CD Odyssey Disc 794: KD Lang

Happy Halloween! Halloween is my favourite holiday of the year – the day when everyone puts on a mask and takes off another one. Once they are in a costume people are strangely more comfortable expressing other facets of themselves; like the ritual of the costume gives them a licence to let their guard down.

I’m not going out this Halloween, but instead taking it easy after a couple of fairly social nights in a row. Besides, I’m not sure I trust myself on Halloween – I express myself way too much already.

Speaking of which, here’s a music review!

Disc 794 is….Absolute Torch and Twang

Artist: K.D. Lang

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover? She’s a little bit country. OK, she’s a whole lot of country. It looks good on her.

How I Came To Know It: When I met Sheila she was a fan of K.D. Lang’s lounge album, “Ingenue” (reviewed back at Disc 333). Then she bought this one even though it had been issued years before. (I think it might have been in a bargain bin somewhere, which is sad, but fortuitous).

How It Stacks Up: We have 2 K.D. Lang albums. I thought for sure “Ingenue” would be my favourite, but country-K.D. won me over. I’m putting “Absolute Torch and Twang” at the top of the list.

Ratings: 5 stars

“Absolute Torch and Twang” was a revelation for me. I was planning to review it on Wednesday and move on, but on every listen it just sunk deeper into my blood and bones. I’m not sure I could’ve quit it even if I wanted to.

Lang reinvented Canadian country music with this album, blending traditional twang with Patsy Cline croons, fifties rockabilly and some expansive sound I can only describe as ‘Albertan’. Lang never seemed 100% committed to just being a country artist (witness her next album, “Ingenue”, which mostly leaves country behind). This step out of the country mainstream helps give “Absolute Torch and Twang” a unique understanding of the genre and what can be done with it.

It all starts with K.D. Lang’s voice, which is one of the greatest ever. Powerful, with incredible range she has a natural understanding of phrasing that infuses every word of a song with meaning.

But “Absolute Torch and Twang” isn’t just about the voice; the musicianship of her backing band, “The Reclines” is equally brilliant. The band has a natural country swing, punctuated with just the right amount of electric guitar or fiddle (or both) as each song requires. They are the perfect match to Lang’s vocal style.

The production is crisp and clean, and lets both Lang and the Reclines shine within the context of the song. It would be easy to overdo it with Lang’s voice, but they seem to understand that they have something special going on as an ensemble, and to let each piece of it shine at the right time.

Thematically, the record has a lot of range, but every song shares the same restless energy. The songs might make you happy, sad or just excited but they all will make you feel like your heart is about to burst.

Sometimes that energy is expressed joyously, like on “Big Boned Gal” where the title character is a clearly different from the norm, but never lets it hold her back:

“She was a big boned gal from southern Alberta

You just couldn’t call her small

And you can bet every Saturday night

She’d be heading for the legion hall.”

Ah, so Canadian. I work beside a legion hall now and I’m looking forward to a drink or two there in the next few months.

On “Wallflower Waltz,” Lang shows the other side of feeling different, with a character who leans against the gymnasium wall, isolated and alone in the same sea of people the big boned gal swam through effortlessly. The final verse is revealing of Lang’s outlook:

“Held and pushed by unleashed desires

Tethered in self-sacrifice

Reluctantly charmed by being approached

But guarded to one’s own device

There’s no need to criticize

For kind and sure are those eyes.”

Even for the wallflower, there is a sureness about who they are. These songs recognize that ultimately you are the captain of our own ship, whether you sail it through a throng of people, or moor in the quiet back eddies of the room.

Despite my love for these tracks, there are two songs on the record that I liked even more. The first is “Pullin’ Back the Reins;” a song about how love can make you feel uncertain and exhilarated at the same time. Lang evokes the image of a restless horse under you that wants to run. That’s love, threatening to unbalance you and pull you into a gallop against your better judgment. Although the song ends with Lang regaining control, it doesn’t feel fully resolved. This is a song that is about wanting that horse to run, even as you pull back the reins and try to remain tall in the saddle.

The second is the album’s final song, “Nowhere to Stand.” It is a slow country waltz about how family violence is handed down from generation to generation. After song after song at a breakneck gallop through love, “Nowhere to Stand” slows the pace and strips down the production. Lang’s voice soars like never before, both inspirational and accusatory at the same time.

Lang even finds time (in a restrained 41 minutes) to remake a Willie Nelson song from 1962 (“Three Days”).  “Three Days” shocked me twice, first by not being written by Lang (because she simply owns it by the time the last note falls). The second shock was that it was written over fifty years ago, because it feels so fresh it could have been released yesterday.

In 1989 there was a lot going wrong with country music, and new country was starting to take over the airwaves. “Absolute Torch and Twang” is a revelation that you could make songs that were fun for two-stepping and still make you think.

