Figurine: Vintage Knight

As is my wont, every five figures or so I like to repaint an old figure from the collection (I've been painting these things since I was ten, so there are plenty of poorly painted figures to choose from).

This particular figure brought back a lot of pleasant memories. He is "The Fighter" figure from a game called "Crypt of the Sorceror." This game came out in 1980 and combined elements of a board game with fantasy roleplaying and hobbying. It came with eight unpainted miniatures that you got to paint yourself (when I was a kid this was considered a good thing). The game itself seems to have been out of print for a long time, and the only online reference I could find to it was here. The game rules begin with:

"You lead a band of daring adventurers through the dark portal, into the tomb of an ancient, evil Sorceror. Fighting past his horrid monsters, avoiding traps and pitfalls, you finally reach the crypt itself to battle the sorceror for this treasure and his magical secrets."

Not much of a pitch line, but I recall the standards for getting fantasy games published in 1980 were considerably lower.

Anyway, my brother Virgil bought me this game for my tenth birthday. Before that he had never painted these figures and neither had I, but the game came with about twelve paints and instructions on what to do. Besides, we had both built plastic models for years, and felt up to the challenge.

We played the hell out of this game for years afterward. Sitting around the house on the weekend in our pajamas, with Mom yelling at us to get dressed and go outside (n.b. weather and temperature were not mitigating factors for her).

Painting the metal figurines could have been nothing but a sidebar to the story, but as it happens both Virgil and I got hooked on that as well. The brand that the game was published under - Dungeon Dwellers - also sold a lot of blister packs of miniatures, and so began my collection. Later we learned other companies also made miniatures (Ral Partha, RAFM, Grenadier etc.) and we were off and running.

I'd save up for a year, and he'd take me on a Saturday trip to the hobby shop in Courtenay (an all day journey from our town). I'd usually bring as much as $60-$70 with me - a fortune for me that I had carefully hoarded over the past twelve months. I was always determined to spend it all, but once I arrived the enormity of spending that much money would be too much, and I'd chicken out and only spend half of it. Fortunately, the other half would be enough to purchase two or three box sets of miniatures and maybe a couple of blister packs if I were lucky.

Before too long, despite our constant tweaking of the rules, the Crypt of the Sorceror game board couldn't house all the new arrivals. My brother built a two story castle out of balsa wood, with the exterior walls removed so you could reach in and move pieces around. We made that the new crypt, and one of us would meticulously fill it with monsters to defend against the assault of the other person's heroes. What started as a game of 4 heroes and 4 monsters soon grew to ten times the size, taking an entire afternoon to play.

Eventually even that wasn't big enough, so Virgil found some large cardboard boxes and using a felt pen, he drew a complicate map with a 'crypt' at each end. Our armies would work their way through a forest between the crypts, meeting in the middle to do battle. This could take all day, or longer. Everything was based on the rules from the original game, although we tweaked them whenever we felt like it for greater enjoyment and amusement.

Over thirty years later, the balsa wood castle is gone, and the cardboard battle boards are lost in the mists of time, but I still own everything from the original game except the box that it came in. I cut that up and used it to decorate my painting table. (Hardcore collectors, you may now shriek in horror).

And of course the joy I got from painting these first eight figures resulted in my current collection; thousands of these damned miniatures populating display cases throughout our condo. Painting miniatures is a hobby that still settles my mind when I'm troubled and helps me concentrate, although I've outgrown the need to pit them in battle against one another (mostly). Sheila has also taken up painting them, and I am both proud and embarassed to note she is a damned site better at it than I am despite my fifteen year head start.

Anyway, the eight original hero figures the game came with were the Fighter, the Halfling, the Wizard, and the Dwarf. You also got the four villains, the Evil Sorceror, the Skeleton, the Orc and the the Troll.

Without further ado, here is the knight, according to the bad flavour text from the game, he is "strong of arm and enemy of all things foul and evil." First with my original paint job:
"But wait", you say, "there are two of the same figure!"

Very true, and a nice opportunity to quickly move away from discussing the quality of my early work. You see from the earliest days, companies have cheated a little on design costs by putting the same figure in two or more blister packs (Warhammer actually pretends this is a positive). I got the second guy from a four-pack called 'fighters' because I desperately wanted the other three.

Anyway I painted the second fighter gold, partly to differentiate him from the first one, and partly to indicate that he was wearing magic armour. This was a big deal under the expanded Calvinball rules of the game Virgil and I were playing at the time.

Here they are from the back. Originally, they only had blue shields, but a few years after getting them I "improved" my work by putting lightning bolts on their shields. At least I intended them to look like lightning bolts...
OK, now on to the actually improved version. I generally like to stick to the original colour schemes when I repaint old figures (call me sentimental) so they're both still wearing red, however you'll note I removed the 'magic armour' element. There is no way armour this poorly carved is magical and besides, there's no longer a need to tell them apart.
It was very hard to paint the eyes on these guys because of their low quality. I actually gave one of them an eyepatch because he didn't have discernible facial features on one side. No, I'm not providing a close up of that.

Here they are on the shield side. I kept the lightning bolt theme, and added a crescent moon, for reasons I'd rather keep to myself. In retrospect, I wish I'd painted the horizontal line of the cross a bit lower, but I'm not going back now - maybe in another thirty years or so.
So there he is, one of the figures that started it all. The hobby equivalent of Kiss' "Destroyer" in my music collection.

My next project is at the opposite end of the hobbying spectrum, as I help Sheila finish a large 'vampire church' diorama she's been working on for months. It is a complicated set piece many months in the making, but I'm not worried about my ability to contribute. I've learned a few things about hobbying since 1980.

CD Odyssey Disc 333: K.D. Lang

As I sit down to write this review, I realize that with only two days left in October I haven't even broken double digits in music reviews. This is usually because my writing mind is otherwise occupied, in this case with a recent chapter addition to my book.

So what I'm saying is, I'm getting my creative fix, even if you aren't getting yours. Besides, as Earle Birney writes in his poem, David, "Do you want to climb this mountain or just get to the top?"

Here's the next disc, from a Canadian treasure, Ms. K.D. Lang.

Disc 333 is...Ingenue

Artist: K.D. Lang

Year of Release: 1992

What’s Up With The Cover?: The usual 'big head' shot that artists tend to go for from time to time. This cover's simplicity matches well to the music within, tasteful, refined and classy, with a hint of melancholy.

How I Came To Know It: This is one of Sheila's discs. I had heard the hits off this record when it came out, but never the whole record until she introduced me to it.

