Category: Artists (by group or surname)

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1971 1972 1973 1974 2008 Film H Isaac Hayes Music Reviews S Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Television Year

The Shaft Anthology: His Big Score And More!

7 min read

Order this CDReleased in 2008 (to an audience that almost immediately bought out the print run of all 3,000 copies that were pressed), Film Score Monthly’s The Shaft Anthology is a revelation even if you’re already familiar with the existing release of Isaac Hayes’ album of music from the original movie. For one thing, the album released by Hayes alongside the film did not contain the original recordings as heard in the movie, but took the common approach of a more album-friendly re-recording that had better flow as a listening experience. (This frequently happens because film scores tend to contain a lot of discrete cues that might seem to be jarringly short to those not accustomed to listening to scores in their original form, hence the time-honored tradition – upheld by Williams, Goldsmith, and many others – of re-recording “concert” arrangements that sew the better short pieces together with linking material.) As a result, there is much here that was not on Hayes’ hit album – and even where there’s material that the two albums have in common (such as “Theme from Shaft”), the film version is a different recording, sometimes quite noticeably different. FSM’s 3-CD set aimed to deliver the full score from Shaft down to its shortest track, and with Hayes backed by the Bar-Kays or Movement (or some combination thereof) as his backing band, even the briefest track is a treat to hear.

The plan was to bring Hayes back for the sequel, Shaft’s Big Score!, but as the original film and its soundtrack had made him a hot commodity, Hayes simply didn’t have an opening in his schedule to handle scoring duties on the second movie. Tom McIntosh, who had lent orchestration expertise to Hayes on the first film, was still under contract to MGM and present on the studio lot, expecting to assist Hayes again, but instead found himself collaborating with director Gordon Parks, who opted to try his hand at scoring his own picture (paving the way for John Carpenter). (The delicate subject of who did the most actual musical work on Shaft’s Big Score! – and thus who should get the toplining screen credit – remained something of a long-running point of contention between Parks and McIntosh.) Whoever did the work, the Shaft’s Big Score! is better than you might expect. On the one hand, you’re probably not expecting the songcraft to be on Hayes’ level, but it’s certainly not lacking in either effort or orchestration. (Needless to say, everything in this entire box set is expertly played and extraordinarily well-produced – Hayes’ score from the original film is populated by musicians from the Stax Records stable of players, so it seems to be understood that, with that as the starting point, everything else in the Shaft franchise has to be at that level.) It may not be Hayes and his backing band, but the music of Shaft’s Big Score! is also not a letdown. Since the film’s director had direct input into the score, the second movie’s soundtrack is arguably more “soundtrackish” than the first, but still finds time to pause for a song (“Type Thang”, “Don’t Misunderstand”, “Move On In”) or two. The template established by Shaft is hewed to closely.

Though the extensive liner notes booklet acknowledges Shaft In Africa, it also reveals that the rights to that soundtrack – available elsewhere – did not allow it to appear in the box set, which means that almost half of disc two and all of disc three are devoted to the previously-unreleased-in-any-form complete episode scores from CBS’ short-lived Shaft TV series. That such a series happened at all – with Richard Roundtree remaining in the starring role, and on CBS, arguably the stodgiest old-school network on TV at the time – is still one of the most counter-intuitive moves in the history of film and TV, though to no one’s surprise, the television rendering of Shaft was vastly watered down from the far less filtered version of the character from the big screen. The result was a show that heavily compromised the films’ version of John Shaft, and probably made CBS’ older, largely white audience break out in a cold sweat. Still, the music tries to hold up its end of the bargain of connecting to the film franchise: the melody of Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” is quoted often, and the TV episode scores spend equal time trying to summon the movies’ classic soul vibe, and dwelling in the space where a lot of ’70s TV music dwells (i.e. we can’t afford as large an orchestra as a movie, but we’re going to make the best of it). When there are tracks like “Cars And Bridges” connecting the TV series to the sound of the movies, There’s still a lot to love within the reduced expectations of Shaft: The Series.

4 out of 4Long out of print and much sought after, at least parts of The Shaft Anthology live on in other releases (Shaft’s Big Score! is available separately, and the first disc (minus the last two tracks) containing the complete score from Shaft itself is now part of Craft Records’ more easily attainable 2017 release Shaft: Deluxe Edition. This leaves the television scores as the real “killer app” of The Shaft Anthology, taking up nearly half of the box set. It’s gotten pricey on the secondary market, but the whole set is worth tracking down.

