CD Odyssey Disc 657: Blue Rodeo

I’ve been sleeping fitfully most of this week, and waking up with a sore back. My dream self must be getting into all manner of adventure.

Last night I slept soundly for the first time all week, but didn’t go to bed until 12:30, so that kind of negated the experience. Strangely, I don’t feel that tired, but we’ll see how long I last into the evening.

Disc 657 is…. Outskirts

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover?  A pretty basic band shot. These days a photo like this is sent around to newspapers to print with their promo story so that the album cover can have something obscure or artsy on it. Back in 1987 people just wanted a picture of the band.

Greg Keelor is the only guy who looks like a rock star, with his sunglasses and rakish lean. Jim Cuddy looks like he’s wearing his high school sweetheart’s jean jacket and it’s too small for him (- she’s supposed to wear your jean jacket, dude). The rest of the guys look like they are suffering various degrees of penury – given where their career ended up from here this would be the last time they had any right to look like that.

How I Came To Know It:  My lovely wife Sheila introduced me to both Blue Rodeo and this album in particular. She had two or three Blue Rodeo albums when I met her, and they were on heavy rotation in our early days. I’m very grateful she got me to listen to this band, which has become one of my own favourites over the years.

How It Stacks Up:  We have thirteen Blue Rodeo albums, and there are a lot of good ones. With all that steep competition, “Outskirts” could only manage to land in eighth spot.

Rating:  3 stars overall, although with one 5 star song

“Outskirts” is the album where Canadian legend Blue Rodeo got their start and like a lot of debut albums at times it showcases the qualities that would make them great, while also being a little rough around the edges in places.

The record establishes their signature sound; roots/folk music with a rockabilly edge. From the beginning, these guys parked their egos at the door, and although co-vocalists and guitarists Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy are the stars, there is lots of room for the other instruments to shine, most notably the amazing Bobby Wiseman on keyboards.

It is therefore fitting that the opening track of their opening album, “Heart Like Mine” begins with an a capella harmony section, and then develops in a way that lets every band member contribute their skills.

I’ve known this album for a long time now and some of the songs have surprisingly grown on me over the years. I used to genuinely dislike “Rose-Coloured Glasses,” finding Keelor’s vocals warbly and affected. Since then I’ve come to appreciate what Keelor brings to a song, and “Rose Coloured Glasses” has become one of my favourites. It is about a woman who always sees the positive, and her miserable boyfriend (Keelor does misery like no other) who can’t seem to leave her.

“She sees the world through rose-coloured glasses

Painted skies and graceful romances

I see a world that’s tired and scared

Of living on the edge too long

Where does she get off telling me

That love could save us all.”

I like the way the lyrics express frustration, but with a tender and appreciative undercurrent.

The album’s ‘wow’ moment, however, belongs to Jim Cuddy and the five-star classic, “Try.” Coming near the end of the record this song sneaks up and hits you like a bag of emotional bricks. From construction, to melody to Cuddy’s voice – which has never been finer – this song is perfect. Unlike “Rose-Coloured Glasses” quoting lyrics from “Try” would be a disservice to Cuddy’s performance. His soaring voice glides in and out of impossible high notes like a seagull riding a summer wind of heart and hurt.

“Outskirts” has some staunchly rockabilly numbers, but they aren’t the album’s best tracks. I am keen for rockabilly right now, with my recent discovery of Irish singer Imelda May, but these songs don’t work for me. “Joker’s Wild” has Keelor a bit too out of control vocally even for him, and the chorus kind of tips itself off a cliff with its own momentum.

“5 Will Get You Six” is strongly reminiscent of early Elvis Costello songs like “Watching the Detectives” but not as good. Also, why would you spell out ‘six’ and then use the numeral ‘5’? It makes no sense!

In what would become a tradition for almost all Blue Rodeo albums, Greg Keelor is given at least two songs where he can meander aimlessly. On “Outskirts” these songs are “Piranha Pool” (6:32) and “Floating” (7:32).

Both of these songs should be half the length. In the case of “Piranha Pool” it would be as easy as removing the jazz odyssey piano from the front and latter third (sorry Bobby). “Floating” is a harder fix; its meandering quality gives you nothing to get hold of. It gives the feeling of floating well enough, but it needs more of a current if it’s going to get you somewhere.

Still, this is a good record and one that despite hearing many times over the years, I’m still glad to put on for a spin. It also set the stage for the classic run of records that would come in the years that followed, and started the legacy of a band that continues to inspire and impress me.

Best tracks:  Heart Like Mine, Rose-Coloured Glasses, Underground, Try

CD Odyssey Disc 656: Gorillaz

I haven’t reviewed this next band in over four years, which just shows how long I’ve been at this damned CD Odyssey.

Disc 656 is…. Plastic Beach

Artist: Gorillaz

Year of Release: 2010

What’s up with the Cover?  This is what would pass for an island resort in a post-apocalyptic garbage world. Not terribly nice, and likely infested with rats or cannibals, but that’s what you get for booking without reading trip reviews first.

How I Came To Know It:  Sheila likes the Gorillaz and one day when I was buying myself some albums, I thought it would be nice to bring something home she would like as well, even if it wasn’t my first choice. That’s how I roll, at least on my better days.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Gorillaz albums, and I’d put this one in the middle. Also, as this is the last Gorillaz disc in my collection, here’s the recap of how they stack up against each other:

1. Demon Days: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 138)
2. Plastic Beach: 2 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Self-Titled: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 74)

Rating:  2 stars but almost 3

I tend to only enjoy electronica when it is sidling up to generic pop music, and I find the Gorillaz a relatively painless listen for this reason. On “Plastic Beach” they are even downright enjoyable at times – just not at regular enough intervals. Like the flooded, doomed planet they depict on the album cover, the places where my ear can find a welcoming harbor are few and far between.

The album uses a number of guest vocalists, most notably (to me) rapper Snoop Dogg, seventies soul crooner Bobby Womack and alt-rocker Lou Reed. The Gorillaz are clearly interested in exploring music’s origins in multiple directions, and I appreciate this. Unfortunately, the various styles don’t always work.

Snoop Dogg’s appearance on “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” is one of the high points. The Gorillaz groove-based techno beats slide perfectly with Snoop’s rap style, and although I would have preferred this song with a real horn section, the way they use a synthesizer to get the same effect as a trumpet flourish works well enough.

