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Post by nathanalbright on Aug 19, 2019 15:27:58 GMT -5
I'm going to post here the reviews I have of songs and EP's, both that I have done in the past as well as whatever ones come up in the future. These are going to be eclectic, though, so watch out. (I hope double posting is okay in this particular thread).
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Mylo13 💜
Diamond Member
@grapefanatic
Wishing everyone an amazing day and life 💜
Joined: July 2017
Posts: 10,092
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Post by Mylo13 💜 on Sept 6, 2019 1:53:56 GMT -5
Double posting is cool here, interesting to see what shows up haha!
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:36:56 GMT -5
Album Review: Golden Earring 50 Years Anniversary Album
Among all the bands I have written about for my series on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the fans of Golden Earring have been among the fiercest, upset that someone like myself would know of the band simply through their two biggest American hits, “Radar Love” and “Twilight Zone,” both fantastic songs. But having listened to this album on the advice of a fan of the band, I get it. This band is one that deserves to be thought of as among the best of the British invasion, even though they’re Dutch. They have songs that remind one of such bands as the Beatles, the Hollies, the Rolling Stones, and even AC/DC and Duran Duran. While maintaining their own amazing instrumentation they also demonstrated an ability to turn their beautiful and dark songs into a wide ranging exploration of genres. This is a band that should be much better known, and it’s not as if they only have a couple of songs that are good. This collection has 50 songs on CD and then another fifteen (with a lot of duplicates) in live and music video versions, and it’s not as if there are any bad songs here. Most of the songs are classics, and the rest are at least good.
Since I listened to these cds in my car (alas, my computer doesn’t have a cd drive), I wasn’t able to do my usual track by track reviews, but there are more than 50 songs here so that would have been an interminably long review. The first of the albums here shows the band starting out with Beatlesesque melodies. But even at this stage of their career they were more than copycats. “Daddy Buy Me A Girl,” the fourth song on this collection, mixes innocent sounding music and vocals with dark lyrics about the struggles to find a faithful and loyal woman with hints of slavery. And the material only gets darker and more melancholy from here, intermixed with songs about nonsense like “Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong,” which should have been a hit. The band explores death in material like “Another 45 Miles,” “Kill Me (Ce Soir),” and “My Killer, My Shadow.” They have strange songs about girls like “She Flies On Strange Wings” and “Weekend Love,” along with “I Can’t Sleep Without You.” They explore the exoticism of India in “Bombay” and picture heaven going to pieces in “Paradise In Distress,” one of the last songs here.
It is not as if the band was only a studio creation, as this collection demonstrates the band’s considerable live chops on the first eleven songs of the DVD as well as tracks like “Just Like Vince Taylor,” “Slow Down,” and “I Can’t Sleep Without You.” So whether you like the dark music videos by Dick Maas, the live tracks, or the band’s studio songs, this compilation gives you all the information you need to know to realize that this band was one of the greatest British Invasion acts ever, only they were from the Netherlands. And it is that fact which probably kept them from getting more hits. “Radar Love” and “Twilight Zone” are neither the two blandest nor the two best of the songs here, and I don’t love them any less hearing the context of the band. Instead, the fact that Golden Earring was able to make so many really great songs, with a commitment to songwriting craft, a high degree of variety, and some amazing instrumentation makes the fact that they only had two hits a bit sad. This is a band that deserved far more success, and it is easy to understand why those who have taken the time to listen to the band’s material as a whole would be a bit upset that the band is known for only two songs that don’t even hint at all of the weird and wonderful approaches taken to rock music over the course of a long and productive and accomplished career for Golden Earring.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:37:39 GMT -5
Album Review: The Renaissance Of Italian Music, by various artists
I must admit that I have a soft spot for Renaissance art and music, and this album has plenty of that. The album even comes in a book that includes a great deal of Renaissance art from the National Gallery. EMI is clearly aiming this album at a particular market, namely highly cultured people who appreciate thematically organized art and music from the Italian Renaissance. Since music from this period (if not visual art [1]) is somewhat obscure, I think it is a good thing that this album serves the niche of at least bringing this music to an appreciative audience. While not everyone approves of this music–one person in my car while I was listening to the album thought of the music as rather samey and wondered if I was listening to Catholic radio–those of us who do enjoy the music certainly can find much to enjoy and appreciate about this album even if the liner notes are absolutely essential in understanding what is being said, since most of us do not have the best Latin, making this album a challenge to understand unless one reads the liner notes.
In terms of the music, this collection is a two-album set that totals about two and a half hours in length or so. The first CD is made up of fifteen tracks. The first seven tracks are the Missa Papae Marcelli, totalling about half an hour, followed by the Beata es Virgo Maria, the Hodie gloriosa simper Virgo Maria, and the Magnificat Septimi Toni, all composed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. This disc also contains the Kyrie a, Gloria a, and Sanctus & Benedictus by Andrea Gabrieli and the Omnes gentes a and Dulcis Jesu a by Giovanni Gabrieli. The second disc contains ten tracks, including the O Jesu mi dulcissime a by Giovanni Gabrieli. After this there are some works by Claudio Monteverdi, namely excerpts from the Vespro della Beata Vergine, the Beatus vir, Jubilet tota civitas, and the Salve Regina. The last track, of about thirteen minutes in length, is the Miserere by Gregorio Allegri. The pieces are performed by the Choirs of King’s and Clare College in Cambridge as well as the Taverner Consort choir & players and the Gabrieli consort & players. The result is all the Italian Renaissance music (and art) that many people would look for.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:38:20 GMT -5
Album Review: Violin Adagios, by various artists
From time to time I enjoy a break from my usual listening material while driving, and since I knew I did not have time to finish an audiobook before leaving on an extended trip to a religious festival (to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in Suriname), I thought I would investigate the music collection of my local library to find some pleasant music to make my ride more enjoyable. As a violist, I found this collection to be quite excellent, two volumes of well-played violin adagios by very talented musicians with good taste in composers. Admittedly, some of the collections on this two-disc cd are a bit samey, as many adagios follow a somewhat familiar progression of notes in the melody. However, if you want to listen to two and a half hours of peaceful and pleasant music on the violin, this is certainly a worthy choice, and it made for quite an enjoyable listening experience for me. To be sure, I probably would have preferred an album of viola solos, but loyalty to my own chosen instrument aside, this is certainly an album that will make one’s commute a bit less stressful and that is always to be appreciated.
The adagios in this collection range from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries at least and are played by a talented group of violinists that include Joshua Bell, Kyung Wha Chugn, Arthur Grumiaux, Nigel Kennedy, Leila Josefowicz, Midori, Itzhak Perlman, Akiko Suwanai, Henryk Szeryng, and Pinchas Zuckerman. The first disc includes works by Massenet, Bruch, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Barber, Gluck, Beethoven, Tcaikovsky, Dvorak, and Shostakovich. The second album includes works by Beethoven, Bach, Elgar, Schubert, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Kriesler, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Korngold, and Ponce. Overall there are 29 tracts included and they range from very familiar works (like the Ave Maria) to more obscure ones (like the Salut d’amour), although it can fairly be said that the songs chosen as a whole remain well within the classical repertoire. These are all songs that one could easily hear on the local classical music station without any trouble, and Decca Music as a label surely had little problems finding a suitable market for this compilation of material given the popularity of these artists and composers and the general familiarity with this music among the general public as a whole.
As a music listener, I must admit that I prefer long works that have conceptual unity to compilations, and I prefer compilations by the same group to compilations of various groups that happen to perform in the same genre. Nevertheless, this album is certainly enjoyable. I do not necessarily think that any of the performances on this would be the definitive performances of any of the pieces. Many of them were played without the sort of emotional resonance that one would expect from the best of the material, but all of it was played well enough to make for suitable and pleasant background music. In listening to an album like this, one has to get an understanding of what it sets out to be, and in this case the label and the album producers were going for “Pure Moods for the classical set.” They succeeded at their efforts. Whether or not this is an ambitious enough goal to celebrate, in creating pleasant if occasionally repetitive background music for educated and cultured audiences, to celebrate is not my place to judge. Suffice it to say, though, that I got out of this album what I expected of it, and that is worth at least some praise.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:38:55 GMT -5
Album Review: Land 2 Air Chronicles I EP, by Kenna
This particular “album” is a three song EP that was released by Kenna. Having previously listened to and enjoyed his two full albums, which were both excellent and should have been hits, does Kenna’s independent music efforts have the same degree of skill and depth? Here is a track-by-track review:
Chains: This is a remarkably touching song that deals with the question of chains that cannot be broken but that may be possible to slip off. Is Kenna talking about the chains of the past, of memory, personal or ancestral, or of relationships with a loved one or a former record label? All of these are possible, and the song is definitely one that I enjoyed listening to.
Kharma Is Coming: This song has a considerable degree of punch as the author proclaims that justice is coming for someone the narrator has been dealing with. Produced by the singer and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes fame, this song shows Kenna acting like a judge, jury, and executioner of someone who has done wrong and who will definitely pay.
What U Want: This song is the real gem of this collection, a catchy anti-fame ode that realistically portrays the life of fame and notoriety with all of its emptiness and all of its danger. The singer is speaking about a young woman who wants to be famous, giving her ironic advice that she shouldn’t be afraid of going after fame if it’s what she really wants, even if it is ultimately not the most worthwhile thing in the world. With a great deal of layers including multi-voice tracking, bells, spare piano chords, and a great beat, this song is one that is worth remembering.
All in all, this is definitely a worthwhile collection, one that whets the appetite of the listener for more and makes one hope that there will be a third album released by Kenna sometime. If it is unlikely that his music will have mass appeal, at least it is music that is well worth listening to and definitely enjoyable.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:39:18 GMT -5
Album Review: Make Sure They See My Face, by Kenna
The second album by alternative/electronic singer-songwriter Kenna, this album featured Kenna’s most sustained attempt to achieve mainstream popularity, with songs co-written and produced by Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes fame. Given the attempt by the Neptunes to make Kenna’s music a fixture on pop radio, an effort, alas, that did not succeed, how are we to view this album? Here is a track-by-track review:
Daylight: A gorgeous and lengthy intro precedes a driving and upbeat song that encourages the listener to face the daylight and avoid self-medication. The song has an anthem-like quality that is truly gorgeous and uplifting.
Out Of Control: The introduction to this song wouldn’t sound out of place on a Keane song, and the song has a thoughtful approach to an out-of-control relationship where the singer wants to be sedated so he doesn’t care anymore about what is going on that is frustrating and bothering him so much.
Loose Wires/Blink Radio: An upbeat percussion-heavy introduction discusses a situation where the singer explores the fun that one can have with someone who wants to be a muse to an artist. This is an optimistic and cheery song and certainly one that is enjoyable to listen to, filled with hope. The last forty seconds of the song are a humorous skit involving questions from a DJ on the radio.
Say Goodbye To Love: The first single from the album, this song is a catchy and rather straightforward attempt at massive superstardom. Alas, although the song is enjoyable and catchy and nowhere near as complicated as most of Kenna’s songs, the song failed to become a hit.
Sun Red Sky Blue: A spare introduction precedes the driving song where the singer looks for the lover he is singing to give him the titular sun red and sky blue, whatever that means. The song appears to be full of mistrust but it is a gorgeous and deeply layered one.
Baptized In Blacklight: A spare but lovely introduction segues into a song that celebrates the healing and restorative power of a good and loving relationship, allowing the singer to overcome his struggles and problems.
Static: A piano and drum introduction moves into a surprisingly poignant song where the singer expresses his concern about not being sure if he wants to be understood and fully seen by his partner, a fear that many of us have. This is another song that would make an obvious crossover hit.
Phantom Always: A catchy song, this song expresses the way that the singer feels his lover always there, whether she is there or not. He feels unable to escape from her, or from the memory of the past. This could be viewed as a very negative thing, but the song seems to present it in a positive light.
Face The Gun: A catchy and upbeat song that was a late addition to the album’s track list, this electronic number encourages the listener to face the dangers and threats of life with bravery and courage, seeking to rise above the rhetoric of hostility around us. This song is another obvious should-have-been-hit.
