CD Odyssey Disc 1730: The Chats

Whew! What a week it has been. In addition to a LOT of work commitments, I managed to take in two concerts in two days – Katie Pruitt on Monday and Ice Cube on Tuesday. Coming soon to A Creative Maelstrom…a review of both shows at once! For now, here’s the album that’s been serenading my journey in between work and events.

Disc 1730 is…The First Two EPs by the Chats

Artist: The Chats

Year of Release: 2016 and 2017

What’s up with the Cover?  Drawings from the first two EPs by the Chats. On the left we have a woman giving us the finger, meaning two of three Chats album covers featuring someone telling viewers to F off. That’s punk for ya.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed 2022’s “Get Fucked” my friend Nick discovered the Chat through a song called “Smoko”. That song is off their second EP “Get This In Ya!!” which is one half of this combo record. Based on that I simply had to have this record and ordered it forthwith through my good friends at Bandcamp.

How It Stacks Up: Technically this is two EPs (self-titled and “Get This In Ya!!”) but since the Chats saw fit to repackage it as a single LP, I’ll count it. That leaves me with three Chats albums, all excellent. I’ll put this EP collection in at #3.  In this case finishing last is no dishonour.

Rating: 4 stars

14 songs, 32 furious and fast minutes, and you’ll enjoy every single moment. That’s what you get from the Chats First Two EPs. These three blokes are one of the best modern punk bands around. On these two early records, you get to hear them explore punk from a lot of different angles, all of them awesome.

The influences here are many, and you’ll hear the ghosts of the Dead Kennedys, the Sex Pistols, Black Flag and even the Dead Milkmen on various tracks. Despite all these influences the Chats never sound derivative. They are fresh and full of restless energy, directed into finding new interpretations of two chords and an angry truth.

The Chats are Australian and wear their oi oi oi o their sleeves, with the record featuring so much authentic Down Under slang I needed the urban dictionary in places. We are treated to plenty of songs about being Down and Out in Queensland. On the opening record we have the troubling challenge of “Mum Stole My Darts” (smokes) and later in the same song, Dad stealing your weed.

The first EP/side ends on a positive note with “VB Anthem” a love song that serenades Victoria Bitter, a mass produced Australian beer. Its principal quality appears to be that it costs “40 bucks a slab”. Yeah, good times roll – fuelled by cheap beer! “VB Anthem” shows its love through the sheer amount of time dedicated to its frothy subject as well. At 3:43 it is practically an epic by Chats standards.

These may have been originally intended as two shorter albums, but they work very well as a “Side One/Side Two” with the eponymous debut raw and garage-like, and the follow up “Get This In Ya!!” more rounded and loaded with surfer punk vibes. They’re different but compliment each other well. On my first listen I wasn’t sure about the thicker, less industrial sounding second record, but it grew on me and pretty soon I was enjoying the transition between the records just as much as their individual charms.

The second record starts with the Chats classic hit, “Smoko”. There is simply nothing wrong with this perfect song, from its killer bass riff opening, to its Dead Kennedy’s style guitar whine, all the way to Eamon Sandwith’s angry drawl as he recounts various characters telling all comers to leave him alone, while he is on “Smoko”. This means coffee break, Australian style.

The Chats present as degenerates but they’re sneaky smart. In “Smoko” the twist comes in the second verse where our narrator can’t get through to learn the fate of his Centrelink (aka social assistance) check only to find the clerk assigned to help him is – you guessed it – on smoko. Goose, meet gander.

Later on “Bus Money” we find our narrator walking home, having spent all his money on cigarettes (darts), beer (brews) and lottery tickets (scratchies).  Few bands capture the desperate anger of being broke like the Chats, and while there is some humour infused into these songs there is also a ragged and raw frustration that if you’ve ever been chronically broke, is instantly recognizable.

These EPs are so good it would almost be a shame to hear them individually. They’d both be over far too soon. Combined, they are greater than the sum of their parts and a wholly awesome journey into some oft the best punk music you’ll find.

Best tracks: Mum Stole My Darts, Don’t Stop the Blues, VB Anthem, Smoko, Bus Money

CD Odyssey Disc 1729: Marvin Gaye

Today I am in the universally unpleasant circumstance of having to work for a portion of what should be a day off. However, all work and no play makes one a dull boy, so before I dive in I am determined to provide you, gentle readers, with another music review.

Disc 1729 is…Dream of a Lifetime

Artist: Marvin Gaye

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover?  Giant Head Cover! Marvin Gaye’s giant head, which makes a significant amount of sense.

This is also an early CD release, which you can tell by the requirement of the picture to clearly warn you this is a "COMPACT DISC". This is not your parent's 45 single in a new plastic case, people, this is the technology of the future!