    Disc One: Shaft ((1971)
  1. Title Shaft (Theme From Shaft) (4:34)
  2. Shaft’s First Fight (1:46)
  3. Reel 2 Part 2 / Cat Oughta Be Here (1:43)
  4. Bumpy’s Theme (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:44)
  5. Harlem Montage (Soulsville) (3:32)
  6. Love Scene Ellie (Ellie’s Love Theme) (1:43)
  7. Shaft’s Cab Ride / Shaft Enters Building (1:38)
  8. I Can’t Get Over Losin’ You (2:06)
  9. Reel 4 Part 6 (1:37)
  10. Reel 5 Part 1 (1:35)
  11. Reel 5 Part 2 (A Friend’s Place) (1:44)
  12. Source No. 1—6M1A (Bumpy’s Blues) (3:05)
  13. Source No. 1—6M1B (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:32)
  14. Source No. 1—6M1C (Early Sunday Morning) (3:05)
  15. Source No. 2—7M1A (Do Your Thang) (3:21)
  16. Source No. 2—7M1B (Be Yourself) (1:54)
  17. Source No. 2—7M1C (No Name Bar) (2:28)
  18. Shaft Strikes Again/Return of Shaft (1:36)
  19. Source No. 3 (Caffe Reggio) (4:23)
  20. Shaft’s Walk To Hideout (Walk From Reggio) (2:27)
  21. Shaft’s Pain (3:03)
  22. Rescue / Roll Up (10:44)
  23. Bonus Tracks)
  24. Theme From The Men (4:09)
  25. Type Thang (From Shaft’s Big Score!) (3:53)

    Disc Two: Shaft’s Big Score! (1972)
  1. Blowin’ Your Mind (Main Title) (3:30)
  2. The Other Side (1:49)
  3. Smart Money (2:10)
  4. The Search/Sad Circles (2:31)
  5. Asby-Kelly Man (1:45)
  6. First Meeting (1:56)
  7. Don’t Misunderstand (1:46)
  8. Fight Scene (1:06)
  9. Ike’s Place (4:09)
  10. Move on In (3:38)
  11. 8M1/8M2 (1:25)
  12. Funeral Home (4:02)
  13. Don’t Misunderstand (instrumental) (1:53)
  14. 9M3 (0:44)
  15. Symphony for Shafted Souls (Take-Off / Dance of the Cars / Water Ballet / Call and Response / The Last Amen) (14:06)
  16. End Title (1:16)
  17. Don’t Misunderstand (demo) (2:00)

    Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
    The Executioners

  18. Courtroom/Leaving Court (2:36)
  19. Dawson’s Trial (1:58)
  20. Shaft Leaves Barbara / East River / He’s Dead, Barb / Cunningham’s Breakfast (1:58)
  21. Visiting Jane / Act End / Jury Meets (2:02)
  22. Cars and Bridges (2:43)
  23. Leaving Airfield / Shaft Checks Hospital (2:22)
  24. Shaft Gets Shot / Shaft In Car (1:29)
  25. Night Blues (1:02)
  26. Day Blues (1:04)
  27. Pimp Gets Shot (2:59)
  28. Handle It / Follow Cunningham (3:31)
  29. Shaft Escapes / Stalking Menace (2:42)
  30. End Theme (0:30)

    Disc Three: Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
    The Killing
  1. Opening (2:33)
  2. Diana In Hospital (2:37)
  3. Window Shop / Leaving Hospital / Ciao (1:28)
  4. Restaurant Scene / Punchin’ Sonny (2:52)
  5. Hotel Room (3:05)
  6. Diana Splits / Booking Shaft (1:31)
  7. Shaft Gets Sprung / Searchin’ (2:09)
  8. Pimps / Lick Her Store / Wettin’ His Hand / Diana Ducks Out (2:12)
  9. Juke Box / Hands In The Box (2:31)
  10. Shaft (2:53)
  11. Iggie’s Tail (2:21)
  12. Kyle Goes Down / Case Dismissed (1:21)

    Hit-Run

  13. Opening (1:57)
  14. He’s The Best / Reenact / Good Day (2:38)
  15. Travel Shaft (0:42)
  16. Coffin Time (1:34)
  17. To the Club (1:22)
  18. Ann Appears / Shaft Gets It (2:14)
  19. Jacquard (2:31)
  20. Dart Board / Kissin’ Time (3:09)
  21. Omelette (1:55)
  22. Cheek Pat / Don’t Shoot / Shaft’s Move (1:05)
  23. Funny Time (0:58)
  24. At the Club (2:12)
  25. Ending (1:49)

    The Kidnapping

  26. Chasin’ Shaft (3:00)
  27. Sleep, Dog, Sleep (1:37)
  28. Here Comes The Fuzz (2:11)
  29. I Said Goodnight / Walkie Talkie (3:46)
  30. Shoot Out (2:34)

    The Cop Killers

  31. Rossi Gets It / Hospital / Who The Hell Are You? (2:06)
  32. Honky Horn (1:22)
  33. Sleeping Pigs (1:35)
  34. Splash Time (1:32)
  35. Shaft Gets It (1:50)
  36. Vacate The Van (1:41)
  37. Fork Lift (2:09)
  38. Shaft Theme (End Credit Version) (0:30)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: September 10, 2008
Disc one total running time: 1:10:18
Disc two total running time: 1:17:50
Disc three total running time: 1:18:49

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2023 Artists (by group or surname) H Juliana Hatfield Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Year

Julianna Hatfield – I’m Alive / When I Was A Boy

2 min read

Order this CDSo you liked Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO so much that one album wasn’t enough for you? Rest easy – there’s an accompanying single whose two songs were not featured on that album, and they’re very worthy of your attention.

