Monday, December 29, 2014

themusicaddict's Greatest Hits of Heart

Hello,

As I've been working on my greatest songs of all-time blog, a project I work a bit more on each day, I'm obviously compiling lists of great songs by artists. So I've decided to take some of these lists and convert them into their own stand alone blog. These songs are in no certain order, but I don't think I have a favorite song of Heart. Several of their songs I like about the same.

Again all greatest hits as determined by themusicaddict. However dissension is allowed and encouraged. These songs are arranged in no particular order.

This probably isn't the first song you think of when you think of Heart, but it's definitely one of their greatest hits/best songs:

"Stranded":


If you've left me stranded, then "What About Love":


And I don't even know what could happen "If Looks Could Kill":



"Will You Be There (In The Morning)":


"Who Will You Run To":


"Nothin' At All":


"Never":


"All I Wanna Do Is To Make Love To You":


"These Dreams":


"Kick It Out":


"Love Alive":


"Straight On":


"Heartless":


"Alone":


The song that probably really broke Carrie Underwood into national consciousness, her cover of "Alone" on that show that used to be relevant.


"Magic Man":


"Crazy On You":


"Barracuda":


Their rocking cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock N' Roll":


themusicaddict

Saturday, December 27, 2014

themusicaddict's Greatest Hits of Bryan Adams

Hello,

As I've been working on my greatest songs of all-time blog, a project I work a bit more on each day, I'm obviously compiling lists of great songs by artists. So I've decided to take some of these lists and convert them into their own stand alone blog. These songs are in no certain order, but my favorite Bryan Adams song is probably "Straight From The Heart":


"Cuts Like A Knife":


"Heaven":


"This Time":


"It's Only Love" (featuring Tina Turner):


"One Night Love Affair":


"Run To You":


"Can't Stop This Thing We Started":


"Somebody":


"Summer of '69":



"Everything I Do (I Do For You)": (I echo the sentiments of this musical tribute, God bless America's military.)



"Please Forgive Me":


"All For Love (featuring Rod Stewart and Sting):


"Let's Make It A Night To Remember":


"Ain't Gonna Cry":


"Long Gone":


themusicaddict

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

A Merry Christmas Wish From themusicaddict

Hello,

Yes, I really believe that Jesus is the reason for the season, here are some of my favorite Christmasy songs. Also have an amazing Christmas.

Band Aid "Do They Know It's Christmas?": (Extended Version) That's just a great song and a great cause:


Band Aid "Do They Know Its Christmas?" (Regular Version):


Band Aid 2 "Do They Know It's Christmas?" I hadn't realized they remade this song in 1989, this is the first I'm hearing about it. Honestly I couldn't tell you who any of these people are that are singing this version:


Elton John's "Step Into Christmas":


Wham! "Last Christmas":



Lady Antebellum's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is the sexiest version that I've heard of this song:


Whitney Houston "Do You Hear What I Hear?":


"Carol of The Bells", I can't find the version of this song that I hear in my head. But this is a decent version. I'm surprised how many people perform this song slowly.


Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus":


TSO's "Queen of the Winter Night":


Jennifer Hudson's "O Holy Night":


This is an amazing version of "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" by Casting Crowns:


Michael Crawford's "What A Strange Way To Save The World":


Michael Crawford's "Mary, Did You Know":


themusicaddict

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time (Even More Of A Work In Progress, Updated December 24th, 2014)

Hello,

As I've started a list of the greatest CDs of all-time, I thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing for CDs.

1) AC/DC "Back In Black"

2) Adams, Bryan "Reckless"

3) Aquabats "The Fury of The Aquabats"

4) Arcade Fire "Funeral"

) "Batman" (1989) Soundtrack

Chapman, Tracy "Tracy Chapman"

Cherry, Neneh "Raw Like Sushi"

Cinderella "Long Cold Winter"

Cinderella "Night Songs"

Counting Crows "August and Everything After"

Def Leppard Hysteria"

Def Leppard "Pyromania"

Fountains of Wayne "Welcome Interstate Managers"

Green Day "American Idiot"

Jackson, Janet "Control"

Jackson, Janet "Rhythm Nation"

Jackson, Michael "Thriller"

Journey "Escape"

Journey

) Knack, The "Get The Knack"

Knopler, Mark "Sailing To Philadelphia"

Led Zeppelin 1

Led Zeppelin 2

Led Zeppelin 3

Led Zeppelin 4 (Zoso)

