CD Odyssey Disc 1898: Grendel's Syster

I come refreshed from an evening of music with friends. Since I never listen to the radio, friends is one of the great ways I learn about musicians and bands I have not previously heard of. Other sources include reviews, coworkers and even random people I meet in my day-to-day life. “What kind of music do you like?” is a question I don’t need much prodding to ask.

Disc 1898 is… Katabasis into the Abaton/Abstieg in die Traumkammer

Artist: Grendel’s Syster

Year of Release: 2024

What’s up with the Cover? Cyril is a squirrel not to be messed with. Here he brandishes the femur of some creature, while sounding a barbarous yawp – presumably celebrating finding that tasty acorn in his other paw.

The rest of the animal kingdom should take note. This mighty little bastard appears to have already brained a predator, leaving the skull to bleach in the sun as a warning to others.

As for the bird, she’s having none of it and is beating a fast retreat after realizing Cyril is having one of “those” days. You know how he gets.

How I Came To Know It: As noted above, I discovered this band on Angry Metal Guy and then bought it through Bandcamp.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only album by the band, so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 3 stars

This ain’t your dad or grandad’s metal music. Your great grandpa didn’t have metal music, but if he did it would probably have sounded like this. Such is the wonderful, unexpected weirdness of Grendel’s Syster.

The strangeness starts with the album title. I think of myself as having a pretty solid vocabulary, so it’s not often that an album title has not one but two words I need to look up. Turns out an abaton is a “sacred, often restricted place” and a katabasis is a “descent into the underworld – like that whole thing with Odysseus and Tiresius, for example.

If you don’t know that last reference, please look it up or maybe read some of the classics – they’re classics for a reason…

‘But what about the music?’ you ask, impatient to learn more about the record and slightly peeved with being upbraided for your reading decisions.

Grendel’s Syster is a German folk metal band, with a healthy dose of staccato almost martial melodic structures. There’s also a bit of math going on. This is metal music with a lot of right angles and sharp, precise playing.

The album consists of 16 songs, which should violate my “14 maximum” rule, except in this case it is 8 songs in English, and then the exact same 8 songs, but sung in German. More on this in a moment.

Lead singer Caro (I don’t know her last name) has that heavily enunciated style common to traditional folk music and she says every word in perfect time. It makes for a deliberate, urgent delivery. A lot of “listen to me very carefully, son” vibe in there.

This would be a better experience if things weren’t so…weird. I didn’t love the poetry here, and it felt more like a download of information – most of it bizarre and fantastical – than a poem set to a melody. I like weird topics – if I didn’t metal wouldn’t be a genre for me to begin with – but it helps when they come with a more emotive delivery that helps transport you to another time and place.

For this reason, the record is immeasurably better in German, where I don’t have to know what Caro is going on about and can just accept that it is some kind of strange folksy tale made even more eldritch and curious because of its mystery. I think the songs are faithfully translated, though, which means if you speak German this method won’t work for you.

Rather than quote anything in either language, I give you the song title names (in English) which include “Boar’s Tusk Helmet”, “Night Owl’s Beak” and “In Praise of Mugwort”. Very specific and very much topics you are unlikely to hear discussed around the water cooler come Monday.

Grendel’s Syster is not for everyone, but I loved the novelty of this record, and while the band’s very deliberate playing style is an acquired taste, you can tell it is by design, not lack of skill. They throw in a few tasty guitar riffs along the way just to remind you they aren’t a novelty act, and like the squirrel on the cover, they are dead serious about their craft.

Best tracks: Eberzahnhelm (Boar’s Tusk Helmet), Die Burde des Schwarzkuntslers (The Plight of a Sorceror), Nachteulenschnabel (Night Owl’s Beak)

CD Odyssey Disc 1897: Jack White

Before sitting down to write this review I first restored the wiring to an unplugged speaker and then went down the hall where I exclaimed (not for the first time), “stop knocking over my Doo Wop collection!”

Having two kittens in the house is not always music friendly…

Disc 1897 is… Lazaretto

Artist: Jack White

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Blind Guardian showcased Morgoth on his throne with three Silmarils and a dancing elf, (Disc 1820) and Big Daddy Kane had a plate of fruit (among other attractive features) on “Long Live the Kane” (Disc 1108).

Jack White is not to be outdone in the game of thrones, depicted here surrounded by a host of angels, going so far as to use two of them as armrests.

Jack also has the best suit of these three covers, with this resplendent sharkskin suit that falls somewhere between Kane’s minimalist toga and Sauron’s protective but uncomfortable plate mail.

How I Came To Know It: I like most of what Jack White does and was eager to buy his second solo album as soon as it came out. So I did.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Jack White albums and “Lazaretto” comes in at #3. Nothing wrong with it – just stiff competition.

Ratings: 4 stars

In 2012 Jack White did his first “solo” album, having worked at his art first through the White Stripes and then the Raconteurs. That first record – “Blunderbuss” - is a blues-rock masterpiece and was well received by the adoring public as well. I like to imagine how that commercial and artistic success gave White the artistic license to see just how far he could push his unique approach to rock and roll. The result is the brilliant and sometimes overblown “Lazaretto”.

