CD Odyssey Disc 1585: Fleetwood Mac

It has been a hard 48 hours. Shortly after posting my last review Sheila noted that the wide-eyed stare our cat Vizzini had been giving us when we got back from holiday was not just relief at our return. He had become blind. A very long day and night at the vet later, and it turns out he has Stage 3 kidney disease, and the blindness (which is almost total, apart from a bit of light sensitivity) is irreversible. He now has medication, and has a life expectancy of between a few months and a few years. We just don’t know.

Vizzini’s not in any pain or discomfort and seems to be accepting his new lack of vision a lot more gracefully than we are. I’m a little better tonight, but that’s partly just being cried out. We’ll make the best of the years that remain and give him a good life, but it still hurts.

Sorry to start with such a downer. I will now try to distract myself from this shitty situation by reviewing a shitty record.

Disc 1585 is…. Mirage

Artist: Fleetwood Mac

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover?  It looks like some Fleetwood Mac style “drama”. Lindsey Buckingham is dancing with Stevie Nicks, but it looks like Christine McVie wants to cut in. Is this “Rumours” all over again? Sadly, no.

How I Came To Know It: This was part of my deep dive into Fleetwood Mac in 2020 where I temporarily convinced myself that I needed to own more of their records.

How It Stacks Up: After reviewing “Tango in the Night” at Disc1490 I was so disappointed I ranked it last (#4) leaving one rung up for “Mirage”. However, "Mirage" has now failed even this most basic test, and so I must now place it  at #4. “Tango In the Night” moves up one slot by default, although both are equally banished from my collection. Since this is the final review for the band, here’s a full recap:

1. Rumours: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 1423)
2. Self-Titled: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1488)
3. Tango in the Night: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 1490)
4. Mirage: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

 Ratings: 2 stars

"Mirage” is what it looks like when pop becomes pablum. “Mirage” came out at a time when Fleetwood Mac could do no wrong, commercially speaking, and it spawned several hits. Many of these songs are the best songs on the record, and yet they still found ways to annoy me.

Let’s start with “Gypsy”. Unless you live under a rock, or perhaps in a cult where popular music is forbidden, you will know this classic penned and sung by Stevie Nicks. This tune is solid and has all the elements that make a good Stevie Nicks song. The witch-light quality of the lyrics, and compelling melodies in a mid-tempo sway. In terms of what it is about, Nicks is similar to Ronnie James Dio in her ability to make songs feel mysterious and magical without ever being all that clear what is going on. Does lightning strike? Yes, maybe once, and maybe twice, but all that lightning still left me light on narrative.

“Gypsy” has some annoying production. Fleetwood Mac was an early adapter of every smoothed out soulless sound that ever came out of the depths of 1987 five years later. The worst part of the song is a synthy guitar bit that fades away with a merciless slowness. It is the equivalent of eating a bowl of raspberries where the last one you eat has a worm in it. Sure there was some delightful flavours previously, but that’s not the taste left in your mouth.

Also, good is “Hold Me” which was a top five hit, and inescapable if you watched music videos back in the eighties. The production here is also painful, but the song has a gentle sway to it that is hard to resist, despite the presence of One Thousand Unnecessary Sounds, the worst of which is what is what I suspect is a cowbell on helium.

Other than the hits, we have songs that range from the forgettable to the irritating. They all flow together in the same way instant oatmeal flows together; nice and even, and without any discernable colour. Nicks and Christine McVie have amazing rock voices – two of the best – but even they struggle to rise up out of this morass of sound.

The record’s nadir is “Empire State,” a Lindsey Buckingham number that is supposed to be a love song to the energy of New York City but comes across as a musical number so far off Broadway, you could see the Rio Grande from the loge window. This song also features the only ‘phone with a greater propensity to wreck a rock record than the saxophone: the xylophone. A telephone would have been more welcome.

The record’s best song is the final one. “Wish You Were Here” shows that latter-stage Fleetwood Mac owes a lot to Christine McVie, who can sing her way out of any jam. Here she blows the doors off with her signature voice, and despite some less than enthusiastic drums, manages much better production choices, relying on some well-placed piano to deliver the accompaniment to her brilliance.

“Mirage” is not without its charms, and if you like something that won’t nag at your emotions too hard while you listen to AM radio on your way to work, it will serve. However, if you’re reading this review there’s a good chance you want your music interesting and emotionally impactful. If that’s the case, stick with Rumours and the self-titled record. This “Mirage” is likely to leave you as most do, with nothing but a mouthful of sand for your effort.

Best tracks: Gypsy, Hold On, Wish You Were Here

CD Odyssey Disc 1584: Wet Leg

I’m back from a short mid-week holiday to celebrate my mom’s birthday. It was great to connect with family again and now I’m preparing for a return to work tomorrow. But first, one last fun thing must happen – a music review!

Disc 1584 is…. Self-Titled

Artist: Wet Leg

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  Side hug! Because sometimes a full front-to-front hug is too much.

