CD Odyssey Disc 701: Johnny Cash

I took my first guitar lesson in almost a year on Thursday, and I really enjoyed it. Learning to play music has definitely increased the joy I get from listening to it, in the same way as studying literature makes me enjoy a good read more.

This next album is yet another compilation album – sorry about that. At least it is a good one.

Disc 701 is…. Classic Cash

Artist: Johnny Cash

Year of Release: 1988 but with music from the fifties and sixties (and two songs from the seventies as well).

What’s up with the Cover? The man in black! Of course, everyone is black when in silhouette.

How I Came To Know It: Finding good Johnny Cash albums on CD isn’t easy, so when I spotted a collection containing a lot of his classics, I decided I’d go ahead and get a dreaded compilation album. I remain on the lookout for good original Cash albums, though.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a bunch of Johnny Cash albums to stack up against each other, but this isn’t one of them. “Best Of” albums don’t get stacked up!

Rating: “Best of” albums don’t get rated either. That’s how we roll here on the CD Odyssey.

This album was like a return to the more pleasant parts of my childhood. I grew up in a small B.C. industrial town, and Johnny Cash was a mainstay in most of the blue collar houses there.

My house was no exception, with my Mom often putting Johnny Cash records on when she was puttering around the house. I’d sit in the living room near the stereo, reading a book or playing a game while Johnny told tales of tough times, hard love and gun-totin’ cowboys.

This is Johnny Cash in his prime; his voice rough and soothing at the same time, like a mountain stream burbling over gravel.

Cash and a few others like him took country music to a new place in the fifties. It was a place filled with imperfect characters, made beautiful in part because of their character blemishes.

“Long Black Veil,” “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” and “Folsom Prison Blues” are all songs about people who make terrible errors in judgment yet Johnny puts you in their shows, and makes you feel compassion for them.

In “Long Black Veil” a man defends a woman’s honour by not telling a judge that his alibi on the night of a murder was that he was sleeping with his best friend’s wife. It’s a strange and twisted honour, but in Cash’ hands you still find yourself pitying the doomed man’s lingering ghost. “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” is about a headstrong youth that goes to town looking for trouble, and finds more than he can handle. As for “Folsom Prison Blues” – that guy shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Cash doesn’t limit himself to these topics, though. He’s a born storyteller who can find a narrative in just playing an instrument (“Get Rhythm”, “Tennessee Flat Top Box”) or lost love (“I Still Miss Someone”, “I Guess Things Happen That Way”) and how the love of a good woman can inspire us to be better men (“I Walk the Line”).

Unfortunately, Cash occasionally strays into the hokey, such as on “Five Feet High and Rising,” a stupid song about a heavy rainstorm. Even worse is “Supper Time,” which has Johnny musing about having supper in heaven with his dead mom. That should be a touching sentiment, but it just comes off as plain goofy.

The songs are a mix of Cash originals (he is a gifted songwriter) and excellent covers. My only quibble is “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” Although Cash made it famous, I think Kris Kristofferson’s original is better. That’s the only time that happens though. For the most part when Cash sings your song, that song becomes his.

Musically, Cash’s sound has never been duplicated. His deep voice (I’m not sure if he’s a high bass or a low baritone) is the first thing you notice, but over the years I’ve also appreciated his guitar playing style. It is a bit ‘loose in stays’ at times, but it has a perfect country swing that had my strumming hand playing air while I listened on more than one occasion.

The songs are also often punctuated with a hint of piano or Spanish guitar that helps round out the overall sound nicely.

Although this greatest hits package has 20 songs (six more than my usual maximum) many are short, and the whole experience comes in at a relatively reasonable 53 minutes. If anything, I was left wanting a little more.

Best tracks: Tennessee Flat Top Box, Long Black Veil, I Still Miss Someone, Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, Guess Things Happen That Way, I Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, Ballad of Ira Hayes, Folsom Prison Blues

CD Odyssey: The First 700

As is tradition, I'm taking a quick pit-stop to take stock as I reach another milestone - 700 albums reviewed!

Three and four star albums continue to be the norm, with 38 records in each category. It is hardly surprising that a collection of my personal music would be slightly skewed toward the top.

That said, the number of five star albums is down, with only seven making the grade out of the last 100. Here is the best of the past 100:

• Alice Cooper - Love it to Death
• Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
• Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
• Steve Earle - Guitar Town
• Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
• Body Count - Self Titled
• Dick Dale - Checkered Flag

Only one record scored the lowly 1 star, and that was shockingly an Alice Cooper album - the bizarre German import "Science Fiction."

I've been getting a bit more draconian in my willingness to get rid of albums lately. Although it pained me, "Science Fiction" was sold and so was Emily Haines' "Knives Don't Have Your Back." I managed to find more appreciative homes for three more records: Guru's "Jazzmatazz 3: Streetsoul," Bison BC's "Dark Ages" and Gordon Lightfoot's "Summer Side of Life" all got passed along to fellow music lovers.

Alice Cooper continues to lead in the total review category with 22, and Steve Earle has caught up to Tom Waits for second - I've reviewed 14 of each.

I think I may have even passed the halfway point of my journey somewhere along the way, although since I keep buying music it is hard to be sure. It doesn't matter where I'm at, only that I'm still enjoying the journey. I hope you are as well.

