CD Odyssey Disc 720: Iron Maiden

Welcome to the weekend! I could have reviewed this next album two days ago, but I wanted to prolong the listening experience.

Disc 720 is…. Powerslave

Artist: Iron Maiden

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover? Bow down before the great and powerful Eddie! Once again Iron Maiden makes their album cover all about their giant zombie mascot. This time he is playing the role of Egyptian god-king. Entrance to the Temple of Eddie is in the crotch, which I guess makes sense for a heavy metal album.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with this record. When it came out I was 14 and an avowed Iron Maiden fan. I liked this album so much I literally bought the shirt – one of those black band t-shirts with the three-quarter length white sleeves. I loved that shirt.

How It Stacks Up:  I have seven Iron Maiden albums and “Powerslave” is easily the best. Sorry “Number of the Beast” apologists.

Rating: 5 stars

Metal doesn’t get any better than this. Music in general rarely gets better than this. “Powerslave” is everything you want in a metal album; overflowing with visceral energy, stellar musicianship, soaring vocals and thoughtful and intelligent lyrics. I’ve known this album for over thirty years and it still hits me right in the temple entrance every time I hear it.

Musically, the band has never been better. The songs are grounded as ever in the masterful bass playing of Steve Harris. On the album’s instrumental (the appropriately titled “Losfer Words”) you can really hear him grooving it out down low, but every single song has great bass moments. Just train your ear to dive under the guitar and vocal onslaught and Harris (along with drummer Nicko McBrain) will be there, delivering fascinating and creative rhythms.

This in turn allows guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith and vocalist Bruce Dickinson to do their thing. They soar over top of the groove with majesty and power. The guitar solos throughout “Powerslave” are top notch, displaying incredible skill and speed, but never sacrificing the structure of the song to tricks. Every solo is incredible, and on each listen I dig a different one. This time around I really enjoyed the guitar work on “The Duellists.”

Bruce Dickinson is one of rock and rolls great voices, and he is never better than on this record. On “Aces High” his singing climbs through the stratosphere even as the planes in the song duel it out in the Battle of Britain. Every time you think he can’t hit that next note he hits it and then throttles up another notch. Listening to it feels just like flying.

“Aces High” brings me to another reason I’ve always loved Maiden; they sing about awesome stuff. Long before it was cool to be a geek, Maiden was making history and fantasy cool for metal heads. “Powerslave” has a great run of crazy song topics, including:

·         The aforementioned Battle of Britain

·         The Cold War

·         Professional duelists – twice!

·         Pharaohs of ancient Egypt

·         Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

“2 Minutes to Midnight” is the Cold War offering; a brilliant and scathing indictment of how close we came in the mid-eighties to starting the Third World War. Five years before the Scorpions sang “Wind of Change” we were buried in the Cold War with no way out. “2 Minutes to Midnight” is full of millions starving, body bags and children torn in two. It is a hopeless tale from a hopeless time. In 1984 its raw power had you raising your fist and yelling, because that was the only way to release the tension.

Every song has its moments, but I would be remiss not to mention the last two tracks in particular, “Powerslave” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

“Powerslave” is the tale of a pharaoh on his deathbed, realizing for the first time that for all his supposed godhood, he cannot forestall his own end. The language drips with dread and the tension born from a man who has absolute power in his hands, but is still a slave to time. Dickinson sets the stage over a surging guitar riff:

“Into the Abyss I’ll fall – the eye of Horus

Into the eyes of the night – watching me go.

Green is the cat’s eye that glows – in this temple

Enter the risen Osiris – risen again.”

I love the archaic use of the caesura in the verses, and when the song drops down to the chorus it is filled with minor chords and menace. Death is coming, and will leave you but a shadow that haunts the massive edifices you built that now celebrate your folly.

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” may be the song that hooked me on poetry. Lyrically two sections of the song are lifted straight from the Coleridge poem, but for the most part it is a masterful summary of the original 625 line poem into a song just under 100. It does so without losing the tone, themes or emotional power of the original. My only quibble is they didn’t squeeze in my favourite line from the original, “Hold Off! Unhand me, gray-beard loon!”

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is not just a lyrical masterpiece, it is an epic metal song, that although almost 14 minutes long never loses its focus. It is like a miniature classical composition, filled with all the things – masterful bass, incredible guitar licks, and operatic vocals – that makes the whole album great. It could well be the greatest metal song ever written. It is definitely top five.

“Powerslave” follows 1982’s “Number of the Beast” and 1983’s “Piece of Mind.” Living up to either of those classic metal albums would have been a herculean task. “Powerslave” not only matches them both, it surpasses them.

Best tracks: all tracks 

CD Odyssey Disc 719: Eurythmics

Another long delay in getting my latest post up, but only because I’ve been in Vancouver shopping for shoes! This past weekend was my and Sheila’s 18^th wedding anniversary! How time flies when you are having fun.

Disc 719 is…. Be Yourself Tonight

Artist: Eurythmics

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover? It is an out of focus and overexposed picture of Annie Lennox, not unlike the music on this record.

How I Came To Know It: In the last ten years I have been fleshing out my Eurythmics collection (and junking my compilation album in the process). The last two I was missing were this one and “In the Garden.” A Youtube listen told me that “In the Garden” wasn’t worth the trouble, but I still decided to give this one a go.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Eurythmics albums. Of those six, “Be Yourself Tonight” is most definitely in last place.

