BAND OF HORSES
CEASE TO BEGIN
2007-SUB POP
Produced by PHIL EK
1. Is There A Ghost
2. Ode To LRC
3. No One’s Gonna Love You
4. Detlef Schrempf
5. The General Specific
6. Lamb On The Lam (In The City)
7. Islands On The Coast
8. Marry Song
9. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
10. Window Blues
Band Of Horses almost didn’t make it to their second album, Cease To Begin. After recording their debut (Everything All The Time), the entire band except for singer/guitarist Ben Bridwell left the group. The reformed group went through several more changes between the tour for the debut album and the recording of Cease To Begin, but that final lineup is still in place today. Despite the massive personnel changes, the progression from the first to second album sounds pretty natural, with the main difference in sound being that the former is a bit more country than the second. One of the amazing things about Cease To Begin is that they didn’t miss a beat at a time when they really should have. But the Horses have a weapon that defeats all comers: they have songs. Cease To Begin is nothing short of an amazing album loaded with great song after great song. “Is There A Ghost” lets you know right off the bat that you’re in for something special, and you are. It just gets better from there. Song after song, this album is simply great.
The album is carried by Bridwell’s high and (almost) unstable tenor, which sounds like it’s going to crack at any moment…but it never does. Songs like “Detlef Schrempf” (not sure why they named a song after a 16 year former NBA player from Germany…but okay…), “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”, and the exceptional romp “The General Specific” are just a trio of highlights from an album loaded with them. Cease To Begin never gets dull, and it never disappoints. Although it didn’t sell a ton of units (it did peak at number 35 in the US, but failed to chart in England), it set the stage for their best selling album, 2010’s Infinite Arms. But Cease To Begin was a sophomore slump that really should have happened but somehow didn’t. It’s a beautiful and powerful album, understated and loaded with great moments from a band that deserves to be much better known than they are. Is there great rock music in this day and age? Go listen to Band Of Horses and tell me that there isn’t. You should have Cease To Begin…a truly great album.
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THE LEMONHEADS
COME ON FEEL THE LEMONHEADS
1993-ATLANTIC
Produced By THE ROBB BROTHERS
1. The Great Big No
2. Into Your Arms
3. It’s About Time
4. Down About It
5. Paid To Smile
6. Big Gay Heart
7. Style
8. Rest Assured
9. Dawn Can’t Decide
10. I’ll Do It Anyway
11. Rick James Style
12. Being Around
13. Favorite T
14. You Can Take It With You
15. The Jello Fund
The Lemonheads began life in the mid 1980’s as a punk band, but a change to a more alternative rock style brought the band big success in the early 90’s. The one constant member during the long history of the band has been Evan Dando, with part of the revolving door of Lemonheads (there have been 22 so far) including members of Blake Babies and Dinosaur Jr.. The major breakthrough for the band was with their 1992 release, It’s A Shame About Ray, and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson”. Come On Feel The Lemonheads, released a year later, is their sixth album, and despite not having the individual song successes of It’s A Shame About Ray, remains their highest charting album. Part of that success was residual from “Mrs. Robinson”, but part was also that the album was really very enjoyable. Filled with stylistic and lyrical reaches outside of the norm, the album boasts several successes as well as a few average sounding thuds. “It’s About Time”, “Into Your Arms”, “Big Gay Heart” and “The Great Big No” all show that when Dando has it working, it works really well.
But part of what makes It’s A Shame About Ray work so well is that it is, by far, the most consistent Lemonheads album. Come On Feel The Lemonheads suffers from the same inconsistencies that every other one of their releases does. At times, you have to wonder if he’s really trying at all. Following up a nice duet with Belinda Carlisle (“I’ll Do It Anyway”) with a puzzler of a track like “Rick James Style” is frustrating. The lyrical weirdness of “Being Around” (If I was a booger, would you blow your nose?) fits nowhere and is as out of place as it sounds. And the last track, “The Jello Fund”, is a full fifteen and a half minutes of wasted silence and studio noise that will make you want to chuck the disc out the window. It was inconsistencies that killed The Lemonheads as stars. They made one more album before taking an 8 year hiatus, and have made only one album of new material since 1997. Come On Feel The Lemonheads can be very good in spots…bad in others, loaded with promise and entertaining for the most part. Outside of 1992-93 though, you can pretty much skip this band.
