My Amazon Reviews: Todd Rundgren “The Definitive Rock Collection”

Name Your Price, A Ticket To Paradise...
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Trying to boil Todd Rundgren's prolific output down to two CD's basically means nobody will ever be completely satisfied. That holds true for this "Definitive Rock Collection." While it tries mightily to give Todd's music a fair shake, I will still say that there's songs that I wished were here. But that hardly matters, as everything here is good to great. Not a dud in the set.

Todd has a little bit of everything. Classic pop songwriting ("Hello It's Me"), soul bred from his life in Philadelphia ("The Want of a Nail" with soul legend Bobby Womack), and harder rock (mainly with Utopia, represented here by "Hammer In My Heart"). There was even the prog-rock that some albums ("Ra" or "Something/Anything") reached for that is sadly not represented here. You do get many songs here that should have been hits (probably because of Bearsville Record's notoriously chintzy promotional tactics) like "Time Heals" or "Real Man." Same with Utopia, who were cheated out of a hit when England Dan and John Ford Coley covered "Love Is The Answer." However, this being the first Rundgren anthology that includes choice Utopia songs does give this set an edge over others. We can also add that the re-mastering is excellent and begs the question of why there haven't been deluxe editions of some of Todd's best (Come on Rhino, you already have the catalog).

I have some personal faves here, like "Compassion," "Love In Action" and "Change Myself." You get the hits themselves, "Hello It's Me," "We Gotta Get You a Woman," "I Saw The Light" and "Can We Still Be Friends" but not Todd's top 40 remake of "Good Vibrations" from "Faithful." The almost hits "Bang On The Drum All Day" (which has become something of a radio staple since), "A Dream Goes On Forever" and "The Verb To Love." Then there are the unsung heroes like the terrific Utopia songs, "Cry Baby," and "Love In Action" or Todd's "All The Children Sing."

As I noted previously, there are those who will nit-pick that "The Definitive Rock Collection" miss a whole batch of prime Todd (like skipping The Nazz's "Open My Eyes") but for a primer for Rundgren and Utopia, you'll have a tough time finding better short of your own playlist.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Hozier "Hozier"

That's a Fine Looking High Horse.
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Hozier hit the jackpot with his first pull of the lever. "Take Me To Church" is haunting, daunting and almost painful to listen to, which makes it virtually impossible to get it out of your head. It warranted the purchase of "Hozier," the self titles debut CD. He's got a decent voice for the near blues of the bulk of the album, and he's an OK songwriter, but one problem. None of the other songs catches fire the way "Take Me To Church" does. I'll give points to "Jackie and Wilson," it's a fairly clever bit of singer-songwriter workout. There's also the duet "In A Week" (with Karen Cowley), which offers some variety from Hozier's vocal angst. The lack of more memorable songs is exacerbated by the album's length; there's 13 songs that drag into each other. That's a shame, because "Take Me To Church" is a five star song, but the rest of "Hozier" just doesn't measure up.

     

My Amazon Reviews: OK Go "Hungry Ghosts"

Appetite For Power Pop
4 Out Of 5 Stars

For better or for worse, OK Go are more known as the band who make videos of themselves on treadmills and inside contraptions made up to look like real life versions of the Mousetrap game. What gets overlooked is that, for four albums now, there's a first rate pop-rock band hidden behind the paint balls. "Hungry Ghosts," four years after "Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky," captures that effortless pop fun that the band has been excelling at since their debut.

Admittedly, the oddly funky and falsetto filled "Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky" was a divisive album for fans, but that can be forgiven here. "Hungry Ghosts" keeps some of "Colour's" quirks while integrating them into the new music. It means the twitchy new wave of the debut is tempered into sonic neatness like the atmospheric "Another Set of Issues." They haven't completely forgone their fascination with Prince by way of The Cars, like the cowbell clanging "Obsession" and the danceable "I Won't Let You Down" shows. Vocalist Damian Kulash gleefully bounds from the straightforward power pop vocals to the funky stuff while making the whole of "Hungry Ghosts" a cohesive album.

While "Oh No" remains OK Go's high-water mark, "Hungry Ghosts" is a crowd pleaser. Fans will be happy to hear OK Go in fine form, and note that the four year wait was well worth it. From the pop magic of "Upside Down and Inside Out" that opens things up to the gentle strains of the final "Lullaby," this is a solid album from beginning to end, proving they can have their say without adorable trained dogs to guide them.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Gavin DeGraw "Make A Move"

Gavin Makes His Big Pop Move
3 Out Of 5 Stars

After the top ten success of "Sweeter," touring with Train and Maroon 5, you could hardly blame Gavin DeGraw for wanting his albums to achieve that headliner level of success on his own. "Make a Move" is just that kind of album, tasting of the generic pop Maroon 5 turns out on a regular basis, but minus the charisma of an Adam Levine, and pumped up production-wise until it falls victim to the loudness wars. Even with a decent stereo system, "Best I Ever Had" splats its way through its over-compression. If that's not enough, the songs here are all co-helmed by hired guns like Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, which robs the songs of personality but makes them sound exquisitely tailored for pop radio, like the way "Heartbreak" so effortlessly clones Maroon 5.

