CD Odyssey Disc 683: Natalie MacMaster

Welcome back to the thrilling conclusion to “did Logan clean his house as intended?” Sort of yes. I vacuumed the carpet immediately after uploading my last review, but couldn’t bring myself to doing the bathroom until the following evening – but more on that later. Really, I’ll talk more on that later.

Disc 683 is…. My Roots are Showing

Artist: Natalie MacMaster

Year of Release: 1998. The interweb and the CD’s embedded information both say it came out in April 2000, but I am holding the actual text on the CD case, which has a date of 1998. I’ll believe my own eyes over the interweb, thank you very much.

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s a picture of the beautiful Natalie MacMaster, looking all dreamy and full of repose. Behind her is her family tree. I’m not sure if those are actual members of her family or more her ‘fiddle’ family tree (i.e. people who influenced her playing). Either way, she’s showing her branches not her roots.

I think this cover was a touching idea, but it comes off a bit hokey for me. Fortunately a dreamy and reposeful Natalie MacMaster makes up for a lot.

How I Came To Know It: I honestly don’t remember. I must have heard MacMaster playing somewhere and was impressed, but I don’t remember the circumstances.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have this one CD by MacMaster. I am on the lookout for “In My Hands” because of the killer version of “Blue Bonnets over the Border” that’s on it, but I haven’t found it yet.

Rating: 4 stars

“My Roots Are Showing” is MacMaster delving into the traditional fiddle music of Cape Breton. To many, this might sound like the introduction to a long and dreary night at your grandparents’ house. I’d say if that’s the case, then we should all be giving our grandparents’ music collection a lot more attention.

A beautifully played fiddle always puts a smile on my face, and few can play as well as Natalie MacMaster. Her style is precise and technically as sound as anyone I listen to (and I listen to a lot of fiddles). Despite the precision, she always manages to infuse a sunny, joyful quality to her playing that lifts it up and makes it inspiring.

In fact, despite this album being almost a full hour long, and full of fiddle tunes that fade one into another over and over again, I never once got tired of listening. If anything, I’m sad to be moving on so soon.

With my limited knowledge of the musical constructions (my guitar teacher taught me they are mostly built around the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th chord progressions) and no lyrics as signposts, the songs blended together to the point that I couldn’t keep track of where I was on the album without constantly checking. Even when I did check, individual songs are themselves an amalgam of multiple fiddle tunes, seamlessly connected by MacMaster’s deft playing.

What I do know is this music made me happy. So happy, I’d forget my cares entirely while listening to it. On my walk to work, I’d arrive entirely unprepared for what my day would hold, because I simply wasn’t thinking about it until the headphones were off and I was sitting at the silence of my workstation trying to refocus.

One night on my walk home I had to pee really badly, but once the music was on, I actually forgot about my bladder. Trust me when I tell you that getting a man over 40 to forget he has to pee, is quite an accomplishment. We have to pee most of the time. Just like the walk to work experience, it wasn’t until I was home and the headphones were off that the urgency of the situation returned.

Emboldened by this cure-all effect of MacMaster’s playing, I decided to slightly break the CD Odyssey rules and listen to the last quarter of the record while cleaning my bathroom. As hoped, cleaning the toilet actually became a smashing good time with the fiddle dancing in my ears. I’m not sure I did a great job, mind you, since the controlled buoyancy of the fiddle tunes takes centre stage once you let them into your heart..

I don’t get to play this album very much. The truth is there aren’t that many people who want 60 minutes of fiddle music as the backdrop to their lives, so I’ve got to pick my spots.

However, if you want your life suffused with a natural high, you can’t do much better than putting “My Roots are Showing” on the headphones. Clean your house, do your laundry or just go for a walk in the autumn afternoon and kick some leaves. This is music that celebrates life, which means it fits into any occasion that finds you on the right side of the grass.

Best tracks: I like them all, but if I have to choose I particularly enjoyed Willie Fraser, Balmoral Highlanders, Captain Keeler, and Close to the Floor

CD Odyssey Disc 682: Dar Williams

When I finish this blog entry I am going to clean the house. I am saying this hoping publishing it to the world will shame me into following through. Unfortunately, I’ve never been much affected by peer pressure.

I am, however, positively motivated by music, and cleaning the house means I get a couple of really good listens to whatever is new to my collection (not for reviewing purposes, but fun all the same). Tonight it will be Broken Bells’ latest offering, 2013’s “After the Disco.”

What will win? Love of music or love of the couch? If this were a football injury report, I’d put the cleaning down as “questionable.”

Disc 682 is…. My Better Self

Artist: Dar Williams

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover?  I believe this is Dar trying to show that she still has some sense of childlike innocence about her, but all it does for me is make me think about some annoying kid who wants to show me her blue tongue after eating a candy.

How I Came To Know It: Even though Sheila introduced me to Dar Williams, she was never that into her. This was me just buying another album after I liked the one Sheila brought home.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have two Dar Williams albums; this one and “Mortal City” which I reviewed way back at Disc 85. I briefly owned a third (1995’s “the Honesty Room”) but hated it so much I got rid of it long before I started writing this blog.  Of the two I have, “Mortal City” is the better effort, not “My Better Self.”

Rating: 3 stars

“My Better Self” is about ten years too late to fit into the college protest folk fad that was big in the early and mid-nineties. Fortunately while pop music has to fit into fads, folk music doesn’t. As a crossover album between pop and folk, “My Better Self” therefore feels alternatively stale and inspiring – but mostly inspiring.

The music is mostly the typical guitar strum fare, but Williams does work in a lot of other guitar styles throughout. I prefer her at her folkiest, so on songs where the electric guitar gets all top 40 (“Blue Light of the Flame”) or bluesy (“Two Sides of the River”) she loses me a bit. She writes good melodies and sharp, clever lyrics, and the more production she engages the more the instrument that carries both – her voice - gets washed out.

