CD Odyssey Disc 375: Dire Straits

It's been cold around here lately, which has made me appreciate my new headphones that much more. They are the big, cushion kind as opposed to the earbuds. Not only is the sound a lot more natural sounding, they keep my ears warm.

Do they look a little silly? Maybe a little, but all the kids are doing it.

Disc 375 is...Communique

Artist: Dire Straits

Year of Release: 1979

What’s Up With The Cover?: This is one of those ultra-modern (for the time) pastel drawings that you'd find festooning the walls of early eighties bachelor pads. This one is by some guy named Geoff Halpin, and is designed to look like a beach inside the design of an envelope. Not my style, but passable for a Dire Straits album cover, given their other offerings.

How I Came To Know It: I've known Dire Straits a long time, but "Communique" came to me fairly late, while digging through their collection. In the mid-nineties Sheila had introduced me to "Making Movies" (reviewed back at Disc 245) and I was in awe of its greatness. "Communique" was just me drilling through their collection.

How It Stacks Up: We have all six Dire Straits studio albums. "Communique" is in the middle of the pack - I'll say 3rd or 4th best.

Rating: 3 stars, but almost 4.

Mark Knopfler is the finest rock guitarist of his generation. In fact the hardest part about trying to review Dire Straits' "Communique" is separating his guitar out from the rest of the record.

Lyrically, this album is not particularly memorable. The best offering on that front is "Portobello Belle" a song about a tough girl acting pretty, or a pretty girl acting tough - or a bit of both:

"She sees a man upon his back there
Escaping from a sack there
And bella donna lingers
Her gloves they got no fingers
Yeah, the blind man singing Irish
He get his money in a tin dish
Just a corner serenader
Upon a time he could have made her, made her
Yeah, she thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes and do a song about a long gone Irish girl
I got one for you, Portobello belle."

It is a song about a lost Irish girl that could be in turn of the century New York or modern London depending on the verse - because tough, but vulnerable girls have gotten lost in big cities many times over the decades. Mark Knopfler reminds us not to forget them.

Musically, this album has the usual big bluesy rock guitar that has made Mark Knopfler famous. In particular, "Lady Writer," and "Single Handed Sailor" are master classes in how to fill a room with the warm groove of an electric guitar. Although "Lady Writer" was the single that was released, I would've gone with "Single Handed Sailor." Knopfler sings:

"On a night when the lazy wind is wailing
Around the Cutty Sark
yeah the single handed sailor goes sailing
Sailing away in the dark."

And accompanying the words, his guitar paints a night sky in your mind and fills it with a lazy wind of sound. Knopfler's guitar speaks to the soul and gives his voice a resonance far beyond what it deserves.

On "Communique" Knopfler also expirements with his traditional sound. In songs like "Where Do You Think You're Going?" he adds in western guitar elements that would be equally at home in a Johnny Cash song ten years earlier. What makes Mark Knopfler my favourite guitar player is partly that he is always growing his style and incorporating new ideas. "Communique" steps away from the pure blues-rock of Dire Straits' debut album, and likely hurt them commercially in the process. However, without this bravery they would never have grown their sound out of being an excellent bar-jam blues band and into a sound all their own.

Which is not to say "Communique" is simply a stepping stone to other records. It is good on its own as well, if not the masterpiece that "Making Movies" would be a year later. However, "Making Movies" is without weakness. On "Communique" there are moments ("Lady Writer" and "News" come to mind) where it is Knopfler's genius on the guitar alone that is holding together the song, and that's too bad, because it keeps the album from being great.

This album is best when it is working on their new sound, which fortunately they have the bravery to do often. This is a good record that sneaks up on you in a good way. I wouldn't start my Dire Straits collection here, but I would go here pretty quickly after I had an ear for their later sound, because it is a joy to hear that sound being born.

Best tracks: Once Upon A Time In The West, Communique, Portobello Belle, Single Handed Sailor

CD Odyssey Disc 374: Great Big Sea

Just home after a long day at the office, I could not motivate to go to the gym, and instead have decided to get a blog entry in. I guess you could say I've sacrificed my arms for my art. Kind of like the Venus de Milo.

Disc 374 is...Up

Artist: Great Big Sea

Year of Release: 1995

What’s Up With The Cover?: A combination of close up photos of the band with generic art that looks like the stuff that comes with your Windows program. Not a good cover, but Great Big Sea covers are never great.

How I Came To Know It: This is the first Great Big Sea album I ever bought, having seen a couple videos on CMT that appealed (I can't remember which songs anymore). I liked it so much I ended up buying four more over years.

How It Stacks Up: If you applied your keen reading comprehension to the previous paragraph, you'll know I have five Great Big Sea albums. "Up" is my absolute favourite.

Rating: 5 stars

If you've ever been in a pub surrounded by Maritimers and Newfoundlanders, singing along to some folk band in full throat, then you know the incredible joy of the experience. "Up" is about as close as recorded music can get to that experience.

This is a fun record, full of sea shanties sung in such vigorous unison it is physical exertion not to sing along. When the penny whistle wails, if you don't want to whistle along then you should immediately see a doctor, because your song-bone is broken.

"Lukey," "Wave Over Wave" and "Rant & Roar" are sing-alongs extraordinaire. Only know the chorus? No problem - just chime in with the rest of the band. Or, if like me you've heard this record hundreds of times, then sing along to the whole song. Don't worry if you're out of tune. Like a vocal boat pilot, Alan Doyle's pure and easy voice'll guide you through any rough parts.

I love all the songs of the sea, but the best sing-a-long is "The Old Black Rum" which is both a celebration and a warning of the sweet siren of dark demarara rum. The chorus is one of the finest images for excessive drinking I've heard:

"The old black rum's got a hold of me
Like a dog wrapped 'round my leg."

Of course, on some songs, Great Big Sea simply must show off, furiously blasting off lyrics with the precision of a rap star on "Mari-Mac" and "Billy Peddle." "Mari-Mac"s chorus is:

"Mari-Mac's mother's makin' Mari-Mac marry me,
My mother's makin' me marry Mari-Mac
Well I'm gonna marry Mari for when Mari's takin' care of me
We'll all be feelin' merry when I marry Mari-Mac."

The song slowly increases tempo, and by the fourth chorus, that tongue twister is delivered in six and a half seconds, in perfectly timed unison. It's an impressive musical display, and what's more it is enjoyable to listen to, not just clever.

