CD Odyssey Disc 817: Prism

The holiday season has dropped the musical equivalent of coal in my stocking already once with Radiohead’s “Kid A.” This next album confirms I remain on the Dice Gods naughty list for some reason.

Disc 817 is….Young & Restless

Artist: Prism

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover? A bunch of youths gather around their car. These guys look young but I’m not sure they qualify as ‘restless.’ Maybe ‘relaxed’; possibly ‘pensive’ if I’m being charitable. Maybe the guy behind the wheel is restless and all his buddies are telling him, “whoa dude, chill out. I know you want to leave town an’ all, but that car the four of you climbed into hasn’t run since 1936.”

How I Came To Know It: My brother bought this on vinyl when it came out so I’ve known it for a long time. I didn’t personally own it until very recently when I obtained it – both monetarily and literally – for a song.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three Prism albums and this is by far the worst of the three. It is so far back in third place that instead of awarding it a third place medal, it should be hit across the face with one.

Ratings: 2 stars, and I’m being charitable

Every time I think I’m too smart to be suckered into buying a record for a single song an album like “Young & Restless” comes along that is too cheap and available for me to turn down. One day I’ll learn to kick these gift horses in the mouth before they crap all over my headphones.

Prism is often the object of ridicule among my music loving buddies, and generally I defend the band. I have two albums by Prism that I think are excellent examples of late seventies/early eighties rock, and I generally think they are unfairly maligned. “Young & Restless” did not help my argument, however.

I had unpleasant memories of my last experience with this album, but the first track “American Music” made me cautiously optimistic. “American Music” isn’t a great song, but it is solidly average and typical of Prism with its soaring melodies and heavy organ treatment (the organ is part of what bugs a lot of people about this band).

Following that I settled in for the title track and the reason I bought this album as soon as it fell south of seven dollars. From the opening jangle of chords to the introduction of the ever-present organ, everything is perfectly set up. Then vocalist Ron Tabak unleashes that quintessential high vibrato common to rock stars of this vintage, singing:

“Standing at attention, waiting for the bell to ring

After all the crap I’ve been through, gonna make my break

Whatever it takes to let them know that I ain’t foolin’

Young and restless, running out of control

Young and restless, heading for an overload.”

“Young & Restless” (the song) is an anthem for youth and rebellion that always makes me feel like a teenager again – ready to stand up, raise my fist, and take on the world – or at least yell at it a bit.

Sadly, this is followed by the rest of the album, which is downright awful. It is like Prism sat around the studio and said “Hey guys, let’s try on whatever styles are floating around 1980 and then Prismize them!” And then another guy agreed, adding “But let’s make sure that we make sure we not only Prismize them – let’s also make sure they suck!” Somehow this second idea was considered a friendly amendment.

In short, this album is filled with songs that George Orwell would call ‘ungood’ – maybe even ‘double plus ungood.’ Prism gamely tries to find their vibe of soaring vocals and lots of high fivin’ melodies, but it is like they’ve replaced the band with people who can’t write a song.

The album also feels horribly dated throughout, worst of all when the band tries to sing about technology. “Party Line” is about the shared phone lines I grew up with in the seventies. Done right, these are a nice detail in a song about something else (see Hank Williams’ “Mind Your Own Business”) but they aren’t a plot device for an entire track about nothing. Musically, “Party Line” tries to salvage its dignity with some sort of country/blues guitar picking. Unfortunately, it sounds like something your grandpa would do if you were foolish enough to hand him your guitar after he’d had one too many apple ciders.

It is even worse when the band tries to go ultra-modern. “Satellite” is a song about how satellites are spying on us. This must have seemed very novel in 1980, but in 2015 the song needs a story that’s a little more insightful than “satellites can see you from space, man!” Lyrics include:

“Watch out for bad reception

Because the night has a thousand eyes

Connected to your television

Looking at you.

“Sky high flying in circles

Keeping an eye on the world

Watching out for civilization

Looking at you.”

Holy crap that is bad – and they don’t even have the common decency to hide how bad in some strained rhymes (although they certainly use that device liberally on other songs).

I could talk about those other songs, but I think you get the idea, and besides, I’ve got good music in my collection I want to listen to – the sooner the better. This includes at least one more Prism album that I know will wash the bad taste of “Young & Restless” out of my head. Remember, this is a good band that done wrong this once.

On that basis do I cut them some slack and keep this record for the one song worthy of their usual standards? Or do I let it go? For now, I’m going to keep it, but it is on a very short leash.

Best tracks:  Young & Restless

CD Odyssey Disc 816: Nazareth

It is December 29 and I’ve already spent all my Christmas money on clothes and music. Yeehaw!

Since this isn’t a fashion blog I’ll stick to the music. I purchased some sea chanteys, a bunch of rap (Killer Mike, Edan), an old Okkervil River album, an even older Sleater-Kinney album and a relatively new Dwight Yoakam album.

However of all the albums the one I am most excited about is Courtney Barnett’s “Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit” which is one of the best albums from 2015. Check her out.

Anyway, this next album is none of those (I prefer reviewing albums randomly, folks) but it is one I heartily recommend all the same.

Disc 816 is….Hair of the Dog

Artist: Nazareth

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? Nazareth usually has awesome album art and this is no exception. Three devil dogs growl and look menacing. At least one of them seems to be equipped with wings. I’m sure these dogs have an owner that tells everyone “O don’t worry, they are totally harmless.” To which I would only say, “dear God man – look at the bones!

How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Nazareth since I was a little kid. Their 1975 Greatest Hits album was the second record I ever bought. When I was in university I bought “Hair of the Dog” on cassette and now I have it on CD.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Nazareth albums. “Hair of the Dog” comes in at number two overall. It is close to being number one, but couldn’t quite beat out…another album I’ll talk about when I roll it. That’s a teaser.

Ratings: 4 stars

After a painful encounter with Radiohead in my last review, “Hair of the Dog” was a welcome tonic. This is music that is direct and powerful and stirs something primal when you listen to it.

Scottish rockers Nazareth were heavy to begin with, but they are never heavier than on “Hair of the Dog.” This album churns the depths of guitar and blues rock like few others I’ve heard. “Miss Misery” pounds like a North Sea storm, turning the simplest of riffs into an anthem heralding the metal gods that would be born just a few years later.

“Changing Times” is as thick and crunchy as anything Led Zeppelin was doing at the time. Lead singer Dan McCafferty doesn’t have the vocal chops of Robert Plant, but he knows how to use what he does have to full effect. McCafferty’s voice is smooth as 40 grit sandpaper and is what nails on a chalkboard would sound like if that sound was awesome. On “Hair of the Dog” the band is clearly ready to fully embrace being as heavy and gritty as they can and the decision works perfectly with their skill set.

With an undercurrent of blues, it is critical that the band be on point in terms of timing, and these guys nail it. You can’t fake perfect timing in blues music, and Nazareth has it, with just the right amount of dirty around the edges to keep it organic.

