LMFAO - Sorry for Party Rocking

First, a little back story. The first time I ever heard of LMFAO was three days ago when a teenaged kid's mom asked me to help him find a costume. He described a robot, dressed in a golden suit and kept insisting "You know, from that LMFAO video?" At this point, I thought he was referencing some new, viral Internet cartoon. Thinking I was hip, I went along with it, figuring I could chuckle along with this generation's "End of Ze World." Turns out, I completely forgot about it until today, when I remembered what it was all about, and I asked one of my cashiers if she knew what LMFAO was, she gave me a look that I hope to never receive from my children. It transcended "Are you kidding me?" and went way past "Have you been living under a rock?" It was the look you would give to someone when you suspect that they may, in fact, just be a highly developed earwig who has somehow managed to take over a human being's body.

So, figuring that she was being a douche, I asked another cashier, this one much closer to my own age if I was really missing the boat or if the first girl was exaggerating. He, too, now thinks I'm an earwig.

So, I solemnly made myself a promise that I would find out what this whole LMFAO thing was about. And, after listening to it, I feel more like someone's cantankerous old dad than ever before.

At first, the album sounded like a bunch of nonsense sputtered on top of randomized sounds. I was very resistant, feeling a strong disconnect from the harmonies, melodies, and general sense of cohesion that generally create responses to music.

Then I got really angry, and I started jotting down notes like "this is the soundtrack of trash" and "you don't have to lower your standards, you have to forget what standards are." During the song "Party Rock Anthem," the line "No Lennon or Zeppelin" gets tossed in somewhere around the middle, so I wrote down "you're not fucking kidding."

But then, possibly due to tons of saturation, after listening to it for way longer than the intended 3 minutes at a time, I started to kind of sort of get the appeal. These are guys who are talking about texting (which Blogger's dictionary doesn't recognize as a word) and beer pong and does start to feel like music that is specifically crafted for the rising generation.

What's so strange, for me, about this album is that the worst tracks have become thing singles. "Party Rock Anthem" and "Champagne Showers" represent the worst that LMFAO is offering up. In my notes, I described "Champagne Showers" as being "dumb as fuck, with a listenable rap in the middle." It makes absolutely no sense that these are the big club tracks. The album's best songs, "One Day," "Take It To The Hole," and "All Night Long" have the same heavy-beat appeal but without any of the rampant stupidity. Instead of cramming college-life ideology down your throat, these tracks trust in their own right to exist without making anyone dumber for listening to them.

That being said, I feel strange having now experienced an album that spawned a track that lasted two months on Billboard's Hot 100. I thought I would feel cooler, having listened to this new, insanely popular music. But, like so many times before, the most-loved music of this generation is also pretty damned terrible.

Rating: 0.6 stars

Matthew Morrison - Matthew Morrison

In an effort to not just be known as "that guy from Glee," that guy from Glee released his debut solo album about a month ago. Back in April when I heard about it, I was downright anticipatory, a feeling I don't think I've ever had about an album (mainly because my experience with music is more reactive than proactive). Nonetheless, I then forgot about the whole thing until today, when I listened to Matthew Morrison's Matthew Morrison.

I think I understand where the desire to create this album came from. Spending years honing a craft on the stage, Morrison has paid a bizarre amount of dues for somebody as recognizable as he is now. He's got a laundry list of one-off guest roles in mediocre shows and recent film credits like "Department Store Salesman #2." Now that millions of people watch his show every week, Morrison is probably struggling with the fact that, while successful, he is now singularly associated with a single screen role, leaving any stage accomplishments obscured behind the shadow of Will Schuester's butt chin. The song "My Chin" is a microcosm of this railing against his immediate, incessant, identification with a single character. This album, and that song, in particular, are a cry for attention to be brought to the further accomplishments and talents of the man behind them.

The fact that the album isn't very great alters, but doesn't entirely devalue its own creation. While I hope I'm wrong, from what I have seen of Morrison in media other than Glee, Will Schuester may be the peak of his fame. Granted, one does not have much of a chance to shine when playing bit parts in movies like Music & Lyrics but even on Glee, Morrison seems limited in his on-screen skills. He's a great singer and a great dancer (by the standards of the kind of folk who watch Glee but without the opportunity to demonstrate those skills, Morrison is some guy. So, when the Glee well runs dry, familiarity may keep roles coming for a little while but there just aren't that many mainstream media breaks for the likes of Morrison.

So it doesn't matter if the album doesn't sell well. It doesn't matter if it's unremarkable. What matters is that Morrison has taken the time to make it, to do something other than perpetuate the role that is going to overshadow the rest of his life. He's doing it so that he can be happy, and I can't fault anyone for that.

Then again, none of this is any of my business.

