CD Odyssey Disc 394: Dick Dale

I had an amazing dream last night.

I dreamed that both of the cats we’ve lost in the last two years (Othello and Inigo) came to visit us in the living room.  It was one of those hyper-real dreams, full of tactile sensation and emotional depth.  I knew it was odd that they were back, and I knew they couldn’t stay.  I followed them around the house giving them both pats until I sensed it was time for them to go, and then I woke up.  I felt both better and worse at the same time.

H.P. Lovecraft had a lot of strange notions about cats, and how they exist in other dream-like dimensions that we are unaware of.  It would be great if he turns out to be right, but even if he’s wrong, it was a nice dream.

Disc 394 is…Summer Surf

Artist: Dick Dale and his Del-Tones

Year of Release: 1964

What’s Up With The Cover?:  In the days of records, they would often list all the tracks on the front, so when you flipped through at the store you could see everything without pulling it out.  This album does that.  Below the titles, Dick Dale looks ultra-cool standing amid a bunch of surfboards, one of which looks pretty dinged up.  When I first looked at this cover I thought he was standing in a living room looking out the window, and the surf board on the right was one sides of the drapes.

How I Came To Know It: I think I first became dimly aware of Dick Dale from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (reviewed way back at Disc 102) but it has only been more recently I’ve gotten interested in ‘surf guitar.’  I read a little bit about it, and went back and forth, but it was ultimately my renewed interest in muscle cars that drove me to buy 1963’s “Checkered Flag” and from there I was hooked. “Summer Surf” came very shortly thereafter, and more are on the way.

How It Stacks Up: I only have two Dick Dale albums, and if you’ve been reading along, you’ll already know which two.  More will follow, but for now, I’m going to say the two I own are equally good.

Rating: 4 stars

Ever wonder how we got from Chuck Berry to the Ramones?  At least one of those paths goes through Dick Dale, and his surfer guitar sound.

“Summer Surf” has elements of that early rock sound which makes sense, since in 1964 it is still relatively early in the life of what we think of as modern rock and roll.  At the same time, for music that is currently 48 years old it has a definite edge to it.

This is music for people who want to party, regardless of the era.  Unlike modern rock, it doesn’t feel the need to overtly shock you with lyrics, or go negative.  It is upbeat music for cool cats that just want to hang out at the beach with their girls and maybe a cooler of beers.

His signature rolling, rapid-fire reverb guitar sound is in strong evidence, with the momentum-laden “Banzai Washout,” the western-inspired “Tidal Wave” and the swing-like “Thunder Wave,” all brilliant instrumentals. 

This is what is great about Dick Dale that I didn’t notice on the first couple of listens.  Yes, he has rightfully placed his star brightly among rock and roll’s most famous axe-men for his own style, but he is not content , and is constantly experimenting with rock and roll. 

On “Summer Surf” he takes his sound in yet another direction, melding it with traditional Spanish guitar on “Spanish Kiss,” and works in inspirational gospel arrangements on “Glory Wave,” a song that compares riding a big wave to an experience in religious ecstasy.  Or maybe vice versa – it works either way.

In every case, he doesn’t just noodle about trying new things at his listeners’ expense.  He writes good songs that just get more interesting the more you play them.

This album isn’t all about the guitar, either.  There is plenty of horn section, piano and even a little harmonica to mix it up, all played with a groovy playfulness.  Dale’s guitar shows off just enough to leave you wanting more.

Of course, through it all, he remains loyal to the culture of surfing.  On the aforementioned “Glory Wave” he sings:

“I’m gonna ride that glory wave today

I’m gonna walk on the water like the good book say.”

The language of surfing is rampant throughout, with references to ‘hocking your woody’, and ‘genuine hot doggers’ that ‘shoot that curl all day.’  Even his Mom hangs ten on the playfully fun “Mama’s Gone Surfin’”.

The album closes with a couple of bonus tracks, “Who Can He Be” and “Oh Marie” that are  a lot more traditional fifties rock.  I enjoyed having these as well.  Even though I’m usually down on bonus tracks on an album, these ones fit in nicely, and showed another side of Dale worth a listen.

I was tempted to call this album a concept album, but really it is just a sub-genre of music that the cool kids dug back in 1964.  Just listening to it made me feel cool, 48 years after its release.  It is still cool, because good tunes don’t wipe out, man, they just keep riding that wave.

Best tracks:  Surfin’, Banzai Washout, Glory Wave, Mama’s Gone Surfin’, Tidal Wave.

CD Odyssey Disc 393: Soundgarden

The CD Odyssey rolls on, gentle reader, and I'm approaching 400 reviews.  It is a bit weird to have gotten this far on this crazy project, and still have so far to go.  I guess this is my sand mandala.  Of course if I meant that, I'd delete all the entries when I finish.  Unlikely, but since I'm not even halfway through, I won't judge what I'll do at the end.

Disc 393 is…Screaming Life/Fopp

Artist: Soundgarden

Year of Release: 1990, but the original EPs were released in 1987 and 1988

What’s Up With The Cover?:  Chris Cornell, looking very young.  This is what passed for heart-throb in 1990 as I recall. 

How I Came To Know It: I was introduced to Soundgarden by my former room-mate Greg.  This album I loved because of the remake of the Ohio Players' "Fopp" so it was an easy purchase after we were no longer living together.

How It Stacks Up: This is technically not an album, but a re-release of two EPs.  That said, I'm going to rate it as an album anyway.  I've got 5 Soundgarden albums.  Of the five, I'd put this one third or fourth.

Rating: 3 stars

I imagine you could count yourself as pretty cool if you have these two EPs in their original format, instead of this later re-release.  I could point out that the music would be the same as my version, but I think that would just be sour grapes that I don't have the cool originals.

How many songs constitute an EP?  Four to six is about right and the two EPs here are at either end of that range.

