Hello,
Here are the 6th place "American Idol" finishers and what they have done so far, if anything. By the way what I mean by mainstream success is an artist is receiving attention and one does not have to go look for it. For example: I could care less about the "Sex and the City" movie, but I have been inundated with several stories about it. Season One: Christina Christian, I don't remember hearing anything about her at all. I have never heard her name. She's barely an "AI" footnote. She has a couple of singles available at amazon.com and that's it. Season Two: Carmen Rasmussen, she and I went to the same high school, though I attended about 20 years before her. She has actually released two CD's "Carmen" and "Nothin' Like The Summer". "Summer" was released last August. She has also written a book about maintaining her values in the entertainment industry. In spite of those releases, she has made little impact on the mainstream. Season Three: John Stevens, there appear to be two musicians with this name. But it looks like the "AI" contestant has released two CD's, again no impact on the mainstream. Season Four: Constatine Maroulis, he also has a couple of CD's available. He released a solo CD and has released a CD with his band. Again no impact on mainstream sales. Season Five: Kellie Pickler, now this is what I mean by mainstream success. She has had hit songs and hit CD's. She has had much success so far. Season Six: Phil Stacey, again he has released a CD. Now he really hasn't made mainstream success but he and his CD have received some attention. He also has made at least one music video, with his wife as a co-star. He also seems like a good guy and I hope he continues to do well. Season Seven: Carly Smithson. Not only is she easily my favorite sixth placed contestant of all-time, she is one of my all-time favorite "AI" contestants. She released her debut CD in 2001 under the name of Carly Hennessy. That was received poorly, before being forgotten completely until this year's show. However I think she has an amazing amount of talent and I hope she goes on to have a superstar career. Next up the extremely lackluster 5th place contestants. (Good luck, Brooke.)
Upcoming CD's: This Tuesday we have a very diverse group of musicians releasing music. (I gathered this information from amazon.com.) Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan (of Wallflowers fame), the Fratellis are all releasing new CD's. Also the Foxboro Hottubs are releasing a double CD of their recent CD, "Stop, Drop and Roll". I wasn't able to find the details on what is on the second CD though. Also my favorite titled CD of the year is coming Tuesday as well. That being Martha Wainwright's "I Know You're Married, But I Have Feelings Too". I did a preview of these songs yesterday, and I was not very impressed. Also on June 17th the new Coldplay CD "Viva La Vida" will be released. It is available as a MP3 on iTunes now. Then the CD that I am most excited about: On June 24th Motley Crue releases, "Saints Of Los Angeles". I will be buying that the same day.
Also one more quick note: I watched "Dan in Real Life" with my lovely wife last night. That is a movie you can skip. It is one of those movies that if a misunderstanding is resolved at the beginning of the movie, there would be no movie. Please do not support crap.
Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
7th placed American Idol Contestants
Hello,
As today is Friday, that means two things. First, the website goombah.com chooses 15 of their free MP3's to highlight. This week they did a good job, with an emphasis on alternative music. They also have 3 free songs available by a rapper named MC Chris. Now rap music I usually stay far away from. There are some exceptions though like the Beastie Boys and the greatest rap CD of all-time, Run-DMC's "Raising Hell". Here is another exception, goombah.com has three free songs available by rapper MC Chris. This is a new kind of rap called nerdcore, I only know this because I read about it in Spin or Blender. The three free songs available are all pretty good and I would definitely reccomend you add them to your collection.
Also amazon.com highlights 5 new MP3 CD's each Friday. Here are the five CD's for this week: 1) "Accelerate"- R.E.M. (I would definitely reccomend you take advantage of this sweet deal.) 2) "Hotel California"- The Eagles 3) The new OneRepublic CD. 4) The debut CD by She and Him. and 5) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead. Also today's drastically reduced MP3 CD is "Attack and Release"- The Black Keys. You definitely need to check out this CD. Before purchasing you can always preview all the tracks with 30 second snippets on either amazon.com or iTunes.
Now on to the 7th place "American Idol" contestants. Season One: Ryan Starr, I haven't heard of anything she has done. Season Two: Kimberly Caldwell, she is doing that "AI" behind the scenes show. Season Three: see below Season Four: Anwar Robinson Season Five: Ace Young Season Six: Sanjaya Malakar (ick!) Other than Sanjaya being the butt of a joke by Jimmy Kimmel on this season's "AI" finale I have not heard anything from those three. Season Seven: The gorgeous Kristy Lee Cook, I think she will be the second most successful of all the 7th place finishers. Upcoming a review of the 6th place finishers and they have had more impact than the 7th place finishers besides Hudson.
Season Three: Jennifer Hudson, obviously she is one of the most successful contestants to ever appear on the show, irregardless of place finished. It didn't just seem right to put her with her much less successful 7th place finishers. Also to show that "American Idol" is only mediocre in predicting the best candidates, here are the "AI" contestants who finished in front of Hudson. Sixth place: John Stevens, Fifth place: George Huff, Fourth Place: Latoya London, Third Place: Jasmine Trias, Second Place: Diana DeGarmo. I am guessing those six contestants, and this is a rough guess, have sold a total of 72 CD's. I can't believe she finished in 7th place, was she too talented? Did she have too good of a voice? Were the producers beginning the hype for David Archuleta early. (This should give you hope Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.) She has that big fantasic voice. Let's review her accomplishments so far. She won the Oscar for best female supporting actress in "Dreamgirls". She is one of the best to ever sing that song, "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going". She is currently starring in last week's #1 movie, Sex and the City". She is currently working on her debut CD, which will be available in September. Also her new single "Spotlight" is available Tuesday. In all likelihood you will be getting my review probably that same day.
Here are some other notes. Comcast has a 1985 concert of R.E.M. on demand from Germany. This is probably a waste of your time. They hadn't written most of their great songs yet, they weren't very good performers and the German audience was lethargic. Also I definitely reccomend you pick up the new Rolling Stone magazine, the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. (Here's a little preview: The number 100 song is "Vicarious" by Tool. That is a song I am not familiar with.) Also I had the chance to watch the good Keira Knightley movie "Atonement" the other night. I reccomend this movie, although it is unbelieveably sad. A few months ago I had started reading the book and I resumed reading it last night. The author, Ian McEwen, is a fantastic writer. So reading the book is well worth your time also.
