CD Odyssey Disc 805: Pearl Jam

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

Disc 805 is….No Code

Artist: Pearl Jam

Year of Release: 1996

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

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

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

Ratings: 3 stars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Or you can come to terms and realize

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

Makes much more sense

To live in the present tense"

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

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

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

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

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

CD Odyssey Disc 804: Billy Bragg

Tonight is the final ‘redraft’ in my football pool, so I’m squeezing in a review before everyone arrives to drop all the useless and injured players on their roster and pick over whoever’s left.

For some, this is a chance to slightly adjust their well-tuned football machine for the final lap. For others it’s more akin to pumping four more dollars of gas into the tank of your old beater and hoping it’s enough to get it home in one piece. This year, I’m in the latter category. So it goes…

Disc 804 is….England, Half English

Artist: Billy Bragg and the Blokes

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? It is half an English flag. Get it?

How I Came To Know It: I only bought this album in the last year as I drilled through a half dozen Billy Bragg albums I didn’t have and determined which of them I wanted. “England Half English” made the list, obviously.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Billy Bragg albums, with plans to get a ninth and then call it a day. I like them all, but sadly must put “England, Half English” down near the bottom. I’ll say 7^th or 8^th best pending my review of “Worker’s Playtime.”

Ratings: 3 stars

With all the mistrust and fear in the world in the aftermath of the Paris bombings, it was fitting that I rolled a Billy Bragg album that is all about embracing our differences and living together.

“England, Half English” is Bragg’s love song to immigration and multiculturalism, and his reminder that England itself is a nation founded largely by people who came from somewhere else (Angles and Saxons foremost among them).

This record reminds us that not only can we live together and celebrate our differences, we do it every day without even noticing. The title track, sung with a heavy English accent has the main character drinking a cappuccino, while alternating between meals of veggie curry and bubble and squeak. As he later points out:

“Britannia, she’s half English, she speaks Latin at home

St. George was born in the Lebanon, how he got here I don’t know

And those three lions on your shirt

They never sprang from England’s dirt

Them lions are half English, and I’m half English too.”

The working class brogue helps the song point out that this recognition of England’s many different traditions is just common sense. The song also tries to pull together different music traditions to underscore the point, but unfortunately I found the efforts to transition between styles a bit less successful than the transition between foods.

This is the biggest detraction to the record, which has Bragg gamely trying to mix in different musical styles from England, the Middle East and South Asia. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t it is really noticeable. In particular, “Baby Farroukh” is an unlistenable jingle to begin with and efforts to change it up halfway through just make it worse.

Better in terms of making his point is the more traditionally arranged “Distant Shore” which captures the isolation and sadness of refugees fleeing repressive regimes that does the best it can in helping you feel what it would be like to walk in those shoes.

Bragg finds time to get in a few folk protest songs as is his want, and here he decides to take aim at the United Kingdom. I rather like the UK, Billy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a rollicking good protest song. “Take Down the Union Jack” is as catchy as it is nasty, as Bragg runs through all the problems he has with his own country. The album’s themes come back to the fore in the final verse:

“Take down the Union Jack, it clashes with the sunset

And pile up all those history books, but don’t throw them away

They just might have some clues about what it really means

To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England.co.uk.”

There’s those Angles and Saxons again, with the emphasized hyphen to remind you that those two groups were also distinct and distrustful of one another but got over it.

When he decides to take a break from the bigger themes on “England, Half English” Bragg shows he can still write love songs that are both pretty and clever. “Jane Allen” is a song about being tempted by an old flame but going home to your true love. “Another Kind of Judy” is a strangely upbeat song about a relationship that didn’t work out but left a lot of pleasant memories. Bragg explores the darker side of love with “He’ll Go Down” a warning to a woman to not let a good for nothing bastard drag her down with him.

The album has some unfortunate production decisions, most notably the failed effort at Caribbean rhythms on “Dreadbelly” and the aforementioned “Baby Farroukh” but for the most part “England, Half English” is a good folk record with an important message of tolerance and acceptance.

Best tracks:  Jane Allen, Distant Shore, Take Down the Union Jack, He’ll Go Down

CD Odyssey Disc 803: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey. It doesn’t end until I run out of music, and since I keep buying music, I’m not sure when I’m going to catch up. I’m in no hurry to end the journey so it doesn’t matter.

Disc 803 is….100 Days, 100 Nights

Artist: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? Like the style of music itself, this cover is a throwback to the sixties and early seventies. Back in those days the LP would advertise the song tracks so you wouldn’t have to turn it over to see what you were getting.

In addition to some song advertisements, you also get the added treat of Sharon Jones herself, looking fine in a gold lamé dress.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Nick bought a Sharon Jones album (“I Learned the Hard Way” reviewed back at Disc 629) and I liked it so much I did the same. “100 Days, 100 Nights” was just me drilling backward through her collection after I realized how much I liked her stuff.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four albums by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. “100 Days, 100 Nights” is damn good, finishing a very close second to “I Learned the Hard Way.”

Ratings: 4 stars

“100 Days, 100 Nights” is a celebration of the roots of funk and soul as seen through the thoroughly modern genius of band leader Bosco Mann.

These songs could’ve been released in 1970 and been hits, and if you didn’t know any better you would assume they were. This would lead you to naturally wonder if the Dap-Kings sound derivative or dated. The answer is a resounding “hell, no!” These guys have captured funk at its best and most vital and like a bottle of whiskey found on some 18^th century wreck, its time away from civilization has just made it tastier.

