CD Odyssey Disc 813: David Bowie

I’m just back from watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” If you loved the magic of the first three movies, but that magic was destroyed by the awful prequels, then “The Force Awakens” will restore your faith in the Star Wars universe. It was good fun.

Disc 813 is….Young Americans

Artist: David Bowie

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? David relaxes with a cigarette and tries his best to strike a casual pose. David doesn’t really do casual, but the effect of him trying is strangely beautiful. He’s like an alien that fell in love with humanity and so decided to become one.

How I Came To Know It: I recently saw a documentary about David Bowie called “David Bowie: Five Years” that highlighted five critical years in his career. “Young Americans” was one of the albums featured, and what I saw intrigued me so I bought it.

How It Stacks Up:  We have four David Bowie albums, most of which were bought by Sheila. “Young Americans” was the only one I purchased, but it is not my favourite. I’ll put it third.

Ratings: 3 stars

Like Alice Cooper, David Bowie is one of those artists who loves to try on new musical styles to see how they fit, and “Young Americans” represents his obsession with soul music.

Also like Alice Cooper, Bowie brings his own unique weirdness to whatever project he decides to tackle, but for the most part the fascination with “Young Americans” is how straight Bowie plays it. Say what you will about the prospects for a psychedelic seventies rocker attempting soul music, Bowie not only tries it on for size, he wears it well.

In fact, most of my criticisms of “Young Americans” relates to what I would say about a lot of soul music; that it just grooves along without going anywhere. That’s because soul music isn’t about telling a story as much as it is about relaxing into the pocket of a tune and riding it for a while.

The album has some classic baby-makin’ songs like “Win” and “Right” (as in “doing it right”) although a closer examination of the lyrics for “Right” showed it to be a song as much about loss as ecstasy.

These songs work well enough, but I like “Young Americans” best when Bowie freaks up his soul as he does on the title track and “Fame.” For all its groovy backup singers going “woo-ooo-ooo” and “alllll…right!” and its horn flourishes, the song “Young Americans” has the beginnings of the eighties sound Bowie would try on “Let’s Dance” eight years later. The song even features a synthesizer voice and a brief homage to the Beatles with a line and riff (“I heard the news today…”) lifted straight out of “A Day in the Life.”

It almost goes too far, but Bowie usually knows how to catch his balance even after taking a half step too far over the line. Later, Bowie completes his Beatles love affair, with a strong cover of “Across the Universe.”

“Fame” is the other standout song on the album, where Bowie again takes a classic soul construction and then freaks it up with crazy distorted vocals. The combination of the groove being so perfectly in the pocket and the vocals falling off the edge of that pocket captures the sexy allure of fame, but also the disconnect and alienation it creates. It is a subject that Bowie not only fully understands, but an abyss he consistently stared into for his inspiration.

For all this musical brilliance, I was a little disappointed that the two songs I liked most on “Young Americans” were the two I could get on any Bowie compilation. The other songs on the album are good, but they didn’t inspire me to dig any deeper in his catalogue. If anything, Bowie has captured the ‘soul’ of soul too well. I only want to hear him when he’s deliberately separating himself from it.

For a guy who took on the persona of alien Ziggy Stardust for a few years, Bowie plays it fairly safe on “Young Americans.” His musical genius shines through, and there is plenty to recommend this album, but despite that I can’t grade it higher than three stars.

Best tracks:  Young Americans, Fame

CD Odyssey Disc 812: Natalie MacMaster

The Christmas party season is starting to take its toll on me, as I feel like I have too many people to socialize with and not enough time. Today at brunch was the first time I’d had a chance to have a conversation with Sheila in three days.

All that socializing has also delayed this next review – but here we are!

Disc 812 is….In My Hands

Artist: Natalie MacMaster

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? Natalie sits on a chair, skirt riding gently up above her knees, looking sexy as hell.

How I Came To Know It: Recently my colleague Lindsey put me onto a Scottish folk song called “Blue Bonnets Over the Border” – when I realized Natalie MacMaster did a kick-ass version of it, I knew I had to have it.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Natalie MacMaster albums; this one and 1998’s “My Roots are Showing” (reviewed back at Disc 683). Of the two, “My Roots Are Showing” wins 'by a hair'.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

“In My Hands” is Natalie MacMaster’s most mainstream effort, but make no mistake: this is still traditional Cape Breton fiddle music. If that doesn’t float your fish boat, this album isn’t for you.

Fortunately, a well-played Cape Breton fiddle does float my boat, and I found “In My Hands” inspiring and joyful. The playing style I fell in love with on “My Roots are Showing” is on full display here. MacMaster’s style is sprightly and precise in equal measure. Even the airs on this album are brimming with a crackling energy. When the speedier jigs and reels came on while I was waiting for a light to change, it was all I could do to not start dancing as the December traffic whirled by.

MacMaster is so precise that she can sometimes stray close to losing the narrative of the tune, but she seems to have a sixth sense of knowing when to pull back and let the tune ‘play’ her back to its emotional core.

“In My Hands” seems to be making a conscious effort to reach a larger audience. Gordie Sampson, who guested as a guitarist on “My Roots are Showing” not only plays on “In My Hands,” he also produces the album. The result is a slightly more contemporary feel, as he brings some of his rock n’ roll sensibilities to the studio.

