BCG Reviews

Index

Even

Tue, 2009-05-26 07:26 — martins

My introduction to Even came via some performances by singer-songwriter-guitarist Ashley Naylor on SBS's RocKwiz. I found his solo performance very entertaining but when the first couple of lines of Get Off My Cloud came out of his mouth I was stunned. It was just so clear that Naylor "got" the song - he's obviously a big fan of music. So I went searching for some of Even's albums.

This self-titled album released in 2007 opens with I Am The Light, which is reminiscent of a psychedelic-era Beatles pop-rock track. However, like many of the songs on this album, it isn't that simple. There are influences from a lot of music, particularly from the late 1960s and the 1970s, and all of these these influences are infused into the music.

I'll skip through the tracks a bit because if I rave about every song then this is likely to get boring very quickly... :-)

I Walk On features an excellent guitar riff, vocal harmonies, and nice variation between verse and chorus. Superstition Blues features harmonica and slide guitar. It sounds like US southern rock played by a late-1960s British blues-rock band.

It is hard to pick favourites on this album, but one of mine is Which Way To Run, featuring wonderful playing by the whole band and some Wurlitzer piano contributed by one of the album's many guests. It is one of the album's bigger songs. For contrast this is followed by the acoustic and steel guitar based The Fool Who Made You Sad. I can't tell if this is a perfectly executed country song or if it is a perfectly executed spoof of a country song - I don't know enough about the band! Whatever the case, it is brilliantly executed.

I also think Tangled Up and the closer Pinnacle are exceptional songs... but then I think this album has no weak songs on it.

The production on Even is stellar. Some of the songs have a lot of guitars but they all occupy their own space and never become overbearing. The big songs have just the right amount of everything. The other thing that is brilliant about this album is Ashley Naylor's guitar playing - he plays rhythm and lead across all of the songs, managing to be continuously interesting and inventive.

I've already mentioned the 1960s and 1970s influences that pervade this album. There are influences from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who, Led Zeppelin and many more - I can hear a lot of music I like in there. Other bands like Oasis and Jet have also displayed a combination of similar influences but I think that Even do it in a more straightforward yet interesting way. There's also also a strong indy rock feel to the music, which gives it a slightly more interesting edge.

OK, enough superlatives! Almost. Ashley Naylor and his band are students of rock music who have mastered the art-form. They pay homage yet still manage to play interesting, new music. This is one of the best recent albums that I've heard in a long time. Recently I've listened to this album more than any other... and I heartily recommend it.

Any Better Time

Wed, 2009-05-13 07:43 — martins

Any Better Time is another album sent to me by my friend Dan. He grew up living across the road from singer-songwriter Christine Santelli and he thought I might like this roots-infused album that she has recorded. Santelli has a voice that sounds like it is full of cigarettes and whisky. Various tracks on this album encourage comparisons with people like Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge but Santelli occupies her own space, playing an interesting mix of folk-country-rock... or something like that. This is her seventh album and it is very good.

Good Day For A Hangin' opens the album nicely. It is rocky and showcases Santelli's vocals. I like this song except for one annoying bit where she sings "I just can't seem to stop smoking" in a space where it doesn't quite fit. This sounds like something that could be a nice feature when done live as a variation but I'm not sure it works on an album. That said, it annoys me less after quite a few listens than it did the first time I heard it. There are a couple of other times on the album where similar, uncomfortable phrasing is used.

The album's standout track is Guilty, a tale of love gone wrong set in an excellent mid-paced ballad and carried by excellent performances from the entire band. The next track Ponytails is a pretty, optimistic folk-country ballad. This is followed by the title track, which is a piano led number that bops along a little more than many other songs on the album, although Santelli's voice keeps things firmly on the ground. Down In The Valley, a gospel-country-ish song, follows.

Butterfly is probably my least favourite song on the album. It is quite poppy and pretty, but perhaps a little trite - to me it actually sounds like a cover that I might have heard played in a restaurant back in the late 1980s. I think the production on the drums contributes to this feeling.

The album has a good amount of variation. Calgary is another folky ballad that features some nice violin playing, Lily's Song is pure country and Brown Haired Girl is beautiful and folky. Ode To Bill is a blues-rock song featuring some searing lead guitar playing that interacts wonderfully with Santelli's vocals. The closer On The Farm is a delightful down-home country stomp.

