The CD Project Thing

Cd Project Thing - Johnny Cash (and the end)

2007-05-12T11:42:00.000-05:00

So, I think it's fair to say that I'm done with this, at least for a while. I have no interest anymore. But I wrote this last entry up a few weeks ago, so might as well post it...

Johnny Cash - "At Folsom Prison"
Johnny Cash - "At San Quentin (The Complete 1969 Concert)"
Johnny Cash - "The Legend Of Johnny Cash"

I guess I always sort of knew Johnny Cash, but I didn't actually consider owning any until after seeing "Walk The Line". I saw it, liked the music, and then got as a gift "The Legend Of Johnny Cash", a career-spanning comp. I liked most of that, too, and so from BMG I got expanded copies of his two live prison albums (because I thought the tracklistings were interesting, and beaus they were mentioned in the movie). I don't know what else to say, really. You'll see it more later on, but I have a bit of a thing for old country. Don't worry, though, I still despise the modern stuff.

CD Blogger Thing #29 - Camper Van Beethoven, The Cardigans, The Cars

2007-04-12T18:49:00.001-05:00

Camper Van Beethoven - "Cigarettes And Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years" (5 Discs) (UK Import)
Camper Van Beethoven - "Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart"
Camper Van Beethoven - "Key Lime Pie"

Camper Van Beethoven were/are a strange band, but I really do like them quite a bit. Thing is, they're one of those bands where I never remember how much I like them except when I'm listening to the cds. The above is basically all their output until recently (when they reunited and have released a few things since) (the box set is their first 3 albums, a rarities album, and a live album), and I don't dislike any of it - it's like Cracker, but a little stranger. Seven discs of it does seem a bit excessive, though, but there isn't really anything I can easily cut. I have avoided the new stuff, though, even though I haven't heard any of it.

My Camper Van Beethoven story: Marisa and I saw then on a reunion tour a few years ago. The show didn't even start until like 11, and then they played for an hour, then went to take a break. After like 45 minutes, we were amazingly tired, so we just left, and we have no idea how long it even took them to get back on, or how much longer they played.

The Cardigans - "First Band On The Moon"
The Cardigans - "Gran Turismo"

I have a hunch that most people only know The Cardigans for "Lovefool", but they're really a pretty good band. "First Band On The Moon", which contains "Lovefool", is mostly poppy and upbeat (although plenty of the lyrics aren't), while "Gran Turismo" (which Marisa bought, despite hating "Lovefool", because she liked the excellent single (and minor hit) "My Favourite Game") adds some bits of techno and electronic stuff. Like so many bands lately, I can't see myself running out and buying tons more, but what I have, I like.

The Cars - "The Cars Anthology: Just What I Needed" (2 discs)

You know the Cars, of course. And two discs might be a tad bit much, but they have every Cars song I could possibly ever want, and the filler isn't so bad, either. It's pretty much a must for any fan of the 80s or power pop, isn't it? Where are Fountains of Wayne without the Cars?

CD Project Thing #28 - Cake, Camera Obscura, Isobel Campbell

2007-03-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

Cake - "Motorcade Of Generosity"
Cake - "Fashion Nugget"
Cake - "Prolonging the Magic"
Cake - "Comfort Eagle"

Cake are a band in need of a good "best of" collection. They're a
pretty unique act, and they have some worthwhile stuff. The ratio varies
a bit from album to album, but all of them have a few songs that are
really exceptionally good, along with a bunch more that strike me as
basically filler. On two albums (the just-sold "Motorcade Of
Generosity" and the long-ago-sold "Pressure Chef"), the ratio wasn't
quite high enough, but on the other three, they're just barely worth
owning. I'd probably sell in a second with a well-put together comp,
though.

Camera Obscura - "Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" (Spanish Import)
Camera Obscura - "Underachievers Please Try Harder"

Camera Obscura - "Let's Get Out Of This Country"

In the beginning, Camera Obscura basically sounded like a female-fronted
early Belle and Sebastian. This connection was made even stronger by
the fact that they're from the same place as Belle and Sebastian, and
worked with (and apparently even dated) some of the members. This is by
no means a bad thing - while they never quite reached the heights of
early B&S, they did solid work and are well worth checking out.
Starting a little in their second album and really taking off in the
third, they've moved away a bit from the Belle and Sebastian sound to
one of their own, sort of a mix of 80s music and country. It works
well, and "Let's Get Out Of This Country" was one of the best albums of
2006.

Isobel Campbell - "Amorino"
Isobel Campbell - "Time Is Just The Same" EP

If you'd asked me even a few months ago, I probably would have said I really liked Isobel Campbell. Thing is, that's part-true, part-lie, and part-wishful thinking. The truth is, I do really like her, but only in her poppier moments. Her Belle and Sebastian songs and her poppy Gentle Waves and solo stuff is just astounding. Trouble is, it's become quite clear that she doesn't especially WANT to do poppy stuff, so she spends all her time doing jazz and folk and blues, and it ranges in quality from "pretty good" to "really really awful and painful".

"Amornio" was her first official solo album, although "The Gentle Waves" were essentially her solo project before this. It has a few decent moments (although a few of the best are re-recorded Gentle Waves songs), but it largely filled with Isobel being all jazzy and uninteresting. To me, the best song is easily "Time Is Just The Same", a duet with Eugene Kelly of the Vaselines, and it's also the most poppy and commercial sounding. Therefore, it's probably not a big surprise that they released a 6 track EP of it. I actually like the EP a lot better than the album (which is why I'm keeping it and selling the album) - bonus tracks include a cover of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and her first collaboration with Mark Lanegan, who'd she go on to make a whole (good) album with (see below).

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - "Ramblin' Man" Single
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - "Ramblin' Man" Single (UK Import)
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - "Ballad Of The Broken Seas"

So like I said, Isobel Campbell went and made an album with Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees). You'd sort of think it maybe wouldn't work, since the two are such different people and have such different voices, but it's actually surprisingly pretty great. It's sort of folky and bluesy, which like I said doesn't work when she does it alone, but here it does, and it's easily her best solo album (if it really counts as a solo album). The best track is a cover of "Ramblin' Man" by Hank Williams (and it was one of my favorite singles of all of 2005), but it's probably not good enough that I have to keep the singles, seeing as they're backed with tracks that are pretty inferior to what's on the album.

Isobel Campbell - "O Love Is Teasin'" EP (UK Import)
Isobel Campbell - "Milk White Sheets"

These two releases (apparently recorded at the same sessions, and sharing a few tracks) lean mostly towards the "folk" side of the scale. It's not as good as her pop stuff, but it's certainly better than the jazz, so it JUST barely hangs on in the collection, for now. All I know is, from now on, I check into Isobel Campbell cds before I buy them...

CD Project Thing #27 - Bush, Kate Bush, Busytoby, The Buzzcocks

2007-03-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

Bush - "Sixteen Stone"
Bush - "Razorblade Suitcase"

Shut up. When I was younger, I quite liked Bush, and I still think they're pretty good (at least these two albums). My first ever concert was Bush and Veruca Salt at the Rosemont Horizon. And it was a good show, dammit! Shut up!

Kate Bush - "The Whole Story"
Kate Bush - "This Sensual World"

Bush, I like. Kate Bush, not so much. These are Marisa's, and she quite likes them, but I mostly don't. A few of the hits are ok, and it's pretty obvious she was probably a big Tori influence, but she's not very good. Oh well.

Busytoby - "It's Good To Be Alive"

Busytoby were a short-lived side-project of of Joe and Amanda from Wolfie and The Like Young. The sound is much closer to Wolfie, except with more girl vocals and lyrics that make a little more sense. It's a concept album - the concept being, the two of them (who were engaged at the time) were an old married couple looking back at their life. It's quite a fun little indie-pop album, it's a shame they never made another (and they recently claim to have retired from music entirely. Jerks. At least issue a b-sides cd!). Not really involving this cd, but I'll point it out anyway - "Put In The Reel", from Sarge's "The Glass Intact" (and the happiest song Elizabeth Elmore ever recorded, I think), is a cover of a 7" from Busytoby. Yay Champaign bands!

Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (Australian Import)

This is a reissue version, with an extra 8 tracks to the original. It's a great album, consisting of all the singles from the original run of the Buzzcocks and their b-sides. The Buzzcocks don't seem to be as popular as many of the late 70's punk bands were, but they're one of my favorites, because they tended to be a lot more poppy than some. I really ought to look into some of their old albums some day.

Cd Project Thing #25 - Blur pt. 3, David Bowie, Billy Bragg, Billy Bragg and Wilco

2007-03-12T19:05:00.000-05:00

Blur - "Think Tank"
Blur - "The Observer 5 track EP"

"Think Tank" is the most recent Blur cd to date, and it really sounds very little like Blur. Graham Coxen is barely on it at all, and the whole album sounds like they were hanging around in Africa way too much. It has it's moments, but they're capable of much more. The EP was released in a British newspaper and consists mainly of a few alternate versions and b-sides of stuff from these sessions. It's probably pretty expendable.

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie (2 discs)

It's a career-spanning David Bowie collection, do I really have to explain it? It's chronological, so it has it's ups and downs (much like his career), but overall it's pretty good. I can't imagine needing any more Bowie, but I'm glad I have this.

Billy Bragg - "Reaching To The Converted"
Billy Bragg - "Must I Paint You A Picture?" (3 discs) (UK Import)

Billy Bragg is one of those artists that I never remember how much I like until I'm listening. In a more perfect world, I'd own all the recent 2 disc reissues of all his albums. In this one, I'm making due with a b-sides/rarities disc and a 2 disc best of (with a rarities disc). It covers the bases pretty well, especially of his early (and best) period. So, come on, who's up for buying me his two box sets of reissues?

Billy Bragg and Wilco - "Mermaid Avenue"
Billy Bragg and Wilco - "Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2"

Here's another story I'm sure you know. When Woody Guthrie died, he had tons of lyrics with no music. Years later, his daughter asked Billy Bragg to write music, and he asked Wilco to help. Then, in various combinations (sometimes just Billy Bragg or Wilco, sometimes together, sometimes with some special guests) they recorded these two generally pretty great albums. I don't know what to say about them, really, except they were basically my doorway into Billy Bragg. Some of the Wilco stuff on here ("California Stars" in particular) is among their best, even though the songs aren't entirely theirs. Overall, a must for fans of either artist.