As with all of their records, Great Big Sea is more than just a good time, they always take time to cover important social issues. On this album, they address dangerous working conditions, ("The Chemical Worker's Song (Process Man)"), and the poverty on the streets of St. John's ("Nothing Out Of Nothing"). Both songs feature the driving beat of the bodhran, musically grounding their more serious subjects.

I had intended to give this album four stars, and as I listened, I cast about for reasons to knock it back down from five. Did it teach me anything? Well - it teaches me joy every time I hear it, so hard to deny it on that count. Musically, it is perfectly pitched, and the production values are exceptional (and a huge upgrade from their debut).

Finally, I thought I had it when I noted there were 15 songs - one more than my long-established maximum. I immediately set out to find the weakest link. What about the token remake of Slade's "Run Runaway"? Nope - that remake rivals the original. Maybe a schmaltzy love song that hits flat? Nope - "Fast As I Can" is a beautiful expression of a man not ready to say he loves a woman who is growing impatient, and "One More Day" and "Something To It" are poignant 'on the cusp of a break-up' songs.

Finally, I was reduced to looking at other four star albums I had sold short with four stars (e.g. Nick Cave's "The Boatman's Call") but all that did was make me all the more determined not to do that again.

And so I dub this record perfect Canadian folk. In the genre, it is a top 5, desert island type album, and unquestionably the first Great Big Sea album you should buy. Preferably soon.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 373: Elton John

I've had a crazy day at work, but that didn't stop me from setting five mundane non-work tasks to accomplish. My inspiration was from a song on the Streets' album, "A Grand Don't Come For Free" (reviewed back at Disc 87). That guy had to: 1) return a DVD 2) get some cash out of the ATM 3) call his Mom to cancel coming over for tea and 4) deposit some savings.

My five tasks were 1) pick up my Mom's ring at the jeweller's 2) buy a lottery ticket 3) pick up some T-shirts I ordered at the post office 4) go to the gym and workout and 5) do my blog entry.

I'm proud to say that I've accomplished the first four, and as you read this I'm working on the fifth. Huzzah!

Disc 373 is...Greatest Hits

Artist: Elton John

Year of Release: 1974

What’s Up With The Cover?: It is Elton John doing his usual "I'm goofy yet fabulous" look. I admire Elton for pushing the style envelope, but to me it has always seemed more goofy than fabulous.

How I Came To Know It: Everyone knows Elton John, but this disc belongs to Sheila, who has since been buying his classic early albums instead (more on that in a minute).

How It Stacks Up: 'best ofs' don't stack up, as long readers of A Creative Maelstrom will know. They have an unfair advantage.

Rating: 'best ofs' also don't get a rating. Yeah, they have songs, but 'best ofs' aren't real records.

I've never been a big fan of greatest hits packages, despite the fact that this is my 24th review of one. They give only a fleeting impression of an artist, and that impression is almost always skewed toward their hits. In the cases of popular music, if you buy a bunch of 'best of' albums, you'd probably be just as well served listening to the radio.

Of course, if you only have a fleeting interest in the artist, then a fleeting impression is all you need. Of the 'best ofs' that I've already reviewed, Boney M, Grim Reaper and Kool and the Gang would all fit into this category.

However, a few years ago Sheila started to buy the remastered CDs of Elton John's early albums. I was never much of an Elton John fan. My experience with him was principally his goofy eighties songs and videos, and I viewed this use of my dwindling CD real estate with skepticism.

That skepticism was ill-founded. Elton John had some amazing records, particularly from 1969-1974, which is the period this Greatest Hits package covers. So now I'm going to talk about that package, correct? Sort of.

The Greatest Hits album survives on our shelf only because of the eleven songs, we're still missing five on our other albums, including the classics "Your Song" and "Rocket Man," the latter of which may be my favourite Elton John song of all time.

Six of the songs on this record can be found on two albums we already own, "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." These are amazing albums (I already reviewed the first one back at Disc 221) and you would be better off just getting them instead. You'll then find a whole host of other great songs that weren't deemed worthy of a greatest hits package, including "Blues For My Baby and Me," "High Flying Bird" and "This Song Has No Title."

In fact, the other two Elton John albums we have, "Madman Across The Water" and "Tumbleweed Connection," aren't even represented on this Greatest Hits album, which is equally ridiculous. No "Tiny Dancer," no "Indian Sunset" no "My Father's Gun" no "Talking Old Soldiers," and no "Burn Down the Mission."

That's the problem with compilation records; they leave far more out than they put in. This particular Greatest Hits record is from Elton John's greatest creative period, so it is full of good music, but it somehow manages to catch a few duds anyway. I could live without "Honky Cat" and "Crocodile Rock" quite happily, for example. Yeah, I just called "Crocodile Rock" a dud - but hey, it's my blog. Let's move on.

Buying Elton John's "Greatest Hits" means you may never buy the classic albums that it skims over, and that's a pity. Later you might be tempted to get his second or third volume of hits, which are from inferior periods in his career, when you could just be mining the gold from his great studio albums. If you're just a casual Elton John fan, then this may serve you well, but before you choose that road, try at least one of his studio records from 1970-1974 and let him convince you otherwise.

Best tracks: Um...no. I'll save that for when I review Elton John's many and excellent albums. That said, this album won't be going anywhere until classics like Rocket Man and Your Song are safely recorded on another record.

CD Odyssey Disc 372: Various Artists

When I listen to a disc for the CD Odyssey, I strictly listen in order – no shuffling or skipping songs. However, when I go to the gym the Odyssey is suspended, and I listen to my MP3 player on “random play all” and when I switch back to a single album, I have to remember to turn the ‘shuffle’ feature off, or the songs get played out of order.

That’s what happened for four songs on this next album before I realized. However, since it is a compilation album (and since I wasn’t terribly enjoying it) I made a note of which songs I’d heard to avoid repeat. I don’t usually do that, but in this case, it was called for. And now the review.

Disc 372 is...Bachelor Pad Royale

Artist: Various

Year of Release: 1996, but featuring music from 1956 to 1965

What’s Up With The Cover?: A pretty basic ‘swingin’’ design. Of note, the garnish in the martini glass is formed into the shape of a reclining woman. I’m not sure I ever noticed that before.

How I Came To Know It: Back in the mid-nineties, in that brief period when swing was king, there was a display of “ultra lounge” discs at A&B sound (when that existed). I bought Volume 5, “Wild, Cool and Swingin’” and loved it, so we got a couple more, and this was one of those couple more.

How It Stacks Up: Compilations aren’t ‘best ofs’ per se, but they can’t really stack up. Against the other two Ultra Lounge albums we have, this one is probably third. Of interest, there are 18 of these albums out there. Yikes.

