Black Sabbath - Greatest Hits

Everything about this CD is a complete disaster. Every so often a friend of mine will argue the Ozzy solo trumps anything he did with Black Sabbath. I completely disagree, but if this is the only albm Iever heard, my opinion may be different. The mastering on this CD sounds like someone held a tape recorder up to a vinyl recording and pushed record. Even the art work looks as if someone used a home scanner and printed it in low resolution. I didn't realize what the cover was until googling the image to include in this review.

There is tape hiss through out and there is no punch to any of the songs. While I dig each and every song on this compliation, this one has to be removed immediately and replaced with a digitally remastered copy.

One last note, why on Earth would you include Laguna Sunrise on a 10 song Greatest Hits album. It's a good song, but when your comp is missing songs like Children of the Grave, you've made the wrong choice.

This album will not be making the final cut, but it will be replaced with a better collection of Sabbath tunes.

Jay Dee - Ruff Draft

I'm always looking to branch out and explore music I'm unfamiliar with. It's too easy to play it safe all the time and pick up a new classic rock or rockabilly album. There are a few genres of music that I'm always trying to break into; rap, techno and country. I've managed to find a few groups in each genre I like and often use that as a starting point to find additional groups.

A few years ago, I began listening to MF Doom and found the albums extremely interesting. One of the tracks featured J Dilla and after reading several articles about this producer / MC, I decided it was time to try out an album. In my searching, I only came across one album in the stores, The Ruff Draft EP. The album opens with "For my real niggas only." While I don't associate this with only black people would enjoy this album, I do believe that you have to be a true fan of hip hop to appreciate this one.

Jay Dee experiments with many of the beats on this lo-fi offering. While I did enjoy the instrumental disc, I just could not warm up to his work as an MC. Unfortunately, I don't often get the urge to put on instrumental hip hop albums and if I do, I will stick with the MF Doom albums I currently have.

I will try another Jay Dee album, but next time I will hunt out one where he was the producer and not the MC.

The Kinks - Lola Vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround

Like many bands, I discovered the Kinks through a combination of oldies radio and Weird Al. I knew the 60's hits and Yoda...I mean Lola, but that was where my knowledge ended. Cut to many years later when I'm sitting in a hosptial bed recovering from surgery, my dad brings me a bag ful of CDs. One of those was The Kink Kronicles. I enjoyed a few songs but never really gave it much thought. A few years ago I came across the movie The Darjeeling Limited and really fround the soundtrack interesting.
There were several Kinks songs and I was surprised to find out they did not appear on the album I had, but were all from the same album. I bought Lola Vs. and gave it a quick listen and quickly forgot about it. Listening to it again, I can see why the album didn't become an instant classic. The style varies drastically and some of the songs are distinctly English (similar to Bonzo Dog Band).
I do enjoy the majority of this album and the songs from the movie, Strangers, This Time Tomorrow and Powerman still stand out as my favorites. This one definatly remains ion the collection.
Instant classics: those mentioned earlier
Songs that make me glad you can easily skip them on CD: the moneygoround

What Happened!?

Well my project took a horrible turn when I accidentally knocked my external hard drive off the counter and lost my entire digital music collection. I was horrified.

What was I doing trying to consolidate my CD collection and move into the digital world? Everything can be lost so easily. To be honest, its been six months and not once did I want to go back and listen to those CDs I sold back to the record store. Out of sight, out of mind. I guess I scare easy.

So with that being said, I'm looking to get back into the swing of listening to my collection and determining which ones will need to find a new home. Also I learned an important lesson: Always backup your music collection. At one point I had all my music in two locations, my MP3 player and my external hard drive. Two years ago, my MP3 player was stolen out of my car and six months ago I broke my external hard drive. I should not have kept putting off getting another backup.

Looking forward to kicking things off again.

Hello Radio: The Songs of They Might Be Giants

Tribute albums are extremely difficult to pull off. Either the artists stray way too far from the source material and whatever made the song special disappears or the song sounds way too familiar and comes off feeling like bad karaoke. Hello Radio has an advantage in that I only know the band OK GO. This allows me to judge the songs on their own merit instead of how I feel about the band. An example would be any song Pearl Jam covers, I will instantly judge more difficult because I don’t like Eddie Vedor’s voice.

The album ultimately peaks on the first song. Self pulls off an amazing of Ana Ng. I have to give them credit because that song is probably in my Top 5 TMBG songs. The Long Winters covers a song I’m not too familiar with. I was never a fan of the first couple of TMBG album where they used a full band, but this song is fun and grew on me. The only other highlights after those are The Fluid Ounces pulling off a great version of It’s Not My Birthday and Hotel Light playing The End of The Tour. After so many bands sounding like they aren’t taking the original songs seriously, Hotel Lights really puts their soul into this version.

