My Amazon Reviews: Muse “Drones”

Gonna Make You, Gonna Break You.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

In all heir pompous glory, Muse are old fashioned prog-rock band, with the fat trimmed off and aspirations toward the big statement. With "Drones," that landed a live one. "Drones" is allegedly about the dehumanizing of men and the militarization of the world. Y'know, you're a drones, we fight with drones and don't you make me one. Packed with big guitars, flourishing keyboards and Queenly harmonies, it's just what a Muse fan would be looking for, The concept gets a little wavy at times, but it's all good music.

The best songs are where the band stretches out, like "Pyscho" or the sprawling "Aftermath," a 10-minute epic that starts with an Ennio Morricone whistle, plays into a Pink Floyd vibe before finally tearing into some muscular metal. And that's before Matt Bellamy even sings a note, which he does over another flourish of piano. It's not like Muse has not tread this turf before, there was the two-pronged title track to "The Second Law" and the three part "Exogenesis" off "The Resistance." Just this time, they crammed it all into one song and rock it into submission. Same for the album opener, "Dead Inside," which throbs like Queen's "We Will Rock You."

I'm all for bands making sloppy concept albums. Done well, the concept often takes a back seat to the songs (like "Drones") or overwhelms and makes the album fly along one big trajectory (think of the classic Jethro Tull album, "Thick as a Brick"). Either way, you'll get more bang for your buck, and Muse are such a great band that "Drones" is a big deal of fun, without the overwhelm. It's as much a concept album as a return to form. Top notch stuff.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Bryan Ferry “Avonmore”

Avonmore Evermore
3 Out Of 5 Stars

There is still, always, that voice. The seductive, world weary croon that masters sublime mood and the occasional glimmer of funk-pop. The atmosphere of the best of Roxy Music and the various high points of his solo career, which has been maddeningly inconsistent. But at his best ("Avalon" will always be on my desert island list), Ferry has a grace few can equal. As he nears the age of 70, "Avonmore" strives to find those heights. Given his age, that old world weary man just slips into it like a glove.

Calling the CD "Avonmore" is hardly and accident. In much the same way that "Olympia" took a sample from "Avalon" to compose "Olympia's" "You Can Dance," the tempos and atmosphere are meant to evoke memories of that classic Roxy. However, the sound of "Avonmore" harkens more to "Boys and Girls" and "Bete Noire" than anything Roxy has recorded. Musically, I'd say he makes the mark about 50% of the time here. "Loop Di Li," "One Night Stand" and the title track are vintage Ferry, engaging pop with funky undertones, while "Lost" is the enigmatic Ferry (and also the shortest song here) and features Mark Knopfler on guitar. The cast also includes Flea, Nile Rodgers and Johnny Marr, even though you'd never know it because the sonics of "Avonmore" are just that consistent, even if the songs seem mostly to be retreads.

It's that consistency that lays a trap for the disc's final two songs. He covers Stephen Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns" and then Robert Palmer's "Johnny and Mary." Like his albums of classic cover songs during the Roxy era and his dreadful "Dylanesque," Ferry transforms these into his own. But covering Sondheim is a daunting task for just about everyone, and Ferry misses the target. It's just not a song to be Ferr-iszed. "Johnny and Mary" fares a little better by slowing Palmer's electronic groove down to a misty piano and bubbly synth. It makes the characters something of a middle aged couple who really do "need the world to tell him he ain't lonely." It's an odd way to end an album that, two songs before, had Ferry's position as an elder statesman of ennui secured. Adding these two songs at the end feels almost like an afterthought, like he just wanted to prove that he could take any song in the world and it would just drop into place. It doesn't work, and that is part of the reason I only rated "Avonmore" as an average, three star album.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Dream Academy "The Morning Lasted All Day; A Retrospective"

Ah hey ma ma ma ma...
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Long overdue but well worth the wait, "The Morning Lasted All Day" finally collects a solid set of The Dream Academy's best from their three albums, a few B-sides and oddities and the brand new "Sunrising." Augmented with a comprehensive booklet written by Nick Laird-Clowes, exquisitely remastered with his supervision, this is about as good a Dream Academy anthology as a fan could hope for.