Best tracks:  All twelve tracks are great, but my favourites are: Three Days, Trail of Broken Hearts, Big Boned Gal, Wallflower Waltz, Pullin’ Back the Reins, Walkin’ In and Out of Your Arms, Nowhere to Stand

CD Odyssey Disc 793: Bob Dylan

My new job is a much longer walk than my old one. It is a good job, but it isn’t as nice a walk, going through an industrial rundown part of town rather than pleasant residential side streets. It does have a couple advantages though; first it is more exercise for me, and second I get a lot more music listening time in.

Disc 793 is….Tempest

Artist: Bob Dylan

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover? Some kind of a red filtered photo of some statue of a lady. It looks like it was done on Bob’s home computer by Bob himself. Lo and behold, when I checked the photo credits I found the picture of statue lady was taken from Shutterstock. Way to mail it in, Bob.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me buying Bob’s latest album on faith. Consider that faith shattered and no, I did not buy his 2015 release “Shadows in the Night.”

How It Stacks Up: I have 19 Bob Dylan albums. I put “Tempest” at the bottom of the pile at #19.

Ratings: 2 stars

I avoid Bob Dylan concerts because I know he just does whatever the hell he wants and audience enjoyment is secondary. I don’t begrudge him that, I just don’t seek it out. After the lukewarm “Together Through Life” (reviewed back at Disc 404) I should’ve heeded the same warning with album purchases as well.

“Together Through Life” was a bluesy record, and on “Tempest” Bob returns to folk storytelling with a bit of Americana swing in there for good measure. As a lover of these styles this should have been a home run for me, but this album feel flat.

There are some good things for sure. “Duquesne Whistle” has a timeless quality that sounds like it has been played by hobos riding the rails since the thirties. “Roll on John” has a rolling structure that feels like you’re falling asleep in a hammock while the ship takes you slowly to Tahiti. The song’s feel is cleverly at odds with the rough and ready life of the mariner it is about. “Pay in Blood” has a strong melody, even if it is Bob doing a pale imitation of the rants of his youth.

Unfortunately, that is three songs out of ten, and the rest range from forgettable to annoying. The album is 70 minutes long, meaning these ten songs average seven minutes to make their point, which for most of them is just too damn long.

Worst of all these songs are often Bob trying to be a rambling storyteller. This has always been one of his strengths, and so it is really noticeable when he only manages average to boring. Mostly I noted that the songs just wouldn’t resolve themselves quickly enough and had a lot of writing you would expect from a novice songwriter, not one of the all-time greatest.

The worst example is the title track, which is a 14 minute abomination that tells the tale of the Titanic sinking. I am just not interested in the sinking of the Titanic – I’d rather hear the tragic tale of iron ore shippers on the Edmund Fitzgerald any day. These chestnuts from “Tempest” did not change my mind:

“The host was pouring brandy/He was going down slow

He stayed right to the end/He was the last to go

“There were many, many others/Nameless here forever more

They never sailed the ocean/Or left their homes before”

“There were many, many others” feels about as lazy a phrase as is humanly possible, but then I remembered this was from the 10 minute mark of a 14 minute song and Bob was probably flagging a bit.

The whole song feels like a loose connection of rhymes strung together by a kid doing a history project for his social studies 9 class or maybe one of those old codgers that show up at open mic night to share their love of history through their self-published poetry.

On top of this, the song has little going on musically. It isn’t long before you’ve heard the same A and B sections in the same order so many tiresome times that if you were on the Titanic and it was the song the band was playing as it sank you’d jump over the rail so the sea could claim you before the musicians bored you to death.

There are flashes of brilliance on this album, and the production is very good. It is too bad it is all mired amid a lot of forgettable stuff. I will keep the record for the three strong tracks on it, but I won’t be playing the whole thing again for a long time and when I do I’ll be skipping the title track just for the sake of my own sanity.

Best tracks:  Duquesne Whistle, Pay in Blood, Roll on John

CD Odyssey Disc 792: Lera Lynn

It has been a busy weekend, starting off with my last day at my old job. I’m taking a one year assignment elsewhere in government and I’m excited to see what the future holds.

For now, let’s look back in the past at the second album in a row that also features a concert review immediately following – this time for the lovely and talented Lera Lynn, who we saw in Nashville last weekend. The usual drill applies – album review first, followed by a review of the show.

Disc 792 is….The Avenues

 Artist: Lera Lynn

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? I think that’s the LA skyline, which is strangely beautiful in a post-apocalyptic kind of way.

How I Came To Know It: I was looking for a cool show to see while Sheila and I were in Nashville and was basically Youtubing every artist playing when we were in town. When I checked out Lera Lynn I was astounded to find she is the singer in the background in the bar scenes of True Detective Season Two. We both love her music, so we bought tickets to see her while we were there.