How I Came To Know It: I already had a couple of Marvin Gaye’s famous records from the early seventies, but this one arrived via Sheila, who bought it on a whim while shopping in a thrift store. She’s taken to thrift store CD purchases that look good, interesting, or just plain weird. I love this development and the additional chaos it brings to the CD Odyssey. Many more of these to come in future reviews.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Marvin Gaye albums. I don’t love any of them, but I’m going to assume the early classics have a leg up on this one. I put “Dream of a Lifetime” in at #3.

Rating: 2 stars

Listening to a Marvin Gaye record is a lot like listening to Megadeth. Not from a musical style perspective, mind you. I mean that both artists tend to have one or two awesome songs and a whole lot of filler.

This is true even of early Marvin Gaye classics that feature such incredible songs as “Let’s Get It On” and “What’s Goin’ On” and the tradition carries forward onto his first posthumous record, 1985’s “Dream of a Lifetime”.

Marvin Gaye seems to really “rise” to the occasion when he’s feeling sexy, and “Dream of a Lifetime” two best songs both delve right in.

The record starts with an apparently moralistic song, with “Sanctified Lady”. Gaye describes a plethora of sexual identities and proclivities before settling on his desire for a “Sanctified Lady”. I assume this means a 'good girl', although given the relish the Gaye lays out the various and sundry other possibilities, and the sexy back beat accompanying said options, I find his ultimate appeal for a nice chaste girl less than believable.

Gaye doubles down on the dirty with “Masochistic Beauty,” a song that explores a kinky sexual encounter. This song is so explicit that the producers felt compelled to put a pre-Tipper Gore warning label on the back of the album that reads, ““This compact disc contains lyrical content that may be considered offensive to some listeners” (yes, it is underlined). Gaye creates the smallest bit of plausible separation from the topic by affecting an English accent and an almost theatrical  spoken word delivery but otherwise spares neither the rod nor the word. If you’re looking for an 18^th century style metaphorically inspired song of romance, taste and subtlety, this song is not for you. You will find no double entendres here.

Where the record most notably differs from Gaye’s early seventies work is in the production and arrangement. The album relies heavily on organ and synthesizer in place of horn section. I thought I would hate this, but Gaye manages to make the transition without losing any of the funky groove that defines his style.

Unfortunately, Gaye also doesn’t shy away from his other tradition – long meandering songs that are more focused on a notional groove than any artistic direction. Be prepared to let your mind wander around through seven plus minute songs like “Life’s Opera” that earnestly go in a lot of directions but never arrive at a satisfactory destination.

It won’t sound like the Marvin Gaye most people are familiar with at first, but underneath you’ll find the record is still, at its core, a soul record. A soul record best performed on a space station with a few visits from Barbarella thrown in, but a soul record nonetheless.

Best tracks: Sanctified Lady, Masochistic Beauty

CD Odyssey Disc 1728: Mandolin Orange

Over the weekend Sheila and I celebrated our anniversary. We traditionally buy each other shoes (yes, this happened). This year I also bought myself a gift in the form of…fancy new headphones!

Better than any gift though, is spending all the great years with my best friend and the love of my life. Here’s to you, Sheila!

Disc 1728 is…Such Jubilee

Artist: Mandolin Orange

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover?  After the sun set we looked for a place of shelter other than under the expansive night sky. “Oh, look”, we exclaimed, “there’s a not-creepy-at-all farmhouse over there. That looks safe!”

How I Came To Know It: I think I read a review for “Blindfaller” (reviewed back at Disc 1064) and drilled backward from there.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Mandolin Orange albums and this one comes it at #2, just behind the peerless excellence that is “Blindfaller”. This is the last review of Mandolin Orange albums in my collection (for now) and so here’s a recap:

1. Blindfaller: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 1064)
2. Such Jubilee: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Tides of a Teardrop/Sing and Play Traditionals: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1274)

Rating: 4 stars

If you are eager for a memorable first listen on a new set of headphones, you can’t do much better than “Such Jubilee”, folk/bluegrass duo Mandolin Orange’s fourth album and easily one of their best.

Mandolin Orange is Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz; multi-instrumentalists and gifted vocalists who lay down thoughtful soundscapes that are as beautiful and natural as the flow of a creek through a stand of fir trees. Like being deep in the woods, the feeling you will get is one of majestic isolation. A place where life quietens down and your ears open up to a constellation of sound.

In this case, the constellations are traditional bluegrass instrumentation, played with an ease and gentleness that blows over you like a chinook wind, warm and refreshing. This is the temple of the mid-range and natural. Inside a calm will descend over you, your soul restored.

The first thing you will pick up from Mandolin Orange is the sublime playing. Unsurprisingly, the mandolin work is as good as you will hear in this world or any other. If there are mandolins in heaven, they will sound like how Andrew Marlin plays one on this record. In lesser bluegrass configurations, the mandolin is a glorified timekeeper, but on “Such Jubilee” it is multifaceted, simultaneously holding down the beat while starring in the melody.

