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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 19, 2022 0:16:12 GMT -5
Bryan Adams, by Bryan Adams
After the success of "Let Me Take You Dancing," a song which has been disavowed by the artist because of the way that his voice was made higher and remixed as a disco song rather than being a straight-ahead pop-rock song as it was originally meant to be, Bryan Adams went into the studio with associate Jim Vallance and recorded a set of songs, some of which had been written for others, some of which would later be recorded by others, and some of which have been largely forgotten. Like follow-up "You Want It You Got It," this album has been largely neglected by listeners of Bryan Adams, as the album was not a great success or known all that much outside of Adams' native Canada. Is the album worth giving more attention to, though, for those who are fans of music? Let us investigate.
The album begins with "Hidin' From Love," which seems like a bit of projection given Adams' on love life and his attitude towards romance, in which he tries to woo a reluctant would-be partner. "Win Some, Lose Some" takes a philosophical view of life and love, and is an enjoyable listen. "Wait And See" is another song that deals with a reluctant partner, where he gives a somewhat ambivalent response about the possibility that he might leave her behind because she sees him as just a hobby. "Give Me Your Love" has some classic late 70's production where he again calls out to a reluctant lover asking her for her love. "Wasting Time" is a more driving rock song about the frustrations of going after the wrong person for a potential partner. "Don't Ya Say It" leans into R&B production and backing vocals with a song about a relationship gone wrong. "Remember," the best-remembered song from this album, is a more straightforward rock song about meeting up with someone who reminds the narrator of a past relationship, with a nice synth solo. "State of Mind" is a driving piano-driven song about a somewhat dysfunctional relationship, with more R&B backup vocals. The album then closes with "Try To See It My Way," which is a lovely pop-rock song where the narrator tries to convince his partner to see things the way that he does.
This is definitely an unusual album when looked at the context of Bryan Adams' body of work. While Adams would continue the driving guitar and the thematic concerns with love and relationships, this album tends to show Adams in the vein of the lonely and somewhat demanding, even desperate young man trying to woo, pressure, and emotionally blackmail reluctant would-be partners to see things as he does and give themselves to him, without much seeming success. Later albums would add more depth and nuance to the portrayal of the narrator, sometimes with tonal inconsistencies that one does not find here, and they would contain less prominent backing vocals and production that make this almost an R&B album at parts. There are some real standout tracks here, even if this album is far different in approach than later albums by the artist would be, such as "Try To See It My Way," "Remember," "Hidin' From Love," "State Of Mind," "Wasting Time," and "Don't Ya Say It." If you're willing to explore a Bryan Adams from when he was a somewhat lonely boy just getting started as a musician and before he became world-famous, this is a really revealing picture of the man beneath the mask albeit with production very much of its time.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 20, 2022 23:49:15 GMT -5
Cuts Like A Knife, by Bryan Adams
If his self-titled debut album was and largely remains forgotten except for those who are aware of Bryan Adams as a songwriter like the bands who covered his compositions, and his second album crossed over onto the mainstream rock charts but was not and remains not a popular album, Bryan Adams' third album made him well-known as a popular artist, something that would remain true for another fifteen years or so (we will have more to say about this later) and contains a quartet of songs that are relatively well-known even today. At this time, Adams was still an up-and-comer, and this album reflects a maturing process but also demonstrates that even at this early phase of his career he already had a lane that he was carving out that mixed straight-ahead rockers for the men and sensitive love ballads for the ladies, a balance that has served many rock acts well and served him well in his own very successful career. This album demonstrates that he was beginning to find his range and target demographic successfully and at the very least is an album that one can point to as a major step forward in his visibility within the world of the popular music of the 1980's. But how is the album artistically?
The album begins with "The Only One" reflects Adams as someone who almost has it made and his determination to hold on to someone who he is starting to fall in love with by promising her that she is his only one. "Take Me Back" is a soulful rock song that portrays the narrator as being in the position to take back an errant partner who promises that she has changed her ways. "This Time," one of this album's popular singles, shows Bryan Adams committing to make a woman his own this time. "Straight From The Heart," the most successful single from the album and perhaps my favorite song of his all-time, shows Bryan Adams' commitment to an ideal of sincerity and candor in his relationship. The title track then follows with its commentary on the way that life and love simultaneously bring pleasure and pain. "I'm Ready," a song which was put on his Unplugged album later on, is surprisingly like a Foreigner song in this context, a driving mid-tempo rocker about the narrator's readiness for love. "What's It Gonna Be" is another rock song that features Adams challenging a would-be partner to make up her mind. "Don't Leave Me Lonely" similarly features Adams in a combative mood demanding both his freedom from a partner as well as her commitment not to leave him lonely. "Let Him Know" has an interesting set of group vocals about an indecisive woman who does not appear to be taking Adams seriously. "The Best Was Yet To Come" closes the album on a melancholy and reflective mood about a woman who missed out on her opportunity, presumably with the singer.
If you are a fan of Bryan Adams' later music, this is certainly a worthy album to look at. As is the case with his earlier albums, you get a real good sense of where Adams's headspace was at when he was making this album. You can almost sense that Adams knows that he is about to break out into a big star and that confidence at his growing success that he experienced with his previous album and that was expected here is seeping into his behavior with women. Rather than coming off as desperate as he did early in his career, he has a lot more bravado, a lot more confidence, and he takes a much harsher and more aggressive attitude towards the reluctant and ambivalent women around him than he did earlier in this career. If this seems like a mixed blessing, it certainly is striking and the album hits an honest mood of where Adams was at on the brink of mainstream stardom.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 26, 2022 1:16:39 GMT -5
Dream Street, by Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson's second album was an attempt to gain success for her as a solo artist, but like her debut it was not a very successful album commercially. That said, it is an easy enough album to enjoy if you like 80's pop and dance music as I do. While Janet Jackson's third album would catapult her into the public consciousness as a woman who wanted to take control of her own fate as an artist (more on that shortly), it is well worth pondering on where Janet Jackson was when she made that album. She was an artist who had made two albums that flew beneath the radar but she already becoming a pro and knowing what it is that she wanted (and what she did not) from her experience in the record industry. If this album doesn't have any lasting hits that people tend to remember, how does this album deserve to be seen and remembered today?
Dream Street is all of nine songs at less than forty minutes of length, and so it presents an album that is definitely not full of bloat, and fully four of the songs on the album were released as singles. "Don't Stand Another Chance" is a pleasant song to listen to that showcases Janet's confidence in herself and became a top ten R&B hit in 1984. "Two To The Power Of Love" is not necessarily memorable, but as a duet with noted English singer Cliff Richard it is an enjoyable love song. "Pretty Boy" is not too dissimilar to the sorts of sexually charged funky songs about attractive people that Janet Jackson would make throughout her career, and it too has pleasant production and singing, going on for six and a half minutes. "Dream Street" represents a contrast between fear and anxiety, set to an appropriately anxious disco beat, and it was another single from this album. "Communication" expresses Janet's hope for her message to be spread by technology to allow herself to be heard and to bring people together to increase intimacy, relevant concerns then and now. "Fast Girls," the third single of the album, expresses Janet's belief that sexuality and sweetness could be combined in a way that avoids slut shaming. "Hold Back The Tears" is a highlight of the album, about her desire for emotional control. "All My Love To You" offers a discussion of love devotion. Album closer "If It Takes All Night" is another song about love and romance that really works as well.
In looking at Janet Jackson's musical career, I think this is an album that really gets unfairly forgotten. Even if one looks at Control as the beginning of Janet Jackson's peak period, this album is clearly an important precursor in setting up themes of love, respect, and communication that would be vitally important in Janet's career as a whole. To have this album written out of the narrative of Janet's career simply because the album didn't sell does a disservice to the way that this album showed Janet's marked growth as a worthy artist and her growing familiarity as an R&B artist that would give her a solid base to allow for her crossover smash working with Jerry Jam and Terry Lewis and taking control of a career that was clearly on the rise. Janet was not yet known to the general public from this album, but she was already showing that she had something to say, as long as others were willing to listen.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 27, 2022 2:18:36 GMT -5
Janet Jackson, by Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson, contrary to popular belief, did not begin her music career with the album Control. That breakthrough album was her third album. Her first album was released when she was quite young and as a self-titled album it was not an accurate reflection of how her career would go. Despite the fact that the album had several songs that charted in the bottom half of the Hot 100 as well as on the R&B charts and dance charts, and thus helped to prefigure the sort of success that she would have in all of those genres in the future, and even though it received some critical praise, this is not an album that Janet Jackson has chosen to have remembered in career retrospectives to this day. Is this a fair judgment or not? Let us discover it.
The album begins with "Say You Do," a sweet-voiced song where Janet Jackson seeks love from a would-be partner, an appealing enough prospect. "You'll Never Find (A Love Like Mine)" has an appealing early 80's R&B sound and production. "Young Love" is catchy and infectious as a dance track, if a bit repetitive. "Love And My Best Friend" is a sweet and gorgeous ballad about finding love with one's best friend, a pleasing sentiment. "Don't Mess Up This Good Thing" is the first of what would be many songs that hint at Janet's impatience with a no-good lover. "Forever Yours" is a song about eternal faithfulness and love sung in a rather breathy and sweet voice with ballad production. "The Magic Is Working" has some funk instrumentation along with some excellent backing voices to an appealing song about falling in love. The album ends with "Come Give Your Love To Me," the first of many songs that would show Janet's enduring search for love.
It is a bit unfair that this album has been neglected to such an extent as it has, with some songs having less than 100,000 plays all-time on Spotify. While this album did not have the success of most of her later material, three of the songs on this album hit the bottom half of the Hot 100 and hit songs like the dance and R&B charts, and if the album did not sell many copies it deserves to be better known than it is. If you are expecting from this debut an earthshaking album, it is a disappointment, but if you want a debut that is pleasant to listen to as someone who is a fan of adult contemporary and R&B and dance there is a lot to find appealing here. Janet Jackson was still finding her voice--she was still a teen when this album came out--and she set paths and approaches in this album that would continue throughout her career, which makes it all the more worthwhile to see how early these themes and perspectives began. If you wanted to see where the legendary Janet Jackson started at as a musician, this is a bit less than 40 minutes of music in eight songs that introduces a great musician to the world.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 27, 2022 18:24:06 GMT -5
Control, by Janet Jackson
By the time she had released her third album, Janet Jackson was a pro in the music industry. She had performed as an actor, had developed her musical chops, and had built a loyal audience in R&B and had made some solid music that included pop and dance. But her previous albums had been strongly molded by her overly controlling father and had not been popular with the wider general audience of Americans. All of that would change with Control, which started a series of immensely successful albums that demonstrated Janet Jackson was an artist to be reckoned with. Does the album stand up more than thirty-five years later, though, as an artistic statement and not merely a personal one?