Living Color "Vivid"

Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf

) Metallica "The Black Album"

) Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine"

) Osbourne, Ozzy "The Ultimate Sin"

) Paramore "Riot"

) Perry, Steve "Street Talk"

) Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon"

) Pink Floyd "The Wall"

) "Pretty In Pink" Soundtrack

"Purple Rain" Soundtrack

) Rage Against The Machine Self Titled

) Rihanna "Good Girl Gone Bad"

) RUN-D.M.C. "Raising Hell"

) Soundgarden "Superunknown"

) Turner, Tina "Private Dancer"

) White Stripes "White Blood Cells"

themusicaddict

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Things I'm Not Writing About Today, December 20th, 2014: Oakstone Academy's Oakapella Kickstarts

Hello,

Westerville, Ohio's own Oakstone Academy have their own acappella choir. Apparently any thing in the world of acappella has to include a pun, thus the name of their group is Oakapella. Now I know very little about this group. But a close friend of mine's daughter is part of this choir, so I wanted to throw my support behind them. Other than the three videos on Youtube, I've never seen them perform. Also those videos are 2.5 years old, so the choir probably has almost completely turned over since then. Here's a couple of songs by the 2012 version of Oakapella:





They have taken to Kickstarter so that they can make their own CD. Their very modest goal is to earn $1500 and they are almost 2/3rds of the way there. They've only had this project going for a few days. The project still has 26 days left, so I expect them to make their goal easily.

Via Kickstarter's website I sent a suggestion to Aaron Loskota, Oakstone's choir director, to upload more of their music on to Youtube.

Other things I'm not writing about today include "Exodus: Gods and Generals". Let's start with the good things first. The cinematography is amazing. The shots of hundred of arrows in the air at the same time is breathtaking. Also the wave of the Red Sea is brilliant. The acting is okay, but I get tired of seeing the same actors in what seems to be nearly every movie made.

Here are some bad things: One word I had read about "Exodus" was that it was plodding. I'd agree with that word. Shouldn't one of the most dramatic stories of the the Bible be more dramatic on the screen? I didn't like God being portrayed as a child, or even worse a figment of Moses' imagination. Some of Christian Bales robe costumes made me think more of "Star Wars" than Moses.

Although I was glad that this movie did inspire me to pick up Jonathan Hirsch's "Moses: A Life". I hadn't realized how contentious of a relationship God had with Moses.

Madonna's "Rebel Heart": Due to leaks of some of the songs off the soon to be released "Rebel Heart", Madonna has released six tracks off that CD. Sadly all six of these songs are generic dance pop, there's no danger of any new ground being broken.

Here's a sample: the first song starts out with some promise, before devolving into a song about drugs. But after that it seems to be the same song over and over again. It quickly becomes unlistenable, sad that this is the best Madonna can do now.


Ever since the early 90s, her music has been hit and miss. In fact my favorite CD of hers over the last several years technically isn't even a Madonna CD. That CD is the soundtrack to "Evita". Those songs contain many of the same ingredients that made her 80s music so great. Great tunes, great melodies and the songs are fun. The Madonna/ "Evita" pairing was a genius decision.

"Buenos Aires":


"Rainbow High":



"High Flying Adored":



"Goodnight and Thank You":


It's sad that some of Madonna's most relevant music is based on a play from the late 70s. But "Evita" is her best CD of the last 20 + years and it's not even close. And if the six songs from "Rebel Heart" are a sign of her new music, then this won't be her next classic CD either.

themusicaddict

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The Amazing Voice of Stevie Nicks, The Devastating Finale of "Broadchurch" (Slight Spoilers)

Hello,

I'm not a big fan of Stevie Nicks most recent CD "24 Karat Gold- Songs From The Vault", but I love it's first song "Starshine":


And how many people have ever had a better voice than Miss Nicks?

"The Chain": (Live)


"Landslide":


"Rhiannon":


The trailer for the amazing first season of "Broadchurch":


One of my favorite television shows of 2013 was the ITV drama "Broadchurch", what a great show! The only downside of the show was the finale, which I hated. I especially hated the whole storyline of how Joe wanted to hug his son's friend, Danny Latimer. Latimer is the boy who is murdered, which is the case the whole season revolves around. The Joe and Danny hugging storyline was creepy and lame. I'm not sure of the proper word. It's so bad I wondered if the creators of "Broadchuch" let "The Killing" show runner Veena Sud decide how the finale would end? Yes, it was that bad. Thankfully that was pretty much the only misstep.

