Tag Archives: rock

May 12 to 18

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Nightmares On Wax Shape The Future

I’m unsure how I stumbled upon this album, but I’m glad I did. Shape The Future is electronic by genre, but world music outside of that label. It has samples of music and building blocks from all over the place. It flows with an easy continuity and becomes two cohesive slabs of vinyl. Highly listenable.

Larry Norman  Upon This Rock

Larry Norman was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and producer. He is considered one of the pioneers of Christian rock music and has released more than 100 albums. I do not recommend buying or even listening to all 100. Upon This Rock, So Long Ago the Garden and Only Visiting This Planet are albums that I would highly recommend. These three became known as Larry Norman’s trilogy of albums and comprise his most widely recognized albums, as well as his best material.

Oxbow  Thin Black Duke

The Oxbow album, Thin Black Duke, is another mystery as to how I found it. Oxbow was an experimental rock band known for the vocal prowess of frontman Eugene Robinson. If you are listening to this for the first time, I recommend having Wikipedia and Genius open to track what you are listening to. Thin Black Duke is an interesting album with twists and turns that kept me busy listening intently.

Gary Numan  The Pleasure Principle

The Pleasure Principle is a blast from the past. I would be willing to place a bet if you asked a random sample of people who were 15 or older when this album was released if they knew it. Then ask them if they have ever intently listened to it. I was guilty of using this album as background noise rather than paying attention as I listened to it. This time, I sat down with a cup of coffee, my second addiction after listening to music, opened Wikipedia and Genius, and paid attention to the grooves in The Pleasure Principle. It had a depth that I hadn’t heard before, and I developed a deeper appreciation for what Gary Numan created on this album. 

The Oak Ridge Boys  The Oak Ridge Boys Have Arrived

The Oak Ridge Boys Have Arrived sounds like a wheelbarrow full of other southern USA Nashville Pop vocal groups. Generic and quickly forgotten after the needle is lifted from the runout groove.

The Oak Ridge Boys    Heartbeat

The same band delivers Heartbeat as The Oak Ridge Boys Have Arrived, but it does not sound the same as the Oak Ridge Boys I listened to previously. Heartbeat is more polished, and while still a Nashville pop-flavoured album, it is more listenable, for me at least. The vocals are tighter, and the bass vocal is moulded into the vocals instead of the occasional bass word or two featured on the Arrive album. The Oak Ridge Boys don’t write any songs on this recording, but they have chosen some tasteful songs to cover. They are a pure vocal band, not playing any instruments themselves, but they use top-notch session musicians. Adding up, we get this: great vocals, well-written songs that fit their vocal style, and delivery by the aforementioned top-notch musicians.

Phil Ochs  Pleasures of the Harbor

Pleasures of the Harbor isn’t an album on my deserted island list. But Phil Ochs is an important musician to hear and to read about. Pleasures of the Harbor was released in 1967, and the Vietnam conflict and the protest movement were in full flight. And, naturally, it wouldn’t be much of a protest movement if there weren’t protest songs.

Pleasures of the Harbour is Phil Ochs’ fourth album, and a significant departure from the previous three albums, which were definitely folk music. Pleasures of the Harbour features traces of classical, rock and roll, Dixieland jazz and experimental synthesized music, and of course, folk music.

The songs in Pleasures of the Harbor are less apolitical than his folk albums. Pleasures of the Harbor features songs that are more in the realm of social commentary. “The Party” savaged high-class snobs, and “Outside of a Small Circle of Friends” is a sarcastic jab at the apathetic nature of people in certain situations. Ochs also used the medium of music to tell stories. The title track, Pleasures of the Harbor, is a dirge to lonely sailors seeking human comfort and connection while in port.

Pleasures of the Harbor is not a go-to album for me, but an entertaining and illuminating album just the same.

Mike Oldfield  Tubular Bells

This album is the same as The Pleasure Principle. Well known but not well listened to. I listened intently and had the same result as on The Pleasure Principle. There is much more going on in this album than I had heard before I started listening to albums focused and alert to what was going on musically, what the lyrics said, and how the message was delivered.

Michael And Stormie Omartian

Omartian Odyssey

Michael Omartian has created a pleasant album, but I enjoy him more for his work with other artists. Brace yourself, the list is impressive to say the least.

Michael Omartian produced number-one records in three consecutive decades. He has earned 11 Grammy Award nominations and won three of those nominations. He spent five years on the A&R staff of ABC/Dunhill Records as a producer, artist, and arranger; then he was hired by Warner Bros. Records as an in-house producer and A&R staff member. Omartian moved from Los Angeles to Nashville in 1993, where he served on the Board of Governors of the Recording Academy, and has helped to shape the curriculum for the first master’s degree program in the field of Music Business at Belmont University.

Artists whom Michael Omartian has produced albums for include:

Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Debby Boone, Steve Camp, Peter Cetera, Christopher Cross, Joe “Bean” Esposito, Amy Grant, Benny Hester, Whitney Houston, the Imperials, The Jacksons, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Cliff Richard, Steely Dan, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, Wayne Watson, Billy Joel and Trisha Yearwood.

I told you it was impressive.

Roy Orbison  Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits

Roy Orbison  In Dreams

Roy Orbison  The Very Best of Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison  The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison

I was blessed to see the Big O live, and that show stood unchallenged for decades as the best concert I had ever attended. It has been nudged aside and shares that podium now, but I still deeply revere Roy Orbison and his music. I listened to all four of these albums, but you could get away with listening to In Dreams and the double album, The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison. 

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Architecture and Morality

Architecture and Morality completes the trilogy of albums I had to appreciate and pay attention to, intentional listening. The Pleasure Principle and Tubular Bells are the other two. I have an earworm from Joan of Arc, the only song off the album that I carried forward from when I bought it. Architecture and Morality was a more challenging listen, but well worth the effort.

Gilbert O’Sullivan  Himself

Alone Again Naturally is the big hit for Gilbert O’Sullivan and the only reference I had for him and his music. He is a great storyteller and delivers the lyrics in a manner that is unique to him. It turns out he had a long and prosperous career, besides “Alone Again Naturally.” If you had asked me on Friday what I thought of Gilbert O’Sullivan, I would have labelled him a one-hit wonder. He isn’t. He had a long and productive career in music that spanned from his debut album, Himself, to his twentieth release, which was released last year, 2024. I may have to go bin diving to expand my discography of Gilbert O’Sullivan.

So, there we have it. Another week of great music checked off with Roy Orbison being the heavy hitter this week. I love my newest turntable, the Fluance 81+. It is paired with my Cambridge Azur 351A and image Concept 200 speakers. The sound is warm, and the separation is immaculate. I can hear sounds left, right and in between clearly. It is also capable of pushing the sound to a slightly higher volume when the music, or I, ask it to. I use it so much that the stereo in my office rarely gets used. It is a new Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB with Romanca R2 speakers, a decent stereo in its own right. It will get its turn to shine as time passes; meanwhile, onward and upward to another week of music.

The New Pornographers

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The New Pornographers Discography

Mass Romantic

  • Released: November 21, 2000

Electric Version

  • Released: May 6, 2003

Twin Cinema

  • Released: August 23, 2005

Challengers

  • Released: August 21, 2007

Together

  • Released: May 4, 2010

Brill Bruisers

  • Released: August 26, 2014

Whiteout Conditions

  • Released: April 7, 2017

In the Morse Code of Brake Lights

  • Released: September 27, 2019

Continue as a Guest

  • Released: March 31, 2023

I’m not sure if I was brave or foolish, but I listened to the entire discography of The New Pornographers in one week, actually in five days. I didn’t go insane and enjoyed revisiting some albums I hadn’t heard recently. I had this notion that I would write down thoughts, inclinations and assorted comments sifted from the internet and my noggin as I listened to each album. That didn’t happen, at least not in any meaningful or helpful way. I jotted down some notes as I listened to the first two albums and then quit. There were so many notes and comments that I would have written a short book rather than the short format I employ in my blogs. In a truncated style, here are some of my takeaways from this music marathon. A.C. Newman and Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar wrote all the songs on the album. Lead vocals were mainly by A.C. Newman and Neko Case. The New Pornographers’ membership has ebbed and flowed over the years and album to album, with Neko Case, A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar, and Kathryn Calder as more or less consistent members. The New Pornographers are often called a Canadian supergroup; as a Canadian, I am OK with that assessment; even if Neko Case isn’t a Canadian, she should be.

Mass Romantic

Wikipedia tells us that Mass Romantic was written over the three years prior to its release on November 21, 2000. Standout samples for me started with track one, appropriately, and blended into track two, then three and all the way to twelve.