Control begins the album with an autobiographical song about her search for control over her own life and her own career, a statement of artistic independence that resonates even now. Nasty then follows with a catchy ode that expresses her own desires for good music and sexuality. What Have You Done For Me Lately? then follows with a call to a partner to show attention and care and concern for the relationship in an atmosphere of concern about staleness and complacency. You Can Be Mine is a lovely song where Janet appeals to someone that she wants to be hers. The Pleasure Principle provides a picture of Janet Jackson's desire for pleasure rather than material wealth. When I Think Of You is an ode to a successful love and expresses Janet's happiness with her relationship. He Doesn't Know I'm Alive reflects a shy and timid person who struggles to communicate with someone she is in love with, a relatable situation to be sure. Let's Wait Awhile calls on a partner to take it slow on trying to push for physical intimacy because she is uncomfortable with going too fast. Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun) begins and ends with some lovely French dialogue before going into a cute song about Janet's enjoyment of a good experience where time just flew by, like a wonderful vacation to Martinique or somewhere like that.
By any measure, this album is a smash that deserves to be remembered fondly. Fully six of the nine songs on the album were smash hits, and the rest were certainly not filler. My own favorite songs from the album reveal my own personality and biases, perhaps, with songs like "Let's Wait Awhile," "When I Think Of You," "You Can Be Mine," "He Doesn't Know I'm Alive," and "Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)," but the whole album is a gem. The title of this album may seem a bit misleading at first, but throughout the album there is a consistent theme of a desire for control--control over one's own life, one's own image, one's own body. Janet shows herself struggling with how to communicate herself and her desires with partners and potential partners, even as the album shows her seeking control over her art and expression. She is not seen as wanting to have control over others, but rather avoid others trying to exploit and take advantage of her, and it's hard not to be rooting for her, even in the knowledge that these would be consistent problems throughout her entire career.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 29, 2022 0:03:44 GMT -5
Rhythm Nation 1814, by Janet Jackson
After the smash success of Control, where Janet Jackson made her statement of intentions about her career, Rhythm Nation 1814 marks a considerable increase of artistic ambition in making a concept album full of interludes that seeks to promote a nation that eschews racial division in the common appreciation and enjoyment of R&B music like that created by Janet and other musicians of like mind. In our atmosphere of toxic racial conflict, it is somewhat nostalgic to reflect on a time where prominent musicians encouraged people to break down the boundaries of background that divide us rather than use them as the basis for one's politics and behavior, and this approach likely harmed the state of R&B music in general. But enough about such unpleasant matters? How does this album stack up more than thirty years after it was made? Is it as good as an album as it was popular at the time? Let's find out.
This album begins with an interlude that moves into Rhythm Nation, a statement of purpose in making the United States as a whole into a nation that would appreciate R&B music, a sentiment that was carried out in this album. Another interlude then leads into State Of The World, a somewhat serious song about the social problems of isolation, homelessness, hunger, mental illness and other problems that call out for a solution and that are as bad or worse now than they were then. Another interlude about education precedes "The Knowledge," which marks a direct continuation of the previous album's theme, pointing out that knowledge and growth are necessary for self-control. Another interlude than precedes "Miss You Much," which expresses Janet Jackson's customary concern about intimacy and distance. Another interlude then leads into "Love Will Never Do (Without You)," which contains a pleasing and worthwhile message about loyalty to a relationship and making things work. "Living In A World (They Didn't Make)" is a call to properly protect children from the hate and violence that fills the world and the results of mistakes made by adults, which again hits hard in our age where such things are even worse than they were in the late 80's. "Alright" then has an upbeat approach to an enjoyment of a relationship. Another short interlude then transitions into "Escapade," a beautiful and catchy song about escaping the troubles of the world through travel. "Black Cat" is a stellar example of Janet Jackson as a rock artist, something I would like to have seen more of. "Lonely" is a call to a friend to reach out when one feels lonely and that she will be there as a friend to comfort and encourage. "Come Back To Me" is a call for renewed intimacy, while "Someday Is Tonight" is a sweet love song about making one's dreams come true now that is similar to the closing song on "Control." The album ends with an interlude that calls on people not to let their eyes deceive them based on superficial externalities.
This album is unquestionably a classic, and one that is particularly poignant when listening to it looking back on its realistic but optimistic vision. If the production of the album seems very much of its time, the material on this really is timeless with its vision of a race-blind society that appreciates music and values friendship, love, and education and is concerned about the well-being of those who are vulnerable outsiders. Janet Jackson was sensitive to these issues in the late 80's, and all of the issues she talks about are even more serious and intractable problems today. While the songs on here are beautiful and the production is rather angular and even a bit industrial sounding, the album as a whole concept is even more poignant than it was because Jackson provided a call for a better future and a better world than we had. Sadly, we chose another, darker, way. This album still remains, though, as a classic which points to a moment when things could have gone differently had we so chosen to do so.
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Post by nathanalbright on Jan 30, 2022 22:40:41 GMT -5
Goldmine (Deluxe), by Gabby Barrett
Sometimes I get requests to review albums and that was the case here. I am at least a moderate fan of country music (although it rarely gets reviewed here, so far at least), and also a moderate fan of American Idol musicians (most of the albums I have having been listened to before this blog was a thing), and Gabby Barrett falls into both categories. I am familiar with her as an artist mainly from her two hits that hit the Year End over the past couple of years, "I Hope" and "The Good Ones." I strongly prefer the solo version of "I Hope," which hits a sweet spot for me as one of those songs about wishing misfortune upon an unfaithful former partner, something I can relate to unfortunately. Does the rest of the album live up to the expectations one would have coming from those two hits? Let us see.
The album begins with "I Hope," the solo version, with its ferocious attitude towards a cheating ex-partner and a hope that he is paid back in his own coin, something that I can definitely relate to as far as it goes. "Thank God" and "Write It On My Heart" are then filled with a sense of love and devotion and appreciation for a much better relationship that the narrator is enjoying at present. "Footprints On The Moon," a real standout on this album, then comes along with a rousing sense of wonder. "You're The Only Reason" reflects the singer's conviction that her current relationship has kept her from despair in love. "Goldmine" then follows with the singer's conviction that she is a goldmine for her partner and her gladness that he has found love in her. "The Good Ones" then follows with appreciation that the singer has found one of the good guys instead of one of the many bad ones that one could find. "Jesus & My Mama" then continues in a mood of defiance against haters in a knowledge of the love of God and family, a very excellent sentiment. "Hall of Fame" views success in love as being granted into some sort of worthwhile hall of fame, another understandable and relatable sentiment here. "Got Me," featuring Shane & Shane, is a straightforward devotional song about one's confidence that God has got us even despite our flaws and stumbling. "Rose Needs A Jack" is a rousing and excellent song that reflects the need for love and intimacy by referencing the history of country as well as film. "Strong" is a devotional ballad that expresses the strength that the singer finds in her faith. "Pick Me Up" expresses the singer's love and devotion and the way that religious and romantic love pick her up in relatable country terms. "Never Get It Back" expresses the relatable sentiment of having spent time and never being able to get it back, as an encouragement to make the most of it. The album then closes with a country rock version of "I Will Always Love You" that is lovely.
I was admittedly surprised by how much I like this album. There wasn't a song on here I didn't enjoy listening to, which is not something that I was honestly expecting. The album was a lot more positively focused than I expected, for one, given the singles and their approach. They really didn't give a picture of how the album is really one that has a lot more praise and appreciation than might have appeared to be the case. This album has elements of pop country, which I expected, but also has quite a bit of country Christian and country rock that were a bit of a surprise to me. These elements were a welcome surprise to me, but a surprise nonetheless. Those listeners who do not like hearing lots of devotional odes to romantic love or spiritual devotions to God are not going to like what they hear. If you do find such sentiments welcome, there is a lot to enjoy here.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 3, 2022 1:29:27 GMT -5
Wilson Philips, by Wilson Philips
Wilson Philips, a group made of three young women who were second-generation pop stars--including two daughters of Beach Boy Brian Wilson and one daughter of half of the Mamas and the Papas, stormed to the top of the charts with three #1 hits and 5 top 40 hits from their self-titled debut album. Selling millions of copies and having half of their album become hits was stellar success, and if the band did not follow up this success with a long career, this album is a notable commercial peak for adult contemporary music. As a fan of the genre this is an album that has been on my own personal radar for a while. Does the album hold up artistically, though? Let us discover.
The album begins with "Hold On," an encouragement and empowerment anthem that urges the listener to hold on and show tenacity in the face of life's difficulties. "Release Me" follows with a call to a partner to release her from a relationship so they can find something better than their current dysfunctional relationship together. "Impulsive" follows with a song that features the timeless contrast between head and heart when it comes to seeking a relationship and intimacy, wanting to be reckless in love despite this not being one's usual pattern of behavior. "Next To You (Someday I'll Be)" is a gentle ballad that expresses confidence that one will be with the one loves so much in the future. "You're In Love" is a mid-tempo song about being in love with a best friend who is in love with someone else, and wishing happiness for them even as one acknowledges one's own feelings. "Over And Over" shows some frustration, albeit gently expressed, about loneliness and rejection and heartbreak that occurs over and over again. "Reason To Believe" is a heartfelt interpretation of the familiar song, best known from the Rod Stewart cover. "Ooh You're Gold" is a somewhat humorous and very cute praise of a partner for his excellence. "Eyes Like Twins" is a somewhat dark and ominous-sounding song about someone one is falling in love with and that one feels like one is deeply close and connected to, with a shared history of suffering and empathy. The album closes with "The Dream Is Still Alive," a testament to persistent hope in the face of the difficulties of love and love.