How It Stacks Up: We have two K.D. Lang albums: this one and the more traditional country and western album, "Absolute Torch and Twang." Of the two, "Ingenue" is by far the superior record.

Rating: 4 stars.

Anyone who watched the Vancouver 2010 Olympics would have been recently reminded of what a great Canadian treasure we have in K.D. Lang. She was easily the best thing about the opening ceremonies, belting out Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in a way that brought tears to your eyes. At the time I wasn't sure if they were tears of national pride or basic human longing, I just knew I enjoyed the cry. After enduring many years of this song being butchered by a hundred different pop star wannabes, it was refreshing to rehabilitate it and show just what can be done in the hands of a true master.

Yes, the woman does have a couple of obvious negatives. First, like E.E. Cummings, she doesn't seem to know how to use capital letters properly (hint: your name is a proper noun, Ms. Lang). Not to worry, though, gentle readers, this blog entry has made the necessary corrections. Second, if her appearance at the Olympics is any guide, she sometimes forgets to wear shoes, which could be dangerous during an Alberta winter.

That's where the weaknesses end. Lang has one of the great voices of our time. It is full and pure and rangy, the kind of voice I imagine hearing early in the morning across some lake out in the country's hinterlands. Canada's a big place, and Lang's voice is big enough to fill it up with room to spare.

This was evident on her earlier country albums, but in 1992 "Ingenue" took her in a new direction. She went from classic country songs to a more crooner style which really let her show off her pipes. The songs would challenge most singers, but Lang not only hits every note, she does it effortlessly.

The sparse arrangements made me think of fellow Canadian Holy Cole's 1993 masterpiece "Don't Smoke In Bed" and it wouldn't at all surprise me if Ms. Cole was listening a lot to "Ingenue" during the making of that record. (Note: this is entirely supposition on my part, but you gotta admit, it makes sense if you've heard both records).

There are no misses on the record (although there is a Miss, of course, in the person of "Miss Chatelaine." The hits (the aforementioned "Miss Chatelaine" and "Constant Craving") are both excellent, but we've all heard about them before. Two other songs jumped out at me on this listen that I wasn't expecting.

The first was "Still Thrives This Love", with its slow marimba beat and Dean Martin delivery, except when she swells into vocal territories that Dean couldn't follow. This is a subtly powerful song, and like the record itself, sneaks up on you with its strength and emotionally powerful undercurrents.

I also enjoyed "Season of Hollow Soul" which has the same haunting quality that later Leonard Cohen songs manage, and although the lyrics aren't at that level, they are pretty good. Besides, Lang could sing a Macdonald's menu and make it sound good. "Season of Hollow Soul" also shows the good production decisions made on this record, with a slow almost overly quiet start, swelling up into Lang at full voice and then a bridge of violin instrumental before her voice launches back in, powerful like the sea and just as full of fluid range.

This album is one that of those rare albums that langorously puts you under a spell as you listen. It affects your mood for the better, and listening to it while I painted this afternoon actually made me feel so content that now I'm a little sleepy and ready for a nap. I almost gave it five stars, but to keep my hard marker reputation, I'll stick with four.

Best tracks: Miss Chatelaine, So It Shall Be, Still Thrives This Love, Season of Hollow Soul, Constant Craving

CD Odyssey Disc 332: Steve Earle

This past weekend, Sheila and I spent a quiet and very fulfilling Saturday together, just hanging out playing games and listening to music.

Usually we pick four CDs and put them into the carousel on random. It is very old school. This weekend she suggested we alternate putting on full albums that each of us considered "5 star albums". Having this blog saved me a lot of time picking my half. Here's what we came up with through the evening (coded L and S for your convenience, since we don't necessarily agree on each other's vision of what constitutes a five star album):

1. OK Computer - Radiohead (S)
2. Symphony No. 5 - Beethoven (L)
3. Graceland - Paul Simon (S)
4. Vol IV - Black Sabbath (L)
5. Synchronicity - The Police (S)
6. Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen (L)
7. The Forgotten Arm - Aimee Mann (S)
8. From The Inside - Alice Cooper (L)
9. August And Everything After - Counting Crows (S)
10. Some Enchanted Evening - Blue Oyster Cult (L)

The ones with links I've previously reviewed. To hear more about the other ones you'll just have to keep reading my blog (in the industry, we call that a 'teaser', I'm told). Now, enough of spoilers and teasers; on to today's review!

Disc 332 is...The Mountain

Artist: Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band

Year of Release: 1998

What’s Up With The Cover?: More cover art from a guy named Tony Fitzpatrick, who Earle has been using for his covers since around this time. I really don't take to this guy's art, but Steve Earle obviously does, because here it is again. Sheila pointed out that there are scantily clad ladies, but even that doesn't redeem this stuff, which just isn't my cup of tea.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a Steve Earle fan for as long as he's been making records, but this one came to me comparatively late. I'd like to come up with an elaborate lie as to why, but the truth is I somehow just missed it on release. I only discovered it about five or six years ago.

How It Stacks Up: There is no such thing as a bad Steve Earle album, but that perforce must mean that competition is stiff. This one is one of his lesser albums, so I'll put it in at about 12th or 13th out of his 15 studio albums.

Rating: 3 stars.

As I noted above, I came to this album late, and when I'm just casually in the mood for some Steve Earle (which is often) I don't often pick this one. Consequently, it has had comparatively fewer listens, and it was nice to spend a few days with it, during which I got in three complete listens (subject to the sidebar rules, of course).

This record is a collaborative effort between Earle and the Del McCoury band, who I had never heard of prior to this record, but are a big thing in bluegrass circles. They've been around since the late sixties, and are currently on their second iteration with the addition of Del's sons to the fold. Steve Earle is a lover of all American roots music, and was keen to do an album of more traditional bluegrass music, and so this project came about.

I'm not a huge bluegrass fan, but I admire the music overall, and it features some of the finest banjo and American fiddle playing you'll hear. "The Mountain" does not disappoint on either instrument, as the Del McCoury band can really lay down a lick worth hearing in any holler.

On Earle's last trip through my neck of the woods (the songs make you think in phrases like this), he played a couple songs off of the record that I hadn't heard live before, and I enjoyed them both. When I gave this the "official" listen this week, these two songs naturally stood out for me, hearing them again as I was with fresh ears.

