CD Odyssey Disc 942: Soundtrack

I meant to write this review last night but after a long and late night at the office I was knackered and opted instead for a couple TV shows and bed. Fortunately, I love this record so an extra day with it was no sacrifice.

Disc 942 is….True Detective Soundtrack

Artist: Various Artists, but a lot of Lera Lynn

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? It looks like the promotional poster for Season Two of True Detective. From left to right we have: a crooked cop, a mobster trying to go legit, an angry cop and a cop with PTSD. It’s not a happy show.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila and I loved the show and the music it featured was always great. By happy accident while looking for someone to see in Nashville, I discovered that Lera Lynn was the mysterious singer in the background of the bar seasons in Season Two. From there it was a simple matter of looking for the soundtrack, which (happily) features music from both seasons.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a lot of soundtracks. I had originally finished reviewing them back at Disc 479, but had forgotten there were a bunch of albums that qualify as soundtracks that I file with the artist that did them. Since I’m now up the 31 soundtracks total, it is probably time to revisit the list. Take a deep breath, because it is long. You’ll note that “True Detective” lands impressively at number four.

1.  The Harder They Come: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 371)
2. Saturday Night Fever: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 392)
3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 225).
4. True Detective: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
5. The Matrix:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 291)
6. Magnolia:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 181)
7. Crooklyn:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 75)
8. Swingers:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 12)
9. A Kind of Magic: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 749)
10. Flash Gordon: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 659)
11. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 681)
12. Into the Wild:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 260)
13. Pulp Fiction:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 102)
14. Elizabethtown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 33)
15. Highway 61:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 230)
16. O Brother Where Art Thou:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 386)
17. Buffy The Vampire Slayer:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 216)
18. Reservoir Dogs:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 116)
19. Jackie Brown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 30)
20. Transamerica:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 402)
21. Les Miserables:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 111)
22. Big Night:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 215)
23. The Warriors:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 479)
24. James Bond:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 103)
25. One From the Heart: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 935)
26. About a Boy:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 252)
27. Chess:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 156)
28. Honeymoon in Vegas:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 17 and then sold)
29. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 284)
30. Moulin Rouge:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 151)
31. Natural Born Killers:  0 stars (reviewed at Disc 302)

Ratings: 4 stars

Sometimes a soundtrack perfectly captures the feel of the film or show it is meant to accompany. Other times, it is just a great collection of songs. The “True Detective” soundtrack manages to do both.

If you don’t know, “True Detective” is a disturbing crime serial, featuring damaged characters (mostly cops) trying to redeem themselves by stopping criminals even worse. While the first season is superior, both are worth your time and will leave you contemplating the baseness of humanity and the darker secrets of the universe; those secrets that reveal themselves only in fragments, lest they threaten your sanity when encountered whole. Yeah, it’s one of those kinds of shows.

A show like that needs music that sets just the right mood, and famed producer T. Bone Burnett delivers. This soundtrack is actually songs from the first two seasons, shuffled together imperfectly like a deck of cards at a poker table. The shuffling could have taken away from the narrative of the show, but instead the song order creates a new musical narrative that is both evocative of the show, and also casts a spell of its own.

The show manages to find two of the most brooding tracks for each season’s opening credits: the Handsome Family’s “Far From Any Road” (Season 1) and Leonard Cohen’s “Nevermind” (Season 2). The first song is some sort of drug-addled country, with a deep, mysterious vocal and echoes of mariachi bands gone wrong. I don’t know anything else by the Handsome Family, and frankly, this song makes me a bit nervous to delve any deeper. I probably will though.

Cohen’s “Nevermind” has a funky groove and Cohen is at his apocalyptic best as he speaks of all the people who get away with it, whether “it” is love or murder, or some terrible combination of the two.

For all the greatness of these two “title” tracks, the glue that holds this album together is alt-country chanteuse Lera Lynn.

“True Detective” is how I discovered Lera Lynn. Her mournful and lounge-tinged voice sounds like the voice of a ghost here, with T. Bone Burnett turning up the stark echo dial to 11 to maximize the effect of her vocal. Each of her five songs sends a shiver down your spine, leaving you cold and alone with fell thoughts of dark deeds done and the secrets that follow.

Lynn is an accomplished songwriter on her own, and here she teams up with T. Bone and Roseanne Cash. The result is a selection of restless mournful songs that wrap you in loss and regret. On “Lately”, when Lynn sings:

“Lately I'm not feeling like myself

When I look into the glass, I see someone else

I hardly recognize this face I wear

When I stare into her eyes, I see no one there

Lately I'm not feeling like myself”

You can feel the edge of madness creeping in – or is it just grief? The line blurs here as it does throughout the record. Later on “It Only Takes One Shot” she sings of a woman spurned, wrapped in imagery of guns and murder and fell conviction.

As if this record didn’t have enough creepy mood music, we are treated to two longstanding masters: Nick Cave (with Warren Ellis) and Bonnie Prince Billy. Cave and Ellis cover the Gatlin Brothers’ “All the Gold in California” and thoroughly twist it from country anthem to some kind of cultist chant. Bonnie Prince Billy’s “Intentional Injury” is a quiet internalization of the same order.

The record is so good that the Bob Dylan track (“Rocks and Gravel”) is good, but more of an afterthought.

In a way having all these artists contributing their best feels a bit like cheating, and that’s at least one reason I couldn’t give this record a perfect score. It came damn close, though.

Best tracks: All the Lera Lynn tracks (The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, Lately, My Least Favorite Life, A Church in Ruins and It Only Takes One Shot), Nevermind by Leonard Cohen, All the Gold in California by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Far From Any Road by The Handsome Family, Intentional Injury by Bonnie Prince Billy.

CD Odyssey Disc 941: The Pack AD

Greetings again, gentle readers. Apologies for the long delay in posting a review – I have been busy grokking the Vancouver rock band “The Pack A.D.” in preparation for seeing them live last night.

But your wait was not in vain! Below is a review of their latest album and following that a review of their concert.

Disc 941 is….Positive Thinking

Artist: The Pack A.D.

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover? This is your brain. This is your brain on fruit loops. Any questions?

Despite this being drawn by guitarist (and rock hottie) Becky Black I can’t bring myself to give this cover a thumbs up. Fortunately, that’s been taken care of.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Nick heard the Pack A.D. were playing a show in town and was interested in checking them out. I’d never heard of the Pack A.D. so before I committed to going to see them live I went on Youtube to check them out. I liked what I heard.