While it naturally is heavily weighted in favor of their dynamic debut, both "Remembrance Days" and "A Different Kind Of Weather" are given exposure. (I've always been of the mindset that "Weather," despite the fact that it didn't even chart in the US, has been vastly underrated.) The band's chamber-pop gets much of its otherworldliness from Kate St. John's oboe and other reed instruments flowing beneath Laird-Clowes' folkish guitars and vocal delivery. There's a lovely sort of soft focus to many of their songs that made the majority of them difficult to fit in during the synth-heavy 80's, leaving such contenders as "Indian Summer" and "Power To Believe" (included here both in its instrumental version as heard on the "Planes Trains and Automobiles" soundtrack, and the vocal version from "Remembrance Days") frozen out of the top 40.

The ethereal quality of their songs a times masked the presence of noteworthy contributors. Friend of the band and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour was a frequent collaborator and co-producer, Lindsay Buckingham co-producing and adding background vocals to "Indian Summer," and The Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr playing on "Ballad In 4/4." It takes away nothing from the band's presentation, even offering proof just how powerful The Dream Academy 'sound' was to all the stages of the band's recording history.

I have a few of my own favorites to recommend as a fan, one of them being the lovely version of John Lennon's "Love," as featured on "Weather." Actually using a drum-loop, Laird-Clowes brings an emphasis to Lennon's message (including a portion of "#9 Dream") that few covers of Lennon have done. The cover of The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" is good for a smile, and I have always thought "Indian Summer" was a single cheated out of deserved hit status. Then there's "Sunrising," the first new Dream Academy song in 30 years. It's a welcome treat and fits in with the band's legacy, with Gilbert Gabriel's piano painting the mood (alas, St.John is not featured on it).

Even with that minor wish not coming true, I am very happy to have "The Morning Lasted All Day" to augment my original CD's of The Dream Academy. The remastering enables you to hear things that were tempered in the originals, and makes for a satisfying listening experience. Now if only the original albums could get the deluxe treatment....

     

My Amazon Reviews: Arctic Monkeys "AM"

They Want The Airwaves
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After the tentative "Suck It And See," Arctic Monkeys ditch any subtlety and go right for the big boom stomp on their "AM" release of steam. It's obvious they've been paying attention to the outside world, as the first time I heard the CD's opener "Do I Wanna Know," I thought it was a new Black Keys songs. All slam drums and guitar distort, "Do I Wanna Know" finds lead singer Alex Turner growling "Have you no idea you're in deep" with appropriate menace, while the ballad "Number 1 Party Anthem" tears down a bar to its after hours essence of "Lights in the floor and sweat on the walls, call off the search for your soul"

There are still a couple of the jagged barbs of guitar that recall the teenage racket of their first couple of CD's, but for the most part, this is a grown up album. Allegedly inspired by Alex Turner's breakup with model and TV host Alexa Chung, the songs here are both snippy ("Why'd You Only Call Me When You're Drunk" to the wistfully resigned "Mad Sounds." Queens Of The Stonage honcho Josh Homme (who had produced the band in the past) contributes spooky "be my baby" falsetto to "Knee Socks," a song that almost matches Franz Ferdinand's choppy disco rock.

There's plenty of satisfaction on "AM," which has one ear to current trends and one ear tuned to the radio, Given the two way interpretation of the title as both the band's initials and the old fashioned delivery system of popular hits, Arctic Monkeys have comeback with arguably their best album since their debut.

     

My Amazon Reviews: UB40 "Greatest Hits"

...Goes to My Head
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Probably the most successful reggae band in the world (and at the very least in terms of American success), UB40 started life as a leftist political band and ultimately ended up a bizarrely successful cover band. Their name taken from the UK equivalent of an Unemployment form, this "Greatest Hits" collection does a real good job of making sure that you'll discover that the band was more than just their reggae-fied takes on 60's and 70's oldies.

Vocalist Ali Campbell had plenty of swagger and that helped to make the protest songs (like "One In Ten," a slap at Margaret Thatcher) convincing. He could also croons convincingly, as he does on "Please Don't Make Me Cry." The cover of the Gospel standard "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" presented Ali as a soulman, and the song became popular after being adopted by the 2003 English Rugby team. Ali and his brother Robin were formidable songwriters, and the bulk of the songs were full band efforts.

But it was the covers that made them stateside success, and they're all here. The breakthrough version of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine" is here, but in its single version (minus the toasting of member Terence "Astro" Wilson) and that holds my review from being 5 stars. (Also a minus, no real information/liner notes/photography other than songtitles and album credits.) The three "Labour Of Love" collections was where the bulk of the covers were taken, including the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do," Al Green's "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)." Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love," came from "Promises and Lies," and their version of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" (with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders) came from "Baggariddim," but was one of the band's first US hits. They'd try that duet trick again with "Breakfast In Bed," to lesser results.

