CD Odyssey Disc 837: Sam Roberts

After an enjoyable morning out with a friend I came home and dove immediately into writing my latest novel. As a result I’m feeling energized and creative, despite the cold medication. So let’s take advantage of that fact and write a music review while I’m at it.

Disc 837 is….We Were Born In A Flame

Artist: Sam Roberts

Year of Release: 2003

What’s up with the Cover? A tree. A big beautiful tree in the middle of a field. For some reason this tree reminds me of the one that Drew Barrymore crashes her car into in the movie “50 First Dates.” Whatever tree it is, I like it and I would like to climb it. You’re never too old to climb a tree.

How I Came To Know It: I can’t remember. This album was a big deal in Canada when it came out so maybe I got caught up in all the fervor.

How It Stacks Up:  Sam Roberts has six albums, but I’ve only got this one. As a result I can’t stack it up against anything.

Ratings: 3 stars

“We Were Born In a Flame” is one of those records I almost never put into the rotation, but that is always a pleasant surprise when I do. This record isn’t nearly as good as the Can-con hype machine has tried to make it, but it is still good.

Sam Roberts is a Canadian rocker, who has a good appreciation for how to build a song in a way that combines a well-constructed hook with thoughtful lyrics.

This album’s sound demonstrates that Roberts is also a student of the music that came before him. Influences here are as varied as the Beatles, Blue Rodeo and even a little Billy Bragg. The resulting sound is an interesting mix of the recycled and the innovative, and a lot of what he does on this record, such as the way he uses the guitar as percussion, are commonplace in current indie music but for 2003 feels fairly new.

The album starts out strong with “Hard Road,” “Where Have All the Good People Gone?” and “Brother Down” all solid tracks. While I like the spirit of “Where Have All the Good People Gone?” the other two tracks did more to command my attention.

“Hard Road” and “Brother Down” both have a restless energy that gives you the feeling of walking at a fast clip, while leaving you with the impression that you’ve still got a long way to go. These songs are less about a good hook and more about just having a strong rhythm that draws you in. “Brother Down” also has hand claps. Hand claps always make a song better.

After this good start the album loses its focus, with a few tracks that aren’t bad per se, but are all easily forgettable. This culminates with “Taj Mahal” which is a bit too inspired by the Beatles’ psychedelic phase, but doesn’t nearly approach their level.

“The Canadian Dream” shows Roberts trying out a political protest song. The song is one of my favourites on the album, but mostly because of its groove. The lyrics are a bit obvious and uninteresting as Roberts laments the death of the Canadian dream, but fails to provide concrete examples. The specific is terrific, Sam!

For the most part the latter half of the record is good but not great, with the exception of “Don’t Walk Away, Eileen” which is a classic rock song. This song feels so timeless and perfect that while it was written in 2003 it would have been just as successful if it was released in 1965, 1985 or 2015. This is one of those anthem ear-worm songs that sticks with you for days after you hear it. If this song didn’t get Sam the girl, I don’t know what would.

The album strained the limits of my attention at 14 tracks and 57 minutes, and if it had been cut down to 10-12 songs it would be even better. Also, while not the album’s fault, my media player named all the songs wrong when I uploaded it making it hard to follow along. I’ve since fixed it, but it was a mild annoyance.

When I rolled this album I wasn’t excited at the prospect of listening to it, but it won me over yet again. Although “We Were Born in a Flame” is only 12 years old, I have a feeling it will age well. Decades from now we’ll all still be reminding Eileen not to walk away.

Best tracks:  Hard Road, Brother Down, Every Part of Me, The Canadian Dream, Don’t Walk Away Eileen

CD Odyssey Disc 836: Mark Knopfler

I’m feeling a little under the weather today. This rarely happens to me and my usual approach is to ignore it. And on that note, let’s get on to the music!

Disc 836 is….Kill To Get Crimson

Artist: Mark Knopfler

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? An artful take on a row of scooters. The guy on the left has parked his so it takes up multiple spots. When you do this with a car it is called “high siding.” In either case it is done by jerks.

How I Came To Know It: I love Mark Knopfler’s solo stuff. When he puts out an album, I just go buy it. That’s what happened here. Sorry there isn’t more mystery.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Mark Knopfler solo albums, not counting the albums he does in partnership with other artists. One of those albums had to come in last and sadly, “Kill to Get Crimson” is the one.

Ratings: 2 stars

With pockets overflowing from his career in Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler’s second career as a folksinger/songwriter has always had the air of “I do whatever I want” about it. For the most part, I find myself loving picking up what Mark is putting down, but on “Kill to Get Crimson” he lost me a bit.

Knopfler has an innate talent to tell a story, and he likes the stories of real historical people and characters that just feel real enough to have existed with equal ability. It helps if you like a rambling tale or two about ordinary folks getting by in the world, and generally I do. I also enjoy the way Knopfler weaves intricate blue notes into the stories, letting his guitar’s voice mingle with his to punctuate the tale.

Regrettably, while “Kill to Get Crimson” has the same formula for success, I found the results uneven. There are tales of Second World War boys learning to dance while waiting to ship out to D-Day, aging boxers and struggling painters. It’s a rogue’s gallery that is perfect for Knopfler’s insightful touch but I found I had to make an effort to get into these songs. It might be the music more than the lyrics, but whatever it is, I wasn’t drawn in.

“Heart Full of Holes” does a better job, singing of a holocaust survivor. This song’s tune didn’t blow me away but Knopfler’s ability to cover a topic in a dignified and respectful way won me over nonetheless.

The best character study on the album is “The Scaffolder’s Wife” about an aging wife of a local tradesman. She keeps the company books and goes into town once a week in her big convertible Mercury:

“The quick little steps

In the stiletto boots

And the hair with the roots

She comes in as a rule

To get the nails done

And the tan for the sun

When the kids are in school.”