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JOURNEY
FRONTIERS
1983-COLUMBIA
Produced By MIKE STONE & KEVIN ELSON
1. Separate Ways (World’s Apart)
2. Send Her My Love
3. Chain Reaction
4. After The Fall
5. Faithfully
6. Edge Of The Blade
7. Troubled Child
8. Back Talk
9. Frontiers
10. Rubicon
By the time Journey released their eighth album, Frontiers, in 1983, the formula was firmly in place. Open with a well written rocker, then have enough ballads to keep the album on the charts for the next year. And don’t forget that no matter how good the players in the band might be, the name of the meal ticket that got you to a place where you could make a huge hit album with this much filler was Steve Perry. Two years earlier, the formula was perfected with their album Escape, which had sandwiched “Don’t Stop Believin’” inside of “Who’s Crying Now” and “Open Arms”. With Frontiers, the rocker was “Separate Ways (World’s Apart)” surrounded by the likes of “Faithfully” and “Send Her My Love”. Journey wasn’t just a band…they were a machine. Neal Schon was a good enough guitar player, and a couple of songs rocked just enough to keep the guys interested (that, and having Journey albums helped with the girls), but with Journey, it was always Perry, who really could sing the shit out of a song. And his real strength was the ballad. Journey, which had struggled out of the gate as a Santana spinoff, discovered that once Perry was in the fold, they had the makings of a machine.
Outside of its four hit singles, there is nothing to brag about on Frontiers. Like most Journey albums, Frontiers is top heavy, and loaded with filler. After “Faithfully”, there’s really nothing to recommend here at all…the rest is simply background noise. But that’s okay, because Journey had a formula that really worked. At least it did up through Frontiers. Their next album, Raised On Radio, failed as Perry began to take control of the band, then it was 10 years before they made another new album. By 1986, Journey’s style had become obsolete, replaced by younger hair metal; bands who were perfecting the power ballad style that Journey had brought to the forefront. But for Frontiers, the machine was still firmly in place. The ballads were rolling, and “Separate Ways” was a shining example of “see? They really CAN rock!”. If you must have these hits, go to 1988’s Greatest Hits album, which contains all of the successes of Journey and spares you the dullness of their filler. Imagine if these guys had ever actually tried for a full album…we’ll never know.
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ROBERT PALMER
RIPTIDE
1985-ISLAND
Produced By BERNARD EDWARDS
1. Riptide
2. Hyperactive
3. Addicted To Love
4. Trick Bag
5. Get It Through Your Heart
6. I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On
7. Flesh Wound
8. Discipline Of Love
9. Riptide (Reprise)
Mostly because of Riptide, Robert Palmer is remembered as a guy who came up during the 1980’s. But the truth is, Riptide and the massive hit “Addicted To Love” were over ten years into Palmer’s career. He had began in a jazz-rock fusion band, then an R&B band before going solo in 1974. His first album was highly influenced by Little Feat and The Meters. He then moved to Caribbean music, then to reggae-rock. In 1979, he hit it big with “Bad Case Of Loving You”, which led him to base himself more in the then-current New Wave music of the 80’s. He got even bigger with the formation of The Power Station with members of Chic and Duran Duran. By 1985, Palmer was poised for a big commercial strike, and he delivered it with Riptide. “Addicted To Love” was helped out by an assault of big guitars and a catchy as hell chorus, but it was the video that sent the song to the extreme heights that it reached. But what becomes apparent when listening to Riptide, as is the case with any Palmer album, is that he never quite settles down into one sound and sticks with it. It was always part of his charm…and it was also always part of why his work was never consistent.
The title track is pure lounge. “Hyperactive” leads nicely to “Addicted To Love”, but then the rock spell is broken by the straight blues of “Trick Bag”. Maybe the biggest surprise of the album is the endlessly funky and snarling “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On”, which had been a hit two years earlier for Cherrelle. Riptide has some wonderful high points and a couple of questionable lows, and it’s about as good as a Palmer album ever got. Of his albums, the debut (Sneakin’ Sally In The Alley) and 1979’s Secrets, along with Riptide, are his best. Otherwise, it’s best to stick with compilations. An album like this is what was best about Palmer, with a bit of why his career was so maddening. Palmer died of a heart attack in 2003 at age 54 after releasing his 14th album, Drive, on the cover of which he is pictured with a cigarette. He had never again reached the heights that Riptide brought him to. The album is still a big part of what the music of the 1980’s was all about.