White starts off playing it “straight” or at least as straight as his twisted genius will allow. “Three Women” is a reimagining of a blues song by Blind Willie McTell called “Three Women Blues”. You could argue he steals the idea, but that would not do justice to just how different this song is. It may be inspired by McTell but this is White’s signature “blues twisted like wrought iron” sound through and through. It is a great song, and not even one of the record’s best.

From here, White starts to take flights of fancy along many different paths. The title track follows, a tune that deploys White’s oft-used funk-crunch sound, alongside his best staccato delivery. The song is the musical equivalent of a street rat with a wad of twenties – brave and reckless and flashing green in a way that’s not entirely safe. The song is so all over the place it practically fidgets, changing speed and course two thirds of the way through before giving way to the tortured fiddle of Fats Kaplin. It’s a lot, but also just the right amount.

“Temporary Ground” follows, with a folksy number that feels like when Zeppelin takes a break, only less borrowed. Few artists can take very old musical structures and traditions and twist them into something as new and innovative as Jack White, and Lazaretto is chock full of such examples.

I also love the piano trill of “Alone in My Home”, paired with Fats Kaplin’s mandolin and the occasional drum thump, it is a syncopation-fueled dream. There is also some great loose harmony with a singer I was delighted to discover (for the first time) is none other than Lillie Mae Rische.

I ‘discovered’ Lillie Mae quite independently from this and never put two and two together, even with Jack White producing her album “Forever and then Some” (reviewed at Disc 1379). She’s great, and a welcome additional voice on the record.

For 80% of this record, White is delivering 5-star glory all over the place, and the only time things fall down, they don’t so much as fall as stagger under the weight of their own ideas. The instrumental “High Ball Stepper” is a drunken master of a song but while innovative and filled with energy, has one too many “band warming up” moments to stick the landing.

I had to dig pretty deep in the tracks to find that gripe, however, and generally the weirdness that makes it hard to love every song on this record is part of what makes it better on repeat listens.

Best tracks: Lazaretto, Temporary Ground, Alone in My Home, Entitlement, The Black Bat Licorice, I Think I Found the Culprit

CD Odyssey Disc 1896: SpiritWorld

For those waiting for my top 10 list for 2025 do not despair, for I am almost done. I delved a bit deeper this year, but hopefully this means I have less “O, and also this one!” moments this year. Not none, just less.

For those who could give a fig about Top Ten lists and just want to thrash around a bit to some heavy music, today is your lucky day.

Disc 1896 is… Deathwestern

Artist: SpiritWorld

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover? Looks like a movie poster to a film I absolutely have to see.

We’ve got a sheriff who looks possessed, and what I think is a witch (or a Deadite) wielding a dagger and a snake, and that’s just the larger figures.

Dig deeper and you’ll find a First Nations warrior riding a giant wolf, a battle between a cowboy and a couple of flying fat demons, and bonfire built out of skulls and bones. Even the fucking cacti are on fire.

All of which is to say, sign me up for opening night.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review of SpiritWorld’s 2025 record, “Helldorado”on Angry Metal Guy and I was intrigued. This led me into their back catalogue and to “Deathwestern”.

How It Stacks Up: I have two SpiritWorld albums. I like them both, but “Deathwestern” comes in at #2.

Ratings: 3 stars

SpiritWorld may be unable to decide if their band name should be one or two words (seriously, what is up with the middle-of-word capital?), but they have a strong sense of the kind of music they want to make. Thrash metal tinged with Western themes and musical interludes. They call this style ‘Deathwestern’ and it is what would happen if someone admired Pantera’s “Cowboys From Hell” album (reviewed way back at Disc 821) but had a fever, and the only treatment for that fever was more cowboy.

On 2025’s “Helldorado” this melding of sounds meets his full achievement, and more on that when I review it. On “Deathwestern” the band seems content to feature Western themes, but the music is 90% thrash (with a side helping of Death Metal if you listen carefully). The only actual Western sounds are in the one-minute-long intro “Mojave Bloodlust” and the first 45 seconds of “The Heretic Butcher”. Otherwise, let your hair down and mosh ‘til your neck hurts.

I would have probably preferred a more balanced mixing of the styles, but what SpiritWorld lack in variety they make up for in ferocity. This record is only 35 minutes long, but it infuses those 35 minutes with relentless fury.

The effect is a record where the songs all blend into each other a bit, but you don’t mind because they’re all good. The best of the bunch is the title track, which is offered in all caps – “DEATHWESTERN”. Two other songs do the same thing - I don’t know why. Perhaps they wanted those titles shouted at you a bit louder than the others? If so, I’m not sure why those songs – which rage no harder than any of the others – were selected. Surely “Purified in Violence” and “Crucified Heathen Scum” are themes that are just as shout-worthy as “ULCER” and “1000 DEATHS”.