Knopfler’s vision of this person is a lovely palette of hard and soft qualities. Here is a woman who is tough and blue collar, but still wants to feel like a lady. If she spends a little bit of money on a nice car and a few pleasantries, let’s remember she’s had a hard life and earned a little luxury. By the end of the song I just want to give this woman a big friendly hug she felt so real to me.

The other standout on the album is “Punish the Monkey” a song about how so often the people who take the fall for something going wrong are not the masterminds behind it at all. The song’s metaphor being that we punish the monkey ‘but let the organ grinder go.”

While “The Scaffolder’s Wife” has a lilted folk refrain, “Punish the Monkey” has Knopfler digging more into the blues, a fitting musical form for betrayal and injustice. This song also shows the best of Knopfler’s guitar work on the album. On other songs I felt like I’d heard the solos before on earlier tracks, but “Punish the Monkey” has a fresh feeling while remaining solidly in Knopfler’s wheelhouse.

And more than anything, that is this album’s saving grace; that Knopfler plays guitar on it. He is the best there is, and even when he’s just ambling through a few new songs the result is better than what most axe-men can muster.

I wanted to like this album more than I did, and I even kept it on rotation for an extra day but I couldn’t bring it above two stars. It could be that I am comparing Knopfler against his own work, which is a tall mountain to climb. Whatever it was, “Kill To Get Crimson” was merely OK for me.

Best tracks:  True Love Will Never Fade, The Scaffolder’s Wife, Punish the Monkey

CD Odyssey Disc 835: The Pogues

I’m feeling a little worn out, which isn’t a good sign given that it’s Monday. This too, shall pass. In the meantime there’s music!

Disc 835 is….Red Roses for Me

Artist: The Pogues

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover? All the Pogues gathered around the portrait of John F. Kennedy. It is unclear what instrument Kennedy played in the band, but given when this album came out I’m going to assume it was the harp.

How I Came To Know It: I love the Pogues. I’ve delved into all their albums that feature original lead singer Shane MacGowan since my friend Anthony put me onto them over two decades ago. “Red Roses for Me” is just me digging through their collection.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Pogues albums and they are all good. So good in fact that the amazing “Red Roses for Me” managed to displace “Hell’s Ditch” for third place, only three months after I reviewed it.

Ratings: 4 stars

More than any other Pogues album “Red Roses for Me” is full-on folk music, yet because of the ferocity in which these guys lay down a song you can’t help but feel it is a bit punk as well.

What isn’t punk about the Pogues is their musical precision. For music that so perfectly evokes drunken Irish louts, the timing is exceptional. Rolling songs that barely leave time to take a breath,  like “Down in the Ground Where the Deadmen Go,” still stay perfectly in the pocket from beginning to end. Even the screams and moans come in and out of the arrangement at just the right time.

I love the rolling rhythms of all the songs on this album. They make you feel like you are standing on the pitching deck of a ship, feeling every roll of the waves, and yet the swing of music keeps you on your feet, confident and loose.

Despite all this timing perfection, the Pogues never feel stale or overly rehearsed. If it is a furiously fast song like “Down in the Ground…” or “Waxie’s Dargle” or slow and mournful ballads like “The Auld Triangle” and “Kitty” these guys infuse every note with meaning. Sometimes that meaning is the raving of a drunken bawling lowlife, and other times it is the melancholy air of regret (often by the same lowlife: one imagines in the sober morning after).

These are songs about the down and out, often involving trying to scrape together enough money to afford a pint or (better yet) a whiskey. In the case of “Boys From County Hell” it is about not being able to even afford your rent, and instead giving the stingy landlord a vengeful beating:

“I recall we took care of him one Sunday

We got him out the back and we broke his fucking balls

And maybe that was dreaming and maybe that was real

But all I know is I left that place without a penny or fuck all”

My favourite song on the album is “The Auld Triangle.” Even though it is a song that dates back to the fifties, this timeless tale of incarceration and longing never gets old, and I’ve never heard anyone do it better than the Pogues do it here.

The album has thirteen tracks, and half of them are covers or traditional folk songs, but just like “The Auld Triangle” the Pogues infuse them with a modern punk energy. More impressive, the original compositions (all written by singer Shane MacGowan) feel as timeless and classic as any of the standards.

Old songs and new alike, MacGowan’s voice drips with the aimless fury of misspent youth and broken dreams. He steps with equal grace into the shoes of whalers on the high seas, fugitives bidding farewell to their lovers and drunks wandering penniless through the streets of London. At every step he and the band are in perfect sync; even when they’re loose in their stays, they’re loose to the same degree.

Despite only giving this album 4 stars, I don’t have anything bad to say about “Red Roses for Me.” This is a classic record that thirty years after it was released sounds as fresh and easy as the day it came out.

Best tracks:  The Auld Triangle, Waxie’s Dargle, Boys From the County Hell, Sea Shanty, Dark Streets of London, Streams of Whiskey, Kitty

CD Odyssey Disc 834: Thin Lizzy

It’s been a pleasant Saturday so far. It started with lunch with Sheila at our favourite diner (which has all new menu items!), followed by a nap with the cat, and a solid writing session working on my latest book. I’m feeling fulfilled, and I can’t think of a better way to round out the day than with a music review.

Disc 834 is….Bad Reputation

Artist: Thin Lizzy

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? This cover makes me imagine a conversation like this. Studio: “do you have any good photos for the next album cover?” Thin Lizzy: “How about these?” Studio: “Do you have any other pictures?” Thin Lizzy “No, that’s it.” Studio: “OK, I guess we can convert it to black and white and make the best of it.”