I am going away for the weekend to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. I am going to try and write tomorrow before we leave. If I am unable to write tomorrow I will definitely post a blog Sunday night. Then after that my next blog will be Tuesday. I hope you have as much this weekend as my wife and I do. themusicaddict
As today is Friday, that means two things. First, the website goombah.com chooses 15 of their free MP3's to highlight. This week they did a good job, with an emphasis on alternative music. They also have 3 free songs available by a rapper named MC Chris. Now rap music I usually stay far away from. There are some exceptions though like the Beastie Boys and the greatest rap CD of all-time, Run-DMC's "Raising Hell". Here is another exception, goombah.com has three free songs available by rapper MC Chris. This is a new kind of rap called nerdcore, I only know this because I read about it in Spin or Blender. The three free songs available are all pretty good and I would definitely reccomend you add them to your collection.
Also amazon.com highlights 5 new MP3 CD's each Friday. Here are the five CD's for this week: 1) "Accelerate"- R.E.M. (I would definitely reccomend you take advantage of this sweet deal.) 2) "Hotel California"- The Eagles 3) The new OneRepublic CD. 4) The debut CD by She and Him. and 5) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead. Also today's drastically reduced MP3 CD is "Attack and Release"- The Black Keys. You definitely need to check out this CD. Before purchasing you can always preview all the tracks with 30 second snippets on either amazon.com or iTunes.
Now on to the 7th place "American Idol" contestants. Season One: Ryan Starr, I haven't heard of anything she has done. Season Two: Kimberly Caldwell, she is doing that "AI" behind the scenes show. Season Three: see below Season Four: Anwar Robinson Season Five: Ace Young Season Six: Sanjaya Malakar (ick!) Other than Sanjaya being the butt of a joke by Jimmy Kimmel on this season's "AI" finale I have not heard anything from those three. Season Seven: The gorgeous Kristy Lee Cook, I think she will be the second most successful of all the 7th place finishers. Upcoming a review of the 6th place finishers and they have had more impact than the 7th place finishers besides Hudson.
Season Three: Jennifer Hudson, obviously she is one of the most successful contestants to ever appear on the show, irregardless of place finished. It didn't just seem right to put her with her much less successful 7th place finishers. Also to show that "American Idol" is only mediocre in predicting the best candidates, here are the "AI" contestants who finished in front of Hudson. Sixth place: John Stevens, Fifth place: George Huff, Fourth Place: Latoya London, Third Place: Jasmine Trias, Second Place: Diana DeGarmo. I am guessing those six contestants, and this is a rough guess, have sold a total of 72 CD's. I can't believe she finished in 7th place, was she too talented? Did she have too good of a voice? Were the producers beginning the hype for David Archuleta early. (This should give you hope Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.) She has that big fantasic voice. Let's review her accomplishments so far. She won the Oscar for best female supporting actress in "Dreamgirls". She is one of the best to ever sing that song, "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going". She is currently starring in last week's #1 movie, Sex and the City". She is currently working on her debut CD, which will be available in September. Also her new single "Spotlight" is available Tuesday. In all likelihood you will be getting my review probably that same day.
Here are some other notes. Comcast has a 1985 concert of R.E.M. on demand from Germany. This is probably a waste of your time. They hadn't written most of their great songs yet, they weren't very good performers and the German audience was lethargic. Also I definitely reccomend you pick up the new Rolling Stone magazine, the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. (Here's a little preview: The number 100 song is "Vicarious" by Tool. That is a song I am not familiar with.) Also I had the chance to watch the good Keira Knightley movie "Atonement" the other night. I reccomend this movie, although it is unbelieveably sad. A few months ago I had started reading the book and I resumed reading it last night. The author, Ian McEwen, is a fantastic writer. So reading the book is well worth your time also.
I am going away for the weekend to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. I am going to try and write tomorrow before we leave. If I am unable to write tomorrow I will definitely post a blog Sunday night. Then after that my next blog will be Tuesday. I hope you have as much this weekend as my wife and I do. themusicaddict
Happy Birthday Stefanie!
Happy Birthday Stefanie, I love you. Have as good as possible birthday. Craig
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Death of the local, independent record store.
Hello,
I have my birthday coming up soon and as always I get a very generous gift from my brother and sister-in-law. So this and Christmas are typically the only time I can buy new music. So I went to the local, independent music store yesterday. The best one is Graywhale. Graywhale is my preferred place of choice for physical copies of CD's. Unfortunately my experience yesterday was mediocre.
I walked into the store with a list of 15 CD's. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to buy them all, I just like to have options. They didn't have 7 of the CD's that were on my list. (Now granted two or three of the CD's they didn't have are obscure, so I will give them a pass on those.) However they didn't have the new Def Leppard, Cult, the new remastered version of "Let It Be" by the Replacements or "Live After Death" by Iron Maiden. Independent stores should at least have plenty of Cult and Replacements CD's. (They did have plenty of copies of CD's by Judas Priest though. Why are they having a Judas Priest promotion? Maybe next week they can have a promotion for Spinal Tap.)
Then three of the CD's I didn't want to buy there as they were too expensive. The Raconteurs, B52's, and the Foxboro Hot Tubs new CD's were all at least $13.99. Frankly that is too much in this era when Wal-Mart is in the process of forcing CD companies to lower prices on all CD's across the board. Also you can get the MP3 copies of these CD's usually for at least $3 or $4 less than at the store. I don't have to go anywhere to buy these MP3 copies. Right now I can go to amazon.com and buy the MP3 of the Foxboro Hot Tubs CD for $7.99.
I have a Graywhale card which saves me $1 on all new CD's and $2 on video games. However I only saved $1 on all 4 CD's for various reasons. I ended up buying the following CD's 1) "Spirit" by Leona Lewis for $13.99 2) "Rockferry"- Duffy $8.99 3) "Pretty. Odd."- Panic at the Disco $9.99 and 4) "Good to Be Bad (with bonus CD)- Whitesnake $14.99. Also my son was able to get a PS2 game for only $1 with my Graywhale card saving us $2 on that game. He was very happy about that.
So that part was disappointing however the people there were very nice and helped me as much as they could. I only had one frustration there. I asked someone about the new Erykah Badu CD and they guy didn't know anything about her at all. He asked me what kind of music she sang and I explained. He had never heard of her. Badu is a fairly obsccure artist so I was willing to give him a pass on that as well. So after making my purchase my son and I walked out to our van. I looked at the advertising posters at the front of their store. One of the posters was for Erykah Badu's new CD. So it seems all the employees should know at least the artists they are advertising.
Especially if that artist had been in concert the night before, people usually come in looking for music from an artist after they see them in concert. I know I do at least, unless I have all that artists music first. I think independent record stores should set up a wall of all the music of upcoming and recent concerts. That will both increase sales and also can cross promote the fact that Graywhale sells concert tickets as well. In order to survive independent record stores need to play up the local angle as much as possible. That is one thing that iTunes or amazon.com can't touch. I prefer to have the physical copies of CD's. Graywhale didn't do well on selection or price yesterday though.
