CD Odyssey Disc 1355: Prince

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey! Let’s get back to it!

Disc 1355 is….Originals

Artist: Prince

Year of Release: 2019 but most of the songs are from the eighties

What’s up with the Cover? Prince himself, looking a little bit guilty – like we’ve just caught him spray painting his name on that wall behind him.

Prince looks very vibrant and filled with life in this picture. Also, this album is called “Originals” which may be a subtle reference to the CW television show about a bunch of vampires. Could this be a signal that Prince is not dead but is simply living life as a vampire in the CW world of “The Originals”!

No, I’m afraid not. He’s quite dead. Sorry to give you that false hope.

How I Came To Know It: I love Prince, and I miss him. When I heard there was a posthumous collection of him performing songs he’d written for others I snapped it up.

How It Stacks Up:  I struggled with whether or not this counts as an album for a couple of reasons. First, it is a collection of tracks across Prince’s career, not a true studio album. Second, it came out after his death, and I tend to avoid art released by the estate of an artist. Despite these misgivings, in the end I decided it was a cohesive enough collection to give it a ranking, rather than treat it as a “best of”.

With that decision made, I can tell you Prince has over 40 albums, of which I have seven. Of those seven, I rank “Originals” at #6. Not great, but the man had a lot of good albums.

Ratings: 3 stars

Years ago, a friend of mine confided some somewhat wine-sodden advice on jazz. She said, “to understand jazz, you have to first know the song they’re fucking with.” I doubt that’s always true, but it makes for a good story. This advice also applies to hearing different versions of a pop song. This was a conundrum that confronted me on Prince’s “Originals,” an album featuring his 15 original versions of songs that were ultimately recorded publicly by other people.

A lot of these songs are RnB and funk tracks from the eighties and nineties; a scene, I have not had a lot of exposure to. I grew up knowing that people like Apollonia and Vanity existed, and that they were Prince proteges, but I didn’t go out of my way to listen to their albums. I still don’t. I suppose I could’ve gone and looked them all up, but the most interesting thing for me about Sheila E these days is that her uncle is Alejandro Escovedo.

Fortunately, I love Prince himself,. He's a gifted songwriter and performer, and so even deprived of half the fun of “Originals” there was still much fun to be had. If they were only vaguely familiar so much the better; I could listen to them entirely on their own merits rather than nostalgia.

On their own merits, these songs are consistently good, with more than a few standouts as well. “Jungle Love” is filled with funky brilliance and made me want to dance every time I heard it. “100 MPH” will similarly make your backbone slide in a pleasant manner.

What I didn’t like was when the song started off funky, but then just did a lot of repetition. “Holly Rock” is fun for about three and a half minutes, but it goes on for almost twice that long. That combined with 15 total tracks makes for a record that is over an hour long and needs to be about 25% shorter.

In addition to being funky, these songs are sexy, and joyously uninhibited about it. Also, with all the proxy writing involved you’re never sure if Prince is singing from a woman’s perspective, a man’s or a bit of both. The best example is “Make Up” a proto-techno track written for Vanity and recorded by her in 1982. The song totally suits the sexy vixen, but hearing Prince sing lines like:

“If I wear a dress
He will never call
So I'll wear much less
I guess I'll wear my camisole”

Is even more fun. I suspect Prince wouldn’t have hesitated to wear a camisole and you know he would’ve rocked it, too.

And of course, there was some nostalgia to be had after all. In addition to Sheila E.’s “The Glamorous Life” (which was outside my wheelhouse, but a big enough hit to cross over into my teenage awareness), the album has “Manic Monday” (the Bangles) and “Nothing Compares 2 U” (Sinead O’Connor). “The Glamorous Life” is great, but “Manic Monday” was the standout; a timeless pop classic that loses nothing from being transferred to the masculine voice. Also, that inspired bit of piano that sets the hook makes the song great in any incarnation.

I didn’t love Prince’s version of “Nothing Compares 2 U”. Sinead made that song hers always and forever more. I just couldn’t hear Prince do it and not wish I was hearing her.

I also have a soft spot for “Love…Thy Will Be Done” a song made famous by Martika. I had forgotten Martika existed until I heard this and realized it was also familiar. When I went back and rediscovered her bigger hit (“Toy Soldiers”) I wish I hadn’t checked. As risible as “Toy Soldiers” is, Prince gave Martika’s voice the song it deserved with “Love…They Will Be Done”. On his ‘original’ version, Prince still manages to give it the requisite heroic, romantic swell the song requires while avoiding that saccharine synth that threatens to sink Martika’s otherwise solid cover.

There is much to love about “Originals” and if you were a fan of the various one-named beautiful ingenues that Prince wrote for through the eighties, you’ll probably love it even more. I was never a fan of that stuff, but enjoyed the record all the same.