A break

2007-02-21T18:25:00.000-06:00

I stopped doing this weeks ago, because I was bored, and finally somebody noticed. I suppose I'll try to get up to date over the next few days, but don't be surprised if the length of the reviews continues to drop.

CD Project Thing #23 - Blur pt. 2

2007-01-26T19:12:00.000-06:00

Blur - "Blur"
Blur - "Beetlebum" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Song 2" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "On Your Own" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "M.O.R." CD Single (UK Import)

Finally, we're out from Britpop. It's all fine and good, but after a week it'll rot your mind. I can't imagine how Blur felt after years of it, but this was their response: an album that mostly sounds nothing like they've previously done, sounding like a lo-fi American indie-rock album more than anything. It's probably not a coincidence that it spawned their biggest US hit, "Song 2" (which I think is the first Blur song I ever knew). Not all of it works, but what does work is really good and a great changeup from the stale Britpop.

The highlight of the singles is a 6 track live peel session on "On Your Own". The band sounds way more interested than they did on the previous live album. It's so good, it would soon be released again...

Blur - "Live" EP (Dutch import)

But, no, not on this, although it's not too different. This was a Dutch radio session recorded like a week after the Peel session, and 4 of the songs are the same, another one had a similar live version released as a b-side on another single, and the last isn't that good. It's a good enough little show, but I hardly need both.

Blur - "Bustin' & Dronin'" (2 discs) (Japanese Import)

The third of Blur's Japanese-only albums, and the weirdest of the three. The first disc is 9 (mostly pretty awful) remixes of songs from "Blur", the second disc is the 6 song Peel session. The Peel session is good enough that it would make the disc worthwhile, but I already own it on the single, so what's the point? Strange, strange, strange.

Blur - "13"
Blur - "Tender" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Coffee & TV" CD SIngle (UK Import)
Blur - "No Distance Left To Run" CD Single (3 discs) (UK Import)

An album sort of like the one before, but not really. There's a few weird rock songs like on "Blur", but my favorite songs on the album are probably the three singles, which are respectively a gospel ballad, a Graham Coxen-sung pop song and the saddest song ever. It's probably their most mature sounding album, and I think it's the last really good album they've done.

The b-sides here aren't so great, though. The big WTF moment is on "Tender", which for some reason as the album version of "Song 2" as a b-side. Uh, yeah. The "Coffee & TV" b-sides are just 4 remixes of "Bugman", one by each member of the band. The singles box set actually came out before "No Distance Left To Run" did, so the version in the box only has one b-side, but it's a really great one - a remix of "Tender" that's among my favorite remixes ever. Because I was trying to continue to get every Blur single ever (a persuit I later abandoned), I went on to buy the 2 part UK single for "No Distance Left To Run", which adds 2 new songs and a remix, but nothing I really need. They might be leaving, hopefully soon.

Blur - "Music Is My Radar" CD Single (2 discs) (UK Import)

The one new single off of "The Best Of Blur". The a-side is a pretty great African sounding track that sounds a lot like "Think Tank" would go on to. I've read that it was meant to be a b-side and "Black Book" (which became a b-side) was going to be an a-side, but I'm glad they changed their mind. The other 3 b-side are old live and peel versions of tracks from the very early 90s. Besides the a-side, not much point to it, and since I have that on the album, I don't think I need them.

Blur - "The Best Of Blur" (2 discs) (Canadian Import)

I'll be honest. For the first time on this list, I didn't listen to a disc here. I skipped the first disc, since I'd heard every song on it at least twice, and I thought I'd kill myself if I heard any more Britpop ever again. The second disc is 10 live versions of singles, and it's pretty decent. The highlight is "Tender", which just gets me every time.

CD Project Thing #22 - Blur pt. 1

2007-01-18T17:27:00.000-06:00

Blur - "She's So High" single (UK import)
Blur - "There's No Other Way" single (UK import)
Blur - "Bang" single (UK import)
Blur - "Leisure" (Dutch import)

The beginnings of Blur. I don't think I ever realized before this just how much early Blur was influenced by the Happy Mondays. It's decent enough (especially some of the singles), but it's hardly great, it sounds very little like Blur would soon sound, and I'm pretty sure it's my least favorite Blur album ever.

You'll notice that I have a LOT of Blur singles. That's cause I own the 22-disc singles box set they put out a few years ago (along with a few other random things, some of which might get sold). The singles in the set include all the tracks from all formats, so many of them are much closer to eps than singles (I think the longest one is 9 tracks). In order to save typing and not make this all super long, I'll mostly just be listing them along with the album they go with, I think.

Blur - "Popscene" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Modern Life Is Rubbish"
Blur - "For Tomorrow" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Chemical World" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Sunday Sunday" CD Single (UK import)

I can't honestly say that I'd quite know how to define Britpop, but I can say that this is about as Britpop as Britpop gets (and, according to Wikipedia, it's generally considered the very first Britpop album). It's a huge leap forward from the first album and a must for any lover of Britpop.

The singles are mostly pretty long ("For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World" are both 9 tracks!) and include a pretty good mix of new b-sides, covers and alternate version of the singles. "Popscene" is the only non-album single Blur has ever done, and it wasn't released on the Best Of, but it's on the US version of "Modern Life Is Rubbish" so that's not as annoying as it would be.

Blur - "Parklife"
Blur - "Girls And Boys" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "To The End" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Parklife" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "End Of A Century" CD Single (UK import)

Part two of Blur's 3-year Britpop trilogy, "Parklife" isn't too different from "Modern Life Is Rubbish" except for having a little more dance music influence, but that's not really a bad thing. One thing that is a little annoying (and most Blur albums suffer from this) is their tendancy to include a song or two of what sounds like circus music. I just don't get it.

Shorter singles with fewer b-sides this time, but they're still pretty decent.

Blur - "The Special Collector's Edition" (Japanese Import)

Japanese-only b-sides collection. It's like 18 tracks, and would have been really exciting, if I didn't have all the tracks except one on the singles box set (and the one I don't have? Japanese fans singing "Bank Holiday". Uh, yeah.) So, I think it'll be going away soon.

This cd is also notable for having really great artwork, something they'd continue on the next two albums. Not really a good reason to keep something, though.

Blur - "The Great Escape"
Blur - "Country House" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "The Universal" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Stereotypes" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Charmless Man" CD Single (UK Import)

The third album in Blur's Britpop trilogy, it's still pretty good although I don't think I like it as much as the first two (although that could just be me being really burned out by this point). It's maybe a little more rock, but it still sounds basically the same as the last two albums, and the writing is the same, and it was really just about time for a change.

"Country House" is most notable for being Blur's entry in the big "Blur vs Oasis" single war (and it won, IIRC). The first two singles here are 8 track singles with 4 live tracks each, the other two are just 4 track singles. It's all decent enough (except, did we need ANOTHER version of "To The End"? No, we didn't), but nothing super great.

Blur - "Live at Budokan" (2 Discs) (Japanese Import)

Continuing the trend of a Japanese-only album after a real album, this is (like the title says) a live show from the Budokan. I suppose that it's not bad, but at this point I pretty much wanted to kill myself before listening to any more Britpop. There's nothing especially notable here, most of them sound pretty much just like the album versions. It is wrong that I get really excited when I find something that I can sell? Well, I do, and I did.

CD Project Thing #21 - Bjork, Frank Black Francis, Blind Faith, Blind Melon, Blondie

2007-01-16T17:46:00.000-06:00

Bjork - "Post"
Bjork - "Selmasongs"
Bjork - "Greatest Hits"

I used to have a much more full Bjork collection, until she released a greatest hits and it occurred to me that most of her songs I really liked were on it. The exceptions were a few songs on "Post" and "Selmasongs" and so being the intelligent person I am, I kept those. Anyway, Bjork is Bjork. I can't really think of anything that sounds like her, and even her own songs don't sound like each other. Too much can get on my nerves, but this is just about the right amount.

Frank Black Francis - "Frank Black Francis" (2 Discs)

This interesting set is sort of a before-and-after of the Pixies (released under a combination of the names that the frontman used during the band and after the band). The first disc is a solo demo disc recorded just before the Pixies recorded their first ep. Some of it is pretty rough, but it's totally great, too - it's neat to see how well these songs stand up, even in this form. The second disc consists of new recordings of Pixies songs done with some guys from England, and they sound nothing at all like the original versions. Some of them are kind of interesting, but nothing can ever top the original. Overall, though, it's a must for huge Pixies fans, despite not even being issued under their name.

Blind Faith - "Blind Faith"
Blind Melon - "Blind Melon"
Blind Melon - "Soup"

All Marisa's, and all not really good at all. Take your pick, forgettable 60s rock or forgettable 90s rock! Pass.

Blondie - "Greatest Hits"

I used to have an old 80s Blondie "Best Of", but when this came out I was happy to replace it. Besides sounding a lot better, it's longer, going all the way through their reunion. It's one of those perfect greatest hits, where they have everything you could possibly want and not too much pointless crap. Even the new song isn't so bad...

CD Project Thing #20 - Bis

2007-01-08T18:16:00.000-06:00

Bis - "I (heart) Bis"

Remember that famed "Indie Rock" mix tape that I said changed my life? Well, here's another reason why. When they first burst upon the UK scene in the mid 90s, Bis were a Scottish teenage trio (2 guys and a girl), super indie (to the point of even doing all their artwork themselves), and like so many of the UK teenage bands I love so much lo-fi and just amazingly fun. They were the kind of band that I'd have wanted to be in (if, you know, I had any musical talent at all). This cd came out a few years later and compiles all their early singles (in the liner notes, they call it "the lost first album"). If you like poppy, punky, co-ed vocals (and you probably don't, but I do, dammit), this is just essential.