Rating: 2 stars

When I was in Vancouver I had the chance to hang out with my friend Anthony. In addition to being a great guy, Anthony is a saxophone player, so over dinner I asked him what he thought of saxophone in popular music.

Like me, Tony is not a fan of the proliferation of the bad saxophone wrecking so many songs, particularly in the eighties. Clarence Clemons got a well-deserved pass. Martin Dobson, the saxophonist on “Be Yourself Tonight” did not.

It isn’t Martin’s fault, mind you. This album features lots of greats (Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, Elvis Costello and of course, the inimitable Ms. Annie Lennox herself). None of this – not even Annie herself – can save it from itself.

“Be Yourself Tonight” occupies an awkward place between the delightful weirdness of “Touch” and “Sweet Dreams” and the later more polished sound of “ “Savage” and “We Too Are One” but rather than serving as a delightful pivot point – as “1986’s Revenge” does – it feels adrift and apart from their body of work.

The album is heavily influenced by American soul music, and I felt like the Eurythmics must have grown up listening to David Bowie’s “Young Americans” as well. “Young Americans” has some great tracks, but is otherwise a pretty uneven record. “Be Yourself Tonight” is similar, but without the great tracks.

The eighties production that usually serves Lennox’s partner-in-crime David Stewart so well abandons him here. When he throws in computer generated synth it feels out of place, and when he doesn’t the songs lose their energy in a morass of pseudo-R&B riffs that never develop into anything.

Annie Lennox has one of the great voices in the history of music, and this material should suit her (everything else does). Instead, it doesn’t let her fully emote. Where other Eurythmics albums are full of songs that are rippling undertows of mood, “Be Yourself Tonight” feels more like a jam session where everyone is too sober to groove.

The better songs all had me thinking of songs from other albums I liked better. “Would I Lie To You” is a raucous good time, but it mostly had me wishing I could listen to “Missionary Man” or “I Need a Man” instead.

“It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)” is one of the album’s better songs, but for relationship trouble songs I would prefer to listen to “Don’t Ask Me Why” or “You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart.” What kind of person doesn’t care where her baby’s been? I think that guy should have got the “chill in the heart” treatment followed by the “I don’t love you anymore” curb kick. I like my Annie Lennox tough and sexy, and a little bit mad in both senses of the word. You know, like on “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” except…er…not that song. Great message but terrible song and yes, it is also on “Be Yourself Tonight.”

“I Love You Like a Ball and Chain” is promising at first, but it descends into questionable stereo effects (look – I’m in your left ear! Now I’m in your right!) Such parlour tricks should be reserved for schmaltzy Prism songs. I prefer those as well.

Despite all my negative riffing here, the songs aren’t all bad. “Conditioned Soul” has a nice relaxed groove, and apart from some weird steel drums the production lets Lennox’s voice soar pure and easy, like it is supposed to. And despite what I said about “Would I Lie to You” and “It’s Alright” are both passable when not compared to tracks on other albums I like better.

For all that I can’t hide my disappointment that an album I waited so long to get just didn’t live up to the expectations set by the other five in my collection. I still love the Eurythmics – five albums and my other reviews should make that clear – but it’ll take an intervention from Sheila to keep this one off the giveaway pile.

Best tracks: Conditioned Soul

CD Odyssey Disc 718: Steve Earle

Another long day is over and I’m looking forward to an uneventful evening. I think I’m in the mood for a movie, or maybe just some American Idol. What can I say…guilty pleasure.

Disc 718 is…. I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive

Artist: Steve Earle

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? More bad art from Tony Fitzpatrick. This one is better than most of his stuff. I even bought the tour shirt featuring the ‘eye-star’ thing in the middle. Sheila hates that shirt and I’ve got to admit that based on how little I wear it I’m not that keen either.

How I Came To Know It: I’m an avowed Steve Earle fan. When he comes to town, I go see him and when he puts out a new record I buy it. With the buying of the ugly tour shirt, I scored the hat trick for this album.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a whole lot of Steve Earle. 18 albums, including an album of Townes Van Zandt covers and a live album featuring Townes and Guy Clark. Let’s exclude those and stack it up against the 16 regular studio albums. I’ve reviewed all but three of these, so I should have a pretty good idea…

Then why is this so damned hard? I’ll go with…10^th. This will bump 2013’s “The Low Highway” down one spot from where I first put it, but they’re pretty close to each other so it might just depend on the day. Today, “World” finishes ahead in the top 10.

Rating: 3 stars

Steve Earle just put out a new album – “Terraplane” – and his broken heart shows through pretty raw on it. I think I prefer Steve as he is on “I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive”; deeply in love with partner Allison Moorer and feeling his rootsy soul emerging like a spring flower.

There are a couple of touching love songs on “World.” One is sung with Moorer (“Heaven or Hell”) and one that is clearly sung to her (“Every Part of Me”). Both are pretty, but “Every Part of Me” is one of the better Valentine’s cards Steve has made for his girlfriends over the years. As ever, Earle is convinced this is going to be ‘the one’ and pours his heart and soul into this song with absolute conviction, with lines like:

“I can’t promise anything

Except that my last breath will bear your name.”

It’s not going to happen now, but what a beautiful notion for his art to capture in amber.

For all of these songs, my favourite love song is the very traditional sounding “Molly-O.” This song feels like it spilled right out of 19^th century America or Ireland, but it is brand new Steve Earle. This love song is about a man who robs and kills to gather wealth for a girl he is infatuated with, but never wins her over. Even though our lovestruck hero knows he is being used and will one day answer for his crimes, he is unrepentant. As he points out:

“Men have died for lesser things

Vengeance, country, god and king

Someday I’ll swing from the gallow’s pole

A final dance for my Molly-O.”