As for this specific album, I bought her first three albums (and a tour shirt) for $60 while I was at the show. Lera even signed the CD – check it out!

How It Stacks Up: I have three Lera Lynn albums, one of which is an EP. I believe this is all of them, other than the True Detective soundtrack. I haven’t listened to them all yet, but my instinct tells me “The Avenues” is her best, so I’ll put it #1 at this point.

Ratings: 4 stars

Lera Lynn’s music is a complicated blend of haunting indie rock, with strong country and western influences. On “The Avenues” she’s got that blend perfectly.

This is music that will seep down into your bones, and despite the fact that Lynn’s lyrics are insightful and poetic I often found myself drifting with the ambient quality of the music and forgetting she was even singing words at all. Then her sweet and breathy voice would rise up again and catch my attention with a perfectly turned phrase that drew me out of the scenery and back to the plot.

Those plots are often dark, exploring the human condition in all its frailty and uncertainty. Thematically, it is no surprise that Lynn often returns to metaphors that evoke the moon or ocean tides, since this is music that speaks to the quiet spaces in our minds; those subconscious urges and fears that influence us and draw us into decisions despite ourselves.

There are places, notably on “Letters” where she sounds like an early Sarah McLachlan, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that was one of her influences growing up. Her voice has less of a sharp edge at the high end of her register than McLachlan’s, but it isn’t lesser as a result. Rather, it helps fit into the rounded quality of the songs, with plenty of soft reverb, lilting melodies and minor keys.

On many tracks there are small flourishes of country twang, such as the appearance of the banjo and pedal steel in “Out to Sea.” Also, yes – there’s that ocean metaphor again.

On “Refrain” Lynn speeds things up a bit, with a simple three strum guitar riff and a very clever use of empty space. Here she has qualities of Laura Marling, folksy and worldly-wise. The song ends with this sad realization:

“Hold me one last time and tell me that the fault’s not mine

You’re only letting go because I’ve asked you so

Don’t try to realize the forgotten lustre of my eyes

It’s easier if you maintain your cold and hard refrain.”

I love the triple use of refrain here, first as a repeating pattern in a failing relationship, and then as the withholding of affection. And of course, that little three strum guitar riff, hollow and haunting, is the refrain in the song and the musical underpinning to the song.

Songs like “Refrain” make me marvel at Lynn’s talent as a songwriter, and excited to delve into her other albums as soon as possible.

While it is brilliant, “The Avenues” is not an easy album to access. If you expect to throw it on in the car and be singing along by the second verse, you’ll be disappointed. This is an album that needs to sink into you over multiple listens. But true beauty steals into only the quietest of souls. So you do yourself a favour, put aside whatever other diversions you may have and let Lynn cast her siren’s spell on you. You’ll be glad you did.

Best tracks:  Out to Sea, Standing on the Moon, Letters, Refrain, I’m Your Fool, Hooked on You

The Show – Saturday October 17 at 3^rd and Lindsley, Nashville  

After spending the previous night in Nashville down on the soulless gong show of dive bars that is Honky Tonk Row in downtown Nashville, Sheila and I were in need of a positive music experience far from the madding (and drunken) crowd.

Fortunately, before we left on our trip we secured tickets to Lera Lynn, playing at 3^rd and Lindsley. 3^rd and Lindsley is a bar about a 20 minute walk from downtown Nashville, in a desolate kind of industrial area. Sheila and I knew from reading reviews to get there about 90 minutes early to get good seats, and we ended up one table back from the very front, with a perfect unobstructed view.

The opening act was Brian Whelan, who was branching out solo after serving in Dwight Yoakam’s band. The Dwight Yoakam influences were clear, as Whelan played some boogie woogie and generally mixed the blues in with traditional country songs.

Whelan was clearly wishing he had a full band (it was just him and a guitar) but I thought he did a good job of creating the volume of sound his songs required. He had a nice tone to his voice and he played guitar beautifully but the songs themselves didn’t blow me away.

Then it was time for Lera Lynn to take the stage. Lynn has a great stage presence. She’s witty and playful with her audience and had a bit of a potty mouth, which I appreciated (People don’t swear a lot in Nashville, and I was kind of missing it).

She exhorted her audience to come down in front of the stage, which I thought given her slow and introspective songs would be a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, by halfway through her show she had filled up the empty dance floor with swaying fans.

Lynn played a mix of songs from her earlier career as well as 2-3 from the True Detective soundtrack that is currently boosting her career. Her voice was beautiful and powerful and her band was very talented. When she took lead guitar moments she played exquisitely.

Here’s a fun clip of the band doing an a capella version of the Zombies’ song “The Way I Feel Inside” from the show we were at.