CD Odyssey Disc 700: Talking Heads

When I got home tonight there were still three songs still to play on this next album, so I just lay down on the couch and let them wash over me. I suppose I could’ve gone another day before writing the review, but I was eager after five days to move on.

Also, I was eager to reach this latest milestone – my 700^th album review! I’ll do a recap of the journey so far, but for now, let’s stick to the matter at hand.

Disc 700 is…. Popular Favorites: Sand in the Vaseline

Artist: Talking Heads

Year of Release: 1992 but with music from 1977 to 1988

What’s up with the Cover? Close ups of some instruments and audio equipment in the background, a big text box in the foreground. I would characterize this cover as inoffensive, but kinda dumb.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Greg bought this album when we lived together back in the early nineties and it got a fair bit of play. Like a lot of music Greg bought back then, I went and got my own copy after we moved into our own places.

How It Stacks Up:  I like that the Talking Heads called their best of album “Popular Favorites” which is a better way to characterize a compilation record. Regardless, ‘best of’ albums don’t stack up on the Odyssey – they aren’t real records.

Rating: 700 albums in some things remain constant – in this case, the fact that ‘best of’ albums don’t get a rating, just a review.

When you are on the cutting edge of a movement called New Wave, you know you are a trend setter, and that is exactly what the Talking Heads prove on “Popular Favorites.” This music sounds like very little else you’ll hear, and yet never seems jarring or out of place.

The first thing that always strikes me with the Talking Heads is the importance of the bass and drums in their sound. Their songs at their core are rock and roll, but their clever use of rhythm makes you feel like you’ve never heard it before.

In places, they sound like they are channeling a proto-disco funk groove from the early seventies, but there is a deeper tribal beat that makes them like something you might hear around a tribal fire in Africa. For this Chris Frantz (drums) and Tina Weymouth (bass) deserve a big shout out – something the rhythm section rarely gets.

It isn’t all beats and bangs, though. They meld this sound with very smartly written melodies that are along for the ride on the beat just like the rest of us are. A lot of New Wave comes off as emotionally distant. By contrast at their core the Talking Heads is so clearly celebratory you can’t help but get infected with their enthusiasm. I wish other similar acts were able to do the same.

And while I’m on this particular rant, modern indie bands could learn a lot from David Byrne about how to sing in a sharp, clipped style and still feel like you give a damn about what you’re saying. This is even more impressive given how obscure and sometimes secondary the lyrics to Talking Heads songs are. I still don’t know what “Psycho Killer” is about, for example – although I think that whole “I hate people when they’re not polite” section feels like they’re channelling Hannibal Lechter. The books came out before the album and the movies after, so I couldn’t tell you which came first. But I digress…

Back to the music, which while not lyrically overwhelming, is perfect for the mood it establishes within the overall structure of the songs. The whimsical and slightly perverse “Stay Up Late” perfectly captures the diabolical glee of keeping a baby up past its bedtime. “Don’t Trust the Government” combines a lock-step institutional beat with lyrics that express a strange glee for bureaucracy.

This tension is at the heart of the Talking Heads’ music, and “Popular Favorites” is a great representation of their work across their whole career. My own favorite songs on the album span a run of nine of the band’s eleven years’ worth of records, which speaks well for their consistency.

Oddly, while I love this album, I’m not rushing out to drill through their studio collection. I can’t put my finger on why exactly. My friend Greg also owned their 1985 record, “Little Creatures” and I remember liking it. At the same time, I remember mostly liking the songs that made it onto “Popular Favorites.” This is always the danger of having a greatest hits package, and one of the reasons I generally discourage it.

Maybe one day I’ll take my own advice and drill through their collection and see if it is worth me expanding my horizons. For now I’m strangely (and uncharacteristically) happy with this collection as is.

Best tracks: I Want To Live (1977), Psycho Killer (1977), Don’t Worry About the Government (1977), I Zimbra (1979), Once in a Lifetime (1981), Swamp (1983), And She Was (1985), Stay Up Late (1985), Road to Nowhere (1985), Wild Wild Life (1986), City of Dreams (1986).

11 is a lot of tracks but there were 33 on the compilation and they did say popular favourites…

CD Odyssey Disc 699: Depeche Mode

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey! These albums won’t listen to themselves, so let’s get on with the show.

Disc 699 is…. Violator

Artist: Depeche Mode

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? Looks like a rose, but I’m not sure why it is glistening. Maybe it was coated in wax or maybe it just got all hot and bothered by all the sexy music on the album.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to Depeche Mode and this is her album. I was dubious at first when I heard it was electronica but was quickly won over.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Depeche Mode albums. Of the three, I had always planned to rank “Violator” first, but I very recently reviewed “Black Celebration” back at Disc 680 and I liked it a lot. It made for a tough choice, but I think I’ll still give the win to “Violator” by a hair.

Rating: 4 stars

“Violator” was the first Depeche Mode that I ever understood. Its techno-beats and synthesized sound shouldn’t have appealed to me, but it was done so well I couldn’t resist its siren’s call.

Siren’s call is appropriate, given the way Depeche Mode blends darkness and danger with seductive allure. Dave Gahan’s voice is low and lascivious, and drives these songs from under the melody, like an undertow during a change of the tide. Even the songs that aren’t about sex on this album sound like they are, and the double meaning provides a tension that is hard to resist.

