Welcome to my 50th post,
Today I'm reviewing Alanis Morissette's "Flavors of Entanglement" CD. I'm reviewing the 17 track CD version that you could only get when you pre-ordered it from the iTunes music store. The extended version has 17 songs and the original version has 11 songs. The extended CD is 74 minutes long. If interested, you can buy the MP3 CD at amazon.com for $8.99. From what I had read this is suppose to be a harder edged CD. I would have to disagree with that assessment. Do you realize this is her 7th CD? She was writing this CD when her relationship was breaking up with the actor Ryan Reynolds, who is now dating Scarlett Johansen.
My favorite song on the CD is the first song, "Citizen of the Planet". It's a hard to understand the lyrics and the ones you can understand are a bit trippy and psychedelic. Although the lyrics are bizarre, I really like this song. This is one of the best songs of her entire career. The second song on the CD is the first single "Underneath" It's an okay song, however I would have chosen "Citizen of the Planet" to be the CD's first single. The third song, "Straitjacket" hearkens back to her first CD, at least lyrically. She sings things like "this shit is making me crazy, the way you let fireworks off in my head". "Straitjacket" has a techno, rock edge and Nine Inch Nails feel to it. It'ss one of the few harder edged songs on the entire CD.
The fourth song is another highlight of the CD, it's "Versions of Violence". She sings that, "versions of violence are sometimes subtle, sometimes clear". She follows up those harder edged songs with "Not As We", a ballad. She sings "Day One. Day One start over again. Step one, step one". The lyrics don't make much sense.
She switches to a midtempo melody for the sixth song, "In Praise of the Vulnerable Man". She sings, "I bow down, bow down to you". This is the first real clunker on the CD and easily could have been left off. It doesn't add anything to the CD as a whole. She proceeds with a slower paced sons for the next song "Torch". Unfortunately this isn't a highlight of the CD either.
On the next song the quality gets better and it's another mid-tempo song. It's titled "Tapes". She sings "All these tapes swirl around in my head. All these songs in my head are my own wreaking havoc". The tenth song has a real autobiographical feel to it. In "Incomplete" she sings "one day I will be healed". (We can guess she is healed, as she's in a new relationship.) It's a bittersweet song. On the regular CD she closes out with another sweet ballad "Orchid".
The next six songs are bonus tracks and only on the extended version of the CD. It starts with "The Guy Who Leaves (Bonus Track)", which is a mid-tempo track with techno flourishes. She sings, "Until I am to get what am I to get". For those of you keeping track at home the thirteenth song is "Madness (Bonus Track)". Another ballad that has an autobiographical feel to it especially when she sings, "see the madness in me is brought out in the presence of you". It seems the title refers to how long this song is. At 6:21 the song runs on for about a minute too long.
Out of the CD's previous five songs, four are ballads including "Limbo No More (Bonus Track)". She's made a decision, is sticking with it and is in "limbo no more". This is one of three or four songs on the CD in which she sings about a list of things. The fifteenth song has a real playful feel to it. The title is "On The Tequila (Bonus Track)". She's evaluating herself against friends from high school and when she lived in Chicago. (This is a similar feel to her campy remake of "My Humps" on Youtube.) Song 16 is about the frustration of growing old, although she's only 33. "It's A Bitch To Grow Up" (Preorder Only). (That's a sentiment I agree with, there isn't anything fun about getting old.) The seventeenth and last song is "Moratorium". Another mid-tempo song. She sings, "I need a breather from the flavors of entanglement". It's a slowly building song.
This CD is a three song rated CD. The three songs on my iPod are "Versions of Violence", "Citizen of the Planet" and "On The Tequila". Although the last song "Moratorium" came close to making it on to my iPod as well. Out of all the CD's I've rated so far, this is one of the best. It is the third best behind Guns 'N' Roses "Appetite For Destruction" and R.E.M.'s "Accelerate".
Band of the Day: Eisley. They play slow but bouncy songs, you would have to hear it to understand. Seven of the twelve songs on their debut CD "Room Noises" are 5 star rated songs by yours truly. This is one of those great unknown bands/CD's, if they had a chance to be played on the radio they'd be a popular band.