The title track has every tool rock and roll excess offered at the time: someone bangs a cowbell relentlessly, a guitar squawks through a synthesizer, and McCafferty sings “now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch!” at the top of his lungs. This is the song for every small skinny guy who decided to go full crazy on his tormentors. It is full of a grimy desperate, dangerous energy. And if you’re a teenager, it is devilish good fun to sing along to because – swears!

When the album isn’t pounding you into sonic submission, it is exploring the band’s bluesy roots. “Guilty” is a slow moving ballad that captures the feeling of being down on your luck. “Please Don’t Judas Me” is a ten-minute monster that builds with the power and patience of a glacier; inexorable, ice-cold and undeniable.

The subject matter of the record is fitting for its gritty approach. These are songs about the angry, the down-and-out and the troubled. “Guilty” is about a man showing up on a woman’s doorstep drunk and stoned, knowing that’s exactly how she doesn’t want to see him. His only excuse is:

“That's how it is with me darlin'

You know I just can't stand myself

But it takes a whole lot of medicine darlin'

For me to pretend that I'm somebody else.”

Nazareth are equal opportunity purveyors of sin, however. “Miss Misery” and “Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman” are both songs where it’s the woman showing up drunk on the doorstep and “Beggar’s Day” takes heartbreak to such a dark place you’re sure it’ll cause some kind of riot or fire before it’s worked itself out.

Before “Beggar’s Day” ends it morphs into a beautiful guitar solo called “Rose in the Heather” as if the band wanted to remind me that they can still smooth it out and sound pretty if they want to. I’m not sure if “Rose in the Heather” is inspired by the fiddle jig of the same name, but it has the same timeless quality and easy grace.

This album is 40 minutes long and despite some long tracks never feels stretched out or bloated. This is a tight little album that is grimy and dirty and rough in all the right ways. If you like hard rock music, it is a must have for your collection.

Best tracks:  Hair of the Dog, Miss Misery, Guilty, Beggar’s Day/Rose in the Heather, Please Don’t Judas Me

CD Odyssey Disc 815: Radiohead

Season’s greetings! I’ve been away for a couple of days visiting family for Christmas. When Sheila and I take a road trip it is our tradition to each choose four CDs to take with us. Here are the CDs that I chose to take this time:

·         Ramones “Anthology,Disc 1”

·         Gang Starr “Hard to Earn”

·         Frank Turner “Tape Deck Heart”

·         Sharon Jones “100 Days, 100 Nights”

Sheila chose these four:

• The Who “Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy”
• Soundtrack “Saturday Night Fever”
• The Pogues “If I Should Fall from Grace with God”
• Tom Waits “Mule Variations”

The trip was over before we got to Sharon Jones and Tom Waits. While on a ferry I also took the opportunity to just sit and listen to my next album up for review. I would have preferred Sharon Jones or Tom Waits.

Disc 815 is….Kid A

Artist: Radiohead

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover? Computer generated mountains? Sound waves? A landscape depicting the terrain on Thom Yorke’s home planet?

How I Came To Know It: I knew about Radiohead dating back to their debut album because of my friend Greg, but it was another friend (Anthony) who introduced me to this album years ago when I was visiting him in Vancouver. I remember really disliking it back then and over the years very little has changed.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Radiohead albums (all of them except 2011’s “King of Limbs”). Of the seven I really dislike three of them. “Kid A” is one of those, but benefits from me disliking two others even more, so I’ll rank it fifth. Since this is (mercifully) my last Radiohead review, here is the full recap:

1. The Bends: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 316)
2. Pablo Honey: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 223)
3. OK Computer: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 541)
4. In Rainbows: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 597)
5. Kid A: 2 stars (reviewed right here)
6. Hail to the Thief: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 214)
7. Amnesiac: 1 star (reviewed back at Disc 432)

Ratings: 2 stars

“Kid A” is the album where Radiohead made a conscious decision to fundamentally change their approach to music. I like to think of it as the album where they decided that they would rather be clever than listenable.

Ideally you can be both clever and listenable, but “Kid A” pushed that theory past its limits. The album descends into electronica mood music. These are occasionally punctuated by groovy beats, which I enjoyed, and jazz constructs, which I did not.

The production fades in and out of clarity, and gives you the feeling that you’re listening a radio station at the edge of its broadcast range, with the signal sometimes being disrupted by static, and sometimes coming through clearly. A few songs in I wasn’t sure which I preferred – I guess I was hoping it would cut out entirely.

There is so much I want to like about Radiohead. Clearly these guys understand music: how it is constructed, how melody works and how to blend different sounds in new and interesting ways to your ear. On “Kid A” they take traditional rock and R&B constructions and then deconstruct them into something new. Unfortunately, while this can be intellectually interesting, it doesn’t make for listenable music.

A good example is the third song on the album, “The National Anthem.” It starts off with a pretty solid groove, and after the two meandering and mostly pointless tracks that precede it, gave me some hope that things were about to get better. That hope was quickly dashed as the song progressed, as it worked in fuzzy jazz trumpet. The fuzzy trumpet then slowly morphs into screechy jazz trumpet before becoming fuzzy again. Then the song was over, leaving me wonder what the hell was the point.

The next track “How To Disappear Completely” has a beautiful atmospheric structure that evokes a genuine feeling of disconnect and isolation. Like “A National Anthem,” this song is about six minutes long and feels like it should end after about four, but at least the song genuinely made me feel something.

Obviously embarrassed that they had just made a proper song with human feelings, Radiohead retreats almost immediately back into the alien landscape of their minds with “Treefingers.” I assume this is music that a planet of tree people would play for one another when they want to relax – kind of like people playing whale sounds to help them sleep. “Treefingers” didn’t help me sleep or relax – it made me fidget, as I resisted the urge to break the Odyssey rules and skip to the next song.

The most appropriately titled track on the album is “Idioteque” which I assume is the kind of dance club where the songs from “Kid A” would be played. With its pseudo-beat box sound, it is hard to tell if Radiohead is deliberately mocking its audience for dancing to this stuff, or are just having a hard time knowing how to make Terrans happy. At least the Dead Milkmen had the common courtesy to include lyrics on “Instant Club Hit” that made it clear they have no respect for people who will “dance to anything.” With Radiohead you get the feeling they are just a bunch of aliens that have put is in a cage and are piping in different sounds to see how we’ll react.

When “Kid A” came out most critics loved it, and I can understand why. It displays a skill and understanding of musical forms that is impressive. So impressive, it made it impossible for me to honestly give it only 1 star. I really wanted to, though.

Best tracks:  How To Disappear Completely 

CD Odyssey Disc 814: Timbuk 3

For the second time in four albums I’ve rolled an album released in 1988. Readers new to the blog will wonder how this is possible, so for their benefit, let me explain. It’s random.

Disc 814 is….Eden Alley

Artist: Timbuk 3

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? Big letters, planted on top of a backdrop of Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” (I think). Also a couple of cut out pictures – one a set of tattooed legs and the other a tiny portrait of the band (husband and wife team Pat and Barbara K. MacDonald). These unnecessary touches take this album cover from mediocre city all the way down to crap town.

