CD Odyssey Disc 607: Led Zeppelin

Happy Saturday! I’ve spent the day making creative playlists for a music listening club I belong to. It is hard to think about just one album after jumping around so much and through so many genres, but here goes nothing.

Disc 607 is….III

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Year of Release: 1970

What’s up with the Cover? Apparently the sixties came back from the dead to barf on this cover. Not good.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me trying another Zeppelin album out, and it was the one ‘original four’ album I still didn’t have. It was also recommended to me by my friend and fellow music lover Spence, who thought its folksier feel would appeal to me. I do like it, even if not quite as much as the others in my collection.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have five Zeppelin albums (the first four plus “Presence”). Of those five, I must reluctantly put III at the bottom of the heap.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

And so my ongoing quest to love Led Zeppelin continues unresolved, with another “just really liked it” album.

As I’ve said in many previous entries on Led Zeppelin, while I appreciate the band’s musical ability, innovation and importance to the history of rock and roll I can’t wholeheartedly love them. “III” is another example of this.

To “III”’s credit, this feels a lot more original. Much of their early work has direct rip offs of early blues tracks, and while “III” remains heavily influenced by the blues, it has its own distinct feel very separate from that. Like the cover suggests (albeit poorly), the band has synthesized some of the sixties more folksy elements into their blues-rock sound and the result are songs that are generally more tightly focused.

The exception to this is “Since I’ve Been Loving You” which is a meandering seven and half minute noodle fest. Fortunately, Jimmy Page’s guitar is magnificent on this song and solidly holds together an otherwise listless song. Even though “Since I’ve Been Loving You” is not one of my favourites on the record, I think it is some of Page’s finest work.

Last night when this album came up in conversation my friend Casey said matter-of-factly that “Tangerine” is the best song on the record. Giving it my third consecutive listen as I write this, I can’t disagree. “Tangerine” is pretty much a perfect song, with Page seamlessly adapting to a folk guitar style, which plays in perfect tension with Plant’s rock and roll voice. “Tangerine” shows Zeppelin branching out and going their own distinct direction; a combination of proto-power ballad and fantasy adventure that bands like Queen and Blue Oyster Cult would soon emulate.

“Tangerine” is a song that I’d love to learn on the guitar when  my thumb heals and I can get back to playing. It has such a relaxing groove and chord progression. I can feel my whole body relax while I listen to it, like I’m having a cold beer on a summer evening.

I had a different reaction to “Bron Y Aur Stomp” which felt more like a musical exercise to me than an honest emotional effort. There are times when I feel like Zeppelin is just trying something new for the sake of innovation, but they’re not really feeling it. “Bron Y Aur Stomp” is one of those times. That said, without songs like this, it is hard to imagine a young Jack White being inspired to write some of his stuff, so I appreciate Zeppelin forging the way.

I admire some of the brave production decisions on “III” as well, including the use of a banjo on “Gallows Pole” that aids in the song’s breathless build toward its bluesy climax. Again, not one of my favourite Zeppelin songs, but I admire the skill of it, particularly the exceptional display of rhythm the band displays throughout.

I like that “III” has a mix of lighter songs and heavy rock songs that makes for a more relaxed listening experience. Despite the fact that I prefer the album’s construction and production to their first two records, overall I found less standout tracks, and for that reason I think it trails them slightly.

While I have never been able to love Zeppelin the way I’ve wanted to, “III” is another reminder that after five albums they’ve yet to deal me a bad turn. I think I’ll work on some of their later records that I’m missing, like “Houses of the Holy” and “Physical Graffiti”

Best tracks: Immigrant Song, Out on the Tiles, Tangerine

CD Odyssey Disc 606: The Cult

I worked a long day today and I don’t really want to spend more time in front of a word processor. Then again, it isn’t the early rounds that keep you writing creatively – it’s those later rounds where you’re weary as hell but still up for the fight. So take the damn stool out of the ring and pass me my damned mouth guard – here’s the next review.

Disc 606 is….Sonic Temple

Artist: The Cult

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover? A classic rock guitar pose is struck. Sadly the guitar in the guy’s hands is a bit underwhelming. I think he should’ve gone with the Flying ‘V’, at least for the cover photo.

How I Came To Know It: When I was in University my good friend Cameron loved the Cult and he played the hell out of both “Sonic Temple” and “Love” in a beat up grey sedan he owned. Since Cameron was one of the few people in our circle of friends with a car, I heard the Cult a lot. Of course, that was on tape. When I met Sheila I found out she was also a fan of the Cult from way back, and she bought them on CD.

How It Stacks Up:  We have two Cult CDs, just like Cameron in the day they are “Love” and this one (“Sonic Temple”). I really like a couple of songs off of “Love” but overall, I’m going to go with the less popular choice, and choose “Sonic Temple” as the best.

Rating:  3 stars

As I mentioned earlier, I knew this album mostly from a lot of forced listening in my buddy’s car. This, coupled with a lot of radio overplay and my friend’s unshakeable belief that The Cult were better than my favourite band (Blue Oyster Cult), made it hard to like them in the day.

Fortunately sufficient time has passed that I can once again listen to this album with an open heart. For the most part I enjoyed the experience. In fact, it reminded me of a lot of good memories driving around in that old grey sedan he got from his grandmother; we were young and headstrong and looking for trouble and “Sonic Temple” was as good a soundtrack as any for that.

Maybe it was all that early exposure in the car, but to me “Sonic Temple” is an album perfectly suited to driving. It is straight ahead rock and roll, up tempo and to the point, with lots of soaring vocals and guitar. The big hit was “Fire Woman” which is as good an example as any of both experiences.