This being Steve Earle, there is also lots of social commentary, including one of my favourite songs, “The Gulf of Mexico.” “Gulf of Mexico” is about the horrific oil spill that occurred there, as told through the eyes of three generations of gulf coasters. Grandpa was a shrimp fisherman, dad converted the boat to a crew boat to the rigs and the narrator himself is a ruff-neck working the rigs when the accident happens. In three beautiful stanzas, Earle sums up the changing economy of the Gulf of Mexico and the terrible damage the oil spill wreaks on that living history.

The characters in “Gulf of Mexico” are not perfect; they’re just rough and regular blue collar type folks, earning their living off the sea. By personalizing the experience, Earle’s tale is that much more visceral to the listener. This is a five star song.

There are plenty of other good ones on “World.” “God is God” is an inspirational which somehow sings about a higher power without ever feeling preachy. “Lonely Are the Free,” is an homage to uncompromising folks that stand tall in the face of injustice, and never cry out at any indignities they might suffer as a result.

“World” has a laid back feel, and Steve has really cut back on the extra production on his previous record, “Washington Square Serenade.” Earle’s ability to update old American folk for a modern audience is on full display. These songs feel like they’ve been around for forty years, not four.

As an aside, Earle wrote a book also titled “I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive” around the same time. It tells the story of a heroin-addicted former doctor who is haunted by the ghost of Hank Williams. It is an odd book, but a good one, and proof that Earle’s talent for story writing doesn’t stop when he unstraps the guitar.

Best tracks: Waitin’ On the Sky, The Gulf of Mexico, Molly-O, God Is God, Lonely Are the Free

CD Odyssey Disc 717: The Tragically Hip

Whew! That was a long day of working, followed by more working, but I’m finally home and after five (mostly enjoyable) days with this album it is time to write this review and move on down the road.

Disc 717 is…. Fully Completely

Artist: The Tragically Hip

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover? A collage of boobs, bloomers and people kissing fish, horrifically pressed together to create a chimera of truly bad art.

Despite the awfulness of this cover, the band decided to make the CD sleeve so it can fold out into a poster version of the same thing. You know how when you see a great piece of art in its original size in a gallery how much nicer it looks? It doesn’t work with bad art.

How I Came To Know It: This record did very well in Canada, and had multiple singles so it was hard to not hear it (more on that later). I also knew the Hip from their two previous albums, but it was really my friend Chris D. who made me finally appreciate this record by playing some of the deeper cuts. He may have even bought it for me. Either way – thanks, Chris!

How It Stacks Up:  I have four studio albums by the Hip. Of the four this one is near the top. It is hard to choose between it and “Up To Here” but I’ll put “Fully Completely” second because of the cover. Hey – there have to be consequences.

Rating: 4 stars

Over the years I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the Tragically Hip (or as we call them north of the 48^th, “The Hip”). Unfortunately when “Fully Completely” came out I was really heavy on the hate side of the ledger.

That’s because in 1992/93 when “Fully Completely” was ‘fully completely’ dominating the radio, I was stuck in a nowhere job, sorting bottles for minimum wage at a recycling depot. It was the first job I ever landed with a university degree, and I had to fight to even get that. I remember finding the irony of the situation decidedly unfunny. Years later I’ve come to appreciate the humour of it all but at the time it was much tougher to just give it the old shrug n’ chuckle.

At that time the bottle depot I worked at blared the local rock station (100.3 “the Q”) through the warehouse to keep us energized. The “Q”s arbitrarily adopted house band was the Tragically Hip, and they got played what felt like every 15-20 minutes. It was like being Malcolm McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange” being forced to listen to the old Ludwig Van; great at first and then it just made me want to puke.

More than twenty years have passed since then, and while I long ago abandoned the Q I’ve come back around to loving the Hip again. Very recently I came to realize the album of my scorn back in 1992 was actually one of their great achievements.

“Fully Completely” was a much more complicated album than the blues-riff feel of their previous two records, “Road Apples” and “Up to Here.” The groove is still there, but the band has adopted a lot more of a layered sound. It could be the influences of grunge at this time, but I think it is just a sign that the band were coming into their own as songwriters and not afraid to make their music a bit more complicated.

After modest success many bands fail at this stage by getting too wrought up in all the extra production they can suddenly afford in the studio (I’m looking at you, “Crash Test Dummies”). “Fully Completely” avoids this fate by using the production to reinforce and thicken the themes already in the songs, rather than drown them. The Hip don’t lose the groove, but they learn to stretch it in new directions.

On this listen, I found myself enjoying “Pigeon Camera” more than usual. I like the way the song meanders around its centre in a very dreamy manner until it hits the chorus and then it settles down strong into a perfect little refrain. Kind of like a bird fluttering about before deciding to land.

Of course this song is not about pigeons. Lyrically, I’m never entirely sure what lead singer Gord Downie is going on about, but like any good singer he sells it so well I don’t get overly concerned about my confusion. “Pigeon Camera” doesn’t feel like it is about a camera either, although according to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), pigeon cameras were a thing.

“Wheat Kings” is also highly evocative with its imagery, “where the walls that are yellow-grey and sinister/Hung with pictures of our parent’s prime ministers.” I think it might be about some sort of serial killer, but I can’t be sure. Like “Pigeon Camera,” I just know I like it.