How I Came To Know It: My friend and former room-mate Greg used to own this on cassette. We didn’t have a lot of albums between us back then, and even fewer we both liked. Consequently, this one got a lot of airplay. Recently I saw the CD version in a $5 bargain bin so I bought it.

How It Stacks Up:  From 1986 to 1995 Timbuk 3 released six albums, but I only have two of them. Still, I believe that is two more than the vast majority of the human population. Of the two, “Eden Alley” is the better record.

Ratings: 3 stars

Timbuck 3 is not for everyone. My wife recently coined them as “Tim-Yuck 3.” Sometimes I wonder if it is even for me, but while their sophomore album, “Eden Alley” is a hot mess, it has a lot of rugged charm to it; enough that I keep coming back to it and giving it another listen. At least when the wife’s not home.

For those who don’t know, Timbuk 3 is the one-hit wonder that wrote and recorded “Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades).” Before you get all nostalgic and start reminiscing about how you love that song, it is not on “Eden Alley.” So what is the hit on “Eden Alley,” you ask? If you are asking that question then you are obviously not familiar with the concept of a one-hit wonder.

Don’t let that stop you, (he said, years after everybody already did). Despite that absence, this album has a lot going for it.

For one thing, it isn’t really like anything else you’ll hear. It has a mix of tribal percussion rhythms, funk bass and harmonica, all loosely connected around pop songs. This should not work, and frankly on more than a few songs it doesn’t. “Sample the Dog” (yes, it samples a dog) bounces between so many musical concepts your ear never gets a grip on what the song is trying to accomplish.

“Rev. Jack and His Roamin’ Cadillac Church” is a basic R&B song that falls apart under the over-produced sonic experiment that is Timbuk 3. The fact that they chose to release “Rev. Jack…” as the radio single says a lot about the fate of this album. The song peaked at #38, which for a band that two years earlier almost won a Grammy for “Best New Artist” I will politely characterize as “not good.”

There are a lot of songs that I enjoyed, particularly the soft pop “Easy” which features Barbara K. MacDonald’s pure almost folk-singer voice. “Easy” is gentle and soothing, as it speaks to how easy it is to do the wrong thing in life. It is like a lullaby to corruption.

The themes begun in “Easy” are developed throughout the album, and make up some of its better content. “Welcome to the Human Race” is a song about the collapse of the capitalist dream. The refrain, “welcome to the human race,’ is both a scornful wake-up call and a genuine embrace in equal measure.

Near the end of the album, “Little People Make Big Mistakes” is the final step on the road to redemption, where the scorn is replaced with an apology and the chance at forgiveness. “Little People…” is one of those songs everyone who’s stressed out about an error in judgment need to hear. The message: there’s always a road back.

“Eden Alley” isn’t all cathartic forgiveness and personal growth, though. It also features some good old fashioned pop music fun. “Dance Fever” is an ode to the dance/variety show that had been cancelled the year before. It is a fun song about a couple’s dream of winning a dance competition and the fleeting nature of fame. The song ends:

“Out on the floor they really came alive

They skipped away with a 95

They’d always dreamed of a place in the sun

Now they’re in Vegas, having fun

Pissing away all the money they won

On Dance Fever.”

“Too Much Sex (Not Enough Affection)” isn’t the best song on the album, but I’ve always liked the title. That said, I think there’s room for plenty of sex AND affection. I’m generous like that.

The biggest drawback to this album is the absolutely horrible production decisions. The harmonies sound lifeless (husband Pat is not the singer his wife is). The drums are all drum machine, and even the electric guitars are synthesized. This may be the effect that Timbuk 3 is going for, but it almost single-handedly wrecks this record. They obviously wanted a New Wave style artificiality to their sound, but the songs end up drowned in it.

When reading up on this album, I found out that Barbara K. MacDonald (now Barbara Kooyman or Barbara K) has done a solo record of acoustic covers of Timbuk 3 songs. It is so obscure that I couldn’t even find samples on Youtube, which is too bad, because “Eden Alley” would improve significantly with some more traditional instrumentation.

Best tracks:  Easy, Dance Fever, Welcome to the Human Race

CD Odyssey Disc 813: David Bowie

I’m just back from watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” If you loved the magic of the first three movies, but that magic was destroyed by the awful prequels, then “The Force Awakens” will restore your faith in the Star Wars universe. It was good fun.

Disc 813 is….Young Americans

Artist: David Bowie

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? David relaxes with a cigarette and tries his best to strike a casual pose. David doesn’t really do casual, but the effect of him trying is strangely beautiful. He’s like an alien that fell in love with humanity and so decided to become one.

How I Came To Know It: I recently saw a documentary about David Bowie called “David Bowie: Five Years” that highlighted five critical years in his career. “Young Americans” was one of the albums featured, and what I saw intrigued me so I bought it.

How It Stacks Up:  We have four David Bowie albums, most of which were bought by Sheila. “Young Americans” was the only one I purchased, but it is not my favourite. I’ll put it third.

Ratings: 3 stars

Like Alice Cooper, David Bowie is one of those artists who loves to try on new musical styles to see how they fit, and “Young Americans” represents his obsession with soul music.

Also like Alice Cooper, Bowie brings his own unique weirdness to whatever project he decides to tackle, but for the most part the fascination with “Young Americans” is how straight Bowie plays it. Say what you will about the prospects for a psychedelic seventies rocker attempting soul music, Bowie not only tries it on for size, he wears it well.

In fact, most of my criticisms of “Young Americans” relates to what I would say about a lot of soul music; that it just grooves along without going anywhere. That’s because soul music isn’t about telling a story as much as it is about relaxing into the pocket of a tune and riding it for a while.

The album has some classic baby-makin’ songs like “Win” and “Right” (as in “doing it right”) although a closer examination of the lyrics for “Right” showed it to be a song as much about loss as ecstasy.

These songs work well enough, but I like “Young Americans” best when Bowie freaks up his soul as he does on the title track and “Fame.” For all its groovy backup singers going “woo-ooo-ooo” and “alllll…right!” and its horn flourishes, the song “Young Americans” has the beginnings of the eighties sound Bowie would try on “Let’s Dance” eight years later. The song even features a synthesizer voice and a brief homage to the Beatles with a line and riff (“I heard the news today…”) lifted straight out of “A Day in the Life.”

It almost goes too far, but Bowie usually knows how to catch his balance even after taking a half step too far over the line. Later, Bowie completes his Beatles love affair, with a strong cover of “Across the Universe.”

“Fame” is the other standout song on the album, where Bowie again takes a classic soul construction and then freaks it up with crazy distorted vocals. The combination of the groove being so perfectly in the pocket and the vocals falling off the edge of that pocket captures the sexy allure of fame, but also the disconnect and alienation it creates. It is a subject that Bowie not only fully understands, but an abyss he consistently stared into for his inspiration.

For all this musical brilliance, I was a little disappointed that the two songs I liked most on “Young Americans” were the two I could get on any Bowie compilation. The other songs on the album are good, but they didn’t inspire me to dig any deeper in his catalogue. If anything, Bowie has captured the ‘soul’ of soul too well. I only want to hear him when he’s deliberately separating himself from it.