Better Wise Up: A quick but somewhat dark instrumental track backs up a song that encourages the listener to wise up, repeated somewhat repetitively but certainly in a catchy manner, before having a key change and pointing to the responsibility of the listener to change his or her fate.
Be Still: An electronic ballad, this song celebrates stillness and peace. It is a gorgeous sort of song, the sort of song that should have been a crossover hit and makes for a gorgeous and inspirational way for the album to wind its way towards its conclusion.
Wide Awake: This driving song has some excellent musical layers and some powerful lyrics about being wide awake and unable to sleep because of nervous energy. This is definitely a Nathanish anthem, to be sure, and it is stunning that this song never became popular as it is definitely an awesome song, with a powerful ending.
I would like to personally thank Malcolm Gladwell (not that he would ever know about it) for having introduced me to Kenna. While it is a great shame that this album never caught on with a wide audience, this album is stellar from beginning to end, with more than half a dozen songs that will likely be remembered as classics. Indeed, this album has the feel of something that would inspire those who make good electronic alternative music, and the sort of album that people will look back on decades from now as being a seminal album that should have been obviously recognized at its time.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:39:45 GMT -5
Album Review: New Sacred Cow, by Kenna
Admittedly, Kenna is far more obscure of an artist than most of those whose albums I review, but I heard about him from an audiobook by Malcolm Gladwell, “Blink,” that discussed how the verdict of music insiders and that of casual listeners was very different when it came to his work. I listened to all of the music videos I could readily find and found I liked all the songs so I figured it would be worthwhile to listen to his entire discography, which consists of three albums. Here is a track-by-track review:
Within Earshot: A glitchy and moody intro track of only 1:20 in length, this album introduces the album with a tuneful piece of electronic alternative music.
Freetime: The first single from the album, this track is an excellent piece of electronic alternative music that has an arresting music video as well. It is catchy and punchy and certainly won the singer quite a few devoted fans.
Man Fading: This song is a spare electronic song with an interesting melody as well as very straightforward lyrics about feeling like one is fading and longing for satisfaction and improvement despite their difficulty.
Sunday After You: A beautiful electronic introduction precedes a song that is rich with lyrics about the disorienting power of love, even though the singer/songwriter seems rather pessimistic about how things are going between them.
Vexed And Glorious/ A Better Control: This song has more intriguing electronic music along with lyrics that show a great deal of wit and intelligence in blaming someone for their lack of devotion and presence in his life. The last minute and a half or so of this more than six minute track have an interesting robotic voice and futuristic music.
Redman: An upbeat introduction moves into an intriguing song that has clever wordplay and a catchy hook and more moody reflections on a troubled relationship. This is the sort of song that could easily have been a hit in a better world.
Yeneh Ababa: A beautiful and gloomy ballad, this song ponders whether the pain of someone’s life outweighs the blessings, wondering if that person is lonely. There are intriguing vocal effects, and this is again another song that could easily have been a crossover hit on the softer side of Kenna’s music.
War In Me: The second single from this album, this song is a beautiful and tense discussion of the war that exists within the singer between different mindsets and perspectives and this is certainly a worthwhile and immensely enjoyable song with intricate instrumental layers.
New Sacred Cow: This upbeat and driving title track shows the singer being rather pointed about being looked down on and mistrustful of relationships that never seem to work out for him.
I’m Gone: Some interesting vocal samples and intriguing electronic sound effects mark this intelligent song about the singer’s anxiety and fear about the state of the world. Despite the heaviness of the song, though, the lyrics and hook are definitely catchy.
Siren: This song is a catchy and intelligent song about a femme fatale, where the singer shows an awareness that nothing is going to change with a heartbreaker who is nonetheless attractive despite the troubles that she causes.
Love/Hate Sensation: A beautiful melodic instrumental part and some excellent beats undergird this lovely song about the problems that result from the powerful ambivalence felt by the singer about his life and situation. Given the singer’s ambivalence about the music industry, the song is a fitting conclusion to the singer/songwriter’s debut album.
Overall, it is mysterious why this album was not more popular and why it did not spawn some hits. After all, there is nothing that describes this album more than influential or tuneful or excellent. There isn’t a weak song on here, and at least four of the songs on this album should have been crossover hits. This album, more or less, sounds like what Linkin Park’s “One More Light” or the recent efforts by bands like Fall Out Boy would sound like if they were actually good and if their electronic music elements were balanced by strong songwriting. Unfortunately, this album simply has not caught on with a large audience.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:40:17 GMT -5
Album Review: Greatest Hits, by Exposé
There is a common trajectory among many musical acts, and that is beginning with peppy and upbeat and even sassy songs and then moving to a more mature ballad-driven approach. Among the bands that followed this trajectory with considerable skill if contemporary obscurity is the Miami-based act Exposé. The two sides of their career as they are remembered, where they are remembered at all, is at the beginning with the upbeat tones of “Point Of No Return” and “Let Me Be The One” with their sassy harmonies, and towards the end of their popularity with the ballads “Seasons Change” and especially “I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me,” which is my favorite song from the band, predictably enough. The group had some lineup changes because one of its members had to leave because of permanent vocal damage, but despite the fact that the group had some excellent songs they are not exactly well known today. Here is a track-by-track review:
Come Go With Me: An early single of theirs, this song shows the clear influence of the Miami sound that was being performed at the same time by acts like the Miami Sound Machine. This song reflects the singers’ desire to take their lover far away from the pressures of work, and it’s certainly an enjoyable song.
Point Of No Return: An upbeat early hit of the group, this song finds the ladies of the band rapturous about the love they have from their partner. This song, with its harmonies and its blissful tone, was probably a signature song of theirs, and it was definitely a well-deserved big hit as well.
Let Me Be The One: This song is another early hit from the group and has sultry vocals to go along with the spare and brass-heavy music. The harmonies and the clear sexuality of the singers is definitely a standout here, and it is unsurprising that this song became a popular hit as well, with its message of trust and intimacy.
I’ll Say Good-Bye For The Two Of Us: This early ballad from the band was not a particularly big hit, but it finds the group in a melancholy mood facing the end of a relationship, with the singer/narrator leaving while her partner is asleep, which is definitely not the most courageous way to end a relationship.
What You Don’t Know: This song has surprisingly upbeat music for its rather downbeat message that what the person the singer is singing to doesn’t know might hurt him or her. The lyrics are a bit basic and the music is classic 80’s, but the song is certainly not a bad one for album filler, which ended up here because the first album of the group was included nearly in its entirety on this collection.
Tell Me Why: This song is an album track that exposes the reality of a dysfunctional relationship full of fighting and justification and arguments and the singer, understandably, wants to know why things are the way they are, with the chance that this unhappiness will be passed on to the next generation, a thoughtful and serious concern in light of the negative results of dysfunctionality.
Seasons Change: This melancholy ballad expresses the singers’ concern that the love that they are involved in will not be lasting. One can hear the tension between the hope for lasting love and the cynicism of a heart that has perhaps been broken too many times to believe in forever. The song was a massive hit, proof of the popularity of melancholy when it is framed in a beautiful fashion like this one.
I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me: It probably says something less than pleasant about me that this is by far my favorite song from the group. This is a spare song mostly driven by the melancholy of the singer commenting that her former partner has moved on and she is clearly unable to do so. The last big hit of the group, it was a testament to their “mature” sound on their third studio album, and it is one that still hits heavily for me.
Exposed To Love: An early non-charting single by the band, this song has a strange title and one that talks about being exposed to love. It is unsure (even doubtful) that this is a good thing, nor is it obvious that the group was being deliberate about making a pun on their name in the song’s title.
I Specialize In Love (Remix): The second single from the Greatest Hits collection (the first was the minor charting song “I’ll Say Goodbye For The Two Of Us”), this song charted on the dance tracks but not on the pop charts, and it is a remixed version of a song on the group’s third album, which was a cover of a little-known dance song from the early 1980’s, which is a good time to find obscure dance songs in the aftermath of disco.
End Of The World: This cover continues the trend of the previous song being a cover, and the arrangement of this popular song about love lost and mourned is beautiful and suitably sad. It certainly is a cover worth being performing, even if it appears never to have been released as a single.
When I Looked At Him: A somewhat obscure song from the group, this song reflects the chemistry that happens between people and it shows the R&B girl group leanings of the group as a whole. It’s a lovely and touching song and definitely a minor gem in the group’s discography with some intriguing instrumentation as well as beautiful harmonies.
Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue: One of several hits the group recorded from Diane Warren songs, this song reflects on the passing nature of love and the concerns that the singer is going to have her heart broken by a disloyal lover. It may seem like claiming that someone never looked good in blue would be a weak defense to the end of a relationship, but it is at least a creative way to deal with the problem.
Come Go With Me (Remix): This lengthy remix of the group’s first hit is definitely inessential, but it’s hopeful that it was liked by at least some of the group’s fans of their dance-oriented music.
Point Of No Return (Remix): A rather inessential remix of the group’s second hit, this song is likely included as a sop to the band’s dance pop fans who want to hear this peppy song in a similar form to the way it would sound in a club.
This is not a perfect greatest hits compilation, not least because it is missing one of the band’s top 40 hits (“I Wish The Phone Would Ring”) and seriously under-represents the group’s third album. Likewise, the songs here demonstrate some repetitive patterns, to the extent that one can predict the very frequent one semitone raised key change at the end of many of these songs. That said, the real takeaway from this album is that the group should be far better remembered than it is, and that Exposé had a deep undercurrent of melancholy and longing and dissatisfaction in even their upbeat songs that demonstrated surprising emotional depth. This is a rare Greatest Hits album that really shows how a group maintained a consistently melancholy approach to their music despite wide diversity in genres and styles.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:40:40 GMT -5
Album Review: The 80’s: Taylor Dane, by Taylor Dayne
Admittedly, when I think of the obscure and unjustly neglected acts of the 1980’s, I have not always been quick to give the proper credit to Taylor Dayne. Although the production of many of her songs has not dated well, there is still a solid core of songs that remain powerful, and the day that “Don’t Rush Me” and “Love Will Lead You Back” cease to have an emotional effect on me would be a disastrously unhappy day indeed. This album manages to collect most of the hits one would expect from the singer and that makes this collection a worthwhile one if you have nostalgia for powerful 80’s female vocalists, and I must admit I do have that sort of nostalgia from time to time. Here is a track by track review:
I’ll Always Love You (Extended Mix): Dayne’s powerful voice and a pleasant and spare instrumental track open this album with a thoughtful ode of devotion that demonstrated Taylor Dayne’s ability to sing powerfully in power ballads, this one with more than a bit of a hint of R&B backing vocals. Overall, this is a stellar track and an essential one of the singer’s.
Love Will Lead You Back: This song is my favorite Taylor Dayne track, bar none, and I think the track that has best survived since the late 1980’s when it was made. Soft verses of devotion and a powerful chorus demonstrate the singer’s faith that the one she loves will come back to her even though she has to let him go for the moment.
Tell It To My Heart: This upbeat dance song presents a common problem, the trouble in being able to trust the one that one loves. When one feels powerfully moved by love and affection, one wants to know that there is loyalty and good communication, and this song expresses that well even if the production is a bit dated.
I’ll Be Your Shelter: This is a peppy song of romantic devotion with some excellent instrumentation, and the song was even co-written by Dayne. Some of the words are a bit difficult to understand, but overall this song is an upbeat one and definitely a standout track for the singer, and a worthy hit.
With Every Beat Of My Heart (Extended Radio Remix): This song is upbeat and certainly was a popular dance single for Taylor Dayne, but the production of this song has not really aged at all that well at all. Even so, the song expresses the singer’s willingness to enjoy love with her partner.
Don’t Rush Me: Another one of my favorite songs from Taylor Dayne, this song shows her awareness of the fact that we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to love and intimacy, confusing an immediate response with the sort of knowledge of love that requires us to take our time and work our way through commitment. Love indeed is well worth waiting for.
