CD Odyssey Disc 1740: Marissa Nadler

After three reviews of early nineties records, I’m now on a 2020s streak of three, and maybe counting. Here’s the latest in the string.

Disc 1740 is…The Path of the Clouds

Artist: Marissa Nadler

Year of Release: 2021

What’s up with the Cover?  The bewitching beauty of Marisssa Nadler. Even on a cover that looks like a bootlegged black and white photocopy of the original (n.b. this is the original) Nadler still looks amazing.

Maybe the grey-out effect is because she’s in one of the clouds referenced in the album title. Or maybe she’s a ghost. The latter suggestion would not surprise me.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a Marissa Nadler fan since 2018, and this was me buying her latest record when it came out. I bought this album from Bandcamp, which is a great way to support independent artists.

How It Stacks Up: I have eight Marissa Nadler records. I like them all, but competition is fierce for my affections, and “The Path of the Clouds” could only land at #7, displacing “Little Hells” in the process.

Rating: 3 stars

Marissa Nadler started out in 2004 making spooky indie folk records. 17 years later, “the Path of the Clouds” provides a spooky folk record with a whole lot of extra production. So much so that it may no longer be folk, but when I ask myself “just what the hell is this night-tinged wonderland?” the only answer coming back at me is “folk”.

That answer lies buried under many more layers of sound than you would have encountered early in Nadler’s career, but the bones are still there. Given Nadler’s penchant for Gothic murder ballads, actual bones are not unexpected.

Case in point the first song on the record, “Bessie Did You Make it?” a song about…well…it’s a mystery. The opening stanza sets it up:

“In 1928, Glen and Bessie met their fate
From Twin Falls down the Colorado
In a handmade canoe, what happened to these two?
Is up to who you ask, but full of sorrow”

And despite various eyewitness accounts, supposition and some bones in an old boathouse, you just never know. Something terrible, dark and tragically compelling is all we’re sure of.

We’re sure of that much because Nadler’s ethereal, breathy vocals tell us tales that only the ghosts of past tragedy could evoke. Listening to Nadler is like following a will-o-the-wisp into a swamp; diffuse, dangerous and irresistible.

“The Path of the Clouds” never again lands the same level of excellence as this first-rate opener, but there are other moments worth recommending. “Couldn’t Have Done the Killing” somehow manages to make its refrain of “leave your weapons at the door” about as menacing as a weaponless room can be. You get the impression that minus guns and knives, the room in question has weapons aplenty for those who take a misstep. Couldn’t have done the killing…yeah right. When it comes to a Nadler song, someone could always have done the killing.

There is a lot of atmospheric quality to the record, and while songs tend to blend one into the other, they’re intended to do exactly that. Listening to “The Path of Clouds” is like a midnight swim in the ocean. It is the vastness of all that liquid space that creates the appeal, not any specific landmark that might distract you by day.

Listening to Marissa Nadler “singles” takes away from this magic immersive quality, and I was glad to be trapped with the record for a number of listens. While I sometimes wished for a starker, stripped-down production, over time I came to appreciate that the ambience was a feature, not a bug. On earlier records she lands the balance a bit better, and I found the low end a bit too light in the mix to hold the record in balance, but overall it was a minor quibble.

Over repeat listens I progressively let go of preconceived notions on where each instrument should be in the mix. The record is better when you surrender to this vibe and let yourself sink through the subtlety of it all. Start with Nadler’s high head voice up there in the path of the clouds and sink through the instruments to low bass notes that rumble in the deep like a drowned ghost, moaning and demanding to be heard and loved again.

Best tracks: Bessie Did You Make It?, Couldn’t Have Done the Killing, Lemon Queen 

CD Odyssey Disc 1739: Gorillaz

There is a ten year gap since I reviewed my last record by this next band. That could’ve just been the randomness of the dice but it wasn’t. It’s been 14 years since they released a record I liked enough to buy. Let’s explore the record that brought me back to the fold…sort of.

