CD Odyssey Disc 597: Radiohead

The good news about this next review is it is finally an album by this band that I could enjoy.  The better news was that there is only one album left by them for me to review.

Disc 597 is….In Rainbows

Artist: Radiohead

Year of Release: 2008 (digital version came out in 2007, but mine is a hard copy).

What’s up with the Cover? I don’t know. Is it a splatter of paint and a footprint that vaguely resembles the universe? Maybe it is just my mind trying to find pattern in random beeps, not unlike my relationship with most of Radiohead’s later music.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila is a Radiohead fan and for many years I would diligently buy her their latest album, assuming she would want them all.  Unlike me, however, she’s not a completionist, so it was never that important for her to have them all.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Radiohead albums, and of the seven “In Rainbows” is the best of the worst, which puts it fourth.

Rating:  2 stars but almost 3

“In Rainbows” is Radiohead’s best album in ten years (dating back to when “OK Computer” delivered their last “OK” album). I remember being pleasantly surprised when it came out and was actually looking forward to reviewing it, because I remember it being a return to form.  Despite going in the right direction, it is still a long climb up from “Amnesiac” and “Hail to theThief.”

The musical content of “In Rainbows” is definitely more listenable, and there are even melodies in this record, particularly on “Reckoner” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” which are strangely beautiful and where Thom Yorke’s “alien drowning in the tub” voice works to good effect.

This all comes together best on “All I Need” where I was reminded how great this band can be.  “All I Need” is a haunting song about desperate love, a slow and stark descent into self-loathing and masochism.  It opens:

“I am the next act waiting in the wings

I am an animal trapped in your hot car

I am all of the days that you choose to ignore

You are all I need.”

These are the bright spots, and there are more than a few on this record, but just as often production decisions are made that drown the melodies and voice alike into a wall of various sounds. Exacerbating this are songs where significant parts of the melody come at you through only one speaker channel. I think the intent is to have a sort of ‘underwater’ quality, but it feels at times more like standing in an ocean tide right at ear level, with the water rushing in and out over your eardrums.

The music definitely sets a mood, at least and kind of reminded me of Moby on that front, except instead of being relaxing, the mood is more consistently off-putting.  Why a band would put that much effort into making you feel uncomfortable is beyond me.  Guys, there are so many nicer moods to set. In other places they reminded me pleasantly of Beck, but without the funky riffs that make Beck so much more listenable.

Before I sum up I think a word is in order on the presentation of the CD.  “In Rainbows” was initially only released digitally (in 2007) and only months later could you buy a hard copy. For long time listeners like me (i.e. – older music guys) this was annoying, and felt like a combination of a slight on my chosen medium for music and a publicity stunt.

When it did come out in hard format, it came in a cardboard folder, with stickers that you could peel and stick to a jewel case for a more traditional look.  Something told me this would not look good, so I never peeled the stickers.  On the plus side, I  hope that means the album is worth more someday – maybe $5 instead of $3 as CDs make their way into the dustbin of dead technologies.

The liner notes print the lyrics (which I appreciate) but did them in a very weird full justification and various coloured fonts that combined make them hard to read.  Note to all bands; it is fine to get all artsy on the liner notes, but if you decide to print the lyrics, at least make them easy to read.

Like the liner notes, “In Rainbows” has a few tracks that reinforce my long-held frustration with the band’s later work; sacrificing the makings of good songs on the altar of cleverness. At least this time around some of the songs shine through from time to time, generating moments that are both creative and (shocker!) actually enjoyable to listen to.

I could have given this album three stars instead of two, but the truth is I am just tired of working so hard to like these guys.

Best tracks: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, All I Need, Reckoner, Jigsaw Falling Into Place

CD Odyssey Disc 596: LL Cool J

Despite having a backlog of new (to me) CDs to grok in their fullness, this weekend I went and bought four more.  As usual it was a mix of different stuff, some seventies Neil Young (American Stars N’ Bars), the one Elton John album I still wanted (Caribou), the one Nazareth album I still wanted (Rampant) and my first ever New Pornographers album (the Challengers).

I’m looking forward to getting to know all those albums but in terms of reviewing them, I’m happy to wait for the dice gods to randomly select them for me. Here’s what they selected last.

