Ingenue (©1992 Sire)

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

You can a lot of things about k.d. lang the person. Most people have a hearty tabloid appetite for the personal lives of celebrities. Over the years she's supplied a lot of fodder for the pulps. But one thing you can't knock is her absolutely amazing voice. There are voices, and then there are voices. In the early 80's she was a cowboy punk queen, then the second coming of Patsy Cline - but Ingenue is the voice of Ms. Lang.

When I bought this back in '92 I was blown away, and it was a fixture in my player for quite a while. Recently this one made it back into regular rotation, since my wife wanted to listen to something she liked for a change. I was reminded about the beauty of this recording.

She and Ben Mink, who also played guitar and produced crafted ten nearly perfect smoky pop / jazz songs that will no doubt stand the test of time, and serve as a reminder to the power of a truly amazing singer.

Reviewed September 26, 2004

All You Can Eat (©1995 Warner Bros)

1: If I Were You 2: Maybe 3: You're Ok 4: Sexuality 5: Get Some 6: Acquiesce 7: This 8: World Of Love 9: Infinite & Unforeseen 10: I Want It All

This one was in a bin for a buck, so I figured it would be worth the spend. I really like k.d. but I don't have a lot of her stuff. It's not like I'm disappointed by her stuff - she's amazing, it's just that I only have so much money.

I've been listening to this one for a couple of months trying to find a hook or something to say, and I've come up short. All You Can Eat is in the same musical vein as Ingenue, and Ben Mink again handles the recording with a deft hand. You'd be hard pressed to guess that a decade has passed since this release. The songs are beautiful to listen to, but somehow it they don't stick after I've finished listening. While it's on I'm moved, and it's engaging. Five minutes after turning it off I couldn't hum a bar to save my life. How weird is that.

This really is like an all you can eat smorgasbord.

Reviewed (sort of) May 13, 2005

Lucy I'm In Love (©2005 Elvis & Sweetie Pie Records)

1: Don't Worry 2: When You Comin' Home 3: Dug in Deep 4: Happy 5: Mr. Time 6: Lucy 7: Maybe Someday 8: Follow the Sun 9: Green Room 10: I'm in Love 11: Rollin' 12: Your Kiss

Larry is the old fart version of a dynamic pop duo. Think parts Hall & Oates, The Rembrandts, Air Supply, Mutt and Jeff and you’re getting close to not quite describing the sound of these two veteran musicians.

Glen Lystne has been around a while toiling in various bands you’ve probably never heard of such as Citizen Joe. Marty Dieckmeyer is a different story, at least from my perspective, Marty was Daniel Amos’ original bass player, and as far as I’m concerned in my rock pantheon you don’t get any bigger than the venerable rocking cowboys. Okay, so Marty hasn’t been heard from since 1981, it doesn’t mean he’s been dead.

Here we are pushing 25 years later, and these two seasoned talents have put out a delightfully tasty collection of pop songs. They’re not hard rock, they’re not alt rock, they’re not Americana … they’re not derivative either since these two are almost old enough to have been around the first time some of these so called retro sounds were considered edgy (I figured I was getting too many old reference in, and didn’t want them to get a complex).

I have to admit this was really pleasant, and thankfully didn’t suck hairy tennis balls through a straw. Glen has a pleasant everyman voice, which lends a lot of charm to the recording. Marty is quite the busy bee throughout, playing not only bass, but guitar, keyboards, percussion and organ. David Raven add the back beat, which is very cool.

This was obviously a record the boys wanted to make, as there’s a tight looseness to the recording (internal editor: “Wait a minute, what is a tight looseness? You can’t just make up things like that can you?” Sure I can, I can do whatever I want) that gives this an easy natural feeling. You can tell they’re having fun. God bless the computer geeks of the world who have enabled home recordings to sound so good.

Most of the songs work really well. I really like the groove of the title track – it almost sounds like a song Barenaked Ladies could record. “When You Comin’ Home” is a song that is so familiar I can’t quite place it (Train, Dave Matthews, The Who?) … I’m sure at some point I’ll be able to place it. There are some unabashed pop songs such as “I’m in Love” which is infectious. The only song I didn’t really like right off was “Mister Time” which overtime has started to click. While there’s admittedly nothing groundbreaking here, there’s always room for a well crafted pop song.