Notable Tracks:

"Still Got Tonight": An infectious song with near-perfect escalation into the chorus.

Rating: 3.1 stars

Flight Of The Conchords - Folk The World Tour

Performance comedy is a strange medium in that it hits a much earlier saturation point than nearly any other performative art. Chances are, when you hear a hilarious joke or see a funny gag, the first time you see it will be the best. If you're lucky, the originality or quality of the humour of the situation will allow for a second, or possibly golden third experience, where you know it's coming so you've got anticipation built up around the punchline payoff.

Take, for example, Robin Williams Live On Broadway. The first time I saw that video, I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. I watched it again last year, some eight years after the first viewing and, while certainly amused, it no longer brought that life-changing, hilarity-affirming, trachea-clogging laughter I remember so fondly. Sure, part of that might be because, at 22 it wasn't anywhere near as shocking to hear Disney's Genie cussing as it was when I was 15 but I have no doubt that, despite my lessened experience, it's still an hilarious example of stand-up comedy. It's really no wonder that the perception of comedians is that of a sad, lonely man, hiding from his own disposability and getting through the day assisted only by a pharmacy's worth of uppers, downers, and everything-in-betweeners. As musicians, it is possible, possibly even expected, that you create music with a legacy. People are always trying to come up with the next OK Computer or the next Rubber Soul. Comedians aren't allowed to have that because any art they create has a best-before date and a maximum dosage.

The only way I can think of to combat this phenomenon is to constantly be pumping out new material. Television does an alright job of combating comedic apathy but in the case of any major television series (that I am aware of), you have a team of writers pooling together every hilarious resource they can collectively think of. Even then, with comedy programs, you'll watch them once, buy the DVDs, and maybe watch the series over the course of a few months every four to ten years once you've had a chance to suppress or chemically destroy the specific memories of what you've seen, allowing that one Friends episode to have a chance at being funny again.

I mention this all because any comedy album has an immediate handicap. If you don't love it the first time, there is an abnormally large chance that you're going to dislike it even more upon listening because the fun sheen of novelty has rubbed off, leaving you to listen to it in a different-from-its-original-intent purpose.

While I did love the piss out of Flight Of The Conchords self-titled 2008 album (more than I ever will again), Folk The World Tour didn't have anywhere near the initial giggly wow factor. The album starts off with "Petrov, Yelyena, and Me," a song about three people who, when stranded, resort to cannibalism. Its style of comedy follows the same brand as The Monty Python sketch about tigers in Africa.



It's supposed to be funny because it's odd that people would behave in such a deadpan way to such extraordinary circumstances. In that respect, yes, FOTC does present it in a suitable way but it's still a fairly dry, although morbid, track.

This kind of writing is fairly typical for the band. You've also got a two-part series of tracks about a Mermaid. The first of which is a bantery kind of thing, while the second is an actual song that ends with a vaudevillian discussion about whether or the Mermaid is more human or fish. In both cases, they are making the phenomenal mundane by bringing it down to the realm of simple understanding.

On the opposite side of the coin is "Bus Driver's Song," which is told from the perspective of a rather adept tour guide bus driver. In this case, as with others, the joke is not inside the song but rather the fact that the song exists. It's not that FOTC really like bus drivers or think that bus drivers deserve to be ridiculed, it's just that it seemed like it would be kind of silly to sing a song about a mundane subject. It's the kind of thing that Adam Sandler did a lot of on What's Your Name?.

But, with all four of these tracks, they just aren't immediately funny. If you go back and think about it, then yes, in premise, they are ridiculous, and therefore kind of funny but the album is scarce in legitimately funny content. In fact, of the 14 songs and banter tracks, only three are immediately laughable.

"Bowie" starts off with a very unrefined, unpolished guitar but eventually turns into whatever the hell "Bowie" is. More than anything, the song demonstrates the band's total commitment to what they are trying to do. Following a series of puns and odd phrases like "nipple antennae," one of the boys starts making a series of laser sounds, without any expectation of laughter or maintenance of personal pride. These moments simply exist because somebody thought they would go with the song.

"Albi" is the kind of thing that would work just as well as an internet cartoon as it does a comedy song. The song tells the brief tale of a racist dragon, an Albanian boy he has badly burned, and some funny turns of phrase.

Lastly, "Frodo (2000 L.O.T.R. Rejected Demo Version)" starts off sounding like "Don't Fear The Reaper," but eventually gets to a point where Jemaine and Bret are squaring off, bouncing Lord Of The Rings quotes off of each other over a euro-dance beat before doing a kind of rap thing (Hip-Hobbit? Mordor, Inc.?) about the films and its fandom.