Disc 596 is….All World

Artist: LL Cool J

Year of Release: 1996, but featuring music from 1985 to 1995

What’s up with the Cover? The ever-popular “Giant Head” cover. Proof that someone other than Gordon Lightfoot can do these.  For a guy with ten years of hits under his belt, LL Cool J looks surprisingly angry. Dude, life is good – despite that crappy show you now star in.

How I Came To Know It: I really like the song “Mama Said Knock You Out” but I wasn’t sure I loved LL Cool J enough to buy an album, even a best of.  So I asked my Mom to buy me this album for Christmas many years ago, and she did. Thanks, Mom!

How It Stacks Up:  While cleverly not referenced in the title, this is a best of; a compilation of music from LL Cool J’s first decade in the music industry.  Therefore, as per CD Odyssey rules it can’t stack up.  I do have an actual album of his that came out later, but I’ll talk about that when I roll it.

Rating:  ‘best of’ albums don’t get rated.  That would just make all the regular albums feel bad.

While I was off getting a musical education in first metal, and then Celtic folk music, LL Cool J was busy gettin’ busy becoming a founding father of the new musical style of rap, then taking that genre in entirely new directions.

In 1985, metal-heads like me were convinced this whole ‘rap thing’ was never going to go anywhere – who would want to listen to some guy talking when he should be singing? Well, rap (and later hip hop) went on to become one of the dominant forms of pop music, so the joke was on me and all the other idiots that thought all these guys did was ‘talk.’ Rap is art, and LL Cool J is one of its great early artists.

Being a retrospective of his work, “All World” shows how much LL’s music has changed over the years.  His mid-eighties start features very traditional rap songs like “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” and “I Need a Beat”, with stark beats that showcases the strength of LL Cool J’s phrasing.

I’m only beginning to understand how to play the guitar, and was recently working on coming in and out of a song on the right beat, and on the right side of that beat.  It’s harder than it sounds, but LL Cool J’s ability to do it is flawless, even while maintaining one of the smoothest flows in rap.

Frequent readers of A Creative Maelstrom will know how much I appreciate early rap, where the subject is usually some variation of “I rap better than you.” LL Cool J is great at this, and “All World” has a couple of great examples in 1987’s “I’m Bad” and 1989’s “Jack the Ripper.” One of my favourite lines is from “I’m Bad”:

“My vocal’s exact like rack and pinion in a Jag

You try to brag you get your rhymes from a grab-bag

No good scavenger catfish vulture

My tongue's a chisel in this competition sculpture.”

Simultaneously comparing his raps to precision automotive and an artist’s sculpture while basically saying his opponents are bottom-feeding, rhyme-stealing scavengers.

My favourite of his in this genre is “Mama Said Knock You Out.” It is an obvious choice, but only because it is so demonstrably awesome. This song takes all the rap prowess of earlier songs and adds a rock beat to the mix, while never losing the funk.  Quoting “Mama Said Knock You Out” is like describing a painting – something gets lost in the translation. Suffice it to say that over the last five years only one rap song has never been deleted from my MP3 player, nor ever skipped when it came on, and this is it.

In fact, the fact that he is better known overall for rap love ballads is a bit of a disappointment for me.  Songs like “Around the Way Girl” and “I Need Love” are good songs, but they have a pop sensibility that spawned a lot of later radio friendly hip hop that is my least favourite aspects of this genre. I don’t blame LL Cool J for taking the music in this way – it isn’t his fault it got bad so quickly – but neither is it what I look for when I’m listening to his music.

I prefer his love ballads to be tongue-in-cheek, sexually playful and self-consciously inappropriate. The best examples of these are “Big Ole Butt” about a philanderer who can’t resist constantly cheating because each new girl has a nicer booty than the last one. The song’s narrator holds a reprehensible viewpoint, and singularly bad judgment, but it makes for a damn funny song. A later effort, “Back Seat” about a sexual encounter in a jeep is equally fun and ridiculous. No one can turn an inappropriate comment playful like LL Cool J.  Examples include this from “Big Ole Butt”:

“I kicked the bass like an NFL punter

And scoped the booty like a big game hunter”

And this from “Back Seat”:

“As I turn the corner, starin' in your cornea

you're gettin' hornier and hornier.”

Hearing this stuff you’d be sure that LL Cool J couldn’t possibly get as much action as his music implies, but when you look as good as he does with his shirt off, anything is possible.

