Old Traditions are New Again

4 Out of 5 Stars

The long awaited reissue and remaster of Devo's 1981 "New Traditionalists" is well worth the wait. I've had this CD in three different forms now; an early 90's Japanese import, stolen from me and replaced by the Infinite Zero version, and finally, this. I had also read the saga of the disintegrating master-tape a long time back, but this version is the best "New Traditionalists" has ever sounded. More punch, thicker bass and bottom, much better definition.

There's also the fact that Devo was on a creative roll at the time. They'd just had a major hit with "Freedom Of Choice," had done major TV shows and concerts, and this was meant to be the album that kept that momentum going forward, moving ahead. New Traditionalists" found DEVO in that precarious state. Their arty irony and brainy pop smarts had made them a flavor of the moment and suddenly the whole world was chanting "are we not men?" It both emboldened them and deepened their cynicism.

"Through Being Cool" rallied the alienated to rise against the ninnies and the twits at the same time "Beautiful World" wearily declared that it might have been a beautiful world for you, but "it's not for me." After all, how could you rail against the lemming/jock mentality when they were the ones donning energy domes at the football games and singing "Whip It" at corporate synergy rallies? But having been touched by the gold finger of hit making, DEVO did their best to fill an album with enthusiastic pogo anthems about their favorite topics, love sex and the willful decline of the human condition. "Jerking Back and Forth" and "Love Without Anger" are typical visions of human relationships ala DEVO. (The stop motion doll video for "L.W.A." is among the band's best.) "Going Under" had them tinkering with their sound a little.

While it charted about the same as its predecessor, none of the singles performed as did "Whip It" and the record was considered a commercial disappointment. (Oddly enough, "Working In a Coal Mine" came from the movie "Heavy Metal" and was inserted as a single into original album pressings, was a bonus track on the Infinite CD, and is left off here. Also missing, the "Devo Saves The Children" poster art.) The bonus tracks are nothing much to speak of, other than they show what molds "Super Thing," "That's Good" and "Patterns" were cast from. What I am really hoping for now is the ultimate remasters on the remaining Devo albums, even "Smooth Noodle Maps."

My Amazon Reviews: Bruce Springsteen "The Rising"

May Your Strength Give Us Strength

5 Out of 5 Stars

While many artists tried to pour their feelings about September 11, 2001 into song, few made it work. Alan Jackson, Yes. Paul McCartney, No. Toby Keith, double plus no. But only Bruce Springsteen answered his muse with an entire album built around his interpretations of the moment. Like his other American Epics "Born In The USA" and "Burn To Run," "The Rising" is an astonishing work. He looks for revenge ("Into The Fire," "Empty Sky"), redemption ("Further On Up The Road") and the return of hope at "Mary's Place," where the E Street Band bursts into the anthemic rock they're beloved for.

Yet unlike most performers who focused on the jingoistic aspects of the time, Springsteen, most controversially, looked into the souls of those who could perpetrate such a vile action and then wrote "Paradise." Like his look at the everyday people he has always championed, "Paradise" hits a bulls-eye in a sad and chilling way. On these shores, Springsteen also profiles the confused hero as he tries to sort out his part in the the morning his "life was forever changed in a misty cloud of pink vapor" in "Nothing Man."

While the population of "The Rising" have been dealing with this incredible sadness, Springsteen still makes it all feel cathartic. The title song is almost a call to gospel as it struggles to overcome the deep wound ("Let's Be Friends" tries, but doesn't meet the challenge.) They all still struggle with the shock and pain, but Springsteen managed to try and look forward even as each song's narrator dealt with the empty beds, homes and "the long black line of cars snaking through town." On "The Rising," Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band found a way to look into that "blood red circle on the cold dark ground" and hope that there could still be a future.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Sparks "Profile: The Ultimate Collection"

Squeezing Out Sparks
4 Out of 5 Stars

From their inception as Half Nelson to the current incarnation as avant-garde popists, Ron and Russell Mael have defied every convention, inspired hundreds of other bands, developed a rabidly loyal cult following (count me as a member) and yet, this is the only compilation of their work to date. While it may be hard to top this double disc set, I find that fact a little depressing.

However, over two discs and 40 songs, Sparks show why their fans are almost deliriously devoted to the Mael brothers. There's three decades worth of good music to be found here, and a chance to hear how the band and music itself has evolved through the years. Starting with the earlier singles, like "Wonder Girl" and the still astonishing "This Town Ain't Big Enough for The Both of Us," the band's mix of English theater and Glam took hold. Naturally, no one in America bought the act. So they headed for England and, just as naturally, become huge.

It's easy to see the qualities that made Sparks so influential at the time. Russell's vocals obviously had an influence on a young Freddie Mercury, and the quirky lyrical qualities seem to have filtered into bands like 10cc. Then you have the 'look' of poster-boy Russel with mustachioed nerd and keyboard whiz Ron, a dichotomy the likes of Cheap Trick doubled down on. Rick Nielsen obviously liked the kind of subversive glam Sparks put out, as their "Surrender" could have dropped out of a Sparks album.

But it was Sparks' lack of USA success that seemed to allow them the leeway to try anything. The thin sound of earlier albums led to bigger, funnier numbers like "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" and maybe the only pop song to ask about Albert Einstein's life as a kid on "Talent Is An Asset." When that got to be boring for the brothers, they did a complete 180 and asked Giorgio Moroder to produce the Munich Disco "No 1 In Heaven," a 1979 primer for the likes of Depeche Mode and The Human League.

History finally caught up with Sparks, as albums like "Angst In My Pants" and the song "I Predict" began to break through on MTV. The exaggerated focus finally paid off when Go-Go and fan Jane Wiedlin dueted on the sublime "Cool Places" and "Sparks In Outer Space" finally became a commercial sucess in America. While that was the band's commercial peak, it is by no means the artistic one. Such chucklefests as "All You Ever Think About Is Sex" and the seriously great "Change" continued Sparks' sting of creativity.

The collection goes up to 1988, but there are several Sparks albums since. You can still buy this set, thanks to Rhino, but the band continues their subversive streak on albums like Hello Young Lovers and Exotic Creatures of the Deep.