How It Stacks Up:  I have bought three Pack A.D. albums in the three weeks since I found out they existed (what? I like them!). The danger of getting a bunch of albums by the same artist at once is they tend to blend together in your mind, but it also lets you appreciate a band’s growth over time. Both happened with the Pack A.D. I have a hard time picking a favourite, so for now I’ll leave myself room to change my mind and put the amazing “Positive Thinking” in second.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Positive Thinking” shows the continuing evolution of the Pack A.D.’s sound, while not losing the restless energy that is such a big part of what makes this band great.

As ever the band generates a lot of sound and fury despite just having two members: guitarist/vocalist Becky Black and drummer Maya Miller. Because there is just two of them there is a heavy temptation to compare them with the White Stripes, and there are definitely similarities. The Pack A.D. has the same raw lo-fi crunch and like the Stripes they are heavily influenced by the blues.

However, on “Positive Thinking” the band continues the evolution of their sound begun on 2014’s “Do Not Engage,” backing away from the blues in favour of a thick guitar sound and vocals that incorporate a softer vocal style from Black and even a bit of light harmony. The musical arrangements have a surfer groove that evokes thoughts of the ocean and later Pearl Jam. “Sorrow” in particular sounds like it could be added to either “Yield” or “Riot Act” and fit right in.

All of this is a good thing. I can get the blues anywhere, but watching a band incorporate multiple influences and grow into something uniquely their own is far more rewarding.

The album starts with the crowd pleaser, “So What,” which has the band’s signature guitar crunch, with lots of sparse and stripped down production to let all the carefully structured syncopation lubricate your lower spine and lizard brain. Black’s vocals on the song nicely straddle a Patti Smith-like growl and a more ethereal head voice. “Yes I Know” follows this up and digs its heels in with a stronger blues growl, as if the Pack is reminding you that they are still badass.

The next song, “Teenage Crime,” has a bit too much banging and crashing without purpose but the guitar riff and Black’s vocals are so awesome you forgive a little excess occurring in the song’s margins.

This is a good time to note that “Positive Thinking” is more about the sound and melody than specific lyrics, but underneath all that power and woo-ooo-ooing there are some thoughtful lines, which is a nice discovery as I dug in more deeply on repeat listens. “Teenage Crime” begins:

“I was feeling kinda romantic

It’s hard to explain

Coulda been the Bauhaus

Coulda been the rain.

Burned a dark ritual

A real creepy effigy

Just so I could say

I know what you mean.”

Then the band takes a hard left with “Anyway,” which despite all the guitar shows the band’s softer side, with a melody that floats along like sad eighties Goth and prominent vampire metaphors (the previous song references Bauhaus so we should not be surprised at this point).

The strong opening to the album makes it hard for the second half to hold up the same consistent standard, but the songs that fill the back of the order aren’t bad; they’re just not as good as the record’s start. Standouts on “side two” include the aforementioned “Sorrow,” and “Error” which has a strong vocal that shows off the sweeter side of Black’s voice.

“Positive Thinking” is a solid entry in the Pack A.D.’s discography and shows that six albums and almost ten years into their career they are still developing and growing as a band. This record is just weeks old, but I’m already excited about what they are going to do next.

Best tracks: So What, Yes I Know, Teenage Crime, Anyway, Sorrow, Error

The Concert: Friday, November 25 at Sugar Nightclub, Victoria

My concert going experience got off to a strange start because we had to first bid farewell to a friend moving out of town and that event was at the Union Club. Trying to find an outfit that would pass the Union Club’s conservative dress code and still rock sufficiently hard enough for the show wasn’t easy. As it turns out, I failed – Union Club staff required that I hang up my jacket because it featured a skull on the back. They were very nice about the whole thing, though.

After a quick slice of pizza and the undoing of my dress shirt to reveal one of my Alice Cooper tour shirts (see, Union Club – I was trying) we headed off to the show at Sugar.

Sugar is a pretty good venue for a show. It has a great vibe and if you get there early enough, you can snag some pretty cool balcony seating.

Getting there early also means you get to see all the opening acts. Last night there were two of them.

The Malahat

The first band was a local act called The Malahat. These guys had lots of stage antics,  with the lead singer channeling a young Robert Plant and the guitarist trying out variations on Angus Young. Both were inexplicably barefoot.

I thought the rhythm section of the band had the edge in talent, but maybe that’s just because the bass player looked like me at 20.

While my fellow concert-goers liked this band’s energy I found their performance muddy and artificial. I will give them credit for getting the crowd going early (opening bands have to play to half-empty houses, which is never easy). Also, during their set a couple speakers broke loose from their moorings and spun around from their ceiling mounting. This caused the roadies to have to temporarily stop the show to fix it. The boys of Malahat took it all in stride. I later checked out a song of their's called "The Grit" on Youtube and they sound pretty sweet. I think they just need more experience playing live to hone their skills, and that will come over time.

Smash Boom Pow

The second band was Smash Boom Pow who, like the Pack A.D., were a two-piece. These guys played hard rock with delightful guitar riffs. The singer had a beautiful high voice that was clear and powerful even at the top end of his range. He also understood how to speak into a microphone so you could understand what he was saying. This is a skill that is surprisingly absent from most live acts.

I liked Smash Boom Pow a lot; so much so that I went searching for their merch table to buy their album, but there was nothing to be found. When I checked today I discovered that both their albums are available only as electronic downloads. Argh. I will now spend a couple months seeing if I can work up the nerve to do this, and then burn them on a CD that I can put on my shelf. Always have merch, SBP! Here’s a song of theirs called "A Girl" showing that they are also awesome in the studio.

Pack A.D.

Finally, after three hours of nursing my tall cans of beer and holding off latecomers determined to horn in on our awesome seating, the Pack A.D. took the stage with little fanfare.

I’d heard rumours that these guys rocked live and they did not disappoint. They got right down to it and brought all the infectious energy of their recorded album and then some.

Singer Becky Black plays a mean rock guitar. The guitar seems to drag her around the stage with a mind of its own, as she fights it off with a wide-legged, pigeon-toed stance. Despite all this seemingly involuntary movement she is always totally in control, and her playing is sharp and powerful. Her voice is strong enough to soar over the heavy riffs, although I found that she has a habit of pulling away from the microphone when she goes for higher notes that makes it sound a bit thin.

