CD Odyssey Disc 1732: The Beaches

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey and the almost unheard of third blog post in as many days. I don’t know when that happened last but my best guess is…never. If you haven’t been around for a bit, keep scrolling down for 1) a review of the next record 2) a Concert Battle between Ice Cube and Katie Pruitt and 3) a review of Christian rock artist Miss Angie.

You know what you won’t find in this flurry of entries (or in any future ones)? The 2023 eponymous debut of folk/country artist Mikaela Davis and Southern Star. I gave that record my second listen on the weekend and was so uninspired I decided I couldn’t suffer through the requisite third that leads to a full review. Instead that bit of sleepy self-indulgent tune-making is going straight to the sell pile.

Faring much better is this next record- enjoy!

Disc 1732 is…Heights

Artist: The Beaches

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover?  All these swirls and splashes of colour are a reminder that there are many kinds of art in the world. If you are wondering what this kind is, it’s the bad kind.

How I Came To Know It: As an avowed fan of the Beaches this was just me digging through their back catalogue. I picked this one up at the merch table of one of their shows. I bought a T-shirt as well. That could’ve been you, Katie Pruitt, if you’d brought merch to your show!

How It Stacks Up: Attentive readers will know that my Beaches discography is divided between two LPs and four EPs. I had held space for “Heights” to take spot 3 on the EP list but it was not able to achieve those…heights. Get it? Get it? As a result I must put this album in at #4. I still liked it, but I liked the other three EPs just a little bit more.

Rating: 3 stars

The Beaches just don’t make bad records. It isn’t in their DNA. This quartet of rockers have found a sweet spot midway between catchy and crunchy and they ride that wave like a professional surfer. So while “Heights” isn’t as consistently strong as some of their other work, it has plenty to recommend it.

The album’s best track is the first one you hear. “Strangelove” has an insistent frenetic energy that makes you want to drive a car and drive it fast. The song has the tough girl delivery of the Shangri-Las with the benefit of modern amps and more guitar. 

Like most great Beaches songs they artfully know when to strip away the instrumentation and leave space in the song for a guitar riff here, a drum beat there, alternating from thick arrangements full of power and interludes that let you appreciate the component pieces that make it all happen. Jordan Miller’s vocals are also a star here. Her phrasing is impeccable and her slightly lower register is sweet and tough in equal measure.

“Strangelove” is followed by “Little Pieces” which is thicker and demonstrates the generally more saturated sound on “Heights” compared to some Beaches records. This song is rougher around the edges, but the band still knows how to navigate perfect timing as drum, guitar, vocal and bass come in and exit the mix in a rock and roll symphony.

The next two tracks (“Zsa Zsa”, “The Dance”) also have these qualities but they aren’t quite as hook heavy. The Beaches are so talented at writing catchy rock and roll that when I get songs like these, which have a busier sound, I find myself longing for a bit more separation. They aren’t bad, but they didn’t hold my attention as well as the album’s opening.

The album ends with “Hey, I Love You” which returns the band to form, once again demonstrating their talent for making hook writing seem effortless (note: it is not). “Hey, I Love You” has three or four musical ideas going on and does a solid job of amalgamating them into a thematic whole. Ultimately, I wanted those ideas to drive to a stronger melodic conclusion, but I still enjoyed the journey.

Like most EPs of the “good” kind, “Heights” was over far too soon for my liking, but it had plenty to recommend it. While not as consistent as some of their other EPs, it is a worthy entry in the catalogue of a great band.

Best tracks: Strangelove, Little Pieces

Concert Battle: Pruitt vs Cube

April 22 and 23, 2024

Can there be even MORE content for you this weekend, gentle reader? Yes! This week I saw not one but TWO concerts (and a dance event, but we don’t review dance here so let’s move on).

Rather than review these separately (and since I don’t have either one’s new release) I present…Concert Battle!

Before we get to that know that only a day ago the CD Odyssey had its first ever encounter with…Christian rock! Intrigued by just what the hell I would say about such a record? Simply scroll down after you read Concert Battle! and find out. You will not be disappointed.

And now…Concert Battle! On Monday I saw Katie Pruitt and on Tuesday I saw Ice Cube. Both were great but who was better? Read on!

The contenders:

Name: Katie Pruitt

Style: Indie Folk

Age: 30

Height: Undisclosed (maybe 5'3")

Name: Ice Cube
Style: Hip Hop
Age: 54
Height: 5’8”

Analysis: Pruitt has the age advantage, but Cube has the reach. Fortunately, there will be no fighting involved, rendering this statistic completely irrelevant.

The venue

Capital Ballroom: Built in the 1920s, this iconic hall has had many renos and even more names over the years. It currently holds up to 600 people, but I think that would look very packed indeed. We got some plush seats in a banquette at the back of the room which had a great view after finding our usual balcony spots were grabbed by “others”.

Katie did not fill the venue and I’d say there were maybe 100-150 in attendance. The bathrooms at the Capital are not great, but I was good and dehydrated (by design) and didn’t need to brave them.

Memorial Arena: Built in 2005 (after much political toing and froing), the building holds up to 7,400 but was configured for the show to allow about three quarters of that. It was packed. Like all stadiums, the bathrooms are a true horror show, but again forward planning precluded my attendance to them.

Our seats were stadium seats a ways from the stage but at a very good height and angle for viewing.

Analysis: I will always take a medium sized concert hall over a giant stadium, if only for the sound. Packing the stadium isn’t the deciding factor here.

Winner: Pruitt.