This is pretty limited in terms of distribution so you’ll have to hunt for it. Try danielamos.com, cdbaby, or write the guys directly musiclarry-at-hotmail.com

Reviewed August 10, 2005

Additional Nov 4, 2005
P.S. Ah-hah! It was "If You're Gone" by Matchbox 20. There, now I can sleep tonight.

Tommyland: The Ride (©2005)

1. Good Times (w/ Butch Walker) 2. Hello Again (w/ Andrew McMahon: Something Corporate) 3. Tryin To Be Me 4. Sister Mary (w/ Carl Bell: Fuel) 5. The Butler 6. Tired (w/ Joel Madden: Good Charlotte) 7. I Need You (w/ Andrew McMahon: Something Corporate) 8. Make Believe 9. Makin' Me Crazy (w/ Dirty Harry) 10. Watch You Lose 11. Say Goodbye (w/ Nick Carter: Backstreet Boys) 12. Hello Again (Acoustic)

This was a huge surprise. Considering Tommy isn't exactly a kid anymore (heck he's older than me!) - I was torn between really liking this one, and thinking ol' Tommy was trying to hard to be a kid. 2005 was a big year for Mister Lee. Tommyland the book came out (which I've not read, but if I find a free copy I might ...), and Tommyland: The Ride - and most distressing was the Tommy the 43 year old dude who could be the dad of the kids he was in school with, but acts like a kid. To (mis)quote a line from an Adam Sandler movie (I saw it on TV, cut me some slack), "People were actually dumber for having watched it." It sucks getting older. Tommy's probably finding that he's a better musician now than he's ever been, but he's getting too old to be taken seriously. The guy really is a modern day Peter Pan.

I wasn't in a hurry to get this, but eventually curiosity won out. My first listen through I was actually really impressed. Yes, I know it's totally shameless, and is derivative, and doesn't bring anything new to the genre. But dang it, even knowing that, I got a kick out of the album. "Good Times" lifts some melody from Shawn Mullin's "Lullaby" - and then there's his Chad Kroegerisms where he out Nickelback's Nickelback on occasion (Chad appears on the album so I guess that's okay). He even does a passable power pop (I refuse to call it punk) song with Joel Madden on "Tired" which is actually a pretty funny tongue in cheek shot at the cult of celebrity.

Tommy stacks the deck with a bunch of his hip young friends and despite what could have been nothing more than a desperate and calculated attempt to be cool (or prove to himself that he was still a relevant force in music), I found myself thoroughly enjoying the album a lot more than I figured. In all a pretty good ride.

Reviewed February 16, 2008

Flamma Flamma (the Fire Requiem) (©1994 SUN/Sony)

1: Hic Iacet I 2: Hic Iacet II 3: Sumus Vicinae 4: Tegite Specula 5: Complorate Filiae 6: Vale Frater 7: Amice Mi 8: Cprpus Inimici 9: Deliciae Meae 10: Flamma Flamma 11: Ave Ignis 12: In Corpore 13: Agnus Purus 14: Ardeat Ignis

Every so often I'll go out and get something different and strange. You know, Philip Glass, John Adams, Carman. Back in 1994 I was channel surfing, and one of those pretentious artsy fartsy channels was showing a video by Nicholas Lens called "Flamma Flamma" the song was totally cool and I ran for a pad and pen so that I wouldn't forget.

Flamma Flamma features six classical soloists, and three members of "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares". These woman have such unusual voices that it creates an incredible juxtaposition between the two styles.

The whole album is a wonderful experiment and at times straddles between sounding like an art house soundtrack, an opera, and something Enigma would like to rip off. I'm really not the right person to try and adequately describe the effect - I'm totally ignorant to the finer points of the new music. However, as a fan who bought the album, and given my predisposition to polished pop songs, I find the appeal of this album hard to explain.

The show piece of the disc is the Flamma Flamma, it is infectious and I've yet to get tired of hearing it.

So for those people who get on my case about me not expanding my musical horizons beyond four chords and a back beat I humbly say to you, "Screw off" I have wider tastes than you realize.

Reviewed December 14, 2005

Huntington Beach (©1995 Brainstorm)

When She's Gone / Disappointed / Huntington Beach Police / Mrs. King / Rent A Cop / Out / Big Kimono / Sick / Daddy's Womp / The Day Elvis Died / Should Have Known / Joey Ramone / Who Is She / Get Outta My Life / Susie's Got Eyes For You

Ah remember when rock was raw, fun and the songs seldom cracked the three minute mark? Lifesavers are just about 20 years to late. They’d be right at home tearing down the establishment in 1979 with bands like XTC, The Records, The Clash and early Police.