Bobby Womack appears on a couple of tracks, to varying degrees of success. On “Stylo” he croons away over top of an undeniably cool beat. The beat on “Stylo” is so effective, the Gorillaz could’ve gotten away with just putting atmospheric sounds over top of it, and that’s pretty much what they do for the first half of the song. When Womack’s “110^th Street” power soul kicks in it gives the song a whole other facet. It is partly the pure and organic nature of Womack’s singing (and his understanding of how to slide on and off a perfect techno beat) that gives this song its spirit.

Unfortunately, later in the album the effect is slow and ponderous. On the wonderfully titled “Cloud of Unknowing” Womack attempts to deliver a heartfelt dirge, but the dead quality to the music sucks the life out of the performance, and left me wanting more.

As for Lou Reed – let’s just say this was not a match made in heaven. “Some Kind of Nature” just did not work. It felt like he was guesting on a digital version of the Muppet Show, minus a fun skit going on in the background. Even scratching his voice a bit near the end didn’t make it funky.

The best pure Gorillaz song is “Rhinestone Eyes” which has a great groove and (unlike most techno) thoughtful lyrics and may be the best song on the record.

Unfortunately, they can’t replicate this throughout. A lot of the songs feel like they never develop into anything, or worse they develop into an atmospheric collection of sound that had me glancing at my MP3 player 2-3 times for some songs wondering how much longer they were likely to go on. The worst offender, “Glitter Freeze” sounded like an electronica version of having your teeth drilled.

A much shorter album containing all my favourite tracks might have worked, but this record just takes too long to do what it wants to do. Ordinarily 16 tracks is two too many, but on “Plastic Beach” I’d say it is about six tracks too many. It isn’t that these songs are terrible, but they are too ordinary to be piled up to this height.

Thematically, I’ll give the Gorillaz credit for putting together what amounts to a concept album warning us about our society’s disposable culture and the reckoning that is coming when we become flooded in our own garbage. I love the effort, even if it didn’t fully deliver for me on the music front. This is at least in part because techno music doesn’t speak easily to me, so if you like techno beats, you will like this record more than I did. For all that, the songs I did like, I liked quite a bit.

Best tracks:  Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, Rhinestone Eyes, Stylo, On Melancholy Hill

CD Odyssey Disc 655: Guy Clark

This next artist has gotten a lot of attention from me recently – I’ve bought four of his studio albums and a tribute double album as well, all in the last couple of months.

Disc 655 is…. Somedays the Song Writes You

Artist: Guy Clark

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover? Guy Clark himself, looking like your favourite uncle over for a visit, and packing his guitar. I don’t have an uncle that plays the guitar, but if I did I’d want him to be Guy Clark. 

How I Came To Know It:  I’d had some bad experiences with Guy Clark, but also some great ones. Recently I found his excellent homepage where he streams every one of his records. This let me go through all of his studio albums one after another. Of the fifteen or so albums, I really liked six of them – and so I bought the four I was missing.

While Sheila originally liked Guy Clark, being inundated with this much at once was a bit much for her, and she’s a bit off him. Not me though – I’m enjoying soaking up all the new Guy Clark in my collection. “Somedays the Song Writes You” is one of those.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Guy Clark albums, as well as a concert album he did with Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle, and a tribute album of other artists doing his songs.

It is hard to stack them up, since I bought four of them all at once just a couple months ago, and I have yet to grok them in their fullness. I gave all six studio albums a quick listen again as part of determining where they stand up. “Somedays the Song…” came came out 5^th. I like it, but it isn’t as good as four others.

Rating:  3 stars

Guy Clark songs tend to be about two things. They are either character studies or they’re about some object of some kind. “Somedays the Song Writes You” is a relatively recent album for him, but it follows this same approach, mostly to good effect.

“Stuff” songs on the record are about guitars, whiskey, which I guess you’d expect music to be about, but also coats. The songs are best when the stuff connects to a character, like “Hemingway’s Whiskey” which is less about Ernest Hemingway than it is about tapping into the writer’s isolation and strength. The song does a good job of bringing both out.

Likewise “The Coat” isn’t really about a coat, it’s about getting so mad that you leave a fight and forget to take your coat with you:

“There’s nothing left to take back

There’s nothing to regret

The sooner I get movin’ the sooner I get wet

There’s nothin’ left unsaid nothing left undone

If I hadn’t left my coat I’d be already gone.”

The absence of the coat highlights the narrator’s equivocation. When the song ends on a hopeful note with “think I’ll go back and get my coat” leaving you to wonder if maybe the relationship can be salvaged after all.

On “The Guitar” we’re treated to a ghostly story about a pawn shop guitar that seems to be mystically connected to the customer trying it out. Part metaphor about the calling to be a musician, and part Twilight Zone episode, the song also highlights some very pretty playing from Clark and collaborator and co-writer, Verlon Thompson.

On the character front, my favourite song on the album is “Eamon,” the story of an old salt that has been working on the water since he was fourteen. Old now, Eamon decides to walk inland to die in a place where ‘he couldn’t smell the sea.” The music has lilting roll to it, like the sea itself and I love that Clark has managed to write a sea shanty about not being on the sea. For Eamon, land is the undiscovered country, sending him off with a chorus of:

“Sing fare thee well

Calm seas or swell

Red evening sky

Home and dry.”

As the saying goes, “red sky at night/sailor’s delight” and while the song is about life’s end, Clark makes that end peaceful and appropriate. We all should wish to be sent off so gently.

Not all the songs are so perfect. Clark tackles the subject of “Hollywood” but clearly doesn’t get the pace and danger of the place and it comes off like someone writing a song based on a travel book, not personal experience. For a better song about the same place, go with Concrete Blonde’s “Back in Hollywood.” That’s how it’s done, Guy.

Similarly, “Wrong Side of the Tracks” tries to be a bluesy song about poverty, but it is just a lesser tackling of a topic Clark handles much better on “Homeless” (from his superior release from 2002, “The Dark”).

The album also has a cover of the Townes Van Zandt masterpiece “If I Needed You.” I like Clark’s version, but he doesn’t do a lot different from Townes, and lacks a bit of the desperate need in his voice that makes the song work.

Of all the albums I purchased in my recent glut, “Somedays…” was the one on the bubble for me. I bought it because some of the highpoints are pretty strong, and I like its spirit, but it isn’t where I would start if I was trying to get someone into Guy Clark.