That's a darn shame, as the best moments of "Sweeter" and earlier albums showed a promising keyboardist writing and performing some nicely personal work and showing some semblance of personality, ala Five For Fighting's John Ondrasik. As over-done as "Best I Ever Had" is, it's still a darn fine poptune. Same for the mellower "Everything Will Change," co-written with Boys Like Girls' Martin Johnson (who made their pop move on their last album, "Crazy World"), but it still feels like the most personal song on "Make a Move." In total, there aren't any real bad songs here, only indistinguishable ones. That isn't always a hindrance, so if the album wasn't so darn over-produced, I might have bumped it to a fourth star. Between the over-cooked sound and what sounds like a general removal of Gavin's personality, "Make a Move" comes off as generic. He's done better.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Paul McCartney "New"

You've got something that will save us now.
4 Out Of 5 Stars
 

Like the modernistic neon bars used to indicate the "New" title, Paul McCartney steps up to the new world of modern-ish music and applies a sheen and glow to his newest collection of pop-tunes. While "Memory Almost Full" seemed like a coda to a long career and well lived life and "Kisses From The Bottom" had a wiff of the old-fogy about it, "New" tosses that aside and finds McCartney still willing to challenge his younger contemporaries, down to having hot-shot Mark Ronson produce a few selections, in particular, the buoyant title track.

The lead-off, "Save Us," is a rocker in the Wings mold, without the annoyance of "Nod Your Head" (from "Memory") or the screaming mania of "Cut Me Some Slack," the song Paul recorded with the surviving members of Nirvana. Yes, despite the willingness to go out on the occasional limb, "New" is an album that is eager to please, even if it doesn't play its hand as a totally safe one. In that aspect, it's reminiscent of "Flaming Pie," one of Paul's best from the 90's. Which also means that there's a shout out to his days as a Liverpool youngster on "Early Days," where he tells those who have romanticized The Beatles too much for his tastes by stating "I don't see how they can remember/When they weren't where it was at."

McCartney certainly isn't above a little cheekiness, as "Early Days" and the buzzy "Queenie Eye" show. And who would have thought Paul still had time for a little lyrical nonsense like the clever "Alligator?" It's also a pleasant surprise to hear the keyboard driven "Road," which is the haunting final song before the uncredited song "Scared." "I'm still too scared to tell you...the simplest of words won't come out of my mouth, though I'm dying to set them free," he croons in the way only McCartney can in "Scared." That McCartney can still be so emotionally naked and willing to try and challenge himslef in the way "New" does is a pretty remarkable feat for a man making music for over 50 years.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Glee Cast "Glee Sings The Beatles"

Guaranteed to Raise a Smile
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Glee hasn't shied away from The Beatles before, including some very deft covers, like Chris/Kurt doing "Blackbird." This time, though, for "Glee Sings The Beatles." they are tackling the Fab Four across two of the TV episodes and one full CD. Much like the attempts to do Madonna, Rocky Horror, or Grease, they're going all in. If you're a true purist who couldn't even tolerate the soundtrack to "I Am Sam" or "Across The Universe," you might have issues. Surprisingly, however, Glee takes on a handful of fairly obvious Beatles classics and treats them with respect.

I can't imagine what was going through the hearts and minds of the cast as they were taking on some of the more emotional heft of some of the songs here, so close to the passing of Cory Montieth/Finn. But when Lea Michelle opens up on "Yesterday," you can hear the emotion pouring out. Easily the best performance of the album, even if any other circumstances surrounded it. For the most part, the arrangements are kept close to the originals, with the exception of "Got To Get You Into My Life," where 'Klaine' mix it up with a marching band. On the TV episode, they even went as far as making a mock-up of the Ed Sullivan set for "When I Saw Her Standing There."

The CD does do a split between early and later Beatles, saving the music from the older period for the second episode. "Get Back" is stripped to just a piano version, and frankly, it's almost impossible to screw up "Let It Be," hay Jude" or "Here Comes The Sun" while you're staying faithful to the arrangements. With "Something" being one of my top ten personal favorite Beatles songs, I'd take it as blasphemy to try and mess with the original. In fact, the only stumble on this disc is performing "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and then NOT following through with "A Little Help From My Friends."

When Glee started, this was the kind of music I was expecting from the show. The first two seasons did a lot to mix in classic pop, modern songs abd show tunes in equal measure, to the point where I thought the "Presents The Warblers" was one of the best of the batch. For "Glee Sings The Beatles," the do a service to some of these records that inching towards their 60th Birthday, and that is bringing them to a whole new group of listeners. That's something I'm all for happening.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Train "California 37"

When You Move Me, Everything Is Groovy
5 Out of 5 Stars

Proving that "Save Me San Francisco" was no fluke, Train roll on with their career's second act with "California 37." They've matured into a first class pop band, wielding hooks alongside an often bizarre sense of humor. Kind of like Maroon 5, but without the teen-idol thing going on. They're even smart enough to self-reference their surprising comeback on the opening song by giving lead singer Pat Monahan the opportunity to give both a history of his life and the evolution of Train in under four minutes, but to thank the band's fans and then do it all without the least bit of irony. "This'll Be My Year" alone would put the album at 4 stars just for compositional value alone.

However, "California 37" has plenty of other charms. There's the twisted "50 Ways to Say Goodbye," in which Monahan cuts down an ex-lover by singing "How could you leave me on Yom Kippur?" The mariachi inspired horns on "Drive By" (a great single, by the way), lift that song into a fun and unusual direction, and the title track again turns to Train's fans and thanks them for being there when the band wasn't in the spotlight.

Relationships are also put to the test, song-wise, including "You Can Finally Meet My Mom," sung as a plaintive love song with a straight face. Country singer Ashley Monroe sings along in a duet about old flames getting back together in "Bruises," made ironic by the fact that both parties are coming down from bad relationships. Train keeps making these very standard sounding pop songs that have crispy tops, so the temptation to call "Highway 37" perfect is awfully close. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. At the very least it's a 4.5 just on the unconventionality of the lyrics and the fact that I've been listening to it for over a year without getting tired of it.