Rating: 2 stars (but an extra star for the liner notes – see below).

I finished listening to this album yesterday, but didn't have time to blog. Instead of another day of walking to and from work to it, I slipped in a new album for an Odyssey break (Dan Mangan's "Oh Fortune") until I could get to the review.

Then, I couldn't get it in before driving to the gym tonight. Instead of giving it another listen, I slipped in another new purchase for the trip, (Ice-T's "Power").

So as you can see, the album didn't really grab my attention other than my actively avoiding it. I am listening to it now, however - soaking in it if you will - for the purposes of writing these few lines of warning to you, gentle reader.

The return of swing - musically and aesthetically - was a fun part of the middle to late nineties, and as you know from previous entries, I was caught up in it all like so many people. I don't regret that. I got to know throwback bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and filled out my music collection with some fine Sinatra albums.

However, like any craze - be it disco, or hip hop or eighties metal, you're going to get a lot of filler, as soulless record execs fill the insatiable demand for what's in (as well as their filthy lucre-filled coffers). "Bachelor Pad Royale" is one of those.

It isn't that the songs are offensive; it's much worse than that - they're forgettable. The production is pretty good, but the music (most of it instrumental) is just blah. It is the kind of stuff you hear quietly played in the bar of that hotel you're staying at for a business trip. You know - it's Tuesday night, and you're not ready to turn in, but don't know anyone in town, so you're having a nightcap in a big comfy leather chair and everything is relaxing. You're slightly jet-lagged, but you've done your work for the day and you've ordered a martini. The place has three other people in it - all equally weary travellers, and you have no energy to meet them, and they feel the same.

And behind it all, is this mood-driven music. Not quite elevator music - better than that - but not enough to actually get the room moving, and frankly the staff will be happy to see the last of you leave so they can close early. You eat the complimentary peanuts, and order a second drink but it isn't the music that's keeping you - if anything it's your stubborness not to have it drive you out as it seems designed to do.

That's the challenge "Bachelor Pad Royale" faces and fails to overcome. If anything, the CD liner notes acknowledge it's music to clear a room to, bragging it is "the perfect musical nightcap for private dicks and dames." Adding "dicks and dames" doesn't change that what they're really saying is you should go to bed after listening to it.

The production is pretty good on this album, and the whole series, and there are recognizeable tracks, but too many of them are theme songs from period movies like "Our Man Flint" or obvious crowd pleasers like Sam Butera doing "Fever," although I have a much better version of that on another album.

I dug Julie London doing "Black Coffee" but I dig the "tough dame" act from the era so it was an easy sell. Alvino Rey's "Night Train" just had me longing for the edgier James Brown version.

The best thing about this album was the liner notes. At a time when downloads have in large part killed compact disc sales, this album reminds you of how much value-added fun you can get from the CD experience.

In addition to a groovy introduction to the styles on the album (which way oversells the quality, but never mind that), we get a quick synopsis of each song, and when it was released.

You also get a couple of drink recipes. "Bachelor Pad Royale" has the best one, the "James Bond's Martini" which holds a monster 4 1/2 ounces of liquor. At one of my birthday parties I vowed to drink them exclusively for the night. I believe I was asleep by 11 PM, but I'm told it was an excellent party.

The album notes also have a few generic notes on serving cocktails common to all of them. Hints include, "It is better to serve a fine tall drink or cocktail in the wrong glass than a poor one in the right glass. It is best to have both drink and glass just right." and my favourite line - which I still use to this day, "Sophisticated drinkers...like a lot of liquor but only a touch of flavouring; unsophisticated drinkers the other way around."

I usually swap in "experienced" for "sophisticated" because of the negative word origin connotations for the latter, but that tale is for another entry.

As for "Bachelor Pad Royale" it is unfortunately the musical equivalent of a poor drink in the right glass. It cleans up nice, but ultimately not something I'd recommend for listening unless you're trapped in a Holiday Inn lounge with nowhere else to go, and it's all they'll put on.

Best tracks: Nothing great. If I had to choose I’d go with Alvino Rey’s “Night Train”, Sam Butera’s “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams/Fever” and Julie London’s “Black Coffee.”

CD Odyssey Disc 371: Jimmy Cliff

After a couple straight albums of morose dirges, I was needing something jumpy. Enter...reggae.

Disc 371 is...The Harder They Come

Artist: Jimmy Cliff, and a few others

Year of Release: 1973

What’s Up With The Cover?: A series of scenes that I think (based on limited knowledge) are from the movie of the same name. Whatever the origin, it is a groovy cover, and would make a great poster.

How I Came To Know It: "The Harder They Come" is one of those reputation albums; its reputation is so large, and it is cited as an inspiration by so many other artists, that I had to give it a try to see what the fuss was all about. Of course I took my sweet time getting around to it, and only got this record in the last couple of years.

How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Jimmy Cliff album. As soundtracks go, I have 23 or 24, depending on how you count. I'd have to put this one top four of those.

Rating: 4 stars.

Earlier tonight, I had a discussion with Sheila about where I file this album. Like a lot of music collectors, I am obsessed with keeping my albums properly sorted. While I've been tempted over the years to re-arrange in more creative manners, a la John Cusack in High Fidelity, I have so far stuck to the less creative, but more functional decision to go with the alphabet.

Even so, this creates decisions on where something should go. Does "Steve Miller Band" go under the S or under the M? Does Shane MacGowan and the Popes go under "Shane MacGowan" or "The Popes"?

In the case of "the Harder They Come" I had it filed under C for Jimmy Cliff rather than soundtracks. I'm not sure why I went that way, although when pressed I argued that the cover said "Jimmy Cliff" on it, not "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack." Still, of the twelve tracks, only six are Jimmy Cliff. The other songs are performed by fellow Jamaican artists like the Melodians, the Maytals and the Slickers (great names all).

I think deep down, though, I filed it among the regular artists as a sign of respect. I tend to dismiss soundtracks as sort of bastardized byproducts, generated as secondary markets for the films they support. Not that I'm overwise about it; I have a couple dozen soundtracks, and another half dozen scores. It is just that "The Harder They Come" the soundtrack seems to have cast a much longer shadow than the film of the same name.

This record was a joy to listen to, and my only regret was that it was so short I got through it in a single day. I was sorely tempted to keep it in my MP3 player for another day just to get another listen, but the Odyssey waits for no man.

I am not a devotee of reggae music. In fact, to this point I've only done two other entries with that tag attached. The one is "Smokin' the Goats" by One, which is more a pop/reggae crossover than true reggae, and the other is "Black Market Clash" which made the list for a few reggae tracks dressed up as punk. The only other reggae I've ever owned was a tape of Bob Marley's "Legend" purchased through Columbia House.