"Screaming Life" is the earlier album, and has six tracks.  I found the quality of these songs very uneven.  The opening track, "Hunted Down" pretty awesome, with a swamp-crawling guitar riff accompanying Cornell's stellar rock vocals.  This song wades through the fens in slow motion, but is over too soon at only 2:42 in total length.

The relatively poor production value on "Screaming Life" is a minor annoyance, but doesn't hurt the songs as badly as it could, because they tend to suit themselves to fuzzy sound.  Still, I think I would prefer them with a bit better value.  No doubt the boys were light in the pockets when these songs were recorded, but that doesn't change the final product twenty-two years later.

The album has heavy Sabbath influences, which you'd expect from a Seattle grunge band, but Soundgarden also incorporates other music influences like the funk guitar on "Little Joe" and punk arrangements on "Tears To Forget."  "Tears To Forget's" mix of metal and punk reminded me a lot of mid-eighties Black Flag.

The second EP is the four-song record "Fopp."  "Fopp" is a fun and sexy funk song originally written and performed by the Ohio Players.  If you haven't heard the original, do yourself a favour and look it up, as it is damn fine.

Soundgarden puts a grunge twist on the song, making it thick and heavy in just the right amount.  They don't overdo the heaviness which so many heavy bands do when they are remaking something out of genre.  Soundgarden keeps enough humour and lightness that the original funk shines through.

The EP also features a remix of "Fopp" which is almost twice as long titled "Fopp (Dub)" on the CD.  No, mercifully it is not dub-step.  Instead, it is a strange mixture of the original Soundgarden version and some weird Herbie Hancock type jams.  It reminded me of those extra remixes tacked onto the end of the Queen re-releases of the nineties, but better.  When I looked it up to see who had written it, I was both surprised and not surprised to find Beck listed in the credits.  Just another example of Beck's crazy genius.  The remix is one of those tracks that might have you saying 'what the hell?' the first couple times you hear it, but it will quickly grow on you.

The other two tracks on the Fopp EP are "Kingdom of Come" and "Swallow My Pride" the titles of which were the source of much snickering among my friends when we were twenty.  For all that they are good songs and not nearly as lurid as I remembered us thinking they were.

I'm not sure if it is my imagination, but the production values on the Fopp EP seem marginally better than those on "Screaming Life" but still aren't great.  I'd love to see this album get an audio facelift, which would probably propel it into four stars, but I suspect the original masters aren't great either.  So it goes.

In the end, this album is uneven in places, but for all that it has some great music, including one of the finest remakes I've ever heard in "Fopp."

Best tracks:  Hunted Down, Little Joe, Hand of God, Swallow My Pride, Fopp.

CD Odyssey Disc 392: Soundtrack

Well a promising day has turned rather sour in the end, a tough end to my work day, followed by watching my Bruins bow out of the playoffs in Game 7 overtime.

Also, my cat is still dead.  Thought I'd throw that out to the universe, just in case it thought I was suddenly fine with that.  I'm not.

OK, let's shake this dour mood off with a frivolous review of an album filled with dance music.

Disc 392 is…Saturday Night Fever

Artist: Various, but with a large helping of the Bee Gees.

Year of Release: 1977

What’s Up With The Cover?:  John Travolta kicks it old school, in the role that made his career.  Behind him we have the Bee Gees, Barry Gibb in the middle, with Gibb Twin 1 and Gibb Twin 2 flanking him.  Oh, Barry - gifted with the best voice, the writing talent and all the looks.  It just seems so unfair that one guy should be so lucky.  To this day I wish I had Barry Gibbs' hair.  

How I Came To Know It: If you are of a certain vintage, then you couldn't escape this music since the day it was released.  I am of a certain vintage, and like every home in North America, we had this record.  We also had "Yuletide Disco" but sadly, it has been lost to the mists of time, and will not be reviewed on the CD Odyssey.

How It Stacks Up: I have twenty-four or twenty-five soundtracks (depending on how I file them).  Saturday Night Fever is as good as it gets, so I'll go with tops of however many there are.

Rating: 4 stars

What to say about one of the most iconic soundtracks ever made - arguably the soundtrack that made the releasing of movie soundtracks a thing that is now widely done.  It remains the highest selling soundtrack of all time.

For those of you who been living in an alien zoo on Planet Tralfamadore for the last 35 years and therefore haven't heard of the movie "Saturday Night Fever" it is a dance film about working class New Yorkers with limited prospects forgetting their troubles every weekend through the power of disco.  As silly as that sounds, it works.

What works about it best is the quiet desperation of the characters.  Travolta's main character works in his Dad's paint store, making a lowly wage, and spending it all on booze at local discotheques.  When he's in the club, he's a god among men.  When he's not, he's a bit of a schmuck, feeling trapped and not sure what to do about it.

From the first (and best) track on the album, the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive", the soundtrack captures these duelling visions.  If you've never listened to the lyrics, here's the first section:

"Well you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk
Music loud, and women warm
I've been kicked around since I was born."

Why Barry Gibb, you sly devil, sneaking in that last line on us while we were trying to enjoy a vacuous dance song.  Yet despite the feeling of being kicked around, you can't help but strut a little if you're walking when you hear this song.  It infuses a little of John Travolta's magic in all of us.

Musically, this song is the anthem for an entire style of music; I'm not sure any other genre has such a clear cut example.  Maybe Beethoven's 5th for classical music?

The next three tracks are all Bee Gees, and all awesome, "How Deep Is Your Love," "Night Fever" and "More Than A Woman," all of which remind us how much easier it was to hook up in 1977.  Or at least that's how I imagine it was - I was seven at the time.

The Bee Gees dominate the soundtrack overall, with six of the tracks (the other two are "Jive Talkin'" and "You Should Be Dancing" - also excellent).  This keeps the record with a coherent sound throughout.