LL Cool J may now be busy making garbage network TV, but “All World” reminds me how important he was to an entire musical genre, well before it was being accepted by the mainstream. On that note, I did myself a disservice not noticing LL Cool J for the first ten years of his career, and I’m glad to be making up for lost time. Despite how much I enjoy “All World” I think I’ll branch out from the ‘best of’ situation I’m currently in and get some more of his original albums.  After all, as Cool J himself reminds us in “Mama Said Knock You Out”:

 “Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.”

Best tracks: I’m Bad, Going Back To Cali, Jack The Ripper, Big Ole Butt, Mama Said Knock You Out, Back Seat 

CD Odyssey Disc 595: Black Sabbath

I am a big admirer of my country’s sportsmanship on the international stage.  At this year's Olympics one Canadian speed skater gave up his spot in a race so that his friend could have a chance at a medal.  A Canadian coach ran out to help a rival with his ski so he can finish a cross-country race.  These are proud moments.

But I also love our absolute and unflinching will to take no prisoners in the sport of hockey.  This morning I watched our men’s hockey team come out and completely dominate Sweden in every phase of the game.  We Canadians are a modest and polite bunch, but not when it comes to hockey.  As a result, we’ve got another gold medal.  Yeehaw!

OK, now back to music.

Disc 595 is….Dehumanizer

Artist: Black Sabbath

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover? A very bad robot, who seems to be channeling equal parts Grim Reaper and Emperor Palpatine is transforming some unfortunate metal-head into a robot.  Apparently being a robot means that you overheat easily, because the unfortunate victim is tearing his own tee shirt off, and Emperor Reaper seems compelled to walk around with his robe open at the front.  Dude – get a sash and cover that mess up.

How I Came To Know It: I have always been a fan of the Dio years in Black Sabbath, and I bought all three remastered in a boxed set.  I already owned a non-remastered version of “Heaven and Hell”, but I passed that along to a friend for the updated copy, and got “The Mob Rules” at the same time.  “Dehumanizer” was the final disc in the set, and a bit of an afterthought.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Black Sabbath albums, including one live record.  Of the 11, “Dehumanizer” is near but not at the bottom. I’d say tenth best.

Rating:  3 stars

The last and weakest of the three albums with Ronnie James Dio fronting the band, “Dehumanizer” is still a quality metal album.

Dio had left the band after 1981’s “The Mob Rules” (reviewed back at Disc 157) to pursue a solo career, amid considerable acrimony between him and guitarist Tony Iommi.  Despite Sabbath being a legendary band, I’d say Dio had the better of them in terms of fame and fortune through the eighties. However, music fans were the real losers regardless, and I’m glad that they somehow patched it up sufficiently to put out one more record together.

The result is ten more songs that ably blend Dio’s operatic vocal style with the crunchy, doom-laden riffs of Sabbath. Vinny Appice drums in place of Bill Ward, which suits me just fine.  Nothing against Ward, but Appice’s fast and furious style suits the more true metal sound of the record, as opposed to Ward’s more bluesy style on earlier Sabbath.

The record is the most purely ‘metal’ album in the Black Sabbath catalogue, and while everyone else in 1992 was getting their grunge on, it is refreshing to hear Sabbath cutting against the grain. “Computer God” and “Letters from Earth” are particularly thick and plodding, filling you with dread both lyrically and musically.

Thematically, it is a dark album, with a lot of focus on the sins of humanity, and technology as a means to hasten our own self-destruction. Sometimes singing about technology can be laughably dated when heard years later, but for the most part “Dehumanizer” stands up very well.

Like most metal fans, I like my lyrics a bit nerdy, and “Dehumanizer” delivers, with songs about a dystopian future full of computer gods and time machines (the latter being used in the movie “Wayne’s World”).  “Time Machine” is a fairly good song, but “Dehumanizer has both an ‘album’ version and the song as it was used in the film.  They are so similar in sound and length that I’m not sure why they bothered to record two in the first place. It feels like overkill, and I’d have preferred they stuck to just one version.

Other than that mistake, there aren’t any truly bad songs on “Dehumanizer” – they are all pretty solid.  Conversely there aren’t any standout classics like “Children of the Sea” or “Mob Rules” either.