It all begins with the music, which is driven first by bass and percussion, such as on the rhythmic “Personal Jesus” or “Halo.” These songs are OK, but for me the better songs are the ones that develop the songs more melodically, including “Waiting for the Night” and “Enjoy the Silence.” These songs bring in cool beats as well, but they ultimately support very interesting musical progressions in the melody.

The whole effect makes you want to move your hips suggestively in a dark night club. I listened to it in daylight on my walk to and from work, but thankfully managed to avoid any publicly inappropriate hip motions.

Yet for all this, many of the songs have other important themes they are exploring. On “Sweetest Perfection” this theme is addiction, which creeps forward slowly and inexorably as it build into ugly truths like:

“When I need a drug in me

And it brings out the thug in me

Feel something tugging me

Then I want the real thing not tokens.”

It is the draw of something bad for you that you can’t resist. It felt like the first half of the horror of drug addiction; that dreadful anticipation of the high that is to come, whatever the costs after it is over. For the half filled with regret and shame after the high, as the desire begins to dully grow again I recommend Tool’s “Sober.”

“Violator” has a lot of range and it knows how to build tension that is beautiful as well as dark. “Waiting for the Night” is the tension of waiting for release. The light tinkling of the organ in this song sounds a lot like Enya’s first album. It has that feeling of Celtic faerie magic, infused with the sharp angles of the modern world reflected in Depeche Mode’s electronica sound.

The second half of this record is where the gems reside. Right after “Waiting for the Night” at song five the boys kick it up a notch with the nightclub dance track “Enjoy the Silence.” This is a mix of a slow wanton melody over the top of a dance track that is so good it makes you almost forget just how bad most club music was in 1990. At over six minutes long, “Enjoy the Silence” really lets you enjoy its lack of silence, yet never drags.

Building off of that, we get the best song on the album with “Policy of Truth.” This song has it all; a danceable beat, an irresistible hook and compelling lyrics. The latter covers the realization that always blurting out the truth can sometimes be its own burden. As Gahan sings:

“Things could be so different now

It used to be so civilized

You will always wonder how

It could have been if you’d only lied.

It’s too late to change events

It’s time to face the consequence

For delivering the proof

In the policy of truth.”

The song seems clearly about infidelity, and not just because everything Depeche Mode feels suffused with sex. Here the song is stronger for what it doesn’t spell out, with only the implication of sin on lines like “never again is what you swore/the time before.” You can tell that one lover is unfaithful, and the other knows it full well. He just don’t want to be reminded of it in some guilt-ridden confessional. It is a troubled song about a relationship in crisis and a preference for a pretty lie over a sordid truth.

The whole record casts a spell of compromised ethics wrapped up in an erotic package of unfolding melody and haunting back beats. It is thoughtful and danceable, which is a pretty rare combination. If all electronica were this good I’d be a happy man – and that’s the truth.

Best tracks: Sweetest Perfection, Waiting for the Night, Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth

CD Odyssey Disc 698: Queen

It wasn’t the greatest day in the history of me today, but I suppose I’ve had worse.

On to the music.

Disc 698 is…. Made in Heaven

Artist: Queen

Year of Release: 1995

What’s up with the Cover? The silhouette of the dearly departed Freddie Mercury, raising a triumphant fist as he welcomes the hereafter – here portrayed as the sunset on a lake. This is Freddie’s last hurrah, so he is depicted alone, but the band is with him if you fold out the rest of the photo:

I love the full picture. Freddie’s journey is over, and after a lengthy illness he now has calm seas and smooth sailing in front of him. The rest of the band still have mountains to conquer because for them life goes on.

How I Came To Know It: I love Queen, so this was just me drilling through their collection. I got this one fairly late; it was hard to find and I eventually just broke down and ordered it on Amazon. Amazon is a dangerous service for a music collector – it is just too damned easy. Fortunately, my desire to support local record stores exceeds my desire to have everything NOW. Support your local record store, people!

How It Stacks Up:  I have 15 Queen albums and sadly I must put “Made in Heaven” at the bottom of the pile, at 15^th.

Rating: 2 stars

The cover of “Made in Heaven” sums the album up – Freddie is apart from the band now, but not forgotten. Ordinarily I don’t like posthumous publication, but Freddie wanted the music to go on, and I guess the band weren’t quite ready to do that without him.

Unfortunately a lot of the magic is missing from this album. There are still some great moments, including Freddie’s voice, which despite his terrible illness still has a power and a purity few vocalists will ever possess. Coupled with the echoing production decisions, it sounds even more orchestral than usual.

Freddie was a key architect of Queen’s music when he was alive, and his finishing touch on these songs is notably absent. Songs like “Let Me Live” and “Heaven for Everyone” begin with great promise, but they feel like they don’t go anywhere. They just keep soaring and repeating themselves. At best, they feel like the big finale wrap-up of a Broadway musical, which strung together are just too much theatre and not enough music.

The organ-heavy sound feels at times like the bad production decisions of the mid- to late eighties as well. I know Queen went in for the big sound on their last three records, but here it tips into excess.

I think songs featuring the singing voice of Brian May or Roger Taylor would have provided some nice contrast with Mercury’s vocals, as they do on many other Queen albums. The record could definitely have used more of May’s guitar virtuosity.