“In the streetlight dawn

This beat turns on.”

In “Way Back Machine,” Sonny & Cher sang “The Beat Goes On.”

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, drummer of Le Figaro. 😉

The Beatles sang that they “read the news today” & “the news was rather sad.”

The New Pornographers “wrote the news today” and then “Make headlines.”

Living in the modern era of social media, we have come to accept that “fake news” is the new normal, especially when Trump is proclaiming it. The New Pornographers wrote a song that goes from “make headlines” to “fake headlines.” They recorded Mass Romantic well before the era of Trump’s fake news nonsense.

Several more comments in my jotted notes have penmanship that make them all but indecipherable. So I won’t mention The Who seeing for miles and miles while The New Pornographers “claim to see for miles, you don’t, but I believe you do.” I have no idea what is going on there.

And I won’t mention that The Mary Martin Show ignited some random synapses in my brain that brought to mind Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a television parody show. Go figure, eh?

“Breakin’ the Law” closes the album Mass Romantic with a cornucopia of delightful music. 

Mass Romantic must be one of the greatest debut albums. I asked the internet, and it appeared on a few lists, including Paste magazine, which I consider a legit music source, and The Village Voice, which is equally legit.

The New Pornographers‘ first four albums placed in the top 40 on The Village Voice‘s Pazz & Jop year-end poll of hundreds of music reviewers. From 2000 to 2006, either a New Pornographers’ album or a solo album from one of the band’s members ranked in the top 40 on the list each year. In 2007, Blender magazine ranked the New Pornographers’ first album, Mass Romantic, the 24th best indie album ever. In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the band’s second studio album, Electric Version, No. 79 in the “100 Best Albums of the Decade”. Stereogum has retrospectively praised the band’s debut album, Mass Romantic, as “one of the greatest” power pop albums. I agree.

See what I meant by writing a short book instead of a short blog? What we have here is the edited short version of the notes.

Their sophomore album is Electric Version. I lay awake at night, wondering where the acoustic version is.

On Electric Version, we have From Blown Speakers. That is a great song title; I didn’t drive my speakers that high, but I once worked with a guy who turned the volume so high it vibrated the speaker cabinet off the shelf and crashed to the floor. I had made the shelf and put the speaker on it with no expectation that anyone would listen to music that loud. He did.

New Face of Zero and One was a standout track for me. It’s Only Divine Right is a driving rock number. July Jonesreminded me of Danielson Famile. Why? I don’t know. It just does.

As a whole, the Electric Version sounds like The New Pornographers but dressed up a bit more posh. They are learning as they go, and it sounds good. It’s a more mature sound, fuller somehow.

Track 7 on Brill Bruisers is Another Drug Deal of the Heart with the line “Don’t meet me here

Just meet me out on that corner stop.”

In my mind, it jumped to “Just Walk On By.”

“Just walk on by, wait on the corner

I love you, but we’re strangers when we meet.”

written by Kendall Hayes and performed by American country music artist Leroy Van Dyke. Everyone and their children have subsequently recorded covers of it.

Here are some condensed takeaway thoughts from listening to the discography of The New Pornographs from Mass Romantic to Continue as a Guest. They retained their overall sound but matured and polished their skills as they moved from album to album. 

Mass Romantic, their debut album, stuck with me, which is incredible considering the fact that I listened to all eight of their records after Mass Romantic in chronological order. It isn’t amazing when I reconsider the album; it has always been a highlight favourite of mine. Their sophomore release, Electric Version, is a solid album that proves that Mass Romantic wasn’t a one-off. Twin Cinema, their third release, didn’t stick like glue; it was more like bubble gum. The song “Sing Me Spanish Techno” is a good un. I’ll always hold the album Together in a special place because that was the first time I saw them live. I scored a t-shirt, a poster and a CD from the show.

The Together record is a solid listen, with a couple of tracks that stood out to me, such as Crash Years and Silver Jenny Dollar. Brill Bruisers was gifted to me, which means it will stick with me forever. It is also a good listen for a bonus, and I love the cover art. Whiteout Conditions features Katherine Calder on vocals and harmony. Their last two albums, In The Morse Code of Brake Lights and Continue as a Guest, are good, but one of us is missing something. I will have to listen to them again. The fact that I had listened to all of their albums released up to these two in five days may have coloured my vision. Final comment? It was a good five days of good music; I wonder what will be next in my odyssey through my album library from Eh to Zed.

It was purely coincidental that I listened to this band in the week after their drummer, Joe Seiders, was arrested for possession of child pornography. The band cut all ties to him, and I imagine fans like myself will also distance themselves from him.

The name of the band, New Pornographers, has nothing to do with pornography. The New Pornographers‘ name was chosen by Carl Newman, who said that he came up with it because he was a fan of a Japanese film called The Pornographers. It was also an homage to The New Seekers and “The Pornographers,” a track on bandmate Dan Bejar‘s first Destroyer album, We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge. My son, Joel Weatherly, and I have seen the New Pornographs live several times and Destroyer once, and it was intense.

April 21 to Star Wars

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As usual, I had an eclectic week of music, from Willie Nelson’s outlaw country to Sixties Music’s hard rock. I didn’t listen to a large number of albums this week, 13, which works out just short of two per day. In reality, I listened to four albums on some days and nothing on other days.

Willie Nelson  Red-Headed Stranger

This album is labelled by many sources as a classic in modern music, and rightfully so. Red Headed Stranger is a quasi-concept album about love, lust and loss. It is very high on my list of songs on the boat ride to the deserted island, when I get their I’ll let you know if it made it to the island or not.

Wikipedia: “Red Headed Stranger was a blockbuster among country music fans and mainstream audiences. It was certified multiple-platinum and made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. The cover of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” released as a single before the album, became Nelson’s first number-one hit. The title of the album became a lasting nickname for Nelson. It was number 183 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and number one on CMT’s 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music. In 2010, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry.”

Willie Nelson  The Troublemaker

The Troublemaker is a good album, containing gospel standards with the trademark Willie Nelson feel running through it.

Willie Nelson  To Lefty From Willie

I have listened to this album dozens of times and never tired of it. As far as tribute albums go, Willie nails it on To Lefty From Willie. Willie captures the emotion Lefty wrote into his songs and can retain most of the song’s musical and lyrical feel. Lefty Frizell was an incredible all-around musician, a guitar picker, a singer, and a writer. This album is a good place to start if you are getting acquainted with Willie Nelson or Lefty Frizzell. To Lefty From Willie is a deserted island pick in my library.

Willie Nelson  Somewhere Over The Rainbow/The Minstrel Man

It’s a waste of vinyl. These are overcooked, with the orchestra obliterating any notion of this being a C/W album. Willie was good when he was an outlaw, not so hot as a pop crooner. I’ll go back and listen to Red Headed Stranger again to get The Minstrel Man out of my brain.

Pink Floyd  Wish You Were Here

This album has been overdue for a listen. I plopped down in the recliner, cranked the volume to 8, and opened Wikipedia to read about the album as I listened to it. I need to hear this more often; it has some very good music.

Oxbow  Thin Black Duke

I don’t know what genre Thin Black Duke belongs in; I hear alt-rock and experimental rock. Something quirky about this album caught my attention and has stuck with me. I have never listened to any of their other recordings, but I frequently listen to Thin Black Duke—a quality-over-quantity situation.

Various.  Electric Sixties

What a fun listen this was! Electric Sixties was a trip down memory lane with an album full of top-notch songs. The Electric Sixties will reside in my various artist’s collection with five stars beside it. It leans towards the harder rock bands of that era, and I was carried away hearing these songs again.

Juice Newton  Juice

Juice Newton has enjoyed a stellar career in music, with numerous cross-over albums that charted, as well as a long list of charting singles in both pop and country charts. Juice is her third solo album and the only one I have ever owned; it is a good one if it is the only one. Juice is packed with good songs and three charting singles, with Angel of the Morning being my favourite song from the album.

Bobby Bond  The Roger Miller Songbook

I could swear that this is a recording by Roger Miller. It isn’t. The Roger Miller Songbook is the first album, recorded in 1965, for an aspiring musician named Bobby Bond. The Roger Miller Songbook sold more for the name Roger Miller than Bobby Bond. Bobby Bonds’s next album, which was dedicated to Jim Reeves, enjoyed good sales, but like The Roger Miller Songbook did nothing to establish Bobby Bond as a singer. The Roger Miller Songbook is a nice album, especially for those of a certain age who can remember these songs from years long gone.

