Bradley's Buzz

Random CDs

Well it looks like we hit that big 100th CD review marker last week and I didn't even commemarate the event. I guess we'll just keep going and see if we don't make it to 200 sometime soon....

EVANESCENCE - The Open Door (Wind Up; 2006)
Not many people do music like this anymore; you know the over the top heavy metal grunge hybrid that was so popular with kids in the late 90s, Live is gone, Candlebox has been snuffed out and yet Evanescence not only continues to do this type of music, they sell millions of gazillions of CDs doing it. Of course they do have the angst ridden Amy Lee to lead them, something those other bands never had. Despite myself I really like Evanescence, the first album blew me away due to the fact that I didn't think it would ever get more than a passing glance on my CD shelf, but every now and then it ends up back on the stereo. So with a special Tower Records price of $9.99 on Tuesday, I figured I'd take a shot and get The Open Door. If you liked the first album, you're going to like this one. There's nothing new from the band, perhaps the songs are a tad more personal on the lyrical level, but Amy studied her Tori Amos lyric sheets and is a princess in training at lyrical ambiguity. I can tell by her overpowering vocals and the band's rigid jumble of quiet guitars, louder and louder guitars and pounding drums that they are in pain, it's just hard to relate to what that pain is sometimes. Sometimes it's obvious, the first single "Call Me When You're Sober" couldn't be more direct, however that's the title, the lyrics aren't quite as simplistic, but it's still a really good songs. In fact all the songs are really good, they're all heart wrenching and dripping with emotion, it's just that as a whole the package can burn you out. 13 songs of bombastic woes and pain is a little too much for my little blonde head, but should I ever have a fight with the Leivas, this one's going on the stereo and playing very loud.

ALANNAH MYLES - Alannah Myles (Atlantic; 1989)
When I first saw the video for Alannah's hit "Black Velvet" I knew she had something special about her. Her big black unfortunate hair, her tight leather skirts, the way she slithered all over the stage, I just knew she had a bit of Benatar in her. So I ran out and bought this album the minute I could get to a record store. For the past umpteen years, this album still puts a smile on my face, and I was right, the bulk of the album is actually straight up rock and roll with a tad of blues tinged fun thrown in. Of course Alannah remains fairly under the radar as her only big hit here is the "Black Velvet" scorchy ballady rock song; but the album opens with a real rocker, "Still Got This Thing" and keeps going with ups and downs of rock chunk and funk; "Love Is" was a follow up single that didn't do much, same with the one real ballad on here, "Lover Of Mine", which downs Alannah's normally scratchy scath for an upper register and it really touches you, "Why does it feel like I'm losing you?", of course the guitars kick in as does Alannah's soul. It's really great. But nothing compared to the straight up rock of the rest of the cuts starting with "Kick Start My Heart" which would make someone like Great White proud; the pop influences with hooks and all are all over "Just One Kiss" and "If You Want To" until ending with the countrified blues of "Hurry Make Love." This really is one of my favorite albums and I always felt had she thrown another album out right away instead of waiting 3 years, she could've been the Benatar of the 90's. Oh well this debut album did debut at #1 in her native Canada and I think that was pretty impressive at the time.

BECK – The Information (2006; Interscope)
I love Beck and not just because on a good day people have told me I look like him, which is better than being compared to John Denver which is what the cute Russian guy who works at the corner cigarette stand tells me all the time while informing each time that it isn’t my song he’s playing, as in he isn’t playing John Denver which he doesn’t have to inform me of since I know there’s never been a thumpity thump gay mix of “Thank God I’m A Country Boy.” Oh where was I? Oh yeah, Beck. I have a great respect for this man, who has been deemed a musical rock genius by many many in the press and I have to agree. Each release has the man mixing and mashing new and exciting sounds while somehow being able to not make it into an electroclash mess. However, the last two albums didn’t blow me over – Sea Change was a little too depressing, slow and dare I say boring, while Geuro, just didn’t lift out of the speakers like I had hoped it would, but now the man is back with a collection of songs he’s been working on for three years – The Information is as good as you’ve probably heard. Opening with “Elevator Music” an electric piece of classic Beck before moving to one of my favs “Think I’m In Love” which sounds new, yet calmly familiar and most importantly catchy. In fact, the whole album is very infectious and I love that in an album. “Soldier Jane” and “Nausea” are two other brilliant pieces of Beckisms, and the whole thing though containing 15 songs seems to go by before you even know it. All you can really do is go back and play it again. And I do. Incidentally, in what I think is an awesome sales pitch, the album doesn’t have any artwork instead you get four pages of graph like paper and a book of stickers to decorate it as you see fit. I haven’t done it yet, as I was thinking I should save the stickers for future generations but since the whole thing is already opened I may just up and do it. This is just as exciting as Janet’s big promotion to design her album cover, which I didn’t win and if you go and look at your record store you’ll see the winning artworks and they don’t compare to mine…. Wait, what is it about Beck that makes me lose my focus so easily? Incidentally, the cover art you see is not of my creation, it's the pic I found while surfing and seems to be on all the websites so perhaps it's Beck's own rendition of his stickers.