A big part of that tastiness is front woman Sharon Jones, who has the vocal chops of a female James Brown and the same natural instinct for how to turn a phrase and ride the swing of a good beat. However, for all that, Jones only has the freedom to shine like she does because the Dap-Kings are so damned tight. The funk is an easy rhythm to ape at, but a hard one to master, and it is in those tiny moments that your ear can tell if it is authentic or not.

The Dap-Kings are authentic like 24-karat gold. Whether they are playing full out, or cutting down to three quarter time at Sharon’s playful demand, as they do on the title track that are always right in the pocket. That swing makes your head nod, and puts a swagger in your walk (for those who saw me walking home tonight, yes – that was swagger).

As much as I bask in the glow of bassist Bosco Mann, I must now do as James Brown recommended all those years ago, and give the drummer some. In this case, that would be Dap-King drummer Homer Steinweiss. You already know Steinweiss, although you didn’t know you did – he does the groovy drumming on Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good.” Do yourself a favour and go and listen to it again, but this time focus on the drummer. You’re welcome.

On “100 Days, 100 Nights” Steinweiss not only drums, he also writes the record’s best song, “Nobody’s Baby.” This is a song about female empowerment that Sharon Jones owns with evident glee. Starting with a derisive laugh, she proceeds to inform her former boyfriend man that she’s done with him. On an album full of funky songs, there is none funkier than “Nobody’s Baby.” If you’ve ever wanted to tell a good for nothing man that you know he’s no good, this song is for you.

The rest of the album is also good, and full of empowering music. There are songs about loving yourself (“Nobody’s Baby”), songs about loving your man (“Tell Me”) and songs about making sweet love to that man (“Let Them Knock”). If the blues tap the natural rhythms of human sadness, then soul music done right equally taps human joy.

While most of the songs are modern tracks every bit the equal of their sixties and seventies inspired forerunners, the album ends with a cover. “Answer Me,” a song written and performed by James Bignon and God’s Children in 1979. Yes, that was the band’s name. Anyway, I went on “The Youtube” to check out the original, and while it is OK, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings version. I’m not religious but when I heard this song, consider me taken to church, because it was that kind of awesome.

“100 Days, 100 Nights” is also that kind of awesome, and a true celebration of music in one of its finest and most enduring forms.

Best tracks:  100 Days 100 Nights, Nobody’s Baby, Be Easy, Answer Me

CD Odyssey Disc 802: Justin Townes Earle

This review was slightly delayed, partly due to my busy social calendar, but also because it was a newly purchased album. This meant that I had to give it multiple listens before I was confident I had grokked it in its fullness.

Disc 802 is….Midnight at the Movies

Artist: Justin Townes Earle

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover? Justin’s at the movies, apparently with really hot girl who is only kind of interested in him. It makes sense when you hear the song. Her name’s Martha, by the way.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Justin Townes Earle’s been making music for a while, but I am always leery of sons or daughters of famous musicians (his father is Steve Earle). When I read good things about his latest album, “Absent Fathers” I decided to give him a shot. I loved that record and have been drilling backward through his work ever since. “Midnight at the Movies” is the most recent purchase in that journey.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Justin Townes Earle albums and I really like all of them. That said, I must put one last and “Midnight at the Movies” is it.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

Although “Midnight at the Movies” is only the second album released by Justin Townes Earle, it already demonstrates a maturity that many artists fail to ever achieve.

I expect that part of this being exposed to music at an early age (he may not like his father, but being the son of a famous singer-songwriter has at least this one perk). However, it is also clear that the younger Earle is a student of the early forms of country and folk music in his own right.

This is clear on the record, which has an old-timey feel that will have you wondering if some of the songs are covers of old standards. Not so however, as every song but one is written by Justin Townes Earle. That one is a great cover of a 1987 Replacements song (“Can’t Hardly Wait”). It just seems like the songs are old as dirt because Earle has such a strong understanding of his own musical tradition.

“They Killed John Henry” could have appeared seamlessly in period movies like “O Brother Where Art Thou” and “What I Mean To You” feels like an old fifties country song. These songs appeal to me slightly less, but I’m glad they are on the album to show Earle’s range.

Having just listened to a bunch of Dwight Yoakam songs, I also hear those urban cowboy influences in Earle’s music giving it a twang and an edge as well.

I like Earle best when he is at his most contemporary. The title track is gorgeously structured song that is both forlorn and romantic at the same time. Earle knows the number one lesson of writing, which is to focus on the specific. The whole song is a portrait of the lonely people you’ll meet at the late late show, artfully delivered in less than three and a half minutes. The romance that does exist is hesitant and fleeting, with the love interest (the aforementioned Martha) keeping her emotional distance:

"She never says too much, she just sits down beside me and puts her hand in mine.

She's got a gentle way that keeps me from feeling so alone.

She always shows up late and leaves before the credits roll.

And I never watch her leave."

The late late show is the place people go to be alone together, and Earle makes it clear that anything too intimate would break the mood the patrons are there to experience:

This is early in Justin Townes Earle’s career and he isn’t quite as depressing as he gets on later records. That said, he still finds time to tell some sad tales, including a song about infidelity (“Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This”) and the heartbreaking tale of a downtrodden street prostitute (“Black Eyed Suzy”).