As noted in the earlier review of Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, the song choices on the album span nearly the entire ELO repertoire; with few exceptions, nearly every album is represented. This single expands that further, with one cover song each from the Xanadu soundtrack and from 2015‘s comeback album Alone In The Universe. “I’m Alive”, the first ELO song one hears in 1980‘s movie musical Xanadu, has always been a criminally underrated entry in the band’s history of hit singles, boasting some of ELO’s most soaring harmonies and lyrics that are just relentlessly sunny and positive. Hatfield’s reading of the song takes it into a decidedly acoustic direction, apart from the synth solo being taken over by electric guitar here, but the harmonies are kept delightfully intact. With every listen, the same thought keeps occurring: “this didn’t make the album!?”

“When I Was A Boy”, the lead single from the 2015 album that marked Jeff Lynne staking his legal claim to the ELO legacy, is a more sedate number that started out in more acoustic, less synthetic territory, but Hatfield still does it justice, delivering a very nice interpretation of the song without worrying about gender-bending the lyrics at all. If anything, she layers more harmonies onto each successive verse and chorus than existed in the original song, and the result is a thing of beauty.

4 out of 4If Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO seemed too short, these two songs make up for it, and I have no regrets on the purchase price. A good ELO cover done well is a wonderful thing. Two of them? That’s two wonderful things.

This single is available directly from the artist via Bandcamp

  1. I’m Alive (3:33)
  2. When I Was A Boy (3:47)

Released by: American Laundromat Records
Release date: November 16, 2023
Total running time: 7:20

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Categories
1975 2023 Artists (by group or surname) D Doctor Who Music Reviews R Radiophonic Workshop Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Year

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Cybermen – music by Carey Blyton

5 min read

Order this CDThere are quite few releases out there now of unused/rejected film scores. But with television? Not so much. The production timetable of TV just can’t handle an unusable score. It’ll either use less/none of what’s produced, but in most cases, there’s no time to hire someone else to come up with a replacement score, assuming that the budget can absorb a replacement. And it’s rarer still for anything left on the cutting room floor to ever be heard again.

All of that is to explain that Revenge Of The Cybermen, the more-than-complete score from Tom Baker’s first season-closing story as the star of Doctor Who in 1975, is a highly improbable release. The powers that be weren’t exactly crazy about the music Carey Blyton turned in, his third and final contribution to the series’ music. (His two prior scores were in Jon Pertwee’s first and final seasons, under a different producer.) With little time for a fix, Blyton’s recordings were handed off to Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to add some analog synths to the existing music…and then the makers of the show didn’t use most of that either. In the end, Revenge Of The Cybermen‘s four 25-minute episodes were sparse on music, and the vast majority of what’s on this CD was never heard in the show. Add to that the fact that it’s a Tom Baker-era score, and the music presented here is all sorts of rare. (The discovery that Blyton had kept tapes of his largely-unheard work for himself makes this release possible; even Revenge‘s DVD release and the 50th anniversary soundtrack collection had very little music from this story.)

The liner notes are particularly fascinating, digging into Blyton’s own correspondence to examine his reliance on non-traditional instruments, something the composer felt was a good fit for the show’s often non-traditional subject matter. But to Blyton’s mind, this meant instruments that had fallen out of common use in orchestral ensembles – some of them decidedly closer to “ancient” than “futuristic”, which may have been meant to signify the Vogans rather than the Cybermen, but may also have explained the synthesizer overdubs ordered by the show’s makers. All of this information helps to explain why so little of Blyton’s distinctive music was used…and, perhaps, why he was never tapped to provide music for Doctor Who again.

3 out of 4The resulting sound is spare (like Doctor Who’s more frequent composer, Dudley Simpson, Blyton simply couldn’t afford to assemble a full orchestra), and in all likelihood, this album will achieve the hat trick of feeling odd both to modern audiences (accustomed to the full force and fury of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales) and to fans of the 20th century series’ frequent scoring with synthesizers and radiophonic sound. There are synths here, but they weren’t intended to be there in the music’s original formulation, and they don’t really “rescue” it in any meaningful way (assuming you listen to the original, non-overdubbed pieces and feel that some kind of triage was needed). It’s an interesting listen that may fall into the category of being only for completists or the very curious. Despite that, it’s still incredible to hear a complete – and almost completely unused – score from a Tom Baker story from the ’70s.