Bis - "The New Transistor Heroes"

Do you like this blog? Well, at least for the moment you have this cd to thank for it still being here. I was going to quit doing it before the Better Than Ezra entries, until I put this cd on at 7:30 in the morning after a long weekend and the opening track ("Tell It To The Kids") just made me so happy that I knew I had to tell somebody about it, and so I had to keep on writing. In order to try to give extra value to their fans, it's all new tracks, not duplicating at all from their early singles, and they're just as good. I don't know where it lays overall, because it's always hard for me to compare "fun" music to "serious" music, but if I was making a ranking of my favorite "fun" music this is right up there.

Bis - "Play Some Real Music: A Bis Live CD"

Officially a bootleg (although not really, since they sell it on their site and even autographed the copy I bought), this is a live album released in like 2002, but only consisting of material up through 1997. As you'll gather if you read on, I strongly support this decision. Some of it is a little lo-fi and ragged, but so was everything the band did back then, so it pretty much fits perfectly. Not really essential or anything, but fun.

Bis - "Intendo" EP

A US-only EP consisting mainly of "New Transistor Heroes" b-sides, along with a couple of older and a couple of newer songs. It's not quite up to the level of the two earlier releases, but it's pretty good, and it's the last time they'd ever sound quite like this. Even though the music didn't quite show it yet, the packaging does begin to give away their move to being a little more professional - it still has a few of their traditional drawings of the band (for the last time ever, I think), but also a photograph, a first for the band. More changes would be in store soon...

Bis - "Social Dancing"

It seems to happen to almost all fun teenage bands - the urge to become more professional and serious. I'm not sure that story has ever disappointed me quite as much as it did with Bis. Before it did, though (see below), they did leave us with one last pretty good album. Sure, it was a more polished sounding Bis, a little less shouty, and a little more electronic, but it's still a good, poppy, enjoyable album.

After this, though, they'd pretty much fall off the table as far as I was concerned. Post-"Social Dancing" their career consisted of an album and a few eps that got more and more electronic and serious as time went on, to the point where the band I loved was pretty much unrecognizable (which is why I no longer own any of those releases). Then they broke up and did a few side projects, then they reformed with a new name and posted some mp3s that seemed to have a little promise, but then broke up again, and now they're regrouping in April to do two shows as Bis to celebrate 10 years since "New Transistor Heroes". Will they take this chance to get back together and do what they do best? We can only hope.

CD Project Thing #19 - Better Than Ezra, Big Head Todd And The Monsters, Big Star, Billy Mahonie

2007-01-07T20:06:00.000-06:00

Better Than Ezra - "Deluxe"
Better Than Ezra - "Friction, Baby"

Two good alt-rock albums. You might just know the couple of hits off each one, but they're actually pretty solid, I like them quite a bit.

Better Than Ezra - "How Does Your Garden Grow"

By far my favorite BTE album, but also by far their worst selling (it sold so badly, it got them dropped from their label). I wish I could say that was a coincidence, but I'm pretty sure it's not. The main difference here is they went a little more experimental, adding some electronic stuff to their sound, and it works quite well. Too bad nobody else thought so.

Better Than Ezra - "Closer"

How did BTE follow-up their great, but horribly selling, album? They release this album, so mainstream that MY SISTER likes it. I've already sold it. Good riddance!

Big Head Todd And The Monsters - "Live Monsters"

I bought this for Marisa because she liked a few songs by them and wanted it, and I don't think I ever listened to it before now. Wow, it's really, really, really bad. So bad that I've completely blocked it out of my memory and can't remember it at all. That's probably a good thing.

Big Star - "#1 Record/Radio City"
Big Star - "Third/Sister Lovers"

Three albums on two discs ("#1 Record" and "Radio City" are two discs, "Third/Sister Lovers" is the third) of pretty good, should-have-been-more-popular. You know "Thirteen", who everybody ever has covered, and "In The Street", the theme to "That 70s Show", and there are a few other good ones, too.

Billy Mahonie - "1000 Years Of Billy Mahonie" Single (UK Import)

Of all the bands on the list, the one I probably know least about is Billy Mahonie. All I own is this CD Single, and I'm not even sure if they have a singer. I wasn't even sure if "Billy Mahonie" was a singer name or band name until I did a little research. Why, then, would I possibly own it? Well, it was the 100th release on the Too Pure label, so the band had a few of their label mates work on this single. The third song on it is "Manywhere (Hefner remix)", and since Hefner are the most amazing band ever (you'll read about that later), I had to have it. And, really, it's less like a "Hefner remix" and more like a whole (and pretty decent) Hefner song, since Darren Hayman from Hefner does vocals on it. So, thank you Billy Mahonie, whoever you are!

CD Project Thing #18 - Belly, Ben Folds Five, Jay Bennett

2006-12-23T10:18:00.000-06:00

Belly - "Star"
Belly - "King"

Two albums (the only two, I think) from mid-90s alternative group "Belly". If I recall correctly, one was Marisa's, one was mine (from BMG), but I can't remember which is which. They're decent enough, but just the greatest hits would have been enough. Sadly, these are basically totally unsellable (I even have an extra sealed copy of one that I can't even give away), so I guess I'm stuck with them.

Ben Folds Five - "Ben Folds Five"
Ben Folds Five - "Naked Baby Photos"
Ben Folds Five - "Whatever and Ever Amen"
Ben Folds Five - "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner"

Another band that I generally quite like, but I really can't distinguish the albums enough to really write full entries about each of them. "Ben Folds Five" is their debut. "Naked Baby Photos" is a live/rare/unreleased album that's basically just a big cash-in for their original label, but I can't deny that it's interesting. "Whatever and Ever Amen" is their first major label album, and their biggest hit. I have the reissue of it, which tacks on some rare tracks, some covers, and a Japanese version of one of their hits. Finally, "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" is their last album and in my mind their weakest, but I still think of "Army" every time Chick-Fil-A comes up. Mmm, Chick-fil-A.

Jay Bennett and Edward Burch - "The Palace At 3:00 A.M. (Part 1)"

Jay Bennett is ex-Wilco, Edward Burch is some guy, and together they are Jay Bennett and Edward Burch. This is their first album (and only "real" one), and it's pretty decent. They do 3 Wilco songs (2 from the YHF Demos and "My Darlin'"), and two songs with Woody Guthrie lyrics that I assume are leftover from the "Mermaid Avenue" project. If I had to compare the sound to anybody, I'd probably say Elvis costello, and that's not really a bad thing.

Jay Bennett and Edward Burch - "Palace 1919"

Acoustic versions of the entire "The Palace At 3:00 A.M. (Part 1)" album, and then two John cale covers tacked on at the end. It's a mixed bag, with some versions better than the originals and some worse, but I'd have to say overall I think it's the better of the two versions.

Jay Bennett - "Bigger Than Blue"

Ditching Edward Burch (although not really, since he still shows up on a few tracks), this is Jay Bennett's first true solo disc. And, again, it's pretty Elvis Costelloish and pretty good. There's another YHF demo on here, and another Woody Guthrie song. Possibly my favorite Jay Bennett album?

Jay Bennett - "The Beloved Enemy"

The second Jay Bennett album of 2004 (and there were supposed to be 3, but the third never came out), it's much more bleak and depressing than the first. Apparently he was going through a divorce and some deaths at the time, which is why this is how it is and why the third never came out (which sucks, because Elizabeth Elmore had recorded some vocals for it). It's not a horrible album, but I've got to say I prefer the more upbeat stuff.

CD Project Thing #17 - Belle and Sebastian

2006-12-15T18:29:00.000-06:00

Belle and Sebastian - "Tigermilk"

What does one say about probably his favorite album from probably his favorite band? I guess by saying that it's a really amazing album, at the very least the greatest debut album ever (even though almost nobody heard it at the time), but nothing I say can really do it justice. It was originally recorded quickly and cheaply (using the budget for a single) and released only on 1000 vinyl copies. Luckily, their next two albums did well enough that this got a re-release on CD afterwards.

The album is really just astoundingly good, I think. Some of Stuart Murdoch's best songs and production that's lo-fi (but not TOO lo-fi) just makes it hard not to fall in love with this band (of course, somebody not in love with this band might have a different feeling on it). Pretty much everything they've ever done is great, but I don't think they ever topped this.

Belle and Sebastian - "If You're Feeling Sinister"

For their second album, Belle and Sebastian switched to a new label (Jeepster, my favorite label ever), added a member (Sarah Martin), and upgraded the production level a bit, but besides all that it's really like a second volume of "Tigermilk". Once again, it's all Stuart songs, and they all sound, for lack of a better term, like Belle and Sebastian songs. I think many people consider this the best B&S album, and it's really good, although I don't quite think it has the charm of "Tigermilk".

Belle and Sebastian - "Push Barman To Reopen Old Wounds" (Disc 1)

The summer after "Sinister", Belle and Sebastian released 3 4-track UK only EPs. Later on, they'd be collected into a box, and still later they'd comprise the first disc of this 2 disc collection. If you want to divide Belle and Sebastian history into three phases (and I'm writing this, and I do), these EPs are the link between the first Stuart-dominated phase and the second democratic phase. The majority of the songs still sound like old-school B&S, but there are songs like "Lazy Line Painter Jane" (which features very unB&S guest vocals from Monica Queen) and "A Century Of Elvis" (where Stuart David tells a story over the backing track to a song that would come out on the next EP) that serve as a sign that things are about to change...

Belle and Sebastian - "The Boy With The Arab Strap"

As far as I can remember, the first time I ever heard Belle and Sebastian was seeing the video for "Is It Wicked Not To Care" (sung by Isobel Campbell) on 120 Minutes. I fell right in love, but while doing research was very surprised to find out that most B&S songs had a guy singing. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the much-debated "democratic" phase of the band. On this album, Stuart Murdoch loosened his control of the band and other members started doing some writing and lead singing. This album ended up still being mostly Stuart songs, but about a third of it consisted of songs by Stevie, Isobel, and Stuart David. And while these aren't necessarily bad songs, they didn't sound just like Stuart's, and thus this album doesn't have the same consistent sound that people loved from the first two. That said, I do still like it and have a soft spot in my heart for it as my first B&S album ever, but I'm long past thinking it's their best.

