CD Odyssey Disc 536: Leonard Cohen

As much as I wanted to give this album a few more listens, I couldn’t resist doing the review right away.  Some albums just inspire you in a way you can’t turn away from.  This is one of those.

Disc 536 is…. Songs From A Room

Artist: Leonard Cohen

Year of Release: 1969

What’s up with the Cover?  A stark black and white photo of Mr. Cohen himself.  This cover fits with the sparseness that Cohen likes to wrap himself in when he presents himself to the world.

How I Came To Know It:  I’ve known Leonard Cohen since junior high.  I haven’t known this album that long, but it has been in my collection so long that its origins are lost in the mists of time.  I bought it sometime in the very early nineties, I expect.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eleven Leonard Cohen albums.  I was just talking about how this album stacks up when I reviewed “Songs” back at Disc 522.  “Songs” having better production, and “Songs From a Room” having better poetry.  The writer has won out over the musician in me, because having heard them both fairly close together I’m going with “Songs From A Room” as my second favourite of them all.

Rating:  5 stars

I used to think Leonard Cohen had delivered the greatest opening track on a folk album with “Suzanne” but my joy and wonder were short lived when “Songs From A Room” kicked off with “Bird On The Wire.” 

I was lucky too.  When “Bird on The Wire” first kicked me in the teeth off of the new-fangled format of the Compact Disc I had never heard it by anyone else.  Not Jennifer Warnes’ bitter-sweet rebellion, not Johnny Cash’s gravelly resignation and – mercifully – not the Neville Brothers saccharine soundtrack abuse of it.

Instead, sitting in my basement suite in my first ever home away from home, nursing a broken heart, I heard Leonard Cohen’s sparse honesty as he broke through every emotional wall I was in the process of building and grabbed me as he sang, dry and empty, into the black night of the soul:

“Like a bird on the wire

Like a drunk in a midnight choir

I have tried in my way to be free.”

Cohen for me has always embodied the power of the poet to lay bare his personal doubts and fears and make those doubts and fears universal to us all.  The fact that he then put them to music makes us all the more fortunate.

Like its opening track, “Songs From A Room” is a very quiet album that digs very deep into the soul of anyone with the fortitude to sit still and listen and let it pull a little poison out.  It is a poultice for the soul.

After the introspective “Bird On The Wire” Cohen effortlessly switches to myth and allegory on a much larger scale with “The Story of Isaac.”  Cohen takes a classic bible tale of Abraham, a man who shows his devotion to God by willingly agreeing to sacrifice his son, and retells it from the wide eyes of the child to be sacrificed.  The music is simple; guitar, light and austere, calling to mind the alpine environment the father and son would have walked through on their way to the altar high on a mountain top.

Starting with devotional imagery including an axe made of gold, and a lake that resembles a lady’s mirror, it quickly devolves into “hatchets blunt and bloody” as Cohen takes the following unexpected turn at the end:

“And if you call me Brother now

Forgive me if I inquire:

Just according to whose plan?

When it all comes down to dust

I will kill you if I must

I will help you if I can.”

For me, this is a timely reminder that it is alright to question authority.  Even Captain Kirk knew that in Star Trek 5.  God doesn’t need your space ship, and he certainly doesn’t need you to murder your son.  Maybe not the lesson intended, but that’s what I get from the song.

Every song moves me in some way, but none more so than “The Partisan” a song that tells of the experience of French partisans in the Second World War.  It begins:

“When they poured across the border

I was cautioned to surrender,

This I could not do;

I took my gun and vanished.

I have changed my name so often,

I've lost my wife and children

But I have many friends,

And some of them are with me.”

It isn’t even written by Cohen – it is actually a folk song dating to 1943, written by Anna Marly and Emmanual d’Astier de la Vigerie and later translated by Hy Zaret.  Regardless of who wrote it, it is an amazing song, brought to life by Cohen’s prophetic voice.  You can say what you want about the limitations of that instrument, but Cohen makes every word drip with meaning.  You can have your multiple octave ranges; I’ll take truth in delivery when it is this good.

Every song on “Songs From a Room” has the same thoughtful resonance, although every one explores a different theme.  Space prevents me from spinning each of them out for you, but that is just as well – I would instead encourage you to go and buy this album and let Cohen spin the tales for you; he’s better at it anyway. 

Like the cleaning out of a wound, this is a record that scours deep and painfully into the most sensitive parts of what makes us who we are – both as individuals and as a brotherhood of man – and ultimately makes us the healthier for it.  As Cohen reminds us on “The Old Revolution” “even damnation is poisoned with rainbows.” “Songs From a Room” has plenty of both.

Best tracks:  all tracks, although if I had to live without one, I could survive without “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy.”  The others stay!

CD Odyssey Disc 535: Pink Floyd

It is a happy Sunday morning after a lovely weekend of socializing with various friends.

Today my plan is to kick back, take it easy and spend some quality time with just myself and Sheila.

And to kick it off, here’s the latest review.

Disc 535 is…. The Division Bell

Artist: Pink Floyd

Year of Release: 1994

What’s up with the Cover?  This is quite a trippy cover.  It is a type of cognitive illusion.  In this case you can see it as both two large heads yelling at one another and a single head looking out at you.  Your mind can see them both, but it can’t see them both at the same time.  A lot of the themes explored on “The Division Bell” relate to the importance of human communication, so the cover is pretty clever.

How I Came To Know It:  I only got this album recently.  I’d heard it a few times over the years, but I bought it when Sheila’s coworker Gord decided to part with a bunch of is CD collection.  This was a bargain for me, and I think I bought about twelve albums, mostly flushing out some of the classics I’d always meant to purchase but never got around to.

Also of note, Gord is one of the few people who leaves comments on this blog.  I really appreciate the feedback, so thanks for the good deal on the CD, Gord, but thanks even more for taking an interest in these music reviews.  It feels good.

How It Stacks Up:  With the recent addition of “The Division Bell” I now have six Pink Floyd albums, mostly from the latter half of their career.  I enjoyed this record, but I still have to put it down as last, or sixth.  Someone had to be last.

Rating:  3 stars

The “Division Bell” derives its name from the bell in British Parliamentary tradition that is rung to summon all of the Members of Parliament when there is a vote.  Just like the album cover art, the title is also fitting, given the themes of dialogue and communication it explores.

The “Division Bell” gets off to a bit of a slow start, with a meandering instrumental called “Cluster One” starting the record.  “Cluster One” is typical Pink Floyd fare; atmospheric and meandering, with a big echoing sound that makes you feel a little weightless.  I found “Cluster One” a bit boring, and it didn’t help that my media player seemed to think it was a Blue Rodeo song (for some reason the media player will sometimes just label a song wrong for no logical reason).

