CD Odyssey Disc 353: Jully Black

This next album is a cautionary tale on how you can't always judge a book by its cover.

Disc 353 is...Revival

Artist: Jully Black

Year of Release: 2007

What’s Up With The Cover?: Jully Black, looking sexy as hell in a micro-short, sexy-as-hell white dress. From her hair down to her shoes, Jully Black is a fine looking woman, and is clearly not afraid to show it. This cover is as good as it gets, but remember the warning in the teaser intro...

How I Came To Know It: This is one of Sheila's albums, and I'm not sure how she heard about it. It was a minor hit in Canada, with a top ten hit ("Seven Day Fool") and won a Juno, so that could be it. I heard it for the first time when Sheila brought it home.

How It Stacks Up: Jully Black has five albums, but this is the only one in our collection so it can't really stack up. It won't be there long, however.

Rating: 1 star.

"Revival" is a soul/RnB record that no doubt imagines itself as a renewal of traditional soul music, but is only the palest imitation of that style. It would be enough to say it fails on all counts, but since this site does music reviews, I will take the time to enumerate them for your horror/enjoyment.

First, let it be said that I'm not a big fan of soul/RnB records, but I do have a few, and I know when they are good. Not so, the mis-named "Revival," which would be more aptly named "Re-Animated." It is the musical equivalent of a zombie: recognizable at a distance as a person, shuffling about, but viewed up close lacking any higher function. It may lurch at you from the shadows of AM radio, but make no mistake - it is not alive.

The music has a beat, but not a pulse. I found most of the compositions on par with the atrocities they make American Idol singers release as their first single; dripping with false emotion, and sounding like they were composed by a committee of Soulless Record Execs.

It is not 100% bad, though, and there are a couple of bright spots, most notably "Queen" which I noted with pleasure was composed by Jully Black herself. Even this song suffers from over-production that strips out a lot of the raw emotion that soul needs to work, but at least the skeleton of the composition is strong. The hit, "Seven Day Fool" has a good beat, and Blacks' best vocal performance on the record, but not much to recommend it beyond that. Apart from these two songs, the album alternates between forgettable and annoying.

"Revival" tries to cover a lot of territory - with Black attempting on some tracks to sound sexy and trampish on "DJ Play My Song," sassy on "Seven Day Fool" and inspirational on "Catch Me When I Fall." The problem is I didn't believe her in any incarnation. On her sexy songs she sounds like a shy girl trying to prove herself otherwise. On her introspective songs she alternates between sounding preachy and like she's in a singing competition where she's focused on impressing the judges by hitting all the notes.

And that may be the worst of all. Female soul singers rely on their incredible voices. Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones make you believe everything they sing. These ladies can sing the phonebook and make you think it's the gospel. I recently bought Sheila the new Adele album, and although I started out thinking I'd hate it, the truth is her voice is so amazing that I couldn't help but enjoy the music.

Black doesn't have the kind of range - emotional or otherwise - to bring the otherwise lacklustre songs on "Revival" to life. Compared to a layperson like me her voice is incredible, but compared to other singers in her genre, she is just OK, and the material and production isn't good enough to float the record on its own.

I admire Sheila's interest in this form of music, though - and years before I came to it. She has since agreed this is not a good example of what she was looking for and given me permission to put this album into the 'sell' pile. This is exactly where it is going as soon as I'm finished writing this review.

If you like this 'kind of music' but wish it could be better, there is hope. I strongly recommend Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and her 2010 release "I Learned The Hard Way" which is much more deserving of your hard-earned money.

Best tracks: Queen

CD Odyssey Disc 352: Queen

I received three CDs for Christmas from Sheila (thank you!) and some spending money from my Mom (thank you too!). This - and about three months of not purchasing hardly any music - resulted in a ridiculous spending spree on Saturday during which I bought nine new albums.

I always regret buying so much music at one time, because I can't properly focus on each record, but yet I always do it at some point during the year. Still, I'm going to enjoy my new records - they are:

From Sheila:
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
So Beautiful Or So What - Paul Simon
Hank Williams: The Lost Notebooks - Various Artists

Christmas money:
Picaresque - The Decemberists
Stand Up - Jethro Tull
Blue Kentucky Girl - Emmylou Harris
Jazzmatazz Vol. II - Guru
Matapedia - The McGarrigle Sisters
Being There - Wilco
The Stand Ins - Okkervil River
Oh Fortune - Dan Mangan
OG Original Gangster - Ice T

Don't ask me how any of them are, though - I haven't had time to listen to them. I'll let you know when I roll them somewhere down the line. OK - on to the record I am reviewing.

Disc 352 is...Sheer Heart Attack

Artist: Queen

Year of Release: 1974

What’s Up With The Cover?: A picture of the band, laying about in a jumble. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be arty, sexy or whimsical, but it fails on all counts.

How I Came To Know It: I've been a Queen fan for a long time, but buying this record is just me drilling through their collection. I got this one comparatively early, and I've had it for over ten years now at least.

How It Stacks Up: I have 15 of Queen's studio albums, which I believe are all of them that feature Freddie Mercury. Of these, I'd say "Sheer Heart Attack" is somewhere in the middle of the pack at around 7th.

Rating: 4 stars.

"Sheer Heart Attack" is the second album Queen released in 1974, and proof that in that golden age of early seventies rock and roll, bands could do this and still deliver a quality product. To see the mediocre results of this being attempted in later years, see "Use Your Illusion Vols I and II."

"Sheer Heart Attack" follows roughly seven months after "Queen II" and fits nicely as the last of their early progressive sound. The album that would follow, "A Night At The Opera," would mark a bit of a departure toward a more showy sound that would make turn them from rock stars to rock superstars.

"Sheer Heart Attack" holds a special place in my heart partly because of its obscurity. The hit "Killer Queen" is a great song, but is almost always heard only as part of the Greatest Hits package I have grown to despise. The only other song on that album is "Now I'm Here" - also an amazing rock song, but these two tracks alone leave so much of "Sheer Heart Attack" woefully unexplored.

Among the lost treasures is "Brighton Rock," which features one of Brian May's greatest guitar solos, and a staple of many a Queen concert. "Brighton Rock" rivals "We Are The Champions" and in terms of innovation, is its superior. When I heard it this time I realized just how much Blue Oyster Cult would've been influenced on their "5 Guitars" live track from 1978's "Some Enchanted Evening." And if you know anything about me, you know that acknowledging a band is an inspiration to Blue Oyster Cult is high praise indeed.

"Sheer Heart Attack" is very much a part of Queen's early progressive sound, with many songs shifting gears so many times that even Rush would be proud. Progressive songs on this record like "Flick Of The Wrist" or "In The Lap of the Gods" are as good as anything you'll hear on Queen I or Queen II, meaning they are pretty damned good. Both strongly reminded me of some of the songs on Pink Floyd's "The Wall," and I wouldn't be surprised if Roger Watters knew it well.

The album isn't all progressive musical exploration however, there are plenty of songs that simply rock out; my favourite being "Tenement Funster," a Roger Taylor song that starts off like some kind of Alice Cooper alien western, but truly kicks into gear with Taylor singing out his request, "give me a good guitar" as Brian May obliges with a killer riff. As is so often the case, the songs that initially capture my attention on the album are written by Taylor and May (who writes the equally powerful "Now I'm Here.)" You could say their sound is 'Taylor May-ed' for me. Get it? Get it?

Man, I crack myself up.

Anyway, back to the music. "Sheer Heart Attack" fills a lot of the album's space with progressive seventies rock and heavy guitar, but there is still space for the showmanship of Freddie Mercury, adding his own Broadway musical-meets-rock Opera stylings. The record is a transition record into a later sound that would feature these elements much more heavily, but I like how at this stage Freddie is still letting songs like "Lily of the Valley" which could have come off like a showtune, get dressed up with harder elements. Regrettably the other showtune, "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" experiences no such reigning-in and suffers as a result. It is a rare miss, however.

The various stylings give this album a lot of range and keep your ear interested. At times, they also make it hard to hang your hat on just what the record is doing, and it can seem disjointed, but the overall quality is so good it didn't ever bother me. "Sheer Heart Attack" may be a mess in places, but it is a beautiful mess, and easily better than more cohesive records made by lesser bands that took twice as long to make music barely half as good.

Best tracks: Brighton Rock, Tenement Funster, Now I'm Here, In The Lap Of The Gods, Stone Cold Crazy, She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stillettos)

CD Odyssey Disc 351: Simon and Garfunkel

Merry Christmas to everyone! We are just returned from spending Christmas Day with my family (we alternate where we are each year) and will soon be doing a second Christmas with my inlaws. In the meantime, I am taking today to have a little down time and get a review written I've been meaning to get done for a while.

