Bradley's Buzz

This week has been a real crapper, first I am sick, I hardly ever get sick so when it happens (and when it happens twice in about 6 months) it occurs to me that this just might be it - I could be dead any day now.. so before I go I thought I'd share tunage with both of you, my adoring readers, so today we have some British take over, two gals with hard to spell names but excellant vocal chops and two new Bubbatunes - I know I'm just so giving even in my time of dying...

Here are three CDs that you should run out and grab as soon as you can:
DOLORES O'RIORDAN - Are You Listening? (Sanctuary Records 2007)
The lead singer from The Cranberries, a band which captured all of my mid 90's angst and love has finally come out of a self induced real life to record a brilliant solo album. Now I have always loved Dolores and her acrobatic vocal take with her ever so prominent Irish yodle just warbling beneath the surface, and though by the end of The Cranberries recoroding career, I myself had tired a tad of Dolores' take on music but with Are You Listening? she comes full circle. Some of my all time fav Cranberries songs are the hard rock edges ones like "Zombie", "Salvation" and "Promises" and though a lot of the slower ballads were incredible ("Linger", "Pretty") I've always been a bit of a rocker. Luckily, Dolores has come through on this, not that she made a rock album per se but she didn't rely only on ballads and she didn't go all "Zombie"-esque alterna punk either, instead she is right down the middle and every single song on here is great. I'm through 6 songs singing along with Miss O before I even realize the album is half over. Of my recent purchases (and there have been a number of them since my birthday you know) this has been on contant rotation. The opening single "Ordinary Day" kicks it from the beginning and the fun and fierceness just keeps getting better, with songs like"Human Spirit", the rocking and bitchy "Loser" and my all time favorite (this week) "October". You can visit Dolores' website here or you can hear some of the songs - the first single and an album track at Dolores' My Space web page.

JOHNETTE NAPILOTANO - Scarred (Hybrid Recordings 2007)
When I wasn't listening to The Cranberries in the 90's I was blasting Concrete Blonde in my tiny apartment - both bands were led by women who have hard to spell last names, both have extremely passionate voices and both women rock my world. After releasing a few internet only albums the lead singer of Concrete Blonde has finally made a full solo release with Scarred. Now I was more than excited to get this album and have been badgering everyone for weeks until its release, so I was a tad sad to actually get it and not fall immediately in love with it. At least four of Concrete Blonde's numerous albums make up my favorite albums of all time so I was expecting to immediately wet myself when I put Scarred into the player. The opening track is by far my favorite - "Amazing" has all the appeal of any Concrete Blonde song before it, with a slowly starting intro before Johnette pulls out her stops and out comes that voice harrowing, magical, spine tingling, and it doesn't stop there. For all the songs feature Johnette in any number of her amazing vocal acrobats. She has the Jim Morrisson poetry mode going on in "Poem For The Native" and a number of great vocal and synth effects in "My Dianne", and did I mention that voice?? After giving the album a few more spins it is working its way into my psyche, perhaps the pain and anguish established through out the album was a little off putting for me at first, I don't know why since most of my music is in fact a little on the pissy side, but as the dust begins to settle in my excitement, I'm realizing the album is very good, and with each new spin I find another interesting piece of the puzzle that is Johnette.

MIKA - Life In Cartoon Motion (Casablanca, 2007)
Mika is a huge deal across the pond and he's slowly making his way over to our side of the world, based mostly on the hit single "Grace Kelly" with its clever use of keyboards, and minimal music tones, and Mika's falsetto, it is the perfect supplement in the world of Scissor Sisters type pop, and the album itself just goes on from there including my new all time favorite song ever, "Lollipop" which is so sugary and poppy it almost rots your teeth threw the stereo - I want to do music like this. With each subsequent song Mika just reels in more pseudo love problems and rambling gambling beats. Even his attempts at heart felt ballads have a sort of ironic sense to them, is he really serious? is he just having fun? it's all so fun and undaunting it's hard to turn off even after going through the entire CD. He's a little bit Freddie Mercury, a little bit Elton John, so basically he's a little bit Scissor Sisters, but there's so much happening here it's infectious. We'll see how his journey stateside treats him, perhaps he'll keep the UK in stitches while having the practically nill effect as Robbie Williams does here, or he'll rise the ranks to a more Scissor Sisters level, either way if he doesn't come out of the closet soon, I think his big gay following may leave him behind - but we're so nilly willy we'll be back at his feet after one big club hit. You can hear the songs at Mika's My Space site.

and should you think I only listen to premade actual releases, it's time for two new Bubbatunes additions:

bub90 Michelle Phillips - Victim Of Romance (1977; June 5, 2007)
Thanks to an ultimate internet pal of mine, I got this solo album by Miss Michelle. It's been released on CD and in fact contains more songs as bonus tracks than our little Bubbatunes mix but it's expensive and imported and frankly a little too hard to find. But after my pal gave me some songs, it occured to me it would be an injustice not to slap some artwork on here and come up with the Bubbatunes version after all this is Mama Michelle we are talking about, not to even touch on the fact that she was also Mama Anne Matheson to Paige on Knots Landing - the ultimate in television viewing.