The one standout song is “Too Much Love Will Kill You,” which finds Freddie delivering an introspective and sad tale of loss. The song resonates on its own, independent of the fact that there is no way to listen to it – or any other song on “Made in Heaven” – without thinking about the incredible loss the world suffered when Mercury was taken from us too soon. It’s a Brian May (and others) composition, but Freddie brings it alive.

It is fitting that even the tragedy on this album is the result of a surfeit of love, rather than a lack of it. It feels like Queen can pull triumphant out of any situation on this record. For that reason, I’ve tried to mute my criticism of what is really a pretty average record.

But I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that even better tracks like “Made in Heaven” sound derivative of earlier work. It is a deliberate decision in places, but it doesn’t mean I like it. With the exception of “Too Much Love Will Kill You” most of the lyrics don’t resonate, and the music isn’t at the awesome level you expect from a Queen album.

For me, “Innuendo” is the more fitting tribute to the late and exceedingly great Freddie Mercury. I suppose the band just wanted the show to go on one more time. Who could blame them?

Best tracks: Made in Heaven, Too Much Love Will Kill You, It’s A Beautiful Day (Reprise)

CD Odyssey Disc 697: Emmylou Harris

Yeehaw! The weekend is here and I’m soaking in it, just like Marge’s friend soaks in Palmolive. And if you know that reference, congratulations – you’re as old as me.

Disc 697 is…. Luxury Liner

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? Just another one of those seventies “big head” covers. As big heads go, Emmylou’s is pretty easy on the eyes.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Emmylou Harris since I was a kid. “Luxury Liner” was just me drilling through her collection.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 of Emmylou Harris’ solo albums, with plans to get four more before I’m through. Of the 11, “Luxury Liner” is up there with the best of them. There are a lot of awesome Emmylou albums however, so I’ve got to put it at fifth.

Rating: 4 stars

In the mid to late seventies, Emmylou Harris had one hell of a run of great records. “Luxury Liner” is one of them.

This album has a good range, mixing up tempo country jangle on the title track and the swagger-filled sass of “Hello Stranger” with the slow and sweet angst of “Making Believe” and the Gram Parson’s classic, “She.”

Emmylou’s voice consistently makes my neck hair stand up, and “Luxury Liner” has some of the most amazing displays of her talent you’ll hear. In particular “Making Believe” hits some high notes early on that almost knock me off my feet every time I hear them. Good thing I’m writing this review sitting down.

This range is also on great display on her cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty.” I don’t know what key she sings it in, but I know she plays it with a capo on her guitar six or seven frets up. I’m teaching myself “Pancho and Lefty” on guitar right now and you can be sure I’ll be singing it in base position, thank you very much.

Emmylou’s approach to the song is inspiring, keeping the melody ninety per cent untouched, but adding her own flourishes to the end of some lines in just the right way. Too often artists feel they have to mess with the melody of a great song in order to make it their own, wrecking it in the process. Emmylou knows how to make something her own while honouring the original work. Her approach to singing a song lets you see the song’s original beauty in a new light.

In this case, “Pancho and Lefty” is a hard-boiled song about bandits and betrayal, and Emmylou’s voice brings out the tragedy of the story in a way that the rougher Van Zandt can’t do. That said lines like:

“The dust that Pancho bit down south

Ended up in Lefty’s mouth.”

Don’t sound quite right in her mouth. This is a minor quibble though, on what is a great version of a great song.

Similarly, she takes Gram Parson’s “She” to a whole higher level. When Emmylou sings about how the title character ‘sure could sing’ it is hard to imagine she’s talking about anyone other than herself.

The worst song on this record is the remake of Chuck Berry’s “(You Never Can Tell) C’est La Vie.” This was actually one of the album’s hits, but I think it sounds campy and insincere. It is the one blemish on an otherwise wonderful album.

My version of “Luxury Liner” is a remastered re-issue, with a couple of bonus tracks. All of these Emmylou remasters are great, both in terms of the production values and also what tracks they choose to add. The new tracks are rarely available on some other album, and they’re not just live versions of a song you already have. There are usually only two of them, and they generally are as good as the album’s original material.

“Luxury Liner” is no exception, and the two bonus tracks (1981’s “Me and Willie” and 1986’s “Night Flyer”) are both excellent. In fact they are two of my favourites off the record. In particular, “Me and Willie,” a character study of a brilliant guitar player who ‘played to ease his soul/and drank to ease his mind.” The song’s lyrics are beautiful and tragic. I’m tempted to share more of them, but I know that without Emmylou’s voice they just won’t hit as hard as they should. I’ll just encourage you to go listen to it on Youtube and then go buy this album; it’s a good one.

Best tracks: Pancho & Lefty, Making Believe, Hello Stranger, She, Me and Willie (bonus track), Night Flyer (bonus track)

CD Odyssey Disc 696: Billy Bragg

This is the second album in a row that has an ampersand in the title. Why Bruce and Billy? You are both literate people – there is another way. Use your words.

Disc 696 is…. Tooth & Nail

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? Billy and his guitar, still on that long walk toward wisdom. Bragg has transformed seamlessly from young rebel with a guitar to guy you wish was your dad – still with a guitar.