Disc 351 is...Bridge Over Troubled Water

Artist: Simon and Garfunkel

Year of Release: 1970

What’s Up With The Cover?: The folk duo poses in ugly, ill-fitting seventies clothing. Garfunkel's mouth is obscured by Simon's head, which is kind of ironic, since Garfunkel's singing is the bulk of what he brought to the band.

How I Came To Know It: I have owned "Sounds of Silence" (reviewed back at Disc 239) since the late eighties and loved it. A few years later I was looking around and this seemed to be the next record to get.

How It Stacks Up: I only have two Simon and Garfunkel albums, although I may be spending some of my Christmas money on a third. Of the two, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is the better record.

Rating: 5 stars.

For Christmas this year, Santa put Paul Simon's newest album, "So Beautiful Or So What" in my stocking. I have yet to give it the careful listen it deserves, but last night I gave it a once-through and I can already tell Paul Simon hasn't lost his songwriting ability as a solo artist.

That said, there is a magic to Simon's works with Art Garfunkel that will always hold a special place in my heart, and in particular their last album, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which is widely regarded as their best. I'm looking forward to getting the three I don't have ("Wednesday Morning, 3 AM", "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" and "Bookends") and putting that claim to the test, but I have a feeling "Bridge" will hold up.

In terms of musical range, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" takes their work far farther than anything I've heard from other records. Horns and handclaps are mixed in with more traditional piano and acoustic guitar, in a way that compliments but never violates the duo's established folk aesthetic.

These two guys love their harmonies, whether they are using them beautifully and thoughtfully on "El Condor Pasa" playfully on "Cecilia" and "Keep The Customer Satisfied" or mournfully on "The Boxer" and "The Only Living Boy In New York." On this record they are the masters of capturing mood just with vocal arrangements and then reinforcing that mood with their choice of instrumentation.

In fact, the title track on this record is notable for eschewing harmonies for the first two thirds of the song, relying entirely on the gentle airiness of Art Garfunkel's high range and a single piano. This song features one of the great vocal performances of modern music, with Garfunkel's voice starting so fragile you think that at any moment he is going to miss a note, or his voice is going to crack, but it never happens. The emptiness in the track makes the listener keenly aware of the darkness and danger all around, but also confident that the voice - frail, yet powerful - will lead us safely through. It isn't until well into the song that Paul Simon adds his own voice into the harmony, and the song soars to its trumphant end.

"Sounds of Silence" is a great record, but it never takes time to lighten up, starting with the morose title track and ending with the broken-hearted shut-in voicing "I Am A Rock." By contrast, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" lightens up through the middle tracks. The travelling salesman in "Keep The Customer Satisfied", accompanied by a flourish of trumpet, and the cuckolded lover in "Cecilia," full of happy hand claps as he sings about finding a strange man in bed with his girl. Never was infidelity depicted with so much catchy and infectious fun.

This decision to have lighthearted tracks, just makes their serious songs that much more emotionally impactful. Not that any assistance is needed, with the daydreamy angst of "The Only Living Boy In New York" and the tragic tale of "The Boxer" lonely and penniless on the streets of New York. These are two of the finest songs ever written period, never mind simply two of the best on this album.

"The Boxer" always hits me square in the gut, no matter how many times I hear it. From his early arrival in New York, to a descent into loneliness so abject that he is happy just to find fleeting comfort in the hands of street prostitutes. For all this, the defiance of the final stanza always has the strongest resonance for me:

"In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev'ry glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
'I am leaving, I am leaving'
But the fighter still remains."

The line offers little hope of a glorious comeback, but there is a dignity and an honour even in his declaration of surrender ("I am leaving") simply because in the end he does not leave. You are only beaten when you decide you're beaten, and not before. I find the whole song more inspirational than tragic.

Then by comparison, the Zen acceptance of "The Only Living Boy In New York," which always makes me think of absent friends who I see too infrequently. This song, too, in a couple of lines gives me more wisdom than entire albums by lesser artists. In particular, "Half of the time we're gone, but we don't know where" and "I get all the news I need on the weather report." If we could just internalize these two concepts, I know we'd all be a lot happier.

Again, with both tracks the music perfectly suits the mood, sometimes swelling with angelic backing vocals, sometimes nothing more than a sombre close harmony sung low to capture harshness of winter on a New York Street. None of these things ever sound strained or emotionally manipulative. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is an album that evokes deep emotion from me, but never cheats to do so.

Walking to and from work for a couple of days listening to this record put my mind is a restful, yet alert state; almost meditative. I arrived each day ready to learn and enjoy the experience. I've heard this record dozens, if not hundreds of times and it always has this effect on me. I think it makes me a better person just listening to it. If you have foolishly settled for a Simon and Garfunkel greatest hits album, let me impress upon you just how much great music you are missing by not going to source. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is a classic for a reason.

Best tracks: All tracks, but special love for Bridge Over Troubled Water, El Condor Pasa, The Boxer and The Only Living Boy In New York

CD Odyssey Disc 350: Shania Twain

For proof the universe has a sense of humour, I offer this next review, which is my first since I said I wouldn't be embarassed to share my blog with strangers.

Disc 350 is...The Woman In Me

Artist: Shania Twain

Year of Release: 1995

What’s Up With The Cover?: A 'big head' cover, made more bearable by the fact that Shania Twain is easy on the eyes.

How I Came To Know It: Since this review will be filled with embarrassing admissions, I might as well start here. In the mid-nineties I used to occasionally watch videos on Country Music Television (CMT), mostly for the Canadian folk music they'd slip into the mix. After seeing about four songs from this record, all of which I liked, I broked down and bought it.

How It Stacks Up: I only have this one record, so it can't really stack up. That said, Guilty Admission #2 is that I once owned the follow up album, "Come On Over." I really hated that record and quickly gave it away. This was before I began the Odyssey, so don't look for a review; mercifully you won't find one.

Rating: 3 stars.

Gentle readers, before I begin this review I would just remind you not to judge me too harshly for owning this album. Or if you do judge me, look into the heart of your own music collection first. I'll bet you'll find your own guilty pleasures in there. John Denver? Barry Manilow? If not those, chances are you've got something equally embarrassing that you'll say belongs to someone else, but that you secretly put on when no one else is listening. We all have our skeletons my friends; this is mine.

What's more, I like "The Woman In Me". I've enjoyed listening to it for the last couple of days, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise just to preserve some artificial veneer of musical elitism.

Yes, it is pop country, which has become a scourge of country music over the past fifteen to twenty years. Shania Twain is at least partly responsible for this unfortunate sub-genre of music, and for that we owe her no favours. Having said that, there is a big difference between listening to Faith Hill butcher Janis Joplin's "Take Another Little Piece of My Heart" and Twain's sexy, traditional-yet-sassy songs, with their original (for the time) sound, impeccable production and damned catchy hooks.

On her follow-up album, "Come On Over" Twain took the empty pop sounds of this record a step too far (albeit with some great music videos - hello "Leopard Girl In Desert" and "Inverted Robert Palmer Striptease"). However, minus the visuals, the music was far too AM radio/bubble gum for my tastes.

On "The Woman In Me" the down-home quality of Twain's stylings preserve a fair bit of traditional country sound. On songs like "Is There Life After Love" and "Leaving Is The Only Way Out" she even reminds me of an updated Patsy Cline, with her throaty and emotional delivery. She even has the 'tear in your beer' country lyrics down pat in places. My favourite:

"If cryin' is the only way into your heart
Then leavin' is the only way out."

That said, this record is about the hits, which are much more pop flavoured. "The Woman In Me" was a monster album for Twain, propelling her into superstardom on both sides of the 49th. Perfectly marketed, the first singles were playful country songs, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" and "Any Man of Mine," both catchy tracks that spoke to a woman's independence from a place that wouldn't offend middle America in the process. Later, "If You're Not In It For Love" and "You Win My Love" showed her playful, more urban side. "God Bless The Child" gave us some soulful spiritual action, and "No One Needs to Know" got picked up for the blockbuster film "Twister" just in case Shania wasn't already famous enough at that point.

All in all, "The Woman In Me" had seven singles, five of which were number one hits in both Canada and the United States. Not bad for a poor girl from Timmins.

I'd be lying if I pretended that her story of a poor girl making good didn't appeal to me, but this blog isn't about Shania's commercial success, it is about my reaction to her music. And I don't care what you say, the music on this record is good.

Say what you will about Mutt Lange, but he has created a record that is impeccably produced, having elements of that big, open Daniel Lanois sound while still giving you that cozy, 'she's playing in your livingroom' quality that country music albums need in order to have veritas. When a song calls for a fiddle, he uses a fiddle, and when another song is better served in the same range by a steel guitar, he uses a steel guitar.

The songs are catchy. On my walk to work it was all I could do not to do some form of two-step, side shuffle or a little toe-heel action when listening to "Any Man of Mine" (regrettably, I resisted). Today while driving around doing some chores, my wife and I both spontaneously sang along to "If You're Not In It For Love" (her in tune).