Prove Your Love: A long instrumental intro clues the listener that this song is no ordinary 80’s single, especially since it goes on for over seven and a half minutes. The song at its core has a tension between the singer’s desire for her partner to prove his love with her impatience to enjoy that love tonight, a common frustration when intimacy is not attached to morality.
Send Me A Lover: This song is a ballad that expresses Taylor Dayne’s desire for love, a relatively consistent desire throughout her career, a desire to recover from loneliness and have a new beginning. The instrumental track is really the strength of this track, given that the lyrics are a bit basic. Overall, though, this is a surprisingly touching if obscure song in Dayne’s discography.
Heart Of Stone: A track that more or less splits the difference between Dayne’s ballads and her dance tracks, this song expresses Dayne’s devotion to her a lover and her refusal to believe that her partner has a heart of stone and is immune to her love and devotion despite the hurt she feels in their relationship. This is another surprisingly deep and moving and somewhat obscure song in her body of work with a lovely saxophone solo.
Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love: Many singers do cover versions of hit songs, and this song was a hit cover of Barry White’s excellent song. Dayne does justice to song with her sultry vocals and the instrumental track is solid as well. This is an enjoyable cover, and one imagines that White was pleased to hear her effort.
Say A Prayer (Boss Edit – Morales Mix): This song is definitely more of a pure techno song where the lyrics are not all that important and where the driving beat is the most important element of the song. It certainly is the sort of song that one would still expect to hear in a club to dance to, and would not be out of place even in contemporary club or radio play, which says something for Dayne’s skills.
I’ll Wait (E-Smoov Anthem Vocal Mix): This song is another classic dance track where Dayne’s lyrics are not the most essential aspect but where the dance beat is a good one. This is by no means the most essential of Dayne’s songs but it again demonstrates her skills as a dance diva with enough personality to sing powerful ballads. Contemporary dance pop vocalists are likely still jealous.
This album is definitely a satisfying one as far as Dayne’s hits are concerned. The title is a bit misleading because several of these songs do come from the 90’s. Dayne’s music can be put into several categories, all of which have their pleasure. We have songs where Dayne is a dance pop singer with upbeat and driving songs, many of which have classic late 80’s to mid 90’s production, songs where Dayne is singing powerful love ballads full of romantic devotion, and songs that seem to split the difference that are a bit more obscure but also surprisingly deep and poignant. This album does show that Taylor Dayne is an artist worth remembering, though.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:41:09 GMT -5
Album Review: The Very Best Of En Vogue, by En Vogue
I must admit that I am a fan of En Vogue and their best songs are, for the most part at least, somewhat easy to determine. For some reason, only a couple of years after releasing the Best of En Vogue, the original label of the band decided to release another compilation that adds a couple of songs and takes a couple of songs away but which keeps most of the obvious choices for the best tracks of the group (although, for some reason, it does not include “Riddle,” the lone hit single from the group’s album Masterpiece Theater, nor the excellent “Too Gone, Too Long,” from their third album). So, in the battle of best of compilations, which will prevail? Here is a track-by-track review:
Hold On: After a slow intro, this song gets cracking with a powerful set of verses and choruses. Admittedly, the harmonies and singing are not exactly the best here, but the song is catchy and sung with a good deal of grit, and this is certainly a good way to begin the album.
Free Your Mind: One of the undoubted standout tracks from En Vogue, this is a powerful track against prejudice and is deservedly one of the best-known tracks by the group, and certainly a big hit that deserves it. The rock guitars only make this song better.
My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It): Another massive top hit from En Vogue, this song showcases the group’s sassy spirit telling a guy that he’s not going to get the loving that he is looking for after treating her with disrespect. Perhaps my favorite part of the song is the stellar breakdown.
Don’t Let Go (Love): This massive hit from the third album of En Vogue and the “Set It Off” soundtrack is my favorite from the band and which really sealed them in my mind as an immensely talented and worthwhile group with real staying power. The witty use of legal and even criminal language makes this a particularly witty song.
Give It Up, Turn It Lose: Beginning with a sample of the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” the song transitions after a conversation between the group members into a sassy song about love that was a deserved hit. While not the best known song of the group, this is still an obvious one of their most notable songs even now.
Whatta Man (with Salt-N-Pepa): This is an enjoyable song, and certainly one that is praiseworthy to the men that the groups are singing about. About the only complaint that can be made about this successful song (which appeared on an EP and not on any of the group’s studio albums) is that it doesn’t have enough En Vogue in it.
Lies: This lesser known single from En Vogue’s first album is one that has been popular on compilations, even if it is not the best of the group’s songs. Even so, this song shows the group’s melodies as well as their sassy spirit and their focus on honesty.
Whatever: An okay song with a creepy music video, this was probably not the best choice for the second single from the third studio album of En Vogue, but it is at least an okay song, even if the music is rather disturbing and the production a bit too spare for what the group is trying to accomplish.
Love Don’t Love You: One of the lesser singles of En Vogue, this song was one of the deep singles of the group on their second album. When an album goes five or six singles deep, as this album did, it is no great problem that not all of the songs are equally catchy, but this song is still an obvious choice given its discussion of the negative side of love, when love isn’t shared by the people we love.
You Don’t Have To Worry: Another one of the lesser singles from the group, this song features a very odd music video and somewhat repetitive lyrics that emphasize that the partner of the singer doesn’t have to feel fear or shame or worry. It’s not a bad track, but it’s definitely more of a filler sort of song rather than a compelling single.
Waitin’ On You: This little known song from the group’s first album begins with a smooth jazz instrumental and has some complex production to disguise the rather simple nature of the song showing the group waiting for a partner to come to come. No music video game was made of this song but it is a decent album track.
Runaway Love (f/FMob): This is a decent song and one that deserved to be more successful than it ones. It is certainly one of the better of En Vogue’s more obscure singles, even if it’s not the best song named “Runaway Love” that I am familiar with (it’s not as good as Ludacris’ single, alas). Still, it was a worthy title track of the group’s EP between their second and third studio albums.
Giving Him Something He Can Feel: This popular single from the group shows the group seeking to prove that they are not too young to love a guy the right way–and many guys would likely agree that by the time of the group’s second album they were definitely mature enough to have a good relationship with a decent person.
Don’t Go: The harmonies of this song definitely sound odd and not as melodic as some of their better known songs. This song is a fairly straightforward call by the group for a partner not to go, and one doesn’t know if the man was awed by
Let It Flow: This funky song is an interesting one to put towards the end of the album, but I suppose its odd harmonies blend with the previous song’s odd harmonies, making for an unconventional end to an album if you listen to it from beginning to end.
Hold On (Hip Hop Remix): This song is pretty much the same as Hold On only with a beefed up percussion and more rap ad libs, and since “Hold On” is one of my least favorite En Vogue hits, this is not enough to make this an essential song.
Alright, so given the fact that the two compilations share a large number of songs, the difference between the compilations can be judged as determining the difference between the songs that are missing (“Too Gone, Too Long” and “No Fool No More”) as opposed to the songs that are present here (“Waitin’ On You,” “You Don’t Have To Worry”, and “Don’t Go”). By that standard, this is the second best best-of compilation of En Vogue, although it is by no means a bad one.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 6, 2019 13:41:38 GMT -5
Album Review: I remember as a kid that I enjoyed the hit songs of En Vogue on the radio, but for whatever reason I never owned any of their albums until the chance came to snag a best of collection from them as a companion album to a greatest hits album of Janet Jackson, giving me the chance to explore another one of the great R&B acts of the 1990’s. En Vogue had 3 #2 hits without any #1 hits, but the hits were solid ones. Here is a track by track review:
My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It): This sassy song was a deserved hit that showcases En Vogue at their best, telling off a past lover that they are not going to get another chance. Kiss off anthems have rarely sounded this good.
Hold On: This song is full of girlish harmonies, and the introduction is an intriguing a capella before the jazzy music kicks in and the general sassiness kicks in to remind the listener that this was a worthy hit for the band. If this is not the best song the band ever did, and it’s not, it certainly shows their characteristic attitude.
Whatta Man: This duet with Salt-N-Pepa is a stunning ode to an apparently excellent man. In an age where there were a lot of anti-male anthems that were popular (one thinks of “No Scrubs” and “Bills, Bills, Bills,” it’s nice to hear someone celebrating a good man in the way this well-deserved hit does.
Free Your Mind: This anthem to overcoming shallowness and superficiality was a well-deserved hit, which shows that this album is front-loaded with some of the band’s best known materials. This hit has the attitude that the group’s best songs do but manages to do so in a way that sounds appealing rather than sounding overly preachy. This song rocks hard and well.
Don’t Let Go (Love): This beautiful song from the “Set It Off” soundtrack is perhaps my favorite song from the group. The ladies of En Vogue play with the criminality aspects of the plot and while holding to the lover the right to lose control and be more than friends. It wouldn’t appear as if these ladies would have to beg, though for a lover.
Giving Him Something He Can Feel: This early hit from the band finds the girls trying their harmonies and praising the loving of a good man. Of particularly interest, though, is the way the girls spend most of the time talking about how good of lovers they happen to be, and that their love is real.
No Fool No More: A minor hit from the aptly titled film “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” this song is a smooth kiss-off anthem but it doesn’t have the bite that My Lovin’ had earlier. It is competent soundtrack R&B, but it’s definitely not their best material but it certainly has a lovely instrumental line.
Whatever: A top 20 hit, this song is part of the band’s body of songs about devotion, although it is set to a somewhat disturbing and creepy song and the song isn’t quite up to the peak of the band’s work. It’s certainly an interesting song, and the music has some odd and unsettling elements, but it’s not the best song, which makes sense that it would be on the second half of a best-of compilation.
Lies: The second top 40 hit from the band, this song begins with some interesting 60’s girl group harmonies before moving into a piece with an intriguing if somewhat dated synth line. I suppose it’s not a surprise that this song is En Vogue’s pedestrian but spirited entry into the lying partner anthem sweepstakes.
Give It Up, Turn It Loose: The fourth single from their second album, this song was not as big a hit as the first three hits and only peaked in the top 20 as opposed to the top 10, but still, this is a solid and spirited throwback song about seeking a fresh start, and anytime an album can go four good singles deep, that album is doing something right, so this song is worth celebrating nonetheless.
Runaway Love: The title track of an EP by En Vogue and a minor hit, this song has a nice groove to it. Even if it is a lesser known song from the group, it has a good feel and plenty of smooth harmonies and a nice instrument line. This is definitely a song that could have stood to be a bigger hit about a love with great potential.
Too Gone, Too Long: This ferocious song was a top 40 hit and the third single from their third album. This should have been the second single instead of “Whatever,” but even though it wasn’t their biggest hit, the driving instrumental beat and the defiant attitude of the singers to move on from the past is still a memorable song. This song has some well-deserved bite.
Let It Flow: An album track from the group’s third album, this song has a nice instrumental intro. Admittedly, the song is a bit of filler, but it’s enjoyable filler, at least about the desirability of letting love flow, with spoken word, singing, and plenty of sass, even if some of the harmonies come off as a bit flat.
Love Don’t Love You: The fifth and final top 40 single from the group’s second album, this album is a sassy but somewhat spare song that would likely have remained album filler if the group’s previous songs hadn’t have been so successful on the radio. It makes for a worthwhile close to the album as demonstration of the way that En Vogue probably had about ten songs that are worth remembering, and this one isn’t one of them but isn’t a bad song by any means.
There are a couple bonus tracks as well, and they’re okay. One is a remix of “Hold On,” which is a bit unnecessary given that it’s their weakest big hit. Overall, this song has all of the big hits by En Vogue and the lesser known singles from the first three albums as well as the “Runaway Love” EP as well, making this an essential compilation for En Vogue that has almost all the songs from the group that you would want to listen to, and a few more that are moderately enjoyable filler.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 9, 2019 17:01:19 GMT -5
Album Review: Design Of A Decade, by Janet Jackson
Many who know my writings are aware of the support I have given to Janet Jackson for her stellar career as a musician [1], but I have not given a detailed review of her music. Having failed to win a free copy of Janet Jackson’s multi-platinum compilation album Design Of A Decade 1986-1996, but seeing the price was low, I decided to add it to an Amazon run, and I think it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts on the album on a track-by-track level as we look at the most notable music from the artist from her period of biggest fame, although she has a lot of successful albums that are not represented here and likely will deserve a multi-disk box set retrospective at the end of her career whenever she decides to call it a day. Here is a track-by-track review:
Runaway: The first of two unreleased songs on this compilation, this song was a deserved big hit when the album was released. The instrumental track has a hint of world beat influences and Janet’s voice is smooth and beautiful, making it an immensely enjoyable song and a worthy beginning of the album as a whole, showing Janet in a happy mood overall.