Drummer Maya Miller was (surprisingly) in charge of banter and she did a fine job of sounding disaffected and cool, as a rock star should be. She plays the drum with power and authority, and she has a nice thudding style that reminded me of Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward.

The set list was a good mix of older and new stuff, and they had a good feel for the crowd, throwing in a couple of slower numbers at just the right time to give the concert a natural ebb and flow.

The crowd was mostly young (under 30) and was a mix of the super happy and the broodingly aggressive. The mosh pit was one of the craziest I’ve seen in a while, or maybe it just felt that way from my high perch over the floor. I played paper-rock-scissors with a guy to determine who would be next to order drinks at the bar and generally had a good experience. I also wisely stayed out of the pit, which surged and bucked with an almost animalistic intensity throughout the whole performance.

The merch table was cool, with groovy t-shirts and plenty of size M (long-time readers will know my frustration with a merch table with inadequate size options). I even bought a fourth album there for a mere $10.

I would definitely go see the Pack A.D. again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they become a lot more famous very soon. They have a great sound, and they own the stage from the moment they take it to the moment they downed tools and walk off without fanfare or drama.

Figurine: Black Dragon

I haven't got a lot of music reviews this week because I'm busy grokking a new band so I can better enjoy their show on Friday. I'd tell you who it was, but that would spoil the surprise when I review their new album and the concert!

So instead...an occasional miniature! Here is a black dragon figurine for your viewing excitement. Scroll down if you'd rather just read music reviews.

I worked on this guy for quite a while. He was very badly cast and required a serious amount of carving and refitting to even glue together:

I also built the base from scratch. I was originally going to do a swampy pool, but working with the low-temperature melted plastic is annoying so I went more woodland/ruins.

The wings on this guy are metal, and I lived in constant fear of him breaking while I was maneuvering him around to paint.

Here he is, looking all snarly. I'm guessing he didn't get a lot of hugs as a kid, probably on account of all the pointy bits.

 Close up the head and signs of bad oral hygiene:

 And the obligatory "He's coming right at me!" pose.

Don't worry; he's just a model.

Back to music in a couple of days!

CD Odyssey Disc 940: Allman Brothers Band

Not having a car isn’t usually a big deal in the city, but every now and then there is a strange inconvenience. The most recent was the realization that there are no stores in the downtown core that sell vacuum cleaner bags. Undeterred, I took a long walk to a place out of town that sells them. Added bonus – I was able to listen to this next album.

I did all this on Friday, but I delayed posting the review because I figured Band of Heathens deserved a bit more exposure than their career has afforded them so far. I’m giving like that.

And now…another music review!

Disc 940 is….Idlewild South

Artist: Allman Brothers Band

Year of Release: 1970

What’s up with the Cover? Six heads and a whole lotta hair. You don’t get this much hair these days, but don’t despair Allman Brothers Band; I am keeping that tradition alive as long as I can.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila bought me two Allman Brothers albums for Christmas one year, taking a chance that I would like them. She was right!

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Allman Brothers albums, this one and their 1969 self-titled debut. Both are awesome, and it is hard to pick between them. I’ll give “Idlewild South” first place, though.

Ratings: 5 stars

When a band is heavily influenced by the blues, sometimes it takes an album or two for them to shake that and find their own sound. Led Zeppelin is an example of this. But if the band is truly great their sound quickly evolves into something greater than its musical inspiration. Led Zeppelin again, is an example. So is the Allman Brothers Band’s sophomore masterpiece, “Idlewild South.”

This record is more smoothed out than the Allman’s debut, but this doesn’t make it lesser, it makes it more nuanced and interesting. Hearing this record I could feel its echoes through my music collection. Molly Hatchet and Tom Petty have been influenced by this blend of blues, rock and a hint of prog, and the music world has been made the richer for it. I even hear elements of Blue Oyster Cult in some of the guitar licks and organ, although I suppose it is the opposite that is happening.

Gregg Allman has a wonderful rock tone to his voice that sounds deep in his chest and has plenty of both range and power. The sheer musicianship of the record sometimes overshadows him and it is worth pointing out what a signature rock voice he has.

Every member of the band is at the peak of their ability and they know how to play off one another whether they are employing hard hitting riffs or smooth almost jazz flavoured noodle fests.

Never is this more evident than on “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” a seven minute long instrumental that never lets your ear get bored. This song has it all – changes in tempo and time signature, multiple guitar solos, an organ solo, and near the end, a drum solo to boot. All of it is awesome. The song even has tambourine. Yes, that works too.

The band doesn’t totally abandon their blues roots, nor should they, since the innovative blend of the blues into these songs is part of what makes each one wonderful. They go all-in with a cover of Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man” (the only song sung by bass player Berry Oakley). This song isn’t as raw as the original but it is just as powerful and truth be told, I like it better. A big part of the blues is authenticity, and the Allman Brothers bleed authenticity. If you are looking for the deliberate disconnect so common in a lot of modern indie music, look elsewhere; these guys mean every note they play and every note they sing.

The record ranges all over and while only seven songs and 30 minutes long it feels like you’ve taken a journey across the universe; the musical universe anyway.

The album opens with “Revival” which has a celebratory hippy vibe, and then morphs into the blues-rock number “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin.” “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” reinvents the blues in yet another direction, with guitar licks that scream with a pre-metal complaint that reminded me of Nazareth. Or was that the other way around again?

The third song, “Midnight Rider” has one of the simplest and most classic guitar riffs ever. It is perfectly matched by Allman’s throaty voice telling the world about how he has one more silver dollar in a way that demands you sing along and help speed the titular character on his way. This is a song that as soon as you hear the first few notes you start nodding and smiling and saying “oh, this song!” because it is so classic it is tattooed into your DNA.

Near the end of the record, “Please Call Home” delivers a heart-breaking love song that made me think of every seventies and eighties rock ballad that would follow. It may be Allman’s greatest vocal on the record, if only because he is exposed here and out in front of the production, protected only by the artfully placed guitar licks of the legendary Dickey Betts.

The fact is that this album made me not only appreciate the Allman Brothers, it gave me a new appreciation for large swathes of the other rock music in my collection. These guys are amazing spirit guides through the growth of hard rock, prog rock, southern rock, and a host of other sounds. This is foundational rock that remains a joy to listen to, forty plus years after it was released.

Best tracks: All tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 939: The Band of Heathens

I’ve had a lot going on after work lately and haven’t found the time to write this review until now. As a result, I got to listen to it a lot while I walked home for three days. Fortunately it’s a new album, and we needed the time to get acquainted.