How I Came To Know It: I heard the song “Chaise Longue” on a “best new songs” list at Paste Magazine many months ago. I liked it and kept an eye out for the band to release a full album. It took forever but at last, here it is!

How It Stacks Up: There is only one Wet Leg album and this is it, so no stacking up.

Ratings: 4 stars

Wet Leg’s debut record is a perfect summer fun album, full of all the silly joy that a good summer’s day holds, and all the sunburn of regret from any flings that went sideways along the way.

As you might expect from such a record, there is not a lot of deep philosophizing. This is fun pop music that is to easy to digest and full of hooks that are much harder to write and produce than will appear on first blush. Delivering catchy pop tunes like Wet Leg members Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers manage here may appear to be easy breezy, but it is damned hard work.

Often with young ingenues I will talk about how they are old souls, but these two feel very much like young souls. Young souls are also great, because they are filled with breathless enthusiasm. That enthusiasm is infectious, and makes you feel young again just by listening. Wet Leg takes your ears and mind on a journey of sound that will make you want to dance, or at the very least rock your head back and forth and smile at the sky.

The record features a plethora of clever turns of phrase, typically linked up with a catchy bass hook that makes the words an extra step more clever than they actually are. From “Chaise Longue”:

“Is your muffin buttered?
Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?”

Do we know what this means? We do not, but it is pop gold and nigh impossible to resist singing along once you’ve got the timing down well enough to not flub it (the music on this record is notable for its well-timed phrasing).

Or sometimes the lyrics are even more simple and straightforward, like this from “Angelica”:

“I don’t even know what I’m even doing here.
I was told that there would be free beer.”

Aah, I remember the days when a party could draw people simply by advertising there would be a complimentary keg in the garage, and plastic cups a-plenty. Nowadays I’m more likely to get sidelong glances telling people to BYOB but what can I say? I’m old school.

“Chaise Longue” made them famous, but as anyone who starts to get to know this record will tell you, ““Wet Dream” is the better song.” Indeed it is, with a killer driving riff and the well-placed hand claps that are the sugar high of many a sing-a-long pop hit.

There are some bummer tunes, of course. As noted previously, no summer is complete without a bit of a late-day bummer where you can clink your beer bottles and cheer ‘c’est la vie’ to one another as the setting sun shines through the amber glass. There are a couple of grade A entries here. “Loving You” and “Piece of Shit” are both brilliant and sad little “fuck you” post-break up songs. The well-placed swear words on these songs feels vigorous and deliberate; the kind of swearing one engages in when the words are still relatively new and exciting. As a long-time swear veteran, I miss that.

Because this album is so sugary and fun (even in its dark moments) I set out determined to give it 3 stars. However, when I got to the end of this review I realized I’d put 6 of the 12 tunes in the “best tracks” section below. If half the album are its best tracks, that’s a 4-star album. So yes, this record is excellent. Maybe it won’t make you discover some deeper inner truth, but it might help get you back in touch with the wild and wonderful feeling of being young, and maybe even get you dancing along the way.

Best tracks: Chaise Longue, Angelica, Wet Dream, Loving You, Ur Mom, Piece of Shit

CD Odyssey Disc 1582 and 1583: Okkervil River

This next record saw a slight adjustment to the random rolling system. I ended up rolling the seven song EP the band released as bonus material first. Since the EP makes the most sense as an addendum (coda?) to the main record, and was even released the same year, I figured they should be reviewed together. So, here they are as a double review.

Disc 1582 is…. Black Sheep Boy (and Black Sheep Boy Appendix)
Disc 1583 is…. Black Sheep Boy Appendix)

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2005 (both)

What’s up with the Cover?  Our titular Black Sheep Boy joins a warthog and a bird in staring at an empty plate. This looks to be the worst dinner party ever. They’re even all herbivores, meaning they can’t even eat each other. At least the radio behind BSB’s head can provide some music, but I expect it is depressing music and worse than that – played in mono.

Yeah, that’s right mono enthusiasts, I went there. Mono sucks.

And now…bonus album cover art, with the cover of…the Appendix!

What’s up with this Cover? Things have not improved for our Black Sheep Boy since the World’s Worst Dinner Party. It looks like in the absence of a good meal, our hero has become quite hangry, donning a set of half-plate and – with eyes literally burning with rage – has plunged his sword into the eyesocket of a black sheep…armadillo?

How I Came To Know It: I got into Okkervil River about ten years ago after seeing an ad for their 2011 release “I Am Very Far” in a music magazine. That caused me to start digging backward into their catalogue and three albums into that journey through time I arrived at “Black Sheep Boy”.

I did not know about “Black Sheep Boy Appendix” until a couple years ago where I randomly saw a used copy at the local record store.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Okkervil River albums (including this one) and two of their EPs (including this one). Of those, I put “Black Sheep Boy” in at #4, and the Appendix at #2 out of the EPs.