In fact, even the non-Bee Gees songs stay in line.  This album is a celebration of disco music, and only disco music and that really works for it.  Sometimes soundtracks can feel disjointed when de-paired from the film they are designed for, but "Saturday Night Fever" stays true.  Also, it reminds us that while it has been fashionable to make fun of disco for many decades now, there was a time when there was plenty of good music coming out of the genre.

Other non-Bee Gee winners on the album include "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Ellman, "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps and a guilty pleasure of mine for many years now, Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven."   A take on that other iconic ditty I mentioned earlier.

In fact, this album has twelve disco songs so good, that it has developed a strange ability to actually make people forget the five that are actually kind of terrible.  As I talked with people about this album over the last couple of days, it was amazing how easy people would forget the bad stuff.  You'd mention one and they'd say, 'oh, yeah - I forgot about that one!".  How someone could  forget not one, not two, but three instrumental abominations by some guy called David Shire would be hard to fathom, except that I do it too when not actively listening to the record.

As bad as Shire's "Salsation" is at abusing salsa music with a disco groove, Ralph McDonald's "Calypso Breakdown" manages to top (bottom?) it with an assault of Caribbean music.  Someone obviously told these guys 'as long as you 'disco it up' anything goes!"

Sadly, while I'd like to put the five bad tracks into a crate and dynamite them in a baseball stadium, they are inextricably part of this album.

Fortunately, the last song on the record is over ten minutes of "Disco Inferno" that gets you back in the groove.  By the time it is over you will have forgotten all about the filler until the next time you listen to the record.

"Saturday Night Fever" isn't perfect, but any record so full of awesome tracks that it can make me forget "Night On Disco Mountain" is worth four stars and then some.  Also - Barry Gibb.

Best tracks:  Stayin' Alive, Night Fever, If I Can't Have You, A Fifth of Beethoven, Jive Talkin', You Should Be Dancing, Disco Inferno.

CD Odyssey Disc 391: Blue Oyster Cult

Ladies and gentlemen, the return of Blue Oyster Cult to A Creative Maelstrom!  I'm so excited I delayed this review just so I could listen to them for a while.

Disc 391 is…Some Enchanted Evening

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1978

What’s Up With The Cover?:  This cover used to fascinate me as a kid.  As an adult I still find it very cool.  A mysterious undead creature rides across a desert landscape.  I love everything about this cover, from the contrast of the blue sky against the red mountains in the background, to the script artfully spelling out the name of the band and album.  Blue Oyster Cult often hides their band's iconic symbol somewhere on the cover, and here we find it making up part of the horse's bridle.

You might think this is Death himself riding across the desert, what with the skeletal visage and the scythe etc. but clever readers will note that based on the picture as presented, I went with the generic 'mysterious undead creature.'  Ten bonus points if you can guess why.

Although not the cover art, here's a photo from inside the CD I couldn't resist sharing:

So cool, they're almost not, but then still are.  Except for Eric Bloom - you can't wear your own tour shirt, dude.

How I Came To Know It: We are talking about one of the most influential bands in my life.  I've known this record since my brother brought it home from the store the year it was released in 1978, and I've been listening to it ever since.

How It Stacks Up: I have eleven studio albums by BOC and three live albums (not one live album as wrongly noted back when I reviewed Cultosaurus Erectus at Disc 206).  Of the three live albums, "Some Enchanted Evening" is the best, narrowly edging out "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees."

Rating: 5 stars

A brief interlude of instruments tuning up, followed by the challenge:  "Atlanta, Georgia:  are you ready to rock and roll?  Well please welcome, from New York City, Blue...Oyster...Cult!"  If there is a better live album opener, I can't think of it right now.

Then the band lights in with "R.U. Ready 2 Rock" a song that is respectable as the Side Two opener on their new (for the time) album "Spectres," but is somehow magnificent as the launch point for a live album.

The original live album only has seven tracks, each one a classic example of how to do live music right.  Right after you are warmed up with the opener, they launch into one of greatest guitar riffs ever, with "E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)."

The segue also demonstrates the delicate balance of a live album's music and crowd noise.  A little cheering from the local Georgians and they cut them off at just the right point with the opening notes of the second track.

From there we get "Astronomy", at 8:29 a respectable minute and a half longer than the studio version off of "Secret Treaties" giving you a bit more of Buck Dharma's guitar mastery, but not so much as to slip into shameless noodling (are you listening, Dire Straits, Led Zeppelin?).

On the regular length album, the requisite remake is MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" which is the best version of this song I've heard, including both the original and Rage Against the Machine's much later effort on "Renegades."  The energy of the band live flows out of this album in what I can only assume is some form of alchemical process lifted from the writings of the mad wizard Alhazred (if you know this reference, congratulations - you have another reason to enjoy B.O.C.).

Like any good live show, the crowd pleasers ("Godzilla" and "(Don't Fear) the Reaper") come late in the show, with the crowd already revved up.  The "Godzilla" live version is better than the studio track on "Spectres", which itself sets the bar pretty high.

The concert closes with another remake better than the original, this time an homage to The Animals' "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place."

Throughout the album, the energy never falters.  I've heard this album literally hundreds of times, and every time I feel like I'm at the concert all over again.

My copy of this album is the 2007 Legacy Edition re-issue, which has seven extra songs, making it twice as long as the original.  Ordinarily, adding all these extra tracks to the original album would enrage me.  However, live albums are a different animal (for another example listen to the extended version of Johnny Cash's "Live at San Quentin".

Like that album, the songs added here were played at the original show, and only edited off for length, not because they were filler.  Many of these tracks are concert staples for B.O.C., including "ME262", "Harvester of Eyes" and "Hot Rails To Hell" which they still play to this day.

There is also a pretty wild instrumental called "5 guitars" which has one of the most amazing bass solos you will ever hear.  That's right, dear readers - this album has a bass solo that kicks ass.

The extended tracks also feature another B.O.C. cover classic, "Born To Be Wild" although this version isn't as strong as the one off their first live album, "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees."  I can only assume they wanted to leave you wanting more.