How I Came To Know It: I came to know Thin Lizzy’s larger catalogue through my buddy Spence, but this particular album was introduced to me by the awesome local record store “The Turntable” who put it on one day on vinyl. As soon as I heard it, I knew I had to have it – although I ended up buying it on CD.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Thin Lizzy albums, with plans to get a couple more before I am through. All the albums are good and competition is tough. Despite how much I like “Bad Reputation” I can’t put it above 4^th.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Bad Reputation” shows the softer side of Thin Lizzy, and when I first listened to it I wanted it to rock a little harder. After listened to it a few times over the last few days the album has won me over just as it is.

As ever, Thin Lizzy begins and ends with vocalist Phil Lynott, whose smooth vocals and uncanny ability with phrasing infuses every song with a coolness factor few bands can match.  Lynott is one of rock’s great vocalists, and his like will not be seen again.

The record’s opening track, “Soldier of Fortune” was the one that instantly won me over at Turntable Records years ago. This is a classic rock song that hits on every note. It has one of rock and roll’s greatest (and most unappreciated) guitar hooks, it has Lynott’s voice infusing the story of the soldier with all the import of a modern day Homer. The song even starts with a frickin’ gong.

The title track has a funky groove that almost feels like it is going to incorporate early disco, but when the chunky guitar chords launch that notion is quickly dispelled. “Bad Reputation” combines creative drum breaks and restrained guitar solos to really showcase how tight the band plays.

The album has a lot of range, such as “Dancing in the Moonlight” which feels like it was lifted from a Broadway musical. The inclusion of saxophone licks adds a playful quality. If only eighties songs had learned how to use a saxophone like this. The song also features a lot of walking home after the last bus has gone. Given it was 1977 it always makes me think that could be relatively early. Maybe eleven? Midnight? Whenever it was I bet it was early enough to be damned inconvenient after a night on the town. Then again, it just gives you an excuse to dance in the moonlight on the walk home.

But I digress…

Back to the album, which has a few songs with religious overtones, including “Downtown Sundown” and “Dear Lord.” These songs have a lounge feel around the edges which works beautifully with Phil’s voice, and the band feels relaxed and easy playing them. “Downtown Sundown” is particularly pretty, with a hopeful message that lets a lover go without acrimony, knowing that love will come again:

“If you want to fly

Then fly away

All the cloudy skies

Belong to yesterday

“Please believe in love

I believe there is a God above

For love

And He's coming.”

The song also features a sweet guitar solo from new guitarist Scott Gorham. The whimsical clarinet in “Downtown Sundown” strays close to saccharine a.m. radio pop, but stays respectfully on the right side of that line.

My main complaint with “Bad Reputation” is the production volume, which feels a little low and overly compressed. I’m not sure if this is just the remastering of the album or an original fault, but I had to turn it up a lot louder to get the full range of sound, even on headphones.

If you want Thin Lizzy to rock out, and only rock out, then “Bad Reputation” might feel a bit too smooth and polished for you. I admire this band’s ability to straddle the worlds of soul, rock, blues and jazz, and “Bad Reputation” is a good example of all the ways they use these forms.

Best tracks:  Soldier of Fortune, Bad Reputation, Opium Trail, Downtown Sundown

CD Odyssey Disc 833: Alice Cooper

Once again I am home late and tonight I have company coming over at eight. Hopefully I can squeeze in this next review so I don’t have to listen to this album for another day.

Disc 833 is….Brutal Planet

Artist: Alice Cooper

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover? This is a weird one, in that this is not the correct cover. This is some special edition import that looks very hastily thrown together (the booklet is a very quick history of Alice Cooper’s career clearly written for someone who has never heard of him). Part of me likes having this version, cheesy viper animation and all. Part of me wishes I had the original, which looks like this:

Meh. Neither one is that great, I suppose.

How I Came To Know It: I just buy all of Alice Cooper’s stuff. For a while I had given up, so I probably bought “Brutal Planet” about seven years after it came out, which would coincide with the date stamped on this re-issue.

How It Stacks Up:  I expected more from this album, and had left a spot for it at #14 out of my 26 Alice Cooper albums. Instead, it fell all the way down to lowly 24^th out of 26 total Alice Cooper albums in my collection. Sorry, Alice. As a result everything already rated between #15 and #24 got a one slot boost.

Ratings: 2 stars

“Brutal Planet” is the middle album in a trilogy released from 1994-2001 where Cooper explores the fall of mankind into damnation. The bookends of this trilogy (“The Last Temptation” and “Dragontown”) are two of my favourite Alice Cooper albums, but “Brutal Planet” does not hold up nearly as well as its compatriots.

First the good, because there is some. There is a power to this album and it was fun to listen to Alice Cooper embrace the heavy metal stylings of his day. The first two tracks are strong. “Brutal Planet” (the song) is an introduction to the themes of a planet doomed by sin, violence and excess and “Wicked Young Man” personalizes that wickedness in the form of a single person, self-absorbed and full of hate.

The title track is particularly dark with a pounding beat and Alice angrily spitting about excess and sin:

“Here's where we starve the hungry

Here's where we cheat the poor

Here's where we beat the children

Here is where we pay the whores”

Cooper has a real gift in infusing his lyrics with import, but that example above (judgey comment about prostitution notwithstanding) is about as good as it gets. The rest of the record has Alice trying to be as shocking as he can, but instead ends up making awkward and strained rhymes like these from “It’s The Little Things”:

“You can steal my car

And drive it into the lake

You can stick me in the oven

And put it on bake.”

That line belongs in a kid’s poem about Hansel and Gretl, not a metal album.

The other challenge is the evidence of the Loudness Wars on this album’s production, where every dial just seems turned up too far. It is great for chunky riff-driven songs like “Eat Some More” but overall I thought the record would have benefited from being turned down to a respectable level. Like 11.

Alice has been trying to remake his 1975 classic “Only Women Bleed” for years, and the entry on “Brutal Planet” is “Take It Like A Woman.” This song feels like it could be on Heart’s “Bad Animals” with all its organ and empty bombast, but it lacks the subtlety Alice is looking for. It isn’t a terrible song; it just reminds me of a host of Alice Cooper songs that are similar but better.