“Locked in the Trunk of a Car” feels similarly sinister, capturing the combination of restrictive claustrophobia and terrible forward movement that is really only present when locked in the trunk of a car.

My favourite lines on the album comes from “At the Hundredth Meridian,”:

“If I die of vanity, promise me, promise me

You’ll bury me someplace I don’t want to be

You’ll dig me up and transport me, unceremoniously

Away from the swollen city breeze, garbage-bag trees,

Whispers of disease and acts of enormity

And lower me slowly, sadly and properly

Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy

At the hundredth meridian, where the great plains begin.”

Again, I don’t know for sure what this is all about (although the idea of burying someone who dies of vanity where they don’t want to be is kind of awesome). What matters is the song evokes a mood so well, and fills your head with images and concepts to held set that mood.

There are minor quibbles for me on this album. The title-track is unfocused and vagule shouty, and “Lionized” doesn’t really land for me, despite the great groove guitar in it. However neither song is bad enough to spoil the party. As much as I love “Up to Here,” “Fully Completely” may be the true gateway album to the Tragically Hip, crappy cover art and the terrors of working-poor bottle sorters notwithstanding.

Best tracks: Courage, At the Hundredth Meridian, Pigeon Camera, Locked in the Trunk of a Car, Wheat Kings, Eldorado

CD Odyssey Disc 716: Blue Oyster Cult

After a brief after-work nap I’m back and ready for the Odyssey to carry me a little further out on the tide.

I like all my music in one way or another, but I’m always particularly excited to roll an album by this next band – call it the CD Odyssey house band, if you will.

Disc 716 is…. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? Blue Oyster Cult hits the big time, as evidenced by their ability to afford a swanky limo, complete with a Blue Oyster Cult car flag. Either that or the band crept up and planted this flag on some limo waiting for a bride and groom to emerge from that church behind the car.

How I Came To Know It: As I may have mentioned in previous reviews, my older brother Virgil introduced me to Blue Oyster Cult, and I’ve loved them ever since. I have this album on vinyl as well, and just like when I was a kid I like to fold it open and revel in how massive and important it all seems. The limousine helps.

How It Stacks Up:  I have ten studio albums of BOC as well as three live albums. I like to stack them up separately and as the live albums go, “On Your Feet Or On Your Knees” comes in second, right behind “Some Enchanted Evening” (reviewed back at Disc 391).

Rating: 4 stars

The live album that garnered all the attention in 1975 was KISS “Alive” but for my money the real gem of the year was “On Your Feet Or On Your Knees.”

Unlike “Alive,” “On Your Feet…” did not create instant commercial success for the band. Instead, BOC would continue to toil in relative obscurity until the following year, when “Agents of Fortune” was released and fans were taught to not fear the reaper.

But as little impact as “On Your Feet…” had on the rock charts, I consider it the better record. It covers material that is principally from BOC’s first three albums. These records form a natural set of the band’s proggiest, weirdest stuff.

I’m not going to get too much into the individual songs in this review, because I want to save that fun for when I review the studio album originals.

The live versions capture the raw energy that BOC had in their live shows at this time. This is before complicated light shows and lasers and giant models of Godzilla. This is the band at their purest, standing tall on mostly smaller (but by no means small) stages and rocking out.

Not unlike Dire Straits’ “Alchemy,” Blue Oyster Cult welcomes the live track as an opportunity to noodle around a bit with the original song. Most if not all of these tracks are longer, drawn out versions compared to the studio versions. The band has a great knack for knowing just how much more excitement to ladle into the song without going overboard.

In some cases the noodling makes the song even better, such as the opening track “The Subhuman” which has both a crazy organ solo from Allan Lanier AND an amazing guitar solo by Buck Dharma. This combination of Lanier’s weird Lovecraftian flair, and Dharma’s blues/rock guitar shreds are part of the alchemy that makes Blue Oyster Cult so awesome. “On Your Feet…” shows that it isn’t just studio tricks and production – these guys can recreate the magic right in front of your eyes.

The record has pretty good production for a live album, but it isn’t studio album quality. Fortunately the organic energy of the band comes through perfectly. Also as a double album record (only 12 songs, but 75 minutes of music) I felt like I was getting a good representation of the whole show, even if I couldn’t be there in person. Helping this along was an artful capture of crowd cheering that wasn’t too self-congratulatory (they edit out part of the ‘earn it!’ cheering that precedes the encore).

The encore itself is awesome and covers the final three songs on the record. It features a Buck Dharma classic from their debut album “Before the Kiss (A Redcap)” as well as two covers. The first is a cover of the Yardbird’s “Maserati GT (I Ain’t Got You)” that pushes the song from the original two minutes out to nine. They probably could’ve cut it off at around seven, but hey – nothing exceeds like excess.

The final song is a cover of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” which is so good it feels like BOC wrote it. Because I knew this record as a young and impressionable kid I thought they had, and would go around claiming it was a BOC original and Steppenwolf did the remake. I even attracted a few followers of this heresy from the swing-set crowd.

I last saw Blue Oyster Cult about seven or eight years ago and while I enjoyed it, the magic wasn’t there. Only two of the original members were still in the band, and there was just too much lead to turn into gold. “On Your Feet…” is a golden moment in this band’s development where they were on the cusp of fame (moderate as it was) and still essentially an amazing bar band out there winning their fans with blood sweat and chords. At times it is a bit overblown and rough around the edges, but that’s how rock and roll should be.