Disc 1738 is…Cracker Island

Artist: Gorillaz

Year of Release: 2023

What’s up with the Cover?  The Gorillaz hanging out in front a creepy shack. I imagine them as being the weird locals that live in a shed adjacent to a campground. Everyone reminds their kids not to wander over there. “It’s not part of the park, honey, bad people live there.”

They aren’t really bad people, just a weird cult that practices the dark arts and tries to summon dread Cthulhu. Kids do wander over onto the property from time to time, but most of the time they return unharmed. Most of the time.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila is the Gorillaz fan in the house, and introduced me to their eponymous debut as well as their second (and best) record, “Demon Days”. Since then I’ve dabbled based on how much I’ve liked the album. It’s been since 2010 since I was intrigued enough to buy them but last year I decided “Cracker Island” was sufficiently over the line to give it a go.

How It Stacks Up: I have four of the Gorillaz eight studio albums. “Cracker Island” comes fourth of those. Here’s the full recap since I’ve once again exhausted all the Gorillaz albums currently in the house.

1. Demon Days: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 138)
2. Plastic Beach: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 656)
3. Self-Titled: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 74)
4. Cracker Island: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

Rating: 2 stars

It’s true that the Gorillaz electronica lounge funk is not generally in my wheelhouse. I’m sure this impacts my overall impressions of all their records but hey, it’s my music blog. I’m sure you can find other blogs where electronic lounge funk is totally the writer’s jam, and you can go read those blogs if you are so inclined. They won’t be as good, of course.

Back to the record, where the consistently best thing are the beats. Gorillaz have a natural talent for creating dope beats. Beats that sink you into a relaxing groove in the same way you collapse into a bean-bag chair, slow and comfortable. The production is excellent, generating a crisp sound with heavier bass than I would like, but not so much as to be offensive.

The result of all of this is that even weaker songs are still listenable. You can just groove along with that beat and all will be well. Lyrically, none of the songs are even remotely as interesting as the beat and a lot of the other musical elements are equally just meh, but there are notable exceptions that rise above.

The first of these is the title track, which is a straight up dance banger. You will hear this song and you will want to immediately go to Cracker Island and dance your ass off until the sun rises. This song is all about the joy of the rave. Will your kids go missing while you’re there? Relax, and just tell them to steer clear of that hole in the floor of the centre of the shed and it’s all good. Most of the time.

I also dug “New Gold”. Like a lot of hip hop bands, Gorillaz invite a lot of guests to collaborate on their records. Here they invite Tame Impala and rapper Bootie Brown. I usually dislike Tame Impala but whatever they are doing on “New Gold” it is working. This song is funky as hell and the chorus has a delightful “arms in the air” vibe. As for Bootie Brown, consider me converted. Old school flow that jumps with lively energy from bar to bar in a way that makes you think you’re going to tip over from all the forward leaning beat. But you don’t. Bootie’s got you, baby.

My last favourite is “Possession Island”. This one is not a dance tune, unless maybe a slow dance (anyone miss the art of the slow dance at clubs? I do…). This song is stripped down to piano, strings and the welcome and well-suited guest vocals of Beck. This song will fill your soul with the kind of sorrow so artful, you’ll be glad to be sad. Lovely stuff. Do I love the mariachi elements that get introduced in the last minute? Reader I do not, but the song is so good overall I forgave this bit of excess.

In the end, these three songs were enough to hold my attention throughout (it helps that they are spread out at the beginning, middle and end of the record). The other songs faded into one another and left me bored, but it was never too long until a good one came along. Very similar to my Beach Bunny review, but this time just over the keep-it line.

Best tracks: Cracker Island, New Gold, Possession Island

CD Odyssey Disc 1738: Beach Bunny

I waxed my car over the long weekend and woke up the next day reminded of muscles I’d forgotten I’d had, complaining that they’d been given a task they hadn’t been trained for. Or put another way, I’m sore. The car looks great though.