What you do get is a record with plenty of overall energy, and songs that are well constructed, played by a group of musicians that have honed their craft well over many decades.  This album got me going and is a worthy, if often overlooked entry into the Black Sabbath collection.

Best tracks: Computer God, Letters from Earth, Too Late, I

CD Odyssey Disc 594: Judas Priest

This next album will be my third consecutive double album review, following on an Anthology of the Supremes and the Beatles white album.  I generally find double albums too bloated, and three in a row has been a slog. I hope my next record is one of those seventies ‘originally on vinyl’ numbers that is a cool 35-40 minutes.

Disc 594 is….Nostradamus

Artist: Judas Priest

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? He is Nostradamus! The planetary alignments themselves reveal their secrets to him.  It’s all very serious.

How I Came To Know It: I haven’t followed Judas Priest past the eighties, so I missed all of their albums between “Ram it Down” in 1988 and “Nostradamus” twenty years later.  I bought this one because I was going to see them in concert on this tour, and wanted to know the songs and so increase my enjoyment of the show. Incidentally, the show was great – Judas Priest can still rock it out, and they played a nice mix of hits, obscure stuff and songs off this album.

How It Stacks Up:  I have twelve Judas Priest albums and after I’m done this entry, will have reviewed all but one of them.  I therefore speak from a position of experience when I say that “Nostradamus” is the least of the twelve.  Ah well, something had to be last.

Rating:  2 stars

“Nostradamus” answers the important question – what do you do after you’ve already had decades of success, sold tens of millions of records and have become one of the all-time most influential artists of your genre? Whatever you feel like doing.

In Judas Priest’s case, they decided to release a concept album about the life of a 16^th century apothecary who has become one of the most famous prophets or seers in western tradition.  Of course, his predictive verses left much to interpretation, but it is just creepy enough to draw you in, and make you believe something was going on that was beyond our mortal ken.  That’s certainly how I reacted when as a young boy I first heard of him., Fanciful documentaries would always have me riveted to the TV throughout my childhood.  In short, Nostradamus was cool and mysterious, and I can fully understand why Judas Priest decided to dedicate an entire concept album to his life and visions.

The music is very symphonic – and feels like it would be more at home as a rock opera than as a metal album. I could see this put on as a stage production (I suppose counting the concert I saw of this tour in 2008, I partly did).

The whole of it feels a lot like overwrought post-power metal, and the song construction reminded me heavily of Finnish band “Nightwish” except that “Nightwish” manages to pull it off a bit better.

The songs are fairly uninteresting in construction, soaring from verse to verse, and the band seems more interested in telling a cohesive story than delivering moments of magic through the music itself.

This is understandable given the topic is so much fun. The band sets up Nostradamus as a seer and then runs through his nightmarish visions of the four horsemen descending on our world.  It is grim stuff, but they manage to make it uplifting at the end with hopeful songs at the end like “New Beginnings.”

The more theatrical numbers owe a lot to Alice Cooper’s later career, particularly songs like “Death” where Halford embodies the character of the song’s titular character. Good, but I again found myself preferring the way Alice delivers a song like that.  Halford’s strength has always been his soaring vocals, and although he fully commits, he’ll never be Cooper while playing a character, just as Cooper will never blow speakers with his vocal power like Halford can.

Of course in 2008 Halford’s voice is not the force of nature it once was, but he holds his own and can still carry a tune better than most.  Downing and Tipton’s guitars are still crisp, although the actual solo work they do isn’t terribly interesting. The band is content to relax into their subject matter and let it speak for itself.

Like many concept albums, there are a lot of little connector songs of one or two minutes setting or re-establishing mood, as well as longer seven or eight minute numbers developing the bigger concepts.  Generally, the record does a good job of mixing in all of its melodic concepts.  “Nostradamus” may not break a lot of new ground but it is professionally put together, and is clearly a labour of love.  That’s worth something to me, but sadly not more than two stars on this occasion.

Best tracks: Prophecy, Pestilence and Plague, Conquest, Nostradamus,

CD Odyssey Disc 593: The Beatles

After a fun night partying with friends, I slept in and then had a lovely lunch with Sheila.  It’s been a pretty nice, laid back Saturday so far.