Best tracks: Based on how good the live performance was rather than whether it is my favourite song: The Subhuman, The Red & the Black, Cities on Flame, Before the Kiss (A Redcap), Born to be Wild

CD Odyssey Disc 715: Paul Simon

Today I engaged in a little retail therapy. For me, retail therapy usually means books or music (I like clothes, but I find shopping for them a chore). Today was music and I came home with a Natalie MacMaster album I’ve been looking for and a five-disc set of classic Molly Hatchet.

On to what the Odyssey dished up for me most recently.

Disc 715 is…. Graceland

Artist: Paul Simon

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover? My best guess is that it depicts Frankenstein’s monster subbing in so Death can take a coffee break (he’s loaned the monster his scythe and white horse). That’s awful nice of Frankie to help out – maybe all his various parts felt guilty for coming back to life and making Death miss quota.

How I Came To Know It: I saw a video for “You Can Call Me Al” back in the eighties and really liked it. It features Chevy Chase (who at the time was like Paul Simon – still kind of famous but getting old) lip-synching the song while Paul Simon sat beside him and tried not to laugh.

Despite the clever video marketing, I never bought the album – Sheila either owned it when I met her, or bought it soon thereafter. I liked it a lot more than she’s going to like my recent Molly Hatchet and Natalie MacMaster purchases.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Paul Simon albums but the other two are much more recent (2000, 2011). “Graceland” is easily the best of them.

Ordinarily when I finish my collection of an artist I do a little ratings recap, but given how few of Paul Simon’s classic albums I have, I’m going to hold off until that process is more fulsome.

Rating: 5 stars

In 1986 Paul Simon had nothing to prove. He had five solid solo records under his belt and five more before that with Art Garfunkel. He’d been making hit records for over twenty years and didn’t have anything to prove.

I only have two of those previous ten records, and I’m looking forward to discovering the other eight. Even so, I am skeptical any of them will be able to top “Graceland.”

The big reveal of “Graceland” – that it is a crossover between Simon’s folk style and African beats and rhythms – has been written to death. I am not going to dwell on it all over again, except to say the reputation for this record’s innovation and exceptional sound is well founded. The combination of South African choral singing and interesting drum beats adds a whole new layer of depth to Simon’s music, without ever detracting from the free and easy feel that makes his music so engaging on its own.  Enough said on that.

This record is more than just a mash up of African and New York rhythms; it has an insight into the human spirit that is rarely matched in music. Two songs showcase this from opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, so if you’ll indulge me…

The first song is the title track, which is so choked with beautiful imagery it is hard to know where to start. I guess the opening verse makes the most sense:

 “The Mississippi Delta was shining

Like a National guitar

I am following the river

Down the highway

Through the cradle of the civil war.”

Coupled with an easy rolling beat, you can feel the wheels under you, and you can see the road winding its way through the south. Yet the song is as much about travelling to Graceland as Moby Dick is about whaling. This is a song about trying to escape heartache, all the while knowing that you can’t drive away from sadness. When you hear Simon sing:

“And she said losing love

Is like a window in your heart

Everybody sees you’re blown apart

Everybody feels the wind blow.”

His voice takes on extra hurt, and it is easy to feel why. If you’ve ever been heartbroken, then you know this is exactly how it feels. It is raw and painfully public. This line kicks me below the belt every time I hear “Graceland”, but I keep coming back because I can’t resist its perfection.

The second song is “I Know What I Know.” It uses its African beats to create a party atmosphere, which makes sense since the song takes place primarily at a party. A lame, pretentious one by the sounds of it; I bet Sting was there. Again, the opening verse is sublime:

“She looked me over

And I guess she thought

I was all right

All right in a sort of a limited way

For an off-night.

She said don’t I know you

From the cinematographer’s party?

I said who am I

To blow against the wind.”

A frank and funny acknowledgment that if your talented and famous you can punch above your weight when meeting girls at cocktail parties. And yes, there is the taint of sexism in this song, but it cuts both ways:

“She said there’s something about you

That really reminds me of money

She was the kind of girl

Who could say things that

Weren’t that funny.

I said what does that mean

I really remind you of money

She said who am I

To blow against the wind.”

So the cocktail party is superficial but everyone seems willing to admit it openly, and just grab another drink from the passing tray. I should mention that I always imagine this party is the kind with those uniformed waiters walking around with free drinks. Or put another way, the kind of parties I don’t get invited to. But I digress…

Despite its brilliance, “Graceland” is not without controversy. To record it, Paul Simon reportedly broke the embargo that was on South Africa at the time because of their apartheid government. There is an excellent movie about this called “Under African Skies” that treats this subject pretty fairly on all sides.

On the one hand, that embargo of apartheid was damned important – a way the world could express its condemnation of reprehensible system of segregation. On the other hand, here was Simon showcasing the great music of the people forced to live under it, and bringing it to the world.

However you feel about it, apartheid is thankfully gone, and “Graceland” endures; a work of art that shows what kind of beauty is possible when we bring people together instead of keeping them apart.

Best tracks: All tracks, although I particularly love Graceland, I Know What I Know, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes and All Around the World. All 11 are good though.

CD Odyssey Disc 714: The Police

I’m just home from having a lovely brunch out with our friend Andrew, followed by a “wee shop” downtown, as Sheila and I like to call it. This time we bought a bunch of books and graphic novels. My main score was “The Last Temptation” graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and featuring Alice Cooper. I recently found out this book existed when reviewing Cooper’s album of the same name back at Disc 710.

I’ve reviewed 23 Alice Cooper albums, but this next artist somehow escaped being randomly selected entirely until now.

