CD Odyssey Disc 128: Mark Knopfler

Strangely, my last two reviews (Sting and Steve Earle) I specifically mentioned Mark Knopfler, and now, here comes a disc by Knopfler.

Disc 128 is...The Ragpicker's Dream
Artist: Mark Knopfler

Year of Release: 2002

What’s Up With The Cover?: A young working class couple dances in their kitchen. She seems to fancy him, despite the fact that his pants are rolled up too high.

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan of Knopfler's solo work through his two previous albums when this one came out. I bought it without hesitation.

How It Stacks Up: I have eight of Knopfler's solo albums, 2 of which are collaborations. This is not one of those. Of the eight, I'd say "Ragpicker's Dream is about 5th (4th out of the 6 solo albums).

Rating: 2 stars.

Knopfler's solo career over the past twenty years is a real study in doing whatever the hell you want. The guy has lots of money and his albums since leaving Dire Straits reflect the career of a man who is more interested in pursuing his wide musical interests than in re-establishing commercial success. I really admire this approach, even if I'm not always enamoured with the results.

The two Knopfler solo albums preceding "Ragpicker's Dream" (1996's "Golden Heart" and 2000's "Sailing to Philadelphia") are some of his finest work. "Ragpicker's Dream" definitely suffers by comparison. It just isn't the same quality of work.

One thing that is always on display, is Knopfler's mastery of the electric guitar, and "Ragpicker's Dream" shows him playing a much more understated style than usual, while not losing that big bluesy style. Everything about Mark Knopfler's guitar work is so perfectly constructed, yet the way he plays, it always seems like he is making it up as he goes along. Songs like "Hill Farmer's Blues" show Knopfler off at his most quietly confident.

That said, few songs stand out on this record. There are some good bluesy tracks, like "You Don't Know You're Born" and "Coyote" (the latter of which is actually a song about Wile E. Coyote, from cartoon fame), but these songs are few and far between and when they do appear, they are merely good, not great.

As Knopfler's solo career goes along, he has also delved into increasingly obscure storytelling. Don't get me wrong - I like good stories about working class heroes as much as anyone, but I find they are more compelling when there is some sense of character developed. Songs like "Why Aye Man" and "Marbletown" tell interesting working class experiences, but without defined character, it is hard to hang your emotional hat on them.

Compare this with my last album, where every story Steve Earle tells provides a snapshot of history, enriched further by the colourful characters that the songwriter has us see events through. On Knopfler's earlier two kicks at this musical style, he gets this lesson well. On "Ragpicker's Dream" this is often lacking.

That said, the album is definitely worth a listen, if nothing else than to listen to a master guitar player, still fearlessly finding new ways to explore his craft more than twenty years after he first blasted onto the stage.

Best tracks: Why Aye Man, You Don't Know Your Born, Coyote.

CD Odyssey Disc 127: Steve Earle

When in doubt, you can't go wrong with Steve Earle. Thank you, dice gods.

Disc 127 is...Train A Comin'
Artist: Steve Earle

Year of Release: 1995

What’s Up With The Cover?: Steve Earle looks cool, smokin' a cigarette and playin' the guitar.

How I Came To Know It: As you'll know from previous Steve Earle albums, I love the guy, and this is just me drilling the conversation. I actually got "Train A Comin'" fairly later on - probably around 2002.

How It Stacks Up: I have fourteen Steve Earle albums - this is one of the better ones, but competition is tight with Steve Earle. I'll say somewhere between 6th and 8th depending on my mood. I'll split the difference and say 7th, but if I also rank some future Earle album 7th and you call me on it, you'll just be pointing out how much time you have on your hands.

Rating: 4 stars.

For some reason, I don't put this particular Steve Earle album on very often, even though I really enjoy it when I do. My last memorable listen was shortly after buying it, I hung out at my buddy Casey's place and played it for him. He returned the favour by introducing me properly to the great Muddy Waters. One more awesome thing I can thank Casey for on a long list of such things.

This time around, I had one song to go from my drive home from work on Friday, but I deliberately left it in the car so I could get another full listen out of it. Then, driving around shopping with Sheila today, I heard it again (that is OK by the rules, as it was a second listen) and I got so excited I decided to race home and review it right away.