How I Came To Know It: I saw Bragg on his tour for this album. I didn’t actually own it then (which is why I didn’t review it at the time) but my buddy Nick bought it and played me a few tracks. I really liked those, as well as the concert, so went out and bought it. It has since inspired me to more than double my Billy Bragg collection.

How It Stacks Up:  Not counting his work with Wilco on “Mermaid Avenue,” I have eight Billy Bragg albums – I had six just a month ago, but I’m now at the point where I’m only really missing one I still want (that would be 2008’s “Mr. Love and Justice”). Of the eight, “Tooth & Nail” holds up beautifully – I’ll put it 3^rd or 4^th.

Rating: 4 stars

It is always exciting when a long established artist delivers an album that is as good as anything he made in his so called heyday; that is what Billy Bragg has accomplished on “Tooth & Nail.”

“Tooth & Nail” sees Bragg’s brand of protest folk rock settling comfortably into middle age. This is usually a death knell, when an artist loses the edge that made them so compelling. That doesn’t happen here. Instead, we find Bragg with just as many important things to say, saying them just as brilliantly.

What has changed is Bragg’s delivery, which is softer both vocally and on the guitar. The rough percussion-driven guitar playing has become more nuanced, still delivering an emotional charge at just the right time, but without feeling like he’s about to snap a string. It lets Bragg put more energy into gentle playing, as he trips through bass note walk-downs and idle plucking with the ease of someone taking a stroll through a flower garden.

Bragg’s voice is also quieter and his signature English accent even seems subdued for the first time. I found this allowed me to appreciate what a fine vocalist he is more than ever before – even making me go back and hear his early work with fresh and eager ears.

Lyrically, this is still Bragg at his finest, alternate between touching love songs and staunch and unyielding social commentary.

On the love song front, “Handyman Blues” is a modern day classic. It instantly spoke to me with its narrative of someone who admits he isn’t very handy around the house, but instead appeals to his other qualities as a mate:

“Don’t be expecting me to put up shelves

Or build a garden shed

But I can write a song that tells the world

How much I love you instead

I’m not any good at pottery

But let’s lose a ‘t’ and just shift back the ‘e’

And I’ll find a way to make my poetry

Build a roof over our heads.”

As someone who is also terrible at home repairs, and pays the bills with the written word (albeit less creatively at this point) this song held a deep appeal.

On the unyielding social commentary, Bragg ably tackles homelessness (“I Ain’t Got No Home”) and intolerance (“There Will Be A Reckoning”). Most of all, I like the way “Tooth & Nail” blends big messages with an obvious love for the human race in general. He does so without ever becoming preachy, even on “Do Unto Others” where he is literally referencing the bible.

My favourite song on the album has Bragg making an appeal to uncertainty. “No One Knows Nothing Anymore” is both an admission of fallibility and a clever call to action. Bragg starts with what I think is a reference to the Higgs Boson particle:

“Deep down in the underground

Atoms spinning round and round

Scientists monitor readings

Searching for the Holy Grail:

The particle – or at least a trail –

Of the one that gives the Universe its meaning.”

This is the second song from 2013 about the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle (Nick Cave does a song called “Higgs Boson Blues” on his “Push the Sky Away” album). Bragg uses the Higgs Boson to preach uncertainty, going on to sing:

“But what if there’s nothing?

No big answers to find?

What if we’re just passing through time?

“No one knows nothing anymore

Nobody really knows the score

Since nobody knows anything

Let’s break it down and start again.”

What I love about this song is how Bragg takes not knowing as an opportunity to rebuild our assumptions. The song isn’t constructed to create dread. It soars melodically as Bragg slips into a run of unanswered questions on not just science, but economics and later philosophy itself. He ends each chorus on a musical upstroke to generate a sense of triumph, not dread.

“Tooth & Nail” reveals Bragg to be an optimist and a humanist, to go along with his activism. This in no way diminishes his quest for justice; if anything it makes that quest more believable and real. What the answer is or how we get there can be a matter of debate. As long as we’re out there practicing the golden rule and standing up for each other along the way, Bragg figures we’ll be going in the right direction. As he reminds us on the final verse of the album’s final song:

“Don’t be disheartened baby, don’t be fooled,

Take it from someone who knows: the glass is half full

Tomorrow’s going to be a better day

No matter what the siren voices say

Tomorrow’s going to be a better day

We’re going to make it that way.”

This album just makes me feel good about the world, or at the very least feel good about the possibilities for the world, which can often be enough.

Best tracks: No One Knows Nothing Anymore, Handyman Blues, I Aint’ Got No Home, Swallow My Pride, There Will be a Reckoning, Tomorrow’s Going to be a Better Day

CD Odyssey Disc 695: Bruce Springsteen

I came to the end of a long literary journey this weekend, when I finished reading “The Two Noble Kinsmen,” completing my long-held goal to read every one of Shakespeare’s 38 plays. I had already read about half of them over the years, but I re-read all of those as well for the full immersive experience.

I did it by keeping the complete Shakespeare in my bathroom (being divided into scenes made it a perfect fit) so it took a lot longer to read than it might have. Like Sheila recently said on her blog, you should always have a bathroom book.

Disc 695 is…. Devils & Dust

Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? Bruce looking contemplative, with a weathered and worn frame that implies, “I’ve seen a lot of shit, man.”