Don't get me wrong I would prefer to buy all my music from Graywhale going forward but they have some serious issues they need to address. I think they need to get much closer in price to online music retailers. They need to hire music geeks as well who live and die music and have a wide taste of all kinds of music. (For instance the kind of person who would blog about music.) Again they need to do better on pricing as they will probably never be able to match either amazon.com or iTunes in price or conveinance. Two examples of that quickly, yesterday I bought the new Black Keys CD, "Attack and Release" for only $2.99 at amazon.com. Today I bought the new Marie Digby CD for only $1.99. Now I have never heard of Digby. I previewed all the tracks on the CD it is definitely worth $1.99. Also for those who buy the CD at amazon.com, you get an exclusive amazon.com only track. (Again I could do that from the comfort of my home, didn't have to go anywhere and don't have to pay additional for gas. Also online music stores are open 24/7.) Graywhale there is still hope but you need to act quickly.
Upcoming: Reviews of the new Duffy, Leona Lewis, Black Keys, Marie Digby, Erykah Badu, Whitesnake, Panic At The Disco CD's. I was able to buy the Badu CD for only $9.99 at amazon.com. It is hard to run out of digital copies. Also I will be reviewing those three Wolf Parade songs as well. Also the "American Idol" 7th place finishers. One of these people is having a spectacular career, think "Dreamgirls" and "Sex and the City".
Have a great day, themusicaddict
I have my birthday coming up soon and as always I get a very generous gift from my brother and sister-in-law. So this and Christmas are typically the only time I can buy new music. So I went to the local, independent music store yesterday. The best one is Graywhale. Graywhale is my preferred place of choice for physical copies of CD's. Unfortunately my experience yesterday was mediocre.
I walked into the store with a list of 15 CD's. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to buy them all, I just like to have options. They didn't have 7 of the CD's that were on my list. (Now granted two or three of the CD's they didn't have are obscure, so I will give them a pass on those.) However they didn't have the new Def Leppard, Cult, the new remastered version of "Let It Be" by the Replacements or "Live After Death" by Iron Maiden. Independent stores should at least have plenty of Cult and Replacements CD's. (They did have plenty of copies of CD's by Judas Priest though. Why are they having a Judas Priest promotion? Maybe next week they can have a promotion for Spinal Tap.)
Then three of the CD's I didn't want to buy there as they were too expensive. The Raconteurs, B52's, and the Foxboro Hot Tubs new CD's were all at least $13.99. Frankly that is too much in this era when Wal-Mart is in the process of forcing CD companies to lower prices on all CD's across the board. Also you can get the MP3 copies of these CD's usually for at least $3 or $4 less than at the store. I don't have to go anywhere to buy these MP3 copies. Right now I can go to amazon.com and buy the MP3 of the Foxboro Hot Tubs CD for $7.99.
I have a Graywhale card which saves me $1 on all new CD's and $2 on video games. However I only saved $1 on all 4 CD's for various reasons. I ended up buying the following CD's 1) "Spirit" by Leona Lewis for $13.99 2) "Rockferry"- Duffy $8.99 3) "Pretty. Odd."- Panic at the Disco $9.99 and 4) "Good to Be Bad (with bonus CD)- Whitesnake $14.99. Also my son was able to get a PS2 game for only $1 with my Graywhale card saving us $2 on that game. He was very happy about that.
So that part was disappointing however the people there were very nice and helped me as much as they could. I only had one frustration there. I asked someone about the new Erykah Badu CD and they guy didn't know anything about her at all. He asked me what kind of music she sang and I explained. He had never heard of her. Badu is a fairly obsccure artist so I was willing to give him a pass on that as well. So after making my purchase my son and I walked out to our van. I looked at the advertising posters at the front of their store. One of the posters was for Erykah Badu's new CD. So it seems all the employees should know at least the artists they are advertising.
Especially if that artist had been in concert the night before, people usually come in looking for music from an artist after they see them in concert. I know I do at least, unless I have all that artists music first. I think independent record stores should set up a wall of all the music of upcoming and recent concerts. That will both increase sales and also can cross promote the fact that Graywhale sells concert tickets as well. In order to survive independent record stores need to play up the local angle as much as possible. That is one thing that iTunes or amazon.com can't touch. I prefer to have the physical copies of CD's. Graywhale didn't do well on selection or price yesterday though.
Don't get me wrong I would prefer to buy all my music from Graywhale going forward but they have some serious issues they need to address. I think they need to get much closer in price to online music retailers. They need to hire music geeks as well who live and die music and have a wide taste of all kinds of music. (For instance the kind of person who would blog about music.) Again they need to do better on pricing as they will probably never be able to match either amazon.com or iTunes in price or conveinance. Two examples of that quickly, yesterday I bought the new Black Keys CD, "Attack and Release" for only $2.99 at amazon.com. Today I bought the new Marie Digby CD for only $1.99. Now I have never heard of Digby. I previewed all the tracks on the CD it is definitely worth $1.99. Also for those who buy the CD at amazon.com, you get an exclusive amazon.com only track. (Again I could do that from the comfort of my home, didn't have to go anywhere and don't have to pay additional for gas. Also online music stores are open 24/7.) Graywhale there is still hope but you need to act quickly.
Upcoming: Reviews of the new Duffy, Leona Lewis, Black Keys, Marie Digby, Erykah Badu, Whitesnake, Panic At The Disco CD's. I was able to buy the Badu CD for only $9.99 at amazon.com. It is hard to run out of digital copies. Also I will be reviewing those three Wolf Parade songs as well. Also the "American Idol" 7th place finishers. One of these people is having a spectacular career, think "Dreamgirls" and "Sex and the City".
Have a great day, themusicaddict
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Erykah Badu brings the funk...finally
Hello,
Readers of my blog know that I attended the Erykah Badu concert last night. It was at the Depot in Salt Lake City. I would like to thank my brother for taking me, it was an excellent concert. I don't agree with all of Badu's politics but she is an excellent performer. According to Rhapsody Badu means " to manifest truth and light" in Arabic. She did both of those things last night, she also brought the funk. I would also just like to stress in advance, other than a five hour listening tour of her music Monday, I have never been exposed to Badu's music before. So there are going to be mistakes and inaccuracies in this blog, I apologize in advance for those.