The Legacy Edition also comes with a DVD called "Some Other Enchanted Evening" which is a bootlegged DVD of the concert tour.  Watching it made me appreciate just how incredible these guys were in the day, when all they had was their skill, stage presence and a very primitive laser show.

I've seen Blue Oyster Cult live twice - neither time with any lasers.  Once in around 1993 in a Victoria night club, where I was underwhelmed with the sound mixing, and once in Vancouver in 2008 where they were good, but didn't play long enough.  By contrast, "Some Enchanted Evening" is BOC in their heyday, with all five original members playing flat out.  In 1978 there were few if any live acts that had the visceral energy of these guys.

I don't usually give live albums five stars, but "Some Enchanted Evening" represents everything that a live album should be.  It has great sound quality, amazing performances, and a perfectly chosen set list to keep you immersed in the concert experience throughout, even when you're listening on headphones as you walk to and from work.  The songs are great, and when it is over - just like at any great concert - you feel both elated and wishing they'd come out for one more encore all at the same time.

Best tracks:  All the tracks are great and I couldn't pick out one over the others.  Of the fourteen, the only one I'd lose is the alternate version of "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" at the end of the album, and not because it is bad - but because I generally think repeating tracks on a record isn't called for.  It wasn't enough to knock them down from five, though.

CD Odyssey Disc 390: Pink Floyd

The CD Odyssey continues. Some days I'm excited to write a review, and other days I just want to get on to the next record. The bottom line is that almost three years ago I signed up for this little jaunt through my music collection, and I'm going to keep faith with my former self and see it through.

Also, it's kind of fun.

Disc 390 is…A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Artist: Pink Floyd

Year of Release: 1987

What’s Up With The Cover?: A beach full of beds, that's what's up. I remember when my brother bought this record on vinyl back when it came out how much he liked the cover. It is pretty cool, especially when you realize that in 1987 they didn't have the CGI to believably fake a beach full of beds - someone went out and laboriously put all those beds out there for real, so that they could take a picture. Nice.

How I Came To Know It: As noted above, my brother bought this record when it came out, and I borrowed it off of him and taped it. When it came out on CD in 1997, I bought it and I've had it ever since.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Pink Floyd albums. Pink Floyd makes pretty good records, so the competition is pretty stiff. I'll say this is 4th or 5th best.

Rating: 4 stars

"A Momentary Lapse of Reason" is a very smooth and relaxed sounding record for being birthed in anger. It was Pink Floyd's first album since Roger Watters had messily left the band, amidst legal threats and accusations about who got to call themselves Pink Floyd, and who got to play what songs in concert.

It is strange therefore, that the album comes out so smoothly. The songs are gentle on the ear, with atmospheric, almost soundrack-like synthesizers and rolling drums. Throughout, is the steady presence of David Gilmour's emotive guitar, which someone manages to avoid being wrecked despite a dangerously large helping of saxophone in places.

I'll give Gilmour full credit for his ability to make ambient sound so interesting, but he gets a big assist here - from Bob Ezrin. Yes, that Bob Ezrin - the man that helped make Alice Cooper the great musician that he is. Ezrin co-produces "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" and also co-writes the first two tracks, one of which ("Learning To Fly") was a modestly successful hit.

I love the way Ezrin gets the best the Watter-less Pink Floyd can muster on this album, without sacrificing their signature sound. He is a great and under-appreciated collaborator.

The highlight of the album comes right in the middle, with the five star song, "On the Turning Away." "On the Turning Away" is an anthem of compassion - a call to arms for the human race to finally show some true empathy with itself. I've listened to this song hundreds of times, including three times in the last two days, and it consistently moves me and motivates me. It begins:

"On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of other's suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away."

Whether this song is about helping less fortunate nations, or just noticing the down-and-out on your own street corner is irrelevant. It is about accepting an active role in being human. The song only has four verses, separated by a lengthy and perfect instrumental interlude. The interlude sets you on a reverie of all the times you may have turned away, when you should have held fast, and then the final verse comes back and hits you right between the eyes:

"No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away."

I like the rhetorical way the song ends, leaving the question to be answered by the listener, through their actions. When in doubt, it is always a good move to trust your audience to go and figure it out on their own.

Sadly, the record is not as pitch-perfect throughout. Songs like "Dogs of War" which I loved when I first heard it, now feel like a pale and preachy imitation of Bob Dylan's masterpiece "Masters of War." "A New Machine" parts 1 and 2 start to explore artificial intelligence (I think) but are snippets of songs that aren't fully developed.

Also, while "On The Turning Away" and a couple other tracks distinguish themselves, many others just sort of hang in space, seemingly wanting to connect with each other into a larger mood piece, but unable to find the right glue that holds the whole record together thematically.

It is missing an overarching vision that my other Pink Floyd albums have. Ezrin helps them hold it all together musically, and Gilmour is a genius in his own right but the record is ultimately missing the visionary of the band - the departed Roger Watters.

Much like Watters' 1992 effort "Amused To Death" (reviewed back at Disc 115) doesn't come together without Gilmour, "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" also falls short.

Because of the brilliance of "On the Turning Away" and how it has always spoken to me, and the overall quality of the compositions and production, I'm still going to have "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" edge ahead of "Amused To Death" into four star territory, but it could have been so much more.

Best tracks: Learning To Fly, On The Turning Away, One Slip.

CD Odyssey Disc 389: Barenaked Ladies

I am still not feeling particularly musical, but hundred of music reviews are not going to write themselves, so here I am. For my friend Catherine, this next band is her Nickelback (as in - she really, really hates them). Hey, everyone has to have a Nickelback.

So with apologies to Cat, I am now going to say generally positive things about the Barenaked Ladies.