All of the songs show of the Cult’s main selling point to some degree or other – that being front man Ian Astbury’s voice. Astbury has great range, and his vocals feel like they are hanging easy and relaxed in the back of his throat even as he fills the room with a breezy post-hippy power note. When the chorus of “Sweet Soul Sister” hits it is so big and boisterous in Astbury’s hands that you forgive a lot of the other more forgettable aspects of the song.

The rest of the band I found merely OK. They are tight enough but there isn’t anything that stood out for me. Part of the problem here is the late eighties/early nineties production that made a lot of CDs at that time sound low and a bit muddy. Although I didn’t know it while I was listening, when looking at the liner notes I was not at all surprised to see Bob Rock was the producer. The man responsible for a lot of bad hair metal records of the same vintage obviously worked hard to wreck this record’s sound.

Fortunately, for the most part he failed and the songs come out alright. The Cult’s visceral approach to the music creates a “Rock to mud” sound that gives it a bit of a grunge quality. The whole experience gives a layered effect that works, although I wanted it generally louder in a way that simply turning up the volume on my headphones didn’t deliver.

My favourite song on the album is “Edie (Ciao Baby)” which I found out yesterday is also Sheila’s favourite. It is a bittersweet song about Edie Sedgwick, an artist and Andy Warhol associate from the Factory days who died of a drug overdose at the age of 28.

I didn’t know any of that until while trying to figure out what the song was about exactly I found some Warhol references and then – bam! Internet! Anyway, if you look her up you’ll find the story of a troubled and tragic talent. I don’t know why the song includes the lyric “Ciao Baby!” It feels a bit forced, but Sheila suggested that might have been a catch phrase of Edie’s. It’s as good a theory as any I could come up with.

Anyway, the song is beautiful and a lot more lyrically meaningful than most of the Cult’s songs which are mostly variations on “give ‘er!”

The first half of this album is a lot better than the second, and I expect if I had this on vinyl it wouldn’t get flipped to the B side that often. Fortunately the good songs are good enough to hold this record at a solid 3 stars, at least for me. Hardly “Blue Oyster Cult good”, but solid all the same.

Well, until next time – ciao, baby!

Best tracks: Fire Woman, American Horse, Edie (Ciao Baby), Sweet Soul Sister

CD Odyssey Disc 605: Laura Marling

There has been a bit of a delay to the CD Odyssey while Sheila and I celebrated our 17^th wedding anniversary in Vancouver. I didn’t make my usual musical purchases, but I did pretty well in the clothes department.

The best on that front was a vintage tour shirt from the 1980 Blue Oyster Cult/Black Sabbath tour (famously known as “The Black and Blue Tour”). I tried to play it cool with the sales clerk to talk her down from the $80 it was marked at, but she advised her owners insisted the tour shirt prices were non-negotiable. Frustrating as the news was, I was impressed that the owners clearly knew what they were doing. I sighed, admitted defeat and paid the $80.

Disc 605 is….Once I Was an Eagle

Artist: Laura Marling

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? Laura strikes an artistic pose. This cover reminds me of those stark modern dance routines where every dramatic movement represents some massively important concept, but the dance is so sparse and the concepts so obtuse you can’t tell what is going on. I hate those routines.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Laura Marling during some trip down the Youtube rabbit hole. I can’t remember how she came up, but once I started listening to her I got very intrigued. I told my wife I’d love to get a couple of her albums for my birthday and she obliged.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three of Laura Marling’s albums (I’m missing 2010’s “I Speak Because I Can”).  Of the three I have, “Once I Was An Eagle” is easily the worst. Sorry, Laura.

Rating:  2 stars

“Once I Was An Eagle” is an album that sounds exactly like the cover suggests it will: like a stark modern dance routine that strips itself down so far for the sake of art that it loses any emotional grounding. Laura’s pose says it all as she reaches with all her might…for nothing.

Before I go any further or say any more unkind things, I’d like to point out that my other two Laura Marling albums (“Alas I Cannot Swim” and “A Creature I Don’t Know”) are both very good and welcome additions to my music collection. In my efforts to get the taste of “Once I Was An Eagle” out my head I also listened to the album I am missing – “I Speak Because I Can” – and I really like that one as well.

So what goes wrong on “Once I Was An Eagle”? It isn’t that the record is starkly recorded, since lots of good records have stark recording; look no farther than early Leonard Cohen for proof of this.

The first problem is the delivery. Marling has a beautiful voice, both sweet and vulnerable with a natural gift for good phrasing. The songs where she lets that voice loose are the best on the album, including the faerie fable, “Undine” and the melodic Dylan-esque “Where Can I Go?” (Marling has an obvious love for Dylan, at one point even inserting “it ain’t me babe” directly into one of her songs).

Unfortunately, the majority of the time she deliberately uses a style that is half singing and half talking that works a lot better for Dylan than for her. The talking sections make the backing instruments seem flat and plodding. “Devil’s Resting Place” survives the ‘talky’ treatment by being up tempo with a clever and building arrangement and “Pray For Me” gets by on a beautiful chorus, but these are exceptions to the rule.

For the most part the talking makes it feel like you’re trapped on a long bus ride with some damaged person who is whispering to you about how messed up their life is. Or put another way, if these songs needed a bit more wardrobe, but Marling makes the decision to dance them in the nude instead.

It feels a lot of the time on “Once I Was An Eagle” that Marling is trying to channel Leonard Cohen, but if you’re going to sing in the monotone style of Leonard Cohen, you better have poetry as beautiful as Cohen’s to make up for it. Overall, the lyrics here are honest enough, but often self-consciously so. Sadly it sounds a lot more like Jim Morrison than Leonard Cohen.