Once I overcame that little technological hiccup I could get into the album, which does pick up after “Cluster One.”  There are plenty more noodling tracks that don’t seem to go anywhere, but at least there is David Gilmour’s guitar to keep you company.  Gilmour is one of those great guitar players that is instantly recognizable as soon as you hear him start playing.

The first song that interested me musically was “Poles Apart” which lacks much of a notable hook, but makes up for it with some good emotional resonance in the music.  Also, for an album supposedly about communication, “Poles Apart” that on the surface is a song pitying someone who’s “lost the light in their eyes” but underneath that is a fairly passive aggressive poke at some failed relationship.  Are you listening, Roger Waters?

Overall the album feels more bitter than introspective.  The best example of this combination is “Lost for Words” which is a truly beautiful song musically, gently noodling about in a way that Mark Knopfler would appreciate, before Gilmour begins with this good advice:

“While you are wasting your time on your enemies

Engulfed in a fever of spite

Beyond your tunnel vision reality fades

Like shadows into the night.”

But wraps up with a very different message:

“So I open my door to my enemies

And I ask could we wipe the slate clean

But they tell me to please go fuck myself

You know you just can’t win.”

Uh…Dave – it sounds like your still wasting your time on your enemies here.  I would suggest you take the advice of fellow prog rockers Rush on their “Clockwork Angels” album when it comes to enemies. “All that you can do is wish them well” and move on.

For all that, I really like “Lost For Words.”  It is a pretty song to listen to, even if I don’t think it follows its own advice.

This was a pretty common experience for me on this record.  The lyrics are very defeatist, but the music that accompanies them is often inspirational.  In a clever way, Pink Floyd has drawn out how in our hearts (represented by the music) we are optimistic and desperately seeking true connection, but our words fail us, and communication breakdown seems inevitable as soon as we try to speak.

Later in the record, the song “Keep Talking” advises us to do just that, although again it is mostly accusatory in tone (i.e. – ‘why won’t you talk to me/You never talk to me’).  Also, the inclusion of a Stephen Hawking giving us a little lecture through the song about how language separates man from the animals feels a bit trite.

Musically, “The Division Bell” has a lot to recommend it.  Gilmour’s guitar is as good as ever, and the big ‘outer space’ resonant sound the band is known for is showcased wonderfully (thanks to Bob Ezrin, who scores yet another victory in his illustrious career as a producer).

However, it also falls victim to its own theme; unable to decide exactly what it wants to communicate about communication.  There are a lot of mixed messages and the music while good, isn’t great like on previous efforts.  As with “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” (reviewed back at Disc 390) I found myself wishing Roger Waters was still with the band giving the thematic direction the album needed.

Of course, Roger and David weren’t talking, so that was never going to happen.  How ironic.

Best tracks:  Poles Apart, A Great Day for Freedom, Lost For Words, High Hopes

CD Odyssey Disc 534: Blue Rodeo

The last Blue Rodeo album I reviewed (“Nowhere To Here”) I ranked as their weakest.  Today, it is my pleasure to review not only their best, but one of the best albums in our collection.

Disc 534 is…. Five Days in July

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 1993

What’s up with the Cover?  A lakeside cabin, tragically engulfed in flames – no doubt from playing too many hot tunes on a summer day.  Fortunately, a lone guitar was able to find an air mattress to cruise to safety.

How I Came To Know It:  Sheila played this album for me shortly after we met.  It was a pretty amazing way to be properly introduced to Blue Rodeo.  It is one of her all-time favourite albums, and it is easy to see why.

How It Stacks Up:  We have twelve Blue Rodeo albums.  This is hands down, without argument, the best of the best – gold medal.

Rating:  5 stars

Recently my guitar teacher taught me the first part of “Five Days in May” and I practically tripped over myself with excitement.  “Five Days in May” is one of my favourite songs of all time.  Now, imagine an album full of songs this excellent – you just imagined “Five Days in July.”

I could never figure out why the song is “Five Days in May” but the album is “Five Days in July.”  Frankly, I don’t care.  Just give me more of this record more often.

The opening track, which I can still only play a portion of (and that poorly) is not a complicated song.  It is a pretty basic set of chords, but like most great songs it is elegant in that simplicity, shifting evenly from minor to major chords back and forth like the gentle rocking of the ocean.  The song seems like it will end after four minutes, but it gives you a three minute guitar noodle at the end that strangely makes it…better.

Lyrically, “Five Days in May” is a picture perfect love song, about how sometimes you just find that right someone and everything clicks.  It is loaded with exceptional lyrics, but my favourite stanza is one that succinctly sums up the strange alchemy of finding your split-apart:

“Looking back it’s hard to tell

Why they stood while others fell

Spend your life working it out.

All I know is one cloudy day

They both just ran away

Rain on the windshield heading south

Oh, she loved the lines around his mouth.”

For all the poignant break up songs Cuddy has given us, he owed us a happy ending, and “Five Days in May” pays that debt.

The next song is back to sad, with Greg Keelor taking his turn to tell of the death of a long love affair.  Again brilliantly expressed throughout but best here:

“I never thought this could happen

But somehow the feeling is gone

You got sick of the patterns

And I got lost in this song.”

Keelor is best when he resists his tendency to engage in stoner-noodle, and “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” has just the right touch of restraint.  It also has the brilliance of Kim Deschamps steel guitar making it all the more mournful.  Although rarely mentioned, the rest of Blue Rodeo are brilliant musicians in their own right.

Did I mention that this is just the first two songs?  I could go on like this about every one of them, but both time – and the recognition that the modern internet reader has a limited focus – prevent me.

So let me summarize:  there isn’t a sour note on this record.  The opening harmonica on “Bad Timing,” is great.  The way “Cynthia” manages to successfully blend a date song with a UFO encounter.  Trust me, it doesn’t just manage the blend, it nails it.

Even the atmospheric sounds Keelor sticks into “What Is This Love” are placed perfectly.  Overdone, this kind of production can ruin a record, but tastefully employed they “Five Days in July” a nice balance against its bluegrass and roots rock base.  Also, no one can convincingly sing “What’s Goin’ On?” quite like Keelor.  I swear the guy revels in singing about not knowing what’s going on.

“’Til I Gain Control Again” is so effortlessly heartfelt that for a good fifteen years I thought it was a Blue Rodeo original.  Turns out it is Rodney Crowell classic.  I found out when I heard the great Emmylou Harris sing it on her great 1975 album, “Elite Hotel.”  The Blue Rodeo version here is every bit as good as Emmylou’s, and that is saying something.