Ratings: 4 stars for Black Sheep Boy; 2 stars (barely) for the Appendix

“Black Sheep Boy” is the album that broke Okkervil River “big”. Heh heh. I jest, of course. Okkervil River has never broken big, probably because their music is too interesting, unique and thoughtful to get radio play. In any event, in my limited experience of having conversations with people about Okkervil River, “Black Sheep Boy” is often talked of in revered tones as “their best”. I don’t share that assessment, but I do think it is an excellent record.

For those of you who haven’t read previous reviews of the band, Okkervil River are a mix of rock, country, folk and…warble? You may get horns, you may get the sound of a river, and you’ll probably get a bit of guitar, maybe rocking out, maybe pastorally plucked. It varies.

The one thing you will definitely get is Will Sheff’s unique vocals. Sheff sounds a bit like a Vegas crooner, if the crooner was a doomed character in an H.P. Lovecraft story. He has a Gothic quality to his vocals, and an anguish to his delivery that makes every song flush with deep feeling.

Sheff is also the principal songwriter, and he builds tunes around his vocal style. The melody will tend to trip forward an extra bar or so past where you think it is going to resolve. The lyrics follow suit, with strong alliteration and assonance, tripping over themselves like they’re staggering down a staircase. Here’s an example of the lyrics from my favourite song on the record, “A Stone”:

“And if it could start
Being alive, you'd stop living alone
And I think I believe
That if stones could dream
They'd dream of being laid side-by-side
Piece-by-piece
and turned into a castle
For some towering queen
They're unable to know”

It is hard to select this small selection, as these songs are all set-piece poems, most beautiful when heard in their entirety. On the page that “falling forward” quality isn’t fully realized but trust me, alongside the tune it is sublime.

It is also sad and full of no small amount of self-loathing. This record came from a dark place for Sheff that I’d speak to more but won’t, partly because I don’t cotton to post-Modern approaches to understanding art through externalities, but mostly because I don’t need to. Like any good work of art, “Black Sheep Boy” speaks for itself, and voices its own truths.

The album is not perfect, and there are places where the band is either too clever for their own good. The sound of water and birdsong “In a Radio Song” feels emotionally manipulative, and the eight minute long “So Come Back I’m Waiting” unsurprisingly drags a bit. Despite these small quibbles, this is one of Okkervil River’s better records.

Black Sheep Boy Appendix

If you were to strip out most of the great stuff from the original album, and just keep the overwrought and overthought stuff like “In a Radio Song” and “So Come Back I’m Waiting” you’d have the Appendix.

I suspect these songs are the ones that got cut from the original album and listening to them I can understand why. The strings and horns that give pleasant flourishes to the original record here are dominant and intrusive. Instrumentals/Soundscapes like “A Garden” and “A Forest” are as aimless as they are pointless.

I was unsurprised that there is a song called “Another Radio Song” furthering the themes of one of the few songs from the original record that left me unfulfilled.

“Black Sheep Boy #4” is the one solid entry that is worth hearing. It had me wondering what troubling adventures Black Sheep Boy #2 and #3 got up to. Alas, no reveal on this mystery. I assume whatever it was takes him from “guy missing out on dinner” to “guy ramming a sword into an armadillo’s face”.

If I had to review this package as a single entity, the Appendix would pull the works down to a bare three stars. However, I’ve decided to see them as separate entities, with the original being excellent and the add-ons from the Appendix being the kind of unnecessary that will be leaving my music collection shortly after I click “post”.

Best tracks: (all from the original album): Black Sheep Boy, For Real, Black, A King and a Queen, A Stone, Song of Our So-Called Friend

CD Odyssey Disc 1581: Camp Cope

Despite it already being late August this is only the third review of an album released in 2022. I promise I have bought a bunch; that’s just how the random element works sometimes.

Disc 1581 is…. Running with the Hurricane

Artist: Camp Cope

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s the band running, although I don’t see any sign of a hurricane. It looks more like they are running from the sunrise. Like maybe this was filmed on the planet Crematoria, from the 2004 movie “Chronicles of Riddick” in which our heroes can literally outrun the sunrise and survive the blistering heat of the sun by hiding in shadows. Here Camp Cope attempts the same maneuver, but given the flat nature of the landscape, I don’t like their chances.

But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: I have known about the band since their 2018 release, “How To Socialise and Make Friends” so this was me just checking out their latest record.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Camp Cope albums, which is all of them. “Running with the Hurricane” comes in at #1. The best!

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

I imagine Camp Cope is not the camp you would have wanted to attend as a kid – sounds like a place where the camp counsellors spend most of their time grief counselling you. Fortunately, while heartfelt expressions of coping with the world make for a bad summer vacation, they can also make for some pretty great rock and roll.

“Running with the Hurricane” is Camp Cope’s third record and is their best to date, partly because the songs are that much stronger, and partly because they achieve exactly the right balance between wallow and celebration. While lead singer Georgia ‘Maq’ McDonald tends to explore the depths of longing and uncertainty, on this latest record she does it in a way that signifies hope has arrived or, failing that, is just around the corner.