Today’s review finally breaks the death grip the early nineties have held on the selection recently, returning to the relatively modern times of 2022.

Disc 1738 is…Emotional Creature

Artist: Beach Bunny

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  Dr. Manhattan scores again. I wonder if Beach Bunny lead singer Lili Trifilio minds that Dr. Manhattan might be using his mastery of space and time to lovingly hold the hands and face of innumerable other women simultaneously as he holds hers! Maybe he’s building a glass mansion on Mars as well! That Dr. Manhattan gets around, Lili.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Beach Bunny through their first full length LP, “Honeymoon” in 2020. “Emotional Creature” is their second, and this was me giving it a go.

How It Stacks Up: I have both of Beach Bunny’s LPs and one of their six EPs (apparently they love EPs). In a moment of whimsy, I have decided that I shall count the one EP in this stacking exercise. The result for “Emotional Creature” is that it falls to #3. 

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

I’d like to describe how Beach Bunny is reinventing the pop rock genre in a way never seen before, but they aren’t doing that. This is middle of the road indie pop music, straight, no chaser. Expect a general four piece of vox, guitar, bass and drums, played a little over the line of “busy” that my clean-production sensibilities don’t usually appreciate but was fine with…this time.

Fortunately, while Beach Bunny aren’t breaking new ground, what they do they do well. The band is tight to the degree that even the noisier bits I wanted to dismiss come off well. You can play dense music, folks, just do it well. It helps that there aren’t a lot of post-production tricks going on here. Beach Bunny is rock and roll through and through, and they wear their garage-band origins on their sleeves.

Don’t expect instant hit hooks a la Olivia Rodrigo or Taylor Swift, but that’s not what Beach Bunny is about. Do expect melodies that refuse to take the easy way out and still come out sounding good. If things feel a bit shouty and overly earnest that’s OK, it is the brashness of youth and we all need an infusion of that once in a while.

Lead singer Lili Trifilio has a deeper and flatter voice than most pop chanteuses and it gives her delivery a punk edge. Still pop at its core, but the punk edge is a welcome element, and combined with the energetic playing of the band, gives the songs oomph. She belts things out at volume 10 as well, managing to avoid sounding shouty in the process. OK, she’s occasionally shouty but it is in moments where a good shout is called for.

Lyrically, I wasn’t inspired the way I was with earlier Beach Bunny albums, and my mind wandered during many of the tunes. It wasn’t a bad wander, but it did relegate large swaths of the record to a background, “indie romance movie score” quality. The band works on adding bits of syncopation in the bridge of a few songs and various other tricks to get you to listen more actively, but for the most part I did not find my attention seized.

When I did pay attention, the songs were what you’d expect from a record called “Emotional Creature” as the tunes are various emotions, and how to struggle through having them. It felt honest throughout, but it didn’t break a lot of new ground.

In the end, while I liked this record, I didn’t get inspired to listen to it again anytime soon. I mostly found myself thinking about how I like my other two Beach Bunny records slightly more. As a result, I will have an amicable parting from this record, and send it along to a hopefully happy home, and look forward to the other offerings this band will provide me somewhere further along in the CD Odyssey journey.

Best tracks: Entropy, Oxygen, Love Song

CD Odyssey Disc 1737: Jewel

Tragedy struck last night, as my beloved Boston Bruins were once again eliminated from the playoffs by the despised Florida Panthers.

I’ve always said that losing in round two of the playoffs is the best time lose. You’ve got one series under your belt, and you aren’t far enough along for it to be too painful. Losing still sucks, though.

Disc 1737 is…Pieces of You

Artist: Jewel

Year of Release: 1995

What’s up with the Cover?  A piece of Jewel, as shown through a tear in the fabric of reality. Is the sky bluer in Jewel’s world? It certainly appears so.

There’s also a quota at the bottom reading “what we call human nature in actuality is human habit” putting our friend Jewel squarely in the “nurture” side of the nature/nurture debate.