Best tracks:  Somedays You Write the Songs, The Guitar, Hemingway’s Whiskey, The Coat, Eamon

CD Odyssey Disc 654: Bruce Springsteen

This next record was the subject of an enjoyable drunk discussion between me and my friends Casey and Randall.

Casey started off claiming “The River” was a brilliant album, falling short only of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” for Bruce’s best. I countered that I agreed about “Darkness…” being number one, but “The River” was more middle of the pack. Randall would then point out it was a bit bloated as a double album. I would agree to this, which would get Casey going again about how it was still brilliant. I think over the course of the night we hit for this particular cycle three or four times.

The album is a bit too long, I still put it in the middle of the pack, but there is no denying this record’s brilliance. In a weird way we were all right. Every time.

Disc 654 is…. The River

Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover? A ‘Big Head’ shot, Bruce style. Bruce looks like he’s been working the night shift down at the mill and not bothering to shave. Bruce was grunge before grunge was cool. 

How I Came To Know It:  This was just me drilling through Bruce’s collection. Because I love the album that comes before and after this one, it was a natural purchase. Casey also bought me a copy of it on vinyl, which is pretty cool.

How It Stacks Up:  We have ten Bruce Springsteen albums. “The River” is pretty good, but competition at the top is tough. I’ll put it 6^th bumping both “Born to Run” and “Greetings from Asbury Park” down a slot from where I originally ranked them.

Rating:  4 stars

It is hard to follow up a great record like “Darkness on the Edge of Town” but “The River” holds its own pretty well.  

“Darkness…” had enough great material that a whole double album of cast-offs formed another record years later (released as “The Promise” in 2010). With “The River” Bruce skipped the wait and put out as a double album right away. This is always a dangerous decision, but “The River” holds up well.

Springsteen once again goes to his standard themes of tough streets and finding love in adversity. On “Born to Run” these themes played out in rebellion, and on “Darkness…” with a quiet and desperate resignation. “The River” doesn’t offer up many easy answers, but there is a core of hope and optimism on the record much stronger than on the two records that preceded it.

This is particularly true on Side One and Two (or Disc One, depending on your format) which is faster paced, with upbeat melodies. Here we find the album’s biggest hit (and the biggest to this point in Bruce’s career) “Hungry Heart.” This is a song about the bumps and bruises we get trying to find love. At its core it is a song about being alone, but it wraps itself up in the fact that everyone’s got a hungry heart, so no one is really all that alone after all. Like the Police’s “Message in a Bottle” it leaves you feeling connected to all those sad strangers you pass on the street every day.

There’s a number of songs on the first album of “The River” that had me thinking of Buddy Holly, with their genial early sixties vibe, particularly “I Wanna Marry You” and “Sherry Darling.” Sure they are gritted up a bit for the start of the cynical eighties, but they are like a lead actress in a Hollywood romance; always beautiful even when a scene calls for her to have dirt on her face.

That said, I do prefer my Bruce dark, and I was happy when Bruce digs down deep for the first album’s final track, “The River” a song about broken dreams and the regular people trying to pick up the pieces.

Sides Three and Four (or Disc Two) picks up where the title track leaves off, and overall has a slower, more somber feel.

Bruce’s love affair with cars comes out strong and buoyant with “Cadillac Ranch,” and “Ramrod” before turning the theme tragically on its head with “Stolen Car” and “Drive All Night.” Few can weave the imagery of a car into the story of a song like Bruce, and the plethora of car songs make the whole of the second record a real joy for me.

Springsteen ties both the good and the bad car imagery together in a bow with the record’s final song “Wreck on the Highway,” a song about a man driving home and coming across a dying man in a wreck. It is a tragic loss for that man’s family, but for the witness it reaffirms in him the love he holds for his own wife when he finally gets home:

“Sometimes I sit up in the darkness

And I watch my baby as she sleeps

Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight

I just lay there awake in the middle of the night

Thinking about the wreck on the highway.”

Love can be hard to find, and harder to hold on to, so savour every moment that you can before it’s gone. It is fitting that for all its winding ways, “The River” ultimately ends with two lovers arm in arm. Bruce, you old softie, you got me again.

Best tracks:  Independence Day, Hungry Heart, Out On the Street, You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch), The River, Cadillac Ranch, Fade Away, Stolen Car, Ramrod, Drive All Night, The Price You Pay, Wreck on the Highway

CD Odyssey Disc 653: Bob Dylan

A hard day in the family today, as Sheila’s Mom had to put down her cat, Harlequin. Seventeen years is a good run, but that doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye. For my part, I’ll miss Harlequin too, and wish Helen all the best. Cats are part of our families too.

Disc 653 is…. Bob Dylan (Self-Titled)

Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 1962

What’s up with the Cover? A very young Bob Dylan – twenty-one to be precise – poses with his guitar. It is still an acoustic as this is before Bob learned to grow a beard and piss people off full-time. 

How I Came To Know It:  This was just me being a Bob Dylan fan and drilling through his collection. It took me a while to buy this one because it didn’t have any songs I recognized. Eventually I figured every other early Dylan album was great, so it was likely this would be a good one as well.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 19 Bob Dylan albums. I came in expecting his self-titled debut to disappoint but it surprised me. I wouldn’t say it is top half, but it is respectable. I’ll go 13 out of 19.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

With the exception of two songs, Bob Dylan’s first album is a bunch of traditional songs and blues covers. Even so, his appreciation for musical construction shins through, and it is no surprise he would go on to become one of the biggest influences on modern music.

Whenever I put this record on I check the track listing and I expect some by the numbers covers record. Instead, while the songs may be blues and folk standards, Dylan combines the two styles in a way that is fresh and original. His singing and playing style is solidly Americana folk music, but the grit and hurt he infuses into the songs speaks of dirty dustbowl blues.

Traditional songs like “In My Time of Dying” and “Fixin’ to Die” are as gritty and dirty as any version you’ll hear, and Dylan makes them his own. The guitar work on the surface is raw but it hides a complexity of light and heavy tones that give the songs dig down inside you. As for Dylan’s famously raspy voice, what he lacks in range he more than makes up for with enthusiasm and commitment. Even “Freight Train Blues” where he really pushes his voice past any semblance of reasonable, is still fun. Later in his career he’d learn to let the harmonica fill in the long windy notes. Good career move, Bob.