The show was suppose to start at 8:00. She didn't have an opening act. Unfortunately Badu gave into the rock star impulse and the show started much later. About 8:40 the lights started turning off. They played some mash-ups including someone on a recording rapping over AC/DC's "Back In Black". Then the band came on the stage and about 9:05 the back up singers came on the stage. The excellent band gave us some blistering funk for about 10-15 minutes. Finally Erykah Badu took the stage about 9:15 and the funk was pretty instataneous.
Badu took the stage in comfortable clothes, a funky hat and with a funky look on her face. I am sure if that look was suppose to be funny or defiant or a mixture of both. I am not sure what the name of the first song she sang was. But the second song she sang was "Amerykahn Promise". This song was a funky start to this excellent concert.(My notes are not real great, so I apologize.) The first song I know the title of she sang is "Me" which is a funky slow jam. Badu then sang a song about "hold on my people" followed by a drum solo. She next sang a song titled "Twinkle" in which she sings about "freckles" and herself. We then had a bit of a bluesy guitar solo and I was hoping she would break out some Muddy Waters like blues at that point. However she didn't and that was okay. She then sang a song about "on and on". Then Erykah Badu did a little drum pad/ synthesizer solo.
She mostly skipped her slow stuff and stayed funky and continued with that on "On and On Like A Rolling Stone" (probably not the actual title, but my notes are not exactly clear.) Badu and her funky band kept up the momentum on "I Want You". They then played a recorded blues track, that was sort of a break for Badu and her band. After that brief break, she sang "Don't Worry" and a song that states that we should, "stand like a soldier". (This is not to be confused with her "Soldier" song, which she sang later.) Unfortunately this song rambled on too long. She then followed that up with "Stay On" and a slow, bluesy "Troubled Waters".
Another break for her band and Badu gave her "Vortex" speech, talking about a vortex located in Salt Lake City and the people of this city are beautiful. Unfortunately then came one of the lowlights of the concert. She sang "Mama's Gun" which unfortunately was boring and too long. She then talked about occupation and resistance, including an experience about both that was peacefully resolved in Mexico. After which she shouted for Obama "to hold on". She also talked about how amazing his making such a successful run for the President is. She continued with a new song, "Soldier". She had audience participation with "only if you agree sing 'misery'",of course we complied. She then asked the individual members of her band, "Are You somebody?". All of them replied in the affirmative, including my favorite response, "Damn right!"
She turned it over to the band for a few minutes and let the band rock it out, including some excellent work on the turntable. She followed that with a song combining "vegetables", "I'm lonely" and "a fine line between love and hate". She then closed out her show with "Love Can Make Me Better" where she and some of her band went out into the audience. Badu was done about 11:30 and her band played a little bit more. There was another mash-up based off the Police classic "Roxanne".
Don't let this poorly written review be misleading, her concert was much better than this review. Somewhere in all this she sang the very funky, "Boogie Nights/ All Night" and the excellent "Other Side of The Night". Again she was in good voice and so were here 4 backup singers. Also her band is excellent, they brought the funk all night. Also she likes to tell her band to "stop" and "hold on" while she does a little solo thing. I have never seen an artist do that so much.
I only had three minor quibbles: 1) how late she started, 2) sometimes the concert lost a bit of the momentum with some slower songs and 3) she didn't sing my favorite song of hers "Tyrone". However again those are all minor quibbles. I would give this concert a ranking of 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. For those living in her upcoming tour stops of Phoenix and New Mexico to go check her out.
The next concert that I am going to is Celine Dion in November, I have a feeling that won't be quite as funky. Have a good day, themusicaddict
Readers of my blog know that I attended the Erykah Badu concert last night. It was at the Depot in Salt Lake City. I would like to thank my brother for taking me, it was an excellent concert. I don't agree with all of Badu's politics but she is an excellent performer. According to Rhapsody Badu means " to manifest truth and light" in Arabic. She did both of those things last night, she also brought the funk. I would also just like to stress in advance, other than a five hour listening tour of her music Monday, I have never been exposed to Badu's music before. So there are going to be mistakes and inaccuracies in this blog, I apologize in advance for those.
The show was suppose to start at 8:00. She didn't have an opening act. Unfortunately Badu gave into the rock star impulse and the show started much later. About 8:40 the lights started turning off. They played some mash-ups including someone on a recording rapping over AC/DC's "Back In Black". Then the band came on the stage and about 9:05 the back up singers came on the stage. The excellent band gave us some blistering funk for about 10-15 minutes. Finally Erykah Badu took the stage about 9:15 and the funk was pretty instataneous.
Badu took the stage in comfortable clothes, a funky hat and with a funky look on her face. I am sure if that look was suppose to be funny or defiant or a mixture of both. I am not sure what the name of the first song she sang was. But the second song she sang was "Amerykahn Promise". This song was a funky start to this excellent concert.(My notes are not real great, so I apologize.) The first song I know the title of she sang is "Me" which is a funky slow jam. Badu then sang a song about "hold on my people" followed by a drum solo. She next sang a song titled "Twinkle" in which she sings about "freckles" and herself. We then had a bit of a bluesy guitar solo and I was hoping she would break out some Muddy Waters like blues at that point. However she didn't and that was okay. She then sang a song about "on and on". Then Erykah Badu did a little drum pad/ synthesizer solo.
She mostly skipped her slow stuff and stayed funky and continued with that on "On and On Like A Rolling Stone" (probably not the actual title, but my notes are not exactly clear.) Badu and her funky band kept up the momentum on "I Want You". They then played a recorded blues track, that was sort of a break for Badu and her band. After that brief break, she sang "Don't Worry" and a song that states that we should, "stand like a soldier". (This is not to be confused with her "Soldier" song, which she sang later.) Unfortunately this song rambled on too long. She then followed that up with "Stay On" and a slow, bluesy "Troubled Waters".
Another break for her band and Badu gave her "Vortex" speech, talking about a vortex located in Salt Lake City and the people of this city are beautiful. Unfortunately then came one of the lowlights of the concert. She sang "Mama's Gun" which unfortunately was boring and too long. She then talked about occupation and resistance, including an experience about both that was peacefully resolved in Mexico. After which she shouted for Obama "to hold on". She also talked about how amazing his making such a successful run for the President is. She continued with a new song, "Soldier". She had audience participation with "only if you agree sing 'misery'",of course we complied. She then asked the individual members of her band, "Are You somebody?". All of them replied in the affirmative, including my favorite response, "Damn right!"