What Have You Done For Me Lately?: The first of six songs included from Control, this song is a pointed kiss-off that expresses the gap between the way a relationship is seen from the outside and how it is viewed by a very dissatisfied partner. The song is a spare one with a focus on rhythm and fairly simple melodies and spoken word elements, and it is pretty easy to see why this song caught on.
Nasty: The second song included in this compilation from Control, this song is another rhythmically driven song that focuses on nasty boys. The vocal effects are striking and the song can be taken as the singer’s ode to nasty guys who never change. The singer details that she wants privacy and respect, and finds it hard to get those from the guys who show interest in her. This is likely a pretty common problem, hence the popularity of the song.
When I Think Of You: The third song included in this compilation from Control, this song is more of a ballad than the previously included songs. It is a testament to the work of the singer and her fellow co-writers that the ballad has some angular and driving beats that make this a pleasing ballad long after it was released to general acclaim and widespread popularity.
Escapade: The first song of seven included from Rhythm Nation 1814, this is a beautiful song and certainly one of my favorites from the singer. Indeed, the theme of the song and its combination of solid beats and beautiful melodies reminds me a great deal of Runaway, the opening song of this compilation, and anything that reminds me of Runaway is definitely doing a good job. Unsurprisingly, this song was a massive hit.
Miss You Much: Another song from Rhythm Nation, this song has driving beats and the singer’s usual swagger. This song is an S.O.S. of sorts from the singer to a partner reminding him, if such a reminder was necessary, that the singer is not someone who likes to be left alone. Why someone would do that is a mystery to me.
Love Will Never Do (Without You): The third song included from Rhythm Nation 1814 finds the singer in a reflective mood thinking that love will never do without the one she is in love with. The song is surprisingly playful and the singer’s giggling and the driving beat save it from the maudlin treatment that the subject matter would likely receive from most other singers.
Alright: The fourth song from Rhythm Nation included here, this song sounds like a lot of the other songs from the album, but that’s not a bad thing. Janet Jackson has a powerful presence and the song features her singing and spoken-word lyrics and the music is excellent, given that the song’s sentiment is that things are alright with her.
Control: The title track from Control, this song expresses the singer’s desire for control over both her personal and professional life, telling a story of her uncertain beginnings in show business and the reason for her attitude and her serious drive for respect, something which happens to continue to the present day.
The Pleasure Principle: A lovely synth melody introduces this song from Control, as the singer rather forcefully details a story about the pleasure that one seeks in a relationship rather than the sort of calming of insecurities that tends to happen often. After the struggles and difficulties of her life, personal and professional, it is little wonder that the singer would seek to find a release from these pressures in her relationships.
Black Cat: The fifth song from Rhythm Nation 1814, this song has a really sassy sound and a really driving beat that might be as close to rock and roll that Janet Jackson ever got. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Janet takes the driving rock beats of the time and makes a credible rock & roll singer in her performance, making this a stellar track, if one that isn’t really played a lot nowadays.
Rhythm Nation: The title track from Rhythm Nation 1814, and it is a driving and inspirational type of track. While the United States might not have been a rhythm nation at the time when the album was made, it is without a question that the United States is a rhythm nation now, where even country artists seek to appropriate trap beats in order to maintain relevance. Sadly, that has not given Janet Jackson the respect she deserves as a prophetess of sorts of this development, but that’s the way life goes.
That’s The Way Love Goes: The only song on this compilation from the successful multi-platinum album janet., this song has a smooth and sensual appreciation of intimacy in one’s present relationship. As might be expected, the song has a gorgeous melody and some strong beats, and the whispered lyrics are an excellent touch. This is certainly a worthwhile song, although it would have been nice to have at least a couple more songs from this album to balance out the ones from Control and Rhythm Nation 1814.
Come Back To Me: The seventh song from Rhythm Nation 1814 on this album, this song begins with some vocal self-harmonies that introduce this song as a touching ballad seeking the return of a departed lover. Although the song is a ballad, the general rhythmic focus of Janet’s music keeps this from being overly melancholy, which is good because the lyrics revel in abandonment and sadness.
Let’s Wait Awhile: This may be my favorite song ever from Janet Jackson, as unusual as that may seem because the song shows the fragility of Janet’s voice as she tries to deal with an overly ardent lover, urging them to wait a while before intimacy. One can hear that despite Janet’s reputation for being a bit aggressive when it came to sexuality that she is a woman too with wounds from her own past experiences.
Twenty Fourplay: It is interesting that this hitherto unreleased song follows Let’s Wait Awhile, because it reminds the listener that when she wanted to wait a while she didn’t want to wait forever. This song, which was a minor hit, revels in sensuality and in showing the audience that Janet was indeed an adult. This side of Janet led, unfortunately, a few years later to that unfortunate incident at the Super Bowl.
In looking at this album as a whole, it is based a bit too heavily on the Control and Rhythm Nation 1814 albums, although these had some stellar songs. This is in general an enjoyable album if one happens to like Janet Jackson’s music. Her hits from the first part of the first decade of her career are here, the new tracks offer some confidence and sensuality, and the influence of her rhythmic approach to music as well as the vocal effects and spoken word ad libs are here for listeners to enjoy. If you don’t happen to own Control and Rhythm Nation this is certainly a worthwhile beginning to one’s Janet Jackson music collection.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 9, 2019 17:02:16 GMT -5
Album Review: Playlist: The Best of Five For Fighting, by Five For Fighting
Although this album was never released in the United States (at least to my knowledge), the album is pretty easily available on cheap imports, so there’s that. The real criteria that matters for an album like this one is whether or not the artist is worthy of a best of compilation [1]. Do we have multiple successful albums? Check–America Town, The Battle For Everything, and Two Lights, which combined make up the bulk of the songs on this fourteen song collection. Do we have songs that should be better known that make this worth buying for those who are already familiar with the artist’s main albums? Absolutely. Does the album have a good organization? It would appear to be so, with a chronological organization that begins with the artist’s material before stardom and closes with a couple of songs from the vastly underrated album Slice, although I would have been happy to see plenty more from that album here aside from the two singles. So, since we are dealing with a good artist with plenty of worthy material to choose from, let’s see how this album shakes out. Here is a track-by-track review:
Bella’s Birthday Cake: The only song from the album Message For Albert included here, this song represents Five for Fighting’s early material. Here we have a song that is a bit ragged and rough but has the impassioned piano playing and quirky slice of life lyrics that would become a staple of the artist in later efforts. This is a worthwhile beginning of a career, to be sure.
Easy Tonight: The first song included from America Town and my favorite of the songs from this album, this song was not a particularly big hit as a single, but it represents a thoughtful song from the point of view of a suicide, looking on the effect that his death had on the girl he loved. It’s a poignant song and evidence of the darker side of Five For Fighting’s musical worldview.
Superman (It’s Not Easy): The first big hit by Five For Fighting, this song achieved a great deal of popularity because of its degree of earnest and heartfelt sentiment about the difficulty of being a hero on September 11, 2001. Admittedly, for me, this song just does not have the sort of depth to overcome the murderous overplay the song received, but it’s hard to begrudge Five For Fighting their success with this acoustic ballad.
Something About You: The third and final song from America Town included here, this is an upbeat love song that is certainly a standout track that deserves to be remembered and appreciated. With a glorious falsetto singing and some driving guitar rhythms, this song is certainly among the faster songs among this collection and certainly a good balance to many of the piano ballads that Five For Fighting was more known for.
100 Years: A beautiful song from Five For Fighting’s album The Battle For Everything that became a big hit, this song reflects on the subject of aging. It’s a gorgeous piano line and the lyrics have some telling and interesting details. It has more than its share of sentimentality, but it’s a lovely song all the same, and kept Five For Fighting from being seen as a one hit wonder.
The Devil In The Wishing Well: This quirky song is definitely the sort of song deserves to be remembered in a collection like this. The song has a lovely piano line and some really interesting lyrics but the song was undoubtedly too odd to be successful as a hit, even though it is among the singer-songwriter’s better songs, full of love and the hint of risk and menace.
If God Made You: My favorite song from The Battle For Everything, this song shows Five For Fighting reflecting on divine providence in love. The value that we place on creation, including that of a loved one, is often a key factor in determining how much we appreciate and recognize God’s love for us.
The Best: An obscure song not from any of Five For Fighting’s studio albums, this song is beautiful and lovely, and is certainly an obscure gem that deserves its place on this collection. A piano ballad that reflects on the best kind of love, anyone would be honored to have this song written about them or even dedicated to them.
The Riddle: A beautiful song that reflects on death and growing up, this was a worthy minor hit single for Five For Fighting from Two Lights. A driving piano beat, this song comes with the assurance that the reason for the world is relationship, and it also addresses questions of identity, making it hopeful as well as reflective.
World: This beautiful song, itself a minor hit from Two Lights, invites the listener to wonder what kind of world they could create if they could design a world from scratch. The thought experiment the song represents is a charming one, and one that can help us better understand our ideals and what we find fault about with the world we currently live in.
I Just Love You: An album track from Two Lights, this song is a somewhat sentimental love ballad, and while it is not my favorite song from Five For Fighting, the song is lovely enough and expresses the love that someone shows a partner shows when on tour and one cannot be together, even when one doesn’t know why one loves someone who is so far from home so often.
Freedom Never Cries: The fourth song included from Two Lights, this song is another quirky but tuneful and frequently melancholy slice of life song from Five For Fighting that reflects on patriotism and self-interest and personal longings. The song wasn’t a hit, but it demonstrates the hard-won patriotism of Five For Fighting and certainly gives homage to the origin of the band’s popularity in the age of the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chances: The first single from the Five For Fighting album Slice, this song is a lovely love song on piano that does not break any ground for Five For Fighting but is certainly a beautiful song that deals with the chancy nature of love and relationships. Given the nature of our world, having some optimism about love is certainly worthwhile and beneficial.
Slice: The title track of Five For Fighting’s album Slice and the second single from the album, this song is the closing one of the Playlist collection, and it is certainly a beautiful song with a focus on nostalgia and the wrestling with identity towards an inclusive view of America as a place of diverse people who struggle with isolation and a desire for unity simultaneously.
Overall, this is a solid album and the song choices are generally pretty strong. None of the songs is obvious dead weight and for the most part there is considerable balance. Given that the 14 songs included are only 55 minutes long, the collection could have used another song from Message For Albert like “The Last Great American,” a standout track, and probably a couple more of the better album tracks from Slice like “Above The Timberline” and “Tuesday” without being remotely too long as a collection. Of course, if a band/singer like Five For Fighting’s biggest problem is having enough of their great songs on a best of collection, that is a good problem to have. This is a solid album that hits most of the high points for Five For Fighting, and that is good enough.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 9, 2019 17:03:00 GMT -5
Album Review: Slice, by Five For Fighting
I must admit that I have a great fondness for the music of Five For Fighting. Suffice it to say that I own most of the project’s albums, although I bought most of them before I reviewed everything and they are in Florida so there is little chance I will be reviewing them here anytime soon. Although I found some of the hit singles from John Ondrasik, like his breakthrough hit “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” a bit unpleasant to handle on constant overplay, the combination of heartfelt sentiment and some real grit and roughness to his approach certainly won me over as a fan overall. And this album was really after the hits stopped coming except on Adult Top 40, which is a shame as I found this album to be deeply enjoyable once I gave it a listen. This is a case where there is a lot more than meets the eye about the singer’s career and music [1], and this is an album worth treasuring and appreciating. Here is a track by track review:
Slice: The title track of the album and the second single, this song finds the author in somewhat of a nostalgic mood, seeking to promote a feeling of acceptance of the diversity of life in America, and an appreciation of others as having stories and lives worth accepting, making this a worthy beginning to a slice of life album.