Disc 389 is…Maroon

Artist: Barenaked Ladies

Year of Release: 2000

What’s Up With The Cover?: Um. I believe it is supposed to be arty. I like the font choices for the band name and album title, and I like the colour scheme, but beyond that I'm not a fan of this one. I prefer my art to look like something I couldn't draw. That sets the bar pretty low.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted in my review of Gordon (back at Disc 338) I've known the band since their demo tape days. Sheila is a bigger fan, and she either bought this album when it came out, or I bought it for her for a birthday or Christmas present.

How It Stacks Up: We have four Barenaked Ladies albums, all from early in their career. Of the four, I'd put "Maroon" 3rd. Not bad, but not great.

Rating: 3 stars

"Maroon" was the Ladies' follow up to 1998's "Stunt" which broke them into the American marketplace (however briefly). I expect they would have felt a bit of pressure to deliver under those conditions. Did they? I'd say...mostly.

The Barenaked Ladies write very catchy pop melodies, and I think too often this skill is too casually dismissed. It is not as easy as it sounds.

Their records tend to be a mix of whimsical humour and wordplay and a few more serious songs that will surprise you with their depth. My problem with "Maroon" is that they kind of blended these two approaches into almost all of the songs. The songs all seem on the surface to be light and pop-fueled. Lyrically, however, they have a sadness to them.

"Never Do Anything" is a jumpy song with a narrator musing on becoming a professional tic-tac-toe player or becoming wealthy with an internet scheme (which I think samples a Sting song in its opening bars, but couldn't put my finger on it). Anyway, the more you listen to it, though, the more you realize this is the story of a bitter, angry couch-surfer who is a big talker that will never motivate to do anything. It is OK, and works but is all a little too obvious. By comparison, I recently reviewed Tom Petty's "Wildflowers" album with the song "It's Good To Be King" which I think handles the material better, simply by crediting the listener with the skill to figure it out on their own.

Other songs on "Maroon" feature more quiet desperation, "Conventioneers" recounts an office romance that leads to an awkward workplace and "Sell Sell Sell" is the story of a man who dreamed of making it big in acting, and is now famous for his ability to convincingly pitch products in commercials.

All of these songs are carefully crafted, and easy on the ear, but the effort to infuse humour into dark topics is forced and obvious, making it hard to enjoy them as much as I would've liked. This is summed up nicely by track 8, "The Humour Of The Situation":

"I said on the phone 'don't wait 'til I'm home'
But, I'm sure I could hear you crying
I said where it was, but you doubt it because
It's the caller ID you're buying
In the hour that it took for me to drive up to the door
You'd arranged all my belongings on the lawn.

"Come on, now
Come on, now
Enjoy the humour of the situation."

Except obviously, there is no humour in this situation, and no jumpy pop beat will make it so. If that's the only point they're making (that it is ironic that there is no humour in the situation, but we'll sing it as if there were) then it is too obvious to be interesting.

Fortunately, after this track "Maroon" gets its feet under it and delivers some great tracks for its final third.

This begins with "Baby Seat," which is one of my favourite tracks on the album. Stephen Page's singing is finally on display (he is a surprisingly good pop vocalist when he wants to be). The song is about accepting your responsibilities and recognizing life is hard. It begins:

"You left Billy with the kid
And all the selfless things you did with Billy
You left your home town in the spring
And turned your back on everything
You thought your life would just go by
Without a pause to wonder, don't be silly."

The rhyme scheme may read cutesy but sounds great with the clever phrasing of the song.

A couple tracks later, "Helicopters" sings of the experience of a band touring a war-torn country, shocked by not just the devastation, but the callous attitudes of foreigners passing through, and the deep cynicism of the locals who never expect things to get better, and are tired of promises to the country. The fact that the country is never named would usually bother me, but here it works to write the experience across any number of situations - pick your foreign conflict and plug it in.

The album goes out with a quiet, slow song "Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel." It is a song in two parts. The first a traditional pop song telling the story of a car accident, and the second a piano-driven ethereal imagining of the narrator's soul leaving his body after first responders fail to save him at the scene. This song is almost nine minutes long, but never feels like it is dragging. By comparison some of the four minute numbers early in the album feel too long.

"Maroon" is a competent record by a talented band, but it takes a little too long to find its groove. Once it does it has a lot to say. As usual, the Barenaked Ladies are best when they decide to take themselves seriously.

Best tracks: Pinch Me, Baby Seat, Helicopters, Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel.

Inigo 2003-2012

Today, I have no music for you, but instead a tribute to my good friend, and the greatest cat in the world, Inigo Montoya, who died last night at 8 years, 6 months - or about 50 in people terms.

Sheila and I took Inigo to the vet, and put him down, after trying for over a month to defeat his idiopathic chylothorax, which was filling his chest cavity with fluid and slowly suffocating him. As someone who is used to solving problems, it has been a damn hard time cycling through vets, and medicine and internet research and ultimately, coming up empty.

I can't really explain all the rage and grief I'm feeling, so I'm going to let Thomas Hardy do it for me in a poem that speaks deeply to me right now. If you get through that, then there are some recent pictures of Inigo from happier times that you might enjoy.

Hap
by Thomas Hardy

If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Power fuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
--Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.

Me and my pal

Excited to play with his favourite stick

Playing with Vizzini when Vizzini was a kitten

On the deck

Battling carpet mice

Sitting on his favourite backpack (Sheila's)

With his old pal Othello, who died less than two years ago (see "Hap" above)

On my lap, where he spent a good portion of his very happy life.

See you, buddy. I hope if you ended up somewhere else, you're breathing easier.

CD Odyssey Disc 388: Rare Air

I wanted so badly to get through this next review that when I got home I just sat in the bathroom and waited for the last five minutes to roll by (the rules precluding any activity more involved.

O, how I wanted to reach behind me and read a few pages of Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Great Shark Hunt” (my current bathroom reader) but rules are rules, and no such activity is permitted when listening to an album for the CD Odyssey.

All of which is to say, I earned this one.