But I digress…

Back to the TITLE TRACK, which features the thumping power of Thomas Pridgen (formerly of the Mars Volta) on drums, and does everything all the songs do on this record, but better. Every good thrash song needs a churning guitar riff, and this song has not one but two of the best on the album (in this kind of music having two great guitar grinds that play back and forth off of one another is a common recipe for success).

TITLE TRACK also has my favourite lyrical refrain, which is as filthy and aggressive as one could imagine. It tells the tale of our narrator sets about raping and murdering folks in the non-specific locale of “everywhere I fucking ride”. Disconcerting news for homesteaders everywhere.

“ULCER” also pulls no punches, suggesting heaven is just an ulcer in the belly of the beast. Again, disconcerting. The way the music roils along in this one definitely isn’t the singing of the celestial choir, but it will get you thrashing good and hard.

In the end, “Deathwestern” breaks a lot less ground than its title purports to, but that didn’t trouble me, because that one thing they do – crunching guitar riffs, furious drums and enough angry notions to fill the Grand Canyon – they do incredibly well.

This record also lays the groundwork for the more nuanced record that follows. “Deathwestern” may not surprise you, but you will be entertained.

Best tracks: DEATHWESTERN, ULCER, The Heretic Butcher, Lujuria Satanica

CD Odyssey Disc 1895: Caroline Rose

It’s been seven and a half years since I reviewed this next artist. I haven’t been avoiding her, it’s just the result of having a large music collection and going through it in random order.

Disc 1895 is… I Will Not Be Afraid

Artist: Caroline Rose

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Looks like someone’s been playing with those odd shapes in the Spirograph kit.

When I was a kid the “odd shaped” Spirograph pieces were part of the new and improved modernized Spirograph. No longer just circles, you got a football shape, a curvy triangle and an “X” as well as an “extra arm”. Yeah, Spirograph…plus!

If you know what I’m talking about you are probably of a certain age (or you clicked on that link). If you don’t know what I’m talking about you would probably prefer I talk about this record. OK, fine.

How I Came To Know It: I first heard about Caroline Rose through this record and I’ve been a fan ever since. Problem is, I don’t remember how I discovered this record. In my defence, that was twelve years – and a lot of records – in my past. I have a recollection of a stop-motion animation video for “Blood on Your Bootheels” but you think I could find it on Youtube? Reader, I could not.

A deeper Google search suggested the video was made with stop-motion Skittles so maybe it was a copyright thing. Too bad – it was a cool video…but the music’s what matters, and I’ve got that.

How It Stacks Up: I have four of Caroline Rose’s six studio albums (I still haven’t found 2012’s “America Religious” and I haven’t gotten around to buying 2025’s “Year of the Slug”). Of the four I do have, I put “I Will Not Be Afraid” in at #2. I originally had reserved top spot for it, but looking back I think 2018’s “Loner” (reviewed at Disc 1181) is top dog.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

As an artist Caroline Rose does what she wants how she wants. This creates a lot of different albums, and some may appeal to you more than others. I expect she is fine with that. “I Will Not Be Afraid” is relatively early in her career, and that “do what I want” vibe is in full flight. It is mostly welcome, generating a lot of different styles and approaches to her music. There are occasions where it gets a bit unfocused as a result, but I don’t mind, and Rose wouldn’t care if I did.

You’ll find pop, country, rockabilly and folk elements all mixed in on “I Will Not Be Afraid”, as Rose tries on different ways to deliver her message with the thoughtful artistry of a veteran shopper in a vintage store.

The record opens with “Blood On Your Bootheels”. This was the song that introduced me to Rose, and over a decade later it holds up well. It features a heavy and infectious bass line, mixing rockabilly beat with a Vaudeville vibe and a rapid-fire spoken-word delivery. The song has a lot of social commentary, but you may miss it on the first go around. First, because Rose’s delivery is lightning-fast, and second because the song is so catchy you as just as likely to dance around with the energy of it all, rather than playing the critic. I enjoy it both ways.

She follows this up with one of the more country songs on the record, “Tightrope Walker”. Here she sings in a stye reminiscent of Lone Justice’s Maria McKee, with a bit less twang and a bit more soul. Never content with a single genre, you’ll get a circus-style organ mixed in just in case the song might get too country.

And on you’ll go in this way through this delightful record, as Rose stretches her creative wings. It sometimes feels like she has so many ideas and images to express that she’s rushing herself, but it is planned.

Sometimes the style is very evocative of something else you heard (“Red Bikini Waltz” is a straight line to sixties Dylan) but she does it with love - not theft - in mind, and besides, it isn’t like Bob isn’t the only artist to ever sing lines like “But it don’t matter none” in a folksy and wise kind of way. Also, Rose’s exploration of an image and consumer obsessed society would’ve made young Bob proud.

There are times when Rose leads me to a place I don’t love. “At Midnight” is her running her spoken word wisdom through a heavy treatment of the blues. This one didn’t land for me, as I found her singing style a poor match for the approach. I expect each listener to this record will find a song that won’t be “their thing”. This was the one for me.