I don't like everything on this record, and found a few of the tracks obvious and formulaic. There are places where I hear the sound that would later wreck Nashville country radio and get frustrated. (Fortunately country music survives through the efforts of Outlaw Country artists). For all its virtues, it is also decidedly and almost painfully mainstream.

Overall, though, this is a good record, and I'm not going to pander to music snobs and pretend it isn't. It isn't Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan or Steve Earle, but it doesn't pretend to be. Nothing else Shania Twain has done remotely interests me, but the "Woman In Me" works and works well.

Now if I can only work up the nerve to buy some Martina McBride. Maybe if I wore a disguise...

Best tracks: Any Man of Mine, Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under, If You're Not In It For Love I'm Outta Here, No One Needs to Know, God Bless the Child

CD Odyssey Disc 349: Tom Waits

Today I Googled my blog and was shocked to find it was coming up in search results.

When I first started blogging I tried to do it in as intensely a private way as was possible, given that I am posting things to the internet. Over the last little while I've loosened up a little and changed my privacy settings accordingly. So if you've been diligently keeping your promise not to share it with anyone, thank you very much for keeping your word; despite my gregarious nature I remain in many ways a very private person and doing a blog was not an easy decision for me.

That said, I'm ready to take the next small step. If you've been wanting to share this site with someone you think would enjoy it, go ahead and do so. I'll never commercialize this, and it is written too sloppily to market, but I'm not going to be embarassed of it anymore.

Except maybe the miniature painting - that is a little embarrassing, but I'll get over it.

Disc 349 is...Small Change

Artist: Tom Waits

Year of Release: 1976

What’s Up With The Cover?: It looks like a visual depiction of track 7, "Pasties and a G-String." I think it is supposed to capture a moment in the strippers' dressing room, but it just looks staged to me. An interesting side note - the model in the picture is purported to be Cassandra Peterson (the woman who would later become famous as Elvira). There is an article on the avclub where she discusses it, saying she thinks it is her, but that her memories of the 70s are pretty hazy. So not confirmed, but feel free to speculate. For those interested, here's a link to the article.

How I Came To Know It: This is just me with my Tom Waits Fanboy hat on, drilling through his collection. I can't remember when I got this particular CD, but sometime 5-10 years ago seems likely.

How It Stacks Up: We have 19 Tom Waits albums, and all are enjoyable in their own way. "Small Change" is not one of my favourites though, and I'd say it is 17th or 18th and near the bottom.

Rating: 3 stars - weak Tom Waits is still good music.

"Small Change" is Tom Waits' third studio album (discounting 1975's live album, "Nighthawks At The Diner") and is firmly in his early folk/barroom period. My first exposure to Waits' music was his first album, "Closing Time" and as I recently mentioned when I reviewed "Heartattack And Vine" I like this period just as much as his later expiremental stuff.

That said, some of these early records are better than others, and "Small Change" just doesn't grab me the same way. It isn't anything I can put my finger on. The songs are well written, and cover the usual gamut of Waits' favourite topics. The tale-telling street kid in "Jitterbug Boy," the drunk in the process of getting cut off in "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and the fellow in "Bad Liver And a Broken Heart," who doesn't need any description beyond the song title.

Waits' lyrics are still some of the best street poetry you'll hear as well, and his raspy staccato delivery paints pictures in full colour. Some of my favourite "Waitisms" from the album include:

"and you can't find your waitress
with a geiger counter
and she hates you and your friends
and you just can't get served
without her."
(The Piano Has Been Drinking)

"Well she's up against the register
with an apron and a spatula
with yesterday's deliveries
and the tickets for the bachelors
she's a moving violation
from her conk down to her shoes
but it's just an invitation to the blues."
(Invitation To The Blues)

This is good stuff, but the album overall is not as consistently strong lyrically as other early records like 1977's "Foreign Affairs" or 1978's "Blue Valentine," and the music is not as melodic or interesting as his his first two records, 1973's "Closing Time" and 1974's "The Heart of Saturday Night." It isn't so much that "Small Change" is bad, but rather that it compares unfavourably to the amazing records that bracket it. The best song musically is "Tom Traubert's Blues" and even in that one the hook and chorus is a direct lift from "Waltzing Matilda."

The arrangements are very simple, consisting mostly of Waits idly tinkling on the piano, accompanied by Lew Tabackin's jazzy tenor saxophone. I'm not a big fan of saxophone noodling, but on this record it is used tastefully, serving mostly to add a whimsical background to Waits' half-sung, half-spoken poetic banter. On a couple of tracks Waits even does a little old school scatting and does it pretty well. Scatting is one of those things that everyone thinks they can do, but few can do effectively.

I had a good time listening to this record, which put me in a relaxed and mellow mood on my walks to and from work, but it isn't a record that I put on a lot, and not where I'd start if I were trying to get someone into Waits' music.

Best tracks: Tom Traubert's Blues, I Wish I Was In New Orleans, Invitation To The Blues

CD Odyssey Disc 348: Beck

It would seem my bold claim that I'll be doing more reviews will have to wait until after the holiday season. Between work and the many social engagements that crop up around Christmas I have had zero free time lately. On the plus side, this next album has received a lot of listens since I haven't had time to review it and replace it with the next one.

Disc 348 is...Midnite Vultures

Artist: Beck

Year of Release: 1999

What’s Up With The Cover?: That's a good question. I think this cover is trying to suggest a party vibe, but all I get is a vaguely weird music video made in a booth at the mall.

How I Came To Know It: I have known Beck since "Mellow Gold," but this particular record is a favourite of my friend Nick, who often suggested I get it. After many years of foolishly not taking his advice, I finally did so about six or seven years ago.

How It Stacks Up: I have eight Beck albums, which is most of them, and certainly all of the major releases.

Rating: 4 stars

Anyone who knows Beck knows that he is never afraid to reinvent his sound, and each of his albums has a distinct sound. "Midnite Vultures" is no exception (note that as an American, Beck enjoys misspelling 'midnight').

In this case, Beck has decided to meld his vaguely techno beats with a very strong funk influence. This is an album so funky in fact, that George Clinton would be proud of what is accomplished. Sometimes the funky riffs are driven by traditional r&b instrumentation, and soulful singing, and other times he relies on sampled sounds and drum-machine sounds you might expect to hear on a techno-record. Whatever the blend, it works to get your feet moving and your head bobbing.

While "Midnite Vultures" isn't my favourite Beck album, I think it is the most musical. He can sometimes add in strange sound samples just to be clever, but on "Midnite Vultures" every odd whistle, whirr and vibrating spring is only there if it makes the song flow better. I wish Beck had taken the same approach on the more expiremental "Odelay," but as noted earlier, he isn't an artist that likes to do the same thing twice.

If you are looking for a deep and meaningful message, or some deeper insight into the human condition then this record will disappoint you. This record is one big hedonistic journey: a record about partying, best suited for playing while partying. This is not in any way intended to be an insult; "Midnite Vultures" is one of the best party albums you'll hear.

I've been walking to and from work listening to this album for three days and have heard it at least four times through. I like it more and more with each listen, but I also have less to say about it with each listen.

"Midnite Vultures" is a record where you'll hear how much fun it is to mix together 'peaches and cream', 'milk and honey' and (surprisingly) 'nicotine and gravy'. You'll also have explained how it feels to 'sit around and get real paid' and just what 'hollywood freaks' do when no one is looking (answer: have a very good time). The most serious Beck gets is on "Debra", a song that Ron Burgundy would call "baby-making music," that sounds like it could've been written in 1975 and topped the R&B charts. In the song Beck soullfully croons in falsetto to his girl, Jenny:

"I wanna get with you - you, you, you...
And your sister - I think her name's Debra."

So, yeah - not very serious at all. But not everything in life has to be serious. "Midnite Vultures" is a fine reminder that in a serious world full of serious problems, there should always be room for some fuschia pvc pants and a catchy beat.

Best tracks: Nicotine & Gravy, Mixed Bizness, Peaches & Cream, Milk & Honey, Beautiful Way, Debra

CD Odyssey Disc 347: K'Naan

I anticipate an increase in the number of reviews for the forseeable future. I am now uploading albums that I roll onto my MP3 player to listen while...I walk to work! Yes, as of yesterday I have a job, and counter-intuitively being employed will actually result in more reviews.

But we're not here to discuss our daytime existences, we're hear to talk about music, so here goes.

Disc 347 is...Troubadour

Artist: K'Naan

Year of Release: 2010

What’s Up With The Cover?: The artist in question gives us a head & shoulders shot, with the added bonus of a thoughtful hand. I like the hat as well. This cover says 'cool and collected' much like K'Naan seems on the album.

How I Came To Know It: I saw the video for "Take A Minute" and the song spoke to me, lyrically and musically. I took a chance based on very little exposure beyond this, although I did read a couple of positive reviews just to be sure I wasn't getting a dud.