For a guy who took on the persona of alien Ziggy Stardust for a few years, Bowie plays it fairly safe on “Young Americans.” His musical genius shines through, and there is plenty to recommend this album, but despite that I can’t grade it higher than three stars.

Best tracks:  Young Americans, Fame

CD Odyssey Disc 812: Natalie MacMaster

The Christmas party season is starting to take its toll on me, as I feel like I have too many people to socialize with and not enough time. Today at brunch was the first time I’d had a chance to have a conversation with Sheila in three days.

All that socializing has also delayed this next review – but here we are!

Disc 812 is….In My Hands

Artist: Natalie MacMaster

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? Natalie sits on a chair, skirt riding gently up above her knees, looking sexy as hell.

How I Came To Know It: Recently my colleague Lindsey put me onto a Scottish folk song called “Blue Bonnets Over the Border” – when I realized Natalie MacMaster did a kick-ass version of it, I knew I had to have it.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Natalie MacMaster albums; this one and 1998’s “My Roots are Showing” (reviewed back at Disc 683). Of the two, “My Roots Are Showing” wins 'by a hair'.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

“In My Hands” is Natalie MacMaster’s most mainstream effort, but make no mistake: this is still traditional Cape Breton fiddle music. If that doesn’t float your fish boat, this album isn’t for you.

Fortunately, a well-played Cape Breton fiddle does float my boat, and I found “In My Hands” inspiring and joyful. The playing style I fell in love with on “My Roots are Showing” is on full display here. MacMaster’s style is sprightly and precise in equal measure. Even the airs on this album are brimming with a crackling energy. When the speedier jigs and reels came on while I was waiting for a light to change, it was all I could do to not start dancing as the December traffic whirled by.

MacMaster is so precise that she can sometimes stray close to losing the narrative of the tune, but she seems to have a sixth sense of knowing when to pull back and let the tune ‘play’ her back to its emotional core.

“In My Hands” seems to be making a conscious effort to reach a larger audience. Gordie Sampson, who guested as a guitarist on “My Roots are Showing” not only plays on “In My Hands,” he also produces the album. The result is a slightly more contemporary feel, as he brings some of his rock n’ roll sensibilities to the studio.

The results of all this effort is a mixed bag. The album’s title (and opening) track adds a lot of sighs and percussion and generally sounds like it is trying to do contemporary world music. The modern style that results is a bit out of step with MacMaster’s old soul. The song has lyrics (sung by MacMaster) which are generic expressions of art that don’t inspire the way they want to. Also, while MacMaster is one hell of a fiddle player as a vocalist she is just OK.

Conversely, “Get Me Through December,” a song written by Sampson and fellow Cape Breton singer-songwriter Fred Lavery is a beautiful piece. With vocals by the divine Alison Krauss, this is a song that would stand up to anything similar by Capercaillie (yes, this is high praise). MacMaster’s fiddle isn’t as prominent on this song (the tune is mostly carried by piano) but when she does kick in, the contemporary folk arrangement shows a different side of her playing which is more soulful and relaxed.

The same can be said for the album’s highlight, the cover of the traditional Scottish marching song “Blue Bonnets Over the Border.” This piece is exquisite in MacMaster’s hands as she slowly progresses one of the great fiddle melodies of all time, each time around more inspiring than the last. When you hear this song your heart is filled up and you can’t help but feel anything is possible. No wonder it has traditionally marched troops into battle – it would be one hell of a morale builder (at least until the cannons started firing).

I found the infusion of Spanish dance rhythms in “Flamenco Fling” annoying and out of place. Ditto for the ‘space age’ cosmic flourishes in “Space Ceilidh” which would be a standout on the album if it weren’t for the questionable bits of “spacey” synthesizer sounds.

Fortunately, most of the rest of “In My Hands” are traditional fiddle treatments you would expect from MacMaster, each one expertly handled. “Welcome to the Trossachs” is seven minutes of Natalie taking you to school on all the different ways she can play the fiddle to make your heart sing. “Moxham Castle” is fiddle perfection, as MacMaster plays with a depth of skill rarely heard. Father Buddy taught her well.

At 14 songs and 61 minutes, “In My Hands” feels slightly too long, and I would probably cut two or three songs and get it down into the 45-50 minute range.

“In My Hands” takes risks with a traditional audience, borrowing from pop, contemporary and world rhythms. It doesn’t always work, but it works a lot, and I admire MacMaster’s efforts to expand her own sound and see just what she can do to show new facets of her enormous talent.

Best tracks:  Welcome to the Trossachs, Blue Bonnets Over the Border, Get Me Through December, Moxham Castle, Flora MacDonald

CD Odyssey Disc 811: Lyle Lovett

I’m always exploring new music, but since my music reviews are in random order you might not know it. I was reminded of this by a regular reader this afternoon. Here’s a recent scouting report:

·         Wilco – After reviewing “A Ghost is Born” I was inspired to the four latest Wilco albums. None are bad but the only one I’m interested in picking up is their self-titled effort from 2009.

·         I also recently checked out every artist from a recent article enumerating the top 15 albums of 2015. The standouts were Courtney Barnett, Torres and Sleater Kinney. Courtney Barnett is truly awesome, and since Sleater Kinney has been around since the mid-nineties I delved through their eight-disc catalogue. I’ve still got two to go, but the early winners are “Call the Doctor” (1996) and “Dig Me Out” 1997. To all of you readers shouting “I’ve known that for years!” congratulations, you’re very clever. They’re new to me.

On to the Odyssey, and a disc that’s been in my collection for longer than Sleater Kinney have even existed.

Disc 811 is….Pontiac

Artist: Lyle Lovett

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? An out-of-focus shot of Mr. Lovett. Like Nick Cave from my last review, Lyle is “ugly sexy” and has the most resplendent head of hair from this era. Check this shot out from inside the CD jacket:

In the mid-nineties I brought this picture to my stylist and said “give me the Lyle!” I might go back to the Lyle one day, but right now I’m still enjoying the David Crosby.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve told this story before, but since it was six years ago, I’ll tell it again. I saw a Lyle Lovett video for the song "Here I Am", bought an album and have been hooked ever since. The song was from his 1986 debut, and as his sophomore effort, “Pontiac” seemed the logical place to go next.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Lyle Lovett albums and they are all good, but for some reason I’ve been rolling a lot of the weaker ones. Not anymore – “Pontiac” is a classic record that should be in any music lover’s collection. I rank it #1.

Ratings: 5 stars

Like Nick Cave on “Let Love In”, “Pontiac” is an album exploring the nature of love. The difference is that while Lyle is not afraid to explore love when it goes wrong, he also sees the humour in the situation. The effect is a record that is less dark than “Let Love In” but more insightful in both musical range and theme.

Musically Lyle is a fantastic mix of blues, country, lounge and a smattering of jazz. Leonard Cohen has the same mix with a folk bent and Tom Waits is that mix with a blues bent. Lyle is their country cousin.