Disc 388 is…Space Piper

Artist: Rare Air

Year of Release: 1991

What’s Up With The Cover?: I’ve been known to be unkind to folk album cover art, but this one more than makes up for it. A highlander astronaut in full regalia, plays the pipes on the crag of some far off planet. Yes, technically you couldn’t hear the pipes in the vacuum of space, but this cover is not about what you could technically hear. It is an injection of pure awesome right into the eyes.

Yes, I bought this album for the cover.

How I Came To Know It: In the early nineties I had an insatiable appetite for Celtic folk music and was looking for something new. Through other acts I’d come across Green Linnet records, and knew they signed a lot of eclectic Celtic folk. Looking through their catalogue I found this record, and I bought it for the cover.

How It Stacks Up: This is the only Rare Air album I have, or am ever likely to have.

Rating: 1 star

What a cool album cover! Scottish finery and a space suit! A majestic pose and a tartan flapping in the cosmic wind.

Here the excitement ends, however. “Space Piper” is not your typical folk album, and it seems to take a great deal of delight in making this plain to any listener.

The principle of the record is cool, and what drew me to it; the fusion of space-age jazz with more traditional folk compositions. It even passes one of the key tests for me to enjoy modern jazz, that being I know what styles they are screwing with.

Also, the musicians in Rare Air are clearly talented. They know how to play and they play incredibly tightly despite very intricate arrangements. These guys know their craft. For this reason, it was even more maddening to hear them use their talents for evil.

The ‘evil’ in this case takes the form of a meandering jazz-noodle fest, with just enough penny whistle and bagpipes to leave you wanting more. Most songs have about two minutes of pretty harmony mixed with a nice ambient ‘space’ sound, and then another six minutes of wild jazz imaginings that torture that harmony into something unrecognizable - deliberately. As someone who loves folk music’s simple constructions, it was like the songs were being tortured. I found myself wondering if a jazz enthusiast would feel the same way, only from the opposite perspective.

I have only myself to blame. I read a review before I bought this and it was clear this album was going to be experimental. Even the cover art indicates you are in for some serious crossover. Unfortunately, the cover art is so cool I couldn’t resist taking the risk.

“Space Piper” is instrumental only – voices occur only as ambient background, and once as a poorly imagined narrative that introduces listeners to “Snake MacMurray” on the song of the same name. I believe “Snake” is a composite character of what the band imagines they are doing musically. By track four (where “Snake MacMurray” lurks) if you haven’t figured out what Rare Air is doing you haven’t been listening, but that doesn’t stop the boys from explaining it to you. I think it is supposed to be groovy and whimsical, but I found it patronizing.

This record should be on the ‘sell’ pile five minutes after I finish this review, just like it should have been on my sell pile the last three times I’ve found the mixture of musical bravery and pointless pride to put it on. It deserves to go to the home of someone who likes this kind of music – I’m sure there is someone, and no doubt they would be drawn right in. However, I’m going to keep it. I’d like to say I’m keeping it because I’m going to listen to it from time to time, but the truth is I just really like the cover art. A piper! In space! With bagpipes!

Best tracks: Death Of A Space Piper is 8 minutes long, and pretty damn cool for about five of them.

CD Odyssey Disc 387: The Rankin Family

It has been a hard Easter long weekend, as Sheila and I have had to deal with Inigo backsliding badly in his health, and needing another tap to drain fluid out of his chest. I hold out very little hope for him, and barring a miracle, this will be his last week with us. It sucks mightily.

So we’ve spent our weekend having a few cries, a few drinks and four games of Arkham Horror as we try to keep our minds occupied with something enjoyable.

Disc 387 is…Endless Seasons

Artist: The Rankin Family

Year of Release: 1995

What’s Up With The Cover?: A portrait of the band, shot to look antique. This cover isn’t anything special, but as folk music album art goes, it is pretty good.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed Grey Dusk of Eve way back at Disc 219, I’ve been a fan of the Rankin Family since I first heard “Fare The Well Love” in 1990. “Endless Seasons” is their fourth studio album, and I bought it when it came out.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Rankin Family albums (including one EP). “Endless Seasons” is a good record, but I’d put it 4^th out of those six.

Rating: 3 stars

I had intended to start this review noting the growth of pop and country influences on “Endless Seasons,” but listening again on the headphones as I write this, I think what I was hearing was better production. You see, lovers of folk music have an incredibly high tolerance for weak production values, as long as the music is good. They are rivaled in this only by lovers of punk music, who take it one step further and actually enjoy bad production. The production on “Endless Seasons” is amazing. So good, I almost forgot I was listening to a folk album.

This is folk music though, and good folk music at that, with the Rankin’s usual tasteful mix of traditional tunes, modern originals and at least one song sung in Gaelic.

Gaelic is a beautiful language, and I love listening to it sung, even when I don’t know what they’re saying. The offering on “Endless Seasons” is the very pretty “Oganaich An Or-fhuilt Bhuidhe/Am Braighe.” Say that three times fast. In English it means “Youth Whose Hair Is Golden Yellow/The Braes of Margaree.”

The Rankin sisters (Cookie, Raylene and Heather) have a beautiful, pure tone to their voices and in “Oganaich, etc.” you can hear every syllable. And of course, the mind – eternally trying to form order out of chaos – unhelpfully fills in English words whenever it thinks it hears them. Sheila and I always find this a humorous byproduct of listening to the Rankins sing Gaelic. So on this listen, among other things I heard:

“It clicks and gleams but boy you lean
You break your spleen your dyin’
But take machines and marry me
So come and clean up early.

The actual translation from Gaelic of that section comes out:

“The hills and dales most beautiful to us
Are the hills and dales of the Braes (Margarees)
Where we often sang
sweet melodies in the friendly company we liked best.”

So while I’m sure we can all agree that I was pretty close, the song is not in fact about human-robot love or cybernetic implants. It is a traditional song about a woman praising a guy for being a very good hunter, and an all-around brawny, attractive fellow. Like I said, I was pretty close.