The first is "Dixieland", the tale of an Irish immigrant who comes to the United States and ends up enlisting in the Union Army under General Joshua Chamberlain and fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. As ever, Earle is the master of this kind of tale, as he tells one of the most famous stories in American history through the unique viewpoint of a newcomer to the country. Nothing sums this perspective up so well as the final verse:

"I am Kilran of the 20th Maine and I damn all gentlemen
Who's only worth is their father's name and the sweat of a workin' man
Well we come from the farms and the city streets and a hundred foreign lands
And we spilled our blood in the battle's heat. Now we're all Americans."

For a sense of the recruitment that went on of immigrants to the US during the Civil War, give a watch to Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" as the story forms a big part of the backdrop of that excellent film. (The book is good too, if you have the time, although it is less about Civil War recruitment and more about the nefarious activities of the gangs).

The other song that stands out is the title track, "The Mountain," another folk song about a mountain man (perhaps in Kentucky, although it is never stated) who has watched developers come to his home and strip-mine coal and log all the lumber. Now the company is gone along with all the resources, and there is nothing left for him. Despite, this he will not move away from his home. It is a song sung with deep and evocative emotion, sad without asking any pity, and defiant without ever seeming martial.

While the album has a number of high points, it also has some elements that keep it from achieving its full potential.

Firstly, it does the whole 'studio out-take' thing that I've declared a personal war on in other reviews. In Earle's case I don't think he is trying to be emotionally detached or post-modern as is often the case. I believe he is trying to catch the rustic quality of the music. I still don't care for it, and personally believe if those early artists could remove such 'rustic' stuff from their recordings they would have.

Among the silliness, we get Earle opening the record with a half-sung bit of the Mickey Mouse club song, followed by exhorting someone to put on their hat to 'be in the club'. The song that follows, "Texas Eagle" is a good one, but the intro takes me right out of the moment.

In other places, the album feels a bit derivative of Bob Dylan. Obviously, Earle is heavily influenced by Dylan throughout his career, but songs like "Leroy's Dustbowl Blues" had me checking the liner notes to see who wrote them. That he is appealing to an early Dylan sound is fine, but I wanted a great artist like Earle to do a little more with it when he does. When he sings "Your Forever Blue" he sounds like he's affecting a nasally accent. I'm not sure if it is a Dylan thing, but I didn't like it, and wish he'd just belt it out with his naturally strong southern twang.

These are minor quibbles, but they were sufficient for me to keep this from reaching 4 stars. I admire that Earle did this project, which is a fitting tribute to a style of music that he clearly loves. He is one of my favourite artists of all time, and he seems incapable of doing a bad job, so despite it not being his best record, it is still worth an occasional listen.

Best tracks: Carrie Brown, Harlan Man, The Mountain, Dixieland, Pilgrim

CD Odyssey Disc 331: Counting Crows

Some albums, like my last review for Capercaillie, mark important points in my musical development. Others, like this one, have a lesser impact, but still serve to remind me to take each artist on their own merits, without preconceived notions of what I'm going to think.

Disc 331 is...Hard Candy

Artist: Counting Crows

Year of Release: 2002

What’s Up With The Cover?: This cover is not only designed to look like an old style metal candy box, it also contains special clues about the band for the discerning viewer. For example, it indicates the 'candy' was "Est. 1991", which was the year the band was formed, and it indicates '13 Fresh New Flavors', a nod to the fact that the CD has 13 tracks (although actually there is a 'hidden track' that makes for 14, but more on that later). Learning through cover art!

How I Came To Know It: When I first met Sheila, she was a fan of the Counting Crows first two albums. When this one came out, I think I bought it for her as a gift, although she's never really taken to it like the first two.

How It Stacks Up: This is a tough one, partly because I like and dislike all three of our "Counting Crows" albums about the same, each for very different reasons.

I like the overall sound of "Hard Candy" for its consistency, but the high points of "August and Everything After" are higher, and their single best song is on "Recovering the Satellites". I'm going to go with a three way tie, since I don't know any of the records well enough to say with confidence. When I review the last one, I will rank them - scout's honour.

Rating: 3 stars.

Counting Crows were a pretty big deal in the nineties, with big hits like "Mr. Jones" and modest hits like "A Long December", but by 2002 when "Hard Candy" came out, the fickle world of pop and mainstream radio had moved on in search of The Next Big Thing.

This made the album a perfect entry point for me, as I had dismissed this band's first two records in the face of critical acclaim and fan support. If I was to be perfectly honest, I probably dismissed them specifically because of these two things; I'm contrary that way. Also I really hate that song "Mr. Jones." It is truly annoying, but I'll save the bulk of my ire over it for when I review "August and Everything After."

As an album under the radar, "Hard Candy" was a way I could give the Counting Crows a listen without risking a loss of honour over any of my hastily stated opinions about the band in prior years. Petty, yes, but at least I'm admitting it now.

The first thing that stands out about this record is that it is a bit more upbeat musically. The songs still cover the usual maudlin range of Counting Crows work, but the songs are less like dirges. There are even songs like "American Girls" where the chorus is positively cheery:

"American girls, all weather and noise
Playing the changes for all of the boys
Holding a candle up to my hand
Making me feel so incredible."

Just don't pay too much attention to the verses (yes, it is carefully hidden dirge after all). The fact that the band is willing to infuse a sad song with a bit of pop enthusiasm helps the overall feel of the record by creating peaks and valleys of listening that I found absent on the other albums (I think - I don't know them that well).

Because let's face it, the Counting Crows like to sing about unhappy things, but somehow "Hard Candy" is an album that finds the right balance musically. Halfway through the album when Adam Duritz opens the song "Miami" with "I guess I think I feel alright" it feels positively uplifting - qualifiers and all - and the song soars near the end as if to tell the listeners, "hey, it's a new decade - you don't have to be depressed any more." If nothing else the song is about one of my favourite cities - go Dolphins!

You do get a fair helping of the band's usual slow wrist-slitters like "Carriage" and "Black and Blue" they are a bit easier to handle because they don't overpopulate the record.

The band expirements with new sound on the record as well, with a few stumbles, but mostly to good effect. An example of the good is "New Frontier" where they work some groovy synthesizer sound into their more traditional college rock arrangements. Some long time fans might not have liked this, but as someone seeing them with fresh eyes, I found "New Frontier" refreshing. Emotionally, it was like crossing the depressing "Fox in the Snow" by Belle and Sebastian with the synth-happy "Fox on the Run" by Sweet - only without any foxes. Too many obscure references? Then let me sum up, it's a fun song that avoids being totally vacuous.