  1. Doctor Who – Opening Title Theme (0:45)
  2. Return to Nerva Beacon (2:02)
  3. Can Anyone Hear Me? (0:36)
  4. Cybermat / Unspool / Plague (1:53)
  5. Cybership I (0:23)
  6. Searching Kellman’s Room (1:05)
  7. Sarah vs Cybermat Part 1 (0:31)
  8. Sarah vs Cybermat Part 2 (0:18)
  9. Sabotage (0:42)
  10. It’s Happening All Over Again (0:11)
  11. The Skystriker (0:26)
  12. On Voga (0:40)
  13. Sarah and Harry Captured Part 1 (0:47)
  14. Sarah and Harry Captured Part 2 (0:10)
  15. Cybership II (0:19)
  16. Enter Vorus (0:08)
  17. Remote Control Threat (0:33)
  18. Tyrum and Vorus (0:37)
  19. One More Pull (0:17)
  20. Caves Chase (0:50)
  21. Caves Chase Continued (0:29)
  22. Surrounded (0:35)
  23. Boarding Party (0:59)
  24. The Beacon is Ours (0:41)
  25. Tyrum Fanfare (0:15)
  26. Prisoners (0:13)
  27. Fresh Orders (0:19)
  28. It Cannot Be Stopped (0:21)
  29. Loose Thinking / The Bomb (1:27)
  30. The Countdown Has Commenced (1:01)
  31. Cybermarch (1:27)
  32. Radarscope (0:23)
  33. Adventures on Voga (1:19)
  34. Rockfall (1:15)
  35. Surface Party and Detonation (1:47)
  36. Nine Minutes (0:26)
  37. Cybermat vs Cybermen (0:44)
  38. The Biggest Bang in History? (0:45)
  39. Waltz – All’s Well That Ends Well (0:17)
  40. Doctor Who – Closing Title Theme (53” Version) (0:54)
     
    Alternative and Synthesizer Cues
  41. Sarah vs Cybermat (end of part 1 alternative) (0:20)
  42. Sarah vs Cybermat (start of part 2) (0:56)
  43. It’s Happening All Over Again (random organ) (0:06)
  44. Sarah and Harry Captured (alternative) (0:46)
  45. Put That Gun Down (synth cue) (0:20)
  46. Cybership II (alternative) (0:24)
  47. Remote Control Threat (alternative) (0:35)
  48. One More Pull (alternative) and Vogan Gunfight (0:58)
  49. Cybership III (synth cue) (0:17)
  50. Caves Chase (alternative) (1:20)
  51. Cybership IV (synth cue) (0:23)
  52. Caves Chase Continued (alternative) (0:36)
  53. Surrounded (alternative) (0:38)
  54. Boarding Party (end of Part 2 alternative) (0:25)
  55. Jelly Babies (synth cue) (0:10)
  56. Tyrum Fanfare (edited cue as used) (0:10)
  57. It Cannot Be Stopped (alternative) (0:37)
  58. Loose Thinking (alternative) (0:31)
  59. The Bomb (alternative) (0:19)
  60. The Countdown Has Commenced (alternative) (0:06)
  61. Looped Cybermarch (0:29)
  62. Looped Cybermarch with Synth (0:47)
  63. Adventures on Voga (synth cues) (1:07)
  64. The Red Zone (Random Organ) (0:06)
  65. Heartbeat Countdown I (synth cue) (1:25)
  66. Heartbeat Countdown II (synth cue) (1:09)
  67. Rockfall (alternative) (1:17)
     
    Bonus Tracks
  68. Session Tapes – Random Organ, Specimen Gong, Timps (3:08)
  69. Session Tapes – m42a & 42b (improvs) (1:58)

Released by: Silva Screen Records
Release date: November 24, 2023
Total running time: 51:54

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Categories
1979 2014 A Alan Parsons Project Artists (by group or surname) Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Year

Alan Parsons Project – The Sicilian Defence

4 min read

Order this CDSome albums become legendary because they were never released, and then the fan clamoring begins until someone, sensing a good opportunity to pay the mortgage for a month or two, relents, and puts out some kind of unfinished, compromised, or finished-after-the-fact-many-years-later version of whatever it was going to be (but hey, enough about the various versions of Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse or Brian Wilson’s Smile out there). (Sometimes something remains unreleased permanently, unless someone just straight up raids the vaults.) The fact that it couldn’t be heard, the fact that the fans were being denied their prize, becomes the main vector of attraction.

The Sicilian Defence was never actually intended to be released, though. Recorded in 1979 between Alan Parsons and his songwriting collaborator in the Project, Eric Woolfson, it was always a negotiating tactic between the two principals of the Alan Parsons Project and their label at the time, Arista. In short, Parsons and Woolfson wanted to alter their deal, and delivered the all-instrumental Sicilian Defence to Arista almost simultaneously with the released 1979 album Eve to give them leverage: they’d delivered the last two albums of the Project’s contract. They were either done with Arista and free to go elsewhere, or Arista could give them more time and money to work on the next album. The Sicilian Defence was disposable. It was Alan and Eric screwing around on pianos and synthesizers in studio downtime. It was a ploy designed to freak out their handlers at the label, not the Project’s great unfinished symphony.

The inclusion of a piano instrumental track from the unreleased album on the 2008 remastered reissue of Eve seemed to portend a change of heart, even though Parsons was public in his desire for the entire unreleased album to stay that way permanently. (As Sony/Legacy was now controlling the band’s back catalog, the label insisted.) And then in 2014, it was included as a bonus disc in a pricey, career-spanning box set. But now The Sicilian Defence has finally become available on its own in digital form, and it’s not without its charms. As the album is named after an aggressive set of chess moves, the tracks are named after moves in that sequence. The track from which three minutes were excerpted for the “Elsie’s Theme” track on the Eve remaster is “P-Qb4”, and is twice the length of the previously released excerpt. It’s a lovely solo piano piece, and “P-Q4” and “KtxP” follow in a similar vein (the latter with a very chintzy late ’70s drum machine in the background). “Kt-QB3”, another piano piece, has a more aggressive pace and feels like it’s threatening to develop into a proper song, but as it noodles on for over eight minutes, it lands as a piece that wouldn’t been well off calling it a day at the four-and-a-half-minute mark.