There is a revolutionary spirit to this music as well, which leaves you thinking equally of a dusty rural road cutting through a corn field, and a paved walkway through the shady groves of an Ivy League campus. Dylan even notes that he got one of his songs – “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” from blues guitarist Rick Von Schmidt on the “green pastures of Harvard University.”

It is a testament to Dylan’s brilliance that on an album with eleven timeless folk and blues classics, his two original songs – “Talkin’ New York” and “Song to Woody” are two of the record’s best.

“Talkin’ New York” is the beginning of Dylan’s rambling rap style. Dylan delivers his social commentary with a sardonic smile as he makes you laugh and wince at the same time with lyrics like:

“Now, a very great man once said

That some people rob you with a fountain pen

It don't take too long to find out

Just what he was talking about

A lot of people don't have much food on their table

But they got a lot of forks and knives

And they gotta cut something.”

“Song to Woody” is the other side of Dylan’s brilliance, where he foregoes the sly wink and just lets you have a double-barreled dose of somber contemplation. The song’s construction has a gentle roll, much like the character singing, lost on the road-life of the folk singing troubadour.

“Song to Woody” signals Dylan’s arrival as the next folk icon, but even more it shows that he has a keen sense that he is just walking a few more steps down a road built by generations of troubadours before him:

“Hey Woody Guthrie but I know that you know

All the things that I'm saying and a many times more

I'm singing you the song but I can't you sing enough

'Cause there's not many men that've done the things that you've done.

“Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too

And to all the good people that travelled with you

Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men

That come with the dust and are gone with the wind.”

It’ll be some time before Bob himself is ever gone with the wind.

Finally, a note on Dylan’s cover of “House of the Rising Sun.” I’ve never liked the Animals version of this song (which came two years later) but couldn’t put my finger on why until recently when I read a Cracked.com article about it. The article explains that the Animals had switched the gender of the narrator from a woman to a man, somehow changing the song to a cautionary tale about gambling.

Dylan’s version is the original, singing as a woman who falls down on her luck and ends up in prostitution and despair. His frail, quavering thin voice is the perfect match to the despair of the lyrics; it is like listening to the Angel of Death himself recounting the poor woman’s tale of misery.

The only bad thing I can say about this album is that all the covers takes away from hearing even more of Dylan’s own compositions. Plenty of time for that over the last fifty years though, I suppose.

Best tracks:  Talkin’ New York, Pretty Peggy-O, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, House of the Rising Sun, Song to Woody

CD Odyssey Disc 652: The Both

I’m midway through a pretty good weekend. I’m just back from a rousing game of ulti and fresh from the shower (although still a bit sticky – damned humidity).

Foolishly, I went to Ditch Records today and of course ended up buying something. It was Muddy Waters’ 1968 album “Electric Mud” which I heard when my buddy Ross recently brought it over. Naturally I blame Ross for the purchase, rather than my own music addiction.

Disc 652 is…. The Both (Self-Titled)

Artist: The Both

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover?  First the New Pornographers at Disc 648 LINK and now this. What is it about indie pop and action figures?

This time we have Aimee Mann and Ted Leo dolls, and it looks like those dolls have been crafting! Which is a pretty nifty thing for a doll to do, but I still think it might warrant putting them in a locked toy box at night – particularly if they are responsible for that troubling tunnel of twigs in addition to the paper banner.

How I Came To Know It:  I’m a big Aimee Mann fan, and I read an article a few months ago that she was doing a collaboration with Ted Leo (of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists). I marked the date of the release, and bought it the day it came out, knowing that I’m rarely if ever disappointed with Aimee Mann.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Aimee Mann albums, and no Ted Leo albums (I’ve been looking into him, but it is early days and the jury is still out). I can’t really compare a separate band to Mann’s solo work directly, but I will say that “The Both” holds its own against the rest of her stuff.

Rating:  4 stars

My biggest concern with the “Both” was no enjoying Ted Leo’s contribution. I knew I’d love Aimee Mann – I can’t remember the last time she disappointed me – but who was this Ted Leo guy? As it turned out, a very talented vocalist and musician who added a whole new layer to Aimee Mann’s music.

The Both’s songs sound a lot like Aimee Mann, which is to say they are excellent. Mann writes beautiful pop melodies that flow along effortlessly with an easy energy. Leo’s addition creates a slightly more rock edge but for the most part I could see Mann doing these songs all on her own.

For all that, I’m glad she didn’t, because Leo’s vocals are excellent; smooth and rangy with a bit of a husky rock quality that connects beautiful harmonies with Mann’s pure pop tones. The harmonies are loose, and each voice is distinct. Mann and Leo’s vocals are so complementary that the space in between is as natural as the space between old friends when they walk down the street.

It isn’t all harmonies, however, and many of the songs have Leo and Mann taking the lead on alternate verses. There’s no tension or discord between the two of them. Their deliveries and phrasing are remarkably similar, but the tone of their voices is different, which draws your ear and keeps every line fresh in your mind.

Subject wise, I had a hard time parsing the lyrics but I liked them regardless. I’m hoping future listens will help bring everything together. Topics seemed to range around a fair bit. Some of the songs cover the day-to-day battles in any relationship, and others take on social or political commentary. Based on Mann’s solo work, which is more focused on the internal, I have to feel this latter approach is Leo’s influence. Interestingly, I found those songs the most interesting.

“Volunteers of America” is a fast-paced song that exposes the economic troubles of America (I think). That or maybe it is about the state of the modern music industry, and how hard it is to get ahead. I admit I’m not sure. Whatever it is, the triumphant tune feels uplifting until you tune in to the lyrics and realize that triumph is meant to be ironic. The chorus is damned infectious, with its slow rising vocals, and sing-along qualities. It may be a sad anthem, but it is an anthem nonetheless.

My favourite song on the album is “You Can’t Help Me Now” which starts out with a gorgeous guitar strum and then Mann’s sweet n’ low voice comes in and unleashes emotional devastation and heartache:

“Any time you establish a world of your own, you get thrown.

Try and answer a bomb with a calm undertone, alone.

I wanted you to know that I put up a fight

But everything goes missing when they dim the light

The catastrophic sinking of the windless kite.”