The band is helped, as ever, by the fact that Adam Duritz is one of the most unique and recognizeable voices in popular music, and that the man has an innate talent to knock off a catchy pop melody. That he chooses to infuse those melodies with introspective, often painful lyrics, shows that he's trying to do something in a genre more often known for artists mailing it in.

On the flip side, Duritz can occasionally sound like he is forcing too much emotion into song structures and in so doing makes the music a bit overwrought. He also suffers from the occasional bought of awkward phrasing as he tries hard to sound different (You already sound different, Adam - you can stop trying).

Most disappointing on "Hard Candy" is the decision to include a hidden song in that CD style where you leave a bunch of dead air between the end of the last listed song, and the hidden song, recorded on the same track.

This is too bad, because the last listed song, "Holiday in Spain" is one of my favourite songs on the album, with just Duritz singing and playing piano as he sings a slow, wistful tune about getting away, physically and emotionally. My favourite line is:

"Oh well, happy new years, baby!
We could probably fix it if we clean it up all day
Or we could simply pack our bags
And catch a plane to Barcelona 'cause this city's a drag."

Then, after a minute of silence, we get the song restarting as a remake of the Joni Mitchell classic, "Yellow Taxi." Don't get me wrong, I love "Yellow Taxi." While this remake is delivered well enough, the Counting Crows don't add a lot to it. More importantly, by permanently coupling it to the end of "Holiday in Spain" they make me sit through 8:45 for two four minute songs, that I may not always want to hear together (try seldom).

"Hard Candy" is not a great record, but it is a good one, and most of all it does not mail it in like so many bands desperate to recapture earlier success. It is an album by a band determined to expand their musical boundaries even at the risk of losing some of their audience (which, sadly, they did). We don't blame the Beatles or U2 when they did this, and we shouldn't blame Counting Crows either.

Best tracks: American Girls, Miami, New Frontier, Holiday In Spain

CD Odyssey Disc 330: Capercaillie

Warning rock and roll purists, the next review is a folk music review. On the plus side, this band is worth your time and then some.

Disc 330 is...Crosswinds

Artist: Capercaillie

Year of Release: 1987

What’s Up With The Cover?: This is how I like my folk album covers: simple and idyllic. Here we have an old school fishing harbour, likely in some Scottish firth. I have a soft spot for the Age of Sail, and while I prefer big ships-of-the-line in full sail against rough seas, I'll settle for a quiet fishing village, as long as there are some masts in it.

How I Came To Know It: As I've noted a few times on the Odyssey, in the late eighties and early nineties, I was very into Celtic folk music. Early on I didn't have many guideposts on how to discover new artists; they aren't played on the radio (or at least any station I was familiar with) and I knew next to no one who shared my passion. I found myself in A&B sound one day looking in the Scottish portion of the "world" section.

Not knowing what I was doing, I picked a band that had a lot of songs with Gaelic titles, and seemed to be prominent on the shelves. It turned out to be Capercaillie's "Crosswinds". My choice would result in a twenty year love affair with the band that continues to this day. That said, I do not recommend finding artists this way - you'd have better luck winning at roulette in Vegas.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Capercaillie albums. "Crosswinds" I've had the longest, and still holds up well under stiff competition. I'd say it is between 3rd and 5th, depending on what part of the band's career I'm most into at any given moment (they change styles a fair bit along the journey).

Rating: 4 stars and almost 5. That's right - 4 stars for an album that is potentially as low as 5th best in the collection. You read that right, jerky.

We writers tend to wax poetic on topics, often overstating an argument just for the pure wordsmithery of the experience. So when I say that Capercaillie is my favourite Celtic folk band of all time, let me assure you that this is not one of those times.

Capercaillie is the best Celtic folk band I have ever heard. The fact that I found them basically by accident because of little more than an aesthetically pleasing cover and their propensity for using Gaelic in their song titles sorely tests my firmly held believe in a random universe.

At the time I wanted as 'authentic' a Celtic folk experience as I could get. Like lovers of heavy metal need to hear ever-heavier music, or lovers of jazz must have increasingly complex song constructions, lovers of folk look for increasingly 'real' folk experiences, characterized by artists that can cleave as close as possible to an art form hundreds of years old and still come off sounding fresh.

That is "Crosswinds" summarized. It is Capercaillie's second album released (I regret to admit I do not yet have their first, but it is on my list), and their sound is still solidly traditional in every sense. However, this band is living proof that traditional doesn't have to be boring. When it is delivered with the skill and emotional resonance as these guys are capable of, it makes you sit up and take notice.

That is not to say it is for everyone. If you don't like folk music, you certainly won't like this, where the hooks to pop sensibilities are few and far between. It also isn't for casual listening while someone talks over it; the fiddle reels will just sound annoying and shrill if you don't open your heart to them.

If you do open your heart to them, you will catch some beautiful melodies that rival or surpass anything in mainstream music. You will also be priviliged to hear the unsurpassed talent of Mr. Charlie McKerron on fiddle.

Granted, there are stylistic differences between different fiddles; fiddlers from Ireland, Cape Breton and the United States all have their own sounds that make them hard to compare. However, if you twist my rubber arm, I will tell you that Charlie McKerron is not only the finest player of the Scottish fiddle, he is the finest of them all.

The fiddle playing on "Crosswinds" taught me to appreciate the instrument in a way I had never done before. McKerron has the ability to play the same lines of a reel, note for note three or four times in succession, and yet somehow these notes will strike the ear each time in a way that makes you feel the song is progressing higher and higher. Listening is like watching a bird circling ever higher in the sky, cutting its flight with a song that lifts you on its wings and elevates your entire soul.

"Crosswinds" is replete with examples, including "The Haggis" where he comes in as accompaniment to the excellent recorder playing of Marc Duff, or where he takes matters fully into his own hands from the beginning on "Brenda Stubbert's Set" and "David Glen's" (fiddle reels tend to be named after someone). His playing can be soulful and low, or it can be frenetic, but he never misses, always taking you forward through the progressions seamlessly, right on each beat, and yet simultaneously slipping your mind ahead to the next without ever slipping. He does this even in the must furiously fast portions of a song. It is hard to describe, but very easy to listen to.

As if Charlie and Marc aren't enough, Capercaillie also boasts one of the greatest folk vocalists of our time; Karen Matheson. I would argue she is the best, with tones that rival an opera singer in their purity and power, without ever losing the human tones around the edge of each note so important for the human connection in folk music.