Van Morrison  Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a cassette that I used to sound test a new old cassette deck that I had purchased. The cassette is good, but the deck needs some TLC. Several Moments Later… I ran a pair of cleaning cassettes through the deck and it sounds better, but not good. It has a dirty sound that I suspect is more than I can fix.

A person that I used to work with was a fan of Van Morrison but stated that if you heard one Van Morrison album, you’ve heard them all. There is an element of truth in that statement. There are, however, different lyrics, fresh musical arrangements, and new emotions and feelings in every one of Van Morrison’s albums. I liked listening to Enlightenment and can see myself returning to this album someday. 

The Violet Burning  Chosen

The Violet Burning is a Christian alternative rock band from the days when I went to church. It is still a decent album; it has aged well. I suspect this could easily be categorized as an alternative rock band, but they got labelled as a Christian band. That label has been a weight around the necks of many good bands. They get stuck in the nowhere world of music, they are too Christian for popular media and too rock for most churches. Larry Norman and Daniel Amos are two fantastic bands, in my opinion, that never broke out of that wasteland. All three of those artists were able to make a career of walking that tightrope. The Violet Burning went on from this debut album to record about a dozen more albums and a slew of other related music projects. I enjoyed listening to this album again and realized that this is the only recording by The Violet Burning that I have. I’ll keep my eyes open for more in my search through thrift and second-hand stores.

Kevin on Repeat #294

I wasn’t familiar with these bands, other than Hendrix, but being open to listening to new music, I listened to this while I tapped out this blog. They are all good, Kevin, according to Norman.

April 15 to 20

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Last week, I went for quantity, with 18 albums in my playlist. That does not mean I listened to them so that I could brag about how much music I listen to. No, I listened to every single album with attention to its contents. What instruments were used? How did the lyrics mesh with the instrumentation? Etc. This week, I listened to six albums, several of which I listened to more than once.

Nash the Slash / Children of the Night

This is easily one of the most disturbing album covers in my recent memory.

Nash the Slash / And You Thought You Were Normal

Nash the Slash / American Bandages

I listened to the above three twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=het1kl-A8qw

Wikipedia with some editing:

“James Jeffrey “Jeff” Plewman (March 26, 1948 – May 10, 2014), better known by his stage name Nash the Slash, was a Canadian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he was known primarily for playing the electric violin and mandolin, harmonica, keyboards, glockenspiel, and other instruments (sometimes described as “devices” on album notes).

Nash worked as a solo artist beginning in 1975, founding the progressive rock band FM in 1976. Soon after releasing the band’s first album, Black Noise, in 1977, he left the band; he resumed his solo career in 1978 (it was not until after Nash’s departure that the album was widely promoted, eventually charting and receiving a gold record award). He rejoined FM from 1983 to 1988, followed by a brief reunion from 1994 to 1996, all concurrent with his solo work.

Nash’s music covers an eclectic range, varying from instrumental—mood-setting and shoe-gaze music to rock and pop music with vocals. In addition to giving concert performances, he composed and performed soundtrack music for silent films, presenting these works live in movie theatres to accompany screenings of the films. Another venue for his music was in performances to accompany the viewing of paintings by surrealist painter Robert Vanderhorst, an audiovisual collaboration, which took place in 1978 and again in 2004.

Nash famously never allowed guitars on any of his solo albums and singles. He turned down Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour‘s offer to lay down a guitar track on his Children of the Night album. It takes something special to turn down an offer from David Gilmour.

I don’t know what to make of his albums. They are exotic and non-conformant. Discogs has them pegged as Rock/Darkwave/New Wave/Prog/Rock. I have always had a soft spot for electric violin, Nash the Slash used that as his primary instrument. 

I like his cover of 19th Nervous Breakdown just because it veers away from the original recording by The Rolling Stones and becomes a unique recording by Nash, with no guitars. I’m not sure what Keith Richards would think of that! Another song that gets a work over is Smoke on the Water, which becomes Dopes on the Water. The music of Nash the Slash is not music for the faint of heart. Nash the Slash made music that challenged the boundaries of music and pushed them further out of the comfort zone of popular music in the early 80’s. He was a nonconformist and stayed that way in the three albums of his that I have.

American Band-ages, released in 1984, featured covers of popular American songs. The album, intended for the US market, never got the push it needed due to distribution and management problems, including a change in record labels.

American Band-ages featured Bandstand Boogie/American Band (We’re An American Band), veering from big band to punk on the same track. Wow, what a way to start an album. What follows is Born to be Wild. It sounds like the original but doesn’t. The electric violin and the use of synthesizers mimic the electric guitars featured in the original by Steppenwolf. I had a big deja vu trip listening to Born to Be Wild in the movie Easy Rider on YouTube. That movie resonated with me as a rebellious teenager in 1969. The Nash the Slash remake of Hey Joe blows. Hey Joe, it has been covered so often that no one knows the song’s origin. The most noteworthy version is likely the Jimi Hendrix Experience cover from their Are You Experienced album. You can do Wikipedia for more covers.

Another thing I noticed is the length of the tracks on American Bandages; these are not three-minute radio edits. The songs run from the shortest, Hey Joe, at 3:34 to several at four and five minutes and the closer, 1984, at 7:08. These are three songs per album side, and I like it. He gets a groove going on these songs and he works it with all the musical toys he can muster, but no guitars.

So I listened to Nash the Slash twice over the course of a couple of days and gave them a good listen, not a casual noise in the background while I did something else kind of a listen. I got his music, but not everyone did.

I suggest reading and listening here if you want to listen to his music and find out more about him as a person.

Rick Nelson The Very Best of Rick Nelson

Ricky Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician and actor. From age eight, he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1957, he began a long and successful career as a popular recording artist. The Very Best is a standard Best Of album. It contains some hit songs you may recognize if you are a boomer like me.

NDTC Singers The Very Best of NDTC Singers

This album contains songs from several Caribbean nations, including my favourite, Jamaica. Truthfully, it is the only Caribbean island I have been to, but I liked it and would like to return. My Jamaican princess, Valerie, listened to this alongside me and hummed to many songs.

Bible Club Umbra

This album has been sitting on the back burner for a week or so. I enjoyed the first spin, so I found the lyrics and gave it another spin, reading along as I went. And then I forgot about it for one reason or another. And now I am listening to it again and hoping to flesh something out to write about.

This album starts out with some relaxing guitar and other instruments over some vocals that sound other-worldly. A nice chill track. Track two has a more or less alt-rock sound and recognizable vocals telling us about the futility of life and eventually getting to a place where they can forget everything and start a new life. Nihilist, that word pops up early in the song. A nihilist is a person who believes that life is meaningless and rejects all religious and moral principles. The lack of moral principles is a frightening thought. I can get on board with rejecting religion, heck, I’ve done that and feel fine with how my life is going, gut rejecting moral principles is on a whole new level. Life needs some morality to function, we can not throw out all concepts of good and proper. Without moral principles we will devolve into a culture of savage brutes trying to suppress each other. Come to think about that, and maybe we are living there already.

Track 3, Umbra, tells us what we are experiencing in the here and now. 

“Everyone cycling around not knowing why or how

Just drudging on

for a bliss that’s promised

Rid me of this mind now

Tell me there’s truth, things will get better

…

As I cast off these things

I grow older and weary”

That just about sums it up for me, I feel old and weary. There are moments of bliss, like when I get some new music that takes me of to the promised land. Please tell me that things will get better. Great music in the alt-rock genre. 

Track four takes the author to a dark and dreary place with some very interesting music, I found myself ignoring the lyrics and just soaking in the music. It has a feeling like listening to a click track that moves in and out with instruments that move in and out, not neccissarily in sync with the lyrics, but it works. I get lost in this track and put it on instant replay.

Track five explodes with the pent up angst, anger and weariness that the author has been carrying about for far too long. 

“We’re all eating cardboard

Crap wrapped in tinfoil

Bleached clumps of empty substance

We eat it just to feel

Saturated

Uncomplicated

Watch out

Why won’t you hear me out

So watch out

You’re gonna hear me out

Don’t

Don’t waste my time

Don’t waste my time

With all your lies”

“Capturing the stark awareness of a world stuck in disarray, ‘Umbra’ is a dreary rumination on the state of affairs in this post-consumerist world, offering vignettes of the symptoms of late-stage capitalism. Materialism has gone non-material, substance is replaced by empty filler, and callous waste of life. More now than ever before we are within the darkest shadow of our times – the umbra – a shadow cast by a force that overpowers.” – Bark PR http://www.barkpr.co.uk/

Five tracks of fusion alt punk, rock and shoegazing lamenting the world of capitalism and materialism. An album that sounds great despite the dreary tone of the lyrics. They use two guitars to great effect as they wander in and out and playing around each other and together. I want to hear these guys ten years from now to hear how their world view has changed, or hasn’t. Chalk Umbra up as a five star record.

p.s. I listened to their earlier music, and it is good listening.