The results of all this effort is a mixed bag. The album’s title (and opening) track adds a lot of sighs and percussion and generally sounds like it is trying to do contemporary world music. The modern style that results is a bit out of step with MacMaster’s old soul. The song has lyrics (sung by MacMaster) which are generic expressions of art that don’t inspire the way they want to. Also, while MacMaster is one hell of a fiddle player as a vocalist she is just OK.

Conversely, “Get Me Through December,” a song written by Sampson and fellow Cape Breton singer-songwriter Fred Lavery is a beautiful piece. With vocals by the divine Alison Krauss, this is a song that would stand up to anything similar by Capercaillie (yes, this is high praise). MacMaster’s fiddle isn’t as prominent on this song (the tune is mostly carried by piano) but when she does kick in, the contemporary folk arrangement shows a different side of her playing which is more soulful and relaxed.

The same can be said for the album’s highlight, the cover of the traditional Scottish marching song “Blue Bonnets Over the Border.” This piece is exquisite in MacMaster’s hands as she slowly progresses one of the great fiddle melodies of all time, each time around more inspiring than the last. When you hear this song your heart is filled up and you can’t help but feel anything is possible. No wonder it has traditionally marched troops into battle – it would be one hell of a morale builder (at least until the cannons started firing).

I found the infusion of Spanish dance rhythms in “Flamenco Fling” annoying and out of place. Ditto for the ‘space age’ cosmic flourishes in “Space Ceilidh” which would be a standout on the album if it weren’t for the questionable bits of “spacey” synthesizer sounds.

Fortunately, most of the rest of “In My Hands” are traditional fiddle treatments you would expect from MacMaster, each one expertly handled. “Welcome to the Trossachs” is seven minutes of Natalie taking you to school on all the different ways she can play the fiddle to make your heart sing. “Moxham Castle” is fiddle perfection, as MacMaster plays with a depth of skill rarely heard. Father Buddy taught her well.

At 14 songs and 61 minutes, “In My Hands” feels slightly too long, and I would probably cut two or three songs and get it down into the 45-50 minute range.

“In My Hands” takes risks with a traditional audience, borrowing from pop, contemporary and world rhythms. It doesn’t always work, but it works a lot, and I admire MacMaster’s efforts to expand her own sound and see just what she can do to show new facets of her enormous talent.

Best tracks:  Welcome to the Trossachs, Blue Bonnets Over the Border, Get Me Through December, Moxham Castle, Flora MacDonald

CD Odyssey Disc 811: Lyle Lovett

I’m always exploring new music, but since my music reviews are in random order you might not know it. I was reminded of this by a regular reader this afternoon. Here’s a recent scouting report:

·         Wilco – After reviewing “A Ghost is Born” I was inspired to the four latest Wilco albums. None are bad but the only one I’m interested in picking up is their self-titled effort from 2009.

·         I also recently checked out every artist from a recent article enumerating the top 15 albums of 2015. The standouts were Courtney Barnett, Torres and Sleater Kinney. Courtney Barnett is truly awesome, and since Sleater Kinney has been around since the mid-nineties I delved through their eight-disc catalogue. I’ve still got two to go, but the early winners are “Call the Doctor” (1996) and “Dig Me Out” 1997. To all of you readers shouting “I’ve known that for years!” congratulations, you’re very clever. They’re new to me.

On to the Odyssey, and a disc that’s been in my collection for longer than Sleater Kinney have even existed.

Disc 811 is….Pontiac

Artist: Lyle Lovett

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? An out-of-focus shot of Mr. Lovett. Like Nick Cave from my last review, Lyle is “ugly sexy” and has the most resplendent head of hair from this era. Check this shot out from inside the CD jacket:

In the mid-nineties I brought this picture to my stylist and said “give me the Lyle!” I might go back to the Lyle one day, but right now I’m still enjoying the David Crosby.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve told this story before, but since it was six years ago, I’ll tell it again. I saw a Lyle Lovett video for the song "Here I Am", bought an album and have been hooked ever since. The song was from his 1986 debut, and as his sophomore effort, “Pontiac” seemed the logical place to go next.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Lyle Lovett albums and they are all good, but for some reason I’ve been rolling a lot of the weaker ones. Not anymore – “Pontiac” is a classic record that should be in any music lover’s collection. I rank it #1.

Ratings: 5 stars

Like Nick Cave on “Let Love In”, “Pontiac” is an album exploring the nature of love. The difference is that while Lyle is not afraid to explore love when it goes wrong, he also sees the humour in the situation. The effect is a record that is less dark than “Let Love In” but more insightful in both musical range and theme.

Musically Lyle is a fantastic mix of blues, country, lounge and a smattering of jazz. Leonard Cohen has the same mix with a folk bent and Tom Waits is that mix with a blues bent. Lyle is their country cousin.

That said, to call this album a country album is to understate its range. “M.O.N.E.Y.” and “She’s No Lady” feel like they are part of a lounge act, and “Black and Blue” is something you’d hear in a smoky jazz bar.

Of these, “She’s No Lady” is my favourite. It is a song about marriage to a veritable harridan which is more funny than tragic; think Basil Faulty out on the town. The song begins:

“She hates my mama

She hates my daddy too

She loves to tell me

She hates the things I do

She loves to lie beside me

Almost every night

She’s no lady, she’s my wife.”