The album’s first song, “Teen For God” hits all the right notes, however. “Teen For God” is a coming of age song, about a girl who despite all her best efforts, just can’t find herself to find religion, or resist temptation. The lyrics trip along nicely as she imagines the young woman will grow into; now knowing she’s not a believer, but unable to help feeling wistful for a simpler time:

“Help me know four years from now

I won’t believe in you anyhow

And I’ll mope around a campus and I’ll feel betrayed,

All those guilty summers I stayed, but

Then I’ll laugh that I fell for the lure

Of the pain of desire to feel so pure

And I’ll bear all the burdens of my little daily crimes

And wish I had a God for such cynical times

Far from today.”

As an atheist anthem I had a soft spot for this one, but it is still preachy in its own way. I forgive it because it is clever, pretty to listen to, and Dar’s lyrics at their core are light-hearted, not judgmental.

Some of the other preachier songs on the album hit the pulpit a bit too hard by comparison, with mixed results. “Echoes” is a ‘pay it forward’ song, about doing good deeds to make the universe a better place. While you could call it preachy and a bit syrupy, I’m a sucker for the idea that even small kindnesses help define our world for the better. I found myself chiding myself for falling for the pop schmaltz of it all, and then chiding myself again for feeling like there’s anything wrong with an anthem about spreading the love.

“Beautiful Enemy” and “Empire” are both songs where it feels like Williams is exploring her conflicted feelings about her own country. Both songs come close to excellence, but neither quite pulls it off. I can’t put my finger on why they don’t work. They both feel like when you’re trapped in a corner at a party with someone who initially wants to hear your opinion on some issue of the day, but the more they talk to you the more you realize it isn’t a conversation, it’s an interrogation. Steve Earle’s protest songs draw you in, but these two tend to push me out.

The album features two cover songs, both of which are good. Dar does a folk version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” I like it, but I prefer the original, which is hard to beat. She also does a take on Neil Young’s “Everyone Knows this is Nowhere” which I actually liked better than the original. It has a ringing guitar that provides a nice sharp energy to the also excellent, but more hippy and laid back offering from Neil.

The album ends on a perfect note, just like it started, with “The Hudson,” a love song about the Hudson River. Just Dar singing a pretty little guitar strum with a few punctuated notes and a piano adding emotional ‘oomph’ in the background. “The Hudson” has the album’s best lyrics and the prettiest melody, and it makes you want to just sit on some river-house deck in the autumn and drink a coffee while the river slowly flows by. The song opens with:

“If we’re lucky, we feel our lives,

Know when the next scene arrives,

So often we start from the middle and work our way out,

We go to some gray sky diner for eggs and toast,

The New York Times or the New York Post,

Then we take a ride

Through the valley of the shadow of doubt

But even for us New Yorkers

There’s a time in every day

The river takes our breath away.”

Wherever you live, I hope you have something that from time to time takes your breath away just like this. In my home town I’ve got plenty – Garry Oak meadows come to mind – and it was a joy to be drawn into Dar’s so artfully.

Best tracks (with artists): Teen For God, Echoes, Everybody Knows this is Nowhere,  The Hudson

CD Odyssey Disc 681: Bob Dylan

I’ve just finished watching a tight game between the Dolphins and the Broncos go the wrong way, with the Dolphins losing by 3 points. Thankfully this next album has lots of restful, gentle guitar plucking to salve my wounded soul.

Disc 681 is…. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 1973

What’s up with the Cover? Words and, regrettably, an ampersand.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me drilling through Bob Dylan albums. Also, I knew this was a good one because I’d seen the movie and remembered liking the music.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 19 Bob Dylan albums, and there are a lot of good ones. Despite really enjoying “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, it can’t do better than 13 out of 19. Out of my 28 soundtracks, it fares much better, coming in at 9^th best, just below “Flash Gordon.”

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

I’ve always loved Dylan’s song lyrics, so when I rolled this album, I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy an album where more than half the tracks are instrumentals. I had nothing to worry about, however, because Dylan is just as great speaking with notes as he is with words.

The album is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name, which starred James Coburn as Pat Garrett and Kris Kristofferson as Billy the Kid and is directed by Sam Peckinpah. I’ve seen the movie and always enjoy it. It takes the story of Billy the Kid and makes it a metaphor for freedom. The relationship between Garrett and Billy is complex and difficult, and Coburn does a good job of demonstrating a deep reluctance at killing his old friend. It is kind of a western “Point Break” in a way.

Dylan’s soundtrack suffuses the film with a thoughtful melancholia, and this effect carries through when you’re just listening to the album on its own. The songs are mostly simple guitar strums that meander slowly around traditional western constructions. Sometimes Dylan is on the guitar and sometimes it is Roger McGuinn, and both are great.

The album’s first song is the movie’s main title theme. It is a six minute long instrumental that put me in a restful, but alert mental state as my mind wandered around inside the idle melody that Dylan puts down. There is no strain, and although the song is exquisitely composed, it feels like Dylan is idly making it up on the fly.

The other instrumental pieces are almost as good, particularly the final theme, which successfully brings in all the other musical themes the record has previously introduced, musical style. However, “Bunkhouse Theme” and “Turkey Chase” are both songs that don’t work quite as well without the movie. “Turkey Chase” in particular comes off very hokey. The scene in the film is hokey, but devoid of watching people chase turkeys, I just wanted it over.

The standout piece on the record is “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” which is one of the most simple and beautiful pieces of folk music I’ve ever heard. While there have been plenty of solid covers of this song over the years, nothing matches Dylan’s original. Also, unlike “Turkey Chase,” the song is better out of the movie than in it. (In the film you are watching Slim Pickens character die, so it doesn’t even relate directly to Garrett or The Kid). I would have preferred the song not fade out, but this is a minor quibble on what is essentially a five star song.

The other great song is Billy the Kid’s theme song “Billy.” The album as three versions of this, unimaginatively titled “Billy 1,” “Billy 4,” and “Billy 7.” It makes me wonder what Billy 2, 3, 5 and 6 are like.