There aren’t many of those moments though, and I mostly sat in awe of Rose’s ability to navigate a lot of words and never lose emotional connection to the song.

The record ends with the title track. Ironically, this is the most “straight up” country sounding tune on the record, but by this point Rose has unflinchingly established she isn’t afraid to experiment. If anything the straight up approach to this song, full twang ‘n’ jump, is more of a victory lap on a record that stretches to its full length; no regrets, no backsies.

Best tracks: Blood On Your Bootheels, Tightrope Walker, Red Bikini Waltz, Time Spent Money Grow!, I Will Not Be Afraid

CD Odyssey Disc 1894: Hole

While I admire the nineties Seattle music scene (and have plenty of music from it) I never fell as hard for it as some of my peers. That’s the only excuse – a thin one at best – on why it took me so damned long to come around to Hole’s masterpiece, “Live Through This”. Glad to be catching up now.

Disc 1893 is… Live Through This

Artist: Hole

Year of Release: 1994

What’s up with the Cover? A now iconic image capturing the intersection of savagery and beauty that is a pageant.

How I Came To Know It: This album is kind of a Big Deal, so I knew about it for years, but never thought to buy it. This was foolish.

Fortunately, I belong to a club of music enthusiasts where we share our discoveries, and last year someone brought a song off of “Live Through This”. This caused me to investigate, recognize my previous oversight, and correct it on my next visit to the local record store.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Hole album, so it doesn’t stack up.

Ratings: 5 stars

Alternating between a sultry croon and a full-throated growls, “Live Through This” is consistent in one thing: it’s visceral rage. It’s the good kind of rage; targeted and thought-provoking. The kind that makes the listener confront society and all its ills and reconcile their place in that mess.

Grounded in the Seattle grunge sound, “Live Through This” sits at the nexus of punk and rock, with an undercurrent of pop-music hooks to help the medicine (which is often bitter) go down easier.

Like the album’s cover, this is a record about beauty with its mascara messy and running. Appearance and image – and the twisted way society can weaponize it – feature heavily throughout. On “Miss World” we see the inner turmoil and trauma of a pretty girl, and on “Asking For It” we have perhaps the greatest rebuke to that tired and petty sexual assault defence ever codified in music.

Courtney Love isn’t a multi-octave crooner, but she makes no claims to be. If anything, I think history has unfairly judged her vocals. She has a slightly-flat tone that matches well with her punk-style delivery. The slight disconnect, one half step away from pop, is a big part of what puts the sharp edges on these songs. When she’s singing quiet, she makes it sound dangerous. When she opens up into full metal growl she lifts the song up into the roiling angry storm that the lyrics call for.

The rest of the players are equally exceptional, with their skillful playing providing the platform from which Love can explore the space in the song without anything ever going off the rails- or going off the rails just enough.

Guitarist (and principle co-writer) Erik Erlandson is particularly notable, delivering rock grooves and metal crunch with equal skill. His guitar has a foreboding tone that matches the themes of the record well. On “Credit in the Straight World” there is even a hint of Buddy Holly lurking in there, under all that reverb.

On a tragic note, this record was the last for bassist Kristen Pfaff who would die of a heroin overdose shortly after recording at the young age of – you guess it – 27. Damn you once again, heroin. Damn you.

An unexpected discovery for me is “Jennifer’s Body” a song that is simultaneously about the attack on a woman’s body, and also her own inner disconnect from it. Is it a song of murder and mayhem, or just crippling self-doubt? Yes. It fits well with the 2009 movie of the same name. Not the same plot, but clearly with themes that (I think) are partially inspired by the song 15 years earlier.

There aren’t many records that can be this angry but still retain focus, but this record accomplishes it. It is a record that, like its title, isn’t just for listening, it’s for living through. You’ll be confronted with the inner demons of its creators but reflected back through the harsh lens of society that is one of the reasons they were possessed by those demons in the first place.

This is a winner of a record that took a while to find a home in my collection but will be getting a lot of playing time in the years to come.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1893: Okkervil River

With this review, it’ll be three 4-star albums in a row, opening me up to calls of “going soft”. I would remind you that I don’t review random albums, I review albums I’ve decided to buy. This tends to favourably skew the data.

Disc 1892 is… The Stage Names

Artist: Okkervil River

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? A stylized hand emerges from a lake or pond in front of a stylized sunset (sunrise?). Up close, this cover looks like it is coloured thread stitched artfully together to create a picture, which is pretty cool.

Not as cool as some random giant hand reaching out of a magic pond, though.

How I Came To Know It: I had literally forgotten and had to go back to my first Okkervil River review twelve years ago at Disc 575 for a refresher. Turns out, this band was featured in a folk magazine advert. I recall now it was for “I Am Very Far” (released in 2011) and which – strangely – I have still not reviewed.

Random is as random does, friend.