The record is 16 tracks and 63 minutes long, which is excessive on both counts. This gives it room to include both a rambling five song opening act, and a pointless instrumental, appropriately called “Interlude” that is gloomy and meandering right where the record needs an infusion of energy.

“Once I Was An Eagle” has some great potential, and some solid songs that stand up well, but they are drowned in a lot of meandering indulgences. Simply cutting the first six songs and “Interlude” would make all the difference in the world, and probably elevate it by a whole star.

Worst of all, this album gave me a different perspective on her earlier work that made those albums harder to enjoy. I really like my other Laura Marling albums, and for this reason alone I was planning to sell this one after this review. However, listening to it again while I wrote this, I had to admit that while outnumbered, the good songs are still good. Marling remains a strong young talent that can be forgiven for doing what artists should do; reaching to grow her art in new directions.

I’ll probably rarely put on this entire album, but I can see myself cherry-picking my favourite songs from time to time. I’ll therefore give it a reprieve…for now.

Best tracks: Undine, Devil’s Resting Place, Where Can I Go?, Once, Pray For Me

CD Odyssey Disc 604: Alice Cooper

It’s been over 16 months and 150 albums since I last reviewed an Alice Cooper album, but he’s finally back on the rotation, and as welcome as ever.

Disc 604 is….Love It To Death

Artist: Alice Cooper

Year of Release: 1971

What’s up with the Cover? There is no mess more glorious than a rock band on the verge of stardom. Here they are, hanging it all out there in their gold pants and fringe, their long hair and their women’s blouses. Alice isn’t even painting his eyes yet but he’s still as creepy as ever.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember. I’ve loved Alice Cooper for so long and this album has been part of my life since before I could talk. I’ve had it on CD for about twenty years and I’ve got it on vinyl as well, although that more recently.

How It Stacks Up:  I have all 26 of Alice Cooper’s studio albums (I’m kind of a fan). “Love It To Death” is one of his finest. Really, it is tied for first place, but since I’ve got to make only one album hold top spot, I’ll leave that for “Billion Dollar Babies.” “Love It To Death” is a very close second.

Rating:  5 stars

Two albums into their career, Alice Cooper had plenty of talent and ambition, but their music lacked the direction and focus needed to bring it all together. Enter producer Bob Ezrin to kick start the career of one of rock and roll’s defining artists.

Gone were the wayward attempts on earlier records to sound like the Beatles or early Pink Floyd. Instead, Ezrin (and co-producer Jack Richardson) allow the melodic influences of these earlier bands to survive but help the band find their own unique sound. It is so successful most people think “Love It To Death” is the band’s debut.

Everything that makes Alice Cooper great comes together here. Michael Bruce’s guitar is loose and nasty; founded in sixties acid rock acts like Cream, and yet it is equally the harbinger of harder rock riffs that would become synonymous with the decade this album helped usher in.

The rhythm section is as good as they ever were, and never more so than on the iconic nine minute horror track, “Black Juju.” The song develops slowly. The tribal drumming of Neal Smith creates is paired with a gothic inspired bass-line from Dennis Dunaway that leaves you feeling entirely uneasy. The song is about the living dead – African style – and as ill-luck would have it, early work shifts found me walking through the silent streets of my city in the dead of night while listening to it. It was easy to imagine the zombie apocalypse waited just around the corner and, you know, kinda fun. Cooper’s vocals are amazing as well, but “Black Juju” is more about the suspense and rising terror of a horror movie than any specific lyrics.

Cooper is better vocally when he gets introspective, such as on the equally epic “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” the story of a disturbed man who kills in a fugue and awakes to find blood on his hands, and a vague understanding that he is responsible. There are a lot of artists that lay their inner demons bare for the sake of great vocals (Johnny Cash and Ozzie Osbourne also come to mind) and Alice Cooper is every bit their equal.

The album wavers between the terrifying Poe-like tales of “Black Juju” and “Ballad of Dwight Fry” and songs about the alienation and confusion of youth. The generation that first heard this record were emerging bleary-eyed from the Summer of Love to find a mad and uncertainty of foreign wars and domestic breakdown – it was the perfect greeting card for the new world.

“Love It To Death” rarely gets political (the closest they come being the dystopian “Long Way To Go”). Instead paradoxically it finds its strength by embracing self-doubt. As Cooper sings on the album’s iconic hit, “Eighteen”:

“I’ve got a baby’s brain and an old man’s heart

Took eighteen years to get this far

Don’t always know what I’m talking about

Feels like I’m living in the middle of doubt.

Because I’m eighteen I get confused every day.”

My favourite song on the record is “Is It My Body,” a song that captures this same uncertainty while managing to be sexy as hell. “Is It My Body” is stripped down, featuring dirty guitar solos combined with Cooper sounding sexy, creepy and confused all delivered in a mere 2:39. The song could have been a hot mess, but it has been stripped down to its essential parts, allowing the innovative melody to carry all its disparate themes with equal ease. It has Bob Ezrin’s fingerprints all over it.

All the record’s themes are brought together with “Second Coming,” which is equal parts demonic horror, troubled psychiatric confessional and youthful angst:

“I couldn’t tell if the bells were getting louder

The songs they ring I finally recognized

I only know hell is getting hotter

The devil’s getting smarter all the time.”

