CD Odyssey Disc 1650: Pink

In my first week back to work I’ve taken a renewed focus on mental and physical health. I’m back to running at lunch time, which will hopefully bring me back to a world where the only spare tire in my life is in the trunk of my car where it belongs.

I’m also making an effort to keep writing music reviews, as this experience gives me joy. And on that note…

Disc 1650 is…Try This

Artist: Pink

Year of Release: 2003

What’s up with the Cover?  It’s a Giant Head cover. Pink is suggesting we try something and based on her expression, I am inclined to accept.

How I Came To Know It: This is one of Sheila’s albums, so I came upon it by proximity.

How It Stacks Up: Pink has nine studio albums, but this is the only one in the collection, so it can’t stack up.

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

In recent years I’ve come to embrace mainstream pop. Don’t get me wrong – I haven’t abandoned my previous loves - metal, folk, classic rap and many other genres remain in heavy rotation – I’ve just learned to appreciate a good pop song.

As a result, I was excited when I rolled this album which has been in the collection for a very long time but that I haven’t pulled out since my pop epiphany. The result was…OK. I liked “Try This” overall, but it doesn’t leave a lasting impression and is generally held back by the unfortunate production trends of the early oughts.

Let’s start with the good stuff, which includes Pink’s vocal talent. Pink has a big voice and she’s a natural belter, with the ability to deliver a club hit, a pop croon or a rock snarl with equal believability.

Despite being a step down from the commercial success of 2001’s “Missundaztood” it features one of my favourite Pink singles, “Trouble”. “Trouble” is pure pop fun, where even the overblown production (which I will gripe about shortly) suits the tune. Pink wants us to know she is trouble, but listening to the song it feels like it will be a very enjoyable kind of trouble. “Trouble” doesn’t break any new ground; it is simple straightforward pop anthem done well.

The second single is “God is a DJ” which has all the same elements as “Trouble” but it doesn’t quite land. A big part of this is the pseudo-electronica background beat, and it only gets worse when the chorus hits like a bad parody of a Tom Cochrane salad, with too much dressing.

The biggest issue on “God is a DJ” is also the biggest issue on the record, which is that early oughts production. Way too much is going on, and the result is just a lot of loud, masking songs that don’t always have the bones to fight their way through the murk. “God is a DJ” tries to “break it down” on the bridge, and even resorts to a bass solo at one point but can’t bring it home.

Pink tends to mix in heavy topics with her pop fun, which I always admire in her records. On “Try This” she has a few, my favourite being “Save My Life” which is a song about relapsing back into drug abuse. The song doesn’t provide answers so much as a plea for help that may or may not be answered. It gets a bit stewed around in the production, but the wall of noise backs off enough times that I forgave it.

In other places, the topics seem serious but come across as overblown. “Last to Know” is a song about Pink being upset that some guy didn’t come to her show. There must be more to the relationship to cause the reaction, but with openings like:

“Why was I the last to know
That you weren't coming to my show?
You could have called me up to say "good luck"
You could have called me back, you stupid fuck
Why was I the last to know?”

…it comes across as pretty self-absorbed. Hey, Pink – you ever think that maybe he’s Spiderman, and he was delayed while fighting crime? These things happen.

This is the era of hidden tracks, and the one on this record – “Hooker” – happens to be one of my favourites. It’s a nasty tune about a sellout, a poser or maybe just that truant Peter Parker guy from a couple paragraphs earlier. In any event, its pure vitriol delivered in a tune that is half rock song/half club banger.

The addition of that track makes for 15 total, which is one too many, and the full 55 minutes drags near the end. I got restless each time through, and while “Hooker” was a fine farewell song, it takes a little too long to get there.

Best tracks: Trouble, Save My Life, Walk Away, Hooker

CD Odyssey Disc 151: Soundtrack

The latest disc in the Odyssey is actually one I've been specifically dreading since I began this project. Only Sheila's Barry Manilow compilation frightens me more.

Disc 151 is...Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
Artist: Various

Year of Release: 2001

What’s Up With The Cover?: It is the movie poster - designed no doubt to have a 'bohemian' feel I guess as covers go, it is alright, and even a bit stylish.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila saw the movie and really liked it. She bought the soundtrack as a result.

How It Stacks Up: I can never keep track of how many soundtracks I have. Let's say 23. In this case, I definitely liked the movie more than the soundtrack, and I didn't like the movie all that much. Of the 23 soundtracks, I'd put this one at 21 or 22. Yes - there is at least one (and probably two) worse. Let's not talk about those until we absolutely have to.

Rating: 1 stars.

Baz Lurhmann's "Moulin Rouge" is the "Gone With The Wind" of our generation. By this I mean it is over-rated, enjoyed almost exclusively by women, but is nevertheless inflicted on men the world over. In fairness, you do get to see Nicole Kidman dance around in naughty lingerie, which is more than you can say for anything in "Gone With the Wind".

Lest this seem terribly unfair to you, I would remind you that we inflict "Glengarry, Glenross" on our girlfriends without a second thought. Turnaround is fair play.

That might be fair, but having to listen to this soundtrack with my top down was grossly unfair. At one point I was in the car, decked out in my Blue Oyster Cult band shirt, and caught in a McDonald's lineup meekly listening to "Lady Marmalade" for all to see.

This was not the CD Odyssey's proudest moment.

On to the music, which is a handy representation of some of the biggest problems in modern pop. It isn't that these songs are bad - it is that they are derivative.

I am reading a book right now called "You Are Not a Gadget" which actually points out how our approach to internet culture actively encourages mash ups and derivations of other people's unique art. "Moulin Rouge" certainly seems to be an early harbinger of this trend.

"The Elephant Love Medley" is just a mix of about a dozen previously written love songs, mashed together to form some sort of a "love me/don't love me" duet. It is a fun and entertaining scene in the movie, and it even sounds good until you remember the reason it sounds good is the quality of the original songs. In fact, they are better left well enough alone. It is clever, but I'm not sure clever is enough here.

The songs that sound good, are generally passable remakes that don't offer a lot new. Of note is "Your Song" sung competently by Ewan McGregor. It is a great performance if you are rating him as "actor attempting singing" but if you actually hold him up against Elton John's original, it comes off as merely OK.

"Lady Marmalade" is better, as Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya and Pink are all, you know, singers. If I loved AM radio, I'd be really excited to hear them sing their little hearts out. Instead, this song is best avoided unless you are enjoying the video with the sound turned off.

Of all the songs, I was pleasantly surprised that the best was Beck doing a remake of David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs". Beck's futuristic detached sound matched the Bowie song well, and gave it an interesting update.

Another more pleasant note belongs to Nicole Kidman, who has a suprisingly rich tone for another actor turned singer. Also, the liner notes include a picture of her from that "Sparkling Diamonds" mash up early in the movie. The song is another abomination of pop culture devouring itself, but the outfit is...um...inspiring, even if the song is not.

Overall, this album is an average pop album, and I could almost forgive its other transgressions and give it two stars until I got to the end, and had to endure David Bowie teaming up with Massive Attack for the movie's theme "Nature Boy". This song is a cringeworthy bucket of bathos at track 1, and adding the mind-numbing technobeats of Massive Attack's not-so-massive attack does not help it along at track 15. The more I hear those guys, the less I like them.

I guess I'm just not feel terribly charitable, so this album is getting 1 star from me, but I'll freely admit it deserves two if you are being fair. Then again, was it fair that I got marmaladed in the Macdonald's drive through? Was it fair to Massively Attack me right at the end of the album?

But, sometimes life's not fair, Baz Luhrmann. This would be one of those times.

Best tracks: Beck's "Diamond Dogs".