How It Stacks Up: Well, this is a fine pickle. I figured this one would land #2 or #3, but looking back I see I’ve left a place for it at #1. I gave #2 to “The Stand Ins” back at that Disc 575 review. I admit, it was close between them.

I am correcting that now, putting “Stand Ins” at #1, and “Stage Names” at #2. Damn it, maybe I have gone soft…

Ratings: 4 Stars

As you might expect from a record I saved the #1 spot for, “The Stage Names” is a great Okkervil record, and the fact that it had one or two merely “okay” songs than I remembered does not diminish that. Sure it’s #2, but it is a burnished, filigree collection of silver, ornate and complex in its beauty.

If you’re just coming to Okkervil River, they are an indie rock band that features unlikely but seductive melodies that tend to take one or two more turns than you expect but always leave you in the right place.

This musical approach is highly compatible with the lead singer/songwriter Wil Sheff’s and phrasing. Sheff can take freeform poetry and twist it into lyrics that pirouette their way through the song. It feels a bit breathless at times, and is akin to taking one or two in-time dance steps after the music ends. A little awkward, but fully commit to it and…its art.

“The Stage Names” has some of the Sheff’s finest songwriting, starting with the awkwardly titled “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe”. The imagery in “Our Life…” matches Sheff’s vocal delivery, slightly manic, and jumping from image to another. Best stanza:

“Where the lock that you locked in the suite
Says there's no prying
When the breath that you breathed in the street
Screams there's no science
When you look how you looked then to me
Then I cease lying and fall into silence”

Like most Okkervil River songs, these seemingly disparate images are stitched together like the cover art into something grander, in this case various allusions to film making and how they are like the editing process in a movie. A lot of scenes along the way that we later infuse meaning and purpose into.

When the band is hitting, they are chock-full of these “a-ha” moments that make you feel clever, as though you came up with it. They always walk that line of “too clever by half” but on this record they are on the right side of it a good majority of the time.

My other favourite is “A Girl In Port” a stripped-down tune that is a blend of urban-Gothic and seafaring imagery fused together into a romance that will melt you into a puddle of yearning. Most romances are about a single girl, but this one features many, each filling and emptying our restless narrator’s soul on his travels. There is no ill-will here, and as the chorus makes clear between each encounter:

“Let fall your soft and swaying skirt
Let fall your shoes, let fall your shirt
I'm not the lady-killing sort
Enough to hurt a girl in port”

Where there are some lapses are in the musical experimentation. The music is built to be frantic and aggressive, and it works, but when they descend into sound effects, it could pull me out of the moment right when I was getting acclimated to the spin of it all.

“The Stage Names” is a record that can be beloved by young romantics and English Lit graduates alike (did I just repeat myself?). It also works for pretty much anyone who enjoys a little of the old yearn n’ pine, delivered poetically with a slightly tortured lilt.

Best tracks: Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe, Savannah Smiles, Plus Ones, Girl In Port

CD Odyssey Disc 1892: Katie Gavin

This week my college football team, the University of Miami (aka “The U”) secured their spot in the National Championship game. The ‘Canes haven’t been in the big game since 2003 and haven’t won since 2001, so it is kind of a big deal.

But not for most people reading this, who came here for music not football. Apologies for this indulgence, Gentle Reader. We now return you to regularly scheduled programming.

Disc 1892 is… What a Relief

Artist: Katie Gavin

Year of Release: 2024

What’s up with the Cover? Katie in her bedroom. It is either laundry day or it should be, as the basket’s full, the bed littered with clothes, Katie is clearly out of clean pants at this point, and there’s a bra on the birdcage. That last item is not code or metaphor. There’s literally a bra on the birdcage.

Also…kitty! This cat is doing what every cat traditionally does on laundry day – sitting on the comforter so it is hard to get the sheets in the wash. Good job, kitty!

Less good is Katie’s decision to put the cat’s food dish right beside the aforementioned bird cage. In the NFL this would almost certainly be flagged for taunting. Then again, maybe by doing this Katie is letting the cat know, “hey, no need for budgi-cide, there’s a food source readily available right here that you don’t have to chase first.” Based on my extensive experience with cats, I do not believe this is a winning strategy.

How I Came To Know It: I am a fan of the band MUNA, where Gavin is the lead singer so when I heard she’d put out a solo record I decided to give it a shot.

How It Stacks Up: This is Katie Gavin’s only solo album, so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 4 Stars

Welcome to another episode of Thoughtful Indie Pop on the CD Odyssey, as we unveil yet another example of an artist you likely won’t hear on the radio despite penning both pretty melodies and engaging and thought-provoking lyrics. Pop radio, you are stupid.

“What a Relief” sees a confident Katie Gavin emerge from her role in MUNA to show that she can go it alone and make music that is just as compelling, catchy and clever as her work in her band. The songs focus heavily on relationships, finding romance and in the daily routines of coupledom. Gavin blurs the line between sexy and domestic in a way you don’t often see (most songs veer one way or another).