Choosing to make people laugh as a career is a brave commitment to a brutal, impermanent art. However, even after a few listenings, Folk The World Tour still functions as a notable beginning point of Flight Of The Conchord's recording career, even if it isn't all that funny.

Rating: 3.2 stars

The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore

I can't think of any particularly clever way of introducing this album, so we'll just jump right into the tracks.

"To Sheila," as the opening track, sets a great tone with a mellow and truly beautiful-sounding song.

Along similar lines, "Tear"'s creation of its mood can only be described as perfect. Whether it's the chill you get from Billy Corgan's near-whispered introduction or the long-phrased strings in the background, there's just no way to listen to "Tear" other than the way you're meant to.

Not every song captures that kind of excellence. "Crestfallen," for example feels frustratingly close to being on the cusp of something great, but never quite crosses that line.

I don't love it but I would be remiss to avoid mentioning how bizarre it is that during "Appels + Oranjes," the band suddenly decides that they are going to do a song that combines the tone of a slow Pumpkins song with the kind of Euro dance beat you would expect to hear at a discothèque in Barcelona.

I hate that I keep using the word "pretty" to describe this music but it's an appropriate choice of words. "Annie-Dog" is one of my favourite tracks on the album, if no other reason than the fact that the gravity of the piano makes what would otherwise be a creepy vocal sound beautiful.

Keeping along the "beautiful" track, even if you don't take my recommendation and listen to this album, at least take the time to Youtube (or Grooveshark, or Napster, or whatever you kids do these days) the song "For Martha." It's got a hypnotically pretty piano theme that gets matched up wonderfully with the vocal line, although the guitar part around 4:30 does make it start to sound like an electrified version of a national anthem.

Other Recommended Tracks:

"Ava Adore"
"Behold! The Night Mare"

The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

Gish has forced me to change what I look for when I'm listening to music. Being much more guitar and riff powered than most of the Pumpkins' follow-up albums, I have found myself more attracted to sections and solos than entire songs.

Take "Siva," for example. I am by no means in love with the song as a whole, but I can't help but get caught up in the heavy, awesome sound of the guitars. Throw that solo in, and I have almost entirely forgotten what anything else sounds like.

If you want an even better solo, check out the one in "Bury Me" around the 2:00 mark. This song also has the added benefit of an incredible bass part that gets you going right from the start.

Gish is not a one trick pony, however. With "Crush," you've got a song that stands out, not for heavy guitars, but for its more subdued, sparse, and very pretty sound.

"Crush" is immediately followed up by similarly-paced "Suffer." While it doesn't have the same, immediate emotional resonance, it's still a song with a great sound and beat, that serves as a perfectly good use of five minute and eleven seconds.

There are other songs with sections of note, such as "Snail"'s fantastic breakdown or the combined awesomeness that make up the guitar and especially drum parts of "Tristessa" but in the case of those two, the great sections are stand-outs of pretty okay songs.

At ten tracks long, there isn't a ton of Gish to sift through to find the gems, but they are there, and they are worth the wade.

Rating: 3.6 stars

Jeff Buckley - Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk

As well as trying to discover new music, I'm also quite interested in figuring out just who is/are the greatest recording artist of all time. While I certainly understand the futility of such a venture, considering the inconsistency of public opinion, the fluidity of tastes, and the ever-changing landscape of music, that hasn't stopped me from keeping a running list of the 50 Greatest Artists Of All Time. Now, I understand that there are some serious flaws in this list, such as (at the time of this writing) Toadies ranking higher than Radiohead, or the inclusion of Panic! At The Disco at all so I have decided to spend some time listening to other albums by people on this list. Take Jeff Buckley, for instance. He has been sitting at the top of the list (and probably deservedly so) ever since Grace blew my mind back in March of 2010. Even with the inclusion of live album, Mystery White Boy, Buckley is still sitting pretty at number 1 on the list.

This brings us to Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, a posthumous album whose title references the unfinished, originally titled record, My Sweetheart The Drunk. At twenty tracks long, spanning two discs, the album is an investment of time and wonder, whose difference of style from other albums is an unknown combination of incompletion and adventurous spirit.

"The Sky Is A Landfill" is a great song with an anti-establishment, or at least anti-something kind of power to it. When you combine Buckley's incredible talent with the intensity of antagonism, magical things happen.

"Yard Of Blonde Girls" demonstrates the kind of accessibility that I had nearly forgotten that Buckley was capable of. When I hear the song, I can't help but liken it to a collaboration between Our Lady Peace and Smashing Pumpkins. Now that's a crossover I would pay to see. It's not likely, so I'll just listen to a lot of "Yard Of Blonde Girls" instead.

"Witches' Rave" has a great groove to it once it gets going, hitting its stride when Buckley goes into that gorgeous, controlled falsetto.

