Monthly Archives: September 2009

Tumbleweed Connection (Elton John) – Album Review

Posted on by
The Original Cover

The Original Cover

Released the same year as the superb “Madman Across The Water”, “Tumbleweed Connection” stands as one of Elton’s best-loved albums. No singles were drawn from it, and as a result it is never represented when it comes to “Best Of” packages. This makes listening to it all the more refreshing and novel, especially as more than a handful of compositions are as good (or better) than the albums both sides of it.

This time, there is a concept unifying the songs – they all revolve around the Far West. Bernie always loved the topic, and he concocts together stories of gunslingers, confederates, American natives and furtive love adequately enough. As I said before, it took Bernie some time to get places. But Elton was up to the challenge from day one, and he always managed to give his lyrics the right accompaniment. Leaving aside the lyrically accuracy or lack thereof, “Where To Now, St. Peter”, “Amoreena” and “Country Comfort” are A-side material, and so is “My Father’s Gun”, the song that would be featured 30 years down the line as the key tune to Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown”. Continue reading →

Goodbye Cruel World (Elvis Costello) – Album Review

Posted on by
The Front Cover

The Front Cover

Costello defines this album as his worst ever. After listening to it attentively, I dare say it was (up to that point in his career, 1984) the album that was approached the worst. Some of the material holds well under scrutiny, but the fact that the best songs are segregated on the first side does lead to an exhausting listening experience. Continue reading →

Ophelia (Natalie Merchant) – Album Review

Posted on by
The CD Cover - Natalie As Demigodess

The CD Cover - Natalie As Demigodess

I consider Natalie Merchant’s “Ophelia” as the point when her solo career really commenced. She had released an album before (1995’s “Tigerlily”), but that album was more like the closing of a stage than the start of a new one. Conversely, “Ophelia” (released in 1998) is her first truly realized artistic statement, using every device that she wants to use, and letting her own voice and musical vision dominate every single minute of the album.

In actuality, “Ophelia” was a multimedia project – the CD was accompanied by a short video, and stills from the film constitute the artwork of the album. A concept is clearly discernible, although there are songs like “King Of May” that deviate from the overall study of the famed Ophelia, a female figure par excellence, and an obvious choice for Natalie, someone always concerned about the way women are perceived and how these perceptions can end up being lies which are always true.

That is the theme of the album’s eponymous track, and the first thing you listen to when you play the CD. Incidentally, it will also be the last thing you will listen to – an orchestral reprise closes the album. The song studies the character of Ophelia all through history, her feats and the eventual disgraces those achievements were to bring about. The fate of Ophelia reminds me of the words of Yeats: “I’ve grown nothing/being all”. Is Natalie studying the role of women from a perspective that implies so much effort to be regarded as equal did nothing but accentuate differences that were actually small to begin with? And is the result of such a situation that women end up being relegated to submissive romantic roles, such as in the song “Frozen Charlotte”? Continue reading →

Chalkhills and Children (Chris Twomey) – Book Review

Posted on by

The Cover Of The Book. The Picture Comes From The "Nonsuch" Photo Shot.

The Cover Of The Book. The Picture Comes From The "Nonsuch" Photo Shot.

Named after one of Andy’s most ethereal compositions, this book (first released in 1992) stands as a moving portrait of a band that is incredibly cerebral, and yet has the ability to tug at your heartstrings like few bands in history. That contradiction comes as no surprise. The story of XTC involves the clash between ideals and reality, and that is something that comes across very vividly on this book.

The book has 188 pages. It includes 10 chapters, two sections of black & white photographs and a discography at the end. It begins out of chronological order (the first chapter deals with Andy’s breakdown) and then the story properly starts and it is run without detours or digressions. It is also an “authorized” biography – the book was compiled from interviews with the band members and their families. And most key figures like Todd Rundgren and Steve Lillywhite are also among the interviewees. Continue reading →

Greatest Hits Volume II (Linda Ronstadt) – Compilation Album

Posted on by
The Front Cover

The Front Cover

This is the companion album to the volume I reviewed last week. It basically gathers Linda’s most salient recordings at the time when her sound began diversifying in earnest. As I explained at the end of my review of Elvis Costello’s “Extreme Honey”, when that happens an artist might not make the best choices as regards which songs he or she ends up performing, and the way these are recorded. That was the case with Linda’s albums throughout this particular period, and as such this compilation has the merit of bringing the very best from those years that could be termed a bit spotty. Continue reading →