The record is only 36 minutes long, but it is 36 of the most challenging and amazing minutes in rock. It all culminates with the final track, a cover of Rolf Harris’ 1961 song, “Sun Arise” (sadly minus didgeridoo).  After such a dark journey through the psyche and all the phantoms it can create, “Sun Arise” is like a bowl of lime sorbet after a raw steak dinner. It is the perfect final song for what is, for me, a perfect album.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 603: Belle and Sebastian

I’m out of bed later than planned after a Saturday spent with friends where the fun started early and went late. I am now paying a bit for the fun that was had, but I regret nothing.

Disc 603 is….The Life Pursuit

Artist: Belle and Sebastian

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? Three young women. This cover is not much to look at, but inside the three women are dressed up in school uniforms with very short plaid skirts. I recommend this approach for all musicians – it is definitely better than a bunch of band photos.

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan of Belle and Sebastian and though I don’t religiously buy their records I got this one after I heard a couple of the same songs on Stuart Murdoch’s 2009 side project, “God Help the Girl.”

How It Stacks Up:  This is a strong Belle and Sebastian album. It is equal to “Boy with the Arab Strap” but very different in style. I’m going to put it third out of the five albums I own but really it is in a statistical tie with “Arab Strap”.

And since this is the last review of Belle and Sebastian in my collection (at least for now) here’s the full list.

1. If You’re Feeling Sinister: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 591)
2. The Boy With the Arab Strap: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 540)
3. The Life Pursuit: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
4. Write About Love: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 301)
5. Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 61)

Rating:  4 stars

As a rule, Belle and Sebastian can be a bit pale and wan but on “The Life Pursuit” they lighten up both musically and lyrically.

Gone are songs about having a stroke at the age of 24, or being raped in the chalet lines, and instead we have “Another Sunny Day” and “Funny Little Frog” that are as whimsical and carefree as their titles suggest.

“Funny Little Frog” is one of the two songs that also appears on “God Help the Girl” (the other being “Act of the Apostle II”).  It is interesting to hear these songs sung by a man, and the arrangements are sufficiently different to keep them fresh. That said, I prefer the versions on “God Help the Girl.” Maybe it is because I like them sung in a female voice (Belle and Sebastian songs tend to be pretty high in the register) or maybe it is just that I heard the remakes before I heard the originals.

There is plenty on “The Life Pursuit” to love, however. The album is up-tempo and it gets your head nodding along. I was caught at least a couple of times playing air guitar or slapping my thigh while waiting at a red light when a particularly upbeat song came on.

The album paints little pictures that create a feeling of nostalgia before the experience is even over. It is like the band knows that the everyday experiences we have now will magnify and seem that much more important later in life. Last night Sheila and I were looking through her old high school yearbooks. Seeing yearbook pictures always brings back a flood of very specific memories even when it isn’t your yearbook. Listening to “The Life Pursuit” had a similar effect on me.

Even though I have no direct knowledge about what these songs are about, they are so cleverly constructed they feel like my own stories. Also for a band that has been around as long as Belle and Sebastian have been (ten years at the time this album came out) they have an exceptional capacity for capturing what youth feels like in all its joyful abandon. The record reminds me that spending our youth carelessly isn’t wasteful, it’s liberating.

Musically, the song structures reminded me strongly of later Beatles, minus all the drug-inspired nonsense lyrics. Instead, we get clear pictures of characters like young Sukie, who likes to hang out in the graveyard and attend art school, or all the various characters (brokers, nurses and drunks) passing through Mornington Crescent.

There are other influences as well, including the ubiquitous (to indie music) homages to sixties folk pop, a little bit of Motown and on one song (“Song for Sunshine”) even some funk that wouldn’t be out of place on an early Red Hot Chili Peppers album.

This record didn’t really teach me anything but it lightened my heart and put a smile on my face every time I played it – something I’ll be doing a lot more in the future.

Best tracks: Another Sunny Day, Dress Up In You, Sukie in the Graveyard, Funny Little Frog, Act of the Apostle II, For the Price of a Cup of Tea, Mornington Crescent

CD Odyssey Disc 602: Trooper

Upon recently buying my third Eric B. & Rakim album, I decided I could live without an earlier “20^th Century Masters” greatest hits record by the same band. When I got my fourth studio album by Nazareth, I let go of my compilation album “the Primo Collection” (reviewed back at Disc 254) as well.

There’s no danger of me ever buying a bunch of studio albums by this next band, but I still appreciate owning a greatest hits package.

Disc 602 is….Hot Shots

Artist: Trooper

Year of Release: 1979 but with music from 1975 to 1978

What’s up with the Cover? Someone’s been taking some…hot shots! On vinyl this cover was one of my favourites because the bullet holes were actually holes in the cover, that you could put your fingers through. When you opened up the front cover, you could see a second target where the ‘bullet holes’ lined up with stars as impact points (I think).

The CD version of this cover is considerably less cool, seeing as it features a giant “Compact Disc/Compact Price” built right into the label. I imagine when I bought this “compact price” was about twice what that means now.

How I Came To Know It: For the second review in a row, my brother owned this album on vinyl and I probably borrowed it from him originally before buying the CD years ago in a fit of nostalgia.

How It Stacks Up:  This is a ‘best of’ album so doesn’t stack up. It is also my only Trooper album, so it wouldn’t stack up anyway.

Rating:  no rating – ‘best of’ albums don’t get rated.

I struggled at first with how to characterize seventies Canadian rock icons Trooper before settling on the expression ‘boat rock’.

My friend Kate recently introduced me to the hilarity of the Youtube series “Yacht Rock” which fictitiously chronicles the lives of late seventies/early eighties schmaltz like the Doobie Brothers and Kenny Loggins. With their light riffs and smooth style Trooper seems to fit the bill here, but they are a bit rougher around the edges. They are more like a small-town Canada version of those acts. It isn’t music for the country club so much as music for summertime cook outs. For putting on your jean-short cutoffs and sitting in a vinyl-strap lawnchair, feet up on the cooler so the next beer will be in easy reach. ‘Boat rock’ is the right sentiment, maybe even ‘aluminum boat rock’ if you’re actually going fishing as opposed to just up the lake for a swim.

