CD Odyssey Disc 742: Nikki Lane

Happy day! My annual holidays have arrived!

I have other holidays through the year, but the week I take off in June is the one that is all about me, where I get to relax, recharge and generally fill my days with my favourite activities. I got started last night with some beers with my friend Tom, and now I’m going to write this review before meeting my lovely wife for lunch. Life is good.

Disc 742 is….Walk of Shame

Artist: Nikki Lane

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover?  Behold, Nikki Lane and her giant head. Those deep blue eyes draw you in, but not as much as the back of the album:

Ah, the walk of shame in all its glory. Nikki is embarrassed by that unseemly tear in her pleather dress, but what she should be ashamed of is the album’s copy editor who has spelled her song “Look Away” as “Look Awtay”. There’s nothing shameful about walking home after a fun night out, but spelling errors like that? That’s just wrong.

How I Came To Know It: I read an article about her in a music magazine Sheila bought me for my birthday, and I decided to check her out on Youtube and see if I liked her. I did, and bought her 2014 album, “All or Nothin’”. Digging deeper I found out she also had “Walk of Shame” so I ordered it on Amazon, after a few months of fruitless searching at the local record stores.

How It Stacks Up:  If you’ve been reading along carefully, you’ll know that I’ve got two Nikki Lane albums. Of the two I prefer “Walk of Shame.” It just has a bit more punch than “All or Nothing.”

Ratings: 3 stars

“Walk of Shame” strays dangerously close to ‘new country’ multiple times, and I could have very easily found myself hating this record. Fortunately, Nikki Lane stays just on the wrong side of the tracks, which is where I like my country music.

The song structures are heavily influenced by the evils of Nashville, with Taylor Swift-like chord progressions in places that had me yawning. Don’t get me wrong, Taylor Swift is a gifted songwriter and your 12 year old daughter could do a lot worse for her first record. It just isn’t my cup of tea.

Fortunately, Lane’s music has an edge to it that kept drawing me in. The songs are very grown up for a songwriter right out of the gate. When she sings about the “Walk of Shame” it is funny for sure, but it is clear that song is more about triumph than shame. Nikki got lucky, and if there is a bit of awkwardness on the walk home, it was worth it. The refrain of “won’t do it again, won’t do it again” on the chorus is funny because it is clear she will. In the hands of a different singer, this song could be exploitative, but again Lane straddles that line without ever going over.

There is an air of rebellion throughout the record that goes beyond the usual “girls just want to have fun” vibe that you get from more obvious country singers like Gretchen Wilson or more recently Carrie Underwood.

“Gone Gone Gone” is particularly appealing, matching the chugging train bass beat of a Johnny Cash song with a bluesy collection of minor chords that would be at home on a Blue Rodeo album. These minor chords underscore how badly small town girls with big dreams need to get the hell out of town. It’s true for small town boys too – take it from one who knows.

The album has touching songs as well, including the touring track “Coming Home to You” which is a pretty little love song and “Come Away Joe.” “Come Away Joe” is a sister song to “Gone Gone Gone” with a soaring, hopeful quality, maybe because it is always easier to get out of town when you’ve got company on the trip. You get the feeling though that Lane will leave without Joe if he decides to not come away.

Not appealing is Lane’s cover of Muddy Water’s “I Can’t Be Satisfied” which has been so new-countrified I didn’t even recognize it at first. The cheesy guitar strums stripped the grit out of the  song and replaced it with that kind of empty yeehawing that you get from acts called things like “Big and Rich.”

Lane is a bit restricted by her voice, which doesn’t have a lot of power. Her coquettish singing style masks this most of the time, but occasionally she sound too affected and pulls you out of the song.

Special kudos for keeping the record tight at only 10 songs and 32 minutes total playing time. There isn’t a lot of chaff here, and the songs were clearly chosen with care.

Best tracks: Walk of Shame, Coming Home to You, Gone Gone Gone, Come Away Joe

CD Odyssey Disc 741: Bruce Springsteen

I’ve been on a bit of a housecleaning mission lately. This week I not only cleaned the shower, I also dusted all the wood surfaces in the house and I’m gearing up to do a bunch of vacuuming and floor cleaning this weekend. I’m not sure what’s come over me, but I will say it is much nicer to relax in a clean and tidy house.

Disc 741 is….The Rising

Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover?  A blurry-faced Springsteen greets us from around the corner of a brick building. Is he out of phase with our dimension? Trapped in a teleporter accident? Did he just need someone to say, “OK Bruce, one more, and stop moving around so much – this camera is old”? The answer is lost in the mists of time, along with the reason why this ridiculous cover was chosen in the first place.

How I Came To Know It: I didn’t know much about Springsteen’s more recent work, but I had recently bought the album that follows this one (“Devils & Dust” reviewed very recently at Disc 695) and I had liked it. I had heard good things about “The Rising” and it seemed a natural progression to give it a try.

How It Stacks Up:  I’ve got 10 Springsteen albums, and I’ll put “the Rising” sixth, bumping both “The River” and “Born to Run” down a peg, although all three albums are relatively equal. I think I favour each one of them when I’m under its spell, only to switch allegiances when I hear the next.

Ratings: 4 stars

Halfway through “The Rising” I was worried it wasn’t going to hit me emotionally like it had on prior listens. I began to think maybe it had lost its power to inspire, and was prepared to be embarrassed at how often I’d sung the praises of this record as a hidden gem in Springsteen’s later catalogue. It is true that at 15 songs and over 70 minutes, it is a little bloated but by the end of it, it was still shining with the same lustre I remember when I first heard it.

Coming out in 2002, this album is Springsteen’s reaction to 9/11. The same year Steve Earle’s album “Jerusalem” was leveling angry charges at the American system but Springsteen opted for a more conciliatory approach.

