CD Odyssey Disc 1935: Sleaford Mods

After two straight reviews of disappointing albums I feel the need for a win. This next record isn’t the best by this band but did was it good enough to provide that win?

Disc 1935 is…The Demise of Planet X

Artist: Sleaford Mods

Year of Release: 2026

What’s up with the Cover? Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn, aka the Sleaford Mods, sit in what appears to be an astral vortex of some kind.

Or maybe the pressure of their dope beats is so great that we can literally see the thump coming off the sub-woofer.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Nick introduced me to the Sleaford Mods way back, but only in recent years have I been buying their albums. “The Demise of Planet X” was just me buying their latest record when it came out.

How It Stacks Up: I have 5 Sleaford Mods albums as well as one compilation record (which doesn’t count in this column, but that I’m mentioning for general interest. “The Demise of Planet X” is a solid record, but competition among Sleaford Mods records is intense and I must put it at #4.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

The Sleaford Mods has a simple formula. Jason Williamson’s visceral rant/rap lyrics and Andrew Fearn’s dope beats. That’s all it is and that’s all you need. Like all the records before it, “The Demise of Planet X” is a slap in the face, waking up listeners to the various grievances the Sleaford Mods have towards society, and the various people that contribute to its collapse. Heavy topics delivered with a funky beat that help it go down easier.

Before you start your exploration of the Mods, you should be warned that they swear. A lot. Jason Williamson has a potty mouth that is so dirty it is hard to put into words. Of course, that’s exactly what he does. And he doesn’t just throw out swear words in an offhanded way, he uses them as deliberate weapons, aggressively firing them with furious precision. They are the instruments through which he imparts his ire and disappointment, delivered like hammer blows to knock down the walls of your propriety.

“The Good Life” opens the record with a bang, and probably Andrew Fearn’s best effort on the “sick beats” front. This song is as musical as the Sleaford Mods get, lifted by a melodic refrain of “I can see a phantom” delivered by the band Big Special. Williamson isn’t one for singing a melody, but adding one in here gives the Mods an extra layer of interest I wasn’t expecting.

Halfway through the song, actress Gwendoline Christie comes along to let us know that in addition to playing knights and stormtroopers in TV and film, she’s also got a whole lot of anger to share. She absorbs all of Williamson’s vitriol and delivers a few bars of “take that” that match his ferocity, swear for swear. No mean feat, and well handled.

The record is a worthy entry into the band’s already impressive discography, although this many records in there was less of the “holy shit, did he say that?” experience that I had when I first heard them. That’s no shade on the band, that’s just that I now know in advance what I’m getting with a Sleaford Mods album. It is hard to stay at that level of maximum outrage across multiple albums without the listener’s system getting a bit inured to it.

I would also note that while Fearn is the best composer of dope beats this side of Run the Jewels, it meant that I came into the record with high expectations. There are some particularly good ones on “The Demise of Planet X” but on the whole, earlier records are more consistently excellent. Again, no shade, just the challenge of coming in with a catalogue of work that sets a very high bar.

Subject-matter wise, Williamson treads well-worn ground from earlier records. Society’s ills are on full display, with the wealthy getting wealthier and upper class twits of the year fully in the crosshairs. He also loves to call out individuals that have irritated him, sometimes for their music, sometimes for reasons I wasn’t entirely clear about on my quick skate. We know he’s mad though, with his spitting fiery rap style and all those swears. So many swears.

There are songs calling out consumer culture. “The Unwrap” may be the darkest exploration of retail therapy I’ve ever heard. Buy stuff to fill the hole in your culture. As someone who literally writes a column about all the records I buy this one hit home exactly the way the band intended it to.

There are also tales of youthful trauma, notably “Gina Was” a song that tells the tale of being betrayed by a girl, having your pants pulled down and then ridiculed for the revealed…er…shortcomings. Ha ha ha and all that, but the song is decidedly not funny and a reminder a nasty prank amongst kids can ripple through life for years after.

In this way, this is classic Sleaford Mods fare. Songs with a funky beat that make you bob your head, and spittle-filled ire that gives voice to the frustrated and disenfranchised. Take it just at that level and swear along or dive a level deeper and explore the damage done to the spirit underneath. Heavy stuff, with a head bobbing groove to give you something to celebrate among the devastation.

Best tracks: The Good Life, Double Diamond, Elitest G.O.A.T., Don Draper, Gina Was, Flood the Zone, the Unwrap 

CD Odyssey Disc 1934: Edan

A long day at work was mitigated by a lovely ride home with the top down and listening to this next album for the last time, albeit with some fondness.

Disc 1934 is…Beauty and the Beat

Artist: Edan

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? A collage of heads and some swirly colours.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Edan through his other record, “Primitive Plus” (reviewed back at Disc 1871). I was on a search for that record when I found this one instead. I was jonesing for some Edan that day, and decided to buy it on spec, and hope for the best.

How It Stacks Up: I have two of Edan’s three studio LPs. Of the two, “Beauty and the Beat” is #2.

Ratings: 3 stars

A rapper with a creative flow is a rare and precious thing. One that can blend the dense rhyming you might expect from MF Doom with the furious beat forward delivery of Big Daddy Kane? Well, sign me up.