Whatever it is about, it is a beautifully re-imagined traditional song, and the sisters sing it like angels. Listening, it is easy to remember why when I first listened to the Rankin family in the early nineties, my favourites featured the female voices of the band. Years later, I still love them, but I have a new appreciation for Jimmy Rankin.

Also a gifted singer, Jimmy’s voice has a bit more roughness in it that makes it the perfect foil against his sisters. On many songs, such as “Blue Eyed Suzie” each of the four of them take a turn at a verse, and Jimmy’s always manages to ground the song a little bit before Cookie, Raylene or Heather fly you back up to the clouds. It is a great combination, and they use it perfectly (did I mention the production is excellent?)

The final song on the album is my favourite, a Jimmy Rankin composition, sung by him alone called “Your Boat’s Lost At Sea,” a heartbreaking tale of someone hoping that their true love makes it back against all odds:

“Fire on the water
And smoke in the sky
I’ll leave the lamp burning
In case you drop by.”

I like the decision to use ‘drop by’ as well, re-interprets the song and see it as a more mundane collapse of the relationship, where one person is still hoping to salvage something that is beyond recovery. Or to paraphrase the Matrix, "the secret is - there is no boat."

The album is heartfelt and honest, but stumbles in places with an over-earnestness. This is particularly noticeable on “Natives” a song about the terrible history of the residential school system in Canada. It is an important topic, but the song tries to cover too much ground and misses its emotional target. It would benefit from the Steve Earle system of creating a single character around which to tell the story, rather than trying to write a chapter of history into a poem.

The title track, “Endless Seasons” is another fine Jimmy Rankin break-up song but the decision is taken to have the sisters sing it. They can sing the phone book and make it sound good, but their voices are a bit too pretty, and I found myself wishing Jimmy had sung this one instead. Hey, I said the production decisions were amazing – not perfect.

All told, I almost gave this album four stars, but lyrically there are a couple of awkward spots, and I have that ‘hard marker’ reputation to hold up, so I kept my enthusiasm dampened to a very high three, and left some room for their other albums to surpass it.

Best tracks: Oganaich An Or-fhuilt Bhuidhe/Am Braighe, Forty Days and Nights, Endless Seasons, Blue Eyed Suzie, Your Boat’s Lost At Sea

CD Odyssey Disc 386: Soundtrack

Since I had finished giving this next album a listen by the time I walked home from work today, I slipped a new album in on my visit to the gym – Cirith Ungol’s “One Foot In Hell.” This is one kick ass eighties metal album, and I’m looking forward to finding more by these guys.

The next review is about as far from eighties metal as you can get.

Disc 386 is...O Brother Where Art Thou

Artist: Various

Year of Release: 2000

What’s Up With The Cover?: As is common with a soundtrack, a promotion of the movie – here we have George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson escaping prison, in an early scene in the film. I like the whimsical feel of this cover, which nicely captures the music on the album.

How I Came To Know It: Long ago Sheila convinced me that every Cohen Brothers movie is worth seeing, usually more than once. We both really like “O Brother Where Art Thou” and from the moment we saw it, loved the music. We bought the soundtrack very shortly after seeing the film.

How It Stacks Up: I have twenty-four or so soundtracks. With this many it is hard to figure where each stacks up, and looking back over my reviews I see a lot fell into ‘middle of the pack’. I was determined to be more definitive this time and did a much more detailed analysis. I’m putting this album 14^th. Good, but middle of the pack.

Rating: 3 stars.

When we first got this record Sheila and I played it a lot, so I was expecting to like it a lot more when the dice gods selected it for the next review. Consequently I was disappointed when it turned out to be good, but not great. Expectation is a powerful force.

The movie “O Brother Where Art Thou” is a very loose retelling of Homer’s “The Odyssey” except that it takes place in depression era United States and is a comedy instead of an epic.

The music is a perfect fit for the movie, and is a mix of old originals, remakes and new music written in an early Americana style (a mix of gospel, bluegrass, blues and old standards). The music is carefully chosen, and the love that both the Cohen brothers and album producer T Bone Burnett have for the work is very evident.

Whatever style is at work, the production decisions keep it simple, recreating an early, folksy sound, except with the benefit of stereo (some people like that old mono sound, but I’m not one of them).

Some of the standouts for me are deep south proto-blues tracks like “Po’ Lazarus” and “O Death,” which capture the despair of not just the Great Depression, but what that Great Depression would be like for people living in abject poverty before it even started. “Po’ Lazarus” has a great production decision, sung by the prison chain gang at the beginning of the movie, with the sound of hammers breaking rock serving for percussion.

On the other side, is the sweet voice of modern bluegrass legend Alison Krauss singing the gospel song, “Down To The River To Pray,” which is some five star praise music. Later, she teams up with fellow ‘sirens’ Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch for more hard livin’ fair with “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby.” Generally, the songs featuring Krauss are the best, and it was nice to see this record propel her into a mainstream audience after being rightfully famous in bluegrass circles for many years prior.

Other songs didn’t inspire me the same, but fit the movie nicely, such “You Are My Sunshine,” “Keep On The Sunny Side” and “In the Highways,” old time sing-a-longs that haven’t aged well. In the film they are used by various corrupt politicians to help get the crowds to view them favourably, and the irony really works. Removed from their context for the soundtrack they sound dated and irrelevant.

One of the sub-plots of the film is that Ulysses and his ‘crew’ - escaped convicts on the lam – record a song during their travels called “Man of Constant Sorrow” which becomes a radio hit. There are four versions of this song on the soundtrack. They are all good, and in the film the repetition helps bind scenes together. Just listening to the album however, made me pretty sick of it by the time the 4^th version kicked in.

There are 19 songs on this record, which was again fine during the film, but way too many for any reasonably-lengthed record.