Like a boat trip up the lake, Trooper is not my favourite music but I grew up with it, and there is an easy familiarity about their sound. It is easy and breezy, and the songs have pretty little melodies and guitar riffs which are simple but fun, and get your toes tapping. I like them a lot more than their yacht rock cousins, in the same way that I’m a lot more at ease with my feet on a cooler than I would be on a cruise ship or sailboat.

These songs were big in my early youth, where Trooper got a lot of airplay on Canadian radio. Whether that was a CanCon thing doesn’t really matter – the music was up tempo and fun. Even the ballads seemed carefree. You can tell that Trooper wanted to have a harder edge to their sound, but it is never as tough as they want it to be. These guys raise hell for sure, but only a little of it.

Lyrically, this stuff is a bit ridiculous. Mostly it is the usual ‘I love a girl’ stuff, and when they do try bigger subjects (like the arrival of pilgrims on “Santa Maria”) it comes off kitschy and forced. I guess it’s just too big a boat.

I particularly enjoy “The Boys In the Bright White Sports Car” which is about little more than a couple guys driving down a street in a nice ride. There is an implication that the song might be about master thieves (“the car is probably stolen”) but given that it is being piloted by ‘Jack of All Trades Stan” and “Gerry, the Garbage Man” it is more likely a bunch of buddies on a wild weekend trip in Vegas. The worst trouble these guys will get into is a fistfight and a night in the drunk-tank.

The lyrics of “General Hand Grenade” are exceptionally bad:

“Good old General Hand Grenade

Ridin' in a motorcade

Sippin' on a lemonade

And waving at his fans

“Isabella Band Aid

Wavin' at the Shrine parade

Eatin' toast and marmalade

And getting sticky hand”

My best guess is that this is about the worst parade ever, but it really seems to be more of a pointless exercise to see how many words rhyme with ‘grenade.’ Despite this, the song’s tune is so catchy I always find myself singing along regardless

Trooper had a good career through the seventies, having five multi-platinum albums in Canada (none bigger than “Hot Shots” which I think every Canadian over forty has owned at some time in their lives). They never achieved the same success in the U.S. (their biggest hit, “Raise A Little Hell,” barely registered on US charts) and that’s a shame given how much joy they created north of the border.

It is a testament that 10 years after the songs on “Hot Shots” were first recorded they were still being played in heavy rotation at my high school dances. People were still jumping around to “Raise A Little Hell” and doubling down on their slow dances to “Two For the Show.”

Trooper were here for a good time, if not a long time, and for all my gentle mocking of their music, there is no denying they’ve helped the sun shine a little brighter at many a beach-side picnic table in their day.

Best tracks: The Boys in the Bright White Sports Car, Two For the Show, We’re Here for a Good Time, Raise a Little Hell

CD Odyssey Disc 601: Black Sabbath

I have now randomly rolled three Black Sabbath albums out of the last seven, which is a statistical anomaly to say the least. I know for certain it can’t happen again, though, because this is the last Sabbath album in my collection. Fitting that it should be a live record I suppose.

I should be taking a nap right now, since I have company tonight and an early day tomorrow, but I want to get this review written while it’s hot in my blood. Even if it weren’t, I’ve a hankering for something other than the mighty Black Sabbath and the Odyssey doesn’t release me from the thralldom of one album until I start the next one.

Disc 601 is….Live Evil

Artist: Black Sabbath

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover? I loved this cover as a kid. It depicts a bunch of the Black Sabbath songs featured on the record. From left to right we have Paranoid, Voodoo, Heaven and Hell, Neon Knights, Black Sabbath, Iron Man, War Pigs, Children of the Grave (and possible Children of the Sea as well) and The Mob Rules. I used to have the Neon Knight done in purple on a big silk screen that hung over my bed.

How I Came To Know It: I knew this album when it came out. I believe my brother was a fisherman at the time and he used to come in off the boat and buy about 10 albums with his pay cheque – when he let me, I’d borrow them when he was back at sea. This was one of those.

How It Stacks Up:  I have ten of Black Sabbath’s studio albums and I recently reviewed the last one and stacked the up (back at Disc 598). As a live album, “Live Evil” kind of exists apart from those, so while I’ll rate it, I’m reluctant to stack it up.

Rating:  3 stars

I’ll always regret not seeing Black Sabbath live in their heyday. While you can argue their heyday was years before, the 1982 edition of Sabbath for “Live Evil” with Ronnie James Dio singing and Vinny Appice on drums this is still an impressive lineup. Also, the title is a palindrome – nifty!

Since I’ve already reviewed my other ten Sabbath albums, I won’t dwell too much on the individual tracks too much.  I will note that when you have a live album of a band that has been around for twelve years, choosing which songs to include in a performance is part of the art.

Personally, I like about one-third classic hits, one-third obscure stuff for the hard core fans and one-third stuff off of your new album. For the most part, “Live Evil” met my expectations, although it was a bit light on the obscure stuff. Also, while I know it is hard to pick just what classic songs to include, not choosing a single track off of their best album (“Volume 4”), is a huge oversight. I was particularly bummed not to hear “Supernaut” one of the all-time great riff-tracks. That said, “N.I.B.” was able to fulfill the monster riff requirement fairly well.