Disc 939 is….One Foot in the Ether

Artist: The Band of Heathens

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover? When tree line meets eye line? It’s a red letter day? It kind of works but it also kind of feels like a photography class project gone wrong.

How I Came To Know It: Last October Sheila and I went to Nashville to see the Miami Dolphins and take in the sights. We were trying to find a band to go see while we were there but we didn’t know any of the acts that were playing. I started listening to any band that was in town on Youtube to see if I’d like them. Two artists stuck out: Lera Lynn and Band of Heathens.

We ended up going to see Lera Lynn because we liked her slightly more and because the Band of Heathens had this ‘mystery’ show where they didn’t tell you the location until a few hours before the show. When I got home I bought a Band of Heathens album.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have one Band of Heathens album. I’m tempted by 2013’s “Sunday Morning Record” but for now I’ve just got the one, so I can’t really stack it up.

Ratings: 3 stars

It’s good when an album has artistic range, but if you take it too far you lose focus. “One Foot In the Ether” walks that line like a drunk sailor; mostly well balanced with an occasional lurch that threatens to take them off the edge of the pier.

Fortunately this is music, and no one is going to drown from an occasional misstep or a bit of excess, sometimes it just makes it better.

But that doesn’t change that the album has so many competing styles it is initially hard to get into. Three of the five band members (Ed Jordi, Cordy Quist and Colin Brooks) are songwriters and singers, and each has their own style doing both. These range from an alt-country gravel to a Rolling Stones’ tinged rock and roll and then to a bluesy Otis Redding inspired soul.

My early favourite is the outlaw country guy, but unfortunately I don’t know who is who since the CD has no liner notes, and the internet is equally unhelpful when it comes to bands of this relative level of fame. Let’s call him Guy #1.

Whatever his name, the album starts with a song by him, “LA County Blues,” which is a glorious track full of a restless energy about slackabouts drinking their way through Las Vegas and (presumably) heading home with a fuzzy head and empty pockets.

This tone of grit and uncertainty is the common thread through all three styles on the record but alone it isn’t enough to hold the record together. The recurring country numbers by Guy #1 are though, and on “What’s This World” the band delivers another indictment of modern society:

“We got mouths to feed and boots to fill

Pills for sleep and dreams of dollar bills

And we clean our guns while we turn our cheeks

We’re like angels and demons and dogs in heat.”

The melody of both this song and “LA County Blues” aren’t incredibly innovative but they make all the right turns to serve the lyrics and ably underscore the themes they explore.

The bluesier numbers (Guy #2? I’m not sure…) are generally good as well particularly “Shine a Light” which straddles a line between blues and gospel and gave me visions of hobos down by the railroad tracks dancing around a burning barrel. I have no idea why that crossed my mind, because there are no hobos involved in the song, but that’s what I saw. It was a pretty sweet dance number too, with the lead hobo resplendent in torn trousers, red mack jacket and toque. But I digress…

“Golden Calf” is also a grimy bit of blues rock, and someone calling for “eight more seconds on the golden calf” is a great image, biblically ominous and thoughtlessly self-indulgent all at the same time. My only regret here is the squawk box effect on the vocals on the track. I think it is intended to evoke a 30s feel, but it sounds fake. Worse, there is a live version of the song on Youtube without any such artifice which is infinitely better. Here it is. Every time I hear the studio version I find myself wishing I could hear the live version instead.

Also, while the band is incredibly tight there are times where they sound like a bar cover band. This is ironic, considering that apart from a cover of Gillian Welch’s “Look At Miss Ohio” these are all original tracks. Also, they wear their musical influences a bit too prominently on their sleeves. On “You’re Gonna Miss Me” the band sings “Otis Redding sang the blues the sometimes” and on “Talking Out Loud” the vocalist (let’s call him Guy #3) sounds like he is doing an Otis Redding impersonation. The proximity of the reference to the homage is a bit jarring.

Fortunately, the album’s brilliance overcomes these minor annoyances with relative ease. There are even a couple of optimistic tunes near the end with “Let Your Heart Not Be Troubled” and “Hey Rider.” While I generally prefer this album when it is stripped down, I liked the fuzzy production on “Hey Rider” which creates a dreamy quality that suggests anything is possible, even world peace. Sounds flaky but you have to be there.

I gave this album four listens over the last three days and I went from not being sure about whether I liked it to knowing that I did. The Band of Heathens don’t make it easy with all their shifting styles, but it is worth the effort in the end.

Best tracks: LA County Blues, Shine a Light, What’s This World, Let Your Heart Not Be Troubled, Hey Rider

CD Odyssey Disc 938: Chic

After a dark and somber time soaking in Leonard Cohen’s latest album and contemplating his passing, this next record was exactly the infusion of fun I needed to right myself.

Disc 938 is….Dance Dance Dance

Artist: Chic

Year of Release: 1991 but featuring music from 1977 to 1982

What’s up with the Cover? Five cool cats pose at a photographer’s studio that needs a slightly bigger backdrop.

How I Came To Know It: I knew Chic because I grew up in the seventies, but as a rocker I was taught at an early age to hate the devil disco. Years later my friend Spence played a few choice cuts from this album and showed me how wrong it was to hate. I bought it a week later.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have this one album and it is a compilation anyway, so it doesn’t stack up.

Ratings: ‘best ofs’ don’t get rated. It is an Odyssey rule!

Some music is for sitting quietly and thinking, some music is for a gentle toe tap or two and some music is for singing along. Chic is music for dancing, and as dance music goes you can’t do much better. This is dance music about dancing, for use while dancing.

Hell, the first song is called “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) and it is over eight minutes of funky guitar hooks, bass lines and singers exhorting us to…well you get the idea. I would kill to have been hanging out at a New York disco when this song came on. So gloriously self-absorbed, like so much of the disco era, and yet so damned good at it that you forgive every ounce of ego stuffed into it.

Most of the 11 songs on the album are entirely unsuited to radio play, or would have been cut down to a radio edit to fit it conveniently into three or four minutes back in the day. That is a damned shame, and I’m glad that this compilation album sticks with extended versions. These aren’t for radio play, these are for nightclubbing or private parties where the carpet was white shag and the entrance hall had a fishbowl full of keys.

And for all this excess and aimless celebration, the musicianship of Chic is amazing. The bass line in “Everybody Dance” is incredible, and because the song is eight minutes long you get plenty of time to let it sink into your spine where it belongs. This is the land where the only lyrics you need are a bunch of people sexily whispering “everybody dance”. And then you do, and all is right in the world again.