Lovett – the master of comic timing has just the subtlest of pauses before singing “almost” to let you know his girl isn’t always coming home to tell him what she thinks of him. As someone who’s been married a while (to a great woman, not a harridan) my favourite line is “Seems like she’s always been hanging here off my right arm.”

Other lighthearted love songs on the album include “Give Back My Heart” about a bull rider meeting a girl who likes his line of work, and “She’s Hot to Go” another jazzy theatre number which has a Muppet Show beat and lyrics about a girl who’s ‘hot to go’, but ‘ugly from the front.’ As Lyle’s chorus replies, “but you ugly too!”

For all that fun, “Pontiac” also has its dark side. The title track is a moody and understated character study about an old man years returned from the war, now feeling trapped in his life of normalcy, with a wife who has no way to understand his pain. He sees her only as “The woman inside my house/She won’t stop talking/She never says a thing.”

“I Loved You Yesterday” is a traditional honkytonk break up song, and “Walk Through the Bottomland” is the counter to “Give Back My Heart” – featuring a woman who falls for a rodeo worker but can’t live that life, and instead drifts away broken-hearted.

The album’s masterpiece is “L.A. County” a song that at first blush sounds like it is triumphant and upbeat until you listen carefully to the lyrics. This is a song about a woman leaving a man, moving away and falling in love with someone new. The song follows her jilted lover as he drives into L.A. County, marveling at the beauty of the lights even as a dark .45 pistol sits ominously on the seat next to him.

The song has a fast country beat and a manic quality to the melody that captures the certainty in the heart of the man with the pistol. His resolve is pure and clear, and I was reminded how mania and maniacs are intrinsically linked. It is a troubling insight into what can happen when the self-righteous feel they have been wronged and quickly move past reason in their quest for vengeance.

Both “L.A. County” and “Walk Through the Bottomland” have backing vocals from Emmylou Harris, who’s high quaver adds just the right amount of sadness and yearning to each.

My only quibble with this record is that it suffers from the bad production common to late eighties CDs, which were often recorded for tape and record and transferred over without any treatment. As a result it sounds a bit muted, and I’d love for Lyle to release a remaster of this undervalued classic. Even without the remaster, I’m still giving it 5 stars.

Best tracks:  All tracks, but in particular: If I Had a Boat, Give Back My Heart, I Loved You Yesterday, Walk Through the Bottomland, L.A. County, She’s No Lady, Simple Song, Pontiac

CD Odyssey Disc 810: Nick Cave

When I buy a new album I don’t put it into the main collection until after I’ve given it at least three solid back-to-back listens. Because I buy a lot of albums, and spend a lot of my listening time randomly reviewing albums from the entire collection, I’m usually a little behind.

I just finished giving this next album three good listens and putting it away. Then a week later I randomly rolled it for review, so it was pretty fresh in my mind.

Disc 810 is….Let Love In

Artist: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Year of Release: 1994

What’s up with the Cover? Nick does his best Iggy Pop impersonation. Like Iggy, Nick Cave is ‘ugly sexy’ – a guy so sexy that he seems more attractive than he is. Of course, this cover pushes that theory to its limits.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been taking lately to Youtubing artists I’m interested in and going through their discography to see what albums are worth getting. I recently checked out the half dozen or so Nick Cave albums I didn’t yet have and found two worth getting: “Let Love In” and “The Good Son.”

How It Stacks Up:  I now have 10 Nick Cave albums – mostly his later work. I like them all in some degree or other but competition is fierce. I only recently purchased “Let Love In” but it was still able to knock “Tender Prey” out of sixth spot in my heart.

Ratings: 4 stars

For Nick Cave love is not a pleasant romantic notion so much as it is an endurance test; a trial for the faithful and not the faint of heart. When Cave says ‘let love in’ as this album’s title exhorts, it is the romantic equivalent of inviting the vampire into your house. It is delicious and darkly exciting, but you chase that thrill at your own peril. “Let Love In” is Cave’s tragic, depressing often uncomfortable descent into the subject of love. If you only like stories with happy endings, this isn’t the album for you.

The record is full of somber piano trilling through minor chords that connect the space between romantic love and animalistic urges. Cave’s vocal delivery has few equals for causing his lyrics to drip with meaning.

The prettiest song on the record is “Nobody’s Baby Now” which is the tragic prequel to later romantic songs like “Into My Arms” where things actually work out for our hero. Not so with “Nobody’s Baby Now,” which is the tale of love gained and then lost, and the wailing and grieving we go through trying to understand why things didn’t work out. Given that Cave sings that she’s nobody’s baby now, the woman he pines for could well be dead, but it doesn’t matter – this is a song of lost love regardless; a reminder of the desolation that results when you let love in, but it refuses to stay.

The album is bookended by “Do You Love Me?” Parts One and Two. The first is the tale of a woman who is bad news but that our narrator tragically marries anyway. The second is a troubled tale of someone down on their luck being sexually exploited in a dark theatre. Cave perfectly mirrors two unhealthy obsessions with the same melody. First played first frantic and desperate, and later becoming stretched thin and unwholesome.

The record is a treatise the many ways love can get twisted and wrong, and Nick isn’t afraid to descend into troubling places to mine material for his various character studies. Around each corner you are as likely to find a sexual predator as you are a hopeless romantic.