“I Want it All” and “Aftertaste” lead off the record walking this line, the former a moody submerged piece, and the latter an upbeat and bouncy pop ditty. Both have lyrical depth, exploring complex emotions, and heaps of relationship history in equal measure. These songs get better with multiple listens, which is always the sign off a good song, and an essential element to pop music in particular.

While fundamentally pop in its structure, the album has a folk/country flavour in many places, often helped along by the addition of Sarah Watkins (Watkins Family) guesting in on fiddle.

A fine example of this - and one of the record’s standouts – is “The Baton”. This song is about mothers and daughters and while the theme is old and well established (the ‘handing of the baton’ through generations) this song does an exceptional job of it. Buoyed by tight harmonies and Watkins’ fiddle (hint: she is very good at the fiddle) this song will give you a tapestry of emotion, rolled together into something celebratory and uplifting.

Gavin’s influences are wide, and in addition to demonstrating strong literacy in country and folk movements, I heard a strong echo of Sarah McLachlan, particularly on moody love pieces like “As Good As It Gets”. I also heard a little Taylor Swift in the phrasing and structure of “Inconsolable”.

“Inconsolable” is one of the record’s best both musically and lyrically. Gavin’s vocals aren’t as rich as Swift’s but she has a breathy charm and a sneaky power similar to Samia (another artist you should be looking up, if you’ve read this far). The song is about two people learning to be vulnerable despite not being taught these skills growing up. The extended chorus says it all:

“We're from a long line of people we'd describe as inconsolable
We don't know how to be helped
Yeah, we're from a whole huddle of households
Full of beds where nobody cuddled
We don't know how to be held
But I've seen baby lizards running in the river when they open their eyes
Even though no one taught them how or why
So maybe when you kiss me, I can let you see me cry
And if we keep going by the feeling, we can get by”

Hey – if lizards can do it surely we can, right?

The record is not perfect. The jazzy elements on “Sanitized Girl” pulled me out of the moment just to be clever, which is a pop no-no. It’s a minor quibble though and is more about my personal biases than anything fundamentally wrong with the song.

Note that while I said this is Gavin’s solo effort (and it is) fellow MUNA member Josette Maskin appears on over half the songs, playing guitar, bouzouki and something called a ‘tamburica’ which the internet tells me is a form of lute originating in the Balkans. She does not play these at the same time, of course. That would be very hard.

When I started listening to this record, I had it pegged early for a 3-star review, but through the course of the week it just got better and better, as I took in the layers of what Gavin accomplishes here, and liked it more and more. This one’s a winner.

Best tracks: Aftertaste, The Baton, Casual Drug Use, Sketches, Inconsolable, Sparrow

CD Odyssey Disc 1891: Bat Fangs

Happy New Year! For our first review of 2026 we take you back in time to a classic era of rock and roll…2018! Any era of rock and roll can be a classic one if you find the right record.

Disc 1891 is… Self-Titled

Artist: Bat Fangs

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover? A kick ass logo, that’s what. This is the kind of logo you should painstakingly draw on the front of your notebook while sitting through Algebra.

This is a good time to note that back in high school I did not do well in Algebra.

How I Came To Know It: I am a fan of Ex Hex (see my review of their 2014 album “Rips” back at Disc 1332) so when I discovered that Ex Hexer Betsy Wright was in another band, I had to check it out. Unsurprisingly, I loved it.

How It Stacks Up: I have both Bat Fangs albums and they are both awesome, but this section is where we avoid equivocation. I rank this eponymous record second, but there’s no shame in it.

Ratings: 4 Stars

Do you like crunchy guitar riffs? Because if you do, you will get your fill of them on Bat Fangs’ debut record. Halfway through you may even think you’ll have had your fill, but you will be wrong. Instead, you will embrace the doubling down of reverberating goodness that is this not-so-hidden treasure of this band.

Bat Fangs is only two people (guitarist/vocalist Betsy Wright and drummer Laura King) but they have a White Stripes-like ability to make a joyous racket worth twice as many rockers. There is a weight to the way this duo plays that coats every song in a thick rime of sound.

Earlier this week I was listening to some Joan Jett and the playing style of Wright reminded me favourably of Jett’s. Wright’s playing is controlled aggression, the hip-thrust groove of timeless (yet somehow brand new) riff structures paired up with bit-lip vocals that are playful in the same way a middle linebacker is playful when he puts his helmet in your chest.

While Bat Fangs is definitely hard-edged, there is a pop sensibility underneath that had me thinking of sixties vocal groups. They are often singing in close unison, and there is a vibrant bounce in the songs that is a little bit “My Boyfriend’s Back” but with a sharper edge. Like if the boyfriend is only back to fearfully collect all his belongings from where they’ve been strewn across the lawn and then clear out before he gets hit with a bottle.

On their second album, Bat Fangs mixes in some atmospheric sounds and other variations on their sound, but here on their debut they eschew any range in favour of power. From the opening notes of the aptly named “Turn It Up” the record launches you forward. It is banger after banger.