Disc 593 is….Self-Titled (aka The White Album)

Artist: The Beatles

Year of Release: 1968

What’s up with the Cover? Well, it is known as “The White Album’.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila is a Beatles fan.  I believe she bought this album shortly after we met, as she was filling out her Beatles collection at that time.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Beatles albums, mostly encompassing the latter half of their career.  Of the seven, I’d put “The White Album” second only to “Abbey Road” (reviewed back at Disc 441).

Rating:  4 stars

Lennon and McCartney can practically compose a pretty melody in their sleep, but it is beyond even them to put 30 of them on a double album and expect them all to be great songs.  And so we are left with the self-titled “White Album”; two–thirds brilliance and one-third overwrought, self-referential filler.

Fortunately, the parts of this record that are good are exceptionally good.  While I don’t love every one of the so-called ‘classics’ on the record, even those that don’t appeal (“Back in the USSR”, “Revolution 1”) I still admire them as well written songs worthy of someone’s love.

I think of the Beatles principally as a pop act, but “The White Album” is much more on the rock side of the ledger.  Harrison’s guitar is crunchier than usual and a lot of the tracks have an edge to them. That edge is still wrapped up in a pop package, but I actually like how the styles cross over and play against one another.

“Helter Skelter” is a classic rock song, and while Paul’s naturally pure voice is a bit light on growl, he pulls it off.  “Happiness is a Warm Gun” and “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey” are both energetic and very interesting in construction.  I love the guitar riff that launches the latter of the two.

On that note, Harrison’s playing on “The White Album” throughout is some of his best work.  He is given license to range a bit more, and for the most part the band doesn’t drown him out in over-production as can happen on some of their other later records.  He rewards the freedom with one of the Beatles all –time classics, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” a very un-Beatles type song that would be equally at home on a Cream album.

I’m not sure what the hell a lot of these songs are about – like who the hell is Bungalow Bill, and how does Rocky Raccoon either a) read the bible or b) handle a gun without opposable thumbs? – but it didn’t prevent me from enjoying the songs.  If anything, it just made them feel more whimsical, and let me concentrate on the music instead, which is excellent. Given that Rocky Raccoon finds religion in the end, he should meet up with Sir Rastus Bear from the Blue Oyster Cult song “Redeemed” – now that would be a Disney movie worth watching.

In addition to “Happiness is a Warm Gun” and that excessively titled song about the monkey referenced earlier, “Blackbird” is one of my favourite songs on the album.  I’m not sure you could write a more perfect melody than this, and listening to it brings a calm to my spirit that actual black birds have never managed (my experience with black birds is principally crows and ravens, neither of which are particularly pretty vocalists).

For all the great songs on the record, there are times when the boys get overstuffed with their own cleverness.  “Piggies” thematically belongs on lesser records like “Magical Mystery Tour.” “Glass Onion” has a series of references to earlier songs, including “Strawberry Fields” and “I Am the Walrus” that seems to operate on the premise that I will get a thrill hearing about the Beatles talking about themselves.  Actually boys, I don’t give a crap that “the walrus was Paul.”

The culmination of the auditory masturbation is “Revolution 9” which is almost nine minutes of strange sounds, snippets of dialogue, all stitched together in the name of art – I think that was the intent.  The song (I use the term loosely here) has contributions from Yoko Ono, and it would be more at home on one of her albums, which is a polite way to say it sucks.

Fortunately, the brilliance of the five star tracks on “The White Album” eclipse any damage that can be done by the occasional misfire, and hold this record strongly in four star territory, warts and all.

Best tracks: Dear Prudence, Ob-La-Di Ob-La Da, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, I’m So Tired, Blackbird, Rocky Raccoon, I Will, Birthday, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey, Helter Skelter, 

CD Odyssey Disc 592: Diana Ross and the Supremes

Wow – where does a week go?

Answer – into a double disc, 50+ song anthology of the next artist.  If I didn’t know these guys before I certainly know them now.

Disc 592 is….Anthology: The Very Best of Diana Ross & the Supremes

Artist: Diana Ross and the Supremes

Year of Release: 1995, but music is from 1961 to 1976

What’s up with the Cover? This cover is a cautionary tale that says if you are going to wear matching outfits on stage, make sure the outfits don’t suck. These dresses look like they were made out of bed sheets.

