My Amazon Reviews: Imagine Dragons “Smoke and Mirrors”

No Parlor Tricks Required
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Beating the sophomore slump and improving the game in the production department, Imagine Dragons aim for the bleachers in "Smoke and Mirrors." Someone must have told them to get in touch with their inner U2, because much of the album looks to build anthems from scratch. For a change the reach does not exceed the grasp. "Smoke and Mirrors" hits its mark more often than not.

The first single, "I Bet My Life" exemplifies this direction. Pulsing verses with a chorus that looks to hit sing-along status where played, it adds some Mumford and Sons folk stomp to the mix while building to a crescendo climax. "Shots" has a guitar line worthy of The Edge, and "I'm So Sorry" brings back the distortion of the debut album with a raw intensity. But this time they sound like the screaming was intentional. That's a big difference from this album and the debut. The sucess of which seems to have given the band the courage to play every genre they ever had plans for in their incubation days.

That includes a bit of pomp to go with it. Who would have thought that the band that made the hooky "Radioactive" would end their second album with a six minute prog-rock opus? (And maybe the only misstep on an album that is quite assured of its footing.) Or that hints of the electronic dance would underpin "Summer?" Even if once in awhile they dip into the well that is Coldplay ("Dream"), "Smoke and Mirrors" is a surprisingly good album from Imagine Dragons, as they test their musical mettle.

     

My Amazon Reviews: 30 Seconds To Mars "Love Lust Faith And Dreams."

Oh, The Drama
3 Out Of 5 Stars

If anyone should know a thing or two about the dynamics of drama, it would be an actor. Jared Leto and 30 Seconds To Mars pour it one thick with their "Love Lust Faith And Dreams." After all, he's one of the very few to cross his acting career with an ongoing successful rock band, and a couple listens to "LLF&D" prove that Leto takes his musical craft as seriously as he does his acting. Pairing up again with producer and fellow dramatist Steve Lillywhite (U2, among many others) and plow forward.

If "This Is War" found the band edging away from grunge and screaming while turning towards prog rock, "Love Lust Faith And Dreams" takes it even further. Bubbling synths underscore many of the tracks here, especially the anthems like "City of Angels," which you can be excused for comparing the piano here to U2's "City of Blinding Lights." Since Jared Leto takes songwriter credit fir every song here, you may find it surprising that he does offer plenty of variety. While there's no Kanye West cameos, the dance beat of "The Race" heads straight for the dance floor while the final song, "Depuis Le Début," is more raw and dramatic, building its use of an orchestra until it pops...into a wind-up music box.

It's that feeling of diversity that keeps "Love Lust Faith And Dreams" from congealing into a more generic sound. That's not saying it's great, but I'd rather hear a band that can jump from poppy prog to the mystery of "Northern Lights" and still keeping their independent sound intact. "This Is War" is, IMHO, the better album, but LLF&D takes more chances.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Journey "Departure"

The Last of Journey's Bug Albums
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Journey had become hungry for the success they'd tasted via "Infinity" and "Evolution," each exponentially growing in sales. Steve Perry had effectively cornered the band's microphone and Neal Schon beginning to trim his soloing down to bite-sized arena ready applause grabbers, "Departure" was their most attention ready albums to date. The band's appetite for commercial success came with a price as keyboardist Gregg Rollie called it quits soon after (to eventually be replaced by Jonathan Caine). That seemed to matter little to Journey's growing legion of fans as "Departure" soon found itself in the top ten and the initial single, the pulse pounding "Any Way You Want It" soon entered the top 20, another first for the band. Even "Walks Like a Lady," Perry's attempt at while blues and one of the more unusual singles from the band's hits period, sounded effective.

However, Journey still had lingering traces of wanted to have their pop success and prog-rocker status and eat it, too. That meant for vocal production trickery on "People and Places" and phase shifting guitars that dominate "Precious Time," along with Rollie's harmonica. And while it didn't become a breakout single, Journey's penchant for mammoth balladeering, "Stay Awhile" gives a preview of the huge hits that would start once "Escape" became an even more successful album than "Departure."

Granted, FM album rockers fell all over "Departure" when it came to picking out songs to play. But it's obvious now that Journey's albums were never better than the singles. There's a reason the original "Journey's Greatest Hits" competes with the likes of similar sets by Bob Marley, Eagles and CCR for the greatest selling albums of all-time, and that is because when the band went looking for a hit, they knew how to make them fire off. You can't get around that many of these songs are just pedestrian rockers, like "Someday Soon" (sung by Rollie) or "Line of Fire's" run of the mill guitar boogie. That doesn't discount the fact that each Journey album in this three album arc had extraordinary hits. So collect away, fanatics. The rest of us can get by on best of collections, of which there are now many.