I’m not saying this is completely out of date, but these guys are odd ducks in the mid 90’s. Still, punk is making a comeback of sorts. Lifesavers are more traditional punk - if there’s such a thing - not the polished glam pretend punk.

So how come only three stars if this is such a great piece of work? Easy, I’m being mean, and I’m not a huge fan of punk. I’m what you’d have to call white bread hardcore and that puts me a step above “poser” which means I like the music in measured doses. Huntington Beach makes the occasional trip to the CD player and it puts my foot to tappin’ but it’s not one of my favourite CDs.

Hats off to Mike Knott and company for keeping the home fires burning.

Reviewed April 3, 2003

Gordon Lightfoot

Gord's Gold (©1975 Warner Brothers / Reprise)

1: I'm Not Sayin'/Ribbon Of Darkness 2: Song For A Winter's Night 3: Canadian Railroad Trilogy 4: Softly 5: For Lovin' Me/Did She Mention My Name 6: Steel Rail Blues 7: Wherefore And Why 8: Bitter Green 9: Early Morning Rain 10: Minstrel Of the Dawn 11: Sundown 12: Beautiful 13: Summer Side Of Life 14: Rainy Day People 15: Cotton Jenny 16: Don Quixote 17: Circle Of Steel 18: Old Dan's Records 19: If You Could Read My Mind 20: Cold On the Shoulder 21: Carefree Highway

Gordon Lightfoot is a modern troubadour, and a hell of a Canadian institution. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm hard pressed to explain why I like this album so much, it goes against all that I grew up listening to. When I first bought it in the late 70's I was fully immersed in April Wine, Prism, and Styx, but for some reason the playing and the songs struck a chord with me.

The songs and the feel for melody Gord writes are wicked. Hats off to Gord for keeping it simple, guitars, bass, and limited percussion. I think a lot of writers today could go back and take notes. Although Sundown is still a song I have little patience for, I didn't like it as a kid, and although it doesn't stir the same sense of disgust it used to, it's still not among my favourite moments on this CD. Still out of 21 songs, one near stinker (which isn't even fair considering everyone disagrees with me, Sundown was a big hit for old Gord) doesn't come close to derailing this outstanding collection.

My only complaint now is that the 80 minute CD could more than accommodate Affair on 8th Avenue, which was left off due to limitations at the time. I think it's time for someone to polish up the collection.

Reviewed August 21, 2004

A Place In The Sun (©1999 RCA)

1: Four 2: My Own Worst Enemy 3: Down 4: Miserable 5: No Big Thing 6: Zip-Lock 7: Lovely Day 8: Perfect One 9: Quicksand 10: Happy 11: The Best Is Yet To Come Undone 12: A Place In The Sun

Music has hit a cross roads of sorts. I like power pop, or new punk, or alt rock, or whatever it goes by now – isn’t it “new rock” now? I find it hard to reconcile the fact that 1999 was half a decade ago, and that this type of musical expression hasn’t changed at all in style and tone for a number of years. It seems like the saturation point is still a ways away since there are still a lot of bands out there doing the same thing. In fact some of my favourite bands recently play this stuff, so go figure.

Lit is a band I know very little about, I remember a couple of the songs from radio, most specifically "My Own Worst Enemy" – which is good fun. In fact the whole album is a really good ride, it’s just that in terms of killer tracks that standout and scream “look at me!” there aren’t a lot to choose from. Sometimes being consistently good throughout isn’t as good as having the occasional dramatic flame out with a spectacularly bad song. It makes the good tunes standout. Am I advocating crappy tunes – no sir I am not. So what am I saying then? Beats me.

Reviewed January 24, 2005

Born Again Savage (©1999 Pachyderm / Renegade Nation)

The songs: Born Again Savage / Camouflage Of Righteousness / Guns, Drugs, And Alcohol / Face Of God / Saint Francis / Salvation / Organize / Flesheater / Lust For Enlightenment / Tongues Of Angels

Man when Little Steven gets it right, he gets it right. This is a smokin' record. This is a nod back to the pioneers of great rock. Take bits and pieces of The Yardbirds, The Who, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Stones and you get an idea of where this one is coming from musically. Lyrically this is a wonderful experience - he's got stuff he wants to say, and dag nabbit we're gonna listen. Even the songs I don't care for as much such as Guns, Drugs, And Alcohol, and Flesheater have something to say.