Belle and Sebastian - "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant"

My choice for "worst B&S album" (although it's still better than the best album of many bands), "FYHCYWLAP" continues the democratic thing from "Arab Strap", but with songs that aren't near as good (including the Isobel/Stevie song "Beyond The Sunrise" that's often considered the worst B&S song ever). The band was in some turmoil at this point, Stuart David quit, and most of Stuart Murdoch's songs sound like B&S-by-numbers, the kind he seems to be able to do in his sleep, with no real spark or innovation. It later came out that the band was close to breaking up, but luckily they didn't, since some of their best days were still ahead...

Belle and Sebastian - "Push Barman To Reopen Old Wounds" (Disc 2)

But before we go ahead, we have to go back, at least for half a disc. Disc two of "Push Barman" consists of the last 4 Jeepster EPs. The first, "This Is A Modern Rock Song", came out a few months after "Arab Strap" did. The title song, which was apparently considered for "Tigermilk" before being held off, is one of my favorite B&S songs, and the EP is also notable for "Slow Graffiti", the first song they did for a soundtrack. The second EP is "Legal Man", which came out just before "FYHCYWLAP" (and which will always make me think of my trip to England, because it came out when I was there). It was their biggest chart success up to that point, but it's a very weird release, the only one ever not to have a real Stuart song ("Legal Man" is a 60s-pop sounding song with a ton of people singing, and the other two tracks are a Stuart David song and an instrumental). Finally, "Jonathan David" and "I'm Waking Up To Us" (the meanest song ever) followed the next summer and are both pretty excellent, a nice comeback after the previous sub par album.

Belle and Sebastian - "Storytelling"

This was meant to be the soundtrack to the Todd Solantz movie of the same name. However, the movie ended up being horrible, as it seems Belle and Sebastian's experience did, too - he ended up only using 6 minutes of Belle and Sebastian music in the movie. Not being ones to let good music go to waste, they came up with this, which was mostly songs that were supposed to be in the movie, although at least one is apparently more about the experience of making it. I hesitate to call it an album, despite it's 18 tracks, because if you think of it as an album it's a clear disappointment - only 6 of the tracks have vocals (and 2 of those are very short), and the rest is filled out my instrumentals (some basically different versions of the same songs) and dialog clips. What I do is is, instead of thinking of it as a weak album, I think of it as a really strong EP, which it is. It's the end of the democratic era, so you still get songs by Sarah and Stevie among those 6, but they're some of their best ones. "Scooby Driver" is one of the most fun and energetic Belle and Sebastian songs, and you wish it was longer than the minute it is. Despite not being a major addition to the catalog, it's nice to have, especially since Belle and Sebastian haven't really sounded quite like this since.

Belle and Sebastian - "Step Into My Office, Baby" (UK Import)

It's the start of a new Belle and Sebastian era! New label, new producer, new sound, and (the reason this release exists) new policy on singles. On Jeepster, the band never released album tracks as singles. Once they signed to Rough Trade, I guess they started to play the game a little more, and so non-album singles became a thing of the past. The A-side sounds pretty unlike any B&S song to this point, but I'll get to that with the album. The two b-sides seem to have been recorded just for the single (since they have different production credits than the album) and are decent, but nothing to write home about. I guess it's a little better in retrospect, but at the time I was pretty disappointed by this - I guess there really is a difference between a "ep track" and a "b-side", at least for B&S.

Belle and Sebastian - "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"

Through most of the first two phases, Belle and Sebastian basically had a reputation of being shy, sensitive dorks who played music for other shy, sensitive dorks. It wasn't really totally true, but it's true that the music DID sound like that, and they didn't really give interviews or tour much at all, so it stuck. Then, bam, everything changed. They'd lost two members (who, it turns out, were the reason they didn't tour much), they got a new label, they decided to give interviews, they decided to issue singles, and they got a new producer, Trevor Horn, who'd previously been known for, like, Tatu and other pop crap. People were scared.

And it's true, the album sounds very little like old Belle and Sebastian. This is somewhat due to the production style, but it also seems like the band is just having fun for the first time in a long time. It's poppy, it's playful, and while I don't like it as much as the heights of the first era, it's quite good. It's probably not a coincidence that at the same time, Stuart seems to have taken some control back. You still see 1 or 2 songs an album sung by somebody else, but it's not a third of the album like it was on the previous ones. Different voices are fine, but a band needs a front man, and Stuart fits that bill.

Belle and Sebastian - "I'm a Cuckoo" (UK Import)

The second single off the album, the b-sides here are a decent brand new song, a Stevie song that was cut from the album at the last moment, and the first-ever B&S remix - "I'm A Cuckoo By The Avalanches". It does exactly what my favorite remixes do - the vocals are basically left untouched, but the music is changed, in this case to African tribal instruments. I'm not going to say it's better than the original, but it's certainly interesting.

Belle and Sebastian - "Books" EP (Japanese Import)

This gets called an EP, although it's really just a "Wrapped Up In Books" single, the only difference being that "Books" is the second track instead of the first. The song that DID get the a-side spot is "Your Cover's Blown", called in the NME "an indie Bohemian Rhapsody", and it's not far off. It's one of their longer and stranger songs, but it's very entertaining, and was pretty stunning when they did it live on their last tour. The two other tracks on the normal version of this ep are a pretty good new track and a mostly-instrumental dance remix called "Cover (Version)"

This was the first ever B&S release to be different in different markets - the Australian version had 1 extra track, and this Japanese one has two: a Japanese version of "I'm A Cuckoo" and a slow version of their cover of "Final Day" which was originally released on a comp. Neither is earth shattering, but, hey, I had to get it, that's what makes me a completist.

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (With Bonus DVD)

The most recent Belle and Sebastian album, it's a little more rocking than DCW (and there's a bit of a 70s sounding influence to some of the tracks), and there's almost a complete lack of strings (which is a big change for a band that used to have 2 string players in the band itself (and used a ton of guest players)). Overall, though, it follows the DCW formula - poppy, fun, Stuart-heavy. And like DCW, it's hardly my favorite B&S album, but it's not half bad, either. I'm working on it now, but it's almost sure to hit near the top of my "best of 2006" list.

Belle and Sebastian - "The Blues Are Still Blue" (Australian Import)

This is an Australian-only cd that combines all the tracks from the "Funny Little Frog" and "The Blues Are Still Blue" UK Singles. This wouldn't be that big a deal (although I'd like it anyway, since I'd always take a 8 track cd over two 4 track cds), but starting with this album the band put different tracks on the 7" singles than on the CD, which means there were two tracks on here that are really rare to have on CD. Of the 6 b-sides on here, 1 is the song they recorded for the "Help: A Day In The Life" comp, one is a cover of "Whiskey In The Jar", and 4 are outtakes from the album. 3 are not too impressive (including a Stevie song and a Sarah song), but "Meat and Potatoes", the band's very first song about kinky sex, probably should have made the album...

Belle and Sebastian - "The White Collar Boy" (UK Import)

Third and final single from "The Life Pursuit", and most recent B&S release to date. There are two b-sides, one by Stevie and one by Sarah. Seems pretty clear that there's been some sort of realization about where songs by them belong, eh?

CD Project Thing #16 - Beck

2006-12-11T18:47:00.000-06:00

Beck - "Mellow Gold"

I've never been what you might call a huge Beck fan. Oh, sure, I liked the singles well enough, and saw him put on two good shows (one at a radio festival, one with The Flaming Lips), but all the albums we own are Marisa's. Actually, I think I did briefly own a used copy of this, his major-label debut, back in high school, but I promptly sold it back. Why, you might ask (but probably won't)? Well, besides "Loser", it's just really not very good. Much of it is so lo-fi it sounds like a demo, and it's just not at all interesting to me. I'm pretty sure it's my least favorite of the 6 Beck albums we have.

Beck - "Odelay"

Beck's big commercial breakthrough, and while it's a better album than "Mellow Gold", I'm still not sure how much I love it. The production is way better, and the singles are pretty great, but, eh. I guess I just have to accept the fact that I'm at most a marginal Beck fan and deal with it.

That said, this album is supposed to be re-released as a deluxe edition soon, and I'll probably buy it if it includes the different re-recordings of "Jackass" and one of my favorite Beck songs ever "Deadweight". Don't mess this up!

Beck - "Mutations"

Every few albums, Beck strips down, drops most of the hip hop and the beats and hooks up with Nigel Godrich (best known as Radiohead's producer) for a quieter, more low-key alternative-type album. These tend not to have the big hit singles that his others have, but I tend to like them a lot better. I like this one, although I have to be honest, I listened a few days ago and I can already hardly remember it. It still probably slots in as #2 among Beck albums, though.

Beck - "Midnight Vultures"

Beck's next album was this, which mixed the hip-hop type stuff with some R&B/soul/funk. It works decently well, although parts of it are very cheesy (perhaps deliberately, since it's hard to imagine he intended "Debra" to be taken seriously).

I need to make this longer, so I'll mention the annoying tendency of most Beck albums to include a (typically annoying) hidden track. Why the hell does he do this? Who actually likes crap like that?

Beck - "Sea Change"

My favorite of all Beck albums. It's another Nigel Godrich album, this time about a breakup from a long term relationship. The whole thing is kinda sad and melencauly, but also just very pretty and excellent. This proves that Beck can write great songs without all the hip-hop crap, I just which he would do it more often.

Beck - "Guero"

The last of the Beck albums we have (and the end of the first shelf of cds!), "Guero" basically sounds like "Odelay pt. 2". Which isn't the worst thing in the world, I guess, but it's not super exciting, either. Once again, I like the singles a lot, the rest is pretty eh. It's probably most notable (to me, and I'm the one writing this, so ha) for having "E-pro", which was A.J. Pierzinsiki's batting music for most of the last two years.

CD Project Thing #15 - The Beautiful South, The Beauty Shop

2006-12-07T19:19:00.000-06:00

The Beautiful South - "Welcome To The Beautiful South"
The Beautiful South - "Choke"
The Beautiful South - "0898"

Have to admit I don't know much about The Beautiful South. They're British, they have guy and girl singers, some good wordplay in the lyrics, and they're kind of jazzy. These are their first three albums, the first and third were Marisa's, and I got the second for her cheap on eBay. I actually think they're all pretty good, but I really can't find anything to separate the three of them in my head, so they're lumped together here. After these albums, apparently they changed the girl singer, and I guess they got pretty popular in the UK. While I like them, I can't imagine ever really needing any more than this, and Marisa doesn't care, so 3 remains the magic number.