Every one of the Justin Townes Earle albums I’ve heard seems to have at least one song where he explores his rotten relationship with his dad. This relationship often inspires J.T.’s best work, and “Midnight at the Movies” is no exception with “Mama’s Eyes.”

What makes “Mama’s Eyes” so compelling is the honest way Earle admits that as much as he doesn’t like his father, they are in many ways alike:

“I am my father's son

I've never known when to shut up

I ain't fooling no one

I am my father's son

We don't see eye to eye

And I'll be the first to admit I've never tried

And sure it hurts, but it should hurt sometimes

We don't see eye to eye”

For all those admissions, Earle ends the song leaving no doubt where his familial loyalties lie:

“I've got my mama's eyes

Her long thin frame and her smile

And I still see wrong from right

Cause I've got my mama's eyes”

Earle knows how to write for his voice, which is strong and bluesy. The musicians he’s pulled together are excellent and the song arrangements let them show off just the right amount without letting the songs stray too far. The album has 12 songs but it is all over in 32 minutes, leaving you wanting more.

If you like your country music thoughtful, edged with sorrow and aware of its roots then there is a good chance you are going to like this album, and most other Justin Townes Earle offerings as well.

Best tracks:  Midnight at the Movies, Mama’s Eyes, Can’t Hardly Wait, Black Eyed Suzy, Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This

CD Odyssey Disc 801: Pat Benatar

What was supposed to be my last normal day before a busy social calendar from Wednesday through Saturday instead ended up being a bit crazy when a windstorm knocked a tree down in my front yard. Nature’s not one for minding your weekly schedule.

Disc 801 is….Crimes of Passion

Artist: Pat Benatar

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover? Pat stretches on the ballet bar in her sparkly 1980s dance outfit. Observant viewers will note how high up her waist the ballet bar comes, showing just how incredibly short she is. Incredibly short, but incredibly sexy.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with this album, but I only recently purchased it because I always felt that her album before this one (“In the Heat of the Night”) and after it (“Precious Time”) were both better.

How It Stacks Up:  My youthful recollection was correct. Of the three Pat Benatar albums I own, this is my least favourite. Here’s the full recap:

1. In the Heat of the Night: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 667)
2. Precious Time: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 784)
3. Crimes of Passion: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

 “Crimes of Passion” is Pat Benatar’s best-selling record, but for me it represents a bit of a sophomore slump.

All the elements of her other early albums are there, including the pure rock power of her voice, the hard rock music edged with pop (or vice versa, depending on who you ask) and the brief forays into New Wave. For some reason it doesn’t inspire me the same as her other records.

Fortunately, there is “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” This is probably her most famous song and if you don’t just want a Pat Benatar compilation album, you kind of have to own “Crimes of Passion” just to have this one song. Sure it is the height of cheese-ass, but it is so good at being cheese-ass. The riff is nothing creative, but it is instantly recognizable and writing those kind of riffs is harder than it seems. Also, Benatar is at her best when she is doing “tuff rocker girl,” inviting some guy to romantically duke it out it is hard to resist.

And just to remind you about how solid her pipes are, Benatar lets the last round of the chorus climb up to another level as she fires away will singing “fire away.” It is good fun, and a staple at high school dances in my day. Guys and girls would pantomime the song as they got playfully and mutually excited about each other.

Unfortunately, the other songs on “Crimes of Passion” don’t live up to the same standard. Similar tracks like “Treat Me Right” and “You Better Run” are pretty good songs, but they feel like pale imitations to “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

When Benatar gets serious on “Hell is for Children” her intentions are pure, and the emotion she puts into this song about child abuse is real and present. Unfortunately, the lyrics let her down in places. For example:

“Because Hell, Hell is for children

And you know that their little lives can become such a mess”

And:

“It's all so confusing, this brutal abusing.”

This weird mix of cutesy expressions (“it’s all so confusing,” “such a mess”) with serious subject matter is jarring and not in a good way. It’s too bad, because the tune could work with some more care put into the words.

 “Out-A-Touch” feels like it is trying a bit too hard to do New Wave, and Benatar’s rock growl is a bit too organic for the style of music the song is trying to pull off. If anything, she sounds too real for the mod detachment that New Wave needs.

“Prisoner of Love” is a distinct pleasure, and a very guilty one. It is a kitschy love song from a time in music which featured far too many. Silly and pointless, this song could be recorded today by Katy Perry without anyone blinking an eye, but I can’t seem to care. It makes me want to dance (swinging my arms eighties style) and I like it.

I also enjoyed Benatar’s cover of the Kate Bush song, “Wuthering Heights.” Kate Bush’s version is gloriously wacky (with video to match – check it out here). Most would be hard pressed to sing this song’s high notes, but Benatar not only does it, she infuses it with power very different from Bush’s more folksy and fay delivery. I can’t decide which version I like better, and that’s always a good sign for a cover song.

If you don’t know, this song is inspired by the Emily Bronte novel of the same name. I’m not one for the Bronte sisters’ work (I prefer my 19^th century Gothic novels with more murder and vampires), but I like it when a long and arduous Bronte novel can be delivered in a four and a half minute pop song.

While overall I wanted this album to be better, it is sharply produced and has enough in the way of good harmless fun to stay interesting. I’ll be keeping it in my collection and even sneaking it into the rotation once in a while.

Best tracks:  Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Wuthering Heights, Prisoner of Love

CD Odyssey: The First 800

Last night I wrote my 800^th review. As is tradition, I like to take a pause and look back with a quick overview when I reach these milestones.