Right near the end there is one slightly slower (but still heavy) tune (“Mercury”) that sways just a little to start with, but it only lasts maybe 90 seconds before it starts to inexorably bare its fangs with a spiraling, ever-heavier resolution.

While the sensibility here has punk elements (the record is in, on, and over in 25 minutes), Bat Fangs finds their inspiration more directly in the hard rock of the seventies and eighties. There isn’t anything frantic about the way they play. Instead, the band sits right down in the middle of the pocket and gets comfortable there. If there’s any lean at all, it is slightly back in the saddle so the note can churn just a little longer.

On a lesser record, this single-minded focus might get tiresome, but the songs are consistently excellent, and that mid-range production doubles down in a way that lets every song bleed to the edges in just the right way. Besides, at 25 minutes long there just isn’t time to let your mind wander. It’s over before you know it and you just want to hear it again.

Bat Fangs is two women who clearly love rock and roll and know how to make the good kind. This is music for fast Camaros (the first-generation variety) that growl just for the joy of it. No frills, because no frills are needed. It is music for playing loud, with hair down and horns up.  

Best tracks: Turn it Up, Rock the Reaper, Bad Astrology, Wolfbite, Fangs Out

CD Odyssey Disc 1890: Dr. Hook

I hunted this next album out of the bargain bin of my local record store. One advantage of collecting music on what many consider to be an outdated format (CD) is that people are always shedding their old stuff.

Disc 1890 is… Sharing the Night Together and Other Favorites

Artist: Dr. Hook

Year of Release: 1989 but featuring songs from 1975 to 1979

What’s up with the Cover? A picture of the band, who either just moved into a recently renovated apartment, or are at a photography studio.

Either way, these guys do not look like they are about to share the night together, although some look like they didn’t go to bed.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with a lot of these songs, and noting exactly zero crossovers with a different compilation already in my collection, decided it was worth the small investment.

How It Stacks Up: This is a compilation album, and so doesn’t stack up.

Ratings: Greatest Hits records don’t get rated, so if you want to know what I think about this one, you’ll have to read the article.

I know most of the songs on “Sharing the Night Together” due to being strapped into the back seat of my mom’s early sixties pale blue Rambler as a kid. The car and the hit-making prowess of Dr. Hook had a similar run for me through the early and mid-seventies, before both faded into obscurity. The car, after it broke down and we couldn’t afford to fix it, and Dr. Hook for what I assume are similar reasons.

This particular compilation is a collection of later songs and comes after Dr. Hook dropped the “and the Medicine Show” part of their title. Both albums feature songs about sex, drugs and rock and roll, but this later compilation has less of the middle topic, making dropping the ‘medicine show’ understandable.

Whatever the topic, Dr. Hook is well-named, as these songs are soft rock gold, and there is no going gold in the world of soft rock without a hook. These tunes have the inoffensive easy flow of radio-friendly music, with only a safe hint of danger. Are they talking about sex and drugs…on the radio?!? Why yes, they are, but they’re doing it softly, so your parents won’t mind (also they’re the ones tuning it in on the drive to the grocery store).

Let’s start with the sex, which is referenced plenty on this record. The opening track is “Sexy Eyes” which is about meeting a woman at the local disco/dance hall/honky tonk with a certain look in her eyes crossing the room toward our narrator. Based on the groove of the song, I’d suggest disco is the most likely scenario. The song has a mid-tempo funky guitar and the high prancing of an organ filling in for a jazz flute that would have felt equally at home.

The song is built for dancing at all three speeds: 1. A thin bit of air between partners, with plenty of tease in the hips 2. Hands on hips or shoulders, replete with sway and meaningful glances, and 3. Legal in public because your pants are still on. Pick your contact level based on whatever is mutually agreed.

The mid-to-late seventies was the era of free love and fun times, minus the idealism of the sixties, and Dr. Hook has all of the outcomes covered. Maybe that dance number from “Sexy Eyes” turns into the playful “Sharing the Night Together,” with an invite home, complete with sexy whispers and promises of “we could bring in the morning, girl/if you want to go that far”.

Or maybe it turns sour, as on “When You’re In Love With a Beautiful Woman” which sees the world through the sad, jealous eyes of some mistrusting joker with low self-esteem, worried that ‘his’ girl’s previously sexy eyes have become prone to wandering. Counterpoint: maybe she’s just tired of dating a guy who is always asking what she’s looking at or who was just on the phone.

And it is here where the record has a bit of an “ick” factor (or “of its time” if you are feeling charitable), because for all the sexual liberation inherent in a Dr. Hook song, there are moments where these tunes show their age. Worst of all is “If Not You” where our singer, opens with:

“Who's gonna water my plants?
Who's gonna patch my pants?
And who's gonna give me
The chance to feel brand new?”

Um…yuck.

OK, on to the drugs and partying, and the album has a couple of fine entries in Dr. Hook’s previous party songs (think “Cover of the Rolling Stone”, “Freaking at the Freaker’s Ball”). On this compilation we have “The Millionaire” a song about a guy without a lot going for him other than the inheritance of a rich uncle, and my personal favourite, “I Got Stoned and I Missed It” - the original version of Afro-Man’s “Because I Got High” only funnier with a better hook.