How I Came To Know It: If you had a pulse in 1994 you knew at least three songs off this multi-platinum selling record. Not bad for a gal from Homer, Alaska.

I missed the window when everyone initially bought it though, and in recent years it became more of a guilty pleasure. Did I wish to be seen purchasing a Jewel album at my local indie record store? Reader, I did not.

Fortunately, this is one of those records that is so ubiquitous then and so ‘meh’ now it is practically disposable. And thus it was only a matter of time until Sheila found it gathering dust on some thrift store shop. And find it she did!

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Jewel album. I won’t rule getting another one if the Thrift Store Gods are kind. Even “0304” is on the thrift-store wish list, although for that one I suspect being under undue influence from the sexy video for “Intuition”.  

Rating: 3 stars

Jewel feels the feels, and on “Pieces of You” she invites you to feel them with her with intimate folk pop ballads. When she bares her own soul it tends to work, but when she tries baring the soul of other people it tends to be clunky.

The record has three huge hits, two of which are great and one that I used to like but has aged poorly. Let’s start with the positive, shall we?

The inward looking “Foolish Games” and “You Were Meant For Me” are both exceptional songs that stand the test of time. Both are break up songs, with “Foolish Games” describing a toxic relationship and the damage it does, and “You Were Meant For Me” that kind of “wear your sweatpants all day and eat ice cream” moment in life where love is gone and the house feels empty and cold.

Both are Jewel doing what she does best, digging in deep and evoking what she finds there. When she sings “these foolish games are tearing me apart” it feels like she’s about to expire right there from the grand tragedy of it all. “Foolish Games” has a great structure that builds to its poignant heights. “You Were Meant For Me” has an amble to its melody that suits its aimless “life is pointless” vibe.

Other standouts include the romantic “Near You Always” and the fifties pop inspired “I’m Sensitive” which is as simple and beautiful as a song can be. The theme of both are variations of “be nice to me, I’m easily damaged emotionally.” Admitting all that vulnerability comes off here as both honest and brave.

On the other side of the ledger, we have “Who Will Save Your Soul?” this was a big hit and I liked it in 1995, but now I hear all the aimless jazz elements. Also, what was once Jewel’s delightful warble now sounds affected and muppet-like.

Jewel describing other people’s problems…poorly. The title track is a stand against prejudice but it feels more like a grade nine poetry assignment on the topic than a thoughtful exploration. “Daddy” falls into the same category. Here we have a judgmental (likely abusive) father character, and the emotional damage done to his daughter. Again, an important topic, but again falling flat in its mission to make me feel the feels.

Worst of all is the seven-minute atrocity that is “Adrian”. In the song something bad happens to our title character, and he ends up suffering some accident in a canoe and ends up in a coma. I am certain I was supposed to care, but the song plods painfully along with lyrics that are saccharine and an awkward melody that is deeply and obviously manipulative. For a song where the only action is the canoe mentioned in the first verse, Jewel sure takes a long time telling a story where nothing happens. For more compelling canoe-related storytelling I recommend “Mr. Canoe HeadMr. Canoe Head” 

A few of these songs have live audiences cheering after, and I remember the buzz about Jewel at the time that she never sang a song the same twice, letting her feelings take her where it seemed best. I think the live elements were supposed to remind the listener of this, but it didn’t affect my listening a whit. The good songs were still good, and Adrian was still Adrian.

Overall, I liked this record less than I did in 1995, but despite some of its shortcomings the high points are still notable enough to earn 3 stars.

Best tracks: Foolish Games, Near You Always, I’m Sensitive, You Were Meant For Me

CD Odyssey Disc 1736: The Cramps

A long day ends with…a Bruins win! We head back to Boston for game six against the much-hated (by me) Florida Panthers.

Now…on to the music. This next album has been in my car almost a week as I tried to catch up on work, life and everything in between.

Disc 1736 is…Look Mom No Head!

