CD Odyssey Disc 1212: Harpeth Rising

I apologize for the long delay between reviews. I’ve been on holiday and haven’t found a lot of music listening time that met the criteria under Rule #4. But…I’m back!

This next album came out 60 years after my last review (Frank Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours”). Time marches on and so does the unquenchable thirst for musicians to create.

Disc 1212 is… Shifted

Artist: Harpeth Rising

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? From left to right we have Maria Di Meglio, Jordana Greenberg and Rebecca Reed-Lunn, all of whom are showing a lot of arm.

This band’s lineup has changed a few times over the years (including since this album was released) so having a cover photo of who is on each album is more important than usual.

How I Came To Know It: I read about it in an article on Paste Magazine called “10 more obscure folk albums to add to your collection” by writer Jim Vorel.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Harpeth Rising albums. Of those I had reserved the #1 spot for “Shifted” but after listening to it, I can’t give it the 4 stars I had anticipated. That puts it behind “Dead Man’s Hand” which I move into first place, dropping “Shifted” into a still respectable second.

Ratings:  3 stars but almost 4

“Shifted” is the first Harpeth Rising album I heard, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. This time around it lacked emotional resonance in places, but it is still a solid folk record from a band that deserves more recognition.

This is the band’s fourth studio album, and there is a self-assuredness to their presentation, and a willingness to experiment. This willingness reveals itself in even larger helpings of classical music elements than on previous records. The band has always blended classical training and technique into their unique brand of folk music, but on “Shifted” they take it to a new level.

Jordana Greenberg’s playing is the first signal of the ‘shift’ with less fiddle and more violin than ever from her instrument. She is a gifted player in either style, however, so the increased focus didn’t bother me.

Greenberg is also the singer, and while she may be guilty of over-enunciating the lyrics this is preferable to me than albums where I can’t tell what the vocalist is mumbling about. No danger of that here, with Jordana’s vocals bright and high in the mix. These songs often have complex construction for instruments and voice alike, and Greenberg manages the gymnastics of it all well. I might have wondered if she could even sing and play these violin/fiddle parts at the same time, but I’ve seen them live enough on Youtube and can attest it really happens.

Rebecca Reed-Lunn’s banjo continues to ground the songs. She has a sprightly touch on the strings and more often than not it is the reliable brilliance of her playing that gives Greenberg the freedom to move her vocal phrasing around in the song without it being jarring. The banjo’s jump also contrasts well against Greenberg’s relatively low vocal register and adds a lot of energy to melodies that are smartly written, but not always easily accessible.

Sometimes the songs are too clever for their own good. On “The Raid” you get over-indulgent stanzas like:

“Miss Informed is explaining to Miss Understand

While yonder Miss Fortune holds out her hand

And Miss Taken Identity just got her very next ride.”

Kill your darlings, Harpeth Rising! “The Raid” withstands this particular stanza because it is otherwise a great song that features some killer cello from Maria Di Meglia but the ladies play with fire like this too often on the album.

All that cool musicianship and cleverness takes its toll on Greenberg’s delivery, such as on their cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To the End of Love.” This is one of my all-time favourite Cohen songs but Harpeth Rising’s version has just a bit too much going on. The violin and cello are again great but overall the song doesn’t have the emotional resonance it needs. This is a song laden with sexual overtones and intimacy, but the singing here feels distant and cerebral. I liked that Harpeth Rising did something different with the song, but in the process they stripped it off the qualities that make it great.

Fortunately, everything comes together on the album’s final track. “Shifted” (the song) features incredible harmonies, clever structure and – most importantly – it captures the right emotional resonance the lyrics call for. The song views self-doubt and confidence through the same prism, each contributing to the other. It is a song that recognizes that while every decision in life can mould us in unpredictable ways it is also this uncertainty that helps makes us strong. Or as Jordana sings it:

“Something has shifted, I can’t feel the ground

Can’t tell if I’m floating or heading straight down

But something has moved me, off of my tracks

Got nothin’ to guide me, and I’m not going back.”

“Shifted” also features all three band members playing lights out. While the album is too uneven overall to hold down 4 stars, “Shifted” plus a few other choice tracks, make it all well worth the price of admission.

Best tracks: I Am Eve (I Am the Reason), Proof, The Raid, Shifted

CD Odyssey Disc 1211: Frank Sinatra

As Christmas approaches I try to cut off purchasing new music but it has been hard this year. I’m in the middle of discovering a whole bunch of new artists and I’m eager to give them my money. Luckily, I have a few albums here and there to keep me busy while I wait. Here’s one of them.

Disc 1211 is… In the Wee Small Hours

Artist: Frank Sinatra

Year of Release: 1955

What’s up with the Cover? Frank is the paragon of cool as he steps out in the wee small hours for a smoke.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Gord was cleaning out a bunch of his father’s old CDs. He took a few photos of the collection to see if anything caught my eye.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a bunch of Frank Sinatra, but two are Greatest Hits packages and one is a live record. The only other album is “A Swingin’ Affair” from 1957 (reviewed back at Disc 922). It is hard to compare the jump and joy of that record with the quieter tones of “Small Hours” but if I had to do it, I’ll give the edge to “A Swingin’ Affair”…by a hair.

Ratings:  4 stars but almost 5

“In the Wee Small Hours” is a lonely city street at 4 a.m. There is no traffic. There is no wind. There may be rain, or if not rain, fog. It’s just you, your thoughts, and these songs helping you explore old memories and lost lovers.