April 1-7 2025

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Isolated Youth miserere mei

This band and their album are new to me, courtesy of Bark PR. I’ve given this album easily a half-dozen listens, and I want more. Addictive? Perhaps. It’s definitely music that I want to hear again and again. They churn out distortion-fueled post-punk that charges out of the speakers and assailes my ears. It is not dark, moody music. No, no! They serve the music up raw and gritty with lyrics that touch on faith and the search for meaning in life. Who isn’t?

From the press handout:

“Hailing from the remote coastal town of Norrtälje, Sweden. Isolated Youth’s debut LP is deeply shaped by the atmospheric Nordic landscape they grew up in. From the icy hooks of ‘Ghost Town’ inspired by the desolate streets of Stockholm to the ghostly ‘Psykosoma’, conceived in a studio nestled between a forested graveyard, the band channel the play of light and darkness of their region through a gothic, distortion-fueled lens. Formed by brothers Axel and William Mardberg, along with drummer Andreas Geidemark and bassist Elmer Hallsby, the band channels a raw and atmospheric style that draws influence from icons like The Chameleons, The Gun Club, and Siouxsie & The Banshees. With Axel’s piercing falsetto and William’s intricate, Johnny Marr-esque guitar lines, Isolated Youth have crafted an album that feels both nostalgic and deeply contemporary.”

The song Love Locked In A Dark Room mesmerizes me. It has a jaunty rhythm that reminds me of someone but sounds fresh and original at the same time. It has crashing cymbals and chugging guitars that melt into the lyrics that cry out in longing not to be left alone in a dark room like a bird in a cage. As I listened to this song and meditated on the lyrics, I was reminded of a poem by Maya Angelou, Caged Bird.

Love Locked In A Dark Room:

“Hold me

Before the sun hits and the walls they turn

The dark room is bending

Bird in a cage

Dancing in the Devil’s lair

Love locked in a dark room

I can’t see where I stay.”

Maya Angelou, Caged Bird:

“The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.”

I would love to hear Isolated Youth perform Love Locked In A Dark Room live. I may be in Sweden, their home and native land, in October. They don’t have any tour dates on their web page, but I remain optimistic. In conclusion, I rate this album as a 5 out of 5. It is a well-crafted musical experience with powerful music and insightful thought-provoking lyrics.

DISCOVER ISOLATED YOUTH 

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | SPOTIFY 

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Joe Jackson Stepping Out

I hadn’t listened to the music of Joe Jackson other than competing with road noise on the radio back in the days when listening to the radio was a thing. I popped this in the big stereo, sat back in my recliner, closed my eyes and let the music come to me. What I heard was a side of Joe Jackson that I didn’t know existed up to that moment. I could hear sumptuous bass underscoring the songs, powerful but understated. It starts on the first track, Is She Really Going Out With Him? The bass is the bedrock on which the rest of the song is built. I won’t do a long track-by-track review of Joe Jackson’s greatest songs. This listening session gave me another side of Joe Jackson I never knew. I’m listening to it again, focusing more on the vocals and the lyrical content.

Modest Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition

From Wikipedia:

“Pictures at an Exhibition is a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. It is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann put on at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg following his sudden death in the previous year. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual work, some of which are lost.

The composition has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists, and became widely known from orchestrations and arrangements produced by other composers and contemporary musicians, with Maurice Ravel’s 1922 adaptation for orchestra being the most recorded and performed. The suite, particularly the final movement, “The Bogatyr Gates,” is widely considered one of Mussorgsky’s greatest works.”

Pictures at an Exhibition is easily my favourite classical music album, CD or record. It is a good bit of easy listening for winding down from some business. It is also a favourite of mine for what I call intentional or focused listening. I sit back with no distractions and just listen. I pay attention to different aspects of the music every time I listen to it. I listen to what instruments are used. What is the pacing of the music? Is it going faster? Slower? Escalating or depressing? And other aspects of the album. Yeah, Pictures at an Exhibition is my go-to for classical music.

March 17 & 24

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This blog started on Monday, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, covering my listening for the previous week. It has spun into a blog that carries that forward and blends in with my listening for the week leading up to today, March 24. I am hitting a brick wall when it comes to reviewing music. I can only give generics, but that seems so small compared to what I have been able to do in the past. Regardless, what you see is what you get; I will not cut and paste or plagiarize other people’s reviews.

Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1974-78

In 1975, my friend Steve Miller and I quit our jobs at the coal mine in the Crowsnest Pass and headed for Mexico. We listened to a lot of music on that trip, but I don’t recall ever listening to anything by the musician Steve Miller.

Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys – Bluegrass Classics Radio Shows 1946-1948

The header is almost as long as the review—classic early bluegrass music.

The Monkees The Monkees

The Monkees Headquartes

The Monkees More Of The Monkees

These three albums came in a haul of about 100 albums that I paid $20 for. It is a fun trip down memory lane for those of a certain age, and I think I got my money’s worth.

Harry Rusk Canadian Country Hits

Included in those boxes were numerous Canadian albums; this was among them. I couldn’t find much information about Harry Rusk besides the fact that he had a single that charted in 1969; it isn’t on this album. This album is a good listen if you enjoy Country and Western music.

Duane Eddy Twistin’ ’n’ Twangin’

Classic sock party music.

Jimmy “Arthur” Ordge Tears From A Country Hear

More classic C/W music. Jimmy “Arthur” Ordge was an Albertan who made a bit of a wave in C/W music. He had a few songs that charted, he appeared on Canadian television, and toured relentlessly. I enjoy his music; I’m not sure if I saw him live or on television, but I can remember him from the distant past.

The Moody Blues On the Threshold of a Dream

The Moody Blues Days of Future Passed

The Moody Blues Long Distance Voyager

The Moody Blues To Our Children’s Children’s Children

My musical week had two heavy hitters, one of them being The Moody Blues. They were a band I enjoyed in the past but didn’t dive into deeper than casual listens. They had their unique sound and made some delightful music.

Francine Morrison Sweet, Sweet Spirit

Francine Morrison had a strong and sweet, sweet voice, and my wife and I enjoyed listening to this sweet, sweet southern black church music album.

Montreux Sign Language

Montreux is considered a supergroup of electronica in the contemporary jazz scene. I enjoyed this album, but not enough to run out and buy another one.

Mountain Climbing

Mountain are a band with a long article in Wikipedia that you can read on your own. I will only add that I have a long history with this album. I’m not sure when I bought it, but I know I have been listening to it for a long time. It has held its age very well in my library. It is often cited as an album that started the heavy metal scene. I can hear why that connection exists. I like listening to this recording, and it has remained glued in my repertoire for good reason; it is a good album.

Tina Turner Gold

I gave my wife tickets to Tina – The Tina Turner Musical for Christmas. It was a grand show that both of us enjoyed immensely. Then we came home and listened to the album I gave her, along with the tickets. We should have withheld the album listen for a bit longer because the hangover from the live show was still fresh, and I couldn’t help myself from referencing back and forth. The show was top-notch, but Tina Turner, at her best, was a tough act to follow. She had powerful vocals and owned the show when she let loose.

Van Morrison Astral Weeks

Van Morrison Moondance

I only managed two Van Morrison records this past week; more will come next week. Van Morrison has a style that blends many elements of music. Here is what shows up on Wikipedia: blue-eyed soul, Celtic, rock, R&B, folk, blues, jazz, country and Christian. His music has something for everyone; you may have to listen to all of his records to find it, but it is in there somewhere. I don’t have a go-to Morrison album. I enjoyed playing through all of them. His music has something for everyone; you may have to listen to his complete discography, but it will be somewhere. I don’t have a go-to Morrison album. I enjoy playing through all of them. If you ask the casual man on the street what their favourite Van Morrison album is, you will probably get Moondance more often than not. While it is a good album, I’m unsure about holding down the number one slot. It came early in his solo career, and he was prolific, with 48 solo albums. If someone held a gun to my head and told me to pick a favourite Van Morrison album, I would have to say No Guru, No Method, No Teacher with Hymns To The Silence a close second. There are some that I am relistening to this week, and that answer might change.

Next up, the week from March 17 to 24.

Van Morrison Tupelo Honey

Van Morrison Saint Dominic’s Preview

Van Morrison Common One

Van Morrison Poetic Champions Compose

Van Morrison Van Morrison

I listened to an abundance of Van Morrison over the last two weeks. I have enjoyed the journey, but it is time to move on.