The location might be highly specific, like the title tavern in “Thirsty Dog” where our anti-hero sits in a tavern apologizing for all the specific shortcomings his lover sees in him. (I imagine he does so drunkenly to the bathroom stall wall). Later Cave goes internal, exploring the psychological workings of love’s dark underbelly. The title track opens with this haunting stanza:

“Despair and Deception, Love’s ugly little twins

Come a knocking on my door, I let them in

Darling, you’re the punishment for all my former sins.

I let love in.”

Well, that’s deliciously sad, isn’t it? But for the most part, you can’t capture the magic of these songs by reprinting the lyrics. They become dead on the page, needing the visceral energy of the record to make them breathe. You need the Bad Seeds delivering their dreamy phantasms of Gothic rock and the devilish voice of Cave’s ringmaster preaching them to make them fully work.

It is all very frightening, but I invite you to “Let Love In” to your music collection nevertheless.

Best tracks:  Do You Love Me?, Nobody’s Baby Now, Red Right Hand, I Let Love In, Thirsty Dog, Do You Love Me? Part Two

CD Odyssey Disc 809: Wilco

I have the day off today! Given that I finished all my Christmas shopping last week I’m looking forward to a relaxing day. I’m going to paint, and I might start a new novel that’s been floating around in my head for a little while now. But first, this review!

Disc 809 is….A Ghost is Born

Artist: Wilco

Year of Release: 2004

What’s up with the Cover? A cracked egg. The actual cover of this album is supposed to be the same egg, uncracked, but it is printed on a cardboard dustcover. I find those CD dustcovers a bother so I took them all off and stored them in a box somewhere. Rather than dig them out I’ll give you the post-ghost birth egg. At least I’ll assume it hatched a ghost; if it had been a bird it would be a lot messier.

How I Came To Know It: This was just me poking around Wilco’s back catalogue after I had discovered “A.M.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Wilco albums. “A Ghost is Born” is my least favourite of those four, but it was surprisingly close between it and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” As this is the last Wilco album I currently own up for review, here’s a recap:

1. A.M.: 4 stars (reviewed way back at Disc 84)
2. Being There: 4 stars (reviewed back at Disc 358)
3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 755)
4. A Ghost is Born: 3 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 3 stars

Having stuck with Wilco through “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” “A Ghost is Born” was the album that ended my journey through Wilco’s discography when I first heard it. Listening to it again with fresh ears I think I was too harsh in my initial assessment.

The experimentation begun on “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” continues on “A Ghost is Born” and once again they get things started with one of the album’s least accessible songs. “At Least That’s What You Said” is half ambient dirge and half feedback-infused noodling and doesn’t get this record off on good footing. At least that’s what I say.

I sometimes feel like the independent-minded Wilco wants to drive away the casual listener, like a prof who only wants students in his class as excited about his subject area as he is.

The effort to do so continues on the next track, “Hell is Chrome” but – surprise twist! – it fails. “Hell is Chrome” is the kind of quiet and slow building track usually reserved for side two, thrust to the front of the record as if to scream, “love me for who I am now or just stop listening!” Fortunately, this song is a beautiful sleeper, where the lightly played piano and Jeff Tweedy’s half-whispered confessional are a perfect match. The song had me thinking about what all those bald weirdos from “Mad Max: Fury Road” would listen to. Not while they were out murdering folks and driving their cars around the desert, obviously. I mean after that, when they come down from the metallic paint they’ve been eating and get all introspective and morose contemplating the state of their post-apocalyptic world. I wonder if the film writer knew the song…?

But I digress.

Back to the record, which has a few other high points worth mentioned. “Handshake Drugs” is grounded in a very cool bass line which Wilco artfully doesn’t over-exploit as they tell the story of wandering through a city late at night and high as hell.

“Wishful Thinking” is a love song, tinged with a self-awareness that makes it slightly less romantic but infinitely more honest. The song takes a while to get going, but the way the tune steps down as Tweedy sings “’cause what would love be without wishful thinking?” makes the wait worthwhile.

In many ways “A Ghost is Born” is ahead of its time, and has a lot in common with more recent indie rock, the way it strings together imagery that is loosely connected but lacks a complete narrative. Sometimes I liked this approach but I also found some of the lyrics lazy and directionless.

Musically, the melodies are cleverly constructed for the most part, but there are songs that take way too long to do way too little. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is over ten minutes long and while it has a funky beat and catchy guitar riff but both appear infrequently amid the detritus of feedback and aimless noodling). There just isn’t enough going on to justify it going on the way it does.

“Less Than You Think” is exactly what its title promises, and not in a good way. This monstrosity is 15 minutes long and feels like 20. There is two and a half minutes of what I would call a song, followed by 10 minutes of ambient sound, occasional droning slowly building to a crescendo of…radio static? Then a final 2-3 minutes as the radio static fades away as pointlessly as it began.

I was so mad at being forced to listen to this damned song (see “The Rules” in the sidebar) that not even the album’s final track – a light-spirited ditty about undiscovered bands called “The Late Greats” – could fully pull me from my funk.

“A Ghost is Born” is a 67 minute album and it needs to be about 45, but there is enough good stuff here that it is still an album worth keeping. If you love “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” (as many do) you’ll probably love this record as well.