But the really interesting stuff is a handful of lo-fi synthesizer jams. “P-K4”, “Kt-KB3”, and “PxP” have a percolating, vintage synth vibe that I can be describe with the following ludicrous phrase: “early ’80s Weather Channel local forecast”. That may seem like the most obscure possible descriptor, and yet I can’t think of a better one. They’re not light-years away from “Hyper-Gamma-Spaces” or “Mammagamma”, but they are at least 273,600 miles from them – they seem more like demos than anything close to a finished product. “…Kt-QB3” and “Kt-B3”, the two shortest tracks, have strings and choral vocals probably recorded as warm-ups or outtakes from previous albums’ sessions and edited together. “P-Q3” is a synth piece with a pastoral, classical feel. Rather than building to anything significant, the album – such as it is – just…ends.

None of it was ever developed further for use on later releases, and in some cases that’s a pity, because there are some promising starts – but only starts.

3 out of 4The part of me that loves new wave and analog synths doing analog synth things loves those tracks on this album, but let’s face it: this album should probably be recused from getting a rating because we were never meant to hear it, and wouldn’t have, except that the studio-owned master recordings changed hands and the new label decided that it would be heard regardless of Parsons’ wishes (Woolfson died in 2009). As a standalone listening experience, The Sicilian Defence really doesn’t work unless you know its backstory, even though the Project was renowned for its instrumental pieces. But if you’re looking for that circa-1983 local forecast vibe? I can give this a hearty recommendation.

  1. P-K4 (5:06)
  2. P-Qb4 (6:22)
  3. Kt-KB3 (3:07)
  4. …Kt-QB3 (1:15)
  5. P-Q4 (3:55)
  6. PxP (3:28)
  7. KtxP (4:01)
  8. Kt-B3 (0:53)
  9. Kt-QB3 (8:16)
  10. P-Q3 (3:29)

Released by: Sony/Legacy/Arista
Release date: March 23, 2014
Total running time: 39:50

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2023 Artists (by group or surname) H Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Trevor Horn Year

Trevor Horn – Echoes: Ancient & Modern

2 min read

Order this CDI wasn’t a huge fan of superstar producer Trevor Horn’s previous album along similar lines, Trevor Horn Reimagines The Eighties, but the list of “guest stars” on this album reeled me in anyway – and I discovered I liked this album much, much better.

While there are some ’80s icons participating in this album of covers (is anyone actually capable of not being at least morbidly curious about Rick Astley tackling Yes’ “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”?), including Toyah Wilcox and Soft Cell’s Marc Almond, the guest artists who emerge from further afield really make this album. Sure, hearing familiar ’80s voices cover songs by other associated-with-the-’80s acts is fun, but hearing Seal take Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out” and run with it (with Horn coming dangerously close to turning it into a bossa nova groove), or hearing Iggy Pop do his own thing with Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”, really makes this album for me.

The flip-side of Horn’s recurring theme of covering the ’80s, of course, is that he’s dropping an orchestra on top of most of it (particularly here for his debut on Deutsche Grammophon, a label usually identified with classical recordings) and diluting it down to muzak. And, hey, I get it – those of us who were listening to these songs back when they were brand new and perhaps more innovative are now rocketing through middle age at alarming speed. But if dropping pretty orchestral accompaniment on top of new wave gems isn’t bizarre enough, there’s Tori Amos’ cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, which is a walloping dose of cognitive dissonance – a song about a troubling subject is suddenly inordinately ornate.

4 out of 4There’s a lot to like here, but after two albums in a similar vein, Trevor Horn is in danger of becoming his own cover band, and I have mixed feelings about that. Any chance of reconvening The Producers and doing anything new, Trevor?

  1. Swimming Pools (Drank) (with Tori Amos)
  2. Steppin’ Out (with Seal)
  3. Owner Of A Lonely Heart (with Rick Astley)
  4. Slave To The Rhythm (with Lady Blackbird)
  5. Love Is A Battlefield (with Marc Almond)
  6. Personal Jesus (with Iggy Pop & Phoebe Lunny)
  7. Drive (with Steve Hogarth)
  8. Relax (with Toyah Willcox & Robert Fripp)
  9. White Wedding (with Andrea Corr & Jack Lukeman)
  10. Smells Like Teen Spirit (with Jack Lukeman)
  11. Avalon

Released by: Deutsche Grammophon
Release date: December 1, 2023
Total running time: 44:26

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Categories
2023 Artists (by group or surname) H Juliana Hatfield Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Year

Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO

3 min read

Order this CDNot much makes my heart happier than seeing ELO get long-overdue recognition – rather than ridicule – for its contributions to the pop culture pantheon. At this point, I’m just as happy to digest a new reinterpretation of ELO’s classics as I am to contemplate anything new Jeff Lynne cares to throw our way. And if the reinterpretations are crafted with the same kind of love as Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, all the better. If you follow her work at all, you know she alternates between albums of original material and albums of covers and tributes to a particular artist or band she considers formative to her own musical experience (with past tributes including albums of covers of Olivia Newton-John and the Police).