The songs are an introverted affair. Quiet, contemplative numbers that despite being only two and a half and three and a half minutes long still manage to take their time lazily meandering through tales of unrequited love and regret. Despite this the music doesn’t put you in a sulk, it just helps you realize that sometimes the only company you need is your own.

Frank Sinatra is the greatest male jazz singer of his time. He possesses a rich full tone, into which he can inject as little or as much air as the occasion demands. His phrasing and timing are immaculate – the kind of perfect imperfection that no amount of post-production could recreate.

“In the Wee Small Hours” calls for a lot of reverie, and Frank is the perfect person to express it. His performance is wistful, but never absent-minded. Every word is a pearl, turning some pretty basic stories of the lovelorn into something deep and meaningful.

Supporting Sinatra is arranger and conductor Nelson Riddle. I wouldn’t have thought to look up Riddle’s name, except a fellow music enthusiast who rides my bus mentioned how great he was (thank you, David). On “In the Wee Small Hours” Riddle recognizes that these songs need a lot of quiet to sink in, and he supplies understated string and piano flourishes, that underscore every line Sinatra sings, while never upstaging him – as if that were possible.

I’m not a big jazz fan, and one of the reasons is I’m not fond of the overly creative melodic structures that value cleverness over listenability. “In the Wee Small Hours” is the exception. Often Frank resolves a melody in a surprising way, landing a note that feels slightly out of place, and yet fits in that moment. His masterful performance makes me appreciate and enjoy this experience, which I usually find annoying.

With so many “woe is me” tunes, this record could have easily fallen into the world of the maudlin. It does nudge up against that line here and there, but it never crosses over.

My main issue is that there are too many songs. Even though the total play time is only 50 minutes, with 16 tracks all so similarly themed, I was ready to be done the wallow a few tracks before the record decided to end it.

Overall, though, “In the Wee Small Hours” is a vocal masterpiece. It is the musical equivalent of spending an evening drinking scotch and thinking fondly of old lovers. I can forgive that the reverie goes on a bit longer than it should when it sounds this good.

Best tracks: In the Wee Small Hours, Mood Indigo, Glad to Be Unhappy, I Get Along Without You Very Well, Can’t We Be Friends?, I’ll Be Around, It Never Entered My Mind

CD Odyssey Disc 1210: Johnny Cash

Once again a busy week conspired against me finding time to write a review, and left me to give an album many more listens than I might have otherwise. Once again the experience was positive.

Disc 1210 is… Unchained

Artist: Johnny Cash

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? You can spend a lot of time proving you can hit the broad side of a barn but as Johnny shows here, they’re mostly good for leanin’.

How I Came To Know It: Johnny’s been in my house longer than I have (my mom used to listen to him before I was born) but this particular album was the result of more recent drilling through his musical Renaissance with Rick Rubin.

How It Stacks Up:  I have added to my Johnny Cash collection since I reviewed “American III: Solitary Man” back at Disc 687. As a result I now have seven studio albums: three from his heyday and four from his rebirth in the nineties and oughts. even “Unchained” is first among the rebirth albums and second overall.

Ratings:  4 stars

In 1994 Rick Rubin reinvigorated and reinvented Johnny Cash for a whole new generation of fans with “American Recordings.” Its follow up, “Unchained,” takes the same stripped down and stark approach Cash’s signature voice, creating a record that is raw and real and proof positive that Cash was back on top, and there to stay.

All of the American Recordings produced by Rubin strip the bells and whistles out of its song selections, and leave the skeleton bare and white for your consideration. This would expose any melodic shortcomings in short order, but Cash has always been a master curator of songs, and only selects the best. Whether a song is metal, folk, country or pop, Cash can always hear the inner beauty of a good tune.

On “Unchained” his selection talents are on full display. On some of these later records, he selects songs that may be great songs in their own right, but sound clunky when sung by Cash. They are great songs, but not always great for him. “Unchained” doesn’t have any true clunkers. The closest he comes is covering Dean Martin’s “Memories Are Made Of This” and even that has a nice swing to it – the kind of cover you could see people swaying to in the common room of a retirement home on dance night.

Other than that, “Unchained” is a love letter from Cash to the songs that have inspired him through the decades. He drops amazing covers of Don Gibson’s “Sea of Heartbreak” (1961) and Roy Clark’s hit “I Never Picked Cotton.” (1970). And – full disclosure – I had to Google those artists and had never heard of either one. Getting picked up by Johnny in this way is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, your song lives again, but on the other now that song belongs to Cash for ever more. “I Never Picked Cotton” is particularly great. The story of a young and poor man who chooses a life of crime after watching his family wear themselves to the bone at manual labour scraping out a subsistence living.

The album has a host of high points, but none more so than Cash taking on Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage.” Cash has always lived in that tension between his natural tendency toward wild abandon and the desire to be a good man, and to live a just life. Songs like “Rusty Cage” with their combined themes of confinement and rebellion were made for him. All the grunge may be stripped out of the song, but all the nasty remains. Cash spits out Cornell’s words with all the vitriol of the original, with an extra dose of mean old man on the side.

Equally good is his cover of Tom Petty’s “Southern Accents,” a celebration of Cash’s southern roots. Petty’s original feels restless and uncertain, but you can tell Cash’s version of the character is more at peace with the same itinerant and worn out character.

