. It has elements of punk, but also metal. In the day they were lumped in with grunge because they came out in the early nineties, played alternative music, and had a pulse (see Phair, Liz).

Songs cover a wide range of topics. "Wargasm" a bitterly angry anti-war song, and "Pretend We're Dead" calls out the unexamined life. There are more than a few tracks with varying messages of 'I hate you' and the gals even take time out to list the ways you can make their "Shitlist" (Hint: there are many).

This album is a tight little collection of only eleven songs, the longest clocking in at only 4:21. If you read this blog, you know I am a fan of brevity on an album, and they deliver. There aren't any bad tracks, per se, although some are better than others. Every track is as heavy as...well, as heavy as a brick. A few ("One More Thing", "Diet Pill") are as heavy as a bag of bricks.

On the other hand, it has been pointed out by the very person who introduced me to this band (Greg) that a lot of their songs sound basically the same. This occasionally manifests (hilariously) with a chorus of 'when we pretend that we're dead' from those who recognize when an L7 song comes on - regardless of the song.

While I partially subscribe to this theory (and have even sung a little 'pretend that we're dead' along with the boys) the realization doesn't bother me. I liken it to ACDC; all their songs may sound the same - but they also all sound pretty good.

This record doesn't have a ton of range, but it sounds consistently good, and it makes you want to mosh until you throw your neck out. Also, the gals in L7 are pretty hot in an "I'm scared of them but kind of like it" way.

Best tracks: Wargasm, Pretend We're Dead, Diet Pill, One More Thing, Shitlist

CD Odyssey Disc 132: Tchaikovsky

It has been almost a year since I rolled another classical album. Hardly shocking - I probably have ten total, or about 1% of the collection.

Disc 132 is...Tchaikovsky Box Set Disc 2 (of 5)
Artist: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Year of Release: 1980 and 1965, but music from 1840-1893

What’s Up With The Cover?: I didn't post the cover - it is just a boring graphic with "The Tchaikovsky Box" written on the front. Instead, let's take a second look at Pyotr in all his grandeur. That is a fine fitting suit you're wearing, Pyotr - I wonder how long you had to sit there until the image was captured...

How I Came To Know It: I explained this when I reviewed volume I back at Disc 9, but since you're here and not there - I was expanding my horizons in university back in 1989 when I got this box set on the cheap. I remember wanting it because it was mostly complete symphonies, rather than those cheapy deals you can get where they just sample parts out.

How It Stacks Up: It is a boxed set - not sure how that can really stack up. I will say that over the years I've listen to this volume a bit more than the other four.

Rating: 4 stars

I won't get too much into the nature of Tchaikovsky's music, since I covered as much as I know back in my first review of him. I'll just sum up - I think he is super-heavy for a 19th century dude, and he's my favourite classical composer.

This particular album came at a bad time - it is hard to hear on the highway with the top down, and today was the first sunny day in about two weeks, so I desperately wanted the top down.

I compromised, and left it up for the first half of my drive, then once I got into town and slowed down, I took it down. Classical music is awesome when tooling about in a convertible. I even had on a suit and a little British driving cap. I imagine I looked like quite the pretentious twit. I should have waved and shouted 'toodles!' as I left each stop light. Another lost opportunity...

This particular album is funny for me. It is like a record of two halves. The first two pieces are stand alone numbers, each about fifteen minutes in length (Capriccio Italien Op. 45, and "1812" Overture Op. 49). I really dig both of these, and 1812 Overture has long been one of my favourite classical pieces - no amount of overuse in film and TV will alter my love for this blast of pomp and bombast.

As a kid I used to dig that the song was accompanied by cannon shot at the end, fired far away, but calculated to be in time with the music. That is very cool. Of course, when you are eleven any song that has frickin' cannons in it is cool by default. Kind of like the car crash at the beginning of Kiss' "Detroit Rock City" or the fighter pilot banter at the beginning of Prism's "Armaggedon". I was eleven or so for that Prism song, too. Man, there is a lot of cool stuff out there when you're eleven.

Anyway, back to Tchaikovsky. The major piece on the album is "Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64". As usual four movements, yadda yadda yadda. This is an amazing composition (we are talking about one of the all-time greats here) but for some reason left me a little unsatisfied. It starts out all right, but it doesn't have the same rousing ending that I loved on "Serenade in C Major" from Vol. 1...I think - I'm a little shaky on this classical music thing.