How I Came To Know It: I saw a video for the title track and absolutely loved it, so I raced out and bought the album. Here’s the video, which is basically like the cover, only the pictures move.

How It Stacks Up:  We have ten Bruce Springsteen albums. I like all of them, but since this is the section where I stack ‘em up, I must admit that “Devils & Dust” is my least favourite – so 10.

Rating: 3 stars

This album began with one of my favourite Springsteen songs, and it ended with a quiet, little regarded gem, but in between it gave me pause for doubt more than once.

“Devils & Dust” is Springsteen stripping away his rock edge and going for a contemporary folk sound. At times he sounds like he’s trying to channel the solo work of Mark Knopfler, and at other times Bob Dylan. Mostly he works hard to create a new version of himself I hadn’t heard before.

The album’s opening (and title) track was enough to get me to buy the album by itself, which is a good thing since with “Devils & Dust” peaking at #72 and no other song charting at all, I wasn’t going to hear anything else without seeking it out myself.

I knew that “Devils & Dust,” was going to stand the test of time, infuriatingly pointless ampersand or not. It is an anthem for soldiers, but it isn’t a celebratory anthem. This is a song that explores the dehumanizing nature of war. It is an oft-explored folk theme, but Springsteen breathes new life into it, in a haunting and hopeless kind of way. The chorus sums up how high ideals can easily get lost in the wind:

“Now every woman and every man

They want to take a righteous stand

Find the love that God wills

And the faith that He commands

I’ve got my finger on the trigger

And tonight faith just ain’t enough

When I look inside my heart

There’s just devils and dust.”

This song also serves as a perfect coda for Springsteen’s previous album, 2002’s “The Rising” which explores the loss and anguish America experienced in the wake of 9/11.

Sadly, nothing that follows on the album lives up to the promise of the title track. Springsteen decides to play the majority of the instruments throughout, including guitar, keyboard and even drums at times. While competent on the guitar, he’s no Mark Knopfler and I think by deciding to do so much, he stretches himself a bit too thin in places.

Springsteen is always a great storyteller, and “Devils & Dust” has some peculiar ones, notably a visit to a prostitute in “Reno” that crosses subtle and pretty melodies with occasionally raunchy lyrics to create a wonderful tension, and no small amount of tenderness where it is least expected.

A couple of times Springsteen also tries out a new singing style where he climbs almost into falsetto. It is so un-Springsteen-like you wouldn’t know it was him if you hadn’t put the album on yourself. Of the two songs he tries this on, “Maria’s Bed,” and “All I’m Thinking About,” “Maria’s Bed” is by far the better track. “All I’m Thinking About” has him reach a little too far, with his voice going thin and strained.

Despite this, there is no doubting Bruce’s overall range, which is consistently underestimated because he uses his voice to service the song and not vice versa. On this record, it feels like the opposite on “All I’m Thinking About,” but “Maria’s Bed” is such an upbeat and joyful track that I forgive him.

The album ends on a sombre note, with “Matamoros Banks” a song about a Mexican trying to cross the desert into the United States and finding only his death in a river crossing. Again, the poet in Bruce rises up and shines:

“For two day the river keeps you down

Then you rise to the light without a sound

Past the playgrounds and empty switching yards

The turtles eat the skin from your eyes, so they lay open to the stars.

“Your clothes give way to the current and river stone

‘Til every trace of who you ever were is gone.

And the things of the earth they make their claim

That the things of heaven may do the same.”

When I first heard this song, I thought it was about some woman drowned by her psychotic boyfriend down by the river. I guess I’ve been listening to too much Nick Cave and Neil Young over the years. I only know what it was actually about, because Bruce put it in the liner notes. Regardless of subject, he once again walks that narrow line between beauty and tragedy where art shines brightest.

I admire “Devils & Dust” for consistently trying to walk that lofty line throughout. At times Bruce comes up short, and you can’t help but notice the resulting misstep, but over thirty years removed from his first album, he’s still fearlessly trying to find new ways to climb up there.

Best tracks: Devils & Dust, Reno, Maria’s Bed, Matamoros Banks

CD Odyssey Disc 694: Kings of Leon

Time for another music review, because that is what we do here on the CD Odyssey. This next one I would call ‘new music’ but the kids might say is ‘so last year’. Perspective is everything.

Disc 694 is…. Mechanical Bull

Artist: Kings of Leon

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? I think this is supposed to represent a neon sign over a honky tonk to let passersby know there is a mechanical bull on the premises. Like a hotel advertises free WiFi or a porn shop boasts that they also feature a peep show. Generally a big neon sign promoting any of these things is an indication you should just keep walking.

How I Came To Know It: Every now and then I try to put a CD in Sheila’s stocking.  This is one from Christmas 2013. I know Sheila likes Kings of Leon but I’m not a big fan, so that way I knew it was for her, not me. As is often the case, she thought it was OK but it didn’t blow her away. She loves music but doesn’t have the drive to own all of it like I do.

How It Stacks Up:  We only have two Kings of Leon albums; this one and 2003’s “Youth and Young Manhood.” Of the two, I prefer “Mechanical Bull.”

Rating: 3 stars

I didn’t love my previous exposure to Kings of Leon (2003’s “Youth and Young Manhood”) and one song into “Mechanical Bull” I thought I was in for more of the same.