On “The Rising” Springsteen strings together a loosely connected series of songs about the tragic loss of life as a result of the collapse of the World Trade Centre. The songs tell the story of an emergency responder who dies in one of the towers and the grieving spouse he leaves behind to try to make sense of it all.

The songs that hit these themes the hardest, “Into the Fire,” “Empty Sky”, “You’re Missing” and “My City of Ruins” are spread evenly across the record and it is a good thing they are; when taken together are almost too much to bear. There are other songs on the album that touch on the events of September 11, 2001, but none do so as strong as these five.

“Into the Fire” is a yearning track of heroism and the loss that comes with it, as Springsteen sings the tale of the firefighters that went back into the buildings, many of whom would not return. Instead of making this a political statement, he brings it down to the personal level.

“The sky was falling and streaked with blood

I hear you calling me, then you disappeared into dust

Up the stairs, into the fire

Up the stairs, into the fire

I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher

Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire.”

“The Rising” is a journey through every aspects of grief, from the immediacy of “Into the Fire” to the numbing disconnect of “Nothing Man.” “Empty Sky” alludes to the constant reminder of the crime whenever we look at the New York skyline, and “You’re Missing” is the bookend to it – a reminder that for each life lost there is a house somewhere with a bunch of abandoned clothes representing a hole just as vast.

Stylistically, the album has good range with “Lonesome Day” and “Mary’s Place” filled with joyful horn; proof that life will go on after tragedy as surely as it did before, if you’ll only let it. Our protagonist on the album’s first track (“Lonesome Day”) never makes it home, but “Mary’s Place” reminds us if you are lucky you’ll still be surrounded by friends to share the burden.

“World’s Apart” tries to find a connection with the people in the desert far away, grieving their own love ones. With its overly obvious Middle Eastern rhythms I thought the song felt a bit forced, but I’m glad Springsteen explored this aspect of the story, particularly at a time when many Americans weren’t in the mood to hear any such thing.

There are weaker tracks on the album, among them the muddy “Countin’ On a Miracle” and the schmaltzy AM radio feel of “Let’s Be Friends” but they aren’t bad enough to pull the album’s overall impact.

With “The Rising” Springsteen was able to capture a tragedy in a way that walks the line between judgment and forgiveness, between anger and sorrow. It is a nuanced exploration of anguish, which is accented throughout with a resolute determination to rediscover joy. The music soars when it can, and sinks when it must, but stays close to the bone throughout. Throughout it maintains an emotional honesty in both song construction and lyrics that acts like a time machine to the heart, bringing you back to exactly how you felt the day you watched the towers fell.

Best tracks: Lonesome Day, Into the Fire, Nothing Man, Empty Sky, You’re Missing, The Rising, My City of Ruins

CD Odyssey Disc 740: Mark Knopfler

Before I get on with the music, a big congratulations to my friends Chris and Allison, who got engaged last night. Two great people who have found each other in this crazy world.

Disc 740 is….Shangri-La

Artist: Mark Knopfler

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover?  It is a one armed bandit, presumably to go along with Vegas-themed songs of boxing, strip clubs and assorted low lifes. I’ve never understood the allure of Vegas, or gambling in general. I don’t get this cover either.

How I Came To Know It: I was already an avowed fan of Knopfler’s solo work by the time “Shangri-La” came out, so I just bought it automatically when I saw it.

How It Stacks Up:  Over the years of writing this blog I’ve always struggled with whether to include Mark Knopfler’s many joint projects. Let’s not. With my recent purchase of Knopfler’s 2015 album “Tracker” I now have eight Mark Knopfler solo albums. “Shangri-La” is third best.

Ratings: 3 stars

Listening to “Shangri-La” and its laid back blues-folk rhythms it is hard to believe that twenty years earlier Mark Knopfler was rocking out calling for his MTV and doing the walk of life.

There is still a groove to Knopfler’s playing that is grounded in rock n’ roll and the blues, but everything seems more chilled out. Knopfler is still pumping out amazing guitar licks, but now they are in no hurry to get where they’re going. His playing is more thick and expansive than ever on “Shangri-La” whether it is the rock-edged “Boom, Like That,” the blues groove on “Song for Sonny Liston” or a California beach strum on the title track. Knopfler can play any guitar style with equal genius and on “Shangri-La” he just takes his time doing so.

Vocally, Knopfler will never win a singing competition, but he knows how to write songs that suit his strengths. When he does climb up for high notes he does it with a practiced ease, knowing he’s going to get there, even if he isn’t likely able to go any higher.

Knopfler often writes about ordinary folks doing ordinary things, and there is an element of that on “Shangri-La” but the album focuses more on the charlatans and hucksters of society.

“Boom, Like That” tells the tale of Ray Kroc, founder of Macdonald’s restaurant, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Here is a guy who took some other person’s idea, franchised it and choked out competition at every turn. The song is cleverly told from Kroc’s perspective and you can get the sense of a man who loves to make money, and no shame in how he does it.

Other songs focus on more generic, but equally questionable businessmen. “Sucker Row” is a song about a club owner (I think a strip club) making sure his staff knows to keep pushing the beer on customers and “Stand Up Guy” is about the person who works alongside a snake oil salesman to prove the product works. He’s the guy who ‘volunteers’ from the crowd to try it out and then declares it a miracle.

Knopfler has a great flair for turning character dialogue into lyrics that reveal their character better than any description. Consider this callous outlook from the pub owner in “Sucker Row”:

“Annie’s arriving at a dangerous age

Don’t you go getting ill

Get another woman up in the cage

Who ain’t over the hill,

Honey you know the drill.”