If you are an Alice Cooper completionist (and I am) you should get this album. Otherwise, I would encourage you to steer toward “Dragontown,” an album with similar themes but better songs, better lyrics and better sound.

Best tracks:  Brutal Planet, Wicked Young Man, Eat Some More

CD Odyssey Disc 832: Interpol

Another late night at work is over and I’m home and ready to review an album.

Disc 832 is….Our Love to Admire

Artist: Interpol

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? “Nature, red in tooth and claw” as Alfred, Lord Tennyson would say. This is one of those photos where no one seems to be having a good time. Both lions look sad, although the one on the left looks more depressed and the one on the right merely cranky. The antelope just looks bored, or maybe that is just resignation. All things considered, he’s taking the whole “I’m being preyed upon” thing pretty well.

How I Came To Know It: I think Sheila heard about this album and bought it for me for Christmas or a birthday. I’m a bit hazy on the details. Maybe I bought it for her?

How It Stacks Up:  I once had two Interpol albums: this one and “Antics” which I reviewed back at Disc 518 and then promptly sold. Fortunately, I like “Our Love to Admire” a lot better.

Ratings: 3 stars.

Interpol is the oughts’ answer to eighties Goth bands like the Smiths and the Cure; deep and woeful and occasionally so affected as to lose the emotional impact it intended. That said, “Our Love to Admire” a guilty pleasure. I quite liked this album, flaws and all.

It starts strong with “Pioneer to the Falls” and its ominous opening line:

“Show me the dirt pile

And I will pray that the soul can take

Three stowaways”

The music is haunting and Paul Banks’ vocals are creepy and discordant, which is what this song needs. I’m not sure what “Pioneer to the Falls” is about. Something dark and depressing though, and probably related to death. That’s how Interpol rolls, much like their Goth forebears. The song ends with:

“In a passion it broke

I pull the black from the gray

But the soul can wait

I felt you so much today.”

Because gray wasn’t depressing enough, they had to pull the black from it.

The album lightens up with the (relatively) fun-loving “No I in Threesome” which is pretty much about what you’d expect. Interpol handles the topic with a sexy energy that reminded me of Depeche Mode when they are feeling naughty.

Unfortunately after a promising beginning the album loses its momentum. Banks’ vocal style is to sing everything with Great Import but often at the cost of investing any real emotion. The songs are very stark and the excess reverb and other effects gloss over the melodies on a lot of the tracks. It is OK for mood music (if your mood is gloomy) but it doesn’t have enough pathos to draw me in.

The album’s single “The Heinrich Maneuver” is full of restless energy but never feels like it gets anywhere. It is like a kid that’s eaten too many candies and now his mom won’t let him go play outside and he’s bouncing off the walls. This isn’t a bad song but it just reminds me too much of the Killers, which is not a good thing.

The guys do generate a fairly unique sound of echo and angst, and they have a good understanding of how to make studio production serve that sound. It would be interesting to hear these songs done acoustically or maybe sung by someone else (sorry Paul).

Near the end of the album though, as I was losing interest, the record was redeemed by “Rest My Chemistry” a song about drug abuse. A lot of “Our Love to Admire” feels raw, burned out, or lyrically disconnected. These qualities work in their favour on “Rest My Chemistry” which takes place more than two days into the binge:

“I haven't slept for two days

I've bathed in nothing but sweat

And I've made hallways scenes for things to regret.

My friends they come.

And the lines they go by

“Tonight I'm gonna rest my chemistry

Tonight I'm gonna rest my chemistry”

Hearing this song is like feeling the frayed nerves of someone who has finally reached the end of their endurance and decided to take a night off. He hasn’t come down yet and his body is thrumming (again mirrored in the music), but he is ready to do so. I also like the double meaning of “rest my chemistry,” both putting aside the drugs and also resting his own body’s chemistry. The song does not suggest the craving is gone for good, but merely that he is taking a breather. Interpol infuses this small victory with all the importance they can muster.

Overall “Our Love to Admire” has some annoyances but it also has a few victories, chief among them “Rest My Chemistry.” Add it all up and you get a good album, but not a great one.

Best tracks:  Pioneer to the Falls, No I in Threesome, Rest My Chemistry

CD Odyssey Disc 831: Diamond Head

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’ve had a pretty good Valentine’s Day weekend, just housin’ and chillin’ with my girl.

Disc 831 is….Am I Evil? The Diamond Head Anthology

Artist: Diamond Head

Year of Release: 2004 but featuring music from 1980-1993

What’s up with the Cover? The Diamond Head logo on a white background. I like this album cover’s simplicity.

How I Came To Know It: I can’t remember. I knew I wanted to get the original version of “Am I Evil?” after learning that the Metallica version was a cover. It was likely one of two fellow metal fans (Spence or Ross) that alerted me to the band.

How It Stacks Up:  This is a compilation album so according to long-standing CD Odyssey policy and procedures it doesn’t stack up.

Ratings: Compilation albums don’t get rated either. That’s just how I roll. If you want to know how I feel about this one you’re going to have to keep reading.

I tend prefer anthologies to greatest hits records because they have a lot more music and therefore give you a better feel for what the band is all about.  Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?” showcases the good and the bad of this approach.

This anthology covers the time when Sean Harris was the lead singer of the band, which only encompasses four studio albums. With two CDs and over two hours of music very little is left out. In fact from the band’s first two albums (1980’s “Lightning to the Nations” and 1982’s “Borrowed Time”) only two songs are missing. So unless you really like “Sweet and Innocent” and “Don’t You Ever Leave Me” you’re covered.