The first thing I noticed this time is that I’ve become a slightly tougher marker in the last 100 reviews. There were once again 38 three star albums of the last 100, but four star albums slipped down to 30 (from 38 in the previous one hundred reviews).

Five star albums slipped yet again. Between reviews 501 and 600 there were 11 five star albums, and between 601 and 700 there were only 7. This time I am down to only 5 albums getting a perfect score. Here is the best of the best over the last 100:

·         Paul Simon – Graceland

·         Iron Maiden – Powerslave

·         Gang Starr – Step in the Arena

·         Blue Oyster Cult – Fire of Unknown Origin

·         K.D. Lang – Absolute Torch and Twang

I could’ve predicted four of these making it to five stars, but “Absolute Torch and Twang” was a nice surprise.

There were no zero or one star albums in the past 100, and I kind of missed writing a really nasty review (they are devilish good fun). Despite this, I still decided to part company with 5 albums. Three of these were two star albums:

• The Eurythmics’ “Be Yourself Tonight” was a late addition to my collection of their music, and a reminder that I don’t need to always be a completionist.
• Reviewing “Steal This Album” and “Toxicity” in close proximity made me realize I am never going to truly enjoy System of a Down. I am now going to stop trying.

More interestingly there were two albums that I graded out at three stars but still gave away when I realized I would probably never play them. Both the McGarrigle Sisters’ “Matapedia” and Mozart’s “Coronation Mass” impressed me critically, but didn’t make me want to keep listening. Sometimes a record can be good, but just not right for you. Both of these fit that category.

In terms of overall reviews, Alice Cooper remains in top spot with 23 albums (up one from 100 albums ago, and Steve Earle stays in second place with 16 albums (up two). Third place is a three way tie between Bob Dylan, Queen and Tom Waits, each with 15 reviews.

CD Odyssey Disc 800: Cowboy Junkies

After an exciting day of football watching, where my beloved Miami Dolphins won a close one over the Eagles, I am squeezing in this momentous review – my 800^th – before the evening game gets going in earnest.

Disc 800 is….Lay it Down

Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? The white background was a fad in the nineties, both for album covers and music videos. So was featuring dancers in spandex shorts, so at least the Cowboy Junkies knew where to draw the line.

How I Came To Know It: By the time this album came out I was a firm fan. Even so, I didn’t buy the album immediately, but a few years later. I don’t know why. I suspect it was a money thing.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Cowboy Junkies albums and it seems like each time I review one I end up bumping the rest down a bit in this section. I guess that just means I like all their albums. Once again I am bumping – this time “Pale Sun, Crescent Moon” (reviewed back at Disc 267) is getting moved out of third to make room for “Lay it Down.”

Ratings: 4 stars

After the relatively louder rock and roll sound of “Pale Sun, Crescent Moon” the Cowboy Junkies returned to the softer understated feel of “The Caution Horses” for “Lay it Down.”

The lessons learned from “Pale Sun…” remain, with a thicker more layered sound, but the songs on “Lay It Down” feel introspective and quietly thoughtful even by Cowboy Junkies standards.

The result is a record that has to be played loud or played on head phones to be appreciated the way it is intended. Since I listened on headphones on my walk home from work I got to hear it in its best light.

Part of this is the production, which is expansive, without ever feeling busy or overdone. There is a lack of edges to the sound and the instruments often sound like they are being played underwater. The band also knows just when to let Margo Timmins’ voice rise up, thin and frail for some emotional high point. At the other end, the bass guitar gets a lot of love and grounds the tracks that might otherwise feel like they were about to drift away.

This production suits the themes of the album, which vacillate between the sad tales of things falling apart, and an inner core of character and determination that grows stronger when you survive those experiences.

The best example of both is “Hold On To Me” which has quickly become one of my favourite Cowboy Junkies songs. This is a song that looks for signs of love in those small and fragile moments that are so important and so often casually dismissed. This can be in casual conversation:

“If you offered me a point of view

Would I dismiss it saying that it was too

Black and white?

Or would I see it as the special thing

That it would no doubt be?

Hold on to me.”

Or just when you do simple tasks around the house:

“If I asked you for a simple thing

Would you do it without too much thinking or fuss?

Would you see it for the precious thing

That it would surely be?

Hold on to me.”

Bottom line: remember to take out the trash and empty the dishwasher. These little conversations and acts of kindness are the tiny threads that knit together become as strong as the steel cables that hold up a suspension bridge. Or as my friend Jeff likes to say, “Always say thank you, always say sorry.”

This being the Cowboy Junkies, there always has to be a darkness lurking out in the deep water. “Lonely Sinking Feeling” is a song that explores depression and anxiety, which can visit us even when everything in life is going great. Fortunately, although the Cowboy Junkies are masters of making you experience hopelessness, the song is so good you enjoy the wallow.

The guitar work on “Lay It Down” is mostly relaxed country strumming, surrounded by bluesy production. It is the gift of the Cowboy Junkies that they pull these sometimes disparate sounds together, and show you just how closely akin they are. Musically and lyrically this is an “inner space” record that leaves you feeling contemplative.

I finished listening to “Lay It Down” on my walk from work to dinner with friends on Friday. I arrived at the restaurant with two minutes of the album still to play. Instead of turning it off, I took a last minute turn into an alley forty feet from my destination.