What ultimately ruined this album for me is a trilogy of songs in the middle of the album that use distorted vocals with limited instrumental backing and becomes stale quickly. I needed something more and just was not getting it from Steve Burns, OK GO and Recepter. The worst rendition is by This Radiant Boy. Since I’m not familiar with the band I don’t know if this is their shtick, but the singer could be the son of Wild Man Fischer, which is not a compliment. Very obnoxious way to tarnish one of the band’s crowning achievements.

In the end the CD is not going to stay in the collection. There are some positives though, I will take the time to check out both SELF and Hotel Lights to see what they are all about.

Best Songs: Ana Ng and The End of the Tour

Songs that made my ears vomit: Don’t Let’s Start and They’ll Need a Crane.

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - Burn To Shine

It was only a matter of time before I found a diamond in the rough. An album that slipped through the cracks. One of the greatest aspects of exploring music is that there is always another road the listener will ultimately want to walk down. Whether an interesting song appears on the radio, in a movie, in a friend's car or just sitting in a bar waiting for a beer, it can lead to a path where someone can find that special artist that speaks to them.
About a year and a half ago I bought a CD/DVD collection entitled In The Attic. It was a compilation album of performance that had appeared on the In The Attic Webcast. This particular webcast was hosted by Rachel Fuller or as I knew her, Pete Townshend's girlfriend. The Who still remains my favorite band and I am a sucker for anything the group members are associated with. In fact that is the only way to explain why I own Roger Daltrey's album Can't Wait to See the Movie.
I didn't expect much from the CD other than hearing a few new version of Who Songs done by various artists and by Pete himself. To my shock my favorite song on the discs came from an artist by the name of Ben Harper. I had heard the name in the past, but never thought of him as anything more than a college radio staple. The song Please Bleed spoke to exactly what I was feeling at the time. Being tossed aside by a girl, who meant so much to me at some point, left me angry and hurt. I rushed out and bought the album that this song originally appeared. Much to my surprise, the album didn't have the intimacy I was expecting. Gone was the artist and his acoustic guitar baring his soul and in its place was a Hodge Podge of styles that did not feel cohesive. I played the album a few times but was ultimately unfulfilled. I placed it on the shelf where it sat for the last year.
With the passage of time, I am able to appreciate the music that appears on this CD. I am no longer expecting a particular sound, instead I can hear the songs as the Ben Harper intended. What I initially wrote off as an noncohesive mess of songs, now is seen as an artist showing off all of his emotions through the different music stylings. I feel like it has almost become cliched to compare any album with multiple styles to the Beatles' White Album, but this does capture that same basic structure. Whether he is rocking out on the song Less, channeling New Orleans Jazz in Suzie Blue or sounding like Top 40 pop with Steal My Kisses, Harper nails each style. While the White Album ultimately comes off as a band who would not compromise their own ideas, Burn to Shine represents a complete view of an artist.
I love this album and I've listened to it a few dozen times now over the past few weeks. There are so many ideas that remind me of other songs I have loved as well. Show Me a Little Shame is a prime example as I am instantly brought back to hearing Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum, an all time favorite of mine. While I still prefer the version of Please Bleed on the In the Attic CD, this album is a treasure and I'm glad I rediscovered it.

KISS - Psycho Circus

Well it's been almost two weeks since my last update. This was caused by a combination of two things. The first is that I bought about 10 CDs when I was back in Cleveland to see my Dad. I've been spending my time explore the new discs instead of focusing on the ones I already have. The second is that I started carpooling with my girlfriend almost everyday. While I enjoy having someone to talk to while driving in, my music listening has taken a huge hit. I still listen to music in the car, I don't necessarily pay attention to it when someone else is in the car.

Due to this I am going to start making this a bi-weekly update instead of a daily blog. This album was KISS's reunion album with all original band members reuniting for the first time in almost 20 years. Unfortunately it doesn't capture the band at its peak. I was never a huge KISS fan over the years. I enjoy the hits and the group live albums, but I never wanted to dig into their album cuts. This was bought about the same time I saw Detroit Rock City for the first time. The movie helped build the image of KISS as being the ultimate band and I was feeling it for a short time. I was very disappointed and listened to it a few times and then it started sitting on the shelf.

The best thing about this CD is the cover. The motion 3D cover, gives the feeling of a true event. I popped the CD in the player and was hit with the title track. This was the closest the album comes to presenting KISS how they sound in my mind. The anthem rocker make me want to pump my fists. This made me believe that the songs would work so much better in concert than on the album.

Ultimately I was left feeling unfulfilled with this album. Someday I may pickup an early KISS album to explore their catalog more deeply, but this album is non-essential.

Songs I didn't hate: Psycho Circus, You Wanted The Best

Songs I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy: I Finally Found My Way, Journey of 10,000 Miles