How It Stacks Up: K'Naan has three studio albums, but I only own "Troubadour" so there isn't anything for me to stack it up against at this point.

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

When I bought this album last year it instantly went into heavy rotation around the house. Sheila and I both like it, and it was a good fit for many activities, from pure listening, to having on in the background while playing games to entertaining friends. Well, maybe not the last one; I always sensed our friends never liked it as much as we did.

Suffering from a slight case of overplay, the bloom is a little off the rose for me as well and I've started to notice the album's few warts. Some are longstanding grievances of mine, such as the record being 16 songs (14 being a good maximum for artists to aim for). Others only came out this time around, like some weak rhymes in the raps. For example, in a couple of places K'Naan uses 'anus' when he means to say 'ass' simply to generate a rhyme. A rhyme should serve a poem, not the other way around, and the same goes for rap.

Those exceptions aside, the album walks a beautiful line, with K'Naan sharing his difficult and often tragic experiences in war torn Somalia and yet somehow maintaining a gentleness of soul that comes out in his smooth delivery. Most rappers who sing about gun violence as bad as this make every effort to show how tough they are to have survived it, but on "Troubadour" you get the impression K'Naan is every bit aware of how lucky he was to get out of that situation alive and to Canada with his family. He is tough, but it is a tough that is aware of how fragile strength can be in the face of firearms and machetes.

For example, in "I Come Prepared" he raps:

"So come now don't you try to play the hero
Around here we've got pirates with torpedoes
Alongside all the warlords and beardos"

This is a song that calls out anyone not from the experience, daring them to hold their own violent experience against his. But unlike traditional gangsta rappers, K'Naan is always aware of his own faults. In the next stanza he raps:

"And if you shut me down you can kill my ego
Which is my enemy - makes you my amigo
So either way you and I are button and needle"

In fact, K'Naan first caught my attention not through anger and bravado, but with "Take A Minute," a song all about quiet endurance and how important it is to take a minute and calmly look around before acting. When I hear "Take A Minute" it always calms me, and reminds me that things are going to be alright, but only if I help make it that way.

Musically, this record is incredibly diverse. It uses traditional African sounds, modern rap beats as well as piano and horn section when occasion calls for it. The tempos vary, but the songs all have a gentle rolling quality, and K'Naan's raps come out effortlessly. His style is so relaxed that when he brings in guest vocalists I find myself wishing he would just do the whole song himself.

A few of the songs edge into the silly, including "Bang Bang" about falling for a dangerous girl and "15 Minutes Away" about the excitement of being wired money by Western Union when you're flat broke. These songs come across as very honest, but the narratives are weak compared to other songs on the record. If K'Naan were looking to cut back to a tasteful number of tracks, these two could go. These songs are the exceptions, mind you, with the majority being interesting, heartfelt and possessing of a catchy pop hook that makes you welcome them like old friends from the first listen.

I might have almost gone to four stars, except for one heinous decision to include the "Coca Cola Celebration Mix" of "Wavin' Flag," which you may recall as Coke's theme song for the recent World Cup of Soccer.

The original song, "Wavin' Flag" is a favourite of mine, and is about all the deceit and empty promises of various political movements in Somalia, organizing against one another as the people beneath them continue to suffer. K'Naan, positive as ever, imagines a better world one day, singing "when I get older/I will be stronger/they'll call me freedom/just like a wavin' flag." It is like having the sentiments of a protest folk song reimagined as rap.

The remix turns an inspiring track into a song about soccer. Don't get me wrong, I think soccer is fine enough (if there isn't any football or hockey on) and I even get why an artist like K'Naan would make this decision. It made him a lot of money, as well as international known, and probably sold more than anything else. Also, it is his song, and he's entitled to do whatever he wants with it. I just regret that it swamps out the original song which was so much more meaningful and interesting.

Even Janelle Monae's great song "Tightrope" is being used to sell cars these days, and I support artists getting some extra money this way, since it is harder than ever to make a living making music. I just wish K'Naan could have written a whole different song for the World Cup, or maybe just put it out there for the I-tune download crowd, and kept it off the CDs us old timers still buy.

Then again, as K'Naan warns me, "And any man who knows a thing/knows he knows not a damn damn thing at all." Words for every music critic to live by.

Best tracks: TIA, I Come Prepared, Wavin' Flag, Fatima, Take A Minute, People Like Me

CD Odyssey Disc 346: Tom Waits

I've got one hell of sinus infection today, and sitting at the computer is not good for it. But the Odyssey doesn't take time out for sinus infections. If I'm going to get through this thing, I need to keep plugging away. So here goes another...

Disc 346 is...Heartattack And Vine

Artist: Tom Waits

Year of Release: 1980

What’s Up With The Cover?: This is one of those covers that would be so much cooler on vinyl. The cover is designed to look like a newspaper, with the articles being the song titles, and the stories underneath the lyrics. I'd love to have this on vinyl, but I think it is still a good one on CD.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila and I have been heavily into Tom Waits for many years now, and this one was just me drilling through his collection. I believe we got "Heartattack And Vine" comparatively late, but we've probably had it a good ten years anyway.

How It Stacks Up: Very well. This album surprised me with how good it was. I'd say it is just out of the elite records, but still top half of our now 19 Tom Waits records at around 7th or 8th.

Rating: 4 stars.

"It's too early for the circus, it's too late for the bars."

This line, from "Savin' All My Love For You" thematically sums up 1980's "Heartattack And Vine." Excepting the "One From The Heart" soundtrack he does with Crystal Gayle in 1982, this is the last record of Waits' 'barroom' period. By 1983, Waits will be fully into his weird circus phase with "Swordfishtrombone."

The first signs of the strange song arrangements and wacky percussion that will come later are present on "Heartattack And Vine" but the band is still playing the songs pretty straight. It is an album that if recorded by Waits today would likely sound completely different. I don't think it would necessarily be better, though: unlike a lot of Tom Waits' fans, I like his early bluesy barroom period equally as much as the circus music he has since switched to.

Maybe it is because I like both styles, but "Heartattack And Vine" had a strong appeal for me on this listen. It has the best of both worlds. I do have some minor quibbles, in particular the muted use of the organ on a few songs. In later music, Waits' will make the organ sound like it is coming straight from hell, but on this record it is just kind of there. I wanted it to contribute to the weird, or go away. As it is, it just sounds a bit like a cheesy jazz club.

That said, the bass and drums are also played straight, and really work to give a low groove to every song. Waits' raspy whisky-laden voice is excellent on this album, and he shows surprising range for a guy who is never going to set the world on fire with his singing. At the end of the day, I wouldn't want anything other than the organ changed.

Lyrically, this is one of Waits' stronger records, as he delves into his usual rogue's gallery of derelicts, drunks, womanizers and loveable losers. Here are a few of my favourite lines, first from the title track:

"Boney's high on china white. Shorty found a punk
Don't you know there ain't no devil? There's just God when he's drunk
Well this stuff will probably kill you, let's do another line
What you say you meet me down on Heartattack and Vine?"

And these from "'Til The Money Runs Out":

Can't you hear the thunder? Someone stole my watch
I sold a quart of blood and bought a half a pint of scotch.

Waits captures the ill-considered lifestyles of the down and out with just a few lines and a couple of specific images, letting his listeners fill in the rest of the grime and dirt from our imaginations.

Although the whole album has a bluesy feel, the songs have a lot of range within the genre, with a good mix of up-tempo songs about excess and bad choices ("Heartattack And Vine," "Downtown," "'Til The Money Runs Out") and sombre slow numbers about lost love and regret ("Saving All My Love For You," "Jersey Girl," Ruby's Arms").

The only song that failed to impress was the instrumental, "In Shades." Even then it isn't that the song is bad, only that it doesn't really go anywhere sufficient to hold my attention. The other eight songs (yes, this album is nicely restrained at nine tracks) are all excellent, and hold up on their own, and connect well to each other when you listen to the record straight through.

In short, this record is a winner, and if you like early Tom Waits, this is a must-have. If you only want to hear his later, more avant garde stuff this might not be a record for you, although even then it will give you a good perspective on how that sound grew naturally out of his earlier, more traditional music.

Best tracks: Heartattack And Vine, Downtown, Jersey Girl, 'Til The Money Runs Out, On The Nickel, Ruby's Arms

CD Odyssey Disc 345: Alice Cooper

The CD Odyssey is random, but this is a bit ridiculous. Not only is this the second Alice Cooper review in the past three albums, it is the album that directly follows "Trash." What are the odds?

Well, with Alice Cooper representing 26 of my 1,000 or so albums, I think the odds are somewhere around 1 in 1484. However, the Odyssey odds are a bit corrupted. This is because whenever I roll an album I've already reviewed, I don't just reroll. If I did that, when I'm 800 albums in I'll be spending hours just rolling over and over again to get the last remaining records, trying to figure out how many there are (I currently have the rolling divided roughly into 25 equal sections of about 40-50 records each, so I don't have to count from 1 each time).