This album is sort of a test case of one's feelings about production in Adult Contemporary albums. For the most part, these songs have a similar sonic palette courtesy of some great production by Glen Ballard. Yet although the songs sound similar enough, there are definitely differences here when it comes to theme and approach and perspective. Like most AC songs, this album's material focuses on issues of love, but there are at least a few different scenarios being pictured here. Some songs focus on encouragement, some focus on one's concerns and insecurities, and some focus on the need to break away from negative patterns of heartbreak that one is facing. Overall, I think this album is a great introduction to a worthwhile band that shined brightly even if not for long. Songs like "Eyes Like Twins," "The Dream Is Still Alive," and "Ooh You're Gold" demonstrate that this album has some depth behind the massively popular hits. This is an album that is still gold even if very much of its time all these years later.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 3, 2022 18:08:24 GMT -5
Shadows And Light, by Wilson Philips
Rarely has a group rocketed out to superstardom in the way that Wilson Philips did, and rarely has the falloff been as dramatic as it was between their self-titled debut and this follow-up. In fact, this album was such a disappointment that it led to the breakup of the group. Even thirty years after this album the entire discography of the group after that consists of a few solo albums that few people listened to, a couple of covers albums after the trio joined together again, and an album by the Wilson sisters that was critically praised but not popular at all. This album generated two top 40 hits and went gold but was widely considered to be an immense disappointment and none of the songs on here would be familiar to a casual music audience. What happened? Let's see if listening to the album makes it more clear.
The album is bookended by "I Hear You" first as a vocalizing intro and then as a reprise. The first song on the album is "It's Only Life," which has a bit of a strident tone even as it celebrates the ups and downs of life, which appears to be a general theme of the album. "You Won't See Me Cry" is a song with beautiful harmonies about putting on a stiff upper lip and pretending to be strong, a relatable enough approach. "Give It Up" shows the group looking through disguises and seeking for honesty and candor from someone who has been flirting with their eyes but acting shy. "This Doesn't Have To Be Love" shows a somewhat schizoid approach on the part of the ladies for a relationship that they both want and are reluctant to be involved at the same me. "Where Are You?" offers a somber narrative about struggling with the repercussions of child abuse. "Flesh And Blood" offers another ambivalent discussion about a dysfunctional relationship that is not nearly as good as it should be, without reconciliation with a father even if that would not be difficult. "Don't Take Me Down" discusses the loss of trust that comes from a broken relationship and the resolution not to be let down and taken down again. "All The Way From New York" gives a tale of an unsatisfying long-distance relationship where someone is clearly not trying as hard as the other person, something that is quite relatable. "Fueled For Houston" is an upbeat pop-rock song that shows a somewhat impulsive trip to see a loved one. "Goodbye Carmen" says goodbye to a housekeeper or someone of that sort who is going home to see her family once again, leaving the singers with their good intentions. "Alone" then looks at the sad case of a woman who doesn't want to be alone but is too timid and shy to go out, showing once again that schizoid approach, warning off a guy who might attempt to seduce her.
This album is a bit of a jarring listen. The production is very much Adult Contemporary, and the vocal harmonies are sweet, but the songs themselves are rather serious and somewhat unpleasant in terms of their subject material. It is as the group took to heart the criticism that their music was too lightweight and instead decided that we needed AC ballads about child abuse, estrangement from one's father, ambivalent views of relationships where people want love and intimacy but don't do a good job at letting others close, and the like. This is an album that is undoubtedly personal to the artists themselves, but it is not an easy album to listen to even when one can relate to unsatisfying long distance relationships, ambivalent flirtations, disastrous childhoods, and lives of pretense. It is little wonder that this was not a massively popular album, but hopefully it made the women themselves feel better to have made it.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 8, 2022 17:57:15 GMT -5
Country Stuff, by Walker Hayes
By and large, Walker Hayes is not an artist that has been taken seriously by a lot of the world of music review that I spend a fair amount of time in. Yet despite his general lack of success over his career, he appears to be going through a bit of a late-career renaissance due to the massive top-five pop success of "Fancy Like," which was one of those critic-proof songs that critics hate but that have a wide degree of popular support. Without being greatly familiar with the artist a whole, let us see if this is an album that appeals to me, given its obviously populist appeal. What does one make of an album that is self-aware and perhaps a bit embarrassingly honest? Let's see.
The album begins with "Drinking Songs," where a heartbroken narrator sings about being put on a prayer list and appreciating drinking songs and drinking as a way to cope with life's difficulties. This segues naturally into "AA," a song that expresses Hayes' desire to have a successful country career while keeping his marriage together and keeping his kids out of trouble, a song that appears to be a pretty successful hit of its own. "Life With You" is a genuinely sweet song that makes the somewhat jarring claim that the singer wants to do "life" with his wife, having overcome his commitment issues and cynicism about love. "U Girl" is a slice of bro country that offers a lot of cliches that demonstrate the singer clearly doesn't take itself too seriously, which isn't always a bad thing. "Delorean" features some pretty ridiculous rhymes but also some serious storytelling chops about the narrator's love story, and some sweet Back To The Future nostalgia. "Fancy Like" is pretty ridiculous as well, with its homage to Wendy's and Applebee's and riding Vespas and things that sound and feel populist while also being rather personal to the narrator as well. "Craig" (features MercyMe) features an honest and relatable look at a positive interaction between the narrator--who is clearly the singer here--and a genuine Christian that reflects on the struggles of the life that the singer has lived. "What You Don't Wish For" is a vulnerable discussion of dreams and a self-awareness of one's limitations but also one's ambitions. "Country Stuff" is a charming duet with Jake Owen that is a list song about all of the country stuff that the narrator happens to like, the sort of song that is easy to like if you don't take yourself too seriously, and with a surprisingly funny ending. "I Hope You Miss Me" shows another honest and self-aware narrator hope that a loved one finds herself and fulfills her Hollywood dreams but still misses him. "Briefcase", featuring Lori McKenna, is a reflective song about domestic drama in the narrator's childhood and his own experience as a hardworking father, and how people come to terms with becoming like their fathers. "Make You Cry" is a rather honest reflection on the narrator's knowledge that things are going well when he gives her tears of joy and deep feeling. "What If We Did" (featuring Carly Pearce) shows the narrator's balance of longing for marriage and family with a cynicism about the difficulty of contemporary relationships, and makes a suitable closing song for an album that has a surprising amount of heart.
Without knowing a lot about Walker Hayes as a man or as an artist before listening to this album, I found this album pretty appealing. Hayes is pretty open about his insecurities, his desire to write compelling country songs and make a living off of playing them and getting airplay on country music stations while also dealing with the stress of living life as a man committed to working hard given his modest talents. The first few singles of the album showed the author's self-awareness of music and pop culture, the rules of the genre and the knowledge of the appeal of populism, but the album as a whole shows a great deal more than that. One is left with a man struggling to be a good husband and father, deal with the stress of being in the music industry, and trying to wrestle with God and the right way to live even as one feels compelled to perform and create. By being honest about his working process and working his way through his own experiences as a musician and as a man, Walke Hayes has provided a compelling song that demonstrates the enduring popular appeal of country music and given himself an honorable place within that world.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 10, 2022 0:54:17 GMT -5
Reckless, by Bryan Adams
If Bryan Adams had become increasingly well-known as an artist after releasing three albums, it was perhaps unexpected how popular he would end up being as a result of the release of his fourth album. Having had a few hits, he was poised to make a major jump in popularity, and this album did so, selling millions of copies and spawning seven hit singles from an album of only ten songs, a massive achievement that few albums reach. Few albums in any artist's body of work have been more massive than this one, and compared with subsequent albums, this particular work was designed not merely as a collection of popular rock tunes, but also a concept album of sorts about a doomed relationship. With this context in mind, does this album hold up in its 2014 remaster or is it simply a nostalgic trip to the middle of the 1980's?
Reckless begins with "One Night Love Affair," a melancholy song that features a reflective look on a one-night stand that left both people with nothing even if they pretended that they didn't care about what was going on. "She's Only Happy When She's Dancing" attempts to be cheerful about a woman who loves to dance and finds it as her chief happiness in life, but it comes off rather melancholy in reflection. Similarly, "Run To You" tells a story of a man's struggle to be honest with his side piece about the fact that he goes to her only because his partner, whom he claims to love, isn't very good at lovemaking. "Heaven," taken as a standalone song, is an aid to faithful devotion over the long haul of a relationship, but in light of the context of the album, those feelings are a bit undercut by the rest of the album. "Somebody" is a rather artless call for someone to be with the narrator because he needs "someone" because he doesn't want to be alone. "Summer of 69" calls back to the nostalgia of youth and young love in light of the troubles of the narrator's contemporary life, and is unsurprisingly an enduring classic in the singer's body of work. "Kids Wanna Rock" is a callout to fans who wanted to rock in the face of music trends like New Wave that were trying to move rock music in a more pop-centered direction. "It's Only Love," a sizzling duet featuring Tina Turner, is an attempt to minimize the importance of relationships in the face of love's fickleness. "Long Gone" sings of a relationship that are long gone, which makes sense in light of the foregoing. The album then ends with "Ain't Gonna Cry," which shows the narrator putting on a brave face and pretending (?) that he does not care about a past lover.
When looked at as a concept album, this album works as a rock album that is simultaneously also a commentary on the attitude of rock singers towards love and music. It is not surprising that this album was so popular--it had something for almost everyone, whether it was inarticulate young men wanting songs praising rock & roll music or expressing their inchoate desire not to be alone ("Kids Wanna Rock" and "Somebody"), including some introspection about love gone wrong ("One Night Love Affair" and "It's Only Love"), heartfelt ballads ("Heaven"), or songs about the complexities of adult love and relationships and a nostalgia for the past ("Run To You," "Summer Of 69"). If this album does not feel as honest and vulnerable as some of Adams' earlier work, it is certainly an accessible work that marks a worthy high point in the singer's body of work.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 10, 2022 15:02:18 GMT -5
Into The Fire, by Bryan Adams
After the massive success of Reckless, a song that sent well over half of its songs to the top regions of the charts in the United States and elsewhere, Bryan Adams was at the top of the world commercially. Three years later, though, he released an album that had only one top twenty hit (another song also was a top 40 hit) and has been seldom listened to since then. Into The Fire was a commercial failure, one that seems to have marked the end of one road and the beginning of another when it came to Bryan Adams albums, and he was able to commercially rebound with his next studio album four years later in Waking Up The Neighbors (more on that later). Was this album an artistic failure though? Is there still something worthwhile in this effort that has escaped the notice of most listeners that is well worth uncovering?