Disc 714 is…. Synchronicity

Artist: The Police

Year of Release: 1983

What’s up with the Cover? A bunch of pretentious crap. Among the pretentions explored: “Look I can play a harp!” “Behold, as I contemplate death by way of this laboratory skeleton!” and “I’m a hard-boiled phone operator – you can tell I’m cool because I’m wearing aviators.” Recognizing it still wasn’t self-absorbed enough, stripes of colour are then smeared across each section in what I believe is intended to be art.

Get over yourselves, guys – and shortly after this was released, they did. Except for Sting; he’s never gotten over himself.

How I Came To Know It: This album was so huge in 1983 there was no way I couldn’t come to know it. It was played at all sorts of parties, etc. Back then I hated the Police but through a slow rehabilitative process, Sheila has shown me the error of my ways and now I love them. Please remember that I love them as you read the latter part of this review.

How It Stacks Up:  I may now love the Police but I don’t love “Synchronicity.” We have five Police albums, which is all of them. I put “Synchronicity” in last place on that list.

Rating: 3 stars

If “Synchronicity” were a professional sports franchise it would be the one with a few overpaid stars and very little depth through the lineup. Let’s call this team the “Dallas Cowboys” since everyone thinks the Cowboys are cooler than they are, much like everyone thinks “Synchronicity” is better than it is.

This is not to say this record does not have great songs – it has some absolute classics, which is why the whole album graded out at a respectable 3 stars. It is too bad that you are halfway through the album before you get to any of them.

The good stuff begins with “Synchronicity II” at Track 6 (or the last song on Side One for you traditional types). Unlike the album’s opening track, “Synchronicity,” which has that signature Police rhythm but is largely forgettable after that, “Synchronicity II” is a real achievement. From Sting’s high vocal ‘oh-oh-ohs’ to the unforgettable walk-down guitar hook of Andy Summer that makes the song so damned irresistible, this is a fun song that gets better with repeat listens.

Side Two opens with one of pop music’s great songs, “Every Breath You Take.” “Every Breath…” is one of those songs that you can name within hearing the first few notes. It has a beautiful rolling-quality that feels like floating in the sea, or twirling through a dream, or twirling through a dream about floating in the sea. You get the idea. This song is a bit “stalky” but it somehow makes unhealthy obsession feel like a deep and abiding love, rather than the restraining order vibe that such attitudes will earn you in the real world.

“King of Pain” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger” round out the album’s stars with another two ethereal tracks that capture the best qualities of early (better) Police albums. These songs ably round off the edges of groovy drum beats and reggae/new wave combinations and make it all generally more palatable to a larger audience. Moreover they do this without wrecking themselves or losing their edge in the process. No wonder this record was so huge in 1983 – these four songs are all classics.

What people rarely talk about (but I am now going to) is how the rest of the album is an overwritten mess of disparate ideas and unchecked ego.

Sting is the main villain in our piece, if for no other reason than he writes most of the songs. The two exceptions are Stuart Copeland’s ambling and pointless “Miss Gradenko” and the truly risible combination of eastern rhythms and shouting that is Andy Summers’ “Mother.” Hey Andy – I don’t give a shit if that’s your mother is on the phone. Stop shouting in my earholes.

Sting’s crimes are much more advanced, as he begins to fully explore the jazzercising dip-shittery that he will later commit to full time in his solo career. At this stage his solo career is still lurking just out of sight, like an ancient Lovecraftian god preparing to rise from the depths and devour us all. “Synchronicity” is the harbinger of the doom that is to come. “Oh My God,” “Tea in the Sahara” and “Murder by Numbers” are all examples of Sting’s interest in fusing jazz to pop music using the overheated glue of his own ego, while trying – and failing – to be deep and relevant.

And I would be remiss not to also mention “Walking in Your Footsteps,” which sounds like theme music from the computer version of Sid Meier’s Civilization. I always turn the music off when I play Civilization.

There are four really great songs on this album, and I already knew all of them from years of radio play. Their brilliance made my disappointment with the rest of the album so much deeper. It is great to have such flashes of brilliance, but you’ll never win a championship with that kind of inconsistency.

Best tracks: Synchronicity II, Every Breath You Take, King of Pain, Wrapped Around Your Finger

CD Odyssey Disc 713: Dean Martin

I’ve had a couple of long work days with not a lot of leisure or sleep time in either of them, but I just rose from a two hour nap. I’m groggy, but I’m ready to face the evening with a fresh outlook…as soon as the cobwebs clear away.

Disc 713 is…. That’s Amore: the Very Best of Dean Martin

Artist: Dean Martin

Year of Release: 1996 but with music from 1953 to 1961

What’s up with the Cover? I don’t like this cover. It just isn’t how I remember Dean Martin. This picture looks like a goofy Tony Bennett. Dean Martin is just always cooler than this. Like this picture from inside the jacket sleeve:

Now that’s Dean Martin. Cool as a cucumber with a smoke idling in his off hand, ready to down a whisky and slay the ladies with his smooth moves and golden voice.

How I Came To Know It: In the mid-nineties I was caught up in the excitement of the Swing revival. I think Sheila may have actually bought this one, but I’m glad she did.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only Dean Martin album I have but it is a best of, so it can’t stack up.

Rating: for the second review in a row, I must remind you, gentle reader: no ratings for compilation albums. Yes, I know it is Dean Martin. There are no exceptions.