The crowd

Katie Pruitt: Not surprisingly, a generally younger crowd of twenty and thirty-somethings. You could tell they were true fans that were excited to see the show, and the smaller number gave the event a nice intimacy. Everyone was nice, and while there were same loud talkers at the back of the room, they were doing it at the back of the room, which is the right place for such behaviour. Also, they quietened down when Pruitt took the stage, so all good.

Ice Cube: Also a younger crowd of twenty and thirty somethings, which was a bit more surprising given Ice Cube made his most famous music in the eighties and nineties and spent a lot of recent history making movies. This crowd, while young, were not just there for the experience – you got a real sense these folks LOVED Ice Cube.

The folks directly in front of us were particularly awesome. It was two couples about our age and two young women I think must’ve been their daughters. The one “mom” was clearly a hip hop fan from back in the day, knowing every song and hitting the experience HARD.

Mom had raised those two young women right. They knew every song within a few notes, singing along (in time) and dancing with the enthusiasm of true believers who were there to see the show and not just be seen being at a show.

Winner: Ice Cube

The Opener:

Katie Pruitt:

Katie Pruitt’s opener was a young singer-songwriter from Nashville named Jack Van Cleaf who I instantly liked. He sang clear and with the grace of a natural storyteller. The highlight song was called “Cowboy” and sounded a bit like Blue Rodeo’s “5 Days in May” and ended with an artful reference to Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty”.

Also good was “Rattlesnake” with this sweet little lyric:

“Love is like a rattlesnake
Before it bites it tries to warn you.”

Van Cleaf’s band was a trio, where the bass player added in a drum machine as needed. This was not annoying like you might think. Katie Pruitt joined him on stage and did some dueting with him, but I thought he was doing just fine on his own.

Ice Cube:

Ice Cube had a bunch of opening acts. The two hip hop bands were “Peter Jackson” and a guy with the clever name of “Merkules”. Also, we were treated to the DJing of some dude called DJ Young Legend.

DJ Young Legend just played the first third of various hit hip hop tracks from the past thirty years or so and occasionally shouted at the fans to wave their hands around. Many in the crowd seemed to love this, particularly the aforementioned true fans directly in front of us. Watching them enjoy it so much and sing along was much more fun than the actual package of tunes he rolled out. If I wanted to listen to hip hop records, I can do that at home.

Of Peter Jackson and Merkules, I enjoyed Peter Jackson much more. Pretty good flow, and an upbeat vibe. Merkules admitted that his schtick is to take other people’s songs and riff off of them live. This is exactly what he proceeded to do, which I found exactly as derivative as it sounds. Apparently he is well loved by many in the crowd, but I did not get it. In his banter he was genuine and gracious to all the folks that helped him succeed (including his brother, girlfriend and parents). He even brought his parents out on stage to thank them for their support over the years.  I found myself liking him as a person, even though I didn’t enjoy his performance.

The biggest issue I had was all the openers seemed intent on pumping up the crowd with exhortations to “get your hands up!” and “y’all excited about Ice Cube?!?” I don’t like to be told what to do at the best of times, and the hyping went on for the better part of two hours before Ice Cube took the stage. Hype people up with your performance, not with commands.

Winner: Katie Pruitt

The Main Event

Katie Pruitt

Katie Pruitt is one of my favourite singer-songwriters in recent years. Her 2020 album was my favourite of that year, and her new record, “Mantras” is almost as good. This meant she had a lot of great material to work with, despite being only two records into her career.

Pruitt is unassuming on stage, but still commands it, chiefly through her powerhouse vocals. She’s great at moving up and down her range and her songs have melodies that are natural, free and easy. She sang with grace and intensity and connected well with her audience.

She did a good mix between the new album (I’d say about 65%) and the old (35%) and while she didn’t play all my favourites (I really wanted to hear “Georgia”) she played most of them.

Late in the show she unplugged and climbed down into the audience with her guitar to sing without amplification as we all crowded around to hear. Everyone honoured the moment by being still and silent and it was quite lovely indeed. I was moved, literally, abandoning the safety of the banquette to take part in a quiet moment of connection.

Best moment: This came early on with an inspired rendition of “Grace Has a Gun” but she was solid throughout.

Worst moment: Pruitt had a good level of banter, but she went on a bit too long with a schtick using a Magic Eight Ball to answer questions from the audience. No one seemed included to participate and the whole thing was awkward and went on too long.

Best diss song: Katie Pruitt’s music is more about forgiveness and understanding that disses but “White Lies, White Jesus and You” hits the mark as a song that takes aim at those who use religion to judge others. Best line:

“'Cause you talk about forgiveness like a favor
Like it's something that you didn't have to do
Speaking of some things I put behind me
White lies, white Jesus and you”

Mic drop.

Ice Cube

Being 54 years young and having a bunch of children’s movies under his belt have in now way softened Ice Cube. He still hits the rhymes hard and has great flow. He also is fully in command of the crowd. He had the 6,000 or so fans in the palm of his hand from the moment he hit the stage.

Cube has so much good content to draw on, and he digs deep into his catalogue, working N.W.A., his early stuff and his late stuff all into the show equally well. His banter is solid, and felt like quality skits from a rap record in the day, only new.

Overall, I had a good time, but I did have some issues. First, I don’t think in the course of two hours Cube played a single song until the end. He would typically start up a tune, drop the first few verses, but then descend into some sort of crowd participation chant. I don’t know if this is just how he always rolls, but when I saw Run the Jewels they were able to rap full songs, and I was hoping for the same.