Different songs on the album have appealed to me over the years, but recently I look forward to the penultimate track; Keelor’s “Dark Angel.”  It is a subtle and haunting song about meeting your soul mate, but only in your dreams – waking to wonder how you can find her in this reality.

Dreams are powerful and important and as Keelor points out, sometimes you wake up wondering whether the people you met there were in your dream, or you were in there’s.  If you don’t wonder this, then you aren’t giving a pretty significant part of your life enough thought.

“Five Days in July” is an album that gives dreams the consideration they deserve, and the rest of life besides.  This is a thoughtful album that writes track after track with a timeless grace that makes you think all the songs have been around forever, just waiting to be discovered.  Even a classic five star remake like “’Til I Gain Control Again” just fits in as one of many equals.

Musically, it is everything that makes Blue Rodeo great; Cuddy’s evocative vocals, Keelor’s moody thoughtfulness, and a band that is as tight as they come.  It lays down Blue Rodeo’s alchemical mix of rockabilly, bluegrass and folk, each in perfect measure.

We’ve had this album on hundreds of times, and I’m sure I select it almost as much as Sheila at this point.  The last time I listened to it prior to rolling it randomly on Tuesday was…Saturday.  I’ll probably listen to it again this weekend.  I’ll say thanks to Sheila for introducing me to it, although ‘thanks’ seems woefully inadequate.

Best tracks:  all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 533: The Heavy

Like the Terminator making his way through a police department looking for Sarah Connors, the CD Odyssey makes its way through my CD collection, relentless in its mission to review every album.  Obviously, there is less shooting.

Disc 533 is…. The House That Dirt Built

Artist: The Heavy

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover?  I assume this is the dollhouse that Dirt built.  Mr. Dirt decided his house should be decorated with a spirograph wall hanging, a drum kit, a giant human skull and a cartoon lamb.  I think the clear message is that you can come over for a jam session or an art lesson, but don’t go in the basement, because Mr. Dirt is one messed up dude.

How I Came To Know It:  I had heard a single off of this album, “How You Like Me Now?” because the band sold it for a car company commercial and various movie trailers, but I didn’t really know anything beyond that.  Sheila got me this album for Christmas, and I’m glad she did.

How It Stacks Up:  Apparently The Heavy have three albums, but I’ve just got the one, so can’t really stack it up.

Rating:  3 stars but a solid 3.

James Brown meets the Kills and decides to learn to sing falsetto.  That’s about the best I can do to sum up “The Heavy,” an English band that defies description for both good and ill.

These guys have a strong background in R&B, but it has an outsider rock edge.  The signature song on this record, “How You Like Me Now?” is a classic example, where a James Brown-like Grade-A riff leads the song off, but there is also enough fuzzy guitar (and at one point an almost Dire Straits like piano) to keep the song from ever becoming too derivative.

Also in the band’s favour is lead singer Kelvin Swaby, who has great range and power, and is particularly strong at the high end of his range.  He doesn’t get down and growl, but he still finds time to rub a lot of dirt on his vocals.

The band is exceptionally tight, which is usually a good thing, but there are times where they are a little too perfect, and it takes away from the organic quality that R&B inspired music needs to have to truly soar.  There were a couple of places that it sounded like they were sampling themselves.  It is important that even when keeping perfect rhythm to always let the song progress organically.

I don’t think this is the band’s fault as much as it is the production, which has a few too many effects layered on.  At its worst, the overly clever re-arrangements had me thinking of those Verve Remix albums from the early oughts that I’ve treated unkindly in previous reviews.  A band this talented musically doesn’t need all that stuff fuzzing out their voices or making echo effects; they can do that just with the strength of their playing and Swaby’s grit.

“The House That Dirt Built” ranges all over in terms of musical influences, often reaching pretty hard to show diversity.  There are good reaches, however. “Short Change Hero” which begins with sounds of thunderstorms and a lonely guitar that sounds straight out of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western theme song.  Here the layered production serves the song beautifully, because the song by its very nature is already over the top.  When Swaby starts his high falsetto over the instruments, accompanied by the sexy rattle of castanets, I was completely sold.

Less enjoyable is the reggae inspired “Cause for Alarm” which is catchy enough but again, lacks the organic quality that is a critical part of what makes reggae great.  Yet just when I feel out of it, the next song is “What You Want Me To Do” comes along, full of squawk box like the Beastie Boys “Check Your Head” album but with an even grittier rock edge.  It shouldn’t work, but again The Heavy pull it off.

The album ends with “Stuck” which is a down tempo soul ballad.  The previous ten songs (yes, the album is a tasteful 37 minutes) have had various degrees of pretentiousness, and does a surprisingly good job of holding all that self-absorption together.  “Stuck” strips all that away and the band settles in to something perfectly between  U2 and Hot Chocolate.

Many of the songs on “The House That Dirt Built” are edited for radio length and have a displeasing ‘make me famous’ vibe.  At 5:26 “Stuck” takes its time, but doesn’t overstay its welcome.  It just tells the simple tale of someone waiting on the woman he loves to choose him or set him free.  It reminded me of the 1974 classic by the O’Jays’ “You Got Your Hooks in Me.”

The Heavy may over-decorate their product in places, but at no point do I feel like they mailed it in, so while I only gave this album three stars, its three stars with a lot of positives.

Best tracks:  How You Like Me Now?, Short Change Hero, What You Want Me To Do, Stuck

CD Odyssey Disc 532: The Smiths

Last night Sheila and I treated ourselves to a nice romantic dinner at Il Terrazzo.  I had the venison steak and it was as good as it ever was.

And despite one too many martinis I am up early (benefits of the body clicking into early hours for work) ready to write this next review.

Disc 532 is…. The Queen is Dead

For crying out loud man, get up and get a glass of water or something.

Artist: The Smiths

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover?  According to the liner notes this is some sixties actor named Alain Delon.  Yet another “I fall on the thorns of life, I bleed” cover from the Smiths; excessively maudlin and melodramatic.

How I Came To Know It:  Actually, I heard about this album on some VH-1 countdown.  I think it was “Top 100 albums of the past 25 years” and it aired around 2005.  This album was on their list, and since Sheila had already introduced me to the Smiths (“Louder Than Bombs” reviewed just last month at Disc 524) I decided to give it a chance.

How It Stacks Up:  We have only two Smiths albums.  I’ll put “The Queen Is Dead” at #1 by a larger margin than I expected when I reviewed “Louder Than Bombs”.