As I've alluded to in earlier reviews, "Train A Comin'" is Steve Earle's first 'sober' album, after cleaning up off of Heroine and sorting his life out. Many of the tracks are old songs he wrote back in the seventies that he just now was recording, with a few new songs, and a couple of very interesting remakes.

The whole album is done in a very stripped down, unplugged manner - very traditional bluegrass/folk sounding. Having said that, Earle is quick to point out in the liner notes, "this ain't no part of no unplugged nothin' - God I hate MTV." Ah, Steve Earle - always struggling to say exactly what's on his mind.

The best song on this record is a new composition "Goodbye", which was recorded the same year on Emmylou Harris' amazing album, "Wrecking Ball" - but I'll talk about Emmylou's version when I roll it.

This is a five star song about regret and lost love, which has few rivals. I've heard this song dozens of times, but when it came on driving home from work on Friday, I got choked up all over again. The chorus sums up the combination of loss, and the shame of being so far gone that you can't remember what happened to cause the loss:

"I recall all of them nights down in Mexico
One place I may never go in my life again
Was I just off somewhere or just too high
But I can't remember if we said goodbye."

While "Goodbye" is easily one of Earle's greatest songs, this introspective song is not typical of the album. The real strength of "Train A Comin'" is the amazing folk tales Earle effortlessly spins. There are three standouts on this record.

"Mercenary Song" tells of three fortune seekers that go to Mexico to fight for Pancho Villa as soldiers of fortune. "Tom Ames' Prayer" tells the story of a young criminal, Tom Ames, and his rebellious relationship with his God.

Finally, "Ben McCulloch" tells the story of two brothers who sign up to fight under General Ben McCulloch in the American Civil War. I love how Earle paints history from the perspective of the common man:

"Well the poster said we'd get a uniform and seven bucks a week
The best rations in the army and a rifle we could keep."

And later on as service with McCulloch turns sour:

"And on the way to Fayetteville we cursed McCulloch's name
And mourned the dead that we'd left behind and we was carrying the lame
I killed a boy the other night who'd never even shaved
I don't even know what I'm fightin' for I ain't ever owned a slave."

This song always makes me think of Mark Knopfler's song, "Bonaparte", which describes a similar story of French soldiers in the service of Napoleon.

All three of the folk tales on "Train A Comin'" were originally written in 1975, when Steve Earle was only 20 years old, and almost ten years before "Guitar Town" would make him famous.

The final element to "Train A Comin'" are some of most thoughtful and memorable cover songs you'll hear on a record. Earle puts a folksy, bluegrass edge onto the Beatles' "I'm Looking Through You" and the applies the same treatment to the Jamaican reggae/disco hit "Rivers of Babylon". After hearing them you'll swear they were both written in the Kentucky hills. The last remake, is "Tecumseh Valley" an earnest and emotionally honest tip of the hat to Earle's mentor, Townes Van Zandt (Earle went on to do an entire album of Van Zandt songs in 2009, which you'll recall from Disc 28).

I guess this album makes me doubly thankful. Thankful to hear such a great record. And even more thankful that Earle sobered up and stayed alive to record nine more following it.

Best tracks: Mercenary Song, Goodby, Tom Ames' Prayer, Northern Winds, "Ben McCulloch, Rivers of Babylon, Tecumseh Valley.

CD Odyssey Disc 126: White Stripes

Well, my last review certainly provoked a 'Stinging rebuke'! I'll leave Chris D. the last word on that one, and move on with the next album offered up by the gods of randomness.

Disc 126 is...White Blood Cells
Artist: The White Stripes

Year of Release: 2002

What’s Up With The Cover?: Jack and Meg White are accosted by five shadows. Jack looks disturbed; Meg looks bemused.

How I Came To Know It: I heard the song "Seven Nation Army" back when "Elephant" came out in 2003. That got me hooked on the White Stripes, but I probably didn't get "White Blood Cells" - the preceding album - until about 2004.

How It Stacks Up: I have six White Stripes albums, which I think is all of them, although I haven't checked in a while. I really like "White Blood Cells" but I'm not sure it's my favourite. I'll say 2nd or 3rd depending on how I'm feeling about "De Stijl" at the time.