The production is also a welcome departure from a lot of modern dance music. Nowadays the bass line is often a boring thump-thump-thump and almost always way too overpowering in the mix. Chic knows how to balance out the mix so that every instrument gets its moment. Care to follow the bass line a while? You can do that. Maybe you prefer to synch up with the guitar’s groove and shift your dancing to something more melodic – you can do that too.

The two people responsible for this tasteful mix are guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edward, who in addition to being key contributors as players also produce most of the songs on the record. Rodgers would go on to produce a bunch of famous records, including David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.”

If you want your music to go somewhere or do something, this is not for you. Chic establish a groove and explore every corner of it, but they aren’t looking to travel any great distance away from that initial groove. As for lyrics, you better like to hear about dancing, because that’s what they’re going to sing about. About one in four songs shake it up with a song about makin’ love. These songs are also very predictable in what they inspire. Dancing again, only in this case of the horizontal variety.

If for some reason you can’t fully cut loose (for example you are on a bus going to work, or walking somewhere) the music can be a bit frustrating, and in those moments I appreciated the tighter timelines of classics like “Chic Cheer” and the classic “Le Freak”. “Le Freak” is the more famous song, and I have always appreciated its active encouragement for everyone to get their freak on:

“Have you heard about the new dance craze?

Listen to us, I'm sure you'll be amazed

Big fun to be had by everyone

It's up to you, It surely can be done.”

Did I mention this music is not about the lyrics? That’s OK, though because ‘big fun’ will indeed be had by ‘everyone’ as advertised. Just think less, and keep those feet moving.

I know ‘best of’ albums don’t get rated, but if they did I would give this album three dances, three yowsahs and a chic cheer.

Best tracks: Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah), Everybody Dance, Chic Cheer, Le Freak

CD Odyssey Disc 937: Leonard Cohen

Given the circumstances, choosing this next album seemed the only thing I could do. I’m going to wax a bit poetic now about my relationship (from afar) with Leonard Cohen, so if you’d rather just read the review, scroll down to the picture of the album cover.

Leonard Cohen has been a fixture in my life for a very long time, and he’ll continue to be despite the fact the he’s gone.

I first discovered Leonard Cohen in Grade 11, digging through the library shelves with my high school friends. We used to hang out in the library during our free period and one of us found his poetry books “The Spice Box of Earth,” “Flowers for Hitler” and “The Energy of Slaves”. We spent the next few days giggling at all the sexual references. Later his words would seep into me in a more serious way. At 16 I had no idea Cohen even made music, but I knew his words mattered to me, and that poetry was something I was going to delve into with a deeper passion than had existed before.

When I went away to university in 1988 I chose English Literature as my major, and around the same time discovered that Cohen also made music. I bought “I’m Your Man,” “Various Positions” and “Songs” on tape and played the hell out of them. If they’d let me into grad school I was going to do my thesis on Cohen. Their loss.

Then I found “Recent Songs” and “Death of a Ladies Man” but only on CD. Back then my ghetto blaster only played tapes, but I bought both albums anyway and asked a friend to tape them for me. Before he had the chance, my ghetto blaster died and I spent the last of my food money buying one that could play CDs. Yes, the entire music collection that makes up the CD Odyssey began with Leonard Cohen.

Cohen has been a guiding light for me through good and bad times. When I lost my first love he gave a voice to my misery in the darkness. When I met Sheila I made her a Cohen mixed tape. “Dance Me To the End of Love” became our song and twenty years later, it still is.

I’ve seen Cohen in concert four times, twice recently and twice on “The Future” tour back in 1993. I’m even one of the people cheering on the live rendition of Suzanne at the Orpheum in Vancouver on the live album.

Earlier this week, I was quoting from “Closing Time” to a friend (I quote Cohen often). I had no idea that 24 hours later would be closing time for Cohen.

So thanks and goodbye, Leonard. They’ve finally moved you to a tower so far down the track that I can’t reach you anymore. But I want you to know that your wisdom, your self-effacing sense of humour and your deep insights into the human soul remain with me, and have helped shape the better parts of who I am.

Disc 937 is….You Want It Darker

Artist: Leonard Cohen

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover? Leonard smokes a cigarette, one hand hanging out a window as he gazes off into the abyss. As always, it gazes back at him.

How I Came To Know It: This is just the latest Leonard Cohen album, and I buy Leonard Cohen albums when they come out.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 13 Leonard Cohen albums. Of those, “You Want It Darker” is facing stiff competition, and I can only put it in at #10, bumping both “Popular Problems” and “Old Ideas” down a spot in the process.

Ratings: 4 stars

Cohen knew he was nearing the end when he recorded “You Want It Darker” and that focus is evident throughout the record. Reviewing the album now without having his death looming over every track isn’t possible now, so I’ll just have to let it loom.

On his two previous albums (2012’s “Old Ideas” and 2014’s “Popular Problems”) Cohen embraced jazz, lounge and rock elements, but “You Want It Darker” takes a starker approach more akin to 2001’s “Ten New Songs.”

“Ten New Songs” falls down on synthetic production values that numbed Cohen’s amazing lyrics, but he doesn’t make that mistake on “You Want It Darker.” This album is rich with amazing musicianship, and a stripped down quality that lets Cohen’s voice roll across the top of it all, like a thick fog spilling across the surface of a lake. There’s lots going on down in those depths, but wrapped in the gravelly tone of Cohen’s voice it feel close and personal, like he’s talking only to you.

Cohen has always made up for a lack of range with a poetic instinct for phrasing and emotional impact in his singing. As with most of his later career, he employs background singers to hit whatever high notes are needed to serve the song. On this record it is clear he wants it darker, though, and the backup vocalists are further back in the mix, and appear more sparsely than on previous records.

The record opens with the title track, which starts with an almost Gregorian chant that adds a quality of mysticism and religious reverence to the track. Cohen is laying his cards on the table (the imagery of quitting a card game runs throughout the record) and letting us know it is time to say goodbye.

Despite singing about his imminent death, Cohen never gets maudlin. He is ready to go, and he’s saying goodbye. When he sings, “I’m ready my Lord” it rings true.

Cohen also seems eager to square accounts with old friends and lovers. On “Treaty” he apologizes to someone, acknowledging his own ego in the process:

“They’re dancing in the streets – it’s Jubilee

We sold ourselves for love but now we’re free

I’m so sorry for the ghost I made you be

Only one of us was real – and that was me.”