Rating:  4 stars

I was sixteen when this album came out and at the time was fully immersed in heavy metal.  A big part of my attraction to metal at that time was its outsider nature.  The idea of being a new wave Goth was abhorrent to me at the time.  As an adult I can see that despite the very different music, the Smiths had exactly the same iconoclastic appeal that metal had.  In the eighties this album was probably held with the same deep affection by the Goth crowd that metal-heads like me held for Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave.”

Years later I still favour “Powerslave” but the years have given me a broader spectrum of musical tastes, and I can see why “The Queeen is Dead” is such an iconic album for so many people.  The melodies have a pretty, lilting quality.  Many songs sound inspired by old forties and fifties crooners, adapted to a new wave sensibility.  Morrissey could easily have been a famous lounge singer if he’d been born thirty years earlier.

Morrissey’s ability to inject pathos into very over-the-top lyrics is front and centre again, but if anything his voice is even better than on “Louder Than Bombs.”  Moreover, while the songs still stray close to overly dramatic, I found myself getting much more drawn into them this time.  This was particularly true for “I Know It’s Over” which is an honest and affecting song about loneliness.  I expect this song got many a sad teen through some legitimately tough times and let even more of them better enjoy wallowing in some pointless misery (a long-standing teen pastime).  There is one little riff in the background of the song that sounds a lot like the 1984 Pretender’s song “2000 Miles” but hey, I like that song too.

On the other end, the band displays their sense of humour with the catchy sing-a-long track “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” which is equal parts dismissive satire to the character of Mr. Shankly and a basic rejection of a normal life in search of fame.  Lines like these:

“Frankly, Mr. Shankly, this position I’ve held

It paves my way, but it corrodes my soul

I want to leave, you will not miss me

I want to go down in musical history.”

Makes me think that Mr. Shankly is a Soulless Record Exec.  Later in the song Morrissey attacks Mr. Shankly’s terrible poetry and calls him a ‘flatulent pain in the ass.’  Sounds like a Soulless Record Exec. to me.  To which Mr. Shankly, the Soulless Record Exec would reply – ‘hey, who went down in musical history?  The title of the song has my name in it!”  Well played as ever, Soulless Record Exec., well played.  But I digress…

The other thing about “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” is just how pretty the song is.  At its core it is a pretty basic pop song but there is an art to taking simple, oft-used musical progressions and making them fresh and new, a characteristic notable through the whole album.

The poor spelling of the song “Cemetry Gates” is offensive, but I forgave it when I heard the song.  “Cemetry Gates” is an exceptional pop song, with a breezy, summer day quality to it.  Despite the song being about the ephemeral nature of life, I just got visions of two young lovers skipping through the graveyard, spinning and dancing their way through the gravestones, sunlight filtering in through all those trees that a good graveyard is populated with.  Hey, we’re all slowly dying, so we might as well have something to dance to.

Also, while the song goes out of its way to name drop with lines like “Keats and Yeats are on your side/While Wilde is on mine” I happen to like literary references, and the Smiths make them work effortlessly in service of the song’s theme.

Johnny Marr plays his guitar with his usual reserved excellence, light on the strings but still with focus and intensity.  Marr’s willingness to hold the guitar back in the mix and let the bass and drum ground these tracks is commendable, and gives the album a nice balanced production quality.

“The Queen is Dead” is tastefully restrained at ten tracks and under forty minutes, and there are no bad songs.  “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” and “Vicar in a Tutu” are a bit too ‘novelty song’ after you’ve heard the album a few times, but they are good on first blush and besides – that’s how novelty songs are supposed to work.

I expected to like this album, but I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did.  The maudlin qualities are toned down from what I expect from the Smiths, and as I write this review I’m hearing the album for the fourth time in a row and still enjoying it immensely.  If you ever wanted to get into the Smiths but were afraid of all the pouty, tear-drop-tattoo reputation of the band, then “The Queen is Dead” is a great “Cemetry gateway” album to get you started. 

Best tracks:  Frankly Mr. Shankly, I Know It’s Over, Never Had No One Ever, Cemetry Gates, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

CD Odyssey Disc 531: The Rankin Family

I’m currently working the early shift (starting at 5:30 a.m.).  It has only been three days, so the novelty is still there and I like the quiet of the walk, before traffic gets going.  Later it will start to wear, but for now it’s not too bad.

This next album is also not too bad – it is downright good, in fact.

Disc 531 is…. Uprooted

Artist: Rankin Family (aka “The Rankins” for this album)

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover?  A vaguely disturbing pastoral scene of a horse toiling under a red sky.  The painting is by Ken Nishi and is titled “Charlie Joe MacLean.”  The ghost of Charlie Joe is actually referenced in one of the album’s songs, “Weddings, Wakes and Funerals.”  I have no idea who Charlie Joe is, though.  You’ll have to ask Jimmy Rankin; he wrote the song.

How I Came To Know It:  This was just me, buying the Rankin Family albums as they came out.  What can I say?  When I like an artist I get into them.

How It Stacks Up:  First it was Soundgarden’s “Louder Than Love” then Rush’s “2112” and now for the third time in recent memory I find an album has impressed me more than I expected.  I have six Rankin Family CDs and I’d left room for “Uprooted” at #5.  Having listened to it though, I have to move it up so I’ll put it 3^rd and bump “Endless Seasons” back to 5^th.  It also means that “North Country” will likely get bumped when I review it, but then again maybe it will surprise me as well.  Always be willing to change your mind.

Rating:  3 stars but close to 4

“Uprooted” is the last album for the Rankins before they broke up (although they did reform several years later, at least briefly).  The album is a bit of a departure for them stylistically, which may account for why it jarred me so much in 1998 when it was released.

The record has the band dropping the ‘family’ from their title and identifying simply as “The Rankins.” The music is also a shift.  It still incorporates a goodly amount of traditional East Coast Celtic folk, but it adds in some more contemporary folk and a bit of pop as well.  Given where Jimmy Rankin’s solo albums would go after this record, I have to believe he was a big part of the shift.

The opening track, “Moving On” is a typical Rankin Family party song, with Jimmy and his sisters taking turns on verses.  It doesn’t break any new ground, but it is jumpy and gets the energy of the record up from the very beginning.

The real winners on this album are Jimmy Rankin songs where he is spreading his wings as a songwriter.  “Let It Go” is a poignant song about love’s collapse.  When Jimmy sings “you wanna stop the flame from burning/I just want to let it go” we’re reminded that sometimes the saddest death of a love affair is the one born out of resignation.