Sometimes things are so bad that no one can make it better, and the very person you want to lean on is the person that’s gone. Nearly every time I’ve listened to this album since I bought it, I played “You Can’t Help Me Now” twice before moving on. I just couldn’t help myself. My life is good, but it’s nice that good art can make you enjoy a good wallow anyway.

“Hummingbird” is also a pretty song with a gentle acoustic guitar, and a construction that felt a lot like an old medieval folk song. Kind of like “Greensleeves” but where the sin is the hybrid crops themselves, not the stains you get from lying down in them. Lots of great lines, but my favourite is the bridge:

“There’s sage and glove and distant waters

But there’s no map home for Memory’s daughters

Do the darting thoughts of gods have dreams like ours?”

The whole album delivers an emotional gut-punch, but with a chocolate coating of gorgeous melody and pretty voices to help the dark themes go down easier. It feels like Mann and Leo have been doing this together for twenty years, rather than it being their first stab at it. I’m hoping they do it all again soon.

Best tracks:  Milwaukee, Volunteers of America, Pay for It, You Can’t Help Me Now, Hummingbird, Bedtime Stories

CD Odyssey Disc 651: Soundgarden

Yeehaw! It is time for another music review. This may be the first time that I’ve completed an artist only to buy another album and carry on. It won’t be the last.

Disc 651 is…. King Animal

Artist: Soundgarden

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover?  Not the “King Animal” that’s for sure – more likely the king animal’s trophies. With the snow-draped landscape and the white flowers it is strangely beautiful, but I’d still want to be out of that forest come sundown.

How I Came To Know It:  I’ve been a fan of Soundgarden since my old room-mate Greg brought home “Badmotorfinger” back in 1991. Despite their many good albums since, my bad experience with “Down on the Upside” held me back from buying “King Animal.” Armed with a gift certificate, I took a chance on it at last a couple months ago.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have six Soundgarden albums.  Competition is fierce, but I’m going to put “King Animal” solidly in the middle of the pack at number four, bumping the “Screaming Life/Fopp” EP and “Down on the Upside” down a peg each.

And as a result of this new album, I’ve got to do the recap of all their albums all over again – in slightly revised order as noted:

1. Badmotorfinger: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 283)
2. Louder Than Love: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 528)
3. Superunknown: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 481)
4. King Animal: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
5. Screaming Life/Fopp:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 393)
6. Down on the Upside:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 304)

Rating:  4 stars

It isn’t often that a band breaks up and then years later is able to recapture the magic for a reunion album. For that reason, I was skeptical of Soundgarden’s first album together in 18 years. Luckily “King Animal” beat the odds, delivering a powerful return of one of the grunge era’s great bands, with a record that holds its own with anything in their early career.

All the signature elements of the Soundgarden sound are back: Chris Cornell’s majestic and powerful rock voice still drips celebratory fury off every word. Kim Thayil writes amazing guitar riffs that are as funky as you can get and still be hard rock. Ben Shepherd still grounds those riffs with bass lines interesting enough to carry a song, but egoless enough to ride in the back of the mix.

And as for the drummer, Matt Cameron hammers away with a power thud that is reminiscent of an early Bill Ward. When Soundgarden broke up Cameron soon became Pearl Jam’s drummer and with his return to Soundgarden he is now the drummer for two of grunge’s three signature bands. Who knows, if Kurt Cobain had lived and Dave Grohl had gone off to form the Foo Fighters, Cameron could’ve pulled the hat-trick.

As ever, Soundgarden’s sound is a perfect blend of rock and groove metal. Just like their earlier albums, “King Animal” is rife with juicy guitar licks and layers of sound that fit so seamlessly the complex arrangements never lose their garage-rock urgency.

For all of the similarities with their earlier albums, “King Animal” avoids sounding like the band is trying to recapture their past glories. So often these reunion albums feel like they are trying too hard, and the songs end up as pale imitations of what once made the band great. Instead, “King Animal” holds its own, with songwriting and performances that sound timelessly like Soundgarden, but very much updated to the present.

The album begins with “Been Away Too Long” which is a good song, but lyrically I found it self-indulgent. Obviously true, but they should let the audience come to that conclusion on their own.

Fortunately it quickly moves on to “Non-State Actor.” With its catchy melody and stark metaphors, this song gets the album’s theme of mankind’s self-destructive tendencies going with a bang. Literally – the song features rockets and tanks.

“Blood on the Valley Floor” takes this theme down into the trenches. It is as thick and crunchy as anything they accomplished previously but never drowns in its own churning mud – it just makes you want to get your feet dirty. I’m not entirely sure what it is about – probably how the ‘king animal’ has such a sad propensity for doing violence on our own species.

The album loses a little bit of steam with “Bones of Birds” and “Taree.” “Taree” has a bit of a latter-day Rush feel to it and felt a little out of place with the other songs.

The record recovers nicely with stripped down tracks, including “Black Saturday” and “Halfway There.” Both songs showcase Cornell’s ability to put aside the throaty yell, and just sing it from the heart. These tracks hearken to Chris Cornell’s solo efforts, only they are much better. I’ve always felt that other strong voices are needed to keep Cornell reined in, and there are none better at it than the guys in Soundgarden.

As enjoyable as it is to take a sonic break with these tracks, “King Animal” is at its best when it is driving heavy and hard. The record’s penultimate track, “Eyelid’s Mouth” brings it all home. Starting with a Ben Shepherd bass shine, the song slowly builds, adding guitar and then Cornell soaring on top of it all, before it flows back down into a muddy groove. The song is a roller-coaster of rock, and once it starts you don’t want to get off. It opens with:

“In the eyelid’s mouth

On the iris tongue

When a scream falls out

Only the tear has won.”

It is a strained image, but with Cornell’s delivery and the chugging power of the song, it becomes laden with dreadful meaning. It felt like the sequel to “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” twenty-one years later. What can I say; these guys know how to creep you out with eye metaphors.

The mistakes of their previous effort, “Down on the Upside” – a lack of musical direction, a bloated number of tracks – are fully solved. “King Animal” is a responsible thirteen tracks, and although slightly long at 52 minutes, rarely drag or loses focus.

Having only recently bought the album I gave it a lot of listens in a short period of time, and it never wore me out. I only moved on because I had other new music I also wanted to hear. It has me hopeful Soundgarden does another record soon.