So much of Leonard Cohen songs are the lyrics, and as a result his talents as a songwriter are often overlooked. “Leaving the Table” starts with a mournful guitar lick that reminded me of the fifties song by Johnny Ace “Pledging My Love” but “Leaving the Table” takes a discordant note at the end that tinges the song with regret and resignation.

As the record nears an end Cohen takes one last turn to deliver some advice on “Steer Your Way”:

“They whisper still, the injured stones

The blunted mountains weep

As he died to make men holy

Let us die to make things cheap

And say the Mea Culpa which

You’ve probably forgot

Year by year

Month by month

Day by day

Thought by thought.”

This is more advice Cohen is giving himself than advice for us, but as ever, we get to tag along for the ride. Cohen’s biblical imagery remains sharp and in focus, and while the song’s lyrics have an apocalyptic feel, there is a sublime violin lick at the end of each stanza that reminds us that there is a celebration here as well. Death is the next adventure.

I’ve had a hard time of it since hearing about Cohen’s death. I’ve wallowed too much and I’ve generally felt unfocused. “You Want It Darker” shows that Cohen handled it a lot better than I have. He settled his accounts, he spoke a few polite words of welcome to his maker, and he left us a record of his thoughts to guide us through those darker places one last time.

Best tracks: You Want It Darker, Treaty, Leaving the Table, Steer Your Way

CD Odyssey Disc 936: Drive-By Truckers

I got home last night to learn that Leonard Cohen had died. I’ll have more to say on that in my next review, but for now I’ll just note that Leonard Cohen has been a huge part of my life. He’s helped me through hard times and helped me appreciate the good ones as well. Last night Sheila and I put on five of his albums, got drunk, and remembered him. Yes, tears were shed and yes, some of them were mine.

But as today is Remembrance Day, let’s take a moment for all the brave servicemen and women who have served our country. Use that minute of silence wisely, and let it sink deep down in you.

And now, against all odds, more Drive-By Truckers. My intro was going to be all about how statistically unlikely that is but other events were just more important.

Disc 936 is….English Oceans

Artist: Drive-By Truckers

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? This is another cover by artist Wes Freed. If the Drive-By Truckers are going to use the same artist for the album covers so often I’m glad it is this guy and not that guy who does Steve Earle covers these days.

Here, two creepy figures lurking off the coast for unwary swimmers. I like to imagine they are nereids because Greek mythology makes everything cooler. What could be creepier than seeing these two figures by the light of the full moon? When you open the album up you find out:

It's three nereids! I’m glad the cover doesn’t unfold any further. I don’t think my heart could take it.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve told this tale a bit too much of late. I traced them back through my interest in Jason Isbell’s solo work (Isbell having once been a member of the DBT). I’ve been drilling through their entire discography to see what I liked, and “English Oceans” was one of the albums that made the grade.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Drive-By Truckers albums. I’m starting to get a good appreciation of each, given how much of my listening time they’ve taken up over the past week. I like “English Oceans” but I only buy my favourite DBT albums so competition is tough, and I must put it last out of those five.

Ratings: 3 stars

The Drive-By Truckers have been on a good run for the past five years, with three solid albums released in that time. “English Oceans” is the middle child of that run, and while it sits in the shadows of its closest siblings, it still has that signature Drive-By Truckers southern rock sound, and the thoughtful songwriting of both Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood to keep its head above water (get it? get it?).

Hood’s voice is more steeped in a southern drawl, and Cooley’s tone is a bit flatter and more country. Like Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy, it is the trading off between the two voices that helps give the record its range.

The album opens with the rockin’ Mike Cooley number “Shit Shots Count” that has the Drive-By Truckers exploring the plight of the working man, with language that he might use to describe his own circumstances. It a cynical song, but it is meant to be, and it rocks out with just the right amount of ‘give ‘er!’ to sell the illusion.

“Primer Coat” is another Cooley stand out; a touching character study of a father coming to terms with giving his only daughter away in marriage. It is a poignant glimpse into the life of a man who says very little, but has oceans of emotion going on underneath. The song ends:

“My sister’s marrying in the spring and everything will be fine

Mama’s planning the wedding, Daddy’s planning on crying

She’s slipping out of her apron strings

You best let him be

He’s staring through his own taillights and gathering speed.”

As Drive-By Truckers’ songs go this is positively jubilant.

The album is largely introspective, but this being the Truckers there is a bit of political commentary as well. “The Part of Him” is a Patterson Hood number about a corrupt self-serving politician. The song has a nice rolling quality, and the touches of banjo put a nice jump in that roll. The lyrics are stark and Hood ably employs a caesura mid-line to drive home internal rhymes. My favourite one is:

“He was an absolute…piece of shit to tell the truth.”

I like it because it features a curse word (that’s always fun, right?), but it isn’t a great line of poetry on its own. I would’ve liked the song to use a bit more metaphor. That would have detracted from the stark tone Hood is trying to strike, so maybe I shouldn’t quibble. Besides the opening line…

“He was elected, wingnut raised and corn fed

Teabags dragging on the chamber floor.”

…is pretty brilliant.

Hood’s other standout is “When Walter Went Crazy” which has the great line:

“When Walter went crazy he had rattlesnake in his eyes

Blended whisky in his veins and murder in his heart.”

The album’s penultimate track is a finger-picked Cooley number called “First Air of Autumn.” The song has a gentle, calming tone which belies the underlying tone of sadness and decay. As school starts and life resumes, the narrator is left feeling numb and directionless.

Maybe the stark uncertainty of “First Air of Autumn” is why the band felt the need to conclude the record with the upbeat “Grand Canyon”. It is a song of friendship and natural beauty and I would have liked it a lont more if it weren’t for the two minutes of groaning guitar feedback and atmospheric noodling at the end. The song is 7:50 in length and should be (you guessed it) 5:50.

“English Oceans” is a good record, but having very recently delved into the brilliance of “Decoration Day” and “American Band” I have developed higher standards for these guys. Maybe for this reason I judge “English Oceans” a bit harshly, but it is still a welcome addition to the collection.

Best tracks: Shit Shots Count, Primer Coat, When Walter Went Crazy, First Air of Autumn

CD Odyssey Disc 935: Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle

As is often the case, I’m double-booked with activities tonight, so I’m trying to squeeze this review in before company arrives. By checking the time it was posted you’ll know if I succeeded.