Jimmy also writes some great stuff for his sisters on this record, including “Bells” which showcases the amazing range of Heather Rankin.  She starts this song on a note I couldn’t reach and then climbs up an octave higher.  The song starts simple, with just John Morris on piano, and builds naturally like great songs do.

The pop elements on the album are generally kept tastefully restrained, although there are times when I would have toned them down further.  “Maybe You’re Right” has some strange background vocals that would be more at home on a pop starlet’s record than a serious folk album.  It is worth noting that the Rankins do all the vocal effects without the abomination that is Autotune.  Also, hearing Heather Rankin sing the line “when the shit hits the fan” on “Long Way to Go” sounds a bit jolted.  A voice so sweet just sounds weird wrapped around sour words.  Given how sweet her voice is, though, it is a minor quibble.

There are still plenty of excellent traditional sounding songs on the record.  Most are crowded onto what we old-timers would refer to as “Side Two” giving the latter half of the record a bit more of what fans at the time were probably expecting.  Traditional Gaelic songs like “O Tha Mo Dhuil Ruit (Oh How I Love Thee)” and “An Innis Aigh (The Happy Isle)” are classic Rankin Family, with the beautiful, powerful harmonies of sisters Cookie, Raylene and Heather.  The band has always been fortunate in having so many great voices all together.

Brother John Morris also delivers his usual writing excellence on “The Parlour Medley.”  John Morris could really wail on a violin, in that heavy stepping Cape Breton style that is full of sway and life and makes you want to get up and kick some floorboards.

For all these, my favourite traditional song is “Farewell to Lochaber.”  I can’t be certain, but I think this is a song about a soldier having to leave Scotland after the Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion failed in 1746.  A number of chiefs and retainers fled Scotland with Bonnie Prince Charlie, never to return.  Hearing this song, from the perspective of one of the soldiers saying goodbye to his sweetheart – as it turns out, forever – is heartbreaking.

It helps that one of my favourite pictures (a print of which graces the wall of our living room) is J.B. MacDonald’s “Lochaber No More.”  Here’s a picture of it.

If you look at the bottom right you’ll see one of my favourite details; a highlander taking a cup of seawater from the shores of Lochaber – a memento of his home while in exile.  Damn, it’s heartbreaking.  But I digress…

Back to “Uprooted” which as I noted above, is a great mix of traditional and modern, upbeat and melancholy.  This album really grew on me, and although I loved what Jimmy did on his solo work out of the gate, it makes you realize how much magic he had with the family, even as they all prepared to take an extended break.

Best tracks:  Let It Go, Bells, Parlour Medley, Tailor’s Daughter, Lochaber No More

CD Odyssey Disc 530: Rush

Two Rush albums in a row!  It is an unlikely event, but this isn’t the first time the dice gods have managed to pull it off.  Fortunately it is another good one.

Disc 530 is…. Fly By Night

Artist: Rush

Year of Release: 1976

What’s up with the Cover?  Pretty basic.  We’ve got the title, the band’s name and a pentagram reflected on a stage.  I like the simplicity well enough, but doesn’t compare to the owl of “Fly By Night.”

How I Came To Know It:  Like, “Fly by Night,” “2112” was a very hyped album throughout my high school experience and when I started building my Rush collection in the early nineties this was another one of the first albums I bought.

How It Stacks Up:  As I just finished mentioning in my last review, I have 19 Rush albums – I am missing their “Feedback” album. “2112” is one of their best, although I put it just behind my favourites so we’ll go with...4^th.  Just ahead of “Caress of Steel” and just behind “Hold Your Fire.”

Rating:  4 stars but almost 5

In the seventies, the usual approach when you want to sell a rock album was to put a relatively short ‘single’ on Side One to draw people in, and then put whatever long, drawn out epic noodle-fest on Side Two, after your audience was firmly interested.  “2112” bravely turns that convention on its head filling the entirety of Side One with the title track, which is over twenty minutes long.  It is a risky decision, but it works because it just happens to be twenty of the greatest minutes in the history of rock and roll.

“2112” is an epic sci-fi/fantasy about the power of music and how it inspires people to stand up to tyranny.  On a perfectly ordered mythical planet run by the austere priests of the Temple of Syrinx, the human population lives safe, but uneventful lives.  Then one day a man finds a guitar and in his excitement he brings it to the priests.  Instead of being interested, they dismiss him and demand that he return to the ordered society they’ve constructed.  Finally, in a bit of a deus ex machina, an elder race returns to the planet to tear down the Temple of Syrinx.

Unlike “By-Tor and the Snow Dog,” on the earlier “Fly by Night”, “2112” is not as goofy as it sounds.  Combined with brilliant music that hits just the right tone through the shifting story, Geddy Lee gives heartfelt voice to Neal Peart’s lyrics, as he relates what in many ways is a simple morality play, where the greater good being upheld is the power of music.

The martial sounding “Temples of Syrinx” section of the song is the best for rocking out, but my favourite part of “2112” is when our hero first discovers the guitar.  Geddy sings with a tentative wonder, and Alex Lifeson plays the ‘part’ brilliantly, putting just the right amount of uncertainty into his playing to convey what it’s like to pick up an instrument and be enthralled with playing it for the first time.

Recently I was treated to a surround sound version of this song at my friend Chris’ which was accompanied by an animation depicting the story I outlined above.  It was an immersive experience that gave me a new appreciation of “2112”s greatness. So a shout out to Chris for that.

Side Two of “2112” is a collection of shorter songs.  While they don’t provide the shock and awe of the first half of the album, they are still pretty damned good.

In particular, I liked the strum-tastic “Lessons” which felt like a sequel to “Fly by Night’s” “Making Memories.”  “Making Memories” has a similar construction as it sings about the pleasant memories you make on a road trip.  “Lessons” is darker, as it juxtaposes the sweet memories of experience, with the grim fact that so often we don’t learn from them.

As we get older, there is a risk that we mistake all of our accumulated experiences for wisdom, but it isn’t wisdom if you don’t let those experiences teach you something about yourself, and always be ready to guard against complacency.  “Lessons” is a reminder of this, and a kick ass song as well.

Lesser tracks include “Passage to Bangkok” and “The Twilight Zone.” They are both great musically, but lyrically I found them a little bit awkward.  Not remotely enough to ruin the record mind you, just not at the same level of the other material.

My other favourite Side Two track is “Something for Nothing” which explores a common theme in Rush music; that of self-reliance.  Rush is not a typical rock band, because they aren’t content with songs simply about rebellion.  They will always step forward and challenge their listeners to make choices, take stands and own the results of their actions:

“You don’t get something for nothing

You don’t get freedom for free

You won’t get wise

With the sleep in your eyes

No matter what your dream might be.”