In a few occasions, the album presents alternate versions of its music. "New Year's Prayer," for instance, has a great, mysterious sound to it that is similar, but even sexier, the second time around.

"Vancouver" presents problems for me. There's a certain kind of sound that Buckley sometimes goes to, a really loosely structured, free-floating sort of thing, which I don't love. But, once we get to the end, at the climax, "Vancouver" remembers how to be absolutely incredible.

Follow that up with the nearly silent, and undeniable haunting "You And I."

"Haven't You Heard" is a great example of the versatility of Jeff Buckley. There's a not-so-great falsetto thing that starts around 1:40 but it's followed up by this great, heavy blues portion around 2:10.

I'm sure that, simply because I don't like it, "Murder Suicide Meteor Slave" is some people's absolute favourite Jeff Buckley song, but it's dissonant and difficult to listen to. There are a few triumphant, consonant moments, but the fact that I am tempted to call them "redemptive" should tell you how poorly I think about the rest of the song.

"Your Flesh Is So Nice" is the kind of sexy song that isn't so much sexy as it is sexual. It's not something you'd put on while you're doing the deed, but you'll probably want to after hearing it.

With twenty tracks, it's hard to imagine being able to fill it entirely with wonderful gems. There is some really incredible music on here, but not every album can be another Grace.

Other Recommended Tracks:

"I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be)"
"Satisfied Mind"

Rating: 3.8 stars

Morrissey - You Are The Quarry

Back in December of '09, I made a large gamble in the form of buying a bunch of CD's by artists strictly based on the recommendations of my automatic recommendations from Rateyourmusic.com. Among those albums was Morrissey's Vauxhall And I, an experience that I mildly appreciated, but ended up giving away to my brother-in-law who enjoyed it a fair amount more than I did. So, when RYM, once again, recommended a Morrissey album, I got in from the library, lessening the financial, if not temporal, gamble. As it turns out, now I wish I owned it.

Right away, You Are The Quarry makes it clear that it's not planning on pulling any punches. "America Is Not The World" is ferocious in its calm explanation of much of what is wrong with North American culture. Any song that starts off with lyrics like "America, your head's too big / Because, America, your belly is too big" is not trying to make any friends. Like much of the rest of the album, however, the prosaic, less-structured nature of the lyrics feels inconsistent with the cool music happened underneath. Morrissey isn't trying to write pop hits, he's trying to tell you something important, but he doesn't always make you want to listen.

That being said, the next song, just as angry and political is one of my favourites in recent memory. "Irish Blood, English Heart" is absolutely listenable but also unforgiving in its scathing indictment of much of the state of England. I am not going to pretend that I understand most of what he is railing against, but even devoid of context, the rage and frustration gets across.

"I Have Forgiven Jesus" is an intriguing song about rejection against and rejection of divine love and favour.

In "The World Is Full Of Crushing Bores," Morrissey is raging against a world that celebrates the lowest common denominator. Going even further, he is regretting his own unremarkable position within it. In the song, he demystifies the individual, realizing that he, like everyone else, is maintaining a system that nobody inherently wants.

I had said earlier that sometimes the message of the song gets lost because of the lack of structure. On the other hand, you've got "First Of The Gang To Die," the poppiest track on the album. In it, you've got philosophizing lyrics over top of a Hanson-accessible musical sound.

Other suggested tracks:

"You Know I Couldn't Last"

Rating: 3.8 stars

Pearl Jam - Backspacer

It took awhile of browsing to figure out another album to compare this to. Scouring my previous rankings, I wanted to come up with a comparison that would explain the sudden drop in quality that happened with Backspacer. So here's the analogy I have come up with: Backspacer is to Pearl Jam as In Through The Out Door is to Led Zeppelin; there is a fairly continuous stream of quality preceding it but then somewhere, someone dropped the ball.

Even before I heard this album, I had heard that I should be aware that it's "more poppy" than anything I've heard from Pearl Jam before. That sure isn't wrong. For song after song, my feet were tapping, but I wasn't engaged to the level I have come to expect from their music.

There are two exceptions: the first is awesomely titled "Unthought Known." In this song, Pearl Jam keeps true to the spirit of the rest of the album, but does it really well. There's an escalatory jamming piano part, with occasional howls from Eddie Vedder, and everything just clicks.

The other great song, "Supersonic" goes further astray from expectations and still manages to nail it. As far as I'm concerned, "Supersonic" may be a cover of a Jerry Lee Lewis song, but it still sounds great with Pearl Jam's gritty sound.

This wasn't really how I wanted to wrap up our Pearl Jam celebration but hey, eventually, I'll have to review Riot Act.

Rating: 3.1 stars

Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

Welcome to the second and final day of our mini-Pearl Jam review-athon. Today's review's will be for Pearl Jam and their most recent studio album, Backspacer. Once again, let's dive right in.