The Beauty Shop - "Grief" EP

I'll get into who The Beauty Shop are and how I know them in the next entry. For now, know that this is their first self-released EP (on a CD-R, but since it's an official release it makes the list) which I bought on eBay a few years after discovering them, and that I just confirmed with the band themselves that it's totally pointless because all the songs are also on their first album. Interested in buying it from me?

The Beauty Shop - "Yr Money Or Yr Life"

Normally, when I really really like a band, I can remember how and where I fell in love with them. The Beauty Shop are an odd exception, since I can't remember at all when I first saw them or got this cd. They're a local C-U band, so I'm guessing that I saw them somewhere, but I can't remember where (and I seem to recall being disappointed that I'd skipped them many times before, so maybe I'd read about them?) And I also have a vague feeling I knew them before this cd came out, but I don't know if that's true. In any case, The Beauty Shop are probably in my top ten favorite bands (although only #3 on the list of "favorite bands from Champaign). They're kind of a 3-piece acoustic Americana/folky/Johnny Cash thing, and are just really good. For whatever reason, they have a slight following in the UK (compared to their complete lack of following here) and play there way more than here. Lucky Brits.

The Beauty Shop - "Monster" (UK Import)

By the end of my time in Champaign, The Beauty Shop were going through some changes. Drummer revolved a bit (including, briefly, a friend of a friend who I'd driven to Indy for a Zwan show a few weeks earlier), and they had a ton of new songs but no apparent plans to record them. Then word came of a breakup, and it was really depressing. I don't quite know the details, but it turns out the breakup wasn't a breakup at all, and a few years later they came with this UK only single. 3 tracks, including a Misfits cover. Not bad, not bad at all...

The Beauty Shop - "Crisis Helpline" (UK Import)

And then came this, the second album, also a UK only release. Right off, I knew many of the songs from the shows years before, and it was great to hear them. The one thing that was kind of surprising was how amazingly amateurish the whole package was. Well, I guess it wasn't THAT surprising, since their first album wasn't the most professional thing either, but this looked like they'd spend about 5 minutes in Photoshop. Even the CD itself looked weird on the bottom, like it was a bootleg or something. This fact made the cd act weird in some of my players. It's not as good as the first album, I don't think, but since I never expected it at all I'm not complaining.

The Beauty Shop - "A Desperate Cry For Help" (UK Import)
The Beauty Shop - "Paper Hearts For Josie" (UK Import)

The band then switched to a new label (still UK only, though) and continued releasing singles off "Crisis Helpline". Except, they weren't considered singles off "Crisis Helpline", because the new label decided to release "Yard Sale", which was a mishmash of tracks from the first two albums. Hardly the most thrilling stuff ever, so I never got it. The singles were both really cheap, though, and each had one new cover on it ("Breakin' The Law" by Iron Maiden and "Gouge Away" by the Pixies).

They released a third single, too, a re-release of "Monster" with what I think is a new song, but I never ordered it, since it came during a "no cd buying" era. I did just order it for a few dollars the other day, so I'll update then.

To make the whole tale of strange marketing even stranger, now they're going to go and re-release "Crisis Helpline", apparently still on the UK label (but at US domestic prices), with the two covers from these two singles as bonus tracks (but not any of the tracks from the two "Monster" singles). So, the plan is to sell these two singles and "Crisis Helpline" and get the reissue (and hope it's actually somewhat professional looking this time).

A Note on The Beatles

2006-12-05T19:53:00.000-06:00

You might be expecting to see The Beatles up next, but you won't, because I don't own any. This isn't because I don't like them - I actually quite like a lot of Beatles songs, and at one point I owned most of their albums. They were sold during one of my purges, though, under the theory that if there's one band in the world that really doesn't need my money, it's The Beatles. So, I have cd-rs of all their albums. I've always vowed to buy them again when they've been reissued and they're not all late-80s anymore, but now that this is soon upon us I don't know if it will be possible right away, due to lack of funds. It'll happen one day, though.

CD Project Thing #14 - The Beach Boys

2006-12-03T16:13:00.000-06:00

The Beach Boys - "Pet Sounds"

This is one of those albums where it's pretty hard to really see what all the fuss is about, because while it's good, it doesn't seem "Greatest album ever" good or whatever. That's probably just because it doesn't sound as unique anymore because everybody's copied it so much and some of the songs are so familiar, but it's still a pretty impressive album.

I have a reissuie version with good liner notes, and mono and stereo versions of every track, and I pretty much can't tell any difference at all. I guess that's why I'm not an audiophile, eh?

The Beach Boys - "The Greatest Hits - Volume 1"

When I was a kid, my mother tended to listen to the oldies station on the radio (and my dad would usually listen to classic rock). Therefore, while I was always out of the loop on current music (hell, there's still 80s stuff that Marisa can never believe that I haven't heard), I heard a lot from the 60s. I'm not sure I'd say that I'm a fan of the Beach Boys exactly, but I heard a lot of it and it's pretty decent. This cd is chronological and has good liner notes, both good things. It ranges from the very beginning of the band all the way through "Kokomo" (ugh) (with a large gap between "Good Vibrations" and "Kokomo", though). There are some parts that are just way too cheesy, and I don't need the few "Pet Sounds" songs on here, but there's enough to make it worth while to keep and listen to every once in a while.

The Beach Boys - "The Greatest Hits - Volume 2"

A second volume of Beach Boys greatest hits, it again is chronological and goes from the beginning until they left their original label in the 70s (I believe there's a third volume that covers more of the 70s stuff, but I'm pretty sure I can do without that). Most of these songs were not big hits (at least not as much on the first one), but I know a few of them from covers ("Little Honda") or quasi-covers ("Don't Worry Baby"). A few of these songs that weren't hits are better than the big songs on the first album, although most of the 70s stuff here is pretty embarrassing. Then again, it's my theory that almost all 70s stuff, especially early-to-mid 70s American stuff, is really horrible, so that's no huge shock.

CD Project Thing #13 -Bananarama, Barcelona

2006-12-01T19:29:00.000-06:00

Bananarama - "Greatest Hits Collection"

I bought this CD because Marisa wanted it, and I've got to say I'm not super familiar with it or the band. I know a bunch of the songs ("Venus", "Help!", "Cruel Summer", "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)"), but mostly from commercials or versions by others. It's decent enough for an early 80s girl group, I guess, but it's no Go-Gos or Bangles.

Barcelona - "Simon Basic"

I first saw Barcelona opening for Wolfie at the High Dive in Champaign around 1999, the time of the release of their debut album. Especially on this album, they sounded a LOT like Wolfie, except with lyrics that made a lot more sense (and more often than not were about computers, being a geek, or childhood, or some combination of the three). Obviously, I fell in love. Who wouldn't?

Barcelona - "Robot Trouble"

The first of two singles Barcelona released as a preview of their second album (and the only two singles they ever did, actually). There's the single, two remixes, and two b-sides (one being a cover of "Pop Goes The World" by Men Without Hats that's one of my favorite Barcelona songs ever). That's just about all I have to say about that.

Barcelona - "Studio Hair Gel"

The second single, following basically the same format as the first (except without a cover song).

Barcelona's (excellent) second album "Zero-One-Infinity" should be next, but I don't currently own a copy. It's out of print, but scheduled to be reissued with bonus tracks (some of these b-sides, I'd assume, which might make it possible to sell the singles). It must be pretty rare, because used copies go for quite a bit, and I couldn't pass that up, especially knowing I could replace it soon. I wouldn't have had much to say about it anyway - it moved a little away from indie pop towards more electronic and new wave, but it's still quite good. Hopefully I'll be able to add a supplemental entry on it soon.

Barcelona - "Transhuman Revolution"

Third (and sadly, last) album from Barcelona. It's basically a New Wave album with some electronica, if an album from 2001 can possibly be considered New Wave. It's probably most notable for having been sequenced by Cameron Crowe (who gave them a mention in "Vanilla Sky").

I really don't know why they broke up after this album, but I have a hunch that there was some issue with the female member, because the lead singer went on to form the equally excellent Sprites, and he's worked with the other two members but not her. Also, their debut album has a song called "Do It Yourself" that seems to be a long list of complains about an unnamed band member. You'll here more about them when we get to S in, oh, a few years or so...

CD Project Thing #12 -The B-52s, Badfinger, Badly Drawn Boy

2006-11-28T16:48:00.000-06:00

The B-52s - Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation

And so begin the Bs. I never know what to say about marginal greatest
hits albums like this - it has the important hits ("Rock Lobster", "Love
Shack", "Roam"), a bunch of pretty decent songs that are worth having, a
bunch of songs that are just not interesting at all, and the obligatory
two new songs. It's a little lacking in the liner notes department,
featuring just pictures instead, but it does gain some points for being
chronological. Basically, it's one of those things where I wouldn't
really miss it if I didn't have it, but the hits are entertaining enough
that it's worth its spot on the shelf.

Badfinger - "The Very Best Of Badfinger"

If you don't know Badfinger, they're a 60s/70s UK Power Pop group.
Their biggest hit is probably "Come And Get It", which sounds like it
could be a Beatles song, probably because Paul McCartney wrote it for
them, but you probably also have heard "No Matter What", "Baby Blue" and
probably some others. You can mostly take my review of "Time Capsule"
and copy and paste it here. No new songs (which is probably a good
thing, since most of the band has been dead for a while), and it's just
semi-chronological, but we get liner notes so I guess it's a wash.

Badly Drawn Boy - "The Hour Of Bewilderbeast"

The first album (although hardly the first release, he had a number of
mostly rare or very rare EPs released before this, with well over an
album's worth of mostly pretty great music, that XL or Twisted Nerve or
whoever the hell owns the rights better reissue, dammit! You hear me?)
by Badly Drawn Boy, and I'd have to say it's one of the very best debut
albums I own. Top 10, at least. It's 18 tracks, about an hour long,
and with different combinations of musicians and instruments on almost
every track, and yet it really all hangs together as a coherent album
quite nicely. If you don't know this disc, it's really highly
recommended.