There, in a quiet, dark and rain-soaked alley, I found a wall to lean against and let the final track, “Now I Know” wash over me. “Now I Know” is probably the most depressing song on the record. I took in all that Margo had to say about grief and broken spirits. Then I returned to the world, happier than ever to greet my dinner companions and stronger for having let this understated, subtly great record work its magic on me.

Best tracks: Something More Besides You, A Common Disaster, Hold On To Me, Lonely Sinking Feeling, Now I Know

CD Odyssey Disc 799: System of a Down

I just walked home in a driving rain storm. Now that I’ve changed out of a sodden suit and tie and into dry jeans and a T-shirt I feel like myself again…in multiple ways.

Disc 799 is….Toxicity

Artist: System of a Down

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? Against all odds System of a Down was able to reorder the letter in the Hollywood Hills to spell the band’s name. Take that, Sunday Scramble!

How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed “Steal this Album” back at Disc 774, my friend Spence bought me this album. Spence is one of my ‘go to’ sources for new music and shall remain so despite this less than ringing endorsement of “Toxicity.”

How It Stacks Up:  After giving away “Steal This Album” I only have this one System of Down album so there isn’t really anything left to stack up against.

Ratings: 2 stars

As badly as I wanted “Toxicity” to redeem System of a Down after my experience with “Steal This Album” it was not to be. These guys just don’t inspire me to keep listening to them.

First the good stuff. The band is really tight. They hit hard and clean in and out of the musical breaks, which come at a furious pace. On a technical basis, I admire their skill. I also admire that they are trying to do something different and innovative with the metal/hard rock genre. Generally they don’t sound like anyone else, and that’s not easy.

The music is heavy and pounding, frantic and full of energy and it has a great crisp production courtesy of Rick Rubin, who really gets sound separation.

Unfortunately despite all the energy the only emotion I felt coming through was frustration. I grew up with heavy metal and while it expresses its fair share of frustration it should have more range than that. Metal is music can make you feel angry or sad, or triumphant and a whole host of other things as well, but mostly it is for kids who dream.

Unfortunately, the frustration I felt about the record wasn’t that of dreams deferred – that would have been OK. It was frustration with the music itself, which had either no melody or a threadbare one at best. It thumps away but never quite develops into anything and the songs tend to end abruptly leaving me to wonder what the point was.

Maybe that is the point, but as I said earlier I was weaned on metal that inspired you. “Toxicity” feels like music for people who just like to complain full time.

The song's complaint could be about war, or prisons, or drug laws or the environment – usually it feels like some kind of amalgamation of all of those – but as I noted on my review for “Steal This Album” the words are random slogans rather than clever lyrics. I felt like I was at a rally with a really bad speaker.

Near the end of the record, System of a Down finally drew me in with a couple of cool tracks. “Psycho” is about a “psycho groupie cocaine crazy” who makes a lot of unhealthy choices as she tries to both see the band, and be seen by them. It is a good song with a nice balance between a slow, grunge-ballad style, and the furious rhythmic thrum that is System of a Down’s trademark. It even works in a traditional metal guitar riff that I think is the band imaging the experience of the groupie at the show in her better moments.

I also like that this song shows that System of a Down clearly wants fans to be more than mindless followers. I only wish their other songs gave those fans more to chew on.

The last track “Aerials” is a very cool track, which is another post-grunge sounding song that has elements of Queensryche in it. When System of a Down gets their prog on they definitely channel some Queensryche and I wish they’d do that more often.

“Aerials” has a hidden track tagged onto the end of it which features some kind of Pan flute, tribal chants and jungle sounds. I liked this little tonic of something different at the end of the album and it left me feeling more positive about the record overall. Not enough to keep it in my collection mind you, but more positive nonetheless.

Best tracks: Psycho, Aerials

CD Odyssey Disc 798: The Pogues

My last review for Little Feat happened coincidentally when we were doing something social with the friend that introduced them to me. This time, my friends Anthony and Laura were over from Vancouver with their family right at the same time as I rolled a band that Anthony inspired me to delve into years ago. As the Police would say – synchronicity!

Disc 798 is….Hell’s Ditch

Artist: The Pogues

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? It’s the song titles put into ‘old pirate treasure map’ format. Modern maps may be more efficient but they are way less fun. I’d like to be able to set a car’s GPS to “old pirate treasure map’ mode. “Ar…at the sign of sea monster bring ‘er hard about, then proceed 24 cable lengths to your port of call!”

How I Came To Know It: I always liked the Pogues, but it was my friend Anthony who inspired me to dig into their collection. I think I bought this album back in the mid-nineties at the same time as “Peace and Love” (reviewed way back at Disc 121).

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Pogues albums, which is all the ones featuring Shane MacGowan. Of the five, I’ll put “Hell’s Ditch” a solid third.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Hell’s Ditch” is the last Pogues album to feature Shane MacGowan, and not coincidentally the last Pogues album I bought. Say what you will about how drunk MacGowan was getting at the time, he went out on top with “Hell’s Ditch.”

Here MacGowan’s voice still has all the raw and visceral energy that gives the Pogues their punk edge. His slurring style goes a bit overboard on “Hell’s Ditch” and at times interferes with my ability to understand what he’s singing about. This is the one small criticism I have for this album. Without this small fault it could easily rival 1988’s “If I Should Fall From the Grace of God” for second best Pogues album – the songs are that good.