It is also Georgia Maq’s best vocal performance to date. In her lower register Maq has the power to crack a concrete foundation, but she also has a surprising sweetness when she wants to go high. She also does what can sometimes seem the impossible task; tagging a birdsong-like run at the end of a melody without having it feel forced or artificial. Contestants on live singing shows take note – when done correctly a run is a thing of beauty, not a chance to elicit the votes of rubes clueless to the fact that data rates may apply.

The other prominent feature of this record was how bass-forward it is. I guess I should’ve expected it, with Kelly Dawn Hellmrich listed as “lead bass guitar.” Hellmrich’s bass lines are easily the co-lead to Maq’s vocals, and songs like “Caroline” and the title track are glorious intersections of Concrete Blonde and the Cure (and no, “Caroline” is not the Concrete Blonde tune. I’m assuming that title is just a coincidence).

The more listens I gave this album the more I came to appreciate Hellmrich’s bass. It isn’t something I often notice on rock records, but it is so intrinsic to these compositions, you can’t help but turn your ear in that direction.

While this record has some hard moments the themes are primarily positive. Many of the songs are about coming through difficult times and finding something better at the end of it. The record ends with “Sing Your Heart Out” where Georgia Maq does exactly that. After all that glorious bass action, the band takes it down a notch here, opting for an emotionally resonant piano. It features Maq’s finest vocal moments on the record, which is saying something. However, nothing speaks to the record better than the lyrics, “You’re singing off key/but it don’t bother me, baby. Sing your heart out.” This song breaks your heart, and then reforges it into something stronger, all in under four minutes.

My only warning on this record, is that Maq sings in an overwrought style. This is exactly what these songs calls for and I see it as a feature and not a bug, but you have to be in the right mood for the experience. For maximum impact, you need to throw yourself into the crucible of feelings and melt with her. This is a record for immersion, not idle background play.

Best tracks: Caroline, Running with the Hurricane, Blue, Sing Your Heart Out

CD Odyssey Disc 1580: Tom Petty

I’ve been reviewing albums by this artist for ten years now – almost as long as the Odyssey has existed. It all started with Disc 293 and “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)”. I guess a decade later, I still haven’t.

Disc 1580 is…. The Last DJ

Artist: Tom Petty

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover?  Regular readers will know I enjoy a good Giant Head cover, but this is the lesser-known Giant Hair cover. This particular mop of hair looks a bit sere and could probably use some conditioner.

How I Came To Know It: I was digging through Tom Petty’s catalogue a good 15-20 years ago, and buying up everything I’d missed along the way. This was one of them.

How It Stacks Up: I have 16 Tom Petty albums. Of those, “The Last DJ” comes in at #13, bumping “She’s The One” down one spot in the process. This being my penultimate Tom Petty review, there will be no full recap. For those people who find this strange, you are probably using ‘penultimate’ wrong. Please stop doing that.

Ratings: 3 stars

In a riveting scene in Peter Bogdanovich’s 2007 Tom Petty documentary, “Runnin’ Down a Dream” an irate Petty tears a strip off a couple of record execs that are pushing what (in Petty’s view) is a shit song on his buddy Roger McGuinn. It showcases Petty’s long-abiding derision for the empty commercial aspects of the music business.

“The Last DJ” is the album version of that outburst, a hate letter for all that was (and has always been) the worst aspects of an industry that simultaneously fuels great art, but also lines the pockets of some shady characters with other people’s inspiration. The result is an uneven record, where the best moments tend to be fueled by Petty’s angry melancholy.

Things get started with the title track, a song that is both celebratory and tragic. Celebratory because of the titular character, who, “plays what he wants to play” and tragic because he is the last of his kind, in a sea of moral turpitude.

This is the first in a quartet of songs that leads of “The Last DJ” with a lot of criticism of the music industry that is nasty, to the point, and leaves little room for alternate interpretations. “Money Becomes King” is the transformation of art into product, and even the gentle and soothing piano of “Dreamville” which is dreamy only in that it hearkens back to a time when people made music for music’s sake and didn’t sweat the bottom line.

The final entry in this opening salvo is the album’s finest track. “Joe” is sung from the perspective of the Soulless Record Exec, and Petty’s depiction is scathing. “Dreamville’s” soothing tones are immediately prior, and here they are juxtaposed with a gritty grimy blues inspired number. The song has dozens of great lines, but the second stanza sums it up best:

“Go get me a kid with a good-looking face
Bring me a kid can remember his place
Some hungry poet son-of-a-bitch
He gets to be famous, I get to be rich.”

Later in the record Petty expands his theme away from this singular focus, but that flavour of disappointment carries through the record.

A good example is “Blue Sunday,” a song with a gentle quavering guitar, telling the tale of two down-and-outs that find each other at a 7-11. The song is romantic in its way, but mostly it is a weary and worn strum, where peace of mind is little more than a few moments of comfortable silence in a car, followed by a sleep in the back seat. As the chorus reminds us, this blue Sunday is “blue, with shades of grey.”