The sound was quite possible the best sound mixing I’ve ever heard in a bar environment. It was loud enough to hear everything but never overpowering or amped to the point of creating feedback. It felt like I was listening to music on my home stereo.

The crowd was a mixed bag. Overall, it was a huge step up from Honky Tonk Row’s drunken frat environment. I was instantly aware that this was where Nashville’s real fans came to get their fix. It was a collection of hip young professionals, university students and older biker/trucker folks. I got the impression there were a lot of locals.

The folks at the large table behind us were annoying, talking through portions of the performance. While they were talking about music, maybe they could have instead listened to the music that was actually playing? See my comment above about how true beauty steals only into the quietest of souls. Fortunately the great sound mixing made it fairly easy to block them out over time.

On the flip side, we met a couple of much more polite guys from Bowling Green, Kentucky. They drove down (it isn’t far from Nashville) and were a couple of avid fans and great guys. When talking to them (before and after the show – not during), we found out that their names were Zach and…Logan! Yes, another Logan. Since he was in his early twenties, I’ve decided to call him LJ.

Anyway – a big hello to Zach and LJ, who made our great Nashville experience even better with some down-home hospitality.

After the show, Lera Lynn was at the merch table to greet her fans – something Lindi Ortega does after her shows as well and may be a Nashville thing (Ortega is Canadian but like Lynn is based out of Nashville).

Also like Ortega, Lera Lynn is ‘stupid pretty’, meaning she is so pretty that she makes you feel stupid just trying to form a sentence when she’s looking at you. Lynn seems aware of her powers and takes a witty and devilish delight in teasing her fans as she talks with them. Yes, I liked it. She seems like a lot of fun and was very gracious in letting us take a picture, and making us feel like it was a rare pleasure, and not something she has to do 50 times a night.

Yes, I wore a Blue Oyster Cult t-shirt to a country bar. Yeehaw!

If you get a chance to see Lera Lynn – take it! She’s got a great stage presence, incredible talent and the days of seeing her in smaller venues may be limited given all the talent she’s got.

CD Odyssey Disc 791: Frank Turner

Sorry for the long hiatus, gentle readers. I’ve been away on a holiday and I just got back yesterday. We went to Seattle and then Nashville. I met lots of nice people, saw two bands and one football game.

Fortunately for you, this means bonus “CD Odyssey” content as my next two reviews will also include reviews of the shows I saw the artist perform at. Here is the first one – after the album review keep reading for the live concert review. So it is a double-length entry, with a lot more photos than usual.

Disc 791 is….Positive Songs for Negative People

Artist: Frank Turner

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? Frank Turner has a lot of great album covers but this one isn’t one of them. It looks like he couldn’t decide which way to go: portrait, symbolism or crowd shot, and squeezed them all in.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me buying Frank Turner’s new album when it came out. My friend Casey introduced me to Frank Turner on a music appreciation night. I seriously appreciated him and have bought four of his albums (including this one) in the last six months. I may be late to the Frank Turner party, but I’m making up for lost time.

How It Stacks Up: As I just noted, I have four Frank Turner albums with plans to get more. Of those four, I must regrettably put “Positive Songs for Negative People” at the bottom of the pile. It isn’t bad, but there is just too much brilliance soaking through the other three.

Ratings: 3 stars

Frank Turner is the best kept secret of the last ten years. As a recent convert to his music I zealously go about preaching his awesomeness but hardly anyone has even heard of him in North America. Those who have are seriously devoted fans, however – more on that in the concert review that follows this album review.

If you don’t know Turner, imagine a young Billy Bragg, who sings less about politics, more about drinking and about the same amount about heartache. “Positive Songs for Negative People” is his sixth full-length studio album and has a stronger rock vibe to it than earlier records that had a much stronger folk underpinning.

Turner sticks to pretty basic chord progressions in all his music, and the songs on “Positive Songs for Negative People” are probably even simpler than his earlier work. However, Frank is so good at working three simple chords into a song that it always sounds fresh even when he’s revisiting old territory.

Turner is the master of the anthem song; tracks that inspire you to sing along and shake your fist in the sky in unison. Previous albums gave us “Try This at Home,” “Photosynthesis” “I Still Believe” and “Four Simple Words.” “Positive Songs for Negative People’s” entry to the list is “Get Better” which reminds us “we can get better, because we’re not dead yet.” Turner’s message, as ever, is that you need to get out there and suck the marrow from the bones of life while you still can. In the case of “Get Better” the exhortation begins:

“I got me a shovel

And I’ve digging a ditch

And I’m going to fight for this four square feet of land

Like a mean old son of a bitch.

I got me a future

I’m not stuck in the past

I’ve got no new tricks, yeah I’m up on bricks

But me, I’m a machine and I was built to last.”

