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

CD Odyssey Disc 1925: The Tragically Hip

Today’s long weekend Monday finds our Humble Author confronted by a great many chores. Many a task lays before me, but none more important than to advance the CD Odyssey journey by one more record. Here it is.

Disc 1925 is…Phantom Power

Artist: The Tragically Hip

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover? Some kind of industrial electrical panel. I’ve worked on lots of industrial sites where there are panels like this one and I can tell you one thing with certainty – I do not touch these buttons or dials. That’s for folks with proper training only.

Having said that, the one indicator light situated centre-right labelled “MALF” would sorely test my resistance. What does MALF do?

Then I realized that the entire row is dedicated to MALF. You can choose your synchro levels of MALF and pick a MALF between one and twenty (I would choose 11) and then flick that switch and then see what lights up out in the yard, baby!

And then be escorted out of the gate by the foreman, because there’s no room on a construction site for an untrained guy messing with the MALF settings.

How I Came To Know It: I know this album from when it was released, but I’ve only recently been filling out my Tragically Hip collection. I’ve been pretty cagey (you might even say…bobcaygey) about it, knowing there are more than a few copies of nineties Hip record floating around on CD.

Case in point: I bought “Phantom Power” at a thrift store for one lowly dollar. The CD looked a little bit scratched but I figured for a $1 it was worth the risk and sure enough, a quick clean and the whole thing played without a hitch.

How It Stacks Up: I now have eight Tragically Hip albums. When I wrote my first Hip review I only had four, so the rankings through time don’t make a lot of sense. All I can say is I recalibrate each time while honouring my original “what’s before what” determinations in earlier reviews.

“Phantom Power” is a good one, but the Hip have a lot of good ones. I put it #5 out of 8.

Ratings: 3 stars

Canada’s house band, the Tragically Hip, are a bit of a big deal up here in the true north, strong and free. The rest of the world may shrug, but when the Hip put out a record in Canada, the tundra quaked with excitement.

I like the Hip, but my journey to them was slower and more meandering, and so while I knew all the hits off of Phantom Power, it took a while for it to echo its way into my heart. Finding it for a $1 didn’t hurt either.

The Hip are a hard rock band and while “Phantom Power” has exceptional melodies and song concepts, they tend to be dressed up in the saturated arrangements and production of the mid-nineties treatment of that genre.

This should have immediately turned me off, but like so many Tragically Hip records, the complex layers of sound on each song are masterfully pulled together. It creates a three-dimensional soundscape where you can focus on a single instrument if you wish, but it is even better when you find that sweet spot in your focus where everything comes at you even in the mix.

Sitting at that nexus point, I dug down past Gord Downie’s high vibrato vocals (where I started) and found Rob Baker’s sublime guitar work, sometimes laying down a gentle bird song on the slow songs, and cranking out tsunami-sized riffs on the heavier tunes.

The record had a number of hits back in the day and won a bunch of awards (Canadians – I know you know this. That part was for the international audience). The best song is “Poets”. As a person who identifies as a writer all the time and a poet some of the time, “Poets” always gives me a good chuckle, with its narrator’s broad disparagement of the occupation. Best line:

“Don’t tell me that they’re antisocial
Somehow not antisocial enough.”

Yup – give that moody guy on the deck half an opening, and he’ll be reciting to you his latest effort in blank verse before you have a chance to say “sorry, my cab’s here”.

“Poets” has that early Hip sound, digging down in the grime of the blues and then blasting through it with rock and roll crunch. The Hip could stay in that space for a whole record and leave the audience satisfied, but instead they have a few songs that break can also break it down, and later on “Thompson Girl” Downie and the lads do just that.

“Thompson Girl” is a sweet tune, made sweeter by the addition of some timely mandolin, and Downie’s high head voice warbling. Downie approaches “Thom Yorke alien voice” in a couple of places here, showing his sneaky range that often goes unnoticed while the band is just rockin’ out.

In the end, there was nothing on “Phantom Power” that negatively pushed it down to fifth best in my Tragically Hip collection. Maybe just fewer “higher than high” points than some of the records in front of it.

This is a solid collection of songs, with an urgent lean in the delivery that is good for driving and some subtle fireworks of sound, arrangement and the evocative poetry of Downie that makes it just as fun on headphones.

But there I go again, telling you what the poets are doing. Go listen for yourself.