Instead, I found myself getting excited about a tune I liked, reveling in the early verses, and then losing interest when I realized the chanting part had taken over and we were about to segue prematurely into another half song. At one point he said “we’re gonna do 4 NWA songs in a row!” to the enthused roar of the crowd. Because of this half-song approach those four songs were wrapped and done in about 10 minutes.

Best moment: Ice Cube was at his best during the banter moments. He has a natural command of the stage, and he was able to rile up the crowd at will. At one point he had opposing sides of the stadium alternating chants of “Party over here – f___ you over there!” which was so fun it was the first and only thing that night that I was told to do, that I did.

Worst moment: “No Vaseline” is a classic tune. Don’t tell me you are going to sing it and then sing two minutes of it. If you are still willing to say all that nasty stuff, then say it all the way through.

Best Diss song: “No Vaseline” is the greatest rap diss track of all time. Ice Cube even named a bunch of other contenders before he performed it, just so he could clarify they were not as good. He was right. “No Vaseline” is the best. I wish I’d heard all of it, but still – it’s brilliant. It is so down and nasty that I can’t in good conscience share any of the lyrics. Go listen yourself if you dare.

Winner: Katie Pruitt

The Merch

Part of a good show is good merch. How did our competitors perform on this front? Let’s see:

Katie Pruitt:

When I went to the merch table initially all that was there were some Jack Van Cleaf shirts. I demurred, not knowing if I’d like him or not. After his set I went back and bought a funky t-shirt celebrating the song “Cowboy”. I also met Jack, who consented to the friendly photo you see above. Very cool!

However, despite a couple of mournful returns, at no point did Katie Pruitt’s merch appear. Nothing. I wanted to buy her new album but…no. I wanted a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion but again…no.

It is annoying enough when the merch table runs out of mediums, but not bringing anything at all? Lame.

Ice Cube:

Ice Cube had a grade A merch table. The lineup to get to it was 40 minutes long, but once you were there you were rewarded. The designs were groovy, the shirts had the tour locations on the back and the tour had a cool name (“Straight Into Canada”).

Of some frustration, my first option was…you guessed it…sold out of mediums. Argh. I bought a large that later turned out to be at least not too large, albeit a bit roomy. It was pricey at $60, but opening act Jack Van Cleaf’s shirt was $45 and only one-sided so…fine.

Winner: Ice Cube

Summary:

Ice Cube takes the categories of both Crowd and Merch, but Pruitt responds with wins of her own in Venue, Opener and the all-important Main Event.

Overall Winner: Katie Pruitt

CD Odyssey Disc 1731: Miss Angie

I had planned to do my comparative concert review of Katie Pruitt vs. Ice Cube this morning, but I find myself inspired (and motivated) to get through the next album instead. Pruitt vs. Cube coming later this weekend!

Disc 1731 is…100 Million Eyeballs

Artist: Miss Angie

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover?  My used copy of this album didn’t come with a cover, and I had to look it up and print one.

Here it is! Miss Angie appears to be thrusting a creepy doll in the viewer’s face. I’m glad the camera is focused on Miss Angie because the blurry image of the doll hints at nightmare fuel.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila bought this (coverless) album for a dollar at a thrift store. You never know what will catch her eye, and she doesn’t research them before her whim guides them into our home.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Miss Angie album, and I doubt I’ll be getting any more, so no stacking.

Rating: 2 stars

As a teenager my only exposure to Christian rock was a metal band called Stryper who got some limited play on MuchMusic’s Power Hour back in the eighties. They wore striped spandex and sang about Christian stuff in a metal style. I thought they sucked.

Several decades later enter Miss Angie, singing Christian rock in that late nineties Muffs style. On my first listen I wasn’t paying close attention and thought she was singing songs about her boyfriend. Nope. These are definitely devotionals.

I am currently watching American Idol, where a contestants recently performed a rock song and advises Ryan Seacrest in the “vote for me” chat afterward that growing up in a religious family she was not allowed to listen to rock music. The idea that you tell your teenagers they can’t listen to an entire style of music is both foreign and anathema to me. My mom let me shout at the devil all I wanted, and I turned out just fine.

For those unfortunates with Tipper Gore style moms, Stryper and Miss Angie provide an opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of rock and roll they would otherwise be denied, and I guess that’s something.

In the case of “100 Million Eyeballs” you get a pretty derivative sounding record square in the late nineties “loud production” movement. Miss Angie works in some sugary pop sensibilities here and there (which help the dynamics of the record) but for the most part these are straight ahead bangers, crunchy guitar, and Miss Angie singing about her faith.

The songs aren’t terrible but they are largely forgettable. Her voice is OK, and the band is tight and professional, but it sounds like any number of other of dozens of late nineties radio friendly rock bands of the time. At times it felt like the producer was ticking off all the ways nineties rock and roll could sound and putting a song on to represent each.

It was so “of its time” that I imagine parents across the land rushed into their teen’s bedrooms, determined to shut down the accursed rock and roll before anyone got hurt. Said teens would have sat said parents down and showed them the liner notes, and all would have been well. Those teens who bought the album used at a thrift store without liner notes would’ve been shit out of luck, of course. Such are the vicissitudes of fate…

But I digress.

Back to the record, which I’ll give credit for being delightfully weird in places. You get the impression that Miss Angie is not afraid to explore every nook and cranny of the bible. For every straightforward “spread the love” type song you might expect, there is another where she’s off into some delightfully creepy chapter. Best of these is the title track, which features lyrics that would make Lovecraft proud:

“Something to see now is those who are His
Living ones with different heads
Six wings
One hundred eyeballs
Day and night they never stop singing...”