On “Song for Sonny Liston” Knopfler introduces us to a man who is both hoodlum and victim. Before I heard this song I knew nothing about Sonny Liston except that he was a boxer. Now I know his hard-scrabble background and his role of villain to the fans. Again, Knopfler summons up the sights and sounds of the times:

“The writer’s didn’t like him, the fight game jocks

With his lowlife backers and his hands like rocks

They didn’t want to have a bogey man

They didn’t like him and he didn’t like them.”

The song is set to a menacing guitar riff that made you feel like Liston is glowering outside your door, ready to swing those rocks at whoever he was paid to hit, and maybe a few others for free.

There are other times on the album that have questionable lyrics. “Whoop de Doo” is a pretty break up song, but making the chorus “whoop de doo” sounds silly. It feels like Knopfler fell in love with the idea of making a song with that expression in it, and refused to let it go.

On both “5:15 a.m.” and “Don’t Crash the Ambulance” I’m not fully sure of what the songs are about. “5:15 a.m.” seems to involve a mining community, some local thugs, and a body in a Jaguar under a bridge but it jumps through time so much I lose the narrative every time I listen to it.

“Don’t Crash the Ambulance” feels like it might be about serial killers, politicians, or even spies or maybe all three. If Knopfler is trying to connect them all thematically, the threads of the story never quite meet up, lost in the image of the ambulance that doesn’t seem to match up well to any of them.

On balance, this is a good record despite losing its way in a couple of places. Knopfler sings well and his guitar playing is a wonder that pulls even the weakest of songs into respectability. Three stars.

Best tracks: 5:15 a.m., Boom Like That, Our Shangri-La, Song for Sonny Liston, Everybody Pays

CD Odyssey Disc 739: Queen

Weirdly, I have once again rolled a Queen album and after this review I’ll be down to one. Although this happens once in a while, it always feels a bit weird.

Disc 739 is….The Works

Artist: Queen

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover?  We go from the saturated colour of “Hot Space” to a sparse black and white photo shoot where the band was apparently told not to dress in anything nice.

Freddie is rocking his muscle shirt, as usual. No those aren’t tattoos on his forearms, that’s hair. John Deacon looks like he’s embraced the eighties a bit too wholeheartedly and Brian May looks like he’s not embraced them enough. As for Roger Taylor, I believe he is wearing ballet shoes. You don’t get to try to look tough in ballet shoes, Roger, so wipe that glare off your face.

How I Came To Know It: Again this was me just drilling through all of Queen’s albums, and again this was my friend Spence’s recommendation (Spence likes his Queen and “the Works” has a special place in his heart).

How It Stacks Up:  Like yesterday, I still have fifteen Queen albums. They are all great in their own way so there is no shame when I say that “The Works” only managed to land at #11, behind “The Miracle” and ahead of “A Kind of Magic.” Really it is tied for 10^th with “The Miracle.” I don’t want to create a scandal out of it, but if you want it all, you’ve got to take a stand and so I’m saying “The Works” is #11, much as it pains me.

Ratings: 4 stars

After “Hot Space” Queen was ready to get back to rock n’ roll, and that’s what they did with “The Works.”

Gone are the dance music and funk grooves and in their place is a mix of rocking guitar riffs, show-tune piano, and anthemic rock. It is a return to Queen’s more traditional sound, but tinged with a lot of the musical innovations they tried on for size on both “The Game” and “Hot Space.”

The result is a sound different from their early career but still intrinsically Queen. In many ways this new imagining of their own style was fully formed on the “The Works” and would serve as the standard right through to their last record in 1995.

Let’s just say I like it. This album – both lyrically and musically – is a conscious struggle between the coming age of technology-inspired music and a plea that we not lose what it is to be human in the process.

The journey begins with the radio hit, “Radio Gaga” which is at once a put-down of what radio might become, but also a nostalgic journey back to what made radio great and how those times could come again. The conflict this song expresses about radio is about midway between the enthusiastic support of Rush’s “Spirit of Radio” and Elvis Costello’s “Radio, Radio.” Radio never did make that comeback, but I like that Queen was still holding out hope in 1984 that it would.

Other songs bemoaning the state of the modern world include “Machines (Back to Human)” which is a cool track, although the robot voices and references to bytes and megachips haven’t aged well over the years.

“Hammer to Fall” and “Is This The World We Created?” are both songs that bring me back to the hopelessness of how we all felt at the height of the Cold War. “Hammer to Fall” is a powerful anthem of rock, undercut by its own theme of us all just waiting for the world to end in a mushroom cloud. “Is This the World…” reminded us that even without a bomb going off, we were going to have to face up to the poverty and misery that was happening every day without a shot being fired.

For my money, the album is best when it brings all these themes together, as the band does on “It’s a Hard Life.” “It’s a Hard Life” reminds us that there are a lot of obstacles we’ll face, but we’ll make it through if we just love one another. This song shows Queen’s most underrated quality; their ability to inspire and to show us the warmth and glory of the human spirit. It isn’t just done with words either, as this song combines a soaring guitar solo from Brian May with Freddie’s inspiring singing to make us feel like we are all going to make it somehow, worlds of sorrow be damned.

“The Works” isn’t my favourite Queen album but it is telling that this far down the list, I’m still giving it 4 stars. That’s how good they are. And so despite David Letterman’s imminent retirement, if you were to demand my Top Ten list of Queen albums, I would have to refuse. For Queen, the list goes to 11.

Best tracks: Radio Gaga, It’s a Hard Life, I Want to Break Free, Hammer to Fall, 

CD Odyssey Disc 738: Queen

After this review I’ll only have two Queen albums to review. The ride isn’t quite complete yet, but I already know it will be a good one.