Note To An Unknown Soldier: This driving piano ballad combines a sense of honor for a fallen soldier with a melancholy reflection of the loss that comes from dying in a war far from home. This is the sort of song that manages to honor people while reflecting at the same time on the cost of conflict on decent lives.
Tuesday: A dark and melancholy ode to September 11, 2001, this song dwells on the darkness of memory and the moment when Five For Fighting rose to popularity as a singer who could voice the sense of loss for a nation facing vulnerability. This is the sort of song that could have easily been a hit in kinder days to the artist and has a haunting feeling that stays with you.
Chances: The first single from the album, this straightforward love song was only a hit on Adult Top 40, but all the same it is a lovely song about the role of chance in love. Like the best of the singer’s songs, this shows a realism about one’s anxiety about possibilities of loss and the desire to rise above such things.
This Dance: This song is a cute piano ballad that seems to point to the shyness of asking someone to dance and hoping for the start of a relationship. The song is the sort that I could easily imagine being played at a church dance if the people liked Five For Fighting, as the lyrics are clear and the melody and sentiment are definitely winning.
Above The Timberline: A truly amazing song about mysticism and the desire to escape the rush of contemporary life by hiking in the mountains and breathing the fresh air, this is precisely the sort of reflective material that makes late-period Five For Fighting a joy to listen to for reflective audiences. The soaring chorus and jazzy bridge are definitely a highlight.
Transfer: This song is a deeply touching and bittersweet song about communication and transportation and the loneliness of life and the desire to find love in the midst of life’s business and unhappiness. This is a song that is certainly easy to appreciate and has the world-weariness of someone who has lived a long life full of longing.
Hope: This song has an upbeat melody that disguises somewhat grimly realistic lyrics about the way that people hope against hope for love in life and how we disguise our feelings of despair with the hope that things will get better. This song almost has a country rock feel to it, and certainly is more evidence of the singer’s life experience at this point of his career.
Story Of Your Life: This song is like the darker and older cousin of 100 years, where Five For Fighting sings the song of a life that so many life, the youthful dreams of success and the heartbreak and hope that things will get better in the future. This song is inspirational but clear eyed about the inevitable difficulties of life.
Love Can’t Change The Weather: This song is a mature and reflective ode to the way that love is multifaceted, balancing the happier aspects with the more melancholy aspects of love that has died and grown cold and is no longer able to warm our lives. This is yet another song that could have easily been a hit song with some stellar horn parts and some really thoughtful lyrics.
Augie Nieto: The album ends with a song that captures the sense of loss but honor for decency that marks so much of Five For Fighting’s work. The titular figure of the song was someone who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and decided to start an organization to help kids. Unsurprisingly, when Five For Fighting heard about it, he honored Augie in a touching song.
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Post by nathanalbright on Sept 9, 2019 17:03:26 GMT -5
Album Review: We Beefin, by Wendy’s
Although I don’t blog about it often [1], I’m a pretty big fan of Wendy’s. When I was a kid I ate there because they had a nice salad bar to go with chicken sandwiches and even though their menu has changed a good bit over the years, I have long enjoyed their sense of humor and the way that they were able to poke a bit of gentle fun at themselves as well as their competitors in the fast food game. In a move that signals an escalation in the competition between fast food brands, Wendy’s brings their social media beef with competitors to a mix tape featuring comedy/business rap. Here is a track-by-track review:
Twitter Fingers: The EP begins with a short song devoted to Wendy’s social media game. Although this is your usual corporate flexing anthem, it is pretty amusing and set to a pretty chilling keyboard instrumental that wouldn’t be out of place on contemporary radio.
Holding It Down: Another track that discusses Wendy’s beef with McDonald’s, this song is what happens if one took, say, the attitude of Cardi B and put it in service of corporate interests relating to burgers. It is at least refreshing for a company to cut out the middleman and license their own music as advertisement and not have people mumble rapping their lyrics.
Rest In Grease: What makes this song pretty excellent is the way it burns competitors like McDonald’s for broken ice cream sundae machines and points out Wendy’s products besides burgers that are popular and enjoyed. This song, like the others so far, has definitely been full of some attitude and swagger.
Clownin’: This is a short song that shows more fire against Wendy’s haters. It’s pretty short and more flexing and dissing, but that’s about what one would expect from the contemporary mixtape scene.
4 For 4$: This is one of several songs that has emphasized Wendy’s as a queen and that focuses on the sorts of deals you can get at Wendy’s. While some rappers make luxury rap songs that others can’t relate to, this has all of the glorious corniness of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop.”
If you happen to like the attitude that Wendy’s has as well as Wendy’s products, there is a lot to like or enjoy about this mixtape. Some people will dislike the corporate angle the rap project has as advertisement, and others may find Wendy’s flexing a bit cringey, if you happen to enjoy the way that Wendy’s presents itself, there is a lot to enjoy here and certainly way worse rap songs. The production is solid, at least a few of the lines are pure fire, and the whole project is likely to be viewed with a sense of endearing nostalgia in coming years as a critique on contemporary rap itself. What’s not to appreciate about that?
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Post by nathanalbright on May 11, 2020 1:31:09 GMT -5
Album Review: Live In Buenos Aires, by Coldplay
I happen to have gotten this album as a gift because the person who bought it was not very fond of it at all. That said, if you are fond of Coldplay, this album gives a good example of what a live album can provide. With two discs of Coldplay, this particular performance shows them at a high point at the end of a world tour where the band is tight and the songs are solid and the interaction with the audience is positive. Chris Martin shows his Spanish speaking skills here as he manages to slide in some obvious pandering to his Argentine audience and the result is a worthwhile live album from an immensely successful band. This isn't even my favorite era from the band, but all the same, the songs included are generally good even if quite a few of my own favorites are not likely to be on the setlist because they were too obscure. Still, I enjoyed listening to this album and if you are a fan of Coldplay, especially their more recent material, you will find much to enjoy in about two hours of listening pleasure, and that counts for a lot.
In terms of its material, this 2cd live set includes twenty-two songs as well as end credits and a presentation of vocal material in Spanish with some sort of faux-revolutionary intent that fill up another couple of tracks on the second album. The first cd begins with "A Head Full Of Dreams" and then moves on to "Yellow," "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall," "The Scientist," "God Put A Smile On Your Face," and "Paradise." The second half of the first cd then contains "Always In My Head," "Magic," "Everglow," "Clocks," "Midnight," and "Charlie Brown." The second CD begins with "Hymn For The Weekend," then goes to "Fix You," "Viva La Vida," "Adventure Of A Lifetime," "De Musica Ligera" and the vocal sample. The second cd then ends with "In My Place," "Amor Argentina," "Something Just Like This" "Up & Up," and the end credits. By and large Coldplay manages to mix playing new songs, their hits, as well as some songs clearly meant to appeal to the specific audience, which is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders.
This sort of album is not only an example of a successful live album given its choice of songs, the obvious rapport that the band has with the audience, and the band's performance, but is also the sort of album that can help other bands understand what it takes to make a great live album. Not only is this a good album to listen to but it is also instructive in showing how a band can deal with a loyal listening audience. Bands like Maroon 5 have gotten a bad reputation for performing poorly and antagonizing their audience and showing poor emotional control at times. Coldplay shows none of these problems. They remain in full control of their show even as they enjoy the audience singalongs and manage to mix in songs from their latest projects, songs that are designed to appeal to their audience specifically, and fan favorites and hits from their whole career. Not every band can show such a range, but those who can do so would be well advised to take a similar approach.
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Post by nathanalbright on May 11, 2020 1:40:39 GMT -5
Album Review: Here And Now, by Kenny Chesney
One of the occupational hazards of being a chart watcher is that one becomes aware of deals that are offered by artists looking to maximize their chart position. So, the opportunity to get an album of Kenny Chesney originals for very cheap was too much for me to overlook. And while I am a casual fan of the artist, I must say I have never listened to a full album of his before, and so this particular album is a bit of a test to see if my mild enjoyment of the artist's singles translates into an enjoyment of his albums. If it does, I might end up being part of the "No Shoes Nation" that makes up the singer's fans.
Here is a track-by-track review:
We Do - Chesney's voice is smooth and there is beautiful guitar and piano here as he sings a life-affirming song about living and freedom. I could see this becoming a rousing post-Coronavirus anthem to celebrate the return of freedom.
Here And Now - The title track and second single off of this album, this song expresses a gratefulness to be alive, a very timely message. This particular song also reflects a retrospective look at his experiences and how they have shaped him, from his love of various places to the past relationships that have not always gone well.
Everyone She Shows - This is an interesting story about what it means to be a single woman who wants to enjoy life and struggles with the fact that all of her friends are getting married and having children. I can definitely relate to the feeling of loneliness that this song represents and the desire to make the best of what life has to provide.
Wasted - This is a story song that discusses the narrator's discussion with a down-and-out former star who strangely does not regret the way that he squeezed the juice out of the good life with loving and loving and boats and the high life. One can even think of this as a bit of the singer's own approach to life, singing about himself a bit, perhaps.
Knowing You - This song is a somewhat wistful and bittersweet reflection on an ex who made the narrator (and presumably the singer) felt alive but who has definitively left his life and moved on, something the narrator accepts with considerable good grace.
Heartbreakers - With an upbeat music beat, this song contains a somewhat reflective tone as the narrator reflects on past flings and wonders what happened to the wild renegades he used to run around with, asking whether they grew old and found someone to hold or if they were the same way they used to be.
Someone To Fix - This midtempo song is a somewhat moody and melancholy discussion of a relationship where the partner the narrator is singing to wants someone to run around with and have fun with but ends up with someone to fix, a brutal but not uncommon fate.
Happy Does - Yet another story song, this upbeat number shows the narrator praising a man who is happy despite having a lot of reasons not to be, showing that the right attitude can overcome the sorts of experiences and temptations that lead many people into bitterness.
Tip Of My Tongue - The first single off of the album, this was a minor hit, and it is an immensely sensual song with spare instrumentation in the verses to focus the listener's attention on the expression of a man's desire to please his woman with his tongue.
You Don't Get To - This is a song that honestly and somewhat bitterly reflects on a relationship that the narrator has not gotten over, pointing out that after all that the ex put him through, she doesn't get to know about what he's up to or enjoy his love and affection.
Beautiful World - This is a song that shows the narrator reflecting on the enjoyment of life, music, and the beauties of creation in the awareness of the challenges of life and the mysterious workings of divine providence. This is a beautiful song about appreciating the good in what life provides us, a worthwhile sentiment.
Guys Named Captain - This slow and gorgeously produced song shows the narrator singing about a subject he knows a lot about, the complexities and lifestyle of guys named captain in contemporary dive bars as well as historical pirates and navies and merchant marines. The narrator's celebration of the freedom and joy of the sea is undercut by a strong sense of melancholy about the loss of good friends.
Best Songs: Here And Now, Everyone She Knows, Heartbreakers, Tip Of My Tongue Worst Songs: None
This is an album that shares a few overarching themes and approaches. All of these songs are basically story songs, some of which appear to resonate closely with the singer himself and others which show him to be a sympathetic observer of the foibles and follies of other people who are not all that different from himself. The album has a reflective approach throughout as the author sings about middle aged people with exes (including ex-wives), or struggles with pressures from relatives to marry and settle down, or the desire to enjoy what is good and beautiful in this world while one reflects on the loss and mortality of life. As a middle-aged listener, a few of these songs hit me in the feels and they demonstrate the best of a mature but not tired approach to music. This album is solid throughout and represents a definite late-career renaissance for the country veteran and an album well worth enjoying if you want to hear stories about people with a strong desire to be free and a great deal of self-awareness about the highs and lows of what life and relationships have to offer.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 5, 2020 13:05:52 GMT -5
The Ultimate Collection, by Garth Brooks
Although I am by no means a big Garth Brooks fan, seeing ten cds for the modest price of $18 did lead me to spend at least part of my stimulus money on music, seeing as there only needs to be two good songs per album to make it a worthwhile purchase. In looking through the songs it appears that my favorite album, the Chris Gaines project, is unrepresented here, unfortunately, but ten cds is likely far more Garth Brooks music than anyone really needs to listen to. The tracks here are divided into various thematic selections, and listening to them all will be a considerable test of stamina. The end result will determine if ten discs of material and somewhere around 120 songs is too much Garth Brooks, just enough Garth Brooks, or not enough Garth Brooks. What will it be?