That’s what Edan brings to the table, and things were primed for me to have a good time except for that all elusive key third ingredient – killer beats. As a result you get a four star talent with some two star creative traditions. The result had me marveling at the brilliance of Edan’s flow, while bemoaning the record that might have been had he been just a little less experimental.

First, to the flow. Edan has an innate and natural talent that on the surface flows through bars with apparent disregard for even the basics of pocket awareness. However, it is all an illusion. In fact, his phrasing is next-level complex, climbing up, down and through complex time signatures with the skill of a jazz master.

And yeah, I know, I sometimes throw shade at jazz, but that doesn’t mean I don’t admire their talent to turn music into high math. That ain’t easy, and neither is what Edan gets up to.

He also does it with a frantic, urgent delivery that is on the very edge of losing the line without ever doing so. It isn’t that Edan never takes a breath – he just takes them in weird places that make it all the more interesting as you hang on for dear life and try to pay attention.

And you’ll want to pay attention, because his rhymes are dense and brilliant. At first blush you might be tempted to think he’s just throwing as many rhymes as he can into a sentence, but you quickly realize the whole thing has a purpose. It’s an art-infused purpose mind you -a free-form inspired stream of consciousness that somehow holds a plot together amid all the chaos.

That all sounds pretty good, but it’s a house built on a foundation of noise art that I just couldn’t get behind. Video game sounds, percussion on what sounds like random objects, jazz samples and amorphous feedback gurgles. There is a lot going on, but what isn’t happening is a consistent grounding beat.

So while that complex soup of sounds is working overtime in Edan’s head, and showcasing his brilliance, there are precious few songs you can tap your foot to. Listening you are struck by how intelligently constructed this record is, but it is also exhausting.

I get it - Edan does not want to make it easy on himself or on you. Like any art, music should challenge you. I just found it too much work and, at times, too clever for its own good.

The signs of this are there on his previous record, “Primitive Plus” but as the name of that record suggests, Edan was paying homage to earlier forms through his new and intriguing style. The tension of old and new works there, and the songs that have a similar approach on “Beauty…” like “Fumbling Over Words that Rhyme” and “Torture Chamber” capture the same magic.

But too often in his pursuit of a new and complex beauty, Edan leaves behind the basics of the beat. It’s deliberate, and it is done very well, but that doesn’t mean I liked it.

And so I am going to reluctantly part with this record, just like years ago when I parted with that bottle of Ardbeg on my scotch shelf. I was tempted to keep it because it looked good and suggested I was cool enough to handle all that complex peat. But the truth is that while I admired it, I didn’t enjoy it. Just like this record.

Best tracks: Fumbling Over Words that Rhyme, Torture Chamber, Making Planets

CD Odyssey Disc 1933: Molly Hatchet

To all the folks who heard me this playing this in my car with the convertible roof down a little loud this week – I’m sorry. I genuinely thought volume would help.

Disc 1933 is…The Deed Is Done

Artist: Molly Hatchet

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover? Molly Hatchet loves a good fantasy cover and here we have another winner.

A Death Dealer adjacent character (some dude in black plate mail with an axe) standing in a volcanic region looking tough. He appears to have a pet vulture, but it could just be this bird and the two in the sky behind him are like remoras following a shark. This guy probably kills a lot of folks and following him around would provide plenty of carrion to eat.

It is painted by Ezra Tucker, not Frank Frazetta as the cognitive dissonance in my lazy brain patterns wanted to believe.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a fan of Molly Hatchet since I was a kid, and I vaguely remember seeing this one back in the day, although I never owned it. I recently found this copy in the used section of the local record store at a good price and figured what the hell. It’s Molly Hatchet – how bad could it be?

How It Stacks Up: I have six Molly Hatchet records (their first six). Of those, “The Deed is Done” comes in at #6.

Ratings: 1 star

Sometimes a record sounds like it was made by someone with an old soul, and sometimes a record sounds like it was just made by someone who’s tired. The latter is “The Deed is Done”, which confirmed for me that when I bought my fifth Molly Hatchet record the deed was done, and I should have stopped.

I am usually a sucker for Molly Hatchet’s brand of metal-adjacent swamp-blues boogie. I have lots of it and it is mostly good. Sadly, “The Deed is Done” is a hollowed out soulless version of those earlier efforts.

The worst part is it starts promising. The record’s second song, “Backstabber” rides the ridge of pop anthem and crunchy guitar riff. It’s a dangerous ridge, and the production is steeped in the mistakes of the middle of the 1980s, but I was willing to overlook it and join in with the crowd and clap along – in time or slightly behind the beat depending on how late in the set in the evening it comes on.

However, no other songs were able to overcome the poor decisions made on this record. The opener, “Satisfied Man” should have warned me off, with its rent-a-song lack of originality and “ooh ooh” chants in place of lyrics (also featured on “Backstabber” – but done better). The guitar work is still grimy and good – a staple of Molly Hatchet records – but even that can’t overcome the sheer obviousness of the song’s construction.

At this point, dear reader, I was still feeling charitable and perfectly willing to give out two stars and a kind-hearted ribbing. I do this often – as recently as my last review in fact.