 I like that Frank doesn’t pretend to have any new tricks, seeming to understand at this point in his career his pre-existing tricks are excellent. While “Get Better” didn’t inspire me the same as fist-pumping tracks from earlier albums, it is still pretty awesome and always has me singing out “because we’re not dead yet!” at the appropriate time.

Other inspirational tracks “The Next Storm,” “Out of Breath” and “Demons” are OK, but I sometimes find the imagery a bit of a strain. For example, “Demons” is a clear play on the expression “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  Frank’s suggestion is that if life gives you demons, make a deal with them (metaphorically) and accept life’s little imperfections in the process.

One of the heartache songs, “Mittens” also suffers from imagery overload, comparing a relationship to ill-fitting mittens, when the desire is to ‘fit like a glove’. It is a testament to Turner’s brilliance that he can take that writing exercise and make it work. In “Love Forty Down” he even manages to make tennis symbolism work – although that could just be the tennis fan in me.

The album ends with two truly heart-rending tracks, “Silent Key” and “Song for Josh.”

“Silent Key” is the story of the Challenger disaster, and proposes the last thoughts of doomed astronaut Christa McAuliffe being picked up by a ham radio operator. The Challenger explosion is haunting enough for those of us who watched the disaster live, and “Silent Key” brings all that emotion and helplessness back in a human and strangely inspiring way.

“Positive Songs for Negative People” ends with “Song for Josh,” a song about a friend of Turner’s who recently committed suicide. Sadly, I’ve experienced the same helpless sadness as Turner and while hearing the song is painful, it is also cathartic. It is an incredibly brave thing to write a song about, and indicative of the honest and fearless way he approaches his craft.

I have a special edition version of “Positive Songs for Negative People” which includes a second disc with all the tracks done acoustically (except “The Angel Islington” and “Song for Josh,” presumably because those songs are acoustic on the main record).

I like the acoustic version of most of the songs better, but I prefer Turner more folksy in general, so that is no surprise. If you like his punk edge more, then buy the single album version and save yourself $5. Regardless of how you like your Frank Turner, it is nice to see he is still delivering inspiring music with messages of hope and redemption.

Best tracks:  The Angel Islington, Get Better, The Opening Act of Spring, Mittens, Silent Key, Song for Josh

The Show – Thursday October 15 at the Neptune Theatre, Seattle

I would’ve missed this show if it weren’t for my friend Casey. Sheila and I were in the process of downscaling our holiday to the United States due to time constraints when Casey emailed me and asked if we wanted to join him in Seattle before heading on to Nashville. As it happens, there is a direct Seattle-Nashville flight so it was an easy decision to say yes.

I’m glad I did, because Frank Turner was one of the better concerts I’ve ever seen.

As a venue, The Neptune is awesome. I would guess it was built around the turn of the century, but it has been modernized – basically they’ve left the bones of the building and removed most of the seating in favour of a big concrete dance floor. Here’s a cool detail of Neptune’s head on the roof, which has been given glowing eyes because – rock and roll!

 

The theatre has fake stained glass pictures of Neptune, along with (inexplicably) Aphrodite. Someone should tell them that Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus and mostly fools around with Ares, not Poseidon (or Neptune). That said, I love Neptune riding on a dolphin. I took a separate picture of me giving the Miami Dolphins “Fins Up!” pose in front of it, but since this is a music blog, and not a sports blog, I’ll spare you.

 

Beans on Toast

There were two opening acts, both from England. The first was “Beans on Toast” which is actually just one diminutive fellow with a beard. Beans on Toast strums guitar and sings political and social activist songs. He is funny as hell and a great entertainer. Here’s a song about ourfascination with eating chicken.

He also sang a song called “Fuck You, Nashville” which was pretty hilarious given we were heading there the next day. Sorry B on T, but I mostly liked Nashville – you just need to know where to go and where to avoid. I’ll save that for the next review.

Skinny Lister

The second opening act was “Skinny Lister” who felt like an English version of the Pogues. They sing high energy British folk-rock and are awesome entertainers. Here’s an example – a song called “Trouble on Oxford Street.”

 

Bass player Mike Camino was uncharacteristically active, spinning his bass around and throwing it up into the air regularly (it was his signature move). Later he crowd-surfed with the bass which was brave and brilliant in equal measure.

 

Fun fact: Camino’s bass has “this machine kills dubstep” written on it. I found this particularly awesome, since I also dislike dubstep.

Lead singer Lorna Thomas was also awesome and later crowd-surfed as well. Given that she was wearing heels and a short dress this may have been braver than Camino’s foray.

I liked them a lot, but the songs would sometimes fall into that clashing sound that a lot of modern music does in place of resolving the melody. Also, when they did this the room’s sound got a bit hot and distorted despite the venue generally having good acoustics.