Best tracks: Jungle Love, Manic Monday, 100 MPH, The Glamorous Life, Love…Thy Will Be Done

CD Odyssey Disc 1354: Joe Jackson

Another day, another round of playing Anti-Tetris every time I go outside. In Tetris, you take turns trying to compact a bunch of differently shaped blocks (called ‘tetriminos’) as tightly together as possible, with no space between them. If you do it well, your reward is a high score.

Anti-Tetris is like Tetris, except it’s a multiplayer game played in real time with people instead of tetriminos. The goal is to keep everyone as far from each other as possible. If you do it well, your reward is you help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and you know, do your part in saving the world. The stakes are quite a bit higher in Anti-Tetris.

In Tetris I used to dread the “S” and “Z” blocks. In Anti-Tetris, I dread couples walking their dogs. Give me my six feet of space, dog walkers!

OK, on to the review.

Disc 1354 is….Look Sharp!

Artist: Joe Jackson

Year of Release: 1979

What’s up with the Cover? A pair of funky shoes. Maybe it is just that I missed out on my annual Fluevog shop last weekend, but I seriously covet these shoes.

How I Came To Know It: I knew the big hit (“Is She Really Going Out With Him?” from hearing it on the radio when I was a kid, but I had never given the record a second thought. Then a bunch of friends started playing stuff for me off this record (definitely Randall did, and maybe Chris and Casey as well…) and I decided it warranted a deeper dive.

How It Stacks Up:  Joe Jackson has 21 albums spanning a career from 1979 all the way to 2019. Like many among you, I only have this one. I really like it, but I can’t stack it up against nothing.

Ratings: 5 stars

1979 was a great year for rock and roll. On the Odyssey so far I’ve reviewed Tom Petty’s “Damn the Torpedoes,” Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and the Clash’ “London Calling.” It’s an impressive lineup of 5-star records, to which I now add “Look Sharp!”

Joe Jackson’s “Look Sharp!” is a new wave masterpiece, filled with a combination of restless energy, masterful musicianship and more than a little self-deprecating humour.

I call the record new wave, mostly because of the production and the way it jumps the beat, but Jackson defies genre. The record features reggae beats, punk, and good old classic rock and roll. Jackson holds it all together with arrangements that find a middle ground of many styles and creates his own beast.

“Fools In Love” is a great example of this. It has a brilliant reggae beat, a bit of funk guitar and a more than advisable amount of whimsical jazz piano. It then extolls the virtues of being in love, while actually cutting down such sentimental sop. Listening, you won’t be sure if Jackson thinks love is a grand adventure, or just something dumb people get mixed up in. In the end, he thinks it’s both. The music is the perfect match to these competing notions, being both triumphant and tragic in equal measure.

The album is full of the angst of the young and single. “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” expresses the heartache of the one thing worse than unrequited love: unrequited love where the girl gets fully requited with some meat-head down the road. “Happy Loving Couples” isn’t a celebration of happy couples so much as it’s a dismissal of all those adorable pairs that make miserable single people even more miserable.

Jackson carries this emotional tension throughout the record. He isn’t exploring a lot of complex philosophy. “Pretty Girls” – is a song about looking at pretty girls – but he does it all with style and energy. This makes you feel like you’re there in real time, moving your eyes to the left as he sings it, trying to catch a glimpse of a passing beauty, without being creepy about it.

New Wave often sacrifices emotional resonance at the altar of its own frenetic energy, but on “Look Sharp!” every song speaks to your heart and still makes you want to jump around on the dance floor. You can take joy in the killer grooves, or you can bemoan your sad fate, or you can do both. This is a record for all moods.

So you could upload (or download) this record and then only listen to “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” After all, it is a classic rock song that sounds as fresh today as it did over 40 years ago. That simple, timeless bassline, the impeccable production and Joe’s tortured narrator singing about the one that got away…you’d be crazy not to love this song. But do yourself a favour and listen to the rest of the record, and you’ll discover that every one of them is just as deserving of your time.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1353: Tacocat

Apologies for my extended absence, gentle readers. I was enjoying a long weekend celebrating my wedding anniversary with my lovely wife, Sheila. Mostly this involved a lot of staying at home, due to, you know, the pandemic.

I drank a few drinks and we played a lot of board games. We also did a fun vampire photo shoot to keep our spirits up – to see the hilarity visit Sheila’s blog here. So glad I found such a fun, thoughtful, wonderful, beautiful person to spend my life with.

Now here’s a little music!

Disc 1353 is….This Mess is a Place

Artist: Tacocat

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? A bunch of faces all crammed together, but please don’t be alarmed. These people are not violating social distancing requirements; it’s just a collage.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review of this album and decided to check it out. I liked it and so…here we are. I apologize if this story sounds eerily familiar to previous entries, but I discover a lot of my music this way. If you want to discover music outside of what Spotify’s AI decides you should like, or what radio DJs think is good (but is usually not) then you’ve got to put in the work yourself.

