THE BETA BAND
THE THREE E.P.’S
1998 – REGAL
Produced By THE BETA BAND & CHRIS ALLISON
1. Dry The Rain
2. I Know
3. B + A
4. Dogs Got A Bone
5. Inner Meet Me
6. The House Song
7. Monolith
8. She’s The One
9. Push It Out
10. It’s Over
11. Dr. Baker
12. Needles In My Eyes
The Beta Band have never been conventional. An experimental band that never fit into a single genre for very long, this Scottish outfit gained praise during their short career from bands like Radiohead and Oasis. They began their existence in the late nineties by releasing an intriguing trio of 4 song extended plays: Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos. The Three E.P’s is their debut album, a compilation of those three E.P.’s. Nobody really knew who they were when this album showed up in a scene in the film High Fidelity, in which the record store owner (John Cusack) pledges to sell five copies of the album, then plays “Dry The Rain”. Isn’t that how everyone becomes famous?
On their own, these EP’s didn’t do a whole lot. All together on a single album, they make quite the statement. It stands as their best album, showing a huge amount of promise. But The Beta Band had a hard time getting along, both with each other and their label, and after just three studio albums, they were done by 2004. All of their music is worth hearing, but it’s The Three E.P.’s where this band truly shines. A potentially great band that ended way too soon, and that has been unfortunately underrated for what is now decades. The Three E.P.’s works as a single unit better than you might expect it to. If there are any pleasant surprises left in the music of the nineties…this may just be it.
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JIMMY BUFFETT
FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
2002 – MAILBOAT
Produced By RUSS TITELMAN
1. Blue Guitar
2. Mademoiselle (Voulez-Vous Danser)
3. Autour Du Rocher
4. Savannah Fare You Well
5. All The Ways I Want You
6. Last Man Standing
7. What If The Hokey-Pokey Is All It Really Is About?
8. Altered Boy
9. USS Zydecoldsmobile
10. Someday I Will
11. Far Side Of The World
12. Tonight I Just Need My Guitar
Gotta hand it to those Parrotheads, otherwise known as Jimmy Buffett’s most loyal fans…they stand by their guy, no matter what. Far Side Of The World is Buffett’s twenty fourth album, and let’s just say that it’s not his strongest effort. His fans didn’t care. They ate it up, and treat it just like one of his much better records. But you really can’t blame Buffett for dropping a clunker once in a while. His output throughout the 90’s was solid, and he followed this one up with the number one disc License To Chill. But Far Side Of The World simply fell flat. Perhaps one runs out of ideas for tropical rock every once in a while. Or maybe he was simply tired. Whatever the reason, this album stands as one of his weakest efforts.
Far Side leans to the side of snooziness, and the musical choices can be puzzling. Sure, he covers Bruce Cockburn (“All The Ways I Want You”), and the highlights are pretty good (“Savannah Fare You Well” and the title track), but the rest of what’s here is puzzling at best. And if you have to ask the question “What If The Hokey-Pokey Is All It Really Is About?”, you might be better served in taking a year off from writing songs. On the plus side, Buffett is always a likeable guy, so even though this music sounds a lot more obscure and flat than what we’re used to from him, he still, as always, gives it his all. Definitely not one of Buffet’s best albums. Not a huge misstep, but a bit of a downer nonetheless.
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U2
WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA
1985 – ISLAND
Produced By U2, TONY VISCONTI, BRIAN ENO & DANIEL LANOIS
1. Bad (Live)
2. A Sort Of Homecoming (Live)
3. The Three Sunrises
4. Love Comes Tumbling
The golden age of the extended play was in the late 1950’s, made popular by releases by Elvis Presley. Although not very popular since, the EP still lives on to this day. Bigger than singles (2 songs), the EP is usually between 3 and 8 tracks, and between 20 and 30 minutes. A mini album if you will. The very first release by the then unknown U2 was the 3 song EP Three, which had that many songs and clocked in at a whopping 9:58. By 1985, they were one of the biggest bands in the world, and were riding the wave of success that was The Unforgettable Fire. So why an EP? Not quite sure, but here we are. Wide Awake In America is 4 songs, 20:40 long. It debuted at #37 on the US album charts before someone pointed out that it was too short (and too cheap) to be an album.
The first two tracks are live versions of songs from The Unforgettable Fire. “Bad” has been noted by many as a favorite over the studio version. “A Sort Of Homecoming” was recorded during a sound check with crowd noise mixed in later. “The Three Sunrises” and “Love Comes Tumbling” are single B-sides that had not been released in the American market. Ultimately, Wide Awake In America serves as a supplement to The Unforgettable Fire (a bonus disc, if you will), eventually going platinum (not bad for an EP). Of course, U2 has gone on to be U2. Releases like Wide Awake In America are mostly forgotten, and aren’t essential. At best, an interesting companion disc, but not adding a lot to the history of the band.