Cash often puts his faith at the forefront, and “Unchained” has two great entries. The title track (written by Jude Johnstone in the early oughts) and “Spiritual” (by nineties rock band Spain). I checked out both originals on Youtube and while they were good they couldn’t hold up to the majesty of Cash’s delivery. When Johnny sings a devotional it swallows him whole. He takes you into the belly of the whale where he is clearly overwhelmed by the glory of God. I’m not religious, but you don’t have to be to be awed by what Cash is feeling in these moments.

I recently bought a couple of Cash’s records from the fifties and sixties, during his first run at fame. They are brilliant but “Unchained” stands equal beside them, a fitting legacy to one of music’s great icons.

Best tracks: Sea of Heartbreak, Rusty Cage, Spiritual, Southern Accents, Mean Eyed Cat, I Never Picked Cotton, Unchained

CD Odyssey Disc 1209: Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle

My apologies for my lengthy absence, dear readers. I have had a hectic week of work and social engagements that combined to ensure I was hardly ever home. The result of this was that I was able to immerse myself in this next album.

Disc 1209 is… Let’s Just Stay Here

Artist: Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover? After three days the maid finally broke down and violated the sanctity of the “do not disturb” card on the hotel room door. After all, beds had to be made, toilets scrubbed. The heads were remarkably well preserved, and she could only assume Ms. Mark had been watering them. How that actually helped was the real mystery…

How I Came To Know It: My friend Casey originally put me on to Carolyn Mark and this was just me digging through her collection. This particular album was devilishly hard to find until a couple of months ago when someone obviously “went digital” and dumped their entire Carolyn Mark collection off at the local record store. I found this one, as well as a second copy of “Nothing Is Free,” which I gave to Casey as payback for introducing me to such a great artist.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Carolyn Mark albums, but this is the only one that shares equal billing with NQ Arbuckle. Because of that it can’t really stack up against the other five albums so I leave it to stand alone.

Ratings:  4 stars

I love Carolyn Mark on her own just fine, but there is an alchemy she creates playing off her fellow Canadian alt-country band NQ Arbuckle that gives “Let’s Just Stay Here” a special magic.

The songs are divided roughly evenly between the two artists, and while I was expecting to lean more toward Carolyn Mark’s work, I ended up enjoying the whole experience without ever having to pick sides.

The record has a cohesive flow to it, despite moving through a lot of musical styles. Folk, country and rockabilly all get a workout. The opening track “All Time Low” has an echoing and spooky electric guitar, reinforced by Mark’s sultry-sweet vocals as she sets the scene:

“Down in Death Valley

On the Day of the Dead

At the lowest point in North America”

Great stuff, and underneath it all Mark’s trademark self-effacing humour. In this case, I got the impression of cancelled gigs and nothing to do but lie around in your hotel room and stare at the ceiling. The song has a haunting beauty, grounded with Neville Quinlan’s backing vocals (of NQ Arbuckle fame) which float to you from what feels like under the ground, but is probably just the room one floor down.

On the second track “Officer Down” Quinlan takes the lead. There is a taste of whiskey and wheeze in his voice that gives everything he sings an extra dose of weariness. It is exactly what is needed for the song, however. Here we get the light airiness of Mark’s vocals adding the poignancy, this time from the room upstairs.

Mark and Quinlan favour loose harmony, and the space in between their voices adds a tension to the songs. They don’t overuse the effect, sticking to specific points in specific songs to lend their talents. They are also more than content to let each other drive solo when the song calls for it.

The lyrics on all these songs are loaded with both great narratives, with flashes of images and moments that shine like gems within them. On “The Second Time” Mark’s chorus of “how can the second time be an accident?” is both funny and uncomfortable as she contemplates once again not being invited to a party. On “Saskatoon Tonight” Quinlan sings “Stay up so late with my friends talking through a downpour/Guitars and rockabilly girls drinking beer on a back porch” and you feel like you’re there, slightly drunk, slightly tired and mostly content.

There are many references to Canadian locations that ground the record in the specific. I knew a lot of the locations personally (on “Canada Day Off/Toronto” I suspected Mark of singing about the old Victoria night spot, the Cuckoo’s Nest, which makes sense, given Mark is a local). It is satisfying when a song sings about locations that you know intimately (New Yorkers are very lucky in this respect) but when it is done right you don’t have to know the place. Very few people have raced muscle cars down by a trestle in New Jersey, but that doesn’t prevent “Darkness at the Edge of Town” from being instantly relatable.

As an extra bonus, NQ Arbuckle contributes a cover of Justin Rutledge’s “Too Sober To Sleep.” I’m not a big fan of Justin Rutledge but he is a talented songwriter and “Too Sober To Sleep” is a masterpiece. Now I get to have his best song without having to own a Rutledge album. (Don’t feel bad for him – he gets paid as the writer either way).

I have a list of albums that I am looking for that I carry around with me every time I’m going to be near a record store. A lot of these records are damned hard to find, and those albums can languish on that list for a long time but the list ensures I never give up. That was the case with “Let’s Just Stay Here,” which was on the list so long I had forgotten why I wanted it. It was a delight to be reminded over this past week.

Best tracks: All Time Low, Officer Down, Saskatoon Tonight, Canada Day Off/Toronto, Too Sober to Sleep, When I Come Back, Let’s Just Stay Here

CD Odyssey Disc 1208: Nick Drake

After two albums in a row from the “new to me” section of my collection, I turned once again to a random roll from the main stacks.

Disc 1208 is… Pink Moon

Artist: Nick Drake

Year of Release: 1972

What’s up with the Cover? This picture defies logic. Tea cups don’t float in space, daggers don’t fly out of playing cards and as for that blue-lipped, red-nosed disembodied head, the less said the better. At least they got one thing right: the moon is, as everyone knows, made of cheese. Science!