So after I roll a section, and get a repeat, instead of starting over, I make one more roll to determine if I go 'left' or 'right' from the album that's already been reviewed, and I keep moving that direction until I hit a record I haven't done yet. It isn't perfect, but it is random enough for me.

In fact, the two most recent Alice Cooper reviews actually resulted from me rolling 1983's Dada (reviewed back at Disc 18), and going 'right' until I hit a new album - meaning I've reviewed every Alice Cooper record from 1983-1991 at this point. The odds of rolling "Dada" twice in three rolls? I have no idea, but I'm confident in going with 'a lot'. OK, enough fun with probability, here's the review:

Disc 345 is...Hey Stoopid

Artist: Alice Cooper

Year of Release: 1991

What’s Up With The Cover?: A whole lot of stoopid. An Alice Cooper skull combined with male and female steel arms and a collage of smaller, and stoopider imagery. This cover is in the running for worst cover in the Odyssey and is lucky I don't track such things.

How I Came To Know It: Just me buying Alice Cooper's latest release. I bought this when it came out on tape, and a few years later on CD when my financial situation allowed for it.

How It Stacks Up: I know I just finished reviewing "Trash", and this record fits in at around the same place. The big hit "Hey Stoopid" isn't as good as "Trash"'s big hit, "Poison", but overall the music is better, so I'm going to rank it one ahead of "Trash" - either 22nd or 23rd out of 26 Cooper records.

Rating: 2 stars.

Weird as it is, I'm kind of glad I rolled "Hey Stoopid" so soon after "Trash". They fit together as a stylistic pair in the Alice Cooper discography.

They are collectively part of what I would call the third phase of Cooper's career, or what I call "Clean and Sober" (phases one and two I call "With The Band" and "Drunk And Alone" respectively). They follow his first two sober albums, 1986's "Constrictor" and 1987's "Raise Your Fist And Yell", both of which are efforts more squarely in the metal category.

"Trash" and "Hey Stoopid" are more that late eighties hair-metal sound, and as I've recently said I'm not a fan of that sound. That said, "Hey Stoopid" is a bit better on that front. The production is a little bit meatier, at least enough that you couldn't confuse it with truly awful 'tinsel' acts like Skid Row or White Lion etc. "Snakebite" is practically metal in its own right although strangely, not the best song on the record.

"Hey Stoopid" is full of catchy licks, and many of the songs are really pop songs that have been dressed up with heavy guitar. Somehow, against all odds it strangely works. I even enjoyed the lone Desmond Child writing assist, on "Might As Well Be On Mars," which is both anthemic and grotesque in all the right places, just like I've come to expect from Alice Cooper's original sound. In fact, there are a few tracks where Cooper shows glimpses of his greatness on his early records, and vocally he is in fine form.

Metal-noodler extraordinaire Joe Satriani adds his talents to five of the albums's twelve tracks, and despite his track record, remains miraculously restrained. The guitar solos aren't great, but they do fit thematically with each song's melody, which is the minimum I expect in a guitar solo. Or to put a new spin on an allusion used in Satriani's solo work, it is OK to surf with the alien as long as your love of humanity keeps you firmly within the earth's atmosphere.

If you got both halves of that obscure reference, score yourself five bonus geek points.

While musically this record is more interesting than "Trash", lyrically this is one of Cooper's weakest, and that's a shame. One song, "Feed My Frankenstein," has some of the worst rock lyrics of all time:

"Well I ain't evil, I'm just good lookin'
Start a little fire, and baby start cookin'
I'm a hungry man...
But I don't want pizza
I'll blow down your house
And then I'm gonna eat ya."

The tips of my fingers are bleeding just from having to type that atrocity, but no amount of exposition could've shown you just how bad it was. I had to share it undiluted. At least now I don't have to bear the burden alone.

That said, "Hey Stoopid" remains a guilty pleasure for me. Many of the tracks are catchy, if a bit empty and the record doesn't take itself too seriously. Maybe it is just Stockholm Syndrome, having been locked in my car with this record and "Trash" in such close succession.

As a side note, I don't usually like the deliberate mis-spelling of words, but I think 'stoopid' is a reasonable exception. After all, there is a difference between just regular old stupid, and a stupid so incredibly dumb that it can't be fully communicated without the use of two 'o's. When you say 'stoopid' you are almost forced to lower your voice two octaves and jut your lower jaw out. It says dumb like no other word.

This record is stupid in places, and lyrically it even crosses over into stoopid once or twice, but the music is generally good enough that I keep it on the positive side of the ledger. Another one for completionists only, but I'd be lying if I pretended I didn't enjoy listening to it the last couple of days.

Best tracks: Hey Stoopid, Burning Our Bed, Might As Well Be On Mars, Hurricane Years

CD Odyssey Disc 344: L7

Sometimes in life, you just need a little angry music. At those times, this next band may be for you. I wasn't feeling particularly angry of late, but I still appreciate the music when it is done well.

Disc 344 is...Hungry for Stink

Artist: L7

Year of Release: 1994

What’s Up With The Cover?: If this passenger started the journey with the driver, I wonder whether they arrived in the bloody bunny mask or put it on later? How about the knife? After the bloody bunny mask, the knife might've felt pretty logical, I suppose. If this passenger was a hitchhiker then it is a good reminder not to pick them up.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted way back when I reviewed "Bricks Are Heavy" at Disc 133, L7 was a band my old room-mate was into in the early nineties. "Hungry For Stink" was just me digging deeper into their catalogue after I was hooked.

How It Stacks Up: I had originally thought L7 only had four albums, but I'm since informed they have six. I only have their first four, and of those I'd put "Hungry For Stink" third best. It is OK, but not on par with classics "Smell The Magic" and the aforementioned "Bricks Are Heavy."

Rating: 3 stars.

L7 is an angry, all-woman rock/punk band that enjoyed a period of significant but brief popularity in the early nineties. They are talented, attractive and more than a little scary.

Because of the time period, and their musical style, they are often considered part of the grunge movement, but I hesitate to use era-specific genre labels on A Creative Maelstrom. Instead, you'll note that I resorted to three different tags (punk, rock and metal) to capture just what they sound like.

"Hungry For Stink" is their fourth album, coming immediately after "Bricks Are Heavy." I am impressed just how much different "Hungry For Stink" is, given the preceding album's popularity. It is so easy for a band to fall into a golden rut once they've found a winning formula, but L7 avoided this fate, at least on this record.

The essentials are still there. The guitars feature that heavily distorted 'chukka chukka chukka' sound that was fairly common to punk/rock crossovers and stoner metal of the time. L7 plays the style well, and I love the way the low notes of the guitar and bass hit me deep in the gut.

Add to this the vocals of Donita Sparks, which are so raw and angry they instantly give the stoner guitar licks their punk edge. Sparks sings with such disdain and ragged vibrato that she sounds like she's shouting at you even when she isn't under full power. More amazing, she makes being shouted at an enjoyable experience.

The band uses punk arrangements, but eschews the punk sensibility of deliberately sounding muddy. Instead, they play tight and crisp; something I wish punk would do more often (yeah - I said that). I give full credit to Jennifer Finch on bass, holding everything together down in the basement and contributing some strong writing to the record as well.

That said, "Hungry For Stink" is less polished than "Bricks Are Heavy" from a production standpoint, but I suspect is a deliberate decision. The album in many ways sounds more like the band's early work, with a reduced focus on hooks.

This is particularly evident on "Baggage," a song that flips the whole dismissive expression 'she has baggage' on it's head. L7 doesn't just have baggage, they know exactly why, and they aren't afraid to tell you about it, leaving no room for misinterpretation. This is a band in touch with their feelings (including the negative ones) and they won't countenance you being out of touch with them.

"The Bomb" explores the throw-away and artificial nature of modern mass culture. This is a very common punk theme, and in truth, L7 covers the topic better on 1990's "Smell The Magic" with the song "American Society." That said, "The Bomb" is pretty good, and plenty angry enough.

The lyrics on "Hungry For Stink" aren't great, but that isn't what this album is about. It is about laying down a heavy, deep-in-the-craw groove and building from there. The lyrics are like the music in that respect, simple, visceral and in your face.

One of my favourite moments on this record is right near the end. "Shirley" is a song in honour of Shirley Muldowney, a famous woman drag racer who used to be at the top of the sport in the late seventies and early eighties.

Like any ten year old from a small town in BC, I was enthralled with drag racing and Nascar and 'remembering that rumblin' sound' just like Steve Earle's big block Dodge in "Copperhead Road." I haven't cared a great deal about motor sports in decades, other than a continuing fascination with owning an early seventies Dodge Charger (it will happen, my friends).