It bugged me for awhile to figure out where I had heard "Life Wasted" before. It wasn't until the chorus the second time around that I realized that it was from Guitar Hero II. It's never been my favourite before, and even hearing it in its uncovered form, I have more enjoyed reading about it on Wikipedia than listening to it on its own.

"World Wide Suicide" hits its fever pitch at the chorus. When I heard it, I wanted to be hearing someone perform it at a live show so that I could sing along loudly. Unfortunately, doing that on the bus gets you funny looks.

"Parachutes" struck me as in interesting ditty. It's jauntier than I knew Pearl Jam was comfortable with. Then again, there's a difference between something being out of the ordinary and something being extraordinary. So I don't know if I am encouraging you all to listen to it, or if I'm outright recommending it. Either way, you'll hear it and make up your own mind.

"Gone" also straddles a line. Its chorus is juicy and manipulative, and if the song had any more of what makes it great, it would probably stop being so good. Let me put it this way: If "Gone" was even more "Gone"-ish, Pearl Jam would have to sell it to Finger Eleven.

After "Gone" is "Wasted Reprise," a slowed down reiteration of "Life Wasted" set to organ. It's more concise, and overall, a better song.

While not necessarily similar-sounding, I feel similarly about "Come Back" to how
I do about "Black" from Ten. By the end of it, you are just surrounded by sound and feeling.

The last track, "Inside Job" deserves your undivided attention. It's easily the best track on the album, and is the kind of song that you should listen to in a dark room, with headphones, so that the only thing that you are experiencing is the music.

Other Recommendations:

"Comatose"

Rating: 3.8 stars

Pearl Jam - Binaural

I really wasn't digging Binaural when I first started listening to it.

Things don't really pick up until the fifth track, "Nothing As It Seems," not to be confused with the album by Wave. The song is a slower, carefully crafted, and at the end of the day, quite beautiful listening experience.

We go through another drier patch (including "Of The Girl," which starts off promisingly but turns into a muddy kind of meh) until things kick up again for the last four tracks.

"Rival" doesn't stand out as being an incredible song in its own right, but whenever I tune into it, it seems like there's something interesting going on, even if it's not on the surface. Maybe it's the swingy riff, the screaming in the background, or the sparse piano, but something about "Rival" grabs your attention ever so completely every so often.

"Sleight of Hand" is an adventurous soundscapey kind of piece that is easy to get lost in.

"Soon Forget" is easily my favourite song on the album. A folky song about a greedy, disconnected man, "Soon Forget" is perfectly instrumented with nothing but a ukulele, standing in sharp contrast to the commercial inclinations of the song's subject.

"Parting Ways" certainly sounds better than okay, but I wonder if part of why I liked it involves it riding on the coattails of the last few songs. Even if I am hearing greatness because of an anticipated greatness, part of the craft of creating an album is decided song order, so, either way, hats off to Pearl Jam again.

Rating: 3.6 stars

Pearl Jam - Yield

Seeing as how I have had tons of Pearl Jam on my listen list for the last little while, I figured it was time to get 'em all done and make something of a theme day out of it. So, over the next two days, I'll be offering up four (count 'em, four) Pearl Jam album reviews. Today's will be for Yield and Binaural, while tomorrow will bring you my thoughts on Backspacer and Pearl Jam

Let's just dive right into it shall we.

Yield starts off with "Brain Of J.," a song with a great-sounding half-falsetto chorus.

"No Way" finds a way to be listenable despite its plodding pace.

"Given To Fly" is a perfect example of the best Pearl Jam has to offer. It has a calm intensity that explodes into into howling with intent and is one of my favourite songs, period.

I quite like the sound of "●," although it would be drastically improved without the whiny vocals that come in halfway through.

"Low Light" is this album's "Better Man." It gets even better once the piano kicks in (at 2:06), and it becomes more well-rounded and beautiful.

"Push Me, Pull Me" is an awesome-sounding sort of spoken word song that becomes distracting with its incessant, repetitive chorus.

Yes, "All Those Yesterdays" is a great song. Furthermore, whenever Eddie Vedder gets to the word "yesterday," he sings it in a very Beatles-ian way. The absolute best part is after the first chorus, when the tuba kicks in to great effect.

And, after "All Those Yesterdays" wraps up, we're treated to a cyclical, hypnotic instrumental Hebrew-ish bonus track.

I'm going to finish up with a controversial statement, unlike anything I've said before (at least since I said that Hail To The Thief is better than OK Computer). Yield, I am fairly certain, is my favourite Pearl Jam album. If Ten is a 10, then Yield is an 11.