Best tracks: Poets, Something On, Bobcaygeon, Thompson Girl, Fireworks, Vapour Trails

CD Odyssey Disc 1924: The Devil Makes Three

This next album has been in my collection a long time, and yet I’ve never rolled it through my random selection process. Or maybe I did once and mistakenly thought, “I’ve already reviewed that one” and moved on without checking. If that has ever happened, I apologize to whatever Gods of Chaos might take offence at such an uncharacteristic rejection of the arbitrary.

Disc 1924 is…Do Wrong Right

Artist: The Devil Makes Three

Year of Release: 2009

What’s up with the Cover? A drawing of an old man.

Minus context I will assume from this man is adept at ‘doing wrong right’, and he’s been doing it that way for a long time. You could ask for details, but I sense from that settled scowl in his expression that this feller would see the question rising to your lips and slap it away before you uttered it.

Better to just mosey along and save yourself a fat lip.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember. It was either a) reviewed in a folk magazine I used to buy occasionally (maybe Penguin Eggs or American Songwriter) or b) from a list of “best obscure folk albums you’ve never heard of” or somesuch. I’m a sucker for a list as much as the next online surfer.

How It Stacks Up: The Devil Makes Three has made quite a few records over the past twenty plus years or so, but this is my only one, so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars

A mix of old timey bluegrass, folk, and Dixieland, with a side of sin and damnation – that’s “Do Wrong Right”. This trio does up traditional music with a side of nasty.

The first thing that comes across with these guys is how raw their sound is. It feels like they’ve walked in off the back forty, dirt still under their fingernails and laid down a record for $30, a sandwich and a six pack of beer.

The production is so sparse you’ll think at times it was recorded in mono, but you don’t want it any other way. It gives the whole record a “sitting on the porch” vibe that is perfect for songs about regular folks living regular lives.

You won’t find lead singer and principal songwriter Pete Bernhard belting out an aria at La Scala, but his rusty saw of a vocal style is exactly what you want for this kind of music. Bernhard has the kind of voice that is welcoming enough that you’ll sing along with him when the spirit moves you, which is exactly what his two bandmates (Cooper McBean and Lucia Turino) do on many occasions. The effect is to generate a party atmosphere, even though most of the songs are about being poor, drunk, and maybe even ugly. Everyone’s welcome on this porch, but most of the guests stay too late.

There’s a Devil’s Carnival quality to these songs that give them a lascivious sway that reminded me of Tom Waits or the Bridge City Sinners. All those artists are partial to hard lives and bad choices, and the Devil Makes Three are no exception. The record is rife with songs of booze and poverty. Both themes coming together with self-destructive delight on “Gracefully Facedown” which celebrates such unwelcome but natural partners as bottom-shelf bourbon and blackout drunks.

“For Good Again” revisits what it’s like to be starving artists, couch surfing and trying to get ahead. Devil Makes Three’s old school musical approach reminds you this an occupational hazard of the artist as old as civilization itself, even while throwing in modern takes on sin with lines like:

“You’ll never understand the things my friend Aaron put us through
He had this power point presentation about this girl he wanted to do”

Yes, the album’s title is a recurring theme.

The record ends strong with “Car Wreck,” the story of a man who is born restless, cursed to always leave something good in the hopes of finding something better. One day he leaves the love of his life, but the decision haunts him and years later, drawn by the memory of the one thing he can’t shake, he races home to her. Except he dies in a car wreck on the way. The song is tragic and heart-wrenching and full of bad choices (case in point: he’s so drunk when he crashes that car that “whiskey soaks his bones”. One more bad choice transformed into immortality through the power of song.

Through it all, “Do Wrong Right” maintains a frantic energy, careening from one poor soul to another, and making every cautionary tale a toe-tapper of a time. You wouldn’t want to be these folks, but the Devil Makes Three will make you want to hear their stories.

Best tracks: All Hail, Do Wrong Right, Gracefully Facedown, For Good Again, Help Yourself, Working Man’s Blues, Car Wreck

CD Odyssey Disc 1923: Green Lung

I should be getting ready for a spirited game of Ulti on this fine Saturday morning, but it was cancelled and besides, I am not feeling well. So it is a “housing” day for me, starting with the best of all possible in-house activities – enjoying music.

Disc 1923 is…Woodland Rites

Artist: Green Lung

Year of Release: 2019 (although my copy is a 2025 re-issue)

What’s up with the Cover? Looks like some keen young witches and warlocks have headed out into the woods for some dancing and revelry with Satan and some demons. The woods ringing this glade are filled to the brim with forest critters both mundane and magical. Search carefully and find them all! My favourite of these is the owl-demon playing drums in the top left, but the regular owl beside him is also lovely.