I won't dissect this album any more. Any Better Time is a very good album - just short of being great - and I'm listening to it a lot. I'd actually like to listen to some of Chistine Santelli's other albums and I really think I'd enjoy seeing her live.

Stephen Stills

Fri, 2009-03-27 23:00 — martins

How did I not know about this album? My friend Dan, who I share a lot of musical interests with, recently sent me a bunch of albums that he has enjoyed listening to over the years, including Stephen Stills' self-titled album.

Although it is very different in its construction, this album sits very comfortably in my collection with albums like Janis Joplin's Pearl. That's no surprise, since this album and Pearl were recorded at about the same time, although Joplin was dead before this album was released. Similarly, Stephen Stills features a dedication to Jimi Hendrix, who jams with Stills on one track on this album. Much of this album features beautiful gospel-style backing vocals, with help from people like Rita Coolidge, John Sebastian, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Cass Elliot and Shirlie Matthews. However, it is Stills' soulful vocals and songwriting, and his inspired guitar and keyboard playing that make this a fantastic album. Stills plays most instruments, apart from drums, on quite a few of the songs.

Stephen Stills opens with the "flower power" classic Love The One You're With. With its rich backing vocals, it sets the stage for the rest of the album. This song was a hit and is well known, so not much to say. It is followed by the much sparser Do For The Others, indicating that this album is going to vary a bit.

Church (Part Of Someone) is an aptly titled, gospel-infused track that is led by Stills' soulful vocals and piano playing. With its huge backing vocals, and filled out with a string section, this is probably my favourite track on the album.

This is followed by Old Times Good Times, which is a fantastic jam with Jimi Hendrix. As with Stevie Winwood on Hendrix's own Voodoo Chile, Hendrix seems to bring out the best in excellent organ players. This song alone is worth the price of admission, with Hendrix's guitar playing taking a back seat to Stills' inspired organ playing for much of the track.

Go Back Home also appears to be a fabulous jam. It features extended guitar work from Stills, with Eric Clapton on 2nd lead guitar. Sit Yourself Down is another ballad, vaguely in the style of Church but lacking most of the gospel undertones. This was one of the singles from the album and charted quite well.

Another ballad To A Flame follows, replacing rich backing vocals with a string section. Black Queen is a live performance, featuring Stills' folk-blues driven acoustic guitar and soulful vocals. This is probably the track that confirms that, despite the all-star cast, it is Stills' talents that carry this album.

Cherokee is quite a funky number, filled with musical interludes featuring brass and flute, and also organ by Booker T. Jones. Nice! The closing track We Are Not Helpless returns to the formula of Stills' playing most instruments, backed by a huge-sounding chorus. Apart from Stills and backing vocalists, the other musician on the track is Ringo Starr playing drums under the pseudonym "Richie". This song closes the album quite aptly with a huge splash of Stills' organ.

This is a very, very good album. It has dated a little since its 1970 release... but that doesn't worry me. The songwriting and performances are first class - there's a lot to like about this album. Thanks to Dan for sending it to me!

Circus Animals

Fri, 2008-07-25 00:00 — martins

I've been listening to lots of music lately but haven't reviewed anything for a long time. I'm hoping to change that and get back into the swing of things. What better way to start than to listen to an old favourite and rave about it?

Circus Animals is Cold Chisel's 4th studio album, released in 1982. This album was very popular while I was in my mid-teens and I remember spending hours screaming along with this album. It's one of those albums that occupies a particular place in my life.

The album opens with the Jimmy Barnes screamer You Got Nothing I Want, featuring the entire band going full-tilt. The interplay between the instruments shows that the band are at the top of their game, and Barnes' vocal performance is searing and angry. This is followed by Ian Moss' Bow River, which has become a classic of Australian rock music - the singing and guitar playing are wonderful. The next track Forever Now is a Steve Prestwich composition and is the poppiest song on the album. It has never been my favourite song from this album, but it did well in the charts and on radio.