Elton Motello Victim Of Time

This album was a small-time hit with the song Jet Boy, Jet Girl. There was a bit of talk about the song’s contents, Jet Boy, Jet Girl.” It is about a 15-year-old boy’s sexual relationship with an older man, who then rejects him for a girl. Victim Of Time has not aged well from where I listen. It checked all the boxes for a punk/new band in 1977, but not in 2025.

Werner Muller and His Orchestra Percussion In The Sky

A bit of background music for whatever you are doing.

Various The All American Pop Collection Volume 5. I now have all five of these albums. I still love collections like this. I scored a couple of boxes of vinyl last week, and this was in that box.

Various 30 Original Artists Sing Their Original Country Hits

Adding another best-of collection to my collection.

Judy Mowatt Only A Woman

Judy Mowatt had a modest solo career but will most likely be best remembered as a backup singer to Bob Marley. This album was a good listen for a golf ball like me.

Barbara Mandrell The Best of Barbara Mandrell

Pop country. It’s pleasant, but not the country music I enjoy listening to; see the album two stories up; that is the original country I like listening to.

And now for some new music mentions.

Ecce Shnak Shadows Grow Fangs

I have enjoyed listening to this album. It is a bit of fresh music in an era that all too often celebrates the mediocre. Ecce Shnak, Eh-kay sh-KNOCK wanders between gentle sentimental songs, Stroll With Me, to the thunder of ‘Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy.’ Shadows Grow Fangs is a thrilling EP that takes the listener along on a journey I was never sure about when it started or where it should end.

Thanks to Shauna McLarnon for Shameless Promotion PR

Tombstones In Their Eyes Asylum Harbour

Tombstones In Their Eyes would be a good title for a spaghetti western. They could use Asylum Harbour as the soundtrack. I listened to the album again while I was writing, and I changed my mind. Tombstones In Their Eyes would work wonders with something like Jonah Hex or The Preacher, some of the new Western-themed shows.

The LA-based psych-rock shoegaze collective is made up of long-time members John Treanor (vocals & guitar), Stephen Striegel (drums), Courtney Davies (vocals), Phil Cobb (guitar) and Paul Boutin (guitar), along with new band members Joel Wasko (bass) and Clea Cullen (vocals).

“‘Gimme Some Pain’ was written in May 2023 – one of the worst years I’ve experienced since way back in my 20’s. Life was falling apart, I was feeling heavy guilt and shame. Suicidal ideation almost every day. I have no idea how I managed to perform normal functions like go to work along with all the other responsibilities I have. All that is background to the song’s creation. I realize that, compared to those in really unfortunate circumstances, my problems are probably pretty petty, but the thing about pain is that it’s a subjective experience,” says John Treanor.

  “I don’t usually write on acoustic guitar but I like to mix it up occasionally. The song is made up of some pretty simple chord progressions that rolled right out. The lyrics are like a mantra repeated over and over. A mantra about where I was and what I was feeling at that time. The chorus, which just came out of my mind as is, turned out great and is in a range where I can sing it with a lot of energy and feeling”.

Singing with energy and feeling is what Tombstones In Their Eyes do. They lasso you and pull you into the arc of their music, and it is very easy to linger there.

This album is another gem from Shameless Promotion PR 

Dragon Welding The Naughty Step

This album is another gem from Shameless Promotion PR . It’s been a good month listening to their tunes. The lyrics of The Naughty Step connected with me on more than a casual basis. The music adds to the allure of the album.

“The lyrical theme of the album overall is me trying to deal with problems that I’ve never quite resolved in my mind, while all the time, new problems appear. It’s never ending and I will continue to write songs about it until I stop caring,” says Andy Golding.

“The song is about that vague feeling you get when your judgement is questioned. You’re pretty sure you’ve done nothing wrong, but you still have the nagging cloak of guilt draped around your sloping shoulders,” Golding explains. “I was at school at a time when corporal punishment was still allowed: beating children with canes and slippers. The line about the ‘punishment boys’ is about queuing up outside the sport teachers office, waiting for the cane, but neither you nor the teacher remembering the exact reason you were there. It sounds Dickensian, but it was the 1980s!” continues Andy Golding.

Full stop. I look forward to what I shall listen to this week. Have fun and listen to the music.

March 2

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Another fine week of fine music gracing my ears. Some familiar faces that you may recognize and no fresh music this week.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle Pronto Monto

Kate & Anna McGarrigle love over and over

Sweet harmonizing with thoughtful lyrics. The McGarrigle sisters are a win-win. I need to get more of their music. No, I don’t; I need to listen again to the ones I already have.

McGuinn, Clark & Hillman McGuinn, Clark & Hillman

These are three talented men, but this album is barely palatable pop pulp. Next album, please.

Jethro Tull Aqualung

Aqualung is not pop music; it is hit-you-in-the-face rock and roll with a flute. Aqualung is very easy to consume. AllMusic gave it four and a half stars, and most of the initial reviews were positive. The album is generally lauded and viewed as a classic in retrospective reviews.

Aqualung is a classic in my music realm. I remember buying this album in 1973 and listening to it on my parents’ record player in the living room. Their reviews were harsh. Dad didn’t like any music that wasn’t country and western. ‘Nuff said. My mom is a protestant and protested vigorously about the religious imagery on the album. I bought headphones, and they didn’t critique my music again. Aqualung still gets played frequently. I plugged this one into the car and rock and rolled around the city for a week or two. Good music never gets old.

Bob & Doug McKenzie Great White North

Great White North was worth a chuckle or two. Some comedy doesn’t age very well. This album rides the middle of the road. You will probably find this amusing if you are already familiar with Bob & Doug McKenzie. Let me know how it fared with you if you had never heard of them before today.

Rod McKuen Greatest Hits Greatest

Rod McKuen delivers classic 1960s folk music. It’s not my jam; this should have stayed in the ’60s.

Murray McLauchlan Whispering Rain

Murray McLauchlan Only the Silence Remains

Forget Rod McKuen, Murray McLauchlan is a real folk singer. Maybe a bit more popish than folkish, but still a great entertainer who I would gladly buy a coffee to nurse while I listened to him sing. Perhaps best known for his hit single The Farmer’s Song, he also struck gold with Whispering Rain. Only the Silence Remains is a live album showcasing Murray McLauchlan’s talent as an entertainer. The instrumentation is scaled down to Murray on guitar and vocals and accompanied by Dennis Pendrith on bass guitar. I was fortunate to have heard Murry live, and it was a pleasant evening.

Men At Work Business As Usual

1982 is when this came out. I am sitting here listening to it with my foot tapping and loving it. Listening to this has been a pleasant walk down memory lane. Sure, it’s pop music, but it is well-made pop music. I liked it in 1982, and I like it today. “Who Can It Be Now?” is the opening salvo, and it hit me solidly. “Down Under” is probably a bar anthem in Australia; it is instantly recognizable here in their cousin country, Canada. Unfortunately, I don’t find side two as captivating as side one. Next album, please. Two days later, I am still listening to an earworm of “Who Can It Be Now?“

Bette Midler The Divine Miss M

Bette Midler Thighs and Whispers

I love her singing on these two albums, the only two I have featuring The Divine Miss M. Is it ironic that these are the only two?

Wikipedia: “The Divine Miss M reached the Top Ten on Billboard’s album chart and was later awarded a Platinum Disc by the RIAA. It featured three hit singles—”Do You Wanna Dance?”, “Friends”, and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”—the third of which became Midler’s first No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit. In 1973, the album won Midler a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. “Do You Want to Dance?”, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Friends” were all Top 40 hit singles from the album, with “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” climbing to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching #1 on Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart.”

Thighs and Whisper received mixed reviews from music critics, but most were lukewarm and garnered only two stars on AllMusic. But I liked it. I like both of these records, one that got rave reviews and another that barely caused a ripple, and I like both of them. Go figure, eh?

Mike + The Mechanics Mike + The Mechanics

Top ten music that never really revved up; it may be time to see a mechanic.

So, there you have my music for the last week. I will continue my trip through the alphabet this week and try to squeeze in some new tunes.

February 15, 2025

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I had a good listening week. One new artist, new to me anyhow, and some Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Jumping right in, I have been listening to a group that goes by the name Bloke. I wonder what kind of a bloke they are. I get the feeling that they would be a couple of nice blokes. I have to give their new album Living Without Expectations more time to marinate in my brain. First and second impressions are good so I look forward to a more focused listen. Stay tuned.

