Odd Vinyl

3 Word Review: Fun, Twangy, Light

Figured after I cracked open a beer in honor of St. Patrick’s day I’d temporarily abandon the randomness and try to find out if I have any Irish music in the mix. This is the first one that I came across - and you can’t get any more traditional the cover - a guy in front of a little irish home wearing a cute hat and… wait, cowboy boots? I was surprised actually at how non-traditionally Irish it was. There is definitely a lot more Nashville and country influence here than all Irish. A few gems, though, including a song entitled “I Like Beer” which is pretty amusing. Brendan Shine was worth it - if not just to blast some country/Irish music out the window on this breezy spring afternoon. Cheers.

3 Word Review: Fun, Strong, Bold

Ah 80s female vocalists - you can be so under appreciated. Laura has a very strong voice here and some great tunes to use it in. She’s faded into (relative) obscurity behind Pat Benetar, Bonnie Tyler and others but I’d like to bring her back. This album is full of songs that need to be belted out, and the hit single, “Gloria” is pretty recognizable even if you don’t know it by name. I’m probably going to rip this one to MP3 so that I can listen to it while I drive. It’s a great one for that. Give her a listen and tell me that she doesn’t kick some butt while hitting those notes. 

3 Word Review: Funny, Energetic, Old-School

This album is a fun snapshot into college life in the 1950s. Sung mostly a-capella, this this collection reflects the cheeky humor, the good-natured antics of the drinking-age college student. I can picture fraternities going on panty raids, peering into girl’s dorm rooms, and having a grand time toilet-papering the university president’s house. Putting this on might remind someone like my dad of fraternity “good times” so I caution you that if you play it for people who may have lived through this era that you might have to sit through some reminiscing. But it’s all worth it for the sake of history.

Interesting tidbit: The Maine Stein song is the first song on here and it is about the University of Maine - where I currently work. Pretty cool.

3 Word Review: Warbly, Hypnotic, Odd

So I had no idea who Tom Verlaine was - apparently this is his second solo album after leaving the more popular band ‘Television.’ I checked my collection and I do not have any records by them, so this is my only exposure to Tom Verlaine. I’ll be frank - he’s got a voice like the lead singer of the Cars, and it wavers and is strange, and I’m not a fan. It’s that early 80s music that became the precursors to… something… but it just isn’t my style. The guitar is nice though, you can tell he is talented there because of the tone of the guitar that rings through very clearly. But the vocals leave something to be desired.

3 word review: Evil, Epic, Rockin’

This album has it all: Ozzy, epic guitar and bass riffs, fun songwriting and great songs. The cover design on this one, though, is one of the cheesiest and funniest I’ve seen yet. Dead stuffed cat prop? Check. Fake blood on Ozzie’s torn white pants? Check. Angry evil little kid pointing at a book of spells in the background? Check. As for the music though, if you’re a fan at all of rock from this era, you probably owned this album. I mean, the guitar riffs alone are enough to put some hair on your chest. I hesitate to call this classic, but this is one of those albums that if you own it, you should try to find the original on vinyl. When they reissued it there was a big controversy because Ozzie had the bass/drums re-done because the band members that did them on the original were jerks (I’m paraphrasing here) and the original is (according to fans) much much better. Having not heard the reissue myself, I can’t verify that, but if you get the vinyl you also get a cool insert sleeve with fake satanic writing on it. Worth it ;)

Interesting tidbit: This album is Osbourne’s personal favorite of all his releases.

3 Word Review: Classic, Energetic, American

This is a neat 2-disk set that has one studio album and a live album, so you get a taste of the music and then can go to your very own concert while drinking beer in your living room. I am not a huge fan of live albums but this one is very well produced, and if my neighbors would let me I’m sure it would be a great one to blast through the apartment. These guys are classic, with great guitar work, a little twang, strong vocals and a driving pace that just keeps you excited. The studio album contains a few familiar tracks and seems like it would be the perfect soundtrack for tailgating or other summer activities. I’d probably classify this as rock/country, but there are a few tracks that feature flute, etc., so a little hard to classify but always easy to listen to.

3 Word Review: Cheesy, Awful, Wow

This is one of those albums that you can pick the genre accurately by the wardrobe of the artist on the front. The front cover is so country it is almost a satire of itself, but there is enough rock in here to not quite make it a twangy record. “LA Mamma” is backed by some electric guitar and synth but does include some steel guitar. His voice is very low (not quite Johnny Cash low, but still). The second song, “I Ain’t Sharin’ Sharon” is almost a parody as well, with a swaggery drawl, mispronounced “Shawon” throughout and an old-timey piano to back it up. Other songs include songs about mystery weeds that get you high, nudists, spiders…

This is a ridiculous album. Hope it wasn’t intended to be serious (edit: it wasn’t). I can’t stop laughing.

Then the piece de resistance - a (spoken word) cover of Mr. Bojangles. This version is complete with a terrible imitation of a drunk old man that - no joke - reminded me of Adam Sandler pretending to be an old man.

Warning: The clip below can’t be unheard.

3 Word Review: Deep, Complex, Perplexing.

Listening to ‘Tangled up in Blue’ - the first track on the album - I realized that I never understood that song fully. And still don’t. No matter how many times I hear it, I lose track of who he’s talking about! Then, then I looked this up on Wikipedia and did not feel nearly as stupid:

“Tangled Up in Blue” is one of the clearest examples of Dylan’s attempts to write “multi-dimensional” songs which defied a fixed notion of time and space. Dylan was influenced by his recent study of painting and the Cubist school of artists, who sought to incorporate multiple perspectives within a single plane of view. As Neil McCormick remarked in 2003: “A truly extraordinary epic of the personal, an unreliable narrative carved out of shifting memories like a five-and-a-half-minute musical Proust.”^[1] In a 1978 interview Dylan explained this style of songwriting: “What’s different about it is that there’s a code in the lyrics, and there’s also no sense of time. There’s no respect for it. You’ve got yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the same room, and there’s very little you can’t imagine not happening”^[2].

So, it’s a cubist song. Wow.

That being said, this is one of Dylan’s best albums. It contains a lot of songs that even the casual Dylan fan would recognize. I’d argue that if you’re going to buy one Dylan album… start here. 

3 word review: Clear, Lyrical, Passionate

Summary: Honestly I don’t know much about Cat Stevens - these were from my mom’s original collection. The album is pleasant, makes great background music, and has some good lyrics besides.

Don’t you feel a change a coming from another side of time/

Breaking down the walls of slience, lifting shadows from your mind

The cover art is a cute illustration of what looks like a young mad hatter offering fish bones to a big fat red cat.

Interesting tidbit: I was surprised to hear the familiar ‘Morning Has Broken’ on side 2, because I have a foggy memory of singing this in a shopping mall in 5th or 6th grade chorus. Not quite the same feel on the album, but I still know all the words. Human memory is weird.

Cat Stevens - Teaser & The Firecat (Amazon)

3 Word Review: Funky, Groovy, Sly

Summary: I may not be cool enough to be allowed to listen to this album. Produced by George Clinton, it is funky, funky funky. The band is lead by Bootsy Collins (credited on this album only as ‘The Player’) who used to be in Parliament Funkadelic. Lots of great bass riffs (by Bootsy himself) but I am not as much of a fan of the high-register 70s funk vocals on top of them. Not quite disco, not quite soul, just some funky nook in between. 

Interesting tidbit: The inside cover of the vinyl album has a pair of star-shaped glasses that you can cut out and wear. My copy has them still intact. I think I’ll leave them there. :)