Each “Billy” has the same tune but slightly different lyrics, while still telling the story of Billy the Kid, on the run from the law but still making time for his sweet senorita. “Billy 1” has the prettiest arrangement and feel to it. “Billy 4” has more verses, as well as variations to the verses in “Billy 1” (Dylan loves to change his lyrics around. Even his own website doesn’t have the correct lyrics to many of his songs). “Billy 7” is the ugly step-brother of the other two, with the weakest sound and lyrics. While I really like this tune, the album only has 10 songs, and “Billy” is three of them. That seems a bit much.

If you like Americana music that comes at you free and easy, this is a Bob Dylan album you will enjoy. He is unplugged and feeling introspective and it is music that calms the mind. This is a soundtrack that makes the movie better, but is also enjoyable on its own.

Best tracks (with artists): Main Title Theme, Billy 1, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Billy 4

CD Odyssey Disc 680: Depeche Mode

Going from Iron Maiden to this next artist was definitely a jump in styles.

Disc 680 is…. Black Celebration

Artist: Depeche Mode

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover? I can’t entirely tell. Definitely a cityscape, with what looks like giant tulips reflected against the glass walls. The tulip is one of my favourite flowers, but at that size they’d really throw the balance of a garden out. Also, it would be very hard to make a bouquet for your girl with tulips that big.

The black banners hanging down the side of the building (the ‘black celebration’?) are more troubling. It makes it feel like you are in some sort of totalitarian future, where Big Tulip has cornered the market on floral arrangements and taken over the world. Not good, but at least in a Depeche Mode future, you know there’ll be plenty of sex among the flowers.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to Depeche Mode. She had this album on tape back when it came out, and I am told she played the living hell out of it.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Depeche Mode albums (we used to have four but we sold “Exciter” shortly after I reviewed it back at Disc 244). Of the three, I put “Black Celebration” second, and a strong second at that. It may even finish first before this whole thing is over.

Rating: 4 stars

Back in 1986 when we small town metal-heads were listening to Iron Maiden’s “Somewhere in Time,” urban alternative folks like my future wife were having a black celebration of their own, with bands like Depeche Mode.

“Black Celebration” is an appropriate name for this record, which embraces the darkness around us and inside us, and channels that darkness into starkly industrial drum lines and hauntingly inspirational melodies.

Musically, Depeche Mode isn’t quite doing the computer-like work of bands like Kraftwerk, but there are definitely elements of what would eventually become electronica on “Black Celebration.” Ordinarily, I would consider this a bad thing, but the songs on this album have a purpose and direction that perfectly combines the slow anticipation of ‘what happens next’ from pop music and the ambient beat and rhythm that is so hypnotic in the best electronica.

While the progressions here are solidly pop, the song constructions are innovative and engaging. The strange gasping and voice samples at the beginning of “Fly on the Windscreen – Final” would ordinarily annoy me, but Depeche Mode works them seamlessly into the song that makes them not only add to the song’s groove, but be fundamental to it working.

As when I reviewed “Exciter,” Dave Gahan’s signature voice again impressed me. His voice is dramatic, with hints of pomp and sexual danger spilling off the sides of it. His range isn’t huge, but his voice is always strong whether he is singing at the top or the bottom of his register.

“Black Celebration” plays to Gahan’s strength, keeping him low and haunting most of the time, and occasionally rising up to hit a poignant point. On “A Question of Lust” this use of his higher voice adds just the right amount of tenderness into a darkly sexual song.

Lyrically and musically this album is sexy as hell. Not the ‘close your eyes and think of England’ variety of sexy either. These are songs where lovers willingly surrender to their basic desires; the ones whisper to one another only when they are feeling very bold, or it is very dark.

Gahan is perfect for such dark whispers. On “Stripped” when he sings…

“Let me hear you

Make decisions

Without your television

Let me hear you speaking

Just for me.

“Let me see you

Stripped down to the bone”

Don’t just take your clothes off, he says. Strip. And unlike “Exciter,” “Black Celebration” never loses its musical focus, letting each song build slowly and deliberately. “Stripped” starts off with a whimsical keyboard riff that feels like you are going for a friendly walk in the woods, but the woods get dark quickly as the song until the darkness soaks right into your bones. There’s a blackness, of course, but it is a cause for celebration, not concern.

Even a line like this little bit of self-pity from “Sometimes”…

“Sometimes

Only sometimes

I question everything

And I’m the first to admit

If you catch me in a mood like this

I can be tiring”

…weirdly works, because it is delivered with conviction and because we’ve all felt like this. It’s just nice that someone is admitting it for all of us.

There is even a brief foray into political discourse, with “New Dress” which juxtaposes all the inequities and injustices in the world with the public’s obsession in 1986 with what Princess Diana is wearing.

“Black Celebration” ends with the surprisingly upbeat “But Not Tonight” which brings a last minute warmth and optimism to the record, but not so much so as to feel jarring. It is the cup of coffee after a heavy meal, designed to pick you up and get you moving again.

This album was a pleasant surprise – so much so I’ve kept listening to it for three days straight, and I’ll be playing it a lot more often in future. Big Tulip wins again, I guess.

Best tracks (with artists): Fly on the Windscreen – Final, A Question of Lust, Sometimes, Stripped, Dressed in Black, New Dress, But Not Tonight

CD Odyssey Disc 679: Iron Maiden

I keep rollin’ random albums and the Odyssey keeps rollin’ on. Here’s the latest.

Disc 679 is…. Killers

Artist: Iron Maiden

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? Iron Maiden’s long-time mascot, Eddie. Here we see Eddie early into his career of mayhem. He was very hands-on back then, although the hands on in this case are those of Eddie’s victim, clutching at his t-shirt. Never mess with a metal-head’s tight white t-shirt. No wonder Eddie felt it necessary to hack him bloody with his hatchet.