Rating: 4 stars

The White Stripes are a band that I find people either really like, or really don't like. Me - I really like them. I'm amazed at the heavy rock sound they get out of principally just two instruments - guitar and drum.

This album starts with a bang, with the tap of drumsticks and the screech of a little feedback before it launches into a Sabbath-like guitar riff. Jack White's vocal cuts in:

"Dead leaves and the dirty ground
when I know you're not around."

As songs that set the mood of an album, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" is high on my list.

As counterpoint to rock-it-out tracks like "Dead Leaves...", "White Blood Cells" also includes more quietly introspective tracks about childhood like "We're Going To Be Friends." which provide a nice counterpoint to the driving guitar, and keep your ear primed for each new track.

With the rise of single downloads, the art of album construction has suffered a little in recent years. The White Stripes show that it can still be done, and done well.

A big part of this success must also go to Jack White's production. He is truly skilled at getting maximum sound out of the simplest arrangements. He also manages to make the relatively average drum playing of Meg sound good. He adds to this a deliberately sloppy rock guitar and a lasciviously classic rock voice, blending it all together into some of the purest rock and roll to be made in some time.

"White Blood Cells" has sixteen tracks - usually cause enough for me to see red. However, the longest track is only 3:39 (ironically, it is track 12's "I Can't Wait"). The end result is a respectable 40 minutes of playing time. The first five or six tracks are simply awesome. As the album progresses, there are a few weaker songs that make an appearance, but even these are few in number, and are often over in under three minutes.

In fact, one of my favourites on this album, "Little Room" is only fifty seconds long - a short, but thoughtful track about the nature of success, and how hard it is to hold onto what it is that got you there in the first place:

"well you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
and when you're in a bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sitting in your little room."

This song to me, pretty much sums up how the White Stripes approach music. Simple songs, amplified out of all ho, but appealing back to the deepest roots of rock that will always be the wellspring of what makes this genre of music great.

Best tracks: Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, Hotel Yorba, I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman, Expecting, Little Room, Offend In Every Way, This Protector.

CD Odyssey Disc 125: Sting

After a holiday break, the CD Odyssey returns - and the randomness of the selections is as unforgiving as ever. The resumption disc is one of Sheila's.

Disc 125 is......Nothing Like The Sun
Artist: Sting

Year of Release: 1987

What’s Up With The Cover?: Black and White shot of Sting trying to be sexy and intense. I don't think I'm the target audience of this cover.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to both Sting and the Police. I assume she knew the former from the latter.

How It Stacks Up: We have three Sting albums, two of which I don't particularly care for - this is one of those ones.

Rating: 2 stars.

I've admitted in previous posts that I was wrong about the Police in my youth, when I didn't give them a chance. Sting's solo career that followed I never gave much thought until I was introduced to him by Sheila in the mid-nineties.

I gave this album an honest shot, but I have to admit, I mostly don't get it. It is a bit all over the place. It has a little bit of the Police's reggae/pop groove, on top of which is ladled an unhealthy dollop of world beat sounds and jazzy saxophone.

I almost never like world beat sounds (Capercaillie's later albums successfully fuse the sound with gaelic folk music, but I'll leave that for when I roll it). I find on "...Nothing Like the Sun" it just gets in the way.

However, the real crime of this album is the ridiculous use of saxophone. Somehow Sting has created a chimera of Kenny G eighties saxophone, and a sort of muzak jazz noodling. It is an unholy fusion.

It is too bad, too - because some of the songs have a pretty strong melody, and Sting can certainly sing. Songs like "Englishman in New York" and "They Dance Alone" both have the makings of a nice tune, and are well sung, but Sting pretentiously dumps so much of this jazz fusion stuff into them that you lose the song among all the gadgetry.

The worst example of this is the remake of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing". It starts off inoccuously enough, with a sort of pop version of the song - not great, but there. Then the guitar gets replaced by some bizarre sax solo. I'm not sure if at the end of this song Sting has the saxophone burned on stage, but I would suggest an improvement would be to burn the sax before starting.

When Sting keeps it simple, you can see his talent. The one song that stood out for me in this regard was "Fragile" which is a sort of Flamenco/Spanish guitar which reminded me strongly of Mark Knopfler's work. In fact, I decided to look it up and found Knopfler in the liner notes, but apparently he appears on "They Dance Alone". Anyway, this sound, coupled with Sting's ethereal voice really works - especially since it isn't layered in with a bunch of goofy pop/jazz.