Best tracks:  Non-State Actor, By Crooked Steps, A Thousand Days Before, Blood on the Valley Floor, Eyelid’s Mouth, Rowing

CD Odyssey Disc 650: Bob Dylan

I’m just back from the gym and I feel great. I generally feel great today – the residual effects of a movie I watched last night called “About Time.” The movie reminded me that life needs to be savoured, not just lived. I love the way art in all its forms can inspire the human spirit to something greater, even if that something greater is just seeing glory in the ordinary.

Disc 650 is….John Wesley Harding

Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 1967

What’s up with the Cover? It’s one of them there old timey photos. Actually, it is an effort to look like one of those old timey photos. Someone should’ve told Bob that people didn’t smile in old photos – it was considered inappropriate. Actually, telling him that would’ve just made him smile more broadly.

How I Came To Know It: I was just buying more Bob Dylan from the late sixties, knowing this is generally a ‘can’t miss’ era for him.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have 19 Bob Dylan albums (I recently added 1983’s “Infidels” and his new release “Tempest”). “John Wesley Harding” isn’t as good as “Infidels” but it is better than “Tempest” – taken against the whole 19 I have, it fares poorly amid strong competition. I’ll rank it 14^th overall.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

Sandwiched right between the sardonic folk-rock stylings of “Blonde on Blonde” and the country-inspired Americana of “Nashville Skyline,” “John Wesley Harding” is a bridge that doesn’t fully find its footing in either camp. This might explain why I’m usually picking one of those other two records to play when I delve into my late sixties Dylan.

It is a shame, too, because there is plenty to recommend “John Wesley Harding.” It has a nice relaxed pace. The song lyrics still have the social edginess that is the quintessence of early Dylan, but there is a kind of quietness in the delivery.

Part of this is Dylan’s voice, which is starting to transition from shrill doom-sayer into his brief foray into sixties country crooner. “Nashville Skyline” is so smooth many of the songs don’t even sound like Dylan, and “John Wesley Harding” is starting to pick up this vibe.

Even the harmonica pieces are more relaxed and restrained. I appreciated this, because often Dylan’s harmonica is less an addition to a song than an endurance test. He uses it to put you on edge, and it sure does. The more restrained soloing on “John Wesley Harding” gives a different take on Dylan’s song constructions.

The songs have an Americana feel that is a bit more traditional than many of Dylan’s previous albums. In places it reminded me strongly of his eponymous debut, the majority of which are covers of folk standards.

On “The Wicked Messenger,” “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” and others, there is also more than a hint of the biblical overtones that would dominate Dylan’s music a decade later. Although I’m not religious, I’ve always found Dylan’s exploration of his faith insightful, even at its most confusing and uncertain.  Explorations of faith should be like that – it’s how you know you’re doing it right.

None on “John Wesley Harding” are more confusing to me than “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest.” Judas Priest here is not the metal band that would be of some importance in my formative years, but rather just a reference to some sort of angel of temptation, who is apparently willing to give (lend?) gambler Frankie Lee a roll of tens. More precisely so that Frankie can ‘take his pick’ from the roll of tens, making me wonder if some of them are counterfeit.

Anyway, things don’t end well for Frankie Lee, who ends up later visiting Judas Priest in his house and eventually dying of thirst. Despite the fact that this song spells out its moral at the end as follows:

“Well, the moral of the story

The moral of the song

Is simply that one should never be

Where ones does not belong

So when you see your neighbor carryin' somethin'

Help him with his load

And don't go mistaking Paradise

For that home across the road.”

Good advice overall, but I’m not sure it is supported by the song’s narrative. Maybe he should’ve warned against borrowing tenners from Satan, or reminded us to bring water to a house party?

The album is full of songs that aren’t terribly famous and according to Wikipedia (which is never wrong) the two singles “The Drifter’s Escape” and “All Along the Watchtower” didn’t even chart. Of course, “Watchtower” did alright for Jimi Hendrix. I prefer the Hendrix version, but I also really like Dylan’s original. Because it is stripped down I appreciated the skeleton of the song’s construction more, and the lyrics also came out a lot stronger.

A stray observation - the songs have very long titles, many of which are full sentences. You know, Bob, you could just take a few words – like instead of “I Am a Lonesome Hobo” how about “Lonesome Hobo”? How about just “St. Augustine”?

Song titles aside, I’ll admit this is not one of my favourite Bob Dylan albums. That said, it is still very good, and worth more listens than I’ve currently given it. It’s just hard to crack the starting lineup on the Bob Dylan CD carousel.

Best tracks:   John Wesley Harding, I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine, All Along the Watchtower, Dear Landlord, The Wicked Messenger, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight

CD Odyssey Disc 649: Band of Horses

Another weekend begins to draw to a close. Sheila is out painting with her Mom and our friend Elaine, so I’ve decided today is a Logan day.

I just watched some pre-season football, and later I’m going to watch some tennis. If I’ve got time at the end of all that, I may do some painting myself – figurines mind you.

But before all that – music!

Disc 649 is….Mirage Rock

Artist: Band of Horses

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover? Here we have standard fare for the Band of Horses; a photo that depicts both the beauty and strange otherness of nature. I like this one – it reminds me of my west coast roots.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me buying the latest album when it came out. I’ve been a fan since their 2007 sophomore album, “Cease to Begin”.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Band of Horses albums, which is currently their entire studio discography. While “Cease to Begin” is first in my books, picking second place is a toss-up between “Mirage Rock” and 2010’s “Infinite Arms.” I gave the edge to “Infinite Arms when I reviewed it at Disc 470 LINK, but with “Mirage Rock” now in my head I feel I’ve got to switch and make it my new #2. Who does #2 work for, you ask? I’m not sure.

And since this is the last Band of Horses review in my collection, here’s the full recap:

1. Cease to Begin: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 637)
2. Mirage Rock: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Infinite Arms: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 470)
4. Everything All the Time: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 561)

As you can see, it is a pretty close call between the top three. “Everything All the Time” – not so much.

Rating:  3 stars

“Mirage Rock” has Band of Horses showing some good range, moving from up tempo rock and roll down through more somber songs with folk constructions. The overall effect gives the record good dynamics and helps showcase individual songs.

There is a theme about the demons of becoming an established artist, and the fear of losing yourself in your own success. This is a pretty common concern for indie bands who pride themselves on being underground and anti-establishment. Punk had the same problem in the eighties and then grunge in the nineties. Frankly, I don’t see success as a problem – good music is good music, regardless of how many people are listening to it.