She turned it over to the band for a few minutes and let the band rock it out, including some excellent work on the turntable. She followed that with a song combining "vegetables", "I'm lonely" and "a fine line between love and hate". She then closed out her show with "Love Can Make Me Better" where she and some of her band went out into the audience. Badu was done about 11:30 and her band played a little bit more. There was another mash-up based off the Police classic "Roxanne".
Don't let this poorly written review be misleading, her concert was much better than this review. Somewhere in all this she sang the very funky, "Boogie Nights/ All Night" and the excellent "Other Side of The Night". Again she was in good voice and so were here 4 backup singers. Also her band is excellent, they brought the funk all night. Also she likes to tell her band to "stop" and "hold on" while she does a little solo thing. I have never seen an artist do that so much.
I only had three minor quibbles: 1) how late she started, 2) sometimes the concert lost a bit of the momentum with some slower songs and 3) she didn't sing my favorite song of hers "Tyrone". However again those are all minor quibbles. I would give this concert a ranking of 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. For those living in her upcoming tour stops of Phoenix and New Mexico to go check her out.
The next concert that I am going to is Celine Dion in November, I have a feeling that won't be quite as funky. Have a good day, themusicaddict
Monday, June 2, 2008
8th placed contestants of "AI", Bo Diddley
Hello,
Thanks to my brother, I will going to be seeing the new soul singer Erykah Badu tomorrow night. There will be a review Wednesday morning. I will be honest, before he asked me I don't think I had ever heard any songs she sang. So I have been listening to music on Rhapsody to catch up a little bit. She is pretty good and she has this hilarious song called, "Tyrone". Now you may wonder why I am going to this concert if I don't know any of her music. Two reasons: 1) I can hang out with my brother and 2) I love going to concerts. The last concert I went to was Billy Joel back in November. The last concert I saw before that was about 3-and-a-half years ago. Back in the day I use to go to three or four concerts a year.
American Idol 8th place contestants, again not the most sterling bunch of people. Season One: A.J. Gill: I have not heard anything about him. Season Two: Rickey Smith, same as Gill. Season Three: Jon Peter Lewis, too many names and not very much fame. Season Four: Nadia Turner, same as previous three. All four of these contestants seemed to go away as soon as their "American Idol" journey was over. Season Five: Bucky Covington. Hey he has actually done something. He has had some success on country music radio. If memory serves me correctly, he is on tour right now. Season Six: Haley Scarnato, Gorgeous but talentless. I think her 15 minutes of fame is up. Season Seven: Michael Johns. I think if he sticks to the bluesy rock thing he will be okay and he might have some success. He seems like a decent enough guy so I wish him the best of luck.
Also here the ten artists to watch for 2006 according to Rolling Stone magazine. (I am not trying to mock Rolling Stone, they are the main music I read. So that is why I am always quoting them. That is my favorite music magazine.) Some of these seem laughable, some of these seem right on and some of these are forgettable. This rapper was called the "next 50 cent". His name is Saigon, remember him? Did you even hear of him in 2006? Well now Siagon should change his name to Saigone. The second artist is "The Go! Team", they are a much hyped band on alternative radio. However they still have not broken through, at this point will they? The next artist is Sia, as in Sia later. Then three more bands that haven't done anything noticeable are Yummy Bingham, Matt Pond PA and Giant Drag. Apparantally she is not too yummy, its dirty Pond water and Giant Drag seems to be accurately named. The 7th band on this unimpressive list is a band called Wolf Parade. Again I have heard of them but I haven't heard them. As you probably know, I check out download.com everyday as they have at least 1 song available free each day. Ironically enough the band today was Wolf Parade, they have 3 songs available on download.com for free. I have yet to listen to those songs yet, but I will give you a preview once I do. One cool piece of info about Wolf Parade is they were discovered by Isaac Brock. He is the lead singer for Modest Mouse. So those 7 bands haven't really panned out. If you know any more information I would love to hear it.
So now here are the three bands that have broken out of the 2006 Rolling Stone Top Ten pack. Now the first band is The Magic Numbers, now this band may not be familiar to you, but on a whim I actually bought their first CD about a year ago. I have to tell you they are very good. Their first CD is self-titled. I would highly reccomend that you check it out at least. Nine of the thirteen songs on this CD are pretty good. The two best songs are "Love Me Like You" and "Love is a Game". (Yes there are a lot of relationship songs on this CD)
The next singer is Damian Marley Jr. He had a big hit a couple of years ago, it is called "Welcome To Jamrock". This song was all over the place a couple of summers ago. This is a pretty good CD, although not the kind of music I normally would listen to. I also reccomend you check out this CD. "Welcome to Jamrock" is not the only good song on the CD. Other good songs are "We're Gonna Make It" which is actually my most played song from the whole CD. Other good songs are "Road To Zion" and "All Night".
Then arguably the most famous and successful of the ten is James Blunt. Of course he is most well know for his great song, "You're Beautiful". (Yeah I know you are sick of that song.) That is just a great song. Both of his CD's are pretty good, most of his songs are worth several more listens. His two other best songs are "High" and "Give Me Some Love". If you are the kind of person who likes to listen to mellow music from time to time I definitely reccomend you buy both CDs.
So if I am being charitable they predicted correctly 3 of the 10 bands. I would say that is a good grade. Music is so subjective and it is hard to tell what is going to be great and what is not going to work out. There are a lot of great bands who have never broken out of the unknown. I mean honestly after hearing "Loser" who didn't think Beck was going to be a one hit wonder? He is still going at a pretty high level now. I do have to admit I have never been a big fan though.
Also songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Just Like Heaven"- The Cure 2) "Rock and Roll (Live)"- Led Zeppelin 3) "Superstar"- The Carpenters This is truly a great song. 4) "Joyride"- Roxette 5) "Warrior"- Scandal 6) "Fighter"- Christina Aguilera. This song kicks butt and her voice is so powerful on this song. 7) "Modern Swinger"- Pink Spiders. 8) "Always Be My Baby"- David Cook 9) "What's A Girl To Do?"- Bat for Lashes 10) "Question of Time"- Depeche Mode 11) "Fire and Rain"- James Taylor 12) "I Owe"- Living Things 13) "Take Me With You"- Prince and the Revolution. This is off one of the best soundtracks of all-time "Purple Rain". 13) "Cool The Engines"- Boston. This song is off the great 80's CD, "Third Stage". 14) "10:00am Automatic"- Black Keys. The Black Keys and Danger Mouse were working with Ike Turner on this and other songs before he died. Once he died, the Black Keys finished the song and released them under their own name. Their new CD is a great CD. 15)"Spirit Of Radio"- Rush 16) "Against All Odds"- Ramiele Mulubuy. Yes the singer from Season 7 of "American Idol". I really like her version. 17) "Silent Lucidity"- Queensryche and 18) "We Looked Like Giants"- Death Cab For Cutie.