The album begins with its only hit, "Heat Of The Night," a song that has dark implications of the unpleasant side of the music industry and of life in general, a song about handling the pressure of doing what it takes to succeed and having to pay the price. "Into The Fire" has a beautiful sonic palette but similarly tough-minded lyrics about risking death and failure for one's dreams and ambitions. "Victim Of Life" is another tough-minded song about the downside of relationships and the struggle to deal with crushing isolation and loneliness. "Another Day" is a jaunty-sounding song that deals with the repetitive struggles of the common person to have enough money to make it through, striking a note more like Jude Cole than what we would expect from Bryan Adams. "Native Son" is a striking story-telling song told from the point of view of a member of Canada's First Peoples and their fruitless quest for survival and justice. "Only The Strong Survive" is another tough-minded song about the need to face conflicts bravely and openly in the knowledge that we will all die eventually. "Rebel" is a mid-tempo rock song about a rebel that also is a compelling picture of aging. "Remembrance Day" picks up the military notes on the previous song to give a patriotic ode to the common soldiers of World War I who have largely been forgotten by many. "Hearts On Fire" was a minor hit but one that sings of love and devotion that seems pretty relatable in its common approach. "Home Again" closes the album with a look at the joy one expects at having returned home after a long time.
If this album marks the end of a road, it is a regret that this album has not been more widely appreciated at least in its native Canada. I am not sure if anyone in 1987 or afterwards has expected or been looking for a populist and tough-minded album about the struggles of common people and the historical issues that still fester beneath the surface in Canadian society--including the forgetting of World War I and the story of how it was that the First Peoples lost their land to Canadian settlers--but if you are looking for that sort of album, this is a fantastic one. This album does something that few albums do, and that is present a new and very sympathetic side to an artist that has scarcely been seen or suspected for. It is a side of Bryan Adams, a combination of compassion for fellow man and tough-mindedness about the difficulties of life, that deserves to be far better explored and appreciated.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 12, 2022 13:27:57 GMT -5
Live! Live! Live!, by Bryan Adams
This album marks what would be an increasing pattern for Bryan Adams, in that the lengthy gap between studio albums would be filled by live albums and later on a great deal of greatest hits compilations that would fill up the space between those studio albums. Like many artists, Bryan Adams' music output started out pretty heavy and then slowed down with time, as years spent on the road all around the world meant comparatively little time could be spent in the studio working on the albums that Adams wanted to make. So, as an introduction to Adams' extensive live discography, how does this album work? Does it provide a fair picture of Adams as a touring artist in the late 1980's?
The album, which contains seventeen tracks, begins with "She's Only Love," and then moves on to "It's Only Love," a solo version, and then "Cuts Like A Knife." The audience at Rock Werchter, which apparently braved rain to see Bryan Adams perform, then is treated to hear a throaty version of "Kids Wanna Rock," "Hearts on Fire," and "Take Me Back," a deep cut from Cuts Like A Knife that was the b-side to the title track single. "The Best Was Yet To Come," in a rather spare version, is then followed by "Heaven" and "Heat Of The Night." "Run To You" begins with a surprising introduction, and then "One Night Love Affair" and "Long Gone," all of which appear to be thematically related songs from Reckless. "Summer Of 69" begins as an audience singalong where the audience, predictably, knows the words to the song, and then "Somebody," another single from Reckless follows after Adams introduces his band. Some audience cheering follows, after which Bryan Adams provides a three-song encore, which begins with a rocking version of "Walking After Midnight," then continues with "I Fought The Law," and then concludes with "Into The Fire."
If this is the first live album that had been released by Bryan Adams, it shows that five album into his career he was a consummate professional. The album itself is rather generous in its songs performed, yet it is interesting to note that the largest amount of songs appear from Reckless, the next largest collection of songs appear from his most recent album, Into The Fire (not including the Canadian-specific content, though, it must be noted), and then there are two songs from Cuts Like A Knife and two covers. Already even by the late 1980's, Adams was constructing a public persona in his live tours that played to his hits and most successful songs, including a few less familiar tracks for more devoted fans, and that largely ignored the less successful aspects of his career. It is to be regretted that we do not have any material from the first two albums, but it is rather intriguing to note that even before the heyday of Adams retrospectives that began in the 1990's that he had already focused his attention on his successful albums and less attention on the work that allowed him to gradually reach that commercial peak.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 13, 2022 2:01:20 GMT -5
The Wilsons, by the Wilsons
After the breakup of Wilson Philips after their unsuccessful sophomore album, the two Wilson sisters joined each other and their estranged father Brian Wilson and came up with a family group that released a studio album together in 1997 after releasing a Christmas album together. While this album was praised by critics, it was disastrously unsuccessful commercially, even more so than the previous album released by Wilson Philips. Naturally, the group broke up never to record anything else again, although the Wilson sisters did release material on their own and later came back to do cover albums and a Christmas album with Wilson Philips in the 2000's and 2010's. Does this album deserve to rest in obscurity? It should be noted that when I listened to this on Spotify that the album was so obscure that only five of the twelve songs on the album had any number of listens at all, with two of those just over 1,000 listens all time, one at around 3,000 all-time listens, and two songs that had been listened to a total of around 60,000 times apiece. This may be the most obscure album I have ever listened to.
The album begins with the single "Monday Without You," which has catchy music and vocal harmonies and a theme of love and devotion. "Good About You," is a peppy number that expresses the desire of the narrator to do things that make her feel about herself and her partner. "Miracle" is a beautiful song about the struggles of life and the folly of looking for a miracle in the midst of a troubled relationship. "Goddess' Revival" seems to be one of those sacred feminine sort of songs about, well, revival, but it's sweet enough sounding. "Candy" is a narrative song, with a bit of a nervous sound about it, and a message of daughter estranged from her father. "'Til I Die" is a somewhat somber song with a nice bass groove and a lovely fiddle about being the same way for one's whole life. "St. Joan" has somewhat nonsensical lyrics about someone whose grip on sanity appears to be slipping badly. "Open Door" is a lovely song that expresses the narrator's devotion to someone who is not exactly behaving in an honorable fashion but who she leaves an open door to anyway. "I Hate Your Face" is a song about a breakup with some unfinished business involved. "Everything" is a song that seeks to appeal to a fairy tale vision of romance and happiness to the narrator even in the face of less than ideal circumstances. "Not Your Average Girl" expresses the narrator's frustration with living inside the vision of a partner even if it doesn't suit her and she struggles to be honest about her feelings. The album then ends with "Everything I Need," a lovely song that has a lot of layers of instrumentation that attracted some harsh comments by drummer Hal Blaine.
This is a beautiful album that largely continues the trends of Wilson Philip's sophomore album Shadows And Light in featuring gorgeous vocal harmonies, excellent production, and tackling of the difficult subjects of adult life and love. As was the case with Shadows and Light, to an even larger degree, though, no one seemed to want to listen to the Wilson sisters, with their father harmonizing on some of the tracks, singing adult alternative songs about relationship drama. And though this is a beautiful album to listen to and some of the songs are quite good, one cannot be a professional musical act if no one is willing to buy your music. It is to be regretted that this lovely album of beautiful songs remains among the most obscure albums ever to be released by a major label, especially with artists who between them had sold many millions of albums. It is hard to explain how this happened, but after the disastrous reception of this album, there was no question of the Wilsons making a follow-up album, and the Wilsons largely abandoned the attempt to make albums of original albums. After all, no one seemed to want that.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 15, 2022 3:15:18 GMT -5
Justice, by Justice Bieber
What does one do after an album has been relatively unsuccessful? For many pop artists, the solution is to release an album that is calculated to perform better to replace a narrative of failure with one of success. And so that was the intent with Justice, which came rather quickly after the failure of Changes (more about this later, possibly). And, contrary to whatever expectations one might have had, this album succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations from those of us who have no personal rooting interest. What prompted this particular review was the fact that Ghost, a song I happen to like from this album, hit the top 10, making it the fourth single from this album to hit the top ten. Being somewhat familiar with this album from its hits, does the whole album live up to the hype? Let's see.
The album begins with a brief topical monologue and then moves to "2 Much," an austere ballad about the narrator's feelings about his beloved, which has a lot of personal detail. "Deserve You" expresses the narrator's feelings that he doesn't deserve his partner. "As I Am," featuring Khalid, is a call from the narrator to his partner that he will be loyal and for her to take him as he is, and Khalid does a good job as a duet partner here. "Off My Face" speaks of the intoxicating nature of love and his infatuation with his partner as Justin sings in his head voice. "Holy," one of the big hits off of this album, featuring Chance The Rapper, is a song that conflates romantic love with spiritual love, and expresses the narrator's complicated feelings about both. "Unstable," featuring the Kid Laroi, is an austere song that praises a lover as a source of security in the midst of a great deal of instability and uncertainty. This is followed by a puzzling MLK interlude that points back to the album's titular themes of justice. "Die For You," featuring Dominic Fike, expresses the sentiment that the narrator would die for his partner. "Hold On," a top twenty single that encourages a loved one to hold on until they reach heaven on earth in a stable relationship. "Somebody" is a song about the need for intimacy and love for people, set to a lovely EDM beat. This is followed by "Ghost," a bittersweet song about overcoming the loss of a loved one that has become a surprising late-era hit for the singer. "Peaches" is a love song, featuring Daniel Cesar and Giveon, that has some rather hilarious discussions of the author's fondness for getting good weed and peaches right from the source, along with more standard love song fare. "Love You Different," featuring BEAM, is another song that expresses the narrator's commitment to love his partner in the way that she is looking for. "Loved By You," featuring Burna Boy, is a lovely song that has some intriguing details of the narrator's self-loathing and his need to be loved by his partner. "Anyone," a successful single from this album, expresses the narrator's conviction that his partner is his only chance for love. "Lonely," with Benny Blanco, the final song from the album and a successful single of its own, ends the song on a downcast note about the loneliness of the life of a famous person.