      

My Amazon Reviews: 10cc "The Very Best of 10cc"

It's Just a Silly Phase I'm Going Through.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

I have posited on other album reviews that I believe 10cc to be the kind of band Monty Python would have dreamed up if they'd decided to take on modern pop in the 70's, instead of the wonderfulness of The Rutles. Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were already experienced pop writers and performers in other peoples' bands before they joined forces as studio musicians in what was basically a bubblegum hit machine studio. From those beginnings, they became one of the most respected bands of the 70's, seeming to effortlessly blend elements of pop music with progressive rock all while maintaining an often dry wit and cheeky humor. This single "Very Best Of" disc gathers the best of their 45's from their first six studio albums and bonuses you the Godley and Creme hit "Cry."

The band's origins as writers for hire on on display for the songs from their debut, "Donna," "The Dean and I" and "Rubber Bullets." The first two are borderline parody in that they so closely approximate bubblegum singles that it's hard to believe that anything would come of merit in the future. "Rubber Bullets," while still aping the Jailhouse Rock genre, satirically upends the style by having the song delivered from the standpoint of the prison staff. ("I love to hear those convicts squeal, it's a shame these slugs ain't real.") If there was any indication of the brilliance to come, that was where you'd find it.

By "Sheet Music," the band was going full-steam. "Silly Love" and "The Wall Street Shuffle" threw so many styles in the blender that trying to explain the band was an impossibility, even if American audiences weren't catching on as yet. But by the next album, "The Original Soundtrack," that would change. The double bladed "I'm Not In Love" floated all the way to number two in 1975 and broke the band in the states. Sung from both sides of the story, the singer delicately kisses off a love affair - or is he? and that made the enigmatic song such a charmer. The goofy "Life Is a Minestrone" is also included, but the album is sold short.

Having finally broken the states, the band delivered their artiest album yet, with "How Dare You!" While "I'm Mandy Fly Me" and "Art For Art's Sake" were both brilliant singles (and "I'm Mandy" may have been one of the best 'mini-opera' songs of the decade), they missed the top 40, but are definitely among the band's best. That also was when creative tensions caused the rift between Godley/Creme and Stewart/Gouldman to reach a breaking point. Stewart and Gouldman decided to keep the name 10cc and soldier on with "Deceptive Bends." They were obviously eager to please, because the ultra catchy "The Things We Do For Love" became the band's second top ten single and "People In Love" (which tried very hard to find the clever spot "I'm Not In Love" achieved) squeaked to number 40.

Sadly, it seemed that each team needed the other more than they wanted to let on. "Bloody Tourists" tried to capture the old magic, but the main single, "Dreadlock Holiday," was the first time the humor sounded forced. "For You and I," the album's ballad, just couldn't quite match the majesty of earlier, similar songs. Further albums went to a different label, but it didn't much matter as they continued on a slide of diminishing returns. Godley and Creme became video pioneers, directing for the likes of Duran Duran and The Police. It's no surprise then, that their big hit as a duo, "Cry," rose on the charts on the back of an eye-popping video. It was one of the first videos to use the face-morphing technique that eventually became famous on Micheal Jackson's "Black and White."

What makes the addition of "Cry" such a delight is that it that it makes "The Very Best of 10cc" a true representation of the band's work. These were all delightful singles and, at their absolute best, 10cc rivaled any of the 70's hitmakers for style and creativity.

     

My Amazon Reviews: 10cc "The Original Soundtrack"

A True Original
5 Out Of 5 Stars

10cc, prior to "The Original Soundtrack," were something of a novelty act. They came up with arty songs with humorous twists, like "Donna," "The Dean and I," and (their biggest US single before this album) "Rubber Bullets." The album before "Soundtrack," "Sheet Music," hinted that the band had some great things potentially in store with songs like "Clockwork Creep" and "Old Wild Men." It was also beginning to show that Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme were becoming formidable songwriters.

"The Original Soundtrack" blew all their previous efforts out of the water. Opening with a cinematic suite titled "Une Nuit In Paris," it was eight minutes of mini-opera complete with Gendarmes and ladies of the evening. It took all the smart-arse confections of the past and turned it into artiness, a couple years before Queen would do roughly the same thing with "Bohemian Rhapsody." Then came knockout punch number two, "I'm Not In Love." Richly multi-tracked vocals buoy the lamenting singer's defense of a break-up, all while being utterly unconvincing about his non-nonchalance. It was simple but extremely effective, and hit number 2 on the US Pop Charts.