The Mamas & The Papas 20 Greatest Hits

I nominate this album for the Golden Earworm of the Year Award. This collection of sing-a-long classics has 20 great songs. I sang along to most of them. And I got earworms from most of them, which made for interesting times as they jousted for playing time. Appropriate for Valentine’s Day, “Dedicated To The One I Love” has been the earworm of the day. Just look at these songs. If you are of a certain age, these were the songs we heard on the radio and most likely bought at the record store. Interestingly, The Hudson’s Bay store in Grande Cache is where I purchased my first Mama’s and Papa’s record, if memory serves me well (Bob Dylan & The Band, This Wheels on Fire from The Basement Tapes). What my memory does serve me well is that these songs have been a staple of my listening pleasure for a long time. Just look at the line-up of songs on this album. I can’t help but sing along as I peruse this list of songs.

A1 California Dreamin’ 2:39

A2 Dedicated To The One I Love 2:05

A3 I Call Your Name 2:18

A4 12:30 (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon) 2:47

A5 Creeque Alley 2:48

A6 Dancing In The Street 3:47

A7 For The Love Of Ivy 3:49

A8 Go Where You Wanna Go 2:26

A9 My Girl 3:35

A10 Look Through My Window 3:05

B1 Monday Monday 3:12

B2 Words Of Love 2:13

B3 Twist & Shout 2:45

B4 I Saw Her Again Last Night 2:50

B5 Dream A Little Dream Of Me 3:24

B6 People Like Us 3:23

B7 You Baby 2:15

B8 Got A Feeling 4:01

B9 Trip, Stumble & Fall 2:35

B10 Straight Shooter 3:10

Manhattan Transfer Extensions

Vocal jazz, pop fusion, and even a touch of disco are featured in this album. This album’s most widely known song, “Birdland” by Weather Report, won the Best Jazz Fusion Performance Grammy Award in 1981.  Jon Hendricks wrote lyrics for the vocalese version on the album, and Janis Siegel received a Grammy for her vocal arrangement of “Birdland.”

Extensions as an album is an extension of Manhattan Transfer as they entered a new era for the group. Extensions was the first album with Cheryl Bentyne, who replaced Laurel Massé in early 1979. It was also their first album with Jay Graydon in the producer’s chair and their first to contain songs that were hits in both the jazz and pop categories. The song “Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Disco chart and No. 30 on the Hot 100. “Trickle, Trickle” reached No. 73 on the Hot 100. The album reached No. 55 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. This album is also a good place to start if you are new to Manhatan Transfer.

Darrel Mansfield The Vision

Darrell Mansfield is an American vocalist, harmonica player, songwriter, recording artist, and performer of various genres, including gospel, contemporary Christian music, blues, blues rock, rock, country rock, and soul/R&B. He is considered a pioneer of the Jesus Music movement of the 1970s and has influenced countless contemporary Christian music and mainstream artists.Darrell Mansfield is good at what he does on this album, which is pretty much straight-up gospel music. Both Christians and the rest of humanity can enjoy a decent album.

Crank up the volume and get ready for some rocking and rolling. Bloke showed up in my inbox labelled as a psych/rock band. I can’t argue with that assessment.

Henry Mancini The Pink Panther

This is classic Mancini, which is another way to say that this album is good to listen to from start to finish. And it’s always fun to hear the instantly recognizable Pink Panther theme song.

Herbie Mann The Best of Herbie Mann

I was busy and distracted while I played this album. That did not stop me from enjoying the album, I had to stop several times just to let the music unfold in my brain. This is an excellent overview of Herbie’s recordings and an excellent introduction if you are new to his music.

Machiavel Urban Games & Breakout

I drew a blank when I pulled the Urban Games album from the library. I did not remember owning this album, let alone listening to it. I pulled it up on Discogs and discovered that I not only had this album, which was released in 1979, but I also had another, Break Out, from 1981. Urban Games didn’t do much for me musically, even though Wikipedia tells me that Urban Games was probably the band’s most successful album. It attempted to move away from the Eurock style and proposed songs leaning on disco (“Dancing Heroes”), hard rock (“The Dictators”), reggae (“Over the Hill”), and Eurock still (“City Flowers”). The album Break Out, produced by Derek Laurence in 1981, did not succeed like Urban Games. I like the Break Out album more than Urban Games. Break Out is more cohesive and consistent, with the band taking a harder rocking approach on the album, moving away from their early sound, which was more synth/psych. The vocals have the swagger and edgy growl that seals the harder, rockier sound they play on Breakout, compared to Urban Games. All in all, these two albums gave me a pleasant listening experience.

The remainder of my week was spent with Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Gold 

Burnin’

Exodus

Legend

Each of these four albums could be called a greatest hits record; two are a collection of hits, Gold and Legend, and the other two, while original, are loaded with songs that should be on greatest hits lists. I listened to these albums in the above order and felt sad when the last song on Legend finished. I have to return to Jamaica and score some of his early stuff. I got my groove on listening to these four albums. I can’t pick the best album from these contenders. I can’t pick one song that moved me (physically or emotionally) more than any other song. Bob Marley and the Wailers have a unique spot in music history. They had a massive role in what was to become a new genre of music, reggae. There were hints of what would become reggae in the island’s skiffle music, rocksteady, and ska by bands such as Toots and the Maytals. Still, Bob Marley and the Wailers put Jamaican music, reggae, on the music map in the same way that The Beatles popularized what was to become rock and roll. It is rare for one person or one group to have such an influence on the future of music.

Bob Marley and the Wailers did that, and their influence can be heard in the reggae music of today’s top artists. It’s hard to imagine rap or hip hop without the influence of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Countless bands and solo artists have recorded their take on the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Eric Clapton did his take on I Shot The Sheriff. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Claptons only number one in the US. In 2003, Clapton’s version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The influence of reggae can be heard in the music of bands such as The Clash and UB40, as well as in popular culture in movies and novels.

Pardon my rabbit trail. I get on with something I like as much as the Marley music I just listened to and can write page after page. I will no longer detain you on Bob Marley and the Wailers; go out, buy their records, and enjoy their music.

Feb 10/2025

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What follows is Norman’s musical musings for the week of February 4 to 10. Happy listening to all and a good listen to all.

The Norman Luboff Choir – Songs of the British Isles

Songs of the British Isles is the first disc for this week’s listening enjoyment. It is a mellow chill album that Discogs calls folk world and country. It is folk for sure; no brainer on that genre, folks. The world is less certain, but The British Isles are part of this world, so that works. Country? Britain is a country, but this is not the country music I listen to, i.e. Corb Lund. It is about a country, Britain. It is a surprisingly enjoyable album I had forgotten about, but I am glad to rediscover it.

Keith Lyn – Keith Lyn Sings Love Ballads

Keith Lyn Sings Love Ballads is an interesting album from my father-in-law, who brought it here from Jamaica. This album is listed as folk and world music in Discogs; I would label it lounge music. Other than Keith Lyn’s obsession with time, there isn’t much to say about this record. I will cherish it because I had a good relationship with Pops.

The Luminaires – Cleopatra

I very clearly remember buying this album. A fellow vinyl lover tipped me off that a local clothing clearance store had boxes of records for sale dirt cheap. My brother was visiting from Vancouver, so the two of us jumped in my car, and off we went. They did have records for sale; the problem was the lack of titles that I would buy. I did find this Luminaires album with a 4.99 price tag; it came home with me. There is something about the plaintive voice of Wesley Schultz and the intimacy of the songs that pull me into the music of the Luminaires.

I have only listened to two Luminaires albums, Cleopatra and III, but my oh my, what a pair they make. Cleopatra is not a story album. However, the band took five songs from this album and created a video. The Ballad of Cleopatra is a compilation of the story in the music videos for Ophelia, Cleopatra, Sleep on the Floor, Angela and My Eyes, all songs from the album Cleopatra.

The music in this album is subtle; it doesn’t slap you in the face, but if you listen to it, there is a strength therein that augments the lyrics. I can not casually listen to these two albums. They demand that I pay attention. I listen to the music; what is it saying? What instruments are playing? How does the music work with the lyrics? Etc. I can not casually listen to Luminaire’s albums. They are top-notch listening experiences for me. They have good lyrics that move beyond the tragic love trilogy, love found, love lives, and love lost. There are stories in these songs. Some of the stories are self-contained. Some of the stories spill out and mingle with other songs. i.e. The Ballad of Cleopatra. Other songs support the cohesion of the album. I like this album, but not as much as I like their next release, III.