Fortunately, while “Mirage Rock” engages the topic, it avoids wallowing. The opening track “Knock Knock” is a bit of a hot mess, but they recover nicely on “How to Live” which is a song that reminds you to not fret too much over life, whether you’re experiencing success or failure.

 “A Little Biblical” feels like they are channeling the fifties, with its simple doo-wop riffs, and I found myself thinking of Buddy Holly. In contrast, “Shut-in Tourist” has a gently rolling rhythm and a gently rising and falling melody that had me thinking Simon and Garfunkel. Indie music often hearkens back to very early forms, and it is best when it is aware of this, rather than trying to over-innovate. On “Mirage Rock” Band of Horses seems to get it.

“Dumpster World” is overly preachy and suffers from multiple personality disorder in its efforts to get all “rock and roll” at the end. It is supposed to be a protest song, but it had me thinking of one of those protests where only five people show up and mill about shouting about so many different grievances that when they go home an hour later you’re not sure what they were grumpy about in the first place.

Much better is “Everything’s Gonna Be Undone” where the band internalizes their frustration and failure. My favourite lines:

“So many things I could’ve written down in the passing of a restless night

Some of those are worth keeping, and there are things that you should never write.

Everything’s gonna be undone. Everything’s gonna be undone.”

The doubts that hit you in the dead of night might relate to society but first they relate to you. Bringing something into the intensely personal makes it universal – more bands need to figure this out.

Overall the songs on “Mirage Rock” are a slight upgrade over their previous effort “Infinite Arms” and the vocal delivery of lead singer Benjamin Bridwell is a big part of that. Bridwell can sometimes slip into a high vibrato style that sucks the emotion out of his voice, but here he holds it together and feels the music in his bones. Music is really that simple –if you’re feeling it while you’re singing it, we’ll feel it while we listen.

The album’s final song is a fine example of this. “Heartbreak on the 101” has some of the hokiest lyrics on the record. The kind of stuff you write to the girl who broke your heart in Grade 9. Stuff like:

“You leave me more damaged everyday

You took my entire world and threw it all away.”

Yet set to music it works. Partly because of the mournful, sparse arrangement (complete with cello – guaranteed to add emotional resonance to any song!). It is also because Bridwell loses himself in the song so well that you get wrapped up in the emotion of it, and forgive the words.

One quick word about the album’s art design before I go. Previous Band of Horses albums felt the need to include some bad Polaroids in place of anything useful. This time the band gets it right, and just includes a short booklet with the lyrics to each song printed out in a font that is easy to read. Musicians, take heed: this is what we want. This is what gets us to actually buy your CD in an increasingly digital world. Don’t over think it.

Best tracks:   How to Live, Slow Cruel Hands of Time, Shut-in Tourist, Everything’s Gonna Be Undone, Heartbreak on the 101

CD Odyssey Disc 648: New Pornographers

I’ve been buying a lot of new music lately, and this next album was one of them. Despite it being new, it was randomly rolled. Because I’d only listened to it once through when I rolled it, this review was a bit delayed, since I wanted to give it a proper chance to settle into my ears. Three more listens later, I think I’m there.

Disc 648 is….Together

Artist: The New Pornographers

Year of Release: 2010

What’s up with the Cover? Miniatures! Careful readers of this blog will know I have a penchant for modeling myself. This cover is pretty cool overall, and catches a vibe of both separation and community that the record also reflects. That said, these figurines need better paint jobs. I suppose that’s the effect they were going for, but I would add a little highlighting and shading if it were up to me.

How I Came To Know It: In the last two years I have become a sudden but fervent fan of Neko Case’s solo work. Once I had mined that to exhaustion, I started looking at her other projects and the logical place to start was the New Pornographers.

I read an article about 2007’s “Challengers” and bought it and loved it, so it was a question of how far down the rabbit hole I wanted to go. I let Youtube decide me, and I listened to every album they had put out song by song to see what I thought. I didn’t care for their first three albums (“Mass Romantic”, “Electric Version” and “Twin Cinema”) at all, despite the rave reviews they received. I was about to give up hope when I heard “Together.” It is no “Challengers” but it was certainly good enough to buy. And so I did.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two New Pornographers albums. They have six albums, but pending a listen to the 2014 release “Brill Bruisers” I am good with the two I have. Of those two, “Together” is second, but having listened to their first three albums as well, I’m comfortable saying it is my second favourite overall as well.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

“Together” is an apt title for a record that fuses this many different sounds and notions into each song. Most of the time it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I generally appreciated the effort throughout.

The band itself is an amalgam of eight different musicians that lend their talents to both the New Pornographers and a variety of solo projects and other bands. This can sometimes be a hot mess (my one and only experiment with Broken Social Scene was an example of this) and I was a bit nervous about the NP after so many failed attempts to like them (see “How I Came to Know It” above).

Fortunately, “Together” sticks mostly to the approach followed on their previous masterpiece, “Challenger” letting the melodies shine through and keeping all the various contributions to the sound complementary, yet distinct. In short, they keep it together.

I particularly like how they work in the horn and string sections, using little flourishes here and there to punctuate a song emotionally without overwhelming it. On “Crash Years” they even work in some whimsical whistling. At times there can be too many little riffs competing with one another in a single song, but for the most part they hold the curse of the song through choppy waters of their own making.

And on the horn front, full credit for employing the Dap-Kings. These guys can really play, and their soul revival feel infuses the indie constructions with a vitality they might not have managed on their own.

This record is solidly in the modern indie movement, and it suffers from a lot of the common malaises that strike that style. Most notably, lyrics tend to paint small distinct scenes, which prevent a narrative quality I tend to like in a song.

Neko Case is the star of the show, even though she willingly takes a back seat in favour of the collaborative feel of the record. While the production and song construction don’t give these songs the same emotional impact as her solo work, Case still elevates “Together” whenever she gets the chance. “My Shepherd” soars under her vocal leadership and no matter how much of her I get, I always find myself wanting more.