Musically the record shows a lot of range. At times Petty is channeling the Beatles, and at others he scorches things up like it was early Zeppelin. The playing is solid and Mike Campbell’s guitar is particularly good and grimy on a couple of solos.

Sometimes the experimentation left me wishing Petty had painted a bit more in the lines, but that wouldn’t have caught the restless spirit of a record trying to push past the bounds of commercial expectations. Mostly I liked the way Petty free-ranges around styles, all the while never losing his penchant for penning timeless melodies. This record has deep cuts with chord progressions most musicians wish they could steal for their hits.

But there is only one Tom Petty, and now there isn’t even that. Fortunately he left us with an amazing collection of work. “The Last DJ” proves that even when he was in the depths of anger and frustration, that talent never left him.

Best tracks: The Last DJ, Dreamville, Joe, Blue Sunday, Have Love Will Travel

CD Odyssey Disc 1579: Saxon

This is my third Saxon review of 2022, which is what happens when you go crazy for a band and buy a bunch of their albums.

I even discovered some bonus Saxon content this week, when the other metal band I’m currently binging (Amon Amarth) featured them on their 2022 release with a song called “Saxons and Vikings”. As titles go, rather obvious. As songs go, rather awesome.

But let’s save that for when I review it and cast our minds back to 1985.

Disc 1579 is…. Innocence is No Excuse

Artist: Saxon

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover?  Eve, post-decision.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with Saxon. I used to borrow my brother’s records from time to time when he was out commercial fishing, and this was one of those.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Saxon albums. “Innocence is No Excuse” is the latest in terms of date of release, but how does it stack up? I like all my Saxon albums, and this one could be as high as #3 on a good day, or #5 on a bad one. Today it falls to #5, but I still love it.

Ratings: 3 stars

As Saxon aged into the mid-eighties their sound became a bit smoother and more polished. Make no mistake, however; “Innocence is No Excuse” may have some friendly melodic structure in here, but this is not the bro rock of Bon Jovi. This record is a classic example of eighties metal at its height, from one of the genre’s early greats.

Saxon’s favourite subject to rock out about is…rockin’ out. “Innocence…” is their seventh studio album, but they have still not tired of this topic, and while it sounds like a silly and obvious theme, few bands do it as well. If Cypress Hill is the band for songs about smokin’ dope, then Saxon is the band about rock ‘n’ roll.

The boys get the theme going early, with the opening track, “Rockin’ Again”. “Rockin’ Again” starts with some tinkling piano and you might be fooled into thinking you’re in for a romantic power ballad, but it isn’t long before Nigel Glockler’s drums come crashing down around you, followed by the bombast of the double guitar. Saxon’s sound is lean, lanky and muscular. It isn’t sludgy and dense like a lot of modern metal, but it will blow down the door all the same.

A few songs later on “Devil Rides Out”, Saxon drops a little femme fatale action on you, underscored by their two signature sounds. First, compelling rhythm guitar riffs that were built to bang your head and wake the dead. Second, the soaring vocals of Biff Byford, one of metal’s most enduring and compelling front men. Biff’s vocals are like the guitar sound – they’re anthemic and tough, without being too thick. Think that tall skinny kid from high school that no one messed with.

Later the boys mix the two themes with “Rock ‘N’ Roll Gipsy”. Here we have it all - rock and roll AND femme fatales! Glockler’s thumping drums, not one, but two killer guitar riffs, (one for the verse, a second for the chorus) and Biff singing his balls off. This song will make you want to play it louder. I did exactly this on the drive home today.

For all this, the best song on the record sees Saxon engaging in that other topic so popular among both metal bands and their fans of this era – history! Here we have an homage to all the soldiers who fall in wars for someone else’s cause. This tune has an orchestral quality, winding its tale of woe with a mid-tempo, deliberate intensity. On the chorus, where Biff and the boys sing “Where are they now?” and the guitar riff growls with defiance. The question has a tragic answer, but the guitar reassures you that the heroism of all those lost souls will not be denied.

My version of the album is a special CD re-release, and unfortunately the Soulless Record Execs have decided to once add a crapload of bonus content. On top of the tight 10-song collection we get seven more tracks, all loaded on the CD like some bloated leech trying to drain it of vitality. There are two good tracks in here, alongside five pointless demos. I could say more, but to so just encourages the Execs to do this again. Is it too much to ask that you put the Goddamned bonus material on a separate disc, people?

But I digress…

Rediscovering Saxon has been one of the most enjoyable experiences over the past year. Going into “Innocence is No Excuse” I was expecting to like “Broken Heroes” and beyond that I had low expectations. Instead I was blown away by the brilliant metallic joy of one of my oldest musical loves. I’m so emboldened by the positive experience I may even check out some later albums.