But while all the acting was great, I can't fail to mention the acting of David Bradley. He played the role of early suspect/ small time businessman Jack Marshall with such great ability. The audience was never sure of what Marshall's motivations were, but Bradley played this character with great skill. Although we never knew whether he was a hero or creep, we couldn't fail to have great empathy for him. When his character committed suicide, that tore me apart more than any piece of fiction should.

For the next several months I didn't think much more about "Broadchurch". I heard that there was going to be an American adaptation of the show, which was "Gracepoint". I was still so disappointed by the finale of "Broadchurch" that I had no interest in seeing this remake.

However my Mom fell in love with "Gracepoint" and I heard updates as that show's 10 episodes progressed. Anyway the finale of "Gracepoint" was just a few days ago. She had a similar experience to me, she liked the show but wasn't so excited about the finale. So we discussed the comparison and contrast between the two finales. From what she said about "Gracepoint", the only word I came up with was convoluted.

While we were having this conversation I realized that I'd forgotten so much about the "Broadchurch" finale. Thankfully it's on Netflix now and last night I watched it's finale again. For whatever reason it's finale this time was 1000 times better, although I knew who the killer was. Again I especially loved the final scene when all those fires were lit in Danny's honor, spine tingling stuff.

Despite it having some missteps, overall the first season was amazing. This is the kind of show/ movie that happens so rarely now where the emphasis is on story. The great story was only enhanced by great acting. Even when we found out who the killer was, we couldn't but help to still feel for Joe Miller. The characters personalities weren't black or white but shades of grey.

Watching the finale has made me interested in actually watching season 2 of "Broadchurch". Even if I had known there was going to be a season 2 I wouldn't have had any interest in seeing it. But now I look forward to watching it.

The season 2 trailer of "Broadchurch":



Sadly probably for financial reasons "Gracepoint" was stretched to 10 episodes. That was a mistake, because at 8 episodes "Broadchurch" was a perfect tightly wound universe of it's own. I don't think it's much of a surprise that there won't be a season 2 of "Gracepoint". 

themusicaddict

Saturday, December 13, 2014

themusicaddict's Things I'm Not Writing About Today: The Impossibly Gorgeous Stana Katic Etc.

Hello,

I've been busy of late looking for, finding and starting a new job. So I've got a bit behind on my TV watching and just last night was able to watch the seventh episode of "Castle" season 7. I'm still a few weeks behind, but will catch up quickly. Anyway I had a great surprise last night when I watched that seventh episode, "Once Upon a Time in the West".

"Castle" remains a great show, even in its 7th season, an amazing cast with a lot of chemistry and whip smart writing. But one of it's most likable ingredients has always been the appearance and character of Kate Beckett, as played by Stana Katic.

The impossibly gorgeous Stana Katic:


Dearest Netflix I wasn't really aware of "Castle" it's first two or three seasons, thus I've never seen those episodes. Can you please bring the first 6 seasons of "Castle" to Netflix. Thanks in advance.

Every year I pick a Kickstarter project to get behind. In 2013 it was EarlyRise's second CD, which they hadn't recorded yet and were looking for money to do so. I liked their previous music that I contributed to that CD. Due to the illness of their lead singer, Orly Lari, that album hasn't been recorded yet. I understand that life happens and I'm waiting patiently for that CD. The Kickstarters on this project were updated with the information that the record has been written, they are just now waiting for Orly to recover. Best wishes to EarlyRise.

In 2014 I put some of my limited funds behind Andrew Curry's "Here Comes The Reign Again". Curry recruited several bands to do covers of classic 80s songs, thus "Here Comes The Reign Again" is obviously a play on the Eurythmics "Here Comes The Rain Again". I thought that was a great idea so I contributed.

There's no guarantee of the quality of the product, but what the heck I thought it was a great idea. Sadly "Here Comes The Reign Again" isn't very good. Some of these songs have had the life completely sucked out of them by terrible, slowed down arrangements. Honestly the best covers are the songs that are closest to the original version.

Of the 29 songs on this double CD, the only song I gave five stars to was Bleu's cover of "Don't You (Forget About Me)". I gave four star ratings to Chris Price's "Don't You Want Me", The Corner Laughers cover of Madness' "Our House", The Davenports "Freedom", Minky Starshine's "True" and People On Vacation's "Cruel Summer".