How I Came To Know It: I was reviewing a list of top 100 indie folk albums of all time on Paste Magazine and this one was on it. I checked it out and liked what I heard.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have one Nick Drake album, so it can’t stack up.

Ratings:  3 stars

Nick Drake was an English folk singer-songwriter who made only three albums, none of which made a huge impact during his short life. In 1976 Drake would tragically take his own life, four years after releasing “Pink Moon.” Despite this, the record has become one of those that may not be famous in the mainstream, but is well-loved by music aficionados, critics and modern folk artists alike.

Given its much-vaunted reputation I was expecting “Pink Moon” to blow me away and while it was good, it fell short of my lofty expectations. I have a feeling this understated “yeah, it was good” reaction will fall well short of Drake’s devotees, but I’ve got to keep it real. I liked this record, but I didn’t love it.

Drake has influenced many artists that came after him, and I can hear him strongly in modern indie bands like Belle & Sebastian. Twenty years after the record was released Lucinda Williams did a cover of “Which Will” and filled it with all the raw hurt of the original. Nick Drake’s version has a lovely echo to the guitar work, and a light vulnerable vocal delivery as he sings a weary tune of uncertainty and lost love.

“Pink Moon” feels like the soundtrack to some indie coming of age movie. Listening to it, I felt like I was watching a montage of a character doing pale and wan activities like walking around in a trench coat with leaves blowing around him, or maybe staring at his own reflection in a rain-streaked window.

There is plenty to like about the record. It manages to be both emotionally raw and relaxing at the same time. This starts with Drake’s guitar playing, which is characterized by gentle strumming mixed with carefully plucked notes. His playing is idyllic, and soft around the edges. This is music for lying on a bed of soft heather and watching clouds float by.

Drake’s voice matches to his playing well. He has a plaintive whisper to his delivery. It has the whimsy of sixties folk, but also the worn-down weariness of the seventies. There is a deep sadness as well, but you can see he also finds a beauty at the core of his sadness. His suffering feels very near the surface, and hearing him sing I felt bad thinking about his untimely end.

With all that sadness, it would be easy for Drake to slip into the maudlin but he is so emotionally honest it never happens. If anything, you just sink down into the songs and lose yourself in them. It makes for a pleasant sulk that invites your mind to wander and lets you contemplate your cares in a broad and diffuse way that blunts their impact.

The record is more atmospheric than narrative, and there were times when I wished the songs would develop a bit more, either narratively or melodically. Instead you get a series of mood pieces, few of which are more than three minutes long. It quietens your mind well enough, but it didn’t cause me to reach down and re-examine the meaning of life, which was a bit of a let-down, given the record’s sterling reputation.

The entire album is only 11 songs and 28 minutes long and it is over before you feel fully immersed in it. There are even a couple of pure instrumentals which are pretty, but felt more like those little clips you get on a movie soundtrack – again, better for watching someone walk in the rain than to evoke the image in its own.

In the end I wanted this record to be more than it was, but it was still a solid folk record by an artist that succumbed to his own inner demons, even as he converted them to things of beauty for those he left behind.

Best tracks: Pink Moon, Place to Be, Which Will, Parasite

CD Odyssey Disc 1207: St. Vincent

As hinted at in my last review, this album was actually randomly rolled for my last review, but I replaced it with “Masseduction” since that was the original release of the same songs, one year earlier, and it just made sense to grok that first. Now we return to regularly scheduled programming, and that record’s reinterpretation.

Disc 1207 is… Masseducation

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), stripped down, just like this album’s production. Lest you think this means you can presume to know her better, she presents the photo out of focus as a reminder that like any artist she shows exactly what she means to show, and nothing more.

How I Came To Know It: If you’ve read my previous review you will know how much I loved “Masseduction” so when I found out St. Vincent had done an acoustic version I snapped it up as soon as it hit the shelves.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three St. Vincent albums. It is hard to rate an album that is essentially the same songs as the last one, but since that’s the task at hand, I’ll put “Masseducation” in second place out of those three records.

Ratings:  5 stars

Just like the single ‘a’ added to this album’s title, one small change in the approach to a record can result in a whole new way of seeing it. On “Masseducation” the change is the switch from electric to acoustic, and the arrangement from multiple instruments down to a single piano.

That pianist is Thomas Bartlett, aka “Doveman” (because apparently everyone has to have a stage name these days). Over two days he and Clark sat in a studio apartment and recorded the songs from her 2017 album “Masseduction.” His task: take that album’s brilliant mix of techno, rock and pop and boil it down into arrangements for a single piano. Lots of songs are originally written just sitting at the piano anyway, so the task isn’t all that complicated, but making the result sound like something more than a muted demo is where things get tricky.

Fortunately, Bartlett is more than up to the task. There are times where he plays the tune straight - no chaser, times when he adds in flourishes that create additional emotional depth and times where he just takes his hands off the keys and lets St. Vincent’s vocals stand alone. Most importantly, he has a good understanding of where each approach fits best.

The task is also daunting for St. Vincent. “Masseducation” leaves no room for subterfuge and no production to hide any shortcomings behind. In response, she delivers a powerful and fearless vocal performance. Her rich tone fills in all the space left between the piano notes, and often carries the song on their own. I was reminded favourably of great pop vocalists like Lady Gaga or Sheryl Crow who undertook similarly brave vocal performances. I’ve always been impressed by St. Vincent’s talents as a guitar player and as a songwriter but “Masseducation” gave me a whole new appreciation for her talents as a singer.