However, when I put on "Hungry For Stink" the last couple days, there was Shirley Muldowney, reborn in my memory after so many years forgotten. As a kid, I thought nothing of Shirley Muldowney's exceptional contribution as a woman, breaking new ground in a section of sports so dominated by men; I just liked watching her race. Of course, looking back it was a big deal. L7, a band that personifies female empowerment, brought her back to me. Best line in the song:

"How many times must you be told
There's nowhere that we don't go.
'What's a beautiful girl doing in a place like this?'
Winning."

Overall, this album wins as well. The songs aren't incredible innovative, but they are heavy, headbanging anthems that take no prisoners.

Best tracks: Andres, Baggage, The Bomb, Stuck Here Again, Shirley, Talk Box

CD Odyssey Disc 343: Alice Cooper

I have had a pretty good afternoon, finishing up my Christmas shopping. This is the earliest I've been done in years and it feels pretty good.

If you're wondering if you should get this next album for one of your loved ones this Christmas, the answer is no. This one is for Alice Cooper completionists only.

Disc 343 is...Trash

Artist: Alice Cooper

Year of Release: 1989

What’s Up With The Cover?: Alice Cooper looks down at the floor, no doubt a little embarassed by the wheelbarrows full of cash he would make off this subpar record. He is wearing a shirt featuring...Alice Cooper. The man likes to market himself. Although you can't see in this picture, photos from the same shoot inside the jacket show Cooper isn't even wearing his makeup. How sad that he gave in to the understated but awful social conventions of late eighties hair metal.

How I Came To Know It: I have been an Alice Cooper fan for a very long time. When this album came out in 1989 I bought it on tape. Years later, I replaced it on CD when the opportunity presented itself.

How It Stacks Up: This is one of Alice Cooper's most commercially successful albums ever, but it isn't one of my favourites. I'd say out of my 26 studio albums, it is around 22nd to 24th, so near the bottom.

Rating: 2 stars.

Alice Cooper has been around for a long time, and he's gone through a lot of different creative phases. While always sticking to a hard rock sound, he has explored all the various edges of that genre. Some records are straight eighties heavy metal, others are acid rock, new wave, concept albums and a host of other styles.

"Trash" is produced by Desmond Child, who is a pretty famous producer and songwriter who has worked with a lot of hard rock and pop acts, including KISS, Aerosmith and (regrettably) Bon Jovi. It is fair to say I don't like his production style, which focuses heavily on hooks and radio friendly, but uninventive guitar sound.

Child cowrites every song on "Trash" and the influence is entirely unwelcome. The songs lack Cooper's usual inventiveness in construction and the lyrics are missing any shock value or insight into the human condition; the two things that Cooper lyrics almost always have.

Fortunately, this is Alice Cooper we're talking about, not Bon Jovi, and you can't entirely drown his genius in schmaltz. The songs may have been written for the masses, but Cooper fans will still find enough to get some enjoyment from this record.

The big hit on the record was "Poison" which I have a soft spot for, if only because of the sexy video that went with it. It isn't a great song, but some of Cooper's ability shines through, including a lascivious vocal delivery and some reasonably suggestive lyrics, although he'd usually go a lot farther.

"Only My Heart Talkin'" is the ballad, which can't compare to early Cooper classics like "Only Women Bleed" or even later efforts like "Every Woman Has a Name," but is still listenable, and was no doubt played at many a hair-metal wedding in 1989 when the happy couple took the floor.

I also enjoy "Bed of Nails" but mostly for the laughs. The song is again, OK, but the chorus always cracks me up:

"Our love is a bed of nails
Love hurts good on a bed of nails
I'll lay you down and when all else fails
I'll drive you like a hammer on a bed of nails."

Not only does that sound more uncomfortable than sexy, it barely qualifies as rhyming. A few reviews ago, I demonstrated the complexity of Townes Van Zandt's rhyme schemes. Here we have the preschool version - AABA, with 'nails' rhymed three times with itself. It is fitting that the only rhyme is "fails". Fails indeed.

Also, a bed of nails does not sound like it would pass certification, making this record very unsafe. Just what kind of house would you put that in - a Shaolin temple? Assuming you don't have the resistances of a warrior monk, what could be worse than a bed of nails?

As it happens, Alice fills us in, going beyond the bedroom to making the entire house unsafe on "House of Fire":

"Let's build a house of fire, baby
Not one of wood or stone
Walk through my door of desire, baby
Come on in and make it your home."

Yes, those lyrics again attempt to rhyme a word with itself (this time mercifully just the once). Cooper then tries to slip 'stone' and 'home' by us. If the house doesn't set my hair on fire, the song construction certainly will.

It is funny how this was such a huge album for Alice Cooper, but it is because these songs are very catchy, not because they are very good, and that is an important difference.

I enjoy this record as a guilty pleasure, and I took a perverse joy driving around town listening to it for a couple of days. That said, it doesn't go on my stereo very often and unless you are an Alice Cooper completionist like me, there's no reason for it to ever go on yours.

Best tracks: Poison, Bed of Nails

CD Odyssey Disc 342: Led Zeppelin

I did my first serious Christmas shopping today. Being without a job makes this experience a lot less joyful, but as I was driving about I was cheered by a woman begging for change at a left turn signal.

Usually these people drive me nuts, particularly when they are hale and hearty as this girl was. However, she was just standing there, swaying happily (yet soberly) with a home-made cardboard sign that said simply, 'smile dammit!'

And she was taking her own advice, grinning away perfectly naturally, daring Those Who Would Turn Left to join her. She didn't seem full of her own self-importance, and she didn't seem like she was begging (although she obviously was). She just seemed like she was happy, and wanted everyone else to be happy as well.

So I smiled back, not because I felt awkward in the glare of her sign, but because she genuinely made me feel a little better. As I drove by I tipped my hat toward her in thanks, and she blew me a kiss. All in all, a good experience.

No, I didn't give her change, nor was I tempted. I don't want to encourage Left Turn Lurkers. I appreciated the smile anyway, and passed it on throughout the day. OK, on to the review

Disc 342 is...IV

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Year of Release: 1971

What’s Up With The Cover?: It is a picture of some old peasant caring sticks. It may be an iconic album cover now, but I find it pretty ho hum. I imagine the man's name is Dennis, and he is only 37. If you fold out the photo, you find that the wall the photo is hanging on is some collapsed building outside of a British town. This does not help, but imagining his name is Dennis does, at least a little.

How I Came To Know It: Led Zeppelin IV is one of those albums everybody knows. It has been playing at parties since I can remember going to parties, although less so in recent years for some reason. In terms of buying it, I think it was my second purchase of the remastered Led Zeppelin CDs, which I only started buying about four years ago.

How It Stacks Up: I now have five Zeppelin albums, two of which I've already reviewed. I'd put "IV" top of the heap, although it is a close call with "Presence."

Rating: 5 stars.

What is there to say about Zeppelin "IV" that hasn't been said before? Precious little, I'll warrant. In fact, I expect even my personal anecdote will be one shared, in one way or another, with most people who know the record. But let's not be hasty.

The record has Led Zeppelin's two most recognizable songs of all time, "Black Dog" and "Stairway To Heaven." I know these are their two most recognizable songs because I've only dabbled in the shallow end of Led Zeppelin's music until recently and I have known them both forever. In a way, my lack of detailed Zeppelin knowledge makes me an expert on just what makes them famous.

I've talked a couple of times on earlier reviews about my strange relationship to Zeppelin, but since those reviews are way back at Discs 27 and 72 a recap is in order. In brief, Zeppelin surpasses artistic excellence with their musicianship - they are on a short list of artists where every band member (vocals, guitar, bass and drums) is a master of his respective craft.

At the same time, I've often had a hard time emotionally connecting to their music. Yes, I feel the groove, and yes I admire the songs and the beauty of their arrangements, but they don't always kick me in the...well, they don't kick me like they should.

That's what I love about "IV" - it does connect with me on every level. It isn't the lyrics either, which are just as nonsensical as any other Zeppelin record, alternating between pointless blues-inspired shouting like these in "Black Dog":

"Hey, baby, oh, baby, pretty baby, tell me that you'll do me now
Hey, baby, oh, baby, pretty baby, do me like you do me now"

and these bizarre and equally pointless lyrics from "The Battle of Evermore":

"The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath,
The drums will shake the castle wall, the ring wraiths ride in black, ride on.
Sing as you raise your bow, shoot straighter than before.
No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold."

These lyrics make Dio and Uriah Heep seem straightforward, and like Zeppelin "II"'s "Ramble On" manage to once again invoke characters from Lord of the Rings without any direction or purpose. So no, it isn't the lyrics.

I think it is the focus of "IV" that I appreciate. The excessive noodling on the first two Zeppelin albums is noticeably absent, and the band has seemed to recognize that each song should be as long as it has to be, but no longer. Sure there are long tracks, like "When The Levee Breaks" and "Stairway To Heaven" - both of which clock in at over seven minutes - but their length does not seem forced. In fact "When The Levee Breaks" is little more than a groove laid down, and in many ways is the simplest song on the record, but also one of my favourites.