Disc 738 is…. Hot Space

Artist: Queen

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover?  The early eighties were not kind to album covers. Here we have some sort of Andy Warhol inspired monstrosity. Worst of all, because of my slight colour blindness it is hard for me to even see the John Deacon and Roger Taylor drawing.

How I Came To Know It: Just me drilling through all of Queen’s albums. I had originally avoided “Hot Space” due to its reputation for being a bit disco, but after my friend Spence played a concert DVD of Queen from that era I realized how great they were. I went out and bought the studio album shortly thereafter.

How It Stacks Up:  I have fifteen Queen albums and they are all amazing in their own way, so it is hard to stack them up. Nevertheless, you’re not here to have me equivocate. I’ll put “Hot Space” in at #8 just behind “Sheer Heart Attack” and just ahead of “Innuendo.”

Ratings: 4 stars

Of all Queen’s albums, “Hot Space” is their most artistically fearless. In 1982 disco was already dead and heavy metal was starting to rise in the musical consciousness. The last thing in the world Queen’s hard rock fans were waiting for was a funky dance record. Queen gave us one anyway and then dared us to hate it. But we couldn’t do it – it was just too damned good.

The record serves notice early on that it is going to go new places, with the sexy-as-hell “Staying Power.” The song’s opening lyric is “See what I got/I got a hell of a lot!” and fittingly they then they show just what they’ve got. Thirty seconds in, before the elevator had even let me out on my walk to work last Friday, this song already had me dancing. It has everything, including Freddie, more Freddie, a horn section and just a dash of Brian May guitar and a John Deacon bass riff that is inspired.

Deacon featured prominently on 1980’s “The Game” as well, and he continues to show his stuff throughout “Hot Space.” On the album’s second track “Dancer” he brings a whole new awesome bass line. This time it is Brian May whose guitar builds up the foundation in place of horns. He infuses Deacon’s funk with the rock elements of Queen that you were anticipating a track earlier, but were denied because hey – delayed gratification can be fun too.  This is still a funky dance track, and because of the way the album starts with “Staying Power” your ear is ready for the marriage of dance groove and power chord.

After this the record shifts down a gear. The songs are still amazing, but the energy moves from the hot groove of the dance floor to the side lounges and VIP rooms. Here champagne and intrigue flow freely and sidelong glances are the only ones you want.

One of the album’s hits, “Body Language” makes its appearance here, but I found it didn’t have the forward momentum to hold my attention after all the sonic fun that had come before, and would come after. Given the other choices, I am surprised this was one of the singles.

The next high point on the album comes with a power anthem in the traditional Queen mold, with “Put Out the Fire.” This is a fist pumping chant of a song that has you reveling in the power of it all until you realize…it is about the opposite. It is a song about letting slights pass, forgoing gun ownership and generally putting out the fire inside before you go and hurt someone. All this in the purest rock song on the album; it is delightfully subversive.

It is fitting that the next song is a dirge for the recently shot John Lennon, “Life Is Real” and then before the album pulls you down too far (because remember, this is Queen’s dance album) “Calling All Girls” picks you back up. “Calling All Girls” is a dozen different sounds laced together with some bright and shiny chord strums from May’s guitar, sounding restrained but bright and eager. The song even features early record scratching which we would come to associate with rap music in a few years.

By the time we come to the album’s most recognizable hit, “Under Pressure” at the very end (and like “Staying Power” anchored by a Deacon bass riff) we’ve seen it all; horns, piano, synthesizer, Freddie’s voice, Brian’s guitar and all of it anchored by precision drumming of Roger Taylor. There are no more worlds to conquer and the only thing left to do is have David Bowie guest vocal, and so they do. And it is great. Not “Freddie Great” but great nonetheless.

“Hot Space” challenges your preconceived notions of what Queen represents and what they should sound like. Somehow the boys have taken a myriad of separate elements and made each feel like a perfect fit with the others. Along the way made you want to cut a rug on the dance floor to boot. This isn’t an album the casual fan will buy, but that casual fan just has a couple of greatest hits compilations anyway. How sad for them.

Best tracks: Staying Power, Dancer, Put Out the Fire, Calling All Girls, Under Pressure

CD Odyssey Disc 737: Gang Starr

I’ve had a pretty productive week and things that usually bother me aren’t. I just feel chill and capable, kind of like this next album.

Disc 737 is…. Step in the Arena

Artist: Gang Starr

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover?  What a lovely photo from the 19^th century. You can tell it is from the 19^th century because it has a sepia tone to it and the two gentlemen depicted are not smiling. No one smiled for photos back then.

Guru is sporting a New Orleans Saints cap and DJ Premier is rockin’ the Minnesota North Stars hat. The year this album came out wasn’t a great year for either team. The Saints went 8-8 and lost in the first round of the playoffs and the North Stars went 36-40-4 and also lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The year after though, the Saints went 11-5 and the North Stars went all the way to the Stanley Cup. We must therefore conclude this album’s release inspired both teams to greatness. On a bittersweet note, Gurus’s Saints won the Super Bowl in 2009, the year before he died. I hope I don’t have to cut it that close with the Dolphins.

But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: My friend Casey introduced me to Guru’s solo work through “Jazzmatazz” and when I found out he was originally one half of the rap act Gang Starr I sought them out. I bought this album first because it was the oldest one in the store, and I like my rap old-school.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Gang Starr albums, so obviously my first purchase inspired me to more. In fact, I have since bought all six of their albums. Out of their entire discography, “Step in the Arena” is my favourite.

Ratings: 5 stars

The beauty of “Step in the Arena” is in its simplicity; lay down a beat, and then rap on top of that beat. If you do it this well you don’t need the tricks used in so much modern hip hop music.