Other recommendations:

"Wishlist"

Rating: 4.3 stars

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Right off the hop, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot starts off with one of Wilco's strongest songs, the intriguingly poetic, bizarre "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart." In addition, there's no fear of trying new things. The unconventional percussion just adds to the aural melting pot that is Wilco's music.

I'm apparently unadventurous in my note-taking, because for "Radio Cure," the only two adjectives I used were "unconventional" and "intriguing." But, in my defense, these are perfectly good words to use. My favourite part of the song comes near the end, with about 40 seconds left to go, when the singer's voice cracks on the word "understandable." While for most bands, that would have been a reason to do another take, Wilco instead decided to keep it, allowing the vocals to sound really cool in their fragility and tension.

Damnit, I did it again. In referring to "Ashes Of An American Flag," I took notes about the "intriguing" title. Although, I also mentioned the more prosaic lyrics, sounding more like an open letter than a poetic song.

"Heavy Metal Drummer" is ironic in that is sounds like an 80s pop hit.

"Reservations" is a sweet song from a guy who is unsure about everything in his life except for his feelings of love. Unfortunately, it's presented in a pretty noisy way. I don't think I've ever used the word "overproduced" before, but I'm tempted to use it now. With its heavy use of effects, there's certainly a distraction from the core message of the song.

The last song I quite liked from the album is "I'm The Man Who Loves You." It's an upbeat, pop song that shows that Wilco isn't afraid to make songs that just sound good.

Of the three Wilco albums I have now listened to (the others being Summerteeth and Sky Blue Sky), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is definitely the favourite. It's got variety and quality throughout and isn't afraid to try something a little unconventional, and yes, intriguing.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Tom Petty - Wildflowers

Tom Petty, for me, is one of those people you're aware of, and you're pretty sure you should know them better than you do, but you don't, and you've never really bothered to get to know them any better. That's how I felt about Tom Petty. Then, I listened to Full Moon Fever, and I felt more comfortable with the fact that I don't know much Tom Petty. Now, based on a recommendation, I have also listened to Wildflowers, the second of Tom Petty's three solo albums. I like it a bit better than Full Moon Fever, but I'm still a ways away from calling myself a Tom Petty fan.

The album starts off with "Wildflowers," which sounds quite a bit like something you'd expect to hear in a travel commercial.

I like "You Don't Know How It Feels" but I'm not entirely sure why. It's a song that's remarkable in its unremarkableness. It's not special, but it's comfortable with that fact, and you end up with a nearly anthemic listening experience.

"Honey Bee" is a song so outrageous that I can't help but adore it. It takes the honey/sweetness theme to such silly places, that, more than anything, you have to respect the balls it takes to release something to absurd.

The follow-up, "Don't Fade On Me," is probably the song on the album with the most integrity. It's got a memorable, but off-enough-to-be-intriguing chorus. It's got a soft, introspective feeling that stands out from everything else by not standing out, but rather maintaining its unique sound.

Rating: 3.1 stars

Xavier Rudd - White Moth

Xavier Rudd is my go-to feel good music. Whenever I can't think of anything else to put on in the background to lift or score the mood, it's Rudd's Food In The Belly. So, I was nervous before I listened to White Moth because I didn't know if Food In The Belly was a set standard or a fluke. Once I started listening, though, I immediately felt better.

The album starts off with hippie anthem "Better People. It's a simple song with an inspirational message that remains intact as long as you let it stay simple.

Quite often, when listening to Xavier Rudd, you feel like you're being spoken to directly. This is never more true than with "Choices," a personal-sounding song, like being spoken to directly by a motivational speaker who specializes in wisdom rather than flash and sparkle. Rudd wears the guru hat well.

Some of the album's songs sound inter-familiar. "Come Let Go," for instance, sounds a lot more like "Twist" than you would normally expect from two songs on the same album. After awhile, however, "Come Let Go" develops its own identity, becoming more song-circle anthemic.

"White Moth," on the other hand, is a softer song, creating a beautiful little hippie love song lullaby.

Not every song on White Moth is an introspective contemplation. "Footprints" is the kind of song whose lyrics you barely pay attention to because you're so busy moving along with its badass rhythmic intensity. If I was a UFC Fighter, this would be my walkout music.

The end of "Footprints" and the beginning of "Message Stick" include, what I assume to be, Australian Aboriginal singing/chanting/vocalization. In Rudd's the assumption is that these portions are included respectfully, and not just for the sake of adopting a cultural respectability.

The rest of "Message Stick" has a similar, although not as aggressive, primal rhythmic drive. I imagine that if I were to attend a rave in the Outback, I would want to hear "Message Stick."

Sometimes with music, you don't like the whole song, but just a portion or phrase. Such is the case with the end of the chorus of "Set It Up." When he sings "If you set it up be sure to set it down," it just sounds too slick not to mention.