So what does a 60's icon do when the late 70's are approaching and she feels the need to dust off her lung pipes - well I can tell you she doesn't hit the dance floor. In fact Michelle's one and only solo album (can you even believe it?) has a number of things in common with the music she did with The Mamas & Papas including having John Phillips write a few of the songs. Victim Of Romance has a whole late 60's vibe to it, more than a late 70's vibe, which is perhaps why it didn't make much of a dent on the music world when it was released. But let me tell you everyone was missing out on some pretty fun and clever little songs.

The best cut by far is the title cut which is a complete 60's homage to the girl group song, but her mellower sweet ballads are also worth noting, "Let The Music Begin" is beatiful as is "Paid The Price" and "Baby As You Turn Away" - "Aching Kind" is a bit more upbeat and just as fun as the title cut. Michelle even does a cover of "Just One Look" to add that late 60's motiff into full glory.

The bonus cuts are the absolute best including a non released single version of "There She Goes" from the Victim Of Romance album (not to be confused with the La's song by the way), and a hilarious ode to record mogul Lou Adler called "Aloha Louie" and the single "No Love Today" which was featured in the 1976 movie Mother Jugs & Speed.

Michelle Phillips - Victim Of Romance (bub90)
Track List: 01. Aching Kind 02. Let The Music Begin 03. Victim Of Romance 04. Trashy Rumors 05. There She Goes 06. Paid The Price 07. Baby As You Turn Away 08. Lady Of Fantasy 09. Just One Look 10. Where's Mine
Bonus Tracks - 11. Aloha Louie 12. No Love Today 13. There She Goes (Unreleased single version)

bub 91 Buckingham Nicks - Buckingham Nicks (1973; 2007) Another famous solo (ish) type of album and another album that was delivered to me by an internet pal, this is the album that Lindsay Buckinham and Stevie Nicks recorded prior to joining Fleetwood Mac and changing the sound of 70's music. For anyone who loves the Buckingham Nicks contributions to the Mac will surely love this album as well. Rumors have circulated for years that the album would get a re-release officially but so far nothing has come of it, though a number of different bootlegs exist all over the web. Now I love me my Stevie Nicks and though I don't follow Lindsay's work so much as a solo artist, he is always remarkable on the songs he does with Fleetwood Mac, practically changing a whole genre of rock music single handedly, or kind of anyway. The Buckingham Nicks album consists of 10 little rock ditties written and performed by Stevie and Lindsay, who take turns singing or give us just an instrumental here and there. The music is very reflective of the sound they would bring to Fleetwood Mac two years later, and the song "Crystal" would even end up being re-recording fo Lindsay and Stevie's debut as members of Fleetwood Mac. "Long Distance Runner" is a song some Stevie fans will recognize as well from her Enchanted Boxset. It's all a lot of fun and as I've said if you like the old Fleetwood Mac 70's sound this is just as good as anything they did. "Crying In The Night" is the opening Stevie sung cut and with Lindsay's backing track, it's superb, and then even better is the Lindsay sung "Don't Let Me Down Again" which is just as bitter, cutting and great as anything he did with the Mac. For bonus tracks I tracked myself down some solo stuff the two worked on together, including the live version of "Landslide" from the Fleetwood Mac album The Dance which had Stevie singing to Lindsay's acoustic guitar, and "Twisted" which was a song the two did for the Twister soundtrack in the 90's and then there's "Without You" which was a song the duo did around the time of the Buckingham Nicks sessions but didn't make it to the album.

Buckingham Nicks - Buckingham Nicks (bub91)

Track List: 01. Crying In The Night 02. Stephanie 03. Without A Leg To Stand On 04. Crystal 05. Long Distance Runner 06. Don't Let Me Down Again 07. Django 08. Races Are Run 09. Lola (My Love) 10. Frozen Love Bonus Tracks: 11. Without You 12. Twisted 13. Landslide (live)