MARSHALL CRENSHAW
LIFE’S TOO SHORT
1991 – MCA
Produced By ED STASIUM
1. Better Back Off
2. Don’t Disappear Now
3. Fantastic Planet Of Love
4. Delilah
5. Face Of Fashion
6. Stop Doing That
7. Walkin’ Around
8. Starting Tomorrow
9. Everything’s The Truth
10. Somewhere Down The Line
Forever compared (and fairly so) to Buddy Holly, Marshall Crenshaw began the eighties playing John Lennon in Beatlemania. He signed with Warner Bros. in 1981, and seemed destined for superstardom. Things were promising at first, but after his second album failed to become a hit, Crenshaw began a slow slide into “whatever happened to” land. He had moments…playing Holly in the film La Bamba, and working with some top notch producers…but by the time of his sixth album, 1991’s Life’s Too Short, his star had all but burned out. Which is too bad, because Crenshaw still had a few great tunes up his sleeve, and still sounded like he could have set the world on fire.
Along with Crenshaw, the stars here are producer Ed Stasium and drummer Kenny Aronoff, both of whom Crenshaw had yearned to work with. And there are some gems here. “Better Back Off” was a minor hit…it was Crenshaw’s last one. “Delilah” is a neat and catchy tune, and the best song on the album is the should have been hit “Fantastic Planet Of Love”. But nearly a decade after his initial appearance, any hope of fame had passed him by. Life’s Too Short is weaker towards the end, but it’s still worth taking a listen to. And the first half is pretty terrific. He’s slowed down a lot since: his last album came in 2009, after which he released a series of six EP’s, but none since 2015. He tours part time, but his record making days appear to be over.
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K.D. LANG
INGENUE
1992 – SIRE / WARNER BROS
Produced By GREG PENNY, BEN MINK & K.D. LANG
1. Save Me
2. The Mind Of Love
3. Miss Chatelaine
4. Wash Me Clean
5. So It Shall Be
6. Still Thrives This Love
7. Season Of Hollow Soul
8. Outside Myself
9. Tears Of Love’s Recall
10. Constant Craving
k.d. lang was once a country singer. Was. That’s how she’s mostly remembered, but she’s really been someone who just does whatever moves her at the moment. She first appeared in the Patsy Cline tribute The Reclines, and spent the eighties becoming quite the star in her native Canada. Her 1988 solo debut, Shadowland, set her up for even bigger success. But in 1992, lang changed directions almost entirely with Ingenue. Without so much as a trace of the Grand Ole Opry, this record was more about the stylings of Marlene Detrich than Kitty Wells. And the best this was that lang had the songs to pull it off. This became the best selling album of her career, and for good reason.
“The Mind Of Love” and “Miss Chatelaine” are excellent, but it’s the closer, “Constant Craving”, that set up lang as an undeniable star. This beautiful track won the 1993 Grammy for Best Female Pop Performance, and for good reason. It’s an amazing piece of songwriting. All but two of the tracks here are co-written by multi-instrumentalist Ben Mink, who has worked with lang for many years. This is a special album, on which lang steps outside of her box and begins to truly blossom as an artist. This is her best work, and the obvious place to start with her. It’s been nearly twenty years since her last solo album, and she considers herself to be semi-retired. Fortunately, Ingenue is still out there waiting.
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I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Ingenue. I remember really impressed when it came out. I had Shadowland, which I thought was a very decent album but Ingenue took her to a whole new level.