As for "Stairway To Heaven", as everyone knows the song starts out with a quiet and restrained Jimmy Page guitar strummed alongside a light and folksy vocal by Plant, and slowly grows in complexity and tempo, eventually fading into a massive guitar solo that is rightfully famous.

It might seem over the top, but each part of this song so effortlessly fades into the next, you never feel jarred, or pulled by the nose by the song's construction. Each part is where it belongs. Yes, we've all heard "Stairway To Heaven" a thousand times, but I just can't get enough of it. It is more than a bathroom break for radio DJs, it is a perfectly constructed piece of art, and that's rare in this world.

Of course, we all have our own stories about "Stairway To Heaven" most of which revolve around the fact that it is a well established Canadian tradition to make it the last song at high school dances. When the first notes hit, you know the pumpkin is about to burst, and legions of teenage boys walk up and down in front of the bleachers looking for that girl they're going to be able to hold in a close and loving embrace for at least four minutes, and maybe more.

Apart from all the obvious memories I have to this song, including just how wonderful an angora sweater feels on a real live girl, I'll always remember a strange dance I attended in Grade Eight.

Back when I went to junior high, the area right in front of the stage was where all the cool Grade Ten kids hung out. One dance, a very pretty Grade Ten girl in a very short sweater-dress invited me into those hallowed grounds, after I had the audacity to ask her to dance to "Stairway To Heaven" (I had an atrocious batting average for such things in the day, but it never stopped me from swinging away at every opportunity).

Anyway, the girl had a boyfriend - one of those immense, jean-jacket wearing guys from the top field where everyone smoked. If I'd known that I probably would've checked down and tried to bunt for someone more my speed. Sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss. This guy was also dancing in the same area, and based on the look on his face, I thought a severe beating was in my future.

I was the shortest kid in my class in Grade Eight, and dancing with a Grade 10 Amazon was about as good a sexual experience as I had ever had to that point. She was blissfully unaware of my bliss - or maybe she knew and didn't mind. I felt certain her boyfriend got it, and it should have made me much more nervous than I remember being - but I guess I was just happy for the experience. Whatever horror might visit afterward, I'd still have the memories.

I wasn't just short in 1983, I was also really slender. Usually, when the song speeds up halfway through, there is that awkward point where the dancing couple separates, and finishes the song with a sort of half sway, girl with arms extended around boys neck, and boy with hands on the top of girl's hips.

I had automatically defaulted to this position when the girl decided I was simply to small and precious for such niceties. She picked me up and spun me around the dance hall like she was carrying me across the threshold. It could easily have felt embarassing, but let me assure you that this was about as awesome a sexual experience I had ever had to that point in my life. It still holds up pretty well almost thirty years later in fact.

Fortunately, the boyfriend saw me exactly for what I was; no threat at all. He rightly determined that his girlfriend thought I was little more than a cute little fellow - albeit a mildly sexually excited one - and mostly harmless. He just gave me a big smile and watched the show. Thank God he was a teenager confident enough in himself to let it go. I'm pretty sure I beat the odds on that count.

So thank you, "Stairway To Heaven" for that, and for every long, lash-filled look you ever helped conjure up from this girl and many others over the years.

And thank you Led Zeppelin, for making one of the greatest rock records of all time. The only thing this album suffers from is that everyone already knows how awesome it is, and are we really that petty to care about such things? I'm glad to know it, and glad to share it with the world.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 341: Supertramp

Today I woke up to find my voice almost gone. I've been fighting a cold the last couple of days, and while I've mostly beaten into submission through a rigorous and thorough disregard, it is having its final vengeance by removing my ability to speak.

It is at times like these that I always appreciate the ability to communicate through my blog. And so here I go with another music review, as that is what I do.

Disc 341 is...Breakfast In America

Artist: Supertramp

Year of Release: 1979

What’s Up With The Cover?: A very cool piece of art, drawn from the perspective of someone flying into New York City, if New York City were made out of giant breakfast table objects, and the Statue of Liberty were a diner waitress. This cover makes me want to have a glass of orange juice.

How I Came To Know It: This album was a massive hit when it came out back in 1979, and so I knew it from the radio when I was a kid. The CD version comes to the collection via Sheila, who also knew it from her youth. She bought it years ago, maybe even before we met, although I can't remember for sure at this point.

How It Stacks Up: We only have this one Supertramp album, although I was told last night in very passionate terms that their other big release, "Crime Of The Century" is a finer work. I can't say for sure, but plan to find out down the road.

Rating: 4 stars

"Breakfast In America" was a huge album when it came out, and I believe it remains one of the highest selling albums of all time.

Musically, this record is an odd duck among much of the stadium rock that was being made in the late seventies. Rather than guitar, the melodies are driven by piano and the distinctive falsetto vocals of Roger Hodgson. This gives the album a really fresh and unexpected sound that wears well thirty years later.

Many of the songs have strong pop licks, but Supertramp isn't afraid to trail off into long, progressive flights of fancy to end a song. Sometimes these arrangements stray dangerously close to noodling, but they stay on the side of the reasonable, and generally serve to support the emotional resonance of the song.

Lyrically, the songs are like a time capsule back to 1979, and all of the doubt and confusion of the young generation at that time. The front end of Generation X, wondering if they'd ever find our place in the world, or even if they wanted to. It is an album of lost innocence, not just for the youth at that time, but for America itself, making the cover's excessive cheeriness deeply ironic. Consider these classic lines from "The Logical Song":

"When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully, watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

"There are times when all the world's asleep
The question's come too deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please, please tell me what I've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am."

When I first heard these lyrics I was nine years old, the tail end of that same Generation X, and they spoke to me even then. It was like I was being given a glimpse into the future loss of innocence. Years later, as an adult I can still listen to this song, or similar ones on the record like "Take The Long Way Home" and "Lord Is It Mine" and those same questions hit just as hard as they ever did.

"Breakfast in America" is as relevant today with its questions as it was in 1979, and there are just as many confused people out there, trying to make sense of it all, and find some meaning and attachment to the world around them. It is thoughtful stuff.

On a lighter note, this record always reminds me of a playground incident I had when I was in Grade Five. There was this older boy - Grade Seven I think - that was a big Supertramp fan. He had a nasty reputation. A year earlier, I had witness him eat a live frog simply because someone paid him $5 and dared him. I think the dare motivated him more than the money. Anyway, as twelve year olds go, he was as tough as they came.

He cornered me on the playground of our elementary school one day and put me in a headlock and demanded I tell him "who was the greatest band in the world." In 1979 this was easy, and I quickly answered "Blue Oyster Cult". All hail the cult.

It turns out this kid was a massive fan of "Breakfast In America" and my answer, though objectively correct, infuriated him no end. He began to squeeze my head until I thought it was going to crack like the bones of the frog had the year before. He acknowledged that BOC was pretty good, but demanded I amend my answer to Supertramp before I could go.

I knew I couldn't do this and expect to ever be able meet the gaze of Buck Dharma or Eric Bloom on the cover of their records again. I refused, but for all my commitment to truth, this only resulted in further twisting and squeezing. I'd like to think that the water coming out of my eyes was simply squeezed out from the pressure, but I'm pretty sure it was tears. I gave him that, I suppose, but somehow I managed to stick with my original answer.

Maybe his arm got tired. Or maybe he decided that BOC was a fair answer after all. Or it could be that he recognized a kid as crazy as him over such minor points of honour, and knew we might be there all day. Whatever the case, he let me go and wandered off, confused and disgusted, to search out a new victim. He was a tough kid, but he was fair in his way, and I like to think he admired bravery in the face of adversity.

"Breakfast in America" is an important record, an excellent one, and it has changed my life along the way for the better. That said, I still owe Supertramp for all the pain of that headlock, so I'm going to say despite the application of torture, I continue to see four stars, not five.

Best tracks: The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger, Take The Long Way Home, Lord Is It Mine, Just Another Nervous Wreck

CD Odyssey Disc 340: Rolling Stones

For someone actively without work right now, I'm amazed at how fast some days can go by. After job hunting, and running a few errands I looked at the clock and saw it was already four o'clock.

One thing is certain, I need to make time to get this review written, so I can stop listening to this album.

Disc 340 is...Their Satanic Majesties Request

Artist: The Rolling Stones

Year of Release: 1967

What’s Up With The Cover?: It looks like a Ren fair where all the participants are on hallucinogens. I don't like seeing the Rolling Stones look like this. It seems somehow...undignified.

How I Came To Know It: Recently I've had a bit of an uptick in my interest of the Rolling Stones, after many years of having little interest at all. I bought "Their Satanic Majesties Request" because it has a song ("2000 Man") that Kiss covered on 1979's "Dynasty" album, and I wanted to hear the original. Also, coming out in 1967, I felt it was relatively safe coming at the very beginning of my favourite Rolling Stone period that begins with "Beggar's Banquet in 1968 and ends with "Exile On Main Street" in 1972.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Rolling Stones albums. "Their Satanic Majesties Request" is by far the weakest. It is not even close.