This early period showcases the best of Diamond Head. They are part of the very influential New Wave of British Heavy Metal at this time, alongside better known bands Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. They have elements that remind me of two those bands. The pounding guitar lines that deep down have their roots in the blues remind me strongly of Priest, but the fanciful songs about knights and dragons and prophecies show elements of Maiden as well.

Sean Harris doesn’t have the pipes of Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson, but he gets the job done, and Brian Tatler is talented at banging out a crunchy riff or a fast and furious solo on his electric guitar. Together these guys write all the songs, and have a flair for working in hints of prog rock, but never enough that you could call them on it. They aren’t afraid to alter the course of the song midway, but still keep the energy up.

The early tracks from 1980-1982 are definitely the highlights of the album. “Am I Evil?” is a classic track. In fact, once you hear the Diamond Head original you realize how little Metallica added to it. The two versions sound very similar and I have a hard time picking my favourite.

“It’s Electric,” “Shoot Out the Lights” and “Dead Reckoning” are all classic Diamond Head songs, with power and energy that makes you feel like speeding (I listened to these songs while walking home from work, but I feel like they made me walk faster). “I Don’t Got” sounds like Led Zeppelin on steroids, which is just what Led Zeppelin needs sometimes.

Unfortunately, the second CD of the album highlights how the magic of their first two albums faded. Half of 1983’s “Canterbury” is on the anthology and you can feel the band lose its way into more pop-driven numbers. “Makin’ Music” feels more like seventies stadium rock than eighties metal. I still like the song, but it is missing the edge of their earlier stuff.

This is also the point the songs become more fantasy-based and I think if I had known Diamond Head back in 1983 I would’ve liked this part of their career much more. “Knight of the Swords” is about the series of books by Michael Moorcock about Corum Jhaelen Irsei which I loved as a kid. Check out these crazy fantasy-fueled lyrics:

"A jewelled sceptre plucked by order to serve their cause

To vanquish the swords of chaos and tip the scales again

The last of noble blood you know time must take its course

You blood red robe will never feel the same."

This also puts Diamond Head in elite company with Blue Oyster Cult and Hawkwind, all bands who wrote songs about Moorcock’s Eternal Champion fantasy novels.

Unfortunately, the last half of the second CD in the anthology is dedicated to their 1993 comeback album “Death and Progress” which – based on the four songs included here – is more death than progress. All semblance of heaviness has been stripped out and even the fantasy fun is missing. The best I can offer is that they sound like a better version of Def Leppard. Unfortunately even a good version of Def Leppard is not good.

Overall, “Am I Evil?” is a great anthology of Diamond Head, but much like the band it is better early on and slowly fades as you are walked through the band’s career. I hate to be one of those “I only like their early stuff” music snobs, but this time it’s true.

Best tracks:  Am I Evil?, The Prince, It’s Electric, Shoot Out the Lights, We Won’t Be Back, I Don’t Got, Dead Reckoning, Borrowed Time, Makin’ Music, Knight of the Swords

CD Odyssey Disc 830: Dropkick Murphys

My walk home from work is a bit longer these days and as a result I get a chance to immerse myself that much more fully in my albums. This next album didn’t grab me halfway through the first listen, but by the end of the third had really grown on me.

Disc 830 is….Do or Die

Artist: Dropkick Murphys

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover? A bunch of labourers. They’re a jolly bunch by the looks of them. 

How I Came To Know It: Although this is actually the Dropkick Murphys’ debut album I bought it fairly late. It was just me digging through their collection and getting the albums I didn’t have already. I’m like that.

How It Stacks Up:  I have seven Dropkick Murphys albums (that’s all of them with the exception of 2011’s “Going Out in Style” which didn’t grab me). I only recently bought my seventh, which I like quite a bit. “Do or Die” isn’t quite that good, but it did surprise me a bit. I’m going to bump it ahead of “The Warrior’s Code” into fifth. “The Warrior’s Code” actually falls two spots to sixth because of the aforementioned new album, but I’ll talk about that when I roll it.

Ratings: 3 stars

If you like your Dropkick Murphys more punk and less folk, then their debut album, “Do or Die” is the album for you.

Sure this record starts off with bagpipes playing “Scotland the Brave” but it isn’t too long before the punk rock crashes down around you. In fact, after the title track gets going on the second song I don’t believe the pipes ever return. It is a damned shame.

“Do Or Die” is a hard hitting album, crusty and angry and hard to love at first. However, if you open your heart (and ears) to it, it will grow on you. The boys play with a wild abandon but they never lose the song in their exuberance. This record exudes energy – mostly of the rebellious kind. These are songs about fighting, drinking and the plight of the working man.

This is Murphys’ debut album and the only one to feature original frontman Mike McColgan. All the other records feature Al Barr as lead vocalist. In Iron Maiden parlance, McColgan is the Paul Di’Anno to Barr’s Bruce Dickinson. Barr has the better voice, but McColgan is rawer. Unfortunately, McColgan overdoes it at times, and can end up sounding out of breath. In McColgan’s defence it happens because he sings with such a wild abandon. If he didn’t overdo it, he wouldn’t be doing it the same. Because I like my Murphys just a smidge more lyrical and Celtic I prefer Barr overall, but McColgan is the right voice for this particular record.

The album is 16 tracks, which should be too many, but because the Murphys faithfully stick to the punk aesthetic of very short songs (only one even breaks the three minute mark) it goes by in a blur.

As noted there is plenty of grimy Boston underbelly exposed here. We’ve got drunks with catheters, and Karaoke-inspired brawls. The heroes are as likely to be from the barroom as from the battlefield. The most notable villain on the record is a landlord. Although the record is twenty years removed from the beginnings of the punk movement it is faithful to its roots, while still embodying the energy of more current times.

At first I thought I would be worn down by relentless pace of the songs, but because they switch one to another so quickly they just feed the energy. Also once your ear adjusts to the onslaught you start picking out the melodies.