It is admittedly hard to relate the theme of justice from the album's title to the song's contents. At its heart, this album is filled with generally spare and atmospheric songs that detail the singer's love for his wife. This album feels deeply personal, and if you find that appealing than Bieber's singing over the solid production and generally limited instrumentation will provide a feeling of space that one can easily appreciate. Again, it is no clear what relationship the album's title has to do with its contents, but it is not too surprising why the material on the album has resonated well. The album is coherent, the themes are relatable, and if the songs can sometimes be a bit basic, and not all of the say anything that has not been said many, many times before, at least what is said generally appears to be heart-felt and genuine, and there is considerable value in that.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 16, 2022 14:33:44 GMT -5
Waking Up The Neighbours, by Bryan Adams
If Into The Fire was the end of a road, Waking Up The Neighbours was the beginning of another road that would continue Bryan Adams as a popular rock artist for another few years. Along with Reckless, it is a commercial peak, but it is an entirely different sort of album than Reckless. Reckless, along with Into The Fire, and Adams' earlier albums, were concept albums or at least were records with cohesive themes and approaches. That is not the case in this album and in most of Adams' later works. Does this lack of cohesion hurt the album as a whole? It certainly did not hurt the album's sales, as millions of copies of the album were sold and it led to several massive hits for Bryan Adams.
The album begins with "Is Your Mama Gonna Miss Ya?" a song about a young woman who leaves home and leaves her family home behind. "Hey Honey, I'm Packin' You In" is a song about domestic melodrama. Of course, it's not clear what exactly the narrator plans on doing about it, how drastic this is. "Can't Stop This Thing We Started," one of the album's several big hits, is a rousing ode to the inevitability and irresistibility of love. "Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven," a minor hit, is a lovely song about how the narrator's intentions were changed by the love he found in a partner. "Not Guilty" is an attempt by the narrator to avoid some kind of blame or responsibility but it's not exactly sure what kind. "Vanishing" then changes the mood again and is a thoughtful and reflective and beautiful song about what is passing and temporary and taken for granted in life. "House Arrest" seems to tell of a party that has gotten out of hand. "Do I Have To Say The Words?" is a song about feeling reluctant to apologize and express one's feelings in the face of a troubled relationship. "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" is a rousing and energetic tune about living for today. "All I Want Is You" is a straightforward claim to a reluctant partner that the narrator only wants her. "Depend On Me" is a confident statement by the narrator that his partner can depend on him, straightforwardly enough. "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," is simply one of the biggest songs of all time, an ode to devoted love, in its full six and a half minute version. "If You Wanna Leave Me (Can I Come Too?)" is a somewhat deluded song by someone who is devoted to someone who appears to be about to bolt. "Touch The Hand" is a silly and somewhat insubstantial and somewhat irreverent ode to feminism. "Don't Drop That Bomb On Me" is a rock song about the sad state of the world.
Does the lack of cohesion in this album's approach hurt it? If this album is not seen as a unified whole but rather as a collection of solid tracks, it works very well. If you are listening to this album, sometimes you can find the mood of one song undercutting the feelings of another. But if you view the album as something like a "Greatest Hits album," something that Bryan Adams would release a lot more of in the coming years, then this album absolutely works, because then one is less bothered by the fact that some songs offer a view of dysfunctional relationships, some songs have silly lyrics and are appealing to a particular vibe, and other songs are clearly aimed at a devoted female audience. Bryan Adams was finding, even as early as 1991, that appealing to all the elements of his fanbase was already a difficult task, something that would become increasingly so.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 17, 2022 2:30:52 GMT -5
So Far, So Good, by Bryan Adams
This album was my first exposure to Bryan Adams' music, and as such it gave me a picture of Bryan Adams' career as a musician that was hard to overcome for quite some time. Speaking personally, this particular album focused attention on Reckless and to a lesser extent Cuts Like A Knife as albums, completely ignored the material that Adams had recorded in his firsts two albums, and somewhat downplayed the material from Into The Fire and Waking Up The Neighbours, since those albums were either not very successful or had been recently released and the label was trying not to sabotage the catalog value of that valuable album. This is an album I have listened to many times, and it has dramatically shaped what I few of classic Adams. It is interesting that after an immensely successful album that Adams released this compilation his first of many, before going back into the studio, and that decision would be an interesting one in light of his desire to follow-up on his success.
This particular compilation contains fourteen songs, thirteen of which were previously released on studio albums that have already been reviewed as part of this discography project. The album contains songs in this order: "Summer Of '69," "Straight From The Heart," "It's Only Love," "Can't Stop This Thing We Started," "Do I Have To Say The Words?," "This Time," Run To You," "Heaven," "Cuts Like A Knife," "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," "Somebody," "Kids Wanna Rock," "Heat Of The Night," and "Please Forgive Me." The last song, the only new release among the whole compilation and its only single, was a top ten hit and a love ballad of the kind that Adams had become known to release in many of his albums, something that would later be somewhat of a sore spot for an artist who wanted to preserve his rock bona fides. Among the thirteen tracks present on previous albums, three come from Cuts Like A Knife, six come from Reckless, one comes from Into The Fire, and the other three come from Waking Up The Neighbours.
When I was growing up as a kid, this was my first introduction to the compilation album and so it seemed to me to be a nearly perfect one. And, it should be noted, as a fan of Bryan Adams, this is a very good compilation. There are no songs here that are not among the more accomplished songs that he recorded. As is often the case, though, the question is about what was left out. Songs like "One Night Love Affair," "Lonely Nights," "I'm Ready," and "I Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven," all songs that were omitted here, show a more sensitive side of Adams, and in some cases some real emotional vulnerability. It was perhaps thought that with the inclusion of a new ballad that it would have hurt Adams' credibility of a rock act to have too many songs that played to that sensitive side. Of course, it would have been nice to have had a song like "Into The Fire" or "Hearts On Fire" as well, but that did not happen. Judged as it is, the compilation is a good one, a very good one, but one wonders how it could have been even better.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 18, 2022 18:04:26 GMT -5
18 Til I Die, by Bryan Adams
In 1996, five years after the release of his last studio album, Bryan Adams released 18 Til I Die, an album that marked a crisis of sorts for the Canadian rocker. The album itself was a moderate success in sales, going platinum, and it spawned several minor hits in the United States and around the world. In terms of its contents, the album itself tried to position Bryan Adams as a rock act that was able to appeal to the desires of youth culture to remain young forever. Yet the songs from the album that caught on the most were not the rock songs but were the ballads that appealed to a far different audience. If there is any album that marks the schizophrenic appeal that Bryan Adams had to different audiences--both somewhat meatheated rock and sensitive balladry--this album is certainly a stellar example. But is the album any good, when listened to after all these years?
18 Til I Die begins with its first single, "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You," a somewhat immature but also funny song about the narrator's lack of confidence in sartorial elegance. "Do To You" is an upbeat call for reciprocity in doing to a partner what she does to him. "Let's Make A Night To Remember" is a lovely but somewhat basic ballad that expresses the narrator's desire to have a wonderful night of lovemaking with his partner. The title track then expresses the narrator's desire to act like he is young forever even though he knows he will not live forever, and it's hard to tell whether this is a threat or a promise or a bit of both in terms of refusing to mature and grow up. "Star," a song taken from the soundtrack to Jack, is a heartfelt reflection on the tendency of the young to wish upon a star for a better life. "(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear" returns to theme of clothing by pointing how a guy wants to be next to the private parts of his partner. "We're Gonna Win" is a competitive song that doesn't last long but is filled with self-aggrandizing athletic cliches about victory. "I Think About You" is another romantic ballad about the narrator's fond thoughts of his loved one. "I'll Always Be Right There," continues the romantic theme about the narrator being constant and faithful to his partner. "It Ain't A Party - If You Can't Come 'Round" is a party-hard anthem about how parties aren't nearly as much fun if others go beyond their abilities to cope with it. "Black Pearl" is a song that appears to be channeling the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" in its praise of a black beauty who is the narrator's type of girl. "You're Still Beautiful To Me" follows this with another praise of a consistent lover that seeks to give her faith that she is still beautiful after all this time they have been together. The album then ends with "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?," a #1 hit and love ballad from Don Juan Demarco that had been released about a year before the album came out.
This album is a frustrating one to listen to. It is by no means a bad album, and there are a few songs that are very good, but it's so tonally inconsistent that listening to it in order all at once is not as enjoyable an experience as most Bryan Adams albums are before this. This album really shows Adams in a period of crisis--he wants to retain his popularity, wants to appeal to the young, and wants to maintain his core audience, but doing all of these things in the same albums is just too much to handle. When one sees that this album is thirteen tracks and took five years to make, the problems are all the more obvious. Adams was trying to square the circle, showing that he could rock with the kids of the 1990's in the same way that he rocked with those a decade younger, but instead he sings a bunch of silly songs about being immature. This rampant immaturity then undercuts the sincerity of the love ballads which are the strongest material here, especially since they are often put back to back with each other. All of this creates an album that is unfortunately very tonally dissonant.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 18, 2022 19:30:36 GMT -5
MTV Unplugged, by Bryan Adams
Growing up as a teenager, this album was among the first live albums I heard and it helped me to understand the appeal of MTV Unplugged as a way for rock musicians to gain a great deal of success by performing songs in a stripped down format. While this album may not be considered by others to be as legendary an album as it was for me, this album, coming only one year after the release of 18 Til I Die, helped to put that album's songs in a different context and also provide some new songs to appreciate. For me, it is hard to think of this album apart from my own nostalgia for the music that I heard at the time, but it was interesting to me in that the album also was my introduction to a couple of the earlier songs that were released on the album. So, how does it sound all these years later?