Something to see, indeed. I’m not up on my bible like Miss Angie is and this stuff sent me down an internet search for just what she’s referencing, and whether I should be concerned. I never 100% landed on either, but my best guess is it’s the depiction of the Cherubim angels in Ezekiel Chapter 10. Couldn’t confirm if those angels had four or six wings, but they are covered in eyeballs. Whatever the case, kudos for finding some truly odd stuff that would give you smug satisfaction when you finally convinced mom that the song was a bible story and therefore “allowed”.

I am not a Christian, and I generally don’t enjoy being preached at, but I do believe in the freedom of musicians to make music about whatever inspires them most. If you listen to Ghost, you’ll hear them sing about how much they like Satan (a lot). If you listen to Miss Angie, you’ll hear how much she likes God (a lot). Both are fine. Denying yourself an artistic experience because you don’t agree with the artist’s message is a pretty stupid and limiting way to approach music.

Sadly, in the case of Miss Angie, I wasn’t inspired by the music. Also, songs like “100 Million Eyeballs” notwithstanding, much of the time the lyrics were not very creative, despite having one of the world’s most universally known books to draw from.

So I’ll let this album return to whence it came, slightly upgraded with my homemade album cover. You’re welcome, next purchaser, and good luck with the parents…

Best tracks: 100 Million Eyeballs, Super Busy

CD Odyssey Disc 1730: The Chats

Whew! What a week it has been. In addition to a LOT of work commitments, I managed to take in two concerts in two days – Katie Pruitt on Monday and Ice Cube on Tuesday. Coming soon to A Creative Maelstrom…a review of both shows at once! For now, here’s the album that’s been serenading my journey in between work and events.

Disc 1730 is…The First Two EPs by the Chats

Artist: The Chats

Year of Release: 2016 and 2017

What’s up with the Cover?  Drawings from the first two EPs by the Chats. On the left we have a woman giving us the finger, meaning two of three Chats album covers featuring someone telling viewers to F off. That’s punk for ya.

How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed 2022’s “Get Fucked” my friend Nick discovered the Chat through a song called “Smoko”. That song is off their second EP “Get This In Ya!!” which is one half of this combo record. Based on that I simply had to have this record and ordered it forthwith through my good friends at Bandcamp.

How It Stacks Up: Technically this is two EPs (self-titled and “Get This In Ya!!”) but since the Chats saw fit to repackage it as a single LP, I’ll count it. That leaves me with three Chats albums, all excellent. I’ll put this EP collection in at #3.  In this case finishing last is no dishonour.

Rating: 4 stars

14 songs, 32 furious and fast minutes, and you’ll enjoy every single moment. That’s what you get from the Chats First Two EPs. These three blokes are one of the best modern punk bands around. On these two early records, you get to hear them explore punk from a lot of different angles, all of them awesome.

The influences here are many, and you’ll hear the ghosts of the Dead Kennedys, the Sex Pistols, Black Flag and even the Dead Milkmen on various tracks. Despite all these influences the Chats never sound derivative. They are fresh and full of restless energy, directed into finding new interpretations of two chords and an angry truth.

The Chats are Australian and wear their oi oi oi o their sleeves, with the record featuring so much authentic Down Under slang I needed the urban dictionary in places. We are treated to plenty of songs about being Down and Out in Queensland. On the opening record we have the troubling challenge of “Mum Stole My Darts” (smokes) and later in the same song, Dad stealing your weed.

The first EP/side ends on a positive note with “VB Anthem” a love song that serenades Victoria Bitter, a mass produced Australian beer. Its principal quality appears to be that it costs “40 bucks a slab”. Yeah, good times roll – fuelled by cheap beer! “VB Anthem” shows its love through the sheer amount of time dedicated to its frothy subject as well. At 3:43 it is practically an epic by Chats standards.

These may have been originally intended as two shorter albums, but they work very well as a “Side One/Side Two” with the eponymous debut raw and garage-like, and the follow up “Get This In Ya!!” more rounded and loaded with surfer punk vibes. They’re different but compliment each other well. On my first listen I wasn’t sure about the thicker, less industrial sounding second record, but it grew on me and pretty soon I was enjoying the transition between the records just as much as their individual charms.

The second record starts with the Chats classic hit, “Smoko”. There is simply nothing wrong with this perfect song, from its killer bass riff opening, to its Dead Kennedy’s style guitar whine, all the way to Eamon Sandwith’s angry drawl as he recounts various characters telling all comers to leave him alone, while he is on “Smoko”. This means coffee break, Australian style.

The Chats present as degenerates but they’re sneaky smart. In “Smoko” the twist comes in the second verse where our narrator can’t get through to learn the fate of his Centrelink (aka social assistance) check only to find the clerk assigned to help him is – you guessed it – on smoko. Goose, meet gander.

Later on “Bus Money” we find our narrator walking home, having spent all his money on cigarettes (darts), beer (brews) and lottery tickets (scratchies).  Few bands capture the desperate anger of being broke like the Chats, and while there is some humour infused into these songs there is also a ragged and raw frustration that if you’ve ever been chronically broke, is instantly recognizable.

These EPs are so good it would almost be a shame to hear them individually. They’d both be over far too soon. Combined, they are greater than the sum of their parts and a wholly awesome journey into some oft the best punk music you’ll find.

Best tracks: Mum Stole My Darts, Don’t Stop the Blues, VB Anthem, Smoko, Bus Money

CD Odyssey Disc 1729: Marvin Gaye

Today I am in the universally unpleasant circumstance of having to work for a portion of what should be a day off. However, all work and no play makes one a dull boy, so before I dive in I am determined to provide you, gentle readers, with another music review.