Artist: The Cramps

Year of Release: 1991

What’s up with the Cover?  A fun house full of booze hounds! Actually, it is just the one booze hound – its all done with mirrors.

Our cover girl still appears to have her head, but pounding down that bottle of hard liquor will sort that out soon enough. As the Cramps sing on “Blow Up Your Mind”:

“Ain't you a little too healthy, mm?
Drink some bad wine
Trap some bats in your belfry
and blow up your mind!”

How I Came To Know It: I came to the Cramps through a Canadian band that they inspired called “The Creepshow” and worked my way backward from there. This led me through a journey into the delightful musical genre of psychobilly. The wellspring of all things psychobilly is the Cramps, and swimming upstream, I naturally arrived there.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Cramps albums, and they are all awesome. It pains me to put “Look Mom, No Head!” in the lowly position of fifth, but they are all that good.

Rating: 4 stars

When you invent a style of music that inspires generations of musicians to follow, you’ve probably done something right, and the Cramps are an inspiration to all that live the unbridled life of rock and roll, and to do it without apology.

For those of you who don’t know what psychobilly is, it is a Frankenstein’s Monster of punk rock, rockabilly, mixed with a B-Horror film sensibility. Imagine Elvis Presley if he were a sex-crazed lunatic high on LSD. Sounds awesome? Then the Cramps are the music for you.

It all begins with lead singer Lux Interior, lasciviously eating up every inch of real estate a Cramps song can offer (which is a lot). Mr. Interior (definitely his real name) has a voice that sounds like he was born for the stage, but the stage wasn’t cool enough for him so he instead sold his soul to rock and roll.

The Cramps double down on sex, drugs and rock and roll in a way few bands can match. Songs like “Bend Over, I’ll Drive” and “I Wanna Get In Your Pants” are about exactly the things you think they’ll be about, and written with intent to push boundaries and barriers, and to have fun doing it.

The fun is an important part of the formula, because the Cramps seem to have a very good time, and the songs are edgy but very much tongue in cheek. They dare you to take offense and if you don’t you’re rewarded with membership in their club of strange. Everyone’s welcome as long as you accept that everyone is welcome.

Musically, these songs have that flat and frenetic delivery of traditional punk rock, but absent the anger. They are also incredibly tight as a band. Guitarist Poison Ivy (definitely her real name), bassist Slim Chance (ditto), and drummer Jim Sclavanos (likely a pseudonym) have a natural talent for sitting down at the front of the pocket with the perfect timing that rockabilly requires to deliver its driving energy. It isn’t the same lineup the Cramps started with in their glory days but it is still a solid set of musicians.

The songs have a theatrical flair to them that goes beyond the glamorous grotesqueries of Lux Interior, but underneath it all is a band with a willingness to experiment with various forms of rock and roll, secure in the knowledge that five albums and over a decade into their career their legacy was secure.

I loved this record, and despite almost a full week with it in the car I never tired of it. Even weaker tracks like “Alligator Stomp” and “Don’t Get Funny With Me” have a delightfully dark kitsch that makes them fun. Musically, “Look Mom No Head!” isn’t as raw and powerful as some of their earlier work, but it has just as much gusto, and I had just as good a time. Give them a chance and you might too.

Best tracks: Dames Booze Chains and Boots, Two Headed Sex Change, Blow Up Your Mind, Miniskirt Blues, I Wanna Get In Your Pants, Bend Over I’ll Drive

CD Odyssey Disc 1735: George Michael

I’ve had a long day filled with multitasking, but I’ve got one more task in front of me – get through this accursed record and move on to something better! No doubt many will disagree with the 900 words or so that follows, given how this next record was such a critical darling. Alas, you are reading my review, and not all those more favourable ones.

Disc 1735 is…Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

Artist: George Michael

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover?  A bunch of people in a crowd, maybe at a George Michael concert. Wherever they are it looks hot as a lot of them have their shirts off, are wearing shorts, or both.

They’re still smiling, which suggests the show hasn’t started yet.