The band backing Little Steven this time features Jason Bonham on drums, and Adam Clayton on bass - they're a perfect backdrop for Little Steven's grinding guitar and vocals. From the first song to the last this is an aural assault. I love this one. "The Face Of God" and "Saint Francis" are worth getting the disc for. He winds up with "Tongues Of Angels" which is brilliant.

I almost didn't buy this one when I found it, glad I did.

Reviewed March 13, 2002

The New Sensation (©2003 Dyrty Byrd)

1: Song About Nothing 2: New Sensation 3: The Astronaut Has Landed 4: Haunting Me 5: Junk 6: Supernatural Girl 7: You Make My World Go Round 8: Just Got Back 9: Track Nine 10: Wonderland 11: Daydream 12: So In Love 13: Country Girl

Caution the following review contains imagery and language of an immature nature and is not intended for younger audiences or people without a sense of humour. To help you avoid the objectionable content the Webmaster has highlighted the offensive bits so that you can skip over them and are not exposed unnecessarily to crude and tasteless content.

Holy Crap (what a horrible way to start a review)! The boys done did go and deliver the goods on this one. I’ll admit to being somewhat nervous about hearing the finished version. I’d heard some of the early tunes, and a couple of different mixes of a couple tracks, and while they were okay, ‘Twern’t nothing to light my hair on fire over (what the heck is this? Self mutilation?). At worst I figured it would be okay.

There was a lot of noise about this being bubble gum pop, or Cheap Trick lite – so it was a hard thing to pigeonhole in advance – lord knows we love to pigeon hole things. Jamie Rowe’s own message board was divided into two camps – those who only wanted the hair metal shtick, and those who would buy a recording of Jamie breaking wind (Jamie never does this, and I’m sure his family resents the implications of this remark) heck, I’d buy that just for the novelty of it. Actually, a whole CD of celebrity farts would be pretty funny. “And, now ladies, and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America.” – insert raspberry here. Whoops missed a couple there, I'll watch a little closer.

Whoops. Well better late than never.

A while before the release of the project I hooked up with Jon the guitar player and we chatted about the band etc, and given what I heard was looking forward to checking out the finished product. It all sounded promising … so as soon as it was finished I put out the cash and bought one of the first 1000 copies.

Back to the task at hand. Jamie was really the wild card on this whole thing – those who picked up his e.p. already know of his love for power pop. But there are a lot of people who seem unable to accept Jamie as anything other than an 80’s rocker (cut the kid some slack he’s only in his early 30’s). For those who remember the Frantics three of them are here on London Calling.

This album was recorded in 4 days, and is astonishing in that this doesn’t sound like a simple live from the floor effort. It has layers and structure and a shitload (ah come-on, I tried thinking of another word, but it was the only one that fit. NO excuse, vulgarity is the poor man’s communication vehicle. Why not use truckload, or a whole bunch?) energy that sounds like it took some real time to put together. Hats off to the boys for catching lightning in a bottle.

“So how is it?” It’s freakin’ great. This is the best power pop album I’ve heard in a long time. This is music for people who like power chords, and great vocals. Yes, there are elements of Cheap Trick here (they cover Just Got Back), but this is stuff bands like Sum 41, Blink 182, Green Day, Weezer and Celine Dion (personally I find her distasteful, and I’m sure the bands you listed wouldn’t be all that happy appearing in the same sentence) would be proud to pull off.

This isn’t ground breaking stuff, it’s been done before – but boy howdy, not many do it this well. For an album that came together so quickly I can’t believe how solid the songs are – well accept for Country Girl – but as a musician I love musical humour and this is funny stuff.

Mark my words if these guys get decent distribution and push you’ll be hearing more of London Calling.

Reviewed July 14, 2003

PS This is about the longest and most disjointed reviews I’ve ever posted, and I had way too much chocolate and coffee before cranking up the CD and plopping down my thoughts. If I’ve offended anyone, all I can say is “Whoops, sorry about that, it won't happen again.”