Disc 1729 is…Dream of a Lifetime

Artist: Marvin Gaye

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover?  Giant Head Cover! Marvin Gaye’s giant head, which makes a significant amount of sense.

This is also an early CD release, which you can tell by the requirement of the picture to clearly warn you this is a "COMPACT DISC". This is not your parent's 45 single in a new plastic case, people, this is the technology of the future!

How I Came To Know It: I already had a couple of Marvin Gaye’s famous records from the early seventies, but this one arrived via Sheila, who bought it on a whim while shopping in a thrift store. She’s taken to thrift store CD purchases that look good, interesting, or just plain weird. I love this development and the additional chaos it brings to the CD Odyssey. Many more of these to come in future reviews.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Marvin Gaye albums. I don’t love any of them, but I’m going to assume the early classics have a leg up on this one. I put “Dream of a Lifetime” in at #3.

Rating: 2 stars

Listening to a Marvin Gaye record is a lot like listening to Megadeth. Not from a musical style perspective, mind you. I mean that both artists tend to have one or two awesome songs and a whole lot of filler.

This is true even of early Marvin Gaye classics that feature such incredible songs as “Let’s Get It On” and “What’s Goin’ On” and the tradition carries forward onto his first posthumous record, 1985’s “Dream of a Lifetime”.

Marvin Gaye seems to really “rise” to the occasion when he’s feeling sexy, and “Dream of a Lifetime” two best songs both delve right in.

The record starts with an apparently moralistic song, with “Sanctified Lady”. Gaye describes a plethora of sexual identities and proclivities before settling on his desire for a “Sanctified Lady”. I assume this means a 'good girl', although given the relish the Gaye lays out the various and sundry other possibilities, and the sexy back beat accompanying said options, I find his ultimate appeal for a nice chaste girl less than believable.

Gaye doubles down on the dirty with “Masochistic Beauty,” a song that explores a kinky sexual encounter. This song is so explicit that the producers felt compelled to put a pre-Tipper Gore warning label on the back of the album that reads, ““This compact disc contains lyrical content that may be considered offensive to some listeners” (yes, it is underlined). Gaye creates the smallest bit of plausible separation from the topic by affecting an English accent and an almost theatrical  spoken word delivery but otherwise spares neither the rod nor the word. If you’re looking for an 18^th century style metaphorically inspired song of romance, taste and subtlety, this song is not for you. You will find no double entendres here.

Where the record most notably differs from Gaye’s early seventies work is in the production and arrangement. The album relies heavily on organ and synthesizer in place of horn section. I thought I would hate this, but Gaye manages to make the transition without losing any of the funky groove that defines his style.

Unfortunately, Gaye also doesn’t shy away from his other tradition – long meandering songs that are more focused on a notional groove than any artistic direction. Be prepared to let your mind wander around through seven plus minute songs like “Life’s Opera” that earnestly go in a lot of directions but never arrive at a satisfactory destination.

It won’t sound like the Marvin Gaye most people are familiar with at first, but underneath you’ll find the record is still, at its core, a soul record. A soul record best performed on a space station with a few visits from Barbarella thrown in, but a soul record nonetheless.

Best tracks: Sanctified Lady, Masochistic Beauty

CD Odyssey Disc 1728: Mandolin Orange

Over the weekend Sheila and I celebrated our anniversary. We traditionally buy each other shoes (yes, this happened). This year I also bought myself a gift in the form of…fancy new headphones!

Better than any gift though, is spending all the great years with my best friend and the love of my life. Here’s to you, Sheila!

Disc 1728 is…Such Jubilee

Artist: Mandolin Orange

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover?  After the sun set we looked for a place of shelter other than under the expansive night sky. “Oh, look”, we exclaimed, “there’s a not-creepy-at-all farmhouse over there. That looks safe!”

How I Came To Know It: I think I read a review for “Blindfaller” (reviewed back at Disc 1064) and drilled backward from there.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Mandolin Orange albums and this one comes it at #2, just behind the peerless excellence that is “Blindfaller”. This is the last review of Mandolin Orange albums in my collection (for now) and so here’s a recap:

1. Blindfaller: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 1064)
2. Such Jubilee: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. Tides of a Teardrop/Sing and Play Traditionals: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1274)

Rating: 4 stars

If you are eager for a memorable first listen on a new set of headphones, you can’t do much better than “Such Jubilee”, folk/bluegrass duo Mandolin Orange’s fourth album and easily one of their best.

Mandolin Orange is Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz; multi-instrumentalists and gifted vocalists who lay down thoughtful soundscapes that are as beautiful and natural as the flow of a creek through a stand of fir trees. Like being deep in the woods, the feeling you will get is one of majestic isolation. A place where life quietens down and your ears open up to a constellation of sound.

In this case, the constellations are traditional bluegrass instrumentation, played with an ease and gentleness that blows over you like a chinook wind, warm and refreshing. This is the temple of the mid-range and natural. Inside a calm will descend over you, your soul restored.

The first thing you will pick up from Mandolin Orange is the sublime playing. Unsurprisingly, the mandolin work is as good as you will hear in this world or any other. If there are mandolins in heaven, they will sound like how Andrew Marlin plays one on this record. In lesser bluegrass configurations, the mandolin is a glorified timekeeper, but on “Such Jubilee” it is multifaceted, simultaneously holding down the beat while starring in the melody.