How It Stacks Up:  I liked Tacocat enough that I checked out their two previous albums as well (see: putting in the work comment above). However, while the other albums had some good songs on them, none of them moved me sufficiently to purchase them. So far, “This Mess is a Place” stands alone, and therefore can’t stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars

Being a band from Seattle, it is easy to imagine Tacocat growing up admiring Sleater-Kinney. They don’t have the same amount of angry edge in their music, but they have a similar approach to songwriting: the ability to write a catchy tune, but never let themselves to be slave to the hook.

That isn’t to say these songs don’t have hooks, because they have awesome hooks. But they also have a moody, alternative sway in them that lets you know that this isn’t a vacuous pop song. The hook grabs your attention but doesn’t hold it on its own. On top of those hooks and sways, the band displays a strong sense of style, mixing elements of pop, grunge, punk and sixties beach music into something unique.

When they are at their crunchiest, Tacocat have that Camaro rock sound I’m admittedly obsessed with of late (Bleached, Ex Hex, Thunderpussy, et al.). However, they also have a playful quality that draws you in, and lets you know that while the songs are about serious topics, they are OK with packaging them up with a bit of danceable fun.

It all starts with the vocals of Emily Nokes. Nokes has a playful pop style that is given an extra edge with a Liz Phair-like “couldn’t care less” dismissiveness. Nokes seems keenly aware she could be a pop star but is so much happier giving that notion the finger. I applaud her for it.

“Grains of Salt” delivers breezy perfection as a young adult “be yourself” anthem. It is also a masterful combination of guitar rock, catchy dance-pop percussion and even a little eighties organ. It is so catchy, hipsters listening to it might be fearful of showing their love, lest they find out it is a radio hit. I know I was afraid but rest easy; it only has 52,000 Youtube hits. It deserves ten times that but I’ll need a lot more readers to put a dent in that shortfall.

The opening track, “Hologram” is a bit more serious. You wouldn’t know from the opening guitar riff, which is all “summer drives with the rag-top down” brilliance. But the song’s first few lines get dark quickly:

“Not so long ago, I used to feel like

I was too sensitive to even be alive

But maybe now it’s the opposite.

Or put another way, the world can wear you out a little and leave you wondering where truth lies. Fortunately, that catchy guitar riff has your back through the whole song, as Tacocat reveals that such uncertainty can be soothing as well. Or as the song reminds us, “Just remember, if you can, that power is a hologram”. Or put another way, it looks impressive, but it’s ephemeral. We’re just specks of cosmic dust, and that’s pretty freeing if you let it be.

I saw a live show of Tacocat recently, and it was clear that for all these Deep Thoughts they had learned the first lesson of rock and roll well; it should be fun. The song introductions were silly, mundane references to everyday life, accompanied by a wry grin and the striking up of the band.

However, these guys are sneaky clever. All those pop licks are seductive, but as is often the case with quality pop music, there is a lot going on behind the obvious that makes these songs better. The more I listened, the more I picked up and the better I liked it. Given how many influences they successfully incorporate, there’s a good chance you will too. Now turn off the goddamn radio and go find out.

Best tracks: Hologram, New World, Grains of Salt, Little Friend, Crystal Ball, Miles and Miles

CD Odyssey Disc 1352: Soundtrack

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey! There’s a chance that you’re currently stuck in your house for 14 days. Don’t despair if this is you – there isn’t anything open for you to visit anyway. Also, one of the great things you can do in your home is listen to a little inspirational music. Here’s some of that for your consideration. If it doesn’t quite get you there, then go one step further and watch the movie.

Disc 1352 is….Xanadu Soundtrack

Artist: Mostly Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra

Year of Release: 1980

What’s up with the Cover? In Xanadu, did Kublai Khan a stately art deco font decree…

When my mom remarried, we moved in with my awesome stepfather, Lawrence, who lived in a rural house right on the beach. Lawrence and my Mom quite rightly regarded the place as a paradise and named it “Xanadu” (it was the eighties, and this was not as hokey then as it sounds now…).

I agreed to make a wooden sign tracing the font from the album cover. I had grandiose plans of first carving the shape out of wood, and then painting it for installation at the front of the driveway. A combination of teenage laziness and a complete lack of talent with woodworking meant that project was never completed, but I had good intentions.

How I Came To Know It: I knew this album since the movie came out when I was a kid. Unlike a lot of boys my age, I did not love this movie solely because Olivia Newton-John was incredibly hot. I liked it for three distinct reasons: 1. I liked the music, 2. The movie was loosely based around the Greek myth of the nine muses and 3. Olivia Newton-John was incredibly hot.