You may know her as the woman who sings the mournful dirge in the campfire scene in Rob Roy, but "Crosswinds" was my first encounter with her. In later albums, she sings songs in both Gaelic and English, but in this early effort all the singing is in Gaelic. The preservation of Gaelic has long been a passion of the band, in fact.

The first song on the record is a traditional Scottish "puirt a beul" which means roughly 'mouth music' where the words are secondary to the lilting quality of the vocals. In fact, in some places 'puirt a beul' can mean the words are actually just nonesense words, like scatting in jazz singing. The song is "Puirt A Beul/Snug In a Blanket". I have no idea what it is about (maybe nothing) but it makes me feel snug in a blanket on a winter's day.

Later on the record Matheson will sing songs that definitely tell a story, including the beautiful and haunting "Am Buachaille Ban." Not speaking Gaelic, until tonight I didn't know what it is about, but the song is so beautiful I can never help but be overwhelmed by the emotion of it when I hear it. More often than not, such songs are about some type of lost love. Through the power of google you can actually read an English translation right here. Sure enough - lost love, and a depressing one at that.

Equally beautiful is the equally incomprehensible (to me) "Urnaigh A'Bhan-Thigreach", another song that is translated here at my new favourite site, http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/. This time the song is about a woman praying to God for rain to end a drought before it claims her child. Not exactly uplifting stuff. Even without having the translation, Matheson's voice lets you know that something terrible is happening. She draws you into understanding with just her emotional delivery.

It is ironic that I discovered Capercaillie through a desire to have a very pure folk experience, and later they would become my principal gateway into other branches of folk music. In later records they would incorporate the sounds and arrangements of other cultures, as well as more modern pop musical structures, each time seamlessly blending them into the traditional sounds I first fell in love with on "Crosswinds". But those evolutions in their music I'll talk about when I review later albums.

Suffice it to say that in searching for a real Celtic experience I not only found its pinnacle, I also found a guide that would lead me into other aspects of this rich and under-appreciated genre of music for years to come.

Best tracks: Puirt A Beul/Snug In a Blanket, Am Buchaille Ban, The Haggis, Brenda Stubbert's Set, Urnaigh A'Bhan-Thigreach, My Laggan Love/Fox On The Town

CD Odyssey Disc 329: Audioslave

On Friday this week, I worked out at the gym, and then I spent the next two days helping two different friends move.

As a general rule, I always help people move. It just seems the right thing to do, and as a positive side effect, I've never wanted for cheap labour when my turn comes around. That said, today I am a bit sore from all the physical exertion. This condition does not lend itself to listening to hard rock. In fact, once I had a couple listens in on this next album I switched to some 'non-Odyssey' listening in the car, and got in a few rounds of the Cowboy Junkies 1992 album, "Black Eyed Man".

But that is not today's review, since until we get into a little hard rock, there will be no advancement in this crazy quest I've put myself on. So without further ado...

Disc 329 is...Out of Exile

Artist: Audioslave

Year of Release: 2005

What’s Up With The Cover?: Not much. Audioslave has three albums, and all of the covers look like someone putting the band name on top of a bitmap from some generic Microsoft wallpaper. That said, as generic wallpaper goes, "Waves" is nice enough.

Besides, back when I reviewed their third album "Revelations", I couldn't even find a photo of the record to post. I've since taken to just photographing my CD cover and posting that - it is actually easier than seeking the CD cover art, and yet another argument for buying - not stealing - your music.

How I Came To Know It: I was introduced to Audisolave by my friend Chris D. "Out of Exile" was their second album, and I bought it when it came out a few years back.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Audioslave albums, which is all they made before splitting up. While considerably better than their final record, "Revelations", I am going to put "Out of Exile" a close second behind their self-titled debut. It is a photo finish though, albeit between a couple of slower horses.

Rating: 3 stars.

It has been over two years since I last reviewed an Audioslave record - all the way back to Disc 25, in fact. At that time I gave "Revelations" a lukewarm reception, and admitted that while not everyone likes "Audioslave", I do.

Since that time, my opinion on Audioslave has diminished a bit, but I still like them. When I first heard them, I thought they were the perfect rock amalgam: Rage Against the Machine's angry metal/funk sound driven by Tom Morello's guitar, and ex-Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell's soaring rock vocals.

All of these positives are clearly present on "Out of Exile." In fact, Morello is in fine form, able to shift between powerful riffs on songs like "Your Time Has Come", to quiet background grooves on "Doesn't Remind Me" to amazing 'look what I can do on the guitar' moments on songs like "Out of Exile". Often he pulls all three together seamlessly in a single song.

Cornell has a powerful rock voice and it is on full display throughout the record. Unfortunately, my musician friend Kelly recently pointed out that he tends to use the same vocal tricks on every song. Since I'm not a musician I can't explain what it is, but I can't help but hear the similarity of his approach to everything he does now that it has been pointed out.

While this may move Audioslave from a pleasure to a guilty pleasure, I can't deny I still like what I hear. Besides, apart from Morello's alien wizardry on the guitar, "Out of Exile" is essentially a straightforward hard rock record. Good for driving fast, and playing loud. It isn't particularly innovative, but what it does it does very well.

My favourite song on the record was (sadly) also a radio hit; "Doesn't Remind Me". This is a sorrowful song about a man trying to forget either a dead love or a loss of faith (or maybe both) by immersing himself in the immediacy of the things around him. The verses are delivered relatively quietly, with drums high in the mix and Cornell listing a variety of things that capture his own emotional detachment:

"I like gypsy moths and radio talk
'Cause it doesn't remind me of anything
I like gospel music and canned applause
'Cause it doesn't remind me of anything"

Then when the chorus hits, the song increases tempo and pounds with a fury as Cornell's lyrics admit that this effort to idly forget the past is ultimately unsuccessful:

"The things that I've loves the things that I lost
Things I held sacred that I've dropped
I won't lie no more you can bet
I don't want to learn what I'll need to forget."

While I don't subscribe to this kind of defeatism as a general approach to life, I think the song does a good job (musically and lyrically) of capturing those times in our lives when we feel this way. It shows that even if you work very hard to find emotional detachment and numbness at hard times, spots of rage will still show through until you properly work through what's going on in your head.

As with "Revelations" I found the first half of "Out of Exile" a lot better than the second (in the old days we called this "Side One"). The main exception being the exceptionally silly and schmaltzy, "Be Yourself" at track three, which is exactly as Walt Disney/After School Special in its message as the title suggests.