The witches and warlocks are no doubt wondering, “will we have sexual congress with the devil?” and judging by the meaningful glance being exchanged between the couple in the bottom left of the dance circle, I am going to say, “signs point to yes”.

What they are probably not wondering is, “at the end of the night will some of us be eviscerated, murdered, and left to feed the creatures of the forest?” Based on those skulls piled up in the lower right corner I’m going to once again say “signs point to yes”.

How I Came To Know It: I got into Green Lung through the release of their third album, 2023’s “This Heathen Land,” and found “Woodland Rites” by plunging into their back catalogue. I’m like a pig chasing truffles once I’ve got the scent of a new band.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Green Lung LPs. They’re due to release one later this year but for now, that’s all of them. They are all great, and “Woodland Rites” is in a dead heat for #1 with the aforementioned “This Heathen Land”. I’m going to side ever so slightly with my first love and put “Woodland Rites” in at #2.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

Green Lung are a riff-driven stoner metal band from England who like to write songs about the devil. A lot. I’m not sure if they like to sing about the devil more than say, Ghost, but they’re in the conversation. Papa V Perpetua be warned – there’s a new antichrist in town.

Well, actually, that new antichrist is not in town, he’s in the forest. As you might expect from an album named “Woodland Rites,” this record is heavily themed to the whole ‘witches cavort in the woods with Satan’ trope. There’s also crossover with “ancient forest demon” vibes that lean into a more non-denominational evil.

OK, so that’s the theme established, but how is the music? Amazing, that’s how. “Woodland Rites” is eight tracks of furious guitar crunching glory. You will have thrown your neck out from moshing by the end side one. Every one of these riffs has a timelessness to it that makes it feel like it could have been on Black Sabbath’s first record or released yesterday. This is horns up, hair down, controlled aggression from start to finish.

Don’t mistake “controlled aggression” for being tame. This is the kind of controlled aggression akin to shaking a can of beer for forty minutes. Pressure rising and rising with explosive energy with nowhere to go, just quivering and ready to go off at any moment.

Vocalist Tom Templar sings in a high head voice with an otherworldly quaver in his tone. It is a bit Ozzy and a bit Rev. Maynard with a “far from the mic” kind of echo to it. His phrasing perfectly matches the mid-tempo thump of the song structures, each word deliberate and loaded with fell and sorcerous intent.

And what does Mr. Templar have to say? As noted above, the record is heavily themed to covens and devil worship. The title track (and the best riff on a record with a lot of great riffs) is about just that. Set on the pagan festival night of Walpurgis, our story opens early with someone approaching an event likely best left alone:

“At the gloaming on Walpurgis night
In the forest you saw our fires alight
The trees were talking, they whispered your name
Darkness was falling as you walked toward the flames”

From here, as you might expect, things get serious. The next track, “Let the Devil In” is about that fell invitation in every tale of this type you’ve likely read or heard around a campfire. The melody (and the best riff on the record…wait, did I already pick one? Damn it…) is triumphant and enticing just like the dark invitation the song describes. Of course, this being Green Lung, poor choices are made and things continue to go south.

At this point I should note that this is all just pretend. A Green Lung record is best enjoyed like a horror movie – delightfully scary and transgressive, but explored from the safety of literary and artistic devices. Of course, if you don’t like the thrill of a horror movie, or you find the very notion of creepy satanic woodland rituals abhorrent (a perfectly understandable response) then this record is not for you. You’ve been warned.

On their later records, Green Lung has explored a broader range of sound and song structures, making those records a bit more dynamic to listen to. I like the evolution of their sound, but while “Woodland Rites” is more of a “singular sound” kind of record it is done so exceptionally well you are happy with forty-two minutes of more of the same.

In an era where a lot of modern metal bands are exploring the genre’s early origins, you can get some very derivative outcomes, but not so here. “Woodland Rites” is a love letter to earlier forms, yes, but more like a flower that has fully bloomed than a copy.

If you’re OK with being a little horrified – or maybe excited by the danger of it all - and you like classic riffs played with exceptional skill, then this record will not disappoint. If songs that “let the devil in” (even for-pretend) make you nervous, best move along and leave that flickering light in the forest for those more brave or foolish.

Best tracks: Woodland Rites, Let the Devil In, The Ritual Tree, Templar Dawn, Into the Wild