NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
THE GOOD SON
1990 – MUTE
Produced By THE BAD SEEDS
1. Foi Na Cruz
2. The Good Son
3. Sorrow’s Child
4. The Weeping Song
5. The Ship Song
6. The Hammer Song
7. Lament
8. The Witness Song
9. Lucy
Nick Cave is a pretty intense guy. And the music he makes is generally pretty dark stuff…not for the light hearted. The Good Son, his sixth album with The Bad Seeds, is actually what Cave sounds like when he’s almost happy. Almost. His albums had grown darker and darker, almost to the point of maybe this guy needs an intervention. But, as the 80’s were ending, he fell in love and went through rehab. The result is The Good Son, an album that finds Cave driving a bit of a safer distance from the edge of that cliff. He’s still addressing religion a lot here, and there are some really fine moments. But the truth about Cave and The Seeds is this: they are at their best when things get dark. Their best work is when things sound dangerous. And, on The Good Son, there just aren’t those moments where he scares you. In other words…the music on this album is dark. It really just is not dark enough.
The best track here is “Lament”. This is the song on the album that sounds the most…harrowing. It’s also the best written track here, and would have probably been a much better choice for a single than the two that WERE singles, “The Weeping Song” and “The Ship Song” (the tracks with those “song” titles were simply never changed from their working titles). The band has since gone on to better successes, particularly with the albums Murder Ballads and The Boatman’s Call, and they have released 17 studio albums to date. The Good Son has received a lot of praise over the years, but for me, it never rises above being average at best, and it never reaches that intensity level that makes Cave’s work so engaging and interesting. Still, this album is worth hearing (as is everything he has done). Who knows…this may click for you and move you more than it has me.
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BELLY
STAR
1993 – SIRE / REPRISE
Produced By BELLY, TRACY CHISOLM & GIL NORTON
1. Someone To Die For
2. Angel
3. Dusted
4. Every Word
5. Gepetto
6. Witch
7. Slow Dog
8. Low Red Moon
9. Feed The Tree
10. Full Moon, Empty Heart
11. White Belly
12. Untogether
13. Star
14. Sad Dress
15. Stay
Tanya Donelly had spent years with the band Throwing Muses, where she lived underneath the songwriting shadow of her stepsister Kristin Hersh, getting only a song or two per album. She joined The Breeders in 1989, finding herself playing second fiddle to Kim Deal. Donelly finally formed her own band, Belly, in 1991. Suddenly, she was the main songwriter, and she took that mantle and ran with it. Belly’s debut album, Star, was one of the bright lights of alternative rock in 1993. Her light, whimsical voice was a breath of fresh air in a sea of tough sounding women, and Belly could rock. Star was not a huge hit, but on the strength of MTV play for the video for “Feed The Tree”, people discovered that Donelly wasn’t just a background player any more. And so, tracks from Star began popping up on cool radio stations everywhere, and it was, indeed, a welcome audio alternative to all that grunge.
Star has plenty of cool tracks. “Gepetto”, “Slow Dog”, and “Angel” are great rockers, while the slower tracks like “Low Red Moon”, “Untogether” and “Stay” are just downright pretty. Not everything works…but enough of it does to make this a more than worthwhile album, and a fine snapshot of what the early mid nineties had to offer. But Donelly seemed to have blown her wad of songs on one album. The 1995 follow up, King, lacked the songwriting chops that Donelly had shown on Star, and it tanked. Belly broke up soon afterward. They reunited in 2016, but it’s not likely that they will match the magic they were able to capture with Star. Belly was, at its best, very tuneful and very listenable, and you could do a lot worse than to revisit their finest moment. Star works on many levels, and is always a rewarding listen. And it shows that Tanya Donelly was, indeed, worthy of some spotlight time of her own.
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YEAH YEAH YEAHS
IT’S BLITZ!
2009 – DRESS UP / DGC / INTERSCOPE
Produced By NICK LAUNAY & DAVID ANDREW SITEK
1. Zero
2. Heads Will Roll
3. Soft Shock
4. Skeletons
5. Dull Life
6. Shame And Fortune
7. Runaway
8. Dragon Queen
9. Hysteric
10. Little Shadow
Wait…where did they go? This is a valid question regarding the whereabouts of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, one of the most promising bands of the 2000’s. Their debut album, 2003’s Fever To Tell, is regarded as one of the best albums of the decade. They followed up with Show Your Bones in 2006, then released It’s Blitz in 2009. This album shows the band progressing, not only with their songwriting, but in their ability to expand their sound to include dance grooves and electronics. The result is an air tight album that grows on you, grooves within you, and makes you love this band a little more every time you hear it. Lead singer Karen O, who was born in South Korea, is always engaging, and guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase hold everything together extremely well. Fever To Tell was more punk than this album, but It’s Blitz! Is excellent in its own way. This was just another move forward for a band with a lot of potential.