 It is an appropriate song to end this record with.  It rocks out, it makes you think and then it makes you take ownership of those thoughts and put them into action.

This is a thoughtful record by a thoughtful band determined to make good art, even at the risk of alienating record sales.  That they are still going four decades after “2112” was released is proof positive that people are perfectly willing to be intellectually challenged through music.  That the music is so damned good – well that’s just the chocolate coating that makes it go down easier.

Best tracks:  2112, Lessons, Something for Nothing

CD Odyssey Disc 529: Rush

The CD Odyssey requires one full listen before I review, but sometimes after a single listen I don’t feel like I’ve sufficiently grokked the record to talk about it.  So it was with this next album, which I’ve listened to three times over.  Each listen has been a better experience, which is how a good record should treat you.

Disc 529 is…. Fly By Night

Artist: Rush

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover?  Owl!

How I Came To Know It:  I’ve known the song “Fly by Night” since I was a kid, and when I started building my Rush collection in the early nineties this was one of the first albums I bought.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 19 Rush albums, which I think is all of their studio releases.  Competition is fierce at the top, but I’ll put “Fly By Night” ahead of most of their work so let’s say…6^th.  Just behind “Caress of Steel.”

Rating:  4 stars

1975 and enter drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, and with his entry Rush became the band that went on to worldwide fame.  As much as I get a kick out of the fun-lovin’ rock and roll of their debut album, it is this new incarnation of Rush that made them interesting and durable and to me this is the first of their great records.

The band’s earlier sound is still present, particularly in tracks like “Best I Can” and “Making Memories.”  “Making Memories” is positively mainstream, and has a laid back feel that made me think of stubby beer bottles, cut off shorts and cannonballs into the local lake (not that I ever  cannonballed anyone – it always seemed more rude than fun).  These straight ahead rock songs aren’t may favourites on the album, but I like them and as weird and progressive as Rush gets, these songs show that they could play straight ahead hard rock songs with the best of ‘em if they were moved to.

But of course an album of straight ahead rock songs would bore this trio of musical maestros, and so they welcomed odd-ball and book-worm Neil Peart into their band for drumming excellence and lyrical inspiration. At the same time as Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson began taking the music down more interesting pathways.

The hit that resulted was the title track, “Fly By Night.” Like any great rock song it has a memorable introductory riff, but the song infuses a much more interesting melody into what could be just another summer anthem.  As the song itself says, almost self-referentially:

“Start a new chapter

I find what I’m after

Is changing every day

The change of a season

Is enough of a reason

To want to get away.”

Of course they seamlessly change the song’s tempo and melody as Geddy sings these lyrics, the kind of in-song gymnastics that would become their hallmark.  It should be worth noting that while undertaking all this sonic flexibility, they don’t forget to make the song catchy in its own weirdly beautiful way.

Along with a fresher sound, the album features the beginning of some wild and fantastical topics.  At its best, their literary and fantastical references are wonderful.  “Rivendell” is inspired by the mythical Elven kingdom from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth.  What could have been a laughable piece of fan fiction in the wrong hands is instead a beautiful depiction – musically and lyrically – of a magical place of rest and respite.  Lifeson’s guitar playing is gentle and dreamlike and Geddy wisely sings it light and airy so it sounds relaxed throughout.  I won’t quote the lyrics, because it is one of those songs that loses something without the dimension of sound.

When Rush goes too far, however, it can get ridiculous, as we hear on the ridiculous “By-Tor & The Snow Dog”:

“The tomb of Hades, lit by flickering torchlight

The nether world is gathered in the glare

Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light

The sign of Eth is rising in the air.

By-Tor, knight of darkness,

Centurion of evil, devil's prince”

What the hell?  I’ve heard this song many times and while what it is about (a battle between some evil demon named “By-Tor” and some mythical ermine-coated guardian called “The Snow Dog” it always makes me laugh.  Musically interesting, the lyrics are too over the top, and pull me out of the moment.  Also, with no frame of reference I don’t really care that the Snow Dog triumphs over By-Tor.  Somewhere in Neil Peart’s rough notes I suspect the beginnings of a very bad short story.  Please never finish it, Neil.

The album ends with one of my all-time favourite Rush deep cuts, “In the End.”  At 6:46, this song takes its time getting going, delivering an entire verse in stripped down, slow-tempo as it draws you in, setting you up for Lifeson’s kick-ass guitar rock riff and even a subtle bit of funk guitar tucked in behind for the first couple of bars.  This song is simple in construction, but filled with fist-pumping energy, a heartfelt (and grounded) guitar solo and a vibe that makes you want to go out and take on the world.

In some ways, “Fly by Night” is a transition album for Rush, as they still hold onto some of their more traditional conventions while also establishing their own unique sound.  However it is so good at blending the two trends that to call it a simply a transition album would be to do it a disservice.  It doesn’t come out in the top five of their records like I expected it to, but it comes damn close.

Best tracks:  Anthem, Fly By Night, Rivendell, In the End

CD Odyssey Disc 528: Soundgarden

I’ve started writing my first ever song today.  Most of the tune is in my head, but I am feeling cautiously optimistic that I’ll be able to get it down on the page as well with the help of my guitar.  In the meantime, I’m focused on the lyrics and having a hell of a good time being creative.

Meanwhile, over in the land of other people’s music (aka the CD Odyssey) the reign of double album terror has finally abated with this next album.

Disc 528 is…. Louder Than Love

Artist: Soundgarden

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover?  Chris Cornel in his long-haired youth rocks out.  I’m not a big fan of this cover, but it fits the grunge vibe of the era; it is visceral and deliberately non-pretentious (in a pretentious kind of way, of course).

How I Came To Know It:  As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, my friend and former roommate Greg introduced me to Soundgarden, and this album was one he purchased one day.  I had never heard of them before that, but I liked what I heard.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Soundgarden albums (still hemming and hawing about “King Animal”).  I had cleverly saved the 4^th slot for this album, forgetting how great it is.  In fact, this album is brilliant, and second only to my all-time favourite, “Badmotorfinger.”

As this is the last Soundgarden album I currently have for review, tradition dictates a quick recap in order of preference (with two albums being bumped from their original ranking):

1. Badmotorfinger: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 283)
2. Louder Than Love: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Superunknown: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 481)
4. Screaming Life/Fopp:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 393)
5. Down on the Upside:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 304)

Rating:  4 stars

It should come as no surprise that an album titled “Louder Than Love” is going to sound better at high volumes.  What is surprising is it took me twenty years or so to properly realize this.  My friend Spence has praised it for years and once again I find upon further review that he is right.  The man knows his music.