This album is notable because none of the singles it spawned were written by Cold Chisel's main songwriter Don Walker. His first contribution to the album appears at track 4 in the form of Taipan, which starts off at a slow simmer with a drum-led groove before building to screaming vocals and guitar playing. Houndog and Wild Colonial Boy pick up where Taipan leaves off. These 3 Walker compositions form a very strong core for Circus Animals and paint the Australian landscape in a way that is uniquely Don Walker. Overall, Walker's contributions cause this album to take a different, more rocky direction to Cold Chisel's previous album East. For that album many of his songs were poppier and more radio-friendly, including some excellent ballads. Apart from the opening to Letter To Alan (see below) none of his contributions to Circus Animals are ballads.

The next track No Good For You is interesting in that it may be Cold Chisel's only track written by Moss but sung by Barnes. This is a nice combination and places a slightly mellow pause in the album's running order. Numbers Fall is another fine Don Walker tune that picks up the pace a little.

The second last track is the classic When The War Is Over, written by drummer Steve Prestwich. This is a piano-led ballad and, apart from some great vocal harmonies interspersed throughout, it begins with smooth Moss vocals and ends with powerhouse vocals from Barnes. Add to that some beautiful guitar playing and you have one of my favourite songs. Cold Chisel used the start-with-Moss, finish-with-Barnes approach on quite a few of their ballads and it never failed to please!

Letter To Alan is the closing track on Circus Animals. It is my favourite Cold Chisel song. This Don Walker song deals with the deaths of two Cold Chisel roadies who died when the truck they were driving crashed and went up in flames. It opens as a ballad with some spacious piano playing with vocals from Barnes. Then it takes off - I don't think I've ever heard a more passionate studio recording than this one. The playing is tight, rich and heavy, and Barnes has never sung better. This song does not have choruses, it has guitar solos instead. Moss' guitar playing is supersonic - he performs 4 absolutely blistering guitar solos during this 6 minute epic. I shudder to think that some people might turn off this album after the elegance of When The War Is Over and miss the raw power of Letter To Alan altogether.

This album features Ian Moss' best guitar playing during his time with Cold Chisel. In fact, it is some of the best guitar playing I've ever heard. It is played against the enormous back-drop of the Prestwich/Small/Walker rhythm section and competes brilliantly for space out the front with some of Jimmy Barnes' best vocal performances.

Circus Animals isn't Cold Chisel's most commercially successful album. However, it is a collection of excellent performances by a great rock band at their peak. That makes this one of my favourite albums.

SunDirtWater

Fri, 2007-12-07 23:00 — martins

SunDirtWater is the recent album by Australian band The Waifs. This album finds the band in stunning songwriting, musical and vocal form, and they are joined by some impressive guest musicians. On this album they manage to fuse their Australian sound with some of the best of American roots music. I would not have thought this would be possible... without listening to this album... again and again. This is one of the finest albums in my collection.

The album opens with Pony. This is a well-paced country-ish groove with shared vocals - Donna Simpson takes the lead by just a bit. The fact that this song features a piano and has Josh Cunningham playing electric, rather than acoustic, guitar seems to signal that this is going to be quite a different album for the The Waifs.

This is followed by the album's amazing title track. Written and sung by Vikki Thorn - her only song-writing contribution for the album - this is a groovy, spirited, almost jazzy track that features some excellent lead guitar by Josh and some funky percussion. Josh has described this song as The Waifs' finest recorded moment. It is certainly very good... but, while I don't want to disagree, picking the finest song on this album is a very difficult task.

Vermillion is a dark and haunting ballad written and sung by Donna Simpson. When I saw The Waifs perform this at Tilleys in April this year the room was stunningly quiet when the song ended until Donna said "Yeah, I made all that up." It certainly is compelling fiction...

How Many Miles is a lively country-rock composition by Josh, with Vikki on lead vocals. This song reminds me of a very good Lucinda Williams track. It's deliciously laden with slide guitar, plus guitar and harmonica solos, and it just drives along. This is followed by Without You, with the same writing/vocal combination. This is a classic Josh album track - it's easy to imagine him singing it - but, as usual, Vikki turns in a fine performance.

Donna's Sad Sailor Song features a dirty guitar groove, Hammond B3 by Reese Wynans and soulful lead vocal performance. This track has a nice dark feel to it and is rockier than much of The Waifs previous material. The combination of strong arrangement and restrained vocals reminds me somehow of Cowboy Junkies.... and then, somehow, also is reminiscent of Sheryl Crow.