The smooth jazz feel to “Step in the Arena” leaves plenty of negative space that if the album were made today would be filled with some guest singer singing a pop hook. Instead Gang Starr trusts to the strength of their beats and rhymes. They know they are that good. The empty space in these songs let you properly appreciate how carefully chosen the beats are, and how masterfully Guru will slide in and out of that beat as he spits his raps.

Style-wise Guru has a lot in common with LL Cool J with his laid back style that feels like it is sitting back into the beat like it was a leather easy chair. On “Step in the Arena” Guru is never better, occasionally sitting forward to emphasize a particularly intricate series of rhymes, like someone chillin’ in your house who leans in to tell you a particularly interesting tale.

Guru spends most of the album boasting of his rap prowess, but he also takes time out for social commentary on songs like “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” and “Just to Get a Rep.” Whatever he is rapping about, he constructs his rhymes with patience and a natural instinct. I’ve said on this blog many times that Rakim is my favourite rapper and I stand by that, but Guru is a close second.

DJ Premier keeps it incredibly simple, with a drum track and one or two samples at a time. It could be a vocal clip, it could be a bass riff or it could just be a sweet demonstration of scratching but he knows not to overdo it. There are lots of clever and innovative sound choices on “Step in the Arena” but Premier knows not to blow his whole arsenal at once. He spreads it out, sweet and smooth like strawberry jam.

I also appreciate how positive the message is on “Step in the Arena.” This is an album that puts down the materialism other rap artists are worshipping at this time. For Gang Starr, nice cars are nice, but they are just things. The important thing is strength of character. They take these positive messages and make them cool and interesting. Gang Starr teaches you lessons in a way that doesn’t feel like you are getting preached at. Like your big brother, they are good guys and they are cool, and you just want to be like them.

The production on the album is a bit fuzzy, but the songs are so good you easily forgive it and compensate by turning the stereo up a bit. Also, at 18 tracks it is a bit too long, including a few short musical ‘filler’ tracks that the record doesn’t benefit from. That said, there are still a solid 16 tracks on this album and when I searched for the ones I wanted to cut I could only find a couple of one minute filler tracks. These were so inoffensive that they don’t harm the record’s overall flow.

I didn’t want to give this album 5 stars because I haven’t rewarded Eric B. and Rakim with that honour yet, but I can’t find any songs I’d do without on this album. In terms of their total career, Eric B. and Rakim take the win, but I’m not denying Gang Starr props for this rap classic. Five stars it is.

Best tracks: Close enough to everything that I’ll just say everything.

CD Odyssey Disc 736: Mozart

Today I shared a walk home with a colleague. I like my musical interludes, but you should always make room for some human interaction when the opportunity presents itself. Otherwise, we’ll all turn into a bunch of headphone zombies stumbling past one another, eyes half-focused in the middle distance.

Don’t get me wrong, headphones have their place. For example, I wish I’d had them on when some crazy lady ladled abuse on Sheila and I outside of Island Blueprint for no reason. I ignored her. To me she was just a mild annoyance, but any engagement from me would have been the highlight of her week.

So instead, although I had no headphones I acted like I did. Today I had headphones, but acted like I didn’t. You gotta read the situation, people.

In any event, my album only had one two and a half minute song left, so I worked that in as I walked up the drive and waited for the elevator.

Disc 736 is…. Coronation Mass, Vesperae solennes

Artist: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Year of Release: Recorded in 1972 and 1980, but the music is from 1779 (Coronation Mass) and 1780 (Vesperae solennes).

What’s up with the Cover?  Behold the Crown of Generic Non-Descriptness! If this is actually the crown of some country, I feel badly for the king. I generally like my crowns to have some pointy bits at the top. The whole balloon shaped thing that’s been in for the last few centuries just doesn’t work.

How I Came To Know It: I bought Mozart’s Piano Concertos #23 and 24 (reviewed back at Disc 499). I liked that album and wanted more Mozart, but I know next to nothing about classical composers, so I asked my friend Kelly (who knows considerably more) what to try next. He suggested the “Coronation Mass.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have only two Mozart albums, although together they represent four of his complete works. Of the two albums, I prefer the other one.

Ratings: 3 stars

It could be that I wasn’t feeling the classical vibe this week, but this Mozart album did not impress me like the last one I reviewed.

For music to survive 250 years is quite a feat, so I give Mozart his due. Not unlike my earlier Mozart review, I was once again struck by the intricate and thoughtful constructions of his pieces. I was just not picking up what Wolfgang was putting down.

It could have been that this music is much more focused on choral arrangements, with the orchestra supporting the singers, and my other collection let the instruments stand on their own. Classical music appeals to me when the various note progressions seize my frontal lobes and twirl me along whatever merry (or morose) path they choose. The choral elements here made me feel grounded, like I was stuck on a hard bench somewhere being forced to listen out of a sense of duty.

This would be fitting for the “Coronation Mass” in C major. According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong) it was a common piece of music for the coronation of monarchs – notably a couple of Holy Roman Emperors. I imagine these events in the 18^th century were long drawn out affairs; kids in silly outfits and tight shoes fidgeting in the pews and old people passing out and being propped up by their daughter-in-laws. I expect there was lots of standing, sitting, kneeling and maybe walking around the altar seven times or what-not. Yeesh.

I’m being a bit unkind to the “Coronation Mass” which is only 26 minutes long (a pop single by the standards of the day) and moves along in places at a pretty good clip. It just never grabbed my attention.

The second big piece on the album is “Vesperae solennes de confessore” which was apparently performed for specific religious ceremonies. For my thoughts on how exciting this would be, you can see my comments above for the “Coronation Mass” – same audience, same venue, and likely the same fidgeting/snoring involved.