Rating: 2 stars, and I'm being generous.

What the hell were they thinking?

This was the question I kept asking myself as I subjected myself to a couple of consecutive listens of "Their Satanic Majesties Request." Here they were, one of the world's biggest bands, well known for fusing pop, rock and blues sensibilities together and making strong music, going off the musical deep-end.

"Their Satanic Majesties Request" is a hodgepodge of psychadelic rock, full but directinless orchestration and what sounds like the liberal use of one of those musical jack-in-the-boxes. Of course, when the top opens instead of getting a spring loaded puppet, you get some drug fueled musicians, high on their own self-importance.

This album is what I imagine the studio sounds like very late on a Wednesday night, where the band has decided to eschew a night on the town in favour of staying up until 4 AM getting hammered and jamming. I expect that is a very fun thing to do if you are a musician, but what results shouldn't be permanently pressed onto vinyl, or any other storage medium known to civilized man.

There is a considerable divide of opinion on this record, and no doubt some Rolling Stones apologists will want to point out just how genius the band is. The song construction is certainly complex in places, and when Richards is allowed to play a guitar riff unhampered by bells and xylophones and the screeching of tortured cats, it comes off pretty well. Their talent is enough to drag this record into the very bottom reaches of 2 stars.

However, just because you are musically gifted doesn't mean everything you write will be good. In fact, the very effort made here to be innovative and creative with sound just makes the trainwreck that much worse. By way of proof, the two actually listenable songs on the record ("2000 Man" and "She's A Rainbow" are also two of the most straightforward. I know, it's only rock and roll, but I like it that way.

When I first bought this record, I was far less negative. I think I was overwhelmed by how different it is to anything else by the Stones that I have, and I admired their bravery to do such a record. Also, hearing "2000 Man" in its original sixties psychadelic rock style was a real treat, and simply for this reason I won't be selling the record despite its many faults.

Beyond that, the novelty has worn off like the cheap veneer on the door handle to hell. Now the whole thing just sounds tinny and discombobulated. Songs like "Gomper" and "Sing This All Together (See What Happened)" are all over the place. Strange stratching sounds mix with what I think are bongo drums; weird hoots accompany screeching whistles and bells. The problem is that there is no underlying melody to attach all this stuff to. It is just a big, hot mess. The two songs are five and eight minutes long, but feel three times that long.

The worst part is, that in the eternal Beatles/Stones battle, I am decidedly a Stones man. Nine times out of ten I'm on their side, and this is how they choose to repay me? I'm not generally given to the directionless, drug-fueled music coming out in the late sixties anyway - or at least not this particular style of it - but it can be done right. In fact the same year that "Their Satanic Majesties Request" came out there was another album that did the same thing, and did it far better: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles.

Man it hurt to type that last sentence.

Anyway, if you're like me and you generally enjoy the Rolling Stones, a good place to start is "Sticky Fingers" or even the hit-laden "Some Girls." If you must hear "2000 Man" then I heartily recommend Ace Frehley's update of it on "Dynasty" (helpfully reviewed at Disc 78). At that time I wrote:

"I also really dig "2000 Man" which I had always thought was an Ace Frehley song. But when I looked at the liner notes, I see it is a Rolling Stones song - now I must seek out the original, if there is one."

What the hell was I thinking?

Best tracks: 2000 Man, She's a Rainbow

CD Odyssey Disc 339: Townes Van Zandt

There are few if any artists that have impacted me as strongly in the past couple of years as much as this one. I was glad to roll another album by him as the Odyssey rolls on.

This next album came out in 1969. That year some pretty impressive albums were also released by The Beatles (Abbey Road), The Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed) and Bob Dylan (Nashville Skyline).

I own and love all these albums, but it is time to give this next record its equal share of the glory.

Disc 339 is...Townes Van Zandt (self-titled)

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1969

What’s Up With The Cover?: A peaceful looking Van Zandt sits at a table in his kitchen, eyes closed. Was he waiting to be fed and fell asleep, or is he just deep in thought? We just don't know. I do know his pants are a little short, but hey, it is 1969, so maybe that was the style at the time.

How I Came To Know It: As I alluded in the teaser, I've been on a Townes Van Zandt rampage the last two or three years, and this was just me buying more of whatever I could find by him.

How It Stacks Up: In addition to a couple of live albums, I now have seven studio albums by Van Zandt (with three more on my search list). Of the seven, this self-titled effort is pretty sweet. I'd put it second, displacing my earlier choice for that spot, "Our Mother The Mountain", by the narrowest of margins.

Rating: 5 stars

It has been over a hundred reviews since I reviewed my last Townes Van Zandt album ("Our Mother The Mountain" at Disc 236) and it is good to be back.

Townes' self-titled album was not his first album, but his third, immediately following "Our Mother The Mountain", released earlier in the same year. Where "Our Mother The Mountain" has a more sombre, moody tone, and a lot of narrative songs, "Townes Van Zandt" has a more introspective feel that is equally engaging; perhaps more so.

The topics on this album are those that Townes knows well; troubled relationships, living wrong and his ongoing (and only occasionally successful) efforts to find much meaning in day-to-day living.

This is an album from a man who thinks too much, and too deeply; character traits that speak to his exceptional intelligence, but that would also doom him to a life of substance abuse and an early death. On "Lungs" he sings:

"Well, won't you lend your lungs to me?
Mine are collapsing
Plant my feet and bitterly breathe
Up the time that's passing.
Breath I'll take and breath I'll give
Pray the day ain't poison
Stand among the ones that live
In lonely indecision."

The words of this song trip out quickly, and on every listen a different section will catch my attention and appreciation. No matter what section grabs me, I can see Townes standing in the dark, smoking and brooding about what it all means. He may be in indecision, but he's always looking for answers, and that's what makes the song resonate.

When Townes sings about love, he is part romantic, part realist. Like all subjects, Townes wants to get to the essence of any idea, and not just pay it lip-service. The first song on the album, "For The Sake Of The Song" is a beautiful depiction of an argument between a woman demanding a man be more emotionally open with her, and his reply that if he does not feel it, than to say otherwise would be simply dishonest:

"Why does she sing/her sad songs for me/I'm not the one
To tenderly bring/her soft sympathy/I've just begun
To see my way clear/and it's plain/if I stop I will fall
I can lay down a tear/for her pain/just a tear and that's all
What does she want me to do?/She says that she knows/that moments are rare
I suppose that it's true/Then on she goes/to say I don't care
And she knows that I do

Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong

The song is so melodic and true to the natural cadence of speech that at first I thought it was a form of sprung rhythm, but it isn't. It is actually a complex trio of rhymes broken by a caesura, or dramatic pause within each paired line like this:

ABC/ABC/DEF/DEF/GHI/GHI

Then just when you recognize and slip into this pattern Townes adds one extra third, an extra G (the rhyme, not the note), where he sings "And she knows that I do," creating a deeper emotional hit to the moment where he admits to caring for her, just not in the way she wants him to.

For anyone who thinks form and structure in writing is pointless, let Townes show you otherwise. The ear may not take the time to dissect the rhyming structure, but the use of it hits you where it hurts, and in doing so helps to demonstrate not only a conflict between two people, but an internal argument within the songwriter himself.

Thematically, I love how each verse ends with that heroic couplet, where he acknowledges that if she feels the need to tell him something, then who is he to tell her she shouldn't. It is his way of finding a middle ground, where if he can feel as he wants to, he must acknowledge she has an equal right to react to it. Brilliant stuff.

While "For The Sake of the Song" is perhaps the best example, Townes' phrasing and song construction is captivating on all these tracks. He's every bit the poet that more famous artists like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are, and his songs are just as thought provoking.

Musically, "Colorado Girl" is one of the better examples of how Townes draws us in, with simple arrangements, driven by a light western-guitar style. He plays similar to Gordon Lightfoot only a bit more thoughtful and - frankly - better (sorry Gord - you know I love you). I've always felt this song would be a great bookend with Jimmy Rankin's masterpiece "Colorado." Townes' song is about going out to Denver to find a girl he loves, and Jimmy's is about the heartache after that same woman leaves you.

Four of the tracks on this record were actually on Townes debut album titled, "For The Sake Of the Song", but this is actually a positive. "For The Sake Of The Song" suffers from low production value that make the songs on it (including the excellent title track) sound tinny and hurried. On "Townes Van Zandt" the production hits exactly the right notes, and shows these amazing songs in all their rightful glory.

"Townes Van Zandt" is a very short album. There are only ten songs, and the total running length is just shy of thirty-five minutes. I found myself having the opposite reaction I sometimes have, in that I wish it were longer. I'm not sure it could be long enough, in fact. This is a winner, and worth your time.

Best tracks: all tracks