Frantz is no slouch on the violin either, brilliant and perfectly placed. Then there is the banjo (Marlin again) and some sublime guitar work (both of them). How the hell each of these two can master even one of these instruments at this level is boggling, never mind two or three.

But what I like most about this record is how everything is played with such a carefree and unhurried way. These songs dance in your ears like fireflies on a summer night, winking on and off. It isn’t just the new headphones talking here, either – I went for a run today and listened on decidedly average earbuds designed for sport over sound. It was still great. Maybe not quite as arrestingly beautiful but still noticeably great.

The vocals of both Marlin and Frantz are both excellent. Neither of them sings with big power, choosing instead to match their approach to their playing style. Understated, and graceful, they each take the lead from time to time, or sing in harmony, as each song’s structure demands.

Lyrically, the songs also have a pastoral quality, with many songs hearkening back to memory, sometimes of events and other times just a mood or emotional experience. The best narrative is captured on “Rounder”, a song about a rough and careless criminal passing his final night before being hanged. The song is replete with understated and evocative imagery. My favourite lines:

“I wore my pride on my bad side
And on the other get my hand close by the trigger
Some folks are guided by the weight of their tongues
But we all fall silent at the end of a gun”

While not all the songs are as literal as “Rounder” many cover resignation and heartache, exploring them with that slow and relaxed roll that lets you approach hard thoughts free and easy, making you ready to confront your demons or make peace with them as occasion allows.

The only bad word to say about “Such Jubilee” is that it isn’t quite “Blindfaller” but there’s no shame in that. Taken together these two albums are must-have works of grace and beauty.

Best tracks: Old Ties and Companions, Little World, Rounder, That Wrecking Ball, Of Which There Is No Like

CD Odyssey Disc 1727: Sunny War

Earlier today I shared my favourite albums of 2023 with someone. This next record was not on that list.

Disc 1727 is…Anarchist Gospel

Artist: Sunny War

Year of Release: 2023

What’s up with the Cover?  I’m not sure if I should smile at this cover or just stare at it steely-eyed. It appears the cover is experiencing the same indecision with regard to me.

How I Came To Know It: The usual way – I read a review and gave it a listen. In retrospect, I should’ve given it two listens. Instead, I bought it.

How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Sunny War album, so it can’t stack up.

Rating: 2 stars

Unrealized promise is the phrase the comes to mind on this album. It is that promise that drew me to “Anarchist Gospel” on the first listen. Various  elements hint at a lot of cool sonic and songwriting innovation. Sunny War mixes blues, rock and folk in a way that you don’t hear very often, and for a tired old music hound like me, innovation is a good way to get my attention.

The record is eclectic, with a potpourri of song experimentation. This I have no quarrel with. The record is replete with “hey, I’m trying this!” moments that are initially admirable. Ms. War (the album has lots of guest stars, but War is a solo artist) draws on many musical traditions. She also has a versatile voice that lets her adjust style to best suit what she’s drawing on.

Often, the idea she is exploring feels like a fully realized fragment. She takes a repetitive phrase – both in terms of music and lyrics – that folds in on itself in an effort to first set a mood and then settle into that mood for a lengthy stay. When done well, it feels great. “I Got No Fight” is a great example, a sad and weary number where she steps down through a bone-wearying melody, accompanied by some stellar work on guitar. The song doesn’t go anywhere, but it sits down in the pocket of its own sadness so well you are content to wallow.

Many other songs try a similar “rinse and repeat” approach, but most don’t come close to achieving the standard of “I Got No Fight”. Instead, most made me restless and a little bored before they were half over. “Sweet Nothing” is the worst offender, with a very-often repeated phrase that spins on itself for north of seven minutes. I kind of liked the first couple of minutes, but by the time I was halfway through I was wishing for a bit more sweet and bit less nothing. The guitar work is still great, but here it feels aimless, like a musician just picking away idly while lost in thought, as opposed to writing a song with a beginning, middle and an end.

I should note at this point that I like my songs to have those component parts. Sunny War songs feel like they have a lot of “middle” but are missing starts and ends. If a bit of mood music, extrapolated inward is your bag, then this will not be a negative for you. For me I just wanted something to fucking happen.

My reaction to “Anarchist Gospel” was a lot more strongly negative than the record deserves for this reason. What Sunny War is doing, she is doing well, I just wanted her to get on with full structure. You know how Rush annoys some people the way they insist on moving through multiple riffs and concepts in a single song? Well Sunny War is the opposite, she moves through one concept only, and does it very slowly.

This record is 14 songs and 50 minutes but it feels a whole lot longer, and I was ready to be done long before it was. All the cool concepts and artful guitar playing in the world isn’t enough on their own. Similarly many songs have great phrases, but they are used to evoke emotion only, and rarely unfold into broader concepts or stories. One deeply held idea, mercilessly explored, is what you can expect.

There’s every likelihood other people will like this album better than I did, but for me I think the three songs in “best tracks” is all I need. Or as Sunny War sings on “Hopeless”, “I stayed just a little too long/now it’s time for me to move on.”

Indeed it is.

Best tracks: No Reason, I Got No Fight, Baby Bitch

CD Odyssey Disc 1726: Katy Kirby

It was a long hard day at the office, and I followed it up with some volunteer work for good measure. The combination has left me a bit knackered. Fortunately, one of the best pick-me-ups from a knackering is new music. I’ve been using this method now for fifteen years (yes, I’ve been doing this that long) and it hasn’t failed me yet.