Sting has a lot of talent, but he is better when Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are keeping his ego in check. Released from adult supervision, there ends up being way too much jazz odyssey.

Best tracks: Fragile

CD Odyssey Disc 124: Cypress Hill

A Creative Maelstrom will be taking a short break after this review, but never fear, gentle reader! It shall return in less than 2 weeks time, on Monday, May 17th.

Write it on your calendar now - or put a sticky note on the fridge - or do what I do with "Order of the Stick" - compulsively check back every day hoping something new is up.

Disc 124 is...IV

Artist: Cypress Hill

Year of Release: 1998

What’s Up With The Cover?: A variation on "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" featuring skeletons. I'm pretty sure skeletons have lost the soft tissue necessary to see (eyes) or to speak (lungs), but maybe the guy in the middle's still holding on to his tympanic membrane - so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Synopsis - this cover is silly. Gangsta Rap should have covers featuring the band looking tough, not a bunch of posed skeletons.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted in my previous two Cypress Hill Reviews, I learned about this band through my buddy, Spence. This particular record is me just buying their next album, since I already had (and enjoyed) their first three.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Cypress Hill albums at this point (I'll likely buy more). I'd put this one last of the five, though, for reasons that I'll get into below.

Rating: 3 stars.

Cypress Hill is one of the few examples of Gangsta Rap that I actually enjoy. As I have noted in previous reviews, the band originally only sang about three things. These were:

1. Killin' folks
2. Smokin' dope
3. Killin' folks tryin' to take your dope.

Later they added a fourth topic:

4. Scorin' girls.

As it happens, "IV" is the album where this fourth element was added - fittingly, given it is their 4th studio release. In this case, there is a song called "I Remember That Freak Bitch (From the Club)". While this song is definitely about scorin' girls, it is not exactly high romance. That Parental Advisory sticker on the front is there for a reason, Mom and Dad!

This record has the great bass lines and groovy rap stylings of the earlier three albums, and when it is good, it is very good. Unfortunately, it has a couple of serious flaws.

First, it is too damned long. There are seventeen tracks, where there really should be twelve tops. In fact, you could pretty much chop tracks 13-17 right off the record. None of them are that good, and the one that is passable (#17 - "Lightning Strikes") is ruined at the end by a goofy monologue about buying dope featuring Cheech and Chong.

This brings me to the second flaw on this album. In three or four places, Cypress Hill decides to add in some goofy back story/radio play about a marijuana deal. It is simply not interesting to listen to Cheech and Chong's schtick anymore, and it gets in the way of the music. Not only that, often the dialogue is not a separate track, but rather tagged onto the back or front of a song - making it hard to simply skip and still enjoy the record.

Despite these problems, there is no denying Cypress Hill's talent to deliver tight raps and make you feel like you are on the street (without making you actually suffer the experience). "Checkmate" is a particularly furious track that is a must hear, which I believe is a rare departure from the above themes, returning to the old school rap battle. The rap battle is still my favourite topic of rap music - it never gets old and no one has to get shot.

This is a good album, but not a 'must have' unless you are a Cypress Hill completionist.

Best tracks: Checkmate, I Remember That Freak Bitch (From the Club), (Goin' All Out) Nothin' To Lose, Tequila Sunrise.

CD Odyssey Disc 123: Townes Van Zandt

After a brief hiatus, I'm home from a whirlwind trip to Vancouver where I celebrated my buddy Tony's 40th birthday (Happy Birthday!)

This review sees a new category introduced to the CD Odyssey - a quick comment on album covers. Why? Why not.

Disc 123 is...Delta Momma Blues
Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1971

What’s Up With The Cover?: A relaxed Townes leans nonchalantly against a wall. Beside him someone has apparently discarded a perfectly good bed spring - or it belongs to that couple making out in the shade of the staircase. Um...Townes - maybe give them a little space?

How I Came To Know It: As I've noted in previous Van Zandt reviews, I came to know him through a tribute album by Steve Earle. "Delta Momma Blues" is a more recent addition, and is just me drilling through his catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Van Zandt albums, as well as a live album. Of those five, the previously reviewed "High Low and In Between/The Late Great Townes Van Zandt" is the best (technically two albums). I place "Delta Momma Blues" last among the five studio albums, but still excellent.