The album initially feels lighter than earlier Pogues efforts musically, and has a trilling quality in the penny whistle and mandolin that made me think of fair seas and following winds. If not overtly nautical, most of the songs have a quality of travel, and you can tell the Pogues have now seen the world and been inspired to expand their sound accordingly.

The album opens with “Sunnyside of the Street” which is an upbeat tune that nevertheless finds time to mention children without shoes and bodies in the street. This is a song about finding the positives in life after escaping the horror of past experience, but there is also a twinge of unhealthy denial wrapped through the lyrics. “Sayonara” quickly follows on the same theme, and as I write this on Remembrance Day I have the impression of an old war vet trying to forget the past by sailing away somewhere warm. You quickly realize that all those fair winds and following seas aren’t so fair after all under the surface. Staying positive can be a test for those that have witnessed the worst of what our species is capable of.

The nautical theme returns on the second half of the album, with “The Wake of the Medusa.” This is simultaneously a thrilling tale of the famous wreck, an admiration of the painting that inspired the song (Theodore Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa”), and a moving indictment of the rich and powerful cutting the poor and dispossessed adrift in society. I’m fortunate enough to have seen the original painting at the Louvre and it is both beautiful and haunting (check it out here). It takes those fair winds and following seas I felt early in the record and whips them into a tempest.

“House of the Gods” immediately follows “Wake of the Medusa” and lightens the mood with a song about relaxing with a beer on Pataya Beach in Thailand. On an album full of vacation songs, it feels like the first one that doesn’t have a dark underbelly.

Here’s a funny and embarrassing moment: for years I thought MacGowan was singing “Singha beer don’t ask no questions/Singha beer don’t tell no lies” but somewhere along the way I convinced myself (or Sheila convinced me) that I had been wrong all those years, and that it was just MacGowan slurring “sea of green don’t ask no questions,” etc.

So last Sunday while out drinking some Singha beer with my aforementioned friend Anthony I related how the song had nothing to do with Singha beer. He was surprised, but not as surprised as me when I got home and checked the CD jacket sleeve to find…it had been “Singha beer” all along!

Oops. It would seem the ‘wally’ MacGowan sings about in the song is me.

The album feels packed with traditional folk songs, but that is only because they are so well written you assume they are old classics. The only traditional folk song comes near the end of the album, with the instrumental “Maidrin Rua.” It is a pretty little song, but the sea shanty “Six To Go” which follows it to end the record is better, and a Pogues original.

“Hell’s Ditch” is only 13 songs and 41 minutes long, and many of the songs are well short of three minutes. Despite this, they never feel rushed. The band has an innate feel of how to advance a musical theme at a good clip without ever jumping ahead too quickly.

The effect left me wanting more. So much so that a few years back I bought the remastered version of this record which had seven extra tracks. The tracks were OK, but the remastering made no noticeable improvement to Joe Strummer’s excellent 1990 production and the album now felt too long with the bonus material. I sold it and went back to the original recording. You just don’t mess with perfection.

Best tracks: The Sunnyside of the Street, Sayonara, the Ghost of a Smile, Hell’s Ditch, Rain Street, The Wake of the Medusa, Six to Go

CD Odyssey Disc 797: Little Feat

Hello, weekend! Last night Sheila and I went to the Urbanite event at the Art Gallery. This is a pretty slick event, with grade A people watching opportunities. I was made better this time by keeping the overcrowding and I met some very nice people (some of them for the second time!).

I didn’t like the art installation, which featured performance artist Anna Banana. What she is doing is definitely art and I give kudos to anyone who inspires us creatively. However, it did not appeal to me. It felt a bit obvious and preachy. The section featuring stamps was kind of cool, but overall it was disappointing.

We went with our friend Elaine, who is the person responsible for me knowing about this next band!

Disc 797 is….Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

Artist: Little Feat

Year of Release: 1974

What’s up with the Cover? George Washington and Marilyn Monroe took the big blue Buick deeper into the mountains. Marilyn pressed herself hard against George as he steered the car up the steep and treacherous road. The dame had a thing for presidents; wouldn’t stop singing happy birthday to him. Right now she was a distraction he couldn’t afford. George floored it, hugging close to the cliff face as he tried to outrun the lightning storm that had been crackling close behind ever since they’d left that freaky scene in Denver…

How I Came To Know It: Our friend Elaine bought me two Little Feat albums for my birthday a couple of years ago; this one and “Dixie Chicken.” Before that I had never even heard of them. Thanks, Elaine!

How It Stacks Up:  I have the two albums noted. I seem to recall “Dixie Chicken” is slightly better, so I’ll put “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” in second place.

Ratings: 3 stars

If you don’t know them, Little Feat is the brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Lowell George and is southern boogie woogie with a healthy helping of hippy dope-fiend on the side. Bands like Molly Hatchet definitely grew up listening to these guys, and borrowed heavily from their sound.

“Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” is the band’s fourth album, and I could immediately tell I was dealing with a group of musicians that were established and confident in their sound. The band is tight and there is a laid back vibe throughout.

The music has the feeling of excess permeating it. Even though the underpinning of these songs is a basic blues riff, Little Feat are never satisfied grooving through a by-the-numbers track. Pianos, horns, drums and bass – every instrument needs to chime in for a pseudo-solo as the song meanders its way to the end. It feels like the band composed spontaneously in the studio and there is a lot of jamming throughout.