Here, obviously, she’s concentrating on ELO’s past works, picking something from each album from On The Third Day through Secret Messages. (A two-song single, released separately on Bandcamp, adds the under-appreciated “I’m Alive” from the Xanadu soundtrack and a cover of “When I Was A Boy” from Alone In The Universe for good measure.) Though a few of the covers obligingly roll out some of the big hits in the band’s catalogue – “Showdown”, “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head”, “Strange Magic”, “Telephone Line”, and “Don’t Bring Me Down” – I really appreciate Hatfield’s commitment to shining a fresh light on some underappreciated deep cuts. The songs that were originally piano and/or guitar based translate easily, if slightly stripped-down from the more ornate original versions.

But it’s the songs that didn’t start out piano or guitar based that turn out to be the most fascinating listens. “From The End Of The World”, from 1981’s Time album, is almost the least likely candidate for this treatment, as it was originally a solid wall of synthesizers. Now it’s a straight-ahead rocker. Ordinary Dream, from 2001’s also-underappreciated comeback album Zoom, goes from a wall of strings to a gentle rock number with gorgeous harmonies. My favorite thing on the album may be the cover of 1983’s “Secret Messages”, another song whose original version was awash in synths and keyboards, ably translated with its sinewy vocal harmonies completely intact. “Telephone Line” replaces string arrangements with some interesting layers of guitar work. None of the songs suffer or lose anything in the translation.

4 out of 4Hatfield’s liner notes indicate that she wasn’t looking to reinvent the wheel (if you’re wanting radical reinventions, Parthenon Huxley’s Homemade Spaceship is still out there), making significant changes where necessary: sometimes the string section’s parts were played by other instruments or even sung, as she had neither the interest nor the budget to record an orchestra and basically make an ELO karaoke album. What she did deliver, however, was an interesting mix of songs given new life, ready to be enjoyed in this new form, and maybe good for guiding the curious toward the originals. But on its own, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO is a great listen.

  1. Sweet Is The Night (3:30)
  2. Can’t Get It Out Of My Head (4:18)
  3. Showdown (3:31)
  4. Strange Magic (3:56)
  5. Don’t Bring Me Down (3:59)
  6. Telephone Line (4:44)
  7. Secret Messages (3:59)
  8. Bluebird Is Dead (4:24)
  9. From The End Of The World (3:14)
  10. Ordinary Dream (3:25)

Released by: American Laundromat Records
Release date: November 17, 2023
Total running time: 39:00

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2023 Artists (by group or surname) G Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel – i/o

3 min read

Order this CDPeter Gabriel doesn’t do things fast. A decade (or more) can pass between albums. But his fans are legion, and the resulting material is often (if not always) strong enough to justify the wait. But this might just be the best thing he’s done since So. Some of the songs have been evolved over years and decades, some of them originating from the songwriting sessions for 2002’s Up, and some of them older than that, and these are supposedly the strongest contenders to emerge from a pool of over a hundred songs, the rest of which may emerge as post-album singles, or may be thrown back in the water to grow larger and show up on a future album.

While the songs may have evolved from compositions Gabriel has been working on for years, the lyrics feel immediate, very much revealing what’s on Gabriel’s mind as he edges toward elder statesman territory. Songs such as “So Much” and “Playing For Time” address the brevity of life, an increasing awareness of mortality, and both of those things informing what one places the most value on, which is itself a theme that shows up in “Olive Tree” and “This Is Home”. Gabriel’s more global concerns are still here as well, showing up in “Panopticom” and “The Court”, to name just a couple. Whether you’re hear to hear Gabriel’s thoughts on a world in disarray or something more intimate, there’s something for you on i/o.

Interestingly, the entire tracklist is repeated over two discs – the “Bright Side” mixes by Mark “Spike” Stent, which feel a big glossier and more processed, take up one disc, and the other disc is comprised of the “Dark Side” mixes by Tchad Blake, which have bit of punchier, raw immediacy. There’s not much difference in the actual production, but different elements are brought to the forefront in the different mixes. The “Dark Side” mixes feel a bit more like old-school Gabriel, with the rhythm section very much foregrounded, while the “Bright Side” mixes foreground elements like the string sections and synths. Each single was rolled out in both forms, but I didn’t expect the album to include both versions of each song.

4 out of 4As always, Gabriel’s fan base will debate and analyze his work endlessly, but overall, I found i/o to be an enlightening and uplifting listen, awash in the usual layers of detailed production, a hint of funk, and a taste of world music here and there. Not a single song seems out of place – the album is blissfully free of any “Barry Williams Show” missteps – and all of them are thought-provoking. It adds up to his best work in a very long time.