That said, to call this album a country album is to understate its range. “M.O.N.E.Y.” and “She’s No Lady” feel like they are part of a lounge act, and “Black and Blue” is something you’d hear in a smoky jazz bar.

Of these, “She’s No Lady” is my favourite. It is a song about marriage to a veritable harridan which is more funny than tragic; think Basil Faulty out on the town. The song begins:

“She hates my mama

She hates my daddy too

She loves to tell me

She hates the things I do

She loves to lie beside me

Almost every night

She’s no lady, she’s my wife.”

Lovett – the master of comic timing has just the subtlest of pauses before singing “almost” to let you know his girl isn’t always coming home to tell him what she thinks of him. As someone who’s been married a while (to a great woman, not a harridan) my favourite line is “Seems like she’s always been hanging here off my right arm.”

Other lighthearted love songs on the album include “Give Back My Heart” about a bull rider meeting a girl who likes his line of work, and “She’s Hot to Go” another jazzy theatre number which has a Muppet Show beat and lyrics about a girl who’s ‘hot to go’, but ‘ugly from the front.’ As Lyle’s chorus replies, “but you ugly too!”

For all that fun, “Pontiac” also has its dark side. The title track is a moody and understated character study about an old man years returned from the war, now feeling trapped in his life of normalcy, with a wife who has no way to understand his pain. He sees her only as “The woman inside my house/She won’t stop talking/She never says a thing.”

“I Loved You Yesterday” is a traditional honkytonk break up song, and “Walk Through the Bottomland” is the counter to “Give Back My Heart” – featuring a woman who falls for a rodeo worker but can’t live that life, and instead drifts away broken-hearted.

The album’s masterpiece is “L.A. County” a song that at first blush sounds like it is triumphant and upbeat until you listen carefully to the lyrics. This is a song about a woman leaving a man, moving away and falling in love with someone new. The song follows her jilted lover as he drives into L.A. County, marveling at the beauty of the lights even as a dark .45 pistol sits ominously on the seat next to him.

The song has a fast country beat and a manic quality to the melody that captures the certainty in the heart of the man with the pistol. His resolve is pure and clear, and I was reminded how mania and maniacs are intrinsically linked. It is a troubling insight into what can happen when the self-righteous feel they have been wronged and quickly move past reason in their quest for vengeance.

Both “L.A. County” and “Walk Through the Bottomland” have backing vocals from Emmylou Harris, who’s high quaver adds just the right amount of sadness and yearning to each.

My only quibble with this record is that it suffers from the bad production common to late eighties CDs, which were often recorded for tape and record and transferred over without any treatment. As a result it sounds a bit muted, and I’d love for Lyle to release a remaster of this undervalued classic. Even without the remaster, I’m still giving it 5 stars.

Best tracks:  All tracks, but in particular: If I Had a Boat, Give Back My Heart, I Loved You Yesterday, Walk Through the Bottomland, L.A. County, She’s No Lady, Simple Song, Pontiac

CD Odyssey Disc 810: Nick Cave

When I buy a new album I don’t put it into the main collection until after I’ve given it at least three solid back-to-back listens. Because I buy a lot of albums, and spend a lot of my listening time randomly reviewing albums from the entire collection, I’m usually a little behind.

I just finished giving this next album three good listens and putting it away. Then a week later I randomly rolled it for review, so it was pretty fresh in my mind.

Disc 810 is….Let Love In

Artist: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Year of Release: 1994

What’s up with the Cover? Nick does his best Iggy Pop impersonation. Like Iggy, Nick Cave is ‘ugly sexy’ – a guy so sexy that he seems more attractive than he is. Of course, this cover pushes that theory to its limits.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been taking lately to Youtubing artists I’m interested in and going through their discography to see what albums are worth getting. I recently checked out the half dozen or so Nick Cave albums I didn’t yet have and found two worth getting: “Let Love In” and “The Good Son.”

How It Stacks Up:  I now have 10 Nick Cave albums – mostly his later work. I like them all in some degree or other but competition is fierce. I only recently purchased “Let Love In” but it was still able to knock “Tender Prey” out of sixth spot in my heart.

Ratings: 4 stars

For Nick Cave love is not a pleasant romantic notion so much as it is an endurance test; a trial for the faithful and not the faint of heart. When Cave says ‘let love in’ as this album’s title exhorts, it is the romantic equivalent of inviting the vampire into your house. It is delicious and darkly exciting, but you chase that thrill at your own peril. “Let Love In” is Cave’s tragic, depressing often uncomfortable descent into the subject of love. If you only like stories with happy endings, this isn’t the album for you.

The record is full of somber piano trilling through minor chords that connect the space between romantic love and animalistic urges. Cave’s vocal delivery has few equals for causing his lyrics to drip with meaning.

The prettiest song on the record is “Nobody’s Baby Now” which is the tragic prequel to later romantic songs like “Into My Arms” where things actually work out for our hero. Not so with “Nobody’s Baby Now,” which is the tale of love gained and then lost, and the wailing and grieving we go through trying to understand why things didn’t work out. Given that Cave sings that she’s nobody’s baby now, the woman he pines for could well be dead, but it doesn’t matter – this is a song of lost love regardless; a reminder of the desolation that results when you let love in, but it refuses to stay.

The album is bookended by “Do You Love Me?” Parts One and Two. The first is the tale of a woman who is bad news but that our narrator tragically marries anyway. The second is a troubled tale of someone down on their luck being sexually exploited in a dark theatre. Cave perfectly mirrors two unhealthy obsessions with the same melody. First played first frantic and desperate, and later becoming stretched thin and unwholesome.

The record is a treatise the many ways love can get twisted and wrong, and Nick isn’t afraid to descend into troubling places to mine material for his various character studies. Around each corner you are as likely to find a sexual predator as you are a hopeless romantic.

The location might be highly specific, like the title tavern in “Thirsty Dog” where our anti-hero sits in a tavern apologizing for all the specific shortcomings his lover sees in him. (I imagine he does so drunkenly to the bathroom stall wall). Later Cave goes internal, exploring the psychological workings of love’s dark underbelly. The title track opens with this haunting stanza:

“Despair and Deception, Love’s ugly little twins

Come a knocking on my door, I let them in

Darling, you’re the punishment for all my former sins.

I let love in.”

Well, that’s deliciously sad, isn’t it? But for the most part, you can’t capture the magic of these songs by reprinting the lyrics. They become dead on the page, needing the visceral energy of the record to make them breathe. You need the Bad Seeds delivering their dreamy phantasms of Gothic rock and the devilish voice of Cave’s ringmaster preaching them to make them fully work.

It is all very frightening, but I invite you to “Let Love In” to your music collection nevertheless.

Best tracks:  Do You Love Me?, Nobody’s Baby Now, Red Right Hand, I Let Love In, Thirsty Dog, Do You Love Me? Part Two

CD Odyssey Disc 809: Wilco

I have the day off today! Given that I finished all my Christmas shopping last week I’m looking forward to a relaxing day. I’m going to paint, and I might start a new novel that’s been floating around in my head for a little while now. But first, this review!