How I Came To Know It: I have only vague recollections of this album as a kid, since I was pretty young when it came out (eleven). I discovered it after I had become a devoted Iron Maiden fan through their later records.

How It Stacks Up:  I have seven Iron Maiden albums, and I like all of them. I’ll put this one 4^th or 5^th out of 7, simply because there is so much awesome to choose from.

Rating: 4 stars

Bruce Dickinson is one of rock and roll’s great vocalists, but as “Killers” demonstrates, Iron Maiden was a pretty kick ass band before he even joined them.

Maiden’s first two albums were made with vocalist Paul Di’Anno, and as much as I love Bruce Dickinson, Di’Anno is not a huge step down. His vocals don’t have the same awesome power at the top range, but he comes close and on songs like “Wrathchild” he delivers a raw roar that has its own qualities that Dickinson can’t produce.

That isn’t to say this version of Maiden is that different than the next. The soaring melodies and power riffs that would define them a year later on Dickinson’s debut, “Number of the Beast” are already taking shape here, particularly on the title track, which has the same hectic pace and classical underpinnings. Di’Anno brings a hint of punk to the equation, but with plenty enough power to remain solidly as one of the founders of the new wave of British heavy metal.

If anything, “Killers” demonstrates how bassist Steve Harris is the core of the band. Harris writes the vast majority of the songs, and the rest of the boys are there to play along – fortunately with a lot of skill. Harris is the architect of the Maiden sound, delivering anthemic melodies, grounded in intricate bass licks that always lurk in the background.

In fact, you can enjoy “Killers” equally well listening to the vocals and guitar riffs, or letting your ear drop down and just grooving on Harris’ masterful bass playing. Because this album is a bit sparser than many that would come later, the bass stands out even more.

Subject-wise, the band is already grooving on all those great characters from history and literature that thoughtful teenage boys dig. We’ve got the monstrous horror of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Here the story is reimagined from the perspective of someone who is innocent but caught at the scene of the crime with blood on their hands, and forced to flee. It is a thoughtful twist on the original story.

The historical offering is the instrumental “Genghis Khan” which seems a worthy topic of any heavy metal band. I’ll just say Iron Maiden does him justice. As the album progresses the band works in songs about the souls of the damned, tormented ghosts and the murderers that sent them to their graves. It is ghastly good fun all around.

The album ends with “Drifter,” a song that expertly mixes all the elements heard on the album so far. Harris has a ridiculously fast and amazing bass section, lead guitar Adrian Smith is given a chance to tease some seventies blues-rock out of his guitar and Di’Anno adds a punky edge to the whole thing that at times has him sounding like a young, angry Paul Stanley. The song moves in and out of different tempos as well, presumably because to do anything less would be to bore the genius that is Steve Harris.

“Killers” is a great record that is too often lost in the shadow of “Number of the Beast” and the coming of Bruce Dickinson. For all that, it has rightfully earned a place as one of Maiden’s classic albums, bloody hatchet and all.

Best tracks (with artists): Wrathchild, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life, Genghis Khan, Drifter

CD Odyssey Disc 678: Cypress Hill

Happy Saturday! My previous entry was written moments before I watched the Dolphins play the Bills. We killed ‘em! There are few things that can make my week like a Dolphins victory over the hated Buffalo Bills.

Speaking of killin’ folks, this next review is for a band who sings about that often.

Disc 678 is…. Black Sunday

Artist: Cypress Hill

Year of Release: 1993

What’s up with the Cover? It’s a creepy cemetery on a hill. I don’t know what kind of tree that is at the top, but I don’t think it’s a cypress, so much as I’d like to I can’t call this a cypress hill cemetery.

How I Came To Know It: I bought their first album after my buddy Spence introduced me to them about fifteen years ago and liked it. “Black Sunday” was actually their more famous record, and I bought it shortly thereafter.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Cypress Hill albums – I believe their first five. I like them all, but I have to give the crown to “Black Sunday” as the best, narrowly defeating their self-titled debut. And since this is the final review of their work (until I buy more) here is the full recap because hey – who doesn’t love a list?

1. Black Sunday:  4 stars (reviewed right here)
2. Self-Titled:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 76)
3. III Temples of Boom:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 177)
4. Til Death Do Us Part:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 57)
5. IV:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 124).

Rating: 4 stars

It’s been a long time since the last Cypress Hill review from my collection (over four years) but it was worth the wait.

Although it has been a while, certain things remain constant when listening to Cypress Hill.

First, you can expect some groovy bass-lines, every bit as important to the song as the beat. Cypress Hill spill their raps over bass riffs as much as they do straight beats. The effect is a bit dreamy; kind of like hanging in a lounge listening to jazz, but where someone has murdered the piano player and is now standing on top of the grand spitting rhymes. On “Hits from the Bong” the band branches out to a guitar sample (the opening from Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man”) but the effect is the same.

Another constant is what the band raps about, and the list is pretty limited:

1.   Killin' folks

2.   Smokin' dope

3.   Killin' folks tryin' to take your dope

“Black Sunday” is the band at their best on every topic, with hard-as-nails staccato raps about killin’ folks including “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” “Cock the Hammer” and my personal favourite “A to the K” (as in AK-47, although I am ashamed to admit I had to have that explained to me).

Their passion for dope-smoking is front and centre on rap classics like “Insane in the Brain” and the aforementioned “Hits From the Bong.” Cypress Hill will never be mistaken for metaphysical poets, layering metaphor after metaphor; these raps are direct and clear.  From “Hits from the Bong”:

“It goes down smooth when I get a clean hit

Of the skunky funky smelly green shit

Sing my song, puff all night long

As I take hits from the bong”

So yeah, pretty much a song about smokin’ dope, without much plot development beyond that. Fortunately, the raps are so good and well-delivered that you don’t need anything else. There is brief foray into politics, such as on “Legalize It” but as you have likely already guessed, that song relates pretty directly back to theme #2. They aren’t advocating shooting anybody on that song, but it’s only 45 seconds long and it isn’t long before they’re on to theme #3, such as this section from “A to the K”:

“If you're takin' my weed, I'm takin' over your spot

Keep your face down as I take your pound

Don't let me see nobody get up, just hug the ground

Stay still and don't make a sound

As I get out the door headed eastbound

But why did the fool try to act brave?