LE BOOM
GOT IT TIED
2004 – SELF RELEASED
No Production Credit
1. Run, Run, Run
2. Nobody But You
3. Sad Boys
4. Banana Banana
5. Can’t Believe I Lied
6. Gotta Have Him
7. Take Me
8. Lord’s Gotta Show Me
9. Got It Tied
10. 4 AM
11. In My Room
There are two band called Le Boom. One is an Irish duo that formed in 2016. This is not that band. This Le Boom was formed in my hometown of Denver in 2004, and included someone I knew in a former life about a decade back, guitarist Kyle Loving. As far as I know, this was their only album. It was critically well received, but the band faded quickly. Loving was in a local band called Sixes And Sevens until recently. You’ll have to dig for Got It Tied to find a copy these days. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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PETER FRAMPTON
CLASSICS VOLUME 12
1987 – A&M
Produced By CHRIS KIMSEY & PETER FRAMPTON
1. Show Me The Way (Live)
2. I Wanna Go To The Sun
3. It’s A Plain Shame
4. Lines On My Face
5. Baby (Something’s Happening)
6. Baby, I Love Your Way (Live)
7. Putting My Heart On The Line
8. I Can’t Stand It No More
9. All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)
10. Doobie Wah
11. I’ll Give You Money
12. I’m In You
13. Do You Feel Like We Do (Live)
I am not one who easily believes in conspiracy theories. But there is one that I am all in on. Peter Frampton. Yes, he’s a very gifted guitarist who played on many great recordings as a studio guy. But for me, there is no explaining his solo career. He left Humble Pie in 1971 to go solo, and he proceeded to release a series of four consecutive studio albums that went absolutely nowhere. This also included six singles that failed to even remotely chart anywhere in the world. And so, A&M records did what absolutely no other record company does ever. They followed up this complete lack of success with a double live album, complete with audience overdubs, and promoted it like it was the reunion of all four Beatles. Maybe the biggest mystery of my misspent youth is how on earth this album became such a massive hit
Frampton Comes Alive was the biggest thing in 1976. It sold a gazillion copies, and made Frampton a huge star. And after that? Frampton has since released 14 studio albums, with only the first of those making a blip on the radar (it was the terrible I’m In You), along with 35 failed singles. Classics Volume 12 tells the story like this: it collects a few early singles, with only two tracks that came after Alive (and not a one from the eighties). 4 of the songs here were not even singles. The three hits from Alive are spaced out well, and they are easily the best tracks here. A&M did a great job with the Classics series, but sometimes there wasn’t a lot to work with. This is really more than all of the Frampton you could ever need. You can probably find it cheap, and it will serve as a companion to the strange Frampton Comes Alive.
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BOB LIVINGSTON
ORIGINAL SPIRIT
2007 – VIREO
Produced By BOB LIVINGSTON & LLOYD MAINES
1. Prelude
2. Original Spirit
3. Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull
4. On A Dream With You
5. Take Advantage Of Your Chances
6. I Believe It
7. Cowboys & Indians
8. Love Cannot Be Broken
9. Raining For So Long
10. The Prophet Said
11. Wilderness Song
12. When The Beat Was Young
13. A Slight Breath
14. Cowboys & Indians Return
15. Geronimo’s Cadillac
16. Rendezvous
17. Friends
18. Prairie Madness
19. Isabella
20. Silent Dancer
21. Sleepy Train
22. Cowboys & Cowgirls All Over The World
Bob Livingston may be the single most important country music figure that you’ve never heard of. He was a major player in the formations of the progressive and outlaw country scenes in Austin during the 1970’s. He was a member of The Lost Gonzo Band, which served as the backing group for both Michael Martin Murphey and Jerry Jeff Walker. He’s recorded with dozens of important artists, and has maintained a solo career that began in the early eighties. He also tours endlessly. Original Spirit is an interesting compilation album. The first fourteen tracks comprise his 2003 album, Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull, in its entirety. Tracks 15 through 21 are selections from the two Lost Gonzo Band’s comeback albums in the nineties. The last track comes from his 2007 solo album, Cowboys & Indians.
The result is a pretty fine collection. Mahatma Gandhi is a terrific and forgotten album, so it’s good to have the whole thing here. The Lost Gonzo Band tracks (the albums were Rendezvous and Hands Of Time) are well chosen, including a remake of Murphey’s hit from the seventies (which Livingston played on), “Geronimo’s Cadillac”. Since this album, Livingston’s recordings have become less regular, but he still tours his ass off. He’s an alt-country legend, and one of the hardest working musicians you’ll ever hear. So many classic recordings from those scenes bear Livingston’s mark. He deserves to be better known, more listened to, and has more than earned every bit of praise he gets, and so much more. Original Spirit is a great introduction to Livingston and his tireless talents. Well worth snatching up if you can find it.