But then “She Does She Does” came along. Another uninspired entry, I was already fidgeting uncomfortably when, two minutes in, the first saxophone solo hit me. If there is a kind of music less suited to this kind of eighties saxophone noodle than Molly Hatchet, I can’t think of what it is. That sax bit is answered by a guitar solo that sounds like someone practicing scales. Almost like the guitars were finally giving up in the face of all the bad decisions.

At 4:30 in, the song was still happening to me when the second saxophone solo hit. Worse and less focused than the last, it goes on for almost two full minutes before ending in the biggest songwriting cop-out available: the fade-out. “She Does She Does” is a song that should never have been born and doesn’t even have the decency to know how to die.

From here I wasn’t feeling too charitable, and it was going to be a long uphill climb back to respectability for the remaining eight tracks. Much love to Molly Hatchet, but they did not pull it off.

Molly Hatchet has always been a sort of throwback band, and bringing their seventies rock vibe into the eighties is a challenge they’ve ably and capably accomplished. Here, they just sounded like a tired bar band, out of touch and spent, but still getting gigs on a Wednesday night.

There were moments where the opportunity was there. “Good Smoke and Whiskey” is a song that is set up to be a good time from the title alone. But nope – we get another tired song, in this case a narrator complaining that he’s losing his car and colour t.v. in the divorce settlement. The kind of guy you’ll meet in one of those seedy bars noted above, who’ll tell you all about it if you make the mistake of returning his smile while ordering a drink.

Each time the guitars chimed in my heart awoke, hoping they’d recapture their former glory, but it would all descend into a sort of Rick Springfield-adjacent radio anthem drowning out all the tough hard-scrabble charm the band is known for.

I have defended Molly Hatchet against all comers for the better part of four decades. I will still defend them overall, but should my debating opponent bring up “The Deed is Done” I will concede the point: this is a bad record.

Best tracks: Backstabber

CD Odyssey Disc 1932: Alestorm

I wore a skull & crossbones pirate tie to work today and while I think it was a random selection, it is also possible the album I’ve been listening to has been sending me subliminal messages.

Disc 1932 is…Back Through Time

Artist: Alestorm

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? Another fine bit of Alestorm artistry. Here we have our undead pirate, with a Viking helmet on the end of his bloody sword (this makes sense if you pay attention to the lyrics). We also have his oft-companion sidekick undead rat, drinking from a Viking horn and doing his best Marty McFly impersonation.

In the background a pirate ship emerges from a time portal. How do we know it’s a time portal and not just a very nasty sideways tornado? Again, the lyrics.

The pirates aboard launch a fiery broadside before they are even out of the rift which seems reckless when dealing with a space/time anomaly, but drunken pirates aren’t known for their circumspection.

How I Came To Know It: I originally passed over this record as one of Alestorm’s lesser efforts, but damn it if I didn’t want more pirate metal. And if you’ve got an itch for pirate metal old Alestorm records are how you scratch it.

How It Stacks Up: I have seven Alestorm records, which is all but their most recent (which I will at some point be remedying). I like them all, but I like some of them less than others. Sorting that out is literally what this section of the review is about, and I put “Back Through Time” at #6.

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

What would happen if a crew of quest-seekin’, rum drinkin’ pirates went back in time and did combat with Vikings and giant squids? This record would happen.

Yes, Alestorm returns for their third studio album, ready to conquer the waves or at least fire off some pirate metal music at high volume. Lead singer/songwriter Christopher Bowes and his merry crew of musicians know by this point they’ve got a winning formula and they’re not going to deviate from it very far.

As usual we have the frantic pace of power metal, laced with some traditional thump and a whole lot of growl and snarl, as the boys fire off one fast-paced metal banger after another. This being on the folk side of power metal, there are plenty of melodic structures suitable for hauling on a bowline or rowing a jolly boat. Infuse that with some electric guitar and a bit of double-bass drum suitable for throwing your neck out in a mosh pit and you have a good idea of what to expect.

Never let it be said that Alestorm have zero new ideas, however, and on “Back in Time” they keep things fresh by throwing in some time travel. The title track leads things off, a song that features their signature sound – a rollicking melody, jaunty keyboards, crunchy guitar and Bowes’ raspy ribald vocals. It is an admittedly weird mix and, if you’re new to Alestorm, not for everyone.

The song is about the battle between pirates and Vikings and while the idea is a fun one the lyrics are a bit forced with a chorus of:

“You put your faith in Odin and Thor
We put ours in cannons and whores.”

Um…sure.

There’s a lot more forced rhyme and theme-cramming where that comes from, and while this is common to any Alestorm record, I felt like “Back Through Time” could’ve done it better.

Lest you think, however, that Alestorm are not aware of a critic’s impending criticism, or charges that they can’t come up with anything new they literally write a song about it in “Scraping the Barrel”. Best (worst?) of many self-deprecating lines you’ll hear therein:

“Many have told us that we can’t go on
That one day we’ll run out of lyrics for songs
But when the time comes to write album four
We’ll scrape out the barrel once more.”

It’s not a great song and not a great quatrain either (the original quatrain just rolled over in its shallow grave at me even using the phrase) but there’s something to be said for being aware of what you’re doing and doubling down.