You're So Lucky (©2004 Atenzia Records)

1: American Dream 2: Supernatural Girl 3: Beautiful Day 4: New Sensation 5: So In Love 6: Haunting Me 7: The Misfit Song 8: The Astronaut Has Landed 9: Fade Into Grey 10: Song About Nothing 11: One In A Million 12: Daydream 13: You Make My World Go Round

Aside from a truly horrible cover, everything about the updated release is superior to the limited edition New Sensation. The album was pretty strong before, and the five new songs mesh really well and are among the strongest songs on the new release. Which speaks pretty highly of things to come from the band - I would hazard a guess that they haven't even hit their stride yet. Beautiful Day and the Misfit Song are wicked!

These guys are solid players, and it's great to hear decent ear candy without having to put up with all of the poser nu-punk attitude (okay, so they don't smile for pictures, and they need to comb their hair - but they aren't posers). I'll stack London Calling up against any of their contemporaries. They're the real deal, and hopefully in the current climate of roster cuts and downsizing the boys beat the odds and get a deserved chance at world domination.

You're So Lucky is only available in North America as an import, but it is really worth hunting down. There are a number of places to find it, and it won't kill your pocket book. Check out the band's site for details.

Here's hoping the guys make enough money to at least buy combs for Jon and Matthew. Gee whiz kids, I can't believe you go out in public with hair like that. If that was me on a Sunday morning my mom would be licking the palm of her hand and trying to pat my hair down. You can still smile and have attitude (oh lord, I'm officially an old fart now).

Reviewed July 20, 2004

How Will the Wolf Survive? (©1984)

01 Don't Worry Baby 02 A Matter Of Time 03 Corrido #1 04 Our Last Night 05 The Breakdown 06 I Got Loaded 07 Serenata Nortena 08 Evangeline 09 I Got to Let You Know 10 Lil' King of Everything 11 Will the Wolf Survive?

Back in 1984 I was channel surfing and happened to catch the video for "Don't Worry Baby". I was totally hooked - what a great song. So I ran out and bought the record. I put it on, and the first song out the gate was the same song I'd heard on TV (or as they say, "As Seen on TV") but now it sounded great, because I had it cranked through my stereo. The other thing it had going for it was T Bone Burnett - the guy whose Proof Through the Night had lived on my turntable the year before.

So imagine my surprise after the first song when the album takes a right turn and leaves me listening to a strangely indescribable folk rock mariachi record that even had songs in Spanish. I felt the victim of a terrible bait and switch. However over time the juxtaposition of styles and influences would win me over.

The album doesn't overstay its welcome clocking in at just over 33 minutes and has a richness and staying power that has kept this album sounding fresh and poignant - while most of the album's contemporaries from the same period have been relegated to the nostalgia bin.

Sounds to me like the wolf didn't have too much to worry about after all.

Reviewed December 28, 2007

The Essential Lyrnyrd Skynyrd (©1998)

Disc one: 1: Sweet Home Alabama 2: I Ain't the One 3: Was I Right or Wrong 4: Gimme Three Steps 5: Workin' for MCA 6: Simple Man 7: Swamp Music 8: The Ballad of Curtis Loew 9: Saturday Night Special 10: Mr. Banker 11: Comin' Home 12: Call Me the Breeze 13: Free Bird

Disc two: 1. What's Your Name 2. Whiskey Rock-A-Roller 3. Tuesday's Gone 4. Double Trouble 5. I Know A Little 6. Four Walls Of Raiford 7. I Never Dreamed 8. Gimme Back My Bullets 9. You Got That Right 10. All I Can Do Is Write About It 11. That Smell 12. Free Bird

It took me over 25 years, but I finally replaced my old Gold and Platinum best of collection. There are other Skynyrd best of collections out there, and frankly I'd bet they're all pretty good. To the casual fan so long as "Sweet Home Alabama" "Saturday Night Special" and "Free Bird" (both the live and studio versions) are represented you've covered the basics. I have to admit I have never liked "free Bird", and still cannot see why it was such a big deal. However that's just me, and apparently I'm in the minority.

The Essential Lyrnyrd Skynyrd gathers 25 songs from across their too short career (PS I know they're still around, I'm referring to the band before the plane crash) and collects their best known songs, and goes deep to pull out a number of pretty good album cuts. In fact all but two songs from the old Gold and Platinum anthology are here: "Down South Junkin'" and "On The Hunt". There are a lot of songs here I'd never heard, and it was a lot of fun hearing them for the first time. If you're a hardcore fan you probably don't need this just to get a couple of previously unreleased songs, but if you've always liked the songs you heard on the radio, then this is the collection you need to have.

These guys were bigger than life, and proved that southern rock was genre all to itself.

Reviewed December 30, 2007