This means that sometimes the songs lose their focus and devolve into noodle fests. When they don’t, you get a lively arrangement, with horn riffs that would make James Brown break out in a cold sweat. Couple this with the southern guitar boogie woogie and you have something that is not easy to describe, but definitely feels like a party.

Side One of this album is definitely better than Side Two, principally because the songs feel more focused, albeit loosely. “Rock and Roll Doctor” and “Skin it Back” are both funky and energetic. If you listen to these songs while walking you will be compelled to strut your stuff like you are in some gritty seventies film.

As the record progresses it is almost like it was recorded in a single session and everyone just kept smoking dope long after they should’ve stopped. The second to last song, “The Fan” starts with a modicum of control still but is chorus “wait ‘til the shit hits the fan’ ends up being prophetic, as halfway through the song loses its thread and descends into aimless noodling. The final track, “Medly: Cold Cold Cold/Tripe Face Boogie” is 10 minutes long and exactly as directionless as you would expect from a title that long and random.

The lyrics on this album are secondary. They sing about being on the road and being groovy but don’t have a lot of insightful things to say about either topic. That said, I like this line from “Rock and Roll Doctor”:

“Two degrees in be-bop, a PHD in swing

He's the master of rhythm, he's a rock and roll king, yeah.”

That’s the kind of post-graduate work I could get behind. It’s also a good thumbnail of what the record sounds like.

There were times that the record felt like it was only intended for people who were really high, and I was beginning to feel emotionally distant from it on my walk home last night. Then I got into downtown and was surrounded by people heading home at rush hour. All of a sudden everything made sense. The music is decidedly urban and its restless energy works best when the mass of humanity is all around you. It made me feel connected to strangers through the delicate dance we all do as we weave our way down a crowded street. And yes, it made me strut a little.

“Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” is a hot mess in places, but overall it has a celebratory energy that just makes you feel good. It’s not for everyone, but well worth a listen to see if it’s for you.

Best tracks:  Rock and Roll Doctor, Skin it Back, Down the Road, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

CD Odyssey Disc 796: Dwight Yoakam

I’ve been on a bit of a run of late eighties/early nineties country music with KD Lang and now this next review.

Disc 796 is….The Essentials

Artist: Dwight Yoakam

Year of Release: 2005 but with music from 1987 to 1993

What’s up with the Cover? Dwight looks old school here, and just a little stoned. I love the jacket. When we were in Nashville last month Sheila and I went in a store that made one-of-a-kind jackets like this. I wanted to get one but while they look casual, they ain’t cheap.

How I Came To Know It: I’d heard Dwight Yoakam here and there over the years and thought I’d take a chance. I didn’t like him enough to go buy all his records, but I liked him enough to get a compilation record.

How It Stacks Up: Compilation albums don’t “stack up” since they aren’t true albums.

Ratings: Compilation albums don’t get a rating – they compete unfairly with all their hits and what-not.

Dwight Yoakam has been quietly making albums for almost thirty years, which makes me wonder why a 2005 album called “The Essentials” only has music from 1986 to 1993. ‘Essential’ apparently only applies to his first five studio albums.

While I look forward to finding out for myself what I think of Dwight’s full discography (yes, Sheila, that’s going to happen), I can’t fault the choices made; the tracks here definitely feel essential. I expect ‘best of’ albums to be higher quality but “Essentials” has really outdone itself, with one great song after another.

The first thing I noticed was how fresh Yoakam sounds – not like anything else country music had offered to that point. Yoakam apparently called it ‘hillbilly’ style, but I think a better term is ‘urban cowboy’. It sounds like a combination of Hank Williams and fifties rock and roll. There’s a nasal drawl in Yoakam’s voice that lays on the hurt just like Hank, but the guitar sound is that of an electric being dragged through country progressions a step slower than it wants. The resulting protest in each note is the perfect match to Yoakam’s vocal delivery.

A big part of this working is lead guitarist Pete Anderson, who is an absolute master of all the multiple influences Yoakam brings to these songs. I’m not sure this stuff would have even worked without Anderson’s signature twang standing side by side with Yoakam’s hillbilly vocals.

These are not songs about being home on the range, or going to the country dance. These are songs about moving to the city; feeling lonely and broke while you wear your cowboy boots out on the pavement. Through it all, Dwight makes it a pleasure to wallow alongside him. It is expressed beautifully on the slow and mournful, “I Sang Dixie”:

“He said way down yonder in the land of cotton, old times there ain't near as rotten

As they are on this damned old L.A. street

Then he drew a dying breath, and laid his head against my chest

Please Lord, take his soul back home to Dixie.”

This song even throws in some traditional southern fiddle and steel guitar, making Yoakam’s allegiance clear when it comes to what kind of artist he is, despite the absence of cows and log cabins.

A lot of Dwight’s early fame came from doing memorable covers. “The Essentials” has him doing Elvis’ “Little Sister,” Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and Johnny Horton’s “Honky Tonk Man.” He also does a fine version of “Streets of Bakersfield” as a duet with original artist Buck Owen which I remember being an early hit for him. In every case, Yoakam makes the song his own and even equal to the original. In the case of “Little Sister” I think it’s better. Since Elvis didn’t write it I’ve decided it now belongs to Dwight Yoakam.

For all that, my “best songs” entries below have none of these. The truth is that Yoakam’s original material is brilliant stuff, and if you decide to go listen to any of these songs, I’d prefer you choose those. “Guitars, Cadillacs” and “I Got You” are both so timeless I was sure they were old covers anyway, but both are Dwight Yoakam originals.