Of the last six tracks only "The Worm" really appeals, and even this song is basically just me falling for a killer funky riff from Morello's guitar to the point that I'm willing to overlook the song's faults. It makes me want to take all three of Audioslave's records and make a 'greatest hits' album for myself. I'll do that - but only after I have reviewed their final album, some time in the dim and distant future.

While "Out of Exile" didn't really teach me anything, nor did it overwhelm me musically, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It is a solid rock record meant for summer driving with the top down of your convertible. If you don't have a convertible, I heartily recommend it, although obviously the CD is the less expensive purchase.

Best tracks: Your Time Has Come, Out of Exile, Doesn't Remind Me, The Worm

CD Odyssey Disc 328: Sting

And so we come to the final Sting album in the CD Odyssey. If more appear later, it is because Sheila bought them.

Disc 328 is...The Dream Of The Blue Turtles

Artist: Sting

Year of Release: 1985

What’s Up With The Cover?: Your classic 'head and shoulders shot' as they say in the biz. Sting's expression is supposed to be calm and arty, but he looks a little hurt. He's probably still mad at Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila was into Sting before we met, and she had this and two other Sting albums.

How It Stacks Up: We have three Sting albums, and I like one of them, but this isn't it. Of the three, I'd put this one second best, not nearly as good as "Ten Summoners Tales" but a pinch above "Nothing Like The Sun". As is traditional in the CD Odyssey, when I review the last of an artist with at least three albums, I give a quick recap and final ranking - so here they are in order of precedence:

1. Ten Summoners Tales: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 243)
2. The Dream of the Blue Turtles: 2 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Nothing Like The Sun: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 125)

Rating: 2 stars

"Dream of the Blue Turtles" is Sting's first solo album after the Police broke up. I've come to really love the Police and I'm looking forward to reviewing one of the many albums of theirs that we have. Until that time I will have to work through Sting.

I'll start with the positives, lest you think that I've got a hate on for Sting, when it is really no more than a mild dislike. "Dream of the Blue Turtles" has some fine tracks. The record starts strong, with the hit single "If You Love Someone Set Them Free." This is a very pop radio kind of song, but it would be wrong to hold that against it - it is from a pop record, after all.

It is catchy and energetic, and while the topic may be a bit overworked, Sting has written respectably lyrics, and delivers them with emotional honesty. I don't love this song, but I like it a lot more now than when I first heard it in 1985. Back then I hated it automatically for violating my narrow world focus as a Heavy Metal Meathead.

This song is followed up by "Love Is The Seventh Wave", which is a little too cutesy with the steel drums and not-so-clever fade out references to the Police song "Every Breath You Take". Despite this it is passable as a pop song. Both these first two songs (and most that will follow) overdo the 'jazz odyssey' quality, with gratuitous saxophone etc, but I won't get too much into this since I covered it at length in my review for "Nothing Like The Sun." Besides, it is not nearly as bad on "Dream of the Blue Turtles" - at least for the most part (more on that later).

The songs that I very much enjoyed have toned down these gimmicks. In particular, "Fortress Around Your Heart" is a beautifully written and performed song, from the lyrics, to the musicianship to a catchy but respectful hook in the chorus. It is a song about failed relationships and regret and of all the songs on the album, it is Sting at his most honest with himself.

Sting's ego is immense, and as a result he can come off as preachy in songs like "We Work The Black Seam" where he expresses his strongly held environmental and political views, or in "Children's Crusade," a song where he thinks he is being clever linking imagery of the Children's Crusade with World War One and heroin addiction. Instead it comes off more like a combination of a children's song and a poem written by some pale and wan kid for a Grade nine poetry assignment.

At other times, this same activism comes out much more 'seamlessly' (get it? get it?). On this note, I enjoyed "Russians", a song about the Cold War that would have had a great deal of resonance in 1985 when it was released. Sting takes no sides, calling out both Russian and American leadership as he appeals to a basic idea that he hopes 'the Russians love their children too.' I found this approach much more emotionally impactful than a similar song on the Police's Synchronicity, "Murder By Numbers" which strikes a more accusatory tone.

As a guilty pleasure, I enjoyed "Moon Over Bourbon Street," a song that must be inspired by Anne Rice's book "Interview With The Vampire". It isn't a great song musically, but the lyrics are strong and they do a good job of capturing the tone of the novel. I'm not a big fan of Rice, but those who know me know that I tend to give bonus points for songs (or movies, or stories) featuring vampires. So bonus points to you, Sting.

This album was a mixed bag hovering somewhere between two and three stars throughout, but it eventually found itself pushed down to two. His decision to include studio production sounds (someone shouting 'what key is this in?" before "Shadows In The Rain") are only made worse by the jazzercise odyssey that immediately followed (calling it a jazz odyssey would be to insult jazz).

But not even that could compare with the cruel trick that is the title track, "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles," which at a gruelling 1:15 playing length, is easily one and a half minutes too long. Suck all the considerable talent out of Thelonious Monk, and then have a computer randomly put what results together into a hodgepodge of sound, and you might approximate this abomination.

Halfway through, I strongly suspected it was Sting playing a joke on his listeners. But even the King of Pain couldn't be so cruel, could he? Then, my suspicions were confirmed, as the song ends in a torrent of giggling. He's not laughing with us, gentle readers, he is laughing at us.

Well, Sting, despite an album that shows considerable talent, I found your joke decidedly unfunny. Now I shall have the last laugh, since it is my blog, and punish you with a two star review. I bet that will make you cry yourself to sleep...in your huge mansion, curled up with your hot wife on a bed covered in money. Take that!

Best tracks: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Russians, Fortress Around Your Heart

Figurine: Ghost And Gravestones

I haven't posted a new figurine in over six weeks (this is what happens once football season starts), but yesterday being a holiday I was able to get some painting time in.

My last figure was a ghost knight, begging the question, "what happens when someone dies and they aren't a knight?" Well my friends, then you just get a ghost of the ordinary variety. Here he is:
For some reason, this figure was sold with three little gravestones as well. I presume that is what passes for 'value added' in undead commerce. Here's a closer look at just the ghost:
I tried to slowly lighten the colour at the edges of the figure to give it the illusion of being insubstantial, and fading into the surrounding mist.

Maybe this ghost would rest if someone would just put his skull back in his grave. Having it sit out naked like that is just embarassing.

Here he is from the back:
And of course, no scary ghost photo gallery would be complete without the obligatory "He's coming right at me!" pose.
Happy early Halloween!