Frank Turner

By the time Frank Turner took the stage, I was already happy having only seen two really good opening bands. With the energy they had built up, Turner had a significant challenge to match it, but he did so. Here’s a picture that captures the visceral quality of the performance.

He played for a solid two hours and the energy level never dipped. As I mentioned earlier, Turner is blessed with a ton of anthems and the whole show was a sing-a-long extravaganza.

In fact, I’ve never encountered more knowledgeable fans than Frank Turner fans. They weren’t just singing the chorus (which is all I could manage) they often knew the entire song. At some shows, the audience singing can be annoying, but at a Frank Turner show it is awesome.

Turner did songs from throughout his career, with the right mix of rare old stuff, old favourites and songs from the new album. He threw in a solo acoustic set halfway through which was a highlight for me.

 

Again, when the band was all going hard there were times when the vocals were drowned out and the sound bounced a little. Not too bad overall, though, and easily forgiven since the energy was so powerful.

Turner told the story behind “Song for Josh”, his friend who committed suicide and it was genuinely touching. He listed every venue he’d played at in Seattle, and worked the town’s name into a few songs which is a cheesy trick performers do to curry favour, but still fun.

He also mentioned it was his 1,759^th show and then talked about some of the things that happened in 1759, which appealed to the amateur historian in me.

Even though for about half an hour of the show there was a giant dude blocking my view I didn’t get mad. Remembering Frank’s admonishment to be nice to everyone, I just felt sad for him. He was awkwardly aware of how damned tall he was and that no matter where he stood, he’d block someone’s view. It would be hard to be that big.

Frank pointed out some Germans who had been following the show around the world with a friendship flag, which was pretty much a microcosm of the whole “be nice to others” vibe that was in the room. As crowds go, I’ve never seen one better. We even sat with a lovely couple from Redmond. They were awesome and I’m sorry I didn’t write their names down but I gave them a card so if you’re reading along – hello!

Basically, the show was a hell of a good time, went on for four hours and left me still wanting more. It was loud and awesome but not painful on the ears (I had no ear plugs but could still hear at the end, which was nice).

My friend Casey went on to see him in Portland, and reports back that the acoustic set is different each night, and based on fan requests, which is awesome. The Portland show had the better songs (“The Next Round” and “Casanova Lament” as opposed to “To Absent Friends” and “The Angel Islington” in Seattle) but all were good.

Casey also advises that:

·         Skinny Lister’s bassist crowd-surfed again but singer Lorna did not.

·         Turner admitted he was on the wagon, which makes sense given his songs about booze.

·         Turner knew all the Portland venues he’d been at as well, and gave historical facts about 1760.

·         The show was just as awesome and energetic.

So to summarize, if Frank Turner comes to your town and you don’t go see him, you are an idiot. This is a show not to be missed. If possible – go with a friend, like we did!

CD Odyssey Disc 790: Lucinda Williams

The weekend has arrived! I had a pretty crazy work week, but it all ended with a romantic dinner with my lovely wife at a fine restaurant so it was worth it.

Disc 790 is….West

Artist: Lucinda Williams

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? “Who’s that tough and thoughtful lookin’ woman?” “Why that’s Lucinda, son.” “And where is she?” “Out west. You can tell by her hat.”

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Lucinda while listening to the Steve Earle album “I Feel Alright.” I wanted to know who he sang the duet “You’re Still Standing There” with and it turns out it was Lucinda. By the time “West” came out I was basically just buying anything she recorded.

How It Stacks Up: I have 11 Lucinda Williams albums and I like them all. “West” is great but competition at the top is intense. So intense, “West” could only manage to finish fourth best.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

I recently watched a clip of Lucinda appearing live at KEXP radio. During the interview portions of the appearance she was awkward, staring at the floor and answering the questions in a clipped embarrassing style somewhere between reclusive trailer park lady and shy eight year old country girl.

When she picked up her guitar and sang a song she still stared down (now at a sheet of lyrics) but her voice became that of a broken angel, rough and beautiful. Those words she was staring at were clear, insightful, honest and refused to cut emotional corners.

It’s this combination of total vulnerability and artistic brilliance that makes every one of Lucinda Williams’ albums incredible, and “West” is no exception.

“West” is one of Lucinda’s more subtle and quiet efforts. The songs don’t scream for attention, but ask that you settle down on the old porch and let them soak into you slowly.

The first song on the record is also the best one. “Are You Alright?” is a classic Lucinda Williams break up song. There are no recriminations here, just three big guitar notes echoing with reverb and worry, followed by Lucinda asking her lover where he’s gone and why. The hurt in Lucinda’s voice is all the accusation the song needs – a reminder that when you leave someone, that someone is still out there wondering what the hell went wrong for days or months, or maybe even for years. With Lucinda’s voice you’re pretty sure it is forever.