Frantz is no slouch on the violin either, brilliant and perfectly placed. Then there is the banjo (Marlin again) and some sublime guitar work (both of them). How the hell each of these two can master even one of these instruments at this level is boggling, never mind two or three.

But what I like most about this record is how everything is played with such a carefree and unhurried way. These songs dance in your ears like fireflies on a summer night, winking on and off. It isn’t just the new headphones talking here, either – I went for a run today and listened on decidedly average earbuds designed for sport over sound. It was still great. Maybe not quite as arrestingly beautiful but still noticeably great.

The vocals of both Marlin and Frantz are both excellent. Neither of them sings with big power, choosing instead to match their approach to their playing style. Understated, and graceful, they each take the lead from time to time, or sing in harmony, as each song’s structure demands.

Lyrically, the songs also have a pastoral quality, with many songs hearkening back to memory, sometimes of events and other times just a mood or emotional experience. The best narrative is captured on “Rounder”, a song about a rough and careless criminal passing his final night before being hanged. The song is replete with understated and evocative imagery. My favourite lines:

“I wore my pride on my bad side
And on the other get my hand close by the trigger
Some folks are guided by the weight of their tongues
But we all fall silent at the end of a gun”

While not all the songs are as literal as “Rounder” many cover resignation and heartache, exploring them with that slow and relaxed roll that lets you approach hard thoughts free and easy, making you ready to confront your demons or make peace with them as occasion allows.

The only bad word to say about “Such Jubilee” is that it isn’t quite “Blindfaller” but there’s no shame in that. Taken together these two albums are must-have works of grace and beauty.

Best tracks: Old Ties and Companions, Little World, Rounder, That Wrecking Ball, Of Which There Is No Like

CD Odyssey Disc 1727: Sunny War

Earlier today I shared my favourite albums of 2023 with someone. This next record was not on that list.

Disc 1727 is…Anarchist Gospel

Artist: Sunny War

Year of Release: 2023

What’s up with the Cover?  I’m not sure if I should smile at this cover or just stare at it steely-eyed. It appears the cover is experiencing the same indecision with regard to me.

How I Came To Know It: The usual way – I read a review and gave it a listen. In retrospect, I should’ve given it two listens. Instead, I bought it.

How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Sunny War album, so it can’t stack up.

Rating: 2 stars

Unrealized promise is the phrase the comes to mind on this album. It is that promise that drew me to “Anarchist Gospel” on the first listen. Various  elements hint at a lot of cool sonic and songwriting innovation. Sunny War mixes blues, rock and folk in a way that you don’t hear very often, and for a tired old music hound like me, innovation is a good way to get my attention.

The record is eclectic, with a potpourri of song experimentation. This I have no quarrel with. The record is replete with “hey, I’m trying this!” moments that are initially admirable. Ms. War (the album has lots of guest stars, but War is a solo artist) draws on many musical traditions. She also has a versatile voice that lets her adjust style to best suit what she’s drawing on.

Often, the idea she is exploring feels like a fully realized fragment. She takes a repetitive phrase – both in terms of music and lyrics – that folds in on itself in an effort to first set a mood and then settle into that mood for a lengthy stay. When done well, it feels great. “I Got No Fight” is a great example, a sad and weary number where she steps down through a bone-wearying melody, accompanied by some stellar work on guitar. The song doesn’t go anywhere, but it sits down in the pocket of its own sadness so well you are content to wallow.

Many other songs try a similar “rinse and repeat” approach, but most don’t come close to achieving the standard of “I Got No Fight”. Instead, most made me restless and a little bored before they were half over. “Sweet Nothing” is the worst offender, with a very-often repeated phrase that spins on itself for north of seven minutes. I kind of liked the first couple of minutes, but by the time I was halfway through I was wishing for a bit more sweet and bit less nothing. The guitar work is still great, but here it feels aimless, like a musician just picking away idly while lost in thought, as opposed to writing a song with a beginning, middle and an end.

I should note at this point that I like my songs to have those component parts. Sunny War songs feel like they have a lot of “middle” but are missing starts and ends. If a bit of mood music, extrapolated inward is your bag, then this will not be a negative for you. For me I just wanted something to fucking happen.

My reaction to “Anarchist Gospel” was a lot more strongly negative than the record deserves for this reason. What Sunny War is doing, she is doing well, I just wanted her to get on with full structure. You know how Rush annoys some people the way they insist on moving through multiple riffs and concepts in a single song? Well Sunny War is the opposite, she moves through one concept only, and does it very slowly.