The three singles from It’s Blitz are excellent. “Zero”, “Skeletons”, and particularly “Heads Will Roll” showcase what a tuneful and tight unit this band had become. There’s enough of their punk roots here to not alienate their earlier following, and enough dance grooves to make this a shining success. It’s Blitz! has been listed as one of the best albums of the end of the 2000’s decade, and for good reason. This is great stuff, and the sound of a band moving forward. So…what happened to them? Their fourth album, Mosquito, came out in 2013, and then the band went on hiatus. They have recently announced that they will begin playing shows, but will there be new material? There is, finally, an upcoming 2022 album almost a full decade later. And has the momentum that this once promising band built between 2003 and 2009 gone by? I guess we’ll find out. But if you see albums by this band, you should pick them up. They are all quite good, but especially Fever To Tell and It’s Blitz!.
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CHRIS ISAAK
BAJA SESSIONS
1996 – REPRISE
Produced By ERIK JACOBSEN
1. Pretty Girls Don’t Cry
2. Back On Your Side
3. Only The Lonely
4. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)
5. I Wonder
6. Wrong To Love You
7. Waiting For My Lucky Day
8. Yellow Bird
9. Two Hearts
10. Return To Me
11. Dancin’
12. Sweet Leilani
13. Think Of Tomorrow
Baja Sessions. In which Chris Isaak decides to make a laid back surf album with a laid back on the beach mellow vibe. Good idea? Not so much. Well, why not? There are several reasons. First of all…the title suggests a surf trip to Baja California, but the album was actually recorded in San Francisco. The instrumentation is simple, but it’s also too sparse. Almost all acoustic, which sounds like a great idea, does not work with a vocalist as dynamic and powerful as Isaak. He simply has too much of a voice for an album so mellow and quiet. He sounds like he is holding back throughout, and those moments you wait for with this singer when he cuts loose and soars with those finely belted high notes never come. He does hit those notes…but timidly, at best. And finally…the songs are simply not here.
None of Isaak’s original songs work here. There are eight of them on the album, and when it’s over, you won’t remember a single one of them. And of the five covers here, only one of them, the Roy Orbison classic “Only The Lonely” makes any real sense for Isaak. In fact, seeing the song listed here made me really want to hear what he could do with it. But, like the rest of the album, it’s just way too mellow and snoozy, and Isaak never gets the chance to take off with his voice. Making this a further disappointment is the fact that this was the follow up to his successful Forever Blue album, which featured the excellent “Baby Did A Bad Thing”. There’s really no reason to try and sit through these lazy arrangements, his strange choice in songs like “South Of The Border” from 1939 and the even older Bing Crosby hit “Sweet Leilani”. Isaak is a huge talent…but you’ll want to skip this one.
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ARCADE FIRE
REFLEKTOR
2013 – SONOVOX / MERGE
Produced By ARCADE FIRE, MARKUS DRAVS & JAMES MURPHY
1. Reflektor
2. We Exist
3. Flashbulb Eyes
4. Here Comes The Night Time
5. Normal Person
6. You Already Know
7. Joan Of Arc
1. Here Comes The Night Time II
2. Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)
3. It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)
4. Porno
5. Afterlife
6. Supersymmetry
Arcade Fire first appeared from Montreal in 2004 with the release of Funeral. The album was a massive success, and along with their next two releases (2007’s Neon Bible and 2010’s The Suburbs), they showed that they were a formidable band that made few mistakes along the way. Reflektor is their fourth album, and it’s mostly a departure from the sound that made this band so successful. The main change is their discovery of Haitian rara music. This is not an album of a band from Canada trying to play Haitian music, but what they are doing is bringing more of a dance element to their sound. The results are, at first, perplexing…especially if you are a fan of the first three records. But stick with it, and the rewards are well worth it. Although this isn’t your typical Arcade Fire album, that’s actually a pretty good thing.
While Reflektor is not going to grab you like the first three releases did, it will grab you nonetheless. The tracks are not as strong as they were on The Suburbs, but the band makes up for a lot of that with the textures and rhythms here. “We Exist”, “Afterlife”, “Joan Of Arc” and the title track are the standouts, and you’ll find plenty more treasures here. And it’s all, as usual, excellently played. On the downside…Reflektor is probably a bit too long (a double album is a little much to take in at once), and some of the tracks start to seem rambling, including the droning instrumental hidden track at the end (without that…this could have been a single disc). But Reflektor is the sound of a really terrific band taking some chances and expanding from their safe zone. It’s worth hearing, even though it’s not quite as good as the three albums that came before it.