CD Odyssey Disc 327: Pearl Jam

This next album made me think about burger toppings, kitchen counters and surfing, among other things.

Disc 327 is...Pearl Jam (Self-Titled)

Artist: Pearl Jam

Year of Release: 2006

What’s Up With The Cover?: Although this album is Pearl Jam's self-titled album it is often called "The Avocado Album". I like this cover, principally because the shade of blue I find very calming. I'm not such a fan of the avocado. I can't stand avocado, nor do I rock the guac. Sadly, like mushrooms, chefs seem to love avocado in various dishes (burgers, salads, pasta - you name it). On the plus side, it helps cut down my menu choices, which is just as well. But I digress...

How I Came To Know It: I am an avowed Pearl Jam fan, so I bought this album immediately upon its release. Sometimes there is no story beyond my compulsive need to complete the collection.

How It Stacks Up: I have ten Pearl Jam albums, which I believe is all of them. "The Avocado Album" is good, but far from my favourite. I'll say it is about 7th out of 10.

Rating: 3 stars.

I recently reviewed Rush's album "Vapor Trails", a later release which felt like a dividing line between the great Rush albums and the lesser ones. Pearl Jam's self-titled effort fills the same spot in my mind. The record is very good, bordering on excellent, and as I listen to it for a third time while I write this review, I still find myself wavering between three and four stars.

When this record came out, I recall it getting quite a bit of hype and (presumably) radio play. After albums like "Yield" and "Riot Act" which had a softer, more introspective edge, I think people enjoyed the band returning to a sound more akin to their early records. Like most great bands, Pearl Jam will always be frustrated by fans only interested in their first few great records, missing out on all of their musical growth that followed.

As for me, Pearl Jam has yet to take me somewhere musically that I didn't enjoy. I want my favourite musicians to try new things and not be afraid to lose some commercial appeal in the process.

So I was a little disappointed to see an effort to return to the old sound, but that could just be me being overly proprietary as a fan who 'never left them'. Besides, this record does still push boundaries in places, even if those places are not the songs that would eventually chart. And the songs that do chart ("Life Wasted", "World Wide Suicide" and "Gone") are all pretty good.

"Gone" is one of those songs that is quintessentially Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder's deep-throated vocals soaring over the groove, telling a story of deep yearning (in this case the yearning to get out of town). It makes me want to get in my car and just drive until I forget all my cares. Of course, since I live on an island that would eventually be dangerous.

Speaking of diving into the sea, "Big Wave" is a groovy, fast moving song that captures all of the joy that Eddie Vedder feels toward surfing. Many years ago when we had our kitchen countertops replaced the guy who did the work was a massive Pearl Jam fan, and he told me that Vedder credits the inner peace he achieved through surfing as key in helping him kick his heroine habit. Hearing him sing about the experience of catching a big wave makes me believe it. It also makes me want to try surfing.

Pearl Jam also show their love for early fifties doo-wop with the gorgeous deep cut, "Come Back." I often note doo-wop influences on acts that are slightly older (Blue Oyster Cult, ELO, Neil Young) but it is great for a comparatively younger act like Pearl Jam to demonstrate a strong sense of musical history. Their remake of "Last Kiss" is the most famous example of this, but for my money the experience is never better than "Come Back." As a sparse production keeps slow tempo to Vedder he sings to his lost love, ensuring her that although they are parting there will always be "an open door for you...to come back."

The song is less about the lyrics and more about Vedder's uncompromising delivery. Much as I like "Gone", if I had been the soulless record exec in charge of this album, "Come Back" would've been the third release.

Lyrically, these songs don't hold up without Vedder's voice, although I do like the existential sentiments in "Inside Job", in which Vedder sings "How I choose to feel...is how I am." So true, but so hard to convince people of.

This album has a good mix of tempo, and the songs are memorable. All in all, it comes within a hair of achieving four stars, but since I was tough on "Vapor Trails", I'm going to be equally tough here, and stick with three. Maybe I'm being a hard marker, or maybe it's just the avocado leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Best tracks: Life Wasted, Marker In The Sand, Big Wave, Gone, Come Back

CD Odyssey Disc 326: Queen

I wasn't sure I'd finish this next album, but as luck would have it, I had to take our newest kitten, Vizzini, to the vet to get neutered. That was lucky for the advancement of the CD Odyssey, but not so much for Vizzini.

Then again, he seems pretty happy right now, albeit a bit loopy coming off of the general anasethetic. We'll see if he hates me in the morning when it wears off.

For now, let's move on to the music review, and one of rock and rolls classic records of all time.

Disc 326 is...A Night At The Opera

Artist: Queen

Year of Release: 1975

What’s Up With The Cover?: As with "A Day At The Races", (the last Queen album to be reviewed, back at Disc 202) this cover features the Queen 'coat of arms', although the colours and art details in each of the covers differ. It is very cool, although I prefer the art on "A Day At The Races".

How I Came To Know It: This is the Queen album that everybody seems to know - at least by the title (many know it but still went and bought that damned greatest hits package). I grew up with "Night At The Opera", but I didn't buy it for myself until the mid-nineties when my interest in Queen was reinvigorated.

How It Stacks Up: Since my last Queen review back in November 2010, I finally found "Made In Heaven" on CD, bringing my total number of albums to fifteen. I am enjoying "Made In Heaven" but it didn't bump "A Night At The Opera" out of its prestigious position. I think it is the second best Queen album ever made, just short of my sentimental and personal favourite, "News of the World" (reviewed back at Disc 198).

Rating: 5 stars.

Every great band has an album that defines its status to the casual fan. This is not to say that album is a bad one simply because lots of people like it. In fact, the majority of the time it is the album everybody knows for good reason and while a few casual fans can often have some pretty poor taste in music, thousands of fans over several decades tend to get it right.

Although "A Night At The Opera" is only my second favourite album, it is easy to see why it is considered Queen's finest by the masses and music snobs alike. As ever, all members of Queen are at their best. We have some of Freddie's finest vocal performances ("Love Of My Life", "You're My Best Friend"), Brian May at his most amazing rock guitar ("Sweet Lady", "God Save The Queen"). Although particular songs don't jump out at me John Deacon and Roger Taylor are also at their best keeping the rhythm section going strong.

In the case of Taylor, "A Night At the Opera" has one of his signature vocal tracks, "I'm In Love With My Car." I must confess that on more than one occasion I have been in love with my car, and this song sums up that sad experience very well. Because of Freddie Mercury's gift, Taylor's vocals often go unnoticed by the general public, but amongst true Queen fans he gets much well-deserved love.