Disc 935 is….One from the Heart

Artist: Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover? This album is a soundtrack to a movie, and this is the movie poster. I think that’s Terri Garr’s back, walking away. Judging by that suitcase, I think she’s gonna be gone a while.

How I Came To Know It: I can’t remember. Sheila might have bought me this one to round out our Tom Waits collection, or I might’ve bought it for her for the same reason. We both like Tom Waits.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 18 of Tom Waits’ studio albums. While technically this one is a duet album with Crystal Gayle, I’m going to count it. So where does it land? I left a spot for it at #14 but it didn’t inspire like I expected it to, so I’m dropping it down to #17 and moving everything in between up one.

Ratings: 2 stars

Unlike most of the soundtracks in my collection, I’ve never seen “One from the Heart”. Consequently I had to take the music on its own terms, but really shouldn’t every album be taken that way anyway?

In this case, the music is a lot of early eighties lounge action, with its feet planted firmly in the tradition of fifties and sixties musicals. I half expected Frank Sinatra to stroll out.

Instead, it is Tom Waits (who wrote the whole thing) and seventies pop heart-throb Crystal Gayle. I mostly remember Crystal Gayle from duets with Kris Kristofferson and from the tingly feelings she’d give me when I would stare at her sexy album covers. I was a bit too young to fully appreciate it, but make no mistake – Crystal Gayle was the bomb back in the day.

She also had a great voice that was full and rich, with a lot of range and power throughout it. Usually she sang in a style that mixed country and pop, but on “One From the Heart” she sings a lounge-style jazz which works equally well for her.

The purity of her tone is a nice juxtaposition to Waits’ whiskey-and-cigarette’s rasp, and the best songs on the album feature them trading verses.

The songwriting is excellent and thoughtful, which is what I’ve come to expect from Tom Waits. Here Waits has embraced the old fifties and sixties jazz sound yet written original songs that sound fresh and interesting. If you like to sit and listen to old musical soundtracks from that era, you’ll probably enjoy this record a great deal.

Unfortunately, I don’t really go for a whole album of playful crooning, particularly when the songs are so focused on telling a story that they don’t stand out on their own. The story comes through just fine: boy and girl have problems and split up, or get back together or…something. I guess it would have helped to see the movie.

But the soundtrack doesn’t inspire me to seek it out. Listening to the story it felt like I was trapped in an episode of Moonlighting. Will David and Maddie get back together? Won’t they? Will I care? No, I won’t. The songs may be pretty and well dressed up, but the narrative doesn’t hold me. Kind of like Moonlighting after about season three...

There are Christmas songs on the album, so I am guessing the movie takes place over the holidays, (which would also explain the fireworks on the cover). The whole thing captures the feeling on the album cover as well: rain soaked streets, city lights and a lot of wistful walking. Usually I’m a sucker for this stuff, but for whatever reason I couldn’t get into it today.

There are lots of reasons to like this record. Waits writes a beautiful song and Gayle sings them with grace and just the right amount of playfulness. The stripped down instrumentation serves the vibe well, so the production also hits the right notes.

Yet, for whatever reason this record didn’t resonate with me. I do like a few songs quite a bit, but taken out of the context of the album they lose their punch. Within the context of the album, I don’t have the patience to wait for them to show up.

And so I am going to send this album on its way to a home that will appreciate it more than I did. It is a good record, and deserves better treatment than I could give it. Picture me in place of Terri Garr, heading out to find a musical relationship that works better for me and wishing “One from the Heart” all the best for the same.

Best tracks: Picking Up After You, Old Boyfriends, I Beg Your Pardon

CD Odyssey Disc 934: Drive-By Truckers

Admittedly, I have been doing a lot of random rolling out of my ‘new album’ section only, so maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that for the second time in three reviews I’ve got another Drive-By Truckers album. Good thing I like this band a lot.

Let’s get to it!

Disc 934 is….Decoration Day

Artist: Drive-By Truckers

Year of Release: 2003

What’s up with the Cover? Demonic geese pay dark homage to the second coming of…someone. This fantastically creepy cover is brought to you by artist Wes Freed, who does a lot of Drive-By Trucker album art.

How I Came To Know It: I recently got into Jason Isbell, and when I heard he had previously played for the Drive-By Truckers, I thought I would check them out. At first I couldn’t find the two albums that Isbell played on that intrigued me (“Dirty South” and “Decoration Day”) but I finally found the latter about three weeks ago and here it is. The search for “Dirty South” continues.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Drive-By Truckers albums at present. Of those five I’m going to put “Decoration Day” just ahead of “American Band at #2. However, I still don’t know the other three albums very well, so that could shift up or down.

Ratings: 4 stars

Thirteen years before the Drive-By Truckers got political on “American Band” they were exploring the challenges of America at a more intimate level. “Decoration Day” is an album that digs deep into the hard-scrabble lives of rough characters making hard choices and living (and dying) with the consequences.

Musically, the album is a mix of alternative country and hard southern rock, the latter occasionally tinged with a bluesy twang that is reminiscent of the Rolling Stones in places. The country elements are raucous enough and the rock elements are stripped down enough that they meet halfway and keep the record sounding cohesive throughout.

And of course, the record is one of the holy trinity that features Jason Isbell. Without Isbell the Drive-By Truckers still have a nice balance between the songwriting (and singing) of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. Isbell also sings, writes and plays guitar and is every bit the equal of Hood and Cooley at all of it. The result is an extra dimension to the band’s sound that I wish were present on all their records.

Isbell’s contributions as lead singer and writer are limited to two of the 15 tracks, but they are two of the best. “Outfit” is a song about small town livin’ and the dreams that get lost along the way. Lines like:

“Well, I used to go out in a Mustang, a 302 Mach One in green.

Me and your Mama made you in the back and I sold it to buy her a ring.”

Would make Springsteen proud, as Isbell paints a picture of a wild youth who settled down and had some kids, to whom he gives the following down-home advice:

“Don't call what you’re wearing an outfit. Don't ever say your car is broke.

Don't worry about losing your accent, a Southern Man tells better jokes.

Have fun but stay clear of the needle. Call home on your sister's birthday.

Don't tell them you're bigger than Jesus, don't give it away.”