Along the way, she also shows the beautiful bones of these songs. Even a song like “Pills” which has a heavily produced approach on its original presentation still works with just a piano and voice. A good song can be played in any style, and these are some of the best songs you will find, pop or otherwise.

All of the themes I explored on my review of “Masseduction” are present here as well, with the same thoughtful exploration of sex, desire and vulnerability. However, the stories feel more raw without the sugarcoating of a pop backbeat or guitar treatment. “Savior” is even more intensely sexual and “Hang On Me” is even more wan and heart-worn than ever.

My only minor quibble is on “New York” where St. Vincent shifts a part of the melody to make it drop down where the original version soars. That said, the change also made me see the song in a new light. The theme of apology and regret is consistent, but in the original there is a manic quality to the experience. Here, it leaves you feeling empty and unsatisfied. It is a reminder that the same source of grief can manifest itself in a lot of different, but related emotions.

The album also rearranges the song order. The songs that launch “Masseduction” (“Hang on Me” and “Pills”) are flipped to the end of “Masseducation”. The introspective and comparatively quiet “Slow Disco” is moved from the end to the first track. This reminds the listener that this will be a more intimate journey. It also has the effect of changing the overall emotional journey from manic doubt through to quiet uncertainty into the reverse.

On my first listen I thought the record would end up just shy of 5 stars; I didn’t love some of the jazzy elements in Bartlett’s piano playing. However, as I let the record sink in I realized it was having just as much impact on me as “Masseduction” did, but in a subtly different way. I was even finding different favourites as a result (“Young Lover” in particular benefits from the new treatment). Songs this good, and performances this powerful can’t be denied.

And so we sit with the same record getting 5 stars all over again, only this time it is completely different. Thanks for the education, Ms. Clark.

Best tracks: All tracks, but in particular Slow Disco, Savior, Masseduction, Smoking Section, Young Lover, Happy Birthday Johnny, Pills, Hang on Me. Yes, the other 4 are great too.

CD Odyssey Disc 1206: St. Vincent

As readers of this blog’s fine print will know, while I roll what I’m going to review randomly, Rule #5 allows me to insert a new (to me) album into the process if I choose to do so. Over the past few years I have taken to rolling out of this new (to me) backlog, which usually sits at around 100 albums or so.

On my last foray into the new section I rolled “Masseducation”, which is St. Vincent’s acoustic reimagining of her previous album “Masseduction.” It seemed wrong to review the reinterpretation before I ever gave the original a full listen and since both were in the new music section…here we are.

I bet you can guess what album Disc 1207’s going to be, after which I promise to return the Odyssey to regular lack-of-scheduled programming.

Disc 1206 is… Masseduction

Artist: St. Vincent

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Warning: album cover may contain suggestive scenes. The music has a few as well.

How I Came To Know It: I really liked St. Vincent’s previous album (reviewed back at Disc 858) released a few years earlier, and the first few singles off of “Masseduction” were great, so I took a chance on the rest.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three St. Vincent albums. Of the three, “Masseduction” is my favourite, so #1.

Ratings:  5 stars

Like the album cover, “Masseduction” is provocative, and sexy, presented on the surface as awkward and artificial, but with a deeper truth and integrity underneath. This is a complicated, thoughtful record that gets better and better on every listen.

Stylistically, St. Vincent (real name Annie Clark) once again displays her fearless willingness to borrow multiple musical styles and bend them to her unflinching artistic vision. Techno, rock and pop elements all blend and twist around one another, like three sets of legs under a set of satin sheets.

If that image sounds a bit racy, well so does this record. On “Masseduction” St. Vincent gives us thrills both above and below the waistline, and then confronts us with our own voyeurism. “Pills” and “Los Ageless” are anthems about the artificiality of modern existence, but to see them as just this would be a mistake. They are equally about how we willingly embrace artificiality as armour. Clark seems to be saying that we constructed our society this way and that when we’ve peeled the onion down to the core, we will only find our own desires fueling all the structures above. Consider the opening lines of “Los Ageless”:

“In Los Ageless, the winter never comes

In Los Ageless, the mothers milk their young

But I can keep running

No, I can keep running

The Los Ageless hang out by the bar

Burn the pages of unwritten memoirs

But I can keep running

No, I can keep running

“How can anybody have you?

How can anybody have you and lose you?

How can anybody have you and lose you

And not lose their minds, too?”

In the end, behind a series of killer back beats and innovative guitar riffs we find our narrator exploring her own loss, real and visceral despite all the artificiality wrapped around it.

On “Savior” and the title track, St. Vincent explores our complex relationship with desire, sexuality and objectification. “Savior” is a song about a woman whose partner likes her to dress up in costumes. There is some awkwardness in these roleplaying sequences, and even a little frustrated boredom with a nurse outfit that “rides and sticks to my thighs and my hips.” “Savior” is the sex that goes with the drugs in “Pills” and the rock and roll lifestyle of “Los Ageless,” but the themes are similar: people put on masks to give themselves a little space from the real, but the complexity of the human condition won’t be denied.

Many of these songs have the instruments artificially dressed up as well – wearing layers of reverb and accessorized with machine-generated back beats. They are the perfect mix of the organic, wrapping itself in the artificial. It is subtle and clever, and – also important – catchy as hell. You can just sit and groove along, or you can listen a little closer and let it up into your head. It works equally well either way.