I admit I wasn’t enthused to listen to this album when I rolled it. Dean Martin always feels to me like the crappy version of Frank Sinatra. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. Tony Bennett is the crappy Frank Sinatra.Dino is his own man with his own music

I still prefer Frank overall, but Dean Martin drew me in from the very first notes of “That’s Amore” despite the song later featuring that really annoying “bells will sing/ting a-ling-a-ling” from the background singers that makes it sound like a Christmas carol.

Martin’s voice has a beautiful tone that comes out effortlessly, in a slightly breathy way that feels like he’s never short of it. His timing is perfect, whether he is working with a few backup singers or a full orchestra pumping out horn flourishes. More than anything, he always sounds like he’s having a good time and that you’re invited to the party.

Martin is a softer sell than Sinatra, and he definitely sells up the crooner persona on these tracks. These are good songs to play over dinner with a girl you want to impress but not freak out. Call it first date make-out music. You should still proceed with caution on the tracks, however. There is a touch of creepy on “Standing on the Corner” where hopeful bachelors go down to Main Street to eye up girls and ‘select’ their favourite. Worst line:

“Brother you can’t go to jail for what you’re thinkin’

Or for the rude look in your eye.

Standing on the corner watching all the girls go by.”

For the most part, though, Dean is happy to stick with innocuous love songs like “Memories Are Made of This” and “Vieni Su (Say You Love Me Too).”

On this latter note it is worth pointing out how Dean likes to work Italian into his crooning style. He was born Dino Crocetti and it is clear he is proud of his heritage. That said, he makes sure it stays decidedly white-bread, so as not to offend his fifties audience. Being of Italian heritage myself, I am glad that he doesn’t stray into the insulting stereotypes of the time (think Rosemary Clooney singing “Mambo Italiano”).

When Dino sings Italian you feel like you are walking down a street in fifties Rome. Maybe you’re not a local, but you’re enjoying the visit. He even has a song called “Arrivederci Roma” that had me fondly remembering my own recent visit to the Eternal City.

When we got this album, Sheila drew my attention to a couple of great ones I hadn’t known as a kid, notably the dance-driven foreplay that is “Sway” and the drunken revelry of “Hey Brother, Pour the Wine.” Both have since become favourites for me. Best line from the latter:

“She introduced me to another

No my friends, he’s not her brother.

I will miss the way she walks.

Hey brother, pour the wine!”

Dino never misses a chance to watch a girl walk, even when she’s walking away.

My only quibble with the collection is that it didn’t have his amazing duet performed with Ricky Nelson in “Rio Bravo,” “My Rifle, My Pony and Me”. Here it is, because it is too good not to share.

Martin died on Christmas day 1995 and this album was released the following year. No doubt it was a soulless record exec scoring some money from his catalogue, but it just feels like a labour of love to me. That’s the power of Dino, I suppose. He made everything feel light, airy and easy.

Best tracks: That’s Amore, You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You, Sway, Hey Brother Pour the Wine, Arrivederci Roma, Canadian Sunset

CD Odyssey Disc 712: Big Audio Dynamite

I was down in the dumps all day, but I just got news that my friend Chris has come through his heart surgery successfully, so that puts a happier glow on everything.

It is not great to be of an age where your friends have heart conditions (Chris is the third of us and I’m sure there’ll be more) but pretty great to live in an age where doctors can open up your ribcage and fix it.

Disc 712 is…. Planet BAD: Greatest Hits

Artist: Big Audio Dynamite

Year of Release: 1995 but with music from 1985 to 1994

What’s up with the Cover? A classically bad nineties album cover, this one features many different images that together remind me of my cat’s barf when he’s been eating things he shouldn’t.

How I Came To Know It: I was in my clubbing phase in the early nineties, and at the more mainstream joints a couple of Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) songs (“The Globe” and “Rush”) got fairly regular play and were fun to dance to. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of this kind of music but I liked those songs enough to buy them on a Greatest Hits package, and here it is.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only BAD album I have and it is not actually bad. However, it is also a greatest hits album, so even if I had more of them it wouldn’t stack up. Greatest hits packages don’t get ranked on the CD Odyssey, jerky!

Rating: Like I said, no ranking for a greatest hits album.

Good news, musicians: you can still reinvent yourself after your massively popular band falls apart. So it is with Big Audio Dynamite (or BAD for those of us who’ve been typing words for a living all day). BAD features guitarist Mick Jones, who left the Clash in 1983 as well as a bunch of other guys that weren’t in the Clash.

Joe Strummer was also involved in BAD, but as a writer and producer, rather than a band member. I think he adds a lot in both capacities, but in terms of the band it was just Mick and the (other) guys. Sorry, other guys.

I was actually surprised just how successful BAD was for years without me knowing. I was prepared to mock them for putting out a greatest hits album after only releasing a couple of studio records. I was therefore shocked to discover the boys had released seven records by the time this package came out. I guess I just don’t know my British club-pop, but I suppose you would know that by just scrolling down the right hand side of this blog.

If you think of the Clash at their catchiest, and then add a club beat, you’ve got a good approximation of BAD. Mick Jones takes on singing duties in addition to his guitar talents, and does very well, although these songs don’t require vocal gymnastics.

The music is catchy and inoffensive except for one major problem – the excessive use of movie dialogue samples. The album is packed with these, including “E=MC2” and “Medicine Show.” Both would have been very cool groove tracks if it weren’t for the inexplicable decision to throw movie dialogue into them.