The production is not as meaty as I would have liked, but that is part of the live album experience (and why I tend to prefer studio albums as a general rule). No matter how good you sound, the production will never match the studio unless you’re cheating (Yes, I’m thinking of you, Kiss Alive!).

Dio clearly relishes singing the new (i.e. ‘his’) material, and he delivers great live versions of “Children of the Sea” and “Neon Knights.” That said, the best thing about “Live Evil” for me is hearing how some of the early Sabbath tracks are re-invented for Dio’s vocal style, which is so different from Ozzie’s.

As I noted back when I reviewed the album “Heaven and Hell” at Disc 565, my first experience with Black Sabbath was with Dio as the singer, and my first experience with a lot of the earlier songs was off of “Live Evil.” At the time I just assumed that is how the songs sounded. Later I discovered the joy of Ozzie Osbourne, and I admit his original versions are overall better. That said, Dio does solid work on the classics, and on “War Pigs” I think he equals the original. It is less bluesy and grimy than the Ozzie version, but it has a dreadful importance that only Dio’s operatic style can deliver.

The album falls down a bit near the end, where the band goes a bit overboard with “Heaven and Hell.” I love this song but despite Dio’s exhortations, you can’t really hear the crowd singing along as he instructs them. Later the band switches to “The Sign of the Southern Cross” and then they blend it with “Heaven and Hell.” This works OK, but when they decide to do it again with “Paranoid” they lose me. It feels a bit like they can’t decide if their triumphant end should be a Dio-era song or an Ozzie-era song. Guys – the fans came out to see you, so they already like you. Don’t overthink it.

So this album has some warts, but it is well played and performed, and it is hard to go far wrong when you are working with a wealth of material this good. While not a great live album, it is certainly a good one.

Best tracks: These are chosen based on how much I like the performance, rather than if they are merely a good song, since the album is full of good songs: Neon Knights, N.I.B., Children of the Sea, War Pigs

CD Odyssey: The First 600

As has become tradition, when I reach a milestone I do a quick summary - and 600 posts seems like a milestone to me.

If you don't like reading about milestones, then scroll down to see my 600th review, which is of a Blue Rodeo album.

In terms of highlights, 11 of the last 100 albums achieved five star ratings, which is about on pace for the whole Odyssey (once your sample size reaches a certain size, variations on percentages become rarer and rarer).  The recent standouts were:

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

Blue Oyster Cult - Spectres

Leonard Cohen - Songs

Blue Rodeo - Five Days in July

Leonard Cohen - Songs From a Room

Beck - Guero

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

REM - Automatic For The People

Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin

Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

If I could go back, I might drop Bowie down to four stars - I get a lot of those songs popping up on my MP3 player on random and I skip them more than I'd like to admit, but it could be you just need to hear that record in order to grok it in its fullness.

Two albums were sold. The first was Interpol's "Antics" which although it achieved two stars, just didn't grab me enough to stay in the collection.

The second was Frank Zappa's "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" which achieved one star, and I was likely being charitable. Fortunately I didn't give up on Zappa and I've since bought "Joe's Garage" and like it quite a bit.

In terms of most reviewed it is still the same three artists (Alice Cooper with 20, Tom Waits with 13 and Steve Earle with 12). Strangely, I haven't had a single review of any of these artists in the last 100 albums. KISS has caught up again to Steve Earle with 12 as well.

Now I'm off to randomly determine what album will be review number 601. Yeehaw!

CD Odyssey Disc 600: Blue Rodeo

Wow – here we are at another milestone – review number 600!

It is hard to fathom how big a project this has become (I’ve been at it since 2009), or how much longer I still have to go (a long way) but for now I’m just enjoying the journey.

It is fitting that this review be of a band that my wife Sheila put me on to, since she is also the person who encouraged me to start blogging. This in turn got me writing creatively again as well – thanks Sheila!

Disc 600 is….The Things We Left Behind

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover? The band standing in a field at what I believe is sunrise, although I suppose it could be sunset. Coupled with the title of the album it makes me think about how the sun leaves everything behind every day, only to welcome everything back a few hours later. Until one day it blows up into a red giant and incinerates the earth of course. For now let’s just enjoy the sunrise.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me buying their latest album when it came out. I usually buy new Blue Rodeo albums as gifts for Sheila, but I can’t say for certain if that’s what happened in this case.

How It Stacks Up:  We have 13 Blue Rodeo albums, and I like all of them in one way or another. “The Things We Left Behind” is one of the better ones, and I’m going to put it fifth, just behind “The Days in Between” (reviewed back at Disc 452) and “Lost Together” (reviewed back at Disc 467).

Rating:  4 stars

Usually when I review a double-album, the things I want to leave behind are half the songs, since double albums are almost always bloated with throw-away tracks. It was therefore a pleasant surprise when I first heard this record and discovered the material was so consistently good.

“The Things We Left Behind” is a return to form for Blue Rodeo after a couple of lesser records (2005’s “Are You Ready” and 2007’s “Small Miracles” – neither of which I’ve reviewed yet). Like all good Blue Rodeo albums both Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy are on their game, and their styles complement and support each other.

For Keelor, this means bringing the rockabilly to the album with “Never Look Back” which could have been a rock and roll hit in any of the last four decades (although apparently not this one). He also delivers some of his best introspective mood pieces, particularly “Don’t Let The Darkness In Your Head.” Keelor can stray into self-pity with some of his songs, and “Don’t Let The Darkness…” is surprisingly upbeat, and it feels like the title’s message is mostly to himself. I’ve been walking to work at five in the morning the last couple of weeks and this song has been a comforting whisper in my ear as I move through dark and mostly empty streets. It didn’t so much keep the darkness out of my head so much as it made me appreciate it all around me; it’s good for thinking.