The song was “Supersoaker” which is exactly the kind of directionless overproduced rock fare that make modern FM radio so unlistenable for me. This is a song that tries way too hard to be liked, like when an awkward person puts on a loud outfit to be noticed at a party, but then fidgets awkwardly all night. If you’re going to go loud, don’t fidget. That goes for music as well.

My concerns were quickly dispelled with the next song, “Rock City,” which has a southern fried, drugged out feeling driven by simple and laid back rock grooves. This song feels like a day where the main character never quite gets around to having a shower, because that day is just too full of gritty adventure. I’m not sure what it is entirely about, but it has some nice little lyrical nuggets including:

“I was running through the desert

I was looking for drugs

And I was search for a woman who was willing to love.”

Despite the appearance of an “Oh my my” that is far too close to Tom Petty’s identical utterance in “Last Dance with Mary Jane” the song retains its originality.

Speaking of Tom Petty, it is clear the Kings of Leon are influenced by him. Lead singer Caleb Followill’s vocals have the same strangled beauty that Petty’s possess, although likely with a bit more range. Hey, Tom’s getting older so there’s no shame in it.

Cross this Heartbreaker rock with phrasing that owes a lot to recent Pearl Jam and a healthy dose of Decemberist indie song construction and you’ve got the Kings of Leon. With these influences my biggest surprise is that I don’t like them more.

There is lots to like on “Mechanical Bull.” In addition to “Rock City” there is the gorgeous mid-tempo ballad “Beautiful War”; a pretty love song with a slow build that reminded me of U2 in their more honest moments.

“Temple” has both an eighties guitar sound and a radio friendly structure that should have me hating it, but that somehow works. Again, the vocals make a huge difference. Here Caleb (since the whole band is composed of Followills first names are easier) shows he can climb high into falsetto and never lose emotional connection to the song. Also, it is a song about getting punched in the dome! I think.

I know getting punched in the dome is a meat-head expression, but it is also a guilty pleasure of mine (the expression, not literally getting punched). In fact, here is a picture of me having climbed to the top of the Duomo in Florence punching the dome…in the dome! Note I have adopted the requisite meat-headed expression for such activity.

But I digress…

Back to the album, which isn’t all roses. There are many songs where their propensity to sound like things that came before slips from ‘new blend’ into feeling derivative. This includes “Don’t Matter” which sounds like bad Pearl Jam and “Wait for Me” which I can’t specifically place, but sounds like every other bad song on the radio these days

“Family Tree” is fun, playing with a bass-line that I suspect is a deliberate homage to Sly & the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”. It adds a nice and unexpected funk to this indie/funk/post-grunge thing these guys have going on.

The album ends with the morose but touching “On the Chin” that sets just the right mood as the album winds down at a tasteful 11 songs and 42 minutes. Proof that modern records don’t have to all be 14-16 songs long.

This record didn’t blow me away but it was a pleasant surprise, and I have a feeling it will age well in coming years. I’ll certainly be playing it a lot more than I used to. A bit of a gift for me after all, but I swear it was an accident.

Best tracks: Rock City, Beautiful War, Temple, Family Tree, On the Chin

CD Odyssey Disc 693: Smashing Pumpkins

I’ve felt a little down the last couple of days. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I also can’t deny it.

Then this afternoon I started to recover and now I feel pretty good, just really hungry. I’ll be eating my dinner as I write this review.

Disc 693 is…. Gish

Artist: Smashing Pumpkins

Year of Release: 1991

What’s up with the Cover?  Behold the might of the fisheye lens! Just look at Billy’s hands – they appear enormous! The fisheye – guaranteed to instill any picture with artistic import! OK, maybe not this one.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Greg introduced me to the Smashing Pumpkins when we were room-mates. I always thought they were OK, but never liked them as much as him. I bought this one years later, remembering that I liked a few of the songs.

How It Stacks Up:  I have only two Smashing Pumpkins albums; this one and “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.” I’ll put “Gish” second.

Rating: 3 stars

What a depressing bunch these Smashing Pumpkins are, but like the Smiths before them they fill a listening niche when you are feeling a bit wan and unwanted. Kind of perfect for me the last couple of days, and yet still not enough connection to call “Gish” great.

Which is odd, because objectively, this is a pretty great album. Given it is the Pumpkins' first it has a remarkably mature sound, although that could just be that early nineties grunge-fuzz that tends to blend everything together into a low hum.

Despite the fuzz, the power of the songwriting shines through very well. “Bury Me” is a powerful blast of pure rock and roll that had me thinking favourably of Soundgarden. “Bury Me” doesn’t have that hint of funk that Soundgarden has, but the ability to crunch a groove and not lose the tune is here. “Tristessa” is also a strong track with punk sensibilities and a bravery to break everything down musically and not lose the listener. It helps that a grand James Iha guitar solo immediately follows the breakdown.

On the ‘rockin’ out’ front I also wanted to like the album’s lead off song, “I Am One,” but somewhere early in my listening experience I got this idea that it sounded like a Guns N’ Roses song. Once the notion took hold it was hard to shake – after each musical interlude, I kept expecting Billy Corgan to sing about dancing with Mr. Brownstone or wanting to take me down to Paradise City. I doubt the band would appreciate that, but since I called them proto-Screamo in my last review I think this is an improvement.