Before the album ends Alestorm visit yet more common ground with a song about rum called – you guessed it – “Rum”. This one is a banger, with a chorus that is mostly the shouting of the titular drink in unison, but done with such joyful abandon you will happily join in.

And that’s the not-so-secret formula to Alestorm’s success. They love what they do, they do it well, and most of all, it’s fun. Don’t expect to be musically challenged but do expect to sing along and tap your feet. If you feel embarrassed that they’ve won you over don’t be. You’ve plenty of company and there’s a barrel full of similar songs where these came from.

All that, and I didn’t even get to the giant squid.

Best tracks: Back Through Time, The Sunk’n Norwegian, Rum

CD Odyssey Disc 1931: Shame

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey. The weather is getting nice where I live, and this next record was a welcome “take the top down” selection for those with convertibles. For those of you without convertibles, maybe you have a sunroof or something. Or just roll the windows down. Do you.

Disc 1931 is…Cutthroat

Artist: Shame

Year of Release: 2025

What’s up with the Cover? A man rides a motorcycle inside a Wall of Death, which is the name of that carnival structure that lets you ride a motorcycle or car sideways and trust to centrifugal force to prevent you from falling.

These things date back to the 1920s, and I remember Elvis rode in one of these in the 1964 movie Roustabout. Apparently they still exist, but I bet the legal disclaimer you have to sign nowadays is way more exhaustive.

How I Came To Know It: The boring way. I read a review and thought it sounded like it might be in my wheelhouse. Turns out, it was.

How It Stacks Up: Shame has released four studio albums, but I only have the one so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars

Wanna party with the disaffected kids, make fun of norms and dance when most people are sleeping? Then “Cutthroat” is a record with the vibe you need.

Shame is a British post-punk band that blend elements of eighties Goth, Lou Reed style punk rock and a little Blur/Gorillaz to make it all danceable. I sense they’re minor celebs in England but less so on this side of the Pond. As with all things, I could care less where it is popular – the test is, is it any good?

Yes, it is and while the record is a mix of solid club bangers and songs that could rightly be considered filler, even the filler is pretty fun for an afternoon drive with the convertible top down.

Things start solidly with the title track, which only vaguely relates to people who cut throats, and in no way relevant to the species of trout with the same name. It seems instead to be about people having fun with little regard for the consequences. The song cleverly straddles the line of how fun it is to do what you want, and how this can – when taken to the extreme – be selfish and empty. The extra layer of clever is how goddamn catchy it is, as you sing along to “why does it hurt to feel so numb?” but the more fervently you lean in and dance, the more ironic things get.

The band does a fine job of disaffection, with songs like “Cowards Around”, which is a long list of ‘cowards’ that is so expansive you are left thinking that it is the narrator with the problem. Sort of like that person who always has a problem with their boss, their friends, or the local barista. Where they don’t seem to realize the one common denominator in all their bad reactions is them. Again, the song lets the subtext linger beneath the surface of a tune that invites you to sing along with all the imagined grievances.

Most of the time, however, you’re just going to enjoy the groove, which is significant. Singer Charlie Steen (not Sheen, Steen) has a gift for phrasing, which is a critical component of songs that sit solidly in the pocket as much as these do. He also does a fine spoken word style approach on songs like “Coward’s Around” and “Lampiao” that is very “cool kid with hair in eyes tells story”.

“Lampiao” is based on a real-life Brazilian bandit from the early twentieth century, with the band bringing some Latin rhythms in, but converted to their own unique punk/groove vibe. While the way Steen (not Sheen) delivers his vocals here is more important than the actual words, I loved this section and how it paints the romanticized portrait of the bandit:

“The governor of the backlands
Sailor of the black sands
With a fillet knife and a strong hand”

Not every song has the same level of literary achievement, but even the boring ones make for good dance numbers. Late in the record “After Party” alerts us that there will be festivities after the show, and that’s the vibe of “Cutthroat” throughout. Listening makes you feel like you’re one of the cool counterculture kids, staying out later than you should, into the early hours of the morning where all the most interesting and dangerous things are bound to happen.

Writing a record that drives you to both carefree fun and the deeper ramifications of that kind of fun is not an easy space to occupy. Shame does a fine job of it and makes me keen to explore their back catalogue.

Best tracks: Cutthroat, Cowards Around, Nothing Better, Lampiao, After Party

CD Odyssey Disc 1930: London Grammar

I’m into my second week of having one plugged ear. For a music enthusiast this is high on the list of illnesses to avoid, but the doctor assures me it is temporary, so we soldier on. The next campaign finds us in…London!

Disc 1930 is…Truth is a Beautiful Thing

Artist: London Grammar

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? The band, wearing non-descript expressions to match their non-descript clothes on what is, overall, a very non-descript cover.

The overlapping As and Ms in the band’s name is as exciting as we get here.

How I Came To Know It: I first discovered London Grammar in 2021 when they released “Californian Soul” (reviewed back at Disc 1522).

“Truth is a Beautiful Thing” was just me drilling into their back catalogue after the hook was set.

How It Stacks Up: I have four London Grammar albums which, as of right now, is all of them. Of those I put “Truth is a Beautiful Thing” in at #2.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

London Grammar are a pop trio that have learned the valuable lesson that a wall of sound doesn’t have to sound busy. Done right, it can be uplifting and anthemic.