It isn’t just the singing that had me off here, because I love the choral elements to “Carmina Burana,” it is just that the whole thing just feels a bit…staid. The funny thing is that it really isn’t staid at all. Mozart was the pop star of his day and these songs have plenty of dynamics in them. The music is inspiring in many places.

However, in other places it feels like the vocal elements are designed to showcase the singers’ skill rather than serve the song. It was a bit like listening to a reality singing show finale between two divas trying to outdo each other with vocal acrobatics.

The album ends with a  couple of excerpts from other pieces: 15 minutes of “Litaniae Lauretanae” and a mere 2:30 of “Exsultate jubilate.”  

“Litaniae Lauretanae” definitely suffers from the vocal gymnastics. I think I’m supposed to like that part, which made me feel a little guilty when I didn’t. “Exsultate jubilate” is mostly a very talented singer finding different ways to enunciate the hell out of the word “hallelujah” “rain in Spain” style. It was a catchy tune and she could really sing, but after a while it was like listening to later Shania Twain albums – too many “ooh oohs” and not enough storyline to carry the song.

Mozart is a brilliant composer and I feel a little bad about being so flippant in my review (also a little naughty). Given how influential this music is to everything that came after I thought it would grab hold of me emotionally. Instead, it felt like one of those cultural events that you go to out of a weird obligation. You think it’ll be good for your development as a person, but half-way through you are mostly wishing you’d brought a pillow.

Best tracks: Exsultate jubilate was pretty good but this one is destined for the “sell/giveaway” pile. Sorry Wolfgang – I need the space.

CD Odyssey Disc 735: Tool

I just finished watching the New York Rangers stay alive for another game. I promised myself I wouldn’t watch the playoffs when the Bruins didn’t get in, but I find myself motivated to watch the Blackhawks, Habs and Rangers all get eliminated. As of tonight, they are all still alive. Damn.

Disc 735 is…. 10,000 Days

Artist: Tool

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover?  Tool simply can’t resist freaky covers. Like Pink Floyd’s “The Division Bell,” the cover of “10,000 Days” is a cognitive illusion, where you can see the central face, or you can see the two faces looking away from each other, but it is hard to see both at once.

This cover also comes with a couple of weird lenses that are used when you open up the CD booklet to turn a series of pictures into three dimensional scenes. The scenes are mostly band members sitting in turn of the century style offices or laboratories. However, since this is Tool there are also some ‘freaky as hell’ scenes. These include a skinless corpse impaled by pins, a skinless corpse wielding pinwheels of fire and a human skull with a fetus gestating in it. Thanks, Tool, for keeping it real. Real freaky.

How I Came To Know It: I was already an avowed Tool fan in 2006 so this was just me buying their new album when it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  We have five Tool albums. I would put 10,000 days in dead in the middle at number three. Since this represents the final Tool album in my collection, here’s a recap:

1. Undertow:  5 stars (reviewed at Disc 131)
2. Lateralus:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 622)
3. 10,000 Days:  4 stars (reviewed right here)
4. Opiate:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 425)
5. Aenima:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 485)

Ratings: 4 stars

“10,000 Days” is yet another master class in creepy brilliance by Tool. Like most of their records, it has the ability to deliver progressive metal riffs that draw you in like a warm bath and yet are so infused with disturbing overtones that you feel like you are taking that bath in the Bates motel.

For the most part I listened to “10,000 Days” on walks to work in the spring sunshine. You might think that this would take away from the creep factor, but it just made it all the more troubling. Seeing the sun all around you while listening to Maynard James Keenan’s dark lyrics and the off-kilter beats of Danny Carey’s drums just made the sunshine ominous. Every dappled shadow seems to hold some ill-portent and it is was delicious fun to indulge the fears that lurked in my lizard brain from the safety of a sunny stroll.

Thinking of how much more interesting Nightwish was to me after dark and with a few drinks in me I had planned to walk home from the pub last night using “10,000 Days” as my soundtrack. I ended up finding a cab right outside the restaurant so I took that home instead. I’d like to think it was simply the convenience, but maybe I was a bit scared to take Tool on that way. When I did get home I looked out on the dark and listened to “Intension” just to see what I had missed.

“Intension” is a slow mood piece designed to unnerve you, and it worked well, but I still felt it wasn’t as impactful after dark. I think Tool’s music calls for the juxtaposition of the normal with the abnormal in order to work, and because of that sunshine just draws out the weird factor better.

Musically, the band is in top form. “Vicarious” and “The Pot” are both groove infused tracks that show off the brilliance of drummer Carey, particularly “Vicarious” which half-way through has the most intricate and attention getting drum solo I can remember since the last time I listened to Rush's Neil Peart.

“Vicarious” also has quintessential Tool lyrics. The song is an indictment of the human fascination in the suffering of others. It is actually darker than just an indictment. Keenan makes it also about acceptance:

“'cause I need to watch things die

From a distance

Vicariously I, live while the whole world dies

You all need it too, don't lie”

A really messed up acceptance, mind you.

Tool loves to explore the troubled edges of our minds, where the conscious mind and the subconscious mind lap at each other’s shores, and madness lurks where they overlap.

On “Right in Two” Keenan sings about the dark impulse of humanity to always want to divide and to fight. This is the cursed gift of consciousness to Keenan – the gift of realizing we are apart from one another. And how does he see us using that?

“Monkey killing monkey killing monkey.

Over pieces of the ground.

Silly monkeys give them thumbs.

They make a club.

And beat their brother, down.

How they survive so misguided is a mystery.”