So, as it turns out, White Moth is pretty awesome and lives up to the Xavier Rudd standard. Food In The Belly may still be my go-to album, but the second its last track runs out, you can bet I'll be reaching for White Moth

Rating: 3.7 stars

Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?

There are some pieces of pop culture out there, that even if you haven't experienced them, you cannot escape them. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? is such a phenomenon. Starting with seeing it in my sister's CD collection, it's nearly impossible to check out any second-hand media store without finding an unloved copy of this album, somewhere around the neighbourhood of $2.99. Obviously a lot of people bought it (14 million worldwide, according to Wikipedia), but for some reason, none of those 14 million seem to want to hold onto it. You don't expect to see copies of Thriller or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band clogging up used shelves, but for whatever reason, Oasis doesn't seem to make the cut.

It's not necessarily due to a lack of quality. Sure, it's not Sgt. Pepper's, but it can hold its own.

We start off with "Hello," a groovy, serviceable little pop-rock tune that does an appropriate job of setting the sound for the rest of the album.

It would be silly to pretend that, even though the average person on Earth has heard "Wonderwall" something like 63 times, it isn't a great song. Just try to listen to it without either singing along, wishing you were at a campfire, or being absorbed in a vague sense of nostalgia that takes you back to memories that have nothing to do with "Wonderwall." I dare you.

"Don't Look Back In Anger," is just as good as "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova," but get the same uber-status as either in North America. It's got the same kind of range and feeling as a "Piano Man," in that when I hear it, I want to be bellowing it out drunkenly in a karaoke bar somewhere.

More than anything else, "She's Electric" is a jaunty pop tune. Jaunty, jaunty, jaunty.

And, of course, the album wraps up with the probably-less-epic-than-it-seems-but-still-really-really good "Champagne Supernova." Aside from its quality, there's something else that intrigues me about this song. Any time I've heard anyone sing along with it, they have, entirely unintentionally, taken on an accent while singing it. The British-ness of the chorus is so pervasive, that everyone sings about that "Champagne Supernover in the sky." I guess it makes a statement about how we learn music by sound association, rather than by the meaning of its lyrics, but really, I just think it's cool.

Rating: 3.6 stars

Adelaie - Running For The Ocean

For the sake of open and honesty disclosure, you should all know that I know one of the guys who produced this album. You should also know that, even though I told him that it would be worth it to give me a copy of his company's first EP, Running For The Ocean, he made me pay for it, which, I hope, increases the credibility of what I'm going to say about it.

Adelaie is essentially London singer-songwriter Brock Larocque with the support of a full band. Having only heard his name, but never his music, I had no idea what to expect. Considering the production company, Prevail Music's logo is a punching fist, I was pretty surprised by how poppy it is. I was pleased to hear that Larocque has a consistent capable voice, but with all the sheer amount of "I love you girl, oh baby, baby, baby" kind of lyrics was shocking. The more I listened, the more I felt like I was listening to someone who sincerely feels what he feels, but hasn't quite learned how to express the complexities of those emotions.

When I less than tactfully asked my buddy who wrote the songs, I realized that there was a simple reason I wasn't falling in love with the music: I wasn't written for me to listen to. Not being, nor never being a 12-year-old girl put me at a serious disadvantage when listening to Running For The Ocean. When you hear Brock sing that "you're the only reason that I want to see the stars tonight," your teenage bosom is supposed to heave with confused, hormonal adoration. And, as far as I can tell, if I did belong to that demographic, it would. Prevail Music and Adelaie have certainly nailed down the pop tropes, the catchy hooks, and the memorable lyrics. Every overwrought yearning tune is specifically crafted for a particular audience, who, in the era of Bieber-mania are a brilliant group to capitalize on for a first release.

I may not love what I heard, but I was never supposed to.

But, if you don't believe me, check out Adelaie's MySpace. If you don't love it, play it for your daughter, and you'll understand that Prevail Music knows exactly what it's doing.

The Dandy Warhols - Dandys Rule, OK?

I like learning new things: new expressions, new terms, new ideas. Even more than that, I like passing along these things that I have learned, particularly to people who couldn't possibly give less of a hoot. For instance, it is not rare for me, when speaking to my wife, to say "Now, I know you don't care but" and follow up with a useless piece of information about UFC or some other thing which holds no interest to her.

In listening to, and prepping my review for The Dandy Warhols debut album, Dandys Rule, OK?, I came across a term I had never heard before: shoegaze. I looking into the term, I realized that the term is used to describe the music I was listening to and didn't have the words to describe properly. Shoegaze, and forgive me for my bare essential and possible erroneous definition, is a word with two-fold meaning. Firstly, it refers to the introverted style of the vocalists in this type of music. Rather than jumping around, shoegazers keep to themselves, often looking down at themselves (hence: shoegaze). The term also gets meaning from the heavy use of effects pedals. As shoegaze music tends to create effected soundscapes, guitarists will often be looking to where their feet are, as the pedals are an essential part of the music's aesthetic.