Earlier listens to this record were generally in my house, where (apart from one exception noted below) I never really turned it up that loud or in the car, where a lot of the sound layering is lost in engine noise.  Consequently, I’ve always given “Louder Than Love” short shrift.  This listen was entirely on high quality headphones as I walked to and from work, and early in the first track, “Ugly Truth” something deep inside me told me to turn it louder.

“Ugly Truth” is a great launch point for “Louder Than Love.” It has equal parts groove-driven guitar riff, subtle but beautiful melodies and a chunky metal flavour throughout.  It is this metal element that originally had me loving Soundgarden most of all the grunge bands that emerged in the late eighties, and they have no heavier album than this.  “Badmotorfinger” comes close, and I think it is more complete overall, but for sheer visceral energy “Louder Than Love” is the bomb.

This energy is driven partly by Chris Cornell, one of rock’s all-time great vocalists.  The man can scream in three octaves and still stay in tune.  The band is extremely tight for so early in their career.  This is critical with grunge’s thick fuzzy sound to avoid a muddy result (exactly what happened to many copycat grunge bands of the time).  Fortunately Kim Thayil on guitar, Hiro Yamamoto on bass and Matt Cameron on drums are all equal to the task of holding up and augmenting Cornell’s genius.

The album has a dark quality which is pretty common for Soundgarden.  “Ugly Truth” is particularly filled with self-loathing as Cornell growls:

“I painted my eyes

Ugly isn’t what I wanted to see

I painted my mind

Ugly isn’t what I wanted to be”

And then the sad admission of how he views a relationship:

“If you were mine to give

I might throw you away.”

The self-loathing becomes menacing on track three’s “Gun” where over a pounding, plodding riff Cornell ominously opens with “I’ve got an idea of something we can with the gun.”

The album has a flavour of rage throughout, but in some of the darker moments I actually think the band is trying to be humorous.  “Full On Kevin’s Mom” is a song about three friends that have a falling out when one of them decides to hook up with one of their mom’s.  The song is filled with all the hurt and anger you’d expect from a friendship collapsing in this way.  Still, Soundgarden’s treatment of this inappropriate intergenerational relationship was strangely funny and the source of many a ribald reference for a few years.  Funny provided you weren’t Kevin, I suppose.

After the powerful “Loud Love” rages at track seven, the album has a minor let down in terms of quality, with “I Awake”, “No Wrong, No Right” and “Uncovered” all lacking the focus and direction of the earlier part of the album.

Things are recovered in the penultimate track with “Big Dumb Sex” a song about exactly what you’d imagine it would be.  On the “Screaming Life/Fopp” EPs Soundgarden had similar material with “Kingdom of Come” and “Swallow My Pride” but on “Big Dumb Sex” the band decides to abandon innuendo and clever wordplay and just get straight to the subject at hand with:

“Don’t you don’t you want to thrill me

Don’t you be afraid to tell me

Tell me if you think it’s ugly

But don’t you want to touch it anyway.”

When I was twenty I remember my blasting this song with everything our crappy ghetto blaster could unleash in our apartment.  The landlady was over about sixty seconds after it ended to deliver a terse message of “Don’t ever do that again.”  Hell of a first day in the new place.

“Louder Than Love” is brilliant overall, but being at a pretty good place in my life, I find it hard to soak that much negativity in and still feel energized the way the music intends.  I still love this record though, which is big and sexy, and only dumb when it wants to be.

Best tracks:  Ugly Truth, Hands All Over, Gun, Get on the Snake, Full on Kevin’s Mom, Loud Love, Big Dumb Sex

CD Odyssey Disc 527: Dire Straits

This next album will be my third straight double album.  A strange coincidence indeed, but that is how the dice roll sometimes.

Disc 527 is…. Alchemy

Artist: Dire Straits

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover?  Bad eighties modern art.  There was a lot of this stuff kicking around back then, and the vast majority was just as bad as what you see here.  I think I see a guitar with lips and the vague outline of what I hope is a woman’s leg.  Also, there is an ear and some suspect cartoon drawings.  What a hot mess.

How I Came To Know It:  Sheila got me heavily into Dire Straits, and this was a very important album for her.  She heard most of the songs on “Alchemy” before she heard the studio versions.  In addition to being introduced to Dire Straits through this live album, Sheila has also been fortunate enough to see them live herself (during their “Brothers in Arms” tour).  This wasn’t my Dire Straits introduction, but I like that it has so much meaning for her.

How It Stacks Up:  Live albums don’t really stack up, except with each other, and this is my only live album by Dire Straits, so I can’t really compare it to anything.

Rating:  3 stars.

Dire Straits is a band that likes to noodle, and so I braced myself for very long, drawn-out versions of their songs when I started listening to “Alchemy.”

I certainly got those versions.  Most of the tracks are at least twenty five per cent longer than their studio versions and some – like “Once Upon a Time In the West” and “Sultans of Swing” are twice as long as the originals.  If you are expecting to hear a perfect rendition of the studio version you are going to be disappointed.

On prior listens that is exactly the feeling I took away from “Alchemy” but this time was different.  Maybe it was listening on quality headphones, or maybe it was knowing in advance what I was in for, but the longer versions annoyed me far less than I expected.  In fact some – like “Romeo and Juliet” and the aforementioned “Sultans of Swing” – were brilliant reworkings of classics.

Strangely, the song I enjoyed the least was “Telegraph Road” and it was 49 seconds shorter!  That is partly because I love the studio version so much, partly because I felt they rushed it a bit on “Alchemy” and partly because it was still 13:30, and came immediately after a bloated 14:34 version of “Tunnel of Love.”  After 28 minutes and only two songs, I was knackered!

Overall, though, I enjoyed the long, drawn out noodle sessions.  They aren’t that complicated when you break them down, but the musicianship they display is amazing.  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating; Knopfler is my favourite guitar player of all time.

As with all Dire Straits albums, “Alchemy” is designed to show off his exceptional talents.  The other members of the band lay down a tempered and precise groove that gives him the freedom he needs to come in and out of the song, and create on the fly.  Remember friends; behind every great lead guitar there is a dedicated rhythm section, actively taking a back seat (I say actively because trust me, you’ve got to pay attention when you’re playing rhythm).