The third album from the Luminaire’s is the tale of three members of a dysfunctional family struggling with addiction. I struggled with addiction for many years of my life. My Dad and extended family on both sides lived in addictive lives. I was clean and sober for 15 years, and then, for my 16th birthday, I got blind drunk and maintained that pace for 20 years. And then, on May 11th, 1989, a date seared into the fabric of my soul, I quit drinking and drugging. That went amazingly smoothly; however, it was a brutal fight to quit smoking, but that eventually happened and stuck. I still drink coffee. I say all that to show how this album speaks to me on multiple levels.

The songs are often difficult pills to swallow as they tell the stories of this family and the addition that flows generational. The album was supported by a 44-minute visual accompaniment written by Schultz with director Kevin Phillips. The film follows three generations of the working-class Sparks family as they struggle with addiction and dysfunction in the Northeastern United States. The third album from the Luminaire’s III, is a powerful album; I recommend it with five out of five stars. It is well-scripted, well-played and well-told. I add a special invite to this album for anyone struggling with addiction, be it a family member or yourself, clean or sober. While I doubt it will trigger a relapse, it undoubtedly carries a strong message about addiction and how it flows from one generation to the next. My favourite line from this album comes in the first song, Donna: “Your mother never was one.”

That brings us to the end of the letter L in our journey through the vinyl world of Norman. Next up is, it goes without saying, is the letter M. If it goes without saying why did I say it? I look forward to some exciting music in the M catalogue.

But first, we have some new music that I just scored.

Gram Parsons GP/Grievous Angel

I heard this playing in Record Collectors Paradise and liked it so much I bought it. I played it through when I got home, but it will need another listen to soak in some of the nuances because a lot is happening between the grooves.

Humble Pie – Rockin’ The Fillmore

I must have bought this album in the late 1970s, and one song off the album seared a memory node in my skull. That song is Walk On Gilded Splinters.

“I Walk on Gilded Splinters,” originally written and recorded by Dr. John, is often interpreted as walking on something seemingly beautiful or valuable on the surface but is actually painful and dangerous, like walking on sharp pieces of gold; it’s a metaphor for navigating a treacherous situation that appears glamorous or alluring on the outside, with the “gilded splinters” representing hidden dangers or pitfalls. Walking on gilded splinters can be seen as navigating a life where external appearances can be deceiving, and one must be careful not to be fooled by superficial beauty. 

I don’t know why I remembered this song from a two-disc set. I just now listened to the whole album; it is decent music. But, it is not an album I will be pulling out to listen to frequently, but occasionally, when the gilded splinters poke me as I walk over them.

Mad At The World – Mad at the World

Mad at the World is Christian synth-pop from 1987, it should have stayed there. I liked the cover art more than the music.

Taj Mahal – The Real Thing

I can remember the first time I listened to this album. Clear as a bell, I will share the back story if you don’t mind. It was about 1980, and I had just arrived in Edmonton to start a new job. I got the job, but I needed a place to crash until I had enough money to rent my own place. I stayed (overstaying?) with my cousin and his wife. I had left most of my belongings at my parent’s in Red Deer, including my albums and stereo. So I bought a cheap portable record player, a small suitcase type, and a set of cheap headphones. I cut the speaker wires in the player, cut the plug end off of the headphones and spliced the wires together so I could listen to music without bothering anyone else. Or so I thought. It was Friday, and I had retired to my bedroom with a dozen beer and a couple of new records. 

I was into the box several beers and listening to one of the new albums, The Real Thing by Taj Mahal, when I heard some shouting. It came from my cousin’s wife. She was ranting about how the scratching noise from my record player was driving her crazy, and she wanted me to move out ASAP! I then heard her bedroom door close with a mighty slam. I was shocked by how good her hearing must be to hear the noise that a record needle makes without any amplification. I lifted said needle out of the groove and pondered the situation. While I was pondering, I had to take a whiz, I never did have a good bladder. As I walked back to my bedroom, my cousin’s wife’s best friend, who had been visiting, asked me if she could talk to me. She was attractive, and I had enough beer in me to lower my inhibitions, so I complied. She then told me that I had to move out because my cousin and his wife wanted the room I was in for the baby that they were expecting. I told her this was news to me, but I was ok with that and told her I would move out by the end of the month when I got paid. And that is how I came to have Taj Mahal’s album, The Real Thing, seared into my memory.

I listened to some other Taj Mahal albums this week. My favourite is Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff, but they were all a good listen.

I was shocked to realize how long it had been since his albums had graced my turntable. I really must try to visit some of these albums more frequently.

I know what the problem is. When I had 50, or even a hundred albums, I would flip through them trying to find something to listen to, and my fingers would alight upon Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff, and I would listen to it. I now have about 1500 vinyl albums and don’t flip through them, so I embarked on my quest to listen to every album, starting with ABBA. I am just getting into M this week, so it was a pleasure to listen to my humble collection of Taj Mahal records.

I also realized that all of my Taj Mahal records are from the first 6 years of his recording career, from 1968 to 1974, and I do not have any of his CDs. Weird!

Taj Mahal The Real Thing

Taj Mahal Giant Step/De Old Folks At Home

Taj Mahal The Natch’l Blues

Taj Mahal Oooh, So Good’ N Blues

Taj Mahal Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff

Taj Mahal Mo’ Roots

February 3

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February, time flies, 1/12 of the year is gone. What do I have to show for it? I have a new turntable and speakers. I cleaned my office desk and moved things around a bit. I volunteered for a couple of hours at RCP and took 2 new CDs home. I was happy to find a sealed copy of the LSU album Wakin’ Up The Dead. The other was a near-mint copy of the Van Der Graaf Generator album Still Life on CD. I have continued my odyssey through our vinyl collection and have nearly made it out of the letter L. I’ve also received some good music from Big Stir Records, Shameless Promotions, BARK and Mystic Sons PR to review. Yeah, it’s been a good start to the year.

What follows is a blend of my writing and the press release from Big Stir Records for the album Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow by the band Sorrows

From Big Stir Records, I have been listening to the album Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow by the band Sorrows. This album was recorded in one night back in 1981. There is an interesting backstory to this album. Feeling angry and alienated by their label and the label’s lack of support and empathy for their work, the band took those emotions into the studio and recorded this album in one all-night session. The raw emotions come pulsating from the speakers as the band vents and rage with their voices and music. While the album certainly has a 1981 vibe to the punk and post/punk era it was created in, the new mixing brings a fresh appeal to an already exciting recording session.

From the opening salvo of the song Never Mind with the power of the lyrics, “Never mind, never mind, never mind, just leave me alone!” we get a taste of the energy in that recording studio. From the Rolling Stones, Sorrows, borrow “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?” and give an already great song a fresh energy boost.

This is not the only song with a retro vibe and shows the influence of other bands from that era. Ricky Street tells us that “What A Good Boy” is clearly inspired by my love of early Who records. I did my best to craft a lyric that felt in keeping with the kind of modtastic feeling their records possessed at the time. While the music is all mine, I also owe a lot to Joe and Arthur for channelling Pete Townshend and really bringing it home.”

The story of Sorrows – Arthur Alexander (vocals, guitar), Joey Cola (vocals, guitar), Ricky Street (vocals, bass) and Jet Harris (drums) – is breathtakingly brief. Still, it has taken nearly five decades to play out. Rising from the ashes of the revered Popees in the late ’70s, they were blending hooks and harmonies with punk rock energy on stages like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City just as the new wave and power pop sounds were about to break through to the mainstream. Their 1980 debut, Teenage Heartbreak, showed what they could do, and the timing was right for a follow-up to catapult them to the same stages as The Cars, The Knack, and Cheap Trick or earn a place among the genre-defining likes of 20/20 and The Plimsouls. History and the band’s label had other ideas, and the 1981 debacle of their overproduced-against-the-band’s-will second album nearly ended the band. A wave of defiant anger and an undimmed gift for pop songcraft fueled the band’s writing and onstage energy for a time before their ultimate breakup. Still, that final phase of Sorrows and a clutch of terrific unreleased songs seemed lost to the back pages of rock history.

Things began to change forty years later as, on the opposite coast in LA, the band’s Arthur Alexander found himself back in the game as a solo performer with his acclaimed albums One Bar Left and … Steppin’ Out! (and his relentless live shows with Arthur Alexander Band) picking up right where he’d left off. But Arthur and his Sorrows bandmates had been pursuing the rights to the material on the ill-fated Love Too Late album all along, and finally, having secured them (as well as the session masters), recreated the album as they had envisioned it, leading to the surprise 2021 release of Love Too Late… the real album. Much to the delight of fans old and new (and critics worldwide), it was a revelation. The record was set straight, and it was clear to everyone who listened that Sorrows should have been huge.