Or maybe it is just that "Capriccio Italien" and "1812 Overture" are simply too awesome by comparison (they are the reason I played vol II all the time). Or maybe it is just that after a couple of fifteen minute 'pop hits' my 20th century ear doesn't have the patience to delve into something more complicated.

Who knows - it was fun, and Pyotr can party, so this album still earns 4 suggestive cello placements out of 5.

Best tracks: Capriccio Italien, Op. 45, '1812' Overture, Op. 49

CD Odyssey Disc 131: Tool

The next disc in the CD Odyssey is proof that not all music is about love and fields of flowers.

Disc 131 is...Undertow
Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 1993

What’s Up With The Cover?: Um...an alien ribcage? This is typical of Tool's disturbing CD art and frankly, is one of the more tame examples. The back of the disc depicts a pig with the word "undertow" shaved into its side, that has been impaled on about twenty forks. Yikes.

How I Came To Know It: My buddy Greg gets full credit for my exposure to both Tool in general, and this album in particular. During the grunge/celtic folk wars of the early nineties, this was an album I actually enjoyed.

How It Stacks Up: Tool takes their time releasing records. In eighteen years, they've released five. Of the five, I would say "Undertow" is a close second to 2001's "Lateralus".

Rating: 5 stars, although there is some silliness on track 10 where you get about 10 minutes of crickets chirping, that came very close to knocking it down to 4 just out of sheer frustration.

"Undertow" was the first Tool album I ever heard - I really liked it, although I'm told they don't perform these songs in concert any more, which I think is kind of odd.

When Tool put this record out (and the EP preceding it, "Opiate") I don't think there was anything that sounded quite like them. Rev. Maynard's creepy vocals, their compelling, complicated grooves and above all Danny Carey - rock and roll's second greatest drummer ever (after Rush's Neil Peart).

Seventeen years later, "Undertow" still sounds fresh enough to be released tomorrow. Frankly, it would probably do better if you did. They are a unique band, who I think only fully realized their mainstream potential in 2006, with the release of "10,000 Days". That suits me just fine, and likely Tool as well - although I'm sure they would've happily cashed the cheques.

Anyway - this isn't a Tool retrospective, it is a review of "Undertow."

This record only has ten tracks, but there isn't a real stinker among them. "Disgustipated" is a bit goofy, since it is over fifteen minutes long, and the only musical portion is a weird beating of sticks, as Rev. Maynard sermonizes about a dream he had, in which carrots can feel pain. ("These are the cries of the carrots. They have a consciousness!"). It sounds silly, but Tool manages to twist our initial humour at the notion into a dark and serious realization:

"This is necessary. Life feeds on life."

Yikes. It is creepy, because it is true.

Since Tool can creep you out about eating carrots, it isn't surprising that they are that much more creepy when tackling serious topics.

In "Sober" they get right to the emotional core of addiction. Lines like:

"I am just a worthless liar
I am just an imbecile
I will find a centre in you
I will chew it up and leave."

really capture the self-loathing of the addict that wants to quit, but can't resist his own compulsions. There is also a very cool (and creepy) stop-motion animation video for this song, featuring a sewer pipe filled with chunks of raw meat.

Frankly, we used to joke that "Sober" was the radio release simply because nothing else would've received radio play in 1993.

Most notable, is "Prison Sex" - a song about prison rape. This song paints such a disturbing picture of its chosen topic it could probably singlehandedly scare people onto the straight and narrow. Of course, it would be a pretty tough sell as a public service announcement. Not exactly after-school special material.

When I first heard the record, I always enjoyed "Swamp Song". I can't understand all the lyrics, but I always imagine this song is about some drunk in a bar stumbling into other people. I don't know if that is what it's about, but that's what it is about for me. I can certainly relate - who among us has not been stumbled into by some drunk at a bar? Anyway - whatever it is about, I love the groovy riff on this song.

What all these songs have in common is amazing musicianship - often with the unexpected focus on drums and bass. So often in rock music, guitar and vocals are cranked up way too loud. Tool provides an excellent balance, and in the process shows off very balanced and intricate songwriting.

Every Tool album is excellent, but I think even with the stiff competition, "Undertow" holds its own, and is solid throughout. It also put a new spin on music, a new focus in production, and lyrics that both disturb and elicit real emotion in the listener.

It isn't a pretty flower, and it isn't for the easily offended, but it is amazing music.

Best tracks: All tracks, although you can live without "Disgustipated" after you've spared a moment of silence for the carrots.