Rating: 4 stars.

"Delta Momma Blues" is right in the middle of Van Zandt's highly creative period, which ran from about 1968 to 1972.

Although this album is solidly folk, it does add some blues elements. It works well enough, particularly on "Brand New Companion", I love the opening of this song:

"I've got a brand new companion
Gonna do right this time
She cools me with her breathing
And chases away those half bottles of wine"

"Brand New Companion" reminds me of KISS' "Cold Gin", as a song about a relationship at least partly based on having someone to get drunk with.

Most of the other tracks are either sad and introspective, break up songs, or a combination of both. Exemplified in "Come Tomorrow":

"It's strange how many tortured mornings
Fell upon us with no warning
Looking for a smile to beg or borrow
It's over now, there's no returning
A thousand bridges sadly burning
That light the way I'll have to walk alone
Come tomorrow."

The exception to these themes is the opening track "FFV". This is a track about an engineer who drives his train too fast, crashes it, and dies in the wreck. Well, it is kind of related, the engineer admits he's 'proud to die with the engine I love, 143', so it is sort of a love song.

"Delta Momma Blues" is not an uplifting album, but it is a good one. Townes is mournful and believable, and both music and lyrics showcase his incredible talent.

Best tracks: FFV, Only Him Or Me, Tower Song, Come Tomorrow, Brand New Companion, Rake

Othello 1997-2010

CD Odyssey Disc 122: Collective Soul

The next disc features an album with one of the longest titles in music history.

Disc 122 is...Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid
Artist: Collective Soul

Year of Release: 1993

How I Came To Know It: My buddy Greg bought this album when we were room-mates. It fast become a favourite in the house, as at the time it landed in that rare intersection of "stuff we both like." I was pleasantly surprised that when I moved in with Sheila she also owned it. Libras - whaddya gonna do?

How It Stacks Up: We only have the one collective soul album, so can't really stack up. However, our friend Andrew was over earlier tonight and he reminded us that their follow up album, is also quite good.

Rating: 3 stars.

Collective Soul took the music scene pretty hard with this album in the early nineties. They are actually Christian rock - and one of the few examples of it that cracked the mainstream.

My previous exposure to Christian rock was Stryper - a crazy hair metal band in the eighties that preached the Word while decked out in striped (stryped?) black and yellow spandex. They were truly, truly awful. Sometimes, when I see a wasp up too close, I panic and have a flashback to a bad Stryper video.

No thank you. If I want a good wasp video I'll take Blackie Lawless singing "I Wanna Be Somebody" dammit. Not so pure, but way better music. But I digress...

Collective Soul is a much better ambassador of the faith-rock movement, and not because they are a gimmick band, or just a band with a message. Instead, they focus on making good music, and whatever else comes secondary. They have that genuine sound you can only get when a rock band is really into what they're doing.

This album is solid throughout, and there are no bad tracks to speak of. At the same time, much of the music sounds fairly similar, so it lacks the dynamic range that a really great album has.

The one exception to this is the very beautiful and simple instrumental "Pretty Donna" which is a string piece that sounds like it could've been written in the 17th Centurry. With the wrong band, or the wrong approach a track like this would sound anachronistic, or self-indulgent. Instead, Collective Soul walks right down the middle and the song just nestles in without pretentions at Track 8.

These guys can also really lay down a groove. "Shine" was a huge (and well-deserved) hit, and almost twenty years later still has an instantly recognizable riff. Who can resist emitting a throaty "yeah" along with the lead singer when this song comes on in the car? Not this guy - I think I even belted out a couple "yeahs" that weren't there.

I also really dig the groovtastic "Love Lifted Me" which felt strongly like Pearl Jam, but not in a Creed "we just ripped off Eddie Vedder" kind of way.

Don't get me wrong, "Collective Soul" is not at the same level for me as Pearl Jam, but what they do, they do well, and this record stands the test of time.

Best tracks: Shine, Wasting Time, Sister Don't Cry, Love Lifted Me, Breathe

CD Odyssey Disc 121: The Pogues

The B is for Bictory.