    Disc 1: Bright-Side Mixes
  1. Panopticom (Bright Side Mix) (5:16)
  2. The Court (Bright-Side Mix) (4:21)
  3. Playing For Time (Bright-Side Mix) (6:18)
  4. i/o (Bright-Side Mix) (3:53)
  5. Four Kinds of Horses (Bright-Side Mix) (6:47)
  6. Road to Joy (Bright-Side Mix) (5:22)
  7. So Much (Bright-Side Mix) (4:52)
  8. Olive Tree (Bright-Side Mix) (6:01)
  9. Love Can Heal (Bright-Side Mix) (6:02)
  10. This Is Home (Bright-Side Mix) (5:04)
  11. And Still (Bright-Side Mix) (7:44)
  12. Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix) (6:47)
     
    Disc 2: Dark-Side Mixes
     
  13. Panopticom (Dark-Side Mix) (5:16)
  14. The Court (Dark-Side Mix) (4:20)
  15. Playing For Time (Dark-Side Mix) (6:18)
  16. i/o (Dark-Side Mix) (3:53)
  17. Four Kinds of Horses (Dark-Side Mix) (6:47)
  18. Road to Joy (Dark-Side Mix) (5:25)
  19. So Much (Dark-Side Mix) (4:51)
  20. Olive Tree (Dark-Side Mix) (6:01)
  21. Love Can Heal (Dark-Side Mix) (6:03)
  22. This Is Home (Dark-Side Mix) (5:04)
  23. And Still (Dark-Side Mix) (7:44)
  24. Live and Let Live (Dark-Side Mix) (7:11)

Released by: RealWorld
Release date: December 1, 2023
Disc one total running time: 1:08:26
Disc two total running time: 1:08:52

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2022 Artists (by group or surname) Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music R Todd Rundgren Year

Todd Rundgren – Space Force

4 min read

Order this CDA kind of follow-up to 2017’s White Knight album, Space Force is an entire album of collaborations between Todd Rundgren and, one suspects, whoever picked up the phone and said “yes”. This includes some serious talent – The Roots, Adrian Belew, Thomas Dolby, Steve Vai, Neil Finn, to name just a few – and Rundgren’s attention to production detail lives up to its legendary reputation with each track. Musically speaking, this is the best stuff we’ve gotten out of Rundgren in years. Each song is a world unto itself, as the album hits as many genres and styles as possible, from “STFU”‘s in-your-face blues-rock stomp to the highlight of the album, “Espionage”, a delightfully atmospheric rap-pop crossover featuring Narcy. On some songs, Rundgren gracefully shares the limelight – I mean, who doesn’t want to harmonize with Neil Finn? – and on others, he’s very much at the forefront. The music resulting from this wildly diverse series of collaborations is absolutely fantastic.

If there’s a weak point to Space Force, it’s in the lyrics department. Some of them are sublimely heartfelt, such as the lead track. But Rundgren’s got a tendency to embrace satirical material and that side of him is much more hit-or-miss. “Down With The Ship” and “STFU” are just goofy; “Godiva Girl” is well one its way to being a blue-eyed soul number for the ages until, on its way to the exit, lyrics like “you gave me love diabetes” and “I got your sweet caramel stuck up in my grill” start creeping in. Comparing the subject of the song to candy is one thing, but then he’s got to get goofy on the off-ramp to the fade-out. Dude, you had it! You’d nailed it! It was a great song! And then…that. (Then the next track is “Your Fandango”, which goes off the deep end.) The hell of it is, there are some amazing lyrics on here too – I’m looking at you, “Puzzle” and “Someday” – and every once in a while the satirical material manages to stick the landing, such as “I’m Leaving” and its skewering of men who expect women to wait on them hand-and-foot. And then there’s the stuff in the middle, like “I’m Not Your Dog”, that I can’t even decide if it works or not. Rundgren’s always had that side to him; it’s just frustrating to have an album that has a winning slate of songs, some of which have lyrics that don’t seem to do the rest of the song justice.

4 out of 4Not every song has to be a Serious Statement about something in particular, that’s not my beef. It’s just that… you get the Roots and Sparks and Thomas Dolby to come sit in on the sessions for your new record, at least have some meat ready for them to chew on, right? The good news is that, Rundgren being Rundgren, every song is at least performed well and produced gloriously, and you can sense Rundgren jumping gleefully from genre to genre with each song depending on who he’s lined up to guest on that track. Even with its nonsensical lyrics, “I’m Not Your Dog” is delivered with so much funky swagger that maybe the words don’t matter. It’s a fun listen from beginning to end, if just a little bit frustrating. I’m all for artists not taking themselves too seriously; my complaint here is really a matter of balance, and everyone else’s mileage may vary. I give this one four stars for some great music, but some of the lyrics here are…lamentable. An occasional “Lockjaw” or a “Bang The Drum All Day” here and there is a fun diversion, but half an album of that?

  1. Puzzle with Adrian Belew (04:48)
  2. Down With The Ship with Rivers Cuomo (02:56)
  3. Artist In Residence with Neil Finn (03:13)
  4. Godiva Girl with The Roots (04:21)
  5. Your Fandango with Sparks (04:24)
  6. Someday with Davey Lane (03:00)
  7. I’m Not Your Dog with Thomas Dolby (05:49)
  8. Espionage with Narcy (05:02)
  9. STFU with Rick Nielsen (03:17)
  10. Head in the Ocean with Alfie Templeman (03:30)
  11. I’m Leaving with The Lemon Twigs (02:57)
  12. Eco Warrior Goddess with Steve Vai (05:32)

Released by: Cleopatra Records
Release date: October 14, 2022
Total running time: 48:45

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2021 Artists (by group or surname) B British Stereo Collective Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Year

The British Stereo Collective – Mystery Fields

1 min read

Order this CDFair warning: this review may contain more offhand references to now-undeservedly-obscure British cult fantasy & sci-fi shows than the usual stuff I write. You have been warned.