The album begins with "Summer Of '69," about which much has been and could be said, but it is certainly a song that is likely necessary and essential for any Adams compilation or concert. "Back To You," the most successful single of this album, is a song about romantic devotion that is easy to enjoy and appreciate in any format, it's just a shame we never got a studio version of this. "Cuts Like A Knife" is an early classic that sounds great here in a gorgeous version that has elements of folk in it. With "I'm Ready" and "Fits Ya Good," Adams does gentle and beautiful arrangements of two songs from his early "You Want It, You Got It" period that I had been previously unaware of before this time. "When You Love Someone" is another gorgeous love ballad from the Hope Floats soundtrack and should have been a hit. From this point in the album, we shift to the promotion of songs from 18 Til I Die, including its title track and "I Think About You." Minor hit "Let's Make A Night To Remember" from the album is performed in a new medley with a new song, "If Ya Wanna Be Bad - Ya Gotta Be Good," a reminder that partners sometimes appreciate one being bad with them, if not with anyone else. "A Little Love" offers a call for love to change the world, a common and basic enough sentiment, before the album closes with "Heaven" from Reckless as well as 18 Til I Die's "I'll Always Be Right There," which closes off the album on the right note.
Given my mixed feelings about the music of "18 Til I Die," the album that immediately preceded this one, I am struck by how my thoughts of those songs are greatly improved by their context here. Adams shows himself to be a good arranger of songs and also a good interpreter of songs for the live format. If this album has less patter than some of the live albums from around the same time period (Fleetewood Mac's The Dance album comes to mind here) that I have greatly enjoyed, this particular album puts Adams' music in a better light than some of studio work had been and the performance as a whole is way more cohesive because the acoustic format helps the songs to sound good with each other in a way that does not happen on 18 Til I Die and some of Adams' later albums where is a similar dissonance between one song's approach and another's.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 20, 2022 15:45:03 GMT -5
On A Day Like Today, by Bryan Adams
If 18 Til I Die marked a crisis point within Adams' discography where he struggled to maintain two very different approaches to music, one of them focused on emotionally immature rockers and intimate ballads, to a great deal of tonal dissonance, after only two years and only one year after his successful MTV Unplugged effort, Bryan Adams came out with a studio album that essentially ended his career as a popular musician within the United States, an album that featured a more mature approach to his songs and a large-scale avoidance of ballads, indicating that a great deal of his mainstream fans were interested in either his immature songs or his ballads and what is a thoughtful set of songs that I liked at the time and still enjoy today. How does this album stand up after more than twenty years?
The album begins with "How Do Ya Feel Tonight?," a rocker that expresses the narrator's uncertainty and suffering. "C'mon C'mon C'mon" then follows with a call for strength and persistence in the face of life's difficulties. "Getaway" expresses a desire to escape from the problems of life by getting away, an understandable sentiment, if expressed in a rather pessimistic manner. "On A Day Like Today" offers optimism, but a hard-won sort, with a recognition of the need for salvation and purity. "Fearless" is a somewhat ominous song about a complicated relationship with someone who isn't being very honest and forthright. "I'm A Liar," is Bryan Adams' entry into the Cretan paradox where someone seeks to convince someone that they are a liar, and does not portray the narrator in a positive sense. "Cloud Number Nine," present in a studio version as well as later in the album in a dance remix, is a mid-tempo romantic song about love and happiness that is pretty mellow and enjoyable. "When You're Gone," featuring the Spice Girls' Melanie C, is an upbeat song about how bad it is in one's life when one is missing one's partner. "Inside Out" is probably the closest thing this album has to a ballad and it is a loving song of devotion, albeit from a mature and realistic perspective. "If I Had You" is a somewhat melancholy and wistful expression of a desire to have a particular person as a partner and all the good it would do. "Before The Night Is Over" is a rather unflattering look at a case of clear mutual cheating where the narrator seeks to convince someone to set their hearts on fire with each other even though both recognize it is wrong and even though both have partners already. "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" expresses the narrator's desire to have a good time and not live for a long time. "Where Angels Fear To Tread" is a gentle love ballad that expresses a hard-won feeling of happiness. "Lie To Me," is another song that reflects on dishonesty on this album, and the desire to be lied to by someone who is being unfaithful. The album then ends with the dance remix of "Cloud Number Nine," which was a moderate hit.
In listening to this album in retrospect, it is not hard to see why I lived it then and still appreciate it now. Adams is surprisingly tough-minded, calling back to his early albums and works like "Into The Fire" that present the listener with empathy but also with some tough truths about the way that people actually behave. It is to be lamented that an album which speaks of tough times and resilience and deception and self-deception as well as the moments of love and happiness that are to be found in the midst of struggle and difficulty was so completely ignored. The album is pretty coherent, generally a mid-tempo album that represents something approaching maturity in the rock world, and it was an album that was fairly popular overseas if not in the United States. It is unclear why this album was such a failure in the United States, but for those whose emotional resonance is similar to my own will probably find a great deal to enjoy here. Some of these songs are real underrated classics in the Bryan Adams body of work as a whole.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 21, 2022 21:13:16 GMT -5
The Best Of Me, by Bryan Adams
If you had to take a pick as to the most inessential best-of collection that Bryan Adams has ever made, this album would likely be it. Like many other Bryan Adams albums, this was one I bought when it came out and when it came out I enjoyed it well enough as a compilation that included songs I was mostly already familiar with. It is more what happened after this album was released that made this album so inessential, and that was the later release of a two-disc retrospective that included far more material than this one did that made this particular collection so out of date that it has not even been released on Spotify, and there is really no need to do so since every other song on this album has already been released somewhere else.
This album begins with "The Best Of Me," a new song that is a decent rocker focused on relationship issues that was later included on the two-disc Anthology (review forthcoming). "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" is a familiar track from Waking Up The Neighbors and So Far So Good. "I'm Ready" comes from its MTV Unplugged version. "Summer Of '69" comes from Reckless and So Far So Good. "Let's Make A Night To Remember" comes from 18 Til I Die. "All For Love" was a #1 hit from the Three Musketeers soundtrack with Sing and Rod Stewart and is a highlight here. "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" is from Don Juan Demarco as well as 18 Til I Die. "Run To You" comes from Reckless. The Chicane remix of "Cloud Number Nine" appeared as a bonus track to On A Day Like Today. "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" comes from the Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves soundtrack, Waking Up The Neighbours, as well as So Far So Good. "Back To You" comes from MTV Unplugged. "When You're Gone" (featuring Melanie C) comes from On A Day Like Today. "Please Forgive Me" was first released on So Far So Good. "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me" comes from 18 Til I Die. "Inside Out" comes from On A Day Like Today, while the version of the album I bought includes "Don't Give Up" (featuring Chicane), a new track that was much appreciated, instead of "18 Til I Die."
The one thing about this album that bugs me a little is that it is not really an album that lives up to its title. To be sure, the songs on this album are very excellent if you happen to be a fan of Bryan Adams as I am. It is just that this album anthologizes songs that were either released very soon before this album was made and that much of the target audience had already bought from 18 Til I Die, MTV Unplugged, and On A Day Like Today, or material that had already been in So Far So Good. This anthology was largely a missed opportunity, and the fact that it was later superseded is no big loss, unfortunately for the catalog sales of this particular collection.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 24, 2022 1:45:43 GMT -5
2001, by Dr. Dre
I made a somewhat ill-advised challenge, perhaps, to review the Dr. Dre album 2001 if two of its songs charted as re-entries, thus ensuring its place as a significant album on the list of an online acquaintance of mine who keeps track of such albums. And so it is that I find myself having to review an album that I only originally heard two of the songs from, both of which are the two biggest songs that this album has on streaming by some margin. If in 1999 Dr. Dre had a reputation for not recording very frequently given his obvious skills at the mic, the more than two decades that have followed have made it clear that he had little interest in recording very often at all, only releasing one studio album the entire time--to coincide with a movie made about the career of NWA. Yet if an artist is going to more or less retire from the recording industry, it is interesting to see this album as the one he made, an album compelling enough that two of its songs were able to return to the top 40 of the charts more than two decades later.
The album begins with an intro then a track, "The Watcher," which reflects on the passage of time within the rap community that is as relevant now as it was more than twenty years ago, with Eminem and Knoc-Turn'al. A phone call from a woman precedes the rather profane and not particularly romantic "F*** You," which is an early representative in the "Stealing Your Girl" genre of rap song told from the point of view of a cheater who doesn't want romance or cuddling, but just sex, with Devin The Dude and Snoop Dogg. "Still D.R.E." is a reminder to anyone who wants to know from Dre and Snoop Dogg that he hasn't fallen off and that he still has it, which is true now as well. Big Ego's, with Hittman, is another reminder to haters that he is still armed and ready to defend himself if necessary. "Xxplosive" is another reminder about how awesome Dre and his crew are, with Hittman, Six-Two, Nate Dogg, and Kurupt. "What's The Difference," with Eminem and Xzibit looks at what separates some people from others, and the difficulty of keeping relationships in the music industry. Another short skit precedes "Light Speed," which shows Dr. Dre (with Hittman) bragging about his smoking skills and his ghetto identity. "Forgot About Dre," with Eminem and "The Next Episode," with Snoop Dogg, present continuity between Dre's past excellence and present greatness. "Let's Get High," with Hittman, Ms. Roq, and Kurupt, is an invitation to use drugs, while "B**** N*****z" is a track that is hostile to haters who pretend to be friendly but have violent hostility behind people's backs. A short skit about a car bomb precedes "Murder Ink," with Hittman and Ms. Roq, about the violence that comes to thugs who live by the gun and make enemies who watch them and catch them lacking. Another skit about education is followed by "Some L.A. N****z" is a posse cut that brags about the cultural power of Southern California rappers. A somewhat extended script is followed by "Housewife," with Hittman and Kurupt, offering pessimistic advice about having relationships or marriages with people who don't have loyalty. "Ackrite," with Hittman, is a call to women to act right, with threats to violence to those women who are not willing to give it up. "Bang Bang", with Hittman, and Knoc-Turn'al, is a a melancholy track about increased violence within the black community. "The Message," with Mary J. Blige and Rell, is a melancholy and reflective song about dealing with the death of a beloved friend, followed by an outro from Tommy Chong.