Best tracks: Rockin’ Again, Devil Rides Out, Rock ‘N’ Roll Gipsy, Broken Heroes

CD Odyssey Disc 1578: Shelley Short

A short record and a mid-week drive to the ‘burbs means I am ready to review this next record after only a couple of days.

Disc 1578 is…. Captain Wild Horse (Rides the Heart of Tomorrow)

Artist: Shelley Short

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover?  Rarely has an album cover and an album title bore such little resemblance to one another. There are no horses here, nor romantic notions of riding the Heart of Tomorrow (which sounds like it would be more at home on a Dio record.

Instead, we have a small-town backyard, and what I think is the clothesline. Maybe Captain Wild Horse is a child’s toy that can “fly” when affixed to the laundry line. That is until mom comes out and yells “If you wreck that clothesline futzing with it you’re going to regret it!” I speak from experience.

In slightly related news, I miss the scratchy, wind-blown towels that used to come off the clothesline. Said no one, ever.

How I Came To Know It: I heard a song off of Shelley Short’s 2017 release “Pacific City” and decided to seek her out. I could find that album easily (more on that later) but when I was in Portland a number of years ago, I found a used copy of this one in a local record store. It was a very low price so even though it wasn’t the title I knew, I took a rider on it. Get it, a rider on Captain Wild Horse? Get it? Man, I crack myself up…

How It Stacks Up: I have two Shelley Short albums. “Captain Wild Horse” is the weaker of the two.

Ratings: 3 stars

After listening to Linda Ronstadt for my last review, any singer was liable to sound a bit thin, and so it was that I had hard time getting into the twee indie folk sound of Shelley Short. It wasn’t Shelley’s fault – she’s great – just bad timing.

Shelley Short’s voice is particularly light and gentle, good for songs that trip and traipse along, and she has a good sensibility to keep her songwriting within that wheelhouse. These are songs that would be well-suited for one of those concerts where it is basically in some person’s overly large drawing room. Ideally a big house rented by a bunch of roomies, some of whom are in the band, as opposed to some big house of a rich dude who just wanted background music for their dinner party.

Because “Captain Wild Horse” is such a subtle and quietly pretty album, being in the background does not suit it. It requires your full attention but doesn’t always do a great job of commanding it.

One of the reasons for this is the old timey nature of the playing. These songs are not complicated, and their strength is in their simplicity. You fall into the natural sway of the experience, rather than marvel at the musicianship or melodic innovation of it all.

It didn’t help that most of my listening was in the car, where the growl of the engine (my car growls a bit more than most) threatened to wash out the subtle nuance of the record. As soon as I got it home and started giving it a listen on headphones, I remembered why I liked it so much. When it is up in your earholes to the exclusion of all other distractions, it is like a lovely stroll down a country lane. Unassuming, and absentminded to the point of being almost meditative.

Do I love the xylophone sound on “Lupine Manner”? I would say no, but that sing-song style of hoping from note to note like a frog on lily pads is a Shelley Short specialty, and so you forgive the cuteness of it all.

One of the best tunes is “Goodbye Old Morning” where the same twirling whimsy has just the right amount of gravitas (just a dash) to ground you into the song’s charm. It is also one of Short’s best vocal performances, as she once again deftly swaps phrasing and joy in place of power.

The final track on the record is “Wild Wild Horses” and no, it is not a Rolling Stones cover. It has a heavy cello tone underneath it that made my car’s door reverberate uncomfortably. It was a bit disconcerting but given how the car engine had been thrumming over the earlier tracks, felt like fair play.

If you prefer your music to be like a dozen roses in a bouquet, delivered by some guy in a limousine, this record may not be for you. But if you like a single daisy, blooming against the side of an old cedar-shingle house, it just might be your thing. Hard to notice and a little quiet, but pretty when you take the time to stoop down and take a closer look.

Best tracks: Like Anything It’s Small, Sweet Heart Said, Goodbye Old Morning

CD Odyssey Disc 1577: Linda Ronstadt

Hard news yesterday, with the report that Olivia Newton-John had died at the age of just 73. Rest easy, Olivia and know that wherever you are…a million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star.

Disc 1577 is…. Hand Sown…Home Grown

Artist: Linda Ronstadt

Year of Release: 1969

What’s up with the Cover?  Who is this mysterious forest angel flowing toward me, with the morning light cascading behind her?

Fear not my friends, it is Linda Ronstadt. And if she is going to whisk your soul away, you’ll at least get a pretty song out of the experience. Perhaps the whippoorwills will sing backup…

How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Linda Ronstadt since I was a kid, but never knew this particular record until about ten years ago when I was digging through her discography. It was hard to find on CD back then, but not only did I find a copy earlier this year, I also found a “3 in 1” CD with her first three records on it. All the same great music, but less space on the shelves.

How It Stacks Up: I now have five Linda Ronstadt albums (when I last reviewed one I only had two, but I’ve been busy). All those records are from the early part of her career, and competition in that golden era is tough. “Hand Sown…Home Grown is great, but I can’t rank it higher than #4.