This album makes me regret my dearth of reggae, and is an excellent gateway to the style. The instantly recognizeable reggae beat is infectious. To resist bobbing your head to this stuff would require some fused vertebrae.

The record begins with "You Can Get It If You Really Want It" (another version of which makes an appearance at Track 11). "You Can Get It..." is a song of boundless optimism, the more so considering its origins are found in the poverty stricken streets of 1970s Jamaica. It's message is simple: you can get it if you really want it, but you must try. Simple in theory, but a lot tougher to maintain that sunny disposition when you're at the bottom.

Even better, is the more aggressive "The Harder They Come," which is a seamless amalgam of the defiant and angry disenfranchised young man and a genuine propensity for forgiveness. The singer even takes time to say a prayer that his oppressors be forgiven, "they know not what they've done."

On this listen, I was also drawn in to the slower songs. "Many Rivers To Cross" starts with an organ and maintains a reverent gospel edge throughout its sad lament, making you weary and inspired at the same time. The reggae beat is so subdued that the song is really more soul than anything.

The reeggae on "The Harder They Come" reminds me of soul music, in that the lyrics themselves are very basic, but when sung right they are so filled honest emotion that they draw you in. That infectious beat helps a lot as well.

"Sitting in Limbo" features a rolling steady beat and penny whistle that would be equally at home as British folk pop (the good kind). This record brings you a Jamaican sound, but the music is universal, and the record finds common connections to other sounds of the period throughout.

Finally, it was great to hear the originals of a number of songs I'd heard first as remakes, notably "Johnny Too Bad" (Steve Earle), "Pressure Drop" (The Clash) and "Rivers of Babylon" (Boney M and Steve Earle again). In every case, the original was better, although the Clash give the Maytals a run for their money on "Pressure Drop."

For a record so replete with scenes of a hard-scrabble life, "The Harder They Come" filled me with a joyful optimism after only a couple listens. Good music will do that.

Best tracks: You Can Get It If You Really Want, Many Rivers To Cross, The Harder They Come, Johnny Too Bad, Pressure Drop, Sitting In Limbo

CD Odyssey Disc 370: Nick Cave

It would appear that the Odyssey is ready for a new Reign of Terror - this one by Nick Cave, as this is the second consecutive Nick Cave album I've rolled. The odds of such a thing happening? Roughly 1 in 20,000. Isn't probability fun?

Of course the probability that there is a Nick Cave album to match the mighty "Murder Ballads" is considerably less, so if you are interested in a true Nick Cave masterpiece, read the review below this one. That said, here we go with the latest offering.

Disc 370 is...Nocturama
Artist: Nick Cave

Year of Release: 2003

What’s Up With The Cover?: The head shot, this one dressed up with heavy backlighting. This cover is uninteresting, and only the constant presence of the "What's Up With the Cover?" section of the blog that I know you yearn for daily, has moved me to make a comment at all.

How I Came To Know It: This is just me drilling through Nick Cave music. I bought this one very late (in the last couple of years) and chose it because it fell nicely between 2001's "No More Shall We Part (reviewed at Disc 65) and 2004's "Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus," both records that I love.

How It Stacks Up: We have seven Nick Cave albums, and I plan to get more. For now, however I must sadly place "Nocturama" in last place.

Rating: 3 stars.

If I were to tweet a review for "Nocturama" it would go something like this:

Nick Cave lightens up; remains intermittently morose.

Fortunately, I don't tweet or suck facebook, or whatever the kids are calling it these days, so you'll have the chance to learn a little bit more about "Nocturama" simply by continuing on. If you prefer tweets, you're done - and thanks for coming.

OK, for those still remaining, a nocturne is an instrumental composition of a pensive, dreamy mode, especially one for piano. Hence (I believe) Nick Cave's "Nocturama" which is a nocturne with Cave's particular brand of grotesquerie branded onto it.

The result is the same dreamy, pensive piano, but with Cave's vocals and a few other instruments on top of it, lending a rock edge to the whole.

"Nocturama" is a good record, but it suffers from following on the heels of "Murder Ballads" which is a modern classic. The songs here are about as upbeat as Cave gets, and there are genuine expressions of love and romance here, albeit with sad twists throughout.

Cave just can't stand to have a happy ending, without some catch. The first song, "Wonderful Life" has a chorus that sums it all up for what is to follow with "It's a wonderful life/If you can find it." Later in "Rock of Gibraltar" the song professes a series of assertions to the strength of love, starting with:

"Let me say this to you
I'll be steadfast and true
And my love will never falter

"The sea would crash about us
The waves would lash about us
I'll be your Rock of Gibraltar."

But by the end, Cave's need for misery slinks back in:

"Could the powers that be
Ever foresee
That things could so utterly alter?

"All the plans that we laid
Could soon be betrayed
Betrayed like the Rock of Gibraltar."

Not even the Rock of Gibraltar is strong enough to withstand Cave's need to see the decay in everything. I don't see this is a negative, however. It is the very fragile nature of love in these songs that make them so powerful. Love is that brief respite from the storm in the midst of life's hurricane. Lyrically, my favourite song is "Still In Love" which I believe is a song about a dead lover looking back on the scene of his death, beginning ominously with a police investigation that suggests he did not die peacefully:

"The cops are hanging around the house
The cars outside look like they've got the blues
The moon don't know if it's day or night
Everybody's creeping around with plastic covers on their shoes
You're making coffee for everyone concerned
Someone points to this and someone points to that
Everyone is saying that you should lie down
But ain't having none of that
And I say to the sleepy summer rain
With a complete absence of pain
You might think I'm crazy
But I'm still in love with you."

For all we know, the object of the dead man's affection is who killed him. In fact, it seems likely as the song progresses. Yet the narrator has an unconditional love, not affected by such comparatively petty things as death and murder. Yes, a 'yikes' moment, but like so many 'yikes' moments from Nick Cave, it works.

Musically, I found the album a little uneven compared to the great records around it chronologically (see above) but still good. He gets his blues/punk groove on with "Dead Man In My Bed" and later with "Babe, I'm On Fire," the requisite fourteen minute epic that most Cave albums feature at some point.

However, most of the album consists of understated, piano driven dirges, and Cave's very underrated, hollowed out, haunting voice, that sounds like an unseen ghost singing up at you from the dark mouth of some chasm (he is aptly named).