Of course this album also features That Song Everyone Knows, but let's not spoil this review by going on about a track that has been hashed and rehashed for decades.

Instead, I'd like to focus on some of the deeper cuts on this album that have always appealed to me, most notably "'39." Written and sung by Brian May, "'39" is one of my all time favourite Queen songs - probably top five. It is a science fiction story about space travel. May has long been a student of astrophysics, and obtained his Ph.D in 2007 (the whole 'I'm in a band' thing no doubt delaying him a few years).

"'39"'s underpinning is the general theory is that if you can't build a 'faster than light' or 'ftl' drive, you can't travel very far from the earth because you would die of old age before you got anywhere. Except physicists (like our friend Mr. May) suggest that an effect known as 'time dilation' can allow a spaceship to slowly accelerate to the point where you can travel incredible distances in as little as a year (it is complicated - but for the Coles Notes version, go here).

The problem is that during the journey, thousands of years could pass, relative to the 'time' that you left home port. By the time you returned, you might have aged a few years, but hundreds or even thousands of years of relative history would have passed.

By now you should be asking, 'how the hell can this make an interesting rock song?' Easily, if you forget about explaining all that science, and trust your audience. May focuses on a single person on such a journey, leaving his wife and family to seek new lands for humanity to populate:

"In the year of '39 assembled here the Volunteers
In the days when lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight ever seen."

Later we learn that our volunteer 'ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried' despite the chorus revealing that he is well aware what will happen while he is away. Instead, he sends a longing song into the deep of the night sky back to his wife on earth, hoping she will feel his love over many light years:

"Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew."

Even knowing the terrible price cannot prepare our protagonist emotionally for his return:

"For the earth is old and gray, to a new home we'll away
But my love this cannot be
For so many years have gone though I'm older but a year
Your mother's eyes in your eyes cry to me.
...
"All the letters in the sand cannot heal me like your hand
For my life
Still ahead
Pity me."

The man has saved humanity by finding a new world, but it is a world he can never enjoy, with all the people he cared for turned to dust. For another great tale of time dilation, try Dan Simmon's excellent short story, "Remembering Siri" which covers the same themes.

OK, I got all teared up there on one song (and may I add, not That Song Everyone Knows). I'll quickly mention this album also includes one of the greatest accusation songs ("Death On Two Legs"), one of the greatest unrequited love songs ("Love Of My Life"), and one of the greatest fully requited love songs ("You're My Best Friend"). Whatever you're feeling - anger, love, heartbreak, or just a strange compulsion to hug your TR-7 - this album has a song for you that is one of the best in the genre.

And yes, it has That Song Everyone Knows as well. One of the greatest songs ever written, blah blah blah. I could go on, but all there is to say is right here. If you haven't done this yourself, then despite all odds to the contrary, you haven't heard That Song Everyone Knows enough. Go put it on again, hopefully with the rest of "A Night At The Opera."

And on that note, I'm off to roll my next CD. Where will it take me? "Anyway the wind blows..."

Best tracks: all tracks, but my favourites are Death On Two Legs, I'm In Love With My Car, You're My Best Friend, '39, Sweet Lady, Love Of My Life, and That Song Everyone Knows

CD Odyssey Disc 325: Rush

Another day, another Rush record. These guys have made a few over the last forty years or so, although this is one that almost never came to pass.

Disc 325 is...Vapor Trails

Artist: Rush

Year of Release: 2002

What’s Up With The Cover?: I have no idea. It might be a tail light - maybe of Neal Peart's motorcycle? That's a wild guess though, and other than that, I've got nothin'. I checked the liner notes, which helpfully advised me that the album was brought to us by the number '3', but provided no comment on the cover art. I give this cover a failing grade.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me drilling through the Rush catalogue. I believe I started actively finishing my Rush collection around the time this one came out in 2002.

How It Stacks Up: I have all 18 of Rush' studio albums. Vapor Trails is somewhere in the middle, but probably in the lower half. I'll say around 11th to 12th, depending on my mood at the time.

Rating: 3 stars.

"Vapor Trails" is a hard album to listen to without the context of how it was made. It is the first album since 1996's "Test For Echo", with the band taking a hiatus after the tragic death's of Neal Peart's daughter and wife in 1997 and 1998.

I'm not very big on biographical context, but knowing this, and knowing that Peart is the band's lyricist, makes it hard not to think about these tragic events when listening to the album. I think it definitely affects the writing, with a lot of the songs having an intensely personal feel.

The songs topics are often emotionally stark, with Peart wondering at what humanity has always wondered at - how can bad things happen to good people. In "Ghost Rider" he sings of riding his motorcycle over 55,000 miles, trying to come to terms with what has happened in his life. Later, in "The Stars Looked Down" he asks the universe a series of questions, where the only response is "and the stars looked down." There are no easy answers.

While I think the most poignant lines on the album comes from the title track, "swept away like voices in a hurricane", my favourite stanza on the topic is from "How It Is":

"It's such a cloudy day
Seems we'll never see the sun
Or feel the day has possibilities
Frozen in the moment -
the lack of imagination
Between how it is and how it ought to be."

The album avoids the mistake of becoming too maudlin, and other topics also abound, including political commentary ("Peaceable Kingdom") and the appreciation of natural beauty ("Earthshine"). Often these also have a close personal connection, Peart choosing to reflect topics back again on his own emotional journey.

Musically, "Vapor Trails" sees a return to the band's hard rock roots, with Alex Lifeson's guitar riffs getting a bit more volume in the mix. I like this; as a prog band, Rush's songs are complicated enough, and giving the guitar a bit more notice makes it easier for my untrained ear to follow along. I can trace outward from the familiar guitar into the outer reaches of the song.

The record's hard rock edge is very hard in places, such as on "Earthshine", and then very relaxed and melodic in other songs like "How It Is". I like both experiences, and the combination I like even more.

In terms of rating, I struggled with this one. "Vapor Trails" is very strong both in terms of the quality of music and lyrics, and as ever, Rush are masters of their craft. At the same time, despite the deeply emotional resonant content of the record, I was not often pulled in like I expected to be. It was close, but I ended up going with 3 stars. I expect that when I'm finished all eighteen albums, "Vapor Trails" will be the dividing line between the 3 and 4 star Rush records. That's how it is, and how it ought to be.

Best tracks: Ceiling Unlimited, Ghost Rider, How It Is, Vapor Trail, Earthshine