Disc 809 is….A Ghost is Born

Artist: Wilco

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover? A cracked egg. The actual cover of this album is supposed to be the same egg, uncracked, but it is printed on a cardboard dustcover. I find those CD dustcovers a bother so I took them all off and stored them in a box somewhere. Rather than dig them out I’ll give you the post-ghost birth egg. At least I’ll assume it hatched a ghost; if it had been a bird it would be a lot messier.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me poking around Wilco’s back catalogue after I had discovered “A.M.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Wilco albums. “A Ghost is Born” is my least favourite of those four, but it was surprisingly close between it and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” As this is the last Wilco album I currently own up for review, here’s a recap:

1. A.M.: 4 stars (reviewed way back at Disc 84)
2. Being There: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 358)
3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 755)
4. A Ghost is Born: 3 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 3 stars

Having stuck with Wilco through “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” “A Ghost is Born” was the album that ended my journey through Wilco’s discography when I first heard it. Listening to it again with fresh ears I think I was too harsh in my initial assessment.

The experimentation begun on “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” continues on “A Ghost is Born” and once again they get things started with one of the album’s least accessible songs. “At Least That’s What You Said” is half ambient dirge and half feedback-infused noodling and doesn’t get this record off on good footing. At least that’s what I say.

I sometimes feel like the independent-minded Wilco wants to drive away the casual listener, like a prof who only wants students in his class as excited about his subject area as he is.

The effort to do so continues on the next track, “Hell is Chrome” but – surprise twist! – it fails. “Hell is Chrome” is the kind of quiet and slow building track usually reserved for side two, thrust to the front of the record as if to scream, “love me for who I am now or just stop listening!” Fortunately, this song is a beautiful sleeper, where the lightly played piano and Jeff Tweedy’s half-whispered confessional are a perfect match. The song had me thinking about what all those bald weirdos from “Mad Max: Fury Road” would listen to. Not while they were out murdering folks and driving their cars around the desert, obviously. I mean after that, when they come down from the metallic paint they’ve been eating and get all introspective and morose contemplating the state of their post-apocalyptic world. I wonder if the film writer knew the song…?

But I digress.

Back to the record, which has a few other high points worth mentioned. “Handshake Drugs” is grounded in a very cool bass line which Wilco artfully doesn’t over-exploit as they tell the story of wandering through a city late at night and high as hell.

“Wishful Thinking” is a love song, tinged with a self-awareness that makes it slightly less romantic but infinitely more honest. The song takes a while to get going, but the way the tune steps down as Tweedy sings “’cause what would love be without wishful thinking?” makes the wait worthwhile.

In many ways “A Ghost is Born” is ahead of its time, and has a lot in common with more recent indie rock, the way it strings together imagery that is loosely connected but lacks a complete narrative. Sometimes I liked this approach but I also found some of the lyrics lazy and directionless.

Musically, the melodies are cleverly constructed for the most part, but there are songs that take way too long to do way too little. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is over ten minutes long and while it has a funky beat and catchy guitar riff but both appear infrequently amid the detritus of feedback and aimless noodling). There just isn’t enough going on to justify it going on the way it does.

“Less Than You Think” is exactly what its title promises, and not in a good way. This monstrosity is 15 minutes long and feels like 20. There is two and a half minutes of what I would call a song, followed by 10 minutes of ambient sound, occasional droning slowly building to a crescendo of…radio static? Then a final 2-3 minutes as the radio static fades away as pointlessly as it began.

I was so mad at being forced to listen to this damned song (see “The Rules” in the sidebar) that not even the album’s final track – a light-spirited ditty about undiscovered bands called “The Late Greats” – could fully pull me from my funk.

“A Ghost is Born” is a 67 minute album and it needs to be about 45, but there is enough good stuff here that it is still an album worth keeping. If you love “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (as many do) you’ll probably love this record as well.

Best tracks:  Hell is Chrome, Handshake Drugs, Wishful Thinking, Theologians

CD Odyssey Disc 808: The Beatles

Walking home tonight I was really craving pizza, but when I got to the pizza joint there were only two slices left, and I didn’t fancy either of them. For some reason I’m finding this little disappointment really annoying. Don’t worry though, gentle reader! When I am finished this blog I will soldier on and heat up some soup.

Disc 808 is….Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Artist: Beatles

Year of Release: 1967

What’s up with the Cover? Let’s see – art forms I don’t enjoy depicted on this cover. Collage? Check. A bunch of flowers planted to spell a word? Check. Ridiculously bright over the top costumes? Ch…wait a minute. I actually like ridiculously bright over the top costumes. I would wear Paul’s powder blue drum major outfit any day.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila (aka Lovely Sheila, Meter Maid) is the Beatles fan in the house. This is her album – I’m just along for the ride.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Beatles albums. Of those “Sgt. Pepper” is one I like more than most. I’ll put it third, just behind “The White Album.”

Ratings: 4 stars

While not as masterful as the equally psychedelic Rolling Stones’ album “Their Satanic Majesties Request” (also released in 1967) “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is still OK, I suppose.

Just kidding, raging Beatlemaniacs! I’m taking the piss, as the English like to say. Actually, “Sgt. Pepper” is an innovative and interesting record that only occasionally annoys me.

With “Sgt. Pepper” the Beatles took a hard turn toward weird from the comparatively straightforward “Revolver.” Fortunately, they hadn’t tipped the weird bus over yet, as they would go on to do with the overwrought and smug “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Instead, “Sgt. Pepper” is an experimental album that takes a lot of risks and consistently makes those risks pay off.

It helps when you have the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney to write pop melodies. These songs may sound timeless now, but lend an ear to what they’re doing and you quickly realize how even clever they are. Even a simple sounding song like “Getting Better” is intricately composed, with its melody rising and falling like a wave, while a second chorus holding a complimentary tune in the background. I don’t even like “Getting Better” that much, but I admire its song construction.

That’s often the case for me with the Beatles. They are kind of a pop Led Zeppelin for me (Pop Zeppelin?); I appreciate their brilliance but don’t often feel inspired or emotionally affected by their music the way I want to be.

The most emotional song on “Sgt. Pepper” album is probably “With A Little Help From My Friends” and that one is almost wrecked by Ringo Starr’s vocals (almost – I still love this song despite Ringo). The other one that hits me is “A Day in the Life” which has the advantage of better vocals and a feeling of disconnect and loss amid modern society that sticks despite the sampled cries of “Never-could-be-any-other-way!” that echo through your headphones for the final 15 seconds of the track.

Production decisions on “Sgt. Pepper” are both brave and crazy, including canned applause, circus sounds and what I think are kazoos. The whole record feels like it is the soundtrack for the town fair, with the mythical “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” being the wacky act keeping the passing crowds entertained between rides on the Tilt-A-Whirl. I’d like it all to annoy me (and at first blush, it did) but in the end the Beatles do it so well I just had to admire them.