“Do or Die” is not a complicated album, but it is an honest one that is played with skill and enthusiasm. I’ve enjoyed watching the Murphys grow their sound over the almost twenty years they’ve been putting out records, and even if “Do or Die” is not their crowning achievement it helped me appreciate their roots. If you like traditional punk music, you’ll like this record.

Best tracks:  Get Up, Caught in a Jar, Fightstarter Karaoke, Barroom Hero, Tenant Enemy #1, Skinhead on the MBTA

CD Odyssey Disc 829: Capercaillie

You probably came here looking for a music review, so let’s get to it!

Disc 829 is….Sidewaulk

Artist: Capercaillie

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover? Another awkward folk cover. Based on the combination of clothing, expressions and wallpaper this one appears to have been taken in a funeral parlour’s showroom in between picking out the coffin and the floral arrangement. Most of the band appears to be staring stoically to the left, but the guy in the middle has decided to try his “dead sexy” face on the photographer. And the guy on the right? Let’s just say he dances to the beat of his own bodhran.

How I Came To Know It: I bought their album “Crosswinds” for the rather random reason of having a lot of Gaelic songs, but I got lucky. “Sidewaulk” was me buying their next release after I knew I loved the band.

How It Stacks Up:  I have nine Capercaillie albums. I love “Sidewaulk” but competition is fierce at the top and I’m going to have to put it fourth, narrowly sidling in front of “Crosswinds.”

Ratings: 4 stars

Some music just makes you feel glad to be alive, and that’s what Capercaillie’s “Sidewaulk” has always done for me. Whether the songs are somber dirges filled with loss or joyous fiddle reels shaking the boards of the dance floor, this record always leaves me feeling like my soul has been rejuvenated.

This was one of the reasons Celtic folk music first called to me back in the early nineties; it just makes you feel something.

It all begins with Karen Matheson’s voice, which is sweet like wine and strong like iron. I can’t think of anyone who sounds so powerful and pure hitting such high notes. On “Fisherman’s Dream” when Karen asks what happened to the lost dreams of the fisherman, you want to get in a boat and go help her look for them. As much as I recently heaped praise on Jimmy Rankin for his song “Fisherman’s Son,” Capercaillie leaves the Rankins in the dust.

“Iain Ghlinn’ Cuiach” (or “John of Glenn Cuiach”) is a heartbreaker, with just Matheson’s vocal and a lone piano singing the age-old tale of unrequited love. The song ends with a wish of good fortune for the very man who’s broken the singer’s heart. Here it is in Gaelic, and then a translation:

“Ged a chinn thu rium fuar

Bheil thu, Iain, gun truas 's mi 'm chàs

'S a liuthad là agus chuir

Thu 'n céill gum bu bhuan do ghràdh?

Ach ma chaochail mi bhuaidh

'S gun so choisinn mi t'fhuath na t-fhearg

Tha mo bheannachd ad dhéidh

'S feuch an tagh thu dhuit fhéin nas fhèarr

“Although your feelings towards me have turned cold

Are you, John, without pity for me in my plight

When you so often declared

Your undying love for me?

But if I have changed so in character

That I have earned your hatred and anger

My blessings still go with you

And if you can, try to choose someone better”

Hmmm…on second thought this looks a lot like passive aggressive behavior. I’m pretty sure she’s suggesting John’s not going to find the grass greener on the other side of the meadow.

My favourite track is Capercaillie’s cover of Dick Gaughan’s 1979 song “Both Sides the Tweed.” Despite being a song about the betrayal of Scotland in its union with England, the song urges peace between the countries, even as it calls for independence:

“What's the spring-breathing jasmine and rose,

What's the summer, with all its gay train,

What's the splendor of autumn, to those

Who've barter'd their freedom for gain?

“Let the love of our land's sacred rights,

To the love or our people succeed;

Let friendship and honour unite,

And flourish on both sides the Tweed.”

That is some pretty poetry and Matheson’s vocals (accentuated artfully by Marc Duff’s recorder) further underscore almost three hundred years of Scottish soul searching.

The album has some amazing instrumentals, each featuring the brilliant Charlie McKerron on fiddle. I’ve never heard a better folk fiddler than McKerron and “Sidewaulk” has some of his finest work including “Balindore” and “The Turnpike” both of which are medleys that mix traditional Scottish fiddle songs with original Capercaillie compositions. The modern additions are every bit the equal of the classics and McKerron plays with his usual perfect mix of precision and passion.

This is an early Capercaillie album, and they haven’t incorporated a lot of world beats and rhythms that come on later albums. I like their later experiments, but I also admire “Sidewaulk’s” stark and honest beauty.

Best tracks:  Fisherman’s Dream, Iain Ghlinn’ Cuaich, The Turnpike, Both Sides the Tweed,

CD Odyssey Disc 828: Digital Underground

It has been a busy long weekend, and it is only half over. Today is the most hallowed day in the sports calendar, Super Bowl Sunday, and Sheila’s team (the Carolina Panthers) has a chance to win it all. It is pretty damned exciting.

But before we get to that excitement let’s refocus on what this blog is all about – music! On Friday I managed to secure my latest musical obsession on CD: Eleanor Friedberger. Friedberger is one half of the experimental indie band “The Fiery Furnaces” but her solo stuff is very different with a Jenny Lewis alt-pop feel to it. Check her out if you get a chance. Now, on to the review!

Disc 828 is….Sex Packets

Artist: Digital Underground

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? Rappers be stylin’. I really want the one guy’s zebra striped hat. I could totally rock that. The glowing blue square he’s holding is the titular “sex packet.” It’s a mythical drug that knocks you out and gives you the experience of having sex with the person (or persons) pictured on the package.

Interesting factoid: one of these guys is Tupac Shakur, who was in Digital Underground at this time. I don’t know which guy as I’m not much of a Tupac fan.