Anyway, the album was pretty popular and either my mom or stepdad owned it (I forget who) and I’d put it on from time to time. I never thought to get it as an adult, but Sheila is a huge fan and so I bought it for her as a present recently. In the process, I was reminded that I like it too.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a lot of soundtracks, and every time I think I’m done I end up with a few more and have to put out a new ranking list. This is one of those times. “Xanadu” holds its own, and has some sentimental value going for it as well. I’ll rank it #12 out of 33. Here’s the exhaustive recap:

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 at Disc 942)
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. Xanadu: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
13. Into the Wild:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 260)
14. Pulp Fiction:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 102)
15. Elizabethtown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 33)
16. Highway 61:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 230)
17. O Brother Where Art Thou:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 386)
18. Buffy The Vampire Slayer:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 216)
19. Reservoir Dogs:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 116)
20. Jackie Brown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 30)
21. Transamerica:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 402)
22. Les Miserables:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 111)
23. Heavy Metal:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 1327)
24. Big Night:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 215)
25. The Warriors:  2 stars (reviewed right here)
26. James Bond:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 103)
27. One From the Heart: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 935)
28. About a Boy:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 252)
29. Chess:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 156)
30. Honeymoon in Vegas:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 17)
31. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 284)
32. Moulin Rouge:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 151)
33. Natural Born Killers:  0 stars (reviewed at Disc 302)

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

You can be as cheesy as you like, as long as you write good songs. On this soundtrack the songwriting talents of John Farrar and Jeff Lynne combine to prove just that. This stuff is vintage 1980 cheese, but listening to this album, you won’t care. You’ll just have a good time, which was what the movie and the music wanted you to do all along.

On the soundtrack, Farrar and Lynne basically get one side each. This would have been great on a cassette or vinyl – maybe even 8-track if you got lucky with those random places the buttons used to take you on those things. If you only liked one of the artists, you could skip the other one. Of course if you did that, you’d be an idiot; they are both oodles of fun. Just play the whole thing, flipping it over if your format requires it.

Overall, the Lynne/ ELO tracks are the stronger songs, but it helps that Farrar’s tracks get more of Olivia Newton-John’s sweet pop vocals. Newton-John has a great voice that infuses every song she sings with a natural joy.

My favourite of Side One is “Suddenly,” which is a duet between Newton-John and some British singer named Cliff Richards. This is one of those songs that is really hard to sing, but that everyone sings along with anyway because it just feels so good to belt out “suddenly…the wheels are in motion…” with Cliff and Olivia. It’s like starring in your own romantic musical.

Less good is “Dancin’” a weird mashup of big band and rock (a duet between Newton-John and the Tubes) that is stitched together like Frankenstein’s Monster. Each song is passable on its own, but really annoying and unfocused as some kind of pre-Pitch Perfect experiment.

ELO takes over for Side Two, with their signature synth-rock sound. Not everyone likes ELO’s deal, but if you’re like me and you do, “Xanadu” features some of their best stuff. The space age anthem of “I’m Alive” is as life-affirming as the similarly titled Pearl Jam hit, without all that angst weighing down the fun of it all.

“Don’t Walk Away” is a romantic anthem routine that should have long ago been featured on some contemporary dance routine on So You Think You Can Dance, but sadly, has not. C’mon, Travis Wall, throw me a bone.

Side Two’s worst offender is “All Over the World” which is still featured at ELO live shows but has never been a favourite of mine. Feels a bit too much like a Club Med Ad or something.

The album ends with the best of both worlds, with the title track; an ELO song featuring Olivia Newton-John singing lead. The synthy goodness of ELO is paired with ONJ’s pure tones, which even go into an angelic breathy head-voice right when you think it can’t get any better. “Xanadu” is also another sing-along winner, where you can haltingly follow along as Olivia belts out “Xanadu-oo-woo…” and all is right with the world. Lyrically it’s a far cry from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s masterpiece, but who gives a shit? It’s got plenty of synths, strings and anthemic pop glory to make up for it.

“Xanadu” is far from a perfect record, but it is a damn good time, and has some top-notch pop songs. It is also written specifically for a musical, and is arguably the movie’s biggest star, giving all the songs a cohesive theme. That’s more than you can say for most of the soundtracks above, including many that rank ahead of it on the list.

Best tracks: Magic, Suddenly, I’m Alive, The Fall, Don’t Walk Away, Xanadu

CD Odyssey Disc 1351: Bonny Light Horseman

This next entry is my first review of an album released in 2020. In a year that is likely to be remembered mostly for a global pandemic, it’s a good time to point out that 2020 was also a year when something of great beauty got made. Here it is.

Disc 1351 is…Self-Titled

Artist: Bonny Light Horseman

Year of Release: 2020

What’s up with the Cover? Long-time readers of the CD Odyssey will know I’m fond of the Giant Head Cover, but here we have gone one step further with…the Giant Horse Head Cover. I’m sure that Bonny Light Horseman considered other options but someone must have made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and so…horse head.

How I Came to Know It: I read a review of the album and was intrigued, so checked it out.

How It Stacks Up: This is Bonny Light Horseman’s only album so far, so it can’t really stack up with anything.

Ratings: 5 stars

Maybe of late you are finding yourself yearning for a simpler time, or just need something sonically beautiful to soothe your troubled soul. If so, this is the record for you.