The track selection is a good one, and I expect the audience was happy with the choices, which span all four of their previous albums with a heavy lean to their 1980 masterpiece “Making Movies” (reviewed way back at Disc 245).  “Making Movies” lays claim to four of the eleven songs, which is just about right.  The band also throws in a song from their terribly titled 1983 EP, “ExtendedancEPLAY” and from Knopfler’s soundtrack for the movie “Local Hero.”  Overall you get a little something for the casual fan, a little something for the purist – just how a live show should be constructed.

To be good, a live album should immerse you in the concert and – as much as is possible – make you feel like you are there.  Too many live albums draw tracks from too many different venues, and the variations in the crowd energy, the playing and the acoustics of the different rooms makes it feel artificial.  Dire Straits wisely took all these tracks from two consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in July 1983.  The only gripe I have is with the fans’ propensity to start clapping at weird times.  It always seems to me that fans are too eager to start clapping just so they can feel they are participating rather than letting the music soak over you.  True beauty steals best into quiet souls people – give it a chance to get in.

I know most of these songs first from the studio albums and truth be told that’s how I prefer them.  The echoed sound of the concert hall takes away some of the sound separation that they need.  Also, unless I’m at the show myself, I can only handle so many extended guitar noodles without losing a bit of my auditory focus.

The band plays strongly enough, and the songs are good enough that it is a minor complaint, but I’d rather listen to my own ‘best of’ Dire Straits compilation if given the option (yes, I’ve made one).

Still, as live albums go “Alchemy” is a strong entry in our music collection.  The next time Sheila pulls it out for a listen (and she inevitably will) I’m going to enjoy it just a little more than I did the time before, and that’s all you should ask of a record.

Best tracks:  Romeo and Juliet, Sultans of Swing

CD Odyssey Disc 526: Elton John

Happy Canada Day!  I’ve just returned with drinks with a friend.  Downtown is slowly filling with inebriated (or soon to be inebriated) people wearing red and white.  Despite my considerable love for my country, I decided to come home and write this review.  I’m sure I’ll get to hear them all go by on their walk home later on.

Disc 526 is…. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Artist: Elton John

Year of Release: 1973

What’s up with the Cover?  A gigantic Elton John steps into a painting of the Yellow Brick Road.  I think this is a reference to Elton John being so huge at this stage of his career that his life had taken on an unreal quality, and in the process he has lost some of his own humanity.  He has stepped wholly into fantasy.  However, if he’s going to walk any distance on that road he might want to consider more comfortable shoes.

How I Came To Know It:  Sheila is the Elton John fan, and we own quite a few of his early albums.  This one is hers as well, and we’ve probably had it the longest.  Along the way she has won me over to his genius.

How It Stacks Up:  We now have five of Elton John’s studio albums, all from his early career.  We’re still missing “Honky Chateau” and “Caribou” both of which I suspect are better than this one.  However, I must stack it up against current competition and on that basis I’ll put it third.  I originally put “Madman Across the Water” (reviewed back at Disc 232) at that spot, but having now had a chance to consider them both, I prefer ‘Madman.”

Rating:  3 stars

My last review of Nick Cave’s “Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus” shows that not every double album is excessive.  Most are however, and despite all the fame surrounding “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and all of Elton John’s self-evident genius, in the end this was a bloated and overwrought record.

The hype is considerable for this record.  It was number one in multiple countries, including Canada.  It went multi-platinum and had four hits, two of which (“Bennie and the Jets” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”) made it to number one.  So clearly there was something good about this record, right?  Well, no – commercial success doesn’t guarantee good music (remember Nickelback) – but in this case there are plenty of positives.

“Candle in the Wind” wasn’t a huge hit until it was remade in tribute to Lady Diana, but the original song approaches perfection.  A treatise on fame and the terrible price it extracts on the soul, this was a topic Elton John was grappling with himself at this time.  I’ve never been a Marilyn Monroe fan.  In fact every time I see “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” it’s Jane Russell that I can’t take my eyes off; Monroe is an afterthought at best.  Still, when I listen to this song I not only feel sad for Marilyn, I think about all those that get lost in the maelstrom of excessive public attention.

Similarly themed is the excellent title track, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”  A song about rejecting fame’s empty trappings, written even as Elton John was being drawn deeper into them, this song is equal parts anthem and dirge.

These are the album’s two standouts.  There are other solid tracks, but – if you’ll pardon the expression – none hold a candle to these two.

What they all share in common is some brilliant piano playing and songs constructed by someone who truly understands how to manipulate chord progressions into well crafted songs.  The mix of piano and guitar in equal measure keep the record solidly half way between pop and rock, which is right where Elton wants it.

So the genius that this album is always labeled with is present, but I think the case has been severely overstated over the years.

For one thing, this album is simply too long.  It is a double album, but at seventeen songs I could easily cut a good third of them and double how good it is in the process.  Reggae rip-offs like “Jamaican Jerk Off” are just silly and made me pine for the day when I was reviewing great contemporary reggae music like that found on “The Harder They Come” (reviewed at Disc 371) which was released the same year.

Similarly, the album’s harder rock moments also feel like they are trying too hard.  “Bennie and the Jets” and “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” are OK songs, but I think they get way more street cred than they deserve.  They both seem very dated and again, compare poorly against other rock and roll being release at the same time.

The worst offender is the opening track, “Funeral For a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding).”  This would be a good five and half minute song – one of my favourites on the album in fact – except that it is eleven minutes long with an extra five and half added on as a musical intro that has very little to do with the song it eventually turns into.  This song never fails to enrage me, and since it starts the album off, it has me in a bad mood from the moment I begin.

I expect that Elton John was so huge at this point in his career he was able to tell his production people to get stuffed when they tried to rein him in.  Or maybe he was just surrounded by sycophants and toadies that catered to his every whim.  Either way, someone needed to say no, and to get this record under control.

The lyrics on the album have an edginess to them that I like.  “Dirty Little Girl” is a good example, as Elton John (through his muse, lyricist Bernie Taupin) calls for someone to “grab that bitch by the ears/Rub her down scrub her back/And turn her inside out” or on “All The Girls Love Alice” which is a song about a local lesbian girl that seduces all the neighbourhood housewives when their husbands are away and is later found dead in the Subway, perhaps the victim of their inevitable jealousy.

Overall though, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is just a bit too overblown for its own good.  It is a record desperately in need of an editor, and history has chosen to whitewash its problems to service Elton John’s legend, rather than admit that this is merely a good record, with a great public relations machine promoting it.

Is it worth a listen?  Absolutely, but you’re much better off getting “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player” (also from 1973) for a fix of Elton John in his glory days.

Best tracks:  Candle in the Wind, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, This Song Has No Title, Sweet Painted Lady, Dirty Little Girl, Social Disease