Badly Drawn Boy - "About A Boy"

Badly Drawn Boy doing the soundtrack to a book by my favorite author -
what could go wrong? Very little, actually. True, it's not quite a
REAL album (too many instrumentals for that), but it's still essential
in it's own right. Its sound is more unified than the previous album,
more organ based, and it really works completely fine without the movie.
If you didn't know it was a soundtrack, you might never guess it was.

It's a bit off the topic, but this album also had a bunch of good
b-sides that have the same sound (mostly different versions, remixes,
and outtakes from the movie). I didn't have any desire to buy a bunch
of different cds, though. There was a Japanese single that had, like,
all but one or two of them, and I would have bought it if it had ALL of
them, but for that much, I want it all, you know? So, labels, another
demand - after you do a Badly Drawn Boy EP release, do a b-sides
release. Hell, just do a big box of every single Badly Drawn Boy
non-album track, and throw in a bunch more unreleased stuff. Do it!
Quick! While people still care!

Badly Drawn Boy - "The Official Bootleg - Live @ Glastonbury"
(Canadian Import)

Badly Drawn Boy released two albums in 2002, and right in-between those
two albums came this live show, which was recorded by the BBC and then
released as a bonus disc with the latter album (possibly only in Canada,
which would explain why I have a Canadian import of it). It's a totally
solo show, with a mix of stuff from all three albums, plus a few b-sides
and covers. Being that it's solo, most of the stuff sounds pretty
different from the album versions. It's quite a worthwhile live album,
certainly better than a lot of live albums which got normal releases and
I was expected to pay normal album prices for.

Badly Drawn Boy - "Have You Fed The Fish?" (Canadian Import)

Badly Drawn Boy's second album of 2002 and his second "real" album overall, "Have You Fed The Fish?" is a pretty good album, but it doesn't compare to "The Hour Of Bewilderbeast". It does start to show some of the cracks in his songwriting, though - much of the second half is pretty boring (although it could have been better, if some of the b-sides had been on the album instead, and I suppose it's somewhat understandable considering it was his second album of the year). As of this moment, it's the last Badly Drawn Boy album I can actually recommend.

Badly Drawn Boy - "One Plus One Is One"

Besides being bad math, this just really isn't a good album. The problems are two-fold - first, there are just some really weird and bad production choices here. Way too many songs are dominated by horns or flutes or clarinets or recorders or children's choirs or other crap that has no business being all over a Badly Drawn Boy album. Trying new things is fine, but many of these instruments flat out annoy me. I might have been able to deal with that, if it wasn't for problem two: this is by far the worst batch of songs he's ever put out. There's basically nothing compelling here at all. And you know how I mentioned in the last album how the b-sides were better than the album? This album only had one single, and both b-sides were tacked on the American edition. They pretty much ARE better than most of the album, but it's still not nearly enough. Sell pile it goes...

After this album came out and sank without a trace, Badly Drawn Boy left his record label, recorded another album, scrapped it for not being good enough, recorded another album, released it, and that's apparently not very good, either. Have we lost Badly Drawn Boy for good???

What Have We Learned? - A

2006-11-26T20:35:00.000-06:00

Artists: 13
Discs: 47

- Tori Amos is a lot better then I thought
- Archers Of Loaf need a good "Best Of" disc
- This is going to take a lot longer than I thought

CD Project Thing #11 - Ash, pt. 2, The Avalanches

2006-11-25T10:07:00.000-06:00

Ash - "Walking Barefoot" (Australian Import)

As I previously mentioned, I used to have a LOT of Ash singles. Just from memory, I think I reached a high of point of 35 (and that's not counting a few EPs). I began to reconsider this a few years ago after getting married and moving and needing money and space (and it didn't hurt that Ash put out a b-sides disc, either). Since then, almost all of those singles have been removed from my collection and either sold or put on sale. This is the only one that survived the purge, and I'm not even sure why. It might be because it has 5 tracks (instead of the typical 3 on a UK single), but one track is on the album and another is on the b-sides album, so that's 3 new tracks. It's a decent cover of "Teenage Kicks" and two non-essential originals. Back to the sell pile it goes!

Ash - "Intergalactic Sonic 7"s" (2 CDs, UK Import)

As you might have noticed, I think Ash are a really good singles band. So, it stands to reason that when you take every Ash single, add a really good new single, and throw in some good liner notes and artwork and you've got a really good singles comp. Sadly, it's mostly pointless for me (there are a few single versions of songs, but nothing that really makes a difference), and it'll never get a US release, where it's really more important. Oh well.

The incentive to me was the second disc, known as "Cosmic Debris", full of 22 b-sides as voted on by fans. Ash have been very prolific with b-sides (they had 20 for "Free All Angels" alone, almost all of them new songs, and off the top of my head the only band I can think of who've ever beat that were the Smashing Pumpkins with "Mellon Collie"), and while I would have preferred a nice 3 disc set of every b-side, I guess I'll take what I can get. Most of their best b-sides made the disc, although there are of course some choices I have an issue with. Oh well, it is what it is, and there are some songs here that are pretty essential to own.

Ash - "Meltdown" (Plus bonus disc, UK Import")

I don't get Ash. Every time they go and do a big popular album ("1977", "Free All Angels"), they follow it up with a harder rock, less commercial album that basically bombs ("Nu-Clear Sounds", "Meltdown"). To be honest, I didn't like this one so much when I first heard it, but I think it's grown on me a bit. Still, it's probably the weakest Ash album (except maybe "Petrol"). Shortly after it's release they indicated they had a bunch left over and might shortly release a mostly acoustic album, but that never happened, possibly because Charlotte left the band. The new album is now coming out early next year, and I don't know much about it but I hope for the best.

I have the limited UK version of the album, which came with a bonus disc of the entire album played live (plus 3 other live songs). I sort of wish I had the US version instead (which has 3 extra studio tracks, but no live tracks), but I just haven't bothered, and it's just hard to convince myself to trade a whole live album for just 3 b-sides. If I can do it without losing any money, though, I still might.

The Avalanches - "Since I Left You"

This is a hard one for me to discuss, since I don't really have anything quite like it. The Avalanches are a few Australian DJs who made this entire album out of samples from all sorts of different sources (900 samples, according to Wikipedia). It's an 18 track album, but it all flows together like one track and despite coming from all different sources and all different genres really works well together. This came out about 6 years ago and they haven't done much since then except a few remixes, but there's a second album rumored to be coming one of these days. We can only hope.

CD Project Thing #10 - Ash, pt. 1

2006-11-19T10:33:00.000-06:00

Ash - "Trailer"

Have you ever noticed how easy it seems for teenage bands to make it pretty big in the UK? Here, if it ever happens, it's just a novelty act (see Hanson). In the UK, though, I can think of tons of examples of bands of high schoolers that made an impact on the music scene.

What's my point? Well, Ash were one of those bands. They were just about 17 when this, their first album (although it was only an EP in the UK) came out, and like many first albums by teenagers it's a little inconsistant (which wasn't helped by the 4 b-sides tacked on the end). It has some really great singles, though (Jack Names THe Planets, Petrol, Uncle Pat), and a cover of a song by the excellent Helen Love (who you'll hear plenty more about in a few months). Plus, I think it's their only US album so far that didn't result in them getting dropped or their label going out of buisness, that's always a plus!
Ash - "1977"

This was Ash's big breakthrough in the UK (and I think it did a bit here, too). Some of the non-singles are perhaps a bit too much like filler, but with singles like "Goldfinger", "Oh Yeah", "Kung Fu" and "Girl From Mars" that can be excused.

Ash - "Live At The Wireless" (UK Import)

A 10-track live album from a performance done on Australian radio. It's made up mostly of tracks from "1977" (mostly done a little more aggressively), along with a Ween cover and a strange little song that (I presume) served as a commercial for the show. I don't really think it's the most essential album ever, but it's entertaining and different enough that it's worth having.

Ash - "Nu-Clear Sounds"

For the life of me, I don't get why this album bombed like it did. Sure, it's no "1977 pt. 2" (it's a more varied album, with a lot of songs a little more subtle than "1977", but it also has "Numbskull", possibly their heaviest song ever), but it's still a great, overlooked album. Oh well.

It was also their first album with new second guitarist and background vocalist Charlotte. She just recently left the band. It's sad.

The American version of this album is a little strange. Dreamworks seems to have thought that having Butch Vig remix three songs so they better fit the American market or something (whatever that means) would be a big selling point, so they put those three songs first on the album and put a sticker on the front promoting that fact. I'm guessing that it didn't work. On the plus side, though, they did tack on the soundtrack single "A Life Less Ordinary", one of my very favorite Ash songs. Good job, Dreamworks!

Ash - "Got A Beautiful Face...Got A Fucked Up Inside"

A 5-track US promo (name taken from the chorus to "Numbskull"), it features 2 original b-sides (both later to appear on the b-sides cd) and 3 covers (2 of which did not). If I could sell it, it's possible I'd consider it, but I couldn't make any money off it, and I do kinda like the covers, so it's all good.

Ash - "Free All Angels" (with bonus DVD)

Apparently Ash were down to their last 1000 pounds nat the time this album came out, so they seemingly decided to just do the most poppy, mainstream album they possibly could (with lots of strings, too), and out came "Free All Angels". Their plan worked, since it was a huge UK hit (and even did a bit over here, at least until their record label went out of business). This is probably the best Ash album - even most of the non-singles sound like they could be singles, and some of the actual singles are among the best pop songs I can think of. Hopefully Ash saved their money a bit better this time, eh?

Ash - "Session Acoustique Inedite" (French Import)

"Free All Angels" came out at the height of my collector days. When you take into account the fact that they put out a LOT of related things, and that they were all pretty cheap, things got a bit out of control. At one point, I had 2 copies of the album, 12 CD Singles, 4 EPs, 4 DVD singles and a full-length DVD, all from the "Free All Angels" era. I later came to my senses a bit, so a lot of that is long gone, but this 2 track EP isn't. It's a promo that came with some copies of the album in France with acoustic versions of "Shining Light" and "Burn Baby Burn" and it's quite nice. However, it might soon be gone, too - when I was recently doing a bit of research on this, I learned that the album had been \nreissued in France with a 12 song bonus disc, including both these songs, and that it could now be had fairly cheaply. 12 songs is better than 2, so if I can get that, this will go on the sale pile...