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MATT COSTA
SONGS WE SING
2006-BRUSHFIRE
Produced By TOM DUMONT & PHIL EK
1. Cold December
2. Astair
3. Sweet Thursday
4. Sunshine
5. These Arms
6. Ballad Of Miss Kate
7. Sweet Rose
8. Songs We Sing
9. Yellow Taxi
10. I Tried
11. Behind The Moon
12. Oh Dear
13. Wash Away
Portuguese American singer songwriter Matt Costa was 21 when his homemade demo found the ears of No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont. The two recorded more demos, then a pair of EP’s (Matt Costa and The Elasmosaurus), which they sold basically out of the trunk of a car. The EP’s were basically put together and remixed into the original version of the album Songs We Sing, which was independently released in 2005. It was then remixed again, with a different tracklist, and put out in its current configuration on Jack Johnson’s label, Brushfire Records, in 2006 (the original album was last available on CD Baby, and has sold out with no more copies available). The trajectory of this album over three years and into increasingly more powerful hands is understandable. While not a perfect record, Songs We Sing shows real promise, and is about as charming a debut album as you’ll find. From the beginning of “Cold December”, you know that this kid has got something. He’s nowhere near as loud as No Doubt, and he’s much less jazzy than Johnson. Which is what makes Costa, and Songs we sing, so appealing. He’s like a throwback to the old singer-songwriters of the 1970’s.
Being signed to Jack Johnson’s label has its perks…but it also brings comparisons to its owner. Costa brings more to mind John Butler than he does Johnson. He also brings to mind a lot of other people as well. Costa seems to change his style for each song, even to the point of annoyingly jumping from American to a British accent. This becomes more of a distraction than anything else, as what Costa has above all else is a batch of pretty great songs…why hide them behind different personas? Be yourself, man, and let your songs speak for themselves! Despite this, Songs We Sing does bring the same sunny disposition that Johnson and Butler bring. It’s an album loaded with potential and promise, and it’s a nice listen for the most part…just don’t let the flaws get in your way. Costa continues to record, and is still in the Jack Johnson stable. Still waiting for that huge breakthrough, though. Right off the bat, he was so close.
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THE JAYHAWKS
MOCKINGBIRD TIME
2011-ROUNDER
Produced By GARY LOURIS
1. Hide Your Colors
2. Closer To Your Side
3. Tiny Arrows
4. She Walks In So Many Ways
5. High Water Blues
6. Mockingbird Time
7. Stand Out In The Rain
8. Cinnamon Love
9. Guilder Annie
10. Black Eyed Susan
11. Pouring Rain At Dawn
12. Hey Mr. Man
There were plenty of events leading up to this, but a full fledged studio album from a fully reformed Jayhawks was still quite a surprise in 2011. Their last album had been in 2003 (Rainy Day Music), and the last time they had recorded with Mark Olson was in 1995 (Tomorrow The Green Grass). Olson had left that year to spend more time with, and to record with, his wife, Victoria Williams. Gary Louris took over as the sole leader of the band, and they released three more albums before going on hiatus in 2003. Olson and Louris began speaking to each other again in 2001, and in the years that followed they played some shows together. The fully reformed 1995 era band recorded Mockingbird Time in late 2010, and its release was much anticipated by fans of the band. It had been so many years in between albums, but they picked up as well as could be expected (it’s beyond rare that a band gets back together after a long split and does nearly as well as before). This is a nice reunion, but there are some big flaws. To expect Mockingbird Time to sound like any of their classic albums would be unrealistic, and unfair to the band. With that said, this is a good, far from great, album. With some flaws…one major one.
The main issue with Mockingbird Time is that Louris and Olson sound…old. Despite the fact that Olson is just under 50, and Louris is just over 50, there’s an almost clumsiness here that makes them sound as if they are much older. This is not to say that the album is not enjoyable…it most certainly has its moments. But the lack of flow is startling, even though the trademark harmonies are still there, and the songwriting is decent enough. What Mockingbird Time is, ultimately, is a nice little reunion album that does what most albums like this do. It makes the fans happy, it sounds good enough to make the critics happy, and it adds not a whole lot to the legacy of the band. There are no bad songs on this album. There are no great songs, either. “She Walks In So Many Ways” is as good as it gets, with everything else running a close second. Consistent and unspectacular effort from one of the better American bands of their time…a time that, by this album, had long ago run its course.