This record is 14 songs and 50 minutes but it feels a whole lot longer, and I was ready to be done long before it was. All the cool concepts and artful guitar playing in the world isn’t enough on their own. Similarly many songs have great phrases, but they are used to evoke emotion only, and rarely unfold into broader concepts or stories. One deeply held idea, mercilessly explored, is what you can expect.

There’s every likelihood other people will like this album better than I did, but for me I think the three songs in “best tracks” is all I need. Or as Sunny War sings on “Hopeless”, “I stayed just a little too long/now it’s time for me to move on.”

Indeed it is.

Best tracks: No Reason, I Got No Fight, Baby Bitch

CD Odyssey Disc 1726: Katy Kirby

It was a long hard day at the office, and I followed it up with some volunteer work for good measure. The combination has left me a bit knackered. Fortunately, one of the best pick-me-ups from a knackering is new music. I’ve been using this method now for fifteen years (yes, I’ve been doing this that long) and it hasn’t failed me yet.

Disc 1726 is…Cool Dry Place

Artist: Katy Kirby

Year of Release: 2021

What’s up with the Cover?  What is worse here, the outfit or the posture? Both suggest a lot of laziness, but only one of them is going to give Kirby back trouble later in life.

In addition to bad outfit and posture choices, Katy has decided to stand in a field of cacti. While this is demonstrably a “cool, dry place” it is also a prickly one.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review of this album and it sounded sufficiently intriguing for me to check out. I liked what I heard and so…here we are.

How It Stacks Up: Katy Kirby is a relatively new artist, and only has two albums so far. I have them both and put “Cool Dry Place” at #2.

Rating: 3 stars

A number of years ago I had a cat who was a bit of a yowler. He voiced how he felt about whatever was going on with him, or whatever was going on near him, and he did it with little grace. He was black, but I trow he had a fair bit of Siamese in him. When he was particularly off his rocker, I’d give him a snuggle and whisper “true beauty enters only the quietest of souls”. This usually did not work.

Listening to Katy Kirby reminds me of that whisper. She sings in a light, atmospheric kind of way that leaves your heart rested and full. It isn’t the best for driving, working out or generally anything that doesn’t provide close and quiet attention, but it is lovely.

Kirby’s music is an indie folk/pop crossover. She’s similar to Samia and any number of other artists in this style that evidently appeals to me, because I keep buying them. Early on in my journey through this record I was regretting this decision. I was in the car, and then working out, and just not feeling it (see above as to why). However, over time I reminded myself to quieten my soul and listen and sure enough, it revealed its beauty to me.

When “Cool Dry Place” is working, it envelopes you in its whimsy like a wispy summer cloud. One of those high up cirrus numbers. The music has upbeat melodies, saturated with arrangements that are layered and relaxed. Imagine all the album sounds are that part of an outdoor festival a bit back from the stage but still within earshot; still lots of stuff going on, but room in between to sway a bit and catch some sun.

“Traffic!” is a good example. This song bounces along with an easy joy. This ain’t Jimi Hendrix-style urgent traffic, this is the kind of traffic for when you’ve got the top down, and you’re in no particular hurry to be anywhere, perfectly happy to wave at pedestrians, let two or three cars merge in front of you and enjoy the stereo a bit.

The title track is also a standout, featuring the top end of Kirby’s sweet and breathy vocals. This song has the gentle sway you’d want from a tune that is, at its heart, a tremulous expression of love. It is a song that invites the question “do you like me, and if you do, what will happen next?” It reflects a fair bit of uncertainty but it does it from a place of curiosity that makes it hard to be afraid of what’s next. More nervously excited.

When the album isn’t going well, it can fall into the saccharine. Songs like “Fireman” are a bit too twee, even for Kirby’s perfectly-suited vocals to pull off. “Secret Language” riffs off of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” but that promising start is not realized. Instead, it loses focus, and gets drowned in production choices that are a bit too dreamy to hold your attention.

While the record is uneven, it never offends, and shows Kirby’s promise and talent throughout. It is hard to listen to this record and not feel a bit more chilled out when you’re done and sometimes that’s just what you need. I give it three stars, hold the yowls.

Best tracks: Traffic!, Portals, Cool Dry Place

CD Odyssey Disc 1725: Cheekface

Welcome to the weekend! Let’s get rolling with the first review of an album released in 2024.

If you’re thinking, “wouldn’t it be better if you reviewed albums that are more current more often” then you are not embracing the “pick the next record at random” concept at the heart of this journey we’re on.

Disc 1725 is…It’s Sorted

Artist: Cheekface

Year of Release: 2024

What’s up with the Cover?  A typical Cheekface album cover featuring quirky artwork with pastel colours. Here we have every home’s most beloved appliance, the coffee maker. I’m having a coffee right now, in fact, from a coffee maker not at all unlike the one depicted here.