There are times when this album loses me in its own cutesy self-awareness, like on the filler that is “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” or the schmaltzy “When I’m Sixty-Four” which seems to want to simultaneously make fun of old couples and celebrate them and accomplishes neither. However, these moments are few and far between and for the most part the songs work.

In fact, “Lovely Rita” is a silly little love song about a meter maid that has lines like “When it gets dark I tow your heart away” that should be insufferably cute. Instead, when the sweet melody is sung by Paul it feels strangely heartfelt, kazoo flourishes and all.

“Good Morning, Good Morning” is packed with sounds of cocks crowing, birds chirping, and near the end cats, horses and assorted other animals. The song is suffused with a fun-loving energy despite being about little more than moving through your day. I’m a morning person, and this song made me think about the energy I wake up with and greet the day (on most days, anyway). Apologies to the non-morning people who run into me.

The album starts with the title track which doesn’t really do it for me, but the reprise version near the end is brilliant. The drum-beat and production had me thinking of early rap tracks, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it has been sampled often through the years. If not, it should be.

“Sgt. Pepper” has a lot of the elements of the Beatles that can annoy me on a bad day, but there is no denying it’s got magic in it – enough to pull it up into a solid four stars, musical tomfoolery and all.

Best tracks:  With a Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Lovely Rita, Good Morning Good Morning, St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise), A Day in the Life

CD Odyssey Disc 807: Blue Rodeo

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend is winding down. I finished almost all my Christmas shopping on Friday, went to a fun party on Saturday and earlier today my beloved Miami Dolphins won their game. Life is good.

Disc 807 is….Are You Ready

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? Despite the fact that band name looks like it was painted by the same guy who did the art on the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo, the green on this cover feels restful to my eye. It reminds me of those unused country roads I used to walk down when I lived in a small town, but no longer see now that I’m a city boy. “Are you ready to move back to the country?” asks this album cover. Hell no, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a pretty painting of it.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to Blue Rodeo back when we were first dating. “Are You Ready” is just us buying their latest album when it came out, as we are wont to do.

How It Stacks Up:  We have 13 Blue Rodeo albums, which is all of them with the exception of last year’s Christmas album (which is not going to happen). “Are You Ready” is an OK record, but far from my favourite. I’m going to put it 11^th.

Ratings: 3 stars

“Are You Ready” has its moments but it took a little too long to heat up. Half the time I was having a great time, and the other half I found myself thinking fondly of other Blue Rodeo albums I liked better.

The album is a return to Blue Rodeo’s more traditional mix of rock and country after a bit of experimentation with horn flourishes on 2002’s “Palace of Gold.” The songs are the usual mix of Jim Cuddy crooners for the lovelorn and the stoner rock of Greg Keelor. Unfortunately, the opening track “Can’t Help Wondering Why” didn’t inspire, and was so perfectly in the pocket of their sound it felt derivative of earlier efforts. The second (and title) track is a stoner rock song by Keelor, which again just felt like it was mailed in by a bar band doing a Blue Rodeo tribute gig.

By the time I got to the album’s single, “Rena,” (buried three songs in) I was ready to write this album off. Fortunately, while “Rena” isn’t the greatest song Blue Rodeo has ever done it does have a pretty guitar hook and Cuddy’s voice sounds easy and relaxed. I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Rena” is a favourite for me, but it began to redeem my opinion of the album.

I always think I’m more into the Jim Cuddy folksy side of Blue Rodeo, but on every album Greg Keelor wins me over and reminds me he is every bit as important to the band’s success. On “Are You Ready” that Keelor moment is “Phaedra’s Meadow.” This is a haunting song with an echoing production that musically mimics the isolation we all feel in our own thoughts from time to time. It is a song about jealousy that is wrapped up in fey imagery that makes you think the singer is about to be abducted by elves. Nothing so exciting happens – he walks into a meadow to clear his head. This is a song for anyone who has ever wanted to explode with anger, but instead made the far wiser decision of just taking a long walk in the woods and cooling off.

“Phaedra’s Meadow” cooled off my anger at wanting the first half of the record to be better, and I think it was a big part of why I enjoyed Side Two so much more. “Stuck on You” is a pretty song that feels like Keelor is channeling Gordon Lightfoot (this is a good thing) and on “Finger Lakes” Cuddy lands a perfect balance between dutiful resolve and idealistic romance.

After one last overlong and overblown track attempted to make me start disliking the album again (“Tired of Pretending”) the album won me over one more time with one of my all time favourite Blue Rodeo songs: “Don’t Get Angry.”

“Don’t Get Angry” is Cuddy at his mournful best, as he sings a song about a failed love affair. Ostensibly Cuddy’s character is asking his ex to not dwell on what went wrong or why the relationship ended. However, as you listen you realize that the song is really about his own failure to move on, not hers:

"If you see some picture of us

Lying on the bed

Some old memory haunts you

Gets stuck inside your head

Don't get angry about it

And wish we'd never been

Don't get roped into a corner

And try changing everything

Don't get paralyzed with fear

And stand there wondering what to do

Just forget it girl, and I will too"

This isn’t advice, this is a confession. He’s calling her thinking he’s going to give her emotional support, but really it’s just to tell her he’s still a mess.

Cuddy’s vocals on “Don’t Get Angry” are soft and strong in equal measure. He doesn’t reach for big notes like he does on early classics like “Try” but because he sings with such honesty he doesn’t have to.

Two thirds of the way through the song, they start adding harmonica to the song and it is the perfect poignant expression of a guy trying to be cool but about to lose it and start balling. “Don’t Get Angry” is like one of those drunken phone calls to your ex to tell her you miss her, if you were actually able to say everything perfectly.

Despite its poor opening (and lack of proper punctuation) “Are You Ready” had mostly won me over by the time it ended, and reminded me that even a weaker Blue Rodeo album is still pretty damned good.

Best tracks:  Phaedra’s Meadow, Finger Lakes, Don’t Get Angry

CD Odyssey Disc 806: Tom Petty

I was so excited to write this next review that I put on a t-shirt featuring the band just to put me that much more in the mood.

Disc 806 is….Hard Promises

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? Tom’s in a record store looking thoughtful and a little pained. Maybe he’s regretting those ‘hard promises’ he made to himself about only buying that one album he came in for and not browsing around and buying 4 or 5 more. I know your pain, Tom.

How I Came To Know It: As is often the case with artists I really like, at some point I make a decision to drill into their back catalogue. I discovered “Hard Promises” while doing this with Tom Petty, knowing nothing about the album beyond the fact that “The Waiting” was a single I’d heard on the radio.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 15 studio albums by Tom Petty (some solo, some with the Heartbreakers) and I like all of them to various degrees. I like “Hard Promises” a lot. So much so that I’m going to bump “Long After Dark” (reviewed back at Disc 542) down a peg and put it fourth overall.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

With some artists it is worth your time to delve into their entire music collection. Tom Petty is one of those artists, and “Hard Promises” is probably the best example why.

If you were to buy Petty’s 1993 Greatest Hits album you would get exactly one song from “Hard Promises.” If you splurged and bough the two-disc anthology he released in 2000, you would get two.