The band eventually fell into the trap of aiming at the cover version singles as their bread and butter, losing their edge as a band. But the singles across all the albums were always UB40's strong suit, and this "Greatest Hits" spotlights the band in their heyday (before Ali left). You can choose your speed...the ultra-poppish covers or the stinging reggae of "If It Happens Again" or "Kingston Town." Either way, you'll come out ahead.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Jake Bugg "Shangri La"

Take a Trip to Shangri La
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The latest in "new Dylan" wunderkinds is 19 year old Jake Bugg, a Brit who sounds like he popped out of the Greenwich Village clubs with his enigma fully intact and a sophomore album called "Shangri La." And yes, that's a compliment. He's plugged in and has Rick Rubin on his team to peel back any unnecessary varnish that might have gotten stuck to the kid had anyone tried to polish him up. He's such a young gun that his voice even sounds like it has acne. That nasal bleat on "There's a Beast and We All Feed It" could only come from someone too young to realize that he hasn't conquered the world just yet, but old enough to think that it should be listening to his every pronouncement.

Jake Bugg can run the gamut from that hard chugging opener to the more introspective "Me and You."

"All these people want us to fail
But I won't let that happen now."

He sings this line like he's a knight coming to a rescue. The kid excels in earnestness. The closest I can recall another album that believed in itself so definitively was Ryan Adams when he released "Gold," and I like "Shangri La" so much more than that album. His age is not a hindrance as he tackles some adult themes on "Storm Passes Away," along with a decent pedal steel, or the street denizens of "Messed Up Kids."

There is a lot of raw talent on "Shangri La," and it's good to hear a young talent that isn't spun off the hit-making machinery of some TV Talent contest. You may have to get past the nasal twang in the young man's voice (which is why he wouldn't have lasted an audition for the likes of "American Idol"), but give yourself an opportunity and you'll hear what sounds to me like a first class singer-songwriter on the way up. Jake Bugg is the real deal.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Clash "The Singles"

This is a Public Service Announcement...With Guitars!
5 Out of 5 Stars

Way back when, some muckity muck in the CBS Records Promo Department had the brilliant idea to slap a sticker across covers of the new Clash double LP that read "The Only Band That Matters." Even if the rest of the artists on the CBS roster might have been wondering a hearty WTF were they, chopped liver moment, but in 1979, The Clash actually felt like they could be that band. The band that all the hopes and dreams of rock and roll prophets whispered about in dark rooms when they quietly mused to themselves that a savior would be born unto them, bearing loud electric guitars, politically savvy lyrics and swagger that would never end. In 1979, it really felt like The Clash just might be that band. Hence, the 5 stars for The Singles.

But we all know how those kind of dreams end up. When Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon kicked Mick Jones out of the band and recorded "Cut The Crap," the world suddenly gave a collective yawn, and the general consensus to "Cut The Crap" was somebody, please pull the plug. But from 1979 to 1985, The Clash charged forth with revolutionary single after single often attached to stunning albums. If you don't have "London Calling," stop reading this review and order it now. They may not have been the best singers or the most proficient musicians, but that didn't stop them from playing fast, loud and even early on, playing with reggae and other influences than their punk roots might suggest.

So while you get the fury of "Clash City Rockers," you have the single "White Man in Hammersmith Palais," backing up the guitar roar with a reggae tune...both from their ferocious debut. Even more incredible is just how fast The Clash got better at what they were doing. The big riff of "London Calling" was matched by the almost soulful "Train In Vain" (their US breakthrough single). They were also going deeper into other musical forms, soon cutting rap-influenced songs like "The Magnificent Seven" and "This Is Radio Clash." Even as bloated as "Sandinista" was, the singles "Hitsville UK" and the politically charged "The Call Up" could blow you over.

It's interesting that their final, absolute American breakout was arriving as the band was beginning to fracture; "Combat Rock" delivered the remarkable "Rock The Casbah" and the big guitar attack of "Should I Stay or Should I Go." The album cover itself had the band on train tracks, quite literally at a crossroads. But even after splintering, they still could pull one more ace out of "Cut The Crap," the lovely and ironic "This Is England." Then it was over, except for side projects (Big Audio Dynamite being the most successful). But for the 20 singles collected on this The Singles, the final song sums it up. These were "Groovy Times" indeed.