This reminds me of the time I was staying in Florence and I was in the hotel café looking for a coffee when I stumbled into the back to see the proprietor brewing drip coffee. In Italy. We locked eyes. His filled with shame of guilty discovery. Mine with accusatory horror. Then the caffeine addiction regained control and I said, “I’ll have a coffee please.” No other words were exchanged.

As it happens, it was the only bad coffee I had my entire time in Italy, leading me to the conclusion that this man’s crimes were reassuringly rare.

But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a fan of Cheekface since I first heard their 2021 album, “Emphatically No”. This was me buying their latest. They don’t do CD releases, so I buy a download (which comes with the aforementioned album cover) and make my own. For my own use only, Cheekface!

How It Stacks Up: I have three Cheekface albums and I like them all relatively equally, but you aren’t reading this section for equivocation. I’ll put this one…second…for now. OK, yeah, there’s some equivocation but the reality is this the first review and like the first flight of skaters, the judge needs a little wiggle room.

Rating: 4 stars

Enjoy listening to Cake but wish they sounded more emotionally distant? Then you will like Cheekface, a band that takes Cake’s ironic detachment/catchy hook combo and ramps it up to 11, salting in a few dozen clever turns of phrase along the way.

This will not be for everyone. Like Cake’s John McCrea, Greg Katz has a flat half-spoken delivery to his singing style. However, also like McCrea, Katz’s phrasing is immaculate. Cheekface writes songs that are crisp and full of jump that sit down in the pocket in a way that would be unforgiving of any error in timing. Fortunately, this band is sharp as fuck. They never miss the beat and lay everything down from drum to guitar to (frequent) hand claps without ever hitting a snag.

The songs are very easy to groove to, but it helps if you enjoy clever lyrics as well. If so, no one turns a phrase that makes you both smile and think like Cheekface. The topics are often about the decay of Western culture, and while they sing in that detached kind of way, underneath their message is exhorting you to break out of suburban box-house thinking and, well, be weird.

“Popular 2” is a song about how we are all online, even to the point that neighbourhoods start to resemble reality TV with all the people with porch cams. Our narrator in the tune embraces (ironically, of course) the celebrity of it all:

“I just want to be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch
Your across the street neighbor walks his dog on TV
The future is now, unfortunately
And if I'm never ever gonna be alone, here in my community neighborhood home
Then I wanna be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch”

Reading those lyrics won’t do “Popular 2” justice, however. This song is funky as hell and a great listen. Also, Cheekface is one of those bands that are fun to sing along with. Partly because you don’t need a lot of vocal range to do so, and partly because once you know what comes next and can hit the timing, you can feel just as clever as Katz when you land the punchlines. Every massive pop song has this, but “It’s Sorted” has the experience on songs that are so weird they will never be huge pop songs. That doesn’t mean you can enjoy them the same way.

Sometimes “It’s Sorted” strays over the line from “super entertaining smart guy you met on the porch of a party” to “guy who is hard to relate to because everything is a meme”. The line is fuzzy and shifts a lot, but here’s an example of being over it from “There Were Changes in the Hardcore Scene”:

“I hate to send mixed messages
I love to send mixed messages”

Get it? Get it? Yes, Cheekface, we get it. Fortunately, the song is so good you forgive them their un-killed darlings.

Cheekface puts a Miracle Max style chocolate coating on their messages to make them go down easier, but underneath it all they have a punk sensibility, and are not averse to expressing frustration with society. “Don’t Stop Believing” is the most melodic song on the record, and also the darkest. It is better if you have the lyrics of the Journey song of the same name going on in the background of your head.

Like most Cheekface tunes, they’re better if you are thinking about them, thinking about something else at the same time, and drawing connections to a couple other things when the mood strikes. Don’t worry, the songs are catchy and this will not interfere with your ability to groove, dance, and sing along.

Best tracks: The Fringe, Popular 2, I Am Continuing to Do My Thing, Don’t Stop Believing, Plastic

CD Odyssey Disc 1724: Emily Fairlight

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey, where we continue our journey into the Indie folk scene. This time visiting…New Zealand!

Disc 1724 is…Mother of Gloom

Artist: Emily Fairlight

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover?  Looks like someone getting home in what may not be a great frame of mind (as evidenced by the floor-up camera angle, and the unkempt hair streaming, Grudge-like in front of her face).

Could be depression, drunkenness or just that crippling thought box artistic types suffer periodically. None of these are good, but at least the last one can sometimes result in a song or a painting like that one hanging to the left of the bookshelf.

Or it could be a clever visual homage to the Martha Wainwright song the album pulls its name from “Bloody Motherf**king Ass****” where she sings:

“And the mother of gloom
In your bedroom standing over your head”

If you are wondering how it feels to have the mother of gloom doing that, this picture is a good visual approximation, fairly summarized as “not good”.