Don’t get me wrong, though. “The Waiting” is an exceptional song, and has rightly survived into our collective musical consciousness 34 years after it was released and the anthology’s second choice, “Woman in Love” is pretty amazing too. Both songs are incredible compositions exploring opposite ends of a relationship. “The Waiting” is about waiting around at the chance to finally be with the woman you desire. It uses well-placed minor chords to perfectly capture this unresolved frustration every guy has experienced.

“Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)” is the other end of the relationship, when a woman is leaving you and you don’t know why. The narrator of the song doesn’t get it, but you get the sense from both the music and lyrics that she was never truly his in the first place. Petty’s drawling delivery is perfect for frustrated waiting and broken-hearted confusion in equal measure.

But “Hard Promises” is so much more than these two hits. Following on the Heartbreakers’ classic record “Damn the Torpedoes” it shows that they aren’t a fluke of the music industry, but instead clever songwriters who know how to tell the tales of ordinary men and make them feel like epics.

“Nightwatchman” is a song about the sort of person who takes that sort of job. Few nightwatchmen live for their work, but there they are out in the darkest hours, putting their lives in danger for little more than minimum wage. The song incorporates a funky guitar riff that vocalizes the restless energy inside this person, dreaming of doing something else one day.

“Something Big” is the perfect song to follow “Nightwatchman.” It tells the tragic end of someone in a cheap motel trying to make a score and get out of his hand-to-mouth existence. It isn’t clear by the end of the song whether he meets his end through violence or overdose, but the fuzzy blues riff makes it clear it didn’t end well.

The album is pure rock and roll, but finds a lot of range within that genre. In addition to the aforementioned blues and funk riffs, the album treats you to fifties harmonies on “Letting You Go” and folksy ballads on “Insider.”

Regardless of what facet of their sound they are exploring, Petty and the Heartbreakers nail it. Like Bruce Springsteen, Petty understands how to make chord choices that and emotionally underscore his lyrics, delivering universal truths through individual characters who come alive for the 3-5 minutes of the song, but leave us thinking about them long after it ends.

The production on “Hard Promises” is perfect. There are a few odd flourishes of organ and piano in places, but only in just the right amount, like a dash of oregano adding flavour to a sauce. Petty sings with conviction and honesty and Mike Campbell once again reminded me that he is one of the most underrated guitar players in rock.

“Hard Promises” affected me in a deeper way than I expected, and reminded me to play it a lot more often than I do.

Best tracks:  The Waiting, A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me), Nightwatchman, Something Big, Letting You Go, Insider, The Criminal Kind, You Can Still Change Your Mind 

CD Odyssey Disc 805: Pearl Jam

Crazily, it has been almost three years to the day since I last reviewed an album by this next band. This is a bummer, because I love these guys.

Disc 805 is….No Code

Artist: Pearl Jam

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? A whole lot of nothing. As in, a ton of images evoking mouths and eyes and noses (or that are actually mouths and eyes and noses) thrown into a jumble. I know the album is called “No Code” so maybe that’s the point. If this cover actually has a code I wouldn’t know, because it is so artistically uninspiring I could care less to decipher it.

How I Came To Know It: I had taken a break from Pearl Jam but when “Riot Act” came out in 2002 I had a resurgence of interest. I then realized I had missed three albums between it and 1994’s “Vitalogy.” “No Code” was one of those albums.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Pearl Jam albums, which is all of them. Of the 11 I like “No Code” plenty but it is not my favourite. I’ll put it 8^th.

Ratings: 3 stars

Years ago I worked with a woman who was a figure skater and a Pearl Jam fan. She was a great coworker and a lot of other cool things besides but for the sake of brevity, let’s stick with the skating and the music.

When I found these facts out I remarked (in my opinionated manner) that figure skating was OK by me, but I didn’t think much of ice dancing, and as far as Pearl Jam went I liked pretty much everything they’d ever done with the exception of “No Code” and “Binaural.” Turns out she was an ice dancer, and those albums happened to be her two favourites. Oops.

Today I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed “No Code.” I’ll take back most of the unkind things I said about it fifteen years ago. My vote’s still out on “Binaural.” As for ice dancing, the less said the better.

Back to “No Code,” which is Pearl Jam’s follow up to “Vitalogy” and suffers from some of the same lack of direction on that record.

It’s clear the band is trying to expand their sound, and for the most part I enjoyed the effort. In particular, the use of harmonica on “Smile” was a nice folksy touch to a grunge rock song. It is clear the boys had taken some notes while hanging out with Neil Young, and “Smile” is the kind of song he would have released at his heavier moments. This song is a wall of rock n’ roll, but it never loses its soaring melody. This is a lesson for heavier bands the world over: you don’t have to bury all the elements that make your song pretty just because you also want to make it loud.

My favourite song on the record is “Off He Goes” which is a soft song featuring Vedder crooning gently and a guitar strum that could have been a folk song in another life. I’m not sure what “Off He Goes” is about. Sometimes I think it is mental illness or anxiety, sometimes I think it’s about addiction and sometimes it just feels like someone who takes on more than they should and doesn’t know how to take a breath and relax. The decision to sing the song from the perspective of a close friend who comes off chill and relaxed helps underscore the anxiousness of the song’s subject. It is a smart and not immediately obvious musical choice.

Also great is “Present Tense” which is a slow builder of a song which is the sign of some of their later work on 2002’s “Riot Act.” It is a moody track that perfectly matches Eddie Vedder’s vibrato with a reverbing guitar, and puts both sounds in a very empty echo-filled production that makes the song’s message thrum with importance. That message is pretty simple:

"You can spend your time alone, re-digesting past regrets

Or you can come to terms and realize

You're the only one who can't forgive yourself

Makes much more sense

To live in the present tense"

As the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir would say, “make amends with yourself.” I also enjoy that the song’s final two minutes or so, which is a Who-like instrumental jam. This artful musical exit lets the earlier message soak in the juice of your lizard brain for a while before moving you along to the album’s next track.

“Mankind” feels like Pearl Jam feel like they’re channeling the Ramones and “Around the Bend” feels like a precursor to Vedder’s recent interest in Hawaiian music. They even do a spoken word poetry song about how the world loses its magic as we grow to adulthood (“I’m Open”). This stuff mostly works, although didn’t blow me away like I wanted it to.

One last negative note on the art direction, which in addition to having a stupid and pretentious cover has the song lyrics printed on a bunch of individual polaroid prints. These prints are stuffed where a perfectly useful CD booklet should be. I assume this is supposed to be an interesting way to package the album, but I found it annoying. Moreover the lyrics follow a time-honoured Pearl Jam tradition of being hand-written and hard to read. If you’re going to make it that hard to read, why include it at all?

Anyway, “No Code” is a good album by one of my favourite bands. It is way better than ice dancing, and the only reason it didn’t rate any higher is because I like all their work so much there was no room to move it any higher in the ranking.

Best tracks:  Who You Are, Smile, Off He Goes, Present Tense