How I Came To Know It: This is one of Sheila’s thrift store finds, which she snagged for a lowly $4. I expect it felt like a good deal at the time.

How It Stacks Up: This is our only George Michael album, so it can’t stack up against anything. I hold out hope that one day Sheila will find “Faith” in the thrift store and it will fare better, but for now, here’s where we are.

Rating: 2 stars but barely

Reader, I listened without prejudice as instructed. If anything, I was genuinely excited to be won over by an artist I reviled in the eighties, as has happened with any number of other artists (see reviews for U2 and the Police as two salient examples of me freely admitting to my past wrongs). Instead, I found myself fervently hoping I’d never have to hear whatever “Vol. 2” might sound like. Fortunately, Michaels never released that as a record. Small mercies indeed.

As for “Vol. 1” (and only), it doesn’t 100% suck, so before we unleash any vitriol let us consider those rare but notable parts of the record that are good. It won’t take long, but it’s worth the journey.

First and foremost is the album’s most remembered song, “Freedom”. This song has combination of syncopated percussion underpinning it that is nothing short of revelatory. It can’t even be called a pop hook, it’s just a collection of cool beats and a few organ notes alchemically mixed up into awesome-sauce. The actual hook comes much later with the chorus of “I don’t belong to you/and you don’t belong to me” and then another hook with the church choir-like delivery of “freedom!”

It is such a great song that it pains me to note its painful six-and-a-half-minute length. I was good with a solid five and half minutes, but that last minute. That was a minute too far, George. That moment was a microcosm for the record which is 48 minutes long but drags on as though it were 84. It’s the start of the nineties and it feels like George Michael is channeling the bloated “CDs hold more” quality of records that would follow.

The song that follows “Freedom”, “They Won’t Go When I Go” is another solid track. Just piano and and Michaels’ powerful vocals. This song is haunting and beautiful as well. Kudos.

It went downhill from here.

It all starts (ends?) with “Something to Save” a song that has all the overwrought qualities of Jason Segel’s vampire puppet show song “Dracula’s Lament” from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (listen here) but none of the boyish charm, and absolutely no vampires. “Dracula’s Lament” made me want to see the full puppet show the actual movie only hints at. “Something to Save” hints at the overbearing, self-absorbed sickly-sweet collection of songs that will follow. Yes, George Michael has a great voice, but this song feels like it wants to be a Freddie Mercury ballad but is lacking the lyrical and melodic creativity to pull it off.

Immediately following this we get a brush on drum swish of jazz-adjacent fuckery on “Cowboys and Angels”. This monster is over seven minutes long and does not have the inherent charm and creativity of “Freedom” to hold it up for even half that. The last third throws in some wandering sax solo action as if to remind you one last time of the worst innovation to pop music the eighties ever invited is still alive and well into the new decade.

A few songs later, Michael doubles down on bad arrangement choices, with a jazz flute on “Soul Free” that had me wishing my soul was free. Free of my body, so I wouldn’t have to listen anymore. But just like Dracula in “Dracula’s Lament”, “die, die, die…I can’t”.

George Michael sings with full conviction and gives it his all in an authentic way (earning the album a second star along the way) but it is an authenticity wasted on songs that circle aimlessly around musical concepts that feel laboured and repetitive. Like a knight earnestly indicating that he’s about to go forth and undertake heroic deeds but instead just keeps sitting there on his horse staring into the middle distance: it briefly feels majestic until you realize nothing else is going to happen.

Well, something is going to happen, George, and that something is me parting company with this record. With sincere apologies to the one great song on the record, may “you don’t belong to me, and I don’t belong to you” be true as soon as fucking possible.

Best tracks: Freedom (for about 5 minutes), They Won’t Go When I Go

CD Odyssey Disc 1734: Heather Maloney

I’m settling into a “rest and recovery” weekend with Sheila. A lot of long days at work and multiple commitments and responsibilities has me knackered and so I’m taking a couple of days and recharge the batteries. One of my main sources of recharge is (unsurprisingly) music – here’s the latest on that front.