How I Came To Know It: At first I had forgotten, but a quick Google search of the likely suspects reveals a Paste Magazine article called “10 Folk Artists You Need to Know in 2019” which reminded me.

Other folk artists on that list you will find in my collection because of this article include: Lula Wiles, Molly Tuttle and the Honey Dewdrops. What about the other six? I would’ve checked them out back in the day, but their absence means they didn’t inspire me the same.

How It Stacks Up: I have not enjoyed other Emily Fairlight albums the same as I do this one. As a result, unlike Lula Wiles, Molly Tuttle or the Honey Dewdrops, this is my only album by her. As such, it cannot stack up.

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

Some voices just have the night in them, and that’s the case with New Zealand indie folk chanteuse Emily Fairlight. Hardly a surprise from an album titled “Mother of Gloom”, but she lives up to the moniker.

As noted in the cover art teaser, “Mother of Gloom” is a reference to a line from the Martha Wainwright song and this record has gloom to spare. Fairlight’s dusky rasp, and the way she writes songs that constantly stumble their melodies down into emotional depths bring you to a moody but welcome introspection.

Paired with her affecting vocals, she paints with vivid and stark imagery. On “Drag the Night In” she sings:

“Mountains fall into the ocean
The setting sun is in full motion
So drags the night in
So drags the night in
This life inside me drags the night in”

Don’t despair too much, however – the next verse has the wind dragging the light in. Things are mysterious and gloomy, but it is the kind of gloom that wraps around like a blanket, insulating you from the harsh realities of the world around you. Art as armour.

When things do get a bit upbeat they take on an unexpected Spanish flair, with horns and accordion. Not celebratory exactly, but more the restless energy of a circus or a parade. These aren’t my favourite songs, but I welcomed them as a timely juxtaposition to the grimmer selections.

My main criticism of the record is the saturation of sound in the production. The music gives you a pleasant underwater feeling, but all the extra arrangements and sounds makes the water choppy, like a riptide pulling you out a bit more roughly than is comfortable.

The other challenge with this record is more of a feature than a bug; it demands an immersive listening experience. This means it suffers in the car or the gym, but lives for the depths of a good headphone immersion. In those other places it refuses to reveal its subtle art. However, if you’re willing to settle in and fully commit to a good wallow, you will be glad you did.

Best tracks: Drag the Night In, Private Apocalypse, Sinking Ship, Nurture the Wild

CD Odyssey Disc 1723: Over the Rhine

The long weekend continues to treat me well, and today promises to be a lazy one, featuring reading, watching the men’s final of the Miami Open (sorry, March Madness devotees, it is tennis season for me), and music appreciation. On that latter item, I was up early to give this next album a third and decisive listen.

Disc 1723 is…Good Dog Bad Dog

Artist: Over the Rhine

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover?  The band looking fine in their oversized clothes (don’t judge them, it was the style at the time).

Also featured are two dogs, presumably one good, one bad. I think if I were a dog, I would be a very bad dog. On the other hand, I’d be a very good cat.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila’s coworker Carol is a huge fan of this band and very generously lent Sheila her Over the Rhine collection.

Turns out this was a lot of Over the Rhine. I was trepidatious at first. If I didn’t like this band, was I really going to listen to 10 albums worth of it? Rather than overthink it we dove in at the beginning to see how it would go. As it happens, it went very well indeed. I now have two Over the Rhine albums and a host of others on my “to get” list. Thanks for the great musical discovery, Carol!

How It Stacks Up: I found a used copy of this record in my local record store and a second album arrived by Amazon this morning (yes, weirdly it was the same band). Even though this gives me two records, the second one just arrived, and I will withhold judgment at this time.

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

While I am uncharacteristically withholding judgment, I will generally note that in my deep dive through Over the Rhine, they are like a fine wine that improves with age. Their early records don’t hold me the same way. Part of this is that thick, layered nineties production (a problem of the era, not specific to Over the Rhine) and the other part is them still exploring what they want to sound like generating a lack of cohesion at times.

“Good Dog, Bad Dog” is the band’s fourth record, and early enough to have these challenges. I still liked it enough to buy it, but I’ll admit that it left me feeling wistful for some of their later records.

Things start strong. The opening lyric of “Latter Days” is delightful and artistically alluring:

“What a beautiful piece of heartache
This has all turned out to be.”

Consider me intrigued, and from here the song progresses at a measured, majestic pace, fueled by piano and the great gift that is Karin Bergquist’s vocals. Bergquist has pure pop in her tone, channeled through a folk sensibility. Her vocals are like hearing elfin music in the deep woods, warm and ethereal. She has a natural talent for phrasing that sits down with the piano riff on “Latter Days” to create a lovely musical conversation.