This reminded me of Roger Waters’ “Amused to Death” album except it was way less amusing. That’s bad because, “Amused to Death” is not at all amusing.

Songs like “The Pot” are so catchy that they can’t help but define the record, but the real gem on “10,000 Days” is “Rosetta Stoned.” It is about a man abducted by aliens or simply high on LSD and thinking he was abducted by aliens. We are never sure. Ordinarily this might not matter, except the aliens have allegedly told him the secret to avoiding humanities destruction and he was too high to remember it. It is this kind of tragedy of uncertain perception that Tool revels in.

The album drags ever so slightly in places, and at 75 minutes I found it a bit overlong, but the general brilliance of the high points more than make up for it, and the dragging sections are well used to set up the set pieces.

If you are new to Tool, “10,000 Days” is a good gateway album to their music and while it isn’t my favourite that is only because of how consistently brilliant these guys are.

Best tracks: Vicarious, The Pot, Rosetta Stoned, Right in Two

CD Odyssey Disc 734: The Killers

I’m on a roll lately (literally) as this is my third review in three days. I suspect there are three reasons for this:

• The albums have been short enough to get through in one day.
• I haven’t been sufficiently inspired to listen to them a second time.
• I’d like to review more albums than I buy so one day this project actually ends.

Disc 734 is…. Day & Age

Artist: Killers

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover?  A desert scene at night, depicted as a bubble mosaic. I feel like a lot of effort was put into this cover to create something pretty unappealing.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila liked the Killers and had purchased their earlier two albums. “Day & Age” was me buying her their new release for her birthday. I try to make sure when I buy Sheila music I am not picking anything that I would ordinarily buy for myself because that would be a lame gift indeed.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Killers albums and of those three, I like “Day & Age” the most.

Ratings: 3 stars

I try to never hate a band just for the sake of hating them, but even the most musically diverse of us fall short sometimes, and I admit that I have gone out of my way to hate the Killers. Their first two albums just seemed like vacuous pop music to me, and for a few years it was impossible to escape them. They blared out of every passing convertible Beemer and if you sought to escape indoors, they were usually playing in the pub as well.

Maybe I like “Day & Age” the best simply because it is the one I was force-fed the least. It didn’t do as well commercially and by 2008 I no longer had to sit and fidget while the people around me fanned their faces and talked about how much they liked the band.

I think it is more than that though. For starters, I think “Day & Age” is a bit more developed as a record, with stronger songwriting at its core and less reliance on the clash and racket of earlier efforts.

It is actually even more pop-centric than earlier efforts, and I like the way it works in light brushes of electronica into the songs. I also like that the production leaves a little space so your ear can appreciate the song as it develops, rather than the previous two albums that seem more interested in banging away on everything at once and hoping it works out. “Day & Age” has songs committing these crimes – notably “Spaceman” and to a lesser extent, “Losing Touch” but it is thankfully less pervasive.

This record can err on the other end as well, and ends up sounding too slick in places. Also the band comes across as being very deeply in love with themselves and their ideas, but at least there is more to love.

Love the Killers or hate them, you can’t deny Brandon Flowers has a voice that is solidly in the wheelhouse of the modern age. The high, almost falsetto power and eighties delivery is like many other singers haunting the radio waves (think Maroon 5). I don’t love or hate this sound – I’ve been through it once already in the early eighties with Prism and Nick Gilder – but I will say it has to be done just right not to sound fake.

Flowers manages to walk the fine line on a few songs, particularly “Human” a haunting tale that asks “are we human, or are we dancer?” Notwithstanding that logically both are possible, I find the question always has me thinking about the tightrope dancer in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” It is likely just my own very unlikely connection here, but good art is about connecting experiences in others. Kudos to the Killers for giving me a little existential angst in the form of a pop song. No doubt the sugary coating makes it go down easier.

“Joy Ride” is a funky track that evokes fast cars and kissing pretty girls in them, and “A Dustland Fairytale” has the kind of tragic love in desolate places that Springsteen might sing about. Not as good as Springsteen, mind you, but a solid effort.

There are some questionable production decisions, however; the West Indies steel drum in “I Can’t Stay” that I managed to forgive, and the eighties saxophone that I did not.

The album ends with “Goodnight, Travel Well” a directionless seven minutes of self-absorption that seemed determined to make me reject this Killers album like I have all the others. I was sorely tempted, but I just couldn’t do it. There is enough good stuff to make up for it.

If I only owned one Killers album (which would be totally fine with me), I think “Day & Age” would be it. I expect Killers fans would object to my choice, but I’ll just remind them that I usually don’t like this band at all.

Best tracks: Human, Joy Ride, A Dustland Fairytale

CD Odyssey Disc 733: Nightwish

I’m back from the gym and ready to have a quiet evening, but before I do let’s celebrate some music that is anything but quiet.

Disc 733 is…. Century Child

Artist: Nightwish

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? Behold the grotto of heavy metal awesomeness, in all its purplish waterfall glory (more on that later). A mysterious grotto nymph in a short skirt makes this cover even better. Here is a poster destined for the walls of teenage boys

How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed “Oceanborn” back at Disc 676, I discovered Finnish metal artists Nightwish via a documentary series by Sam Dunn.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Nightwish albums. I like them both about equally, but I’ll put this one slightly out in front.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

Nightwish is modern power metal in all its ridiculous glory. Double bass drums, soaring violin sections and operatic vocals singing about far away fantasy lands that Ronnie James Dio would be proud to call home.

“Century Child” is a bit more accessible musically than “Oceanborn” but just as bat-shit crazy. Walking around town with music like this is like being the star of a heavy metal Broadway musical. On the walk to work this was a glorious way to start my day. In the afternoon, however, I had to run a bunch of annoying errands.