OK, that may not mean anything to you, but what matters here is that the Boston Bruins are through to round 2.

Now to the music review.

Disc 121 is...Peace and Love
Artist: The Pogues

Year of Release: 1989

How I Came To Know It: This was the last Pogues album I bought, purchased because it was the last album with Shane MacGowan singing that I didn't have. My deep love of the Pogues was inspired by my friend, Tony, who played "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" for me one night over beers.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Pogues albums, which I believe are all the Shane MacGowan ones. I have no real interest in the others at this point. Of those five, I'd put this one last, but don't let that fool you - it is still a good album.

Rating: 3 stars.

I always think of "Peace and Love" as the last Pogues album with MacGowan, but in preparing for this review, I see that their last record is actually "Hell's Ditch." That makes sense stylistically, as "Peace and Love" has a very similar sound to the album that preceded it, "If I Should Fall From The Grace of God."

There are a number of songs on "Peace and Love" where I found myself wishing they had been sung by MacGowan. I believe by this time he was deep into alcoholism and binge drinking like mad. I suppose this contributed to his lesser role on the record (as you probably know, he was soon to be kicked out of the band).

This puts Shane in some rare company alongside Dave Mustaine, so hammered he was kicked out of Metallica, and Ozzie Osbourne, so wasted he was kicked out of Black Sabbath. People who think that these latter gents are somehow more hard core than MacGowan don't have an appreciation for the kind of partying folk/rock bands can lay on. MacGowan is every bit their drunken equal.

Fortunately, just like Mustaine and Osbourne, MacGowan survived, and has made some great follow up music since with his band, The Popes. But I'll talk about that when I roll it.

Back to the music, if I have any criticism of "Peace and Love" it is that in places the arrangements get a little too busy. There is just too much going on at the same time - it could have done more with less.

That said, there are some real gems.

I particularly like "Young Ned of the Hill" which is a song about Oliver Cromwell's conquering of Ireland in 1649. As loyal Irishmen, the Pogues are predictably not impressed:

"A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight."

I've never been a fan of Cromwell for a whole host of reasons - most notably that he puritanically closed the theatres in England when he took power. Oh yeah - on that subject, he also chopped the head off the lawful King of England and (as noted above) invaded Ireland, during which there was more than one massacre. What a jerk!

I also really love "Down All The Days" which is a song about the life of a drunk writer (let's call him 'Shane') and a beautiful homage to the City of London, in all its facets, titled "London You're a Lady". Here's a taste:

"Your architects were madmen
Your builders sane but drunk
And among your faded jewels
Shine acid house and punk."

This line, and the rest in this song (memorable for both verse and tune) is vintage MacGowan - still creating works of beauty even while seriously drunk.

No one writes a drunken binge like MacGowan - I don't think anyone is even close. I think as I review each Pogues album I'll find at least one good drunken binge line. Here's this review's selection (from "Boat Train"):

"I had a couple drinks in town
A few more at the port
I puked up on the gangway
But some kind folks helped me board
They helped me to a table
Poured whiskey down my throat
They sat me at a table
And I lost my watch and coat."

If you like the Pogues, I would say this would be the last of their first five albums to get, but don't take that the wrong way - you should get it anyway.

Best tracks: Young Ned of the Hill, Down All The Days, Lorelei, Boat Train, London You're A Lady

CD Odyssey Disc 120: Leonard Cohen

It has been a tough couple of days. Yesterday I discovered that our cat, Othello, has terminal cancer. I'm not really taking it all that well, truth be told.

Amid all of that, I had a hard time giving this album the close listen it deserves, because this is an excellent album, with a lot of memories. Of our two cats, Othello is always the one more willing to come out and hang when the music starts playing. He's the one that prowls around my legs when I'm changing discs in the carousel.

I'm going to really miss that.

...

OK, I'm back from a good cry, and now I'm going to go talk about Leonard Cohen, who's been with me through a lot of tough times himself.

Disc 120 is...Recent Songs

Artist: Leonard Cohen

Year of Release: 1979

How I Came To Know It: I first heard a lot of the music on this album back when I was a kid. CBC did some special called "I Am A Hotel", with the music of Cohen and the dancing of Toller Cranston. I really remember the song "The Gypsy's Wife," which featured a woman in a flowing white dress (and seventies hair) dancing around in a really cheap set, with Cohen singing.