The Josh/Vikki (writing/vocals) combination is evident again on Get Me Some. For some reason, this feel-good song somehow reminds me a lot of the classic Everybody's Talkin'. This song features some lovely electric piano and the vocal performance is fantastic. Eternity finally finds Josh on lead vocals. Josh always seems to provide a welcome change. He doesn't pack the vocal punch of Donna and Vicki, but that's a feature. Things get relaxed in a whole different way when Josh takes over lead vocals... and the band would lose an important feature without him singing a song or 2 on each album.

Sweetest Dream finds Donna in awesome vocal form, singing a gospel-style song. This track features beautiful Hammond B3, once again by Reese Wynans, and just enough lead guitar from Josh, plus a slathering of gospel backing vocals. Vikki returns with Goodbye. This is quiet a rocky song, with song great slide guitar playing, and is actually a lot like a very good Sheryl Crow song. Yet more rocky is Stay, featuring some uncharacteristic, but interesting, vocals from Vikki... and seems to provide a subtle hints about the album's closing track. This song reminds me of someone else... but I just can't pick it right now.

The second last song on the album is Donna Simpson's Love Let Me Down. This song is an epic ballad that gets quite heavy, and has a strong Cowboy Junkies feel to it - given the Junkies uniqueness I'm surprised to be making the comparison more than once. However, the similarity comes from the arrangement, featuring an acoustic guitar, some beautiful dirty lead guitar and harmonica. I love this song.

The album closes with Josh playing ukelele and Vikki crooning on the retro Feeling Sentimental. It's a delightful touch, with splashes of clarinet filling out the song. An interesting song to finish on - almost like the closing song from the soundtrack of a 1940s movie.

This album strongly features Josh Cunningham's songwriting. He's written a lot of The Waifs songs in the past, but here he's clearly the main writer, with 9 of the 13 tracks. The quality and variation is amazing. Although the 3 tracks written by Donna Simpson are stunning and Vikki Thorn rightly earns the title track, it is Josh's songwriting that forms the backbone of this album and allows it to be great.

The Waif's previous studio effort Up All Night contained a number of modern day Aussie classics and seemed like it would be hard for the band to follow. However, SunDirtWater seems to be an effortless follow-up, containing great music performed by one of the world's best bands, with perfectly executed overdubs by excellent session musicians. This is the least acoustic and is certainly the darkest of The Waifs albums.

This is my favourite album of 2007 - I can't stop listening to it. Some albums seem to fit perfectly with some point you're at in your life and SunDirtWater does that for me might now. This one feels like it is challenging Janis Joplin's Pearl as my "desert island" album... and that's a pretty big call...

Tunnel Of Love

Tue, 2007-07-24 00:00 — martins

I think I've said before that I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. However, Tunnel Of Love, his studio follow-up to the mega-huge Born In The USA, turned me off and stopped me listening to him for quite a few years.

There are a bunch of excellent songs on this album, such as Ain't Got You, Spare Parts, Two Faces, Brilliant Disguise and One Step Up. Unfortunately, the album isn't all goodness. The production on much of the album leaves it firmly back in the 1980s. For example, I think the title track could be good... but this rendition isn't... and it feels like a failed experiment. Personally, I think Cautious Man doesn't really work on this album. Songs like this work well on Nebraska where most of the album is quite down and the 1980s synthesiser is absent, but with this mixed arrangement the song gets lost amongst a bunch of similar sounding songs. They also work well when Springsteen has the E Street Band to provide some up-beat contrast. However, the E Street Band are noticeably absent on this album. Drummer Max Weinberg appears on most songs but his drum sound in the mid-to-late 1980s isn't my favourite feature of the E Street Band during that time. Springsteen's lead guitar playing also sound thin, whiny and over-produced - there's too much 1980s style delay.

Unfortunately Tunnel Of Love still isn't close to being my favourite Bruce Springsteen album.

Secret Samadhi

Tue, 2007-07-24 00:00 — martins

On Sunday I went for a fairly long drive by myself and loaded up with a few albums to help get me there and back. Most of the albums I chose were selected to keep me awake but some others were just things I felt like listening to. I thought I'd run through them...