This alone would make “Masseduction” a brilliant record, but St. Vincent adds songs that are deeply moving and intensely personal. “New York” is a stripped down song about regret and lost love, and “Happy Birthday, Johnny” is about watching a loved one lose themselves in poor life choices, and know there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Or it could be that these intensely personal songs are just St. Vincent exploring the internal angst of those same characters out there popping pills and donning sexy nurse outfits. It doesn’t really matter in the end, because great art is great art, and “Masseduction” is great art. It is musically profound, brave and powerful. You can let it wash over you like an emotional tide or you can immerse yourself in its complex explorations of sex, identity and society. Either way you won’t be disappointed.

Best tracks: All tracks, but in particular Hang On Me, Pills, Masseduction, Los Ageless, Happy Birthday Johnny, Savior, New York, Slow Disco and Smoking Section. Yes, the other 4 are good too.

CD Odyssey Disc 1205: Jim Cuddy

I apologize for my lack of output over this past week, Gentle Reader. I’ve had a crazy schedule at work and I’ve been getting home with a tired brain. Usually writing a music review revitalizes me, but this week I defaulted to laying on the couch doing little more than what Leonard Cohen once referred to as “getting lost in that hopeless little screen”.

Disc 1205 is… All In Time

Artist: Jim Cuddy

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover? According to the liner notes…

“The symbol in the cover – a cross within a circle – is from the Kongo Altar. It is called Dikenda. It stands at the crossroads and marks the onset of a journey. It is a shining circle representing the sun, and it marks the sun’s four moments – dawn, noon, sunset and midnight.”

So…there you go. No word on all the other stuff, like the bones arranged in the Roman numerals for “32” or the vines, or the roses or the five cups of blood or whatever they are across the top. I was tempted to cut all that stuff out and invent some game where they are all playing pieces but I didn’t want to wreck the CD.

How I Came To Know It: We were already Blue Rodeo fans, and had heard and liked the song “Too Many Hands” and so we took a chance. That’s what you did before Youtube and music streaming existed.

How It Stacks Up:  We have two Jim Cuddy solo albums: this one and “The Light that Guides You Home” (reviewed back at Disc 504). They are pretty equal but I’m going to give the edge to “The Light That Guides You Home”.

Ratings:  3 stars but almost 4

“All In Time” has a subtle beauty to it that I confess to having a hard time accessing while navigating a hard week. That said, the airy beauty of Cuddy’s voice and the gentle melodies of the record still reached me through the gloom, even if the words weren’t sinking in as much as I would have liked.

It is impossible to discuss a Jim Cuddy solo record without mentioning his usual gig as a principle singer and songwriter for Canadian alt-country icons Blue Rodeo. That band is a joyful call-and-answer of songs by Cuddy and fellow singer-songwriter Greg Keelor. You get half a record of Keelor’s psychedelic blues-infused country to balance the more straightforward country crooning of Cuddy. I like them both, so did I miss the variety?

No, and that speaks highly of the collection of songs Cuddy has pulled together for “All In Time.” He has pulled together some gorgeous melodies that showcase both his talents as a writer but also the exceptional range in his vocals. I have written before about the angelic power of Cuddy’s voice, but it bears some repeating. He has an ability to climb in and out of falsetto that raises the hair on the back of your neck. On “Too Many Hands” he does this repeatedly and I never got tired of it.

Cuddy was right to release “Too Many Hands” as the single – it is the album’s standout track – but there is plenty to like about the record. Mostly, I was drawn to Cuddy’s more thoughtful and melancholy songs. I think these tracks showcase his voice better, and while he can rock out well, it is that side of the ledger where I do pine a little for his Blue Rodeo bandmates.

Fortunately, I like alt-country and folk music just as much as rock and roll, so I don’t need to hear someone bang out power chords to have a good time. “Second Son” is a reflective song about friendship, and “Slide Through Your Hands” is about collapsing love; this latter theme being one that Cuddy has excelled at his entire career. You’d think he’d exhausted it by now, but “Slide Through Your Hands” shows he’s still got plenty of heartache to offer if you need to get your wallow on.

“All in Time” has slightly less noodling than your average Blue Rodeo album, but there were still a couple of moments that irked me. “New Year’s Eve” has over two minutes of atmospheric intro that sounds like a movie score more than a song, and serves no purpose that I could discern. Once the song starts it is pretty solid, but I was too irked by then to enjoy it.

“Everybody Cries” is a beautiful song that wraps its arms around your shoulders on a cold day and tells you everything is going to be OK. It then breaks this promise with a clangorous rockabilly guitar/bass riff for a full minute after the song should have just faded away or quietly resolved. It was like having someone sing you a lullaby and just as you were fading off to sleep, violently shake you awake again.

“All In Time” is twenty years old this year, and I’ve heard it a lot over those years. For this reason, the songs are so familiar they sometimes fade into the background, particularly when my head is full of other worries. However, I’m glad I took a little extra time to let it seep back in over the last few days. Annoying noodles aside, it felt like a happy homecoming to see an old friend.

Best tracks: Second Son, Disappointment, Too Many Hands, Slide Through Your Hands, Making My Way To You

CD Odyssey Disc 1204: Girlschool

Welcome back to the Odyssey! For the second month in a row we get to delve into some Girlschool. Yeah!

Disc 1204 is… Hit and Run

Artist: Girlschool

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? Our four leather-clad heroines survey the damage to a brick wall after they ran their rather large sedan into it. Think they’ll be reporting it? The album title suggests…not.