The first cd of the collection is called Old School, and it shows Garth Brooks attempting, not always successfully, to capture his respect and fondness for the roots of country music as well as his own influences. Garth Brooks may have been a noted neo-traditional country singer of the 1990's country revival, but he was neo-traditional in the way that many people were neo-conservative instead of being genuinely conservative ,and you can tell that in some of the numbers here. The cd starts off strong with "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)," a song I can definitely identify with, as well as the touching "If Tomorrow Never Comes" as well as the nostalgic "1982." "Longneck Bottle," "Two Of A Kind, Workin' On A Full House," and a cover of "Don't Close Your Eyes" are strong numbers as well. Not all the numbers are equally good, though, with "Good Ol' Boys Like Me" appearing particularly phony and "White Lightning" being played a bit too silly. The good outweighs the bad, though, even if Garth Brooks doesn't appear to be a genuine traditionalist when it comes to country music.
The second cd of this collection is Midnight Fire, and it plays to Garth Brooks' reputation as a ladies' man able to sing passionate love songs. Perhaps not surprisingly I was not very impressed with this material. Again, though, there is strong material here to be enjoyed, with "Shameless," "The Red Strokes," "In Another's Eyes," a duet with Trisha Yearwood that is always welcome, and "To Make You Feel My Love" being standouts here. If not every track here lives up to that promise, this is material that will likely appeal to someone who appreciates the ups and downs of love and relationships more than I do. Certainly Garth Brooks has plenty of material in this vein and if some of it seems rather trite and not very exciting, at least some of it is very good. "A Friend To Me" even contains some rather harsh honesty about the struggle faced by the narrator against violent feelings towards a lover, which is either daring or stupid for a love song, and I'm not sure which. I am sure, though, that "One Night A Day" is not the most intelligent idea for such a song.
The third cd, Cowboys, shows Garth Brooks in a convincing light. This album starts off strong with a series of tracks that is compelling and believable. "Good Ride Cowboy" is a touching tribute to Chris LeDoux, an obvious inspiration of Garth Brooks who appears in the lyrics of several songs of his (including this one). "Rodeo" and "Rodeo Or Mexico" are entirely believable and catchy songs about the lure of the rodeo to a good ol' boy in the West. Likewise, "That Girl Is A Cowboy" shows a very savvy Brooks refusing to friendzone a girl who has all the qualities of loyalty and horsemanship that a boy would have as well as the qualities that make girls easy to appreciate. There are amazing story songs here like "In Lonesome Dove," as well as some comical numbers like "Cowgirl's Saddle." This is a very strong album and one I would enjoy on its own terms at full price. This album alone is probably close to worth the full price of the collection as a whole, as the cowboy theme is one that works very well for Brooks.
The next two disks provide examples of Garth Brooks as a credible live performer. The first disk finds him singing some of his great tunes--"Standing Outside The Fire" and "Rodeo" are among his strongest, as is an inspired version of "Wrapped Up In You," featuring Keb' Mo'. Similarly, the long version of "The Thunder Rolls" is a highlight of the second disk, along with duets with Trisha Yearwood on "Wild As The Wind," Huey Lewis on "Workin' For A Livin'," and Billy Joel on "New York State of Mind." By and large, the live album finds Garth Brooks in uneven voice, but the duet partners and guests do a great job and the crowds are appreciative to hear the music. Most of the songs that appear here appear in studio versions on other tracks, though, so the live versions come off as being a bit inessential in comparison.
In Anthems, the sixth disk of the set, Garth Brooks shows off his humanist side of people living people, and while not all of the songs come off well, some of these are among the strongest songs in Garth Brooks' body of work. "The Dance," "Standing Outside The Fire," and "The River" are particlarly strong. "Belleau Wood" tells the story of a temporary lull in the fighting of World War I's trenches where different soldiers sang in peace and unity before returning to attempting to blow each other into oblivion. A few of the songs, like "People Loving People" and "The Change" give Garth Brooks a peace activist feel that I was not overly impressed with, but that others may appreciate more than I do.
The seventh disk of this album is made up of covers and by and large these are pretty familiar songs. While covers are sprinkled throughout this album from the first disk to the ninth at least, the covers in this album all reflect a love of pop and rock music that is easy enough to appreciate. There are no country covers here whatsoever, which seems a bit strange and which undercuts Brooks' traditionalist ethic a bit. The songs, though, for the most part, are solid, and none of these covers are obscure, with "Against The Wind," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," "Mrs. Robinson," "Midnight Train To Georgia," "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay," "Hard Luck Woman," "Who'll Stop The Rain," "Wild World," "All Right Now," "Drift Away," and "Goodnight Saigon" presenting some clashing moods in the material. After hearing Brooks' take on Lynyrd Skynyrd, it feels odd to have him sing with black backing singers on a Gladys Knight classic just a few songs later. And the cynical tone of some of the songs cuts against the idealism that other songs present. Brooks ends up looking like a deeply conflicted artist unsure of what tone or approach to take.
The next disk presents us with RPMs, a set of songs, including several more covers in Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love," Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes," and a studio version of "Workin' For A Livin'" with Huey Lewis that encourage the listener to crank up the rpms on their four-door coupes the way that I did when driving while listening to this disk. There are some strong original tracks here, like the dark "Cold Like That" and the touching "She's Tired Of Boys," but overall the album doesn't feel like a driving album to the extent that the artist intends, largely because Brooks doesn't have much in the way of driving music.
Likewise, Turn It Up, the ninth disk of material here, doesn't really encourage the listener to turn up the sound of the music here necessarily. Again, there are some very strong songs here. "The Thunder Rolls," sadly, the short version here, is a grim tale of adultery and revenge, and one of my favorite with Brooks' body of work as a whole. "That Summer" is a powerful tale of the sexual exploitation of a teenage boy by an older female employer that is framed in a positive way. "Wrapped Up In You," is a lighthearted and romantic song. "Two Piña Coladas" is a drinking song about loneliness, with Dixie Chicken a humorous drinking song about a casually unfaithful woman who has been around, so to speak. "Black Water" is an excellent cover here as well, and among the newer songs "Man Against Machine" is a powerful song, even if Brooks' own perspective is ambivalent within it.
Finally, after all of this, we come to Gunslinger, a new album that serves as the tenth disk in this set. And I have to say after listening to this album that I am glad it only cost me $1.80 to do so, because I would have been upset to have paid full price for this album. The best track on the album, by some distance, is a remake of the classic "Friends In Low Places" with George Strait, Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, and Keith Urban. A few other tracks on here are okay. "Ask Me How I Know" and "He Really Loves You" are somewhat bitter songs about the complexity of love. A lot of songs on here are dumb but not offensively so, like "Honky-Tonk Somewhere," "Bang! Bang!," "Pure Adrenaline," and "SugarCane." There are attempts at inspirational music in "8teen," and there is even a mediocre cowboy/drinking song in "Cowboys And Friends." Overall, though, this is an uninspired album and it's not hard to see why these songs failed to catch on with country audiences. Again, the only reason to get this album is because it comes free in a collection of much better music that fans of Garth Brooks likely already have.
If one had to look at this collection as a whole, I can say that I never intend on listening to ten cds of Garth Brooks music ever again. This is by no means a bad collection, but it basically means that I cannot see a good reason to buy another Garth Brooks album except for Chris Gaines (not included here, sadly) because almost all the tracks that I happen to like from Garth Brooks are included here in some fashion. The best material that Brooks has is in his first eight or nine solo albums, and after that the quality declines seriously as Brooks does more covers and rehashes his own material. Still, if you can get this set for less than $20 it is a good buy because for the price of two albums you get ten albums which have between them probably four hours worth of genuinely enjoyable music. And even if there is a lot of filler here, and a lot of duplication between live and studio versions, and plenty of inessential late-career Garth Brooks material here, there is enough good music to make this worth owning.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 5, 2020 13:40:48 GMT -5
Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk, by Talk Talk
When Talk Talk released the not particularly commercial Spirit of Eden in September 1988, their label EMI/Parlophone responded to it three ways. One, they sued Talk Talk for having made a deliberately impossible album to sell. Two, they dropped the band from their label. Three, they released this album, a best-of collection that eventually got to fourteen tracks taken from four studio albums and one live album that had yet to be released when it was released on cd. Many American fans will likely only be familiar with the group's only Top 40 American Hit "It's My Life," but this album makes it very clear that there is a lot more than that as far as great material is concerned, and this is a solid best-of collection that can be easily enjoyed by new fans as well as old fans. Looking first at the group's first four studio albums and then live material over the course of the 1980's, this is a beautiful collection that looks at some singles and some deep cuts from a band that has been criminally overlooked by a great many people who think about the music of the 1980's, because it was recorded by a band that definitely took an unusual path.
The songs included in this album are as follows. From debut album The Party's Over comes Today and Talk Talk. After that comes a loose single in the excellent My Foolish Friend. From second album It's My LIfe comes Such A Shame, Dum Dum Girl, and the title track. From my favorite studio album of the group comes Give It Up, Living In Another World, Life's What You Make It, and Happiness Is Easy. From Spirit Of Eden comes I Believe In You and Desire. And then from London 1986 comes a live version of Life's What You Make It and Tomorrow's Started. The end result is a pleasant blend of songs provided in a chronological fashion that gives a fair idea of the scope of the work the band did and may encourage listeners to check out other material--of which I particularly recommend The Colour Of Spring and Spirit of Eden among the albums sampled here as they show the band's mature vision in ambitious form, more accessible in The Colour Of Spring and then more daring and experimental in Spirit of Eden, but great in both.
Even though there is definitely a growth that one seeks over the course of Talk Talk's career, at the same time there is a sense of melancholy and poignancy in the music and lyrics of the songs of the band that continues through their entire discography. Whether one reflects on the broken relationship portrayed in "Talk Talk" or the discussion of "My Foolish Friend" or the frustration with the group trying to seize control of their band and their lives increasingly as their career went on, there is a darkness to much of the band's material. To be sure, in The Colour Of Spring this dark mood is undercut with songs like "Happiness Is Easy" and "Life's What You Make It," but even so it is optimism that is hard-won and honest about the difficulties of life. And later in the group's career their music would become increasingly haunted. There are also some jazz influences that one hears throughout the band's career as well, demonstrating that even if their overall sound palette changed and got much more spare and filled with meaningful silences, there was still a lot that could be found and appreciated in the group's music as a whole, and this album shows that.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 5, 2020 13:42:20 GMT -5
Maroon, by Barenaked Ladies
Maroon, the fifth full-length studio album by Canadian pop-rockers Barenaked Ladies, found the band in a strange position. The success of 1998’s Stunt and the cancer crisis that had afflicted keyboardist Kevin Hearn led the band to adopt a more serious attitude, and this album has a great deal of melancholy. If there is humor in this album, it is more the sort of dark humour that is found from a grimly sardonic view of life, and there are a lot of paradoxes and reversals and general wallowing in serious and unpleasant and awkward matters here. This album is by no means bad, and is in fact pretty good, even if the band is a bit front-loaded in terms of the best material to be found. You have to be the in the right mood for this album, namely a somewhat reflected and anxious mood, but in the early 2000’s that was not a bad or an uncommon mood to be in, and the material of the album did resonate with its intended audiences. “Pinch Me,” the first single of the album, hit the top 20, and second and third singles “Falling For The First Time” and “Too Little Too Late” nearly hit the Hot AC Top 10, and the album itself went platinum, showing the band’s success and momentum had continued, at least up to the greatest hits album that would be released the next year that marks the end of the band’s commercial peak.