I almost gave this record four stars, but there were enough missteps that I knocked it down to three. Notably, while I love the melody and construction of "Rock of Gibraltar" some of the rhymes are forced and unnecessary (notably 'Malta' with 'Gibraltar'). Also, while Cave is the master of the long song, "Babe, I'm On Fire" goes on far too long, and doesn't go anywhere. It is just a laundry list of personalities and occupations that are all equally on fire. An example:

"The wine taster with his nose says it
The fireman with his hose says it
The pedestrian, the equestrian
The tap-dancer with his toes says it
Babe I'm on fire."

And so on for 37 more verses. It is fun the first time, but by the second time around you just want it over with a third of the way in.

Still, a lesser Nick Cave album from this period is still better than most other artists, so I'm not saying you should avoid "Nocturama." I would say it is for completionists only, however.

Best tracks: Wonderful Life, He Wants You, Bring It On, Still In Love, Rock of Gibraltar

CD Odyssey Disc 369: Nick Cave

It is late on February 14th, and ordinarily after a couple of days I'd power through and get this review finished so I can move on to the next album. In this case, however, I've been enjoying myself too much, so I'm going to let myself go to bed and finish this review tomorrow so I can get another day walking to and from work with it. See y'all on the 15th.

Disc 369 is...Murder Ballads

Artist: Nick Cave

Year of Release: 1996

What’s Up With The Cover?: A painting by Jean Frederic Schnyder, a 20th century Swiss artist I've never heard of. This isn't the style of painting I'd hang in my home, but it does a nice job of capturing the combination of weird and cold that is "Murder Ballads."

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced us to Nick Cave by purchasing the amazing "Boatman's Call" (reviewed way back at Disc 13). I liked it a lot, and while digging for more Nick Cave albums, I found a reference to an album that was filled with songs about murder. I had to find it, and when I did, I bought it without hesitation.

How It Stacks Up: We have seven Nick Cave albums, and of those seven I would say "Murder Ballads" is tied with "The Boatman's Call" for first.

Rating: 4 stars but only a tiny hair from 5

Writing a bloody and disturbing tale is not as simple as it seems. It requires pacing, careful timing in drawing out the more gruesome details and a willingness to let your imagination wander until you trouble even yourself.

"Murder Ballads" is a clinic, ten times over, on how to do it right. Anyone who knows Nick Cave knows he's never shy of exploring the darker parts of human nature, but on this record he takes that exploration to a whole new level. These songs draw you into a grisly fascination that is a mix of romance and prurience, held together with the blood of the victims in each song. As the narrator in the first track, "Song of Joy" sings:

"Was it an act of contrition or some awful premonition
As if she saw into the heart of her final blood-soaked night?
Those lunatic eyes, that hungry kitchen knife
Ah, I see, sir, that I have your attention!"

This last line could speak to every song that follows as well, as Cave explores every dark recess of murder and makes us watch. Woman falling victim to predators, psychopathic teens killing their neighbours and mass killings in drinking dives named "The Bucket of Blood" and "O'Malley's Bar."

Some of the songs are set in particular eras, with title character "Stagger Lee" killing and raping his way through 1932. Others, like "Song of Joy," "Where The Wild Roses Grow" or "The Kindness of Strangers" have a timelessness to them. The terrifying crimes depicted could have taken place last year, or last century, and seem equally at home.

Vocally and musically, Cave keeps the tone discordant. On "The Kindness of Strangers" he strangles out the refrain "O poor Mary Bellows" over and over again, signalling well in advance of her death that she is doomed.

Many tracks feature the piano being banged away at in overly-heavy handed fashion, often in minor keys. It is designed to set you on edge and it works. At the same time, the songs draw you in and make you an ashamed voyeur to their topics. They are catchy and easy to pick up, as a traditional ballad should be, singing songs that you could travel town to town with hundreds of years ago, entertaining the locals, if you dared to have them wonder what sort of person would recount such horrors.

Cave takes time and attention to get you deep into the head of killers, and makes you feel a little guilty by association just for tagging along. In "The Curse of Millhaven" we meet Loretta (who advises that she prefers Lottie) a fifteen year old psychopath, who describes herself thusly:

"...my eyes aint' green and my hair ain't yellow
It's more like the other way around
I got a pretty little mouth underneath all the foaming."

A special treat is hearing Kylie Minogue as I'd never heard her, singing the part of the victim, Elisa Day, in "Where The Wild Roses Grow," where she lends a beautiful vulnerability amidst all of Cave's characterizations of evil. I don't think I'll ever be able to hear "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" the same again after hearing her sing about her skull being caved in by her lover on a secluded river bank.

The album's last song is a hymn of sorts called "Death Is Not The End" featuring guest vocalists including PJ Harvey, Shane MacGowan, Kylie Minogue and a few other Bad Seeds infusing an almost ironic sense of hope to the record. However, to me the album's end point is the preceeding track, an over fourteen minute masterpiece called "O'Malley's Bar" which features a disturbed man going into his small town pub, where he knows everyone, and proceeding to slaughter everyone there, naming each one as he does.

By the end of the song, as Cave voices the killer's tortured choked mumbling in the back of a police car, the death toll is a dozen people, and we are spared no detail of each. Beginning the slaughter, the killer depicts his own motives as somehow outside of free will:

"My hand decided that the time was nigh
And for a moment it slipped from view
And when it returned it fairly burned
With confidence anew.

"Well the thunder from my steely fist
Made all the glasses jangle
when I shot him I was so handsome
It was the light, it was the angle."

This record is not for everyone. If you are offended by violence or harsh language, you will most certainly be offended (the passages I've quoted are among the milder ones). If you prefer your murders dressed up and sanitized as 'homicides' then this isn't for you either.

"Murder Ballads" is an album of murder and violent deeds, that forces you to look into the evil recesses of disturbed minds, usually depicted in the first person. If you like your narrative steak served raw and bloody, and don't blanche easily, then you might just enjoy this record as much as I did, which was quite a lot.

Best tracks: Song of Joy, Stagger Lee, Where The Wild Roses Grow, The Curse of Millhaven, The Kindness of Strangers, O'Malley's Bar

CD Odyssey Disc 368: Blue Rodeo

From a Bob Dylan album, the dice gods move us forward in time a few decades to a band that was definitely influenced by him.

Disc 368 is...Casino

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 1990

What’s Up With The Cover?: The vast negative space that exists when the circus leaves town.

How I Came To Know It: It has been a year and a half since I last rolled Blue Rodeo, but if you were reading then you'd know this is a band that my wife Sheila introduced me to, for which I am grateful.