As I noted earlier, when I first heard all of these songs it was while watching “O Brother Where Art Thou” the film, and they fit so nicely that the glow stuck with me for many years after when just listening to the soundtrack. With some distance from that experience, the album is still strong, but it loses a little bit without the Cohen brother's full vision. Twelve years later it makes for an album where I’m more likely to cherry pick some of the standouts, and skip the others, and so taken as a whole, I must reluctantly grade it out as good but not great.

Best tracks: Po Lazarus, Down To The River To Pray, I’ll Fly Away, Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby, O Death

CD Odyssey Disc 385: Tom Petty

Music is a matter of taste, and this next album very much suited mine. So much so that I'd have a hard time understanding how anyone couldn't enjoy it.

Of course, you are free to disagree - there is no accounting for some tastes. How else can we explain that somewhere out there someone exists who believes that Nickelback is a talented rock band? After all, there are people who thinks Tim Tebow is a talented quarterback. Maybe there is even someone who thinks both things, although the mind recoils in horror at the possibility.

If you prefer your rock and roll to be good, then I invite you to read the following review, which is a discussion of one of the best. If you'd prefer to watch the best in quarterback play, then I applaud your interest in sports, but this isn't the blog for you - go to youtube and type in "Dan Marino."

Disc 385 is...Wildflowers

Artist: Tom Petty

Year of Release: 1994

What’s Up With The Cover?: A quartet of simple photos relating to the studio or the road, set tastefully in a light brown background. In the bottom left hand corner is some sort of ‘wildflower’ logo, I presume. The separate parts of this cover aren’t much to look at, but they work well together.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a Tom Petty fan for many years, but I bought this album after seeing that video for “You Don’t Know How It Feels” and wanting to hear that excellent song without the annoying censoring of the word ‘joint’ in the chorus.

Of note, I bought this album in A&B Sound’s satellite store for used CDs. A&B Sound used to be on Yates Street in downtown Victoria, and sold primarily new records. For a brief period they had a used section around the corner where the prices were super cheap, presumably to undercut resale rivals like Lyle’s Place. If this was the plan, it didn't work, as Lyle’s Place is still there and A&B Sound has disappeared – used section and main store alike.

How It Stacks Up: I have fourteen Tom Petty albums (11 with the Heartbreakers and three solo, including this one). I spent a bit of time before sitting down to write this looking for which of the other thirteen records were better than “Wildflowers” and came up empty. It is the best.

Rating: 5 stars.

On my way home from work today the sun was out, and the cherry trees along Broughton Street were in full bloom, I walked home, staring up at them, smiling widely and wondering what had made the moment so perfect. A big part of it was Tom Petty’s voice coming through the headphones:

“You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
Sail away, kill off the hours
You belong somewhere you feel free.”

“Wildflowers” is a record that puts you in that thoughtful, relaxed head space. It is accessible music, while sounding fresh and it is insightful, but avoids being preachy. This is music for cherry blossoms and unhurried walks. It is a record that inspires you to tip your hat to strangers and mean it. I did it a couple of times before I reached my door.

The magic starts, as it usually does, with the songwriting. Most of the songs are Petty’s solo creations, although two (“You Wreck Me” and “Don’t Fade On Me”) are collaborations with longtime Heartbreaker and guitar master Mike Campbell.

The range of songs is exceptional, with gritty blues rock numbers like “Honey Bee,” and “Cabin Down Below,” atmospheric slower numbers like “It’s Good To Be King” and “Don’t Fade On Me” and up-tempo and thoughtful pop music like the title track and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”

Sometimes a record can suffer from having all the songs sound too similar, with the result being that no single tracks stand out. Every song on “Wildflowers” is distinctive, yet the various styles all fit together seamlessly. These are fifteen great singles, but together they are more than that – they are a classic record.

At this point clever readers will note there are 15 songs on “Wildflowers,” breaking my cardinal rule that 14 songs should be the maximum for one record. In fact, on my first listen through I was convinced I’d find a song that stood out as a weak link, and was already pre-planning how I’d point to it as wrecking the perfect record experience, so I could knock this down to 4 stars.

My initial target: “Don’t Fade On Me” at Track 8, followed by “Hard On Me.” Similar titles, similar tempos, surely one of these songs could go. After a couple of listens, though, it couldn’t be done.

“Don’t Fade On Me” sounds like a song about saying goodbye to a sick friend, and its opening lines:

“I remember you so clearly
The first one through the door
I return to find you drifting
Too far from the shore.”

This had me thinking – of all things – of my sick cat, Inigo. I’d be very surprised if Petty was writing about his sick cat, but good art reaches across a divide, and finds shared emotional experiences in very different circumstances.

“Hard On Me” couldn’t be more different, an angry song lodged in a quiet tune, about someone not being there for you when you need them, with Petty half angry, half hurt, singing “you want to make it hard on me.”

And these two songs I targeted because they are the weaker songs on the record.

Most of the other songs are even better, with the first five tracks exceptional. The idyllic beauty evoked by “Wildflowers” is followed by the big hit, “You Don’t Know How It Feels” a song about alienation from one another that is so infectious it will have strangers singing out loud together when played. Piled on after these is a perfect road song (“Time To Move On”) a classic rock song (“You Wreck Me”) and a sly little number about the dangerous love of charismatic power (“It’s Good To Be King”).

Through it all, Petty’s voice has never sounded so good: clear and strong, and sweet in the higher register on the slower songs and rocking hard on the grittier tracks. The production is exceptional – another display of audio mastery by the great Rick Rubin.

“Wildflowers” is a modern classic, which consistently gets chosen for road trips, game nights and every other music-listening opportunity in my life. It is great stuff even if you’re not doing anything other than staring up at the cherry blossoms with a stupid grin on your face.

Best tracks: All tracks, but some of my personal favourites are: Wildflowers, You Don’t Know How It Feels, Time To Move On, A Higher Place and Crawling Back To You