My Amazon Reviews: Ed Sheeran "X"

Be Fruitful and Multiply
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Ed Sheeran makes his play for more mainstream sound on his second major label album "X" (multiply). His previous album "+" was a singer-songwriter triumph. I thought it was the breakout album of the year. It also established Ed as a bona fide star and an unlikely sex symbol. Yet after that explosion of success, Sheeran decides to mess with the formula. The resulting album is a frustrating mix of sensitive singer-songwriter material and urban hip-hop influences.

Ed has a rather thin voice to start with, and when he applies it to wrap he's whiter than Vanilla Ice.this takes up three of "X's" twelve songs. While the songs are distraction, they don't totally dilute the quality of the album. It's also worth noting it's also worth noting that "X" suffers from multiple producer syndrome, bouncing back and forth between Jake Gosling and hip-hop icon Pharell. While Gosling handles the more sensitive singer-songwriter material, its Pharell that pushes Sheeran in the more urban direction. Sometimes it works to spectacular effect, as it did on the hit single "Sing." "Sing" is a high point on the album.

But then again, you're stuck with the rap songs. The worst of these is "The Man," which almost caused me to dock the album by a full star. Not only is the rap annoying, the song is unnecessarily censored. Sheeran, with all the twists and turns he makes on "X," turns sheepish and bleeps a couple of f-bombs and a reference to defecating. If he's so intent on establishing his credibility as both a singer-songwriter and urban contemporary recording artist, then cutting out words that some might find offensive is cheap. You're a good enough singer and a songwriter that you could've easily used different words. Leaving them on the album only to cut them in post-production is not an admirable trait.

Overall, "X" is a satisfying album. Sheeran is possibly one of the most gifted singer songwriters of the present day, and for whatever flaws this album has, it overcomes them just on the basis of sheer talent. If you're willing to overlook Sheeran's voyages into hip-hop and rap, ("+" also explored these elements, but not to the extent that "X" does) then you will enjoy this album. If not, then this review serves both purposes of being a warning and an endorsement.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Jimmy Buffett "Fruitcakes"

Giving Fruitcakes to Friends
3 Out of 5 Stars

Jimmy Buffet had his schtick down so perfectly that his legions of Parrotheads would/will pick up on anything the man does, good bad or indifferent. "Fruitcakes," issued in 1994, is one of the better of his middle period of albums, and channels the world where the summer never ends, the margaritas are always fresh and the Caribbean music rolls easy 24/7. However, Buffet sounds more inspired than usual, delivering patter worthy of his stage show and maybe even taking a chance or two.

The most inspired moments on "Fruitcakes" are the title song and an unusual choice of covers. He gives a rant that ends in a Network cast Howard Beale "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" that has more to do with not wanting giant cherry sodas at the movie complex before musically diving into politics, religion and "your tax dollars at work." Of course all he really wants is for his pals to all just relax and take it easy.

Then there's his reggae-fication of The Grateful Dead's "Uncle John's Band," shape shifting the song from its country folk roots into a loping groove that any Parrothead could love. Then again, I never saw that much light between Deadheads and Parrotheads, which may be why the transition in style works so well. Things are a little different on The Kinks' "Sunday Afternoon." Instead of Ray Davies' mournful tale of societal and marital woes, Buffet takes to the life of luxury and makes it sound like a day of sipping Colas under the palm trees. Davies would have done anything to get back his old life where Buffet makes it just another day at the party.

The rest of the tracks are pretty much standard Buffet fare, with love songs to his family ("Delaney Talks to Statues"), living the carefree life ("Lone Palm") and tongue in cheek shoreline humor ("Apocalypso"). It's nothing you haven't heard Buffet do a million times over, but "Fruitcakes" sounded genuinely engaging and still holds up fairly well today.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Aimee Mann "@#%&! Smilers"

Roll me like a dollar bill
4 Out Of 5 Stars 

Aimee Mann does something of a return to form after the concept album of "The Forgotten Arm" as she spends a rueful 13 songs that take aim at the "@#%&;*! Smilers" of the world. It's a collection of piano driven songs made alive by Mann's voice, tying the observations together. It's a collection of songs this time minus a concept, with Mann's snarky worldview punctuated by horns ("Borrowing Time") a new wavish recall of her 80's days ("Freeway") and a woozy barroom duet with Sean Hayes ("Ballantines"). While nothing here pops (in fact, my sole complaint is that the sound of the album tends to the homogenous side), every song unfolds its charm after repeated plays.

That is usually the case with most Mann albums, since she's more an accomplished lyricist than rocker. Subtlety is her biggest strength, and that is on full display on "Smilers." She gets that life is a series of often confusing and confused people in relationships that reflect that confusedness. On "31 Today," she wonders why her life isn't better than the way it's turned out as a new decade of life begins. Or how the disconnected junkie who comes to California to turn over a new leaf in "Freeway" is unknowingly walking into the lion's den. Then there's the fighting couple in "Medicine Wheel" who could have come straight out of "The Forgotten Arm's" codependent pairing.