My favourite song on the record, “Poughkeepsie,” creates a similar experience, with stately guitar strumming replacing piano, and the same great balance of sound. “Poughkeepsie” has the rising power of a devotional; not surprising for a song about riding on the backs of angels. I don’t ride on the backs of angels myself, but listening to Bergquist’s heartfelt delivery, it is easy to feel inspired.

Unfortunately, the record still has a lot of exploration of different sounds that do not work well. “Faithfully Dangerous” sounds a lot like Sade. I do not like Sade. “A Gospel Number” tries to mix gospel vibes with an overly smooth mid-nineties lounge sound that was tiresome in the day and has not aged well. “Jack’s Valentine” features a spoken word delivery that feels ironically detached, a poor match with a record that is best when plumbing the emotional depths.

At almost 60 minutes of music, some of the songs are on the longish side. In these moments the band is trying to lay down a vibe with a slow roll of repetition through the tune’s elements. No complaints with delivery – the musicianship is top-notch – but I’d been at the studio board I would have encouraged them to call it a couple bars early.

On balance, I found this record featured some good dogs, but it also had a few bad ones, and not enough cats to fill the gaps. I liked it, and it whetted my appetite to bring more of their records into the collection, but it is not my favourite Over the Rhine album.

Best tracks: Latter Days, Etcetera Whatever, Poughkeepsie, Go Down Easy

CD Odyssey Disc 1722: Camp Cope

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey, and the second album in a row that is self-titled, or as folks say when they’re feeling high- falutin, “eponymous”.

Disc 1722 is…Self-Titled

Artist: Camp Cope

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover?  A toddler who appears to be wrapped in some medical bandages. Whatever the accident was, her smile suggests the suffering at present is thankfully contained.

While I'm glad the kid appears to be on the mend, I found I was mostly fixated on the food she is offhandedly holding in her right hand. The gaping mouth suggests she will joyfully chew that food with her mouth open. That’s if we’re lucky. With a child this age getting food into the mouth where it belongs is far from certain. More often than not, it will instead fall out of her hand, get covered in cat hair, retrieved and then eaten. Or it may just be offhandedly stamped into the shag carpet by her foot as she heads off in search of other mischief. All three possibilities are gross.

As you may have surmised, I do not have children.

How I Came To Know It: I heard about Camp Cope through their 2018 release, “How to Socialise and Make Friends” and this was me digging into their back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Camp Cope albums. Their self-titled debut lands at #3, but is still great.

Rating: 3 stars

If you like your debut albums raw and bleeding, then Camp Cope’s first effort will be very welcome. Right out of the gate the Australian trio hold nothing back, delivering tight alternative rock songs that blend anger, anxiety, and stark, vulnerable lyrics.

The band is every bit a cohesive whole, and while it would be easy to focus on Georgia Maq’s powerful vocals, the sum of all the instruments together is what creates the magic. Maq eventually went on to do a solo record but it doesn’t hold the magic that Camp Cope possessed from the beginning.

Nevertheless, we’ll start with the frontwoman (lead singers like this). Georgia Maq’s voice is big, brassy and sprawls its way across these songs, always on the edge of breakdown, and riding that edge like a massive wave. She belts and she bawls, and she feels the feels in every line.

Often the topics are hard ones. The disconnection in the chorus of “Flesh & Electricity”:

“I've been desensitized to the human body
That I could look at you naked and all I'd see would be anatomy
You're just bones and insecurity
Flesh and electricity to me”

And the social commentary on “Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams”:

“Hearing catcalls from a construction yard
They'll say "Take it as a compliment, they're only being nice"
There's a far too common lie
And you carry keys between your knuckles when you walk alone at night”

These are hard topics and Georgia Maq sings them in a way to maximize just how hard they are, confronting you with hard topics. She explores internal uncertainty and external anger with equal unfiltered emotion. Also, I should note that the jet fuel reference in the song is a reference to a conspiracy theory she’s challenging, not something she thinks.

Maq is also the band’s guitar player, and she matches the unbridled energy of her vocals with her instrument, banging out chords with the wild abandon of a busker trying to play over the sounds of traffic. This doesn’t compete with her voice, it amplifies it, a la early Billy Bragg. It creates an orchestra much bigger than you’d expect from almost any three-piece you can think of not called Rush.

The mix is very even, and this is a good thing because it lets you also appreciate the brilliant bass-playing of Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich. Her style feels reminiscent of the Cure’s Simon Gallup, adding an eighties throwback quality to the otherwise grungy feel of Camp Cope.

The songs can be painful, with anxiety a common thread through many of them, but there is catharsis in listening. Like you could shout out the bad if only you could yell long enough. Does it feel excessively grumpy sometimes? Yes, but it is an earned grumpiness, making you perfectly happy to join in for an uncommonly boisterous sulk.