I recall thinking "I Am a Hotel" was pretty lame, but I liked the music. Years later (I think around 1990), when I was an avowed fan of Cohen's music, I recognized the song "The Gypsy's Wife" on this album, put two and two together and had to have it.

How It Stacks Up: I have ten studio albums, and 1 live album of Cohen's. This one is incredible, but Cohen albums make for a tough field. I'll say this one is probably 6th or 7th.

Rating: 4 stars (one thin hair from 5).

"Recent Songs" has the interesting distinction of being the first CD I ever bought (it is actually tied with another Cohen album, "Death of a Ladies' Man"). I saw both albums at a time I didn't know either existed. Problem was, I didn't have a CD player and I couldn't find them on tape (which was the format all my other Cohen was on).

I had a friend, Craig, who I knew owned a CD player, so my plan was to have him tape the albums for me so I could listen to them. While I was waiting around to set up an agreeable time with him I got antsy and wanted to hear the albums, so I spent some of my meagre savings on a ghetto blaster.

This would not be the last time I would forego some necessities in the cause of music, and like most of the other times, I wouldn't go back and decide differently even if I could.

Fortunately I wasn't disappointed, and for many years, "Recent Songs" was my favourite Cohen album.

Stylistically, "Recent Songs" is really the last of Cohen's "plaintiff poet" singing. Five years later, he would release "Various Positions" (reviewed back at Disc 58) which was the beginning of the gravel-voiced sound that fans will know from his more recent work (you know - the last twenty-five years or so).

Musically, this album sees the beginnings of Cohen's musical voice coming out as an accompaniment to his top-tier lyrics. Yes, "Death Of A Ladies' Man" had previously dived into the deep end with full band orchestration, but it had sounded very disjointed. "Recent Songs" shows how Cohen learned how to better blend in instrumentation without losing the emotional resonance of the lyrics.

In particular, I love the moody and sensual violin in both "The Gypsy's Wife" and "The Window" and the mournful western guitar sounds in "The Ballad of the Absent Mare".

This album has so many memories for me. When I first heard it, I had a seriously broken heart, so every song that spoke of romantic failure felt like it was written for me.

Songs about the struggle of the poet appealed to the twenty year old poet in me, as I was studying literature at UVIC at the time. In particular, "I Came So Far For Beauty" which is a song about the artist's sacrifices for his art. Songs like this are like spiritual food for us English Lit types, that dream of being great writers, but haven't quite made it happen (yet).

However, far and away my favourite song when I first heard this record, is still my favourite song today - and one of my top five Leonard Cohen songs of all time: "The Traitor". This is a song about love and lust, and how blurry the lines between them can get. How we can be a traitor even to ourselves in the process - knowing something and refusing to know it at the same time. Sartre calls it "keeping Bad Faith with ourselves." Orwell would call it "Double Think".

Outside of this main theme, these days, the first stanza always makes me think about a girl I briefly dated one summer in Powell River (maybe 1990 or 1991).

"Now the swan it floated on the English River,
the rose of high romance it opened wide;
a suntanned woman yawned me through the summer
the judges watched us from the other side."

She wasn't even suntanned - she was actually very pale and long-limbed, and looked great in a pair of cut off jean shorts. I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember her name, but she yawned me through the summer, so that line makes me think of her. That, and C&C Music Factory - but that's not part of this review.

The next stanza makes me think of something totally different:

"I told my mother, 'Mother, I must leave you.
Preserve my room, but do not shed a tear
Should rumours of a shabby ending reach you,
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere."

This line always reminds me of the emotional trials of university, and that ridiculous notion that your room should be left alone when you're away. For years it was, but one year I went back to visit and it wasn't. I was surprised to find I was completely at ease with this. It had become a guest room; but I had just as surely become a guest.

And on and on it goes, each line of this great song another flower of emotional or temporal memory.

Right now, I'm raw and aware of the importance of every memory along the way. It was fitting I got one of the master evokers of memory.

Best tracks: The Guests, The Window, Came So Far For Beauty, The Traitor, The Gypsy's Wife, Ballad of the Absent Mare