The Pumpkins have a softer side as well, and “Gish” has a couple of winners here in “Rhinoceros” and “Crush.” Both these songs have big, balloon-like sound with calm easy chords that amble their way along into wistful melancholia. Corgan’s voice, which can have a bit too much scream in it sometimes, sets a lovely tone here; innocent and thoughtful. Both tracks do a good job of breaking up what would otherwise be a tiring wall of sound.

Unfortunately, other slow songs like “Suffer” and “Window Paine” fall into a droning self-absorption that fails to connect. The lyrics on "Suffer" are particularly insufferable:

“All that you suffer is all that you are

All that you smother is all that you are”

Morrissey would be proud, but I’m not. “Window Paine” tries to have it both ways, alternating between atmospheric drone and deconstructed feedback.

The album ends with “Daydream” featuring a vocal from bassist D’Arcy Wretzky. Her voice and the song are both soft enough to be a palate cleanser after “Window Paine” but the song tries for art and only manages trite.

There are plenty of good moments on “Gish” and the talent is clearly there, but it only occasionally plucks my heart-strings, and so I don’t put it on that often. When it does hit, like on “Bury Me” or “Rhinoceros” it hits hard, but the moments are too intermittent to score more than three stars out of five.

Best tracks: Rhinoceros, Bury Me, Crush, Tristessa

CD Odyssey Disc 692: Blondie

Today was my first day back at work after eleven days of holiday time.

The shift back to work comes more opportunity to listen to music within the rules of the Odyssey (newbies can read these on the sidebar to the right).

Disc 692 is…. Plastic Letters

Artist: Blondie

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? The band loafs about on a police squad car. This seems to be a bad idea and I expect they will all be arrested for their irreverence.

How I Came To Know It: I had a couple Blondie albums and liked them both, so this was just me taking a chance on something else in their catalogue.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three of Blondie’s studio albums. I’ll put “Plastic Letters” second, just ahead of “Automerican” but well behind the classic “Parallel Lines.”

Rating: 3 stars

Blondie has always been a great band for blending a lot of different musical influences into a sound unique to them. “Plastic Letters” is early on their career and while good it would be fair to see the blender hasn’t completed its work.

Of the three albums I have, this is the most punk rock, with a raw (and occasionally directionless) energy that is missing from later records. It could probably use a little more direction, and with all of the different things it is trying to do, it occasionally feels like you are running on a musical hamster wheel.

“Youth Nabbed as a Sniper” and “Contact in Red Square” are both cool songs, but they are one step away from being awesome. Usually it is a step the band took when they shouldn’t have. I think it relates to the synth organs.

But Logan, you say, those synth elements help make the band the New Wave pioneers that they are. That’s true, but for some reason these synth-pop elements are a distraction to the energy of the record. With all its cold war grimness, I think I just want it to stay rough around the edges.

For all that punk energy “Plastic Letters” is a pop music record at its core, with melodies at their core that are all bubble gum and beach party, and that side of the band’s personality also works.

This includes “Denise” (masculinized to “Denis”) and “Love at the Pier” which unlike “Denise” isn’t a sixties doo wop remake, but still sounds like it belongs in a California beach movie. If those movies had been cool, that is.

I also enjoyed the muscle-car inspired “Detroit 442” which is all about the racing scene and feels like an update to Dick Dale’s hot rod music of fifteen years earlier, with a healthy dose of seventies cynicism. Listening to “Detroit 442” I wasn’t sure if Harry was celebrating hot rod culture or mocking it – I suspect the latter, but I liked it anyway.

The album’s opening (and best) track “Fan Mail” is about little more than a fan with a crush and dreams of achieving a stardom of his own. Despite this, the song is cleverly constructed, with Harry’s voice starting low down and seductive and morphing its way into an almost animalistic growl by the end. Odd additional production, including actual bells ringing as Harry sings about bells ringing (one or the other would suffice) can’t take away how great this song is, or how much fun you have listening to it.

My copy of the CD is a ‘bonus track’ album – something I often dread. Despite now clocking in at 17 tracks, the album stays under 47 minutes. And of the four added songs, only one (the live version of “Detroit 442”) feels like a weak link.

In fact, there is a 1975 version of “Heart of Glass” (called “Once I Had a Love (aka the Disco Song)”) that is different from the version eventually recorded for “Parallel Lines” but just as good. “Scenery” and “Poet’s Problem” are both songs I’d have kept on the original album at the expense of something else. I particularly like “Scenery” which was originally an outtake from the band’s eponymous debut.

“Plastic Letters” has all of the sounds that make “Parallel Lines” such a classic, but doesn’t pull it all together at once. Instead you get a collection of good songs, but none great, each sufficiently different from one another that the album feels a bit like a whole collection of outtakes. Kind of like Pearl Jam’s “Lost Dogs” or Tom Waits’ “Brawlers, Bawlers andBastards.” Fortunately, it is a good collection – like playing a whole bunch of old 45s without having to get up and change the record every three minutes.

Best tracks: Fan Mail, Denis, Bermuda Triangle (Flight 45), (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence Dear, I Didn’t Have the Nerve to Say No, Detroit 442, Scenery