Ratings: 4 stars

On “Hand Sown…Home Grown”, Linda Ronstadt opts for a wholesome vibe that lands somewhere between flower power and Tammy Wynette. It is sweet and simple, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it is undercooked; Ronstadt’s voice will roast you alive with its power.

Linda Ronstadt would go on to try on a lot of styles in her career, but the simplicity of her first record is a treat. It’s unadorned, yes, but it has a natural tone and vibrancy that makes it the Helen of Troy of sound. This voice would launch a thousand ships and burn the topless towers of Ilium. So, you know, a classic.

Ronstadt has the same power as Johnny Cash; once she covers one of your songs that song belongs to her. It is fitting then that the opening tune is a Dylan song, “Baby You’ve Been on My Mind” which Cash himself had covered four years earlier on “Orange Blossom Special.” Cash took it from Dylan, but Ronstadt just as deftly wrests it from Cash’s grip. Here she does something few singers can do, belting at full throttle and yet suffusing every phrase with passion and import.

Another standout is her cover of Waylon Jennings’ “The Only Mama That’ll Walk the Line” as she hits with all the considerable sass and jump that this barroom two-step classic deserves. This song also exemplifies some solid musicianship from the backing band. While “Hand Sown…Home Grown” doesn’t have any memorable hits, at least the studio surrounded Ronstadt with some great players.

Sassy tunes like “Break My Mind” are simultaneously filled with heartache and triumph, both dialed up to 11. It had me thinking of modern acts like Jaime Wyatt, and how much this style of country music owes to the sound of early masters like Linda Ronstadt.

Even songs where the subject feels a bit stilted worked for me. For example, “We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock and Roll)” is pure preachin’ action. While I wanted to be offended at this offhanded attack on the glory of rock and roll, instead I found myself swaying to the siren’s call of the pulpit, at least if the preacher can sing like this. It helped knowing that on future records Ronstadt would come around to embrace rock and roll after all.

I’m fairly biased in favour of singer-songwriters. I just like the combo, and so for someone to impress me with a bunch of other peoples’ songs requires some top tier stuff. Fortunately Ronstadt is as good as it gets, an iconic voice that can still blow the door down and then break your heart, more than 50 years after she first cut these tracks.

Best tracks: Baby You’ve Been On My Mind, The Only Mama That’ll Walk the Line, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, The Long Way Around, Break My Mind

CD Odyssey Disc 1576: Alice Cooper

I took the day off today and I then loaded it with stuff to do. The various activities are evenly divided between chores and fun. I declare this day half full, because that’s how I roll.

Disc 1576 is…. Detroit Stories

Artist: Alice Cooper

Year of Release: 2021

What’s up with the Cover?  In Gotham, when you need assistance, you flash the image of a bat into the sky. In Detroit, you go with Alice Cooper eyes. In either case expect a vaguely disturbed do-gooder to show up.

How I Came To Know It: I have been an Alice Cooper fan since I counted my years on this earth in single digits. This was just me buying his latest album.

How It Stacks Up: I have 28 Alice Cooper albums, which I think is all of them. Of those 28, “Detroit Stories” is neither the best of them, nor the worst. I rank it at #16, just after “Along Came a Spider” and just before “Zipper Catches Skin”. I don't feel like reproducing the whole list, but if you want to see it (and imagine the change above) just check out my review of “Paranormal” back at Disc 1038.

Ratings: 3 stars

Alice Cooper turned 73 the year “Detroit Stories” came out, and while most rock acts his age are out touring all their old hits, Cooper is out touring his old hits and putting new music into the world that is worthy of his long and storied career. “Detroit Stories” is the latest of these, a COVID-era release with a wide range of songs that covers the many styles Cooper has tried on for size through his 50-year career, tying them loosely to his adoptive home of Detroit City.

My relationship with Alice Cooper is almost as long as his career, first coming to hear his music on a compilation record released in 1974 my brother brought home one day. He’s had good records, and bad ones but he’s never stopped trying for something new and interesting.

As noted in the “stacks up” section above, “Detroit Stories” falls somewhere in the middle, and feels a bit like a retrospective. I guess we were all a little introspective as we were locked in our houses over the last couple of years, but Alice being Alice, he channeled it into music.

The record is mostly originals, but it starts with a cover of the Lou Reed song, “Rock & Roll”. It is hard to mess up this classic, but even so Cooper does some solid work with it, converting it a couple steps further into the thump of the rock world, without losing the visceral quality of the original. Cooper’s vocals are in fine form, showing very little wear and tear over his long career. This is no doubt aided by the many recent decades of sobriety under his belt.

The record shows much love to the various sounds that have emerged from Detroit over the past many decades, giving the record a hard, industrial feel overall. He also works in some Motown influences, most notably on “$1000 High Heeled Shoes”. This song features a funky guitar lick and some backup singers cooing “Shoo Doowop!” with a flair that would make the Supremes proud. Cooper pairs this with a chorus that is pure rock, but the transition from funk to rock is so smooth you hardly notice.