Soundtracks for things that don’t actually exist to need a soundtrack are increasingly a favorite sub-genre of mine. What you’re getting is that particular musician or composer’s unfiltered ideas, freed from the time constraints of having to match something that actually exists in visual form. (And by the same token, such a release is also an instant demo “calling card” for the artist in question.) But Phil Heeks, the mad genius behind the British Stereo Collective moniker, does observe many time constraints on this release, because he’s emulating such past classics as BBC Radiophonic Music, which was itself kind of a publicly-released calling card for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, showing off the vast range of their radio and TV theme tunes, station identification sounders, and jingles. Everything, from the name of this musical entity down, is part of that tribute. … Read more

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2022 Artists (by group or surname) Music Reviews Non-Soundtrack Music Royksopp Year

Röyksopp – Profound Mysteries III

4 min read

Order this CDNow that 2022 has reached its end, I can confidently look back and say that, despite being released really late in the year, and even though it was a year that saw new releases from the likes of Alan Parsons, Midnight Oil, Tim Finn, Tears For Fears, Soft Cell, and a new single from the Queen vaults, the thing I listened to and fixated on the most in 2022 was the third volume of Röyksopp’s Profound Mysteries trilogy. And yes, this has gotten more listen time than the first two entries in the trilogy. This is just peak Röyksopp.

Rewinding a bit, one might remember that in 2014, this was a duo that said it was giving in to the market reality that albums were no longer a thing in the age of music streaming and downloads, and that albums belonged to the age of the CD and the vinyl LP. And when seemingly random Röyksopp singles like “Something In My Heart” and “Never Ever” compelled more repeat listening than some bands’ entire albums, even an old-school album fan like myself had to confess that maybe they had a point, and I’d prefer sporadic singles to them simply going silent. But Profound Mysteries III is proof that a Röyksopp album is always going to be better than a Röyksopp single, because, hey, more Röyksopp. But where the first two Profound Mysteries releases were a bit hit-or-miss from song to song, the third one is their best release since The Inevitable End.

Where this album has its advantage is in the all-star roster of guest collaborators, some we’ve heard from before (Jamie Irrepressible co-writing the atmospheric instrumental “So Ambiguous” and “The Next Day”, and Susanne Sundfør’s vocal elevating “Stay Awhile” to one of the album’s best tracks), some new voices (Gunhild Ramsay Kovacs’s breathy vocals on the upbeat-yet-wistful “Me&Youphoria”), and people that it’s hard to believe hadn’t already collaborated with them (Alison Goldfrapp on “The Night”). Röyksopp really seems to be best-suited to women doing the guest vocals, and just about every song with that element is a standout; surprisingly, as much of a slam-dunk as one would expect it to be, the Alison Goldfrapp collaboration makes the least impact of the bunch. “Me&Youphoria”, “Stay Awhile”, and “Lights Out” are the album’s highlights, with “Just Wanted To Know” featuring Astrid S and a slinky slow groove not far behind. “Feel It” featuring Maurissa Rose is no slouch either; I suppose I should just give in to the obvious and say there’s not a dud track on this album. Some just command more attention than others.

If you’re looking for something that leans into Röyksopp’s history of doing straight-up electro that isn’t quite so downtempo, the ten-minute epic “Speed King” is there for you. Jamie Irrepressible brings a bit of a somber tone to “The Next Day”, and the whole thing wraps up with “Like An Old Dog”, again featuring Pixx, a curious but compelling mix of moody electronics and a wide-screen orchestral backing, an element it shares with “So Ambiguous”, which means that you can shamelessly and almost seamlessly hit repeat on the whole thing.

4 out of 4If Susanne Sundfør’s “Tell Him” had been held over from Profound Mysteries II and added to this album, it’d probably be a strong contender for the best album that this decade will produce, and Röyksopp’s best album ever. But even without it, it’s easily the best thing I listened to in 2022. It’s that good. More like this, please, Röyksopp & friends.

  1. So Ambiguous featuring Jamie Irrepressible (6:06)
  2. Me&Youphoria featuring Gunhild Ramsay Kovacs (4:41)
  3. Stay Awhile featuring Susanne Sundfør (6:11)
  4. The Night featuring Alison Goldfrapp (7:38)
  5. Lights Out featuring Pixx (5:27)
  6. Speed King (9:53)
  7. The Next Day featuring Jamie Irrepressible (4:16)
  8. Just Wanted To Know featuring Astrid S (4:13)
  9. Feel It featuring Maurissa Rose (8:14)
  10. Like An Old Dog featuring Pixx (3:55)

Released by: Dog Triumph Records
Release date: November 18, 2022
Total running time: 60:34

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