How I Came To Know It: I honestly can’t remember.  Either Sheila bought this one, or I saw it on sale for cheap and couldn’t pass up that much music for the price.  Either way, here it is.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only album by Diana Ross and/or the Supremes that we have, and with this many tracks, all we’ll ever need.  That said, ‘best of’ albums don’t stack up, so even if it weren’t, the question is moot.

Rating:  ‘best of’ albums don’t get rated on the Odyssey – click on other best of reviews for various ways I like to remind readers of this, or just take my word for it.

Many modern pop acts offend me, as I imagine a room full of swarthy songwriters hiding behind the pretty faces of the video generation, brought together by soulless record execs with steepled fingers.  For this reason I have a hard time reconciling how much I enjoyed an anthology of Diana Ross and the Supremes, which are exactly the same formula, fifty years earlier.

Not unlike today, Motown took some pretty girls with pretty voices (the Supremes), put them in matching outfits and then armed them with songs from some songwriting masters such as Barry Gordy, Smokey Robinson and the team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Slightly artificial by singer-songwriter standards, perhaps, but damn if this isn’t some of the finest bubble-gum pop music I’ve ever heard.  Some of these songs are over fifty years old but they sound fresh as the day they were written.  In fact, pop hopefuls on reality TV singing competitions still routinely choose songs like “My World Is Empty Without You,” and “River Deep, Mountain High” to this day.

Whatever artifice went into the experience, the result is alchemy in the hands of Diana Ross and the Supremes.  These women can belt it out, with just the right amount of sass and vulnerability, delivering in 1964 and 2014 with equal strength.

The music has a symphonic quality in places, with horn sections playing lightly behind the voices, and the whole of it has that snap and swing that gives Motown its irresistible charm.

The star of the act is, of course, Diana Ross and while I’ve given her talents short shrift in the past, listening to these songs made me a believer.  She is by no means a power house singer like we see too much of these days, but her tone is always sweet and full.  She never sounds shout-y, or like she’s trying to over-sing it.  Ross has the casual confidence of someone who knows she can sing, and doesn’t have to prove it for your votes.

The anthology I have is immense and a bit daunting.  It took me a whole week of walking to and from work to get through the 52 songs and two and a half hours of music. Picking out individual tracks is difficult, partly because of the sheer number of songs.

Later songs are definitely a big inspiration to disco music in the seventies.  “Keep Me Hangin’ On” and “Reflections” could both be lifted directly from 1966 Detroit to 1978 New York without any problem, and that’s a testament to Holland-Dozier-Holland who seem to be able to write classic hits like most of us order a coffee.

I’d heard huge hits like “Where Did Our Love Go?” and “Baby Love” so many times I had a hard time getting excited about hearing them again.  These are good tracks, but in terms of holding my interest other tracks had more interesting musical structure.

Out of the mega-hits (which are particularly packed from 1964 to 1966) I prefer “Come See About Me” for the way it constructs a clever melody and puts some swing in there that would move the hips of the dead.

On the issue of dates, I’d also like to give these CDs a shout-out for putting the songs in chronological order.  That’s how an anthology should play out, so you can enjoy the growth of the artist’s style through the years.

Lyrically there are a lot of songs about good old fashioned love, but there were a few that I found pretty racy as well.  Two favourites of these are “Buttered Popcorn” and “I’ll Try Something New.” I won’t bother printing the lyrics out, because it will just seem like an innocent night at the movies or a whimsical romantic gesture, but when you hear them sung the innuendo is pretty clear.

At the other end of the spectrum is the great “Send Me No Flowers” the anthem of a spurned woman telling her ex not to bother sending her flowers to assuage his own guilt over ending the relationship.  And although “Things Are Changing” is a bit heavy handed with the ‘sisters are doin’ it for themselves’ message, in 1965 it was a pretty important message about women empowerment.

The record peters out a bit at the end, with the bulk of the good stuff in the early to mid-sixties, and the only track I really liked from the post-Diana Ross lineup was “Up the Ladder to the Roof.” That said, the sheer number of great pop songs that the Supremes delivered through the 1960s is an incredible legacy that is still fresh and funky today and made the majority of my week long sentence a joy to serve.

Best tracks: Buttered Popcorn, Let Me Go the Right Way, Long Gone Lover, Send Me No Flowers, Come See About Me, Stop! In the Name of Love, Back In My Arms Again, Too Hurt to Cry and Too Much in Love to Say Goodbye, You Can’t Hurry Love, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Reflections, I’m Gonna Make It (I Will Wait For You), Love Child, I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, I’ll Try Something New, Up The Ladder to the Roof

Yes - 15 selections, but remember, I had 52 to choose from.