The material of this album is pretty straightforward, beginning with the strongest materials over the first half. Opening with the pensive “Too Little Too Late,” the mood of uncertainty is continued by “Never Do Anything.” Ed Robertson takes the lead for the third song, first single “Pinch Me,” which shows a frustrated longing to get out of a rut and start over but a refusal to work that hard, as well as fifth song “Falling For The First Time,” which also has a somewhat downbeat lyricism that is only partially masked by the upbeat music. “Go Home” is a sad track told to someone who is about to ruin a great relationship by his insecurity, but is a powerful one nonetheless. And then “Conventioners” gives a melancholy tale of an affair between coworkers that quickly leads to sourness and awkwardness, while “Sell, Sell Sell” gives a mock heroic look at someone who could have made it big if he had the chance. Much of the rest of the album is decent album filler with last track “Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel” a standout about a man dying from boredom and exhaustion, and then “Hidden Sun,” the only track co-written by keyboardist Kevin Hearn.
It is rather telling and unfortunate, but as the last successful commercial album of the group in the United States, the generally downbeat mood of the album is somewhat of a prophecy for the band losing its popularity as it grew up and could no longer feel as happy-go-lucky as they did before. Steven Page takes the majority of the singing duties here, and a few years later he would leave the band and plunge BNL into a crisis about whether they could continue on as a viable act without one of their core founders and singer-songwriters. In the end, both Page and the band would be better for it, but that fate seems to be anticipated here, as it is clear that the band was just not having a lot of fun in the making of this album, which appears to have been a bit of a chore. Adulthood did not wear well on the Barenaked Ladies, and from here on out the group would experience a steep commercial decline in the United States.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 7, 2020 10:08:24 GMT -5
The Best That I Could Do: 1978-1988, by John Mellencamp
While John Mellencamp is certainly not my favorite artist, there is a lot of appeal to be found in his efforts at capturing life in the Midwest and small towns from someone who has a lot of interest in his family history, in questions of justice as well as in matters of personal relationships. This particular best-of collection covers the first decade of Mellencamp's career and if you like early Mellencamp there is a lot that one can enjoy. Here is a track-by-track review:
I Need A Lover - Mellencamp's first hit, this song is really two songs in one. First we have a two and a half-minute repetitive instrumental and then we have a three-minute repetitive song about the narrator's need for a lover who won't drive him crazy. The hook is good even if this isn't the best work here.
Ain't Even Done With The Night - This song is a really solid one, with some reflective lyrics that show the narrator's concerns about his abilities as a lover and his struggles to do all that he wants to do in the night with someone he cares about. This is a touching song and one well worth enjoying.
Hurts So Good - A big hit, this song is one of those sorts of works that discusses the more painful and unpleasant side of love. If the song is a bit repetitive, it clearly has struck a nerve with many listeners.
Jack And Diane - While this is perhaps my least favorite John Mellencamp song, due to its repetitive music, this was his most popular song and it is easy to see that the theme of young love and concerns about growing up resonated with a lot of listeners even if not with me personally.
Crumblin' Down - This is one of my own favorite songs on here, reminding me of the biblical language of the fall of Jericho. It feels like this song is a call for the walls of injustice to fall down and that is likely not by accident.
Pink Houses - Whether or not this song resonates with all listeners, this certainly is a song that is contrary to the spirit of contemporary times with its appreciation of people with a good attitude and a fond remembrance of the past and a recognition of America's imperfections without feeling the need to be violent about it.
Authority Song - Somewhat contrary to the spirit of the last song, this song reflects the narrator's opinion that he has fought authority all his life and come out grinning and successful so he feels no need to respect and honor authority. This song certainly better fits the contemporary mood but in consequence it is one whose message I do not appreciate.
Lonely Ol' Night - Like a few songs on this album, this song reflects the loneliness of people who find themselves lonely together, hoping not to be lonely any longer. This is certainly a song that I find to be touching and sweet, for what it's worth.
Small Town - If this is not exactly the best written song, it certainly does reflect a certain nostalgic charm towards small towns and the background that the singer comes from, but the song is pretty silly and not really all that good at defending small towns.
R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. - This was an extremely popular song as well and if it is not a particularly smart song by the singer's standards it is one that is easy to appreciate if you like rock songs that don't demand too much thinking.
Paper In Fire - In contrast, this particular song has a strong gospel feel to it with references to the Bible and reflections on matters of life and death. Unsurprisingly enough, the narrator of this song has a positive approach to what would be seen by others as a grim subject.
Cherry Bomb - This song is a nostalgic song but when I listen to this song I wonder the most who the backup singers were, because some of them could be credited given the warmth that they add to the material. Sadly, this song doesn't have any credits to anyone other than the singer himself, who waxes nostalgic only a decade into his career.
Check It Out - The last actual hit on this album, this song has a strong passion for justice, marking one of the political songs that Mellencamp is known for. The song is pretty catchy with a good melody as well, making it a case where the meaning of the song doesn't detract from its pleasant sound as well.
Without Expression - A bonus track added to the end of this collection, this particular song explores the emotional life of a stoic and seemingly overly restrained Midwestern man, and it marks a touching and beautiful song as well.
Overall, this particular album exhibits that John Mellencamp created some successful songs over the course of the first decade of his career as a musician. To be sure, he had limited range and only a few topics that he returned to over and over again but when he did it was generally at least competent, and only ended up less than enjoyable when he tried to oversimplify his songs for popular consumption. And he would continue making great music for another decade or so, so this collection can properly be considered a part one to at least a two-part selection of songs from Mellencamp's career.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 7, 2020 12:58:50 GMT -5
Shine A Light, Bryan Adams
If you're a fan of Bryan Adams, as I am, then you will know that he is definitely well on his path as a legacy act, with popular live shows to devoted fans but with limited album sales and a distinct lack of hit singles. And yet every few years he releases a new album like this one to demonstrate that he is indeed still making new music and of course that music happens to be pretty good but also not the sort of thing that a radio station will play. This album, like every album of new music he has released since On A Day Like Today in the late 1990's, has a similar feel to it with Adams' world-weary voice, various sometimes contradictory treatments of love and relationships, and a general nostalgic tone to it, as well as a refusal to sing the sort of ballads that got him a lot of his hits. And if you know that going in, this album can be an enjoyable listening experience as it was for me. Here is a track-by-track review:
Shine A Light - The album opener, this number is definitely an attempt by Bryan Adams to make an optimistic and anthemic song that appeals to optimism, a rather strange mood in this dark time.
That's How Strong Our Love Is (f/Jennifer Lopez) - This song has a beautiful instrumental and both Adams and Lopez do a good job at presenting themselves, although this particular song is a mid-tempo love song without being a ballad that Adams has been doing for a while now, and it is interesting to see whether he thought it would be hit somehow.
Part Friday Night, Part Sunday Morning - This song is a surprisingly beautiful one as Adams looks at someone--it is unclear exactly what relationship he has with her--who appears to be caught in between various qualities. The feeling of being complex and not entirely coherent is handled with surprising graciousness and this is a standout.
Driving Under The Influence Of Love - This song somewhat undercuts the mood of the last song by presenting a mood of being down on love with a classic rock feel. This is a song that could have played out of a jukebox in the late 70's or early 80's without any difficulty and yet it is here.
All Or Nothing - This song really left no impression on me after hearing it. I can't say it was a bad song it's just not a particularly memorable one as far as I am concerned and that is a great shame.
No Time For Love - Here is another sort of down on love song that has a lot of classic rock feel to it, which is pretty remarkable, I have to say. This album has a tonal issue when it comes to dealing with love songs in that it cannot decide to be pro or anti-love, which is a strange dissonance to have when it doesn't feel as if any of these relationships are real.
I Could Get Used To This - Here again we have another tonal shift that shows a more positive side of love and relationships where Adams' narrator opines that he could get used to the sort of relationship that he is enjoying. Again, though, the shifts in tone from one song to another make it hard for there to be a consistent feeling about anything.
Talk To Me - While this song isn't as memorable as Stevie Nicks' song of the same title, it has a similar pro-communication message that is an enjoyable one to listen to. If it is one of the stronger tracks on the album it is also one that is part of a larger incoherence in the album as a whole.
The Last Night On Earth - A strangely prescient song, this number is one of many that has been released recently reflecting on what it would be like if the world was in fact ending. It is interesting to see Adams participate in this narrative with a song that is pleasant and enjoyable to listen to.
Nobody's Girl - This song comes off as being a bit of fan service in the sense that "Nice For What" was for Drake. The point is the same in that Adams celebrates a woman who decides to remain free and belong to no one, a nod to the female fans of Adams that have stuck by him loyally through the years.
Don't Look Back - This song is a strange one, in that it discusses the avoidance of looking back even as the song and the album as a whole look back in terms of their musical style and approach as well as their relationship to Adams' body of work as a whole. If the message certainly is a strong one, Adams is a strange messenger given his own tendency to look back here and elsewhere.
Whiskey In The Jar - A surprisingly moving song about the generational effects of alcoholism, this song feels country and in listening to it I was surprised that it wasn't played on country radio because it would be a strikingly neo-traditional take on a deep and meaningful subject. This is one of the best songs on the album and certainly the most surprising.
Overall, this is a good album if you judge the songs individually. Adams clearly has co-written some solid songs and the instrumental backing (even with a lot of different musicians) is very excellent as well. While none of the songs seemingly charted anywhere, this is an album that is certainly of quality. Yet as a whole it is a bit less than the sum of its parts. This album is a selection of solid and competent and occasionally excellent songs, but it doesn't appear as if anyone involved in the album's production thought about the importance of making a coherent album with a unified tone and perspective. Still, if you are a fan of Bryan Adams at this point, this is an album that will be appreciated.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 7, 2020 13:36:07 GMT -5
Best Of The Doobies, by The Doobie Brothers
Best of albums can be immensely tricky to pull off well. In general, there is a fine balance that one has in creating greatest hits compilations. If you start making them too early, you leave off immensely important songs that come later in a career. If you start making them too late, you end up leaving off important early cuts of great fan interest and support just to put in a few songs to make sure that one captures the band's career as a whole. It is hard to know when one needs to adopt a multi-cd approach and some bands manage to pull off the task better than others. So what kind of effort do we have with the Best of the Doobies collection? Here is a track-by-track review:
China Grove - An excellent song, this shows the Doobies in story mode with driving guitars and a generally excellent sound. This song was a big hit and is a good way to start a best of compilation.
Long Train Runnin' - This is a song that is easy to know without knowing that one knows it. I always thought of this song as being "Without Love," but the song has a different song. Again, the music is driving, the message of the song a powerful one, and this is an easy song to appreciate and enjoy.
Takin' It To The Streets - Perhaps my favorite Doobie Brothers song personally, this is one where Michael McDonald's smooth and gospel influenced style works amazingly well. A lot cleaner in terms of its mix than most Doobie Brothers songs, the vocal performance and powerful meaning of the lyrics are what gives this song its power.
Listen To The Music - Another early Doobie Brothers track, this one features some amazing instrument playing and some powerful singing. This was a big hit and certainly one of the favorites for the group throughout their history, even gracing the cover art of this particular album.
Black Water - An unusual hit for the band, this particular song is a throwback to the style of Southern music and features a lot of vocal interplay and a surprisingly spare instrumental track, far out of the usual style for the group. Still, it is an amazing song and one well worth appreciating.
Rockin' Down The Highway - Continuing the band's tradition of leaving off the ending g in words in their song titles, this is another driving song that expresses the hardworking goals of the band. This is a solid tune and was a hit as well and certainly belongs on any Doobie Brothers retrospective.
Jesus Is Just Alright - This song was certainly a successful one and it sounds good musically and has a solid hook, but I personally do not like this song a lot at all because of its presumption to say that Jesus is alright with us rather than asking whether we are being right with God and Christ, a much more difficult task.
It Keeps You Runnin' - This song is a more obscure one, but it is an enjoyable song and gives Michael McDonald the chance to flex his vocal chops. It was a top 40 hit but not a big one, still it is a good song to enjoy and a lesser known gem in the band's discography.