Cuddy is the more folk side of the two songwriters, and while his work on “The Things We Left Behind” isn’t his absolute best, it is close. “One Light Left in Heaven” is a reminder that no one turns an argument into a song like Jim Cuddy. You’d think based on his subject matter that he’s breaking up with someone every month. If that were true, he sure does it beautifully:

“You know I’ll wait here for you.

I’ll wait here for you

No matter where you go

Or what you put me through

And I have walked this floor for hours and hours

Underneath the moon

And I am slowly disappearing here

Just a ghost that’s shining through

And I don’t know if you’ll come back to me

Or if you want to

But I’ll be waiting for you.”

As with their most recent album, “In Our Nature,” Michael Boguski is on keyboards and adds a depth to the songs with his flourishes without letting the arrangements get too busy. In fact, there is an overall sparseness to the album that appealed to me. Over the years Blue Rodeo has experimented a fair bit with production and arrangement values, but I like them best when they keep it simple. They do that here, and the songwriting on “The Things We Left Behind” is easily strong enough to stand up to the resulting scrutiny.

There are a couple of Greg Keelor noodle-fests on the album (“Million Miles” and “Venus Rising” where he gets a bit too self-indulgent.  “Million Miles” holds together OK under the pressure of over nine minutes of meandering, but “Venus Rising” is a sprawling mess. Together the two tracks total 19 minutes, and without them the album could be 14 tracks long (my usual maximum) and total 65 minutes. You could even fit it on a single disc at that point.

Still this is a minor quibble on what is an amazing display of both songwriting and execution. If the boys want to put the record out as a double LP and it’s as good as this, then who am I tell them otherwise?

Best tracks: All The Things That Are Left Behind, Waiting For The World, Never Look Back, One Light Left In Heaven, Don’t Let The Darkness In Your Head, Arizona Dust, Candice, 

CD Odyssey Disc 599: The Staves

I’m just back from a workout and feeling flush with endorphins. Despite all the little reasons I will give myself to skip going to the gym, I never regret it when I do go. It feels good to stay fit, even at the very average level I maintain.

Disc 599 is….Dead & Born & Grown

Artist: The Staves

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover? I found this a very pleasant cover.  It is the colour you might paint your walls if you were selling your house – an inoffensive light tan – and the lettering is rustic but respectable.  All about the letters are simple little images that are fun to search out while you let the disc spin.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila often gets me a music magazine for Christmas and in 2012 she bought me one dedicated to indie and folk music. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was packed with reviews of all kinds of bands I’d never heard of. Over several months I sought out all the artists on Youtube that I thought I’d like. The Staves were one of only a few that stuck, and so I bought their album online when I realized I’d never find it in local stores.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only full length LP by the Staves, and although they have a couple EPs preceding it, I don’t have those, so there is nothing to ‘stack up’ against.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4.

When you first hear a band can be almost as important as the music itself. If I had encountered the Staves twenty years ago when I was wholly committed to folk music, they might’ve been one of my favourite bands. As it is, they are still pretty damned good, but these days I’m into so many different styles of music concurrently I can’t give them the full ear they deserve.

Of course, if I had known the Staves twenty years ago, they would probably have been toddlers, since they’ve only been on the music scene about three years and are still very young. As debut full-length albums go, “Dead & Born & Grown” is an impressive start that shows a lot of promise for the future.

The album is contemporary folk music, and has a lot in common with Canadian act the Wailin’ Jennys, in that it features three gifted vocalists who sing beautiful harmonies together. In the case of the Staves the three vocalists are sisters – Emily, Jessica and Camilla Stavely-Taylor.  Good call on not using your full surnames, ladies.

The musical structure reminded me strongly of Simon and Garfunkel throughout, particularly on “In the Long Run” which has uncanny similarities with the Simon and Garfunkel song “April, Come She Will” while avoiding being derivative.

The guitar playing is handled principally by Jessica Stavely-Taylor. The songs are not hard to play (I imagine) but to play them as free and easy as Jessica does is another matter. She keeps the mood relaxed and lets the blending of the three voices take centre stage over the free and easy style.

Sister Camilla fills in on a couple of tracks with the ukulele. I usually prefer a mandolin to a ukulele when given the choice but for this album, I have to admit the ukulele is the right vibe. It has a childlike-wonder quality to it that suits these songs, which are very wide-eyed and open-hearted.

In some ways I’d like the album to have a bit more edge to it. It took several listens to realize some of the songs (like “Tongue Behind My Teeth”) have anger in them, but the gentle rolling harmonies soften everything, kind of like a blanket of snow; cold but comforting at the same time. A little more edge would be welcome, but then again maybe it would crush the vibe.

Snow and wintry imagery feature prominently and they create an atmosphere of quiet contemplation like you get when you’re out for a long walk in the snow with no one else around. Even the title of the album implies winter comes first in the rotation (first comes death and only later birth and growth), and the songs tend to start with a starkness from which wisdom emerges.

That said, the lyrics on “Dead & Born & Grown” are still the work of a band finding its way. They do a better job of establishing a mood than painting a picture, and I found myself wishing they would do both. I’m greedy that way, and I think lyrics are a big part of the folk music experience – more important than in some other genres. I do love this little section from “Wisely and Slow”:

“Tender woman mourns a man

Sits in silent sorrow

With a bottle in her hand.”

It reminded me of these lines from Gordon Lightfoot’s “Circle of Steel”:

“Deck The Halls was the song they played

In the flat next door where they shout all day

She tips her gin bottle back till it's gone.”

Another sad winter song!