Disc 1734 is…Just Enough Sun

Artist: Heather Maloney

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover?  An annoying little kid (I’ll guess a young Heather Maloney), with the expression that annoying little kids get right before they opine, “I’m bored!”

I know what you’re thinking – that I too was once an annoying little kid who complained about being bored. Gentle reader, this is not true! I sprung fully grown from my father’s forehead. Dressed in a suit.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Heather Maloney in 2015 when I read an article about her in a magazine (a physical magazine, no less). I loved her album from that year, “Making Me Break” (reviewed back at Disc 1200) as well as the one before that. This was just me buying her latest record based on that past success.

How It Stacks Up: “Just Enough Sun” is only an EP, but I’ve decided at 6 songs and 25 minutes it has enough going on to count. On that basis I have four Heather Maloney albums, and “Just Enough Sun” comes in at #2.

Rating: 4 stars

Rest easy, you’re in the arms of a Heather Maloney album. Whatever kind of bad day or tough experience you are having, Maloney’s voice is a soothing balm for your troubles.

On “Just Enough Sun”, Maloney is up to her usual tack, exploring the twisted and complicated terrain of the human heart with a combination of honesty and optimism.

The record begins with “Let Me Stay,” a songwriting masterclass that ticks all he boxes that make up a perfect Heather Maloney song. The song is an emotional journey of returning to your parent’s house as an adult, and the odd combination of familiarity and detachment when you stay in your old room, this time as a guest.

“Let Me Stay” is structured around key images, chiefly how the paint has changed over the years from when the room was Heather’s, then her brother’s and finally, a place for her mother to keep her artwork and her old Alvarez guitar. The guitar draws Maloney in and ultimately, inspires her to compose this song of love and memory and the deep contemplation of what it means to be a guest, ultimately coming to the conclusion that “even our bodies are places we stay” and then the realization “I am a guest in every room I’ve ever known.”

Musically, “Let Me Stay” has a structure that starts high, stepping down lightly through mostly major chords, creating a pensive feeling that is part nostalgia and part acceptance. The melody leads you down this path as surely as Maloney’s sweet, lilting vocals and the words. It’s a perfect song.

Nothing from here is as good, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other great moments. Maloney takes a turn to old school country on “Something Worse than Loneliness” a song with a healthy dose of sadness that Maloney still somehow makes comforting and that features some delightful work on the guitar.

Maloney surprised me with “Albert 1 – 5” a song about the first five monkeys we fired into space, from the perspective of the monkeys involved. It isn’t my favourite song, but it did make me feel bad for a bunch of monkeys that died 60+ years ago, which I think was the intent. Mission accomplished for the song. Not for the monkeys, though – none of them survived re-entry.

Sometimes Maloney’s lyrics feel like a Zen master, stories that leave you mulling just exactly what it means, but also convinced some truth has been revealed to you. One of my favourite examples are these lines from “Bullseye”:

I heard a story, a master of archery
Giving a lesson at the edge of the shore
He pulled back his bow to its fullest arc
And with total focus in his mind and heart
He let the arrow free into the middle of the sea
And then he said "bullseye!"

To get really dark Maloney needs an assist from Bob Dylan. On a cover of “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” she gets apocalyptic with an assist from collaborator Ryan Hommel on some well-placed harmonies and first-rate guitar strumming (Maloney is no slouch on the guitar either). The arrangement of the song has a natural build that perfectly matches Dylan’s structure, and Maloney’s big bold delivery fill your heart with all the complex emotions the song demands of you.

Heather Maloney played a concert near where I live in 2018, but it was an overnighter and work commitments prevented me from going. I’ve always regretted missing this show, but even a recorded version of her is a salve against the hard edges of the world, and she remains one of my favourite folk singer-songwriters of all time.