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MASSIVE ATTACK
MEZZANINE
1998 – CIRCA / VIRGIN
Produced By NEIL DAVIDGE & MASSIVE ATTACK
1. Angel
2. Risington
3. Teardrop
4. Inertia Creeps
5. Exchange
6. Dissolved Girl
7. Man Next Door
8. Black Milk
9. Mezzanine
10. Group Four
11. (Exchange)
You might actually know this. If you’ve ever watched a single episode the television show House, then you’ve heard “Teardrop”, which was used as the theme song for the series that ran for eight seasons on Fox. And if that’s your introduction to the world of trip hop, then you could do a lot worse. Mezzanine is the third album by England’s Massive Attack, coming after a four year break. Their 1991 debut, Blue Lines, remains their masterpiece, but don’t sleep on Mezzanine. Leaving behind their more danceable music, Mezzanine is immediately a trip into the dark side of electronica. This album sounds dangerous and a bit scary, and while you could always move to their music before, it’s not as easily done here. Mezzanine is more about atmospheres and shadows, and it does a good, and sometimes great job of making that happen.
The obvious highlight is “Teardrop”, featuring vocals by Elizabeth Fraser, but there is much more to this album than just the theme from House. “Angel”, “Inertia Creeps”, and “Risingson” are also excellent tracks, making this well worth a listen. It’s ultimately the dark tones that make Mezzanine a winner. If you’re looking for the grooves and laid back hip sounds of Blue Lines and Protection (both of which feature former member Tricky), then you may be disappointed. But, while Mezzanine is certainly a downer on many levels, the rewards are numerous enough to make it worthwhile. And creative samples from artists like Lou Reed, Pete Seeger, Isaac Hayes and Manfred Mann keep help to keep the songs more on the interesting side. This one can be a downer, but sometimes, you need some down and dark music. Perspective…
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JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE
THE GOOD LIFE
2008 – BLOODSHOT RECORDS
Produced By R.S. FIELD & STEVE POULTON
1. Hard Livin’
2. The Good Life
3. Who Am I To Say
4. Lone Pine Hill
5. South Georgia Sugar Babe
6. What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome
7. Turn Out My Lights
8. Lonesome And You
9. Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving
10. Far Away In Another Town
What do you do when you’re the son of the legendary Steve Earle, who gave you your middle name in honor of the great Townes Van Zandt? What else are you going to do except to make music? Every bit his father’s son, Justin Townes Earle does just that, and on his debut album, The Good Life, he delivers. Not completely, mind you. Not just yet. Earle was still just getting his young feet wet here, and not trying to ride the wave of his father’s success. Give the boy some credit…he did it his way, and in his own time. He started catching on with his audience in 2010, with his album Harlem River Blues. The Good Life is an understated, almost shy debut that exposes Earle for what he really was: he’s a folkie with an outlaw country heart. And that, my friends, is something we definitely need more of.
The centerpiece and biggest highlight of The Good Life is “Lone Pine Hill”. It’s a song about a man in Civil War times wondering what he’s fighting for, and wishing for his true love. Also of note is “Hard Livin’”, “What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome”, and “Far Away In Another Town”. This album runs unfortunately short…it barely reaches thirty minutes in length…but as a debut for an up and coming young songwriter, it still works quite well. The backing musicians are excellent, led by lap steel player Chris Scruggs, bassist Bryn Davies and Cory Younts from Old Crow Medicine Show. There’s no posturing here…just a guy and his guitar and his little band playing some of his little songs for you. It’s that intimate, and it works well that way. Earle’s career is worth following, and there’s no better place to start than here, at the beginning. He unfortunately passed away in 2020.
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DAVID & DAVID
BOOMTOWN
1986 – A&M
Produced By DAVITT SIGERSON
1. Welcome To The Boomtown
2. Swallowed By The Cracks
3. Ain’t So Easy
4. Being Alone Together
5. A Rock For The Forgotten
6. River’s Gonna Rise
7. Swimming In The Ocean
8. All Alone In The Big City
9. Heroes
You might remember this…you probably don’t. Or seeing this might make you flash back really hard to those great sounding songs from that band you could never remember. Either way…you’re about to watch me gush about an album. It’s true that I do not have a favorite album, but this one is really close to being just that. David & David was, in fact, two guys named David: Baerwald and Ricketts. They got together in 1979, and recorded just one album…Boomtown, from 1986. And it’s magnificent. These two guys were loaded with great songs and hooks to die for, and Boomtown is a perfect representation of what they were all about. This album was a moderate hit, but it wasn’t huge, and the duo split up in 1987. They went on to help launch the career of Sheryl Crow as part of LA’s Tuesday Night Music Club, but they have never recorded together since.