Before I exit, I should note that Dr. Hook is not all sex and novelty songs, and there are genuine moments of emotional resonance. The best is “A Couple More Years”. This heartfelt tune is cowritten by lead singer Dennis Locorriere and long-time Dr. Hook contributor/writer Shel Silverstein.

This song is a world-weary expression of sadness, experience and comfort, all balled together. I first discussed this song back at Disc 1653 when I reviewed a cover of it on Waylon Jennings’ album, “Are You Ready for the Country”. It isn’t often you can out-vocal ole Waylon, but but there is something about the high quaver in Locorriere’s voice that takes this song to the next level.

This record is a good way to explore a little of the latter half of Dr. Hook’s heyday. You’ll find a little groove, a little sway, a few solid pop hooks and generally (but not always) inoffensive rock and roll.

Best tracks: Sexy Eyes, A Couple More Years, When You’re In Love With a Beautiful Woman, The Millionaire, I Got Stoned and I Missed It

CD Odyssey Disc 1889: Sleater-Kinney

Merry Christmas! I am writing this sitting in a pair of cream-coloured pajamas and a gold robe (both vintage), feeling quite decadent. I hope you are having an equally sumptuous and relaxed holiday. Perhaps as part of your routine you would like to enjoy a small dose of musical criticism. If so, consider this my Christmas gift to you.

Disc 1889 is… Dig Me Out

Artist: Sleater-Kinney

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover? The band pays homage to the Kinks’ album, “The Kink Kontroversy” (thank you Internet, as I did not know this independently).

Rather than going on about that thing I learned without effort, let us reflect on the amateur photography of 1997. 1997 was relatively early for digital camera availability, so I suspect these were film photos that were developed.

The downside to film was that you only got about 20 photos, good or bad. As a result a lot of photos have the quality of the ones on this album cover, which look overexposed (no post-photo editing) and glary.

How I Came To Know It: I knew about Sleater-Kinney back in the day, but didn’t really dig into their music until later. I had a feeling I would like what I heard, and I was right. “Dig Me Out” was just one of a flurry of purchases I made in recent years to round out my collection of this awesome band.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Sleater-Kinney albums. I originally ranked 2019’s “The Center Won’t Hold” (Disc 1294) as #1 and reserved the #2 slot for “Dig Me Out”. But the truth is that the two records are both perfect, and so different from one another it is impossible to compare them. They are both #1, but I don’t allow this, so I am going to give “Dig Me Out” precedence and move it up to top slot.

Ratings: 5 stars

“Dig Me Out’s” immediate impact is a visceral one. This record shrieks at you with a defiant call from the peaks of rock and roll. This is music for scaring your mom and make your dad harrumph in disapproval (n.b. dad was also scared but harrumphed to mask his discomfort).

The vocal style is pure punk and the brassy back-throat snarl of Corin Tucker rings out like a war cry across a roiling plain of battle. Brownstein’s vocals are a calmer counterpunch to this battery, but no less emotive. Together, the pair sonically slap you until they’re sure you’re paying attention. Then they slap you one extra time because…rock and roll.

While the vocals are the easy access point, there is a LOT going on with “Dig Me Out”. The individual instruments, if played in isolation, would feel stark and incomplete. It’s the artful way the trio play together that creates something special. A couple of simple guitar riffs that mixed together create a layer of syncopation and aggression that let you know there is a lot more going on here than the chord or two of your average punk song.

Now insert Janet Weiss on drums, pounding out a panoply of beats that are sneaky creative, and you end up with a record that can be enjoyed for its technical excellence, its creative songwriting, or just for thrashing your hair around angrily when life irritates you.

A timely disclaimer amidst the hyperbole here. Life will still irritate you after the experience but a listen to “Dig Me Out” will make you feel better, if for no other reason than providing a voice and outlet for the irritation.

Like the music, the lyrics lead with the visceral, and then dig down into something more profound after they settle. The title track is born of a frustration so deep the singer wants to tear themselves out of their own skin.

Other songs are grounded in the wellspring of desire, drama, or even dance, with each expressed in the key of measured rage. On “Words and Guitar” the emotion is so overpowering all that can be expressed is words and guitar, rendered down to their Platonic ideals. Words and guitar are just words and guitar, and the music and delivery will tell you everything you need to know of their importance beyond that.

On “Little Babies”, Sleater-Kinney even bend old sixties pop forms to their will, twisting radio friendly arrangements and images of domesticity into something gritty and powerful.

“Dig Me Out” is like being buried in a fine ash. It catches in your throat, hot and gritty, but look a little further and you’ll see the source – an erupting volcano in the distance, all beautiful fury in shades of yellow, orange and red.

Great stuff from a great band that has changed their sound over the years but never stopped climbing the mountain of awesome. “Dig Me Out” is them at the peak.

Best tracks: All tracks