Clip from the nine equals six to the grave”

“Black Sunday” also has a re-imagining of a song off their first album, “Hand on the Pump” which is now “Hand on the Glock.” The first song is cruising around the neighbourhood with a shotgun, and the second is cruising around with a Glock. So, you know, progress. Although I prefer the original, both are good and sufficiently different to stay interesting.

My only complaint with “Black Sunday” is the number of times lines from the chorus are shouted in repeat in the same affected style. It is a pretty cool effect at first, underscoring the lyrical hook of songs like “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” and “Insane in the Brain” but they use it at least four times, where I think two or three would be plenty.

This is a minor quibble though, on an amazing rap record from a band that consistently and fearlessly raps about hard-won experience in some of the worst parts of greater Los Angeles. These are places where white collar middle-aged men like me are rightly afraid to go, and it is an urban education to see the brutality of it all from a band that is far more musical and compositionally clever than they get credit for.

Best tracks (with artists): I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That, When the Shit Goes Down, Cock the Hammer, Hits from the Bong, A to the K, Hand on the Glock, Break ‘Em Off Some

CD Odyssey Disc 677: Guy Clark, plus a Smalls concert review

Once again a giant album necessitated my absence from blogging for a few more days than I would have liked. Given the delay, it seems only right that this entry have Extra Limited Edition Content this time – and I give you that in the form of a concert review for the Smalls. Scroll to the bottom if that interests you, and this album doesn’t.

I admit that despite all this extra content, I am distracted tonight by my two favourite sports teams in the world (the Miami Dolphins and the Boston Bruins), who are both playing their arch-nemeses at this very minute (the hated Buffalo Bills and the equally reviled Montreal Canadiens). I am taping the football game and as soon as I am done here, that’s my next stop. I’d tape both, but I’m afraid one will announce the score of the other while I’m watching.

Anyway, it’s all very nerve wracking, but I’ll try to stay focused on the music for the time it takes to fill you in about the next album on the CD Odyssey. And the Smalls, of course.

Disc 677 is…. This One’s For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark

Artist: Various Artists

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? Guy Clark with his wife Susanna. This picture was unexpectedly poignant for me, because in the process of confirming Susanna’s name I found out that she had died of cancer in 2012, only a year after this compilation came out. Guy and Susanna were married for forty years. As youthful as they appear in this picture, it is a reminder that we’ve only got so many days on this earth with the people we love, so enjoy each and every one of them.

How I Came To Know It: I only came to know this album very recently. I was listening to some Emmylou Harris tracks on Youtube and her duet with John Prine of “Magnolia Wind” came up on the playlist. After a bit of sleuthing I discovered it was off of “This One’s For Him.” The album’s track list was full of many of my favourite Guy Clark songs, many sung by artists I really admired. I ordered it on Amazon along with three of Guy Clark’s originals. Yeah, there’s been a lot of Guy Clark around the house lately.

How It Stacks Up:  This is a compilation of a bunch of cover songs, so it doesn’t really stack up. As compilations go, it is pretty sweet, though.

Rating: 4 stars

When I rolled this album I was instantly reminded of Guy Clark’s song “Old Friends,” partly because a lot of these songs feel like old friends for me, and partly because I just finished giving the whole album a marathon listen (three straight times through) right before I randomly rolled it. There isn’t a better test than that if an album is going to hold up than a whole lot of listens in a short period of time. “This One’s For Him” performed very well.

“This One’s For Him” was recorded to celebrate Guy Clark’s 70^th birthday, and it is a worthy present for the occasion. Clark’s music tends to be a lot of countrified musing and moseying, expertly done in a relaxed and conversational tone that is uniquely his own. Clark rarely strays from his formula, and so it makes sense that his tribute album is pretty much entirely done by country artists in a country style.

Often on these compilations I prefer to hear a song get a very different treatment from the original, but “This One’s For Him” still works based on the fairly consistent work of the artists involved. There are a lot of artists involved, too, with thirty songs spread across two albums, and over two hours of music. Fortunately, this is one double album worthy of the excess.

Many of the singers were well known favourites for me (Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Kris Kristofferson, Patty Griffin) and others were complete unknowns (Kevin Welch, Rodney Foster, Jack Ingram) and I enjoyed both in fairly equal measure.

For the most part if it was a Guy Clark favourite for me originally, I tended to like the cover as well, but there were some notable exceptions. Vince Gill singing “The Randall Knife” just didn’t work at all. Clark’s version is full of the hurt and heartbreak of losing a father, and Vince Gill’s sounds like a hokey campfire performance. Patty Griffin, who I usually love, doesn’t really work on “The Cape” either. Maybe I’ve just heard Guy Clark singing the hell out of that song too many times.

While Guy Clark is not known as the world’s most talented singer, he is a master of emotion and phrasing. He is also a damn fine songwriter, and it is fun to hear his songs done by other artists who can really belt it out, like Suzy Bogguss on “Instant Coffee Blues” Rodney Crowell on “That Old Time Feeling” and the Trishas singing beautiful harmonies on “She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” The often-underrated Bogguss is particularly brilliant as she sings about an awkward one-night stand, filling Clark’s lyrical mastery with a woman’s perspective.

Then again a lot of the other vocalists are just as limited as Clark himself. Fortunately they picked folks with enough folksy charm of their own to pull it off. Examples include a rusty-voiced Kris Kristofferson singing “Hemmingway’s Whiskey” (and sounding like he’s had too much of it over the years), and John Townes Van Zandt singing “Let Him Roll.”