Bonny Light Horseman is another supergroup in the same way that “I’m With Her” is a supergroup. By that I mean that a) they are a trio and b) ) they are deeply talented musicians and c) they are moderately famous, but only if you already dabble in the obscure genres they come from.

Whatever alchemy brought these three old souls together (I could fill you in, but this is a music blog, not a biography) we are all the better for it. The record is a collection of traditional British folk songs. “Oh, a bunch of covers then?” you might foolishly ask. Yes, but it is much more than that.

Bonny Light Horseman pull these songs through the centuries with the ghosts of the ages still very much clinging, wraith-like, to every note. The songs don’t sound timeless, so much as they sound old. Old and powerful, like an ancient spell, or a witch’s chant.

Then they take all this lore and somehow make them feel contemporary and relatable, without losing a single drop of their mystery. They throw in modern elements like tenor sax and 12-string electric guitars, that aren’t intrusive, but instead provide subtle pathways for the modern ear to find its way back to ancient times without a hint of hokeyness.

Part of this is the production decisions. The whole album echoes like an old stone church, resonant and sparse, letting every note soak right through you. But another part of it is just the pure and simple perfection of the players on the record.

The three “stars” are the focus for sure, and Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman all play and sing beautifully. The record would be a fine folk record with just them standing around a single mic singing these classics. The guitar work is soft and feathery. It is perfectly suited to the mournful tunes they support, lifting you emotionally without ever interfering with the simple, compelling nature of these traditional tales.

However, the album goes well beyond the three principals. 14 other musicians play here and there through the record, adding depth and colour to the record that gives it a contemporary flair. I was pleased to see that two of the three sisters from the Staves even sing a little, although I didn’t notice at the time. That’s because everyone just blends in where they need to.

As for the songs, I couldn’t have asked for a more thoughtfully curated list. I knew almost none of them other than the oft-recorded “Bright Morning Stars” (which they nail, by the way) but they instantly felt like familiar friends. Even after many repeat listens (I was in no hurry to move on from this record) none ever overstayed its welcome.

The title track is a heartbreaking song of a woman bemoaning the loss of her bonny light horseman in the Napoleonic Wars. “The Roving” is a mournful tune of a love faded away. Both are sung with a wistful sweetness by Anais Mitchell.

In between those two songs we get Eric D. Johnson, sublimely turning his indie rock vocals from the Fruit Bats to a folk music style on “Deep In Love.” If this song doesn’t bring back the pangs – even the full throes – of love exploding in your heart, then I fear you may not have one. You might want to see a doctor about that.

The album goes on like this from beginning to end; calling on all the greatness of the songs of previous centuries to bring a little peace, light and love into a 2020 desperately in need of exactly that.

Best tracks: All tracks, but I am particularly in love with: Bonny Light Horseman, Deep In Love, The Roving, Blackwaterside, Magpie’s Nest, Lowlands, 10,000 Miles.

The other three songs are also really good.

CD Odyssey Disc 1350: Lyle Lovett

The message from the evening news suggests people should stay close to home, so it’s fitting that this next album is inspired by someone’s home state.

Disc 1350 is…Step Inside This House

Artist: Lyle Lovett

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover? An out-of-focus Lyle and an in-focus door. Is he stepping inside this house, or is he inviting us to step inside this house? I think the latter.

On a side not cover-related note, this album is one of those giant two-disc sets they used to sell in the late nineties at the height of CD popularity. Nowadays a two-disc set comes in a small flap of cardboard, but back in 1998 it came in this giant brick of a case, with covers that opened on both ends, weighty booklets and a spine so thick you’d think it was a Tolstoy novel.

Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it’s just a lot of unnecessarily wasted space on my packed shelves.

How I Came to Know It: This album escaped my attention when it came out, but a few years later I saw a used copy for sale at one of my local record stores and snapped it up, hoping for the best.

How It Stacks Up: I have 11 Lyle Lovett albums. They’re all good, and competition is fierce. I’ll put “Step Inside This House” at a respectable #7.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

As I mentioned in the teaser, “Step Inside This House” is Lyle Lovett’s love letter to his home state of Texas. Lovett wrote none of these songs, instead curating them from some of his favourite Texan songwriters. Lovett has a lot of favourites, and with many he can’t just pick one song. The result is like a bouquet of a couple dozen roses; it’s a massive expression of love, but it is hard to know what to do with it all when you get it home.

Stylistically, Lovett is his usual unique blend of country crooner, blues and a hint of lounge singer. His vocals are some of the most underrated in music. He’s got an ability to hit deep emotion, but also express a sardonic wit within the same song. It’s like he’s got a tear in one eye, and he’s winking at you with the other, and both emotions are real.

Armed with some of the Lone Star State’s best talents (many of them previously unknown to me) Lovett has a lot to work with, and he doesn’t let the material down. If anything, the gravitas of his mission to pay homage to these artists grounds him more than usual.  