JEANNE C. RILEY – Harper Valley PTA (1968; Sun)
I want to tell you all a story about a Harper Valley widowed wife
who had a teenaged daughter who attended Harper Valley Junior High
well her daughter came home one afternoon and didn't even stop to play
and she said, "Mama, got a note here from the Harper Valley PTA."
Well the note said, "Mrs. Johnson you're wearing your dresses way too high,
It's reported you've been drinkin', and runnin' round with men and going wild. And we don't believe you oughtta be bringin' up your little girl this way."
and it was signed by the secretary, Harper Valley PTA
Well it happened that the PTA was gonna meet that very afternoon
and they were sure surprised when Mrs. Johnson wore her mini skirt into the room
And as she walked up to the blackboard I can still recall the words she had to say
She said, "I'd like to address this meeting of the Harper Valley PTA.
Well there's Bobby Taylor sitting there and 7 times he's asked me for a date
and Mrs. Taylor sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he's away
and Mr. Baker can you tell us why your secretary had to leave this town?
and shouldn't Widow Jones be told to keep her window shades all pulled completely down?
Well Mr. Harper couldn't be here cause he stayed too long at Kelly's Bar again
and if you smell Shirley Thompson's breath you'll find she had a little nip of gin and then you have the nerve to tell me you think as a mother I'm unfit
well this is just a little Peyton Place and you're all Harper Valley hypocrites
No, I wouldn't put you on because it really did
it happened just this way
the day my Mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA
the day my Mama socked it to the Harper Valley PTA!"

That’s right, I bought this album and I don’t care what you think. For your information I've even done this ditty on karaoke. The cool thing (yes cool) about this album is Harper Valley PTA isn’t a compilation album; this is the actual album that was released in 1968 right after the single hit #1 on country and pop. I have been looking for this song for ages, I love the whole hypocrites telling someone they should change storyline and the fact the woman gets even with them all is killer, I imagine particularly in conservative middle America circa 1968. The album’s highlight is of course the single, but what’s interesting is there are four other songs on here where characters from the title track show up – it’s almost a concept albums of sorts. “Widow Jones” is the first to show up and we get to find out about her life including how all the boys and men in town know about a woman’s anatomy because of her nightly shows; later “Sippin’ Shirley Thompson” is around to let us know why she’s always taking sips of that gin, “Mr. Harper” also shows up for some fun. But the other songs are just as interesting in that countrified story song way I like so much. The one other killer track and I mean it literally is “Ballad Of Louise” where Jeanne cries about her cheating man and Louise, it goes exactly where you expect it to when we find her behind bars and “tomorrow they’ll bury Louise.” I love this kind of crap. To think it all began with the little title track which was written by Tom T. Hall who was apparently something of a great genius in the late 60s/early 70s though I always confuse him with that mushroomed face, oh what’s the name, oh yeah Tillis, Mel Tillis that’s who I confuse with Tom T. Hall but then I confuse Mel Tillis with Porter Waggoner; perhaps I need to rent me some Hee Haw and get my facts straight.

THE LASHES - Get It (2006; Columbia/Red Ink)
Perhaps I'm just in a mood but this album is really kicking it for me as we speak. I first discoverd The Lashes when I was going through the bargain bin CDs at Amoeba and found a single from the band for $1. I had never heard of them and saw that they were on Lookout! Records, a label which launched two of my fav bands - Green Day and Pansy Division, so I plucked that buck down and wasn't disappointed, it was fun pop/punk, the kind of thing that all the kids are listening to nowadays. A while later I found out they got a big time deal and an album being released. I bought it the day it came out and played it once. It didn't do much for me, but maybe it's all the OK Go I've been listening to, or the fact that after hearing Evanescence, a little rock and roll was just the ticket. Either way from the opening riffs of "New Best Friend" I am in the Lashes mode, the gyrating rock of "Daddy's Little Girl" and "Sometimes The Sun" make me feel giddy about old rock bands gone by like Journey and the like. The harmony vocals on "Wanna Girl" and the humor yet insightful "The Needs More Love Letters" combine this feisty group into a hybrid of Cheap Trick and a more subdued Green Day, I guess kind of a combo to go with the likes of OK Go - though instead of the OK Go organs, the Lashes are pure on the guitar aspects of rock and roll. All in all, a pretty fun and happy little CD if you come across it in the bargain bin, which I have a feeling will actually happen.

THE KILLERS – Sam’s Town (Island; 2006)
First, I have two probs with this album; one is the fact that they open the album with the title track then have a little acoustic styled track ‘enterlude’ which you would think is the beginning of the albm as the last cut is ‘exitlude’ and is basically just a reprise, so why put a full song on before the ‘enterlude’? And the second is there aren’t any lyrics in it, and if they want me to sing along, and I know they do, then they should give me a lyric sheet. Okay, with that off my chest, I like this album. I don’t love it, it’s not going on my top ten lsit of all times, but it definitely is better than a lot of the stuff that has not only been released lately but that I’ve actually bought. I definitely love the energy of Sam’s Town, and the kick off single “When You Were Young” actually makes me quite giddy. The pseudo classic style of “For Reasons Unknown” and the music build up to the end is pretty thrilling and reminds me of many bands before. “Read My Mind” is probably one of my favorite tracks on the album, and again has that sort of retro feel. Supposedly influenced by Springsteen this time around, Brandon Flowers’ vocals remind me more of classic singer Roy Orbison than Springsteen’s growl and even the music doesn’t seem as Springsteen-ish as it does 80’s rock/new wave people like The Fixx or even INXS. Of course there’s a little more rock steam in these pipes than INXS and that comes through on almost every song even the ballads like “My List” which I like a lot as well. The winding guitar loops of “Uncle Jonny” and Flowers’ voice is cool and once again it reminds me of songs that have come before. In fact, almost every song reminds me of someone else and it becomes a tad distracting trying to figure out who they sound like in each song. Oh well, I guess I’ll just keeping playing Sam’s Town until I have all the answers I need.

exitlude

posted by swivek @ 11:17 AM