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DIRTY THREE
OCEAN SONGS
1998 – TOUCH AND GO
Produced By STEVE ALBINI & DIRTY THREE
1. Sirena
2. The Restless Waves
3. Distant Shore
4. Authentic Celestial Music
5. Backwards Voyager
6. Last Horse On The Sand
7. Sea Above, Sky Below
8. Black Tide
9. Deep Waters
10. Ends Of The Earth
Over the years, I have become quite the fan of post rock music. It’s mainly rock instruments playing non rock music. And usually without vocals. Dirty Three is even more interesting, as it has as its main instrument the violin and viola of Warren Ellis. For Ocean Songs, their fourth album, this Australian trio moved to a quieter and more spacious sound. Even though the tracks are shorter than this type of music done by bands like Godspeed You, Black Emperor and Explosions In The Sky, there is still space basically everywhere. There is a calm to this record that somehow feels ready to explode at a moment’s notice. The beauty of Ocean Songs is the delicate interplay between Ellis’ violin and the electric guitar of Mike Turner, held together by the restraint of Jim White’s drumming, which is at times done with brushes. The results are magical.
Critically, some have tossed aside Ocean Songs for being slow and methodical. But be patient…repeated listens will show that the tempo and almost lazy quality is what makes it special. Ellis (who has been a member of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds for over thirty years) plays more of a supporting role, adding more color to the almost plodding rhythms than flash. Ocean Songs is not an album you can dance to. It’s not something you’ll hear at parties, and you absolutely won’t hear any of its songs on the radio. You may very well want to play this with the lights off…it’s most definitely a record intended to chill out to. You will especially feel that on the two longer tracks: “Authentic Celestial Music” and “Deep Waters” are breathtaking voyages. Ocean Songs is Dirty Three’s masterpiece, an underrated thing of instrumental beauty. Strongly recommended.
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THE BAND OF HEATHENS
TOP HAT CROWN & THE CLAPMASTER’S SON
2011 – BOH RECORDS
Produced By GEORGE REIFF
1. Medicine Man
2. Should Have Known
3. Polaroid
4. Enough
5. The Other Broadway
6. I Ain’t Running
7. Gravity
8. Free Again
9. Hurricane
10. Gris Gris Satchel
Friends of a former friend. More than a decade ago, I was briefly introduced to these guys and caught them live at a place called Oskar Blues in Lyons, Colorado. Fun and impressive show. And so they’ve always been kind of on my radar. This hard working band from Austin has made their name by relentlessly touring and making their live shows (ALL of them) available to fans. Originally sporting an impressive three (now down to two) lead singer/songwriters, the Heathens had a deep well of material that also was helped by them not being afraid to play covers. Maybe because they have concentrated so much on their live shows, the Heathens have always been just on the outside of fame. But twenty years later, they’re still plugging away. They do have studio albums as well…they are much more than just a touring live band.
Top Hat Crown is their third studio album. And like most of their records, it’s a good effort, just not with enough to put them over the top and make them big. The centerpiece here is the closest to a big hit as they have ever had: “Hurricane”, a cover of a song Levon Helm recorded back in 1980, became a staple of alt-country playlists everywhere. Problem is, no one knew who they really were, and there wasn’t a follow up single to make people take enough notice. But this is much more than just “Hurricane”. The Heathens have songs, they have chops, and they have the vocals. Yes, this is a band that will win you over with their live shows, but taking a chance on their studio work is not such a bad thing. They are now eight studio efforts in…maybe it’s time to give this hard working band a shot that they most definitely deserve.
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QUEEN
MADE IN HEAVEN
1995 – HOLLYWOOD
Produced By QUEEN
1. It’s A Beautiful Day
2. Made In Heaven
3. Let Me Live
4. Mother Love
5. My Life Has Been Saved
6. I Was Born To Love You
7. Heaven For Everyone
8. Too Much Love Will Kill You
9. You Don’t Fool Me
10. A Winter’s Tale
11. It’s A Beautiful Day (Reprise)
12. Yeah
13. 13
This may be the saddest album ever made. It might also be the most underrated disc, along with Jazz, in the Queen discography. Made In Heaven was released four years after the death of Freddie Mercury, and contains his final recordings. But this wasn’t the band looking to cash in one final time. Before his death, Mercury got in as much recording as he could, and instructed the band to finish the songs. Some of what they had to work with may have been scraps to start with, but the remaining members of Queen (along with producer David Richards) worked hard to build a cohesive and strong album around Freddie’s final work. Made In Heaven is maybe the hardest Queen had worked since the 70’s, and it’s clearly a labor of love. It’s their final album not only with Mercury, but also with John Deacon, and their last to be released under the Queen only name.