Two other final quick notes. Blues legend Bo Diddley passed away at age 79 today. Also I previously had listed that the new Weezer CD is going to be out on June 17th. However in this day of rapidly changing release dates, this CD is actually going to be released tomorrow. Again as always contact me with any comments or suggestions. That's it, themusicaddict
Thanks to my brother, I will going to be seeing the new soul singer Erykah Badu tomorrow night. There will be a review Wednesday morning. I will be honest, before he asked me I don't think I had ever heard any songs she sang. So I have been listening to music on Rhapsody to catch up a little bit. She is pretty good and she has this hilarious song called, "Tyrone". Now you may wonder why I am going to this concert if I don't know any of her music. Two reasons: 1) I can hang out with my brother and 2) I love going to concerts. The last concert I went to was Billy Joel back in November. The last concert I saw before that was about 3-and-a-half years ago. Back in the day I use to go to three or four concerts a year.
American Idol 8th place contestants, again not the most sterling bunch of people. Season One: A.J. Gill: I have not heard anything about him. Season Two: Rickey Smith, same as Gill. Season Three: Jon Peter Lewis, too many names and not very much fame. Season Four: Nadia Turner, same as previous three. All four of these contestants seemed to go away as soon as their "American Idol" journey was over. Season Five: Bucky Covington. Hey he has actually done something. He has had some success on country music radio. If memory serves me correctly, he is on tour right now. Season Six: Haley Scarnato, Gorgeous but talentless. I think her 15 minutes of fame is up. Season Seven: Michael Johns. I think if he sticks to the bluesy rock thing he will be okay and he might have some success. He seems like a decent enough guy so I wish him the best of luck.
Also here the ten artists to watch for 2006 according to Rolling Stone magazine. (I am not trying to mock Rolling Stone, they are the main music I read. So that is why I am always quoting them. That is my favorite music magazine.) Some of these seem laughable, some of these seem right on and some of these are forgettable. This rapper was called the "next 50 cent". His name is Saigon, remember him? Did you even hear of him in 2006? Well now Siagon should change his name to Saigone. The second artist is "The Go! Team", they are a much hyped band on alternative radio. However they still have not broken through, at this point will they? The next artist is Sia, as in Sia later. Then three more bands that haven't done anything noticeable are Yummy Bingham, Matt Pond PA and Giant Drag. Apparantally she is not too yummy, its dirty Pond water and Giant Drag seems to be accurately named. The 7th band on this unimpressive list is a band called Wolf Parade. Again I have heard of them but I haven't heard them. As you probably know, I check out download.com everyday as they have at least 1 song available free each day. Ironically enough the band today was Wolf Parade, they have 3 songs available on download.com for free. I have yet to listen to those songs yet, but I will give you a preview once I do. One cool piece of info about Wolf Parade is they were discovered by Isaac Brock. He is the lead singer for Modest Mouse. So those 7 bands haven't really panned out. If you know any more information I would love to hear it.
So now here are the three bands that have broken out of the 2006 Rolling Stone Top Ten pack. Now the first band is The Magic Numbers, now this band may not be familiar to you, but on a whim I actually bought their first CD about a year ago. I have to tell you they are very good. Their first CD is self-titled. I would highly reccomend that you check it out at least. Nine of the thirteen songs on this CD are pretty good. The two best songs are "Love Me Like You" and "Love is a Game". (Yes there are a lot of relationship songs on this CD)
The next singer is Damian Marley Jr. He had a big hit a couple of years ago, it is called "Welcome To Jamrock". This song was all over the place a couple of summers ago. This is a pretty good CD, although not the kind of music I normally would listen to. I also reccomend you check out this CD. "Welcome to Jamrock" is not the only good song on the CD. Other good songs are "We're Gonna Make It" which is actually my most played song from the whole CD. Other good songs are "Road To Zion" and "All Night".
Then arguably the most famous and successful of the ten is James Blunt. Of course he is most well know for his great song, "You're Beautiful". (Yeah I know you are sick of that song.) That is just a great song. Both of his CD's are pretty good, most of his songs are worth several more listens. His two other best songs are "High" and "Give Me Some Love". If you are the kind of person who likes to listen to mellow music from time to time I definitely reccomend you buy both CDs.
So if I am being charitable they predicted correctly 3 of the 10 bands. I would say that is a good grade. Music is so subjective and it is hard to tell what is going to be great and what is not going to work out. There are a lot of great bands who have never broken out of the unknown. I mean honestly after hearing "Loser" who didn't think Beck was going to be a one hit wonder? He is still going at a pretty high level now. I do have to admit I have never been a big fan though.
Also songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Just Like Heaven"- The Cure 2) "Rock and Roll (Live)"- Led Zeppelin 3) "Superstar"- The Carpenters This is truly a great song. 4) "Joyride"- Roxette 5) "Warrior"- Scandal 6) "Fighter"- Christina Aguilera. This song kicks butt and her voice is so powerful on this song. 7) "Modern Swinger"- Pink Spiders. 8) "Always Be My Baby"- David Cook 9) "What's A Girl To Do?"- Bat for Lashes 10) "Question of Time"- Depeche Mode 11) "Fire and Rain"- James Taylor 12) "I Owe"- Living Things 13) "Take Me With You"- Prince and the Revolution. This is off one of the best soundtracks of all-time "Purple Rain". 13) "Cool The Engines"- Boston. This song is off the great 80's CD, "Third Stage". 14) "10:00am Automatic"- Black Keys. The Black Keys and Danger Mouse were working with Ike Turner on this and other songs before he died. Once he died, the Black Keys finished the song and released them under their own name. Their new CD is a great CD. 15)"Spirit Of Radio"- Rush 16) "Against All Odds"- Ramiele Mulubuy. Yes the singer from Season 7 of "American Idol". I really like her version. 17) "Silent Lucidity"- Queensryche and 18) "We Looked Like Giants"- Death Cab For Cutie.
Two other final quick notes. Blues legend Bo Diddley passed away at age 79 today. Also I previously had listed that the new Weezer CD is going to be out on June 17th. However in this day of rapidly changing release dates, this CD is actually going to be released tomorrow. Again as always contact me with any comments or suggestions. That's it, themusicaddict
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Adam Duritz needs to be taking his Prozac.