A favourite for me is Steve Earle singing “The Last Gunfighter” as he spits out Clark’s masterful tale of an aging, once dangerous man now lost in a world that has passed him by. It is Steve Earle we’re talking about, so it is hard to go wrong even if the lyrics were sub-par, and with Clark they rarely are. “The Last Gunfighter” is some of his best work.

The album has a lot of favourites, though, and the pairing of fresh voices with great Guy Clark material is a wonderful thing. If you are interested in Guy Clark, I’d suggest starting with 1995’s “Dublin Blues” but once you have his ‘voice’ in your head, “This One’s For Him” will give you a nice overview of some of his classics, sung by the many musicians that his talent has touched over the years.

Best tracks (with artists): That Old Time Feeling – Rodney Crowell, Anyhow I Love You – Lyle Lovett, Homeless – Shawn Camp, Magdalene – Kevin Welch, Instant Coffee Blues – Suzy Bogguss, Let Him Roll – John Townes Van Zandt, Cold Dog Soup – James McMurtry, Magnolia Wind – Emmylou Harris & John Prine, The Last Gunfighter Ballad – Steve Earle, LA Freeway – Radney Foster, She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – The Trishas,

Bonus content – Smalls Review! Saturday, November 8 at Sugar

On Saturday Sheila and I went with a bunch of our friends to a reunion concert of the Smalls. I’d only heard a few of their tracks on Youtube, so all I really knew was they played a sort of groove metal/grunge hybrid and that their bass player was Corb Lund. Having seen them live, I now know why fifteen years after they broke up they still have so many dedicated fans.

The Smalls kicked some serious ass live. They were tight, energetic and heavy as hell but still melodic. The show was at Sugar nightclub, which among other lame things 1) scans your driver’s licence through a machine before letting you in 2) requires you to check your coat (although I somehow managed to walk by when they weren’t paying attention) and 3) gives every guy a full frisk/pat down on the way in.

The show itself was like a time machine, but in an alternate universe where everyone had somehow remained cool when they got old. The audience was packed with seriously dedicated Smalls fans, many of them visibly drunk, but still able to sing along and knowing every song by rote. There were even dudes with full “Smalls” back-patches on their jean jackets, which is very cool for a lesser-known band.

The dance floor in front of the stage was crammed with slam-dancing drunks (I was happily up in a balcony). Watching them flow to the music was soothing – like losing yourself watching waves during a storm. No fights resulted, but I noticed that in maneuvering my way in and out of the bathroom everyone was very quick to say ‘sorry’ to each other and show respect – I think it was the knowledge that everyone around you was seriously jacked on adrenaline and…er…Jack Daniels that kept everyone hyper polite off the floor.

In short, it was a great crowd and a great show. I bought all four of their albums from the merch table. I was only going to get a couple, but as I was trying to pick, nearby hard-core fans kept pointing emphatically at different albums insisting that was the one I should get. This went on for a bit, until one extremely loaded dude just waved his hand vaguely over the lot of them and said – “Fuck! All of them, dude” – I took his advice, because I sensed in that moment he was my true spirit guide, and that I could trust him. 

CD Odyssey Disc 676: Nightwish

Last night I got to join in the celebration of my friend Casey’s 50^th birthday. I am fortunate to have a lot of truly great friends, and Casey is one of the best. He’s a man of honour, intellect and deep emotion. I’m proud to call him my friend.

We also share a lot of the same musical tastes, although likely not this next album.

Disc 676 is…. Oceanborn

Artist: Nightwish

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover? Why can’t all album covers be this awesome? We’ve got a beautiful woman floating in the sea of some starlit world. Another world – possibly earth – hangs large in the sky. That world is simultaneously the eye of some enormous space dragon (that last detail made you look again didn’t it?).  I do wonder how Water Woman is going to read that message from Owl Post without getting it soaking wet.

How I Came To Know It: A few years ago I watched Sam Dunn’s documentary miniseries “Metal Evolution.” The episode on Power Metal got me interested in Nightwish as well as Helloween. I bought this album as well as 2002’s “Century Child” the same day from a cool metal store in Vancouver called Scape Records.

How It Stacks Up:  For now I only have those two Nightwish albums, but I might get more (that groan you heard was Sheila reading this). Of the two, I’d put “Oceanborn” second best, but still good.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

Through the first third of listening to “Oceanborn” I just wasn’t connecting to it, so I decided to try it drunk. Suddenly it all made sense. Even the next day, sober again as I walked to work, I was still keyed in to the majesty of Nightwish.

Nightwish is a symphonic power metal band from Finland. They’ve got the whimsy of Jethro Tull, the madcap prog organs of Deep Purple, the neo-operatic vocals of Loreena McKennitt, the metal energy of Iron Maiden and the incomprehensibly nerdy lyrics of Ronnie James Dio.  They are kind of like the London Philharmonic on speed.

Despite the occasional intrusion of modern metal’s double-bass drumming, “Oceanborn” is fundamentally melodic. The music soars and dances around on power chords that are played sharp and precise with a controlled energy that makes you want to throw your arms in the air and make a bunch of dramatic gestures, if only to get some of it out of your system.

The musicianship is excellent, but the vocals of lead singer Tarja Turunen is what puts this band in a class of their own. She has the chops of an opera singer and classic training to put them to maximum use. Her voice soar over the arrangements in the same way that Bruce Dickinson anchors Iron Maiden.  

Turunen’s voice is so high and pure that it doesn’t really matter what she’s singing about, which is a good thing, because Nightwish loves their overwrought poetry, and “Oceanborn” is no exception.

This is stuff that if I’d heard it when I was fourteen I would’ve thought it was the height of cool. At forty-four it feels silly, but in a fun way that speaks to the fourteen year old still inside me. Here are a few choice lines:

From “Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean”:

“A snowy owl above the haunted waters

Poet of ancient gods

Cries to the neverending story

Prophecy of becoming floods.”