Critical Metrics – Finding Which Ones Are The Best Songs Ever

Posted on by

CriticalMetrics

Name: Critical Metrics

URL: http://www.criticalmetrics.com

If we were to determine what the best songs ever are, how could we do it? Rather, is it even possible to approach such a task and ensure that the end results will be even slightly reliable and/or universal? That is, in which sense is a song “better” than other? Instrumentally? Due to some distinctive production trickery? Because the song had cultural and historical transcendence? In terms of how it performed in the charts? As you can see, it is an endless debate. Still, people being people we want to find a sort of answer to these questions. If we are a fan of a band, having such information at hand always has a sort of self-affirmative effect. And that is where a site like this one steps right in.

Critical Metrics aims to let you know which 40 songs rank among the best in history. It does so by collating a true wealth of information, including “rave reviews, playlists, year-end lists, awards, artist & celebrity picks, and other editorial superlatives” as they explain on the site. The idea, then, is to create a bibliographical database of these songs that have been recommended the most throughout history. This database goes as far as 1890, and over 60,000 songs are featured so far. They have made a deliberate effort to bypass no era or type of song, and that is where the eventual strength of Critical Metrics might truly lie. That is, if they can fire up the imagination and interest of users they could come up with an active community suggesting new songs to be added all the time, and recommending them so that they climb towards the top spots. Continue reading →

Who’s Next (The Who) – Album Review (Part 2)

Posted on by

Remember to check out Part 1 in order to learn about the context in which Who’s Next was born.

Doing a quick recap, Pete’s “Lifehouse” project had failed to materialize and it had exhausted the band while driving him to a nervous breakdown. The Who decided to salvage what they could and had Glyn Johns assemble a single disc with the best of the new material.

Glyn Johns did something more than assembling the disc that we know as “Who’s Next”. He actually produced it, and his expertise was specially noticeable when we compare this record with any of the albums that Lambert had mastered. It comes as no surprise that Lambert never produced a Who album again. His lack of technical skill, his lax bookkeeping, his growing disconnection with the band… he (and partner Chris Stamp) would be out of the picture within a year. And a lengthy litigation would ensue. Continue reading →

Who’s Next (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

Posted on by
A Symbol Of Alienation Meets Rock & Roll

A Symbol Of Alienation Meets Rock & Roll

Pete Townshend was always one to push boundaries. After conceiving the first rock opera in history, it was only natural that he would continue leading The Who into uncharted territories. But this time there would be trouble ahead, for the first time in his artistic career.

As everybody and his wife knows, the album we know as “Who’s Next” is nothing but the salvage job of a project of Pete named “Lifehouse”, a project that would finally be realized in the year 2000 with Pete’s solo release of the “Lifehouse Chronicles” boxed set, and that was to resurface in several guises all through the years before that. Continue reading →

Greatest Hits (ZZ Top) – Compilation Album

Posted on by

You Are Not Going To Ask Why Their Music Is Called "Bearded Rock" by many, are you?

You Are Not Going To Ask Why Their Music Is Called "Bearded Rock" by many, are you?

Two months ago I became acquainted with an American. Upon learning about my active liking for Country music, he advised me to give Southern rock a definitive look. One of the first bands he mentioned to me was ZZ Top.

I must admit that the one and only song of theirs I was familiar with was La Grange. They are not the kind of band that gets airplay in my country. This compilation is readily available everywhere, though, and I decided to give it a go.

Dynamite. The playing of these guys is pure dynamite. I have never listened to people riffing this maniacally. A prototypical ZZ Top would be “Planet Of Women”. Both lyrically and musically, it showcases their from top to bottom.

Musically, it is all about having a good time. These are the kind of songs that get any party going, and keep it running until the end. “Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers” indeed!

Lyrically, it is all about having a good time. Don’t look for any subtext in the songs. You will not find that. ZZ Top’s compositions mostly deal with attraction, love and sex in a direct, unfurnished way that is devilish funny. Continue reading →

Greatest Hits Volume I (Linda Ronstadt) – Compilation Album

Posted on by
The Front Cover

The Front Cover

Linda Ronstadt’s first major collection of hits surfaced in 1976. It was to be followed by a second volume in 1980. Between them, they give you a good overall insight into a woman that set records in the history of contemporary music, and that showed that women could be up there in a scene predominantly occupied by male performers. Continue reading →