Unfortunately the majority of the vocal leads go to Dan Bejar. Bejar is the Blake Sennett to Neko Case’s Jenny Lewis. Fortunately Bejar’s voice is much better than Sennett’s in Rilo Kiley, the latter of whom often finds me skipping to the next track on casual listens. Despite generally liking Bejar’s voice, and how it holds loose and pretty harmonies with Case, it still suffers from a common indie malaise: ironic detachment. Ironic detachment may be the sound of our times, but that doesn’t mean I have to love it.

The album feels heavily influenced by Belle and Sebastian in places, particularly on “If You Can’t See My Mirrors” featuring lines like “pissed up Sunday morning” which seemed a bit too British Isles for the Vancouver based New Pornographers. Much worse is the song's reference to  “Honourable discharge abord the HMS Pinafore” which made me see the song through the lens of a musical.

I can’t stand the cutesy quality in most musicals, and just referencing HMS Pinafore made me start hearing that quality in a bunch of the other songs, with their light and bouncy style. Fortunately the general excellence of the record dispelled the bad taste by the time I reached the end.

The record has great songs throughout and they often flow together so seamlessly that I can’t remember at the end of listening which is which. This could be a function of me only having four total listens to the record, but even if the feeling persists, it isn’t a bad thing. The same thing happens on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” which is, you know, pretty good.

Lyrically, my favourite song is “Valkyrie in the Roller Disco” which had me remembering what it was like to be young and filled with vain hope of love at a teen skate (ice, mind you), enthralled with all the girls that in those days were a foot taller than me. Never have I wanted to die in battle more. “Valkyrie don’t go home” indeed.

Ahem. Back to the record, which ties all its themes together in a nice bow for the final song, “We End Up Together.” This song pulls together a lot of different sounds, most notably a delightful little cello flourish and some back and forth min-choruses. Each element on its own would sound clunky or unfinished. Combined they are a complex layering of sounds that creates a symphony of small. With so much going on as the song (and the record) heads into the final turn you are certain the whole thing is going to hits a wall of production and wash out. Instead, as promised, it ends up together.

Best tracks:   Moves, Crash Years, Silver Jenny Dollar, My Shepherd, Valkyrie in the Roller Disco, We End Up Together

CD Odyssey Disc 647: Indigo Girls

After consecutive weekends with no downtime, Sheila and I finally got a chance to just hang out at home last night and play our favourite game, Arkham Horror. One win and one most unfortunate loss resulted.

I also got a chance to finally listen to all the new music I’ve been buying. I liked all of it, although I may have overdosed Sheila on Guy Clark for the foreseeable future.

Anyhow, let’s get on with this whole music review thing I do.

Disc 647 is….Swamp Ophelia

Artist: Indigo Girls

Year of Release: 1994

What’s up with the Cover? Behold these Ladies of Distinction, resplendent in their nineties vests, as they recline in their sumptuous chamber of kitsch! This room looks like a cross between an antique furniture store and the seventies rumpus room my aunt and uncle used to have with that floor to ceiling tree-scene wallpaper.

In an attempt to make the cover even ‘artier’ the Girls have cut it up into pieces and then glued it back together, slightly off. The overall effect is akin to having to unexpectedly visit your Grandmother after dropping acid, which is to say, unpleasant.

How I Came To Know It: I was a fan of the Indigo Girls since their first album, and “Swamp Ophelia” was me buying their latest album the moment it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Indigo Girls albums. Sadly, I’ll have to put this one last. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means the other five are better.

Rating:  3 stars

“Swamp Ophelia” was the first Indigo Girls album that was a bit of a disappointment. It isn’t bad, it is just that the four albums that preceded it were so strong that it couldn’t help but come up a bit short by comparison.

The main ingredients are all still there. We’ve got Amy Ray’s deeper rock-style voice complemented by fellow Girl Emily Saliers’ high folksy range. They are kind of the female Blue Rodeo this way, alternating taking the lead just as Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, do, instinctively knowing how to best support each other’s style as they go.

“Swamp Ophelia” has a softness around the edges that has more in common with 1990’s “Nomads Indians Saints” than the previous album, 1992’s “Rites of Passage.” I prefer their “Rites of Passage” sound.

There’s still a lot to recommend “Swamp Ophelia” though. “Least Complicated” is a sing-a-long ‘lessons learned’ type song that is right in the Indigo Girls’ wheelhouse. I’ve listened to it lots of times and still don’t fully know what it’s about, though. I think it is the collapse of a relationship causing Emily to think back to the first love of her youth. Whatever the case, it reminds you that you can’t go back in life and even if you could, you wouldn’t know what the hell to do any better than you do now.

The upbeat and positive songs like “Power of Two” are a bit saccharine. I wish the Girls all the happiness in the real world but I like them best when they are feeling angsty and uncertain.

“The Wood Song” is a standout about getting older and holding on through the good and the bad. My favourite line is:

“The thin horizon of a plan is almost clear

My friends and I have had a hard time

Bruising our brains, hard up against change

All the old dogs and the magician.”

Because magicians do tricks, and old dogs can’t learn them – get it? Get it? OK, it is a bit too clever, but I still like it. Also, the chorus has a nice message that reinforces the general theme of the record; that you gotta go through rough patches to make it all worth it:

“But the wood is tired and the wood is old

And we’ll make it fine if the weather holds

But if the weather holds we’ll have missed the point.”

Weirdly, because this song has a nautical theme, and is about aging and ultimately sailing off into the Great Beyond it had me thinking about Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” for the second straight review. (“Crossing the Bar” also ‘crossed’ my mind discussing Gram Parson’s “In My Hour of Darkness”).

That’s a lot of Tennyson on the brain, but Tennyson is pretty awesome, though. My university text of his poetry still has my graffiti on the cover where I wrote “The Master” and “the Demigod” with arrows pointing to Alfred’s portrait. I still love me some Tennyson, and if you have never sat down on a rainy evening and read “In Memoriam” from cover to cover without stopping, then you haven’t lived. But I digress…

Back to “The Wood Song” which in addition to being thoughtful and considered, has a clever arrangement, with a mournful violin leading off that makes you think of an old sea dog sitting on a barrel in the hold and sawing out a sea shanty. Likely an old sea shanty that he’s been playing for years because like I said earlier, old dogs…

Even though “Swamp Ophelia” isn’t the best Indigo Girls album, it still got me thinking, and listening to Amy and Emily play off each other’s voice and guitar so artfully is always worth the journey, at sea or otherwise.

Best tracks:   Fugitive, Least Complicated, Reunion, The Wood Song