Best tracks:  Hell is Chrome, Handshake Drugs, Wishful Thinking, Theologians

CD Odyssey Disc 808: The Beatles

Walking home tonight I was really craving pizza, but when I got to the pizza joint there were only two slices left, and I didn’t fancy either of them. For some reason I’m finding this little disappointment really annoying. Don’t worry though, gentle reader! When I am finished this blog I will soldier on and heat up some soup.

Disc 808 is….Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Artist: Beatles

Year of Release: 1967

What’s up with the Cover? Let’s see – art forms I don’t enjoy depicted on this cover. Collage? Check. A bunch of flowers planted to spell a word? Check. Ridiculously bright over the top costumes? Ch…wait a minute. I actually like ridiculously bright over the top costumes. I would wear Paul’s powder blue drum major outfit any day.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila (aka Lovely Sheila, Meter Maid) is the Beatles fan in the house. This is her album – I’m just along for the ride.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Beatles albums. Of those “Sgt. Pepper” is one I like more than most. I’ll put it third, just behind “The White Album.”

Ratings: 4 stars

While not as masterful as the equally psychedelic Rolling Stones’ album “Their Satanic Majesties Request” (also released in 1967) “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is still OK, I suppose.

Just kidding, raging Beatlemaniacs! I’m taking the piss, as the English like to say. Actually, “Sgt. Pepper” is an innovative and interesting record that only occasionally annoys me.

With “Sgt. Pepper” the Beatles took a hard turn toward weird from the comparatively straightforward “Revolver.” Fortunately, they hadn’t tipped the weird bus over yet, as they would go on to do with the overwrought and smug “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Instead, “Sgt. Pepper” is an experimental album that takes a lot of risks and consistently makes those risks pay off.

It helps when you have the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney to write pop melodies. These songs may sound timeless now, but lend an ear to what they’re doing and you quickly realize how even clever they are. Even a simple sounding song like “Getting Better” is intricately composed, with its melody rising and falling like a wave, while a second chorus holding a complimentary tune in the background. I don’t even like “Getting Better” that much, but I admire its song construction.

That’s often the case for me with the Beatles. They are kind of a pop Led Zeppelin for me (Pop Zeppelin?); I appreciate their brilliance but don’t often feel inspired or emotionally affected by their music the way I want to be.

The most emotional song on “Sgt. Pepper” album is probably “With A Little Help From My Friends” and that one is almost wrecked by Ringo Starr’s vocals (almost – I still love this song despite Ringo). The other one that hits me is “A Day in the Life” which has the advantage of better vocals and a feeling of disconnect and loss amid modern society that sticks despite the sampled cries of “Never-could-be-any-other-way!” that echo through your headphones for the final 15 seconds of the track.

Production decisions on “Sgt. Pepper” are both brave and crazy, including canned applause, circus sounds and what I think are kazoos. The whole record feels like it is the soundtrack for the town fair, with the mythical “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” being the wacky act keeping the passing crowds entertained between rides on the Tilt-A-Whirl. I’d like it all to annoy me (and at first blush, it did) but in the end the Beatles do it so well I just had to admire them.

There are times when this album loses me in its own cutesy self-awareness, like on the filler that is “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” or the schmaltzy “When I’m Sixty-Four” which seems to want to simultaneously make fun of old couples and celebrate them and accomplishes neither. However, these moments are few and far between and for the most part the songs work.

In fact, “Lovely Rita” is a silly little love song about a meter maid that has lines like “When it gets dark I tow your heart away” that should be insufferably cute. Instead, when the sweet melody is sung by Paul it feels strangely heartfelt, kazoo flourishes and all.

“Good Morning, Good Morning” is packed with sounds of cocks crowing, birds chirping, and near the end cats, horses and assorted other animals. The song is suffused with a fun-loving energy despite being about little more than moving through your day. I’m a morning person, and this song made me think about the energy I wake up with and greet the day (on most days, anyway). Apologies to the non-morning people who run into me.

The album starts with the title track which doesn’t really do it for me, but the reprise version near the end is brilliant. The drum-beat and production had me thinking of early rap tracks, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it has been sampled often through the years. If not, it should be.

“Sgt. Pepper” has a lot of the elements of the Beatles that can annoy me on a bad day, but there is no denying it’s got magic in it – enough to pull it up into a solid four stars, musical tomfoolery and all.

Best tracks:  With a Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Lovely Rita, Good Morning Good Morning, St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise), A Day in the Life

CD Odyssey Disc 807: Blue Rodeo

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend is winding down. I finished almost all my Christmas shopping on Friday, went to a fun party on Saturday and earlier today my beloved Miami Dolphins won their game. Life is good.

Disc 807 is….Are You Ready

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 2005

What’s up with the Cover? Despite the fact that band name looks like it was painted by the same guy who did the art on the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo, the green on this cover feels restful to my eye. It reminds me of those unused country roads I used to walk down when I lived in a small town, but no longer see now that I’m a city boy. “Are you ready to move back to the country?” asks this album cover. Hell no, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a pretty painting of it.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila introduced me to Blue Rodeo back when we were first dating. “Are You Ready” is just us buying their latest album when it came out, as we are wont to do.