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UNCLE TUPELO
MARCH 16-20, 1992
1992-ROCKVILLE
Produced By PETER BUCK
1. Grindstone
2. Coalminers
3. Wait Up
4. Criminals
5. Shaky Ground
6. Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
7. Black Eye
8. Moonshiner
9. I Wish MY Baby Was Born
10. Atomic Power
11. Lilli Schull
12. Warfare
13. Fatal Wound
14. Sandusky
15. Wipe The Clock
16. Take My Word
17. Grindstone (1991 Acoustic Demo)
18. Atomic Power (1991 Acoustic Demo)
19. I Wanna Be Your Dog (1991 Longview Farm Acoustic Demo)
20. Moonshiner (Live 1/24/93)
The story of how this album, Uncle Tupelo’s third, came to be is quite interesting. R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck caught one of their shows in Georgia in 1990, and was impressed by their version of The Louvin Brother’s “Great Atomic Power”. Buck and the band talked about possibly doing an acoustic project somewhere down the road. That time came soon. In 1992, Rockville Records was trying to pressure Uncle Tupelo into making an album that sounded more like Nirvana, who had just made it big. The label also owed the band money, so they decided to record with Buck and make an album of folk music. The label allotted a budget of only $13,000, so the band stayed at Buck’s house during the recording. It was recorded over a five day period (the album title), and sold more copies than their first two efforts combine. Strange given that it was 1992 and the album was split almost evenly between grim acoustic original songs and old, mostly traditional covers of equally grim white gospel and work songs. Not an easy task to make an album like this work, but somehow Uncle Tupelo made it work as well as it possibly could have.
Of the covers, “Coalminers”, “Moonshiner” and “Atomic Power” work the best. Highlights of the original songs include Jay Farrar’s “Grindstone”, Jeff Tweedy’s “Black Eye” and the sweet instrumental “Sandusky”. Also of interest: Farrar’s “Criminals” is based on a campaign speech by George Bush, while Tweedy’s lyrics are very Nick Drake-ish. Guitarist Brian Henneman plays the same mandolin that Buck played on “Losing My Religion”. Overall, this is a brave and bold album of acoustic folk music by a rock band that always tried to play country, but didn’t quite know how. They would make one more album before splitting off into the bands Wilco and Son Volt, but this is their most interesting and intimate work. Tracks 16 through 20 are 2003 bonus tracks, and are of interest, particularly “Take My Word” and a demo of The Stooges song “I Wanna Be Your Dog”. This album is dark and strange, but it’s an important part of the Uncle Tupelo story.
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GENESIS
INVISIBLE TOUCH
1986-ATLANTIC
Produced by Genesis & Hugh Padgham
1. Invisible Touch
2. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
3. Land Of Confusion
4. In Too Deep
5. Anything She Does
6. Domino
7. Throwing It All Away
8. The Brazilian
Invisible Touch, the 13th studio album by Genesis, was released at the band's commercial peak. They were not only huge as a band, but Phil Collins was also enjoying massive solo success. This album was their most popular, with 5 top 5 singles including their only US #1 song (the very annoying title track). The album went to #1 in the UK and #3 in the USA.
The band also reached back to its past and threw in 2 prog rock songs, "Domino" and "The Brazillian", apparently trying to not completely lose what was left of their original fan base. Those 2 songs act as filler. The title track and the megahit "In Too Deep" are annoying, but the other singles, particularly "Land Of Confusion" still sound pretty good. You have to give them some credit...they really were trying to please all of the people at the same time.
Funny, I had to pull up a youtube of In Too Deep to recall it. I guess it wasn't that memorable. Even after recalling it, I don't think it was a megahit where I was living at the time as it didn't seem to get much airplay. The bigies where I lived were the title cut (which I agree was annoying), Land of Confusion (with it's creepy claymation video), and two others that I really liked, Tonight Tonight Tonight and Throwing it All Away. I did like Domino, and The Brazilian to an extent, but it felt a lot like a half hearted attempt to be prog while trying to shoehorn it into the sound/production of the day, which gave me a bit of a sense of square peg/round hole.
As an aside, I thought Disturbed did a fine cover of Land of Confusion which was a highlight of their concert I saw year before last.