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GUSTER
EASY WONDERFUL
2010 – AWARE / UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC
Produced By GUSTER
1. Architects & Engineers
2. Do You Love Me
3. On The Ocean
4. This Could All Be Yours
5. Stay With Me Jesus
6. Bad Bad World
7. This Is How It Feels To Have A Broken Heart
8. What You Call Love
9. That’s No Way To Get To Heaven
10. Jesus And Mary
11. Hercules
12. Do What You Want
Guster went from an underappreciated alternative band from the nineties to being a cult band known for their crazy and exceptional live performances in the 2000’s, to jam band companions and also rans in the decades since. This band has a fiercely devoted following for good reason: they have always been better than almost everyone thinks. Guster hit their stride at the end of the nineties with their third album, Lost And Gone Forever. 2003’s Keep It Together and 2006’s Ganging Up On The Sun complete the trilogy of must have Guster albums. After that, in 2010, came their sixth offering, Easy Wonderful. Although it’s the group’s highest charting disc, it’s also seen as a step back for them. As the title suggests, it’s more light hearted than the ones that came before it. And is there a religious theme here? Song titles hint at yes, but it’s tough to tell.
The highlight here is “Do You Love Me”. Not far behind are “Architects & Engineers” and “This Could All Be Yours”. Guster always sounds pretty great, so the true measure of the quality of their albums is in the songwriting. In that regard, Easy Wonderful stands high in the Guster discography, right below the three album peak mentioned above. It’s not perfect, but it is a pretty great album. One that should not prove to be a disappointment. Since Easy Wonderful, Guster has managed just three studio albums in the last fifteen years, but there have been a slew of live discs, and they continue to please their fanbase with plenty of touring. In all, Guster is a below the radar band that rarely lets you down. Easy Wonderful is worth tracking down, as are most of their other releases. This band is a pretty safe bet.
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PATTY LOVELESS
WHEN FALLEN ANGELS FLY
1994 – EPIC
Produced By EMORY GORDY JR.
1. A Handful Of Dust
2. Halfway Down
3. When The Fallen Angels Fly
4. You Don’t Even Know Who I Am
5. Feelin’ Good About Feelin’ Bad
6. Here I Am
7. I Try To Think About Elvis
8. Ships
9. Old Weakness (Coming On Strong)
10. Over My Shoulder
It’s unfortunate that outside of country music circles, artists like Patty Loveless go largely ignored. Make no mistake: this woman is a bona fide star. And deservedly so. She began her rise in the late eighties as part of the neo-traditional movement that ruled the country airwaves through much of the eighties and nineties, gaining a reputation as a gifted singer often compared to the likes of Emmylou Harris and Loretta Lynn (her distant cousin), and as an interpreter of songs written by others. After five albums with MCA, she signed with Epic in 1993. Her career peaked in 1994 with the release of When Fallen Angels Fly, which was named the CMA’s Album Of The Year. She’d had success with singles before, but this album showed that she could maintain excellence over an entire album. It really is a fine record.
Produced by her husband Emory Gordy Jr., When Fallen Angels Fly is loaded with great tracks. The best is “I Try To Think About Elvis”, with Jim Lauderdale’s “Halfway Down”, “Here I Am”, and You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” not far behind. All four became top ten singles for Loveless. The rest is mostly strong as well…Loveless shows her excellent voice and taste in material on what is her most successful and admired album. Pretty good, considering that Loveless has
had a lot of high points. She made a switch to bluegrass in the early 2000’s, and has been mostly retired (except for a few live performances) since 2009. She has three albums that could be considered essential: 1988’s Honky Tonk Angel, her 2001 effort Mountain Soul, and When Fallen Angels Fly. Patty Loveless deserves to be heard outside of her country audience. A truly fine musical voice.