How It Stacks Up:  We have 13 Blue Rodeo albums, which is all of them with the exception of last year’s Christmas album (which is not going to happen). “Are You Ready” is an OK record, but far from my favourite. I’m going to put it 11^th.

Ratings: 3 stars

“Are You Ready” has its moments but it took a little too long to heat up. Half the time I was having a great time, and the other half I found myself thinking fondly of other Blue Rodeo albums I liked better.

The album is a return to Blue Rodeo’s more traditional mix of rock and country after a bit of experimentation with horn flourishes on 2002’s “Palace of Gold.” The songs are the usual mix of Jim Cuddy crooners for the lovelorn and the stoner rock of Greg Keelor. Unfortunately, the opening track “Can’t Help Wondering Why” didn’t inspire, and was so perfectly in the pocket of their sound it felt derivative of earlier efforts. The second (and title) track is a stoner rock song by Keelor, which again just felt like it was mailed in by a bar band doing a Blue Rodeo tribute gig.

By the time I got to the album’s single, “Rena,” (buried three songs in) I was ready to write this album off. Fortunately, while “Rena” isn’t the greatest song Blue Rodeo has ever done it does have a pretty guitar hook and Cuddy’s voice sounds easy and relaxed. I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Rena” is a favourite for me, but it began to redeem my opinion of the album.

I always think I’m more into the Jim Cuddy folksy side of Blue Rodeo, but on every album Greg Keelor wins me over and reminds me he is every bit as important to the band’s success. On “Are You Ready” that Keelor moment is “Phaedra’s Meadow.” This is a haunting song with an echoing production that musically mimics the isolation we all feel in our own thoughts from time to time. It is a song about jealousy that is wrapped up in fey imagery that makes you think the singer is about to be abducted by elves. Nothing so exciting happens – he walks into a meadow to clear his head. This is a song for anyone who has ever wanted to explode with anger, but instead made the far wiser decision of just taking a long walk in the woods and cooling off.

“Phaedra’s Meadow” cooled off my anger at wanting the first half of the record to be better, and I think it was a big part of why I enjoyed Side Two so much more. “Stuck on You” is a pretty song that feels like Keelor is channeling Gordon Lightfoot (this is a good thing) and on “Finger Lakes” Cuddy lands a perfect balance between dutiful resolve and idealistic romance.

After one last overlong and overblown track attempted to make me start disliking the album again (“Tired of Pretending”) the album won me over one more time with one of my all time favourite Blue Rodeo songs: “Don’t Get Angry.”

“Don’t Get Angry” is Cuddy at his mournful best, as he sings a song about a failed love affair. Ostensibly Cuddy’s character is asking his ex to not dwell on what went wrong or why the relationship ended. However, as you listen you realize that the song is really about his own failure to move on, not hers:

"If you see some picture of us

Lying on the bed

Some old memory haunts you

Gets stuck inside your head

Don't get angry about it

And wish we'd never been

Don't get roped into a corner

And try changing everything

Don't get paralyzed with fear

And stand there wondering what to do

Just forget it girl, and I will too"

This isn’t advice, this is a confession. He’s calling her thinking he’s going to give her emotional support, but really it’s just to tell her he’s still a mess.

Cuddy’s vocals on “Don’t Get Angry” are soft and strong in equal measure. He doesn’t reach for big notes like he does on early classics like “Try” but because he sings with such honesty he doesn’t have to.

Two thirds of the way through the song, they start adding harmonica to the song and it is the perfect poignant expression of a guy trying to be cool but about to lose it and start balling. “Don’t Get Angry” is like one of those drunken phone calls to your ex to tell her you miss her, if you were actually able to say everything perfectly.

Despite its poor opening (and lack of proper punctuation) “Are You Ready” had mostly won me over by the time it ended, and reminded me that even a weaker Blue Rodeo album is still pretty damned good.

Best tracks:  Phaedra’s Meadow, Finger Lakes, Don’t Get Angry

CD Odyssey Disc 806: Tom Petty

I was so excited to write this next review that I put on a t-shirt featuring the band just to put me that much more in the mood.

Disc 806 is….Hard Promises

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? Tom’s in a record store looking thoughtful and a little pained. Maybe he’s regretting those ‘hard promises’ he made to himself about only buying that one album he came in for and not browsing around and buying 4 or 5 more. I know your pain, Tom.

How I Came To Know It: As is often the case with artists I really like, at some point I make a decision to drill into their back catalogue. I discovered “Hard Promises” while doing this with Tom Petty, knowing nothing about the album beyond the fact that “The Waiting” was a single I’d heard on the radio.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 15 studio albums by Tom Petty (some solo, some with the Heartbreakers) and I like all of them to various degrees. I like “Hard Promises” a lot. So much so that I’m going to bump “Long After Dark” (reviewed back at Disc 542) down a peg and put it fourth overall.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

With some artists it is worth your time to delve into their entire music collection. Tom Petty is one of those artists, and “Hard Promises” is probably the best example why.

If you were to buy Petty’s 1993 Greatest Hits album you would get exactly one song from “Hard Promises.” If you splurged and bough the two-disc anthology he released in 2000, you would get two.

Don’t get me wrong, though. “The Waiting” is an exceptional song, and has rightly survived into our collective musical consciousness 34 years after it was released and the anthology’s second choice, “Woman in Love” is pretty amazing too. Both songs are incredible compositions exploring opposite ends of a relationship. “The Waiting” is about waiting around at the chance to finally be with the woman you desire. It uses well-placed minor chords to perfectly capture this unresolved frustration every guy has experienced.

“Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)” is the other end of the relationship, when a woman is leaving you and you don’t know why. The narrator of the song doesn’t get it, but you get the sense from both the music and lyrics that she was never truly his in the first place. Petty’s drawling delivery is perfect for frustrated waiting and broken-hearted confusion in equal measure.

But “Hard Promises” is so much more than these two hits. Following on the Heartbreakers’ classic record “Damn the Torpedoes” it shows that they aren’t a fluke of the music industry, but instead clever songwriters who know how to tell the tales of ordinary men and make them feel like epics.

“Nightwatchman” is a song about the sort of person who takes that sort of job. Few nightwatchmen live for their work, but there they are out in the darkest hours, putting their lives in danger for little more than minimum wage. The song incorporates a funky guitar riff that vocalizes the restless energy inside this person, dreaming of doing something else one day.

“Something Big” is the perfect song to follow “Nightwatchman.” It tells the tragic end of someone in a cheap motel trying to make a score and get out of his hand-to-mouth existence. It isn’t clear by the end of the song whether he meets his end through violence or overdose, but the fuzzy blues riff makes it clear it didn’t end well.

The album is pure rock and roll, but finds a lot of range within that genre. In addition to the aforementioned blues and funk riffs, the album treats you to fifties harmonies on “Letting You Go” and folksy ballads on “Insider.”

Regardless of what facet of their sound they are exploring, Petty and the Heartbreakers nail it. Like Bruce Springsteen, Petty understands how to make chord choices that and emotionally underscore his lyrics, delivering universal truths through individual characters who come alive for the 3-5 minutes of the song, but leave us thinking about them long after it ends.

The production on “Hard Promises” is perfect. There are a few odd flourishes of organ and piano in places, but only in just the right amount, like a dash of oregano adding flavour to a sauce. Petty sings with conviction and honesty and Mike Campbell once again reminded me that he is one of the most underrated guitar players in rock.

“Hard Promises” affected me in a deeper way than I expected, and reminded me to play it a lot more often than I do.

Best tracks:  The Waiting, A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me), Nightwatchman, Something Big, Letting You Go, Insider, The Criminal Kind, You Can Still Change Your Mind 

CD Odyssey Disc 805: Pearl Jam

Crazily, it has been almost three years to the day since I last reviewed an album by this next band. This is a bummer, because I love these guys.

Disc 805 is….No Code

Artist: Pearl Jam

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? A whole lot of nothing. As in, a ton of images evoking mouths and eyes and noses (or that are actually mouths and eyes and noses) thrown into a jumble. I know the album is called “No Code” so maybe that’s the point. If this cover actually has a code I wouldn’t know, because it is so artistically uninspiring I could care less to decipher it.

How I Came To Know It: I had taken a break from Pearl Jam but when “Riot Act” came out in 2002 I had a resurgence of interest. I then realized I had missed three albums between it and 1994’s “Vitalogy.” “No Code” was one of those albums.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Pearl Jam albums, which is all of them. Of the 11 I like “No Code” plenty but it is not my favourite. I’ll put it 8^th.

Ratings: 3 stars

Years ago I worked with a woman who was a figure skater and a Pearl Jam fan. She was a great coworker and a lot of other cool things besides but for the sake of brevity, let’s stick with the skating and the music.

When I found these facts out I remarked (in my opinionated manner) that figure skating was OK by me, but I didn’t think much of ice dancing, and as far as Pearl Jam went I liked pretty much everything they’d ever done with the exception of “No Code” and “Binaural.” Turns out she was an ice dancer, and those albums happened to be her two favourites. Oops.

Today I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed “No Code.” I’ll take back most of the unkind things I said about it fifteen years ago. My vote’s still out on “Binaural.” As for ice dancing, the less said the better.

Back to “No Code,” which is Pearl Jam’s follow up to “Vitalogy” and suffers from some of the same lack of direction on that record.

It’s clear the band is trying to expand their sound, and for the most part I enjoyed the effort. In particular, the use of harmonica on “Smile” was a nice folksy touch to a grunge rock song. It is clear the boys had taken some notes while hanging out with Neil Young, and “Smile” is the kind of song he would have released at his heavier moments. This song is a wall of rock n’ roll, but it never loses its soaring melody. This is a lesson for heavier bands the world over: you don’t have to bury all the elements that make your song pretty just because you also want to make it loud.

My favourite song on the record is “Off He Goes” which is a soft song featuring Vedder crooning gently and a guitar strum that could have been a folk song in another life. I’m not sure what “Off He Goes” is about. Sometimes I think it is mental illness or anxiety, sometimes I think it’s about addiction and sometimes it just feels like someone who takes on more than they should and doesn’t know how to take a breath and relax. The decision to sing the song from the perspective of a close friend who comes off chill and relaxed helps underscore the anxiousness of the song’s subject. It is a smart and not immediately obvious musical choice.