Boomtown, though, is simply great. The sound and the songs have not only stood the test of time, but they somehow sound better with each passing year. There is a stark maturity in this material, and it just keeps getting better and better. “Welcome To The Boomtown” (…all that money makes such a succulent sound) was a minor hit, and the creepy “Ain’t So Easy”, which told a tale of an abusive relationship from the abusers point of view are amazing. But you also have hooks and great lyrics everywhere else…every single track here has risen from the ashes of thirty plus years to shine on its own. Boomtown, when it came out, was a promising debut. Today, Boomtown is a quiet monument just waiting to be heard. It was always underrated, and the fact that the pair never followed it up didn’t help. But check this out today. One of those rare gems that just gets better with age. I can’t rave about this enough…check it out for yourself.
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COCTEAU TWINS
HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS
1990 – 4AD
Produced By COCTEAU TWINS
1. Cherry-Coloured Funk
2. Pitch The Baby
3. Iceblink Luck
4. Fifty-Fifty Clown
5. Heaven Or Las Vegas
6. I Wear Your Ring
7. Fotzepolitic
8. Wolf In The Breast
9. Road, River And Rail
10. Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires
There were a handful of bands in the 80’s that, if you knew their music, you became kind of instantly cool. One of those bands was Cocteau Twins. But to get what they were really all about, to hear them at their very best, you have to go back to their 1984 album Treasure. What they did afterwards was worth hearing, including Heaven Or Las Vegas, their seventh album from 1990. This is dream pop…think bands like Mazzy Star, and you get what a lot of the Twins sound like. Led by singer Elizabeth Fraser, guitarist Robin Guthrie and bass player Simon Raymonde, this Scottish trio made beautiful atmospheric pop that made them far from the new wave bands of the era. This was not a singles band. Cocteau Twins were all about the album. So a lot depends on how consistent they were with their songwriting from album to album.
This is a good representation of their later years, and it’s as close to the magic of Treasure as they ever got. “Cherry-Coloured Funk”, “Iceblink Luck” and the title track are the standouts on this one. There’s just enough filler to keep this from being great, but there’s also just enough quality to make it worth your while. At this time, cracks were beginning to show. Fraser and Guthrie had just had a child, with Guthrie battling addiction problems. They were also not getting along with the head of their label, and they were dropped after this album. The band was broken up for good by 1997. They left behind one great album and a handful of almost great ones…Heaven Or Las Vegas is one of those. It may take some time to get the hang of it, but there’s surely plenty to enjoy here…enough to make it worthwhile.
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THE THRILLS
SO MUCH FOR THE CITY
2003 – VIRGIN
Produced By TONY HOFFER
1. Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far)
2. Big Sur
3. Don’t Steal Our Sun
4. Deckchairs And Cigarettes
5. One Horse Town
6. Old Friends, New Lovers
7. Say It Ain’t So
8. Hollywood Kids
9. Just Travelling Through
10. Your Love Is Like Las Vegas
11. ‘Til The Tide Creeps In / Plans
You might remember The Thrills. Then again, you might not. This Irish band found themselves in California in the early 2000’s, and became the subject of a rather large bidding war to see which label could land this most promising act. Virgin Records eventually signed them and teamed them with veteran producer Tony Hoffer, who had worked with Air and Beck. So Much For The City was recorded in Hollywood, and it became an instant success in their home country and in the rest of Europe. In America? Not so much. Maybe it’s because, despite their punk sounding name, the music is much softer than you would expect. Also, the band is clearly infatuated with the United States, as many of the songs are about California and Las Vegas. But they come from a sense of wishing they were there, not from we’re already here. Easier to relate to if you’re…over there. Does that make sense?
Anyway, the music on So Much For The City is really quite lovely. At times they sound almost dreamy (“Deckchairs And Cigarettes”), and when they do play upbeat songs, they are more reminiscent of groups like The Association, with lush arrangements and layers of vocals. “One Horse Town” is a perfect example of this. Coming from the year 2003, the sound is quite refreshing, and they pull it off well…as puzzling as it may be. In the end, So Much For The City is loaded with hooks and fine songs. Its arrangements can induce some head scratching, but overall it’s a good and promising debut. Unfortunately, The Thrills weren’t able to build on it much. Their second album, Let’s Bottle Bohemia (with the single “Whatever Happened To Cory Haim?”) was more of the same…a hit in Ireland and nothing in the States. They broke up, reformed and put out a third album in 2007 which tanked. Nothing since…a once promising blip on the radar now gone.
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