It's those kind of characters and the consistency of Mann's albums that makes the curse of the CD's title something of an inside joke. The album is smoother than most of her regular work, and there's nothing angry more than grousing. "@#%;*! Smilers" delivers what Mann's fans have come to expect per albums like "I'm With Stupid" and "Lost In Space," and that's excellent songwriting with pleasures that grow thw more you lat the album play through the days.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Five For Fighting "Slice"

Shifting Slices of American Pie  
4 Out of 5 Stars

When Five For Fighting (aka John Ondrasik's) album "America Town" broke out in 2001, John seemed to be stuck somewhere between sensitive singer-songwriter and John Mellencamp blue-collar scribe. A decade later for "Slice," he has fully divested himself of the blue-collar tough-guy act and has fully embraced his inner-soft rocker. "Slice" starts off with a nostalgic look at the days social networking meant taking your Don McLean album to a friend's house, and then continues in a richly arranged Elton John/Billy Joel fashion.

Ondrasik still has not lost his penchant for heavier topics, though. "Note To The Unknown Soldier" is as serious and melancholy as its title suggests, and "Augie Nieto" was written for a man suffering from Lou Gherig's disease, assists a foundation to look for the cure, and wrote a book with his toes (his lone remaining movable body part). No light reading, despite the easy listening trappings.

The remainder of the songs deal primarily with love and other struggles, easily denoted by titles like "Hope," "This Dance" and "Love Can't Change The Weather." It's a maturation that suits Ondrasik well. By puffing up the arrangements, he helps to draw attention away from the despair in most of his writing to the fact that he can create some great melodies. The intermingling of these elements makes "Slice" the most consistent and enjoyable of Five For Fighting's albums.

 

My Amazon Reviews: Elvis Costello "National Ransom"

The Big Payback  
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After the mediocre "Secret Profane and Sugarcane," Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett recapture a groove on "National Ransom." Better songs, airier production, Elvis in good voice; it's the best he's done since "The Delivery Man." He's back to being angry again, as the burning wolf running off with the money painted on the cover would indicate. Angry at the hucksters that troll history and how we never seem to wise up to them. "National Ransom" picks up an acoustic guitar and let's fire with six strings.

Wolves and ravens at carrion appear several times through the CD, as Elvis skims through a cast of characters through the ages. There's the washed up singer who can't understand why his time has passed in "Jimmy Standing In The Rain." The conversation with Doctor (Doc?) Watson (and harmonies with Vince Gill). Or the villains plotting a coup on "Bullets For The New Born King." With such a cast of the downtrodden, Costello still breathes life into each one.

He also refuses to let them all be victims. On "Five Little Words," the jilted lover sounds more at fault than the woman who left, and it's more than difficult to imagine the line in "Stations Of The Cross" that reads "He's buying his way into heaven I suppose...down in a location that we can not disclose," not being about Dick Cheney. Or to hear "Unusual suspects shake down, shake down, shake down, various dubious character" and not link it to the Senator who 'apologized' to BP after their disastrous Gulf Oil spill. Even if the descriptions are murky, there still are no pulled punches. Which is exactly what Costello does at his best.

     

My Amazon Reviews: James Taylor "New Moon Shine"

James Taylor Taps His Still

4 Out Of 5 Stars

This was the moment that James Taylor became comfortable with his music again. "New Moon Shine" threw off the studio gauze that began clouding his albums from "Flag" onward, coating everything with less distinction than each album to follow, to nearly a point of parody ("That's Why I'm Here" and "Never Die Young" for the smarmiest examples). But for his first album of the 90's, Taylor dumped the Vegas glitter and cheesy somnambulant oldies covers to make shimmering, country-folk album that reminded us of what a true talent the man possesses.

"Copperline" is almost textbook James Taylor; the story of growing up in the backwoods and going back. Told with a touch of nostalgia, a shot of wistfulness and a dash of disappointment, it captures just what makes him a great songwriter. Then there's "Native Son," where Taylor uses the life of a Civil War soldier to comment on the Gulf War, beautifully. Not as successful but still a lot of fun is "Slap Leather," using a rollicking arrangement and cowboy metaphors to rail against the obliviousness of the 80's narcissism. (And may be the only song to use the words "Big Mac Falafel" as part of the lyric.)

"New Moon Shine" was notable also for the fact that Taylor was returning more to the traditional roots of his earlier singer songwriter confessional days. "Shine a Little Light" does this well, as does "The Water Is Wide," a traditional song Taylor covers exquisitely well. He's playful ("Got to Stop Thinking About That"), humorous ("Frozen Man") and earnest ("Copperline") is ways he hadn't allowed himself in many a moon. The only dud is the obligatory oldie, a so-so cover of Sam Cooke's "Everybody Loves To Cha Cha." "New Moon Shine" was James Taylor, reinvigorated, and set the course for the rest of his decade.