This album is a clear case of an album that wasn't made for me, but which offers some surprising depth. In this album, Dr. Dre finds himself caught between his need to defend his masculinity through warnings to would-be enemies about his willingness to kill others and demonstrate his sexual prowess with more reflective songs about the threat of internal conflict to the well-being of his community and a desire to use his skills as a producer to bring uplift to other rappers. Throughout the album Dr. Dre shows a collegial spirit to a variety of rappers and other performers, including comedians, while dishing out warnings to haters who feign friendship. While each individual track has its own purpose--and usually a pretty blunt and heavy-handed one--the album as a whole offers a complicated balance of messages that offers considerable insight to the complexities of someone who hustled his way to the top and has sought to remain alive and relevant and culturally powerful in a world of short lives, fast money, and untrustworthy people. Rather than filling this listener with envy or hostility, I am moved instead by a sense of pity for the people caught up in the sort of life that this album both exemplifies and cautions about.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 25, 2022 3:04:17 GMT -5
Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (OST), by Bryan Adams and Hans Zimmer
Given Bryan Adams' luck with soundtracks--all four of his #1 hits came from soundtracks--it was only a matter of time before he decided to turn to a more extended soundtrack pop project, it was only a mild surprise that he chose to tackle a movie about a spirited stallion from the Old West. If this album did not bring Bryan Adams back to pop chart success--those days had come and gone at this point--it was a successful enough album and demonstrated that Bryan Adams had the skills to focus more on soundtracks if he chose to do so. The coherence that had been lacking in 18 Til I Die was to be found here as the discipline of having a story to create songs to helped to keep this album related to common themes and sounds and approaches, where ballads and rockers could unite together in telling the same story, a situation that has not been present in all Bryan Adams albums, alas.
The album begins with its relatively big hit, "Here I Am," which strikes a note of defiant independence. "I Will Always Return" offers a gentle note of loyalty. "You Can't Take Me" and "Get Off Of My Back" return to a more defiant mood against the control of people. "Brothers Under The Sun" is a reflection of unity and agreement that contains some melancholy instrumentation. "Don't Let Go," with Sarah McLachlan, is a loving ballad that works within the context of horseys. "This Is Where I Belong" offers another song about loyalty and identity with a place of wilderness and freedom. "Here I Am," a slightly less rousing version than the End Title version that opens the album, and then the depressed "Sound The Bugle" end the initial portion of vocal songs in this soundtrack. At this point we get four songs from the score by Hans Zimmer, "Run Free," "Homeland, "Rain," and "The Long Road Back," which reflect a soaring emotional mood for wide open skies and horses running around in freedom as well as more quiet moments. The album then ends with "Nothing I've Ever Known," a rousing some of growth and discovery, as well as the finale version of "I Will Always Return."
Admittedly, I am fond of soundtrack pop, and so this album is pretty appealing to me. Like many an artist before him, Bryan Adams is as well suited to soundtracking as artists like Elton John and Phil Collins, and this album does credit to Adams' ability to capture the mood of different characters and to come up with a compelling set of songs that works well together. It may seem to be an odd part of his discography, but it is certainly the most wholeheartedly enjoyable Bryan Adams album that he had released in some time. Those who come in with open ears and an open mind will have a lot to enjoy here, especially if they like the movie the soundtrack belongs to, as is often the case.
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Post by nathanalbright on Feb 28, 2022 14:37:14 GMT -5
Public Displays Of Affection (EP), by Muni Long
Some weeks ago I first became familiar with Muni Long when her song "Hrs and Hrs" broke on streaming and then charted on the Billboard Hot 100. That first song, her first hit that I am aware of, felt like a lost 80's track with its sensual R&B, and I was curious to hear if the whole project bore out the promise of that initial track. Without a lot of expectations, is this an album that one can appreciate all the way through or is "Hrs And Hrs" an isolated track in its promise. Let's see.
The EP begins with "No R&B," where the singer expresses a willingness to throw hands with a rival for a brother's affection. "IMU" expresses openness about being into someone but wondering if they will be able to get through in communication and if her partner is as into her as she is into him. "To Do List" is an interesting take on its titular concept, in that the singer expresses all the things she wants to do with her partner now they are in bed together, given the fact that they both have busy weeks. "Ain't Easy" talks about what is difficult about a relationship that ends in a separation where both partners are too proud to apologize after a big fight. "Hrs And Hrs," the biggest hit (so far) from this EP, is a sultry love ballad about her sexual endurance. "No Signal" expresses the singer's desire to avoid a problem where she had no signal being a sign of breaking up, a sign of the vulnerability of contemporary relationships, to be sure. "Time Machine" uses the idea of a time machine as a way of expressing the desire to avoid heartbreak while enjoying the experiences that led to the unhappiness, a rather ambivalent mood, but a pretty relatable one. The EP then ends with a live track, "Just Beginning," which portrays the disappointment in someone just beginning to trust and love someone who has broken her heart with cheating on her in a way she could recognize in social media.
I have to say that this album was a pleasure to listen to. Muni Long is pretty real in her approach. There isn't a lot of artifice here, she's not putting on a front about trying to be cool and unaffected by the problems of contemporary romance. This is not to say that this album is necessarily pleasant, the pleasure comes from its honesty rather than from the joy of the frustrations with unfaithful partners, concerns about one-sided feelings making one being vulnerable to being taken advantage of, or fights and misunderstandings that lead to breakups. If you like Adult R&B and want to see the perspective of an eloquent and colorful contemporary black young woman on the domestic melodrama of the contemporary age, this is a very worthwhile listen.
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Post by nathanalbright on Mar 7, 2022 0:52:57 GMT -5
The Tipping Point, by Tears For Fears
This album admittedly came as a surprise to me. I have seen Tears For Fears performing concerts, but as it had been more than fifteen years since their last release (which I will get around to reviewing soon, hopefully), I thought that they were content to perform their earlier songs. Instead, we get a new album that has sold enough copies to make the top ten albums and chart songs on the AAA charts that I enjoy (namely the title track so far). So how does this album hold up? What kind of album are we getting with such a title?
The album begins with an ode to freedom in "No Small Thing," a reflection on childhood and the way that the world is hard to those who see freedom in a way that seems to call back to some of their earliest concerns about the relationship between childhood and the adults who misrule this world in their debut album. The title track follows, with a tense and somewhat experimental instrumental track that reflects the anxiety of contemporary life and its concern with the ghosts of the past and the failure of communication. "Long, Long, Long Time" offers a gorgeous reflection on the passage of time and the experience of life's ups and downs. "Break The Man" offers a beautiful but rather ambivalent account of a female that appears to be a part of a dysfunctional relationship, and something that people might relate to but not want to see themselves as. "My Demons" offers a somewhat ominous perspective on fame and the lifestyle that comes with it. "Rivers Of Mercy" directly examines the violence and turmoil of contemporary society, and instead of feeding the violence, they call for mercy and healing instead. "Please Be Happy" is a sensitive and reflective call to a loved one to overcome anxiety and melancholy and bravely face the world. "Master Plan" is a beautiful song that reflects on the relationship between our plans for life and the sort of life that we end up having anyway. "End Of Night" offers an optimistic and hopeful view of the end of darkness and the dawning of a new day. "Stay" ends the album with an acoustic reflection on the ambivalence and mixed messages of life and relationships."
Having listened to this album, it is beautiful to see that it has found a considerable degree of sucess. If Tears For Fears is no longer a band that appears on mainstream pop charts, this beautiful and bittersweet album offers a lot of reflective and beautiful synth pop music for those who are willing to hear it and reflect about it. The group--as has been true their entire career--make an album hear that speaks to our own times and encourages listeners to overcome the ghosts and demons of their past and present lives to create a better future. This album fits right along with their career concerns about matters of communication, the misrule of the world, and the way that children are harmed by the failures of adults. Yet despite their understandable concerns about these subjects, the result is not one of despair or anger, but rather hope for a better future.
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Post by nathanalbright on Mar 8, 2022 1:04:19 GMT -5
Getting Good, by Lauren Alaina
A few weeks ago I signed up for a lot of rankdowns in a music community I am a part of, and as a result I get tagged and requested to listen to a lot of songs I do not know at all. As someone who appreciates musical discovery, by and large I am not hostile to this phenomenon, but one thing it has been doing has been to expose me to a lot of music that I would otherwise not choose to listen to on my own, and this particular EP is part of a combined rankdown, so I figured I would review each of the projects on their own as well as ranking the songs in the rankdown as a whole. So, how does this EP fare when I am not familiar at all with the artist's solo work?
The EP begins with "In My Veins," which is a heartfelt but rather standard ode to not being able to take the country out of her regardless of where she lives, an admirable sentiment to me and an enjoyable song. The solo version of "Getting Good," the titular track of this EP follows, a beautiful midtempo song about wondering when life starts getting good, and putting off contentment until that point, with lyrics that really hit home for me personally. "Somebody Else's Problem" is a song that goes for easygoing but has rather tough-minded lyrics comparing a dysfunctional relationship to a lemon vehicle who gets traded in to be somebody's problem and not the narrator's. "Ladies In The 90s" is a girl power sort of song that expresses the singer's frustrated desire for women to dominate country music as was in the case in the age of Shania and others. "Country In Me" is a beautiful and upbeat love song to someone who is country and brings out the country in her, the sort of love song that seems like it would be pretty relatable. "The Other Side" then closes the EP with a vision of eternity and the afterlife that the narrator relates from a loved one (presumably her father) who is dying, which prompts the desire to live a better life.
My feelings about this particular EP are somewhat mixed. I happened to like all of the songs in the EP a little bit, but I wonder about how they all fit together as part of a whole. The EP itself is short at only six songs, but has a wide variety of tones and moods, from the sort of feminist songs that I'm not really all that fond of hearing, given their strident tone, to songs that relate to love and heritage and faith that I am far more fond of, with the best song on this collection, at least to me, being the title track with its concerns about reflecting on life and when it starts getting good. I get the feeling that many people will listen to this album and wonder why more songs like this aren't played on country radio, but while I am fine with listening to them on my own, I can't help but wonder if I would change the station if something like "Somebody Else's Problem" or "Ladies In The 90s" were playing because I would feel personally attacked by it. And I wonder if that concern helps keep music like this from becoming promoted more in Nashville. Sometimes a bit more honey and a bit less vinegar makes a message go down better.
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Post by nathanalbright on Mar 8, 2022 13:21:29 GMT -5
Getting Over Him, by Lauren Alaina
Continuing on our theme of the recent music of Lauren Alaina, here is a collection of songs, many of which appear to have made it on the singer's album (review forthcoming). If Getting Good was a collection that, however incoherently, sought to capture the singer's views of the good life, this EP appears to be more focused on the singer's attempts to overcome a bad relationship. Will a more focused theme make for a more enjoyable listening experience?
