Here's the at-work playlist 4 Thanksgiving Day & everything since....
Scarlet Rivera -- Day of the Unicorn.
Love -- FOREVER CHANGES: Alone Again Or, A House is not a Motel, Andmoreagain, The Daily Planet, Old Man, The Red Telephone, Maybe the People Would be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale, Live and Let Live, The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This, Bummer in the Summer, You Set the Scene, Hummingbirds, Wonder People (I Do Wonder), Alone Again Or (alternate mix), You Set the Scene (alternate mix), Your Mind and We tracking session highlights, Your Mind and We Belong Together, Laughing Stock; My Little Red Book, Seven and Seven Is, Number Fourteen, The Castle, She Comes in Colors, Singing Cowboy, Your Friend and Mine -- Neil's Song.
Five Man Electrical Band -- Absolutely Right, Julianna, Money Back Guarantee.
Fleet Foxes -- Blue Ridge Mountains.
Florence + the Machine -- Shake it Out.
Joe Jackson -- Invisible Man, Too Tough, Citizen Sane....
Nektar -- Fidgety Queen, King of Twilight, Do You Believe in Magic?
Sparks -- Eaten by the Monster of Love.
Can -- Uphill, Mother Upduff, Moonshake, Future Days, Cascade Waltz, Father Cannot Yell.
Squeeze -- Another Nail in My Heart, Pulling Mussels from the Shell, Is That Love?, Labelled with Love, Black Coffee in Bed, Annie Get Your Gun, King George Street, Last Time Forever, No Place Like Home, Hourglass, Trust Me to Open My Mouth, Footprints, If it's Love, Love Circles, Take Me I'm Yours, Goodbye Girl, Cool for Cats.
Jade Warrior -- A Winter's Tale.
Ghod, is that ALL? I thot there was MORE....
OK, so I've been using the holidays as an Xcuse 2 slowly work my way thru a good-sized stack of mostly-unheard CD's, with an occasional familiar item or 2 thrown-in 2 keep me motivated while working. This will likely continue til I get thru this new-2-me stuff -- still have 1/2adozen strange CD's from Crabby 2 listen-2....
NOTES: "Day of the Unicorn" is a rocking & rolling violin-led instrumental from a 1978 album (SCARLET FEVER) that is otherwise almost completely forgettable.
Love's FOREVER CHANGES is a 1967 psychedelic classic that only rocks in a few places, but it sure is pretty. Gorgeous vocals, strings & brass, & the songwriting is really strong. There's not a bad song on it -- I especially like "You Set the Scene," "Maybe the People Would be the Times" & "Alone Again Or." You can definitely tell it's from a Different Time, & there R some dark lyrical undercurrents running thru it, but mostly it's gorgeous '60s pop. Even summa the at-1st dumbest lyrics (try the opening of "Live and Let Live") lead in2 some Xcellent, memorable songs. There's also a few moments of flashy Hendrix-like guitar thrown in....
The other Love stuff listed here is from their DEFINITIVE COLLECTION, following the band from their punk/psych early daze 2 their bloozy later period. "My Little Red Book" is hysterical, "7 and 7 Is" is non-stop rush, "The Castle" & "She Comes in Colors" sound like The Byrds Go Baroque, & summa the rest ("Laughing Stock," "Singing Cowboy," "Number Fourteen," "Your Mind and We Belong Together") R just plain WEIRD. Great stuff....
5MEB's "Absolutely Right" is more adrenaline rush, "Money Back Guarantee" is silly & gimmicky, but it's cute & catchy ... & 1 older customer heard "Julianna" & said "This has GOT to be a CD...." Turns out he graduated from highschool in '72 & recognized the song, hadn't heard it in 40 years. I love it when that happens....
"Blue Ridge Mountains" sounds 2 me like SMiLE-era Beach Boys meets '60s folk music. It's also the EZest track 2 get in2 on Fleet Foxes' 1st album. "Shake it Out" is still my choice 4 Best Song of the 2000's So Far....
Followed these with 3 trax from Joe Jackson's CD/DVD RAIN, sent 2 me by my buddy Crabby -- "Invisible Man"'s pretty good, & I was impressed by the tightness of Jackson's longtime trio. "Too Tough" & "Citizen Sane" R equally moody, & there's some rather ornate piano from Jackson. Nice, impressive, but a little downbeat -- definitely not party music. More of this later....
The 3 rockin' Nektar trax R unbeatable, tho the mix on "King of Twilight" (from their DREAM NEBULA best-of) is REALLY trebly.... Sparks' "Eaten by the Monster of Love" has hilarious lyrics & great choruses -- it shoulda been a hit. You might've heard it in the classic early-'80s flick VALLEY GIRL....
Can might've scared some customers off. Ah well, I'll havta play MORE. "Uphill" is a killer riff that just keeps going&going, "Mother Upduff" is a long joke set 2 music. Summa their later stuff mellows-out a little, but it's still worth hearing -- there's always some great Jaki Leibezeit drumming or Michael Karoli guitar 2 grab on2. Then I backtracked 4 the brilliant "Father Cannot Yell" -- great trance-inducing pounding rhythms, & some marvelous almost-sensible chanting from Malcolm Mooney. I'll havta play more of these guys' early stuff & REALLY mess customers up....
Squeeze. Hmmm. I've wanted 2 like these guys 4 YEARS -- their ARGYBARGY album is good, solid early-'80s New Wave, not 2 weird, closer 2 Pub Rock. Their upbeat songs R usually pretty good: "Pulling Mussels from the Shell" is a classic that shoulda bn a hit, & I've grown 2 enjoy "Another Nail in My Heart" more over the years -- there R parts in the verses that R sung just perfectly (listen to the lines "Tryin' to be good by not bein' 'round" & "I want to be good, is that not enough?").
But despite Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook's clever lyrics, cleverness ain't enuf if the tunes don't grab you. There R 3 great songs on their GREATEST HITS, & the rest is just sorta flat -- gray stories about broken marriages & failed relationships & drinking binges. The added saxes on "Hourglass" REALLY set it off -- + it has a great repeating-mantra chorus. But summa the rest....
"Labelled with Love" adds a country twang that doesn't help. "No Place Like Home" is just ... disturbing. "Black Coffee in Bed" is boring. I stopped hearing "Tempted" years ago. Summa the others I can't remember well enuf 2 comment on. Summa the later, higher-tech trax brighten up a bit, but overall their best-of is kinda thin. & why isn't "In Quintessence" on here?
"A Winter's Tale" is pretty glorious -- it's an olde favorite of mine, perfect 4 Wintertime listening, with some great loud guitar at the end.
More soon....
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3 comments:
I've been listening to Fun. a lot lately. They're one of the first pop groups in a long time that has caught my ear and compelled me to pick up their album for "further aural exploration."
So far I'm really liking what I hear. I'm a sucker for tight vocal harmonies... even when those harmonies are the same voice multi-tracked in the studio. So Some Nights immediately caught my ear. Granted I prefer more natural multi-part harmonies like those of Little River Band in their prime, but I can't think of any other current bands who are doing the multi-part harmony thing as well as Fun. currently is doing. Have you checked them out?
Plex: Never heard of Fun. Sounds like I might havta look into them....
...& welcome back. I thot you were retired....
Not so much retired as the past year has been a busy/hectic one... Lots goin' down that has left my time for blogging at a minimum. I changed jobs and I've got another spudlet on the way (due in early January... but the wife thinks he'll be here early).
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