And I don’t mean a little bit of dialogue, either, I mean so often that it becomes pervasive and disruptive to my listening enjoyment. “Medicine Show” is a song about travelling snake-oil salesmen, yet in the middle of it there is a huge piece of dialogue pulled right out of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” It is the section where Tuco’s crimes are being listed before he is to be hanged. The list is pretty exhaustive, but nowhere does it mention “bilking locals with snake oil,” so don’t put it in the damned song.

The band tries to do their own version of a mash-up as well, such as on “C’mon Every Beat Box” that combines samples from James Brown’s “Superbad” with the wholesale rip-off of “Summertime Blues’” melody. I don’t know why they did this, but it doesn’t work.

Fortunately, the two songs I bought the album for are still as awesome as I remember them, minus my youthful dance moves and all the women I showed them off to during my club days.

“Rush” and “The Globe” (both off of 1991’s “The Globe”) are classic pop ear-worms that are fun to sing along to, and fun to dance to. Hell, they are fun to just walk to work to now that I’m a forty-something office worker. “Rush” is a crazy mix of musical styles (at one point it sounded like they were channeling the synthesizer from “Baba O’Riley”) that all work together.

“The Globe” has a similar vibe which advises you to dim the lights, switch on the strobe and have a ball (in that order). It is replete with girlish shrieks of delight, a bizarre saxophone solo for a bridge and then more shrieks and grooves. Again, it all works.

I may be a bit older now but these songs still make me want to show off my dance moves, such as they are.

Best tracks: The Bottom Line, Free, Rush, The Globe, I Was Born a Punk

CD Odyssey Disc 711: Concrete Blonde

It has been a busy weekend. I took in an event at the art gallery on Friday and last night was a celebration of song with my fellow music buddies. Today is chores day, and I’m currently bleaching my shower curtain while I write this.

Disc 711 is…. Concrete Blonde (Self-Titled)

Artist: Concrete Blonde

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover? Three people, standing in completely natural poses at a street corner. Ha ha ha…no.

I can forgive Johnette Napolitano for her ‘dangerous waif’ posing because she makes a very fetching dangerous waif. Not so much the shirtless drummer beside her who appears to be channeling Val Kilmer, if Kilmer had gone into porn.

Weirdly when I first saw this picture I thought the pattern on guitarist James Mankey’s shirt was actually him holding a sombrero.

So to summarize – it is not as cool an effect overall as the band was going for.

How I Came To Know It: This particular album was me drilling backward through their collection after already buying “Free” and “Bloodletting.” I think I got this CD used at a local record store for $5, so a pretty good deal.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Concrete Blonde albums. I’d put their self-titled debut in second place.

Rating: 3 stars but close to 4

Concrete Blonde’s debut record was made for walking alone in the dark of winter, so I’m glad I was able to do just that while listening to it for the CD Odyssey. The music doesn’t make the walk any warmer, but it makes you appreciate the cold.

The beginning of that experience is Johnette Napolitano’s voice. Sometimes Napolitano sings in a seductive whisper, sometimes it is smooth and low like a vampire lounge singer and sometimes it is almost like she’s delivering a spoken word poem about the sad revelations of human frailty.

The band wisely recognizes Napolitano as their main asset and they let her vocals dance and shift across the top of the mix. James Mankey’s guitar work is a lot better than his choice in shirts. He keeps it mostly atmospheric, letting gently played chords add depth and colour to the songs, which are heavily bass driven.

I like Concrete Blonde best when they are being introspective, and this album is them at their most self-examined. The songs are often about human doubt and uncertainty.

“Song for Kim (She Said)” is a song about mental illness and (I believe) suicide but like most of the album, there is always a core of resilience growing out of the sadness:

“Oh Kim

Your diary said

The voices calling you from the edge

They finally called you

Away –

You know I hear them too,

They’re telling me to stay.”

“Song for Kim” is just one of many where the band lets the listener peak into the intimate corners of a relationship. “Little Sister” is a touching love song that made me wishing that more bands would do songs about their siblings.

The most up-beat song on the album is “(You’re the Only One) Can Make Me Cry” which despite its title is a touching love song. Naturally the people we love the most are the ones that can hurt us the most. That they don’t is what makes the power they hold that much more beautiful. This is a ‘don’t ever leave me’ song, but the stripped down guitar strum keeps it from descending into the maudlin.

The album isn’t perfect, and at times it feels like the band is looking for “The Hit Song” such as on “Still in Hollywood” which the band thinks is so good that it needs to appear on the record in two iterations (the second one called “It’ll Chew You Up and Spit You Out”). Maybe I’d like this song more if I was more familiar with the sights and sounds of Hollywood’s underbelly, but isn’t that what the song is supposed to accomplish?

Fortunately, that experience is few and far between. For the most part this album is an intimate examination of the dark parts of our souls. “Beware of Darkness” sums it all up with a song about the fears closest to the band’s heart. Fear of artistic failure, fear of greedy record execs, fear of confidence men. OK, greedy record execs aren’t specifically noted, but I’m sure they’re lurking out their somewhere.

For all its warnings, “Beware of Darkness” feels like a journey right into that darkness. You can’t defeat the darkness until you let yourself be surrounded by it, recognize it for what it is and walk through it wary, but unafraid.

1986 is not a good year for production values and this album can be a bit fuzzy in places but it suits the tone of the music perfectly. Kind of like when a fog rolls in on a dark night. You can’t see as well, but you’re ears prick up at every note in the gloom.

Best tracks: True, Dance Along the Edge, Song for Kim (She Said), Beware of Darkness, Little Sister, (You’re the Only One) Can Make Me Cry