Hello,
I am back on this warm Sunday afternoon. I previously mentioned my job, I count people on the Front Runner train in SLC. There is a lot of down time with this job. In this job that is actually good as I am able to listen to music, read in both novels and magazines and also prepare my upcoming blog entries. Also if my computer wasn't 150 years old, I would be able to surf the 'net as well. That would of course mean a blog every day. Anyway the reason I am telling you all this is that yesterday I started writing up a list of classic songs and CD's. I am doing that because I am thinking about coming up with a Top 500 CDs and Top 500 singles list. Now I realize this is an ambitious project, and not something that will happen quickly. I plan on working on this project for 6 months to a year. So if you have any suggestions, please pass them on.
For individual songs I really have no rules. My criteria will emphasize quality over popularity. (So not too much Britney Spears). On CDs I only have one rule. That is no greatest hits CD's unless they have a cohesive feeling to it. For instance, that is why Bob Marley's "Legend" will be on my Top 500 (actually more like Top 50), whereas Journey's Greatest Hits CD won't be. (Although there will be probably at least two or three Journey CD's on the list.) I am using this same criteria for live CD's as well.
I know one CD that won't be making my Top 500 list, that is the new Counting Crows CD. This CD, "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" starts out strong but fades quickly. Someday hopefully I will be a lot better writer and I can write a cohesive CD review, like you find in magazines, but for now I am just going to review the songs in running order. So here goes:
1) The first song is "1492", this CD starts off with a blast of rock and roll. This is a very non-typical Counting Crows song, but it is still a great song. However the theme of this CD begins in this song. Adam Duritz, lead singer and the band's main songwriter, has some serious issues. Thus the title of this blog. There is a lot of anger in this song. In one of his lyrics he declares himself "King of everything, king of nothing". This sense of melancholy and frustration runs through the whole CD.
Duritz is depressed but this is still a great song. The second song is another great song. It is "Hanging Tree". There is a sound effect at the start of this song, I am not sure if it is suppose to be a cough. It may also be a motorcycle starting, as there is a motorcycle sound at the end of the song. A lyric in this song is, " She brings a friend so that we don't have to be alone". (Let the pity party begin.) The chorus is this "Dizzy life is hanging me up all the time". So two songs and both songs have an angry, melancholy feel to them. What is Adam Duritz so angry about? He is one of the most autobiographical songwriters we have in rock music and seemingly things have not been going well. He is still a great singer and his voice is a voice that sings with authority and experience.
For the third song on this CD, there is another excellent song. So far the Counting Crows are 3 for 3 for quality songs on this CD. The third song is "Los Angeles", this is a song about his own celebrity. He sings, "I'm just trying to make sense about me." The guitar is really featured, indeed all the musicians in this song are featured. He has mixed songs about LA in this song, but he is trying to talk someone to move there. Unfortuntely this song runs on for about 45 seconds too long. At the end he starts rambling and closes the song with this line, "It's really a good place to find a taco".
Then on the fourth song this CD hits its first speed bump. The song is "Sundays". A mellow song with Duritz's melancholy raises its head again. He sings, "You think that you can do without me?" He repeats that lament several times. Also he sings, "I don't believe in Sundays and I don't believe in anything at all." He repeats that several times. There is too much repeating on this CD. On the fifth song, this CD has one of its last highlights before heading straight downhill. The song is "Insignificant". This is yet another pessimistic, mid-tempo song. (Who is this the Counting Crows or David Archuleta?) I won't list any lyrics from this song, but I think you know by now they are depressing.
The sixth track is "Cowboys", one of the better songs on this CD. It is a good rock song, but he is back to the same boring theme when he sings, "I am not anything". (Seriously dude is life really that bad, you are whining as much as a teenage girl.) This is also the first of several songs that should have been edited. This CD has 14 songs and a running time of 59:51. So far a passable CD, but the next song has a high degree of suckiness. This song, "Washington Square" is so boring and pointless that it shouldn't have been on the CD. I am wondering if in this song he is making some reference to the Henry James novel. But this isn't the type of song I want to waste any more time of my life on, so I am not going to find out. So one boring, slow, depressing song in a row wasn't enough so here comes another one. In "On Almost Any Sunday" Duritz continues his woe is me outlook. Then it is the third straight boring song in a row, "When I Dream of Michaelangelo." (Adam it's cool you dream about famous artists, but please don't bore us with the details.) By this point I am hoping this CD finishes quickly or goes out strongly. Unfortunately neither one of my hopes is fulfilled. Then with the tenth song "Anyone But You", not only is this song boring but it runs on at least two minutes long. In the back-ground, the band is singing something like "Ba Ba" while repeater man sings "true" over and over again.
Then the CD makes a little bit of an uptick with the eleventh song, "You Can't Count On Me". (Um Adam we had that figured out a few songs ago.) By song number twelve, I am really missing "Mr. Jones" and "A Long December". Instead of greatness Duritz serves up the very pretentious "Le Ballet d'Or". In it he sings, "I'd be lying if I didn't tell you the truth". By this point I am thinking the record company gave them a certain length of time this CD had to be, so the Crows are putting all their songwriting ideas on this CD. A lot of these songs are much more ideas than actual songs. By this point I want this CD to finish as quickly as possible. For song thirteen we have almost 5 minutes of slow dreary music, where Mr. Duritz sings "Come back to me" at least 30 times. (Not only is this CD excessively dreary, but they repeat that dreariness on nearly every song.) This song, "On A Tuesday in Amsterdam" should have been left off the CD as well. The Crows had hit their quota of slow and boring songs and so they have a semi-strong finish to this CD. The fourteenth and finally last song on this CD is titled, "Come Around". This is a much happier song, not the best song on the CD though. This is about the 5th or 6th best song though. Then thankfully this CD is over.
Now here are some disclosures, I am a humongous Counting Crows fan. I have seen them in concert two or three times and they are a great live band. Their first two CD's are near classics. Also I own all their CD's in some form. So that being said, I still did not like this CD. This CD is at least 4 songs and 20 minutes too long. They should have taken the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and fourteenth song and released it as an EP. Also I know you now can't wait to buy this CD, it is available in MP3 format at amazon.com for $5 until next Thursday night. My opinion, unless you are a humonguos Counting Crows don't buy it. Actually you can get by with just buying the first three songs. This is why iTunes is so cool.