CD of the Day: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels". This is one of Young's most unappreciated CD's. By my reckoning ten of the twelve songs are classics and the other two songs are near classics. The song you would probably be most familiar with is the rocking and funny, "Piece of Crap". I'm listening to this fantastic CD. Check out the songs, "Driveby", "Safeway Cart", "Trans Am" and "Change Your Mind".
See if this sounds familiar. The following comes from the Jan. 25th, 2007 Rolling Stone. "In an open letter to fans posted on Guns n' Rose's official website, Axl Rose gave a tentative release date of March 6th, 2007 for the thirteen-years-in the making "Chinese Democracy". It's the first time any specific date has been given out by the band or its management. Quoting Axl Rose here 'To say the making of this album has been an unberably long and incomprehenible journey would be an understatement.'" You think! You can never put too much faith in what you hear about the release of this CD, even if it is from Axl himself!
I'd like to respond to the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. They've picked the new classics in music, books, movies etc. New classics are defined as being released in the last 25 years. Here's the top 10 and my thoughts on each one.
1) "Purple Rain" Prince And the Revolution, 1984 This is truly one of the greatest CD's of all-time, there is no doubt. But I'm pretty certain it's not number 1.
2) "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" 1998. Again this is one of the best CD's over the last 25 years easily, but number 2 is a bit high for it. If you don't have this CD you need to go get it, it's a must have in any true music lover's collection.
3) "Achtung Baby"- U2, 1991 How can you argue with a CD that has "Even Better Than The Real Thing", "One", "The Fly", "Until the End of the World", "Mysterious Ways" and "Acrobat" on it? A great CD!
So the first three CD's I'll mostly agree with and all three are easily in the Top 100 CD's of the last 25 years. But...
4) "The College Dropout"- Kanye West, 2004. Please!
5) "Madonna"- Madonna, 1983. A great CD, but I don't think it's Madonna's best CD. How about "True Blue" or "Like A Virgin"?
6) "American Idiot" Green Day, 2004 I'd agree with the placing of this CD. It's a great, great CD. When are we going to get another CD though?
7) "The Blueprint"- Jay Z, 2001. Again I completely disagree. Hip-hop is vastly overrated. EW ranks Run-DMC's "Raising Hell" at number 38. Thatss by far the greatest rap-hip-hop CD of all-time. 38th?
8) "Graceland"- Paul Simon, 1986 I disagree with this selection as well. Although "You Can Call Me Al" is truly one of the great songs of all-time.
9) "Back To Black"- Amy Winehouse, 2007 A great CD, but we need to wait a few more years to see if this CD holds up. It's definitely one of the best CD's released in the last couple of years.
10) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead, 2007 Again I completely disagree with this pick. Radiohead is one of the most overrated bands of all-time. Probably the two most overrated bands of all-time are Radiohead and Nirvana. (Ironically their eleventh ranked CD is Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged In New York". In fact their eleventh to twentieth rated CD's are a large amount of crap.)
They rated "Appetite for Destruction" at #30. Has the EW staff actually ever heard that CD? Another disagreement: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels" isn't even on this list, which is a travesty. Of course it's a CD that has fallen by the wayside as it didn't have any "hits". No, it only has 12 great songs back to back to back. Delete "The College Dropout" from this list and put "Sleeps With Angels" in it's place.
Two final notes I saw "The Illusionist" on Comcast On Demand. It's a good and very cool movie. Two great performances by Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti.
I've fallen madly in love with Rhapsody. For just a few dollars or mycokerewards points a month you can listen to Rhapsody all you want. They have 5 million songs available, it's a great way to listen to great music you may be interested in buying. This is a way to find out if these CD's are worth your hard earned money. Rhapsody has saved me a lot of money so far and has kept me away from some crappy music as well. I'm going to check out the band Interpol tomorrow on Rhapsody. I don't know a lot about Interpol but I've heard many good things about them.
Have a great week, I'll be back Tuesday.
themusicaddict
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