How I Came To Know It: I just (Disc 1191) told the story of how the 4 CD set of Girlschool albums came to be in my collection so I won’t recount that again.  I will note that I originally came to know Girlschool through their guest appearances on a Motorhead compilation.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Girlschool albums, and I am putting “Hit and Run” in at number one, baby!

Ratings:  4 stars

“Hit and Run” is fast, furious and full of rebellious life; the musical equivalent of being punched in the teeth and yet somehow enjoying the experience.

This is Girlschool’s second album and their most commercially successful. In this regard a bit of context is important; it achieved #5 in the UK but only #50 in Canada (although it did go gold, so we loved them in our way). It had no real big hits, which is perhaps fitting for a record that doesn’t have a single so much as a solid mass of standout songs that deliver a consistent energy throughout.

Girlschool were Motorhead protégés and the influence is strong. Like Motorhead they straddle the line between punk and metal. Here you will get a lot of basic songs without a lot of chords played in the frenetic style of punk music. Like a motorcycle that has a front wheel vibrating ominously through a fast turn, Girlschool sounds like they are on the edge of losing control but never do.

Helping centrifugally balance the turn are churning metal riffs that would be at home on many an eighties metal album in the decade to come. The title track has a killer groove that sits down somewhere between the pomposity of KISS and the driving groove of Judas Priest. This time the song isn’t about bragging about lovin’ and leavin’, but the hurt feelings of the left behind. Girlschool doesn’t wallow, though, “Hit and Run” is a rallying cry to reject self-pity that raises a middle finger to fate and circumstance alike.

My early music experience is more metal than punk and the more crunchy riffs of songs like “Future Flash” appealed to me more than the punk flavours, but all of it is good. In both its incarnations, this is simple rock and roll, played with spit and spite. While I would tune in from time to time to the lyrics, it would be a mistake to look for a lot of complicated messages. Just let the visceral experience wash over you.

The band does a great cover of ZZ Top’s “Tush” filled with Motorhead-esque industrial crunch. It is great, but the fact that it isn’t even one of my favourite tracks is even more telling about the album’s quality. I’d rather here Girlschool blast their own stuff. When you can stand like that side by side with a hard rock classic you’ve got a classic or two of your own, chart topping be damned.

Listening to “Hit and Run” I could also hear the echoes of history, as the record feels like the natural ancestor to many all-girl bands that followed. L7 comes to mind, and – more recently – Bad Cop Bad Cop.

This particular edition of the record has a bunch of “bonus tracks.” While I liked the covers of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’ “Please Don’t Touch” and Motorhead’s “Bomber” there were three more tracks that made the experience a bit bloated, and didn’t sufficiently add to the record. If you are going to put bonus tracks at the end of a CD (and I generally wish you wouldn’t) then limit yourself to two.

That’s a minor quibble though on one of the truly great metal albums of the early eighties, and one I expect to be in regular rotation for years to come.

Best tracks: C’mon Let’s Go, Kick It Down, Following the Crowd, Hit and Run, Watch Your Step, Back to Start, Future Flash

CD Odyssey Disc 1203: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

I’m in the middle of a nice long weekend of my own making. Yesterday I had no plans and was able to just chill out and listen to music outside of the Odyssey’s rules. I gave a listen to a couple of modern folk albums, one of which I liked and one of which I didn’t, and then I changed things up with some Warren Zevon (1989’s “Transverse City”).

But now we must return to our official journey…and Ms. Sharon Jones.

Disc 1203 is… Naturally

Artist: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? Ms. Sharon Jones, chillin’ in an easy chair. That lamp looks nice, but if I were her I’d get out of that room before the whole thing gets overtaken by line animation. Turning a woman with the bigger-than-life personality of Sharon Jones into a line drawing would be a crime.

How I Came To Know It: Originally through my buddy Nick buying a different album (“I Learned The Hard Way”) that I loved. “Naturally” was me, now hooked thanks to Nick, digging through her discography.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Sharon Jones albums and they are all awesome. However, this is the part where we rank that awesomeness and “Naturally” can only manage the bronze – third, if you’re numerically inclined. As this is the last Sharon Jones album in my collection, here’s a full recap:

1. I Learned the Hard Way: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 629)
2. 100 Days, 100 Nights: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 803)
3. Naturally: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
4. Give the People What They Want: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 608)

Ratings:  4 stars

“Naturally” is a throwback to the heyday of soul in the late sixties and early seventies, but like all other Dap-King albums, it never feels derivative. Much like Sharon in that old chair on cover, the music settles itself down beside its early inspirations so comfortably if you were to come into the room and see them all lined up on a couch you wouldn’t know who was modern and who was historical.

So why listen to Sharon Jones when you could just go to the original source material? A couple of songs into “Naturally” you’ll realize the foolishness of the question. You listen to Sharon Jones because she is every bit as good as the source material. There’s no reason to choose.

When you have a big soul band (the Dap-Kings have eight members in addition to Jones) you have to be tight. If someone comes in early or late, you’re going to notice. Fortunately, the Dap-Kings never let you down. I have a lot of music in a lot of styles and I can’t think of a band that plays more seamlessly together than these guys.