It helps to have a great vocalist, and London Grammar is blessed with one of the best in Hannah Reid. Effortlessly powerful in even the highest ranges, Reid never feels like she’s striving to a hit a note, and reminded me favourably of Florence Welch or Loreena McKennitt, but with an even more pure pop tone.

Many of the songs start on a note that most singers couldn’t land on their best day and then climbs from there. Each time you think she can’t land something another layer up, there she is, looking down from the heights of another octave, lightly warbling at you. She’s like a brightly coloured bird that knows you can’t reach the branch it’s on and so feels safe enough to show off.

This is the record’s not-so-secret weapon, but the band wisely builds songs around her that showcase her instrument. A lot of the rest of these songs are slow jam beats and basslines, giving you a launch point that let’s you appreciate just high these songs end up climbing. The arrangement doubles down on the effect, keeping the midrange elements a bit further back in the mix. The effect pulls you in both directions with a languorous stretch of sound. It’s the auditory version of a cat stretching its back at full extension.

As for what is going on lyrically, I had a hard time paying attention. The songs are very good at artfully repeating a refrain, but more for an emotional resonance than for a narrative purpose. “Everyone Else” is a fine example, with a slow jam dance back beat, and Reid repeatedly singing

“Everyone else knows why
Everyone else knows why
Look what you’ve done.”

Sure there are other lines, but there aren’t many and they mostly just evoke primal images like fire and colours and storms. Lyrically driven as I often am, I surprisingly had no complaints, as the evocative imagery and the power of Reid’s vocals make everything feel more important than it is anyway.

While the record doesn’t always hold long narrative stories, the imagery is strong, and I didn’t mind not always feeling like there would be a story to every song. “Bones of Ribbon” probably has something going on at the beach (i.e., there’s sand), but it is more how the song makes you feel than where it takes place.

If there is any drawback it would be that the music can feel obvious in places, but even then it is a good obvious. A few basic piano chords can do wonders, particularly when the ambient sound behind it helps it echo through the tune. I didn’t find myself wishing for more empty space between the notes, because the band wisely uses only a few ingredients, blows them out to their greatest effect, and then stops adding stuff. I found myself thinking fondly of Enya records of yesteryear and wondering if these talented kids had found any in their parents’ record collections. I hope so.

Most of all, this record made me chill out. On my way to work I was caught behind a car going 20 in a 30 zone. Kilometers. I shit you not. Yet, driving behind this villainous commuter, while listening to “Who Am I” I was perfectly happy to get my chill on and take Hannah’s advice to “try my best/to fit in with the rest”. Good tidings to you, fellow traveler!

Best tracks: Wild Eyed, Hell to the Liars, Everyone Else, Bones of Ribbon, Who Am I

CD Odyssey Disc 1929: Einherjer

Yesterday I also went thrift store shopping and found three CDs for a combined price of $5.50 (James McMurtry, Bonnie Raitt and Clannad). More on those on some future date when I randomly roll them for review, but feel free to be excited immediately.

Disc 1929 is…Norron

Artist: Einherjer

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? Two woodland beings emerge from the roots of a tree. I was initially inclined to say this was Yggdrasil, the enormous tree central to Norse mythology, except this tree is not remotely enormous enough.

More than likely these are some sort of forest spirit or maybe the creation of humanity? Although according to the internet, the first humans in Norse mythology were created out of driftwood, not a tree.

Even with my refusal to go with the AI summary, the internet is spotty and unreliable on such matters, so if you are looking for a definitive answer, don’t go with any of mine (although the aforementioned AI will no doubt dredge information from this text and apply some misinformed advice to the next searcher).

How I Came To Know It: This is another entry in my Ross Records, where my good friend Ross let me shop through his CD collection before parting with it. Ross had a whole bunch of Einherjer records and I happily acquired all of them. I did not previously know this band, so thanks again, Ross!

How It Stacks Up: By “a whole bunch” I mean I got four Einherjer records. Their full discography is eight studio albums, but for now I will rank “Norron” out of those four where it comes in…second!

Ratings: 4 stars

My burgeoning love for Viking-themed metal continues with Norwegian band Einherjer, another band in the tradition of Amon Amarth that sings about all things ancient Norse, from history to mythology and all the nooks and crannies they can find in the theme.

Einherjer is named after the warriors of the afterlife. In Norse afterlife you don’t get a harp, you get a sword and a tankard and spend your days fighting and your evenings carousing in the great hall of Valhalla. It sounds exhausting, but also fun.

Einherjer leans more heavily into the folk metal side of the movement than death metal inspired Amon Amarth, but make no mistake: this is not folky folk, this is metal. Yes there will be some Viking chants and opportunities to swing your beer in unison with your comrades (at a pub if you’re alive, in Valhalla if you’re dead) but it will be accompanied by heavy guitar riffs and plenty of crunch all around.

Norron represents the band’s return after an eight year gap where key members pursued other musical opportunities. Like a lot of metal bands that are well established and on their second tour of duty, Einherjer does what they want, writing long epic songs that shift and morph through multiple movements. The record is over forty minutes long but has only six songs.