CD Odyssey Disc 591: Belle and Sebastian

I went to the hand clinic today (turns out there is a clinic dedicated just to hand injuries – three locations, no less!  Truly, we live in the future). Turns out I have ligament damage in my thumb, which is why it is taking so long to heal.  I’m feeling the pressure of the Ulti season coming, and also the loss (however temporary) of playing the guitar, all because I thought I could do some stupid dance move I used to do when I was 25.

It is annoying, but at least now I have a treatment plan, which for “rub dirt on it” types like me is a big step. Fortunately my ability to listen to music requires no thumbs, so here’s the latest effort on that front.

Disc 591 is….If You’re Feeling Sinister

Artist: Belle and Sebastian

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover? A young woman sits pensively, presumably overwhelmed by her most recent reading of Kafka’s “The Trial.”  Oh, the humanities.

How I Came To Know It: After being introduced to Belle and Sebastian via “Boy and the Arab Strap” (reviewed at Disc 540, I decided to try another one of their albums and I went with “If You’re Feeling Sinister” because it came chronologically right before “Arab Strap” (when drilling through a band’s discography it is usually better to err toward the beginning, not the end).

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Belle and Sebastian albums.  Of the five I’ll put “If You’re Feeling Sinister” right at the top, at number one. Primo.  None better, etc.

Rating:  5 stars

When life gives you lemonade, sometimes it is best to just dance and sing amid the lemon trees.  That’s what listening to Belle and Sebastian feels like, and “If You’re Feeling Sinister” is them at their best.

This is an album that makes me feel like I’m 25 again.  Back then everything seems so emotionally hard but at the same time there is a confidence– or failing that defiance – that sees you through the rough spots.  If it all feels a bit unreal, that’s OK, because dreams teach us important lessons too.

The youthfulness is present in the album’s musical approach as well, which is upbeat and lively.  The bass lines really pop (especially on “Like Dylan in the Movies”), and the songs feel like they are jumping on the front of every beat. The approach fills you with energy and makes you want to do a twirl around lamp-posts (I regret engaging in no twirling around lamp-posts on this listen, but in my defence it has been a bit too cold this week for twirling).

Twirling or not, the questions of what the hell to do with your life remain central to the record (note to youth – these questions don’t dissipate with age). Authority figures on “If You’re Feeling Sinister” rarely hold the answers.  An old veteran on a train (“Me and The Major”) suggests young people should join the army and despite an emotional connection to the old man the song begins with these limiting lines:

“Me and the Major could become close friends cause we

Get on the same train and he wants to talk

But there is too much history, too much biography between us.”

Later on the title track wisdom is sought in the pulpit, but again the answers provided don’t speak to the questions youth is asking.  I love this song and how it builds backward, starting by revealing the young and frustrated ‘walking to their death’ and only later revealing the advice given to them by “the vicar or whatever’ (great line) relating to the afterlife, when they were actually asking questions about their current lives, such as:

“How and why and when and where to go

How and why and when and where to follow.”

These aren’t questions someone else can answer of course, but the angst that we feel wishing there were just a blueprint for it all is beautifully captured in some of the most thoughtful pop music I’ve heard.

That thoughtful music has a lot in common melodically with sixties folk music, particularly Simon and Garfunkel.  And although not really in his style, “Me and the Major” features some harmonica solos reminiscent of early Bob Dylan.

Throughout it all there is Stuart Murdoch’s amazing voice, airy, pale and wan as befits the material, but never maudlin or weak as a result.

The album ends with one of my favourite songs, “Judy and the Dream of Horses.” It begins so quietly you can hear the sliding fingers up and down the acoustic guitar at the beginning (I don’t always like that, but it works here). It is the story of introspective Judy and the song she wrote about her dream of horses and how ‘she never felt so good except when she was sleeping.’  As someone who got his last two book ideas from dreams, I can relate.

And for all the sadness and loneliness and lack of answers, “Judy and the Dream of Horses” is the perfect summation to this album; timid at first, but building in tempo and confidence.  This record is not afraid to explore the hard questions, accept the lack of definitive answers for most of them, and yet celebrate the real gift, which is the process of puzzling that out. And it does it all in the form of a kick ass ear-worm of a pop song that can get singing along out loud on a city street.  The record doesn’t just dream, it invites you to dream along with it.