Best tracks: Let Me Stay, Bullseye, Something Worse Than Loneliness, A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall 

CD Odyssey Disc 1733: Carsie Blanton

I just finished watching my Boston Bruins lose Game six, during which I experienced plenty of both of the emotions expressed in the title of this next record. The less said about the outcome, the better.

Disc 1733 is…Love & Rage

Artist: Carsie Blanton

Year of Release: 2021

What’s up with the Cover?  It was 2021 so whatever you were doing out on the sidewalk – even if it was just lying down -  hopefully you were wearing a mask like these kids here.

What they aren’t doing is keeping a minimum distance of six feet, but given where that dude’s arm is nestled, I’m going to guess these two were already in each other’s bubble.

Remember when all those terms like “minimum distance” and “bubble” meant something? Yeesh. How much do I not miss the pandemic.

How I Came To Know It: Originally my friend Brennan introduced me to Carsie Blanton. This record was well into my love affair with her music, and I’ve been wanting to buy it since it came out. However, Blanton tends to release very few (if any) CD copies and if you miss it, you’re usually outta luck. That’s what happened here. I hung on for a while but late last year I finally decided the CD wasn’t likely to happen and downloaded a few of her recent records, including this one.

How It Stacks Up: I have seven Carsie Blanton albums but one of them (not this one) is an album of stripped down remakes, and so doesn’t count for our purposes. That leaves us with six Carsie Blanton albums, with “Love & Rage” coming in at #4.

Rating: 4 stars

Given how hard I’ve fallen for Carsie Blanton over the last few years I was surprised to discover this is my first review of her work. Since that’s the case, a quick introduction to just who she is feels in order. Blanton is a pop folk singer with a natural talent for writing a melody and clever, edgy lyrics that’ll make you smile and think. I don’t know about you, but I love that combination of smilin’ and thinkin’ and if you do too, then you’ll probably enjoy a Carsie Blanton record.

This was Blanton’s pandemic album, when we were all a little stressed out and prone to fits of love and rage. Blanton’s songwriting makes you feel like she’d be a good person to weather a lockdown with, though. She always feels chill and easygoing, even when she is spewing a bit of nasty.

For a dose of love, Blanton serves up “Be Good”, a song referencing two of histories greatest lovers of the human race – Jesus and MLK. She refers to them both as “dangerous” but it is the good kind of dangerous, the kind willing to put themselves at risk to help out others. Pretty cool. The philosophy she sums up in the chorus:

“Be good to the people you love
And love everybody alive”

Nice. Unsurprisingly, the song has a church choir swing to it. Blanton is a natural at sitting down in the pocket and letting the song sway her, and “Be Good” is a natural finger snapper of a tune. Also, it makes you feel good about being human.

She follows it up with the much more personal “All My Love” one of many crooners where she expresses devotion for someone that is clearly more than “everybody” in terms of importance.

When she turns to rage, she does it with equal commitment. “Shit List” is a nasty song about every old out of touch asshole you may have ever met. Blanton loves deeply, but as she demonstrates on “Shit List” if you cross her lines of decency, she’ll call you on it.

Blanton’s vocals are sugary and playful, with more than a bit of smoke. At the same time she sounds personable and approachable. Half lounge singer, half late-night at a party girl, pulling out a guitar and entertaining whoever’s still there come 2 a.m. She doesn’t sing with huge power, instead relying on great tone and an innate sense of timing to serve the narrative of each song.

The album is more stripped down than some of her other work, which was a common feature of the pandemic years where it was a pain to safely bring a bunch of musicians into a studio and have them breathe on each other for 16 hours. It doesn’t suffer from this; if anything it makes it better.

At only 34 minutes the songs are short, sharp and get to the point fast. Because of the shortness of the record I listened to it a good five or six times this week. Despite all that familiarity, I never got tired of it. There are no bad songs, and the best ones are downright inspiring.

Best tracks: Party at the End of the World Be Good, All My Love, Shit List, Ain’t No Sin