Cooper goes back to his early days with “Our Love Will Change the World” which would be at home on albums like “Muscle of Love” or “Welcome To My Nightmare”. It has that sing-song Broadway musical quality that Cooper loves to throw in on records when he thinks no one is looking.

On “Social Debris” he brings back the old Alice Cooper band. These guys can still play and it is evident they take a good bit of joy in doing it together again. The song has a bit of Cooper’s metal years, but infused with the energy of his old band, and once again the crossover is seamless. The band gathers again later on the record for “I Hate You” where they all get to mock and pretend to hate one another. I expect it was both therapeutic and fun in the studio, but both the lyrics and delivery are awkward and self-absorbed. Stick to “Social Debris” if you enjoy the idea of a reunion.

Near the end of the record, Cooper delivers the equally hokey “Hanging by a Thread” which is a COVID song reminding fans to have hope and not give in to despair. This one, despite its obviousness and a whole lot of Cooper making public service announcements like a congressman with some paid TV time, still ended up being a guilty pleasure for me. I think I just like the chorus, and as a result I’m willing to forgive the more stilted parts. You may feel otherwise.

Overall, this record is Alice Cooper returning to his roots, but in the process he reminds us those are complex roots that spread through multiple styles of music across many generations of evolution with each. Cooper is a key figure across the landscape of musical history, and this record is a fitting homage to his work, while also being a fitting homage to his favourite town.

Best tracks: Rock & Roll, Our Love Will Change the World, Social Debris, $1000 High Heel Shoes, Hanging by a Thread

CD Odyssey Disc 1575: Confidence Man

Is a hangover worse on a hot day? This morning, I’m going to say yes, but I admit I am not an impartial observer on the matter.

Disc 1575 is…. TILT

Artist: Confidence Man

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  The band, all looking hip and stylish. The band makes the wise decision to give 80% of the face time to Janet Planet, no doubt on account of her being real good lookin’. No face time goes to DJs Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild. This is not because they lack in the looks department, it’s just tradition.

How I Came To Know It: I absolutely loved their previous album “Confident Songs for Confident People,” which was one of the best records of 2018. So good that I bought “TILT” having only heard one song.

How It Stacks Up: I have two Confidence Man albums ,and I think you already know which two. “TILT” is a distant second in the stacking game.

Ratings: 2 stars

Confidence Man’s 2018 debut is a whole lot of silly, empty fun, but it is very clever about how silly and empty it is. Unfortunately, “TILT” has all the emptiness, but lacks most of the silly, and all of the clever. This record isn’t terrible, but it is a disappointment given what I know they are capable of.

The basics are there once again, consisting of samples, hand claps, and breaks that combine to make up some catchy electronic dance music. According to the information encoded on the CD (which can be wrong) the particular mix of all this stuff is known as “breakbeat”. I had to read up on that, but it sounds about right.

Janet Planet remains the band’s greatest resource. She can sing, but she is best when she half sings, half jingles her way through a song. Her “coolest girl in the club” delivery reminds me favourably of the Shangri-Las. The other vocalist is Sugar Bones, and while he gets less time centre stage on this record, he has the same kind of party vibe to his singing.

It is Bones who takes the lead on the album’s best song, “What I Like,” although Janet Planet’s well-placed “woo!”s are a big part of the song’s fun. It is a song about dancing but deep down, they all are.

Confidence Man was never about narrative tales, but on their previous record you felt something that mattered was mixed in with the catch phrases, even if that something was playful fun. On “TILT” they go back to a purer dance beat vibe, and while there are some good lines, (my favourite is “Toy Boy’s” “With an ass like that/there’s no conversation”) it doesn’t have the same charm overall.  I found myself getting bored halfway though most of the songs. This is my usual reaction to electronica, but I expected more from you, Confidence Man!

The vibe of the record sounds very early oughts club sound, and often had me uncharitably thinking it was made for people who “like anything with a good beat”. I need a bit more chunk to my oatmeal, I’m afraid.

It was a little better on headphones, but most things are. I also played this in a convertible, with the top down and driving in the summer sunshine, which for music like this should be a guarantee of success. Instead I found myself at red lights wanting to shout, “Their other record is really good!” at passersby who cast sidelong glances that suggested they wanted to respond with, “you’re a vacuous douchebag”.

I did quite like “Angry Girl” which was mostly Janet Planet singing “So mad, I’m an angry girl/So what’s your problem?” but had a few other lines actually strung together to at least dig in a bit. The song is not at all angry, it is more a feigned anger for the sake of a little fun and drama at the club. It has all the joy and whimsy of Confidence Man’s earlier work and if there had been more of these, I might be finding a space on my shelves for this record. Instead, I will be bidding this record an early adieu.

Best tracks: What I Like, Toy Boy, Angry Girl