South City Midnight Lady - This song is a story song and it is perhaps notable for that, but the song doesn't leave a big impression and it's not too surprising that it was not kept around for later greatest hits compilations as this is clearly the weakest song here.
Take Me In Your Arms - This was an enjoyable song and another minor hit for the group. It shows off the band's surprisingly romantic side and while that is not a common sentiment in the band's songs it is certainly an enjoyable song and one with excellent singing and playing.
Without You - Another song in the relationship vein, this is a song that comes off rather well and is a great way to close the song. Even if this song wasn't a hit, it certainly was among the best songs of the band in their relationship songs and is one well worth listening to and appreciating.
As far as best of collections go, this album is clearly an example where it is a best of released too soon. Given that the album only includes material from Toulouse Street through Taking It To The Streets, this is probably not the ideal one-cd best of compilation for the group, but if you want to listen to it along with the volume two released in 1981, or want to replace both of those albums with the Greatest Hits album that includes their material from Cycles and Brotherhood as well, this certainly does contain some great songs by the group, even if not all the hits that one might hope for.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 10, 2020 20:00:38 GMT -5
Petals For Armor, by Hayley Williams
Though she has long been in the public scene as a member of the group Paramore, this album is Hayley Williams' first solo album, though it contains co-writing and instrument playing from many of her bandmates. Is this album a marked change of departure for Williams given her previous work? Is it likely to receive the sort of popularity to encourage more solo albums like this one? Is it a bold creative statement of creativity and originality that deals with her personal issues? All of these are questions that it would be entirely natural to ask when one is faced with an album like this one. And upon listening to this album I have to say that there is at least the potential for some sort of success here. One of the songs, "Simmer," managed to hit the top 10 on the rock charts and nearly hit the top 20 on the alternative charts, and that is a fair impression of its appeal. There is a lot to enjoy here, that's for sure.
As I listened to this in my car over the course of several days I don't really feel comfortable giving a track-by-track review, but there were at least a few tracks here that managed to stand out. Album opener "Simmer" is definitely a worthwhile track, and a few songs on the album have a similar feel in terms of repeated word choruses and driving instrumentals that lead to a sense of dread or tension--"Sudden Desire," for example, as well as "Taken," which seems to relate to a personal story that one might want more details about. There is definitely a split here between calmer songs that seem to wash over the reader and not leave much of an impression that relate to flowers and blooming can be contrasted with songs that have a darker edge to them, both of which end up working in their own way. I don't see this as an album that is going to win over a lot of new fans to Hayley Williams who weren't already fans of Paramore, but those who enjoyed After Laughter will find a great deal in this album that continues the artistic evolution she experienced there and that gives hope that the next Paramore album will be an artistic success even if not necessarily a success on the pop charts as the band once was.
Overall, this album can be considered as an example of dance pop mixed with experimental pop. In the contemporary music world, that mixture is enough for this to be considered alternative, and if the album had not been released on a major label, it would likely be considered indie for its general quirkiness. In terms of its structure, Petals For Armor is an hour long, roughly, and is made up of 15 tracks that appeared on 3 EPs. The singer has claimed that some of these songs have a strong interest in femininity and that is certainly visible on "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris" and "Watch Me While I Bloom," while other songs reflect the issues that involve sexuality in relationships, like "Sugar On The Rim," or "Cinnamon." If the songs are a bit too repetitive and a bit too obscure to be as heavily enjoyed as the best of Paramore's work, and if this is a bit of a step down in terms of relatability for me at least from After Laughter, it is clear that Williams is exploring herself and her experiences and her approach to the world and plenty of people may find something to enjoy and relate to as well. This album is worth checking out.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 12, 2020 15:32:46 GMT -5
It has been a while since I listened to new material from Jojo. An R&B singer who got famous as a young woman singing "Leave (Get Out)" and "Baby It's You" and who demonstrated her staying power with a second album that featured impressive singles "Too Little Too Late" and "How To Touch A Girl", she had a break for about a decade from the music industry before releasing Mad Love in 2016 to somewhat diminished sales. Now, almost four years later still, she has released a fourth album in Good To Know. Is this album a return to form and does it give her the opportunity to reach pop success? To be sure 2020 isn't the most ideal year for an artist to release a song, but does this have a chance to be noticed in a world that does not tend to look kindly upon singers with long gaps in their album cycles?
As far as an album goes, this one is relatively short at 11 tracks and thirty-five minutes. The material is what one would expect of a young woman nearing the age of 30, focusing on love and relationships. Overall the production of this album seems overly spare. Jojo's voice is as powerful as ever and her songs are certainly relatable to soulful women nearing middle age, but still dealing with the desire to have lasting relationships and find lasting success. The fact that the album beings with two songs with similar titles, "Bad Habits" and "So Bad," suggests a struggle with creativity when it comes to song titles. "Man" and "Lonely Hearts" have been released from the album as singles and the are among the strongest tracks on the album. Besides those two, "Think About You" is a standout track that shows JoJo struggling to get over a former lover while saying that while she sleeps with other guys she is going to think about him. Um, thanks? The only real letdown here is the last song, "Proud," which is a short song filled with a mantra about one's higher power that suggests the singer has been listening too much to New Age magical thinking, one of several bad habits shown on this album that would be best to get over.
Overall, then, this is not as great an album as one would hope. Again, JoJo's voice is the real star here and her songwriting is usually in good form as she deals with the ups and downs (usually the downs) of relationships. Given the course of her career, it's likely she will be singing this sort of song as long as someone is willing to release them to the general public, and if you like what JoJo has sung before there will likely be a good deal to enjoy here. The real letdown here, at least for me, is the production. The beats here are generally of b-tier quality at best and do not provide much in the way of variety or interest to the listener, being minimalistic to a somewhat excessive degree. Again, fortunately the album is still enjoyable with the subpar production because JoJo is such an engaging singer, but this is an album that feels like it could have been a lot better. And it doesn't seem as if there is an obvious hit single here that will resonate with casual listeners who aren't already fans. That is a shame.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 14, 2020 19:53:08 GMT -5
Greatest Hits, by Rick Astley
If most people are familiar with Rick Astley at all, they are familiar with him for his #1 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," which has become a successful meme and led a great many people to be "rick rolled" by being directed to the classic music video for the song. Yet Rick Astley is certainly far more than a one-hit wonder. In fact, in the United States alone he had 3 top ten hits, two of which hit #1, along with numerous other top 40 hits, all of which are helpfully included on this compilation. Admittedly, most of these songs are not familiar to me, but in reviewing this album it is worthwhile to ask a few questions. Does Rick Astley deserve to be remembered as one of the most solid and underrated white-soul singers of his generation? Is this the best album for showing off his vocal chops? How many of these songs are worth appreciating now thirty years from his commercial peak as a singer? These are worthy questions to answer and this is certainly an enjoyable song. Also, is Rick Astley more than a Stock Aitken Waterman puppet or is he a genuine soul talent of his own?
This album is seventeen songs long. Even if you are at least a moderate fan of Rick Astley, as I consider myself, there are likely to be about a dozen songs you are not very familiar with on here. At least this was the case for me. This album is structured to place the most familiar songs of the album far apart to allow the reader to appreciate them in the wider context of his work. That is for the best. The album begins exactly as one would expect with "Never Gonna Give You Up." After this come a few more unfamiliar songs, most notably "It Would Take A Strong, Strong Man," "Whenever You Need Somebody," and "Move Right Out." "Together Forever," the next most familiar song on the collection for many, is followed by "My Arms Keep Missing You," a cover of "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," and the obscure "Hopelessly," from Astley's fourth album. An obscure early duet single, "When You Gonna," in a very long dance remix, is followed by "Never Knew Love," "Hold Me In Your Arms," and a strong closing set of songs with a traditionalist cover of "When I Fall In Love," the stellar "Cry For Help," and the touching "The Ones You Love." If you like the single mixes of Astley's first four albums, this is an enjoyable collection.
That doesn't mean that this collection is perfect. The production on many of these songs will remind middle-aged listeners of the soundtrack to Sega Genesis games with those tinkling synths that were common to Stock Aitken Waterman singles of the age. It is quite possible, moreover, that the better version of this album is the European album, which is less heavily slanted to the beginning of Astley's career with more songs from the soulful and more accoustic and less irritatingly produced back end of his career. Aside from the two #1 singles "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "Together Forever," and a few other standouts like "It Would Take A Strong, Strong Man," the best songs on here come from the third and fourth albums of Astley's career in general. This album does a lot to show that throughout his career Astley struggled to find the right tonal approach to love and relationships in his songs, which range from suspicious and angry break-up songs (like the shockingly blunt "Move Right Out") to the devoted songs of true love that he is perhaps most famous for, and even a few songs that reflect the melancholy side of devotion like "Cry For Help," my personal favorite of his. Even more notable, and melancholy, though, is the way that Astley's genuine soulfulness as a singer often clashed early in his career with some terribly cheap production, and that tension makes this album a remarkable and striking document of a career that has been criminally underrated.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2020 7:27:17 GMT -5
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 16, 2020 20:25:02 GMT -5
Greatest Hits: 1985-1995, by Michael Bolton Michael Bolton gets a bad rap. Before his popularity increased with his humorous turn in the Lonely Island's "Jack Sparrow," people took the songs that he sang as a personal affront to them, even though he made a great living singing blue-eyed soul and adult contemporary ballads. If people had any understanding of his background as an artist, they would have recognized that he did what he had to do for the money and was a far more complex person than met the eye, not least because he had spent years writing songs before achieving mass popularity as an artist some years into his career after the release of his fifth studio album? How many labels would give an artist five albums to show themselves as a successful hitmaker? It is possible that Bolton himself would not have gotten the chance unless he had been successful at writing songs already for other people and making money for his label as a songwriter before singing his own hits, but for what it's worth this album gives a look at his most successful decade as a recording artist. And though I had not heard all of these songs nor heard some of them for quite some time [1], this album definitely piqued my interest. Was it worthwhile? Those people who grew up listening to Adult contemporary or pop music in the late 1980's and early 1990's will find a lot here that is familiar to them. There are at least three sorts of songs on this collection. Some songs are classic soul covers that Michael Bolton sings with his typical passion, including "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay," "When A Man Loves A Woman," and "Georgia On My Mind." Some of the songs here are tunes that were originally written for others but which Michael Bolton performs here, like "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?" and "I Found Someone." The remainder are songs that he wrote for himself and performed to considerable success over the course of a prolific and accomplished decade of music. There is considerable emotional range here among the songs that Bolton wrote, including songs of devotion like "Soul Provider," "Steel Bars," "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" and "That's What Love Is All About." Other songs reflect on the more negative side of love, like "How Can We Be Lovers" or the anguish of "Missing You Now." Some songs even have a ridiculously coy sense of winking and nodding sexuality about them, like "Can I Touch You.....There?" which at least has going for it the desire to receive consent. Overall, this is a good album, but perhaps unsurprisingly the best songs are the familiar hits and the new songs don't quite add up to the level of Bolton's work. A savvy listener would have seen in this collection a likelihood of a commercial downturn for Bolton afterward and that is what indeed took place. Still, the hits here are good hits and if you don't want to put four Michael Bolton albums in your discography and want hits and some decent versions of songs that weren't as popular but are still pretty good, this is a solid collection to have. If you like Michael Bolton, you know what you're getting here. You're getting a large amount of passionate oversinging, songs about the drama of relationships, but mostly with an optimistic side. Bolton's voice is soulful and his songs are generally pretty good if you like Adult Contemporary tunes and covers of classic songs of love and devotion. If you don't like that sort of thing, you won't like this album anyway. [1] But see, for example: edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2019/10/20/the-island-that-loves-michael-bolton/edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2020/01/01/why-arent-they-in-the-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-michael-bolton/edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2019/03/20/examining-the-small-world-of-laura-branigan/
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Post by nathanalbright on Jun 16, 2020 20:25:56 GMT -5
It is nice to know that someone reads these threads.
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