Best tracks: Flesh & Electricity, Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams, Stove Lighter, Song For Charlie

CD Odyssey Disc 1721: The Modern Lovers

Last night I went dancing for the first time in a while. While the music wasn’t to my tastes, the crowd was great and the dancing an experience I’ve always loved that was long overdue for a return.

Disc 1721 is…Self-Titled

Artist: The Modern Lovers

Year of Release: 1976, but featuring music from 1971-1973

What’s up with the Cover?  A less than inspiring logo. It is OK, and I like the purple they’ve chosen, but um…could be more. This is a reissue and I believe the original has a black background with a blue heart and a white circle. That looks a bit better but still…yawn.

How I Came To Know It: Ever since my friend Casey put me onto Jonathan Richman I’ve been buying up his back catalogue. I’d never heard (nor even “heard of”) this record when I saw it in the record store and decided to give it a go.

How It Stacks Up: I have two other Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers albums. Technically this is not Jonathan Richman, and the Modern Lovers, this is just “The Modern Lovers” although yes, Jonathan Richman is in the band. I realize this is confusing. More on this later.

In the meantime, to remove the confusion I’m going to count this in my overall assessment of Jonathan Richman in my collection, in all his various Modern Lover contexts. That means I have three total albums, and it also means this is my final review (at least until I can find the elusive “I, Jonathan”). I rank “The Modern Lovers” at #3. Here’s the full accounting:

1. Jonathan Sings!: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1630)
2. Self-Titled (Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers): 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1649)
3. Self-Titled (The Modern Lovers): 3 stars (reviewed right here)

 Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

Listening to the Modern Lovers self-titled debut felt a little bit like peering into a parallel universe. A place where the Modern Lovers are a punk band with some pop sensibilities, instead of the reverse. So similar, but with the emphasis differently placed.

From 1971-1973 Jonathan Richman was part of the original Modern Lovers, but they split up and Richman would go on to front a new band. Along the way, the old recordings from his original band kind of hung around, eventually getting released in 1976 – the same year Richman’s new band (also the Modern Lovers but now with is name in the front) released their eponymous debut.

The earlier record has similarities to Richman’s later solo work mostly through his quavering but confident vocals, and his propensity to observe the world in a detached but insightful manner. The song topics are a bit more straightforward tunes about love, drugs and rock and roll. No martians, no abominable snowmen in the market that you’ll hear on his other records. Still present – his idealized exploration of love.

Well, it could be idealized, or it could be ironic. With Richman it is hard to tell, but I find his music a lot more enjoyable if you assume he is being earnest. It opens you up to a world where your faith in the basic decency of people is affirmed, even if things don’t always go the way they should.

Musically, the Modern Lovers (the album I’m reviewing right now…) has a stronger punk edge, with a garage-like feel to the playing that was strongly reminiscent of early Lou Reed. This is reinforced by songs that do not get creative with the melody. A couple of chords, played in earnest.

The heavy use of organ and the meandering feel to the songs evokes a late sixties/early seventies psychedelia as well, which is a welcome addition and makes songs that could feel repetitive instead draw you into a joyful, almost manic trance.

The goofiness that defines Richman’s other albums does appear on one tune. With “Pablo Picasso” Richman muses:

“Some people try to pick up girls and get called assholes
This never happened to Pablo Picasso “

I doubt Picasso was never called an asshole, but I guess anything is possible and it is a curious thought regardless. The song further benefits from a stoner surfer vibe on guitar that makes it the best track on a record with many good ones.

On “Girlfriend” the chorus spells out the song’s title as “g-i-r-l-f-r-e-n”. We know from the title Richman knows better, but this nod to ‘whatevs’ is part of what gives the Modern Lovers their charm. They are nerds and outcasts, but they make it cool.

“I’m Straight” is a great song, but not at all about what you would think based on the current meaning of the word. Back in the early seventies, the expression meant “not high.” The song features Richman phoning around, jealous of another neighbourhood character, “Hippy Johnny” who is always high.

My copy of the record is the 2003 re-release, which is good because it comes with a lot of extra tunes, including the aforementioned “I’m Straight” and the also brilliant “Government Center”. Unfortunately, it was 2003 and soulless record execs were feeling the need to use up the new medium’s available space. As a result, we get “alternate versions” of three of the record’s songs, (“Someone I Care About”, “Modern World” and “Roadrunner”). The first two are not even the record’s better songs and while “Roadrunner” is awesome, the original studio version is demonstrably better.

Minor complaints however on a record that otherwise shows Richman’s genius in a couple of ways. First, that the record is a master class in early punk/alternative music and the other that it came out in the same year as Richman dropped another classic record in a totally different (and yet not) style. Parallel universes, in every awesome way possible.

Best tracks: Roadrunner, Old World, Pablo Picasso, Hospital, Girlfriend, I’m Straight, Government Center