Over two albums, Lovett covers 21 songs, which is about a third too many. 14 would have been fine. Part of this is that Lovett really likes Walter Hyatt, Steven Fromholz and Townes Van Zandt, covering each of them four times. It’s fair to say I don’t love Hyatt and Fromholz the way Lovett does. When I was picking my favourite tracks, Fromholz appears once (with the middle part of the Texas Trilogy) and Hyatt not at all. I didn’t hate their songs, but they didn’t pull my heart strings.

Fortunately, Townes Van Zandt was there to make that happen and then some. Lovett has covered Van Zandt plenty of times over the years, but some of these selections are matches made in heaven. This is particularly true for “Flyin’ Shoes” where the light lilt of Townes’ melody is a perfect match for the airy croon of Lyle’s vocals. He also lends “Highway Kind” the kind of haunt it needs. As for “If I Needed You,” it is just one of those perfect songs that is hard to screw up. Lyle does not.

I expected to like the Townes songs, and I did. Seeing those titles on the back of the album probably encouraged me to buy it in the first place. However, once I stepped inside Mr. Lovett’s Texas home, I found a whole lot of other hidden gems.

Michael Martin Murphy and Boomer Castleman’s “West Texas Highway” is the perfect combination of country swing and twist of phrase to suit Lovett’s style. In the song, Lovett’s narrator picks up a hitchhiker with a lot less money than him, but a lot more adventure. As he lets him out at his destination, he opines:

“But I’m still wishing

To this very day

That he had my clothes

And my big Chevrolet

And it was me going to Haskell

With a woman down in Abilene.”

The album ends with the traditional track, “Texas River Song.” It is a love song for the state’s rivers, save one – the Brazos – where the narrator’s lover once abandoned him. There’s no writing credit for this one, but with lines like this…

“Now the fair Angelina

Runs glossy and gliding

The crooked Colorado

Runs weaving and winding

The slow San Antonio

Courses the plains

But I never will walk

By the Brazos again.”

…I throw a little of my love across the ages to whoever was responsible. He or she may be forgotten, but they live forever every time someone shares this tune.

Lyle shares a lot of great tunes on this record, and if there were just a few less of them this record would easily be 4 stars. In the end though, there is just too much love in the room to take it all in, and too many roses to fully appreciate each individual flower.

Best tracks: Step Inside This House, I’ve Had Enough, Ballad of the Snow Leopard and the Tanqueray Cowboy, West Texas Highway, Texas Trilogy: Train Ride, Flyin’ Shoes, Highway Kind, If I Needed You, Texas River Song

CD Odyssey Disc 1349: Angie McMahon

I got home from work in time to see the third period of my Bruins beating the Philadelphia Flyers. Go Bruins!

Disc 1349 is…Salt

Artist: Angie McMahon

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? Angie McMahon chills in her overalls. I could never appreciate overalls. They’re like ill-fitting jeans that make it complicated to use the toilet. I guess they’re useful if you want to paint a wooden fence or something, like that one behind her. Maybe that's the plan.

How I Came to Know It: I read a review of this album somewhere but can’t remember where. The usual suspects are Paste Magazine, Pitchfork, or maybe American Songwriter?

Anyway, I couldn’t find that review, but I’m writing my own anyway, so it matters little.

How It Stacks Up: “Salt” is McMahon’s debut album, so there isn’t anything to stack it up against yet. Fun fact, though – she’s on a Tom Waits cover record called “Come On Up to the House” where she does a lovely version of “Take It With Me”.

I’ll talk about that record when I roll it. For now, let’s get back on track.

Ratings: 3 stars

Angie McMahon is an old soul in a couple of ways. First, she was previously in a soul band called The Fabric. Second, she has that world-weary quality that I associate with old souls.

“Salt” is more atmospheric indie rock than soul, although McMahon’s musical stylings hark back to her previous incarnation. Her vocals are big, rounded and smokey around the edges. Her range is significant, having a watery warble at the low end and a breathy whisper in the high. Her guitar is a good match to this sound; atmospheric and resonant. McMahon plays it sparsely but still fills a room.

When she rocks it out a bit, as she does on “Keeping Time,” the effect is powerful, hitting you like a series of cresting waves. The song benefits from a catchy guitar riff that grounds the song’s rhythm and lets her warble above and below the melody as the mood moves her.

There is also a melancholia to her, best evidenced on “Slow Mover,” which starts off with a tiring evening of seeking a fried chicken stand at 4 a.m., and progresses to darker explorations of a relationship with lines like:

“He thinks we could make it work

But only when he’s drunk

You think you could help me swim

But I’ve already sunk.”

Well…that’s uplifting. For all that, early on with this record I was enjoying the sad wallow of it all. McMahon’s vocals are raw and honest, and they leave you with the impression that she’s lived a lot of life in a short period of time (that old soul thing again).

It helps that every few songs she drops what I would call a crowd-pleaser; something slightly more up-tempo and with a catchy riff. The last of these, “Pasta” is also the best. It isn’t fast or danceable, but it has the same kind of slow chugging power of Joan Jett’s version of “Crimson and Clover,” slow, and deliberate and tough as hell.