It's not just Freddie here. This is really a Queen record. The contributions of Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor are powerful. Some of the songs are reworked solo songs. Some are bits from Queen’s past, and some (particularly “Mother Love”, which was Freddie’s last recording) are new for the album. Freddie never made it back for the last verse of “Mother Love”, so May had to sing it. So much here, from having so little of Freddie to work with. Truth is, overall, that Made In Heaven may be the best Queen album since The Game. May has stated that he thinks it’s Queen’s best…and he should know. The album is often overlooked because of the time that lapsed between Mercury’s death and the later release…but the band took the time to get it right. The CD concludes with the 22 minute instrumental electronic track “13”. But nothing this band ever did should surprise anyone. This is a fine, and overlooked, gem.
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ELEPHANT REVIVAL
2008 – SELF RELEASED
Produced By DAVID TILLER
1. Twelve
2. Ring Around The Moon
3. Sing To The Mountain
4. Single Beds Are Made For One
5. Currach
6. Jet Lag Blues
7. Sweet Dreams
8. The Real McKay Wedding Set
9. Forgiveness
10. Pipers Sun
11. Release
12. Agree
13. Every Stone
14. A’ Part
I remember in 2008 when Elephant Revival was an up and coming local band. The name was everywhere here in Colorado…there was no escaping them. They were the perfect Rocky Mountain hippie band: describing their music as transcendental folk, they blended elements of bluegrass, traditional songs, Celtic fiddle music and indie rock. There was a lot of promise early on, and after this self titled and self released debut album, they secured a record deal. All of the members of the band sing, and all write songs. This looked to be a pretty formidable band. But there were always problems. While Elephant Revival was always very good at what they did, the question was always where’s the audience going to come from? This is, after all, mountain hippie music. It’s very good, but the truth is, there are only so many places where this is going to be a potentially big thing.
As for this album, it’s all about the promise of what they hoped was to come. This was still miles away from their 2018 breakup, at which time the band was almost lifeless. This record is steeped in the excitement of a new band making great music together. The main instrument here is clearly the fiddle of Bridget Law, who handles most of the lead parts. Law and Bonnie Paine (who plays a bunch of odd things like washboards and saws and cello) are the best singers here. On the downside, they play a lot of very mellow songs, which makes it hard to be excited about them for the length of a full album. Their name still carries a lot of weight in Colorado, where the band regroups from time to time (they also pop up on the folk festival circuit). And individual members seem to be booked at will at the very mention of Elephant Revival. In all, a good debut, but you could tell that huge success was not going to happen.
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CAR SEAT HEADREST
TEENS OF DENIAL
2016 – MATADOR
Produced By STEVE FISK
1. Fill In The Blank
2. Vincent
3. Destroyed By Hippe Powers
4. (Joe Gets Kicked Out Of School For Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t A Problem)
5. Not What I Needed
6. Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales
7. 1937 State Park
8. Unforgiving Girl (She’s Not An)
9. Cosmic Hero
10. The Ballad Of The Costa Concordia
11. Connect The Dots (The Saga Of Frank Sinatra)
12. Joe Goes To School
Rock is not dead, thank you. Just ask Car Seat Headrest. This band has really been mostly the domain of Will Toledo, who started releasing solo material under the CSH name in 2010 on Bandcamp. Teens Of Denial is the tenth album, and it is a massive treat. Toledo set out to make a different kind of record, and he took his time with the writing process…two years to be exact. It’s the first Car Seat Headrest album to have been recorded in an actual studio, with an outside producer, and for an actual label. The result is what may have been not only the best album of 2016, but one of the best of the entire decade of the 2010’s. The greatness of this disc doesn’t strike right away, but when it does, congratulations. You will have just experienced musical greatness. And that doesn’t come along very often.
Toledo’s guitar cuts through from the very beginning on “Fill In The Blank”, and this album rocks throughout. The better songs here are should-be classics. “Drunk Divers / Killer Whales” and “Vincent” are enough to win you over, but there’s more. “Unforgiving Girl (She’s Not An)” and “Connect The Dots (The Saga Of Frank Sinatra)” are fine as well. The guitar build at the opening of “Vincent” is spectacular, and Toledo’s lyrics are smart and sharp throughout. His vocal limitations are actually a strength here…these songs wouldn’t be the same with a perfect and unflawed singer. Car Seat Headrest continues to this day, with a new album coming in May of 2025. But this is where Toledo and company truly shine. Teens Of Denial is a masterpiece, a hard rocking blast of one excellent track after another that, even though it’s long, you won’t want to end. Let this one wash over you and take you away…you’ll be happy you did.