How It Stacks Up: We have 11 Blue Rodeo albums, which I think is all of them. "Casino" is one of their best - I'll say it is third, narrowly behind "Diamond Mine" which I reviewed way back at Disc 63.

Rating: 4 stars.

As I alluded to in the teaser, it was fitting that I reviewed a Bob Dylan album right before "Casino," because this record is a natural inheritor to that roots rock sound.

Where Dylan uses harmonica to emotionally punctuate songs, "Casino" relies on the Bob Wiseman, who fills the same role with organ, piano and, yes, harmonica. A lot of people think that Blue Rodeo was never the same after Wiseman left the band in 1993. There is some truth to that, with the glaring exception of "5 Days in July," which is their best record, and first without him.

For all of "5 Days in July"s brilliance, I can't imagine "Casino" being nearly as good without Wiseman who gives the record so much energy with his playing.

OK, enough with the Bob Wiseman waffling and back to the record. As ever, the driving force of these songs is Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy, who write them all and alternate taking lead vocals.

As I've mentioned in the past, Keelor and Cuddy are so different in their styles, with Cuddy more the plaintive crooner, and Keelor the fevered rockabilly hipster (before hipster was a dirty word). Together, they are perfectly complementary.

I've come to appreciate Keelor more and more in recent years, but on "Casino" it is the songs where Cuddy takes the lead that really grab me.

"Til I Am Myself Again" I believe was the hit off of this record, by Blue Rodeo standards (the band has long flown under the radio radar). It is an amazing opening song, and the best on the album, featuring Cuddy's long-time saw, the pain of a broken relationship. If Cuddy had a break up for every great break up song he's written, he would have dated half the girls in their home town of Toronto.

The song also captures (for me) the disconnect of the road, and the slow loss of identity that comes with immersing yourself in your music (and on a tour bus, presumably, as these guys have long kept a hectic tour schedule). My favourite lines are:

"I had a dream that my house was on fire
People laughed while it burned
I tried to run but my legs were numb
I had to wait 'til the feeling returned.

I don't need a doctor to figure it out
I know what's passing me by
When I look in the mirror sometimes I see
Traces of some other guy."

Good stuff, and if you haven't looked in a mirror and seen traces of some other guy, then you haven't looked hard enough (helpful hint: the other guy is still you). There's a reason that vampires don't reflect in the mirror - they couldn't stand to see their own monstrous natures reflected there. Cuddy has no such problem, and "Casino" once again has him pouring his heart out for our entertainment.

Cuddy has a voice that is deeply underappreciated outside of the loyal cadre of Blue Rodeo zealots across Canada (count me as one of those). He can hit high notes with a reverence and power that make introspective expressions of himself into holy hymns in praise of the human spirit. He's like a preacher for your heart.

When he takes it down in tempo, as he does in "Montreal" he proves that whether he's playing high and fast, or slow and low, he rarely misses the heart. When I listen to "Montreal" I just want him to run back to the girl he's left in that great city. Hell, he makes me want to go find her. Like many Cuddy songs, "Montreal" reminds us that there is a whole other chapter of love that exists after the trite romantic comedy ends, which may not be as neatly wrapped up, but makes for a way better story.

Keelor isn't at Cuddy's level vocally, but few are. He has his moments, though, and he sings with a passion and intensity that can't be denied. I think on later records he really comes into his own, and I have grown to love his contributions. On "Casino" he misses at times. The best Keelor-led song is "Last Laugh" which starts out so beautifully, with an understated Keelor singing:

"I should have seen through it but you were so intent
The nervous breakdown of an overworked bed
You couldn't wait to get over the edge."

Good stuff, but the chorus -

"You were drunk on the silver when he took your crown
He took everything from you that wasn't tied down
You said he was an angel with the chains of gold
Too bad they weren't strong enough to hold."

- seems to me a little strained in its imagery. That said, this is a good track, and when it gets going features some amazing guitar work by Keelor, who has long been a master of the instrument.

By contrast, "Two Tongues" is a Keelor song that goes out on a musical limb and falls off. It is supposed to be some political satire (I think) but it is overwrought and just comes off as nasty and misdirected. Keelor takes a lot of chances musically, more than Cuddy, and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, but Blue Rodeo wouldn't be much without him. Keelor more than recovers with the bouncy rock song, "You're Everywhere" which has shades of Chuck Berry, and at only 2:49 in length, leaves you wanting more even as the record ends.

This is a great record, by a great band that has strangely never achieved greatness in the United States. In Canada though, they have a solid and loyal following of fans. Records like "Casino" remind why I'm proud to be one of them.

Best tracks: Til I Am Myself Again, What Am I Doing Here, Montreal, Last Laugh, After The Rain, You're Everywhere

CD Odyssey Disc 367: Highway 61 Revisited

Over the last few weeks I've received a whole slew of music recommendations, but I'm always so busy with the Odyssey I hadn't taken the time to listen to any of them. Yesterday I decided to make a concerted effort to listen to a bunch of them. I don't own any of these artists (yet) but here's a quick shout out to those who took the time to put me onto some new music.

Gord W. introduced me to an early nineties industrial metal act called Sister Machine Gun. They are very cool, and remind me of my clubbing days. Good dance music with a lot of energy, if you like that sort of stuff.

Josh A. mentioned contemporary folk act Bill Callahan, and more specifically his work with the band "Smog." This took me down the youtube rabbit-hole of his solo stuff as well. I like me some Bill Callahan, and could see myself buying it down the road.

Greg W. also put me on to more traditional folk music, with a CD he loaned me by Steeleye Span from the late eighties. This one's only for hard core fans of folk music but I liked it quite a bit.

Ross A. sent me the band name of Manilla Road and let me look them up. They turned out to be a kick-ass eighties metal band along the lines of Iron Maiden. My youtube journey from here took me to contemporaries Cirith Ungol (which I checked out simply because they are named after a tower in Lord of the Rings). Both Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol are good, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Finally, Patrick V. noted a band called Warsaw Pact, which he said were along the lines of Rage Against the Machine. Regrettably, I came up empty on this one on youtube, so I'll have to check back with Patrick on this one.

Thanks to everyone for helping me expand my musical horizons. And now on to this week's review, and a man who has done as much to expand musical horizons as anyone in my collection.

Disc 367 is...Highway 61 Revisited

Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 1965

What’s Up With The Cover?: Bob shows off some sixties fashion that is just a little to slick to look good on him. His hair is looking sweet, though, so that makes up for it. Behind him, some guy with a camera provides a presumably false sense of spontaneity.

How I Came To Know It: Just another example of me drilling through Bob's collection. I got this one pretty early on, however, because let's face it, it is pretty famous.