“Ain’t That Lonely Yet,” “You’re the One” and “Fast As You” are all nasty break-up songs filled with bruised hearts and nasty rejections that are all the more pathetic because they are clearly coming after the other party’s already done the damage. They are all brilliant songs, but “Fast As You” is my favourite, if only because of its promise of revenge sex that is simultaneously vitriolic and a little hollow. It is like Dwight couldn’t bring himself to do it, but really wanted to.

“Maybe I'll be as fast as you

Maybe I'll break hearts too

But I think that you'll slow down

When your turn to hurt comes around

Maybe I'll break hearts

And be as fast as you”

The whole song has a bass line that is very close to “Pretty Woman” and gives the song the same nervous energy. Even if the similarity is deliberate it just makes it better, as Yoakam imagines he’ll be the one ‘walking down the street’ this time. But all those ‘maybes’ undercut the whole threat. A broken heart can really make you wonder just what you’re going to do.

“A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” shows the influence of Gram Parsons and the Byrds, blending that easy hippy rock quality into Yoakam’s urban cowboy vision. If Gram were alive in 1993 when this came out, he would be happy to know his dream of marrying the best of rock and country was alive and well.

This may just be a ‘best of’ album, but it has definitely inspired me to delve deeper into Dwight Yoakam’s discography. It even makes me feel a little guilty I don’t own anything else. I’ll make it up to you, Dwight.

Best tracks:  Ain’t That Lonely Yet, You’re the One, Guitars Cadillacs, Fast as You, I Sang Dixie, A Thousand Miles from Nowhere, I Got You

CD Odyssey Disc 795: The Kills

I’m back from a good day of work and dinner out with a friend. Sheila is sleeping off a visit to the dentist and I’m making her soup, which doesn’t sound as dinner out, but maybe just what you need after a trip to the dentist.

Disc 795 is….No Wow

Artist: The Kills

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? Alison Mosshart plays peek-a-boo with a flash card and Jamie Hince…crumples money? That’s my best guess as to what he’s doing. I can’t really tell, and I can’t ask Alison Mosshart to explain it to me since she’s got her eyes covered with a sign and wouldn’t be able to see. Regardless, this cover has no ‘wow’ factor.

How I Came To Know It: Once I discovered the Kills back in 2011 I went on a record buying binge. “No Wow” and “Midnight Boom” were the last two albums I bought.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Kills albums, which I believe is all of them. Of the four, I must reluctantly put “No Wow” at the bottom of the list, in fourth place.

Ratings: 3 stars

“No Wow” is the Kills’ second album, and while it has their signature garage band sound it doesn’t have the same magic as the two previous albums I’ve reviewed (2003’s “Keep on Your Mean Side” and 2011’s “Blood Pressures”).

The album starts with a bang. “No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany” jumps on you early with a groovy beat that is quickly cut by Alison Mosshart’s dirty punk/rock voice and then cut again when the fuzz guitar riff breaks into the mix. “No Wow…” is a classic Kills song, building up isolated beats in thick slabs and layering in guitar chords into a song that inexorably builds until it suddenly ends, leaving you to wonder what the hell it was all about.

Don’t worry your pretty little head about what these songs are about. You could try to decipher the lyrics but I feel like words are secondary for these guys. Words are there to evoke flashes of imagery. Like on “Love is a Deserter” where Mosshart sings “get the guns out/your love is a deserter” over and over again. It is vaguely about betrayal, but the circumstances are never fully described and who cares – it has a great vibe.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album doesn’t hold up to the first two tracks. Then you’re left with songs about a shitty road (“Dead Road 7”) and what I think is a song about scoring drugs (“The Good Ones”).

These songs have a restlessness about them that is ably fueled by Mosshart’s delivery. As a vocalist, Mosshart alternates between sounding angry, frustrated or just plain strung out. Whatever emotion she’s spitting out, there is a dangerous element to her voice that is what rock and roll is all about when it’s done right. The half-baked reverb blues riffs that accompany her work well, although at times they get a bit derivative. “The Good Ones” sounds a bit too much like BTO’s “Takin’ Care of Business” for me to enjoy it, for example.

The production on “No Wow” strives for a garage band roughness and for the most part it works, but there are times, like at the end of “No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany” where the song trails off into strange samples and noises. This seems to be without purpose beyond demonstrating an ‘unfinished’ sound. My advice would have been to instead just finish it, but I guess at some level that’s a betrayal of the punk aesthetic they are going for.

I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating how much the Kills music is about the beat. It can be delivered vocally, by guitar or through the traditional drum kit, but the sound is very much about taking different rhythms and pulling them together in creative ways. “At the Back of the Shell” is a good example, rat-a-tat-tatting its way through a song that isn’t terribly complicated, but dresses up well. Mosshart’s impeccable timing is key to the success of every track, and without her these songs would quickly fall apart.

“Rodeo Town” feels like a break up song if breaking up was like some kind of drunken Vegas shoot out. The record is full of the hint of unhealthy relationships and recriminations, empty and otherwise. Unlike a lot of the songs it has more than a hint of both melody and story and I appreciated both.

In fact, there are lots of things to recommend “No Wow” and despite being my least favourite Kills album, it is still a good time. You can’t get too mad when the biggest problem about a record is the band made three better ones.

Best tracks:  No Wow/Telephone Radio Germany, Love is a Deserter, Rodeo Town