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RAH STATE
I LOVE REGGAE
2019 – SELF RELEASED
No Production Credit
1. Livicate
2. Every Religion
3. I Love Reggae
4. Running From Jah
5. Is It Too Soon
6. Conscious
7. Rachel
8. You Keep Bringing Me Sunshine
9. You’re All I Am
10. I’m Not Smoking Weed No More
Not really much to go on here, and I’m not sure exactly how I got this one. But let’s go with what’s out there in the universe. Rah State is a reggae duo from Los Angeles consisting of Troy Horne and Cori “Fader” Jacobs. I Love Reggae appears to be their only album. It was released only on Bandcamp in 2019, where it’s available only as a digital release. At some point, it was also released on CD, because I have one. Their Bandcamp page mentions no record company, no management, no other place where their music can be found, and no artist site. This is all there is. Except for one brief paragraph, which says:
“It's Roots, it's modern, it's Reggae written for the believer in healing and for the ones who love to love. For the person who sees religion as a tool to get to the universe. For the person who sees God in every religion.”
Which brings us to the music on I Love Reggae. I wish I could say that these ten songs are a great find of top notch indie music. I just can’t. The music is electronic, meaning no guitars, no horns, none of the man-made groove that makes great reggae great. It’s all keyboards, and the rhythms sound computer generated. The vocals on the first two tracks are pretty good, but then they suddenly shift to using autotune as a main vocal effect on the title track. We’re not talking about a little bit…this is a complete drenching. Daft Punk would be thinking it’s too much. When the song is not as strong (“Rachel”, for example), the weaknesses are amplified. So what we have are ten songs that are mostly decently written, with a good enough message, but done without an actual band and with the feel of two guys in a dark room with a computer. There’s a place for that kind of music making. Reggae is simply not that place. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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ALABAMA
FOR THE RECORD
1998 – RCA NASHVILLE
Produced By ALABAMA & DON COOK
1. Five O’Clock 500
2. Keepin’ Up
3. How Do You Fall In Love
4. Tennessee River
5. Why Lady Why
6. Old Flame
7. Feels So Right
8. Love In The First Degree
9. Mountain Music
10. Take Me Down
11. Close Enough To Perfect
12. Dixieland Delight
13. The Closer You Get
14. Lady Down On Love
15. Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)
16. When We Make Love
17. If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band)
18. (There’s A) Fire In The Night
19. There’s No Way
20. 40 Hour Week (For A Livin’)
21. Can’t Keep A Good Man Down
22. She And I
1. Touch Me When We’re Dancing
2. You’ve Got The Touch
3. Face To Face
4. Fallin’ Again
5. Song Of The South
6. If I Had You
7. High Cotton
8. Southern Star
9. Jukebox In My Mind
10. Forever’s As Far As I’ll Go
11. Down Here
12. Here We Are
13. Then Again
14. Born Country
15. I’m In A Hurry (And I Don’t Know Why)
16. Once Upon A Lifetime
17. Hometown Honeymoon
18. Reckless
19. Give Me One More Shot
20. She Ain’t Your Ordinary Girl
21. In Pictures
22. Sad Lookin’ Moon
Country music has always been the domain of the solo artist. There are exceptions. The biggest one, by far, is Alabama. They are, by far, the biggest and greatest band in country music history. And it’s not even close. After struggling through name changes and drummers and small time labels throughout the seventies, Alabama exploded into fame at the dawn of the eighties and never looked back. From 1981 forward, every album they released in the decade went to number one (except for a Christmas disc). They had 27 number one singles in the 80’s. And even when their popularity began its slow demise in the nineties, they still saw every album from 1990 to the present reach the top 20. The success of Alabama is on a scale that few have reached. And the proof is right here on For The Record. Released in 1998, this massive two disc compilation has a subtitle of 41 Number One Hits, a claim that is actually almost accurate.
There are 44 tracks here, and yes, most of them reached number one. More impressively, most came in less than a decade. That’s Beatlesque. That’s Elvis territory. If country isn’t your thing, then the name Alabama is likely not going to impress you much. My suggestion is that you take a trip through For The Record. All of the tracks here are radio edits, meaning that these are the hit versions that dominated country radio for so long (and that still do, unless you’re listening to pop country). And yet…much of the evolution of country music lies with Alabama. They mixed country and rock like no one else really had on the country side. They brought rock style shows to country audiences. And oh yeah…they had SONGS. They wrote most of their own, and they all sang like birds. So, if you want to learn a thing or 44 about country music, there aren’t many places better to start than right here.
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