Nothing else here matches the brilliance of those opening tracks, but 10cc sure did try. The satirical quirks return on "Blackmail" and "Life is a Minestrone," while "The Film of My Love" ended the album with another nod to the cinema. The topical "Second Sitting For The Last Supper" is notable for its questioning of religion ("2,000 years and he ain't come yet, we've kept his seat warm and a table set...") These were salad days for 10cc, as the band worked in two halves. Gouldman and Stewart were more conventional, Godley and Creme the artier. While it all worked on this album and the follow-up ("How Dare You"), upcoming frictions would make 10cc's albums lesser efforts. "The Original Soundtrack" was the highpoint.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Muse "The 2'nd Law"

A State of Thermodynamic Equilibrium
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Muse waste no time on album #6 in going right for the pomp. "Supremacy" kicks off "The 2nd Law" like some expectation of a James Bond film theme, incorporating a movie-like riff and building into a cinematic overthrow of anything else that may follow. But that's Muse. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. Which is a main part of the band's charm.

Queenly pompous and football stadium huge, Muse are one of the few bands that currently play it on a large scale. Take the exaggerated funk of "Panic Station," a dead ringer for Queen's "Fun It," or the upward crescendo of their contribution to the 2012 Olympics, the monumental "Survival" (which is self important enough to have its own prelude). Spiraling up to a mammoth cascade of vocal overlays and epic anthem guitars, it was a fitting song to play over Olympian triumphs.

New to the band is the stepping out of bass player Chris Wolstenholme, who tries his hand at singing and songwriting in place of main man Matthew Bellamy. On "Save Me" and "Liquid State," which provide a break to Muse's usual sledgehammer approach. "Liquid State" is the more driven of the pair, which then leads into the band's set of prog numbers, "The 2nd Law: Unsustainable" and "The 2nd Law: Isolated System." Not since Alan Parsons has a band attempted to go this grand; who else would try a duo of songs based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics? (The entropy of an isolated system never decreases, because isolated systems spontaneously evolve towards thermodynamic equilibrium--the state of maximum entropy - thanks Wikipedia.)

Loaded with stings, horns and choral effects, it's the sound of ambition pole vaulting into classic rock territory. Parsons would be proud of his prodigies in this case, although I bet a lot of fans will be confused. Me, I usually like when one of my favorite bands tries to get their rocks off doing something against the grain. Be it the electronics of "Madness" or the theater of "The Second Law," Muse delivers on their promise to not be run-of-the-mill.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Styx "Paradise Theater"

Tonight's The Night We'll Make History
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Once "Babe" became Styx's biggest hit ever, Dennis DeYoung began to push his vision onto the band. There was always a dichotomy in the classic Styx lineup, with DeYoung wanting to be more commercial and theatrical, while Tommy Shaw wanted to be a harder rocker. "Paradise Theater," Styx's first major attempt at a concept album, has DeYoung's imprint on it, from the theater concept of Chicago's (and thereby, America's) decline through the 70's.

The concept is pretty fizzy, even if the singles hold up well. "Too Much Time On My Hands" was a venture into MTV Video for the band, while "The Best of Times" tried to capture the big balled success of "Babe." JY got his point across on "Snowblind," again dealing in the decline of things as seen through both a coke addict's eyes and lack of a future vision. (Ditto "Nothing Ever Goes to Plan.") The opening "AD 1928/Rocking The Paradise" was a crowd-pleaser designed to wake up a stadium filled with concert goers. It's hard to ignore, however, the thinness of the production, which just screams late 70's (the album was issued in 1981).

Because of the splits between Show, DeYoung and James Young (who also wanted harder rock), "Paradise Theater" is an uneven album, even though it became the band's biggest success to date. That success solidified DeYoung's commitment to theatrical concepts, which led to the "Kilroy Was Here" album (better than this) as well as driving the band towards breaking up. JY got the last laugh on "Half Penny, Two Penny" (which was highly reminiscent of "Miss America" on "The Grand Illusion"), foretelling the teardown of the Paradise but scratching at the dissent in the band. "I wanna shake myself free, Back home across the sea, where I know I'll be free..." he shouts, just before DeYoung re-enters the stage with a solo piano to reinforce the shakey concept with "AD 1958," a longing for the good old days and keeping alive "The Memories of Paradise." The band exits with an old-timey 20's sounding piano fade, but ultimately, "Paradise Theater" was grand-thater rock: just like you remember the seventies.