Doesn't mean I have to love it, though.

The songs from Dandys Rule, OK? that I enjoyed the most are the ones that don't fall as easily into the "shoegaze" convention. "The Dandy Warhols' T.V. Theme" for instance, features crisper sounds to create a fun song.

"(Tony, This Song Is Called) Lou Weed," does a great job of sounding like a Lou Reed solo song, although that also doesn't mean that I have to love it.

"Genius" has a cool slidey guitar intro, and the most lyrical, song-like song on the album.

The best shoegazey song on the album is the epic "It's A Fast Driving Rave-up With The Dandy Warhols Sixteen Minutes." With its 16+ minute length, the song is able to become familiar enough to appreciate the changes and variations it includes.

Rating: 3.1 stars

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

Of the three that I have heard, there is no question in my mind that, more than The Velvet Underground & Nico or Loaded, The Velvet Underground is my favourite, and the best, Velvet Underground album.

"What Goes On" sounds like it liked what The Doors were doing back in 1967 and figured they should give it a try.

"Some Kinda Love" shows signs of the planted seeds that would eventually become the super-sexy song "Kicks" on Lou Reed's solo album, Coney Island Baby.

"Pale Blue Eyes" escapes from its own muck. It starts off with the second-grade (and by that I mean the 2nd grade, as in 8-year-olds) introduction to poetry:
"Sometimes I feel so happy / sometimes I feel so sad
Sometimes I feel so happy / but mostly you just make me mad."
After the ridiculous opening, you're able to get into the simple, lulling melody, all the way through the lullaby-like guitar solo.

The next song of particular note is "The Murder Mystery," an initially (and still quite a way through) overwhelming and incredible experience. After a minute or two, once you realize that there are just two voices blasting you with overlapping different speeds of speech, the song loses some of its mystique, but it still catches me off guard even after multiple listenings.

The album wraps up with the incredibly sweet "After Hours," starring the sweet vocals of drummer Maureen Tucker. It's a huge contrast with "The Murder Mystery" and a really nice way to finish off an album.

Other recommended songs:
"Candy Says"

Rating: 4.1 stars





Tomorrow: Independence Day

The Replacements - Tim

A few months back, I listened to a little album by a band called "The Replacements." This album was called Pleased To Meet Me, and I was fairly indifferent to it. So, it comes as a bit of a pleasant surprise to me to realize that I quite like Tim.

The first song is the quirky, finding-the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary, "Kiss Me On The Bus," all about, as the title suggests, kissing on the bus. The song has a charm about it that makes you want to celebrate things that you would normally take for granted. Coincidentally, I listened to this song while waiting at a bus stop, and had a great time of it.

A similar feeling comes from "Waitress In The Sky," a catchy ditty about, unless I'm mistaken, a flight attendant.

Then there's "Bastards Of Young," a proto-grungy refusal of parental identity... or something.

The album wraps up with its best song, and, for my limited money, one of my favourites in recent memory, "Here Comes A Regular." Rarely does a song so perfectly capture the feelings of a situation, but with this final track, The Replacements nail down the feeling of self-inflated importance and disappointment that comes from being a familiar face to the unremarkable, followed by the desolation of realizing even those you have dropped your standards to mingle amongst couldn't care less when you walk through the door.

And, on that happy note:

Rating: 3.7 stars





Later Today: One Week

The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia

Have you ever listened to an album and wondered what the deuce took you so long to listen to it, since it seems to have been made for you and you alone to hear it? Such is the way I feel about The Dandy Warhols' Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia. Starting immediately with the epic introduction of "Godless," this album is an almost completely and consistently flawless album.

As I've said dozens of times before, I really appreciate when a band/musician is able to bring together a variety of styles and sounds without compromising their integrity and sounding like a cover band. Genre songs like "Country Leaver" and "The Gospel" do justice to the styles they are emulating, but it never stops sounding like The Dandy Warhols. Not only do The Dandy Warhols bring the variety in a big way, the songs flow together, not unlike how they do in Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

Even the songs without lyrics are engaging. Tunes like "Mohammed" and "Sleep" set up their chord progressions and just jam on them, building in such a way that you have no choice but to notice the different sounds coming at you (although it is fairly impossible for me to listen to "Sleep" without at least humming along the tune to Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"... you try).



I don't really know what else to add. Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia is just a consistently delicious 11/13 tracks of listenable awesomeness.

Rating: 4.6 stars