“Pasta” is a brilliant exploration of depression, complete with a manic section halfway through where she tries to pull herself out of the funk, with limited success. It’s a sad song, but it’s also warm blanket of belonging to something. When McMahon repeatedly sings her refrain of “I’ve been lost, I’ve been lost, I’ve been lost…for a while” it becomes an immersive emotional experience.

Unfortunately, it feels like as “Pasta” comes to an end, so does the energy of the record. The final third of the album consists of four songs that become progressively more inward and disconnected. McMahon appears to be trying to dig even deeper into a general mood (one of the songs is even called “Mood Song”) but the record at this point starts to feel self-indulgent rather than comforting.

It doesn’t help that with her vowel-heavy delivery and natural warble, she doesn’t always enunciate the lyrics to the songs, opting instead for raw emotional delivery. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it makes me frustrated as I only catch two out of every three words.

McMahon has a boatload of talent, both as a performer and a songwriter. She’s not afraid to let you dive deep into her own fear and uncertainty. When she does it well, you get emotionally resonant mood pieces. When she misses, she leaves you with fragments of ideas that need more focus. For all that unevenness, it is a solid debut, and I’m excited to see where she goes from here.

Best tracks: Keeping Time, Slow Mover, Pasta

CD Odyssey Disc 1348: Melissa McClelland

I moved offices this week and as a result I’ve added an extra 5-10 minutes of walking time to my commute. Weirdly, this makes me happy. I have more time for music listening.

This should also make you happy, dear reader, as it means new reviews will appear here with greater frequency. Unless you don’t really like the reviews, but in that case what the hell are you doing here in the first place?  

Disc 1348 is…Stranded in Suburbia

Artist: Melissa McClelland

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover? Melissa McClelland sits in the middle of a field looking…now what’s the word for it? Oh, right: incredibly beautiful.

How I Came to Know It: I knew Melissa McClelland for a while, but this particular album proved hard to find. I eventually found a used copy of it at a local record store a few years ago.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Melissa McClelland albums. I used to have four, but McClelland’s self-titled 2001 release didn’t grab me, and I parted with it before I ever got to the reviewing process.

Of the three remaining, I must regrettably put “Stranded in Suburbia” in third place. It’s still a bronze medal. This means the best is yet to come!

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

Melissa McClelland’s music ranges through pop, rock and folk and every one of her albums is different than the last. This is generally refreshing, although on “Stranded in Suburbia” it also means that she sometimes goes in directions that feel a bit forced, as though McClelland is still finding her voice as an artist early in her career.

“Stranded in Suburbia” is first and foremost a pop record, and unapologetically so. McClelland has folk elements here and there, but these songs are written and produced from a very pop-centered place. Long time readers know I have no issue with pop music; I often bemoan that so much of what is best in pop music never charts. What causes the masses turn one song into a hit and not another is beyond me. I guess if I knew I’d be one of those Soulless Record Execs, sleeping fitfully and guiltily…in my giant mansion.

Many of the songs on “Stranded in Suburbia” feel like they are striving to be pop radio hits, but this makes many of them feel stretched and overproduced. On “White Lies” there are oddly placed synth ‘laser’ sounds at one point that add very little to the song and jarred me out of the tune. “Jaded” opts to start with a synthetic drumbeat which didn’t appeal. It feels most like the “single” (another clue: it appears again later on the album as a remix, this time with even more synthy sounds than before). Both versions reminded me of what I don’t like about radio pop. Lyrically it is strong (McClelland is a first-rate songwriter) but those lyrics are wrapped up in a lot of unnecessary to-do.

For all that, the record still has many bright spots. “Glimpse Into Hell” is a stripped down track featuring guitar and a string section, which showcases both McClelland’s amazing voice and her talent for storytelling. McClelland’s sing-song delivery is a clever juxtaposition to grim sequences like this:

“There’s a sickening smell to this room

Of whiskey stained breath and the cheapest perfume

There’s a girl in a bra

And sex in your pants

And she’s sucking a straw as she begs you to dance.”

“Picture Postcard” is a thoughtfully composed crime saga, again featuring McClelland’s talent for painting a scene in a few lines:

“In a San Fernando Valley pool hall

He caught the eye of some young broad

Turns out the girl is only seventeen and thinks criminals are cool.”

The album also features a gritty, sexy, reverb-laden version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Factory.” The song features McClelland’s amazing vocals peeling out and does what every good cover should do; take a classic song and make it your own.

And while I find a lot of the record’s pop-production distracting, there are even places where it works well, such as on the upbeat “Little Birds” which was so infectious it made me want to dance around the living room. All the stuff that bugged me on other tracks – the dance-club drums, extraneous bells – here come together to give the song some great energy. The song’s lyrics are pretty dark, which is one of the record’s best features; it’s ability to mix a manic pop vibe with songs with somber topics. When it works as it does on “Little Birds”, it’s great. I only wish it worked a bit more often.