This EP begins with "Run," which contains another connection between broken-down vehicles and broken relationships, a bit of continuity with the past EP, mixing a lot of thoughts about life and how it runs without ceasing. "If I Was A Beer" is an interesting song where the singer compares herself to a beer and wonders how much different life would be if that was the case, an admittedly pretty clever idea for a song. "Bar Back" is a somewhat fierce declaration by the singer that she is taking her favorite bar back as a place to forget him and that she won't let him destroy her enjoyment of the place. "Getting Over Him," featuring Jon Pardi, is a clever and witty song about the narrator's attempts to get over a breakup with a fun rebound guy. "Seen You In Your Hometown" offers a perspective of how one sees someone differently from their public persona when one knows their family and background, and how that affects your calculations of whether someone is worth sticking with. "What Do You Think Of?," featuring Lukas Graham, offers a reflective look back at a relationship, where two people ask each other what they think of when they think of each other.
I can say without hesitation that I enjoy this particular collection of songs a lot better than the first EP from this collection. Focusing on issues of relationship drama certainly makes for a compelling listen. If this EP does not answer all of my questions and concerns about the general tone and approach of Lauren Alaina, this particular EP certainly goes down a lot easier than the last EP did. If the songwriting and performance are often rather sharp, she seems somewhat reflective on herself as well, and the sort of strident approach that she takes to music certainly seems to go down better when she is either focused on her own behavior in witty and ironic ways or when she is aiming it at someone that the listener is not at all going to identify themselves with. It's not a surprise that this EP was the more successful one at providing the basis for her latest album, and I'm intrigued to see what resulted in her album as a whole.
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Post by nathanalbright on Mar 18, 2022 1:41:03 GMT -5
Sitting Pretty On Top Of The World, by Lauren Alaina
It admittedly took me a bit of time to get back to this third part of the rankdown of Lauren Alaina's latest album. I wasn't in the mood to listen to the artist, and I figured it would be worthwhile to just listen to the album and get it done, so here it goes. I have to admit that my initial impression of the artist from two EPs was not entirely positive. To be sure, there is certainly a group of people who might be able to relate to this material, but it's not really written with me in mind. The artist's material indicated she had a somewhat schizoid approach to her background and some notable tendencies towards problem drinking and strident feminism, two sorts of things that I really don't have any interest in cheering on. Does this album offer those things or something more enjoyable?
This album begins with the mournful and reflective, "It Was Me," which takes some surprising responsibility for a relationship gone wrong. "If The World Was A Small Town" contains a somewhat downbeat look at how it is that leaving a small town made it harder for the narrator to stay in relationships. "Getting Good" is taken from the EP of the same name, but has been turned into a duet with Trisha Yearwood that I don't like quite as much as the original. "Same Story, Different Saturday Nights" is a rather melancholy tale of drinking at a dive bear with other broken and unhappy people. "On Top Of The World" is a song about drinking and not being over someone but pretending to be sitting on top of the world. This song gives the title to the album and certainly shares the general downbeat mood of the album. "Run" and "What Do You Think Of?" are both taken from the "Getting Over Him" EP. "I'm Not Sad Anymore" shows the narrator over her ex but where the ex is trying to get her back once again. "Getting Over Him" is taken from the EP of the same name and fits here just as well. "Good Ole Boy" is a downbeat song about the titular boy who broke her heart and didn't love her that well. "When The Party's Over" is a song about rejecting someone who only calls her when he's drunk and alone, which fits the general mood of the album. "You Ain't A Cowboy" is a tell-off of a drunken player that is rather repetitive in rhyme scheme. "Goodbye Street" looks back on another dysfunctional and broken relationship with beautiful instrumentation, at least. "Written In The Bar" is a look at the sort of subpar romance you find with fellow alcoholics and barflies. "Change My Mind" is a cautionary encouragement to a would-be partner to woo her and make her fall in love.
This album is an example of a case where the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Each individual song on this album is a well-crafted piece of professional Nashville song, and some of them are immensely beautiful (admittedly many of them holdovers from Getting Over Him), like the album closer. But when these songs are all put together the album as a whole is a gloomy and depressing listen about a problem drinker whose own bad behavior undercuts her attempts to lay the boom on the unworthy sorts of men she tends to find at the bar getting drunk on a Saturday night. This album is just not appealing, and yet the singer has too strident and fierce of a persona for me to pity her, which I would be prone to do. I would just hope she left me alone while I drank ice water and sweet tea and had dinner while she was trying to complain about her worthless ex, but I am really not in the mood for this. The artist may have enough material for the occasional compelling EP, but this album is a dire and dreary listen.
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Post by nathanalbright on Mar 23, 2022 20:05:49 GMT -5
Twisted Angel, by LeAnn Rimes
During the early 2000s, country singer LeAnn Rimes made an album that sought to appeal to pop audiences that showed a somewhat messier side of her personality and the life that she was living. The album was not quite as successful as she hoped, and she later went back to making country, but that doesn't make this album any less interesting as a failed attempt at a mainstream pop career that sought to pivot LeAnn Rimes into the sort of pop princesses that were popular at the time like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, and the like. If the album was only marginally successful from the point of view of sales, how does this album fare artistically? Is it a good album that other people simply slept on or what?
The album begins with "Life Goes On," a standout pop track that deals with the passage of time and the inability to go back and undo one's previous mistakes, a rather promising beginning. "Wound Up" is a bit more of a story song about someone who appears to be perfect on the outside but has some deep issues when one looks deeper. "The Safest Place" reflects on the peace of mind and feeling of safety that comes from a loved one and was a minor hit single from the album. "The Trouble With Goodbye" sounds like something that could have come from Christina Aguilera's first album, and if that's not a bad thing to you it might be enjoyable. "Damn" reflects frustration with one's life and the way that one can be taken advantage of by someone one is attracted to. "Suddenly" reflects the suddenness of finding oneself alone when one was in a relationship. "Tic Toc" is another dance-pop infused song which invites the singer's partner to enjoy lovemaking with her. "Sign Of Life" reflects on the things that give one encouragement in the face of pain and difficulty. "Review My Kisses" is an oddly worded expression of a desire to be with a departed partner who has left her all alone. "No Way Out" expresses unhappiness with being unable to escape one's feelings for someone. "Love Is An Army" is an empowerment anthem about the power of love. "You Made Me Find Myself" is a reflection of gratitude to a past partner for making her find herself when she was trying to find him. The album then ends with a story song that expresses the brokenness that LeAnn Rimes felt as a young woman, more like a country rock song than anything else here.
This is without a doubt a strange album. It is by no means a bad album--it is thematically coherent as LeAnn Rimes deals with the troubles of love from the point of view of a woman who wants love and finds relationships a struggle, and finds herself corrupted by her experiences as a star and as a sexually active young woman. What is strange about the album, though, is the way that the styles on this album seem to clash. LeAnn Rimes' voice does not sound very good with most of this very dated early 2000's production, and her strengths as an emotive singer are not brought out the way that they could be. What is perhaps most tragic about this album is that the material by and large would work very well with different production as a country album--there is a lot of heartbreak and longing to be found here, and the title track almost sounds like swamp rock, so had LeAnn Rimes and her team wanted to make a great country album the material is here. As it is, it is a very good pop record, largely based on LeAnn Rimes' own honesty and vulnerability as an artist, but it could have been a classic.
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Post by nathanalbright on Mar 24, 2022 17:48:48 GMT -5
This Woman, by LeAnn Rimes
I have to admit that I am rather nostalgic about this period of LeAnn Rimes' career. While she was promoting this album on tour I had the chance to hear the artist play many of the songs from this album at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Florida, one Sunday afternoon when she realized that she had two concerts to play that day instead of the one she had thought, and she was apologetic about how she was saving her voice for the second concert in the evening. Still, the concert was lovely, LeAnn Rimes was engaging, and the songs from this album contain a few ones I still remember fondly as part of her larger body of work. At least from retrospect, this album has three songs I remember very well and I am curious to see if the album holds up after the fact or if it's just my nostalgia talking about this being a really great album. Let's find out.
The album begins with "I Want To With You," which features some strong instrumentation and a lovely message about wanting to build a life with someone, a strong beginning. "You Take Me Home" is a lovely return to country that acknowledges the lure of big city life and her ability to overcome the lure by remembering what she loved the most about home. "Something's Gotta Give" is a rousing fiddle stomper about the struggle to find true love, a true highlight. "Won't Be Lonely Long" is a defiant song about recovering from heartbreak and moving on from a bad relationship to find something better. "Nothing 'Bout Love Makes Sense" is a lovely and reflective song about the nonsensical nature of love, a true standout from what has been a very strong album so far. "Probably Wouldn't Be This Way" is a beautiful and melancholy song about dealing with the loss of a loved one and the mixed feelings that result from it. "The Weight Of Love" gives a reflective and realistic view of love and its ups and downs. "With You" gives a charming and lovely talk about the narrator's desire to live happily ever after with her beloved. "I Got It Bad" talks about how it is that her infatuation helps her cope with the boredom and routine nature of life, and how her addiction to the high life drives her on. "I Dare You" is a challenge to a would-be partner to love her the way that she wants. "When This Woman Loves A Man" gives a soulful look at the narrator's efforts to form a lasting love with someone who has been treated roughly in love. "Some People" is a gentle ode to the persistence of love through the hard times and how fortunate it is to have such a thing in one's life. Finally, "Afraid To Fall," a Target exclusive for this album, is a lovely song about having the bravery to fall in love.
Overall, this is an extremely strong album. The real difference between this album and Twisted Angel to me is the instrumentation and production. While the production for Twisted Angel is often a bit awkward and misses the real strengths of LeAnn Rimes' passion and vulnerability, this album gives a somewhat similar set of songs about love and loss and the struggles of dealing with the vulnerability to dangerous excitement a real grounding in beautiful instrumentals with lap steel and fiddles and guitars that really showcases these songs in a beautiful way. LeAnn Rimes' honesty about herself and her desire to be accepted by country music fans after a turn towards pop music ends up creating an album that is extremely pleasing and may be her best album ever. Not a song here is anything less than very good, and some of these songs are wonderful. If you're interested in giving LeAnn Rimes' later albums a chance, having known her as a child star, this is a great place to begin.
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