How I Came To Know It: A number of my friends own this album. Years ago we’d sometimes go back to someone’s house after a night at the pub and listen to music, and choice tracks from “Sex Packets” were often selected. A couple of years ago I saw a copy on sale for cheap and bought it.

How It Stacks Up:  Digital Underground made a few albums over the nineties, but this is the only one I have, so it can’t really stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars

Rap act Digital Underground will forever be remembered for “The Humpty Dance” but “Sex Packets” has a lot more to offer than one hit song.

This record is an innovative record that combines traditional rapping and scratching with jazz, pop and even brings in elements of a concept album. Also, it is damned funky and damned funny in equal measure.

It all starts with “The Humpty Dance” which was a pretty big hit back in my clubbing days. I once saw a whole dance floor of folks attempting to do the Humpty Dance in lines. Given these in-song instructions…

“First I limp to the side like my leg was broken

Shakin' and twitchin' kinda like I was smokin'

Crazy whack funky

People say ‘ya look like M.C. Hammer on crack, Humpty!’

That's all right 'cause my body's in motion

It's supposed to look like a fit or a convulsion

Anyone can play this game

This is my dance, y'all, Humpty Hump's my name

No two people will do it the same

Ya got it down when ya appear to be in pain.”

…you’d expect the dance floor was pretty chaotic, but it was surprising how cohesive it all looked. Maybe it is because the groove is so irresistible that it fills you with rhythm even while you’re convulsing.

There are a whole series of amazing tracks on “Sex Packets.” “The Way We Swing” and “Rhymin’ on the Funk” are both groovy tracks that also make you want to dance. “Rhymin’ on the Funk” borrows heavily from Parliament’s “Flash Light,” paying homage to the original song while making something totally new through very clever sampling. When anti-sampling laws came along a couple years later they squelched this kind of innovation and it is a damned shame.

Unfortunately the album does have some unnecessary filler. If the late eighties curse was bad production, the early nineties gave us albums that were too long, particularly rap albums. Artists realized they had more time under the new format and were determined to use it. “Sex Packets” is 14 songs and 65 minutes long, but it should be about 10 songs and 45 minutes, with the surplus left in the studio.

“The New Jazz (One)” has samples of jazz piano and some innovative scratching but it just didn’t appeal to me. “Gutfest ‘89” is a Frank Zappa-like skit about an imaginary concert tour. Both songs didn’t appeal and stripped out some of the energy the album had built up to that point.

Fortunately, the end of the record starts to recover with the down n’ dirty “Freaks of the Industry” which features a crazy sex scene complete with two multiple choice quizzes, the first of which presents the following problem:

“…A'ight, here's the scene:

You're lying on your back with your head on the edge of the bed,

The booty's two feet from your head:

Should you: A, take the time to find a condom,

B, you walk right over and you pound 'em,

C, tell her that you want her love,

Well the answer is D, (D), all of the above.”

In the middle of “Freaks of the Industry” some jazz piano inserts itself, but it is so cleverly done it feels totally natural. The piano gets the accompaniment of some subtle scratching and a back beat that makes it ten times better. If only all jazz piano got this treatment.

The last five tracks on the record combine to tell the story of the titular “Sex Packets” and turn this part of the album into a concept piece. It reminded me of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Secret Treaties” and the Who’s “Who’s Next” as albums which are part concept records and part singles. For those other two albums, it happened because one member of the band wanted to do a concept record, and so the band relented and included part of it. I wonder if the same thing happened on “Sex Packets” but I didn’t find anything to prove the theory. Certainly the album’s self-proclaimed philosophy is that you should “Doowatchalike” so maybe this is just them practicing what they preach.

Whatever the case, “Sex Packets” is a rap album that has stood the test of time and still sounds fresh and musically interesting 25 years after its release. If you like rap, there’s a good chance you’ll like this.

Best tracks:  The Humpty Dance, The Way We Swing, Rhymin’ On the Funk, Freaks of the Industry, Packet Man

CD Odyssey Disc 827: Heart

I wanted to get this review written yesterday but a late night at work followed by a social engagement denied me. This meant that I was stuck listening to it for a second straight day. Fate can be cruel.

Disc 827 is….Bad Animals

Artist: Heart

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover? A series of drawings stylized to look like cave art, if cave art was drawn by dudes in pastel suit jackets with big shoulder pads.

How I Came To Know It: I knew this album as a kid, but I never bothered to buy it until our friend Gord was parting with his CD collection, and I picked it up on the cheap along with a bunch of other albums. Not my finest purchase of the day. Sorry, Gord.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three Heart albums, and this is easily the worst. I think that if I had six or seven heart albums, this would still be the worst.

Ratings: 2 stars

If this album were an animal it would be the dog that eats your shoe or the cat that pees on your radiator. “Bad Animals” is a bad animal indeed.

This album annoys me in so many ways, but only makes me happy in two. And it isn’t that I don’t like Heart, because I do. I have two of their other albums, and I plan to buy another at some point.

In 1987 classic rock bands were mowed down by the saccharine production of synthesizers and drum machines. Sometimes the quality of the songs kept these albums afloat, as they do on Bruce Springsteen’s “Tunnel of Love” or Rush’s “Hold Your Fire.” “Bad Animals” is an example of when that doesn’t happen.

That is not to say this album has no good songs. In fact, it has one and it is even their biggest hit. “Alone” is a great track; an anthem for all the awkward girls in love with some popular guy who doesn’t know they exist. Despite the bells and whistles of eighties production, Ann Wilson’s voice soars with power and pathos. The producers even take a break from all their tinkling and futzing about long enough to let Nancy Wilson unleash a passable guitar solo.

Sadly, even “Alone” doesn’t have the sway over me it once did, having been dismantled and abused by year after year of Idol and Voice hopefuls wishing they could do what Ann does, and failing by various degrees.