But in soul music, being tight doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t work the magic of the pocket. Again, the Dap-Kings do not disappoint. “Natural Born Lover” starts with just Jones and drummer Homer Steinweiss dropping the perfect rhythm for a couple of bars and then the whole band arrives en masse. Guitarist Binky Griptite drops a funky rhythm on guitar, Bosco Mann kills it on the bass and the horn section adds flourishes everywhere they belong and nowhere they don’t. The whole thing has that satisfying feel of a gymnast sticking a landing or an NFL wideout tapping his toes in on a sideline; it just feels right

“Natural Born Lover” is fun lyrically as well, as Jones extolls the virtues of her man in the sack. We learn he is an ‘NBL’ (natural born lover) who ‘TCB’s (takes care of business). It is impossible to sit still with this song playing. You gotta let your backbone slide and your head bob, even on a bus full of strangers (I regret nothing!). The song is sneaky-complex as well. On the surface, it is just a killer groove, while underneath a lot of clever flourishes of horn, drum and guitar added in artful splashes that never distract from the core of the song.

Against this backdrop of excellence Jones is free to belt it out, flowing around the pocket to give the songs that extra swing without wrecking the groove. It is a rare skill. It isn’t something you can teach, it’s something you either have or you don’t. Frank Sinatra has it. Dean Martin has it. Ozzy Osbourne has it. And Sharon Jones has it as well.

The record has a nice mix of slow romantic crooners like “You’re Gonna Get It” and up-tempo booty shakers like “Your Thing Is a Drag” giving the record as a whole a nice ebb and flow as well.

Fun feature that downloaders don't get to enjoy: the liner notes include the astrological sign for all the band members. I was not surprised to read that band leader and bassist Bosco Mann is a Leo.

The songs are all written by Mann with the exception of a rendition of the Woody Guthrie song “This Land Is Your Land” that is the best version I have ever heard. Chances are you have heard this song already – it is played over the opening credits of the George Clooney/Anna Kendrick movie “Up In the Air”. If you liked it do yourself a favour and get the rest of the album.

Best tracks: How Do I Let A Good Man Down?, Natural Born Lover, You’re Gonna Get It, How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?, This Land Is Your Land, Your Thing Is a Drag

CD Odyssey Disc 1202: Trapper Schoepp

I’m feeling pretty tired this evening, but I am also ready to move on to my next album. Since that doesn’t happen until I talk about the one I’m on, here we go...

Disc 1202 is… Run, Engine, Run

Artist: Trapper Schoepp and the Shades

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover? Trapper Schoepp does his best Han Solo. The vest is a bit too big, and he’s too short to pretend to be a Stormtrooper, but otherwise he’s a handsome kid who looks like he can shoot from the hip – and do it first. I don’t know those other guys, but they look like rebels. They’re all a bit…shady.

How I Came To Know It: I bought this from Trapper Schoepp himself at the Commodore Ballroom a couple of years ago where he was manning his merch table. I also had a nice conversation with Schoepp who is a personable young fellow with a twinkle in his eye.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Trapper Schoepp albums. I like them both, but “Run, Engine, Run” is going in at #2 behind 2016’s “Rangers & Valentines”

Ratings:  3 stars but almost 4

“Run, Engine, Run” has some pretty melodies and some solid playing and while it may not invite you into life’s deeper mysteries or re-invent the folk-rock genre where it abides, sometimes a pretty melody is enough.

Schoepp has a knack for a catchy hook, and “Run, Engine, Run” has plenty to offer. These are songs that sometimes sway and sometimes kick, but they always do it in a way that makes you want to join in. Schoepp writes short songs (most are under four minutes) that develop quickly. Sometimes it happens a bit too quickly, giving the experience an ‘empty calories’ feeling, but for the most part Schoepp has a natural talent for storytelling. It is hard to blame his efficiency or economy of purpose when the destination is so enjoyable. In short, he gets to the point, and a lot of moany, meandering folk singers could learn from his straightforward style.

Schoepp has a solid voice that sounds youthful (which he is) and exuberant (which he also is). The Shades are a solid backing band, and there were some guitar licks that had a rich tone to them. I don’t know who they belong to though; there are three band members credited with “guitar” and the only time I’ve seen Schoepp in concert he was a one-man act, so the arrangements were all stripped down to just vocals and one guitar (his).

Many of the songs have heavy themes of travel and show that Schoepp is well acquainted with the road. The best of these is the title track, which is about Schoepp’s memory as a 16 year old riding with his grandfather in a red Mercedes. If I remember from his concert, grandpa eventually gave the car to Schoepp, which is pretty cool. The song has a galloping guitar that makes it fittingly perfect driving music and Trapper sings the song with a veritas that speaks to how significant the moment was for him.

I also liked the touches of fiddle on “Run, Engine, Run” which also make an appearance on the opening track “So Long.” I liked the fiddle so much I wanted to hear more of it than the album offered so I looked the player up. Turns out it is Gina Romantini. I look forward to hearing more of her work…er…down the road?

When the album is folksy, it tells small stories that are unpretentious and sincere. When it rocks out, it makes you want to drive fast and go looking for adventure down some Midwestern backroad. I’m currently between cars, and “Run, Engine, Run” made me wish I had a fast one. Who am I kidding, though? Everything makes me wish I had a fast car. Damned midlife crisis.

The songs on this record didn’t stand out quite as strongly as Schoepp’s more recent “Rangers & Valentines” but that is a tough comparison. Regardless, “Run, Engine, Run” is consistently good and for a debut record it shows Schoepp’s ear for good production and his talent for songwriting. While the songs don’t always develop in creative new ways they do have that timeless quality which belies good bones. Timeless is hard to achieve, but Schoepp has done it here, and I think this record will age very well over the years.

Best tracks: So Long, Wishing Well, Tracks, Run Engine Run