Less impressive is the F-bomb dropped uncomfortably into the middle of “Pay Us No Mind.” I won’t quote it, except to say it is the only curse on the record, and feels like a cheap – and ultimately unsuccessful – attempt to squeeze some rebellion out of a song.

Another minor gripe is that both the album title and a couple of tracks make gratuitous use of the ampersand. Please just spell out ‘and’ – it is a perfectly good word.

However these are minor trifles for an album that made me feel very at ease. This is a record that lets your mind relax without making it lazy. It reminds me that youth isn’t always in a hurry, but is every bit as capable at finding wisdom and grace as age, sometimes more so. It has me excited to see what these sisters are going to do for an encore.

Best tracks: Wisely & Slow, The Motherlode, In the Long Run, Winter Trees

CD Odyssey Disc 598: Black Sabbath

When you work Monday to Friday there’s a tendency to wake up Sunday morning feeling like the weekend is over, when really, you’ve still got a whole other day to fill with fun.

My Sunday is starting with writing this review, which is a fine way to greet Day Two of the weekend as far as I’m concerned. The Dice Gods have favoured Black Sabbath lately, which is fine by me as well.

So here we go, and when I’m done I’ll get to work on the laundry – because as relaxing and enjoyable as I plan for my Sunday to be, greeting the work week with no clean underwear is never a good idea.

Disc 598 is….Sabotage

Artist: Black Sabbath

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? The boys from the band demonstrate their magic powers.  Behold! We can have our reflections look the same direction as us.  Don’t be afraid, dear readers, it is all done with (you guessed it) mirrors.

Instead of a giant mirror, the band should have considered spending their photo shoot money on a new wardrobe.  With the exception of Ozzie’s resplendent gown and platform shoes, the other guys look ridiculous.  Geezer Butler is dressed (and posed) like a grandmother living in a care home, Tony Iommi looks like a trucker who dreams of working in porn and as for Bill Ward, no leather jacket can make up for wearing your pajama bottoms in public. You are the founding fathers of heavy metal, gentlemen, have some pride.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me drilling through early Sabbath albums, I think in this case on the recommendation of my buddy Spence.

How It Stacks Up:  As just noted when I reviewed “Dehumanizer” at Disc 595, I have eleven Sabbath albums, ten studio and one live.  Of the ten, “Sabotage” is on the weaker side of the ledger, slightly better than “Dehumanizer” but still only good enough for eighth spot.

And although I still have one Black Sabbath album remaining to review, it is a live album and so can’t really stack up against the studio records.  Given that, this is as good a time as any for the full recap on how they each rank.

1. Volume 4: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 6)
2. Paranoid: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 194)
3. Self-Titled: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 105)
4. Heaven and Hell: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 565)
5. Master of Reality: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 270)
6. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 300)
7. The Mob Rules: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 157)
8. Sabotage: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
9. Dehumanizer: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 595)
10. Born Again: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 434)

As you can see by the rankings, I really like Black Sabbath. OK, on to “Sabotage”:

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4.

Sabbath fans viewing the album list above will see it is missing two albums from the Ozzie Osbourne era, “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die.”  I’ve heard both those albums and while they have their moments, I like to think of “Sabotage” as the last great Sabbath record of the Ozzie era. In my record collection, it is anyway.

Apparently fractures in the band were starting to form during the recording of “Sabotage” but you’d never know by listening to it. The band is still as tight as ever, and Tony Iommi demonstrates time and again that he is the master of writing a killer metal riff. Iommi’s guitar riffs seem so simple they make you wonder how come no one else had done it already, but Sabbath’s charm has always been to take fairly basic song constructions and fill them with doom and glory that lades them with a dread import.

Ozzie’s lyrics on “Sabotage” felt to me like a throw-back to 1971’s “Master of Reality”; a mix of moralizing and Lovecraft-like eldritch evil. Listening to “Hole in the Sky,” I had a hard time telling if Ozzie was talking about an ancient primordial god about to devour the world, or just the Christian Rapture. I suspect that for Ozzie the concepts are interchangeable. One thing that is certain is that under all of his drug-addled vision questing, Ozzie remains a moral and thoughtful man.  “Hole in the Sky” ends with this accusatory stanza:

“I’ve watched the Gods of War enjoying their feast

I’ve seen the western world go down in the east

The food of love became the greed of our time

No now we’re living on the profits of crime.”

The album has a lot of different musical influences lurking amid its proto-metal riffs. On “Don’t Start (Too Late)” Iommi does a little guitar instrumental in a flamenco style which is pretty enough, but doesn’t hold up to similar songs on earlier records, such as “Fluff” off of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.”  A second instrumental, “Supertzar” adds in a full classical chorus to good effect, although I kept wanting the song to develop into something more than it does.

The albums centerpiece is “Megalomania,” which is a ten minute song that has you wishing it were fifteen.

Like so many Sabbath classics, “Megalomania” is not content to have just one amazing riff, but instead varies its tempo and structure back and forth very much like classical music does. Each section is a reflection of its counterpart, providing the light and shadow a long song needs to hold your attention as it unfolds. The song tells the tale of a man slowly but inexorably losing himself to dark powers that subtly poison his soul with his own sense of self-importance. It is a timely song for a band at the height of their powers, and about to descend into a period of confusion and conflict.

“Sabotage” is not a Sabbath album that is the first off of someone’s tongue when discussing their great records.  However, that is more a function of how exceptional the band’s catalogue is, and not an indictment of the record itself. Most bands could only dream of having an album as good as this one, despite it being only eighth on my list.

Best tracks: Hole in the Sky, Megalomania, Thrill of it All