Disc 1726 is…Cool Dry Place

Artist: Katy Kirby

Year of Release: 2021

What’s up with the Cover?  What is worse here, the outfit or the posture? Both suggest a lot of laziness, but only one of them is going to give Kirby back trouble later in life.

In addition to bad outfit and posture choices, Katy has decided to stand in a field of cacti. While this is demonstrably a “cool, dry place” it is also a prickly one.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review of this album and it sounded sufficiently intriguing for me to check out. I liked what I heard and so…here we are.

How It Stacks Up: Katy Kirby is a relatively new artist, and only has two albums so far. I have them both and put “Cool Dry Place” at #2.

Rating: 3 stars

A number of years ago I had a cat who was a bit of a yowler. He voiced how he felt about whatever was going on with him, or whatever was going on near him, and he did it with little grace. He was black, but I trow he had a fair bit of Siamese in him. When he was particularly off his rocker, I’d give him a snuggle and whisper “true beauty enters only the quietest of souls”. This usually did not work.

Listening to Katy Kirby reminds me of that whisper. She sings in a light, atmospheric kind of way that leaves your heart rested and full. It isn’t the best for driving, working out or generally anything that doesn’t provide close and quiet attention, but it is lovely.

Kirby’s music is an indie folk/pop crossover. She’s similar to Samia and any number of other artists in this style that evidently appeals to me, because I keep buying them. Early on in my journey through this record I was regretting this decision. I was in the car, and then working out, and just not feeling it (see above as to why). However, over time I reminded myself to quieten my soul and listen and sure enough, it revealed its beauty to me.

When “Cool Dry Place” is working, it envelopes you in its whimsy like a wispy summer cloud. One of those high up cirrus numbers. The music has upbeat melodies, saturated with arrangements that are layered and relaxed. Imagine all the album sounds are that part of an outdoor festival a bit back from the stage but still within earshot; still lots of stuff going on, but room in between to sway a bit and catch some sun.

“Traffic!” is a good example. This song bounces along with an easy joy. This ain’t Jimi Hendrix-style urgent traffic, this is the kind of traffic for when you’ve got the top down, and you’re in no particular hurry to be anywhere, perfectly happy to wave at pedestrians, let two or three cars merge in front of you and enjoy the stereo a bit.

The title track is also a standout, featuring the top end of Kirby’s sweet and breathy vocals. This song has the gentle sway you’d want from a tune that is, at its heart, a tremulous expression of love. It is a song that invites the question “do you like me, and if you do, what will happen next?” It reflects a fair bit of uncertainty but it does it from a place of curiosity that makes it hard to be afraid of what’s next. More nervously excited.

When the album isn’t going well, it can fall into the saccharine. Songs like “Fireman” are a bit too twee, even for Kirby’s perfectly-suited vocals to pull off. “Secret Language” riffs off of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” but that promising start is not realized. Instead, it loses focus, and gets drowned in production choices that are a bit too dreamy to hold your attention.

While the record is uneven, it never offends, and shows Kirby’s promise and talent throughout. It is hard to listen to this record and not feel a bit more chilled out when you’re done and sometimes that’s just what you need. I give it three stars, hold the yowls.

Best tracks: Traffic!, Portals, Cool Dry Place

CD Odyssey Disc 1725: Cheekface

Welcome to the weekend! Let’s get rolling with the first review of an album released in 2024.

If you’re thinking, “wouldn’t it be better if you reviewed albums that are more current more often” then you are not embracing the “pick the next record at random” concept at the heart of this journey we’re on.

Disc 1725 is…It’s Sorted

Artist: Cheekface

Year of Release: 2024

What’s up with the Cover?  A typical Cheekface album cover featuring quirky artwork with pastel colours. Here we have every home’s most beloved appliance, the coffee maker. I’m having a coffee right now, in fact, from a coffee maker not at all unlike the one depicted here.

This reminds me of the time I was staying in Florence and I was in the hotel café looking for a coffee when I stumbled into the back to see the proprietor brewing drip coffee. In Italy. We locked eyes. His filled with shame of guilty discovery. Mine with accusatory horror. Then the caffeine addiction regained control and I said, “I’ll have a coffee please.” No other words were exchanged.

As it happens, it was the only bad coffee I had my entire time in Italy, leading me to the conclusion that this man’s crimes were reassuringly rare.

But I digress…

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a fan of Cheekface since I first heard their 2021 album, “Emphatically No”. This was me buying their latest. They don’t do CD releases, so I buy a download (which comes with the aforementioned album cover) and make my own. For my own use only, Cheekface!

How It Stacks Up: I have three Cheekface albums and I like them all relatively equally, but you aren’t reading this section for equivocation. I’ll put this one…second…for now. OK, yeah, there’s some equivocation but the reality is this the first review and like the first flight of skaters, the judge needs a little wiggle room.

Rating: 4 stars

Enjoy listening to Cake but wish they sounded more emotionally distant? Then you will like Cheekface, a band that takes Cake’s ironic detachment/catchy hook combo and ramps it up to 11, salting in a few dozen clever turns of phrase along the way.

This will not be for everyone. Like Cake’s John McCrea, Greg Katz has a flat half-spoken delivery to his singing style. However, also like McCrea, Katz’s phrasing is immaculate. Cheekface writes songs that are crisp and full of jump that sit down in the pocket in a way that would be unforgiving of any error in timing. Fortunately, this band is sharp as fuck. They never miss the beat and lay everything down from drum to guitar to (frequent) hand claps without ever hitting a snag.