But the story wasn’t complete then, any more than it had been in 1981, and we flashback to that year to tell the tale of the final chapter, now soon to be heard in all its raucous splendour on the aptly-titled Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow. Because our heroes, stung by the label interference that had tried (and failed) to remake their music into bland Top 40 fodder, had retrenched to a sound that was, if anything, a more raw and powerful brand of rock and roll than ever before. It’s crystal clear that the experience had given them something to prove, and you can hear that immediately when the lead track “Never Mind” comes blasting out of your speakers, with Alexander defiantly declaring, “Never mind, never mind, never mind, just leave me alone! Never mind, never mind, never mind, I’ll work it out on my own!” It’s well-earned fury at the music industry’s machinations and thus as relevant now as then. Still, as the album progresses, you can hear that same fire fueling all of Arthur’s originals. There are seven undiscovered gems from his pen, including the single “Out Of My Head,” the heartfelt, in-the-moment elegy for John Lennon’s “Cricket Man,” the rockabilly-infused scorcher “Let Me Know,” the revved-up Buddy Holly tribute “Kiss You Later” and the intense drivin’ song, “Too Much Love” which he describes as “classic Sorrows.”

But Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow is the band’s album and a singular and cohesive record. Far from a posthumous collection of outtakes or leftovers, it’s a document of its time and was created on purpose in one night in 1981. The band, still stalking the stages of NYC while smarting from their treatment on the Love Too Late album and feeling a need to reclaim their identity, reconnected with Mark Milchman, who’d co-produced their debut, and booked into the iconic Mediasound Studios where their initial magic was born, for an all-night marathon session. “We just wanted to play a bunch of new songs we had been working on and rock the demons out of our system,” recalls Arthur. “We went in late in the evening, set up our amps, drums and mics in the middle of Studio A – ‘The Church’ – all out in the open as if we were on stage, then we plugged in and just let ‘er rip! By the time we left the studio, the sun was up, and we had our next album!”

In addition to capturing the band firing on all cylinders as a performing unit, the session yielded terrific new originals from Ricky Street (“What A Good Boy,” “Just One Fool To Blame,” and “Love Ain’t Nothing (Without You)”) and Joey Cola (“That’s Your Problem”), heard here for the first time. And the covers show the band uniting in their mutual love for the music that inspired them. Their takes on classics by The Rolling Stones and Eddie Cochran are jaw-dropping one-take wonders that could only be delivered by a band with something to prove. The closing cover of The Pirate’s “You Don’t Own Me” is absolutely blistering (and, given what Sorrows had just been through, perhaps the record’s definitive statement of purpose).

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow is a miracle on more than one level. It’s too inspired and rambunctious to be bittersweet, but it might be the album the band was meant to create from the beginning. “When I started this band, part of my musical vision was of a band juxtaposing a bit of a ‘down,’ melancholic vibe, with an uplifting, relentless, kick-your-teeth-in drive, energy and aggression,” recalls Arthur. And while he, Joey, Ricky and Jett might have wished the tale would end differently, the magic preserved here is a pure realization of that vision. It’s a monster of a swan song, and Arthur’s 21st-century mix of this nothing-to-lose, go-for-broke 1981 session packs more punch than any record label would have countenanced at the time of its recording. It’s sweet indeed, and at long last, Sorrows can lay claim to a trilogy of albums worthy of their talents and a legacy that will resonate for many, many years to come.

The album sees release at last on February 28 on Vinyl, CD and Streaming and is up for pre-order/pre-save now:

BIG STIR RECORDS

Burbank, CA / Distributed Worldwide

Copyright © 2024 Big Stir Records

All Rights Reserved.

Design © Big Stir Records

Next up, we have the UK synthpop duo Dragon Welding presents ‘We Dance Among You,’ the second offering from ‘The Naughty Step’ album, out February 28 via Dimple Discs. This insanity is captured in a dynamic ‘stop-start’ animation. Dragon Welding was founded by Andrew Golding of UK indie noise-pop legends The Wolfhounds, who shares, “The next generations of people will look back at our generation in absolute horror. It’s about those hiding amongst us in plain sight. Profit over the planet every time with a complete disregard for the next generations…” 

Bandcamp  https://dimplediscdragonwelding.bandcamp.com/track/we-dance-among-you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waTKLSwzfMA

I watched the video, which is rare for me. I am not an alumnus of early MTV. I was captivated by the video and the music. So, I listened to the whole album. It is good, and I can see why it might encourage us to dance.

‘We Dance Among You’ is out now via  Bandcamp.  ‘The Naughty Step’ album, set for release on February 28, is now available for pre-order. Vinyl and CDs will be available from Rough Trade, Amazon and Resident Records.

‘The Naughty Step’ album pre-order  https://orcd.co/dragonweldingnaughtystep
Vinyl & CD pre-order  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Naughty-Step-Dragon-Welding/dp/B0DSPH4N5N
Get tickets  https://wegottickets.com/event/645621

Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR

On My Turntable

Spacemen 3 – A Perfect Prescription

A Perfect Prescription is a perfect trance/psychedelic/drone music album. I found Spacemen 3 through the band Spiritualized, started by band member Peter Kember after Spacemen 3 disbanded. I listened to this album twice a couple of days apart, and each listen revealed more details to me. They only recorded four albums over the space of five years while they were a band. I also have Playing With Fire and their live album, Performance. I will start shopping for their other two studio albums. I also have the Spiritualized album, And Nothing Hurt, which is also an excellent album that we will experience when we reach “S.”

Lulu Belle and Scotty – Down Memory Lane

Down Memory Lane is what Country & Western music sounded like before it got gentrified and became pop music in 4/4 time. I grew up listening to my Dad play music like this with nothing but his voice and his guitar. We lost his voice in 1999. I have his guitar hanging on the wall in my office.

Jimmie Lunceford Blues In The Night Vol. 4

Vintage jazz/blues/swing fusion album. Jimmie Lunceford was active in the music scene in the 1930s and 40s. While only attaining modest sales of his records and a reputation for underpaying his band, Jimmie Lunceford never broke through to the level of success of other bands like Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey. This album is still a good listen and a history lesson on what the big bands played 100 years ago.

Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti

I have tried several times over the years to really ‘get’ Led Zeppelin. To this day, it has not happened. I listened to this in my car for about a month. It is two discs, and I still don’t get LeZep. Moving on…

Corb Lund Losin’ Lately Gambler

Corb Lund Cabin Fever

Corb Lund Counterfeit Blues

Corb Lund Things That Can’t Be Undone

Where to begin writing about Corb Lund and his music? I was introduced to the man and his music when he did a couple of live shows as part of a free festival downtown. I was working in the Herb Jamieson and a couple of my co-workers got excited about it and went to watch him. I had the next day off, so I went downtown with my family to catch his show. I immediately heard why my co-workers liked him. He played music that resonated with my “Hurtin’ Albertan” core. I have been to numerous shows featuring Corb Lund since then.

Corb Lund started his music career fresh out of Grant MacEwan College, studying jazz guitar and bass. Lund and three of his classmates formed the hard rock/metal band The Smalls in 1989. They toured hard and released four albums plus one compilation over their time together. Noted for technical ability, speed guitar attack of Dug Bevansand arching vocal style of lead singer Mike Caldwell, whose wide vocal range is well showcased in the band’s cover of Natural Woman as it appeared on their last release, My Dear Little Angle. Caldwell was known for his considerable vocal skills, unassuming stage manner, and refusal to banter with audiences. Corb Lund is more recently known for his work with his roots and country project Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans. Lund formed his country trio, the Corb Lund Band, in 1995. He focused exclusively on Country and Western music when The Smallsbroke up in 2001. Digging into his roots in the farming communities of Taber, famous for their corn, Cardston and Rosemary, Lund found a voice in C/W that suited his voice and lyrics better than heavy metal had. He spends his downtime on his ranches between extensive tours and recording a dozen albums. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the four vinyl albums that I have at hand. I have a couple more on CD that I will savour another day. I don’t want to overdose on Corb Lund’s music; I want to savour it.

All his albums are good in my world, but I mostly gravitated to Counterfeit Blues by Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans. Ranging from the sly humour of “Five Dollar Bill” and “Truck Got Stuck” to the redneck anthem “Roughest Neck Around,” Corb Lund hits the C/W sweet spot in his songs. There is no mistaking his country roots and his love of the rodeo life on songs like “Buckin’ Horse Rider” and “(Gonna) Shine Up My Boots.” It’s good music that even non-cowboys could enjoy, but the cowboy in me relishes music like Corb Lunds.