CD Project Thing #9 - Archers Of Loaf, pt. 2

2006-11-16T22:06:00.000-06:00

Archers Of Loaf - "The Speed Of Cattle"

It's basically your pretty standard rarities comp - non-album singles, demos, radio sessions, unreleased tracks. It's also, perhaps surprisingly, probably my favorite Archers Of Loaf cd. I'm not sure if that's just because the longest (18 tracks!) or because I got it first, but I quite like it. I'd be hard-pressed to think of many cds that lead off with three tracks as good as "Wrong", "South Carolina" and "Web In Front". I mostly have a hard time telling the demo versions here from the original versions, but they're all good, and the majority of the cd is non-album stuff, so it all works out.

Archers Of Loaf - "All The Nation's Airports"

I'm running out of things to say about these Archers Of Loaf albums, I think. This one sounds a little less lo-fi and a little more produced, but it still sounds like an Archers Of Loaf album. It's not quite as good as their best ones, but I still enjoy it.

Archers Of Loaf - "Vitus Tinnitus"

This promo-only (I think) EP has 6 live tracks and then 2 remixes. It's one of those things that makes me wonder what the hell I was thinking - at some point, somehow, I got it into my head that I just HAD to own it, and I went crazy looking for it on eBay for months before I finally got one. And, why? There's nothing bad about it, exactly, but it's just amazingly inessential. I really don't need slightly different versions of songs I already own, especially when I might be able to make some money off this. Back to eBay it goes!

Archers Of Loaf - "White Trash Heroes"

The last Archers of Loaf album, and the worst one, I think. It's still not horrible, but they've dropped some of the more lo-fi and poppy elements for something a little darker and more dramatic. I quite like the title track, though, which is the last track on their last album. The singer would go on to form Crooked Teeth, who will appear (briefly) later in this blog.

CD Project Thing #8 - Archers Of Loaf, pt. 1

2006-11-12T21:51:00.000-06:00

Archers Of Loaf - "Icky Mettle"

The summer after Freshman year of college, I came back home and worked full time at the library where I'd worked in high school. At the end of the summer, a co-worker of mine gave me a mix tape called "Indie Rock!". It was an amazing mix tape (and I really ought to see if I can still find it), and it contained many songs and bands that are among my favorites, even 7 years later.

What does that have to do with album? There was definitely some Archers Of Loaf on it, and if I recall correctly I think it was "Web In Front" from this album. Beyond that, I'm not so sure what to say about them - they're sort of slackerish lo-fi indie rock in the Pavement mold, except not as popular. There are some missteps here, but the amazing songs totally make up for it. If I danced around the room myself when nobody was around, which I so totally don't, songs like "Web In Front" and "Wrong" would be right up there on the list of songs that make me dance (which I don't!).

Archers Of Loaf - "Archers Of Loaf Vs. The Greatest Of All Time"

5-track EP of new songs. A few of them are really great, but I really don't have much to say about them. They sound a lot the first two Archers Of Loaf albums, which is a good thing. The band later released a comp cd, but none of these songs (at least not in these versions) made it, so it's still an essential EP.

Archers Of Loaf - "Vee Vee"

The second album, still sounding a lot like the first. I don't know that I like this quite as much as the first, but it does have "Harnassed In Slums", and it's hard to go wrong with that. This is also, as far as I'm aware, the first cd in my collection to have a hidden track, a few seconds of pointless guitar. Yay fast forward button!

CD Project Thing #7 - Andrew W.K., Angelfish, Annie

2006-11-09T17:47:00.000-06:00

Andrew W.K. - "I Get Wet"

There could probably be an arguement made for filing this under "W" (and feel free to make it), but I've always felt it belonged under "A". Anyway, this is probably the heaviest sounding album I own. The thing is, it's also amazingly poppy and fun. I'm not sure I ever realized this before today, but parts of it sound quite a bit like a harder-rocking version of The Rentals, and if you know how I feel about The Rentals (hint: I love The Rentals), you know that's a good thing. It's honestly got me thinking of looking into his second album, because I can't imagine that it wouldn't be available really cheap.

Angelfish - "Angelfish"

From the "before they were stars" file, this was Shirley Manson's band before she joined Garbage. You can probably imagine exactly how it sounds - just think of any mediocre mid-90s guitar band with Shirley Manson's vocals. It's pretty decent, actually, but I'm saying that as a person who's a pretty big Garbage fan. I really don't know if it got any notice at all in 1994 (I suspect not), because every band sounded like this in 1994. I think the big winners in all of this were Radioactive Records, who (because of this album) got a credit on (and some money from, I'd presume) every Garbage album.

Annie - "Anniemal"

I never knew much about Annie (still don't, really) except that she's Norwegian and that Pitchfork really liked her singles, putting a few of them in top positions in their "singles of the year" chart. Now, normally Pitchfork liking something doesn't matter to me at all, but they also described her as really poppy, and we all know what a sucker I am for the pop. So when this album hit BMG, I had to get it, and I'm glad I did, since "Chewing Gum" might be the very best song ever. If I had to describe the album as anything I'd say it's sort of like early Madonna, except not really. You've just got to listen to it, I think.

Wikipedia fact of the day: Annie recorded a version of "Chewing Gum" in Simish for the Scandanivan version of "The Sims 2: Nightlife". I'm so jealous.

Bonus Disc - Y Kant Tori Read

2006-11-09T17:32:00.000-06:00

Y Kant Tori Read - "Y Kant Tori Read"

This is a "bonus disc" for two reasons - I don't actually own it (just a CD-R that Marisa made), and if I did, it would have to be under Y. Since I'd just listened to so much Tori, though, I was curious what this album (done by her with a band before "Little Earthquakes") would sound like. And the answer? It sounds like the most 80s album ever (which I suppose makes sense, since it WAS 1988). It's really hard to believe how cheesy most of it is. It begs the question, did she THINK it was good?

Marisa's copy has 6 bonus tracks (as most do, apparently) that come from later in her career, and sound like it. They're decent enough, I suppose

CD Project Thing #6 - Tori Amos, pt. 3

2006-11-09T17:30:00.000-06:00

Tori Amos - "To Venus And Back" (2 discs)

Disc one is a studio album. It's another "alternative-band" type album, a lot like the previous one except a little more electronic sounding and maybe a little less rock. It's quite a good album, though, a few songs on this are among the best I've heard from her so far.The second disc is a live disc recorded on her '98 tour. As you'll see going forward, I tend to not have very much to say about live discs. It's decent enough, I guess, except that she didn't end up picking many of the songs I especially like, so it doesn't do a whole lot for me.

Tori Amos - "Strange Little Girls"

Another topic I never have much to say about? Cover albums. I never know how to judge them - is it good to have lots of songs I know, or bad? Is it good if the songs sound the same, or bad? Who knows? For the record, most of the songs on here I don't know, but the ones I do sound very different, so they probably all do. Except for a few expiermental type things (an Ememim cover that's mostly spoken word, a Beatles cover with lots of sampled soundbits), most of the music here is pretty soft and low-key. It's nothing bad exactly, but it sounds like it could be the b-sides of a real album. (The funny part is, the "Crucify" EP, where the covers WERE the b-sides of a real album, was much more interesting than this).

Tori Amos - "Scarlett's Walk" (with bonus DVD)

Tori's first with a new label, and it's a bit of a return to form, sounding more like her first two albums than anything she'd done since then. This is a concept album about a girl walking across the country or something, but what it seems to mean is lots songs (like 18!), mostly very piano-heavy. Marisa liked this a lot when she first got it (I actually got it for her, and did a price match to get the (fairly pointless special edition) for the same price as the regular album), so she played it a lot, so a lot of the songs I already knew (and sometimes even get stuck in my head). It's really a surprisingly good album.

Tori had another album past this ("The Beekeeper"), and we even owned it for a day, but Marisa thought it was so boring we sold it after one listen. Is this the end for Tori as a decent artist, or can she bounce back? She has a new album out next year, I suppose we'll find out then.

CD Project Thing #5 - Tori Amos, pt. 2

2006-11-05T19:15:00.000-06:00

Tori Amos - "Boys For Pele"

Tori's third album, and it sounds pretty different than the first two. She plays harpsicord on some tracks instead of piano, and many of the tracks are much louder and denser with more of a full-band sound (and "Professional Widow" is downright scary played loud). Even the artwork is a little creepy (with stuff like "Tori with a gun" and "Tori breastfeeding a pig"). It's also far longer than the first two were. Unlike the first two albums, I don't think I knew any of these songs (Wikipedia says that despite possibly being her least well-known album, it's her best-selling, and I sort of see what they mean). In the end, though, my thoughts on it are the same as what my thoughts are ending up being on most Tori stuff - a few exceptional songs, and a bunch of songs I'm indifferent towards.

Tori Amos - "From The Choirgirl Hotel"

If the last album was starting to use a band a bit, this sounds flat out like a band album. Pretty much every song has a full band on it, and unlike her previous work it's rare for a song to have a really dominant piano. It sounds a lot like many other mid-to late-90s alternative bands, actually. Which I suppose is why I actually knew a few of these songs from the radio and MTV. (As an aside, I find that a large percentage of the time, the Tori songs I really like were singles. Am I just subconciously a poser who only likes what he's told to like, or is Tori just really good at picking the best songs as singles? The world may never know.)

Tori Amos - "Spark" CD Single

This is a 2-track CD Single, and the b-side isn't especially interesting. I asked Marisa why she bought it, in hopes of a good story for this spot, and she didn't even know. Into the sell pile it goes!