The songs are very easy to groove to, but it helps if you enjoy clever lyrics as well. If so, no one turns a phrase that makes you both smile and think like Cheekface. The topics are often about the decay of Western culture, and while they sing in that detached kind of way, underneath their message is exhorting you to break out of suburban box-house thinking and, well, be weird.

“Popular 2” is a song about how we are all online, even to the point that neighbourhoods start to resemble reality TV with all the people with porch cams. Our narrator in the tune embraces (ironically, of course) the celebrity of it all:

“I just want to be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch
Your across the street neighbor walks his dog on TV
The future is now, unfortunately
And if I'm never ever gonna be alone, here in my community neighborhood home
Then I wanna be popular to watch
In the movie you put on from the camera on your porch”

Reading those lyrics won’t do “Popular 2” justice, however. This song is funky as hell and a great listen. Also, Cheekface is one of those bands that are fun to sing along with. Partly because you don’t need a lot of vocal range to do so, and partly because once you know what comes next and can hit the timing, you can feel just as clever as Katz when you land the punchlines. Every massive pop song has this, but “It’s Sorted” has the experience on songs that are so weird they will never be huge pop songs. That doesn’t mean you can enjoy them the same way.

Sometimes “It’s Sorted” strays over the line from “super entertaining smart guy you met on the porch of a party” to “guy who is hard to relate to because everything is a meme”. The line is fuzzy and shifts a lot, but here’s an example of being over it from “There Were Changes in the Hardcore Scene”:

“I hate to send mixed messages
I love to send mixed messages”

Get it? Get it? Yes, Cheekface, we get it. Fortunately, the song is so good you forgive them their un-killed darlings.

Cheekface puts a Miracle Max style chocolate coating on their messages to make them go down easier, but underneath it all they have a punk sensibility, and are not averse to expressing frustration with society. “Don’t Stop Believing” is the most melodic song on the record, and also the darkest. It is better if you have the lyrics of the Journey song of the same name going on in the background of your head.

Like most Cheekface tunes, they’re better if you are thinking about them, thinking about something else at the same time, and drawing connections to a couple other things when the mood strikes. Don’t worry, the songs are catchy and this will not interfere with your ability to groove, dance, and sing along.

Best tracks: The Fringe, Popular 2, I Am Continuing to Do My Thing, Don’t Stop Believing, Plastic

CD Odyssey Disc 1724: Emily Fairlight

Welcome back to the CD Odyssey, where we continue our journey into the Indie folk scene. This time visiting…New Zealand!

Disc 1724 is…Mother of Gloom

Artist: Emily Fairlight

Year of Release: 2018

What’s up with the Cover?  Looks like someone getting home in what may not be a great frame of mind (as evidenced by the floor-up camera angle, and the unkempt hair streaming, Grudge-like in front of her face).

Could be depression, drunkenness or just that crippling thought box artistic types suffer periodically. None of these are good, but at least the last one can sometimes result in a song or a painting like that one hanging to the left of the bookshelf.

Or it could be a clever visual homage to the Martha Wainwright song the album pulls its name from “Bloody Motherf**king Ass****” where she sings:

“And the mother of gloom
In your bedroom standing over your head”

If you are wondering how it feels to have the mother of gloom doing that, this picture is a good visual approximation, fairly summarized as “not good”.

How I Came To Know It: At first I had forgotten, but a quick Google search of the likely suspects reveals a Paste Magazine article called “10 Folk Artists You Need to Know in 2019” which reminded me.

Other folk artists on that list you will find in my collection because of this article include: Lula Wiles, Molly Tuttle and the Honey Dewdrops. What about the other six? I would’ve checked them out back in the day, but their absence means they didn’t inspire me the same.

How It Stacks Up: I have not enjoyed other Emily Fairlight albums the same as I do this one. As a result, unlike Lula Wiles, Molly Tuttle or the Honey Dewdrops, this is my only album by her. As such, it cannot stack up.

Rating: 3 stars but almost 4

Some voices just have the night in them, and that’s the case with New Zealand indie folk chanteuse Emily Fairlight. Hardly a surprise from an album titled “Mother of Gloom”, but she lives up to the moniker.

As noted in the cover art teaser, “Mother of Gloom” is a reference to a line from the Martha Wainwright song and this record has gloom to spare. Fairlight’s dusky rasp, and the way she writes songs that constantly stumble their melodies down into emotional depths bring you to a moody but welcome introspection.

Paired with her affecting vocals, she paints with vivid and stark imagery. On “Drag the Night In” she sings:

“Mountains fall into the ocean
The setting sun is in full motion
So drags the night in
So drags the night in
This life inside me drags the night in”

Don’t despair too much, however – the next verse has the wind dragging the light in. Things are mysterious and gloomy, but it is the kind of gloom that wraps around like a blanket, insulating you from the harsh realities of the world around you. Art as armour.

When things do get a bit upbeat they take on an unexpected Spanish flair, with horns and accordion. Not celebratory exactly, but more the restless energy of a circus or a parade. These aren’t my favourite songs, but I welcomed them as a timely juxtaposition to the grimmer selections.

My main criticism of the record is the saturation of sound in the production. The music gives you a pleasant underwater feeling, but all the extra arrangements and sounds makes the water choppy, like a riptide pulling you out a bit more roughly than is comfortable.

The other challenge with this record is more of a feature than a bug; it demands an immersive listening experience. This means it suffers in the car or the gym, but lives for the depths of a good headphone immersion. In those other places it refuses to reveal its subtle art. However, if you’re willing to settle in and fully commit to a good wallow, you will be glad you did.

Best tracks: Drag the Night In, Private Apocalypse, Sinking Ship, Nurture the Wild