Best tracks: Glimpse Into Hell, Factory, Picture Postcard, Little Birds

CD Odyssey Disc 1347: Ana Egge

For the second time in three albums I’ve rolled an Ana Egge album. What are the odds of this happening, you ask? Well, there were three Ana Egge albums in the “new to me” section of my CD shelves, out of 91 albums total. So the odds of getting one the first time would be 1/30.3. On the second roll, there would only be two left out of 90 albums, so 1/45. So you multiply 30.3 x 45 and you get…1 in 1,363.5. I think that’s how it works.

Anyway, math isn’t nearly as fun as music, so let’s move on.

Disc 1347 is…Bad Blood

Artist: Ana Egge

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? Ana Egge sports a funky jacket that I would totally buy for myself if given the chance. Check out that sleeve detail! Sure, it’s a bit big on her, but still a significant improvement over the tank top featured on “Road to My Love” (reviewed back at Disc 1302).

Egge is also standing in the middle of the road, but it looks like a low traffic area, so it’s probably low risk.

How I Came to Know It: I just talked about this (discovered via Alberta folk singer Matt Patershuk, etc. – go look it up). In the specific case of “Bad Blood” I broke down and ordered it through Amazon. I am not proud of this. It was hard to find, sure, but I regret not buying it through her Bandcamp site.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Ana Egge albums and “Bad Blood” comes in at #2, edging out “Road to My Love”.

Ratings: 4 stars

Ana Egge is a contemporary folk musician, but there is a lot of movement and crossover with that generic designation. Over her career she has taken full advantage of this range, and it’s a good thing; if she didn’t, I’d have a lot less to say so soon after reviewing “Lazy Days”.

“Lazy Days” is a very different record from “Bad Blood.” The former is a moody bit of pastoral whimsy, whereas the latter is a mix of gritty folk tales, with a noticeable snarl of rock and roll guitar around the edges.

Part of this comes from the influence of the record’s producer, Steve Earle. Earle does a great job of giving the record a bit of jump and attitude, balancing off nicely against Egge’s natural sweet vocal style. She was already plenty tough, but Earle brings an extra layer of grit out of her performance. He also brings along the talents of the Dukes (and also the Duchesses, as this is from a happier time in his life, when he was still with fellow folkster Allison Moorer).

Another difference is that “Lazy Days” was all covers, while Egge writes almost all these songs. The single exception is Charlie Rich’s “There Won’t Be Anymore.” It is solid enough, although I prefer the original and it felt a bit out of place. Sure, it’s romantically dark, but this record gets its dark on for real.

The album’s best moments feature Egge’s original compositions. She is a gifted songwriter both melodically and lyrically. “Bad Blood” is an apt title for the record, which explores a lot of dark characters and subjects. She wisely lets a bit of the Duke and Duchess grit sneak into these songs, but not so much to take away from the natural beauty of her vocals.

In fact, a couple of the better tracks, “Hole in Your Halo” and “Evil” both benefit from a stripped-down approach that makes their topics all the more haunting.

“Hole in Your Halo” is the story of a person who’s made a litany of bad choices, and is now sitting in prison, and running out of friends. Egge’s narrator is one of the few left, and it’s clear she has no answers:

“Like a storm brewin’ in an empty room

I stopped trying to keep my eye on you

Speak of the devil and he will come

Up inside the minds of the ones you love.”

On “Evil” she follows the theme deeper, starting with callous murder, ending in the threat of an impending rape. Throughout the chorus asks why, and finds no answers:

“Evil simple as a rose

Evil by any other name

Evil simple as a rose.”

Egge also takes a turn at some American folklore. “Silver Heels” reinvents the story of the dancer of the same name: a Colorado legend of the old west. Egge sets the story instead at the end of the First World War, and swaps in influenza for smallpox. The song churns along with an easy gallop that is as good as anything similar Steve Earle ever wrote, which is saying something. While I’ve already quoted Egge twice, a record this consistently good demands at least one more:

“Waitin’ outside in the powder of the moonlight

Across the ocean wide the boys from the front line

And the Spanish flu broke out like a gunfight.”

That is some delicious stuff, heavy with ominous portents of death, as a community fears the moon, and survives the war, only to be cut down by simple illness.

Egge ends on a high note, which is not uncommon on depressing and death-ridden records like this. “Your Voice Convinces Me” is a return to hope and promise, with an anthemic rise that despite all the violence, murder and catastrophe you’ve been reveling in up to this point, suggests things will be OK. Or if not OK, at least we’ll bear it together.

“Bad Blood” combines rough and sweet in just the right measure and as the album’s title suggests, there will be bleeding. Some of it out in the open, and some internal to the soul, but all of it combining to make a great record full of dark and beautiful music.

Best tracks: Hole In Your Halo, Bad Blood, Evil, Shadow Fall, Silver Heels, Your Voice Convinces Me