But I rated the other 23 songs 3 stars or less, with 16 songs receiving either two stars or one stars. The least satisfying covers were Corin Ashley's "If You Leave", Eytan Mirsky and Alyson Greenfield's "No One Is To Blame", Graham Alexander's "They Don't Know", Ken Stringfellow's "Digging Your Scene", Mike Doughty "Relax" and Rachel Yamagata's "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me". All those one star songs are done in by terrible arrangements.

Quick reviews: The 2003 movie "The Core". With a cast featuring Hillary Swank (who was amazing in "Million Dollar Baby"), Aaron Eckhart and Stanley Tucci, what could go wrong? Well this didn't go  wrong necessarily, but it was much less than the sum of its parts. It's a video movie.

I've read a lot of great reviews for "Safety Not Guaranteed", think I've going to give that a shot tonight. I read that "Safety Not Guaranteed" was available on Netflix on one of those Netflix recommendations sites. I went to watch it last night, but it's no longer available there. I was a little disappointed.

Instead I watched "Devil In A Blue Dress" starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals amazing legs. These books are based on Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels, which I've long been a fan of. This was a pretty good adaptation. I was glad to see Mosley was one of the executive producers and I took that as a good sign. I also loved the noirish aspect of this movie. But what's up with the guy walking around the neighborhood wanting to cut down trees?

Last weekend I watched "Lost Boys" with my 13 year old daughter. It's the first time I've seen it in years and it wasn't quite as good as I remember. Although it's still a good movie with a great soundtrack. My daughter thought it was freaky. I told her if she thought that was freaky, she should watch "Flatliners".

Current book I'm reading is Earnest Cline's "Ready Player One", its been good so far.

themusicaddict

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Disappointing New CDs from AC/DC and Garth Brooks

Hello,

Mega superstars Garth Brooks and AC/DC released CDs recently, sadly both aren't very good. First up is AC/DC's "Rock or Bust". It starts off well enough with the nice slice of rock, the title song "Rock Or Bust":


Then the next song is the okay "Play Ball", which played on selected recent MLB playoff telecasts. But after that the CD has a lot of sameness. I'm not going to write the titles of the rest of the songs on that CD. Why, because all those songs become indistinguishable pretty quickly. I love AC/DC as much as the next fan of rock music. But let's be honest AC/DC is their own biggest tribute band. They've been very derivative of their own music the last several albums. But at least most of that music was good, the last 9 tracks on "Rock or Bust" are derivative of bad AC/DC music.

Garth Brooks "Man Against Machine" is a slightly better CD, but still ultimately disappointing. Garth Brooks is a musician who's mainly concerned about making as much money as he can all with a veneer of humility. Why do I say that? Can you find his music on Youtube? Yes, but there are very few selections. Can you find his music on Spotify or Rdio? No. Where can you find his music at? Well you can find it at amazon.com, you just can't listen to it there. In fact, you can't even listen to the 30 second snippets of songs from his new CD.

Where online can you find his music? Well you can go to Garth's own ghosttunes.com, where you can buy the digital copy of "Man Against Machine" for $12.99 and store it in your "locker". Watch the two minute video on ghosttunes.com if you want to see a hilarious and pointless glorification of Brooks. I love how they try to say the locker is this breakthrough, isn't this just a different word for the cloud? I don't want to pay for music I won't be able to hold in my hands, unless it comes at a significant discount.

By the way at least as of now, you can buy the actual physical copy of "Man Against Machine" for only $9.99 at amazon.com. themusicaddict is a big fan of amazon, but has no interest in any more than a token examination of ghosttunes.com. 

His whole story about not recording the last several years as he raises his kids, does anyone really believe that? Whether it's true or not, he obviously didn't use all those years to find great songs. He did find a few good songs and a bunch of forgettable songs instead.

His 14 song CD "Man Against Machine" is an uneven mix of good to some terrible, or even worse forgettable, songs. 

1) Man Against Machine" This is a decent song, although not really breaking any new ground.
2) "She's Tired of Boys" This feels like a Garth Brooks wish fulfillment song.
3) "Cold Like That": A decent song.
4) "All-American Kid": Meant to appeal to the heart land with it's incredibly and very corny lyrics.
5) "Mom": See below, who knows how long this video will be available? Another corny song.