Yup – there’s that owl from the cover again. At least we know what his deal is, although I think a prophecy of coming floods would have made a lot more sense.

Here’s an excerpt from “Sacrament of Wilderness”:

“Dulcet elvenharps from a dryad forest

Accompany all charming tunes

Of a sacrament by a campfire

A promise between the tameless

And the one with a tool

Tonight the journey from a cave begins.”

Like Ronnie James Dio before her, Turunen manages to sing this bumpf with enough power and passion that it almost makes sense.

Unfortunately, a couple of tracks feature guest vocalist Tapio Wilska (from the band Sethian) singing a few verses alongside Turunen, metal-duet style. “Devil & The Deep Dark Ocean” and “The Pharaoh Sails to Orion” both feature his guttural fantasy-rap stylings. These are bad to begin with, but matched against Turunen’s vocal chops it is painful to listen to.

The album gets better for me as it goes along, but that could just be me getting more immersed in the emotion of it all.. You might think it was the liquor talking, but I gave it a full sober second listen this morning. I still preferred the middle and end of the record where songs like “Passion and the Opera” and “Swanheart” create beautiful layers of sound, ranging from Celtic to classical to heavy metal in a single song without ever straining to do so.

My copy of “Oceanborn” was a 2007 reissue with both the two extra songs on their Japanese release (“Sleeping Sun” and “Nightquest”) as well as a few live tracks.

The live tracks are mostly forgettable, but both “Nightquest” and “Sleeping Sun” are worth having. “Sleeping Sun” is a crooning ballad that drags your yearning heart through a darkness so romantic you want to marry it. The song also has some of the prettiest guitar work on the record, slower but more full and emotional.

“Oceanborn” is an odd mix of styles, and it isn’t for everybody, but if you’re like me and prefer your metal melodic and full of bat-shit crazy storytelling, it is worth checking out.

Best tracks:   Stargazers, Sacrament of Wilderness, Passion and the Opera, Swanheart, Sleeping Sun

CD Odyssey Disc 675: Jenny Lewis

The day I bought this next album (unheard and entirely on spec) I did the same with Tom Petty’s new album, “Hypnotic Eye.” It was a good day for guessing.

Disc 675 is…. The Voyager

Artist: Jenny Lewis

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Even Jenny Lewis’ torso is stunning, particularly in this kick-ass blazer. Other pictures in the liner notes reveal that she has matching pants and guitar, which looks even cooler. She’s like a female California Elvis.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila first discovered Jenny Lewis as an artist, but I bought this album because it was new music by an artist I already liked and the first single was promising – I hadn’t heard anything else. Basically the way we used to buy music back in the day.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three Jenny Lewis solo albums, plus one with her working as one half of Jenny + Johnny with her boyfriend Johnathan Rice. I’m gonna count this last one in the ‘stack up’, because I feel like it. I’ll exclude the five albums she did as part of Rilo Kiley, though, because I feel like doing that too.

Of the four solo/Jenny + Johnny albums, I put “The Voyager” strongly in second place – almost first. To know what does take first, you’ll just have to keep reading my blog – possible for years.

Rating:  4 stars

Fifteen years in, Jenny Lewis has released her purest pop record yet. And if you think pop hooks are simple and easy then try writing one. It is hard to write pop that serves a song’s story, is pleasing to the ear, and doesn’t rip off something you heard on the radio on the way to work that morning. Jenny Lewis’ melodies are like water in a river; easy, free and fluid; meandering at times, but never without direction.

“The Voyager”s opening track “Head Underwater, ”a fitting starting point for the river of songs to follow. Both musically and lyrically this is a song that is uplifting, while staying mindful of life’s many challenges. Jenny’s voice climbs up and down he melody effortlessly as ever (until I tried to sing along, and found out just how hard a song this is). The song’s chorus…

“There's a little bit of magic, everybody has it

There's a little bit of sand left in the hourglass”

…is an understatement. “The Voyager” shows that while she might be thinking about her own mortality, Lewis’ talent is still going strong.

The songs on “Voyager” are beautifully served by producers Ryan Adams and Mike Viola. They manage to capture the simple beauty of Lewis’ first record “Rabbit Fur Coat” but also incorporate the pop-infused joy of her later work with Rilo Kiley.

Like a lot of Jenny Lewis’ work, the album has a lot of introspection, but “The Voyager” has replaced some of the self-doubt of her earlier work with some thoughtful perspective on her journey so far. “She’s Not Me” is thinking back on a relationship that didn’t work out and “Slippery Slopes” is about trying to make one work through whatever means necessary.

Most good albums will have a song that sneaks up on you, and for me “Slippery Slopes” is it. It isn’t a song about holding on despite temptations; it’s a song about holding on through temptation. Booze, drugs and ultimately other women all serve as the glue to keep from slipping. This leaves you wondering whether you should feel sad for the song’s character for her sacrifices, or happy she’s found love in an alternative arrangement.

The song bookends beautifully with the next track, “Late Bloomer,” which is a song about a young girl meeting another woman in Paris (Nancy) and falling in love with her, even as Nancy is looking for the man of her dreams:

“How could I resist her, I had longed for a big sister

And I wanted to kiss her, but I hadn't the nerve

We found the writer, he was just some kid from Boston

I was jealous as I watched him talking to her

But man was I astonished, he didn't look like no Adonis

But as Nancy had promised, he was heavy as lead

And he said "Come with us late bloomer, for a little while

We wanna feel that fire burning, in you little child."

Unlike the negotiations of “Slippery Slopes” the sixteen year old in “Late Bloomer” soon moves on, never seeing Nancy or the ‘Non-Adonis’ again. Timing is everything.