Upcoming CD reviews include Duffy's "Rockferry", this CD is getting a lot of hype right now, I am going to find out if it is worth it. Also I may be going and seeing Erakyu Badu in concert on Tuesday night. I am not real familiar with her music, do you have any suggestion of songs or CD's of hers I can check out. Thanks in advance, themusicaddict
I am back on this warm Sunday afternoon. I previously mentioned my job, I count people on the Front Runner train in SLC. There is a lot of down time with this job. In this job that is actually good as I am able to listen to music, read in both novels and magazines and also prepare my upcoming blog entries. Also if my computer wasn't 150 years old, I would be able to surf the 'net as well. That would of course mean a blog every day. Anyway the reason I am telling you all this is that yesterday I started writing up a list of classic songs and CD's. I am doing that because I am thinking about coming up with a Top 500 CDs and Top 500 singles list. Now I realize this is an ambitious project, and not something that will happen quickly. I plan on working on this project for 6 months to a year. So if you have any suggestions, please pass them on.
For individual songs I really have no rules. My criteria will emphasize quality over popularity. (So not too much Britney Spears). On CDs I only have one rule. That is no greatest hits CD's unless they have a cohesive feeling to it. For instance, that is why Bob Marley's "Legend" will be on my Top 500 (actually more like Top 50), whereas Journey's Greatest Hits CD won't be. (Although there will be probably at least two or three Journey CD's on the list.) I am using this same criteria for live CD's as well.
I know one CD that won't be making my Top 500 list, that is the new Counting Crows CD. This CD, "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" starts out strong but fades quickly. Someday hopefully I will be a lot better writer and I can write a cohesive CD review, like you find in magazines, but for now I am just going to review the songs in running order. So here goes:
1) The first song is "1492", this CD starts off with a blast of rock and roll. This is a very non-typical Counting Crows song, but it is still a great song. However the theme of this CD begins in this song. Adam Duritz, lead singer and the band's main songwriter, has some serious issues. Thus the title of this blog. There is a lot of anger in this song. In one of his lyrics he declares himself "King of everything, king of nothing". This sense of melancholy and frustration runs through the whole CD.
Duritz is depressed but this is still a great song. The second song is another great song. It is "Hanging Tree". There is a sound effect at the start of this song, I am not sure if it is suppose to be a cough. It may also be a motorcycle starting, as there is a motorcycle sound at the end of the song. A lyric in this song is, " She brings a friend so that we don't have to be alone". (Let the pity party begin.) The chorus is this "Dizzy life is hanging me up all the time". So two songs and both songs have an angry, melancholy feel to them. What is Adam Duritz so angry about? He is one of the most autobiographical songwriters we have in rock music and seemingly things have not been going well. He is still a great singer and his voice is a voice that sings with authority and experience.
For the third song on this CD, there is another excellent song. So far the Counting Crows are 3 for 3 for quality songs on this CD. The third song is "Los Angeles", this is a song about his own celebrity. He sings, "I'm just trying to make sense about me." The guitar is really featured, indeed all the musicians in this song are featured. He has mixed songs about LA in this song, but he is trying to talk someone to move there. Unfortuntely this song runs on for about 45 seconds too long. At the end he starts rambling and closes the song with this line, "It's really a good place to find a taco".
Then on the fourth song this CD hits its first speed bump. The song is "Sundays". A mellow song with Duritz's melancholy raises its head again. He sings, "You think that you can do without me?" He repeats that lament several times. Also he sings, "I don't believe in Sundays and I don't believe in anything at all." He repeats that several times. There is too much repeating on this CD. On the fifth song, this CD has one of its last highlights before heading straight downhill. The song is "Insignificant". This is yet another pessimistic, mid-tempo song. (Who is this the Counting Crows or David Archuleta?) I won't list any lyrics from this song, but I think you know by now they are depressing.
The sixth track is "Cowboys", one of the better songs on this CD. It is a good rock song, but he is back to the same boring theme when he sings, "I am not anything". (Seriously dude is life really that bad, you are whining as much as a teenage girl.) This is also the first of several songs that should have been edited. This CD has 14 songs and a running time of 59:51. So far a passable CD, but the next song has a high degree of suckiness. This song, "Washington Square" is so boring and pointless that it shouldn't have been on the CD. I am wondering if in this song he is making some reference to the Henry James novel. But this isn't the type of song I want to waste any more time of my life on, so I am not going to find out. So one boring, slow, depressing song in a row wasn't enough so here comes another one. In "On Almost Any Sunday" Duritz continues his woe is me outlook. Then it is the third straight boring song in a row, "When I Dream of Michaelangelo." (Adam it's cool you dream about famous artists, but please don't bore us with the details.) By this point I am hoping this CD finishes quickly or goes out strongly. Unfortunately neither one of my hopes is fulfilled. Then with the tenth song "Anyone But You", not only is this song boring but it runs on at least two minutes long. In the back-ground, the band is singing something like "Ba Ba" while repeater man sings "true" over and over again.
Then the CD makes a little bit of an uptick with the eleventh song, "You Can't Count On Me". (Um Adam we had that figured out a few songs ago.) By song number twelve, I am really missing "Mr. Jones" and "A Long December". Instead of greatness Duritz serves up the very pretentious "Le Ballet d'Or". In it he sings, "I'd be lying if I didn't tell you the truth". By this point I am thinking the record company gave them a certain length of time this CD had to be, so the Crows are putting all their songwriting ideas on this CD. A lot of these songs are much more ideas than actual songs. By this point I want this CD to finish as quickly as possible. For song thirteen we have almost 5 minutes of slow dreary music, where Mr. Duritz sings "Come back to me" at least 30 times. (Not only is this CD excessively dreary, but they repeat that dreariness on nearly every song.) This song, "On A Tuesday in Amsterdam" should have been left off the CD as well. The Crows had hit their quota of slow and boring songs and so they have a semi-strong finish to this CD. The fourteenth and finally last song on this CD is titled, "Come Around". This is a much happier song, not the best song on the CD though. This is about the 5th or 6th best song though. Then thankfully this CD is over.
Now here are some disclosures, I am a humongous Counting Crows fan. I have seen them in concert two or three times and they are a great live band. Their first two CD's are near classics. Also I own all their CD's in some form. So that being said, I still did not like this CD. This CD is at least 4 songs and 20 minutes too long. They should have taken the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and fourteenth song and released it as an EP. Also I know you now can't wait to buy this CD, it is available in MP3 format at amazon.com for $5 until next Thursday night. My opinion, unless you are a humonguos Counting Crows don't buy it. Actually you can get by with just buying the first three songs. This is why iTunes is so cool.
Upcoming CD reviews include Duffy's "Rockferry", this CD is getting a lot of hype right now, I am going to find out if it is worth it. Also I may be going and seeing Erakyu Badu in concert on Tuesday night. I am not real familiar with her music, do you have any suggestion of songs or CD's of hers I can check out. Thanks in advance, themusicaddict
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)