A lot of the songs on “West” address issues of heartache, but Lucinda finds time to pick us up emotionally at just the right moments. Directly after “Are You Alright?” “Mama You Sweet” gives us a love song for all the moms out there.

Lyrically, one of my favourite songs on “West” is “Fancy Funeral” where she warns of wasting money on your funeral when that money could be buying groceries and paying bills:

“Lovely little daffodils

And lacy filigree

Pretty little angels

For everyone to see.

“Lily of the Valley

And long black limousines

It’s three or four month’s salary

Just to pay for all those things.”

In Lucinda’s world, life is often painful but she comes down clearly on the side of living it. Spend what money you have while you’re alive on the things that matter; vanity will do you no good in the grave.

Lucinda is often sad and suffering from some malady of the heart, but she can also be sexy as hell. With the David Gilmour style guitar and horn section on “Unsuffer Me” her vulnerability is expressed as pure and irresistible desire. When the coin turns, as it does in “Come On” she can express her scorn sexually equally well:

“You think you’re in hot demand

But you don’t know where to put your hand

Let me tell you where you stand

You didn’t even make me come on!”

I can see why the guy in the first song was afraid to call and let her know he was alright.

Musically, the album has multiple styles to accompany Lucinda’s vocal. Sometimes it is a simple guitar strum, sometimes classical violin and sometimes blues-rock arrangements. The brilliance of the songs work regardless of the package they are put in.

The album’s final third isn’t as brutally powerful as the beginning, but it comes pretty close. I think the only reason is that at 68 minutes it is almost too much of a good thing. I find I’m pretty emotionally wiped by the time I’m nearing the end.

This record is absolutely beautiful and the fact that it still can’t crack the top three records (all of which I’ve previously reviewed) is just testament to Lucinda Williams’ consistent brilliance, not a detraction in any way from what she accomplishes on “West.”

Best tracks:  Are You Alright? Learning How to Live, Fancy Funeral, Come On, Unsuffer Me, Everything has Changed, Come On, Rescue

CD Odyssey Disc 789: Beck

I’ve just finished another long day in a week where I expect a lot more of the same. I always make time for music, though!

Disc 789 is….Odelay

Artist: Beck

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? A dog agility competition. Why, I have no idea. This is one of those dogs that looks a lot like a mop. Sometimes when I see dog breeds I want to go back a couple hundred years and find the people who started doing it and ask them, “what the hell were you thinking?” Seeing this mop dog was definitely one of those times.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember. I knew Beck through my old room-mate Greg but I don’t think I bought “Odelay” until a couple years after it came out. I am an avowed Beck fan now, and buy whatever he releases right away.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Beck albums. Of those, I’m going to put “Odelay” pretty far down the list. I’ll say seventh, bumping “The Information” (reviewed way back at Disc 150) down to eighth spot.

Ratings: 3 stars

“Odelay” was a critical darling and remains so to this day, so I’m going to say something fairly heretical and call it good, but not great. This is a record filled with all of Beck’s mad genius, but it would succeed better with a bit of restraint.

No one can take a group of disparate sounds and turn them into something funky and listenable like Beck, and “Odelay” is his first full foray into pushing his own limits. Critics loved the novelty of the album, and even almost twenty years later, “Odelay” still sounds as innovative as anything you’ll hear today.

“Odelay” features all the regular rock instruments, throws in horns and pianos, fuzzy feedback, beeps, bloops and bings and somehow turns it all into music.

When it hits on all cylinders – as it does on “”Where It’s At” it is pure genius. This song has a soulful organ riff right out of Motown, mixed with Beck’s deadpan rap-style, hand-claps, squawk box, robot voices and samples (mostly of himself). The whole thing creates a collage of sound that is irresistible to both your lower spine and your frontal lobes. Even the interludes of jazz horn fits perfectly. The weirdly self-referential sample of someone saying “that was a good drum break” is so perfect that I can’t imagine a version of the song where someone didn’t interject with a random opinion about the drum break right at that moment.

Regrettably, the album is also packed with songs that are so close to genius, but that Beck feels the need to deconstruct or otherwise wreck in the final minute.

“Novacane” is an amazing concoction of Motown groove and Beastie Boy-style rap and scratch fury. I want so bad to love this song, and for the most part I do. But then three-quarters of the way through Beck decides to destroy his own creation, replacing the beauty of the song with shrieking feedback, and then some computer noises that sound like an annoying nineties modem.

“High 5 (Rock the Catskills)” gets its modem on even sooner, starting halfway through. After a while it returns to being what I would call “a song” but alas, it was now too late for me to give a damn. Note to the artist: that modem screech isn’t the sound of you making a connection with me, it’s the sound of you losing one.