Fortunately, “Alone” isn’t totally alone for me. It has a guilty pleasure to keep it company! “You Ain’t So Tough” is not what most people would call a good song, but I love it anyway. It is the nerdy and cynical friend to “Alone’s” awkward hero. I don’t care that it has some of the worst drum machine on the album, or that the guitar solo is marred with some sort of electronic version of the triangle. I love this song, and I don’t care what anyone thinks (which is pretty much the only way you can love this song).

Other than this, “Bad Animals” is a bunch of eighties radio pop. This is not a great genre to begin with and the songwriting doesn’t save it. It is sad that a band with the hard rock roots of Heart descended into the world of vacuous pop. Their 1985 self-titled album that preceded this one was more of the same but the writing is just better than you find here.

“Bad Animals” other tracks are forgettable. Even the other hits (“Who Will You Run To” and “There’s The Girl”) don’t stand out except perhaps against the remainder of the record. “I Want You So Bad” made me want them to sing different songs so bad, but that was the extent of my desire. “Wait For An Answer” had me mentally responding with a firm “no” whenever it came on. “R.S.V.P” is the musical equivalent of a party no one attends: sad and empty, with streamers decorating the place and an untouched spinach dip on the dining room table.

Despite all this Heart can still smugly cash their royalty cheques (“Bad Animals” is their second-highest selling of 15 studio albums), so in the eyes of a lot of other people they clearly did something right. And like I said earlier, there are a couple of tracks that I still like despite all the other warts. On the other hand, I'm not one for keeping just singles., so what shall be the fate of such a record in my collection?

“Alone” ends with a fervent hope that to not end the night without companionship. Not to worry, song, you’ll have plenty of company with the other tracks on this album in the deleted items folder of my computer, at least until I empty it.

And…delete.

Best tracks:  Alone, You Ain’t So Tough

CD Odyssey Disc 826: Wolfmother

I got some good work done on my latest book last night and my brain is swimming with the story I’ve got packed away in my head. Before I do some more of that unpacking, here’s a music review to grease the creative wheels.

Disc 826 is….Self-Titled

Artist: Wolfmother

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? I usually love Frank Frazetta’s art, but this is not my favourite sample of his work. I am guessing this is some sort of serpent woman or medusa. She has a pet iguana and a few pet snakes, including a giant one around her feet. She also has an obvious penchant for standing majestically on mountains, which I guess is fine if that’s your thing.

How I Came To Know It: Three or four of my friends bought this album and raved about it, so I decided to give it a chance despite not liking the single I had heard.

How It Stacks Up:  Wolfmother now has three studio albums, but I only have this one so I can’t really stack it up.

Ratings: 3 stars but just barely

This Wolfmother album often reminds me of first Batman movie starring Michael Keaton.

“Batman” came out in 1989 to a lot of fanfare and anticipation. At the time I was working a summer labour job in the small B.C. town so I could afford another term of university in the fall. There wasn’t much to do outside of work and “Batman” was a damned exciting event at the only theatre in the town. So when I went I was pretty let down with a movie that was just OK. Not revolutionary and not inspiring to the soul, but just an OK action adventure movie.

Wolfmother never hit with the same fanfare as Tim Burton’s “Batman”, but it did have a top ten hit (“Woman”) which was OK. It also definitely inspired a bunch of my buddies who share my passion for music. They loved this record, and knowing them like I did I thought it would be a sure thing for me as well.

Like Batman, anticipation was everything. I was expecting Wolfmother to blow me away, and the distance between expectation and reality left me feeling more disaffected than was warranted.

“Wolfmother” is actually a solid rock album, and it has benefited from the distance of having lived relatively unmolested in my collection over most of the past ten years. This record has superior production and some serious rock crunch. These guys thump hard, and the rock riffs have a thick seventies fuzz that soaks down into your bones in all the right ways.

The band is grounded in seventies hard rock, and the influence of bands like Cream, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin are clear. This is guitar driven proto-metal and screeching vocals of a man clearly wearing leather pants two sizes too small. When they are hitting on all cylinders it climbs up high enough on that mountain to at least be nudging at the feet of their idols.

“White Unicorn” and “Colossal” in particular are thick pounding rock songs that never let you up for air, but make drowning beautiful. Both songs have simple riffs pounding away with just the right amount of softness and empty space around the edges to make you appreciate just how majestic it all is.

Lyrically, this record doesn’t have a lot to say beyond variations of “let there be rock!” “Woman” is particularly hilarious:

“Woman

You know that you’re a woman

You got to be a woman

I got the feeling of love.”

Apparently a song about a woman, or so the singer fervently hopes is the case. Even one of my favourite tracks – “Colossal” – has some laughers:

“Such glowing mountains before us

Pillars of life all fade away

Of all the things I need to say girl

All of these words are in my way.”

I agree that these words are in the way. I would recommend different words to solve the problem. Fortunately, “Colossal” is so grandiose and over the top bad lyrics actually make it better.

Wolfmother reminded me of a cross between early White Stripes and late Led Zeppelin, but for the most part they are a paler shade of both bands leaving me wanting to hear the originals. I wanted more songs like “White Unicorn” and “Colossal” but instead there are a lot of tracks that are just OK; brilliantly played, but not sufficiently different to provide the shade and colour the record needs on repeat listens.

It is clear that Wolfmother want to create a modern twist on a seventies rock masterpiece. Those old classics tend to be eight songs and 35 minutes long. By contrast, “Wolfmother” is 13 songs and 54 minutes. It isn’t over the 14 song limit I usually impose on a record, but for what they are doing it is still too long. If they cut just 3-4 songs and 15-20 minutes of length the whole experience would have worked a lot better.

“Wolfmother” is a solid rock record, with musicians that play well together and know their craft. If you go into it with these modest expectations you’ll like what you hear.

Best tracks:  White Unicorn, Colossal, Love Train