Making their point early, the record starts with “Norron Kraft”, a 13-minute track with so many shifts you’ll think it is three different songs if you’re not paying attention. Don’t be alarmed, however – all three shifts are excellent. Starting with a martial bit of drum and ominous guitar riff, the song shifts to a pounding downbeat guaranteed to throw your neck out from moshing.

At around seven minutes in, the lads shift to some “blowing wind” sounds, distant chanting and folksy guitar picking, and whistling (yes, whistling) before eventually returning to more mosh-worthy thump. Is it excessive? You’re damned right it is – but nothing exceeds like excess.

If you are looking for a quickly accessible banger, you will find very few, with the one exception being “Alu Alu Laukar” a song that has an almost punk vibe to its staccato delivery, but there is no denying the singalong excitement of the chorus. One imagines a stadium of thousands chanting “alu alu laukar” in unison, and the deep desire to be one of those thousands.

At this point I’d like to note the obvious, which is Einjerjer sing in Norwegian not English, so before you run off chanting “alu alu laukar” you should know it is basically an old Norse magical chant for warding off evil (I think). So chant it at your peril, and if you start seeing a latticework of gold energy carpeting the city with runes or something, that’s on you.

Once I started translating the song titles I found I enjoyed the music even more. “Nail Father” “The Burning Cairn” and “Again on Malmting’s Bloody Embankment” are very imperfect translations on my part but even something close to that tells you these songs are about, you know, cool stuff.

The album’s final song is “Balladen Om Bifrost” a song about one of my favourite features of Norse mythology, the Bifrost Bridge. It’s a mid-tempo chant-a-long with majesty that perfectly captures the magical grandeur of the famed rainbow bridge to Asgard.

Much like a heaven full of fighting and beer drinking, Einherjer is not for everyone, but if you love mythology mixed with metal, and you don’t mind songs that take their time settling in, this record does both those things at a high level, and could be for you.

Best tracks: Norron Kraft, Alu Alu Laukar, Atter Pa Malmtings Blodige Voll, Balladen Om Bifrost

CD Odyssey Disc 1928: Jimi Hendrix

As of today I am on holiday! My first official act (my second if you count that rum and coke last night) will be to do one of my favourite things – write a music review.

Disc 1928 is…Are you Experienced

Artist: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Year of Release: 1967

What’s up with the Cover? Trippy convex mirror action. This reminds me of Thin Lizzy’s first album (reviewed back at Disc 1251) although with people in fancy clothes instead of cars.

It also reminds me of the mirror on the blind corner of my parking lot to let you know if any cars are coming before you pull out.

Good for both the art world and the real world - all hail the flexibility of the convex mirror! But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: Everyone knows the songs off this iconic record, although I didn’t buy it until it was re-released about 15 years ago in a fancy new CD package. That’s how it was in the golden age of CDs, where the wise were out buying records at garage sales for $5 and the unwise were still collecting tapes and hoping for a comeback.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Jimi Hendrix studio albums, which is – sadly – all of them. Of those three, “Are You Experienced” is the best. There are people who may dispute that, but those people are wrong.

As this is the final Jimi review for my collection, here’s a full accounting*

1. Are You Experienced: 5 stars (reviewed right here)
2. Axis: Bold as Love: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1638)
3. Electric Ladyland: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 766)

*If you go and look at these reviews, you’ll see that I stubbornly put “Axis” in third, but if it is 4 stars, and Ladyland is 3, then that just makes no sense whatsoever. The Odyssey is a fluid experience, dear reader, and the final determination of how a record stacks up is at the end of each journey, so despite the err…er…’discrepancy’, the list above is the definitive one.

Ratings: 5 stars, but only because my ranking system only goes to 5.

“Are You Experienced” is one of the greatest records ever made. It reinvents what can be done with rock and roll, fearlessly blending genres sounds, and melodic structures, all the while showcasing some of the finest performances ever recorded in a studio. This is what perfect sounds like, and it sounds good.

Where do you start with one of the most iconic records ever recorded? Well, for starters, you probably know half these songs already from hearing them in a hundred places. When one of those hits comes on (“Purple Haze”, “Hey, Joe”, “Foxey Lady”) you never think “oh, no – not this one”. You might be at a diner, you might be at a pub, or you might be watching a movie that has (wisely) grabbed one of these for the soundtrack, but wherever you are, you will not blithely move along. You will stop, take notice, and think once again, ‘wow – great song’.

We’ll get into the “deep” cuts in a second, but let’s start with these songs. “Purple Haze” launches the record (at least the North American release as well as the blended/extended CD version that I am reviewing here). That opening guitar riff is as famous as “Smoke on the Water” and a lot more interesting. Jimi could’ve just let that be the song and it would still be a classic, but nope – he switches it into second killer riff (a third if you count that two note intro tag) and then morphs into a crazy psychedelic solo.

He does all of this in two minutes and fifty seconds. In under three minutes, Hendrix reinvents rock and roll, shows off on the guitar and makes every human for fifty years after look across the table at their lunch companion and sing “Purple haze!” with their best sneer.