Best tracks: I like all the tracks.  In fact, I was going to give this album four stars, but when I got to this point of the review I couldn’t decide which songs I didn’t want to include – at which point I realized I probably had a five star album on my hands.

CD Odyssey Disc 590: Helloween

Welcome to Super Bowl Sunday!  Super Bowl Sunday is like Christmas for massive football fans like me. Of course, being a Dolphins fan, the Super Bowl is like Christmas where I don’t get any gifts, but it is still nice watching other people open theirs. Good luck, Seahawks fans!

Disc 590 is….Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1

Artist: Helloween

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover? If this cover is wrong I don’t want to be right.  A wizard with the universe for a face guards the seven keys.  Behind him some goblins conspire on how to steal them (I don’t like their chances against a dude with a universe for a face).

Also of note is the castle, which on MLS would probably be listed as “a bit drafty, but has a great view.”

How I Came To Know It: I was watching the Sam Dunn documentary miniseries “Metal Evolution” and one of the episodes was on power metal; a genre basically invented by Helloween.  I had heard of Helloween as a kid, but never thought to buy an album, but after “Metal Evolution” gave me a bit of a taste I thought they deserved more attention than I’d given them in the past.  I also discovered the Finnish band “Nightwish” on the same episode, but I’ll talk about that when I roll it.

How It Stacks Up:  Despite this only being “Part 1,” this is the only Helloween album I have, so it can’t really stack up.  I’m told it is considered a classic, but I’m really not qualified to say.

Rating:  3 stars

Like a young Ricky Bobby, the members of Helloween no doubt grew up, guitars in hand, telling their parents, “I want to play faster!” And so power metal was born.

It was born in Germany, and the influence of the Scorpions is very evident in their music, both in vocal style and in how the melodies are constructed.  Their sound is also very reminiscent of Iron Maiden, with an operatic quality and songs about grand and fantastical topics.

Fortunately lead vocalist Michael Kiske has the chops to sing in this demanding style and his vocals soar across the guitars.  There are not one, but two ‘lead’ guitars (this seems to be a thing with power metal) in Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath.

As noted above, the goal of the power metal guitar player is to play faster, and Hansen and Weikath are up to the challenge.  Getting deep emotion out of the instrument is not important – just play as fast as hell.  If the melody doesn’t call for a frantic series of chord changes that’s OK, just play a ton of individual notes within each chord.

Listening to this had a dual effect on me.  On the one hand, it seemed like a silly parlour trick, particularly when they occasionally slow down and you don’t hear any great emotional content enter the playing.  On the other hand, if you throw yourself into the experience there is no denying the energy that is created with all that speedy, precise playing. It gets the blood flowing.

All that is good and bad about these guys is on display on “Halloween.”  The virtuoso playing style is there, and the chorus has Kiske shrieking out “Ahh…it’s Halloween!” with gusto.  But the song goes on for over 13 minutes, and finds time for three guitar solos, only one of which is very good. Most of the solos feel like the boys are just walking up and down the scales – albeit very quickly.

Also lyrically, I’m not sure singing about the Great Pumpkin is particularly scary:

“Someone’s sitting in a field

Never giving yield

Sitting there with gleaming eyes

Waiting for big pumpkin to arise

Bad luck if you get a stone

Like the good old Charlie Brown

You think Linus could be right

The kids will say it’s just a stupid lie.”

Lyrics like that had me wishing that Kiske sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher.  That way I wouldn’t be able to understand him.  Sadly, his voice is every bit as precise as all the guitar playing.

This album is a re-issue with great sound quality, but unfortunately they’ve added twenty minutes worth of extra tracks which I could have lived without.  The one exception to that is the video edit for “Halloween” – a much more tasteful five minutes in length and they even cut the ridiculous Great Pumpkin lyrics out entirely.

I enjoyed this record, but I also found myself laughing at it a bit.  For some reason these guys don’t have the same gravitas that Iron Maiden manages to generate with similar material. Nevertheless, I still liked it, and maybe I’ll even decide to see how the story ends in “Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 2.”

Best tracks: I’m Alive, Future World, Halloween (video edit)