“Sissyneck” does a similar trick in the middle of the song, but fortunately it is kept to a couple of seconds and kind of works. “Jack-Ass” is a stripped down song that is slow and easy until Beck decides to end it all with five seconds worth of a donkey braying. “Hotwax” ends with some dungeon master type character introducing himself as “the enchanting wizard of rhythm”. Everywhere I turn there are amazing songs being despoiled with one extra bit of clever they don’t need.

The record ends with a beautiful, if slightly meandering track, called “Ramshackle” which is a bit too long, but still very pretty. It properly ends at 4:40 or so, but then there’s an extra two minutes of silence, followed by another minute full of beeps and whirrs. Of course there is.

And yet this album is so full of long moments of genius – including on all those songs I just complained about – that you can’t help but like it overall. Those moments easily earn the three stars, but all the modem sounds and the creative winky-faces mar enough tracks that I can’t rate it any higher than that.

Best tracks:  Devil’s Haircut, Where It’s At, Sissyneck,

CD Odyssey Disc 788: The Kills

I was up early this morning to watch my beloved Miami Dolphins get pummeled by the Jets. We are a bad football team right now, and even worse, I’m not sure much can be done to fix it. It is going to be a long and painful season.

Fortunately, there is always music. Lately I’ve been grooving on a lot of early Motorhead, Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy” and new albums from Kurt Vile and the Dead Weather.

The Dead Weather have a connection to this next review, since the two bands share the same lead singer.

Disc 788 is….Blood Pressures

Artist: The Kills

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? All dressed up with somewhere to go. If you look out the window that somewhere appears to involve a beach.

How I Came To Know It: I worked my way backward to the Kills. Our friends Joel and Sherylyn put me on to the Dead Weather (by way of Jack White), and as alluded to in the teaser, Alison Mosshart is the lead singer of both that band and the Kills. “Blood Pressures” was the first Kills album I bought, and happened to be their most recent.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Kills albums which is all of them. Hey, Kills, time for a new album (word has it they are working on one). For now, though, of the four that exist, I’ll put “Blood Pressures” a close second. Only “Keep On Your Mean Side” (reviewed way back at Disc 324) is better. Back then I said “Blood Pressures” was tied for first, but I recant.

Ratings: 4 stars

The Kills were a revelation when I discovered them. Heavy and groovy in equal measure, their fourth album “Blood Pressures” is a master class in how to make awesome hard rock for the twenty first century.

The band is fundamentally just two people – lead singer/guitarist Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, who plays drums and everything else. Apparently there is no bass player, which is surprising given how thick this sound is. You can thank (or curse) the White Stripes for showing how you can make thick, crunchy grooves without a bass. The Kills do it brilliantly.

“Blood Pressures” is first and foremost percussion driven. Sure there are good guitar grooves and Alison Mosshart’s voice is angst-ridden and awesome but these songs are really about the rhythm and the beat. It isn’t just the drum, either. The layered guitar riffs are equally responsible for creating the ever-present thump. The result is a band that on each song finds new and innovative ways to create old fashioned rock and roll with a twist.

The layering is clever and the various sounds they pull together would sound weird on their own, but combined make for a great sound. On “Heart is a Beating Drum” it sounds like they sample the sound of a ping pong table. I found myself liking it.

Mosshart has one of rock and roll’s great voices. She has great timing and instinctively knows how to find the groove. Despite the great timing, her vocals are raw and dirty, with a bluesy growl that makes you feel like you need a shower after listening.

Great tracks abound, but I tend to like the more up tempo ones. The album starts with “Future Starts Slow” which is typical in terms of what the album offers lyrically:

“You can holler, you can wail

You can swing, you can flail

You can thump like a broken sail.”

These songs aren’t narratives, they are emotional moments caught in time, with sparse but well-chosen imagery like the thumping sail above.

Another favourite is “Nail in My Coffin” which perfectly captures that moment where Mosshart gives a man the classic “I’m no good” warning, and maybe accuses him of the same.

“I am no better at this than you are

Unfinished business may be due love.

I can’t change myself into you dear

What you are to me is far too unclear

“Could be a nail in my coffin

And I don’t need another one.”

This is a warning – the character is damaged goods, so pursue that tangled emotional mess at your peril. At the same time, it is clear Mosshart is inviting the very disaster she purports to swear off. The tension of that space between is held up by the song, which has a groove that is seductive on the surface, and dissonant in its depths.

The production on the record is thick but a bit overly fuzzy in places where I wanted it to be crisp. I can’t decide if I liked it or I didn’t like it so I’ll split the difference and say I kinda liked it but it is never so overt that it wrecks the experience.

When I first bought this album back in 2011 it got seriously over-listened, and so I’ve tried to give myself time away lately so I can rehabilitate it. It was great to roll it on the Odyssey and remind myself there is no reason to stay away.

Best tracks:  Future Starts Slow, Heart is a Beating Drum, Nail in My Coffin, DNA, Baby Says