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MANIC STREET PREACHERS
JOURNAL FOR PLAGUE LOVERS
2009 – COLUMBIA
Produced By STEVE ALBINI & DAVE ERINGA
1. Peeled Apples
2. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
3. Me And Stephen Hawking
4. This Joke Sport Severed
5. Journal For Plague Lovers
6. She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach
7. Facing Page: Top Left
8. Marlon J.D.
9. Doors Closing Slowly
10. All Is Vanity
11. Pretension / Repulsion
12. Virginia State Epileptic Colony
13. William’s Last Words
Richey Edwards disappeared into thin air in 1995. But you can’t really talk about his mysterious life without including Journal For Plague Lovers, the ninth album from his former band, Manic Street Preachers. Edwards, who sang little and played even less guitar, was the band’s lyricist, and was an important part of their first four records, including their very best one, The Holy Bible. After he was gone, the band continued on (as it does today) as a trio. In 2008, Edwards, who has never been found, was declared legally dead. In 2009, Journal For Plague Lovers was released. All of the lyrics here are written by Edwards…the only Manics album on which he wrote all of the words. Before he was gone, he gave a notebook of lyrics and poems to the band’s bassist Nicky Wire. They felt that this was the right time to pay tribute to him and share his final words.
The timing certainly worked for them. Since the dawn of the 2000’s, the band had seemed to be running out of gas…and ideas. Journal For Plague Lovers didn’t light up the charts, but it did mark something of a return to form for them. It’s a highly emotional album, and it shows just how important Edwards really was to the Manics. It serves as a reminder of how vital and relevant he was, and of how the band loved him and depended on his words. There were no singles released from this disc, and it does fall short of their best work…but it does show that they do still have some fire and spark in them. The first half is stronger, particularly the first two songs, but ultimately, this is an underrated winner. The band still puts up an empty mic stand on stage for Edwards…you can hear why they do that on this record. A fitting tribute to a lost friend.
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
CHAPTER AND VERSE
2016 – COLUMBIA
Produced By BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
1. Baby I
2. You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover
3. He’s Guilty (The Judge Song)
4. The Ballad Of Jesse James
5. Henry Boy
6. Growin’ Up
7. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
8. Born To Run
9. Badlands
10. The River
11. My Father’s House
12. Born In The U.S.A.
13. Brilliant Disguise
14. Living Proof
15. The Ghost Of Tom Joad
16. The Rising
17. Long Time Comin’
18. Wrecking Ball
When the Bruce Springsteen autobiography, Born To Run, came out in 2016, I had no idea that there was an album to go along with it. They were meant to compliment each other, but I don’t think it really mattered. The presence of Chapter And Verse would not have made a difference to me while reading the book, which was, by the way, excellent. As for Chapter And Verse (which I only discovered in 2025), it’s a pretty good, but incomplete overview of his career. It starts with a most interesting bang. The first five tracks are very early, pre record deal recordings made between 1966 and 1972. “Baby I”, by the way, is the very first song he recorded, with the early band The Castiles. There’s also one each from his groups Steel Mill and The Bruce Springsteen Band. “Henry Boy” and “Growin’ Up” are early solo demos.
After that, though, Chapter And Verse suddenly becomes a game of “if you could choose just one song per album”. The choices are made by Bruce himself, and are mostly the right picks. But one song per album from an artist like Springsteen just isn’t going to work…especially from his earlier albums. You get “Born To Run”, but that means no “Thunder Road”. It does get a bit frustrating. But this is an artist who has always been light on the compilation side. Of his five hits collections, only one (The Essential Bruce Springsteen, from 2008) is anywhere near comprehensive. If you’re a die hard, then you know that the individual albums are the way to go, but for the casual fan, the pickings are slim. Chapter And Verse gets points for the previously released tracks, but otherwise, it’s just like most of the rest of them.
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