First was a trip to the pharmacist. Waiting in line to fill a dental prescription doesn’t really go with the Nightwish vibe; less so when you find out you were in the wrong line and have to take five steps to the right and start all over again. Later, I bought hair product. It just didn’t make me feel centre stage, which is what this music needs. Instead of being in a heroic fantasy epic, it felt more like a farce.

Which is too bad because this is inspiring music in the right situation. For example, driving down the highway, hair flying in the wind as you keep left and curse the fools in front of you that won’t keep right. Or walking home on a stormy winter night and reveling in the lightning crashing above the city streets.

The biggest selling feature to these songs is lead singer Tarja Turunen. Her voice is opera-singer strong and it soars over the heavy metal riffs of these songs like a dark avenging angel. There is no greater proof of Turunen’s vocal prowess than that she can take lyrics like this:

“I was born amidst the purple waterfalls

I was weak, yet not unblessed

Dead to the world

Alive for the journey”

And make it feel like something important is happening. Give her anything even remotely emotionally evocative to sing, like this from “Ocean Soul”:

“Should I dress in white and search the sea

As I always wished to be – One with the waves

Ocean Soul”

And she’ll have you wishing you can swim out the sirens and dash your brains on the reefs.

Because of Turunen's talent, when Marco Hietala sings alongside her, the overall effect can feel awkward. He wants to play dark and demonic against her mysterious and majestic, but it isn’t a fair fight. He comes off more like drab gray and mildly annoying.

Inexplicably Nightwish decides to cover “Phantom of the Opera” near the end of the album. Turunen has the chops for it and they play it well, but despite it being a heavy metal version, it just sounded to me like a crunchier but otherwise unimaginative version of the musical number. Then the album ends with a ten minute medley of tracks under the overarching title “Beauty of the Beast.” Together, these two tracks cause the album to peter when it could have gone out with a bang.

My jewel case for this album is for the 2007 re-master, with four bonus tracks but the store made a mistake and gave me the regular version. I was actually happier not to have all the extra stuff (three of the five tracks are live or alternate versions of songs already on the record) so this was one of those times when less was more.

Overall this album is OK in the right environment. Walking home late at night and a little bit drunk during a thunderstorm – you can’t do better; waiting in line for prescription mouthwash, not nearly as ideal.

Best tracks: End of All Hope, Forever Yours, Ocean Soul, 

CD Odyssey Disc 732: Alanis Morissette

I’m just back from watching “Avengers: Age of Ultron” at the theatre. I rarely go to the movies anymore, mostly because I find all the talkers annoying, but I try to never miss a Marvel superhero movie.

I grew up with Marvel and the Avengers was my favourite comic series. Getting to see them come to life on the big screen is a big deal for the kid in me. Hell, the adult in my thinks it is pretty nifty too.  

Disc 732 is…. Jagged Little Pill

Artist: Alanis Morissette

Year of Release: 1995

What’s up with the Cover? In the foreground a lipsticked Alanis turns her head skyward – behold she is grass, she is nature. Behind a professionally styled Alanis looks contemplative despite the fact that the sun appears to have gone supernova and is obliterating the back of her head with its brightness.

How I Came To Know It: In 1995 I was 25 years old and did not live in a cave. I therefore knew this album, which was so huge that if you know someone over 40, and that person has more than 100 CDs, this is probably one of them – or was at one time before they went digital.

How It Stacks Up:  Alanis has eight studio albums, but this is the only one I’ve got, so I can’t stack it up. One does not make a stack.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

“Jagged Little Pill” is a solid record; never too hot, never too cold. However, in 1995 it was considerably more than that – it felt like the soundtrack to the confusion swirling in the head of every twenty-something in North America.

The record straddles the worlds of pop and rock, making it friendly for radio, but with enough of an edge that you can feel appropriately rebellious in liking it. It is a smart combination from a woman who had started her career as a pop starlet and was determined to reinvent herself.

The first couple of songs seem determined to establish her rock credentials, with the grungy “All I Really Want” and the famously nasty “You Oughta Know.” “You Oughta Know” was an instant break-up anthem. With provocative lyrics like “Does she go down on you in a theatre?” and “Every time I scratch my nails down someone else’s back/I hope you feel it” it is probably number two all-time in sheer vitriol. First place still goes to Marianne Faithfull’s “Why’d ya do it?”

Morissette’s singing is a little flat throughout, but her delivery is heartfelt and her distinctive rasp and ability to stay in the pocket make up for it. The imperfections in her delivery actually make it sound better.

The lyrics are solid for the most part, but they spoke to me a lot more deeply when I was 25. Now they can feel a little too much like a creative writing class assignment at times. Also, the song “Ironic” is full of stuff (rain on your wedding day, good advice you didn’t take, etc.) that just isn’t ironic. That is annoying.

This is an honest album, though, and that honesty shines through. Morissette has something to say, and she says it well. “Right Through You” is a solid indictment of the music industry that sought to pre-package her image in previous years and is now being called out. “Head Over Feet” isn’t my favourite song, but it has a genuine sweetness to it that shows Morissette’s vulnerability on an album where she mostly works hard at being tough. I appreciated that she took a song to basically admit to it.

When I first heard this album, I couldn’t get enough of it, and I would have reviewed it much more positively back then. Like a lot of people I played it to the point of over-playing it, and as a result it has sat fairly neglected on my CD shelf for a lot of years. It was nice to rediscover it. It was like running into an old flame. Nice to catch up in the supermarket lineup, and even if the passion isn’t there anymore, you are still reminded about why you liked her.

Best tracks: All I Really Want, You Oughta Know, Hand in My Pocket, Right Through You