6) "Wrong About You" A song so forgettable that I can't remember anything about it, although I listened to it several times.
7) "Rodeo and Juliet" The worst "Romeo and Juliet pun since "Gnomeo and Juliet". 
8) "Midnight Train": A song so forgettable that I can't remember anything about it, although I listened to it several times.
9) "Cowboys Forever" This song continues the corny theme.
10) "People Loving People" I like the music to this song, but again the lyrics are meant to appeal to red states.
11) "Send 'Em On Down The Road": A song so forgettable that I can't remember anything about it, although I listened to it several times.
12) "Fish" Just a dumb, awful song. More Garth Brooks wish fulfillment.
13) "You Wreck Me": A decent song.
14) "Tacoma" So boring and bad that it's hard to forget.

themusicaddict

Friday, December 5, 2014

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: Soundgarden's "Superunknown" (Finished December 12th, 2014)

Hello,

"Superunknown" is Soundgarden's fourth CD, it was released on March 8th, 1994. Crazy that it's been 20 years since this CD was first released. Released 3 years after "Badmotorfinger", which featured such classic songs as "Rusty Cage" and "Outshined". The expectation was that "Superunknown" would be their breakthrough CD and indeed it was. Just as Grunge was about to fade, one of the many great bands that came out of Seattle announced they were here to stay. Too bad just as grunge had taken over for hair metal, grunge was on it's way out giving way to rap music. Thus what ended up being their coronation was one of the last steps to a rap revolution. Frankly music hasn't recovered since rap gained such prominence.

"Outshined":


"Rusty Cage":


"Superunknown" was indeed Soundgarden's breakthrough, sadly it also happened to be their peak. After releasing one of the 90's greatest CDs, they followed it up with the less than impressive "Down On The Upside". But there for a year or so Soundgarden was in the running for biggest band in the world.

Listening to "Superunknown" for the first time in years I was surprised by how much I still like it, I was reminded by how great this CD is. It easily qualifies to be one of my greatest CDs of all-time. Although the CD is celebrating it's 20th anniversary, it still holds up very well.

As an added bonus, here's the full Youtube video for "Badmotorfinger":


The Youtube video for the full "Superunknown" album:


1) "Let Me Drown":


2) "My Wave":


3) "Fell On Black Days":


4) "Mailman":


5) "Superunknown":


6) "Head Down":


7) "Black Hole Sun": One of the loopiest videos ever!


8) "Spoonman":


9) "Limo Wreck":


10) "The Day I Tried To Live":


11) "Kickstand":


12) "Fresh Tendrils":


13) "4th of July":


14) "Half":


15) "Like Suicide":


themusicaddict

Monday, December 1, 2014

themusicaddict's Songs That Have Multiple Good Versions

Hello,

All of us can probably think of multiple songs that have one amazing version and one below average version. Pseudo Echo's cover of Lipps Inc. amazing "Funky Town" anyone? What the hell was Madonna thinking when she recorded a cover of "American Pie"? My special thanks to retroCrush's Bad Covers list: http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2007/badcovers/part3.html

This blog is about those songs that have multiple good versions.

Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer":


The Atari's "The Boys of Summer"- I wanted to add a video of this song here, but sadly many songs that were formerly available on YouTube, no longer are available. There are no worthy covers of the Atari's "Boys of Summer" versions available at this time.

Abba's "Take A Chance On Me":


Erasure's "Take A Chance On Me", this version took this song to a new level. Although perhaps Erasure's "Abba-esque" was a bit of a reach.


Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World":


Lorde's "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" Here's a version of the song that is completely different from the original, but still a great song.


Turn about is fair play. Lorde's "Royals":


Florida State University's AcaBelles "Royals":


Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me":


Kimberly Locke's "I Can't Make You Love Me" (I can't find the longer version):


Adele's "I Can't Make You Love Me" -that voice!-



I agree with many of retroCrush's worst covers selections, but I disagree with a couple. 

I quite like Joss Stone's cover of the White Stripes "Fell In Love With A Boy". Again taking a great song, putting a twist on it that works is always good. Also Miss Stone has that amazing voice.


I also like Save Ferris's ska cover of Dexy's Midnight Runner's "Come On Eileen":


Finally retroCrush rates this as the #1 worst cover song, but I disagree completely. In my opinion this version finds the heart of the song, which makes it all that much better. Eric Clapton's acoustic version of "Layla":


themusicaddict

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