Secret Samadhi is Live's 3rd album, released in 1997 as the follow-up to their hit 1994 album Throwing Copper. This album is a heavy rock/pop album with driving drums and guitar, and classic heavy rock vocals. Although this album seemed to disappoint some of the fans Live had attracted with Throwing Copper, I loved Secret Samadhi the first time I heard it. This is one of those albums that seems to feature no stand-out singles, even though it spawned 4 US Top 20 singles.

Overall Secret Samadhi seems to head-bang along quite nicely! However, there is quite a bit of variation on this album. Rattlesnake opens the album and builds things up quite quickly - it is a well done opener. This is followed by Lakini's Juice and Graze, two of the heavier songs on the album featuring nice distorted guitars and some stand-out vocals. Turn My Head is an excellent ballad, complete with mellow chorused guitar and strings, with a build up to a lovely guitar solo and anthemic drumming - this is definitely the most mainstream song on the album. Heropsychodreamer is reminiscent of early U2, although done quite a bit heavier.

I think those who don't like Secret Samadhi would probably have 2 main objections. Firstly, there is a bit of a formula where many songs begin quietly and build up once or twice into big rock anthems with big guitar solos. Personally I think the contrast between heavy and light is one of the features of this album. Also, the lyrics are generally more abstract and harder to relate to than some of the songs on Throwing Copper. I've never bothered tried to work out what many of the songs are about...

However, I still really like this album. It's all about drums, guitar... and vocals... I like that! I think Secret Samadhi is Live's best album.

West

Tue, 2007-07-24 00:00 — martins

West is Lucinda Williams' current release. I bought this after greatly enjoying 2 of her previous albums and have been listening to it a lot.

Three of the first four tracks (Are You Alright?, Mama You Sweet, Fancy Funeral) are fairly straight country-folk and appear to be about the recent death of Williams' mother. Mama You Sweet has a bit of the country hip-hop style that Williams has explored previously. The other track of the opening group, Learning How To Live, has a subtly different lyrical theme, but is equally subdued and matches the same country-folk style.

The next track Unsuffer Me is a brilliant cry for help - a heavier, moody ramble with gripping lyrics and Williams' signature gut-wrenching vocal style. This is followed by Everything Has Changed, which an equally negative song done in a much prettier style. Then, on Come On, things get heavier again and Williams takes aim at a guy who has obviously let her down. I'm not sure I've ever heard a nastier song - this one uses up the album's language warning with a single line... although the rest of the lyrics aren't exactly subtle. The sneer in Williams' voice on the this track almost reaches out and grabs you. I like it!

The rest of the album features a bunch of very good country and folk songs. Wrap My Head Around That differs in that it is another hip-hop style track.

West certainly isn't a positive album. It is one of the darker albums I've heard in a while. Williams explores a some negative experiences from some interesting vantage points, making this album an excellent listening experience. I really like West.

Now Here Is Nowhere

Tue, 2007-07-24 00:00 — martins

I've written about this album before. On this uninterrupted listen of Secret Machines' Now Here Is Nowhere several things struck me:

  • Musically this album is huge - the sound is awesome especially for a self-produced debut album.
  • Drummer Josh Garza does a very good John Bonham but also manages to break that mould when necessary.
  • Brandon Curtis is a very competent singer but doesn't stand out from the crowd. If Secret Machines had a unique, brilliant singer then they could be huge.

Now Here Is Nowhere is a very nice album to drive to...

Road Apples

Tue, 2007-07-24 00:00 — martins

Road Apples is the 2nd full album by Canadian band The Tragically Hip. This is one of those albums that makes me wonder how I survived for so long without any albums by this excellent band. Recorded in New Orleans, Road Apples combines the indie-rock sound of their eponymous EP with American southern rock creating a great rock album.

There's no point running through the track list here. Time is better spent covering the elements that make this album so good. The guitar playing rocks - most songs have a combination of strong riffs and inspired lead guitar playing. Gordon Downie's lyrics and vocals are inspired - I'm not sure why he isn't considered one of rock's finest vocalists. The rhythm section is solid and serves every song. There is a nice combination of up-beat rock songs and sensitive ballads.

Road Apples is a great album - one of my favourites. It's a very long way from being horse dung... and these days The Tragically Hip are one of my favourite bands.

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