Later, Isbell sings the title track, a dark tale about a true family feud, where the music’s menacing tone and muddy guitar licks set the perfect stage for revenge and murder. My only quibble about this song is the almost two minutes of instrumental clangor that ends it. It made me feel like I had a feud of my own - with the producer who refused to spin his finger in that tight circle that tells the band to wrap it up.

A similar problem exists on the dirge-like “Your Daddy Hates Me” which needed to end a lot sooner, putting the album north of an hour and one song over my usual 14 song maximum.

A lot of the record is absorbed with marriage, and more than a few pregnancies (including the one alluded to by Isbell in the lyrics above). People get proposed to, they get left at the altar, while others get together and live to regret it.

Mike Cooley has two of the best of these with “Sounds Better in the Song” and “Loaded Gun in the Closet.” Both tracks feature sublime guitar picking that has a deep and stark resonance that draws you into the stories of love, loss and worst of all - resignation.

Music so often encourages you to dream, but “Sounds Better in the Song” has the most depressing take on dreams I think I’ve heard in music:

“Dreams are given to you when you're young enough to dream them

Before they can do you any harm.

They don't start to hurt, until you try to hold on to them after seeing how they really are.”

Yet for all that, at least the heartache is resolving itself. On the album's final song, “Loaded Gun in the Closet,” a man comes home each day, rants about his day and his wife makes him dinner. They go through their daily lives and while she could leave any time she doesn’t, because as Cooley points out:

“But she's got a loaded gun in the closet.

And it's there anytime she wants it.

And her one and only man knows it and

That's why he put it there in the first place”

Yeesh! I’m not even sure what is going on here, but given how many bad choices have already happened on this record by this point, it can't end well.

Fortunately all the bad choices, violence and despair are turned into musical gold. You don’t have to live these lives, because “Decoration Day” can give you a world-class tour and let you then return to the safety of your happy home and stable job.

“Decoration Day” is about three songs and 12 minutes too long, but apart from that minor quibble this is an exceptional record, tragic and glorious in equal portion.

Best tracks: The Deeper In, Outfit, Sounds Better in the Song, When the Pin Hits the Shell, Decoration Day, Do It Yourself, Loaded Gun in the Closet

CD Odyssey Disc 933: Hank Williams III

What’s this? Two music reviews in a single weekend? What about the Dolphins/Jets game? Not to worry, gentle readers, I’m taping that and will get to it as soon as I’m done here.

I had occasion to do a fair bit of walking yesterday, so I was able to get through another album. Later last night, I listened to all my new music, as promised. It was all good, but the standouts were:

• Tygers of Pan Tang “Wild Cat” (1980) – energetic early heavy metal in the vein of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.
• Warren Zevon “Life’ll Kill Ya (2000) – One of the most underappreciated songwriters, on one of his last albums, still delivering quality.
• Harpeth Rising “Shifted” (2015) – a folk trio that sounds like a cross between Gogol Bordello and the Wailin’ Jennys. Innovation and folk music don’t always go together, but they do here.

I’m looking forward to reviewing all three of those, but first an album that’s been in my collection for a while.

Disc 933 is….Lovesick, Broke & Driftin’

Artist: Hank Williams III

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? It’s a picture depicting life in a simpler time. That is if you think life was simpler when you had to go outside to a separate building to go to the bathroom.

In this particular example we have a fellow who is doing alright (on a horse) having a conversation with a fellow who is down on his luck (on crutches). I imagine the dialogue goes something like this:

Guy on horse: “How’s walkin’?”

Guy on crutches: “I reckon I’ve had better days at it.”

How I Came To Know It: This was one of two albums recommended to me by a woman named Karen I used to work with (the other being “Risin’ Outlaw” which I reviewed back at Disc 870). Thanks again, Karen!

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Hank III albums, and looking back at previous reviews I can see I fluctuate quite a bit on how I feel about each one on any given day. Today I put “Lovesick, Broke & Drinkin’” in the middle of the pack, at #3.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

After doing a record of songs mostly written by other people, Hank III’s sophomore effort is almost all original material. The result is a record that is even more steeped in the blues-tinged traditional country of his legendary grandfather, and a bit more edge to the subject matter.

Hank III has inherited Hank Sr.’s talent for writing, as well as the high nasal tone of his voice. The songs are all steeped in southern drawl, and the grit in Hank III’s singing puts dirt under your nails and mud on your boots. These are songs about simple folk scraping out a living amid heartbreak and a heavy dose of alcohol and drugs.

This is best exemplified on the dirge-like “Whiskey, Weed & Women” which sounds like it fell right out of a cattle run in the forties, except for the mention of narcotics. In the song, our character bemoans how the deck was stacked against him:

“I can’t help the way that I am

Because the whiskey, weed and women had the upper hand.”

“5 Shots of Whiskey” is a less humorous approach to whiskey, but it is one of the prettiest tunes on the record, with a thoughtful melody that is traditional and creative in equal measure. “Whiskey, Weed & Women” will make you have a chuckle at fell circumstance, but “5 Shots of Whiskey” will just make your heart hurt.

This is a record about hard drinking and hard living. On “Mississippi Mud” Hank III takes his shots “straight out of a jug” and gets “pure drunk.” I guess as opposed to “watered-down” drunk although I’ve never felt terribly pure when I’ve had too much.

“Lovesick, Broke & Driftin’” is so traditional in its emphasis, some listeners might think it is too derivative, but that would be a mistake. There is nothing wrong with taking old forms and writing new songs in that style. Folk musicians do this all the time, and Hank III comes up with songs that are creative musically and lyrically, he just does a lot of it with traditional forms.

Also, for every old-timey song, Hank III throws in a double-time number like “7 Months, 39 Days” or a triple-time number like “Nightime Ramblin’ Man” where his rock-edged soul gets a little exposure.

The record ends with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” which is a solid cover of a classic rock track. Hank does a good job of catching the grit and hopelessness of the original, while making it his own.

My only quibble is that Hank III has done that early oughts crime of ‘hiding’ a song on the same cut. It is not a very good hidden track either, sounding for the first time like Hank is making fun of his own style. Because it is on the same track as “Atlantic City” it comes as a package deal every time. Argh.

Also, while I like songs about gettin’ “pure drunk” as much as the next guy, this record covers that territory with a bit too much regularity. Hank would benefit from exploring some other themes.

These are minor quibbles, though, on a record that has strong musicianship (shout out to the band, here) and strong songwriting, with a fun vibe throughout.

Best tracks: 7 Months 39 Days, Mississippi Mud, Whiskey Weed and Women, 5 Shots of Whiskey