At the other end of the spectrum you get “Hey Joe,” where Hendrix shows off his deep literacy with the blues in all its forms. The list of “man kills his woman” blues songs is long and illustrious, and yet this is the best of them. As is the case on a few of the songs on “Are You Experienced”, “Hey Joe” fades out with the musicians still going off. Usually this is the sign of a melody that doesn’t know to resolve but with Jimi, all is forgiven. The song is too awesome to know how or where to end and besides – if you heard the whole extended riff your brain would probably explode in ecstasy. That fade out isn’t a cop out– it’s a safety feature.

As for “Foxey Lady” believe it or not, it didn’t even originally chart above 67. But when I put it in the “three big hits” section earlier you didn’t question it for a second, did you? That’s how great it is. The third top ten hit is actually “The Wind Cries Mary” which is fucking awesome, but I’m running of space here and we need to move along.

Every listen to this record brings me a new joy and new favourite song. This time I enjoyed the warm bath of Jimi’s slow jam “May This Be Love” and the discordant glory of “Manic Depression”. The structure of this song bounces high and low and skips the connective tissue in between, making it a deeply evocative depiction of the subject matter. This approach would make a lesser song unlistenable, but instead it pulls you into discomfort and makes you like it.

“Manic Depression” is also one of many songs showcasing the record’s drummer, Mitch Mitchell. Mitchell’s drumming on this song (and this record) is as great an individual performance as you will hear on any record. Blending jazz and rock and hitting beats that don’t just fill space with interesting flourishes, but rewrite ways you can keep the beat. There aren’t many musicians that can go toe to toe with Hendrix’s guitar. Mitchell not only holds his own, he’s a big part of what makes the record great.

OK, we’re almost done with all this fanboy action (for which I am unapologetic), but on a personal note, it was very cool while I was grooving through the meandering but masterful “3^rd Stone from the Sun” to hear Jimi use the expression “superior cackling hen”. This is the title of one of my favourite early nineties albums by the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. (Disc 320). Yet one more brick in the road of inspiration this record has laid down for generations of musicians that have followed.

The iconoclast in me wanted to throw shade on this record – it’s my nature. Maybe the extended 17 track version was too much, or one of the songs was over-indulgent. Sadly, there were no gaps in the “Are You Experienced” excellence.

They forgot to punctuate the title? That’s all I got.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1927: Iggy Pop

Welcome to the weekend and another edition of the CD Odyssey. Today we have some post-punk from a time when most people were still doing regular punk.

Disc 1927 is…The Idiot

Artist: Iggy Pop

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? Mr. Pop himself, decked out in what appears to be a ladies blazer stands on a dark…beach? Desert?

Iggy is holding his hands in a very deliberate and peculiar way. I’m going to assume that it is semaphore for “idiot” and then not look it up, because its funner that way.

Yeah, I said funner. You can use funner in a sentence where you are randomly discussing idiots and semaphore. It is – quite literally – an idiot word.

How I Came To Know It: Welcome to the first edition of the “Ross Records”. A few weeks back my good friend Ross was parting with his (very excellent) CD collection and gave me dibs on picking through before he went commercial. I got about 25 albums that day, including discovering some very cool bands I had not previously known.

I also got this Iggy Pop record. Anyway, huge thanks to Ross.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Iggy Pop record, so it can’t stack up. I also have a Stooges record (Iggy’s band) but I’m making the call to keep that separate.

Ratings: 2 stars

The vast majority of the Ross Records are awesome additions to my collection. Sadly, “The Idiot” starts our journey in a more average fashion.

Iggy Pop’s first solo record shows the freedom of an artist out on his own, willing to do new things, but it also shows the self-indulgence that can happen when you don’t have other band members say, “that’s an OK groove, but let’s leave it off the record until we’ve workshopped it a bit.”

First the good news – Iggy Pop’s natural charisma survives the transition to a solo career just fine. He has one of those “everything I say is important” cult leader kind of voices, akin to Glenn Danzig or Patty Smith. These are the rock voices of a generation, able to compel you to wave a flag, or raise a fist, or storm a Bastille simply through the force of their tone and the presence behind it.

This quality is evident throughout the record, and on the band’s opening track, “Sister Midnight” I was hopeful for the future. Sure the song didn’t really go anywhere after establishing its groove, but the groove was a good one, and by the end I was fully ready to call Sister Midnight, despite lyrics indicating this would be a poor decision.

Another solid tune is the dramatic “Tiny Girls” which has Iggy’s vocals climbing into a vibrato and a bit more melodic structure than you might usually expect from a founding father of punk. There’s a saxophone at the end of the song, which is always a dangerous arrangement decision in rock and roll, but here it works.

The challenge with “The Idiot” is that most of the time the songs don’t achieve this level of interest. They start with a fairly cool groove, and a feel for dark streets and darker thoughts that will have you wanting to hear more, but then they don’t develop into anything. Iggy is content to let the songs be mood pieces, with a lot of repeated lyrics and repeated song structures, but absent the dynamic energy of punk. It is punk pushed under water and held there until it stops kicking.

This is irritating, because there are multiple occasions where things start out with great promise. “Nightclubbing” aims – and to a degree, captures – the hollowed-out world of going out to the clubs. There is a great start here, but it just walks along in the same moment, content to add strange bits of production (piano jangle here, strangled guitar solo there) rather than fully dig in.