Despite all this sexual ambiguity, the most revealing song on the album is the single, “Just One of the Guys.” It has a beautiful down-beat, a resignation established by the music long before Jenny’s voice chimes in, beautiful like a canary in a cage. The song is an ode to the sacrifices made when you pick up your guitar, let the songs hit you, then hit the road, with the stars fading in the distance as enticingly as those in the collar of your stage-blazer. Listeners with kids will no doubt take a measure of schadenfreude when Jenny breaks it down to:

“There's only one difference between you and me

When I look at myself all I can see

I'm just another lady without a baby”

But as one of the fellow childless couples out there, I take solace in how she breaks the song down musically at the end and gives a gentle rebuke to herself and all her doubts:

“I'm not gonna break for you

I'm not gonna pray for you

I'm not gonna pay for you

That's not what ladies do”

There’s a defiance there, and an arrangement that mixes triumph and minor keys to subtly reconcile itself with the regrets of missing the road more traveled. There’s lots of ways to be a lady, and lots of ways to leave your mark; at the end of the day it is about the voyage, not the destination.

Best tracks:   Head Underwater, Just One of the Guys, Slippery Slopes, Late Bloomer, the Voyager

CD Odyssey Disc 674: The Clash

Greetings, gentle reader! It’s been almost a week since I did a blog entry – did you wonder where I was? Perhaps you thought I was on another holiday in Italy? Nope – I was just reviewing a behemoth of a record, and it took a whole week to listen to the damned thing.

Before I get to that, I want to give a shout out to my friend and fellow music enthusiast, Randall. In the wee hours I’ve often waxed poetic with Randall about my love for Blue Oyster Cult, and emboldened by his interest, I decided to pass along a list of my favourite tracks.

Not only did Randall listen to all the music, he listened to it multiple times, and then gave a thoughtful review of my selections, and Blue Oyster Cult in general. You can read it all at his blog right here. I was really touched that he took the time to get to know a band that has meant so much to me over the years. Thanks, Randall!

Disc 674 is…. Sandinista!

Artist: The Clash

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover? The band stands in front of a brick wall, looking very urban and austere…or painfully out of place. I wouldn’t be surprised if after the photo was taken they were all mugged. Sadly, the thieves did not steal the satchels full of songs they ended up putting on “Sandinista!”

How I Came To Know It: There is a guy who works across the hall from me (let’s call him “Tom,” since that’s his name). He also likes music and sometimes we shoot the breeze about it. Turns out he likes the Clash as well, so I asked him what his favourite album was – he surprised me by saying “Sandinista!” I didn’t own it, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

How It Stacks Up:  Let’s just say I wasn’t impressed with Tom’s selection. I have six Clash albums and “Sandinista!” is easily the worst. Here’s the full list, since I’ve once again finished reviewing my Clash collection.

1.  London Calling:  5 stars (reviewed at Disc 258)
2. Self-Titled:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 256)
3. Black Market Clash:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 16)
4. Give ‘Em Enough Rope:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 227)
5. Combat Rock:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 474).
6. Sandinista: 2 stars (reviewed right here).

Rating:  2 stars

More is not always better. When you decide to put every idea you come up with in the studio on a single record without any editing you don’t get a modern classic, you get a bloated mess – and that’s what “Sandinista!” is; a triple album (yes, triple) with 36 songs that should have been an EP with eight.

The album starts out very promising with the opening track “The Magnificent Seven” delivering one of the best funky bass-lines in music. Bassist Paul Simonon is never better, not even on later classics like “Overpowered by Funk.” Strummer’s rhythmic singing here is proto-rap, and totally works.

Whither the rest of the album? Unfortunately, a long descent into self-congratulatory excess.

Stylistically, the record is all over the place – punk, rock, jazz and a whole lot of reggae and dub. This is not automatically a bad thing – an album with range can be a good thing. However, when you have three albums and 36 songs it slowly becomes loose and directionless. It was like they were committed to doing it all on one record, without realizing some of it wasn’t worth doing at all.

The very next track after the magnificent “Magnificent Seven” is the sugary pop song, “Hitsville UK.” It has a bass line that sounds like it was inspired by “Mama’s little baby loves shortnin’ bread” but with less seriousness. I think the Clash intended this song to be a critique of these kinds of songs, but when you stray this close to the line, you become the monster you’re trying to mock.

I could go on, but frankly I don’t have time to explain why I don’t like the songs on this album – there’s too damned many of them. Here’s a few highlights, though, since you did come here to read about music.

“If Music Could Talk” features a directionless jazz saxophone, with the boys kind-of-sort-of talking over top of it about music. This song proves that just because music can talk doesn’t mean it’ll have anything meaningful to say.

Other songs have weird dialogue intros and outros, like on “Let’s Go Crazy” which would be a pretty cool song with Caribbean drum beats (yes, “Sandinista!” has those as well). However, I don’t want to listen to some goofy rant every time I listen to this song.

And the true low is the use of kids singing for no apparent reason. At the end of the already rambling song “Broadway” we have a little kid singing “Guns of Brixton” and doing his best to wreck it for me. Later, they repeat the error with a grade-school remake of “Career Opportunities.” It felt like I was trapped at a small town variety show.

Also it bears repeating: seriously, guys – a triple album? What the hell?

The Clash have great musicianship and loads of talent and there are plenty of good tracks as well on “Sandinista!” “Something About England” is thoughtful and catchy social commentary. “Corner Soul” captures the magic of pop crossing with punk that they did so well on their first album and “London Calling.” The reggae inspired songs show an honest love for that style, and the Clash do it well (although a lot of these tracks suffer from weird dialogue pieces noted above).

I’ll keep this album because the good songs are very good, but they can’t hold the album up on their own. The bottom line is there’s just too much musical masturbation to get through to find them.

According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), “Sandinista!” is the highest charting album in Canada out of the Clash’s entire collection, making it to number three. That’s higher than “Combat Rock,” and “London Calling” (both of which peaked at #12. What the hell were you thinking, Canada?

Best tracks:   The Magnificent Seven, Something About England, Corner Soul, The Sound of Sinners, Police on My Back, The Call Up, Washington Bullets, Lose this Skin