CD Project Thing #4 - Alice In Chains, The Allman Brothers Band, Tori Amos pt. 1

2006-11-02T19:06:00.000-06:00

Alice In Chains - "Nothing Safe: The Best Of The Box"

Alice In Chains are a band with lots of comps. There's the 10-track "Best Of", a 2 disc "Essential" and a 4 (I think) Box Set. And then there's this, a single 16-track disc that's technically "the best of the box", but is also essentially a greatest hits of the band itself, and it's just about all the Alice In Chains I need. Why do I say "just about"? Well, the damn thing doesn't have "Heaven Beside You", which is possibly my favorite Alice In Chains song. Thing is, the "Best Of" DOES have it, but it also drops a few songs from this, including "Get Born Again", which I like. I'm sure I don't need 2 discs, so I guess I'll just stick with what I have.

Something else interesting: I didn't realize until reading the liner notes that Jerry Cantrall wrote all the songs (many of them solo). I guess that makes the fact that the band is going on tour with a new singer somewhat less lame.

The Allman Brothers Band - "A Decade Of Hits 1969-1979"

And we reach the first of Marisa's cds ("Moon Safari" might have been hers first, but I officially adopted it and love it as I would one of my own cds). Guess you can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South(ern rocK) out of the girl. Anyway, to the album. Sort of a misleading title, since a total of one song is from 1979 and the other 15 are from 1969-1973. Also, these might have been hits at the time, but only about half of them are things I know from my classic rock radio. I've got to say, I was scared of this cd - I tend not to be a fan of stuff from the 70s (especially early 70s, especially American), and I had the idea in my head that there would be lots of guitar jamming, which I really sort of hate. Well, it was better than I expected - like I said, I knew about half of it, and most of the songs weren't superlong, and many didn't have any big guitar solos at all. So, while I don't really have any desire to listen to more, I now consider the Allman
Brothers Band to be decent.

Tori Amos - "Little Earthquakes"

Another artist that's Marisa's. One of Marisa's favorites, in fact. Me, I've never had anything against Tori, but I just never really considered getting into her, mainly because of all the effort it seemed to require to be a Tori fan (and the
implications of what being a male Tori fan would make people think). It just wasn't worth it.

To the album itself - I must have heard Marisa play this in the car a bunch, because most of it actually sounded familiar, and most of it was actually pretty good. Not "OMG I would die for you Tori!" good, but good. Even now, it sounds pretty unique and different, it must have blown people's minds in 1991. There are some moments where she's a little TOO emotional and her voice brushes against "annoying", but overall it's a solid debut. Can she keep it up? I don't know myself, we'll find out together!

Tori Amos - "Crucify" (CD Single)

In addition to a (superior) remix version of the title track, the key thing here are solo piano covers of "Angie" (Rolling Stones), "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana) and "Thank You" (Led Zepplin). As you might expect, none of them sounds anything like the original, especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which might as well be a completly different song.

Tori Amos - "Under The Pink"

Tori's second album, it's a lot like "Little Earthquakes" except a little more adventurous and not as good. It's got a few good songs at the beginning of the album, but by the end I was sort of bored by it.

CD Project Thing #3 - Ryan Adams pt. 2, Air

2006-10-30T19:02:00.000-06:00

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - "Cold Roses" (2 discs)

Ryan Adams released 3 albums in 2005, the first two under the name "Ryan Adams and the Cardinals". The first was "Cold Roses", a double cd (although I think it could have all fit on one). This is good, solid (albiet unspectacular) alt-country. I do like it, although I'm finding I don't really have a damn thing to say about it.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - "Jacksonville City Nights"

Next up was "Jacksonville City Nights", again with the Cardinals. While the previous one could be called alt-country, I would be hard pressed to call this anything but hardcore old-time country. It's probably more country-sounding than any other cd I own, and that includes cds by Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline. That doesn't mean I don't like it, though - it's actually pretty decent, although I don't think I like it quite as much as "Cold Roses". It'll be interesting to see if he puts out more with the Cardinals in the future.

Ryan Adams - "29"

Ryan's last album of 2005 (and his last album to this point) is this solo album consisting of 9 songs, mostly long slow rock (with a little country thrown in) Dylan-esque story songs. Not sure I have much to say about it. Not great, but good enough to keep. And I'm sure everybody's as happy as I am that we're through Ryan Adams. Moving on...

Air - "Moon Safari"

Air are a two-person French band (it says it right on the cd cover - "French Band") who do really great poppy electronic music. This cd is a mixed bag of stuff - a few instrumentals, a few songs with (usually strange) vocals by one of the members (best example is their biggest hit, "Sexy Boy", which is sung by a guy although you probably wouldn't know it), and a few songs sung by a guest female vocalist ("All I Need" and "You Make It Easy" were both prime contenders for places in our wedding, although in the end neither made it). It seems strange, but it all works in the end.

Air - "Talkie Walkie" (with bonus DVD)

Before and after "Moon Safari", Air had a few albums and EPs (the best title was for a remix ep from the "10000 Hrz Legend" album - "Everybody Hrz"), and I owned them all at one time, but none of them came close to "Moon Safari". They were all were too electronic or too instrumentaly or whatever. Air must have realized this, because their latest album, "Talkie Walkie" went back to the exact same formula as "Moon Safari", and at least in this case going back and copying an album was a very good thing. It didn't have any big hits, but there's probably a pretty good chance you've heard some of it in a commericial or as background music. I have a import version with a 30 minute live DVD, and, well, can you imagine how boring it is watching a 2 member French electronic band play songs mostly from their bad albums? I don't have to imagine, I own it!

CD Project Thing #2 - Ryan Adams pt. 1

2006-10-26T18:53:00.000-05:00

Ryan Adams - "Gold" (and "Side 4" bonus disc)

I think I was affected less by 9/11 than just about any other American. You always read about how everybody was affected and nobody was ever the same, but I really can't say that I was. Sure, I thought it sucked, but it didn't especially surprise me, and I don't think my life changed one bit because of it. The closest I came to knowing somebody who died that day was Marisa's friend's uncle, who I didn't even know existed before that. So, I thought most of the 9/11 tribute things were really silly. The one thing that DID almost get me was the video to "New York, New York" by Ryan Adams, probably because it wasn't originally intended as a tribute - the video was filmed on 9/7/01 and heavily features the World Trade Center. Besides that, though, I thought it was just a really great song.

Ryan Adams had a few albums with Whiskeytown and a solo album before this, but I don't own any of those so let's pretend they don't exist. "Gold" is a sprawling 21-song (counting the bonus disc) album that just sort of goes all over, but works really well, too. I'd actually forgotten how much I like it, there are a few songs here that are just really wonderful. I get the impression that some hardcore fans don't like this album or think it's a sellout or something, but for me he's never even come close to it again. Also, sadly, after this album he's never again taken the "let's throw everything out there on a disc" approach again, instead issuing multiple albums featuring his different sides and themes and stuff. That might make the albums a little more consistant sounding, but, I dunno, just not as interesting to me.

Ryan Adams - "Demolition"

Following "Gold", Ryan Adams did the classic "low-key followup to lower expectations" trick with the release of this collection of demos (get it? DEMO-lition? Ha ha? Yeah, I didn't think so). It was actually rumored that this would turn out to be a 4 disc box of demos, but in the end it's just this one disc (and my question is, how did two people get producer credits on it without producing a single song on the disc?).

The songs here mostly lean more towards country, and sound more like studio tracks than you'd expect a demo to. There are a handful of standout tracks here, but a lot of forgettable ones, too, and it just never FEELS like a real album. Of course, that might just be me feeling that way because I KNOW it's not a real album, but I suppose we'll never know.

Ryan Adams - "Love Is Hell"

"Love Is Hell" was supposed to be the official follow-up album to "Gold". Problem was, Lost Highway didn't want to follow-up his hit album with an album that's slow, depressing (and very good!) like "Love Is Hell". Eventully, a deal was worked out where "Love Is Hell" was released as two EPs around the same time as another album, "Rock N Roll" (see below). Then, a year later, they released the album on one disc as intended (with a bonus track). Normally that might have slightly annoyed me, but my various sales and purchases actually netted me a profit, so it was all good.

And the album, that's quite good, too (although it's no "Gold"). One of the highlights is his cover of "Wonderwall" that sounds nothing like the Oasis version. There's plenty of good originals too, but I'm really tired and don't know what to say about them, so let's just move on, shall we?

Ryan Adams - "Rock N Roll"

When Lost Highway wouldn't release "Love Is Hell", Ryan went in and knocked out the exact opposite, apparently only in about two weeks. Like the title implies, "Rock N Roll" is a straight rock record. Problem is, it's just not very good. It's not embarassing or anything (I think he's saving that for his rumored Hip-Hop record), but it's about the most generic sounding album possible. Most of the songs just sound like filler that any band could do, and there aren't any big singles or anything between the filler to make the album at all worthwhile. It's so forgettable, in fact, that I might just put it in my sell pile and forget I ever owned it...

CD Project Thing #1 - ABBA, Absinthe Blind

2006-10-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

ABBA - "Gold"

Man, right off the bat I'm probably losing all my credibility with most of you. And it's true, ABBA does have some really cheesy bits, but then also have some really great pop (in the good sense of the word) singles, and luckily they all seem to be on this disc(I briefly owned "More ABBA Gold" and it didn't do anything for me at all). Say what you will, but it's hard for me to believe there's anybody out there jaded enough not to get some enjoyment out of songs like"Waterloo", "Take A Chance On Me" and "Does Your Mother Know?"

Absinthe Blind - "The Everyday Separation"

Absinthe Blind were the current hot new thing on theChampaign rock scene near the end of my college days. This was their fourth album, which was current at the time. I believe this was their first with co-ed vocals, which tell me that I wouldn't much like the first two, since the co-ed vocals were my favorite part of the band and I don't really think they used them enough. I'm not sure I ever specifically set out to see them, but I did end up seeing them a few times opening for or following bands I did want to see, and I remember them putting on a good live show (they must have, for me to buy the cd). I wouldn't call it a great album, but it does have a few great songs. The band broke up after their fifth album and I think the members are in a few other bands now, including Headlights (who I've never heard, but I gather are getting somewhat popular).

The Rules

2006-10-24T18:32:00.000-05:00

The rules for the project (which I reserve the right to violate at any point, because they're my rules):

I will listen to all my cds in order, alphabetically by artist, and chronologicaly within each artist. Various artists compilations will be done at the very end, single artist compilations will be played where they seem to best fit. I will then post something about every cd.

Any questions?