GOLDEN SMOG
DOWN BY THE OLD MAINSTREAM
1995-RYKO
Produced By GOLDEN SMOG & SIR JAMES BUNCHBERRY
1. V
2. Ill Fated
3. Pecan Pie
4. Yesterday Cried
5. Glad & Sorry
6. Won’t Be Coming Home
7. He’s A Dick
8. Walk Where He Walked
9. Nowhere Bound
10. Friend
11. She Don’t Have To See You
12. Red Headed Stepchild
13. Williamton Angel
14.Radio King
Ah, the wonderful story of Golden Smog! A supergroup that started off as an Eagles cover band, they eventually began recording original songs and became a who’s who of Minneapolis music. Down By The Old Mainstream, their first full length album, included Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum), Noah Levy (Honeydogs), Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run), Gary Louris & Marc Perlman (The Jayhawks), and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco). On the album, they were listed with fake names on the album, but their real names were used for songwriting credits. As for the actual album, it’s a collection of mostly good songs that sound like they could have been worked out a little better. And maybe a little less with the whole democracy of songwriting thing. Letting Johnson sing at all is a misstep. The main thing to realize about Down By The Old Mainstream is that while the whole idea of the band might have been to not be so perfect, a little perfection could have made this album a really great one instead of a really average one. Because as far as just songs go, this has the makings of a true classic. The performances are what holds it back.
Some of the songs are really great. “V” and “Won’t Be Coming Home”, both by Louris, would have been great Jayhawks tracks. Likewise, Murphy’s additions would have been great on any Soul Asylum album. Tweedy’s “Pecan Pie” is exceptional, and the closer, Tweedy and Louris together on “Radio King” is perfect. And the cover of Ronnie Lane’s “Glad & Sorry” is ridiculously good. These tracks, though, all suffer from inferior performances…and the rest of the tracks are rendered forgettable as they are either sung by Johnson, or sung by others badly. Again, they may have been going for the whole loose and unrehearsed quality, but in the case of this album, it really hurts a roster of great material. Too bad…Golden Smog had the makings of a great supergroup that suffered from never taking themselves seriously enough. They would go on to make more albums, and to even include Big Star drummer Jody Stephens in the lineup. They haven’t released anything since 2008, but Golden Smog is still out there somewhere.
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ELVIS PRESLEY
A DATE WITH ELVIS
1959-RCA
NO PRODUCTION CREDIT
1. Blue Moon Of Kentucky
2. Young And Beautiful
3. (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care
4. Milkcow Blues Boogie
5. Baby Let’s Play House
6. Good Rockin’ Tonight
7. Is It So Strange
8. We’re Gonna Move
9. I Want To Be Free
10. I Forgot To Remember To Forget
In 1959, with Elvis Presley in the middle of a two year stint in the army, Col. Tom Parker and RCA Records were faced with the task of not allowing their biggest star to be forgotten by the music buying public. Their solution was to put together albums culled from material that was difficult to find at the time. A Date With Elvis followed the formula set on the previous album, For LP Fans Only. Half of the tracks were Sun Studio recordings that had seen limited release in the South only, while the rest were taken from previously released EP’s. The album was successful in that it kept the Presley name alive until he got back. But, as it turns out, this very short (22 minutes) album is also a very fine collection of not as well known Presley songs. “Blue Moon Of Kentucky” is a rollicking, speedy version of the Bill Monroe song, and shows why Elvis was a great rocker early on. This is followed by two tracks from the Jailhouse Rock soundtrack. Then, it’s one of Presley’s most classic moments. The band begins “Milkcow Blues Boogie” at a slow tempo. Elvis stops the recording and tells them to get “real gone with it”. They then tear through the song like it’s made of cheap paper.
The rest of the song list is just as fine. The tracks for this album were exceptionally well chosen, and it sounds perfect. Adding another five tracks would have been a good idea, but other than the terrible shortness of the album, it’s great stuff. It was released on CD in 1988, but it’s been out of print almost since that time, so you might have a hard time finding it…especially since the glut of Presley compilations in the CD age have made all of its tracks available elsewhere. But not all together, like they are here. A year later, Elvis was back, but he was never the same. The Elvis that he had once been, from 1954 through 1958, was gone forever. But, man, has it ever lived on. The early, pre-war career of Elvis Presley was truly remarkable, and anytime you can get a package like A Date With Elvis, you’ve got something special.
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