How It Stacks Up: I have 17 Bob Dylan albums, which is apparently about half of them. I'm not done yet. At this point, "Highway 61" stacks up pretty highly. I'll say 3rd or 4th best.

Rating: 5 stars.

Listening to this record, I kept marvelling at how great the songwriting is. All over the map, from the subversively easy rolling "Like A Rolling Stone" through his classic triple-rhymed structures on "Tombstone Blues" and the pseudo-rockabilly of "Highway 61 Revisited."

Could the introspective, thoughtful piano on Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness At the Edge of Town" exist without "Queen Jane Approximated"? Would Mark Knopfler have thought to work flamenco guitar into his rock music if he hadn't heard "Desolation Row" do it first? These things are certainly possible, but I can't help but think Dylan doing it all fifteen to twenty years earlier made all the difference when these guys were growing up.

Every song is different and distinct, but through it all there is Bob's signature voice. You could argue these songs would sound better in the hands of a more skilled vocalist, but I like the way Bob sings them, and I have a hard time imagining them any other way. I have heard covers of both "Tombstone Blues" and "Highway 61 Revisited" but right now I can't remember who did them. By contrast, Dylan is unforgettable.

The only criticism you could level would be the excess use of harmonica on this record. True, it can grate on even the initiated ear. At the same time the free flowing, yet painful harmonica is like a perfect emotional time machine to the mid-sixties. Walking to work listening to Bob blast away on the mouth harp made me feel like I was heading to the station to take the first train out of town, regardless of destination, with nothing but my guitar to pay the bills. Never mind that I live on an island and can't even play an instrument - the peal of the harmonica makes you think anything is possible.

And of course, lyrically, Dylan remains a master of being clever and insightful at the same time, which is no easy task when writing. Clever usually comes off as trite, and insightful often results in heavy-handed. Dylan never falls into either trap. This from my favourite on the record, "Desolation Row":

"They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row"

This is only the first of ten stanzas of this masterpiece, each equally provocative to the mind. This song clocks in at over eleven minutes , each time I hear it, I find myself wishing it were twice as long.

Add to this the scathing character study of "Ballad Of A Thin Man" and the social commentary wrapped up in a catchy pop song in "Like A Rolling Stone" which is still dropping half-unnoticed wisdom about the ever-turning wheel of fortune over forty years since its release.

Forget that you might have some greatest hits package with three or four songs from this album on it, and think you're done. If you like music, this is an album you should own and listen to in its entirety. In doing so, you will hear a folk legend not only mastering his genre, but actively expressing his own discontent with that mastery. Dylan experiments with his own sound, and create something that is altogether unique and as fresh today as it was in 1965.

Best tracks: all tracks, although sadly there are only 9 of them.

CD Odyssey Disc 366: The Shins

Greetings, Odyssey sailors! Great news - my doctor advises me they've found some bug in my bladder (Klebsiella Pneumoniae). Apparently it is quite a tough little fellow, and I took no small amount of pride in him telling me I must be "one tough customer." The good news part is that I'm now on antibiotics (for only the second time in my life) and I shall hopefully soon be feeling much better.

Also, I received my first comment from someone that I'm pretty sure I don't know (QueensJenn commenting on the Arrogant Worms - thanks for reading!) This is a good time (paradoxically) to again note that I rarely reply to comments, since I've alread had my say, and I want you to have yours. I take a fairly modernist approach to reviews, so I focus on my reaction to the music alone, and my personal experiences or associations with it. Consequently, there will be times when I know a lot less about any given album's background than readers. So it goes...but if I'm going to get through my whole collection before I kick the bucket, I've got to keep plugging on. I appreciate the extra information readers provide.

OK, on to the next album!

Disc 366 is...Wincing The Night Away

Artist: The Shins

Year of Release: 2007

What’s Up With The Cover?: This is the kind of stuff I used to draw on my binders in high school and university during boring classes - only way better. I'm not sure how you make doodling into good art, but the person who did this cover has managed it. I wonder if the fern/tree things are part of the creature, or some kind of parasite like my friend, Klebsiella Pneumoniae? If it is the latter don't despair, Doodle Creature, they've got a pill for that.

How I Came To Know It: I haven't reviewed a Shins album since way back at Disc 22 (where I used to be a lot more succinct, I note). If you've been reading since then, you'll know Sheila and I discovered the Shins when they performed on Saturday Night Live a few years ago. I can't remember if it was to promote this album or the previous "Chutes Too Narrow" but whatever the case, we got this record shortly after seeing them.

How It Stacks Up: This is one of Sheila's favourite albums, and with good reason. We have three Shins albums, and I'd put this one first among them.

Rating: 5 stars.

"Wincing the Night Away" is a great record, and it is a shame that it was the last one from the Shins (although apparently there is a new one out/coming out in 2012 with a revamped lineup).

This album wastes no time drawing you in. The first notes on the opening track, "Sleeping Lessons" are atmospheric; muted and diffuse like they are being heard deep under the water. I'm not sure what the instrument is that makes them - a synthesizer? A strange set of small gongs? A xylophone with an ungodly amount of reverb? - it doesn't matter. Before your ear can finish considering, the song breaks into a more contemporary rock arrangement.

At the beginning of the next track, a German voice demands that it is "time to put the ear goggles on!" but if they aren't already on by the end of "Sleeping Lessons" then start over, because you're doing it wrong.

I don't listen to the radio, but listening to this album I kept thinking, 'this must be a hit.' The songs are so ear-goggle friendly, and well constructed there is no way they couldn't all be big hits. I was therefore shocked to find that the only 'hit' was the equally excellent "Phantom Limb" and apparently a minor one at that. I knew there was a reason I hated listening to the radio.

That said, the Shins are one of those bands that music geeks will often praise, and "Wincing The Night Away" is their finest hour.

It's not just the sing-along quality they have, as you get an emotional high singing along with the series of drawn-out "ohs" in "Phantom Limb" - although there is that. It certainly isn't the guitar riffs, which are mostly back in the mix. If anything, the Shins have mastered creating a single sound out of all the instruments. It isn't that they're playing tight (they are) it is that the song constructions more resemble an orchestra in how the pieces compliment one another than a more traditional four or five piece rock band.

Because of this, I found concentrating on the lyrics difficult, but I didn't find that difficulty annoying. Phrases bubble up into your consciousness out of songs, but without Herculean mental effort, they eventually slide back into the mix as you groove along. When I do listen to lyrics (or cheat and read them out of the liner notes) I find them carefully crafted and evocative.