Also great is “Present Tense” which is a slow builder of a song which is the sign of some of their later work on 2002’s “Riot Act.” It is a moody track that perfectly matches Eddie Vedder’s vibrato with a reverbing guitar, and puts both sounds in a very empty echo-filled production that makes the song’s message thrum with importance. That message is pretty simple:

"You can spend your time alone, re-digesting past regrets

Or you can come to terms and realize

You're the only one who can't forgive yourself

Makes much more sense

To live in the present tense"

As the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir would say, “make amends with yourself.” I also enjoy that the song’s final two minutes or so, which is a Who-like instrumental jam. This artful musical exit lets the earlier message soak in the juice of your lizard brain for a while before moving you along to the album’s next track.

“Mankind” feels like Pearl Jam feel like they’re channeling the Ramones and “Around the Bend” feels like a precursor to Vedder’s recent interest in Hawaiian music. They even do a spoken word poetry song about how the world loses its magic as we grow to adulthood (“I’m Open”). This stuff mostly works, although didn’t blow me away like I wanted it to.

One last negative note on the art direction, which in addition to having a stupid and pretentious cover has the song lyrics printed on a bunch of individual polaroid prints. These prints are stuffed where a perfectly useful CD booklet should be. I assume this is supposed to be an interesting way to package the album, but I found it annoying. Moreover the lyrics follow a time-honoured Pearl Jam tradition of being hand-written and hard to read. If you’re going to make it that hard to read, why include it at all?

Anyway, “No Code” is a good album by one of my favourite bands. It is way better than ice dancing, and the only reason it didn’t rate any higher is because I like all their work so much there was no room to move it any higher in the ranking.

Best tracks:  Who You Are, Smile, Off He Goes, Present Tense

CD Odyssey Disc 804: Billy Bragg

Tonight is the final ‘redraft’ in my football pool, so I’m squeezing in a review before everyone arrives to drop all the useless and injured players on their roster and pick over whoever’s left.

For some, this is a chance to slightly adjust their well-tuned football machine for the final lap. For others it’s more akin to pumping four more dollars of gas into the tank of your old beater and hoping it’s enough to get it home in one piece. This year, I’m in the latter category. So it goes…

Disc 804 is….England, Half English

Artist: Billy Bragg and the Blokes

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? It is half an English flag. Get it?

How I Came To Know It: I only bought this album in the last year as I drilled through a half dozen Billy Bragg albums I didn’t have and determined which of them I wanted. “England Half English” made the list, obviously.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Billy Bragg albums, with plans to get a ninth and then call it a day. I like them all, but sadly must put “England, Half English” down near the bottom. I’ll say 7^th or 8^th best pending my review of “Worker’s Playtime.”

Ratings: 3 stars

With all the mistrust and fear in the world in the aftermath of the Paris bombings, it was fitting that I rolled a Billy Bragg album that is all about embracing our differences and living together.

“England, Half English” is Bragg’s love song to immigration and multiculturalism, and his reminder that England itself is a nation founded largely by people who came from somewhere else (Angles and Saxons foremost among them).

This record reminds us that not only can we live together and celebrate our differences, we do it every day without even noticing. The title track, sung with a heavy English accent has the main character drinking a cappuccino, while alternating between meals of veggie curry and bubble and squeak. As he later points out:

“Britannia, she’s half English, she speaks Latin at home

St. George was born in the Lebanon, how he got here I don’t know

And those three lions on your shirt

They never sprang from England’s dirt

Them lions are half English, and I’m half English too.”

The working class brogue helps the song point out that this recognition of England’s many different traditions is just common sense. The song also tries to pull together different music traditions to underscore the point, but unfortunately I found the efforts to transition between styles a bit less successful than the transition between foods.

This is the biggest detraction to the record, which has Bragg gamely trying to mix in different musical styles from England, the Middle East and South Asia. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t it is really noticeable. In particular, “Baby Farroukh” is an unlistenable jingle to begin with and efforts to change it up halfway through just make it worse.

Better in terms of making his point is the more traditionally arranged “Distant Shore” which captures the isolation and sadness of refugees fleeing repressive regimes that does the best it can in helping you feel what it would be like to walk in those shoes.

Bragg finds time to get in a few folk protest songs as is his want, and here he decides to take aim at the United Kingdom. I rather like the UK, Billy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a rollicking good protest song. “Take Down the Union Jack” is as catchy as it is nasty, as Bragg runs through all the problems he has with his own country. The album’s themes come back to the fore in the final verse:

“Take down the Union Jack, it clashes with the sunset

And pile up all those history books, but don’t throw them away

They just might have some clues about what it really means

To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England.co.uk.”

There’s those Angles and Saxons again, with the emphasized hyphen to remind you that those two groups were also distinct and distrustful of one another but got over it.

When he decides to take a break from the bigger themes on “England, Half English” Bragg shows he can still write love songs that are both pretty and clever. “Jane Allen” is a song about being tempted by an old flame but going home to your true love. “Another Kind of Judy” is a strangely upbeat song about a relationship that didn’t work out but left a lot of pleasant memories. Bragg explores the darker side of love with “He’ll Go Down” a warning to a woman to not let a good for nothing bastard drag her down with him.

The album has some unfortunate production decisions, most notably the failed effort at Caribbean rhythms on “Dreadbelly” and the aforementioned “Baby Farroukh” but for the most part “England, Half English” is a good folk record with an important message of tolerance and acceptance.

Best tracks:  Jane Allen, Distant Shore, Take Down the Union Jack, He’ll Go Down