Does “Nightclubbing” capture that numbing experience of being out too late, too drunk, and walking too far to find the impossible - a club with the perfect mix of cool vibe and short lineup to get in? Yes, it does, but it isn’t something I want to listen to. In the end it just fades away, an undeveloped melody that doesn’t know where to head next.

“Dum Dum Boys” is similarly tiresome. Great start, and Iggy’s vocals almost sustain the song all on their own, but at over seven minutes long, I was tired of hearing about it long before Iggy was tired of telling me.

The album features an early version of “China Girl” six years before David Bowie would release it on “Let’s Dance”. Iggy Pop cowrote the song, but his version while novel at first, ultimately is a pale comparison to Bowie’s.

David Bowie also produced “The Idiot” and it is fair to say that – as is not uncommon in my complex relationship with Bowie – I didn’t like the choices. The record sounds dull and flat, capturing the lo-fi sensibilities of punk but minus the visceral energy of it. While the production fits the vibe of the record, this is a sound you don’t want to be doubling down on.

This record has its moments, but it mostly had me wanting to go back in time and listen to the Stooges blast out “Raw Power” or dance to the synthy detachment of early eighties Bowie. The no man’s land between the two experiences did not appeal.

Best tracks: Sister Midnight, Tiny Girls

CD Odyssey Disc 1926: Clem Snide

I was a bit nervous about squeezing in two reviews this week with a late start after a long weekend. Fortunately, fate intervened with that shortest of listens…an EP. More on this later.

Disc 1926 is…A Beautiful EP

Artist: Clem Snide

Year of Release: 2003

What’s up with the Cover? A woman lifts her skirt in a playful but modest manner. Perhaps she’s dancing, or maybe just showing off her fancy shoes in anticipation of dancing.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a fan of Clem Snide since 2020 when they released “Forever Just Beyond”, but to my chagrin realized they’d already been around twenty years before I ever “discovered” them.

Even worse, a lot of their early albums which I now covet are very hard to find, and as a result I have lurked the “miscellaneous C” section of local record stores for years hoping for a score.

I’ve managed to land two more through this hunt and peck strategy (1999’s “Your Favourite Music” and 2009’s “Hungry Bird”) but five more LPs still elude me.

So when I saw this EP there I decided to buy it even though it wasn’t on my wish-list, all the while hoping it would overcome the EP curse.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Clem Snide albums, but this is an EP and therefore a different animal. As it is my only EP by the band, it cannot stack up.

Ratings: 2 stars

Not long after I got through my second of many listens of “A Beautiful EP” I realized two things. First, that it is objectively a solid record by a band I enjoy. Second, that much of what constitutes an EP tends to annoy me.

EPs can be great, but they are often dodgy by their very nature. They usually have half or fewer the number of songs from an LP, but they’re rarely half the price. Those songs tend to take a few well-worn turns best left unexplored, and “A Beautiful EP” is no exception.

First off, EPs love their cover songs. Sometimes you can get some real gems in the process – things the band might not put on a full record because it doesn’t suit the vibe or theme, but can work on an EP. Ghost covering the Eurythmics “Missionary Man” or Soundgarden doing the Ohio Players’ “Fopp” are two great examples. Bonus points if the band later combines a couple EPs into an album you can buy as a full length (as Soundgarden did this on “Screaming Life/Fopp”).

Clem Snide goes for a cover of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” which is…solid. It isn’t as good as the Ghost and Soundgarden songs I noted above, but I don’t like the original as much, so it had less to work with. Anyway, I liked it, and Clem Snide indie pop it up with solid success. Lead singer Eef Barzelay can’t hold a candle to Aguilera’s vocal gymnastics, but he doesn’t go for that, sticking to a punk adjacent approach that lacks depth, but retains enough edge to see it through.

The band also does a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror” which is, again, passable but not a “must have” by any stretch. I prefer the original, as the cover drags just a bit.

EPs also like to recycle old songs with very similar new versions. Again, “A Beautiful EP” has two of these. “Nick Drake Tape” from their 1998 debut and “All Green” from “Soft Spot” (released earlier the same year). Argh. Both songs are OK, but knowing they’re recycled from earlier records is irritating. Despite it being many years later, I felt the echo of irritation of hard core fans having to buy these songs twice just to get the two covers.

This leaves us with only a single song that is 100% new and original material – “Mike Kalinsky” at Track 3. This song, about a high school outcast who doesn’t “do sports”, or score with girls but later goes on to be a successful musician is fine as narrative arcs go. However, the switch in styles from the slow folk pop of the main tune into a – surprise! – jump to Kalinsky’s punk rock styling at the end wore thin after multiple listens (which with an 18-minute EP you are going to get plenty of).

For all this, there aren’t any terrible songs on the record, and absent Aguilera’s powerhouse vocals I realized that “Beautiful” is a much stronger song structurally than I had ever given it credit for as a pop ballad. “All Green” is a lovely pastoral tune that makes you think of lazy summer days and iced tea.

But at the end of the day, I don’t need a bunch of re-releases, live versions and covers. If I wanted that experience, I’d buy a boxed set. So I’m going to part company with this record and do what I should have done in the first place: wait for the LPs that are actually on my list to show up in the record store and buy those instead.

Best tracks: Beautiful, All Green