None more so than the record's best song, "A Comet Appears" a depressingly inspirational dirge that could be about aging, terminal illness or just losing touch with yourself. Maybe because I'm not terminally ill, and feel fairly in touch with myself, for me it always seems to be about aging. Here's just a sample:

"One hand on this wily comet
Take a drink just to give me some weight
Some uberman I'd make, I'm barely a vapor
They shone a chlorine light on a host of individual sins
Let's carve my aging face off
Fetch us a knife start with my eyes
Down so the lines form a grimacing smile."

Because of the 'arty' liner notes, I'm not sure where the line breaks should go, so this is a rough approximation (yes, I feel a deep need for line breaks). Regardless, I love all the assonance in this section of the song, and the feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness they convey. I like to imagine this is the story of an old man, seeing Halley's Comet for the second time in his life, as he prepares for death, and thinks back on regret and lost opportunity. I have no idea, but that's how it speaks to me.

I was going to end by saying this is a five star song (which it is) but that the album could only achieve four. But the truth is, while this record didn't really change me, it doesn't have any weaknesses. You could pull any song off of it, and I'd enjoy hearing it. So for that reason, and for the brilliance of "A Comet Appears" I'm going to go soft, and give it five.

Best tracks: All tracks, but of particular note: Sleeping Lessons, Phantom Limb, Spilt Needles, and A Comet Appears

CD Odyssey Disc 365: Jimi Hendrix

With this next album I have finally escaped the run of pop music I've been on. I like some pop music (obviously) but it is rock and roll that recharges my batteries.

Disc 365 is...Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix
Artist: Jimi Hendrix

Year of Release: 1997 but with music from 1967-1968

What’s Up With The Cover?: A picture of Jimi looking cool, as he often does. I like this cover, but it doesn't lend itself to a lot of editorial comment, and so...

How I Came To Know It: If you don't know who Jimi Hendrix is, I can only assume you live under a rock. I do not live under a rock. That said, I went many years before I finally bought some Jimi for my collection - probably about fifteen years ago, shortly after this album came out.

How It Stacks Up: This is a 'best of' so it doesn't stack up. Those are the rules of the Odyssey, jerky! That said, it is also the only Jimi in my collection, although I've been meaning to pick some individual albums up.

Rating: n/a. I don't rate 'best of' records, because they are compilations and by their nature, not as the artist intended. This blog rates albums only, not compilations.

If you are going to break down and get a compilation album - and we're all guilty of that sin from time to time - then I've got a few helpful hints for you.

First, make sure you get a good recording. There are a lot of suspect records out there, with cheap production values that were pumped out in the early nineties when there was a rush to switch format from tape and record to CD. One thing to generally avoid is any CD that has the songs listed in block letters on the back in a white box, surrounded by some washed out colour. Instead, look for a later release (late nineties is good) when companies were remastering their recordings in to sound better on disc (and to sucker folks into buying them a second time as well).

Second, avoid those albums where there is only ten to twelve songs. I'm not saying you have to buy a 5 CD boxed set, but look for something with a good 20 songs, even if it is on a couple of discs and costs a few dollars more. Even though you won't know these extra songs as well as the recognizable hits, they are going to give you a much better and well-rounded sense of the artist. Cheap compilations are marketed at people who don't really care about music and just want something to go camping with. The larger, slightly pricier versions are for people looking for something beyond "Purple Haze" and that's you. How do I know that's you? Well, you're still reading, aren't you?

This particular compilation of Hendrix passes both tests. There are twenty songs (usually a cardinal sin, but acceptable on a greatest hits package) which is a goodly number. The front half of the record is heavy with Jimi's hits: "Purple Haze", "Fire," "Hey Joe," Foxey Lady" etc.

The hits are excellent, and testament to how famous Hendrix became despite his very short career (only three studio albums before his untimely death). I'm not going to dwell on them because lots has already been said about them.

The latter half of the album is laden with some interesting deeper cuts, at least to a casual fan like me. The bluesy "Red House," the lascivious "Bold As Love" and the incredible guitar on "Nightbird Flying" where Jimi demonstrates yet again that he is an undisputed master - the second greatest practitioner of that black and eldritch instrument that is the electric guitar. Sorry, Jimi - I've got to give the title to Mark Knopfler, although listening to him wail on "Nightbird Flying" my confidence in that judgment call was sorely tested.

Hendrix would have revolutionized guitar rock if he'd played these songs in 1978. The fact that he was doing it ten years earlier blows the mind. Into the usual rock and blues mixture he adds in elements of jazz and soul to make a sound that is unique to him.

For me, his rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" is second only to Leonard Cohen's "Democracy" in wrapping all of the great and not-so-great things about the USA into a big ball that is both indictment and love song. Cohen does it with lyrics, but Jimi lets his guitar do all the talking.

Vocally, Jimi does gets short shrift, but only because his virtuosity on the guitar overshadows his voice. However, like Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Jimi pour every ounce of himself into these songs. When he sings "Hey Joe, where you goin' with that gun in your hand?" you can feel the yearning, and the ominous feeling that something terrible is going to happen. He takes Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" all his own, to the point that nowadays most people think it is his song.

My favourite deep track on this record is "Dolly Dagger," a character study of a passionate and self-confident woman:

"Here comes Dolly Dagger
Her love's so heavy gonna make you stagger.
Dolly Dagger, she drinks her blood from the jagged edge
Aah...drink up baby!

"Been ridin' broom sticks since she was fifteen
Blowin' out all the other witches on the scene
She got a bullwhip just as long as your life
Her tongue can even scratch the soul out of the devil's wife."

That is some dirty stuff, and Jimi lays it down with a fervour that leaves you seeing Dolly walking down the sidewalk toward you. You want to take a good look and give her a smile, but ultimately you lose your nerve in the face of such a woman and stare at your feet as she walks by.

Of course, Jimi never walked by the subject of a good song without looking it in the eye. He wrote a ton of them in his short life, and this compilation is a worthy example of that work.

He's only got three studio records and I'll probably get them all before I'm done, but even when I'm finished, many of these tracks are one-offs from other sources, and having them all in one place is a good thing. Even if it means breaking with my usual low opinion of compilations.

Best tracks: So many, but here goes: Purple Haze, Fire, The Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe, All Along The Watchtower, Stone Free, Crosstown Traffic, Foxey Lady, Bold As Love, Castles Made of Sand, Voodoo Child, Nightbird Flying, Dolly Dagger, Star Spangled Banner. If you're keeping track, that's 14 of the 20 tracks, but what can you do? It is a best of...